#the only reason i can see myself reading a book translated into japanese is if i really want to read it but japanese is the only

[benkyoutobentou]

#i saw someone talking about how they had copies of the same book in multiple languages and i was like.... why tho #like i get collecting multiple language editions of a favorite of yours #but this was presented as specifically for reading in other languages #idk am i the odd one out here? #i will not read anything translated Into Japanese #the way i look at it is that i learn languages to get a deeper understanding of the author's original intent #but as of right now theres still a little bit of a language barrier #translation is already a type of barrier between you and the original work #so why would i want to be twice removed from what the author is saying #languages #langblr #studyblr #language learning #benkyou posting #polls #memes #studyinspo #polyglot #the only reason i can see myself reading a book translated into japanese is if i really want to read it but japanese is the only #available language i know #but even then #i always have so many books to read that it really wouldnt make a difference if i either a. read it or not #or b. waited for it to be translated into english #i do know that im weird about translations though

[sgiandubh]

Our Lady of the Earrings

Almost 3 AM and as always before any flight/train (but mercifully not when driving myself) trip I am struck by a severe case of Reisefieber, which translates to almost complete insomnia, in this noble house.

Thanks to one of @bat-cat-reader's Anons, I immediately went to watch C & Alfred Enoch's seven minute segment on The Booker Prize 2023 Livestream you can watch, too, on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/OgIGnfxISk0?si=nfUz7KoCFgEzQmQB

Some quick observations:

Not one, but two new ear piercings I took the gracious pain of documenting (sorry for the thumbnail size, it's the best I could do with the primitive technical means readily available) :

What would that be? Punk C? How could that even be? A speculative coin dropped: last time, it was cutting her hair, but now I see a body modification impulse. I am still pondering this one and I have to say I am torn between a simple fashionista reflex and something deeper than that (new beginnings? healing? letting go?). Either way, I am not in a hurry, because I know dots will eventually connect.

Thoughts?

Also, the rings. I have never been paying much attention to that particular merry-go-round, but anyways, for the fandom pundits, there goes:

Because I am not an Our Lady of the Rings kremlinologist, I shall leave it here as is. By all means, do comment, if you feel inspired.

Onwards to content. You know, by now, that I am a book freak (after all, my fandom journey started with a bookshelf!), so I listened very carefully. Her answer to the comment prompt on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song was, I am sorry to say, so restrained it sounded almost cookie-cut. She mentioned the tension of the quoted and performed (almost to perfection, I have to say) passage of the book, but little else and it left me still hungry for more. I mean, when you love a book, you have this urge to talk about it at length. She was almost subdued, even if I am absolutely sure she read it and liked it.

By contrast, Alfred Enoch (🎵it's a small world, after all 🎶) was totally chill. I shamelessly skipped, yet couldn't help but notice the contrast.

Second question was very interesting: 'what books made you fall in love with reading?' I always find this very telling about people, because anything related to books is very personal. We are not only the sum of our choices, but also the sum of all the books we read. Something C apparently knows very well, too, because she elegantly sashayed and said absolutely nothing about her first love book. She simply mentioned her mother taking her to the library, from a very early age and how all these books were windows which opened on The World and finally how seminal this experience is for someone growing up in a small village. But no particular book made it to her lips and again, I found it very curious. I am nobody and I can still quote not one, but two books that changed my whole world (and then I never looked back): Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows. It's not that she couldn't, it's that she wouldn't. So, for Christ's sake, Mrs. B, stop punishing your fandom like that! There's nothing wrong about sharing your joy of books, it really isn't!

Third and last question: 'are you a Kindle reader? do you like a physical book? audio books? what's your favorite medium for reading?' I could have bet handsome money she was not a Kindle reader, for obvious reasons (cannot remember/retain information), but I found endearing the almost sneaky confession she needed her couch and snacks for a good reading session (same, same and since forever: I grinned). She buys a lot of books, 'and then they sit and look at me and it takes a certain time to get in'. Same as Enoch, who wondered what the Japanese word for 'buying books for the simple pleasure of seeing them pile up' was (it is, correct me if I am wrong, tsundoku).

One of the other people talking about reading and books was Dua 'Behave' Lipa. I am legit howling like the cretin I am, but the project she supports is about bringing Booker Prize books to women in prison. And this, my friends, is absolutely extraordinary.

Also, no red carpet pictures on Getty. The only one who made it was Alfred Enoch:

And somebody else seems very interested by Getty, lately (as of yesterday, to be more exact):

But surely, that is only a coincidence.

PS: it has been asked in the comments thread chez Bat. C's pinky ring is Cartier's Trinity. My favorite of them all, spare my big butterfly 1925 chevalière (which is a Chaumet, by the way).

[Edit]: I am told she had the three ear piercings for years. My bad. I can't know just about everything. Thank you @crispyflapdeputyflower for the info. The rest is fresh, though!

[asksythe]

Thanks for your translation and the footnotes explaining things. Those were a godsend!

If I may ask, you said you had been on the Chinese (and Vietnamese?) side of the fandom up until now, that you've been in MDZS fandom for a few years. I see that you have some MDZS English fics up recently. I love them too! The ideas are so new and fun! Do you have any favorites English fics? Why aren't you on the international side until now? You learned Mandarin just to read MDZS? That's amazing. Is it very hard? How did you do it? What gave you the idea of writing the footnotes? Are there any Chinese MDZS fics that you really like?

Thank you. I'm glad the notes were helpful to you.

Ehh... it's a lot of questions, huh.

1/ I don't have any true favorites on the international side. It's a matter of cultural differences, not the quality of the stories. MDZS... was not written with an international audience in mind. So there are a lot of tiny but deeply impactful details that just... fly over a lot of the international reader base's head. It doesn't help that Chinese is a high-context culture, the polar opposite of most Western cultures (low-context culture). So a tiny detail that doesn't mean anything to English speaking audience can be a really big deal for the Sinosphere audience.

So the English fics are written based on this foundation of cultural value mismatch and thousands of little things that don't quite line up. The result is... really weird and really jarring. So for me, I have tried reading English fics before. But usually, what happened is that I would get distracted by this thing or that thing in the story that didn't fit with the cultural setting, and I would not be able to enjoy the story at all. I'm not quite sure how else to explain this. It's like... if someone in the Sinosphere who only has a very vague understanding of say... modern American culture takes a glance at American media and equates popularity with actual governmental authority (which kinda is true in a way but not all the way) and they write a story with the premise of.. say... a young American with big dreams of becoming the president so this person starts out their career by writing long, thousand-word essays and post them on twitter to gain credibility and followers so they can then stage a coup like Jan 6th and become president, and then they use their position as president to order Amazon be the new headquarter of government and all of this is written super seriously and realistically... Like that, probably...

2/ Why aren't I on the international side of the fandom until now? Well, the reason above plus my work is hectic. I'm perpetually buried in works, scripts, drafts for books, magazine publication schedules, game publication schedules, media projects, client interviews, chasing down clients, etc... that's on top of family and my not-so-great health. This year though, I have made it my resolution to write more stuff for myself (and not paid by someone else). So that's why I'm here now.

3/ Yes, I did start to seriously learn Mandarin to read MDZS in its native language. I can't say it's easy. It's not an easy language by any stretch of the word. But it's probably fair to say it's significantly easier for me to learn it compared to a lot of other people. I'm Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a derivative of traditional Mandarin, even though our modern language is now written in the Latin alphabet. We also have a bridge language between Hanyu (Mandarin) and Vietnamese called Han Viet. This makes it much easier for a Vietnamese to learn Mandarin than most other nationalities (with the exception of Japanese and Korean, probably). Before I even learned Mandarin, with the right tool, I could already understand about 50-60 percent of Mandarin writings, provided it's not ancient writing (which goes by different rules). It also helps that modern Vietnam has really good access to Chinese media, both modern and old.

I practice by translating Chinese MDZS fics into Vietnamese. I translated 10 series in total last year, with each series averaging around 50-80k words. I recently dabbled in translating Chinese poems into English (There's no use translating Chinese poems into Vietnamese. Han Viet is built for that express purpose already.)

4/ There are a ton of Chinese fics that are really good. I can't even begin to list them. I have seen some of the first-generation MDZS fics that were so good they ended up influencing MXTX herself, ending with her accepting the details posited in those stories as part of MDZS canon. They are all on the Chinese side of the internet though, mostly on lofter and weibo.

5/ The idea of the footnotes came from a friend, really. I sometimes spontaneously rant at @erimies about MDZS. Haha, I should thank her for being so patient. Back then, she wasn't even in MDZS. Well, even now, she's only started to read a little. But basically, during my fairly one-sided ranting (or gushing), we would stumble into cultural concepts that she didn't understand and had no basis for. So I would explain these things to her, which sometimes would become entire essays in our chat box. So when I translated, I remembered this point, that international fans probably miss a lot of cultural concepts and references, so I made sure to add in explanations.

#ask sythe #mdzs #fanfic

[kirkirk]

Charade Maniacs Tokuten Translation - キミとの一日

Before you read: Second time translating for Charamani! I’m really in love with this game, FD now, please. Again, if you spot any mistakes, let me know right away and I’ll change it asap!!! I had a hard time with Ebana’s part because his rough Japanese can be hard on my little brain, if you have any notes for his part I'll be more than glad to fix it. This tokuten features Haiji, Ebana, and Dazai. They each have their own short scenario, but the three scenes happen chronologically on the same day. It’s up to you if you only want to get to your man or if you’re listening to the three of them. Enjoy!! This one is really really cute.

PART 1 // SPOILER WARNING

DAZAI: Oh, you’re here… I feel bad since you took the trouble to come, but… this CD is a tokuten for Charade Maniacs, you know?

EBANA: To cut to the case, that means there could be spoilers from the main story. If you haven’t finished it, play it and come back then.

DAZAI: Ebana, couldn’t you really phrase it more nicely?

EBANA: If they had played it, they would already know I’m always like this. There’s no problem, right?

