#japanese studies theme

[tokidokitokyo]

Japanese Studies - Self Care Edition

Japanese language-themed self care ideas, for those tough days:

brew a cup of your favourite Japanese tea in your favourite mug

read a favourite manga

cut up seasonal fruit (asian pears, apples, persimmons, etc.) and arrange it nicely on a plate, then use a tiny fork to eat it

watch a slice of life drama, anime, or documentary about Japan

listen to your favourite Japanese band or singer

fold origami

read a Japanese poem (original Japanese or translated) - e.g. haiku, renga, waka, tanka - or try to write one of your own, in Japanese or English

consider nature around you, in terms of wabi (transient and stark beauty), sabi (the beauty of imperfection and aging), and yūgen (profound grace and subtlety)

watch a Japanese children's show or something that makes you feel nostalgic

write something to your future self in Japanese with cute stationery and seal it for later

Don't forget to take a break from your studies to rest and relax and take some time for yourself!

[kyouka-supremacy]

I've finished editing the guidebook profiles, I'll be posting them tomorrow. Untill then, is there by chance anyone who speaks Japanese who can proofread them, or even just check the parts I'm most confused about?

[sl33py-g4m3r]

yooo idk how I'm actually learning some of the symbols in the mystic script; but I can read the Devil Summoner title for the game~~

idk how I'm learning the symbols just very slowly without actually studying...

But~! I need to get back to actively studying so I can get further faster~~!!

and of course I know the Kanji means Shin Megami Tesnei but don't know what characters make up that title~~

more to learn~~ Use SMT to learn Japanese somehow, lol. I could use pokemon too if I want to slog through text and try to read everything. I've goto plenty of the games in Japanese cause it's easier to get masuda ditto that way.

It's been a thing I've wanted to do since high school; to learn Japanese, but I've been very slow with actually studying sadly.

[topicdaily]

Anime Music #1: Get Ready to Be Hooked!

Discover the magic of Anime Music #1 with our handpicked selection of the top 10 tracks that will transport you to another world! Whether you're a hardcore anime fan or just discovering the genre, this playlist is designed to provide the perfect soundtrack for every moment. From upbeat and energetic to calm and soothing, these songs capture the essence of anime and its diverse soundscapes. Get ready to embark on an auditory journey that will stir your emotions and ignite your imagination. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more amazing anime music compilations!

[rinofwater]

So a funny thing's been happening lately

So I took Japanese as my language elective in school and I've kind of been getting back into learning it again recently gee wonder why

And I've been trying to learn Mandarin the last few months GEE WONDER WHY

But I'm having better luck remembering kanji characters in their Mandarin context than I ever did when learning Japanese (probably because in Japanese you can spell words out with hiragana so I had an out for practicing that just doesn't exist for Mandarin to my knowledge lol)

So now I read something Japanese and I'm reading the characters I recognize until I find the hiragana/katakana and then I realize I'm a silly goose

Anyway

[i-weep-for-lost-souls]

finally doing one of those notes games!

5 notes: I'll finish my missing Duolingo and get 100xp into my other Duolingo assignment (doing it rn!)

10 notes: I'll stop chewing gum as much, and try to save my gum money (waaaaa)

15 notes: I'll finish all of my physical Japanese homework

Not: I did the ones for the week before (I had tutoring today) Restart ig :,)

20 notes: I'll reorganaize my closet, over the weekend when I have time

25 notes: I'll update one of my (not current) fanfictions

Edit: I am doing that as soon as I finish some HW!! its for the serafina series because I have...so many unfinished works there

30 notes: I'll get started on my TBR

School book I'm reading: Freak the Mighty

Finished Book (From school): American Born Chinese

Home book: American Supernatural tales, the next one is Kindred by Octavia E Butler, both scary in their own way

35 notes: I'll study for an hour - Currently doing

40 notes: I'll start going to bed at ten thirty

55 notes: I'll start doing my own laundry

60 notes: I'll be more organized and on top of my assignments

65 notes: I'll give myself a set study schedule

70 notes: I'll completely finish one fanfiction

75 notes: I'll deep clean my room and walls

80: I'll start fixing my attention span

85: I'll come out to my friends

90: I'll do the thing.

95: I go outside more

100: You decide.

105: I redo my blog. Like add tags for myself, add a consistent theme...

Blue: Completed

Red: not completed

Orange: in process of completing.

Rules: Three notes per person.

Edit: WBAT THE FUCK>!

