Hello! Thank you for all your hard work scanlating HQ Kareshi <3 I'm thinking of purchasing a few books myself, but I have a few questions if you don't mind :3
Do you have the HQ BF anthology and if so what do you think about it? Is it basically the same as HQ kareshi but from different publisher?
Do you have any tips for scanning the books? All your scans are really clean, do you debind your book for that?
I really prefer digital version of doujins cause my bookcase is full to the brim, too bad the doujins are not available digitally 🥲 Btw, which book is your favorite? :3
Hello, hello! And apologies for the late reply. ><
To answer your question: Yes, I do have the HQBF anthologies! In fact, I own the complete collection, hehe. ( •̀∀︎•́ )✧︎ You’re right, it is basically the same as HQ Kareshi as they focus on character x reader pairings but just from a different publisher, however there are also some differences.
The first major difference are the panels. In HQ Kareshi you have the same 4 panel pages around 99,9% of the time (including the ones where they combine two panels to create a bigger one), but in HQBF the panel order is left up to the artists and thus it looks more much like a “regular” manga.
Another big difference is that while HQ Kareshi seems to have a strict 2nd p.o.v. policy, HQBF is much more lenient so some comics are drawn in 3rd p.o.v. and thus also show the reader!character (aka “(you)”). The reader!characters’/(your) faces are always covered, but hair style, clothes and skin color can still be seen which could be pretty immersion-breaking for some, because it makes self-inserting much more difficult. I’ll post some examples below the Read More.* Not every artist depicts (you) though, so there are also comics where it’s strictly 2nd p.o.v..
HQ Kareshi anthologies also have this cool “feature” where the backside of the cover has illustrations of the guys with scratch off panels! Underneath the scratch off panels are phrases that the guys say to (you). To give an example: the Kiss Kiss anthology’s cover shows the guys kabedon’ing* you. Some of them are super embarrassed and others are quite smooth and it shows in their speech. lmao Another example: the Childhood Friend anthology has some sort of personality quiz where it shows which guy you are more compatible with. (although it’s only limited to 6 characters IIRC) ** kabedon = basically, when a person corners you against the wall with one hand (or both) against the wall; often used in a romantic(????) situation
A small difference between those two series is that -because of their publishing period- HQBF covers “more” characters whereas HQ Kareshi focuses more on characters that appear early on (Kunimi, Kindaichi, Futakuchi, etc). HQ Kareshi’s last anthology was released in early 2017; HQBF on the other hand ran until mid 2017. As such, HQBF also has comic with Atsumu and Sakusa and my beloved Mattsun ♡ for example, who are (as far as I know) all missing from HQ Kareshi series. If both series had run longer, I’m sure we’d have seen lots of delicious Inarizaki comics. orz I just want a crumb of Osamu... pls,,,, (´•̥ω•̥｀)
And finally, HQ Kareshi has some comics with colored pages! Not every anthology has them, but the “bigger” ones such as Childhood Friend or Wedding certainly do. HQBF only has the regular black-white pages for all their anthologies.
There is one more thing, though I’m not sure if this is relevant to you, but the paper quality is imo better in HQ Kareshi. HQBF uses regular paper that you can find in every manga, and HQ Kareshi’s paper is much smoother and “whiter”.
Personally, I prefer HQ Kareshi (or the +Kareshi anthologies in general) because of its 2nd p.o.v. approach and how sometimes you have follow-up comics instead of only stand-alone ones. But HQBF anthologies are still pretty fun to read! Especially the love triangle anthologies... 👀
Regarding my scans: 100 points to you! You are right, I did debind my book in order to get such clean scans! Here’s a post where I briefly talk about my scanning process. Maybe this kind of clean scan is also possible with a proper scanner but you’d have to press reeeaally hard and could break the books’ spines in the process (this method should work fine with thin doujins tho).
I prefer physical copies of my books since I wouldn’t have to worry about websites or so shutting down and taking all my purchases with them. But you are completely right in that they take up a looot of space. I’ve run out of storage space as well, haha- OTL
... Hah, my favorite book... hmmmm, maybe the HQ+Wedding one? (。´･ω･)? It’s really nice how every featured guy gets multiple chapters that covers the first meeting, confession, some everyday stuff and of course the wedding. But ngl, if you ask me next week, I’d probably name a different book. lmao I just love them all a lot!
Phew, that was a loooong reply. I didn’t mean to make it so detailed, but I hope my answers could help you a little. If you have further questions, feel free to contact me again!
Thanks for the ask, and I wish you a wonderful day. :3
* As mentioned above, under the Read More are some examples of a few reader!characters that can be seen in HQBF:
