#chigusa tsukikage

[hakonohanayome]

Sukeban Deka x Glass Mask collaboration comic - Shinji Wada & Suzue Miuchi

[boymagicalgirl]

No matter her age, Ms. Tsukikage is so pretty

[animecaps]

glass mask (1984) - ep 21

[artemis-maia]

I always liked that Persona 2 also talked about the Christmas cake label and the theme when exactly a woman should marry, have children or why not never marry at all and live childless. I have always thought that it was annoying when people ask about ‚when will you marry, have children etc.‘

The three example that mention the Christmas cake trope are Junko, Ulala and Mizuno.

Kurosu Junko/Queen Aquarius in Tsumi wishes to be young again since not only is Kashihara dead in Tsumi making her far more nervous about her actress career (she likely fears that she will only get aunty roles and no interesting roles anymore) and obsessed with youth. Since Jun grew up as a latch-key child he on the one hand disliked this but also wanted Junko’s attention (he plays piano to please Junko, he likes omletts since she often made them, he hates cup noodles since he associates it with being neglected). Junko then ends up redeeming herself by sacrificing herself for Jun at Caracol when she realizes that Joker is Jun.

While Junko is still pretty young as a mother (37, thus she was 20 when Jun was born) there is of course always the subject with her job as an actress if she is still able to get good roles etc. 

In Japan when actresses have children and/or marry there are almost always immediately speculations whether the actress retires (it‘s always encouraging when you see that actresses don‘t give up and return). It‘s actually quiet good for Junko that she has ended up in business for so long already.

In Batsu Kashihara Akinari is alive and Junko merely uses Kurosu Junko as a stage name this time. The family are all close on This Side.

Junko is more relaxed and it is only implied that had she some sugery this time.

I also think she she greatly resembles Tsukikage Chigusa from Glass Mask in Batsu like mentioned in an interview.

In Ulala‘s case she was born on November 30, 1974. She is 24 close to her 25th birthday since Batsu takes place in autumn 1999.

This is precisely why she is so nervous about her love life, went to Omiai, constantly mentions that she is a Christmas cake soon.

Ulala has an inferiority complex regarding Maya since Maya has a better job, Ulala cooks, cleans, applies make up and chooses outfits for Maya (in mythology Callisto is Artemis‘ servant) and since Maya who is 23 doesn‘t worry about marriage etc. at all.

Maya‘s boss Mizuno is introduced as 30-something and still not married.

Even with her who is depicted as grumpy in the beginning she later on becomes milder and talks more about her former dreams etc.

[jewlwpet]

The school in Revue Starlight seems less and less harsh the more I read of of this acting-school manga from the ‘70′s (Glass Mask).

Telling your hungry students that it’s time to sit down and eat a meal, whatever they want, neglecting to mention that the food is all imaginary.

[candycandyru]

Garasu No Kamen

[tempenensis]

Could you translate this Gojo's Yahoo news .I use Google translate and they creat artical abot why is Gojo famous? Or something like that .Wanna know too why is Gojo super popular

https:

//t.co/kKVFlGqCDY?amp=1

A rough outline because translating the whole article would take too much time: 

The article talks about the popularity of Gojo as versatile master/teacher’s character which surpasses the main character and compared it to the popularity of the same archetype characters in the past, like Dragonball’s Master Roshi and Glass Mask’s Tsukikage Chigusa. 

His main attractive point is the “gap”; we know Gojo has elusive personality to the point that everyone around him said that they don’t respect him, but when Itadori died, he is shown to deeply care for him, to the point of threatening to kill the upper management.

This “gap” is “an iron plate material” that makes the master an attractive character and can be seen in pattern of master characters in the past; in which the usually useless master demonstrate extraordinary strength to protect his disciples, like Master Roshi who protect Goku during Tenkaichi Budokai, Naruto’s Kakashi who always reading Icha Icha Paradise but can always be relied during emergency.

Especially if they are usually a gentle person. Like Doi-sensei of Nintama Rantaro, he gets angry when the student does something wrong, but in the public face, they will always in their student’s side. Student is the first priority.

There’s also the gap where the master is strict with the student but that strictness is because they love their student. And the master’s wall is the final role that the master have, for the protagonist to overcome and be able to develop further. These gaps are what gives depth to the master character, and also to show that the protagonist is also respected. 

