Interview #10: Friendship Scans

[Electromaster]

Welcome to the second of a series of three interviews done by me. The first one I did last week was with Forbidden Garden.

This one is with @unnoticedkouhai @Asphodels and a few others from the group Friendship Scans! Because I think we need more Friendship in our lives!

​

Hello! Could you give the readers an introduction of your group and its members?

Kouhai: Friendship Scans is a scanlation group that was founded in 2012. We have a variety of projects that mostly revolve around shoujo, josei, romance, and a dash of comedy too! Currently we have three admins; Kouhai (notice me)— who focuses on editing; Asphodels— who mainly translates most of our new Japanese projects; and Estesapphire (currently on hiatus)— who namely is the oldest project manager we have and is also my senpai! We also have a lot of other hardworking staff that translate, edit, and proofread our projects. Without them, we couldn't have released the massive chapters we do weekly!

How did you guys come up with the name Friendship Scans? Is here any specific meaning behind it? Was it named due to friendship between the founders or as a theme for the group or something else?

Kouhai: Back when I just joined the group in 2015, I have talked with a lot of the previous admins. From what I heard the group was supposed to be disbanded. But through the help and friendship of the staff who wanted to continue what they love; it was brought back from a near grave. Thank the heavens~

The staff page on your website lists around 32 different staff members. Are all those currently active within the group?

Kouhai: Honestly not all staff members on the staff page are active, but we do have a lot of staff. For the admins on the website— it's more of a remembrance that they graced us with their presence. I don't have the heart to move them anywhere else since they’re really special. Also, the staff page isn't updated regularly but that's because have staff that go on hiatus. Though they come back eventually (hehe).

How is the group organized? How do you usually approach scanlating a chapter? Is it a more centrally organized or collaborative process?

Asphodels: Our group is headed by our admins or project managers. They come up with the projects for release and manage all the other staff members. Most of the time, a chapter is translated first before anything else is done. Then the whole process of proofreading, editing, and quality checking follows. But, if we have a specific project that really needs to be quickly edited… Kouhai and I, do all the editing to reach the deadline (sweats).

Kouhai: It's a collaborative process between all the members in our group. Our staff have the freedom to choose which projects they want to do. We don’t really force anyone to do something that they don’t like. It’s pretty chill here~

Friendship Scans first released back in 2012 and has since released over 1,300 chapters. In that time period many other scanlation groups have come and gone. What is it that has kept the group motivated and around for so long to continue scanlating?

Kouhai: For me, what has kept the group around for so long is that we always have someone we can trust to pass on the legacy of head role to. Just like One-for-All (wink). It's usually hard to find someone who you believe can keep the group running once you're gone. It was an honor for me since I became an admin back in 2017. Though it still worries me whether I'm doing a good job... Aaaaaa, fighting!

Asphodels: Our group has a no-drop policy except for when the series gets licensed or taken by another group. Because of that, I think Friendship Scans has continued scanlation for a long time because of that feeling of accomplishment when we finally complete a project we've been working on. Like seeing first-born child graduate from college (wipes tears).

How has the group changed since it first started scanlating 7 years ago?

Kouhai: Actually, it’s changed quite a lot. For starters, we now release lesser chapters than the previous years (oof). The last time I remember on Christmas, Friendship Scans released around 50 chapters in a day. I would have been sent to the hospital due to lack of sleep if I attempted that. I also edited the theme of the website. It’s a brand-new look from the 2012 style~

It looks like you guys usually do shoujo and romance series but have also branched out into many other genres. Do you have any criteria you look for when picking up a new series?

Asphodels: Before anything else we make sure that the series we pick-up is short. Since we have loads of projects at the moment it's a tug-of-war to work on longer projects. Unless most of the staff members want to pick up a long project (war flashbacks of 18 volume projects), we stick to shorter ones.

Is there any type of series you specifically avoid working on?

