>Monthly Comic Blade announced that mangaka Amano Kozue has become pregnant. The serialization of the manga Amanchu! will be slowed down to quarterly. Amano said "I'll leave for another creation for a while. Please wait for my come back."
sources: ANN, MAL, Natalie
There should(?) be a chapter in this months Comic Blade. And the remaining will obviously come in 3 month intervals for a period of time.
Meanwhile as people have noticed at the bottom status - during the Amanchu! break we decided to attempt one (and probably the only one at this rate) of the Monthly Undines. Due to it being a lot of text and current TL's being busy, I am looking for more translator help. We currently have 8 pages left, and if you think you could help do a few of those (note there is lots of text and no furigana) please leave some way of contact in the comments, thank you.
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Well, congrats, Amano-sensei! I do wonder though: is she married? To whom? I thought she had a girlfriend, even though I can't for the life of me remember where the heck I got that from. Maybe it is just wishful thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe secrecy of Japanese comic artists can be frustrating at times!
0., The possibility of her pregnancy has been guessed here about a month ago
ReplyDelete1., I would suspect Caith Sith...
2., Getting pregnant at 36 yrs old is not extraordinary nowadays, but still carries a bit of risk, so Amano-sensei better take a break indeed
3., You could apply to adopt her new pair of cats, until the baby grows enough for kindergarten
4., This time we could really send some postcards
The french had known about it for 2 days.
ReplyDelete> Monthly Undine: lots of text and no furigana
ReplyDeleteThese tools may offer the capability of automatic furigana generation:
http://www.furiganizer.com/
http://wakan.manga.cz/
http://ichi2.net/anki/
You'd probably need an OCR software like Abbyy FineReader to scan Msenile Undine pages into computer text first, but it may save a lot of human labour, provided automatic ruby sign additions work as advertised.
Glad to see you againg amano san!!!
ReplyDeleteWhoa whoa whoa I'm holding up the Monthly Undine? Wait up I'll try to get good progress on it today.
ReplyDeletewait. the amanchu coming like 3month for one chapter??
ReplyDelete> Amanchu coming like 3month for one chapter?
ReplyDeleteWell, with a baby onboard, Ms. Amano is probably not willing to commit to any tighter schedule.
The relatively rapid introduction of Amanchu, after the ARIA saga had ended, suggests Ms. Amano was sending in Amanchu material as a rolling project, without any buffer chapters stacked up for reserve.
The publisher is probably not happy about the schedule change, as Amano cover art based on gorgeous female characters has been more or less a staple of Comic Blade.
Manga sales are much down since the global economic crisis hit, so every sale counts and shapely cover girls are proven effective in that respect.
I get the uneasy feeling that this might spell the end end for Amano's career. The manga scene is extremely competitive and I don't think the publishers will take this in kind, after all the promotion they did for her latest work.
ReplyDeleteAt least she got to finish Aria. That's the one classic they will never be able to take away from us.
I'd guess it's rare for a manga artist to have more than one big hit, anyhow.
ReplyDeleteOne can note that mangaka Naoko Takeuchi's career went on the decline after she finished the Sailor V / Sailor Moon saga, got married and had a kid. But later on she became involved with the live action TV Sailor Moon series (PGSM).
A major storytelling problem about Amanchu is, how shall those girls spend the autumn to spring period in a meaningful, interesting and charming manner after kitten-saving, flower-watching, etc. possibilities have been exhausted?
Aria's undines could row almost all year around and cleverly they had twice as many days in a martian year!
Maybe the scuba girls will be deported to Palau Islands soon, where they can dive all year around. Otherwise the whole Amanchu manga storyspace has about 3 year x 3 months each underwater, before Ooki and Pikari finish with high-school.
Does anybody know about this "Prima" thing?
ReplyDelete"Aria has kind of a complicated publication history. It's a sequel to an untranslated manga called Prima. Aria itself was originally entitled Aqua, but became Aria when it moved to a new manga magazine."