HAIJI: Is that so…? I thought I heard earlier that this CD would be a little sof-…

EBANA: Shut up, you little-!!!! Don’t you dare say a single word more!

(Ebana running away SFX)

DAZAI: Ahh, and he’s gone. Well. To sum up, there could be spoilers ahead, so, if you haven’t done it, come back after finishing the main story.

HAIJI: We will be waiting for you right here. Finish the game and come see us, okay?

DAZAI: Then… Charade Maniacs store tokuten CD – The whole day with you.  I hope you have fun.

PART 2 // TAKUMI HAIJI

(Moving bedsheets SFX)

Oh, good morning! You finally opened your eyes, didn’t you…

Sorry for entering without permission. I tried calling you a thousand times and I never got an answer. Don’t worry though! I only saw your sleeping face, so it’s okay.

Your expression while sleeping was very cute, I couldn’t take my eyes off… I don’t really know how to put it, but, for some reason, the fact that you were sleeping got my heart all excited.

Oh? Your face is red, are you okay?

(More bedsheet SFX)

Ah! You hid.

Are you still sleepy? Today’s breakfast was…errr, croque-madame! I thought it would be nice if we ate together, so that’s why I came wake you up.

The fried egg on top of the bread looked really tasty! Come on, if we don’t go quick, it will get cold…! So pleaaaase… wake up!

Aww, this is a problem… Eating breakfast alone is very boring! Hmmm…

Oh! I got it!! Then I can sleep with you! Huff…

(Haiji lies on the bed SFX)

It’s very soft… and warm! There’s also this amazing smell coming out…

If you are that sleepy, forget about breakfast and let’s laze around together all day long. I think that could be fun too. Also, since we are like this, I feel like I have you all for myself.

Aaaah… Hey, can I squeeze you as we are?

(Bed escaping SFX)

Huh? Did you finally wake up? What a shame, just when I was starting to get comfy…

Since you got up, that means you’re coming for breakfast, right?

If you have to get ready, can I help? I really want to do it, can’t I?

Really? Then I will comb your hair. Here. Sit!

It’s very pretty... So silky and soft! It feels great to the touch and smells really nice. So this was where the smell I felt in bed was coming from…

I kept wondering how it would feel if I touched your hair…, I’m very happy I finally know!

Hey, since this is a special occasion, can I try to go for a different style? What would be good…? I think you would look good with anything though.

I can do whatever I want? Ummm, then, how about something like this…?

Okay, it’s done! This is called ‘ponytail’, right? I read about it in a book before and wanted to see it for myself. I hope it came out good…

For real!? Your compliments make me happy…! You always wear your hair down and I like it, but I think having it tied up like this also suits you.

It’s reaaally cute… The cutest in the world.

Oh? Your face got even redder than before?

(Running and hiding in bed SFX)

Ha? You hid again…

Heeeey, come on out, quick!! Breakfast!!! You were going to eat it with me, weren’t you?

What happened? Ah, maybe…, did you want us to sleep together after all? Okay, I got it. Let’s do that then.

(Haiji gets into bed SFX)

I knew it! It’s so soft and warm…! I’m really happy that we’re together, let’s stay the whole day like this, okay...?

PART 3 // EBANA

(Cooking SFX)

What. It was you… What did you come here to do? Huhh?! You were ‘running away’? So now you play tag.

Playing in a situation like this… You sure have got some nerve. Whatever, it’s time for lunch and I’m already started with the preparations, so you should just-…

Hey, what’s with that? Your head… Ooh, so Haiji did it? Well, you have a different vibe than you usually do, maybe even a better one…

(More cooking SFX)

What? Can’t you tell just by looking? These are leftovers from yesterday’s spinaches, I’m mixing bacon in and cooking quiches. I made one before and it’s already baking in the oven, it won’t take much longer. After, I’ll get the plates and warm up some soup…

Anyways, there’s nothing else left to do. You’re free to please leave until it’s ready. You were late, to begin with.

What are you doing? Dessert? I haven’t done that yet, but… No, it’s not like you can’t… Are you really doing it?

What do you even pretend to cook? Milk gelatin? Well, I doubt you could fail at that.

Hey. If you are really doing it, use these strawberries. They’re leftovers so it’s alright. Also, those canned fruits aren’t bad either, just a little insipid.

Just so you know, I’m not doing this for your sake. I dislike wasting leftovers.

I should eat that too? If you ask like that, I can try to check how they taste, but I won’t show mercy if they are bad.

(Dishes SFX)

Hey! Mix that properly!! With that method it’s getting ruined. No, wrong! Not like that! Just give it to me for a second! You fix the pan in place like this and mix it thoroughly.

Huh?! You don’t have to worry about bubbles, later, we'll heat it up and they'll all disappear.

Anyways, you’ve already understood how to do it, right? WHAT?! I didn’t approach you with any intentions! I just thought you would understand it better if you saw me do it right in front of your eyes.

Ugh! It was nothing so keep moving your hand!! If you aren’t quick enough, it won’t solidify cleanly.

Yes, that’s alright… Then, next you need a mold. I recall there was one around here that would fit just right… there it is! Once you’ve placed the strawberries in here, pour over the pan’s content. If you let it cool in the refrigerator, it will be able to thicken.

(Music changes)

By the way. Why do I have to eat alone with you? I know there are some things left to do outside, but I can’t believe there’s NO ONE here. Especially, when I was thinking about letting them eat my freshly baked quiche.

It came out tasty, right? Baking pies is my forte, so that’s why. Well, if you want to eat it that much, I guess I could make it again… My repertoire isn’t over yet though…

Are you curious about the gelatin? If so, it shouldn’t take much time for it to harden. You can eat it too, as always, I left some for the others. You have a big appetite, so I worried ahead and made more.

Nevertheless, you look really satisfied while eating that… It always annoys me how you pretend to be a goody in front of everyone, but I can’t say I dislike th…

Huh?! No!! This is UNACEPTABLE. I HATE people like you. WHAT?! It’s not like I said I hated you?! Don’t be a fool! Shit. Your stupid smile and your stupid hairstyle are both getting on my nerves.

Aagh, enough! Eat it already and LEAVE!

PART 4 // MEI DAZAI

(Walking SFX)

What happened? Why are you here?

I couldn’t sleep so I came to get some water. I assume you can’t sleep either…, I see.

(Water SFX)

Well…, just if you are okay with it, we could talk here until you feel sleepy. Are you sure? Then, what do I pour you? Tea? Got it. I’ll have it done in a minute, wait for me.

There you go, it’s hot so be careful. I’m starting to get used to this… How do I put it…., it’s been a while since we got here, I think I’m getting used to this life.

Yes, that’s true. It’s not like we could get used to this situation that easily… If something happens, tell me right away. You might think I’m not very reliable, but if there is anything I can do to help, I will do it.

Instead of putting up a façade and pretending everything is okay, it would make me happier if you asked me for help.

By the way, what’s with your hairstyle? You always have your hair down… Ahh, you do have a different vibe to you, I think it suits you.

Actually, well…, I think it’s really cute. Oh, so Haiji did it for you… I’m a bit jealous, you know… No, nothing.

Hey, could I touch it too, just a little bit? Oh, no, I didn’t mean that. This, it’s only a hair clip, but I wondered if you could put it on. I thought you would like the design… Looks like I was right.

Before, I wondered if your fringe would get in the way while you were cooking. Today, I happened to see this in one of the stores of this world and it reminded me of that.

I didn’t know when the appropriate time would be to give it to you. When I talk to you, I completely forget, so I’m happy I managed to do it. It seems like I was sleepless because I was worrying too much about this. I’m really lucky. Because I found you here…

Hey, would it be okay if I put it on your hair? Okay, then…, I will touch your hair just for a sec.

As I thought, it does really fit you. I’m flattering you? No, I say it from the bottom of my heart. Your hairstyle before was good too, but… I think this is even cuter than your usual style.

Heh…, just teasing you…

Oh! Look at the time! We should return soon. Hah… You really look sleepy now, did talking with me help you relax? Since you couldn’t sleep before, this is a good thing, but… Agh, I’m conflicted.

I enjoy talking with you too, I want to keep going, but… You are definitely falling asleep on me. No, no, you WILL fall asleep, you should go to your room…

Hey! Don’t fall asleep there! Do not sleep on my shoulder, please! Oooh, hey. Anyways, please wake up now. I’m begging you.

She fell asleep.

Come on! If you don’t sleep in your bed, you will get a cold.

Poor thing, I’d feel bad waking her up. She’s sleeping with such a calm expression… What would I do if someone saw us like this…?

Okay… Since you are sleeping with such a face, I will carry you to bed… afterwards, but… just for a little while… It’s so warm…

It would be nice if we could stay like this forever…

end.

Personal comment: This CD is so cute!!!!!! Definitely one of my favorite tokutens from the game. They are all a great group, but their one-to-one scenarios with Hiyori have me on a chokehold. Their charasongs CDs come with two more of this kind of scenarios for every one of them, they are still around 5 minutes each. They really left me craving your typical hour-long drama CD. Also, being able to see them having a normal quite chaotic day for once is too wholesome for my poor heart. As always, I’ll be here lighting up candles for more Charade Maniacs content.

#charade maniacs translations #charade maniacs #takumi haiji #otome #keito ebana #mei dazai

[chibitantei]

Anonymous asks: Who are some of Naoto's favorite detectives

Ask me about Naoto | of course this is always open who do you think I a-

There are a lot Naoto likes, but listing them all out would take forever, so I'm only putting a few choice ones here, but my point is, if there's a detective, there's a good chance Naoto knows and likes them. Anyway:

Sherlock Holmes — It would be remiss of me to not mention the deduction king himself. While she does judge a little (a lot) if you say you like mystery and only know him, she admires him a great deal. Sure, you can't actually piece together any of the mysteries before he does, but it's more fun reading him solve it. She even has a legally generic Holmes costume. If you were to ask, her favorite stories are The Hound of the Baskervilles and A Scandal in Bohemia.

