#but the first kanji is the kanji for dream so i wouldn't be surprised if they went with yumetaro. yumeno yumetaro sounds cute

[blue-thief]

haunted with the knowledge of gentaro's real name

[p5x-theories]

The female character with blonde hair and sun visor is named "Tamayo Yoshida"(吉田珠代), which is different from "Namie Komatsu," the woman with the orange hairband. *Pronunciation is provisional. The Kanji of the name her is almost the same as "jitianzhudai"(吉天珠代).She appears in the Motoha Corp Rank 9 event. (according to the stream #15 by よしぞう)

Oh, haha, I've been checking Yoshizou's streams every day for exactly stuff like this! You definitely beat me to watching it, though, I wasn't even awake when you sent this in.

I think he's probably right about Tamayo being her first name, though the last name's a lot harder to say (could be Kichida, Kitta, Yoshita, Yojida, Yotsuda, Raide, etc.). Still, that's a lot more info than we had yesterday, haha!

For anyone who hasn't been keeping up with his videos, here's what happens:

Looks like she shows up in the Rank 9 event sitting in the booth next to Wonder and Motoha's booth, overhears at least part of their conversation, and seems interested that this is Motoha Arai, so she follows them to the batting cage in Yongen-Jaya.

In the Rank 10 event, she sets up in one of the batting cages after Motoha's done, and hits three home runs in a row on "super difficult", which greatly impresses Motoha.

After, she comes over to Motoha and Wonder, and Motoha immediately compliments her. She says she's been working hard, and calls Motoha her "eternal rival", though Motoha doesn't seem to have any idea who she is.

She says of course Motoha wouldn't remember a "mediocre person" like herself, and introduces herself as Tamayo Yoshida (though this isn't voiced, so I can't confirm especially her last name, but I'll call her Tamayo because I have to call her something here), a member of the high school girls' baseball club. This name finally jogs Motoha's memory, which makes Tamayo grin.

Motoha's surprised Tamayo is still playing baseball, and Tamayo confirms she kept with it even after Motoha "retired". She "never imagined that her eternal rival would disappear from the pitcher's mound one day without a trace". But it's like an opportunity from a dream for her to see Motoha again, and she asks Motoha to help her. Motoha's confused again.

Tamayo says that she plays every day in the hopes of reviving women's professional baseball. Alone, her power is limited, but she thinks that if she's with Motoha, they could definitely...!

Motoha's glad to hear her say that, but says she can't help Tamayo like she is now. She couldn't even hit a home run like Tamayo just did. Tamayo isn't deterred in the least, and seems to be saying that's just because Motoha's rusty; she hasn't lost her "baseball genius" yet. As long as she trains hard, she'll become a "first-line" player! Motoha as a kid was good at both pitching and batting.

Motoha admits that's true, but that was in the past.

Tamayo then turns to Wonder.

She asks him who he is to Motoha, which gives Wonder three options: supervisor (?), friend, or boyfriend. Yoshizou picks "boyfriend", and Motoha says this isn't the time to joke around, clarifying they're friends, and Wonder is her current "coach" (which I believe is the premise of her Confidant). Tamayo says that, from what she's seen, as a coach, he "hasn't done many things well"? Motoha tries to defend Wonder, but Wonder's responses are either "Calm down" or "She's right".

Motoha refuses to back down, and demands Tamayo take back what she said. Tamayo says she's just stating the facts; if Motoha trains with Wonder, she'll never play baseball like she did before. She asks Motoha to join her team, with their first-class coach. Motoha doubles down that she can't help Tamayo, and that she's still bothered by what Tamayo said.

Tamayo finally gets annoyed, and challenges Motoha to home run match. If Motoha wins, Tamayo will take back what she said, but if Tamayo wins, then Motoha has to join her fight for women's professional baseball. Motoha, also still angry, agrees. Tamayo says whoever hits more home runs wins. Motoha just needs to call Tamayo whenever she's ready to face off.

They exchange contact information. Tamayo says she'll be waiting for the day Motoha joins her team, laughs, and leaves.

