HAY GUYS

Local time: Aug 27, 2006, 05:00 AM

Victorian Romance Emma
英國戀物語エマ - Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma

Set in late 19th century London, Kaoru Mori's Victorian Romance Emma is the tale of a maid and a member of the gentry who fall in love with each other.

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Emma, our heroine of the story, is a live-in maid who one day meets young William Jones

while William is visiting Kelly Stowner, his former governess and Emma's mistress.

Emma and William slowly start to develop feelings for each other, but of course, not everything will always work out the way you want, and society and class differences end up getting in the way. An engaging romance drama is set.

Other notable characters on the story (without giving too much away) are Eleanor Campbell, the young daughter of a viscount who falls in love with William,

William's friend, Indian prince Hakim Atawari

and among William's many family members, little Colin, his youngest brother

There is a very large group of terrific and well-written characters, including William's entire family, but introducing them here would spoil quite a few surprises and twists.

All in all, Emma is an extremely character and character-development driven story and fortunately the cast is marvelous.

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The manga:

Meticulously researched and illustrated, the Victorian Romance Emma manga ran in Enterbrain's Monthly Comic Beam magazine from August 2002 till April 2006, when it finally ended at 52 chapters.

In 2005, the manga was awarded the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

IIChan Translation Group scanlated the series, taking great care with retouching and translation, until the comic was eventually licensed by CMX and the group felt necessary to drop the project at 49 chapters. The last three chapters were later scanlated guerilla-style and all 52 chapters are still relatively available from #lurk.

CMX are publishing the first volume on ~~the 20th of September~~ October 4th (;_

and from what I've seen in previews, the work is very good and I personally can't wait to purchase their release (or printed Emma in general).

The anime:

Airing in April 2005 for the first time, Studio Pierrot's anime version of Emma was a faithful adaptation of the manga, with splendid attention to detail and a wonderful, calm atmosphere made even more engaging by Ryou Kunihiko's beautiful musical score.

The animation was good, the character designs close to the originals, yet slightly different enough to have their own "anime" look and the voice cast was absolutely perfect.

Once more, IIChan Translation Group subtitled the anime version as well, and since the anime has not been licensed, all 12 episodes are still available for download on their tracker:
http://torak.no-ip.info/tracker/torrents/

Originally slated for over 30 episodes (the manga was still running at the time), the show turned out to be more expensive to make for the animation studio than anyone'd expected, and tragically the anime was forced to end after only 12 episodes, right where the second volume of the manga ends, giving the series a rather bittersweet and unhappy ending, all things considered.

Now that the manga has finally ended at chapter 52, (and possibly the DVD sales were good) Emma's website has just recently been updated with news of a second season in the making, much to fans' delight.

EDIT:
Victorian Romance Emma is apparently set for Spring 2007.
A recap episode for the events of Season 1 has aired and iichan is working on subtitling it. Translation and timing done, waiting for encoder to wake up.
Episode 01 of Second Act has aired and whispers is working on it. A raw of the episode is available here.

Right Stuf has licensed both seasons of the anime and is going to release them in two boxsets with japanese audio and english subtitles.

The side-stories:

As well as at least two Emma novels out by now, Kaoru Mori has begun a new Emma manga, Emma Bangaihen (Emma - Further Stories), said to focus on its many supporting characters in various short stories. The first chapter has already been translated by IIChan (the new series has not been licensed) and shows us a brief glimpse of Kelly's past.

Note:
These stories are recommended only for people who've finished reading the manga (and why shouldn't you?) as they are "further" stories and not something to start with.

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My thoughts:

It's a series with a lot of maids in it, but it's very much free of fanservice and juvenile humor. Emma is a mature, funny, warm and utterly charming love story with wit, beauty and plenty of character development and engaging romantic drama.

While I personally prefer the manga slightly over the anime, you really can't go wrong with either one.
Start with the first season of the anime, get accustomed to the characters' voices and music, then start over with the manga and read all the way till the wonderful ending, while listening to the anime series' soundtrack. Then once the second season for the anime finally airs, watch it all again animated for the full experience! =D

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Links:

C o u n t e s s 　S a l o o n - Kaoru Mori's website
Victorian Romance Emma - Official website for the anime
Emma Volume 1 - first volume of the manga on CMX's website. Released. Preview pdf available
Emma Volume 2 - second volume of the manga on CMX's website. Estimated for release on December 13th.
Emma Volume 3 - third volume of the manga on CMX's website. Estimated for release on March 14, 2007.

