30 December 2012

just a coincidence

the name of the winner of 'find Usui' contest is Hiromu. that is all
http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/maidsama/contest/grandprix.html

no respect, to say nothing of concern

some time ago I started wondering why I liked Usui and Misaku couple
fangirls scream at sight of Usui - 'he's hot'. the more I look at him the more I understand he is not actually hot, though his looks are certainly above average
the fact that he always comes to rescue Misaki when she is in trouble is, of course, a good point, but I still consider it a widespread thing for shoujo
he is also supporting Misaki morally giving her advice when she is unsure what to do, or when he sees she is simply mistaken (I would say, he simply supports her as a logic type with his ethic)
and still, the reason why I loved the story of this couple so much lies in another fact. Usui is not simply protecting Misaki, he sees to it that she does not do too much. this does not only include Misaki overdoing herself, getting too tired/injured/ill. he prevents her from doing what is not fitting her, from what does not suit her, what is odd to her personality
and that happens in world where and in times when everyone wants something from you, claiming or requesting, but always failing to show just a little respect by asking whether you want it yourself

26 December 2012

Mirio transfering to Flower... so what?

one would be blind not to notice that Mirio has been trained and prepared. Demi-Top is not a position same as nibante to wait for the Top to graduate and become the new one after that. having a fresh Top in Cosmos and a Top-to-come in Snow, there are only 2 Troups able to provide Mirio with some future. 'tis easy to guess which one is more realistic, isn't it. if you ask me, even Mirio's face looks Flower-ish, and girls who are to come to Moon are as cute as Miya which establishes, apparently, the new 'face' of Moon
well, that was really predictable. not that I care anymore
I have to admit there is less and less attractive in Takarazuka now

24 December 2012

every time I cannot translate some phrase from Japanese properly because I cannot grasp its meaning, I feel down. hey, I truly needn't. some people cannot translate even phrases that I can

23 December 2012

я ненормальный человек. когда смотрю изображение крупным планом, нужно чтобы либо верхний, либо нижний край картинки упирался в край экрана. вот как это называется???

22 December 2012

my humble opinion on 'Kaichou wa Maid-sama' manga ~ one of a kind

I have already written a long post about KwMs manga, but I erased it. 'twas no longer necessary to describe all the aspects and do a comprehensive analysis. I better simply name particular points I like
  • humour
a lot of shoujo mangas are completely bereaved of it. and that can be either good or bad. serious shoujo verging on drama are also necessary in this world, I believe. and still prefer the ones with humour
this is not the case when the story is deliberately, artificially made humorous. Fujiwara-sensei seems to have a natural aptitude to making everything fun. how did she think up the 3 idiots thing? why did she create Yukimura as a character constantly seen to be 'just a little too womanlike'?
not only characters and their behaviour is funny, but also the author's manner of speaking. do you read author's comments within the chapters and in 'closing time'? 'tis a bit difficult to understand handwritten Japanese to me, but I force myself to do it and sometimes receive a huge amount of pleasure as a feedback
once Fujiwara-sensei was asked 'did someone think up the like 'Usui you perverted alien' for you?' and she says - 'I thought it up myself. why?' with that 'why' closer to 'you have any objections/complaints/doubts?'
next time when asked 'who writes the characters' profile?' she answers 'I write them myself. sometimes I write with my left hand'
she does not even forget to use the fact that KwMs is published in 'LaLa' magazine
and I have seen an arrow used in the text for the first time
I wonder if I am the only one who is enjoying this kind of humour...?
  • characters' depth
how many layers of characters are there usually in a manga? the main character is of course in the middle of attention, his close friends/family/lover(s?) are also described in detail. sometimes family and friends are a bit more distant and seem to be less important. classmates, fellows, friends of friends, casually encountered people are left behind. what we see in KwMs is thorough development of all the possible sides. vice-president and his sister, delinquent from the former school of Shirokawa, 2 guys who hit Miyabigaoka guys - they all have personalities. was I blind before or KwMs is really deep in terms of character development?
moreover, many of them deserve my respect. this is a rare thing which I remember happening only in case I was reading shounens like RuroKen or Letter Bee
  • main couple
I wonder if I am wrong in thinking that popularity of shoujo as a genre is based on the fact that it presents male characters as guys whom the female audience wants to have for themselves, and female characters are portrayed the way that the readers can identify with themselves? in other words, reading shoujo manga makes girls feel as if they were inside the story
when I was younger we had a special kind of entertainment with my friends who watched anime. we made lists of our 'husbands' - bishies whom we liked. my list was perhaps the longest, but the principle was simple - he's cool? then he's in the list. if this entertainment survived until last year there's no doubt Usui would be in it
the older I grew the more I understand that not all of my 'husbands' were 'my type'. coolness is ok but should not there be something else?
from the very beginning I knew Usui was not my type. and I knew Misaki was not me. the more I read the manga the more I love these characters, but I am far from them. therefore, KwMs is not a story to replace my own reality with. 'tis a story about people whom I like and whom I wish all the best as if they were my acquaintances
  • just momentary images
I must not lie that romance has nothing to do with me reading this manga, it would be absurd. however my favourite moments in the manga are not exactly the 'romantic ones'. KwMs fans like to discuss which of the kisses they like best. I am out of this conversation. since there are too many I better post them separately huh?
  • mood-maker and lifesaver
December, the last month of the semester. this time - the last month of the last semester, too. if not for KwMs I would be completely exhausted and broken and sad. thanks to it, I am alive. this is true. Fujiwara-sensei is a soul-reviver

