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x0401x · 4 years ago

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Jeweler Richard Fanbook Short Story #3

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T/N: Okay, so, this is one of those chapters where the author makes mistakes in linguistics (but she’s trying, guys, she’s trying!). She writes “prasinon” as “prase” for some reason, and I took the liberty to fix it myself when translating.

Connecting Chrysoprase

Jewelry Etranger sat inconspicuously at Ginza 7-choume. The store owner, Richard, was the possessor of a beauty that you couldn’t think was from this world, but no matter how beautiful he was, once half a year had passed, you would get used to it. And as I got used to him, the questions also surfaced.

“Hey, Richard, don’t you have any favorite foods other than sweets? Do you eat ramen or anything like that?”

Mr. Richard Ranashinha de Vulpian looked at me with scrutinizing blue eyes. Sitting on the red sofa, he had been observing the contents of a large jewel box, holding them up over his head against the morning light shining in from the window.

“I find difficult to figure the aim of the question. Why ramen? I have had meals with you numerous times. I eat anything without likes or dislikes.”

“I know. It’s not like it’s limited to just ramen, but you don’t eat that kind of stuff much, do you?”

Like chives. Or garlic. Or grilled meat dripping with juices.

I knew that this didn’t suit his image. He was a man whose features seemed to have accidentally come out of a dream world. If he told me that he could live off eating department store sweets and pink roses, he could probably have me seriously convinced up to about 70%. That was exactly why I would feel like searching for a gap.

As I was about to ask if he understood this logic, Richard replied curtly with a clay doll-like face, “What ill intentions.”

That was true. I wasn’t some obsessive follower of an idol’s personal life or anything. Richard hit bull’s-eye with the deduction that I “probably ate ramen yesterday”. For some reason, things got awkward. I was in a position where it was better to retreat for a while. Time to change the subject.

“What stone is that? Looks like candy and it’s pretty cute.”

“A type of chalcedony. They are in the same category as crystals. In particular, this one with a milky apple-green color is called chrysoprase.

“Ah~...”

What Richard was pinching with his bare hands - because it was safer to touch it with bare skin rather than wearing gloves, he said, as it wouldn’t cause any damage - was a pale green, round stone. It had low transparency, was cut en cabochon and looked like an old-style candy.

“W-What was it again? The name. Chry...?”

“‘Chrysoprase’,” Richard repeated for me.

How many times had something like this happened? The stone’s name was in a Western language. Basically, all of them were in katakana. My ears did register it, but I couldn’t memorize it in one go at all. Richard was a helpful person, so there were times when he wrote down the names in romaji and explained them to me, but I honestly couldn’t keep up with him. There were countless stones in this world.

“Chryso... aah, no good. It’s hard to memorize.”

“‘Chrysoprase’. It is said to be a stone that helps to harmonize and integrate personalities. Medieval European literature also mentions it as a stone that Alexander the Great loved.”

Alexander the Great. A person I had learned about in high school. Even I knew that name. The fact that a stone adored by a warlord who had long passed away was still loved by people of the current times was thought-provoking. The range of the gemstone world was broad. But, well, leaving that as that.

“How d’you memorize stones’ names? It’s not like you’ve got some test to do like in a history class...”

“Do you think anyone would buy goods from a trader who cannot even say their names?”

“I don’t, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s hard. There’s lots of types and they sound like magic spells. Like ‘Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte’. It wouldn’t be weird if you felt like cheating without a care in the world. You got any trick for memorizing them?”

“My compliments to you for being able to pronounce the official name of Sri Lanka’s capital. But I cannot praise the part about carelessly deceiving people. Once your reputation falls to earth, it does not recover so easily. To begin with, your perception of business in general is too lax for someone enrolled in the Faculty of Economics. I know you have the aspiration, but if you do not pair it to practical abilities and skills, you will be running idle. Shouldn’t you try to improve these skills once again so that you can avoid unnecessary hardships in the future? Instead of obsessing over finding out something unexpected about the shopkeeper from your part-time job.”

The arguments were so spot-on that I was at a loss for words. Even so, still with a slightly exasperated face, Richard continued to speak. Most likely, it was his gentle side’s turn from here on out.

“Still, you are right, I do have a trick. If I were to use the capital as an example, ‘Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte’ had its original name ‘Kotte’ being embellished with the title of ‘President Jayawardene’s Sacred City’. When you know the origin of it, doesn’t this line-up of katakana letters that only appears in magic spells turn into meaningful words?”

“So it had that kind of meaning? I see...”

“Is this time to be impressed? Do the same and discover the relatedness of all kinds of matters in your daily life. If you direct your eyes to the depths of your history without sticking to the surface, I guarantee that your world will broaden much more richly.”

“Then what about the chrysoprase of just now?”

As I took a stab at arousing his enthusiasm, the volubly beautiful shop owner smiled gorgeously. I felt that this guy would stay in a good mood forever just as long as I gave him sweets and let him talk about gems. And I liked Richard’s face the most when he was in his best mood.

“This word is taken from the Greek language. It consists of two separate words, ‘chrysos’ and ‘prasinon’. The meaning of chrysos is ‘gold’. The bright golden that can be seen showing through within the green was associated with gold. Prasinon means...”

What happened? His enunciation suddenly got bad.

When I urged him to continue, Richard looked down at the stone in his hand with a dull look and sighed a little. “The meaning of prasinon... comes close to plants such as chives or green onions.”

“Ooh—!”

As I clapped my hands together with an “all paths lead to ramen”, Richard made a face like he had just woken up from a nightmare. What is it? Please laugh.

“In any case, the mental attitude of trying to master something is commendable. I pray that your efforts will bear fruit.”

“Thanks, thanks. Well, will you eat ramen after all?”

Mr. Richard, the jeweler, looked at me with an awfully sharp gaze. What was that face? His facial expression looked like the usual nuance that he was growing fond of my foolishness had increased to about 30%. Did he intend to poke fun on me?

“Yes, yes, I will.”

“What do you prefer? Like miso or soy sauce?”

“A large helping of green onions and garlic. And even then, it is good to grate raw garlic and put in it.”

“That’s a pretty hardcore taste for someone who works with close-contact service business.”

“Which is why this is not something I can eat whenever. I eat it carefully by myself when I do not have to meet anyone the next day.”

As my eyes widened, the beautiful storekeeper raised his chin arrogantly. Did he want to say that this didn’t suit his image or had it just unfolded anew?

“How was it, did you enjoy the so-called ‘gap’?”

“No, it’s not like that’s the main goal.”

“Hah?”

“I can’t invite anyone for a French cuisine restaurant or a high-class sweets store, but if it’s a ramen shop, there’s lots of them near my university. If you like, why don’t we go eat together next time? They’re mostly shops that seem better to drop by wearing a t-shirt rather than a suit, but I wanna try chatting with you while eating this kind of junky stuff every now and then.”

“For you to discover a new unexpected thing about me, you mean?”

“I just wanna get along with you better.”

For an instant, Richard’s facial expression strained hard. What was up? His face looked like he hadn’t known better and bit a sour pickled plum or something. As I furrowed my brows, his blue eyes narrowed, looking glum, while he closed the jewel box with a click and stood up.

“Ah, show me more. It wasn’t nearly enough—”

“The chrysoprase is said to have the power to put the balance of mind and body in order, as well as make it spring up comfortably. Perhaps because its fresh grass color is a reminder of spring. Isn’t this stone unnecessary for you, since you are always in a festive mood?”

“Why’re you angry?”

“I am not.”

“Shouldn’t you take a better look at the chrysoprase?”

“Thank you for the unnecessary meddling.”

Leaving me with things to say, Richard disappeared into the back room. Was it that bad to invite him to a ramen shop? It wasn’t a good idea to let him stay angry, so I voluntarily prepared two cups of royal milk tea in the kitchenette. Having come out into the reception room, Richard said nothing more than the expected as he drank a tea that had a little more sugar in it than usual.

After the customer of that morning had gone home, Richard showed me the chrysoprase once again. Upon a better look, I understood the meaning of that naming, which I couldn’t think of as anything more than a mystery at first. Didn’t the people of ancient times think that this was a plant born from gold? The uneven surface was smooth and wavy like an organic body. Chrysoprase. Gold and green onions. Even though there were several gems in this world, I would probably never forget the name of this one. If I ever got to eat ramen with Richard someday, I would definitely bring up this stone.

“Do you remember that talk?” I would ask.

#jeweler richard #housekishou richard shi no nazo kantei #nakata seigi #the case files of jeweler richard #richard ranashinha de vulpian #tsujimura nanako #yukihiro utako #novel #my translation #fanbook #jr short story collection

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kimamanitranslate · 4 years ago

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Filled It With My Feelings Text Translation

Sorry it took so long, but I finished the text translation of Filled It With My Feelings, the Senyuu 10th anniversary book! I didn’t translate the Season 1 Episode 1 redraw though because I’m sure we can all recite what happens in there by heart at this point.

As it’s an illustration book, the translation is meant to be read along with the pictures - you can purchase the digital PDF of the book at hiaruron.booth.pm/items/2329424. You should be able to purchase it through PayPal or some international credit cards.

I’ve included the text under the cut, but you can also read it on the Google Docs here.

Please note I do not give permission to anyone to use this translation for scanlations. There’s a reason why I’m posting this as a text translation rather than as a scanlation - it reads perfectly fine along with the raw book.

However, feel free to use this for text-only translations to different languages, just send me a message about it.

Page 1

Title: Filled It With My Feelings 10th. senyu.

Page 2

Page 3

[Panel 1] SFX (Slime): *squeak* SFX (sword): *slam*

[Text Paragraph]

The story of Senyu first arrived on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 12:39 PM. Naturally, at that point, the name “Senyu” didn’t yet exist - a email was sent to my inbox entitled “A discussion about a new project.”

It was a rather vague email with few details, but at the time, I was working as a day labourer in a certain distribution centre in Tokyo’s Ota Ward. As I hauled around boxes, my days were filled with uneasy thoughts of my future- I gave up on becoming a mangaka, I started work at an anime company but I quit there too, what am I going to do from now on? So I pounced on that vague email- Maybe this will shine some clarity into my life!

Senyu. was the product borne out of that email, and to my great appreciation, it really did shine clarity into my life. My future, which had been dark and uneasy, was illuminated bright by the light of Senyu. I would like to say that was why I made the protagonist’s name “Alba” - which means dawn - but unfortunately, that isn’t the case. I only learned the meaning of Alba’s name later - it was a total coincidence.

Anyways, a lot has happened, but it’s now Senyu’s tenth anniversary.

Thank you very much. I never thought that I could continue for this long. This is all thanks to all of you, for supporting me all this way.

Senyu. is a part of my life at this point - I don’t plan to end it any time soon, so I will be counting on everyone for their continued support.

Haruhara Robinson.

Page 4

Alba

While this may be obvious, the character I’ve spent the most time with in this work no longer feels like a mere “character” to me.

He had a beta design with bangs. But since I thought he might seem more cheerful with his forehead showing, I settled on his current design. I intended to give him a haircut that was similar to characters like Kirimaru, but my lack of artistic skills at the time ended up giving him a hairstyle with a bizarre composition.

I struggle now with how to draw his hair well.

Hero Symbol

I’ve always liked the idea of accessories that had the symbol of a hero, so wanting to have the same concept in my own work, I did my best to think up a design. I was really happy when it came out as merch.

Page 5

Ros

His backstory is really something!

I feel like he carried the entirety of Senyu’s serious plotlines on his back. I thought of Senyu. as like a story that uses the protagonist Alba to give the completed story of Hero Sion a happy ending?

There were times when I was drawing things out that I thought, He feels kinda pitiful? But then in the story, Ros says, “Don’t judge people as pitiful by your own standards,” so then I thought, I-I’m sorry.

His equipment at the start was supposed to be like a machine that let him whip around his heavy sword like it was nothing, but everything ended before I explained any of that.

