#japan domestic market

[floatingonapaintedsky]

This isn't actually prevalent and ultimately a non-issue but I was looking through the comments of their older videos and I always feel like it's a bit silly when I see the occasional stray commenter say that &team would be significantly more successful if they were based primarily out of Korea and got int'l recognition when Japan is the world's second largest music industry.

Like any issues with how much more successful they could be has less to do with the country they're primarily based in and more to do with Hybe Japan being kind of incompetent.

[fatehbaz]

was thinking about this

To be in "public", you must be a consumer or a laborer.

About control of peoples' movement in space/place. Since the beginning.

"Vagrancy" of 1830s-onward Britain, people criminalized for being outside without being a laborer.

Breaking laws resulted in being sentenced to coerced debtor/convict labor. Coinciding with the 1830-ish climax of the Industrial Revolution and the land enclosure acts (factory labor, poverty, etc., increase), the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 establishes full-time police institution(s) in London. The "Workhouse Act" aka "Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834" forced poor people to work for a minimum number of hours every day. The Irish Constabulary of 1837 sets up a national policing force and the County Police Act of 1839 allows justices of the peace across England to establish policing institutions in their counties (New York City gets a police department in 1844). The major expansion of the "Vagrancy Act" of 1838 made "joblessness" a crime and enhanced its punishment. (Coincidentally, the law's date of royal assent was 27 July 1838, just 5 days before the British government was scheduled to allow fuller emancipation of its technical legal abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean on 1 August 1838.)

---

"Vagrancy" of 1860s-onward United States, people criminalized for being outside while Black.

Widespread emancipation after slavery abolition in 1865 rapidly followed by the outlawing of loitering which de facto outlawed existing as Black in public. Inability to afford fines results in being sentenced to forced labor by working on chain gangs or prisons farms, some built atop plantations.

---

"Vagrancy" of 1870s-onward across empires, people criminalized for being outside while being "foreign" and also being poor generally.

Especially from 1880-ish to 1918-ish, this was an age of widespread mass movement of peoples due to the land dispossession, poverty, and famine induced by global colonial extraction and "market expansion" (Scramble for Africa, US "American West", nation-building, conquering "frontiers"), as agricultural "revolutions" of imperial monoculture cash crop extraction resulted in ecological degradation, and as major imperial infrastructure building projects required a lot of vulnerable "mobile" labor. This coincides with and is facilitated by new railroad networks and telegraphs, leading to imperial implementation or expansion of identity documents, strict work contracts, passports, immigration surveillance, and border checkpoints.

All of this in just a few short years: In 1877, British administrators in India develop what would become the Henry Classification System of taking and keeping fingerprints for use in binding colonial Indians to legal contracts. That same year during the 1877 Great Railroad Strike, and in response to white anxiety about Black residents coming to the city during Great Migration, Chicago's policing institutions exponentially expand surveillance and pioneer "intelligence card" registers for tracking labor union organizing and Black movement, as Chicago's experiments become adopted by US military and expanded nationwide, later used by US forces monitoring dissent in colonial Philippines and Cuba. Japan based its 1880 Penal Code anti-vagrancy statutes on French models, and introduced "koseki" register to track poor/vagrant domestic citizens as Tokyo's Governor Matsuda segregates classes, and the nation introduces "modern police forces". In 1882, the United States passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1884, the Ottoman government enacts major "Passport Nizamnamesi" legislation requiring passports. In 1885, the racist expulsion of the "Tacoma riot".

Punished for being Algerian in France. Punished for being Chinese in San Francisco. Punished for being Korean in Japan. Punished for crossing Ottoman borders without correct paperwork. Arrested for whatever, then sent to do convict labor. A poor person in the Punjab, starving during a catastrophic famine, might be coerced into a work contract by British authorities. They will have to travel, shipped off to build a railroad. But now they have to work. Now they are bound. They will be punished for being Punjabi and trying to walk away from Britain's tea plantations in Assam or Britain's rubber plantations in Malaya.

Mobility and confinement, the empire manipulates each.

---

"Vagrancy" amidst all of this, people also criminalized for being outside while "unsightly" and merely even superficially appearing to be poor. San Francisco introduced the notorious "ugly law" in 1867, making it illegal for "any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view". Today, if you walk into a building looking a little "weird" (poor, Black, ill, disabled, etc.), you are given seething spiteful glares and asked to leave. De facto criminalized for simply going for a stroll without downloading the coffee shop's exclusive menu app.

Too ill, too poor, too exhausted, too indebted to move, you are trapped. Physical barriers (borders), legal barriers (identity documents), financial barriers (debt). "Vagrancy" everywhere in the United States, a combination of all of the above. "Vagrancy" since at least early nineteenth century Europe. About the control of movement through and access to space/place. Concretizing and weaponizing caste, corralling people, anchoring them in place, extracting their wealth and labor.

You are permitted to exist only as a paying customer or an employee.

[studentofetherium]

i have a point to make but i need to establish some things first:

Crunchyroll have a hand in producing anime. what this means is being on production committees, ie being the financier of anime and having a big part in planning the anime itself

Crunchyroll produces a lot of anime

a lot of what Crunchyroll produces are isekai anime

Crunchyroll's audience is strictly international. primarily the US, but it servers a global market

with all that said: the endemic overproduction of isekai anime is because of their international popularity. anime like SAO and Shield Hero were huge successes for Crunchyroll, which has led to them recreating their popularity time and time again. in the Japanese web novel subculture that originally spawned the modern isekai genre, people have been moving away from isekai for years, but anime has yet to reflect that because isekai is being prioritized for adaptation due to its international popularity

all this to say: isekai is not a domestic phenomena for Japan. it's plenty popular there, yes, but a foreign company is behind its overproduction, and with the goal of international release. thus, the topic of isekai is more complicated than people give it credit for, and can't be simplified into simply "Japanese people are perverts" like so many people want to do

[rlyehtaxidermist]

One thing I feel like is getting a bit missed in some of the WfM posting: the backlash is not a western thing, and it was not caving to the domestic market in general. Japanese Twitter is if anything angrier about the backtracking than the Western side is, and Bandai/Kadokawa's decision was not made in response to the Japanese fandom reaction in general - "SuleMio wedding" was trending on Japanese twitter.

