YenPress' Olympos Omnibus

They just came in for me today... Along with my report card. :(

Regardless, the second I set my eyes on this, it stole my breath away. YenPress did a spectacular job preserving the quality and color. And the cover feels a ton sturdier than other omnibus covers. >< They also granted my wishes of adding the limited edition covers into this omnibus. They were added in as bonus color pages. ;w; Sorry the pictures are really blurred... I had really bad lighting and stuff.

The interior's quality is just as spectacular as the exterior's. As for translation, I haven't read all of it just yet, but so far they're fairly good. Not as literal and close to the original as I hoped, but still they're pretty good at getting the message across.

Overall I'm really impressed by this entire package. ;w; It's a whole lot better from that Taiwanese edition I've been reading from orz

Aruosumente Volume 2

Volume 2 just shipped in for me today! >< So excited to read it~ Like before, I might scanlate just the omake again. [This volume's is even funnier than the last one XD] If I can spot some literary analyzable parts, I'll post a literary analysis of Aruosumente whenever I can. ;w;

Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 1: Analysis with a scientific point of view (spoilers? maybe)

I'm sorry I haven't released the translation of the rest of A*D yet... m(_ _)m I'll get to it... I hope... ;w;

Subs by 8thsin. I don't approve of fansubs and downloading of anime, but this guy did an excellent job and I don't know of any other way to express what's going on in the scenes without subs.

After watching MP for quite a few times, I thought it'd be interesting to do this kinda analysis... I never did a science based analysis before. :/ I hope this turns out okay... ><;

Eggs: Represents life, thus a particular focus on life. Eggs are also present in the last episode when Shouma’s penguin is smashing eggs on his head. Not only an Utena reference, but also a reference to the destruction of life.

Epinephrine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinephrine ]: A chemical used in medicine; it is more commonly called adrenaline. It is used to treat dying patients. One can get addicted to it, literally adrenaline junkies. (It’s like how once Himari got on “prescription” of Sanetoshi’s mysterious red medicine; she can’t stop taking it because she would die without it. People can also get immune to adrenaline after time, which is what Himari did.)

Atropine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropine ]: An extract from poisonous plants, it gets its name from one of the three goddess of fate. (Atropos) These goddesses determine how a person dies.

Embryogenesis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryogenesis ]: Another reference to eggs/life as well as foreshadowing what Ringo plans to do. (Notice Tabuki teaches it. Also notice Tabuki is a biology teacher; a teacher who teaches the study of life.) If I’m not mistaken, that’s a DNA in the back? DNA is something that programs everything about you. How you look, how brilliant you are, and when you will die. (Telomere, senescence) Reminds me of telomerases, which is an enzyme that lengthens the telomere (something that determines when a cell stops dividing and dies) to make a cell immortal. (Only cancer cells and stem cells have this enzyme. Scientists think that studying telomerases can maybe make immortality possible.)

Cabbage: A bit irrelevant, but it reminds me of the half of an apple in the later episodes. The price for half (of an apple) is expensive as hell. (major hint hint)

Transformation [more here http://catchercatch.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/pengidrum1/ ]: Sperm + egg = baby = life. (More life references)

DNA: It’s more epic than you’d think. DNA literally does program everything about you; even what you will become in the future. But remember, you are who you are by the proteins that you make. Central Dogma, DNA to RNA to protein. Simple general direction, though the path can be altered if your DNA gets changes through a mutation, transposition, translocation, etc. Thus, what you will become will be altered if the DNA is altered.

DNA: I’m sorry Kanba, but you can’t ignore your DNA. Love is something that occurs when you're happy and it is a chemical reaction in the brain. Serotonin is produced when you’re happy. What produces serotonin? Cells. How do the cells make serotonin? They follow the instructions that were coded in their DNA. So yes Kanba, there is a fate because DNA is fate. However, DNA can be easily altered. (Genetic engineering, mutations, etc.) If one were to not follow DNA in the first place, then one is not a living organism. (Himari didn’t follow her fate to die; she’s technically dead and can’t stay on earth for a long period of time. Sanetoshi is technically not living too, because he defied fate.)

I'll talk about why penguins are chosen as side kicks in the next MP post. [Yes, there's a reason. Not just because they're so adorable and awkward~ ><]

Buying more manga

*notice*

I've deleted my other blog, Melon Rants, since it was pretty much useless. The only thing of worth was basically my translation of the Aruosumente volume 1 omake, which can be found here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/PEaGyKM9/Aruosumente_vol_1_Extra.html

Now on to the actual content, I'm going to get more manga in late January in time for Chinese New Year. [yay!]

