According to this ANN article and Watanabe Michiaki’s blog, Shchelkunchik ended this friday.
I had trouble reading Watanabe’s last entry – because I was upset, kinda, but also because he’s a terrible typist (he writes ellipses with commas) – and he actually apologizes for the abrupt ending. I’m not sure what’s the cause of the sudden interruption in the story, but according to the comments on his previous entry, it appears he’s been suffering from health or stress issues… lots of people were telling him to rest and take it easy! It’s all very worrying.
He also spoke a little about a possibly hilarious love story for Cornet and Trom (maybe an extra for the last volume?) and that his computer had some sort of trouble while he was writing a script… it’s all kind of confusing, pretty much a stream-of-consciousness entry.
In any case, the future of Shchelkunchik remains bleak and uncertain, mostly because I’m pants at reading so much kanji and katakana put together in a block. Running text is so completely different from friendly morsels of dialogue! A better japanese reader is welcome to make sense of this entry and correct me, hopefully with better news. But until then, let us mourn together. This was sudden and unexpected and the story was not at all ready to be finished. There were so many irons in the fire!
However…
Hope is not alltogether lost! I can’t do anything to make Shchelkunchik stop stopping, but I can do THIS
I can see the screentones! OH MY GOD.
Thanks to these great raws a little fairy has provided me. EVERYONE GO EXPRESS YOUR THANKS NOW NOW NOW
Sad news indeed. T.T But, well, looks like Michiaki must really take care of himself for now. I don’t know anything of Japanese, so I’ll wait for other information, if any.
Somehow, knowing the cause for Schelkunchik’s sudden ending might be due to Watanabe’s health makes me feel better. I know that sounds horrible, but at least the series isn’t getting axed because of low sales or something silly like that, and it’s a reason I can accept.
But that being said, I hope Watanabe will get better soon and will take it easy in the mean time. Being a professional mangaka isn’t the easiest job in the world, and I hope after some respite he’ll recover fully and might even restart the series.
“(…) at least the series isn’t getting axed because of low sales or something silly like that, and it’s a reason I can accept.”
I’ve thought the exact same thing.
It’s not confirmed that the end was caused by health issues – all I know is that people in the comments were telling him to take it easy and take care of himself. Nothing is confirmed.
But I do hope he’ll go back to the series eventually.
I hope he’ll get better soon. Even if he never returns to the series, i wish him the best!
It’s sad, but that’s how life is =/
Same like the others …
It’s because of his health … not the manga publication.
Hope he will heal himself.
And we can hope when he will be better to have a next Violinist of Hameln.
Oh sorry for the double post : anyways, your picture is from the Violinist too ? ^^’
And thanks for the fairy, it’s the normal manga or the sequel ? :p
That’s the first page of the first manga. :D
Why i’m fucking dumb ? ^^’
Thanks a lot.
OMG! I hope Watanabe sensei would get better (‘ロ‘) I love Violinist of Hameln! It’s like a series that I can always go back and reread it and laugh out loud without getting bored of it. Pray for Watanabe sensei all the best. (＾□＾*)
Oh and yes! The romance between Cornet and Trom would be very anticipated. May be we would get a peek at the child-Tenor Sax.
Thanks for the link of Watanabe sensei’s blog that you posted Elanor :) Thanks to that, I am now so looking forward for the 2 older brother of Great and Lute to appear. XD The second oldest one seem to inherit the sadistic personality from his grandfather LOLLL Now OMG can’t wait for their appearances!! Gonna be totally hilarious XD
On the one hand ;A; I hope Watanabe sensei recovers, whatever the problem is. I will miss a conclusion to Schelkunchik, but such is life.
…on the other hand EEEEEEEEE are you going to do Violinist now??? THANK YOU to the fairy who gave you the raws eeeeeeeee!
I remember when the only scans of the Violinist of Hameln were from a (I believe) Canadian couple who ran out of free time. So it was forever frozen at chapter 7 or so for years. Then Scythe GP took it up years later and did a great job, but they never redid the very first chapters.
I am not quite sure what I liked about this series. The story was nothing particularly new, but I really enjoyed the characters and the humor. So I’m glad it didn’t just fade into oblivion; being such a dated series, not a lot of people is comfortable picking it up.
I was hesitant to pick up Shchelkunchik because it just seem like another battle highschool school fighter story that drags on endlessly… Holy shit! Michiaki did much better with the story this time, it’s a goddamn shame it will not develop as intended, as I was very hooked in it and the characters were developing with a lot more complexity. Even seeing the old characters was refreshing and endearing.
And this all leads me to the following: Thanks Elanor Pam, Zrana and Daniidebrabant. You’re not getting paid a cent but I drew satisfying enjoyment from your hard work hunting for raws, translating and making it available for everyone who cared to read. No crazy 6 pages long credit pages at the beginning and end of every single chapter, no passive aggressive messages in every single page, no power tripping conditions like signing up for a useless account at LiveJournal or facebook to look at the next chapter.
Thanks to people like you, I didn’t end up wondering what happened after chapter 7.
I just want to know if you’ll keep scanlating the rest of the chapters :(
It’s dead…..
more sad news is that this project is abandoned T.T
more sad news is that this project is abandoned T.T PLease translate the last chapters :/
No more new about this ? x_x
It has been a really long time since Elanor posted something. I hope that nothing serious happened to her!
I feel the need to point out that Watanabe didn’t give up on the Hameln universe… In fact, he started a web comic called ‘Violinist of Hameln Sequel: Bolero of Love’, which you can read here…
http://p.booklog.jp/users/watanabemichiaki
There’s already at least a tankôbon’s worth to read.
It’s pretty nice stuff — if anything, seeing Hamel and co. is always nice.
I love your work on the manga translations here, and I hope you come back to work on the remaining chapters and Ai no Bolero someday too. Initially I thought you must just have abandoned this project (sad as that would be), but from what I can see you’ve also abandoned your original webcomics and your journals since late 2011, so it looks as if something more serious may be going on. I hope you’re okay!
Hope Mr Watanabe feel better soon even if that means he will have to give up on VoH series!Ofcourse,i don’t want the story to be left without an ending but Mr Watanabe’s health is more importnat than the story!
However,if this wonderful team of translators will need any help,i would love to spread a word and find some capable people who could help with the project.(i am useless myself but know maaany people)
Elanor Pam posted on deviantart fairly recently and is also active on the MSPA forums, if anyone was worrying she had died irl or something. No Pam, I’m not a stalker, but my good friend Google is watching you :P.
By the way, SetSally; there’s a user on the mangafox Shchelkunchik board by the name of adrimiz7 who’s willing to translate, but lacks raws and a cleaner. Know anyone?
To halteclere: Maybe the person looking for raws could ask around on the Violinist of Hameln communities on Livejournal and Dreamwidth? There was someone there who used to have raws, probably all the raws. I have a few raws of the untranslated chapters, too, although not all of them. (60-63, 66-68…) And further than Shchelkunchik, I believe that the Ai no Bolero raws are available legally online.
(Sorry to be commenting again; I feel like I’m spamming, but:) Good news! According to Elanor on her Tumblr, she hasn’t abandoned this scanlation project, and would like to return to it when she can. She’s just very busy and hasn’t had enough time for it yet.