It was specifically a call made by editors and executives. Not the people who worked on the show, and not the Japanese fans writ large.

"japan is homophobic" factoid actually statistical error. According to Pew Research Center, less than a quarter of Japanese people oppose same-sex marriage. LDP Georg, who lives in the National Diet & writes 10000 homophobic screeds each day, is an outlier and should not have been counted

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

I was a skeptic about Criterion releasing any post-Showa Godzilla movies on disc, but lo and behold, they're teeing up Godzilla vs. Biollante, my favorite movie of all time, for 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (or just plain Blu-ray) on March 18. The description:

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New 4K digital restoration, with 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

New audio commentary featuring film historian Samm Deighan, host of the podcast Eros + Massacreand coeditor of the book Revolution in 35mm

Making-of program from 1993 featuring director Kazuki Omori and special-effects director Koichi Kawakita, among others

Short documentary from 1993 about the Biollante and Super X2 vehicle concepts

Deleted special effects

TV spots and trailers

New English subtitle translation

PLUS: An essay by science-fiction and horror film expert Jim Cirronella

Yes, this means they're skipping over The Return of Godzilla and not waiting until all the Heisei films are in their hands to unload them as another box set. I was surprised at first, but it makes sense. Biollante is the only Heisei movie Toho has released on 4K in Japan so far (with The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II joining it in June), and arguably the best-regarded. Toho's always going to prioritize the domestic market first, so this is Criterion's best shot at a new release during Godzilla's current swell of popularity.

I have mixed feelings, as is usual when any new English kaiju/tokusatsu home release is announced. I'm glad the movie is back in physical circulation; it's again become legendary as the most difficult Godzilla movie to find on home video for a reasonable price. Only one library in my county owns it, and that number is about to spike. It'll be a major visual upgrade to boot. The non-G54 movies in the Criterion Showa box set didn't have audio commentaries, so I'm glad they sprung for one this time. I'm not familiar with Samm Deighan's work, but I think she's the first woman to record an English commentary for a Godzilla movie.

But...

I saw the Criterion presentation of Godzilla vs. Biollante at the Dryden Theater in October, and the subtitles were... simply not proofread, or at least not proofread by anyone who should have a job in the field. "More typos than a Mill Creek Ultraman Blu-ray" was how I described it at the time. I believe Criterion is using a number of vintage (we're talking probably-shown-in-Hawaii) subtitle scripts for the Toho tokusatsu films they're made available on streaming but not on disc, and I dearly hope they show more care with the Biollante 4K.

There's also no English dub.

This suggests that Toho is now doing its best to bury all the pre-Reiwa Godzilla dubs, even the ones they commissioned themselves. I doubt Criterion will bother to include the film's English visuals either. So... the version of Biollante I rented from Blockbuster some 20 years ago, the version I grew up with, will just be completely erased from the latest-and-greatest (and last?) edition. Depressing stuff. The current incarnation of Toho might be embarrassed by those old dubs, but as an indignant woman in the Diet Building once exclaimed, the truth is the truth! And Biollante's one of the films I prefer to watch dubbed (for one, nobody can argue that the English the actors spoke on set was better than that recorded by the Hong Kong Players).

Lesser concerns: I'll have to double-check, but I think the making-of program and the short documentary were on the old Echo Bridge discs too. The trailers would be new, but, well, they're trailers. So potentially nothing fresh in the featurette department, certainly not a retrospective with surviving cast and crew. (Somebody get one of those done before we lose even more of them!) And I do feel bad for Ed Godziszewski, whose commentary for Echo Bridge was effectively pocket-vetoed by Toho and is now truly never going to see the light of day.

Bleh.

[poomphuripan]

Producer 'Yuan' Wan Thabkrajang, CEO of YYDS Entertainment - iQIYI Exclusive Interview Transcript

[Why did you choose this novel to make into a TV series adaptation?]

First of all, I think it's the hardship presented in 2023, which is most Thai Y (BL) novels have already been chosen/bought by other production companies in Thailand. Moreover, after reviewing numerous novels from various publishers, none seemed intriguing or had a genre that was refreshing enough for me to buy the adaptation rights to make a series. So, I looked to neighboring countries like Japan, South Korea, or China. They've been rather successful with their Y/BL novels so there might have been some interesting plots. Additionally, China is a country with a flourishing novel industry and a platform, with many famous novels that have millions of readers. And "My Stand-In" is among one of the famous BL novels so I decided to adapt it into a series.

[How do you feel about this being the "first Chinese danmei novel" to be adapted into a Thai TV series?]

This marks the first time a Chinese danmei novel has been adapted into a Thai TV series. Besides, after selecting the project, there were extensive discussions with the director and scriptwriters on how to localize it effectively so that the audience can immerse themselves in the narrative. Because the original work is Chinese, the storytelling or even the storylines are all very based on Chinese culture. The key point of what we needed to do is to make Thai viewers immerse in the series, but still keep the intriguing and intense plots of the novel. This is the hardest thing. But after starting the execution, I felt like the story lines and plots of original Chinese novel can be kept in full, but we needed to choose which plot points to be the main storyline. And because there's only 12 episodes, we'd have to decide which plotlines we are going to cut/shortened. That was one of the things we have to do as well.

[What are the challenges of this series?]

The challenge is the original work, because the original novel has a lot of reader fans and has billions of views. The challenge is to make the book fans satisfied with the adapted plot while making it into a Thai version. At the same time, we needed to figure out how to make the TV series popular in Thailand. Because even though the original novel has a lot of views in China, it's still a relatively new work in Thailand. So we thought about how can we make this Thai drama popular around the globe?

[Why did you decide to work with Director Pepzi?]

It's rather a miracle, because like I had to do research first to see in the past year... So this project started around January 2023, first we started exploring over the last two years to see which BL series was kinda explosive on the market, like able to reach worldwide or international popularity. Because we aimed to create a Thai series with global appeal. And so Director Pepzi is one of the directors, who I felt, has an extensive portfolio of works, both domestically and internationally, so I tried calling P'Pepzi. And that day, that evening, we only discussed for one evening and in the morning the day after, P'Pep texted back 'Yeah Yuan, I'll take this drama" and it's decided right then.

