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No one is coming back for you.

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Sorry dude, tough break.

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“You know a lot of big words.” — Determining Shigeo’s Kanji Literacy

An analysis in four parts:

Jouyou kanji and Japan’s compulsory education system, explained.

An introduction to the analysis—what I did and why I did it.

A presentation of data, evidence, and counterarguments.

The truth revealed: can Shigeo write a reasonable amount of kanji for his age group?

Jouyou kanji and Japan’s compulsory education system, explained

Let us begin this analysis by establishing a basic understanding of how Japan’s education system is structured.

As you may already know, only elementary school and middle school are compulsory in Japan, meaning that high school and college are completely optional. Therefore, compulsory education in Japan consists of grades 1-9, with grades 1-6 being 小学校 (primary school) and grades 7-9 being 中学校 (middle school).

The term 「常用漢字」(jouyou kanji, “Daily-Use Kanji”) refers to a list of 2136 kanji that the Japanese Ministry of Education requires be taught throughout education grades in Japan due to their importance and frequency of use in Japanese daily life. Knowing all 2136 is defined by the Japanese government as the baseline for basic, functional literacy in Japanese. The jouyou kanji list is further divided into two sub-categories: 「教育漢字」(kyouiku kanji, “Education Kanji”) and 「中学・高校漢字」(chuugaku • koukou kanji, “Secondary School Kanji”).

教育漢字 (kyouiku kanji, “Education Kanji”) (A.K.A. 学年別漢字配当表 [gakunenbetsu kanji haitouhyou, “list of kanji by school year”]) is the Japanese term for the 1006 kanji that are taught over the 6 years of primary school in Japan, grouped into different grade levels by difficulty and complexity.

「中学・高校漢字」(chuugaku • koukou kanji, “Secondary School Kanji”) is the term for the 1130 kanji that students are expected to learn throughout middle school and high school. This list of kanji is not strictly divided by grade level, though a general grade level is often provided, because students in secondary school—whether it be middle or high—are expected to learn kanji more independently. Though the responsibility of learning these kanji is shifted from the classroom to the individual, the importance of knowing these kanji by the end of one’s education, if that be middle school or high school, cannot be overstated. Once again, these 2136 kanji are considered the basics of Japanese kanji fluency.

According to the “Kanji Frequency Number Survey/漢字頻度数調査” conducted by the National Cultural Affairs Division in 2000, in 385 books published by a major publishing company, 8474 different kanji were used (not including duplicates). However, speakers are able to understand 99% of them if they know the top 2457 kanji, and 99.9% of them if they know the top 4208 kanji. And as is true for speakers of every other language, people can generally read more words than they can write.

I determined the “grade level” of each kanji in this analysis according to the grade level provided in my Japanese-English dictionaries, but consideration will be made for Secondary School Kanji due to the lack of official grade divisions and the less organized circumstances involved with learning them.

An introduction to the analysis—what I did and why I did it

In this analysis, I focused specifically on Shigeo’s ability to write kanji, not to read them. This is most obviously because it’s much harder to determine whether or not someone can actually read something, especially in anime, without it being explicitly mentioned. However, it is also because the meaning of kanji can be inferred from knowing the meaning of radicals, and as mentioned above, it is common for people to be able to read more words than they can write. The true mark of knowing a kanji is being able to write it.

To determine Shigeo’s kanji-writing ability, I studied screenshots from a few scenes from the anime, specifically a couple of scenes from the Reigen OVA where Shigeo is writing a LOT, and a couple scenes from the regular anime where Shigeo is explicitly seen writing stuff down and the audience is shown the writing.

The data has been organized into two different excel charts—one for kanji he uses correctly, and one for kanji he doesn’t know or messes up. The kanji in each of these charts have been color-coded and organized by grade level, with readings, translations, and explanations provided. There is only one kanji in the entire analysis that is not considered a part of the jouyou kanji, and this kanji has been marked by “N/A” in the grade level section.

I will provide each chart alongside a percentage likelihood that Mob will know any given kanji from each grade level based on the information gathered from the anime. Please note that the sample size is obviously limited, but I’m working with what I have. If there is a kanji with some sort of detail worth consideration, I’ve marked it with a (**) in the chart and will explain below.

