#i'm not good enough at japanese to actually read the manga in japanese or anything

[pikahlua]

Fourteen Days of MHA: Day 3

Light Fades to Rain

Okay, let's gush. Here are my feelings about the anime adaptation of chapters 360-362: season 7 episode 11. This will quickly devolve from eloquent discussion to raging madness I promise.

The opening five minutes are the weakest part of the episode. This is the only section I will lodge any complaints about, and honestly they're not that serious.

The sadomasochism got toned down :P

I kind of expected it, and honestly I get why. Even though it was scaled back, the scene was effective enough for most viewers because there's just something about seeing it animated that makes it feel visceral anyways. The detail was always going to be reduced in the art when adapted to animation, and a lot of that art could've looked really bad without the necessary detail.

But it wouldn't be on brand for me if I didn't mention that it bummed me out lol.

The only other thing I can complain about isn't even an issue with the episode, it's an error in the subtitles.

"...you're just goldfish poop next to All For One."

a) It should be "One For All," not "All For One."

b) I don't think they should have kept it as "goldfish poop." Sorry to any language purists out there, but the idiomatic meaning of this phrase in Japanese will not get picked up by an English-speaking audience--and that idiom is important. It has an impact on how Katsuki behaves going forward. I think the subtitles should have changed that to something like "a minnow in One For All's wake" or "a tag-along weakling," ANYTHING to get the point across that Tomura is trying to inflict psychological damage by telling Katsuki he'll never amount to anything on the level of One For All. That message informs the rest of the episode!

Now, if that's the only complaint I have about this whole episode--a slightly too-fast-paced-under-detailed opening scene and a bad subtitle--then I'm a happy camper. And indeed that is the only complaint I have.

This episode is a masterpiece of adaptation.

The focus on the Big Three is so good because it does such a good job of masking where the episode is going but it's perfectly in-theme because of the parallels the three of them have with Izuku and Katsuki. IT JUST WORKS MAN. I LOVE IT.

The music that plays when Katsuki mutters is an excellent choice, though I wish they could have done something to hammer the point home more that he was indeed muttering and analyzing like Izuku does. Maybe the little "mutter" text would've been dissonant in tone lol but still I wish there was a way they could've done it. I do think the point does come across in the end still, but it's just more impactful when you get to see the little "mutter" text come full circle. Yeah yeah, manga vs anime and all that.

I didn't expect the tone they went with for Jeanist's reaction to Katsuki's muttering, but it was just different not like bad or anything. I kinda liked the whole "what the fuuuuck" vibe of it. I was thinking more like "Holy shit, I'm a proud dad" tone but this works XD

Jeanist is such a dad.

HE SPARKLE. KATSUKI, HE SPARKLE. IT SO PRETTY. AT LAST.

The animators were SOOOO trying to hide the twist this episode from the anime-only viewers, they didn't even put Katsuki on the commercial bumpers, they didn't want to SPOIL THE SURPRISE. IT'S SO GOOD.

Lost it at Tenko's freak out (damn voice actor wow) and Mirio's "g-gomen." I need the dub of this scene so bad.

JEANIST MY FIRST LOVE, DAD-ING SO HARD ALL OVER THIS EPISODE LOOK AT HIM GO.

Nejire is adorable as hell and everyone in MHA is so easily read as autistic it's remarkable actually.

They really put the typography behind the plasma cannon they actually did that.

UNF THAT PIANO. THE PIANO GOES OFF ALL OVER THE PLACE THIS EPISODE, DAMN.

Also good job on making the plasma cannon blast look small and precise to contrast Katsuki's attack last episode, because Katsuki definitely has more firepower but Tamaki has the finesse to concentrate the attack for a sustained period.

BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS BOOTS

Everything from BOOTS on is perfection I know you all already know that.

Jeanist's voice acting is underappreciated, I really loved him this episode.

The little special sound effect for his clusters now!!! IT MAKES ME SO EXCITED. I CAN'T WAIT TO SUPERIMPOSE IT OVER KATAMARI DAMACY NEXT SEASON

Present Mic with the La Brava's-Love-quirk soft narration omg [chef's kiss]

OKAMOTO. OKAMOTO OH MY GOD. YOU GIVING ME FEELINGS WITH YOUR VOICE CRACKS I CAN'T SLEEP

The slo-mo shots are so pretty ;_;

THEY GAVE US MORE KUDOU TOO AND IT WAS SO GOOD, THE CONNECTION WAS DRAWN SO WELL BETWEEN HIM AND KATSUKI I AM LOVING IT SO MUCH. IT ALSO HELPS THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING AUDIENCE UNDERSTAND THIS IS DEFINITELY THE AFO-DOMINANT PERSONALITY NOT TOMURA.

Even if this series ends without explaining it, I'm going to come up with my own explanation for that vestige world shit. That cannot just be symbolic afterlife bullcrap. IT MEANS SOMETHING.

He's just a boy ;_; He's just a baby boyyyyyy

GIVE HIM HIS AUTOGRAPH BY THE END OF THIS SERIES SO HELP ME--

he spin thru the air like a meme

It's time for Horikoshi's favorite character: Bakucorpse!

You wanted the blue sky gone, but at what cost?

YES I'M LOVING THE VIBE FROM THE THUNDER SOUND

Oh...oh it hurts a lot to see in color, oh he's so pale...ohhhh no

THAT ENDING SONG? NOW? HOW DARE.

That horrifying feeling of emptiness at the end :)

The joy of watching others cry over this 👀

Katsuki is the actual symbol of hope I don't care what anyone says. All hope of victory is lost with his death and the only chance of winning comes from reviving him with the literal power of hopes and prayers and wishes. He is Hope Incarnate. A very Sassy (Soft Precious) Hope Incarnate.

[centrally-unplanned]

I blogged before about this company, Orange, that is an AI-powered manga translation company. Essentially, their pitch is that most manga is still (officially) untranslated, a ton of manga gets made after all but few become mainstream enough to get ported overseas. They posit the barrier to that is the cost of translation; if they could automate that process, then they can make viable for release what previously was not. That concept rests on two questions - does the tech pan out, and does the economics add up?

Recently they went live, under the name Emaqi, so we can better explore those questions. What I notice on first glance is the pitch seems to have shifted a little bit in post:

You are not the translators of Vinland Saga, Witch Hat Atelier, or Magic Knight Rayearth, very obviously so. They have Sailor Moon in here lol. These are just the official translations being cross-listed into their "manga platform", where you buy it there and it lives, DRM-locked, in their app. Which is fair enough as a model, that is just Kindle, it works. Though Kindle and a dozen others already exist, so their value-add has to be the AI translation stuff right? That is why I would choose this over another app.

Which they do have, though it is kind of buried:

"Only on emaqi" - there is no mention of the translation approach, poor guys! Can't fault the branding decision I guess given the state of the discourse. When it comes to the products themselves, I went through ~6 or so of the sample chapters of different manga, did a few spot checks with the original Japanese, and read the reviews of some others who looked into it. They seem fine! I am cautiously impressed, I think there proofers did a good job smoothing out some edges, it has a "manga tone", and while small issues like the hyphenation the reviewer above mentioned do exist and are legit noticeable, they aren't common and not a huge deal. It has flow issues? Some dialogue should link together in how it is written, but doesn't. But it isn't crazy off or anything. You will not be wowed by these, but certainly if you are someone who reads bootleg scanlations you are gonna have no problems. A lot of manga uses pretty simple vocab and isn't breaking new ground on plot, I can see how a purpose-built tool could handle it well enough.

The economics though...here is where I don't think this case was ever going to pencil out and isn't now. Because I am pretty sure no one here has heard of any of the manga listed above as exclusives. (I saw 90's manga Geobreeders in there, but that was already partially translated in the 2000's, not sure if they did a new one? Setting it aside) Which, of course you haven't, if you had it probably would have been translated! Books are a 90:10 market, most books never get read and some books get read a ton. Anything big enough can justify a professional translation, and the other can't really sell to begin with.

On top of that, their model is mass translation; which means these obscure manga are presented to you with no context, no hype, no build-up. Wtf is The Blood Blooms In the Barrens?? See, if you were like a boutique publisher, selecting "the best of the best" in untranslated manga, you would promote your specific product. Interviews, social media, the value of the brand-itself as a quality seal. Publishing less is more, actually, your value as a publisher is as a quality selector. Or you could be say the porn market, where you max quantity so people can search "foot fetish breeding kink oshi no ko" and get results; they know what they want. But they aren't doing either! And to be blunt a lot of these are not gonna sell on their art alone:

I'm not mocking The Delayed Highschool Life of a Laborer here, that is better than I could do; but if you want to me spend money on a whim the bar is high and these don't reach it. Which of course they don't, they would be professionally translated if they did.

And finally, the price - $5 dollars, for volume 1's, like a 100-200 pages. The cross-listed manga typically sells for ~$10? That isn't much cheaper! If "translation" was this big cost barrier, and all you got is cutting the price of ebooks in half, I don't know if the analysis was so solid. This is a new product, I doubt they are overcharging to make a quick buck right now - this is the "sell at cost to scale" era.

