#chibisunniesthoughts

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Blanc is out in English!! :D

Blanc officially came out in English on Tuesday!! :D My copy arrived today and Jocelyne Allen’s translation is absolutely fantastic as always! Reading this all in one sitting really is an emotional rollercoaster and I cried both sad and happy tears. T_T If you haven’t already, please support the official release by either buying the official copy (sold at all the usual places that sell books, many of which are having Cyber Week sales right now) or requesting it from your local library! ^_^  Also forgot to post this the other day, but Rightstuf’s “this week’s new releases” email on Tuesday had Blanc as the art for the big picture!! 🥺❤  I remember back when I first got into this fandom the thought of it in official English and in print seemed like an impossible dream. And yet here we are, not only has up to the Blanc arc been published in English, Rightstuf’s new releases email FEATURED Blanc. 🥺❤ And on Tuesday it was #1 LGBTQ manga, 3 in yaoi, & 10 in romance manga on Amazon.  🥺❤

I’m so happy to see it doing this well sales-wise as that’s a great sign that they may end up licensing Home and the new spin-off about Sajou’s dad! But it also makes me happy that more and more people know about it and the fandom is growing bigger! 🥰

#doukyuusei #blanc #classmates #doukyuusei series #kusakabe x sajou #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesphotos

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Also regarding Blanc’s official release, another thing that made me super happy was getting confirmation that overall my translation was in fact super accurate! 😀It’s the first time I’ve ever done a fan translation for something that ended up getting licensed, so this kind of felt like getting the answer key to a test in a way. 😅 In every chapter there was at least one line where it was like “Well, based on the hours of research I did, this seems to be right but I’m not 100% sure.” I asked N1 level friends for help in such cases, but often they were slang things that even they weren’t sure about. So it was fun seeing the cases where I did get it right or seeing what that line was actually saying (thankfully, the cases where I was wrong were minor things and nothing that affected the plot/changed things in a way that mattered).   Translating is a lot of creative writing to convey the meaning of the words best in the language you’re translating it into, so naturally every translation of a certain text will have different translations. Style preferences (like using Kansai-ben flavor for the characters who speak in that) also can vary. But seeing how close the official translation was to mine in content really made me excited! 🤩 I absolutely LOVE being a manga editor right now (even if like every position in the manga industry the pay isn’t that great and the schedule/hours can be really weird at times 😅) and don’t want to stop that. Also I know that with only 4 years of formal Japanese classes (I have a lot of other years of self-teaching trying to learn the things they don’t teach in class, but only 4 of actual classroom instruction), my Japanese isn’t strong enough to be an official translator yet. But one day, if I can fully get to N1 level, I would love to be a professional translator too. So this was kind of like a nice confirmation that I’m on the right path. 🥺❤

#chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniestranslations

[chibisunnie]

Sora to Hara is out in English!! :D

EEEEEEE SORA TO HARA IS OFFICIALLY OUT IN ENGLISH!!! :D :D :D The story that features my favorite Doukyusei boy Sorano is finally here, I AM SO HAPPY! :D :D :D It’s called Classmates vol 4: Sora & Hara in the English release. I’m so excited that everyone can now read about this shrewd chaotic good goofball! :D

It has the same translator, Jocelyne Allen, as the previous Doukyuusei/Classmates volumes and once again she delivered an absolutely fantastic translation! :D Sorano often uses extremely casual masculine speech and slang, way more so than the other characters when speaking in regular casual speech or even regular masculine speech. It can be hard to translate into English, so many official translations kind of ignore it and just make it sound like it had been regular casual. I think she did an excellent job conveying that difference where it occurred!  I know that many people hate Hara for how horrible he was in vol 1-3. But this is the volume where thanks to Sorano pushing him, he starts to have a change of heart and a change of character. 

It’s also where we get to know Koma-chan, Hibiki, and Arisaka! And Kusakabe and Sajou appear in 2 chapters, one of which is a short chapter full of cute Kusajou moments. ^_^

So please support the official English release of Doukyuusei/Classmates by buying this and all the other volumes! It’s available at all the usual places that sell manga, both physically and digitally, and so far vol 1-4 are out. O.B. (vol 5 & 6) will be in an omnibus format released in April 2022, but some stores have pre-orders up already. If you take Seven Seas’ survey in November or December you can get a 30% off coupon to Bookwalker (although it only works if you’re a new customer) and suggest they license Blanc and Futari Gurashi while you’re at it. Rightstuf has frequent sales on manga (they’ve got a Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Holiday Sale coming up so it’s possible it’ll be on sale for one of those), so that’s another way to get it at a discount. You can also ask your local library to get a copy of it and then you can read it for free!

