Quick Post--Increasing licensing on Mangafox

Recently I reverted my original quick post on how to transfer from mangafox to mangahere to view license mangas to draft mode. Well, I don't know if this is a recent thing but I also noticed a pretty large increase in "licensed" mangas on Mangafox and licensed usually means only select countries cannot view (i.e. #1 America and #2 European nations that publish. Not sure about Canada and MX though). After deliberating whether or not to rerelease the post that technically encourages the use of aggregate mangas sites that immorally profit instead of using the scanlator friendly site batoto, I've come to a resolution. Seeing as how there are more and more mangas with such a status, I think it's pointless for me to rerelease that post on how to get to Mangahere from Mangafox. People might as well just use batoto or visit scanlators' sites for their own readers or just download it. It really does seem pointless to me now. Although batoto can be relatively slow occasionally (via my recent complaint), it's better than using aggregate sites like mangafox, mangahere, mangareader, tenmanga, animea, etc. Plus, I bet a majority of people don't even use an adblocker so who better to get all that ad money than batoto? FYI according to what I've learned, the ad money from batoto is sent to scanlators in some scanlator friendly way. I'm not too sure about the gist of it since I only read through the information once but generally, the profits from ads don't go solely into the pockets of the server owner. Well that's all I wanted to share, 'til next.

Quick Post--MF Forums down?

Simple as the title is. I haven't been able to access Mangafox Forums in the last few days so I can't post any commentary on any mangas I have. I use batoto as well but still, Mangafox is my go-to place for manga discussions. Batoto has a comments section so it kind of becomes the unofficial forum for things like "latest chapter discussion thread"s. Anyway, I tried it out on three different browsers, all say "Server Error" and I can't check to see if it's my DNS I'm not tech-savvy enough. I also did one of those internet website status things (the sites where you paste the url of a site to see if it's just you and not anyone else who can't access it), according to that site I checked on, the forums aren't working for everyone. I don't know if that's true though. Well not such a big deal since I should be studying....

Tata...

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UPDATE--Jan 26 (noon-ish)

MF forums are back up. It took like 2 or 3 days just to update the server format I guess. They added an activity log like on facebook which is lame because I don't need to know every single detail of what other people are doing and I don't need some person going to my profile seeing my activity (hence why I'm always in invisible mode on MF). The fact they brought down the server just for that is lame. "Dislike!"


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UPDATE #2--Jan 26 (nearing midnight)

So according to the announcements, the server down for the forums was due to ridding of malware stuff (about time, chrome was high on alert for those) and for changing the forums (again-lame). So earlier this evening, I checked in on MF forums again (my profile) and not so much to my surprise, the activity log was removed. Wonder if that'll be permanent...But now, geez, they're still trying to fix things. If it's for the malware, go ahead but it seems like they're still messing with the formatting because now I'm seeing the customize profile stuff on my profile when I haven't even clicked on customize profile.


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Update #3-Feb 6

It's ridiculous how much they screwed up the forums in the last couple of weeks.

Quick Post--Cynical Orange

Hi everyone, this is just a copy of a post from a thread I created about the ending for Cynical Orange by Yoon Ji Un. It is my explanation for why and how the manhwa ends. I wrote it on the 4th of September, 2012. I just want it to be here because MF has this rule about NECRO posting which is kind of annoying since someone doesn't have enough of a life to go around different threads and closing all the threads that have relavence no matter how long ago the last post was made. This is the lack of efficiency for the forum rules on MF. No one really cares that much about necro posting for forgotten completed mangas. tsk....I might dig up some old thread posts as well from here on to give some insight on some mangas/manhwas. oh and FYI, this is a SPOILER if you didn't get that already.

Bittersweet Ending?
09/04/2012

I recently read the whole series, all 9 volumes from my local library. (I would scan it but I don't have that time nor can I keep the books for long since I'll be leaving home in a few weeks). 