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 57: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

Woooooow! It's the end of October, Halloween is here and we're back with our monthly appointment!! And let me just tell you, we got a SUPER chapter this month!! We have an important revelation (confirmation for those who had already guessed so) and more angst along the way!! Will there be relevant translation differences this month? You just have to follow me under the cut to find out, but not before looking at the gif of the month!!! 😂

Alice's story

We have another color spread!! I was super surprised when I found out about it, looking at the preview of Nakayoshi's cover, where it was mentioned: this is the third one in a row! And what a color spread!!! We have our beloved Momo coming back in her true form, and we can finally see also the colors of the lower part of her dress (thank you CLAMP), but we also have Cerberus and Spinel Sun in their majestic true forms!! They shared a color page in their temporary forms before, so it's really nice to see them back together like this! 😊 The japanese text over it says something like "We wait for our masters, in our 'true forms', in this distant place". It's very interesting and makes me wonder if there's a deeper meaning. Usually, the editorial text over these color pages isn't just random gibberish, but does actually have a meaning coherent with the story.... I also had the confirmation that Momo's eyes are in fact composed of 2 colors: her eyelashes are light blue, while her eyes are red. I had already noticed this with her first color appearance, but thought it was a printing effect. This is also why Momo's open eyes appear blue, in her temporary form! It's because it's taking the color from her eyelashes, but when she's a big "oneesan" (like the Japanese fandom is already nicknaming her) we see her full eyes, with red/purple iris.

Also, once again, we have a black background. I truly wonder if this is indicative of something.

And the actual chapter starts in a way that should be quite familiar by now, to those following Clear Card since long time: it's storytelling time! Sakura is reading aloud the plot of the stage play written by Naoko, with Alice as a protagonist. You recognize her, right? Yes, she's always the same Alice character that CLAMP used throughout CCS, both in the old series (even the anime) and also here in Clear Card. This Alice is a very kind girl grown up in a different world than ours, in a very kind family, but she's got a peculiar characteristic that differentiates her from the other kids: she can see dreams...and those dreams aren't ordinary dreams...sometimes they turn into "reality". I have to point out the first interesting detail in the Japanese version of this chapter: when they say that Alice's dreams turn into reality, we find the usual "game" that Ohkawa plays with words, putting the word "reality" in kanji, but actually making it read as ほんとう (for 本当), "truth", in the furigana. The ENG translation also embellishes a lot this storytelling part, adding/making up words that aren't in the original. For example, where in the ENG they say "all little boys and girls dream", in the JP version there's just a more generic "everybody dreams" (probably including adults too). Or in very the beginning of the chapter they say in ENG "in a land that couldn't have been more different than our own", making it more dramatic, but the JP actually just states "a world different than ours". But not only that, the ENG translation sometimes straight up skips some details, like:

ENG: She'd unwrap presents to find books she'd read in her dreams. JP: Books that she had seen in her dreams would turn out to be (actual) birthday presents.

or..

ENG: Even her beloved cat....was a stray that she'd met in dreamland. JP: And this cat who's a good friend of Alice, too... It's a (previously) stray cat that she saw in a dream, then she met it on the street, and brought it back home with her.

I have no idea why they skipped those parts, but it wouldn't have hurt them to add that Alice found the stray cat and brought it home 😫

One day, Alice showed up for breakfast with an unusual sad face (lit. from the JP text) and when her parents worriedly asked her what was wrong, she explained that she dreamed of a mysterious place, different than the world she lives in...wondering what she should do in a world unknown to her, the cat came to her and guided her through that world. In that world there were all sorts of creatures and things that she had never seen before, not even in books. But the most mysterious thing of it all was how [time] seemingly stopped and rewound in this world all the time, as if someone was playing with it on their whim. (The "who lived in this strange new world" part was added by the ENG translation) It was when Alice was looking for a way out of that world, that she met [The Red Queen].

Sakura's own story to tell

Sakura's reading of Naoko's plot stops right here, to comment together with her mini-guardians that the story does resemble her own situation, even too much at that. Kero is so surprised that he wonders if her friend got magic of her own, but Suppi comments that skilled writers do have the so-called "sixth sense" that allows them not only to reproduce in their writing things that happen at current times, but also things that happened in the past or that will happen in the future. I found this a very cute way from Ohkawa to justify beforehand to the readers "don't worry if Naoko's play will seem too 'spot on' at times...she's just got that gift in her and Hitsuzen will use it to unfold things as they're meant to happen". After all, even Sakura's friends can be part of the inevitable development that has to happen, right? But it's not just that.

