NEW PROJECT RELEASE! Azumanga - The Kiyohiko Azuma Anthology (1998) - Featuring Tenchi Muyo!, El-Hazard, Battles Athletes, & Magical Girl Pretty Sammy

 

*Still not to be confused with Azumanga Daioh

It's the time of the year again! And I'm not just announcing it this time, oh no, today I'm putting out a full new release! Introducing, a full English translation of Azumanga (1998)!

...So what is this, you may ask? If you are familar with my previous release of Azumanga Recycle (which you can read the introduction to here.), you'll know that, before he became famous with his own original series, Kiyohiko Azuma was a prolific gag manga artist. From here he was contracted by Pioneer LDC to produce manga for their various anime series, including Tenchi Muyo! and others. Eventually this manga was collected into a single book, and that book was reprinted in a smaller form called Azumanga Recycle.

But what about this original book, you may ask? Why was there a need to reprint it in a smaller size? And how come you translated the reprint first you crazy man!?

Well, the answer to your questions is simple - this original book, simply titled Azumanga (I've included the subtitle in the header to hopefully make it more distinct), is freaking huge dude. Like look at this thing. It measures about 11" x 10", which is about the size of an LP sleeve. (Or more accurately, a Laserdisc sleeve.)

Size comparison with Recycle

It literally did not fit on my scanner! And on top of that, it comes with a CD-ROM with some bonus manga on there as well, which only makes things more complicated. In comparison, Recycle is a standard, manga-sized book which I could more or less scan myself and translate cover to cover without needing to do anything too complicated. So, I went with that one first and put out that release last year.

However, once that was finished, I still wanted to go back to the original Azumanga and get that translated as well. Not only is this book the true, original source of the name "Azumanga", before being essentially stolen for "Azumanga Daioh", this book contains more color pages with nice, glossy paper (in contrast to the cheap, yellowed manga paper that Recycle used), and also presents many of the manga at their original size. (Recycle had to shrink them down). Also the stuff on the CD is cool!

Luckily, I was not without options. I got in touch with MartyMcFlies of LonelyChaser Fansubs, as I heard he had a large scanner and scanned Laserdisc sleeves before. We agreed to scan certain things for each other (I had experience debinding books and he wanted me to do a couple) and from there I debound this book and sent it over to him to scan. So special shoutout to him for that!

From there, I was finally able to start work on a translation of this piece of Azuma history, and got started converting my translations from Recycle to the bigger Azumanga. After that was finished, I took on the manga that was included in Azumanga but did not make the cut for Recycle, which was more than I expected. And after all that was done, I took on the challenge of translating the contents of the CD-ROM, with its quiant, 1998 webpages. Since I didn't have to translate everything from scratch, this project took a little bit less time, only about 8 months on and off.

An Abundance of Caution

 

In my email yesterday morning, I saw what was probably the most dreadful subject line I could've ever seen: "Blogger blog takedown notification"

Given what unforunately happened to MartyMcFlies's own LonelyChaser Fansubs page, I anticipated the worst. However, it seems I ended up pretty lucky; it turns out the only damage is that my post about my translation of Wallaby was reverted back to a draft.

Google very unhelpfully does not put the takedown information in the email they send you, but they at least link to Lumen Database which you can use to search up the details of these takedowns. And after seraching for my site, sure enough, it seems my site was targeted in 3 seperate DMCA requests, one for each of my scanlations. Bleh.

Luckily it seems Google only responded to one of them, and they did so by reverting it to a draft rather deleting my entire blog overnight, which I do appreciate them for. All three of these requests come from a certain known DMCA copyright troll, with two of them requested on behalf of Naver WEBTOON and one from Viz Media.

Of course, this whole situation is a little silly, as neither of those companies own any of the rights to the material I translated. But this is just a fact of life with the modern internet; it seems this copyright troll uses a lot of automated systems to fill out their requests with URLs, and it appears that this system is rife with false-positives.

The good news is that it seems the thing that mainly triggered these DMCA attacks on my blog was the inclusion of a direct link to a certain online manga reader, M●ngaD●x. Now this particular site has been in the news recently because they themselves were under DMCA attack from the same group of nefarious copyright trolls... and I could go on a whole rant about how dumb the staff of M●ngaD●x is for thinking it's a good idea to host a blatant piracy site under US jurisdiction. (Like seriously, with the kind of thing you're doing, why did you set it up so you can even fall victim to a DMCA!?)

