2784 Set And Regret.

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Today, after a bit over 8 years, one of my favorite comic series ended. I can’t remember what it’s called in Japanese, but it’s been sold in the US as Komi Can’t Communicate. I originally started reading it on pirate scan sites and then started buying it when it actually began being published in the US. The official translation is not as good as the pirate sites, in my opinion, because it doesn’t explain the relentless parade of puns that only work if you speak and read Japanese. The pirate translations would write little notes in the margins explaining that basically everyone’s name is a very blatant pun explaining who they are. Tadano Hitihito, the protagonist for much of the comic, is named thusly because his name is a pun meaning just some guy, more or less. His childhood friend, Osana Najimi, is just named childhood friend. In the anime when they explain that they are Tadano’s childhood friend, even not speaking Japanese, you can hear them saying najimi osana more times than you would need to normally.
I’m not sure doing something like that would work in English since I actually speak it. Having a character named Likes Boobs might be a bit too on the nose in my native language, but it works when filtered through a translation.
The series is very sentimental, and emotional, and sincere. It also rambles a lot, and tends not to get to the point of things, which is something other people disliked a lot, but I enjoyed very much. I would have continued reading the ridiculous stories, without complaint, for basically ever if they had wanted to keep telling them. I’ve been reading them for a little under half the time I’ve been making this comic. Of course they didn’t get published quite as often as my pages do, but still.
I very much liked when the series would randomly tell stories about the courtships of the adult characters, like how Komi’s parent’s met. That sort of thing is like crack to me. Her mother is something of a one note character in the series, but the chapters about her romance with Komi’s dad make her into a much more relatable one. You could basically take any character from the series and make any number of little stories about their adventures, pursuing whatever single personality trait defines them, and I would be pleased to read it. That is functionally what the series does while mostly focusing on Tadano, Komi, and later, Rumiko.
The anime only got 2 seasons and stops before Rumiko is even introduced. She only appears for a second at the end of the final episode, along with a few characters who also never properly appear in the show. Really though, it’s such an odd series I’m surprised it got as many episodes as it did, even though I would have liked to see it all the way to the end.
In any case, the final volume of the printed comic is set to ship on March 18th this year, with the US release appearing in December. So I will most likely read the bonus chapter on the pirate site long before buying the actual book. They may publish it on the Viz app though, so I guess that remains to be seen. That’s how things went with Nagatoro. I’m still buying books even though the series ended a while ago, and I’ve already read the epilogue chapter.
The author of that series started it as a webcomic and has a twitter account that I’ve been following for a while. They basically noodle around the world now, while working on whatever it is they’re working on. It’s kind of amusing how they move from thing to thing after completing their successful work.
As far as I know there’s no account that’s quite so personal for Komi, although I did accidentally find the official twitter account today. Just by happenstance the first post I read was the announcement that the series had officially ended. I already knew it was coming since the comic itself say so as the final chapters came out. I read the last one on the Viz app this morning. I read it later on the pirate site at a size I could see better. XD

I’m very sad to see it go, but happy that it got a nice ending, with the promise of a pleasant capstone later.

Anyway, life goes on.

I hope you have a safe time until next we meet. Support links are where they always are. See you later.

14 Comments

I very much prefer a series to end properly than end badly. Trailing off into nothing isn’t good, but better than a bad end. That’s why I don’t watch current shows until they get canceled; then I can find out if they had a good end (in which case I can watch it), no end (in which case I might consider it), or a bad end (in which case I won’t waste my time). Glad this one you like managed a good end.

Not gonna lie just always excited to see more Evrina she’s such an interesting character and I’m glad she’s become a larger part of this series’ world xD

Been a year or more since I kept up on Komi. Looks like I need to finish it now. Glad it got a good end. I wondered how it would go in the end

I’m gonna be honest I hope they don’t go back to friends after this, frindLY maybe, but Jess both broke her heart and then made fun of her for supposedly not coming out, and even here she’s still trying to make demands in “Don’t make me regret this”.

Jess has held onto the aspect of control for so long, it was only a matter of time before she realized she had none and started actually apologizing for being a crap basket.

I never mind a series ending. I just hate when they don’t get a proper ending. A show can end, but don’t leave it on a cliffhanger. You can also end a show properly that still has you knowing the characters will just continue going on.

A show that ends on a cliffhanger, I have a hard time watching repeats for instance.

One show I love, Limitless, one season, the way it ended, not sure if it was meant as a setup for the next season or proper ending, as if they knew it was being canceled? Either way, it’s ending is at least done in such a way that it feels like a real ending.

Of course, that doesn’t always mean I love every ending…I love the manga, Kurohime, but I had to first go online and find a translate for the last books as they just stopped translating them in America and then ended up not liking the ending, but was happy it ended and didn’t just drop in the middle of something.

To this day I still have a hard time watching My Name is Earl, knowing full well that the fourth season will NEVER be resolved.

Thankfully, Greg Garcia himself told us how it would have ended, so that helps.

This is one I’m rewatching now, because I don’t recall if I saw the last season, but yeah, knowing it’s plan ending helps a little.

And this is part of the problem.

“The pirate translation is better than the official one.”

This should not BE. This should NEVER be. And as long as it IS, it’s one more reason to engage in piracy.

And yet it often is. Anyone doing translations on their own time is almost certainly pretty passionate about the subject. They’re probably also long-time fans of Japanese pop culture, so they might catch jokes that would fly over the heads of other translators.
I don’t know how much translators for licensed companies make, although I suspect it’s probably little enough that it still requires a certain amount of passion. On the downside, low-paid people with limited resources may simply not have the time to explain the more elaborate jokes when they need to move on to the next project to keep the bills paid.

Jackie, may I suggest taking a gander over at “The Dangers in my Heart”? While it’s set in middle school, it is a sweet romance with silly shenanigans and the kind of drama you can expect from middle schoolers of all types.. and they are written like how we usually see high schoolers.

Download / screenshot the pirate site’s pages now, while you can.

I’ve found that several comics that I was reading that way have suddenly disappeared at times – I assume due to copyright complaints.

Anything on the Internet is there forever – until it’s suddenly gone.

Ace Attorney. Our first witness is Frank sahwit. Then the hyper american guy Redd White.. ceo of blue corp. Wendy oldbagh, lotta hart, Sal manella, luke atmey, winston payne and his brother gaspen, Ahlbi Ur’gaid, Pees’lubn Andistan’dhin, Tahrust Inmee and his wife Beh’leeb….

It completely works in english. You just have to be more clever.

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