the scanlator who made that choice was offering commissions priced in euro, so I'd imagine for them the scottish accent WAS a regional accent.

Ah, I'm remembering that now. I still wish they hadn't done that, but not my time or money spent. I'll keep peppering the usual publishers for an official English release so I can get people to read it easier.

last edited at Jan 17, 2024 11:29PM

What dialect do you think they should've used, then? Considering Nanami's dialect in the original, it makes perfect sense to render her dialogue in some similarly divergent dialect.

This is one of my favorite series, but I've had several friends hard bounce off when it I rec it because of the dialect choice being so jarring to them. I apparently put blinders on and got through it and I'm always surprised when they comment on it and I go look and well... I can't tell them they're wrong.

To me personally, a regional dialect would be more appropriate. I think typically they fall back to very light American southern with a note saying the Japanese dialect she was speaking in in case someone wanted to google it. Vs what comes off as a separate national dialect entirely and very heavy. A few y'alls would be enough for me along with the occasions other characters note it, but I'm not the one who worked on it. Dealer's choice. I hope if it ever gets licensed they go my preferred route tho so I can get other people to read it easier.

edit: browsing these bookstores' websites without knowing much Japanese is hard lol. And I noticed toranoana at least seemed to be adjusting prices upwards noticing I was international, listing prices in USD and then converting that back to yen at a premium higher than what was listed at first. The basic no-frills volume jumped from 1210 yen in the link in this thread announcing its versions to 1430 yen when I clicked the specific sale page for it. I sadly don't know enough to be able to make the comparison myself lol. As far as I can tell none of these sites was listing an ebook version, which feels like it would also be a useful comparison (since color in a pdf doesn't cost any extra).

What you're actually seeing is that for that bookseller they make you put the book in the cart AND then put a separate listing for the benefits in the cart. You might be mistaking the benefits listing for a priced up book. You can't complete the order correctly with only the benefits in the cart. So that different price is actually the benefits you need to bundle into the book order yourself. Unlike with the others where they create a single listing for book+benefits. When you put them together they come out to about the same price as the other bookstore's offerings.

(BUT from my current experience Buyee isn't letting me put preorder items from them together in one order to correctly to purchase them. I can put them into one cart on the book site but when Buyee takes over it separates them. And when Buyee tries to order them separately only the book goes through and the benefits are canceled. That seems to be a preorder specific behavior which is annoying as it could be sold out by the time it's in stock.)

If Im right from the previous comments and the post of the author, buying from the four store, the items delivered are the same (keychain, etc. I know no 8p this time), except the individual illustrations like last time right? So if I just wanted extra items but dont care for the illustrations, is okey for me to buy just one?

Each of the four stores have different illustrations. And as there are no booklets that means illustrations on the merch. So it should mean the acrylics etc. But without sample images it is a bit murky still.

last edited at Jan 14, 2024 11:20AM

I'm not too surprised. She's getting train ads, Nirvana merch, and name dropped in Kadokawa's financial reports. Somebody is making the most of it. Maybe not her since since on top of her work she keeps taking illustration jobs on the side too. I'm not sure at what point it all trickles down to the mangaka. Maybe with that illusive English language release someday.

My Kinokuniya has been carrying it on it's front display as well as the back yuri section. They are tag agnostic.

If anyone is interested in the volume 2 physical release coming out in Feb the bookstore benefits are starting to appear. It is an upgrade from vol 1.

Acrylic stand (keychain?), acrylic keychain, guitar pick, poster, sticker, clear files, etc. It's supposed to include new art. No 8p booklets this go around, but the audio drama CD is coming with a 4p one so she didn't escape that entirely.

melon, gamers, animate, and toranoana

last edited at Jan 13, 2024 12:42AM

omg! guitar picks!
https://online.parco.jp/shop/g/gP028695-00009/

would love to get a print if i understood how the site worked

International fans have to use the service Buyee to order. So you'd make an account on Buyee who act as the middleman, add what you want on PARCO to the "Buyee cart" that should be on every PARCO product page (hard to miss with it being a super aggressive popup window) and then that will populate your cart on Buyee for you to finish your checkout. Once purchased on Buyee your items will be shipped domestically to the Buyee warehouse where you can arrange international shipping to where you live. There's a lot of YT videos out there on how Buyee works if you need visuals.