In all of their lead up press they would say things like this:

Orange's process uses AI to read the manga through image analysis and character recognition, then to translate the words into English, Chinese and other languages. The technology is specialized for manga, meaning it is able to handle wordplay and other difficult-to-translate phrases. A human translator then makes corrections and adjustments. The process can deliver a manga translation in as little as two days. Orange will work with multiple Japanese publishers. The company looks initially to complete 500 translations monthly.

But this is missing a lot of context. For one, these manga are simple high school or battle manga that are ~200 pages long, many of those pages have only a few lines of dialogue, etc. Imagine you are a professional translator, and you are given that manga to translate, all the set-up done for you, all you gotta do is write. How long do you think that would take? Not that long! It could probably take like a week if it's actually all you did (calc'd from a 10k word count manga volume, 2k is a typical "good translator" per day count - many manga are shorter than that). And note how they said "as little as two days" - not median two days! Just, you know, aspirationally.

Translation is just not a big bottleneck. You gotta do layouts, lettering, proofs, etc, these can all take just as much time - and are being done by people, they still need wage workers doing all this. But that is small fry in comparison to publishing contracts, author approvals, distribution, all of that. And most importantly, product acquisition - you have to get authors to sign with you! That can be months of work. I am sure they are trying to get bulk agreements with publishers and such, but authors will push back on that, this is not an easy endeavor.

Which is why, in above, they say they hope to have "500 translations monthly". And after a year+ of work, on launch, they have...

...18. As best I can tell at least, their site deliberately obfuscates what they actually translated versus are just hosting for resale after all.

So yeah, as mentioned I don't think the economics pencil out. These aren't worth $5 dollars, they can't actually generate volume that makes "massive economies of scale" actually valuable, and their approach is currently antithetical to the idea of generating traction for any of their individual works. Niche publishing just doesn't work this way.

But it is early days, and hey I respect the experiment! I do think the tech is pretty good, and it is nice to see a company showcase it. It isn't quite good enough yet for prime time, but it could get there. I do want more manga to get exposure and audience; I will give a fair shake to any who try.

[aihoshiino]

ive seen interpretations of both but do you think ayumi's abuse of ai only started once the stepdad starting to uh make eyes at her or if it already was a thing before but escalated due to it?

I'm pretty certain and always have been that Ayumi was abusive to Ai the entire time she was in her care - 131 just clarified the shape of it and its point of explosive escalation.

Even prior to that, I was pretty firm in my reading that Ai did not have anything resembling a normative upbringing in her mother's household. Even before we have any of the details about that relationship presented to us, Ai says herself in chapter 1 of the manga no less that she has 'always wanted' a family because she does not have one. As 131 tells us, Ai didn't leave her mother's house until she was nine or ten years old at the very least. She was raised by Ayumi for ten years and still considers herself to be a person who never had a family.

We see this clarified in chapter 8 where Ai more explicitly talks about her abuse: Ayumi abandoned her to the care system after her arrest, which Ai frames as preferable to "getting hit", making it more or less explicit that Ayumi was, in fact, physically violent towards her outside of the incident we hear about in 45510. However, the most damning part of this scene to me comes from elsewhere:

"I don't remember ever being loved."

Even by her own mother. Ai has no memory of ever being loved by Ayumi. We get a reiteration of this idea during Ryosuke's attack on her, as Ai says over and over: she doesn't understand love. She doesn't know how to love people, no matter how desperately she tries.

This by itself is all very alarming before you ever account for Ayumi's violence. Remember that Ai cannot be any older than 11 or 12 years old here and yet this is still how she chooses to describe herself: as a person with no memory of ever being loved. As an antisocial liar, a people-hating liar. A twelve year old child should not be able to even think of herself in these terms, let alone articulate them.

There's a lot of other small hints scattered around, too— Ai is implied to have some anxieties relating to food security and she is shown to be quite short and slight even by the standards of an average Japanese woman, which possibly implies a history of not being fed enough or not having access to food as and when she needed to eat. During her big Ai research session, Akane even directly says that, with the way Ai's personality turned out, there's no way she could have come from a good home environment.

Ai's personality isn't the only red flag here, though. Ayumi herself and the way she talks about both Ai and her abuse of Ai when Aqua finally speaks to her in person paints a very clear picture of the sort of mother she likely was, even in the short amount of time that we have page time with her. I did a much longer analysis of her in a previous post but to TL;DR it, Ayumi spends the entire conversation simultaneously backpedalling at breakneck speed from any claim of agency and responsibility in her abuse of Ai while also placing the blame of that abuse on Ai herself.

Not only that, but here's something I just caught on reviewing the chapter right now — Ayumi never even actually admits to abusing her daughter. Pay attention to how she describes the series of events: She became angry at her boyfriend, jealous of her daughter and then… their family just 'fell apart'. There is a glaring hole, a missing step in this process and that missing step is her violence towards Ai. The closest she ever gets to acknowledging any sort of mistreatment is her saying that she would just "wind up hurting" Ai if they were together again, which is about the most understated nothing sentiment imaginable. Of course Ayumi can never atone for what she did. She can't even fucking admit it.

The way Ayumi disavows herself of agency while centering Ai as holding responsibility for her own victimization and abuse combined with Ai's own personality pretty much makes it explicit to me that Ayumi was emotionally abusive to Ai for all her life. Specifically, I think Ayumi was probably the sort of mother that is colloquially referred to as a "narcissistic mother" - specifically, I think she falls under the umbrella of 'covert narcissist'. While discussing this type of behavior, psychologist Craig Malkin said "Covert narcissists feel special because they believe their pain is more important than others". Covert narcissism is defined by jealousy, difficulty maintaining meaningful relationships, projection of insecurities onto others (in this case, from mother to daughter) and an inability to handle criticism or cop to their own behavior. Sound like someone we know?

Another big tell is just… honestly, looking at any list of the long term effects of this kind of abuse on children. Growing up under this kind of parenting leads to a whole host of issues, but most relevant to my point here is as follows:

Hyper-vigilance towards other peoples' feelings

Poor emotional intelligence; specifically, a lack of comprehension of your own emotions

Unhealthy desires for validation from other people and tendencies towards codependency in relationships

Perfectionism and/or self destructive tendencies, either separately or in parallel

Low self esteem, poor self image, high levels of self doubt and self criticism.

If you're reading that list and going wow! this is basically just a Greatest Hits of everything wrong with Hoshino Ai! then congratulations because you successfully completed my thought experiment for me. I've described the effects of Ayumi's abuse as running through Ai like fault lines before and this is the sort of thing I mean.

I also don't want to leave it unspoken that like… violence the likes of which Ayumi subjected Ai to does not come from nowhere. A normal, loving parent does not escalate to putting fucking glass in her daughter's food no matter what the hell else is going on in their life. It's unclear whether Ayumi's physical abuse of Ai was something that only started after the incident with her stepfather or if it was an aspect of the ongoing abuse she subjected Ai to all her life, but I simply don't think it's possible with everything the manga has laid out, explicitly and implicitly, about their relationship that Ayumi was ever a loving mother to Ai or that the two of them ever had a remotely normal relationship. In a horrible way, Ayumi's abandonment of Ai was the kindest thing she ever did for her, because it means she finally got the fuck out of her life.

[tuliharja]

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict episode 2 review

What I really love in BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War anime (apart from cool fights and moments) is when it gets all philosophical. It really felt like this episode was a good mixture of philosophical questions, a cool fight(s), and a rollercoaster of emotions. All those combined made this episode extremely good and I'm already waiting for the next episode with a little fear in my heart because manga-reader here. Not to mention the end's monologue from Ukitake...those who know about that pic of Ukitake and the implications of the next episode's name, will know what I mean -especially if they are fans of Ukitake!

Anyway, as for the actual episode...the beginning of Yhwach and Soul King felt very symbolic. Like, I'm not sure if I was reading a tad bit too much into it, but was that reference to Western religions? I know some Japanese mangakas like to take their inspiration from Western religions because while to us (at least to non-Asian ones) all Asian religions feel super exotic, I wonder if it's the same to them toward Western ones? Because I could see some echoes about that when Soul King all but did cast his son from Heaven (?) to Earth (?) to us normal people (?). It personally made me think that normal (?) people who didn't appreciate Yhwach and his people (because at this point there will be Yhwach and his people versus the rest of the people) damned them all. Everything hints at it and even Urahara outright admits it in this episode how Quichies were on the brink of extinction not once, but twice. Now, doesn't that sound familiar to at least some people? But what if...the son of the "God" had got enough? With the curve ball of his Father being used in the most brutal manner? Because we must admit at the beginning when Soul King cast Yhwach down from Heaven (?) he still had seemingly his all limbs, but now...he was just a torso in a huge, sealed crystal. Is that truly living? So, the fact Yhwach wants to kill his Father...isn't that in a way wanting to rescue him? Is he truly a bad guy? It's hard to write because it's obvious if there isn't Soul King it means everything will crumble. But it then raises the question: who decided on such a world order where you need that one godly being to hold it all together? (I know hints and bits of light novels after the manga, so I have some sort of picture about this, but not fully.)

