Yo Nat, sorry for the late comment. Hope you can see this, I'm gonna try pass on some of my own experiences since I always love chatting with you over these niche things.

First of all, I'm genuinely really happy to see this, means so much to me. <3 FYI, I was on vacation to Tasmania for a few days so now I'm back home. It is such an honor to see you 'review' Jigoku Ane! I'm glad I got a second opinion on the IchigoReader translation. I actually bought a *lot* of manga off of BookWalker (stuff that was never translated before or only had one chapter translated... like 11 years ago and then promptly forgotten about) and I read them on my tablet during my flight to Tassie... Yeah, ngl. The translations are quite rough. I suppose the technology just isn't there yet, or perhaps Skynet can never surpass the indomitable human spirit of manual translation.

But I figured that this was at least better than Jigoku Ane being forgotten to the sands of time as only ever being translated up to two chapters, y'know? Hopefully this can inspire someone out there to properly translate Jigoku Ane beyond its paltry two chapters years ago.

It breaks my heart to see probably thousands of TSF manga out in the wild, never translated and forgotten. ;_; I know AI these days is a rather controversial topic. By no means, I'm not a tech bro or whatever who thinks AI is this silver bullet that'll fix every problem. But like, I kind of have a soft spot for IchigoReader since (on paper) it does offer an accessible way to democratize niche TSF manga. It almost feels like a whole new world of opportunity has been opened to manga readers like myself where now, even manga that never got picked up for scanlation/were abandoned, can still finally be read. Because let's be honest, scanlators are not infallible (and many scanlators can be... weirdos, see 'Rapeman Scans' since they covered a manga that had a very brief TSF scene [Himenospia]. Their drama is a whole other rabbit hole of its own that isn't really TSF related anyways so you can look that up at your own discretion). As stated above with how Jigoku Ane was translated for only up to two chapters before... Being forgotten. Of course, you *can* commission scanlators but like trying to translate an entire series probably would cost thousands of dollars given they usually charge around $25 to $50 per page.

Of course... AI translation is *also* not infallible and as we see, they have a ton of problems as well, namely quality.

I was thankful at least the premise of Jigoku Ane was rather simple so even if some parts were sort of jank, I got the idea. But God, trying to read, say, Nibiiro no Chameleon (it's not really TSF but for some reason it circulated back on Farhad forums back in 2018; it's premise is about a twink hitman in the 80s who disguises as schoolgirls, office ladies, etc. with clothes, wigs and makeup) was such a pain in the ass because it's obviously a very complicated story with like a lot of twists and flashbacks. There were parts where the translation eerily reminded of the infamous 'Duwang' scanlation of JoJo Part 4 if you remember that.

idk tho...

It still just makes me tear up, in a happy way I finally found closure with that manga and finally read it to the end... :') I... I got to finish Jigoku Ane, even if it wasn't perfect nor ideal... It feels like a weight is off my shoulder, and right now I'll wait for the technology to get better before I tackle my backlog of 'niche TSF manga lost to time'.

Maybe one day I can finally profit from my Azerbajian Technology sponsorship and pay a proper scanlation team to translate more niche TSF manga, :v psst buy a Azerbajian Technology shirt btw promo code is OURAN25. /s jk jk that's just my inside joke, LOL!

Also sorry if this looks like a repost. I did send a comment earlier but it didnt seem to work, so for all intensive purposes this is the 'prime' comment of mine.

Oh and one thing about the Loggerzed thing... I always found his work to be...

Very fascinating.

I mean its obvious his background coming from Russia has definitely influenced the themes of his works, as someone who's a big geography and history nerd. I always loved indulging in Russian media such as Milk Outside A Bag of Milk among others since they really come from a very interesting mindset that always fascinates me.

You read a lot of Loggerzed's stuff so this should be apparent but his views on... Gender is very... Obvious if you know where he's coming from, so I can't really blame him for that? I dunno if you read Fairy Tale of Love yet, but yeah... NGL despite the rather different world view (putting it lightly), this work kinda gave me the feels. I really do think there is a side of Loggerzed that is kind of repressed and this is sort of his way rationalizing with that. Even if... I don't really agree with the way he phrases things. Kind of reminds me of Sex Change Diary or whatever was that work you covered a while ago made by that Japanese boomer.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/116364989

Also one of the more stand-out Loggerzed works for me revolves around... A Chechen woman who kills a Russian woman in order to steal her identity. This is some pretty heavy stuff given how much details he puts into the character backgrounds. Given how long Loggerzed has been working, its very likely he experienced the Chechen Wars in real life.

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/72701228

... Despite the fact that this is all rendered in 3D Custom Girl with everyone looking like anime characters, *on top* of the fact its played out *dead seriously*. It becomes almost like an unintentional form of black comedy or some abstract way form of bathos.

Also, the dark TSF works he does... ngl, I do love me Dark TSF. I love Deep Stalker by DATE, I love Love Me Only by Marialite, most Chronicstuss comics, but his stuff is like on a whole other level with just how brazen the characters act and how it's not very 'sexy' (though again probably due to tech limitations given he uses Comipo and 3D Custom Girl) I actually kind of amend him on having a genuinely unique style and flair to Dark TSF. Just something about how so many protagonists he writes are so vile in such a 'raw' way and there is no sugar coating. A usual Loggerzed protag is like "I will literally steal your body and life because my own body and life sucks :^)" and *it just happens*.

Though the FtF "kill people to steal their clothes" works will always be a tad silly to me. Like, uh, is it really worth killing another woman to steal her clothes...? Um, you know you arent really going to pass as that person because you can't change your face or voice- ugh whatever. Its silly and I can't help but cherish it. We need to protect Loggerzed at all costs!