I've written up a more detailed comparison between the BeBeautiful and SuBLime versions of Embracing Love and posted it here on my journal, due to length and because I have a few visitors to my blog who are fans of Haru but don't belong to the LJ or IJ communities. Feel free to comment either there or here if you like.

I just picked up my copy of SuBLime's omnibus edition of Embracing Love! I just started reading it, and the quality looks really great--as others have mentioned, no censoring, and it looks like they've kept all the honorifics, and it lacks the weird random bolding of the BeBeautiful release. I haven't had time to do a complete point-by-point comparison yet, but the translation seems more detailed, and there a few small but significant differences: for example, in vol. 2, in the chapter about Katou's conflict with Kikuchi, in the scene where they resolve things with the producers, it says that Katou refused to work with Kikuchi, which makes it seem like Kikuchi left the movie. (In fact, my fanfiction series is based around this very idea.) However, in the new edition, it merely says, "He just wanted Kikuchi-san to stop causing trouble for us. Kikuchi-san agreed...and everything was wrapped up peacefully"--which makes it sound like Kikuchi remained in the cast on the condition that he behave himself. As I know from doing fan translations in the past myself, small differences in the translation can make a big difference in the story! (I may write up a more detailed comparison in the future.)

The more major change is that the omnibus is missing the non-Haru short story "Fence" (about two high school high-jumpers) that appears at the end of BB's vol. 1, and the "Afterthoughts" section that appears at the end of the original tankoban releases (and the BB versions). I sent a polite e-mail to SuBLime asking about the change, and editor Jennifer LeBlanc was kind enough to get back to me right away with this response: "Our version is the digital rerelease of the series that happened recently in Japan. What is in our books is what Sensei put in the new release. :-)" I just thought I'd share the information here in case anybody else was wondering about it. I'm a little disappointed about losing the "Afterthoughts" (though obviously that's not SuBLime's fault,) but overall I am still really happy about the new release, and look forward to reading it from cover to cover! ^_^

(Cross-posted to the LJ comm as well.)

Saw this on the Youka Nitta LJ comm, and it has been confirmed by this ANN newspost: Viz's SuBLime imprint has licensed both Embracing Love and Spiritual Police! Embracing Love will be released as 2-in-1 omnibus volumes (digital and print) starting April 2013, and Spiritual Police vol. 1 (print only) will be released October 2013. I'm so happy about this, since I had despaired of ever seeing it officially released in English again! (My only complaint is that April 2013 seems so far away, but I know it takes time to prepare the book for printing, and I have my BB books and the tankoban to tide me over in the meantime.)

I don't currently own any SuBLime releases, I'm sorry to say, although I've ordered Starting With a Kiss (Kisu Ariki), which should arrive in the mail soon, and I've been wanting to check out some of their digital-only releases. So far I've heard mostly positive things about them, and in general, Viz does a good job with their releases, so I'm optimistic.

I have some mixed feelings about Spiritual Police: I like the characters, like the premise, but don't like the non-con. OTOH, at least it's clearly presented as non-con and not as something romantic. Regardless, I'll definitely be buying this title as well.

You guys may have already seen this on LJ, but Nitta-sensei will be doing a new Haru story! It will appear in the June issue of Be Boy Gold, and judging by the promo ad, it will be set during the Fuyu no Semi filming. She said that she was inspired "after getting the chance to draw something new for the drama CD," which I believe covers the Puppet Mate and Hermit Crab chapters in Book 10. Maybe we will get a chance to see Yoshizumi again! And if we're really lucky, maybe Onozuka and Miyasaka, too? (I'm not counting on it, but I figure there's no harm in hoping.) It's not clear to me whether she's actually resuming the series, or if this is just a one-shot deal, but she says in her message that Haru "will also begin digital distribution on mobile phones in Japan in early summer," which sounds promising. I would love it if the series continued, but I will be happy with any new Haru stories that I can get!

In other good news, Viz's BL imprint Sublime has licensed Kiss Ariki, which will be released in both print and digital formats. So now we won't need to rely on the individual Kindle chapters from Amazon--I'm really happy about this! I still have mixed feelings about this title and its consent issues, but I do find the story interesting enough that I want to keep reading it, and I'm glad that I'll be able to get a print copy.

I'm busy working on the final chapters of Unmasked, but just wanted to post a few quick updates of Youka Nitta news. First off, it isn't showing up on the official Youka Nitta site yet, but Chapter 2 of Boku no Koe is up at the Amazon's Kindle store.

