#cos remembering kanji is hard

[narrators-journal]

persona 4 and 5

Kanji x ann and rise

Kinks: cuckquean, netorare(is considered If the cheated person knows?), blowjob, love Bites and scratchings, impregnation and Mating press.

After a sucessiful moddeling job and creating the clothes, kanji is rewarded by his hard Work How? By recording a breeding fuck session with his wife's best friend and co-worker ann takamaki. All set-up by his wife rise

Hello Man your Works are Very impressive i Hope you stay safe and be a even better writter. 🍷

This might be a bit eh, as I am a little rusty with the longer set-ups. But! I’m proud of this one! I like the set up, and I think I got all of your requests! At least, on the kinks. I often tend to just, run with my own ideas as I often forget the suggested ones lol. Plus! This is more fun! It’s like a lottery, what set up will you get lololol.

I don’t often write Kanji, so if he’s kinda eh, that’s why. As for Ann, I try to keep her to the characterization of having grown confident in herself and her sexuality in her adulthood? And I hope I’m not disrespectful with the character in these smuts hehe. Either way though! Hope you enjoy!

CW: A crumb of dubcon/coersion and impregnation. A bit o’ masochism, maybe a bit of exhibitionism/semi-public sex? Considering where this is? A new kink as well! Netorare! I had to look that one up, lol. It’s at least there in spirit, as well as Rise being a cuckquean. “Okay everybody! That’s a wrap, take ten and we’ll start on our next collection!” the photographer called as if it were a movie set rather than a rented out pool for his small group of helpers and their model for the day, a shapely blonde woman at the edge of the water.

And, as the photographer, lighting, makeup, and P.A’s scattered like rats for their own reasons, Ann Takamaki simply sighed and stayed by the pool to enjoy the cool water. At least, until an expected voice drew her attention, “Uh, hey there, Takamaki! Rise said you needed some of her makeup to show one of your people?” Kanji Tatsumi said, let into the set by one of the P.As like Ann had told them to. “Oh! Hey there, Kanji, yeah! Thanks a lot for bringing it, sorry if you had to, like, leave work or anything.” She chirped, finally getting to her feet to greet the man in the valentines-red bikini she wore with no shame. Though, Kanji seemed to have a different opinion.

Not that Ann could blame him, she could admit she’d grown into quite the attractive woman. With full breasts, breeding-ready hips, and supple thighs, her body was eye catching. And that wasn’t even to mention how her honey blonde hair was perfectly styled and her makeup was done up to make her as hot as humanly possible. And, after all of her experiences as a phantom thief, she had the comfort to take a bit of pride in how she could fluster men so easily.

Though, Kanji bit back his nerves to give her the blush Rise had used as her excuse. At least, until he remembered her attire. “O-oh, right, maybe I should keep hold of this until you’re...done.” he chuckled, a bit pink as Ann shrugged, “Just means you’ll have to hang around if you do that. Again, hope you don’t have to work today.” “O-oh, no, I’m off. Hence why, y’know, my wife sent me.” He said, all of the confidence and machismo Rise said he had in school, gone like a puff of smoke at the simple sight of Ann in a bikini. “I’m sure you did great today, by the way, Takamaki. Or...uh, you looked great? Uh, I mean, for the photos. Whichever is...appropriate.” Kanji Tatsumi offered, his attempts to keep his blue eyes off of Ann’s bikini-clad body while he tried to make some sort of awkward small talk kind of cute to the woman. She appreciated that the rather nerdy-looking ex-delinquent did his best to not leer at her cleavage or hips like most men.

Granted, Ann had long since become desensitized to the attention of men. Their eyes, words, and whistles all reactions she had come across in her years of modeling so many times that she could almost predict the ‘compliments’ and offers they would throw out. But, she still found it a bit flattering to see the ebony-haired man try to be polite. This is why I agreed to help your wife. “Y’know, Kanji, I could use someone to help me blow off some steam real quick before the photographer returns.” She mused, the tall ex-delinquent only able to give a confused look at her implication.

So, she smiled sweetly at him and strolled up to him to ghost a hand down from his chest, over his belly, and over his crotch. “Help me blow off some steam~” She reiterated in a more lustful tone. Yet, the man was as stiff as a board at her touch, so he couldn’t respond.

However, that didn’t stop Ann when she backed him up to the cold wall of the pool’s room before she lowered herself down to her knees and tugged his pants down to free his cock to the slightly humid air of the room. Free for the pretty blonde to stroke and toy with until it was at least somewhat erect. Of course, she didn’t stop there, though, as she escalated to rubbing small circles into the tip of his member to draw out a bead of precum. Which, with a smile up to the man, she kissed away.

And, with her lips pressed to the head of kanji’s semi-erect cock, the dark-haired man seemed to come to from his dazed state, a little frantic between her and the pool room’s wall. “Hey! Wait a second, I-I have a wife!” he reminded her, which made the blonde chuckle, sweetly humming with her fingers keeping his cock in place so she could speak, “Yeah, but doesn’t that make it all the more fun?~ It’s sooooo taboo~” She purred, before she silenced any further arguments with a swipe of her tongue against the tip. Though, she chose not to tease him further with the way the mention of it’s taboo nature made his member twitch, and instead took the head of him into her mouth.

From there, he fell into a stunned silence and let her bob her head further and further down to work him bit by bit into the warmth of her mouth. Her tongue pressed against the bottom of his length as it slid further and further towards the back of her throat. Just the right amount of suction and the careful strokes of her hand enough to earn a few quiet moans from the hesitant man.

However, Ann didn’t let Kanji cum justyet. No, instead, she let his dick slip out of her warm mouth with a soft, teasing pop, now erect before she slowly stood up in front of him with her false nails pressed into the man’s thighs to drag up with her. Angry red lines left in her wake before she pressed her ample chest to his with a coy smile. “Come now, Kanji~ Let’s just have some quick fun, okay? Your wife won’t ever have to know.”

Kanji paused to think for a moment before he answered with a kiss. A heated kiss, that he held as he turned the blonde so that shewas the one trapped between a body and the cool solidity of the wall. Something that Ann easily allowed the tall man to untie the bottoms of her bikini and hoist her up to wrap her legs around his hips. Which, allowed her to grind against his boner and earn more moans. All the while, Ann’s pretty nails bit into his skin and left more and more of those red lines on his skin.

Though, the sparks of pain she was sure her scratches left didn’t do much to dissuade the desperate man who rutted against her. The friction able to stoke her own embers of lust until, finally, his cock slid into her. And, god did he feel good. Jesus, I can tell how you got a wife so easily. Ann thought as his impressive length stretched her and pushed against all of the most sensitive spots within her the further he pushed in. The delicious waves of pleasure enough to draw out Ann’s own moans.

But, the warm pulses of pleasure didn’t stop there. Because, once Kanji was buried within Ann’s cunt, he hooked an arm beneath her thighs and forced them from his hips, to his arms. A move that simultaneously caused a spark of discomfort, but also allowed him to slip further into her before the ebony-haired man began to thrust at an almost feral pace. Which, was a fair choice, as Ann’s break before another photo shoot was sort of brief, but, regardless of that, it also made for an onslaught of surprising fun. Each time the glasses-clad man drove his dick within her, the coil within her belly tightened more and more. As if to make room for his cock within her due to how deep his thrusts went.

However, the blonde resisted the urge to throw her head back in some equally carnal howl of desire. After all, she was still caged between him and a wall, and a concussion wouldn’t be the best for her next photoshoot. So, instead, she moved to bury her face in the man’s neck to huff his musky cedar-scented cologne. Before, on a whim, she began to nip and bite at his throat to continue those sparks of pleasurable pain to push Kanji further.

And, in turn, his thrusts somehow managed to grow more feral, as if he sought to knock her up in the most brutal pace possible. Kanji almost seemingly lost in his own pleasure and unaware of how his desperate, sloppy thrusts flushed out Ann’s thoughts. Until, finally, they both seemed to reach a feverish temperature that blinded Ann to everything but the cold material of the pool room wall. The contrast of the heat of Kanji’s fertile cum as it filled her womb and the coarse wall enough to slowly anchor her back to reality, where Kanji panted, his blue eyes slowly beginning to focus back just like hers. ”Was that fun for you too?” She asked, able to watch the blush spread across his face as he dropped her legs and stepped away. “Oh my god...I’ve fucked up so bad…” “Oh don’t start that,” Ann hummed as she plucked her bottoms up from the floor and retied them back around her hips as if her legs weren’t jello beneath her. “It was fun! I’m sure your wife will forgive you.” She assured, but the guilt didn’t seem to go far, even as Kanji nodded and straightened his own clothes.

And, said nothing else as they separated once more. Kanji sure to scurry home, Ann to her next photo shoot in the pool’s water as if nothing had happened on her break.

[gazingatmydoom]

weird readings of kanji bother me not just cos they're hard to remember but cos they're not entirely bullshit either. like 三日月, read as みかづき (mikadzuki). alright that's weird cos the individual kanji can be read as san, nichi and gatsu. BUT i'm being stupid reading them like that. because 三日 is read as みっか, and there u have the み (mi) and the か (ka). it's just without the small つ. and 月 *can* be read as つき (tsuki), but because this word is made up of multiple kanji, it's a rendaku word, which means the つ (tsu) becomes voiced, turning into a づ (dzu). and so: みかづき. it doesn't a fuckass lick of sense but technically everything is sorta where it should be. it's like malicious compliance. like fine. ur TECHNICALLY following the rules here bub. but watch urself. goddamnit.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 274 “Obsession”

So this chapter is mostly a chapter that works to expose stuff except the most important one.

Come on, Sugimoto, let us know what you know about Yuusaku. We need to know. For science. No, okay, we’re just curious, that’s it.

So anyway, exposition time.

As the guys are at Sapporo station Asirpa tells them a story about an Ainu woman making beautiful red clothes. However, when her husband wore them, wet them under the rain and then rested his iron axe against them, they changed colour and turned brown.

Asirpa interprets this by saying the womans’ ‘obsession' for a perfect red colour made it delicate.

Meanwhile we see Shiraishi walking away from the bottle-mobile carrying Asirpa’s things. Now, okay, Asirpa has just lived a traumatic experience but I’m not really fond of how they turned Shiraishi into the boy that carries the luggage. Whatever, as he walks away he looks back at Boutarou’s corpse still in the bottle-mobile, thanking him, acknowledging him as the king ‘Thank you, king’.

In a way it’s important, as Shiraishi has never taken seriously Boutarou’s dream yet he now validates it, he can recognize its importance and the fact Boutarou lived to fulfil it… and, it’s possible, in a way he inherits it, he inherits the fact he’ll pass Boutarou’s memory on, so as not to let him die out completely.

On another note… I hope he didn’t have to skin him.

I would get the sense of it, how he might want to be the one to take care of it because Boutarou was his friend and saved his life but… I think skinning a person has also a damaging psychological effect so I don’t want this to happen to Shiraishi.

Anyway Asirpa goes on and remembers when Boutarou and Kadokura died the wet skins touched the metal stove, they changed colour.

So although @okapimstari​ was so kind to point out to me how the boiler should have been made in copper… well, evidently Noda took artistic licence and made it in iron. Or did they use iron stoves in the past?

No idea, anyway Asirpa noticed how one of the skins touching it has turned black while another hasn’t, which was what I expected for that scene to meant originally

Anyway Asirpa points out how Sugimoto uses alum to tan the skins and Nagakura confirms they do as well so Asirpa suggests Edogai instead used another method to tan the skin, basically guessing Edogai uses tannins from a spiketail plant, which would match with what Kumagishi suggested, that Edogai wanted to make fake skins that were better than the original.

At this point we see they had placed 6 skins on the rails, under the rain.

And here things can become troublesome.

Likely of whose 6 skins, 5 are the ones Ariko brought back. The last skin should be the one that Hijikata found in Edogai’s house. But Hijikata also had another fake skin, the one he got from the oil seller. When Asirpa figures out that, among those 6 skins, the skins that didn’t follow the rules were fake but that she has 2 who follow the rules...

...she, Nagakura and Co, instead than praising Tsurumi for his guts, should have realized this means there were 2 MORE FAKE SKINS UNACCOUNTED FOR and should have checked the other skins whose provenience they weren’t sure so that they would have figured out the oil seller skin is fake too.

The fact that a fake skin could still follow the rules isn’t so hard to figure out, after all, as Edogai was writing Kanji at random and could pick some which would fit.

But whatever, maybe they’ll realized they’ve to check those skins too and it will be revealed in the volume version… or they just didn’t try this method on the skin which already changed colour (but in this case why they didn’t test Ogata’s skin as well? Asirpa doubted it too)... or they’ll have troubles solving the code until they realize which can make for a more interesting plot. We’ll see.

Anyway Asirpa reveals that the key to solve the code is her father’s Ainu name ‘Horkew Oskoni’.

She gets such a sad look as she say so I feel bad for her.

Sugimoto comments it makes sense as what he realized in Karafuto was that some of the kanji on the skins shared the same sound when one would read them…

...and I facepalm here because this is irrelevant.

I mean, Wilk could very well insert in the skins kanji that read ‘pa’ 14 times and this would mean nothing because ‘pa’ isn’t the right kanji.

Either Wilk had been cautious to repeat only the kanji that could be read as his name… which gave people an additional way to figure out the code should they not know his name, or he mixed them all at random so that who didn’t know the key couldn’t say ‘okay, let’s consider all the kanji that sound the same and assume they’re the one which are relevant and discharge the others’ and then started a game of scrabble to see which word they could form with them so as to backtrack the key. But whatever, let’s let this slide.

Shiraishi, hearing how the name means “to catch up with the wolves” figures Asirpa remembered thanks to Kiro, another of Shiraishi’s friends who died in this gold hunt.

I wonder if Shiraishi is going to have a more relevant role in future developments since all this clearly affected him.

We’re shown a panel in which Sofia, Hijikata and Nagakura talk. I do wonder if Hijikata knows Russia or if Sofia is using her broken Japanese to talk with him but whatever, they’re probably coming to an agreement or some sort of allegiance.

Meanwhile Asirpa answers to Ushiyama’s question confirming she told Tsurumi about the code, the visual giving us an image of Tsurumi rolling above the fake skins under Tsukishima’s eyes. Really, Tsukishima, wake up, this is not a normal man you should follow.

Ushiyama points out they’ve to hurry so Sugimoto says they’ve to bet on the info Boutarou gave them about the place in which the Ainu gathered the gold long ago, so they should solve the code while going there, as the new hideout is likely near it.

To go there they decide to take the train.

There’s a panel showing they’re reached by Kantarou, Toni Anji, Kirawus and Kadokura before getting aboard the train. As Ogata, in the previous chapter, noticed Kirawus and Kadokura, I wonder if he is merely tailing them or he even went so far as talking with them.

We’ll see.

Anyway, once aboard the train, Hijikata points out they need a spot in which they can spread the skins so they can work on solving the code. Shiraishi points out the first class is perfect for that.

A first class passenger though, in a bit of a rude fashion, take in their poor look and warns them they’ve to hurry back to the third class.

Now… Hijikata usually has plenty of money so maybe he bought them tickets for the first class… but since they didn’t march straight to it but considered the third class I’m not so sure.

So, although the guy was rude with them, I don’t find particularly funny how Sugimoto just grabbed him and suck him out of the wagon in order to take possession of the first class wagon, and this stay true even if Hijikata is willing to pay the extra for a first class ticket for all of them.

He doesn’t own the train and that guy, albeit clearly rude, paid for the ticket, So Sugimoto is just being a bully, worse than the over mentioned rude guy.

Anyway, as Asirpa Hijikata and Nagakura start spreading the skins in attempt to work out the solution of the code...

...Sugimoto and Shiraishi just enjoy the softness of the seats in the first class, which are like VIP seats, Sugimoto falling asleep, rocked by the train.

