As above. It's been a very long time. ^^; I have to admit, I'm very, very behind on things here on LJ, so it'll take a bit to get caught up. In the meantime, I'm hoping to post some scans over the next while and slowly get things going again. Hopefully, I'll actually manage some semblance of 'caught up' but... somehow, I don't think I'm going to hold my breath on that one. Anyhow, without further ado, the scanning spree starts with HakuYou. ^_^

Oh! I should also mention that I've put a caption with all the book scans, so beware of spoilers! (Especially the last scan for Shinjitsu no Ki no Shita de Yakusoku wo.) I will not listen to any cries of foul as we all await the next volume.

( Anata he Michibiku Umi no KusariCollapse )

( Jounetsu no hana wa KakusenaiCollapse )

( Shinjitsu no Ki no Shita de Yakusoku woCollapse )

( Bits from Cobalt Magazine / furokuCollapse )

I should mention that there's one more volume (the latest one released 12/27) still to be done. Can't wait to see what images are in there although it's supposed to be a short story compilation rather than a main storyline novel.

......And do not hit the 'Post' button until actually ready to do so. >.> This post'll be changing over the next while until I finish ULing all the scans and getting them all in here. ^^;

And I think that's it for today for HakuYou. ^_^

Cover illust for the latest HakuYou is now out. ^o^

Wow. A one line post?!

So, for many, many months now, I've been playing an MMO game called Faunasphere. It's a simple game in which you cleanse pollution from the world and breed different kinds of fauna. But despite its simplicity, it's also quite versatile allowing for a variety of different game play styles (levelling, breeding, and/or sphere designing). Unfortunately, the folks there announced today that the game wasn't viable, so it'll be closing down in a month's time. *cry* To be honest, I'd been getting bored with the game in the past couple of months, but even so, the announcement was still a bit... okay a lot of a shock. I haven't spoken with many of the folks in game yet about their plans, but I was wondering if anyone here plays MMOs and if they have any suggestions for other games I might want to check out. (There is a thread over on the forum there, but I thought I'd see if anyone here might have some suggestions as well.) To be honest, I don't know if I'm really going to be able to get into another MMO let alone find one with the same sort of community that FS had, but it might be worth checking out at least. ^^;

Otherwise, I finally bit the bullet yesterday and ordered Hakuouki DS from HMV Japan. ^^; It's the DS version of the original game that led to the anime series. I'm not sure how it'll be let alone what sort of game it really is, but this could be interesting. If anything, it should prove to be a good challenge for the brain. Read?? Whazzat?! ......Although I'll also admit that most likely I won't look too closely at Hakuouki until the lights are turned off over at FS. Despite the frustrations it was still a lot of fun. I'm going to miss it and my fauna. ;_;

Blurb for the latest HakuYou is out. ^o^ Seriously wanting to know what happens next, but not sure if it's this book or the next that'll really be interesting. :P

Regardless what happens, I believe in you...!

( just in case :P Collapse )

So yeah. Lots of things that I haven't covered that happen after... is vol 18 the last one that I managed to summarise/translate in the series? Eep!

The next vol for HakuYou will come out Mar. 1. The title is 伯爵と妖精　あなたへ導く海の鎖 Anata he Michibiku Umi no Kusari (Ocean Chains that Leads to You). Aaahhhh! Slow down! ^^; I'm falling more and more behind on writing summaries. >.<; (Of course, I definitely won't complain about the story progressing... ^^; )