Page 6

Rchi

At the start, I just thought of her as a cute little girl. But gradually, she grew darker and darker, and by now, the dark aspects of her personality are a part of what makes her unique as a character.

Her hair accessory often disappears. Near the start, there was the explanation that it was confiscated when they were arrested, but beyond that it’s just because I forgot to draw it.

There was an explanation for why she was naked under her cloak during her first appearance, but I’ve forgotten it. I believe it was because since she was camping outside, she washed herself outside as well but her clothes were blown away by the wind - so she wrapped an old cloth around herself…?

Page 7

Foyfoy

The name “Foyfoy” was decided by an audience poll. At first, I was planning to make him Chinese-inspired, but before I realized it that concept had disappeared. His mark is leftover from that original idea.

Foyfoy’s hairstyle is one I drew often when I was a student. I often gave rivals or secondary main characters this hairstyle.

I’m glad I could draw a design like this in an official work.

Page 8

Alles

A character drawn specifically with boobs that a Haruhara who was too embarrassed to draw boobs drew because “I can’t run from boobs!” The reason why I stopped drawing her midway through isn’t because of my embarrassment, but because I wasn’t used to drawing them, so since I never practiced it, I forgot how to.

Princess-chan

TL: This is written with the kanji for “Princess” rather than the katakana for “Hime” as her name is usually written.

She was meant to be a cute, elegant girl, so it shocked me when she immediately ended up as a violent character from her first appearance.

Since I hadn’t decided on a name for her, in the anime her name was listed as ???. I caused trouble for the anime staff.

Page 9

Rudolf

I can’t help but feel that eldery soldiers are cool. When I was doodling for fun, I often drew eldery soldiers.

Himendam

I thought of a development where a cute girl pops out from a nice big suit of armour, so I created the Himendam.

At the time, I thought, “This is a pretty unusual development, it’s great!” but now that I think back on it, it’s actually pretty common.

Slime

The first monster to appear. The first monster you fight should be a slime! Slimes should be blue! I’ve been influenced by Dragon Quest in that way.

I had this child of mine show up as your standard old monster in order to increase the impact of the panda who would show up right after.

Page 10

Minister

While I honestly have no idea why the minister is always standing next to the king, usually that’s the case in RPGs, right?

So I had him stand next to the king in the same way. I feel as though his overall image is influenced by Magical Circle Guru Guru’s Kaya. While I hadn’t realized it while designing him, Kaya’s design affected me unconsciously.

The King

His whole thing was “a super serious old man that makes a stupid face during funny scenes,” but before I realized it, his stupid face became his default expression.

He just may be the nastiest character in the series, considering he wrapped up the entire world in his schemes for his own personal desires.

Mob Characters

The mob characters in my work tend to have this face. I like how they tend to make cutting comments while having non-descript faces.

Page 11

Suit

When Ros’ design went from complicated equipment to this thing, I was shocked at how much easier it was to draw.

I think this thing was what triggered me striving for easiness in my work. Can I blame everything on this thing instead of me?

Just kidding, it’s all my fault.

Fake Foyfoy

If you don’t make careful enough observations, you can’t make a perfect disguise, and you end up in an idiotic costumed-character-like disguise. I wanted to use this plot device a few times more after this, but I didn’t have any chance to use it at all.

Mii-chan

Haruhara happens to have had a stuffed animal for as long as he can remember, and he still has it since he’s never been able to throw it away. I feel as though that stuffed animal served as the model for Mii-chan. In terms of his colour and overall atmosphere.

But my stuffed animal isn’t a pervert like him!

Page 12

Samejima

A delinquent overflowing with manliness. What’s with his hairstyle, I wonder. It’s actually pretty easy to draw.

He just might never lose against anyone so long as he thinks, “There’s no way I can lose.”

Januar

I stuffed in everything my little sister likes into his appearance. “Straight-cut bangs, black-haired, one-eyed, droopy eyes.” But it isn’t as though I went and got her feedback directly so she might just tell me, “He’s not my type at all.”

I chose his personality based on my tastes- “A kind idiot.”

Page 13

Teufel

I thought of a “butler who doesn’t obey orders” around the same time as a “soldier who doesn’t listen to what you say.”

I wanted to have him appear at some point in the future, but then I saw a book called The After-Dinner Mysteries in a book store, which made me think- “M-m-m-m-maybe this book has a butler who doesn’t obey orders as well?!” So I panicked, ran back home, and drew out the head butler’s story.

That’s why the head butler’s story was shoved in out of nowhere.

I read The After-Dinner Mysteries after I wrote in all the butler plot devices I wanted to use, and it was interesting.

At the start, Ros had his three burrs hairstyle so his design was differentiated from Teufel’s, but from Season 2 forwards I struggled with differentiating them.

So Teuf-kun has been going through some small design changes, a bit at a time.

Page 14

Nisepanda

Before Dwango reached out to me, there was a manga I thought up with the plot “a zoo with an easily deceived curator.”

I planned to have a nisepanda appear in that work. The plot device was, “They thought it was a panda, but they were given a mysterious lifeform instead.”

Death Hot Dog-kun

A character that was born during the enthusiastic atmosphere during a meeting with my editor.

We happened to be eating hot dogs during the meeting.

I barely ever have these meetings for my other works, but for Senyu, I’ve been having meetings like this for years. So through sheer enthusiasm and cheer, things like mysterious characters and plot devices end up being created during the meetings.

Page 15

Page 16

Dezember

Mysterious characters in manga often show up with their face cast in shadows. Dezember was born because I thought, “Why not make those shadows real?” But he ended up as a cooler character than I expected, using his shadows to attack and such.

I wanted to base him off of a toy for future plot developments, but I’m really glad I decided to based him off of dice. He became a really good character.

August

I think he’s actually a really nice person.

My editor for Main Quest really liked August, so whenever they got the chance they tried to push for more August.

Avril

A character that’s rather rare for Senyuu - one that just genuinely does bad things for bad reasons. I planned to draw her as really evil so you could tell she was a bad person, but she ended up just casually munching on bread - it really surprised me.

Neun

Back when his only appearance was a silhouette, I just wanted to make people think of that character at first. But now that I really think about the design I thought up for him after - isn’t he pretty cute?

Juli

Just like Foyfoy, I often drew characters with this hairstyle back when I was a student. I usually gave it to trustworthy ally characters. I like his design and personality quite a bit - sorry I haven’t used you much…

Page 17

The Shadows

It’s super cool to be able to split your body for each die face. I also feel like it’s a great character setting that each split has his own personality. A thought just crossed my mind - couldn’t I draw a manga just based around the Dezembers’ home life?

...I guess it would end up like Osomatsu-san...?

Page 18

Zwei

I wanted to use the concept that she was old despite her looks because she was a demon, so I had her dentures fly out - but now that I think about it, there’s other old demon characters, including some characters older than Zwei. So that would make her dentures a result of her own problematic lifestyle, not because of her old age…

Wanna Stab~

A mob among mobs, who ranked high in a popularity poll. I shall now grant him a name - “Phoenix the Rich”.

Mortmome

The stuff on his shoulder does some mysterious things, preventing his body from turning as well when the drill turns.

Page 19

The Great Mage

The cape he wears is very warm. His research assistants gifted him the cape as a present for his birthday sometime in his later years of life, as they were worried about his health. That’s why Alba always wears the cape.

Elf

He’s meant to be someone who knows the secrets of the world - but I can’t count the number of times I considered whether it would be better to just make him a regular old funny character. Good on you for surviving through all that, Elf!

Alf

While I did want there to be a “Elf’s best friend” character, I hadn’t thought about his name at all. So when it came time for him to appear, I really struggled with it. I wanted to make his name like Alba and Ros (Albatross) or Salt and Lake (Salt Lake)…

I may have struggled the most with Alf’s name among all my characters, considering I usually just pick names on instinct.

Page 20

Salt and Lake and Lym

The Hero Academy trio. At first, I planned for Salt to become the Demon Lord, but when I sat down to draw everything out, Lake ended up in that role - it really shocked me.

I had always planned for the story to shift from the adventure setting of Seasons 1 and 2 to the school setting of Season 3. Though the end result is completely different from what I imagined.

Season 3 was really fun to draw since it defied my expectations at every turn.

Page 21

Lyman

I wanted to draw a pathetic older man. I also want his scar to be because of some pathetic reason like “He tripped at a bar.”

Elmer

I reused the soldier design I thought up prior to thinking up Alba and Ros. He’s a little older than Rchi.

Justice

Justice is her ally. In other words, I wanted to make a character where no matter what she does, “I’m doing it, so it’s just!”

But it was too difficult to figure out how to deal with a character like that, so I ended up just making a regular old hotheaded reckless character.

In the end though, she ended up as a character I quite like.

Page 22

Grandpa

A character who loves money. Since I love characters who love money, he’s a character that’s fun to use. It doesn’t actually have to be money, I like characters true to their own desires in general.

Hasegawara-kun

He was originally meant to be a silent character, but I got the urge to make him talk right before I was going to send in the manuscript. Since I wouldn’t make it if I typesetted his speech, I wrote his lines myself. By writing his lines in a way that can only be expressed through handwriting, I made it seem like I planned that from the start.

I made his speech typesetted again after I did that plot where he speaks super eloquently.

Rib Man

He requires no explanation!

It was funny when he moved in the anime.

Page 23

Sochi and Co.

There’s a game called Medabots - in that game, a character called Samantha leads a three-person team called the Screws. I’ve always liked that team since I was a kid. And then, I learned that my editor for Senyu was close with people who were involved with creating the original Medabots. So I had my editor tell them, “I want to put in characters I respect! Please leave it be!”

Please google the Screws that I respect, I respect them.

Lucop

I had vaguely thought up what was going to happen until the end of season 4 of Senyu. But since I’ve done everything I originally thought up, F5 - which I’m drawing now - is all based on plot developments I thought up in +.

-I’ve been saying that for a while now. Lucop as well was just a throwaway joke at first. But as I started moving him around, amazing developments like “Huh? No way… you had a past like this…?” burst out of him, and so he became the current Lucop.

Page 24

Midnight

A travelling doctor. As he treats his patients, he’s also searching for a cure to Mom’s mysterious disease. He’s a completely normal person with no special powers. He wanted Alba to become strong through his own power, not through familial connections.

Cecily

A mother who adores her children. I think it’s pretty amazing that she managed to raise Lake up herself and send him off to school despite being blown off to a mysterious place out of nowhere.

Page 25

Rchimedes the Second and his wife

Rchimedes the Second and his wife. (T/N: Yes, it’s written twice.)

Daromeon-san, who’s currently illustrating Kengan Ashura, was the one to draw the ridiculously beautiful backgrounds in the flashback arc in Season 2 when the Second was imprisoned. When I complained that I couldn’t draw it, he drew me amazingly beautiful.backgrounds.

The Second’s design is based off of a mysterious preconception I have that “Demon Lords should wear raggedy capes.” Mama’s design is based on those soothing, kind moms you often see in anime.

The Mana Maker that he holds in this picture isn’t any particular Mana Maker. I just wanted to let a Mana Maker show up in a group picture.

Page 26

Rchimedes

While he’s tremendously evil, he ended up being quite loved. The Senyu characters I designed near the start wear clothes that I would never design now - I really think it’s amazing. Why did I dress him up in a jumpsuit when I decided to draw a Demon Lord?

On a side note, I imagined that the white part of his clothes peels off smoothly like tape if you pull at it from his neck.

Crea

Since he took back his body from Rchimedes, his height shouldn’t have changed, but for some reason he mysteriously shrunk.

Page 27

Page 28

Originia

In a way, the story of these three marks the start of Senyu. Originia comes from me messing around with the the word “Original”.

