The boke thread - gender bending and other surprises

[boke]

Hi there, I'm boke. I've been translating for a while. I lived for a while in Japan (and survived), went to the ends of the earth, found twue luv, escaped from the Man and now operate paranoid and desperate from a secret bunker deep in the Manga Mountains. I'd get out more, but I forgot the passcode.

Anyway, I tend to be interested in stories that have some gender variation in them (gender benders of all sorts, Yuri, some BL), but I'm not afraid of straight sex and kink either. Before you ask - I'm not all that interested in hentai. I like seinen and josei stories that take a serious or humorous look at sex - if it's offbeat sex, all the better.

I do translate other stuff as it catches my interested. I'm particularly interested in doing stories that otherwise may not get scanlated due to lack of panty shots or explosions. It's not like I don't like shonen, but there's plenty of people already working on that stuff.

Check out what I'm working on here:
http://mangahelpers.com/t/boke

Then ask questions or make comments about any of the series that I'm working on right here!

[Phantasia]

Ehhh!? Both Yuri and BL!?

[boke]

Ahaha What a great reaction! There are some Kinsey threes in the world, you know.

Yeah, I'll TL both Yuri and BL , but it has to be the right story. I like more offbeat stories such as Happy Go Lucky Days or Densen Complex.

[arpad]

Do you plan to continue with Bushido sixteen, and DOLL? How About Versus? Just Curious.
Thanks

[boke]

All of the titles you mentioned are in Afternoon magazine, published by Kodansha. Kodansha has requested that all Kodansha raws be pulled from mangahelpers. So right now I am taking a wait and see attitude towards these titles.

[arpad]

Interesting. I had no idea that something like that was happening behind the scene.
Are they only interested of the raws? Could you still use your own raws? Or just as in the past, translate your own copy, without the raws being posted and then post the translation only?

[boke]

Yeah, sure I could use my very own legal copy of Afternoon to translate those stories. But I never work on licensed titles. I know this isn't licensed, but I just want to take my time and think over how I want to approach this.

[hyreia]

Just curious, what's the current state of the scanlation of Prunus Girl? There are eight story chapters and that one other one. I'm new to this site, but it says there's "43 releases"? I guess that's counting all languages?

How often is a new chapter released? I'm not familiar with Gangan Joker.

[boke]

Just curious, what's the current state of the scanlation of Prunus Girl? There are eight story chapters and that one other one. I'm new to this site, but it says there's "43 releases"? I guess that's counting all languages?

How often is a new chapter released? I'm not familiar with Gangan Joker.

Gangan Joker is a (relatively) new monthly in Japan. Issues come out around the 20th of each month. There are currently eight proper chapters of Puranas Girl in Japanese - the release count here on Mangahelpers does include all the various language scanlations.

There's something special about Puranas Girl. It's by far the most popular of the series I do. Many groups have taken up this project and it's spread into other languages has been unusually fast.

[Teaparty]

Heh, it's the first time I've fallen in love with a guy...

[boke]

A while back I got a nice shout out from Laika, who said:

"Boke deserves an award or something for tirelessly working on mangos cocerning themselves with sexuality and gender identity."

http://mangahelpers.com/news/details/259#comment_5440

Thank you Laika!

[c_k]

Just dropped by to say thanks for translating all those gender bender/transgender mangas, which is one of the reasons I became a fan of yours. ^_^

I also read most of the mangas you've translated here on MH, including the work you did on Hourou Musuko. I also hope you catch up on Fudanshism since it combines gender bender and education - teaching us about the otaku culture. :P

Anyway, some questions:
1) Besides having worked in Kotonaha, have you ever worked for any other scanlation groups?
2) Do groups ever PM you about TLing manga for them?
3) How much time does it take you to TL a typical chapter (approximately)?
4) What mangas do you recommend reading that are gender benders/TG besides Hourou Musuko, which I know you love since you're a Shimura fan?
5) What makes gender benders/TG mangas interesting for you?
6) Have you read Nicoichi? If you have, what are your thoughts on that manga?

I'll leave other questions I may have for another time to give you time to answer those questions~

[boke]

Just dropped by to say thanks for translating all those gender bender/transgender mangas, which is one of the reasons I became a fan of yours. ^_^

I also read most of the mangas you've translated here on MH, including the work you did on Hourou Musuko. I also hope you catch up on Fudanshism since it combines gender bender and education - teaching us about the otaku culture. :P

Thank you very much for the kind words. I am continuing with Fudanshism, although I kinda dread the last four pages of each chapter. It almost takes as long to TL those as the other 20 pages!