Emma season DVD boxsets on Right Stuf

IIChan Translation Group - website of the group responsible for most of the Emma translations and releases
Whispers LJ - a LiveJournal covering the process and status of Emma releases

Manga:
http://gotlurk.net/ - The best place for Emma scanlations. Go to #lurk @ irchighway and download the Emma volumes from Mirrors

Spoiler:

I'll see if I can get some kind of rapidshare for the volumes for people who can't use IRC.

Emma Bangaihen Chapter 1 - first chapter of Emma - Further Tales. Read only after finishing the original manga
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 2
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 3
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 4
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 5
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 6
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 7
Emma Bangaihen Chapter 8 - NEW

Victorian Romance Emma Original Soundtrack - Boxtorrents link for Nipponsei's release of the beautiful soundtrack

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Local time: Aug 27, 2006, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

That's long. I barely read it, but I decided to grab all of the manga. Will Season 2 of the anime finish of the rest of the manga?

I'm not sure, since I've no info on how long they plan to make it this time around. Since the first series covered the first two volumes, if you apply standard logic, you could count 6 episodes per manga volume, so if season 2 is 30 episodes long this time around, it would cover the rest of the remaining manga.

However, I'm guessing Pierrot is not about to cut corners in quality and research, so the series might not be quite that long unless Emma's DVD sales were far better than everyone expected. If it's 26 episodes or even shorter, they might need to shorten some of the manga storyline and possible leave out one or two of the later characters.

It's also possible they'll do another 12 ep season or something, only covering a few volumes. All we can do is wait for more news to surface (unless someone who can translate that second season announcement finds out something more concrete in it)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Local time: Sep 10, 2006, 01:03 AM

Well shoot, just noticed CMX's release of Volume 1 has been delayed till October 4th. One more month to wait ._.

Hopefully this means a better quality release and nothing something bad.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Local time: Sep 11, 2006, 01:53 AM

Nyehehe, glad you enjoyed it ^^

From the previews I've read on CMX's own site and the one scanned and posted on iichan's image board, I expect good things.

In general, after the TenTen fiasco, CMX has straightened out quite a bit, and their shojo adaptations are handled by a different team anyway.

However, there is the matter we wondered about. There's virtually no fanservice in the manga, but the later volumes DO feature two or was that three scenes of nudity. Hopefully CMX is aware of this and won't slap too low a rating on the title, forcing them to then take action when the scenes in question come up.

I couldn't find a definite rating for the first volume yet, but from what I read about their panel at this year's SDCC, it'll probably be rated teen+ (is that older teens? 15+? 13+?). Hopefully that rating will tolerate a few scenes of non-sexualized full frontal nudity.

All in all, the article on the panel did seem like CMX intends to get its act together for good and not mess around with series content.

http://www.animeondvd.com/blog/?p=136

Originally Posted by AOD Article

A year ago, CMX held an infamous panel that will possibly go down in manga history. Today, only one member from that panel returned and he was doing the powerpoint presentation only.

The faces have completely turned over. Actually most of the new team was assembled a month after SDCC 2005. Their is a new attitude, a new look and it is definitely visable in their manga. CMX launched with one of the more diverse libraries back late 2004. They had classics, hits and TenTen… TenTen changed everything and in 2005 they went conservative announcing a heavy diet of shojo with a gem here and there (Chikyu Misaki and Cipher). 2006 saw them go back to their roots. With Asako Suzuki on board and the new library consisting of her favorites (hmmm sounds like what Dallas did at Del Rey), things are looking up.

If there is anything about CMX its whether anyone will be around to read what they are bringing. These titles are not A-list (well Orfina is in Japan). CMX is still reeling from TenTen and many of their franchise titles are either winding down or done. Now is the time for them to remake themselves. With the launch of Emma and a promise that they will not be censoring titles CMX looks to be ready.

