#magic meiji

[emeralddreamscomics]

Figured I'd practice drawing yokai, started with a kasa-obake

[sailor-brunette]

So! After so long,I FINALLY finished the Dance with Devils anime! I will now watch some more otome anime adaptations. But I will try my best not to take as long with watching them this time. And I will also continue playing Code Realize and hope and pray for more otome game localizations. That is all for now.

[shoujo-magical-girl-library]

*Fansub and Fan translation wishes *

Wanted to put a list together of stuff that I would love to be fan translated in the future (Anime Manga and novels)

Meiji Tokyo Renka: Yumihari no Serenade (2015) movie

Meiji Tokyo Renka Movie 2: Hanakagami no Fantasia 2016 movie

Rakudai Majo: Fuuka to Yami no Majo (2023) (movie)

Ochame na Futago - Claire Gakuin Monogatari / The Twins at st. Claire's

*1991

*26 episodes

The "fansub" available online is pretty hard to read (it's probably machine translated) the series just needs a better one

Magical pokemon journey

viz stopped putting out any volumes after volume 7 (a few English volumes/ chapters were scanned but the raws for all 10 volumes are easily findable online

Clémentine 1985

Original Language: French

*1985

*39 episodes

I've wanted to watch this series for years a Spanish dub is on YT if someone wanted to translate that instead of the original French

Crónicas de la Torre series (books 1-3) (book 4 is a prequel)

Original language: Spanish

(only the first volume was ever released in English (the valley of the wolves)

Ebooks are available in french and Catalan

Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs viz only published 17/22 volumes (5 volumes have yet to be fan translated)

Fairy Navigator Runa light novels (1-10) (paid translation job) contact @fairynavigatorluna if interested

[topazadine]

How to Kick Ass at Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding. You either love it and spend all your time dreaming up rules rather than writing, or you hate it and try your best to avoid it despite writing fantasy or scifi.

Or you are in the middle, which is where you should be. You have a healthy appreciation for what makes worldbuilding so special, but you also don't obsess over it.

Worldbuilding does not need to be complicated to be effective, as I've harped on a few different times now. So how do you strike the right balance? Let's take a look.

As always, this is just my opinion based on my own efforts creating The Eirenic Verses. You can disagree and that is fine. However, I hope you'll consider thinking about what I offer here as you craft your own world.

A lot of what people focus on when worldbuilding is not what the audience cares about.

Very few people like to read a book littered with random terms they have to keep track of. We want to build a unique world, but we also don't want to throw such an extreme amount of lore at our readers that they tune out.

When worldbuilding, we want to consider the cognitive load on our audience. This is how much information the reader needs to remember throughout your story so that they can follow along.

Cognitive load includes things like:

Character names and appearances

Relationships between characters

Place names, such as cities and countries

Unique mythological creature or fauna

Backstory, including mythology and folklore

Language names

The general plot (who is the protag, who is the enemy, etc)

Magic usage (who has the power, how they acquire it, any conditions it comes with, etc)

Power dynamics between characters, countries, and so on

Political systems, if included

Even in the most barebones fantasy story, this is a lot to remember. As such, we need to consider what is most important for our readers to generally understand the plot and emphasize this, letting the rest serve as background information that is not quite as essential. The more emphasis we put on something, the more we direct a reader's attention.

At the same time, we want to create a world that feels lived-in and interesting so that readers want to know more. How do we do this?

Consider what you think about foreign countries in our world.

Most of us will have a general concept of a country but only will think about the specifics if it is currently relevant.

Let's take Japan for an example. (I'm a bit of a weeabo, okay?) Here is what I personally think about when I imagine Japan, in order of what I consider important.

Japanese cuisine (sushi, ramen, ochazuke, sake, lots of rice dishes, seafood)

What the people are like according to my own stereotypes/cultural perceptions (polite, quiet, respectful, hardworking, punctual)

Climate and geography (temperate, island country, volcanos, mountains, beaches)

Unique flora and fauna (cherry blossoms, flowers, Nara deer, giant salamanders, pretty birds)

General landmarks, but not necessarily specifics (castles, temples, busy cities, red bridges, torii gates)

Clothing styles (kimonos, school uniforms, business suits, kawaii fashion)

Cultural icons (samurai swords, samurai armor, Shinto shrines)

General overview of the history (samurai, daimyo, feudal system, bushido, Meiji restoration)

Language, but not necessarily specifics of the language (Japanese, kanji, hiragana)

Religion (Buddhism and Shintoism)

Folklore (ghosts, kami, tsukumogami, evil spirits)

Any festivals I might know of (cherry blossom festivals, moon viewings, Obon)

Your own list may have these in a slightly different order, but it's probably what you most think about.

Notice that you will likely not think about these things:

Political system

Specifics of the language

Interpersonal hierarchies

International relations

Specific landmarks

Specific historical events

Famous figures

So why do we think like this? Because in real life, we also have a cognitive load that we must balance with things that are more relevant to our everyday lives.

If I tried to memorize specific details of every country in the world, I would go insane. I have better things to do, so I create a general image of a country based on pictures I've seen, people I've met, food I've eaten, and so on. You do the same thing.

To be realistic, you do not need to be specific. You need to approach worldbuilding the same way people generate their world knowledge: basic concepts and visual imagery.

What to emphasize in worldbuilding

So let's break this down on what you want to think about when creating a world.

Food is one of the most accessible elements of a culture.

Food is how many people learn about different cultures for a simple reason: if you have the ingredients, you can cook food from anywhere. You don't need to be introduced to it by a native of that culture.

Plus, humans tend to like food. We kind of need it to exist.

Think about these things when considering national cuisines and eating habits of your fantasy world:

Do they have spicy food? Bland food? Heavy hearty dishes?

Is most food served hot or cold?

What kind of spices and vegetables do they use? Root vegetables, beans, cinnamon? Salt?

What type of meat do people eat (if any)? Seafood, poultry, beef, pork?

How is bread prepared? What is it made of? (Look, nearly every culture has some sort of bread, we love carbs)

What about pasta? Does that exist here?

