#just the words that had furigana on them lol

[thyandrawrites]

On Nagi's emotional intelligence

One thing I find interesting about Nagi's character is that he's not only bad at getting across his emotions in a way that leaves little room for misunderstandings; he also struggles a lot to identify feelings (not just his but especially other people's) for what they are, and to put himself in other people's shoes.

Both the manga and Nagi's light novel offer several examples of this, and I noticed a common denominator in most of them. So I thought it could be fun to compile them in a post.

(long ramble under a cut! Contains slight manga spoilers up to manshine city arc)

Preface: I did not study psychology, and though I try my best not to misuse words and be insensitive, mistakes in good faith can happen. Please bear with me

So, what kicked off this whole thing is a scene from Episode Nagi. This one:

Now, without context it would be easy to write off Nagi as a self-centered genius who is looking down on team Z for being "weaker". And that's exactly how Isagi, who doesn't know Nagi prior to this, takes his questions. They're just a taunt, as if Nagi is mocking Team Z's determination to overturn the scores when they're a team that doesn't yet know its own skills fully.

And the thing is, regardless of Nagi's intentions, his words are condescending. He doesn't mean them to be, but you can't deny that calling someone stupid to his face is not conductive to a polite or constructive conversation, lol.

Unless you're Nagi Seishiro, that is.

Nagi... Doesn't seem to grasp that essentially calling team Z the bottom of the barrel while asking what keeps them going is... Well, rude. Patronizing, even. Which is why he looks so puzzled when Isagi's response is negative, and when he doubles down on his hunger for goals.

In his head, phrasing it this way was perfectly fine. He was genuinely asking, and he expected a response. He wanted to know, not to piss Isagi off and be left hanging.

The reason behind Nagi's obliviousness is of course a lack of social skills. We know he tends to keep to himself, preferring video games and the silent company of a cactus over social interactions, and it shows in how stilted his ability to properly communicate becomes over time.

But in the intro I said I don't think it's just a struggle with communicating what he means. I also interpret it as Nagi struggling to put himself in other people's shoes when their experiences don't mirror his, which complicates his attempts to communicate further.

What is translated as "What's his deal?" in the panel above in japanese has a bit more nuance than that, and it clues us in to what was likely going through Nagi's head a bit more.

"What's this creature (Isagi Yoichi)"

The kanji that compose Isagi's name are transcribed with a different reading (the furigana indeed reads "creature")

Now, if you read Nagi's light novel, the words might sound familiar:

(credits to @/ hoshi801_ on twitter for this translation)

That's because we have another example of Nagi being weirded out by and puzzled at how differently he and others seem to function.

From Nagi's perspective, he's not the weirdo, others are! He keeps observing this world where everyone puts effort into things that he only sees as a hassle, and he doesn't get how anyone can find any appeal in them. In other words, Nagi doesn't really understand how other people work (how they think, how they feel, what motivates them), and he tends to use himself as a metric for understanding them better, not realizing how flawed that approach is.

I also reckon this is why he can sometimes come across as lacking tact.

"it's easy for me. How come is it not easy for you?"

What he says to Bachira during the 4v4 seems like another prime example of Nagi attempting to figure out others by comparing them against himself.

In his intentions, this little speech serves as a way to get Bachira to step up his game. After all, had he really been fine with not picking him, he could've kept his mouth shut, won the match, and picked Rin as he said he would. No need to warn Bachira beforehand, giving him a chance to prove himself in the field and compete with Rin as the best choice moving forward.

But the words Nagi uses are familiar once again.

"Do you think you'll get chosen if you lose? Still living in dreamland? [...] I want Rin, and I bet Isagi feels the same." -> Nagi to Bachira

Vs "you'd be satisfied if I chose you here? You wanna act like a team even if we're not excited about it? You think becoming best in the world is that simple?" -> Nagi to Reo

And then

"We don't need you the way you are now." -> to Bachira above

Vs, "'You're fine as you are.' That's what you said to me, Reo, but... For me to dream with you about being the best again, I want to change." -> Nagi to Reo (in his head)

Nagi doesn't really understand Bachira, either, but he understands the bond Bachira shares with Isagi. Two separate times, he sees himself and Reo's relationship mirrored in it, and that's what prompts his "pep talk".

While he might not grasp what motivates Bachira's ego, Nagi knows what motivated himself. So he offers much the same to Bachira. You want to keep playing with Isagi, just like I want to keep playing with Reo. So change, like I did. Keep working towards that dream, and don't throw in the towel, accept defeat, and wait for Isagi to pick you.

Bachira and Isagi's bond is pretty much the only time we see Nagi try and succeed at relating to someone else's emotions. He's able to do this because he can sense the similarities between them. It's a pattern he's plenty familiar with. So we could say he's still applying that flawed method I talked about above. Understanding others by comparing them to himself, assuming they think the same way.

But I'd like to point out that while he does get their bond as far as it mirrors his and Reo's, Nagi still doesn't grasp the ways in which it differs. Namely, he remains oblivious to Bachira's desire for connection. Nagi is perfectly comfortable being a loner, and while he misses Reo, he adjusts to the separation quite easily, at least emotionally. Well, partly because he caused it, but also because from his perspective, he and Reo were never really apart-apart. They'd eventually meet up again, Nagi would tell him all about his side quests, and they'd be fast besties once again.

At least, that's what Nagi envisions, because Nagi is a straightforward person who doesn't really grasp other people's perspectives past his own personal experience.

For that reason, I think, he remains oblivious to how his advice to Bachira hits like a slap where the boy's at his most vulnerable. But it all works out in the end, so in the grand scheme of things, Nagi has no reason to give it more thought past this interaction. Nagi's team loses, Isagi advances with Bachira, all is well again.

If Nagi got away with giving this as little thought as possible, though, his dynamic with Reo doesn't give him the same easy out. Not for lack of trying on his part. Reo doesn't initiate conversations with him for days (weeks?) on end, and Nagi is fine with never questioning it.

Now, normally I'd make a point here about how Nagi's major weakness is his refusal to think hard about anything unless he's forced to—or about how that's the main hinder to his development to date—but that's a post for another day. Suffice to say, for the sake of this argument, that his willingness to let things stay tense between him and Reo is part of the problem here.

Well, "willingness" might not be the right term here. From his pov, there isn't any tension at all, in fact.

Again, because Nagi had a reason that justifies leaving Reo behind, he doesn't see a strain in their relationship until Reo points it out to him. Worse yet, he struggles to see Reo's viewpoint even after Reo does point it out to him.

He's as clueless as they come, and he's closest to Reo than anyone else in blue lock. Despite this, not only does he not realize why Reo is upset with him and doesn't want to link up anymore, he also fails to grasp that Reo's angry at him at all.

I ran out of image space so I'm just gonna quote the next bit:

N: "We promised, right? To win the world cup together. I've just kept making the best choices I could for that goal. During the rival battle, I thought I could get stronger if I went with Isagi. And I chose England because I thought I could learn from Agi and Chris. So, now it's you, Reo. You're stronger now, so you and I can beat Isagi, unlike last time."

To which Reo understandably replies,

R: "Damn, you really are a selfish jerk, you know that?"

Nagi doesn't seem to realize that if you are a team, you should, you know... Communicate with your partner. Instead, he decides for himself, without even asking for Reo's input, what's the best course of action to achieve their dream, doesn't share his thought process with Reo at all, embarks on said course alone, and then one day randomly decides to have Reo tag along in it.

In his head, I think it all makes sense to him because he assumes Reo already knows all this, intuitively. After all, that's how their whole dynamic has been built so far. When Reo isn't anticipating Nagi's needs before Nagi has uttered them aloud, Nagi is instinctively following the vision Reo set up with a pass, and completing it with a goal.

I'd say that the fact that they relied so heavily on silent communication for much of their time as friends is half the reason why they are so bad at communicating with actual words. I'm including Reo in this because he's equally guilty of it too, what with him saying "do what you want" aloud, only to wish for Nagi to stay without verbalizing that thought to him.

But I digress.

My point is, in the scene above, Nagi assumes Reo would be fine with the split because Nagi himself was. It doesn't even occur to him that Reo might see it as the negation of their promise to each other, or that he would feel abandoned and forgotten about (sorry, can't post pictures, but notice his shock at Reo's accusations. Chapter 187). After all, Nagi spent the whole time thinking about all the things he wanted to tell him.

Once again, much like with Isagi in the first selection, Nagi's puzzled and surprised at Reo's angry burst in response to his pushing; he assumes the drive he feels will be mirrored or at least understood by the other person, but instead he's turned down, faced with a negative reaction he doesn't quite understand.

As Reo puts it, Nagi's imagination comes short of letting him empathize with Reo's feelings. The choice to move on without him is purely functional, then, but from his perspective it never involved any emotional distance. To Reo, however, who was left with an easy to misunderstand parting speech, the hurt of a perceived loss strongly overshadowed anything else. Nagi doesn't anticipate Reo's emotional response over rationality because Nagi himself is not an emotion-driven person. He doesn't see that Reo would be plagued by self doubt because Nagi doesn't doubt his skills. He fails to see how his actions could easily be misconstrued as indifference because Nagi's not one to read hidden meaning into people's words, and assumes others take things as face value, too.

But that's more than communication failure! That consistent lack of effort to imagine how others would feel or act in a given situation is a pattern, at least imo.

I think Nagi never had to make that kind of effort before, since he was pretty much on his own, and in a lot of ways he's still adapting to having peers he trusts and that he wants to be trusted by in response

One could say this is as much a process to him as understanding his own ego for football is, and I find that really fascinating to watch

#Bllk thoughts #Blue lock meta #Nagi seishiro #Nagi seishirou #Episode nagi #This took me way too long to type and I feel like the ending isn't as strong as the beginning #But I'm tired of looking at it so please accept it...? Thank you for reading if you hit that read more. Xoxo

[jujutsubrainrot]

Chapter 208: Stars and Oil, Part 4

// SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CHAPTER YET.

Opening words: “A direct hit from a Mini Uzumaki!!”

》 Yuki: "Aren't you a necessary part of Yuuji Itadori's future?"

I personally feel that "a necessary part" sounds much better.

》 Yuki: "Exactly what I said. Even if you sacrifice yourself for your little brother, isn't it meaningless if you aren't in that future?"

In my opinion, the emphasis is on "is there any point/meaning" if Choso weren't in Yuuji's future.

》 Choso: "When my little brothers were incarnated, I thought... 「humans」 would never accept them due to their abnormal appearances."

While the kanji used was 受肉 (juniku – 受 means accept/take/get while 肉 means meat/flesh/body; but 受肉 itself means incarnation), "took flesh" just sounds weird in this context. "Incarnated" is the most accurate term and every JJK reader understands it, so I don't quite get why officials opted to go with "took flesh".

》 Choso: "(Back then) if I had chosen to live as a 「human」.. my little brothers wouldn't have had to kill each other."

Officials chose to change the entire second-half of the statement, lol.

》 Choso: "And then.. Almost like a punishment.. Yuuji, who was suffering from living as a 「human」, appeared."

I personally think that it's important for the "almost like a punishment" sentence to be included, considering that was how Choso felt about it.

》 Choso: "I'm certain that the four of us were destined to fight together. But just because I wanted an easy life.. Yuuji was left alone."

》 Tengen: "What's so funny?" 

》 Kenjaku: "What's with that face? Is that what you wished.. [to look like]? Almost like.."

》 Narration (?): "Black holes possess extreme density and immense gravity that not even light, much less matter, can escape. It is said that one can be created by compressing the entire Earth to a diameter of 2 cm."

》 Yuki: "You control gravity, but isn't your deduction pretty unsatisfactory?! Gravity, mass, time. It all comes down to..."

Here, Tengen said "術式反転か" (jutsushiki hanten ka), which translates to "Cursed Technique Reversal?" FYI, Akutami-sensei once addressed this stuff in an extra page, where he stated that 術式反転 (jutsushiki hanten) = Cursed Technique Reversal, while 反転術式 (hanten jutsushiki) = Reverse Cursed Technique. The order of the words are nothing but reversed and yes, it's confusing – Gege even admitted that, lol.

》 Kenjaku: "Nope. The 「Gravity」 until now was actually the technique reversal. The cursed technique engraved on Kaori Itadori was 「Anti-Gravity System」. Using my body as a domain, I raised the technique lapse's limit on the unstable output and activation time. It was a gamble, but at least it worked. Really, my liver chilled."

Kanji used for Kaori's CT is 反重力機構. The term 機構 (kikou) means mechanism, but the furigana reads システム (system). And as explained by Kenjaku, "Gravity" is the technique reversal of Kaori's CT; as such, it is an Extension technique.

Kenjaku’s last statement in the raws includes an idiom in Japanese: 肝を冷やした (kimo o hiyashita). It translates to “my liver chilled” and it means "I was scared to death” or “I was terrified”.

Closing words: “Tengen falls into the hands of Kenjaku, once a friend.”

Extra preview for ch.209: “What will happen to the fate of the world?!”

—

My thoughts:

I know many fans are on edge about Yuki's death and they're still in denial and coping hard, theorizing that she'll return in the next chapter. But I'm gonna take my stand with the minority of readers; RIP, Yuki onee-san. You did spectacular fighting a 1000 year-old sorcerer who's inhabiting one of the strong, present-era sorcerers. You did everything you could, you gave it your 1000% but this is as far as things go, you died a hero. Badass heroine! It was an honorable death. A moment of silence for Yuki Tsukumo, everyone.

If she suddenly makes her return in the next chapter or in the near future, that would be cool. I personally don't mind it either way; whatever that rocks Gege's boat.

Moving on! Last few days, the hate comments against Gege was immense. The uproar began on Wednesday on Twitter first - after some leaks dropped - then it spiraled out of control, and eventually reached Reddit. A day later, I discovered that even on Instagram, people were slandering Gege. I was utterly disgusted by the fandom's reactions, I hated what I saw. Calling whatever you dislike about the chapter "bad writing" is one thing, but labelling Gege a "misogynist" and spreading the claim "Gege hates women" (even if it was a sarcastic joke) is overboard and disrespectful af. Even until today, a meme about Gege's disrespect towards "his JJK women" was still making its rounds on Twitter. Seeing how the fandom is becoming increasingly toxic, I decided it's best not to engage in any discussions from here on out. A fair few of my Instagram followers are really chill people and I enjoy talking to them, so I guess they'll be my go-tos if I'd like to vomit out some theories or opinions. So a heads-up, my weekly chapter post will now be comprised of the usual opening and closing words, any mistranslations/misinterpretations in the official Viz translations, unexpected mistakes from Gege or his crew, or if there's anything very important to address within the chapter. That's all.

As of last Thursday, I've made the decision to remove myself from the fandom and I no longer term myself as one of the "JJK fans", lol. I am just a fan of Gege Akutami and his works.

To Gege Akutami or his associates, if you guys ever read this, do know that I will always support your work and whatever decisions that you make for your manga. If you have to end the series within a year because that's what you feel is the best for you, go ahead and do so. A true fan will always have your back and will never hold you down just to keep you from moving forward. We will understand. Thank you for working very hard each week just so we can get another chapter and reason to enjoy the series. I wish you the best of health and continued success in the future and may you end Jujutsu Kaisen in the way you envision it. Cheers to the coming new year 2023!