[aibafiles]

Esperanto in Metaphor: ReFantazio

Not long ago I saw this this tweet pointing out that the in-game language in Metaphor is Esperanto (written in another script) and I decided to investigate for myself! The vocal tracks are in Esperanto as well, but I want to focus on the text here since I don't have a great ear for it. (The quoted tweet also points out that you can rearrange the title to get an Esperanto phrase - I think it would be more accurately spelled "Metafore Fantazio," or "metaphorically fantasy"!)

For the unfamiliar, Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed language, developed in the late 19th century with the aim of being an easy to learn secondary language that could act as a bridge between speakers of other languages. While its vocabulary and grammar are largely derived from various European language families, it has speakers worldwide, including a sizeable number in Japan. Given the relationship between Metaphor's world and our own, I think it's a cool choice to take a constructed secondary language and make it the in-universe primary language—not to mention the game's themes of uniting different people with a language intended to do just that.

I studied Esperanto myself for some time 9 years ago, though I've forgotten most of it, so I'm very rusty. That said, I was able to sit down and parse one particular block of text that the game provides a translation for, and use that to read the rest! I'm slowly combing through the demo and translating any legible text, and I wanted to share some of the interesting details I found. If any Esperantists see this and want to weigh in, please do! There's plenty I may not remember or be aware of.

Continued under the cut, including content from the demo:

Let's start with the text the game translates for us! Here's what the VO/subtitles say:

O Great Seeker, bearer of fantasy empowered... Hear my wish, and come forth from thy epoch of glory to grant me thy guidance.

Here's the "deciphered" Esperanto:

Ho, granda serĉanto, kiu vivas en epoko de gloro, kiu enkarnigas la povon de fantazio. Bonvolu disdoni al li vian gvidadon.

And here's a more "direct" translation:

O Great Seeker, who lives in an epoch of glory, who embodies the power of fantasy. Please grant him thy guidance.

Not too much different of note here other than the pronoun usage—in Esperanto, the speaker explicitly uses "he," likely referring to the protagonist. I suspect that the English is actually translated from the Japanese line, which is ambiguous, so they made an educated guess here. But, since this is the same speaker who narrates awakening cutscenes and new bonds, it makes sense that they're calling to the Seeker on his behalf!

This is a point I'm unsure about, but from my understanding, "granda" (here translated as "great") typically refers to size, so it seems like an odd word choice to me—but it's possible there are connotations I'm not aware of.

After some poking around I stumbled across some text on the background of the name entry screen that reads "signaro" (character set), followed by the whole Latin alphabet on the next line.

"But Batts!" you may say. "Esperanto doesn't use QWXY! What about the diacritics!"

Well. There aren't any! There are 6 characters with diacritic marks used in Esperanto (ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ), and since our character set doesn't use any of them, we have to make some educated guesses about which one it is at any given time. This is mostly a non-issue since they're real, existing words, but it does make it a bit trickier at points, and relates to another problem I'll get to in a bit. (There are a select few instances where I've seen diacritic marks on handwritten text or shop names, but there are still far fewer than there should be.)

That said, there is also some plain English text using this script as well, so the game does make use of those extra letters, such as the Memorandum UI - scrolling books have titles like "Marine," "Royal Capital," "100 Mystery of Ningen (humans)," and "Melancholia Gen" (?), plus cute notes in the background like "I want to read slowly" and "already read very good."

Anyway, this diacritic ambiguity bugged me for a bit when I started translating some text with "Euchronia" in it, like the above "Regno de Eŭcronio - Dezerto de Tradia." The Esperanto "C" and "Ĉ" are always pronounced "ts" and "ch" respectively, so the pronunciation here is a bit awkward either way, as both characters are meant to precede a vowel. A more natural pronunciation in line with both the Japanese and English would be "Eŭkronio," a spelling I found once in the body of the contract our protagonist signs to join the army, and never again. Alas.

I noticed a few interesting details while translating place names - the "Trad" in "Grand Trad" (Granda Tradicio) means "tradition" - and many locations are labeled on the map that I don't think are mentioned in the demo's runtime - Oceana to the west is named, but also of note are Kalendulo ("marigold," maybe "Calendula" in English) to the east, the Hulkenmont mountains surrounding that region, and the "Malnova Insularo" (old archipelago) to the south.

(Screenshot grabbed from justonegamr on Youtube.)

Lots of fun stuff going on with these posters - the big propaganda poster says "Mi volas vin por homoj" - "I want you for humans!" The poster immediately to its right and the one with the light-haired paripus are both wanted posters with rewards of 50,000 and 7,000 respectively, and the former has a somewhat legible name - Mikelan something (?). There's also quite a bit of illegible text that I'll need to boot up the game to stare at, textures willing.