[What are the difficulties in adapting this novel into a TV series?]

It was challenging, especially in discussions with Director Pepzi like "How do you feel about this?... how do you want this to be? like on how to portray certain scenes and characters. Or considering Joe's profession as a stuntman, which means that action scenes are a must. Because in the novel, the action scenes would be in the style of classic Chinese ancient times. However, replicating them in a Thai context proved difficult if we tried to doing them exactly like in the novel. We had to find a balance that resonated with Thai audiences while retaining the novel's essence, this is one of the hardest things. The producers also think, in this year, if we do it the ordinary or typical way, not up to certain standards or not having any challenges, then the series wouldn't meet the selection criteria of viewers. Because these days, viewers tend to select and has a demand for higher-quality content. So we collaborated with the production team to outline the requirements on how we can turn this series into a masterpiece in the industry.

I also disccused with P'Khom about the action scenes or about set designs, things like that. We also had our colleagues from the design department create new sets, for example like Joe's room, that room is originally a warehouse in which we constructed a brand new set (t/n: basically Yuan is trying to say that the design team built Joe's house from scratch because the originally the location is just an empty warehouse). I also felt that the producers were betting big on action scenes. Even though the proportion of action scenes didn't exceed 30%, they were all meticulously designed to look outstanding. This was to evoke excitement and showcase the excellent capabilities of Thailand's production team.

[Interesting facts about 'Up-Poom' and their characters 'Ming-Joe']

Regarding the casting process, it took us 8 to 9 months to finalize the entire cast. And Up-Poom is a pairing where I felt like they had very matching chemistry. Especially when they were paired up during auditions, they even switched roles, with Up playing both Joe and Ming and Poom playing both Ming and Joe. We tried switching the roles to test the chemistry between them. And we found that they were very natural and compatible together, making them suitable for the main roles. Hence, we decided we decided to cast Up and Poom.

As for Ming and Joe, you'll know after reading the novel. Ming is the most detestable character and so Up portrayed him excellently, making everyone itch with hatred during filming. We couldn't understand why Ming acted that way, feeling sorry for Poom's character, Joe, for being mistreated and have to endure to this extent. However, behind the scenes, Up and Poom were quite mischievous, often playing pranks on each other, which made us not feel as sorry for them. Nevertheless, both of them portrayed their roles excellently.

[Recommend 'My Stand-In' to everyone]

Everyone, please pay attention to Stand-in. This TV series has a fascinating plot with elements of drama, romance, and action. It's also the first Thai original series on iQIYI. Please follow it on iQIYI.

[livelybutterflyy]

introducing my kpop drself

EARLY LIFE :

Moon Seulbi was born October 8th 2004 to a lawyer mother & businessman father in Seoul , South korea. She is the youngest of three siblings , Moon Jinyoung & Moon Jisung are her older siblings , Jinyoung (Da’ah) is an actress while Jisung is a fellow idol.

During her childhood / teenhood , she traveled and lived in many places, for example , the first 5 years of her life were spent in Tokyo, Japan , where she began dancing . Then she spent two years in Paris , where she first witnessed Fencing, and she begged her mom to learn. 

here are a list of some of the places she lived in as a child:

Seoul , South korea (obv)

Tokyo, Japan

Paris, france

London, England

New York city, United states

SCOUTING STORY :

Her father was a prominent businessman and was friends with JYP , Jyp offered to train his daughter ( Seulbi ) to be an idol, and without her consent, He agreed, on one condition, he would have a manager street cast her first, to take the blame off him.

Seulbi was seven years old when she was walking with her mother to the park when a JYP manager came up to her and asked if she’d like to be an idol. Seulbi, who was extremely emotional and afraid of everything, immediately burst into tears. Her mother agreed on her behalf.

DEARLIE :

DEARLIE was a 4 member kids girl group under JYP entertainment, the group consisted of Minseo, Sieun , Jaylie & Sooyoung. They debuted august 16 2013 with the song “Gee”. The group disbanded in January of 2016 after their contracts were terminated. 

Dearlie was a highly successful group , even with the controversy of a 8 year old debuting, it was marketed as a “kids girl group” for that exact reason. It remained unknown until 2023 why their contracts were mysteriously terminated.

POST-DEARLIE :

Sooyoung was only 11 years old when DEARLIE disbanded, eager to stay in the kpop industry where she felt appreciated, Sooyoung partook in Sixteen, Idol school & Produce 101 , all in the time of 9 months. After failing to debut in the three groups, Sooyoung quit being a trainee but was hired as a producer, stylist, choreographer  and concept designer for JYP , she worked on groups like SKZ, MISS A, TWICE & ITZY. She was the "mind" behind Skz, as she created their concept & discography nearly by herself

During this time, she didn’t even live in Korea ! Sooyoung attended the most prestigious boarding school in the world , Lucent arts academy in England where she majored in dance and minored in mythology until her departure in 2019.

THE NOWHERE GIRLS CLUB :

Sooyoung had been longing for her return to the Kpop industry for a while, so when TNS reached out and asked if she’d like to audition for them, Sooyoung said yes. By July of 2019, Sooyoung was a trainee at TNS, by September of 2019, she was in the debut line up.  !! She had quit JYP by then !!

The nowhere girls club (tngc) debuted June 12 2020 with the song Generation , it was a massive hit both domestically and internationally, with Sooyoung serving as the songs producer & songwriter.

By their second comeback with the full album “Stay out of my secrets” and the double title tracks Girls never die and Girls capitalism, TNGC had secured their place as a force to be reckoned with, not just in the kpop industry, but with the global music industry itself, with being nominated for 6 grammys and going home with 5.

SOLO VENTURES :

Moon Sooyoung is a brand. She is the most popular female idol ever. She has over 200 million followers on her solo instagram account , and she's only had it three years.

Some of her global  brand deals include : vivienne westwood, YSL, burberry , alexander mcqueen & graff diamonds. These are my 5 favs out of her 17 accumulated over the years. She is known as : global it girl, 4th gen fashion icon, dancing prodigy & ace of kpop (there are many more.)