Are desserts important? What are they made of?

What kinds of drinks do they have? Coffee, tea, milk, lemon water?

Is alcohol a thing? What kind of alcohol? How often do people drink? Are there bars?

How often do people eat, and when? Do they have the typical three square meals, or do people eat kinda whenever they feel like it?

Do people prepare food at home or are there restaurants?

Are communal dinners common?

Cultural stereotypes provide tension and can help craft your characters.

Are people in your culture known for their boldness? Their cunning? Their resilience? Their standoffishness? Their fiery tongues, or their passive-aggressive jabs?

You can play with a lot of this, either confirming or denying the assumptions through your characters.

Landscape gives us an idea of where we are and what to expect.

Landscapes are some of my favorite aspects of worldbuilding rather than intricate magic systems and political concepts. Readers get a good sense of environment when you focus in on landscape and how it impacts the characters. You can also build a culture off your landscape, such as how certain geographic features may influence peoples' attitudes and lifestyles.

For example, a coastal landscape will have beautiful views of the ocean, sparkling beaches, and maybe tall cliffs. Being a fisherman may be seen as an honorable but dangerous profession. People might cliff dive for fun.

Mountainous areas may produce cultural enclaves, especially in a fantasy setting where everyone is more isolated. One mountain town may have a completely different vibe than the town over.

Flat, wide-open plains mean people can spread out, but since moving from one place to another is easier, there may be a more cohesive culture.

An area with caves will have a sense of mystery and fear; there may be a lot of superstitions about the caves.

A swampy area can also be very mysterious as there are so many places to hide out and a lot of dangerous animals.

Climate influences how people behave.

Hot climates make people need to conserve energy, so they may take afternoon naps in the worst of the heat. They might value relaxation and calm over industry and productivity because bro, have you ever tried to even walk outside in the Florida heat? Shut up and get me air conditioning.

Cold climates make people need to stay active to stay warm, but they can also produce a sense of isolation. Think about how outdoorsy the Finnish are but how they looove their personal space.

Temperate climates are probably a bit more even-tempered, but as weather changes get more extreme, people will vary their behaviors based on the seasons: spending more time outdoors during summer but holing up during winter. The culture may emphasize hospitality because people need to rely on one another to survive, and they have time to meet their neighbors during the summer.

I am very partial to temperate climates, being from the American Midwest. We're known for being nice and hardy people. You should come visit.

Flora and fauna help the world feel real.

When I worldbuild, I often base my cultures on a real place and what kinds of animals or plants are there. For example, Breme is based on Mongolia so I have herbivores, big raptors, and a lot of grasses.

A warm climate will have lots of reptiles. Sea life will be important in a coastal area. Swamps might have big predators. Mountains will have hardy creatures that can climb. A savannah area will have huge herbivores and fast, hungry predators.

General cityscapes or villages are great for providing a sense of place.

Do people build low spread-out cities or tall rickety homes? What kinds of building materials do they use? Are there lots of markets, bars, apocetharies, temples or churches? What do homes look like here? What are any unique architectural features?

This gives a sense that we are in a different but specific world that has a rich culture.

Clothing tells us what people prioritize.

Cold places will have lots of layers. Hot places will have soft draping outfits or very skimpy outfits. Natural materials that are easily available will make up the majority of the clothing in a fantasy setting. You wouldn't have people wearing cotton in a place that doesn't grow cotton. If there are lots of sheep, people will wear wool. If there's lots of cattle, people will wear leather.

You can also think about adornment. Is jewelry common? What type? Why is it important? Is it a status symbol, a way to keep wealth, or perhaps ways to honor ancestors?

Cultural icons demonstrate what the society values.

A warlike culture will prioritize weaponry. A pacifist culture will think about art and music. A nomadic culture may have a rich oral tradition. An agrarian society will emphasize farming rituals.

Think of a few things that symbolize your society, whether that's musical instruments, weaponry, textiles, statues, or jewelry. Consider how those traditions could have come about and why.

Folklore and mythology offer an offbeat but important sense of history.

Folklore is often tied up with many other factors of a society, such as their religion, landscape, history, and overall values.

For example, the Japanese believe items survive for over a century gain a kami, or spiritual essence. This shows that the Japanese cherish their long history and their material culture, and it also infuses their Shinto belief into folklore.

You can also think about cryptids or ghost stories. Isolated and difficult terrain often makes people think of monsters lurking in the woods. Areas with lots of caves will have myths about what is down there. Coastal areas develop myths about ghost ships.

Idioms, turns of phrase, and gestural quirks tell us more about the culture without overwhelming readers.

This one can be more challenging (I haven't done much with it) but if you can manage it, you'll have a very rewarding story.

I'm not talking about making a whole new language here, but rather about idioms and turns of phrase. Think about all the fun idioms that English has, like "beating around the bush" or "break a leg." Without cultural context, you can't understand them, so you'll have to incorporate an explanation without actually stating it.

For example, you can have a character say "the horses are running fast" as they look out the window to see a sheet of rain. We can guess from this that the idiom is rain = horses, so lots of rain = fast horses. We'll understand from this that this culture probably loves horses; maybe they're a formerly nomadic race.

Gestures, like whether people give thumbs-up, point with their index, or bow with their hands to their chest all give us a feeling of the culture without being overwhelming.

What not to emphasize

Now that we've gone through some things to focus on, let's talk about what you don't need to make up for your world.

A whole-cloth language

Please, you don't need to create brand new words for things that exist in our world. You can reference a language, but do not make people memorize nouns they don't need.

Don't even make up the language at all. Say there's a language and then write the rest of it in English.

Made-up languages are irritating for readers because they want to focus on the characters and plot, not mysterious words they need to translate.

It's possible to make languages interesting without going into specifics. For example, the Bas-Lag trilogy by China Mieville has a species that communicates in clicks but the species can also learn human languages if necessary. There's a language called Salt that's basically the common tongue blended from everything else.

Do we need to know how Salt works? No. Doesn't matter. We're told someone is talking in Salt, or they're learning it, or they switch to it when meeting someone from a different culture. That's plenty.