Rchimedes' scariest era just might be when he was living alone with Sion in Originia. Even though at first glance, it seems like he was living a peaceful, cheerful life with Sion, though occasionally getting beat up by him. But in reality, just what was he thinking deep inside, as he lived out his life, watching Crea and Sion?

Since I’m the author, I can generally imagine what my characters think just by thinking about it. But when it comes to Rchimedes during this time, all that comes to mind is “Scary scary scary”, and I can’t really think any further in detail.

I’m often asked “What’s Rchimedes’ original eye colour?”, but I think it was probably blue. I feel like I drew his eyes as blue somewhere, but I can’t remember…

Crea’s clothes slung around his shoulders that don’t fall off for whatever reason are actually sewn on - that’s why they don’t fall off. Crea sewed it on himself. While his threadwork is rough, it’s very sturdy. I think it’s wild and cool.

I showed a bit of what Sion did in the main story, but he generally did things like hauling supplies for hunting, looking far in the distance since his eyes are good, and going shopping in far-off cities for the village. Things like that.

Page 29

The two from Season 4 Episode 0

The two from Elf and Alf’s universe. Since Rchimedes’ magic research hasn’t progressed that much, they mostly fight with brute force. Since Crea never had his body stolen, he’s doing well. (He’s not doing well at all.)

Page 30

Creasion

When I was a kid, I read in a manga, “‘Hero’ isn’t something you call yourself - it’s a title you’re granted by others.” I remember thinking, “I see, that certainly makes sense,” and agreeing with it. I also thought, “While you generally think of heroes as being brave and splendid, the person who’s actually adventuring might not be able to stand expectations like that sometimes.”

Creasion may be a character borne out of those feelings of mine.

Ros, please have tons of sweets and smile tons as well.

Page 31

Page 32

Sleepiez

When I thought of the name “Sleepiez” in Senyu+, I didn’t think much of it except “There’s an anti-Alba organization”. I also planned for Boss to be a new character. But after I took the time to think about it properly, the Sleepiez in their current form were born.

Thanks to the current Sleepiez being created, F5 was able to start even though I thought before “I’ve already done everything I want to do with Senyu, I can’t make another proper season.”

If there was no Sleepiez, I feel like + would’ve lazily continued, then at some good cut-off point, I feel like I would’ve been told, “Do you think it’s about time to end it?”

A tenth anniversary for example… it would’ve been a good cut-off point… how scary!

Boss

I can’t write about most of the Sleepiez members just yet, so I’ll be talking about Boss as their representative.

Boss is an alternate universe’s Alba, so despite being Boss, he’s still Alba, and so I want to make him feel like Alba still. But since he’s Boss he can’t retort or make jokes, since it would ruin his dignity. So at the very least, I gave him Alba’s fashion sense to keep his Alba feel. Since his heart stained black and he became evil, his fashion sense naturally became eviller as well, but he’s still Alba, the base is still Alba. He’s wearing clothes that kinda feel like a middle schooler who just discovered fashion for the first time, like he hasn’t managed to go full evil in terms of clothes just yet.

Now I can keep Boss as Boss while still giving him an Alba feel! ...is what I thought, but… does he actually still have that feel…?

Page 33

Alba with Mana

It made me happy that my wish for my protagonist to become the strongest at the end was granted. I thought up a lot of reasons for why only one of his eyes is red, like how it’s because his awakening is still incomplete, etc., but the number one reason is “it’s cool.”

A single red eye is cool, right?! It’s cool right?!

Now that he can use his mana to some extent, he controls his overwhelming mana to hold it back, so his eyes are both back to black now.

Page 34

Page 35

SQ Senyuu.

I had this conversation once-

Y-san from Dwango told me, “I want to take Senyu to a magazine to have it serialized!”

I thought it would be awesome if it actually happened, so I approved it. Then I was like, “If you do take it to a magazine, where would you take it?”

Then Y-san responded, “Well, if you say ‘magazine’, you think Jump.”

And I was like, “Nah nah, Jump would be impossible, ahahaha.”

I never thought that Y-san would actually bring me an offer for serialization in Jump - Y-san was way too capable. Since my personal experience with Jump all started from there, I’m really grateful!

Pages 36-43

Page 44

Afterword

Since I’ve remade Senyu Episode 1 many times before, I thought that I would never remake it again. But then I thought- why don’t I remake Episode 1 at the exact time it was originally released ten years ago, as celebration! So I ended up remaking it again.

But I think it may be my first time remaking it without changing any of the jokes or content.

#senyuu #senyu #senyuu spoilers #haruhara robinson

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askshinachiku · 5 years ago

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fanielshalean replied to your post “Little Bitty Problem With Fandom Recently”

I actually thought the Naruto explained video was cool tho. But yeah I wasn’t really keen on the narusaku name not being Shinachiku since he’s a collective name that most of the NaruSaku fandom aggreed with

The issue with the video is, it assumes every single event would play out exactly the same as it does in canon and I don’t think he credited all the Shinachiku art.

I suppose if you’re not deep in the NaruSaku fandom, you wouldn’t know how our story plays out, but so many things have changed making the canon scenario almost impossible.

For example, two small changes that would most likely completely change the course of whatever happened in canon should NaruSaku/Shinachiku be a thing:

We changed how academy works and how long it takes to graduate. No more child soldiers. Shinachiku might never be in a situation where he’s out and about open for attack until he’s a bit older and wiser.

Shinachiku’s sensei is not Konohamaru, it’s Lee. His teammates are a less set in stone, but they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. If the story called for it, of course one of them could stop whatever insta kill attack is headed their way. Who the hell knows.

But you know what? That’s whatever. He didn’t write about Shinachiku, he made up a random character to tell his story and that’s fine. Uninteresting, but fine. Afterall, Shinachiku is not the only NaruSaku kid.

At the end of the day, I had 2 issues:

He used art of Shinachiku, named him something else, and if I recall correctly, didn’t credit any of the artists for their work. Wanna make a hypothetical NaruSaku kid? Fine. Go ahead. Don’t steal other peoples work and relabel him how you see fit. If the artist drew Shinachiku, then he’s Shinachiku. If you don’t like the name, that’s cool too. If it’s the length that bothers you, then I assume you hate Shikamaru’s name too, which has the same amount of syllables and hiragana/katakana.

He didn’t at all consider how changes in relationships, dynamics and events, would effect the plot. An alternative universe with slightly different characters/relationships means different problems and different events. The writers of most AU stories, including Kishi who wrote Road to Ninja, understand this. It would’ve been nice to hear someone talk about how the plot would be different, but all he did was assume everything is the same except Hinata is now Sakura and nothing else changes. That’s just low effort.

Those are my grievances. I truly felt like I wasted my time even watching it. I don’t know why I haven’t learned my lesson yet, it happens over and over again. None of the Naruto youtubers give a shit about NaruSaku and will slap “NaruSaku” in the title for some views.

The day a youtuber actually sits down and considers a take on a NaruSaku future? That’s really worth a listen, I’d like to see what kind of ideas are floating around in their minds. When that day comes, It’ll be pretty sweet.

#fanielshalean

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mokkoriness · 5 years ago

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ROCK AND READ vol. 086 - Saga Interview

Their own "alicenine."

At their 15th anniversary tour final that was held at Hibiya Open Air Concert Hall on August 10, their band name changed back to the original "alicenine." from the "A9" that we have gotten familiar with over the last 5 years. Although we heard the reason behind this in the previous issue from the band's frontman, Show, in this issue, we ask each of the members to talk about their feelings towards "alicenine.". With what kind of feelings did they have when facing this band name and the "blend of Japanese and Western styles" concept 15 years ago? Everyone has their own image of "alicenine.", so that means we should be able to see many aspects of the band that is alicenine.

The one who composed the first release of the second stage of アリス九號., "Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-", was the bassist Saga. We asked the composer himself why they went on such a strong Japanesque path. And when we did, we discovered an unexpected fact related to the original song. Also, what was the image of the lyrics he requested of Show? It actually became clear that this is connected to things that happened before the formation of アリス九號.! This is the latest interview where you can feel Saga's creative soul and his "Love for Show".

The new song "Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-" was first played during the encore of "A9 LAST ONEMAN ALIVERSARY TOUR FINAL & 15TH ANNIVERSARY "THE TIME MACHINE"" at Hibiya Open Air Hall on August 10, after announcing that you would change your name back from "A9" to "アリス九號.", while wearing new outfits.

Saga: That's right.

Does that mean you worked on "Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-" with the intention of it being performed at this time?

Saga: Yes. I had started pre-production from around the beginning of June. For this song, I had worked with SuzukiDaichiHideyuki. I went to his house and there was much back and forth. Since the song was pretty much complete, some minor adjustments were made.

There was something that I personally thought when listening to the song for the first time. I apologize if I am mistaken. Is this perhaps a song that you had written for the secret solo project that you had previously made public in this magazine?

Saga: Ahh. As expected of you. Even if I wanted to be active in my solo project, I'm so busy that I can't. For this year in particular, things were done for アリス九號.'s anniversary year, so I could not make the time to work on my private project. However, I did have plenty of stock songs for my solo project.

How many songs do you have?

Saga: I have enough songs for 2 albums. So when we had decided to change our band name back to "アリス九號." together with our 15th year anniversary, we talked about releasing a single that was in line with those standards. When we were deciding on what song to make it and what visuals to show, what immediately came to my mind was to wear traditional Japanese coats like we had done in our early days. Those kinds of words were thrown around.

Why is that?

Saga: I wanted a feeling that we had returned. I thought that we should show that we were back in every respect, from the looks to the songs to the band name. Because I would think that even if we changed the band name back, if we didn't change our appearances and did songs as usual, then there would be no need to change our band name back. I thought that if we were going to change our band name back, then I should change the way I composed songs back too. So I had started to write songs, but even though I thought to do so in my mind, my hands did not keep up and I couldn't come up with anything (awkward smile). Even if I did write songs and they were goods songs, the only songs that came to me were ones that were not the kind of songs to be done at the point in time when we go back to being "アリス九號.", so I rejected those songs. Before this, I had spoken to Show and said that I wanted to write a song that wasn't gimmicky and had "good singing", so I think that I wrote the song in a way that would allow good singing. But even so, we had to decide on a song or else we would have not made it on time. My iTunes is full of demos for my solo project, and when I listened to those, there was a song that I was hooked to. Unfortunately (laughs).

When you say "Unfortunately", do you mean that you had the feeling of not wanting to bring out a demo that was made for your solo project?

Saga: That's right. It is a song that I had written for myself, after all. But unfortunately, the demo for "Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-" had suited the style, and it just clicked.

That it was a song that perfectly suited the timing of changing your band name back.

Saga: That's right. But this song was not written to be a single for a band, rather than communicating a message to people, the emphasis is on the atmosphere of the song. I wrote the song with the image of a degraded Japanese world. Personally, it has the feeling of Yoshiwara1.

The image of the red light district?

Saga: Right, right. The incredibly sad world of the women who worked there. Originally, I wrote the song with the image of a sad Japanese world with a negative aura lingering in the air.

So that's why you use the shamisen.

Saga: Yes. That was always in the song. From the introduction to the chorus. It's not as though we put in the sounds of the shamisen because アリス九號.'s concept is a blending of Japanese and Western styles, but it was always there from the beginning. So when asking Show to write the lyrics, I communicated my own ideas.

What kind of ideas?

Saga: There was a band called Givuss that he used to be in before アリス九號. I really liked the titles he came up with for the band. One of their album titles was "Nou Ongaku, Museimei (No Music No Life)", and personally, I thought he had interesting sensibilities. On top of that, in the very last artist photo of Givuss, they were wearing traditional Japanese coats. I thought that to wear a traditional Japanese coat and give such a title to an album was the kind of sense that only he had. At the time, other bands were all influenced by baroque and doing that kind of thing, but I thought he was original. In addition to being an extension from that, when アリス九號. first formed, the basic concept was a blending of Japanese and Western styles. アリス九號.'s debut single is called "Namae wa, Mada Nai". There, we wore traditional Japanese coats.

