#japanese goals may 2023

[tokidokitokyo]

2023年5月31日

TL;DR: Don't feel inadequate if your language learning journey is not the same as that of others. Your path is valid and you are doing great!

May seemed to just speed on by! And now it's time for my monthly Japanese study log. I think this month I felt a lot of shame for not having time to do the big goals that I have set for myself, and seeing people on langblr or studyblr accomplishing a lot of big goals makes me feel inadequate. It's important to remember that your language journey is your own, not someone else's, and there is no shame in going at your own pace. I try to focus on the things that I accomplish and not make the journeys that other people are on into some kind of impossible standard to hold myself to. Look at your own learning through the lens of how far you have come, and you will feel less like you are lacking.

つまり、自分なりに言語の勉強を続いてね。周りの人の道は自分とは違っても、自分でも成長していますね。これからも続きましょう！

5月はあっという間に終了です！今からは日本語の勉強日記を書こうと思います。今月は大きいな目標をなかなか進まなくて辛かったです。それに、タンブラーやインスタグラムの勉強垢をよく見てて、なんか自分が足りないって感じていました。日本語や言語の勉強は自分のやり方で自分のペースで進んだ方がいいと覚えた方がいいと思いますから、それを頑張って思い出そうとしています。他人の成長を見ながら自分の成長が足りないなと思うことはよくやりますが、それを辞めるように努力します。一か月や一年前の自分を見たら、今まですごく成長してきたと気づいたら、足りなくないとわかるかもしれません。

My 2023 Goals Progress

I laid out some broad goals for my Japanese study in my 2023 Japanese Language Goals post, so, as always, I start off my update with my progress towards these goals.

1. Read one page a day of 日本の歴史366 (にほんのれきし366) everyday in 2023.

How is it going? Good! I am finally getting back on track after setbacks from late work nights, illness, and vacation time. Since this is a page-a-day study book, I would have preferred to keep reading in order and to catch up on the days I missed reading, but that was physically impossible due to a lack of time in general. So I am continuing on even though I skipped some days because it's good reading practice and I still learn vocabulary and kanji daily.

2. Finish 日本語総まとめ N3 (にほんごそうまとめ N3) workbooks.

How is it going? Good! I have been doing one workbook daily entry per day for at least 2 days a week. There are 4 workbooks (Vocabulary, Kanji, Grammar, Listening) with 6 weeks and 6-7 daily entries per week. I am still on Week 5 out of 6 weeks, but I am progressing much more than I did last year (or the year before that lol).

I take my time with each lesson, reviewing the vocab/kanji/grammar points meticulously, so that I absorb the information rather than just rush through it. Sometimes I already know most of the vocab or kanji or grammar, but other days require more focus. I feel like I am retaining more information by doing it little-by-little, rather than just trying to get as much done as possible in one sitting. In May, I didn't review the lessons afterwards and throughout the week, so I might take some extra time to do that once I finish the series.

3. Review and learn the first 6 levels of the 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ), specifically the 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ) up to grade 6.

How is it going? Okay. I have been trying to focus on Joyo Kanji in my kanji reviews, so I went back to Grade 1 kanji to start my review. It helps me to figure out which ones I know well and where I am struggling. Goal: Review through at least grade 3 during the month of June.

4. Read at least one book every two months.

How is it going? Not great. I haven't had the time (nor the motivation) to pick back up the books I stopped in March, and I'm trying to be okay with that ^^; I would like to pick back up one book in June and try to finish it by July. One thing that I am continuing to read is the Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun manga series (in small chunks, usually before bed).

5. Improve my speaking and writing by finding a tutor.

How is it going? It could be better. I am going to set a deadline for finally finding a tutor. I just worry that if I find a tutor I won't be able to commit to a regular schedule and I'll just drop off like I have before. I keep thinking if I had more time to search for a tutor it'd be more permanent, but I think I am just procrastinating (shocked gasps from all). There's also a small worry about the financial commitment, but I am going to try to be frugal in other areas to allow for this luxury. Goal: I will find a tutor by June 30th (or at least start making regular appointments with tutors).

I've also added on to this goal that I would like to start writing sentences on HelloTalk so that I can get feedback without needing a tutor. This might help me to get motivated to improve instead of being terrified of making mistakes. Goal: Write one sentence a day on HelloTalk in June.

6. Study Japanese for at least 10 minutes every day.

How is it going? Good! Thank goodness I have been studying Japanese every day for so long that it's not even something I have to think about trying to fit into my schedule anymore.

May Study Log

This month my top study areas were Vocabulary, Kanji, and Speaking. I spent the least time studying Grammar and practicing Writing.

Study Methods I Used in May

Social Media

Not only did I use apps like renshuu.org (flash cards) and Easy Japanese (articles in Japanese) to study in May, I also used Instagram and started back up on HelloTalk. The idea is to interact with social media in a meaningful way by reading and writing in Japanese. I commented on other user's posts and reached out to some of them as well to start a conversation. The only drawback to this method is that you can get lost in endless doom scrolling if you don't focus on what you are there for (i.e. interaction) and just get lost in the algorithm.

Conversation

I speak Japanese daily (with my husband and son) and since my son is starting to speak in 3-4 word sentences and to copy our speech patterns, I am more mindful of what I am saying to him and how I am saying it (for example, using 大変 instead of やばい ^^;). However, when speaking with my husband it is easier to fall into a Japanglish routine with him, to drop formality and be lazy with sentence construction, and to speak in a more masculine way (because I tend to mimic the speech patterns of those I am speaking with). I have recently made a few Japanese mom friends with whom I can practice Japanese conversation. So I try to utilize our play dates by speaking both formal and casual Japanese, being mindful of my interactions, and trying to utilize new words or grammar points. Using Japanese is the best way to improve it, after all. The only drawback is that the conversation practices can be spaced few and far between, so spending time mindfully speaking at home is also important.

Reading

I have been doing far less reading than I was at the beginning of the year, but I still try to read something for just a few minutes a day to practice reading. Either an article, manga, or even just social media, just to keep myself practicing. Like conversation practice, the best way to improve my reading skills is to keep reading. The drawback is that if I try to read a book but then I have to put it down for a while, I forget what was happening or I lose my motivation to keep reading it because I feel like I am not making progress. If reading books is just not feasible due to a time crunch, I find it much better to read something shorter (articles or part of a manga), and I try not to be hard on myself for not reading a whole book when it seems like everyone else is reading tons of books every month.

Going Forward in June

Be continuous with 日本の歴史366

Focus on grades 1-3 of 教育漢字

Start regular italki tutor sessions

Write in Japanese on HelloTalk

Read one of the books I started earlier in the year by the end of July

I've been studying Japanese for a long time and I still feel inadequate a lot of the time. If you have studied Japanese for any amount of time, please be proud of yourself. You've done something that a lot of people only wish they could do. As always, I wish you much success in your language endeavors, and I hope we can continue on this journey together (no matter where our paths take us)!

長い間日本語を勉強しててもまだまだ足りないと思てます。今までちょっとでも長い間でも日本語を勉強している人に伝いたいことは、よく頑張ったね！日本語を勉強したくても勉強したことない人もたくさんいますので、勉強している人はすごいと思います。そして、自分なりにつづいてください。これからも、皆さん勉強の成功と成長を願っています。どんな道でも、一緒に勉強を続きましょう！

[jokeroutsubs]

Joker Out Subs: Translating a Band

One of our Slovene members, Breda Hribernik (IG fabriconmyhead), wrote an article about JokerOutSubs in the students' magazine ENgLIST.

From our organisation and translation process to translation choices, Breda explained about JokerOutSubs from a linguistic perspective.

Thank you Breda, we're very proud to have you on our team! ❤️

Article below the cut 👇

There are events in life you expect to happen as if they were a part of a ‘Lifetime Bingo’. Scraping your knee as a child. Having a best friend. Going to college. But I never thought I would ever be attending a concert in London where a crowd of 2,000 would be loudly singing along to songs in my native language, Slovene. And yet that was exactly what I experienced during my Joker Out concert in London.

Picture this: London, early April 2024. Day four of my solo journey to England. After queuing for several hours (something that would never happen in Slovenia), me and a few of the friends I met just a few hours ago finally made it into the venue: Shepherd’s Bush Empire, built in 1903 as a music hall. The high ceiling and intricate wall decor closely reminded me of the Slovenian National Theatre Drama in Ljubljana, which got us all even more excited for the concert. And after the two opening acts, the main performers finally

made it onto the stage.

The band, consisting of Bojan Cvjetićanin, Jan Peteh, Jure Maček, Kris Guštin and Nace Jordan, gained international stardom during and after their Eurovision days. At the time of writing this article, the band had completed two successful tours in Europe, with a busy festival schedule awaiting them throughout the summer. This kind of global recognition is rather unexpected for a Slovene band. However, because most of the band's content is in Slovene, especially their older works, the language barrier can present a problem for foreign fans. This is where JokerOutSubs comes in.

1. General

Joker Out Subs (hereon JOS) is a fan-organised translation group. While translating celebrity content is nothing new, it mostly consists of individuals who translate short clips and post them online. Such translations have, in the past, been seen with K-pop musicians. JOS, on the other hand, is a group consisting of several members from all around the globe, me included. Alongside speaking Slovene, our members also speak languages ranging from Finnish to Japanese. The fan-translation group has one main goal: translating content.

The group was founded in May 2023, after we discovered a desire for translated content. Since then, the group whose main goal is translating different content in connection with the band has only grown and expanded. While a great deal of work is still done by speakers of Slovene, JOS would not be as successful without its other members. Social media managers, makers of closed captions, and editors are just a few people who really bring our translations to life.

2. Translation Process

Our translations have a large audience and, in some cases, they are even used by Slovene language teachers around Europe. We make sure to hold them up to a high standard: they are checked multiple times. Alongside our work being grammatically correct, we also want to ensure that the language remains neutral, in order not to implicate anything which does not occur in the original.

Communication-wise, we have a Discord server with many separate channels (for the various languages) and threads. We use Google Spreadsheets specifically for our translations, as using columns is a manageable approach. Column one contains the original text, column two has the translation. The following columns are reserved for comments.

Our translations are not always as simple as translating a written text. A great deal of the content we translate are either videos, radio interviews or podcasts. With those, creating a transcript is the first step. For videos, we also have to create closed captions with timings. Both of these processes are rather tedious, but the end result is a text ready for translation.

