About

While moving my blog, I found a doodle for a new About page that I had started writing over five years ago. I never got around to finishing it, but since the original page is so out of date, I decided to update this a bit and make it the final piece of content update on my blog. I doubt many people will find this, but if you're one of the few who do, here's the brief summary of my road from casual anime fan to lead translator at a publishing company.

My Background (2002-2008)

A friend introduced me to anime (more specifically, Trigun) back in 2002 when I was still in middle school. I had already seen shows like Sailor Moon and Pokemon that aired dubbed on TV, but this was the first time I realize there was a difference between anime and your typical cartoon show. 

During my teenage years, I went through many of the classics, such as Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Azumanga Daioh, but also some of the more risque shows like Oruchuban Ebichu. During these years, I also dabbled in the furry fandom, but thankfully none of my OC was ever uploaded online. I stumbled across 4chan somewhere around 2004, and that's where I really discovered the hentai genre. This interest in both anime and hentai lead me to take two years of Japanese in high school.

How I got started (2008-2014)

Back in early 2008, 4chan was still my main source for hentai when I one day came across a certain doujinshi. After looking through it, I realized that if I looked up a few kanji, I could probably understand the whole thing. However, with no prior experience, this was extremely arduous and time-consuming, and before I was even close to something release-worthy, I was beaten to the punch by another scanlation group.

A month or so later, I found a new, much simpler manga while browsing /d/, and I gave it another shot. This time, I probably didn't have any competition, so in April I was able to release my first ever translation. After a few more random chapters, I started my blog in July of 2008, and scanlation became one of my main hobbies for the next few years.

Much like what happened in my teens, my interest spurred me on to learn more in my 20s. Much of it I learned on my own, but I also ended up taking about three years worth of Japanese at University level, and eventually taking the N2 Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. Since I passed the second-highest level test with zero preparations, I've never felt the need to put the time and money into getting a N1 diploma.

Current Activities (2014-Present)

During the first half of 2014, I was given the offer to be part of what would eventually become FAKKU Books—a publishing company for ero manga. We announced this new project in June, launched our first title in September, and four more before the end of the year. The following year we introduced a subscription-based service for magazines, and in the years since, we've expanded to doujinshi, anime, games, figures, and other forms of adult content.

During my active scanlation years (2008-2016), I had a total of 726 releases. While I don't have the exact numbers, I'm confident I've at least doubled that output with official releases through FAKKU, with a rough estimate landing somewhere above 1,500. Some of my old scanlation projects have even seen official releases over the years, uncluding books like Renai Sample, TiTiKEi, and the Foxy Rena series.

Oh, and one last thing. Remember my first ever translation attempt that never saw the light of day after I got sniped by another group? As it happens, that group was none other than FAKKU's scanlation team at the time. Funny how life works out at time.