Kouhai: To be honest, shounen projects are a bit of a red flag for me. Not because I don’t like the demographic (I love shounen!)— but because popular shounens are prone to being snatched away by other groups. It’s kind of sad letting go of a project that you get attached to…

Asphodels: I don’t mind the type of demographics or themes of a series. I can do mature projects but I usually look behind my back to see if anyone’s watching (cue nosebleeds). But I’d love to do an isekai shoujo~

Senpai (an assistant of ours): I don’t have any series I avoid working on or something that I really like.

Yanni (one of our Chinese Translators): I don’t like series that contain smut and ecchi. I prefer pure and simple romance, fantasy, time-travel, supernatural, and psychological genres.

Crandall (our cleaner): Nah— I work on many series. In terms of genre, I honestly don’t mind as long as I get to clean and give back to the manga community. I’m content with that .

Over the years you guys have translated Japanese, Korean, and Chinese series. Has your group had translators of all 3 languages over the years? Do you have one language you prefer to work on or do you just work on any that interest staff?

Asphodels: Here comes the whopper. We had translators for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. But, we’ve always been lacking on Korean translators. That’s why we’ve been accepting Vietnamese and Indonesian translators as most of our Korean projects have equivalents of those languages. We prefer working on Chinese projects as we have loads of translators for it, though the cleaning is a smack to the face (literally fainting from all the redrawing). Japanese projects are my specialty. But there are some projects with so many bubbles (cough Chouchou Jiken cough) that it takes my whole being from rage quitting.

Your group has scanlated chapters for over 100 different series over the years, if you had to pick a top 3 to recommend to readers what would they be?

Kouhai: First is Drops of Dream: The Golden Birdcage— since I’m obsessed with historical manga (don’t spoil I haven’t read the history yet…). Next is Dear School Gang Leader— it’s hilarious and you can’t stop wanting to read more! Lastly, I would recommend Tale of the Bamboo Cutter— the art is just beautiful and it’s really interesting to read about old Japanese stories.

Asphodels: V.B. Rose because of the comedy and romance. Song of the Doll is one of my favorites too, because of the feeling of sadness… I also like Memory Lost because I like reading about investigators and detectives. Phoenix Wright I’m looking at you.

Lightning (another assistant): Sorcerer Maiden, and Memory Lost. Maybe that’s only my opinion because it’s the ones that I have been working on. But I really like Sorcerer Maiden not only because of the art, but it also has a really nice storyline. The characters are well developed too~ Also the romantic plot is at a fairly good place.

Is there anything related to your group not mentioned in this interview that you think might be interesting for the readers to know about?

Kouhai: Experience is not a prerequisite to join our group. I was such a noob when I started gaaaah. We even train and teach each other techniques and skills on how to translate and edit better. I also offer to teach those with the dedication to learn~

Sempai: I think our group is interesting since we do many different types of series at once. The atmosphere over here is quite nice. What I think many people get wrong is that signing up into our group doesn’t mean you have to work all the time. Basically, if you have free time now and then feel free to take a look at scanlating with no strings attached.

Crandall: Lots of wonderful creatures and humans are here. And we are more than happy to discuss and talk with the readers, manga enthusiasts, and others. Another beautiful thing is the laid-back environment, yet we get stuff done in an organized way.

Lightning: Our group is very diverse but also very friendly. It’s really like a family! Everyone is so kind to each other and willing to help each other out— which is rare to find these days. When I joined last year, I immediately felt like I was accepted and part of the group. Everyone in Friendship Scans is truly a friend to me~ Haha, get the pun? Okay… I’ll go away now.

Mi-chan (an assistant): It’s the first time I’ve seen a job of assistants in a scanlation group. I like how you can choose which projects to work on and what type of job you can do.

Owlcity24 (a cleaner): All the different types of people we meet. We have members from all around the world. I like to interact with them, even if we can only talk late at night or early in the morning.

To conclude the interview, do you have any closing remarks for the readers?