graphics
the manga graphics look a bit strange for a shoujo. it has a little of a feeling that this is not a manga by female mangaka. of course I like ephemeral styles of Saitou Chiho, or Takeuchi Naoko, but a manga with graphics less shoujo-like is not worse in any sense. I adore its simplicity and its strength, and I admit its influence on me. the only frustrating thing is that Fujiwara-sensei, as some other mangakas, tends to simplify her style. Watsuki-sensei ended up with too simple lines that the fans were dissatisfied with. Fujiwara-sensei is unfortunately also moving that direction

conclusion
to hell with conclusions. I do not want to write any when it comes to KwMs

анонс такой анонс

вот недавно выяснилось, что Анюту легко взять на слабо. а меня легко взять на анонс. ну на кой печатать в конце тома манги картинки из следующего, еще и самые интересные? я же не умею вовремя остановиться

з. ы. кстати есть печенье по ночам тоже пора останавливаться

20 December 2012

переводческие каверзности. часть 5 ~ не смотри, не смотри ты по сторонам, оставайся сама собой...

как всегда... ну ладно, всего лишь третий год подряд, но в декабре я вспоминаю о существовании конкурса переводчиков. и чего-то меня потянуло перечитать итоги последнего. выводы, которые я сделала после прочтения, скорее психологического характера. я-то уж думала, я научилась понимать других за свои скромные два десятка лет сусчествования в ентом мире, но нет. как много в мире людей, чья логика мне недоступна!
В других сообщениях есть критические замечания и предложения. Так, участница конкурса Елена Викторовна Соболева из Великого Новгорода пишет: «…я хотела бы поинтересоваться, почему на сайте СПР не публикуются тексты выигравших работ. Я убеждена, что всем участникам было бы интересно ознакомиться с образцами, на которые, по мнению оргкомитета, стоит равняться». Та же мысль содержится и в некоторых других сообщениях. Е.В.Соболева – действующий переводчик, и можно сожалеть, что ею сформулирован студенческий вопрос. Приходится вновь говорить о банальном: в творчестве не нужно равняться ни на кого, нужно быть самим собой. Е. В. Соболева, как и некоторые другие авторы сообщений, полагают, что конкурс – это продолжение их учебы в университете, с разбором переводческих ошибок, грамматики, стилистики и пр. и пр.
ну да. "все познается в сравнении"? бред. переводчикам не надо читать другие переводы. писателям не надо читать книги. журналистам не надо смотреть телевизор. врачам не надо ассистировать при операциях. не, ну ведь любая деятельность содержит элементы творчества? а в нем не нужно равняться ни на кого, ога.
более того, если выложить победившие работы, то люди будут знать, к чему стремиться в следующих конкурсах, и смогут примерно представить себе, каковы критерии оценки у жюри, а зачем нам повышение конкуренции? ведь со всей России (и, кажись, из стран ближнего зарубежья?) прислано аж целых 343 работы. уровень соперничества зашкаливает! ведь все просто мечтают получить эту заветную бумажку с надписью "диплом", распечатанную на струйном принтере.
есть еще такая абсолютно ненужная вещь, как "интерес". ну, или "любопытство". его нужно просто вычеркнуть из жизни. какие сейчас люди занимаются переводом? как они это делают? почему? и где? а с другой стороны, каковы требования Петербургской школы? ненене, это все неважно. а важно, как сказала вчера наша преподаватель по английскому, what we would do if we were reach.

