Friday, January 7, 2011

Amanchu! Ch20 - Closing Ceremony

Amanchu! Ch20 [ACS]



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53 comments:

  1. Thank you for this release! It has been ages since I last read Amanchu. <3 <3 Belated new year greetings.

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  2. They sure need some air conditioning. And is it just me, or does anybody else think their school uniforms look way too hot? I mean, look at those petticoats! I am sure anybody would sweat gallons wearing those.

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  3. Motormind: I think there is a crusade against use of air conditioning in japan. That country has very little domestic oil, gas or coal reserves, so all of that needs to be imported for eletricity production at a great cost.

    They also can't sacrifice any of the little available seaside land area in Japan to build even more nuclear powerstations. So their only solution is to save on electricity use, for example refuse to heat the house during the winter, or sweat and suffer instead of air conditioning during the summer.

    On the other, hand asian people sweat very little, if any. Japanese think white persons are all unhygienic, because no matter how much a caucasian person washes self, he/she will always smell from sweat. Japanese also find the use of deodorants an indecent habit.

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  4. The Japanese drug stores I visited were loaded with deodorants, so I don't think they dislike them. I also can attest that the Japanese do sweat when it's warm; I definitely smelled a lot of interesting body odors on the subway or in the train, which makes their prejudice against foreigners a tad weird. Hey, it's only human! Furthermore, there was air conditioning in most public places I visited. Maybe they just like to torture their students.

    I have hand it to Amano that the girls' school uniforms look lovely, but in summer the teachers had better be prepared to transport lots of overheated students to the nurse's office.

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  5. Looking forward to Amano's 4th artbook Birth, in commemoration of her child's arrival of course.
    After Alpha, Stella and Cielo let's see what else she has in storage.

    I found the clouds a tad weird, didn't she use to draw them quite detailed? Assistant change perhaps?
    I do feel that some details were better defined probably because of the extra time to work on the chapter, but maybe the raws were just better.

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  6. > in commemoration of her child's arrival of course.

    I wonder how will we learn about that? Do they print the notification in the Blade magazine or just some generic new pops up on ANN some day?

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  7. >maybe the raws were just better.
    They were worse.
    The artwork was definitely better.

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  8. I just stumbled upon this manga and decided to give it a shot because it's about diving, and I love diving. <3 But even apart from that, it's fantastic! The girls are adorable and I squeal out loud every time Futaba is taught something new. They're exactly the same things I learned back in high school, and it really brings back some happy memories. Thank you guys for scanlating this. I really really appreciate it!
    I hadn't read anything by Amano until now, but I might check out Aria.

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  9. @iruka said...
    "(...)I hadn't read anything by Amano until now, but I might check out Aria. "
    You definitely should :)

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  10. Definitely check out ARIA, it's 'water' themed as well.

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  11. ARIA makes people happy, but it's repetitive nature also has a profound destructive effect on brain cells. Ara-ara kinshi reduces IQ by 10% per week.

    Furthermore it may become difficult to enjoy other anime/manga after watching ARIA, because it becomes obvious what an unsincere, commercial, manipulative junk they are.

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  12. I love this chapter because my current mood is very much like Dotty's and it improved a lot after reading.
    Thank you so much for scanlating.

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  13. Anybody thinks the messages and options in the japanese Aria gondola game could be translated?

    I have trouble figuring out what the various options do and since the kanji displays are in graphical format, one can't even feed them to a robotized service like the Google Translator website, to get their meaning.

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  14. Thanks guys, great job!
    Last week i read all Aqua+Aria and discovered this new manga from Amano-sensei.
    But since she's pregnant, next chapter's gonna come out in march?
    PS How's the japanese name for "dotty"? and how do you say "dot" in the first place? :D

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  15. > But since she's pregnant, next chapter's gonna come out in march?

    I guess Ms. Amano is no longer pregnant. She probably has her baby by now! (The original announcement about Ms. Amano "not feeling well" and Amanchu serialization going on a hiatus was made on 4/30/2010.)

    Only if the publisher would tell, but hopefully we'll be wiser as soon as her new BIRTH artbook publishes in early February.

    Anyhow, I don't think Ms. Amano will have much chance to draw in the next 3 years or so, especally if she is a single mother!

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  16. (2011.1.26) 2/10新刊 「Birth 天野こずえ画集4 KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works IV」購入者特典のお知らせ

    2/10(木)に天野こずえ画集第4弾「Birth 天野こずえ画集4 KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works IV」が発売になります。
    前回の天野こずえ画集3[Cielo]から4年の時を経て、最新作『あまんちゅ!』が新たに加わったファン待望の最新画集が登場!! 超美麗な天野こずえの総天然色の世界を『ARIA』の後期イラスト群を中心に今回も充実の収録内容で貴方の元にお届けします――!!!
    発売を記念して、以下の購入者特典を配布いたします!!

