#i know maybe. maybe. 5 kanji. that’s it

[fukikoichinomiya]

i need to practice my japanese sooo bad but it’s sooo hard when i’m not in a class for it yet

[miifu666]

We know sukuna's a huge hater for Yuuji right? But theres a saying around my country where "you shouldn't hate someone TOO MUCH or else fate will always unite u with them."

Or sum like "don't hate someone too much, it'll turn to love."

<<<<<<♡>>>>>>>

Imagine a happy ending Sukuna, one where he genuinely decided to be in a loving and domestic household with you. He saw what the jujutsu world can do, both ancient and modern, Gojo has provenly showed him a thrilling time by being the one and almost only person to make him feel the life and death situation in such a predictable battle.

He got to meet the plentiful talented sorcerers in the modern world, one where they have far more advanced knowledge in how life works than those in the heian era. The new sorcerers didn't disappoint him too much. Some managed to learn innate domain expansion in a mere second, others didn't have any curse energy yet managed to hurt him more than those who do. He's seen it all, he feels content.

Hence why he made a choice to have his own happy ending, see where life gets him after his "unsavory" conversation with his fated nephew. The tangy memories of that boy's bright smile hearing sukuna giving him a chance to show him how beautiful life can be, even if deep within. Theres a dreaded feeling whenever he sees that gullible boy, a fire pit inside him whenever he realized how innocent his so called "nephew" is for believing someone like him can be saved too.

Sukuna thought back idly, coming back to his senses as he feels your hair being combed through his fingers in a consistent motion. He wonders if maybe that annoying brat is right, he has a dutiful lover now. One who he feels as though wouldn't have been his if he didn't accept that despicable brat's decision.

The warm feeling of the sun hitting both him and his equal is... a blissful feeling. He used to be empty, seeking thrill from both knowledge and greed of such delicacies, humans, animals.. all he could find and devour till his stomach is full. All knowledgeable for such sorcery to make sure he stays the top, to see if someone is there to fight and able to defeat him on top of the lonely world of the strongest.

Now he's sitting here, the daunting feeling of such title no longer haunts him. Theres no one who can use him like an object, to fight and treat him like a game boss, speak his name like an object to defeat, disregard him as something worth less than humanity and curses, a natural calamity. Inside this prosperous Minka, he is just sukuna. Hes not the starving child, ostracized from society, being stripped bare of his real birth given name.

He's now.. Sukuna.

The husband and father of... currently one brat.

Speaking of a brat.

There's hustling noises of running feet ontop of the well cared grass, the thumping of something- no. Someone not much older than 5 years old.

"Papa!"

There he is.

"I got butterflies!!"

The small brat he managed to raise. The one and only child he has, a miracle. He was tempted to call him "megumi" too actually- but he's too prideful to use a rip off of someone elses name. He created his own, he hoped. This child doesn't get sick from bearing the weight of his own name.

"Those are Dragonflies, Yajou"

Yajou, a combination of both the kanji for appearance and fulfillment. A perfect name for one who completes the boundaries between human and curses.

Although...

Sukuna stared at his son again. His face is much more similar to a certain brat than him. His bright and naive eyes, those unopened set of eyes under his proper main ones, the tufs of pink hair on top while his lover's natural hair decorated the sides. Its all too familiar, he hates it. He hates having a split image of his disgusting nephew in this... fleshy and chonky baby form.

"Free! Free dragon!"

The child babbles out, spreading his hands out to let the Dragonfly leave his fleshy touch. It was... cute, adorable even. Sukuna sigh.

This.. is a funny way of fate telling him to learn his lesson.

>>>♡♡<<<

God i had this thought at 1am i did NOT proof reading this i just fucking wing it brooooooo. Hope its good ig djdhdjjdkd

Yajou Doodles♡

[thatdawgx]

Based on my last post I mentioned how often this fandom sees giyuu as more feminine than sanemi which is pretty weird due to fact he is barely feminine? Like what is feminine abt him? His long hair which he literally cuts short in the end?? Maybe due to fact he is more "elegant" than sanemi might seem that he is more feminine but from what stuff I found abt sanemi's character is the fact he has a lot of feminine characteristics from his name to his backstory and even stuff he eats

sanemi's name might be considered feminine due to fact most japanese names that end with -suffix mi are often female names or the fact you can take out this kanji meaning increasingly, all the more 弥 (he shares this kanji with genya but they are read differently) out of sanemi's name 実弥 and put this kanji 美 (this kanji is also used in sanemis younger sister's name sumi) meaning beauty, beautiful, pretty and is spelled the same way the mi part in sanemi's name

I mentioned his favorite food being feminine why? It's due to fact liking sweets in japan as a man is considered to be childish and a feminine thing

His backstory in general is in many people's words oldest daughter coded due to fact sanemi help his mother with raising his little siblings and had to cook and clean for them or even having to get a job at an young age. Due to fact his mother was often pregnant he probably had to be the one who did the most housework

When it comes to his appearance sanemi is often said to have his mother's kind smile that all of his siblings really liked. He obviously has long eyelashes and he in general has chuubier cheeks. It was also mentioned in the story how he smells like ohagi and matcha. He most likely takes after his mother's height and I can already hear people going "But he is only one cm shorter than his brother" first of, men stop growing at 21, the fact genya is already taller than sanemi while being 16 means he still has room for more, secondly we already know how in most anime and manga heights are not done well, like there is a panel where genya looks taller than sanemi atleast for 5-6 cm so either sanemi or genya are lying about their height. Last thing which ufotable has stolen from us is sanemi's pinkish hair in manga, like yeah pink wasn't considered a feminine colour in that time period but now it is so I had to mention it

Also sanemi is often described as an kind and bashful person in the manga by multiple people in the story like c'mon people, why is he often written as an aggressive macho dude in most fics I'm tiredd

[tenkohibari]

A crazy theory about the traitor of Tokyo Debunker

°°°

I have a theory about who the traitor ghoul could be.

[This is all translated with the translator, I'm sorry for any possible lexical or spelling mistakes, I hope you enjoy my theory]

[Spoilers for everything up to chapter 7]

Okay, I think that they really told us the truth from the beginning.

No, don't go, listen to me--

I think that, in the preface, before the story itself, where they give you to choose a ghoul to supposedly save, that's where the truth lies. Who is the traitor. And that's why I've been studying each of the statements of the 19 ghouls (except for Ed and Lyca) and GUYS I HAVE FOUND SOMETHING.

Before I tell you who I think the traitor is, I'll give you a little introduction: I've studied each of the ways ghouls throw themselves off the terrace and I've found 5 different base drawings, because they are bases that are repeated within the ghouls when they throw themselves off.

For example, base 1 (that's how I called it) is used by Jiro, Alan, Jin, Luca, Leo and Ritsu. I've been looking for ways to relate them to each other, but I haven't found any. Neither between their statements, nor their names, nor their ways of acting in front of MC. I mean, these guys seem to apologize to MC (each in their own way) except for Leo... That said, Leo's statement seemed hopelessly interesting to me, but I'll talk about it in a few paragraphs later. I thought that maybe the Kanji of their initials in Japanese, or maybe the pronunciation of their names in another language give rise to a secret message of why they chose these characters for this pose, or maybe I'm just thinking too much.

Well, the next position, position 2 (according to me, again) is occupied by Yuri, Rui, Taiga and Towa. Here I think the position fits with the boys and their statements, because none of them seem to really want to let you go. That's why they are trying to reach out their hand towards the MC, although perhaps timidly, because they are really accepting their fate.

Position 3, occupied by Tohma, Haku, Haru and Zenji, in their posture they don't try to get close to you in the least. They know they are going to die and they have accepted it. Again, I don't know how to fit it or link them together, but I know that they haven't been chosen at random. In this game nothing is a coincidence.

Position 4, the last one shared between ghouls, is occupied by Kaito, Sho, Romeo and Subaru. Again I don't know how to link them together. Oh well Subaru's statement made me very intrigued, I'll also discuss it later.

Well, and there is ONE LAST POSITION THAT ONLY HAS ONE CHARACTER

That character is Ren. And I think he is the traitor.

WAIT DON'T GO, LET ME EXPLAIN

Now is when you will say "why do you think Ren is the traitor just because of his falling position?" well, WELL. To start with I don't think there are "coincidences" in this game, that is, if they have made an effort to make only one drawing for Ren, there must be a reason, right?

Well, let's analyze his line now step by step:

~~ "This is exactly the reason I didn't want to do this! I knew this was how it would end! What am I doing here? This is all your fault..."

'This is the reason I didn't want to do this'? What does he mean by 'this'? It could be anything, but what if he's talking about betraying MC? Because Taiga never said who the traitor works for. What if he works for Darkwick...?

We can't trust Darkwick, that's become clear throughout the chapters. Also, the ghouls are aware that they're trapped inside the academy, and that's not counting what he did to Lyca. So I don't rule out the possibility that Darkwick was the one who 'hired' our spy, so to speak. Also, from the beginning it's clear that Ren doesn't fit in at Jabberwock, where he was assigned... What is he doing there? What if the academy put him there by rigging the entrance ceremony? Because we all know that Jabberwock is home to a hundred anomalies... And if a student in charge of taking care of them deals with them, it won't look weird. That's why Darkwick brought Ren into Jabberwock and somehow bought him to work there. Because, do you remember the mermaid named by Hyde in chapter 7? The one that's not in Morktranken? The one under Haru's custody? Ren is from Jabberwock, he might know something about it... And have gotten hold of it to give to the patient... Although this deduction leads me to another question: why would the academy do this? Or is Ren working for someone inside the academy, like an independent body...? Like that janitor who appears four times throughout the story, that very suspicious one about whom we know nothing.

Guys, I repeat that in this game COINCIDENCES DO NOT EXIST

'I knew this was how it was going to end!' Ren knew there was something wrong from the beginning? Not even Taiga knew, in his statement he asked us what we had done wrong... And now Ren comes and tells us that he had a bad feeling from the beginning... This causes a lot of doubts. Because what is Ren doing telling us that if he lives always locked in his phone? That only means that he knows more than he says.

'What am I doing here? This is all your fault' To begin with, why does he blame us? Not even Leo (u, damnit bitch) talks to us like Ren does. Also, speaking of Leo, his statement tells us that "I will make those assholes pay for this" IN PLURAL which indicates that the traitor works for someone else and does not do it for his own ideals... With Leo's statement I completely rule out that he is the spy, to tell the truth. But I could be wrong.

Returning to the subject of Ren blaming us, I can only wonder what leads him to that. Why does he blame us? What leads us to the hell in which the game begins...? And why is Ren the only one who blames us while the rest of the ghouls either blame themselves or don't name it. I mean, not even Leo does! This just makes me think more and more that Ren isn't hiding anything good... And I also wonder why Subaru is the only one who blames himself directly. I know his personality is like that... But I can only think of Subaru and his misleading statement... Maybe the company wants us to think badly of him? After all, Professor Moby told us that the Hotarubi ghouls are hiding something. And we don't know if we've really discovered what they're hiding or if we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. And Haku seems pretty suspicious to me too, after telling the principal "have I ever hidden something from you?" BUT WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT HAKU RIGHT NOW. I know he's hiding something, but I don't think he's the traitor.