Still reading GH rewrite Vol 1, and I have to admit that while it is the same story, there's definite additions so far to the story. How much of this will continue in the subsequent vols though is a bit questionable since so much is showing up here. ^^; (I'm still only on pg 137 out of 362.) So far, other than the ghost stories mentioned by Mai et al., changes to the story include Bou-san doesn't call Ayako by name when he kicks down the door in the old school house, Ayako's explanation of what happened and how she ended up locked in the room, explanation about the difference between a 'chirei' and 'jibakurei' sic earth elemental vs human spirit tied to a place, explanation of diffs between a 'ghost' and a 'spirit', glossing over of the various accidents that supposedly happened in the old school building (no showing of the actual file), removal of Kuroda claiming to having had her hair pulled and being strangled by a ghost, Kuroda claiming that there was a girl's ghost in the base and her also claiming that the sounds they heard were 'rap sounds' before leaving Mai alone in there (before Naru returns), and Naru explaining about the term 'rap sounds' and how it came to be called such in Japanese afterwards when he finally arrived at the old school house. Lots of little bits and pieces here and there that were mostly added in to the story. I guess that would also explain why the rewrite is >100 pgs longer than the original. ^^;;

BTW, out of curiosity, has anyone written to Del Rey and asked if they were going to try to license the light novels? Just curious.

Otherwise, on the anime front, I've been watching Gosick and think I'll follow this series this season. I don't know how the English version is, but I've started peeking at the light novel for this series. Hopefully I'll be able to actually sit down with it one day and just read them. :P

Finished reading the latest HakuYou novel and figured it'd be a good idea for me to at least do a quick list of the main happenings in all the novels that I haven't covered to date. Some of the interim stuff is covered in the Timeline of Events I'd started creating a long time ago. (I need to fix one point which suggests that Ulysses woke the wyrm many years ago, but I think it's supposed to have only been a couple of years ago - when he brought Betty to be the wyrm's bride.)

( (no longer main) points from vol 10 (and definitely not onwards)Collapse )

As per the title. :P I didn't resize them, so they're big.

Otherwise, reading has been taking a lot longer than I expected. I started reading the first part for all 3 novels (migawari, hakuyou, and GH) and decided to go with GH first, but... I keep running into things like "was this in the original?" or "what happened to X?" and keep pausing to check things out. I think I need to just sit down and read the book through. It's been a good read so far and for the most part, it's the same story with more detail here and there. I'll say this much though, I'd forgotten how much I love Naru's and Mai's conversations. ^^; Oh, GH novel has no internal illustrations.

( ghCollapse )

( hakuyou - Towa no Omoi wo Senritsu ni NoseteCollapse )

( hakuyou - Ai no Kiseki wo WasurenaideCollapse )

( Migawari Hakushaku - Kieta Kekkon KeiyakushoCollapse )

( Migawari Hakushaku - Arashi wo Yobu Hanayome GasshukuCollapse )

GH Vol 1 the rewrite arrived today! Yay! ^o^ Just started reading it (first few pages), and the first part (scene where Mai et al are in the classroom after school telling ghost stories) has definitely been expanded. Not sure if this will be the case throughout the book or if this was done because the first two parts were being published in Da Vinci magazine around the same time as the first vol's release. A couple things that immediately stick out: the writing style is much smoother / more normal than the original was, and there's more kanji. So far, it's not difficult to read, but it might be a bit difficult for people who aren't used to reading much kanji. (The original was definitely much easier on that front although oddly enough, not enough kanji can also be difficult to read sometimes. ^^; ) Shall see how the rest of the book goes. Looking forward to sitting down with it tonight.

Also in the arrivals (actually yesterday as the order got split), is the latest HakuYou. I'll post cover/img scans this weekend. Also looking forward to reading this one. :) Hopefully I'll be able to comment about the latest vol, but I suspect I'm going to have to cover territory from previous vols as well. The main feeling I got from my quick flip through was that things are finally seriously moving in the story again. Shall see how that goes. :)

In any case, if all goes well, it might be a bit of a posty weekend. :P

http://twitter.com/GH_SPR

Second tweet link contains preliminary cover for the first novel.

ETA:

Apparently, they're publishing parts of the first vol in Da Vinci mag issues 11 and 12 (Oct and Nov 6th release) as part of a special. Comments on 2ch haven't been very revealing about any diffs between the original and the rewrite from what I saw, but I think most people are really waiting to see how things go from the second vol onwards. I know that's where I really started getting interested in the series. ^^;