Specifics of a magic system

You're not going to instantly summon up all the rules of magical realms when you visit a new country; you might not even know them. And your readers won't be too interested in them either.

For example, in The Eirenic Verses, I have High Poetry. Readers will come to know that this was a magical system where certain people given the power can recite a poem and whatever they speak comes true. Every poem can only be used once.

It was given by the goddess Poesy to a specific woman, Saint Luridalr. It was so successful that the goddess started giving it to more women and a whole religious system arose.

I don't need to explain exactly how it works because no one cares. Someone makes things happen by coming up with a poem: that's about it. We don't need to question whether certain rhyme schemes or meter or punctuation impacts anything. That's too technical.

If you've got pages and pages of notes on all the intricacies of the magical system, you have too much. Pare it down.

Political systems

Unless you're writing a fantasy where politics are absolutely critical to the plot, you can just reference the political system in passing and maybe elucidate a few key elements, like who the leader is, how power is transferred, etc. You don't need to go into all the specifics because most people are not going to care.

Hierarchies

Please don't lay out the entirety of an army's ranking system or how someone is promoted. Make up something consistent and stick with it, but don't go into exhaustive detail. People aren't going to sit and question whether a captain is above a lieutenant or how long it takes to become a general.

We'll know that a general is a big deal if the characters make it a big deal. We'll know who the head of the army is but we don't need to know how they got to that position.

Exact city layouts

You do not need to tell us where everything is in relation to one another. Tell us characters are moving from one landmark to another. You could say "this is across a bridge, this is up in the mountains, these buildings are right next to one another, these two buildings are in opposite ends of the city." That's plenty.

If somewhere is very far away, just show them travelling there and how long it takes. You don't need to measure it in miles or leagues or whatever. We will guess that if it takes them a week to walk there, it's pretty distant.

Economic systems

We just need the basics here: mercantile, capitalist, bartering, etc. We don't need to know if the coinage is pegged to a certain precious metal or if people invest their money or how people are paid. That's boring.

In my world, I have two currencies: quillim for Breme and barnals for Sina. What's the exchange rate? I don't know and don't care. How much is one quillim worth? One quillim is not a lot but 2,500 quillim is. How much is the average person paid? Doesn't matter. Do people keep lots of coins on them? No one is asking that. It's not important.

Transit systems

Tells us if the roads are cramped, spread out, nonexistent, poorly maintained. Tell us if there are road blocks or toll booths. Tell us if there are roving bandits. The more physical and sensory you can get, the more real it feels.

Few people care about the specifics of even their own transportation system. I know highways are fast, I know tollroads are expensive, I know parkways are pretty, I know some cities have weird turnabouts and dead ends. That's exactly what I need and what I care about.

That's what I've got for you today. If you liked this, maybe you'll consider checking out The Eirenic Verses series, which follows most of these principles.

I've been told that my fantasy writing is very approachable, even for those who don't usually like fantasy, specifically because I don't get too insane with my worldbuilding. So maybe you'll enjoy it too!

[meichenxi]

which 'shoulds' can you get rid of?

I want to read non-fiction, but whenever I try, I can't remember shit. this is a Problem. I have since been diagnosed with both autism and adhd, and I realised that: this part of my brain is not going to magically get better.

this is Also a Problem.

to give you an extent of the Problem: during covid, I read the history of japan and a week later had forgotten every single era except the meiji one. To this day, I have absolutely no idea what happened in japan beyond that bill wurtz video. It’s got islands. It’s volcanoes. It had a shogunate. Uhhhh

it only occurred to me about two weeks ago to try audible. and it has completely changed my life.

I should be able to read non-fiction. I should read physically, because I read so quickly and it's such a waste of time to listen to audiobooks. I should read more. I should read. I should -

okay. but I'm now listening to 2+ hours of lectures on the history of china every day. I'm learning about mengzi, xunzi, weizi, han feizi, numerous philosophers I'd heard of and never interrogated more, because I couldn't read the damn books. I'm feeling curious about other things that I haven't felt curious about in ages - how did confucianism spread to other asian countries? how did buddhism change after it entered china? and even parts of later history I have never really been grabbed by: what actually happened in the sino-japanese war?

for the first time in years, I feel hope: that maybe, just maybe, this is the way to learn that works for me. (I'm also actually doing chores about the house, because I get bored of sitting still.)

what could you do, if you got rid of your 'should's?

[ebonyslasher]

Sorry if this is to specific

But can you do a thick user with demon slayer men? And when I say thick i mean like a pear body shape wide lower body parts and stretch marks I just don’t see a lot of writers do this body type

It's not too specific at all! Honestly, you could even give more detail than that and it'd still be okay. I chose the guys, since you didn't include which specific men you wanted.

Pear-Shaped Thick!Reader with Demon Slayer men:

Tengen Uzui

"What a flashy figure...!"

Tengen is enchanted by your looks. Your hair, skin, and fashion were so distinctive from the area. He was bored with the Meiji era standard of beauty. How were you going to be flashy if you looked standard?! He finally found another person that would understand his plight.

As expected, he's quite vocal with his appreciation. How could he NOT be? You were cool and extra fine; someone worthy to be apart of his harem.

"Y/N, you're just as stylish as ever!"

"Whoa! Be careful throwing that flashy figure around, you might just make people faint!"

The people he's referring to is his wives. They are also avid fans of you. What? You thought he would faint? And miss looking at that awesome body of yours?

He certainly did not want to miss seeing your smooth skin, enriched with lovingly patterned strikes that covered your cute hanging stomach, ass, and thighs. He bit his lips at the thought of touching your soft body. Cuddling with you would be heaven on earth. You were beautiful and beginning to be a wonderful possible addition to his marriage.

Giyuu Tomioka

Characteristically, your shape is not the first attribute Giyuu noticed. He paid more attention to your face and how you acted during your introduction. Once his attraction to you becomes more apparent over time, that's when he pays attention to your body.

