#guess who had like 5 updates worth of panels sketched out | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dethkomic · 2 years ago

Text

Writin' Comics and Junk: Part 5 - Point-of-View Within Comics

Welcome once again, pals! We're now on the third issue of our second volume of Dethkomic, and I'm really excited to share with everything that goes down in this one! If you haven't guessed that the pace won't be slowing any time soon, then I have bad news. Anyway..!

The next Dethkomic update will be Friday, June 2nd, 2023!

For this tutorial update, I thought I'd share a little bit about something a little on the abstract side as it pertains to writing and specifically, comic writing.

Storytelling in the pages of a graphical media like comics, as I've alluded to in previous updates, is a multifaceted thing with a lot of different angles to consider -- and I mean that pretty literally.

More on this, under the cut!

Putting the Pieces Together

Last time we met, I went over the various panel layouts that are commonly found in comics. Before that, I talked about studying movies, tv, and other visual media as a means of understanding direction and decision making in that area. Way before that, we touched on the differences between plot-driven and character-driven stories.

What I'm going to cover today, and into the next string of updates, sort of mashes everything together. So if you haven't yet, take a moment to at least scan over some of the entries that came before this one. Here's a handy guide:

Part 1 - Covering the basics of the character versus plot relationship and the differences between character-driven arcs and plot-driven ones.

Part 2 - Covering story beats and sketching your plot.

Part 3 - Covering Comic Composition (Part 1) - General comic panel layout and decision-making

Part 4 - Covering Comic Composition (Part 2) - Types of panels and further analysis of how they drive the story

Good on all that? Wonderful! Onto our topic, then!

So we know that in a very broad sense, most stories fall into the categories of character-driven or plot-driven. In comics, as it is in all stories, what makes something come off as important is based on what may seem like insignificant choices the author has made. These push the reader to notice, often subconsciously, that our perspective should be riding behind the eyes of one character, or standing a few feet behind a few characters, or way out into space as we take a look at the entire world...

Who or What is in the Driver's Seat?

If I was going to write a story from an omniscient point of view, I might phrase a paragraph like this:

Charles stood atop the bridge in Copenhagen, looking at the hard-won keycard in his hand. He didn't know it, but somewhere else in the city, a doctor was taking care of his partner.

And if I wanted to write something similar but framed from a limited perspective, it'd be more like:

Charles stood atop the bridge, his muscles aching from the fight they'd just endured. It was worth it, though. The keycard in his hand proved it. He could only hope his partner had also survived.

Again, broad example. Don't @ me because of my syntax, English majors - I know there are objective, omniscient and limited POVs and that they come in numerical "person" states, hehe.

These examples are all well and good for prose (Dethkomic: The Novel is not something I'll be pursuing, but if you want to take a crack at it, by all means, go nuts), and depending on how you'd been inspired to write the rest of the story, you'd probably follow one or the other method based on that, alone. But comics are a bit trickier. We definitely do have places where plot is driving the story, and times where characters are taking over... but you're not always sticking to just one.

Here may come my greatest point of controversy, then: If you're going to write comics, you're probably going to be doing some head-hopping.

Still with me? Very well, and I appreciate you hearing me out, despite typing something so sacrilegious.

Learning how to Write Good Head-Hopping

First, if you're not a prose fiction writer or are otherwise unfamiliar with what head-hopping is, then I suggest a primer over here. Next - Is the term "good head-hopping" an oxymoron? You can decide for yourself, but I really don't think so.

Many a story has been written that shows an author's mastery of their craft in seamless jumps from perspective-to-perspective. Many, many a comic has, too. Not trying to toot my own horn, here... but let's take a closer look at the flashback scene we were referencing in our prose exercise, from page 40 of Dethkomic:

The panels are all laid out as you saw them in the story, but I've color-coded the two different points of view. In the red panes, we're in Charles' head. In blue, we've entered Caj's. Did you notice the shift? If I was doing my job as an author, you might have, but it didn't kill your immersion. So how is that done?

It's all in the transition.

As we saw, the scene above could quite easily handled by an omniscient POV. Want to tell the audience what someone is doing, then in the very next sentence, reveal what someone on the other side of town is up to? No problem!

In a limited perspective, however, things get trickier. We're in Charles' head, and if we want to know what happened to Caj - he simply doesn't have that information, so the author's not going to be divulging much. We'll need to shift scenes, therefore, and that probably means ending the chapter.

In a comic, though? I can't always cut a scene on a brand-new page. Hell, I can't always cut a scene in the same panel! But regardless, I have to communicate to my audience that we are, in fact, moving away from Charles' perspective and into Caj's. Several things help to do this transition in a clean fashion:

First, I kinda leave you hanging on poor Charles. He doesn't get a resolution, as nobody picks up the phone. Still, we're left to understand that his part in the story has ended.

Second, we start the panel shift on a new line. You don't always have to do this (especially if you want it to be jarring) but it helps to cut the scene in two.

Third, we literally place the camera behind Caj's eyes as she wakes up. There are few things more effective at showing we are now going to see how things go down for one character above all others than literally getting in their head.

Again, there are other ways of doing this, but paying attention to how your "jumps" occur can make a big difference in the comfort your readers feel when, inevitably, you have to have one character tap out so that another can lead the reader around for a bit. We're lucky in visual media, since we can employ a few more tricks than the folks who only work in words and lines of text - but we also have to take extra precaution so as not to be more confusing than intended with our layouts. If I had missed a beat, and just moved over to Caj talking with the doctor, that would have been too quick. If I would have lingered on Charles, that too, might not have been as successful. It's a balance, and your instincts about storytelling won't steer you wrong.

