#some of those kanjis are harder

[yumeka-sxf]

While I don't have a lot to say about the new chapter, I did want to point out why Damian is using his left hand for his "paradise fist." In the Japanese version, when Mr. Green is giving advice to Emile and Ewen, he actually use the English word "paradigm shift" (written in katakana to indicate it's a foreign word).

But when Ewen and Emile convey the advice to Damian, they mispronounce it as "paradise left". Endo provides kanji for this word to indicate what it's supposed to mean, 楽園の左手 ("rakuen no hidari te"), which translates as "paradise left hand."

I believe it's common in shonen manga for characters with powerful, named attacks to have them written like this - with kanji and furigana, even though they're using foreign words. There's been examples in SxF as well, like the below panel of Anya using her "raising hope" attack to throw Yor's weapon 😅

In the case of this chapter, it indicates that the boys are interpreting "paradise left" as some sort of ultimate attack. Hence why Damian creates battle gear for his left arm.

Besides this, I loved the return of Damian's "Anya shojo" filter 😂 Becky and the new boys even got to be part of it!

And of course, Anya's total shift in mood, from being totally bored with all the attention to "waku waku" after seeing Damian's new weapon. It's so her.

I don't find Emile and Ewen all that interesting, so most of this chapter was kinda "meh" to me. But I did like the advice that Mr. Green gave them - I feel like it's something that will be relevant to other characters down the line! Oh, and this panel made me snicker a bit.

For this chapter's extra illustration, Endo drew "hero boy Damian" (sans his paradise fist...oh well 😆)

This chapter ended similarly to the last one, where it's hard to tell if this arc will continue or not. I'm hoping we'll move away from Eden for a while and focus on the other characters. I know the more drama/spy-focused chapters are harder for Endo to write, so I'm glad he takes his time with those, but it does feel like it's been a while 😅

[aayakashii]

could you feed us lyca simps?

I hope you don't mind the little slice of life fluff I ended up writing for this request, I just think he's too cute for his own good (๑•́ ᎔ ก̀๑) and thanks for the request!!

neapolitan

Warnings: none. Just tooth rotting fluff and slice of life. Lyca knowing nothing about the world, while MC holds his hand to introduce him to the fun things of life.

“You know you don't have to follow me right now, right? I'm just going to the store to restock my first aid kit…” you say, sighing in defeat, as you side-eye the tall boy prancing right beside you, almost attached to your hip.

Lyca puffs his chest, a small pout appearing under his sharp fangs.

“No, I have to! I don't trust that shop man. He is weird… He looks at you weird!”

Well… You couldn't quite deny that fact.

“But don't you have homework from Professor Moby?”

“Who is that again? You know I don't remember their names” Lyca asks, scrunching his brows and scratching his head, as if he was searching his brain for the right face to attach to the name.

“Professor squirmy” you suppress a smile as you use Lyca's nickname for the eldritch teacher.

“Oh! I have already done all my homework from his class, though?”

“Really?” you look at him with widened eyes “That's very responsible of you, Lyca. That's great!” you smile, giving him two thumbs up.

You do wonder how he managed to finish it all so quickly, since he had difficulty reading harder kanjis, but you just chalk it up to Subaru helping him out without your knowledge.

He huffs, cheeks just a little bit rosy.

“Of course! That's nothing for someone like me. I'm gonna be an exemp… exemp… eggs-emm-puh-larry… member of human society!” Lyca says, slapping his own chest with a loud thud.

“An exemplary member of human society, right?” you repeat his words, more fluently than him, so he can hear how it's usually pronounced.

“That's what I said.” he mumbles and pushes the door to Darkwick's local store open, pointing to the inside of the dimly lit shop “You first.”

You widen your eyes once again, and chuckle.

“Wait, when did you learn to be so gentlemanly?” you say, as you walk through the door with him right after you.

“The blonde gigolo has been teaching me some things. He says being a gen-tle-man would make people respect me more.”

You nod at his words right as the door closes loudly behind him, the chime bell slamming against the door frame.

Okay, well. Maybe he still needs a bit of practice.

You wince at the loud sound, but after just a few seconds, you immediately relax, feeling the cool air inside the store hit your body. The fragrant scent of pastries being displayed inside a small shelf and the gentleness of the low lights also lull you into a sense of tranquility.

It seems like the effect is the same on Lyca, because you see the way his shoulders slump a little bit and how his grumpy face gives way to an eased expression.

You decide to browse through the shelves for a bit, absentmindedly, before getting your supplies. Lyca stood close, his nose sniffing every little thing you pointed out.

After a lot of explaining about products (No, Lyca, you cannot eat tide pods, those are for washing clothes. Yes, Lyca, you can actually eat hard candy, they aren't made for biting though. No, Lyca, just because tide pods and hard candy look similar, doesn't mean they're the same thing), you grab all your needed supplies and make your way to the cashier.

