Lamplighter is a doujinshi scanlation group borne of crack ideas at four o'clock in the morning and far too little Akira Hojo scanlations available on the 'net.

Doujinshi (同人誌) are, in the context of what we scanlate, fan manga. More specifically, they are stories based on characters and stories already existing in published and serialized manga - in our case, Konomi Takeshi's Prince of Tennis, licensed and serialized by Shueisha Co., Ltd. Doujinshi can range in rating from the most innocent of G-rated things to stories that are blatantly, irrevocably X-rated.

Usually, doujinshi are published by "circles" - groups of artists and writers who collaborate under a name to produce fangoods like doujinshi comics. There are also circles that consist entirely of one person and the people that person hires to publish his or her comics: case in point, Akira Hojo of Jekyll.

Akira Hojo is a popular doujinshi-ka among the Tezuka/Fuji community, well known for her wispy, beautiful art and extremely complicated storylines. While no longer active in the doujinshi community (she has moved on to original BL), few of her works, which number over seventy, have been scanlated. Lamplighter was created for the purpose of filling that gap. (We regretted it by our second day in operation, uh.)

In junior year of high school, no less.

Short answer: we're dumbasses.

Long answer: This, more or less, is our project process (some overlap):

1. Scan the doujinshi.
2. Transcription.
3. Base translation. (This is exaaactly what it says.)
4. Improved translation. (... but this is what it means, because what it says refers to nonexistent subjects! Thank you, Akira Hojo!)
5. Clean the scans.
6. Proofing session: aka the not-translator hacks the translation into a zillion pieces, asks many questions, and is generally a pain in the ass.
7. English wording finalized.
8. Scans edited.
9. If necessary, extensive translators' notes are written. By the editor. (That's how bloody detailed our proofing sessions are :Db And because by then, the translator's brains are usually a pile of mush.)
10. Scans checked by editor for flow, script often tweaked slightly (no meaning changes are ever, ever intended, hence the next step).
11. Scans checked by translator for script + translation accuracy.
12. Scans re-edited.
13. Scans re-checked by translator for good measure.
14. Scans checked by our pet quality checker.
15. Scans edited if necessary; run-through with translator and then....
16. Release time is 12:00 AM EST, yo.

Basically, scanlating over here works a lot like double-teaming does in Super Smash Brothers. Akira Hojo, she does not stand a chance.

The reason why we yell and scream at each other and repeatedly change the script is because we are all, to some degree, familiar with Japanese. We wouldn't touch it otherwise, we swears. We're also very dedicated nutjobs. We haets bad translations like we haets Pil-- er, bitter restaurant tea.

For more about the batshit Lamplighter staff: staff.php!