family_compo

New release

2008-02-29T17:15:30Z

Chapter 44 is now out, on BitTorrent as well as the 4shared directory for direct downloads. This chapter completes the Yoriko's Wedding arc of the story. Next chapter up is a little less stressful -- Masahiko and Shion are stuck alone in the dark. That could have been good for Giba, but when I said "alone" I meant alone with the assistants. Not so good, hey?

Chapter 44 opens with a very smug Papa Kikuchi and a furious uncle Sora. Masahiko has agreed to be adopted by Grandfather after hearing Yoriko's words the night before. However he wasn't the only one to overhear Yoriko's explanation of her feelings to Kenji; Shion was there too. After figuring out that jellyfish Masahiko was going to give in to Grandfather's dirty tricks, she pre-empts him by announcing she has a plan.

The next day, the wedding goes off without a hitch. The reception is about to start when suddenly Shion drags Masahiko off upstairs. Papa Kikuchi is happy as a lark although a little bit puzzled that Shion and more importantly his soon-to-be-son Masahiko aren't at the meal. To add insult to injury, he makes Aunt Yukari take the place of Sora as "Haruka" (shades of the omiai in volume 4...). Sora's old school chums admire how feminine "she" looks compared to "her" schooldays and how handsome her "husband" is.

Shion returns with Masahiko in tow. Well, not Masahiko as such but more like Masami. Sora and Yukari are surprised and somewhat discomfited, but Grandfather is just out-and-out confused. Who is this pretty girl with Shion, and where is Masahiko? Shion introduces them...

She explains to Grandfather at length after the reception is over, how all the males who come to the Wakanae house are cursed to become transvestites. Masahiko has changed just like all the others, you see? Papa's first reaction is to disbelieve, to think it's a trick to prevent the adoption but his illusions are shattered by the arrival of... the assistants! Rural Kouchi has never seen anything like this mob of Tokyo perverts and deviants and their appearance convinces Papa Kikuchi that Shion's story is true, and he disowns the adoption of Masahiko.

The next day the family are gathered at Kouchi airport to say farewell to the newlyweds on their honeymoon. Well, everybody but Papa Kikuchi who's seriously pissed off at what happened at the reception. Masahiko dashes off at one point and sneaks up behind Papa who's hiding outside the airport trying not to be seen. Papa's not happy, especially with Masahiko even after he explains it was all a trick to get him out of the adoption and that he's not really a transvestite (oh yeah?). Papa doesn't want to hear it and storms off.

Yoriko's sad her father didn't come to see her off, but as she and Kenji take their seats on the aircraft she spots Papa on the airport roof looking out at her plane. His thoughts show he still loves his daughter, and if anything he only wished she would never leave him. He wishes her happiness as the plane takes off. From a doorway nearby the Wakanaes watch him while Aunt Yukari has a last strange idea...

Progress Report

2008-02-13T01:11:49Z

Twenty pages complete in Chapter 44, ten to go. The true evilness of Shion's super secret plan is about to be revealed heh heh heh. Poor old Grandfather Kikuchi, he didn't know what is going to hit him until... but that would be telling, wouldn't it?

ETA for release of chapter 44 is this weekend, maybe Sunday 17th February. I need to finish the edits, convert the images from Corel native format (.CPT) into JPG then let the whole thing sit for a day before I do a QA pass to check on spelling, layout, graphics etc. I also want to see if the word choices I've made flow properly. I have the added problem in this chapter of dialect speech here and there, making it as consistent as I can. Grandfather Kikuchi was a schoolteacher and he does try to keep his speech regular but under stress it breaks a bit, and during this chapter he's under a lot of stress...

Progress Report

2008-02-07T23:21:00Z

Eleven pages lettered, about twenty or so to go. More country dialect stuff getting in the way and making things difficult but my cross-checking of the Japanese text is paying dividends -- the French word "sérieux" doesn't exactly match the Japanese word for "nervous" but that's what the original translator had decided to insert in a speech bubble.

Later -- an interesting bit of dialect cross-translation deduction... "はて" (romaji "hate") said by Grandfather Kikuchi as he sees someone in the crowd. The French translation is "mais" which converts into the English word "but". But...

It doesn't fit the flow of the story, quite. What would fit quite neatly into the dialogue (or rather Pops' monologue) would be "まて" (romaji "mate") as in "chotto mate" which means "hold on" or "wait". I'm betting "はて" is actually country dialect for "まて" so I'm going with "hold on a mo'" in this case to give it a dialect flavour.

As of this evening that's nearly 15 pages complete. Back to the coal-mines for me.

Progress Report

2008-02-02T12:23:21Z

Finished cleaning Chapter 44, started translating and lettering. No ETA because I always get that wrong.

*** Update *** If you are downloading releases of Family Compo from my 4shared account via your Web browser, please note that the URL link has changed and is now this.

