Once upon a time, back in time we used to have the weekly AnG meetings and they were still fun, one of the guys brought a manga tank* to the meeting. His father got it in an care package sent to the Japanese aid agency he worked in, or something like that. He lent me tank, and after a while he told me that I could keep it if I liked it.

The manga was Wild Half by Yuko Asami, a story that ran in Shonen Jump magazine from 1996 to 1998, and published 17 volumes. Even though it never got an anime, it got three drama cds with a soundtrack of sorts. It's the story of a detective known as Wild Half, whom none has ever seen, but if you place your request in a specific park bench at a certain hour, Wilf Half will solve your case, unless you're lying or are bad person. But Wild Half is really a dog named Salsa, who can talk and can transform into a powerful half-human, half-animal creature known as a Wild Half. A boy named Taketo Iwase learns Salsa's secret and becomes his owner/partner in solving crimes and meeting other animals with Wild Half powers.

And like it I did, even if I have to rely on my understanding of the pretty pics to know what's going on, because moonspeak is foreign to me, with the exception of a few words. You get my drift. Eventually I found the Wild Half Forever Project site, where I got to learn more about this little book and like it even more.

Xanxus glaring at Salsa (in dog and Wild Half form) and his human pet Taketo

A scanlation group got around to work the first five chapters (volume 1 has 6 chapters and the one-shot pilot), but it stopped, and by the looks of it the group is pretty dead.

Anyways, the rest of the books are pretty hard to find nowadays, so I had kind of given up hope if reading (or at least looking at the pretty pictures) of the rest of the story.

This past week, a Weekly Shonen Jump Illustrated Guide was written, about the history of the magazine. Quite the trip down memory lane, I didn't knew my childhood classics Mazinger Z and Space Adventurer Cobra started in Weekly Shonen Jump. The post-script mentions the good series that never got animated, Wild Half included. Both Wilf Half and Mr. Fullswing would have been fun anime series, but sometimes it just never happens.

It made me wonder if there were any Wild Half books for sale in Ebay. Juat wanted to look, nothing more. The series was never really that big outside of Japan, so there was no risk of the books being bought so soon. Sure enough, there's a store with some books at really nice prices. I was just looking!! But then I saw volume 14 with this cover:

That guy is also a Wild Half. A wolf named... Wolf

This time I did not ask for EMS for the shipping. I have learned my lesson. I will have to really really avoid Ebay...

Seeing that Mundo Vid has licensed "unknown" titles before. They could license Wild Half. It's a short series, anyways, so it won't drag for long, like Naruto or Bleach. I can say the same of Mr. Fullswing which ended up with 24 volumes (ok. 24 volumes isn't exactly short, but the series has ended, so all is good).

Lookie! Not a single MS in the entry!

*Tank: short for tankoubon. Quoted from noated.net: "A manga volume. Essentially, a compilation of a number of manga chapters". So if tankoubons are compilations, does mean straight-to-book OELs like Shutterbox can't technically called tankoubons in Japan?.

Feeling: calm

Now playing: Psycho Wave (Mobile Suit Z Gundam ~A New Translation Review~)