Lastly, I included kanji used in names in the chart here after some deliberation. Name kanji are tricky in general, because multiple kanji share the same pronunciation and people usually don’t know what kanji are used in someone’s name unless they are shown by that person (unless it’s some crazy common name like 高田 or 森 or 田中).

A presentation of data, evidence, and counterarguments.

Shigeo’s known kanji:

Shigeo’s unknown kanji:

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are one or two instances of Shigeo NOT using a kanji at all that I’ve decided not to include on the chart. This is because it is common for Japanese speakers to omit kanji for super common verbs and write them in kana instead, either for personal style reasons or for convenience. Since the verbs are so fundamental and commonly-used, it’s unlikely that they will be misunderstood or mistaken for another word if written in kana. So, if Shigeo wrote the verb for “to read” or “to eat” without using kanji, I didn’t include it, as I highly highly highly doubt he doesn’t know those kanji and I felt like it would unfairly skew the results against him.

米** = I don’t blame Shigeo for not knowing this kanji. It’s fair to assume that Mob might not have seen Mezato’s name written out and therefore wouldn’t know which kanji to use. On TOP of that, “me” for 米 is a special nanori (used for names only) reading and is super obscure and uncommon. I couldn’t even find it in my name dictionary by searching “Mezato”, I had to find her name written in kanji in S1E3 and go from there. I wouldn’t expect this kanji to be in anyone’s top ten possible kanji guesses for the “me” in “mezato”. I included it because rules are rules, but wanted to mention this to make it fairer on the boy.

世** = I want to make it known that Shigeo does successfully write this kanji in the image shown here, when he writes 「世紀」(century):

HOWEVER. However. He messed it up SO BAD before that I think it actually overpowers him using it correctly and brings it back around to a “not properly known” kanji, especially because it’s a kanji taught in second grade that he shouldn’t be messing up at all:

The subtitles intersect it but I’ve rewritten what Shigeo wrote there at the bottom. He tried to write 「世の中には」”In the world…”, but tried to write the kanji, messed up, crossed it out, and then rewrote it in kana. Didn’t even try to write it a second time. This is egregious and, in my juror’s power, cancels out his later usage. This would be like misspelling “world” in English. I’m willing to entertain arguments that he just wanted to write it in kana for some reason, but as it is now, I don’t think that excuse is compelling enough against such damning evidence, so in “missed kanji” it goes. (It’s partly cut off but what gets me is that it doesn’t even look wrong in the first place lol but if he crossed it out, it means he didn’t know it well enough, which allowed him to doubt, which is still damning enough.)

造** = Just like above, Shigeo actually does successfully use this kanji once in the show when he’s filling out his paperwork for the Body Improvement Club in S1E2 (forgive my awful kanji, it’s hard to draw on the phone lol): 

However, that was not only on an official school document, it was also in the presence of a student council member and Saruta (#2 in the grade lol) so I have to assume he either asked someone for help or got corrected. Either way, the instance where he doesn’t use the kanji is when he’s in his bedroom alone, writing in his personal notebook—a much more casual environment, and one that takes place AFTER s1e2 (can’t argue he learned it):

This leads me to believe that Shigeo does not naturally know the kanji, as he can’t reproduce it in casual day-to-day or when alone.

焉** = This kanji is not only not included in the jouyou kanji, but it is also used in an obscure word. In fact, it took me a minute to locate it in my Japanese-English dictionary app. It is absolutely not reasonable to expect Shigeo to know this kanji off the top of his head, and he probably wouldn’t know it even if he were a kanji ace. It is included and working against him, however, because the kanji he initially tried to write in its place was 「円」, a.k.a. the kanji for YEN/¥:

Sure, 「えん」is a reading for「円」, that part makes sense. But 「終焉」means “the finals years in one’s life”, so I’m really struggling to understand why Mob would think the yen money kanji would be a part of that word and why he would try to write it with that kanji instead of just writing it in kana first, like the majority of the kanji he didn’t know. It’s truly an enigma to me. I’m bewildered he even tried that, and for that, I’m holding it against him.

