Umishi chapter 60

Yay, chapter 60! And the buildup continues! I think the authors must have asked the Coast Guard or some salvors, "What's the most F'ed up disaster you could ever imagine?" And then threw all the elements into this arc. It shows.

Umishi chapter 60
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How's rapidshare treating you guys, btw? I never did like RS, but hey, so long as it works.

Umishi chapter 59

I refuse to accept that the weekend is over! I refuse it! Tomorrow's Sunday and I'm not going to work! So there!

Umishi chapter 59
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I'm switching to 1200px from this volume onwards. Now that I have a better monitor 1100px is starting to look a bit small.

I dun geddit + notes

Are you guys enjoying the latest arc?
I've been losing motivation lately, but if people are really into it I guess I could buck up a bit. Maybe.

Research note: LPG is stored in spherical containers too: Wiki on LPG. LPG contains high proportions of either propane or butane or both and is highly flammable (duhhh). Theoretically enough of it could make a pretty fine mess of a pretty large area, which is why it is always stored with extreme care.

Or not so theoretically...29 June 2009, Viareggio, Italy.

Umishi chapter 58

Ah, that was a fun three-day weekend! Every Friday should be Eid from now on.

Umishi chapter 58
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Umishi chapter 57

Moving on, new chapter! You'll notice the Special Rescue Team "Tokkyuu" getting more than their fair share of attention in the next couple of chapters. That's because Tokkyuu!! is the name of another manga series by author Yoichi Komori. It ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 2004-2008 while Umishi ran in Big Comic Spirits from 2004 to 2007. So it's a bit of cross-promotion as well as a treat for the Japanese fans. Maybe one day someone will scanslate Tokkyuu and it will be a treat for us too, eh?

Umishi chapter 57
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New rule! New rule! (Updated13/11/09)

It's okay, you can upload to Mangafox if you want. It's not worth my getting worked up about.

Original Post
From the next chapter onwards (which should be out before the weekend), please don't upload my chapters to Mangafox any more. I've never had a problem with my chapters being there in the past and never imposed any restrictions, but their "new policy" (now modified) towards scanslators pisses me off.

Yes, we scanslators are pirates, and yes it's the original author who "owns" the work, but we still put a great amount of time and effort into scanning, translating and editing the manga Mangafox blithely puts up, and I don't need any stupid site that contributes nothing to my effort taking a holier-than-thou attitude on me! Sure I want fans to read the manga, which is why I had nothing against such sites in the past. But if they're going to upload the scanslations people worked so hard on while waving a giant middle finger to those very people if they object, then I have to take a stance.

Obviously I can't force you not to upload there, which is why I'm asking you very nicely not to do so. What I can do is control my response. For every release that shows up there, I'll delay the next chapter by a month. "But wait, that sounds like an excuse to cut way back on releases!" you say. No, I'll play nice if you play nice. I'll put this message in subsequent releases, and if you choose to ignore it and upload it anyway, well, so be it. It's your decision. [I'm not going to do this any more, don't worry]

Update
Thanks for the messages of support. The original policy was really quite insulting, including lines about scanslators wanting to be "gods" to the fans and stuff. To say I was pissed off is an understatement. However they have since revised the policy to be less hostile, and made it clear that they're only reacting to hostility from a few groups. To be honest this doesn't make me feel much better, but a mod from Mangafox messaged me and was very nice about the whole thing, so there's no point holding a grudge about it.

So I've had a change of heart. Mainly it's because manga scanslation is just a hobby and not worth getting so worked up about. I'm doing this because it's fun, not because I want to get involved in internet drama. Quite a number of people read Umishi at MF, and that's a good thing.

More importantly, withholding releases because of MF would be childish and unfair to the fans, "OMG I'm going to hold chapter 100 back for one month because someone uploaded chapter 60!" I think I'm a little too old for that kind of temper tantrum.

As for the terrible quality Mangafox compresses the scans into, I'm told most fans read it anyway and don't care. I'd feel bad if I was one of those people who spends hundreds of dollars importing and scanning manga at high quality, but luckily(?) I'm not. Long ago I used to read MS Paint scanslations and beg for more, so I know firsthand that bad scans can't keep a good manga down (but fix it anyway, MF!!!).

On to chapter 57, in a few hours! I hope...

Umishi chapter 56

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Taking a break

Until November, or until I buy a new mouse and stockpile some more translations, whichever one comes first.

Umishi chapter 55

Fiction Rule #25: If a character says XYZ could never happen, rest assured XYZ will happen almost immediately. It never fails.

3 chapters left of volume 6!

Umishi chapter 55
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Umishi chapter 54

I've been kept away for far too long for too many reasons to list. Videogames are involved. A busy season at work is involved. The loss of my borrowed mouse is involved. Just plain tiredness is involved. But anyway I'm back, sorta. Let's try this weekly updates thing again.