    ○特製クリアシート配布
    以下の書店で、天野こずえ画集第4弾「Birth 天野こずえ画集4 KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works IV」をお買い上げの方に先着で、B6サイズクリアシートをプレゼント!
    <配布書店>
    ・マッグガーデン特約店
    ・ブレイドwebストア
    ※特典はなくなり次第終了です。

    ○アニメイト オリジナルカード配布
    全国のアニメイト各店(徳島店を除く)にて、「Birth 天野こずえ画集4 KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works IV」をお買い上げの方に先着で、オリジナルカードをプレゼント!
    (クリアシートの配布もございます。)
    ※特典はなくなり次第終了です。

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  17. The full cover layout of the new "BIRTH" Amano artbook is barely visible in this image. Pikari sits and Dotty kneels on a giant caltrop nearby.

    BIRTH sure gets a lot of publicity from the publisher! Either it's really good, so they smell revenue or it lacks, making them resort to advertisement. Ms. Amano has a track record to make us think the first option is much more likely.

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  18. Amano double edition: 2011 february 10 will see not just the arrival of her BIRTH artbook, but also the Tanpenshu III "Sunflower" short stories' collection.

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  19. 2011 Jan 30th Comic Blade tweet:
    マッグガーデン「月刊 コミックブレイド」3月号 好評発売中です! 今号より新連載「素足のメテオライト」&「瑠璃垣夜子の遺言」がスタート! 表紙はコミックス1巻が発売したばかりの「とらねこフォークロア」! また、次号9周年記念号では「あまんちゅ!」2大企画が開催予定! お楽しみに!

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  20. Vikings in Venice: photos of another ARIA pilgrimage, this time from Sweden.

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  21. Does anybody know where the High School is located? I tried looking up Yumegaoka, but that's a station in Yokohama. I also checked out all school buildings in Ito, but none of those seem to resemble the one in the manga. Since I am going to visit Japan again next spring, I might look it up on a Sunday.

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  22. Hello Motormind! You may wish to check this eight minute Youtube video. Some guys already went on a "treasure hunt" to find some exact locations as shown in Amanchu stories. However, those guys have big problem with their steadicam skills...

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  23. Motormind: There is a 8 minute Amanchu "pilgrimage video" on YouTube, but it shows only some bus stops, the seaside resort place, etc. and not the school.

    As for the Amanchu! school building, I found a hint: at the end of manga chapter 2, there is a tall and wide steel grid structure visible behind the school building.

    Now, if you use Google Maps to see Shizuoka, Ito, Japan from satellite, there is a "Kita Junior High School" located at north latitude 34.977800, east longitude 139.087917 degrees.

    Now, if you turn on the "related photos" feature button in the upper right corner of the sat-map with zooming no more than 75%, than a thumbnail image of a big steel grid structure becomes visible in the woods, a little west and south of the school. If you click that, you will be taken to a full sized photo display at the Panoramio website.

    Therefore I think "Kita Jr. High School" may be the answer, but the area has very poor satellite photo resolution in Google Maps, so it is not possible to visually evaluate the school building itself.

    By the way, I think the steel grid structure may be somewhat important for Ms. Kozue Amano. It was featured in then ARIA manga as well, when Akari and Aika circled endlessly in the abandoned warehouse area, after losing trace of Pokoteng-sachou.

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  24. Well, it's the only school of which the buildings are placed at an angle of each other, just like in the manga, but for the rest I'm not so sure. I miss the typical structure of the main entrance and there also doesn't seem to be any pool. I might check it out if I get there, and if it's anything promising, I might take some pics.

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  25. Ms. Amano was born and raised in Saitama. Maybe the model school building for Yumegoka is located there or maybe it's the old school she attended and so the building may not even exist any more?

    Someone commented previously that Amanchu's Yumegaoka school building looks rather dated and simplistic, with exposed piping, etc. Maybe built in an era when Japan wasn't yet rich (up to early-mid 1970s)?

    But if we believe the school building still exists and is located in Shizuoka: well, Pikari and Katori Mato took "Tokai Bus line 2" to get to Yumegaoka High in Amanchu chapter 2.

    That is an existing company and an existing bus route, so a person with japanese literacy could visit "JR Tokai" homepage to check the stops and see if there are any high schools there.

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  26. There are a lot of worn-down, old buildings in Japan, including schools, so the state of the building in the manga it doesn't mean much. It could be though that the building might not even exist for real.

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  27. Natali dot mu website alleges the Sunflower: Tampenshu vol. 4, which will publish tomorrow, is just a reprint of Kozue Amano's Ohisama Egao (so only the BIRTH artbook, also due tomorrow, is a brand new work).

    BTW, I wonder if Ms. Kozue Amano is related to Yoshitaka Amano, the guy who designed the Final Fantasy saga? Maybe father / daughter?

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  28. Here is a short opinion from a dreamlog blog, about the brand new Kozue Amano artbook.

    Birth/天野こずえ画集4
    ktkr

    ARIR後期画集キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!

    や、あまんちゅも好きですが、それなりに。

    やはりアリシアさん、灯里ちゃん、アリスちゃんが一等好きで~(*´д`*) や、みんな好きですが。

    早速壁紙モードで写メって待ち受けに!!

    気分で待ち受けよく変えるので、にゅーコレクション…。
    いいのよね?個人で楽しむぶんには。。

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  29. Anyone seen BIRTH artbook raws already? How much new (Amanchu) content is in there?