18 December 2012

my little thoughts ~ impoliteness or fanservice?

some orators really like to mention that they see familiar faces in the audience. they wave hands, or nod, say something like 'I am glad to see some of you again' and shine like a light bulb
am I alone in feeling awkward when not belonging to that group of 'chosen' people who know the speaker?

16 December 2012

recovering modified .doc file ~ absent-minded me

I am so absent-minded... after I realised my report was changed and for some reason the saved version contained only the title page I was on the verge of panic. fortunately, I recalled that auto-saving is on, and those files must be hiding somewhere. after a short search I found that temporary saved files are stored in C:\Users\[nameoftheuser]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word
this will be a memo for me, huh...

translation tricks. part 1 ~ from 'maid-sama'

reading manga in the original has been my dream for a long time. 'twas 'unaffordable' for me who knew only a few kanji to read 'fluently' (haha) and was too lazy to search them up in the dictionary every time. to be honest, this has not changed since those times, but now I am lucky to have manga where almost all the kanji have furigana... so my dream has finally come true
and I must say there is much more pleasure in doing so because of the widespread language tricks. the first time I noticed them was while watching Di Gi Charat, and since then I have been a huge fan of such tricks. this time I am fascinated by their use in KwMs, of course

'foolish couple'
a tag name Aoi gave to Misa and Usui consists of the word 'baka' meaning 'fools' and 'kappuru' which comes from English 'couple'. joining them together, he made this - 'bakappuru' which was never rendered in the translations (either in manga scanlations or in anime subtitles). this time I feel I must not complain or blame the translators because this is a really hard point, and I doubt any English equivalent can be found. therefore, it only increases the value of reading the original for me
'perverted tiger'
'twas Usui who called Igarashi a 'perverted big bro', but do not forget that his name - Tora - is written as 'tiger'. combining the words 'pervert' - 'hentai' - and another variant of 'tiger' - 'taiga-', Fujiwara-sensei makes a new alias for Igarashi - 'hentaiga-'. nice, Fujiwara-sensei!
this page is a 'readers request' from the manga volume, in other words - not published in LaLa. well, as far as I understand...? therefore, translators did not use it. however, if they did - I wonder what could they do? what could I do if I had to cope with it? probably nothing apart from the explanation I did in the previous paragraph
'a failure of a maid'
ダメイド in Japanese - a combination of 'dame' - 'useless' - and 'meido' - 'maid'. nice, Fujiwara-sensei! ^.^
'Three Idiots Cafe'
no, the sign does not say this. it says 'Sun Vaca cafe'... but do not forget the peculiarities of the Japanese phonetic system. 'sun' would be pronounced as 'san', 'vaca' as 'baka'. what we get finally is 'sanbaka'. yeah, 'three idiots'

10 December 2012

Kiriya-sama and Matobu-sama in 'My Fair Lady', exact dates announced

much more than that I would be glad to see at least one way to buy tickets from outside Japan. for now, I only see CNPlayguide, Lawson ticket, Pia ticket and E+. really disappointing

09 December 2012

living in an environment of negativists is already a difficult thing by itself, but hey, I am negativist too. why does it seem to me I am the only one who does not forget to have just a little positivism in me?

translation. 'kanata' by heidi.