Due to Shiraishi’s comment though, Sugimoto ends up remembering/dreaming Kikuta, telling him he has a VIP seat for hell which makes for one hell of a bad omen for their trip...

(I think you all read in the notes how this was the litteral meaning of the sentence both Sugimoto and Kikuta said back in the past which, back then was translated as ‘rolling a red carpet for them’ because in English it justs works better)...

... anyway Kikuta tells Sugimoto due to this Sugimoto should forget about him… and about Hanazawa Yuusaku too.

‘Wasurete kure. Hanazawa Yūsaku no koto mo zenbu wasurero’

忘れてくれ。花沢勇作のことも全部忘れろ

“Forget about me. Forget everything about Hanazawa Yuusaku also.”

Kikuta is wearing civilian clothes, his hair is cut short and his face is shaven as he smokes, which, in addition to the years who went by, might explain why Sugimoto didn’t immediately recognize him.

Sugimoto also has his hair cut short and no scars.

As Sugi got his scars very early at the start of the war, this is likely PRIOR to the start of the war, maybe when Sugimoto was in Tokyo about to be recruited for it.

It’s hard to tell though, as it can be also during his wandering prior to go back to his village and discover Umeko had married… but since he’s in a city I would say it’s after he made sure he wasn’t contagious any longer.

Kikuta is from the Saitama prefecture, which borders with Tokyo, so, combining it with how Kikuta is a spy for Central, and Sugimoto is from Kanagawa prefecture (which also borders with Tokyo) and got enlisted in the Tokyo Division, it makes sense he might be in the Tokyo area.

Now… the implications of the discussions are that Kikuta did something for Sugimoto that might have put the latter in troubles since the two seem to be in good relations and yet Kikuta urges him to forget about him, as if to say ‘do not care about what could happen to me, I’m a bad guy and I’ll end up in hell’.

Kikuta then suggests to Sugimoto to forget about Hanazawa Yuusaku, which, in case someone has forgotten, is the name of Ogata’s half-brother… which prior to the war should have been in the Imperial Japanese Army Academy which, again, is located in Tokyo so yeah, I’ll say they should be in Tokyo.

So what’s the connection between Yuusaku and Sugimoto?

In all of Ogata’s memories Yuusaku was presented as a model boy, a good boy, DESPITE BEING HANAZAWA’S SON AND HANAZAWA BEING A JERK.

Ogata assumes his nice disposition is due to being raised with love by loving parents.

Now, it can be that Yuusaku did something nice for Sugimoto but still Kikuta is urging him to forget Yuusaku.

It would match with the Yuusaku we knew up till now, who’s a nice boy… but I somehow don’t get this wibe from this conversation.

SO, REALLY CRAZY THEORIZING TIME UP, CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED YOU’RE ABOUT TO ENTER IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

Back in the far past, Sugimoto suggested Suzukawa should disguise as a high ranking officer from a division in Tokyo and Ogata shoot down that idea, saying that the higher you to in the army, the better everyone knows each other so they would see right through a fake high-ranking officer. He said so looking down, as if he had experienced something similar and, back then, many had wondered which could be the story behind this.

So what if the story behind this is that the Yuusaku he met actually wasn’t the real Yuusaku?

Please, follow me in this crazy theory.

Let’s assume something happened to Yuusaku, be it that he died or that he decided he’s not up for going to war with all that high mortality rate and escaped.

Depending on what happened to him, it can be that, in order not to lose face, either Hanazawa or Tsurumi covered up his death and replaced him.

It might explain why Yuusaku doesn’t seem to look at all like Hanazawa, down to his nose who looks more like Kikuta’s than Hanazawa.

But the trick would be quickly discovered should Yuusaku interact with higher ups.

So Yuusaku instead tries to spend all his time with the lower ranking soldiers. If the trick is staged by Tsurumi, it might be Tsurumi himself which instructed him to use as excuse to hand with the lower ranks, Ogata. Ogata doesn’t know ‘Yuusaku’ isn’t actually his brother, while the poor ‘Yuusaku’ just obeys to all the instructions given to him by who had placed him there. This might be why his explanation about why he shouldn’t kill people felt disconnected, not like it wouldn’t match what Hanazawa would tell him, and a bit hollow, as if he hadn’t had a lifetime to make it his own.

I mean, Hanazawa would want his son to become a great soldier like him, and kill people. He didn’t act like he cared about his troops (or anyone for the matter) so why should he care about them feeling guilt?

I think the stand in Yuusaku might have been a kind person, he might have been genuine in how he reached for Ogata, telling him it wasn’t possible he weren’t to feel guilt, maybe he even regretted tricking him.

But the stand in is set up to be killed.

He has to.

Partly because he would be eventually recognized as a stand in should he interact with the higher ups, partly because Tsurumi, by manipulating Ogata into killing him, basically breaks whatever kindness remained in Ogata that pushed him to feel sympathy for Koito’s situation in a way similar to how he broke Tsukishima as well as any loyalty he might feel for Hanazawa when the latter won’t care about searching him.

And Ogata might have discovered he killed the ‘wrong’ Yuusaku after he killed Hanazawa. Hanazawa had a Yuusaku portrait. Ogata might have discovered the face on it didn’t match with the one of the Yuusaku he killed.

And if that fake Yuusaku were tied to Kikuta somehow this would make it for an even more interesting situation, because it’s implied that Ogata and Kikuta are supposedly working together, but Ogata was nervous when he met Kikuta and felt the need to pat his head as Kikuta walked past him… and Usami was so kind to tattle out how Ogata was the one behind Yuusaku’s murder.

And Ogata probably now regrets murdering ‘Yuusaku’ also because that Yuusaku wasn’t the real deal and didn’t deserve it at all.

Also if the REAL Yuusaku looked like Hanazawa, he would have looked like Ogata too… and if he did something that upset Sugimoto this might explain Sugimoto’s initial hostility to Ogata as he subconsciously saw REAL Yuusaku in Ogata.

Okay, so this is the end for this really CRAZY THEORY TIME.

I’m probably off track big time and this is just insane theory time but it would explain some things nicely.

Anyway we’ll see if Noda will develop more the initial scene, telling us about Yuusaku from Sugimoto’s point of view, finally showing us his face.

Thank you for staying with me along my insanity and let’s wait for the next chapter!

[kumonokyojin]

Juju Talk Episode 10 Highlights

Back with highlights for Episode 10 of Juju Talk with Enoki Junya (Itadori’s VA) and Uchida Yuuma (Fushiguro’s VA)! I figured with Yuuma coming back next week for two more episodes (omg just become a co-host please), it’s time I get this out haha. Always a fun time with these two!

Highlights

Yuuma really liked Gojo’s quote about how being a jujutsushi is like competing in an individual sport, he also likened it to how it’s like being a seiyuu and basically being self-employed (lol)

He also mentioned he’s similar to his character in that he’s also the kind of guy who would in situations also “bunt” like Fushiguro did in the baseball game

Another point that Yuuma really relates to Fushiguro is thinking about what they say to people ahead of time and to be careful with his words and not cross-talking or speaking too much, Enojun agrees with him too that it’s hard to figure out how much to talk when on a show or during an interview

Both of them agree that Gojo’s first impression to elementary schooler Fushiguro was that he was…not a good person (LMAO, can’t disagree)

Got confirmation that Tsumiki’s VA is Hayami Saori (yessss, one of my favorites, I can’t wait to hear more of her in the future hopefully!)

Yuuma voices Fushiguro’s domain expansion line, “Chimera Shadow Garden” which you can listen to here!

Both Junya and Yuuma comment about how difficult the kanji is for “Chimera Shadow Garden” to read haha

Yuuma said he was really excited to see how Fushiguro’s domain expansion would be animated, seeing his character launch a killer technique like Kamehameha haha

Junya and Yuuma refer to the Cursed Wombs: Death Painting trio of brothers’ VAs as the strong “Legendary Seiyuu” (like Namikawa Daisuke as Chouso) because they grew up respecting them, some of them were even acting possibly before they were born!

They both joked about how Kechizu’s VA, Yamaguchi Kappei, was quoted in Weekly Shounen Jump saying that he would work hard so that Kechizu could become a plushie to sell as JJK goods haha

Yuuma: “Kechizu’s face is so scary!”

Junya: “We don’t know which mouth he talks out of because he has two!”

Q&A time!

The first question asked the two to reflect back on their school days and when something bad happened, what did they use for motivation to come back from it, the asker was having trouble studying for their final exams

Junya remembered one incident back when he was sitting in the school lobby and a girl got really close to him because she thought he looked like this famous ikemen student but when she saw his face she said loudly so that everybody could hear, “You’re not him!” (OMG)

He said he couldn’t keep his motivation there understandably (lol)

Yuuma tries reassuring him that Junya’s cousin who’s also a VA, Anzai Chika, told him that Junya was the handsomest guy from their family

Junya: “That doesn’t make me happy being praised by my cousin!”

Relating back to Fushiguro, Yuuma said he mostly ran away from anything he didn’t like back in school

Junya’s response? “The most hopeless kind of guy…” (LOL)

Apparently, Yuuma hated P.E. back in the day and hated moving in general (hahaha I see Fushiguro in him here too), making up excuses for skipping class, especially for swimming lessons

On the other hand, he really worked hard for his music classes and his after-school activities in the brass band club

Both Junya and Yuuma conclude that you should do your best for the things you like…but then backtrack when they remember it’s final exams, so they just encourage the asker to work hard now because it will pay off in the future with more JJK to enjoy haha

---

Thanks for reading! I can’t believe Yuuma’s already coming back next week for more new episodes with Junya! In the manga too, it seems Yuuji and Megumi are reunited now on their search for Hakari. It’s a good time to be an Itafushiita fan. :’)

Previous Juju Talk highlights:

Episode 9 | Episode 1

[the-roadkill-cafe]

Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @phoenixyfriend

Tagging: @stormwind13 @elenathehun @hiruma-musouka @kendochick-moor

Remember to make a new post!

How many works do you have on AO3?

8

What’s your total AO3 word count?

75,290

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

One fandom - Naruto. In the past I’ve written for other fandoms, but not on this account.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Company of Trees, Throwing a Stone in a River, If The Bird Doesn’t Sing, Tree Branches, the devil and the deep blue sea

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to respond to everything, though it can be quite some time before I get around to replying. I like to respond to comments to say thank you and to interact with people. While I don’t think fic writers are owed reviews or comments, I do think mutual interaction helps make fandom go ‘round, and to that end, I want to interact with people who leave me comments.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Considering my fics are all pretty much WIPs, there aren’t really endings, per se. But the one with the angstiest planned ending is Throwing a Stone in a River.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

At the moment, no, I don’t really write crossovers or fusions.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not...really? I’ve had some rude comments, but none that I say really qualify as hate. I have really kind readers.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do write smut! I write all kinds of smut, from non-con to fully consensual. However, the vast majority of it is not published, mostly because I haven’t actually finished anything.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. About...three times now, someone has plagiarized The Company of Trees. I’ve always been told by someone else, and luckily, the issue has always been easily resolved.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

A long time ago, I had someone start translating one of my fics on another account, but the website shut down and I don’t know whatever happened.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

A few times, but nothing that was ever published. I’ve written a lot with jaycrowind and @stormwind13.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Pretty hard to say. My favorite ship depends on my mood and what fandom I’m currently reading in. I will say that my first OTP was Sesshoumaru/Kagome in Inuyasha.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Sorry to say, but probably all of them, hahaha. The three posted on my AO3 accounts are behemoths and I write pretty slowly. I haven’t given up on them! I just don’t know if I’ll actually finish them.

What are your writing strengths?

I like to think that my writing strength is characterization.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. Sentence variation. Pacing.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Oh boy do I have thoughts about this. When it comes to anime, I’m actually a bit nitpicky, but then, I’m nitpicky about a lot of stuff in general, hahaha.

Presumably, in the vast majority of anime, everyone is speaking Japanese. There are exceptions, but I won’t get much into those. For things like suffixes (-san, -sama, etc), I prefer to leave those untranslated because they are very revealing of the speaker’s personality and the hierarchical nature of Japanese culture. They also don’t really have good translations in English. There are ways to translate them, but in my opinion, they don’t convey both speaker personality, social status, and also social+emotional distance the same way, because English speaking cultures (typically) just aren’t as stratified as Japanese culture.

I also leave familial terms of address untranslated (Okaasan, niisan) and certain titles and positions (In Naruto, Hokage, Shodai, Nidaime, etc.) untranslated because again, they’re difficult to translate. For familial titles, it feels incredibly awkward to type “Brother” in dialogue when directly addressing someone. Again, not only does it leave out the nuance of the relationship between the speaker and the addressee, but in English we just don’t directly address people like that, generally speaking. In Japanese, you do, because you try to avoid using someone’s name.

I don’t like to translate attack names because I just think they sound silly in English, that’s why.

For things that aren’t anime, I generally try to avoid outright writing whole sections of dialogue in another language. Instead I prefer to indicate a different language in the dialogue tags or something (The two men started speaking in Spanish blah blah blah) or italics. There are really only a few times where I would write dialogue in another language, usually to show that someone was previously not understood but through magic/a translating device/etc suddenly they are now understood.

Can I put a pet peeve here? I’m going to put a pet peeve here. In Naruto, Hashirama is not the Shodaime, he is the Shodai. Shodaime is grammatically incorrect and you can even check the wiki, he is literally not called the Shodaime. Basically, the -me suffix in Japanese makes a regular number (one, two, three) into the ordinal version (first, second, third). However, Hashirama’s title Shodai is written not with the kanji for “one” ( 一 ) but with the kanji for “beginning” ( 初 ) which means it can’t take the -me suffix because it isn’t a number. Essentially, Shodai translates as “starting generation” or “beginning generation”, therefore Shodai Hokage is “starting generation Hokage” (or Fire Shadow, if you prefer). But Tobirama is the Nidaime, because his title uses the number ( 二 ), so translated, he is the “second generation Hokage”.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Inuyasha, a long, long time ago.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Mmmm. Either The Company of Trees or Throwing a Stone in a River. However, although they’re my favorites, I’ve been finding my SI/OC (more OC than SI) fic very compelling.

[prompt-master]

Right, so that Nagito OVA had Izuru create an AI child of his called the World Destroyer, right? It is just occurring to me now, is that another alternate translation like the Sparkling Justice Killer Killer thing? And it was meant to be translated to World Ender like the name Monokuma had for Makoto and co. in the second game?

So I tried to look into this but hit a road block because I just. Dont speak japanese

In dr2.5, the AI kamukura is referred to as Sekai no Hakaisha with the follow kanji (ripped from the wiki) 世界の破壊者

Now, again, I don't speak Japanese. So I'm unsure if Hakaisha was accurately translated, I tried to google what it meant and google translate DOES say "World Destroyer" but a friend of mine has let me know that sometimes google translate gets certain terms slightly wrong.

Regardless the issue at hand isn't "is the translation accurate" but rather "are these two the same term"

I remembered Monokuma discussing the world ender thing in chapter 2 in front of the HPA ruins, so I found a japanese dub lets play and found the part where he says that. The issue is...it's not a voiced line, so I couldn't hear if world ender was "sekai no hakaisha".

I then tried to find a japanese text lets play of sdr2 so that I could try to line up where the line it said off of context and who spoke around it, so then I could see if 世界の破壊者 shows up, but again, i dont speak japanese so its hard to search for lmao. Maybe theres a spoken line where world ender is said I'm forgetting about? Its a big game.

[milgrammer]

[ENG] Yurina Amami on Es & “Undercover”

DECO*27's fussy lecture about saying "Future"! Yurina Amami, who will sing the first song, felt the mystery behind it?