(I have to mention Sherlock Hound, or Meitantei Holmes as it's known in Japan. Sherlock Holmes but everyone is a dog.)

Sam Spade — He's actually mentioned in P4 during one of Naoto's night time conversations and she happened to admire him. She says P4-kun reminds her of him, but we know that's a lie and the only correct option during this scene is to say she's more like Sam. The star of The Maltese Falcon.

Father Brown — This guy isn't a detective and Naoto isn't religious (she checked these out of the library rather than finding them in her grandfather's study), but Naoto found the contrast in methods fascinating. Compared to Sherlock, his reasoning falls under intuition, and as the famous quote goes: "You see, I had murdered them all myself... I had planned out each of the crimes very carefully. I had thought out exactly how a thing like that could be done, and in what style or state of mind a man could really do it. And when I was quite sure that I felt exactly like the murderer myself, of course I knew who he was."

Kogoro Akechi — I don't know what to say other than this guy is best described as the Japanese equivalent to Sherlock. The stories even have its own version of Arsène in the form of The Fiend with Twenty Faces. I can't say much about the stories themselves because it's in... Japanese and not much as been translated.

Kosuke Kindaichi — I also do not really have much to say on the actual stories because it's in Japanese and not much as been translated (again). The Wikipedia entry for him in English is laughably short, at least compared to how long it is on Japanese Wikipedia. He first appeared in The Honjin Murders, which is a locked room mystery. But the more interesting part may come from something in P4's Japanese script. In the King's Game, Chie compares Naoto to the Kindaichi family rather than the Kuzunohas. There's a manga/anime series that follows his fictional grandson and I don't think I need to explain any further why she made the comparison. I wonder how many people thought Naoto said corny things like "In my grandfather's name, I'll solve this case" lol.

Kyosuke Kozu — This guy, along with the previous two, are known as Japan's three greatest detectives. Naturally, I can't find shit about him in English, although two of the books related to him have been translated to English. He is fluent in six languages, can play the piano and his main job is assistant professor in the Department of Forensic Medicine, according to what google translate says but yeah. I mention him here, because he's, you know, one of the three greatest detectives.

Conan/Shinichi — Detective Conan is obscenely popular in Japan. It is also very long and still going. I really don't think I need to explain why, do I.....

Zenigata Heiji — He's more of a policeman during the Edo period than a detective, but he counts. He caught criminals by throwing coins, however that works. Of course, the name Zenigata may be familiar to some and indeed, Inspector Zenigata is his fictional descendant. While his competency varies depending on the writer, anyone who can come this close to capturing Lupin earns Naoto's approval. And the Lupin series happens to be a show she grew up watching.

Furuhata Ninzaburō — This guy is best described as the Japanese equivalent to Columbo. She also likes Columbo, but for sanity's sake, I'm combining these two together in one entry.

#Ask Status: Answered #anonymous #Headcanon: Confidential Information #yeah I love her a normal amount

[nickelstudy]

My JLPT N1 Study Method (& Plan)

9/25/2023

As my introduction said, I'm trying to pass N1 by the next JLPT exam which is in this December! In this post, I will share how I study or prepare for N1

Books I Bought

Nihongo Sou Matome Vocabulary N1

TRY! 日本語能力試験Ｎ1

GO! JLPT N1 Grammar(Translated from Shin Kanzen Master i hate the renaming sm)

They are translated into Thai.

If you want to improve your Japanese understanding, people might recommend buying the Japanese version when you are at an intermediate level. But personally, I can completely understand it better when it's explained in my mother tongue, hence the reason why I bought them (plus I'm broke)

I bought them 2 months ago!

I start with TRY! and Sou Matome by reading the vocabs first from Sou Matome, then move on to TRY! doing their exercise as much as my brain can handle, usually not over a chapter.

Here's what my notebook looks like

As you can see, nothing fancy– just a pencil and a sticky note. I write words I don't or barely understand at the top of every page. As for the sticky note, it's for the words from the seventh day of Sou Matome that I can't remember their meanings. You might notice I didn't write their meanings. It's because I want to challenge myself to recall their meanings without relying on written translations.

I also READ the TRY! book in advance, so I'm always ahead of my actual exercise. Why you may ask? It came from when I read the N4 book. I always carried it everywhere because reading it was fun! So I'm trying to keep up this habit (despite taking more effort than before). When I read sample sentences, I try to translate them into Thai by myself before looking at the translations, because I want to practice my interpretation/translation skills too! (It'll definitely be useful in the future).

After finishing TRY! I will start reading GO! JLPT. Hopefully, I can finish this before the exam date.

OH! One thing I forgot to mention, I haven't done the listening exercises in TRY!. The reason is simple, it's a bit of a hassle to use a DVD player so I want to do them altogether when I am done reading GO! JLPT. I use Kanji Study (Play Store only) for studying Kanji. Right now, I'm studying secondary 3's kanjis. Believe it or not, it has been a year since I started learning secondary 3 and never managed to make progress.

Future Plans

There can be a rare case where I finish these books earlier than I expect so here's what I should do (by that, I mean you definitely should because god those books don't cover the skill adequately)

日本語能力試験　対策問題＆必点整理　読解 Ｎ1 This book is incredible imo, because it explains the answers to every question which made me thoroughly understand it when I was studying for N2

Shin Kanzen Master 聴解 Ｎ1

These will be the books I borrow from my university's library. They are in Japanese too that's why I love borrowing from here! I think the CD resource can be found online because that's what I did for N2.

Lastly, if there is still time I'll take a mock exam from the official JLPT handbook.

AAAA Thank you for reading again. I will try to use this blog for archiving my knowledge and stuff like this more. See you in the next post!

#JPlog #JP #log #i hate how Grammarly told me that there were so many errors but I DON'T CARE GET OUT

[lizzybeth1986]

Character Playlist: Hayden Young

I realised this year that even though Hayden's was the first appreciation week I'd ever organised, I had never gotten around to creating my own playlist for them. And I've always had songs I associate with them...so I figured now would be the best time to compile them!!

Most of them deal with similar themes of self-discovery and love - both themes I find in abundance in Hayden's story. There are three foreign-language songs, for which I'll attach the translations - one Hindi, one French and one Japanese.

Tagging @haydenyoungappreciationweek and @sazanes for HYAW Day 1: Indescribable! Find the Spotify list here!

On a Day Like Today - Bryan Adams

On a day like today the whole world could change

The sun's gonna shine, shine thru the rain

On a day like today no one complains

Free to be pure, free to be sane

In the Lap of the Gods (Revisited) - Queen

No beginning, there's no ending

There's no meaning in my pretending

Believe me, life goes on and on and

Forgive me when I ask you where do I belong

Indescribable - Olivia Broadfield

Too indescribable

I've got to think it over

When you kiss me like that.

Too indescribable

I've got a sinking feeling,

I don't like where this is at.

It's My Life - Bon Jovi

This ain't a song for the broken-hearted

No silent prayer for faith-departed

And I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd

You're gonna hear my voice when I shout it out loud...

All the King's Horses - Karmina

There is a reason I'm still standing

I never knew if I'd be landing

And I will run fast, outlast

everyone that said no...

Safar - Masala Coffee

Duniya ik kitaab, padhna hai pura

The world is a book; I will read every page of it.

Raahi hoon main hamesha...

I am a traveller, I have always been...

Nayi duniya nayi ruhan

New worlds...new souls...

Rahat har raah deti hai

Every road gives me solace

Safar hai takhti musafir ki

The voyage awaits its voyager

Manzil ki parwah kahaan...

Who cares where the destination is!

Lyrics and Translation

What was I Made For - Billie Eilish

Think I forgot how to be happy

Something I'm not, but something I can be

Something I wait for

Something I'm made for

Alone Part II - Alan Walker, Ava Max

We all need that someone

who gets you like no one else

Right when you need it the most

We all need a soul to rely on

A shoulder to cry on

A friend through the highs and the lows

I'm not gonna make it alone

anatomy - kenzie

It's just anatomy, you're only half of me

And still, you don't know me at all

You've been my missing piece, so why aren't you missing me?

Guess I meant less than I thought

(while the original context of this song was about the singer's feelings about her father's abandonment of their family, I thought the lines worked well for a Hayden thinking about a parent that didn't exist 😞)

Sun - Sleeping At Last

Our once barren world now brims with life

That we may fall in love

Every time we open up our eyes

I guess space, and time

Takes violent things, angry things

And makes them kind

Dernière Danse - Indila

Je remue le ciel le jour, la nuit

I move mountains, day and night

Je danse avec le vent la pluie

I dance with the wind the rain

Un peu d'amour, un brin de miel

A little love, a bit of honey

Et je danse, danse, danse, danse, danse, danse

And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance

Et dans le bruit, je cours et j'ai peur

And in the noise, I run and I'm scared

Est ce mon tour

Is it my turn?

Vient la douleur

Here comes the pain

Dans tout Paris, je m’abandonne

Throughout Paris, I abandon myself

Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole

And I fly, fly, fly, fly, fly

Lyrics and Translation

Then You Look At Me - Celine Dion

Day by day

I find my way

Look for the soul and the meaning

Then you look at me

And I always see

What I have been searching for

I'm lost as can be

Then you look at me

And I am not lost anymore

orion - Kenshi Yonezu

Even in dreams, my heart is somehow never at its best—

So don't bother worrying... about my grievances and tears.

Pulling a string from my unraveling sweater, I constantly tried to weave a constellation,

Using our fingers as the stars.

It ended up so terribly haphazard that we both had to laugh!

If you were truly there with me in that moment... that's more than enough

Lyrics and Translation

You Gotta Be - Des'ree

Listen as your day unfolds

Challenge what the future holds

Try and keep your head up to the sky

Lovers, they may cause you tears

Go ahead, release your fears

Stand up and be counted

Don't be ashamed to cry

#hayden young #perfect match #haydenyoungappreciationweek #HYAW #HYAW 2023 #HYAW Day 1 #HYAW Day 1: Indescribable #lizzybeth1986 #content: playlist

[as-anime-and-manga]

Alright, Enough is Enough!

