#kagerou daze learning book

[kageprountranslated]

Memorizing English Vocabulary with MEKAKUSHIDAN (High School Version) short story: Prologue

Prologue: A Certain Summer’s Day’s Events

Only the rattling and clacking sounds from the keyboard resonate around the room.

Occasionally cicada cries from outside can be heard leaking through the windows that are cracked open. There is nothing to be said except that it’s hot and humid on this day, the kind of day that is best for a shut-in.

Ahh, what a peaceful day. Such an ordinary everyday life, and I’m unbearably happy….

When I clear my throat the corners of my mouth unexpectedly rise, as I pick up the dark soda that drips with condensation from the temperature change in the room. The moment I pour it down my throat… Suddenly, “yaa.” The act of terrorism began.

“Master! It seems like today there’s a firework show at 6:00 PM! Can we see it from your dirty room?”

As that familiar voice began, every open browser (of course including the DAW* I was composing on) was forcefully closed, replaced by countless pop-ups. “Special summer date spot,” “Top 3 fireworks displays recommended for men,” “Hole-in-the-wall place! Superb view fireworks spot, word-of-mouth and comment board,” ''Summary of summer situations to seduce women,” etc. ....

(*Digital Audio Workstation, software used for producing music)

Ahh, my everyday life was now always like this suddenly.

A passionate reply I was writing that easily exceeded 20 lines, the song I was creating that was in the middle of the programming phase….

Ene’s eyes blinked in unison, ignoring the shock that caused my eyes to open so wide that the whites were fully visible. She single-mindedly chattered on, her teeth never appearing to touch, as she ignored me.

“I feel like I haven’t seen fireworks in quite a while! But isn’t summer for fireworks nonetheless!? Don’t you agree, Master?”

“Master, did you know this? Because fireworks use metal’s reaction to flame, it seems the color is different depending on the chemicals the gunpowder is made of!”

“When Master goes to a fireworks display with a woman, do you say disgusting things like, ‘together our flame reaction will scatter red sparks….’? Ahhh oops! Master doesn’t have a woman to go with him in the first place. Sorry!”

“Hah…. There is no beautiful teen girl who would go to a fireworks show with you. Master, what a pity…. No. Master is too pathetic!”

“Hey, why did you phrase it like that…? Did you say ‘pity’ just now!?”

Despite choosing to completely ignore her, she always persists. And each time I can’t just sit by without comment she reacts in the same familiar way, delivering her hateful comebacks with extreme speed. Seeing me fall for her bait, Ene has a triumphant look on her face.

“That’s right, but you’re having a fit and reading too much into this ‘pity’ thing. You’ve been a little too self-conscious lately, right?”

“Hey, aren’t you calling me pitiful? When you say it like that it’s so excessively intentional and malicious that I can clearly see what you’re trying to say!! I thought it was abnormally quiet today, but you were just busy, completely absorbed in researching this firework thing!”

“Oh that Master of mine, maybe you kinda missed me~? ‘Eneeee…. I’m lonely…. Heyyyy.’ If you begged me like that I’d have come around to hate on you sooner. No, I’d have rushed to my Master without a second thought!!”

“Now you think I’d ask you to harass me!? I know you’re aware of what’s going on! For the time being I can’t see the fireworks. Stop harassing me right now.”

“Master’s a hell of a listener! Stingy! Nitwit! Shut-in. If we’re this close, shouldn't you at least watch to make sure the fireworks’ gunpowder doesn’t hit your house and start a fire?”

“What kind of accident would that be!? It isn’t gunpowder that falls down, it's just sparks!! We’ll be fine, so just get my data back quickly. Did you even keep a backup anyway? Come on, really, I’m sick of being harassed by you and your impulsive whims! If you think it’s too terribly quiet you can study English vocabulary.”

“You’re such a rude virgin to get so fed up with me! You’re an extreme Masochist, Master, don’t you have pride in the level of my harassment it takes to make you happy-cry?”

“It’s not fun! It’s definitely not fun! You should be able to generally understand the junior high school level since you’ve been swept off to school before!? It’s such a penance, a penance!!”

“Wha-wha-what the hell is that…!? It was a crystal of love and tears withdrawn from Ene-chan’s special database….! If you treat me coldly like that, I’ll be sharp!”

Ene puffed out her cheeks as she said this. But her plan was to begin to travel into the smartphone that was placed beside the computer mouse.

“Ohh, try being sharp with me! I’m being smoked by you! I’m being smoked for the whole day’s worth of effort! I don’t have anything to lose anymore! I don’t know what is stored and where because yesterday the folder names I put my whole soul into organizing were all changed!”

“Is Master’s life lived completely on this screen!? What a flimsy life…. If that’s so, then why not use this PC anymore? You don’t use it, right?”

“No, sorry, that’s a lie. I use it. Because I use it…. aaaAAAAA!??!?!!”

At that moment, the PC screen went pitch black, a cold box sitting in the center saying, “Please input the password.” All I feel is déjà vu. This is obviously the work of Ene.

“Stop it! Pretty please just stop doing this….!”

“Buh!! Ahaha! Ma-Master, ‘pretty please,’ you say….!! Bufufu!!”

“This isn’t a laughing matter! Quickly return the screen back to its original state!! Ohh this is the worst…. I want to die….”

From the shock of being taken hostage, I involuntarily relaxed all of the muscles in my body. For a while I had been leaning my body forward in my chair.

“Well well, Master. Doesn’t the good, super pretty virgin girl, Ene-chan have a backup? I’ll put it back perfectly normal later.”

“Truthfully!? That’s really true!? Ahh, what a relief…. You also have a human heart…. Thank you Gods and Buddhas!”