Now let's talk about Ren's position.

He's the only one who, when he jumps off the balcony, really seems like he doesn't want to do it. He's the one who stretches his hand out more emphatically towards MC, as if he were regretting what he's doing, or as if he's doing this because he has no other choice or... I don't know. His very stiff posture towards you just seems suspicious to me.

But that's because I think he's the traitor, right? Maybe I'm thinking too much, right?

Remember guys that this here is JUST A THEORY because there are still many chapters and many tests left to be able to refute what we've seen so far. I'm also a follower of several theories that I will be publishing and outlining in the future.

And I'm not an expert in making theories so if you see holes in this one, DON'T HESITATE TO DEBATE WITH ME IN A RESPECTFUL WAY. I'll be reading you ^^

[hello-vampire-kitty]

Servamp chapter 139 translation "Daylight"

Read the chapter on Mangadex!

Translation notes

The title of the chapter 真昼の光 can also be interpreted as "Mahiru's light", so it wasn't easy to decide because we can't tell if the title is meant to have Mahiru's name or the translation of the word 真昼 "mahiru". Regarding the 2ndpage, Mahiru used the word もの (mono) and because it wasn't written in kanji, it can be interpreted either as "things" or "people.

Written with the kanji 者 is mainly used to specify someone's role/characteristic rather than just as a generic term for "person."

I personally think it's weird that 人 (hito) "person" wasn't used. Mahiru's first line could be interpreted as "things" he believes in, but the 2nd one can only refer to people belevng in him.

Because of the panels with Kuro and Tooru, I think in both lines もの is reffering to people.

Tooru likes to make puns which in Japanese are called "dajare" ダジャレ. Tooru makes puns using the structure だけに which translates something like "because…you know?"

The first time he makes a joke was in volume 2, so I'm gonna try explain how it works to understand how I adapted Jun's line, so we have to go back to the early chapters of the manga.

In Japanese he says 強盗めどこに隠れた！？　怖じ気づいたか！？ 叔父だけに！！

The first word 怖じ気 (ojike) means "fear" and the second one means "uncle." The first one has consists of the word "oji", like the word "uncle"

怖じ気づいたか can be translates as "Did you get scared?" but it can also be interpreted like "You took notice of (the) fear? And the last sentence would translate like "Because I'm the uncle, you know?" The wordplay is based on the word "oji" and in those sentences, they translate as "uncle" and "fear". Hopefully I made sense ;;

So, I interpret that he's saying something like "Get it? I'm the uncle (the fear).

"Are you scared of me? Because I'm the uncle! (you know)"

I'm praising the localization, which is rare because most of the manga, especially the early volumes were translated badly, however, I checked to see how his joke was handled.

In my opinion, it was a good call to use the expression "cry uncle". So yeah, I tried my best to explain how those kinds of puns work so that you can understand the one that Jun proposed, who apparently knows about Tooru's puns. Jun says 「雷神だけに」 The first two kanji mean "god of lightning" and the furigana reading is Thor which is Jun's codename and previously it was Tooru's. Even his name was based on Thor.

So, my interpretation is that when Jun is asking Tooru "You're not going to make a joke like "Because I'm Thor", will you?" to which Tooru replies that he won't, I think he's saying that although Mahiru borrowed his power (lightning), making a joke about Thor (himself) wouldn't have been appropriate since Mahiru created light. I'm sorry if I didn't explain very well ;;

Regarding Kuro's line in the last panel, instead of translating the word only in furigana, I used both readings because it was less ambiguous in my opinion. The furigana reads "our", so it would have been "It's not our time" and thus, in order to not give the impression that Kuro wasn't referring only to himself and Tsubaki, I used the other reading too.

So, apparently Sakuya can make clones/illusions of himself but I don't understand how they work in regard to the 5 second part. The name of his ability comes from "The Five Minute Hypothesis" but it was changed to "second". The intended reading in furigana sounds weird because it has the word "yesterday" and "to die" is in the future tense. I haven't found a reference for it, like I expected that it could have been from a novel.

Lastly, in the middle panel, the woman says the word 他人 (tanin) which means "other people" or "strangers", however the furigana reads 人 (hito) "people". Could be a typo or maybe there is a meaning behind it... So yeah, I hope these notes were helpful!

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Kamiyama High Festival, Episodes 6 & 7

Feeling hurt from the two students from earlier, Mizuki retreats to the rooftop, an old habit. There she sees Rui. Their middle school days were defined by these lonely impromptu hangouts. Rui knew Mizuki before she became Mizuki, and he had been the one to help her back then.

We learn that the context of the flashback to Mizuki and Rui with Mizuki in the boys uniform, is that it's the first time the two had met.

Their first introduction is very worth delving into. Rui introduces himself and asks Mizuki's name. She refuses to give it, but Rui already knew it. He says the reason he asked anyway was to hear what Mizuki would say. Under the reading that Mizuki is a closetted trans girl, this interaction makes perfect sense; Rui picked up on Mizuki's self-loathing and wanted to be considerate and kind to a fellow loner. It was an invitation for Mizuki to give him her real name [Mizuki].

Likewise, the metacontext is that Colorful Palette wants to be kind and considerate to people like Mizuki; they're telling her story in a sincere way. The first and easiest way they do this, made even easier by Japanese grammar, is to not refer to her with a masculine pronoun. Japanese allows the omission of a pronoun if it's clear from context, which combines well with the depth that can be conveyed with [name]-honorific, as well as simply using either the first or the last name. Akito, for instance, who's heard the rumors about Mizuki, exclusively calls her Akiyama in this event story.

It's a little harder to do this in English, which requires a subject for its sentences, and only really offers the use of first name or a pronoun. In English, students who know Mizuki's secret, at worst, refer to her in the text of the game with 'they'. The dialogue of N25 members, at least from what I've seen, is careful to only use 'Mizuki' or some other wording to refer to Mizuki. (as a trans woman, I'm very sensitive to when 'they' is used for us) They don't know her secret after all, and would otherwise use 'she'.

A more difficult way than pronoun usage, for the team to be respectful of Mizuki and players who they want to reach out to with her story, is to not deadname her. If they ever gave a birth name for her, it could be used by hurtful fans as a more correct way to refer to her, doing only harm. Rui and Mizuki's introduction is meant to be read as Rui asking for a different name from Mizuki. She refuses to give any name. This would otherwise signal the conversation as being over, so Rui skips the introduction for her, saying he already knows her name.

Is this all enough evidence to support that 'Mizuki' when used in flashbacks of her in a boys uniform is a way to respectfully censor out her deadname? Maybe, but there is one more piece of evidence, in the next episode. Episode 7 opens with a timeskipped flashback. Mizuki and Rui have been having their loner hangouts on the school roof for a while now.

It's not something I can capture in a screenshot, but Rui refers to Mizuki in this line with "Mizuki-kun". This is clearly still Mizuki before she transitioned, and she's still just as icy and bitter in the way that she talks as she'd been in Episode 6. But more than that, [I checked and] Mizuki is an unambiguously feminine name. It means 'hope', and the only suggested spelling for it is with the kanji that Mizuki's name officially uses. Conversely, -kun is typically reserved for a male addressee. While Rui also uses -kun for Emu and other members of the cast younger than him as part of how he talks, he no longer uses -kun for Mizuki. At the end of Episode 5 and all throughout Episodes 6 and 7, Rui in the present uses just Mizuki to address her, which acts to respect her in the same way friends avoid using 'dude' or 'guys' when addressing a trans girl. Rui using -kun in the flashback may reflect that the name in-universe it's spoken with was not actually 'Mizuki' and that we the players read it as 'Mizuki' as part of the writers respecting her character.

This is the Mizuki who Mizuki talks about when she tells people about how she used to feel confined by people's expectations, always wondering how much she should change herself not to inconvenience those around her. That Mizuki can't understand why Rui refuses to act more normal and try to fit in, even as herself doing so is the source of her own misery.

Rui's response is there are many things that are very much worth finding in solidude. Among them, Mizuki herself, with the silent hope that Rui is also that for Mizuki.

Mizuki understanding that getting rejected by the other people around her isn't the end of the world, and that she can still find meaning even if she does so alone, is the first step toward the person she'll become, of somebody who does things her way and is so much happier for it.

[doumadono]

⚠️ EMERGENCY REQUEST ⚠️

Hello! I have a small request with an Aizetsu (demon slayer) with a reader who self harms? Maybe he finds out when we are having a breakdown? I've been dealing with this for about 5 years now and need some form of comfort from him. If this makes you uncomfortable, feel free to not do it. Thank you.

Empathy - Aizetsu x Reader

EMERGENCY REQS MASTERLIST - PART 2

One night, unable to bear the weight of your dark thoughts, you wandered into the forest, hoping the cool night air might soothe your troubled mind. As you moved deeper into the woods, a strange, unsettling noise reached your ears. Curiosity and fear battled within you, but you pressed on, drawn towards the source.

You stumbled into a clearing and froze. There, under the pale moonlight, was a figure, hunched over another. Blood gleamed darkly on the ground, and its metallic scent filled your nostrils. You realized with a jolt of horror that the figure was feeding. Your breath caught in your throat, and a terrified gasp escaped your lips.

The demon's head snapped up, and you locked eyes with him. His sorrowful, blue eyes widened in surprise, then softened with an almost human sadness. He slowly stood, the lifeless body of his victim slipping from his grasp. For a moment, you were certain he would come after you, but he remained still, his gaze locked on yours.

"Run," he said softly, and the corners of his mouth curled upward in a wry grin as the blood dripped down his chin.

You didn't need to be told twice. Heart pounding, you turned and fled, your mind a whirlwind of fear and confusion. You ran until your legs gave out, collapsing at the edge of the village, gasping for breath. The image of those sorrowful eyes haunted you, mixing with the ever-present pain in your heart.

Despite your terror, something compelled you to return to the forest. Maybe it was the shared sorrow in those eyes... Days passed, and you found yourself wandering the same path, hoping and dreading to see him again.

This time, he was sitting on a fallen log, his back to you, staring at the ground as he played with a spear he held in his hand. He didn't seem to notice you until you were only a few steps away. When he looked up, his expression was filled with the same sorrow and regret you had seen before.

Your fear hadn't entirely vanished when you asked openly, "Why didn't you chase me?"

"I felt your pain," he replied simply. "I sensed a great darkness within you, a sadness so heavy that it would have made your flesh taste awful."

You looked down at your hands, tracing the scars that marred your skin. "I hurt myself because it feels like the only way to make the pain inside stop, even for just a moment."

"Hurting yourself won't make the pain go away. It only deepens the sorrow. I understand the need to escape, but there are other ways."

"But how? How do I find another way?"

He sighed deeply, looking directly at you with his blue eyes with kanji written in his pupils. "By finding something, someone, to hold onto. You mortals cherish life more than anything else, so hold onto it."

You collapsed at his feet, sobbing uncontrollably. "I can't escape the pain," you cried, your voice breaking. "It consumes me, and I don't know what to do. I want to disappear. End my life, demon for there is nothing good in it for me," you begged.