I keep seeing posts and videos about how the Diasomnia Dorm Uniform is based off of the n@zi uniform. Not only that, but people are now being up Yana Toboso’s past mistakes and are now calling her an antisemitic because of her design choice.

For those know this controversy, back in 2020 a translator had made a post that translated the art book for Twisted Wonderland and said that Yana based the dorm uniform for Diasomnia off of SS or N@zi uniforms. This has triggered a lot of people and has made even more mad, and for good reason since back in World War 2 the n@zi have committed holocaust and killed six million European Jews.

The translator later confirmed that this was a mistranslation and that Yana’s inspiration for the uniform was actually an Imperial Guard, and many more translators have also confirmed that it was a mistranslation. However, the debate of whether or not it was a mistranslation continues and some people still say that it is based off of n@zi.

Whether it was a mistranslation or not, there is no denying that the Diasomnia Uniform looks similar to the n@zi uniform. So, the real question is, Why would Yana Toboso based the Diasomnia uniform off of n@zi?

I know that a lot of you want to say “It’s because she is antisemitic.” But I honestly don’t think that is the case. If any of you guys were in other fandoms before TWST, you probably saw similar situations in other Japanese media. Particularly in some anime that revalue around war, like Gundam or ALDNOAH.ZERO were the uniforms of both sides are based of of real life military, especially the German military and in same cases n@zi.

So, does that mean that all of Japan is antisemitic? While that’s not really the case. For a deeper understanding of what I mean, let’s go back at World War. Yes, Japan was part of the Axis Alliance, and yes they where allies with Germany, but the never fought along side the Germans in Europe. They main focus back than was China, Korea, and the U.S.A., so they didn’t really fought on European soil.

As a result, they didn’t know about what was going on in Europe. They didn’t know about the Jewish Concentration Camps, or about the Holocaust, or the fact that many European families have suffered so much from the war.

And to this day they still don’t know. You see, every country has a dark history that they don’t want to bring up ever again, so even though we are no long though we in America are no longer enemies with Japan, they don’t want to talk about the war, at all.

I know it can be hard sometimes, but the next time you guys come across Japanese Media and you see another situation like this, just take a deep breath and remember that it’s nothing personal, Japan just doesn’t know what happened in Europe during ww2 and they are not trying to offend anyone or make anyone uncomfortable.

And to everyone in the TWST Fandom, I hope this post helps a little. So if you favorite dorm uniform is/was Diasomnia and you are having second thoughts because of the controversy, know that it’s okay to still like and draw the Diasomnia uniform as long you know what it is inspired by, because something that is inspired by something thing is not the same as being that. (I hope I made some sense.) And if you’re a Jew and you are feeling uncomfortable about the design of the uniform for Diasomnia, I hope my post helps you understand and that it’s not meant to be antisemitism.

If you still want to redesign the Diasomnia uniform, go right ahead. I like the creativity. Just remember that the current version is the canon version, and that they are not going to the design of the dorm uniform

As for me, Although we still don’t know if it really was a mistranslation or not, I still really love the Diasomnia design, and I myself want to believe that the Diasomnia uniform is inspired by Imperial Guards and not n@zi.

Thanks you all for reading this. I’m very sorry about the rant. I just needed to get in off my chest and help people understand the situation better.

If this helps at all, feel free the like, comment, and reblog

Once again thanks for reading, bye

#disney twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #diasomnia #Diasomnia uniform #Yana Toboso #I really hope this helps #I just want this controversy to end

[seeingteacupsindragons]

A friend of mine cobbled together a reading challenge for writers (and any other storyteller, really) to help us learn about worldbuilding.

I’ve just finished the first book for the challenge this year, so I though I would write a bit about what I learned from it, what I can take from it, etc.

“Marr, that’s a book report.”

Okay, so it’s a book report. What’s wrong with book reports?

Anyway, I started with a collection of Japanese fairy tales, mostly because I had it on my shelves anyway because I picked it up a few years ago at Kinokuniya and hadn’t gotten around to it, and I wanted to expose myself more to different folktales from different cultures.

I think this counts for this challenge for the following reasons:

So many writers use folktales to explain the myth or backstory of their worlds. So many. Being able to understand how they’re structured and written is, thus, very important

Folktales are really valuable at showing what a culture values, especially with the ones that have lasted through centuries or millennia: these are things that resonate with their cultures and have messages older generations want to pass on

They often show a certain image of how a culture views their own past (ahistorical as it often is)

There are so many references to these things to build on

So let’s get into the actual book!

I have to say, I’m not...the biggest fan of this book. Aside from the mess of typoes/grammar errors/spelling/etc. in the book, there’s a certain kind of...dumbing down of a lot of the cultural aspects. I suspect this is the way the editor chose to translate stories, thinking it would better translate for kids of other cultures, but, well, I’m passingly familiar with a lot of vague folk creatures from Japan, and using “fairy” instead of “youkai” and changing some of the animals, etc., just felt off to me.

So I suppose that’s an important takeaway for this challenge: even someone from within the culture might end up removing elements they feel are too foreign or special or different when sharing it along with other people. It’s not only that outsiders misinterpret things: they’re given different versions. I can think of a bunch of ways to use that in fiction, even if I’m not sure I will.

Again, as I’ve been some sort of weird Japanophile since I was pretty young, I’m at least passingly familiar with a lot of the values Japan tends to elevate. Not all of them, and not in the same way a Japanese person would understand them, but I’ve been exposed to enough Japanese media and writing about and from Japanese people and the language itself to sort of have osmosis-ed a fair amount. But it’s very interesting to see how that plays out in folktalkes.

For example: almost none of the stories in that book focused on romantic love at all. It was almost entirely familiar between kids and their parents and their parents and their kids. One story ended with a marriage, but the happy part was introducing a kid to his grandfather before the grandfather passed, showing him his legacy was continuing. This is pretty distinct from all the princes and princesses in Western folktales getting married and falling deeply in love and proving it magically. There was basically no “in thankfulness to your service, you can marry my daughter!” It was “In thankfulness for your service, you will be well-known and well-taken care of, you’re awesome.”

There’s a lot of stories in which the hero doesn’t end up ruling anything or owning anything. The hero ends up serving his lord amazingly well,  and that’s the happy ending. And while we’re on that note: the female protagonists are not there to be Clever. The clever women tend to be antagonists, but the male protagonists are allowed to be clever. The Good Women are loving and faithful and kind and oftentimes just not very smart--but they’re so goodhearted no one cares. The ideal woman should be good at art and faithful to serving their men and lords and superiors, and not decide to do too much. But the Good Men are also loyal and devoted servants to their lords: it’s Just The Done Thing.

I know that might be a little twisted in retellings. Maybe the originals weren’t like this--plenty of European folklore has gotten twisted. But it seems to be at least one version shared now--one that they wanted to share with outsiders, even.

Additionally, there is no idea of “growing up and leaving the home” here...even the people who leave their home expect to return to it, not to find their fortunes elsewhere. And if they do find them elsewhere, they basically import their parents and families there with them to keep the family units intact. They do not forget about taking care of their parents: filial duty is important in Japan and legally enshrined in a way it isn’t here in America, and you can really see that. One Evil Stepmother is punished for her wicked ways by her child dying, not being injured or impoverished or whatever. She lost her child, because that was the most valuable thing she had.

So: a lot of stuff I kind of already knew, but I got to see it played out here in folktales in a new way, which was cool. And see different kinds of folktales: sure, they’re all kind of set “a long time ago”, there’s still demigods and lots of sentient animals and gifts from Supernatural Beings--but the people do different things, are punished for different things, and have different goals.

I think in general that’s an important thing to remember in writing anything: the narrative in your head that first occurs to you doesn’t have to be the way it goes. And if you’re writing more than one culture interacting, they’re going to class, and these are some of the places and subtle ways they can clash.

That aside: there are a few stories that are rather similar...there’s more than one about a a daughter with an Evil Stepmother and navigating that and being Good despite abuse. There’s handful of very colonialist narratives about defeating rebelling peoples (and one explicitly naming the Ainu people...yikes) and “uniting” peoples under them. Not a lot on actually...how to treat the people under them, or what any of their governance looks like...just people like them because they’re the ruler, obvs.

There’s my brief book report today. More will be forthcoming as I work through the rest of these. Perhaps this was enlightening to you. Perhaps not. Perhaps it gave you something to think about at least.

[aaronsewards]

A BLUE ROAD IN THE NIGHT 

Voyage in the blue night

Some years ago, never mind how many exactly, I had a really good thing going with painting, writing and research. A Gallery in Kurobe, a small city up the coast from Toyama where I live, was planning an exhibition around a poet — Fuyuji Tanaka (1894-1980) who lived in and wrote about Kurobe. Somehow the curator had heard of my painting and asked me to contribute something — she gave me a small brown book of his poems in Japanese of which I could understand absolutely nothing, I carried it around asking my wife, her friends, strangers and once some teenagers in an English lesson 1 to translate bits of just give me the gist of random pages. On the internet I found some works translated, here are seven poems from Poetry magazine and a very helpful end notes explanation of the figure in the first poem

I tried to read about Japan at that time, poetry magazines and movements, about Kurobe and this region, Hokuriku. It was a great time for printing stuff out at work and then reading it on the train, all the poetry groups and their magazines reminded me of Bolano novels, but it wasn’t very clear to me how to make some paintings yet

Luckily the curator, Mariko, started to translate the poems in book for me, like the one above, and i started to get a sense of the book and his work. I made lists of nouns and other lists of plants and birds, these translations were immensely helpful. I printed them all off at work and carried around a folder and read and write a bit in between my day job or in the evening. Then a few times when I had a free day I would take the train to one of the stations in Kurobe and take a long walk up towards the mountains through the rice fields, past old houses and huge new supermarkets and then following one of the rivers back towards the sea. I took a lot of photos, the ground was all brown and green and red and rusty, people were making fires and drying out vegetables. I picked up stones and listened to a little music or to some podcasts about the news and the faff of the world then. 

