Login
 
Not a member? Register now!
Announcements
Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter! Check out our new tumblr page. :)
Manga News: Toriko has come to an end; but be sure to swing by and share your favourite moments from the series!
Manhwa & Manhua News: Check out the new Manhwa and Manhua shout-out (March 2016).
Event News: One Piece Awardshas concluded. Check the results Here!

MH Interviews: Ju-Ni

+ posted by Lingwe in Interviews on Jun 19, 2009 09:31


Today we've got an interview with Vicissitude of Ju-Ni. Ju-Ni do a pretty bang up job working on Bleach every week and Vicissitude himself also does some scanning series from Shonen Jump and Young Magazine. There's some good stuff here so make sure you read it.

1. Please give a short introduction of yourself and your manga scanlation group. What kinds of manga does your group scanlate, how did it get started etc.

I'm Vic and I'm the present head of Ju-Ni. I'm 25 and live on the US East Coast and work nights, so I get to talk to all the cool kids from around the world in the IRC channels. Ju-Ni is mostly about Bleach, but we also had a hand in Azumanga Daioh for a while, plus we kicked around the idea for Busou Renkin (a series I have absolutely no knowledge of, save that there's a man with arms for legs and legs for arms, thus making it awesome). Due to a lack of cleaners, something that has been changing recently, we haven't been able to focus on much other than Bleach weeklies. Hopefully we'll get a few more people interested so we can free up some time on the weekends to work on the volumes and maybe pick up one of our shelved projects.

To find out how the group started, you'd have to stop by the IRC channel and ask Storm for a history lesson. It was his baby for the longest time. I've been told the history several times, but it seems like that's one of those things that's just in one ear and out the other. I joined a few years back and when Storm needed to focus on real life, I took over. We've been rolling on ever since.

2. How did you get into scanlating, and how hard did you find it at first? Has it gotten any easier with more practice? Why did you get into it in the first place?

I started out on the text side of the hobby. Or I planned to, at any rate. I wanted to help Evil_Genius proofread their stuff, since I noticed a few things that could have read better in English. Instead, Eldo offered me a cleaning test for Angel Heart so I looked up a cleaning guide and started in onthat. I proofread the script as I went through, too, but mostly it was a cleaning gig. For a while, I worked on churning out the volumes and I think I did a pretty good job of it.

After a while of getting Ju-Ni Bleach chapters, I decided to apply. I started on Databook SOULs and eventually graduated to volumes and after that the weekly chapters. SOULs and the Volumes were much easier, given the scans, and we tend to work out some good precleaning to make the weeklies easier, but I basically had to adjust my skill up at each level. At first, we were doing what MH dubbed MQ releases, cleaned out, reframed and touched up but no patterns replaced, but now we're all the way up with the other HQ groups out there.

It has gotten easier, but it's mostly due to the Spirit and Storm who taught the right methods and Marie and the other QCers who would call me out on all the little things that I overlooked. They helped me train my eye to the RAWs so I could start to pick apart what should be there and what shouldn't, what line needs to be redrawn and what survived precleaning well enough to suffice with the other redraws, and when to completely redraw rather than just hide behind templates (ie, just about always :v ).

As for why I do it, it's just because I've been sucked in. It's really fun to take a piece of crap page of low-grade recycled magazine printing to an HQ release page. Every week tends to show us a new trick that Kubo's art staff seems to have thrown at us. We're convinced that most of his original staff quit over Chuulhourne and he's got a new group of art students eager to show off. This helps us grow our own skills and keep up, finding new ways to clean. Hell, over the last few weeks, I've seen new patterns that were never present in the early chapters. Granted, the art's not as complex as it used to be, either, but we still get thrown a curveball every now and then that makes us all stop and have a little conference.

3. What types of manga are your personal favourite? Which manga titles do you like in particular? Any genres you don't like?

As with everything, I'll take it individually, as it comes. I have a very eclectic music collection, for example. I have everything from classical to death metal. Mostly I'll see/hear/read something I like and get it. It doesn't mean I'll like everything from that artist or author, but I like that one thing I found. The same goes for Manga. I'll check out recommendation threads on forums and if I see something that grabs my eye. That's how I ran into Freesia, a manga I'm VERY glad to see was picked up recently.