    BTW,below is an Amanchu chibi preview, although its not as much SD style as ARIA used to be. Amanchu's "killer doll" style SD is probably too shocking for any baby!

    http://www.animate.co.jp/original/book_tokuten/img/0210Birthb.jpg

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  30. Hmm, will the new chapter come around April? Can't wait.

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  31. Hello! Has anybody seen a compete BIRTH artbook raw scan available for download? Thanks.

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  32. Re: Yumegaoka school location.

    I visited Ito last year but the weather was bad and I didn't get around the town as much as I wanted to. I did get out to the coastal shopping mall as seen in chapters 7 and 12 though. I also saw Tokai Bus Lines buses down at the railway station.

    The big steel structure at the school shown at the end of chapter 2 is probably a baseball "cage" or a golf driving range. They are a common part of the scenery in Japan, covered in green netting to catch errant balls before they smash windows or hit passers-by. Many Japanese high schools have softball and baseball clubs and that sort of structure is often found in the sports field.

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  33. Venetians have recently invented a more glamorous logo for the ladies' rowing races:

    http://www.vogaepara.it/image/Loghi/Regata_Donne_7-marzo.jpg

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  34. will the new chapter come out around april?

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  35. > will the new chapter come out around april?

    They probably couldn't care less right now! A super-massive 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami has just hit Japan, app. 400km north-east of Tokyo. This is the real Godzilla, probably the largest since 1923 and thousands are feared dead.

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  36. The new chapter has been scanlated on Chinese sites already. I await eagerly for the English one.

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  37. Is there any news about Amano's whereabouts? Her name does not appear in the list on Animemewsnetwork of artists that have been accounted for.

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  38. Chiwa Saito (Aika-chan) and Sayaka Ohara (Alicia-san) are said to be missing after the earth-quake.

    Look at this.

    As for Amano-sensei, it would be terrible to experience such a big earthquake with an infant. Let's hope she has a spouse to help her and she's not a single mother, alone with her kid.

    I think it would be nice if she could dedicate more time to drawing in the near future, to create more "healing" manga to comfort the nation. The 2010s will be a difficult decade for Japan.

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  39. Alice Carrol (Hirohashi Ryo) is reported as safe:

    "RT @naruhodo_haruka あ、広橋涼さんから連絡もありました!...広橋さんは無事です!"

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  40. Quote: "I send your message to Kozue. She was really touched. Kozue and her baby are fine!

    こずこずも赤ちゃんも無事です。
    安心してくださいね。"

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  41. Excuse me, forgot to mention the above good news came directly from Alicia Florence (Sayaka Ohara-san's blog).

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  42. Thank you Tamás for the good news! :D

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  43. > Thank you for the good news!

    Good news? You know the old saying: the wine glass is either half full or half empty.

    The earthquake safety is only half part of the worry now, as the nuclear fallout is spreading over Japan.

    Let's hope Amano-sensei will now be safe from the radiation also. It would be best if she was able to temporarily leave Japan with her baby.

    I think all kids should now be evacuated from Japan to abroad, because the three exploded Fukushima reactors are already worse than Chernobyl.

    (Chiba, Tokyo now has radiation pollution in the air 9-10 times above normal level and Ibaraki prefecture has 100x above background radiation. It is only time until more southernly japanese regions will be covered by the nuclear fallout.)

    Remark: please note that Sayaka Ohara's blog is no longer accessible with english or other foreign language comments. (Maybe this is because the Rocket-BBS operators are attempting censorship to quell the spread of panic?)

    Anyhow, if you can write japanese, please feel free to express thanks to Saya-saya for her info gathering, because I don't know japanese at all, so I can no longer message to thank her.

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  44. > Kozue Amano lives in Saitama, which is an urban connection of Tokyo.

    British Sky News TV reports that Saitama region now has 40x the normal background radiation!

    Their footage shows endless lines waiting at the railway station, mostly people holding infants and little kids, trying to flee somewhere south, like Osaka.

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  45. Right now the biggest problem is not the nuclear plant, but the health of the refugees in the north. They need food, clean water and supplies. I hope authorities don't let their priorities slip.

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  46. Motormind, I hope my country will send the mobile water purification osmosis plant our kmilitary has. It can make potable water out of radioactive mud if needed, perfect for the japanese situation.

    Quite unique system, but has not been used much, since USA insists on use of imported pre-bottled water even in remotest places like Afghanistan.

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  47. Oh God... please save this people, especially this blessed woman and her baby...

    Shieldheart - Indonesia

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  48. >The new chapter has been scanlated on Chinese sites already. I await eagerly for the English one.

    Regarding Amanchu! - I am overseas till early April, so chances are it won't be done till then.

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  49. Been to Venice on March 27-28. The Ducal Palace's facade is still partially covered up in advertising to pay for the restoration works. The currently posted ad also continues the long-standing "Cielo" (Firmament) theme.

    This time it is by Toyota: they placarded a giant WIND TURBINE there to symbolize the power of hybrid cars. So if anybody feels like inaugurating lady undines, that would be the perfect spot right now!

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