The reason of why master character is popular is probably we’re consuming the media with “reader or viewer” point of view, and it’s easier for us to project into the protagonist’s role. We have school and respectable teachers in real life, the environment in where we grows up, so we relate to the protagonist by having the same kind of teacher characters in life.

Sometimes the “master-student” connection is perceived to go deeper than family connection, so in a sense it’s a “good position” that support the growth of the main character.

Gojo at a glance is a bit crazy but actually he’s strong and handsome, so he creates a new “Moe Master” image.    

[hakonohanayome]

Glass Mask - Suzue Miuchi

[jadeazora]

Chigusa Tsukikage from Glass no Kamen.

Oscar and Marie Antoinette from Rose of Versailles

Maybe themselves? I remember them doing kabuki a while back during Koga’s episode, I think...

I recognize Ranma Saotome from Ranma 1/2, Catgirl Nuu Nuku, and isn’t that Rei Ayanami?

Hello Kitty, Faye Valentine, Ai Haibara, Minky Momo, and Paprika!

....Flat-chested. (Lina Inverse.)

[zerochanges]

Valentine’s Chocolates and Glass Masks

The romance genre in anime is a little weird, and honestly on the whole the majority of the genre in anime is probably a bit too slow for its own good. “Will they or won’t they” is something most romantic fiction is guilty of, but I think you’d be hard press to come across 150 episode TV series dedicated solely to that premise anywhere else. And this has nothing on the pure silliness that can come with the genre; hand holding, indirect kisses, masked secret admirers, all that good stuff. Really, I’m not here to trash talk romantic anime though, but as I sat down and tried to think about writing a Valentine's Day blog post I just couldn't help but think to myself how romance anime might be the hardest to explain to anyone not in the fandom. I mean, I think I’d have an easier time explaining the plot of any given saga in DBZ than I would explaining “Notice me, senpai” to somebody.

You know what though, I kind of ironically enjoy all of this. Yeah, pure romance anime can be cheesy, but it’s just the right amount cheese that it’s like, c’mon, how can you not enjoy this? Perhaps the worst (or best!) offender of this are older shoujo titles where they can seem almost downright like a soap opera at times. Shows like these are just so full of bizarre, off-the-walls, and over-the-top melodrama that they manage to suck me completely in. They’re heartbreaking, they’re engaging, and the times when they fail at being those things they are hilarious. 

My most recent experience with an older shoujo title like this would have to be studio Eiken’s 1984 adaptation of Glass Mask. Now Glass Mask (or Glass no Kamen as it is known by some) is a manga that started life in 1976 and to this day has yet to be finished, with the manga creator Suzue Miuchi stating she would like to finish it soon, but hasn't quite figured out when that will be (move over Hunter x Hunter fans). Having been one of the earlier shoujo titles starting back in the mid-70’s the series is full to the brim with pretty much every cliche and trope you can think of for shoujo anime, and to a modern audience it can often be almost hilarious at times to sit through. It is important to remember that for its time Glass Mask was a trend-setter and arguably if not the creator than certainly the reason why a lot of these cliches became cliches in the first place. Over the years Glass Mask has received its fair share of adaptations and even parodies, and currently has 3 different animes as well as a live action drama series and real life stage plays based on it. I heard the most recent anime, the 2005 TMS adaptation of Glass Mask, does a pretty great job at modernizing several aspects of the series, but unfortunately I have yet to watch that to weigh in so all I can say is that I was inundated with more cliches than I could count and laughed a ton while watching the 1984 series and I loved every minute of it. 

Glass Mask is the story of a young 13 year old girl Maya Kitajima, who has a dream to be a great theatre actress. Unfortunately for Maya she’s from a very poor family, and even more unfortunately for her, she is incredibly average looking with no flair--and don’t worry, the anime will remind you of that fact countless times every episode. Despite her damnable curse of “just looking kind of average” Maya will stop at nothing to pursue her dream and eventually runs away from home after getting a scholarship for an acting school. There, the enigmatic Chigusa Tsukikage notices Maya’s talents and takes her on as her protege. Soon, Maya learns that her mentor Tsukikage was once a legendary actress thought to be truly one of the all time greats who due to a tragic Phantom of the Opera style accident had her face hideously scarred and retreated out of the spotlight. 