#doukyuusei series #doukyuusei #sora to hara #sorano aoto #hara manabu #classmates #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

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Blanc ending next Opera issue

My Opera magazine finally came (I’m so excited to start translating!! :D ) and the “next issue page” says that next month will be the final chapter of Blanc. T_T However, it also says that we’ll be getting 2 chapters at once in that issue! :D So assuming that’s 2 numbered chapters as opposed to 2 chapters smushed into one giant Ch 10, that’d give Blanc 11 chapters in total, the same number O.B. had. 

I’m sad it’s ending, but we should still have occasional Futari Gurashi mini comics in WebOpera after this. Also I’ve noticed almost every other Opera series that ended throughout the course of Blanc got a bonus “afterward” chapter in either the next issue or the one after that, which means we have some hope for that. We also likely have the compiled manga and a Blanc drama CD to look forward to and those announcements tend to come after the series finished in the magazine. 

#doukyuusei series #blanc #doukyuusei #kusakabe hikaru #sajou rihito #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

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Doukyuusei Series Vol 3 is out in English now! :D

Sotsugyosei Spring is out in English in print as Classmates vol 3!! :D :D :D Like the other two volumes the translation is FANTASTIC! :D The combo of being so excited to finally get to read this in official English translation plus the story itself made me cry at several times while reading it. IT’S JUST SO WONDERFUL!! :D :D :D 

They still haven’t announced if they’re licensing the rest of the series (Sora to Hara, O.B., and Blanc). T_T But vol 1 and 2 did very well in sales, so if we all support the official release of vol 3 (either by buying it from any of the places that sell mangas, or by requesting it from your local library) that will help increase the chances of them licensing the rest! Also on the Seven Seas website they have a survey where you can request series you want them to license. So if you haven’t requested those titles yet (they’re very strict about only requesting a specific title ONE TIME PER PERSON) please go fill that out! ^_^

I have too many favorite scenes from this to pick my absolute favorite, but this moment is definitely one of them. Hahaha I knew what the lines were, I knew this scene was coming, and yet I still made a very loud squeak of joy when I got to this part. XD

#doukyuusei series #doukyuusei #sotsugyosei #classmates #sajou rihito #kusakabe hikaru #kusakabe x sajou #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

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Final Piece Needed for Sorano and Hara’s Character Arcs

Ok that post I just reblogged (Cranberry-bar’s analysis of Sajou’s character growth especially about his internalized homophobia) got me thinking that I’d love to see a similar arc for Hara and Sorano. Even if it’s just a full-length bonus chapter or something. Because they’re the one couple left that hasn’t gotten to the point of being able to be openly gay or out to their families or fully comfortable with being gay. It came up in O.B. where Hara was too scared to tell his parents, even when his mom was dying and asking why he never got married. Even when he had planned to tell his dad he lost his nerve and didn’t say anything. Sorano said the same thing that he didn’t think he could EVER tell his parents. On top of that, he flat-out lied to Fujino twice about being gay by saying that he had a girlfriend and by saying that when he kissed Fujino when they were kids it was because it was a punishment game.

Hara has that line about how he only shows 50% of what he’s feeling, and I think that applies to his love life too. He’s fine going to 2-chome and being open with his gay friends like Koma-chan or even his co-worker friends like Hashimoto-sensei. But then at the same time, he hides his feelings everywhere else and gets really embarrassed by them. We got a smidgen of Hara being more comfortable being openly gay in public in the O.B. drama CD where they added a line when Sorano and Hara are hugging in the train station and Sorano says “People are staring.” and Hara replies “It’s not the end of the world.” Which is nice growth from the bonus comic of the two of them after Sorano’s graduation where Sorano is questioning why Hara won’t hold his hand in public and Hara responds, “Because there are people around and it’s embarrassing.” The cover of their O.B. chapter also has them walking hand-in-hand in a public place to show this growth too.

The interesting thing with Sorano is that he’s SO open with just about everything. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is the type to pretty much always just bluntly blurt out whatever he’s thinking. He’s all about being honest and upfront and actively encourages others to be like that. Yet for some reason he can’t bring himself to tell Fujino or his parents that he’s gay. It’s something Hara even called him out on, and it triggered a VERY intense reaction from Sorano. Which leads me to believe there’s a lot more going on under the surface about this than just “society says it’s weird” (after all, this is Sorano, the man who dyes his hair pink and purposely wears all the weird fashion trends) in the same way that we’ve now see that Sajou’s VERY intense reactions in the past had a lot more going on to them. And that’s something I’d love to see explored a little in canon in the same way we got to see this explored for Sajou. (Fun side note, over a year ago I wrote a fanfic called Sorano and the Truth on A03 about Sorano coming out to Fujino because that’s how much I want to see such a thing. ^^; )