Sakura comments that Naoko has always been very smart and noticed things others wouldn't notice...but this time there's something more. Ohkawa-sensei actually adds another reason why Naoko's story is reflecting SO much Sakura's situation right now... It seems Naoko discussed about the play with Akiho, and while she gave her interesting comments about it, when Naoko was troubled because she incurred in writer's block, Akiho actually told her about the story of a book very precious to her..."Alice in Clockland". At the mention of that book, something snaps inside Kero-chan. He asks Sakura if she ever saw that book, and she says that yes, she saw it and even took a pic of it because it was just too beautiful. But when Sakura takes out her phone to show it to Kero, she finds out in dismay that the picture....is gone. Kero-chan immediately understands the situation, "It didn't want you to take a picture of it". Suppi suggests to use the Record card, and it works: the card shows the moment Akiho introduced the book to Sakura, and Kero has got the final proof he was looking for: HE KNOWS THAT BOOK. And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have the big revelation of this chapter, that actually made me scream!! 😂 I've thought about this many times, but was waiting for a confirmation...and Momo's words about him back in chapter 50 were so vague that at some point I thought "maybe HE isn't involved, after all"... BUT NO! THERE'S NO WAY HE ISN'T INVOLVED. 🤣

Who am I talking about? Of course it's him....

CLOW REED.

The book is a very special magical tome. It is actually considered a prohibited book. Clow at some point had that book with him. It seems he tried to use it for something...but in the end, even with this book, what he wanted to do turned out to be impossible. I know, I know what y'all are thinking about. It's indeed quite hard to not immediately think of the whole ordeal with Yuuko and stopping her time before her definitive death. This MIGHT be the real first link to the Tsubasa/Holic events. Nothing at all is mentioned clearly, this could be something totally unrelated, but I don't think any of us fans is really believing that. And CLAMP know this.

Suppi asks if the book stayed with Clow, and here I have to point out this slight difference in translation that actually gives us a better understanding of the Book's behavior:

ENG: I guess this book goes where it wants to. It found a new owner. JP: It seems this book chooses its owner by itself. So he didn't have it anymore.

In the Japanese text it's stated more clearly that the book chooses its own owner on its own accord (as opposed to the ENG one, which seems to imply the book wanders aimlessly until it finds another owner). Basically, the book has its own will. It seems Clow made with his magic a "picture" of the book (in the Japanese text it's used the kanji 絵 , which indicates a more traditional kind of picture, as it stands for "drawing" or "illustration", so not exactly a "photo"), but the picture burned on its own and disappeared. So we can see indeed a behavior from the book, that tends to eliminate any kind of reproduction of it, even if it's just a drawing. Sakura wonders if the same will happen to the Record display of it. Kero says that if the book really wanted to not be seen, it wouldn't have allowed Record to reproduce it to begin with, just like it happened with the photo Sakura took previously. Surely, right now Sakura might have enough magical power to counter that, but Suppi actually suggests something else: it might be that the book WANTS to be seen by Sakura.

Our girl announces that she wants to talk with this Book. But when Suppi says that it's very likely that such a powerful book got a guardian of its own, Sakura surprises everyone (readers included) by saying "I want to talk to them once again". This time around, referring to the "guardian". It's entirely possible, hence, that the book's will and the guardian coincide. Suppi and Kero naturally ask right away if this is something that already happened once (since she said "once again"), but Sakura isn't sure herself. She just FEELS that this book would listen to what she wants to tell. Sakura is finally opening up to her instincts, she's FINALLY starting to listen to them, to tune herself on the same wavelength, and it's like she's receiving "radio signals" from her intuition, you know? 😊 I loved this, because to her it's a huge character development. She used to dismiss all of her intuitions like "it's just my imagination" before, despite knowing very well that she's a powerful and gifted magician. Right now, she's finally embracing her nature and listening to what her gut feelings say. Kero, in fact, is very supportive of this, and continuing from the "we will do as she wishes" theme from last chapter, he tells her that if she thinks so, he's sure she can do it. So this is fundamentally paving the way for a new meeting between Momo and Sakura. And I'm sure Momo is eagerly waiting for it, because there's no more time to waste before a tragedy ensues.

