Tonight, I want to begin by thanking everyone who visits this website and continues to support our releases by downloading, passing them along to others, seeding, etc. And as I mark this day, I’m also mindful that I have a lot of promises to keep to this year, and I hope that all of you continue to support this group and what it is trying to accomplish.

By now, it’s no secret that I’ve had my share of differences over the years. The comments towards us have been harsh, but we’ve fought fiercely in what we stand for. That is, however, a good thing. It’s what keeps us going. It’s what sets us apart from others who have tried and failed repeatedly. Recently, a member of the translation community took it upon themselves in a “butthurt” move to remove any and all translations they had due to criticism towards it. This, in part, was mainly a criticism from myself. Many people ask why we here at Zeonic|Scanlations take on SO many projects. In my mind, I have everything woven in an elaborate and grandiose fashion… but it comes out at a snails pace, unfortunately.

To digress, this came in part from my desire to pick up after Gunota. I started Gundam|News, because I wanted a reliable and accurate website to prevent any false information from spreading around on the net. This small belief is the core principle of Zeonic. It’s what I stand for. I hate bullshit information. I hate made up facts. I hate reading how people are under the impression that one thing happens when in fact it’s something else entirely.

I acknowledge that my work here is by no means professional. If anything it’s laughably amateur. Nonetheless, I strive for perfection in any way that I can. If I don’t know something, I research it. I ask people to give me a nudge in the right direction without telling me exactly what it means. When all else fails, it’s then I say “Hey, can you help?”. At the same time, I’m also critical of other translations. Why? I’m not really sure. A part of me is so caught up in things that I don’t realize how I come across sometimes. It’s probably why people read too much into what I write that I come off as an elite dickhead lurking on the net. Word choice means a lot, and unfortunately I come off a bit strong from time to time. Mind you, our work hasn’t been under the microscope all that much, so I’m sure it can be quite nagging. We did have an issue with Gundam 00V at one point that was completely mistranslated… and I deferred it off as a translator error not associated with me. I do tend to sweat bullets thinking about my work being critiqued, but alas when and if it were to come I’m sure I’d be just fine with it.

Nonetheless, I doubt the person whom I criticized will ever read this, it’s just something I feel I’ll say.

I’ll digress further on the matter in which I feel the need to criticize. This whole post and what not comes in light of a novel project we’re undertaking. Yes, it’s the Gundam W: Frozen Teardrop series. When information becomes available in Japan, I try my best to translate it for the folks over at AnimeSuki. This usually tides them over until someone else posts translations of the actual chapter. Well, the reason why I become so critical is when they read my stuff and then read something else in the translation chaos and confusion ensues. This mainly comes in part from hastily posted workings with promises to change things later. This is a huge no-no in every facet of translation. This is what causes problems. This is what causes misinformation. This pisses Deacky off to no end.

I believe I’ve noted five or six translation errors towards a particular individual and their aspirations to being a beloved project to the world. I think it’s only fair. Yes, I called them out on it. Yes, I specifically stated they were mistaken. Does that make me a troll? No. Do I have a right to do so? Me thinks. I am competing, or rather I “was” competing with them in a translation sense. Not to toot my own horn, but it saves a huge mess of a cleanup later on down the line.

So with that in mind, if you think something is fishy with our work, something that doesn’t look just right, tell me! If there’s a hair on the scan or a smudge in a bubble, I wanna know about it. What hurts us makes us stronger. I’m here to attempt perfection. It doesn’t happen, obviously (i.e. slow releases), but we do a better job than the official companies that produce material. This is, after all, quite sad. People who do this stuff for free should not be the ones who are flawless (sic) and consistent in their material. It’s not that hard to do, really.

This all in turn brings me to what we can do to speed up our group. Mind you, I intend to stick to the “7-11” project as best we can, but I’m looking for feedback from the community on this one. Yes, comments will be open. I’m going to also be searching for a new home soon. This domain, while relatively cheap, is running on thin ice. We’re set to expire again in March. I, unfortunately, haven’t been able to pay many bills myself thanks to wonderful cuts to my income so Zeonic is definitely going to be something that gets pulled. Sorry, but I have to keep my gym membership: gotta look sexy somehow 😉

Nonetheless, I enjoy doing this… despite the burden I place upon myself. I like introducing new things to fans, I like learning new things myself. Translating this stuff continues to challenge my mind and my language skills. That, and it also pushes my English skills to the dark side (I’m so sorry Martin. So very, very sorry).

