Tonagura! ... is delayed :(

So, my plan was to use these raws for Tonagura!, and I've gone ahead and done the necessary OP/ED karaoke, retiming, typesetting, styling, and editing for the first episode. But then I muxed everything up to do a test watch, and that's where the trouble began. Long story short: it's kind of a mess. Everything seems to start and end two frames early, even though I painstakingly scene-timed everything. Most panning movements look jerky, which wreaks havoc with any of my attempts at complicated \move or frame-by-frame typesetting. I could try shifting everything a few frames forward, but that could just as easily create other timing issues. I blame bad encoding/framerate issues. So unfortunately, I'm going to have to declare these raws unreleasable for the time being, and call for outside assistance. I'm wondering if anyone can...

A) Seed the HKG DVD-rips, so I can try my luck with them, or
B) Do new encodes from DVD .iso for me.

Since I do have all 13 episodes transcribed and styled, I'll keep working on the subs with the raws I have. If no new encodes become available to me, I'll see about making the subs available for someone to use in the future. In the meantime, there are other shows I can work on while I'm getting over this (hopefully temporary) setback.

Soul Link Preliminary Post

So, after some deliberation and more work on more episodes, I've decided to release Soul Link. I saw at least one scene where the DVD was less censored than TV (instead of more), so I figure things will sort of balance out. But before I get started, I have a couple questions for you all:

1) Can anyone upload one of the episodes that AnimeUniverse released to a filehost? I'd like to take a look at what they did with the OP/ED lyrics, even though I've already done some editing/corrections to the lyrics myself.

2) As stated previously, the subtitle source will primarily be from yesy. Styling will be similar to Kaze no Koe Fansubs' release. I also pulled down the KnKF release just to get a "second opinion" on TL and editing. One notable difference I've seen so far is that yesy used "Brother" when Ryouta and Aki address their older brothers, while KnKF used "Aniki" and "Nii-san." Which rendering would you rather see in my release, the localized/yesy version, or the unlocalized/KnKF version?

Touka Gettan 26 - The Beginning

Just to get it out of the way first, here's the...

Torrent [CRC=53B00A67] || Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (nyaa)

It's been a long and arduous journey, but we've finally arrived at the end of Touka Gettan, which of course means the start of the story. It's quiet, simple, and yet still powerful, like a silent scream or a deafening whisper. It's probably taken me longer than it should have, but I'm going to miss this show. I don't know when I'll next have the chance to work on something this aesthetically rich and textually complex. Some people hated Touka Gettan like nobody's business, but I enjoyed virtually every minute of the show and an only slightly lesser percentage of the time spent re-releasing it.

Some special thanks and shout-outs:
* Seto_Otaku, for raws and other encouragement.
* Whatever anon set me straight on the intricacies of the OP lyrics.
* something and other posters on AnimeonDVD, whose thread was invaluable in helping me understand the series better. Same with the AnimeSuki thread.
* Tenshi_MKII and all the Serin staff. As much as I disparaged your work, I still have to appreciate that you gave this confusing, unpopular series a chance when no one else would. I guess they were all busy with Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann, Kaze no Stigma, Claymore, Hayate the Combat Butler, etc. I don't even want to think about the daunting task of translating and subbing this show from scratch.

Touka Gettan - Special Music Video

I'd been promising you all a special bonus extra for this show, and here it is. This is something that was included with the original set of raws I downloaded, before Seto Otaku provided me with better ones. Specifically, it's a music video with a song sung by Saori Hayami (voice of Momoka), set to video clips from the series. Really a gorgeous song, if you can get into it... in fact, it even sounds downright operatic in a few parts.

Subtitles in this video are original translations. You have your choice of two subtitle tracks, one with English + karaoke'd romaji, and one with just the English. Or you can just switch them off if you just want to listen to the music and watch the video. Which is something that certain parties with radical anti-song agendas tend to forget when dealing with this newfangled "softsubbed karaoke."

Torrent [CRC=6EC520CF]

And now, to start working on episode 26.

Touka Gettan 25 - X Gonna Give it to Ya

After finally recovering from an anime convention full of scarce sleep, expensive food, and plentiful alcohol, I'm able to present Touka Gettan 25. This episode is of course the "talk show" episode. It takes place after episode 1 chronologically, and contains an irreverent, 4th-wall-breaking retrospective and epilogue of events from the entire series. The other distinguishing feature of this episode is the large quantity of signs. So, so many signs... In fact, ep 25 surpasses the also-sign-heavy ep 11 as the longest and most complicated script in the series, by a margin of 4.1 KB. Some of the more complicated movements could perhaps be better. But, I strove to avoid the "lazy" \an8 route for all but two signs, with frame-by-frame action if necessary.