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk 208 #gege akutami #yuki & choso vs kenjaku #jjk manga spoilers #m/translations

[nordic-language-love]

Hei :) I have aquestion about learning japanese. Because, I try to learn kanjis, but I cant get it all in my head. when i see the kanji, i know what it means, in my own language but i cant remember the japanese word for it. its like, i see a picture of a dog and i know its a dog. do you have a trick when learning kanji? knowing a kanji is easy, knowing a word not so much:/

Hi there! I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask as I'm still a beginner (I'm going to assume you are too), but I'll tell you my experience:

I had a similar problem the first time I tried learning Japanese. I spent a lot of time practising writing kanji and trying to learn to recognise them, and I ended up not making much progress with the language. I could recognise and draw the kanji for something, but I wouldn't know how to say it. Even now my Japanese teacher will ask me if I know how to say X in Japanese and I'll tell her "I know how to draw the kanji" (which is super not useful in the middle of a conversation lol).

My number one advice to you (assuming you're a newbie like me) is just don't focus so much on kanji. You don't need to be able to write kanji at beginner level - you can write everything in hiragana and katakana (and maybe some basic kanji). You'll learn to recognise kanji through exposure to it, and then you can learn to draw it at a later date.

My second piece of advice is to type Japanese on your phone/computer. Handwriting practice is important too, of course, but you can't just type kanji on a computer; you have to type the hiragana, and then it'll suggest kanji for you. You can check it's the right one by cross-referencing with Jisho or google translate. By practising typing the hiragana, you'll be forced to learn the actual word and not just the kanji. If you're using Duolingo, use the keyboard to type rather than just choosing the correct words as much as possible.

Another thing you can do is use reading materials for beginners (such as NHK Easy News), which will usually have furigana over the kanji you're reading. That way, you get used to seeing the kanji and also how it's pronounced.

I also recommend practising speaking! You don't have to get a tutor or a conversation partner if that's too much for you, but practise saying words aloud and maybe talking to yourself (even if you're just mumbling under your breath because you're worried your family/housemates will hear you). You can't just draw kanji when you're speaking, so you'll need to get used to saying the words aloud.

In a nutshell: learn the word first, make sure you're completely confident with it, and only then learn the kanji.

Hope that helps! Good luck with your Japanese journey!

If anyone else has any tips, please do reblog/comment and share them!

#ask #japanese #日本語

[rigelmejo]

i read this thing on reddit about a person who read through 200 japanese novels. first they were N1 (but they think what they did could have worked for an N3 learner), then they started mainly with books for children/teens like 青い鳥文庫 novels with a lot of furigana, then books for a bit older, then general novels and some nonfiction, eventually adding the last 20 or so as audiobooks. they said by books 20-50 they had to look a lot of words up still but the reading was flying by, and by books 50-100 books still required frequent word lookups but were effortless feeling to read. 

they personally looked up Every unknown word (so minimal learning *only* by context - which tbh is helpful with japanese and chinese where u sometimes need lookups of new characters period just to learn the reading even if u can figure out the word’s meaning in context). they did not mention how long the average novel they read was, but i know for the series mentioned above (the easier novels) are about 300 pages long. 

so maybe roughly 60,000 pages for around 200 novels. and maybe for the 20 book threshold where reading started flying by, 6,000 pages. (also i absolutely commend them on how much they read because even in english i cannot read that many books especially in such a short time period, and reading in a language you’re learning tends to start at a slower speed, and so just generally SUCH a huge reading achievement is impressive).

if i assume maybe chinese progress is similar to japanese reading progress, i wonder how close i am to the 6,000 page threshold of ‘20 books’. A priest novel is about 3.5 pages a chapter. I will just estimate 3 (3.5 pages is the length of a digital page length estimator, but their chapters are like 5-20 pages in my print novel versions). So i’m going to estimate probably 3 pages for the webnovel chapters i’ve read. i’ve read like 200 chapters of some pingxie fanfics, maybe 140 chapters of other stuff (finished xiao wangzi, some kids cats stories, some sci fi short stories, some saye, some tian ya ke, etc). and then about 100 pages of guardian (i’ve Reread those pages multiple times lol but i’ll just count 1 read through since i’ve read many of these multiple times). So 340 chapters*3 pages = 1020 pages of chinese read, 1120 total adding guardian. 

rip i am still SO far from even 6,000 pages. (Which in a way is funny, because if i JUST buckled down and committed to reading through the novels I start, I would easily be in the 4000s pages by now, just because tian ya ke etc are like 500 pages each then stuff like guardian is 800 pages, silent reading is even longer, sha po lang and can ci pin maybe be 1200 pages, the pingxie fics i like are easily 500-800 pages, the dmbj novels aren’t long but combined they’ve got to be like 6000 words minimum all on their own for the first several or so). 

anyway, as usual i would love to copy someone else’s study plan and see if it works for me. in part because i usually do really well with such study plans - it motivates and challenges me, and i like to “prove” i can do what someone else did, and “prove” if it works or not. (for example, when i started chinese i copied a guy who did 2000 most common chinese words Ben Whatley memrise decks then dived into reading using a click dictionary, and i did exactly what he did lol - i added some extra stuff, and certainly there were better materials i could’ve used instead but just used what he used... but it worked! his study plan worked! so i was ultimately happy i’d tried it and that it had worked for me too! i wish i had a japanese study plan i could brute force that manageably). so i very much would LIKE to brute force read through X pages or X books in chinese (or japanese one day) and see if it works. i mean... in theory it should. its just intensive reading that the poster above did. look up every unknown word as you read, and its proven to work its just extremely intensive work (very mentally draining at first until there’s less unknown words).

so of course, i prefer to read extensively instead. and learn primarily from context instead of from definition lookups. in part because i am lazy and don’t like ‘clicking’ i am so lazy lol that i really don’t want to be taken out of the reading-flow focus. and in part because i tend to remember much better when i have to “figure out and guess” what something means like a puzzle... when i look up words i don’t remember them unless i do it 3-10 times. but when i figure it out based on what i’m guessing the word means? i learn it within 1-3 times of seeing it, maybe after seeing it 5 times at most if the first few times i could get away with ignoring the word instead of trying to figure out what it means. so i learn meaning much Faster when doing it the ‘through context’ way. reading extensively also means less breaking your reading flow constantly, which helps me because i have poor focus to begin with and often need breaks already. 

however... if i’m reading extensively instead of intensively, there’s a few problems that crop up. 1. I cannot replicate that poster’s study plan, because i’m not doing the same reading type. so it may take me MORE books to get the same reading level skill, because i’m doing something different (or it may take less books, or the same amount of books, its simply unknown). 2. with a language like chinese it means guessing the hanzi readings too if i’m not using a dictionary... which is fine until i transfer from reading to listening. right now it only hangs me up because i’ll guess say “hun” for the reading of a hanzi with a similar radical, then try to look up a really frustrating word by typing in pinyin and finally realizing darn the hanzi is actually pronounced “hui” and thats why it wasn’t showing up. basically, it means the pronunciation gets even LESS reinforcement and correction than if i was looking it up 5-20 times every single time i saw the word until i finally remembered it. That’s a big reason i do a lot of “reading extensively while letting text to speech play” or just listening to audiobooks generally too. Because i like to get as much listening reinforcement of new words, so i hopefully remember their correct pronunciations to an extent even though i’m not looking it up constantly. 

i would love to say that i’d change my study plan, and start reading intensively mainly to copy the person who made that post, and see how my progress goes. but knowing me... its not going to be happen, i’ll be lucky if i can just get myself to read more in general. (fun fact about me... even an english comic it takes me 30 minutes to read 17 pages, and that’s a comic not a novel with paragraphs, in english... i read even slower in other languages... despite having a fast reading level in college where i must’ve just sped read skimmed a lot). on top of things... i am barely reading right now, i can just get myself motivated to read a bit of chinese manhua... but that’s a wayyyy lower “word count” and language density than actually pushing through novels. 

but if anyone else would like to make a goal of more reading? i’ll join you! and if anyone else would like to test what the poster did, with more specifically intensive reading (or u vary it like me and do mostly extensive reading), i’d love to know how it goes! if you want to share progress as you go!

any thoughts? any of you read X books or X pages and think at a certain point reading with no dictionary got easier/faster?

#rant #langblr #studyblr #reading #chinese reading #japanese reading #study plan #study method #intensive reading #extensive reading

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS 9TH ANNIVERSARY LIVESTREAM [SUMMARY MASTERPOST]

Part 1. Looking back on 9 years of Diabolik lovers

Summary: They look back on the core installments of the Diabolik Lovers series, reminiscing about the past and how they have altered their approach voicing these characters, as well as their personal feelings towards the characters.

・For most of the seiyuu, the series was very intense when they were first introduced to it and they did not have a lot of experience voicing these kind of Do-S characters

・Midorikawa-san (Ayato’s VA) feels grateful to be able to voice a character like Ayato, who is very ‘orthodox’ within the realm of Do-S Characters, unlike some of the other characters who have really distinctive Do-S types. He also notes how Ayato has softened up a bit over the years.

・Toriumi-san (Shuu’s VA) voices his struggles voicing Shuu as a character, especially during the early stages of the development. The characteristics ‘listless’ and ‘Do-S’ usually don’t really go together so he had a hard time grasping Shuu as a character and getting that subtle balance between ‘being lazy’ and ‘being aggressive’ right. (The live comments also noted on Shuu’s erotic side lol)

・Kimura-san (Kou’s VA) describes Kou as an ‘angel’ inititally, but then goes on to talk about how he can be very selfish and boastful in regards to his looks. He also describes Kou as the one who is the most like a ‘youngest sibling’ within the Mukami family. 

・Morikubo-san was not very fond of Shin as a character at first, finding him cruel and childish. However, he slowly began to realize that Shin’s charm as a character lies in the constant friction between his pride as a Founder and the frustration which stems from his inferiority complex in regards to his older brother who he will never be able to beat.

-> In this segment, they also read out some comments from the listeners who sent encouraging messages to the different families, talking about what made them like each set of characters.

Part 2. Diabolik Lovers Lyrics Quiz

Summary: This segment features lyrics from different Diabolik Lovers songs and has the four different seiyuu guess the hidden meaning/reading behind certain words. The DL songs are infamous for adding ‘incorrect’ furigana (readings) to characters/kanji to create a double meaning. 

For example, they will put the kanji for love (愛) but you have to read it as ‘itami’ which means ‘pain’. 

In the end, none of the seiyuu managed to get a single answer correct, so they all ended with a score of 0. xD

・One of the songs featured was the Ayato & Laito VERSUS song so everyone was expecting Midorikawa-san to get this one right, but his memory failed him

・At one point, Morikubo-san got very close by writing 思い出 (memory), when the actual answer is 思い (feelings/thoughts), so he quickly covered up the last character with his hand

・Kimura-san made a Sailor Moon pun, quoting the ‘In the name of the moon, I will punish you!’ line in Japanese.

Part 3: Original story: “Do you believe in Santa?”

I am willing to do a full translation of this original story at a later date!!

Summary: Kou is dressed up as Santa Claus as part of a TV program and goes around the streets of Kaminashi city, asking random people the question: “Do you believe in Santa?”

That’s when he suddenly spots Ayato & Shuu, walking up to them. Ayato immediately mistakes him for the real Santa, getting super excited. When he realizes it is actually just Kou in a costume, he is disappointed and gets upset, which leads Shuu to spite him for being stupid enough to fall for such an obvious get-up. 

They then begin to recall the events from a few years ago, when Carla & Shin went around dresses as Santa and a reindeer to hand out presents to the Sakamaki’s & Mukami’s. Ayato still is very upset about this happening. 

Right as they are talking about this, Shin shows up and scolds them for gossiping about them. After some more banter, Kou remembers he has to do his job and asks the three of them the question: “Do you believe in Santa?”. They all answer simultaneously, Shuu & Shin going with ‘no’ while Ayato convincingly answers ‘yes!’. 

Another discussion then arises where both of them try to convince the other of their opinion, or ask for solid proof as to why Santa does or does not actually exist. 

At one point, Shuu asks for Kou’s opinion as well. While turned towards the camera, he answers in a cheery voice ‘Of course! Just like idols, Santa is a wonderful person who delivers us hope and dreams’. However, Shuu isn’t buying any of his bullshit and asks how he truly feels, to which Kou lets his true colors shine and admits not believing in Santa at all and calling it ridiculous. 

Meanwhile Ayato is still convinced Santa exists and that he has not given up on his wish to receive one year’s worth of takoyaki for Christmas this year. Of course, Shin can’t help but point out that he shouldn’t get his hopes up high, because Santa only visits good children. 

Ayato insists that he has been ‘good’ this year and gives a few very convincing examples:

1) He has not skipped class once

2) He only ate one ice cream a day

3) He remembered to properly brush his teeth before bed every day

The bantering continues until suddenly Ayato spots something in the sky, prompting the other three guys to look up at all. None of them believe him at first, but when they raise their head to look up, they see a white-bearded man on a sleigh soaring through the sky! Unbelievable! 

ーー And so the drama ends, with Ayato proudly concluding that Santa DOES in fact, exist.

・Some people in the live comments pointed out that it might have been Karlheinz posing as Santa and flying through the sky to mess with them. :P

Part 4: New releases

1) Diabolik Lovers Daylight

The video starts with the line: 

“When I opened my eyes...You were not there. ...I suppose I shall sleep once more.”

A blood pact connecting the family lineages of the Vampires who roam the lands of the Demon World

Through various warnings, they have surpassed fate, and deepen their bond of blood with her.

Summary:

ーー Through the twist of fate, you - the main character of the series - and your beloved are forced to make an extreme decision to either die from love or live from love. Both of you discover a ‘light’ which lies ahead of this choice.

・It’s a 13-part drama CD series

・Each CD has two versions:

a) Regular edition which comes with:

- A tall case

- The main CD

- A love letter from the characters (handwritten/4 versions in total)

b) Deluxe edition (called ‘kyuuai edition’ this time) which includes the same items as the regular edition with the addition of:

- A tokuten drama CD ‘immoral lesson’ 

Summary: Your heart will throb at seeing a different side of him as he becomes your private tutor...<3 Seems like he’ll be teaching you his speciality though. Huh? That teaching method is...!? Huuuuh...!?

- A proposal letter from the characters (handwritten/1 version in total)

2) Diabolik Lovers: Young Blood

Summary: A tale about the Vampires’ past, telling the story of when they were children.

・Not much more is known about the manga at this point, but it looks really interesting imo!

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #diabolik lovers 9th anniversary #diabolik lovers daylight #diabolik lovers young blood #diabolik lovers translation #this isn't proofread so I'm sorry if there's a lot of typos #now I need to go lie down for a bit because I'm actually dizzy

[seeingteacupsindragons]

(Answering publicly as an ask with permission)

For screenreaders, the text reads:

Hello! Sorry to bother you again... You've mentioned quite a lot of times that you're learning japanese and I see you're even able to read manga in the original text(kudos to you for that!) I'm an aspiring japanese learner myself-I've recently mastered all the hiragana and katakana, but I'm kind of clueless how to continue from there, since I'm studying on my own. Do you maybe have any tips on what I could tackle next? Sorry that I couldn't send this as an ask. Unfortunately tumblr isn't really cooperating with me today. Thanks a lot in advance!

This is going to be a long story, because: this is actually the third time I’ve tried learning Japanese.