BASIC STATS:

GRADE 1 KANJI:

- Total known: 17

- Total unknown: 0

- Grand total: 17

- Shigeo knows: 17 out of 17

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 1 kanji: 100%

GRADE 2 KANJI:

- Total known: 16

- Total unknown: 3

- Grand total: 19

- Shigeo knows: 16 out of 19

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 2 kanji: 84.2%

GRADE 3 KANJI:

- Total known: 13

- Total unknown: 6

- Grand total: 19

- Shigeo knows: 13 out of 19

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 3 kanji: 68.4%

GRADE 4 KANJI:

- Total known: 11

- Total unknown: 0

- Grand total: 11

- Shigeo knows: 11 out of 11

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 4 kanji: 100%

(Baby apparently had a great year in fourth grade.)

GRADE 5 KANJI:

- Total known: 3

- Total unknown: 4

- Grand total: 7

- Shigeo knows: 3 out of 7

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 5 kanji: 43.9%

GRADE 6 KANJI:

- Total known: 0

- Total unknown: 2

- Grand total: 2

- Shigeo knows: 0 out of 2

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 6 kanji: 0%

😭

GRADE 7 KANJI:

(No known or unknown 7th grade kanji found)

GRADE 8 KANJI

- Total known: 5

- Total unknown: 6

- Grand total: 11

- Shigeo knows: 5 out of 11

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 8 kanji: 45.5%

^ To Shigeo’s credit, this isn’t bad at all considering he’s only halfway through his eight grade year at this point in the story.

% OF JOUYOU KANJI SHIGEO KNOWS:

% known from observed data:

65/86

75.6%

# of jouyou kanji: 2136

75.6% of 2136 = 1615 jouyou kanji

Here’s a graph for your visualizing pleasure:

Finally:

(All values are rounded up)

There are 1006 kyouiku kanji. There are 1130 secondary school kanji. Because high school in Japan is not compulsory, we’ll assume that the secondary kanji are to be learned over the three years of middle school. That means about 377 words per middle school grade. If Shigeo is halfway through eighth grade, let’s say he should generally know 1006 + 377 + (377/2) kanji, which comes out to 1,572.

There are 80 kyouiku kanji assigned to first grade, which Shigeo should know 100% of—80 total.

There are 160 kyouiku kanji assigned to second grade, which Shigeo should know 84.2% of—135 total.

There are 200 kanji assigned to third grade, which Shigeo should know 68.4% of—137 total.

There are 200 kanji assigned to fourth grade, which Shigeo should know 100% of—200 total.

There are 185 kanji assigned to fifth grade, which Shigeo should know 43.9% of—81 total.

There are 181 kanji assigned to sixth grade, which Shigeo should know… 0% of…. 0 total.

This all totals out to:

80 + 135 + 137 + 200 + 81 + 0 = 633/1006 elementary school-level kanji. That’s 63% of the kanji required for elementary school.

(Didn’t include a calculation for middle school kanji due to having 0 data on seventh-grade kanji and also him being halfway through eighth.)

The truth revealed: can Shigeo write a reasonable amount of kanji for his age group?

Uh… no. Maybe? Well… probably not, no.

I mean, of course there are flaws with my methods. I had a super small sample group and applied the stats there to all of the jouyou kanji, which is almost guaranteed to be lower than reality. I just didn’t really have another choice. Also, I’m very certain that Shigeo MUST know some 6th grade kanji, even if in the results here I considered the probability to be 0%. That’s assuredly not accurate. There were just, by chance, only two instances of sixth-grade kanji in all of the sample writing and he happened not to know either of them. This is just for fun, anyway. I can say with confidence, though, that he certainly isn’t a writer, and he definitely knows less kanji than the average eighth grader, but I wouldn’t take my numbers for anything more than entertainment.

But yeah. Shigeo is…. a little kanji-impaired. Which explains why he struggled with Emi’s writing and is only ever seen reading Shounen Jump volumes lmao. I believe in him though. He makes it work. My illiterate king. Who needs the other half of your elementary sight-words anyway?