So now is the time to act. Now is the time to stand up for the future. (Hail Zeon! jk!) The awakening of a new Zeonic will be triggered by the fans of the Gundam community, and we shall be a symbol of information for the people. (Oh I’m killing myself here)

We’re in a position where victory is within our grasp, and once again, our most cherished scanlations site will flourish. Rise, my people, rise! Zeon thirsts for the strength of it’s people.

Sieg Zeon, bitches.

Visitors to the site may have noticed that it said our domain was “expired” this morning. For some reason, my hosting provider had a glitch in their system that told me it didn’t expire until 9/2011. Well, a phone call or two later the issue was resolved, so we’re back up and running. Thank you BlueHost! I <3 u guys!

I just wanted to take the time to say Merry Christmas to all of our loyal visitors out there. As the year comes to a close and I look back on the year, I have some regrets in terms of what we’ve done. We had a lot of potential that went to waste, yet towards the end we sort of made up for it. As 2011 sits on the horizon, I’m thinking of the goals that I’m going to set for that year in hopes that Zeonic|Scanlations can once again become a reputable source for Gundam related material. I hope all of you look forward to what I’ve got in store. I’ll post the information around New Years, so stay tuned!

Yes, I’m taking up valuable blogspace by shamelessly promoting an artist that I absolutely love. For those of you that are searching for some new music, I’d like to suggest Kristine Elezaj. She’s a relatively new artist to hit the scene and she has a lot of talent and spunk that clearly blows away all of the current pop artists. While I’m not a fan of Britney Spears or anything, her music is slightly in tune to that while giving off her own brand of flair and attitude.Her latest album “No Questions Remain” was released back in October, and fans are eagerly anticipating the release of her Warpath music video, a showcased song that was previously released as a single. You can see the behind-the-scenes video to your right on the site here.

If you’d like to preview her songs, you can do so via iTunes or by clicking here. Please help support and garner attention for this great new artist! We’re trying to get her mainstream! 🙂

In regards to that rumor of the new Gundam announcement next March, I decided to ask Mr. Okawara himself for a little bit more information… he gave a similar response, but speculated something a bit more concrete?

@mydogcopelove 大河原さん、アメリカから今晩は。無理だけど、来年のガンダム発表についてもう少し詳細な情報がほしいです。お願いします。宇宙世紀？未来世紀？ 新ガンダムか？英語のガンダムコミュニティーは興奮でざわめいている。お返事、待ってます。どうもありがとうorz

@zeonicscans 御免なさい。守秘義務が有りまして、、、。宇宙世紀？
“I’m sorry. I can’t talk about it but… Universal Century, perhaps?”

\o/ He responded to a tweet of mine!

–UPDATE–

So Okawara responded yet again:

@mydogcopelove お返事ありがとうございます。では、３月にお待ちしています。この神秘的なことは私をはらはらさせている。（笑） 頑張ってください！

@zeonicscans それ以前に何処からかばれるでしょう！！何時もそうだからw、、、、
“It’s likely to be leaked out before that because it always seems that way -lol-“

As many of you will notice, this is a new layout. We’ve kept the previous layout for so, so long and after growing frustrated with a proper formatting system for the database, I decided to try out a new one. Believe me when I say finding a layout was difficult. Given the way I organize material, finding something that worked and wasn’t too intrusive was quite challenging. At any rate, here is the new layout! I hope you all enjoy it. At the moment, user registration for comment postings has been disabled. I had far too many people registering and not posting, so I really don’t see a point to it right now. That’s what the forums are for and will be utilized for with commenting on releases. Now, onto explaining things!

One of the features I’m trying out with the site is having things be bilingual. If you’re looking for information on a certain Gundam series and don’t know the English title but have the Japanese title, you can slap that up in the search field and hopefully yield some info on it. There’s a lot of half-started pages floating over there and I promise I’ll get to them when I can. I have a slew of text files with information in them I need to comb through and double check, but we’ll be better than Wikipedia and the Gundam Wikia in no time =)

The publications page has yet to be created. I’m still not sure what I’ll put on that page. I may end up spreading into model information and what not in the future, but that’s something I just cannot devote time to at this point in my website career (sic). On the release page, you’ll notice some different formatting options. We’ll no longer be listing direct download links, but instead will be directing to the gallery entries. I’ve lost the hosting for Zeonic|Distro, so until I can upload to Megaupload and Mediafire, this will just have to do.

If you have any comments or concerns with the new layout, you can voice them on the forums in this thread. Until then, I hope you all enjoy what we’ve created for you =)