Once the first translation is finished, it is checked by a fellow member. For translations from Slovene, this will be a fellow Native Slovene speaker. The reviewer will correct the spelling, punctuation, and grammar of the translation in the form of comments, which the original translator can then approve or dismiss.

Still, the translation is not done yet. Our Native English speakers conduct the final correction of the text. This is mostly to find mistakes that have previously been missed, but English speakers also reshape the piece to make it sound as authentic as possible. The original translator again has a say in these corrections. Finally, our social media team publishes the piece.

Original translation

Check by Slovene speaker

Check by original translator

Check by native English speaker

Check by original translator

3. Translation Problems

As most of us can remember from our classes, translation is rarely done without a hitch. But when one is translating the work of five men in their twenties with diverse linguistic backgrounds (two members of the band grew up in bilingual environments), the work becomes even more difficult. And when these men use slang in their speech, the skills acquired in one’s university translation classes are almost useless.

One such example is an interview with the radio station Val 202, in which the lead singer Bojan Cvjetićanin talks about one of their departed band-members, Martin Jurkovič (who left the band in autumn of 2022 in order to pursue his studies). Bojan wanted to express that Martin was very successful in his field and therefore used the phrase ‘trga gate’ which does not have an equivalent in English. ‘Ripping underwear’ does not exactly mean ‘to be successful’ in English. As we wished to retain some of the vulgarity of the original, we translated the phrase as ‘kicking ass’.

“…. še je njemu v njegovih osebnih sferah odprlo v najboljši možni smeri, in tako kot rečemo mi, trga gate.”¹

… his personal spheres have taken off in the best possible way, and he is, as we say, kicking ass.

¹Joker Out between dreams and reality (Val 202: Music 202) - Part 1: Bojan and Jan

Alongside slang, dialects can also pose a challenge. As a promotion for their concert in Maribor, the band members organised a giveaway for two tickets. All the participants had to do was write down one of their favourite words from the Styrian dialect, before the band members shared their own. Jure Maček, the drummer of the band, said that his favourite word was ‘Štbljc’, which means ‘bedroom’. It would be nearly impossible to translate the word into English and somehow retain its Styrian colouring. In this case, we retained the original in the captions of the video and added a note with its meaning in English elsewhere. These culture-specific notes need to be done often.

“Štjblc je po moje blj.”²

‘Štjblc’* is better.

*bedroom

²[ENG SUB] 🇸🇮DanSlovenščine🇸🇮 A1 vajb: Joker Out share their favourite Styrian word!

Occasionally, Ljubljanščina, or the dialect spoken in Ljubljana, can also cause problems. In a video for A1 VAJB, Kris Guštin (one the guitarists) mentioned that his dream date would include the castle in Ljubljana, which is the city he grew up in. After listing the location, he said: “pa gasa.” Most of the JOS members understood ‘gasa’ as a narrow street, but it was clearly not used in this context here. After some consultation, we translated it as follows:

“Ljubljanski grad pa gasa.”³

Ljubljana Castle and away we go.

³[ENG SUB] What is your dream date? for A1 vajb

Slang and dialects are not the only elements causing us trouble, as the band members also tend to make up words on the spot. One such word, which luckily uses English word formation, has become quite a staple in the fandom. During the vlog of their first tour in the United Kingdom, the guitarist, Jan Peteh, coined the term ‘sparklative’. In addition, he coined the term ‘capybaster’ (capybara + capodaster) in another vlog. However, the most prolific when it comes to creating new terms and phrases is certainly the lead singer. In an Instagram Live back in February 2023 (translation yet to be published), the band was discussing whether they would prefer to be a mushroom or pregnant. Bojan responded that he would like to be “nosrečen’ (noseč + srečen). On a quest comparable to those of the people who had to translate the Harry Potter book series into Slovene, we had to coin a term which would sufficiently embody this neologism. With the help of a native English speaker, we coined the term ‘pregstatic’.

“Kar zabaven bi bil. V bistvu ej ej... v bistvu bi bil nosrečen.”⁴

It would be quite fun. I'd be basically, hey, hey... I'd basically be pregstatic.

⁴Joker Out Instagram Live (February 2023)

4. Original Content

As JOS expands, our work reaches beyond the realms of translation. We now also publish original content, such as our own podcast. Some episodes are readings of longer articles by our Native English speakers. We also have two episodes aptly called ‘Queue and A’ where a member of our team interviewed some fans while queueing for the concerts in Amsterdam (December 2023) and in London (April 2024).

Besides interviewing fans we have also managed to interview the band themselves on four occasions. Our first interview was filmed in Tampere, Finland in September of last year. Then an interview in Poznań, Poland was conducted in November 2023. In 2024 we have so far had two interviews (as of writing this article⁵): an hour-long deep-dive interview in London, UK and a shorter interview, discussing Italian culture in Padova, Italy. The interviews were conducted in English and subsequently translated into Slovene.

Moving forward, the goal of JOS is to keep on doing what we do best, which is to translate. We also hope to create more original content and continue to spread positivity in the fandom. To finish off with the words of the lead singer Bojan Cvjetićanin, “JokerOutSubs, no one translates it better.”®

⁵Between the time of originally writing this article and it being published, we managed to conduct another interview. This was our first interview with only one band member, Nace Jordan, and it was done in Slovene. Fret not, you can watch it with subtitles in 15 different languages.

[shadamyheadcanons]

Submission: Amy’s Crushes (and her imminent denial)

(Submitted by @junebalaya​ case tumblr removes credit.)

I’ve always headcanoned that Amy had a crush on both Sonic and Sally.

I don’t know its ever specified what Amy’s reading was that led her to Christmas Island, but from what I read it’s something like a “great hero”, right? There are some fan media that tack on “a great hero with a name that starts with an ‘S’” which would be incredibly funny since it could go so many ways.

Anyway, Post-Genesis Archie did Amy dirty, but I’ve always liked Amy and Sally’s friendship and evolution in that era. Would it be so out of the ballpark that Amy’s admiration might lead her to glance Sally’s way once or twice? I imagine the feeling is so confusing and kind of hard to digest because she’s technically supposed to be her rival.

I’m not saying that’s the only reason that she treats Sally warmly, but I love the idea one day she sees the regular SonSal antics and feels jealousy towards Sonic rather than for him.

And then Shadow comes along, and she’s completely thrown in the loop.

She’s already struggling with juggling her affection between two different people and now this alien thing who’s kinda like Sonic but not really, shows up and makes her feel seen and shares her sentiment of protection and authenticity. She’s so confused because this isn’t supposed to happen, she has one love and she’ll only ever have one love.

–

((I haven’t read nearly enough Archie to judge that, sadly. I do love Sally and I ship her with Sonic, but that’s because I watched SatAM as a kid. All I know is that I like it when she and Amy are good friends, so I always write them that way :)

The Japanese Sonic CD manual said her cards predicted a “destined encounter.” I like to point out that “destiny” doesn’t necessarily equal “marriage,” and it could just as easily mean their meeting was destined because it led to her helping to save the world so many times, though I suppose that’s beside the point. Sonic Origins has a cutscene that showed the exact reading:

The cards shown are these, all drawn in Hero orientation:

These appear in Amy Rose’s official fortune card deck, where they’re given the following descriptions:

Time: Change is on the horizon. Be prepared for it, whether you saw the change coming or not.

Travel: You’re about to start something new and exciting; be prepared for anything!

Doom: A major event is going to happen! It may not be comfortable but needs to happen. Make the most of the situation.

…and then she cheats and tosses Doom aside to draws the Hero card instead, whose description reads: “The strength you need is inside you! Be brave, and forge ahead with your decisions and goals.”

Her actual reading of disaster was correct, as she was immediately kidnapped by Metal. Even if you count the card she cheated to get, I’d argue that due to how the reading works, the Hero would refer to herself. She’s the one who forged ahead, right?

Anyway, Amy’s gaze does occasionally fall on women. On October 7th, 2016, Sonic Channel released a mini comic in a series for Sonic’s 25th anniversary where Blaze helps out their friends. I don’t know all the details, but I do know Amy looks at her like this:

And my limited Archie knowledge includes issue 268 where she fawns over Honey the cat:

This also supports my headcanon that Amy’s pansexual; I’d argue it’s just canon that she’s bi or pan. It makes sense thematically that The Love Character doesn’t have entire genders locked off to her. That said, I don’t see her mini-crushes rivaling her main one, regardless of who the main target is. This goes for her little feelings for Shadow, too. I can’t see Amy being properly polyamorous. She doesn’t share, even as recently as 2023…

[Sonic Chronicles, Sonic Chronicles again, Archie Sonic Universe Issue 21, Sonic Rush, IDW issue #59, and the Sonic Frontiers DLC]

…and her romantic feelings are too all-encompassing for her to look elsewhere for too long. I do have a headcanon about the awkward transition in between the Sonic crush and the Shadow crush, though.

I think it’s a little amusing that Amy’s the most jealous character in the franchise (imo) while Sonic is the least. From that same exact issue where Amy’s fawning over Honey:

By the way, I’ve been loving your ongoing comic! It’s absolutely hilarious, and I adore the way you draw and characterize Cream in particular. For those who haven’t read it, it’s called Cream the Firestarter. Highly, highly recommended.))

[englishotomegames]

Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling (キューピット・パラサイト -Sweet & Spicy Darling.-)

Release dates (Nintendo Switch) Japanese: November 30th, 2023 English: May 28th, 2024

"Los York, a glitzy trendsetting town, was where our heroine descended. Her true identity was that of the real goddess of love, Cupid.

While working for a major marriage agency named Cupid Corporation, she strived to become the top bridal advisor. She was assigned five hopeless clients known as the Parasite 5!

Even after guiding them through mock dates, matchmaking seminars, and the reality show "Parasite House," all five abruptly canceled their memberships!

Yet their departures brought all their personal challenges to the surface. As she confronted these issues with them, they overcame many unexpected obstacles...

And she fell in love with 'him.'

'I solemnly swear that I will love you so that you always smile. I will protect you for as long as I live.' This is the continued love story of the goddess of love, Cupid, experiencing love firsthand. It's the tale of when she becomes a goddess 'only' for him.

Marriage wasn't the end goal, but the start of a new chapter. Whether they began dating or got married, the only thing awaiting them is a series of unexpected challenges!