I felt my tight throat become lighter, while my mood did as well. But as soon as she saw me not restraining my delight, Ene made a facial expression like she was holding back an ill comment.

“Wait a little, Master. Wouldn’t it be too good if I returned it all for free? This morning I wasn’t able to get you to be worried about me at all. Reeeaaaallllllly. I was about to die in that spare time. So won’t you have to pay for it exactly!?”

“Ohh…. I’ll do anything…. I’ll do anything!”

Ene raised a finger on the screen to wipe the tears that had accumulated in the corners of her eyes.

“Then Master, start by connecting the earphones to this smartphone please.”

“....Huh? Ohh, oh.”

While being overwhelmed with her sudden demands, I grabbed the smartphone and put on the white earphones.

“Like this?”

“Yes!”

Yayy! However, I was starting to feel anxiety from the tension as Ene raised an arm in reply.

“Now Master, you will study all of the English vocabulary high school students learn! I even made it more difficult than before! Because you're a masochistic Master, it’s a present that will delight you! Oh, of course, please memorize it all by 6:00 PM when the fireworks start!! Even if my Master isn’t finished, I’ll ask him to just point the smartphone at the window for me!!”

So that’s what Ene says, and it’s not like I’m familiar with what appears on the screen, the spellings and meanings of English words…. When I scrolled to the end, the number of words to learn was…. -what?- 1200….

“As you progress in studying I’ll give you password hints! Come on now, let’s keep up the good work! A man doesn’t go back on his word, right Master?”

Ene said this with a dazzling smile on her face as she played the clip of me sounding so close to death, “Ohh…. I’ll do anything…. I’ll do anything!”

Prologue | Side Story 1 | Side Story 2 | Side Story 3 | Epilogue

[x0401x]

Maga Magazine Interview with Jin

What does Jin (Shizen no Teki-P), the creator of Kagerou Project – which has reached its tenth anniversary –, have to tell us about the surprising secret story of its birth and about his VOCALOID compositions!?

Kagerou Project is a music series that began in 2011 with “Jinzou Enemy” and depicts the outlandish fate of boys and girls. It boasts enough popularity to have been turned into both a novel and a manga under the title of “Kagerou Daze”, ultimately receiving an anime adaptation as “Mekakucity Actors”.

We have interviewed Mr. Jin (Shizen no Teki-P), who birthed this big-hit series and worked as its writer, original creator and composer in the boundaries between multi-media adaptations and who has been currently providing music in all sorts of fields.

Translated on commission || Raw version here

■ His cue to start making VOCALOID music.

——We will be going straight to the point – Jin-san, what was your cue to start making VOCALOID music?

Jin: My father was a teacher, so I used to live life moving from one place to another in Hokkaido. From that point, I was influenced by many types of music, especially when I was in junior high and wasn’t attending school, almost like a dropout. When I listened to music back then, I was like, “Aah, so there are people in this world who think in the same way as I do”, which really saved me.

It was from there that I began aspiring to make music someday.

Later on, during my high school days, I was playing in a band in a sort of copy-pasta way. After that, I enrolled into a vocational school in Sapporo and back then, too, I was in a band. However, you need to earn basic expenses in order to live off music, so most of us aimed to get normal jobs, which resulted in disbandment.

Just as I thought that I also had to find employment, the older brother of a classmate whom I was close to asked me, “Jin-kun, so your band is gonna end?” When I told him that I wanted to be a composer but it was too hard, he said, “Why don’t you make songs using VOCALOID?”

I believe he recommended it to be because he himself was making songs with VOCALOID, and that was the cue for me to get to know about VOCALOID for the first time.

Back then, I was a naughty band man and didn’t have a computer, so I didn’t know about Nico Nico Douga. Therefore, I knew nothing about what internet culture even was, let alone about Hachi-san, who now works under the name “Yonezu Kenshi”, or DECO*27, who is extremely active.

I thought VOCALOID seemed interesting, so from that point on, I learned how to use a computer and began using VOCALOID just like that, without knowing anything about it.

——So that person’s recommendation was the trigger?

Jin: Feels like it was literally the sentence that changed my life.

He was, in fact, also active as a VOCALO-P. I didn’t know anything about VOCALOID or song making at the time, so he taught me a lot.

I didn’t have a fixed concept myself, so not knowing anything might have actually worked on my favor. It was weird to me that I was supposed to upload my stuff not to a music site but to a video site even though it was music, but in contrast, I was excited when I started it out.

■ What made him think about creating the “Kagerou Project” series.

——Now then, we would like you to tell us why you decided to make a series like “Kagerou Project”.

Jin: I’ll have to rewind a little bit, but when I was in junior high, I didn’t attend school for a while. I couldn’t bring myself to go to school at all, just read books and played video games at home, so looking back on it now, I think my parents must have been pretty uneasy at the time.

Back then, I was into Hoshi Shinichi-san’s “Short Short” and Otokazu-san’s novels, which had a horror taste to them. I was also reading the works of Morimi Tomihiko-san and Isaka Koutarou-san. I was by no means a bookworm, but I didn’t have any money, so I’d borrow lots of books from libraries and read them.

The band that I got into just as I was about to become a respectable member of society was also making some pretty trendy music. We also played music with nothing but our instruments – the so-called “instrumental sound”, with no lyrics. I then began favoring and listening to foreign and complex music, like, “I’m so awesome for understanding this stuff.”

But when our band did live concerts, we only had two or so guests.

——So these books and overseas music triggered your decision to create something that had a story to it?

Jin: That’s right.

When I was about to start using VOCALOID for real, many things crossed my mind out of the blue. One of them was something like a plot. So I felt like challenging myself to making it someday.