Kouhai: Joining the scanlation community has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I met a lot of great people and learned a lot of skills. I’ve gone a long way from being a newbie to where I am right now. So, to those who have been wanting to contribute to the community, don’t be afraid to try. You may be inexperienced now, but practice goes a long way! There are a lot of people who would love to help you grow, and trust me you will grow. You may think that your work may be insignificant, but there is a reader out there reading your work and thanking you for it. Just think about it… somewhere in the world you’re brightening someone’s day~ Though it sounds cheesy… It’s true!

We would like to thank all the readers who have been supporting our projects and scanlation group. Also, we’re really grateful to MangaDex for giving us the opportunity to speak our thoughts! Aaaaaaa— thank you for reading (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)!

I hope you all enjoyed the interview! Feel free to ask the group members additional questions. Also don't forget to check out the previous interview with Forbidden Garden and look forward to another next week!

 

[PiakuchuKiller]

first

cool interview

 

[Plykiya]

So many old shoujo/josei groups I didn't know about it

>The last time I remember on Christmas, Friendship Scans released around 50 chapters in a day.
I'm happy if I can get one chapter out a month 👀

 

[UnChosen]

Sweet stuff guys.

 

[LowSanity]

Asphodels i must double your series recommendations. They are very good.

 

[owlcity24]

I don't know any of these people.

 

[Nakanowatari]

While shoujo is not really my thing, good luck to you guys in the future!

Tho, I didnt realize there are groups who translate from indonesian to other language, lol. I guess based on how it was mentioned its kinda a last resort thing?

 

[Arcticfreeze-san]

Finally an interview...^^

 

[KuroViLolitannia]

>Over 1300 chapters
>50 chapters a day

HOT DANG.

 

[RN571]

I used to read a lot more shoujo & josei than I do now, but I do recall being thrilled nearly to the point of tears that V.B. Rose was scanlated to completion.

Thanks for all your work over the years!

 

[unnoticedkouhai]

@Nakanowatari Thank you so much! 😊 Yup, there are groups that translate from Indonesian too. The only problem is that the message of the translation gets mixed up when translating Korean to Indonesian to English.

 

[0oBountyo0]

Glad to see FS is still alive and well. 🙂 My time as part of the group was fun, and it's funny finding myself in the "Retired" section - thank you FS staff for your continued hard work producing scanlations all these years!

 

[esperanza]

What amazing group

 

[semicharmed]

Thank you for all the wonderful manga over the years! Aside from the newer ones that I'm reading from you currently, I also see that I've read titles from you long before the existence of MD. Like I see you were the ones who finished Yoshiwara, I remember always waiting around for it for updates! I've been reading shoujo for a long time so of course we've crossed paths somehow!

Question: Since you do a lot of Shoujo, is there any particular thing or trope that you love seeing whenever you pick up series?

Also thank you for the recommendations! There are some that I really want to check out! To more manga!

 

[Uberlad654]

So wholesome. It's so nice to hear about this, and to see how long the group has been going! Keep up the great work guys!

 

[unnoticedkouhai]

@RN571 Thank you so much~ V.B. Rose was one of my favorites too! I remember typesetting it into completion ;-; Cried from the fluff that's some great stuff (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

@semicharmed We're really thankful for your support (✧ω✧)~ Honestly, my top favorite tropes are:
A) Slow-burn romances. I bet I'm the only one who loves it when the leads don't end up together right off the bat. ;-;
B) Time-travelling. My ultimate favorite gaaaah~ I'd read from dusk to dawn just to finish these...
I have loads of others to mention, but these are the top two that come to mind („• ֊ •„).

 

[Bunny-Blue]

What a lovely group<3 If I feel like scanlating shoujo someday I might just head your way. ^^

 

[unime]

OMG friendship scans. One of the big name Shoujo scan groups. Its nice to know what happened behind the scenes. Cause boy i knew there was a dry spell but almost disbanded *scary* thanks for holding up!! Hope you guys last as long as Chibi scans!!! Who should get an interview if possible btw cough