One of the great things about scanning so much is that I get a chance to see new things that I probably wouldn't have seen. Since I scanned Bleach from Jump, I figured I might as well get my money's worth from the magazine and offer to scan other stuff. Bokke-san was pretty cute. The art was neat and different and the story was enough to keep me interested, so I hung on to it. I'm trying to get into Psyren, but I don't have much time. I keep putting it off and then kicking myself that I shelved it again.

It's not about genre, like I said. It's more about what grabs my attention. Hell, Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba& looked really cutesy and granted, they are, but they're also a good read. Of course, you're talking to a guy who still watches cartoons on Saturday mornings while he cleans manga and cried at the end of The Iron Giant (and I'm man enough to admit it!). I can read the kiddy comics and have a blast doing it. But I can also turn around and read the huge epics and enjoy them for the story. But there's usually something that grabs me outside of a shoehorned genre, be it story or art. Akaboshi looks pretty interesting, if only because the main character looks like a blend of Ichigo and L, dressed like Hokage Naruto.

4. How do you feel the amount of fan feedback and thanks is for the work that you have done? How do you feel overall seeing people read and discussing the manga that you have scanlated?

We get a lot of people who drop in and thank us from time to time. A few people thank us and leave thanks in the comments when I post here at MH. It's great to see people enjoying the work we do and it makes it worth it. I didn't get into the hobby for thanks or any recognition at all, but it's nice that people come in and effectively tell you that they prefer your work to any other groups' work. Of course, they could hang around and talk to us.

5. Are there any other hobbies or things that you like to work on in your spare time?

I spend a bit of time online playing Call of Duty 4 on my PS3 (PSN: SA-Vicissitude, by the way ). I played a few MMOs from time to time and more or less settled on EVE online. Space piracy always appealed to me. Offline, I like to cook. We're also doing work on the house, so I chip in where I can. My brother and cousins are all carpenters and I try to chip in where I can. It's not often, since I work nights and they don't. A while back, I was into tabletop miniatures, Warhammer and the like. I still get a few models every now and then to assemble and paint. It's still fun.

6. How do you find the time to scan so many of the manga series from Shounen Jump each week? How long does it take to scan a typical chapter? And also how did you get into scanning raws in the first place?

Well, sometimes I don't. Every few weeks, I'm scheduled to come into work on the weekends (rotating schedule), so I'll only scan Bleach and maybe a handful of other series by request, usually Psyren and To Love Ru.

When I do have the weekend completely free, I just get the magazine, cut it up and scan through it. WIthout distractions, I can usually have a chapter up every 10 minutes. But of course, I have to do Bleach first and work out the precleaning for that before I get into anything else. Once that's out of the way, I just go through Jump front to back and scan everything I've been asked to scan. If anyone asks for something, I'll move that to the head of the line, though.

7. Occasionally there are one-shots in Weekly Shonen Jump, but a lot of times those one-shots don't get scanlated. Now that MH has the New Manga Shout Out, will you be more willing to scan those one-shots since there's now a more likely chance that someone will use your raws and scanlate the one-shot?

I've always been willing to scan one-shots. It's just that nobody requests them from me. And unfortunately, with so few cleaners, Ju-Ni can't go about taking care of them ourselves. I do like getting our name out there, though, even if it's just through my name as a scanner. Some of the one-shots looked really fun. Blust was pretty good. It was cool to see some of the art we've seen in Eyeshield applied to an actual fight rather than a game of football. I was hoping that they were using the one-shot to test the water for a new series along those lines, but Internet scuttlebutt doesn't seem to be backing up that theory. Still, I hang onto the RAWs for the one-shots just in case.

8. Why do you scan/provide raws for a particular series? How do you get your WSJ? Why are you subscribed, if you are? Are you subscribed to anything else?

Simple. Because someone asked me. However, I often get asked in a very backhanded way, by people who want me to scan exclusively for them. I don't play favorites. I remember a lot of groups being left out in the cold by scanners who sit on their work until their group has a chance to get a head start or even get their release out first. I don't cotton to that at all. Just because you're the first, doesn't make your release the best. And you're hardly proving that you're the fastest when you're hamstringing everyone else by not making a raw available to the public.