Here is where I noticed an occasional problem with the text in this game: some of these posters include words that should have diacritic marks, but instead the characters are gone entirely or replaced with a space. For instance, the poster with the face that appears twice on the bottom row reads "Ser a peto - i tiu viro" where it should say "Serĉa peto - ĉi tiu viro" (Search request - this man). I spent so long wondering what "Dan ero" meant on the poster with the red "no" sign before I realized it was meant to be "Danĝero" (Danger).

This extends to some other parts of the game, such as the world map title ("Unuiĝinta Reĝlando de Eŭcronio" written as "unui inta re lando de e cronio," which is how I knew it was a plain C oops), and the giant statue in More's study covered in archetype names, some of which are missing characters.

I suspect that at some point in the process, these characters couldn't be properly encoded and got lost before making it into the game. Most of the UI text seems to be intact, and this only affects graphic text as far as I've seen. Luckily, we can usually use context to guess at what they should be.

There's a ton more that I'm still hunting down and translating, so if you'd like to see it, you can check out my spreadsheet here! I'm hoping to keep updating it as I play through the full game, and I may make some more posts if I encounter any particularly interesting details. A few more tidbits before I go:

This appears to be an annual calendar - number 1 is at the top and it circles around to 12, and then the inner circle runs from 1-30, likely representing the weeks.

Various graffiti found around Sunshade Row that reads:

Ĉi tio estis infero (this was hell)

Malbela elda (nasty/ugly elda)

Merdo (shit)

And in the words of our favorite tooth...

Elbe venontfoje! (Maybe next time!)

[tamayula-hl]

As of today, I will be closing the anonymous ask boxes on both Tumblr and Twitter. I'm truly grateful for all the messages I received over the past two years—thank you so much! 🙇‍♀️

YESSSSS Drawing such naughty material is my purpose in life! Someday I would like to draw this situation as a proper piece of work instead of just this doodle 😳😳💪🔥

Hehe, thank you! I'm very honored to receive such kind words 🙏🙇‍♀️ I'd like to continue creating various works as an account where I can draw whatever I want, however I want 🙌

言葉選びが本当に美しいですね！素晴らしい文章を見せてくれて本当にありがとう😍🙏🙏 独占欲の強いセバスチャンをもっとこれからも描いていきたいです💪💪💪

Here's the Japanese version I drew (https://archiveofourown.org/works/51781579/chapters/130912543)

And here's the translation by 87Percent! (Thank you again for the translation😭🙏💗) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/59388847/chapters/151455082)

And I've been trying to draw the story of SebxSakurako in English, but it's pretty difficult. I hope I can finish it someday…😳

I'm so relieved to hear you say that 😳🙏💗 I have lots of ideas for fluffy, happy stories, as well as tragic stories that are typical of "The Little Mermaid," so if I get the chance, I'd like to draw them again! 🌟 And besides the mermaid AU, I still have a lot of things I want to draw, both in pictures and stories, so I'm going to create a variety of different kinds of works from now on 💪💪💪

Awwww, thank you so much! I feel so happy to receive such a compliment😭🙏❤️‍🔥 I have an ambition to create more and more sophisticated works, so I will continue to study art and create many works about Seb and Omi💪💪💪

I'm honored to receive your kind words! 🙌🔥 And YESSSSSS, the girls' sleepover is something I've been wanting to draw for a long time! I usually only draw romances about Seb and Omi, but there are so many cute girls in HL, so I'm really interested to see what kind of sleepovers they and my MCs have! So I have to make a piece about it someday…💪💪😏

I was so late in replying that I ended up posting a picture of Seb "licking Sakurako in the morning" before my reply 🤣 Sorry for the late reply 🙇‍♀️ I still have a lot of NSFW works I want to draw about SebxSakurako right now, but spicy manga takes a really long time to make, so I'll take my time and make them when I have more time 💪🔥

I'm a little embarrassed to show you how I couldn't quite settle on my art style and was trying and failing in such an ugly way 😳🙈 But to receive such praise makes me feel like all my hard work was worth it. Thank you so much! 🌟 I've finally found the art style that I find easiest to draw, so I'm going to work hard to add some originality to this art style.

Lately I've been having so much fun drawing Ominis with messy hair that I tend to draw him like that, and I'm so happy that you liked it 💪🔥 I'd like to draw a manga someday with the main theme of how handsome Seb with messy hair is 💪

I'm so honored that you like my shameless NSFW work🤣💪❤️‍🔥 And that means cowgirl, right?! 😳😳😳 Of course, I'd like to draw Ominis x MC enjoying cowgirl position someday! I want to draw everything from the scene where MC is dominant and leading Ominis, to the scene where Ominis can't hold back and takes the initiative from MC…🙈

I'm so honored to receive such praise! Thank you so much! 💪😳😳 I plan to continue drawing plenty of shameless and vulgar manga🤣🔥

I think you can view all old works that have passwords by entering "YES" 🙏 All of my old works have poorer drawing skills than now, so it's a bit embarrassing to see them😳🙈❤️‍🔥

[whateversawesome]

Spy x Family Ch. 111: Anya's Mama

So many things for such a little chapter, don't you think?