There were also some interesting questions recently posted in the discussion forum:
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Someone on the Youka Nitta LJ comm posted a link to a new official English language website for Nitta-sensei! Right now, there's a brief message from Sensei, a discussion forum, a lovely Iwaki/Katou wallpaper to download for your computer, and links to merchandise. The E-books section will link you to Amazon.com's Kindle store, where you can buy "LOL Theater" (the recent one-off story from the B-Boy Honey magazine) and Boku no Koe (the first chapter only, not an entire volume) in English. Book 14 of Haru is also available, but only in Japanese. I already own the print copy of Haru, but since the downloads are reasonably priced ($2.50 for LOL and Boku, and $6.95 for Haru) and I want to support Nitta-sensei, I went ahead and downloaded all three titles.

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Over at YN@LJ, a poster links to Nitta-sensei's post here.

Nitta-sensei announces the upcoming publishing of the last chapter of Haru (in BBoy Gold - which probably means #8, the tankoubon #14 will be out in the fall 2009 although the date is not set yet) and apologises for her wrongdoings, the long wait and thanks the readers for their support and mails during her hard time. I am not sure whether this means that Nitta-sensei is back - as I read it, it seems as if she is allowed back only for this to finish Haru. There is some talk about all her manga being pulled, and of the delay of the next BLCD in the series. Maybe Geri can shed some light over my wonky translation?

ETA: I've gone over the info that seemed most important again and got it to something like "Essentially, at this point in time the intention is to end Haru o Daiteita drawing the last part (in exchange) for the long support recived from the reader-sama (who are able to) distinguishing between right and wrong. The full/ended work will come with apology and gratitude."

Sounds like this is the end, both of Haru and of Nitta's work.

OMG! I so don't want Haru to end!!! *wails*

I've been meaning to post this for awhile and never got around to it, but I just thought I'd share an interesting tidbit regarding the When a Man Loves a Man manga. I noticed that Iwaki's club is called the "Rusty Nail" and it immediately made me think of the song "Rusty Nail" by the rock band X-Japan, since I'm a big fan of the group. They were hugely popular in their heyday, so it seems very likely that the club is named after the song.

Here are the rest of the Book 5 summaries: Fuyu no Semi, plus Nitta-sensei's afterthoughts. I added quite a bit of commentary to the Fuyu no Semi summary, because I couldn't resist correcting and clarifying BeBeautiful's information. See my resource links for more info.

Part 1

Here are the Book 5 summaries that I was working on. They were too long to fit into a single post, so I'm posting the earlier chapters here, and the Fuyu no Semi story, which is the longest, by itself.

Here is a list of resource links that I've compiled for the wiki. Some I've looked up as research for my fics, and the historical ones came up while I was looking up references while I was working on the Fuyu no Semi chapter summary for Book 5. I'm a huge fan of samurai dramas--I've watched each annual NHK taiga drama since 2002, so I couldn't resist adding a bit of commentary and doing some research to try and explain the various historical figures and references. Hope you guys find it helpful!

Just thought I'd mention that jpqueen has a nice assortment of used and new Youka Nitta merchandise available--the usual manga (original Japanese versions, not the Be Beautiful releases), as well as cds and dvds, and really cool stuff like Fuyu no Semi chopsticks and fan! I was really tempted to get them, but I'd already spent a ton on manga, so I reluctantly decided against it. I couldn't afford to get all the books that were available, but I got some of the later Harudaki books and volumes 1 and 2 of Boku no Koe, and some stuff by other authors (including the Kizuna volume I was missing, yay!) There's a bunch of the "When a Man Loves a Man" books, but there seem to be several different volumes in several different series, and it was kind of confusing as to which book follows which. I may try reading the scanalations first and buy them later. (When I have more money! ^_^)

Btw, if you try to do an author search on the site, you have to spell her name as "Yuuka Nitta" instead of "Youka".

I've purchased from them before, and they are quick and reliable. Unfortunately, shipping is very expensive, as the merchandise ships directly from Japan to the US (I believe that they'll ship to Europe as well). Airmail is slightly cheaper, but I prefer to use EMS, as it includes insurance, and who knows what could happen to the package between Japan and my house? I've never had any problems with lost or late packages, though.

Btw, I was curious--they translate Harudaki as "He Hugged a Hooker"?! Is that correct, or is the translation a little off? Quite a difference from "Embracing Love"! "I hugged a porn star," maybe? ;)

As some of you know, affordable copies of the BeBeautiful English translations of Haru wo Daite Ita have become hard to find. As far as I can tell, the only one readily available for under $20 is volume 4 - there appear to be several used copies on Amazon and eBay.

(Bidding for volume 2 on eBay is currently up to $38. #1 and #3 will each cost you over $40 on Amazon marketplace. #5 is listed as available new & used @ Amazon -- but it's "temporarily" out of stock, and the first genuine reseller is asking for $60. Yeow!)

The good news is that I just got off the phone with Peter @ The Beguiling, a comics store in Toronto. He says he has a few copies of v4 and v5 left at $19.95 CDN/US (before shipping). The online shopping system is wonky (it generated a script error when I tried to check out), but they do take orders and answer inquiries over e-mail and the phone.