Sweet Sixteen – Anniversary

Good morning,

It’s November 11th and it’s this group’s anniversary. We started with our first release on November 11th 2005, and here we are 16 years later. It’s pretty amazing that we’ve been around this long, but here we are. Through that, we’ve worked on so many good and interesting series (and some bad ones, granted, hello Samon and Manga Of The Dead) that have given people reading material throughout the years. Today we’re wrapping up a couple of series, but we have one of my favorite series that’s been completed. I’ll talk about it a little later, but it’s one of those series that I really think will be recommended in those Recommend Me A SOL Series you see in generic anime forums. More on that later.

Before we get into the release, a major thank you to everyone involved: Nitouryu, zeraki, illiteracy, tim3, dh85, Akacz13, Modi, Ko-chan, momimomi, goosnboos, SevenFacedBird, memin, Michita, korvas and possibly a few others. But if you see these guys on Discord, give them a big thank you.

Now, where do we start… Alphabetically, I suppose.

A Diffusion Disease Extra 1 & 2 (End) (!ADD08 !ADD09) – This now brings us to the proper conclusion to ADD. These short stories are completely unrelated to the main story, but there is an author interview that I would recommend reading. There’s always something about author Interviews that does it for me.

Dokuro 6-12 (End) (!Dokuro) – And on that note, we’ve now completed all three of the Dokuro stories. We’ve finished the original Dokuro, finished the re-imagination from 2004 that Saruwatari drew up and the pilot that was included at the end of Dokuro v04 from the reimagination. Dear Saruwatari, no more Dokuro please.

Kimi 30 (!Kimi30) – Part of the reason it took so long to finish up c29 & 30 were the redraws, that’s undeniable. Another small part was us wanting to laugh at the armpit of the internet in the comments section at ZombieDex because the lowest common denominators of society gathered there, but since ZombieDex is a piece of shit site and the comments are gone, that reason is forever gone. But the truth is, the series was on hiatus and we simply didn’t have any reason to hurry. However, the author’s re-started the serialization and the next volume is tentatively scheduled for December. I’ll be buying that book, and volume 5’s releases should start around January.

Koukou Tekken-den Tough v30 (!Tough30) – Thirty down, twelve to go. This fucking series is going to be the end of me, I swear. Major thank you to zeraki who did the bulk of the redraws on the volume despite, in his own words, “I don’t read this.” Much appreciated. 🙂 By the way, I strongly recommend reading the interview at the end with one of the OGs of MMA, Funaki. It was done right before his fight against Rickson Gracie.

Lady Snowblood 4-7 (!LS04 !LS05 !LS06 !LS07) – Four new chaps from Lady Snowblood that were kinda… started on, but the editor has since gotten busy with life. We’ll continue working on this series whenever he’s returned.

Opium 26 – (!Opium26) And this concludes volume 3. We shall start working on volume 4 shortly, just have to get a few things straightened out before then. I hope this was a satisfactory end to a pretty fun volume. Stay tuned for more!

Sasori 48 (!Sasori48) – There’s a new twist to the series, with a new element that I didn’t think we’d see, but was kind of predictable in a way, when you look at the elements of the series.

Smells Like Teen XXX 1-2 – (!Teen01 !Teen02) – Ummmm… How do I explain this one? It’s a very wholesome series that I bought on a whim from Amazon many years ago and momimomi agreed to translate it. It’s by the artist of My Balls, a series I would strongly recommend reading. As for this one, it’s a little shorter and has a few twists and turns that you might enjoy.

Temple of El Alamein 7-8 (!Alamein) – A few years ago, I had bought a couple of Hoshino Yukinobu books and noticed that, I had bought a book to a series we had already released. I was a little annoyed, partly because I can’t read Japanese and therefore wasn’t paying enough attention to what I bought, but also because, the book was a new edition. And in that new edition, there were extra stories that weren’t published the first time around. This irked me a lot and this is what happened here. If you were to look at The Distant Dawn, it’s a nearly 500 page release. However, that’s because I bought three or four different editions of that series and I took all of the short stories from every book (eliminating the doubles/triples, obviously) and compiled them into one. So the same thing happened here, I’m just compiling the extra stories that were included in a new edition.

The Blue Hole 17 (!BH17) – A new step forward in our dino adventure. A big thank you as always to Hokuto no Gun for their help on the series, and we’ll see you again on Monday / Thursday for our usual weeklies.

Tokyo Alien Bros (!TAB16 !TAB17 !TAB18) – Back to what I was talking about earlier in the beginning of this post. Tokyo Alien Bros, if shared enough, will be one of those series that will be consistently recommended to other throughout the next decade & more for those looking for a nice Slice of Life series. And, if I’m being honest, I think we did about as good a job on it as one could possibly expect. A massive thank you to tim for doing all of the sfx, while my annoying ass was just that: annoying. Thank you to SevenFacedBird for translating, I’m hoping to do another series (or ten) with you soon :D. And those of you reading this, do me a favor and recommend this series when you can.

This series also holds a special place in my heart for a multitude of reasons other than how good it was. A few years ago, I was living with someone and she was trying to learn French. I own this series in French and we would read the books together to practice her French. She loved Tiger Guy and his shirt, naturally, and found the series a lot of fun to read. One day, this was right before Christmas 2018, we’re walking in the city and we pass in front of a thrift shop. My friend loves going thrift shopping, and takes every opportunity to check out new stores she discovers. We were meeting friends that day and didn’t stop in. I’m glad we didn’t, because at the front of the store, I saw a sweater with a big tiger’s face on it, nearly identical to Tiger Guy’s t-shirt. She didn’t notice, and the next day I went back to buy it. It was a nice Christmas gift, even if it’s just a shirt.

Enough ranting. Now, to the crown jewel of today.

U.P.O – Unidentified Prince Object (!UPO) – The story behind this is actually kind of interesting. Around a year ago, someone joined our Discord channel and said he had a script for a series he wanted to see in English. He sold it as insane, crazy, fast-paced, fun, and, most-importantly, no SFX and almost no dialogue. He really sold it if it was a real hidden gem. It was called UPO and it was by the same guy who did Gon. I figured, shit, why not. Let’s give it a shot. Bought the volume, received in the mail a month or so later, and I was blown away. The guy was actually underselling it, this is an all-timer, you-must-read-this series. It’ll take 10 minutes to read the whole volume, but boy does it go fast. You know what’s also awesome about this series? It’s an Isekai that doesn’t fucking suck. Granted, it was published over thirty years ago, but still.

Enjoy the chapters, enjoy your day, I need to go work.