He's overwhelmed. How could he handle all that? He isn't a confident man. The only time his confidence shows is in his fighting and training, slightly. Not in romance, much less sexual interactions. He employs a secret style training...calls it Sex Breathing. It targets his arms, hips, and legs in order to handle your bottom heavy size.

One time, he accidentally watched you when you were changing. It was a small moment before he forcefully turned his head away. But Tomioka did not miss that you had stretch marks adorning your thick thighs. Giyuu became addicted to the memory, wishing he could have had the audacity to watch you fully undress.

Your figure could not be hidden by your clothing, much to his combined glee and chagrin. He loved that he could see it, but hated that others could enjoy your lovely figure too.

Gyomei Himejima

Gyomei, respectable and pious as he is, privately succumbs to his dirty thoughts after you both start dating. He'd felt your bottom heavy figure against his body after the first hug. The feeling of that soft stomach and thick thighs stuck in his memory. The hulking young man begins to pray.

"Kami, as these straying thoughts plague my mind, i must ask that the gods keep me afloat. But, I must thank them! Only they could construct a being such as Y/N! I will not ignore this obvious blessing to my life!"

Gyomei will not make it known of his thoughts on your figure, keeping his comments to himself. He makes the effort to not make you uncomfortable, not wanting to scare you off. Once you let him know that it's okay, he is more free with his thoughts.

He strongly desires to hold you daily, his hands ache to travel down your pear-shaped figure in glee. You felt so soft. Gyomei wanted to cuddle to feel his hard muscles against your supple form. It's always a blessing when he's able to. Each time is more magical than the last.

Gyomei, selfishly, makes you describe your stretch marks to him. As poetic as possible, to paint the perfect picture in his head.

Sanemi Shinazugawa

It was rough journey getting past Sanemi's tough exterior. Many times you wanted to give up on your odd pursuit of this mean ass hashira. But, it was obvious his act protected himself and others, albeit extremely harsh. You knew something sweet lied past that facade.

And your intuition was correct. After you broke him down with your endless flirting, he started to bite back. In his own special way, of course. It starts with:

"I'm not staring!"

To

"Just cause you're shaped like that doesn't mean you can say whatever you want."

To

"Sometimes looking at you calms me down...but excites me in a different way.."

Sanemi felt drunk whenever he was with you. The sight of you makes his heart race. Your pear shaped figure was something he could not ignore. Trust and believe, he has tried many times. It was as if your body called out to him, instructing him to look. Much to his embarrassment, it did not take long for him to relent to the voice and stare. He was always in a different plane of existence when you came into the room. It annoyed him to no end.

Sanemi was speechless when he first laid eyes upon your unclothed form. His eyes gravitated up and down the electric marks that blessed your appearance. You had never seen him so affected.

[yarrayora]

so like khr didnt bother being historically accurate i mean why would they? it's basically an urban fantasy manga about mafia fighting with magic flame

but realistically Vongola would have been around since 19th Century, which means in Japan it's nearing if not already the Meiji era. So, Asari might be a Shinto priest! but considering that he was definitely meant to be a Heian era nobility there's only one conclusion to make if we want to make it make sense in-universe: he was fucking with Giotto and friends

all those stupid Vongola's celebratory traditions Reborn introduced to them? it happened because Giotto asked Asari what he did for new year in Japan and Asari just fucking lied to him for fun

[rollingsim]

Associations for Yuki

Tagged by @sikoi, @lilypixels, @gleamer 💙

ANIMAL: Doberman pincher

COLORS: blue, red, black

MONTH: November

SONGS: Everything BoZ by Trippie Redd, Sky by Playboi Carti, 20 min by Lil Uzi Vert

NUMBER: 9

PLANTS: Pothos

SMELLS: yall remember how old abercrombie used to smell probably like old spice deodorant ngl

GEMSTONE: topaz

TIME OF DAY: 9:00PM

SEASON: Winter

PLACES: nightclubs, aquariums, all you can eat sushi restaurants

FOOD: beef teriyaki don

DRINKS: Sapporo beer and mango juice

ELEMENT: Oxygen

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS: Scorpio 🦂

SEASONINGS: soy sauce, hot sauce

SKY: Overcast

WEATHER: Cold

MAGICAL POWER: loyal to a fault

WEAPONS: swiss army knife and handguns

SOCIAL MEDIA: instagram (to lurk)

MAKEUP PRODUCT: moisturizer

CANDY: meiji chocolate mushrooms

METHOD OF LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL: Plane

ART STYLE: MMA combat (his body is his art)

FEAR: alienating the people he cares about

MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE: ghost

PIECE OF STATIONARY: fine line ballpoint pens

THREE EMOJIS: 💢🎧🔫

CELESTIAL BODY: Antares

tagging: @lazysunjade, @kazuaru, @amuhav, @bunmou

[emeralddreamscomics]

Sometimes when a client requests help, it turns out that they're dealing with a serious yokai threat. Other times... it's just a silly kasa-obake.

[doctorbunny]

The mission to track down (most of) the locations in Ai Nan Desu Yo!

Firstly, I want to thank @archivalofsins /Gunsli-01, this whole thing started because of us DMing, wondering if we could use the background images in Mahiru's first MV to guess which university she went to, that started this whole adventure. By the end of this saga, the process truly was a collaboration too and i would've given up much sooner (sorry for taking so long to write this up!)

It started here. The caption says Mahiru is sat on the 大学のテラス (University terrace). So we figured this was the best shot to find her uni. Gunsli tried reverse image search but it just kept throwing milgram back at us. So I got an idea:

The magic of photo editing! it worked too and I got this back:

That's right! This isn't a university but a pizza place! Specifically one called 800 ディグリーズ ナポリタン ピッツェリア (800 degrees Neapolitan pizzeria) It is right next to two universities however:

Of these two, I speculate Aoyama Gakuin University is more likely to be Mahiru's as they have a large humanities department and an option to take Chinese language classes (interestingly, it is also a Very Christian university and we know from question 19 of Mahiru's trial 1 interrogation, she believes people go to Heaven when they die. There is also a lot of focus on international students and the campus nearest the pizza resturant has a 'statue of Love' in the Majima Archives building)

Inspired by this fruitful discovery I decided to try my method on other photos:

I jumped all the way over to day 13 because I felt like the sign would aid in my search. Before I bothered with any photo editing I just did some google searches "Tokyo Marun-" I got the autofill result 'Tokyo Marunouchi hotel' after investigating it wasn't the right place but we had a location name "Marunouchi" Trying again I typed "Tokyo Marunouchi Street" Autofill gave me "Marunouchi Street Park": Bingo!

