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ivy-kissobryos · 4 years ago

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Thai Folk Magic

Below are some analysis of folk spells from Thailand, along with the theories of how magic works. All quotes are from "Monks and Magic: Revisiting a Classic Study of Religious Ceremonies in Thailand" by Barend Jan Terwiel. First, we will discuss love spells. Totally recommend the book to anyone interested. Everything that I read so far seem very accurate to what I experienced growing up.

Love Magic

One man reputedly won his wife by drawing a simple magical diagram, one of the category of the yan napaṭhamaṃ, while thinking intensively of the woman he wished to marry and saying the appropriate khatha. He waited seven days for the magic to take effect and, when approaching her, he noticed that she was more favourably inclined towards him. Yan napaṭhamaṃ means literally: ‘The first, or foremost letter N diagram’. The letter N occurs frequently in Thai mystical drawings, probably because it may be regarded as an extreme abbreviation of the expression namo buddhāya, hail to the Buddha.

The idea of drawing holy symbols in order to bring about an outcome is something common among many cultures, both eastern and western (like in Catholic folk magic where the cross is drawn for protection and to invoke the higher powers). I just find this intriguing because I keep seeing the symbol of the yan napaṭhamaṃ pretty much everywhere in Thailand, both painted on the ceiling of a taxi, on top of doorways or in front of windows. Good to finally find out what it means.

Another method to ensure the love of a woman, also reported by Textor, is to sit close by her while smoking a cigarette. The man should draw smoke deep into his lungs and, whilst softly saying the right spell, blow out the smoke so that it envelops her. A much stronger method consists of scooping up some earth with the big toe of the right foot, taking the earth in the right hand and rubbing it on the top of the head, whilst invoking the goddess of the earth, Mother Thorani (ธรณี), to assist in the acquisition of a bride.

The last two examples reveal that, as the magical practices become more strong and persuasive, less attractive material is used. It is not pleasant to be enveloped in smoke, and rubbing earth over one’s head is an action no Thai will perform lightly. The earth is often associated with pollution because it can be the recipient of human waste and animal droppings. Moreover, scooping up a bit of earth with the foot must be regarded as an abnormal, ‘inverted’ activity. The feet are the parts of the body that are held in lowest regard, and reaching for something with the foot is regarded in Thailand as the epitome of bad manners.

It is said among men that prostitutes use a similar magic. Reputedly a prostitute sprinkles some water that contains vaginal excretion at the doorposts and above the door of the house where she lives. A man walking near the door may suddenly be irresistibly drawn over the threshold. If he is wearing his string of amulets he should quickly take it off and give it to a friend in safe keeping before entering the house.

The quotes above is interesting in that the concept of holiness and unholiness (or pollution) is used to compel someone, with love/compulsion being viewed as a dirty thing.

When a woman is convinced that her husband gives cause for jealousy she may make a potion or a powder that contains some of her vaginal excretion. If a man consumes some food that contains this potion or powder, he reputedly loses interest in all other women and devotes his complete attention to the woman from whose secretions the mixture was made. A woman who resorts to these means should take care to practise this kind of magic in secret; if the man finds out that his food has been treated in such a manner, he would be very angry indeed, for her vaginal excretion will surely have destroyed the power of many of his tattoos and amulets and rendered him vulnerable.

Here, bodily fluids are used. This is like in various folk magic where menstrual blood is dropped into the food of someone in order to compel them to be attracted to you. What is more intriguing is the notion that something unclean like vaginal excretion could be used to render magical tattoos and amulets useless. Extrapolating from that, I believe that if one wishes to desecrate something, one could sprinkle water mixed with vaginal excretions onto it.

He reports that, if a woman fears that her husband has been treated with the vaginal excretion of another woman, she should obtain water from the bottom of three or seven taxi boats, and some moss from around the sanctuary of a monastery, or from the boundary stones of a bot. If her husband eats food containing a mixture of these materials, his previously alienated affection is restored. The substances chosen to counter the effects of aggressive love magic of another woman are obviously considered magically powerful in their own right [...] Water from the bottom of taxi boats must be seen as polluted and aggressive: it is where the wood starts rotting, the stagnant water has often an unpleasant smell, and it may contain particles of dirt from the feet of countless passengers. Moss that grows on the sanctuary of a monastery appears more ambiguously charged. On the one hand, it can usually be found on ground level, and may have been dirtied by the many dogs that roam the premises. On the other hand, a small amount of the beneficial power that is continually generated in the building itself may have permeated as far as the mossy outside. It seems, however, that the aggressive aspects prevail for the moss is reported to be one of the ingredients of a magically highly potent substance used to kill enemies.

For clarifications, a "bot" as referred to in the quote above translates roughly to temple. Again, the concept of sympathetic magic is used, dirtiness contrasted with holiness. Now let's discuss where magic comes from within this belief system.

Origins of Magic

In order to make a pressed or printed image, commonly known as phra phim (พระ พิมพ์), a monk needs, apart from the mould, a recipe, the proper ingredients, and considerable knowledge of spells, the sacred script and magical drawings. Historians will be sad to hear that one of the common ingredients of phra phim is the ash obtained from burning the oldest handwritten sacred books of the monastery [...] The amulets derive their protective power partly from the association with powerful things. The phra phim are made from sacred ingredients.

Phra phim is a type of flat, printed amulet. Amulets are sacred because something within them is sacred. The idea of burning holy texts to add power to a spell or enchantment is also similar to other forms of folk magic, such as in Catholic folk magic where psalms may be written and burnt and their ashes be used for protection or other purposes. However, as will be explained below, consecration is needed to make the amulets functioning.

In general, the inherent quality of the amulets is considered insufficient to ensure protection to the person who wears them. Apart from being made from auspicious material and depicting powerful symbols, the amulets usually ought to be sacralized. This sacralization can take many forms. The most elementary sacralization ritual, called pluksek (ปลุกเสก), can be observed, for example, when a monk gives a small Buddha image to a layman. Taking the image in both hands, the monk brings it close to his mouth and murmurs a short Pali formula. While uttering the final syllable of the spell, the monk may blow sharply upon this Buddha image. Some monks prefer to draw a simple yan over the amulet with the index finger of the right hand or with a pencil while saying the Pali words.

I used to translate "pluksek” as consecration, but here I can see why sacralization also makes sense. The way breath is used to imbue powers in an object is also a universal thing that is present in many forms of magic.

Another thing that is of note is that magic isn't simply sympathetic, but also based upon the concept of proximity and contagion.

The closer to the seat of magical power, the stronger is the influence of that force. Any object of the appropriate shape that is exposed to a strong dose of magical power will become a secondary seat of the force. This has been amply demonstrated in the rituals surrounding amulets [...] This is why the bundles of such objects are placed near a monk who is preaching, why the begging bowl of an ordinand contains them, and why bowls of water stand near the monks who complete their pavāraṇā ceremony. The principle is apparent in the rituals designed to sacralize amulets as well as those where a bowl of water is charged.

Placing water near a monk speaking holy words makes the water somewhat more holy than it was before. But, magic isn't just man-made. It's all around us, a part of the natural world.

It has been shown that, in addition to the protective power that emanates from people who utter sacred words or who meditate, there are ambiguous forces in the animated world, forces that may protect, but that could also be harmful. Examples of the ambiguous powers are the gods, the spirits of the ancestors, the anthropomorphic and theriomorphic powers that live in nature and are the legendary original owners of the environment, and guardian spirits.

There is no sharp division between physical powers of nature and magical power. The earth, which possesses the capacity to make plants grow and thrive, is sometimes seen in the shape of a beautiful female, Mae Thorani. Under the earth is the domain of the chief of the Nak, a serpent-like shape with the face of a dragon. The wind, the river, a tree, a house, and the monastery, each of these is connected with one or more unseen powers, conceived of in anthropomorphic form, and each of these unseen powers has its specific likes and dislikes. A farmer learns to attract their attention with candles, incense, and flowers, and develops skills in addressing and pleasing them. Nature has provided men with unexpected seats of power. For example, a termite hill may acquire a reputation for bringing luck; or when lightning strikes a building, the scorched plaster is regarded as magically powerful. A lump of resin that shows the shape of a Buddha is sacred, and a big stone that is dragged up from the river brings prosperity when laid in the rice-storage hut.

Death and the Afterlife

Now, I wish to discuss something less about magic and more about religion.

In the mouth a coin is placed, which the soul of the dead person needs in order to pay the fare to cross the underworld river, guarded by Phra Ketkaew Culamani, (เก็จแก้วจุฬมณี) or ‘Lord Bright Gem Jewel’. Probably this is Yama, the Hindu god who presides over the dead and who is described as ‘with a glittering form, a crown on his head’. This is followed by the ritual of tra sang (ตราสัง), ‘binding the corpse’. The undertaker uses a piece of white unspun cotton thread to bind the neck, feet and hands whilst saying the Pali formula: ‘Putto gīve, dhano pade, bhariya hatthe’. This is interpreted as a spell with which to free a person from the three strongest ties in this world: from the tie of children (whilst putting a loop with the cord around the neck), from wealth (when binding the feet), and from the tie of the spouse (while the hands are tied).

Two things are interesting here. First, being that payment is needed to cross an underworld river. This is very reminiscent of the myth of Charon and the crossing of river styx. The second interesting point is the use of binding magic. I have witness the ritual performed but at the time, I didn't understand what it meant. The irony of binding someone in order to free them is also very striking.

Other Tai peoples, especially the White and Black Tais of northern Vietnam, who do not seem to be influenced by Buddhism, have quite different views. In their eyes, a person has many khwan that, upon death, divide themselves in groups; some khwan go to the spirit world above, some are conducted to the house and can be worshipped on the ancestral shrine, while the remainder stay in the grave.

The quote above explores the question many people may ask: where do souls go after we die? I have pondered this question many times- if I give all that I am to the Witchfather, would my soul continue to serve Him even after death? If I devote myself to the Theoi, do I get to gain entry to the Hellenic afterlife? Would that mean that upon death, I could never interact with the spirits of my ancestors again as we are of different religious beliefs? The concept of khwan solves this line of thinking, in my opinion. There are many independent khwan in your body, just like your body is made up of millions of miniscule cells. Perhaps, a part of me would fall into milk and join the Theoi upon death, perhaps another will stay here to guide whoever comes after me. We are multitudes, both in life and in death.

#thai magic

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dustyard · 4 years ago

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Predator/Carnivorous Dæmon Profiling: some of my long-winded thoughts

One of my biggest pet peeves in the dæmon community is the characterization of prey animals as being gentle/good, and predator animals being mean/bad. This is not an everybody-does-this kind of thing, by the way, but it crops up sometimes. It’s an easy trap to fall into (heck, I’ve done it before), and this isn’t an accusation towards people who personality-type this way. This is mostly to help A) newer or confused dæmons, B) start a discussion, and C) let me rant.

I think one of the largest hurdles when dealing with characterizing predator dæmons is working through what it means for a dæmon to be carnivorous. To best do this, let’s look at why some animals evolved to eat meat rather than plant matter. In the simplest terms, meat, and especially organ meat, are incredibly nutrient-rich compared to pretty much all plant matter. Herbivores spend the vast majority of their days foraging for food, eating that food, and then repeating the process. If you’ve ever had a pet like a goat, cow, or horse, you know how long they’ll spend grazing, if you let them. While herbivores expend comparatively little effort meeting their nutritional requirements, the payoff is also relatively low; that’s why they’re forced to spend so much time eating. Consider, then, that while herbivores trend towards low risk—low reward, carnivores trend towards moderate/high risk—high reward. When examined in this way, it’s easier to see that predatory/carnivorous dæmons are people who work based on efficiency above all else. While I noted the possibility of “high risk”, what carnivorous animals really want is to put in the least amount of effort for the highest amount of payoff. This is why they frequently target the old, the young, the sick, the weak, and the slow; if a carnivorous animal can avoid putting in excess effort, they will. Also, fun fact! Most herbivorous animals can and will eat meat if it is made available to them. They might not be able to eat much of it, but they can digest at least a little bit. It’s actually quite common for herbivores to eat meat (birds, rodents, frogs, lizards, even carrion), so if you want to put some kind of moral judgment dæmon-wise on carnivores because they eat other animals, it’s going to have to extend it to herbivores, too.

When it comes to profiling dæmons, I understand that a certain amount of anthropomorphizing animals is required to do so accurately. However, I think sometimes people in the dæmon community take this to the extreme. I do get it—when you’re anthropomorphizing one animal, you’re obviously going to anthropomorphize them all, so the circle of life previously untethered from morality comes out a little more murder-y. Here’s the thing though: there is no such thing as sadism in the animal kingdom. The closest thing I can think of is animals that envenomate their prey and then follow them until they die so they can eat them (like Komodo dragons), but even in those cases this is, again, a case of a predator using the lowest risk action to gain the highest reward. And like, I do get it. Animals dying is sad! It’s violent, and brutal, and often extremely bloody! We all feel bad for Bambi, but that isn’t very helpful when it comes to dæmon profiling.

I frequently see predators characterized as vicious, when what they actually are is vulnerable. Predators aren’t competitive over territory and breeding rights because it’s fun, they’re competitive because if they lose their territory they will likely die. Without a safe area for them to live and hunt, they will probably starve or be killed, so when predators act aggressively towards other animals or people, they’re usually doing so out of desperation. Predators in particular have to be extremely careful about what fights they pick; as a general rule, they want to avoid conflict. Serious injuries are a death sentence to predators in a way that they aren’t even to prey animals, because predators are on a ticking clock to heal fast enough that they can hunt again, or they’ll starve to death. If a lynx were to somehow break its leg, that’s it, that animal’s life is over, so if a predator is willing to actually fight over a resource, they’re doing so because they have no other choice. The general list of what predatory animals will fight over can usually be summed up as follows: breeding rights, cubs/babies (if they have them), food, territory. These are the essentials of the animal kingdom, so to speak. To put this into perspective for why this list matters in regard to dæmons, people with predator dæmons will not be constantly aggressive, or evil, or cruel. For the most part, predator dæmons are very conflict-adverse, and will only involve themselves if said conflict directly affects them and/or something that holds an extremely high value for them.

Now, that being said, most predators are also opportunists. A pack of wolves will go after a human like they would a deer because humans are, generally speaking, relatively easy to kill. While we may attach a moralistic perspective on that killing because as humans, we relate to said prey, these hypothetical wolves are just trying to meet their needs in the way that is the least strenuous and least likely to result in them being injured. This is a characteristic which often gets labeled selfishness—which I’m not denying that it can be—but which I think might be better labeled as individualism. I’ve seen people describing carnivorous dæmons as taking care of themselves at the expense of others, but often times what they’re referring to is an anthropomorphized approach to carnivorous behavior. I personally think this is a bit lazy and doesn’t get at the heart of what predator dæmons are like, because predator dæmons do invest in themselves above others (especially for animals that are lone hunters), but it isn’t because they kill other animals; it’s because, as I mentioned before, they’re inherently vulnerable. I’ve seen people refer to predator’s natural prey drive (such as tigers in zoos stalking patrons, or wolves overkilling livestock) as a sign that people with predatory dæmons are constantly looking to fuck someone else over, but the reality is that predatory animals (and therefore dæmons) are simply extremely aware of how vulnerable they are, and will take every occasion to meet their own needs, especially if that can happen without them needing to put themselves at risk.

So how do we translate this into dæmonism? Mostly with a lot of generalizations and patience. Generally speaking, carnivorous/predatory dæmons are conflict-averse, efficiency-based, need/interest-focused people. Despite the aggression stereotype, most predator dæmons just want to be left alone, and will likely only engage if they feel like or someone/something extremely important to them is being threatened (this is slightly less true for animal forms that are group hunters, as they have a wider support network to fall back on and can manage more risky behavior). Predators are also efficient animals, and dæmons of the same kind will reflect that. This means that people with predator dæmons won’t usually be inclined to expend effort unless they’re actively gaining something of high value from it. This doesn’t mean that people with predator dæmons can’t be active, it just means they aren’t likely to take on a challenge without a sufficient reward waiting for them at the end. Predators dæmons are also going to be need/interested-focused, which I tend to translate into predator dæmons having a few categories of things that are actively important to them; it might be their career, their family, their hobby, whatever. These categories tend to overlap, and become the main concerns for people with predator dæmons’ happiness. Everything outside of those specific concerns don’t matter overly much to people with predator dæmons. If something doesn’t directly affect a person with a predator dæmon, they probably don’t care. This is where the selfish characterization comes in, and while it isn’t wrong, I think it lacks the awareness that the downside to this blasé attitude predator dæmons carry towards things outside their interest is that, should that person lose any of the things they consider vital to their own life, they will experience a huge amount of upheaval and distress. This is what makes them vulnerable. A lion needs to eat, you know? And if a predator dæmon can’t feed themselves (metaphorically speaking), they’ll waste away. These three traits (conflict-aversity, efficiency, need/interest-focus) all tie into one another, and present a person who will likely only take on challenges in their own life if they can either do so without significant risk to their personal comfort, or see the potential reward as worth significant possible loss. So, it’s a somewhat contradictory personality that stems from wanting the best for the lowest price.