Co-produced by DECO*27, one of the leading Vocaloid composers, and Takuya Yamanaka, known for his human psychology oriented literary style, this original work, “MILGRAM”, is a viewer participation type music project. The MVs, which are the keys to unlocking the prisoners’ sins, are currently being released!

Animate Times is conducting an email interview with the voice actors participating in the project! Our first guest is Yurina Amami, who voices Es. This time, we’ll hear about Es, who exists as the audience surrogate, and, of course, the visuals, the lyrics… We’ll also hear about the song "Undercover”, which attracted numerous users with its scattered mysteries.

“Milgram” was already mix of excitement and mystery...and then they appeared! What were the pointers for playing Es, the audience surrogate?

“Milgram” has finally started, so please tell us what your thoughts were upon hearing the outline of this project.

When I heard about the outline, my honest first impressions were: 10 prisoners? All of them are “killers”? A viewer participation model? A three trial system? I had so many questions. The concept had never been done before, so I was incredibly surprised by its novelty.

Not to mention, I was gonna sing songs made by DECO*27 and act out a story written by Takuya Yamanaka?! I remember getting super worked up over that. I love the look of the world, which those two created, so I’m honoured to be involved with the project in this way. 

Es exists to be the audience surrogate and interacts with the prisoners as such. Did the staff give you any explanations or directions for their role beforehand?

Es will act as the audience surrogate until the very end, so I kept it simple and added some aspects of their individual character. As the prison guard, I’ve been given some leeway, but Es remains cool, calm and collected towards most things. I wasn’t allowed to be emotional. However, despite being this work’s protagonist, I was told that their character shouldn’t stand out too much. Since their sex remains a mystery, they also taught me lots about Es’ character, so that I wouldn’t end up leaning too far to one side. 

Honestly, it took me a long time to understand and get a feel for Es’ part. In addition to that, Es often says "Hm", but I had such a hard time grasping the nuance behind it...lol

The MV of "Undercover" was released and its numerous mysteries are attracting so many users! What a fitting song for the opening, created by Yamanaka and DECO*27!

The MV of “Undercover” was released on May 15, 2020, and marks the start of the series. Please tell us your first impression when you watched the video.

From the moment the visuals of "Undercover" appeared, I thought, "there’s no way I can stop watching this". I was glued to the screen from beginning to end. There were many scenes in which the dark atmosphere heightened the mystery behind it. And, above all, the characters’ movements were incredible. 

Were there any aspects in the visuals and lyrics, which were of particular interest to you? Please tell us your favourite parts as well.

The lyrics which I was curious about were "You would probably smile and be pleased" Same goes for the visuals—the scene, where everyone gradually laughs more and more, sends a shiver down my spine.

From there, they seemed to be hinting at something while the chorus played for the last time… That made me feel a sense of terror. Also, the lyrics where the kanji reading was "you" instead of “me” was another favourite of mine. Es is you and you are Es—that was what I thought. But, more than that, I thought the word gave a sense of unity between Es and the users.

Also, the MV of "Undercover" may have a dark atmosphere, but there are some cute parts, which I personally like! When the chorus is played for the second time, in the scene where the tied-up prisoners appear in order, Amane looks like a scroll. It's so cute… Please have a look!

When you were singing “Undercover”, were there any aspects you paid attention to, were particularly fastidious about, etc?

This song is the so-called opening song of “Milgram”, so I sang with lots of strength and tried to give off the impression that we were moving at a fast pace. It’s an incredibly cool song, so I was worried as to whether or not my singing voice would be able to keep up.

As for fastidious… In the song, there’s a scene for each prisoner where I have to mimic them, so I listened to Mr Yamanaka as he talked about the set-up in detail and managed to deliver the “essence” of each prisoner in my singing voice. If you can feel the difference between them, then I’m happy.

Not to mention, “future”. He was very fussy about this part. Sing it like this! And so, I had to listen to their consultations on how to produce the correct sound, DECO*27 actually said the word “future” himself, and I had to go through a lot of lecturing. 

When you first read the lyrics or after you finished singing, did your impression of Es change?

Not really. Just like how Es doesn't know anything about themself, I feel like there are so many things about Es which I don’t know yet either.

Furthermore, I personally chose to sing "Undercover" more like an opening song, which would mark the start of MILGRAM, instead of treating it like Es’ own song. I also don’t know much about how things will unfold or what will await us from now on, but someday I hope I’ll get to know the real Es!

It’s the users themselves which make the project more exciting!

Since observations hold the key to a project like this, it is expected that there will be discussions among users on the official app and social media. Please tell us how you would personally enjoy “Milgram” or if you have any suggestions for those users.

Do loads of analysis, share your opinions, and tell lots of people about Milgram. If you get 10 people, you’ll get 10 different ways of thinking. Not to mention, this project uses song lyrics, singing voices, visuals, and voice dramas! Those can all be looked at from various angles.

If there are sections in your analysis which are lacking, someone could fill in the gaps for you. It’s fantastic! Please pay attention to everything and fully uncover the sins of each prisoner. There’s also an official app, so it’d be great if you could make the most of that as well, while continuing to make Milgram even more exciting!

Lastly, please give out a message to those planning to enjoy the project from now on.

Since MILGRAM is a three-trial system, its users will have to observe the work for quite a long time. The information we’re given at the moment—about what on earth kind of sin each prisoner has committed—is a puzzle in itself.

However, this project is one which all of you will help form alongside us. Analyses are a given, but things like song and dance covers as well—to the people who produce those derived works, it’d be great if you could use them to make the project itself more exciting!

I’m sure that once the third trial ends, the project will unfold in ways which my current self could have never imagined. The project may have just barely started, but it’d make me so happy if you could see it through to the end.

In regards to Milgram and Es, thank you for continuing to support us!

Thank you

[chiaki-translation]

Spring Troupe 7th Play: Magician’s Pure Love Translation Ch5-6

Next chapter is up~ The story is good so I’m quite hooked actually...

Ch1-2 / / Ch3-4 / / Ch5-6 / / Ch7-8 / / Ch9-10 / / Epilogue

Disclaimer:

A3! is owned by Liber’s Entertainment

Translator’s Note:

I have difficulties translating the name so please bear with it. It’s whatever I can make out from the Kanji/Kana of the character’s name.

UPDATE: Edited the name through feedbacks! I like feedback so feel free to DM me/comment if you have any!

Director:

Hey, Masumi-kun, I have something to talk to you about, is it alright.

Masumi:

?

Director:

Actually, my husband’s transfer has been decided. I need to move out to a faraway place.

It seems that I have to quit the theatre troupe too…

Masumi:

--

Director:

I’m sorry.

But, even if we’re far apart, I’ll always support everyone.

About the troupe, I’ll leave it to you.

Masumi:

--

(No, wait… If you’re not here by my side, my acting too…)

<Shifts to Lounge>

Sakuya:

I’ve made copies of the script!

Director:

Alright, let’s get to the reading!

…

(It’s a story about a pair of magician master and pupil, who visited a mansion to hold a magician show, but they ended up getting involved with a mess caused by a phantom thief…

It started with a weird atmosphere, but followed up with a bittersweet ending…)

Itaru:

Senpai’s role, the master of the suspicious-looking magician, Uso Petén, really suits him.

Tsuzuru:

We decided the role beforehand after all.

This time, I wrote it with the image of the other members in mind as the basis.

The protagonist magician, Suga Kiel will be Masumi.

Petén’s old friend, the puppeteer, Kigustudou, will be Itaru-san.

The millionaire owner of the mansion, Ritchie Marney will be Citron-san.

The hardworking servant, Koma, will be Sakuya.

Then, I really want to add a role of a detective in the development so I will be playing as Detective Kanagi… I’ll do my best to study his role properly.

Director:

It suits everyone perfectly!

Sakuya:

Koma’s character sounds a bit complicated, but I’ll do my best!

Citron:

It seems that I’m going to play another NG celeb!

Even the name sounds like a nasty high-up celeb!

Itaru:

Well, you’re the most millionaire like here.

Chikage:

Yep, there’s no other choice.

Citron:

Oh, I won’t be playing the role because I’m a noble overflowing with dignity!

Tsuzuru:

Are you bragging.

Citron:

Masumi, change role with me!

Tsuzuru:

Wait, he’s the lead!

Masumi:

…

Citron:

…I guess I have no choice, I’ll surrender~

Director:

(Masumi-kun, as I thought, he looks a bit weird…)

Then, let’s get into the script reading, make sure to build the image of the role you will be playing as.

From tomorrow onwards, we will start reading together.

Sakuya:

Yes.

Tsuzuru:

Alright.

<Shifts to Garden at Night>

Masumi:

…

Citron:

…

*approaching slowly*

On the wall, I’m Minnie, but actually I’m Mary.

Masumi:

…It’s Citron behind me right.

Citron:

On the floor, I’m Morris, on the ceiling, I’m a flying squirrel…

Masumi:

Why does it suddenly become a flying squirrel.

What business do you have with me?

Citron:

I’m curious about how you read the script just now.

Maybe, were you empty sizing with the ending of Kiel’s first love?

Masumi:

… Empathize?

Citron:

That’s it!

I thought you became nervous because of that.

Masumi:

… That’s actually, something that I requested from Tsuzuru.

Citron:

It’s your request?

Why though?

Masumi:

…

What is love for you, Citron?

Citron:

… Love, huh?

…

<<… The thing about love is, it always involves both good and evil>>

Masumi:

…What?

Citron:

It’s a saying from an old philosopher.

Love is the strongest force, one that will pull you forward, further than any others.

I’ve seen you, Masumi, always for Director’s love, trying your best to move forward.

I’ll say it to you now, but…

I’m actually quite jealous of you.

When I was in Zahra, I couldn’t even tell Guy or Tangerine that I love them directly.

I have to choose the safest option, considering my position.

That’s why, Masumi who always acts by following your heart looks so bright to me.

Of course, it’s possible that other members think the same too.

Masumi:

…

Citron:

But, I’m sure everyone thinks that Masumi’s one directional thinking leads you to a good place.

Masumi:

…By the way, why did you call out to me during the flagship performance.

From now on, I’ll try to know more about everyone else…

Citron:

Masumi is a man who will move for the sake of someone you love regardless of any percussion, I think it will be good if you can direct that love to everyone else.

Masumi:

Percussion… repercussion?

Citron:

You’re right. Masumi’s love, if you direct it to everyone else, I’m sure you will be able to get along with everyone.

Masumi:

My love, since now and always will only belong to the Director.

Citron:

Do you really think so?

Nowadays, there are times that I can feel Masumi’s love.

Masumi:

That’s just your excessive self-awareness.

Citron:

During the Quartet performance, it’s because of Masumi that I was able to express my love for Tangerine directly.

I’m really grateful for that.

To repay the favor from that time, I will support Masumi with all I have this time!

I’ll shower Masumi with my love!

Masumi:

You’re annoying.

Citron:

Love is the strongest force.

For the sake of love, you can break your common sense and do crazy stuffs.

Masumi:

Love is, strongest force…

…

“Love is the strongest force, one that will pull you forward, further than any  others.” By Citron

<End of Chapter 5>

Chikage:

It’s a private party in the mansion, huh.

Masumi:

Then, will it be a Close-up performance?

Itaru:

Close-up?

Masumi:

It’s when you do the magic trick right in front of the audience, usually for a small amount of people.

Itaru:

Ah, I see.

It’s a private residence this time, but there would be a small hall there.

The client is Ritchie Marney…

He ranked very high in the list of real estate king in the magazine every single year…

Mr Marney is a connoisseur, he created an art museum on his premises to display his collections from all over the world.

Every year, he would open his house for 3 days 3 nights to showcase those collections, it seems that he called us to be in that demonstration.

Chikage:

It sounds like a good business. Take the job, Kiel.

Masumi:

Please don’t just selfishly decide like that.

Chikage:

I’m the president of this office. I have the authority to.

<Short Time Skip>

Director:

Alright, that’s it for today.

Masumi-kun, do you have anything to say?

Masumi:

Everyone, I think you all did a good job interpreting your role.

After that, all the characters in this performance are kinda suspicious, I thought the atmosphere is good too, but I want to try showing something like a gap.

Chikage:

I see.

Sakuya:

I see, I think it’s a good idea!

Director:

(Masumi-kun really grows up. He doesn’t look that enthusiastic being the leader of this performance, but he’s looking at everyone properly.)

Masumi:

Then, if nothing else, that’s it for today.

Director:

Ah, Masumi-kun--

Masumi:

--

Director:

(Why do I feel like he’s running away from me…

Is he maybe avoiding me?)

Citron:

Director, somehow awe walk with Masumi huh?

Director:

Awe walk…?

Itaru:

Awkward?

Director:

Ah, I see!

Tsuzuru:

I thought he’s been talking normally recently.

Director:

Me too, I don’t remember doing anything that will make Masumi-kun avoid me…

I’ll look at the situation again and try talking to him.

Then, I’ll go off first.

Sakuya:

Good work today!

Chikage:

…

Itaru:

…

Tsuzuru:

…Is it going to be alright?

Itaru:

It’s not that it’s actually caused by Director-san.

Citron:

I talked to Masumi yesterday.

He’s been worried about something.

Chikage:

About love, is it.

Tsuzuru:

Me too, I received some consultation from Masumi.

Sakuya:

Me too.

Citron:

About Masumi, I heard he requested for his character to lost his first love in this script.

Sakuya:

Eh, why did he make such request…

Tsuzuru:

About that… It seems that he had a dream where he’s not together with Director.

Itaru:

So he’s afraid of getting his heart broken and he make a return to ‘negative mode’.

Tsuzuru:

Is it because I told him that he has to support his feelings when subjected to a sad experience.

Maybe he wanted to experience how broken heart feels first by playing it in a role…

Itaru:

What kind of Maso-play is that…

Chikage:

For Masumi, Director-san is his first love after all, so he has never experienced a broken heart before.

Tsuzuru:

That’s why, I think Masumi wants to know how the pain feel, doesn’t he.

Itaru:

Then, this role will be a hard one for him.

Chikage:

He seemed to be normal during the reading just now, I wonder what would happen from now on.

Sakuya:

When it becomes hard for him, let’s all support him with all we have.

Citron:

You’re right.

I intend to do very much so!

Tsuzuru:

You’re right.

Chikage:

I’ll do what I can as the co-lead.

Tsuzuru:

By the way, Sakuya, did you recommend Masumi to hear everyone else’s opinion about love?

Sakuya:

Ah, yes! If it’s only me, I think it won’t be enough…

After all, there are different forms of love, maybe when he heard from everyone, he would be able to understand it better.

Chikage:

You mean, he has been walking around to listen to everyone?

Itaru:

Are you serious.

Citron:

I already answered him!

Sakuya:

So next should be Itaru-san or Chikage-san isn’t it.

Itaru:

…Love stories huh. Well, as his senior in life, I guess I have a bit of story to tell…?

Chikage:

…

Itaru:

How about you, senpai…

Chikage:

Maybe he won’t come to find me.

I’ve already told him that I have no love stories to tell.

Don’t expect too much from me.

I will think of another way to support Masumi.

Sakuya:

But, if Masumi-kun really come to listen to your perception of love, please answer him properly when the time comes.

Chikage:

…If he comes to listen, right.

<Shifts to Chikage/Itaru’s Room>

Itaru:

… I should stop levelling up this skill soon, the next will be…

?

Masumi:

…

Itaru:

It’s you, Masumi. You need anything?

Masumi:

…That game, let me try it again.

Itaru:

That game?

This one?

Masumi:

Not this one. The one we played during Alice, the one where a character that looks like Director appears.

Itaru:

Ah~ That one.

You can sit there and wait. I’ll get it out now.

Masumi:

…

Itaru:

There it is. This one right?

“B5! Best! Beauty! BigBang! Bishoujo!”

Masumi:

Right.

