sirius stuff
- "Afterword" -

And so ends "Shiriusu No Kizuato" by Shinichiro Takada, aka, "Cicatrice Of The Sirius", aka,
"sirius scars", aka the *first* complete series that's unavailable anywhere in the world in english
except here at studiorobb!!

Needless to say, this is a *very* proud moment for me. Prior to my doing "sirius", i had only attempted to work on manga like "Ranma 1/2" and other bits of manga that already had the characters defined as to how they would "talk and act if they were speaking english". "sirius" represents my *first* attempt at defining characters in english...how they acted, how they spoke, even the fonts used for their speech was all my own doing. Now-a-days, i take such things for granted, but back then i was *very* nervous about it!

So why did i choose "shiriusu no kizuato" as my first attempt at "solo translation"? well, as with most things, there is a story behind it.

As many of you know, i enjoy reading "phonebook manga" like Shonen Ace" and Monthly Magazine Z
...they help me to keep my finger on the "pulse" of current manga trends in Japan. Now, for some reason, i missed an issue of Shonen Ace, so the first "sirius" story i actually saw was "Part 2: Enter Oto". Thus, when i read the story, i really didn't know at first that Sayoko was the main character! instead, i was attracted to both the art and the story of this girl stuck on the streets of some fictional town trying to make a living as a prostitute. but the scene that totally sold me was when Oto introduces her "brother", Kazuoki, to Sayoko and Takeru. that *one* page, where Kazuoki is sitting in the chair with Oto smiling happily behind him, oblivious to the fact that he was a doll, completely roped me in, and i knew i *had* to translate the series just to find out more about this girl who couldn't accept the death of her brother. Naturally, i was quite surprised with later stories which showed that the Oto/Kazuoki thing was really just a side story, and, i confess, i'm a tad dissappointed that Kazuoki didn't play a larger role in the story. (i think Takada-sensei kind've felt the same way, since the second "sirius short" featured Kazuoki!)

But, there it is---the reason i decided to do "sirius scars" had *nothing* to do with Dogfights and Cyborgs and everything to do with a crazy girl and her doll! (^.^)

okay! naturally i have a couple of folks to thank, so here goes!

I'd like to thank my good friend, reinselft, for trashing her copy of Shonen Ace and sending me (all the way from Malaysia!) part one of the series. as i mentioned above, my "introduction" to the series was part *two*, so i didn't have part one. there were no Tankohban for me to order, at the time, so pretty much the first two volumes were scanned directly from the pages of Shonen Ace. had "Reiny-Day" not sent me part 1, that story would've been missing for a *long* time!

I'd like to thank my good friends, Steve and Kevin Bennett from Studio IC and Rodney and Anthony Little from Panther Comics for their continued support and encouragement of this project...you guys were a tremendous source of inspiration and help to me, and i know any and all improvements in my abilities and style came from your help...thanks!

AND OF COURSE, A TREMENDOUS, HUGE THANK-YOU TO "SIRIUS" CREATOR, SHINICHIROH TAKADA!! when i first learned that Takada-sensei had a BBS, i decided to let him know that i was translating his series...after all, it was the proper thing to do. Imagine my surprise when he wrote back and told me that, not only did he have no objections to my translating his series, he actually *liked* my work! Sensei, you are one-in-a-million, and i cannot begin to thank you enough for your generous and gracious support. I've tried *very* hard to be as faithful to your work that a "baka no gaijin" can be. (^.~) it has been a *great* honor to reply to your efforts, sensei, and i wish you *every* success with your future projects. It's my most *sincere* wish that one of the professional companies that publishes english version of manga learns of you (perhaps even from my site), and that they decide to publish *official* english versions of this and all of your work. You deserve it!


and, finally, how could i *not* thank all of you, you wonderful supporters of "sirius scars"?! i'm especially *grateful* to all of you who took the time to leave a message on Takada-sensei's BBS in order to thank him for creating such a great manga series. your heartfelt messages meant a lot to him...and to me!

Again, thank-you one and all for your continued support of Shinichroh Takada's "Shiriusu No Kizuato"!!


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