Just some disclaimers, since anyone who’s read this far deserves them! Not all predator dæmons are going to meet this personality type exactly. Predators higher on the food chain, and predators that hunt in groups are going to be more prone to risky behavior than lone hunters, and predators lower on the food chain, generally speaking. There are also outliers, as with any broad category (fisher cats have successfully killed lynxes, those little bastards do not fuck around). A lot of omnivores also get stuck in the carnivore/predator category, when they can, but don’t always follow the same personality type (some bears do, like black bears, but not all). So, while I hope this essay/rant helps people, I also hope that anyone who reads this understands that personality-typing dæmons is complex, so if you feel like this doesn’t apply to a form, don’t worry about it. Or, hey, reply to this and let me know. If anyone thinks I’m completely wrong, I’d also be curious about your take on predator/carnivorous dæmons.

#dæmons #absolutely nobody wanted this so that's why I had to write it #i love posting long rants that you all are now going to have to suffer scrowling past

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sidespromptblog · 5 years ago

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A Change of Pace

Summary: Logan's style of clothing gets called into question, as well as his feelings pertaining to his opinion on his own growth around the other sides.

“Don’t you ever get tired of wearing that?”

Logan inhaled deeply as the feeling of close chilly fingers crawled up the back of his neck before settling on his scalp, his eyes burned from staring at the screen of his computer just as his wrist ached from typing on it for so long. Sluggishly blinking he tilted his head back, just to be greeted with the sight of his partner’s lovely smile staring down at him as his other boyfriend remained on his bed lazily flipping through one of the many books that he had laying around. It took him a moment to grasp the question that had been asked to him, and it took him even longer to even figure out the question as his brain played the words on a loop for what felt like forever, but in reality, had only been just a few seconds.

“Sorry, what?” The words tumbled off of his lips, as graceful as a gazelle being mauled by a lion. But even so, his partner didn’t seem to care as another smile curled on their lips, it was a smile that left him feeling all tingly inside.

“Don’t you ever get tired of wearing that?” They repeated, their nimble fingers fiddling with the end of his tie before bringing it to their lips nibbling delicately on the end. “You wear it every day, Dee and I are at least ninety percent certain you have the twenty pairs of the same shirt in that closet of yours.” They weren’t meaning to be rude, but even so, Logan felt just the slightest bit of a sting from the implications that those words brought about. It was implications that he felt every day with the others, even if his partner didn’t even realize it, it was implications that the others frequently teased him about, and implications that he never seemed to be able to escape.

It made him wince, just the tiniest bit.

“Yes I get it,” He brushed those hurt feelings off of him as he usually did, “My clothing choices are boring, careful, or else you’ll sound just like Roman critiquing my clothes.” That was a mistake, evident by how his partner abruptly dropped his tie, leaving it to limply thump back against his chest. Something sour stirred in Logan’s belly as Deceit glanced up from his book, his eyes darting quickly between the two of them. “Sorry…” He quickly mumbled, something akin to regret building in his throat, forming a tight knot that made even that one word hard to speak. He wanted to turn back around, to focus back on his work, to ignore everything and to sink into the glowing screen that wouldn’t be hurt by him and his words.

Deceit kicked his legs over the side of the bed, “That’s not what they meant Logan,” The words weren’t said meanly and they weren’t said in the usual guilt-tripping fashion that the logical side was so used to.

He felt guilty either way, no matter what he did… or how he tried, he always ended up hurting someone. Even those that were closest to him, those who should be the last person he even thought about hurting. He didn’t like the feeling, the feeling of that particular guilt gnawing at his insides. It made him feel… Like a failure.

He didn’t say such a thing.

Nevertheless, Remus’ head bobbed in an easy nod, their face holding a look that Logan couldn’t accurately translate. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” They began slowly, but soon enough their words picked up traction. “But just think, wouldn’t it be fun?” Remus bounced on the ends of their toes, their hands clasped behind their back. “To wear a skirt with ripped jeans, or.. or even one of those poofy poodle skirts? Maybe even just a hoodie?” Once again, Remus’ fingers were back playing with his necktie, giving it a few tugs and making Logan scoot his chair forward until he was close enough for the creative side to plop down on the logical side’s lap. Their fingers returning to Logan’s scalp, playfully tugging and curling their fingers around every one of Logan’s slicked-back curls.

A sense of relief washed through Logan as soon as Remus had settled themselves down, for a moment… he had been certain that he had gone too far with Remus. But feeling them on his lap, and feeling them act as they always did leave him feeling almost boneless as Remus continued to mess around with his tie and hair. Even if he didn’t particularly like the direction in which this conversation was going, he had his tie and he had his button-up shirt for a reason. Didn’t Deceit and Remus know why he dressed the way that he did, the reason why he hadn’t changed his looks too much when it had come time for him to update his look, or the reason why he still hadn’t changed it even after Patton had copied his logo?

The beginning sensation of irritation prickled at his skin before he ruthlessly shoved it down.

“I can’t just change what I wear Remus, especially not if they are going to see me. They won’t-”

“Take you seriously?” Deceit’s soft voice interrupted Logan’s as he leaned forward from the side of the bed, his hands gingerly coming to rest on the tops of the logical side’s knees. He could practically feel the desperation coming off of Logan in waves at this point, just the sheer distress in the other’s voice told him everything. “Logan…” He already knew what he could say, he could tell Logan that already… the other sides didn’t take him too seriously, that no matter what they were going to joke around and be funny even when Logan wanted to be serious, and.. and he could even tell him that no matter what Logan did they would never treat him as seriously as he would have liked them to. But… that would hurt him, and there were some things better left unsaid. “What do you feel comfortable doing then?” He instead asked, better this than the painful truth.

“Nothing,” Deceit prepared himself to sigh a good and deep sigh at Logan’s words, “Because if I change anything… they’ll notice and they’ll make a big to-do about it. They’ll point out everything. They noticed when I switched from coffee to tea. Coffee, Dee! Coffee! Who does that?!”

Just like that, the dishonest side’s mouth snapped shut. Logan… he had a point, as much as he would have rather that he didn’t. They would notice.

“I can hit them in the head!” Remus cheerily brought up, swinging his morning star up from nothing in order to emphasize their point. It gleamed, as if agreeing with the creative side’s point, the kind of way that a knife gleamed in preparation for blood. “If they say anything mean.. or at all, I can just BAM!” They swung downward, just barely managing to miss Logan’s foot in the process, by any means it wasn’t a solution. But, it did manage to make Logan crack the tiniest of grins in the process, so, Remus counted it as a win in their book.

Not that they had any books.

“I would like to change,” Logan mumbled, sinking his chin onto Remus’ shoulder before closing his eyes as soon as those hands resumed playing with his hair. “But I… I don’t know if I am allowed to, if I am allowed to grow on my own without it being a big deal to the others. I want to, I would like to…”

A snarl bubbled up in Remus’ throat, the kind of snarl that came from the throat of one beast and ended up in someone else's. They felt like a dragon more than anything, like the fierce and possessive dragon that Roman often featured in his story, the dragon that always lost in the end. They felt like the dragon that just couldn’t protect their horde, the dragon that was constantly losing things. A mockery almost, that was how it felt when Logan had to go back to the other sides. That was how it felt when Logan talked about him, how he felt that they would feel if he did anything. It wasn’t at all logical, the images that came into their head, and it wasn’t logical that they wanted to act on each and every one of them. Something inside of them growled and snarled.

Break his fingers. Crush his jaw. Pluck his eyeballs out. Rip out his tongue. Give Logan a gift. Wrap Logan up in their entrails like a little gift. Crush them. Crush them. Crush them.

“What would you like to do though,” They instead asked, their fingers sinking down and clutching the parts of Logan they could reach and for a split second their eyes met Deceit’s. Those understanding eyes that said more than his mouth ever would, Remus wanted to kiss it. “If you could.”

Logan’s lips pressed into a thin line that indicated that he was truly thinking about what the creative side had asked him, and Remus wanted to kiss that mouth too. “I…” For a second nothing was said, not until Logan sat up a little straighter, dislodging his tie from Remus’ hands as he roughly jerked at the knot loosening the fabric that was tied around his neck like a noose. “Get rid of this!” Logan jerked the piece of fabric off, before Remus eagerly clambered off of his lap, joining Deceit on the bed to just watch Logan go at it. They rather liked it, both Logan without the tie that he’d always had on and the light that now burned in the other’s eyes.

It was like the first spark of a fire, that would soon grow to burn down an entire forest.

Both of them could only watch as Logan stood, moving swiftly and with purpose over to the sliding doors of his closet before roughly pushing them back and disappearing inside. It was exciting, seeing Logan’s button-up shirt come flying out, along with his normal faded blue jeans and shoes. Remus couldn’t help but to cackle at the mental image of Logan stark naked inside his own closet looking at his own clothes. And judging by the tiny smirk on Deceit’s face, the dishonest side was clearly thinking the same thing.

But then again, they couldn’t help but to be just the tiniest bit proud of their accomplishments. Both Dee and them, had done what those light sides hadn’t been able to do since they had known Logan, they got him to loosen up, they got him to confess things about his own feelings, and… they’d gotten him naked for one thing. Remus kind of wished that he’d had a camera, Logan’s ass was the thing of legends after all.

Perfect, round, juicy, biteable, and just an A+ ass as well as-

“Done!” Remus shook their head, dislodging their head from the gutter. Only for their head to go right back down there as soon as Logan stepped out. “How do I look?”

Fuckable, so very fuckable. Remus wanted to say.

Logan stood before him in clothes that neither they nor Deceit were even aware that Logan even owned. A plain white shirt coupled with a faded leather jacket with a collar that popped up and did wonders for the logical side’s cheekbones, along with ripped up jeans and.. and a skirt, a lovely black skirt that just tied the entire outfit together almost perfectly. Of course, the boots didn’t hurt either, he looked like an entirely different side, like the novelty bad boy boyfriend that Roman was constantly summoning in the imagination to be saved by. And then.. and then there was the blue that so nicely streaked itself through Logan’s hair, hair chalk by the looks of it. He looked fuckable, not that Remus was going to say such a thing like that.

“You look-” Deceit began, his cheeks coloring themselves bright red.

“Fuckable!” Remus cut in, unable to help themselves as they hurriedly wiped at the drool on their chin leaning forward as they quickly grabbed the lapel of Logan’s jacket dragging him in for one messy kiss after another.

Logan’s laugh was well worth all of this serious talk as he kissed Remus back.

#logan sanders #logic sanders #remus sanders #ts remus #deceit sanders #ts deceit #ts logan #ts logic #loceitmus #loceit #intrulogical #lomus #ts sanders sides #ts sides #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction

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littleeyesofpallas · 5 years ago

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BLEACH - Resurrección

Baraggan Louisenbarn’s resurrección is,

髑髏大帝 [アロガンテ]: Arrogante

The katakana アロガンテ is pronounced “A-ro-ga-n’-te” a nice direct transliteration of the Spanish, Arrogante, obviously meaning “Arrogant.” The Kanji however is basically totally unrelated, 髑髏大帝 meaning 髑髏: “Skull” (esp. weatherbeaten, used as symbol of death) or ”death's head,” and 大帝: “Great Emperor.”

His release call is 朽ちろ “Kuchiro” meaning, “to rot“/“to decay” or “to die in obscurity.“ It’s actually the same word that the family name Kuchiki uses to mean “Rotting/Rotted Tree.” When you put them all together the imagery does kind of have a unifying theme, but it’s a little nebulous, and if even one of those words isn’t properly explored or conveyed the whole things is lost. “Decay, Arrogant: Skull Emperor!“ doesn’t really communicate anything sensible, but “Die in obscurity, Arrogant:Old/worn-out skull emperor!“ pulls together better.

Abirama Redder’s resurrección is,

空戦鷲 [アギラ]: Águila

pronounced “A-gi-ra,” approximating the Spanish for "Eagle." The kanji 空戦鷲 reads 空戦:"Air Battle” as in a “Dog fight” between airplanes and 鷲 :“Eagle."

The release call, 頂を削れ: “Itadaki o kezure" is interestingly handled. Viz uses "Scrape the summit!" which is in fact a pretty literal interpretation of the subject 頂: “summit”/”peak”/”crown (of the head)” and 削れ: “shave”/”sharpen”/”scrape.” The more liberal interpretation used by some other translators has been “Scalp!” as in to cut the skin(and hair) from the top of someone’s skull.

Both actually seem to fit the theme surprisingly well, and if taken to be a reference to “Scalping” it may be a riff off of Abirama’s general design having vaguely native american aesthetics.

Perhaps my all time favorite case of Kubo’s dissonant naming is Charlotte Chuhlhorne’s resurrección,

宮廷薔薇園ノ美女王 [レイーナ・デ・ロサス]: Reina de Rosas

I think you can tell just by looking that there’s no way these two are direct translations between Japanese and Spanish. The katakana レイーナ・デ・ロサス is pronounced “Re-ii-na de Ro-sa-su” approximating the Spanish for "Queen of Roses” which is what Viz wrote as the translation: "Queen of the Roses." But the kanji actually reads, 宮廷: “Imperial Court,” 薔薇園ノ:Rose Garden’s, 美: “Beautiful” 女王: “Queen;” so his sword’s full meaning is really, “Beautiful Queen of the Royal Court Rose Garden.” Very different from just “Queen of the Roses.”

The release call 煌めけ: "kirameke" however was actually handled correctly, Viz used "Glitter" which is fairly literal. “Sparkle” or “Twinkle” would also have been appropriate. “Kirameke” is also the root of the sound effect, “kirakira” which is supposed to be the sound of sparkling/twinkling/glittering. Japanese has a curious affinity for onomatopoeia for things that don’t actually make a noise, and it’s used mostly in manga as sound effects. “Kirakira” is often used not just for the literal reflection of light but for a kind of metaphorical sparkle like energetic or bright attitudes, frequently relating to characters like pop idols; thus the association with Charlotte’s flamboyance.

Next up is Findorr Calius’s

蟄刀流断 [ピンサグーダ]: Pinza Aguda

The katakana ピンサグーダ is pronounced “Pi-n’-sa-guu-da”: Pinza Aguda, Spanish for "Claw, Sharp." Once again Viz translated the Spanish, not the Japanese, as “Sharp Pincer.” The kanji reads 蟄: “Hibernation* (specifically of insects),” 刀流 : “Sword Style,” and 断: “Judgement.”

*okay so scientifically speaking what crabs do in cold weather isn’t actually called “hibernating” (and neither is what insects do; that’s “torpor.”) at least not in English, but Japanese doesn’t have different distinct terms for all of those so the “hibernating” here is referring to when crabs go dormant, referencing Findorr’s ability to suppress his own power with his mask.

The release call, 水面に刻め: “Minamo ni Kizame” was translated by Viz as "Carve upon the water" which is more or less accurate. But he specific word, 水面: “Minamo” is a compound of the kanji for “water” and “face” meaning literally, “surface of the water.” Also, the verb 刻め: “kizame” has a few implications as to its use; it can mean “engrave” or “carve” but also “nick” or in other words a “fine cut.” The idea is that it specifies a small or shallow mark, so rather than a grand motion of smashing or slashing into the water, the battle call reads more like “break the water’s surface” like emerging thru the surface of the water. (i.e. a long sleeping crab rising up from the still water.)

and the last of the 4 Dragons, from the Dragons -vs- Ants battles, Choe Neng Poww’s

巨腕鯨 [カルデロン]: Calderón

The katakana カルデロン: “Ka-ru-de-ro-n’" approximates the Spanish Calderon which is both a common name for the "Pilot Whale" as well as a “Cauldron.” The kanji is largely unrelated and reads, 巨腕鯨 “Gigantic Arm Whale,” which Viz took the liberty of just calling "Great Whale."

His release call, 気吹け: “ibuke” was translated as “Breathe” which isn’t exactly wrong, but the obvious interpretation that was meant here was “Blow” as in from a whale’s blowhole.

In the final stretch here, I know Baraggan’s got too many goons... Ggio Vega’s resurrección is

虎牙迅風 [ティグレストーク]: Tigre Estoque

The katakana reads ティグレストーク: “Ti-gu-re-Su-too-ku” which is a little clunky but meant to be the Spanish Tigre Estoque, meaning "Tiger Rapier." The kanji reads 虎牙迅風: "Tiger Fang Swift Wind." Viz of course translated the Spanish, not the Japanese when they did this.

The release call, 食い千��れ: “kuichigire” means 食い: “Bite” and 千切れ: “Tear off”/”rip to shreds.” Which doesn’t come across super succinctly in English, but the idea being the command to “rip to pieces with you teeth!” Viz translated this as “Bite off“ which again is not technically incorrect, but also doesn’t functionally communicate the intended meaning.

and finally...