Sooyoung constantly sets trends , including ; Lucky Jelly , off shoulder tops, reverse mirror selfies, heart cheek pose, , Sooyoungism, decorated shoes , custom decorated mics & more !!

For the two year and the four year anniversary of TNGC, each member released a mixtape for the fans, Sooyoung released BE PRETTY as her first solo and released INSANITY! As her second. Despite having small promotions, be pretty went extremely viral and got 1 billion streams in only 90 days and received over 13 music show wins in a 2 week timespan. Insanity! Also went extremely viral, reaching 1 billion streams in only 76 days ! it also received 15 music show wins in the two week promotion period

[centrally-unplanned]

I played some Victoria 2 today (a Japan campaign ofc, and admittedly with the Historical Flavor Mod), to sort of reflect on it in relation to Vicky 3. It is rough going back to the economy of Vicky 2 after playing 3, let me tell you - you knew intellectually it was "bad" system before, but you loved it anyway because of the full package. But now you can see the alternatives and remove the quotations, it is just bad! Building an ammunition factory that requires sulfur, having domestic RGO sources for sulfur but they are not producing enough to supply even one factory, and just not being able to do anything about it that isn't drastic or long-term because the world market is feeling fucky today is unacceptable once you have played a game where that isn't true. My industrialization strat should not waffle between "build a railroad for a 5% bump in output" and "invade Indonesia", give me a middle ground here guys! And it does not stop there - capitalists are useless, "build factory on RGO and expand forever" is optimal 99% of the time, key technologies will like double your output making them forced decisions, etc.

And, if you are can't build factories because you aren't civlizied yet...you have no econ game at all. You just do virtually nothing. Now that you see how that isn't required, the mechanics are ruthlessly bad in key ways.

But! But but but! I think Vicky 2 is a still a better game. The funny thing about that "I don't have enough sulfur" thing is that I didn't even care. I built the factory "for the future", subsidized it, it outputted zero bullets, and I barely notice because you make so much money anyway you can generally ignore it. I build the factories primarily so I can have clerks staffing them and generating research points! Is that insane game design? Yeah, it is! But it is insane game design that doesn't get in the way. Nothing stops me from building a factory, it just isn't very good. Wanna build a huge military? Encourage some soldiers with your national focuses and go to town. Want to declare war on someone? You can just do that! And then I take the army I built, click it on enemy, and it fights them - revolutionary new approaches to game design folks.

Even politics, where Vicky 2 definitely does get in the way a lot and is actively not-good, it is at least more permissive and more importantly simple. If you have elections you get events to shift voter ideology, and national focuses to boost party support that work exactly the way you would expect. If you are autocratic you can just swap who is in power! Liberals support political reforms, socialists support economic reforms, if you have a majority support for a law click a button and it passes. Done. Putting socialists in power in 1870 Japan might result in a revolution, sure, but it works, you can try it, and try to beat the militant tide.

Meanwhile in Vicky 3 if you are autocratic putting a "minority" faction in power literally breaks your government and prevents you from passing any laws. You can technically do it but you just die immediately. Wanna build a coalition then, where conservatives & agrarians ally together? You technically can again, but the penalty for "non-compatible" coalition partners is so high it 90% of the time crashes you into 0 anyway. So you have the "option" of switching parties, but...you can't. You just have to appoint the landowners every time or you die. So what is the point? Why have the option? Let me play the game!! Let me try reforming things and face a revolution I have 40% odds of losing to! That sounds fun, why are you rigging the game against that?

I tried an Iran run in Vicky 3 earlier, and I had a revolution against the landlords, who had ~50% of the "faction" points in government. I won, and so their points got knocked down to ~0%, how that works. So I made a new government, right? Well, no! Every faction left was "incompatible" with each other and none of them alone could even muster like 30%. I had literally no government capable of passing laws. So I fucking quit the game? Because this was the product of winning a revolution, why would I continue?

In Vicky 2 fascists win a revolution and they coup the government and it's fascist now. You get the fascist laws and can pass reforms they like. There ya go. Done. Is it interesting? No, not really. But it works! It doesn't literally stop you from playing the game.

My Japan game actually started as Satsuma, since in HPM Tokugawa Japan is split into substate Daimyo. I modernized via encouraging intellectuals, took military & railroad reforms, built a modern land army, and built up relations with the other domains. I launched the Meiji Restoration, got 60% of the Daimyo on my side, won the civil war. Began building factories everywhere, built up my industry, built up my research output. Used the new tech & money to build a larger army, fought the Qing in a tough war but got Korea & Taiwan, allied with the UK & built up a steamer industry to get a modern navy. Then Russia got into a crisis with Greece and so the UK and I backed Greece and broke Russia, with me claiming some territories around Manchuria in the process. Later I invaded China proper to annex Manchuria itself and get some treaty ports, easily now because my military was much more advanced. From all that my infamy was high so I coasted into the endgame and pivoted to culture techs to trigger "decisions" around modernizing Japan that gave me bonuses while having nice historical flavor to them.

And generally the game just didn't get in my way on doing all that. I could "tell the story", which for an easy game like Vicky is normally what you are here to do. Vicky 3 is a much better economy simulator, but telling the story beyond that is such a chore, and often impossible. On politics, diplomacy, and especially military, it is philosophically a step backwards such that its more "developed" mechanics cannot compensate for the mistake.

(I think it is funny how much better a gameplay experience the "narrative via decisions" of Vicky 2 w/ HPM is. They give flavor to the nations with a ton of bespoke, scripted events. Which...just works because they are straightforward. Vicky 3 wants to be "emergent" and so limited such events, but missed the forest for the trees there)

I find this sad because honestly there is a "blended" version of these two games that is amazing. Vicky 3's econ system (with tweaks ofc like making trade valuable) and philosophical commitment to minimal military micro (SO finicky in Vicky 2 to replenish armies where individual brigades die off, ugh), with a system that understood storytelling is first. Let players do things, and then give them consequences that are manageable in response. Get out of the way of the stories your sandbox game is built to tell.

[sophistired18]

Timeskip Kryk!!