Shipping one little item internationally can cost $30+ bucks which is a pain so it's actually better to buy a lot of stuff and consolidate it into one box for one shipping. TBH, it's not worth it for one 440¥ item. I usually buy a lot and then split with a friend or sell off what I can part with to offset costs. If all else fails turn on alerts to ebay and mercari in case there are fans who are listing their extras from this sale. /tmi

For those interested, her POP UP Shop merch is just now available for online sales (and for international fans via Buyee) on PARCO's website. https://online.parco.jp/shop/c/cs028695/

I appreciate that. I've watched her lives after the fact since I don't have an IG account, but maybe Weibo is less invasive than things owned by Google and FB (I'll have to check) and I could make a temp account to join in?

There's youtube guides on how to set up an account in the US (or elsewhere), but if I remember right it requires phone number verification which you might find invasive. If you do plan to sign up specifically for the event I'd suggest doing it now in case you run into any issues vs right before she's live.

FYI Tracy is going to do a live QA on Weibo (link in her IG profile) October 6th talking about recent stuff, her future plans and taking story questions. She's got planned time off a few weeks in Oct. For those worried earlier about her being MIA on socials.

last edited at Sep 29, 2023 8:00PM

Anyone heard from Tracy Hu? I can see Twitter again (using Nitter's site), and it looks like she was supposed to be gone for a couple weeks, but dropped completely off all her socials for longer than that, I'm kind of worried about her!

A new chapter posted today on the app and the next one is announced for next Friday so maybe she's just taking a twiatus but otherwise fine.

Anyone heard from Tracy Hu? I can see Twitter again (using Nitter's site), and it looks like she was supposed to be gone for a couple weeks, but dropped completely off all her socials for longer than that, I'm kind of worried about her!

I don't know about twitter as I can't see anything there anymore either, but I support her on bilibili and Fridays are when new chapters drop. Chapter 46 is arriving 7/21 after the last chapter on 7/7. I think it said she'd take a week off and "see you every other" on there so it seems still on track? We shall see Friday.

Yes, the ones I have are about a day trip/train ride and a CD store shop hosted wedding. I handed off my two already so you'll get to see those eventually. Then after that we'll be in the same boat. LOL

@cranscape are you trying to collect the bonus pictures? I have one from the ebook, I don't think it was posted on twitter (I added the author's signature below just in case)

https://i.imgur.com/flSMtoa.png

Ooooo... I hadn't seen that one. Must be an ebook only perk. right click save

There are four "magazine"/8p booklets that have short stories in them of Aya and Mitsuki's year together with Aya's camera capturing things connecting them. I'm mainly wanting the booklets because it contains actual story. Even if it's just fluff the two I have are really cute. There are also two postcard sized benefits and I have the movie theater one.

Okey just got the physical manga and magazines....I have no words from the quality really; that and the attetion of the seller is amazing. Dont know if it's because of the normally treat in business here where I live or what, but the details are incredible. Really glad to experience all

It was really well made, right? I have one to read and one for the shelf. I'm hoping an English version is at least close to that print quality, but I'm not sure what publisher to be hoping for.

I think two of the booklets were still needed to be scanned. Spring and Autumn. Not sure if you have a public library with a scanner available. Still a little mad I didn't get all of them myself when I had the chance. I was able to sell off the extra books easily so in retrospect I should have just gone all the way even if I ended up with cough number of additional books in the process.

It feels like the telling of this story has become more disjoint. Is there a chapter missing or something?

It's always been rapidly jumping forward. Getting two chapters that are directly following each other is very rare in this series ^^;

Yeah, but last chapter was Aya fucking around and get being avoidant, now suddenly they're at a concert live they're best buds and the tension between them is gone.

It feels more disconnected than my recollection of earlier chapters where, even if they weren't directly sequential, they had a logical throughline that you can follow the plot easily. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

It was a little easier when it was just one constant mistaken identity storyline/gags sure, but there still are things linking the story together currently and there's always been an ongoing question to why Mitsuki is in her situation.