Itaru:

This opening is so nostalgic.

Here, your controller.

Masumi:

Is it possible to lost your love at the end here?

Itaru:

… is that, for your role study?

Masumi:

Yeah.

Itaru:

Then, first of all, let’s try to do the Director character’s route using the guide, choose exactly as I told you.

Masumi:

Understood.

Itaru:

The first one is A. Next is B

<Short Time Skip>

Itaru:

From here on you’re in the Director character’s route, what are you going to do now?

Masumi:

…

Itaru:

If you want to lose her love, you can just make her hate you.

Game Character:

“This time, do you want to go to the aquarium together with me?”

Masumi:

Then, this option should be…

“B: I don’t like fish”

Itaru:

You’re ri—Ah, wait, I customized this part.

The correct answer should be A.

Masumi:

“A: I want to see the dolphin show!”

…Understood.

Game Character:

“Sorry, I don’t like dolphin. As I thought let’s cancel the aquarium plan.”

Itaru:

See.

Masumi:

You’re right…

<Short Time Skip>

Itaru:

With this, you’re probably going to get dumped.

Game Character:

“Thank you for always getting along with me, from now on let’s stay as friends!”

Itaru:

See, there you go.

Masumi:

…Are you, the master of lost love?

Itaru:

Let’s leave it as the master of love.

So, what do you feel after actually experiencing lost love?

Masumi:

…

This is a game after all, so it doesn’t mean anything.

Itaru:

That’s not true.

You can learn a lot of things about life by playing games.

Even for me, I’ve learned a lot from playing games.

It will sound like something Tsuzuru said but…

Games and stories are like the same thing.

Immerse yourself in the game storyline and experience life in the eyes of someone else, your heart will be moved.

Afterwards, when you experience something in real life, whatever scenario it is, you would have known how it feels.

Masumi:

… I was lonely, I was sad.

Even if it’s just a game, as I thought it’s hard.

But, I absolutely cannot give up.

Itaru:

…That sounds just like you, Masumi.

Masumi:

What is love for you, Itaru?

Itaru:

Uh…

…Love is, sometimes an impossible game.

Masumi:

Ha?

Itaru:

Without looking at walkthrough, there will definitely be routes that you don’t understand the first time you see it, things like when you need a combination of certain choices…

There’s also route that you can only unlock after unlocking every routes from every other characters.

Masumi:

… I don’t really understand but, you sound like the master of love.

Itaru:

I’ll take that as a compliment

I was talking about games just now, but reality is really like an impossible game.

No matter how much we think about doing things for the sake of other people, in the end we’re just spinning around in place.

Really, human relationship is like an impossible game and it’s annoying.

But, no matter how many times you reach game over, if you build up your strategy and never give up, I think one day you’ll definitely be able to clear it… That is, the real pleasure of an impossible game.

Well, anyway, Masumi can stay as Masumi, just do whatever you want.

I think in the end, that Masumi that sounds like the usual Masumi will always be supported by everyone in Spring Troupe.

Masumi:

…Somehow, you sounded so proud.

Itaru:

I’m your senpai in life, I’m also your father figure in Spring Troupe after all.

“Love is, sometimes an impossible game.” By Chigasaki Itaru

<End of Chapter 6>

[jumukus]

A3! Event: +3Ghosts Episode 6 Translation

As Misumi and Kazunari watch fireworks together, Madoka stays with the rest of the Summer Troupe members. 

Muku: Oh, Kazu-kun posts something on IG.

Tenma: He could see the fireworks, huh.

Izumi: And it looks like he's with Misumi-kun.

Yuki: Let's watch the fireworks too.

Kumon: Ah! The fireworks just now looked like Madoka-san!

Madoka: Me?

Kumon: Your name is written with the kanji for circle, right? That fireworks was a circle!

Come to think of it, Misumi-san and Hakkaku-san both have the kanji for corner in their names, so why is your name written with the kanji for circle, Madoka-san?

Madoka: Huh…

(I wonder what the origin of my name was...)

(I used to hate my name a lot during childhood, because it sounds like a girl's name and I got teased over it.)

(Then, if I'm not mistaken, Grandfather--.)

(What did he say again? This is bad. I can't remember it.)

Muku: Wow! It was so big!

Izumi: They set off a lot!

Tenma: Looks like that one was the finale.

Yuki: It was such a spectacular sight.

Kumon: It's so pretty~!

Muku: Ah, it's all gone…

Izumi: Is it over?

Kumon: It'd be nice if we could see fireflies after this.

Madoka: Fireflies?

Kumon: Fireflies will appear in our upcoming play.

Yuki: There's hardly any place where we can see fireflies nowadays, though.

Kumon: Oh, too bad…

Madoka: …

Kumon: Madoka-san?

Madoka: Ah, sorry.

Thank you for inviting me today. Good luck on your show.

Muku: Thank you for joining us too.

Izumi: Feel free to go visit our dorm anytime.

Madoka: Yes. I'll take my leave, then.

Izumi: Ah, but I think Misumi-kun should come back anytime soon--.

Madoka: ...No, I'll take my leave today.

Izumi: I see…

Kazunari: --Ah, here they are!

Misumi: Where's Madoka?

Izumi: He just went home.

Tenma: You just splendidly missed each other.

Misumi: I see…

Kumon: Sorry. I think I might have said something unnecessary.

Misumi: Don't mind it. Thank you for today, guys.

Kumon: Let's see… We're not forgetting anything, right? Ah, did we buy spring onions?

Yuki: They're in this bag.

Kumon: What a relief.

Yuki: …

Kumon: …*sighs*.

Yuki: So gloomy.

Kumon: Sorry. I really thought Madoka-san and Sumi-san finally could talk with each other yesterday.

Somehow, you know… Can we really leave things like this…?

Yuki: Of course not...and that also goes for your performance.

Kumon: Ugh…

Yamaguchi: Huh? Kumon?

Kumon: Yamaguchi?

Yamaguchi: Going shopping?

Kumon: Yep. Are you on your way home from practice?

Yamaguchi: Nah, from a match. I'm about to go to your dorm to tell you the result.

Kumon: Oh, so the match was today. If you win, you will advance to the fin--.

Yamaguchi: My bad. We lost.

Kumon: Huh…

Yamaguchi: Our opponent has never lost a game before, after all. We never intended to let our guard down, but…

Maybe deep down, we did take it lightly.

Kumon: I see…

Yamaguchi: Well, we might have lost…but I had no regrets. I had a good summer this year.

Even though we couldn't play baseball together, I was happy when I heard you're gonna aim for the national on stage. It made me feel like I had to do my best too.

While the results weren't satisfactory...I feel refreshed.

That's what I want to tell you! Good luck on your show! Bye!

Kumon: --.

Yuki: …

Kumon: ...You see, even though I've quit baseball, deep down, I was jealous of Yamaguchi who was going to the national.

I'm afraid the others will find out about these lingering feelings when I play Sora.

Because I empathize with Sora too much, I'm afraid I'll ruin his character…

That's why I consciously suppress my emotions.

Yuki: ...Are you stupid or what?

What's so wrong about showing empathy to your character and identity yourself with him?

The reason why I chose to play Susukida is not only because I don't have to dance, but also because I understand how he feels.

He's teased because of his special ability, and while I don't have an ability like his, I've also gotten told a lot of things because I'm different from others.

I can relate to his feelings of not wanting to hide his true self. 

I think there's a kind of acting that I can perform because I'm the one who does it.

Sora is the same, isn't he?

We pick you to take on the role because we think it's a role that you can play. Don’t you think the same?

Give it a go with all your might. If you can't step on the brakes, just step on the accelerator as hard as you can.

Kumon: --.

I'm feeling dejavu somehow…

Yuki: Why are you laughing?

Kumon: I was just thinking, "Didn't I receive this kind of pep talk too back during 'Floral Prince'..."

Yuki: That isn't something to laugh about.

Kumon: My bad. You really are cool, Yuki!

Yuki: Makes me wonder if it's because you're cousins that you give similar responses...

Kumon: Cousins?

Yuki: You really should pull yourself together as the co-lead actor.

Kumon: Yu--Yes!

Passerby A: Kyaa!

Yuki: ?

Passerby A: Please shake my hands!

Passerby B: Me too!

Passerby C: Please sign this!

Kumon: A celeb?

Hiro: …

Yuki: --Hiro Hyuga!

< Episode 5 | Masterlist | Episode 7 >

[garnettfox]

Izanagi Challenge run part 1

Well here we are at the start, I’m starting a clean save and thinking over how I think this is going go.

My best guess is the start is going to be realitivally easy, not exsactly sure how far I’m gonna manage to get, my hopes is to at least beat Chie’s Shadow if not get about half way through the dungeon. She shouldn’t be too hard, but hopefully when I start getting Shuffletimes I get either a Dia card or if I’m lucky a Bufu to help with Yukiko’s Shadow in the future. Thinking about it I don’t see the early game being too hard especally Kanji’s Shadow but who knows what RNGesus has for me.

Middle game largely depends on the skillcards I can get but I can see it being a challege. and oh dear god I am not looking forward to the Amino-Sagiri fight that fight has been the bane of my existance in every other run and I expect no different now. Oddly enough I think I’ll be able to handle the last two bosses pretty ok long as I’m not stupid

I love the fact when you pick Very Hard difficulty the game warns you that you can’t change the difficulty, then immediately says ‘Relax and enjoy the game!’ No, No I’m here to suffer.

For the name I went with Yu Narukami for canon’s sake, I don’t normally use the canon name But might as well for this run.

I’m also not going to go over the story unless it’s somehow related to a dungeon, I find something intresting to comment on, or some way to make a joke. So your pretty much just gonna hear how the dungeon crawling’s doing and how much a boss is pissing me off. And I’ve also recently finished my NG+ Run of the game so Ya I’m gonna be fastforwarding and skipping a lot.

....I’m not the only one who wished in NG+ It was at least an option to ask Yosuke if he was ok when you see him crash right? As it is your a complete jerk to him by ignoring him when he’s in pain and distress twice before helping him out of the trashcan. AND BEST BOI DOESN’T DESERVE THAT SHIT!

Tutorial fight and huh, those shadows definately got a damage boost, ended up using a medicine before the boss...This can only mean good things.

At least Yosuke’s Shadow is an easy boss, weak to Zio meaning Izanagi can just zap him into submission, though he does use Winds of Oblivion which, is a wind skill which we’re weak to.

...I’mma just rant here for a second YOSUKE DESERVED HIS OWN DUNGEON!

Like I get why they did it on several levels, give you a party member before the first dungeon, teach you how boss fights are gonna work. I even get why they thematically did it with his Shadow appearing in Saki’s space.

The thing is though, it doesn’t work properly which sucks because they did it perfectly with Chie who also doesn’t get her own dungeon. Chie’s Shadow takes up residence in Yukiko’s Castle and it fits her issues *perfectly*.

Chie’s problem is her fagile ego, she thinks of Yukiko as being better then her so needs to keep Yukiko co-dependant on her to prop herself up. Which makes it thematically appropriate for Chie’s Shadow to be in Yukiko’s dungon. She views herself soo poorly and as being soo weak she can’t even form a dungeon and can only leech off of Yukiko’s, her ‘betters’ dungeon.

Yosuke....Ok...He...Tries to date Saki to deal with his boredom but...She isn’t the *core* of his boredom or resentment, that’s the town at large, if he saw Saki as a symbol for the town he’d hate her not want to date her. She was a means to an end and while Yosuke’s charicter arch does involve him working through his complicated feelings for her *their not why he formed a dunegon*

Just...I know we just got the Steam port but if Atlus ever does a remake of P4 In the updated P5 Engine, Yosuke deserves to have his own dungeon.

And my estimation of myself took a nose dive when not only did the Shadows of the tutorial fight deal way more damage then I thought, but Yosuke’s Shadow actually killed me...So much for him being an easy boss....

Second attempt I actually remember the tutorial Shadows are weak to Zio (I thought they where weak to phys hence why they got off enough attacks on me I ended up needing one of those medicines I needed for Yosuke’s fight) and Yosuke’s Shadow goes down since it has a pretty damn easy pattern along with it’s Zio weakness, just guard when it uses power charger and when it guards and you’ll be ok.

Anyway first team mate get and thanks to his boyfriend Privileges he will never leave the party.

...

For real though Yosuke is the only team mate who has wind skills other then Naoto who only has the single target spell (And you only get in October), has the best speed of all your team mates and is the most vercitle learning skills from pretty much every branch avaible to him, want him to be a healer he can heal, want him to be a magic power house he’s got you, wanna do physical he can do physical. His adaptiblity is really second only to the Protags with the Wildcard (Which we don’t have in this run) and I happily keep him at my side through the entire game.

Yosuke Social link go, Chie causing drama, basically filling time till you see Yukiko on the Midnight Channel then hijinks, getting supplys and heading to the castle.

I only got armour for myself and Yosuke and spent the rest on medicines since I...You know...Wanna live through the dungeon.

And I was right to do so as the first Shadow, a pises took out HALF MY HEALTH IN ONE HIT.

Also god damn it P4 Why do I have to manually switch Yosuke and the others to my control it’s soo goddamn annoying to have to do that the first time I use anyone.

First floor cleared and first skill card earned! It’s Tarukaja which...Not what I wanted and I just personally favor the automatic boost skills you can get. And the ones that offer a plus for using it like Yosuke’s Youthful Wind not only being a Sukaja but healing you for some of your health. Course he’s not going to get that skill till january. *Sigh*

About to face Chie’s Shadow and I deside to restore some of Yosk’s SP since he has Garu which she’s weak to and hope for the best, I really hope I’m not gonna have to grind the first floor for this...

First turn and she kills Yosuke. This is only going to go sooooo well.

It went ok...Till I got her into her low health animation and she killed me with a lucky Mabufu. Alright let’s try this again before I go back and....Attempt to grind.

And I got booted all the way back to the town....*Sigh* Least this means I get a reroll on that skill card...IF I get another one.

Which I don’t. *Sighs* and like a fucking IDIOT I forgot to restore Yosuke’s SP before the fight. At least since I resist Zio I could do a little the first turn and settle in for her attack loop.

This time I don’t even make it to her low health animation before she get’s a lucky crit and kills me with Bottomless envy. *Grumbles* Ok I’m starting to get frustrated so, Chie’s Shadow can be smug over her victory while I cool my head for today.

[soranihimawari]

Iron Willed Royalty

Hot Cocoa & Coffee

A short story of how Moniwa’s neighbor & Aone’s classmate/friend,Asagao becomes acquainted with the idea of being Date Tech’s co-manager.

Word Count: 2.3 k

Special thanks: @vbcshenaningansnwritings, @oitoorus

Inspired from @tkags’ manager!chan discussions//asks (:

=~=~=~

Today was the mark of the first day of spring classes. I chose to wear my favorite mint coloured hoodie underneath my uniform sweater. It was the third of March and in the words of your best friend, that month comes in like a lion. That morning was a chilly one, luckily for you, your father was working from home and made you a cup of warm drinks. With the liquid poured into the thermos, your father waved good bye since you realized you were running a bit behind your own schedule.

Outside your house stood your walking partner since you both started high school together was seen glancing down at his phone. 

“What’s the story morning glory?” his way of speaking was always respectful. You were quick to brush off the allusion to your favorite flower by extending a cup to him. Your partner brought a chocolate chip cookie and biscotti for the morning walk to your mutual campus grounds.

“Honestly, what am I going to do with you after you graduate Moniwa?” I ask taking my cookie from his hands.

“Ask Aone to walk with you instead?” 