But anyway, out of an abundance of caution, I have decided to remove any direct links to M●ngaD●x, along with any torrenting sites such as Ny●a. The Mega links will remain for the time being, but we will see if they end up causing any problems in the future. I'd like this blog to be my own, personally controlled platform for my announcements and for posting general information, so if push comes to shove I'll begrudgingly remove any direct links to the translations I produce if it means letting the blog posts stay online.

Please note that I am still posting my work to these sites. My work is always tagged under MrManager, and I will continue to upload my releases to these sites. You will just need to search for them yourself from now on. If there is a site you know of that is willing to host my work, you have my permssion to post it there yourself. (If I haven't already :P)

As always I will publish any updates to this blog as long as it remains standing. In the event it goes down, you can check out the links to my other accounts here! (Yes I did eventually make a Bluesky account.)

As for future project news: I am sooooo close to finishing my next project, so keep an eye out for when that gets posted! (Hopefully when all this DMCA drama simmers down...)

 

 

See you next time!

Azumanga Recycle - Kiyohiko Azuma (2001) - featuring Tenchi Muyo!, Battle Athletes, & Magical Girl Pretty Sammy

 

Recycling is important, you know.

Here it is! After a year and two months, I have finalized my scanlation of Azumanga Recycle!

If you are not already familiar, click here to read up a detailed account of what this book is, and what this project even entailed.

Honestly, in this moment, I mostly just feel relief—157 pages is a lot to translate by myself, and I've never done a full book before! But in the spirit of pushing to work on it a little bit as a somewhat consistent pace, I have somehow found myself at the end of this book. And honestly, the relief isn't coming from me not wanting to work any more—rather, it's because I can finally put this out for people to read, and I can finally start working on other stuff! Yaaay!!!!

 

Update: due to the threat of DMCAs, I have removed a couple of direct links here, besides MEGA. (But my scanlation is still available on these other platforms, you will just need to search for them yourself.)

 

With that being said, here are the download links for the complete package:

MEGA (Direct Download)

Online Reader: You can read my translation on the popular online manga reader M●ngaD●x under my group "MrManager". You can easily search for it there.

Torrenting: I have also uploaded the files to the popular anime/manga torrenting site, Ny●a. You can search for the title, or my tag, "[MrManager]". I may have also put it on a certain private tracker as well...

 
If you're a fan of my work, please consider following me on Twitter, or checking out my Ko.fi! You can find those by clicking here!

Special thanks to the Tenchi Muyo wiki for info that helped me translate! Double special thanks to whoever made sure each character’s page contained the obscure kanji their name uses!!!

My thoughts exactly.

See you next time!

Azumanga Recycle Part 4: Books

Swag Pixy Misa

 

This is the fourth and final section of my scan and translation of Azumanga Recycle, which you can read the details about here. 

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

Can you believe it? This is the final section of Azumanga Recycle, scanned and translated by me! This section contains the final 43 pages of the book, in English for the first time! This section is a little bit of a grab bag, and its theme this time is "Books".  What's nice about this section is that the comics here were originally drawn in a book format, meaning that they actually take up the entire page. This means that they're easier to read, the artwork is more detailed, and each page is less dense with words, making it easier for me to get through!!!

The first comic presented here is one that was created for a Tenchi Muyo mook, which is a type of low-frequency magazine that's stuffed with content, similar to a quarterly. This mook seemed to feature information on part of Tenchi Muyo's 2nd OVA series and features a story with the mother of Sasami and Ayeka, Misaki.

😭😭😭

After this is a brief comic that was made as a magazine advertisement for the mook, followed by another full-page special: Sammy 4999, a cross over between Battle Athletes and Magical Girl Pretty Sammy!

Now this is the crossover the world's been waiting for!

This crossover comic was actually made specifically for Azumanga—that is, the original, large-size book that Recycle is a budget reprinting of! It might get a little confusing since that large book has never been scanned or translated into English yet, but that may change soon...!

After this comic, there is another collection of illustrations Azuma did for more Tenchi Muyo! CDs, followed by two afterwords, one by the editor, Hideki Satomi, and another by Kiyohiko Azuma himself. This is followed by an original illustration of a very stylish Pixy Misa, as you've seen at the top, but even though the copyright page comes immediately after this, it isn't quite the end!

