Kendo Shitouden Cestvs Ch. 101

Would you look at that. For the first time in forever we're actually up to date on Cestvs, and we've still a whole month to go until 102. It must be a miracle. Somewhat coincidentally volume 10 was also released today (which does contain up to this chapter), though I've not yet bought it to see if Kamose's hometown has been corrected though no corrections were made to Kamose's hometown so I guess he's just from Thebes now.

With 102 not out until May it means that this'll be the final chapter before the anime starts. Fingers crossed of course, but I imagine I might well be writing some rather scathing comments with next chapter's release. 

Having caught back up it does also mean that I should, at least in theory, be able to get some other series out. We'll have to see though.

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Kendo Shitouden Cestvs Ch. 100

Sometimes it really does feel like the universe is out to get me. Having slowly worked on this chapter for a good month or so I finally got around to finishing it off, only to find MangaDex down again. Oh well, I'll update with a link when (or perhaps that should be if) the site is back up. Who knows, maybe I'll have 101 (which is, of course, already out now) done by then too.

Still, with a month or so until the anime airs Hakusensha have begun to step up their promotional work for the series. The latest issue of Young Animal Zero included some details on the voice cast, alongside an interview with Cestvs' VA. Curiously, amongst the characters listed were Sabina and Emden which presumably means we're at least getting the Pompeii stuff, though quite how that's going to fit in remains to be seen (I imagine it won't be good). They're also going to be re-serialising the first volume of the manga in the main Young Animal magazine. While I'm doubtful it'll have much impact it is sort of nice to see (it is also amusing to compare the magazine's line up now to what it was when Cestvs first began).

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Kendo Shitouden Cestvs Ch. 99

It's been a fairly quiet month, but at the last minute here's some Cestvs to tide things over alongside what'll probably be the longest post I ever make for the series, given a fair few things have been announced in the five or so months since I last released any chapters.

First, and perhaps most importantly, Cestvs has moved homes (again) going from Manga Park (a website) to Young Animal Zero (a new(ish) magazine which is published every other month). This move in and of itself isn't particularly surprising (it had been announced that Cestvs would move to a new magazine prior to it ending up on Manga Park), the fact that it's happening now however is (Young Animal Zero's been going for around a year at this point). While a move to a bi-monthly magazine like Zero would normally be cause for alarm, it will actually be an improvement given how few chapters we got last year (assuming I guess that no issues are skipped). It also means I'll now know exactly when a new chapter is out, rather than having to check a website every week, which is nice for me.

Next, we have the slightly more dubious news that Cestvs is, after 20 or so years of serialisation, finally getting an anime. The initial PV shows that the series will, at least for the fights, be fairly CG reliant. CG anime doesn't exactly have the best of reputations but I always figured it was a given for a series like Cestvs and there's a (probably quite low) chance it ends up actually looking good. What's more disconcerting however is the fact that the adaptation seems to be taking from both parts of the series, with the PV showing what looks like one of the earlier fights from part two (at the very least Cestvs seems older, and I can't recall the circular, wooden arena appearing anywhere else). Given it's only going to be 12 episodes adapting the tournament from part two would in and of itself be a challenge, let alone 20+ volumes worth of content. In short, I'm expecting a rushed mess.

If nothing else the anime announcement has been beneficial in that earlier volumes of the series will seemingly be getting reprints. Or at least, the digital versions of part one have all been updated to match part two's cover scheme (arguably for the worse), while Amazon has a listing for some sort of triple pack containing the first three volumes. In a perfect world I'd use this as a chance to rescan volumes one and two (which I used public raws for back in the day), but I doubt it'll happen. I have however been tidying up some of the earlier translations whenever the mood takes me.

Last, but by no means least, volume 10 of the series has been dated for a March release. Even assuming it includes chapter 101 (which would be published the same month), it'd still come out at only nine chapters total making it the shortest volume of part two. Though given it's been a year and a half since volume nine I can see why they'd be keen to get it out regardless.

At any rate chapter 100 is already out, and I should probably get to TLing it before 101 is out in a month's time.

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Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru: Shichikon no Ryuujinmaru Ch. 0

Still not quite back with consistent releases, but here's a something I've had mostly done for months which got put aside due to Tani (and some other stuff).

So this was originally a one-shot for Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. If you're not familiar with Wataru it's an old Sunrise TV series which recently had a new set of ONAs, and this chapter was released as a one-off to tie into them. Feedback for the chapter was good though, and it's since been serialised as a proper series (IIRC there are two more chapters out at present).

I'd initially been looking to get this done as a joint with another group shortly after it was published, but things didn't quite work out (granted one of their members did some initial work on the raws) and it's now been six or so months since I first TLed it. Oh well.

