Ootaka Shinobu - Blog Translation

Magi is taking a break this week. Sorry! I drew an extra comic instead. It takes place between last week’s and the week before’s chapters. Please read this story about extracting shoulder power. Without further ado, please read the 36.5th Night “Night Flight”, a story of Alibaba’s and Morgiana’s activities.

The comic was translated by Yuhina

Alibaba didn’t do anything in the 36.5th Night, but I wonder what you think about that? From now on, whenever there is a break, I will draw an extra comic. I would like to meet you all every week as much as possible, so please view the backstages! Magi will be resuming as per usual next week.

ALSO, on the 18th of this month* the 3rd volume will be sold! Alibaba didn’t show up much so I drew a special extra. The front cover has Morgiana. If you see an orange over with Morgiana glaring at you in the bookstore, please pick it up. Thank you!

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* This was March 18th, 2010

It’s still the beginning of the Balbadd Arc, but the development engine is just revving up. Last week Alibaba and Morgiana met face-to-face for the first time in a while, but another unexpected meeting took place. Please look forward to Morgiana’s continuous activities.

By the way, next week Magi will be on break*. But next week’s backstage will have an extra comic. Next Wednesday we won’t be meeting in the magazine, but let us meet in the backstage!

Lately there have been a lot of serious developments so I drew an extra comic with a ‘drawing the strength out of your shoulders’-like feeling. Please enjoy it.

*That was the week of 2010/03/10.

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Last week’s 35th Night had Alibaba himself finally appear. It’s been a while since I last drew him so I had some difficulty.

I absolutely hate drawing the dreadlocks of the new characters, and among my assistants it’s a hated topic.

Now, this week’s magi has a center color page. On March 19th, 2010 volume 3 will be sold. If you happen to see the front cover illustration, please take a look! I had trouble drawing the frontispiece this time. Drawing flame-like flames is really difficult. I practised too…

Which remind me, the image is of the male magi characters. Last week’s backstage was of the female characters. I noticed there are about three times as many male characters as female. From now on the number of characters will increase and it’ll get busier. Please look forward to it!

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This week’s Magi said farewell to increased page count. We’ve reached the first crossroad of the Balbadd arc, so please read!

This week’s chapter also saw three new characters appear. Although they are not currently referenced within “Arabian Nights”, it might be interesting to try and search for one.

By the way, each time a new character appears their name is always off by one character and such. Furthermore, this comic has a lot of misprints, but that’s because my handwriting on my manuscripts is so bad.

Which reminds me, when splitting the bill, the shop attendant couldn’t decipher the “大” (Oh) and “高” (Taka) that I wrote.

The misprints are fixed for the volume releases, so when that time comes please remember me.

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panhikattack asked: Thank you VERY much for this! I've been curious to know what she says on her blog!

Ah- You’re welcome!

I haven’t posted anything recently because I’ve been busy but I’ll try to again soon!

Thank you!

In last week’s edition, the King of Balbadd, Ahbmad Saluja, and his younger brother, Sahbmad Saluja, made their appearance.

They are very important characters, but somehow their faces turned out this way. Please disregard my weakness in drawing plain and unattractive faces.

Furthermore, when I draw young girls and women’s faces, I’m not very good at drawing them slenderly or muscular. Nothing can be done to fix it, so I stress out about my drawings a lot.

Now, this week /that character/ finally makes a reappearance! Please read it!

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Since last week, Magi has begun a new chapter of the story. It feels like a long time since the last, and I want to bring it to the climax, but please bear with me.

Now, last week a new character appeared. Sinbad (and his two attendants) were based on King Harun al-Rashid* (and his two attendants) from Arabian Nights.

In Arabian Nights, the fact that many people have a Mito Koumon-like** entrance, in groups of three, is very interesting.

A long time ago I was doing his design, and I never considered that he’d be making his entrance with only a single leaf!

* Yell at me if I have this wrong. Original: ハルーン・アラシッド

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitok%C5%8Dmon

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Last week the Morgiana Arc concluded. “I want to draw an adventure comic!” was what I thought when I started Magi, but in the story we haven’t traveled a considerable amount. For a long time I’ve been enjoying drawing and introducing the scenery during the middle of the journey.

Aladdin and everyone’s journey still has a ways to go. From this week onwards we’ll be breaking into a new chapter, so please read it! There will be a new setting, tons of new characters and tons of development.

Which reminds me, lately authors have been slowly forgetting about blond characters. By the way, I want more of them to appear.

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This past weekend I went to Osaka for the World Hobby Fair! The venue was overflowing with games and toys and it was really hot. I also forgot about my age and had fun. In the afternoon I had the privilege of having an autograph session. I didn’t have a chance to say the usual ‘Please read my comics’ to people, but I met many readers; it was a very luxurious time. I received letters and flowers. To the people who came to the venue: I was very happy. Thank you very much!

Now, about this week’s Magi, the Morgiana Arc has come to a close. Please look forward to the characters’ new journey and meetings! Speaking of which, now that we have exited the Morgiana Arc, regarding the slave trader Fatima, I didn’t explain it in the story, but they are not a woman, but a man. My process for him was to draw a man’s face, and then apply make-up after. His face without make-up is surprisingly plain.

This week I had the cover page and the opening color. On Sunday, if you happen to see Aladdin’s face on the front cover, please read it!

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I’ll continue with what I’m currently doing.

Hopefully I can keep going at 1/day. If enough of a backlog is made I’ll bump it up.

:)