Umishi chapter 54
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Also 1st September was the first anniversary of this site! Yay! :-3

Umishi chapter 53

I don't have it in me to start another project any time soon. I'll keep going with Umishi for a while longer and see if my schedule loosens up later in the year. Anyway, more ship towing adventures! Can Nanba Salvage get the Tartus safely to port?

Umishi chapter 53
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Umishi chapter 52

I was going to write something about the difference between double-bottomed and double-hulled ships but whatever. Sawa-chan forever!

Umishi chapter 52
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Umishi chapter 51

...and three! That takes care of the backlog. We now to return to our regularly-scheduled weekly releases.

Umishi chapter 51
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Umishi chapter 50

"The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself even if no one else did." Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart.

Yay! Chapter 50! And my 100th post in this blog! I think some congratulations are in order so I'm going to treat myself by snoozing for the rest of the day. The weather's lovely outside and I have the day off, which is grounds for napping at any time of the year. Bonne nuit!

Umishi chapter 50

Umishi chapter 49

This chapter contains material that might be unsuitable for viewers under 18 years of age. Reader discretion is advised.

(Ah don't worry, it's not that bad)http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Umishi chapter 49

Umishi chapter 48

And the last chapter of volume 5!

I don't want to hear any more whining about downloads from now on.

Umishi chapter 48

Delay, delay

Chapter 48 is taking longer than usual because I'm trying to include the omake from volume 4 that I skipped last time and realizing I had a good reason for skipping it last time. I'm going take my time and several more days and finish it up.

Umishi chapter 47

If I didn't know better this manga would almost convince me that women are nuts.

Umishi chapter 47

Is my blog, blah blah... oh, and Umishi chapter 46

Have you ever been tempted to just quit your job and stay home playing video games? I've actually done it before, for about three months. It was fun, only instead of playing games I found myself reading all day. And not even manga, but serious literature like Lenin in Zurich and stuff. I'd sit behind the PS2, hmm what to play today? Let me read some Hardy while I decide...what, 2am already? In the end I was so annoyed with myself I went out and found another job. =___= Ah, the perils of being too well brought up.

Anyway, Umishi. Yeah. Nothing to say about this one.

Umishi chapter 46

Busy, busy

No updates this or next week. Got some business to sort out.

Umishi chapter 45

Oh, so it's "Ain't too a-much for me." All these years I've been singing "Ain't two apostrophes," lol.
Ahem.
Sawa, Hiro. Stop flirting and get on with the job.

Umishi chapter 45

Umishi chapter 44

My phone and mp3 player got stolen due to a careless mistake I made, so I'm cross. I started tinkering with my computer to get my mind off it and before I knew it I was halfway done with chapter 44. So I finished it up this morning and here ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift is.

Umishi chapter 44

Umishi chapter 43

Bon?
BON!?
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!?

Umishi chapter 43

Umishi chapter 42

I started reading up on sharks while editing this chapter. Everything I read suggests that Rin and Hiro are complete idiots, but I don't need wiki to tell me that!

Umishi chapter 42

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 7 (final)

Yay! There's always a sense of relief when you put something behind you. When I started out I thought I was going to release Azuki quickly, but it quickly became a chore to edit and the releases slowed down rapidly. Still all's well that ends well. For the record I think Chiyoko and Sanae would make the best couple. The other girls are just too childish.

Now, for my next project there's a romance manga I want to do, but it's rather long and very wordy so I hesitate to start. Before I do that I'll go through the most recent suggestions I got and see if there's something I'd rather work on. That seems rather unlikely to me, because I have very odd tastes when it comes to manga. Sometimes I even favor bad manga over good, but we'll see.

In any case I won't get anything under way until I'm a little further with Umishi, at least till the end of volume 5. I've been neglecting it a bit lately. Without further ado:

Azuki chapter 7 (final)
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Umishi chapter 41

Sawa-chan, you're a bully. I've suspected it all along and now I finally have proof. Not that it changes anything between us ;)

Hiro? Cry me a river, okay?

Umishi chapter 41

(R.I.P. Michael Jackson 1958-2009)

Umishi chapter 40

I'm sure you haven't had enough of dear, sweet, charming Hiro yet, so here's another chapter all about her. Enjoy!

Umishi chapter 40

Umishi chapter 39

On to volume 5! I used my mouse downtime to get all of volume 5 translated, so this one should be coming out pretty quickly. Just as soon as I get a new mouse and stop borrowing my sister's, of course. Can you believe this is my fourth mouse in 12 months? Maybe some things are just not meant to be.

