Kengan is back!!! …Well, sort of.
Well, it’s been months, but now I finally get to talk about this. Buckle up, people, cause it’s storytime.
So way back in the springtime, the Kengan team was scouted by a company who had an unprecedented proposition for us: They wanted to use our scans of the Kengan series for an official release. We of course were more than willing to collaborate, so the talks began. Things changed over the course of the negotiations, and it eventually became that the team would be hired to use the scans released through HnG as a base to redo over better quality source images and meet the requirements of the platform, while going back and fixing some of the glaring mistakes we’ve made along the way.
Then, when it seemed like the deal was just a matter of time, we decided to make a show of good faith and stop releasing the series through HnG. But of course, since we’re not amateur hour, we knew we couldn’t say why when it hadn’t been announced, or the deal even finalized yet. So we decided to say the most truthful thing we could: that we wanted to better our chances of an official release coming out. And it did, the publisher side was much more ready to trust us because of it. But while we thought the fans could read between the lines, or at least give us the benefit of the doubt based on the credibility we’d built up for years, we apparently thought wrong. And I get why you guys would be passionate about it without knowing the full story. The death threats I had to delete were a bit much, though.
But those dark four months are finally over. Kengan Omega is now officially up on Comikey! You can access the series page right HERE, where you’ll find the up to chapter 5, and 119 to the latest chapter that just came out in Japan. That’s right, this is a simulpub! Best of all, right now the chapters are free! All but the first few will be for pay after a set amount of time, but honestly if there’s a platform that deserves your hard-earned kromer it’s this one. The revamp of the backlog is ongoing, and more chapters will be up on a regular basis.
We said we wouldn’t have made this decision if we didn’t have 100% conviction that this would be for the best of Kengan and its fans around the world, and now look what we have. On the publisher’s side, the artists can be supported by a greater audience, and the publishers can get a real sense of the marketability of Kengan internationally. On the translation team’s side, they’re finally getting what they deserve for all the hours of thankless work they put in for so long. And most importantly, for the fans, you’ll get to read the latest chapter, for free, with zero delay, and by the same people (give or take a few) who made the high-quality version you’re already used to, at a quality that is only enhanced by going pro! And things can only get better from here.
So while Kengan has left the hands of Hokuto no Gun, you can be assured that not only is it in better hands than ever, but has been this whole time.
To those who believed in us, thank you.
To those who doubted us, you’re welcome.
To Scans of Metsudo, A for effort.
Now what are you waiting for? Get on over to Kengan Omega on Comikey and get reading!
Excelent!
Great news ! Congrats to the team !!
Great that it’s back, but you’re a bunch of pretentious losers.
Lol stop with the sour grapes. HNG even did the everyday Kengan Asura release marathon and this is how the “fans” repay them. If anything, they did a great with the Kengan series all these years and being legitimized with “official” TN status is the cake.
Btw HnG, please change Rolon’s name back to Lolong. If Lolong is from the PH/of PH descent, you got it right the first time. Its a real nickname used by guys from the PH. Donaire is a PH surname as well. Rolon is just a way to make the katakana fit. I’m aware ‘L’ is substituted with ‘R’ with English to Japanese translations.
Sandro said it was Rolon though
lol of course readers would be unhappy when you stop SL with no communications. I don’t know why you’d expect otherwise.
Thanks for your hard work guys! You helped me discover one of my favorite manga of all time!
Scans Of Metsudo deserves more than an A for effort. They carried the translations for 4 months and deserve praise but keep doing you, I guess.
You know what’ I’m glad fopr you. Period. And thankful for the work you have done. So… THANKS
damnnnn, the shade… still happy for u guys, though. by the way, are you guys responsible for the rescans of the chapters SoM did? because there are definitely a few errors in the official release, like the text that got cut off on page 9 of chapter 119.
there’s a whole page that the official release of chapter 119 is missing (page 18).
i’m reading the two releases side-by-side, and while the typesetting’s leagues above SoM and the script’s comparatively better in most parts, the QC seriously needs to be more thorough. love your work, thanks for everything u do!