A mysterious new creature has appeared in Los York! Could it be a divine message or evidence of an unknown civilization?

A love story so sweet, it'll make your heart melt! The whirlwind of feelings taking the world by storm is far from over!

An endearing, joyful, and chaotic tale that's richer and more exhilarating than ever! This romance featuring a former goddess is so sweet and spicy, it'll make your teeth ache and set your soul ablaze!

And in Merenice Levin's route, her days as Cupid are far from over! A romantic and comedic story in the world of matchmaking is set to unfold!"

This is the fandisc for Cupid Parasite! You can buy the physical version here, or the digital version here.

[cocogum]

Bestiale: the show after Wakfu.

On June 14th, 2023, Animation Digital Network (ADN) released a teaser trailer for the upcoming series, Bestiale, following Wakfu.

Unlike Wakfu, the production of Bestiale has been entrusted to the Japanese team "Studio No Border" instead of the French team.

Here is the synopsis of Bestiale:

Yrehn, a brave and impulsive young Osamodas, protects a sanctuary for animals on Coqueline's island. One fateful day, the Elante, a mythical creature under her care, is abducted by the ruthless Gang of Viandards, a band of dangerous criminals. With the assistance of her new companion Tim, the young woman will confront formidable enemies determined to stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.

Based on the summary alone, we can quickly infer the content of the scenes revealed in the teaser.

In the first scene, Yrehn is shown eavesdropping on a pirate captain as he negotiates with a sram who may be the Gang of Viandards' head chef. The pirate captain appears to be striking a deal with the sram: if he and his crew can capture the Elante, he will receive a good bag of gold as a reward.

In the second scene, we see Yrehn meeting a new character who is supposedly the soon-to-be friend named Tim. He seems to have met her in a restaurant or tavern at best in this shot.

In the third scene, Yrehn is seen tending to the Elante on Coqueline’s island. This Elante, which was previously featured in Season 4, has now reached full maturity.

The Elante has been left unattended without Yrehn (and Coqueline) for some unknown reason and has been pursued by the gang's sram chef.

Luckily, Yrehn arrives on time and immediately starts fighting with the sram.

In the aftermath of a violent confrontation, Yrehn manages to rescue Elante and delivers the amputated hand of the sram chef to the pirate captain who had previously attempted to negotiate with the chef.

(We can tell Yrehn killed the sram chef because we can see that he wears the same skull ring and bracelet on the same right hand)

Here we see Yrehn walking around in town with her familiar, either looking for the whereabouts of the Gang of Viandards or if she’s looking for the Elante.

(This shot doesn’t indicate at what time in Bestiale this takes place or if that’s when she already beat the sram)

And that’s all we’ve got since then.

In addition to the synopsis and the teaser trailer, we got some character sheets of Yrehn made by Xam on twitter as well as an animation exercice.

Here is the Bestiale cover!

Based on the cover alone, there are characters we can already easily identify.

At the top of the cover, right above Yrehn, we can see the pirate captain and the sram chef, followed by a malicious iop who looks like he might also be after the Elante.

At the bottom of the cover, we see some animals and beasts and….ADAMAÏ?!??

Right behind Yrehn, we can see Adamaï in his full dragon form, with no clear explanation for his presence. It is possible that Adamaï may have encountered Yrehn during her quest to find the Elante, as suggested by the Bestiale synopsis. Alternatively, he may appear after Yrehn reclaims the Elante, indicating that Bestiale's plot extends beyond Yrehn’s initial mission. It's important to note that a synopsis usually gives a general overview of the plot and may not contain or present all the elements of the story.

The appearance of Adamaï in Bestiale offers some intriguing insights. Despite the catastrophic event of the big wave, Adamaï is still alive. He appears to be alone, as he is the only easily identifiable character on the cover, and there is no sign of Yugo. Additionally, Adamaï seems older, placing him in a different era. This is indicated by his full dragon form and the sort of hairy bush on his draconic chin, which is the first form we see of him on the cover.

In addition to Adamaï's complete dragon form and Ankama's confirmation of Bestiale being set in the new era, it is obvious enough to know that the series takes place in the Waven era due to the younger and smaller appearance of the last Elante we saw in Wakfu's season 4.

While in Waven, it now looks like a majestic beast in its prime.

The wide difference in the beast’s height, horns, and colors seemed to indicate that a lot of years had passed after the great wave that had marked the beginning of Waven which would suggest that Bestiale happens not at the beginning of Waven, but rather in a time when the twelvians have accustomed to the huge change that happened to their world.

Besides everything that we’ve discussed about Bestiale however, I would like to mention something important about the main character: Yrehn.

All we know about her so far is that she’s a female osamodas with seemingly no family members and has been tasked with being the guardian of a shelter for animals on Coqueline’s island.

We don’t know where she came from, why she had been chosen to be the guardian of the island we had a glimpse of in Wakfu’s season 4, and we have no idea what kind of relationship she has with Coqueline that has resulted in her becoming the guardian instead of simply having the demigod osamodas fill that role herself.

There’s also a very good chance that Yrehn could have been a child at the beginning of the Waven era because of the Waven game cover.

When we look at one of the covers for the game, we can see a little osamodas child with other adventurers and warriors, along with Yugo.

But strangely enough, that little osamodas girl does not appear on the official Waven cover when you enter the game.

Whether the other cover where she was in was an older version of the one we have now leaves us to speculate.

In addition to that, there is also another little osamodas girl who might be Yrehn. And that other osamodas girl is… also another guardian of Coqueline’s island.

Seriously why are there so many osamodas guardians-

This unnamed osamodas girl appears in the 10th chapter of the Lance Dur webtoon.

Lance Dur and his crew (in their prime) were looking for the Elante to kill it so they could take its horns and skin in exchange for a good sum of kamas.

Cadence: “I’m so excited to see this beast! She must be so beautiful!”

Lance: “We’re not here to give her some hugs, we got told to to take its horns and skin.”

And surely enough, they found it when it was much younger (which would mean this event occurred earlier in the Wakfu era).

That’s when they meet the young osamodas girl who has been staying in Coqueline’s island. Granted, the little girl never introduced herself as the official guardian of the island but it is still rather odd that she is staying here on her own without any supervision.

Unnamed osamodas girl: “I present to you all her majesty the Elante!”

Unnamed osamodas girl: “Last of her kind!”

Some people have already made the correlation that this little girl is Yrehn before the Waven era but I would have to disagree for multiple reasons.

When we compare the little girl’s and Yrehn’s designs side by side, we see a lot of differences.

1- The little girl has yellow eyes while Yrehn has blue eyes.

2- The little girl only has one horn situated at the back of her head while Yrehn has two horns in front of her head.

3- The little girl has bangs covering her forehead while Yrehn has a clear head (although this third point can easily be proven inaccurate since hairstyles change over time).

(They both, however, have the same round blue cheeks and eyelashes, I’ll give them that.)

I also don’t believe that this could be the same osamodas because this little girl has been alive since prime Lance dur which must’ve been at a time when the Brotherhood of the Tofu members hadn’t even met yet.

I’d personally prefer to think that the little osamodas girl we’ve seen on the Waven cover is Yrehn for the reasons below.

1- They both have horns situated in front of their heads. The only visual difference here is the younger osamodas girl’s horns being much smaller since she’s far younger.

2- They both have blue eyes.

3- They both have identical strands between their face and don’t have any bangs covering their foreheads.

4- They both prefer to tie their hair high up.

5- They both hold staffs and use them as their main weapons.

All those similar designs lead me to believe that they are the same girl but the waven crew must’ve taken the little osamodas girl out of the waven cover to preserve her for Bestiale only. And unlike the other osamodas girl from the Lance Dur webtoon, this osamodas being a child at the beginning of the Waven era matches perfectly well with how the timeline is supposed to be in Bestiale. Since Yrehn looks to be in her late teens in an era where people have gotten used to the wave’s collateral damages, it would make sense that she’d be a kid when it all began.

However, there is also another possibility to consider: the design of the osamodas girl in the Waven cover must’ve simply been Yrehn’s concept art and the crew decided to use that osamodas to make her.

So in short, here are three possibilities as to which osamodas guardian used to be Yrehn as a child.

1- Yrehn is the osamodas girl from the Lance Dur webtoon.

2- Yrehn is the osamodas girl from the Waven game cover.

3- None of the above. The osamodas girl from the Waven game cover has been removed because her design had been used for Yrehn’s.

Either way, finding out if she was indeed one of those little girls isn’t important, I just wanted to point out the similarities they all shared as well as how many girls Coqueline had given the guardian job to.

Looking back on what we've got for Bestiale so far, it all seems promising.

We do not have a release date for the series so far but we do know that it’s in production at the moment. The news of Bestiale has been known since 2023 so there's a good chance we won’t be seeing it anytime soon.

It just looks like we’ll have to wait and see what kind of new information we’ll be getting in the next ADN upload.

[twelvroses]

cw: death.

INOUE MIO (generally stylised as MiO) was born in Hongo, Tokyo, Japan, on May 10th, 2001. Both of Mio's parents were regular, white collar workers, who lived paycheck to paycheck and worked hard to make ends meet. This meant that they weren't often home, and from a young age, Mio had grown used to taking care of herself. Socially awkward and unpopular among her classmates, the living room television became Mio's greatest source of company. It didn't really matter if it was anime or music shows, award-winning movies or trash TV; Mio consumed and studied it all, and from a very young age she developed her first dream - to be on television.

In late 2013, at 12 years old, Mio achieved her life's goal on the first episode of HOMETOWN IDOL, a reality singing competition show, open to 12-19 year olds across Japan without professional entertainment experience. Mio was the youngest on the show, and became a popular contestant for being initially underestimated by the others due to her shy and nervous demeanor, only to unveil a powerful and emotional singing voice. After six weeks, Mio won the show in a landslide public vote. Alongside a hefty cash prize deposited straight into her parents' bank account, she was awarded a contract with Pantheon Entertainment’s Japanese subsidiary, EPONA.

In 2016, Mio released her debut album, MELT♡, alongside it's title track WORLD iS MiNE. The track shot to number one on the Oricon chart, and the album's following singles all ranked within the top ten. Mio would tour the album around Asia. Although in the two years between the show and her debut Mio had taken supporting or smaller roles in children's shows or pre-teen dramas, which had helped maintain her popularity to a degree, MELT♡ would launch her to new heights, making her a household name across Japan. EPONA were quick to capitalize on Mio's new brand recognition, signing her up for every CF and variety show that came their way.

