#scanlating

taking this and making it into

Title: 続 ハーメルンのバイオリン弾き  “Violinist of Hameln: Family” Author: Michiaki Watanabe Publication Status: ongoing (since 2013) currently at 16 volumes

This comic was the impetus for creating a scanlating group —but for better or worse it is much harder/slower to scanlate manga than light novels! 

Violinist of Hameln is a long-running shounen series from the 90s/00s that centers around Hamel, the son of the Demon King Chestra who is half demon and half human and has the power to wield magic music. The first series involved him traveling to the Northern Capital, which was the seat of demonic power, to prevent his father from being re-released upon the world. Along the way he gathers a colorful group of companions. There are a ton of classical music references and pun names (basically every character except Hamel is named after something musical), and the tone of the series shifts wildly between serious and slapstick. In the late 90s it spawned both a TV series (which removed all of the comedy, and also had a really low budget so there’s a lot of non-animation) and a movie (which unlike the anime, retains the tone of the manga), several drama CDs, and a video game for SNES (which can be found fairly easily to play on emulators). The first series ran for 37 volumes, and has been completely scanlated. You can read it here: https://mangadex.org/title/3920/hameln-no-violin-hiki

The second series, Violinist of Hameln: Shchelkunchik (Nutcracker) is set 20 years after the events of the first and follows the children of the protagonists of the first series. I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan of the sequel, and it didn’t last nearly as many issues as the first at 8 volumes. 

The first 6 volumes have been scanlated and can be read here: https://mangadex.org/title/2250/hameln-no-violin-hiki-shchelkunchik

I’m not sure that I would be interested in continuing that series as I didn’t care for it, but I might pick it up if there is interest.

Which brings us to the series that I’m attempting to scanlate, Zoku Violinist of Hameln.

 “Zoku” can mean ‘family/tribe’ and is frequently used to define a subculture or a group of people that are united by a common theme (such as motorcycle enthusiasts or people that smoke on their work breaks). It also means a continuation (which makes sense if you think of how a family is a continuation of the genetic line). It is a sequel of sorts to the first series, or more accurately an alternate universe/timeline. I know at least one character from Schelkunchik shows up, the fairy Piroro. Essentially after the Sforzando War in the first series, the protagonists get caught up in the fairy king Balalaika’s nightmare world, where they discover alternate storylines about themselves and recover past memories. 

In urgent need for a translator for Tourou no Ori!!!!

Thanks to the amazing @la-cruciatus, we now have raws for the 4th volume of Tourou no Ori. It has everything one can wish for: Drama, angst, plot twists, hot sex!!!

The only thing we don’t have for it is, well… A translator and redrawers :’(

If you or someone you know can help us…. PLEASE get in touch with us by sending a message here or via email: [email protected]

Feel free to reblog this post so it can potentially reach people who can help us!

Oops! I totally forgot to add a download link. I’ll try to do that this week.

As for the next chapter...

??? 

I’m not sure. I  have up to chapter 10 scanned, but scans require cleaning and leveling to look good. I was fortunate to recruit some help with that, but kind of over taxed myself, went through a major depressive episode accompanied with some difficult Real Life stuff (which I’m still trying to pull myself through, but get overwhelmed easily), and have kind of fell out of frequent communication. 

I’ll try to get in touch with everyone and try to get the ball rolling again soon.

A bit of good news though! SFC chapter 6 is finished with typesetting, and is just awaiting a quality control check, so hopefully that will be ready soon. Ideally it will be released as an early Christmas present.

I am getting quite a few questions about this lately, so I want to clear some stuff up.

Right now I am not scanlating any series. This is because I simply don’t have the time to do so. Please stop messaging me to translate for your group. If I want to scanlate, I will either do so on my own or I will seek out help.

Anyone may use my scans for anything they wish. I don’t own any of the series I work on, so I have no right to dictate how the scans are used in my opinion. I never use other people’s scans, though. This is because I want to support the authors...I hope that fans of these series do the same when they are able to.

Please do not use my translations for the purpose of retranslating into another language. This is because much of the meaning is lost in retranslations.

Title: 僕のジョバンニ  “Boku no Giovanni” - My Giovanni Author: Hozumi Publication Status: ongoing (since 2016) currently at 5 volumes

A young Tetsuou watched a performance by Giovanni Bazonni and was inspired to become a master cellist. But he knows that living as he is in an out-of-the-way Japanese island means his musical aspirations are unlikely to be realized. A boy named Ikumi is the sole survivor of an accident at sea off the coast of his island. He saved himself by swimming to the beach, claiming he found his way to safety by following the sound of beautiful cello music, and is convinced that the player was Tetsuou. The relationship that forms between the boys is deep and complicated, and only gets more so as they grow up...

The art is fantastic and the story is really engaging. It’s a josei manga that allegedly doesn’t have any BL, but I honestly get the impression that there is at least a *hint* of it. However, it certainly isn’t explicit and you can choose to read into it or not. 

For better or worse, this will be the first series that gets released because the process to translate it is simpler, since I’m translating from a language I read fluently. It’s continued from the now-defunct group ShoujouSense, who scanlated the first volume and almost all of the second.