Umishi chapter 39

Grr

A tip for all would-be scanslators: never rely on a mouse that runs on batteries. That is all.

Umishi chapter 38

Phew, end of volume 4. There are 4 omake pages at the end, but I can't be arsed to translate them. Maybe later, much later.

Umishi chapter 38

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 6

It is delicious last-but-one chapter of Azuki, you must read it. You'd think I'd be in a hurry to get the last chapter out so I'd be done, but I haven't even finished translating it yet. No rush.

Azuki chapter 6
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Umishi chapter 37

Weekend!
Weekend!
Weekend!
I'm at my wit's end!

Weekend!
Weekend!
Weekend!
I'm at my wit's end!

Umishi chapter 37

No updates this week

I'm having a busy week so there'll be no releases this week. It doesn't help that the current arc in Umishi is my least favorite, like, ever.

Umishi chapter 36

Nothing much to say about this one except we're two chapters from the end of volume 4. I'd like to be done with at least 4 more volumes by the end of this year, which seems doable at this rate. We'll see how it goes.


Umishi chapter 36

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 5

The average Azuki chapter has 24 chapters. The average Umishi chapter has 20 chapters. But still it always takes me twice as much time to edit Azuki because of all the bloody font changes and tons of text. Nowadays I edit it in 6-page batches every once in a while, which is why it takes so long to come out. Anyway...

Azuki chapter 5
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EDIT: Page 118 is missing. Get it below.

Umishi chapter 35

You can learn more about Zero fighter planes from Wikipedia. Isn't Wiki wonderful?

Umishi chapter 35

Umishi chapter 34

In which Eguchi gets eaten by a shark, and there is much rejoicing.

Umishi chapter 34

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 4

I think I'm addicted to FFTA2. I've frittered away my entire Easter holiday on "just one more mission" disease and the battle music is ringing in my head right now. I've stuffed the DS under the pillows but I can feel it staring at me as I type this. It's watching me. Watching...and waiting.

Have some Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki, while you still can...

Chapter 4
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Umishi chapter 33

I managed to upload the file to Mediafire, but it wasn't a fun process. I think I'll stick with zshare. Anyone having trouble can just get it elsewhere. Or not get it, whatever.

Umishi 33

Umishi chapter 32

32 chapters already! I tried going back and reading volume 1, but it feels like a completely different manga. It was one extended prologue and the manga really started at volume 2. Like with Cross Game, only not official.

Umishi chapter 32

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 3

I'm suffering from Gamer's block. I hit the final level in Persona 3 and suddenly lost all will to continue. This is the third game in a row this has happened to me with. I think my days of finishing everything I pick up are over. But don't worry, this won't happen with my scanslations. I hope.

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 3
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Umishi chapter 31

I went to a funeral yesterday :'-( I hate funerals. To distract myself I was thinking about Umishi, and I remembered volume 1. Dude, they left Rin's dad's body lying in the house for like two or three days. In summer! That is seriously gross! Unless they sent it to be embalmed and then brought it back to lie in the house just because. That's even more gross. So, thinking about Umishi didn't help at all in any way.

Umishi chapter 31

Umishi chapter 30

Umishi chapter 30

Umishi chapter 29

The mention of the Russian submarine on pg. 10 is a clear reference to the real life raising of the Kursk by a team of Dutch companies: Mammoet and Smit International. Smit --> SMATT? It's so blatant.

Umishi chapter 29

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 2

The second chapter of this series. Azuki starts her mission for real.

Incidentally my favourite character so far is Botan. I like sneaky-sweet characters like her. SPOILER, don't read: Too bad she doesn't show up again after this chapter. ;____;.

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 2
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Umishi chapter 28

We now return to our regularly-scheduled programming with another chapter of Umishi. Yay, it's the end of volume 3! I always get excited when I finish a volume of anything. I feel like I just had kittens or something.

In this chapter Rin and the rest of Nanba Salvage are having a well-deserved celebration after raising the ship when a party pooper appears...

Umishi chapter 28

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki chapter 1

One gets so tired of scanslating good manga all the time. Sometimes you want to dip your hands into something less than worthy. That something, for me, turned out to be Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki. It's exactly what it says on the tin: She's a girl, she's a ninja, she's...sweet??? and her name is Azuki. And she's given a task to protect the heir to a financial empire.

You might think I'm trolling when I say it's not good, after all the art is really cute, the characters seem to have potential and the story, well, seems to have promise. Ah, if only something, anything had come of it. I'm telling you all this not to spoil you, but so 7 chapters later when this all comes to nothing and you're thinking "What a waste of time!" I can step in and say "I told you so!"

Keep reading (or better yet, don't start at all).

Sweet Ninja Girl Azuki, chapter 1
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I'm in a good mood. So I feel like scanslating something really bad. Look, err, backward to it.