Yeah, I indeed wondered where Amano was going with Amanchu. The series was extremely charming when Amano implied some mild romantic attraction between Hikari and Futaba, but it went a bit stale once she simply dropped that in favor for more slice-of-life antics. And what's up with a story about diving where most of the chapters are NOT about diving? Well, at least she has an excuse to draw her favorite subject: pretty girls.
ReplyDeleteIt is of great pleasure to see the creator of Aria taking a brand new step towards a brighter future. Kudos to Amano-sensei and good luck in whatever path she takes. :)
ReplyDeleteHello! I was able to visit Venice on a single-day trip for the boat parade event on 2010 Sept 05.
ReplyDeleteOn arrival I rode on the new Venice People Mover, a sort of horizontally running cable railway, which is the closest real world analogue of the floating island funicular link shown in Aria s01ep03, but nearly as romantic, because the surrounding is currently quite barren, beautifying expected next year.
As for the water parade and boat races, I found place at a small pier on the Canal Grande waterfront and shot a lot of photos, but only a few came out good. The decorated Regata Storica parade boats were truly colorful.
Here are two pics about really young girls rowing, so ARIA is not that much removed from reality.
During the last and biggest race (streamlined "Formula-1" gondolas with male duo crews), the white gondolino collided with the brown one, sending the brown team front rower into the water, right in front of the pier where I stood. He was rescued but climbed back and continued racing.
Regards from Hungary
Oh my, congratulations to Amano-sensei. I came on to grab the months and months of chapters I missed (grabbed volume 3 from Kinokuniya ;D) and I see the good news.
ReplyDeletestill TL amanchu ep19?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Amano Sensei! =D
ReplyDelete@ Motormind
Hopefully, Amano Sensei can take this break and think more about Amanchu's plot.
@ September 9, 2010 9:59 PM
OMG!
Akari, Aika & Alice grew muscles.. =V
Airbus plans transparent cabin airplanes, like the spaceship Akari rode to Mars in ARIA the Animation episode 01.
ReplyDelete@ September 9, 2010 9:59 PM
ReplyDeleteOMG!
Akari, Aika & Alice grew muscles.. =V
yeah, that would be one of the cons of undines in real world :/
i would rly like for more woman to be gondolier, but unfortunately rowing = muscles
If I understand correctly, none of the scanlated Aqua/ARIA manga have been re-aligned for left-right reading directions between japanese and english?
ReplyDeleteDo you think swapping the cells is an effort that makes sense if one is to print the whole saga?
Just noticed a hidden reference in AQUA manga volume 1, chapter 1, page 31, lower right corner.
ReplyDeleteThere is a round signbord hanging over the canal, which says "Office Akujo".
That's the name of Ms. Amano's doujin-shi circle, they published 3 or 4 fandom mangas for Harry Potter.
Maybe Gondola Greg was involved with authoring the Aria Origination script? He just made a remark like this:
ReplyDelete"Then there are stories of guys who love rowing traghetto - it gives them a chance to catch up with locals as they step on and off the boat.
More than once I've been told: You want to get better at rowing? Row traghetto!"
dude.. we love you for your work. i know it isn't much but i will remember you in the future when i reread aria. good luck with your life after you leave the scanlation scene. you really deserve it. and remember, we leachers fucking love you. :)
ReplyDeleteFor slice-of-life genre fans, a new Sketchbook manga volume has been published.
ReplyDeleteGuys still need a translator for the Monthly Undine? I can translate. I'm still learning but I don't think I'll have that much trouble using references for kanji and I can pretty much write the words out so using an IME pad and nihongodict can get me really far.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm a huge fan of Aria and doing this for fans would be an honour.