The trajectory of Mio's success would continue upwards; as the years passed she would continue to release more music, embark on more tours, and diligently pop up on television screens again and again, promoting anything from sneakers to soft drinks to life insurance. Initially popular amongst younger audiences, she would officially break into the Japanese mainstream with her second full length album MiOLOGY, which had a more serious and personal tone, with far more emotional depth than Mio's previous work. The album marked her first collaboration with producer Kobayashi Kentaro, who would act as executive producer for the remainder of her releases. Kentaro was close in age to Mio, only a year older, and encouraged her to become involved in the writing and production of her music. By her request, he was made a member of EPONA's in-house production team.

In 2022, Mio scored her first starring role in a movie, which had been a box office success and received rave reviews. She was set to begin work on her fourth studio album, for which anticipation was high. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the studio for a recording session with Kentaro, Mio stumbled upon him dead at the soundboard. As she was the one to report his death, she was interrogated by the police, though was very quickly cleared of any suspicion as security cameras confirmed her discovery of the body. The cause of death was later ruled as cardiac arrest, suffered in the early hours of the morning. Speaking of Kentaro before his death, Mio often referred to him as her best friend and the closest thing she has to family.

Mio announced an indefinite hiatus following Kentaro's death, ceasing all schedules and social media activity. Her final, unwilling, public appearance saw her mobbed by cameras at Kentaro's memorial service, and then, she was gone.

It would later be revealed that EPONA had quietly let Mio out of her contract in 2023. As far as anybody knows, there's no reason to believe she has anything to do with Valentine Records ...

NAME : Inoue Mio.

BIRTHDAY : May 10 2001.

ZODIAC : Taurus.

NATIONALITY : Japanese.

HOMETOWN : Hongo, Tokyo, Japan.

FOCUS OF TRAINING : Vocal, Dance.

FC : Kondou Chisa.

[the-conversation-pod]

Spring 2024 Teaser

And we're back!

This has probably been our longest recording season ever thanks to the scope of projects we wanted to feature here. Some of the projects started in 2023 while others only finished at the end of March.

This season is packed with guests! Beyond the usual appearances from @ginnymoonbeam and @lurkingshan, you'll get to hear from our friends @so-much-yet-to-learn, @wen-kexing-apologist, and @twig-tea as we talk about the continued presence of OffGun and TayNew, our first dedicated GL episode, a discussion of what may be the longest running BL project, a breakdown of shows that started strong but finished weak, and a massive two-part Grab Bag episode to cover a wide gamut of projects.

You're going to be with us for many weeks, so stay tuned for our releases.

Enjoy teaser for the season.

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (thanks to ongoing efforts from @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

Ben

And we're back. We have missed you all. We are finally done with all the VIIB Awards. We're finally done with watching way too much shit this season. and we have so much to talk about. I'm very excited about this season because, finally, I won. We talked about way too much Japanese stuff this season.

NiNi

[laughs] Ben, at the end of last season in the year in review, he said definitely Japanese is where it's at going into this year. And so far looking back in the winter, some of the stuff that I have probably mostly enjoyed, to be fair, has been some of the Japanese work. So, I am on the ride, I'm on the train with you all. There will be a lot of JBL being talked about in here. A little bit of some other stuff, but yeah, a big chunk of it's going to be J-BL and J-BL-adjacent? So that's what you'll be looking forward to.

Ben

The season is one where we're talking about the history and evolution of the genre a lot. We're going to have an episode focusing on GMMTV continuing to work the OffGun and TayNew angle, and how we responded fairly positively to that. 

We're going to talk about the ongoing experience from Japan via Ossan’s Love. 

We're going to finally get to talk about GL in its own episode on the show, and it's not just going to be one project that we're losing our minds over here. 

We decided to properly reflect on some shows that were trying to do something and did not really deliver the way that we hoped, or maybe even the show hoped, they would. 

And then we're going to do two back-to-back grab bag episodes because, while there was a ton of stuff that happened in this season, we weren't able to organize them into a cute setting. So we're going to unpack some genre stuff in one episode and all of the extra Japanese stuff in its own episode because there is just that much of it. 

As always, some of you sent us some questions. Thank you. And we have a new segment with one of our friends that we're really excited for you to see in the back half of the season. 

I’m Ben.

NiNiI'm NiNii. Welcome to the Brown Liquor Podcast, AKA The Conversation about BL.

[jenctrl]

4221 - series - 4 2 2 1 profile✧˖*°

4 2 2 1 is a Japanese-Korean band under Mono and Hybe Labels. The band members consist of: Y/n, Eunki, and Yohan. They released their debut EP “kite” on March 6th, 2023, followed by their Japanese debut EP “物の哀れ” (mono no aware) on May 20th, 2023 before releasing their self-titled debut album “4 2 2 1” February 2nd, 2024.

4 2 2 1 Concept; 4 2 2 1 show off their ability to mix and play with different genres as a band without limiting themselves to one particular music style. Often doing so through lyrics that dwell in nostalgia for adolescence, love, yearning, heartbreak, melancholy and (questioning) the meaning of life. Their visual concept aims for a sense of nostalgia using anemoia (I.e: analog technology, dated brands, and 90s-00s) that culminate in a kind of cultural esoterism.

4 2 2 1 Members Profile and Info

Y/N

Stage Name: Y/n

Birth Name: Komatsu Y/n

Position: Vocal, guitarist, songwriter, front person

Birthday: June 30th, 2003

Zodiac sign: Cancer

Height: 5'8 (172cm)

MBTI Type: INFJ-T

Nationality; Japanese

More about Y/n...

EUNKI

Stage Name: Eunki

Birth Name: Lee Eunki

Position: Bassist, backing vocals

Birthday: January 11th, 1999

Zodiac sign: Capricorn

Height: 5'11 (180cm)

MBTI Type: ENFJ

Nationality: Korean

YOHAN

Stage Name: Yohan

Birth Name: Kim Yohan

Position: Drummer

Birthday: May 5th, 2001

Zodiac sign: Taurus

Height: 5'10 (178cm)

MBTI Type: INFP

Nationality: Korean

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

singles and EPs

EP title: kite

release date: march 6th, 2023

tracks:

- chum (orig. dosii)

- nouvelle vague (orig. wave to earth)

- just like a movie (orig. wallows)

- johanna (orig. suki waterhouse)

- let me go! (orig. the volunteers)

genre: jazz, lo-fi, and indie rock

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

EP title: 物の哀れ (mono no aware)

release date: may 30th, 2023

tracks:

- 共鳴 (空虚な石) (orig. lily chou-chou)

- 少女の官能基 (orig. tokenai namae) 

- virgin suicide (orig. uchu nekoko)

- グライド (orig: lily chou-chou) 

genre: shoegaze, indie rock, dream pop

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

single title: good looking (orig. suki waterhouse)

release date: august 11th, 2023

genre: dream pop

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

single title: more than words (orig. hitsujibungaku)

release date: september 1st, 2023

genre: original soundtrack (JJK), rock

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

single title: エロティック(orig. lily chou-chou)

release date: october 15th, 2023

genre; dreampop

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

single title: see you soon (orig. Wisp)

release date: december 8th, 2023 

genre: shoegaze

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

single title: love. (orig. wave to earth)

release date: january 5th, 2024

genre: indie pop

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

album title: 4 2 2 1

release date: february 2nd, 2024

tracks: ten (in the playlist below)

genre: Indie and alt rock, shoegaze

deluxe edition: four extra tracks in japanese and korean+bonus english track

☆Discography playlist☆

Miscellaneous;

Similar artists; wave to earth, wallows, whirr, lily chou-chou, tokenai namae, slowdive, wisp, weezer, suki waterhouse

Genre; Indie Rock, Alt Rock, Shoegaze, Dream pop

Average monthly listeners; 6.8 million

Top Tracks: Pleaser, 共鳴 (空虚な石), chum, good looking, francis forever, your face, love.

Label: Mono Labels is a new subsidiary under Hybe Co., which focuses on k-bands with the goal to expand globally. 4 2 2 1 is the first band to debut under the label, doing so with great success internationally and each day garnering more national fans. As of now there are no plans for any new bands to debut with all the focus being on 4 2 2 1' future projects.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

Face claims; Y/n - Jurin (XG), Eunki - Jungmo (Cravity), Yohan - Beomsoo (xodiac)

[entertext]

HGSN 22-3

Chapter (Japanese)

(Please hit the green thumbs up at the end of the chapter to show support)

Rough translation by me

P1

Rie: How long has 'Hikaru'-kun been asleep for?

Rie: The medical examination turned up nothing, right?

Yoshiki: It's already been 2 days. It probably...takes time. For life-threatening damage

Yoshiki: So it sounds like you don't have any idea who that man was either, Kurebayashi-san?

P2

Rie: That's right... but it sure is strange~

Rie: From the sound of it, he came to cut 'Hikaru'-kun to check if he wasn't human...

Yoshiki: A spiritual medium... or someone like that?

Rie: Then someone in Kubitachi must have hired him, right?

Rie: If that's the case, it wouldn't be strange for word of 'Hikaru'-kun to have spread under the surface

Rie: Despite that, it's been two days without anything happening

Rie: What was his goal?

Yoshiki: Wasn't it to exorcise him?

Rie: Huh? No, no, you can't, you can't!! Ahaha

Rie: There's no exorcising something like him~

P3

Rie: Although he's much weaker, he's not at a level where humans can do anything to him.

Rie: Whether he can do anything to humans is a different matter, mind you...

Rie: What humans can do to him is to physically remove him from the village...

Rie: or perhaps lock him up?

Yoshiki: Oh, I see...

Rie: Stay on alert, and if it gets dangerous, you can take refuge at my place. I'll also look into that man

Yoshiki: "Look into"...how?

P4

Rie: People with the sight have our own ways of searching

Rie: (A medium...? or was it that company...?)

Yoshiki: (Just a housewife...?)

TV: {Male in his twenties reported missing...last seen at Kibougayama's Darumazuka* Tunnel...}

(* - 達磨塚 - "daruma" + "mound/grave")

P5

TV: {...a tunnel known as a famous paranormal hotspot. On the morning of the ■th, the man, a Ytuber, posted to social media, "I'm going to Darumazuka. If I make it back alive, I'll upload the video"...}

Yoshiki: (The patient in the next bed has their TV turned up so loud...)