“You’re impossible. Wait, why don’t we all walk home together then,” I said, bopping my head along with my friend. After Moniwa, I did develop a sort of friendship with a gentle giant after being in the same classes for a majority of our first & second years at Date Tech. Just like how his teammates can tell his moods by the way he face constricts apart, I opted for an indirect approach. Aone and I developed our own short hand via sms messaging. He and I often hang out on days where Moniwa was preparing for university exams. Although Moniwa was captain for the club, I suspected perhaps Takanobu might have confided in him an interest in me (friend or not, yet I knew he was a kind-hearted individual).

“But you’re right. I’ll ask him later. Maybe Aone will convince Kenji too.”

“Hah, yeah. You’re my neighbor after all, so I expect you to be there cheering for us, because I know you love it when we win, my morning glory.”

“Call me your morning glory one more time and you owe me a team jacket with the Kanji for my name on it, Moni-kun.”

Moniwa took a bite of his biscotti and a swig of his beverage. I paused for a moment and thought he had considered it judging by the way he knitted his brows. 

“Asagao, would you like one?” his voice was playful. A mischievous grin happened to come across his lips. I feel his pout growing on me and Aone; I have an inkling having Moniwa around was going to be interesting regardless of how the rest of our high school career was going to proceed. Little did I know how different my second year was going to be. Moniwa was a year older than me and Aone, so I assumed naturally after he graduates, I will watch over our stone-faced friend.  

I slapped his arm before I nodded. We walked for a few more blocks snacking and reminiscing on the last game you came to watch them play. The Iron Wall of Date was proven to be a force to be reckoned with. It was enough for the members of the team to have the backing of their peers, including me. At the beginning of the volleyball season of my neighbor’s senior year and our (me & Aone’s) second year, Moniwa decided it was imperative his two closest friends get to know each other during a free day after classes concluded last autumn.

A sticky note appeared on my desk that day with an invitation to watch the volleyball club practice. The memory lives on at the back of my mind, but considering life went on around the club, someone had been ambushed (read as cornered you) to have notes the club missed due to away games e-mailed to the second years. 

“Moniwa. Don’t say things you don’t mean,” I said drinking the rest of my hot cocoa when we reached the intersection across our school grounds. “But I don’t mind whose jacket I wear, so long as I get a front row seat at the game venues, I’ll cheer for you and Aone.”

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

Lunch came around as quickly as the morning classes ceased for the rest of the day. The afternoon ones were just around the corner and my phone buzzed continuously since Moniwa was in another section of the school. Takanobu was in your adjoining classroom along with a few of the other second years being close by. 

Apparently, the rest of the team sans their captain and intimidating middle blocker, had an idea. A trap of sorts if you will. During this time of year, it was brought to their attention I didn’t do any club activities. Honestly, it was mainly because I was personally recruited by a few subject teachers to deliver the course work the team had missed during the season, unofficially of course. The trap that was aforementioned never really was used because I was completely oblivious to the boys’ outlook on my relationship with their captain (being my first friend) and in befriending Takanobu after we were praised for an English project in our first year.

The thought of them falling behind was not an option. In my head, I always fancied myself the brains behind their make up lessons post games. Moniwa wanted to know if I can draft up a tentative schedule for tutoring or study groups once the matchups were scheduled. It’s been quite some time since our school went all the way to the Spring Inter-High Tournament, but with being the school with number one blocking in our prefecture (ever present), I think the guys would appreciate seeing a friend in the crowds later on.

Around campus though, there was a flip side in me perpetually hanging out with the notable members of the volleyball club. Especially since there are times where I was recruited (along with various other girls) to be the deliverer of love notes. It does the soul good when I see their adoration and dedication (whether it was toward the girl or the game, Irma the principle of the matter) go noticed by other classes.

Their teammates, especially the first years, noticed how I were often spotted with Moniwa & Takanobu having a full conversation with both of them. First time anyone made any sort of comment between your friendship with the other two was when you walked into their closed practice (on their coach’s orders).

“Oi! Moniwa! There’s this girl outside the gym looking for you and Aone?” their junior setter’s jovial voice exclaimed. I definitely saw him around campus before as he was known for his bright and friendly demeanor to everyone on and off the court.

“Hey, is that anyway to talk to your senpai?” I raised my voice pushing through in the doorway with my backpack slung over my shoulder. Moniwa was quick to call for a break and thankfully coach agreed.

“What are you teaching your kouhai Moniwa? Hey Aone.” 

The silent, yet respectful giant and his captain gave me a smile when they both came closer toward my side of the court. We were making a rudimentary study plan that needed to be fine tuned as needed. I just needed a few ideas as how to best teach certain lessons that the team would be collectively missing when the official matches were going to be posted. Moniwa, as per usual, spearheaded the conversation with various ideas and I held up my left hand in the air to have him shut up for a few minutes as I fumbled through my bag fishing out a pen and my graphing paper (for engineering classes). The other members of the team gathered together after picking up their water bottles.

“OK,” I said brushing my bangs behind an ear with my right hand. Aone immediately turned his back toward me and knelt down so I didn’t have too hard a time trying to steady my handwriting (he was more like a pedestal at this point, which Moniwa pointed.) 

“Clearly, this is amusing you Moniwa, but as I was trying to make sure my friends pass this term so they can continue playing the sport they love.” 

This earned a decisive hum from Aone. I began scribbling a tentative schedule rotation for every member of the team categorized by years and give Aone a tap on the back to signal you were done borrowing his services.

“Alright, alright. I yield,” Moniwa said shaking his head. I hand my handwritten schedule to the captain who gave it a once over. “We can discuss this later after practice.”

“Fine by me,” I say with a nod. I fold my arms over my chest once Aone and Moniwa stood in front of me again.

“So, about that thing we discussed earlier on the way here,” Moniwa began. “What size is that hoodie you’re wearing?”

My mouth was agape in faux shock as Aone started blushing just as hard as Moniwa’s cheeks dyed a peachy hue. I pushed up the sleeves of my hoodie and made a fist with my left hand. I swore I would never hit the guy, but seeing Aone’s reaction to the question was enough punishment to quell my annoyance.

“Moniwa, for all that good and holy in the world, I will punch you one of these days. You’re lucky it’s not today.”

I chewed the side of my cheek before moving on to another topic. 

“Want me to wait for you guys? It is getting late after all and I have delayed your practice long enough.”

“Asagao, it’s been like ten minutes,” Moniwa reminded me. Aone’s eyes rolled to the clock adjacent to where we were standing. “But, sure. You don’t have to remind us twice.”

While all this was happening, Moniwa, Aone, and myself were unaware we were being observed by the other members of the team as a whole. Yes, we may have our own language within the fine tunes of our friendship, but I remember a time when both of them taught me it was ok to have a will of iron. It comes with the territory according to their coach and even their manager at the time too.

“Do you think she knows?” one of the outside hitters (Onogawa) asked, nudging their setter (Koganegawa) who greeted me at the door. 

“Even if she does, she has two hands Onogawa,” Koganegawa said in a friendly tone. He was implying that we did hold hands at one point during a school festival at one of the classroom presentation games (class 3-4 did a haunted house last year which is where the three of us hand-holding became a thing). “What do you think, Nametsu?”

Observing how the three of us were talking, it seemed like we were going to be inseperable as of right now. Graduation is a right of passage and it was one none of us wanted to talk about at the moment.

“We all know that those three are inseparable as ionic bonds, besides, look at how different the two members of our team are.The stoic blocker and his captain adore her, but they might be too proud to admit it just yet,” their manager said, efficiently making his appearance to collect their bottles. 

“You can tell in the way Moniwa teases her like family and Aone seems like the type to have formed a crush on her since they all started walking home together after practices last year,” Nametsu continued. “C’mon, there will be time to grill Moniwa later.”

“Let’s get back to work,” Coach Oiwake says with a strict clap. Then he made a gesture to call  me over to where he was sitting close by the court. We were a few feet away from the main huddle of the team. “Asagao. You stay.”

I was a bit caught off guard by the coach’s deliberate order. Jeez, coach-senshu was a bit scary.

“Sir?” 

“Moniwa and Futakuchi mentioned off hand you were free from any club activities during the season. I wonder why is that.” 

I shrugged and before I could explain, coach-senshu continued: “so I took the liberty of speaking with your year’s academic advisor and we agreed it’s about time we have a secondary manager.”

“I see,” I said, placing my hands at my side while observing the practice game commence. “Wait a sec. Are you asking me to--?”

“Might help make Nametsu’s job a little easier,” he rarely chuckles at the mistakes his team makes, but he did let out a low rumble. “Date Tech’s co-manager has a nice ring to it, don’t it?”

“I’m flattered,” I muse while I observe the game in motion. 

A ball came whirring down close to the boundary after a good rally on both sides of the net and the call was a close one. In an official match it would even be a close call, meaning the point would have been given to the team who did not touch the ball last. I had a basic knowledge of the game given the company I keep, yet a brotherly fight was going to occur if no one kept a keen eye. I dropped my bag by the chair meant for our coach to sit in before I rolled up my other sleeve of my hoodie to observe.

“You deserve to be standing there with them too,” Coach Oiwake said and I couldn’t argue with that at all, so I nodded as a response to his proposition. “Good. Welcome to the club. We’ll get your measurements from the records department later.”

“Futakuchi, how many times have we told you to watch where you’re hitting those spikes of yours!” Nametsu exclaims, anger seeping through the last few words. He was watching from the side of the net by the score card. I picked up one of the balls that had rolled away close by where I was having that chat with their coach and gave it a good bounce or two before throwing it into a near by bin. Moniwa and Aone quietly backed away when I approached their outside hitter.

“You hit your cross spike that close to the line again Kenji and see what happens,” I said firmly. He froze in slight terror. I never was one to dish out harsh scoldings, but this one was worth it. At the sound of my voice, the argument that would of began immediately ceased. 

“And,” I turn to where Obara was standing, “you should of at least tried to return it too, Obara.”

“Sorry, Asagao…” there was a pout there, but in all honesty, Kenji really did look defeated, however Moniwa and others snickered. Personally, I think it was because Kenji would have gotten an extra scolding or two by his captain or manager if I didn’t say anything.

“Manager-san,” I corrected him, a smug smile spread across the entirety of my countenance. At this, Moniwa and Aone both seemed at peace with this development, before breaking out in a triumphant chest bump.

“Ow~Give me a moment Aone, I’m fine,” Moniwa says rubbing his chest cavity. 

“I-I beg your pardon?” Nametsu says in a nervous manner. “Am I being replaced?”

“Nope,” Coach Oiwake clasps his hands together to dispel any other form of chatter amongst his team. “Quite the opposite really. Asagao just accepted the position to be our co-manager about three minutes ago.”

Nametsu breathed a sigh of relief while the rest of the roster flipped out and gave me a round of congratulatory praises. 

“‘Bout time,” Moniwa said. “Right Aone?” 

“Yes.” Aone smiled and Moniwa nearly fainted. 

“I think you broke Moniwa,” I stifled a laugh. I took the opportunity to seize both of my friends’ hands in earnest with an unyielding grip to which they both let out a nervous chortle. (My hands were interlocked with theirs). “Will you allow me to stay within the Iron Wall?”

Afternoon practice for the team commenced shortly thereafter. 

“God bless the Queen,” Coach Oiwake said to himself. It was going to be an interesting season after all.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Akudama 2 - 3 | HypMic 4 | Yashahime 3 | Taiso 2 - 3 | Moriarty 2 | Maou-jou 3

Akudama 2

I think one or two of the reviews I read of this anime picked up the names of each episode are based on movies and it seems they’re right. Namely, episode 1 is Se7en while episode 2 is Reservoir Dogs...so they’re crime movies specifically.

Kanto, Hikari etc. are the names of certain shinkansen.

Playing with your own blood in front of a no violence sign and smoking in front of a no smoking sign…LOL. So edgy and yet simultaneously so fun.

…*blinks* Welp, that OP was…an experience.

…hey, Funi are hypocrites…they gave HypMic a language warning, but not this???

Come to think of it, this anime is already exactly how I’d imagine the HypMic MTC episode to go…but with more cyberpunk, of course.

…why is “are you gay?” an insult…? I thought we were past this point years ago.

…what’s up with these puppets? The shark’s shirt says “fool” on it…

The rabbit and shark’s shirts keep changing every time they spin. When they talk about poverty/rich, the rabbit shirts says “poor” and the shark’s “rich” (or something of the sort). When the shark talks about Kansai burning to the ground, his shirt says “nervousness”.

Wow, Hiroshima vers. 2…Rabbit: peace/shark:war

Hoodlum’s just a sycophant…

…ooh, so if the girl and Hoodlum aren’t part of the plan…they could f*** s*** up?

LOL, plasma shield.

“Lil’ stick”? That’s a jitte! A non-bladed weapon which is still plenty nasty by itself!

Ken the 390??? I knew UraShimaSakataSen were on this ED and I knew this was a rap ED because I heard it in AMQ before I was able to finish this ep, IIRC, but I didn’t expect the guy from BATTLE BATTLE BATTLE....

Taiso 2

A-hah! I was right on the money! Tomoyo is an actress!

Oh, it’s senu. That’s an old-timey way of negating your verbs (it’s shinai now), hence “retires not”.

I think they’re hailing Minamino as the first winner in 45 years if I understood the newspaper article on the screen right…?

Does this mean Minamino will join Leo and Aragaki…? The OP shows him with them.

The AnimeLab translation of the title is “Duelling Samurai”, but the translation on the hardsubs is “Rock-Bottom Samurai”. The word donzoko indicates the latter is correct.

I think Leo said “Rei-chan”, not “Rachel”. It’s a bit hard to hear because he’s eating though…

I think there’s only one line where he doesn’t talk like a ninja in his intro to Ayu and that’s the line where he uses keigo instead.

I think the card says “acupuncturist Kawa????” (can’t read the last character due to Britney’s thumb), but…welp, Britney’s kinda disturbing in their (not sure what pronoun to use) own way. There also appears to be an address in Ikebukuro on the card.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Leo learnt how to speak Japanese fluently from ninja movies – that’s a pretty common anime trope, like in Tada-kun’s Rainbow Samurai case. “Always make your heart rainbow!” and all that jazz.

…so that’s what the card said - Kawamoto Orthopedic Clinic.

“My shoulder would…”

Seriously, this anime is just an excuse to look at Aragaki in different outfits (and also shirtless) and I love it, LOL. (I’m such a simpleton.)

Ah…sometimes, people ask me about the days when I used to learn piano and I bring up the fact there is such a thing as “overpractice”. I thought gymnasts would know when they hit their limits in that regard, but…I guess they don’t because they’re so consumed in their passion, or they can’t see what they’re doing to themselves (because it occurs under the skin and doesn’t ache)…?

Minamino is basically Yurio…LOL.

That’s a cute, laidback ED. It’s called Yume? (yes, with the “?”) and it’s by Hatena, hence Leo’s shirt saying “Hatena”.

Welp, I don’t think anything supernatural will happen anymore, but…it’s still a fun anime. They toned down BB too, which should please a huge number of reviewers who found him obnoxious.

Yashahime 3

Hitokon? Short for “hito control” (hito = person)? Update: It seems the name was also kanji for “flying head root”.

“…puts one to sleep.”

“…from a place like that?”

Can a Dream Butterfly steal memories?

Moriarty 2

“Colum” (sic).

These CGI horses are gonna bug me, aren’t they…?

There is this sentiment that people need to be “saved” from poverty, especially when it comes down to African and Asian people living in slums (these days). I get the same feeling from this.

Maou-jou 3

Free advertising for Maou-jou’s home magazine! LOL!

I was wondering why those things were called “Show the Mary”…remember Mezo Shouji from Boku no Hero Academia? Same pun (the walls have ears and the doors have eyes, or something of the sort).

LOL, instead of yokudekimashita (literally, “you did good”) it’s makura ni narimashita (“you made [the book] into a pillow”). The common sentence ending for verbs means it’s funnier in Japanese, I think.