I think I'll wrap this little lesson up, here. Next time, I want to talk about the other ways a story can be carried, but not by the characters - by the plot.

I hope you enjoyed these insights. I realize they are a bit more advanced than the things we've previously covered, and therefore, a little trickier to understand and employ. But, as it is with all things, being aware of the rules and putting in a little practice should be all you need to master them.

Join me soon! And remember, Dethkomic loves you!

#dethkomic does writing #comic tips #comic talk

23 notes · View notes

bunnysunnymew · 6 years ago

Text

Bunnysunnymew’s tips and tricks for buying commissions

Hey people of tumblr. So I’ve been buying commissions for over 2 years now and I thought I’d give out some helpful tips and tricks for those of you just getting into it, things that I wish I had know when I stated commissioning. First advice is don’t start because it quickly becomes an addiction. However if you still want to, here's what to do.

ASK! About EVERYTHING. Check their TOS and commission page first and if you can’t find information there then MAKE SURE YOU ASK! Before you pay them be sure you know:

Their refund policy

Their estimated wait time

Their “changes fee” policy. Meany artist charge extra if they have to make a change to the drawing (or even to the sketch for some) and that can wrack up to be a handful. Avoid commissioning people unwilling to make changes after the product is given

Their policy on you using the art and posting the art to other websites. Some Artists put tricky little clauses in their Terms of Service saying you can’t post it anywhere or with customs and adopts you can’t do certain things with the character, so make sure you know that first and avoid commissioning people with a lot of restrictions

THEIR TERMS OF SERVICE! And make sure you read it thoroughly! I know we are all used to just clicking agree when it comes to tos’s on other things but when it comes to art IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIALLY THAT YOU READ IT! Otherwise they can just wright in clauses stating all payment is final and they have unlimited time to complete it so you might wait two years and still be empty handed, and they still legally will have the upperhand on you.

If WIPs (works in progress) are induced or if you have to ask for them

Their will not draw list. Some artists have certain things that they will not draw, like not safe for work, fetishes overly complicated machines, furries, gore, and offensive content. If you want a drawing of something that is on someone's do not draw list, do yourself a favor, find someone else.This is not for their sake, its for yours. All you are going to be doing is wasting everyone's time and making the artists (and their fans when they rant about it publicly) very angry. And if you somehow do talk them into drawing it, witch 99% of the time you won’t they will do a garbage job. Trust me, there is always someone else who is willing to draw what you want. It doesn't matter how much you liked their style find someone else someone whos all about that kind of art and you will have a much more pleasant time.

Currency conversions. Not everyone does things in the american dollar so if their paying in pounds, CAD, yen or whatever know how much the american equivalent is. A Lot of people who are not american will have lower prices, however this isnt always the case

2) Utilize same day commissions

This induces in stream commissions on websites like https://picarto.tv where you can get your commission in stream! This is a guarantee that you will avoid people who take months and months to complete or never deliver at all. Just keep in mind that not everyone on those websites who tag their stuff as commissions are taking them right then and there, so you might need to fish around a little bit before finding a winner

This also induces commissions at conventions, especially ones that have multiple days, Make sure you hit up the vendor's hall before you go to any of the panels so you can get on their list faster. If they say it will be done by the end of the convention then thats a green light and your good to go. HOWEVER, IF THEY SAY THAT IT WILL BE MAILED/SENT AFTER THE CON, OR IF YOU GO TO THEM ON THE LAST DAY OF THE CON TOWARDS THE END OF THE DAY AND YOUR COMMISSION'S STILL NOT DONE YET BE EXTREMELY WEARY! Even so some of them may be genuine and honest, just as many of them will look you in they eye and promise you your commission and then never deliver. THIS INCLUDES PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY PROVIDED YOU WITH A PRODUCT.

~Storytime: So one time I was at a convention and I found this person who made furry badges at a great price, so I bought one, and I’ll admit to this day its one of if not the best piece of art I have of the character that I commissioned (and believe me, I have a lot of art of this character). Because of this I felt inclined to trust the artist when they told me they would mail it out to me and not only did I buy another commission but I convinced my younger sister to buy one as well (AND SHE PAID CASH). I was surprised when I saw them at a convention a few weeks later taking more commissions, but I was like its ok its only been a few weeks. Fast foreword to the end of the month, and I still don’t have ether commission. I contact them several times after, sometimes they reply, sometimes they ignore me. 3 months later, they sent me a WIP for my commission. I thanked for the update. I continues asking questions about my commission and my sisters commission. A month later I revived my commission. My sister on the other hand NEVER received hers. After moths and moths of integrating the artist, they claimed the art must have gotten lost in the mail. And insted of refunding her the full amount, (she paid 30 dollars) they claimed she paid 20 and refunded my paypal (because they didn't have hers) 19 dollars and 20 cents (even less than what she claimed my sister paid). You want to know why she got away with it? Because my sister paid cash so we didn't have proof and because we trusted the artist to keep their word. Do not make the same mistake!

