My First Release

G'day all!

Tis I, Kaori!

It's been a long time since my last post hasn't it?

Same old story, different day~

I've been busy, and look at what all that busy-ness has wrought.

My very first release!

(Why do all my posts contain some innuendo or other...?)

So this particular project was 

something I used to work on in a previous group.

I've been a fond of this little 4-koma, 

and since no one has picked it up, I decided to do it myself.

A special thanks to fresthy for the TLCheck!

Without further ado~

You can read the previous chapters here!

Seishun Occult Teen

Translating this was both fun and terrifying.

If you're willing to take over the translating of this project,

I am more than willing to provide everything else!
(The raws, cleaning, typesetting, releasing, etc.)

Please message me on Discord if you can!

And with that, that's all for now folks!

As always, until next time~

Cleaners? Typesetters? WOT?

Good day all!

Tis I! Kaori!

It's that time of the month again!

No, not that... I mean that time where I update this blog.

Ahahahahahahahahaa...

It would be more funny if it weren't so sad.

ANYWAYS!

I wanted to bring up the fulfilling roles of the cleaner and the typesetter today,

because for some reason, there seems to be a lack of these two incredibly

important roles in the scanlation community.

But Kaori-sensei! What is a "cleaner" and a "typesetter"?!

Oh alright, I won't go into the actual beginning of the scanlation community,

so I'll just go over the basics.

So what are these roles that almost no one cares about?

Let's go over the people that bust their arses off for you!

1. Raw Provider - This person brings you the untranslated work straight from whence it came. They usually do the unbinding, and scanning, and sometimes prep work to get it to its high quality state before the actual cleaners and typesetters get to it. (For more reference on the raw provider, please read my previous post on the hell I went through during this process.
   
2. Translator - The person who translates every little thing on the page. Everything. Every. Little. Thing. Arguably the most important job of a scanlation group.
   
3. Proofreader - The grammar Nazi that makes sure the translated script reads normally. As in everything makes sense, and flows smoothly from one speech text to the next, and that the translation script is clearly labeled for the typesetter. (I added that last bit myself, please do this for the typesetters proofreaders!!!)
   
4. Cleaner - This guy is the one that strips the manga of all the original text. The cleaner's job is to prep the manga for the typesetter, meaning this person removes all the japanese (or whatever language is there) from the page, usually including the sound effects (SFX... although some groups don't bother > > lazy....). Must be proficient in Photoshop (or equivalent). Most of the time, cleaners must also be able to re-draw, although again, some groups have this as a separate job, though most cleaners can (or is forced to) re-draw.
   
5. Typesetters - This person takes the translated and proofread script and puts it on the manga. Typesetters need an extensive font collection and also a bit of a creative mind. SFX requires patience and a keen eye, because the text must be pleasing to the eye as well as CENTERED (FOR THE LOVE OF ALL MANGA, CENTER YOUR DAMN TEXT!) My philosophy with typesetting is that the translated work should be as close to the original work as possible in order to retain the mangaka's hard work. So choosing the right font and matching the sfx as much as possible is respecting the mangaka's work.
   
6. Editor - This person does the job of a cleaner and a typesetter (Example - ME). Most people usually "specialize" in either cleaning or typesetting. An editor can do both cleaning and typesetting. A multi-tasker and extremely proficient in Photoshop (or equivalent).
   
7. Quality Checker - The final checkpoint. This person checks that everything is perfect. All the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. The manga cannot be released without going through this person. The quality checker is usually well versed in the other jobs (proofreading, cleaning, typesetting) because they fix all the tiny errors. This is an extremely important job because the quality of the scanlation group is usually dependent on this person.
   

Well?

I hope I elucidated a bit on the various roles of a scanlation group.

For more information (and a basic demonstration of cleaning and typesetting),

here are the typesetting and cleaning sessions that I've done for the recruits at my 

scanlation group, SODA SCANS

Typesetting Session

Cleaning (and some more Typesetting) Session

For the cleaning session, please skip to 13 minutes in

because I failed and forgot to turn on my mic

until then T_T

I hope this was useful to you all!

💕 Kaori 💕

A Peek Into a Scanlator's Life

Good day all! 

I haven't actually been posting on this blog have I? 

Ahahaha, sorry about that! 

But honestly, I've been busy! 

If you haven't taken a look at my "Current Projects" list, 

then you should take a peek and then marvel at my awesomeness! 

I've been doing a lot of project juggling, and now, not only am I editing various projects 

for various groups, but I am also providing HQ scans of Haruchika 

(which I can tell you is more than a pain in the butt!) 

and Soda Scans needs a Japanese translator 

to help out on this project!

If you have some mad translating skills at your disposal, 

and you're willing to help a buddy out, 

(insert super adorable puppy/kitten eyes here)

then please consider contributing your skill set to a worthy cause!

Honestly, I have a whole new respect for scanlation groups.

This came to be because I bought a couple of volumes from Japan recently,

and learned how difficult it is to do the job of providing these high quality scans that all

the leeches the fans out there enjoy~

Firstly... 

How to scan this book into those lovely, simple, 

individual pages that leeches fans love to read?

I wept tears of blood trying to figure this out.

Because I did NOT want to unbind my precious manga.

GUESS WHAT?!

I had to unbind my beautiful manga in order to get these lovely pages to our readers.

Step 1: Google how to unbind manga.

Step 2: Read all the absurd ways it can be done.

Step 3: Weep tears of blood.

Step 4: Pick a process.

Step 5: 

DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD,

DO NOT MICROWAVE MANGA!

Step 6: Cry more tears of blood.

Step 7: Go to a helpful manga forum and discover a decent way to get this shit done.

Step 8: More tears of blood.