All jokes aside though, he really started to scare me with the 世 and 円 things 😭😭😭😭😭

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On Mogami’s “People can’t change” ideology: Shou’s mom

So um.. the thing about Shou’s mom is that besides the fact that we see little of her in Touichirou’s flashback. We also know about her secondhand from what Shou tells Touichirou at the end of wd arc and his dream. 

So here’s my theory, she strongly believes people can change. She really cares about Touichirou and thought that he'd change, that she can change him™ . And tries to encourage Touichirou through taking care of the cat.

And when she left, it was also to push Touichirou to change and recognize that he's wrong and he “can’t move people's hearts with power.” because he was supposed to realize that he can’t convince her to come back with his powers. He was supposed to talk to her and she would come back,  proving her point.

She was intending to come back when he realizes his mistake and apologizes. And since she intended to come back, she possibly didn’t think she had to take Shou with her, that things weren’t that bad and that Touichirou wasn't going to go that far and hurt Shou. 

Also Shou may have chosen to stay with his dad. He may have pretended to agree with him because he wants to stay close enough to try and stop him. And Touichirou had basically told her "he likes me for my powers" as in 'he'd choose me over you because of powers' (do also note that Touichirou had the prime minister kidnapped during a women empowerment conference as he talked about helping women with expanding the range of childcare welfare to reduce authority harassment)

Shou met her from time to time without Touichirou knowing. 

He tells Touichirou that she always asks about him and that he was trying to stop him before she found out about his current situation.

And he may have tried to be a mediator and when she would ask about Touichirou, Shou would lie to her and tell her Touichirou's starting to feel guilty for what he said or something like that. Shou was trying to fix their relationship from both sides.

 Shou was embarrassed after the world domination announcement. He was hiding Touichirou’s situation from her and now it's out. to Shou, Touichirou embarrassed him in front of his mom.

And still, She hadn’t given up on him even and still plans to visit and scold him.*

Mogami and Shou’s mom represent two opposites through cats, as Mogami used the cat to get Mob to believe that people can't change while Shou’s mom believed people can change and was trying to use the cat to get Touichirou to change.

 and by giving Touichirou opportunities and chances, and that put Shou more in danger. 

*i've seen translation that she'd go visit Touichirou and translation that Shou and Touichirou will go visit her, I can't tell but I'm guessing the first one’s more likely.

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about suzuki shou and his parents

most of the parents in mp100 seem to be competent, if somewhat distant. the suzuki family is an exception to that trend. when considering shou’s relationship with his parents, the first question to arise was this: why didn’t shou’s mom take her son with her when she left touichirou? this question is fundamental to the suzuki family dynamic.

i mean, we know why she left touichirou, and her decision to dump him was perfectly justified, but she seems to have had a good relationship with shou, so why would she leave him behind? at first, i thought that maybe she was so desperate to get away that she prioritized “disappearing from touichirou’s life” over “raising her son” and viewed the abandonment of shou as an unavoidable consequence of her departure. but from what we’ve seen of shou’s mom, she seemed to be a compassionate person with a strong sense of morality, so it wouldn’t make sense for her to decide to fully remove herself from her son’s life.

could it be that young shou just admired his dad so much that he refused to go with his mother when she left? it’s true that it would be pretty easy to get a little kid to admire you if you showed off some telekinetic tricks, so young shou probably did admire his father, at least for his psychic powers. well, shou’s custody probably wasn’t determined by his own preference, but i do think psychic powers are at the heart of the matter.

we know from that one omake that shou had already awakened his psychic powers before his mom left. i suspect she was crying at that time because she knew how psychic power could corrupt a person and was worried that shou might end up like his father. as a (presumed) non-esper, maybe she had hoped that shou would be like her; after all, he was a kind boy, and you don’t need psychic power to be kind.

so maybe… she left shou with touichirou because she knew that she alone wouldn’t be able to teach shou how to control his psychic powers. only his father, an esper, could do that. but she kept in contact with shou and retained an influence on him in order to teach him good morals and make sure that touichirou wouldn’t be able to manipulate shou to suit his own selfish needs. shou’s mom is the reason shou decided to revolt against his father in the first place.