This must be some kind of iconic sign because there were a ton of results for it. The bad news is that the sign was portable and only placed out for special events. So I introduce the next weapon in my arsenal: Google Streetview With a street to work with I walked up and down Morunouchi Naka-doori avenue until I got to a building with similar square pillars to the one behind Mahiru

This place is the MyPlaza, it's got a couple different shops, but importantly there is a function room you can rent out for events just like the wedding reception Mahiru attended here. This one turns out to be further away than some of the other discoveries but it makes sense because Mahiru is travelling to an event, not on a date.

Back to photo editing! This is one of two shrines I'll identify, they become important as they get special icons on google maps, becoming landmarks to search around later.

This is the Meiji Jingu Shrine

I was on a roll so quickly moved to day 14, however, my editing trick wouldn't work here so it would only be later that I uncovered the location of the park

Searching for day 11 was much more fruitful

I was really excited to track this one as Mahiru mentions it being the filming location for her favourite movie. So I thought if we could discover that, then we may unlock more clues about her as a person

I got about this far before realising I could try a different tactic. If this was a well known spot, surely in my broken Japanese I could google it right? So with a little help of my dictionary I spat out "Tokyo red hand railing movie". Somehow this barely worked

The movie? Your Name

At this point I was rolling on the floor laughing because I had been expecting some Japanese cult classic romance movie or a domestically popular but internationally obscure rom com meanwhile Your Name was a massive box office smash hit in many places. One of the few anime movies that even non-anime fans will be aware of.

Despite this, I hadn't actually seen it myself and wasn't really in the mood to watch it (I had more locations to track down, dammit) but fortunately Gunsli came in clutch, having previously seen the movie and also in the mood to rewatch it for clues about Mahiru.

These stairs are actually at a place called Suga Shrine, making this our second landmark. (Fun fact: if you look it up you'll find pictures of movie fans recreating photos of the place)

We were starting to build up an idea of Where Mahiru's world was, the border between Shibuya and Shinjuku ward. There were several parks in the area, so I figured I'd set out to find the day 14 park location by searching through each one. I was worried this would take a while but when I started with the biggest park, Yoyogi, I basically hit jackpot right away. Immediately upon seaching it, google recommended me results for images of the park at night. It turns out that Yoyogi had a large area used for concerts (that also may have been used for movie nights). By chance, I found this image from the park at night

which looks awfully similar to the lamp/benches seen in the background of day 14... According to Gunsli, the nearby yoyogi station is featured in an important scene in Your Name, so that's another thing pointing towards them being in this park. It's not solid evidence but we'll come back to this later.

At this point I'm both hyped up and bored, so to amuse myself and just to see if I can, I decide to search for the place Mahiru's boyfriend is working at in day 8

At first I had written it off as pointless to even try searching, but Gunsli noticed that in the top left corner you can see a hint of the store's sign. It is the same colours as a Seven Eleven (a chain that exists both in the US and Japan) This greatly narrowed down my search, as it ruled out the many Family Marts and Lawsons in the area (I cannot stress how many convenience stores there are in Tokyo) Unfortunately, there were still many 7/11s to search through and thus leads to the several hours I spent on google maps, individually going to each 7/11 in Shibuya and trying to look for those bike racks, floor tiles and old security camera. It was demoralising. But when hope was nearly lost and I almost gave up (there was a heat wave outside so my brain was melting during this). Gunsli reminded me of something very important. On day 8 we get two images, the above of Mahiru waiting outside the 7/11, and one of her sat on a park bench. If we were right about the day 14 park being Yoyogi, then surely our 7/11 would be in walking distance? The search began again. The third 7/11 I found near the park was it.

In one fell swoop I had confirmed both day 8 and 14. In celebration I made a tumblr post

Now, at this point I'm running out of images to search for because a lot of the locations in Ainan are indoors, meaning they could be taken from a studio or even one of the milgram crew's homes (which isn't actually uncommon) and thus, not a relavent location. I did half heartedly attempt to look for the day 9 bar, but as you can imagine, without any external landmarks it was even more of a goose chase than the 7/11...

The last location I decided to look for was all the way back in day 5

This edit was pretty tough to make so i was very annoyed when it didn't work. By this time it was late at night, but Gunsli had a hunch that this would be a well known running route, so started looking for those. By the time I'd woken up, she got it down to a route called the Imperial Palace Running Route, which is very popular (especially with tourists, it is recommended to give it a go if you're in the area)

I found it on streetview by following road signs seen in a video of someone running the route Gunsli found (the part in Mahiru's video appears at about 1:35)

It's an area called Takebashi and here is a screenshot both of what we saw in ainan, as well as what Mahiru would've seen in the direction she ran (the route loops back on itself)

Ok I'm tired it's 1 am, finally here's a really rough map of everywhere in relation to each other

An interesting thread throughout is that many of these places are sort of tourist-y, suggesting Mahiru's boyfriend may not be from Tokyo either. The university (assuming I'm guessing the right place) taking in lots of international students and Mahiru's boyfriend working at a 7/11 (which Japanese people can do but is also Stereotypically the part time job of choice for people from outside Japan while studying) could perhaps even hint to him not being Japanese, but it's all speculation right now

I hope you enjoyed this long rambly mess, I'm so sorry it took me so long to write it all up....

[sailor-brunette]

So...I just finished the Magic Kyun! Renaissance anime. I plan to watch more otome game anime adaptations,despite them being...not as good as the games...but hopefully,someday,these games will be localized too. Jack Jeanne is being localized this year so maybe there’s hope for Broccoli’s other otome games. Here’s hoping!

