State of the Website 2016

January 31st, 2016

Apparently another 365 days have gone by. 2015 was a fairly busy and productive year for me, but it didn’t include website projects as much as I would have liked. I have resolved a lot of the issues/excuses that I mentioned last year, but some problems are still problems. Time management and organization are particularly troublesome. I’m still not sure whether or not it was a good idea to be so open about my life, even in a vague and partly facetious manner. I might ponder that more at a later date.

But I won’t be making excuses this year. Instead I’ll be making a sort of promise that I might actually be able to keep. For 2016 and the 16th anniversary of my website stuff, I’ll be posting 16 updates over the next 16 weeks. Once a week for roughly four months. It seems pretty doable considering a lot of things I have partially complete, and considering I just won NaNoWriMo for the first time in November. There was also a time in the ancient past when I updated even more frequently than that. But at the same time, I can’t help but think “oh shit I’ve made this big public declaration and now I’m gonna screw it up.” Overall I’m pretty optimistic though.

Below will be a blank numbered list from 1-16, ready for content updates to be edited in each week. More motivation to succeed, and more embarrassment if I fail. They’ll also be in their respective sections like normal updates, of course, so you don’t have to worry about refreshing this post or anything.

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Act 49 (57)

April 30th, 2015

Many months late, here is Act 49! And its 2003 reprint equivalent, Act 57! Since I only did one chapter, I decided to go into even more detail with the comparisons between them. Namely I noted some things that I was too lazy to do before, like noses being added and text being moved around. Someday I want to go back and add those things to the earlier chapters, but this one has absolutely everything my eyes could find. (Assuming I didn’t forget to type it up or accidentally overwrite the entry, anyway.) Every single page but the last one has some sort of difference.

It’s only a matter of hours before I would have hit that thirteen month mark again. But I wanted to see how many other things I could get done first, so I only started on this a few days ago. Living on the edge, of course. I still don’t want to make any promises, but I’ll be shocked if there isn’t another update in five weeks or so.

Daizenshuu 7 Timeline Revised

April 18th, 2015

Well, it turns out I’m still a deadbeat after all. But even when I’m lying in a gutter addicted to Star Trek or Pokemon, I still love Dragon Ball. And thus I bring you revisions of the remaining timeline pages. I was surprised to read that I stopped at 19 in the last update, because I only started at 22 this month. I must have done 20-21 last year. Either way, I plan to quickly go over the previous pages again to check for inconsistencies, because three years is a long time. But I wanted to get this online first, since I set a deadline of April 18th, and somehow I actually made it. Even in JST!

So I don’t want to make any big promises, but as I worked on this, I was simultaneously working on something else that you could call future-proofing. It will make more sense to explain it once I get to the character bio section again, so stay tuned, I guess.

In the more immediate future (all four of them), I have some images to edit, and/or some weak attempts at text alternatives to make. I may even do newer, slightly better scans, but it’s still the same scanner I used 7-8 years ago to do the first versions, and I’m not interested in replicating the book in pristine quality. Tackling this issue is the next thing on my agenda after some other site projects, but I can’t say how soon that will be. Definitely before 2018, at least.

15 Excuses for ’15

January 31st, 2015

It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t have left you without an update to check to.

Well, January 2015 is actually the 15th anniversary of this site. I don’t have an exact date beyond “January,” although I didn’t exactly intend to wait until the 31st to do this. Ideally I would have done this on the 1st, along with updates to each section and layout changes and everything. Big anniversary stuff. But that didn’t happen because of a problem.

Below the cut I’ll give you fifteen whole excuses about why I’ve been so terrible and bad. But before that I’ll give you a quick status update on each section:

Sailor Moon: I did manage one update last April, after a year long gap. The plan was to update the other sections before resuming it regularly (since they had been neglected even longer), and I haven’t finished either of those because reasons. But it will take a major disaster to keep me from breaking my promise to update again in less than thirteen months.

Words: I have a rather large update coming that is nearly complete, but I wasn’t able to finalize it before I hit my personal deadline with this status/anniversary post. It will definitely be done in the next couple weeks, barring death or disaster.

Dragon Ball: So I was working on some more Daizenshuu 7 revisions, but I haven’t finished the section yet because of reasons. In fact it’s been months since I last worked on it. I ultimately ended up focusing on the big blog project instead, though I use the word “focus” loosely. Odds are DB will have to stay in the backseat a bit longer, because I’ve just given public deadlines for the other two sections. However, I will give a deadline here of “before Fukkatsu no F hits theaters.”

All this new deadline pressure should keep me in line. Now here are some reasons/excuses.