Umishi chapter 27

This chapter didn't have much text in it so it didn't take long to edit. I'm still a bit surprised I was able to get it out this quickly, at the same time I'd be happier if I could get them out even faster than this, because 12 more volumes is a long way to go. On the other hand I'd have to sacrifice my precious gaming time to do so and brrrr, just thinking about that gives me the shivers. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some gnosis to kill.

Umishi chapter 27

Umishi chapter 26

Yay, two more chapters to the end of volume 3!

Umishi chapter 26

This is the time I'm supposed to be releasing another chapter. Instead, because of my own carelessness I have to spend the time re-translating 26 and 27. And no, it's not easier the second time around. I can't for the life of me remember what I wrote the first time. *sigh* Oh well, c'est la vie!

Umishi chapter 25

I'm sick of redrawing! I've had it up to here with it. So, no más. No more redrawing. Those unsightly white patches in today's chapter? Get used to them. They're the new wave of the future.

Umishi chapter 25

Umishi chapter 24

"No, it can't be..."
"I can't believe they would..."
"Such a risky..."
"Could they possibly be..."

Don't you hate it when characters do that? Out with it, man!!

Umishi chapter 24

Umishi chapter 23

Another day, another chapter. So far, so good.

Umishi chapter 23

Noooooo!

GRAAAARGH! I just finished translating all of vol 3... then I went and deleted c26 and c27 by accident! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, I could shoot myself!

Umishi chapter 22

I keep meaning to start that other series I said I'd do when I finished To Be..., and then there's another other series I might finish up. Every week I tell myself I'm going to start, but the power of inertia is too much for me. Before I know it I'm translating another chapter of Umishi. I'm not sure that's such a bad thing, though. Maybe this is my max capacity. Or maybe (and this is more likely) I'm just a lazy SOB that shouldn't be trusted with any more series. ;-) Food for thought.

Anyway, Umishi chapter 22

Edit: I took "comment moderation" off. I didn't really see the point.

Umishi chapter 21

I squashed my middle finger in the door on Wednesday.
IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURRRRRRRTS!!!!! Luckily for you guys I had already finished cleaning and editing most of this chapter, so I just sucked it up with lots of painkillers and finished it this morning. My finger was PURPLE yesterday, but the swelling's gone down a lot today. I think I'll be okay.

Umishi chapter 21

Umishi chapter 20

Another chapter of Umishi. Nothing much to say about this one. The real action starts from the next chapter onwards.

Umishi chapter 20

Umishi chapter 19

Eguchi has the best facial expressions, seriously! I could stare at them all day.

Umishi chapter 19

Umishi chapter 18

Last chapter of volume 2. Wouldn't it be funny if doctors worked on the principle of "no cure, no pay'? You think they'd find a cure for cancer then? I think they'd leave patients to die if the case looked hopeless. "A massive coronary? Aw, fuck. Let's go have some coffee."

Umishi chapter 18

Umishi chapter 17

Sometimes in manga scanslation you've just got to sit down behind the computer and say "Okay you, you're not getting up until that chapter is done!" And mean it! Otherwise the simplest one-night jobs can drag on for weeks while you try (and fail) to psych yourself up.

Umishi Chapter 17

Umishi chapter 16 / Not your blog blah blah blah...

I got a taste of how the shipping guys stuck in the Kanmon straits must be feeling last week. It was 1:30pm on Saturday, I had a flight to catch at JFK in 3 hours and I got trapped right before the Goethals Bridge because some IDIOT had an accident on the bridge. We sat there for 30 good minutes and only moved forward one foot! DAMN YOU! My job is on the line here you fool! Throw your car overboard and jump in too, just get out of the way!!

Luckily we were able to make an (illegal) U-turn and go the long way round because we weren't actually ON the bridge when we met the traffic. Gives me shivers to think what would have happened if we'd gotten stuck on it. Brrr!

Anyway, here's chapter 16. If anyone knows the geological terms for the hole Rin is describing on p.158, let me know.

Umishi Chapter 16

I just discovered that page 157 has been missing from this chapter all along. Nobody told me. You all suck. =_=

Salvage news

It's strange. Until I started reading this manga, I barely knew the salvage industry existed. In fact when Sawa introduced himself as a "salvage master" I thought it was some sort of joke! But now I can't get enough of real life salvage news. Here are two interesting articles:

High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to save the Cougar Ace

Expert got vessel floating again after it was stranded near Ensenada for 10 weeks

The Cougar Ace is a car transport ship too, but on a larger scale than the Dairin Maru of recent chapters. Salvaging is a pretty manly business, come to think of it.

New laptop is all set up now, expect next chapter of Umishi in a few days if all goes well.