[variouspolltournaments]

Submissions for the Otome Heroines Tournament.

Submit an Otome Heroine, along with where they come from and (if you want) propaganda through ask or submit a post.

They must be from an actual otome game, otome isekai heroines do not count. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page here.

Top 6 submissions are the ones I submitted myself.

@tournament-announcer

Submissions in bold have propaganda, submissions not in bold do not have propaganda. Whether they do or do not have some already, you are still free to submit some.

All Tournaments can be found on my pinned post. There you can see the ones that have been completed, the ones that are currently running, the ones that are pending and the ones that have submissions open.

SUBMISSIONS:

Rin/Chihaya: Yoshiwara Higanbana

Angelique Limoges: Angelique

Chizuru Yukimura: Hakuouki

Lucette Riella Britton: Cinderella Phenomenon

Morgan Leone: Gilded Shadows

Mai Mizusaki: Ikemen Sengoku

Sian Goodin: Backstage Pass

Kayo: Ken Ga Kimi

Alice Liddell: Heart no Kuni no Alice

Teuta Bridges: Bustafellows

Julia Darwin: Shall we Date? Love Tangle+

Valerie Amaranth/Diamond Heart: Magical Warrior Diamond Heart

Hiyoko Tosaka: Hatoful Boyfriend

Nora Lewis: Changeling

Tifalia: Radiant Tale

Byakuya/Olympia: Olympia Soiree

Heroine: Amnesia

Kisa Tachibana: Jack Jeanne

Anastasia Lynzel: Even If Tempest

Ceres: Virche Evermore

Hiyori Sena: Charade Maniacs

Lynette Mirror/Cupid: Cupid Parasite

Kotone Awaki: Café Enchanté

Mei Ayazuki: Meiji Tokyo Renka

Luna: Love Spell: Written in the Stars

Cardia Beckford: Code: Realize

Yui Kusanagi: Kamigami no Asobi

Haruka Nanami: Uta no Prince-sama

Yurika Arisu: Taisho x Alice

Little Painter: Lovebrush Chronicles

Ichika Hoshino: Collar x Malice

Beniyuri: Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly

Jed/Eiar: Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk

Liliana Adornato: Piofiore

Youran: Mr Love Queen's Choice

Iris: Moon Observatory Iris

Nanami Shiranui: Norn9

Koharu: Norn9

Mikoto Kuga: Norn9

Rinka: Bad Apple Wars

Rosa: Tears of Themis

Yui Komori: Diabolik Lovers

Hibari Tojo: Variable Barricade

Fuka: Ozmafia

Adami Adashino: Homicipher

Ciel: Moon Observatory Ciel

anholly: Moon Observatory Anholly

kate: Ikemen Villains

Emma/Belle: Ikemen Prince

Alice: Ikemen Revolution

Mitsuki: Ikemen Vampire

Chika: Ikemen Live

Enju Ueno: Nightshade

Akane Koizumi: Gakuen Club

JB: XOXO Droplets

Misa Isshiki: 9RIP

Ami Akashi: Him, the Smile & Bloom

Fuuka Haruyoshi: Him, the Smile & Bloom

Serina Aoki: Him, the Smile & Bloom

Miku Yukihira: Him, the Smile & Bloom

[the-real-maglev]

touhou but they're stand users

Reimu Hakurei: [Maiden's Capriccio]

Marisa Kirisame: [Master Spark]

Mima: [Reincarnation]

Sariel: [Civilization of Magic]

Shinki: [Infinite Being]

Rumia: [Apparition Stalking the Night]

Hong Meiling: [Meiji 17]

Patchouli Knowledge: [Locked Girl]

Sakuya Iyazoi: [Flowering Night]

Remilia Scarlet: [Septette for the Dead Princess]

Flandre Scarlet: [U.N. Owen]

Wriggle Nightbug: [Autumn Moon Stirring]

Reisen Udongein Inaba: [Invisible Full Moon]

Fujiwara no Mokou: [Immortal Smoke]

This is mainly just an excuse for me to test how well Touhou song titles can be morphed into Stand names, to varying degrees of success. This was also birthed from how Zun has apparently said that Jojo was the main influence of Touhou abilities, which I can very much see in things like Reisen's wave manipulation.

[windandwater]

Tokyo, Japan: Meiji Jingu Inner Garden Azaleas

This part absolutely took my breath away. It was so beautiful I was tearing up. I can't help but fall in love with a place and people that loves plants and flowers so much.

I've never seen such a magical azalea garden. I think it was designed and grown by people who love these flowers and want you to fall in love with them, too. What higher praise can I possibly give?

[leapdayowo]

Meihua design exploration

I used a class assignment as an opportunity to explore designs for my oc Meihua (formerly called Lovis). The final pose wasn’t as compelling as I would have wanted, but I was on a time crunch :P Also I really like Meihua so there will be more drawings/paintings of them in the future :3

Here’s the inspiration board I put together:

for those interested, here’s some thoughts on the process of getting to this design:

here was the design I had before this assignment for context

I loosely had been inspired by aoqun hanfu and bijia and going into the assignment I knew I wanted to look more into these garments and styles.

Meihua’s lore is that they were once part of a sentient flame that ate away at a mountain/forest, but one day the flame got cut off from the rest and slowly burnt down to a charred plum blossom log. This log came to life due to these flames and Meihua came into existence in a new form. The magical fire still burns within them, but not nearly as hot and strong (embers/hot coals) and so Meihua is always seeking warmth while trying to avoid burning up or their internal flame being snuffed out. I wanted their body to be humanoid but not perfectly human-like since they were once a tree. That’s why the aoqun sleeves are fitting because they are wide enough to accommodate the irregular shaped limbs. I also imagine that Meiji was taken in by a husband of a wealthy merchant who had a collection of clothes for Meiji to choose from

One thing I realized was that when logs char they crack in a way that resembled how bird feathers were drawn in Chinese artworks and could also look like horns, so I played around with that idea. The tail was not a planned addition, but I really liked the tail designs on creatures in Chinese art so I felt joy when adding it and felt that was reason enough to include that feature. Another thing I noted were the demon eyes. They are very striking and when drawing them they walk a fine line between spooky/uncanny and cute which I found very fitting for Meihua since they are not really a being that should exist but does (and they are not a malicious being).

