Honzuki no Gekokujou ~Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen~ Dai 2-bu 「Hon no Tamenara Miko ni Naru!」 - Vol. 8 Ch. 39 - After Compassi…

[Doodads]

Printing press blacksmith acquired.

That aside, I want to say this to everyone worried about sniping: if someone wanted to snipe this series, wouldn't they have done it a long time ago? The magazine scans, not to mention the tanks that TOOR Scans is drip-feeding us monthly (not complaining, it's a good idea), have always been there for someone to pick up and translate much faster than what TOOR Scans is doing right now. I don't think there's much point to basing a decision around sniping when the chances of it happening seem so low. And anyway, even if it DID get sniped it wouldn't matter that much, since it wouldn't diminish the value of their HQ uploads. So yeah, sniping is pretty much a non-issue imho.

 

[FullDiver]

While cleaning is the most time consuming, it doesn't require any special skill set. I can clean. I can redraw. I can typeset. I did the entire first volume of To-Love Ru's tank version by myself. It took about a month but I did it. What I can't do is translate Japanese to English. I always thought there was a certain irony in the fact that anime is much harder to produce but so much easier to subtitle than manga which can be created by a single person but takes so much more effort to translate and make presentable.

Anyway, since the anime has been out for this series for ages I voted for doing what is out now and waiting for the volume 9 tank. If you want this story in English you can at least get the bulk of it already.

I wouldn’t say it “doesn’t” require a skillset. I mean, I’ve tried, and I’m not really able, which is why I joined TOOR in the first place.

That said, I appreciate the recognition of the skill I spent a lot of time and effort developing in order to properly translate Japanese. But I have to ask you to also recognize the skill, time, and effort that’s been put into the other aspects of our work.

Don’t take the skill you have for granted. It may come pretty easily to you, but that isn’t true for everyone, nor does it make it any less of a valuable skill.

 

[kaminomikan]

lol... seriously this guy will end with an stomach ulcer at this pace (bless magic)

her zombie will go boooks~ books~ instead of brains~

 

[dearmusic]

Please no drop this series

 

[Mionikoi]

Just out of curiosity. Why not use the light novel as a guideline for translations?

 

[shiyu]

her talk with her mom me cry in class

 

[RonBWL]

Just out of curiosity. Why not use the light novel as a guideline for translations?

Someone has to translate that, as we can't just use official TL, even for reference.

 

[xyzzy]

Because we're manga devotees and don't ever check LN nor Anime, it's not possible to jump to Part 3, due to linked events that requires Part 2 context. Not to mention, doing so will double the amount of work for us since once Part 3 starts, we can't just drop it and go back to do Part 2 when new raw is out.

That’s fair. I just assumed that some people did just decide to pick up the anime.

 

[frogxdor]

Cast your vote now: https://strawpoll.com/polls/w4nWrr2DdyA

I, for one, wouldn't mind slowing down releases.

 

[nrook]

Another idea would be to translate with low quality scans, but to do a trash job of cleaning and typesetting. That way, there wouldn’t be too much wasted effort.

 

[Salfaro]

I voted the first option, but honestly either option of "stick with Volume releases and don't go to magzine raws" is good imo, and I couldn't choose both.

 

[Fuhgeddaboudit]

personally i makes no sense to me to use lower quality scans just to rush it out instead of just waiting. idk if this manga suffers from the .# chapter curse either so def 1 or 2 if that's the case but you do what's most comfortable for you.

 

[KE1tea]

Hmm maybe another option is to use lower quality scans for now, and the when the high quality scans come out, you can repost the chapters using those?
Like maybe you can put the typesetting on another layer and when the good scans come out, you can just swap the lower quality scans out for the high quality scans? Though I don't know how typesetting and cleaning work.
Or maybe you guys could translate at your normal pace and then when vol. 8 is done, you can start translating the next part in the meantime? Though another group has already started... But iirc you guys plan to translate that after this part is done.
Just some thoughts of mine

Though I'm okay with any option as long as you keep doing this series : )
Thanks for all of your hard work!!

 

[Mentholatum]

I'm going to go against the grain and say you should consider dropping the series - I'm not saying you should definitely drop it, but that you should ask yourselves if it's still worth continuing it.