However, when I was in a band, there were other members. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if I just told them, “I actually have a made-up story of my own~”? I think that if I talked about it to the people who were in the band with me at the time, they would have paid no attention to it. But since I was going through the trouble of using VOCALOID, I thought, there was nothing to fear. I then decided to give the story a try.

The rock band The Who, which used to create stories through music, would make a whole story with one album between the 60’s and the 70’s. The guitarist, Pete Townshend, used to write the stories himself and performed rock opera and theater.

That’s what “KagePro” is now. In any case, I copied this thing of making a story with an album, but it was something that I had wanted to do since long ago. But I thought that if I did my best, I could make it work with VOCALOID despite Japan being the way it was back then, thus I began producing my music series.

■ How he created the characters from the songs and novels of “Kagerou Project” || The points he is conscious of

——Regarding “Kagerou Project”, how do you create the charismatic characters that appear in the songs? We would like you to tell us what points you are conscious of.

Jin: Let’s see. To me, “characters” play roles that appear in various places. The first time I think about them is when I’m composing the songs. They’re the people who turn into the subjects of the story when I’m writing the lyrics. The point is how to create “someone who could become a protagonist that I can fit into this one song”.

I was still pretty much an amateur regarding production back then, but as a way of creation, I decided to come up with a theme first and foremost. For example, suppose you have a situation where someone comes to pick you up when you’re secluded in your home. How one’s emotions work at such moments – I wanted to express things like that.

So I decided to firstly plan out this character. If something like a nightmare on a hot summer day happened to him and he were unable to get away from it, I think it would be quite terrifying. If it were a loop, it would be even more disturbing. When I wondered, “Then what would the protagonist be like as a person when something of this sort happened to him?”, the first thing I thought was, “He wouldn’t be an adult”. I figured that a child, who has a less developed mind, would be far more scared, and so I tried to come in contact with what would become the core of this character.

——I see. So you would imagine characters that matched the scenarios from these themes and situations. Then, regarding the making of the novels and manga, is there any difference between that and composing the songs?

Jin: I received a proposal by KADOKAWA-san to publish novels and manga. At first, I was completely convinced that someone was going to adapt my songs into novels. This was during the time when I myself was struggling, as I was unable to aim for a career as musician, and of course, there are many people in the literary industry desperately attempting to become novelists, to no avail. Therefore, I thought this wasn’t the kind of thing that would just work itself out if someone like me suddenly started writing. But as the talk went on with the editor, I was told to “try and write one volume”, and although I believed it would be pretty difficult, I thought, “It’s fine if it fails”, so in that moment, my grandiose ideas and the desire to put them into shape began to overflow, which made me say, “I’ll do it.”

That was right by the time when I had just turned 20, and I had a job. During my breaks from work, I would be digging deep into the characters. After all, the novel needed more detailed settings, such as speech habits and personality. It was like, “This character is similar to one from a book that I read in the past, so I guess I’ll add these traits to them” or, “That character has a bright personality, but on top of that, I want to make them a bit prone to acting rashly”. I created my characters from the images of how I wanted them to be plus already-existing works.

——So, indeed, you created charismatic characters by broadening their image from songs to novel.

Jin: That’s right. When I was making the songs, I had a core born from their themes, which I dug up and thought about even more later on, in order to write the novels. I feel that the characters’ personalities were elaborated concretely.

——You were making the songs, novels and manga, so were you too busy back then?

Jin: Yes. I mentioned earlier that I had a job, and I actually continued doing it until the time when my first major album, first volume of the novel and first chapter of the manga were being released. Back then, I was only able to sleep two to three hours a day while making songs, writing the novels, creating materials and settings for the manga and having meetings to discuss about them, then going to work and coming back home to repeat the song making and novel writing. It was terrible (laughs), so I guess I put in quite a lot of effort.

——Sounds extremely demanding just from listening to that.

Jin: I have a lot of attachment towards the characters because I created them during those times.

——I see.

■ The points that he was conscious of when producing his content

——“Kagerou Project” progressed with various contents through the songs, novels and manga, so is there anything you were conscious of when producing them?

Jin: From the top of my head, broadly speaking, there were two things. The moment when I realized that “Kagerou Daze” could be turned into a book and serialized as a manga. I thought this was an once-in-a-lifetime chance.

I had the opportunity to talk to all sorts of people back then, and amongst them, there was someone who told me, “Chances most certainly come to people several times. I think our lives are decided by how much we devote ourselves to those chances”, and I thought, “Ah, that’s true”. In that moment, I thought I didn’t want to have any regrets once I debuted, no matter what. I reminisced to things like wanting to quit because I was tired and wanted to sleep, or to the fact that my life until then consisted of doing what others told me to do, be it about school or work. I should do this for myself, I thought, deciding to suffer for my very own sake, so this was a powerful lesson for me.

Even now, I’m still glad that I got into this mentality. So I didn’t want to run away no matter how difficult things were, because even when my health deteriorated and I wanted to sleep, I had this feeling that, having come up to this point, what I wanted wasn’t for someone to praise me, but to have no regrets.

After realizing that I didn’t want to have the sensation of not knowing what I was doing, which I felt during my student years, I decided to stick to this mindset until I took down my banner of activities as “Jin”.

——I have felt this way before too. That is the desire to cherish something, right? By the way, you said that, broadly speaking, there were two things, so what would the other one be?

Jin: The other one is simply that having everyone say, “I’m anxiously waiting for it” is important to me, so I make sure not to lie to them. This is very difficult to talk about, but I don’t want to put a pretty coating on things that I inwardly deem as bad and make it as though they are good in order to sell them to children.