3) Set due dates if you can. If you can get them to agree a commission must be done by a certain date or you will be refunded you are much much safer. Keep in mind meny artists aren’t willing to do this because they claim a due date stresses them out or something so when you find someone who will hold onto that person and don’t let go. Although it's not guaranteed they won't bail on you and just stop responding, this extra insurance makes it far less likey that you’ll get ripped off

4) Search around for good prices first. Don’t just settle with the first person that has nice art, look around! Expensive artists usually are not worth it, and you will get way more bang for your buck if you take the time to search for example this:

Cost me less then 7 dollars

It took me a while to find this sweet deal, I was searching all day on the streams for a good artist to draw me some stuff and at one point I was getting so desperate i was almost willing to just pay 15 dollars for a sketch, when I stumbled upon this lovey lovey artist. This wasn’t even the first thing I commissioned them, when I saw what great quality they had for a low prices I got another! They are hidden, but people with great affordable prices are out there, so don’t waste your money with people who are gonna overcharge or charge you more for art than you feel comfortable with

5) Check out their other artwork first. NEVER commission someone until you have thoroughly gone though their gallery and seen examples of past commissions. Sometimes Artists will make their icons prices they commissioned themselves or only put their best work on the front page. Don't ever assume buy looking at one piece that all their art will be the same quality.

6) If your asking about the prices of something make sure you specify that you are only inquiring about the commission and have not yet fully committed. This is very important, both with emails and in person commissions. Don't let them add you to their queue until you've make payment, especially in live streams. Say you are asking for reference and you aren't sure yet in the first sentence. It will make the artist a little disappointed, but it will make them much more disappointed if they start working on your art and you back out, and if they finish the piece before they realize you were just inquiring, you can get in some real hot water.

~Storytime, one time I was at a convention and I was going around asking if artists would be willing to make a certain piece for me (that involved controversial subject matter). The artist immediately asked for my name and information which I guess should have been a bg read flag, and then they sent me a text saying they had started working on it. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I actually wasn’t interested because the prices were so high, so I ended up paying 50 dollars for something that (while they had clearly put effort into and it wasn't bad) I couldn't afford and didn't exactly value that much. Anxiety about hurting artists feelings can come at the worst of times, even to people like me who are praticuraly strong willed. Do yourself a favor and avoid the situation entirely by being extra clear up front and avoiding any misunderstandings from the get go

7) Barter prices in PRIVATE. This is one I say use with caution, because there are some artists who will be offended that you even asked. However, for every artist I’ve meet who has been like “HOW DARE YOU ASK ME TO CHANGE MY PRICES?!” there are 2 others that were like “yeah, that sounds ok”. Just whatever you do, DO NOT ASK ABOUT IT IN PUBIC! Not unless you want a ton of their rabid fans to come after you and send you nasty hate messages about committing what they view as ultimate sin against their senpai

8) Use flowery, delicate language when asking for changes, discounts and anything else extra that you might want. Artists tend to be hypersensitive people who can sometimes take it personally when you ask them to change their art. That's why you need to sugar coat EVERYTHING when you talk to them. For example, instead of saying something like “Why did you not draw little white mittens on the end of mittens paws? Did you not read anything I sent you about his character description? Did you not look at the ref at all??? It's LITERALLY IN HIS NAME YOU Imbecile!” Try something like “ Hey it’s looking really good so far but is there any way you can add little white mittens on his paws? I thought I mentioned that in the original message I sent you but I’m very sorry if I didn’t” Try to avoid accusing them of anything unless it's absolutely necessary because they do not react well to that at all

9) Tip if they did something extra for you, did an amazing job, or have prices you feel are to low. Providing incentive for good behavior will make it more likely to happen in the future.

10) Follow the artist on the social media platform you found them on and if they don't post regularly, do not commission them (more on that later). This will also let you know when they have sales, and any updates and delays you may be having that may delay

11) provide a ref if you can. If it's your first commission ever you may be thinking, “but bunny, I can’t draw! That’s why I’m commissioning other people to draw for me!” Let me tell you something, A POORLY DRAWN REF IS BETTER THAN NO REF AT ALL. Descriptions are ok but they allow a lot of room for error. Provide a description and some kind of drawing, even if its poorly drawn. The artist won't judge you, your paying them. If not you can commission someone without a visual ref, however be aware you may be setting yourself up for potential major inconstancys

12) try offering them cash to speed up your commission if they aren't doing it fast enough. Not all artist will do this but some will. Cation though, I would not advise this with people who you have never commissioned before and have taken alone time with your commission with no WIP, and they might just be taking your money with no result

13)Have cation with sellers who don't speak your native language. Non-English speakers might have cheaper prices, and be super sweet. However leagues barrier can sometimes cause problem as to communicating what kind of commission you want which can cause problems

14) Check their queue first!!!!!!!!!

~Storytime. So somewhat recently I commissioned someone on furaffinity. And i checked all my boxes. They had good prices, specialized in what I was looking for, seemed active and had a consistent gallery. So I went ahead and commissioned them 30 dollars worth of art. Then I SAW THEIR QUEUE AND FELT INSTANT REGRET. You see I commissioned them in October, of this year. Their queue went back to 2016. It's been over a month now with no WIP and honestly I doubt I’ll be getting it any time soon ALWAYS CHECK FIRST!

Dont:

1) pay in cash (paper cash). If your read the story about the unfaithful commissioner above you probably just in case you should know that when you pay in cash at conventions the majority of people do not provide physical receet. Not only this but even if they do they are easy to lose. I strongly advise you pay with card and pay the extra card processing fee because that gets you a permanent non-loseable proof of precious so it's way harder for them to rip you off.