My list:

Aruosumente Volume 2

Hopefully I'll be able to get it. I get my manga from Taiwan, and it just so happens that the time I'm staying in Taiwan doesn't fall in the 20-30th of January range when Aruosumente is most likely to be released. If I'm lucky, they might release it earlier. [hopefully before the 19th when January's WARD releases] If I'm not fortuitous, I might have to order online. Hnnnngggg ): No me gusta.

Volume 2 is releasing in late January. I'm going to have to order online for this..

Omumedai Volume 1 (tentative)

I'm really hesitant on getting this. I've read a few reviews on Omumedai and it seems that it's a pretty bad manga. Well, Kayase Shiki really isn't known for her series, but her one shots in Arcana were pretty epic. If my wish list exceeds my budget, this manga will be the first to be pushed off the list.

Ilegenes - Giyoku no Koukyoukyoku (volume 1)

I've read some previews on this and hnggggggggg I really want it.... And Bliss seems to be pretty inactive, so it's safe for me to start translating this series.

Mahoutsukai no Neko (volume 1)

It's been on my wishlist for sometime and I've read some previews on it and it seemed really interesting. The scanlator, KawaiiCorner, doesn't seem to be too active on Yui Kikuta manga so it's safe for me to translate it.

Film Girl (both volumes)

One of the few romance shoujo series I actually liked... And CoyoMoose seems to be inactive on it too so I'll definitely pick up translating this series.

Also, I'm still working on the A*D translation. It's taking me some time because I'm juggling between this translation and helping out on the UtaiteWiki. These few days everything on that Wiki's been pretty hectic so I've been trying to edit, fix, translate, and add whatever I could. And I've been pretty lazy. The rest of my time I've been reading Tower of God and fangirling [Smexy ikemen Utaite, Bonten from Amatsuki, Koon from Tower of God, etc etc owo]. I'm close to done on my work load on that Wiki and I'll get back to translating here asap.

A*D Volume 2 - Reflections after reading *Spoilers*

A few pictures I took. Sorry for not scanning them. My scanner was really butchering colors and tones. I scanned the cover though, but it was very difficult to restore the original color. [I tried my best to edit, but it didn't work very well m(_ _)m Sorry!] Excuse my fingers in the pictures :( Btw I'll scan them once I figure how to scan them without killing the quality...

Not in order of appearance in manga:

The cover, I really liked her use of right triangles here. Really artistic~ To bad my scanner really butchered the softness of the colors. :(

The only color page... Riku looked really nicely drawn in this picture so I had to post it ;w;

Force [and Riku] orders Galancia's best meats from the butcher lady. Force's pants are really cool... Just say'n... They're double layered with black pants underneath and a lighter one one top. I would kill to see someone cosplay Force in that outfit. [If any cosplayer needs it, I'd be more than happy to scan or take more and larger HQ pictures of Force's outfit. ;w;]

That infamous Galan-oink [lit. in Japanese Galan-bu] is mentioned where Yoneda tries to ask the butcher lady for some Galan-oink but embarrasses himself since Galan-oink doesn't exist. *tricked by Force*

More Galan-oink scenes. This one appeared before the last picture. This was where Eiri and Yoneda first approached the Galan-oink that Force, Riku, and Ziz were eating. This was after a "meeting" with Randy Galancia.

A scene from later on... Riku says that he really wants to try Galan-moo. And a little Galan-baa [lit. in Japanese Galan-mee] in the top left corner [Translation: And thus, there's also a Galan-baa.]

I really liked this scene. Too bad they grey scaled it... If I had known earlier that there was this picture, I would have bought the magazine. Like the cover art, Force's picture on the left is composed of many right triangles.

Yet another grey scaled color scene I would have really liked to see in color. The candies Riku is looking at foreshadow things about the Galancia sapphire. Yet more right triangles were used. Does this symbolize the three friends, Eiri, Force, and Riku? That would make sense since the bottom corners of a right triangle are closer to each other [Riku and Force] whereas the top most corner is Eiri. Eiri only recently befriended Force and Riku. However, all corners are connected to each other in some way.

The reason I took this scene was that I really liked Riku's expression on the bottom right. It really tells a lot. This scene appeared prior to the revelation of the true nature of the Galancia sapphire.

I finally finished my in depth reading of this volume. I really like this volume a heck of a lot better than the first one. The first one seemed to just put ideas and thoughts out there, but the second one seems to expand on it a lot more.

First off, this volume was heavily based on the thesis presented in the first volume: The fake can be as beautiful as the real. Or literally, the fake is worth as much as the real. In the first volume, it was evidently seen in the story about the fake cherry blossoms

Recap: A man met a woman who told him that when the cherry blossoms around them fade, he can leave her. But those cherry blossoms were fake cherry blossoms that would never fade, and the man found out he was tricked when someone told him. The man, however, did not regret it and said that they were real to him. Ultimately this means he found the true value of the fake flowers though they were not the real thing.