So enjoy this penultimate episode, and prepare yourselves for the grand finale initiation. Fortunately, 26 is the 4th-shortest script in the series, so it'll go a lot quicker. There may be a special extra release before it, though.

Torrent [CRC=FC7797AA] ||

Soul Link - Extras Package

So yes, Touka Gettan 25 is coming along, but all those blasted signs were wearing me down. So I decided to do something random and unexpected, although I'd had these files and some of the translations sitting around for awhile. This torrent contains several extras for the Spring 2006 series Soul Link, many of which have never been available in English.

Batch (BakaBT) || Batch (Nyaa) ||

Raw source: SumiSora

Contents:
Creditless Opening (with softsubbed karaoke based on yesy's translation)
Creditless Ending (same as OP)
DVD Picture Drama Specials 1-3, translated by me. Despite what you might expect, these are just scenes of characters reminiscing about their pasts; there's no ecchi or nudity to be found here.

But the real question, as I've posed in various places, is: should I work on a DVD version of the series itself? Soul Link is in a curious position in that in at least one place, the DVDs appear to be more censored than the broadcast version, as noted by one commenter here. I can confirm that what he says is true. Nonetheless, the DVDs do offer a dramatic overall A/V quality improvement from the TV-rips, and I know I can improve the subs* beyond the mere hardsub -> softsub upgrade. So if you do want a DVD version of Soul Link, make your voice heard.

Either way, this show's status may sit on "Specials Only" on AniDB for awhile, as I have several other series I could start after finishing Touka Gettan, and all of them have more scripts ready to go.

*subs would be from yesy, since (A) that's the TV version I watched, and (B) the other options are KnKF (fail editing) and Your-Mom (unobtainable, even worse fail editing, and jokesubs)

Touka Gettan 24 - I just had to use this pic

After recovering from a failed attempt to drink myself halfway to a Valentine's Day coma, I bring you Touka Gettan 24. It's the start of a new school year, and Touka, Momoka, and Makoto are trying to fit in with their surroundings. Some, like Touka, are more successful than others (see above). Oh, and the new year of course brings new clashes between Shouko Rokujou and the Monarchs.

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Touka Gettan 23 - Marriage Mayhem

As we move closer to the beginning of our story, we arrive at Touka Gettan 23, which features the introduction of Kikyou. But more introductions are in order, as Touka and Momoka tour the school and learn a few things about Kamitsumihara. Meanwhile, I learn that because this is Touka Gettan, some lines won't make sense no matter how much I tweak them.

Torrent [CRC=DF4C84BF] ||

Touka Gettan 22 - The only way to win is not to play

Hot on the heels of the artistically beautiful Touka Gettan 21 comes everyone's favorite rage-inducing episode, the twenty-second episode of same. Seriously, Japan's bullying problem would be greatly reduced if they made shoe lockers and gym lockers that ACTUALLY LOCKED. But the powers that be probably believe, "there are no bullies or criminal elements at our fine schools, therefore such extreme measures are not necessary." Argh. Anyway, I translated a few signs that I believe weren't translated in the TV-rips, which should shed more (horrifying) light on the situation.

Also, astute viewers will notice that this episode is now titled "Abuse" ("Gyaku" - other possibilities include "oppression" or "mistreatment"), instead of "Shadow" (Kage) as it was in the TV version. I have no idea why this is, but I first noticed when checking the preview in ep 21 -- the overall TL level in the Serin subs had improved by that point, and I certainly didn't remember them being that far off in the preview.

Torrent [CRC=8514A719] ||

Touka Gettan 21 - Where all the color at?

Well, I finally managed to pull myself away from addictive viewings of that old trainwreck called "To Catch a Predator" long enough to release Touka Gettan 21. All I can say is, thank goodness for 2D. But anyway, this is the episode that spends most of its time in black, white, and all the shades of gray in between. It's an episode where you can just about feel the sights, sounds, scents, and touches that the characters experience. And the dialogue is filled with heartrendingly poetic lines, as well. Lastly, ep 21 really starts to feel like something much closer to the beginning of the story, in terms of where the character relationships stand.

I couldn't quite do what Serin did with the styling for this episode, since I've already been using white+black outline subs throughout the show. But I managed to do a few different things that work just as well. And as usual, there's precisely one line that I'd originally mistimed due to alpha-timing in the original subs.

Torrent [CRC=9D67521E] ||