Also, I don't know if people care but for every volume of the translated manhwa (idk if raws have it), Yun Ji Un (the manhwaga) has colored pages for the first few pages of the volume which usually provides some sort of insight about what was going to happen. This is what the last volume, volume 9 said in its colored pages:

The prince stayed true to his promise with the princess and tore down the tall and might tower.
In that instant, the princess realized she had nowhere left to live.
The princess grew so sad and confused that she wept.
The tired prince stood there speechless, then turned around and left.
With the tower a crumbled ruin and the prince nowhere to be found, the miserable princess was left alone.
But then the princess said, "Oh, now I can go anywhere I want."
The princess stopped crying and stood up.  

Metaphors: prince=Ma-Ha; tower= Shin-Bi; princess=Hye-Min

Many people see the ending as a tragedy however, I wouldn't call the ending a complete tragedy just b/c of what happened to Shin-Bi (his death). I thought that with Shin-Bi's horrifying pitiful and undeserving death, Hye-Min would punish herself forever by breaking up with Ma-Ha. Not only was Shin-Bi's death undeserving but if the manhwaga left the end with a true tragedy (Ma-Ha and Hye-Min breaking up), I would have been devastated because I didn't think Ma-Ha deserved to leave the manhwa in that state. (It made me tear up). But in the end they reunited =) Even though Shin-Bi died, it gave Hye-Min the opportunity to make a clean start and live/survive on her own. The memory of his death will haunt her on random days of her life probably but it gave her the push to truly enter the world and live among people. 

I think Ma-ha deserved to be with Hye-Min. It was explained as clear as day at the end. During the funeral, Ma-Ha says he'll wait for Hye-Min but Hye-Min rejects him because of the raw pain and grief of Shin-Bi's death. He knew that if he ignored Hye-Min's wishes and just remained by her side, she'd eventually return to him and lean on him for survival, much like the relationship between Shin-Bi and Hye-Min. However, in a way, he proved to be a good man by letting her live her life on her own for once. It seems like it's most logical for Hye-Min to have ended up with Ma-Ha because he wanted her to be independent whereas Shin-Bi wanted to isolate her/make her dependent on him. That's not living. Yes Hye-Min had a role in manipulation but when all is said and done, it doesn't change the fact that Ma-Ha=independence and Shin-Bi=isolation/dependence. So...yeah it's terrible the way Shin-bi died and the graphic explanation that So-Ryu gave made it a more undeserving death but it gave way for all three of them to move on and be free from stagnant loneliness and darkness.

Quick Post--Project Exclusivity

I just happened to read most of an "argument"/discussion between an "amateur" scanlator and a "major" scanlator relating to this whole "controversy" about exclusivity of projects on batoto. It's quite amusing to see this yet also sad since it shows how disturbed this phenomenon of exclusivity is. The "amateur" scanlator is doing pretty well in terms of translating and uploading chapters for a couple of mangas (one of which has become a recent favorite and both of which are historical genres outside of the japanese past). This whole "competing" thing sucks since it is as the person says, for the readers yet the "major" scanlator group was somehow insulted(?) by the fact that someone else is "speedscanning"? What?! Yeah....anyways, this exclusivity thing....hmm....

Sorry for being so generic. I don't want to be too direct about the individuals involved in this issue but check out Shoukoku no Altair on batoto if you want to see what I'm talking about. The "amateur" is Aizen-sensei and I just love the releases for Choukakou!

Check out my post(s) on the exclusivity thing and my thoughts about it~

• Exclusivity of Projects
• Why So Many Projects?

Quick Post--Clamp

Quick Post! Just wanted to just share this. 

I've been searching for new mangas to read and in the latest updates on a site, Gate 7 by Clamp was updated. I don't read Gate 7 (yet) but Clamp has always been pretty amazing and complex in general. Reading about their hiatus for Gate 7, I decided to search around from one thing to another about Clamp. 

I came to their wikipedia page and damn...I read everything on that page and just wow, their history and how they work as a team is amazing. What I'm most surprised about is just how they plan everything ahead of time especially the endings!! When I think about Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and think that they already knew that they were going to end it as it did, they sure are a "Fantastic Four" group of mangakas. 

Quite frankly, this may be exaggerated but I find CLAMP pretty mind blowing considering what they write and draw.