ReplyDeleteAnd if sort of proof is needed to show I more or less know the way Japanese grammar works... I have this.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1SXRaIMW3CsgHKoCm58g9MfvlawgirX3NUBMLCsf4FVQ&hl=en
and
I did this to test myself.. racing against you guys to translating chapter 18 of Amachu.. Almost made it too. Haha
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1SXRaIMW3CsgHKoCm58g9MfvlawgirX3NUBMLCsf4FVQ&hl=en
No idea how to make it into links..
Hey Aurelius, yes we're still in need for a translator for the Monthly Undine, the RAW for the first one should be in the mediafire archive in the main ARIA folder if you want to take a look at it first.
ReplyDeleteIf you could leave me a preferred contact or drop by the irc (#acs@rizon) and contact me there when I'm around. Thanks you.
Oops.. posted the same link twice. Hah..
ReplyDeleteAnd sure Mez. I'm avvenire on irc actually. I've been in the #acs chan before.
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad79ywa7canhZGc5czhqbmRfM3pmZjI5bnZk&hl=en
^ Meant to link that one earlier.
hey mez.
ReplyDeletewhat kind of monthly undine TLing now?
The raw of AQUA volume 1 navigation 2, which was used for the english scanlation, has low quality. I wonder if a better set of pages, with higher resolution and clarity has emerged lately? Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Motormind "At least she got to finish Aria." wait...Aria isn't finished yet? is Amano-sensei said so?
ReplyDeleteI think most everybody agrees that trying to continue ARIA with an Ai-chan based arc would be bad.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a few specials/OVAs could be made just for fun, that's all.
i would be happy if Amano-sensei wants to continue Aria but i think its only a dream.still,for the ending is already epic.just need some OVA for Ai-chan i agree
ReplyDeleteI think the real dream in terms of the continuation of the ARIA series is if they would make a complete visual bliss of a movie to it as the final touch.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that the story arc with Ai (who isn't even an original character to begin with) wouldn't bring as much emphasis as Akari but I think this is not the biggest issue, there simply just needs to be more concrete SOL content to complement any form of continuation to ARIA respectively.
One example can easily be if there is ever a chance to see a glimpse of life story on both Man-home and Akari. This can fill a story gap as a start which is rather awfully too important to miss out based its introduction. I'm sure Amano is aware of it and probably has some reason for this which I believe maybe could involve a form of distraction that could disrupt the flow of its SOL appeal of Aqua as presented in the manga.
Another possibility around this is if there's a potential approach where Akari has a special incident to return to Man-home for a brief moment of time. This can really liven up the continuation and purpose of the series and also share a completely different spectrum of simple life drama that doesn't always encompass the world of Aqua itself and really somewhat take the sci-fi genre as granted. Perhaps Akatsuki could be a company with Akari as a reverse approach just as Akari began her life in Aqua and seriously make the other side of the world (Man-home) as significant as Aqua would present. I also think Akatsuki has also a sort of affection with Akari throughout the series which makes the above viable to be together in a form of way which is quite nice to see more often.
Even as a dream, With today's freelancing approach on the animation genre, this seems ultimately possible if there is enough plot foundations (as sampled above) that can complement each other to form a reasonable approach as a movie. If the above holds true, I can see a powerful success to this even as an format of an OVA. ARIA has an impeccable amount of inspiration and content to fill in any new content along delivering its continuing charm and it can go beyond many imaginative ways possible (too many for me IMO). I couldn't agree more that the 3rd season of ARIA was truly mind-blowing which they've seriously outdone themselves in comparison to its previous seasons. Let's just hope the director of ARIA (Sato) and Amano can come in terms in making a said dream a reality by taking a step even further into the deepness of ideology that ARIA presents.
If I don't mind asking, has anyone imaged the Largo of Antonín Dvořák New World Symphony when watching the series? It still burns in my head and I couldn't possibly agree more of the significance and its overtones this piece relates to ARIA. Perhaps this would make a wonderful addition to the dream as implied, it's a very beautiful piece to listen to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYl4Xb4cDQ8
I think the real dream in terms of the continuation of the ARIA series is if they would make a complete visual bliss of a movie to it as the final touch.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that the story arc with Ai (who isn't even an original character to begin with) wouldn't bring as much emphasis as Akari but I think this is not the biggest issue, there simply just needs to be more concrete SOL content to complement any form of continuation to ARIA respectively.