巨象兵 [マムート]: Mamut

Katakana, マムート: “Ma-muu-to” from Spanish “Mamut” meaning "Mammoth." All super straight forward. The kanji just reads 巨象兵:"Gigantic Elephant Soldier. You can kind of tell Kubo threw this one together without a lot of thought.

The release call is 踏み潰せ: “fumitsubuse." Viz called it "Stomp Down" which is kind of weird considering the phrase pretty commonly can just be translated as “Trample” or “Crush under foot.”

One thing of note, these last two didn’t show up when Baraggan first appeared and only got added into the background as the first 4 fights went on. They share the feature of being prehistoric animals (a sabertooth tiger and a woolly mammoth) which is actually a play on Baraggan’s own gimmick being age. But the timing of their addition and the lack of a theme in the first 4 fraccion suggests heavily that Kubo didn’t have a theme in mind until right around the time Ggio and Nirgge showed up.

I’ve got more of these Resurreccion posts btw: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

#Bleach #arrancar #resurreccion #Baraggan Louisenbairn #abirama redder #charlotte chuhlhourne #findorr calius #choe neng poww #ggio vega #nirgge parduoc

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completeoveranalysis · 6 years ago

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TRC Translation Notes Volume 13 (Chapters 91 - 99 + Omake)

The wondrous third installment of the new Translation Notes from @giniroangou, now looking at Volume 13. I can’t believe how far we’ve come, this still feels so recent.

Highlights include: that’s so love, secret drugs, justice for Syaoran’s detective skills, improved Kuroparents, and cuddle pile!

Chapter 91

p.11-12 - Just for fun, the word that’s been translated as “love birds” is “raburabu”/“love love,” which is frequently used to indicate that two people are lovey dovey together, so to speak. Mokona continues to use the word “rabu”/“love” throughout her proceeding comments. First she says, “It’s love! It’s love!,” then she turns the word “love” into an adjective (so, “But it was so romantic” becomes literally, “But it was so love”), and finally, “Isn’t love nice?”

p.15 - Since a commenter asked, this world’s name rendered directly from the katakana is “Rekoruto.” I think the fan translation of Lecourt works the best as a country name, but I’ve always liked how the original name is reminiscent of the word “record” given all the libraries, so I can understand the use of Recort as an alternate translation. As far as I know there are no right answers here - I don’t think CLAMP has officially clarified? - but in fandom you’re probably most likely to see people using Lecourt.

P.22 - The translation has switched from “Daddy” to “Father” but the original Japanese is the same as it’s always been. As I mentioned earlier, this was “Otou-san,” for which “Father” would be a more accurate translation.

When Fai says that they’re “not permitted” to sell the swords, he’s really just saying they shouldn’t sell them. I’m pretty sure if they actually wanted to they could.

Chapter 92

p.31 - As a bit of trivia, Kurogane calls his mother “Hahaue,” which is a more formal and old-fashioned word for “Mother” than the commonly-heard “Okaa-san.” It’s something you’d be unlikely to hear from anyone today, but fits right in with the apparent time period of Kurogane’s Nihon. (Likewise, a little later he calls his father “Chichiue,” the equivalent word for “Father.”)

p.33 - In the translated version Kurogane’s father calls him a “brat,” but the term he uses is “wanpaku bouzu,” different from both words Kurogane has used for Syaoran (“gaki” and “kozou.”) While I think “brat” works well for the exchange between Kurogane and his father, normally I’d interpret this phrase a bit more warmly - it’s like he’s calling him a little rascal. Not that brat can’t be said fondly, of course.

P.34 - Following up from the previous note, Kurogane’s “I’m not a brat!” can be interpreted along the lines of “I’m not a kid!”

Kurogane’s father is referred to as the “ryoushu” (領主) indicating that he is a feudal lord, but the extent of his holdings isn’t necessarily as large as a daimyo (though it very well could be!) From the tiny bit of research I’ve done, ryoushu seems to be a fairly ambiguous term, so we have some leeway in interpreting his position. If anyone is well-versed in historical Japanese terminology and/or has more information on this, feel free to step forward!

p.35 - The translation of “kusa” as “grass” here is unintentionally hilarious - that is a legit translation of the word, but in this context “herb” would be more appropriate. (Either way they’re suddenly sounding like pot farmers though, HELP.)

p.38 - It seems like you may have misinterpreted the speech bubbles from your tags, but the parent who Kurogane is said to resemble is his father rather than his mother, much as I love the image of baby Kuromama climbing trees (though who’s to say she didn’t!)

Chapter 93

p.51 - Kurogane’s “I want to protect Suwa and everyone in it,” is spoken first as, “I [want to protect] Suwa,” then clarified to, “I want to protect everyone.” You could interpret this the way the official translation did, or you could say that to Kurogane, Suwa is equivalent to the people there.

More significantly, Kurogane’s vow of protection is, “I want to protect Mother and Father, who protect everyone else.”

p.59 - Now that Kurogane’s grown up a bit, he calls his father “Oyaji.” This means “Father” as well, but it’s used primarily by men - it’s rougher and more casual than “Chichiue” or “Otousan.” In English translations it’s often rendered as the colloquialism “my/the old man.” We see later that he still uses “Chichiue” when speaking to his father directly, though.

Chapter 94

p.67 - There’s nothing here I would consider a mistranslation, but I’d like to clarify some nuances in the dialogue. Kurogane’s “I’d rather have you feeling better!” is, “It’s fine as long as you get better.” When his mother responds by calling him a good child, the word she uses is “yasashii,” meaning gentle/sweet/caring. I really love this word choice in juxtaposition with Kurogane’s actions - he’s yelling, but his mother clearly recognizes that it’s coming from a place of care and concern.

p.68-70 - This is getting into nitpicky territory and I’m too lazy to write out the specifics, but please take my word for it that in the original text it feels clearer that Syaoran is actually in the process of figuring things out and heading towards a conclusion rather than just summarizing information he’s already said, lol.

p.79 - Since “You people...” sounds kind of alienating in English, I’ll clarify that Kurogane’s saying, “Everyone…”/“All of you…”

Chapter 95

p.87 - I don’t think it’s clear in the translation, but Kuromama tells Kuropapa that he mustn’t take Ginryuu with him without calling for her first (to bless the sword, as we learn shortly after.)

p.88 - The tone of this exchange is different as well - it’s not about demands being made but about the actions each of them choose to take. Kuropapa says, “You’ve always been like this. You keep pushing yourself too hard,” and Kuromama replies, “I could say the same of you.”

p.90 - A little elaboration on Ginryuu as the “Dragon of Water” - the original text refers to Ginryuu as one who rules over/controls the water.

Chapter 96

p.107-108 - I’m not certain that Kuromama’s final words are a request for Kurogane to protect Suwa. It’s difficult to tell because she’s speaking in sentence fragments, but she’s using the same structure for both “Suwa” and “You” (“Suwa wo...” “Anata wo...” vs “Anata ni/ga…”), and there is no pronoun associated with the following “Must protect…” This leads me to believe that she’s still struggling under her own obligations here, feeling that she must protect both Suwa and her son even as she dies.

p.120 - A clarification so Amaterasu doesn’t sound totally irresponsible here: She says she led her army in assuming that monsters would invade Suwa, the implication being that she came as soon as she could after hearing about Tomoyo’s dream.

Chapter 97

p.133 - Amaterasu isn’t trying to reason with Kurogane, as it appears in the translation. She’s speaking to the people with her (or the readers, however you want to see it), saying that he’s lost himself and that it can’t be helped, but she has to stop him. My interpretation would be that she’s ready to put him out of his misery here, tbh, hence the look of pain on her face. It’s brutal, but she believes it’s the only thing to be done at this point. Tomoyo literally saved Kurogane’s life here.

Chapter 98

p.142-143 - Since this became a topic of discussion, the “U” noises Kurogane makes here are indeed a sort of animalistic groaning noise (at least that’s how I would interpret them.) The Japanese “u” sounds like a shortened English “oo,” so just imagine he’s alternating between short and long versions of that sound and you should have an idea of what it’s supposed to be.

p.150 - I’m pretty sure this came up near the start of the manga, but as a reminder this castle is called “Shirasagi,” not “Shirasaki.”

p.153 - When Kurogane says his name here it’s “...Kurogane” rather than “Kurogane…” There are far too many weird punctuation-based tonal shifts in this translation, let me tell you.

p.156 - SPEAKING OF WHICH… Mokona’s line should end in an exclamation mark (“Syaoran is crying!”) and the ellipsis comes at the front of Fai’s line (“...He won’t let go.”) I don’t always point these out or even notice them but they’re deeply frustrating. As subtle as the changes may be, they still affect the way these lines come across.

Chapter 99

p.165 - It’s actually quite likely that Syaoran led with “I think I saw your past” - the language Kurogane uses in the original text implies that he’s confirming something that was already speculated/assumed. I don’t think it lessens the moment at all, though.

Omake

p.177 - What’s been translated as Yuuko telling Mokona to find a good place to stay was originally, “You need to make sure you get enough sleep.”

p.179 - Mokona’s actually saying here that everyone’s going to sleep together! Canon cuddle pile! :D

#every new collection of notes softens my heart #and makes me love the storyline so much more #the nuance makes all the difference #giniroangou #who is the actual best #liveblogging the reservoir chronicle #Finally Syaoran has figured out Who is That Child #We can finally rest #Vol 91 #vol 92 #vol 93 #vol 94 #vol 95 #vol 96 #vol 97 #vol 98 #vol 99 #omake

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moistwithgender · 6 years ago

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Media Roundup (February 2019)

I wanted to try and squeeze in one last finished show into the last day but I ended up having a really bad sleep schedule hiccup. Anyway, here’s what I finished this month:

Games:

This is actually the shortest list this month, on account of me mostly playing through a single game somewhat slowly. If you follow my posts, you might be able to guess what series it’s a part of.

Super Robot Wars EX (SNES): At the end of the previous post I warned that if you want to get into SRW, SRW2 is an extremely rough starting point, even though it’s canon to the four or five original SRW canon games mostly on the SNES. Thankfully, there is a youtube video that shows you all the dialogue and combat snippets from SRW2. That said... if I wanted to stick hard to canon, I would have either played SRW3 first, or waited for the incoming re-fan-translation that will drop probably at the end of March. BUT, I wanted to play SRW and not jump to a game so far ahead that the mechanics alienate me to the earlier games, so I started EX. EX is largely a contained side story that takes place in and revolving around the original properties of SRW canon. Said original properties involve La Gias, the world that exists inside of planet Earth, and a three-sided war involving mechs that run on magic. There’s a lot of politics and strategic talk and fantasy worldbuilding grounded in fantasy science and it’s actually really fucking cool. They take the time to explain how due to a (magical) scientific phenomena, prophecies are always accurate in La Gias (yet preventable with the right effort), which is exactly the kind of bullshit I love.

However, due to summoning rituals, the setting is also flooded with “Surface Dwellers”, AKA people from different mecha anime who have been written into a melting pot setting that contains all their narratives (sometimes cleverly tweaked to allow and complement each other). This isn’t just a hand wave, but worked into big plot points. It is genuinely stunning how much the creators of these games actually tend to give a shit about making these narratives believable and interesting. I say “believable”, though it’s also worth noting that, as with manipulated inclusion of various IPs, canon is general is somewhat malleable in SRW. There are usually multiple plot options in the games, and EX features a unique system with three separate campaigns that, depending on the order you play them, and also depending on the choices you make and how well you play, change the sequence of events in other campaigns as they weave into each other. It’s not handled amazingly, and to see everything, you may play the campaigns some three times each. I don’t really have that kind of patience, because these early SRW games are also sufficiently challenging games. While not nearly as bullshit as SRW2, EX features a fair amount of incentive to save and reset for better RNG, and you might spend an hour or longer on later maps because situations get really tight. EX is also considered one of the easier early games (phew). Despite that, the maps are almost all really enjoyable, you just have to be willing to work for your victory at times.

The writing, with much credit going to the stellar fan translation imo, is also a compelling read, and dialogue is frequently hilarious despite how much it also focuses on political intrigue and fatal drama. The “hard” campaign (at times equally or less difficult than the “intermediate” campaign) has you playing one of the main series antagonists, whose right hand minions include an oujosama who openly talks about how horny she is, a princess with hardcore stockholm syndrome (or is it?), and a semi incompetent little blue bird as a psychic familiar. A running gag is them chastising each other for using rude words. These characters have apparently been popular enough to reappear even in the modern titles, which largely are self-contained timelines of their own, with their own canonical tweaks.

Last point I want to touch on (this single game just has so much to it) is that playing this game out of order is interesting in how canon is referenced. In most self-contained-stories-in-greater-narratives, you’ll get somewhat forced exposition drops when a character is (re-)introduced. Most of these games so far tend to treat pre-existing characters on the same ground as OCs, where a character doesn’t say, for example “yo I’m goku I come from earth and I’m a super saiyan”, but kind of just realistically reacts to the scenario as per their characterization. If you learn more about them, it’s mostly via seeing them interact with other heroes or villains from their own canon (though later games include library bios to catch you up if you want). While this creates an interesting experience where, if you don’t know a series, you get that curious feeling of walking in on the middle of something, but instead from the beginning. The most interesting aspect of this, and what I consider the defining aspect of the game’s storytelling, is that the same delivery is used with the original characters. From the get-go, the original characters in SRW EX talk about other elements the way real people do, without vaguely audience-oriented exposition. Some people won’t like this, but it makes it feel much more real to me, and complements my recent exploration of the breadth of mecha, where I know a ton of names and have very little context, and slowly accumulate context as I go along. It’s a lot of little micro-mysteries. EX didn’t start this, either. SRW2, which is both the first SRW with a plot or even dialogue, introduces the main OC of SRW, Masaki and his Cybuster, who has a lot of his own lore, and tells almost none of it. You are left for the entirety of SRW2 to only grasp the fringes of what Masaki’s story is, and when he says “hey I’m actually leaving now in the middle of the game because I have my own plot bye” you just deal with that. SRW establishes that the world is way bigger than you, even though the core concept of the series is rooted in fanservice. Now, part of this is that Banpresto and Winkysoft probably had a big MCU-style plan from the beginning (cough most ambitious crossover in history cough), because, well, look at this release timeline and associated narrative chronology:

-Super Robot Wars (Game Boy, April 1991) No plot, or dialogue, but establishes the Big Three (Gundam, Getter, Mazinger) as playable characters and has the kaiju villain from an old 70s Getter+Mazinger crossover movie as the final boss. The pilots don’t exist, the robots are all apparently sentient beings. -The 2nd Super Robot Wars (NES, December 1991) Beginning of plot, introduces a proper antagonist (Bian Zoldak), an antagonist force he leads (Divine Crusaders), light political intrigue, Masaki Andoh and his nemesis Shu Shirakawa are established vaguely while having a separate plot that is not explained. IMAGINE juking your audience with your own main character like that. He doesn’t serve as protagonist yet but is clearly, like, the most important OC? Bian and Shu even serve as the final bosses and you don’t even know who Shu really is. The kaiju villain from before comes back for a single map and evolves into a stronger form unique to the game. The heroes from SRW1 also all acknowledge that SRW1 happened and they know each other. This establishes that you cannot rely on canon. -The 3rd Super Robot Wars (SNES, July 1993) Haven’t played yet but I hear this is where they really started playing with canon. Mixes the Divine Crusaders plot with the plot of the original Gundam series. Multiple endings exist now, and plot regularly splits into dual branches. -Super Robot Wars EX (SNES, March 1994) Here’s where it starts to get complicated. This focuses on Masaki’s setting, while continuing off of SRW3′s plot. Elements introduced here will continue to be referenced in SRW4 (the ending screen even explicitly states that, which reinforces my idea they planned this all years in advance). Multiple campaigns with malleable canon means nothing is concrete ever again. -The 4th Super Robot Wars (SNES, March 1995) Campaign now splits into Super Robot (Getter, Mazinger) and Real Robot (Gundam) routes, which is easier to handle. This game finishes up the “Classic” SRW timeline, but would also canonically be replaced by two remakes on the PS1 (SRW F (1997) and F Final (1998). However... -Super Robot Wars Gaiden: Masoukishin - The Elemental Lords (SNES, March 1996) Masaki gets his own game five years later, beginning his narrative. This game has no mecha IPs, and is exclusively OCs. The most complicated aspect is that this game is split into two chapters: the first, at the start of Masaki’s story, and the second, which... if I have this correct, follows after EX and SRW4. The previous games have, supposedly, been referencing this game that has not existed until now, and this game references what has come before. Playing SRW feels like being lost in linear time. This game starts off its own timeline of games that, I hope, stay confined to the OC-centric games.

So here’s the timeline:

First half of SRW Gaiden SRW2 (loosely referencing SRW1) SRW3 SRW EX SRW4 Second half of SRW Gaiden

As a result...I can never be comfortable writing a suggested order of play. In playing these games, you simply must accept that the world is bigger than you, and at all times you will be an outsider to some degree. You know, until you’ve played all of them. Which you can’t yet, because they aren’t all translated yet.

