Inokuma Shinobu may be holding to the timeline he set down in the first series after all. This series is set before the flash-forward that ended the first series.

The new series opens with the opening ceremonies for the 10th year. Oda Mari, cover girl once again, is now 25 and teaching at Mizushō. Kurosawa-sensei, Kondō-sensei, Ono-sensei, and the still nameless vice principal with the bad comb-over are all still at Mizusho too, although there is a new principal named Matsumoto. Tanabe-sensei and Yoshioka-sensei moved away to a new Mizushō High established in Sapporo's Susukino district (see Volume 16 of the first series.)

Nagasawa Daichi isn't married to Oda Mari (yet) but he is helping his sister Miwa and her friend Hanao Ayame run the M&A club in Roppongi.

The girl with glasses on the front cover with Oda Mari is Asakusahashi Riko. She's not on very friendly terms with Oda as yet because Oda is a rival for the affections of Kakimura Tatsuki, a student in the Host Group. If you look at the back cover, she's the one wearing trousers. That's right, he's a she, sort of the reverse situation from Teppei-chan in the first series. Kakimura knows Nagasawa; don't know how or why yet.

The other girl on the back cover is Fujimori Ami, Fūzoku Group. (You have got a copy by now, haven't you? Mine cost $10.95, plus tax, at Kinokuniya, not unreasonable, even if it was a special order.)

There's a first-year Manager student named Ozaki, with a Mohawk and a small chin-beard, who looks like he might get some more coverage in Volume 2.

Volume 1 of Toritsu Mizushō 2

Well, my g/f forgave me and we're staying in a motel with internet, so I have full internet access, at least for a few days.. 

I've got the first volume in hand now. I have by no means translated it yet, but from a first look, it seems to be set sometime between the events at the end of the final chapter, before Tanabe and Yoshioka return. Or maybe, like the author of Gunnm Last Order, Inokuma wasn't satisfied with the hurried up ending and decided to change the timeline. Daichi Nagasawa turns up alive in a later chapter, but it's clear he isn't married to Mari, at least yet.

Three Stages of Homelessness

Approximately March 6 through March 29: Shelter in Sunnyvale.
March 30-April 9: Sleeping in girlfriend's car.
Last night-this morning: Walking in rain; walking without rain, walking in rain again. Hustled out of Veteran's hospital about midnight. No sleep, but survived first night. Reason for change in status: Suggested g/f behavior was less than perfect.

Mizushō Is BACK!!!

I just discovered from INOKUMA Shinobu's blog that he's started a second series, Toritsu Mizushō 2, and that the first tanboukan was released at the end of February! Hey, I'm broke now and I might be homeless soon, but I'm going to get that one or die trying!

Here's a three minute video trailer for what I think is a motion-enhanced DVD version of the manga (and good luck finding the actual DVD on this side of the Pacific!):

This is the first time I've uploaded a video on Blogger. Boy, it sure shrank! For a higher-resolution version, go to this YouTube page. I use Download Helper on Firefox to save YouTube videos, and this one looks quite nice as a 480p flash video. Plus, you can actually make out the kanji and even the furigana in the speech balloons.

Another Negima Page

Here is the transcription of a translation of another page in the final Negima chapter:

1 (Yue): No, I mean... Master.

2 (Negi): Hahaha. Please stop calling me "Master."

3 (Negi): You're already a fine mage.

Box 1: [Ad for some DVD]

4: You've been a great help protecting Mahora, Yue-san.

5: I haven't really...

6: Good grief, you again, Piao Two-san?

7: Do you know her?

8: She's a mercenary. We've fought quite a few times.

FT1: So she was a little girl?

9: You're now under arrest!

10: Not that you'll tell us the name of your boss, I expect.

11: Mofufu, that's right. I was just having some fun this time, actually.

12: That's even worse!

FT2: A FINALE FILLED WITH 9 YEARS' WORTH OF GRATITUDE!!!

[Bottom of the page has three small panels]

13: What's going on? An explosion? Terrorists?

14: Wait, look! Over there! It's Negi!

SFX1: ザク　ザク zaku zaku

15: Looks like your ward has been undone. (aside) We have to tidy this up.

16: Huh, Negi?!

17: Huh...? Negi? That Negi...?

18: Kyaah--!

[middle panel]

19: Aaah--!! I thought I remembered you from somewhere...

20: You're Negi-san! The one who's always on TV!!

SFX2: どよ　どよ　doyo doyo

21: You're right! C-can I have your autograph?

[left panel]

22: B-but more importantly, why are you here, at Mahora, today...?

FT# Free Text # (not part of any balloon)

Note: Satsuki doesn't speak in this chapter, but whenever she has spoken, her words have been in free text.

SFX* Sound Effect # Usually but not always, sound effects are written with freehand katakana, often quite stylized.

Your mileage may vary. This translation isn't mine; it was done by the team at Red Hawk Scans. I'm going to compare this with the translation from dowolf when it comes out; you can find dowulf here.

Also, here's what you get if you look for anything on Megaupload now:

So don't bother clicking on any of my uplinks to my stuff that used to be on Megaupload. Well, we won't be doing any more of this. This is a scarier banner than the FBI warning that appeared at the beginning of all commercial videotapes, which meant, of course, no one ever even thought of pirating them, even the porn.

Class Dismissed

A very successful manga series is soon to reach its official end, nine years and 355 chapters after it began, and I have come across some spoiler images including the final page. It is Ken Akamatsu's Negima! which started out almost the same time as Shinobu Inokuma's Toritsu Mizushō. Mizushō ended earlier, mainly because the magazine it was serialized in was cancelled. I think Inokuma-san would have liked to have a longer run to finish his story properly. Akamatsu-san might have too, or he simply might have gotten tired of cranking out this popular series and wanted to move on. I thought it might be appropriate to show you the final pages of each.

