I decided to write an OS history, or as I like to call it: Our Story.
There wasn’t a real need, I just felt that why not share how OS was formed (since we’re oh-so-awesome <3). I am not lashing out or defaming anything/anyone by posting this, I am just merely sharing my experience. So to those who read this, please keep an open mind. (:
“The past propels the present, to soar to greater heights.”- CHS theme 06′.
Oh, and prepare yourself for WALL-O-TEXT (;
The Birth: our founder and life before scanlation,
Ochibichan-scan was founded by an awesome person named Ochibichan (will refer to as Ochibi to prevent confusion). Before we were known as Ochibichan-SCAN, Ochibichan was actually a blog-cum-raw providing site. Ochibi would upload raws in whatever language she found onto her site to share with the world. The actual date of birth of Ochibichan, is sadly unknown, but is speculated to be around mid 2005.
Back then, the site’s two most popular raws were Moekare and Lovely Complex. Due to these titles’ popularity among the visitors, Ochibi easily got suggestions and even offers by people to help start scanlating. Thus, Ochibichan-scan, the scanlation group, was born with the first release being Moekare volume 1 chapter 2. This was also the start of a dramatic journey…
The Beginning: Lights! Music! Drama! ACTION!
At the start of the group, there wasn’t any drama yet because Ochibi never updated any release-info to any scanlation news sites. But when she did, you could say there were some conflicts.
You see, during that time, OS’s starting projects were Moekare and Lovely Complex- both of which had another group scanlating at that time. To make matters worst, Ochibichan-scan was actually a low quality scanlation group (gasp!), using scans found online to edit with and favoured speed over quality. Therefore, OS was under a lot of backlash and spite from one of those groups in particular- it got so bad that Ochibi was banned from their channel (she was actually one of their supporters).
You can say that was one of OS’s darkest moments. We didn’t drop Lovely Complex, but we did learn a very valuable lesson which is now one of our most respected policies: Do not do a project actively scanlated by another group; do not send threats to groups who do ours.
Despite all that hoo-ha, Ochibi managed to pull the group through. We started improving on our quality and picked up some of our own projects like Maniattemasu!, Gakkou no Ojikan and Sprout (2 of them completed). But before Ochibichan-scan could reach a whole new peak, we were stumped with another dilemma: Ochibi leaving OS.
The Successors Part 1: The fall and the rise.
Well, Ochibi wasn’t exactly leaving OS at that time, she was just on hiatus as she had to prepare for her O Levels. She temporarily entrusted the group over to Razzledgirl and I (mioka). We were actively participating in OS’s progress, on the forums, on IRC (I think this was actually the key factor that we were asked to c0-head the group) and so on. We were even best friends. But, all would change and be explained later in the story.
I can’t/won’t deny it, I wasn’t exactly the best ‘leader’ material when Ochibi handed the group over. I was only 14 and actually a very avid gamer- when Ochibi told us that she was going on hiatus, my mind and schedule was already preoccupied with an up-and-rising MMORPG- Granado Espada (GE). Because of my obsession with GE, I didn’t go IRC and hardly ever bothered to check on OS’s status, leaving Razzledgirl to handle everything while she juggled with her own family problem- her grandmother was ill.
With me being MIA and Razzledgirl having to put her family as a priority, Ochibichan-scan slowly lost the momentum it once had- another group had even picked up Lovely Complex during this period due to our “slow” (Though, I still think 2 weeks is anything but slow) updates. This lasted for a few months before I finally got a wake up call (from my family, but nothing to do with scanlations) and came back to take the reign properly immediately after I finished my exams.
The situation I had to deal with back then was indescribable. Everything was everywhere and some parts of everything were missing. Ochibichan-scan was in a sad pit of doom.
The first mission at hand was to gain our prized possession (Lovely Complex) back. And what better way to show what we, Ochibichans got than to beat the other group into oblivion with both speed and quality? It started out rough at first, since it wasn’t exactly easy to change yourself from a LQ group to HQ in one night. This was the time when OS started reeling in good quality editors while the older editors (who most were quite good actually) started to improve on their editing, so it wasn’t long before our editing quality reached worthy-HQ status and we were ready for war. With the help of pre-stocked scripts and dedicated editors, we were able to release the hounds (Lovely Complex chapters) in bulk, attracting loyal and new readers’ support. It really wasn’t a surprise when we finally managed to overrun them just 3 months later (:
During this ‘Renaissance phase‘, we even managed to enroll new recruits, boosting our confidence more and daring us to pick up new series on the way- Otokomae! Beads Club, Ringo Nikki (joint with J-SiS), Himitsu Kichi and many more titles. One of these new recruits turned out to be one of OS’s most important pillars- Procyon.
Initially joined as an editor, Procyon played an important role in our rise as he is the true mastermind behind our headquarters (main website) today. He offered to help maintain and host our site free-of-charge. No offense to Procyon, I was skeptical at the offer, since well, nothing is exactly free. But since I didn’t really give a damn to the site, I just allowed it. And damn, it was one of my best skeptical moments because with a NEW and WORKING site, it was much easier to organise OS and it gave readers easier access to our releases. I will always feel grateful to what Procyon did and is still doing (although there are moments I want to choke him <.<), Ochibichan-scan wouldn’t be the same without Procyon (‘:
Another huge surprise during our rise was that Ochibi has returned again! Her O Levels were over and she returned to co-run the whole ‘OS Operation’. Although her return was short, I was still really happy to have her around to help take some load off.
A working site&forum, more constant releases, dedicated staff…It definitely wasn’t easy. But with the help of DaBlah, Lamune, Pepper, Procyon, Reik0suave, Sunako and so many more, Ochibichan-scan was able to come out of that dark-pit of nothingness and soar to where it is now (:
The Successors Part 2: The ruined friendship.
Now, to explain the conflict between me and Razzledgirl. It’s not pretty, and to be honest, it was a somewhat childish immature disagreement and misunderstanding between the two of us.
During the whole up-and-rising phase of our group, Razzledgirl was pretty much MIA. But who could blame her? Like I said at the before, she was practically swamped with family problems and furthermore school. So by assuming this, the misunderstanding started.
-TBC