IMHO, the value of a fan translation is proportional to how long it'll take to get an official translation. There was certainly huge value in translating the very first chapter all those years ago, when the series wasn't even licensed. But there's significantly less value in releasing this chapter today, since J-Novel Club released part 2 v7 in early Feb. (There's still some value, especially since it'll take a while until they release v8, since they've decided to start working on p3 v1). I honestly think it makes more sense to focus on translating the part 4 manga, which is still not licensed. (To put it in another way: I think you should worry more about the official release than about snipers)

Following the same logic, I think that, if you decide to continue, you should just give up on the volume releases. That'll let you get things out faster, and I don't think the quality drop will be significant:

• I don't think Suzuka does any significant redrawing for volume releases (but I confess I've never stopped to really compare things)
• It's 2023 and "magazine raws" are not manual scans of half-faded images that were printed on crappy paper that is so thin that you can sometimes see what was printed on the back. It's all digital with pretty decent quality. You may not find 1350x1920 images like the ones for this chapter, but you can find 1150x1600 images, which is still pretty good.

I also don't completely agree with the argument about being able to release "volume-exclusive extras in chronological order", since those extras don't necessarily take place (chronologically) at the end of the volume. E.g. the extra story for volume 8 takes place during chapter 38. Releasing it after chapter 41.5 (last chapter of volume 8) is not much different from releasing it after chapter 43 (latest chapter right now).

Ugh. This rant got way longer than I expected, sorry.

 

[juanhalim]

Thank you as always for the chapters
Even though I already read the LN up until the latest volume translated, I still go back to re-read the older part from manga. I think it's okay for doing the scanlation from the magazine raw or any source available online if you're feeling comfortable with it (saldy I don't know how to get the raw directly from the official web source other than screenshot it one by one)

 

[Esper]

I wouldn’t say it “doesn’t” require a skillset. I mean, I’ve tried, and I’m not really able, which is why I joined TOOR in the first place.

That said, I appreciate the recognition of the skill I spent a lot of time and effort developing in order to properly translate Japanese. But I have to ask you to also recognize the skill, time, and effort that’s been put into the other aspects of our work.

Don’t take the skill you have for granted. It may come pretty easily to you, but that isn’t true for everyone, nor does it make it any less of a valuable skill.

I was more meaning that it doesn't require you come to the table with a skillset. Almost anyone can clean/redraw/typeset given enough time and effort. It can be brute forced. And most importantly you can do it immediately from day one. It may not be the best quality, but if you can use a computer and an art program you can do those three things. While you can argue translating can be done with brute force or MTL it isn't anywhere near the same quality as someone who knows both languages. I'm just saying the level you need to start at to translate is much higher than cleaning/redrawing/typesetting.

 

[FullDiver]

I'm going to go against the grain and say you should consider dropping the series - I'm not saying you should definitely drop it, but that you should ask yourselves if it's still worth continuing it.

IMHO, the value of a fan translation is proportional to how long it'll take to get an official translation. There was certainly huge value in translating the very first chapter all those years ago, when the series wasn't even licensed. But there's significantly less value in releasing this chapter today, since J-Novel Club released part 2 v7 in early Feb. (There's still some value, especially since it'll take a while until they release v8, since they've decided to start working on p3 v1). I honestly think it makes more sense to focus on translating the part 4 manga, which is still not licensed. (To put it in another way: I think you should worry more about the official release than about snipers)

Following the same logic, I think that, if you decide to continue, you should just give up on the volume releases. That'll let you get things out faster, and I don't think the quality drop will be significant:

• I don't think Suzuka does any significant redrawing for volume releases (but I confess I've never stopped to really compare things)
• It's 2023 and "magazine raws" are not manual scans of half-faded images that were printed on crappy paper that is so thin that you can sometimes see what was printed on the back. It's all digital with pretty decent quality. You may not find 1350x1920 images like the ones for this chapter, but you can find 1150x1600 images, which is still pretty good.

I also don't completely agree with the argument about being able to release "volume-exclusive extras in chronological order", since those extras don't necessarily take place (chronologically) at the end of the volume. E.g. the extra story for volume 8 takes place during chapter 38. Releasing it after chapter 41.5 (last chapter of volume 8) is not much different from releasing it after chapter 43 (latest chapter right now).

Ugh. This rant got way longer than I expected, sorry.

I agree with most of what you said, but there's just one issue I have with dropping it and letting J-Novel Club's official English translation be the only translation: JNC's version sucks. As an official company, they have their own sociopolitical, cultural, and ideological standards to uphold that color their translated publications in a way that occasionally sacrifices quality and loyalty to the original story. While they're not the worst offenders of this kind of soft censorship (Seven Seas is, to my knowledge), it's still pretty noticeable in the degree and style of their localizations.