The following day, at school, we find out from Syaoran that Sakura decided to accept the role of one of the two Alice. In the beginning she wanted to turn it down, but she kept having this feeling that she would've ended up acting that role anyway. Kero told her that if that's what she feels, then she'd better follow it, and Syaoran completely agrees. Again, Sakura is opening up to her intuition, and her beloved people are now supporting her in that, encouraging her in that direction. This is seriously a good chara development for everyone.

Tomoyo, who's there with them, decides to break a bit of the tension by announcing that she will certainly make it so she's the one sewing the costume for Alice (both Alice, I guess?) and that she will OF COURSE film any second of Sakura wearing it 🤣Syaoran reminds her that she has to sing a song in the middle of the stage play, but ha! That doesn't stop Tomoyo! When she will have to sing, she will rely on the tripod!! 🤣I was really glad to see this Tomoyo moment after long time... Sakura holds Tomoyo's hands and says "I will wear with great care the dress that you will make for me. Doing so, I just know that no matter what happens, I'll be alright" (from the JP text). ❤

At that point Syaoran wonders what Akiho will decide to do about the role offer.

And that's when we switch to the Shinomoto house.

Feelings taking over

(cue me drawing a deep breath because of the angst that will ensue)

Akiho, who's about to head to school (so this conversation happens at the same time of Tomoyo, Sakura and Syaoran talking in the schoolyard) just told Kaito that she will accept the role of the other Alice. She says that she thought about turning it down in the beginning, because she never acted to begin with, and she didn't want to cause problems to anyone. When Kaito hears that, his expression turns quite sad. But with a very creepy expression, Akiho says "But I had the feeling that I would've ended up acting that role anyway". Yes. The same thing Sakura is probably saying in that very moment to Syaoran.

Immediately, Akiho adds...

ENG: I know it sounds strange. Who can know what hasn't happened yet, after all? I don't have that kind of power. JP: What am I even saying? It's not like I should be able to know what will happen from now on. Because I don't have any kind of power.

Can you see the slight difference in translation? The ENG version makes it look like Akiho is completely unaware of the existence of magic. Or rather, that she considers it something distant from her, and that no one should be able to know what will happen in the future. Sorry but no. This change in the translation kinda bothered me because in the fandom we've been wondering since long time if Akiho is AWARE of the magical nature of her clan, if she remembers anything at all from that aspect of her family. Some even thought that her memories about it might have been erased. Well, this scene to me kinda gives the confirmation that YES, she's WELL aware of the peculiarities of her family and most importantly OF WHAT THEY EXPECTED HER TO HAVE. And it still hurts her, even now. So please, keep in consideration this interpretation when looking at this scene.

At Akiho's sorrowful words, Kaito's expression turns even more pained than before, and his hand starts reaching out to her, but stops halfway, unseen by her. His heart was moving his body on its own, before he noticed and stopped it himself. After all, Akiho's pain is Kaito's pain. That much is clear. And the fact that she doesn't have any powers is what started all of this, to begin with. All her pain, all her unhappy childhood, the neglect and abuse, it all comes from there. And she's still suffering for it, you can see it in her expression. He genuinely wanted to comfort her for that. But you see, that isn't his place. He doesn't deserve to do that. Because, first of all, he's just her butler. Second, because we all know that his comment on her not having powers lead to the most horrifying thing her clan had done to her. Third, because magic only brought misery to her life, and who's got plenty of magic in himself? Kaito, of course. I was heavily reminded of my soulsister's analysis on Kaito here on Tumblr, and I once again suggest everyone to give it a read, because many MANY things that she analyzed and said over there are surfacing in this scene of this chapter. That just goes to show how spot on it is. My heart ached a lot in this scene, because I was thinking "You dummy! Go holding her! You both need it so badly right now. You both need to know you're there for eachother and you're not left alone in your own pain", but with his mental state right now it's just impossible... Or is it...? That hand....might be in fact the signal that something is changing.