It was also mildly hinted through Force and Riku.

Recap on Force: Force is the 4th son of the Caluanthes and is infamous for his way of living, which we all know about. Eiri gets to know more about Force, because he believes Force is faking this act to create value for himself. Force is the youngest, he won't get any inheritance and will pretty much fade away from society if he doesn't make a name for himself.

Recap on Riku: Riku seems to be a pro at forging things. His fake imitations seem to emulate or even exceed the beauty of the real things they were based on.

In the second volume, the thesis was expanded more on more characters. First, it was presented in the Eiri himself.

[spoilers]

It was revealed that Eiri was called a replacement for Mari Lawrence. Literally, he's not the legit Lawrence or in more plebeian terms, the fake Lawrence. Ironically, Eiri is better than his brother Mari in all aspects despite being the fake one. It's as if the fact that he's better than Mari is what distinguishes the "fake" from the "original".

I've also noticed that A*D, like Olimpos, tends to focus more on the younger sibling rather than the older one(s). In the context of the time period, this would make sense. Since A*D takes place in the mid 1800s Germany [I'm guessing during the Industrial Revolution] or possibly the mid to late 1700s [considering that A*D talks more about tutoring rather than school]. During those time periods, whether you were the oldest or the youngest plays a large role in what your future will be. Both Force and Eiri [and possibly even George] know that they will end up fading out of society because they won't be able to inherit their family's name like their eldest sibling. That's why they must put an effort to make a name for themselves before fading away.

As a little bonus, I took screen caps from the 2011 Fall Kurofune's A*D preview [all 4 pages]. It features Force's older brother

Epic moment where Ziz starts flipping the bird at the poor man and calls him baldy. But I kinda feel sorry for Ziz sometimes, since he has to deal with Force and Riku 24/7.

A mysterious gentleman appears...

And fffffuuuuuu Force's brother's such an ikemen ❤ I would have really liked it if Aki drew him with glasses ;w; But Aki isn't a very big fan of meganekko ikemen so I didn't expect much. .___. As for which brother, he's the famous 2nd one. His face does look somewhat like Hades from Olimpos, right...? Aki really knows how to appeal to fangirls XD

Larger HQ of these pictures can be found here.

Later on it goes on talking about stuff like Galan-oink, Galan-moo, and Galan-baa. [lol] More comic relief, not much going on there. There was also stuff about eating insects. Very little addressing the thesis there too.

Near the end, they reveal the truth behind the mystery of the stone.

Not much of a spoiler, since everyone probably already guessed. The stone is not a sapphire. It's revealed to be spinel, which looks very like sapphire but has some differences. Riku was able to make identical copies of the same crystal George Galancia made by using sugar. So basically he made rock candies that looked exactly like the prized "Galancia Sapphire". That's my boy, Riku~

Here's the picture of the scene:

So what's going on is that Galancia is foisting off spinel as sapphire. Like what Eiri said in the previous volume [in chapter 4], Galancia hasn't been doing all that well with their mining business because they've only been getting low quality stones that can't be sold for much. But what Eiri's been getting at the whole time is that, despite the spinel having low quality, it has the beauty of a precious stone. Eiri agreed to play with George's plans because Eiri believes that the fake sapphires also have worth. He's on the right track too, since according to the Wiki article, some spinel can be of gemstone worth. That just might be the case for the "Galancia sapphire."

As seen in the Wiki article, the red/pink varieties of spinel were called Balas rubies. [Rubies are in the same family as sapphires. They're pretty much the same type of stone besides the fact that rubies are red and sapphires are blue.] Balas comes from the name Balascia, which is the old name for Badakhshan. Evidently, Galancia is a parody of Balascia. In Japanese, Galancia is spelled ガランシア [lit. in romaji, Garanshia] while Balascia would be バラスキア [lit. romaji, Barasukia]. They sound alike if pronounced in right Japanese. I suggest plugging in ガランシア and バラスキア into Google translate to hear Miss Translate pronounce it. In addition, in the Japanese Wiki article for spinel, what really caught my eye was the word color change or カラーチェンジ. It looks a lot like Galancia in Japanese. Galancia/ガランシア vs Color change/カラーチェンジ. The ガ looks and is pronounced slightly differently from カ. The ラ is the same. The rest are completely different. So what Aki might have done was take the カラ and changed it to ガラ, added the ン, and tweeked スキア to シア . All that would make ガランシア. As for how color change relates to the Galancia spinel, I think it's because one of the difference is that spinel's color is darker than a sapphire's color. [A color change]

Now onto the art, I really enjoyed the art much better. It's got that refined Aki look and is getting significantly more detailed. Aki's coloring improved a lot too. It's significantly less "muddy" and has a wonderful blend of colors. The details were breath-taking too. The only problem I have with the art is that sometimes Aki's art isn't very stable. Especially around the face area. Otherwise it's fine.

