High School DxD Short Stories Aplenty

Posted on April 14, 2018 by zxzxzx

I was cleaning up and reorganising my hard drive today (mainly all of my light novels) and stumbled upon various High School DxD short stories that I had saved up or downloaded – some of which have not been translated. So after removing duplicates,  searching the web for missing parts, and correlating it to the already translated stories, I’ve got it down to a sizable list. Combined, it’s actually quite a lot of text…but I’ll keep them as a side project and hopefully I’ll be able to release one every once in a while.

I’m not going to read any of the stories unless I start translating them, so I won’t be able to tell you much about them aside from the title if there is one. Some of them are full-length stories similar to those compiled in the DX volumes, while some of these are much shorter. I’m going to list all of them below with a poll, and I’ll work on them in order of popularity, with the exception that all of the short ones take priority over any of the longer ones. Also, some of these are Japanese only, so while I could take a stab at them, it’s more likely that I’ll be passing them onto the other DxD translators should they wish to do them.

Which short story would you like to see first?

  • 13. Dark History of the Hakuryuukou (Dragon Magazine January 2018) (Long) (15%, 379 Votes)
  • Done - 25. Rias (New BD Volume 6 SS) (Medium) (12%, 305 Votes)
  • 1. Flower Arrangement of the Princesses (Dragon Magazine January 2017) (Long) (12%, 294 Votes)
  • Done - 24. Akeno (New BD Volume 5 SS) (Medium) (12%, 290 Votes)
  • Done - 14. Red-Haired Camel Princess (BD Volume 1 SS) (Medium) (6%, 155 Votes)
  • 12. A Mad Tea Party (Dragon Magazine November 2012) (Long) (6%, 142 Votes)
  • Done by Ariel Saeba - 2. Class Change (Limited SS exclusive to Animate for V22 and Dragon Magazine Bundle) (Medium) (5%, 119 Votes)
  • 6. Familiar Master ~I Choose You!~ (Limited SS exclusive to Animate for DX4 and Dragon Magazine Bundle) (Short) (4%, 111 Votes)
  • Done - 22. Koneko (New BD Volume 3 SS) (Medium) (4%, 110 Votes)
  • 21. Xenovia (New BD Volume 2 SS) (Medium) (3%, 86 Votes)
  • 18. Asia and the Blue Electric Dragon (BD Volume 5 SS) (Medium) (3%, 78 Votes)
  • 7. Pavilion Kingdom (Limited SS exclusive to Kingdom Books) (Long) (3%, 66 Votes)
  • 16. Sunday of God (BD Volume 3 SS) (Medium) (2%, 60 Votes)
  • Done - 3. Untitled SS (Limited SS exclusive to Animate for V24 and Dragon Magazine Bundle) (Short) (2%, 51 Votes)
  • 9. Untitled SS (Limited SS exclusive to Animate for V24 and Slash Dog Bundle) (Short) (2%, 51 Votes)
  • 20. Asia (New BD Volume 1 SS) (Medium) (2%, 40 Votes)
  • 19. This week, he messed up? (BD Volume 6 SS) (Medium) (1%, 30 Votes)
  • Done - 5. Untitled SS (Fantasia Heroine Calendar Book 2018 SS) (Short) (1%, 26 Votes)
  • 15. Riding a Bike (BD Volume 2 SS) (Medium) (1%, 25 Votes)
  • 10. Untitled SS (Included with Miyama Zero's High School DxD Artbook) (Long) (1%, 24 Votes)
  • 23. Kiba & Gasper (New BD Volume 4 SS) (Medium) (1%, 22 Votes)
  • 17. Powerful Punch (BD Volume 4 SS) (Medium) (1%, 20 Votes)
  • 4. Untitled SS (Fantasia Heroine Calendar Book 2015 SS) (Short) (0%, 10 Votes)
  • 8. Untitled SS (Fantasia Bunko School Fair Heroine Folder SS) (Short) (0%, 6 Votes)
  • 11. Untitled SS (Unknown Source) (Short) (0%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,079

Loading ... Loading ...

You can choose up to 3 to vote for, and the poll will close at the end of this month.