We saw baby Anya and we finally caught a glimpse of Anya's biological mother.

Something to notice is that they're both wearing hospital gowns, which makes me think they were in the lab and, because of that, we can solidify the theory about Anya being born there. It could be that her mom was pregnant when captured or that they experimented on her and she got pregnant while in that lab. A secret third option is that Anya's mom actually volunteered for the experiments (maybe she was a scientist herself or a family member coaxed her into doing it), although I find this unlikely due to her comment about the butterfly. Either way, I have a feeling we won't know for a very long time.

Mindreading or no mindreading?

Endo chose not to let us know about that explicitly. However, look at this panel:

I don't think Anya's mom is talking here. I think she's thinking this. Because of that, I do suspect Anya can read her mama's mind. She doesn't fully understand it but those words are inside her memory.

However, as you can see in the panel below, we don't see her classic mindreading sparkles. So, it' could also be that she saw her mom getting sad or nostalgic and she wanted to hug her. Kids are very perceptive of their parent's emotions.

If you ask me, I think she was born with that ability. Either her mom was also a telepath who was being studied during her pregnancy or she was experimented while pregnant and gained and passed her abilities to her daughter.

All this makes me consider that maybe Anya wasn't experimented on like many of us believed for a long time. Maybe those scientists were just studying her/observing her in order to understand and try to replicate her abilities. I'm really hoping Endo will go this route, it's less cruel. In any case, keeping someone so young as a case study is still wrong and I don't think Twilight and Yor will like this.

Anya's Mama

I'm talking about Yor, of course.

First of all, I think Endo summed up what motherhood is about in this panel:

It's not exactly that a mom can read their kid's mind, but it's something close. As a mom you get to know your child inside and out. When you take care of them, see them grow and love them with all your heart, you simply learn to "read every part of them."

That's how we know that Yor loves Anya and that she is her mom.

I don't know what happened to Anya's biological mom; she could be gone or still be alive. I'm sure we'll find out eventually. However, no matter what happens, I think Anya will always have that unconditional love from Yor.

There's a prevalent theme about motherhood in sxf: a mother as a safe place. Yor has mentioned it several times; she knows her job is to protect Anya and Anya feels safe when her mama is around (even Twilight notices this.)

I think the bond between them will get stronger as the story moves forward. Come on, it's pretty obvious Anya is Yor's baby, she's already head over heels and she decided she wanted to be a good mother since day 1. Also, a big theme in the story are bonds that are forged, and chosen family. In the story, blood ties sometimes are complicated (look at the Desmonds, for example.)

I'm not fluent in Japanese, but I am aware that Anya calls Yor and Twilight, Haha and Chichi, which is an English equivalent of "my mom and my dad", instead of just "mom and dad." In case you are wondering, Anya did call her biological mom, the right way: "mama."

At some point in the story, I think we will see Anya call Yor and Twilight, mama and papa the right way. I suspect this will be the moment when they will realize they're no longer a pretend family, but a real one. And it'll be simply beautiful 💖

A Few Questions

Whenever we learn something about one of the Forger's past, we are usually left with even more questions like:

Where's Anya's mom now?: I think either she's still a prisoner somewhere or she's dead. And if she's alive, does she know Anya lives?

How did Anya escape? She was so little! She must have had help from someone.

Who is Anya's dad? Maybe a scientist? A prisoner of war? Or was artificial insemination possible back then?

Is Anya her real name? I'm wondering if her mom called her differently. Here are some theories about her name. I suspect this will be important and I wouldn't be surprised if Anya is not her real name, almost as a foil of Twilight's name and story.

And also, there's a gap between that scene/memory and when Anya gets adopted by Twilight. We know thanks to Franky that in the year before Twilight adopted her, she was previously adopted by four different families, however, there's still a chunk of time missing.

I estimate she's probably 2 years old in that memory, she was 4 when she was adopted by those other families, and 5 years old when Twilight became her dad. That leaves 2 full years blank. Where was she during that time?

[knight-a3]

Heavenbound AU

Masterpost

Niffty

I didn't redesign Niffty all at once, it was more like I would adjust one thing then later decide another thing needed to be adjusted. Anyway, I wanted to lean into the bug theme, which is popular for her and I think it suits her.