[...]

I will say that most of the crowd was there for Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo fame, but the licensed title fans definitely were aware that CMX is no longer run by a computer. Also, while most people had not heard of the titles announced (especially since the crowd had a younger feel to it and these are either older titles or shonen titles) but did not lower the mood much.

A couple news items. If you are wondering why CMX is not planning on reprinting earlier volumes of TenTen. Well, licensing time constraints is currently a problem. Licenses need to be updated and are often done in chunks, so right now with TenTen having lost such a large chunk of readers early on they cannot risk going back. However, if things pick up in the future with the T+ rating they will reconsider it.

Emma will be rated teen+. And they are looking into the spin-off titles.

[...]

I'm hoping the recent delay of Volume 1 means they're not half-assing around with the release and are spending more time with translation and retouch instead of badly judged localization or ye gads, content altering D:

Kaoru Mori interview on ANN (albeit brief).

Also as a bonus. I'd been looking for these - Mori's old omake comics from her web-diary - for ages and finally found them on iichan's imageboard.
Hilarious stuff

Spoiler:

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Local time: Dec 29, 2006, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by Dee

Questions I have

Spoiler:

That's weird, I always thought she simply went to India and took a liking for the culture in her bid to stand apart. I didn't even once think she'd even met Hakim there. He just seemed to me like he wouldn't have paid much attention to Monica (or anyone else) to begin with

I suppose I should also mention I bought the first CMX graphic novel a while back and from what I saw everything looked very nice.

They kept all the epilogue pages and omake from each volume, cover is really nice (the picture, plus the lovely coarse surface) and it was obvious they put a lot of effort into the release.

What little I read the dialogue seemed a tad.. more blunt than what I'm used to with Whispers' translation, but there was no sign of crappy localization or overdone ye olde brit or roight ol' cockney accents, which was very pleasant. Can't wait for Volume 2 ._.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Local time: Jan 25, 2007, 05:36 PM

[16:06:24] <Q-chan> OMFG blah

The official website has been updated with a whole bunch of news. Victorian Romance Emma Second Act (英國戀物語エマ第二幕 SECOND ACT) is now set to start spring 2007. Animax is re-airing all the first season episodes this month.

As for the second season, as far as I can tell, the staff is the same, while animation production has moved to Asia-Do, that recently made the Genshiken OVA. I'm a little confused about all this, at least regarding what's Pierrot's role in all this now. The second season is still listed on their site in a recent update, so.. um.. they have staff doing stuff, while production itself is in Asia-Do's name?

Maybe someone like blah can explain the whole role of animation production studio and animation studio if animation staff is still the same.

Either way while the character designers are listed the same, the official site's front page images hint at a slightly different style. The picture sure gives a different idea of what's to come than what came in the manga, making me wonder if there might even be new directions with the story =o Hopefully any liberations they make will prove good choises. Either way I can't wait to see what they'll do with the second seasons. Hopefully moar DRAMA.

I'm also listening to the Emma Net Radio, not understanding a word they're saying. Sounds like it's two maids Francis and Mary talking about the series, characters and probably facts about the era, but I could be way off on who they are supposed to be.

EDIT:
Alright, so I learn new things by listening. They really are two maids, Francis and Mary, they are two characters that feature in the anime and serve in the Jones household. They introduced themselves in one episode so I learned the actors' names (Yukiko Tagami and Aya Endo) and then Vivi turns up later on to yell at them for slacking off, so I realized they're in the Jones household. A quick glance at the voice actresses on ANN confirmed they really are characters in the story. Hopefully more characters make cameos later on =D

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Local time: Mar 29, 2007, 01:05 AM

So I'll just continue this posting streak here.

VICTORIAN ROMANCE EMMA SECOND ACT BEGINS AIRING 16/4/07

Hopefully iichan will set to work on translation soon after.
There's a 2 minute promo video for the second season on the official website and iichan has in turn translated and torrented it on their tracker.

Spoiler:

I'm really liking how they've handled the new characters, especially Dorothea looks just as majestic as in the manga. It will be interesting to see if the site's image of Hanz holding Emma is really any indication of things to come and just how much the anime will differ from the manga.