Tsukikage is looking to pass on her talents to the future generation and eventually pass on her greatest possession, the rights to the elusive Crimson Goddess play--a supposed legendary masterpiece that has not been seen by anyone in decades; not since Tsukikage’s career ruining accident. For some reason the director and creator of the the Crimson Goddess play saw it fit to beseech all the rights to his masterpiece to Tsukikage and thus nobody else has been able to produce this elusive phantom play since. It won’t be easy for Maya and the Tsukikage acting school, as media conglomerate and mega corporation Daito Entertainment will stop at nothing to get the rights to the Crimson Goddess, and isn't afraid to sabotage them at every step of the way. Perhaps Maya’s greatest rival however is the young Ayumi Himekawa, the daughter of an already famous actress who is said to be the favorite to inherit the Crimson Goddess role, and is everything Maya isn't; beautiful, rich, famous and well loved by all, and while not a student of Tsukikage she is more than willing to pass on the rights to Himekawa if Maya fails to prove herself.

It’s easy to already see the cheesiness just from me trying my best to summarize the basic plot, and we haven’t even gotten into the romances yet. Maya’s relationship with the young Yu Sakurakoji is fairly simple at first, as he helped rescue her from a feral dog and despite being in rival acting schools--one affiliated under Daito no less, he’s a pretty chill guy that enjoys spending time with her and doesn't care about all that stuff. It’s only after Maya starts to take off in her career that Sakurakoji starts to spiral into this insane inferiority complex centered around her, where he thinks she has become too good an actress for him to be around anymore and starts to give her the cold shoulder all because of his own make-believe shortcomings. It’s very odd and sudden, and the entire thing is blown out of proportions as Maya clearly does not think that and Sakurakoji eventually has to be lectured by bad boy Masumi of all people to come around and start spending time with Maya again. Even after this however it isn't like the old days anymore and the gap that was created from his own complex still lingers.

And oh boy, don’t get me started on Masumi, he’s quite the character. Masumi Hayami is the 24 year old son of the president of Daito Entertainment and is currently running the corporation in his father’s stead. Masumi serves as both an antagonist and love interest (because of course he can be both) in the early parts of the story and is often behind some (but not all) the sabotage done to Tsukikage’s acting school. Masumi will eventually take a more reasonable approach when it comes to trying to yank the rights of the Crimson Goddess away from Tsukikage’s hands as the anime progresses, often just by having his acting school beating Tsukikage’s students in contest and the like, and it’s here where we usually see Masumi’s employees that work under him being the more underhanded characters instead of Masumi directly engaging in the conflict.

Despite being on different sides, so to speak, Masumi catches one of Maya’s earliest performances, her role as Beth in Little Women, and falls in love with the young girl, impressed by both her potential as an actress and her fortitude for going on with the show despite suffering from a dangerously high fever and immediately being rushed to the doctors after the curtains fall. From this point on her takes the role of “Mr Purple Rose” named for the bouquet of purple roses he sends to her at every show. As her secret admirer and the first fan Maya has ever had he means a lot to her yet as his true identity of Masumi he’s an enemy that Maya cannot stand to breathe the same air as. So in short, Masumi is just your average 24 year old CEO of a mega corporation crushing on a 13 year old girl from a small acting school he is trying to ruin and also her secret admirer. Somehow Masumi is one of the best characters in the series, and is my best boy. Only in shoujo!

So far I've been having some cheap laughs at the expense of the 1984 Glass Mask anime but it’s not all like this. The over-the-top bombardment of old school shoujo cliches and the laughs I got from them may be one of the most memorable component of my viewing but there’s actually a lot more to this anime than that. When you get beyond the silly age gap romances and the flowery melodrama of young teenage love, Glass Mask is a story of artists trying to pursue their passions and dedicating their everything to them. Maya may be cursed to forever be “only average looking” but I really respect her drive to dedicate her entire life to theatre. 

Well, that is to say, the times when she isn't acting like punching bag to the rest of the cast (Glass Mask has a tendency to make Maya into a Cinderella surrounded by tons of wicked stepsisters). When Maya is written not as a Cinderella she’s fiercely determined, and never backs down despite some straight-up abusive behavior she is put through. At times her mentor Tsukikage is absolutely savage, regularly beating Maya and putting her through some training that is definitely highly illegal, at least for today’s standards. For instance she once threw Maya in a shed and locked the door refusing to let her out until she finally understood her character she was assigned. Did I mention it was in the middle of the freezing cold winter and snowing out and Maya only had the clothes on her back for warmth? She was out there for days with no food, water, or even warmth. But don’t worry, she had her script to read and that made it all okay. Like goddamn, somebody call child protective services on this lady.