Phew! That’s a lot of words about Classic Timeline SRW, and I’ve only played through two games. Thanks for reading all of that, I hope it kept your interest. Despite how complicated that got, EX is a great game and easily in my top SNES RPGs now, up there with Live A Live and Dragon Quest V. Let’s move on for god sake!

Oh, right. Almost forgot: (SRW EX: Masaki’s Chapter: Beaten 2/9/19) (SRW EX: (One of the two versions of) Lune’s Chapter: Beaten 2/15/19) (SRW EX: Shu’s Chapter: Beaten 2/20/19)

Fun fact: In EX, if you use a cheat code on the title screen to play through Shu’s route with a suped-up absurd final boss-strength version of his mech, and run into one of the other protagonists, then when you later play as that other protagonist, you’ll have to fight the cheat version of that mech as a boss.

Orbital Paladin Melchior Y (PC): I had to play something else this month, and because I’m trapped in a fugue state, I made it something mecha related. Melchior Y is a small, hour-long visual novel/shoot em up made by John D. Moore, who I know mostly as a_new_duck from the selectbutton.net forums. I’m... not gonna have as many paragraphs to talk about this, or anything, as I did with SRW EX, so if he sees this I hope he doesn’t take that as a negative. Reportedly, this has multiple routes, though as of this writing I’ve only played one of those. I don’t know if that means multiple endings! I liked it for the small gamejam game it is, though. John is an academic and a mecha fan (and did his thesis on mecha, iirc) and so this is reasonably an introspective mecha story focused on children conscripted for space war purely for their utility, and adults who boss them around despite no longer being allowed to pilot once they hit the very beginnings of adulthood. It gets dark! A smaller positive about it is the matter-of-fact inclusion of queer identity, comfortably existing alongside religion without having to immediately make the plot about the conflict between those (at least in the route I played). I enjoyed it, and if you have the patience to explore artier games that aren’t polished AAA cash houses, you might gain something from it too. Here’s a link if you’re curious, it’s currently free.

Anime:

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: I already wrote about this last time, oops! Still, despite a couple stumbling points, this is fun character-driven supernatural lit, and if you’re mad at Persona games for bad political takes, then this... at least this doesn’t have those! The funniest thing about the series is that the bunny outfit is easily removable from the plot and barely relevant past the first couple episodes. (13 episodes, finished 2/5/19, Crunchyroll/Hulu)

Punch Line: I actually went in expecting something akin to the sort of wackiness I remember way back when FLCL was fresh. I didn’t get that, necessarily. What I did get was (as I would discover after I wiki’d it later) a fucking Kotaro Uchikoshi story. That’s not a bad thing, but if I had gone in knowing that, I would have been prepared. Uchikoshi writes light novels. Extremely convoluted, mysterious, non-linear light novels. As I was watching this show, I actually thought the whole time “is this a fucking light novel adaptation?” It wasn’t, but it was by the guy who wrote Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (one of my favorite DS games), and Ever17: The Out of Infinity (probably one of the most miserable game experiences I’ve ever had), and I was easily identifying his particular brand of storytelling. There is a LOT that can be said about his style, but I’ll try to keep it short with a paraphrased example (don’t @ me if this doesn’t explicitly describe any one of his plots, it’s close enough). He likes to tell stories that start as quirky or high-concept, but somewhat mundane, skip a scene at one point, and then progress until you suddenly hit a big plot point that turns everything on its head and, in my experiences, causes things to immediately end tragically. Then you see the scene you missed. The scene held a plot point literally so important that it completely changes what the story was ever about. From then on you are fed a trickle of left-field plot twists until eventually the plot is unrecognizable from how it started. His work is as stupid as it is clever, and he’s got the strongest grasp of continuity I’ve ever seen a human being have. This is the polar opposite of SRW’s “fuck canon” philosophy, and that’s not for the worse on either account. Punch Line starts as a story about a boy who dies, becomes a ghost, and then has to figure out... something? (I should clarify I watched all of this overnight while not sleeping as as the story built more and more upon itself I had to fight to keep following it) BUT ALSO, if he sees panties twice, he’ll accidentally destroy the earth. Those details are, like, one percent of the secret plot that the show is built upon, and by the end when the wacky dorm sitcom has become a full blown world war with government conspiracies, I was like “wait why is that girl a superhero again?” Everybody deserves to experience an Uchikoshi story once, just for the wild novelty of it. I don’t think this is his best work (I think 999 is better), but it perfectly exemplifies his style.

Also, I spent the full binge watch (which I rarely do) thinking it was a visual novel adaptation. Absolutely convinced. But, it turns out that, no, he just writes like he’s making a VN game. The “panties = genocide” concept is so obviously a choose-your-own adventure mechanic that I thought it had to be. On the bright side, an actual VN adaptation later came out, and even came out in English on the PS4. And they added in apparently ten episodes’ worth of significant extra plot, so I might play that.

Also, it’s called Punch Line because in Japanese it sounds like “panty line.” That’s it. Also maybe it’s referencing plot twists, or mortality, idk. (12 eps, finished 2/6/19, Crunchyroll/Hulu/HIDIVE)

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow (Movie): A month later, I finally got around to the rest of Gundam 0079. I think I might like this movie best of the three, even if it does feature a lot of character death is kind of a downer at times (granted, that’s kind of most of Tomino’s work isn’t it). This movie is where most of Kai Shiden’s character development occurs, and it’s nice to see his go from a bastard to a sympathetic, uh, bastard. He’s terrible and my son. (Finished 2/9/19)

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space (Movie): You know I really like the original Gundam in concept, and even execution, but sometimes I’m chewing through it. Even when boiled down to the compilation episodes I’m just pushing through at times. I mean, I think part of that is my burnout and executive dysfunction issues preventing me from fully enjoying things, but it could also just be that I’m baby. This was the movie I liked the least, despite having some of the best moments in the series. The final showdown is genuinely incredible, and there’s probably a lot of essays out there discussing the recurring theme in Gundam of invoking the figure of Newtypes, while also regularly denying being one (even to oneself!) after engaging in a lot of telepathy. My problem with MSG3 is that they packed the most plot points into this one, and it gets to a point where it was hard for me to follow. Mirai goes through two separate love triangles, and a huge tactic (bordering on the severity of a war crime) happens and then is iterated on in such a small amount of time that I actually lost track of who had it and how I was supposed to feel about it. If I were to rewatch it, I might grasp it better. I spent this movie feeling like I should have just watched the 50 odd episodes instead, for the sake of comprehension. Idk! Hate to end this on a negative note, because this series has layered characterization, complex examinations of war, the things people do in war, and the ways that war changes people, and also cool robots. It’s probably something you can revisit multiple times and gain new value from each time. (2/15/19)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team: Guess who watched this on Adult Swim a long time ago and almost totally forgot! This series is amazing and probably going to stay my favorite Gundam series. The animation is consistently beautiful and consistently had me comparing it stylistically to Cowboy Bebop, from the body language to the lavish mechanical displays to the character writing to the excellent english dub. The US got it ater it was complete, but the original airing of it was spread out over three and a half years, and given how flawless it is, I can understand why. If you’ve have a spot in your heart specifically for watching the switch axe change shape in Monster Hunter, you’re gonna lose it watching them do maintenance in this show. Character-wise, while 0079 was about watching whiny teens complain and break protocol on a regular basis, 08th MS Team is as much about living army life as it is about going on missions. There’s soldier superstition, there’s writing to girlfriends back home, there’s complaining about staking out in the desert for five days. I haven’t watched MASH, but the things I have heard about it make me link the two. 08th MS Team is also about a super unfortunate star-crossed love between people on opposite sides of the war. This plot element is a recurring one even back in 0079, but here it feels the most heart-wrenching, and with the very weighty and believable mech combat (it’s so pretty, good god), I was constantly worried about the well-being of all the characters, Fed and Zeon (except for Ginias). If you have any interest in anything, you have to watch this. I’m not good at selling things.

I watched all of this when Hulu was threatening to remove it, but now it appears to still be up? Uh, so go watch it I guess. Oh fuck, right, I almost forgot. The last episode of this is so bad they didn’t even air it on TV in the US. It’s tangentially related to the plot, claims to be about the main characters but instead centers on two side characters and like six new ones, has zero character development, has comparatively/definitively awful animation, relies entirely on misdirection towards the viewer to keep the plot barely hanging together, and has no satisfying payoff. Thankfully, it’s sort of an omake episode, and you can completely skip it. (12 eps (minus 1), finished 2/20/19, Hulu)

I can’t find a decent HQ poster so have this you filthy animal.

A Place Further Than The Universe: It’s not about robots! Wait. Is it about robo--it’s not about robots! I had heard about this show for a while, it was almost universally agreed upon by everyone that follows seasonal anime to be easily the best show of all of 2018. And wow they were not kidding around about that. APFTTU (oh god that acronym) is about four high school girls who decide to go to Antarctica. It is a feelgood comedy with occasional ventures into very real drama, and is rooted very realistically. The show is semi(?)-educational with the attention it gives to showing how real life expeditions work, while also liberally flowing into the poetry of the concept and experience of such a thing. The four girls are all hilarious and innocent without being cloying and, and this is the most important part, without being written with voyeuristic appeal. It is not off-base to have concern for the ways in which a significant number of female cast anime are written with intent to appeal to lonely men who want to feel a safe ownership of something innocent and attractive. It’s not all of them, but it’s a significant amount. Male gaze exists even in the lesbian shows, it’s something you sometimes have to roll with. Here, however, these girls are fully realized and believable, it is obvious that they are developing people, and that is treated as its own value, not as something to covet. If you’re lookin’ at thighs in here, that is your problem, and I’m calling God. A subplot that comes up involves a guy who gets a crush on one of the older women, and he tries to make it about his narrative and is immediately shot down by the whole cast, because this isn’t a vehicle for his romantic conquest. This isn’t anyone’s romantic conquest, really. It is significant to me to say, “this is an anime I could show to my mom and not be worried about.” I know I just said 08th MS Team was required watching for everyone, but A Place Further Than The Universe is required watching. (13 eps, finished 2/26/19, Crunchyroll)

Giant Gorg: At some point I picked this out to watch on CR without any prompting. Wait, I had one prompt. I knew nothing about this show except I think for seeing it on a short list of tumblr user @lightningclone’s favorite anime. It kind of floors me that this came out a year before Zeta Gundam and has way way better animation. Granted, Zeta has twice the episodes, which might be a big factor. The defining trait of this show is probably way it unravels itself, focusing for multiple episodes on exploring what of the great mystery of Austral Island and Gorg has been established to the audience, before revealing something more an deliberately taking it’s time as it takes you to the next reveal. The reveals don’t feel like twists, because a twist comes out of nowhere and sidelines you. The reveals here feel organic, and expected, but all the same compelling. Another good trait of the show is the characterization. Everyone fits into a very different role both in terms of personality and function, they all have their own motivations, and they all complement each other in unique ways. Also, this show has an Usopp. Back before Usopp was a thing. He’s Dr. Wave, and he’s the best character.

If I have any criticism for the show, it all comes at the end. Near the end a character does a heel turn that, while a little twisty, is hinted in the beginning of the show, and in his heel turn the writers go a bit overboard and have him commit some sexual violence that goes on for an intentionally uncomfortable amount of time, and features frontal nudity. I know we’re supposed to think “oh god he’s a horrible person actually,” but 1) the main character is a child, I kind of expected this to lean family friendly with the occasional dark element (ignoring all the hilarious New York graffiti at the start that says FUCK in several places because America), but... okay! And 2) the stakes rise to a point by the next episode that the characters, including the victim of that violence, all just shrug it off, like whatever! The character is even redeemed by the end, which I wouldn’t mind if the betrayal itself was less physical. It’s a bit much for me, and I wish they hadn’t done it. Aside from that, I feel like the ending itself is a bit anticlimactic, but everything up to these two points had been so solid that I still think it was worth the watch. Worth it if you like mystery, adventure, and big robots, but worth bearing in mind the trigger warning for near the end. (26 eps, finished 2/27/19, Crunchyroll)

Manga:

Shin Mazinger Zero Vols 1-3:

[Serious Content Warning For Everything]

Shin Mazinger Zero is reprehensible garbage and I hate it. While inspired by Go Nagai and intentionally over-the-top, the absurdity is juvenile, offensive, and often just empty. Now, it may seem hypocritical of me to complain about transgression in something based on Nagai’s works, but I genuinely don’t find this transgressive, just extremely self-indulgent of toxic masculine fantasies, both sexual and violent. It has interesting ideas, about how Mazinger is both a tool possible of great good or great evil (literally the mission statement in every Mazinger work), and it wants to explore alternate timelines to see how characters can be corrupted or overcome corruption. The visual of a demonic Mazinger is genuinely pretty rad.

...Okay maybe he’s not, he’s kind of overdesigned. I like the toothy grill, though.

The problem with that exploration of corruption is that sometimes a character is just a horrible monster for no reason, without much explanation (so far?) for how that comes to be. Maybe in volume 4 they’ll get more into that, since they are currently in flashback mode, so there’s no undoing the damage.

Anyway, female characters so far are hypersexualized and submissive or motherly, or hypersexualized and, like, totally unreasonable. The hot robot girl sat on my lap in her underwear and did sex moans, why are you mad, main love interest? Men are testosterone as FUCK. The hero is constantly yelling to the point of visual distortion, no matter how the drama of the scene is being portrayed. The old man villain Dr. Hell is, for some reason, jacked as hell, and in the backstory to the main timeline (it’s all post-apoc) he shows his superiority over everyone by crushing Not Obama’s balls in his grip. I know exactly the kind of dude that would find this appealing and that’s the kind of person I avoid.

Honestly I knew this series was going to be a trashfire from square one and just kept reading out of morbid curiosity. The story starts in media res at the end of the world, with sexy girl robot disintegrating the hero so his soul can go back in time and try the timeline again. Okay, sure, I’m on board. Immediately next we’re shown what I would assume is The One Timeline To Get It Right, after establishing that there have been thousands of timelines where the hero is corrupted by evil. Pretty normal storytelling. And then, uh, the hero’s grandfather molests and murders the hero’s girlfriend, because the hero might become evil. My face is in my hands at this point. The incomprehensible shame. The hero is then corrupted and goes on a killing spree and humanity’s caught in the crossfire and the world ends. After *that* we get the One Timeline. Why? Why say things have always been bad (and I guess imply that bad things are the default) and then waste my time with the worst shock value trash that comes after for a full volume before actually starting the story? It’s edgy garbage! Why is this an official Mazinger work? Stuff like this is what makes me stop and think “wait are all Nagai’s works like this and I’ve been lying to myself when I like it?” Christ, this turned into a rant. Moving on.

[Content Warning Over]

Dumbbell Nan-Kilo Moteru? Vol 1: Idk if talking about horny manga after that mental breakdown is gonna make me look weird but hear me out.

Hot girls lifting weights.

You still here? Okay, good. I started this on a mutual’s recommendation and while it’s not regularly engaging with my own things (I’m more of a “watching fit woman deadlift and hoping she drops it on me and I disintegrate like so many dead leaves” person), and with the two main girls being high schoolers, I try to avoid engaging with that in that way. Luckily, there’s a teacher my age with a bob cut, so we’re good! More interesting, though, this is in the same genre as that Skullface Bookseller Honda-san anime (though less biographical), where the author just wants to explain their job or hobby while also using likable comedy characters as the vehicle. Anime made edutainment work.

I’m starting to get tired and I wanna wrap this up but unfortunately I have a bit to talk about regarding the last manga I read in Feb.

Tokyo Ghoul Vols 10-12: I’ve been reading this for the past, uh. I read it a lot last year, I don’t know when I started, though. Around 8 books in I started slowing down and taking long breaks because phew! I’d hit the end of the series’ big bad story arc and was having trouble picking up from there. I’m glad I did, though, because the story is still getting good. Here’s hoping I can handle the sequel series, because Tokyo Ghoul itself only has two books to go.

I’ve talked about TG a few times before, maybe just on Twitter. It’s very intelligent “vampire” lit that ramps up the stakes of transition by saying “you can’t just suck their blood and let them go! Human meat is your food and you’ll suffer without it.” At first, I was like “oh wow lol this is edgy” but the last twelve books have talked about trauma, alienation, and most importantly loss of innocence. It’s also about the importance of the bonds between people. The main character is perpetually at odds with himself, trying to be a good person in spite of the fact that being a ghoul is literally and figuratively being a monster. It could easily be an overwrought story of self-indulgence and angst but everything in it has been careful and effective. Ghoul culture is thoroughly built up and balances concepts of territory and posture along with careful deception for the purpose of staying a part of, and hiding from, human culture. It’s about predators who cannot remove themselves from their predatory nature, even if they want to be people with families and educations. There’s an organization that wears white and hunts ghouls with weapons crafted from ghoul bodies and functionally I can’t fully argue with them, sort of, but hey we’re starting to discover that corporations are corrupt (who knew?) and that’ll be fun.