I couldn't help but wonder when Yhwach boasted about wanting to create a new world, what kind of world it would be? Again, I know somewhat about it, thanks to the manga, but it was basically one sentence. It didn't really give us anything. Like, come on Yhwach. Give us a pitch of your new world! What it would have? How it would run? Give us some details, because otherwise, he will appear as the 'bad guy'. After all, if one could create a utopia to replace the current bad systems, wouldn't that be wonderful? But, if one won't give enough details about said 'utopia', will it truly be that utopia or even a better world? Because if it's just wiping the old away just because one (in this case Yhwach) didn't like it, but it'll just be as bad as the old one(s), what's the point? You'll just appear as a selfish person to the majority of the people who are a bit cray-cray. Or maybe an unfortunate victim who had to be sacrificed for the majority. After all, unlike in certain American movies where it's 'fine' to kill thousands or even millions of people for the sake of that one, savior person, in Asian countries (as far as I'm aware) it's not. In there they go 'it's alright to sacrifice that one person for the sake of thousands or millions of people'. I feel like that is the case in Yhwach versus everybody else. At least on some level. Which actually makes this both sad and very interesting to watch. After all, when you start to think things there really won't be winners in the end yet at the same time it's still very interesting to watch and see how things will turn out in the end. After all, like it was mentioned in the episode and implied, some sacrifices must be made for the peace and we can then decide if it was worth it or not or at least okay.

If not anything else, it'll be an interesting ride, because man! The fight between Yhwach and Ichigo was cool. The animation was beautiful and the fact Ichigo represented the sun while Yhwach represented the moon/darkness was cool, yet both were equally bright in their own ways until the very end when the fight brought them back to Soul King's palace. As a side note, anyone who has to fix Soul King's realm afterward...that person will have lots of fixing to do.

Only when the fight did go back to Soul King's own palace, things took a dark run. The fact the palette turned darker and then red to represent blood and the fact that 'this is serious, things WILL go downhill' gave the weight of things. Especially when Ichigo finished Yhwach's 'job'. I suppose Ichigo never learned when someone is pierced by something and it's on them, you don't take it out from them. After all, the moment you do (even in real life!) the blood starts to move and you'll bleed to your death...so while Soul King didn't bleed to his death, Ichigo all but sealed the deal by taking Yhwach's sword from him.

The whole monologue of Yhwach needing Ichigo to kill Soul King made me wonder if Yhwach knew about Ichigo's unique heritage and if he was the true mastermind behind that all, instead of Aizen? After all, it has been said Aizen all but created Ichigo by seemingly random events, but maybe the true puppet master even behind those events was somehow Yhwach? I don't know, my brain kind of shut at that point. After all, I had been thinking a lot of philosophical questions up until that point. Not to mention the fact the three worlds could feel the tremors, yet the Human World was seemingly mostly okay with that felt just...weird. I get it, the place takes in a fictional Japanese town where earthquakes are probably the norm, but come on. If even the shinigami at Soul Society were all 'hmm, these aren't normal earthquakes', I'm preetty sure the humans would think the same? But I suppose just showing Ichigo's friends briefly worrying about that and he was enough of that topic.

Other points I want to make, but are kind of jumbled: Nanao asking the smart, hard questions was nice.

Did Ukitake ditch Kenpachi's healing after a certain point or what? Because at first we saw him healing Kenpachi, but then at the end of the episode we saw him with everybody else at R&D. He could have potentially healed Kenpachi fully by that point (because certain time had passed), but when we saw him healing Kenpachi at least to me it appeared like Kenpachi needed a bit more healing than a little bit. Which made me wonder where Isane is? Maybe she was busy healing someone else. Also, yay for Ukitake taking a bit of Unohana's role in this episode -at least when comes to healing.

Lol at Soi Fon's bar of people surviving as basically 'if Omaeda can survive, then anyone can survive'.

It was very cool Yoruichi had some action in this episode because it just felt weird Ichigo dragged her, Orihime, Chad, and Ganju all the way to Soul King's palace, yet most of the time they just sat there and watched Ichigo fight. I was waiting for the whole episode for them to break up into commenting on Ichigo's fight against Yhwach. So, it's a good thing that at least Yoruichi joined the fight and Orihime was a supporter. Good for you ladies, good for you!

[domokunrainbowkinz]

my productivity at work has been tanking...anyways here are my recent reads:

how to survive as a maid in a horror game (manhwa)

the black mirror (18+) (manhwa)

the other world's books depend on the bean counter (manga/light novel)

I will become the villain's poison taster (manhwa/webnovel)

the villain's savior (manhwa)

turning the mad dog into a genteel lord (manhwa/webnovel)

cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?! (manga)

how to survive as a maid in a horror game: honestly not sure how to feel about this one bc I was expecting more horror, but the ratio is more like 70% comedy, 30% horror. I do think horror and comedy can work well, but I almost wish this one went more hard in the horror direction. the tone is also a bit too light for my taste so I don't think I'm gonna continue this one.

the black mirror (18+): RAAAAAGH I WISH THIS HAD SIDE STORIES OR SOMETHING I NEED MORE!!!!! really scratched the horror itch for me, but I wish it was a bit longer or more fleshed out (its only 62 chapters so like i finished this one Fast). I really like how it slowly feeds you pieces of what happened in the past to let you connect the dots, it actually kept me on my toes!!! I also really liked how some of the panels were drawn and framed, and i also liked how it conveyed tension in certain scenes. I think this would really tickle someone with a mirror phobia, bc oh boyyyyyy it is CHOCK full of creepy mirror imagery. my only gripe is that I would've liked some more fleshing out of the MC and ML's backstory, they showed us enough to tie the story together, but I think if they gave it a little extra oomph it would've helped me be more invested in the characters. however I still thought this was a great read and I really enjoyed it!!! psychological thriller, supernatural horror, toxic4toxic couples who have nasty kinky sex my beloved....

the other world's books depend on the bean counter: I started reading this manga bc I saw a YouTube comment describing it as "a bl manga where an accountant gets isekaid into a fantasy land and he decides to still work as an accountant there bc he's so worn down by the Japanese work mentality" and like Boy they are not wrong, my guy does NOT know wtf a break is. you can tell that work has consumed his entire life bc he literally cannot think of anything else but work and everything he does is motivated by his desire to work and prove that he deserves to essentially exist in the world. he was accidentally summoned alongside a teenage girl, who's the prophesied holy maiden, and even though the kingdom is providing him with food, money and shelter no questions asked (as compensation for him being accidentally summoned), he still feels the need to provide labour in order to justify this treatment. and the thing is he refuses to do the bare minimum and runs himself into the ground for a place that essentially kidnapped him bc he literally doesn't know how else to function. and in addition to this, the actual worldbuilding itself is so interesting!!! bc he's an accountant, he carries out audits and budget proposals and whatnot, and through this pov you learn about the power structure, politics, and the system the kingdom is based on, idk I just found the dissection of the resource allocation and magic system so fascinating. all the characters are also so fun to read about (YES EVEN YUA EVERYONE IS SO MEAN TO HER!!! SHES A 16 YEAR OLD GIRL HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPECT HER TO ACT) and I also love the rship between the 2 leads bc the ML is like "good god you live like this????" and forces the MC to live a healthy lifestyle. there is also a very bullshit reason for why they need to sleep together that can only ever happen in bl and it was so stupid i was like "god i love bl (affectionate)". overall I really enjoyed this!! I also heard it's getting an anime adaptation and I WILL be on that shit once it comes out.

I will become the villain's poison taster: very fun and lighthearted read, it was giving villain x henchwoman in the beginning but it slowly grows into "oh he's down Stupid bad" and then by s2 he would blow up the entire world if anything happens to her. we love to see that in a man <3 the banter was so much fun to read and the 2 leads have such funny interactions. the FL is also extremely stupid and ditzy but in a way that's fun to read about. this story is also definitely for the villain enjoyers, since it's from the pov of the villains and the plot seems to be following the "white magic = black magic but the white mages pursue the black mages bc they're deemed 'impure' and 'evil'" which like yes pretty cliche but hey this is a "no thoughts head empty" read for me. I'm probably just going to stick with the manhwa since I love how the artist draws expressions in this, and also again bc it's a very turn-off-your-brain type of read.