So the concept at the time reflected Show's sensibilities, which he always had since Givuss.

Saga: To me, those things are connected. I think that the sense that only Show has is アリス九號.'s uniqueness. I've always thought that we should value that. But when we changed our band's stylisation to the English "Alice Nine" in our 5th year, he changed the way he expresses himself into something more broad.

In line with the stylisation of the band name?

Saga: Probably. Since then, he has been holding back on expressions that he used in the past. Even if he were to express himself that way, it would only be for a song on an album or a coupling song on a single. That's what he kept it at. But personally, I always thought that he should push out those parts of him for all to see. So this time, at the point in time where we were changing our band name back, I told him that he should definitely do that. There's a song called "Byakuya ni Kuroneko", and I really like the world in the lyrics that he wrote for that song. It's a little angsty, or rather, dark, but I think that he shouldn't throw away his sense for using words. This is what アリス九號. is.

You felt that strongly about it.

Saga: Although I think when we are asked "What is アリス九號.?", we will all remain quiet. I think that it's Show's sensibilities.

Show also has fantastic sense, like saying "Let's become stars".

Saga: That is also a part of him, but I think the motivation for his most fundamental expression is the sense that allowed him to wear a traditional Japanese coat and come up with "Nou Ongaki, Museimei (No Music No Life)". When I said that to Show when asking him to write the lyrics for "Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-", he said "I understand". And so he wrote these lyrics.

So you had a resolute vision for the band in the changing of the band name back.

Saga: I had a plan for the framework of the band. So when we were talking about costumes, I suggested that we wear traditional Japanese coats. I originally liked the katakana and kanji stylisation "アリス九號.".

Is that so?

Saga: Yes. So that's why when we changed to the English stylisation, of course it was changed with the consensus of the members, but I had always thought that changing our band name was a waste. But at the time, I myself was writing songs that were similar to Western music. I didn't have this burning passion inside of me to say that I absolutely hated the English stylisation. But things are different now. At first, there was the idea to change the band name back to the English stylisation at this time. We made it the katakana and kanji mix instead.

You didn't like the English stylisation?

Saga: If we were going to change it back to "Alice Nine", wouldn't it be just fine as "A9"? When thinking about what we would do after changing the stylisation back to "Alice Nine", I think that it probably wouldn't be any different to what was being done (as "A9"). That being the case, I thought that I'd rather change it to the katakana and kanji mix and do something interesting.

And so the band name was changed back from "A9" to "アリス九號.". Looking back on the 5 years spent as "A9", how do you see it?

Saga: To be honest, it was tough. Because we started from a state where people didn't know that we had changed our band name and were like "What's A9?". I do have an attachment to it, as we had carried the name all the way until this point, and I do feel that it is something emotional.

As A9, the members had set down their instruments to sing and dance, and even played the role of princes and incorporated a 2.5 dimensional play into your live show. During this era, the band came to do many activities in the pursuit of entertainment. What was the reason behind being able to do such activities?

Saga: It was because we had lost many things. We lost many things, and even lost sight of what we were. I think that's why we were able to do that sort of thing. From someone else's point of view, the sight of us doing that kind of 2.5 dimension play and reciting a script might make them think "You guys have really lost it". I don't think that it's wrong to say that. I think a band is something that loses sight of things. I think that a band "strays off course" as a long as they keep on doing activities. I think that the people who belong to a big entertainment production company and have a proper director have people navigate them on the correct course, so they don't stray off course. But I think that all bands doing activities on their own are straying off course. That's why they always say to fans "Come along with us".

Because you are straying off course.

Saga: Yeah. If you are on the right path, there's no need to say "Come along with us". I mean, because you're on the right path. But when you do activities on your own, you stray off course and get nervous. Because you can't see one step in front of you. All you can do is keep making choices on what is in front of you and do each and every thing.

Since parting from your previous management company, I think that it would appear to those around you that the band was straying off course at a faster rate.

Saga: Probably. In these 5 years in particular we strayed off course. But I don't think of that as something negative. If that didn't happen, then we wouldn't have been able to reach this point.

By straying off course, the band matured.

Saga: Right. The secret to behind our band lasting for 15 years is "straying off course" (laughs).

Hahahaha.

Saga: I'm certain it's true. All the bands that I like stray off course. U2 constantly change their musical direction.

Bands should stray off course.

Saga: Right. Whether or not that straying off course was correct or not is decided by the audience. If the audience doesn't come along with you, then it means that that straying off course was bad luck.

And fortunately, A9's straying off course wasn't "bad luck".

Saga: By a hair, though. Our audience did their best to try and understand our straying off course. That's why there were many times where I felt glad. Also, even though we were straying off course, we took it seriously. We didn't do it with any feelings of wanting to just cause incidents or to try and cause an issue. I think that is why our audience put in effort to try and understand us.

Your top priority wasn't to do something crazy to make a buzz.

Saga: That's right. Even with us dancing, it's not as though we wanted it to become a hot topic; it was just the natural course of things. For us. It's not surprising at all.

And fans understood that.

Saga: Yes. That is why we seriously practiced. That's why I think we will continue to stray off course in future too. This is something that I want to say to the readers who like bands: That is what bands are! I want you to think about whether to follow a band or not after understanding this fact. If you don't like that, then I think it would be less stressful for you to follow a more proper artist. Bands stray and stray off course, and while getting lost, there are moments where they just instantly return to the right path. That is cool in its own way, and doesn't it make fans happy? That's what a band is. Bands stray off path, and their members even change. But there are times where you can think "That thing at that time wasn't bad". That's what's strange about bands.

Like "They became princes and acted at that anniversary live, but that wasn't bad either".

Saga: Right, that's right (laughs). That's why even though we stray off course, so that we don't think of the activities that we do as a mistake, we make a choice at each and every point in time.

I see. Even though you are straying off course, you are carefully choosing the path to take.

Saga: Yes, that's right.

Ever since becoming A9, you personally have started to rap, singing in the chorus, and sometimes even leaving the bass to Tora and playing the keyboard. I feel that you've come to be able to show us that you go beyond the border of a bassist and are more and more like a multi-instrumentalist.

Saga: In the past, I thought that all I needed to do was just play the bass. But I myself changed my awareness to become A9's colour, so I think that change shows. My colour in the band is purple (laughs), but if an outsider were to take a glimpse at us, they would be like "That purple caught my eye". I myself decided that it would be okay for me to show that my colour in this band is an important one, and not just be a part of a collective entity that is the band. That was also a conclusion I naturally reached. After becoming A9 and looking at ourselves objectively, I felt that my individuality was still weak, and I felt that there was no need for us to pull ourselves back.

From a producer's point of view.

Saga: Yes. Lately I've been listening to younger bands, and sometimes all I can hear is the vocalist. Isn't that a real waste? Even though everyone in this scene wears make-up and is in a band because they particularly want to stand out. But despite this, only the vocalist wears a different outfit, and everyone else wears the same colour. I wonder if they are okay with that. The instrument players need to show themselves more. To the point it gets annoying. My feeling is that if they don't do that, it will be boring. In this scene that is called Visual Kei, what's interesting about it is that guys apart from the vocalist are also putting themselves out there to the point it gets annoying, right? If only the vocalist needs to stand out, then the instrument players should just wear masks. Isn't that the logical conclusion of that line of reasoning? I feel that if you're going to act cool, don't let it just stop at your looks and make your playing and performance cool, and it doesn't matter if you bump into your other members; just go for it. I think that a band would be more interesting if no matter how many times they get told "Don't come out to the front", they want to come out to the front.

Were you ever told by the members "Don't come out to the front"?

Saga: Our band is full of nice people, so I haven't been told that. Show will never say "No". Even if I were to say "I want to rap" or "I'm going to sing the whole chorus", he'll be like "Oh, okay" (laughs). He won't ever say "I'm going to do that". That's why people should just do what they want. Of course, if they're going to do it, then they need to practice. If there are any band members reading this issue of "ROCK AND READ", that is what I want to tell them.

Ever since A9 participated in "PARTY ZOO ~Ken Entwines Naughty stars", I feel like A9 has really gone hard with this. In the past, it would have been unthinkable for you to use your own face parts as a topic and push it, like you do with "Nose Mountain".

Saga: That might also be because that is what Ken advised us to do. He said to us "I thought A9 were princes, but you guys are boring" (laughs). When he said that to us, it made us think "Huh? Were we always like this?". That's why meeting Ken was the biggest thing for A9. The biggest memory I have from these 5 years of activities is ever since being able to participate in that event, we have become close with Ken, and he has been giving us lots of advice.

The band returned to its original name in light of the change within the band. What do you want to do with アリス九號. going forward?

Saga: In the past, we were the kind of people think that the atmosphere wasn't important. When we joined our previous management company, we were twisted, so we were punks who were like, "Atmosphere? We don't need that" (laughs). But now, going forward, I would really like to value the atmosphere. What's most important after our 5 personalities is the atmosphere. Now, it's sort of like 5 gaudy people are in front of a white backdrop. But going forward, what I would like to show as アリス九號. is the 5 of us in front of a really complex painting. And the background image is, at least for this single, the world that blends Japanese and Western styles. This will probably change for each release, but I want to make it so that there is a common factor. And that is what I talked about earlier: Show's sensibilities. Going forward, I want him to show his sensibilities more.

Show's sensibilities will be the key to アリス九號. going forward.

Show: That's right.

Earlier you were talking about bands straying off course, so do you think that after another 5-year period, アリス九號. will change their name again?

Saga: I am putting in effort so that we don't change it. Always (laughs).

So where will you head towards with this band name?

Saga: I want for us to head to our 20th year anniversary. I want to play at Nippon Budokan. When I thought about how to cook this アリス九號. to get there and what kind of meal we should be to be able to play at Budokan, for me, the answer was to go really deep with our colour, with アリス九號. Even with the songs, I want to write song that don't present to the world a song that is easy to listen to or feels familiar to the ear, but one that has an atmosphere.

And when it comes to expressing that, it does seem like it will be easier for not "A9", but "アリス九號." to do.

Saga: Is what I think. To us, this name is catchy, but it's not a catchy name to the rest of the world. They think "What is this?". Our band name doesn't allow us to do normal things. To me, I think アリス九號. is a band name on the same level as Yabai Tshirts Ya-san.

Ahahaha. It seems like you will be accelerating the straying off course going forward.

Saga: That's why I can't say "Please come along with us". To me, "straying off course" is the biggest compliment you can give.

1 Yoshiwara was a famous red-light district in the Edo period.

#alice nine #alice nine translation #alicenine.#alicenine. translation #rock and read #saga

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scyllua · 5 years ago

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While chap.203 hasn't stirred that much of a reaction in the Japanese fandom as the previous chapter did, it prompted many fans to emulate Sugimoto's art style. Nothing of this comes as a particular surprise, as the chapter serves as sort of a recap of the events from vol.14 (the Abashiri Prison assault)... and because Sugimoto's drawing talent would be on par with his sniping skills.

The highlights of this chapter have to do with the confirmation of the Russian sniper's identity and goals and the hint at Noda pursuing the plotline regarding the Partisans. It was rather obvious who that Russian sniper was from the very moment he (re)appeared in the manga, but given this is Golden Kamuy and the weird things that have already transpired in the plot made me think it's a very crazy Meiji era the one they are living in, I'd rather wait for the author's clear confirmation on ANY matter before taking anything for granted. Let us not forget that, for starters, I think most of us had already assumed our Russian sniper pretty dead. We can always speculate, however, and this chapter leaves enough room to reflect on a certain other sniper (this one, Japanese and now one-eyed) and how soon (or not) he could make it back to the plot.

I should work on my summaries so they aren't that long. In the meantime and to everyone who had the patience to read my previous chapter post: thank you very much and fear not, for I have no random movie comments to make here! There should be some fan comments, of course, and the usual warnings about mistakes and mistranslations apply as well. Onto the fun of two amateur artists sharing their Ogata fanarts then!