I like to envision different scenarios on how timeskip kryk's relationship would go based on whether they were in an established relationship before yaku went abroad or if they were stuck at the pining stage, but for now I'm going to just ramble some established relationship hc's bc otherwise the list would go on forever! I hope you all enjoy!!

They definitely had it rough at first bc of the distance and time differences. They both agreed it'd be difficult, but they knew they could make it work. However, it was so much harder than either of them expected.

It was getting unbearable for kuroo, as it felt like a piece of a puzzle was missing from his everyday routine. He still hung out with his old teammates when he could, and he and Kai went to the same university, but they both knew it wasn't the same without yaku.

As for yaku, there were so many times he wanted to keel over and impulsively fly back to japan. He missed home so bad, and kuroo was home. Also the learning curve on speaking a new language and the culture shock in a foreign country was extremely rough. He stuck through it through pure perseverance. Yaku never thought he could doubt his own abilities, but being so isolated from everything he's ever known made him feel smaller than he's ever felt before.

It took a break down and a late midnight call (a morning one for kuroo) for yaku to be reassured that he's here because he's meant to be here and he earned it. From this point the two of them begin to really put in the effort to make sure they check up on each other and call more regularly (instead of trying to ignore how bad they miss each other)

They always call to say goodnight/good morning and just talk about their overall day

The day before Kuroo's college graduation, Yaku secretly flew down and surprised him on grad day. Kuroo just froze up bc he hasn't seen his bf in person in 4 years so he must be hallucinating. It took him a minute to realize he's not schizophrenic and then jump into his smaller (buffer???) Bf's arms. (He also cried alot, which yaku always teases him about to their friends)

The next time they see each other in person is a few months later when kuroo flies up to russia for a weekend to celebrate Yaku's belated birthday. At this point Yaku is practically fluent in russian and kuroo is astounded by how much Yaku's acclimated to his surroundings (it has been 5 years, but its still shocking nonetheless). They eat at one of Yaku's fav restaurants for lunch, which was amusing to Yaku since for the first time Kuroo didn't argue about the menu and took his recommendations bc he was so out of his element.

Later after exploring Moscow together, they decide not eat out for dinner and instead get groceries from an oriental market that yaku frequents often. Kuroo makes him some homemade tonkotsu ramen and yaku starts bawling his eyes out. They celebrate the first birthday Yaku's had with a loved one in 5 years

The next time they see each other, its for Kuroo's older sister's wedding. The whole night, Kuroo held Yaku's hand under the table and silently thumbed his ring finger. No words were spoken about the gesture when they got back to their hotel room, but they didn't need any to know what they wanted.

Yaku's finally back in japan for the 2020 Olympics and this time he decides to stay for a while. He moves in with Kuroo at his apartment and they act like a practically married couple (although they already acted like that before). They do a ton of wholesome domestic stuff that comes easier then you'd think for a couple that hasn't physically been with each other in years.

Now that they live together after all these years, the crave for physical affection is undeniably overwhelming for the both of them. They somehow always need to be touching, whether its watching a show on the couch with their legs intertwined, helping each other button up their shirts and get ready in the morning, or having their bodies bump each other lightly as they wash the dishes together.

Sometimes Kuroo spends late nights working on his laptop and Yaku always tries to remain on a strict schedule so he goes to bed earlier. But after some point he starts missing Kuroo sleeping in bed with him, so one night he asks Kuroo, "Hey Tetsu, you can work anywhere, right?" and Kuroo confused, simply says "Yes... I suppose?" So Yaku drags Kuroo to their bedroom, with Kuroo still holding his laptop and plops Kuroo onto the bed. "Okay, here's your new office" Yaku yawns and then climbs into bed and snuggles against Kuroo's side. Kuroo just sits there in awe for a bit until he sees that yaku actually fell asleep. He continues working with his laptop on his lap, his hand occasionally brushing through Yaku's hair. Eventually he has to get up to put his laptop away and change out of his suit that he's still currently wearing. But now this "office" has becomes a regular routine whenever Kuroo has to work late nights at home. (He makes sure to get ready for bed beforehand as well so that he can go straight to sleep after finishing work)

Kai always pokes at Kuroo and asks when he's gonna propose. Kenma tells him to hurry up and get on with it before another foreign pro team whisks Yaku away

Yaku used to be more reluctant to show affection or make the first move during highschool, but now he's almost always the one to initiate. It's not even that Kuroo is the one who's shy, its just that Yaku always seems to beat him to it.

Its their 10 year anniversary of their relationship (spanning from 3rd yr of hs to post Olympics) and they're spending it at a beach in okinawa (since the last anniversary they spent in the mountains per Yaku's request). It only takes a decade, but Kuroo finally takes his chance to propose as the sunset lies against the ocean waves. However, like most things, Yaku beats him to it and somehow Yaku is the one down on one knee with a ring (and here Kuroo is standing like an idiot still fumbling to grab the damn box out of his pocket). The trip ended with both of them wearing contrasting rings and a proposal story that ends up being another embarrassing one that Yaku always shares with their friends.

After playing a few seasons of pro league in japan, Yaku gets a call and an email from a recruiter in Poland for the team, orzeł warszawa. After discussing it for a while, they come to a decision and Kuroo wishes his husband a safe trip as he watches him wave farewell and enter the airport

[gacha-incels]

South Korea's 'Gaming Kingdom' Falling Apart Due to '쌀먹' and 'Gacha'

Economy insight

CULTURE AND BIZ

published October 4th 2024 this I thought was just an interesting opinion and analysis of the Korean gaming industry which heavily features critique on gacha. it is originally in Korean and has been mtl and edited into english so it’s not going to be a 1:1 but the very basic info should be there. If you see any discrepancies please lmk and I’ll edit it asap. Thanks for your help and understanding everyone

South Korea was once known as a gaming powerhouse; it was a term that frequently described the nation’s gaming industry. Even today, games are the leading export in South Korea’s content industry. As of 2022, South Korea’s game export revenue reached $8.9 billion (around 12 trillion KRW), which accounts for more than 67.8% of the country’s total content exports.