The first time, my parents bought me a (I’m told very expensive) program for Christmas when I was twelve to learn Japanese at home--it came with a bunch of CDs and books and things. It was a lot like all of the materials for a foreign language course, at home.

But I was twelve and didn’t know what I was doing, and had no support or encouragement from anyone else, just a desire to learn, so it didn’t end up really working out. I remember some of the info from the books, but honestly, it just didn’t work for me. I didn’t really even know how to use any of the stuff.

In college, I made it through three semesters of Japanese. I learned a lot there, but it, again, didn’t quite work. I had my classmates and a couple friends, a teacher, but I have never been motivated by grades, and there just wasn’t much of a reason to keep on.

Anyway, years later, JR happened, and I desperately wanted to read them, but I was nowhere near close to being able to tackle that. At all. So I picked up Duolingo and found that my Japanese from college was coming back to me, and that was pretty cool, but it’s not like I was getting anywhere. JR is much too high a level for me to really take a crack at.

And then I ran out of YuuMori scans.

This was back in...November? The end of October? When only up to chapter 27 had been translated, and a new chapter was getting uploaded in English every month or two. And I was dying, because I’d been reading like a volume a night and other people were definitely going to accidentally spoil things for me and I hate spoilers.

But a couple of my friends who are fluent in Japanese were reading it that way, and after I saw a couple screenshots, I noticed that everything had furigana in it, and after some puzzling with a dictionary, I could figure out some of the speech bubbles, because I still remembered my kana from college! Cool! I asked one if they thought I could manage is, and she was encouraging, so after a week of debating, I went and bought volume seven so I could keep reading.

This has been going much better, and I’ve been learning far more Japanese than I have before.

Why this time?

I have a really good reason to keep reading (YuuMori, yay! Fan comics! Random stuff from Japanese people on twitter!) that I can actually hope to mostly manage because it’s not too high a level for me to make it through (although...the politics in YuuMori is...rough.)

I have friends who are fluent in Japanese this time (did not have that before--I could ask the Japanese TAs in college, but we weren’t friends, so it always felt awkward). I can ask them for help, they correct me when I get things wrong, and sometimes I pop into their DMs like “Hey, I keep finding this weird grammar bit that I don’t understand and isn’t in the dictionary, what does it mean?” And since I’m livetweeting, if they see I got something very off, they’ll comment and go, “Hey, actually....” or will help if I’m totally confused.

One of them is a Japanese to English translator, so she gave me the recommendation for the Japanese to English dictionary I’m using (which is super useful, omg), and a browser extension, which is also really helpful.

Plus, having multilingual friends is really nice when I’m like “Hey, this part of learning a language is like...normal, right? It’s a good sign, not a sign I’m a total disaster?” and they can reassure me because I’m anxious.

Another friend also recommended this book called All About Particles, which has been useful for that part of Japanese that I reference a lot. Another recommended I pick up Learning the Kanji but I haven’t gotten around to that just yet.

I have a couple friends who are also not quite fluent who I DM back and forth in Japanese from time to time, which helps up both practice, too. Having a reason to really use the language is incredibly necessary for me. After all, language is a communication tool, right?

There’s also this cool website I found a few weeks ago that I haven’t had a chance to use yet called https://learnnatively.com/. It ranks Japanese books and manga on their difficulty, so you can buy and try to read them (after all, that’s how little kids in Japan learn Japanese--isn’t it?).

Another thing I was doing all fall and winter, but have mostly stopped now, was taking out a notebook (my old Japanese notebook, lol), and diagramming out the sentences. Okay, sure, I could look up words in the dictionary, but I needed to figure out how they fit together. So I would write them out in order with the particles, look up the conjugations and particles on google, and then note that, and then piece together how all the words fit together.

I don’t need to do that so much anymore (although it would probably be helpful, lol). But then, I’m very gifted with grammar and always have been. A couple of my friends who are fluent have commented they’re very impressed by how fast I’ve picked up the Japanese grammar, and even my mother was like, “Yeah, you’ve always been good at that since you were little...” And discussing some linguistic things with my friend who has a Master’s in translation led to her asking me if I’d studied it because I said things that she’d heard there, which..well, no, it just made sense to me.

So. I have that going for me, too.

There’s also tons of podcasts and YouTube series and things like that designed to help learning Japanese...that’s not really how I learn, so I haven’t been using them and can’t give any recs. But they’re certainly out there!

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s been going pretty well, all things considered.

I hope this helped, and if not, was at least sort of interesting to read.

#Japanese #langblr #language #language learning

[azazelsconfessional]

(( @charles157

Part of the thing about nyarl's speach pattern is that it doesn't completely translate to English. If you check the Japanese version you'll notice(if you check the floating text above certain characters) that he's actually speaking in English a lot of his dialogue. Yes, sometimes he's saying atrange things--and oftentimes his English dialogue is given a Japanese translation with the opposite meaning for a textplay thing--but oftentimes it's just.

He's not just cryptic, he's not always even speaking the same language as everyone else. And even then some of his English is modern English slang. So if they do understand English it's like. He's speaking another dialect basically lmao.

And while in English the translation of him speaking in various opposing terms is accurate(he does the same in Japanese, again through furigana), it's like. That's a bit hard to replicate. I'm still getting used to it lol

I like Ryota's explanation for his speech pattern being like hearing different things in each ear tho lol

I enjoy unique speech patterns but it's still like as someone who likes writing fanwork(even if i largely haven't recently) it's like. Oh this is a bit hard lmao.

But you also have to take into consideration that it isn't just his words but also his behavior that's erratic. . .he's hard to write lol. . .but I love him too. I don't dislike his speech pattern or anything it's just like. HOW do i replicate this pff

It's fun to figure it out tho. Just makes me feel a little inadequate about writing him for now. I am not a chaotic man, plus i haven't read the stories and poems that feature Nyarl yet so i don't have a frame of reference lol. . .but I think I'm getting better!

(another problem with chaotic/antagonistic characters is that you can't really. Have them do things to people without permission. So it's something you've gotta tread carefully with or otherwise like. Water down. Tbf Missionaries Nyarl had like a character breakthrough where he turned around and helped the Missionaries after setting them up to be destroyed. So this one at least behaves a little because this is his family and he doesn't want harm to befall them lol i can justify it but i don't wanna limit myself too much. Forever a work in progress lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but yeah his speech isn't meant to be too comprehensible--it's kind of his thing.))

#charles157 #ooc

[jeidafei]

D.Gray-Man Chapter 234 Translation Notes

I haven’t posted a note for many chapters, but this chapter dropped so many reveal-bombs I just can’t i just can’t aaaaaaaargh gurglegurgle

/regain composure /why am I listening to “Send In The Clowns” on loop while posting this?

Ahem. So, in short, this chapter is super LIT, but also a headache to translate. As with all reveal-heavy chapters, there is no knowing how disastrous the ramifications of one tiny misinterpretation can be on future reveals. Whoops! 

So let’s peruse the story page-by-page, word-by-word, unraveling the story plus a little ramble on the Japanese language. 

Warning: this post is incredibly long

(You can skip to 5 for my wild theory on The Pillar)

1. Gawd, I’ve always hated these opening captions T T

Because they always give me this feeling of I think I kinda understand what this means but I don’t know how to translate this so it makes sense!  

紐解かれるかつての別離（わかれ）

I think I spent time on this one sentence even more than the rest of the chapter. Despite it being the first thing on the first page, this is honestly the last thing I translated this chapter.

Word-by-word, 紐解かれる (himo-tokareru) is the passive form of the verb 紐解く (himo-toku), which by definition means:

1) Unbinding and opening a new book 2) Unraveling (i.e. memories, history, the truth, etc.) 3) A flower blooming

紐 (himo) and 解く(toku) are also actually two separate words used normally in daily life. The first one means “rope” and the second means “to solve, to untie, to unravel etc.”

So, in essence, this word refers to something hidden, a secret being revealed. No surprises here, since we’re talking about D.Gray-Man. 

かつての (katsute no) means “Once”, “Used to be” whereas 別離 (betsuri) means “parting, separation” but the furigana indicates must be read as わかれ (wakare) for some reason, and means farewell or separation as well. 

I take it that as Mana and Nea were once separated by death, but now Nea has returned to Mana as he vowed to, the “farewell” is no more; it just used to be a farewell.

So now that we have all the pieces...

HOW ON EARTH DO I TRANSLATE THIS !!!???

You saw how it turned out above. To be frank, I’m still not satisfied with it, but as my period cramps are killing me and I’m literally typing this to distract my mind from it because I can’t sleep yet with this pain, and my brain is out of ideas, as always...

I’ll leave it to you guys to interpret freely!

2. Nea’s last words 

Just when I thought I’d skip that troubling caption and start on the dialogue right away, manga-kun messes with me again! Who was Nea talking to? In the background, Nea is reaching up to Mana while decaying away. However, on the next page, turns out it is Cross recalling those words. 

So I walked over to my bookshelf and picked up DGM volume 17 and 22.

In volume 17, in their last meeting before Cross disappeared, Cross told Allen that Nea promised him that he’d return to Mana if Cross kept watch over Mana. 

In volume 22, however, Road reveals to Allen that “Don’t stop, keep walking.” were Nea’s parting words to Mana.

Um...so...which is it, exactly?

So if context doesn’t help, then should we turn back to the literal word? If it were some other language I might’ve said great idea! But this is Japanese; a douchebag of a language that assumes all parties must be native speakers and privy to the conversation beforehand. And thus omits subject, verbs, and objects whenever it pleases to screw foreign learners and outsiders alike. 

Why, Nea’s sentence has no subject and object!

まってろ。必ずマナの元に行く。「アレン」が目印だ。 それまでは立ち止まるな。 

Literally this says “Keep waiting/Just you wait. (I will) definitely go to where Mana is. ‘Allen’ is the sign. Until then, don’t stand still.” 

While Nea using Mana’s name might imply that Nea’s not talking to Mana, but to someone else, otherwise he would’ve used “you/your”. But in Japanese, usually people will refer to their convo partner by name as well, i.e. Lenalee and Allen refer to everyone by name instead of “you”. This is considered neutral and politer than the textbook pronoun “anata” (which is kinda condescending actually...so why do they still keep it in the textbooks!?). 

In case you’re not that close with the person you’re talking to, and not sure which pronoun you should use, using their name is the safest bet to avoid offending them. (Don’t go calling your client omae, of course lol!)

So, back to Nea, going by this rule, he also could’ve been talking to Mana himself as well. See? Curse you, nihongo!!! 

Anyway, Nea didn’t talk to Mana/Earl that way when they met in recent(?  I dunno, my sense of time is already warped from too many hiatuses and hopeless waiting) chapters; Nea refers to Mana using the pronoun “anta” which is the shorter, more casual form of “anata”. And judging from his overall language, he’s not that polite or soft-spoken either, so the possibility is lower. 

Also it’s kinda weird to tell someone who’s sitting right in front of you that you’ll “go to” where he is.

So, using my spidey sense plus all things considered, I finally concluded that since it’s Cross’ flashback, Nea was talking to Cross this time. 

Looking back on this, I don’t know if I’d be able to translate DGM even with 50% accuracy had I not read the series from the start and have the volumes stacked on a bookshelf nearby just in case. Screw you, NIHONGO!

3. Pierrot, Clown, Auguste, Whiteface, Harlequin; What’s the difference?

In Lost Fragment of Snow, Mana is described as a Pierrot whereas Cosimo is a Clown. As I’m not well-versed in clown traditions, I did some Googling and Wikipedia, and learned the art is even more interesting and richer than I once thought:

In this informative blog , it’s explained that while in appearance, the Pierrot and the Clown are almost the same, there is one rule that sets them apart: 

The Pierrot has tear marks under his eyes, whereas the Clown does not.

The Pierrot’s tear marks:

(I just noticed Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker also has tear marks)

The blog is long and detailed and very interesting, but in short, though both the Pierrot and the Clown are supposed to make people laugh by doing foolish things, while the Clown intentionally acts foolish to be laughed at, and can also  joke back at and laugh at the audience as well, the Pierrot will always have to be laughed at and made fun of by the audience. 

Deep down, though the Pierrot is hurt and sad, he must act as if he’s not, to conceal it from the audience. Thus the tear marks indicates a deep, profound sadness.

(*pause to sob for Allen and Joker*)

Back to Mana, we can clearly see he has a tear mark on his right eye. But Cosimo has what looks to be a tear mark and a star under his eyes as well. 

So...aren’t they both Pierrots? Grrrrrrr! DAMMIT HOSHINO!!

Anyways, moving on. I think we remember that back in Allen’s epic showdown with the Earl in Edo, this scene happened:

The Earl compares Allen to the White Clown/Clown Blanc and himself to Auguste. In classic tradition, Blanc and Auguste are often paired together, and it is said that this originates from the pairing of the Pierrot and Harlequin.

No no no obviously I’m not talking about this one lol

Ahem, back to serious-ass clown lore: 

Both Blanc & Auguste and Pierrot & Harlequin are similar in that the former (Blanc and Pierrot) is more sophisticated, stern, serious and melancholic, whereas the latter (Auguste and Harlequin) is the happy, clumsy, grotesque, sometimes rude fool that does the former’s bidding, to comical results. 

In Lost Fragment of Snow, Mana is said to always be smiling and extraordinarily kind, and that he is an enchantingly elegant, beautiful clown, but when he smiles, he always looks as if he is actually crying, dying inside. 

I mean, pretty much everyone has had that moment in their lives, no? 

Okay, back to seriousness, again; Yes, Mana is the ultimate Pierrot, the Whiteface, the Blanc. The sad fool who must always be laughed at by the world. 

And now Allen, who has taken on Mana’s personality, became the melancholic laughingstock of the world himself, constantly being pushed down and trodden on and used, but having no choice but to push on with a smile, hiding his pain deep underneath the white greasepaint.

Cue the music!

I started a joke, which started the whole world crying But I didn't see that the joke was on me. I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing Oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.

(Bee Gees - I Started A Joke)

4. Great, Cosimo had a hard life too. One more confirmed-dead character I have to cry for!

I hated Cosimo. Still do. Heck, EVERYONE HATES COSIMO. I mean, until now, the guy totally has no redeeming qualities and no justifying reason behind his relentless cruelty.

But in the recent chapters, there are reveals not mentioned in LFS: 

Cosimo was bought and forced to work as an errand boy, like Red, before he somehow crawled his way out and became the circus’s top performer. While drunk, Cosimo would also complain about how he was actually born a noble (this last one is also mentioned in LFS).

Imagine that. Your parents abandoned you for whatever reason (maybe he’s a bastard child?) and you ended up sold to slavery in a circus. After years of being worked to the bone and abused, you struck it big and thought you had it all, then new guy waltzes in with his stupid dog and takes your spotlight. 

Heck, you don’t even have to live such a rotten life to feel bitter. In Toy Story, even brave and fair Sheriff Woody was reduced to a jealous wreck in the face of Buzz Lightyear stealing Andy’s attention from him, wasn’t he? And I think we can all relate to that. Most of us have been jealous of someone before.

Cosimo’s unforgivable actions towards Mana and Allen the Dog may have been fueled by insecurity, trauma and fear as much as jealousy. His abuse towards Red is a result of long years of being abused himself; his own way to cope. 

While Red/Allen blames himself for his pain and not inflict it back upon others, Cosimo did the opposite, because everyone reacts and adapts differently. However, to be clear, both of these traits are not healthy. 