Overall I found this volume to be impacting. Aki has Ikuhara potential with all of her symbolism, foreshadowing, and complex ideas. I can see that she's very steadily refining her skills more so in A*D than any other of her manga. I don't know about Elhanburg's Angel, but A*D is certainly better than Aruosumente content wise. Art wise A*D falls short of Aruosumente, but it's catching up. Sadly, A*D might not ever make it to fame because it's not well advertised. Kurofune Zero isn't exactly the most famous magazine ever. In addition, it lacks the action the majority of the audience wants. I really liked it myself, but not a single person I introduced this to liked it. Mainly because there's no romance, action, or drama. ): A*D is more literature-quality rather than mainstream quality, unfortunately...

Mr. Applicant Description

Mr. Applicant

Published in 2010/5/10. No volumes released yet. Webcomic.

**They seemed to have deleted the episode 0 I was working on.. ): So I have to start from scratch again asdfghjkl...**

Synopsis [no need to credit MU because I wrote/translated that one myself ;; I think someone edited it though]:

The locomotive called the Rainbow Stone Train runs, not on electricity, but on the energy source called, "Rainbow Stone." Inside, the train is split; from the extremely high class Evening carriage, to the average Afternoon carriage, and finally, to the cheap, but cramped and noisy, Morning carriage.

Employed as a crew member of Morning, Toky Towy struggles daily by the side of his strict superior. While going through various encounters and farewells again and again, he...

Manga background information:

It's basically the same setting as Mr. Morning, but they seemed to have changed main characters? [I'm not sure since I haven't been following it lately]

Characters [based on list given in description]:

Toky Towy

Miguel Wiseman

Patindy Strand

Gill

Magician Baker

Robert Wiseman

Katie

Angel's Doubt Description

A*D - Angel's Doubt -

Published in 2008/6/28 (?) in Kurofune Zero Summer. Volume 1 was released on 2010/3/10. Volume 2 was released on 2011/12/10.

Synopsis from MU:

"From Storm in Heaven:

The fourth son of the famous Caluanthes family is, well, quite infamous. Mockingly referred to as a bird of paradise, Force dresses gaudily, spends money like water, and has turned the trip he's been sent on to learn more about the world into his own personal gourmet dining tour. His behavior makes the rest of high society whisper about him behind his back. The only exception is Eiri Lawrence, who finds Force and his entourage intriguing rather than laughable - and who is everything that Force is not. Theirs is the world of high society, where truth and falsehood, and dark and light, intertwine."

Manga background information:

AD seems to be based in mid to late 1800s Germany [It could also be early 1900s, but I highly doubt that based on the facts I've seen in this series.]. It focuses heavily on the aristocrats more so than a society after the mid 1900s would. Some chapters in the first volume were sloppily drawn because Aki had some health issues with her hand, so she had difficulty drawing. [Hence she was given less pages to draw then despite her series being the best seller in Kurofune Zero.]

AD might have something to do with Aruosumente, though that is just a speculation of mine. Both series were set in Europe [in different times though] and they mention a black/dark colored stone that plays a big role as well as having angels. Angels in Aruosumente were explained [Angel is Legna's nickname because he is considered the "messenger of God".] but not yet in AD. Also, the title "Angel's Doubt" can easily be explained with Aruosumente. However, Aki does seem to have a fetish with angels. She is also working on a series called Elhanburg's Angel in Shodensha's Fantasy Anthology [which really isn't an anthology...]. I've yet to read that series [unfortunately], but it also seems to be about nobility. [and ghosts?? o____o;] I will definitely buy it when it comes out as a book. [Which won't be any time soon, since only 3 chapters have released and Aki doesn't publish regularly in the anthology. Plus it's a quarterly magazine, so it'll take some time.] Definitely, since Aki seems to have a female protagonist in that series [VERY RARE OF AKI ;w;] and it might explain whether AD and Aruosumente are related.

Characters [order of appearance]:

Ziz (Force's butler)

Force Caluanthes (infamous 4th son of the esteemed Caluanthes family)

Licht [nicknamed Riku] (Force's talented but klutzy friend)

Eiri Lawrence (2nd son of the famous Lawrence family)

Yoneda (Eiri's butler)

George Galancia (youngest son of the Galancia family; tries to coerce Eiri into appraising their products)

Mari Lawrence (oldest son of the Lawrence family; older brother to Eiri)

Randy Galancia (oldest son of Galancia family; brother to George)