the villain's savior: idk how else to describe this except that it was hypnotically heterosexual. this is very VERY much an "I CAN FIX HIM!!!!" type of story. I honestly don't know why I even continued reading it bc nothing about it stood out to me but the interactions between the 2 leads had some very tender and loving moments, and I guess that's why I continued??? I usually don't like these types of stories but the way this was written had me like "yeah...I can see the vision actually..." personally the only feelings I got from this were that it's definitely a manhwa that I read lol...this one was for sure a "no thoughts head empty only vibes and feelings" type of read

turning the mad dog into a genteel lord: THIS ONE IS SO FUNNY i love love LOVE the art in this one, ESEPCIALLY how the ML is drawn like i am being SERVICED. AND I LOVE IT. the way the jokes and humour are set up and portrayed is so good that I'm actually gonna wait for the manhwa chapters rather than reading ahead in the novel. I also love the characters as well, the FL is very likeable and the type of heroine I like to read about...I love how she's not naive to the world but also willingly keeps herself ignorant of issues that are essentially above her pay grade (even tho the plot Will Happen whether she wants to or not). she also is very realistic about her situation and imo is emotionally mature, it's so nice to read about someone who...you know...acts like an actual human being lol.... her rship with the ML is also very sweet, however it is a "taming a wild beast" type of story for those who may not enjoy it. i personally am eating this UP. the ML gives me cuteness aggression he's soooooooooooo babygirl. I'm also like 99% sure I've already guessed the ML's true identity since it's pree obvious but I am very curious to see where the plot takes them!! very fun read, I was smiling thru the whole thing

cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?!: YO this was so cute??? I think this would he a perfect read for me whenever I'm in the mood for something light and fluffy, I don't think it's gonna be something I binge. this was also extremely funny, especially scenes where adachi is like "wow look at kurosawa he's so calm and cool and collected" and then he accidentally brushes up against him and kurosawa's thoughts are just "if adachi was my man I'd fold him into a dumpling and set him in a soup at the perfect temperature so he'd be nice and warm all the time" like my guy u r insane. and they are both so down bad for each other. I'm honestly not sure where the plot is going bc I'm now at the part where (SPOILERS) adachi loses his mind-reading powers (SPOILERS), but from what I've gathered it seems to be a very character-driven, slice of life story, which is why I dont feel the need to binge it. overall I can see why it was so popular it has 2 (TWO) live action dramas, and anime, AND an audio drama.

[moongothic]

So a whiiiile while back I did get curious about whether or not Crocodile's earring is meant to be a gay earring, or if there's no deeper meaning to him liking jewelry (after all there are plenty of other male characters in OP who wear equal amounts of bling if not more)

And I did realize it was kind of easy to figure out if the gay earring was even a viable theory; I just have to figure out out if the gay earring was A Known Thing in Japan, specifically/preferably pre-2000 and known widely-enough that even Oda would've been aware of it. Now in theory that's not a complicated question to answer, but in practise my Japanese isn't good enough to start trying to research something like that in detail and more importantly I frankly just don't have the patience for it lmao

Still, I did try looking up ゲイ イヤリング on Google just to see what would come up, and, interestingly enough, I did immidiately find some mid-2000s Yahoo! Answers from Japan asking "which earring is the gay one"

(First question is from 2006, the second 2007 and both are asking "Is it true that men who wear an earring on their left ear are gay?" (The answers would then clarify that it's the right ear actually, and many point out that fashion is just fashion and to not worry about it) (There's more Yahoo! posts like this btw but they're newer))

Now mind you, these mid-2000s posts don't prove that Oda would've been aware of the gay earring thing pre-2000 (Alabasta ran in the manga 2000-2002), but people in Japan having even some vague awareness of the concept does add to the possibility Oda might've known about it, even if only a little

But what really got me curious was actually reading the answers to some of these Yahoo Questions, because there's actually some LORE to the gay earring

According to some of these answers, the gay earring and why it's right for men and left for lesbians comes from couples sharing a pair of piercings, how they hold hands in public and from (heteronormative) relationships roles. If you have a couple the two partners could signal to people that they're together by sharing a pair of earrings together (possibly going for a Pair Look). And to make it even more obvious, a couple would then wear those earrings on different ears so when walking together, the matching earrings would face each other. The other aspect is that if you have a couple going on a walk, it would traditionally be The Big Strong Man's Job to Protect His Fragile Little Girlfriend if someone came up to harass her. And because most people are right handed, to protect his woman it would make most sense for the boyfriend to then hold his girlfriend's hand with his left, and save his right for punching people. And thus, if your cishet couple wants to share a pair of earrings to indicate they're together, the man would wear an earring on his left and the woman on her right, like so

And that's supposedly (according to these people at least) why lesbians wear their gay earrings on their left while gay men on their right; a lesbian takes "the man's job to protect her girlfriend" while a gay man becomes the one "being protected"

Now I'm sure I don't need to explain to you how ridiculously heteronormative this train of thought is, I just found this explanation interesting as I hadn't seen anything like this brought up anywhere in English (like a quick search into the gay earring in English just gives articles discussing whether or not the gay earring was a real thing or a myth, and whether or not it even matters (=a man wearing an earring won't suddenly turn gay because of it)), and because... Like knowing Crocodile it's just interesting

Because Crocodile only has his dominant hand free after losing his left (he can't hold anyone close to protect them himself), signaling to the world he's gay (the one to be protected) while not trusting anyone and not letting anyone to get close to him

Like. I dunno I feel like there might be something there thematically but I can't quite figure it out (mainly because without his full backstory it's hard to figure out what his deal is and how these pieces go together if they even do)

But again, this doesn't prove at all that Crocodile's earring is a gay one at all, and thus this Lore According to Random People on Yahoo! Answers isn't inherently applicable to Croc (even if his earring WAS a gay earring). I just found the lore interesting (if goofy) and wanted to share it

[marichild]

4, 9, and 17 for the fic asks >:3 🧡

*walks in* *puts on tetsu no ori* LET'S GO

be warned i am a chronic yapper I do not shut up about anything ever

4. Tell me about one of your abandoned WIPs. Why did you abandon it?

hoo boy. so, there was a sort of ambitious au I tried to write once—have you heard of twin star exorcists? I'm an anime enthusiast of it since I got pretty frustrated with where the manga was going what with the constant delays and derailing from the main point and the author not staying consistent with details, etc. that being said the anime doesn't fill a lot of gaps that should have been filled.

so while I was still pretty active in the kpop circles—which I probably will go back to soon lol when I feel less icky about the people I was beefing with—I tried to write a TSE au. while it wasn't my brightest idea to transpose a bunch of Koreans onto a Japanese setting, I also underestimated how difficult it'd be to handle all those canon details.

plus, exorcism is very heavily based on Buddhism, specifically in Japan, so I was just like. well am I prepared to potentially insult an entire faith. (research goes a long way kids! don't listen to younger mari) and I just sort of...let it falter and it doesn't even exist in my wip folder anymore </3

(it also involves a forced arranged marriage and the topic of being forced to have a kid, essentially, and I didn't want to genderbend anyone for it, so my solution was a trans man who was at least somewhat interested in having kids biologically one day, like me. once again, I didn't feel I did a very good job of it, and it was a little daunting to write it knowing that i did want at least a semi explicit scene that, once again, reflected me as a person. being a minor at the time, I let the idea go. and I was also much less confrontational at the time so I didn't think I could handle it if anyone was being weird about it lmao—which I fully can and will at this point.

that being said, I did write a fic about a trans man having a kid for a different fandom earlier this year, so I'm linking it if you're interested! very fluffy and family fun. and not explicit. though be warned, it is rpf lol)

HOWEVER!! I've actually considered picking it up again and rebranding as a soukoku au? once again, enemies to lovers, my transchuu agenda, my dazai can be any gender agenda, EXORCIST PRODIGIES, one of the characters has no idea where they came from and has a whole Bit about questioning their humanity. i.e. arahabaki parallels. there are a few gaps I'm trying to work out but it's definitely an idea haha)

ok enough yapping about that moving on

9. Are there any fics you'd love to see but don't want to write yourself? What are they?

!!! okay I really want to see. more fics about fyodor and disability. specifically related to anemia and blood. I generally don't read fyodor fics until endorsed by someone whose opinion I trust [for example, check out tell me we do not live in vain by valleykey, the Best fyozai fic Ever, or any of their fics!] because genuinely I don't trust this fandom to characterize fyodor, or any of decay of angels trio, very well half the time.

the reason I want to see more is because canonically, we know he is anemic and suffers from low blood pressure. however, I'm reluctant to write that for him because it's one thing to write like, transfems as a transmasc, there are similarities to be drawn from it, but things like anemia and chronic disability are a whole new ball game. I do not ever want to misrepresent any of that, and writing an ablebodied fyodor is just a. bit. disrespectful.

I mean I will write in his pov, of course. but I'd place him in higher stakes situations where his discomfort and pain isn't rhe sole focus so I don't have to write it in too much detail and write it all wrong. a bit of a cowardly approach maybe but until I really read a lot more that's all that's happening. unless it's like a menstrual disorder which. yeah. grimaces. but even that's inextricably tied to all his other issues, so.