To be honest, if I were to do that, probably no one would find out. Children lack many sorts of criteria, so they think that the things they see for the first time are bound to be good. These kids are the viewers, so we are in a position where we can cheat, which is exactly why we shouldn’t cheat no matter what – this is something that our whole staff, myself included, places importance on. We always make sure to create a story that isn’t like, “It’s children; they won’t notice anything, so we don’t have to do any effort – just doing it at random is fine”.

Therefore, if they happen to deem it as a source of encouragement for living, it’s thanks to the adults properly handling it in earnest like a bunch of idiots, and we can proudly claim that there were no lies involved. That’s what matters to us.

——So what matters to you regarding the production is doing your best now in order not to have any regrets, as well as not telling any lies, is that correct?

Jin: Yes.                                    

——I see. I was able to feel for myself once again that we still like this series so much even now precisely because the songs were made with such honest, utmost effort.

Jin: Thank you very much.

■ The process of releasing music || The points he is conscious of

——I understand you provide music for other animes as well, such as “Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei”, most recently. I would like to ask what the process is like and what you are conscious of in those cases, but first, how is the process of receiving the commission?

Jin: If it’s for anime theme songs, for example, I firstly get contacted by someone from my agency. We receive requests such as, “We would like to write a song; could you please ask an artist to provide us a composition?” and, “The song they will provide is one that we are thinking of making into the theme song of our next anime”. From there, we decide on the direction it will take together with my agency’s staff, the directors that provide support for matters surrounding the music, and other such people.

——Then, in regards to providing compositions, what are you conscious of when making them?

Jin: I basically believe that music is something that delivers a message and that there should be some sort of goal to it. So when I have to choose between making it either an artist-appropriate music piece or an anime-appropriate theme song, it’s pretty distressing for me.

Therefore, I decide to make both a reality every single time. I take on the artist’s “wish to sing this kind of song” and “the feelings they want to convey to the fans”. All that’s left to do is to blend things such as “what were my intentions towards writing this work?” and “how does the artist want to sing it?” into a mess, and as you’d expect, the parts connect with each other. I want to take this from the anime and that from the artist and make it into one and the same. This discovery can be explained with logic, and there are also parts of it that I can grasp intuitively.

——I think that is a wonderful way of thinking and perspective, which can be taken into consideration from either standpoint exactly because you have experience with both song composition and novel production. You create content thinking a lot about the message it will convey, don’t you?

Jin: Well, the rest is just letting the ideas run wild. Like, “I wonder what kind of theme song would get me fired-up”. I turn myself into a fan of those works or artists for a moment and think. It feels a bit different from the music I make for myself. There’s a different kind of fun and heat in that, and I think my work is about incorporating them into it.

■ The appeal of VOCALOID for Jin-san

——Jin-san, we would like you to tell us about what the appeal of VOCALOID is to you.

Jin: There might be a lot to it, but I thought being able to make a song that wasn’t yours but someone else’s without asking anybody, instead composing it as if it were your own, was revolutionary.

For starters, half of the people in this world can’t use a feminine voice. I think there are walls that are difficult to overcome due to people’s body structure. I was drawn in by the fact that a technology was invented in order to get rid of this. I was obsessed with that first-thing.

Also, if I were to give a decisive argument, I think there’s worth in the fact that it has no emotion. When you’re reading a novel, for example, all that is there is paper and ink. But I think you can definitely process the passionate things hidden in the depths of it. When it comes to songs, unlike novels, you can process things such as the emotions of the singer.

On the other hand, I wanted to create a story with music, so there was a moment where I didn’t want people to listen to it as something emotional. I guess we can say that it is, in a sense, an audio novel. I had the desire to make it something like a sung tale or a story with a melody.

I think I was able to give it a try back then exactly because VOCALOID was like a middle ground between synthesizers and human beings. If VOCALOID didn’t exist, even if I wanted to make a musical story or a series, I might have been like, “On second thought, I give up” along the way. I think this facet of VOCALOID is appealing as an extremely good trait.

It’s no longer a matter of surpassing it or not. There are things that even the human voice can’t reach, no matter what.

——Thank you very much.

[pergimelaut]

Books I read in 2020.

I was once platonically attracted to a friend. Not only did he tell me the name of the person he liked (not me, of course), but also the reasons why. I could’ve mentioned two or three, but one reason sank me in was, “Because she likes to learn.” He didn’t say that to offend me since that night was one of those meetings in which he is the spotlight of our conversations, yet I couldn’t help but feel offended. I thought, “That certainly can’t be me. I don’t like to learn.” I never did, actually.

It was a wake up call that, all this time, I had been stuck in the peak of Mountain Stupid, one of the stages of Dunning-Kruger effect—a phase where you were filled with nothing but arrogance and overconfidence, before the realization “you didn’t know anything at all” hit you like a bucket of cold water.

Well I didn’t change myself after that, though. But in my defense, I decided to read 70-something books in the third year of my student press organization’s membership (which I later failed) long before I had had the conversation with him. I had had my own reason at first, but whatever it was, it was slowly but surely shifted with an ultimate goal created due to that very night, “I want to like to learn.”

Long story short, I was able to read 33 books in 2020.

It’s nowhere near an achievement to be proud of, so I cancelled my plan to write about it and upload it on a platform where I could gain a higher chance he would read it. I know, I know, I shouldn’t seek validation from another person besides myself—after all 33 books were quite impressive for someone like me who don’t really like books, so I shouldn’t be embarrassed about it nor should I be disappointed with the fact that the plan must be cancelled as I was miserably failing, but, welp, so. Okay. In this post, I would like to tell you the books I read in 2020, sort by chronological order.

Yeah, I uploaded it on my personal blog instead, what a dramatic turn of events.