Akiho glances up at him, and as usual, our perceptive girl doesn't miss that something is once again wrong with him. Kaito tries to divert her attention saying, with a very sweet expression, that...

JP: Knowing you, I'm convinced you can [become] her. Alice, I mean.

We all know all the red flags this statement is throwing around, right? I started panicking as soon as he said that 😅and the irony is that he even meant that in a totally reassuring way.

But Akiho doesn't buy that. No, sir. She totally ignores what he says, as if she's saying "yeah, yeah, don't try to change subject".

And in a very peculiar way we have the return of "bossy Akiho", in a softened shape. Basically, Akiho 'orders' him (in her polite way, of course) to take a rest while she's at school. And what Kaito does? He takes it personally! He worriedly asks her if he did something wrong, if he commited some impoliteness in his job. This guy is ridiculous! 🤣 Asking Kaito to not take care of Akiho is like wronging him, even though she's doing it for him and his wellbeing. "Is she benching me because I did something wrong?!" I can't help but smile at how adorable this sounds. 😂 Akiho says that no, he didn't do anything wrong, "but please, do rest." That's an order from her, and Kaito answers 畏まりました, "surely", the classic answer you give in response to a request from a superior or a customer, someone who's above you basically. Again, we can see how much "power" Akiho holds over Kaito. And it's not only because he's her butler (remember? He doesn't have to answer to her family anymore, he could drop this role at any time), but because he truly feels like he can't deny her anything. He finds joy in taking care of her and her things, that's why he was almost crossed when she asked him not to, to rest.

Akiho leaves home with a very concerned expression, and Momo doesn't lose the chance to throw at Kaito a very frightening glare from Akiho's bag. It's clear that she's adding her own threat in there, "Do as she says or I will mess you up, can't you see how worried she is???"

Kaito says bye to Akiho on the doorstep, and as soon as he closes the door behind him, he crouches to the ground, his act crumbling down like a house of cards. He's in pain, having one of his heart attacks again, and he looks at his hand. Yeah. The same hand he tried to extend to Akiho is now shaking. Once again. I know that CLAMP have thrown this detail again in the middle of one of his seizures, but only that one hand is shaking...the shaking effect is drawn exclusively around that hand. And while looking at it trembling, he says:

JP: My body really doesn't listen to what I say, uh?

Here Kaito is talking to himself, so he switches to "ore-Kaito mode". The way he talks is very informal and casual (it's kinda exciting to see him talk like that 🤣). But there's something else in this scene that might not be immediately recognizable. I think what Kaito is trying to say is that he didn't consciously start the act of extending the hand towards Akiho earlier on. He literally saw his body moving on its own, went "wtf is this hand doing now" and managed to stop it. Kaito must be confused because he's certainly thinking that his degrading conditions are causing this to happen. Kaito has already shown before, in his words, symptoms of considering his body a little bit like a machine, a tool, something he can command at his will. What he doesn't see right now is that it's his heart the one that moved that hand earlier on. Remember this beautiful scene from the Sakura Card Arc?

Yukito had a hard time realizing his feelings for Touya, but his heart didn't have any problems in moving his body on its own, in this scene. And he was confused too, at first. We have other examples of this kind of subconscious behavior in other CLAMP manga (TRC comes to mind immediately, for instance). I think this is exactly what happened here with Kaito and Akiho. Kaito's feelings of love/affection for Akiho are becoming louder and louder, and are starting to gain the upper hand over him. As they should. In his terrible conditions, Kaito says that he just needs to hold out a little longer. And here, ladies and gentlemen, on the very last page of this chapter, we have one big translation mistake that I've already seen causing quite some confusion among the fans, so please look at it carefully:

ENG: The magic of my dreams will soon appear...and the story will soon begin.. JP: Because the magic I was wishing for...[the story]...will finally begin.

