APRIL 2009 NEWS

Another chapter of Worst from Delinquent-Manga. You can grab the torrent from their home page.

Another one down. This chapter was a lot of fun. In short, Mako rules! You'll see what I mean. Have a great weekend.

Chapter 13: DDL | MU

Dive posted a poll in which fans will be able to vote on who will become the next addition to their newest Flashback Generation line-up, "The Monstrous Ones". This marks the first time in Dive's history where direct input from fans would influence a future release.

Voting will commence on May 1st with results posted the following Friday. Those with the highest number of votes will go on to the next round. This elimination process will continue until the end of month until one man is left standing. The winner will be announced on June 1st and go on to become the next FBG.

Thanks to Harumichi Bouya for filling us in on all the details. I actually came across the poll yesterday, but had no clue what it was all about.

In other toy news, Dive Diary posted some detailed shots of the upcoming Murata Shougo.

The first chapter of Crows Volume 4 is complete. I also decided it was a good idea to get a P.A.D. release page up to keep everything nice and orderly. Eventually I'll get some DDL links up for full volumes as they are completed as well. Have at it!

Chapter 12: DDL | MU

That's right, Worst is back! Delinquent-Manga come through with a double release of first two chapters of Volume 20.

For now it looks like only the torrent is up, but keep checking their home page for a DDL link.

More Crows goodness to kick off your weekend. Chapter 11 brings us to the end of Volume 3. Twenty-three to go! Enjoy.

Chapter 11: DDL | MU

Box Office Mojo has reported that Crows Zero II earned a whopping $5,793,542 in its opening weekend in Japan. While not claiming the #1 spot (that went to Red Cliff: Part 2), Crows Zero II has surpassed Miike's first film in the series which took in $3,478,271 during its opening weekend. You can check out all the details here.

Thanks to some detective work by Harumichi Bouya, it looks as if the next Flashback Generation revealed yesterday, Tsukimoto Mitsumasa, is not actually part of "The Monstrous Ones" after all. It appears as if Dive have decided to release figures for two seperate lines in unison.

This newly announced line-up of FBGs can be loosely translated as, "The Men Who Hold Power in Their Respective Domains". An image found on Yahoo Auctions may shed some light on future characters to join Mitsumasa. We'll keep you informed.

Another chapter of Crows coming at you. Judging by bandwith usage alone it looks like many of you downloaded the first two chapters. Hopefully my contribution to the process didn't scare you off. As I said we wanted to get the story out and not worry so much about the aesthetics. Still, another couple of chapters and I think the quality as far as cleaning/typesetting are concerned will vastly improve. I may even start adjusting b/w levels starting with Volume 4!

Chapter 10: DDL | MU

It's about time Dive did a little Moonlighting. I was hoping for one of the elder brothers as the next Flashback Generation, but Mitsumasa is a step in the right direction. Seen here are the usual batch of variants. No sign of a Regulus version as of yet, but I'll keep an eye out. Dive will begin accepting preorders sometime tomorrow.

Banchou has done it again! Worst Gaiden: Chapter 3 is available as a DDL or torrent. This chapter focuses on the origins of The Armament, so I'll keep this short and sweet so I can get to reading! Thanks to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for the heads up.

The Crows Zero II merchandise just keeps coming! Until I make a full blown CZII section complete with collectibles, I won't even bother trying to include them all here. For now, you can check out this new batch of stuff on Dive's special Crows Zero II page. Most of it's your run of mill movie tie-ins, but of special note is a variant of the original Flashback Generation Takiya Genji commemorating the release of the film.

I spent the weekend eating massive amounts of carbohydrates and chocolate bunnies, so this news is a little late I'm afraid. If you haven't already found the links in the forums, Banchou has translated and released the second installment of Worst Gaiden.

Take your pick from either DDL or torrent. Thanks to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for posting.

A couple of weeks ago some members from the forums contacted me with the possibility of picking up Crows translations where Delinquent had left off. Of course I was excited. Upon learning they were in need of some assistance on the technical end I was more than happy to lend a hand. After a few days discussion, we put together a guerrilla scanlating group whose sole purpose is to provide Crows to its English speaking fans. We're pleased to announce that we have succeeded in that respect.

The group responsible for bringing you these new Crows chapters will go by the name of Paula And Dangerers. P.A.D. consists of paulalala, Harumichi Bouya, nakea45 and I. Be advised that none of us have ever attempted anything like this before. No member is currently a part of or ever been involved with any scanlating groups. In other words, don't look for perfection, you won't find it. Perhaps one day D-M will take a second pass at Crows and polish it up properly. In the meantime, the story takes precedence. We felt fans of the series would be more than willing to forgive us for any shortcomings in exchange for the ability to read this great manga.