Sorry about that.

Progress Report

2008-01-31T22:46:59Z

Working on cleaning up chapter 44 raws in preparation to start punching in the English-language translations. I've got about two-thirds of the chapter done.

I'm running into problems with these chapters set out in the countryside as the locals (like Sora's father and mother, and Kenji) speak a dialect which isn't easy to translate from the original Japanese. The available dictionary tools and my limited personal knowledge of Japanese are Tokyo-ben, a rather formal "textbook" version of Nihongo. I'm relying more than I really want to on the French translation for these chapters and I suspect the original translators didn't do too good a job. Luckily the storyline is pretty clear in this chapter even though there are a few large expository lumps of speech here and there.

Another problem I have (in all chapters, not just these ones) is editing out kanji sound effects (background noise, laughter, door slams etc.). In this chapter particularly there are several scenes where the sound effects (SFX) cover large sections of background detail which I'm not confident of repairing properly after I erase the SFX kanji text. In these cases, as usual, I don't even bother to try to remove them. Instead I simply tag them with an English-language explanation in the margin. In other cases where removal of the SFX and repair is feasible I do go ahead and edit them out. This part of the cleaning process is probably the fiddliest bit to do well.

This is a fun chapter, following on pretty directly from the melodramatic ending of chapter 43. Papa Kikuchi is going to find he isn't the only one in the family who can play dirty when needs must...

New release

2008-01-30T00:11:27Z

Day 043, the first chapter of volume 07 is now on release via BitTorrent, and through HTTP download via my 4shared account. Check the website for further details as I get everything sorted out.

So what's going on in this chapter, and why did it take me so long to finish it and ship it? Well, laziness was a major factor in the delay, plus real life and a requirement to earn money by working getting in the way of me applying myself to photo editing and translating. Mostly it was laziness though.

Chapter synopsis: Day 43 of Family Compo opens in the city of Kōchi on the southern coast of the Home Island of Shikoku where the Wakanaes and Giba are visiting to attend the wedding of Yoriko (Sora's sister) and Kenji (Sora's old schoolfriend). Sora's father though is plotting something, and the old schemer is after Giba! He wants a son and heir to inherit the family name and property, and with Yoriko getting married he sees his opportunity. He will only permit the wedding to go ahead if Giba agrees to be adopted by him, into the Kikuchi family. His attempts to inveigle Shion to come live with him in Kōchi have already been rebuffed, but he has a backup plan -- he thinks Giba and Shion could fall in love and get married, thus preserving the Kikuchi bloodline as well as the family name. Three chances of that happening, of course -- slim, fat and none.

Giba's not keen on the idea of being adopted, in part because he's the last of the Yanagibas, but he's not dead set against it. When he awakens from a bad dream he goes for a late-night wander and overhears Yoriko and Kenji discussing their future, or lack of it. Yoriko loves her father and won't go against his wishes, even though she adores Kenji. That settles it, and in the morning Giba announces his decision -- he will accept Grandfather's offer and be adopted into the Kikuchi family.

Introduction and welcome

2007-12-31T00:06:10Z

Welcome to the blog of Nojay Scanlations, the one-man band (most of the time) who is currently scanlating the Japanese manga "Family Compo" by the mangaka Tsukasa Hojo.

This blog is meant to keep people interested in the series updated on how I'm getting along with the translation, editing and releases of this series. It also allows you to comment and discuss my progress (or lack of it), the story of the Wakanaes and Giba and their friends (and enemies -- let's not forget Mister Tatsumi, shall we?) and other stuff like where to get hold of original copies of the work and why there hasn't been an anime series made from this manga (well, OK, there are some... aspects of the storyline which wouldn't exactly be safe for your Granny to watch but even so...)

Right now I've just finished translating and editing page 11 of Day 43, the first chapter of volume 7. For those of you who don't know, Family Compo was completed by the manga artist and writer, Tsukasa Hojo in 2001 after 101 chapters (called Days) plus an epilogue and collected into 14 volumes. It was quickly translated into French by Editions Tonkam but it has never had a licenced English-language release. A couple of other scanlation groups (Omanga and Anime Empire Nisei) released the first three volumes (Days 1 through 21) and then nothing happened for a while. I took up the challenge, working from the French editions which I could get hold of via second-hand Internet sources. Later I got access to scans of the Japanese originals and finally this year after a trip to Japan I got hold of most of the Japanese Seuisha tankos which gives me the chance to practice my meagre Japanese skills while cross-checking the French texts which in some cases are a bit "off".

My scanlations back-catalogue (currently volumes 4, 5 and 6) can be downloaded via Bittorrent or from a Web storage site via links at my home Webpages at www.nojay.org.

More later. I hope to hear from people soon. Cheers.