My memory of that time was that it was suddenly slightly hopeful that something actually good could happen in politics, in the very narrow sliver of the world I read about regularly, something might change 2.  

Life out of balance

This was all in the autumn, I was anxious to visit Kurobe as often as I could before the snow came, but that was the only winter anyone can remember where it didn’t snow in this region of Japan, in January the trees were bare and grass was all yellow and brown and strange — it seemed pretty sad to think about what Fuyuji san would have made of it, the regular order of small things happening throughout the year being such a constant in his poems. Koyaanisqatsi I thought to myself, a word I can think but not say or spell, I know it means life out of balance though, for some reason it was one of a few videos I was allowed to watch as a child.

If you want to remember you better write down the names

One night while searching online I found a reference to a James Kirkup translating some of Fuyuji’s poems, I think in a book called Burning Giraffes, I spent a long time trying to find a pdf and failing, James Kirkup seemed a really interesting person, Id still like to read his books on Japan especially.   Another poet who I read about was Mitsuharu Kaneko who wrote something called the shark or sinking shark, a political attack on the government of the late 1920s in Japan. Every once in a while Id get some more pages of translations of poems from Mariko and Id read a bit more and do some paintings.   

I made quite a lot of paintings that were part of that group of work. Somewhere near the end I saw people on twitter talking about a new very long Bob Dylan song about the JFK assassination, something I couldn’t believe was actually real and then once I heard it I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. I listened to it on the seafront after taking all the work to gallery and seeing the beautiful art Yukako Kashiwai and Satoshi Oka — The two other artists in the show. That was around the time the schools all closed suddenly and Corona was all over the news, there was a few months delay and then the show opened in the spring, everything was totally different in Kurobe, wild colors in the gardens and on the water, birds were everywhere.

That spring came late — but it comes all together at once — becomes lively

1

it was a really good time in fact, they both knew quiet a lot about Japanese poetry of different periods and we tried translating some famous haikus in different ways.

2

a year or so before this, in the summer while cherries were being sold in the super markets here, I cycled to a kindergarten listening to the BBC News live as the election results were called in the UK, ultimately Jeremy corbyns labour party didn’t form a government but for a few days and that afternoon especially it seemed very close to being real.

#writing #tanakafuyuji #smallpaintings #kurobe #artonpaper #japan #poetry #art #artists on tumblr #watercolourart #watercolourpainting #tanaka fuyuji #fuyuji #bob dylan #murdermostfoul #toyama #aaronjosephsewards

[rigelmejo]

Language Learning Victories in 2022! \(ovo)/

This is just going to be a motivational post for when I look back later. I’ve been reflecting on some cool stuff I was able to do this year in the languages I’ve been studying, that I’ve not been able to do before!

In japanese, I played the opening of Yakuza Ishin in only japanese without a guide and I managed it! I only had a rough grasp of what was going on (the historical japan setting definitely meant I had no idea what any jobs were called), but I managed it! I was familiar with the gameplay controls as it was similar to other yakuza games I played in english, but it marked the first time EVER I played a game in japanese I had never played in english or watched an english lets play of before!

In japanese I played 4 hours of Final Fantasy X in japanese this December, understood most of what I read (maybe 80-90% with the rest I could follow since I know the plot from english). Unlike prior times I’d tried to play games in japanese, this playthrough I used no word lookups and did not feel ‘drained’ or like it was intense effort to understand and follow (in Ishin it did feel ‘draining’ though I managed it). I think this milestone means I can probably handle Nier Automata and Nier Replicant in japanese now. 

In japanese I read my first graded readers! I’ve been reading chapters in Satori Reader, so lots of translation aids for reference. But it feels good! It feels a lot like reading Mandarin Companion in Chinese. 

I read 8 FULL BOOKS in chinese this Fall!!! And then some bits of novels, adding up to about ~500k chinese characters read this Fall!!! This is a huge accomplishment for me. One of the stories I read was a pingxie fanfic which was ~127k characters, I finished in 2-3 weeks (I can’t remember but it was finished in a reasonable time). That is the longest chinese story I’ve read so far! My dream goal is to finish Guardian next, but I know that’s a pipe dream possibly as it’s ~440k and much longer than anything else I managed to finish reading. But hey, at my current reading speed that’s 2 months, last year’s reading speed it would’ve taken 6 months, so I am improving!!! This reading goal is huge and I still can’t believe I did it. In the long run, I still want to test for myself if the claim of 4 million characters (from the “92 books to learn to read in a language” article) is true. So in the years ahead, 4 million characters read is the goal. For future me: a combination of reading-while-looking-up-words (like in Readibu) with reading another story extensively (like on paper or in Edge with TTS reading aloud to keep my pace up) was great. I feel like each activity helped build slightly different skills, in the first case increasing vocabulary through quick lookups, in the second case increasing vocabulary learned from context and reading-speed. I think the first activity has faster vocabulary acquisition, but the second activity trains a skill for general vocabulary acquisition when reading (and you learn words just not as many per reading session) as well as reading skill overall (comprehending sentences and paragraphs overall at a quick pace).

In japanese I watched my first lets play only in japanese! I watched a chill lets player’s 20 minute video on a horror game I’d never seen (so no prior context) and followed what was going on! To be fair, it was simple: a guy goes on a trip up a mountain through the woods in a rented car with a girl, car breaks and he runs into a cop, then car breaks and he runs into another guy who’s stuck up there, then guy and girl make it to the house in the mountain. That’s what happened in the first video (at least its what I THINK did - I could have misunderstood parts). I followed the video, and I am excited that I could keep watching. Later this week I want to listen to an audio drama I found with a transcript, and see if I can follow that audio drama’s plot too. I also watched some 20 minute chunks of another lets player, one of her videos had no captions at all. She was playing Kingdom Hearts so I knew what was going on from context, but it was also fun using listening skills only in combination with what I saw on screen visually to understand some of the commentary she was making. Last year when I tried lets plays, it was harder for me to follow. 

 Listened to ~10 Guardian audiobook chapters while walking and followed along. I’ve done listening-reading method with the first 20 chapters before, so it makes sense I’d be able to follow the plot. But still awesome I managed to do it!

Listened to ~15 condensed audio files of Ice Fantasy. This was a fun one! I found the condensed audio so i’d listen to it when driving like it was an audio drama, and I watched the show a year ago (with english subs) so vaguely recalled some names and lines when I heard them. But listening in only chinese in condensed audio, it was cool how much context I seemed to remember from episodes because of the actor’s vocal performance and music, and therefore just HOW many words I understood. I feel like I definitely understood 95% or more of all words I heard. It was a cool experience, and a lesson for future me that studying with condensed audio works quite well for me. 

Not anything I’m studying formally yet, but I read a few chapters of Dante’s Inferno in bilingual english-italian and tried to figure out the italian words meaning using translation. It was fun, so I ended up buying The Nature Method Italian book. One day when I have time I plan to go through Ayan Academy’s audio recordings of the book (because I had NO idea of proper italian pronunciation when reading), and read my version of the textbook. I haven’t properly studied any italian yet, but these activities were fun.

Honestly, a lot of my language progress happened this Fall 2022. I think I studied a bit in the Spring, but I was so sick for so long I didn’t have energy for much, and I just did not end up studying much generally. So I’m really happy with my progress, since any happened at all. In particular, I’m REALLY excited about the reading progress in chinese. 

I made the bulk of it from September to October, and it really is in part because I found Heavenly Path’s site and novel recommendations (which worked EXCELLENTLY for me as reading at my level and stuff to fill in gaps in my knowledge), and because a lot of the posters on Heavenly Path had written articles about what they did in their reading journey. It was amazing to see what they did and their progress, and how brave and quickly they pushed into reading more, and it really motivated me to do the same. It’s absolutely thanks to seeing their experiences, that I tried hard to read more this Fall and managed to finish 1 story, let alone as many as I did.

Indirectly, I think seeing their progress also motivated me in my japanese. Lately, just since this November, I’ve been trying to be braver about what I try to do in japanese. I think I’m still (realistically) upper N5-lower N4 language skill wise in japanese. With an artificial inflation in reading comprehension from hanzi knoweldge somewhat helping. But in just actual practice, my ability to do things IN japanese has increased significantly since last year. Last year I tried playing video games in japanese, and it was possible but I’d take 1+ hours getting to a savepoint I should’ve only taken 15 minutes to get through (because my reading was so slow), or I could play a game I knew from english but it felt intensely mentally draining. Whereas now I can get to savepoints and game-sections in a timely manner, and I do not feel drained when I play so I can play for long periods. That progress is SIGNIFICANT for me, as it greatly affects what I can do and how much I can enjoy doing it. Since playing video games (and watching lets plays seeing video games I love) in their original japanese is a major goal for me, its absolutely awesome to see progress in this area. 

My manga reading has not improved much (going from japanese to chinese versions of a comic REALLY hammers in how much better my chinese is lol), which in part has reaffirmed to me hiragana-spellings of words are a weak spot for me (the more kanji the Better I read) and informal grammar is another weak spot. Also hiragana only ‘helper’ words like ‘however’, ‘and then’, ‘perhaps’ etc cause me a lot of confusion, being in mainly hiragana so I tend to not know if they’re grammar conjugation or words, and I do not know most of these helper type words. I think any manga reading improvement has been nearly all ‘artificial reading comprehension’ gains from knowing more hanzi and that indirectly helping japanese kanji recognition. However, reading Satori Reader stories just from this month alone is helping massively. I can tell consistent study for some months will cause significant reading improvements. Just from a month of it, I am recognizing more ‘helper’ words and it’s helping my grammar understanding. It makes sense, since reading dense text helped me so much in chinese, that reading in japanese will help too. So I think when it comes to studying, learning from manga will probably not be a primary activitiy but reading graded readers will for a while. 

