The Kotonoha Thread

[Nomad Soul]

Hello there,

Some of you might have never heard of us, but we have been around for a few years, always lurking somewhere under the surface of the vast scanlation pool. Kotonoha ("word" in Japanese) started out as a 1-man-operation since I was bored and thought I could do some scanlation for fun (boy was I wrong! ) Anyway, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I had a staff and we began to pick up more projects along the way. Kotonoha has been limping along ever since.

It's kinda hard to say what type of projects we do since most of them don't easily fit in one category. At least I can tell you that we have never done something from JUMP or its neighbors (for better or worse). The competition is simply too strong (as can be seen in this very forum.)

Our more popular projects include Chokotto Sister, Girlfriend, Deep Love, The Hour of the Mice and Goth. It's a wild bunch and not everyone will find everything appealing. But yeah, we love to experiment, to push the boundaries and see how far we can go.


(As you can see, we have a penchant for cute girls, but who doesn't? )

As for why I made this post, I stumbled across MH a few weeks ago and found the diversity displayed here fascinating. We also managed to find cool translators for a few of our projects through this forum, so I thought I should at least say hello on behalf of my team.

[Ayah]

Hello! First, I admit that this is the first time that I've heard of Kotonoha Second, I think it's good that your group has decided to scanlate non-Jump manga. Focus on other titles is good for readers because then, we'll have more titles to choose from. I saw your group being mentioned in the Seinen One Shots thread and I'm planning to download all of the recommended ones, including those you guys worked on. I just need to cross my fingers and wait for my internet connection to get better first Third, thanks for visiting MangaHelpers

[Nomad Soul]

Hi Ayah,

Thanks for the welcome. It's a pleasure to be here and I hope I can contribute something to the community. I hope you enjoy reading the short stories we scanlated.

Cheers,
Nomad Soul

[eni]

Welcome! How wonderful to see you here.
You already have fans here, so make yourself comfortable

[Ayah]

I know I said that today is the first time that I've heard of you guys. Guess what? I checked your site after posting. I believe I've been there before; just didn't recall the name I'll definitely check your projects, starting with the one shots.

[WinterLion]

Hi Nomad, I didn't know you started a thread here. Anyways, I'm glad you decided to post your group here. I've also included a link to your site in my trans board as one my projects. Anyways, just wanted to officially say welcome to the boards.

[barbapapa]

Kotonoha is a great group. Besides Mangascreener probably the only group whose every project I try to check out.
I'm looking forward to seeing more and more cool seinen projects! Like the continuation of Nazo no Kanojo X and such.

Oh I saw you guys were testing an IRC channel? I hope it'll be more than a test; I'd like to have some chats with you :O

[Nami]

Hi!

Just wondering :

1) How do you choose your series?
I admit they're weird, but they're good, since I read a few series myself & Deep Love Ayu & Girlfriend is some of my favourites!

2) Why are some of the series on BT ? but some on DL?

[Nomad Soul]

1) How do you choose your series?
I admit they're weird, but they're good, since I read a few series myself & Deep Love Ayu & Girlfriend is some of my favourites!

Good question. Generally, we try to pick up projects that are outside the mainstream, that have something "special." It doesn't have to be high literature or something people would consider "classic." All it takes is an interesting story. In a few instances though (Chokotto Sister, Girlfriend), we just scanlate a manga because we think it'd be fun to read. Ironically enough, our fun projects are also our most popular ones. ^^;

Diversity is another important factor for us. You will rarely see us doing the same kind of manga twice. Also, we are a strong supporter of female creators who work outside the shoujo/yaoi niche (e.g. Takako Shimura, Kei Toume, Hisae Iwaoka) and talented new-comers. That's the reason why we rarely touch works by popular artists who already have a strong fanbase outside Japan.

People tend to think Kotonoha only scanlates "alternative" manga which is not true at all. In fact, very little what we did would qualify as "alternative." Personally, I think this kind of manga is more appreciated when released in book form. We are more like a general-purpose scanlation group whose ultimative goal is to provide solid entertainment for mature readers, nothing more and nothing less. I once jokingly compared us with US publishing house Del Rey which I actually think is pretty accurate.

Well, I hope that answers your question.

2) Why are some of the series on BT ? but some on DL?

We tend to put new releases on both BT and HTTP, but we prefer BT most of the times since we don't want to put too much strain on our HTTP mirror.

[Nami]

Hey, Thanks for your enlightenment!
If Kotonoha don't pick up such stuff, our exposure to manga will only be so limited! Some series are really eye-opener..you know?!
By the way, the Present is kind-of sad...I actually need to reread in order to understand it better. I'm glad that is on DL though.

[Nomad Soul]

Just a quick update to inform you that we have opened our IRC channel at
kotonoha @ irc.irchighway.net

Drop by and say hello if you like.