Putting together a GDA scanlation team!

[kaidog]

Hi! *ahem* I've... never posted to this board before. I'm kind of shy and nervous but here goes!

I'm so excited about Ginga Densetsu Akame that I am absolutely going to implode. Upon discussing it and following the tag on tumblr, it seems like there is demand for a GDA English translation. I'm 100000% down to do whatever I can to help this happen. So, uhm, here I am! Would anybody be interested in helping me translate GDA as it is released? I'm prepared to purchase and scan the manga pages, along with assist in translating and be a typesetter. Unfortunately, I only speak English! I'm looking for a translator (I can tweak the final grammar myself) and somebody who can clean and prep my scans. This seemed like the correct place to ask for help.

Any interest?

I can supply my Skype, tumblr, facebook, whatever if need be.

[Klomonx]

Have you found any way to access the manga? Getting it is probably most important.

[kaidog]

Jun 7, 2014 16:35:17 GMT -7 Klomonx said:

Have you found any way to access the manga? Getting it is probably most important.

Yep! I've already purchased the issue of Weekly Manga Goraku that contains the first chapter of GDA.

[Klomonx]

Jun 7, 2014 17:53:27 GMT -7 kaidog said:

Jun 7, 2014 16:35:17 GMT -7 Klomonx said:

Have you found any way to access the manga? Getting it is probably most important.

Yep! I've already purchased the issue of Weekly Manga Goraku that contains the first chapter of GDA.

I'm sure if you are willing to scan there will be consideration to translate.
I'm not in charge of such and don't know a lick of Japanese, but I don't see the issue other than time taken to translate.

[M-92 Mantis]

I would be happy to help with the cleaning of the scans! Kit is having really bad internet trouble, at the moment, unfortunately, so I'm unsure if she would even be able to help soon, depending how long it takes for her building to fix its internet connection.

The Tiger of Kai will need to give her own answer, too, as I am unsure if she would have the time to translate, if Kit can't.

Is there any specific time you need? The main problem is time; most teams can't do it in a certain deadline, BUT our main reason we haven't been able to do anything here recently is Littlkitsune1 had a sudden illness, and now her internet is almost always down... but we are definitely NOT an inactive or dead site, and we would be happy to help! It just might take a while since our main translator's internet has gone completely bonkers, but I have time to clean the scans for you, and we can use our own typesetting settings as we do on all of our stories, as Kausza and I both typeset, too, if you don't have the time to do that along with scanning.

Tl;dr - This whole thing would be done in a jiffy if Kit's internet wasn't fritzy, right now, but we'd most certainly be happy to help!

[kaidog]

Jun 7, 2014 18:23:04 GMT -7 M-92 Mantis said:

I would be happy to help with the cleaning of the scans! Kit is having really bad internet trouble, at the moment, unfortunately, so I'm unsure if she would even be able to help soon, depending how long it takes for her building to fix its internet connection.

The Tiger of Kai will need to give her own answer, too, as I am unsure if she would have the time to translate, if Kit can't.

Is there any specific time you need? The main problem is time; most teams can't do it in a certain deadline, BUT our main reason we haven't been able to do anything here recently is Littlkitsune1 had a sudden illness, and now her internet is almost always down... but we are definitely NOT an inactive or dead site, and we would be happy to help! It just might take a while since our main translator's internet has gone completely bonkers, but I have time to clean the scans for you, and we can use our own typesetting settings as we do on all of our stories, as Kausza and I both typeset, too, if you don't have the time to do that along with scanning.

Tl;dr - This whole thing would be done in a jiffy if Kit's internet wasn't fritzy, right now, but we'd most certainly be happy to help!

Oh goodness, this is so sweet of you!

Timing isn't necessarily an issue. Considering that I have to special order the comics, they take a week+ to get to my house, so there's that delay on my end. Ideally, I'd like to keep a decent pace of maybe a chapter to two chapters done per month. It's completely understandable if that is asking too much.

I'm aiming to have the first chapter of GDA scanned within a week and a half. The delay for me is, again, shipping. Plus I just graduated high school. Family is visiting to celebrate and all that jazz.

I begin Japanese language classes in the Fall. Maybe in a year or so I can assist more with translations.

To Kit- my internet is slow and finicky, as well. I know the feel. I also know what it's like to deal with illnesses, so no pressure whatsoever.

Semi off-topic, but a family friend of mine is visiting Japan next month. He offered to pick up some of Yoshi's works for me and bring them back. Is there anything specific that GingaTest has been looking for? I can ask him to look around.

[M-92 Mantis]

Two chapters in a month? That's no problem at all! We usually do a chapter each week (depending if the chapter is a decent 20-30 pages or 70-90), so we can easily work with your pace. I'll let Kit know to see if she can possibly be able to translate when at her mom's. Until we know how big this supposed new series is, I'm guessing the chapters won't go any higher than 40, which usually takes Kit 1-2 days to finish. I can clean 20 pages in 30 minutes, usually, depending on the scanning quality and how much is left to clean, but I've been doing it for around 4+ years, along with typesetting, so there'd be no issues on my end.

Hmm... All I know of that we meant to get but never came are the Shin Gaiden Jump Remix, the one with Benizakura's backstory, Ganin, the Kai bros backstory, and some with the dog named Shin and Gin and the gang, but it's not much of a priority. There's that one story... with the white lab? I seriously can't remember the name, it came out recently.. something 'Tomon' I think? That'd be pretty cool to finally see; I think it's a short story, too.