In short, as no further shots are made, Tsukishima believes Sugimoto got to the sniper and Asirpa runs off to meet him. Meanwhile, Sugimoto and the sniper -now confirmed to be Vasily- overcome the language barrier by using the latter's hand-drawn pictures to explain to each other the circumstances in which they crossed paths/met Ogata. Upon the arrival of the rest of the group and after Asirpa recognizes Vasily as probably one of the men who ambushed them in the frontier, Tsukishima explains to him Kiroranke is already dead and they don't know about the current whereabouts of Ogata, their only purpose in Karafuto being finding Asirpa and going back with her. As a rather annoyed Shiraishi complains to Vasily for shooting him, it's revealed he can't speak because of the shot wounds he sustained. As Sugimoto's group resumes their journey, Vasily keeps following them on horseback from a distance. They deduce he's now keen on meeting Ogata again and engaging in another snipers' duel, and that he's sticking around convinced the wildcat will eventually come after them. Questioned by Asirpa, Sugimoto says as long as they're still looking for the Ainu gold, there's always the possibility of Ogata coming back; as per his motivations, Sugimoto adds it might be that Ogata is simply messing with them as opposed to being after an actual goal. In their way back, the group visits Svetlana's parents to hand them a letter she wrote; even though Sugimoto would rather search for Sofia and find out the truth, he understands their primary purpose in Karafuto has been fulfilled already. The chapter ends with Sofia meeting Gansoku and Svetlana in a port city in Russian territory. After exchanging a few hits, Sofia invites Gansoku to come with her, but he turns down the offering, stating he'll travel west with Svetlana. Sofia then states she'll go to Hokkaidou in pursue of their hope... and revenge.

Ever wondered why streets are always so conveniently empty whenever there's a chasing or a shooting going on? I have, even if my question is probably answered in the same question already (because... they're so conveniently empty: easier to describe, draw or animate, and with a minimum of casualties, as well!) In any case, and even though our group seemed to be the only bystanders at the time the shooting began, there's now the usual traffic and activity you'd expect in a town street. In fact, a man in a sled is just walking down the street when, alerted by Koito and Tsukishima not to come that way or otherwise risk being shot, he good-naturally asked what the soldiers are doing. Tsukishima comments it seems as though Sugimoto has already done his magic, ie. he did what he's best at (hint: it isn't sniping or drawing, as we'll see in this chapter), and Asirpa runs off to meet him.

Here follows some good 4 pages of Sugimoto and Vasily proving the language barrier isn't an hindrance when it comes to relatively difficult tasks, such as explaining the events from vol.14 up to that point or how both of them have survived being shot in the head by the same sniper. It turns out Vasily has made enough drawings of Ogata to start his own Pixiv account -putting aside the fact that he's one century ago from that website being created-; actually, Vasily could begin posting full illustration logs, as he even took the care and time to draw the wildcat sporting different expressions, including one smiling. I'm suspecting he might have more study sketches of Ogata in the fiction than author Noda in the real world. This would pose a question for me: just how well could he see Ogata during their snipers' duel? In the extended passage as it was compiled in vol.17, they do spend many hours watching and studying each other... but let us not forget that Ogata's face was obscured in such a way, Vasily couldn't tell for sure where it was him or not. Well, following last chapter's caption at the end, I'm just going to assume here Vasily has nothing short of a photographic memory, sharpened to perfection through his sniping skills, and that he could commit to memory the features of a man he only seemed to have caught fleeting glimpses of partly because the wildcat is unforgettable. Being shot can arise that kind of reaction in people, after all. Going back to the chapter, and given the amount of Ogata portraits he has, Sugimoto asks him whether he's been requested to find him -bounty hunter-style, we may speculate-, but then Vasily uses some of his many (MANY) drawings to explain he went into a showdown with Ogata... and lost. This chapter's title could be translated as "portrait" (似顔絵, nigaoe), though its exact meaning would be more in the lines of a "drawn sketch/picture of a face". Why, yes, a portrait indeed, only that the term in Japanese suggests it isn't as precise as a taken photograph, but a close enough depiction.

I'm always making jokes and complaining about the cast in this manga being so prone to trust in others no matter what terms they might have been on in the past, but I have to admit that being able not to hold grudges, apart from preventing bitterness and anxiety in addition to other negative feelings, also helps greatly when it comes to pace the story forward. Remember how Sugimoto was about to kill Vasily in the best of Friday the 13th traditions (only that less bloody I might presume, given this is still a seinen manga and not a R-rated story), all of this happening in the previous chapter, 7 days ago in real time, 2 pages prior in the manga, like 10 seconds previously in the story's timeline? Well, let's put aside all that negativity for the sake of a couple of souls bonded by the same sniper (different bullet obviously, same rifle and all) sharing an artistic moment.

In addition to their fanboying over Ogata -for the wrong reasons, though, as they'd be both after the wildcat to settle some scores-, Sugimoto and Vasily manage to summarize the manga from vol.14 up to that point, using their respective drawings to explain to each other the events. "Explaining to each other" wouldn't be a wrong statement in this case because they do appear to be understanding the other quite well through the drawings, some gesturing, and the usefulness of somatic language, even though Vasily doesn't seem to know Japanese (as he's puzzled at Sugimoto's questions). When he produces drawings of Kiroranke, Shiraishi and Asirpa, Sugimoto explains to him the latter two aren't related to the Partisans: the bad guy here, no doubt about it, is Ogata, as he emphatically conveys by hitting his portrait with his fist. Now in quite the roll because Vasily is assimilating the ideas very fast (as he also hits Ogata's portrait), Sugimoto then explains he was also shot by the wildcat... and reveals his artistic sense might be on par with his sniping skills. ...and while I'll keep joking about his awful aiming until the day he finally manages to shoot anything down -as opposed to pummel or pierce it with his rifle or affixed bayonet-, I won't make much fun of his artistic capabilities because, I'm afraid, he might draw better than I. As I state in my blog's sidebar, I color manga panels partly because I can't draw a straight... or crooked... line for the love of it.

Sugimoto explains Ogata was in cahoots with Kiroranke -and as well as the readers, he doesn't how for how long-, shot him in the head in Abashiri Prison and then ran away taking Asirpa with him. Unlike their previous exchange, I can deduce Vasily didn't get a single word of any of it, as he mistakes Sugimoto's drawing of himself for a spider. And I must confess it took me some time to realize Sugimoto drew himself being shot: those tendril-like things sticking out of his head -that Vasily takes for a spider's legs, it seems- are meant to show the bullet's trajectory when impacting him. A parenthesis here: Let's just check Sugimoto's drawing of Ogata running away on horseback. I don't pretend to make fun of it, but I still find quite the noteworthy detail that he draws Ogata with an arrow sticking out of his right eye, and not sparing even the lock of hair that frames his face. Or at least, I'm assuming that's a lock of hair on Ogata's head. The caption Sugimoto writes in katakana reads, "Ogata escaped". That scene, may I add, has been a fan favorite -mine included- and a source of inspiration for many works in the Japanese fandom. Some speculative fanworks have to do with the circumstances Ogata runs away, and thus some fans have posed quite the questions, ranging from where he got that horse, to whether it didn't hurt too much to ride it in such conditions as, you might remember, he was wearing a hospital gown only and had no underwear to speak of. If you take a closer look at the panel, however, you'll notice Ogata is carrying a sack when he's riding away, implying he managed to gather his belongings and probably a couple more things for the road, and thus wouldn't be dying on us due to exposure or some painful horse riding to wherever it was he ran away .

Back to our amateur artists (because I'm assuming Vasily's main occupation revolves about being a sniper... with an eidetic memory for faces and some outstanding artistic talent as bonus) and resuming his recapping of the latter half of the manga and unabated by the debatable poor reception his drawing skills might be getting, Sugimoto explains Asirpa involuntarily shot an arrow that hit Ogata in the eye. Here comes a short passage -it's a single panel, in fact- that killed my Japanese pretty dead, so I wouldn't risk a translation of it... though I think, it seems to me, I could grasp that blah blah etc. etc., Sugimoto further and quite lively states Ogata's death would have "stained" Asirpa -meaning, would have dirtied her hands-, and thus he saved the wildcat because he'd do anything in his power to keep everything surrounding her pure for her sake. The actual word in Japanese he uses is 綺麗 (kirei), which you might know as meaning "cute" and "pretty", but it can also be understood in the sense of "clean", "pure" or "neat." Given Sugimoto literally uses 汚い (kitanai), "dirty", "unclean" or "foul" (used as a verb in this case) to describe how Ogata's death would have impacted Asirpa, I'm going with "pure" in my previous sentence. ...I'm aware my explanation of Sugimoto's statement makes it sound as though he's belittling saving Ogata, but I can reassure you that his lines are way more poetic and moving: it's just that my Japanese -and my English, come to that- is just that lacking, sorry about this! The scene is more moving because Asirpa arrives at the precise moment to hear Sugimoto's words, but he doesn't notice her.

The rest of the group arrives and cuts off Sugimoto and Vasily's artistically driven moment of plot exposition, though. And now, please allow me to state that God bless Tsukishima for being himself, acting as the sane man every story needs, accompanying the group in this journey, and knowing Russian, not in that particular order: I'm 100% convinced this manga wouldn't progress half as smoothly as it does weren't he around. And Tsurumi and Koito wouldn't be probably around either if he didn't have that presence of mind and swiftness of action, specifically when projectiles and explosions are involved. After Asirpa says she thinks Vasily was part of the group of men that ambushed them in the frontier, Tsukishima explains to him Kiroranke is already dead and Ogata ran away, his whereabouts unknown to them. Their only purpose in Karafuto was to find Asirpa and go back with her, he adds, and they have nothing to do with the Czar's assassination by the Partisans. Vasily says nothing in the metaphorical sense, as he keeps quiet and seems to accept the explanation. Now, and I've already written above, I've always complained about the GK cast for being this trusty and, let's say, think nothing of the repeated risk of a headshot by accepting in their ranks a traitorous character who left their previous party after shooting a couple people in the head, but I have to admit yet again the characters being this quick to understand, accept and come to terms with practically anything and everything does help move forward the plot. Very much so.

I wrote Vasily said nothing in the metaphorical sense because it's revealed -just as we were speculating- he can't speak due to the shot wounds he sustained during his duel with Ogata. Once outside, Shiraishi complains to him about shooting him; when our Escape King snaps whether he doesn't have anything to say or it's just that Russians don't know how to apologize (he literally asks whether there are no words for apologizing in Russian), Vasily shows him his face, prompting a reaction in Shiraishi that might make readers grateful we aren't shown the state of his lower face. Sugimoto comments at that moment he might not be able to speak due to those wounds. I was also wondering whether Vasily knew or at the very least could grasp a little Japanese. It seems to me he might not after all, as there are some panels throughout the chapter that show him with an interrogation mark -indicating he isn't understanding- when Sugimoto was talking to him. In the above panels as well, Tsukishima seems to be translating Shiraishi's complaints for him.

Just before the group resumes their journey, Shiraishi tells Vasily -in not so kind words- to go back to Russia, but he's shown to keep following them from a distance. Shiraishi ponders whether he doesn't believe Kiroranke is already dead, but Asirpa points out he used the back of Kiro's wanted poster to make some of his drawings, leading her to conclude he isn't interested in the latter anymore. As discussed by the our main protagonist trio, it seems Vasily is sticking to them under the belief they'll eventually cross paths with Ogata; as Sugimoto puts it, given he's still alive, he considers their snipers' duel to be not finished (I suppose a more poetic way to put it would be, "as long as he draws breath, he can keep fighting"). The immortal also thinks there's always the possibility of Ogata coming after them because of the Ainu gold, prompting Asirpa to wonder if that's actually his goal: let us not forget he showed quite the intent to kill her (chap.187) and thus, eliminate the one person who holds the key to solving the tattoo puzzle. A somewhat serious and pensive Sugimoto comments it might be that Ogata... is simply messing or toying around with them. Cue a full-page panel depicting a lynx (in Japanese, an ooyamaneko) crossing the path in the snowy forest. (I should point out I'm assuming it's a lynx because of its ears, making it very similar to the one shown in chap.169, vol.17.)

