No Zaku About It: I Started a Gundam Channel

In addition to all of my manga and novel translating adventures, I’m slowly starting to dabble back in the fansubbing world now that I’m a bit more comfortable with the tools of the trade and whatnot. Today’s update will introduce you all not only to my channel, but to some of the things that are now fully subbed for the first time.

G-SAVIOUR soundcinema

soundcinema 01 “Be Called Icarus”
soundcinema 02 “Before the Mission”
soundcinema 03 “Prometheus”

These three dramas are the “missing pieces” to the full G-Saviour experience, which do a great job of adding to the story since a lot of people seem to feel that the film didn’t have all the answers.

08th MS TEAM REPORTS

Report.1 Time Needed: Three Hours and Twenty-Three Minutes

If you’re only interested in the actual story, check out tracks three, seven and fourteen. The story depicts the valiant efforts of a maintenance squad led by Johnny Nakamizo, Shiro’s childhood friend, as they repair Shiro’s Ground-Type Gundam after it sustained minor damage during a sortie. It’s said to take place between episodes 3 and 4 of the main series, but this creates a continuity issue with Sanders’ “third time jinx” portrayed in episode 4. The second CD will only feature the story when it’s subbed to make for a smoother experience.

GUNDAM 0083 CD CINEMA

Cinema 2 Mayfly of Space

The first in a series of two, this particular installment fleshes out the full backstory to what led Cima down her path to betrayal!

In due time, I’ll eventually get back to providing a proper sub for Gaia Gear, finish up the 08th/0083 dramas before diving into some alternative content (Gunpla Factory, the Unicorn stage readings, etc). But, you can also expect subs for the Wing dramas and whatnot as well! Hopefully I’ll even get to the Gundam 00 ones for its anniversary next year!

Bright Slap That Subscribe Button!

At long last the controversial novelization is now available for the English community to enjoy! For further context about the novel, I’d suggest reading Ohkouichi’s interview here.

機動戦士ガンダム第08MS小隊

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 08TH MS TEAM VOL.1-3

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Publisher: Kadokawa
Published: 1999.04 – 1999.06
Released: 2026.04.22
Read It: VOL.1 (PDF | EPUB) VOL.2 (PDF | EPUB) VOL.3 (PDF | EPUB)

Universal Century 0079. Ten months have already passed in the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. Ensign Shiro is appointed as head of a mobile suit team on the gridlocked Asian front. While en route to his assignment from the colonies to Earth, he has a fateful encounter with a female Zeon Forces pilot named Aina…

With the second volume finally up on Patreon, it’s time to introduce the fandom to the first! With 00’s anniversary next year, you can expect to see translations of the series proper in the future once I wrap up Victory Gundam’s novelization attempts.

機動戦士ガンダムOOP(上)

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 00P VOL.1

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Publisher: ASCII Media Works
Published: 2010.03.31
Released: 2026.04.16
Read It: PDF | EPUB

Set fifteen years prior to Gundam 00, the story centers on the “Plutone Incident,” the tragedy that befell Celestial Being in A.D. 2292. Accompanying this are episodes depicting Grave Violento, protagonist of the 2nd Season, as he recruits the second-generation Gundam Meisters, along with original episodes penned for this release that shed light on the truth surrounding the Plutone Incident.

For years, I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with MangaDex and with uploading my scans there. What began with the massive purge in May of last year only spiraled into further uncertainty once they started operating alongside NamiComi. At that point, uploading required us to tick a little box claiming we had authorization or permission to upload titles. Obviously, 95% of the groups checking that box were lying out of their arses, but there was never any real effort to enforce it.

More recently, I was blocked from uploading because I run a Patreon account, which they now consider a violation of a new subclause enacted back in December. Highly selective in their application of it, that rule states that a user may not “use the Site as part of any effort to compete with us or otherwise use the Site and/or the Content for any revenue-generating endeavor or commercial enterprise.” (Cute how this clause is cut and paste from like a metric crapton of other legalise sites)

Basically, this started with a claim that I was “hoarding” material because I did not upload it right away. Fair enough, I took entirely too long to sit my butt down and finish putting together a compilation volume, and I can admit that the timing looked suspicious when another group had already started on it by the time I dumped everything. Still, despite having Patreon and donation pages linked across all my releases for years, it took one user report for that to suddenly become a problem, and I was blocked from any further uploads.

I’m not going to bother jumping through all the hoops for an “appeal.” From what I’ve gleaned, it’s honestly not worth the time or effort, and I don’t see them allowing me back anyway. More than that, I have no interest in bowing to a corporate mandate and its selective enforcement of contradictory rules. Maybe that is not the most elegant way to put it, but it is what it is. I’m not going to let a corporate entity dictate what I can and cannot do with my translation work, especially when everything gets released publicly in the end.

What makes this sting even more is that MangaDex grew off the backs of scanlator releases, only to start posturing as “legitimate” once that community work had already made the site valuable. If they truly wanted to go fully legal, then a real purge should have happened by now. Instead, they seem content to sit in the middle, benefiting from the traffic and value fan work creates while selectively enforcing rules when it suits them.

Alternatives for scans will be Comix, MangaFire or Mangadotnet. DDLs will be available on my Discord channel, and you can also keep up with release announcements on either Twitter or Bluesky.