I get both Shounen Jump and Young Magazine. I got Jump for Bleach so I could be our groups provider. That way we wouldn't have to rely on anyone else and we could also avoid unscrupulous scanners from delaying their scans. I got Young Magazine because a former group member, now running her own group, wanted to do xxxHolic. Eventually I just posted a thread to offer my services as a scanner. I pay for a subscription at a bookstore, so I might as well squeeze all the use I can out of these magazines. It was just wasteful to scan only one series out of each and throw the rest away, so I decided to find out who needed anything else. I ended up scanning all but 2 or 3 series in Shounen Jump and adding DerDero, Saru Lock and Coppelion to my Young Magazine scans.

As to why, It's just cheaper. I COULD buy Jump indivudually, but you get a price break for subscribing. Simple math.

9. Ju-ni focuses exclusively on scanlating Bleach. What do you say about issue that it has become stale in recent chapters? On that note you also recently started scanlating it into Spanish. What was the reasoning behind this? Is it as popular in the spanish community as it is in the english community?

I completely agree, but I do still love the series. Earlier on, it was great. Now, there's too much focus on the action of fight scenes and too little
work towards all the various plot threads. I think I said in the MH channel that there were so many loose threads that the story was in danger of unraveling. Granted, I like the action in the series, but there's so much more development that could be done. Kubo's gone from doing a damn fine story to turning his manga into little more than a storyboard for the anime and the pacing suffers for it. Take a look at a series like One Piece. Much more complex story and fantastic action, but the pacing doesn't suffer for it. Oda does in one chapter what would take Kubo 3 or 4, if not more, to accomplish.

There was no reason, really. Lsshin offered to translate to Spanish and I agreed to typeset it. It started out as just a one-time "bonus chapter" to
surprise the rest of the staff, since I didn't tell them about it beforehand. But now he gets the script and we put out the Spanish alongside the English chapter. I don't know how popular Bleach is in the Spanish community, since I don't speak enough Spanish to ask. Our download numbers and the peers on the torrents seem to indicate that it's either not too well-known or Ju-Ni isn't too well-known. I'm leaning toward the latter, since there seem to be a number of Spanish Bleach sites out there.

10. If you were given the chance to write your own manga (and assume that you don't have to worry about cancellation or anything) what would the plot be? What would your characters be like and how would they develop?

Honestly, I'd love a crack at rewriting Bleach. Just sitting around and thinking of what COULD be done with the foundation Kubo's already laid is frustrating sometimes because I know he's never going to do anything that creative.

Beyond that, I dunno. I've thought about trying to pen something, even if it was just a stupid short story. I always seem to get distracted when I try. I've thought of a few ideas that might fit into US comics, but it always seems to be an idea for something already existing. A DC Elseworlds or Marvel What If?. I can't seem to come up with a decent original idea.

If I did get a manga up and running, I'd want to try and avoid the cliches that seem so prevalent in Shounen. The "power of friendship/love/etc" or generic burning shounen passion would not overcome all. Good Guys lose, sometimes. And there are generally lasting consequences. Look at Bleach. Ichigo beats an Arrancar and their nonexistent heart grows three sizes and all of a sudden they're willing to jump up and fight their former allies. Ichigo loses and his plot armor protects him from serious injury. I don't like that. I'm not saying that it would be bleak, but it would be less lighthearted than most shounen is.

One archetype that I love is the antihero. We've seen flawed heroes and guys who do the wrong thing for the right reason, but I want to see a guy who does the right thing for all the wrong reasons. After all, you know there are doctors out there who enjoy the cutting and the bleeding just as much as others enjoy saving people. But every monster needs a human facet to connect the reader. There would be slim glimpses into the character. Would there be love? Probably, but not as you or I would describe it. The love a wolf for his pack, maybe. Something primitive, but recognizable.

Character design would be would also play a part in the story. I don't want rippling muscle-men or women that are a single stumble from busting out of

their shirts (Screw you, Rob Liefield!), but people suited to the role they play. Look at a trained soldier, used to routine basic training exercise and
compare that build to a construction worker who engages in daily physical labor. Both are realistic, within their own respective fields. Back in high school, I knew half the football team. Some of them were big guys, but not particularly well-defined. Strong as hell, though. But that's how they trained themselves.

I also want each character in a story to have a history. THey existed before the story, so to speak, and so they had lives before it began. That history plays a major part in how we see them during the tale. This could all be revealed as the story goes on, but I'd prefer to keep it believeable. Your average teenager won't have miltary training without good reason. Shanin in Angel Heart, for example. Raised practically from birth to be an assassin. That suspends disbelief without hanging it from a gibbet.