recently I have been into translating sad songs only. this one is 'kanata' by heidi. - one of the few slow sad dark songs that I love among the works by this band 
a really touching phrase for me that made me want to translate the lyrics is 'I do not want to lose again'
the 'aftershadow' thing is actually a difficult one to translate. actually I made up the word, forgive me. according to explanation here, 'kageokuri' means an entertainment when on a sunny day one should stare for at least 10 seconds at his own shadow and then raise his eyes to the sky, and (due to the phenomenon of sight adaptation, I guess) the silhouette will be seen as a white figure in the sky. again, a beautiful concept that we do not have in other languages
lyrics written down by me and checked with the help of this page


original
 
遠ざかる君の後姿を追う
もう彼方、そして僕はもういないよ
疲れ果てる心が何かを求めるまで
カラカラに渇き続けていた
明日なんていらない、今日すら欲しくはない
たった今この瞬間でさえ
そんな僕を許して

ああ、失うのは二度とは嫌だから
その手を離したくないよ
ああ今度こそは君の瞳の中
その場所で生きられるように
あの空へ

少しだけ暑い夕陽を浴びながら
あの雲が君を僕を導いてる
目を閉じればそこにはあの日のままの君が
僕の隣で笑ってくれた
君は何かを言って振り返ることはなく
やがて僕から見えなくなった
まるで影送りだね

ああ失うのは二度とは嫌だから
その手を離したくないよ
ああ今度こそは君の瞳の中
その場所で生きられるように

ねえ忘れないで例えどこにいても
繋がったこの世界には
そう、君の声が聞こえた気がしたよ
またいつか会えますように
あの空で
会えるよね

translation
 
I am chasing your retreating figure
It is already beyond, and I no longer exist
Desiring for something my exhausted heart
Went on withering to complete dryness
I do not need tomorrow, I do not even need today,
If only this very instant…
Forgive me for this

Ah, I do not want to lose once again,
So I do not want to release your hand
Ah, this time, for sure, in your eyes
I wish that I could live there
So to the sky…

Basking a little in the setting sun
That cloud is leading you and me
When I close my eyes, you are, like those days,
Smiling by my side
You said something and without even turning back
You finally disappeared from my side,
Like an ‘aftershadow’

Ah, I do not want to lose once again,
So I do not want to release your hand
Ah, this time, for sure, in your eyes
I wish that I could live there
Do not ever forget, no matter how far you are,
In this world that links us
Yes, it seems I heard your voice
I wish that we will meet again
In that sky
We will be able to meet, won’t we?

'tis sad

at first, I could not recognise my clear file which I was searching for because instead of the materials I printed for the seminar the sheet of paper which was visible through the file contained some text in Japanese. a few seconds later I understood, why. since during the seminar I am only busy with delivering the material for several minutes, I took the article to occupy myself with translation in the rest of the period. in other words, I used to translate something. from time to time... seldom...
now I do not even feel like doing this anymore
I still check news on the official website and in social networks. I still imagine whether I would be able to go to Osaka in May. and something is wrong, totally wrong
I swore eternal love to you, Takarazuka. now you are attracting me less and less

08 December 2012

somehow several siennes whom I felt interested in are all playing roles of elder characters... Y?

old PIXIV no longer there

now this is really frustrating. PIXIV which is the motherland of outstanding artists, which has its own illustration collection books printed and highly popular, which used to inspire me so much...
why do you have only 3 types of indie art now?
exact copies of anime or manga freeze frames, paintings done as if by 5-year old children, and R-18

spam, spam, go away

one thing seems strange to me. among the spam mails I receive there are only 2 types of contents - rarely Swiss watch replica, and frequently - penis enlargement pills. as if I needed any of these

07 December 2012

...and finally you realize how old and outdated you are when you read the list of staff in a new anime, and see not a single familiar name
you know the studio which makes it, but there are no directors or screenplay writers you have ever heard of. you do not know the composer of the OST, you do not know the OPED performers either, and all the seiyuus are modern and popular, probably, but you have no idea what their voices sound like

04 December 2012

TMC part 6 ~ there are no inverted commas in oral speech

well, technically, of course, you can say 'if you hate me, you should just use some stronger female terms' meaning 私が嫌ならせめて? (I do not really know what they heard in the rest of the sentence), but taking the circumstances into account, 'tis pretty obvious that it should be 'if you do not like using the neutral variant of 'I', use the female variant', since it was 「わたし」が嫌ならせめて「あたい」って言え
too bad there are no inverted commas in oral speech, since Japanese use a lot of phrases and words as if citing someone or marking them as some sort of quotation
FFFpeeps fansub group have minus one point to their image in my eyes - not that it changes anything for them, of course