17. What has been the proudest moment for you so far since you started writing?

oh boy. aside from all the times I've had authors I really admire acknowledge me and my writing, which is just. wow. its not that I think they are higher beings, but more like. if people who I admire think I am also worthy of admiration and think my fics are good. that my characters are well done....I remember the time a well-known author in the ZEROBASEONE rpf circles literally revived from her hiatus to comment on my fic!! to tell me how much she loved it. a fic that I genuinely wrote in like two hours for a member's birthday. (it continues to be my most popular fic for the fandom lmao) it was . wild. especially because I deeply admire her writing for being so introspective and critically challenging. augh.

but aside from all that,

probably the time I finished writing we were lost, looking for an answer. my last ever assassination classroom fic. I was largely out of touch with the fandom and the only reason I went through with this fic was that I promised my readers I would give it to them, and a lovely reader had left a comment about QPRs, and even a thing or two about Japanese law regarding it. writing that series, a silly series that I wrote out of frustration that my aroace-spec peers in the LGBTQIA+ community went through so much for just not adhering to the norm...well. guess who realized he's demiromantic demisexual through writing it 🤡

okay I derailed. the point of it is that by the time i done writing it I was kind of struck by how raw and real it felt, to me, and how I was proud of it. mainly because karma characterization is a tricky thing to do, in my opinion, and I'd done a pretty decent job. it also felt like an accurate representation of wanting someone who doesn't want you back like that, but wanting them close all the same. in general, it felt like a good representation of how scary and hopeless a queer teenager's life can be, especially at fifteen years old.

do I think I could have done better? yes, of course. I still think I have the drive to write it again, make an updated version. but I won't, because it was the first time in a long time that I wrote something that genuinely made me think differently about myself. I also think that it's a nice milestone marker. :)

fic ask game

[jariten]

January-March 2024 Roundup!

Trying a new thing this year where instead of just "one off" "single volume" "limited run" "compilation" works I read "long form" "serializations". I must say it's already doing my soul good to prioritize and work through the way too many unread series that have piled up in my room while I was prioritizing short form works.

First I want to highlight is Chiisana Ochakai by Nekojuujisha! I already posted a very short description of the work but would like to share my own encounter and quick impressions. I first learned about the series from Futabasha's mook Natsukashii! 70-nendai Shoujo Manga Mook (type of mook I love to collect but can't spend too long looking at lest my demons make me go online shopping). This mook highlights both true classics as well as works and authors who have fallen a bit by the wayside in the manga landscape (but to no fault of the quality of their work). Chiisana Ochakai got a VIP treatment in this mook and I immediately knew this was something I wanted to read. I finally got around to reading this past month and was so blown away by this work and the atmosphere it created. Part of me wasn't expecting anything more than a charming fantasy slice of life set in a world of cats, but I many times found myself very moved by Purin and Moppu's view of life and their philosophical musings. The fairy tale world was truly that. I loved the little encounters like when Moppu met The Sun itself at the bakery. This is also by far the closest thing I've come to reading a manga that embodies a lot of the wistful qualities of the original Moomin novels by Tove Jansson. Can't recommend or praise it enough.

Also noticed how so many libraries have Osamu Tezuka's Buddha? I've encountered plenty that has but I finally found one that actually had the whole series and decide to do my obligatory one Tezuka title per year right then and there. And wooooow by far the best of his works that I've read, I was especially struck by the paneling and multiple viewpoints that were carefully balanced. A true epic and despite it being the retelling of the foundations of a world religion, Tezuka enjoyers who enjoy him being self referential or goofy will still find plenty of that.

Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? by Hirochi Maki was a manga that years ago got propagandized on Tumblr and I was just soooooo sure it would get licensed. Which it did, but digital only. I finally resorted to the Japanese edition. The propaganda post absolutely sold how charming and fun the protagnist sister pair is, but neglected to mention the varied clientele and what an amazing tour of the less known neighborhoods in and around Tokyo it is, with real life locations and spots to check! Worried most of these spots don't exist anymore post-COVID? check the post COVID sequel series!

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a manga adaption of Kotaro Isaka's novel by the same name by Ikuemi Ryou. I'm not familiar at all with Isaka's bibliography but I could tell this was a great combo (Isaka even admitting to being influenced by Ikuemi's work). I love one shot collections that focuses on characters that are connected to each other or the same incident seen from multiple points of view. Isaka's cast is varied and all at different points in life with different wants and needs.

I have a more detailed summary of A-ko san no Koibito by Akino Kondoh in the queue but oooooooh my god. This was my dedicated commute read for a bit and talk about a series that only got better with each volume. Eventually I didn't even want to arrive at my location I wanted to keep reading. Its one of my favorite explorations of relationships, facing your past ones, and figuring out what it is you actually want that I've read so far in great deal due to the blend + repetitions of past and present. These smooth transitions are done so well and drew me further into the characters and their conflicts. Truly nothing like any other manga I've read but fits perfect into my own slowly expanding mini canon of manga about late twentysomething and up characters trying to figure out what romantic relationships mean to them.

Also eeeeeek I'm beyond late just wanted to highlight Hunter X Hunter volume 37. I will always think that when one can deliver at a quality this high you have the right to take all the time you want. So intrigued by how everything is developing would love to reread what we have of this arc some time soon.

[yonemurishiroku]

Do you think that the solangelo contains more of a forceful representation, and if so, what is your advice to authors who are trying to make lgbtq+ representation seem more a part of the story/flow with the story then the opposing option?

May 22nd. I'm so sorry, my mind has been going off track for a while. I'm really sorry for the delay. 😭😭

So, regarding Solangelo as a representation, well this is gonna be hard to say lol. This has been circling the fandom since the day of its emergence, and this is certainly not a good time but eh penny for my thought ig.

Now. I suppose I have a very varying definition of representation, but let's not dwell on that. As for now, I can say that I do consider Solangelo somewhat forcefully developed. As in, the term of writing, plot-wise, etc...

It's quite difficult to say. I have no problem with Solangelo as a couple - or their dynamic - per se. Rather, it's the pacing that throws me off. This has been addressed in many posts - Solangelo has a quite... abrupt (?) takeoff. I just felt like Rick did not mean to make them a thing but just a spur of a moment - something small and... promising that you left hanging at the end of the series for reader's interpretation, for whatever reason (This actually lines up with Boo's time of releash I think? The LGBTQ+ literature being unpopular I mean).

In fact, Solangelo's whole developing process happened behind the curtains - as in, we're told, not shown. Imagine. In BOO, their friendship just barely sprouts, and the next time we see them again in TOA, they're already a couple. For the longest time possible, it was left to the reader/fanfic writers to deduce wth happen for them to become a couple in like idk 6 months? (A pretty fast process for someone like Nico imo. but that's just me).

Something like that is bound to raise some doubts.

The full picture itself is only revealed - partly, and through second reminiscence, mind you - in TSATS. It's also the reason TSATS feels kinda off to me, ig - the fact that some parts actually misalign with the established canon events, or appear like a patch to cover a hole in the piece of fabric. And some others just straight up fall into the what-the-f-was-in-your-mind-rick category. I doubt it was even Rick's initial plan to come up with TSATS in the first place.

However, it's also worth acknowledging that, whilst it would certainly help, Rick hardly has the capacity to fully-build another 5-book romance for Solangelo. That's as far as it can go (I usually think this to placate myself at the thought of the ship being undeveloped). Nico is not the franchise's protagonist (more like deuteragonist I guess), no matter how far this story goes and how widely loved he is, let alone Will.

On to the advice part.

Please keep in mind that I am, in no way, a professional or good writer, nor do I study sexual orientation and/or identity theory (I barely know the flags). I've also grown up and received education in an Estern (somewhat conserative?) country, so please take whatever I say with a grant of salt.

Now. When it comes to "make it seem more a part of the story", I... actually don't know how to say this...

Just look at the all the BL mangas (Japanese comics) and danmeis (Chinese BL literature) and BL manhwas (Korean comics). I have been reading BoyLove longggg before I even came to PJO, you know? The Eastern fandoms have surprisingly extensive LGBT content for a conservative culture, anw they have been telling and/or drawing stotries upon stories about same-sex couples since the dawn of internet. They don't even need to try. They have the image of a love, a story in their mind and just... go along with it.

You don't make it a part of the story. The story is either about it (much or little), or just nothing at all.

I'm saying making a story about it - rather than trying to incorporate it into the story. Give it background and enough development, it'd progress itself. You don't give it anything, of course it'd feel flat. This goes with any type of romance, not just LGBTQ+.

The problem with Solangelo itself, imo, is not the nature of their relationship (tho I do admit somtimes Rick makes me go wtf), but rather how they're portrayed. And furthermore, said portray in proportion to people's expectation. Solangelo, by all means, is a side-story at best (unless Rick manages to come up with a trilogy about their journey from start to finish idk 🤷‍♀️). People like it, so they tend to expect more from it, but the author's just a human.

I think this is everything... My thoughts are kinda in a jumble as I'm writing this, so feel free to ask if something doesn't make sense... This is also just my personal view lol don't take it too seriously if it differs from yours too much.

Lastly, I know my advice would probably not do much, however I hope for you to find your way to tell your stories the best you can!

[systematicallycapricious]

Time for English P4AU manga volume 2! Like last time, shenanigans are below the cut and requests for page comparisons are always welcome.

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Overall Opinion

My initial read-through this time was done while I was sleep deprived, so take my impressions with a grain of salt, lmao.

I think the the three most memorable impressions I took away from the translation this time around were:

The syntax felt more markedly stilted to me than last time. As well, the writing was a bit awkward in some places, though I'm unsure if that's a trait of the original Jap writing or if it only arises from attempting to format it into Eng grammar and culture.

The fan-Eng translation took creative liberties with some words that I think were better served by the official-Eng's translation staying truer to the Jap text. Also, the official-Eng transl provided interesting insight into some things that the fan-Eng transl didn't, which I'll go into a bit below.