Speaking about “the art” and everyone’s passions, the more you watch the series the more it becomes obvious that the creator, Suzue Miuchi, really cares for theatre and isn't just using it as a vehicle to propel her own story. There are countless renditions of classic plays shown in Glass Mask, such as the mentioned already Little Women, The Miracle Worker, and Wuthering Heights, just to name a few. Some of these plays are presented without any changes while others may have reinterpretations made to them by the characters who are trying to give their roles a life of their own away from the original source material. Miuchi very much understands theatre and does a great job converting many famous plays into a more compressed and easily digestible form of entertainment that can be viewed on a week by week bases. The analysis characters give about the plays and other characters’ performances, the ways characters interpret their parts, and how the plays that we are privy to see in the series end up all show a deeper understanding of the medium. Watching Glass Mask is almost like taking a beginning course in theatre that covers all the classics, only with way more melodrama and over-the-top romance than you will find in your local theatre group. I hope.

What’s the most impressive however goes beyond just Miuchi’s renditions of other classic works and instead are her own plays that she creates herself. As not only does Glass Mask use pre-existing plays it also has its own original productions that will spring up in-between the real world plays. A lot of these self created plays are very enjoyable too, and some feel way more fleshed out than they have any right to be and you often find yourself regretting that you are only privy to a small part of the performance and not able to just sit there and watch the entire play like the characters in the anime do. Maybe that’s why it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that some of the plays Miuchi has created for her manga have later been adapted into real life plays in Japanese theatres. This is probably the greatest testament to the series’ popularity right there, where its own fictional works are turned real. I can’t think of many examples of something like that happening before.

I’d be remiss not to mention the visual aspect of this series before wrapping up my thoughts on it too. While certainly no powerhouse in animation, Glass Mask 1984 goes for a more picturesque route, and does a great job with tons of beautiful still shots and intricately detailed background images. It’s a humble production but with the right use of lighting a lot of scenes can really shine (pardon the terrible pun it was an accident), especially the night shots which can be pure art. Hang it in a museum, I say. I’m almost surprised we don’t see more “aesthetic” anime blogs mining images from this series. Veteran director Gisaburo Sugii (Dororo, Touch, Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix) leads the production with skilled marksmanship you would expect from his previous (and future) pedigree, and along with legendary animator the late Shingo Araki (Ashita no Joe, Galaxy Express 999, Saint Seiya) the series has a wonderful 80’s flair to it that just fills any retro anime fan full of nostalgia whether or not they have seen the show before.

Studio Eiken’s 1984 Glass Mask adaptation is a short, briskly paced 22 episode series that is easy on the eyes and not hard at all to still sit through for modern audiences. It’s full of tons of laughs (both ironic and sincere) as well as tons of melodrama and over-the-top romance. Most importantly though, it’s a full of passion; lots and lots of passion. During its short episode count the series watches Maya progress as an actress and grow older, with her finishing middle school and beginning high school while also balancing full time acting jobs on the side. The ending is left open--and let’s face it the manga hasn't even ended some 35 years later still--but there’s enough forward momentum in the series to really feel like your time with the characters wasn't wasted and that they were able to accomplish something--not to mention the ending spot is a pretty decent one leaving the viewer wanting more but enjoying a satisfying conclusion to one of the more interesting story arcs adapted. Overall I think anyone who enjoys cheesy anime romance can sit down with this series and have a fun Valentine’s.

[umihoshi]

shameless commercial for this dumb Shoujo anime I’m currently obsessing over

don’t even lie to me, you know this! you know this overly sparkly 90′s style! You just never actually heard what it’s about!

Though I personally enjoyed the 1986 version a lot, I can imagine that for most it will just cause a lot of shit and giggles. (it’s still great, shush!)

So I’m just going to focus on the 2005 version right now, cuz it’s beautiful and I watched the entire 51 episodes 3 times in a row and still can’t get enough! so please come join in my agony!

Many years ago, there was a stage play that pulled full halls, day in day out. it was a performance like nothing people had ever seen. gracefully, intensely. out-worldly.

