Five Star Stories General

>>14633968
There's been plenty FSS threads.
Where on Earth have you been?

So I've never read the Manga of FSS, but I've seen the movie and I really like the mecha designs of this and Gothicmade. Is there a way to get into the manga? I always hear about how nonexistent the translation is and how the series is still being made or something like that. What's the deal with the printed series.

>>14634123

Locked up in a library doing a dissertation, my friend, but I looked for a thread in the first two pages and couldn't find one so I thought it'd be a good plan to have another general.

Is there a good central source of info on FSS in English these days, with the Gears Online forums dead and that website looking abandoned?

>>14634142

Not officially, the English manga is long out of print. There's scans floating around of varying quality (they're not great for reading on a tablet because the English edition had huge books with small font).

As far as I can tell, your best bet is doing what I did: get the Italian version. They're cheap (7.50 Euro each compared to the astronomic prices of the English editions). Of course if you don't speak Italian, it's just scanlations for you.

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>>14633968
>I can't find any info about the post-GTM episodes anywhere, no summaries nothing, nor where they fit in the original chronology/structure (is it Act 3? Is it still the Majestic Stand?)

It's a direct continuation of the Majestic Stand. Surprisingly enough it's been in nearly perfect chronological order so far without any timeline hopping other than one or two flashbacks. Did you at least find the unofficial scans for Vol 13?

>Also, does anyone know if the Reboot tankoubon have retconned the names to their post-Gothicmade version?

Reboot is pointless. It's just the original Newtype scans binded together; which means that the artwork is more crude because it hasn't been touched up or edited like the actual volumes.

>>14634159
>Is there a good central source of info on FSS in English these days, with the Gears Online forums dead and that website looking abandoned?

Unfortunately not, though given that no one has translated anything from volumes 11 onward, there's nothing to talk about other than the designs and a movie which nobody has even seen.

>>14634250

Thanks for all the info. Yeah, GTM not being available in home media (or even a camrip) means nobody has seen it. Didn't know there's no scans of volumes 11-12. I might do a crude translation from my Italian volumes!

>Did you at least find the unofficial scans for Vol 13?

No, I haven't found it! And all the sources of information on the post-GTM retcon seem to be gone (mostly they were threads on the Gears Online forum).

It's a shame, FSS once had a small but, you know, existent English fanbase and it just looks totally dead now.

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>>14634264
>Didn't know there's no scans of volumes 11-12. I might do a crude translation from my Italian volumes!

Another anon suggested this like a week ago. It would a godsend if you could do it, hell even just the scripts and someone else could do the typesetting.

>No, I haven't found it!

Here it is, but this also included RAWs of 11 and 12.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/kyxov4ccczpjsim/anon-fss-pack.zip

Download the newer artbooks (Desins 4 and 5) if you can too, they're both on Archive's blog.

And all the sources of information on the post-GTM retcon seem to be gone (mostly they were threads on the Gears Online forum).

In the English fandom yes, it's only when you dig deeper onto foreign sites like Baidu that you can find new info.

>It's a shame, FSS once had a small but, you know, existent English fanbase and it just looks totally dead now.

It died around the same time the last English volume was released in 2006, sort of revived when Gothicmade retcons showed up (not in a good way), and now we're waiting for what the next thing Nagano plans to do in his wild ride, and whether he'll actually let other people not in Japan see it this time.

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>>14634301

>Another anon suggested this like a week ago. It would a godsend if you could do it, hell even just the scripts and someone else could do the typesetting.

Actually with the Volume 11-12 RAWs it makes my life much easier, I can just edit the RAWs rather than having to damage my own books in the scanning process. Bear in mind the Italian translation, at least in the early volumes, was not as nice as I would've liked. I will also probably fuck up the names, since the Italian version REALLY fucks them up (remember that FSS has official transliterations, the Italian edition totally ignores them).

>In the English fandom yes, it's only when you dig deeper onto foreign sites like Baidu that you can find new info.

Yeah, that's what I meant, in the English fandom. Haven't been able to find much Five Star Stories discussion in online fandom of the languages I understand (french, Italian, Spanish) either. And I can't read chinese :(

>It died around the same time the last English volume was released in 2006, sort of revived when Gothicmade retcons showed up (not in a good way), and now we're waiting for what the next thing Nagano plans to do in his wild ride, and whether he'll actually let other people not in Japan see it this time.

Yeah. Nagano is both the creator of this wonderful story and its greatest enemy with his eccentricities. Did we need a poorly-animated, poorly-made film that retcons the entire universe? Did the English volumes need to be enormous, expensive affairs with limited distribution? I'm surprised the Italian volumes even exist (and they're based directly on the original tankoubon).

thanks anon, have my favourite FSS wallpaper in return. I'll also get FSS DESIGNS 4 and 5 scans. I have the first two, love those artbooks.