i also have a hypothesis as to the relationship between shou and his father after his mother moved away. before shou confronted his dad at the top of the tower in chapter 88.1, touichirou had been planning to let shou inherit the world from him (after world domination, of course). that means he felt that shou was more or less on his side, or at least, he thought that shou still had the potential to become a worthy heir. and before that confrontation, shou was not afraid of his father. his behavior makes this clear; for example, he talked cheeky to his dad on the phone after the 7th branch incident. if you’re afraid of someone, you don’t sass them like that. plus, his reaction to his dad’s “i’m taking over the world” TV broadcast was embarrassment rather than dread. shou didn’t see his father as a truly threatening figure.

thus, i hypothesize that before their big confrontation, shou thought of his dad as “a dumb idiot dad who doesn’t understand that taking over the world is impossible and pointless and needs to be taught a lesson (by me),” and touichirou thought of shou as “a teen son who is causing some mischief since he’s in a rebellious phase but can ultimately still be molded to my liking.” their relationship was tense, but not abusive, and touichirou probably gave shou anything he asked for (e.g. underlings) because he didn’t see shou as a threat.

i’m not saying that they had a healthy relationship by any means. there was probably plenty of neglect, but like, a Rich Dad type of neglect, like “i’m not coming home tonight (for the 8th night in a row) so here’s 5000 yen, have your subordinates order takeout or something.” he was almost certainly not being a good dad, but i don’t think touichirou was openly hostile or directly emotionally/physically abusive to shou. touichirou was trying to raise a respectable heir; he was just much more focused on the task at hand, so much so that he failed to take heed of how seriously his son opposed him. the two of them probably didn’t communicate much at all, other than perhaps the father talking At the son and the son responding with impudence. 

that’s why things really came to a head when they met in the tower: because each thought he understood the other perfectly when, in fact, they didn’t understand each other at all. touichirou had underestimated shou’s desire to oppose him, but that misunderstanding didn’t afford shou any kind of advantage. actually, shou already had a huge disadvantage as a result of his own misunderstanding: he had greatly underestimated the true extent of his father’s power, selfishness, and cruelty. 

touichirou physically and emotionally abused shou. the abuse was severe, almost sickening. it’s just that he didn’t start inflicting it until shou directly challenged him that day, at which point all the trauma happened at once. that was when shou was forced to realize how frightening and merciless his father really was. it must have been a painful shock. no wonder shou was prepared to let him go without a word.

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by no means is this an excuse for shou's mom, and tbh you've probably sucked up all the information on her you could already, but i remember that when she had her final convo w toichirou, he said that 'shou is starting to show interest in my powers, too' so it's possible she was under the impression that shou was happier living with his father? like, we don't know shou's age at that time but i think it was before he realized his dad was kinda a shitlord. and maybe by the time he realized it 1/2

You’re most welcome to start a discussion about Shou’s mom, she’s an interesting character to speculate about! Now look, you made me go off with receipts and everything haha

Have I ever said anything about Shou’s mom here, other than that comment about how I didn’t think it was forgivable for her to leave her son behind? Well, I still don’t think it is, but she’s just a human being, I don’t consider her inherently bad or good. Even though I can’t find it in me to defend her actions I can still understand the reasoning that might have led to them and how she might have felt about it.

Anyway, it’s not so much the fact that she left that gets to me, it’s the fact that she stayed absent. Leaving I can understand, leaving for a while might have been smart, might have given her some space to consider her situation and show Touichirou that she was serious about not tolerating the path he’d gone down. And it didn’t seem like she or Shou were in danger; as far as I can read there has never been anything in canon suggesting Touichirou was violent or even particularly controlling toward his family (until he beats Shou up and tries to kill him in the WD arc of course).

Leaving Shou with his dad, who we know he looked up to at the time, seems like a pretty straightforward decision. Pulling the kid out of his normal daily routine while everything was still chaotic and his mother wasn’t sure what to do and where to go probably wouldn’t have been in his best interest.