He gently lifted your chin, his touch colder than you expected. "I won't do that, little mortal."

"Why?" you pleaded, tears streaming down your face. "Why won't you end my suffering?! You're a demon! You hunt people down to devour them! So act just like your nature tells you to!"

"Your life, no matter how burdened with sorrow, is precious. Your existence holds meaning, even if you can't see it right now. And you have a choice. And you're about to choose wrong."

You stared at him, shocked by his compassion and the depth of his understanding. "But you're a demon," you said, your voice barely audible. "Why do you care about a mortal like me?"

Aizetsu's sorrowful eyes softened even more, a hint of a sad smile playing on his lips. "Because I, too, know what it means to suffer. My existence is bound to sorrow, but that also means I understand the depths of your pain. I care because, in our shared sorrow, we can find a way to endure."

A sob escaped your lips as his words cut through your despair. His touch, still cold, now seemed almost comforting. "But how?" you whispered, your voice trembling. "How can I find a way to endure when every moment is agony?"

Aizetsu's fingers gently brushed away your tears and brought his digits upon his lips to taste them, his expression a mixture of empathy and melancholy. "You endure by finding even the smallest glimmer of hope," he said softly. "You endure because your suffering is not the end, but a chapter in your story."

You felt a strange warmth emanating from him, not in temperature, but in the sheer weight of his empathy. "But what if I can't?" you asked, the hopelessness threatening to drown you again.

His eyes, pools of infinite sorrow, held yours firmly. "Then you lean on those who care for you, even if that creature is a demon like me."

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 11

PREVIOUS

FF could admit that he may not be working with a full tank at the moment.

He had not slept very well the night before.

He had watched a lot of horror movies (a genre that he generally does not consume because his mind is already a scary enough place).

He was not able to go see his Grandma and he was going to miss the traditional(tm) Black Friday extravaganza that he and his Grandma did every Black Friday since he was little and encountered the horrible truth about Santa and she’d let him in on when / where most of his Christmas gifts were obtained. (The answer was not the North Pole under the watchful eye of elves. He had cried himself to sleep at the revelation but Gran always had a way of making the worst moments of his life tolerable.)

He may have eaten just…a bit too much pie?

He definitely ate too much turkey.

His stomach is killing him because he had forgotten to take his pepto when he had slammed that five hour energy.

His heart may actually break out of his rib cage with how hard it’s beating in his chest.

He’s been listening to Andrew and Captain Neil go back and forth for the last hour and a half between discussing Aaron’s recent mess ups, to what they’ll do to one another with a locked door between them and the world, to Andrew complaining that Neil’s hand is sweaty, to Neil saying Yes and Andrew’s hand is no longer in Neil’s and-

He clenches his eyes close.

And Andrew has swerved back into the lane for the third time in the last five minutes while saying something unrepeatable about his plans for Captain Neil and the whipped cream.

FF does not handle swerving cars very well.

He hears Andrew say something that sounds like it could lead to a very uncomfortable yeast infection for Captain Neil didn’t properly rinse off afterwards.

The car swerves over the rumble strip.

A fear far stronger than his fear of what Andrew could do to him overtakes him.

“I don’t like swerving cars. So, I’m going to ask that you focus on the road and keep your hands on the steering wheel.” FF says so panicked that he sounds calm and he watches as both Neil and Andrew stiffen at the sound of his voice. “If you can’t, then I’m going to ask that you pull over and let me out.” He offers a second option and a part of him is just amazed that his voice doesn’t crack even once. “I’m fine with either option.” He says.

He says both are fine but…

Honestly he hopes Andrew chooses the first option as he looks at the dark and lonely highway.

He looks back up at the front seat and both Neil and Andrew are looking straight forward. Andrew’s hands are on the steering wheel.

“Thanks.” He says and returns his attention to back over Aaron’s head.

The rest of the ride to Columbia is blessedly quiet. Aaron and Nicky wake up when they get off of the interstate and Nicky has the good grace to try and wipe the drool out of FF’s hair while Aaron seems unbothered by the wet spot he left of FF’s shoulder.

They get out of the car and they each grab their own bag in exhausted silence. Nicky is barely managing to put one foot in front of the other and before FF can do or say anything Nicky is in his room and has locked his door.

The room that FF had been planning on sleeping on the floor of because Nicky had told him he could so that FF would not drink 20 5-hour energies over the course of the weekend.

But Nicky had looked really tired.

So he is given a general tour by a very quiet Captain Neil and FF forces himself not to think about the cooler that Andrew had brought to, what he assumes is, Andrew’s bedroom before it was brought to the kitchen. He gets shown where the blankets and pillows that Kevin uses are and FF nods in quiet acceptance even knowing that he is going to spend the night going over Katakana flashcards and maybe up his literacy on Kanji to a second grader’s level.

Captain Neil wishes him a good night while Andrew gives him a nod and it is the last time he sees Captain Neil that night.

It is not the last time he sees Andrew.

***

Andrew comes out of his room to go get two glasses of water nearly 2 and a half hours later. The house is silent and dark. He is pretty sure him and Neil are the only two up.

He is wrong.

He comes out into the living room on his way to the kitchen and finds FF going through flashcards at a rapid pace. He walks a little closer to see what it is but the flashcards aren’t even right side up half of the time.

He thinks about the car ride.

‘I don’t like swerving cars.’

FF had said it so matter of factly. He was uncomfortable with the swerving.

Andrew had told FF recently about the words he didn’t like.

It felt like FF was offering at least something of himself back to Andrew for the first time.

Andrew thinks about how once his hands had gone back to the steering wheel FF had leaned back into his seat and stared out the window.

Andrew has at various points tried to look up what FF’s circumstances were but searching news sites for someone named ‘Smith’ with no first name to work off of was an exercise in futility.

Neil has lamented many times to Andrew about his bizarre jealousy over how unknowable Smith is. “He’s learning new languages, keeping a low profile, and playing Exy. It’s everything that I wanted in my freshman year and couldn’t manage because Riko pissed me off so much! It’s just kind of hard to see someone living my dream.” He says.

Andrew had punched him in the arm for that one.

“My old dream!” Neil had said and Andrew almost punched him again for the smile he flashed but had ended up kissing his stupid pretty face instead.

Where was he?

Right.

FF didn’t like swerving cars.

It didn’t necessarily have to be the trauma that lead to that aversion. Andrew certainly hadn’t had anything scare him on a plane but he still hated flying.

Still.

“The flash card is upside down.” He says and watches as FF pauses in his shuffling before righting that card and flipping to the next one which was turned to the side as far as Andrew could tell.

FF should be asleep.

FF is not asleep.

It might be Andrew’s fault that his friend can’t sleep.

“It won’t happen again.” He says and FF turns and stares at him blankly for a few seconds before he nods his acceptance.

It’s nice having a friend who understands what he means without needing to explain every little thing.

***

FF thinks he might have double-dosed on the 5-hour energy.

He also thinks he might currently be able to see through time.

His flashcards are making so much sense right now.

Then Andrew had come up and it truly was a miracle that he did not shit himself considering the sheer amount of apple pie still making its way through his system. That’s a lot of fiber for one body and he’s sure the 2-3 Five Hour energies he has taken are not helping his plight in that regard.

“It won’t happen again.” Is what Andrew says and in an instant FF feels his stomach drop to his feet. He nods blankly and watches as Andrew nods back before the man went to the kitchen and left with two tall glasses of water.

‘It won’t happen again’

FF has asked Andrew for TWO favors today.

TWO WHOLE FAVORS.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING?

The answer was that he WASN’T.

Even if FF had paid back one of those favors with the sheer power of his granny’s pie there was the case of the secondary favor he’d asked for in the car.

‘It won’t happen again’

There won’t be anymore favors for FF. He’d used up any mercy his grandma’s pie had bought him.

He considers the time pulls out his phone and goes through some saved text files on his phone.

It’s time for guns even bigger than his grandma’s apple pie.

He takes another five hour energy and knows that he won’t be sleeping a wink. He looks up groceries stores that are open this early on Black Friday, he grabs his wallet and with immense fear in his heart grabs the keys Aaron had dropped into a bowl by the front entrance.

He needs the ingredients for his great-grandma’s brownies.

Do your civic duty and: CAST YOUR VOTE TODAY ABOUT MEMES

NEXT

Per y’all’s requests:

@i-have-three-feelings​ @blep-23​ @dreamerking27​ @andreilsmyreligion​ @belodensetdust​ @rainbowpineapplebottle @yarn-ace​ @iwouldlikesometea @lily-s-world​ @obscureshipsandchips​ @booklover242​ @whataboutmyfries​ @sahturnos​ @pluto-pepsi​ @dreamerthinker​ @passinhosdetartaruga​ @leftunknownheart​ @aro-manita-muscaria @hologramsaredead​ @Chaoticgremlinswishtheycouldbeme @tntwme​ @tayspots @nick-scar​ @crazy-fangirl2524​ @blue-jos10​ @stabbyfoxandrew​ @splishsplashyouropinionistrash​ @sammichly​ @the-broken-pen​ @bitchesdoweknowu​ @very-small-flower​ @ghostlyboiii​ @its-a-paxycab​ @bisexual-genderfluid-fan​ @cheesecookie @theoneandonlylostsock​ @foxsoulcourt​ @blueleys @adverbialstarlight​ @elia-nna​ @can-i-just-stay-in-the-corner​ @nikodiangel​ @foxandcrow-inatrenchcoat​ @hallucinatedjosten​

As stated before if you’re up here and I spelled it right but you didn’t get a notification there might be something switched around in your settings that won’t let me tag you properly?

[adachimoe]

A long and meandering post about Adachi and the Investigation Team

I have no idea what to title or describe this as. This is a long ass rambling 2.5k+ word post that consists of like 5 drafts I had sitting around that all felt somewhat related. It starts with the part where the Investigation Team tells Adachi to get over himself, then devolves into talking about Adachi punching himself in the face repeatedly (metaphorically), before ending by exploring the idea of Adachi as the Investigation Team's collective Shadow. it rly is tl;dr.

Adachi will remember that

At one point in Magatsu Inaba, the Investigation Team takes turns responding to Adachi in verbal turn-based combat. They all have varying responses and levels of understanding of him.

Chie doesn't understand why Adachi even became a cop, Rise thinks he's full of shit, Kanji tells him a 2008 version of "go kys" (tbf, he's never been eloquent with words), Yukiko tells Adachi that he sounds like a kid, Naoto calls him out for finding life annoying while being a damn annoyance, and Yosuke tells him he's just a criminal.

What Yukiko says to him in particular appears to sting Adachi, evident by how he "!" emotes in reaction to her. Or idk maybe he's secretly into getting bullied by women. I think Yukiko has Adachi's number here, and he knows that. After all, part of his schtick is that, "Oh, you stupid fuckin' kids, you don't know what I've been through or how I feel! Get off my dungeon lawn!!!" And yet, one of those stupid kids is able to tl;dr his life, and even says, "no u -- you're the stupid kid" back at him. He later even repeats what she said back at Sho during Ultimax.