The illusive Crimson Goddess is, up until this day, the dream of every actress. If you’d get to play that role only once, it would be the greatest honor possible.

But all rights for the role have been given to one actress. An actress who will never return to the stage again after an accident that mutilated her face: Tsukikage Chigusa.

(mother Gothel’s got nothing on this woman) Tsukikage keeps a tight hold on the rights of the play, demanding that only an actress she personally approves of will earn the right to play this legendary role.

decades pass, but the memory of the Crimson Goddess is still whispered about when the story follows Kitajima Maya

Maya is a clumsy mediocre girl who doesn’t really have anything going for her in looks or brains. Whenever she’s out to help the delivery store where her mom works, she’s distracted by seeing a tv-drama somewhere or playing pretend with children. when the daughter of the delivery store tells her she’ll give her a ticket to a famous stage play if she does all 99 deliveries on new years eve alone, nothing can stop Maya to get this chance. She always, always had wanted to see a live performance. With her love for theater, Maya is even willing to jump into the ice cold bay when the ticket flies off into the water.

Tsukikage has been watching Maya’s interest in theater and decides to invite her over, disguised as a delivery job. (imagine this woman eating ramen, lol) When Tsukikage asks if Maya could tell her about the play, she can repeat every word, every pose, every intonation of a 3 hour long play. After having seen it only once.

Touched by Maya’s passion, Tsukikage takes her as an apprentice, even if it means Maya has to run away from home. (tsukikage: I’m your mother now)

But things don’t go as rose-colored as Maya imagined acting would go. Aside from her own struggles in a world she’s only just entered, there are 2 people who cross her thorny path:

1) the perfect wife Himekawa Ayumi. Daughter of a famous actress and a renounced playwright, she seems to have absolutely everything Maya doesn’t: she’s beautiful, smart, talented, wealthy, has supportive parents. Even though they’re the same age, there’s no way Maya could ever be a perfect actress like this acting prodigy. But Ayumi recognizes Maya’s talent before long and becomes a bitter-sweet rival.

2) Atobe Keigo Hayami Masumi. the workaholic vice-precident of a well known entertainment company. his sole goal is to get the rights on producing ‘the Crimson Goddess‘ by any means necessary, going as far as jeopardizing Tsukikage’s theater into closure, causing Tsukikage’s health to decline rapidly. But when this cruel heartless man sees Maya perform for the first time, he is amazed by her passion for acting. as her secret fan, he starts a habit of sending her purple roses after a performance and supports her career from the shadows,

What amazing performances will Maya show? Will it be Maya or Ayumi who will win the role of Crimson Goddess? And how will Maya respond to finding out that the secret admirer she loves more then anyone is actually the man she hates the most?

[jewlwpet]

Art from volume 18 of Suzue Miuchi’s manga Glass Mask.

[candycandyru]

Suzue Miuchi Glass Mask

[hakonohanayome]

Glass Mask - Suzue Miuchi

[poppun-chan]

The Year of Keroro Challenge Update 5 (Yes Sir)

We’re Back! Actually this one was much easier than the last when I actually had the chance to work on it. Either way I’m going to be doing this a little bit differently, the end result will still be the same it’s more a difference in the production process so it will be easier to catch up.

On that note I had a bit of a surprise, I thought I was going to have several bits of writing to cover between the “Room of Reflection” and Labbie’s dry erase board on uses for bread crusts, but now it turns out both of those were more or less covered by Funimation (A few of the room of reflection notes seem to have been missed) so I have a whole bunch of unexpected free space now which I’d like to use to thank everyone who has been following my updates....And to give a special mention to DeadofFrogs who has been commenting on all of them, I just wanted to let you know that I do read and appreciate your comments, even if I can’t always think of something to say in response.

