And so here we are. What better way to end one longstanding project, than by ending another one at the same time!
To start with then, we have the 89th and final chapter of Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw.
Chainsaw was something I first found out about back with volume nine. By the time I'd flicked through volume two and seen the Getter 2 homage I was sold, and since then the series has been a non-stop roller-coaster of insanity and wonderful, gratuitous horror.
At heart I think what I enjoyed most about the series (and indeed Mikamoto's stuff full stop) is that there's never a dull moment. Even some of the most vaunted series (manga or otherwise) will on occasion have those filler sections, that is those parts which you feel don't really add anything enjoyment wise. Chainsaw isn't like that. I could open a chapter at random now and still end up with a smile on my face by the end of it. Yet this sense of amusement is far from simply being a sort of crude passion for B movie-esque adventures (though that's of course a large part of why I enjoy the manga so), there's also just a lot of little, often quite clever touches which I feel help to always keep the work engaging (a favourite will always be right in the very first chapter, where you can see a tiny, off focus Nero stumbling across the wall to get into one of her early victim's houses).
Having finished Chainsaw I do intend to carry on with Mikamoto's other works. My editor mentioned elsewhere that we've been looking to do his new serialisation, and I'd also be keen on at least starting his one-shot collections in the foreseeable future.
If you enjoyed the series I would very much recommend you pick up the volumes for it. They're cheap and easy to import via sites like
Amazon, or digitally via sites like
eBookJapan.
Last, but by no means least I have to thank elemhunter for his help with the raws, and my long suffering editor/QC Nady for all his help.
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And then we have the 111th and final chapter of Survival (different printings have different chapter numbers, which is I assume why MAL lists 119 chapter total).
In contrast to Chainsaw, Survival was something I must admit I wasn't instantly keen on (go back to my initial release post for perhaps the least enthusiastic project start ever). I've no idea quite when it hit me that it was something special, but much like Chainsaw it's now a series I have amongst my favourites.
When it comes to Survival I think what really works is that it's something which, well, actually sticks to being about survival. Survival stories have a weird sort of tendency to go off the rails after about the halfway point (all it along it was aliens being an irritatingly common occurrence.), yet even into the 90s Satoru is still concerned a lot of the time with simply getting something to eat. Alongside this, there's also quite a dark, bleak element to the whole tale. Indeed Satoru spends the vast majority of the tale alone, anyone who he does run across up to about the halfway point ends up dead (I can't help but feel that Takao's final decision to off Satoru's dad also feeds into this bleakness) and it's only really come the final few mini-arcs that we see Satoru fit in with others. This is all quite unusual. There are plenty of grim tales in which humanity is wiped out and the MC sort of struggles along, but there are few in which they are so hopelessly cut off from other humans. In fact I'd say that even the ever enigmatic Duke Togo has a less solitary existence than Satoru. That Satoru's greatest threat to survival might well be said to be loneliness itself is perhaps something many would outright never realise, and the sort of added depth which I really enjoy about the series.
In writing out this long eulogy I suppose there's some irony in the fact that
Survival won't technically be done. I've still the remake to do, which I should hopefully be able to start up again sometime soon, alongside a separate little bonus of sorts, though I won't mention anymore on that here. I would also like to continue with Takao's stuff (it's pretty insane that this'll be the first work of his entirely scanlated in English). While still TLing the odd
Golgo chapter I wouldn't mind starting on something like
Breakdown, though that wouldn't be for a while yet (alongside the aforementioned new series by Mikamoto there's one, perhaps two other things I'm keen to pick up as is, though I'll talk about them some other time).
Much like with
Chainsaw, if you enjoyed
Survival then I do encourage you to buy the volumes. There's a million and one physical versions available on sites
Amazon, as well as digital versions on sites like
eBookJapan.
One final shout out also has to go again to my editor/QC Nady. Were it not for him I imagine we'd still be stuck on the first tank, with about a million and one more bizarre spelling/grammar errors.
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