I think the audio-mainly study approach I used this year for japanese worked well, and will continue it. The audio focus helped a lot with remembering actual japanese words, instead of relying on hanzi knowledge to guess written word meanings. The listening focused approach also helps me notice verb-conjugation-chunks better so when I run into them in reading I realize ah yes this whole long chunk is conjugation not multiple words. I think moving forward I’ll continue an audio focus, and when reading keep using mostly methods that utilize BOTH text and audio (like lets plays, Satori Reader, Clozemaster). 

I still REALLY want to try listening reading method for japanese. I constantly put it off because focusing for 1-3 hours is hard for me lol. But I have some very good resources for trying it, and I’d like to test out the method really badly with something like japanese where I’m more of a beginner than I was when I tested it for chinese. I have Duoreader app, Alice in Wonderland on that would be excellent for a test. I also have the Nier Replicant audio cd and transcript and translation, which is 1.5 hours and would be a perfect short test if I could just manage to focus for 3 hours. MDZS also has a japanese audio drama, which would be fun to both 1. experience a story I like in japanese translation, and 2. test out L R Method with. 

I think with chinese, I’m at a point where unless I do L R Method with something SIGNIFICANTLY harder than what I’m reading, I will pick up vocabulary faster by just reading in chinese along to chinese audio and guessing words or reading in Readibu with word lookups. Last time I did L R Method with chinese I used Guardian and learned a LOT of new words per chapter, this time I truly have 95% comprehension of Guardian and don’t run into very many unknown words. Not enough to make the intensive-feeling L R Method worth it since it takes 2 times as long to go through a chapter. I do think L R Method in chinese with something like PoYun would work now, because Poyun’s author is a decent step up with several words per paragraph I usually don’t know. 

#progress #goals #victories

[monikeroboogie]

In the way he explained it to me, there were flip cards so that different cards on different dates have different than normal values. He had them all printed out on paper with the flip cards and he used a life spread system, he had software, and he admitted that astrologists create elaborate bullshit to obfuscate their intention as an artful flourish of the trade, he, in his flip cards, is like the tick to the straight man super-hero of this destiny cards thing, I did myself the first time by going into a hippie-dippie bookstore, walking to the astrology section, selecting only that book, looking myself up and leaving. That kind of thing happens to me all the time. The first two cards are the only two as this shows it that matter, the life spread is some woo-woo nonsense, but there are traditions, occult traditions with the cards, he had this entire software, clearly, that is what this is based on but his was totally different. In mine, I am hair because I know I'm the 7, the king and the ten of cups. I have never seen any indication of any chart of the tarot cards, just that someone bluntly explained I'm the ten. But not.. hat being the operative bit or dead in the Stoppard sense.

edit: He claims he was banned from the temple, but he didn't know why, I now must remember to explain was the 6 diamonds king of diamonds, didn't know the phones were microphones, and presumably if he knew about the tarot cards he did not tell. He lived at and was the primary leaseholder of the former Shortbus space, where we were, where i was crashing at the time. He was trying to push it onto me, at one point he tried to invite me to meet Alexander Shulgin to plan a burning man thing, he was insistent on pushing the former Shortbus space onto me but just that I am incapable of doing capitalism money, basic math skills, the ability to translate what you call work into monetary value, to be capable of hustling my survival, an achievement never unlocked. Can totally build a ranch-style house, see the inherent flaw in that plan. Think about flipping and green renovating houses for money, lazy, disabled, in the most desperate poverty, the apocalypse is upon us. Desperately seeking a cuddle buddy. Being told you are the 7 of diamonds is called the devil's haircut. The second edit to say, probably he was banned from the temple for being too churlish when the aesthetic is not to gild the lily, that's not EXACTLY the same thing as Japanese shit but there is a reason Yankee pirates are a little overfond of Japanese shit. He was a short bus when it was short bus goer, I did have big plans and wanted to get the entire block. Now the apocalypse is upon us, and I reiterate that.

i explained to lexi just now the problem with green renovating and flipping houses, not building green homes I meant, rather than, it would innately exploit a person's basic need for shelter to charge more for green anything, but that could be done morally if done in a social justice milieu at a fair to cheap to free price. People DO need housing, providing for needs is not exploitive, and charging money for shit you need to live is capitalism. It is churlish, but, 'and there are flip cards' is a brilliant flourish.

[irisu-syndromemes]

on irisu's diary, uujima's memory, and contradictions

something i havent seen anyone talk much about is irisu's diary. no, not the cough medicine txt file. irisu's in-game diary. you know, this?

...except in english. i havent seen many people ever talk about this except for when it spooks them during videos. well, i figured someone should transcript it. so i did. heres the full text, from the english translation patch:

"I moved a lot as a child so I never really made any friends. I was so scared of becoming close to someone that eventually, I stopped talking. All my classmates, and even my teachers, shunned me. But I had a friend, in the corner of the schoolyard. Every time I got close to the cage, it'd come wobbling over to greet me. I'd reach through the netting, and pet its forehead. It liked it. I think it was taken in as a weakling by the school, but no one came to see it. It was weak, shy and covered in scars. Half of one ear was torn off. There was a cat at the school, too. Everyone played with it. I got sick whenever I played with the cat, so I stayed away from it, and everyone else. That boy showed up to help one day. Apparently he lost a bet. And that's how I started to like him. Maybe I was being selfish, but I slowly got closer and closer to him. In the middle of those dark and gloomy days, being with him may have been the only happy moment of my childhood. One day, I came to my friend's cage to settle it down. The door was open. In the middle of the cage, I saw red liquid splattered all over. All that remained in the cage was it severed head. And the cat, licking the remains That cat,"

first, i feel like i should point out that its impossible to know what comes after "that cat" so in actuality, we dont know if in english the sentence would start with that (for the record: in japanese you could say "i hate cats because of that cat" but the order of the words would be completely different, so saying "that cat is the reason why i hate cats" would be a more literal translation of the sentence, in accordance to the order of sentence parts. i dont speak japanese, nor am i knowledgeable and articulate enough to explain myself, but the basic gist is that the translators translated what they could read). second, i genuinely have no clue what "settle it down" means in this context, i feel like that doesnt make any sense, so ill just ignore it. lastly, this post will take this diary entry as "truth" aka what irisu experienced as a kid.

this diary entry shines light on something that isnt explored very well in the diary entries in uujima's suicidal rabbit diary: he talked to irisu... so i assume. "showed up to help one day" at least to me implies they talked. taking into account the small comment about the bet, we can assume that was just a half-assed excuse uujima made up to be with her, but the fact that this is never mentioned ever again leads me to think uujima simply forgot about the small lie. this wouldnt be important if not for the fact that he cant remember irisu from back when they were both kids during the events of his diary txt file as college students. we know this because he never mentions remembering her from anywhere. and youd think decapitating a rabbit to make said girl more sociable would be enough reason to remember her, right? in the in-game diary excerpts, he claims to have always watched her from afar... but this seems suspicious to me.

many claim that uujima didnt actually kill uutarou, because one of the diary entries say that the rabbit was lying on the floor of the cage, dead. but the last ripped diary page mentions he saw the rabbit's last moments. so which is the truth?

there are other things that make me suspect that uujima has memory problems. he seems not to remember why he "saw"/"sees" the rabbit's red eyes in his sleep, and there is an instance of him apparently not remembering the foreign picture books of dying rabbits. his general personality also points to that of a person who's careless about what happens to himself (like being suicidal, but careful in more "important" matters, such as thinking of irisu's plan backfiring on them due to evidence and such), so i cant help but think that whether the rabbit was killed or was already dead is honestly rather ambiguous.

i dont know if all these contradictions are the result of the writer/s not writing the details properly into the game, translation issues, or just purposeful writing that puts emphasis on lost memory. of note, there are different instances of canonical material (as in, both found in and from the game, as well as dataminable files) that refer to the boys as satoru and takeru, but sometimes theyre satoshi and takeshi. in the end, im just left confused.

-Mod transcribing that whole text was a chore. oh well~

#irisu syndrome #analysis.txt #hope this is interesting to read for at least someone! it was interesting for me to research this

[holycow99]

石田お寿司 12/9/21 stream translation Part 2

This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Someone asked about Choujin X.

I: I’ve given the manuscript for chp 8. It’ll be released in a few days. I don’t really have much to say about this. I wanna write this month’s goals for Osushi. The big plan is to fix(?) chp 8. Then, I wanna release another two chapters this month. Chp 8 has 20 something pages. I want to at least draw the chapters in a weekly pace. What I mean by that is I wanna draw 72 pages per month. If I could draw 72 pages a month, I drew 18 pages per week during Weekly Young Jump too. So, I wanna draw 18 pages per week, which is 72 pages per month. That’s the amount of pages for weekly publication. It’d be nice if I could draw at least this much by myself. If I drew 25 pages weekly for three weeks, It’d have a total of 75 pages. I can currently get it done. If I updated 3 chapters a month, I’d have a total of 70-something pages per month. Then, nobody will complain. It’s not like anyone is complaining. It’s so that I won’t complain to myself. This is directed towards me as a challenge. Of course, it’s okay if I couldn’t do it. It doesn’t matter if I can or can’t, I thought it’s better to have a goal.

C: And the fact that you’re streaming right now is amazing!

I: Right? I spent a lot of time at the end of August doing rectifications, plotting, etc. They’re all important things to do. Since I have a little bit of free time, I thought of streaming.

C: It’s okay to draw the chapters slowly. Do you concern about maintaining the quality?

I: The quality is as usual. I mean, that’s one of the reason. It’s also to match the quality of the work. The drawing style in Choujin X is different, so of course the drawing will be different too. There are things that have changed. I want to match the vibe of the work, and also, I wanna prioritise speed over the quality. By speed, I don’t mean I wanna write them in a hurry. I want them to have a quality that’s easy to balance. I’m still playing around with it.

C: Until what chapters do you plan to release the physical copy?