Step 9: Prepare your desk with a clothes iron, dry dish cloth, a shot of strong alcohol.

Step 10: Make sure to have the iron at the "wool" setting (just to start off). Adjust heat accordingly.

Step 11: Remove manga jacket if it has one. Wrap manga in the cloth (Make sure the spine is especially covered well). This is important. Because you will be "loosening" the glue of the spine right here.

Step 12: Pray. Take small sip of alcohol to control shaking hands. HAVE STEADY HANDS.

Step 13: Press the spine of the manga to the iron. Make sure the cloth is there to take the brunt of the heat. Check the manga after a few seconds. CAREFULLY FFS pull the cover away from the rest of the pages. It should start loosening bit by bit. If not return spine to the iron. 

THE POINT OF THE IRON, IS TO LOOSEN THE GLUE! 

You do NOT want to actually melt the glue.

Step 14: Repeat the press and gentle pull until you can easily detach each page without tearing. This takes a while if you're being careful. If you pull too hard or if your heat setting is too high, you can end up with torn pages or melted glue all over the place.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!

Step 15: Please check this thread out if you need any more description on how to unbind manga. It's very helpful! Manga Helpers!

ALSO: Here is how to do it, with pictures! Debinding!

This person did a really job with explaining how to do it, I highly recommend this how to~

And now after tons of work, you have a pile of pages. 

PLEASE DO NOT mix up the pages ahaha...

Well what now? It's time to scan it, that's what.

Get a decent scanner. The scanner that I have is connected to a printer, 

but it can scan to a max of 1200 dpi which is more than enough for me.

Make sure you have your settings set on your scanner.

For coloured pages, 

I had it on color settings, .PNG, 1200 dpi.

Side Note: 1200 dpi takes forever to scan.

For "normal" pages: 

grayscale settings, .PNG, 600 dpi.

Work with a process. It's easy to get lost after doing a ton of pages.

Number your scans to pages accordingly. 

STAY ORGANIZED!

After all the pages are scanned...

Well that's where the work begins!

How the hell do you think the raws get to that 

marvelous high quality point in the first place?!

It wasn't by magic bishes. 

Hard work of the scanner and the editor goes into those lovely high quality chapters. 

IF you want to know the details of the scanning and then editing process 

(BEFORE the actual cleaners and typesetters get to it) 

feel free to look it up.

Because I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.

I am swimming in an ocean of bloody tears.

(Basic summary of scan/edit: Mode - grayscale/color? Rotate, Crop, Levels Layer, Curves Layer, Reduce Noise, Gaussian Blue, Sharpen, Re-level, Clean dust/specks, Resize height, Save .PNG)

tl;dr

Scanlating is hard.

So if you are one of those readers that enjoy reading manga online,

please consider contributing/helping out those people that VOLUNTEER their time 

and energy to provide you these amazing works.

Several ways to help out the manga community:

1. Help out a scanlation group - Everyone is always looking for help with cleaning and typesetting projects. Translators are especially important!

2. Donate what you can to whatever group that is putting out your favourite manga. 

Getting these manga are expensive. (Mine came all the way from Japan.)

3. Buy the manga when the official licensed version comes out!

Let's support the author as much as possible this way!

Or simply drop by your scanlation group's website and say

THANK  YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK!

(Otsukaresama desu!)

It's amazing when a reader takes the time to thank everyone for their hard work.

Trust me, it really makes a difference!

So show your support, one way or another~

💜 Kaori 💜

Kaori - Lazyass Typesetter Extraordinaire

G'day all! 

It is I, Kaori! 

Self-proclaimed "lazy ass typesetter extraordinaire!" 

although to be honest, I've been debating that "lazy ass" part...

 Mainly because I've been a busy little girl!

Anywho! I decided that I need to make a new blog because the other one went super emo and that's super no bueno. AND ALSO, because I'm back in the scanlation game. That's right all, it's back to typesetting (and cleaning because I've got some experience with that as well, yeeeaaaah booooi~) and cranking out those projects like no other. 

Yes, this is indeed going to be a blog all about me and my love for manga (and...anime???) Since I'm a freelance editor now, I need a way to introduce myself to my future "scanlation buddies" to put my name out there ya know?!

So hello there! 

Thanks for finding me! 

And if you're looking for a typesetter 

then I'm the girl you're looking for!

So just to get started, here's a little introduction about myself!

I'm a full-time university student, working as an undergraduate research assistant (aka mad scientist), which I can tell you right now is not the best combination for a stress-free environment. So in order to relieve the pressure of everyday life, I watch my anime and read my manga. In order to give back to this community I love, I decided to learn how to typeset and clean. My very first scanlation group at the time was [@#%$^#$^&@$@%&^%**&(#%^] Oh oops, can't mention any names. I'm grateful for the training that they gave me, but I'm not gonna lie, that place traumatized me. 

So after a catastrophic departure from that group, I landed a great editing gig at Turtle-Paradise Scanlations! It's a lil sloooow there at the moment, so I decided to go freelance in order to get as many series out there as soon as possible!

Listed below are just a few of the projects I've worked on at Turtle Paradise (and that other place):

• Dear My Girls
• Time Between Dog and Wolf
• Hikoukigumo
• Crimson Hero
• Sayonara no Jikan
• Non Non Biyori
• Lost Universe
• Stray Love Hearts
• Mebius Gear
• Slayers - Super Explosive Demon Story
• Awai no Mori (Tsukuroiya)
• Watari - Samurai Komachi

Here's my Turtle-Paradise profile if ya want to check out my current projects with them:

Kaori Lazyass Typesetter Extraordinaire

Current Status: Typesetting @ Soda Scans 

I'll be updating my incoming projects when they come around! But for now, I shall bid you all adieu!