Hear me out, my friends! The way the ENG translation puts it makes everyone think that Kaito saw the magic he's looking for in his dreams, when that's completely not the case! In the JP text the verb 望む (to desire, to want, to wish for) is used in this occasion. I KNOW that in this example "of my dreams" is used as to say "that I long wished for", but it's the translator's job to avoid using terms that might lead the readers astray!!! Especially when all the chapter has done is to talk about foretelling dreams left and right!! One is automatically lead to believe that EVEN KAITO could see that magic appearing in his dreams, and seeked for it. No, that's not what he meant there. He was merely meaning "that I wished for". I am saying this because I've already heard that this translation mistake has been used to accuse Kaito of things he hasn't done, and basically exacerbating even more the fandom hate towards him. You know how much I love Kaito and I can't stand that, I can't stand that this ENG translation never fails to put him under a more negative light than necessary. I will always resent this.

That said, the chapter basically ends here, and this translation post (as usual) already got so long, so I will probably take the opportunity to share more of my theories and comments in other posts (especially if you guys will send me related asks). I was just wondering if Kaito really wants to switch Sakura's and Akiho's lives...or there might be actually something else in his plan. Maybe the Alice we hear about at the beginning of the chapter actually tells Akiho's real story...I had that strong feeling. Is she coming from another timeline/world? Is Kaito trying to bring her back to where she belongs to? Is he represented by the black cat? And what will this mean for them? I can't help but wonder about this. I'd probably rather not have this kind of development, but we will see.

These are the release dates for chapter 58: November 28th, on Comixology (digital, ENG) November 29th, on Clamp-fans and Comic-days (digital, JP and other languages) December 1st, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP)

Sorry for the long wait, and I hope this will help shed some light over the most confusing parts of this chapter, which admittedly were a few. If you can spread it around, it'll be very appreciated. See you next month, as usual!!!

[ayameyumesaki]

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary Pt. 3

Previous Part First Part Next Part

Let's go to the last chapter of Volume 1. It's called "destiny". Here, we was finally introduced to the main issue of the series---a high school boy Subaru met under a cherry blossom tree.

Anyway, Subaru's collar reminded me of CPC Vol 5's cover 🥺

FIRST OF ALL, LET'S MEET OUR ADORABLE BABY SUBARU. Oh my God, he is so cute!!! Can I adopt him? I will raise him so he will be able to survive against a certain hunter---

Interesting note here: The boy told Subaru about a dead body buried under the cherry blossoms tree. Not a nice thing to talk to a child, but this man reeks of menace by telling him about this matter so what can we do? That aside, the boy told Subaru about "dead body" with kanji (死体), but Subaru responded with its spelling, written in hiragana, shitai (したい). This is an interesting take, especially when you consider how Subaru reacted after this...

The boy explained why cherry blossoms petals which are originally white turned into pink, and it was because the tree absorbed the blood of dead bodies under the tree. Subaru's response was to cry and ask "wouldn't the people under the tree feel hurt?".

To those who thinks Subaru was just too innocent so he responded like that, please remember that this is Subaru. He was trained to be an onmyoji, a medium who can interact with spirits and helped them to gain salvation aside from the other spiritual works. But in the same time, he was still a child at that time. Children at his age couldn't grasp what "death" means well; and even more for Subaru who was trained to deal with dead spirits too. For him, probably, living and dead spirits aren't different--both are "alive". Which resulted in his "innocent" response: he didn't say it like "wouldn't the body/the dead feel hurt?" but "wouldn't people under the tree feel hurt?", as if those who are under the tree were living so they can feel hurt. It was scary yet sad in the same time.

The boy was surprised by Subaru's response and told him to make a "bet" with him. But Subaru couldn't hear it well and the meeting ended with the boy said "For this time, I will let you go". You dumbass falling in love with a young child.

Then, we get to see a gorgeous Subaru in shikifuku, sleeping while thinking who that person was.

Then after the title page, we got to see Subaru chased a crow shikigami in Ikebukuro Station, and Subaru got to meet Seishiro here. He fell on the platform and you got to see Seishiro (and the crow) was surprised when he fell 😭 then Hokuto laughed at him so hard.

Subaru with pets is always a feast for the eyes ☺️ Look at how he handled the cat in love even when he fell from the chair! Such dedication!

Then we got this one certain triangle man said "That time in Ikebukuro isn't our first time. I met Subaru-kun in the far past, don't you remember it?", all in keigo and it tickles me. Stop the formalities, and stop being so fishy, please.