Rie: Hey, do you know? What made Darumazuka a paranormal hotspot?

Yoshiki: It's a famous place...but I don't have a clue why

Rie: A long time back, they found bones here

Rie: A massive amount of ancient bones

P6

Rie: This was something that happened before you were born, Tsujinaka-kun.

Rie: The odd thing was that all of the bones were only from the torso

Rie: And in Udekari, they found only bones from the arms...

Rie: And in Ashidori, only bones from the legs

Yoshiki: Uh-huh...?

Rie: It was said that there was a practice of dismembering the body for burial, but...

Rie: The strangest thing was that for all of the remains

Rie: The skulls were the only parts never found

Yoshiki: (Skulls...)

Yoshiki: Ah

P7

Yoshiki: (The man I saw the time I was engulfed by 'Hikaru'...If you look closely, doesn't he look like Hikaru?)

Yoshiki: (A memory from Nounuki-sama of seeing the Indou's ancestor...?)

Yoshiki: ("The crime of the Indous" "A god that grants wishes in exchange for a particular kind of offering")

Yoshiki: (Severed heads?)

Yoshiki: (Now that I think about it, the monsters I've seen up til now...)

Yoshiki: (...have all been messed up above the neck)

P8

Yoshiki: (That man offered a severed head to Nounuki-sama and wished for something)

Yoshiki: (Is that connected to the mass deaths?)

Yoshiki: (The heads went to Kubitachi...)

Yoshiki: (And the other parts were buried elsewhere?)

Yoshiki: ....

Rie: Tsujinaka-kun!

Rie: 'Hikaru'-kun has woken up...!

P9

Yoshiki: 'Hikaru'...!!

===

Next chapter: 2023/12/19

Twitter Extra (link):

At this point...he's no longer surprised by much anymore...

==

Some of you may remember the Ytuber that went to Darumazuka Tunnel from the Vol 3 Promotional Riddle Game.

[intogenshin]

Decoding Inazuma: What is Eternity?

(originally posted May 2023 on hoyolab)

Yoimiya mentions in her second story quest that her ancestor came up with the idea for fireworks as a means to represent the past and the future, but this isn’t a new development in the story: it is precisely the theme that her first quest revolved around and one of the most important concepts in the narrative of the Inazuma chapter.

The eternity around transience is the core of Makoto’s ideals, and what Ei comes to terms with at the end of her arc. Thus, Naganohara Fireworks and Yoimiya as a character serve as the first element of insight into the narrative of Inazuma.

The Eternal Connection of Fireworks

In Carassius Auratus act I, we learn that people use fireworks to commemorate special events in their lives, such as the old couple who set them off on the anniversary of their wedding; or to remember old times like the childhood friends who reunited every once in a whil​​e to catch up; or to keep promises to each other, like the couple who had been separated when one escaped Inazuma illegally on a boat.

These fireworks were always the same kind, because Naganohara Fireworks gives their customers a special paper slip with their recipe. So no matter how long has passed, as long as they have the paper slip, a member of the Naganohara family of any generation will be able to replicate the exact same firework, and the intentions they were made for from the past can be remembered.

Yoimiya’s character as a whole is used to appreciate the worth and celebrating the transience of human life. She likes to talk to her neighbors more than anything else about their mundane lives, and even works late into the night to provide the fireworks they request. It isn’t precisely people whose lives change the world or belong to the upper class, just regular citizens and their regular joys and sorrows.

Fireworks are used to represent not just the beauty of transience, but also as a symbol of the eternal connection that gives meaning and worth to human life across time. A single person’s life might be a small fragment of history, but ideas —values, culture, purpose, dreams— are passed through each one of them, and they can only endure the passage of time when carried collectively through the generations. This is symbolized through the paper slips provided by Naganohara Fireworks.

Transience is Part of Eternity

Makoto’s ideal of transience wasn’t a superficial preference for temporary existence. She believed transience was part of eternity, of making insignificant human life part of something bigger, long-lasting, something that could outlive mortality. 

This is further emphasized in the climax of the Inazuma archon quest, when Kazuha faces the Raiden Shogun’s Musou no Hitotachi. His friend’s wish was to witness and survive its strike, what the motivations for this ambition are we’re not told, but Kazuha realizes it himself beyond his friend’s death. It is at this moment precisely that the deactivated vision rekindles once more, proving that wishes can survive human mortality as long as they’re carried by the living.

(We can still call it the power of friendship for sentimental reasons, it’s okay)

Makoto didn’t place transience above eternity, one is just a means to the other. The twin gods always shared the same goal of eternity for their nation, the difference is Ei was blinded by fear and couldn’t understand her sister’s approach, but they never held opposing views. They both wanted the same for their people: to survive and remain.

But why is eternity so important in Inazuma?

Because Inazuma is based on Japan, and eternity is a fundamental belief in Shinto, the native religion of Japanese people:

Japanese mythology speaks of an eternity of history in the divine edict of Amaterasu. In its view of history, Shintō adheres to the cyclical approach, according to which there is a constant recurrence of historical patterns. Shintō does not have the concept of the “last day”: there is no end of the world or of history. One of the divine edicts of Amaterasu says:

"This Reed-plain-1,500-autumns-fair-rice-ear Land is the region which my descendants shall be lords of. Do thou, my August Grandchild, proceed thither and govern it. Go! and may prosperity attend thy dynasty, and may it, like Heaven and Earth, endure forever."

Modern Shintōists interpret this edict as revealing the eternal development of history as well as the eternity of the dynasty. From the viewpoint of finite individuals, Shintōists also stress naka-ima (“middle present”), which repeatedly appears in the Imperial edicts of the 8th century. According to this point of view, the present moment is the very center in the middle of all conceivable times. In order to participate directly in the eternal development of the world, it is required of Shintōists to live fully each moment of life, making it as worthy as possible.

Similarly, another core aspect of Shinto beliefs is the concept of “Makoto” (yes, like Ei’s sister):

At the core of Shintō are beliefs in the mysterious creating and harmonizing power of kami and in the truthful way or will (makoto) of kami. The nature of kami cannot be fully explained in words, because kami transcends the cognitive faculty of humans.

The kami also reveals makoto to people and guides them to live in accordance with it. In traditional Japanese thought, truth manifests itself in empirical existence and undergoes transformation in infinite varieties in time and space. Makoto is not an abstract ideology. It can be recognized every moment in every individual thing in the encounter between humans and kami.

Kami (Shinto gods) don’t need to be worshiped the way traditional gods do, as performing tasks of regular life is a form of worship in itself, and the truth of kami manifests in it. It seems like a very chill religion.

Shinto doesn’t have a list of ethical rules like conventional religions either, but the concept of Makoto (“truth” or “sincerity”) can be found at the heart of its ethical values. A person who behaves truthfully therefore acts ethically.

This is partly what is meant by the phrase kannagara-no-michi which, in the ethical context, refers to the idea that virtue is inseparable from the rest of life, especially life lived in harmony with the natural world (enlivened by kami). Beauty, truth, goodness, morality - these are all connected, inseparable from each other. Those who live life with the perspective outlined above - with an aesthetic sensitivity, an emotional sensibility toward the world, and with a sincere heart will behave morally almost naturally. List and rules are more important for training animals than for cultivating morality in humans, according to this view.

Having said this, purity rituals are common across Shinto practice, which points to the need for purity in one's heart. This purity of heart is a natural companion to makoto. Often, these activities are done at a shrine, and they symbolize the inner purity necessary for a truly human and spiritual life.

The Grand Narukami Shrine is inspired by these, where Yae Miko performs her duties as the Guuji (chief priestess) that Kitsune Saiguu entrusted to her before passing away.

As a re-interpretation of Shinto within the world building of the game, the beliefs of the kitsune Guuji and Raiden Makoto are not meant to parallel exactly those of the real life religion, but the elements are used to shape up a cohesive narrative in the story. 

Yae acknowledges she has more in common with Makoto, as the characters who embody the beliefs and practices of Shinto, and it is her who schemes her way into Ei’s Plane of Euthymia to talk her into finding another path towards this eternity that Makoto wanted.

So why does Ei, the archon of the nation, struggle to follow the eternity her sister and Yae Miko understood so well?

From the names in her kit, to her visual motifs, to her lore, Ei’s character is filled with Buddhist references, portraying her with bodhisattva imagery —an entity who has attained enlightenment but has delayed their entry into paradise to help those still suffering in the mortal world. And the original name for the Plane of Euthymia ("Pure Land of One Mind") is a reference to an alternative branch of Mahayana Buddhism that spread to Japan.

Buddhism stands on a completely different set of philosophies to the traditions of Shinto. For instance, one of its main beliefs is that people are trapped in a cycle (samsara) of suffering (dukkha) through multiple reincarnations, and the only way to be released from this illusory world is by following Buddhist doctrines. Life in the mortal world should be ideally finite, it must have an end to cease all suffering, yet Shinto believes in an eternal history that strives to focus on the present moment.

Despite how incompatible they look from the outside, both religions have coexisted in Japan for centuries, and they’re practiced simultaneously by regular people.

From this perspective, it is not odd that Ei would struggle to achieve a goal that is impossible to grasp through the Buddhist lens her character is inspired on.

What we know as “ambition” in the world building of the game (the trigger for obtaining a vision) is originally called “wish” in Chinese text. In Buddhism, there are two types of desire: Tanha and Chanda.

Tanha can be translated as “craving” and it’s a type of desire that on principle causes suffering. If you crave something, this in itself is painful when it cannot be fulfilled; but if it is satisfied, then it is only a matter of time for the good feeling it produces to eventually fade and leave pain behind.

Taṇhā is the key origin of Dukkha. It reflects a mental state of craving. Greater the craving, more is the frustration because the world is always changing and innately unsatisfactory; craving also brings about pain through conflict and quarrels between individuals, which are all a state of Dukkha. It is such taṇhā that leads to rebirth and endless Samsara.

This seems to be the origin of Ei’s need to quell desires (including her own) in order to hinder her people’s progress.

Ei realized early on, in her role of kagemusha and military general, that seeking victory against enemies also brought devastation upon herself and those she and Inazuma cared about. Her sister is who led the nation before she passed away, and Ei’s only contributions as the other half of the archon title were in the battlefield.