Globally, South Korea's status remains strong in the gaming industry, ranking 4th after the U.S., China, and Japan in a global market worth 282 trillion KRW. Though there have been fluctuations over the years, South Korea has maintained this position since the early 2000s. From a numbers perspective, South Korea still stands as a gaming giant.

However, if you listen to voices from within the industry, the phrase "gaming powerhouse" is hard to come by. A brief look at industry trends reveals concerns about a crisis: "The South Korean gaming industry is in trouble" or "There's no more innovation." Why is it that despite boasting a much larger export volume and market size than K-pop or K-drama, the core of South Korea's content industry, gaming, faces such grim assessments?

Broken growth caused by an incorrect business model (BM)

The key to South Korea's gaming industry growth was PC online games, which spread with the high-speed internet boom in the early 2000s. At a time when other countries were settling into arcade or home console markets, South Korea entered the PC online gaming sector—a move that turned out to be a masterstroke. With a fast market entry ahead of other nations, South Korea took the lead, pioneering its own paradigm. But today, the industry is struggling to even maintain its domestic market, losing ground to countries like China.

Everyone in the industry knows why. The unique business model (BM) of the South Korean gaming industry, particularly the trade of game items, is seen as a major obstacle to growth. The term “rice farming” (쌀먹- note I went thru a bunch of translations of this and this is the one that I thought made the most sense in context.. if you know the actual set in stone translation lmk)—a slang term meaning “making money by selling game items”—reflects how making money through games has become a major reason for gamers' choices. Currently, 60% of the South Korean gaming industry's revenue comes from in-game item trades, showing how central this model has become.

The core of "rice farming" is the sale of in-game currency or items that allow players to save time on gameplay. Game companies have capitalized on this psychology, introducing probability-based items, also known as "gacha." Gacha, a system similar to a lottery, can reward players with rare items but is also highly risky. The system is often regarded as being close to gambling.

The gaming industry has desperately tried to conceal the fact that probability-based item models have elements of gambling or promote a gambling mindset. If public opinion were to focus on the gambling-like nature of these models, it could literally lead to the downfall of the entire industry. Since this "goose that lays the golden eggs" brings in massive profits easily, no one has been willing to sacrifice it, even though everyone knows it's a problem, making it difficult to change.

The issue is that this culture has dominated the South Korean gaming industry for a long time, severely damaging the overall diversity and competitiveness of the industry. The current crisis stems from a decline in trust in the gaming industry as a whole, following multiple allegations of manipulated probability-based items, which has subsequently led to a decrease in revenue.

Instead of focusing on enhancing gameplay or user services, companies have drawn in users solely with gambling elements, while users, motivated by the desire to make money, approach these games with a gambling mentality. This dangerous dynamic is the main reason why the gaming industry is in its current crisis. The fixation on a flawed business model has led to distorted growth, and the industry has so far stubbornly ignored the issue.

It’s not that there haven’t been calls for change. Many in the industry have been raising alarms, warning that continuing down this path will eventually lead to a collapse. However, market forces often silenced these voices. By 2023, the festering issues that had been ignored for so long have now grown into an irreversible cancer.

Today, Korean games are no longer judged by their content but by how well they incorporate gambling-like elements. One might wonder how this is any different from Japan's national gambling game, pachinko. This is the current state of South Korea’s gaming industry. What's even sadder is that all of this is a result of game developers knowingly turning a blind eye to the situation, blinded by short-term profits.

A Gaming Industry that Talents Ignore

Beyond the distorted growth caused by flawed business models, there are numerous warning signs for the Korean gaming industry. The most noticeable problem is the significant decline in competitiveness when it comes to developing new games. Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to find new Korean games making a mark in either the global or domestic markets. This issue has worsened since the gaming paradigm shifted to mobile platforms. In 2022, only one Korean game made it into the global top 10 for mobile game revenue. The domestic revenue rankings tell a similar story, with most of the top 10 games being either Chinese titles or mobile versions of games that have been in service for over 20 years. This clearly shows the lack of competitive new game releases.

Experts point to the distorted personnel structure of current game development companies, where decision-making is dominated by professional managers who often lack a deep understanding of games. They highlight that Korea's game development culture is plagued by rigid hierarchies and processes, rather than fostering individual developers' creativity.

Survey data shows that the average tenure of employees in the Korean gaming industry is only 2.8 years, and six out of ten game developers express dissatisfaction with their current working conditions. This stands in stark contrast to the foreign gaming industry, where passionate developers drive innovation with fresh ideas. The so-called "crunch culture," where overtime and late-night work are expected, is another major factor hindering the progress of Korean game development. The high workload, compared to other IT sectors, causes talented workers to gravitate toward other industries, leaving game development behind. This is not just a problem of individual developers' working conditions; it poses a structural threat to the future of the Korean gaming industry. Unless the industry escapes from its stagnant development culture, a resurgence for Korean games will be difficult.

The rapid pace of technological change surrounding games has also intensified the sense of crisis in Korea's gaming industry. When it comes to adopting and utilizing emerging technologies that drive next-generation gaming trends, such as the metaverse and blockchain, Korea has fallen significantly behind leading nations. The power that once positioned Korea at the forefront of game innovation seems to have all but vanished.

Industry insiders unanimously agree that the root cause lies in the complacency of game developers, who prefer to take the easy route and prioritize making quick money over embracing new challenges. This results in the industry circling back to its distorted business models. Looking at this trajectory, it's no surprise that concerns are growing over whether the Korean gaming industry can maintain its past glory in an increasingly competitive global market.

The Last Golden Time

For the South Korean gaming industry to recover, fundamental innovation is needed. The focus must shift from aggressive commercialization to delivering the intrinsic value of games—fun, emotion, and immersion. A drastic change in game design philosophy is required, prioritizing enjoyable experiences over pushing players toward in-game purchases.

Additionally, a flexible, autonomous development structure that values creativity must take root. Only in such an environment can future hit games emerge. Risky and innovative attempts should be encouraged, even at the cost of failure. More companies need to embrace new technologies and genres.

The road to reclaiming South Korea’s status as a gaming powerhouse will not be smooth, but if the industry collectively prioritizes the essence of gaming and takes one step at a time, the path to revival can open. Now is the last golden opportunity for the industry to unite for its future.