Subaru was, however, concerned by his words---either hypnotized or reminded of something. Seishiro said it was a joke but uh oh, my boy.

My boy took his words as serious---he got a hunch. And here he said that he couldn't differentiate whether the thing happened undert that cherry blossom tree was a dream or reality. He eventually blurted out, "who is that person again?", as if he was trying to recall his memories.

HOKUTO. MY GIRL. HAS NOTHING OF THAT. Which leads us to this panel...

Hokuto called Subaru a cheater for thinking about another man while he has Seishiro in front of him 🤣🤣 But Seishiro's response was "It's okay, Hokuto-chan. After all, I'm just a part of shadow/shade". This part is interesting because in the next panel, we saw Seishiro talks about him being a vet doesn't suit Subaru who has a bright future ahead, which doesn't make sense.

So, the line Seishiro used here is 僕は日陰の身 (boku wa hikage no mi), which means as I wrote above. Words hikage itself means either shadow/shade, and mi means body. This phrase means "a person who can't appear on the outside world". Don't you get reminded of a certain someone? Interestingly, while searching for the meaning of this phrase, I came across a word hikagesha which means a social outcast or a person with shady past. Befitting this person.

The translation I read translated this line to "Seishiro doesn't have a good body", but that doesn't make sense if we considered the next panel which talks about him as a vet. And since the theme of this chapter was pretty much Seishiro being shady (or if I must say, literally revealing himself to Subaru and Hokuto), the translation was probably also confused about this line as well.

The more I read the original version, the more interesting this manga can get. Oh my.

I hit the 10 pictures limit so check the reblog to see the continuation!

[muggle-writes]

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better.

tagged by @elizabethsyson

Nickname: Muggle is my nickname, but when I went by Muggle in person for more than a month at a time, it naturally got abbreviated, usually to Mugz

Zodiac: Aquarius

Last movie I saw: into the spiderverse (same answer as last time. I don't watch that many movies tbh except around Christmas. unless YouTube counts in which case... music of some sort? idk links for the next answer)

Favorite musician: changes by the day. I've kinda been in an acapella and/or folk music mood recently so the Maccabeats and Peter Hollens are in my YouTube and Spotify history a lot recently. also I'm eternally in awe of Forte Handbell Quartet (eta a longer video; i recommend skipping to the techno piece or the Jurassic Park theme)

Last thing I googled: "vine why are you buying clothes at the soup store" (my wife hasn't seen it; also i can't find the vine because apparently it's a much bigger meme than I realized). before that it was "chgrp not root" because work and group permissions are useful when they work

Song stuck in my head: well for most of the day when I haven't been actively listening to something, it's been the Pokemon RSE route-walking music. (but that somehow happens frequently when I'm in the no-music-no-internet room at work, as I was for most of the day, and I don't know how I accidentally trained my brain to make that connection). right now, surprisingly, I don't have any background music playing in my head. I think it's because the humidifier provides just enough white noise that my brain doesn't feel the need to provide its own

Other blogs: my main is @muggle-the-hat and I'm a mod on @why-do-neurotypicals but we've gotten one ask ever so that blog has been dormant for a while. I have a bunch of other sideblogs, but they're all small and I use different screen names on each of them (enby life: no idea which name suits me best so I may as well try them out) so i feel like it would just confuse things to link them.

Following: blogs matching all the themes of my sideblogs, (including this one, which is writeblr), korean langblr, jumblr, assorted fandom blogs, authors of my more favorite fanfictions (some overlap with other categories), and irl friends and acquaintances (including one fandom blog turned irl friend)

Do I get asks: on my main if at all, which isn't really surprising because i have hundreds of followers there and maybe 60 followers combined among the rest. but I get asks far less often than I reblog ask memes so... I'm always happy to get more. I do get tagged in ask games more on this one, but writeblr is actually vaguely organized about tag lists so that makes sense. also I used to get tagged a bunch on my main and I rarely could find the posts again to follow up when I had time to answer.