One thing that I want to do is get a few classics reimagined as manga or anime. If The Count of Monte Cristo could do it, I think I can get a few other, more modern series on the drawing board. Dune would be pretty epic, if done right. I'm also wondering if the Bourne trilogy (and yes, it is ONLY A TRILOGY AND I WILL HAVE WORDS WITH ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE!) might make a good anime, if done in the same style as Monster. I like anime and manga because a lot of the observations and revelations come from a character's thoughts. Internal monologues are commonplace in anime/manga, so it wouldn't be out of place. It'd also be easier to illustrate Bourne's falling into the mists of his fractured memory. Fade the background to black and fog rolls in as flashes of light and the sounds of explosions from from the distance. Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain. Find Carlos, trap Carlos, KILL Carlos.

I wonder what it'd take to get that to happen. That idea started when I tried to localize the name Marie St Jacques and came up with Sanjaku Mari. ^_^

You can find Ju-Ni's releases here

Bleach

Have you shown your appreciation today? Click the thanks button or write your appreciation below!

Comments
#1. by Monz ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Thanks for releasing high quality raws every week. I'm sure a lot of good series like Reborn! and Psyren would be well behind the raw without your assistance. Keep up the good work with the raws and Ju-ni's release of Bleach. ^^
#2. by hash899 ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
yep thanks man for the high quality raws for everything and the scans for hq bleach.

Ur hitman reborn and beelzebub raws are quite easy to work with ^_^
#3. by gumin/zx ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
VeryThank for Scan Bleach HQ and Scan All series Juni~!!!
#4. by Amit ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
\o

It's finally out, eh?

Nice interview~

P.s- The Bourne series is not a trilogy!
#5. by Finestela ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Vic! About time!
Great to see your interview being posted ^^
#6. by Koen (Celestial Belgian)
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Nice interview Vic. Cool to read that bokke's art left some impression (because iirc I requested it back then). Most people dislike the mangaka's - not so common - art but yeah, just like you mentioned psyren, great minds think alike

and thank you for scanning raws (especially Psyren :p). Oh and I hereby request psyren tonight as one of the first :p
#7. by [Ju-Ni]Vicissitude ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
THERE WERE THREE BOOKS AND ONLY THREE, AMIT! THAT IS ALL! ANYTHING BEYOND THAT IS A FILTHY LIE

Edit: Yes, I think you did, Koen. Thanks for that. Also, I will be scanning Bleach/Naruto/Psyren and maybe one more today, since I have to work. :(
#8. by deJeer ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Hem,
and yeah, Vic
nice man with ur great quality raws
haha
i still remember ur way answering my stupid questions
lol
and bout the group, Ju-Ni
i'm very curious with ur way cleaned bleach series
lol
two thumbs up
^_^
#9. by Archtos ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Keep up the good work!

P.S. Iron Giant was an awesome movie ^_^
#10. by molokidan (Hidden Boss ΣΣ(゚Д゚;)ナヌッ)
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Nice interview, Vic.
#11. by Finestela ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Vic, scan ToLoveRu for the "one more" slot please!! XDDDDD

*Finestela gets stoned by other people*

P.S. I just noticed it's written "Jun-ni" at the bottom... Baaaaad Typo :p

P.P.S Awww... Just as soon as I've posted this comment, and TLR's raw is up! Thanks Vic! ^^
#12. by M-Hario ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Thanks Vic for all your work.
#13. by big_red01027 ()
Posted on Jun 19, 2009
Awesome interview.

Your assertion that Kubo's assistants quit over Coolhorn (I refuse to use Kubo's bastardized romanizations, haha) was hilarious. After Yumichika, did Bleach really need another gender-bender? Really? I mean, it's not like a bunch of other manga use gender-bender characters...oh wait.

And I completely agree with your answer to question 10. Kubo will likely never do as much with Bleach as some of his most creative fans. The most recent battles with Hitsugaya and Soifon damn well prove that to a T. He seems too concerned about the popularity (and survivability) of his characters, and seems intent on keeping ALL OF THEM alive until the end of story, which is just unrealistic and on some level insulting to the fans. If some of the refuse got cleared out, the story might just improve.

I have a question regarding that, actually. Do you think his bosses at Shounen Jump have something to do with the direction Bleach has gone in? Are they purposefully trying to stretch out the length of the manga, for example, until it reaches 500 or more chapters, like One Piece and Naruto?