But forget the poetry and human condition, the best thing this series does is that unashamedly works the Hot Topic aesthetic. The main character likes reading books and wears an eyepatch to hide his heterochromia and works as a barista. He wears a mask that evokes an S&M lifestyle. Ghouls can only eat people and all other food taste rotten. Except for black coffee. There’s also a number of ghouls with black nails and eyeshadow, and very heavily coded queer male characters (some more flatteringly portrayed than others but that’s a whole other thing). If Sui Ishida never listened to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, I’ll eat my fucking feet.

@sun-eater-official I think this might be up your alley. Or maybe not! But these aesthetics sound like you. Actually, you should probably watch 08th MS Team too, for the Bebop vibes.

So that’s everything! I thought I had a short list but apparently it was all things I had a lot to say about. Again, if you read all of this, thanks a lot, I hope I end up introducing you to a new favorite. In the future, I may have to split these into separate posts for each category. I have a lot of free time to write these lately. Writing two roundup posts back to back is a bit tiring, but I don’t have to do another until April starts.

#curry plays games #curry reads manga #curry watches anime

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osmw1 · 7 years ago

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Poison-Wielding Fugitive Chapter 4

‘However, I have heard not heard of such job as Poison Earth.’

Is that right? I mean, I’ve played a few videogames before, but that’s a job title I’m not familiar with.

‘Aye. To my knowledge, “Earth” is a first job for humans. Once a certain level and conditions are fulfilled, you will advance to a second job.’

So, Earths are first jobs. Might be pretty similar to the jobs that frequently appear in MMOs. Like how you’d go from novice to warrior, mage, priest, or ranger. But the stupid “Poison” bit has really caught my attention.

“Poison” is just poison, right? Besides Spirit Link, other usable skills that I have are Poison Absorption (Weak) and Poison Release. If “Earth” means “human” in this world, then what am I? A poisonous person? Why the hell poison? What, am I toxic or something? I’ve never even trolled or griefed before.

‘Aye… perhaps it is due to my influence.’ “What do you mean?”

I inquired Veno. He replied in a slightly troubled tone.

‘It is because I was born a poison-type dragon.’

There are lots of different types of dragons too, huh? It’s not exactly rare to find dragons described as red, blue, white, or black either. In this case, would he be green? It would be quite kinda tricky to put him in a game.

Because I’m linked with him, I’m a poison human… a Poison Earth. Is this an effect of Forced Possession Summoning? Hmm? Hey, didn’t I see you breathe fire and cast lightning?

‘If I had used my most powerful magic, there would be nothing but death for my opponents. It would be more troublesome that way. Rarely do I use poison now.’

Ah. He had been holding back in the fight so that he wouldn’t kill anyone. He would rather let them go rather than to deal them serious damage.

‘The swamp that you fell into was a poisonous swamp. That would be the reason why the girl gave you an antidote, is it not?’

That’s right, isn’t it? It must’ve been because I was in the poison that I was feeling great. Maybe it was actually dangerous though. Who knows.

I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like a pleasant job class. How do you put it? It just doesn’t seem like it’s very strong and it doesn’t seem like it’ll get stronger either. From what I’ve experienced in JRPGs, poison is never useful in a big battle. Most bosses are resistant or immune to poison, so it never does anything.

‘That is not true. Do not make light of poison.’

That’s only because you’re on the boss monster’s side.

In a JRPG, it’s not very effective on your opponent but super effective on you. That kind of bullshit happens all the time.

‘Aye, then you are wondering what you should do?’

… in a place without computers, there’s not much an SE can do. No, there’s practically nothing I can do. Like I said early, the life I lived was far removed from things like combat or exercise. If you think about it normally, you can’t level up your job unless you actually use its powers.

“Well, not much of a choice but to use my job, huh?”

The problem is how much power does a Poison Earth have. They had to resort to Forced Possession Summoning—an outrageous measure, might I add—to defeat Veno. What if I had picked up some of his powers too? Maybe I could use it to my favour as well. But honestly speaking, in JRPGs, abnormal statuses are usually bad news for the player. But in Western games, that’s not always the case. It depends on the game too, but I’ve completely shutout a last boss before with poison and paralysis.

But who knows which one it is in this alternate world. Might be possible too that neither is true. Whichever it is though, I’ve got to know what a Poison Earth can do in order to survive from now on. To go down the list, Spirit Link is probably a skill related to Veno.

‘Yes, that is perhaps correct. It is most likely that you were forced to learn the skill because of your link with me.’

Can skills be activated by focusing on the desired outcome?

‘Ah, there too exists skills that have to be acquired through proper training.’

Seems like there are learned skills as well. While thinking about nothing in particular, I focused on Spirit Link to try to activate the skill.

… nothing especially seemed to happen.

‘I believe the ability to communicate through our thoughts while linked together is the desired effect of Spirit Link.’

So that means it’s a passive skill. Alright, next up is Poison Absorption (Weak). I try to focus on it, but there weren’t any changes.

‘Certainly, you realize that I was watching when this skill activated.’

What? When was that?

‘It was when you fell into the poisonous swamp and was floating on your back. You seemed to be in great comfort if I am not mistaken.’

… must’ve been right before Arleaf saved me, when I was still half-asleep. It was because of this skill that I felt fantastic, like I was soaking in an onsen. That just doesn’t sit well with me though. I guess it does exactly what it says on the tin and absorbs poison…

Next up is Poison Release. I focus on it and then get the feeling that words lit up.

Swamp Toxin

Some other icon appeared. … guess I’ll just select “confirm”. Two lumps of purple liquid were created in my palms as soon as I did that.

‘Hmm… you are able to attack with the toxins you had absorbed. It would appear that you are able to cast beginner-level poison magic.’

Do I sling this at my opponent? Hmm… might have lucked out getting magical abilities. But I’m not really excited or anything about being able to use magic so easily.

‘Oh, but it is not magic. You will need learn quite difficult spells to cast magic. I shall offer you the chance to learn. First, you have to—’

Veno conveniently draws these charts and formulas in my field of vision, but it doesn’t get through to me. Ugh, it hurts to fuckin’ look at. Show it to me later!

‘Hmm… as one would expect, the translation skill does not activate for matters like this. At a later time, then, I shall simplify it for you so that even you can understand it.’

Though it’s so that I can survive, to so kindly and thoroughly teach me would be a great help… but that’s not the problem.

‘I have time to spare for I am currently merely watching. Would it not be fine for me to kill time this way?’

He has the nerve to be so carefree… I thought it’d be cool to ride a dragon into battle, but right now, it seems like it’s the other way around. Feels like he’s a dragon riding on my shoulders, ordering me what to do.

‘Is there some reason that you should be making fun me?’

I’m having a conversation with dragon in my head who’s nothing but talk.

‘Scoundrel! How dare you ridicule me?’

And that’s why I’m not scared. He gets all thirsty for blood but I don’t see him making a single attack at me. But still, it’d be a pain if he keeps getting pissed off like this. Literally and figuratively.

‘It seems like we have been sidetracked. You were wanting to begin with confirming of what you are capable, correct?’

We’ve pretty much wrapped up with this confirmation, haven’t we? To be frank, I don’t think I have what’s needed to do what Veno wants—defeating a monster and levelling up.

Firstly, I don’t have any weapons or armor. Secondly, food. Moreover, I’m feeling kinda hungry but I don’t have any of this world’s currency. How the hell am I supposed to live like this?

… speaking of money, Arleaf told me to go to the town hall. There might be a way to earn money there.

‘Aye. If it is like how it is in the past, there is a chance that something like a bulletin board with methods of acquiring money existing. You should try going there. Perhaps it is that building.’

With that said, we left the square and headed towards the rather large building that looks different than the houses around it. The building is deserted, but there’s a bulletin board by the entrance. I’ll just check it out first.

Though I’ve never seen this writing before, it’s translated in a way so that even I understand. No, maybe it would be more accurate to say the meaning gets transmitted into my head. However the translation may work, I can assume it’s thanks to Veno that it does. It would be absolutely tragic if I came to this world and didn’t understand anything said or written. It’s easy to see if you think of the situation when I was saved by Arleaf.

After being spoken to in a language I’ve never heard before, I was fed some mysterious medicine. Then she was pointing and gesturing, somehow trying to figure out my condition. Even with all that said and done, I get to the village and kept hearing a dragon’s voice in my head. … yup. If you think of it like that, you could say I’ve been blessed.

‘You brood upon strange thoughts. Well, at least you are giving me thanks.’

Oh, think about it the other way. Imagine if the Forced Possession Summoning transferred your magic to me too.

‘What?! To have my feats and prowess stolen by humans?! Take your words back at once!’

Right?! It’s more convenient for me this way!

‘To dare steal my powers is but villainy! Remember that!’

I go to take a gander at the bulletin board while I brush off Veno’s rage. Generally, most of the posts are calls for assistance and trade requests. I wonder if there’s a specific time to post. It doesn’t seem like you can just stick a note up whenever you want. Oh, there’s a request with a recommended level for adventurers.

Defeat tiger plants growing in the plains Recommended: four or more party members; basic job lv 20 or higher

There are a few posts like that printed on the board. However, for a lv 1 novice like me, it’s not a job that I can handle.

‘About that commission you are currently reading, it seems like the reason why no one has accepted it is because the reward is not befitting the work.’

Half of this stuff is pretty simple to understand, but it’s mixed in with requests that seem closer to scams It’s not too much different than back home, huh? Hell, this town hall is less of an adventurers’ guild and more of a public employment service center. Like, this is all day labor work postings.

Guildhalls in tabletop RPGs and videogames are always so grand and full of adventurous spirit, but right now, the romance is withering away in front of me. Is it really like this in reality? Or is it only because this village is so dead that this place looks shabby?

… I feel like this’ll have do since I’m pressed for time. But usually I’ll need to present a license or something for this.

‘Are you perhaps speaking of adventurer registration? That is performed at the church. You will also need to be put through something called a baptism.’

At the church?

‘If possible, I suggest you to avoid using the church. They pose quite a danger.’

Yeah, I hear religions can be dangerous sometimes. Is it because the guys who tried to kill you were from the church?

‘They were crusaders of a chivalric order sent by the kingdom. They’re related to the church, I suppose.’

I see. That’s what he means by dangerous.

‘About the jobs on the bulletin board… I suggest the request that is by your right-hand.’

I read the writing on the request that Veno suggested.

Harvest marphina Recommended: poison-curing magic; lv 25 or higher

It seems like I would be rewarded for each gram of marphina collected. The requester is this village’s tool dealer and apothecary. It says harvest, so it’s a plant, right? But since I’m not at the recommended level yet, wouldn’t this be really tough for me?

‘What are you saying? If my memory serves me right, this plant grows in the poisonous swamp that—as if falling in were not enough already—you were swimming in? You are able to absorb poison, correct?’

Ah. I just have to go back the way Arleaf showed me, eh? What’s more, I don’t even need any purification magic, thanks to my Poison Absorption (Weak). Normally one would need an antidote, but it might not be worth it to use one just to do this request. This request would only be worth it for those who can cast magic that cures poison—that way, it would cost nothing.

The recommended level of 25 might indicate how difficult it is. Maybe you can only cure the poison at that level. In any case, Poison Absorption (Weak) can likely handle it somehow.

This might just turn out to be an easy job. I wonder if Arleaf harvests like this too.

previously: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /next/ (full list of translated chapters) (discussion thread) (support Average Translations)

#PWF #Poison-Wielding Fugitive #Fugitive Poison User #毒使いの逃亡者 #ln #light novel #online novel #ラノベ #オンラインノベル #小説

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liquidmetalslime · 8 years ago

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Dragon Quest: Where to Start

Introduction

The “where do i start” question is asked quite frequently on /r/dragonquest and the main FB fangroup, so i assumed i’d make my own list.

I’m gonna compile each game that has been released outside of Japan into this post and give their most important features of each version available -at least- in English so anyone can see the differences and choose according to their needs or preferences.

Note 1: To mark in which languages is available each release, i’m gonna put these next to its platform: (E) = English; (F) = French; (G) = German; (I) = Italian; (S) = Spanish. “EFIGS” may only apply to the EU version, though.

Note 2: Some things might not be 100% accurate, I’m just a slime, sluurp 🙇🏻🙏.

Note 3: Games with only one version available in English (or Multi-5) will get this message in the recommendation: “There’s only a version.”. Games in which you can choose the gender of the main characters will include this sentence in its info: “In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character.”.

Note 4: Reminder about the Roman numerals (just in case): I = 1, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4, V = 5 , VI = 6, VII = 7, VIII = 8, IX = 9, X=10 and XI = 11.

Note 5: The post-2006 releases use lots of puns, jokes, and accents. It’s a characteristic of the series, as are the title alliterations (ie: Chapters of the Chosen, Luminaries of the Legendary Line, etc), the black and white menus, or the classic main theme, etc. Most of the post-2010 releases use visible encounters as well. As for now, there seems to be no turning back.

I’ll be skipping games that require fan-translation (I only mention them, but I highly prefer officially released titles).

↳ Aside from this, i am aware US Gamer made a similar list (click here).

⚠️ BEWARE: This post is HUGE. ⚠️

What is Dragon Quest?

Dragon Quest is a JRPG franchise developed by Enix (now Square Enix). The series is very traditional, in various aspects, the most notorious being the turn-based encounters and the encouragement to explore every corner. The main staff behind the series is: Yuji Horii (Scenario), Akira Toriyama (Art) and Koichi Sugiyama (Music). DQ first started 31 years ago in Japan, in May of 1986. A few years later, in 1989, it was first released in North America, but due to copyright issues with “Dungeons & Dragons”, Enix had to change the name to “Dragon Warrior”. After the Square Enix merger in 2003, they could finally solve the naming issue and, starting with the eighth entry in the main series, in 2005, DQ was finally getting called “Dragon Quest” in North America. One year later, in 2006, the series was introduced in Europe with that same game, Dragon Quest VIII (prior to that, only one spinoff had came to Europe). Since then, many remakes, re-releases, and spinoffs came to the West, even with some years of silence between 2011 and 2014. In 2017 we’re getting Dragon Quest VIII for 3DS (in January) and Dragon Quest Heroes II for PS4 and Steam (in April). ---

It should be noted DQ is a very special JRPG series, and most of its narrative comes from NPCs or books. This series really encourages the player to explore everything and to talk to everyone. That might be the only way to get clues of what to do next. Aside from that, in the games that it’s available, the Party Chat feature is also one of the most reliable features you’ll find in these games. Party chat lets your party members give you their opinions and comment on lots of different things that happen in the game -from the reaction they get after talking to a NPC, to their reaction after an important cutscene-, and they might also give you tips and remind you of what you have to do next. Aside from that, it’s a great tool to see the personalities of your characters. That said, do not come to this series expecting lots of pre-rendered cutscenes and lots of flashy action, this series is not about that (there is some, of course, but not as many as in other JRPGs). As i said a bit earlier, DQ is very special for other things too. The combat is always turn-based in the main series (except in the MMO) and the dialogue is usually full of puns and jokes. Unlike many other series, almost all the games have the same quality and its a highly consistent series, due to the main creators always being the same (Mr Yuji Horii, Mr Koichi Sugiyama and Mr Akira Toriyama). What you need to know about the other works of these three gentlemen: Horii created one of the games that inspired Hideo Kojima that videogames could offer interesting stories (”The Portopia Serial Murder Incident”); Sugiyama has been composed many classic music and worked on various 70s Japanese tv shows such as “The Return for Ultraman”; and AKira Toriyama is a worldwide known manga artist, mainly for his two masterpieces: Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball.

↳ For more information about the series, check its Wikipedia article.

Where to start? @liquidmetalslime’s choices

NOTE: Okay, let me be clear, in this block i’ll talk about what are the best entry points IN MY OPINION, as the title clearly say.

To start playing the series, the best three entry points in the main series are IV (4) , VIII (8) and XI (11). The first one can be played in English on NES and Mobile and in Multi-5/EFIGS on DS. The second one can be played in English and French on Mobile and EFIGS on PS2 and 3DS. The third one will be available on PS4 and PC in Multi-5 later this year; sometime in the future also on Switch.

- IV is divided in chapters and features a highly likeable cast -specifically a certain Tsarevna. Each chapter is unique and follows a specific set of characters, who will later meet in the fifth and longest chapter. This story is quite tragic and is best enjoyed on the remakes of the game, since these remakes include a sixth chapter that gives an insight in the motives that drove the villain to do what he did. If you want to play in English and get its best version to date, the mobile (iOS/Android) version is the one. If you want to play using physical buttons or in French, German, Spanish or Italian, the (EU) DS release is for you. The DS/Mobile remakes use lots of puns and accents (the NES version doesn’t), and that can be bothersome until you get used to it, but it’s worth it (and I personally love it, except in the first chapter while playing in English. I didn’t have any issue while playing in Spanish). This is the one that gave me an obsession made me a DQ fan.