Notes under the cut

Ladybug: She was designed with Ladybugs and Asian Lady Beetles in mind, which I think is fairly obvious. Her eye coloring resembles the spots of an eyed ladybug.

Hair: I was doing some studying up on 1950s hairstyles and noticed that there was often this S shaped curve to the bangs. It looks like it evolved from the victory curls and similar styles of the 40s, but softened. I think I managed to do it in a way that kept the overall silhouette similar to canon. And the little curls by her face resemble bug mandibles. And I added little antenna.

I changed her hair color to a dark blue because it helped add more visual contrast in her design. That, and it helps allude to the fact that she's Asian-American. I would have gone with Chinese or Korean, but Japanese is the more popular headcanon. But that's only a minor detail. She doesn't have an accent, so I'm pretty sure she was raised in the US.

(The picture in the top left on the below image might be AI, something about her face and left hand looks off. I didn't notice until after, sorry. But the hair and figure shape do look accurate to the time period.)

Dress: Circle skirts are an iconic 50s style. And polka dots was a popular pattern. Historically, the skirt would not be shorter than the knee, but we can ignore that in hell. Instead of her neck bandana, I decided on a peter pan style collar. And the bodice should be form fitting, and bullet bras were common. The red part of her skirt is an "overskirt" that doubles as a set of wings. The wings aren't truly functional. A flying Niffty would be a nightmare. But they can show her emotions. They sometimes flutter when she's excited, or droop when she's upset. Via magic logic, they can still behave like fabric too. Mostly so I don't have to think too hard about how they would get in the way.

I played with color variations of orange, pink, and yellow, and even black with red spots. This was the overall combination I liked best.

Human:

We don't really know a whole lot about canon Niffty, so I'm leaving it fairly open. She died at age 22 in the 1950s(mid to late 50s, by the looks of it). Personally, I think she murdered her husband via stabbing. Maybe he was abusive and she just snapped, or maybe something else made her go crazy, I'm not sure. Then she was killed mid-rampage via gunshots to the chest.

(Feb 17, 2025- moved the human design to be above the cut)

[yumeka-sxf]

Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 1

This is a post series I've been planning for a while and I've finally had the time to complete part 1! 😃 I may have mentioned here before that I got my B.A. in Japanese/East Asian Studies, and even though I'm not fluent, I know the linguistics of the language fairly well. So I thought it would be fun to examine the interesting aspects of the Japanese version of the SxF manga that aren't reflected in the English translation. It might also be an informative experience for those who don't know any Japanese to learn a bit about the language through SxF! I'll try not to get too technical with the linguistics and keep my explanations at a beginner's level.

-----

Part 1 - Twilight's "honne and tatemae"

One of the main themes in SxF is how many of the characters have secrets they want to hide, so they act a certain way in front of others in order to mask their true selves. Japanese has a word for this phenomena called 本音と建前 ("honne and tatemae").

I remember learning about the concept of "honne and tatemae" during my Japanese college studies – a quick google search will yield a lot of publications on the topic and its relation to Japanese culture in particular. While the idea of hiding one's true intentions behind a fake facade can exist anywhere and is not something unique to Japan, it is enough of an occurrence in Japanese culture that there are specific words for it. The Wiki article has a basic but good definition of honne and tatemae, to quote:

A person's honne may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one's closest friends. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances, and these may or may not match one's honne. In many cases, tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings.

Sounds very much like the characters in SxF, doesn't it? Twilight especially, because unlike other characters like Yor and Anya, who simply have secrets they need to keep but don't create fake personas for themselves, Twilight does – the cheerful, friendly Loid Forger is a different person from the cold, calculating Twilight after all. Also unlike Yor and Anya, who speak the same way consistently no matter who they're talking to, Twilight uses different speech levels depending on which persona he's using and who he's talking to.

There are many different levels of speech in Japanese, ranging from super formal to totally crude. These speech levels are distinguished mostly by the pronouns the speaker chooses to use for themselves and who they're speaking to, as well as how they choose to conjugate the words they use. For example, 座ってください (suwatte kudasai), 座って (suwatte,) and 座れ (suware) all mean "sit," as in, telling someone to sit down. But the tone being conveyed is different: the first one is polite, the second one is casual, and the last one could be seen as rude if you're not using it with a close friend/family member.

As Twilight, he uses casual speech with the masculine and less polite pronoun 俺 or オレ (ore). This is the speech he uses when talking to a fellow spy like Fiona, and for his own inner thoughts.