03 December 2012

JumpSQ, you are shocking me

I really do not understand why Tegamibachi and RuroKen are published in a magazine that also hosts this

переводческие каверзности. часть 4 ~ японская система аудита очень странная

увидев в Википедии фразу "с точки зрения сравнительного права японская система аудита чрезвычайно странная" после того, как я полтора часа разбиралась в тонкостях "кабусикигайсь", я смеялась, не переставая, несколько минут...
в текстах, касающихся товаров для дома, бытовой химии и биодобавок, по крайней мере, все довольно однозначно. ну не знаю я, что такое ペンゾラム, ну да, но ведь кроме этого никаких особых сложностей не было. достаточно один раз уяснить себе, каким образом в японском языке обозначаются типы веществ типа "соль ..." или "...ая кислота" и хорошенько рыться в интернетах для проверки названий природных ингридиентов.
а вот юридическая котовасия сидит у меня в одном месте. как перевести 資本金, если это может быть и уставный капитал, и объявленный? в чем разница между 会計監査人 и 監査役, кто из них штатный, кто внештатный, кто входит в ревизионный комитет и "кто за ними в этом надзирал"?
ну и к какому выводу мы, царь-анператор, пришли?
  • Википедия такая Википедия
круто, когда можно найти термин на одном языке, а с его страницы переключиться на аналогичную страницу на другом. только иногда ее нет - потому что японская система аудита очень странная. а иногда и у термина своей страницы нет, он только упоминается в тексте страницы другого понятия. Вики, на тебя надежда, в общем, небольшая, я смотрю...
  • посольство Филиппин в Японии не несет ответственности за содержание документа

вот, даже посольство открестилось от этой бумажки! шучу. пока я рылась в гугле в поисках информации о законе №87, я умудрилась найти много полезного. в том числе отсканированный документ с переводом на инглиш, который относится к той же категории, что и отданный мне на растерзание на перевод. располагается он тут и представляет собой перевод 履歴事項全部証明書. на главной странице сайта просьба воздержаться от ссылок. знаете что? если гугл вас находит, то извиняйте.
количество инстанций, которое нужно пройти для полного оформления документов в Японии, поражает. сначала выполняется перевод. потом переводчик делает заявление, что он переводчик. потом нотариус заверяет, что заявление - это заявление. потом бюро по правовым вопросам подтверждает, что нотариус - это нотариус. потом свою подпись куда-то там ставит сотрудник чиновник МИДа Японии, а потом генконсул заверяет, что этот чиновник поставил подпись. это если я все правильно поняла. в общем, я думала забугровая Япония такие вещи проще как-то проворачивает - ан нет, документу обойти надо кучу мест. ну, будем надеяться, что хотя бы это все быстрее происходит...
  • нет ничаво лучше, чем официальные сайты компаний, или "доверяй, но проверяй"
замечательно, если переводчик может сам правильно написать транскрипцию имен, написанных иероглифами, которые могут читаться, как угодно, в зависимости от воображения родителей человека. замечательно, если переводчик может обозвать по-русски прочие имена собственные. хуже, когда переводчик думает, что он может, а пишет все равно не то. поэтому перевод, данный мне для примера, я активно использовала, но некоторые вещи пришлось переводить и формулировать самой. форикзампл, дабы не обидеть уважаемых членов верхушки великой и ужасной корпорации "Као" - той самой, которая спонсирует все дорамы без разбору, - я предпочла полету своей фантазии проверенное средство. в моем случае - сайт Као, где работа по обзыванию людей уже проделана за вас
  • никогда не знаешь, где найдешь, где потеряешь
иногда нужно обращаться к официальным источникам для понимания каких-то терминов или вообще - устройства жизне... например, сайт министерства юстиции или сайт с переводами некоторых японских законов или их объяснением ну или хотя бы списком - правда на инглише
иногда нужно пойти от противного - а как сами носители переводят свои термины? ну, например, вот так и вот так или еще вот так
а иногда то, что нужно, нельзя найти ни в обычном словаре с переводами, ни в толковом, нельзя найти на справочных сайтах, начиная с той же вики, но можно найти на сайтах каких-то организаций или компаний... "внезапне" (c)

зе фин.