Manifesto Flora was the first book I read, finished it on 2 January 2020. I believe I started to read it on the last couple days of 2019, so it was kinda cheating. It’s a compilation of short stories. All of them were amazing but there was a short story that I really enjoyed titled “Bekas Teman Baikku”. The author had written a short story for a yearly student magazine organized by a student press organization I later joined.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez was an amazing novel it earned 5 stars on my Goodreads account. My teacher had been telling us about it as he taught magical realism in Creative Writing class. I finished it in three days—I remember those days where I didn’t do anything besides reading; I woke up in the morning and started to read. That was the only thing I did all day. It almost felt like reading was my hobby. (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

Hidup di Luar Tempurung was the third book I read. I wasn’t in the best mood to read at that time, but I pushed myself, ended up finishing it but also regretting it since I knew that this book deserved to be treated well. After that I read Bagaimana Tuhan Menciptakan Cahaya by Raka Ibrahim and O: Tentang Seekor Monyet yang Ingin Menikah dengan Kaisar Dangdut by Eka Kurniawan, ended up disliking both by simply because I didn’t enjoy them, I gave them 2 stars. 

Then, well. Global pandemic left me shell-shocked as everyone else, really.

One month nearly passed but thankfully I managed to finish the first e-book titled Filosofi Teras by the end of March. I liked the book at first, even for a short period of time I felt like I could rely on the book as I was trying to cope with anxiety, but turned out it’s a false hope since I simply couldn’t become that rational LOL. But topics about stoicism still got my attention though—perhaps it’d remain as something I could admire. Pulang by Leila S. Chudori was a really good book, another one with 5 stars. Later I learned that having 1965-ish as a setting for novels is mainstream, but since I hadn’t known that, it left me in awe.

Then I got tired.

I wasn’t in the mood to read any books, so I turned into Japanese books—my admittedly guilty pleasure. I read Naruto Secret Chronicles: Shikamaru’s Story: A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darkness, a light novel from Naruto based on Shikamaru’s perspective. Although I wouldn’t mention it as one of the books I read in 2020, it was surprisingly a good book. It taught me about Naruto’s universe beyond what I knew, such as politics and government involved. It helped set the mood, so I continued with Ichigo Doumei, another Japanese novel. It was a book mentioned in Your Lie in April, one of my anime recommendations. It’s a good, simple wholesome story that taught us to treasure the life we had. I disliked the female lead character, though—I still do.

I read Kubah by Ahmad Tohari, a novel my teacher once mentioned, which I dislike, and much hate later on, since it gave people wrong assumptions about PKI and what’s surrounding the 1965 tragedy. After that I fell into Kagerou Daze fandom where I spent a lot amount of time consuming the songs, manga, anime, and also light novels—making me successfully adding Kagerou Daze Vol. 3: The Children Reason, Kagerou Daze Vol. 4: The Missing Children, and Kagerou Daze Vol. 5: The Deceiving to my Goodreads’ bookshelf. The latter was my favourite among them. As I hyped with Japanese authors, I thought it was best to finish Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a Japanese novel I found from a post about, well, Japanese novel recommendations. It’s a fun experience; an enjoyable story with a heart-warming ending.

Four Japanese novels in a row brought me to cursed loop as I realized I had not “learned” enough. Whereas I did learn something with each Japanese novel I read, it wasn’t “learning” that I’d planned in the first place. 

August was a month where I thought, “Eh, maybe I like books,” because I read 8 books in one month. I read Setan van Oyot by Djokolelono, a book published by Marjin Kiri. The novel was well-constructed from the start to the middle part, but unfortunately NOT until the end. Another note: it didn’t bother giving us the translation of both the local and foreign languages used in the story, which is good! I also had the energy to consume Of Mice and Men, a classic book mentioned in Pulang. 

I had spent days in library and bookstore when I finished Hidup Begitu Indah dan Hanya Itu yang Kita Punya—it made me aspire to achieve the ability to write articles like Dea Anugerah, the author. I also read Ketakberhinggaan di Telapak Tangannya by Gioconda Belli which easily became one of my favourite books of the year.

I read The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, another book with a writing style I would aspire to achieve. It’s a good social-realism novel covering racism towards black people, the life of a curious little girl, a perspective from a blind-deaf man, and the socialist guy—everything was set around the 1930s, written by a brilliant 23-year-old woman. It has some translation issues, unfortunately. Then I continued with Kekerasan Budaya Pasca 1965: Bagaimana Orde Baru Melegitimasi Anti-Komunisme Melalui Sastra dan Film. I’ve been wanting to be able to convey my thoughts in a well-constructed thesis like what the book did.

Tango & Sadimin by Ramayda Akmal was the next, and it was enjoyable even though not satisfying—at least it helped me discover my tendency towards social-realism novels. Then I read Xenoglosofilia: Kenapa Harus Nginggris? by Ivan Lanin—it didn’t help me that much despite its educational contents, but perhaps I just didn’t find what I was looking for.

September was a shameful month as I didn’t read any books AT ALL. I planned to read at least one book per month, that’s why I set 12 books in my Goodreads. My goal wasn’t to read books, but to like them, so what I set up was simply the habit. Looking back at what I did—finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude—I could read book all day if I want to. But I want to become someone who, even if for a few pages, read books every day. And I considered myself failing when September passed without any finished books added to the list.

November came and I read El hablador by Mario Vargas Llosa, a book I had been desperately looking for that my friend finally lent to me. I gave them 5 stars because it greatly helped me in understanding indigenous people and how important it is to support their rights.

Then I desperately turned back to another Japanese novel, this time The Kudravka Sequence by Honobu Yonezawa. It successfully made me fall in love with one specific character because I feel represented, then I looked up Wikia and the synopsis of the next novels, and ended up disappointed LOL. I got tired again and read Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, a book which I couldn’t believe had written by the Seno Gumira Ajidarma LOL(2). Then in order to set up the mood, I bought my friend’s self-published short stories, Dongeng Sebelum Tidur: Kumpulan Cerita Pendek. It was the first time I added a book to Goodreads. I told her that I uploaded a review and gave her 5 stars. She was really happy and I too was happy because of it.