As Loid Forger, he uses the polite 敬語 (keigo) speech, which is basically comprised of using the -ます (-masu) conjugation for verbs and the "to be" verb です (desu). He also uses the pronoun ボク or 僕 (boku), which is the standard male pronoun and more polite than "ore." He uses keigo to address pretty much everyone who doesn't know his true identity. When talking to a higher-up like Sylvia, he'll still use "ore" but will use polite speech instead of casual speech.

Anya is an exception to this: with her, he uses his most casual speech, the same as he uses with Franky.

I discussed a bit about this in part 24 of my Twiyor analysis posts, but this could be because Anya is a little kid, so he doesn't feel the need to put on any airs with her (same with Bond, whom he also uses casual speech with).

An interesting side note is that, as a child, Twilight used the pronoun "boku" but then changed to "ore" as soon as he became an adult/soldier.

Another aspect of keigo, besides using the more polite forms of pronouns and verb conjugations, is putting the honorific さん (san) after people's names. Twilight does this all the time with Yor, as she does with him. However, he switches to casual speech and drops the "san" part in her name when addressing her in front of people who (supposedly) believe they're a real married couple, such as Yuri and Fiona – because it would be weird for a real couple who have been married for a year to address each other in such a formal way, especially the husband. In the below panel when Fiona visits them, he's calling her "Yor" instead of "Yor-san" and using casual speech instead of keigo.

Oddly in these situations, while he uses just "Yor" when addressing her directly, he still calls her "Yor-san" when talking about her. During Yuri's first visit for example, he calls her "Yor-san" when telling Yuri how much Anya loves her (talking to someone about her) but then calls her just "Yor" a few moments later when telling her that he'll clean up the spill (talking to her directly). It's strange to me that he wouldn't just consistently use "Yor" whether he's talking to her or about her in these situations...I'm honestly not sure if he does this intentionally or if he just slips up since he's so used to using "Yor-san" in her presence.

*UPDATE* Thank you to @dentedintheworld-blog for enlightening me with the below reply about this!

"In Japanese, when speaking to your spouse's family about your spouse, you address her/him by attaching "san" her/his name out of respect for her/his family. This is also to show her/his family that you respect your spouse. That's why Loid calls Yor with san when he talks about how much he loves Yor to Yuri."

That definitely makes sense for why Twilight switches between "Yor" and "Yor-san" in these situations.

Regardless, this is why the scene in chapter 86 is so significant – when Yor isn't present, there's no reason for him to refer to her as "Yor-san," especially in front of a fellow spy like Fiona who knows he (supposedly) shouldn't have any feelings for her. Yet, even after he just called Yuri by his full name "Yuri Briar" a moment before, he doesn't do the same for Yor and continues to call her "Yor-san" here, much to Fiona's dismay.

In the same chapter, it's also significant that he uses "ore" when addressing Yor directly in his thoughts. Even though he's not speaking out loud, I believe this is the first time he's speaking directly "to" her as Twilight and/or his true self and not as Loid Forger.

But despite all this, I think that both Loid Forger and Twilight are tatemae…they're both masks to hide the person he truly is. The person who fondly talked about his mother to Yor on the park bench, the person who genuinely expressed gratitude for her sacrifice when leaving the resort island, the person who refused to kill Yuri in a life-or-death struggle because he knew it would hurt her…that's his actual honne. But of course, the ongoing conflict of the series is that he has yet to realize this. He won't even show his honne to his closest friend, Franky. Seems like it mostly comes out in dribs and drabs during his interactions with Yor...no surprise there, lol. The man is certainly a work in progress. When he finally starts letting his "honne" show, I'm curious what form of speech he'll adopt.

-----

Continue to Part 2 ->

[ponett]

Do you have any youtube recs for video game analysis/critique in the vein of gmtk?

I do! Well, maybe not 100% in the same vein as the very focused design analysis that GMTK does, but I follow a lot of YouTubers who do thoughtful video game analysis from various angles.

Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games - An obligatory rec if you haven't already watched Sakurai's videos.

Errant Signal - A longtime pillar of video game video essays, Chris Franklin focuses on interpreting video games as art and critiquing how design decisions contribute to (or detract from) a game's themes and artistic goals.

Matthew Matosis - Less active these days, but he's another legend of longform, in-depth video game analysis on YouTube.

New Frame Plus - A channel about studying and appreciating video game animation from professional animator (and former host of Extra Credits) Dan Floyd. I love all of his videos, but in particular I love his series about the evolution of Final Fantasy's animation.

Video Game Animation Study - And if that's not enough video essays about game animation for you, here's another channel! I enjoyed his recent video about the animations in the Sonic Advance series, which have always been favorites of mine.