I want to thank everyone at Delinquent for inspiring us. None of this would have been possible without their continued dedication to the CXW community. Had they not put forth the effort in translating Crows & Worst, most of us wouldn't be here now. For that I'm ever grateful.

The first two chapters of Crows Volume 3 can be downloaded directly using the links below. I also included a second DDL Megaupload link in the event of any unforseen issues with our host. Hopefully someone who knows what they're doing (not me) will get a torrent up and running soon after. Be sure to check back next week as more chapters are on the way. If you're a member of our forums please swing by and tell us what you think. Enjoy!

In Japan it's officially 4-11-09 and that means only one thing, Crows Zero II is out! Chances are if you're an avid reader of this website you won't be seeing CZ II today. It sucks, I know, but we'll get our chance soon enough. In the event anyone from Japan actually does check us out, please don't hesitate to brag about how great it was. If nothing else, drop me an email and let me know if Bouya gets his cameo!

For the rest of you in need of a Crows fix, check back in an hour or two. We'll be making a special announcement we think may ease the pain a little...

I was just perusing TBS Shop's special CZ II merchandise page when I came across something pretty cool. What better way to attend the premiere of Crows Zero II than dressed as your favorite delinquent? Okay, maybe not. In any event Babelfish is being a jerk as usual, but my guess is these are exactly what they appear to be, costume replicas of Suzuran and Housen school uniforms from the film. There's some other cool stuff available in the shop as well. Check it out.

I'm sure you're already aware the Crows Manga Section is incomplete. Hell, it's not even started yet. Turns out I may be able to start working on it sooner than I had originally anticipated. You may be asking yourself, "But KSC, how could you possibly complete the Crows Manga Section when the majority of Crows manga hasn't even been translated into English yet?!"

How indeed...

I spent way too much time with these guys over the weekend in order to post what I'd hoped to be comprehensive galleries of both new Crows Zero Real Action Heroes. As is usually the case with me, comprehensive became exhaustive which probably resulted in way more photos of Takiya Genji and Serizawa Tamao anyone would ever need, I'm sure.

This will probably be my last gallery update for a while. There is either something wrong with my camera or my eyes. It's my opinion that the majority of these photos just don't look good. I've tried multiple settings and lighting conditions, but can't seem to get the details to "pop". Everyone I've show them to assures me they look fine, but I'm still not pleased with the quality. I think it's time to invest in an SLR, better glasses or maybe both?

You could call this Chapter 89, but I don't think it was ever officially stated as such. Being that most of us still haven't read Chapters 79-88, this may seem like an odd release choice. However, Gaiden are considered more like side stories and can be read at any time. This particular story tells of the Umehoshi Brothers back when they were students at Suzuran.

Take your pick between DDL or torrent. Thanks again to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for the heads up.

LoktarOgar from Delinquent posted upload links to revised versions of Worst Volume 1 and Volume 2. These new versions by Banchou have been updated with improved translations as well as given an all around make over. You can grab the Megaupload versions above or visit the following thread to get torrent information and check out some comparison pages.

Previously announced a few days ago in a Japanese publication, today Dive Production Diary posted clearer images of the next two figures in Dive's Flashback Generation line. Seen here are the Bitou Brothers Tatsuya and Hideyuki.

As always, it's sometimes difficult to glean the exact information from an online translator, but it seems to me that these will be available exclusively through the previously mentioned magazine individually or sold as a set. It's also my understanding that anyone who purchases both brothers will be entered into a lottery for a chance to win a variant of Tatsuya in glasses which is limited to 100 pieces.

Whenever Glam and Lucky Rudy announce a new Bone you can expect a Glam Dept. Store exclusive soon after. This repainted version of Act3 "Rebel" is limited to 250 pieces. Like all other Bone In The T.F.O.A I wouldn't be at all surprised if it sold out by days end.

I figured it would happen sooner or later, but finally we have confirmation that Crows Zero manga will be reprinted and bound together into collected volumes. If you've been reading this site since the beginning you know I put in a lot of leg work trying to track down issues of Shonen Champion Weekly when the Crows Zero manga was first announced, but it never panned out. After giving up on owning them I figured someone would eventually scan the pages and post them online, but unless I somehow missed it, that never happened either. Looks like the best way to get what you want is patience. While the local Japanese bookstores do not carry SCW they do get new volumes of manga just a few days after their Japanese street dates.