There’s also the fact that Red was saved by the kindness of Allen the Dog and Mana while he is fortunately still young enough to regain faith; whereas Cosimo suffered alone all through his life, surrounded by selfish, two-faced scumbags like that guy handing out leaflets. Had things been different, who’s to say Red might not turn out the same as Cosimo?

In a nutshell, Cosimo is simply a product of his harsh environment. While I still despise him, I can’t help feeling some pity for him and understanding where all that evil had come from. I don’t believe he is inherently bad. Nobody is. Had he been raised with love, I’m sure he would have been a very different person.

5. The Pillar

I know, this is what y’all are actually here for. I mean who cares about Cosimo’s tragic life or the difference between a Pierrot and a Clown when there’s an honest-to-gods HOLY LIGHT SPLITTING THE SKY APART AND OBLITERATING THIS WHOLE WORLD FULL OF SINNERS!? And it’s even teased, like, waaaaay back in Timothy’s Arc (gawd how old was I back then?) !!

First, a recap of this chapter: 

7,000 years ago, The Pillar destroyed the world (which seems pretty modern). The Noah survived and held a grudge against The Pillar for forever destroying their world, leaving them with nowhere to return to. Once they found the reborn Millennium Earl, they pretended to be his family, but instead are using him to exact revenge on The Pillar, because it is predicted the Earl will one day become The Pillar and destroy the world again. Cross however took pity on the Earl and chided Road for believing in that prophecy and causing the Earl so much misery.

Some IRL tidbits: 

Hoshino-sensei revealed she traveled to Ground Zero of WTC for inspiration, now we finally get to know which scene that inspiration is for. And IMO, the instant obliteration coming out of nowhere on one fine day, the Pillar etching a line from sky to ground amidst the pile of rubble, reminds me of the A-bomb’s mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And we all know which country Hoshino-sensei comes from, right? Could there be a link? 

Now, my personal analysis (or rather, pointless rant with no answers coming out whatsoever): 

This chapter both confirms, clarifies and also debunks important things we have believed from our time with the Order, listening to the Order’s side of the story. 

1) In the very beginning, Komui tells Allen about the previous end of the world 7,000 years ago. The Bible calls it “The Great Flood”. The Cube calls it “The Three Days of Darkness.” However, we now learn it is neither rainy nor dark. Nope, one day all of a sudden, a blindingly bright shaft of light struck down from the sky, and The Capitol suddenly became The Scorch. How did it achieve that? No clue! 

2) Komui tells Allen that the end of the world was caused by a war between the wielders of Innocence and the Earl + the Noah Family, and the ensuing flood that destroyed the world scattered the Innocence around the world. 

However, in this chapter, we learned there was no war. There was no flood. Just the Pillar that appeared suddenly one day. And surprise, the Noah Family hated The Pillar for destroying their beloved world, their only home (wait, aren’t they supposed to hate the Innocence?). 

Yet now the Noah are working with the Earl, who wants to destroy the new world and would someday become the Pillar and destroy the new world too? Yet Cross says they’re just using him for all this time? 

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? 

My super duper wild theory is that since 1) The Earl is the Pillar-in-Making,  2) The Noah show hatred for The Pillar as much as they do for the Innocence, 3) The Pillar, like Innocence, could trigger their Noah Memory to threaten to swallow them, then it’s kinda implied that;

Mana = The Millennium Earl = The Pillar = The Heart of Innocence

And the Noah, knowing this all along and wanting to prevent the end of the world from happening again, tricked the Millennium Earl into thinking they’re helping him fulfill his raison d'être of Harbinger of the End of The F***ing World (sorry, another reference, heh), not telling him that he’s actually the Heart of Innocence itself, watch him go after Exorcists he suspects are the Heart, and gleefully accept his orders to kill those Exorcists looking for the Heart, in order to prevent the Black Order from ever getting the Earl aka the Heart on their side. 

They also let the Earl create legions of Akuma to fight the Exorcists and destroy all the Innocence shards, literally using the Earl to destroy himself, keeping him away from his true allies, chipping away at his lifeline one shard at a time, like Harry crushing Voldemort’s horcruxes one by one, not knowing he’s a Horcrux himself. Until finally, when there is nothing left but the greatly weakened Heart with no army to protect it, then will the Noah have the chance to defeat it once and for all. 

And of course while they keep the Earl busy searching for the Heart, old man will never pause and think hmmm, maybe I am the Heart? 

Perhaps this is why Wisely said that all humans who have awoken into Noah will accept their duty once they learned of Noah’s mission. Since Noah’s mission now seems to be preventing the end of the world at the hands of Innocence, which I take as God’s power, and God’s weapon for “cleansing” the world whenever he deems it too sinful. 

After all, we have seen the horrors Innocence can do, the lengths Innocence will go to punish people it judged to have sinned. Innocence is said to be a crystallization of God, and like God, it has been foreshadowed numerous times to have that ruthless, merciless, unforgiving streak within it that could alienate even Allen himself.

Anyway, I typed this one without checking the earlier volumes that much. I expect there will be several loopholes, so be sure to point out any inaccuracies and also please, please do let me know what you guys think of these reveals as well! I’d love to hear differing theories!

Other tidbits

The Garvey Troupe, not Garbeigh. Sorry, everyone. Phonetically, Japanese does not have the “v” sound. Nowadays, you can write it out by adding the mark on the ウ (u) letter like this: ヴ, but most words would still transliterate it to the “b” sound, and most Japanese people will still have trouble pronouncing the “v” sound properly anyway. For example, “Violin” could be written both as (v)ヴァイオリン or (b)バイオリン, and most people would pronounce it like the latter.

Do you think Road’s memories of the End of the World has anything to do with Lenalee and Allen’s shared dream of the End of the World as well? Though Lenalee’s nightmare features the Black Order in ruins and not the modern skyscrapers of Road’s. 

So Cross knew Nea and Mana from childhood!? I’ve always thought he met Nea by chance when they are grownups and he was forced to do Nea’s bidding. Interesting!! 

So, that’s it for this chapter! Phew! That was uber long. Thank you so much for bearing with me this far. Hit me up in comments!

#dgm #d gray #d gray man #d gray man 234

[aterriblethought]

hi :) first of all thank you for scanlating wisc, it's looking really interesting so far! I'll definitely keep reading it. but also I randomly want to whine to you about something. there's this manhwa called freezing point and I want to read it so bad but it's not translated. I've been learning korean for the past two years and I can read enough of it to get me super interested but not enough to be able to read it freely and it's so frustrating! I have to look up so many words while reading. 1/2

2/2 I hope to soon be at a level where I can read it without having to figure out every sentence and where I get all the nuance in the dialogue. I'm thinking I might try my hand at scanlating too if I ever get there. I'd love to scanlate freezing point. anyway this was super random but I thought you might get my pain :D

I originally wanted to learn Japanese as a kid to read my Japanese Pokemon cards, but my mom thought that was a stupid idea, so I didn’t get back around to it until the start of college, and even then, it was so I could read manga before it received an official English translation. I was impatient, lol. I used to be embarrassed to admit that’s why I wanted to learn Japanese, but whatever. 

I started out translating manga because I was getting impatient for Acid Town updates and people used to post raws sometimes on the MangaFox forums. It was just practice at first and I only ended up taking over after the previous scanlator got hit with a DMCA. I think translating manga when you’re not yet fluent can be very stressful but fun. 

The part I enjoy most about translating is that “solving a puzzle” feeling of trying to figure out how all the parts of the sentence work together, and then the best equivalent for that in English. An exciting part of learning Japanese is when you eventually get to the part where some things just make “sense” even if you can’t explain it. Like if a sentence sounds wrong, you know it’s wrong, but might struggle to explain why. Or you understand the feeling or intention behind a sentence but can’t explain it in English. I’ve translated enough manga now that when I see a sound effect I understand the sort of sound that’s meant to evoke in Japanese, but it’s always an enormous struggle to convey in English. 

I think the more challenging part of doing scanlations when you’re not yet fluent is you feel a lot of pressure to do everything right. You feel the weight of knowing that whatever you put out there is what people are going to believe and how they’re going to understand the story, so you really don’t want to mess up. Mistakes can happen even for professionals, of course, so it’s not a huge deal. But I still stress over it a lot and will try to reach out for help from native Japanese speakers if there’s something I’m truly, terribly stuck on.

I managed to pass the JLPT N3 with decent scores, but I don’t want it to seem like I’m in any way fluent. When I do translations it’s with a complicated set-up of the raws, the document I’m writing the English script in, a browser opened to Jisho.org, a browser opened to Google Translate (for when I’m REALLY stuck), and the Google Translate app open on my phone (for looking up kanji without furigana). I think some people call this “machine translation” because I’m leaning on the dictionary for unfamiliar words or phrases, but I’m still mostly using my knowledge of Japanese to translate, and you wouldn’t necessarily get the same results if you were to just run the Japanese through Google Translate. I’m at the point where I can turn around a chapter a lot faster than I used to because I can just read and understand without having to constantly pause to look up everything. In a way it feels like I magically got to this point, but I also know that behind that is countless hours of studying kanji. :\ 

I’m rambling a lot but what I want to actually say is that if you have an interest in understanding manga in another language and want to practice your language comprehension by translating, definitely go for it! It’s going to feel really tedious and slow and difficult but it’s worth it. Find a series you’re really interested in and passionate about to keep you motivated. Keep a log of words you looked up so you can make flashcards of them later. Make mental notes about how the word was used. If you know native speakers who can correct your entire translations that’s the ultimate bonus, but I’ve never had that luxury, haha. If you’re feeling really frustrated at your pace you can also try looking for something easier to translate, like something aimed more towards children or general audiences that has easier language. This is kind of a gamble in Japanese because stuff aimed towards little children doesn’t have kanji, and if you don’t know the words and how to discern the breaks between them, all you’re looking at is an endless string of hiragana vomit, lol. Like in Japanese you’d want something with kanji but with the furigana at least. I found the Kingdom Hearts manga series really easy to read, for instance. It might not be as interesting as a series meant for adults but if you’re really struggling it might be worth that stepping stone.

#japanese #amorphine

[otakween]

07 Ghost Children

So I originally thought this was some kind of sequel to 07 Ghost (kind of like how the Fruits Basket sequel manga focuses on everyone’s kids) but apparently it’s a side story collection that was released before the final volume of 07 Ghost even came out. I think I actually prefer this. Stories about kids are usually pretty disappointing lol. I really dislike how Frau’s nose is drawn on this cover...

Speedster

-First of all, I really appreciate that this manga has furigana. I don’t really understand how they determine which manga gets furigana and which doesn’t. Isn’t this considered a josei series?

-Yaaay more of baby Frau. Is that why this is called “Children”? Cuz it’s focused on childhood? I love character-centric storytelling so any kind of backstory development is a win in my book.

-I guess child labor laws don’t exist in this fantasy world (well, slavery is legal so...) 

-The name Gido makes me uncomfortable because it sounds like the Italian slur “guido.” Also I think Gido looks a liiitle too similar to Frau for them not to be related 

-Magdalene is HOT! Also, I like the name Magdalene. I guess you couldn’t name your kid that because of the biblical implications though...

-I always find it weird when they have a child character mourn one parent but don’t mention the other at all. Like we get a sense that Frau lost his father fairly recently but he apparently either never knew or didn’t care about his mom. I want the full scoop! 

Summer Memories

-To summarize this chapter: all of the bishops are perverts except pure-boy Labrador 

Platonic Cafe

-I feel like I’ve heard the word “Platonic” thrown around randomly in anime a bunch. I guess Japanese people think it sounds cool (or did they title it that to be all “no homo”?) 

-This story was adorable. Didn’t expect to get a Kuroyuri backstory. I feel like they low-key suggested they’re a girl because they were wearing a dress in the flashback? But at the same time they said something about not wanting Haruse to think they were a girl so -shrug-

Begleiter

-I seriously misread “begleiter” every time it shows up. I read it like “Beg-uh-leh-tear” for some reason 

-This chapter seems as though it was done by a different artist. Ayanami’s hair is looking flat af :/ 

-I think it’s just the fluffy coats, but Suzu and Yuki always remind me of these twins from Dogs Bullets and Carnage:

-The Japanese in this is too tricky for me so I switched to this translated version midway: https://07-ghost-children.tumblr.com/

-Honestly, although Japan loves these “jerk with a heart of gold” character types I don’t like the implication that Ayanami is a good boss deep down. Working for him seems stressful ad and no one should have to put up with that 

-Okay, I also don’t like the implication that in order to earn Ayanami’s respect you have to be willing to die for him. This is a toxic work environment >:( 

-I kinda felt like Hyuuga was a little ooc in this chapter, especially when he flipped out over the prisoner escaping. I feel like it would normally take more than that for him to crack...

Always Together

-Another lil omake section. I guess snow makes Teito sad so they try to cheer him up by celebrating all the happy things about snow lol 

Aspiration

-Yaaay some Konatsu backstory. I’ve always liked him. I just find him the most relatable I guess lol 

-I never really noticed Konatsu wasn’t a warsfeil...was that ever brought up? XD;

-Man, if I had a nickel for every anime character that said “Your sword is an extension of you!”...

-It’s kinda funny how Hyuuga’s popping up in all these backstories as a cheerleader of all the younger characters. I feel like he’s pretty versatile. I can see why he’s the subject of a lot of fanfic lol (I’ve never liked his design tho)

Dream Pot

-Wait...where have I seen this bubble wrap joke before? Did they make the same joke in the main series? -deja vu- (It’s either that or I saw it in fanart somewhere lol)

-Bwahaha “my children are dying.” It took me way too long to get that joke (Konatsu spilled hot coffee on Hyuuga’s lap) 

-Apparently money in the 07 universe is called “yuus.” According to the 07 Ghost wiki 1 yuu = 2 yen

One Day I Saw the Sky

-Damn, Mikage is so ride or die. I’m glad we get to see more backstory to justify Teito angsting over him the entire series lol

-Kinda weird to think they have movies in this universe. Then again, I guess the race Mikage and Frau participated in was televised. It just feels weird in a fantasy setting

-Teito totally should have died with all those boulders on top of him. Reminded me of Obito from Naruto 

-I didn’t really realize Teito was doing his slave duties while in school? I thought that all ended before he enrolled?

-Teito’s emo slave child backstory seemed a little over-the-top grimdark. Hard for me to take seriously 

Godfather 

-Awww, I like these little brief looks at quieter moments between the characters. The bonding in this chapter between Teito and Frau felt really genuine (I wish I could hear the Raggs language...)

Aw, that was overall a nice little side volume :’) I wish more mangaka took the time to explore these smaller moments without always worrying about moving the plot forward. Anything that gives an extra bit of character development is also great in my book. I kinda wish I read it mid-series instead of at the end (because the series actually references it) but oh well. Onto the doujinshi!

#07 ghost #07 ghost children

[miuna-lngblr]

Seeing your language improvement has been lovely to watch! You asked what books people are reading now, but do you have any recommendations for some end-of-summer reading?

I've not read a lot tbh as I always (last year especially) liked watching japanese shows/ animes/ videos etc. so sorry for this small list. I'm keeping up with a lot of manga rn but I can't remember all of them (;_;

Manga:

- 日常 ~ Classic comedy manga about the daily life of a trio of girls and other characters. Very weird but it was funny. I watched the anime so I really wanted to read it too. the manga has furigana for every kanji so If there's kanji/ words you don't know it'll be hassle-free to search up.