What Yukiko says here, I think, stands out in particular not just because of Adachi's reaction but also because it resembles a sentiment found in other media: The contradiction of being alive while not "truly" being alive. This often goes like so: A character can be alive in that they are most certainly physically living and breathing, but they are largely closed off from the rest of the world and going through the motions. Thus they are said to not truly "be alive".

In the context of Persona 4, I believe Adachi fits in with this trope. As Yukiko has assessed, life sucks, but it's not like he's in any hurry to die. From what we see of Adachi in the plot, he's going through the motions. He wakes up, goes to his job, goes to Junes to bum free air conditioning, and sometimes gets dragged over to Dojima's house.

I don't think it's bad that people fall into these routines by default. Some find them comforting, some appreciate the simplicity, and some make up for the monotony of adult life with the more fascinating things they do outside of work.

But this doesn't feel like it applies to Adachi because he openly groans about his life and job. He seems to want to live and fit in with society, but he wants to do so with more than what he has right now, yet he also seems unwilling or unable to get what he wants. He also seems unwilling to put in the effort - he tells us he's lonely and wants a girlfriend, but when the old woman from his Social Link tries to hook him up with a girl, he finds it all annoying. He thinks of himself as an elite detective who is above Inaba, but he is regularly made out to be incompetent, sloppy, and careless.

It's like he's stuck but not doing anything to become unstuck. Following the tropes, Adachi would move from being a character who is "alive without really being alive" to "Truly Living" once he figures out how to get himself un-stuck. If he truly wants to be a hotshot detective in the big city with a smokin' hot wife, then something needs to change because he won't get those things as he is now. But how does Adachi approach the subject of "change"?

Maybe the world really is just a shitshow?

Adachi being exposed as the murderer is a major turning point for the murder investigation. And after the Investigation Team chases him into the TV, one of the many things he talks about is "change", or rather a lack of change.

As far as Adachi is concerned, the world can't / won't / doesn't change. He criticizes the world and its inability to change, how society works, and how people will latch to whatever you tell them as the truth.

Some things he says might resonate with us, especially nowadays with the spread of social media and misinformation. However, despite these criticisms, it sounds like he still desires to be part of society. (Yes, I know, this sounds like that one "We should improve society somewhat" comic, but Adachi did not want to "improve society" lbr LOL.) He has been trying to blend in as a normal guy since April despite being a murderer. I think it's worth reiterating that his complaints about his life weren't anarchist but more like, "I don't have a cute girlfriend who cooks for me." Furthermore, he was trying to take advantage of misinformation to get away with murder by pinning it on Namatame.

Adachi doesn't like the current world and doesn't think it will change. Thus, he is forcing it to change in a completely catastrophic way. He really is throwing a tantrum: Like, what, you can't get away with murder? All right, throw the whole world away. With this approach, it is not Adachi who must change to fit in with the world, but rather the world that must change to fit Adachi.

Change isn't a good subject with him, which, honestly, is relatable. Change is easier said than done. Even within Persona 4 itself, after getting Magical TV Powers, an event that feasibly might add spice to one's life!!, the same old routine still runs Adachi's life. What has changed is that he's now waiting for Namatame to kill someone. Showing up looking for a dead body in the shopping district is simply a new part of his routine.

This topic of Adachi and change gets wrapped up after the fight against Amenosagiri. Adachi challenges the Investigation Team: >>>If<<< they think they have the power to change the future, then do it.

After entering the TV World, Amenosagiri responds to Adachi's wish and makes his wish come true as the dungeon deadline bad ending shows. That was Adachi's own so-called power to change the future. So what is the Investigation Team's?

Yosuke then replies that everyone has the power to change their future. As in, you don't need special powers from a gigantic disco eyeball inside of a TV to do that. In context, Yosuke is telling Adachi, "This is a 'you' problem," or "Skill issue." And tbh, I think Yosuke is more or less correct here.

In which we revisit the topic of "dumbass" and effort

In some ways, this topic might seem odd to approach. Everyone on the Investigation Team - besides Chie - seems to have a better life situation than Adachi had when he was their age. Are they punching down? Perhaps it feels like a hollow reflection of the collectivist culture that the solution to these antagonists who go "BUT SOCIETY IS WHAT IS WRONG" is always to beat them up and force them to conform--

…..but hold on. That line of thought would be giving in to what Adachi says before his boss battle. And, based on how he quits talking about how "waaah society is unfair" afterward, I find it difficult to think that is what he genuinely believes about his situation.

When I suggest that Yosuke is correct, I don't mean this in a "You aren't special, Adachi, everyone else's life sucks too, just deal with it" kind of way. What I have in mind is how the game seems to support that this is an Adachi problem, not an everyone else problem. Throughout Adachi's Social Link, his other interactions, and what Atlus has said as meta / Word of God answers, you get the idea that people were trying with Adachi, but he wasn't meeting them halfway.

For example:

This entire post is about the effort the MC puts in just to get called a dumbass (though I'd bet that the protag considers Adachi calling him a dumbass to be like a Badge of Honor). Even their gay ass Fever Time in P4D tells the story of Yu trying to reach out and Adachi going, "No!!!"

The old woman in his Social Link is trying to wingwoman for him and hook him up with women in Inaba, but Adachi seems unwilling. Instead, he tells Nanako and the protagonist that he's never getting married. Despite his loneliness, he justifies himself by saying, "Marriage is the graveyard of a man's life."

The Dojima family and Adachi interact briefly throughout the game, both in the story scenes and in his Social Link. As his letter at the end of the game shows, Adachi felt lukewarm about their interactions because he wasn't quite aware of what he had with them until he no longer has their company.

The way I see it, when Adachi rants about the world not changing, he is not actually bitching about the world. Rather, this feels more like a form of projection. He says the world doesn't change, but perhaps he is talking about himself and his own inability to change. Which would reframe it as more like… He knows he's the issue that holds himself back - his own worst enemy, perhaps - but he says the world is wrong to justify himself.

You learn a bit about Adachi through his Social Link. During rank 6, in dialogue that can tragically be missed, Adachi will admit that he is lonely, but he also thinks it's easier that way. And really, easier is just another way of saying "less effort".

On one hand, this might show Adachi's annoyance with other people. But at the same time, for him to call the protagonist a dumbass for investing so much in him and their relationship, for him to pass up the matchmaking from the older woman at Junes while complaining about being single....... I think the unspoken bit here is that Adachi does not think he is worth the time or effort to begin with. His lack of effort isn't just him being annoyed with people or not giving a shit about things, it's a lack of effort into himself. I'm no expert, but I think the majority of us would wager that this is depression.

As the game's timeline unfolds, we really only know Adachi as the pathetic, silly murder guy. Did he start distancing himself from people and quit caring about the effort he puts into himself because of the "oops, I murdered someone" part? Or was he like this even before then?

When he talks more about his past, he doesn't go into a great amount of detail. But, going with my gut here, I get the feeling that Adachi's obsession with Mayumi - something from before he became a murderer - suggests his distance from people is not a new thing for him.

Consider: Meeting people? Forming relationships? Possibly getting rejected? Having to make someone else happy? Wh-What if he has to ch-change something about himself? Like, even before we talk about romance, how the hell do you even make friends as an adult? (The answer is BL btw. Go find some girlies who ship the same pairing.) I think Adachi said fuck it to all that bullshit. It'd be easier - less effort - for him to just be alone and not have to change anything about himself.

But… What if the magical TV just tells you exactly who your soulmate is? Well, shit, that's easy. For the lonely guy who just got transferred to Inaba and generally keeps his distance from people, I imagine it would be quite convenient to just be told, "This is who your soulmate is; the person you're meant to be with".

And that wouldn't be the last time Adachi gets a freebie from the TV. It happens again in December, as Adachi finds an again "easy" solution that does not involve changing himself or doing something annoying that requires effort from him. Having been enabled by the magical TV, Adachi is something of a static character.

Adachi is the Investigation Team's Shadow

In the P4G Premium Fan/Fun/Fsomething book, Atlus defines the Shadow by the Jungian definition, then talks about how the Shadows in-game represent "alternate possibilities" for the characters. The specific example it gives is how Chie's Shadow holds a great deal of animosity towards Yukiko. The real Chie doesn't feel this way towards Yukiko; in fact, she treasures her. Thus, Chie's Shadow is an alternate possibility.

When you look at Chie and what she says about accepting her Shadow, her Shadow seems to be born from a real insecurity (her jealousy of Yukiko) and part of it really does resemble Chie. But part of her Shadow is also this… caricature-esque thing. Hence why Atlus calls it the "alternate possibility". In turn, Chie accepts that she is jealous of Yukiko, but she does not accept the Banana Hat Dominatrix trying to exert control over Yukiko. She even realizes that rather than Yukiko needing her, it was actually her who needed Yukiko.

(I refuse to carry on with this train of thought further than talking about Atlus's own example with Chie because it would inevitably mean having to talk about how Atlus sees Kanji and Naoto's issues/Shadows/dungeons, and I'd need like bottles of wine to get in the mood to even type a paragraph of that.)

During her P4G winter Social Link scene, where her Persona evolves, Chie brings up Adachi and how she could have become him. She continues that anyone could have turned out like him.

Indeed, Adachi very much feels like a, "this could happen to anyone" character. He is an everyday normal guy who accidentally gets involved in something beyond him: a Like a Dragon side story NPC stuck in a game about high schoolers and friendship. Based on how you see these characters, you can correlate many of their issues to Adachi's own issues.

Really, in some ways, he feels like he was written to be the sum of the Investigation Team's insecurities, all bundled into one guy. As Chie's Shadow twisted her jealousy of Yukiko into a desire to control Yukiko and showed an alternate possibility for who Chie could have become if she had let jealousy consume her, perhaps Adachi shows an alternate possibility for who all of them could become.

As Amenosagiri later reveals, the truth torments the Shadows. Your party identifies that is what causes the Shadows to attack people.

When we consider how the game has gone until now, then those moments where the Investigation Team told their Shadows, "You're not me!" must be the moment that Amenosagiri was describing. The members of the Investigation Team come face to face with a being who claims to be them and seems aware of the same issues that gnaw at them. But these beings pervert their issues issues in a direction that doesn't reflect who the Investigation Team really are. And so they challenge that this being is truly them. They, sigh, "reach out to the truth", and it causes their Shadows to go nutso and attack.

And, of course, these repeated scenes where they tell their Shadows all lead up to the last time we see this kind of sequence...

Just as the Investigation Team had to face themselves and pick apart the truths from the caricature, they, too, come to face Adachi and can cut through the bullshit, rejecting his attempts to justify why it's okay for him to merge the TV World into reality and screw everyone over.

That said, though, if we are to compare him to their Shadows, then we must acknowledge that, much like how the Investigation Team's Shadows come from their own real insecurities, Adachi's frustrations with the Investigation Team and with the world at large must also come from something real.

On this screenshotted line in particular, he even uses the more masculine "ore" as his pronoun in Japanese. He usually uses the more boyish "boku", but he seems to swap to "ore" to indicate that he is speaking quite genuinely--or perhaps speaking from the heart.

While he is a whiny murderer throwing an apocalyptic tantrum, I'm sure there are circumstances that made him the person that he is as an adult. Tbh, I've already made a lot of posts talking about the factors that might have contributed to *why* he feels like this, so I won't drag this out further.