Right now there are two threads set up: First, Mitsuki being in her last year of school and the hints of apprehension growing about her future via her Uncle who somehow in the course of her life became her caretaker. He's extremely careful with her. Second, Aya being in the final stages of dealing with her attraction to cool shop Onii-san/actually cool shop girl Oshi/actually cool quiet Koga-san from school who she also gets the butterflies for now. The tension is less Aya spending several chapters accepting she's into all of them, and more her starting to question why there a fracture there in Mitsuki in first place to understand her better. Currently it's a superficial 'why is she hiding how cool she is' thoughts but there is something deeper going on. She has a pretty good vantage point as being someone who has been able to see the different sides of her even if she doesn't know the why yet.

Both of those threads seem related to Mitsuki's past and now we got some overly familiar older girl who existed in that past show up. Perhaps not a love rival, but someone with more information than Mitsuki has given out just at the time Aya is wanting to know more herself.

Kanna has a big sister or (way) upper classmate vibe. I do not think we get a love triangle now.

She seems like an adult to me. All the teens so far still have that baby face to them and she doesn't. Knowing Mitsuki well enough to be informal with her name and comment on her appearance changing feels more like something an older person would do too and with Mituski being 16 anytime in the past is basically her childhood. But if she knew her primarily through the shop then I'd argue Mitsuki always looked cool at least in that setting. If she knew her through school or maybe a more domestic setting that comment might make more sense right now.

I'm not feeling a love triangle, but I think she could be someone who knows a lot more about Mitsuki than has been willingly shared with Aya so far and Aya has been curious.

last edited at May 7, 2023 1:18PM

She sold 150,000 copies in a week, is getting a reprint, and when posting this illustration said she was on a business trip so I can imagine an English language publisher would be at least interested.

There's been teasing lately about the blank career paper and her being the same age as when the uncle was in his "hoodlum" phase and his general worry about her growing up. Now a cool looking woman appears? I'm thinking she will be an outside influence in music scene. That said I'd still welcome a long lost family member. We know so little about her family for a reason I assume and she's come into her uncle's care very early it looks.

Just curiosity, saw a few talking about the digital version of the manga to buy; never saw anything about it, so it got my attention hahaha how was it? a web selling it or something like that?

Amazon Japan has a Kindle version (she mentioned it in her original publication announcement) that became available on publication date. It doesn't seem like an option that reliably shows up if Amazon senses you are out of their local region. So there should be ways for you to get it if you can get around that little roadblock. I'm not sure of digital distributors for it besides Amazon but I wouldn't be surprised if there are.

As said before, if someone scans it for me, I'll translate it.

But I don't have the physical books.

I DM'd you on Discord.

To those who has the physical copy, are there any infos on mitsuki's parents or aya's dad??

Nothing more about either of their parents. There was a clear answer about why Mitsuki had such a strong reaction to Aya getting even slightly bullied by her friends after being associated with her.

Can you tell why?sorry if im asking too much im just i really curious

I'll give you the entire rundown, but I'd still suggest just waiting for a scan to show up. But if you still want it...

When she was little she knew she was different and that there was pressure to conform, but at first it was just her only friend telling her she'd look cute in a skirt and wanting her to get one. She laughed it off and said the skirt would look better on her friend than her. Mitsuki was already listening to Gorillaz and dressing like 1990s Seattle. Despite being aware they were different from each other she liked her friend and they got along. Even back then Mitsuki was charming and fine with doing her own thing and she was happy with her friend as things were.

Then she and her friend got peer pressure bullied at school by the cool kids group on the same skirt topic (they were both wearing pants or shorts instead of a skirts) so her friend, while feeling conflicted getting dressed the next morning, conformed to avoid sticking out. She had tried to encourage Mitsuki to do that as well, but Mitsuki showed up the next day still as her authentic herself. Which clearly troubled her friend who seems to have a tad more social awareness than Mitsuki, but nothing happened as a result for several days so maybe it wasn't a big deal in the end.