One example can easily be if there is ever a chance to see a glimpse of life story on both Man-home and Akari. This can fill a story gap as a start which is rather awfully too important to miss out based its introduction. I'm sure Amano is aware of it and probably has some reason for this which I believe maybe could involve a form of distraction that could disrupt the flow of its SOL appeal of Aqua as presented in the manga.
Another possibility around this is if there's a potential approach where Akari has a special incident to return to Man-home for a brief moment of time. This can really liven up the continuation and purpose of the series and also share a completely different spectrum of simple life drama that doesn't always encompass the world of Aqua itself and really somewhat take the sci-fi genre as granted. Perhaps Akatsuki could be a company with Akari as a reverse approach just as Akari began her life in Aqua and seriously make the other side of the world (Man-home) as significant as Aqua would present. I also think Akatsuki has also a sort of affection with Akari throughout the series which makes the above viable to be together in a form of way which is quite nice to see more often.
Even as a dream, With today's freelancing approach on the animation genre, this seems ultimately possible if there is enough plot foundations (as sampled above) that can complement each other to form a reasonable approach as a movie. If the above holds true, I can see a powerful success to this even as an format of an OVA. ARIA has an impeccable amount of inspiration and content to fill in any new content along delivering its continuing charm and it can go beyond many imaginative ways possible (too many for me IMO). I couldn't agree more that the 3rd season of ARIA was truly mind-blowing which they've seriously outdone themselves in comparison to its previous seasons. Let's just hope the director of ARIA (Sato) and Amano can come in terms in making a said dream a reality by taking a step even further into the deepness of ideology that ARIA presents.
If I don't mind asking, has anyone imaged the Largo of Antonín Dvořák New World Symphony when watching the series? It still burns in my head and I couldn't possibly agree more of the significance and its overtones this piece relates to ARIA. Perhaps this would make a wonderful addition to the dream as implied, it's a very beautiful piece to listen to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYl4Xb4cDQ8
I think Ai-chan's character was a great enhancement for the anime, even if not perfectly realized.
ReplyDeleteWe can compare her with Junichi Sato's previous anime, the Kaleido Star circus saga, where the protagonist, Sora has a bit empty character. Whatever she does is done in her own interest, to become a trapeze superstar.
In contrast Ai-chan is present from day one in the ARIA anime and everybody understands Akari needs to be an excellent undine not just for herself, but because one day she will tutor Ai to be her successor. The never-ending spiral of lady gondolier generations is a central theme in ARIA.
As for an ARIA movie, I am afraid most of the viewership would fall asleep already during the opening credits, although that's not a necessarily bad thing. However, things move at snail-pace in a pedestrian/rowing city, so it would be hard to squeeze a sound storyline into a 120 minutes or so.
^
ReplyDelete^lol what a long double post. i know There's a possibility,but i prefer hear it Amano-sensei officialy,hope that will come true..
I suppose this is just chicken scratch to give some form of example on how the ARIA series would be able to continue if there was any chance of opportunity in doing so. I think "squeezing" seems to be a harsh word and not the best way to describe on how to make a movie out of it. "Condensing" is more fitting IMO. ^^
ReplyDeleteBecause there's nothing to follow the manga accordingly afterwards, there's no limitations that would restrain its lengthtime and this could be coped and worked out without much hassle IMO. They could also buff it to 150 min or so if a length problem does arise so to grasp enough content. Even so, I'd just easily let Amano decide on how this would play out because I once again see a potential in a movie out of this wonderful series and it doesn't hurt to think outside the box.