By Arena Ultimax, Adachi has come to accept the murder case as the inciting incident that causes him to change as he finds himself finally owning up to his actions from the previous year. He's no role model lol, but life now has more meaning to him than just something you go through every day. Perhaps it's at this moment that he can be said to have gone from merely being alive to living.

(Let's be real tho, jail gives you 3 non-cup noodle meals per day? Damn. It's like he's living his best life. Speaking of which, food feels like such a fitting metaphor for his emotional nourishment.)

In the aftermath of the dungeon and the almost-end-of-the-world, Adachi agreed to start playing by the rules, and became more of a dynamic character. At the beginning of Ultimax, Adachi's commitment to this gets questioned as Yu, Yosuke, and Chie find him allied with Sho (like 5 cutscenes after Yu is so confidant he's behaving himself too, tsk tsk). But Yu reaches the roof, hears Adachi's cringe ass dialogue (I'm pretty sure that Adachi would not have said half that shit if he had known Yu was standing around the corner), and reaffirms his belief that Adachi was genuine about his promise to play by the rules.

The Investigation Team are not on the best of terms with Adachi. Regardless, they went into his dungeon, called him out on his bullshit that had been mixed in with his own real shortcomings and insecurities, punched him, and as we can tell by Ultimax, came to accept him in their own ways as they did their individual Shadows. As Yu says, perhaps they have strangely enough decided to trust in Adachi.

[onigiriforears]

After approx. 2-3 months of studying Japanese I started to read free graded readers online and then graduated to a collection of short stories that I purchased off of Amazon. I thought that the reason I was starting to have trouble understanding sentences was because I didn't know enough vocabulary but it was because I neglected grammar completely. It was sorta drilled into my head off of Youtube creators to just study kanji, vocab and simple sentences as much as possible before even touching grammar. I feel absolutely lost, dude. I am at the 5 month mark now. I can "breeze through" kanji for the most part. (as in, I can actually retain it in a decent amount of time) I decided to study grammar about a week ago. It is SO FREAKING HARD. I don't know if there's something wrong with me or what. I don't know if it's supposed to feel like what I thought I knew is being ripped apart at the seams, stapled together, and then torn apart again....but it does.

Do you have any tips for learning grammar? Is this feeling normal? Can you tell me when the pressure in my skull will subside? I am using Bunpro's free trial but I'm unsure if this tool will actually help me. I write tons of notes to flip through but I still fail to give them the nuanced answer they're looking for. I really enjoy the setup of Bunpro and I want to like it since it's similar to WK but I'm not sure if I'm going too fast or there's a better way to learn. I stopped learning 5 new grammar points a day and started doing only 2. (I also have Genki I and watch GameGengo. He explains things in a way that's easy for my brain to understand.) Sorry for the long post but any insight would be appreciated. I'm a bit nervous asking people in the language learning community for help or insight because a lot of them treat it as a way to show how fast they learned/1-up others. Tumblr's langlearn community is a lot different with what I've seen (or maybe I'm just following the right ppl lol)

Hi! Thank you so much for waiting for this response--I'm sorry it took so long. Your message was one of the ones that popped up when they locked my ask box (they actually still haven't answered me on why it was locked so 🤷‍♀️). To make up for that, I'm gonna be longwinded because I think that this is a super valid and important question that others may also want to know the answer to!!

Pls pls PLEASE DM me if none of this is helpful or if you'd like to talk more about what you think you need help with!!

I think that sometimes when we're learning a new language that we know is so overwhelmingly different from our own language, we focus on the things that we think will be the main hinderance and sometimes we forget the key points. You might be thinking "how did I forget grammar?" but I would say don't beat yourself up about it! Many of us focus on the things that we think are our problems(--the last time I studied for the JLPT, I focused on my weak point too much and then was frustrated with myself during the exam bc I neglected the other areas.)

I don't want to lie to you and say that learning grammar is going to get easier because that's not the case for everyone. Think of learning grammar vs everything else as learning different types of math or science--have you ever had a friend that was absolutely phenomenal at algebra or calculus but couldn't do geometry? Or a friend that was wonderful lab partner in chemistry but struggled in biology? They're struggling in biology because it requires a ton of rote memorization in comparison to practical application and math that's present in chemistry and rote memorization may not necessarily be their strong point. Personally, I think that's also why a lot of us struggle with certain grammar points. There are some that just click with us immediately and then there are others that we have to see over and over and over and over and over--you get the point--just for us to find a single sentence with it that we understand. If you're math oriented, we need to figure out a way to no longer make grammar points rote memorization for you, but to turn it into a formula of some sort. I actually write my notes out in ways that are like that--I use plus signs (+) in my notes not because the textbooks use them but because my brain genuinely reads it as "noun + particle + grammar point = a sentence that makes sense" because, for me, formulas don't fail. Your weak point doesn't have to be your weakness--you can turn the weakness into a strength that works just for you.

I've been going at this for years and every single professor or Japanese friend (or even people from the discord server) I have can tell you that I've struggled with pretty much any grammar point that included ~ように--and it wasn't because I wasn't trying, but because I couldn't find myself using any sentences that with those grammar points because I found the alternatives/similar ones to make more sense. Surprisingly, it wasn't until I was reading 夜カフェ for our book club that I was actually able to start grasping the meaning (ngl, I still haven't used it myself--I'm notorious for using alternatives); I was finally witnessing it being used in a way that made sense in my brain.

The frustration you're feeling when you encounter a new grammar point or overload yourself with too many things in one go is completely normal and I promise that a ton of us in the Japanese langblr community have definitely experienced it too! It probably feels like everything you know is being ripped apart because your native language may have a SVO (subject-verb-object) format while Japanese has a SOV (subject-object-verb) format--your 1-to-1 translations for your notes may not be helpful in the beginning because you're still trying to wrap your brain around the fact that your words still need to go in another order than you're used to. And then you add the new grammar points and concepts on top of that (like particles and other things) and it can become overwhelming and frustrating. Sometimes, you're going to find some grammar points just downright annoying--especially when you find that there's no equivalency to it in your own language. But don't give up!

I know this is a super cliché thing to say, but practicing them will help. If you can, I would make note of the grammar points that you're struggling with, try to make sentences with them, and ask somebody to check them and explain exactly why (or why not) they're working and then ask them for examples because they may have an even better way of explaining it to you than what you've come up with for yourself!

I can look back at old notes and see when I wrote a sentence as an example just because a textbook/professor used it but I didn't actually understand why it worked at the time and then I can also find notes where the sentences written as examples were added once I finally found something that clicked for me.

You've already done yourself a favor by learning a lot of vocab, kana, and kanji because now you'll be able to try out an array of ways to pick up grammar instead of just a textbook. (I will make a note that if you're looking to take the JLPT, I would recommend having a list of grammar points that you would need to know for the level that you're planning on sitting for because there's no guarantee of what will or won't pop up on the test.)

Another important thing while you're practicing: be comfortable with making mistakes. We all make them, but when you're learning a new language it's important to be ready to make mistakes and to welcome them with open arms because it gives you a chance to experience and learn in real time.

ALSO: for you specifically--because you're interested in reading, you might enjoy learning grammar through tracking the different grammar points through what you're reading and using the sentences as your examples because they're all going to be cohesive. And if reading books or other things totally turn you off right now, maybe games? Animal Crossing and Pokemon are very nice games to play in Japanese for people that are just starting out! You may also enjoy using Lingo Legend--it's an JRPG language learning app that I beta tested and I think that it's a nice way to review (it has some fun incentives). I'm not a big gamer, so I struggle with learning through games, but I've been picking up a lot of grammar through reading because I focus on finding things that I'm interested in, rather than things that are "at my level." When I start a manga, I will scour a ton of websites and forums and bug a ton of people when I come across a grammar point that I can't wrap my brain around because I want to be able to understand what's going on.

We have book clubs and gamers in my discord server, as well as places for people to post what they're practicing or to ask for help. We have people of all varying levels and different skillsets that love to share their wisdom with others.

I haven't used Bunpro, but I know that @sammilearns has, so she may be able to weigh in on that! And @tokidokitokyo @nihongoseito @chouhatsumimi @kanpeki-bekki @burgeoning-ambition probably also have even more tips that me--I'm trying to tag people that I know we all learn in different ways, so their tips and tricks might be just what you need!

Please weigh in, fellow langblr members! How have you been learning grammar? Are you game-ifying it? Have you turned it into math equations? Have you managed to tie it in with your special interest? I can't wait to see what people add to this post!

[russenoire]

the teruki hanazawa arc seized me by the brain almost two years ago and still refuses to let go. teru is just warped in a slow-burn-horror kind of way, despite his apparent good cheer, and i find him tragically fascinating.

i looked up a word he attempts to bludgeon intimidate shigeo with in episode 5: 上下関係。

it's read じょうげかんけい (jougekankei). for context, here's teru's dialogue where it appears:

｢聞きたいことは いくつかあるけどその前にハッキリさせとかないとね。上下関係ってやつを差！」 ききたい　こと　は　いくつ　か　ある　けど　その　まえ　に　はっきり　させ　と　かない　と　ね。じょうげかんけい　って　やつ　を　さ！ k'kitai koto wa ik'tsu ka aru kedo sono mae ni hakkiri sase to kanai to ne. jougekankei tte yatsu wo sa! 'i have some questions i want to ask you, but first i have to clarify something. between the two of us, who answers to whom?'

the english subs translate 上下関係 as 'hierarchy', though it's a little closer maybe to 'pecking order' or 'senpai/kouhai dynamics'. i couldn't even find it on a 15000-word japanese frequency list. fortunately, this 四字熟語 (よじじゅくご・yojijukugo・four-character idiom)'s individual components are common and easily assimilated; i was able to understand what it meant on sight:

上下 = among other meanings, high and low, top and bottom... the ruling and the ruled. kanji: 'up, above' + 'below, down, inferior'.

関係 = relationship, connection, concern. kanji: 'gateway, connection' + 'thread'

the katakanized english loanword for hierarchy, ハイアラーキー, is far more common in japanese. so why would teru use this word? why might he just drop it on shigeo without explanation as he does?

much of the vernacular co-opted by criminal organizations -- at least in anime -- tends towards the archaic and/or formal, in keeping with samurai ideals they profess to uphold. was this language he picked up from fending off claw mooks, alone, throughout his childhood?

knowing the exact word teru uses for 'hierarchy' lends even more hilarity in japanese to shigeo's bafflement when he hears it. it's unlikely that he would know teru's peculiar choice of expression, given his lack of interest in academics. the joke in the english translation falls a little flat IMHO, as the boy doesn't seem so poor a student as to be unfamiliar with the word 'hierarchy' or the concept.

i... i want to examine more of teru's language now in this arc, to see how much of it is as elevated as this word and his sense of self-importance here.

an edit (2023.03.31) for some minor errors in this post:

上下関係 actually isn't a yojijukugo... not all four-character expressions are four-character idioms, of course. i should have consulted the monolingual japanese dictionaries i use on this. ごめんなさい！

my transliteration of the line 「聞きたいことは いくつかあるけどその前にハッキリさせとかないとね。」 should have been: k'kitai koto wa ik'tsu ka aru kedo sono mae ni hakkiri sasetokanai to ne. i still get stumped semi-regularly by 〜て＋おくcontractions in the wild. thank you @listlessnss for this and the previous erratum! させとかない is just させる (to cause or make someone do. usually taught to JSL learners as an inflection of する) in its conjunctive affirmative form させて + 置く (as an auxiliary verb, here meaning to do a thing in preparation for something else).