Following the copyright information is a final group of color pages! The first page has a collection of Battle Athletes 4-panel comics, used in magazine advertisements for the OVA series. This is followed by a color illustration of a poster made to promote the original Azumanga. And last, but certainly not least, for any fans (?) of Old Man Ryo-Ohki, we have a pair of comics starring him!

It's been so long, old friend...

These two comics were originally digital files that came on the original Azumanga's appendix CD-ROM. However, since this budget release did not come with a CD, they saw it fit to print these two comics in a physical form. And now you too can enjoy the adventures (?) of Old Man Ryo-Ohki as he meets Akari and Sasami!

As you can see, this final section is stuffed with a good variety. Here's a list of where everything comes from:

• Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki Part 2 (Mook)
• Anime V (Magazine Advertisement)
  
• Azumanga (The Original, Larger Version of this very Book!)
• Tenchi Muyo! CD-Box
• Battle Athletes Magazine Advertisements
• Azumanga Appendix CD-ROM

And that's it! That's the rest of this book! These are the last pages, and with me sending out this blog post, I have officially put the entirety of an English version of Azumanga Recycle into the world!

...But my work isn't done yet! I'd like to consider these four separate downloads as something of a pre-release. It is true that now every single page, and every single bit of text on those pages is translated into English, but I would not consider this the final version. I still want to go back and scrutinize every single line of text I wrote to make corrections. I've made typos, typed out somewhat odd sentences, and even made a couple of minor translation mistakes that I've already gone ahead and fixed. But before I release my final, "official" version, I would like to go through all the pages again with a fine-tooth comb.

(And also, if you spot any typos, or read any lines that feel odd to you, please let me know! I'm only human, after all!!!)

Once I do all my checking, I will post my final version in a single download, and also remove all the downloads for the individual parts. I ask anyone that is itching to upload this stuff to one of those manga-sharing sites to hold their trigger fingers for a second—please only begin to spread my work around once I post this final, complete version!

As always, I'll post it on my webzone right here, while also letting everyone know on my Twitter account. You can check out my social media links right here!

As for future prospects, well, I'll let you guys know what I plan on doing in the future once I make some progress :)

That's enough text! Here is the download link for this section:

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

 

Me too, Sasami-chan. Me too...

Enjoy! Special thanks to the Tenchi Muyo wiki for all the information to help me translate.

Azumanga Recycle Part 3: 4 Panel Comics & Movies

Swag Kiyone

This is the third section of my scan and translation of Azumanga Recycle, which you can read the details about here. 

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

This download has the next 21 pages of Azumanga Recycle, scanned and translated by me. (Pages 91-112). This section (technically two little sections) is a bit shorter, however it's pretty special as the bulk of it contains some Tenchi Muyo-themed 4 panel comics (or 4-koma) that Kiyohiko Azuma drew for the magazine Anime V! (Along with some he did for budget VHS/LD rereleases of the OVAs)

Wow... that's a nice pair of comics right there!

This section was pretty exciting to get to as you get to see Azuma at arguably his best. Anyone familiar with Azumanga Daioh will recognize this format, and by reading it you'll see a bit of Azuma's earlier comedic chops that he would refine and use for this own original work later down the line! This may be exactly where "Azumanga" was truly born.

Also wanted to give thanks to CrashOveride on Twitter for sharing with me a photo of a comic from the back of one of these Laserdisc rereleases! He said he's planning on acquiring most if not all of the Japanese LDs of Tenchi Muyo to scan and capture!

Couldn't get a photo without a bigass shadow? (jk ily xoxo)

Also stuck onto the end of this section are a couple of comics that Azuma created for brochures given out to anybody that went to see either of the first two Tenchi Muyo movies in the theater!

Pre-rotated, for your viewing convenience. Don't forget to tip me!!!

What's funny about this movie section is that, as a matter of fact, someone else translated it before me! (Thanks to Chicago Ted on Twitter for sharing this with me!)

Remember the golden rule of humor: "It's funny because it's unexpected!"

 ...But thankfully the translation is pretty terrible and inaccurate, so my work didn't go to waste! (Not to mention the scan quality is pretty bad too!) My guess is that whoever tried their hand at translating this wasn't actually any good at Japanese and could only ready simple words and such, so a lot of assumptions and, um, "creative liberties" were made. And since this was from the early 2000's internet, these dead zones were filled in with what can best be described as "Something Awful-esque writing". Y'know, in case you went too long having forgotten what that dark period of the Internet was like... bleh.