- マギ ~ A story of a mage named Aladdin who travels with his friend Ugo and stumbles upon Alibaba and several other characters. A lot of amazing magic action (ofc lol), comedy and plot twists. I love the characters. I've read the whole manga in english and currently trying to read in japanese. It also has furigana on all kanji so it'll be easier.

- ある日お姫様になってしまった件について ~ Isekai. Protagonist reincarnates into a little girl from a novel she read. In the novel the princess was rejected and killed by her own father, the emperor because he had already favoured and loved the true MC of the novel, her half sister. not all is translated into japanese yet, only a few chapters. But i love it.

- 魔法使いの嫁 ~ Abandoned and bullied, protagonist is sold off to a tall masked man for a large sum. She doesn't mind however as she just wants somewhere to call home. She then later discovers who she truly is and all the things she can do. I loved the character development in this one ughh. Has furigana on all kanji too.

- 最後にひとつだけお願いしてもよろしいでしょうか ~ Suddenly annuled by her fiance and accused of harassing his new lover, she snaps and suddenly has enough of everything. Badass female lead lol. Only a few chapters are out rn only.

Novels:

- 僕は上手にしゃべれない ~ About the life and struggles of a boy that has Dysphemia. He joins a certain club to become better at speaking fluently. Very easy to read if you're N3 and maybe a few unknown words here and there if you're N4 but it's a book aimed for younger teens in japan.

- 君の名は ~ basically written form of the movie. Though reading this can be hard as there's a lot of kanji in it. I personally haven't finished it all yet but it's a good challenge for kimi no na wa fans that are upper N3+. Though I think it's best N2+

- 三日間の幸福 ~ the book i showed in my last post about a man who sells lifespan in exchange for money and happiness. A lot of kanji but you get used to it as the author uses same words quite a lot. Since it deals with the struggles of an adults life and journey it can be confusing so i'll suggest this to upper N3+ but Mostly better for N2+ if you want to read it more quickly.

started reading only, will continue soon =

- 教室が、ひとりになるまで ~ Crime story. A few suicides suddenly happen on school grounds. It was apparently, however, deemed not to be suicide but murder.

- 八月の終わりはきっと世界の終わりに似ている ~ Protagonist loved someone dearly. However, she died of a heart disease. They had an exchange diary between eachother. Four years later, somehow a new reply appears in that diary.

#list #asks #recommendations

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card chapter 39 - review

AT LONG LAST!

Real life really takes the will to do lengthy things away from me, even if it’s for fun.

But I love Cardcaptor Sakura so much, so I take this almost as a “duty” to pay respect to this wonderful series. I love when things are done properly and not left “hanging”, so here we go, even if a bit delayed compared to usual: (long)THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER 39 under the cut!!

I’d like to start with a small consideration before going with plot-centric rants: I have noticed the post with this chapter obtained a lot less notes than usual, but it’s a trend that has been going on for a while. I’m not really sure what could be the cause, it can range from Tumblr shadowbanning posts from the tag search if they include a link (so the posts are not visible that much anymore, despite my efforts to make a second text post), to people preferring other sources to get their chapters (and that’s fine), to the fandom moving altogether to other sites and communities, or....to the fandom’s interest slowly fading away. Since it seems we’re almost going towards the climax, I’m not sure how to react to the latter option. I think this is supposed to be the moment in which the fandom’s interest is the more active, but I could be wrong. Anyway, if that’s the case, then I guess it’s really time for CLAMP to wrap it up.

Without further ado, let’s analyze this chapter!

The color page was L O V E L Y. Oh my gosh Sakura-chan, look how grown up you appear here. More beautiful than ever. She’s even re-using a sweater from another color illustration, lol. It’s perfectly fitting with the autumn season and I loved it!

Let’s bother her a little more

Starting off from where we left in ch. 38, Sakura is blown away and Syaoran tries to have The Shadow look for her once again, but....”fooled once, not fooled twice” thinks Kaito, isn’t it? Kaito wants Sakura to do stuff on her own, so he literally “throws” her into a dark tree hole, where her shadow can’t be traced, because well....there’s none. He isn’t looking particularly amused while he does this, well, what I mean is that it’s not like he’s having sadistic fun, causing her troubles. His face is kinda apologetic when he's all “here comes the knight but thanks, no thanks”, as if he understands that Syaoran wants to save her, but he cannot really do otherwise. Sakura needs to do this alone, in order to produce a fitting card. Would you care to tell us readers what this damned card is, Kaito?

The first conversation

Kaito is in the mood for some memories. Memories of the first time he spoke with Akiho. I found it interesting that he used the verb “having a conversation with” rather than “meeting”, and the reason is also pretty easy to guess: for him, it wasn’t the first time. He saw her (although from afar) when he analyzed her through that ball, to determine whether she had magical powers or not.  And their first conversation didn’t start in the best of ways: Akiho’s first reaction is to run away. But what can you expect from a little girl who was used to be considered a bother and only basing on her magical capabilities, and not as a human being. So when Kaito asks her if he bothered her, her confusion is plain visible on her face: Is he talking to me? Me, who is usually the bothering one here?

And so she’s surprised big time when he actually shows to be interested to know which book she was reading. NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE ever did that for her. Remember what environment she grew up in. He is the first and only one wanting to even have a conversation with her (her family only made “questions”). By the way, thanks to Impatient Scans, we actually aknowledge Akiho here might be reading “Momo”, by German writer Michael Ende. That opens a whole new box of questions, starting from “IS THIS where Momo takes her name from? Who gave it to her? What is her real name? Could the story actually be giving plot hints?”

All in all, let me just say I loved this flashback. I always love when there’s a Kaito or Akiho flashback, because I’m so hungry for their background story. I know the story has to sacrifice a bit of the other characters in order to show more of them, because 30 pages are just 30 pages, after all. But it’s ok, that’s also the reason why I’m glad I warmed up to both of these 2, because every month I have more things to look forward to, and I generally am never disappointed with a chapter’s content.

There’s no turning back

As if on cue, Momo starts an inner monologue on Kaito and Akiho, and how much he changed for her.

He really didn’t care about anything, before. He couldn’t be bothered to do anything. He was a very apathetic boy, some fans have theorized he could be on the brink of depression himself without even realizing it (again, consider what a shitty environment he grew up in, a den of delinquents).

And yet.

Among all those criminals, he raised his hand. His voice loud and clear, “I’ll go”. He, the boy who found everything a bother, decided something for himself for the first time ever, and to assist someone else, no less. Momo wonders, to herself, what changed inside of you? Cause something must have changed.

This was another part I really really loved. All the memories of their travels together. You can see the different countries they’ve been to, and their body language, that implies there was still some kind of “distance” between them. Akiho seems still kinda “wary” of Kaito in these shots (and with a reason, who would trust anyone if they were raised up like she did?). But we can see them being more relaxed and at ease the more they spend time together, and it’s on this time spent together that Momo puts the focus on. It’s where Kaito should ideally start to find the answer to the big, complex question.

What made you do this?

Momo muses over how Kaito learned to do all sorts of things in order to please Akiho and to make her live in a healthy environment (remember Akiho saying that Kaito makes by hand all her meals?), finally not neglected but at the center of someone’s attentions. She makes a random example on the tea. Why someone who didn’t give sh*t about how tea tasted, went all the way down to learn how to make it in a delicious way? I love how CLAMP cleverly used the word 術 with the furigana “sube”, which means “how to do something”, but with the same kanji and the reading “jutsu” it also means “spell”. This probably to imply that some magic might have been included in this learning process, err. XD

I also loved how Momo thinks that Kaito needs to look at the truth straight in the eyes, without turning away. Could he be scared to admit the truth? Loving someone (and hear me again, love of any kind, not romantic love exclusively) comes with a little fear. For someone who never experienced it, all the more. It’s a totalizing feeling that might destabilize you.  If he doesn’t wake up to this, it’s gonna be too late. That’s literally what Momo says.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE SHOCKER OF THIS MONTH! Momo and Akiho’s mom knew eachother, and Momo even received her ring and the task to look over her daughter, and Sakura as well. “My Alice, and that girl’s Alice”. I mean, I knew Akiho’s mom was going to be important, but dammit she really looks like she’s been the one moving some plot threads since long time!!! I love this.

The nightmare

And here comes the part where I start screaming “WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING HERE”. Sakura finds herself in a strange land with big flowers (she’s still tiny, let’s remember that), flowers that can actually speak. At her surprised face, the flowers reply “You wished for this, didn’t you?”.

EH?

And then we get to this creepy scene of Akiho appearing out of nowhere, with her experiment outfit, calling Sakura in a dead tone. I was seriously freaking out at the panel composition. Made entirely to evoke creepiness. Apparently, we’re in Alice’s story. Yes. BUT WHICH ALICE?

The strange reality turns into a nightmare. Literally.

Everything turns dark, Sakura is having another one of her dreams. The “shaaan” and the clocks are a sign of it. MCF appears behind Akiho, who this time is in the same position she was when she was turned into a magical artifact by her clan. Sakura’s face twists in horror even before MCF opens his robe, because she knows who’s under it. The last time she saw MCF in a dream was also the last time she saw who was under it. Her heart and mind scarred irreparably forever. And there he is. Syaoran, dead in his eyes. Sakura’s shrieks “NO!!” in horror, she completely refuses to believe this is a real thing. Now, I don’t really know what’s happening here, because after this, everything breaks and she captures GUESS WHAT, the “Break” card. So it’s hard to determine if it was a real dream or only an illusion. Maybe Kaito made her go into her subconscious to find bits and pieces of what she experienced before, in order to shake her enough to produce the right card. Because, if all of this is coming from her, then it means a part of her brain does remember despite the time rewindings of Kaito. And it’s very important. She saw Akiho’s past when she was trapped inside Akiho’s book, but all of that was erased when Kaito rewound time. Well, not from her heart, however, because she hugged Akiho tightly while crying. So now what do we have here? A part of what she’s not supposed to remember. I think this vision is a twisted mix of horrifying things she saw previously, and indeed her natural reaction is to destroy in pieces what she’s seeing. Quite literally, since the two kanji for “Break” actually mean “Destruction”. Is this the card Kaito was looking for? I’m not sure. Because he said that “Rewind” went quite close to it, and I can’t make out any relation between “Break” and “Rewind”. I still have the impression the card he might want her to make has got more to do with “restoring” things to how they were before. So, if it’s instead Kaito the one who made her see those things, he might have wanted her to wish to bring everything as it was before. HE needed a strong reaction from her. But she made “Break” instead. Will it be ok for him so we can move on to the climax?

I have to admit I kinda loved the more creepy and nightmare-ish atmosphere of the last 10 pages. Sakura evidently has got something big going on, and it’s time she talks to Syaoran about this. It’s time she tells him fair and square what’s she’s seeing more and more often. It’s about him too, at this point. She can’t keep this a secret anymore, not when it’s eating her sanity and peace of mind away.

Next chapter is going to be published in the February issue, in stores on the last days of December if everything goes as usual (for New Year’s they always anticipate the release of that issue). So we have another unexpected break as I already said, and I kinda figured it when I saw CLAMP going on a trip 20 days ago. It’s ok, we can do this! If we’re approaching the climax, it make sense that they take vacation now, so afterwards they can work fully straight into the finale.

Thanks for reading this long rant, and I wait for your comments!

#Card Captor Sakura #cardcaptor sakura #CLAMP #ccs spoilers #ccsakura #clear card arc #clear card manga #chapter 39

[robynmarkius]

Random, but every time I see the words「何のために」”nan no tameni” / “(for) what reason”, I get The Last Element from Digimon Frontier stuck in my head for the next few hours. Help! XD (The first line is「 何のために戦うのかって」“For what reason do we fight?” or “What do we fight for?” which has also come up in FFXIV a few times.)

I know it’s cause I spent a lot of time listening to songs from Frontier to work on Translating them, and it was when I was first really learning Japanese. I still have credit on AnimeLyrics.com for [With the Will], (though that e-mail address and the .com domain are lost as of Dec 2019,) and I’m still very proud of that as it was the first full translation I ever did. I can also still pretty much sing the entire song without thinking about it because I listened to it for days. I got a lot of help from the forums for that being my first translation project. I learned a lot about verb conjugation, tenses, and a few other little things I still remember; such as んだ or “n’da” being “no da” or “no desu” and what it means at the end of a sentence. (Which is in the second line of this song. lol) Some of the resources I was pointed to back then, I still use now when I get stuck. I learned so much more from the people on the forums that’s stuck with me than I learned for a while afterwards when I had drifted away due to internet issues. So. It’s been a long time, but I still feel like I should say something at this juncture. Thank you to everyone back then on those forums for helping someone who was learning a new language because she wanted to translate a dumb song from her favorite anime of the moment. lol Your lessons and tips really stuck with me all these years later, and you gave me the confidence to share my translations with people all this time, because of the support and help I was given. <3 I also can’t really log in there anymore due to the aforementioned loss of the e-mail address, but I remember I passed one of the Japanese Tests they had so that I could keep my credit. It was transliterating a manga page without furigana. It was pretty hard, but I was so happy I did it, which I’m sure has also added to my confidence in reading stuff from screenshots when working on translations from FFXIV.

I only notice how far I’ve actually come when I stop and look back at what I’ve managed to do. I think it’s also why I end up explaining some of my translation choices, because that’s a little of what helped me when I was learning. :3

A-Anyway, this post was just supposed to be a comment about how I get a song stuck in my head when I read a certain phrase in Japanese! XD Oops! I rambled! I recently found a good amv for The Last Element, so I’ll share it for all of you to listen to/watch. :3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlXfCeUI9Zc

#robyn rambles #translator ramble #digimon #frontier #digimon frontier #the last element #animelyrics.com #youtube link #amv #japanese

[thefinalcinderella]

Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 4-Unsolicited Statement (Part 2)

The only thing worse than kyudo terminology...is Shinto and Buddhism terminology.

In other words, please enjoy this long-awaited continuation of the chapter, where the boys go to the Amatsu Star Festival in their fancy getup and we learn that Ren is actually Masaki’s stepbrother (not like the anime didn’t already spoil that for us). Also Nikaidou and Fuwa show up (not at the festival)

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1. A sekitori is a sumo wrestler ranked in the top two professional divisions.

2. A multi-tenant building here ( 雑居ビル) is a building that houses a mixture of businesses, shops and residences

3. Aratama and nikitama are parts of the spirit (mitama) of a god in Shinto belief. The aratama is the rough and violent side of the god that must be appeased while the nikitama is its normal state. (Thanks yugioh wiki for leading me to the right place)

4. The jousou of a priest is worn at regular festivals. A kariginu is a traditional hunting robe worn by Heian nobles. Basically, what Masa-san is wearing here is what he wore in Episode 10 of the anime (when the boys visit the shrine) except it’s all white.

5. Issun-boshi is a Japanese folktale about a one sun (3cm) boy who kills an oni. It’s similar to Tom Thumb and you can read the gist of it here

6. Jaki (邪気) means maliciousness or evil spirits, and mujaki (無邪気, literally “no jaki”) means innocence.

7. So apparently tsumikegare is a complicated term. Tsumi is sin and kegare is impurity, but sometimes tsumikegare happens to you without you doing anything wrong. In any case it taints your energy and you have to cleanse yourself of it.