- VIII on the other hand, focuses a lot more on a major plot and its characters. Due to that, it is the easiest DQ to jump in if you already like other JRPG series. Given its artstyle and big scale of its world, it gives a great sense of adventure (its actually not that big, but it feels huge). As IV, VIII’s characters are regarded as some of the best in the whole series, specially Yangus and Trode. As in IV, the remake gives us some more information about the villain and his motives. If you value content and quality of life improvements over looks, the 3DS version is the definitive version. Otherwise, if you prefer prettier graphics, go for the PS2 version. The 3DS version is what i consider its best version to date, and its the easiest to find nowadays, besides the Mobile port.

- XI is an interesting title because despite being full of throwbacks and -maybe- connections to the older games, it introduces many quality-of-life improvements into the usual mechanics of the series. On top of that, has a killer soundtrack, composed with brand new songs (which some will say that are weaker) and a whole lot of classic songs from all the main games. And to round up the package, it also has gorgeous graphics. The cast is likeable, the story is interesting, the gag moments are nice, the sad moments are touching (i personally thought Horii couldn’t outdo himself after V, but boy i was wrong). It has a lot to like, and little to dislike. The real shame about this game is that we -apparently- won’t be getting the 3DS version.

Aside from these three games, the other main titles might be a good point to start too, but some might have give some trouble, for example:

I and II: (Terribly) Outdated. II is also the hardest game in the whole series, and its NES version is quite unbalanced at the final parts of the game.The devs even admitted in an interview that they couldn’t balance it properly because they couldn’t delay the game.

III and VII: These are better enjoyed if you have played some of the previous games, for example III is better enjoyed with knowledge of I and II (of their story, i mean), and VII with knowledge of what to expect from the game (how DQ’s narrative usually works, how the battles work, etc) as well as knowing a bit about VI’s mechanics.

V: Probably the top of the series, but I feel it’s not as DQ-newbie-friendly as IV and VIII. Still a solid game.

VI: Love it or hate it experience.

IX: It’s quite different from the other games since it focuses a lot more on character customization (there are no pre-made characters, besides some that are acquired in some postgame DLC quests), so it might give a wrong idea of what the series is like. It is a lovely game, though.

Other notes:

III, VI, VII and IX (and X, but that’s Japan-only for now) use class systems.

Outside the main series, in my opinion, the best entry points might also be:

- Dragon Quest Monsters 1 and 2 (better known as Dragon Warrior Monsters 1 and 2). Charming monster collecting games. The first one features Terry, originally from DQVI, on his quest to win the Starry Night Tournament, while the second one features two original characters (Tara & Coby) on a quest to save their new island. DQM2/DWM2 comes in two versions. In one you play as Tara and in the other as Coby. Might be a bit outdated, but they’re quite fun games. I feel like they’re better than the other monster-catching games of that era, at least technically.

- Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2. The most recent Monsters game we got. Has a quite deep synthesis system and it’s quite intuitive. Also has a large amount of beasts. Could feel a bit clunky and slow to play nowadays, though.

- Dragon Quest Builders. Easy to play and with really charming aspects. Has a long story and huge replay value, as each time the player can build their base differently. It has been called “the Minecraft for those who don’t like Minecraft”, due to it being more guided that the mentioned game. It has some connections to the first three games in the series, but can be enjoyed without previous knowledge of the series. If you had to choose a DQ spinoff, choose this one. Don’t think of it as a “Minecraft with DQ skins”. There’s a Minecraft mod for that, this is quite different.

Games & Releases: Versions that have been released in the West

In this huge block, we’re gonna look at each game, its western releases (trying to cover both NA-only and NA/EU/AUS releases), the features each re-release (if any) has in comparison to the first English/Western version, and my recommendations for each game.

Dragon Quest I

Info: Old JRPG with very simple mechanics. It is the first console JRPG out there (almost a year and a half earlier than Final Fantasy 1!). The story is quite simple (save the princess and defeat the bad guy) and the gameplay is very bare bones, but still an enjoyable game. It’s also really short, can be beaten in about 6 hours if you’re fast.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest I · II (SFC), 1993; Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection (Wii), 2011. [There is a fantranslation for the SFC remake.]

- Dragon Warrior for NES (E)

Old DW translation. (Besides DW glossary, it uses a lot of Old English.)

The graphics might be too outdated for some.

Quite grindy.

- Dragon Warrior 1 · 2 for GBC (E)

Remade DW translation.

Enhanced (yet simpler) graphics.

Better balancing.

There is a prologue scene.

- Dragon Quest I for iOS and Android (E)

New DQ translation (still uses Old English, but with the newer DQ glossary).

Brighter, more colorful world, but poorly upscaled graphics. (Because its a port of an old mobile port they did in the mid 2000s, but fitted into a way higher screen)

Even better balancing.

No prologue scene.

My recommendation: “Dragon Quest I” for iOS and Android (E). Why?: It’s simply the best version: better graphics, music, translation and balancing (meaning less grinding).

The Mobile port is the only version available in Europe, btw.

Dragon Quest II

Info: Second game in the series. Adds extra two party members there can be various monsters on battle, there’s also a ship and a waaaay bigger world (the world of DQ1 is just a small part of the one in DQ2). That said, it is worth noting the original version of this game was quite rushed and the end-game areas are quite unbalanced. The story is quite simple too: An evil mage named Hargon plans on destroying the world and starts by attacking the kingdom of Moonbrooke. The princes of Midenhall and Cannock reunite with their lost cousin from Moonbrooke to stop Hargon.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest I · II (SFC), 1993; Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection (Wii), 2011. [There is a fantranslation for the SFC remake.]

- Dragon Warrior II for NES (E)

Old DW translation. (Besides DW glossary, it uses a lot of Old English.)

The graphics might be too outdated for some.

Quite grindy, specially in end-game areas. (Enix admitted they couldn’t balance the last areas of the game due to time constrains.)

- Dragon Warrior 1 · 2 for GBC (E)

Remade DW translation.

Enhanced (yet simpler) graphics.

Better balancing.

New intro scene.

- Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line for iOS and Android (E)

New DQ translation.

Brighter, more colorful world, but poorly upscaled graphics. (Same reason as DQ1-Mobile).

Even better balancing.

Prologue scene.

Limitations to avoid players venture into the most dangerous dungeon unprepared.

My recommendation: “Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line” for iOS and Android (E). Why?: It is the best version: better looks, sound, translation and balancing.

The Mobile port is the only version available in Europe, btw.

Dragon Quest III

Info: First DQ game to feature a class system, which was supported by a personality system thus making almost every character unique. This game also features some big plot twists and even larger areas to explore. DQ3 also ends the Erdrick/Loto trilogy. The story follows the offspring of a great hero (Ortega) and their quest to finish what their disappeared father started: to defeat the evil Baramos. In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character. (Note: And the gender of any character you create.)

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest III (SFC), 1996; Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection (Wii), 2011. [There is a fantranslation for the SFC remake.]

- Dragon Warrior III for NES (E)

Old DW translation. (Besides DW glossary, it uses a bit of old english.)

The graphics might be too outdated for some.

- Dragon Warrior 3 for GBC (E)

Remade DW translation.

Enhanced (yet simpler) graphics.

Pachisi/T’n’T minigame.

Monster animations.

2 bonus dungeons: the one added in the SFC remake and a brand new one.

Monster medals.

- Dragon Quest III Seeds of Salvation for iOS and Android (E)

New DQ translation. (There are some areas that still use Old English).

No Pachisi/T’n’T minigame, nor Monster Animations nor Monster Medals.

Brighter, more colorful world, but (somewhat) poorly upscaled graphics. (Same reason as DQ1-Mobile).

1 bonus dungeon: the one added in the SFC remake.

My recommendation: This is a hard choice, but it is between “Dragon Warrior 3” for GBC (E) and “Dragon Quest III Seeds of Salvation” for iOS and Android (E). Why?: The GBC version has a lot more content, but the Smartphone version has a newer DQ-style translation and better graphics. Many will say the SFC remake is better, but i love monster medals and the official translations 🤷‍♀️

The Mobile port is the only version available in Europe, btw.

Note about the Erdrick Trilogy (I - III): This trilogy is better enjoyed when played in order (DQ -> DQII -> DQIII).

Dragon Quest IV

Info: First game of the Zenithian trilogy (which is loosely connected). First -and only- DQ game to be told in chapters so far. Each one follows different people, and in the fifth, they all meet to fulfill their roles al the chosen ones. Here, instead of having generic characters with classes, we have set (and very charismatic) characters who learn a specific sets of spells and skills. In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character.

The overall story focuses on a demon who loves a lovely elf and hates human for how they treat elves, monsters and dwarves. The party must stop this demon, Psaro, from awakening the demon lord and destroying the world.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest IV (PS1), 2001.

- Dragon Warrior IV for NES (E)

Old DW translation.

Completely 2D.

- Dragon Quest IV: (The) Chapters of the Chosen for DS (EFIGS)

New DQ translation.

Prologue chapter.

No party-chat. (It was added in the Japanese remake, and was mostly translated by the release date, but SQEX decided to not put it for some reason)

2.5D, since it uses DQVII’s PS1 style.

- Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for iOS and Android (E)

DQ translation.

Prologue chapter.

Has party chat.

2.5D.

My recommendation: Depends, but choose one from the latter two. Why?: If you want to play in French, Spanish, Italian or German, go for the DS release. If you want to enjoy the party chat feature, for for the Smartphone release. The party chat seems pointless but it actually gives a lot of characterization to the party members.

Dragon Quest V

Info: Second game of the Zenithian trilogy. In this particular game, the story follows a young man through his (painful) life: from his childhood to his adulthood. DQ5 was one of the first games ever to let players recruit monsters to join their team (which, some years after its release, and after the success of Pokémon, inspired the birth of “Dragon Quest Monsters”). It also allows choosing a wife (well, it forces the player to choose one, since it is related to the plot): Bianca, the childhood friend; Nera, the sweetheart from a good family; or Debora, the passionate sister of Nera. This game has probably the best story in the whole series.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest V (SFC), 1992; Dragon Quest V (PS2), 2004. [There are fantranslations for these two titles.]

- Dragon Quest V: (The) Hand of the Heavenly Bride for DS (EFIGS)

- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride for iOS and Android (E)

Some slight tweaks.

The two versions of this game we got are quite similar, except some small balancing and changes of MP cost. Both feature DQ-style localization (it’s the same for both versions), a new bride not present in the original SFC release nor PS2 remake (Debora), a few more monsters of newer games (like DQVIII’s Jailcat) and some other tweaks.

The NES version only released in North America, btw.

Dragon Quest VI

Info: Third and last game of the Zenithian trilogy (First, chronologically). In this game the party travels between two worlds: reality and dream world. There are two extra “worlds”: underwater and the dread realm. In this game, there’s a class system quite different from III, since the classes of VI aren’t tied to the character’s level but to the number of battles won, with 8 levels of mastery (8 stars = mastered the class).

The story is about a group of young people who are off to fight the evil demon who rules the dreams and treats the land (Murdaw). But there’s more, the game is about traveling between worlds and solving problems and fighting the Dreadfiends.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest VI (SFC), 1995. [There is a fantranslation for this title.]

- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation / Reverie for DS (EFIGS)

- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation for iOS and Android (E)

Better balanced and a few tweaks.

The two versions of the game we got are pretty similar, so there’s only these two differences: controls and enhanced balancing (for example, Terry joins with a few more classes mastered). Both feature the same graphic style, the same DQ-style translation and the same music.

My recommendation: Doesn’t matter. Why?: Both are pretty much the same, choose according to your wallet or control preferences. I’d choose DS though, since the mobile port can be buggy in some phones (and due to multi-5 too). The SFC version is objectively better (better atmosphere, much prettier graphics, can recruit monsters like in V), but it doesn’t have an official translation and the fan-translation covers 95% of it (but you can beat the main story, though).

Note about the Zenithian Trilogy (IV - VI): This trilogy, unlike Erdrick’s trilogy, is loosely connected. Only a few elements connect the games, so they can be played as individual experiences. A few details in VI imply the cronological order is different from the release order.

Dragon Quest VII

Info: Longest entry in the series. It is also the only DQ game with time-travel so far. The story is divided in islands, each of which is unlocked after completing a small puzzle made of shards/fragments. This game features the class system from VI, but extended.

The story starts in the only island in the world, but with the help of Prince Kiefer and Maribel, the player unravels the mysteries of an eerie abandoned shrine, which transports them into another island in the past. The party must solve the problems of the islands in the past to save the islands in the present, and learn what happened with the world and how can they fix it.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest VII (iOS/Android), 2015.

- Dragon Warrior VII: Warriors of Eden for PS1 (E)

Old DW translation.

2.5D.

Only an NPC can help you find shards/fragments.

Better puzzles at the beginning.

- Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past for 3DS (EFIGS)

New DQ translation.

Fully 3D.

There are many ways to find fragments: a radar, a fairy npc, a menu option...

Dumbed down puzzles at the beginning.

Faster class mastering and better balanced class system (making the monster classes relevant).

Traveller tablets / free DLC tablets.

The JP version of the 3DS remake uses orchestral soundtrack, but the Western version doesn’t. It can be restored with a hacked 3DS, apparently. The Western release also added some lag in the menus.

My recommendation: “Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past” for 3DS (EFIGS). Why?: Firstly because of the multi-5 text, but also for the QoL improvements, specifically the faster class mastering and fragment radar.

Btw, the 3DS version is the only one in Europe.

Note: There is a patch for the 3DS that adds the orchestral soundtrack. (You need a CFW on your 3DS.)

Dragon Quest VIII

Info: First fully-3D (non-remake) game of the series. It had various changes: firstly, the story focused on a main plot. Secondly, each character had a few learning paths, which could be followed by allocating Skill Points, earned by leveling up, and that at certain milestones would teach them new skills, spells and passive bonuses. Other changes include the Monster Arena (which plays a bit like the Dragon Quest Monsters arenas), having orchestral music ingame and voice acting (these two things were only present in the western PS2 version), having the alchemy pot and some more innovations.

The story follows a young guard and a bandit, who are helping a cursed king and his daughter to catch the culprit of their curse. They follow him around the world, finding some interesting partners along the way.

Versions and features:

- Dragon Quest VIII: (The) Journey of the Cursed King for PS2 (EFIGS)

Voice acting.

Orchestrated music.

“Beautiful” but slow menus.

Pink super saiyan. (This was introduced in the western releases to get the attention of DBZ fans.)

Pretty graphics.

- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for iOS and Android (EF)

Instant alchemy.

Portrait mode only.

No voice acting nor orchestrated music.

- Dragon Quest VIII: (The) Journey of the Cursed King for 3DS (EFIGS)

New playable characters, scenarios (& optional endings), items, and dungeons (one is post-game, the other is optional before ending the game).

Instant alchemy.

Voice acting.

No orchestral soundtrack. (It’s present in the JP version, and afaik it can be restored with a CFW 3DS.)

Classic DQ menus.

Alternative outfits for everyone, not just 2 characters.

New camera mode & quests.

There are some small changes made by SQEX Japan so the game would keep the same rating it got on the PS2 years ago (For All Ages). Nothing game changing.

Free DLC items.

Some re-balancing.

Speed-up option for battles.

On New 3DS, the C-stick can be used to rotate the camera. (There is no performance improvement on N3DS.)

My recommendation: “Dragon Quest VIII: (The) Journey of the Cursed King” for 3DS (EFIGS). Why?: The improvements, QoL enhancements and new features make it worth it despite it being inferior graphically to its PS2 original release. The music change doesn’t affect you a lot if you do not play using headphones. Also, the “censorship” is irrelevant since Jessica is 17 and the two other scenes don’t change that much anyway. If that’s your main concern, I may suggest you check your priorities, my dude. 🤷‍♂️

Note: There are patches for the 3DS version that give Jessica her PS2 outfits and put the orchestral soundtrack in. (You need a CFW on your 3DS.)

Dragon Quest IX

Info: In some aspects this game is a throwback to Dragon Quest III. The player can customize the party, their aspect and their equipment. It mixes DQIII’s classes and VIII’s skill trees. As VIII, it also has (instant) alchemy. This is the first main DQ game that allows playing with friends (up to 4, in local multiplayer). Unlike almost all the other games (except I and III), there aren’t set characters in this game*. In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character. (Note: And the gender of any character you create). IX has tons of throwbacks and cameos from the other heroes (as Inn Guests and costumes) and villains (as Bosses) from the main series and a character from DQ Swords.

*There ARE some set characters, but to be able to get them you need to have access to the DLC quests (the DS and Wii servers are dead right now, so you need to edit your file or connect with someone who has them unlocked) and have beaten the main story.

The story in this game follows a young celestrian (a guardian angel, basically) in their quest to find out what happened to their realm. They must travel around the world, helping as many people as possible while getting clues of what or who is responsable for the fall of their land.