'formal' would have been a better word choice than 'archaic' for describing 上下関係。上下関係 is not an archaic word, but it is uncommon-ish and more likely to be found in formal writings.

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 391 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

1 ヒーローは殲滅する‼︎ ヒーローはせんめつする‼︎ HIIROO wa senmetsu suru!! “Annihilate the heroes!!”

tagline 1 あふれるトゥワイス‼︎ あふれるトガ‼︎ afureru TOGA (kanji: TUWAISU)!! The overflowing Toga (read as: Twices)!!

tagline 2 No.391 拒んだ世界　　堀越耕平 ナンバー391 こばんだせかい　　ほりこしこうへい NANBAA 391 kobanda sekai   Horikoshi Kouhei No. 391 A World That Rejected  Kouhei Horikoshi

2 際限がない…！ キリがない…！ KIRI (kanji: saigen) ga nai...! “There’s no end to them...!”

3 ピクシーボブ　"個性"「土流」 ピクシーボブ　"こせい"「どりゅう」 PIKUSHIIBOBU “kosei” 「doryuu」 Pixie-bob   Quirk: Earth Flow

4 止まれえ‼︎ とまれえ‼︎ tomaree!! “Stooop!!”

1 流子ォ‼︎ りゅうこォ‼︎ RyuukoO!! “Ryuuko!!”

2 いかん「土流」が止められたら決壊する‼︎ いかん「どりゅう」がとめられたらけっかいする‼︎ ikan 「doryuu」 ga tomeraretara kekkai suru!! “Oh no, if Earth Flow is stopped, it’ll collaspe!!”

3 柔っ…‼︎ ヤワラっ…‼︎ YAWARA...!! “Soften...!!”

4 哀れな行進 サッドマンズデスパレード SADDO MANZU DESU PAREEDO Sad Man’s Death Parade

5 ぐぅう guuu “Guugh!”

6 トガは"トゥワイスに変身したトガ"を増やしている トガは"トゥワイスにへんしんしたじぶん"をふやしている TOGA wa “TUWAISU ni henshin shita jibun (kanji: TOGA)” wo fuyashite iru Toga is increasing the number of Togas-transformed-into-Twice.

7 トガの"個性"「変身」には血液摂取量による時間制限があるが トガの"こせい"「へんしん」にはけつえきぜっしゅりょうによるじかんせいげんがあるが TOGA no “kosei” 「henshin」 ni wa ketsueki zesshuryou ni yoru jikan seigen ga aru ga Toga’s quirk Transform has a time limit based on blood intake, but

8 ヒーロー側に血液保有量を推測する判断材料は無いそして知ろうが知るまいが ヒーローがわにけつえきほゆうりょうをすいそくするはんだんざいりょうはないそしてしろうがしるまいが HIIROO gawa ni kestueki hoyuuryou wo suisoku suru handan zairyou wa nai soshite shirou ga shiru mai ga the hero side has no basis to judge her blood intake. Then, whether or not they know that,

1 一度決壊してしまえば いちどけっかいしてしまえば ichido kekkai shite shimaeba if they break down just once,

2-3 圧倒的物量に周辺一帯の侵蝕にさして時間は掛からない あっとうてきぶつりょうにしゅうへんいったいのしんしょくにさしてじかんはかからない attouteki butsuryou ni shouhen ittai no shinshoku ni sashite jikan wa kakaranai it doesn’t take much time for the surrounding area to be eroded by [Toga’s] overwhelming numbers.

1 消えろヒーロー!!! きえろヒーロー!!! kiero HIIROO!!! “Disappear, heroes!!!”

2 燈矢くん…どうなったの とうやくん…どうなったの Touya-kun...dou natta no Touya-kun...what happened?

3 死んでしまったの？ しんでしまったの？ shinde shimatta no? Did you go and die?

4-5 またいなくなってしまうの mata inakunatte shimau no Are you gone again?

1 待って…！ まって…！ matte...! “Wait...!”

2 ゼロ・グラビティスペースウォーク！ ZERO GURABITI SUPEESU WOOKU! Zero Gravity Space Walk!

1 去年の夏からの短い付き合いだけど きょねんのなつからのみじかいつきあいだけど kyonen no natsu kara no mijikai tsukiai dakedo “Our acquaintance from summer last year was short, but”

2 私けっこう考え変わったよ！ わたしけっこうかんがえかわったよ！ watashi kekkou kangae kawatta yo! “I’ve changed my mind considerably!”

3 遅いって言ったでしょ おそいっていったでしょ osoi tte itta desho “Didn’t I tell you it’s [too] late?”

4 遅くてごめん！ おそくてごめん！ osokute gomen! “Sorry for being late!”

5 でも…見つけられた！ でも…みつけられた！ demo...mitsukerareta! “But...I was able to find you!”

6 …うるさい ...urusai “...shut up.”

7 あなたは泣いてたきっとーーー あなたはないてたきっとーーー anata wa naiteta kitto--- “The reason you were crying was surely because---”

8 トゥワイスに出来る事が出来なくて トゥワイスにできることができなくて TUWAISU ni dekiru koto ga dekinakute “you can’t do what the things Twice can, and”

9 なり 切れなくて…‼︎ なり きれなくて…‼︎ nari kirenakute...!! “you can’t become him completely...!!”

1 ヒミコちゃんの"好き"が死柄木たちには当てはまらなくて使えないのかも ヒミコちゃんの"すき"がしがらきたちにはあてはまらなくてつかえないのかも HIMIKO-chan no “suki” ga Shigaraki-tachi ni wa atehamaranakute tsukaenai no kamo Maybe Himiko-chan’s ‘love’ cannot be applied to Shigaraki and the others, and so she can’t use [their quirks].

2 梅雨ちゃんはああ推測してたけど つゆちゃんはああすいそくしてたけど Tsuyu-chan wa aa suisoku shiteta kedo Tsuyu-chan guessed that, but

3 ヒーローは HIIROO ha Annihilate...

4 トガの涙を見て トガのなみだをみて TOGA no namida wo mite When I saw Toga’s tears,

5 わかった気がする わかったきがする wakatta ki ga suru I got the feeling that I understood.

6 殲滅する せんめつする senmetsu suru ...the heroes

7 殺意が混ざって さついがまざって satsui ga mazatte “You mixed in your murderous intent,”

8 今は純粋な"好き"だけじゃない いまはじゅんすいな"すき"だけじゃない ima wa junsui na “suki” dake ja nai “so now it’s not just your pure ‘love’.” (Note: This “love’ is still just the vague suki word that means an object of affection, like or love.)

1 うるさいんだよ麗日お茶子!!! うるさいんだようららかおちゃこ!!! urusanda yo Uraraka Ochako!!! “Shut up, Ochako Uraraka!!!”

2-3 あなたが私の何を知ってるの⁉︎ あなたがわたしのなにをしってるの⁉︎ anata ga watashi no nani wo shitteru no!? “What do you know about me!?”

tagline 少女のさけびーー… しょうじょのさけびーー… shoujo no sakebi--... The scream of a young woman--...

[tokidokitokyo]

It's the end of 2024, and 2025 is about to begin. So I'd like to review my year of Japanese studies, including my progress on my goals from the beginning of the year, my progress overall, and where I fell short. This will be a long post, but since it's for my own benefit I hope you won't mind.

My review will include the following:

Evaluate how I did on my 2024 goals

Review the time that I dedicated to each area of study as well as what techniques worked for me and what didn't

Review briefly the materials I used to study in 2024

2024 Goals Progress

1. Read one page a day of 日本の歴史366 (にほんのれきし366) every day in 2024.

Status: Fail

I did not read a page every day ^.^ I figured it might be too much when I set this goal for the second year in a row, but the quickness with which I fell off surprised even me (it was February lol). I did read a few pages here and there throughout the year, but there was no consistency. Maybe when my son is old enough, we can read a page a day together. I would like to recommend this book, however, as it is interesting and the bite-size one-page-a-day Japanese history information is a good format for not getting too bogged down in reading long passages.

2. Review and learn grades 4, 5, and 6 of the 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ) - elementary school kanji.

Status: Success

I made it through the review of the second half of the elementary school kanji in 2024. Would I say I've mastered it? No. But, I have more confidence in remembering these kanji (recognizing them and remembering on'yomi and kun'yomi), so I will call it a success.

3. Read at least one book every three months.

Status: Mostly Success

I did not read one book every three months, but I finished a few books this year, and I will call that a success. I would love to read more novels in Japanese, but time is not on my side, and I will have to be satisfied with reading a few each year. I always try to get into book clubs but I usually fall behind. I might just try reading books that I am interested in for next year.

4. Write at least one sentence in Japanese every day.

Status: Fail

I did not achieve this goal for the second or maybe third year in a row, and I really should stop trying to assign it to myself (at least in such a strict format). I did write, but not everyday, and I didn't get the sentences corrected unless they were going out to my in-laws or sometimes to the Japanese preschool moms. I would like to write more, as writing sentences can be more challenging than speaking for me.

5. Practice Japanese at least 10 minutes every day.

Status: Much Success

I at least achieved this goal! Attainable goals are the best goals, and I continually assign this goal to myself, since then I know I will achieve at least one of my goals each year ^.^

So what did I learn about my study habits in 2024?

I need a routine or I just tend to give up. Lack of time is my biggest excuse, so I need to stop trying to cram too much into each study session.

My goals may be too specific, but I think that keeping in mind what I want to focus on for the year is a good thing because it makes me actively seek out studying in that area.

My time is very limited thanks to work and family commitments, so focusing on what I've achieved is more important than mentally beating myself up for falling short of my goals or comparing myself to the progress that other people achieve.

Despite the fact that I spend at least 10 minutes a day on Japanese on a daily basis, I want everyone to know that I have times where I am unproductive or am just not in the mood to study, and that's ok - brain breaks are important, and anime is always an acceptable study method.

2024 Study Area Progress

The study areas I focus on and track are:

Vocabulary

Kanji

Grammar

Listening

Reading

Speaking

Writing

I mark down daily what area I focus on (not the amount of time, just whether or not I focused on studying in that area on that day), and I was interested to see that the distribution of where I focus my time throughout the year was more even than I thought. I probably do more Speaking than I mark down, and Vocabulary and Kanji tend to come along with the other areas, but Listening and Reading were my biggest areas of focus. I listen to podcasts, shows, and conversations so that makes sense, and in 2024 I've been trying to read more, even if it's just a bit at a time. Grammar is an area I consistently try to work on but I still don't get to spend a lot of time on it.

Below, I'd like to make a few notes about what worked well for studying each area and things that didn't work out so well.