[sorenblr]

on the off chance you like Dragon Quest, can you explain its appeal? Japanese people really like it from what I've read, but it seems to play second fiddle to FF in the West

I love Dragon Quest. I have a general JRPG brain illness that isn't confined to SMT. There's even a DQIII reference in Marsyas and the Vampyr...

Anyway, I think the appeal is self-evident: the Toriyama designs, the meat-and-potatoes simplicity, the emphasis on individual vignettes that lends the series an easy, almost serialized narrative tone, the relentless charm of it all- even Sugiyama's classical inspirations stand apart from the prog-infused soundscape of the genre. The English releases also benefit from localization, injecting color and accent that conform so well to the original tone that it hardly scans as adaptation. There is a character and magnetism at play here that no other franchise dares emulate. The series is somehow totally archetypal but completely inimitable. It's a very tidy balancing act.

The individual design elements are unremarkable - the ascetic turn-based combat centered on simple buffs and damage control, rudimentary dungeon crawling, barely extant character building except where the vocation system is present- but tend to cohere under this satisfying sense of polish and planning. And while there's more mechanical experimentation across the series than is evident at a glance, DQ still has a fundamentally conservative design ethos that sets it apart from "modern" JRPGs while ensuring a consistent reception from the more settled-in demographics: liking one entry in the series is no guarantee that you'll love the rest, but you're unlikely to be disillusioned going from one game to another.

It's also difficult to overstate the domestic legacy status. In the Western imaginary, the generic JRPG probably resembles a sort of desacralized FFVII. In Japan that image has always belonged to DQ (and more specifically DQIII), where its status as the progenitor of the genre is less clouded by the decontextualization that Japanese games experience during export- less so in the globalized present, but especially pronounced during the crucial formative years for both series. The emphasis on rudiments is something that's more permissible as a result.

But that comparison relates back to FF's dominance in the West, which is mostly attributable to the series' output during the fifth console generation. More expansive allowances for 3D representation created a demand for games designed around the cutting edge. This is the moment that FF cemented its modern reputation, across three separate entries*, as a series of constantly re-inventive, systems innovative, graphical-showcase melodramas. Meanwhile, the mainline of DQ greeted the moment with a single entry: DQVII, an infamously long and plodding game that married simple polygonal backgrounds with 2D sprites in a fashion that too much resembled the rustic SNES titles of the previous generation to suit the tastes of the average PlayStation Magazine subscriber. Debuting several months after the launch of the PS2 inflamed the issue. Considering the technocratic lust for graphical bombast that informed consumer demand at the time, it's no surprise that Western markets imprinted on FF. There's more at play there- from a marketing perspective, the diminutive peasant-protagonist of DQVII was at a disadvantage against Nomura's millennial aesthetic- but that's the thrust of it.

By the time DQVIII released, FF was already dominant, enjoying a consistent stream of profit from their MMO sector even as the wait between FFX and FFXII spanned the entire lifespan of the new system. With DQIX crafted for the DS and DQX being passed over for localization, the mainline series essentially sat out the critical transition to HD, so FF maintained its edge in the West despite increasingly troubled development and exploding production costs. Things have dovetailed neatly, with DQXI charting a series-best performance in the West, filling a niche for console JRPG experiences of this scale that has been largely unoccupied since the PS2 era. FF is meanwhile occupied with recreating, in a fit of Byzantine decadence, the very title that established its grip on the Western imagination.

*It hasn't enjoyed the same critical longevity as FFVII, but it really can't be overstated how acclaimed FVIII was at release, and the move to less abstracted, more 'realistic' models was crucial to that reception.

[whencyclopedia]

Rationing in Wartime Britain

Rationing of food, clothing, petrol, and other essential items was introduced in Britain during the Second World War (1939-45) when the country's imports were severely threatened by German U-boat attacks on merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, and English Channel. Citizens were issued with ration books of coupons which they could spend at retailers to ensure that everyone had access to a minimum of essentials but nobody could buy in excess of restricted amounts.

While some staples like bread, fruit, and vegetables were never rationed, plenty of other necessities were so that meals became simpler and more monotonous. Rationed items included meat, sugar, butter, cheese, tea, and soap. The government also encouraged people to use cheap restaurants by exempting them and their customers from any rationing. Although a black market developed where people illegally bought goods that were otherwise rationed, the ration system worked largely thanks to everyone's self-regulation.

Short Supplies

Pre-war Britain was heavily dependent on many imported goods, which came by ship from around the British Empire, North and South America, and other trading nations. Now during the war, merchant shipping came under serious threat from German U-boats as they headed to and from Britain. Another threat to supplies came from the German bombing of major British ports and the East End docks in London. With Western and Central Europe occupied by the enemy, Britain's access to goods produced there was cut off. In 1941, Britain's exports were two-thirds lower than before the war. Another blow to supplies came when Japan occupied parts of the British Empire in the East from 1942. In addition to these limits, the government's approach to total war meant that many resources had to be diverted to the war effort such as weapons manufacturing and transportation, further limiting resources that might otherwise have been used to support the market for domestic goods.

In order to ensure certain essential items remained available to the widest number of citizens, rationing was introduced, a policy that had been used in the First World War (1914-18). Food prices were controlled from November 1939. Petrol was rationed from September 1939. From the first months of 1940, meat, butter, and sugar were rationed. From June 1941, clothes were rationed in response to a dramatic rise in prices. Soap was rationed from February 1942 and became one of the most popular presents for Christmas that year.

There "is ample evidence that such controls, to help win the war, were not resented" (Dear, 882), and there was the benefit that people felt rationing, applied to everyone, was helping make British society less unequal as everyone pulled together in times of trouble.

Continue reading...

[rarepears]

Imagine if South America/Mexico got hit by an S rank gate, what would be the world wide repercussions of the avocado industry going down? Would people beg Sung Jinwoo to clear it? Would he already be on his way as soon as he hears about it?