As I keep working on their design, I think I want to get back to a bit more friendly look while not completely getting rid of their uncanny/spookiness. I also liked idea of them wearing a hat and fur trim to stay warm (reaffirm that they are almost always cold). As much as I like the horns in the final design, I think they need to be shorter because as they are they make Meihua look older and more wise, which is something fitting for the end of their character arc not the start

[shimmerloid-ai]

Introduction - Vocal Synth Terminology - Part 1

This post will be split into multiple parts due to Tumblr's character limit.

If you are new to the Vocal Synth community, you may encounter some words and phrases you don’t understand. For instance, someone may tell you about Rin and Len’s appends, and you may confuse that term for the difficulty in Project Sekai! Colorful Stage! Or may have heard someone discussing USTs, but can not find its definition anywhere nor figure out what the hell they are talking about.

Well, I made a dictionary of sorts to help newbie fans get used to Vocal Synth jargon. The keyword is “Vocal Synth” as these apply to other software as well. These definitions have a greater focus on the programs themselves than the characters.

Credits to Vocaloid Wiki and Minnemi on YouTube for some of these definitions.

Vocal Synthesizer: A digital instrument that creates tracks like any other DAW, but instead of piano notes, guitar strums, or drum beats, you compose vocals! Also known as “vocal synths”. Examples of vocal synthesizers include VOCALOID, UTAU, SynthesizerV, CeVIO, and Piapro Studio.

Voicebank: A collection of recordings of the sounds that make up a language. These sounds are typically vowels and constants, but depending on the voice bank, you may also get breath notes and pronunciation effects. Or, in simpler terms, the singers that are used in vocal synths! There are ton of voicebanks in the vocal synth community, with some of the popular ones being Hatsune Miku (VOCALOID + Piapro Studio), Kagamine Rin and Len (VOCALOID + Piapro Studio), Megurine Luka (VOCALOID + Piapro Studio), Kasane Teto (UTAU + SynthesizerV), Megpoid Gumi (VOCALOID + SynthesizerV + A.I. VOICE, FineSpeech Ver3), flower (VOCALOID + Gynoid Talk + CeVIO), IA (VOCALOID + CeVIO), and KAFU (CeVIO + SynthesizerV)! Individual vocal synth characters can also have different versions of their voice, such as Yuzuki Yukari’s Onn (soft) and Lin (power) voicebanks!

Voice Provider: The person whose voice that a voicebank is created. Voice providers record samples of their voice (specifically vowels and constants) at a certain key (for instance A3), which are turned into a voicebank with the company’s black magic (I’m kidding, I don’t know how they process and put the vocals together). For instance, PIKO is Utatane Piko’s voice provider, Satoshi Fukase is Fukase’s voice provider, and Naoto Fuga (shown below) is KAITO’s voice provider!

Crypton Future Media: The brains behind some of the most popular VOCALOIDs, which are Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, Megurine Luka, KAITO, and MEIKO. Aside from voicebanks, they created games, concerts, merchandise, and much more relating to these beloved VOCALOIDS! Cryptonloids are… VOCALOIDS created by Crypton. Soon, Crypton departed from Yamaha and made its own vocal synthesizer in affiliation with another company called Piapro named Piapro Studio. There are two versions of this software; Piapro Studio NT and Piapro Studio V4x.

UTAU: A vocal synthesizer that is considered the “sister” software to VOCALOID. Unlike VOCALOID, this software is 100% free and you can create your own voicebank. There are thousands of UTAUloids at this point in time, giving you a huge selection of different ranges and strengths. Popular UTAUloids include Utatane “Defoko” Uta, Kasane Teto, Namine Ritsu, Momo Momone, Yowane Ruko, Sukone Tei, Rook, Gahata Meiji (shown below), Yamane Renri, Matsudappoiyo, Keine Ron, Kohaku Merry, Gekiyaku, Kazehiki, Adachi Rei, Ooka Mika, and so many others! There is also an open-source version of UTAU called Open UTAU, which is much easier to install and use (it has a dark mode!). Vipperloids are the classic UTAUloids that share surnames ending with “-ne” and their VOCALOIDish designs. These include Utatane “Defoko” Uta, Kasane Teto, Namine Ritsu, Momo Momone, Yowane Ruko, Sukone Tei, and many others.

SynthesizerV Studio: Also known as SynthV, this is a vocal synthesizer made by Dreamtonics that is well-known for its AI voicebanks. For a software that is smaller than VOCALOID, they are extremely advanced with realistic-sounding voicebanks, piano-roll tuning, rap vocals, and so many other features. It’s also much cheaper (thank you, Yamaha money sharks). In addition, Dreamtonics has two free versions; SynthesizerV Studio R1, and SynthesizerV Studio Basic R2. Popular SynthV voicebanks include Eleanor Forte, Kaorou Rikka, GENBU, Tsurumaki Maki, SAKI, SOLARIA, KEVIN (fan design by ivylare shown below), Stardust, ROSE, POPPY, and Kasane Teto Ai!

CeVIO Project: A collection of voice synthesizers created in collaboration with five different companies including Techno Speech and Frontier Works. Not only do they make vocal synthesizers, but their softwares have speech interfaces as well. As of now, their most popular program is CeVIO AI, a next-generation vocal synthesizer that uses AI technology to create powerful vocals as seen in SynthesizerV. Popular voicebanks include Chis-A (shown below), KAFU, Sato Sasara, IA AI, ONE, Yuzuki Yukari Rei, CiFlower, POPPY, ROSE, and many others.