Craving for progress, after all, only brings suffering: the fleeting memory of a victory is overshadowed by the losses that follow.

When lightning flashes, it casts a shadow; and her name means shadow. Her existence was defined by this shadow of loss under the victories of progress.

As she herself puts it:

With my blade I purged all obstacles to progress

And yet... Something was lost with each step forward

In the end, I even lost her

I've seen a nation strive forward, and lose everything to the Heavenly Principles

Khaenri’ah was a godless nation, and their demise is understood to be a consequence of their own actions, their own ambition to progress beyond the boundaries of the Heavenly Principles (whatever those are), so of course she grew afraid of what her people might become should they venture in the same direction. And the only way to keep them from meeting the same fate was to ensure her own permanence as a god, hence why she got rid of her physical form to preserve her consciousness in a perpetual meditative state in order to avoid the effects of erosion, and why she made an indestructible puppet that would never leave her nation defenseless.

In the archon quest we see Kujou Takayuki fall prey of his own desires for divine power —that of the Raiden Shogun’s martial prowess that folk tales praise but whose consequences Ei herself feels burdened by— and this is a narrative that repeats over and over again through Teyvat’s history. Watatsumi people, for instance, come from a nation that abused their political positions and manipulated their people through false faith to the artificial sun and the helpless ruling of the Sun Children.

Humans are prone to cause their own demise by indulging in this form of "tanha”, and Ei wanted to protect Inazuma from its dangers.

She never had trouble accepting her sister's death, it is because she understood the cycle of life and death so well that she grew fearful of losing what remained: Inazuma. People don't know Makoto existed, so her only legacy and proof of existence is the nation they both raised. As such, Ei vowed to protect it indefinitely by condemning herself to an eternity of stasis inside the Plane of Euthymia.

The Better Path Towards Eternity

Ei’s commitment to this eternity, this indefinite protection of her nation, never wavered until she met the traveler during the archon quest.

She called him a threat to eternity, therefore, what she saw in our protagonist was a symbol of hope, a faint wish for her nation to progress without succumbing to the Heavenly Principles like Khaenri’ah.

But desires, even in the form of hope, are something she was depriving herself (and her nation) from.

Both times the traveler entered the Plane of Euthymia were right before the Shogun puppet (who is in charge of enforcing this vow to eternity and perpetual sacrifice) struck him with the Musou no Hitotachi, so what saved them was was rather Ei clinging to this hope. Both times she fights this metaphorical hope as well, the first one she wins, and this hope is rejected; and the second (where traveler is aided by Yae Miko) she admits defeat after witnessing the meteor shower of her people's wishes, because she’s accepted the possibility of a future where Inazuma can pursuit their ambitions freely and she doesn’t have to condemn herself to eternal sacrifice.

According to Buddhist beliefs, Tanha (the craving) is the type of desire that causes suffering, but the other form of desire, Chanda, is a path towards salvation:

Sometimes taṇhā is translated as “desire,” but that gives rise to some crucial misinterpretations with reference to the way of Liberation. Some form of desire is essential in order to aspire to, and persist in, cultivating the path out of Dukkha. 

Desire as an eagerness to offer, to commit, to apply oneself to meditation, is called Chanda. It’s a psychological “yes,” a choice, not a pathology. In fact, you could summarize Dhamma training as the transformation of taṇhā into Chanda. It’s a process whereby we guide volition, grab and hold on to the steering wheel, and travel with clarity toward our deeper well-being.

So we’re not trying to get rid of desire (which would take another kind of desire, wouldn’t it). Instead, we are trying to transmute it, take it out of the shadow of gratification and need, and use its aspiration and vigor to bring us into light and clarity.

Makoto believed that eternity could be achieved by guiding the collective dreams of her nation into the right path, what matters is not physical survival or individual desires, but the collective force pushing for progress. And, in this sense, dreams could be understood as its own type of Chanda (within the narrative of the chapter, not the world building) that Ei came to terms with in her second story quest.

The losses Inazuma suffered —the shadow— are not meant to be grieved, but honored. They were all sacrifices intended for the survival and protection of the nation and its ideals and dreams, such as that of the soldiers who fought during the cataclysm, that of Kitsune Saiguu or the Tengu General, and that of Makoto as well.

Kazuha and his friend can be interpreted as an alternative exploration of this theme: Kazuha grieved his death and failed to understand the motivations behind his actions, but when he faces the Musou No Hitotachi himself he's able to comprehend and carry his friend's wishes as his own. After this, he is at peace and able to move on.

After all, life is akin to a firework that only lasts a couple of seconds, but what they symbolize and the ideas they preserve are what matters. This is the eternity of the nation of thunder.

Whenever I think about the Inazuma chapter, I'm always reminded of this anecdote about the Gold Pavilion Temple that, in a way, summarizes what Makoto believed:

[gren-arlio]

May as well redo this. Hey everyone, the name's Gren, and I'm here to translate an entire Puyo/Madou route because why not.

Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon to be precise.

(This one.)

Yes, you read that right, I'm here to make a solid attempt of translating as much of the game as possible. Like in my very first post, we Puyo fans are kinda starving to death right now with the stuff we're given, Quest can only do so much. So why don't we try to take things into our own hands and make our own food?

As of writing this, (June 13th 2023,) I'm almost done with Schezo's storyline, least from the videos I was able to find thanks to YouTube being nice. You can find them here, though be warned, I'm not fluent in Japanese, so mistakes are bound to occur. If you want to help revise some things, please do. Any help would be great.

So, sounds cool, right? Before I dive into the real meat and bones of this game, I should give some context. All of it will be shown in the Read More if you're interested. If not, thanks for reading from here.

What is Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon?

Some people may not know this game, and that's fine. It's a game from the COMPILE Era of the Puyo world (Madou,) and it follows our ARS Trio (Arle, Rulue, Schezo) as they go through an amusement park to solve their own lil' things.

These guys.

The game itself is sorta like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, where every movement is a "Turn," and the enemies move along with you. Each time you attack also counts as a turn. You go through floors (5 Early game, then 10, then 100 for the final place.) and fight a Boss at the final floor. If there's 10 floors, then a miniboss will be on the 5th.

There's small side quests to get items you want, though you can typically buy from Momomo or Fufufu. You get this quests by going to the Bulletin Board in the Info Center (where Kimimora is) and checking around. Speak to Kiki while you're at it.

This game is unfortunately not translated, and there seems to be no English rom or any translations in the internet due to this games semi-poor documentation. That's where me and possibly you come into play. We'll be the ones documenting this game.

Why this game of all games?

Well, because it's so unknown compared to the other Madou games, least what I've seen. I've never really even seen people attempt this, so I may as well try to do a single route for the fans.

And what's the end goal?

There's a couple, actually. One of these is to get the information on the Puyo Nexus (I have an account on there, Greñ.) to let people see what this game has to offer for plot and what the characters have.

The other is just because it's fun. Knowing this game isn't translated is pretty interesting, so I'd like to try. I love the franchise, so I may as well give back to it somehow.

This one's simple enough. I wanna know more about the characters. There's so much to uncover. To give a few examples for Schezo's route alone:

Schezo kinda gives Serilly therapy and she becomes a more confident person by the end of the game.

Draco accuses Schezo of being interested in men. First Rulue, now her.

Skeleton-T is just kinda vibing

Kikimora plays a pretty big role as the usher who helps people.

Witch has a huge wish...to get Schezo's clothing. And she chases him the entire game for it.

Schezo gets blasted by a Carbuncle beam and lives.

And Succubus becomes a tour guide by the end of the game. Yes. Succubus.

Game's pretty damn silly and I'm all for it. If you want to do your own translation, go off! It'll be fun to see and also help other routes if you want.

And finally. The artstyle is cool as hell. (Taken from Puyo Nexus.)

I'm a huge sucker for the artstyle, love it.

What'll happen when you're done with Schezo's route?

Easy. I'll do Arle's route, most likely. Unfortunately, Rulue isn't exactly my favorite so she'll be the one for last. If I ever get to her.

Extra Short Questions:

How long does each translation episode take to finish?

About a week or two depending on length. Typically posting on Weekends.

How about credit for the translation?

As long as I'm mentioned, it's okay. If it's your own thing, don't add my name, I ain't selfish.

What if I miss something?

After the final episode, I'll do Extras. Things I missed, things people send me, etc. Stay tuned.

Favorite COMPILE characters?

Thought I'd add this. Lagnus, Schezo, Witch as the top 3. There's like 6 Lagnus fans in America.

How to contact me:

Tumblr DM'S are open, and I guess Discord too if you want that also. I'll give the name in the DM.

With that, thanks for reading. That'll be all this time. Thanks for tuning in.

[starlightiing]

Does Kakunoshin race only in IMSA?

No, no not at all! IMSA is actually new for him, this is kind of a big deal.

He debuted in 2018 and competed in F4 Japanese Championship and French F4 Championship.

In 2022 he debuted in Super GT in the 300 class. In 2023 he debuted in Super Formula, and in Super GT he was promoted up to the 500 class. He drove two years in Super GT 500 after one year in 300, and he has had to DROP Super GT for 2025 for his on-going commitment to IMSA. He has 3 races in the GTP Cars and then I believe an additional two in a different class of car.

He debuted in Super Formula, like I said, and he had his first win in his rookie season! He continued to win a couple of times in 2024 as well as helping his teammate Tadasuke Makino (another amazing driver) secure Dandelion (the team they drive for) the constructors championship.

He also did Super Taikyu.

This is his IMSA debut, and also his AMERICAN debut. First race in the States!

His goal is Indycar last he said. I'm hoping that he does really well in these IMSA races and he gets some eyes on him, so that he may make that dream come true.

He will be driving in Super Formula this year, 2025, and is favored as the Champion. Of course, that doesn't mean this will happen, but we can hope, right? I believe in him and I know he can do it!