Vocabulary

I post vocabulary 5 days a week on tumblr, and usually they are words I've encountered in books or conversations, but also I use words from JLPT lists. I want to learn vocabulary so I only do one a day, and I also try to use it in conversation soon after I learn it. This helps me cement it in my memory rather than just reading it and forgetting it.

Vocabulary lists are hard for me since there are so many words, and even if they are related by topic or kanji, I find it harder to grasp if there is a list rather than one word that I can internalize. I also like to try to make sentences with words so that I have an example, rather than just a word in a vacuum. I'd like to start looking up the kanji more often rather than just writing down the word and not paying as much attention to the kanji, so that I can improve my kanji skills as well.

Kanji

When I started out studying Japanese, I wrote down kanji multiple times as I learned it so that I could remember how to write it. Now that I'm a busy adult, it's a lot more difficult to do that, but I do try to make some time for kanji practice. I'd like to do more handwriting, but maybe when my son is older and has kanji homework. I am a big proponent of learning how to write kanji, but being able to recognize it is a big accomplishment as well. So I try not to feel too bad about myself because many Japanese people are losing the ability to write kanji out thanks to the digital age.

Kanji flash cards I find very helpful for a quick review, and it makes me aware of the kanji I have forgotten as well as the kanji I do not know. Memorizing kanji is probably most people's least favorite part about Japanese, but I like kanji because it is like a puzzle comprised of different components, and you need to remember how to put it together.

Grammar

I think that I enjoy studying grammar the most of all study areas. I spend a lot of time reviewing grammar that I am unfamiliar with, trying to find example sentences and then write my own. Just reading the definition of the grammar point doesn't cut it for me. I also then try to put it into practice in conversation, even if it's sometimes forced. Repetition is key for grammar. Flash cards do not work for me my brain just can't process that.

Listening

This year the biggest amount of listening I did was conversations with the Japanese mothers at my son's Japanese preschool. I try to emulate them, so that I fit in, so I try to pay close attention to how they speak while I listen in. I also pick up new vocabulary and hearing it multiple times helps to reinforce it.

Other listening I do is Japanese TV and movies, primarily children's shows, but also some variety shows and shows for older audiences. I also include music, Japanese language podcasts (mostly about learning Japanese), and Instagram/TikTok/Facebook videos in my listening repertoire.

I figured out this year that I must do active listening to achieve any benefit - I am too good at just blocking out ambient noise to get any benefit from passive listening. So if I am doing something that involves thinking I can't have something on for listening in the background because I'll pay no attention to it.

Reading

I enjoy reading in English, so I want to enjoy novels in Japanese as well. And now that my level is high enough, I try to read more in Japanese. However, it's a lot harder than listening, so it takes me a long time to get through novels. Manga are easier, but I still don't have a lot of free time to read them. So I try to fit in reading where I can, and I also read articles or shorter bits of media to keep up my reading practice. When I read novels what I really want is time to get into the story and not have to stop after a short stretch, but longer stretches for reading are harder for me to come by.

Speaking

My primary speaking practice comes from speaking with the Japanese moms at Japanese preschool. I try to emulate them because that's the kind of speaker I want to be, but of course my American habits come through anyways. I try to use that to my advantage, but I always shy away from using the "gaijin pass" (being able to get away with things due to being a foreigner). So I try not to use English words when I'm speaking unless I absolutely cannot describe what I'm trying to say; I try to speak properly and not take short cuts; and in general I try to pay attention to how they speak and incorporate it into my speech.

I find this important because we are teaching our son Japanese and I want to also be good at Japanese. It's my own personal pride in the end, but I want to make the effort. So I also get conversation speaking practice at home on a daily basis. Additionally, when I am listening to podcasts or sometimes TV shows, I will speak back to them (for practice, not because I'm weird, of course) and sort of emulate a conversation. When I first started studying Japanese I spoke to my dog, to my parents (who can't speak Japanese), to the TV, and to inanimate objects, because I didn't have a lot of opportunities to practice speaking outside of class. And even now, I still do some of these, because outside of work I use almost exclusively Japanese when speaking.

Writing

Writing is where I always spend the least time in Japanese. Writing digitally even is a stretch, but writing by hand almost never happens. I want to dedicate time to writing but I have a lot to balance and I just don't make it happen. I want corrections, but I don't log into HiNative or HelloTalk to write sentences for corrections. I do write texts to the Japanese preschool moms, and also to my in-laws, and often I get them corrected because I have an overwhelming anxiety that people are judging my Japanese and finding it lacking.

I think that more writing practice will make me feel more confident, but Japanese writing involves so many cushion words that you need to include (open with a greeting, talk about the weather, inquire after their children, then get to the point of the message) that I find it stressful to write formal messages. I also want to write one-off sentences for practice, but I just don't make time for it (I'm really tired at the end of the day, and that's when I have time, but I just want to doom scroll). Someday I will write sentences, I believe in myself.

2024 Study Materials

I don't mean this to be a comprehensive list, but I wanted to jot down some of the books and other materials I used in 2024 to study Japanese, in case anyone else is interested (and also cos I tend to forget).

Books for Review

日本語総まとめN2 (Series) - The So-matome series is a good one for reviewing the different subject areas of Japanese that are required on the JLPT. I wouldn't recommend it as a standalone textbook, since it doesn't go into very deep review, but as a review workbook, the series is good. I know there are many series for review out there, but I have seen a lot of progress with So-matome. (Japanese and English).

Books for Fun

にゃんこ四字熟語辞典 - This book combines 4-character kanji idioms and full-page photos of cats, and so if you would like to learn and remember 4-character kanji idioms and you like cats, I would recommend this book. I think it is also good as a coffee table book. (Japanese only).

Books for Improving Speaking

わかる!話せる!日本語会話 発展文型125 (Speak Japanese! series) - This book introduces 125 sentence patterns for use in daily conversation. This is the intermediate book in the series, and has three parts - "Basic Sentence Styles by Form," "Basic Sentence Styles by Purpose," and "Basic Sentence Styles for Conveying Detailed Nuances." Familiarizing yourself with the sentence patterns as well as listening to the audio and shadowing will help improve your sentence forming ability on the fly. (Japanese with English).

尊敬語から美化語まで 外国人のための日本語敬語の使い方 基本表現85 (Speak Japanese! series) - This book introduces keigo and how to use it in everyday conversations. Since keigo is difficult even for native Japanese speakers, this goes into detail for Japanese learners. If you'd like to strengthen your understanding of and ability to use keigo, this is a valuable resource. (Japanese with English).

「表現力」に差がつく! 12歳までに知っておきたい言い換え図鑑 - This book focuses on how you phrase certain things when you speak to other people. While intended for older children to help them be more empathetic in their language choices, it is interesting to read about the nuances of the Japanese language, and to think about how you phrase things in a language that likes to avoid being direct. (Japanese only).

Books for Improving Reading

10分で読める伝記 1年生 - This series contains bite-sized biographies (10 minutes) of famous personages, which is ideal for reading in short periods of time. You learn something about a famous person as well as practicing reading in Japanese. I started out with the book for first graders, and would like to eventually read the other books in the series for older students. (Japanese only).

日本の歴史366 - This is a page-a-day book about Japanese history, intended for elementary school students. The one-page format makes it easy to read about historical events, and I often found myself looking up the events in more detail. (Japanese only).

Apps

renshuu.org - I use this primarily for flashcards for vocabulary & kanji

Todaii JP - I usually use this app to read articles, but it offers videos and other ways to practice Japanese

Japanese Pod 101 - I had a subscription to this site this year, and they give you lots of freebies, mostly aimed at beginners, but there is plenty of material for upper levels. The listening and quizzes on the learning track were my favorite parts.

In Conclusion (TL;DR)

If you have made it this far, I am impressed ^.^ Thanks for hanging out with me this year, and I hope that you will join me again in 2025 for more Japanese fun!

I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about studying Japanese, and actively trying to incorporate new things into my Japanese arsenal. I don't have a lot of time to study so I try to make the most of the time I have. Making Japanese a part of my daily life is the thing that propelled me from zero to hero (ok I'm still at the intermediate plateau but I don't think there's a stop to get off any time soon) so I encourage the students I've TA'd and even the casual learners I know to try to incorporate a little Japanese every day. There's no magical formula, but you too can become 日本語上手 if you just work at it.

Thank you all for the support, likes, comments, and reblogs in 2024! Wishing you the best in 2025!

[outofcontextbokumono]

In your Allen post you mentioned Natsume is notorious for bad translations. That's super interesting, I had no idea! Is it more of spelling error stuff or just straight up mistranslations?

first of all great question anon!! it's kind of a mix of both, and it varies from game to game. most natsume dialogue just generally reads very clunky and robotic in the english versions, especially when compared to the newer games, where everyone has their own unique way of speaking, and you can usually tell who's talking just based on their mannerisms.

there's more general info on this topic + natsume's involvement with marvelous games in my masterpost here.

xseed's newer games obviously aren't immune to forgetting a few punctuation marks here and there, but natsume's was bad. like, "something about the games just feel Off and uncanny and there's no other way to explain it" bad.

i'm pretty sure it's just because the translators weren't native english speakers, so everything is translated super literally, but if you are one yourself it becomes blatantly obvious simply by looking at the dialogue for more than 5 minutes. this ranges anywhere from minor miswordings to lines that just don't make any sense at all no matter how many times you read them.

and then there's stuff that's so messed up we don't even KNOW how it got there. like some of this shit i would 100% believe you if you just said the game got corrupted because if it isn't that then i can only assume the employees did a large dose of crack cocaine before translating these games. i'm talking like... entire lines that didn't even get translated. text so butchered its straight up unreadable. that one time they misspelled their own NAME in the startup screen. TWICE.

and, last but not least, probably one of my all time favorite errors in a natsume game but one i'll never be able to post here because it's funny purely in context- and it is the singular line in harvest moon: friends of mineral town where the priest, carter, just speaks to you in fucking German

this. this is the error i don't have even the SLIGHTEST explanation for. and, correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm 99.9% sure nobody else does either.

this was....just one line. just the one line of dialogue. where he speaks german. in a japanese farming game that was being localized into english.

at least with the untranslated kanji you have some general sense of how that happened. like, yeah, okay, they just missed a line, whatever. but this isn't even remotely close to the same situation. there should be NO german in this equation whatsoever. it's like if you did 2 + 2 and somehow got 17. and nobody looked over your paper and went, "hey, that doesn't look quite right, man, maybe you should fix that", so you just turned it in and for some reason not even the TEACHER questioned it, they gave you a full grade and a gold star and put your paper on the whiteboard clear as day for all your classmates to see. that's what this feels like.

I. do not think the natsume employees are okay can someone check on them for me

[kibbles-bits]

*slip in 5 buck to talk about your Akaza x Douma au*

So this is called the SUN AU which I will make no content for.

It takes place anywhere between 20 to 100 years before the show. It's KIND OF Doukaza. It's basically the two going on a life changing fieldtrip together. Text wall under the cut.