Anyway, some questions:
1) Besides having worked in Kotonaha, have you ever worked for any other scanlation groups?
2) Do groups ever PM you about TLing manga for them?
3) How much time does it take you to TL a typical chapter (approximately)?
4) What mangas do you recommend reading that are gender benders/TG besides Hourou Musuko, which I know you love since you're a Shimura fan?
5) What makes gender benders/TG mangas interesting for you?
6) Have you read Nicoichi? If you have, what are your thoughts on that manga?

1) Yes. Hanashi, Dynasty, Horobi No Michi and some others. Not so much nowadays. Ever since I found Mangahelpers, I'm more of a lone translator. It's a trade off. I don't have to worry about deadlines or group dynamics, but I do miss knowing that my translations will end up in the hand of a skilled editor.

2) Yes - frequently. While I don't mind people asking, I end up shooting most of them down. Typically the reason is that people don't look at the kind of manga I'm interested in, and ask me to translate shonen titles. I like shonen, but there are plenty of groups that handle that. I like finding titles that may not get attention otherwise due to lack of explosions or pantyshots.

Also, I translate quite a few titles already, so adding another one is something I have to think about carefully, since I'm pretty busy in real life. I am a sucker for a mature, sexy one-shot though.

3) About two hours for most 24 page titles. Some writers are pretty damn wordy though, like Ryuta Amazume, and those stories take longer.

4) My preference is for more mature stories, so Takako Shimura definitely takes the prize (Hourou Musuko, Boku wa Onna no Ko). For mindless sexy try Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa. For a fun cross-over between gender bender and otaku culture, go for Fudanshizm. Yubisaki Milktea is great, twisty (and unfortunately unfinished). Princess Princess is really funny over on the josei side of the fence. Family Compo is done by the artist of Angle Heart and City Hunter and has that trademark blend of great art and funny stories. Kakumei no Hi is a favorite, and I love Pranas/Prunus Girl, and recommend it to everyone - fun writing and fantastic characters. Read G.I.D. for a realistic look at gender identity disorder, and I.S. for a realistic look at intersex issues.

5) Gender benders are interesting because they subvert one of the most powerful things in culture - sexuality and gender roles. Most of the time these roles never get examined: Boy must smack things with a fist or a sword *grunt*; Girl must show cleavage and tease boy *squeal*.

Gender benders represent the possibility of changing who and what you are. Often they are a search for a person's true self. They also can deal the struggle of having to handle things like unwanted change or prejudice.

While the manga world tends to stay in clichéd territory - "Gasp, I now have a penis/boobs! How is my secret love going to react? They must never find out! Golly, they found out! Let's have crazy adventures" - people do get murdered over this stuff in real life:
http://kclarkscorner.blogspot.com/20...s-on-rise.html

So for those who have to deal with gender issues, it can be very isolating and lonely and frightening. It's nice to have fun stories to explore what is *possible*.

6) I have the first three volumes, and it's a fun series. I like the tension between the male side and female side of the main character, and the way the story shows how he's a loving mother to his son (you only can write a sentence like that with a gender bender!). But ultimately, I worry that it's played for laughs, and that it's going to have a "bad ending" (in gender bender terms) - in other words, the main character will "go straight", marry the girlfriend, and undo the whole point of the story.

Other questions welcome!

[Laika]

Hey boke, dunno if you check this thread at all but I just happened to see it in your sig.

A while ago there was a one shot that won the afternoon 4 seasons grand prix that was set in the near future and dealt with transgendered mc. I think the setup revolved around her having multiple sex organs as a result of human evolution or something. The rest of the plot had to deal with her role and then her relationship with another character. I remember it being pretty interesting, did you managed to catch it? If you didn't, I think I still have the book around somewhere, so I should be able to scan it. It was the same one shot collection as the one that Hoshi No Kuni appeared in.

Also, there was this Endo Hiroki series that ran in one of the Afternoon mag off shoots before it got canceled that had a similar set up called, "Melt down." Instead of transgenders they had gender neutrals, though. It's another Endo SF series so there were some themes of gender and sex, but a lot of it was filtered through political and actual conflict, so it might not really be up your alley. Only got to 3 chapters before the mag it was in died, but the set up seemed interesting.

also:

[arpad]

Oh man, I would love to see those "one shots" appearing somewhere , scanlated, how would I know if they do? And when can we expect the last few chapters of DOLL?