Anyway, the comics are from the following sources, in order:

• Anime V (Magazine)
• Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki Reprise VHS
  
• Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki THX LD-BOX
• Battle Athletes Promotional Booklet/Magazine Advertisements
• Tenchi Muyo! in LOVE Theater Pamphlet
• Tenchi Muyo! A Midsummer's Eve Theater Pamphlet

(As stated in the first part, in the US these two movies were released as "Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love" & Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness".)

Also, at the very end of the section is another original illustration of a character, but this time it's Kiyone! (As seen at the top of this page)

We're finally nearing the end of this book, and given the word density of the earlier sections, it takes quite a bit for a single person to translate all of it. But I'm finally at the final section of the book, which is much less dense with words and even just pages compared to the first one. It's a little longer than this section, however it shouldn't be as painful of a slog as some of the earlier comics, which were quite wordy and dense. This last section focuses on a couple of comics that were actually published in book form, meaning that the art will finally take up the entire page! Can you believe it?

As always I sometimes post bits and pieces of pages I think are funny as I work on them to my Twitter account here. As always I'll both post updates to Twitter and to my personal webzone right here. Getting to the end of this book is exciting, I can't wait to put a bow on this book and claim the entire thing, both in its preservation and newly found accessibility in the English language. So that's pretty cool.

Anyway, enough yapping! Here is the download link for this section:

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

 

😓

 

Enjoy! Special thanks to the Tenchi Muyo wiki for all the information to help me translate.

Azumanga Recycle Part 2: Compact Discs/Video Games

 

Swag Ichino

 

This is the second section of my scan and translation of Azumanga Recycle, which you can read the details about here. 

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

This download has the next 43 pages of Azumanga Recycle, scanned and translated by me. (Pages 47-90). This section features comics created for the booklets included with several music & PlayStation CDs, mostly from the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. Also included are some comics for the Battle Athletes Victory CD soundtrack release, along with a comic found in the booklet for one of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy video games.

Oh, Ryoko, you crazy girl!

 

The comics come from the following music CD & game releases, and are shown in this order:

• Tenchi Muyo! Radio Makunouchi Bento (CD)
  
• Tenchi Muyo! Radio-Television Box (CD)
  
• Tenchi Muyo! Radio Jukebox (CD)
  
• Tenchi Muyo! We Don't Need School! (PlayStation)
  
• Magical Girl Pretty Sammy: Part 2 (PlayStation)
• Battle Athletes Victory: Behind the Superstars (CD)
  

Similar to the last section, the final image is an illustration of Ichino from Battle Athletes made specifically for this book, as shown at the top.

These first two sections were the most bulky in terms of text, but the next couple are a little shorter... Still, I never, ever, ever promise a release date for anything I work on!!! But even with the dense amount of text, this section was quite fun to tackle - I think I really got into a nice groove with my Photoshop work, and everything looks pretty dang nice and professional, if I do say so myself. :) Not to mention, Azuma created some genuinely funny comics here - if you spent your childhood watching Toonami back in the day and have fond memories of Tenchi Muyo, then this is for you!

Here is the download link for this section:

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

 

oooh....

 

Enjoy! Special thanks to the Tenchi Muyo wiki for all the information to help me translate.

Azumanga Recycle Part 1: Laserdiscs

 

Swag Akari

This is the first section of my scan and translation of Azumanga Recycle, which you can read the details about here.

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

This download has the first 46 pages of Azumanga Recycle, scanned and translated by me. The bulk it is taken up by the first section of comics, called "Laserdiscs", and contains gag comics drawn by Kiyohiko Azuma that were published with the Laserdisc and VHS releases of episodes of Tenchi Muyo! and Battle Athletes. 

Man, Tenchi Muyo is such a weird franchise...

The comics come from the following releases, and are shown in this order:

• Tenchi In Tokyo
• Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love
• Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness
• Battle Athletes (OVA)
  
• Tenchi Universe

It caps off with the original illustration of Akari, shown above.

Note that for pages 2-3 & 34-45, the image files actually contains two pages. This is because the book was bound to be read from right-to-left, but these particular pages have comics that were made to be read from left-to-right. (So the book is bound like any manga, but when you get to these pages, you're expected to begin reading on, say, page 35 on the left, and continue to page 34 on the right. Confusing, huh?)

Here is the download link for this section:

EDIT: You can now download the translation of the complete book here!

 

how i will look in 30 years

Enjoy! Special thanks to the Tenchi Muyo wiki for all the information to help me translate.