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>>14634331
>Actually with the Volume 11-12 RAWs it makes my life much easier, I can just edit the RAWs rather than having to damage my own books in the scanning process. Bear in mind the Italian translation, at least in the early volumes, was not as nice as I would've liked. I will also probably fuck up the names, since the Italian version REALLY fucks them up (remember that FSS has official transliterations, the Italian edition totally ignores them).

Sounds a lot like the problems with the early English FSS volumes. You think that with the better communication they have these days this wouldn't be a problem, so that's surprising to hear.

>Yeah, that's what I meant, in the English fandom. Haven't been able to find much Five Star Stories discussion in online fandom of the languages I understand (french, Italian, Spanish) either. And I can't read chinese :(

I remember there being some decent discussions on Hobby Fanatics and Gundam Eclipse (mostly about the models).

>Did we need a poorly-animated, poorly-made film that retcons the entire universe? Did the English volumes need to be enormous, expensive affairs with limited distribution?

Well, Gothicmade wasn't exactly poorly made from what I've read, but since none of us will likely ever see it, I doubt it matters at this point.

The English distribution was an absolute mess, I agree, but I don''t know if that can be attributed to Nagano. Toyspress had no idea what they were doing.

>I'll also get FSS DESIGNS 4 and 5 scans. I have the first two, love those artbooks.

First two? Do you have Designs 3 then? If not, it's also on Archive's blog.

>>14634301
>Archive's blog
Whuzzat?

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>>14634401
>not knowing about Archive Scans

Nigga what are you doing here

>>14634408
I've never seen it mentioned here. But thanks.

>Nigga what are you doing here
Talking about mecha stuff?

>>14634369
>Toyspress had no idea what they were doing.

Wasn't Nagano the founder of Toyspress though.

>>14633968
Where is the best place to read FSS? I've been interested in it for awhile

>>14634646
Nagano was one of the cofounders, yes, but was not involved in the distribution process for the manga. In fact, the reason the English version split up each of the original Japanese editions into three parts was because of the US distributor (Diamond Comics I believe) demanding that be done so it would be cheaper, not to mention that it was sold only in obscure places like Kinokuya bookstores. The Italian versions don't have that problem and were sold regularly in the full volumes.

It should be said that Nagano left Toyspress and took all the rights to FSS with him to establish EDIT (which would later create Automatic Flowers) back in 2006, the same time Toyspress stopped the manga in the US.

>>14634706
seriously fuck diamond

>>14634717
It was pretty much all Diamond's fault. Even the guy who translated the English version of FSS thought so.

>Gears Online: What are your thoughts on how the English language edition has been handled in North America?

>John Wisnom: "This is just the translator talking here... The summaries of each volume that I meticulously? prepared were atrociously hacked up by the editors (stoners?) at Diamond Comics. I think that is symbolic of how it has been handled."

http://www.gearsonline.net/series/fivestarstories/misc/interview1.html

>>14634706
>>14634729
Nagano should have just gotten Toren Smith and Studio Proteus to handle FSS for him. They did a bang-up job on Nausicaa.

>>14634747
The problem with Proteus and many other 90's manga publishers was that they all flipped them to make them read from left-to-right because Americans were too stupid they thought, and in the case of manga published on larger paper sizes like Nausicaa and FSS, they shrank them down considerably, which resulted in super cramped panels and tiny indecipherable text dialogue. The only thing that was good about them was the quality of the translations, and even that fluctuated as time went by. I'm amazed that Miyazaki actually agreed to it (as well as the Streamline dubs for his movies), since he's equally anal about the quality of the distribution of his works as Nagano, but after experiencing "Warriors of the Wind" he probably thought everything was better by comparison.

In the case of FSS, Nagano's demands for it to be unflipped, untranslated SFX, and published in the original size, with all the diagrams being translated (something that was also neglected on ALL versions of the Nausicaa manga) were too much for any English publisher at the time, and so he essentially had to get Toyspress to do it because it was literally the only company that could.

And then there was the whole issue that is the completely restructuring of the US manga industry that took place in the early 2000's, which effectively screwed over FSS and a bunch of other manga pretty hard, and even put Proteus out of business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Proteus

Essentially, FSS had no way to win here in the US at the time unless it got the 4kids treatment. Nowadays, with stuff like the Origin, it would be doable, but given how badly the English publication went the first time I can definitely see why Nagano would be so reluctant to bring it back to the US.

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>>14633968
Why is Five Star Stories on this Bandai questionnaire?

https://p-bandai.jp/enquete/1000003703/

>>14633968
The Gears Online forum had summaries of each new chapter along with HD scans. The forums have been down for several months now, sadly.

>>14634998
See >>14632900

>>14635018
Makes me wonder if Bandai has anything to do with the GTM retcon

>>14635054
It's been like 4 years since that retcon happened. If Bandai really did have the FSS license from back then they would have been no hesitation in making any toys.

FSS movie was way better than the manga in every way and Nagano is an enormous jealous faggot for not liking it and not allowing more to be made.

Come at me.

>>14633968
FSS is overrated

>>14635560
The movie was a decent adaptation, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. It's a good standalone but not a good overall representation of the series. Like Nausicaa or Akira.