I: I can just release it. I do have a plan for it, like releasing 2 volumes altogether.

C: I’m okay with anything as long as you don’t collapse later on.

I: You’re exactly right. I’m doing it with ease. So that the serialisation will go well, I’m adjusting my pace. This is just my ideal, but I wanna serialise another manga. It doesn’t have to be serialised, I have another stuff I wanna release. I’m finding the time to make one. If I make it a rule to do other things after I’ve done 75 pages per month, I don’t have to draw more. I could use the time to do other stuffs.

C: Don’t push yourself.

I: I’m not.

C: Are you overworking?

I: Not at all. I have many hands.

C: Did you play JJ?

I: I played the game like hell.

C: Is it easier to not have assisstants?

I: That’s a good question. This is kinda weird, people say that your work will progress more if you have more assistants, but that’s not the case. I did TG without knowing that. People will ask you to check on their works. So, the more the people, the more the workload. There’s probably an appropriate number of people you should have. 4 people would probably be enough during TG. But there were more people, like the helpers, but they did regularly help. It was quite a lot. I won’t be able to do my own work when there’s a lot of staffs. I don’t have assistants for choujin X so that I can do it with ease, and umm… It’s the fastest way for me. Of course, I do think the quality of the work will increase if there are staffs. I’m trying to see if I can speed up my work to a certain extent without having to check on others’ works and consider about other people, while creating the quality contents I’m capable of.

C: Working alone or with assistants finish faster?

I: It depends on the stuffs you’re making. For choujin x, I think it’d be hard for me to draw them if I had assistants. It’ll be great if we can have divisions.

C: Are you gonna hire a care assistant? (t/n: The Japanese word is Meshistant, which means assistant who mainly takes care of the mangaka’s meal, chore, etc. So, I just put it as care assistant.)

I: Definitely no. I didn’t let my assistants do the chore. I even cleaned the toilet myself. I kinda hate it. I hate the label they give to such people. Meshistant. I don’t like people who call them that. I don’t mean you. I probably won’t be fond of mangakas who use that word. They’re your staffs, right?

C: Do you think of the story all by yourself?  

I: Yeah. Sometimes I do get ideas from my surrounding. But, most of it came from mine.

(t/n: I’m not sure if the last sentence is correct. I couldn’t really understand what he meant, but it’s something like that.)

C: I’m having a hard time to sleep. Recommend ways for me to sleep well.

I: Probably read books. It can make your eyes feel tired. Then, maybe by not sleeping? But you might think it’s better to sleep. I understand. I wanna keep trying to fall asleep, but then I’ll watch movies while lying down. I have trouble sleeping lately. I used to sleep a lot.

C: Meshistant is also an honourable job.

I: Then, why not just hire people who specialised in that. Like housekeepers. They have that, right? Something like a home helper. That is better, isn’t it? Using assistants who’re enthusiastic to draw manga to do stuffs like that is awkward for me.

*Someone commented about hiring maid.

I: Maid? Then, I’d like that. Hahaha. Should I hire a maid? I’m recruiting maids.

C: Even at the age of 250,000, you still have trouble falling asleep.

I: Yeah.

C: Are they hired to make meals?

I: Yeah. There’s various types of assistant in the manga industry. This one refers to an assistant in charge of meals.

I: What did I wanna talk about? Oh yeah, about Animal Rap. I’m thinking whether or not I should upload animal rap video during stream, but where is the file? I’ve decided to upload it after this stream ends. What was it that I wanna talk about? Can you tell me about my current status, such as about the Sui exhibition in Osaka and Nagoya, or about Ms. Towada’s illustrations?

C: How about a live rap?

I: Good idea.

C: About the plan for 30,000 subscribers.

I: That’s right 2x. We’re talking about what to do to celebrate 30,000 subscribers.

C: I can be your maid for free.

I: I’ll definitely pay you. If it’s for free, then you won’t feel your sense of duty. I’ll give a huge salary and pressure you so that you’ll work responsibly.

C: Ms. Towada can both write novels and draw. Amazing!

I: I also can. Hahaha. I also…ah, but I can’t write novels. I won’t lose to her.

C: Do you have double eyelids.

I: Mine is hidden one.

C: Appear in First Take.

I: I won’t.

C: Are your eyelashes long?

I: Yes. My eyelashes are long, I have hidden double eyelids, I am of medium build…but I’m already worn-out.

(t/n: He used the word ‘boroboro’. I couldn’t really find the proper word to translate it in this context. Worn-out is the only one I could think of that suits the context.)

C: Are you handsome?

I: Well…I’m pretty good looking.

C: Have you been going to the gym?

I: No, I haven’t, since I was busy with work. I wanna go though.

C: I wanted to go to Mr. Kunimitsu’s concert.

I: Me too.

C: Which one is more handsome? You or Kaneki?

I: Wouldn’t that be Kaneki?

C: How about another stream with Ms. Towada?

I: I re-listened to the stream with Ms.Towada. For some reason, she was laughing a lot in the stream. Though she always like that. It’s slightly embarrassing. She’s acting like she’s at home. It felt like she’s disclosing my family situation, so it’s a bit..., but I can do that again from time to time. When I wanna do something related to JJ, then I’ll call her. That’s the most suitable content.

*Someone asked him to invite his younger sister.

I: It’s impossible to invite my younger sister.

*People wanted Goubaru to be the guest.

C: Goubaru, huh?

C: Do you have someone you wanna invite?

I: No, I don’t. The corona is one thing, but I’m completely okay with not meeting people. I do talk to people I’m close with. I think that’s already enough. It’s not like I have someone I’m involved with. I do usually talk to Mr. Kunimitsu.

*People want Hanae Natsuki again.

I: Hanae? That’s definitely impossible.

*He’s talking about Japanese youtubers.

C: Can you beat boxing?

I: I’m practising at the moment.

*Currently taking about Japanese artists.

* Someone asked who he thinks could be the next popular artist.

I: Lately, I only listen to instrumentals. The one that I like recently is the girl band called Chai. The group’s vocalists are twins. The group is great. It’s not like I like the band because there’s someone who caught my intention. I listened to their songs first before I decided whether I liked them or not. I thought this kind of voice also exists.

C: Congrats for TG’s 10th anniversary.

I: Thank you. Thank you to Brazil as well. (t/n: Someone commented Brazil.)

*He pinned his Chai comment.

C: People who just came don’t understand what’s going on.

I: It’s okay if you don’t. Hehe.

C: Sensei, can you eat choco mint?

I: I can.

C: I thought the bgm was from Animal Crossing.

I: This is Yorushika’s Escape.

*Still talking about Japanese artists.

C: Have you seen Midsummer?

I: Yes, I have.

(t/n: He said something about the new evangelion movies. But I couldn’t really translate that part properly. He basically watched the Rebuild Evangelion movies from the start since he never watched it before. He planned to go to Yamaguchi prefecture, the birthtown of Evangelion’s author to watch the last movie.)

Y****: I’m reading Toro Hedoro! I recommend it!

I: I do read that. Don’t underestimate me! I do read One Piece as well, but half-way through.

C: You can watch the Evangelion movie on Amazon Prime.

I: I wanna watch the final movie at the cinema. Has the final movie come out? It has? But I’m still gonna watch at the cinema.

C: Have you read Tokyo Ghoul?

I: Nope.

C: I recommend Tokyo Ghoul!

I: Is that so? I have a story regarding TG, but it’s probably gonna be quite deep.

C: One Piece has reached 100 volumes!

I: That guy and Odacchi have reached 100 volumes, right? Hahaha. That guy is Luffy, while Odacchi is Oda sensei. Hahaha. I can’t call him that. Odacchi is Oda sensei and Kishikage is Kishimoto sensei. I see, that guy has reached 100 volumes? Way to go! Hahaha! No one is watching this anyway. I’ll properly lick his boots if he’s in front of me, since he’s the real deal. I’ll be very obedient and sucking up to him.

(t/n: Ishida was using the word ‘aitsu’ to refer Eichiro Oda. As far as I know, it’s an impolite way of calling someone older or in higher status than you in Japan.)

C: He’s scarier than Hikakin (a Japanese youtuber.)

I: Right. We are in the same industry after all. But I think Young Jump and Jump are different subsidiaries. Although, Hara sensei seems to have met with Odacchi, so maybe there’ll be an opportunity for me to meet him. But probably no. Someone like me won’t be able to meet Eichiro Oda sensei. I won’t meet him. He seems like a unique person.

*Ishida talking about an illustrator and youtuber called Saito Naoki.

(t/n: I couldn’t translate the first half of this part because they’re talking about something that had happened, and I don’t know the context of it.)

I: The name ‘Saito Naoki’ is very nice. Is it a pen name? It totally sounds like a real name though.

C: Are you close with Kishida Mel? (t/n: Kishida Mel is an illustrator and a character designer.)

I: I’ve never met him, but Kiyoppi, Kiyohara Hiro sensei and Melcchi are good friends. He’s like a friend of my friend. You have things like that, right? 

C: The name ‘Ishida Sui’ is cool!

I: I seriously wanna change my pen name. I wanna change to something like Gengoro. I wanna change to a manlier name. I didn’t give a thought about my name before. I used that name because I thought I was gonna be famous in the future, so I didn’t wanna use my real name. I seriously thought that I couldn’t become a mangaka if my real name was exposed. I was like “Since I’m gonna be famous, let’s avoid using my real name.” I was being vigilant about it, so I half-heartedly named my pen name.

I: The name Gengoro is nice. Tagami Gengoro. Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro. The Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro’s exhibition is now open. I’d definitely sounds like a bearded fatty. With round glasses to top it off. Isn’t Tagami Gengoro a character from a gay manga?

*Ishida searching for Tagami Gengoro.

I: Everyone, don’t search for it. I’m scared something dirty will appear. Is it not? Oh, it isn’t. what’s the name again? There is a character named something Gengoro, right? It’s Tagame Gengoroh! I got it now! Tagame Gengorohw as born in 1964 and a Japanese mangaka. He calimed himself to be a ‘Gay Erotic Artist’. This is the one! It’s Tagame Gengoroh sensei. 