So far so good, but, let’s consider why she left at all.

Keep reading

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An interesting detail?

This may have been obvious to everyone, but I just noticed that FMA 03 follows right-hand traffic rules while FMA:B follows left-hand ones (like Japan IRL).

If FMA's setting is pseudo-European-like, I guess RHT might make more sense, since the vast majority of real-life Europe uses that (with the notable exception of the UK, of course).

Anyhoo, if anyone has more insight into the matter, please do share! I'd love to learn more.

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Second part of the observation diary of Roy Mustang (which is a translation from the original written by Hiromu Arakawa).

Today: the first 4 pages (let’s call them the prologue…)

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“Next time I make you cry, it’ll be with tears of joy!”

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I never actually noticed how tightly he was holding onto her. Looking at this I realize now that he wasn’t holding her to shield her from the flames, but to stop her from putting herself in harm’s way.

In the span of about two seconds, Alphonse recognized that he needed to both throw up a protective barrier between them and the fire, and stop Riza from getting herself killed attempting to protect Roy.

At 14 years old he picked up on the intimacy of Roy and Riza’s relationship and integrated Riza’s breakdown just moments prior into his understanding of her as a person, and then used that information to both recognize that she would act impulsively and take action to stop her from doing so. All in the span of approximately two seconds.

This kid is way smarter than anyone seems to give him credit for. He can think on his feet and make snap decisions, and evaluate people’s behavior really quickly. He can do all three at once.

More love for Alphonse Elric please.

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My Friend Dare me to draw this

cr.(first two pictures) https://tinyurl.com/ycmjx2nh

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Alphonse’s Ending

After his narrow escape from the belly of the beast, Ed told me about the homunculi’s evil plot.

It was eye-opening news to say the least.

We vowed once again to continue our quest…

…a quest to thwart their evil plot and restore our bodies to their original form.

I know we have a long, hard road ahead. But we have the strong bonds of brotherhood between us. There’s nothing that we can’t do.

I truly believe that.

And I know one day, we will be smiling back at each other in our newly restored bodies – just like we used to.

Extra

Alphonse: Hey, Ed, let’s have another brawl over who gets to marry Winry.

Edward: Wha…?! Wh-Who the heck would wanna fight over that automail geek!

Alphonse: Somehow I knew you’d say that. Okay, then, if we get our old bodies back, let’s bet on who says “I’m back!” to Winry first.

Edward: Nah…Can’t bet on that.

Alphonse: Why not?

Edward: Because it’s not “I’m back!” it’s “We’re back!” and we have to say it together.

Alphonse: Oh yeah, Ed, you’re right.

FMA Brotherhood (PSP) | Edward | Alphonse | Roy | Riza | Armstrong | Izumi | Ling | Lan Fan | Scar | May | Bradley | Lust | Gluttony | Envy

#yes!

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I can't believe no one is talking about how Father just pulled out a fucking glock in the middle of his big anime fight with the protagonists and tried to cap a little girl with it. Why are we even doing the "character but with GUN" meme anymore, he's done it in canon, he doesn't even NEED God!

who needs God when you have Gun

and in fairness he was trying to stop mei, a girl who God themselves couldn’t Stop - like in rereading this scene to get the screenshot i forgot that mei literally Claimed Dibs on Father as her target

“you two handle the little homunculus” says the 11 year old girl with the power of god and anime on her side

#reblog again because it's gold

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Bonne nuit (Goodnight) (Riza Hawkeye Character Song Translated Lyrics)

Hey guys! ^^ I actually had this one translated for a little while but I didn’t want to post anything until I got all of the requests done, which obviously took a bit longer than expected…. XD;;; But I knew I wanted to translate this one when I first heard it—Orikasa Fumiko has such a pretty voice, and the song was just as beautiful (if a bit sad) as I thought it would be. ;w; <3 I love Royai so much it’s one of my top FMA ships after Greedling and LingFan <33333

Just a reminder that I’m still just a student, so my translations might not be 100% accurate. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy them! <3

Keep reading

#SO CUTE