And now as usual, the plan count:

Serious Plans: K66:18 D66:1 MMK:1 TMM:1 (The anime one was a bit hard to classify since it could also be a funding one)

Funding Plans: K66:2

It’s a plan, I Swear!: K66:6 (I threw the birthday one in for good measure) 

Oh look! Progress!: K66:3

Also I somehow forgot to bring this up last time but in regards to episode 22, has anyone else realised this? It’s a bit odd that Tamama made such a big deal out of being leader since, unless he’d have to cross Momoka in the process, he technically has an army of sorts at his disposal already in the form of Momoka’s bodyguards (speaking of which, I wonder how he kept everything from that episode from getting back to her)

Episode 29: Oh goodness this episode is just full of fun little easter eggs....And Keroro’s acting, that’s just hilarious. Either way the first is Keroro parody Chigusa Tsukikage, the acting mentor from the shoujo manga “Glass Mask” who has a similar hairstyle to the one Keroro wears in the episode to hide the burn marks on her face. Rabbie’s bit about uses for bread crusts is a nod to a trope in Japan that a staple food for poor characters is the bread crusts that bakeries throw away when making their sandwiches (They sell crust-less sandwiches)

I remember somebody mentioning that the members of the Newspaper club are likely inspired by the human children from Doraemon (less Nobita), and I can sort of see that; but more than that has anyone else noticed the small animal they test the device on looks a bit like Ryo-ohki from the Tenchi series? No really, look at it.

Episode 30: Now let’s all be honest with our ourselves, this episode represents our worst case scenario when meeting our online friends; we all say it’s finding out the other person is really a creep twice our age sporting a moose hat or a serial killer or something like that, but after several years we can assume such people would have lost patience. No, secretly the thing we dread the most is having the other person meet the people we see everyday and reference all the times we’ve vented our frustrations over things they’ve done. 

Oh! One thing I noticed was that Taruru mentions being the representative of the 4th year group, not the kindergarten group....granted that doesn’t really tell us that much; in Japan only elementary school has a 4th year, but since Keron is a different planet altogether they could have a fourth year of middle school or high school, or it could be a system where the first year of training starts much later than you’d except (maybe around 11 or 12). Another is at the end Tamama says “Our Generation’s Turn”, not “Your Generation”, but the Funimation release’s subtitles fixed that anyway (my guess it is was a typo, it does make more sense with “Our” though since the age gap between the two doesn’t seem to be that big)

Moving along to part b, regardless of your stance on these sort of things and whether we should show developing characters being insecure about their appearances and working through it or whether we should have them always be satisfied with it no matter what (I lean more towards the former, it covers the people who arrive at insecurities on their own), can we just take a moment to look at Momoka’s Mother? She more or less looks the way Momoka wants to and considering the other ways she takes after her Mother, just waiting a few years to see what happens seems a viable option (Though I have to admit I never understood when other girls compared their appearances to adult women; it’s like comparing a kitten and a cat, you’re a similar thing but you’re not there yet). I have to admit I never really went through this though, my parents didn’t really draw much attention to these things and there’s quite a lot I didn’t notice about my appearance until I turned 20 (Plus I had a back brace I wore most of the day from ages 9-15 because my back muscles weren’t strong enough and after it came off most of the major changes had already happened, like a butterfly)

Episode 31: Aww! This one was quite cute, really there’s no other way I can describe it, this episode has a lot of really adorable moments between Keroro’s excitement over his space craft, the effort he goes through to make it back with his souveneer, and the moments with the narrator. And of course the two sweetest moments of the episode: the interaction with the Mojajin had the same sort of charm as seeing somebody pay a backhanded, yet sincere compliment and seeing Natsumi go searching for Keroro was adorable as well. I’m going to admit, when I first watched the series Natsumi’s way of handling the aliens rubbed me the wrong way and it still does, especially when she does the authoritarian “I’m forbidding it and expect you to just accept it” bit (honestly, I can’t condone that behaviour in anyone), so the opening was a bit dicey for me but the ending makes up for it. Really Keroro and Natsumi have one of the most tumultuous relationships in the show, so the rare moments when we get to see that they do care about each other are always nice to see.

And as a side note, the moment with the frog was absolutely hilarious; I always love it when you see characters based on an animal species interacting with that animal (Honestly, I’m shocked that after four movies Equestria Girls still hasn’t done a “Pony meets Horse” joke)

Episode 32: I’m going to take a moment to ask the one question that’s been burning in the back of my mind since I first saw this episode and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s wondered this: What would happen if they used this thing on a frog? Would it turn into a Human or a Keronian? There’s the potential for quite a few humour moments with this one and I would have loved to see that explored a bit. Also does anyone else find it funny that when Keroro explains why a Panda would make a good ally he basically describes a role that’s already filled by Tamama? Having a cute appearance, but becoming violent when you get too close. Actually Pandas aren’t especially aggressive towards humans, they have attacked them, but usually out of irritation (Dolphins would fit the cute yet deadly bit better than a Panda, some species such as the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin hunt for sport).