I'm not bound to the same bureaucracy, so as our PR can tell you, we can work to make it both as good and as loyal to the source material as we can. After comparing some of my older chapters to their JNC counterparts and to the raws, I'm doubly sure of my assessment of our translations, and doubly determined to put out chapters that live up to the standards we at TOOR have pretty much set for the series. Then again, I might be biased, so I'll leave it to you to assess for yourself which is better. But my decision to continue translating Honzuki no Gekokujou, supported by TOOR I hope, is motivated by my own assessment, and so I refuse to drop it unless I can determine for myself that JNC can do it as good as or better than we can.

That, plus of course the difference in effort we put into redrawing and typesetting out-of-bubble text such as SFX and the like (by which I mean, they put in none), and the fact that ours is free for everyone, forever.

Regarding the choronology, you're completely right, but I still think it's better to have 41.5 and Volume 8's extra chapter released in their right reading order than otherwise. It's the way anyone who decides to pick up HnG now would read it, so it's the way I want our readers to read it. Personal preference, in this case.

And don't worry about long rants. We have a lot to say about things we're passionate about.

 

[RonBWL]

I'm going to go against the grain and say you should consider dropping the series - I'm not saying you should definitely drop it, but that you should ask yourselves if it's still worth continuing it.

IMHO, the value of a fan translation is proportional to how long it'll take to get an official translation. There was certainly huge value in translating the very first chapter all those years ago, when the series wasn't even licensed. But there's significantly less value in releasing this chapter today, since J-Novel Club released part 2 v7 in early Feb. (There's still some value, especially since it'll take a while until they release v8, since they've decided to start working on p3 v1). I honestly think it makes more sense to focus on translating the part 4 manga, which is still not licensed. (To put it in another way: I think you should worry more about the official release than about snipers)

Following the same logic, I think that, if you decide to continue, you should just give up on the volume releases. That'll let you get things out faster, and I don't think the quality drop will be significant:

• I don't think Suzuka does any significant redrawing for volume releases (but I confess I've never stopped to really compare things)
• It's 2023 and "magazine raws" are not manual scans of half-faded images that were printed on crappy paper that is so thin that you can sometimes see what was printed on the back. It's all digital with pretty decent quality. You may not find 1350x1920 images like the ones for this chapter, but you can find 1150x1600 images, which is still pretty good.

I also don't completely agree with the argument about being able to release "volume-exclusive extras in chronological order", since those extras don't necessarily take place (chronologically) at the end of the volume. E.g. the extra story for volume 8 takes place during chapter 38. Releasing it after chapter 41.5 (last chapter of volume 8) is not much different from releasing it after chapter 43 (latest chapter right now).

Ugh. This rant got way longer than I expected, sorry.

Thank you for your feedback. And don't worry about long rant, we all love to debate

That said, here's my take on your opinion:
1. In the past, fan scanlation is meant to server the community until official TL arrives. HOWEVER, the official publication has become so out of touch that we no longer trust JNV, Seven Sea, Kodansha or any other license holders out there to do the fan justice and at least make a faithful translation. More often than not, you get twisted, edited, censored translation purely out of the publisher's agenda, which give fans the wrong idea and totally ruined the story. As much as we love to just sit back and read official TL, we just can't trust them.
2. We've been using mag raw for TL so we know there was some problems with them. Resolution isn't the issue as the kindle rip for bookworm is the same 1350x1920, the problem is the overall sharpness and grayscale of the image. For some reason, mag raw looks totally messed up with most pattern destroyed and the picture simply look very rough. Our cleaners did say it's possible to fix that, but we don't have anyone dedicated to that task for now, pushing it onto her too would be too much.
4. The "order" Fulldiver alluded to is the way we upload, not chapter number. Usually when groups try to simulpub release using mag raw, the omakes must be scanlated later and then upload to its volume after newer chapters have been uploaded. This has two consequences: 1: Readers might be annoyed of update notification expecting a new chapter only to see an old one instead, and 2: Aggregators won't rip them (because they only rip latest in term of numbers), leaving non-Mangadex readers out.

 

[NeoSmile]

even though part 3 and 4 already have chapters up on this site (which i refuse to read)
my greatest wish is that the great TOOR will complete this beautifull story to the full end (as well as the other stories i follow😅)

 

[Prinnyfoof]

In my limited reading list, TOOR is one of the groups who still have a strong reputation. Just a level of quality and communication like what you're doing now, means I have faith that regardless of what is chosen, it's just a 6mo issue and future readers will only have this comment section to even realize there was a hiccup. Do your thing.