From Anime News Network:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-09-30/emma-kaoru-mori-launches-otome-katari-manga
"Historical work about horse-riding, arrow-shooting princess on Asia's Silk Road.
Kaoru Mori, the creator of the award-winning Victorian-era Emma manga, announced on her personal blog this month that she is starting a new manga in the inaugural issue of Enterbrain's Fellows! magazine on October 14. An advertisement in the September 25 issue of the free Toradayo magazine further revealed that the new work is a historical manga set on the Silk Road that connected Asia with Europe before the modern times. The story will center around a princess who knows archery and horsemanship. According to a flyer for Fellows! magazine, the manga is tentatively titled Otome-Katari, and the princess is named Amiru.
Fellows! was originally the name of a spinoff publication to Enterbrain's Comic Beam magazine. Mori drew Emma in Comic Beam, and she later drew Shirley, a manga set in Edwardian England, in the Comic Beam Fellows! publication. CMX Manga publishes Emma and Shirley in North America."
Would you guys at IItran be translating this new manga from Ms. Mori?
Well, that would depend on a lot of things, not least of which is whether the people who would be doing the work actually think the manga is good enough to warrant the effort. So basically, for now we'll wait and see. It's not beyond the realm of possibility, though.
We'll take a look, that much I can promise.
Heh, I was just about to come and report on this. It sounds like an interesting concept, but I guess it still remains to be seen if it will compare to Emma. I hope it does, and that you guys translate it. Though I understand it depends on several factors =)
Only two weeks to go, I guess.
One thing that seems interesting to me is that the story may feature high adventure, highway robbers, court intrigue, violence etc., till know Ms. Mori has draw Slice of Life stories, with a slow pace, and no violence. I'm looking forward to see how Ms. Mori handles an adventure manga.
I looked at Ms. Mori Blog ( http://emma.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/122/ )and I saw a couple of picture of her new manga, "Otoyome-Gatari" and the attention she pays to the characters' wardrobe is amazing.
Here's a link to a 4 page preview of the series. The art's really nice.
http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/jp/p_pickup/2008/fellows/browse/01.html
Isn't it just?
Wasnt this suppose to be out ?, god damn where the hell are mah raws?
Oh wow, it's so detailed. I'd go crazy trying to put that much detail into something repeatedly...
If I interpret the teaser right, she's married to a minor!
Raws seem to be hard to come by. If anyone finds any, feel free to post them, it'd help us too.
Worse come to worst, I have a copy of Fellows! in the mail, but it would certainly be easier if someone else had already done the work.
Lucky. I went to Kinokuniya hoping to find it there, and they said they'd have to order it for me. What a bummer.
I guess I should post this for anyone else who wants it: Fellows! volume 1 from bk1:
http://www.bk1.jp/product/03052867
Bk1 doesn't rip you off on shipping like Amazon does.
Update for those wondering: We've got scans, and we're having a look at this. We'll try to get this first chapter done, at least, but it might take some time as we're a little short on help. As for the following chapters, we'll see how it turns out.
It's only published every other month, so it'll be slow either way.
Woho~! A new project~! How long has it been...?
YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH!!!
AWESOME!
Three cheers!
Hip! Hip!?...
YAAAAAAAY! ^_______^
To distract ourselves while waiting for scans....
Kaoru Mori's personal blogs
http://morikaoru.blog62.fc2.com/
Better synopsis:
http://anime-comments.blogspot.com/2008/11/otoyome-gatari.html
http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1731828
Useful links, thanks. I'm working as fast as I can, guys, 'kay? (40 pages, whew!) Scanning and preliminary editing all done, 13 pages translated.
Is it good?
Whispers:
Your mail is not working, so I post here. How can I help you with?
I got your mail, so just reply back to my gmail.
Cheers.
I typoed my email address. It's whispers.iitran@gmail.com
Sample pic with hi-res at: http://sovietrussia.org/ma/res/1670.html
After 1 year, 6 months and 29 days since our last release, I happily announce:
Otoyomegatari Chapter 1.
http://torak.no-ip.info/tracker/torrents/%5biichan%5d_Otoyomegatari_Chapter_1.zip.torrent
Some notes: There has been no announcement of what the actual spellings of the names in this manga are. We've done our best to try and figure it out, but what we have are essentially just educated guesses. Until Mori gets around to telling us what she really meant people's names to be, we'll have to make do with that.
MOAR!
Good work, thanks folks.
Btw, is this age-play?
It's been so long since we used the tracker I'd almost forgotten how to use it.