…argh! I can’t read all of Alazif’s info because of the hardsubs! Umm…”Current worry: Princess” and “Worry of the past hundred years: Destroying the demon clan” is in the box next to the logo. “Powerful magic techniques are recorded inside this book, so the demons feared it and sealed it away as a ‘forbidden grimoire’.”/”Currently, under the control of the princess, they’ve been bestowing magic and magic techniques to her, so they haven’t been used for the purpose they were made for and they’re wishing the princess would use them for not-so-stupid things” (I don’t know what pronoun to give Alazif, so I gave them 3rd person “them)…ah, someone translated the stuff for me! (That saves me a lot of time.) So Alazif is a “he”, huh?

OHKO to Demon Cleric, LOL.

SAN…? Oh, “sanity”?

Oh, Demon Cleric’s ears are black goat ears. No wonder you can’t see ‘em.

This sword is like Ex from Princess, ‘Tis Time for Torture!

HypMic 4

From here until episode 6-ish, I’ll be paying extra attention to characters’ role language. I normally do that, but I picked this anime for an assignment because I knew it had a lot of examples…yes, you heard me right. An assignment! I should be happy, but I’m wondering if my taste is going to get roasted by the normies or if I’ve gone too far with my unabashed love…

I was discussing with some of my peeps in a Discord server and…is it possible MTR will get an ED from here on out if you divide the episodes up for an almost equal amount for each division? We’ll have to wait and see.

…Oof. I’m sort of scared for this episode. It’s gonna have swearing galore…and yup, there it is, right out the gate.

Wait, why not translate wakagashira? It just means “young head” or “2nd in command”.

…well, at least they got some variation in their swearing this time…?

Hmm, normally the translation is “rabbit cop” or something toned down like that. They dialled it up to “rabbity-ass cop”. (Yakuwarigo: Samatoki = na, on the whole = very, very slang – as a former naval officer, you would expect Riou to speak formally, but he speaks as casually as almost everyone else (yamero etc.))

I’ve never seen anyone refer to Samatoki as “Kashira”. *laser stares Rentei for guest VA roles*

(Yakuwarigo: Samatoki (?) = zo)

“…why don’t you ask the cops to deal with it?” – Uh, Samatoki? Jyuto is the cop. (Well, a cop.)

I still have no idea why they subtitle the laughing…

Wait, if there’s a casino…is Dice there?!

…yup, right on cue. I didn’t think Tom and co. would be there too.

Oh, LOL. HypMic is a tourist trap anime = see those buns Tom’s eating? They’re chuukaman (Chinese buns). Makes sense in Chinatown.

It took me several watches to realise who’d passed by, but it’s…MTC in formal clothes?! (You can see part of Jyuto’s face, just to confirm it.)

Why are they wearing glasses? Even Jyuto’s wearing different glasses to the usual, LOL.

I learnt how to do some of the casino stuff while trying to get a job as a gaming customer service assistant in a huge casino joint one time. In a sense, this brings me back to then. (Update: I mean, the sound of the roulette, the sight of the board, the chips and the like. That’s what takes me back.)

(Yakuwarigo: Dice slurs his words a lot, especially when yelling things along the lines of “Please lend me moneyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” This is also true in the game.)

Dice seems to have jumped straight to “Riou”, rather than “Riou-san”.  

I wonder if anyone will ever elaborate on that incident where Dice and Riou met?

(Yakuwarigo: Samatoki speaks coarsely, but not outright swearing in the source language…for an example, he says kussotare when roped into being Jakurai’s “female counterpart” for the ARB Halloween event, but he doesn’t do anything of the sort here.)

Even Ramuda uses “san” with Samatoki, most likely to emulate how Samatoki calls himself “oresama” (but with lower formality).

Ramuda-chin? That’s new.

Yakuwarigo: Gentaro spoke normally, just with desu/masu. Maybe the “perchance” was to make it blend in with his -de aru?

Uh-oh…Ramuda’s favours always are things like “dress up for me” and “hang out with me”, if the game is any indication. (One of them happens to be how Ichiro was roped into being a sorta-Kirito for the ARB Halloween event.)

This CGI…it’s not the jankiest, but it is gonna bug me ever so slightly.

I’ve noticed a lot of people in the English-speaking fandom, when they watched the anime, took a shine to MTC (because they seem to embody the entire “refuge in audacity” thing they’ve picked up on…plus that one hamster lyric people got attached to). You can see them being all “cop/gangster husbands” here if that’s your gig – it’s kind of my gig, but to be real HypMic is not a scene where I ship dudes. I’m sorry, but I just like watching pretty boys kick butt.

What warranted the dramatic glasses drop…? (LOL anyway)

That whistle…LOL. It’s like “Look at my boy fight” and “Riou’s got some sweet fightin’ moves” rolled up in one.

For some reason, when I saw the sign for the Organised Crime department, I heard the Student Council theme from Boueibu play in my head…? (Remember that harpsichord theme?) *shrugs* I dunno why that happened.

Hmm…they crossed out the subtitles using Swedish letters instead of strikethrough, huh? Didn’t know that was a limitation.

(Yakuwarigo: Jyuto = dazo)

“Wouldya look at that forlorn mug of his?” – Seeing a man taller than you (Riou is a good 190 or so cm, mind you, making him the tallest member of his division above Samatoki’s 180-something and Jyuto’s 170-something) making a sort of demented puppy-dog face…LOL.

(Yakuwarigo: Jyuto elevated himself to kimasuyo…maybe to win back Riou’s favour?)

(Yakuwarigo: The translation elevated Samatoki’s “nanda” to “the f***”. “Nanda” is not that bad – it’s casual, but doesn’t imply swearing like “ittai” is supposed to mean “the hell”.)

(Yakuwarigo: Jyuto doesn’t finish when he says “ore wa hanashi ga”. That’s called an omission, plain as that may be.)

(Yakuwarigo: Taihendaze!...Maybe that’s a bit far to call it “we’re f**ked”…? It could just be “we’re doomed!” or “we’ve got trouble!”)

(Yakuwarigo: Jyuto uses desune. He’s the most feminine of the trio by virtue of being the smallest height-wise and most polite due to his job, but he seems to bounce between casual and polite a lot.)

…wow, even the rap lyrics have the F bomb…and this time, you can see the evidence.

Natsu no mushi = bugs in the summer. Not a perfect match, but it works. (Notably, things like Gentaro’s speech and rap lyrics don’t play by the same yakuwarigo rules because you can play characters within it – e.g. the evil doctor Jakurai sometimes plays. I’ve noticed most of the songs use casual or whatever rhymes, even for someone like Doppo who’s considered more polite than most.)

…Despite the swearing…that song slaps, man! That’s great.

MTC seems to have more tragedy on average than other divisions. This is because FP and BB are quite light-hearted and mostly family-friendly with hidden depths, but MTR mostly has stalker stories. Update: That’s when they’re focussing on MTR solo. FP’s currently could get pretty dark soon and a lot of the dark/tragic stuff is not actually going to make the anime because it’s in the drama tracks/manga.

My gosh, we got to see Nemu animated!

Okay, I’m not well-versed in yakuza slang but kumicho = boss, so Samatoki would have to answer to a kumicho.

(Yakuwarigo: Notably, when Riou bows, he doesn’t elevate his speech.)

(Yakuwarigo: Jyuto = desukane)

…and randomly, rock solo postcard memory away from the sunset. (LOL) (Also, I believe I befriended Zainou during my time on WordPress. This episode title really does mean things, in a certain sense.)

Ah, it did switch! It’s just…uh, gone to an MTC version of itself (and it has the same name, “Kizuna”). So that means we wait another 6 episodes for MTR. On the other hand…what will the final version be? A whole cast version? A different song? No song at all? *shrugs* Only the future can tell us these things. (Also, why is Jyuto so loud…? That’s why I’m not a bigger fan of him. Much like Ramuda’s minna genki?, his iconic quotes like “In the building!” are so loud and silly-sounding, you just can’t get them out of your head.)

The cityscape in the middle of the disc at the ED’s start seems to have changed. I would assume that’s a Yokohama skyline.

Keiichi Nakagawa is the voice of Rentei…I should stop burning myself on guest VA appearances, this guy’s a rookie. This Nouzenkazura VA (Kenji Hamada) though is voiced by the guy who does Otegine in Touken Ranbu and isn’t as much of a rookie as Rentei’s.

Notably, where BB do the “BB sign” (as it seems to be known), MTC do a finger gun. MTR have the wolf fang, but…what is FP’s, then? Update: It’s a peace sign to the side to make an F.

Today’s new music was “Red Zone (Don’t Test da Master)”, by KLOOZ and DJ WATARAI.

*cringes at the airhorn* *briefly presses fingers to forehead, as if going to massage temples, but then removes them* The airhorn reminds me of crazy sport fans. Crazy anime fans are more civil than them, which is one reason why I don’t follow sports on the regular.

Update: Oh! The pond owl cafe in episode 2! It means Ikebukuro!...Sort of. Fukurou rhymes with ‘bukuro and ike = pond.

Akudama 3

Hmm? Is it just me or is that T in the code the kanji for “bird” (tori)?

“It’s where I belong.” – I know my reason for pursuing Japanese is a purely selfish reason – so I can stay above others in the topics I think matter to me and pursue the endless natural high that comes from the thrill of translation (which may be all one reason or two, depending on how you look at it).

Oh, the bunny and shark again.

The bunny’s shirt said “life” at one point, I didn’t understand the shark’s though.

At one point, shark: Ka (from “Kansai”), bunny: ken (authority).

At the end, shark: heaven, bunny: hell. These broadcasts look like NHK broadcasts at the end.

Most of these words are katakana, making them look foreign.

Kansai 300, 25-1.

“Move-you-s**t!” – It…seems a bit out of character for Swindler to say the swear word there.

Taiso 3

That CGI…is not the greatest.

According to Moon Land, gymnastics operates on a deduction/addition system. You add points for difficulty, but deduct points for errors like how Minamino’s feet are apart.

*sees montage* - Those CGI scenes really take out the budget, huh…?

Gymnastics moves are named after their creators…kinda like scientific names and finders.

There was a lot of commentary in Moon Land so I’m not sure what the moves are called from memory (the dialogue always did that for me), but having the reactions speak for themselves…I think the anime team has enough faith the reactions will convey everything. They did, by the way.

You can see the bone at the base of Minamino’s neck, under the skin…it’s sort of scary.

The fact you couldn’t see Jotaro’s eyes for a shot or two…that kind of unnerved me and built tension.

Oh! The men in black appear after the credits!

[gazingatmydoom]

FRUSTRATED again wanikani is doing the thing with the extremely similar words again. giving me 休む, 休み, 休日 and 休止 all at the same time!!!!! you've given me four words that all begin with the same kanji!!!!! remembering these is gonna be such a pain in my ass. although. after the whole debacle with 先 and 生 i feel milldly more prepared. at least 休日 and 休止 are obvious cos they have kanji in the second half too that i already know but 休む and 休み are gonna be difficult mmmm actually maybe not cos i've pretty well internalised now that if a word ends in and -u sound it's a verb so that makes 休む fairly obvious and 休み isn't that hard to remember if it's the only one i need to try with, and luckily it means the same thing as just 休, which ofc i already know, sO MAYBE my initial reaction was an overeaction.

man writing things out really fucking helps yk that. good shit. i reccomend.

[autisticmight]

hey remember that time a couple of weeks ago when i translated some bnha leaks

because i found some today from @trashformha​ and i’m going to Make Another Attempt

edited bc i messed up one bit!!! i mean, i’ve messed up many, but still

so, basically, they’re all fucked. there’s a threat too big, even for all of these heroes.

bubble 1: nani teki wa hitori! kore wo uteneba

i don’t really get the first bit, because i’m nowhere near fluent. “nani” is, as we all know “what?” and “teki” is “opponent”

therefore i’m thinking it’s basically “which opponents are alone,” or something along those lines, for now

there’s a familiar “u” for “utsu,” in “uteneba,” and “ute” is an imperative of that. “ba” is kind of an “if, and” particle, i think. before i get a headache, i’m just going to try and summarise that bubble, like. fuck it i’m making logic bounces. “the opponent is alone! attack that way”

bubble 2: nanno tame no HERO houwajidai ka

“nanno” is, like, “what kind,” and “tame” is, as usual, basically “sake.” the “no” makes that possessive, too

you’re not gonna believe what “hero” means

whenever i look up “houwajidai,” it. OH. this is basically “what good is the age of the saturation of heroes!”

“a single opponent attacking this way! what use is this age of hero saturation?”

-

oh, cool!!! we’ve got rock lock, aizawa, and manual? Dad Squad!!!!!!!!!

bubble 1: “masshou” wa kaijyou shite nai...!

“masshou” is “erasure” so that’s pretty simple. “kaijyou” is “cancelling,” though jfc it’s so hard to make out the kanji that i had to use waifu2x, which made it worse, bc it’s not designed for words. and, “shite nai,” that’s just the te-form of “suru” with a negative attached, which basically means “being unable to”

so! “erasure isn’t working...!”

bubble 2: kanpeki na ... noumu tte wake ka...!

“kanpeki na,” is just adjectiving “perfect” for the noun, which is “noumu.” so, like, “the perfect noumu”

“tte,” is like “to say; as for,” you know, like all that. “wake” is like, a reasonable conclusion, or just “circumstances,” which is really kind of vague, dude

“my “erasure” isn’t working...! the perfect... noumu is...!”

i can conclude that, while aizawa can erase every quirk that belongs to a normal noumu (when he’s aware that he has to erase more than one quirk; he could not do so in the initial usj encounter until he’d been told that the noumu had multiple quirks), he cannot erase the quirks of a high-end noumu

we saw earlier in this arc, even, when it was still a hospital raid, that the narrative didn’t let aizawa use his quirk on them before

-

here’s the long-awaited Gran Slam. he just. slaps izuku and kacchan to the ground

bubble 1: kokora de iika

“kokora” is “hereabout” and “iika” is “listen.” he’s saying “listen here.” unless it’s “ii ka,” in which case, he’s saying “is here fine?”

bubble 2: ima shita ni aizawa-sensei ga!!

i don’t need to note this out at all. “aizawa-sensei’s down there now!!”

bubble 3: aa, shigaraki no “kosei” wo fuujitoru

the first bit is, “ah, shigaraki’s quirk” but “quirk” is in quotation marks, because that’s how it’s indicated in japanese, i guess, while we capitalise it to indicate that It’s A Special Thing; Not The Normal Word

“fuujiru” is a verb that means, like, “seal” or “block.” this is unlike “azarashi,” which is a Good Seal. you know, a selkie friend

i’d hazard that this is, like, “ah, shigaraki’s quirk is blocking everything”

bubble 4: shii-san motto hanareta hou ga iidaro!!

“hanareta” is past tense of “hanareru,” which is, “to leave; to get further away; to lose connection,” and “hou” is, in this case, i think, “direction.” “daro” seems like a shortening of “darou,” which is indicating a question, like “don’t you think?”

so, “shii-san’s got even further away, don’t you think!?”

bubble 4: jii-san motto hanareta hou ga ii daro!!

“how the fuck did this old guy get us so far away!!?”

bubble 4.5: “gran torino, kacchan wa...” which is basically “gran torino and kacchan are...” (or “huh...”) he’s introducing his other mentor to his... to his rabid pomeranian

bubble 5: OFA no kyouyuusha jyaro toshinori kara kiitoru

just so you know, the mention of “toshinori” has my brain going “!!! :D !!!”

“kyouyuusha” is “joint owners,” essentially. “jya” is just “da” in regional dialect, making “jyaro” “daro.” “kiku” can be “listen” or “ask” which sucks, but “kara” is “from,” which i know

“didn’t toshinori tell you about joint owners of one for all?” or, “didn’t you ask toshinori about joint holders of one for all?”

bubble 5 but the other half: koko ga gendo jya bakugou

“here,” a particle that indicates a specific subject, “limits,” particle indicating existence, “bakugou”

"here, you are limited, bakugou”

so!!! gran torino dumps them somewhere. he says, “around here should be fine.”