Jeremy Parish (Video Works) - I absolutely love Jeremy's chronological retrospectives on classic game console libraries that put them in their historical perspective, explaining how games of the '80s built on the design ideas of previous works and set the stage for future successors. His main focus is his ongoing retrospective on every game in the North American NES library, but he also talks about Sega and Atari releases from the same era, as well as some extremely obscure old Japanese consoles I'd never even heard of.

hotcyder - A fan of weird and quirky games, with a particular interest in exploring the burgeoning "Wario-like" scene.

8-Bit Music Theory - I will admit that half of what this guy says goes over my head as a musical plebeian, but it's still really cool to see formal music theory analysis of video game music.

Scruffy - And for something perhaps a little more digestible for a general audience, there's Scruffy's similarly good videos about video game music theory.

And that should be enough for now!

[estcaligo]

Sebek and Romance

Some thoughts after this event update

I really liked this small detail in this part of the event - a "bittersweet" (or "sweet and sour" literally, from Japanese) moment between Sally and Jack. When she leaves her basket for Jack (which Trey refers to as a "bento"), we get to see the NRC guys reacting to that display of affection.

Surprisingly, Sebek's reaction was very calm and mature.

When Grim says "Bittersweet? I wanna try eating it!"

Sebek comments "Haha. Grim, that's something even you can't devour" in a calm manner.

In many fanworks, especially fics, Sebek is often depicted as inexperienced or nervous when it comes to matters of love. I enjoy this interpretation too because it can be funny sometimes. But understanding and reacting to romantic interactions is a learned skill (like any social skill), and we should remember a few points:

Sebek has loving parents who have three children. Considering the history of their relationship, I imagine they aren't shy about showing how much they love each other, including in front of their kids. I'm sure Mama Zigvolt has, at least once, explained to Sebek that this is because Mama and Papa love each other very much. So, Sebek is familiar with these kinds of feelings from his family.

Books, books, books.

Books are a big part of Sebek's life - for hobbies, studies, and bonding (for example, with his grandfather or the Prefect). He reads a lot on various topics, and naturally, throughout his life, he must have come across books with romantic themes. We can learn a lot from books, including social skills, even if it's only in a descriptive sense. So, Sebek has also learned about romance through literature.

Arts and culture.

Sebek is familiar with operas and musicals, as mentioned in the Endless Halloween event. We can assume he has some interest in them or, at least, participates in watching them with his family nowadays too (because he mentioned Zigvolts spend quite a lot of time together, like attending parks, so why not.)

We don't know what kind of plays he watches, but we can assume there are at least some romantic motifs, as is often the case in classic operas and theater. Watching actors - who often exaggerate emotions - could give him an understanding of how romantic situations unfold, and this exposure can likely have an impact on him. 

He also does thorough research into the arts when required, and some romantic themes might come up. For instance, if he knows Aurora, he must be familiar with her story, including her love interest and the kiss plot (though TWST may have twisted these stories, I presume core elements like the love story remain intact). So, Sebek can learn about romance thought art.

Lilia's supervision.

Sebek spends a lot of time with Lilia as his pupil, along with Silver, so naturally, he absorbs a lot of information about the world from his teacher - not just combat skills. And, well, Lilia's wisdom might be mischievous, if not dubious at times. In Ghost Bride event, it's noted that one of Sebek's visions of courting his future partner involves…well

which is kind of cute, if you ask me.

So, coming back to this event's reaction:

Seeing the display of affection between a loving couple is nothing new for Sebek, and he understands it surprisingly well.

At least when it comes to other people...

[linghxr]

Tips for finding Chinese-language media you like

I’m sure some of you started studying Chinese because of Chinese webnovels or dramas. But for others (myself included), it's challenging to find enjoyable Chinese-language media. Here are my tips! I will mostly mention TV shows, but these tips apply to other types of media as well. They can apply to other languages too.

Tip 1 - Start with something similar (but not identical) to content you already like.

My entry to Chinese TV shows was idol survival shows like Produce 101/Chuang and Idol Producer/Youth With You. I used to watch the US version of The Voice and The X Factor, so I was already interested in singing/performing competition shows. Yes, China has its own version of The Voice (or at least it did). But why would I struggle through watching the Chinese version when I could watch the English version effortlessly? On the other hand, idol survival shows didn't have a direct equivalent in English. Once I got hooked on them, I had no choice but to keep consuming Chinese media.

Tip 2 - Don’t force yourself to consume popular media that you don’t enjoy.

The first Chinese scripted shows/dramas I tried were iPartment and Love O2O, both very popular shows. But I didn’t like them and had to force myself to keep watching. Eventually I abandoned them. After that, I basically didn’t watch any Chinese shows for 2+ years. I wrongly thought that I didn’t like any Chinese shows or there were no good ones—definitely untrue! In retrospect, those shows are not the types of shows that I tend to watch in any language, so they were really poor choices. By forcing myself to watch something that I didn’t like, I was just wasting my time and sapping my motivation.