The scene where Minazuki ambushes Naoto was mistranslated as Sho being the speaker, despite the Japanese text clearly being Minazuki's language patterns. TuT

Overall, I had a positive impression of it and would say that it's worth reading for those who don't mind a few errors and awkward lingual choices.

As for the ミナヅキ・皆月 naming differentiation... Thus far, both Sho and Minazuki have been "Minazuki", as per adherence to the Jap naming scheme. No alternative font, font effects, subtext, special text bubbles, nor anything to clarify the distinction. However, I'm personally reserving judgment until I get my hands on Vol 3, as I have a sliver of hope that the protagonists knowing the difference is permission for the audience to know the difference. I'm not sure how much I actually believe in said sliver, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt at the very least. ^^;

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Illustrations and Author Comics

Vol 2 still has the illustration pages and end-of-volume author's comic! The exclusive edition also has the fold-out poster of the original cover, of course.

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The mistranslated ambush scene was, in fact, Minazuki

So y'all can see for yourself that the text in the Minazuki-Naoto ambush scene clearly uses 俺 and 君 rather than 僕 or テメエ. (Though to be fair, I've actually found an instance where Sho uses 俺 in Vol 2. The line is 「テメエこそ俺にカンショーすんじゃねえ!!」, towards the start of Ch14 when Kagu's mocking his Ikutsuki issues (so Sho's pretty irate). He then returns to using 僕 immediately after; and as there are no visual indications that he switched with Minazuki to say this, I'm pretty confident that this is an exception and not the rule, lol.)

(Said instance of Sho using 俺)

The non-pronoun words should be indicative of whether it's Sho or Minazuki speaking as well, but I'm not fluent enough in Japanese to be able to go into detail on those in this post. ^^;

Overall, I think the translator has been doing pretty good at nailing Sho and Minazuki's respective patterns of speech and employing them in the correct moments – and they go back to getting it correct for when Minazuki reveals himself at the end of Vol 2, too. This one scene just got goofed for some reason I guess. P:

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Translation Upsides

Translation Win 1: Ch15's name was translated properly! The Jap name is 「幻月」 (gengetsu), but the fan-Eng translated it as "Minazuki", which would be 「皆月」 if it was in kanji form. Which – I mean, it is the chapter that Minazuki first formally introduces himself as "Minazuki", so it makes sense? But I personally think that "Paraselene", aka the phenomenon called "moon dogs", is a much cooler and more fitting name for how the chapter goes, including Minazuki's reveal. (-v-)

Translation Win 2: At the start of Ch14, Sho says "Tch! Must've fallen asleep. Hate that dream.", which implies that he's had that dream before. I don't know enough Japanese to know if the original line of 「��ッ　寝ちまったのか...　嫌な夢だぜ」 also means a recurrence specifically, but it's still interesting fanon-characterization fodder nonetheless.

Puppet-Ikutsuki's following dialog was also a pretty interesting translation, I think. For example: "The smarts to rule the mental battle. The strength to command the physical battle..! You excel in both! In fact, I'd say you're my greatest masterpiece! I'm proud!"

Translation Win 3: In Ch13, Kagutsuchi's first line of reaching out to Sho is translated correctly as "wings of death", versus the "Plume of Dusk" that the fan-Eng transl uses. Conceptually, they're probably the same thing, but literally the word used is 「死の羽根」 (shi no hane), not 「黄昏の羽根」 (tasogare no hane; which is typically "Plume of Dusk" in Japanese). And this isn't a mistake on the part of the Jap writer either, as far as I can tell, as 「黄昏の羽根」 is used in other places, such as when Labrys is explaining what Plumes are to the Investigation Team ([see here]).

Additionally, though the syntax was exceptionally awkward, I thought the essence of Kagu's dialog in this scene was translated pretty well. And honestly, it's fun to headcanon that Kagu could only communicate limited concepts or words before establishing a stronger connection, thus explaining why the syntax is stilted like: "Your suffering will continue. Eternally. End it."

Translation Win 4: It's a small detail, but Ikutsuki specifically saying "If this is all it takes to kill him... Then that's just how weak he was." is heckin' brutal. Switching to past-tense like Sho's already done and over with when he's still alive and listening, oof. (For comparison, the fan-Eng translated it as "If he dies here, it'll just mean he's worthless.")

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Translation Downsides

Typography Loss 1: Kagutsuchi's text still lacks a cool font like the Jap version has, and that reduces the artistic impact a bit, IMO. In the Jap version, it looks a bit like the text was scorched onto the writing surface – which, given Kagu is a kami of fire, is a pretty apt vibe. While in Eng, he's relegated to the font that all the other characters use while speaking. It's probably better like this for readability purposes, but from a stylistic perspective it's a bit sad.

(Also fun fact: In Jap, the Shadow-Kanji and Shadow-Chie puppets briefly use this burnt font in their speech bubbles. It's for about 1-2 bubbles each (S-Kanji calling forth a fighting ring, S-Chie being in disbelief that Naoto had been holding back against her), and the rest of their dialog is in various other fonts. I'm not sure if there are other instances of non-Kagu characters using it beyond that, nor what exactly it's intended to imply through these additional instances, but it's interesting to note.)

(Additionally; examining it more closely, the Japanese typography is really dynamic in general, which is pretty cool. I'm not sure if that dynamicness invalidates any literary significance to Kagu's burnt font though, lol.)

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Translation Intrigues and Amusements

Typography Intrigue 1: They left the page of fiery "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"s as-is, rather than trying to turn the 「あ」 and 「ア」 into "a/A". Which, while I immensely respect the fan-Eng version for trying to transcribe that artistic text, I think the horrific vibe comes through a bit better with the original text and art preserved. (Maybe in part due to the wave effect on the text having 3 dimensions rather than just 2?)

Translation Intrigue 2: In Ch13, one of the double page spreads is translated as "This world doesn't need anyone. There's no one in this world." Meanwhile, in the fan-Eng version, it's written as "I don't need anyone! I'm fine by myself!"; and the original Jap text is 「この世界には誰もいらない　この世界には誰もいない」 (the same line, just minus the ら).

I personally prefer the fan-Eng's take on it, as the official-Eng's version confused me for several weeks after the fact; but as I don't understand the nuance of the Jap version, I have no clue as to which Eng interpretation is more accurate. >_>;

Translation Amusement 3: Yu apparently has the word "welp" in his lexicon. And on the second page, the way that his dialog is worded makes it sound like he's smitten with Sho, lmao.

Translation Amusement 4: Yu's so used to his friends' antics at this point that he can just tune them out like that, lol. I also just appreciate Chie and Yosuke's dialog here in general.

Translation Intrigue 5: Ch13's title is translated as "Crimson Memories" in the official-Eng transl, versus fan-Eng's "Scarlet Memories". The original Japanese words are 「緋色の記憶」.

Translation Intrigue 6: What's typically translated as "the rules of this world" (regarding Adachi) is translated here as "reality's rules". The original Jap text (in this manga at least) is 「現実のルール」, not 「世界のルール」; so literally "reality", like "reality of the situation", and not 'reality' like "world/society".

Translation Intrigue 7: Ikutsuki's iconic "the death of everything... but also the beginning" speech is translated a bit differently compared to the fan-Eng, and drastically different compared to Ultimax's EpP3 Ch1. It keeps the same general concepts, but the cadence, word choices, and syntax are executed differently.

Translation Intrigue 8: Side-by-sides of the kendo/fencing pun because I think the differing translation choices, as well as the original context of the pun, are interesting.

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(If you wanna see the fan-Eng in higher quality than the screengrabs I used, you can find it on Mangadex [here].)

[benkyoutobentou]

31 Days of Productivity Reading: Day sixteen

Before: Since we're now about halfway through the month, let's take another look at my goals for March-

Finish No. 6 volume 3

Read 憎らしい彼

Read 独り舞 (2/3 there!)

Read at least ten volumes of manga (3/10)

Read at least an hour per day (still still on track!)

Am I at least halfway through my (tangible) goals? Uh, debatable. Either way, I think completing my goals is still completely doable!

I still have seven volumes of manga to read, so is there anything I'd like to get to this month? Yes. Too many. So let's narrow it down. I would very much like to get in at least one more volume of ベルサイユのばら (1/7), I want to start はなものがたり (2/7) but I only have one volume and I'm in the debacle of "but what if I like it so much that I need to read the rest right away?", it's not that I necessarily want to read スリーピングデッド (4/7) this month but more of I don't think I'll be able to hold off reading it until next month, and I've also been feeling a bit like picking up another volume of 3月のライオン (5/7) lately, and okay I think that's enough. I could just list off every single series in my tbr but then we'd be here all day. I won't even promise that I'll get to anything I listed here because that's just how life pans out sometimes. I listed off all those manga and didn't even name ウツボラ don't even look at me.

After: As much as I’m ready for this musical to be over, it saved me today because I don’t think I would’ve gotten any reading in had I not been in a position where I have to sit in one place and do nothing for like an hour and a half in bit and pieces. In addition to usual Saturday errands and the musical, I did some gardening in the afternoon and went to a party tonight. I’m really not a partier (I mean look at me, my hobbies are language learning and reading) but I always make a point to go when my next door neighbors host parties because it forces me to be at least a little social. Plus, I usually know a good amount of the people there. And this time, I ended up talking to someone about books and they invited me to their book club! Just what I need, more books I have to read. Of course I said yes.