What I’m Wearing: pajamas. staying warm and cozy

Lucky number: I don't remember what I said last time, but I like a lot of numbers. 64 is a good number. recently I've been debugging software in which 0x3E is my lucky status number and 0x0E taunts me. (um, decimal 62 and 14). Also my other favorite number i can't share until it's no longer the combination to the lock to the Secret Room. (or realistically never because opsec and i shouldn't make public the types of parents we use for that combination lock), honestly I aim to be like.... ah, I'm sure the anecdote involves G.H. Hardy but i don't remember on which side. anyway one mathematician remarked to another about how the id number of the taxi he rode in was sadly uninteresting, and the one I aspire to be like, argued "what are you talking about, this number is interesting because ______" and I'd like to be able to do that for any arbitrary number thrown at me. (hi yes math is good, history is hard, math history is interesting yet i still forget the people even if i remember the math. except when things are named after people, but that tends to be, like, Euler and LaGrange and other people who did lots of cool science things so i remember the methods and the names of the methods separately which never helps)

Amount of sleep: ....depression both screws with my sleep schedule and means I always feel like I need more sleep except when I wake up at 5pm and feel like I've wasted the day. so yeah. I can never get enough sleep

Favorite food: yes (why do I have to pick a favorite?) uh, chocolate in most forms, many other sweet things, red meats (especially if served with potatoes), curry (especially if it has "too much" ginger), fresh-baked bread, chai the way my favorite local Indian restaurant makes it (spicier with just a little bit of sweet, which is the opposite of what i can get from the mocha machine at work which is wayyy sweet with a hint of spice but that inferior chai is still superior to coffee so i drink too much of it). also vegetables which I really don't eat enough of: sauteed zucchini and onions, roasted broccoli

Dream trip: dreaming requires creativity and tbh I funnel that mostly into my writing instead. I wouldn't mind going back to Korea for another visit though

Dream job: my current job is pretty good when I feel productive and when my debugging tools actually produce data maybe??? (they were not being helpful today. but i still mostly like my job.) dream job is probably this but with seniority and confidence and double the salary (while living in a similar area of the country; I wouldn't want to double my salary by moving to work for Google in California and having less available after rent than I do now)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things:

the smell of old books

the first glow of sunrise (the sunrise painting the mountains pink and gold)

a rainbow in the spray from a waterfall

the flicker of distant lightning (watching a thunderstorm fade into the distance)

this picture

Random fact: about me or about the world?

how about a combination answer: when we got our new handbell music this season, we only looked at half the pieces our first rehearsal and afterwards I tried to look up one of the pieces we hadn't gotten to on YouTube because it's got a weird time signature and I wanted to get a feel for how fast it would go and how strict the counting is...... except it turns out we're the first group to ever play the piece. it was commissioned recently but seeing my conductor's name on the page didn't tell me how new it was because he's super prolific. (the fact that it was on printer paper without the publisher's graphics should have been a giveaway but it's only the second time I've been among the first to play one of his pieces so I think I can be excused for not realizing)

Languages: mostly just English, but I took Spanish for years, so I can hold simple conversations in it. I can almost read sound out Hebrew fast enough to keep up in services, and I know some random Hebrew vocab but comparatively no grammar. and I took Korean in college, enough that I can recognize sentence structure but I can really only speak tourist-Korean, though I can sound anything out (if it's typed. handwriting is hit or miss.) in both Hebrew and Korean (and Spanish tbh but i don't often listen to Spanish music) I'm very proud when I can separate the words enough, listening to a song, to translate them without looking up the lyrics. also I tried to learn Japanese from Duolingo when it was new, but I still hadn't gotten the kana straight when it started progressing to kanji so that was a rough time and I went back to Hebrew.

tbh I "dabble" in "language learning" which really means I start a million courses on Duo and stick with none of them. with the notable exception of French, which I acknowledge is super common and probably a good idea to learn but the spelling and pronunciation seem so arbitrary I'm scared to look close enough to learn it properly, and I've never particularly considered starting the Duolingo course for French

I think I lost a few questions, because that's only 18 answers. whoops.

um... who to tag

@abluescarfonwaston if school hasn't drowned you in work yet and @copperscales I'm interested in both of your choices for lucky numbers especially.

... wow I'm blanking on other mutuals I haven't tagged recently. as usual lmk if you'd like to be edited in, or just answer the questions and tag me back, that's great too.