Happy Halloween, everyone!
Today, we’re releasing the final chapter of Setona Mizushiro’s The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice. Downloads can be found here.
I’m re-enabling comments on the Mouse and Carp posts. Sorry for the inconvenience.
To tell the truth, I’m having a hard time writing the kind of post I’d planned. All the excitement and hopefulness I felt towards the beginning of this project have been overshadowed by the unpleasantness that came at the end. A month from now, or two, this may seem like a trifle from the past, but right now, still in the thick of it, it’s hard to put those feelings aside and feel pleased or proud of what I have done.
Those of you who check my website regularly know part of the story. Pick any scanlator’s site and you’ll probably find some warning telling people not to ask those dreaded questions, “When is the next chapter coming out? Why is it taking so long?” I read those warnings with a completely different perspective now. I don’t think anyone can really know, until you’ve been in the situation yourself, how hurtful and discouraging those questions really are.
That aside, it’s interesting to me that people feel so angry and “deprived” when something isn’t immediately forthcoming. When you think about it, most manga, as well as this chapter (which is almost “manga length,”) are serialized. Here, we get our published manga by the volume, but in Japan, people generally read thirty or so pages every month, or every two months. Sometimes, it’s years before they see a complete, paper volume. This particular chapter was released in fifteen or twenty page segments twice a month over a four month period. I think you can tell. As I was reading it, in several places, I thought, “Oh, if this stopped right here (with Imagase standing at the top of the stairs, for example) I would have been on my toes waiting for the next part!” As a whole, though, I think some of the excitement is lost. When you turn the page and immediately find the resolution, you never have that, “Oh my god! What’s going to happen?!” feeling. That’s not to say this chapter doesn’t have exciting moments, but, my point is, the experience of waiting without knowing the outcome actually increases your enjoyment. Anticipation is part of what makes serial publications so popular. When reading this chapter in particular, I think it’s important to remember that it was designed to be read in sections over a period of several months. But, it’s also important to remember that manga in general is designed to be read that way. Waiting is not torture or deprivation, but part of what makes the experience of reading manga, or any serial publication, so enjoyable.
In retrospect, I should have released this chapter in shorter segments over a four or five month period. That’s not because people wouldn’t have had to wait so long for the story to resume, although that might have been an unintended benefit. (Incidentally, in Japan, people had to wait almost a full year for the last chapter. Owl ended in the beginning February 2008 and Carp began at the end of December 2008.) It’s because, first of all, I honestly think your reading experience would have been better. It was the author’s intention to have “waiting periods” in the story. In a way, this is not one long chapter, but nine shorter ones (there were originally nine releases by my calculation.) And cliffhangers are not really cliffhangers if you’re not left hanging. Secondly, as a scanlation team, we would have been able to give this the time and attention it deserves. As it is, we completed this is two and half months — actually, due to illness and some other things, less time than that — which works out to roughly two weeks (or less) per thirty-two pages. That’s a very fast pace. Too fast. I realize now that it was a bad decision on my part to do the whole chapter at once, but it seemed like a good idea at the time I did my planning. From now on, I will pay more attention to how a work was originally released.
Someone asked me recently if I was glad I took on this project. The answer is not simple. The truth is, as you’ve probably guessed from what I wrote above, there have been several times during this whole Mouse/Carp experience that I’ve wanted to throw it all away and never look back. But when I think back to beginning, when I first started limping through the first chapter of Mouse, I remember feeling like I’d discovered something almost magical and I’d never find a manga so good or satisfying again. Many of you have commented that it’s the “best yaoi manga ever” so I think you understand how I felt. Of course, “best” is a very subjective word. (And personally I don’t consider this “yaoi,” but that’s another discussion.) Many people have expressed intense dislike as well. But regardless of whether you love it or hate it, I think it’s a unique and important series. For that reason, when all is said and done, I think I will be glad I did this. In my mind, there is still no other manga that compares to Mouse and Carp when it comes to the psychology of a relationship. I admire Mizushiro tremendously for not sugar-coating anything and daring to portray “real” characters (and a gay character — or two — in particular) flaws and all. I hope the success of this manga will encourage more people to write manga for a mature audience over thirty. It looks like there’s a deep hunger for this kind of thing, and not just among the over thirty crowd.
Well, this is post is getting long. Before I forget, I found a link to the lyrics and a video for the song mentioned in this chapter. This time, I was careful to look under the right title. ^__^
I’d also like to thank some people. I know most of you don’t read the credits page and the names on there are probably meaningless those of you who do. But you really all do owe a lot to these people. I’d particularly like to thank Reppu who singlehandedly, whether she knows it or not, who showed up at a critical time and saved this project from the recycling bin on my desktop. Of course, a huge thank you to Txilar and Kajin who did the graphic art work on this very, very long manga. And my deepest gratitude to two people who head up other scanlation groups (you can find information about their groups on my least visited web page) ZL (BAA) for being an incredibly understanding “boss,” and Kokiden (MiaB) for listening to my woes and giving me alternative ways of looking at issues. Both of them are translators themselves and helped with this very chapter, but they did far more than look over a bunch of tricky passages. The scanlation world needs more people like them!
And thanks to all the readers, especially to those who left encouraging comments when it all got to be too much. I wish I could have responded personally to everyone. I have the feeling my message didn’t get through to the people who needed to hear it, but it still means a lot to know that other people understand the situation and support our work. Sometimes, even when you know logically that most people are reasonable, it doesn’t really register until you hear (or see, as the case may be) people say it.
So what now? I’m going to take a break and try to put this all behind me. When I come back, I hope I will feel refreshed and excited and ready to tackle new challenges, as well as revive some old ones. I was in the middle of revising Ghost Moon, Chapter 3, when Carp was released, and, off and on over the past six months, I’ve heard it calling to me. (I hate to leave things half done.) I’ve also starting translating Kunie Sakai’s A Garden in Full Bloom (which will be scanlated) and Setona Mizushiro’s The Violinist (which may be scanlated.) Both are very good older, “mixed genre” series (josei and yaoi/shounen ai) that I’m enjoying very much so far. I hope some of you will enjoy them, too. Frankly, I never want to do a project as popular as Mouse and Carp again. ^__^
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