“sensei’s down there, now!” says izuku.

i think it’s kacchan who says he then says, “ugh, shigaraki’s quirk is blocking everything.”

to that, izuku says, “he’s gotten even further away, hasn’t he? gran torino, kacchan, i...”

to that, kacchan says, “how the fuck did that old dude get us so far away!!?”

then, gran torino says, “didn’t you hear from toshinori about joint owners of one for all? here, you’re limited, bakugou.”

and, while izuku tries to introduce kacchan to gran torino, gran torino says, “i’m the co-owner of one for all, basically. didn’t toshinori tell you? you’re limited here, bakugou.”

tbh i initially thought we’d switched to the league, because “shii-san” is. so weird. i could only imagine toga calling him that

-

oh no. he’s talking about aizawa

bubble 1: washi wa ERASER no ashi ni nari ni modoru

“washi” is just an old man personal pronoun. “ashi” is foot, and, with the particle added, i think it’s “by foot,” as a mode of transportation. “nari ni” is, like, doing things your own way. “modoru” is, in essence “to return”

in this case, i think “wa” is used as a comparison, rather than a topic marker. so, it’s like

“eraser and i both take our own paths.”

bubble 2: kakurete rotte ...... koto desu ka!?

“kakureru” is a verb meaning “to hide,” combined with a bunch of te-forms

“we’re being hidden... is that it?”

bubble 3: yatsu wa ALL FOR ONE no “kosei” wo ijyoku sareta rashii

“yatsu” is just. “him. that guy. blergh.” but “ijyoku,” is. it’s like. it’s “working from your house.” i don’t get it. and “sareru” is the passive form of “suru,” “to do.” so it’s “to be done.” and “rashii” is like. like. ish. seeming

“it’s like all for one’s quirk is working through him”

as in, like, it’s the quirk that’s really doing it, or all for one is puppeteering him from tartarus

little bubble-less text next to gran torino: DJ HERO ga ittotta

“it’s like the dj hero was saying,”

i think so, anyway

bubble 4: man ga ichi ONE FOR ALL ga ubawarete mo shitara...

“man ga ichi,” “if by any chance,” or so the jisho collocation says. it also says “ten-thousand to one,” which is more what i was thinking

“ubawareru,” or, “to steal.” i keep forgetting this, though it’s growing more familiar, and “mo,” is like, “in addition to.” like “inu mo neko mo minna suki” as “i love every one of them; dogs and cats!”

“shitara” seems to be past tense of “suru” and also a supposition, so:

“if there’s a chance, no matter how small, that one for all could be stolen...”

and, subsequently: “saiaku” wo kangaero

and i don’t think i need help translating this. i know “aku” and i know “kangae”

“if there’s any chance that one for all could be stolen, the villains will have won.”

-

a lot of the kanji and such are blurred, so i’m doing my best, but it’s going to be super vague and not very notey

panel 1 top: “kosei” jya nai...!! su no... chikara...!!?

“it’s not a quirk...!! that power... is his own!!?”

panel 1 bottom 1: ano chouyaku(?) mo sou datta no ka!?

“was that jump also due to it!?”

panel 1 bottom 2: furuu dakede sora suru jiyuu ni - !

i have, like, half a clue with this one, sorry

“by simply wielding it, he’s free in the sky!”

panel 2: sonna chikara... marude

“that power... it’s just like-”

bubble 1: ALL MIGHT ni wa oyobanu teido jya gana!

the bubbles are a lot clearer, so

“oyobanu.” i have no idea. it’s, like, “oyabu” is “to reach; to measure up to,” and “nu” seems to be turning it into a negative, but i have no idea what tense it’s supposed to be.

“teido” is a suffix for a noun as in “degree, amount,” so i think the “nu” nouned the “oyabu”

“gana” is kind of airy with its meaning. is it, like “wouldn’t it be nice if...” or is it making things uncertain, or is it being empathetic? where does the “jya” fit in? is it a “jyaa” or a “da?”

“don’t you think he could reach the impossible standards set by all might?”

bubble 2: karada no kado na kaizou wa nou ni fuka ga kakaru

“kado” - “excessive. “kaizou” - “remodelling; reformatting.” “nou” - “brain.” “fuka” - “burden; strain.” “kakaru” - who the fuck has a clue

“the excessive remodelling of his body allows his brain to handle this burden”

-

bubble 1: tasukarimasu, MANUAL-san

...yeah. i checked. he’s being so polite and he is breaking my heart

“please save them, manual”

bubble 2: bunryou kajyou ni naru to kaette shimite

“bunryou” - “amount,” “kajyou” - “excess”

“ni naru to” is a bunch of particles and shit, equating to “when it becomes”

“shimete” is, like, “to touch; pierce; sting; permeate; influence; impress”

for now, i think it means something along the lines of “you have a bunch of kids to get back to and influence,” but it’s all dependent on bubble 3

edit: i saw “kae” and thought “ah, kaeru; return!” and it’s not!!! it’s “instead!!!”

bubble 3: me wo tsumutte shimaimasunde... iki awasemashou!

“me wo tsumutte” is just, “close your eyes.”

“shimaimasu” is a polite conjugation of “shimau,” or “to end; complete.” 

the “nda” means, funnily enough, “and”

“awasemashou,” i think, means, like, “let’s do it together!”

“when the excess amount you take on instead starts to sting, close your eyes, stop, and we’ll breathe together!”

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 224 “On The Shores Of Lake Shikoku”

So we’ve a new chapter... and a new fairy tale character to meet.

Meet the new awesome guy who joins the cast and introduces himself in his elegant tattooed birthday suit, pirate Boutarou, real name Oosawa Fusatarou finally delighting our eyes with his awesome look!

But well, let’s not run ahead.

The chapter starts with the promised Ogata colour cover.

The awesome Tsurumineko discovered the text written on it is probably a reference to the Japanese postal service Kuroneko Yamato with ‘Sā ikau! Yamaneko Ogata no hitchū-bin’ (さあ行かう！ ヤマネコ尾形の必中便! “Con on, let’s go! Wildcat Ogata sure-hit service!”) being a put on their courier service (宅急便 “Takkyūbin”). Even the small text ‘Ippotemae e!’ (一歩手前へ! “One step ahead!”) should be a reference to Yamato’s slogan ‘Ippomae e!’ (一歩前へ “One step forward!”).

Of course, twisting the reading a little and adding the chapter’s title ‘Shikotsuko no hotori de’ (支笏湖のほとりで “On the shores of Lake Shikotsu”) to the writing you can have “Come on, let’s go! On the shores of Lake Shikotsu”) which can hint this will be where our characters will converge.

The sentence is also used as a meme due to this commercial ‘Sā ikau ikka o agete Nanbei e’ (さあ行かう一家をあげて南米へ “Come on, let’s go to south America”)

Now… the visual.

The art at first made me think this cover was meant to be part of a series of ‘Golden Kamuy’ early covers presenting the characters and their equipments, then discharged because Ogata’s equipment wasn’t really as noteworthy as the others (I mean, we got from Sugimoto’s presentation the info about the rifle, the bayonet and the belt with the ammunition so the most we could get from Ogata were new info about his uniform and nothing more).

The style of the colouring, has many have noticed, reminds of old manga from ‘60/’70… and, more specifically, reminded me of ‘Cyborg 009’ (サイボーグ009) a beautiful manga series from the great Ishinomori Shōtarō (石ノ森 章太郎) transposed in various anime and movies.

The series is about 9 cyborgs whose uniform is similar to Ogata’s but commonly in a red colour with an extremely long yellow scarf (in some transpositions the uniform is white or blue but the red uniform is the most iconic). Ishinomori has also some covers in which he couloured in yellow the characters, further connecting the visual of this cover to his works.

What’s more as I said ‘Cyborg 009’ is a manga about 9 cyborgs of the ‘00’ series (001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008 and the titular character 009) who were originally people kidnapped and forcefully turned into cyborgs by the evil Black Ghost organization, led by its tyrannical leader Skull (スカール) whose name can also be translitterated as Scar,

to undergo experiments that would allow him to use them as human weapons to promote the production of cyborg warfare. The cyborgs however escaped and rebelled to the Black Ghost organization.

Next to Ogata’s image there’s his name written in a peculiar way. Ogata Hyakunosuke’s name is normally written in kanji as 尾形 百之助 but this time Noda wrote it in Roman letters except for the kanji 百 which means “100”, and in short contains ‘00’ as if to joke he’s part of the ‘00’ series of cyborgs… and from this point is easy to see the parallelism between the Shinigami Tsurumi (whose face can resemble a skull) who’s planning to produce weapons and drugs to gain from war and Skull and his evil organization.

Of course, if we’ve to assume Noda wanted to establish a parallelism between Ogata and the 00 cyborgs we would assume he compared him to the titular character, 009, real name Shimamura Jō (島村 ジョー), a half Japanese, half American boy who was shunned by his peers because he was a half-breed, became a delinquent, escaped from a juvenile detention facility before being captured by Black Ghost.

However as @raggiodilunablr suggested, it’s also possible that Noda is thinking to a parallelism not with 009 but with 001 (100 in reverse).

001, real name Ivan Whisky (イワン·ウイスキー), Russian, a baby born with a severe illness on whom his father Gamo, a famous brain surgeon, performed numerous brain enhancement processes which allowed his mental capacity to far exceed that of a normal human. The implants were inserted against the wishes of Ivan's mother, Erika (who he even kills in the manga). Later on though his father went mad and discharged him in the care of the Black Ghost as he focused on creating other cyborgs. Due to all this Ivan is a highly intelligent, genius level child, talented in scientific analysis and can telepathically converse at an adult level, often working as the other leader of the cyborgs. He has an "ends justify the means" type of nature and he is willing to sacrifice the title character 009 to save the world (though 009 is okay with it). Considering how Noda likes to parallel Ogata to a child, it can be it’s 001 he had in mind.

Anyway I recommend everyone to go read the manga or watch the Cyborg 009 anime series as it’s awesome and a great classic (never mentioning the other characters in it can vaguely parallel our cast of characters in Golden Kamuy).

But now let’s move to the plot.

Ironically Asirpa too decides, same as Ogata, they would have swans for dinner and explains to Sugimoto how they would hunt him. When she explains they use the light of a fire to draw it close Sugimoto, whose arm is still in a sling, worry they would hit the swan.

Honestly the contrast between Sugimoto not hesitating in the slightest to maim or kill people for his goals but yet being shocked by how Asirpa would do the same to animals in order to eat them to survive never fails to impress me. Asirpa first says they wouldn’t hit them but grab them geeently, to then admit they would just bash them in the neck with a piece of wood… because really, Sugimoto, how would you expect just gently grabbing them would cause them to die so that you can eat them?

There’s a minor gag about a swan and Shiraishi both being lead there by the light then noticing each other, the swan about to attack Shiraishi (swans are pretty aggressive despite their beautiful look) before Asirpa clubbed the swan. The group then eat the swan, with another recurring gag of Asirpa offering the head to Sugimoto and Sugimoto not really eating it before we’ll move to the real plot of the story.

Shiraishi had been checking the gold dust that Heita was carrying and had noticed something. Heita had kept samples of the gold dust from every river he went. It turns out gold dust from different rivers have different looks so a skilled gold panner can tell where the gold dust was found just by looking at it.

Now, credits when it’s due, for most of the Heita arc I was assuming Heita was a charlatan, using the lie he found all that gold dust and all his talks about knowing how to find gold to draw there unsuspecting victims and robs them of their money.

It turned out the guy was genuinely an expert and his aims and problems were of different nature and this chapter remarks it.

Anyway we now get a summary of the whole gold story.

A long time ago the Ainu gathered up the gold dust in a single place, feared it would cause disaster and hid it. Time went by and eventually only few men knew about it. Shiraishi assumes those men were the ones killed in what he labels as the ‘Nopperabō jiken’ (のっぺらぼう事件 “Noppera-bou incident”).

Now… originally the men murdered and chopped to the point they were reduced to lump of flesh were assumed to have been 7, one of whom should have been Asirpa’s father. We know Asirpa’s father managed to escape but Shiraishi assumes 7 men were still killed. It’s possible the men were 7… albeit it’s also possible, since those Ainu were chopped into pieces, their remains scattered, that the men murdered were 6. I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s relevant how many were killed, we only know Ariko’s father was among the deceased.

Shiraishi suggests that it’s possible though that other people (in additions to the ones who died) knew were the gold was, which is why Noppera-bou and Co wanted to move the gold, so as to better hide it.

Shiraishi points out in the end it seems Noppera-bou did all the work by himself… which is a huge assumption. They could have moved the gold together and then those men could have been killed so as to keep the secret on where the gold was.

Anyway, no matter if the moving was done by 1 people or 8, Shiraishi’s theory that it shouldn’t have been moved far is solid enough as moving all that gold would be troublesome even for 8 people.

Shiraishi suggests if there’s Ainu who knew where the gold previously was, those Ainu should have ben residing near the previous hideout for the gold. Shiraishi says if they could find out which type of gold dust was hidden there they could figure out from where the gold came.

Sugimoto points out either way they can’t do it as the gold is HIDDEN, meaning they can’t check it to figure out where it was taken from and Asirpa agrees he’s being an idiot but Shiraishi proves again he’s all but that.

Shiraishi is awesome people, please, remember about it!

In fact Shiraishi remembers that Tanigaki told them Noppera-bou ran away with part of the gold but then his boat capsized and the gold dusk sank.

Sugimoto remembers this happened in Lake Shikotsu.

Asirpa wonders if Shiraishi is suggesting to drop searching for the skins as they had always done and start searching for the sunken gold dust.

Shiraishi points out since getting the skins might be completely impossible this could be another way to approach the problem but when Sugimoto sums up their new course of action...

Sugimoto states he thinks each step is too hard and, as to make matter worse Asirpa points out the very first step is impossible for them as Lake Shikotsu is the deepest lake in Hokkaido so they can’t dive in it and recover the gold Noppera-bou lost… and here it’s were Asirpa is missing a tiny yet extremely relevant detail.

In fact a flashback starts, reporting what happened one year ago at Lake Shikoku, hinting the convicts escaped around one year ago.

Heita went on a boat on Lake Shikoku with someone else. That someone else wants to dive in the lake and is employing Heita to get some help. Said someone else is the Pirate Boutarou, mentioned by Kadokura in the previous chapter and whose real name is Ōsawa Fusatarō.

We get some explanations on how this guy is an amazing diver, who can stay underwater for 30 minutes, has giant feet and palmed hands. As a child he was employed as one of the workers who ferries lumber down the rivers refining his skill in the water then moved to just pull people into the water, drown them and strip them of valuables, which later caused Ōsawa Fusatarō to gain the nicknames of ‘Kanbō no kaizoku’ (監房の海賊 “Pirate of the prison”) and ‘Kaizoku Bōtarō’  (海賊 房太郎 “Pirate Bōtarō”), taking advantage of how the kanji 房 which in his name is read as ‘Fusa’ can also read as ‘Bō’ when meaning “prison cell”.

As Boutarou surpasses the current world record for longer immersion and deepest diving Heita considers escaping, hoping he dies as he thinks it would be impossible to accomplish such a feat, a clear hint he wasn’t with him out of his own will.

We go back to our trio and what Shiraishi knows and spurred him to make such a theory and that Asirpa was missing.

Asirpa was wrong into thinking no one could dive deep into lake Shikoku and find the lost gold as, among the samples of could dust Heita possessed, there’s one belonging to ‘Kaizoku-san’ (海賊さん “Mister Pirate) coming from Lake Shikoku.

