It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, so I guess it’s about time I do. I wanted to make this post when we release episode 12 of Hanasakeru, but our editor has been a bit lazy and hasn’t completed his share of the work yet.
As you all probably know by now, we’re officially dropping Hanasakeru Seishounen because of the Crunchyroll license. We don’t do licensed shows, normally. And we’re so far behind anyways.
The licensing is not something I expected, as such shows typically aren’t licensed due to their low popularity. They licensed it starting at episode 16, and will release catch-up subs twice per week. We at m33w will sub the show only up to episode 15. I do not have the script for episode 15, which makes thing much harder, so we might only do until 14. Everything is translated up to 14 so far.
We understand the problem of region locking for Crunchyroll subs, that’s unfortunate. As of now, there are no rip groups for Hanasakeru. Hopefully, there will be one.
The only other sub group doing it, Hell fansubs, has dropped at episode 12, so that option is out the window. It is unfortunate that we have to drop it at this point of the show as it’s just starting to get to the best part.
I’m flattered that many out there would like us to continue work on Hanasakeru, despite us being unqualified amateurs. I, too, like having subs from the same group. It’s confusing when switching from one group to another as the styles and spellings of names change. For Hansakeru, the romanisations of the character names were only revealed in episode 13, so I was only romanising based on conjecture.
As you all should know, hopefully, Raginei is a fictional country (Don’t look it up in the Atlas, you won’t find it), and their names are made up as well. One thing that did feel very real though, is the political strife portrayed in the show. It’s very typical of the region. Every single country in the South East Asian region, even the economically powerful Singapore, is plagued with political problems;
- Thailand is practically in anarchy, with an unelected Government, and ex-prime minister Thaksin is facing corruption charges.
- Indonesia dictator President Suharto resigned from political pressure and unpopularity.
- President Marcos of the Philippines was overthrown and exiled.
- Singapore is practically a monarchy. The current prime minister is the son of long reigning former prime minster Lee Kuan Yew. Its democracy is ranked very poorly.
- Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister was convicted of corruption and sodomy. Those charges were allegedly staged, using corrupt judges and police officers, to remove him from power.
- Oil-rich Brunei (pronounced Broo-nye, unlike Raginei) is a monarchy with a very wealthy sultan who is not afraid to flaunt it.
How do I know all this? Well, I’m from Malaysia. The political story in Hanasakeru: very realistic. Plotting, backstabbing, corruption, bribery, coup d’etats and whatnot.
And on a final note, just some random thoughts. I figured it’d be quite interesting to see Hanasakeru in English, simply because that’s what they’re supposed to be speaking. Although what’s coming out of their mouths is Japanese, they’re supposedly speaking in English. After all, when you put an American-born half Japanese, a Singaporean, a Frenchman and a Ragineian (fictional former British colony) together in the same room, you get m33w. Just kidding. But, they’re not gonna be speaking Japanese, that’s for sure. It’s funny how a language like English can bridge so many cultures.
Well, this is going to be the first time in 2 years that we’ve not had a weekly show to release. But it’s been a great run, hasn’t it? Do look forward to next season though, as we will be doing some new shows. Thanks for reading this long blog post.
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