2) Commission your IRL friends. But they are your best friend and you have to be supportive, right! No! do not do it! I don’t care how good their art is, or how good their prices are, never commission your IRL close friends! It is not worth possible fights and your friendship

~Storytime: So one time I decided to commission one of my best friends in the world. I have known this person for years, they are honestly one of the funniest sweetest and best humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I would take a bullet for this person. That being said I will NEVER EVER EVER COMMISSION THEM AGAIN. Now I came to them about a custom character I had come up with and they said they would do a colored drawing for 15 dollars witch was a good deal. I’d also like to mention that I had commissioned them multiple times in the past with absolutely no problems. But this time I had gotten into a personal fight with my friend, I felt like they were not spending enough time with me and they felt like I was interionaly going out of my way to make them feel bad. So when I inquired about my oc, I was a bit hostel. However this person decided to take their hostility to another level. They claimed that I requested too many changes to the oc and because they helped come up with the design and draw it themselves it was their property now, then said they were going to sell MY OC as an adoptable on their page and they wouldn't let me buy it. I convinced them to sell me back MY OWN OC (and a sketch of my own OC) for the same price as the original commission was worth, then they said i wasn't aloud to make any changes or edits to the art otherwise they regain rights to the OC and If I posted the sketch anywhere I had to use the version with their obnoxiously large signature otherwise they would regain rights to the OC. When I accused them of messing up my commission out of spite for a personal feud, they admitted that was the reason and said it doesn't matter because it's their art. Eventually we both apologize and made up, but that still doesn't change the fact that my commissioner tried to steal my own oc. It was by far the worst commission experience i ever had

3) publicly criticize their prices. It’ll just tick them off and send their little minions after you. It doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, just let it be and let the free market work itself out, they never view it as helpful anyways, and not selling anything is the only way to get most of them to learn

4)commission artists unwilling to change their style. This is why you ask about changes up front, because if they aren't willing to make changes, they aren't worth commissioning. It doesn't matter how much your paying them either. I paid 60 dollars to an artist and they were still unwilling to make a basic change because it “didn’t suit their style”

5) Use friends and family feature on paypal: see something like this?

BE SKEPTICAL! PayPal separates these options into two separate categories for a reason! AND THAT REASON IS BUYER PROTECTION! IF YOU USE THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OPTION YOU ARE GIVING UP ALL YOUR RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER, LIKE THE RIGHT TO A REFUND IF THE PRODUCT IS NEVER DELIVERED! DON'T DO IT! Insted, just offer to pay the difference. A Lot of artists just do this to get around paypal service fee, so if you pay the service fee yourself, there shouldn't be an issue. If they still want you to use the friends and family feature back out!

6) Bug the artist too much. While it is important to get your art in a timely manner, asking an artist constantly will mostly likely make them angry. That's why you get an ETA at the beginning. If they say it will take a week it's ok to ask them about updates every other day, but not if they say it will take a month. If they don’t give you an eta then ask away because you don’t want to get scammed. They kinda brought it on themselves at that point.

7) Be a pushover: this is probably the hardest one, but if they draw something super wrong tell them. You paid money for it, at the end of the day you getting a product that you paid for is more important than their feelings being intact

8)ASSUME THAT THE AMOUNT YOU PAY WILL EQUATE TO THE QUALITY OF THE ART!

Let me show you something

^ this was 17 dollars

^this was 10

and THIS (not linking bc I’m not trying to publicly attack them)

Was 60. All are about the same quality. Actually, I’d argue the 60 dolor one is worth less than the others. Sometimes you can get a bang for your buck. Other times you pay a bunch of money and get next to nothing. Don't assume because you payed a lot of money for something it will be high quality, or vice versa

9)Commission big name artists if you don’t want to pay more money

the more popular they are the more they can change, it's simple economics. Good news is it's hard for popular artists to rip people off because they are in the spotlight and have a lot to lose from doing so. Bad news, expect high prices and long wait times from the get go

10) commission someone rarely active. If you don’t see very much activity on their account that's a huge red flag they might go off the grid

11) treat the artist like a friend or get super personal with them (or flirt with them)

Treat your artist the same way you would treat any other person you'd do business with. Sure they might inspire you and you may relate to their work but that doesn't mean they wanna hear about your life problems or be your best friend. It is a profession, so keep it professional. And if you try flirting with them over a risque piece all you are going to do is make them extremely uncomfortable and get yourself blocked. Just because you pay them money does not make them your friend. It makes you their customer, the same as a lower, doctor, or local cashier.

12) buy a commission you don't want. Do not buy out of obligation because you talked to them. You will run out of money very quickly

That’s about it. feel free to add on to this post if you guys find anything else. Sorry about all the spelling mistakes, I suck at spelling. I ran it through google docs but I know there’s a lot of stuff that wasn't caught.

2 notes · View notes

tl-notes · 8 years ago

Text

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon Episode 5 Notes

Miso soup has extremely strong associations with home and family in Japan. It’s a staple of breakfast and dinner tables, especially when paired with rice (which is common, to say the least), and is a very traditional dish with a long history.

It’s such a big deal, even, that the question “I want to eat the miso soup you make every day,” is a stereotypically Japanese marriage proposal.