A not-so-random fan comment here: I always refer to Sugimoto as not being the sharpest knife in the drawer. Actually, I'd say he's the kind to smash the drawer against a wall and use the sharpest fragments of it to cut open whatever it is he might need cut, even if I'm compelled yet again to admit his approach, while not the most strategically planned, tends to work. But he also seems to be quite understanding of others in addition to his natural kindness, and it comes as not much of a surprise then that he could be the person with the better grasp at Ogata's personality. Or the only person who might have any grasp on it at all, in any case. I must say my opinion of Ogata's character pretty much coincides with that of Sugimoto as he stated it in chap.196 and now in this chapter: specifically, that Ogata doesn't have a particular motivation to act as he does (apart from being driven by the most negative and dangerous of his traits, of course). I think his character isn't meant to have any specific motivations or goals other than being chaotic for the sake of it; however, as Noda has given a background to every single recurrent and relevant character in the manga and spares no revelations for some of them no matter how far into the plot we might be (the most recent flashback regarding Koito's past should be an example), I can't discard the possibility of the author having in store some plot twist or equal revelation about Ogata.

Given Sofia is the only one who knows the truth now (I'm assuming here Sugimoto thinks Ogata might have sided with Kiroranke for a reason that lies with the Partisans' intentions), our immortal comments he'd liked to look for her. He's aware, though, that Tsukishima and Koito's mission was to find Asirpa and get back with her to Hokkaido, whereas Tanigaki joined in the entourage for the sake of the girl as well and thus, they should have no reason to pursue other ends at the time. They still stop by the lighthouse to hand Svetlana's letter to her parents, and just as the manga implies they won't be going after more subplots, Asirpa points out Sofia was planning to reunite with her comrades in the continent and then go back to Japan: she wouldn't just run away to Europe after everything that just happened.

Right in cue, Sofia meets Gansoku and Svetlana in a port town in Russia. Just as Gansoku seemed to be involved in yet another cathartic moment pummeling around men who can't put a dent on him, he's challenged by Sofia but refuses, stating he only fights other men. He's quick to change his mind and declare the world does have many surprises in store ("The world is so wide!") after Sofia not only punches him, but manages to get in quite the equal grounds with him. This yet again poses another question for me: given Gansoku is one of the toughest men in this story -in the strictest physical sense at the very least: we can't forget everything Nikaidou has gone through the manga, after all-, how come Sofia can beat him so badly? The obvious answer would be that Sofia happens to be just that tough -or the toughest woman of the Meiji era-, but since this is a Shueisha and a Jump-published manga, I also want to believe she might be using Haki to hit that hard. Just as Nami in One Piece, her blows manage to harm a man's heart and soul.

Before their fight can further escalate (but after Sofia has pulled off the almost obligatory Rip Open my Shirt scene, only that she isn't exactly wearing a shirt and the scene isn't that common when female characters are involved because of censorship), Svetlana intervenes and stops them, saying it'll be quite the problem for her if Sofia kills her bodyguard. Implying here she was at least sure of what the outcome of the fight would have been. The three of them have a talk then and Sofia invites Gansoku to join her, but he turns down the offer and explains both he and Svetlana intend to make their way to the west, to the cities where a larger population means a larger possibility to find stronger people (to beat the **** out of them in more cathartic instances, I'm presuming). As Svetlana asks Sofia where she's planning to go now, she replies that she's going to Hokkaido... for their hope and revenge.

I should note I'm not including any more panels of Sofia in this chapter because I'm assuming Tumblr would flag this entry otherwise. I was never told why they put my blog "under review" when I barely had any posts on it, so my best guess has to with an entry I wrote explaining about the terrorist groups that operated in my country. I made that post partly because to poke some fun at Sugimoto's wielding a hammer and a sickle in chap.145 (vol.15), and how that would have been merited a ban for this manga were some conservative Congressmen in my country to see the panels (the largest terrorist group operating in my country originally followed the Communist ideology). Well, as Sofia begins exchanging blows with Gansoku, she uncovers her torso and her breasts remain visible for the rest of the chapter, even when she's speaking with him and Svetlana in the freezing Russian landscape. Her breasts are so big, they cover part of the chapter's title in the last page... making me suspect Tumblr could flag this entry just because her nipples are equally big.

Some (more) fan comments on this chapter: The story is unfolding as I'd anticipated in a very broad way, as it seems Vasily will stick around with the group for at least some more chapters. While none has proposed an alliance, I don't think any will have any inconvenience cooperating with each other as long as their goals align: even if it's true Sugimoto's group isn't that elated at the possibility of meeting Ogata again, they're obviously expecting to cross paths with him in the future, and extra help is always welcomed. Specially if things come to a sniper against another sniper, I'd say: the manga is hinting at another confrontation between Vasily and Ogata. After all, Noda is a noteworthy narrator and all of his plot elements turn out to be relevant (even those related to food and cultural traditions which could have been seen at first as more trivia-informative to the reader than important to the plot), so I don't think he brought Vasily back to the story for no reason. Or just to show off Vasily's artistic talent, in any case, * ahem *. The plot would still have to take shape, but it seems to me all elements are aligning so that Noda can solve several pending subplots: Vasily's reappearance can tie up with the plot regarding the remaining member of the Partisans trio, Sofia, and also provides the proper scenario for Ogata to make it back to the story. It'd be a viable, solid and swift way to focus in the current open subplots before focusing on the main premise of the Ainu gold in Hokkaido.

I'd just speculate then about how soon the subplots would meet a resolution. I'm wondering whether we'll see the rest of this arc taking place in Karafuto, as Sugimoto's group has already made their way back to its southern region, whereas Sofia is in Russian soil, but making her way to Hokkaido. If Vasily doesn't have any trouble with following them to Hokkaido -given he's already in Japanese soil-, then I see no reason as to why the action might not unfold in the island that is the main stage of this manga, but I'm thinking this arc could wrap up while the group is still in Karafuto. We'd need to see at least one more chapter to see how things progress from this point on; unless Noda suddenly feels like jumping back to Hokkaido and showing us what Hijikata has been up to since vol.18 and whether Tsurumi reunited with his men already, with the arc “introduction“ over and the situation laid out to both the cast and the readers, chap.204 should serve as the starting point for the resolution of the current subplots.

My last fan comment of the entry has to do with Vasily. While I'm happy to see him back in the plot and sticking to the protagonist cast for the time being (and hoping he stays in the plot and with the cast for at least the remainder of this volume), his personality as shown in the current events has caught my attention. I wouldn't say he's that different or plain out-of-character in comparison to his first appearance in vol.17, but it's also true he now acts carefree enough as to join Sugimoto in a fanart-sharing moment, and is more emotional as opposed to his cool-headed demeanor during the ambush in the frontier. And adding to his minor hairstyle change, he also looks more youthful now, even if the only we get to see of his face are his eyes. We'd need to see more of him in upcoming chapters to have a better grasp at his character... but if you'd ask me, I'd say Noda has made some changes to his personality, or rather, is shaping his character in a different, though not drastic, way. Why? Well, it seems to me Vasily would fit our protagonist cast and all the weird things bound to happen in this convulsed Meiji era just fine and even better now; in comparison, the group he first appeared as part of acted colder, more focused and serious. Until we see more of him, I'm just going to assume Noda decided to give his character another direction because Tsukishima was plenty of a sane, serious man for the group. Any more sane men in the same group at the same time and I might begin doubting what happened to this manga.

#golden kamuy #fan talk

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kaimaciel · 6 years ago

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Q: In terms of the story in the Pixar worlds, it was a continuation of the stories in the movies, which surprised me.

A: Well, originally, the KH series has always seen Sora and his friends experiencing the [same] plot of the original movies as its basis, and [the worlds of] Tangled and Frozen are like this, too. However, in the cases of Toy Story and Monsters Inc, we were requested to show the "authorized history" of what happened after the events of the movies. Whichever [story] pattern the worlds have was largely influenced by the ideas of the creators and producers.

Q: Included in the worlds that appear this time is Olympus, which is a fairly "regular customer" at this point; do you have some emotional attachment to it?

A: Honestly, there isn't really a special reason, it's just by chance. It appears in KH3 since Sora has lost all of his powers and needs to get them back, and there was once a hero who regained his own powers in the same way, so it was a perfect fit for the start of the journey. If there's anything I have an emotional attachment to, it's that I wanted to include Hades. Hades is a fun character, so you kind of want to watch him [do things].

Q: On the other hand, The Caribbean [in terms of graphics] looks incredibly like real life.

A: In a sense, the high image quality of that world was already decided. Around the time development started, in the video that was prepared for the in-house presentation meeting, scenes were created showing Sora diving in the ocean and riding enemies while flying in the air in The Caribbean. Additionally, the experimental reproduction of certain scenes from the movie [that were included] were so well made that they might as well have been the highlight of the meeting. From that point on, around the beginning of development, it was felt that that world would be quite high-level. By the way, the coat Sora wears in The Caribbean is actually based on one of my own personal coats that I gave to the staff with instructions to include it, but I feel like they don't want to give it back yet [laughs].

Q: Talking about Sora's appearance in the various worlds, the way he looks in Monstropolis is pretty daring.

A: At first, I was thinking about something similar to the monster costume Boo wears in the movie, but Pixar gave the idea to actually change [Sora] into a monster. In Monsters Inc., there are a lot of detailed rules concerning character design, like the colors that can be used or the shape of the eyes, so after the design that was made to obey those rules was checked, I went and did the fine-tuning myself. Particularly, at the beginning, I couldn't give Sora's body a smooth feeling, so I covered him with fur, but Pixar pointed out that I shouldn't make him look too much like a cat, so trying to find middle ground was a struggle. That's why, although it looks like Sora has cat ears, those are actually horns [laughs].

Q: For example, it was shown in KH2 that the Ansem that appears in KH1 wasn't the real one, but was this decided ever since the beginning?

A: When I wrote the scenario in KH1, even I was thinking "Ansem calls himself wise, but doesn't he seem like a bad guy?" [laughs]. With that feeling as the catalyst, the scenes after KH2 reflected that. Q: Xigbar, too; when he appeared in KH2, we had no idea he would be such an important person.

A: A lot of people say this, but at the time I wanted to show that "Xigbar is a character with a very special role" by giving him a suspicious way of acting. When we were doing dubbing for KH2, I listened to Houchu Otsuka (the JP VA of Xigbar)'s voice and thought, "This guy isn't just some organization grunt, there's definitely some hidden side to him", so the creation of the current situation evolved from there. It does sometimes happen that I get inspired to change the circumstances because of the voice actors' voices.

Q: The Final World, a place very important to the story, appeared in the game, but what kind of world is it?

A: It is a place where those just a step from death arrive, connected to the Station of Waking. Up until now, the Station of Waking was always a dark place where the floor was made of stained glass, where the condition of the inside of one's heart could be shown, but in this case I made The Final World a place where I could show [that] more concretely, a place similar to a portal to [people's] respective hearts. Within the game, it's said that sleep and death are intimately linked, so if one's heart were in a state of sleep and they found themselves in the Station of Waking, the idea is that if they moved on from there, they would find themselves in The Final World.

Q: Halfway through the epilogue, we see that there are seven black pieces being used in the new game [of chess]. Are six of these supposed to represent the Master of Masters' six apprentices?

A: Yes.