In fact, something has broken itself, so I had to hack the torrent in manually.
It's only published every other month, so better not hold your breath!
lovely manga and seems like the dear author seems to have the culture facts right so far, which makes it more brilliant in my eyes....will look forward to more :3 Yes, I did fall in love with Amira . such a cutey, lol
Thanks a lot for scanlating it and keep up the great work (hope that it will get licensed and out in the stores someday in the future)
Thank you for this release!! New Mori's work, yay xD
Thank you staff and translators for all the great work and effort put into the first chapter. It was a quick read, but the ending left me wanting the next chapter right away. I guess Ms. Mori's done her job well in that regard.
Thank yous!
I'd hoped to do a Whisper's Guide to Amira's World, like I did for Emma, but while I have been a longtime Victoriana nut, my knowledge of the Ottoman Empire is nearly nonexistent at present. I'm researching like crazy, tho, and hope to step up to the plate before too long.
I have found out a few things by talking to various helpful and knowledgeable people, such as:
Yes, they're married. But the marriage is likely to not have been consummated yet, and that's not uncommon for the culture. So, despite the amusing comments I've seen online ("Bride, meet your shouta husband" and "Tiger, you just hit the jackpot" for example), it's pretty unlikely they've "done it" yet. However, that makes it more likely that her tribe can take her back at this point, so I expect DRAMA next installment.
Mori's historical research was a bit shaky in the very early days of Emma, but firmed up substantially after that, and she demonstrates she still knows her stuff. Note that Amira uses what is known as "Mongolian draw" when she pulls back the bow, not the "Mediterranean draw" technique more commonly used in the West. This is correct for her background.
The next chapter was published on December 12th or nearabouts, and we're trying to get our hands on scans at the moment. It's available via mailorder, and I just may do that, but last time some helpful Toshiaki provided scans that were much cleaner than ours.
More Mori... ;_; I'M SO HAPPY!
Well, the mongolian draw would be considered quite specific historical knowledge in western societies... however in China, Korea, and Japan it's far more well known and if you look at any archery artwork predating the Meiji era they're all going to depict the mongolian shooting style.
I think Ms Mori really loved to draw all the beautiful designs in the new Chapter.
Chapter 2 is released and there's no word of it?
Thank you guys for all your hard work, it is the best new year present.
>>47 I do remember one of Ms. Mori afterword, that as much as she loves to draw, it is really hard meeting a deadline.
Got a torrent going on now: http://torak.no-ip.info/tracker/torrents/%5biichan%5d_Otoyomegatari_Chapter_2.torrent
My, how time passed to see new chapter.
After reading, why do I have the dread that this is just calmness before the storm.
It occurs to me that the heroine of this story look and act like Emma's German mistress. Does anyone agree?
They LOOK similar, but the main character trait in Amira that they seem to be playing up so far is her naivete. She's a bit of a fish out of water in her new surroundings (see her misunderstanding at the end of chapter 1), and that isn't similar to Dorothea at all.
Yes, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the two most mentioned by others, too, usually the latter. What keywords should I look for when researching, I wonder? It's a shame I know so little about this area. And any books that might help, that I can find at the library or bookstore?
I'll see what I can dig up and then report back soon! By the way, I think it's great that there is a foreign Orientalist (the light-haired fellow) in the story! Around the late 1800's, scholars specializing in Asian literature and culture like Sir Aurel Stein traveled through Central Asia collecting texts to be translated and often living with the local populations for a number of years. This is nice for me, because I am an Orientalist-in-training myself! :)
Update!
**tp://morikaoru.blog62.fc2.com/blog-entry-66.html
**tp://www.enterbrain.co.jp/pickup/2009/fellows_vol3/
can't wait T_T
i wish someones would scan the whole fellows vol 1 and 2
like those other mags
http://www.bk1.jp/keywordSearchResult/?keyword=fellows&storeCd=&searchFlg=9&x=0&y=0
Fairly cheap, and they ship worldwide.
(And it really is worth buying them, there's a lot of good manga besides Otoyomegatari in Fellows!. It's even a lot better than Beam.)
I look forward to 3. chapter of Otoyomegatari! I can't wait o_O...
Anyway, thx for your translation ~_^
Otoyome-Gatari Vol. 1 debuted # 9 in the Japanese Comic Ranking for october 12-18.
Source:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-10-21/japanese-comic-ranking-october-12-18
just heard today about this series, how great you're doing this project! Thank you very much for all your efforts. (^ ^)