When I say “stereotypically Japanese,” I mean that Japanese people see it that way. The Japanese language and culture tend to be pretty “indirect” compared to others (particularly English, which everyone in Japan spends years in school studying), and people in Japan are very aware of this. A common example given in schools is the famous translation by Natsume Souseki, where he translated the phrase “I love you” in an English text to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” in Japanese.

Anyway there’s some context for this scene, and in particular the choice of miso soup as the dish Kobayashi commented on.

You’ll notice they have at least four umbrellas there. It’s easy for those cheap vinyl ones to pile up when you have to do a bunch of walking (even just to/from the train station); you can’t just keep one in the car, and if it starts raining on a day you didn’t bring one...

By the way, in case you were thinking “four for three people isn’t that many though,” she had a different four in episode one, even before Tohru showed up:

Also: man, that before&after. Good for you Kobayashi ;_;

She says “aitsura あいつら” here, meaning they not she; basically Kanna, at least, is being included here.

These shows totally exist, they look exactly like this, and they literally have done this topic. In fact, this specific topic is a common one, with the list being updated every so often. “Wide show” is actually the name of this type of show, a subset of the infamous “variety show.”

Number one is “Kabe-don” (kabe = wall, and don = sound effect for like “slam/bang”). Originally the word was (and still is) used to refer to when people in the next room over would bang on the wall to politely inform you that you’re being too fucking loud it’s after midnight already god damn.

In the past few years though, the word caught on as a meme, referring to a common situation that pops up in shoujo manga a lot, where the(/a) love interest would do this:

to the heroine. This specific usage of the term was seemingly coined by voice actress Shintani Ryoko (Sae from Hidamari Sketch) in 2008, while she was trying to explain the act on a radio show when discussion “moe situations”.

Kabe-don’s popularity seems to have died down some lately though (since honestly it’s pretty awkward irl).

The others are pretty self-explanatory I think, though it’s perhaps worth pointing out that yes, these are all things you actually can find on these lists. If “holding hands in public” sounds way too normal/basic to be on one to you, well, welcome to Japan.

(To be fair it’s not like super rare or anything, just not as common as you’d expect in many other countries and kind of considered a little embarrassing, particularly for men.)

Another semi-recently popular one of these “moe whatevers” is ago-kui 顎クイ, basically “chin tug/pull”, where the kui-er grabs the kui-ee’s chin to pull their face closer or whatever (often as a precursor to a kiss, for example). It’s a common pair with the kabe-don.

Basically the takeaway here is that Japan’s been making memes real since way before 2016 came along.

The word for “pursue love” here is kyuuai 求愛, which is probably most commonly used when referring to the mating calls/rituals of animals (as seen by how Tohru likens the audience/panel squeals to bird cries). You can use it with people too, but it’s not exactly very conversational language.

Lol.

Also yeah “Tatsumi 辰巳” has that dragon zodiac kanji in it again. By the by, while there’s no Tatsumi-cho in Tokyo, there is just a “Tatsumi.” It’s by Tokyo Bay, within walking distance of Comiket-host Big Sight and the life-sized Gundam statue, and roughly where a lot of March Comes in Like a Lion is set.

These fish flags/wind socks (they’re koi, trying to climb the waterfall and become dragons, i.e. Magikarp) are traditionally put up on Children’s Day, May fifth. Yet another way Kyoani uses these establishing shots to tell you what season it is and invoke certain associations.

You’ll see this “48 ___ skills/techniques” thing a fair bit in Japanese media; it’s a reference to the 48 Killer Techniques of Kinnikuman/Ultimate Muscle (I think that’s as far back as the reference goes, anyway).

Yes, the name of the store in the background has one of the dragon kanji in it’s name (the lower portion of 籠, 龍).

Yeah this is what most Japanese office workplaces look like; open office plans. It’s kind of stressful having no privacy like that, but it does make it easier to ask people stuff I guess.

The “proper” version of this word is sumimasen すみません, basically meaning sorry/excuse me. What he says is saasen サーセン, a rather colloquial version of it. It kind of goes like: sumimasen → suimasen → sunmasen → saasen.

This sort of thing is quite common in Japanese, especially when there’s a set way you’re supposed to say something (as is common) that has a lot of syllables. Another example you might hear is arigatou gozaimashita being shortened down to azashita, typically at a convenience store or something, from an employee who’s busy with something else and just saying it because they have to.

What he says here is shou ga nai しょうがない. If you’ve ever picked up on how often “can’t be helped” or similar seems to be said in anime...this is what that is. It’s an incredibly common phrase in Japan, not just in anime but irl as well. It literally means that there’s nothing that can be done, and can be used in a broad swath of situations. It’s actually fairly similar to “oh well” in a number of cases.

Like above, it has several variations depending on how formal/informal you want it: shikata arimasen, shiyou ga nai, shou ga nai, shaanai, etc. etc.

Very minor nuance point, but she says she thinks dragons are superior (~が上, are “above”). “I think dragons are better” sounds, to me, more like indicating preference (”I like dragons better”), whereas the Japanese line has more of an observational tint to it (”Dragons appear to be superior”).

Again, minor and arguable point, but if I didn’t like to be pedantic I wouldn’t be writing these things.

Similar situation as the above, but I would say this is referring specifically to Kobayashi; more “she hasn’t noticed, has she?” than “no one.”

This is actual code, you can find it in places like here.

I like how the lint roller seems to have pink hair on it.

Also, just to restate, this is totally a Japanese everyworkplace and it is kind of giving me flashbacks.

