animefreak_usa Posts

Haven't seen you in a while. Hi

So I just received my third copy of Witchcraft. I figured I'd make a quick comparison in case anyone has a copy and is on the fence of buying the Fakku Version:

Project-H First Edition: This edition is the worst printing. Poor quality paper, inconsistent cuts, missing color pages and panels... if you have this edition, you SHOULD upgrade to the Fakku version. It is superior in every possible way to the first printing from Project-H, so not bothering with any direct comparisons.


Project-H Second Edition vs Fakku's Edition: This is where there is an actual comparison. Project-H really stepped up their game and included all of the panels and proper pages in color along with much better quality.

- Print Edition Quality comparison: They are actually quite close. Fakku's has a smoother paper stock, but both are of similar paper weight. Neither edition has any real alignment issues that I can see, and the printing is solid. So while I would rate Fakku slightly higher, the difference is small enough I wouldn't rank it as a reason to upgrade to Fakku's version.

- Digital Edition Quality comparison: Here it is a different story. Fakku's editions are lossless high quality PNGs while Project H's are PDF copies filled with artifacts. If you care about the digital edition, the quality difference alone is vast enough to be worth the upgrade.

- Translation comparison: So this ended up being far more different than I expected. Not knowing Japanese nor having a Japanese edition, I can't technically compare, but I can give my opinion of how the translation feels/reads to me. And honestly, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Some translations I like better in the Fakku edition, and some I like more in the Project-H edition. However I trust Fakku's translators more, and considering just how different the translations are, if accuracy is your concern, this can be a major reason to upgrade.

- Lettering: When it comes to fitting the lettering to the text bubbles, I actually prefer Project-H's efforts as they fill them better, making the bubbles more often feel like they were meant for the text. I also slightly prefer the font Project-H uses, but they are so close that it doesn't really matter. This is the one and only area where I'd give the "win" to Project-H, but again they are still so close as to not really be a deciding factor.

- Sound Effects: Sound Effects in Project-H's edition has the original Japanese characters with translations just plopped in. Fakku actually redraws all the sound effects into English. This would be more opinionated on what you prefer, and unfortunately Fakku doesn't always do it perfectly with some letters having their centers incorrectly filled in rather showing the artwork behind, or sometimes being more obtrusive than the original effects. These issues are not pervasive enough to really bother me, and I prefer direct translations rather than the doubled up of having BOTH the Japanese and the translation blocking things up.

- Artwork Lettering: Now when it comes to Artwork lettering Fakku is miles ahead. Project-H just has poorly fitted typed words over any Japanese characters, and while it gets the translation across, looks ugly. Fakku took the effort to have any writings worked into the art so they look much more natural.


TL;DR --
- If you have the 1st Edition of Project-H: Unquestionably worth the upgrade
- If you have the digital edition of Project-H: Unquestionably worth the upgrade
- If you have the 2nd Edition of Project-H: If you are looking for a better translation, better artwork lettering, and sound effects in English rather than both, upgrade. Or if you want to support Yamatogawa and hopefully encourage him to produce new works, upgrade