Read more »

Acts 47-48 (55-56)

April 2nd, 2014

It’s a year late, but here is Act 47 and Act 48 at last! And their reprint equivalents, Act 55 and Act 56! And just because the series is nearly over doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of differences between them. Many dialogue changes, and countless visual tweaks such as blurry Wiseman. Only four chapters (and three side stories) remain, and I can say with certainty the next update will be less than thirteen months from now.

But my site is not the only Sailor Moon-related thing to experience considerable delays. Instead of aizouban we got kanzenban reprints after all, and as of last week the entire series and its side stories have been re-re-released. I do have all 10 so far (what the hell will 11 and 12 be?), but I’ve put off going through them thoroughly until I finish the current comparison project. Though in skimming through the kanzenban version of this update’s two chapters, they seem to be identical to the 2003 version anyway.

Things should mostly be back to normal for me now, but I don’t want to make any promises about the update schedule just yet. Especially since other projects of mine have been backlogged for all this time too.

Acts 45-46 (52-54)

March 2nd, 2013

Rei and Minako’s Public School Battle: Act 45 and Act 46 are up! Along with their reprint equivalents, Act 52, Act 53, and Act 54! I’m sure they have the least interesting set of differences in the galaxy, including a very one-sided table row. But that was the final double length chapter in the tankoubon, and that also finished the second-to-last PGSM volume, so there’s a pretty clear course to the end.

On another note, I theorized in an update months ago about a third printing of the manga, and I later found out there is indeed a third version (aizouban!) in the works. They’ve been delayed at least once, and the actual release date is still a mystery. But in turn, Kodansha has given the PGSM volumes another print run, so if you’re interested in those grab them while you can. (They were getting expensive with second-hand sellers.) As for the aizouban books, I do hope to collect them and potentially compare them to the other two versions. The comparison page badly needs to be reformatted (and split up?) anyway.

Act 44 (51), Exams 2-3

February 2nd, 2013

Running late again, but here’s Act 44! And its PGSM counterpart, Act 51! Plus some comparisons, featuring many small art quirks and a typo correction. And apparently “Moon Eternal Make-Up” was a one-time thing. The next chapter is double length, so there was just no time to do that along with…

Side stories! We have Ami’s battle with MelCooleyus, in both old and new formats. And we have Minako’s battle with nuns, also in both old and new formats. Along with comparisons for both chapters, of course. And that finishes the exam stories, three books later.

State of the Website 2013

January 1st, 2013

2013 already. I don’t know where the time goes, but I hope I find it while I’m still young and ambitious.

Well, to start, I did just update the agenda page, which gives a brief summary of my current site goals. I’ve also been brainstorming the previously mentioned layout tweaks for months, though the only part I’ve actually gotten done so far is changing a few filenames (and thus Shinken Red and long-haired me are temporarily back). January is my site anniversary month (13 years!), so if nothing else I plan to at least update the banner by the end of the month.

As for actual content, I’ll expound upon the updates to the agenda page. Right now, the Sailor Moon scripts are the highest priority, since A) I’m getting pretty close to the end, B) roughly 100 pages of comic per month is a relatively easy goal to meet, and C) staying ahead of the official releases helps ease my guilty conscience. Resuming Dragon Ball guidebook translations is right behind it, but between the recent flood of Sailor Moon double chapters and side stories, and various poor life decisions, I ended up having to put it on hold again. However, I will resume it as soon as I get through my Moon backlog, which will likely be next month.

I believe that covers the bulk of the current content and goals. But I also want to give an update on my Japanese ability. There is definitely progress, but no matter how dedicated I might be, true fluency is not something that will come easily. As far as I know, I don’t have any particular disorders or anything, though I’ve had annoying issues with concentration and short term memory since my early teens. And throughout my adult life, I’ve never been able to do anything quickly or efficiently. There are only so many hours per day, and I can be really bad at managing time, but this is definitely an attainable goal… eventually. TLDR: It’ll be a long ride.

Acts 42-43 (49-50)

January 1st, 2013

With the new year comes the end of an arc and the beginning of a new one: Act 42 and Act 43 are up! And their PGSM counterparts, Act 49 and Act 50! I also have some comparisons of the bushes at Juuban High. Speaking of which, I plan to finally finish those exam stories by next month, along with some more Stars of course.

Acts 40-41 (46-48)

December 3rd, 2012

I’m just plain late this time, but I do have plenty to show for it: Act 40 and Act 41! Which correspond to PGSM Act 46, Act 47, and Act 48! Not to mention comparisons, which are mostly art quirks this month. And now there’s only one more dream left before we wake up from our Eternal slumber.