Thinking hard about how to keep Lyca from growling at the shopkeeper, you barely notice how the werewolf walks towards a small freezer a few steps to the side of the cash register. You finish paying when you hear his voice calling at you.

“Hey! Hey! What's this?” he points to the inside of the freezer and you walk to his side, his hands instinctively grabbing your bags so he could carry them for you.

“Those are ice cream pots.” you look at the multi colored labels that advertised a small range of different flavors. “Have you ever eaten ice cream, Lyca?”

“What's that?” he looks inquisitively at the small containers.

“It's a type of frozen sweet. It has lots of flavors and it's usually eaten when it's hot outside.”

He hums, still staring at the pots.

“Do you like sweets, Lyca?”

“Hmm, not really…”

“Oh, I see...”

“But! It's, um. It's hot outside, right?” he replies quickly, looking at you expectantly.

You smile to yourself, thinking about how his tail would probably be wagging if it was out right now.

“That's true, it's very hot outside. I think ice cream sounds great right now, what do you think?”

“I- I agree! Of course.” he huffs, as if he wasn't almost hopping with joy at the idea.

You chuckle and open the freezer, grabbing a small pot for the both of you. After paying for the frozen treat and grabbing two spoons, you two go out into the merciless heat of Darkwick's campus.

“Okay, so.” you sit under a huge tree overlooking a lake, hiding from the sun rays under the cool shade, and grab the ice cream pot.

Lyca sits right next to you, back straight as a plank, paying full attention to you and the mysterious treat you bought.

“I bought this one because it has three of the most classic flavors, and since you never ate ice cream, I figured you should taste the most common ones first. It's called neapolitan.” you explain, opening the lid and giving him a spoon “It's vanilla, strawberry and chocolate”

His eyes sparkle, looking at the frozen sweet. Your eyes widen as you see his wolf ears and tail pop out instinctively, but you choose not to mention it.

“Oohh! It looks good! Which one should I try first?” he asks, tail sweeping the grass under him.

“You can try whichever you want. Go crazy!”

You immediately regret your words as he shoves his spoon deep into the ice cream, grabbing more than one flavor, and eating a huge spoonful in one go.

“Ugh!! My head!!” he yells after a little while, clawing at his own forehead.

“Lyca! You can't eat cold things so quickly, you'll get brain freeze” you scold him, rolling your eyes.

“Well, tell me that sooner!” he groans, still holding his head, eyes shut tight.

“You're supposed to know that instinctively!”

He grunts, shaking his head as the sharp pain disappears slowly.

“Grab just one flavor at a time for now, so you can see which one you like more. Then you can mix everything. Like this” you say as you scoop a bit of strawberry ice cream into your spoon and eat it.

He mimics your action, scooping a bit of vanilla ice cream first.

Lyca's face falls as he smacks his lips repeatedly, tasting the ice cream.

“It's not that big of a deal.” he says, visibly disappointed.

“That's okay, now try the pink one.”

He does as you say and immediately scrunches his face.

“Uwah! That's awful! I don't want to eat it!”

You sigh, thinking about how Lyca seems more like a werecat than a werewolf at times.

“That's fine, it's just your personal taste. Now try the brown one. It's chocolate.”

Lyca hesitates, not really trusting your words after the previous experiences, but scoops a bit of chocolate ice cream either way. As soon as he eats the treat, his ears and tail perk up.

“Ohhh!!! This one is good!!” He yells, tail wagging a thousand miles per hour and eyes sparkling as he scoops a huge amount of chocolate ice cream again.

“Careful, or you're gonna get brain freeze again!” You scold him, but immediately give up, sighing and smiling at the sight of him happily smearing chocolate onto his face, like a big baby.

“I like the brown one mixed with the white-ish yellow-ish one! The pink one is gross though!” He says grabbing the ice cream with his hands, spoon immediately forgotten.

“Ah, Lyca! You're not supposed to eat it with your hands! You'll get all dirty…” you fret, afraid he'll get his uniform stained once again.

“But it's better this way, because I can feel how cold it is with my hands. You humans are so weird with all your rules…” he grumbles.

You sigh, as he pouts and licks his hands clean, grumpiness fully back.

“You have to learn these rules to become human though? But…” you trail off and he looks at you as you rummage through your pockets, fishing out a handkerchief.

You hold his cheek, wiping his face clean, ignoring the little blush that tinted his face as you got closer.

“But as long as it's just us, you can eat however you want. Just don't do it in public. And don't tell Rui I said this! He thinks I spoil you way too much. Deal?”

Lyca looks away, clearing his throat that suddenly got parched, despite all the ice cream he had just eaten.

“Hmpft. D-deal.”