It seems they’re going back and fixing some of the cropping and such. Some of the pages may be taken temporarily down for fixing. They were probably hard pressed for time before the release.
“A for effort”. What a backhanded compliment, makes you sound like a bunch of petty tossers.
You could say that… if you forgot that said “petty tosses” gave you years of entertainment at top of the line quality for free.
They have achieved a level of mastery because of hard work, and it’s not wrong to show it.
Just because you and I are not at a level to be able to say that, doesn’t mean you can misinterpret their words to your (dis) liking.
And just in case, I find what Scans of Metsudo did an astounding feat. Pure philanthropy, what a group of Chad’s. If you read this, please know that I never cared the end result was below HnG in terms of quality: the sole fact that you guys gave so much of your time for this series and its community to produce something of the quality we saw speaks leagues about your character. Thank you, guys.
I figured an official release was in the works with the original announcement but was it really necessary to say “all Kengan fans certified idiots who don’t know how to read between the lines”?
See “ALL”, even the ones who appreciated everything and accepted the original statement months ago with no issue?
Who knows, maybe they were just annoyed by all the complaints by random whos who overreact with dumb threats after all the work the team put in but that just leaves a bad taste to see for people who had absolutely nothing to do with it.
I wish I could support Kengan without supporting you. Petty and pretentious.
Im extremely grateful for everything you did, and everything you’ve kept doing. You made me love this Manga, and is one of my favorites today.
Also, when I read some of the comments here, and se what you have to put up with despite showing a work of a superb quality for free… Well, let’s just say that makes me doubly thankful.
It’s incredible how many ungrateful losers are out there. You made good calls, and I hoped this was the case. I’m glad to be right, congratulations on your hiring! Remember that it was your dedication that made this possible.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people bringing up Scans of Metsudo and my comment about them, and I want to put some rumors to rest and clarify a few things.
With the exception of one thing I will talk about later, I have nothing against Scans of Metsudo. Their work is passable as a scanlation, and I am flattered that they would attempt to imitate our style. So while there was a bit of shade, I think for most of its members it was a respectable attempt, and they did a good job for their level of experience.
It’s been brought to my attention that one of the members of Scans of Metsudo has told people that when they first came to me after we dropped the series, I told them “We don’t need any second rate knockoff,” and they went ahead with forming the group out of spite. Interestingly, they didn’t provide any receipts, so let me do that right now:
https://imgur.com/bqSZ0Fj
Some of the things I said here, I cringe looking back at. I admit that I tend to get self-aggrandizing and bombastic when I’m excited about things, and hyperbolic and catastrophizing when I’m nervous. By this time the first message telling us to kill ourselves had come in, and I was not in a state of mind to think perfectly rationally. In hindsight, while the people we were negotiating with were not happy with Scans of Metsudo cropping up, they did not hurt the negotiations themselves, and Scans of Metsudo’s admirable decision to drop the series when the Comikey launch was finally scheduled, without (as far as I know) even knowing it would be a simulpub, really helped the launch (though they did leak it before they were supposed to).
However, while I may have been impatient, curt, and making a mountain out of a molehill, I avoided condescension and hostility, and I was pleased that it turned out to be an amicable, while not satisfying, interaction, where they seemed to be understanding of why I would not give them my blessing. So I was disappointed to see this same member found Scans of Metsudo shortly thereafter.
As I said in my post in June, I never had any illusions that we could stop another group from scanlating Kengan, even though I wished they wouldn’t. But for someone to go out of their way to seek our blessing, receive an explanation for why they wouldn’t get it, say they understood, then go ahead with it anyway, came across as highly duplicitous. I would have felt a lot better about them if they never came to me to begin with, than to do this. While I did not interact with them after that, I did express my disappointment to my fellow groupmates. It is entirely possible that one of them saw my disappointment and took it on themselves to say the hurtful things he claims, but I have no control over what my group members say, nor do I have any intent of defending it if this was the case.