8. The ritual Masa-san’s mom is doing is the shubatsu, a purification ritual that takes place before a ceremony. Also, ooasa is more commonly known as onusa, apparently. See one here. The sakaki tree is an evergreen that’s sacred in Shinto and used in many rituals, as well as salt water (entou), which is rock salt dissolved in water.

9. The term kaji ( 加持) is used here. In Buddhism it corresponds to  Adhiṣṭhāna, which refers to receiving blessings from the Buddha. On a side note I pretty much had to guess the translation of this passage lol

10. Joue ( 定慧) is two-thirds of the Threefold Training of Buddhism.  定 is “right mindfulness” and  慧 is wisdom. The third one is  戒, which is virtue.

11. Momote Shiki is a kyudo ceremony performed for those who are turning 20 and becoming adults. It is conducted by the Ogasawara-ryuu, who dress in formal kimonos and shoot two arrows at a target. You can read about one in more detail here

12. A naorai is a banquet during a festival where the offerings made to the gods are eaten. It marks the end of a ritual. Read more about it here

13. A goldfish with protruding eyes is called a telescope goldfish or demekin

14. Nanao makes up the word pazarinko in Chapter 3 of Book 1, where apparently it’s supposed to mean “you’re welcome” It’s the furigana for “了解” which means “got it”

15. Yo-yo scooping is a popular festival game where you fish for small balloons with a paper string and a hook. The balloons you get act like yo-yos I think? 

16. Yakitori is skewered chicken that’s grilled over a charcoal fire.

17. A marebito is a word that refers to a divine spirit or being bringing gifts of luck and happiness from afar. They are usually welcomed with festivals. It’s lso the title of the next chapter

Previous | Next

Countermeasures against the heat were necessary for summer exercise. Kyudo was no exception.

Kazemai High School was located in a relatively cool region of Japan, and kyudo was blessed compared to outdoor sports, but it was still hot during daytime. Although there was a fan, the wind almost never reached them, and so the fan head desolately turned.

In summer, the kyudo equipment also changed due to the heat. Because it was easy for the bowstring to stretch and for the draw strength to weaken if it was a bamboo bow, one used different equipment for summer and winter. The heat had little effect on glass fibre bows, but one needed to be careful as they could deform if one left them inside a car under the blazing sun.

For kyudogi, there were ones used specially for summer in addition to year-round. As the kyudo uniform must not be directly worn on bare skin, an undershirt must be worn, and the style for the bottom was a hakama that completely covered the feet. It was difficult to say that it was a cool getup. People who sweated a lot and the like had their sweat dripping onto the floor during zasha.

At break, Ryouhei and Nanao flapped the sides of their hakama.

“Ugh, it’s so humid since there’s no wind today.”

“The floor’s so steaming hot it’s like there’s indoor heating. My hakama’s getting stuck to my feet with all the sweat, you know.”

“Can you wash hakama?”

“The hakama and obi we wear for practice are made of synthetic fibers, so you can put them in a laundry bag and wash them with a washing machine. If you take them to a dry cleaner’s, it’ll be expensive since they’ll undergo the traditional clothing treatment. Though, the hakama Masa-san wears when he needs to wear kimono is probably made of silk or wool, so I don’t think he can use the washing machine for that.”

“My underglove is also really damp from all the sweat.”

“I hate having a sweaty yugake, so I’m going to air it out when I get home. Although when I say that, I’m just going to spread it out in my room and turn it over. Apparently, it’s also good to put a drying agent in it.”

The two replaced their undergloves that had become damp with sweat with new ones. In the case that one’s grip became slippery with palm sweat, one could also use rice chaff ashes, called fudeko, or one’s own white powder on the left hand.

Seiya handed Minato a towel and a water bottle. The ice made a cool, rattling sound, and the barley tea disappeared in an instant.

“Minato, if it’s not enough I can give you more.”

“Ah, thanks. I’ll have more later.”

“Are you suffering from heat fatigue? It looks like your dad has a lot of business trips lately, but are you eating properly?”

“Mm, I’m fine.”

Kaito, who was next to Minato and Seiya as they talked, knitted his brows.

“Are you mothering Narumiya again, Seiya? Leave him alone, he’s not a little kid.”

“Isn’t it fine? It’s not bothering anyone, and it’s my purpose in life.”

“So you finally got serious.”

“What? Do you want me to mother you too, Kaito?”

“Not a chance!”

“I also don’t want to take care of a child with such a bad expression.”

“I’m not a ‘child’ with a bad expression!”

Kaito finished his water bottle in one go.

Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo had on dumbfounded expressions that said, “Ah, here we go again.” They were completely used to seeing the sketch comedies that Kaito was associated with.

Tommy-sensei asked them to gather around.

“Were you all able to hydrate? Takigawa-san explained this the other day, but what is the method of breathing while shooting?”

Ryouhei answered.

“If you’re concerned about your breathing, it becomes more difficult for you to know how to shoot. Or rather, you can’t do both at the same time.”

“Exactly so. Since the way of dantian breathing used in kyudo is slightly different than the commonly stated dantian breathing, and it is difficult for those who hold the bow and still have a few years to go, it is good to store it as knowledge in a corner of your minds right now.”

“Yes.”

“If I have to be extreme, Japanese archery is lifting the bow up, parting it in both directions, and waiting to release the arrow—that is all it is. Even though just that should be good enough, people do unnecessary and pointless actions. First of all, let’s correct the major causes that produce difficulties for hitting the target. Because when you covet this-and-that, you will not be able to understand why.”

Ryouhei nodded deeply.

“Now then, it will be summer vacation soon and there will be a training camp, but before that, I will give everyone a mission. The gentlemen will be time warping back to the Heian era.”

“Heian era? Time warp? What does that mean?”

“For that, go there and enjoy what happens. The girls will be in charge of seeing that with their own eyes.”

Minato and the others blinked rapidly before Tommy-sensei, who was chuckling.

“Ah.”

Tsujimine High School’s Fuwa let out a sound without thinking.

The person before him was clicking their tongue.

Fuwa was at the bus stop in front of the hospital with his phone in one hand. A man with a muscular figure, on par with a sekitori (1), was in front of him in line, but he seemed to have decided something and left the line. Just when Fuwa was about to close up the gap and lifted his head, he saw Nikaidou right in front of him. They couldn’t see each other due to the large man hiding them.

Nikaidou opened his naturally large eyes even wider. Since their eyes met perfectly all the way here, his face that screamed, I didn’t know you were there at all, was extremely transparent.

He muttered to him, as though resigned to the situation,

“The bus is here. Let’s get on it, Fuwa.”

“…Right.”

They did not talk to each other even as they sat next to each other in the two-person seat. Fuwa still had his phone in hand, and Nikaidou was vacantly staring out the window. Neither of them said anything like, “What a coincidence,” or “What happened?”

The bus arrived at the nearest station fifteen minutes later.

Although Fuwa intended on naturally parting from him in this way, Nikaidou indicated his destination with his chin.

“Come.”

Without saying “What a pain,” he followed Nikaidou to the fast food restaurant on the first floor of the multi-tenant building. (2)

Nikaidou silently lined up at the register.

"Welcome. Will you be eating here today?"

"Yes."

"Then, may I take your order?"

"I'll have one of whatever is the most expensive thing in this store."

"Okay?"

The cashier was immediately bewildered.

As he was getting second-hand embarrassment from what he was seeing, Fuwa went to the second floor seats.

After a while, Nikaidou showed up carrying a tray. Apparently he couldn't carry it by himself, as employees were following him. The tray was piled high with food, so it did not look like it was for two people at all.

When the employees left, Nikaidou sat in his seat and spoke.

"Here, eat."

"Is that how you offer food to someone?"

"Just shut up and do it now!"

Forced by pressure, Fuwa reluctantly took a bite of a hamburger.  He had actually snatched food in the hospital room he had visited, so he was not at all hungry. When Fuwa finished eating one, Nikaidou looked relieved. He himself finally took the food as well.

Ah, so this is hush money?

Fuwa guessed.

It probably meant that he was not allowed to reveal that they ran into each other at the hospital. He couldn't ask anything about this matter. Furthermore, he is telling him to infer all of that. What a self-centered guy, he thought, but he stopped pressing it. Having him be quiet with this signified that Nikaidou trusted him greatly.

Nikaidou was hiding the fact that his uncle Shigeyuki was in hospital from the club members. Perhaps Shigeyuki asked him not to tell anyone. And Fuwa knew that Nikaidou had been visiting him frequently. That kind of thing would be divulged by someone close to him, and that information source was Nikaidou's younger brother. Because he knew, he was careful not so that they would not meet, but they ended up doing that regardless. In that sense, this whole situation was Fuwa's mistake.

Fuwa had a certain special quality.

It was the ability to get information even without seeking it.

Even though he wasn't extending an antenna from himself and collecting information, the things the people around him hid or wanted to hide entered his ears. He noticed that when he received a piece of coloured paper from his homeroom teacher at his elementary school graduation ceremony.

It was a collection of messages for the graduation ceremony, but among the trite and hackneyed phrases like "I'll do my best even after I graduate," he was unable to take his eyes from the words written by one girl.

Fuwa-kun has long ears, so bad things about Fuwa-kun are the only things I was afraid to say—.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he first saw that. He had no interest in the conversations of girls, so he never strained his ears for them. And in the first place, saying that he had "long ears" was in itself a loose-tongued thing to do. It may have happened that he did not notice the girl was hiding something and inadvertently said it aloud.

From then on, he began to be careful about his speech and conduct. He avoided topics that seemed like they would infringe on privacy as much as possible, and did not left out anything that he heard. It felt like the number of people who one-sidedly talked to him excessively increased, perhaps because he devoted himself to the listener's role. There were many people who wanted to talk, even without him asking. They could not help but vomit out the words that they kept close to their chests.

In addition, there were also many times when he accidentally overheard and learned something. The other day, he learned why Nikaidou often wore a white hoodie. When he went to the school infirmary, there was a health report there forgotten by the nurse. It was written that Nikaidou Eisuke was hypersensitive to light, and that if he was exposed to ultraviolet rays for a long time, it would cause skin inflammation.

And, there was another thing. He knew Nikaidou's secret—.

Ootaguro had also vaguely perceived it, and only Nikaidou himself thought it had not been found out. Ootaguro was not as meatheaded as Nikaidou thought he was. Nikaidou was smart, but lacked objectivity. He couldn't see himself very well.

Fuwa stuffed his mouth with his last bite, then washed it down with coke.

"Alright, it's all eaten."

"Ugh, I'm not gonna be eating hamburgers and fries for a long time."

When they exited the restaurant, Nikaidou pointed above his head.

"I'm gonna be stopping by the store up there."

"Oh, then see ya."

Nikaidou smiled, looking satisfied, and climbed the steps to the store.

Fuwa looked up at the sky.

The sound of a flute could be heard, and faint lights emerged.

At Yata Shrine, the summer festival called the Amatsu Star Festival was currently underway. Along the long stairs that stretched from the torii gate to the front shrine, bamboo tubes with the tops diagonally cut were arranged with lit candles inside them. The swaying flames were like whispers, enticing people to where the sounds were.

Sway, sway.

O marebito, o heretic gods.

Are you aratama tonight, or nikitama? (3)

Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo, dressed in yukata, stopped at the top of the steps.

"Wow, the stairs of light are so beautiful!"

"Look at the interior. It's still continuing."

"Let's go."

The lights flickered, as though beckoning them. They passed between the bamboo tubes and looked back, and saw a river of light.

"Are the boys going to be here soon?"

Hanazawa confirmed the time.

"I wonder if they successfully completed the time warp."

"The girls' mission is to see it with our own eyes, after all."

The three giggled as they headed for the front shrine.

The five boys of Kazemai High School were also visiting Yata Shrine, but they could not afford to enjoy the festival. They first thing they did in the morning was to do an ablution ceremony by bathing in cold water (misogi). They also refrained from eating meat and fish since yesterday.

On this day, Minato and the others were wearing colourful kimonos and hakama, looking just like Heian nobles. Masa-san was dressed all in white. The ordinary vestments (jousou) of a priest was a dyed and patterned kariginu, a hakama in a colour that corresponded to the priest's social position, a cap called a tateeboshi, a ritual baton (shaku), and shallow clogs (asagutsu), but the kimono was all white with only a little decoration at the cuffs. (4)

In actuality, Yata Shrine was reviving the ritual "matoi" (target shooting), which had died out, and the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club boys were serving the roles of the archers.

Minato moved awkwardly in the clothes he was unaccustomed to wearing. The weights of the pure silk kimono and the practice clothes he usually wore were different, and he took care not to make it dirty.

"Masa-san, are we really going to be okay? We're wearing these flashy kimonos and hakama, and shoes made of wood. We're doing rissha, aren't we?"

"The target is big, and you'll be fine if you move as you practiced this morning. Exposing your chest in summertime is troublesome since your kimono sticks to you with sweat, but it works as a natural cooler."

"In the first place, why is it that except for the one priest, everyone else are boys from ages twelve to eighteen?"

"In ancient times, Yata Shrine was a shrine thatwas connected to the practitioners of Shugendou, and the purpose of 'matoi' was to exorcise vengeful spirits. As you can see from folk tales like Momotarou and Issun-boushi (5), 'douji' (boys) are said to have the power to exorcise demons--evil spirits. And in the ancient documents left at Yata Shrine, it is written that the archers are chigo, that is, young trainee monks with unshaven heads at Buddhist temples. The discussion of wanting to revive it has been brought up by the parishioners for a long time, but I only got enthusiastic about it when I talked about it with Tommy-sensei."

"So 'innocence' is the opposite of 'vengeful spirits'. (6) But why would there be young monks at a Shinto shrine?"

"Before the Meiji era, there was the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism, in other words, Shinto and Buddhism weren't distinctly separated. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for priests to double as monks."

"Oh, I see."

When the festival music (matsuri-bayashi) ended, the archers and parishioners, with Masa-san at the head, stood before the shelves that held rice, salt, water, sake, fish and other offerings to the gods. The parishioners were serving as the kaizoes. The target (oomato) was made of flattened reeds that were woven together, and a piece of paper put on top of it had the character for "demon" written on it.

They received a purification rite from Masa-san's mother, who was a priest, to purify their sins and impurities (tsumikegare) of their mind and body. (7) She shook the ooasa, a rod of plain wood with shide (zigzag paper streamers) attached to it, left and right and left again, and then a sprig of sakaki tree was dipped into entou (salt water) and sprinkled. (8)

Masa-san walked a few steps ahead of the line, and then knelt (kiza) with a bow and white-feathered arrow in hand.

He chanted with a resonant voice.

Upon careful consideration, what one would call a treasured bow of divine empowerment (9), is something that strenuously exerts the virtues of joue (10), clears away the mob of hindrances,

And defeats the evil forces that block the way to samsara. Indeed, there is nothing that surpasses a divine bow and secret arrow for a vessel of expelling evil forces.

Now, the five great dragon kings have descended upon this dojo and will establish barriers that will block these evil spirits…

When he stood up, he had his bow and arrow in his right hand, and exposed his chest by slipping his kimono from his left shoulder. With both hands, he reverently held the bow parallel to the ground and then pointed it towards the target (mato-tsuki). He gripped the bow in a slanted position and drew it back to its limit, and then released the arrow.