Both of these series were centered around very peculiar schools. Each chapter of Negima was called a "Period,"; each chapter of Mizushō was a "Lesson." Negima's finale was the 355^th Period. Mizushō adjourned after Lesson 232 (but there were also four Special Lessons, for extra credit.) Here here is the last page of the last lesson, together with the penultimate two-page spread.

No text. The family is Tanabe-sensei, his wife Akane, who met when they were teachers at Mizushō, and an unnamed short person in short pants. The woman running toward them is the former Oda Mari, first student council president of the school and now a teacher there.

The text on the final page repeats what the principal said on the first day, which means something like: "We are the pioneers moving into the barbaric wilderness called the 'night life,' sowing the seeds from which pride and morality will grow."

Like the final page of Negima, it has no flesh-and-blood people. It only has two artifacts compared to Negima's three dozen or so. The smaller of the artifacts is a badge with the school crest, worn pinned to the uniform jumper or blazer. The other one has more varied uses.

For those who aren't familiar with Negima!, aka Mahō Sensei Negi, also unofficially known as "Harem Potter," it was supposed to be about a 10-year-old Welch genius who has to successfully teach at a girl's middle school in Japan in order to get his wizard's license. There wasn't a lot of classroom time shown, though. There were 31 girls in his homeroom, or at least what he assumed were girls (One is a robot, one is a vampire, one is a ghost, and three are demons.)

I'm not going to put up the last page of Negima here because it's already up on another Blogger blog here. Open it in a new window if you want to follow my description of the stuff pictured on that page, and reflect that Ken Akamatsu always seems to want to cram more things into a picture than you can possibly take in during your first viewing--and maybe in your tenth.

The girls all have seating numbers, and I'm going to list them accordingly, along with which artifact in the collection shown on the last page I can associate with that girl.

1. Sayo - the doll on the left is Sayo; it's enchanted so she can move from her original haunts. Died sometime in WWII.
2. Yuuna - the two funny looking guns on the right.
3. Kazumi - Flying snooper. She has several, but this one has handlebars for Sayo.
4. Yue - Maybe the closed book next to the open one is hers. It can find any fact related to magic.
5. Ako - the giant hypodermic, appropriate for the class health rep.
6. Akira - a champion swimmer, she can actually turn into a mermaid. But I don't see her artifact here, yet.
7. Misa - pompoms. Member of the cheerleading trio.
8. Asuna - the big-ass sword. The poor orphan girl turns out to be a genuine princess.
9. Misora - magic shoes, allowing fast movement not only on floors but walls and ceilings.
10. Chachamaru - the robot likes cats. That kitty is actually the target designator for an orbital weapon platform.
11. Madoka - pompoms. Another cheerleader.
12. Ku Fei - the staff. Sort of dumb, but a great martial artist.
13. Konoka - nothing I can identify. Her talent is healing magic. She's also the granddaughter of the head of the Mahora Academy (actually a whole complex of schools) and her father is the head of the Kansai Magic Association. Rooms with Negi and Asuna.
14. Haruna - the quill pen. Anything she draws with it becomes real!
15. Setsuna - actually a crow demon, expelled from her own kind because her wings are white instead of the proper black. Corresponds to Motoko in Love Hina, using the same school of swordsmanship. The throwing knife could be hers; she can project a lot of them at once.
16. Makie - maybe the Indian clubs; gymnastics are here thing. Also can snatch small things with a ribbon from ridiculous distances.
17. Sakurako - pompoms and the megaphone; she's the head cheerleader. Also incredibly lucky with bets.
18. Mana - The shrine maiden is also a half-demon, and a born sniper. The big rifle is hers.
19. Chao - The pocket watch hanging from Asuna's sword. It's either a time machine or a device to jump between alternate universes. She's the only one in class we know won't ever marry Negi because Negi is one of her ancestors--she's actually from the future, born on Mars.
20. Kaede - second tallest girl in the class. She looks laid back, but she's a ninja. That cloak tied to Ku Fei's staff is her artifact; it's actually a portal to a pocket universe, and opens into a large house.
21. Chizuru - That gigantic leek, aka green onion--it's "Y"-shaped. You don't want to know where she sticks it. BTW, the Japanese word for "leek" is "negi."
22. Fuuka - twin of Fumika. The twins room with Kaede and know some ninjutsu from her.
23. Fumika - twin of Fuuka.
24. Satomi - the other mad scientist of the class. I think the wrenches would belong to her. She built Chachamaru.
25. Chisame - computer whiz and secret web idol. Maybe her magic computer is the small rectangular object near the books.
26. Evangaline - looks like a child of nine or ten; actually a vampire who was around during the Hundred Years War. The other doll is one of her hundreds of puppet minions.
27. Nodoka - Also known as "Honya" which means "Bookstore." That open book spells out the thoughts of whoever Nodoka names, with illustrations. She's the first girl Negi uses his magic to rescue. Her character design is close to Shinobu's in Love Hina.
28. Natsumi - shy, freckled girl, and member of the drama club. Her artifact is a magical eyeglass that makes her and anyone touching her invisible to anyone else, but I don't see it, yet.
29. Ayaka - Class Rep, fabulously rich, biggest crush on Negi. Her artifact is all those flowers.
30. Satsuki - the only plus-size girl in the class, she's a phenomenal cook. Her artifact can only be the wok Chachamaru's kitty-gun is sitting in.
31. Zazie - The mask has to be hers' it has the same face markings. She's a demon like Setsuna, and even has her own set of wings. Only talks in two chapters, I think.

This Just In!

Red Hawk Scans has just scanlated the final chapter of Negima!