Unfortunately the consequences came later when her friend heard the bullies badmouthing Mitsuki so defended for her only to get retaliated on much worse. Mitsuki walked into the aftermath of it, and instead of this bringing them closer together her friend was very upset at her. She couldn't understand why Mitsuki wouldn't just conform even for that one day and had a meltdown and cried at her while Mitsuki stood stunned. Her friend ran off and she just stood there and let her go. That seemed to break Mitsuki. It was a trauma event for her. Feeling that emotional outburst, finding out it was because her friend tried to defend her, realizing (in her mind) how much she could hurt someone she likes by something as unchangeable as just being herself. She told herself letting her friend go was for the best. She wasn't just going through life with a different rhythm than others she fell completely out of sync with the world. She shut down emotionally at school and was totally alone for years. Until we see her notice Aya in class, just prior to the start of the series, sitting next to her and literally leaking sound into Mitsuki's cut off world via her loud headphones.

To those who has the physical copy, are there any infos on mitsuki's parents or aya's dad??

Nothing more about either of their parents. There was a clear answer about why Mitsuki had such a strong reaction to Aya getting even slightly bullied by her friends after being associated with her.

Is it just me, or did the timeline jump around a bit?

It goes... failed RHCP concert events, school goes on break and they don't see each other for a while, they run into each other on the return to school with the cherry blossoms where Aya gets flustered again, and now they are back at school and Aya is realizing she has an ongoing "problem" with being around Koga since the bedroom event.

Now that I'm going through comparing page by page (as one does on a Friday night) she actually has changed a lot more than I first noticed.

She's made a lot of the greens more dynamic with fades and screens that weren't there before early on. Mainly in the earliest chapters when she was still getting the feel for it. She did a transparency on Koga's mask at work for several key moments early on too so we can see how she's reacting vs the black mask originally. She slightly changed Aya's eyes/expressions a several times in the early chapters. To a more precise emotion. Koga too sometimes. Mouths cleaned up. I'd say their iconic moment expressions were the same though so no worries there. One thing I really like as a change is when she used to have a washed grey panel of someone like in a memory she now drew it as her normal style or uses a more balanced screen. That grey just never jived. Most of these changes are early on and balance the pages more or be more intentionally with Aya. It really refined her signature tight transitions even more from the beginning now.

I did see album art, tshirt art, and posters made more generic. They still specifically talk about the bands/show playlists, which is actually nice compared to other manga that Great Value Brand even band names to avoid trouble, but she can't get away with the album art in the published version 99% of the time it looks like. Unfortunate, but I don't think it ruined anything. Oddly the album art at the festival booth stayed branded Gun's N Roses but it's a different cover. Wonder if they got permission for one instance like that? I'm not familiar with the new cover, but it still had their name on it. Not sure if this is tighter or looser than what a US publisher would require. Hopefully they aren't forced to get goofy with the band names.

All that would have taken a lot of work to do so no wonder she was busier than she thought. Editor-san stuck with it. Plus the extra story (just noticed the first few pages were new material too and perspective bookending the new story at the end between Aya and Koga with her foot tapping connecting it...I was too stunned by the color to catch on first reading how literal that tapping linked it.) and bonus boolets.

I got mine in the mail today. The publisher must love her because they got every detail right. It's a larger format, printing under the dustjacket, several color pages (I'm not going to spoil the hair and eye colors), and of course the green throughout. Textured cover and matte pages even for the color pages, but the ink took really well. Very good value for the price.

I didn't immediately notice any large corrections or changes to the art so I assume whatever cleaning up she did was cosmetic. It ends with a new story called Rhythm B which is 13 pages of new content that answered several of my ongoing questions so to me is necessary to the story and not mere bonus fluff. Eventually it will show up online, but it's good to let people have a chance to buy their copies. She's been doing everything for free until now so I'm hoping everything is very successful with this first volume.

I have three bookstore benefits versions still coming and a couple books I'm going to put up on Mercari here in the US. If anyone is interested I can give a shout when I list those in like 10 days-ish. I closed my Buyee box so no more than that coming. Hopefully Kinokuniya in the US stocks them soon too. I want it to do really well.