Posted in dxd | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Night Photography

Posted on February 14, 2018 by zxzxzx

Just thought I’d share some photos I took with a mate many nights ago now. I enjoy photography as a hobby and occasionally experiment with new techniques – it’s also one of the reasons I enjoy travelling.

We went out to Maroubra (a coastal Sydney suburb) to take these in the evening. It was our first time experimenting with steel wool in photography so we wanted a nice backdrop in all of our shots. This involved using long exposures of 10 ~ 20 seconds. One of us lit up fine steel wool that was stuffed into a metal whisk and swung it around while the other focused the shot and hit the buttons. As the wool burns and the sparks fly out, it doesn’t last more than around 20 seconds anyway. The effect that you see is a result of the camera’s shutter being open for the duration of the motion, and thus it captures the moving elements of the image as a trail.

For anyone interested in trying this, remember to tie your whisk to a sturdy string! I ended up losing my whisk because the string snapped…so we had to drive a fair distance to the nearest supermarket for another one.

Light painting is a similar technique which involves moving a glowing object in a long exposure against a dark background to trace out an image. Using the LED light on the back of our phones, we were able to use almost the same settings to capture a few of these, though they’re not quite as spectacular as the steel wool ones.

Anyone else into photography? I love doing landscapes, though lately I’ve been getting more interested in long night exposures and star trails.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Latest Updates [2018]

Posted on January 5, 2018 by zxzxzx

Last update(s):
High School DxD: New BD V3 SS (14/11)
Denpachi: V1 Last Chapter 2 (13/11)
Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha: V8 Chapter 3 (10/8) & V8 Afterword (8/10)
Seikoku no Ryuu Kishi: V8 Chapter 7 (27/12)

Notice(s):

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

No spoilers please, I only read as far as I translate.

A lot of people have asked me how they might help to contribute so I’ve set up a Slack workspace to act as a platform for discussion.

Schedule:

TBA – circumstances have changed, and so will my schedule.

Next update(s):
Seikoku no Ryuu Kishi V8 Chapter 8: ~10%

Posted in rssf | Tagged | 488 Comments

Open Offers

Posted on October 3, 2017 by zxzxzx

It’s usually the other way around with these things…people throw their requests at me, but this time, I thought I’d put these two out for anyone interested.

I’ve kept this one in the background for a long time now, and I’ve worked on it ever so slowly whenever I felt up to it. The Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann manga. The anime is one of my all-time favourites, and I’d love to see the manga translated, even if it follows the same storyline as the anime. I bought the manga around a year and a half ago now, started scanning volume five to pick up from where the last scanlation team stopped, and finished the translation for the first chapter in volume five more than six months ago. But I’m totally not an artist, and couldn’t redraw anything, so my typesetting was awful and it sometimes took me even longer than the translations for each page. Thankfully, MistaL came along to help me with the project’s typesetting, cleaning, and proofreading. You can find chapter 22 up in the menu now, and chapter 23’s translation is halfway done. But still, I find myself biting off more than I can chew. So to any scanlation groups out there, or anyone with the commitment to see this through to the end, here’s my offer:

I’m happy to supply scans, and I’m sure MistaL is happy to continue working on the project. All we need is a translator! I know translators are pretty rare, but hey, as an incentive I’ll throw in all of my physical volumes. Once a chapter or  two are done and I feel like I can leave it in your hands, I’m happy to send you all of my volumes.

Now for the second one…Seikoku no Ryuu Kishi. This is one that I’m working on now, and rest assured, I will continue to work on it regardless. But I’d really appreciate if anyone would be interested in lending a hand. There are twenty volumes, and I’m currently on number seven. I don’t expect anyone to see this through to the end. It’s a lot of work considering that these are light novels, and not manga. But everything counts, and I’d appreciate it even if someone could only do one volume to help progress the project. As an incentive, I’ll send you all twenty volumes!

Source: Amazon. Mine look pretty much the same.

I’d love to do this for other series as well, but these are actually the only two that I own all of the volumes for at the moment. So, maybe more of this in the future.

Posted in snrk, ttgl | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Journey’s End

Posted on September 30, 2017 by zxzxzx

I’ve been putting this off for a while, but I feel like it’s finally time that I finish off my blog series on Japan. After going from Hokkaido down to Tokyo and then the Kansai region, my last stop was Hiroshima. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the almost month-long trip.