[astrologanize]

2023 october sun horoscope pt. 1

sun in aries: thankfully it is looking like this should be an easier month for y'all to jive with - the new energy from last month seems to be opening things up. this is a month that is going to allow you to dance with possibilities! who knows what could happen honestly, there may be some unexpectedness or surprises but regardless this should be an overall easygoing month that feels like one big "idk, maybe, let's see!" followed by a smile and a shrug. if you are in the dating scene or if you're in a relationship then romance will be highlighted, if you're single then maybe you meet someone or start meditating on the kind of person you want to meet. throughout october you're going to be taking chances, as an aries thrives to do so - it's like making the decision to do something or give something a try without letting doubt hold you back because you are going to be in a more lenient mood and willing to experiment, do be wary of overindulging/overspending/impulse buying tho. utilize this leniency and try to be more considerate, be open, be receptive, be direct and honest with your intentions. otherwise, you could be actin like a real scrub this month..."no scrubs" by tlc is in my head lol..."a scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly and is also known as a busta, always talkin' 'bout what he wants and just sits on his broke ass".

sun in taurus: rip to y'all for the bittersweet symphony that's been happening. last month brought you some sort of reality check and this is a month where you are going to know what needs to be let go of, it may be mournful at times but it is for the best as you learn to come to terms with a new reality. throughout october there will be endings - maybe literal ones or ends to your own habits/cycles, there will be a push towards resolve, maybe something in your life finally finds a solution, and there will be acceptance washing over life. something has to change!!! i guess this month songs are coming through because "something has to change" by the japanese house is in my head now. you need to properly assess your life and do what you sincerely need to do, not want to do - lol sorry taurus, because the way you've been maneuvering and the routine you have had is not conducive to your fulfillment. otherwise, this could be a month of being mindless and maybe even called out/penalized for such.

sun in gemini: last month's surrendering is bringing you to this month of forward movement in your life. this is a month of being stirred and restless for more and being able to make things happen, but not without the help and support of others, last month's theme of others is still prevalent so don't be surprised if you need to lean on others this month as well. throughout october you will be nurturing yourself and others more, you will be moving on from what you need to, you will be making strides and you will be following through on your intentions. you may also have notably positive interactions/feelings towards your mother or a maternal figure, or have something notable happen with your car or a car. let life happen this month, mingle and have good times with others - it's reminding me of going over to someone's house for a get together/cookout/something of the sort! you don't need to be in the driver's seat this month and you don't need to venture, you can find love and light with those around you. otherwise, this could be a month of putting your nose to the grindstone and being unfeeling towards others.

sun in cancer: all the introspection of last month has this month looking a lil somber, a lil despondent as you try to push through to the other side to what you're wanting. this is a month of needing to keep feelings in check, feeling low energy and needing to be mindful of your vitality but also a time of trying be more adult-ish and brimming with goals/achievements/material manifestations in mind. throughout october you will have moments of feeling unfulfilled, you may having a falling out with someone close to you, you will have a more aloof attitude, you will be focused on the material realm and plans you have, you are in a mode of being dedicated to your aspirations and persisting with such. there is no need to be unrelenting so try to keep in mind that slow and steady wins the race because we don't want to push ourselves to the point of crumbling, and it's important to note that not everything is worth persisting with and sometimes pulling back is the answer. otherwise, this could once again be a month of being stubborn, but in the most heartless way possible, it's giving ms. ariana's "7 rings" and not in a cute way.

sun in leo: last month you were getting things in order and this month is about putting forth action, you are going to be willing to put your pride aside and take chances, you may not be feeling at your best but you're still willing to try. throughout october you will be shaking off feelings of doubt, you will be letting some things go, you may have moments where you or others are not the most kind, you will be getting what you deserve - whatever that means, so if you are unkind then expect consequence and if others are unkind to you then it will bite them in the ass. at this time it's best for you to prioritize self-care and self-discipline because it will save you from letting ego issues get the better of you. have a chip on your shoulder but in a positive way that motivates you to be who you really want to be and achieve what you really want to achieve - it reminds me of starting a fitness/wellness journey or dedicating yourself to your studies, it's you really wanting to prove yourself in some way. otherwise, this could be a month of ego issues negatively impacting your connections.

sun in virgo: you're in new territory now and this is a month where you're just swimming along because you're not too sure what to think as you shed what you once knew, and the truth may start to look different as you wade through clearer waters. throughout october you will be feeling at ease and this is a chance for you to feel like a virgo in the most flattering way because you won't be coming from a place of critique or shrewdness - this month you will be committed, you will be accepting, and you will be prioritizing comfort. try to be productive this month, try your best to stay focused, try to be a virgo with a to-do list that you seek to finish, last month it was important for you to rely on others but this month you can and should rely on yourself - because you got this! otherwise, this could once again be a month of feeling lost and/or reverting back to old ways that no longer serve you because they are 'comfortable' for you.

[tokidokitokyo]

2023年8月31日

お久しぶりですね！Hello, I'm still here! My study log has been on a hiatus since the end of May, but I am here to regale you with tales of my Japanese studies. Why the hiatus? The usual suspects: Work, real life (including vacation!) and family had to take some precedence, but I am still here studying behind the scenes.

I feel refreshed from having had to put down my pencil and focus on other things for a while during the month of August, and so I feel rested and refreshed and I don't feel overwhelmed to come back to my studies. I don't feel like I have to catch up or like I haven't been doing enough during my time off. Rather, I feel very excited to get back into my regular study routine.

お久しぶりですね！まだここにいますよ！日本語の勉強日記が五月の終わりからお久しぶりですね！まだここにいますよ！日本語の勉強日記が五月の終わりから休暇中でしたが、只今戻りました！休暇の理由は？いつも通りでしょうね。仕事や生活や家族ーバカンスも入れてー色々で忙しくて休まなければなれませんでした。しかし勉強の休みはなかった。

8月に色々に集中しないといけなかったので、その間リフレッシュができて今は勉強を続くのは楽しみにしています。バカンスが楽しくても、勉強についてがっかりしているわけじゃなくて、むしろまた勉強ができてわくわくしています。バカンスも大事だし、自分の時間を過ごすのも大事だし、これからまた頑張れると気がします。

Study Methods I Used in June, July, & August

In June through August I mostly studied Vocabulary, Kanji, and Listening. The areas I focused on the least were Writing and Grammar. The study tools I used most were mobile tools so I could bring them with me on my phone anywhere I went.

My pro study tool this summer was the mobile app for renshuu.org because I was able to use vocabulary and kanji flashcards to get in some practice even during busy work days and holidays.

Podcasts were my second pro study tool, especially the Let's Talk in Japanese podcast. I could listen during my work commute, on the plane, while the baby takes a nap, and just before bed.

ママ友 or mom friends are a great way to practice listening & speaking. My son just enrolled in a Japanese preschool and I've already made a few new friends for playdates. Playdates are useful for improving his Japanese and mine!

My 2023 Goals Progress

I laid out some broad goals for my Japanese study in my 2023 Japanese Language Goals post, so here is an update with my progress towards these goals.

1. Read one page a day of 日本の歴史366 (にほんのれきし366) everyday in 2023.

How is it going? Terrible! I did not bring this book on my vacation, so I have not kept up. But I will get back into reading the daily pages as often as possible. I am not going to finish the entire book this year, but that's ok. I still learn something new every time I pick it up, and even retain some of the information! Goal: Read as many entries as possible by the end of the year.

2. Finish 日本語総まとめ N3 (にほんごそうまとめ N3) workbooks.

How is it going? Good! I plan on returning to these workbooks now that things have settled down after my holiday, but I will only be able to do extensive practice on the weekends. I still have two weeks left of exercises in the books, so I think I am on track to finish it by the end of the year.

3. Review and learn the first 6 levels of the 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ), specifically the 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ) up to grade 6.

How is it going? Okay! Although I didn't have much time in August to review kanji during my holiday, I was able to get through reviewing Grade 3 of the Kyoiku Kanji during June and July. Goal: Review through at least Grade 4 during the month of September.

4. Read at least one book every two months.

How is it going? Terrible! I still haven't had the time (nor the motivation) to pick back up the books I stopped in March, and I'm trying to be okay with that ^^; I would like to pick back up one book in September and try to finish it by the end of the year. Books are a big commitment, and I have to prioritize my studies, so unfortunately books tend to be the first thing I drop.

5. Improve my speaking and writing by finding a tutor.

How is it going? Terrible! I have not begun to even look for a tutor, despite telling myself I would for the entire month of June. I am not sure if I am going to try to find a tutor at this point or if I will just continue with self-study, writing sentences on HelloTalk, and getting some help from my husband. I would like to try to write more and get my sentences corrected by native speakers. I'd also like to interact with native speakers, but finding the time is really tough.

6. Study Japanese for at least 10 minutes every day.

How is it going? Good! Although the rest of my goals have suffered greatly this summer, my goal of continuing to practice a little bit everyday has allowed me to persevere and to feel like I've accomplished something.

Going Forward in September

I am a bit sad to see the summer go as it's my favourite season, but the changing of seasons is always exciting and motivates me to try new things and continue moving forward.

Focus on Grade 4 of 教育漢字

Write in Japanese on HelloTalk

Read one of the books I started this year by the end of 2023

Read 日本の歴史366 as continuously as possible

Review N3 Grammar

What does everyone else have planned for Japanese study in the fall?

皆さんの秋の勉強予定は何でしょうね？

[mariacallous]

In a speech last month marking the 79th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for the establishment of “a unified, free, and democratic nation, rightfully owned by the people … across the entire Korean Peninsula.” He argued that Korea’s liberation remains incomplete as long as North Koreans are deprived of freedom. This was a stark difference from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s recent statement about the issue in December 2023, when he renounced unification and said it was no longer viable.

The two Koreas now find themselves at a somewhat awkward crossroad on the issue of unification. On the surface, Seoul’s position seems benign, while the specifics of Pyongyang’s rhetoric appear aggressive and provocative. Upon closer examination, however, Pyongyang’s stance could suggest an attempt to coexist with the South—a two-state solution—whereas Seoul’s call for a unified, democratic Korea might be perceived by the North as a denial of the Kim regime’s legitimacy and an incitement of popular uprising. This could intensify the concerns that led Kim to renounce unification in the first place.

Ever since the peninsula was divided in the late 1940s, reunification has been a shared objective for both Koreas. During the height of the Cold War, the two governments refused to recognize each other as legitimate and competed to be the government that would unify the country. South Korean President Syngman Rhee stated in 1953 that it was his duty to unify the nation by force if necessary. Similarly, in 1968, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung sought to incite a communist revolution in the South, declaring that “a revolution in the South is a struggle to achieve sovereignty, and the only way to achieve this sovereignty is through force.”

