New Side Project Options

So, now that we're done with Rude 39, I suppose we have room for another side project to put out once every couple months on the side. Of note is the fact that I am NOT looking for a major commitment like Hero or Washizu that you'll be expecting regular releases from, this is just something for me to work on when I don't have anything else going on. We have the RAWs for the following Fukumoto works, so if you see one you like, please give it a vote in the poll on the sidebar, and don't forget you can vote for multiple!

Also, THERE WILL BE A MAHJONG DAY SATURDAY AT 22:00 GMT (3:00 PM PST)!! That's today for some and tomorrow for others. See you on the IRC!

First, we have for you the leftovers from last time I asked you for a side project, to which you loudly replied "RUDE 39". These were scrounged up by our good friend Skutieos, but aren't actually as rare as some of the other stuff I have in store for you. First up of those is...

  If you're looking for a hot and spicy 80's romantic comedy, look no further than the second earliest FKMT work I have available, Wani no Hatsukoi (Wani's First Love)!

Fukumoto-Sensei himself called it the predecessor to Kurosawa, so if you're really really looking forward to the New Kurosawa series, perhaps seeing where it all began will help tide you over. The story focuses on a fellow named Wani who's still a bit new to the dating scene despite being well up in years, but he's willing to stick his neck out for a girl he's interested in. The story isn't just about romance, there's also some life lessons and Kurosawa-esque comedy mixed in as well. I was a bit hesitant to try this the first time I asked, but I think my translation ability has developed enough to where I can try my hand at it. You'd be looking at much slower releases than a lot of other options, though, since there's a lot of text per page and it might take me a while to get through them.

Next up on our list is Gin Yanma, or Gin's Lament. It stars a man who looks like Katagiri (whose name is now Ginji) playing mahjong against several underground pros due to personal requests from friends of his. It's kind of a miniature version of Ten, with tons of cheating and outrageous tactics taking place over the 5 chapters. It would be a very easy manga for me to translate, as I'm quite familiar with all the Mahjong lingo, so you could expect very quick releases. And hey, more Mahjong can never hurt, right?

Now, this manga I'm sure most of you have at least heard of, so I won't bother putting in any mangacaps. It's Atsuize Pen-Chan, a very comical manga about a young man nicknamed Pen-Chan for his love of Mahjong (Penchan is a type of wait in Mahjong, known in english as an End Wait, like 12 waiting on 3). He's not very good at Mahjong, but boy is he passionate about it! I've had a look at some of the later chapters, and they got a serious chuckle from me, so I can say honestly that I'd be thrilled to continue from Chapter 6, where the anonymous scanlators left off. The one problem is that I only have Volume 1 available, and there's a whole other volume out there as of yet unscanned, so I'd have to drop it once I was through Chapter 11 unless someone would be kind enough to buy volume 2 and scan it. But it would be very fast for me, and very enjoyable to do as well.

Now, for a horse-racing manga that was given to me to scan by the wonderful Wright of Happyscans!, by the name of Burai na Kaze Tetsu! (Self-Reliant Wind, Tetsu) If you guys were able to wrap your minds around the colorful game of Pachinko, horse racing should be a much easier pastime to understand. Heck, you can even do it in your country, in all likelihood!

This story was coupled in a release with Atsuize Tenma, so I've been itching to get my hands on it for a long time. It stars the fellow on the cover, Tetsu, who's an up-and-coming horse jockey who's having a hard time winning races. It focuses more on the races themselves than the betting that goes on, but you'd be ashamed to think we could have a horse racing manga without any betting at all. And guess what, there's actually women gambling in it! So yeah, should be fun to see where it leads, if you want to give it a shot. I could probably get chapters out at a moderate pace, and it's relatively short as well, since these manga were also included in the same volume:

This one's apparently quite a rarity, I have yet to see it on an official list of Fukumoto's works besides my own. But regardless, it's called Korinai Samba, or the Ne'er-do-well Samba. It's about being in prison, with some tales of cruelty added to the mix. So if you liked the jailbreak part of Buraiden Gai, you should find this 3-chapter series to be quite enjoyable.

And to finish us off, I have for you two one-shots by Fukumoto. The one on the left is Jinan no Blues, or The Blues of a Second Son. It's a tragedy, but I don't want to say any more than that about it. It's quite good, if you liked The Night the Stars Fall, you should like this one as well.

And the one on the right was not scanned by me, hence the scratchy style of it. But it is, get ready for it, LITERALLY THE OLDEST manga in Fukumoto's collection. It's called Yoroshiku! Junjou Daisho, it's something like Wani no Hatsukoi in tone, and it's also a love story, but it should be enjoyable simply because it was written wayyy back in the 70's, when Fukumoto was still using a pseudonym, Fukumoto Tobi. So if you want to read Fukumoto's very first work, look no further than right here!

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to lay out all the options on the table at once so you can pick out what you really want to see. As I say, if you pick anything other than a Oneshot, it will be a while before it's complete as I'm going to be mostly focusing on Kaiji and Akagi. But if you need something to fill the void now that Rude 39 is over, be sure to drop a vote for your favorite in the poll on the sidebar!