But if none of these are easy to find, it's no problem at all. We'd be super grateful for the help, but we'd also be grateful for the effort, even if your friend can't find any :biggrinplz:

[kaidog]

Jun 7, 2014 23:05:13 GMT -7 M-92 Mantis said:

Two chapters in a month? That's no problem at all! We usually do a chapter each week (depending if the chapter is a decent 20-30 pages or 70-90), so we can easily work with your pace. I'll let Kit know to see if she can possibly be able to translate when at her mom's. Until we know how big this supposed new series is, I'm guessing the chapters won't go any higher than 40, which usually takes Kit 1-2 days to finish. I can clean 20 pages in 30 minutes, usually, depending on the scanning quality and how much is left to clean, but I've been doing it for around 4+ years, along with typesetting, so there'd be no issues on my end.

Hmm... All I know of that we meant to get but never came are the Shin Gaiden Jump Remix, the one with Benizakura's backstory, Ganin, the Kai bros backstory, and some with the dog named Shin and Gin and the gang, but it's not much of a priority. There's that one story... with the white lab? I seriously can't remember the name, it came out recently.. something 'Tomon' I think? That'd be pretty cool to finally see; I think it's a short story, too.

But if none of these are easy to find, it's no problem at all. We'd be super grateful for the help, but we'd also be grateful for the effort, even if your friend can't find any :biggrinplz:

I own the Shin Gaiden Jump Remix. It's really special to me- I'm concerned about damaging it if I went to scan it. Ganin is a story that I'd LOVE to see translated, though. 

[M-92 Mantis]

Ah, that's no problem, scanning can definitely take a toll on the thicker books. It's also real hard to find, so no worries. Our translator Tiger of Kai translated Ganin for the Gingaboard scanlation of it, if you haven't seen it already. We wanted to try our hand at it, too, but it was never one of the priority ones like GNG and SSY and GDW.

I had bought one, but the shipping flaked out and eBay didn't save my new address, so it got sent to the old house and I never got it returned, lol.

[Kit]

I'm so happy and excited that you want to work with us! As has been stated, the main problem right now is just when and how long I can keep a reasonable internet connection to even be of any use. I'm working on seeing if I can split a bill for personal internet with my mom, but in truth, I don't know how long it will take for even that.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that I will definitely help, but I can't give you any concrete promises on how long it will take just based on this problem. If I can get access to internet that works like it's supposed to, it should be no problem to get this translated in a reasonable amount of time (unless the chapters are obscenely long, obviously).

I really hope I don't sound like a Debby Downer trying to throw a wet blanket on this, because I really would be happy to work on it, I just don't want to immediately say it's no problem when the issue in the way isn't really in my control.

[M-92 Mantis]

I thought I'd mention that our scanner, Peewee Unicorn, has Shin Gaiden - I totally forgot, derp. So she's scanned it for me so it'll be in the to-do list, too!

[The Tiger of Kai]

Yes, I've translated GANIN for Ginga Board already (a joint-project with their admin, Arano).

Anyway, I'd be happy to work on this with Kit depending on length and time (some days I'm at my boyfriend's apartment which has limited internet access). Keep us updated with this and I'll free up some time to help out.

[kaidog]

It's been a while. Hello everyone!

I have the issue of Goraku with the first chapter of GDA. I'm still waiting on the other 2 issues to arrive. I plan on scanning the 1st chapter when I wake up in a few hours. It's past midnight here, oops.

What would be the best method to send the raw scans? A .zip or .rar archive uploaded somewhere? Any specifics I should worry about? I was going to scan at 300 dpi .jpeg, unless there are better settings.

[M-92 Mantis]

300 isn't necessarily bad, but 600, if you can, keeps in a lot better quality. All of our scans reach the size of a consistent 1000px for height (width is never exactly the same, only height), unless the RAWs we were allowed to use (SSY, GDW, GNG) are set differently. The problem is 600 takes a while to scan each page, so you might just want to do it at 300 dpi, it's not bad quality.

As for sending scans, you can send them over to me. For quick scan sending we use sendspace.com

You can zip up the files you want to send over, upload them on sendspace, and send me the link. From there I'll clean the scans and hand them over to Kit to start getting the script ready. After that, I edit the script, then either I or Kausza typeset it. We check over the chapter for any last minute errors, and once everything's good, we release it! We'll also obviously add you in the credits along with us in thanks for allowing us to use your issues, and for scanning for us.

As for preferences, please scan the table of contents so we can show it in its original text and in English, like we do for our scanlations. At the very end of the story (which I'm guessing won't be for a while), please note we like to also keep in the publisher's info and copyright that's always at the very back of the book for each volume. It decreases our chances of getting in trouble should any companies find the work.

All you need to do is scan and send over the RAWs to me via PM. If you have any trouble with scanning if you're new to it, feel free to ask me for help. Just note that you may have to press your hand or a few books on the spine of the issue (if it's really thin you shouldn't have to) so that we don't get any spine blur, which makes it difficult to clean the sides and for Kit to be able to read. :biggrinplz:

[kaidog]

Jun 25, 2014 21:37:13 GMT -7 M-92 Mantis said:

All you need to do is scan and send over the RAWs to me via PM. If you have any trouble with scanning if you're new to it, feel free to ask me for help. Just note that you may have to press your hand or a few books on the spine of the issue (if it's really thin you shouldn't have to) so that we don't get any spine blur, which makes it difficult to clean the sides and for Kit to be able to read.

Goraku issues aren't too thick, so avoiding blur should be easy! Pressing should be enough.

I'll scan at 600 dpi. That's alright with me!