His next arrow also hit the center of the target.

When Kaito, the oomae, lifted his bow, Ryouhei also lifted his own bow without missing a beat. After him, Seiya, Nanao, Minato and Masa-san imitated Kaito’s movements.

Kaito slowly brought the head of his arrow close to the target.

“Aiiiiiie!” After he shouted his yagoe, his arrow flew towards the target.

After him, Ryouhei also released his arrow with a “Yah”, and Seiya, Nanao, Minato and Masa-san followed.

Aiiiiiie, yah!

Aiiiiiie, yah!

The yagoes crawled along the ground, the sounds that violently cut through the wind being linked together.

When the six shootings were over, there was a big round of applause from the spectators.

“What was that? Were those Kazemai students who were shooting?”

“Holy crap, that was amazing! We can take pictures, right?”

The female high school students who were watching as a way to kill time were in high spirits. Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo, who were watching over them, were also leaning forward in excitement.

“Since they called it a ritual, I was wondering what they were going to do, but wasn’t it pretty cool?”

“It really did feel like we time-warped back to the Heian era.”

“They were moving similar to the Momote Shiki of the Ogasawara-ryuu school.” (11)

While the worshippers were chattering noisily, Kaito drew his bow tightly once again. There was a dignified air surrounding him.

The yagoes were shouted one after the other.

Six voices.

When the last shot brought down the demon, a thunderous round of applause arose.

After they finished their greetings, Minato and the others changed into their regular clothes.

Tommy-sensei met them with a smile.

“You’ve all worked hard on your mission. Congratulations to everyone for safely returning to present-day. You all looked very handsome.”

The parishioners also gave them words of appreciation and gratitude.

“What a mystical ceremony it was, as though we became lost in an older world. Many of us parishioners are getting on in years, but the ones who will create the future are you young people after all. Now, now, eat up.”

“Then, itadakimasu.”

They took the food before them. At the naorai (12), Ren was also there along with the parishioners, going around pouring alcohol for each person. A naorai also had the meaning of cleansing the body obtaining the offerings to the goods through eating and drinking the offerings and sake at the end of the ritual, but at Yata Shrine it had a strong sense of a party given in recognition of a person’s services.

It was a long-awaited and precious festival. They also wanted to go around to see all the stalls.

After talking for a while, the boys stood from their seats, leaving the adults who were drinking.

It was a complete transformation from that refined world, and they flocked to the area lined with red lanterns. The scents of sauces and sugary things mingled together. Nanao was called out to by girls as they passed by him, and he answered them with smiles. They went halfway down the row of stalls, when Minato and Ryouhei decided to take on the target shooting stall.

“I think I’ll aim for the sweets on the right. What about you, Ryouhei?”

“I see. I’ll be aiming for that mascot ‘Reclining Kaehru-kun.’”

“Alright, then, it’s a match.”

The two carefully aimed and pulled their triggers. Despite Minato bombarding it with bullets, the small box of sweets did not fall down. He persistently continued to shoot, and when he thought that it finally fell, he was disappointed when he was told that “it doesn’t count if it doesn’t fall behind the shelf.” As Ryouhei declared, he got the “Reclining Kaehru-kun,” and handed it to Nanao.

“Oooooh, this is amazing! Thanks, Ryouhei. Let’s go over there next.”

The group went to the goldfish scooping stall next.

Nanao and Seiya, with Kaito between them, were standing by.

“Seiya, Kacchan is a master at goldfish scooping.”

“Oh really? Show me what you got.”

Kaito’s eyes glinted. A daring smile appeared on his lips.

He readied his scoop in his right hand and the bowl for the goldfish in his right, and then passed his scoop under the water. He quickly slid it sideways and got one fish at the start. He then got a second one, a third one, a fourth one, and then the bowl was filled with goldfish before they knew it.

“Good job, Kaito. Alright, I’ll try too.”

Seiya gently put his scoop in the water and chased the swimming goldfish, but the fish escaped before he could put them in the bowl.

“Aaah, it got torn.”

“Seiya is surprisingly crap at this.”

“Sir, one more turn.”

Seiya paid the fee.

“Kaito, teach me your secret.”

“Watch closely, okay? First, you gotta put the whole scoop into the water. You should scoop by aiming for the fish at the surface and moving horizontally as much as possible, and making sure that the tail is getting on the paper.”

As he was saying that, he caught another one. Even the man at the stall said, “Give it a rest, kid,” with a wry smile.  Perhaps because he listened to Kaito’s advice, Seiya got two fish this time.

Nanao kept aiming for the bigger fish, but at the end he did not catch a single fish. He returned his torn scoop to the man and pointed at one spot where the goldfish were crowding together.

“Kacchan, get that black fish with the stuck-out eyes buried under those red goldfish.” (13)

“Hmm, it’s big, and that location is ugh.”

“You can still do it, can’t you? Get it, get it!”

“Can’t be helped.”

Badgered by Nanao, he reluctantly attempted it, but his paper scoop got torn when he got close to the fish.

“Ooh, what a shame, kid,” the man at the stall said with a pleased face. They decided to bring back only three fish, and Nanao chose a fish to his liking. In the meantime, Minato and Ryouhei went to take a look at the neighbouring stall.

After they received their goldfish, Kaito looked around.

“Narumiya and Ryouhei aren’t at the stall next door at all?”

“Aah…, this happened a lot back then. Whenever those two are at a festival, they really get into it and disappear before you know it. Well, it’s fine.”

“Huh, it’s really ok? You not clinging to Narumiya, I mean.”

“Yep. Today, I’m sticking close to your side.”

Kaito recoiled from Seiya, who was smiling with his eyes narrowed.

“Hah? Why’s that?”

“In this kind of place, the possibility of you rather than Minato getting caught up in trouble is much higher. And you have even less self control when it comes to Nanao. As you wished, I shall specially take care of you today.”

“When did I wish for that!?”

Next to Kaito, who was scratching his head, Seiya was ready to burst into laughter.

“Okay, I texted Minato and Ryouhei our meeting location and time, so let’s walk around together.”

Nanao responded, “’Kay, pazarinko (14). Where should we go next? The turtle scooping stall?”

“Turtles, huh…those things get huge in the future. We can’t bring them back with us.”

“I wanna get big too.”

“Then, milk scooping?”

“Ooh, maybe! Moo-moo scooping~.”

“That’s not even a thing! If you’re talking about scooping, there’s yo-yos and gemstones.” Kaito answered, getting worked up and taking the joke seriously. (15)

The three disappeared into the crowd while jostling.

At the same time, Minato and Ryouhei had also noticed that they had lost sight of their friends, and looked at their phones.

"So we're meeting in front of the shrine office. There's still time until then. What do you want to do, Ryouhei?"

" I wanna eat yakitori. (16) You mind if I line up at that stand over there?"

"It's cool. I'll wait under this tree."

Minato left the lively avenue lined with stands, heading for the zelkova tree.

The rhythm of the festival music could be heard in the distance. Since from the morning he had been busy with the setup of the oomato and learning how to strip during a rissha ceremonial shooting, observing the festival from a little further away also wasn't bad at all. The flickering of the river of light pierced his eyes.

Just when he was about to twist off the cap of the plastic bottle in his hand, someone with their hand raised approached him from the front. At first he couldn't recognize their face since it was lit from behind, but it turned out to be Ren.

"Hey, Minato-kun. We sure do meet a lot."

"Ren-san, is it okay for you to be here?"

"Trying to drive me off, eh?"

"Ah, no, I was just wondering if it's okay for you to not be at the naorai."

"Oh, it's already in the final stage, so they probably wouldn't know if just one person is missing."

Ren stood next to Minato and similarly twisted the cap off his plastic bottle.

"How's it going with kyudo practice?"

"Thanks to having Masa-san teach us, I think everyone improved, as well as me."

"I heard that you were taught by a sensei who is famous in the kyudo world. Aren't you unsatisfied with Masaki?"

"That absolutely isn't true! Saionji-sensei and Masa-san are both my precious teachers. If I never met them both, I might not be shooting a bow today."

Ren suddenly laughed, but there was something cold about the way he did it.

"Really, that's good to hear. Masaki had been worried for a while. He told you that 'If you don't fix that bad habit, the more you shoot, the more it will hurt,' but he worried that he should have said, 'Once you fix that bad habit, you will get even better,' and that he made a mistake in how he should have said it. Thinking that there’s nothing good about a coach who lowers his athlete's motivation."

"Eh, he was?"

"Even for those who teach, there's actually a real anxiety about whether or not what they are doing is really okay. Masaki did kyudo for many years, but as a teacher, he's a beginner. Everyone's an amateur for the first time they're doing anything. Studying, exercise, the arts, work, raising children—everything has a first time."

"—That's true."

People wavered whenever they are doing something. Even if they weren't aware of it, even if they weren’t in pain or suffering, they were always making choices. Even after the time of the initial resolution, in the end they still didn't know what was the correct answer. One could only cast away doubts such as if there was another choice, and go the way one believed in.

Minato asked something he had always been curious about.

"Ren-san, you don't do kyudo?"

"Yeah, I don't. There was a time when I thought I'd try it, but I missed the timing."

"So Yasaka-sensei didn't encourage you to do kyudo."

"Uh huh. I was already a full-fledged adult, and I was the child of his daughter's second marriage partner, so he probably refrained from doing that."

"...What?"

"You know Masaki's mother remarried, don't you? I'm the kid from my dad's previous marriage. I'm not related to Mom and Masaki by blood."

The wind blew, and the flames swayed all at once.

The leaves rustled and wriggled.

Minato groped for something to follow up with.

"Ren-san, are you trying to surprise me again? Even I won't fall for it anymore."

"Oh, so Masaki didn't tell you. Well, maybe he didn’t bother telling his student about it. It's about unrelated people after all."

Minato very much remembered his thirst. The scar on his left flank ached.

Ren always spoke like there was a hidden meaning in his words, but he really couldn't see his true meaning this time.

"Minato-kun, I actually hate you a little bit. I thought that when Masaki finished his ten-thousand shots, he could be freed from our grandfather's binding spell, but he relapsed back into being bow-crazy. He was about to go on the same path as the grandfather he avoided so much."

"Is it bad to love kyudo?"

"I don't think it's bad, but I do think it's constricting and uncomfortable."

Minato wanted to refute him. No, you're wrong.

Masa-san, Shuu, and Minato were certainly struggling, and might be suffering, but those shouldn’t be all that there was.

"Masa-san's tsurune is really beautiful. I don't believe it's the sound of someone who is shooting in suffering. I enjoy shooting a bow. It's frustrating to not be able to do things as they go in my mind and not getting considerably better, but even so, I love kyudo."

Ren's eyes stayed the same, with only his mouth smiling.

"It is said that Yata Shrine's Amatsu Star Festival is perhaps for appeasing Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who is branded as a malevolent god. For my home, you are a marebito—a guest. Nobody knows if you are a good spirit or an evil spirit." (17)

"Ren-san..."

"Fufu, you are too amusing... It's a joke, I'll be leaving my little brother in your care."

Ren lifted a hand and left.

Ryouhei showed up in his place, bringing along Seiya, Kaito and Nanao.

Minato blinked his eyes from the dazzling, diffusely reflected light.

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#tsurune #tsurune translation

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Idolish7 17 | Hinamatsuri 8 | Boueibu HK 8 | BnHA 46 | MSO 9 | Rokuhoudou 8 | Code:Realise 13

Idolish7 17 (FINAL)

The culture clash here is hilarious! It’s pretty obvious this unknown guy is Douglas, though.

I can’t believe they’re doing these songs! I’ve known about these songs for a while, since they made waves a few years back – I think Memories Melodies’s music video was animated by Studio Bones and Leopard Eyes by NAZ.

Come to think of it, they never really show idol shows from the fans’ perspective, so this girl’s shots (Aya’s?) are a new thing for the entire genre…

Huh? Wait…this is the real Aya! Oh my gosh!

Well, that’s the end of another show. See you around.

Hinamatsuri 8

Where is “home” for Hina, though?

Geesh, the continuity on this show…what they’re saying right now means the opening of the episode was in medias res, dangit. Stop being so confusing.

I don’t really care about Ikaruga, I care about the “Standing Sushi Bar” in the back more…sorry, Ikaruga.

A few episodes, Hina really was homeless…hmm, continuity’s back in action here.

“Hurray for Psychic Powers” – I was reminded of a book that once appeared in Kado. Unfortunately, that book’s name is Ningen Manzai with all kanji, so it’s not a very close reference if it’s intended to be one…

“Ma Monthly” – Well, wouldn’t you know it? Boueibu collabs mean something here! See, this magazine is a parody of Monthly Mu, which (for some arbitrary reason) decided to team up with Boueibu back in 2016. Hinamatsuri even parodies the magazine’s logo properly! Amazing!

More namahage gags. C’mon, they wouldn’t escape me. They’ve been appearing for a while now, those.

Last time an anime character had a master the same age…*thinks back* That would be Ore Monogatari, with Saijou! Man, that was a while ago. If you don’t count the “same age” bit though, you have OPM and BnHA, which are a lot more fresh.

Jojothan’s (sic)? Is that a Jojo reference, a Johnath…aww, it doesn’t seem to exist. Dangit.

Hitomi’s going to take the dog in, isn’t she?

Even Hina’s shirt says “byebye”…geez, this is kinda saddening already.

Now Hina’s shirt says “sayonara”…why did they poke a hose through her nose, anyway? It made me laugh, sure, but…it’s stupid anyway.

What does Hinamatsuri do without “Hina”, anyway?

Oh, so that’s the significance of that part (post-credits sequence, ep 1)! I didn’t like that part, so I wished to never see it again, but now that it has some significance…it can stay.

I don’t think I’ve seen that image of Nitta with the hand to his head, with the vases on the side before…it must be new.

Normally Hina’s in the seat next to Nitta, right? Oh dear. Also, Utako’s missing and you can see Nitta’s sister in the bar shot as well. The rock singers who wanted to go to the Budokan with Hina are in the back, too, although there may be some people I don’t recognise in the bar shot as well…

Jinsei wa Survival = Life is Survival, not Life is About Survival…

Boueibu HK 8

Summer episode! At least it doesn’t sound as bad a fanservice episode than episode 7 did…(for Astral’s sake)

Karurusu brought back En’s old “What did you say?!”, but now there’s a rakugo background! (small LOL)

I can’t believe Manza tried to push his glasses up in the bath (LOL). Is this what glasses-wearers have to go through?

These seem a little too specific…and to Wakura’s sadistic taste for that last one…to be anything Kyoutarou thought up on his own. (i.e. They probably actually happened.)

Huhhhhhh…I think we finally had an actual woman appear on this show…amazing! (The Osomatsus’ mother, she has a name but I forgot what her name is.) Must be Osomatsu-kun from the ‘60s or ‘80s though, because that sure as heck ain’t the “gets episode 1 pulled from Crunchyroll” Osomatsu-san. I watched the entire season one of that thing, remember?

That dot point looks like a shell for some reason. It’s just two circles put together though. My brain must be in a summer mood from the episode, eh?

I know there’s one jellyfish where you have to cure the sting by peeing on it…oh sorry. I’m falling into Mahou Shoujo Ore’s “crass jokes” trap…

Dougo…likes natto? Weird. Plain weird.