While the images show us Boutarou finding the boat Noppera-bou used in the deep of the lake, Shiraishi explains this ‘Kaizoku-san’ is one of the escaping convicts, a particularly tough guy… and then Shiraishi shows, turning around the package containing the sample, that Heita had already identified the gold. It came from Toppu River (徳富川), Saru River (沙流川), Sorachi River (空知川) and Shiriuchi River (知内川).

Long story short, what Shiraishi is suggesting is not that they’ll change their modus operandi, but that they’ll hunt that guy by checking those rivers.

The last page is cut in two panels, one shows Sugimoto, with his eyes white the way they whiten when he thinks at murdering someone saying they could catch a pirate if they’ll go to those rivers and, in the other panel, the flashback of the face of Boutarou, smiling underwater as he had found Noppera-bou’s boat, hinting to how Sugimoto and Boutarou will likely fight.

It’s worth to note Sugimoto’s arm is still broken so there’s to wonder if we’ll have a time skip in which it’ll heal or Sugimoto will have to face Boutarou while being at disadvantage. Hijikata also might be converging on him so we’ll see.

It’s also noteworthy how, through all the chapter, Vasily was nowhere to be seen.

I don’t really get Noda’s plans for him.

I take Vasily and Ogata will have a shoot down, but so far Vasily merely seems a character forcefully added to the group just for this, his contribute to the plot too small to be noteworthy (yeah, Vasily did something useful here and there, but it could be easily removed by the plot with very minor changes without anyone noticing) so his presence seems mostly forced.

Anyway as I’m a visual person let’s analyze the situation through a map.

You can see the 4 rivers Toppu River (徳富川), Saru River (沙流川), Sorachi River (空知川) and Shiriuchi River (知内川) Heita noted down in blue. Shiriuchi river is pretty far from the others even if, notably, the gold fever in Hokkaido started there. My guess would be the hideout for the gold should have been located around one of the other three rivers as they’re closer and it would easier to bring the gold there.

Now the river closer to Tomakomai (苫小牧市) which you can see in red and where the Noppera-bou incident took place, is Saru river so maybe the previous hideout was there.

Lake Shikotsu (支笏湖), in pale blue, is not so far from Tomakomai.

Now I left always in blue Uryu river (雨竜川), where the Sugimoto’s group is, while I coloured in red the other cities/places which are relevant for us.

Otaru (小樽市), where Asirpa’s Kotan is but also where Hijikata’s group is and where Tsurumi’s headquarters are located, Barato (茨戸), the last place in which Tsurumi was seen, Noboribetsu (登別市), the place near which Ariko’s village is (Ariko’s father was one of the men who died in the Noppera-bou’s incident) and in which Toni Anji’s men were, Asahikawa (旭川市), where the 7th division headquarters are located, Kabato Prison (樺戸監獄), which is actually located in Tsukigata (月形町) and from which Pirate Boutarou’s men come, Kushiro (釧路市), near which Kirawus’ village is and, although I think by now it won’t be relevant anymore, Abashiri (網走市).

I’m not really sure if all this can turn to be useful but I think it’s a good thing to have an idea of where everything is.

Now… unless the next chapter will deal with Tsurumi, the transitional chapters might have ended and the next one could start the Boutarou’s arc. As Hijikata has just learnt he’s on the move, he might try to converge on him. Now… there’s to wonder if Heita managed to pass the info about where the gold could be to Boutarou. I’ll go and speculate he did so, which would mean Boutarou would try and inspect one of the rivers Heita mentioned. As Toppu river is the closest to Kabato prison and, conveniently to Uryu’s river (where Sugimoto is), there are chances Boutarou and Sugimoto will meet there. It’s hard to say if Hijikata’s group will manage to get there before or after Sugimoto. We don’t exactly know where they’re on Uryu river but the distance both groups have to go through to get on Toppu river could be similar and if Hijikata equips himself and his men with horses they could get there faster… though Sugimoto could try to use a boat to run down the river so… hard to say who’ll get there sooner.

Tsurumi is currently the closer to Kabato prison, so there are high chances if he was informed about Boutarou’s moves he might reach him before the other two.

We’ll see.

What’s noteworthy though is that although Boutarou seems a vicious criminal he’s also one with a working brain and with a group of them below him. I honestly doubt he can become the leader of another group chasing the gold, it’s more likely he’ll end up joining one of the pre-existent groups searching the gold… if he and his men survive the meeting with one of those over mentioned groups.

This chapter also remarks who’s the other person who has a working brain.

Shiraishi.

Although assumed to be dumb right from the start, Shiraishi is actually quite intelliget and the proof is he’s the ‘Escape King’ a guy capable to invent always new and succesfull ways to escape from prison.

The trick that caused people to think Shiraishi is dumb wasn’t Shiraishi inability to think but Shiraishi’s tendency not too worry too much about things, causing him to act in a dumb way most of the time.

When Shiraishi thinks things through he’s actually amazingly smart and Noda hinted at it in many subtle ways. In addition to the various escape plans Shiraishi came up with, we see how Shiraishi came up with the plan to locate Hijikata and how he managed to trick him by handing him a fake copy of a tattooed skin, how well he can collect info (he’s the one discovering about Nihei and Henmi), when Wakayama proposes betting with dices he’s the one wanting to check the dices, he is the one to realize the nonsense of Tsurumi’s plan (it would be better to share the gold,), how Sugimoto has a person he loves back at home, how Hijikata planned to use Asirpa to promote his war by having a newspaper write an article about her, how he understood in Abashiri Kiro might have harmed Inkarmat and Ogata might have shoot Sugimoto, how Kiro lied to them, how Asirpa grew through her travel in Karafuto and what she planned to do when she escaped and how they do need a plan if they want to take part to the gold hunt.

While Sugimoto was just ‘let’s wait for Hijikata and Tsurumi to argue and then snatch the skins from them’ Shiraishi went and thought up to a strategy they could put into action.

Although Shiraishi can still act silly and careless, he’s starting to think things more and more, and proving he has a fine brain, a brain fine enough he could be a strategist.

Really, Shiraishi is awesome! I can’t wait what he’ll do next!

[towaniegaita]

FAQs [Nozakibento, 16th October 2010]

Original post in Japanese

I collected together some of the questions I'm often asked.

 Basic Information

Name: Nozakibento

Date of Birth: 28th April 1986 (Showa 61)

Height: 177.5cm (as of 2018)

Weight: approx. 60kg

Blood Type: A

Home prefecture: Hokkaido. I was born in Sapporo. I also lived in Tokachi and Kushiro.

Current location: Tokyo (I moved there from Hokkaido in the year I turned 30)

Occupation: A 33 year old amateur idol

Hairstyle: I used to wear a wig, but now I mostly go for a messy style

Visual Acuity: Both eyes are around 1.5 without glasses

Characteristics: Nozakibento

Likes and Dislikes

Favourite food: Sliced senmai (boiled tripe), vegetables in general, meat in general (especially meat sashimi), seafood in general (especially octopus and oysters), anything cherry blossom flavoured, anything yuzu flavoured, rice, miso soup, soba, udon, niboshi ramen, yakuzen herbal soup, grated yam, tofu, shiokara, sushi, sashimi, seaweed, mochi, rice flour dumplings, wheat gluten cakes, keihan rice, oyster soy sauce, slow-boiled eggs, Indian curry from Tokachi, ice cream (especially citrus, mint chocolate, watermelon and vanilla flavours), hard gums, mini Ramune candy, agar jelly, almond tofu pudding, oroblanco

Least favourite food: None.

Favourite drinks: Tea in general, kale smoothie, scented but not sweetened sparkling water, vegetable juice, tomato juice, soba water, miso soup, dashi, non-alcoholic beer, ginger ale, black coffee

Favourite alcoholic drinks: Campari-based cocktails (especially Spumoni), Violet Fizz

Favourite animals: Daring crabs, spotted garden eels, owls, sea urchins when they eat cabbage

My type: Someone with a big heart, who isn't rude and doesn't complain all the time. Decisive, speaks logically and is a fast worker

Favourite scents: Bergamot, yuzu, oroblanco, lemongrass, lemon and lime, eucalyptus, vanilla, incense, hinoki cypress, the smell of hot springs, medicinal water, struck matches

Favourite sports: Table tennis, endurance running, non-competitive swimming, walking

Favourite instruments: When I listen to bands, I tend to focus on the drums, bass and keyboard. If I go to see a symphonic orchestral concert or something, I tend to watch the percussionists. I myself can't play any instruments.

Hobbies: Gaming, listening to game soundtracks, table tennis, reading, darts, being enveloped in aromas, checking my daily electricity bill using a bill management app

Special skills: Ability to work as a librarian, can sing The Tortoise And The Hare starting from different positions, a little bit of competitive eating (can eat up to about 2kg)

Qualifications: Librarian, teacher's licence (for primary, middle and high schools), certified member of the Sports Boy Scouts (link in Japanese), Kanji Aptitude Test Level 2, driving licence (for manual cars)

Person I most respect: My mother

Favourite subjects: Japanese (especially modern Japanese), contemporary society, ethics, politics and economics

Favourite season: The shade in midsummer

Favourite phrases: 

80% Preparation 20% Performance (dandori hachibu)

The early bird gets the worm (sente hisshou)

Niche business (sukima sangyou)

Information, Communication, Discussion (houkoku renraku soudan)

Easier said than done (iu wa yasuku okonau wa katashi)

Haste makes waste (tanki wa sonki)

Drink if you want, but be swallowed up (sake wa nondemo nomareru na)

The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean (i no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu)

A picture is worth a thousand words (hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu)

Stress-free

Favourite Japanese poem:

'If I live long,

I may look back with yearning for these painful days -

The world that now seems harsh

May then appear sweet and good!'

By Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, translation by Peter McMillan

Favourite place to hang out: Inside a game

Favourite characters: Domo-kun (NHK), Moji-kun (Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan), Zushi Hokki (official mascot of Hokuto city in Hokkaido), Jack Frost (Megami Tensei series), Morgana (Persona 5)

Favourite anime: Eureka Seven

Favourite manga: Love Roma by Toyoda Minoru

I Wonder If I Can Make 100 Friends by Toyoda Minoru

Yoake no Toshokan by Nonou Tao

Other manga I like: Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-kun, PAPUWA, Final Request, Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho, Revelations: Persona, Mind Assassin, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Arakawa Under The Bridge, Fushigi Yuugi, Ranma 1/2, Psychometrer EIJI, The Kindaichi Case Files, Rakudai Ninja Rantarou, Soul Hunter etc.

Favourite game: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

Other games I like: Shin Megami Tensei 1-4, Shin Megami Tensei 4 Final, Shin Megami Tensei if, Persona 1-5, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha 1 and 2, DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA Avatar Tuner 1 and 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1 and 2,  Little Magic, Jake Hunter: Let Time Pass By, LIVE A LIVE, Final Fantasy 5 and 8, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Schoolhouse Horror Story, Banshee's Last Cry, Jungle Wars 2, Ranma 1/2: Hidden Treasure of the Red Cat Gang, Renegade, The New Hot-Blooded Tough Guy: The Eulogy of Kunio and Co., Puyo Puyo, Puyo Puyo 2, Saga Frontier, Monster Farm, Monster Farm 2, KOF98, SAMURAI SPIRITS, vib-ribbon, Clock Tower 2, Clock Tower Ghost Head, Maria: Kimitachi Ga Umareta Wake, Double Cast, Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan, RPG Maker Series, etc. As for social network games, I like Kuroneko no Wiz Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Revelation, and Ensemble Stars!

What I most want right now: Time

Do I smoke? Never. But I have nothing against those who do. I don't mind if someone smokes next to me.

Things I struggle with: Exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, English, mental arithmetic, making other people cross.

What I like about myself: Large earlobes

What I don't like about myself: The fact that I easily neglect my work if I lose focus.

Do I like nurses? I like them if they're good at giving injections.

Favourite way of heating things up in a microwave: 2 minutes at 500W

Ideal way to spend a day off: Sleep like I've melted into the bed, do the cleaning and laundry when I wake up, play games like I'm bathing in them, sleep again.

Novels I’m glad to have read and why: There's a lot, so I'll just list what I can remember off the top of my head.

★ Criss Cross - Konton no Maou by Takahata Kyouichirou, published by MediaWorks. This was the very first book that made me interested in reading novels.

★ Natsu no Niwa - The Friends by Yumoto Kazumi, published by Shinchousha. When I felt down, I read this and my heart was cleansed.

★ Rirekisho by Nakamura Kou, published by Kawade Shobou Shinsha. Because it gave me courage.

★ Tsubasa wa Itsu Made Mo by Kawakami Ken'ichi, published by Shuueisha. I simply thought that it was a really good book, and reading it made me want to read more books like it in the future.

★ Tsumetai Kousha no Toki wa Tomaru by Tsujimura Mizuki, published by Kodansha. This was the book that reminded me that I wanted to keep reading novels forever.

NicoNicoDouga and Dance covers

When did you start using NicoNico? 2007, in the earliest days of the RC version.

What kind of videos do you watch on NicoNico? Anything.

Were you learning how to dance? I've never learnt how to dance.

Why did you start dancing? I wanted to take part in the first large-scale Cirno meeting. (T/N: An event where a whole bunch of people from NND get together to dance to Cirno's Perfect Math Class. Here's the 2009 version.)

What's the average production time for a single video? It varies.

What's been the most fun thing to dance to so far? Ren'ai Hunter

Which of your own dance videos are you most satisfied with? Domo-kun's dance to MERRY GO ROUND

Where you happy to be chosen in the Geiran videos (A series where a gay man ranked dancers on NND)? I was.

Which version is your current Domo-kun?

Hokkaido and Tokyo version: Tiramisu (Original version. Mainly stays at home. On active duty)

Osaka version: Chocolat (Retired)

Fukuoka version: Fondue (Retired)

Tokyo version: Belgium (Retired)

Tokyo version: Demel (Retired)

What kind of expressions do you make and what feelings do you have when dancing as Domo-kun or in the blue full bodysuit? None

What would happen to you if you drank a strange potion? I'd become aggressive.

Aren't you going to wear a wig anymore? I'd like to wear one again some time soon.

Other

Were you in any clubs during middle school? I was in the table tennis club for all 3 years. My high school club is a secret.

Do you have a girlfriend? It'd be annoying to have to update this page if I got a girlfriend or if we broke up so that's also a secret.

What are your dreams and goals? To make the people I love happy. I want to live in a way that I can look back when I die and think that I lived a good life.

What are your habits? Looking at the ingredients and nutrition facts labels on food. Looking at the ingredients labels on shampoo. Moving around unsteadily. Clicking my tongue without any thought behind it.

What are your typical phrases? Okay (ii yo), I see (naruhodo), Why?! (nande dayo), hahahaha, hah hah hah hah, HAHAHAHA

What are your main principles? To always live calmly, and to never miss an opportunity

Does your Roomba have a name? It's called Junpei.

When did you first meet Domo-kun? A friend gave me a Domo-kun plushie for my birthday and the rest is history.

What was it that drew you to Domo-kun? His loveliness.

Where did you get such a large number of plushies from? Some of them I bought, some of them I received. A few of them I got from a crane machine.

What do you want to do right now? Sleep.

What part time jobs have you done in your life? Waiter at a sushi restaurant, library work, private tutoring.

If you have a child in the future, what book would you absolutely want them to read? You Are Umasou by Miyanishi Tatsuya, published by Poplar

Do you have any rivals? No (because no-one will compete in the same ring as me).

What's your image of the ideal human? Someone who can do fundamental things reliably.

What's your motto? Stress-free

What's the reason for your name?

Nozaki → Named after Nozaki Megumi from the idol group CHECKICCO

Bento → My inspiration

 -------------

First published 16th October 2010, updated 1st December 2019