December approached as well as final exams. So many papers with short deadlines, and despite that, I read books instead on working with my papers—procrastinator as its finest, you see. I read two Agatha Christie’s books, The ABC Murders and Five Little Pigs, two novels I had really wanted to read in years. After exams passed, I somehow gained my energy back. I read Kisah Seekor Camar dan Kucing yang Mengajarinya Terbang by Luis Sepulveda, an enjoyable novella reminding us to take care of animals and protecting the environment from pollution. I wrapped up 2020 with two classic books, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

 Yup, that’s it!

Now that I’ve just tracked back all the books I read, I realize that my reading experience has its ups and downs. I ain’t good at keeping my mood stable to do the same activities  for a long period of time, and I earned the energy back by—apparently—switching into Japanese novels or light-themed books.

Long story cut short, I failed to read 70-something books. But I also recovered from the heartbreak I guess (LOL), and that’s good news! (Although maybe I forced myself to move on, since the goal was the indicator whether I’m worth it or not, and I failed.) (I shouldn’t have done that to myself, but I had no chance at all in the first place, though. That’s why if I could move on by setting an impossible goal, failed in the process, and helplessly gave up, so be it!)

Thank you for reading.

(And thanks to Anggy who beta read the post! <3)

[kagerou-heathaze-daze]

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Tagged by @waitingfox22​.  I too basically never post personal stuff - occasionally I’ll post game or anime screen caps, and even less occasionally cosplay pictures from conventions I attend.  But I was tagged so why not.

Name/Alias: Tonbo (we don’t have real names here this is Tumblr) Birthday: November Zodiac Sign: Scorpio Height: 5′4″ Hobbies: Video games, watching anime (its a good excuse to exercise).  I’ve started collecting art/figurines. Favorite Color: Green Favorite Book: Hard to say, but I really like the Drizzt Do'urden books by R.A. Salvatore Last Song I Heard: (I’m not sure but Youtube says) Haikei Goodbye Sayonara by DAOKO. Last Film I Watched: Blackfox (I thought it was going to be a series and was sad to learn it was just a movie- but it was good) Dream Job: TBH I’m pretty happy as a Programmer but they keep changing my darned title (I’m officially now a ‘Software Engineer’ but boy it seems like I do basically the same thing) Meaning Behind the URL: I usually go by Tonbo on the internet (hence my main blog is @tonboguntal​, which I pretty much picked ages ago - it is Japanese for dragonfly).  For this blog, I took inspiration from the anime Mekakucity Actors or alternatively the manga Kagerou Daze.  The Japanese word kagerou can be written as  陽炎 which translates as ‘heat haze’, so I stuck that in my name to make it more unique.  Coincidentally, kagerou can also be written as 蜉蝣 which translates as mayfly or dragonfly, and I’ve actually used it as an alternative alias online. Why I started my Tumblr: I was taking a college course on Digital Media and Tumblr was about 4 or so year, so as part of the class we made blogs and did some blogging.  A few years later I totally junked that entire blog and overhauled it to being this one - all the original content got trashed.  Now I run an anime/gaming junkyard.

I also have an about page: https://tonboguntal.tumblr.com/about I go through a bunch of stuff like what I’m playing, what anime I really like (it’s a bit out of date so there is a bunch of new stuff that’s missing - Rising of the Shield Hero and Kimetsu no Yaiba immediately spring to mind).

Not tagging anyone and I don’t have that many followers, but if you’re seeing this feel free to post if you feel so inclined...

[ayara-resara]

Full cover of new Kagerou Daze study book from preview on Pixiv:

Learning English Grammar with MEKAKUSHIDAN. 

It also include special CD with review talk by Momo & Hibiya (47 min).

Release: November 25, 2017

[recentanimenews]

Kagerou Daze VII: From the Darkness

By Jin (Shinzen no Teki-P) and Sidu. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Each volume in the series has competed to see who in the Mekakushi Dan has the worst childhood, and we may have a new winner with Kido, who gets the focus here. The book is divided into two parts that it goes back and forth between, like previous volumes in the series. The main story continues, with Shintaro, the Mekakushi-Dan and a newly revived Takane trying to find a way to stop Tateyama – or rather, whatever is behind Tateyama – and figure out how to stop this whole mess. This is interspersed with Kido’s childhood, being a child of an affair whose mother then dies several years later, causing her to be taken in by her rich father. Kido is an introverted self-hating mess, which honestly fits pretty well with what we’ve seen of present-day Kido, so the flashbacks work pretty well. Luckily, she also has a big stepsister looking out for her. Unluckily, this book is called “From the Darkness”.

Kido’s sections are the strongest in the book, doing a good job (despite the author’s self-deprecation in the afterword) of a realistic young girl resented by most people in the mansion, ignored by her father, and waiting to be abused by a sister that she’s sure hates her. But Rin does not, in fact, hate her, and after a series of painful to read but oh so accurate scenes of Kido wondering when the next blow is going to fall, she gradually begins to open up to the other girl and speak. Unfortunately, her dad is not merely cold and withdrawn, he’s rather unhinged, something which I wish was written in a slightly less abrupt way – the shortness of these books means that sometimes motivations get either left out or reduced to a villain monologue, and in this case it’s the later, as Kido’s father insanely expounds on why he went mad. After tragedy strikes, Kido finds herself in Azami’s realm, where Azami – rather startled to be meeting someone – realizes that Kido has one of her Eyes, and tries to explain as best she can. This section works much better.