The word for “abusing power” here is pawahara パワハラ, short for power harassment, another Japanese English-ism. It’s often paired with sexual harassment (sekuhara セクハラ) when discussing abuse in the workplace, and both are illegal. A common and particularly serious example of it is forcing people to work unpaid overtime at the threat of being fired.

Another nuance thing, but Saikawa here is not so much asking Kanna to draw her, but more expressing surprise, like “Wait you’re willing to draw me?”

Saikawa (才川)’s name, by the way, sounds like “the cutest” (最カワ). If you’ve heard of the Saimoe contests, it sounds like that but the kawa from kawaii instead of moe, a common sort of abbreviation.

Hmmm, I wonder what this could mean...

Ah.

You’re supposed to offer a drink to visitors in Japan, both to your home or to your office (like people from another company there for a meeting). I imagine that’s not exactly unique to Japan by any stretch, but as a custom it’s given more weight than in many others. A question of degree, I guess.

I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind the change in drinks from hot tea to orange-whatever, but who knows what. My guess is that it’s (possibly among other things) another way to show that the seasons are changing; it was cold the first time he came, so a hot drink, and warmer the second, so a cold drink. (Not to say there was a long time skip between the two necessarily, but of course the weather can change on a dime in spring, chilly one day and surprisingly hot the next.)

The way he phrases this, o-tenami haiken to ikou ka お手並み拝見と行こうか。is some pretty fancy language. Nothing much to say about it specifically that the translation doesn’t convey, but just a general note that Fafnir regularly uses less conversational language than the rest of the cast (as you might expect from his demeanor) in ways the subs don’t necessarily make clear.

As an inverse example, this line from earlier:

“Shall we go home?” sounds sorta fancy, but the Japanese line, just “kaerokka 帰ろっか,” is casual as fuck.

This is one of those things that can be difficult when translating Japanese to English, as Japanese has many different ways of saying literally just the same word but with different levels of formality, where in English you have to come up with different ways to phrase it to try and capture both the meaning and the formality level. Possible, but often time-consuming.

A family registration, koseki 戸籍, refers to document proving, basically, your family tree. When the government, way back when, was deciding how to administer the population, they figured it would be easier to group people into family units and have the family choose a head of household that would both represent them and have responsibility for them.

So they created this family registry system, where everyone* is registered as a member of a family. The “head of household” thing isn’t so important anymore, but the registry still fulfils the role of birth/death certificates, keeps track of marriages/divorces/adoptions, is proof of citizenship, and is effectively a constantly-updated census.

There can only be one family name per koseki, so it’s impossible to get married and not change your last name (unless you happen to have the same last name already); one of the two must join the other’s koseki and take on that name.

*Everyone, who is a citizen that is. Foreigners who marry a Japanese citizen are listed on the registry, but are not officially part of it.

Note that you usually don’t actually need this necessarily to rent an apartment irl. Usually a juumin-hyou 住民票 covers it.

“But wait,” you ask, “why does it say proof of citizenship in the sub when she says juumin-hyou, if the koseki is the proof of citizenship and the family registration?” as I put several words in your confused and increasingly angry mouth.

Well, probably because either the translator wasn’t familiar with these minor details and isn’t paid enough to look them up, or they felt that would make more sense to the average viewer.

A juumin-hyou 住民票 is actually a certificate of residency. It keeps track of your address and various other personal details (immediate family, social security number equivalent, birthdate, etc.). This one foreigners can get, assuming they have a proper visa, and is the one you’ll need to do most things like opening a bank account or signing a lease agreement.

Note that this thing means you’re required to fill out paperwork at city hall whenever you move, so they can keep it updated with your correct address.

A “personal seal” is a little stamp with your name, which is used like a signature would be in many other countries (i.e., for signing contracts and such). Make sure it doesn’t get stolen!

Often, people will have three of these that each have different levels of authority. The “real” one (jitsu-in 実印), for contract signing, must be registered with the government so they can prove it’s really yours. The “bank” one (ginkou-in 銀行印), registered with the bank upon opening a bank account (can be the same as the jitsu-in if you want it to be). And the “Amazon delivery” one (mitome-in or nin-in 認印), which isn’t registered officially anywhere, and is probably most often used nowadays when “signing” for a package delivery.

Of course, Tohru just magicked all of these into existence, because she can do that. Augh.

I know Fafnir. I know.

The kanji for Ooyama (大山) mean “big mountain,” and the kanji for Takeshi (猛) means basically “ferocious.”

The building in the background here is a bank!

The building in the background here is a business that dispatches staff to support elderly people who can’t fully live on their own!

Another fairly minor point, but here she’s saying “I don’t think I’d call those feelings ‘regret’.” not “I don’t want to [...].” (だけ��私はその気持ちを後悔とは呼ばないと思います). Not a big difference, but possibly an important one depending on how deeply you care to read into things.

The word here for “green,” ao 青, usually means “blue.” And in fact sometimes the “green” traffic lights in Japan actually are blue. However, up until relatively recently, the “ao” color word actually covered both blue and green (now midori 緑 is the usual word for “green”). This relative lack of distinction between blue and green is actually common in many languages.

As a random anecdote, a Japanese acquaintance of mine who was living in America once got pulled over for running a red light. Though their English was very good, they still got mixed up and kept trying to tell the police officer “I’m sorry I thought the light was blue,” which made for a very awkward talk.