[project-sekai-facts]

Have the motion capture artists ever been credited? Do we know if the same person portrays the same character every time?

I don't think they're credited in game but I did manage to find them a few months ago. All the mocap is done by a company called Solid Cube. They post the mocap artists for each MV on their twitter account, but don't say who played who so I've only been able to work out the mocap artists for a few characters.

Rui is always played by an actor called Masaki Murakami. The only reason I was able to work this out is because Murakami is the only male mocap artist credited on the Sukina Koto Dake no Ii desu MV, and is credited on almost every other WxS MVs but only ones that feature Rui (Oki ni Mesu mama being the only exception I could find. Maybe he was sick that day). Murakami also seems to be the mocap artist for KAITO aside from MVs that have Rui in them, and sometimes for either Akito or Toya (no way to tell which one).

I think Kohane is played by an actress called Maimi Atarashi. She did a stream with Akina back in 2022 where they talked about 3DMVs. Also she's credited on Wah Wah World and the unit rep songs and she is credited on almost every MMJ MV but based on the fact she's credited for Romeo to Cinderella she's not the actress for Minori. I think she's also the actress for Emu, since she's credited on a shitload of WxS MVs including Sukina Koto Dake no Ii desu, alongside an actress that I'm like 99% sure is the primary actress for female vsingers.

I also think that someone called Jakko is the regular mocap artist for female vsingers, and she's the mocap artist for Blue Planet so this holds some weight. Jakko also did the mocap for Luka's Afterglow MV. Jakko is credited on an assortment of other 3DMVs as well, like Children Record (I'm assuming she plays An) and Tondemo-Wonderz (likely as Emu, considering Maimi Atarashi isn't credited)

Len seems to be played by an actor called Keito Okuyama. He did the mocap for Buta ni Natte yeah yeah and is credited on various other Len MVs, like Flyer! and Watashi wa Watashitachi wa (which he definitely has to be Len in). This guy is also credited on quite a few WxS 3DMVs, so it's safe to say he's the regular mocap artist for Tsukasa (in instances of Len and Tsukasa being in the same 3DMV, I'm not sure which one gets swapped out).

Due to Leo/need playing instruments, they have mocap actors who can play the instruments. One of these is actors is called Moe Hirakawa (not entirely sure if that's the right reading of Kanji) who upon looking her up turned out to be a drummer, so there's Honami. The others that are most frequently credited are Hiyu Tsukigami (who is apparently an idol but I couldn't find anything about her playing instruments), chloe (basically impossible to google), and Reika Kisumi who is actually an actress under Solid Cube. I believe Kisumi is the mocap artist for Ichika, since she's credited on the unit leader songs as well.

Also we can work out Kanade based on some cast lists for Colorful Lives. The credits for SEKAI list Keito Okuyama (Tsukasa), Jakko (Miku), Reika Kisumi (Ichika) and another actress called Kanon Ookawa. Ookawa is also credited for multiple Niigo songs, including the Kanade/Mafuyu/Miku cover of Cutlery, so yeah she's Kanade. For lives at least. Journey 3DMV credits someone named Yukari instead, but Journey live credits Ookawa again. More recent 3DMVs don't credit either of these people just to make my life harder.

Continuing with Colorful Live credits, Wah Wah World lists an actress called Yuuka Nakanishi alongside Jakko and Maimi Atarashi, so we can assume that Nakanishi is Minori. She's also credited for multiple MMJ 3DMVs, so it's incredibly likely.

That Yukari person I mentioned is also credited on a lot of MMJ 3DMVs and live choreo. I think she might be Shizuku. Sometimes Ookawa and Yukari are credited alongside each other in Niigo MVs/lives, and in those instances I'm not sure who is playing Kanade and who's playing Mafuyu.

I worked out some other stuff but this is long so just check under the cut for a speculative cast list.

Speculated cast list based on my findings (**not confirmed at all**)

(some have multiple actors as I've mentioned, I just listed the most frequent ones)

Miku: Jakko & various (3DMVs done by Jakko)

Rin: Jakko & various (her 3DMV was done by Maimi Atarashi)

Len: Keito Okuyama (definite)

Luka: varies (her 3DMV was done by Jakko)

MEIKO: Jakko & various (her 3DMV was done by Maimi Atarashi)

KAITO: Masaki Murakami & a few others (definite)

Ichika: Reika Kisumi

Saki: Hiyu Tsukigami

Honami: Moe Hirakawa (definite)

Shiho: chloe (definite)

Minori: Yuuka Nakanishi (definite)

Haruka: Akari

Airi: Maimi Atarashi

Shizuku: Kanon Ookawa & Yukari (in older 3DMVs and lives), Momoka & various (more recently)

Kohane: Maimi Atarashi (definite)

An: Mari Kasuga & various

Akito: Either Keito Okuyama or Masaki Murakami (both occasionally swapped for TACCHI)

Toya: see above

Tsukasa: Keito Okuyama (definite)

Emu: Maimi Atarashi

Nene: Akari & various

Rui: Masaki Murakami (definite)

Kanade: See Shizuku

Mafuyu: Either Yukari or Kanon Ookawa (older 3DMVs/lives), Suzuka & various (more recently)

Ena: Likely either Yuuka Nakanishi or Reika Kisumi

Mizuki: see above

Niigo MVs are the least consistent with their casts, so it is very hard for me to tell who is playing who, especially when some of the actresses seem to swap roles between MVs.