Things don’t get much better in the main storyline, where we learn that you rarely gain a cool cyborg body without its creator having the ability to take the body over and turn it evil. Balanced against this is the reunion of Shintaro and Takane, who has to explain why she did what she did as Ene – which is fairly heartwarming – and why she ACTED like she did as Ene – which is the funniest part of the book. Unfortunately, while Shintaro’s plan to take out Tateyama is a good one, as I said, it reckons without one of the group being possessed. And so how we end the book with Shintaro dead, Kido dead, everyone else presumably about to die, and the realization that Book 8 not only may be the last but also isn’t out in Japan yet. This will have to satisfy Kagerou Daze fans for now, but I think it will do a fine job.

Also, will Seto ever get developed?

By: Sean Gaffney

[kageprountranslated]

Memorizing English Vocabulary with MEKAKUSHIDAN (High School Version) short story: Side Story 1

“Ahhh~…. it’s soo hot….”

Even trying to fan yourself with your hands doesn’t make enough wind to help.

I heard a rumor that a new limited edition Benny Salmon-chan strap would be released this summer. But it seems that it immediately sold out within 15 minutes of release, and I completely missed out…. This is the greatest mistake of my life.

As I’m wandering around with all this free time on my hands, I hear a familiar voice coming from the direction of the park.

“Ahhhhhhhhh, this is just unreasonable, unreasonable, unreasonable…. It’s so hot! Why am I even doing this…. ‘fair’ ‘kouseina’, ‘fair’ ‘kouseina’*....” “Keep fighting, Master!”

*He’s repeating the English word “fair” and the Japanese translation “kouseina”

There’s no doubt about it. That’s gotta be my brother and Ene-chan.

“Big bro, what are you doing….? You seem awfully suspicious….”

“Oh geez…. You --what are you doing out in broad daylight like this….?”

Ignoring my sweaty brother’s question, I look at the smartphone in his hand. There, as usual, is Ene-chan and…. Huh, English vocabulary….?

“Hi little sis! Master is in the middle of reviewing high school English vocabulary words~!”

“Ugh…. If I studied with Momo I’d never get to use my PC again in my entire life! Hurry up and give me the next word!!”

I watched as my brother yelled in a frantic manner, spit flying from his mouth.

Oh, I see. Ene-chan is messing with him again.

“Big bro, I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re okay, right?”

“I’m definitely not okay!! And well…. You should stop wandering aimlessly and go home.”

That said, my brother turned around to change direction, continuing to mutter as he left the park.

“....It’s another peaceful day today.”

I wonder if Ene-chan would help teach me too.

Prologue | Side Story 1 | Side Story 2 | Side Story 3 | Epilogue

[kageprountranslated]

Memorizing English Vocabulary with MEKAKUSHIDAN (High School Version) short story: Epilogue

Epilogue: In a Certain Summer’s Evening

4, 5, 1, 0, 4, 7, 1.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, TAP! There’s a light sound as I pound those numbers in a mere second and stab the enter key to stop. The annoying box sitting on the desktop that said “Please input the password” disappears.

My fingers moved without me even thinking, as naturally as breathing, because that number was so incredibly familiar to me.

“I won’t say anything anymore…. I have nothing to say, except that it’s hard to imagine there are any demons in this world as terrible as you….”

“What changed with you all of the sudden, Master? This is a good thing, isn’t it? Now you can safely get back to being all romantic with your PC!”

With no shame at all, Ene feigns a face that says “I’m puzzled.” The nerve she has is really…. Ugh, no. This transcends the realm of mere irritation, there’s nothing refreshing in my life anymore.

“So anyways, Master, you’ve done your best until now!”

After taking my PC (and the internet) that are as valuable to me as my life hostage, all of my precious hours had to be used up in exchange for that password. And after memorizing those English words, she only gave me hints using grandiose methods like Caesar ciphers. And after all of that the password that she set was “4510471 (I don’t work*),” which is the password I always use. When most people are bad, I don’t fuss. But she has an unmistakable talent for harassment.

(*4510471 can be pronounced as “shigoto shinai” in Japanese, which means “I don’t work”. Shintaro uses this same password in the Mekakucity Actors route)

“Well Master, so you’re breathless then? I used my brain, which I don’t usually use, at full power, so I had this crazy fever of psycho-developmental growth and…. Ahh! I don’t care if something happens to my precious Master…. But for myself, I’m starting to get a little worried!”

“Hey, hey. Why don’t you wrap your worry up in some tissue paper and stop casually dissing me?”

“It’s ridiculous to think I’m dissing you! Are you just stupid!?”

“It’s worse than just dissing me!”

Argh, oh no…. Talking to her I feel sweat gushing from every pore on my body….!

“Oh, that’s it! You perfectly memorized that much in just a few hours, but I’m a little taken aback. What’s really going on? Are you feeling a little jealous?”

She’s been tormenting me for several days in a row…. No, she just played with me for her own entertainment…. But I see Ene muttering terrible things like, “ahh, finally time to unleash….!” right as the feeling of relief begins to emerge in me meekly. “Ahh, that’s so dangerous…. Next time I think I’ll try something even more outrageous when I play with him….” The thought of this made me raise my head, and a reflex made a shiver go down my spine.

“No way, not that!”

Ene forced out a fake cough as she paused.

“If we don’t hurry up, the fireworks are going to start without us!”

“....Fireworks? Ahh, now that you mention it, I did say that we’d go.”

I feel like I haven’t seen something like fireworks in ages. Last year I earnestly thought, “I finally have friends in real life, let’s watch the explosions!” But as a result of an unexpectedly strong storm, we got news that the large-scale fireworks display had been cancelled. The bitter memory of Momo witnessing my distressed expression arises in me.