Also, let me take this opportunity to say that not all my comments that day were excusable by me reacting to the backlash, or by simply being bombastic or hyperbolic. I should not have said that Kengan fans were stupid or that I demand a personal apology when I turn out to be right, and I am sorry. I’ve been around on the internet long enough to know that people tend to be judged by their worst days, so I should have been more responsible with my words towards the Kengan fandom.
I know it may be unfair to judge a group based on one of their members, even if it was a founding member, but the formation of Scans of Metsudo left a bad taste in my mouth that took their willing and cooperative dissolution to get rid of. So yes, that comment was casting shade, as one last lighthearted jab about their quality and the final bungle that was leaking the official release announcement before I let this incident be water under the bridge. It’s unfortunate that people took it as more serious than it actually was, and it’s unfortunate that I was misrepresented.
That’s all I’ll say about this.
Thank you for making this post, I really appreciated all the massive amounts of work this group has done over the years and being able to now officially support the creators and team so I’m happy to see these clarifications and reasoning with explanations on the comments and apology for that other thing.
Seems like a messy business to have to deal with vitriolic subsections of a fanbase and a balancing act between keeping the “secret” vs people not necessarily in the know when the official license is involved anyway and people are only human in all.
Thanks for everything HnG and continue doing your best!
Smart dude but definitely asshole move throwing shade like that. You’ve got the intelligence to make a post like this but bad emotional/mental balance due to threats and other things that cultivated your life experience.
I’m happy for you guys though, this is a step up because of the simulpub and you guys are making money, hopefully you learn from this for anything in the future. Although I’d try using more flattering words instead of making it seem like you are flexing with superiority.
This is incredibly disgusting.
Not only did you drop the ball for 4 months, you are now bending over for an extremely low quality site that barely works at all complete with a paywall. You have lost all respect.
Holy crap, congratulations. Great news, and well deserved.
I speculated about this possibility back when you stopped translating. There was plenty of evidence for it. But I couldn’t bring myself to truly believe it.
I’d long since given up on an official release, and as you said yourself, legitimizing pirates like this is unprecedented. I wanted to believe, but it just seemed so unlikely.
Anyway, congratulations on the letter of marque. I hope the privateer’s life treats you well.
I’m happy for this coming-out. I don’t see anything bad in what you’ve done till now , the same for what you started anew.
Great, as the old saying goes: we could be pirates, just for one day.
Thank you guys,do your best.
This is a dream come true for any scanlator, and I’m not surprised that HNG got praised by Daromeon himself for their job and they got it.
Syschaos and team got the dream made, not only because Kengan won’t be “fringe” no more, but now the team has access to contact the mangakas for clarification on terms. Manga and translation can be always improved and working on a commercial product will never be beaten by a fan scan.
As a manga fan, I am full of admiration for your efforts. So I sincerely congratulate you guys and I will be spending money in all the series to re-read them again and pay for all the fun that Daro, Sabako, the publishers and the licensors have achieved with this.
At one point in time, I thought of spending about 160.00 to buy the Japanese books and do some fast scanning myself to compete with you guys. I am glad that I get to spend the same amount of money on the newest 2021/2022 licensed version with all the quality, none of the work and knowing my money went to the right creators.
So, without further ado, it’s time for the fans to put their money where their mouth is. That’s the only way that we will show the creators that we care for them.
HNG team, I salute you and I give you a standing ovation. Continue the great work that you guys have always done and I hope moving to “pro” open more doors for your future.
Until then.
Ichido Reichan (Former leader of The Wild Fang Project scans)
By the way, I did the same challenge I threw to you guys with Arang scans, you’d be amazed how much they sped up their Record of Ragnarok chapters! My mission is done there too :P
https://mangahot.jp/site/works/e_R0002
Record of Ragnarok is being officially translated on Coamix’s Mangahot platform and has been since June. If you don’t stop your work on Record of Ragnarok, you are a hypocrite.
Hey, congratulations on the new job. I have a question. There was apparently a ton of hindu mythology symbolisms that were missed in the Kengan Ashura scans according to a Japanese friend of mine.Are you going to include those in the official release of the Kengan Ashura manga?
Thanks.