Q: I see. Then, continuing on, I'd like to ask about the secret movie; is the location connected to the ending? A: Yes. After disappearing in the ending, Sora arrives in the world shown in the secret movie. Q: Is the place Sora is in the same world as the one in The World Ends With You?

A: It looks that way. However, rather than saying Sora has gone to the TWEWY world, the meaning is that it's not exactly Shibuya, but ~Shibuya~ (note: this is hard to explain in English, but instead of it being written in kanji, the name for "Shibuya" is written in katakana here. This basically means it's not the same Shibuya as in TWEWY or in the real world.) Also, although Sora promised Neku and his friends that they would meet again in Shibuya, this video is not connected to that.

Q: The world Riku is in also calls up past memories with its thrilling background scenery. The man looking down from the roof looks like Yozora, who we saw in the popular game "Verum Rex" in Toy Box...

A: Yes, it is Yozora. Q: So, is this the world of "Verum Rex?"

A: It will end up being. Visually speaking, I'm sure there are people who will think it's the same as a previous title I was once planning, but it's not. Since it's a plan that was never released out into the world, there are parts I was saving that will end up overlapping, but "Verum Rex" is a completely different creation. The plan that was never released is still unknown to everyone, and "Verum Rex" doesn't exist yet, either, so I'm sure everyone is wondering what it means, but what I want to make clear is that it's not the same thing. (note: obviously, he means FF Versus XIII)

Q: How is the development of the planned DLC going?

A: Currently, I gave a list of things I'd like to have done concerning battles to the staff, who are in the process of going through it. As for additional scenarios, I told you just before that the final battle in the Keyblade Graveyard came to be [the way it is] because of a certain intention I had, so I think that's going to be the main focus. I'm hoping that it will be completed as soon as possible, but because development is happening alongside the preparations for the next project, I can't say with certainty when it will be released. For the time being, it's planned that instead of splitting up all the parts separately, everything will be released all in one pack together. Q: Are you not planning to release a "Final Mix", as has been customary for the KH series until now?

A: There aren't any plans for a "Final Mix"-type package (sold separately). If I do make one, it would be in the form of DLC that included an English mode you could switch to. Additionally, we took recent player trends into account when we created the battles [for KH3], so we held back on the difficulty level, but there have been many requests to fight strong enemies, so I'm thinking that the priority would be on releasing a critical mode in the form of free DLC, and making the addition of strong enemies, the sort that would appear in a "Final Mix", paid DLC.

Q: Now that the Dark Seeker arc has concluded, there's a pause in the KH series, so now what is your attitude mentally?

A: I thought I'd feel relieved once it was over, but I don't feel that way at all. Now we're right in the midst of developing DLC, and it's coinciding with [the development of] a few other titles. I want to hurry up and start on the next project, so I don't feel like there's a pause. Q: Fans are curious about what's to come for the KH series...

A: Nothing has been officially decided yet, so at this point in time, I can't say anything. Right now, the top priority is on making DLC for KH3, and a huge update that's coming to KHUx. As far as the developments to come, I currently have two ideas, and something that requires me to think about it separately, so the next project will actually have to be two, I think. Even if we're talking about a hypothetical "KH4", there's something that must be written before it, so I'm looking into the possibility of sandwiching it between works. To all the fans: to realize the first step beyond the Dark Seeker arc, I thank you for your continued support.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #tetsuya nomura

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misdre · 7 years ago

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my little big beyblade name post

i'm just writing this for fun because i like the names, i think the system is cute and adds a nice detail in the characters. (i don't really know about other bey series, other than that burst has a colour theme in the names..)

so, like maybe everyone knows, the main kids are named after chinese elements.. or principles, or -- they seem to be called in many ways but i’ll say elements. china and japan (at least, i don't know very much about other east asian cultures/languages) use the five elements in a lot of things and they have all kinda attributes traditionally associated with them (which i like looking at when making bey AUs and such).

木ノ宮 kinomiya (takao) – 'palace of wood' - takao's element in the series seems to be wind instead of wood, but that's probably because it's not as easy to give a main character cool wood-themed powers. unless the series is law of ueki

火渡 hiwatari (kai) – 'crossing over fire', also used in words meaning wandering/a wanderer and such.. so ‘wandering through fire' isn’t too far off.

水原 mizuhara (max) – 'water field', probably the most normal name out of these

金 kon (rei) – 'metal', the kanji also means gold and money though, but the element is metal, and like with takao they went with thunder instead because metal doesn't really work ...though he did somehow make a metal version of byakko by replacing the bit with a coin in s1 (i don't even wanna know how that works)

大地 (sumeragi) daichi – 'earth', the only one with the element in his given name, probably because it happens to be one. his surname 皇 is in a lot of compound words that relate to the emperor (like 'imperial family', 'emperor', 'empress' and all that)

the five elements are among other things linked to phases of the year: (this is straight outta wikipedia)

Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant wood and vitality Fire/Summer: a period of swelling, flowering, brimming with fire and energy Earth: the in-between transitional seasonal periods, or a separate 'season' known as Late Summer or Long Summer - in the latter case associated with leveling and dampening (moderation) and fruition Metal/Autumn: a period of harvesting and collecting Water/Winter: a period of retreat, where stillness and storage pervades

(a cute little detail because the ending song of the first season is about the seasons) there's so much everything about the five elements, and it gets really funny really fast if you look up some illustrations of the elements affecting each other and stuff. well, i find it funny at least....

and the five elements are also linked to their holy beasts, which are based on the four(/five) symbols or mythological creatures that come from chinese astrology. (the beasts have separate names from the beys in the original, if someone forgot) this is a bit loaded, but the same four creatures have been used in a lot of anime and games, they're even in digimon. daichi's holy beast technically has no name in the original, but it'd be the yellow dragon ("kouryuu" or something like that), and yellow was the colour of the emperor, and that's why daichi's surname is sumeragi, i guess. and also why daichi's bey is also a dragoon, because takao's beast is seiryuu/azure dragon.

then, moving on to first names, daichi is the only one with a given name written in kanji (if you don't know the difference, kanji are those complex letters with actual meanings, and hiragana and katakana are just syllabic letters like the “no” in the middle of kinomiya), the rest are in katakana, so they don't mean anything per se. and japanese names are tricky in the way that they can be written in a zillion different kanji, and not all of them even mean anything specific, so it's hard to even theorize what the given names could mean. takao is obviously named after the mangaka, but his name could be written with something to do with heights. and kai can be almost anything, but the reading appears in some words as meaning mysterious things and i somehow feel like there are several sort of quiet/aloof animanga + game characters who are named kai.... max is obviously english (it would be so cute to me if his full name was maximilian i can’t lie) and rei can again be a lot of things, but the japanese fandom seems to have decided to spell his name with the kanji of 'plum' (but i like 'spirit' more. i wrote a whole fic around that)

the rest of the cast, no elemental themes here.

saien manabu – i don't know which characters kyouju's name is written in (i guess i could find it from some japanese source but i’m a lazy), but i can make a well educated guess that his surname is a pun on the english word 'science'. at least that was my first thought. manabu is an ordinary given name in japanese, but it's also the pronunciation of the verb 'to learn/study'. in other words he's named nerdy mcnerd

tachibana hiromi – both are common japanese names. tachibana is usually written as 立花 'standing flower' or so. as for hiromi, i don't know. for an idea of how many possibilities there are, see this. (but “mi” in given names is often spelled with the kanji for beautiful)

仁 (kinomiya) hitoshi – this one the anime gives a kanji for, and it means 'benevolence/compassion'. funnily enough, the kanji can also be read as "jin", so basically hitoshi just switched to a different reading of his name when he used shippuu no jin as his alias. such a secret identity

大転寺 daitenji (kogorou .. IIRC??) – this is a funny one, because daitenji is a real japanese surname, but it's written slightly differently and this one means 'big turn shrine', with "ten" that's also in the word for spinning (and in the “bakuten” in the title). the given name is just a common one.

if i remember right, takao and hitoshi's father and grandfather are named tatsu and ryuunosuke, and "tatsu" and "ryuu" are just two readings of the kanji for dragon.

i'm not gonna talk about the non-japanese names in the original series (the majority of them are either john smith-esque Most Common Names We Could Think Of - or the horrid opposite of characters like olivier whose surname probably SHOULD be a common one but they completely fucked up with it and now we’re stuck with nonsense), and the only foreign team with names with meanings is the chinese one which i already wrote about at some point, but here's just a quick recap of those too:

rai – thunder mao – cat in chinese kiki – from the onomatopoeia of a monkey's screech gaou – from the onomatopoeia of a beast's (or a big cat's!) howl

#beyblade #bey things #me wasting my time

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tatsie-kun · 7 years ago

Text

Purple Sky: MUCC Interview

Meet MUCC, Japan's hardest working and hardest rocking band By Brian Stewart From Purple Sky, Fall '06 Transcription by Tatsie-kun

"Why do you play barefoot?" I asked them.

Miya, MUCC's guitarist and de facto leader, gave me a reply that made no sense at the time. "How to put it..., there's something different feeling about listening to our sound with our feet directly planted on the ground versus listening to our sound through one layer of shoe. Like actually being able to feel the vibration."

It wasn't until I saw them live that I realized what a stupid question it had been.

Like their barefoot performances, MUCC's sound is largely instinctual, letting its whims carry it breezily across genre and category.

Their latest CD, 6, a mini outtake collection that blossomed into a full length album, was released domestically on August 6th. Described by Miya as "something so quintessentially us, a large part of which was challenging ourselves in a new way; to let a MUCC CD happen organically," it comes as no surprise that, unlike their pop rock opus Houyoku, they "felt no special need for a producer".

It is these kinds of risks that have been the band's calling card since their early days on the burgeoning Visual-kei scene. Throughout an arduous, ten-year career MUCC has supplemented their explosive operatic rock sound with ska, nu-metal, punk and recently, pop. When asked to describe MUCC's music, Miya avoided labels. "Music that is true to our emotions," he stated flatly.

Not only true to their emotions but true to their influences as well. The almost-danceable grooves laid down by perpetually smiling bassist Yukke find their roots in an unusual place also.

"I guess (my sound)'d have to be from the '80s. I like the j-pop music of that era, when I'm making a song the influence of that music comes naturally into my melodies."

But that's only the first pat of the equation. "Since high school, and since I joined MUCC I would say that my sound, and ear for music came from more Western music." His love of Finnish industrial-pop/rock pin-ups The Rasmus provides us the solution and the key to understanding the roots of his sound.

Their drummer Satochi talked about the team spirit so important to a drummer and the band dynamic.

"I guess I'm most influenced by the songs the other members write, they motivate me." he says.

But what does he mean?

"The things I don't have, the other members do. I think to myself 'So that's how they're bringing it?' or they come up with all these new things one after another, so it's like I don't want to fall behind."

Miya pulls his inspiration from a variety of sources and constantly challenges his band mates to match him, "I listen to a lot of different music, and I guess what I listen to is constantly changing. It even changes depending on my mood so I think it's good if, as an artist, each new project reflects the music I'm listening to at the time."

Finally but perhaps most importantly, one needn't strain to hear vocalist Tatsurou's love of Sakura Atsushi (Buck-Tick) in his singing.

"As a vocalist, I love him. His vocals, what would you call it, the presence. It's not that he musically influences me, as far as musical influence I'm far more inspired by the disbanded The Blue Hearts." Though comparing the two bands may seem like comparing apples to hand-grenades on the surface, MUCC, despite the stigma of Visual-kei that hangs over them are far more likely spiritual successors to the working class, high-energy punk pop legends, than even some of the low-rent punk acts directly following in their footsteps. Like MUCC, even The Blue Hearts' fun, high octane songs spoke of a world of the inevitable; pain, betrayal, corruption, and at the root of it all, love and kindness.

Though Japan has yet to respond to MUCC with the fervor with which they embraced The Blue Hearts, there can be no doubt the band has earned a passionate and fanatical following. Miya remains humble in regard to his band's fame.