The "Now... on to the shocking conclusion." at the end of the promo would hint that the new season brings the entire story to an end, but how they plan on fitting five volumes' worth of story into a single season is anyone's guess. I just hope they don't cut corners too much.

Either way, I'm excited! Can't wait! I'm already prepared to declare Emma Second Barrage the best series of the this season~

How ya doing, buddy?

Local time: Apr 13, 2007, 11:52 AM

And the posting MAX CHAIN continues as this thread is consistently ignored by everyone ;_;

EXCITING! An Episode 00 for Emma Second Assault has aired and while it's mostly a recap for the events in Season 1, it does contain new scenes and narration.

Whispers has announced they've begun work on it, so hopefully a subtitled release will be out soon.

First post edited more up to date on Emma Bangaihen chapters and the status of season 2.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Local time: Apr 15, 2007, 03:44 PM

Whispers is attempting keeping a livejournal on the progress of translation. Probably to keep people up to date and to give some idea as to how much work it all is.

http://whispers-iitran.livejournal.com/

For now it's for Episode 00, they're not sure if they'll do the same with future episodes

Besides useful progress reports, of particular interest is a small clip Whispers uploaded initially for asking for advice on translating a few tricky cases of terminology, but it also functions are a lovely sneak preview of what's to come, animation quality, etc.

A fencing scene between Arthur and Hakim, with Vivi watching from the side. Awesome <3

http://astrange.ithinksw.net/emma-f.avi

I also only now realized the VA for Arthur played Winner-kun in Karin. I'll never look at him the same again

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Local time: Apr 19, 2007, 01:32 AM

Oh my goodness!

We're still waiting for iichan to finish Episode 00 (far as I know, whispers is done with translation and timing, and now they're waiting for their encoder to get on with it), but Styphon linked me to the raw for Episode 01 and I couldn't resist. I couldn't understand most of the dialogue, but I got the gist of what was going on and I can say it was a great episode.

Slight spoilers below. I'm not going to give too much away, but I do talk about some details someone might rather discover for themselves.

Spoiler:

Alright, so from the start, what hit me was how you are dropped in the middle of everything. Emma is already working at the Molders house, so either what happened between the ending of Season 1 and this ep will be covered in flashbacks, or Episode 00 contains a lot of story linking the two together, in which case everyone should start with that.

What next struck me was that halfway through the episode I finally realized what I had been wondering about. Why it felt so familiar yet unfamiliar.

Some little changes and pleasant surprises in detail here and there.

The voice for Hans is so spot on, I could cry. Completely excellent casting on both him and Dorothea.

Wilhelm Molders is now slightly younger than the oldish, dignified german man in the manga.

And I finally realized that Nanette was indeed a new character, which is why I felt I couldn't recognize her. The story in the first episode is largely new and not in the manga at all (or at least I can't for the life of me find it anything like it.

It didn't feel like filler at all, it fit the atmosphere, mood and setting excellently, and if this is the direction the rest of the series is taking, we're in for a treat.

This way they can finish up the story without "cutting corners" in storyline, and providing enough new stuff to keep old fans entertained as well. Let's hope the new story segments stay this good. Who knows, there might even be a new ending to provide even more closure than the manga =o

Special mention to the ending credits too. Standard views of countryside are topped by a wonderful sequence of William dancing with Eleanor, the characters then switching to Hans dancing with Emma, then William dancing with Emma in her maid gown, and then finally her in her evening dress that she wore at the ball when she was accompanying Dorothea on her trip to London.

Sooo excited! This bodes extremely well for everyone except possibly people who skipped the first season! Hopefully Vader gets the encoding for episode 00 done soon so they can move to episode 01.

I'm so relieved and pleased now. And psyched. It's a good thing I have a number of Emma Bangaihen chapters unread

EDIT:

Aaaand now whispers has announced starting work on Episode 01.

Still waiting for vader to encode Episode 00, but at least there isn't a bottle neck for translation and timing. Hopefully 00 is out by the end of this week, either way.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Local time: Apr 21, 2007, 10:36 AM

Hooray!