This sign means Go. The game, not the verb. You know, this one.

The kanji for “money” (kane 金) is also the kanji for gold (usually “kin”).

Tadpole is another spring season word.

Probably unrelated, but one Japanese variant of the saying “like father like son” is “the child of a frog is a frog.”

The word for “psychic powers” (such as ESP) in Japanese is basically “super abilities.”

And the word for “magic trick” (at least, the one used here) is tenjina 手品, more like “hand trick” (in a literal sense, anyway). Magic trick is a perfectly good translation, but since they were just talking about how it wasn’t magic and clearly don’t know what a “magic trick” is, I just wanted to give some context as to why that line sounds less off(?) in the Japanese.

Like in the last episode with cute/kawaii, Kanna says “kami” the first time and “god (goddo)” the second. You...probably noticed that, but yeah.

"To enter [into] your hand” (te ni ireru/hairu 手に入れる/入る) is an idiom that means to get/gain/obtain. Like in a Zelda game or something when you open a treasure chest and get an item, this is the phrase used. Or when someone is elected to a high office, they’ve “te ni ireru’d” themselves some political power.

It’s a super common phrase, such that...and I hesitate to say this...I actually don’t think it was an intended pun(!). As in, I don’t think a native speaker would recognize that it was supposed to be one, even if it was intentional. It’s the kind of joke that’d be so painful you’d have a bunch of people gnashing their teeth about it online, and I haven’t been able to find any of that.

The word here is detarame でたらめ, which is closer to something like bunk, bullshit, nonsense, etc. “Fiction” feels a little too kind.

As mentioned in episode one, the kanji for waterfall (滝), minus the water radical (氵), is a kanji for dragon (竜). Conveniently, the water radical is cut off quite cleanly by the edge of the screen. What a strange coincidence.

Their clothes both say “dragon,” just Tohru’s has the kanji for it (ryuu 竜) and Kanna’s has it in hiragana (ryuu りゅう), which is cuter/more childish.

Lol that they bought spoons just to practice with despite being able to easily fix broken ones with magic anyway.

Yet another small nuance thing, but Kobayashi’s line leans more toward a sort of “it’s alright if you just do the things only you can do.” Again, minor and arguable, but it’s the difference between saying it’s okay to do something versus saying you should do something. (original: トールにしか出来ないことをすればいいんだよ）

Lunches in elementary school are eaten in the classroom, and typically served (as seen) by the students themselves; whoever’s on duty. The meals themselves are made by professionals, of course, and tend to be pretty healthy.

The “magic” she says here is actually the English word magic (majikku, rather), which in conversation is more likely to refer to magic tricks (similar to tejina above) than actual magic (which would generally be some variant of the Japanese word for it, mahou 魔法).

The stereotypical “hypnotism” item to swing in front of people in Japan is a 5 yen coin attached to string, rather than a watch. 5 yen coins have a hole in the middle, so it’s easy to tie a string to. Plus, they have a cultural connection to sort of supernatural stuff already; they’re a favorite for making donations at shrines and such because “five yen” (五円) is pronounced “go-en,” which is the same as a word for basically “fate” (ご縁).

Episode One Notes

Episode Two Notes

Episode Three Notes

Episode Four Notes

#kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #miss kobayashi's dragon maid #maidragon #anime #translation notes

52 notes · View notes

prouxvaire · 6 years ago

Text

The Good, The Hard, and The Half-Finished Window Seat

Okay, listen, to be fair, it’s a mostly finished window seat.

And at this exact moment in time–the moment where I’m on a roll building assorted cabinetry, and my mom and I are having a blast working between our two houses on the weekends, and there hasn’t been a farm crisis in the last couple of weeks, and I’ve actually got the time and energy to sit down and write this post–things are good. Really good. I’m living the dream (as long as we all understand “the dream” is covered in sawdust and still doesn’t shower or do the dishes quite as much as is socially acceptable.)

But let me also tell you that while things in this moment are good, it’s only because I have been living right on the cusp of “what the actual fuck” for the last several months, unsure if I’m going to tip right over the edge into crazy-squirrel-lady-who-has-given-up-on-doing-anything-she-loves-ever-again or, you know, manage to claw my way out of that hole until things feel right in my life again.

(I’m not joking about the Crazy Squirrel Lady part. They invaded the house and started hiding walnuts in my laundry.)

Here’s the thing. My life is not now, nor will it ever be, a study in balance. I’m a creature of extremes. Of periods of time when I’m in the grips of a big project or a physical challenge and feel like I have the energy and vision and drive to take on the world… and times when I don’t. When I feel the absence of that energy so acutely that even though I know that it’s just a recovery period, and that I will find myself engaged and energized in my own life again at some point in the future, there’s a part of me that says (very loudly and incessantly), “Welp, that’s it. I guess I’m never going to do anything good again, and everything feels off in my life, and I’m just going to be exhausted forever. Awesome.”

I’m compelled to say that out loud, because what I really want to do is skip over all the things that have sucked lately and just talk about is how awesome it feels to be building all kinds of shit right now. But, even though I haven’t been in the right space to update this site as frequently as I used to, telling an authentic story is still the most important thing to me.

And life is (almost surprisingly) good right now, but only because I’m on the other side of some shit that has been really hard.

First, because I burned through a ton of energy this summer making a pretty big career change and spending a lot more time away from the farm that I’m used to.