02 December 2012

my humble opinion on 'Tegamibachi' manga ~ there is a genre called 'thriller'

there is a genre called 'thriller'. I know people usually use it to describe movies with detective, mystic, action and other aspects, with cars blown up, a lot of bad guys chasing the good one, and the whole planet in danger. 'Letter Bee' is a thriller too, but thrilling has a different sense here. Tegamibachi makes you thrilled because...


story and characters
let me start with good points. after reading manga I understood that the anime filler episodes were really good. I could not distinguish which of them was in the original and which was thought up by Studio Pierrot. some of them even were for the better - like the one with the little girl who gave her ribbons to Lag and Zazzie, and the latter gave his ribbon to a stray cat, and then the same ribbon was seen at the floor near 'Hell's Kitchen', hinting on the fact that the cat must have been there and therefore it might have been dissected by Dr. Thunderland Jr. since there was no such episode in manga, the ribbon was not used either, which is not a bad thing, but still I think the ribbon trick was well thought
the second good awesome point is the humour. Kappelmaister Prince Steak >____<

yes, things like that do not thrill. what does?
while stories about relations between Bees and dingoes were touching enough in the anime, they were really touching in the manga, too. what is their essence, in the end? they are stores about true friendship and support, feelings almost absent in human society where no one would accept you as you are, and no one would love you as sincerely as dingoes loved their Bees. take Darwin or Bolt - such loyalty is nowhere to be found. I am not a spoilt child of fortune to have seen the same happiness shining in someone's eyes for seeing me, meeting me and being near me, as there was in the eyes of dingoes. dingoes - ready to take care of you. dingoes - trying to say 'rely on me, rely on me, rely on me'. dingoes - never betraying you or leaving you. living in Amberground is hard and I would not wish to be there, but I envy some of the Letter Bees a lot. having such selfless dingoes is truly a blessing...
apart from moments that almost made me cry because of what I described, there was another problem. though on one hand, reading the beginning was pleasant because it once more let me drown into the calm and warm world of mutual trust and support, where everybody was so kind and nice, on the other hand, reading this peaceful story was even more painful that I knew about the coming disaster which was to break and crush everything. therefore I had mixed feeling throughout the whole manga
while reading the same pattern as in the anime I was getting tired with waiting for the difference to come. when in volume 9 the events finally took an unexpected turn I felt a relief and the will to read further again, like in vol. 10 when the events had such a pace that I just could hardly stop reading at 3 o'clock in the night, and it seemed to me that I was almost hearing everything that was taking place - the voices, the sound of wind blowing, Jiggy's bike roar, Aria's violin melody... but the fear of seeing once more that one thing I did not want to see, and read what I did not want to read - that fear was again making me feel feverish, though not as bad as when I was watching the anime
finally overcoming the desperately sad point, I bothered myself to dive into additional information. from some point, JAC group stopped translating the last pages of each volume where a lot of things are explained. I actually felt too tired to read all of them, too, and I did not really feel all of the info was necessary for me, but I could not help reading the 'Dr. Thunderland's comments' (the father one, not Jr.) section in the last volumes. this, of course, does not mean anything particular, but he (Dr. Thunderland) stressed that Lag's mother told Gauche that he lost 'almost all memories', which could hint he did not lose absolutely all of them. this was Dr. Thunderlands speculating, as if he was reading the story with us as did not know what comes further, and we are supposed to believe it, but since Dr. Thunderland's comments are the invention of Asada-sensei...
considering the part which is different from the anime, I have nothing but positive words to say. 'tis not that the anime looks worse to me now, but the manga version is even more attractive. since manga is longer, mangaka can indulge himself in writing anything he wants, inserting as many characters as he wants, describing as many places, drawing as many beautiful scenes, imagining as many flashbacks, thinking up as many intriguing hints... as he wants. I love and admire it when authors of any artwork create a WORLD, be it a part of our real world or an imaginary place