It certainly seems that way to me, given how every chapter since Kubo returned to Fake Karakura after the Ulquiorra fight has ended in a cliffhanger. Not that that wasn't the case before...it just seems more prominent at the moment.

Thanks for the raws and the great HQ scans.
#14. by [Ju-Ni]Vicissitude ()
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
Considering how much of a cash cow the "Big Three" (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) are, I think Jump is going to want to let it go on as long as possible. That might have something to do with the pacing. As I said, it seems like Bleach is more a storyboard for the anime these days so that might just be Kubo's way of doing what he can with the limitations he's got.

Shounen series are pretty much a gold mine and they want to keep milking them for as long as possible. A lot of series have that problem. I point to Jeph Loeb and Ultimates volume 3 as an example in US comics...
#15. by Lingwe ()
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
Thanks for pointing that out Finestela.
#16. by big_red01027 ()
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
I definitely agree, the manga is a storyboard for the anime now, bad comedy bits and all. Omaeda (one of the most useless characters, IMO), and "squeal piggy" is just the latest example.
#17. by ExiledVip3r ()
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
The manga being a storyboard for the anime wouldn't be so annoying if the animation in the anime wasn't downright terrible for the majority of the episodes recently.

But nice interview vic.
#18. by Nami (Queen of The Damned)
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
Cool!!! Dropping by to say thanks since I remember reading your scans in the past. Not doing so now does not mean i don't like your scans, it has more to do with the way the story is going >.> Still misses the older chapters where it's "ooohhh i see" at certain chapters. Anyway, keep it coming! :>
#19. by goldb (Strongest Under the Sun)
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
Thank you ju-ni for your HQ Bleach scans!!! I never truly appreciated the hard work that goes towards providing that standard of quality until I saw your raws and cleans.
#20. by [Cross] ()
Posted on Jun 20, 2009
I appreciate your scans dude, nice interview.
#21. by juUnior ()
Posted on Jun 21, 2009
Nice review!

I would like to THX Vic for all the scanning of the raws as well, especially my beloved "Naruto" manga, hyhy *x* Big THX for this! xD
#22. by Bomber D Rufi ()
Posted on Jun 22, 2009
Thanks for the Gintama and Coppelion raws ^^ (At least I think it was you that scans Coppelion.) In any case thanks so much.
#23. by [Ju-Ni]Vicissitude ()
Posted on Jun 22, 2009
It is indeed me. ;)

EDIT: YOu know, I still have some old copies of Young Mag sitting around. They were from before I started scanning anything BUT xxxHolic and are untouched. I can dig through them and see what chapters are in them.
#24. by Bomber D Rufi ()
Posted on Jun 22, 2009
Good! Now I can thank you properly. Keep up the good work on the raw scans! Though..you wouldn't know anywhere to find the first seven would you? (Coppelion that is.) I really hate starting in the middle, especially since the story seems to be pretty interesting. If i felt a bit better about translating a Seinen I'd probably allow it to be scantlated...

EDIT Sweet! You sir are the greatest thing since sliced bread! :)
#25. by Yakedo-Tenchou ()
Posted on Jun 23, 2009
Thanks for the awesome job, Vic!
#26. by Gcat88 ()
Posted on Jun 23, 2009
i have actually been hoping for this interview for a while. really enjoyed, learned things i didnt know before and def. opened my eyes to things i didnt realize!!!!

About the Author:

Alias: Lingwe
Rank:
Registered: Sep 23, 2008
Message: PM |

Author's Contributions

Forum Posts: 106

Latest Translations

Date Manga Ch Lang Translator
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 130 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 129 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 128 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 127 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 126 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 125 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 124 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 123 tr McMaster68
Dec 8, 2023 Hitoribocchi no... 122 tr McMaster68
Dec 3, 2023 D.Gray-Man 249 fr Erinyes

Latest Releases

Date Manga Ch Lang Uploader
Apr 14 MH Yearbook 2019 Mangahe...
Feb 15 MH Yearbook 2018 Mangahe...
Mar 1 MH Yearbook 2013 Mangahe...
Jan 19 MH Yearbook 2012 Mangahe...
Nov 14 Houkago 1 Osso
Nov 14 Oragamura 1 Osso
Nov 14 Kenka 1 Osso
Nov 14 101Kg 1 Osso
Nov 14 Murder 1 Osso
Nov 14 Doubles 1 Osso