The end of the Cold War opened the door for the two Koreas to discuss peaceful unification, eventually resulting in the 2000 Joint Declaration. In this agreement, both sides committed to ending hostilities, building trust, and pursuing peaceful unification through a confederation, in which North and South Korea retain their respective autonomous governments within a single state—a one-state, two-systems model—as a transitional step toward eventual unification. Whether by force or through peaceful means, unification had, until now, never been abandoned as an official policy by either side.

Kim Jong Un’s December announcement renouncing unification was a significant shift. Shortly thereafter, North Korea demolished the Arch of Reunification, built in 2000 to commemorate the Joint Declaration. At the July plenum of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim directed the removal of goals related to “unification” and “grand national unity” from the constitution. In no uncertain terms, these moves signaled a decisive break from any aspirations of reunification, solidifying the regime’s commitment to a permanent division between the two Koreas as separate countries.

This shift has sparked both confusion and concern. Some have interpreted it as a transformation in Pyongyang’s perception of Seoul from “a dialogue partner or a separate entity to coexist with” to an adversary to be subjugated, as Cha Du-hyeogn, a former Blue House official, told NK News. However, if North Korea’s goal were truly to subjugate the South, it would make more sense to advocate for unification rather than renounce it. Subjugating the South is one way of unifying the peninsula, after all. Others suggest that this move may be an attempt to justify the use of nuclear weapons against South Koreans—something difficult to rationalize if they were still regarded as compatriots. But using nuclear weapons against the South would lead to a full-blown war, triggering major upheaval and likely the downfall of the Kim regime, at which point the justification for nuclear use would be the least of Pyongyang’s problems.

A more compelling interpretation is that this shift is driven by Pyongyang’s recognition that it has lost the “unification competition,” or the contest to be the legitimate government to unify Korea. North Korea lags far behind the South economically, diplomatically, culturally, and even militarily—except in the nuclear domain. More importantly, this disparity is now well known to North Koreans, largely due to the widespread influence of South Korean pop culture in the North. Exposure to South Korean lifestyles through movies, shows, and music may naturally prompt North Koreans to imagine how different their own lives could be, potentially breeding grievances and resentment toward their leadership.

For that reason, Kim sees South Korean pop culture as a significant threat to his regime and has cracked down on its growing influence in the North. In December 2020, North Korea enacted the Anti-Reactionary Ideology and Culture Act, imposing harsh penalties—including the death penalty—for watching or distributing foreign media. In April 2021, Kim issued a directive urging the prevention of youth from adopting South Korean speech, fashion, and hairstyles. This January, BBC Korean reported that two teenage boys had been publicly sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching and sharing South Korean television shows. Despite the risks, North Koreans continue to consume South Korean content.

Against this backdrop, Kim’s stance allows him to convey two distinct messages. The first is to a domestic audience: South Koreans are no longer considered compatriots, and emulating their way of life warrants severe punishment. The second is to the South: Let’s acknowledge our different political systems, ideologies, and ways of life and agree not to interfere in each other’s affairs.

In contrast, Yoon has put forth a markedly different vision for the future of the peninsula, which could be interpreted by Pyongyang as endorsing the eventual absorption of North Korea into the South. Contradictory to the 2000 Joint Declaration, Yoon’s vision for unification is not through consultation with Pyongyang but through encouraging the North Korean people to pursue liberal democracy—against the wishes of the Kim regime. North Korea’s democratization implicitly cannot occur without overthrowing the regime, since Kim is unlikely to give up power voluntarily. This vision can be more clearly understood alongside Unification Minister Kim Young-ho’s op-ed from April 2019, in which he argued, “Only when the Kim Jong Un regime is overthrown and North Korea is liberalized, bringing both Koreas under a unified political system, will the path to unification truly open.”

In order for North Korea’s liberalization to happen, Yoon pledged during his National Liberation Day speech to establish a government fund to support civic groups promoting freedom and human rights in North Korea, along with efforts to expand North Koreans’ access to external information via radio and television to “make them aware of the false propaganda and instigations” spread by Pyongyang. Yoon added: “If more North Koreans realize that unification through freedom is the only way to improve their lives and are convinced that the Republic of Korea will embrace them, they will become a strong, friendly contingent to support a freedom-based unification.”

Although its rhetoric may seem benign, this approach to unification is highly risky. Pyongyang is notoriously sensitive about the kinds of information tactics Yoon is promoting, and intensifying such campaigns will only exacerbate tensions and increase the risk of military confrontation.

Instead of encouraging revolt in North Korea, which could have catastrophic consequences for the peninsula, South Korea could consider a two-state solution of its own to ease North Korea’s fears of absorption and help reduce inter-Korean tensions. This would involve, in the immediate term, refraining from promoting unification by absorption and accepting the current reality of two separate states and, in the longer term, establishing diplomatic relations with the North and fostering cooperation, mutual understanding, and peaceful coexistence as neighboring states.

Admittedly, there are valid reasons that a two-state solution is not acceptable for many South Koreans. As some point out, the pursuit of unification is not only a policy preference but a constitutional obligation. Article 3 of the South Korean Constitution defines the territory of the Republic of Korea as encompassing the entire Korean Peninsula and its surrounding islands. Article 4 further stipulates that the “Republic of Korea shall seek unification and shall establish and implement a peaceful unification policy based on the principles of freedom and democracy.” Article 66 says in no uncertain terms that the president has a constitutional duty to pursue peaceful unification. These clauses remained unchanged through nine constitutional amendments since their inclusion in South Korea’s first constitution in 1948.

The issue of unification is also deeply emotional. Support for unification has declined, especially among younger generations who prefer a status quo due to fears of economic burdens and social disruption, but it remains significant. According to a recent survey, only 46.5 percent of South Korean millennials believe that reunification with North Korea is necessary. The majority of other age groups, however, still support reunification, with more than 73 percent of those who lived through the Korean War expressing strong support. The belief in a “unitary nation” that is “ethnically homogeneous and racially distinctive” is deeply ingrained in the national identity. Case in point, South Korean children grow up singing a song called “Our Wish Is Unification.” For many, abandoning the goal of reunification just doesn’t feel right.

On a more practical level, many argue that if Seoul renounces the goal of unification and permanently recognizes North Korea as a separate country, South Korea will forfeit its legal claim over North Korean territory and lose any standing to lead the reunification and rebuilding process in the event of a North Korean regime collapse.

However, this reasoning may not hold up to scrutiny. Even if North Korea were to collapse, South Korea’s refusal to recognize North Korea as a separate country would have no bearing on international law. The two Koreas joined the United Nations in 1991 as distinct countries, and the international community recognizes them as such. A total of 157 countries maintain diplomatic relations with both Koreas, clearly indicating they do not have a “one Korea” policy. This contrasts sharply with countries’ “One China” policies, as no country maintains formal diplomatic relations with both China and Taiwan. If South Korea were to enter the North following a regime collapse, it could be viewed as an illegal foreign intervention in violation of the U.N. Charter. Legally speaking, South Korea has no greater authority over the fate of North Korea than any other state, regardless of whether it refuses to recognize North Korea as a separate country.

Pursuing unification by encouraging regime collapse offers no tangible benefits and only heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Given the risks of escalation, an official two-state solution is worth considering. However unappealing this may seem, it could be the least bad option in the long run. As long as there is only “one Korea,” each side will claim to be the sole legitimate representative, making the other a target for elimination. In such a scenario, mutual coexistence is impossible. As distinct countries, the two Koreas could coexist—not necessarily amicably but coexist nonetheless.

[verdantcrimson]

Masterlist + Terms of Use

• You may send in an ask correcting any of my translations or pointing out typos. My goal as a translator is to be accurate, so I take no issue with being corrected. Please don't keep it to yourself if you see something off. I use translation as a means to learn and do it as a hobby.

• You can screenshot translations to post and comment on. You may not use them for ship related quote bots without permission. You can cite them in casual discussions of the text, as long as wording/phrasing is not the subject of the discussion. Translating, especially with a heavily context based language like Japanese, is interpretive.

• Do not add any of my translations to a public masterlist.

• I accept translation requests for any 1-2 chapter stories/minitalks that involve AKATSUKI (and occasionally Yuzuru), even if they aren't featured characters. Longer stories are taken up at my personal discretion.

That being said, I am very slow. Please be patient!

Scout and Event Stories

Heaven and Earth

Gourmand Fragrance

Keito Hasumi

Feature Scout story: Lotus & Vows — 1 | 2

With: AKATSUKI, Anzu

Feature Scout story: Shutter Chance — 1 | 2

With: AKATSUKI, Tomoya, Anzu

Idol Story: An Exchange of Information between Instructors

With: Yuzuru, Ibara

Management stories:

With: Mao

With: Yuzuru

With: Kaoru

With: Madara

Kuro Kiryu

Feature Scout Story: Preparations for the Future — 1 | 2

With: Mao, Ritsu, Niki, Sora, Mitsuru, Nazuna, Anzu

Idol story: An Idol's life of Daily Study

Management stories:

With: Keito

Idol story: Let’s Play and Learn

With: AKATSUKI, Ra*bits

With: Shu

Souma Kanzaki

Management Stories:

With: Kanata

Other

8th Anniversary Heart to You FES!!

(1) With: Eichi, Wataru, Yuzuru, Tori

(4) With: Keito, Yuzuru, Souma, Mao

(10) With: Souma, Kanata, Ibara, Kaoru, Shinobu

(11) With: BUTOKAI (Kuro, Adonis, Tetora, Jun, Madara)

(12) With: Yuzuru, Subaru, Midori

(23) With: Keito, Wataru, Tsumugi, Nazuna, Hokuto

(26) With: AKATSUKI

(27) With: Chiaki, Nazuna, Kuro, Shu

(28) With: Souma, Mika, Natsume, Adonis

(31) With: Yuzuru, Ibara, Hajime, HiMERU

(40) With: Overnight Outdoors Party (Kuro, Leo, Mitsuru, Niki, Mayoi)

(42) With: Keito, Leo, Eichi, Madara

11/26/23 Tsukisuta Skit

With: AKATSUKI & Tsukasa

Memories of Ensemble 2023 (AKATSUKI)

Lyrics

ROCK ROAR Lyrics (Game size)

金色千夜夢舞台 Lyrics (Game size)

絲

Unpredictable Reincarnation (Keito Hasumi Solo)