What gives.. Saru Lock and Holyland

Hello,
some of you might have noticed that we haven’t released seri.. well nothing for some good 24 days.

In this particular article I wanted to talk a bit about Saru Lock and Holyland. If you care about them you WILL read it till the end. (Sounded mean? Good!)

It has come to my attention that these series have a well established fanbase so to say as they are the most downloaded from bot and DDL. Numbers go into thousands, not counting online readers.
What I want to say is – this sums up quite a crowd. I’m sure that within that many fans there are some capable of helping us out.
I.. this puzzles me to be honest, if there are guys who can help with redraws and love these series why are they choosing to agonizingly wait weeks/months for a single chapter if all it would take is some few hours from their time per week to see new chapters come out more often.
People working in this group are no different or more special than you, we are just fans who decided to do something about things we like. We have jobs, family, school/uni, other hobbies etc. we are no machines created to work on certain manga scanlations and we have no wonder pills or chinese sweatshops to get out new releases everyday.

FAQ:
Q1: Why slow releases?
A1: It’s because of the excessive amounts of redraws in these series.
We have 1 guy working on SL and he’s busy with university right now.
And we have 1-1.5 guys working on HL redraws.

Q2: What are redraws?
A2: Outside japanese text that we need to remove and make it look like it was never there to begin with. Here is an example: Holyland

Q3: Oh, but you need to be an artist or professional Photoshop user to do that!
A3: No you don’t. I consider myself a good redrawer but my ability to draw something on a paper limits to a kindergarten level(yes, I’m that bad). Also our best redrawer(illiteracy) had a similar state, he could only create things with a mouse. Therefore you don’t need to be artist, what you need to have is ability to perceive elements around redraw and how to correctly clone from those places to fill it, also some line drawing skills(brush tool).
Prior PS experience? Not really, it’s just like MSPaint + clone tool(and maybe Path tool in some rare cases).

Q4: How do I start?
A4: Borrow Photoshop CS2-CS5 from a “friend”, no GIMP. Then visit #cleaners channel on irc.irchighway.net link. In following channel topic you will find link to numerous tutorials and actual videos of redraws being done, it should provide you with a clear picture how things are done. There is also this guide http://www.ruinevil.com/ it is good, but don’t take everything it says to be carved in stone.

Q5: How do i contact you if I think that I got what it takes?
A5: Make an application on forum (Your post will have to wait for confirmation) OR come to our irc channel and talk directly with me or GGpX.

That’s about it, enjoy your weekend.

P.S
Oh, did I also mention there is a 90% chance of us dropping Saru lock after we finish v4 (2 more chapters). Doesn’t really matter how many fans, whiners, downloads and what not it has, if nobody wants to work on it – series are dead. And I don’t really feel like dragging corpse around anymore.

15 Thoughts to “What gives.. Saru Lock and Holyland”

  1. robin

    drop it drop it

  2. robin

    see? noone cares indeed. drop them and pick up gantz/vagabond/moar joint with mangascreener/everything by tsutomu nihei and hideo yamamoto 😀 seinen ftw!!!11

  3. Soujourn

    Oh, that's not cool. I can't vouch for Sarulock, but Holyland is definitely a manga to be subbed. People appreciate your guys' effort. We don't mind about the long releases, we're manga fans, we've had worse (cough Berserk cough). Keep up the good work guys.

  4. Bad Omen

    I know you guys will do what you got to do. That said, I REALLY hope you don't drop Saru Lock. I love that series.

  5. uzumaki_kyoshiro

    Yeah me too, I also hope you don't drop Saru lock, pleaaaase :laughing: … Holyland is cool too well I really appreciate your scans, and I don't mind waiting, cause quality is excellent 🙂

  6. Faero

    Just drop every shit and do Shounan Jun-ai, ya know that's what everybody be waitin for

  7. dark mage

    Thanks alot for the Saru Lock and Holyland chapters. Please dont drop Saru Lock as these two mangas are my favourites :crying:

  8. UchihaProdigy

    im gonna check out the manga redrawing thing to see if i can help out with HL. i sure as hell dont want to see it dropped.

  9. Ysellian

    Ignore the losers that know nothing else but whining about slow releases and keep up the good work 🙂

  10. your a dumbas

    but theyre soooo slow

  11. gman

    Bah, dont drop saru lock, its a great managa!

  12. I hate my money

    I don't like to work and I love my spare time. I'll rather donate 100$ if that makes you drop that part time job and scanlate some manga. 🙂

  13. SrFloppy

    there you have it. accept donations and hire mercaneries

  14. ....

    Don't drop it! It's okay if you take a long time with low quality, just don't drop it! >_<

  15. Terrence

    I understand it's hard and some of us don't really appreciate what you guys do. Really thank you for scanlating manga for us, I've really enjoyed reading Saru Lock and I wouldn't of been able to without your guys help. If you do choose to drop it, it would be a shame, but I would respect your choice..after all, you guys are doing it with nothing in return. If possible though, I hope you may continue Saru Lock sometime when interest is renewed or when you have time. It doesn't have to be high quality, and personally I'd read it as long as it's in english.

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