So the day has come. If someone told me more than 8 years ago when we released this:
That I would live to the day where Kirinji would end, AND be the one to finish it as well, I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of such a claim.
But here I am. And that's why I love Kirinji so much and why it is and always will be part of me.
I couldn't have imagined the future ahead of me, it was a very dark and hopeless spot I was in, but the beauty in both life, and mahjong, is that you cannot know what is going to come and you cannot predict the future. So no matter how hopeless and dark the future looks, you don't know. You can't know. I am living proof of that.
The same way Rinji proved that just by struggling, new paths will open, somehow they will, I struggled my way too, to a brighter future. That is why I feel so emotional writing all of this.
Instead of writing a wall of text about how I feel, I'll continue the Tetsunaki no Kirinji commentary I started on youtube. No one reads walls of text nowadays anymore, the attention span just isn't there. So I will give all of my thoughts on the whole series in the coming videos.
Regarding the future of Lion's Ridge, I will continue translating. Which series, how frequent, I don't know yet. You'll know as soon as I think it all through.
One thing I have to say and get off my chest is: Thank you to every single one of you who read my translations, it not only meant the world to me when I was a lonely shut-in in a 3rd world country, but some of you also financially supported me in times I really couldn't even pay my bills. No exaggeration, I was in that desperate of a situation. I owe my life to you guys. I love you all forever.
From my lowest point back then to now, I struggled by working as a waiter, working on a cruise ship, working in call centers, cleaning raccoon shit from people's attics for a few bucks, giving math lessons to kids for 5 dollars a day, sold anything of value I had to pay the next bills, stealing food from company parties, shoplifting a few times until I got caught, rummaged through trash a few times to find food, picked up half smoked cigarettes from the ground to salvage the tobacco at home... But hey... It was all worth it.
Because I am a happily married man today with a relatively stable life.
Thank you all, again, and forever, also to manga in general and the author of Kirinji: Uhyosuke. Please support his official releases as well.
Whoa, didn't want to write this much. That's enough! I- I'm not crying, s- something fell into my eye.
Hope you enjoy... Thank you and see you soon :).
It's not as bad as I feared, it is bittersweet.