Tip 3 - Be willing to invest time at the start.

I won’t lie, it’s a large time investment to find the first few pieces of media that you really like. But after that, it gets so much easier. Especially with Chinese-language media, it’s not as popular as Korean and Japanese media, so you might not know where to start. Luckily, Chinese-language media is becoming more readily accessible! Open YouTube/Spotify/Netflix, etc. and invest some time upfront trying different things until you find what sticks. There may be some duds (like me with iPartment and LoveO2O), but don’t give up! Keep looking, cause it will pay off in the long run.

Tip 4 - Don’t let embarrassment get in your way.

It’s important to find media that you truly enjoy so you’ll feel motivated to spend time with it every day. So keep an open mind when exploring formats and genres that may be unfamiliar to you. I used to be embarrassed about watching Chinese idol survival shows, so I hid them from friends and family. I learned later that my friends are actually really receptive and willing to watch with me, even though they don’t speak the language! You don’t need to announce your favorite media to the world, but please don’t let embarrassment get in the way of your enjoyment and your language learning goals!

Tip 5 - Use what you like to strategically branch out to new mediums.

You can take advantage of adaptations and other connections to expand to new mediums. While watching idol survival shows, I would look up the songs’ original artists—that’s how I got into Chinese music! When I decided to give dramas another try, I watched Someday or One Day after seeing the ending theme song covered on Youth With You. Another drama, The Disappearing Child, starred actors I knew from the show Sisters Who Make Waves. When I decided to tackle webnovels, I read the original webnovel of Reset, since I loved the drama adaptation. This is the perfect way to expand your repertoire.

[doomednarrative]

I cannot stop thinking about this particular moment in Monster tbh because I feel like its a good summation of quite a few of the overarching themes of the narrative in such a short amount of words and panels.

Like for one, it's a Really good example of both the overt and smaller moments of racism that Tenma deals with throughout the story as a Japanese man living in/traveling through post war Germany in the 1990's. Rudi's prior narration of he and Tenma's time in college specifically singles Tenma out as the smart Asian student who came to the college and swept not only Rudi's grades but also everyone elses, and from that he clearly views Tenma in a more negetive light, thinking that Tenma must look down on him for being a cheater when he got such good grades (presumably) by studying.

But then here's Tenma just casually admitting that "no, I was the same as you, I cheated too," and that one sentence just dismantles everything about Tenma that Rudi's prior view of him sets up. It makes him an equal to Rudi and shows both him and the reader that Tenma is just as much a regular guy as everyone else, and it also tears down this idea of how everyone in the story tends to put Tenma on a pedastal too, both morally and in reguards to being smart as well (which is also a result of racist steryotypes at times too, and something that people like Heckle and the old hospital director try to use him for at times.)

Tenma is extremely smart and a brilliant surgeon yes, and generally a good guy because he makes the effort to be. But this is a direct call out to say "hey, as good as he is, he is not perfect like a lot of people seem to think he is for better or for worse" and I feel like that's really important to acknowledge in a series like this where one of the main themes is the value of people's lives when weighing their rights and their wrongs against each other. And this little moment just highlights that Really really well I think.

[ozzgin]

Hi Ozz ! I was wondering if you had watched GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) ?

I've watched a few episodes today for old time's sake and DAMN is the stalker-ish yandere content lurking in my brain hours after 😫

GTO has been on my to-watch list for more than a decade now, haha. I absolutely love the idea, and the overall theme is right down my alley, but I always seem to stumble after the first two episodes.

I'm someone who is very much used to Japanese humor and other tropes that might be considered odd overseas, but there's one thing that makes me cringe: old-school ecchi. If I see a teenage girl squealing and flashing her panties, I'm immediately reconsidering everything. It's the reason I gave up on Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. I wanted to like it so badly, but I couldn't get over all the lewd shots.

GTO hits especially hard, because I'm an adult in my twenties and I literally studied to be a teacher, so I cannot watch my man chasing his students without audibly grunting.

There's two series that I absolutely love and have a very similar plot:

Rookies, about a highly optimistic, dorky teacher who joins a school filled with delinquents. He encourages them to play baseball and follow their dreams. I watched the live action, and it's actually what motivated me to pursue my studies!

Gokusen, about the granddaughter of a yakuza boss who becomes a math teacher in an all-male high school. She is the next in line to become the Head of the Family, and is also assigned as the homeroom teacher to an unsuspecting class of delinquents.