graphics
there are 3 artists whom I remembered while reading 'Tegamibachi'. they are Abe Yoshitoshi, Kumakura Yuichi and Murata Range. why?
the colouring and the atmosphere - to some extent dark and 'dirty' - were really close to that of Abe-sensei's style - especially when he paints his works in one colour range like this
the black'n'white pages are also extremely beautiful. the thing I love most is the wise use of light-and-shadow which really reminded me of KoBJ. I am not saying they are absolutely the same but there are points that look alike a lot. they are the fractured 'triangled' alternation of lights and shadows, thick and thin outlines, postures that are as if captured in a split of a second, static but conveying so much movement, and the most characteristic point in my mind - the lines being interrupted in some places but nevertheless creating visible shapes - for example, the lip, hair and other contours

and Murata-sensei's art is memorable to me because of its super realistic angles and shapes which make the pictures look somewhat less manga-ish, the same as sometimes Asada-sensei's pictures do
even characters who looked... well, average to me in anime, are HOT in manga. yes, go beyond the limit... including guys like 'kanchou' and Dr. Thunderland Jr., and Aria-san, who looks really cool

is it my imagination or Felidae-lover-Zazzie's eyes are made to look like those of a cat?
and the last point I consider important is that Asada-sensei's graphics does not change to the worse  become more primitive as it did in case of Watsuki Nobuhiro. I know many fans, and I also belong to those who were unhappy with the fact that Watsuki-sensei's last volumes of RuroKen were looking too plain and lost their original style. I also hear many Kaichou wa Maid-sama fans saying that the best pictures used to be seen in the middle of the manga, and then the quality dropped, and though I would not say it truly 'dropped', I cannot but agree the middle part was the best. Asada-sensei's graphics did not lose its charm, and is steadily improving without becoming unrecognisable because of the progress made in seven league strides

conclusion
I already promised myself I would never again read ongoings. it hurts too much when you have no access to fresh chapters or at least volumes. 'Kaichou wa Maid-sama' and 'Dantalian no Shoka' were enough for me to learn this lesson. and still I watched 'Tegamibachi' thus stepping on the same rake again. this time my reasoning was - I would not want to read manga after such a long anime, both if it turns out to be good and bad. a good anime would provide me with enough pleasure, and a bad anime would not make me interested in the original. oh how silly I was. now I have to wait patiently for the next volumes to be scanned. on one hand I am truly tired after more than a month of living with Tegamibachi, but you cannot imagine how bad I feel now to be parting with this amazing work. amazing, amazing, amazing!

p. s. wonder if I go too far in speculating if I notice that Ray Attlee also looks like an Albisian and her parents are said to have been promoted after the Day of Flicker

Asada Hiroyuki, you... damn... ~ where???

problem #1
vol. 15 has been released on October 4th or 5th. nobody seems to have scanned it, though scanning the previous volume only took a few days for those who did it. I wonder if this means I will have no vol. 15... T___T JAC is also claiming to have no raws
if you want your interest and imagination stirred up in vain - you can have a look at the preview here

problem #2
from what I get, chapters from 60 to 67 have been published already in Jump SQ. nobody seems to take the responsibility to scan them regularly. what can we get?
well, the chapter published in November Jump SQ can be found at raw hunters - though 'tis numbered #60 there, which is wrong
Jump SQ issue for December can be found here
comic zip has a lot of magazine scans, including JumpSQ with Tegamibachi
January issue of Jump SQ seems to have NO tegamibachi chapter. am I wrong? at least raw-hunters full volume here does not have it. I wonder if Asada-sensei took a break like other mangakas do sometimes? I really need to read his blog more attentively

problem #3
I really want Asada-sensei's illustration collections! and all I could find is photos of the artbooks in Nattoli's blog. some of the pictures from Tegamibachi used in 'Shine' artbook can be found in Minitokyo Tegamibachi section but 'Water' artbook with illustrations for other works seems unreachable to me...

problem #4
if only I were in Japan now!!! >___<

my little thoughts on 'Dantalian no Shoka' ~ I will miss you

...and then I wondered, if the 5th volume of the manga came out in August, then the next one could be in December?
...and then I read that there will be no more manga
...and then I read that though the manga has some differences with the novels, it ends the same as the original
...and now I am frustrated