Let no one ever say a Turtle goes back on their word… unless you happened to visit in the unfortunate period between now and November of last year, in which case I am so sorry and let’s pretend those months just slipped off into the same black hole as the pages you take joy in ripping from the daily calendar sitting on your desk and forget they ever happened. Have you forgotten? Good. Welcome to Mondays at Turtle Paradise.

If there’s one thing the three (!) releases coming to the table today have in common, it’s stuff blowing sky-high, and that’s… really about it. At least you’re not slogging through Wheel of Time and hoping for things to blow up, if only to advance the story. Humph.

Mebius Gear chapter 7:
“Bonds and Betrayals”
[Download | Read Online]
FREAK OUT! Despite consistently, um… flagging interest in the series, I’ll hold on to this one to my dying breath, if only for Maria’s absolute ferocity. Fortunately, it seems we were cosmically blessed to hold off on this chapter before the hiatus (read: I forgot we had it done), so this chapter drops us right into a new arc instead of picking up the pieces from some… other one. Wonderful. Edited by the fabulous Sakana-san (whose reappearance in the chatbox actually motivated me enough to pull my head out of my ass long enough to start releases again! THANK HER), typeset and translated by yours truly, and scanned and QC’d by Melfra, as always. Go bust some buildings! (We’re also looking for interested typesetters for this series, so please drop us a line if you’d like to get in on this!)

Junketsu+Kareshi chapter 16:
“Phantom of the Pit”
[Download | Read Online]
This right here was more or less the reason for my hiatus from translating. (Well, part of it.) I churned it out, submitted it for QC, started applying the changes, and… I hated it. I suffered so much embarrassment from the script that I had to put it away for months before I could stand even looking at it long enough to overhaul the translation, and overhaul I did. I hope the care is evident and y’all enjoy it. Edited! By the dashing Egotist! (join the fanclub; you’ll never regret it!) Translated and typeset! Yours truly! And scanned and QC’d by Melfra, who slogs through her general dislike of the series because she loves you all and she’s a trooper, omg.

And last, but certainly far from least… Drum-roll, please!

Slayers: Super Explosive Demon Story chapter 01:
“The Bomber Girl Appears!”
[Download | Read Online (Coming soon!)]
EXCUSE ME WHILE I FREAK OUT A LITTLE BIT AT THIS, AHH. AHHHH, SLAYERS! AHHH, SLAYERS! LINA INVERSE! MY QUEEN! MY GODDESS OF DESTRUCTION!
Anyway! After much hemming and hawing on the subject, we’ve finally begun work on the definitive Slayers manga, Super Explosive Demon Story! “Gee,” you might think, “these guys sure love their Slayers. I wonder how I can get in on that?” THE ANSWER IS HERE, MY FRIENDS. RIGHT HERE. If you want to read the Slayers from a manga perspective, THIS is where you start. Right here! Chapter one! Ahhhh, STILL SPAZZING. GOD, I LOVE LINA. Y’all have no idea. But anyway! This chapter was edited by Tom the Mighty, typeset by ZippyZippy, translated by yours truly, and scanned and QC’d by Melfra! GIVE THANKS, FOR SLAYERS HAS RETURNED TO TURTLE PARADISE. The read online links will be up tomorrow! Also, in the interest of preserving our usual quality, I’ve taken down our previous translation work on volume 8. It’ll take us a while to get there, of course, but I’d like to redo that volume to meet our current standards.

And that’s all for this week! I know I said we would have some oneshots ready as well, but alas, that must wait until next Monday. Perhaps we’ll have some more Shouoto as well? Ho, ho, ho. We’ll have to wait and see. Until then, see you next Monday!