*Ishida was looking at Tagame Gengoroh sensei’s illustrations.

I: This one. Wow, this is indeed gay! Hahaha.

C: I can’t believe it came out of your mouth.

I: Surprisingly, I do talk about these kind of stuffs. (t/n: I mean, he’s the man who wrote a whole R-18 chapter.)

I: So, I can’t use the name Gengoro, since there’s someone with this name.

C: Is the name ‘Ishida Sui’ an anagram of your Surname?

I: Yes, it is.

C: Are you gay?

I: Hahaha! Even if that’s true, you didn’t have to ask that kind of question! Let’s just say that I’m okay with both.

C: Kuso Miso. (t/n: Kusomiso is a gay manga.)

I: Of course, I’d be reading them (probably referring to gay manga). I mean, manga like Kuso Miso Technique are popular, right?

C: Ishida GayGoro.

I: Hahaha. That’s just gay.

C: You’ve been to a gay bar before, right?

I: Not at all. When I was hanging out with the staffs, Goubaru said he wanted to go to a Okama bar while crying.

(t/n: According to the internet, Okama is a term referring to guys who adapted female characteristics.)

C: I think it’s completely normal to be gay nowadays.

I: We’re talking about gay now. It’s not normal in the first place. It’s just a sexual orientation. If you pick on every little thing, everything will become a problem. Those who deliberately say they’re not prejudiced against gays are actually are. Even if you tell that to people, they’ll probably filter what they wanna say. They’d be conscious of every single thing they say. Things like that don’t matter.

C: Sensei, let’s talk about something else.

I: Why? I’m okay with it.

C: I’m bi.

I: Does it matter? It’s okay.

C: It’s difficult to say something regarding gender issues, right?

I: Well…It’s difficult, since it’s concerning your mindset. It doesn’t only apply to gender issues; you can hurt someone by making careless remarks.  It’s just that you sometimes accidentally let out your opinions. I also think I sometimes make unnecessary remarks, so I might do that.

C: I want to be embraced by Masataka Kubota. (t/n: Masataka Kubota is a Japanese actor who played as Kaneki in the live-action.)

I: That’s right. Must be nice. I want us to embrace each other.

Part 3

#ishida sui #tokyo ghoul #jack jeanne #choujin x #chojin x #ishida sushi channel

[o-king-of-suns]

Hi ^^ I've recently found ur blog and read ur meta. Ur analysis is great! I'm kinda new here but I've seen so many ppl talk about Levi's guidebook page, referring to it as "the confirmation of what Levi was solely fighting for in the final battle i.e revenge by fulfilling the promise" I'm sorry if this has been pointed out before but as a Levi fan who believes otherwise, I'd love to read ur interpretation. Also u also believe the GB is implying this? I think ppl are having the wrong impression.

Hi! :) Thank you so much! I am glad you liked my meta! English is not my first language, so I try my best to express what I want to say.

Almost everyone agrees that the final guidebook is just an ABSOLUTE hot garbage! xD At this point that no one is taking seriously anymore! xD It straight up contradicts what happens in the manga, has VERY reductive and nonsensical descriptions of the characters and is FULL of errors.

The main reason to why many people have issues with Levi’s part (apart from it having nothing new or because it mainly focused on the promise) is one word that was used in the text that has been translated by some biased people into “obsessed”.

I asked 3 Japanese people (including my teacher) about the word that was used in the text and the meanings that I was given were: (be) dedicated to; have an uncompromising commitment to ; to really focus on; to be determined to; etc. From what I understood, this term is always a headache as it truly depends on what the writer wants to convey and what it “feels” right in the context. "Obsessed” is like, the most reductive reading of that word, and it's the exact word that Er_ris chose to use xD

Japanese is often qualified as vague, and it CAN leave room for interpretation. For example, the word (きれい) Isayama used to say Levi was the opposite of Rorschach could mean "pretty" or "clean" based on the context, but here's the thing: Rorschach is notoriously ugly, so it makes sense that Isayama meant that Levi is "pretty" (and it IS officially translated to "pretty" ), but I have seen MANY Japanese people say that Isayama meant "clean" not “pretty”! This word meaning in the text literally and solely depended on Isayama's intention even causing translators to get confused and translate it to “pretty”! If we look at the context of Levi’s character description in the last gb, the last line mentions that after his final mission, Levi “meets his friends with a calm heart”. Why would Levi be able to meet his friends with a “calm heart” if his entire arc was about him being “obsessed” with a personal goal and revenge?! Is this why he salutes them and they salute him back in the final chapter?! I am 100% sure that the word “obsessed” was not the one that the person who wrote the description wanted to use.

Now let’s stop talking about language translation and focus on Levi in the manga xD Is the gb version Levi the same Levi whom Isayama described as "as an existence more superior to myself" during Levi’s statue reveal just last March?!

You know, when I asked my native Japanese teacher to help me translate Isayama's statement about Levi, she sent me a 4 minute voice note breaking down the terms Isayma used and explaining how much respect the person speaking (Isayama) has for the person he's talking about (Levi). I was embarrassed to tell her that the person he’s speaking about is actually a fictional character lol

Isyama used 頭 の上がらない which literally means “can’t raise someone’s head” but it actually means “can’t raise someone’s head in front someone else for how much respect they have for this person”

Now let’s look at Levi’s actions in the manga to see if we can reach to the same conclusion.

Levi is one of, if not the most, perceptive characters in SNK. In one the official short stories, he was described as a person who is able to “know the true nature of Man”. For Levi, Zeke is a man who cheered with satisfaction as he threw rocks through fifteen year olds. He’s the person who nonchalantly explained to Levi the process of gassing an entire village of unsuspecting civilians and flinging them into an eternal nightmare in order to weaponize their bodies. Zeke’s manipulations are the origin of almost all of Paradis’ problems, whether it’s encouraging Marley to ramp up aggressions or pulling shady shit with Kiyomi, Yelena and the Jaegerists that destabilizes their already vulnerable island. And what’s worse - because we’re reading a story where torn-up characters are often excused by circumstances of coercion or perceived necessity - he doesn’t care. He feels no remorse. He wants to do this. Levi doesn’t know Zeke’s ultimate reasoning of course, but he recognized through the smoke of the campfire a man who doesn’t give a fuck about the wishes and agency of others. Who will force his own will on a race of humans and call it mercy. AND YET, Levi stays with him for  A WHOLE MONTH in the forest bringing him books, drinks and a pillow to sit on. He keeps asking him about what happened in Connie’s village trying over and over to understand him. And then the guy transforms Levi’s own teammates in front of him, forces him to kill them and taunts him with their suffering. Levi perceives a person who’s arrogant enough to consider his cruelty compassion as he decides whether the lives of their children are worth living.YET, Levi decided to keep him alive because he believed that it is what’s the best for Paradis; a decision that eventually caused Levi’s severe injuries and the activation of the Rumbling!

During the final battle, Levi offered to act as a bait for Mikasa so she can try to bring back Armin and risks his life TWICE to save Jean and Connie risking his chances to ever fulfill his promise to Erwin.

Please tell me now that these are actions of an “obsessed” man who is only focused on killing Zeke and revenge.

The first time Levi mentions the vow after the time skip, he says: “Erwin, I think I will be finally able to fulfill the vow I made to you that day. Your deathS had meaning. At last I will be able to prove it”  Levi clearly associates giving meaning to his comrades’ deaths WITH fulfilling his vow to Erwin. This is the line that proves that the vow has always meant something more.

Levi made a promise that came to represent the fulfillment of the goal all his former Survey Corps comrades laid down their lives for. Slaying the Beast Titan took on symbolic stature, a tangible way of giving their sacrifices meaning - especially in a world where the circumstances had drastically shifted and enemies, allies, and other were suddenly seen from a completely different perspective.

In Ch. 136, Levi remembers his friends and reflects upon their sacrifices and what they meant. They did not sacrifice their lives to “trample the lives and hearts of others”.

We never got a SINGLE panel in which he says that he fulfilled his promise! In the last apparition of his fallen comrades, Erwin isn’t even in the center. He salutes his fallen comrades for devoting their hearts for humanity and they salute him back for honoring their sacrifices.

If there is one thing that Levi was “obsessed” about, it is him trying to give meaning to the deaths and sacrifices of the people who truly devoted their hearts to humanity and whom he truly loved

#anon ask #ask

[masterhandss]

Ngl tho Katarina's self-analysis hits home really close. Like, oof, girl, same. I'm surprised it got so deep instead of playing with her usual denseness. Pleasantly surprised, ofc

// hamefura light novel spoilers

Haha yeah, having Katarina address her fears in regards to love and doom really hit in Volume 11, especially since she's just been comedic or dismissive about them for so long. The series is normally very light-hearted about those things so having Katarina sit down and do some self-reflection is unexpected but much needed.

Maybe it's because I read a lot of other villainess isekai mangas and manhuas alongside hamefura but I'm not exactly surprised by Katarina's self-analysis, more like I'm really happy that it finally happened. It feels cathartic to see Katarina finally voice out her doom flags as a reason why she refuses to fall in love and acknowledge the confessions she has received; it's that kind of thing that you can kinda feel like she's going through but you don't really see it in the text because her forgetfulness and dismissiveness is always associated with denseness.

It means that hamefura is finally gonna stop developing the romance from only Katarina's suitors' side (because lets be honest the books is just all the characters falling in love with character all over again or more deeply without any changes on Katarina herself) but also her side as well. Katarina?? Getting development??? who would have thunk XDD I can't wait to be able to read Volume 11 myself; it'll take a long time for it to be translated in english so I'm happy that there are people out there who are sharing tidbits of currently japanese-exclusive stuff XDD

Thank you for the ask :DD

#mh ask #hamefura #my next life as a villainess #hamehura #bakarina #destruction flag otome #katarina claes