The magazine it's published in, CoroCoro Aniki, is currently only available physically, meaning the raw scans are kinda whatever, but such is the way these things go. The next few chapters will be of a similar quality, though Aniki is meant to be swapping to digital soon, so later chapters should look a lot nicer. Not that many people will care either way (the magazine's also quarterly so we won't exactly be swimming in chapters).

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Tanikamen Ch. 83-91.3 [End]

Back in September I tentatively claimed that I'd finish Tanikamen by the end of the year. Now, in no small part thanks to the extraordinary efforts of my editor, I'm able to present the finished series a whole month earlier than expected.

Tanikamen is something of a funny series to me in that I came to it out of order, that is to say despite it being Shibata's debut work I was already familiar with his later stuff (81diver, Youkai etc.) before I got around to reading it. Yet when I did was quite pleasantly surprised to find how similar the work actually felt to what I'd read already. Indeed most of Shibata's notable traits as an author like his quick, dynamic action, slapstick humour, and bizarrely long speech bubbles are all present and used to good effect. And, although the setting itself is by no means particularly original (delinquent series were all the rage back in the 90s, while the inexplicably strong MC is a trope which remains popular with the likes of One-Punch Man) I think Shibata manages to carve out an amusing little piece which holds up even today.

That's not of course to say it's without its faults. The last arc does feel somewhat rushed, with the supposed big bad Kiyokawa ending up more of a footnote than an actual threat. Whether this was because the series was forced to end early or not is of course impossible to say: on the one hand it's hard not to deny that it briskly paced, on the other hand the main thrust of the story, Tani and Shima's relationship, is actually resolved fairly well and it's hard to imagine how Shibata could've dragged it out any longer had the series gone on for say another four or so volumes (although I guess that's never been a problem for most long running romances...). I must also admit that a lot of the side cast, so Tajima, Konio and the like, did feel rather forgotten about by the end, though I guess if Shibata had been forced to finish the series early it'd make sense to cut back on their plotlines. I also can't really justify any of the lewder elements which he started to slip in towards the end of the series, but for better or worse that's just another element of his works (the most recent chapter of his newest series, Hits, had one of the effeminate MCs nearly getting pegged...).

At any rate Tanikamen is a fun little series which I've enjoyed working on and one which Shibata himself seems to have remained fond of: one of the early bonus chapters in Air Master outright shows Tani and Shima, a Shizunaman appears in Air Master as does Miki who also appears in 81diver (I guess she was a favourite of his), while Shibata himself has at times used a Tani-esque mask for his profile picture (see here for instance).

Now, before touching upon what I plan to do next, I should note that there does, technically, remain one final chapter. Back in 1994 Shibata actually released a special bonus chapter alongside chapter 50 which features the cast in a fantasy RPG world. For some reason this chapter has never been collected in a volume, even with the reprints. At some point it does seem there were scans floating around for it but I've not been able to find a working link to them, so the only way I'll ever get the chapter done is if I can get a copy of Young Animal 1994 #23. This is something I'll endeavour to do but obviously I can't really promise anything for such an old issue (if anyone does somehow happen to have either the raws or the issue itself I'd be happy to buy them).

Having spent much of the year toiling away at Tani it's probably fair to say most of my other series have been somewhat neglected but I'll now (hopefully) be able to get back to a other few things. As it stands:

• Eko Eko Azarak - I had the remaining volumes bought for me earlier this year but I still need them scanned. I might put up text only TLs while I wait.
• Shoujo Kessen Orgia - Maybe 2021? 2022? 2030?
• Kendo Shitouden Cestvs - The latest chapter's out so I'll probably get to this next.
• Active Raid: Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai Hachigakari - I've had the next chapter awaiting QC for a while. Given it's so short I should probably aim to finish it sooner rather than later.
• Blue Striker - I'd also like to get back to this soon considering it's more Shibata and it's fairly short.
• Breakdown - In a similar position to Azarak, wherein I had the volumes bought for me but am waiting for them to be scanned. Again, might put up text only TLs while I wait.
• Search and Destroy - Another short work which I'd like to get back to after, say, Active Raid, but I still need the latter volumes scanned anyway.

Alongside these I've also got a few new series which I'd like to start, but as ever we'll need to see how things go.

To close off this mammoth post I should also offer my thanks once again to my editor, Nady, for his continued work on the series and to das, for providing the raws. If you want actual physical copies of the series nowadays you are seemingly going to have to go second hand, but it is available digitally on the usual sites like eBookJapan.

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Tanikamen Ch. 83-86

Five left.

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Tanikamen Ch. 82

And another one.

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