I don't think avocado is big enough to result in people begging Sung Jinwoo to clear it per say. A polite invitation from the avocado cartel? Sure - but I think the Korean Hunter Association filters out such requests before it would even be sent to Jinwoo and his guild lol. Plus there's S ranked Hunters in South America too! I think people would look to their local hunters first for help - and for domestic pride too. It's kind of embarrassing to be needing to request foreign aid plus what kind of compensation can the countries really provide when they have already been decimated by such a gate? They can't afford it nor afford to own a favor. That's a pretty risky political position to be in, to say nothing else of the geopolitical implications and existing alliances they have to balance.

If this was a staple crop like a wheat, rice, or potato where it would be a catastrophic failure, sure. But the good news is that staple crops are far more diversified in where they are grown so while one region getting hit raises prices (cough see Ukraine war, wheat, and fertilizer), it's not going to result in massive shortages akin to the toilet paper crisis of 2020. Avocados are a large export item. The United States is the number one market for Mexico's avocado exports, with an 81 percent share, followed by Canada, Japan, and Spain, so I think the first foreign hunters called in to help would be the American guilds. (Plus they would be more personally motivated to keep their supply of guac going.) Koreans? I don't think they are as keen about avocados.

[satancopilotsmytardis]

okay I read a fic earlier where omegas are given courting jewelry and now I can't stop thinking about shigadabi.

dabi who never thought he'd receive any, with a box full of gifts from his alpha; body chains, necklaces, bracelets, anklets. not to mention all the jewelry for his piercings.

Ooohhh I can riff on this too:

Non-hero society, yes quirks

Depending on where you're at in the world, different governments have different rules based around presentations.

In Japan, all Omegas are required to be on a national registry because they have the best chance of creating more Omegas in couplings, and the Alpha population is what the government cares to maintain for sexist/eugenics reasons (MHA already does eugenics see the entire Todoroki family I'm not adding anything new here). More Omegas means more Alphas that are satisfied the way they "need" to be and potentially the more powerful and stable the country will be.

Toya was sure he would be an alpha, but at 13, he went into his first heat. Seeing his mom with her platinum collar and "bracelets" and knowing how badly his father treats her, he got terrified when he was put onto the registry and started being shown to alphas as old as 17 (though he was aware he would be shown to even older ones too outside of the public eye)

Not wanting to be "courted" or sold off to the highest bidder, he chose to commit suicide by immolation.

He failed, but even near dead, badly burned, and infertile, he could still be someone's bargain bin fantasy, and omegas can't just be thrown away. So the registry took him off of Enji's hands, and when he came out of the coma, he took the name "Dabi" for himself.

Cut to current day, he has been "on the market" and being paraded out at galas for years to try and find someone who will look past his scars and the fact he has to wear a muzzle and suppression bracelets to each of these outings. He also is only brought out for alphas who have repeat offenses for omega abuse. (Domestic/sexual violence, neglect, straight up murder, etc.) Meaning he will be sold at some point and it will be to exactly the worst kind of alpha that he never wanted to be near.

But he does end up at a gala for white-collar criminals because someone requested anything "exotic" from appearance to quirks.

Dabi hates being there and hopes he didn't make an impression on anyone, and then he starts to receive courting jewelry

[s4misc00l]

Pink and brown

Nana x hachi 

tags:

Slow burn , hurts confort, w/w, healing, romantic fluff, Angst, use of au, childhood meeting,duo pov , time skip, pregnant hachi , bad relationship, dark topics, domestic abuse, good ending

 

Chapter 1

Japan ,Winter of 1990.

     “Now Nana your sisters and father are hungry would you be a dear and get some fish at the market.” “yes mama !” Nana beamed finally being of use made her proud. In the part of town they lived in it was considered more than safe for a child of her age to run errands for their parents. Though sometimes she would pout and ask why Nao couldent do it, she was older afterall.

     Sliping her big coat on after her little brown boots with small tufts of pink lining them which she so deeply adored. She made sure to zip her jacket up as far as she could and fixing hear beanie to cover her small pierced ears. “I'm leaving mama !” 

     With those words Nana was on her way; she had always had a kind demeanor and an identity that was kind and playful. Gripping her 2,000 yen bill, if she lost it she'd never hear the end of it. Nana walked to the same market vendor she always had, it was so often they knew her by name ‘Nana Komatsu’, they also knew that she was ten years old. Her favorite color was pink, and how she loved to bake strawberry cake and wished she had someone to share it with. She'd go on and on about everything she loved in those small moments with the market vendor she felt alive, for the first time in her life she felt like someone could care as much as she could. 

     This winter on the other hand was colder than the others had been. The snow made the pretty boots slide. ‘Hey, those boots are weird!” said what seemed to be the leader of a group of little boys. They seemed much older than nana towering over her and speaking foul profanities she couldn't even understand. The constant berating of their mean words lashing at her face caused a sting in her eyes. “haHAHA CRY BABY NANA!”, she would never admit it but she was . Nana had a big heart that at the mere touch leaked tears of sorrow most of it had been built up to overflow. “L leave m..mme alone.” , she muttered barely being able to get it out though gasps and the most heart wrenching cries. “No little baby with the ugly boots!!” The boys belched out mocking her tears and demeanor. “LEAVE HER ALONE UGLY” . The yell hit Nana's ears ringing deep within her . there she was, all nana could think was how cool she was, her hair to her shoulders, the ends of it resting just above her soft yellow scarf and a gritty looking beanie adorned her head . “Are you okay Girl ?” IN all her aw for this mysterious girl she had never met before her eyes cleared and tears evaporated on her rosy red cheeks. “Your weird girl.”, The remark ripped nana from her hase of this new girl's glory “WHAT… no im not” she grumbled cheeks puffing and eyebrows knitting together showing an obvious disappointment. “HAHAHA YOUr so funny “ her laugh was soft, it wasn't mocking like the boys. She was kind and oh so pretty too . “Ech girl your fish is gonna get weird if you don't go.” she pointed at the fish nana forgot she even had. The plastic handles had already left a deep red mark between her palm and fingers. Quickly bidding the raggedy girl farewell she dashed home as quickly as she could. Her mothers yells ring in her ears, preparing herself for what's to come.

Chapter 1/?

chapter one is writen in hachis pov as her nickname will be introduce later :D!!!