Having said that I’m guessing the Zoo they visit is based on the Ueno Zoo since that Zoo is located in Tokyo and did have a Panda at the time; though that Panda was male, also the Elephants they had during the war died of starvation, there’s a memorial, and a historically inaccurate picture book about it and everything

Episode 33: Now this one is interesting, my goal is to be a director/producer of animation (I’ve actually been working on a story board for a fan project) so I always enjoy a peek into the production process, especially for shows. It’s doubly interesting since the process they show is very different from in North America where the voice acting is typically done first, while the method shown here has it as the last step (it must make dubbing foreign shows easier though, if you usually do something similar anyway)

Though there are a couple of options for a difficult to draw pose that weren’t in here that I remember from the classes I took, one is taking a picture so you don’t have to have a model standing for as long. The other is a bit controversial considering the sensibilities I’ve seen from some fan artists, but it’s something called a swipe file. Basically it’s a collection of pictures that that catch your interest that you can use for inspiration, reference and things you can’t get to look right. I know some people don’t approve, but some professionals do actually trace poses and details they have trouble with, especially if it’s something like key animation where you have to make a large number of drawings in a short period of time with nothing to work off of (in-between animation is easier since you’re working off the key drawings and most of the image is the same once you figure out how the character will go from pose a to pose b, and the inking stage of cel animation even more so, enough that Walt Disney replaced the entire inking depart with photocopy machines after Sleeping Beauty released in theaters because the film did poorly and the studio was in financial trouble as a result). If nothing else it’s a good way to practice since you can build muscle memory.

I just wanted to mention this since I remember a while back in another fandom that a lot of people were scandalised when it came out that one artist known for drawing comics had been using screenshots to get the basic pose he built the character on top of and I thought people’s reactions were a bit unfair given how quickly he had been putting his comics together. Especially since nobody was bothered by vector tracing and it’s apparently something that the animation industry has done for years (Some actually do more than that, I remember reading a book from overseas that mentioned a possible shortcut for monochrome pieces of keeping a stack of travel and real estate brochures and catelogues to cut out background from. That I don’t know if you’d be able to do here though) 

Episode 34: Oh I remember this one, to be honest I prefer the ending in the anime version, not just because everyone gets to go, but also because it acknowledges the fact that Keroro never needed a ticket to begin with (on a side note, I feel the Tamama shaped canon on Momoka’s powered suit is a fun little touch). 

As for part 2, actually I don’t think I’ve watched either part of this episode very many times, but watching it again I’m surprised that one Duet with Keroro & Fuyuki doesn’t play, the one about finding a pebble while walking....Having said that I remember back when I first watched the series, the song boulevard of broken dreams played on the radio a lot and I think this episode was the reason for a parody that always popped into my head of Keroro singing it as “Boulevard of broken plates” (By the way, the best way to fix ceramics is to moisten it and use crazy glue; it needs moisture to stick so running it under the faucet should work)

Episode 35: It’s the birthday episode! I remember this inspiring an entire discussion trying to work out the approximate Birthdays of each character based on astrology (Fuyuki & Momoka have actual hints since we see their birthdays celebrated; Fuyuki’s is likely mid-October and Momoka’s in late March) we actually worked out a few, though I remember we had trouble with Dororo, Mois, Koyuki & Saburo & I’m not sure what we ultimately settled on.

Having said that Keroro’s does fit really well, there’s one person my family knows (the mother of my closest friend growing up) who has her birthday the day before Keroro’s and there are certain....similarities in their behaviour (To give you an idea, my mom first met her when I was in kindergarten and she asked my mom to be the emergency contact for her son who was in my class and my mom agreed to avoid her asking someone dangerous)

Also the gifts Giroro gives Natsumi are space versions of the items the title character of Kaguya Hime asks five suitors (one per suitor) to bring her to win her hand in marriage, in the end all of them fail since the tasks were supposed to be near impossible (it was more to stop them bothering her parents). Either way Giroro’s comment that he casually picked them up for her would probably have been a bit more believable if he had taken that claw/fang out of his head first....just a thought.

[2dcharacterbirthday]

Name: Tsukikage Chigusa From: Glass no Kamen Date of Birth: 29 October Gender: Female More info: https://myanimelist.net/character/7851/Chigusa_Tsukikage