Both Sorano and Hara have grown SO much in this series. Especially Hara who went from being a perverted creep who resorted to immoral and inappropriate tactics to get Sajou away from Kusakabe, to actively helping Kusakabe get back together with Sajou and genuinely caring about his former students (he even gave Kusakabe the advice about adding lyrics to his song, even though it was Kumi that pushed Kusakabe to actually sit down and do it). Blanc has been all about the parallels with the early parts of the series. Hara’s early part of the series was doing everything wrong and improper in his attempt to form a relationship with Sajou. We got to see in Sora to Hara that he was trying to do things the proper way when it came to Sorano. O.B. Showed the fruits of that with him and Sorano finally getting together and forming a mutual healthy relationship, even though it’s a secret. The end of Sotsugyosei showed Hara get critically hit by Kusakabe telling him that he and Sajou decided to get married. So I feel like a perfect parallel and ending to Hara’s story would be to have a chapter about him and Sorano deciding to get married, and with that having Hara have to tell his dad (for the sake of adding Sorano to Hara’s family registry) and Sorano having to tell Fujino (because he wants one of his closest friends to be there for the ceremony).

#doukyuusei #sorano and hara #sorano aoto #hara manabu #sora to hara #occupation to beloved #sorano x hara #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

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Blanc translation updates

So Chapter 8 of Blanc just came out (my magazine came today! :D ) and I figured I should give an update on where I am with translating all Doukyuusei-related things.

For Blanc Ch 7, so far I have 13 pages translated. I started a new job over the summer and while I’ve finally gotten the hang of balancing work and school and socializing and sleep/taking care of myself/doing all the adulting things that need to be done, I haven’t quite figured out how to consistently squish time for hobbies (such as translating) in there too. T_T I’m really sorry for the delay. T_T But only 2 weeks of classes left and then I’ll have more free time to finish it up! :D

For Chapter 8 of Blanc, the chapter is so intense I was so eager to know right away EXACTLY what some pages were saying that I already have 9 pages translated. ^^; Most of the pages left are straightforward, soooooo I think I’m just going to finish this before Chapter 7. ^^; Given how painful Ch 8 is and how happy most of Ch 7 is, I think it might actually be better this way—you’ll want the sweetness of Ch 7 to soothe your soul afterwards. @_@

For the Futari Gurashi comics that came out in OperaLab, I’ve fully translated both of them and sent them to the typesetter of Zandy’s group! :D

Zandy’s group also is interested in scanlating the 10th Anniversary Comics, the Kuji 10 Years From Now Love Letters, and the 2017 Calendar Comics! So in whatever time I have left after finishing Ch 7 and 8 before Ch 9 is released, I’ll work on translating those! :D

In the meantime, have a preview pic from Ch 8:

#blanc #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

[chibisunnie]

Ok, so you know how the cover for Opera 74 has the caption Perfect Half? 

Well, I had my magazine on the floor and when I walked past it, the way the light reflected off it made it look like the text was saying “Perfect Gay.” XD Which I’d say is just as accurate of a caption for Kusajou as “Perfect Half.” XD

#doukyuusei series #kusakabe x sajou #blanc #perfect gay #misread words #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

[chibisunnie]

Doukyuusei is officially out in English!!! :D :D :D

Aahhhhh it’s here, it’s finally here!!! :D :D :D The first volume of the Doukyuusei series officially is out in English! :D I was tearing up while reading it, I’m so happy that my favorite manga series of all time is finally out in print in English! <3 <3 <3

They’re calling it Classmates in the English release and I’m really impressed with how much love and care went into it. <3 The translation is great overall (there were a few minor things I had issue with, but I admit I’m overly nitpicky about these sorts of things ^^; ) and the quality of the book itself is excellent. They even made sure to include color versions of the color illustration pages in the book and match the texture of the cover to the texture of the Japanese version!

It’s $9.20 on amazon, $12.99 retail price, and available at the places that sell mangas. You can also get It in e-book form from some of the e-book stores. It’s really important that we support the official English release because as of right now, Seven Seas only has the rights to vol 1-3 of the series (aka the Doukyuusei and Sotsugyosei arcs). They said on twitter if those sell well they’ll get the rights to the rest of the series (aka the Sora to Hara, Occupation to Beloved, and Blanc arcs). So if we ever want to see this whole series officially translated and available, we need to support it by buying the English release!