Today, I read twenty two pages, which would be around an hour and eighteen minutes if I were to use yesterday’s average reading pace of four minutes per page. If I read another twenty pages tomorrow, I would only have about thirty pages left to read on Monday which I think is totally doable in a single day. The end is in sight! Again, I don’t dislike this book or think it’s bad, it’s just a bit too high level for my Japanese right now. I am glad to have read it, though. Hopefully my next read will pick me back up off the ground and remind me that I actually can read in this language.

I'm also still going strong with doing my JPDB reviews, and I'm now in the 1200s. Slow and steady wins the race and I'm hoping that mentioning it here will keep me on track.

[teddybeartoji]

i'm gonna cry. phone died while writing this but it's way too important i pulled out the laptop.

OKAY SO. madK is a manga, the artstyle is AMAZING, very gorgeous and unique and i loved it A LOT. i'm not gonna give any spoiler bc i want everyone who sees this to go give it a try. please. i beg of you. i think not only you but also your fans are freaky enough to like this

once upon a time... a mortal summoning a VERY POWERFUL demon from hell. gives him his soul in exchange for a wish, that's the rule

oh! what may that wish be? yup, you guessed it. ❧ 𝖈𝖆𝖓𝖓𝖎𝖇𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖒 ❧

okay so you totally haven't asked yourself why the font change or decorations. it's actually not only for dramatic effect but also to abord the following detail!! the decors and the characters in hell are very traditional!! mix of traditional european (i'd say maybe french) architecture and fashion, along with some traditional japanese (?) garments. all in all AMAZING and shame on me for not being knowledgable enough to know every single detail and name of clothing by heart you can all bully me for that tbh

OKAY BACK TO THE PLOT. after some freaky sex involving a human and a demon whose body may or may not be eaten until there's barely anything left (... yeahhh this manga is the peak match my freak content i've seen so far BUT PLEASE. GIVE IT A TRY. FOR A DESPERATE SOUL LIKE ME. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH APPRECIATION. (where's my drink.(the hundreds of edits i voraciously CONSUME after finishing any type of media/content ever))

SORRY GOT OFF TRACK. so after those acts (for the freaks out there dw it's definitely NOT the last and not the most... unique things you'll see along the way) the human soul goes to hell

and bc atp i'd tell you too much and i wanna give you some suspense for you to go read it (i hope that functioned. that my way of writing right now was dynamic enough to peak your interest.) i'll just tell you

the manga is basically about the protag and K (get it cuz madK... mad K) matching each other's freaks (btw i hope you've seen the TV series hannibal my dears... it's also very amazing and if you ask i can also try to sell it even tho i'm probably bad at it but if you read this far maybe there's hope)

plot twist (or not bc very forshadowed) at the very end!! ngl for the end... i understand but it's so FRUSTRATING.

okay my job is done here but really it's beautifully written, there's cannibalism there's love and some really fucked up stuff (please be careful) and twisted relationships and good lord. the author is rlly good at anatomy. there's all kinds of monsters out there.

but all in love it's just a story about love. (awwwwww)

take care mickey, and thank you for being curious (?) about stuff i like - ik my asks are very very long and it must be draining for you, i don't really know how to shorten them most of the time because i rarely get the chance to express myself as much and as honestly :')

still, sorry and thank you for your time!

⥽☀️⥼

SUNNNYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFGGG STOPPP THIS SOUNDS SO FUCKING COOL HELLO????? LITERALLY ALREADY WENT TO SEE WHERE I COULD BUY IT TOO HEHEHEHEHE i am a slow reader though and also.. so very unemployed so yk it might take time for me to get to that but i am very fucking into it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you're doing a very good job at selling it lmao this seems like it'd be fucking perfect for me:333333333333

AND IT'S ABOUT LOVEEEE<3333333333333333333

OMGG AND UR ASKS ARE NOT DRAINING PLSS I REALLY AM JUST SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love reading all what you send me hehehehe we are bonding rn:33333333 there's absolutely no need to shorten your asks love i promise i'll get to all of them it just takes me some time!!!!

[justheretoship]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

tagged by @cloudiness (ty Giorgia 💙💙)

Favourite color: blue 💙

Currently reading: I’m reading LOTR, but I also finished a light novel a few days ago, and I'm also reading fanfictions and manga so... a lot of different stuff I guess 🙈

Last song: Deadly Drive by GRANRODEO (it's actually a Japanese song because I'm obsessed with Bungou Stray Dogs lately, including all openings and endings)

Last series: do anime count as well? If anime counts, Bungou Stray Dogs, if not Only Murders in the Building ~

Last movie: it's an anime movie of Sasaki to Miyano (including a bit with Hirano and Kagiura my beloveds 🥺)

Sweet/savory/spicy: sweet just for chocolate 👀

Currently working on: Learning a new language as a hobby counts? I guess that 🙈

Three ships: whoever thought three ships are enough is just downright evil

1. Destiel (Dean Winchester/Castiel from Supernatural). The finale of the show made me lose interest completely in anything Destiel related, I even stopped reading fanfictions about them, but I gotta put them in the list anyway because so many years I've spent obsessing over them. They used to be my OTP, don't think they still are, but they deserve to be here, I still love them even though it was mostly fanservice.

2. BakuDeku (Bakugou Katsuki and Midoriya Izuku from Boku no Hero Academia). Now, I admit, in the past I thought whoever shipped them was downright crazy. But here I am. One of them had such an amazing growth, which changed their relationship as well, and I just love that, I love the more a relationship change, and they're the epitome of that. From childhood friends, to enemies, to having to work together, to friends (and to more in fanfictions and in my silly mind). So yes, a fairly new ship all considered for me, but I already love it so so much.

3. Ineffable Husbands (Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens). Choosing a third is awful because I love so many ships, but they deserve it. They have so much bickering, just like an old married couple, and that is something I love a lot. Give me bickering and I'm in. Also all that happened in season 2, painful but so good, yes please, can't wait for season 3.

(Please forgive me for not including Lestappen but they would have been in my top 5 if this was a top 5 ships 😢)

First ship ever: ...so this is weird. Because I found out I basically unconsciously shipped Merthur when I was around 9 or 10 lol (I hated seeing Arthur with Gwen, especially kissing scenes, and instead loved all his scenes with Merlin). But my real first ship is probably NaruSasu, although my first fanfiction was about Goku and Vegeta (which is funny since I don't even ship them and I never have).

Currently craving: money, always money. With money I can have books and visit places so money (hopefully finding a job soon would be good enough too).

Tags: only do this if you want!! No pressure! And if you've already been tagged ignore me~

@il-predestinato @jussst-lurking @coffeecities @cupidskissx @redwoodghost @pressradio @maxemilianverstappen @blueballsracing @dreamingamongthestars

Also whoever is reading this and wants to, consider yourself tagged by me 🥰

[cosmicjoke]

How is tsuki part of the anon hate?? For all I know she just answers to asks and translates the aot manga panels since she's a Japanese speaking person. You two have different views but she has never mentioned your name ever.

Are you threatened by the points she makes so that's why you want Levi stans to block her because she actually writes good analysis you don't want anyone else to come across so you want them to block her? If not, then why would you want anyone to block her.

You're a grown woman for fuck sakes, act like it. This fandom drama is stupid and especially targeting Tsuki who only keeps to herself. Smh

The other people you mentioned I don't know so I can't speak on their behalf but Tsuki doesn't deserve this. Anyone can check her posts and see how respectful she is.

Also do you know you interact with a known Levi x Eren shipper named V_onth on Twitter who is the one who has been writing hate messages on ao3 to Eruri fandom. She was also writing anon hate on curious cat telling people to kill themselves while posing as an Eruri until she was recently caught out to be a liar who only wants Eruri to have a bad reputation because she's threatened by the ship popularity and that it might surpass ereri. She was even banned from other Eren x Levi shipping fandom spaces on discord when she was found out. She's unhinged and is mentally unstable. Taking things too far. She even has about fifteen alt accounts on Twitter where she dox eruris and other Levi x Eren shippers who disagree with her. She's now on Tumblr as 7m7n7. And yet every Levi stan interact with her. Whether ignorantly or not. Idk

You guys are gullible enough to believe eruris are the ones sending you those vile messages when it's vont who has simply migrated to Tumblr to play the Eruri weird shipper all over again. I don't know whether you're on Twitter or not but if you are or if you have a friend who is then they can easily verify.

The two eruris you posted that were harassing you did not write anything that shows they're capable of telling someone to slit their wrist like the one who has been sending anon hate for months now did. Do you really truly believe they are capable of the hell rain that that anon brought down?

I guess you'll keep being a gullible person played by that ereri until you find out the truth. Until then I guess she can keep playing you guys like a drum.

I never said tsuki was "part of" the hate, just that their followers are. Which, they are, unquestionably, and that they know, at least to some extent, about it. I never accused tsuki in my post of sending anon hate, just their followers, because, again, that's proven.