I almost thought they were going to go camping just to fulfil the gap left by YuruCamp, but I guess the audience for YuruCamp and Boueibu doesn’t really cross over. I’m such an anomaly in that case, huh? I still want to know Pinecone-chan’s VA, come to think of it…

Like, c’mon! I can’t even break down that joke (Rashio Taison), it’s too obvious from looking at his name in furigana!

So Rashio is like the snowman from season 2…and the volleyball guy from season 2…maybe Kurotori? I don’t remember his school circumstances anymore…

They used CGI on the plane…? If they did, I barely noticed it until I played the scene again.

Oh wait, that’s a Studio Comet plane…ahaha…(look at Studio Comet’s logo for the joke explanation)

*crashes head on wall* Martha Shirahone…*eyes blank*…Martha Shirahone…Martha’s a girl’s name!!! Does that mean Astral wins?! My pride and the Boueibu status quo have both been wrecked if Martha (sic) really is on the non-binary spectrum…and it’s not some weird Engrish typo…Poor boy though, he spent 4 years depriving himself of one of his favourite things to prevent himself from being teased. (Okay, this “Martha” spelling’s going to annoy me for a while, so I’m going to revert back to “Maasa”…)

Interestingly, Maasa seems to be using a standard vinyl umbrella and not a “student-council-worthy” one. Update: Nope, this one’s sanctioned by the British Royal Family.

Eh? What’s with this monster’s face? He doesn’t have one, does he? I know what the kanji on his face is, but…I think this might be a first. A monster without a face whatsoever.

Is it just me, or did they get CGI for those clouds as well…?

Wait, so even Karurusu is against the idea of fighting this monster? Mr Enthusiastic’s kinda selfish, eh?

Kyoutarou’s still wearing his school swimsuit. But this definitely reminds me of Dark Aurite with the lip coloration...

Wakura so obviously followed Ryoma’s voice instead. It’s pretty much what Astral termed a “nutshot” for MSO ep 8, only it’s…meant to be kinky (I’m not feeling it, y’know?). I’m just vaguely miffed right here that they could be trying to put a cheap joke in Boueibu.

Ooh, nagashi somen with its bamboo…thingy…looks cool. Oh, but Ibusuki…no wonder Ata likes this kind of noodles.

Karurusu’s flag says “summer” on it.

It’s a bit blurry, but the bus says “campground” as its destination.

I wonder if that “spirit of fear” thing was a joke? I’ll come back and find it later. Update: There’s no joke there in Japanese…the word for “spirit of fun” sounds like kyuuki and then “spirit of fear” is just dokidokishiteru (which is just a word for the heart pounding, suggesting nervousness in this case).

Hey, someone (Ryoma) noticed Taishi’s angry outbursts for once!

What, the monster has a mouth, so he does kind of have a face…? (I’m confused…what constitutes “face” with this guy anyway?)

Karurusu…he dab! (…Kind of.)

Full transformation sequence again…*sigh*

Noticeably, you can only see Ryoma nodding when the Rajio Taiso monster asks if you can do rajio taiso outside of summer. I’d assume this is because Ryoma’s the one with the grandpa who does it all year round, but it might just be a space constraint. You never know with these things.

There’s another pun I need to go back to – “I feel radio calis-cleansed”. That can’t have worked in Japanese…Update: Uh, there was actually one here. It seems to be a pun on taiso.

Aw, Rashio’s so happy. Even if I think the staff have reached a new low with the “petty” on the monsters this time around, just seeing that smile lights up my face too.

Why do I feel a Madoka moment coming on right here with Karurusu’s promise?

It’s a Kagerou Project-style time loop, but for August 31st! Yikes! This is going to get confusing…

Yeah, it’s better not to think about time loops, Kyoutarou. You’re right.

Is “firework” a verb? Or is that wasei-eigo? Or slang? Or both? More things to not think about there…methinks. Update: Dougo says “hanabi taikai shimashou!” (literally “let’s do a fireworks tournament!”), so it’s not wasei-eigo, nor is it a verb. It’s just an unconventional subber’s choice.

They censored a big sign in the preview! But Crunchyroll doesn’t have episode 9 yet because of the French Open! Dangit!

I love how the blue bars randomly go “La la la laaaaa!”…LOL. But it also says “they find party dice in the clubroom…” (because it’s bushitsu kara dete kita no wa party saikoro).

BnHA 46

“Those acts are the same as those of villains.” – Actually, that would be the acts of vigilantes…*thinks about the Vigilantes manga*

Because Kouta’s letter was in hiragana, I could understand most of it…eh, my skills are pretty shabby after all. I couldn’t even understand the last line much.

“like a pair of tight jeans” – LOL, Best Jeanist seems to love a good jeans pun, eh?

Come to think of it, Gran Torino doesn’t have a number to his hero status, right? He’s just an ol’ fart after all, even if he’s mighty skilled.

We haven’t seen Mt. Lady or Shinrin Kamui (“Forest Kamui” would probably be his English name, but it’s in katakana…and it sounds stupid, to boot) in a while, come to think of it.

I didn’t think Iida was going to go with them! Wow, what a twist!

I always thought having two Kirishimas in the same season was funny enough (Ryoma from Boueibu and Eijirou).

Kamino? Because the subbers spelt it with a C, that seems like it should be a reference for some reason…Update: Yep, it is!

What’s up with the roses around Todoroki? Are you trying to make the fangirls squeal like this is some shoujo manga? Yeah, right! (laughs in the background anyway)

Aizawa looks really different in a suit…hmm, I normally like men in suits but I’m kinda iffy on suit!Aizawa. *ponders for a second* I prefer his old style more, actually.

MSO 9

Noticeably, Michiru uses koitsu (“this guy”) to refer to Ore. It does tell you something about how Michiru views her enemies.

What’s up with Mohiro in a dress? Princess Peach parody?

Even Saki’s ahoge goes “Oh!”, LOL!

A heart shake for the yuri fans…and stupid glasses for my entertainment. (Thank goodness you’re still catering towards me, show…)

That joke about murdering Hyoue completely went over my head…I get what it was trying to do, but…not funny, man. Not funny.

Michiru uses the –ssu ending that Dougo and Yumoto use, too…

Oh…dear. I think we have more than enough of the word “Happy” with Happy Kiss…now this mascot, too???

I thought Hyoue’s surname was “Kuroda”? Or is that just my imagination? Update: It seems I made it up…

U-Uh, hey…so this was their real intention with those eyecatches, huh? Another “draw me like one of your French girls” memes is in order! Wait, but Ruka’s magical girl form isn’t doing the right pose…aww.

It seems Ruka isn’t into the Magical Girls (it’s implied she’s into Michiru instead), but Michiru’s into Ore…just as Astral guessed.

If that sentence didn’t make sense, it wasn’t meant to! It was just a bunch of long English words thrown together…although “jihad” certainly isn’t English. I wonder if any religious people will get angry at that word being used so casually, though? (I didn’t expect to laugh so hard at these guys. Konami’s my favourite character – of course he is, considering the karaoke episode - but I think I have an appreciation for these guys now.)

LOL, me and Astral like to complain about how thinking up new attack names takes an hour or so…so we totally know your feel, Michiru.

If you look at the scene where PRISMA are shown to attack, it says bokasuka, which apparently means “lots of hits and punches in succession”. It’s basically like subbing it “fistfight!”, “kapow!” or something.

Happy-chan doesn’t even have a body in tiny form!!! What??? (LOL)

Can we please stop with the montages?! A show is better when people bother to animate stuff, alright?!

Happy-chan went “doukashira?” (-kashira is a female sentence ending) which made me laugh because it’s a contrast to that head of his.

Happy-chan doesn’t even have hands…I’m not sure how he’s meant to live like that, y’know?

That catchphrase has less impact the second time around, it seems.

Hmm…so it was actually foreshadowing for Michiru’s love, huh? I thought it was pandering to tsundere stereotypes…

As much as I laughed at the ol’ kick to the face, are Happy and Kokoro really brothers? Or is this just filler after all?

Oh, this new ED is “We’re Not Magical Girls” by the Mahou Shoujo unit (Saki/Sakuyo)!

You can spot a tiny magical girl figurine with pigtails on Yamo’s desk if you watch at the right time.

PRISMA’s song is called “Love/Attack!”

They actually got a next episode preview narrated by demons?! (LOL) This is a new level of weirdness, and I’m actually glad to have heard it with my own ears (because I’m trembling with laughter right now because of it). But…they talk at the end! They can speak?! Whatttttttt?!

Rokuhoudou 8

Gure’s got stud earrings. Don’t think I’ve noticed them before…

It appears to be a florentine and not a “florentin” like the subs say. It is just missing an “e” though…

Happy, happy! I think Karurusu got me into the spirit of being happy all the time…or at least happier than I used to be, anyway.

Seriously, this middle school kid acts like a Boueibu monster, it’s hard not to make a comparison.

Gure’s so goofy, I’m laughing as much as I normally do for Boueibu or MSO…Rokuhoudou isn’t normally like this, that’s all.

“good way to sober up” – It sure doesn’t seem that way for Tsubaki, though…poor soul.

That style with the lips…it’s so un-Rokuhoudou, and yet it still works! I can’t think of what it reminds me of, though, because it seems to remind me of another anime or manga and I can’t put my finger on it. Update: Maybe MSO? That’s the closest thing I can think of that matches right now.

Hey, come to think of it, doesn’t this guy look like Shishigami from Inuyashiki? Their outlook on life is mostly the same, too! (from what little I know about Shishigami in passing)

Uh…Gure? Didn’t anyone teach You about stranger danger?!

The delinquents…are in the duck boating club?! Well, that was a surprise…

This pretty much became my favourite episode, even though Tokitaka’s still my fave Rokuhoudou boy, LOL.

Code:Realise 13

Since I don’t know whether to denote this as the final episode or not, I won’t note it as anything…

Isn’t Cardia Lupin’s girl? Hands off, Impey!

The newspaper Herlock’s holding has an ad for animators…wuh? In the Code:Realise Victorian era? No way, Jose!

#simulcast commentary #binan koukou chikyuu boueibu happy kiss! #binan koukou chikyuu boueibu happy kiss #Happy Kiss anime #mahou shoujo ore #code:realise #rokuhoudou yotsuiro biyori #idolish7 #Chesarka watches Idolish7 #hinamatsuri #Chesarka watches Hinamatsuri #boku no hero academia #Chesarka watches BnHA #Chesarka watches Yotsuiro Biyori #Chesarka watches MSO

[pharaohsparklefists]

Episode 103, part 1: you know what’s a fun subject for a show about card games? The physical and mental abuse of orphaned children!

Kaiba and Mokuba are traipsing merrily through a bucolic forest (incidentally, bucolic is top of my personal list for Words That Don’t Sound Like What They Mean) and happen upon a charming cottage and, since they’re looking for “a door”, they open this one, even though...

AND IT IS, it’s a trap that dumps them right into their first day at Kaiba Mansion and once again, I would like to question how Gozaburo was legally allowed to adopt these children

but soon other questions arise to take my mind off it, such as, HOW MUCH FOOD ARE THESE ORPHANS EXPECTED TO EAT??

like holy SHIT any ONE of these meat dishes - a whole fish, a whole lobster, a whole chicken or roast beef - would be enough for THREE PEOPLE, even aside from the SIX LOAVES OF BREAD, the salad, the soup, the fruit bowl, etc.

Anyway. Gozaburo asks what Seto will do when he inherits KaibaCorp and Mokuba is only too happy to answer! 

Gozaburo is like, “lol losers”

and tiny!Seto, in the best traditions of Seto fucking Kaiba, loses his fucking SHIT and dramatically declaims his extremely strongly-held and passionately-felt opinions about games

you tell him, sweetie

... um. sure, why not?

Then Gozaburo tells him to stop being utterly ridiculous (tiny!Seto, probably: “I WILL NEVER STOP BEING UTTERLY RIDICULOUS HOW DARE YOU SIR!”) and reveals his ambition for his adopted son

... um. sure. ... why not?

I guess, as evil corporate executives go, at least he’s honest?

Correctly suspecting that, for some reason, games and Mokuba are the two thin, straining threads holding Seto to emotional wellbeing, Gozaburo imposes a new rule on his adoptive children...

#worst

What’s even worse?

That’s literally ALL THEY HAD. Probably a couple of changes of clothes, and that shoebox of little toys. I wonder if they ever got those toys back? I wonder if the toys were from the orphanage or if their birth parents had given them to them?

And this raging asshole thinks it’s fucking funny and pitiful. He doesn’t get mentioned by name in this episode, and if he has one, I forget it. So, since he looks like what you’d get if you ineptly created a bobblehead based on Santiago Segura’s character The Wizened Man from Guillermo del Toro’s blockbuster classic Pacific Rim, and then the bobblehead melted a little, I’m going to call him Super Fucking Creepy Face Guy.

It seems like Seto and Mokuba are not allowed to spend much time together, because Mokuba has to rely on Super Fucking Creepy Face Guy to pass his message to Seto, hidden in a textbook

And I would just like to point out that Seto doesn’t defy Gozaburo’s orders here. Seto actually mostly plays within Gozaburo’s rules, he just tries to outplay him. But Mokuba? Mokuba straight up steals Seto’s cards back, carves a fucking hole in a textbook, and lies to Super Fucking Creepy Face Guy’s face! Mokuba doesn’t give a single shit about Gozaburo’s rules, except he doesn’t want to get Seto into trouble. He’s seven years old (I think. fuck YGO timelines) and he’s got a core of steel.

All to send this message to his big brother...

And faced with this show of bravery and loyalty and ingenuity? Filled with the certainty of his brother’s devotion and love? Holding in his hands the one connection to the past he misses and the future he hopes for, his one personal possession, the cards that his brother risked so much to smuggle to him to make him happy? What does Seto say?

...

...

...

SETO FUCKING KAIBA, everyone.

Along with the real (but “trashy”) cards, Mokuba included an aspirational drawing...

tiny!Seto, probably: “This is inaccurate and the lettering is shoddy. Tch, it’s like a kid did it!”

(The lettering IS in hiragana, which is weird. The actual card, irl and as shown in the anime, has kanji lettering with furigana in katakana ブルー アイズ etc, but here Mokuba’s written the same sounds in hiragana  ぶるうあいず etc, even though katakana is used for foreign words, like “blue” and “eyes”. Would a seven year old not have done katakana in school yet? Or would there be a reason for him to use hiragana?)

Anyway, the slightly-older Kaiba brothers watch tiny!Seto make a pledge, holding his home-made Blue Eyes card...

tiny!Seto, probably: “Then I’ll get two more, so as to most effectively use them in a dragon-themed deck. Then I’ll get the last one, through whatever means necessary, up to and including kidnapping, threatening, robbing, and hospitalising a pensioner. Then I’ll just fucking rip that last one up, out of spite, entitlement, and jealous greed. AhahahaHAHAHAHA!”

As this virtually-recreated memory fades, the brothers finally come face to face with the “mastermind” behind all this, and he divulges his sinister motive...

tall!Seto, probably: “Oh, is that all? Here, I have a Favourite Memories: Patricide scrapbook you can flick through. Actually, last year I sold the rights of the story of how I drove my father to his death to a major production company to turn it into a Broadway musical. I fund those, you know, for some fucking reason.”

#sparklefists watches ygo #episode 103 #Yu-Gi-Oh! #seto kaiba #gozaburo kaiba #Mokuba #Noah