Can’t afford it? Ask your local library to get it! Librarians love getting suggestions and such a pure, sweet, realistic, healthy gay relationship story would be perfect for their older teen LGBT collection (I say older teen due to what happens in the later volumes)! :D And with it being Pride Month, they’d especially like to hear about LGBT book suggestions! :D

I’ve been told there’s a really long free preview on kindle, so I don’t see the need to post any preview pics. But I love this quote, so here is 1 pic. ^_^ 

#doukyuusei series #doukyuusei #classmates #doukyusei #kusakabe hikaru #sajou rihito #kusakabe x sajou #dou kyu sei #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

[chibisunnie]

Doukyuusei Series Vol 2 is Out in English now! :D

Eeee Sotsugyosei Winter (Aka vol 2 of the Doukyuusei Series) is officially out in English in print for the first time!! :D They’re calling it Classmates Vol 2 with the subtitle of Sotsu Gyo Sei Winter. My copy came today and the translation is fantastic—it’s both accurate and feels natural in English! :D Aaahhhhh these boys are so adorkable and make my heart so happy! ^_^ Although re-reading this simultaneously killed me because so many of the things they’re dealing with in Blanc right now had their origins in this volume. T_T  

They still haven’t licensed anything beyond Sotsugyosei Spring (aka vol 3 of the series) but Seven Seas said on their twitter that if the first 3 volumes sell well they’ll license the rest of the series. So please support the official English version and buy it if you’re able! It’s $13 retail price (but places like rightstufanime have it for around $9) and available at all the usual places that sell mangas. It’s available digitally as well, just make sure you’re getting the Seven Seas translation that was released in 2019 and not the terrible digital version from long ago.

Vol 3 is already up on most sites for pre-order and publishers see pre-order sales as one of the biggest indicators of how popular a series is. So if you’re able to pre-order vol 3 as well, please do so and show the publisher your support for this series! After all, we want Occupation to Beloved to get licensed in English so we can see Sajou propose to Kusakabe and hear them call each other by their first names for the first time! :D

Can’t afford to buy the books? Ask your local library to carry it! Librarians love getting suggestions for titles, and the Doukyuusei Series would be a great addition to their older teen LGBT collection!

Once again, amazon has a nice preview, so I don’t see the need to post any preview pics. But I really love this quote in general (my college had this as its underlying philosophy ^_^ ) and it’s also relevant to Sajou’s current existential crisis in Blanc.

#sotsugyosei #doukyuusei series #classmates #sajou rihito #kusakabe hikaru #doukyuusei #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

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Ok so after screaming about how WE’RE FINALLY GETTING THE MOMO WATCHES MOMIJI PLAY VIOLIN CHAPTER ANIMATED, I noticed that Momiji’s room is different in the new anime! :O 

Also the lighting in that scene is so much darker than the manga, so I’m wondering if that’s the replacement image for this scene where he is playing at night: 

Either way EEEEEEEE I’M SO EXCITED THIS CHAPTER WILL BE ANIMATED!!! :D :D :D It’s my 2nd favorite chapter of the whole series!!! <3 <3 <3 

#fruits basket #fruits basket 2019 #momiji sohma #momiji fruits basket #new fruits basket anime #fruits basket color manga #fruits basket spoilers #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

[chibisunnie]

Also speaking of Blanc, I should probably give you all an update about the translation progress for Ch 6. ^^; I started to translate when my magazine came, but then June and July were so insanely busy for me that I barely even had time to sleep. @_@ Which meant in the extremely rare moments of free time I had, I was too exhausted to translate further. T_T But last week was the final week of summer classes and I started translating again over the weekend! So far I have 10 pages fully translated, so I’m a third of the way done! :D

There are some text-heavy pages like this one:

However, I only have one kansai-ben page left and even the text-heavy pages seem fairly straightforward. I’m still taking my slow-but-steady-to-ensure-accuracy approach. But within that approach, I’ll do my best to get it to you as quickly as I can because I’m SUPER excited to finish translating this! ^_^ I’m sorry for the delay, though. T_T On the positive side, I’m not delaying the scanlation at all since the digital raws were just released and they haven’t even been cleaned yet. But seriously, I’m immensely grateful for how patient you all have been, so thank you guys for being the sweetest fandom. <3 <3 <3  

#blanc #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

[chibisunnie]

Icon change

So since I always have that moment of “Who are you?!” when people I follow change their icon after having the same one for years, I figured I should make a note in case any of you are like that too. My icon used to look like this: 

And now it’s Yukito from a painting I did over the summer. ^_^ 

I hadn’t changed my icon since I made my tumblr in 2015, so I think it was long overdue to change it. ^^; 

#chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

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“And I’m gay.”