“Let’s go join everyone in the Mekakushi Dan quickly! I contacted them all while Master was busy moaning and groaning over English words!”

“Ahh, I get it, I get it. Wait just a little, I’ll get ready to go….”

Well, If I’m forced to admit it, I feel nothing but a strange sense of accomplishment.

There are plenty of excuses I could use like the crowd is too sickening for me to stand again, or that we could go see the fireworks some other day. But I guess it’s somewhat healthier than continuing to endure her usual harassment. With a constructive sense of accomplishment I abandon my duty as a shut-in and head for the fireworks show, as an immorally uplifting feeling wells up inside of me. Ene simply doesn’t notice as my cheeks are unconsciously raising into a smile…. Thinking about it, I put on my usual red jacket.

Prologue | Side Story 1 | Side Story 2 | Side Story 3 | Epilogue

[kageprountranslated]

Memorizing English Vocabulary with MEKAKUSHIDAN (High School Version) short story: Side Story 3

“Is that Coveralls-san there!?”

“Hey! Since you made me connect the earphones, don’t just switch to speaker mode on a whim….!!”

The break for my part time job was about to end as I used a towel to mop up my endlessly streaming sweat. A friend wearing a familiar red jacket stood there, sweating a lot himself.

“Oh, if it isn’t Shintaro-san! Is Ene-chan with you too today?”

Looking at the smartphone held in his hand, Shintaro-san turned the screen to me with an “ahh.”

In the middle of the screen a familiar blue-haired girl whirled around, happily spinning. Shintaro handed me one of the earphones and I put it up to my ear, hearing English words flowing with a satisfying tempo alongside Ene-chan’s voice.

Studying English even in such hot weather is admirable.

“Shintaro-san, are you studying abroad?”

If you throw someone a question meekly like this, the person will answer in a relaxed way.

“I’m not….”

“Eh? Then, why are you studying English?”

“That’s what I want to know the most….”

“Look, look, Master, let’s return home soon! Aren’t your hit points and magic points almost in the red zone? If you end up hospitalized we won’t be able to see the fireworks, so please stop!”

“If I have to shut myself in at home alone with just you and study English words, I’ll lose my mind.”

“Don’t worry, he’s okay! Master is just a suspicious person at the core!! Well Coveralls-san, see you again later!”

“Later? Ah, hmm, I’m not sure about that, but Shintaro-san, fight on!”

Right as I yell out that cheer, while I’m stretching my back and walking around, the alarm signaling the end of the break from my job sounds. I have to hurry back to my post.

Now then, another breath, don’t I want to do my best?

Prologue | Side Story 1 | Side Story 2 | Side Story 3 | Epilogue

[kageprountranslated]

Memorizing English Vocabulary with MEKAKUSHIDAN (High School Version) short story: Side Story 2

“Hey…. what’s that?”

When I followed Kido’s gaze, I saw a familiar red jacket walking down the sidewalk with a smartphone in one hand. His eyes are opened wide, his brow is covered in sweat, and he’s muttering something like it’s an incantation he’s chanting. He’s an unmistakably suspicious looking person. If we weren’t the ones to find him, it would have been strange if he didn’t get reported.

“Hey, Shintaro-kun! What are you doing?”

Speaking lightly, his pale face and tired body turns to me. “Ahh…. Kano….”

I’m just about to die looking at him.

When I peered into the screen, there was a familiar figure inside and a line of some nostalgic language I had a strong reaction against, although there had been a point in time when I was familiar with it.

“Eh, English?”

In an unexpected spectacle, a wild voice spontaneously calls out.

“Master! You’ve made it through one third of your quota at most, so please don’t look away, uh...., Cat Eyes-san and Leader-san! Hello.”

“Ene-chan, yahoo! What are you two doing?”

“Oh, you were listening to us!! As a matter of fact, Master is working on his rehabilitation into society program, while I’m in the middle of killing some time!!”

The girl inside the screen brags proudly.

“Ehh, oh really….”

He’s been turned into her plaything again, Shintaro-kun….

After seeing off those two, the reversed master and slave, we sped up a bit as we headed back to the hideout. It’s been unbearably hot these days. I want to hit the air conditioning quickly.

“It’s startling that the wave of globalization is closing in on a place like this….”

Kido pretended to be calm, but she said so with a voice that was more than a little shaky.

Prologue | Side Story 1 | Side Story 2 | Side Story 3 | Epilogue

[ayara-resara]

Cover and preview of new Kagerou Daze study book for high school:

Learning English Grammar with MEKAKUSHIDAN.

It also include special CD with review talk by Momo & Hibiya (47 min).

Illustration by Asahimachi.

Release: November 25, 2017

[ayara-resara]

Some photos of new Kagerou Daze study book - Learning Math with MEKAKUSHIDAN.

Illustrations by Asahimachi.

Release: October 16

[ayara-resara]

Full cover of new Kagerou Daze study book from preview on BookWalker:

Learning Math with MEKAKUSHIDAN.

Illustration by Asahimachi.

[ayara-resara]

Full cover of new Kagerou Daze study book from preview on BookWalker:

Learning Geography with MEKAKUSHIDAN. 

Illustration by Asahimachi.

[ayara-resara]

Full covers of new Kagerou Daze study books from preview on BookWalker:

Let’s Start Special Learning Method with MEKAKUSHIDAN (by Asahimachi)

Learning Science with MEKAKUSHIDAN (by Hakuri)

[ayara-resara]

Covers and preview of new Kagerou Daze study books for junior high school​ :

Learning Science with MEKAKUSHIDAN (Illustrations by Hakuri)

Let’s Start Special Learning Method with MEKAKUSHI DAN (Illustrations by Asahimachi)

Release: June 24