I think the difficult part altogther into making a movie is getting both the director and original author once again to seriously realize the ideas based on its storyline that can continue to follow behind its original content. Still, I couldn't imagine this happening since they'd need to make a profit out of it and to budget majorly towards the purists and its fanbase wouldn't suffice whatsoever. Moreover, Sato would possibly have to make a 3rd trip to Venezia to perfect the possibility for this to be happening as an everlasting success but I can assure that he probably doesn't have the luxury for another expedition to direct ARIA anymore. All in all, two major pitfalls that prevent the possibility of an ARIA movie and the chances of overcoming them is ultimately slim to none.
I'm sure I'm not first to say that I feel sad on how the ARIA series had to end like this but it's obvious that every story has its ending and I still respect and feel happy the way it should end as the manga suggests.
GXD: That sounds mysterious! Do you really have any info or rumors about an upcoming ARIA movie, or at least a proposal made for an official ARIA movie?
ReplyDeleteUsually movies based on an anime are created by recycling and re-editing much of the TV episodes' material with little new animation cells added in-between. They are usually only good for direct DVD market.
An ARIA movie good for the cinema would probably cost a whole fortune to produce, because of the need for a full-lenght, brand new animation, with enough detail and high resolution for sail-sized movie screens.
It would also have to debut under a bid cinema brand, like Sony or Disney to reach enough theatres worldwide to make a profit. All the characters would have to sing and dance every 5 minutes to satisfy the typical Disney audience.
ArticHaze: Profit is increasingly in animation nowadays, but maybe they would need to make ARIA in 3D effect to attract viewership?
I do not think another Venice expedition would be a problem for J. Sato and crew, as he probably earned a lot of yen with the Marin anime, which was based on Sanyo's Sea Story pachinko machine. Anyhow, Venezia is full of japanese tourists every day.
Furthermore, the city council would probably give Sato incentives for a movie to promote Venice tourism (which ARIA does very efficiently indeed, as many of us have experienced in our own wallets)!
BTW, one possibility to make a movie sell better and become profitable, would be to strenghten the sci-fi aspect of ARIA. Once I wrote a rough draft to embed Akari's story in the frame of interstellar migration, as described by A. C. Clark's "Songs of a Distant Earth".
ReplyDeleteAs for new 25 minute TV/DVD OVAs, like the Arietta, I have made two fairly detailed scripts for my desk drawer. I am a bit proud of those, having managed to bring a bit of action to ARIA world in a credible, unobstrusive manner.
ARIA in 3D...must be heaven. To also express it in an interstellar perspective would be quite breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteOn an miscellaneous note, I'd also think that if an ARIA movie is possible, I'd highly suggest that its plot must have a serious approach with a strong purpose than the soft and laid-back content that the ARIA series has always expressed since Day 1. Akari has already become a Prima so there must be a fresh new plotline and direction to completely stand out its original content. Although I'd welcome its usual SOL content to stay true to its title for its whimsical adventure but in some circumstances, it would defeat the purpose of a movie which might just end up exaggerating the same old content other than the fact that it would be a 150 min episode instead of 30 mins.
All in all, an ARIA movie I'd believe in must have a strong incentive or it'd just be nothing more than a DVD collection for its fanbase. Although there are many other factors that must complement to make this possible, it has the potential content to harbor a continuing storyline along as a successful movie if done correctly. Then again, I wouldn't doubt it could in any way turn out badly since I believe Sato knows what's best if a movie for ARIA is ever considered.
IMO, I'd also think an ARIA movie would be one of the biggest projects in Japanimation history since its variety and attention to detail is so powerful that it can be perceived as a colossal inspiration just from hearing its storyline and development. I still find the ARIA series to be somewhat underrated in many areas and that should've been more recognized for its content. A movie would certainly change this and it would ultimately surpass its genre boundaries than what it was previously known for. Regardless, I suppose I'm still just effectuating a wet dream that I just don't see it happening in any eventuality.