OMG OMG OMG I AM STILL CRYING AND SHAKING I AM SO EXCITED DISNEY CHANNEL ACTUALLY HAD A MAIN CHARACTER OUTRIGHT SAY I’M GAY!!!! I gasped so loudly and had to try so hard to stifle my scream and then had to rewind to be sure I really heard correctly. But they actually said gay!!!! There’s no way for audiences to interpret it in any other way!!! I don’t think even Steven Universe has used that outright phrasing of saying gay! And this was Disney Channel!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

And the way it was done so casually is so incredibly powerful and meaningful. When Cyrus came out to Buffy, he was in tears. He struggled to accept that side of himself. Even when he came out to Andi he was still a bit hesitant. But now Cyrus is completely comfortable with being gay. He can talk about it with his friends and he can just say it outright. Props to Joshua Rush for that slight tremor in his voice on the “and” because even when you’re comfortable it can still be a bit scary to say it out loud (especially with all his relatives around). But being able to tell Jonah in the way he did is so wonderful from both a character development standpoint and from a positive LGBT representation standpoint. And the positive reactions every character has given Cyrus when he comes out makes me happy beyond words.

And the fact that he came out at his grandmother’s Shiva just hits so close to home for me because I came out to my at-the-time homophobic friend the day of my grandma’s funeral. AND there was another panic attack in this episode (with great advice and showing how to support a friend going through that!) which also hits close to home because I’ve dealt with those since seventh grade. AAAHH Andi Mack continues to be the show I wish I had as a kid and I’m SO incredibly excited for this generation to get to grow up with all these positive messages and helpful pieces of advice and concrete examples of how to be a supportive friend!! <3 <3 <3 <3

AND THEN THE TYRUS MOMENT happened and I’m just AAAAAHHHH this is so exciting that there’s so much representation and there’s legitimate hope for a canon gay main character couple on Disney Channel!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

#andi mack #andi mack spoilers #cyrus goodman #one in a minyan #andi mack cyrus #cyrus andi mack #tyrus #lgbt #pride #mental health #positive change #tv show thoughts #chibisunniesposts #chibisunniesthoughts

[chibisunnie]

Ok but my first thought about the AC New Horizons trailer in the Direct was “Is this Amiibo Festival 2???” Because that initial part of the trailer in the direct looks SO MUCH like the design and gameplay of the Amiibo Festival desert island minigame except instead of trying to escape your character goes, “Whelp, I guess I live here now.” XD

But seriously, I’m SUPER excited about this and what we’ve seen so far looks awesome!!! :D I can’t wait until March 20, 2020! :D 

#animal crossing #ac new horizons #amiibo festival #chibisunniesthoughts #chibisunniesposts

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Hello! Thanks so much for the summarise! You are amazing! Do you know how many chapters Blanc is planned for and how often it gets published ?

Hi! ^_^ Awww you’re welcome! ^_^ That’s so sweet of you tosay! ^_^

Opera is published every 3 months (in Feb, May, Aug, &Nov) and thenext issue will come out May 31. We don’t know yet how many chapters Blanc willbe—Nakamura-sensei hasn’t announced that. I do know that we for sure have atleast 1 more chapter because at the end of this issue of Opera it had a “nextissue” page that said it would have the next chapter of Blanc. And since therewasn’t any sort of “Final Chapter” text around it and magazines usually make ahuge deal about that, it indicates that there will be at least 1 more afterthat. So there are at least 2 chapters left.

Sotsugyosei was in 9 issues of Opera, Sora to Hara was alsoin 9 issues of Opera, and O.B. was in 11 issues of Opera. So there’s a chanceBlanc would be 9 to 11 chapters long, giving us 2 manga volumes worth. What I’mhoping for is 9 chapters of the main arc + 2 chapters with bonus content. Andin those 2 chapters for one of them instead of a 30 page chapter we get 15pages on Sorano/Hara and 15 on Arisaka/Hibiki. And then a final chapter ofolder Kusakabe and Sajou married and happily living together as a way to closeout the series. Or better yet, we get 12 chapters total and 9 are the main arc,then we have 1 full chapter for each of the main couples and we get to see eachcouple older and married and living together. Haha but best case scenario wouldactually be that it has enough chapters to fill 3 manga volumes so we get themain Blanc arc and then we get a bunch of O.B.-style chapters with all thecharacters! :D

 …That’s probably a longer answer than you were looking for. ^^; I’ve put thought into this before. ^^; But like I said, right now wehave no idea how long it will go. I’m really hoping it goes on for along time, though. Since Nakamura has confirmed that this is the final arc ofthe series, I want as much content as possible! ^_^ 

#reply #blanc #doukyuusei series #chibisunniesthoughts