You really aren't too bright if you think I'm "afraid" of their posts and that's why I made the post I did. I made the post I did because the harassment has been non-stop, really, since the end of last year, and I'm sick of it. People can read tsuki's posts and agree with them all they like. Again, I think you should maybe learn to read more carefully, because I never said tsuki was sending anon hate, but they have been without doubt vague posting about me, which is clear from their posts and how they align with my own. This isn't paranoia on my part, it's evident using simple logic. If you think they haven't been referring to me, whether by name or not, then again, you need to work on those reading comprehension skills of yours. Not everything has to be explicitly stated in order for the meaning or intention to be clear.

I don't know about any of that mess you're talking about with some Levi/Eren shipper posing as an eruri shipper, so , whatever. Unlike you, I don't have time to scroll through every social media feed in existence and track and trace every move made by randos on the internet. If that person really is a Levi/Eren shipper, I haven't seen them "pose" as you say, as an eruri shipper, but if they are doing that, or trying to cause trouble in the eruri fandom, then that sucks and they should be called out too. But if you don't think there's plenty of actual toxicity in the eruri fandom space, then you're simply living in denial. I've been harassed nonstop almost exclusively by eruri's for the past, several months, and that's a fact, not people telling me to "kill myself", but people like yourself who can't just drop the issue, who constantly monitor what I write on my blog and, within minutes of me posting it, send me messages screaming at me about how I'm "biased" and have a "black and white" view of AoT and how I think Levi is "perfect". And it all, magically, started when I was a little short with an eruri shipper several months back who, despite me asking them to please stop asking me questions which tried to get me to admit that eruri was somehow "proven canon" by nothing but, at best, vague and indefinite evidence, kept sending me asks, one after another, until I blocked them, and then, in their rabid obsession, continued to make more accounts to continue to harass me with. I'm not saying all eruri shippers are this way, but they're definitely there in the fandom, dragging the whole thing down with them.

If you're so offended by me calling out the toxic behavior of some people from that corner of the fandom, I have to wonder why? Maybe you're one of them, huh? In fact, I feel pretty confident in saying that you are, since you know I'm a "grown woman", which, I only ever posted about my age and gender ONCE, in response to an ask I got several weeks ago, really a few months ago, and which only someone who follows me would have seen. So, clearly, you're following me, for some, not all nefarious reason, I'm sure. Funny how so many of this anon messages I get constantly bring up my age and gender, too. Almost like it's all the same group of people making the same, stupid complaints over and over. Too bad, because I gave ample warning that I was going to do it, and yet, they just couldn't help themselves. This is the price you pay. You get called out and now everyone knows who you are.

Whatever. Next message you send, gets an automatic block and report.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Manga) - Vol. 1

This is the manga (or manhua) adaptation of the original Digimon Adventure anime. I got my copy from the library and you can borrow it for free on Archive.org!

Manga adaptations of anime are typically cheap money grabs that just copy-paste from the anime, removing some of the soul of the original along the way. As such, I'm not expecting much from this.

Notes:

Ch. 1

-You can almost always tell when a manga isn't drawn by a Japanese artist, it's just a certain vibe (I know this is technically a manhua). That being said, the art is competent enough. Yuen Wong seems to struggle most when it comes to faces. A lot of the faces look really janky and off model for both the digimon and the digi-destined. The only other thing that's kind of off is that the text boxes are very heavily lined and take up a lot more space than I'm used to.

-When Sora is drawn in chibi-mode she has the straps of her hat up like a rabbit. At first the silhouette was so unfamiliar that I had no idea who it was lol.

-So they covered two episodes in one chapter (up until the Shellmon battle). Let's see if the pace stays that way...

Ch. 2

-This definitely has a similar vibe to most manga adapted from anime that I've read. I wonder if it will diverge from the original material at any point, too soon to judge.

-Tai says to Agumon "I'll do anything but a teeth buffing" and I have nooo idea what that means? (Is he saying "don't eat me?") Also in chapter one Izzy said "baby blue, how emasculating!" when talking about the digivice. I don't think Koushiro would ever say that tbh. I feel like spotting these weird dialogue choices is going to be the most entertaining part about reading this.

Ch. 3

-I guess we're now going at a pace of one episode per chapter, which is fine. Somehow the content still seems a little condensed with a lot of the emotional beats cut out. I feel like the setting changes every two seconds which is giving me whiplash.

-Some weird quirks: the digi-destined call their digimon by their rookie names, even when they're in champion form. Also, the artist really really likes drawing smiley faces as stand-ins for the actual characters. That's like a step below chibification lol

-I think manga like this is perfect for if you wanted to watch Digimon Adventure 02, but you didn't want to catch up on a 50+ episode anime. It's a lot faster to read than to watch. (Although probably not as satisfying overall).

Ch. 4

-More cheesy dialogue. Izzy says "don't mess with an elite hacker" to Tai lol. Koushiro is way more likeable in the original Japanese because localizations loved to make nerds insufferable in the 90s.

-It's funny, I've never thought of Tentomon as robot-like, but in this chapter he said his parts were "short circuiting" and I was like "oh yeahhh...I guess he does have metallic features"

-Did we really need that close-up crotch shot of Andromon?

-You would think that the plot point of there being editable code laying around in random areas of the digital world would have come up again, but I can't remember another time it was really used to the kids' advantage.

Ch. 5

-This panel made me laugh:

(something about this phrasing and the expressionless chibis is so funny).

-And then Izzy never manually triggered a digivolution again...for some reason? (I feel like this was definitely explained in the anime, but I can't remember what they said).

-They didn't censor the poop this time! As usual, you can get away with more in print than you can on the screen B)

-They confirm that you can repel Numemon with sunlight...and then immediately the kids get attacked by more Numemon in broad daylight. Quickest continuity error ever!

-Another chuckle worthy moment:

Ch. 6

-Okay, but this one had me die laughing. Just a really good dad joke:

-Going from Adventure 02 back to the early Adventure days the stakes really do feel lower. No existential conundrums or human/humanoid villains to contend with. Just rampaging digis that can be easily cured.

Ch. 7

-Maybe it's just a translation thing, but sometimes the digimon act like there's one of each digimon species. Like Gomamon says "Unimon's a nice guy!" as if there's one Unimon in the world. Pretty confusing for kids. I wish mon series would just use names (they do sometimes, but it's not the status quo).

Yep, that was pretty generic. I wish they had thrown some more personality in there to make this a unique experience. I would have loved to read some final thoughts from the mangaka or to have gotten an omake of some sort. Ohhh welll...

[brighteststar707]

Yeah, it's been a long time! I've been doing alright, though! I'm kinda mostly waiting for my last school year to be over and find a job so I can earn money and slowly fix my life the way I want.^^"

The fandom is Blue Period! It's actually my next big focus after Mystic Messenger actually, I even found a character I consider my f/o from there! I got a special box with a sketchbook that is full of drawings and illustrations with really good quality! Since the fandom is not even active, there is stuff in this book that you won't find anywhere else, makes me feel good SMSMSM and one of the best parts is that it's in Japanese! So whenever I have progressed way more, I'll come back and read all the new juicy info and new scenarios I've never seen before, exciting!!!!

I also got some bookmarks and two keychains from there! Although I wasn't kinda happy with the shipping process, I'm still very happy I got them!!

Blue Period has also helped me a lot with my path with art, it has given me plenty of motivation and the main character has opened my eyes to so much about art, too! I felt so seen when he had the same thoughts and experiences as me, even if he does oil painting^^"

You can watch the anime or read the manga if it interests you! If you start with the anime, please check the manga out since there is so much more! If you do anything with art, it might give you motivation just like it did to me.

Learning the language can be fun but it is challenging, haha. They are many words that have different pronunciations and stuff I haven't seen in a language before. I found that listening to people speak makes me remember the words easier haha

I hope you are able to rest well, you're doing great, I reassure you! I'm also so happy I got to speak with you again, it really has been a lot of time, holyyyy!

I'm thinking of starting to use Tumblr when I get more Into art again but I'm still here, I still check some stuff every day when I can! <333

I understand that sentiment. So much changes once you're done with school. I'm rooting for this year to be an easy one for you!

Ooh, I've never heard of Blue Period before, but I looked up the premise and it sounds interesting! I will keep it in mind when I'm in the market for a new anime/manga!

It's so wonderful to be able to pull motivation from the media you enjoy, especially when it's a hobby like art or writing where it sometimes feels like you can hit a wall. Funnily enough, even though it has nothing to do with writing, Mysme is what pushed me to write more often and put more effort into it. It's thanks to these guys that I've been able to develop my skills as far as I have.

That merch sounds so nice! That sketchbook especially sounds really detailed and extra bonus that it's something you won't find elsewhere. It'll be fun to see what else it holds once you progress further in Japanese! Shame about the shipping issues with other merch pieces, but at least they made it to you!

I've had similar experiences learning languages. What I love is that each language says so much about the country's culture. I'm currently attempting to learn Italian, and while it has its difficult and awkward moments (I've messed up in front of locals more times than I can count), I love learning about the expressions and their meanings.

Thank you for your support, it means a lot! I'm taking time to catch my breath and to do the things I enjoy before life gets busy again.