I arrived into Hiroshima late fairly early in the day, which I planned so that I could see Miyajima Island (Itsuku-shima). Miyajima is supposedly one of the most scenic locations in Japan and a so-called Island of Gods. I spent a fair half of the day from morning to late afternoon here just walking around the entire island. The Great Torii and Itsukushima Shrine are often regarded as the most well-known attractions, and they’re hard to miss given that the ferry passes right by them on the way from Hiroshima. I’d definitely recommend a day-trip to the island if time permits, as you’ll probably be able to catch the high-tide and low-tide as I did. At high-tide, the Great Torii and shrine appear to float on water for some great photo opportunities, while at low-tide, you can actually walk down and right up to each of them.

Between the morning high-tide and late afternoon low-tide, I also got to explore a bit of the old town, but I was feeling a tad adventurous, so I hiked up some way to Mount Misen on an unmarked trail. I was following a few of the nature walk routes when I spotted a climbable rock formation which I followed up. I then proceeded through a multitude of thickets as I moved further up the mountain until I got to a decent vantage point some distance between the road and the summit. Unfortunately, most of the view was obstructed by trees, though it was unique in its own right.

Having spent most of the day on Miyajima Island, I came back to Hiroshima to explore Peace Memorial Park at sunset, followed by some of the shopping districts. One thing I’ve come to love about Japan is how many of their shopping districts look the same regardless of the city. It’s usually a long street, with part of the street covered by an arched roof. It’s a highly characteristic look that I’ve come to associate with Japan. Of course, I also dropped in to a bookstore to pick up a copy of DX.4 which was released the previous week. I actually gave myself a bit of a scare at first when I couldn’t it with the rest of the DxD volumes, but then I shuffled around to the front of the aisle and found it along with the other new releases.

The city of Hiroshima had a distinctly different ‘feel’ to it than the other cities. Personally, I think it’s the effect of the A-bomb. Hiroshima was one of the cities to suffer such a tragedy, and that has really affected the people living there and what they’ve done in rebuilding the city. To be honest, a major part of the city feels like it could be part of Peace Park. It’s kept immaculately clean and the colour of the surroundings is simply gentle. Peace Boulevard (Heiwa Ōdōri) is probably my favourite road because of the feeling that fills you up as you walk down it. The museum is definitely worth a visit as well, it’s one of those places that feels incredibly solemn, but remains firmly positive. Having studied the book “Hiroshima” by John Hersey as part of extension English in high school, many of the survivor stories and remnants really resonated with me.

I finally made my way towards Hiroshima Airport around midday for my flight home in the afternoon. Hiroshima Airport was rather small, isolated, and quiet, but it gave me the chance to see more traditional Japanese houses that are characteristic of the countryside. As I headed home, I was already beginning to reminisce on the journey so far, and all the experiences that I was so grateful to have. I would return in a heartbeat, but it’s time for me to save up again.

Let’s wrap up with a few personal top tens 🙂

Top Ten Most Commonly Heard Words

  1. Arigatou Gozaimasu (Thank You)
  2. Dozou (~Please)
  3. Sumimasen (Sorry)
  4. Hai (Yes)
  5. Yabai & variations of it (Dangerous/Bad/Oh shit)
  6. Sugoi (Amazing)
  7. Daijoubu (It’s okay/fine)
  8. Kowai (Scary)
  9. Okyakyusama (Customer/Guest)
  10. Oniisan (Do I even need to tell you? Surprisingly, most of the time this word was directed at me, and not to an actual blood-related oniisan)

Top Ten Locations

  1. Akihabara
  2. Hiroshima’s Peace Boulevard
  3. Kyoto’s Gion District
  4. Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park Area
  5. Osaka’s Dotonbori
  6. Miyajima Island
  7. Lake Toya Area, Hokkaido
  8. Himeji Castle
  9. Furano, Hokkaido
  10. Kagurazaka, Tokyo

Top Ten Foods

  1. Ramen (especially Hakata)
  2. Okonomiyaki
  3. Takoyaki
  4. Japanese Curry
  5. Sashimi/Sushi
  6. Cold Soba
  7. Yakitori
  8. Gyudon
  9. Omurice
  10. Mochi
Posted in travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments