[Exclusive] Community Interview #1 - The Lusty Lady Project

Hey guys, I'm Genericremix, a member of a fledgling podcast called 4Playeranimecast and a forum newbie here. Today I'm here to kick off a series of interviews with contributors within the manga/anime/doujin/etc. community. Frustrated with not knowing why a group releases so slowly? Interested in learning more about the process of fansubbing, scanlating, and the myriad of other stuff people do to bring readable English translations to your hands? Why does that one group only keep uploading imouto-related hentai? Look no further - these interviews will sate your questions.

I've posted this first interview in its entirety here. Enjoy!


For this interview, I managed to sit down and have a brief chat with one of the more well-known translators on Fakku, LustyLady00 from the Lusty Lady Project. Although the group stopped uploading/translating hentai in the spring of 2014, its translator was graciously willing to share the experiences of working on scanlation, aspects of his personal life, and perspectives on recent events concerning Japanese takedowns. Read on to find out more!

The Lusty Lady Project’s most recent series involve Girls Lacrosse Club -Akagi Aya Chapter- (DISTANCE), Servant-chan Sharing (Izumiya Otoha), and Iizuka-senpai x Blazer (Yuzuki N’).



So first question - just tell me a bit about yourself, what you do/did, what you might be up to now, and hobbies/favorites both in doujin stuff and out.

I'm someone who after 4 years of job-hunting had finally found a job - in that time I studied Japanese on my own after taking one year in college and found I took to it like a fish to water. It was then that I attempted fansubbing but found my constant want of certainty dragging out the translation process by hours more than I wanted. While in that fansubbing group I befriended the editor/typesetter at the time and he asked if I would be up for doing manga scanlation. I tried it out... and it was a match made in heaven.

What do you mean exactly by "certainty" in terms of fansubbing? You mean like waiting for QC (quality control)?

Oh no, I mean in the dialogue itself. As I was brand spanking new to fansubbing (and translation/Japanese for that matter), I could just never be sure what the characters were talking about sometimes. There were words I was uncertain about - even more so as Japanese has many homophones. There were also times when characters spoke rapidly so I had to go back to the line a dozen times just to try and make sure I understood it right. With manga I'm actually able to see the word and, thus, be more certain of what I am translating.

Ahhhh, that's very true. I would definitely expect it to be a bit more confusing, especially if/when more modern slang is used. Ok, so how did you transition from doing manga to hentai stuff?

I got started by working around on manga and [soon after] there was the idea of working on hentai, or manga porn, as well. I was reluctant to do hentai at first but in the end I was able to stay mature about it... It's just sex in the end.

So someone had to convince you to do this initially?

Not really... In the end my editor just nudged the idea of doing a doujin [to me] and I figured I might as well try it... and meh, I don't mind working on doujins too much... Translation-wise they are very easy and the artwork locked within is just as good, if not better, than regular manga at times. There are also times where I end up being more partial to working on hentai than manga and I get in fights with my editor at times

Just got used to it I guess?

Pretty much... I get in the habit of things and, once I do, they are hard to break.

On hobbies/interests:

My hobbies and interests do include manga and hentai scanlation but beyond that there is:
- Collecting (all sorts: cards, bottle caps, videos)
- Reading manga
- Watching anime
- Reading and writing (granted this is more at a standstill as I am a horrible time keeper and end up running out of time, or energy, to really do them)

Oh, and I collect manga, too.

What is currently your favorite manga, anime, (maybe VN/LN), and hentai series/tag/artist? And with regards to hentai, which tag/artist/series do you find the strangest/most repulsive, if any?

A-ha, let's see...Favorite manga had to be Parasyte... I just got sucked in and only just finished reading it... Currently one of my favorite mangas has to be RE: Monster written by Kanekiru Kogitsune and drawn by Kobayakawa Haruyoshi.
Anime-wise... It's a good thing you say currently because I watch at least 15 animes a season... At the moment my top three would have to be: Trinity Seven, Log Horizon 2, Akame ga Kill. Hentai series... I would have to say, and I'm shocked to say this myself, The Otaku in 10,000 B.C. It's just so ridiculous you can't help but like it.

Favorite hentai authors... Akatsuki Myuuto just has a fantastic style, I like Nagayori for storytelling, DISTANCE for just the general situations, Konchiki for comedy, Horitomo for imagination and monster girls, and Homunculus for the vanilla. Fuetakishi is good times, too.

Yeah, I know some people who remember the Lusty Lady project for some DISTANCE works - good times.

Hehe, yeah... Our last work was a DISTANCE piece.

So any tags/artists/series you found distasteful?

Oh! Excuse me, favorite tags... They would have to be:
- vanilla (Always a plus),
- monster girl (Depends, of course),
- boobs (I am open to whatever size... maybe leaning towards oppai, etc. but I can really go either way),
- harem,
- osananajimi,
- tomboy,
- dark skin,
- tan lines,
- swimsuit (And just general outfits).

Now for least favorites...they’re really only tags... I can't really say I dislike certain authors enough to the point where I can say I hate them but they just make me say, "nah, not my style”... But anyway, tags:
- rape (Just no)
- scat (HELL NO)
- gangbang (Just makes me scream "GET YOUR OWN!")
- old man (Yuck)
- fat man (Double yuck)
- ugly man (Now you're just pissing me off)
- netorare (If anybody actually tries ANYONE CAN BE GOOD IN BED! It doesn't do anything about your personality)
- tentacles (Some people may feel competitive against an octopus... I do not. The idea of multiple orifice stimulation isn't a bad idea... But I don't think that many arms, or tentacles, are absolutely necessary)

What is one thing that you think most non-scanlators are unaware of with regards to the scanlation process?

Probably the editing process and how it is done - nowadays the entire process of cleaning, redrawing, typesetting and what have you is broken up to different people whereas before it was only one person, one editor, who did all that. The reason why The Lusty Lady Project was so fast was because we had only ONE person doing all that as the editor.

Is it broken up because it's simply more efficient or because there are less people that can do everything relative to the stuff that needs to be translated…or perhaps both?

A bit of both. From what my editor told me there just weren't that many people who wanted to learn ALL THERE WAS about editing a manga so the process ended up getting broken up and delegated to different people.

Right, right. So I guess groups just have to be a bit bigger nowadays unless you have some really good people like you guys working together.

That is pretty much it... If you want quality AND speed it's best to have a small group where they are masters of their craft, but if you just want quality then a big group it is... with each person being assigned a different part of the editing process. If fans are ever wondering, "why is it taking so long?" It's mostly because a.) the group is too compartmentalized and b.) real life issues.

There you have it. But yeah, next question was: I know you guys shut down the project quite a bit before the recent Wani Magazine takedown incidents and the DDoSing of various anime-related sites. Can you give us a bit of your perspective of what, if any, changes occurred before and after these incidents?

A lot of scrambling to get rid of certain pieces on certain sites...just trying to avoid Wani's gaze...certain sites disappearing...and sometimes reappearing. Forums being made to figure out what is safe and what is not... information collecting, pretty much. Biggest example being fakku.net. And declarations, sometimes raging, from some groups saying they had to drop a series or more because of it.

Did you see it as a concerted reaction/effort or did you see a lot of different scattered reactions going on?

It was mostly negative but, ultimately, my editor and I were of the same opinion: It was only a matter of time... this was bound to happen someday. It's great that Japan is not letting itself being completely "leeched" as it were.

Right, I mean in the end this is distribution without dues to the artists at hand.

Right. If anything scanlations are just previews that allow for more people to see the artist's work.

Indeed. Now, you've uploaded a LOT of series over time - have you noticed any trends in the types of doujins that are uploaded now compared to back then?

When I first started doing doujins, I learned from my editor that the more, how shall I say, "wholesome" genres (vanilla, harem genres for example) were being neglected and the more "unsavory" genres (to me, anyway; the whole, rape, netorare, scat, etc.) were more prevalent... That the more wholesome genres were only done if groups were commissioned to do them. My editor and I like a good story with great art and so we ended up doing more series from the wholesome genres which, ultimately, were more our cup of tea. Nowadays I would like to think it has evened out (if only a little) between the genres that are posted/uploaded.

Oh interesting, so the groups actually picked out the more "niche" tags first - I didn't know that.

It seemed that way for the longest time... I suppose the rationale was that people would be inclined more to pay for the "nicer" stories if there were more "nastier" stories already being released. We ended up bringing about an age of vanilla... if not good taste... and I think it just stuck in the end.

And many readers thank you for that, I'm sure. Anyways, next question - tell us a quirk or strange tendency you have while reading/working on manga.

I don't find it so strange, as I did it for the longest time; but I used to not read through an entire piece (be it either a series or a one-shot) before translating... I just translated as I read. Nowadays not so much. The idea of "pre-reading" was foreign to me. An unfortunate quirk of mine would have to be the mixing up of "you're" and "your" as well as occasionally missing a word here and there. That drove my editor nuts at times... especially when whole bubbles were missed.

Oh dear - that's unfortunate but happens to the best of us.

Yeah..*sigh*

All right, two more questions and then we're done. If you could change any one thing about the manga/anime community or what manga artists do frequently, what would it be and why?

...As if you had to ask...CENSORSHIP! Be it either anime/hentai or just the whole idea of only allowing certain people access to certain series, it just gets so stupid. If there is a demand it should be satisfied. I wouldn't be surprised if some people were "driven to extremes" because of such a thing. The blacksabers, the whitesabers, the black holes, the white holes, the mosaics... it's a part of the body and shouldn't be abhorred... not to mention you can pretty much guess the two people are having sex so why bother?

Indeed, people will find a way in the end if the want/need isn't met.

Yup.

Ok, so the final question is - where did the name "The Lusty Lady Project" come from?

From me in the end... In my hometown there was this peepshow by the name of "The Lusty Lady" that had sadly (more so to others I'm sure) had been closed down. Despite being what they were, they were greatly respected as an independent peepshow where the dancers, performers, whatever you want to call them bought the rights to the establishment and ran it for themselves. Ultimately I chose that name as a sort of homage to them.

That's actually really cool - so the name does have a background to it!

Yeah - one fan who was curious about the name asked me about it and when I told him he was like, "wow, that's deep... BALLS DEEP"... A special response, I know... but yeah... I guess it is.

Tasteful response, to be sure. So do you have any last comments, shoutouts, callouts, announcements, etc.?

Oh yes... a couple things I ended up thinking of in the process of the interview - a couple more hentai dislikes:
- bestiality (Yeah, nothing),
- furry (Yes, I like monster girls, but furries? Not my cup of tea),
- lolicon (Again, not my cup of tea... Just not for me)

Also, as far as me and hentai go... I prefer stories that don't objectify the woman or reduce her to a mere sex object. Plot and story are always appreciated with me as well...

Shoutous, hm? Okay, here's one: GOOD LUCK, FAKKU.NET! CONGRATS ON GOING LEGIT! MAY YOU BE THE FIRST OF MANY TO COME!

Excellent, excellent, was thinking that too…All right, anything else?

No, that just about wraps it up... If anything, my dream is to be a mangaka in Japan and live there (if not, become a manga writer and find an artist, lol)

Hopefully you'll be able to find a good opportunity sometime - especially with Japanese publishers opening up to places like Fakku, there might be better times ahead. Again, thank you SO much for agreeing to do the interview.

You are very welcome.



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