Ahem. So, Muzan makes demons to look for the blue spider lily so he can walk in the sun or so they can develop sun immunity and he can absorb the demon and steal the ability. Whichever comes first, right? Well, I thought it'd be hilarious if Douma just... accidentally found the flower. And since no one tells him anything ever, he experiments with it himself and OOPS now he can walk in the sun. He's like, cool! Sun! Kinda a jerk move of Muzan not to tell us about that. And he doesn't feel anything over the reveal, really. Doesn't matter to him much. But you know who it would matter to? His BFF Akaza, who is the one who searches the hardest on Muzan’s orders and gets punished for never finding it He makes a second cure and dries and stores the remainder of the flower in a little glass jar so Akaza can deliver it to Muzan It takes a while to convince Akaza to come over and when he does he shows him he can walk in the sun now :D (Akaza was disappointed when he saw him walk outside. He thought he was gonna kill himself for him. Damn) Douma in the sun is a shock. He asks HOW. Cause wtf. Douma shows him the flower and Akaza is pissed at first because of COURSE Douma found it. Now he'd be rewarded and get even STRONGER than him. Fuck Douma. He hates Douma. Then Douma hands the flower to his BFF.  Akaza is suspicious but he takes it cause he's not gonna turn down an opportunity to get stronger  Douma also gives him the cure. Akaza hesitates to take it first, but Douma points out if he can go out in the sun he can deliver it to Muzan faster. So it all works out! Akaza gets to sun walk too He leaves to deliver it to Muzan. Douma decides to chill But then Douma notices something a little strange the longer he stands in the sun His eyes kinda burn. Which kinda sucks. When it does stop, he notices he can't sense the other demons anymore. Any demons. His connection to them is gone. When he looks at his eyes, he finds out the kanji in them disappeared. Oops, he accidentally broke free of Muzan and his curse. (Sun exposure burned traces of Muzan away. He's still a demon... just a free one that can walk in the sun. this is solely for plot reasons.)

And he's like "huh. OK, Muzan probably isn't gonna like that" Cause Muzan wants to be in control of everything. He should probably warn his BFF So Akaza is delivering the flower and Muzan immediately zeroes in on the fact Akaza walked here. In the sun. He doesn't wait to hear anything he has to say. He stabs Akaza to absorb him. Akaza: FUCKING DOUMA. Douma shows up and is like, "Oh. Yikes. I'm definitely a little late and interrupting something." And well, he's faced with a little dilemma, isn't he? Because that sure is his BFF being eated there. And that's also his boss, who is the strongest being in existence. But he's not his boss anymore, is he? Oh, but he's still super strong... and absorbing Akaza would make him even stronger. Why was he absorbing Akaza anyway? Akaza was loyal. Akaza was delivering the flower to him. Would Muzan absorb Douma? He knows he doesn't like him... and, yeah, he's also free of his curse. Muzan would be angry and kill him. Definitely. Just look at poor Akaza! His best friend! Almost all swallowed up! Poor thing. Douma should definitely leave… Ah, but if Akaza was eaten then Muzan will be able to go in the sun too, wouldn't he? He'd be able to follow Douma. He'd be able to kill him… And he's not ready to die quite yet! Buuuuut maybe Muzan would be so happy to walk in the sun he would spare Douma? MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm... Geez this is such a hard decision! Muzan was the most powerful being he'd ever known. The closest thing to a God Douma knew of. And Gods weren't very merciful in their stories… And Akaza’s his Best Friend. Last he checked, you're supposed to help your best friends! Hmmmm. Ok. Douma attacks Muzan and frees Akaza. Gods are bullshit anyway.

Because Douma was freed, Muzan hadn't sensed him coming. As soon as Akaza is free they bolt outside in the sun. Where Muzan can't follow. Just a few feet away. There is a moment where they come to a subconscious realization that "holy shit we've one upped muzan" And then they run. And so begins the Akaza and Douma’s life changing fieldtrip in the sun.

Which is mostly Akaza trying to run away from Douma.

Cause Akaza leads the way at first and they run for a really long time. Douma had like, stalled for a second to go back to his temple but continued running instead since Akaza didn't stop. He also came to the realization he can't go back to his temple. Ever.

When he tells Akaza they've probably run far enough for now, Akaza turns around and explodes his head cause ITS ALL HIS FAULT. Akaza is kinda freaking out. He doesn't know what to do with himself. And Douma isn't leaving. He can't escape from Douma night or day. Demons don't get tired. Douma is also having a moment where he realizes he can't go home - he just abandoned all his poor humans. How was he gonna help them now? Akaza tells Douma to fuck off And it clicks for Douma. He has to stay! He saved Akaza from death. Akaza is his responsibility now. Akaza is horrified. So Akaza wants to get rid of Douma. Thats his one goal. Other than getting stronger that's pretty much all he has left

Training and looking for the flower is all he ever did. So in a way, running from Douma is keeping him a little sane

Douma sticks around because he has fully convinced himself Akaza needs to be taken care of his life is meaningless if he isn't helping someone after all and, more logically, the reason he gives Akaza eventually: Something along the lines of, “You know, Akaza… Staying together is the best and safest course of action. Muzan only needs to absorb one of us to walk in the sun and whoever that isn’t will know no peace. At least when we’re together, we will know he doesn’t have that ability.” Akaza does, eventually, find out a way to slip away from Douma. Because Douma, the fucking hypocrite has his own dietary restrictions. Akaza finds out about it when he finally hunts and kills some Bad Dudes in the act of doing Bad Things. And he tells Douma that food is only his. And Douma's like, "np! i don't eat that sort anyway" And Akaza doesn't know what he means right away. He mostly goes after men. strong men, and usually the ones lurking around are violent or 'bad' and Douma isn't killing any or hunting them. Douma also doesn't leave Akaza because he knows once Akaza is out of his sight the demon is gonna fucking BOOK it. So Akaza's brilliant idea is to try and starve him :D At least long enough to get Douma to leave and hunt somewhere else. He goes to like, the seediest crime ridden places and eats only there. Douma know what he's doing >:T Aaaaand it works. Douma is too hungry. He leaves to find someone to eat and when he comes back Akaza is gone. He's totally sad his BFF ditched him :< Extremely sad. He's just heartbroken.  Er, well, he knows he's supposed to be Really, he doesn't care. ...darn. He was really hoping he'd feel something over that! He should be sad he was gone! He had no place to call home, no attendants, no followers, no master and now, apparently, no friends.  He was completely alone and he didn't feel a thing over it! He tried. He really, really tried.  He was supposed to be sad. Depressed, even, because he knew Akaza hated him. This was confirmation. Decades of being rejected should be taking its toll on him. It should hurt. He should be crying! But nope. nothing. ... OH WELL

....

I'm not sure, exactly, how all of this gets resolved and they start traveling together again. Idk, maybe Douma feels something or maybe Akaza doesn't know what to do with himself anymore. But they do end up together again and they sort out the eating thing! Akaza doesn't care what happens to the women, just as long as he's not the one to kill them… And Douma oh so loves to eat them. Douma always gets the first kill and the way the men... the husbands, brothers and sons fought when they saw their loved ones dead ... it gave them something more. Their anger and thirst for revenge and the pain added something to their hits when Akaza fought them. They were usually weak, in the end. But with every strike Akaza inflicted came a feeling: "This is what you deserve. you couldn't protect them." So yeah! eating works out! They can clear out a whole family without leaving witnesses. It's great. Killing in the night and day also makes it hard for slayers to track them good times all around tbh. for them. not for the people they eat or the slayers. Also, since this is all in the past, Kanae and Kotoha get to live, yay!

All the middle stuff is just like... doukaza. Idk lol. they're together for a while and are only a tiny bit codependant and cuddly. Because i like characters being cuddly.

And then it turns into doumoha and renkaza

So 15ish years before the main story, Akaza and Douma are out looking for food and they find an abusive husband and mother-in-law and a poor lady with a baby. Douma calls dibs on the poor lady and baby. He stopped to chat for a second once he learned she wanted to get away from her abusive family cause he's like 'oh. She won't be sad they're dead so I wouldn't really be saving her from anything' Cause one of the reasons eating the women works so well is that they don't have to grieve their dead husbands/brothers/sons when he 'saves' them. But when she decides to travel through the woods to find a new village he decides to eat her again because there's no way she'll make it out alive and really he'd be doing her a favor. He tells her she wouldn't stand a chance out there and she's just: >:D I GOT DIS and >:3

And he's like Oh Oh that's cute. Because at this point he's had DEVELOPMENT and FEELINGS. And oh no his heart went doki doki "AKAZA DONOOOO" When Akaza comes to check what's taking so long, Douma is like "can I please not eat her" Akaza: wut Douma: ima walk her to a new home  Akaza: omfg They've spared the occasional human before for different reasons, so Douma is just taking his turn Akaza just tells him whatever. his lunch is getting cold. Kotoha: lunch??? Douma, quickly ushering her away: we should go now! (the mother in law probably escapes somewhere... or maybe douma kills her later idk)

The rest is like, big MAYBEs to get the two back into the main plot Cause Douma and Kotoha eventually get together but Douma is kinda forced to remember he will outlive her. And that really, REALLY sucks. He'd like to turn her into a demon. Unfortunately, he lost that ability when he broke free of Muzan... so he wants to find another demon to turn her. Without getting Muzan's attention. Akaza is going nuts btw. He thinks this is foolish but at this point he and Douma have been together for a while and that really is his BFF so he. Helps.  ...Something something... Stuff happens. End up meeting lady Tamayo who can turn people into demons with less risk... but she refuses to turn Kotoha. Unless... maybe... they can get blood from the upper moons. (Muzans blood was burned out of them so theirs is no good) She also doesn't really wanna work with like, murderers . So they have to cut back alot. She introduces them to blood bags but they don't take to them well. Eventually she tells them the blood she's collecting from demons will be used for a cure. She offers to give it to them if she's successful instead of turning Kotoha into a demon (they haven't even asked Kotoha yet...) and Douma uuuh... Thinks about it Akaza puts his foot down right then and there. Cause humanity is bullshit. Why would you want to return to such a helpless state? To wither away and die? Douma assures him he won't take the cure if there is one. Though, privately, he does really wanna consider it. Since he has feelings and all now - there's a bunch of human experiences he missed and what he DID experience he had felt nothing over... Aaaaand he's pretty sure Kotoha wouldn't want to eat people... and what about Inosuke?

...And that's pretty much all i have, though I know Renkaza would be in there.

I will not add to this or draw for it.

[danieyells]

HAKU'S LAST NAME IS THE NAME OF FUCKING THE SWORD SUSANOO FOUND THAT'S ONE OF THE THREE IMPERIAL REGALIA OF JAPAN IT EVEN USES THE SAME KANJI

The sword represents valor though so maybe that means Haku's good??? Maybe it's a coincidence?????? I DON'T KNOW BUT I REMEMBERED ALL OF A SUDDEN.

The other regalia are a mirror and a magatama

Then again Haku is from a prominent shrine so maybe that's why his name has such an important meaning???

I HAVE TO WAKE UP IN LIKE 5 HOURS I'M GOING TO BED INSTEAD OF THINKING ABOUT THIS I HOPE it's probably mostly just to make his name more prominent thanks to his family being a big deal. But like it hit me while i was trying to go to sleep. . .i'm sleepy lol