Lost and Found
Today we have a blast from the past! Jiraishin: The Lost File is the pilot chapter for the series Jiraishin; it only ever appeared in the magazine, and was never published when the series was given a volume release. For anyone who hasn’t read Jiraishin, you can still read this chapter — it’s a stand-alone story. Note this is early ’80s action seinen; Takahashi Tsutomu’s art style evolved over the course of the 19-volume series into the rich style of his contemporary work.
Jiraishin is essentially the series that introduced me to seinen, and is now the standard by which I measure all dark/gritty seinen. It holds a special place in my heart, so I was happy to discover this lost story. This oneshot is a joint with the new group Balikatan Group Scans. Drop on by if you like old-school seinen.
Jiraishin Diablo: I translated the first volume forever ago with my old group, and I’d like to finish it off. If any editor-types are interested in helping out on it, toss me an email at [email protected] — Photoshop is required, but you don’t need to edit all those sfxs. Will pick it up as an upcoming project if I can muster the troops for it. I have time to translate it next month 🙂
Speaking of upcoming projects! A bunch of new stuff is in the works because I want to translate all the things.
Gin no Sankaku (Hagio Moto) — Strange josei. Award-winning classic that spans time and space.
Neko Mix Genkitan Toraji (Tamura Yumi) — LSD josei. Adorable cats, bizarre fantasy world, heartbreak.
Ningyo no Ouji-sama (Kazumi Yuana) — Seinen. Just for fun, an absurd gender-bender rom-com. With mermaids.
Silent Blue (Andou Ikori) — Lovely seinen drama about lost memories.
Tomonen (Ooba Kenya) — Lovely josei oneshots. Sweet little vignettes about children. Ghibli-esque.
Ah, Jiraishin! So depressing, so violent, so improbably cool! I think what I like the most about it is the protagonist: he’s just so…cold and unrelenting, in a way that you rarely ever see in non-villains. Also, even though he and the female lead had a gentle sort of relationship (by his standards, lol), he didn’t suddenly change because of her. I despise love-interest-induced personality changes, whether for better or for worse. It’s so cliche.
Thanks for doing this oneshot, and I do hope someone will be interested in helping out with Diablo!
Re: the future projects — I’d been eyeing Toraji, Silent Blue and Gin no Sankaku for a while, so happy you guys are picking them up. And Tomonen is going straight on my wish list, it looks cute.
Thank you very much for the release , good one
I’ve been reading Gin no Sankaku recently and it is very good. And I’d say it’s LSD – the art is lovely and it can get dark at times. As to the others, I remember I upvoted Ningyo no Ouji-sama at some point, and the rest definitely looks interesting. I’ll be looking forward to all of these projects!