"I never equated being a professional musician with materialism. If anything, I'm more concerned about the concerts we have in Japan being successful. When you're in a band that plays from your own emotion, the performance changes depending on your mood and you gotta give a concert to satisfy those paying customers and yet there are times when your emotion gets the better of you. Since going major, it's really been about closing the gap, but that's been a hard issue we face," he says.

The quartet, straight from Japan's famous Ibaraki prefecture, seems like a pretty down-to-earth people off-stage. Dressed down but still working a rockstar chic, the guys awaited the start of our interview in the OFF position; causally complaining about forgotten toothbrushes, cold air conditioning and in the case of Tatsurou, ritualistically removing the label from his bottle of juice.

For MUCC, this week was going to be a string of firsts; first time in America, first time performing at Otakon in front of American fans, first time being interviewed by an American magazine. For Yukke the deepest impression was seeing America from a plane for the first time. "I looked at the map while I was on the plane flying over, on the eastern, no, western edge of the Americas and I couldn't help thinking how wide across it stretched. That is until we landed."

For Miya it was the food. "It was typically American. The way they cooked the meat. Kinda, in a funky style." Pressed further he laments, "You know, I ordered it well done but it came back burnt." A round of laughter from the band and management alike greeted the punchline.

The story behind what lead to their first American concert left little to mystery. Miya explains their reaction. "Well, we got the invite and we thought it would be really interesting." Knowing that MUCC has never had an anime tie-in, it's a little surprising that Otakon would invite them to perform, considering that 2004's guest L'Arc~en~Ciel had a handful of anime theme song hits to recall.

For their Otakon performance, Miya seems content to let their music speak for them. He says, "We have no plans to tailor our music for specific audiences." It's a strategy that has worked so far, leading to shows in Germany and France and garnering international attention.

Many fans notice that Houyoku's "Monster" was the first song of theirs to have an English title since their very first demo "No!!". While it may seem like a sign that the band is trying to appeal to foreigners, Tatsurou thinks otherwise.

"Uh, even though it's English, in Japanese that's called katakana-go. It's pretty much the same, so I said why not. 'Cause the English letters of the word are pretty well known anyway."

While the band seems prepared to make an all out musical assault on the west, planting the seeds of future record releases and hopefully, a full-scale nationwide tour, they don't seem quite ready to tackle English lyrics.

Tatsurou says of the possibility, "I can't write in English. If I were to, I think there's stuff in the Japanese that I just can't express in English." He pauses and looks around the room. "If there were someone who could properly translate 100% the depth of my lyrics down to the hidden meanings unique to the Japanese and it sounded good, I'd be interested."

As one of the two main lyric writers, Tatsurou has been responsible for some of MUCC's most beloved songs. He even mentioned an influence that struck me as singularly unexpected.

"I love Yoshii Kazuya (ex-The Yellow Monkey). The way he uses words and his sense," he says.

Meanwhile Miya, who is the other primary lyricist in the band, has delegated more of the writing to Tatsurou recently. He talked about expanding his outlook to include themes beyond his own narrow world-view. "There's some (lyrics) just about me, and some that aren't. In the past there were a lot of songs from my personal experience, but lately I'm writing from other perspectives."

Looking at the direction of the recent singles Ryuusei and Utagoe MUCC seems to be heading further away from the down-tuned guitars and sludgy production of their past to something much cleaner and with greater appeal to a mass market. Miya is not willing to admit that much however. "At this point the new album (dropping in December) is only 1/3 completed. I can't say for sure what it will be like... we'd like to go in a new direction."

Constantly changing directions has been the band's M.O. since their formation in 1997. One could even call it evolution, but no evolutionary step was bigger than their move from high school Visual-Kei wanna-bes to hard rock veterans.

The room fills with embarrassed laughter following mention of MUCC's demo tape era song "KAGAMI" (a hilariously generic mid-90's ballad that apes both early L'Arc and Shazna). It's akin to showing someone a photo of themselves from their freshman year in high school, which is not far off from where MUCC was when they wrote the song. As "KAGAMI" proves, the band's disparate influences took awhile to surface in their music.

Miya explains, "Hey man, 'KAGAMI' and those songs from our very first demo tapes, those are from, like, when we were in high school. We didn't have a clear idea of what kind of music we wanted to make back then. We had our hands full just 'being in a band'. Of course we wanted to make the best music we could, but we just didn't have that vision yet as to the kind of band, the kind of songs, and the kind of performance we wanted to put out there. So that shows in the songs and arrangements."

The band earned their wings by surviving those aimless early days and growing as musicians with each release. This year, their self-described "Devilish Year", has been like one long training session to see how well they hold together through endless touring, endless releases (they put out three original CDs this year) and endless promotion.

Unquestionably deserving of the spot, Miya has no reservations about taking his band to one of the biggest shows in Japan. The annual Kouhaku Uta Gassen (lit. Red/White Song Battle) broadcast every New Year's Eve is watched by over 80% of all Japanese homes. He said, "It's known by every nearly every Japanese. It's a show that showcases the best Japanese music has to offer. If we could I'd love to."

Tatsurou has only one thing he'd like to clear up before they do so, "I don't get it. How do they decide who wins (Kohaku) anyway? I've never really sat down and watched it before. Do the songs and performances decide who wins?" A lot of laughter accompanied several abortive attempts to explain the contest.

One thing is certain, however, for such fun-loving guys, they sure do write gloomy songs.

"Honestly we're just normal people," says Miya. "We just happen to have a gift to say what people normally wouldn't and that's what we do in our music." He adds matter-of-factly, "It stands to reason sometimes that's gonna turn out to be a gloomy song."

~~~

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Part I: Scary Things

Purple Sky (pS): What scares you most?

Yukke: Ghosts.

pS: Do you believe in ghosts?

Yukke: Yeah. I think Japanese ghosts are pretty scary.

pS: Is there really a difference between American ghosts and the Japanese variety?

Yukke: Well foreign ghosts... like for instance, say a ghost appeared in this very hotel, I don't think it would be that scary. If the setting were a Japanese hotel? Now that's scary.

Tatsurou: I think Japanese and American horror is fundamentally different. I think there's less of the spiritual here. Not that there isn't any but... in like, horror or splatter house films there's sort of incorporeal monsters. In the case of Japanese horror, it's like they posses you, and you like, never know where they're going to come out of. In Japanese horror there's very few tangible monsters. Like Freddy...

pS: Is there something you're afraid of?

Tatsurou: Afraid of... well ghosts for one, and like, UFOs. The unexplained. I'm afraid of things I can't quantify.

pS: Does it keep you up at night?

Tatsurou: Very seldom does it keep me up at night, but there are lots of things I'm just frightened of. Roller coasters. Haunted houses. Things I can't comprehend. Because I can't comprehend them they scare me. If I knew all about them I don't think I'd be scared.

pS: But actually, MUCC, you yourselves make scary faces and wear scary makeup and shoot scary videos.

Tatsurou: At first when we were in high school, all we wanted to do was stuff that was interesting and would make an impact unlike anybody else out there. And then we started to change. Somewhere along the way we started finding out who we were as a band and started singing about real stuff. Real stuff is what helped get out these painful emotions.

pS: Is what's real scarier than fantasy?

Tatsurou: I think the two are relative. It's scary because we're expressing something real but...

pS: Anyone else?

Miya: Scary things, eh? Personally, I've never seen a ghost.

pS: Anyone here seen one? (Yukke raises his hand high.)

Miya: It doesn't feel real to me. Cause I've never experienced it. I mean, if Yukke says he's seen one, I think that's spooky but I'm someone who hasn't. I'm just not attuned to that sort of stuff. What I think is scary are all the incidents in the news recently, of like the slaying of children. There's been so many recently. I think people, mankind scares me the most.

pS: That's a mature answer. Are you all fans of horror or splatter house? Do you watch those sort of movies?

Miya: I enjoy Japanese horror movies and Korean.

Tatsurou: Scary maybe, but not really horror.

pS: What kind of movies do you enjoy?

Tatsurou: It's not horror really, but as far as movies I enjoyed The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Otherwise, I really like action movies, but I like to watch movies that make me think too.

PART II: CANDY

pS: On Halloween we give out candy to little kids. Do you guys like candy?

Miya: I like sweet things.

pS: Really? I have this image of Japanese people not really liking sweet things.

Miya: (defensively) There's plenty of us, trust me.

Tatsurou: The quality of sweets suited to a Japanese taste and those suited to a Western palate is different. I think the sweets we eat as children are different.

pS: Do you prefer foreign candy or traditional Japanese sweets?

Tatsurou: I think if you were to ask the kids today, hardly anyone would say they love traditional Japanese sweets.

pS: So then do you often eat candy bars?

Miya: I love them.

pS: And you?

Yukke: Yes, I like them.

pS: What kind?

Yukke: Like sweets, right? I'm not really into chocolate.

pS: Well, Pocky is popular here at Otakon.

Yukke: Really? I've never bought one. I like this penny candy called "Dagashi". There's this one called "Sudako Santarou". It's not too sweet and they sell it for about ten yen. It's the kind of salty cheap one I like.

PART III: ANIME

MUCC, said to have taken their name from a furry red character from the children's variety program Ponkiki (similar to Sesame Street), and having been known to cover songs from the show, including "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun," were sure to be anime dorks, right? Since we were at Otakon, I decided to find out!

pS: Do you guys like anime? Do you now watch much?

Miya: No, but I think all Japanese children are brought up watching anime so we all know it.

Tatsurou: The one I really got a kick out of recently was, I mean there's tons I like so it's hard to narrow it down to just one, but recently I really liked Samurai Champloo. I dug that one. And, uh, just before I was into HunterxHunter. I really liked Hagane no Renkinjyutsushi (Full Metal Alchemist) as an anime too. You know when they make an anime of an on-going manga series, there's a gap between the manga and the anime. A time difference. They have to wrap up the story of the anime so the story of the anime diverges quite a bit from that of the manga.

pS: Right, so the anime ends but the manga goes on.

Tatsurou: But, in the case of Hagaren (Full Metal Alchemist's Japanese nickname) I think the anime wrapped up the story neatly. It's different than the manga story but the finale puts the pieces together and offers closure.

pS: For you, there's closure on the story so you stopped reading the manga?

Tatsurou: In the case of Hagaren I think I like the end of the anime more than the way the manga is going.

~~~

EXTRA: TATTOO

pS: None of you have tattoos is that right?

Miya: Yes.

pS: Are you anti-tattoo?

Miya: No, not really.

Tatsurou: Satochi used to want to get one.

pS: What were you thinking about?

Satochi: There's this drummer I like...

pS: And you wanted to get a tattoo of his face?

Satochi: No, no. (laughing) There was this Buddha on his back.

Tatsurou: If I were to get a tattoo I'd want a Japanese style one. Not like tribal or something. A Japanese print. Japanese style tats have like, Japanese-like creatures and things in them. In those Japanese colors and with that style, I think it'd be cool to have non-Japanese animals. Most people would get like, a carp or a dragon but you never see like, a dolphin or like, Shamu the killer whale. They'd look cool in a Japanese style.

~~~

Message to America

Satochi: I want to make an impact with our concert, the type that makes fans of those watching. I want more Americans to become our fans.

Miya: I hope to do a performance that makes the people who come to see us say "They're better than I imagined," and allows us to periodically release our Japanese relases here.

Yukke: I think that most people in attendance today will be seeing MUCC for the first time. I hope that we get an invite to come back and do more concerts soon, and that when we do we'll get more fans and be able to put out a CD and do some more concerts.

Tatsurou: Rock is like, the rock coming out of Japan, is being sold on its roots; It's Japanese-ness. I hope that people listen to what Japan has to offer.

#purple sky #MUCC #MY EYES HURT SO MUCH NOW LOL #omg this magazine needed a goddamned proofreader the grammar is so god awful it hurts

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