Episode 00 is finally subbed and out!

They had some trouble with their tracker earlier apparently, but since I just woke up, I'm downloading it only now. Gotta run off to work, but I'll update with any useful info on the episode later today (assuming once more no one else posts >>).

Great thing is that since vader has now solved the encoding issues and mogura is already finished with translation for Episode 01, timing and encoding should no longer take too long. We might even get Ep 01 by Sunday! =o

EDIT:

=o!!

Great stuff. Pretty much recaps the events of season 1, told like a story by Hakim to Arthur and Vivi. It's nicely set up, with comparisons to stage plays (Vivi reading Romeo and Juliet), with Hakim's narration setting up the players ready for the second act, quite literally. The final 10 minutes pretty quickly fastforward the events at the start of Volume 3 of the manga to explain how Emma ends up as a maid in the Molders house, but in connection with the stage play theme, it works well.

The episode is also a complete win thanks to the little info lessons Arthur holds for Colin and a class of animals every now and then <3

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Local time: Apr 21, 2007, 09:36 PM

Yeah, all the inbetween footage is new and the episode does explain/show briefly how Emma ends up in the Molders house (since at the start of Ep 01, she's already working there). If one hasn't read the manga, the ep is essential.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Local time: Apr 25, 2007, 09:54 PM

Episode 01 has been released.

Trouble is, their tracker can't seem to handle the obviously massive surge of Emma fans, so it's having trouble connecting to seeds, have patience.

Anyway, a wonderful episode and I'm surprised how much I got right from watching the raw. There were a few details I naturally missed and Emma being Emma, details make a world of difference. Either way, great stuff.

Pics plus comments, SPOILERS:

And now even blah has a compelling reason to continue watching~

I was speaking idiomatically.

Local time: May 13, 2007, 03:01 AM

Episode 02 has finally been released.

What can I say, the animation studio has made a brave choice with these new stories and so far it's working excellently. They take some aspects from the manga's main plot here and there, a small story from Bangaihen and mix them with new setpieces to create an entirely new storyline that's engaging to follow even for a manga veteran as you really don't know what will happen next, since you haven't already read it.

I can't wait for the next episode, the preview shows good things to come.

Oh and the new ending theme was a big surprise =o

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Local time: May 17, 2007, 07:21 PM

[16:54:23] * You were kicked by Lord_Styphon (kicked for 3)
[16:54:23] * Attempting to rejoin channel #animespot

My anime news subscription works wonders again, so I'm pleased to announce IIchan has released Episode 3, rejoice!

A good episode, though perhaps not quite as entertaining as usual. Mostly because it focused on William becoming more and more of a jerk

Hakim and Vivi appearing in a play made up for much and we did get to see Aurelia, so that was great. The next episode also has Eleanor's sister making her first appearance, so good things to come.

moar caps:

FELIPE NO

Local time: May 24, 2007, 08:51 PM

[22:49:30] * You were kicked by Lord_Styphon (4)
[22:49:30] * Attempting to rejoin channel #animespot

Like clockwork, Episode 4 is out, hooray!

A Monica has appeared, hooray!

What a great episode all-around. I was hoping to see Monica's India gear, but the few lines Hakim had made up for much. That, the whole thing about going and not going to London~

Also shocku:

HUEG SPOILER WARNING:

Most wonderful things to come! <3

How ya doing, buddy?

Local time: May 29, 2007, 07:33 PM

SHOCKU drama abound, Episode 05 is out, hooray!

And we even get to see Monica in India mode very briefly! Hooray!

Spoiler:

I really good episode all-around, I can't wait for 6~

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Local time: Jun 2, 2007, 01:52 PM

Thank you Imabee, that's a nice thing to hear (especially with so little posts this thread gets from anyone but me).

Speaking of nice things to hear, Episode 06 was released yesterday.

Great episode, a healthy dose of development and I enjoyed seeing Aurelia and Richard Jounes when they were young and how they came to live apart.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Local time: Jul 17, 2007, 08:19 PM

Damn, that's right. I was supposed to update the first post with the news, but got more or less apathetic since I'm the only one posting.

Thanks for reminding me~

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.