And because I spent a solid 8 months training for a solo 50 mile hike in Iceland…

(I crushed it–finishing in 2.5 days instead of the 4-5 I planned for– but also very quickly felt the post-adventure blues. It’s a real thing.)

And then because the very worst thing happened… I lost Bubs.

I mean, I did not misplace him, obviously. I lost him to cancer (which, I know, sounds very melodramatic for a cat. After being otherwise healthy and acting normal he stopped eating one week, and then I found out his intestines were riddled with tumors and he didn’t make it out of the surgery to try to remove them.)

I get that cats are not humans, and for most people cats are not even dogs, but this cat in particular has been my companion for the last 12 years. He was literally the inspector for the very first big project I completed on my first house (the first badass pergola)…

And has been with me through every house, every relationship, every project…

And every blog post since…

I understand all of the intellectual things about how he had a great life, and we got to spend 12 years just hanging out together…

But it still fucking sucks, and I miss his cat face every day.

(Although I did find a desiccated bat on the middle of the living room rug two weeks after he died and was like HOW ARE YOU STILL DOING THIS TO ME WITH THE BATS, BUBS?! I do not miss waking up to dead bats in the bed, but I do miss my cat.)

So, that was hard.

Not only is it tough not to have him around, but within a couple of weeks, the squirrels moved out of the attic and started hiding walnuts around my house. (The one I found under the covers of my bed was the last straw.)

Also, the mice started hiding Bubs old cat food in my shoes.

That’s not… I’m not making that up. It happened a handful of times before I realized some creature was doing this to me on purpose.

I mean, I knew Bubs was good at catching shit, but I had no idea how much work he was doing on a daily basis to keep the house free of rodents.

So, just to recap: New job, big adventure, post-adventure blues, dead cat, rodent invasion, and also this has been a tough year for a lot of my friends in a lot of different ways, so just add all of that into the general mix of hard shit and, oh, I’m sorry, did you come here to read about a window seat?

Yeah, so, I managed to come out on the other side of that mess of feelings, a little worse for wear, but with my sanity mostly intact. And then I built a window seat.

As one does.

I had my HVAC guys come and move the baseboard heat for me because it required a bit of finagling. Then I bought a piece of 10′ plywood, made a napkin drawing, and went to town.

It looks civilized from the outside, but the inside is just a mess of blocking.

Originally I was going to make the storage in this thing drawers (see drunk napkin sketch above) but then I realized that after I accounted for the baseboard heat, the drawers would only be 5″ deep. So I went for the next best thing…

Flip top! (A couple of stainless steel piano hinges did the trick.)

I only expect to access this storage space once or twice a year (it currently contains my window AC unit and a bunch of canning jars.)

And just to provide context for the size of this beast…

It’s over 9′ long. Like everything else in this house, weirdly oversized, but we’re just going with it.

I finished the top of the bench with iron-on veneer on the cut ends…

Legitimately the only use this iron ever gets. Also, if you ever have qualms about iron-on veneer, I also used this exact stuff on the tables I built for the office at my last job. Those tables have been in the common area of that office (used by 50 people or so daily for the last 3+ years) and the veneer held up beautifully.

Back to the project at-hand though…

The last step was to trim out the front so that it looks a bit more in line with my cabinets.

Trim is always the critical factor in taking a project from “what the hell are you doing?” to “Huh. That looks pretty damn good.”

Also, you can’t beat the view…

It needs to be painted, obviously, and I’m in the process of ordering a custom cushion, and then if you need to find me after that, I’ll just be laying in this window seat for the next eternity.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.

Did I or did I not say I was on a roll with the cabinet-building?

After three years of staring at the ass-end of these cabinets, I finally got my act together and finished them.

This whole project was a study in creative problem solving and using what I had on-hand.

First, I wasn’t entirely sure how I wanted to handle the trim on these, but I knew I wanted to replicate the look of the cabinets because the big blank panel that used to be there (before I added a 3rd cabinet) kind of drove me nuts.

Because I custom-built that end cabinet with a wrap-around toe-kick, I had to get creative with the trim (which also meant replacing some of the facing on that cabinet because I didn’t think far enough in advance 2 years ago, apparently.)

And then, of course, once I figured out how I wanted to do the trim, I found out that none of my local lumber suppliers sell 3/8″ thick trim boards in any kind of usable length and width. Turns out, however, that I have a bunch of 3/8″ thick tongue and groove pine planks from an unfinished project upstairs, and if you rip the tongue and the groove off?

Perfect trim boards.

But then there was the question about how I should hold the the pieces of trim in place while the glue dried in the spots that had no usable clamping or nailing surfaces.

No problem.

Also, funny story, that is not paint in my hair. That’s legit all the gray hair the last four months seven years life has given me that I stopped coloring for a minute because I was too busy not having a meltdown to care about.

Good news, I did not have a meltdown. My hair is very gray. And the back-side of my kitchen cabinets look like this.

I am considering that the bottom trim board really needs to be a bit beefier, and weighing that against my desire to screw around with this anymore when I’ve got a couple more drawers, and secret cabinets, and at least seven sheets of plywood’s worth of built-ins I’m hoping to get done soon.

I’m telling you, it was a long, hard end to summer but I’ve got a wave of energy when it comes to building cabinets right now, and I’m going to ride it as long as I can.

from https://ift.tt/2EEiMcT

0 notes

thomasrush851 · 6 years ago