Versions and features:

- Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for DS (EFIGS)

My recommendation: There is only the one version of this title. Its best enjoyed with friends, and/or if you like roleplaying/creating your own characters.

Dragon Quest XI

Info: Return to the classic formula after the multiplayer-focused IX and X.

The story focuses on a boy, who is the reincarnation of a Hero, who is acused of being “the demon’s child”. He has to escape and unravel the mysteries regarding this “demon’s child / hero’s child” controversy with a cast of great characters.

The most interesting part about this title was how it was made in three different styles: 2D, “chibi” 3D and full-scale 3d. The first one, tries to emulate the graphics of the original DQ6 and the SFC remake of DQ3; the second one tries to go for the aesthetic of DQ9 and the remake of DQ7; and the third one gives us the logical step after DQ8. The first two modes are only present on the Japan-only 3DS version, while the later is present in all the UE4 versions (PS4, PC and probably Switch). As each of them tries to emulate a different era of the series, there are gameplay mechanics that change. For instance, when playing in 2D mode (3DS), the items won’t have an image when looking at the inventory. Meanwhile, they will while playing in 3D (3DS). Or the way boomerang works: in the 3DS version, they hit from left to right, like in previous titles; while on the UE4 versions the player can choose which enemy it should hit first. (Since the 3DS version is staying Japan-only i’ll avoid making more comparisons to it.)

Official site

Versions and features: - Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (3DS, 2017)

- Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for PS4

- Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for PC / Steam

Same version as on PS4

Probably more resolution and fps

Probably mods

- Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for Switch

???

Nobody knows anything about it so far, except it’s confirmed for all regions.

My recommendation: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for PS4 or PC. Why?: So far, we’re only getting “one version” on two platforms, so it’s up to the player to decide their platform of choice. I’d personally choose PS4 because the game was designed with a PS4 in mind. If you can read japanese, the 3DS version is also a great option. I personally prefer it to the UE4 version.

And that’s all for the main series.

Dragon Quest X is a MMO for Wii, Wii U, PC, 3DS and Mobile, which will be soon available for PS4 and Switch in Japan. There are no plans for a Western release of this game for now. (There is a western localization campaign, started on October 2016. @imutone recently started a complementary campaign to send physical letters to SQEX. Here’s the latest update on the campaign. Make sure to join it!)

Now, lets move to the Spinoffs:

Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland

Info: Inspired by DQV’s monster recruitment feature and Pokémon’s success, this was the first attempt to make a Monster-Catching DQ game. It features Terry and Milly (called Milayou in the old DWM translation) from DQVI as the protagonists (Note: Only Terry is playable, Milly is a secondary character).

In this game, you have to travel worlds to get stronger monsters to be able to win in the Starry Night tournament, which grants a wish to its winner, and save your kidnapped sister.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Monsters 1 · 2 (PS1), 2002; Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland 3D (3DS), 2012. [There is fantranslation for this remake.]

- Dragon Warrior Monsters for GBC (E)

Randomly generated dungeons.

All monsters can follow you, up to 3 at a time.

3 vs 3 battles.

Hundreds of DQ monsters, either from DQI-VI or new.

My recommendation: There is only the one version available for us.

Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Tara’s Adventure / Coby’s Journey

Info: In this sequel, they went the monster catching Pokémon way: two versions with exclusive monsters. Each version offers a protagonist: The young Tara, or her older brother Coby. This game offered monster trade.

In these games, you have to travel between worlds to save your new home, an island, while becoming a better monster master.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Monsters 1 · 2 (PS1), 2002; Dragon Quest Monsters 2 (3DS), 2014.

- Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 for GBC (E)

Comes in two packages: Tara’s Adventure and Coby’s Journey. In the first one you play as a girl (Tara) and in the other as a boy (Coby). They’re sibilings.

Set worlds. (Not randomly-generated as in DQM1.)

All monsters can follow you (all have sprites), up to 3 at a time.

3 vs 3 battles.

Hundreds of DQ monsters, either from DQI-VII or new.

Local multiplayer.

My recommendation: There is only the one version available for us.

There was DQM game for GBA, Caravan Heart, which was Japan-only. Quite different from the first two DQM/DWM games, but as DQM1/DWM1, it has a child version of a character of the main series as the protagonist: Kiefer from VII. [There is a fantranslation for this game.]

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker

Info: This is a reboot of the DQM formula. Coming after the Japan-only DQM Caravan Heart that mixed DQVII’s monster hearts with the DQM formula, Joker tried something new, but in a similar direction of the GBC classics. In this game, the young monster scout must get stronger to become a master monster scout and also unfold the mystery of the Incarnus, a singular monster.

Versions and features:

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker for DS (EFIGS)

Monster from DQI-VIII, or new.

3 vs 3 battles.

New and updated mechanics (the skill system is inspired by VIII’s).

Local and Wifi multiplayer (Note: As of 2014, Nintendo shut down the DS and Wii servers).

My recommendation: There is only the one version of this game.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2

Info: Carries over many mechanics from Joker, but improves them. The biggest improvement is in the UI, which later became the base for all the 3DS DQM games and remakes. The story follows a young monster scout whose airship crushes into a mysterious island and how he and his team of monsters unfolds the mystery of the island to get back to civilization.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Joker 2 Professional (DS), 2011. [There is a fantranslation for this title.]

- Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 for DS (EFIGS)

Over 300 monster, mostly from DQI-IX, or new.

3 vs 3 battles.

DQMJ’s mechanics and UI updated and vastly improved.

Local and Wifi multiplayer (Note: As of 2014, Nintendo shut down the DS and Wii servers).

(Local) Connectivity with DQVI and IX for DS for special monsters from those games.

My recommendation: There is only the one version available for us.

There’s a third Joker game for 3DS, called “Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3” in Japan, released in April 2016. Said game got a “Professional” version with various enhancements and new monsters in early February 2017. As of March 2017, none of the 3DS DQM games has been announced for the West.

Dragon Quest: Torneko no Daibouken 2

Info: Second DQ Mystery Dungeon game, and as the first one (which only released in Japan), it follows the famous merchant from DQIV: Torneko Taloon.

In this title, players must outthink enemies who are often faster or stronger than them, efficiently using weapons and magic when the odds are against them. What's more, in order to succeed they will also test the limits of Torneko's insatiable appetite.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest: Torneko no Daibouken 2 (GBA), 2001.

- World of Dragon Warrior: Torneko: The Last Hope for PS1 (E)

Play as Torneko.

It is the only Mystery Dungeon game set in the DQ universe we got.

This game uses randomly-generated dungeons.

My recommendation: There is only the one version available for us.

There were two other games of this series available in Japan: one for SFC (which was the first DQ spinoff and the first Mystery Dungeon game ever created) and another for PS2 and GBA. There is a fourth DQ Mystery Dungeon game, which doesn’t focus on Torneko anymore, but on the childhood of DQVIII’s Yangus and Red. This is Japan-only too.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

Info: This is the second entry of the “Slime MoriMori” series. It got its American release in 2005. There are tank battles aside from the regular “slime vs the world” fights. This was the last DQ game to get released in America but not in Europe.

It is an action game in which we control a Slime called Rocket, who has to fight the Plattypunks to save the slime town of Boingburg.

Versions and features:

- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime for DS (E) [Trailer]

Play as a slime (named Rocket)!

Tank Battles.

Lots of puns.

My recommendation: There is only the one version.

The other games in this subseries are Japan-only, as well as its manga. The first game (GBA) doesn’t have tank battles, and the third one (3DS) replaces them with ship battles.

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

Info: First person on-rails action game. The Wii’s nunchuck works as your shield and the Wiimote acts as your Sword. All the major characters are named after swords, like Claymore or Fleurette. In this game, you have to save the kingdom of Avalonia from an evil demon named Xiphos.

Versions and features:

- Dragon Quest Swords for Wii (EFIGS) [Trailer]

On rails.

Use the Wiimote as your sword and the Nunchuk as your shield.

Likeable support cast.

My recommendation: There is only a version of this game.

Dragon Quest Wars

Info: A small turn-based strategy game for DSi. Think of it as a light mix of chess and Fire Emblem (not really, but its not 100% chess either).

Versions and features:

- Dragon Quest Wars for DSi (EFIGS) [Trailer]

Multiplayer: Up to 4 players.

Use some DQ monsters as your units.

My recommendation: There is only one version of this game. As the DS servers got shut down in 2014, so the only way to get it nowadays is using a 3DS.

Honestly? I wouldn’t recommend spending a cent on this.

Fortune Street / Boom Street

Info: First “Itadaki Street” game to release outside Japan. This is the second game in the Itadaki Street series to mix Dragon Quest with Super Mario Bros. The gameplay is a bit of a mix of Mario Party, DQ’s Treasures n' Trapdoors (T’n’T) and the classic boardgame Monopoly.

Versions and features:

- Fortune Street / Boom Street for Wii (EFIGS) [Trailer]

Play as characters from the main series like Slime, Dragonlord, Alena or Patty; and characters from the Super Mario Bros universe such as Peach, Luigi, Donkey Kong or Waluigi.

Multiplayer up to 4 players.

Wifi modes. (Note: As of 2014, Nintendo shut down the DS and Wii servers).

My recommendation: There is only the one version.

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below

Info: First entry in the action-based Heroes subseries. It is a collaboration with Dynasty Warriors creator Tecmo Koei. This was also the first DQ for a gaming device to come West between 2011 and 2015, quite an honor! In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character. (Note: You can choose between Luceus and Aurora, but the one you don’t choose is still playable, the one you choose will be always in your party).

It a mix of Dragon Quest mechanics with Dynasty Warrior mechanics: parties of 4 characters, MP, tension, tons of enemies, just a handful of attacks per character... Story-wise is a quite simple light vs darkness story.

Monsters who were peaceful have started attacking humans. The player, the captain of the kingdom’s army have to find out why, battling hordes of monsters in the way.

Versions and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Heroes (PS3), 2015.

- Dragon Quest Heroes for PS4 (EFIGS) [Trailer]

Stable framerate.

Can’t get all the preorder bonuses.

- Dragon Quest Heroes for PC (EFIGS) [Trailer]

Better settings.

Unstable framerate.

My recommendation: The PS4 version. Why?: It was made with the PS4 in mind and has stable framerate. Also, Tecmo Koei’s PC ports are rather infamous...

Dragon Quest Heroes II

Info: Second entry in the action-based Heroes subseries. Doesn’t have any connection with the first one, and fixes or adds what the people wanted in the first game, like a worldmap, (online) multiplayer, or less tower-defense missions.

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twin Kings and the Prophecy's End (PS3, PSV), 2016.

Confirmed versions for the West:

- Dragon Quest Heroes II for PS4 and Steam (EFIGS) [Trailer] (Note: Western release dates: PS4: April 25th in NA and April 28th in EU; Steam: April 22nd in both.)

My recommendation: Still not out in the West, but the PS4 version. Why?: Firstly, Tecmo Koei PC ports are infamous for a reason; secondly, the PS4 version was the main version in Japan (and the one i have already played and enjoyed); and thirdly, because its the only one that has a physical release and that reversible cover is rather cool.

In May 2016, Square Enix released a sequel in Japan called “Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twins Kings and Ending of the Prophecy” for PS3, PS4 and PSV. It includes some upgrades from the feedback they got from the first game, including: having a world map, having multiplayer and being able to have more than four skills per character. On the 1st December 2016, Best Buy leaked its localization. On the 8th of the same month, Square Enix announced the western release dates for the PS4 version: April 25th (NA), and April 28th (EU). A Steam version is also releasing on April 25h (both NA & EU) Square Enix announced on February 22nd 2017. [The Vita version isn’t profitable for SQEX, so they will skip localizing it.] (x). The games’s director hinted to a third game on the PlayStation Awards 2016. (x)

Dragon Quest Builders

Info: “What if you mixed Dragon Quest and Minecraft and got a legit good game?”. In this game, you can choose the gender of the main character. (Note: you can change it and any character customization option anytime you want from the setting accessed from the main menu)

At the last part of DQ1 the player is given a choice. One option lets you continue and the other gives you a game over. DQB explores that option, the story in which the Dragonlord won. You, a builder chosen by the goddess Rubiss, must rebuild the land of Alefgard.

Versions available and features:

- Japan-only releases: Dragon Quest Builders: Revive Alefgard (PS3), 2016.

- Dragon Quest Builders for PS4 (EFIGS) [Trailer]

High quality graphics.

Better draw distance.

Better share options (can make videos and up to 4 image in tweets).

- Dragon Quest Builders for PSV (EFIGS) [Trailer]

Digital only (it is only about 270mb, though. The Asian physical release includes English.).

Portability.

Poor sharing options (screenshots with Start + PS Button. If you share it with the twitter app, you can only choose 1 image. If you want to share more than 1 at a time, you have to transfer your screenshots to your computer).

- Dragon Quest Builders for Switch (EFIGS) (*Releases in Spring 2018)

Its more akin to the PS4 version than the PSV version.

Has some exclusive content, like the DQ1 cartdrige work table and the Sabercub mount.

Portable.

My recommendation: Depends on your tastes. Why?: One is great for its portability (Vita) and the other looks way better and has better sharing methods (PS4).

On August 2016, Square Enix stated there were possibilities of this game getting a Nintendo Switch version. (x). (They announced it officially on the 14th of September of 2017. Will release next spring in all regions.) On September of the same year, they said a sequel was being considered. (x). Later, in the PlayStation Awards, they hinted to a sequel again. (x)

Dragon Quest Builders 2 was announced for Switch and PS4 on the 6th of August of 2017, with no release window announced so far.

Definitive version of each game (TL;DR)

Summarizing, this is the list of definitive versions of each DQ game -that got official western releases- again, in my opinions:

Main series:

Dragon Quest I: Mobile

Dragon Quest II: Mobile

Dragon Quest III: GBC OR Mobile (more content vs newer translation)

Dragon Quest IV: DS OR Mobile (more languages vs english party chat)

Dragon Quest V: DS OR Mobile (they have different prices and buttons)

Dragon Quest VI: DS OR Mobile (they have different prices and buttons)

Dragon Quest VII: 3DS

Dragon Quest VIII: 3DS

Dragon Quest IX: DS

Spinoffs:

Dragon Warrior Monsters: GBC

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: GBC (Any version)

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker: DS

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2: DS

Torneko: The Last Hope: PS1

Rocket Slime: DS (This one didn’t release in EU)

Dragon Quest Swords: Wii

Fortune Street / Boom Street: Wii

Dragon Quest Wars: 3DS (DSi can’t access the internet any more)

Dragon Quest Heroes: PS4

Dragon Quest Builders: PS4 or PSV (higher resolution vs portability)

Dragon Quest Heroes 2: PS4 or Steam (unless the PC port is a bad port)

Soooooo, where should i start? (TL;DR 2)

Choose one of these, but i highly recommend VIII on 3DS.

Dragon Quest IV: DS OR Mobile (more languages vs english party chat)

Dragon Quest VIII: 3DS

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2: DS

Dragon Quest Builders: PS4 or PSV (higher resolution vs portability)

Special thanks

Thanks to my SO (♥︎), @imperial-scrolls-of-honor, @hawelo92, @imutone and @moguel for their help / corrections / suggestions.

Thanks to Yuji Horii, Koichi Sugiyama, Akira Toriyama, Koichi Nakamura, Noriyoshi Fujimoto, and all the staff that has worked or works in this marvelous series. And also thanks to Nintendo and Square Enix, who worked hard to bring these games to the West.

#dragon quest #square enix #dq #masterpost #now i only have that dq10 and that all-dq-releases-so-far posts in my drafts #hopefully i'll finish the dq10 one soon; so many other people can join the campaign #i've had this post in the drafts for what? 5 months now? editing it every few weeks #but now its posted #for real #:D #hope y'all like it #and if not... well it says clearly this is my opinion; make your own if you think differently :p #long post

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tl-notes · 8 years ago

Text

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon Episode 6 Notes

The first two cuts of the episode, and we're greeted with three different season words right off the bat. Kyoani is really making a lot of use of them in this show and I love it.

The first is the bird there, a swallow (tsubame 燕 in Japanese). Swallows are used as both spring and summer season words. In spring, they arrive back in Japan after their winter migration and start making nests and laying eggs.

In summer, the hatchlings have left the nest and are out finding their own mates.

The spring season word usage tends to allude to swallows' nests or chicks, and the summer spring word usage tends to refer to flying swallows.

Mmm, metaphors.

The second is the snail, which are especially associated with tsuyu 梅雨, the Japanese rainy season. The rainy season tends to mark the end of spring and beginning of summer—really you can think of it kind of like a fifth season, warmer than spring, cooler than summer, and rainy as heck. It usually lasts about a month and a half or so (and makes doing laundry hell).

The third is the hydrangea flower (ajisai 紫陽花 in Japanese), which like the snail is associated with tsuyu. If cherry blossoms are the spring flower, hydrangeas are the rainy season flower. Some people even go do flower viewings of them, though it's not as common a practice as it is with cherry blossoms.