Tuning: Essentially how you want a song or cover to sound. By editing the parameters of the individual notes and that of the voicebank itself (including the pitch, volume, strength, sharpness, and breaths), you can obtain an entirely different result of how the singer sings the encoded notes through different methods. This blog is dedicated to teaching people how to tune, so I’ll show a variety of tuning styles in the software.

V_: The VOCALOID software edition. As of now, there are six editions of the software, which are VOCALOID, VOCALOID2, VOCALOID3, VOCALOID4, VOCALOID5, and VOCALOID6. A lot of VOCALOID voicebanks would be named after the edition they were designed for, such as Gackpoid V4.

VSQ/VSQx/VPR/UST/SVP: The different vocal file formats through which the note, lyric, and tuning data are saved in different vocal synthesizers. These files are not exactly specific to a single editor as they can be converted to the appropriate formats: 

VSQ: VOCALOID2 and VOCALOID3

VSQx: VOCALOID4

VPR: VOCALOID5 and VOCALOID6

UST: UTAU and OPENUTAU

SVP: SynthesizerV Studio

Phonemes: In linguistics and developmental psychology, phenomes are the smallest sounds of speech that distinguish one word from another. Similarly, in vocal synths, these are the building blocks of the individual lyrics that are read by the voicebank. Phonemes differ from the lyrics in a vocal synth file as the lyrics are the actual syllables in language while the phonemes are based on the X-SAMPA system. For instance, let’s examine and compare lyrics from “The Lost One’s Weeping” by neru to the phonemes that would be written in a vocal synth. Romaji lyrics (Source - Vocaloid Lyric Wiki): kokuban no kono kanji ga yomemasu ka? Romanji lyrics in VOCALOID4: [ko] [ku] [ba] [n] [no] [ko] [no] [ka] [n] [ji] [ga] [yo] [me] [ma] [su [ka] Phonemes in a vocal synthesizer VOCALOID4: [k o] [k M] [b a] [n] [n o] [k o] [k a] [n] [dZ i] [g a] [j o] [me] [m a] [s M] [k a] As we can see here, the phonemes of a song can differ significantly from the lyrics that are entered into a program. You can also edit the phonemes of a lyric for better pronunciation (for instance, for the word “you’d”, you can try [y M d]), or split them up into vowels and constants in notebending. In addition, there are entirely different phonemes for voicebanks designed for different languages; for instance, VOCALOID has Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish voicebanks. However, it is possible to make voicebanks sing in different languages, like how Utsu-P makes Miku V4 English sing in fluent Japanese. There are also phonemes for breaths, and glottal stops, as well as pronunciation effects that are exclusive to some voicebanks, like Enhanced Voice Expression Control (E.V.E.C.) in the V4x Cryptonloids. I will go into greater depth on phonemes in a future post.

Pitch bending: The effect where one note slides to another in a clean fashion without sounding flat. When people usually mention pitch bending in a vocal synth, they are referring to the tuning style where you alter the pitch using the “pitch bend” and “pitch bend sensitivity” parameters. If you have seen tuning streams or covers where people show their editors, you may have noticed dynamic and sometimes dramatic lines either on top of the notes or in a box beneath the piano roll. These are pitch bends! By drawing pitch curves in different ways, you can acquire different ways the notes are sung. You can then increase or decrease the pitch bend sensitivity of certain notes to change the factor of how many semitones the pitch curves will jump or fall by when the pitch bend parameter is brought to the maximum or minimum values. To paint a better picture of this concept, I made a quick VSQx of the "watashi" ([w a] [t a] [S i]). The curves on cutting through the green box are my pitch bends, and the thin red line running through the notes is the result. The transparent box behind it is my pitch bend sensitivity, which I increased for more sensitive in the [w a] and [t a] notes, and decreased for less for the [S i] phoneme.

Note bending: A tuning style where you manipulate the pitch by splitting notes into smaller notes. You can move the notes up and down or edit the phonemes to obtain different effects in notes. If you would like to breakdown the phrase [w a] [t a] [S i], you can write the notes out as [w a] [a] [a] [a] [a] [t a] [a] [S i [i] [i]! This is my preferred method of tuning as I do not enjoy drawing lines and like the nostalgic effect of the clean, slightly robotic sounds.

Portamento Timing: This term can have multiple definitions, but the general meaning is a slide from one note to the next. Do not confuse this for pitch bending as the way that notes transition in portamento is different from the former. In Vocaloid, portamento is a parameter that allows you to alter the timing of the pitch. Increasing the value would result in the pitch being more delayed, and decreasing it will cause the pitch to be sung earlier. In UTAU and SynthesizerV, portamento refers to the editable points in a pitch curve. Adding more points allows you to have more freedom in creating pitch bends.

Pitchsnap Mode: A setting in vocal synthesizers that causes the pitch curves to “snap” from one note to another. This setting yields a more autotuney and robotic tone in tuning. While I prefer to tune with this feature shut off, I have heard that the pitchsnap function makes pitch-bending much easier. Remember our "The Lost One's Weeping" example? Here is an amazing cover of it by our lord and saviour Jade S. with Fukase and Miku V3 Solid that showcases how beautiful the pitchsnap function can make the vocals sound when used correctly!

Mixing: A process of blending vocals with an off-vocal or instrumental so the singing fits in the environment of the vocal's music. It's more than just plugging in an audio track, you need to ensure that the vocals are cleaned up, are at an appropriate volume, and do not sound out of place. People can get super creative with mixing by adding reverb, radio-like effects, growls, and “adlibs” during instrumental breaks! All in all, the mixing of vocals is just as important as the tuning.

Producer: Anyone who makes music using vocal synths. This title was initially reserved for people who make original songs but can be used to describe cover artists like myself as well. Popular producers include ryo(supercell), kzlivetune, wowaka(shown below; Rest in Peace), neru, Deco* 27, and many others!

“-P”: Standing for “producer title”, this suffix originated from the IDOLM@STER fandom and refers to anyone who makes music with vocal synths, or in other words, vocal synth producers! For instance, why do we call Circus-P by his name with the "-P" suffix? Because that is what he is, a producer! You can also use the title “vocalo-p” to address synth users.