It’s been so long since we’ve done a chapter, it’s a real wonder we are still here.
We’re still here, well, at least I’m still here! And in terms of English releases, that helps alot, but the other important piece is still missing, the translator. Without the translations, there is no chapter. So, I’ll go over who on the staff (which has been annouced) is doing what, or suppose to be doing, and what’s happening with them, as far as I know.

andysislands (me): Keeping everything together, and doing the RAW cleaning, typesetting, and releases of everything in English
ReD: Was suppose to be doing some English translations for some later chapters, but has been busy with some stuff for the last month or so, but he’s still around.
yuya: Orginal translator. Gone, has been around probably won’t be back, but still always open.
MonsieurMucc: Was suppose to be translating Chapter 259. I have not heard from him in over a month.
Alxmon: Working on more Man.Ji.En translations. If everything goes to plan (which of course, within the last month, nothing really has), I should have translations sometime over this weekend, and it would be released next weekend.

So, this leads to my next part…

Mankin-Trad is looking for translators (not replacement ones, but ones to help get more chapters out faster, like 2 a week again)!

Here are the positions open!
Japanese -> English
Chinese -> English ** (Simplifed and Traditional, I think)
Thai -> English **
Korean -> English **
French -> English **
Italian -> English **
Spanish -> English **
Each one of the positions above that have a ** after it, those are a bit different. I can’t get RAWs in that language, so you will need to purchase the book in that language (I can help locate places online to purchase the books if needed). No scanner required. No past experience needed. A decent level of knowledge of both languages you are translating to-and-from is common sence. Ability to use notepad, and provide translations in a timely manner is required. The positions would require you to translate the later volumes of Shaman King (or other Mankin-Trad related projects), so that less pressure is on ReD, and maybe releases could come out faster. So, if you want to translate, leave a comment in this news post with some of your contact information. Or, give me (andysislands) an e-mail, by going to our “Contact Us” page and just check my name (NOT BadS, Kami, or Nux, just check “andysislands”).

Uh, let’s se what’s on the other bad news wagon here…

Going back to the”New Project annouced!?” news post below (2 posts down), it appears to be false, sort of. There was no annoucement of an exact project. But, come on, we know it’s happening. Why else would they have Takei say something about JumpSQ if he isn’t going to be involved it in some way. So, something is happening. Thye probably just want to get some type of reaction out of the fans to see how strong the fans still are. So it doesn’t look like anythign will be out in 2007, but early 2008 is looking pretty good.

I guess, the final good news is this. Our Butsu Zone, chapter 1 release, when ever that gets done, will be very special. Special and colorful! I have no freak’n clue when that will happen, but when it does, remember this; andysislands spends money on crazy things that don’t always seem so crazy. Like my inflatable Matamune!

So, yeah, translators make the world go round, if we can get at least one, then we can have weekly scanlations again! Again, for the whole team, I’m very sorry for the lack of releases lately. In no form did we ever want this to happen, and we are very sorry for this (but yes, we will keep scanlating Shaman King, if we can get a translator, it will happen even faster!).