They made an appearance in another fairly recent show, Amanchu:

Notice the pink and blue slippers off to the right? Those are to wear when using the bathroom—or rather, the toilet, since the toilet will be in a separate room from the bath/shower in most Japanese homes.

So there's probably something like this on the other side of that door there:

Darjeeling, as I'm sure you know, is a fancy kind of tea. The name comes from where it is grown: the Darjeeling area in India. Much like Champagne, there are legal branding restrictions in place such that only tea grown and processed in parts of Darjeeling can call itself "Darjeeling."

"Flush" refers to when the tea leaves were harvested. First flush means those leaves were part of the first harvest of that year's crop. It's a good thing.

The Japanese word for flea market used here is a literal translation, nomi no ichi 蚤の市. Nowadays it's more common to refer to them with the English loan word (furii maaketto), as nomi is a gross bug and English is cool.

So, that it was a nomi no ichi and not a flea market possibly implies it was more of an old school affair aimed at an older audience... and/or a pun, because nomi (飲み) can also refer to drinking/beverages.

Random fact regarding the loan word version of the name: flea and free are both furii フリー in Japanese. Some "flea" markets in Japanese are actually called "free" markets, as anybody is "free" to join and sell stuff.

...Making "free market" one of those "Japanese English" (wasei eigo 和製英語) phrases that Japanese people will use sometimes when speaking English that leads to confusion, since of course free market means something quite different from flea market in native English.

Vegetable Racer!

This is super minor, but I thought it was interesting (you might not; feel free to skip):

The way these are worded in the subs, to me, sounds like Kobayashi is either guessing at those facts (especially in the second one: "I guess [...]"), or just found out about them in the context of that conversation (especially in the first one: "So [...], huh?").

The Japanese nuance is slightly different:

ジョージさんって才川さんのお姉さんなんだって。Georgie-san tte Saikawa-san no onee-san nandatte.

ジョージはメイドに扮装してる時のニックネームだった。Georgie wa maid ni funsou shiteru toki no nickname datta.

The "nandatte" in the first line implies she was told that information by someone else (presumably Georgie) and is now explaining/telling it to Tohru and/or Kanna—more of a "turns out she was actually Saikawa-san's sister" sort of vibe.

The "datta" in the second line is a bit more of a solid statement than an "I guess"; following from the previous line it's a little more "...and the name 'Georgie' is what she uses when playing a maid."

So, again, suuper minor, but I thought that "seems to be inferring/guessing at those things" versus "heard them from (probably) Georgie and is telling them to Tohru/Kanna" distinction was interesting.

"Fanatic" here is "mania," a loan word often attached to things as a suffix in a similar way as otaku—in fact, a lot of people aren't really sure what the difference between the two is.

Basically, otaku is more "person who really likes X" and mania is more "person who is really devoted to X." You might think of it like "fan" versus "enthusiast."

Of course, otaku is also especially associated with anime/manga/games/etc., but both can be used for basically any hobby or interest.

Let's learn from this little frog and take a short break to enjoy the scenery a little.

She seems to have been mouthing "nameaiko 舐め合いこ," i.e. the licking each other thing she used to do with Tohru, if you recall from episode three.

So nothing lewd at all, get your minds out of the gutter. This is a family show.

This seems to be a translation error. Lucoa is asking dou? kore kara asobi ni konai? どう？これから遊びに来ない？, which is not asking whether she can keep coming to visit them, but an invitation for them to come visit her new place. Specifically kore kara basically means "now"—which makes sense, considering they go to visit immediately after that conversation.

You've probably noticed these riverside shots in a bunch of other shows; they really are that common in Japan. The Japanese government has long loved standardized infrastructure projects, and this is one example (another being: notice how all the anime high schools look really similar?). They're basically artificial mini-flood plains to contain the rivers in the event of heavy rain (esp. in typhoon season) or whatever, while also providing some public space for kids to play or people to jog or whatnot. They're quite nice.

Interesting how Lucoa and Tohru both do that thing with their hands as they walk here.

Why Venusian? In mythology, Quetzalcoatl is said to have become Venus (rather, the morning star) after the whole incident with the sister.

For reference, "Venusian" in Japanese is the kanji for Venus (gold + planet/star) and person—i.e., the standard set-up for "person from X" (American [person] is アメリカ人, Japanese [person] is 日本人, etc.). But, if you wanted to get really literal about it, could also mean "Venus person," which would be pretty accurate according to the myth!

Shouta is a perfectly normal name for men. A similar name happens to be Shoutarou, the young boy protagonist in classic anime Tetsujin 28-go* (which you may be familiar under the name of Gigantor) .

Coincidentally, Shoutarou got a lot of...adult... fan material made about him, to the point people into that stuff were said to have a Shoutarou Complex, which was abbreviated to shotacon.

That has absolutely nothing to do with this new character here, as this is a wholesome family show.

*The tetsujin in that title follows the same kanji scheme as above, iron (鉄) plus person (人). The -gou is something attached to numbers in a numbering scheme; for example, Apollo 13 in Japanese is Apollo 13-gou (アポロ13号).

Also, the phrase used for "fidget" here is the same one from Konosuba episode 5: sowa sowa.

Interesting that his color scheme has a lot in common with Lucoa's (hair).

The text in the bubble is kyun キュン, the sound effect word for your heart "squeezing" when you see something excessively cute and/or lovable.

That can be both platonic, like a hamster or other small animal, or romantic, like the person you have a crush on, but in either case the key is how adorable it is.

It differs from doki doki, the other similar heart-pounding sound effect, in that kyun tends to be an instantaneous thing, and doki doki is more a continuous thing. For example, kyun is commonly a reaction to a cute action, like a hamster falling asleep in your hand, and doki doki is instead more like a state you're in, a raised heart rate while in close proximity with your crush.

Though exceptions exist of course.

Another super minor thing you can probably skip. The Japanese line here is:

僕が帰る流れになってない? Boku ga kaeru nagare ni natte nai?

Nagare is like "flow" (it's actually a noun-ified version of the verb "to flow," nagareru), both literally (like the flow of a river) and figuratively. It's often used in situations like this, where you can tell the "flow" of the conversation is headed in a certain direction/to a certain conclusion. Like "I see where this is going." Or perhaps more commonly(?), used in retrospect when describing why something happened; "I just went with the flow" or "it just kind of ended up that way" kind of stuff.

It's a common opinion in Japan that Japanese people are bad at saying no* to things (there's a bunch of pop literature written about this in Japanese, it's not just a "wow Japan is so weird" foreigner opinion), so this concept comes up a little more frequently than you might expect.

*Random example that always seems to bug the hell out of foreigners, especially when dealing with people like bank, government, etc. employees: the employee will typically say "mm, that would be a little difficult (chotto muzukashii or something)" instead of "no, we can't do that."

It usually involves a drawn out argument, where the foreigner is thinking "well fuck if they won't do it just because it's hard, that's dumb, it's their job," and the Japanese employee is thinking "why isn't this person taking the fucking hint, if I could do it I would."

That's a bit of an oversimplification, but is fairly illustrative of the concept in broad terms.

Mini Japanese lesson part, skip if you want.

The word here is youzumi 用済み, which is less "useless," and more "already used [and thus no longer needed]" (though the difference is minor in this case). Basically the idea is that all he cared about was the summoning itself, and doesn't need anything else from her now that it's done.

This you 用 is an interesting word that you'll see pop up a lot in Japanese. It's similar to one definition of "business"; i.e. if you have something to talk about with someone, you have business(you) with them, or if you have something you need to do, you have some business(you) to take care of.

In that sense, you can pretty much always translate it as "business" and that will be accurate enough in terms of meaning—however, it's usage is far more common, and it sounds "natural" in a lot more situations, so it's another of those words you'll see translated in all sorts of ways depending on context. E.g. なんか用?→What do you want?, 用を足してくる→I'ma go see a man about a horse, ちょっと用があるんで→Sorry, I'm kind of busy right now.

Not to be confused with you 用 as a suffix, which means "for _____," like kodomo-you 子供用 meaning "for children" (e.g. medicine).

The word for "bad" here is taihen 大変, which is yet another word that can be translated in many ways depending on context; generally speaking it's an adjective/adverb that serves as an amplifier (like very or extremely) that often-but-not-always has a negative connotation. Here, I would say it's a little closer in nuance to "I noticed something crazy."

See, rainy season.

Anyway, a teruteru bouzu is a doll-like superstitious charm made and hung by the window to induce good weather. You'll often see it in slice of life anime on rainy day episodes, or sometimes in sports anime the day before a big match (in hopes the game doesn't get rained out).

Teruteru is a sound effect word for the sun shining (though it's not actually super common outside of "~ bouzu"), and teru 照る by itself is a verb for "to shine." Bouzu 坊主 is a word for a Buddhist monk, though through association it also refers to a bald/shaved head or a young boy (who traditionally often have shaved heads).

One theory on the origin comes from a Chinese myth about a girl who used a broom to brush away the rain clouds or something. Somewhere along the time it changed to a monk instead of a girl, and voilà? Iunno.

There are also some regional variations on the name as well, but you'll probably never hear any. I know I certainly haven't, at least not outside the context of wikipedia articles or a Japanese culture class I once took.

It's said you can hang them upside-down to make it rain instead—which makes them ame-ame bouzu.

Oh, Kanna is drawing something. Let's take a look.

Hmm, I wonder who that is?

...Oh.

This sequence is a reference to idol concerts. That jacket is a happi, traditionally worn by workers (like say carpenters or the people who runs the stalls at festivals), but also a stereotypical otaku thing to wear to an idol concert. Same with the headband.

The stick is a colored light stick, another (even more) standard piece of equipment for live idol events.

You'd know all that if you watched Gintama.

The color choice (pink here) is often based on which member of the idol group is your oshi 推し, the one you've chosen to dedicate yourself to in particular—most groups will have an assigned image color for each member.

It's also a thing for there to be predetermined "calls and responses", where the idol(s) will say something and the audience will reply back with whatever.

The little "dance" (spin/jump/posing) is reference to wota-gei ヲタ芸, intensely and purposefully cringe-y dance things people will do at these events. Some people take them a little further.

Wota is short for wotaku, an alternate spelling of otaku (ヲタク vs オタク). The difference between the two is up for debate, but at the moment the w- version is more favored by actual otaku I guess?

Personally I'd say wotaku is more like anime/game/manga/etc. nerds (kind of like what "otaku" in the English community means) while otaku can, as mentioned earlier, refer to a wider variety of hobbies.

Gei 芸 means like performance, art, or trick.

The word for "mild" is amakuchi 甘口, which in literal terms is more like "sweet." In practical terms "mild" is correct, but the fact that it has "sweet" (ama[i] 甘[い]) in the word gives it slightly more of a "lol that's for kids" nuance to it than "mild" has. I imagine the joke got across just fine anyway, but hey it's an excuse for me to write more words words words.

In case anyone missed it: lol even the rice was instant. These guys.

You are probably at least a little familiar with itadakimasu as the standard pre-meal "thanks for the food/amen" line, but there's also gochisou-sama deshita (the line here) that's the standard post-meal line. It basically means "it was a feast [that I was treated to]."

The word for "gaming addiction" here is netoge haijin ネトゲ廃人. Netoge is short for "internet game," basically MMOs (though technically any online game). Haijin is basically an invalid, someone too sick/injured/disabled to care for themselves—it's sometimes used to refer to people with severe drug addictions too.

Basically it's the equivalent of poopsocker.

The pronoun Takiya uses for "I" here is shousei 小生, a weird old one you typically don't see nowadays outside of some business emails—it goes well with his use of -dono instead of -san when in his weirdo nerd mode.

Who wouldn't be, it's got one section that's transparent! So convenient!

The word here is aiai-gasa 相合傘. Technically it just means "sharing an umbrella," and doesn't necessarily have any connection to "lover's." However....

Ai, with different kanji (愛), does mean love though. A combination of that pun and Japan's relative lack of public displays of affection ("a woman should walk three steps behind her husband" was a thing traditionally) led to the image of a couple sharing an umbrella being basically the gold standard for "couple" imagery.

You've probably seen this drawing before in another series at one point or another, with two names written underneath:

It's basically the equivalent of writing you and your crush's names (or initials) in a heart with an arrow through it—it's the thing you carve into a tree to be romantic or whatever.

They're in Akihabara here, because of course they are.

Going by the manga, Kobayashi's workplace is in Kita-senju, which is like ten minutes from Akihabara by train.

That's a lot of screenshots for two minor points, but here I go anyway.

First, the "on every person." Specifically he says ningen gotoki 人間如き. Ningen is human, and gotoki, when stuck onto the end of a noun like this, indicates basically condescension, in a "something of that [low] level" kind of way. For example it's often paired with "child," in a "they're just kids, don't let them get to you" or "I can't believe you lost to a kid" kind of way (from an adult's perspective).

Note that if you instead attach gotoki (or gotoku, same deal) using the no particle, it just means "like ____"—basically as a simile, no negative connotations.

For example, the series Hayate no Gotoku. Hayate means a strong gust of wind/gale, so the title basically means "like the wind." (Of course, the main character's name is also Hayate, so you've got that pun there too.)

Second: The last line there in the Japanese is "俺にとって人間は、住処に土足で踏み入り、宝を奪いに来るハズレでいい。Ore ni totte ningen wa, sumika ni dosoku de fumiiri, takara wo ubai ni kuru hazure de ii."

Basically the idea is not that it's better for humans to be trespassers who come to steal his treasure, but that, because it takes a lot of time to determine whether any one human is a "hit," and humans are beneath him anyway (see gotoki note), he's fine just saving the time and effort and assuming all of them are trespassing thieves.

The key point that distinguishes that from the sub line interpretation is the particle at the very end there is de instead of ga.

Basically, in these situations, de ii means "I'll settle for X" whereas ga ii means "X is actually what I want."

You'll hear those two lines paired together fairly often, actually. Especially with a character with self-esteem/confidence issues. Someone will ask them out, or ask them to join their team or something, and they'll reply by asking "Ore/boku/watashi de ii?" (You'll settle for me?/I'm good enough?). To which the other person will reply "Omae/kimi ga ii." (I'm not settling; you're exactly what I want.)

Oh there's those swallows again, the ones trying to find a mate.

By the way, swallows mate for life.

The word for fanservice here is teko-ire テコ入れ (for reference the usual word is "service/saabisu/サービス"). Teko means lever, as in the simple machine. Ire means to insert.

As a term, it originally refers to using leverage to overcome financial losses on the stock market. Your portfolio goes down, putting you in a bad spot, so you borrow money and buy more stock on leverage to try and make up for it.

From there, the term caught on in the rest of society with a broader usage: being in a bad situation and taking a gamble to try to fix it.

In TV (and thus anime), it refers to doing something new with a show (often some sort of gimmick, or changing directions) in an attempt to save it from bad ratings.

It's common in manga as well. Ever wondered why that slice of life romantic comedy series turned into a battle manga?

The "ratings" were bad, so they teko-iri’d it to try to save it before giving it the axe.

So if you assume this episode title isn't a joke (I'm pretty sure the ratings are doing fine, if not Kemono Friends level), it would be saying "honestly, our ratings suck, so we're switching gears and doing a fanservice episode to try to save them."

#kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #miss kobayashi's dragon maid #maidragon #anime #translation notes #swallows mate for life

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thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 5 years ago

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Bionic Eye, Miquela & Manchester United

Congratulations SpaceX for their sucessful manned Crew Dragon mission to the ISS.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. It's not as great as Steve Austin's bionic eye from the Six Million Dollar Man, but it's pretty cool. Scientists have made a bionic eyeball inspired by the actual working of the human eye. This cool tech isn't ready to go in a human head yet, but when it is we can only hope it's cheaper than Steve's eye.

Robots are here, and they're coming for your jobs. Now even actors don't have job security. Miquela is a CGI replacement for advertising models is now leaving Instagram and breaking into acting. Which raises a concerning question. How long until they replace the podcasters?

Football manager is one of the most popular management simulators. Recently they've come under fire from Manchester United for copyright issues. Despite letting it slide for almost 30 years, Man U have decided it's time to sue.

This week in gaming DJ jumps at shadows in Alan Wake and Professor goes full Groundhog Day in Into the Breach.

Bionic eyes giving sight

- https://bgr.com/2020/05/24/bionic-eye-human-prosthetics/

- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2285-x

The Rise of Virtual actresses: Miquela

- https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/25/are-virtual-actors-about-to-put-hollywoods-humans-out-of-work-miquela

Man United suing Football Manager

- https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/22/manchester-united-sues-football-manager-makers-over-use-of-name

Games Played

Professor

– Into The Breach – https://store.steampowered.com/app/590380/Into_the_Breach/

Rating: 4/5

– Alan Wake – https://store.steampowered.com/app/108710/Alan_Wake/

Rating: 4/5