[nyahongo]

Progress So Far

Writing practice during reviews on a blank sheet of copy paper using a Sharpie

Picked out the kanji that are in my study book but not in the TKA deck and made a study sheet (there's 12 of them: 父 今 午 前 来 青 赤 後 何 良 北 南)

Made some worksheets to review and consolidate my kanji knowledge so far

Thinking About My Learning Methods

I missed a few days of Anki reviews and got back to it yesterday to find 50+ reviews. It took me some time to get through them, and I forgot a few kanji, like 前 (まえ; in front of, before). The front of the card had "in front of," and I had to recall what the kanji looked like and replicate the stroke order. I vaguely knew what it looked like, and I knew I could pick it out in a list, but I completely blanked on the stroke order. As I continued with my reviews and noticed another kanji that I forgot how to write (寸; small measurement).

Stroke order serves as a memory aid, but it's clearly not enough to remember some kanji, so I'm trying to pay more attention to the parts that make up a given kanji and see if I can make a story about it. I used Kanji Koohi before when I was using WaniKani, and found people's stories really helpful. This time, in addition to Kanji Koohi for mnemonics, I'm also using JapanDict to understand how a kanji breaks down.

For example, 前 is composed of the following parts:

Looking at the kanji, 一 (one) and 艹 (grass) are put together to make 䒑, which isn't an official radical. In TokiniAndy's deck 䒑 is called called "8 legged horse crown," which isn't really working for my memory. But on Kanji Koohi, many stories referred to 䒑 as "a bull's horns," which I feel is more memorable. Also, 刖 is referred to as "butcher," which makes sense since 月 (body parts) +刂 (blade) can be extrapolated to "cutting body parts" (which is what a butcher does).

Thus, the mnemonic or "story" for this pesky kanji 前: A butcher wearing bull horns is cutting body parts in front of me with a huge blade.

For other kanji that have 䒑 in it, like 金 (gold) and 来 (come), I want to keep the usage of 䒑 meaning "bull horns" consistent for making mnemonics. Something like:

金: A bull with gold horns lives in the king's (王) house (I've learned 𠆢 as a "roof").

来: Omg! A bull is coming towards you! Quick, run away!

I still have many meaning cards to go in the Anki deck before sentence cards will start appearing. The goal of the sentence cards is to read the word on hiragana in the front and be able to write the kanji for that word. In other words, see the pronunciation and produce the kanji. I feel like this is significantly harder than pure recognition of a kanji's meaning, and I'm a bit nervous about how well it'll go. I do have a decent vocabulary bank in my head, but the process of attaching kanji to the words I already know is a slow process. I think my process for this will be three-fold: mnemonics, writing practice (either with a pen and paper or just my finger on the palm of my hand), and repeated exposure.

Does remembering how a kanji is pronounced in a specific word really eventually lead to being able to guess how the same kanji is pronounced in a different or unfamiliar word? I've seen people talk about being able to guess a kanji's meaning just by looking at it, but that sounds like it has more to do with the parts or radicals it is made up of rather than the pronunciations.

For those of you Japanese learners who are more advanced, do you have any insights on how your kanji learning process/method has changed over time compared to when you first started learning kanji? 🤔

[neristudy]

Sharing my language learning apps!~

I am not such a fan of "1000 and 1 app for every language" tbh, because mostly, i am just getting overwhelmed. I don't even use those every day, exept for 3 or 4 - and it's okay~

But anyway - my apps and their uses!

GERMAN // top and bottom row

Babbel - my main app, the best app for learning German for me, esp because there's a German course for Ukrainian learners. Also, it can be used w/o paying and w/o hella annoying adds. I love it.

Flashcards - basically for me, its Anki but better. Oh, but how can something beat The Anki? Answer is simple, because oh my siblings in Christ, how miserable I was, trying to set up Anki. It's long, its sad, and most of the time there's no sound! Flashkards, in turn, can be set up in minutes, even less, and has voice overs! In any languages! So I can even set up German/Ukrainian decks! Really useful, and, again, no ads.

Clozemaster - my gamification/listening stuff. I even have a guide for it!~

Tutor Lily - the least annoying chatbot for me, so I can train german speaking&writing. A bit silly, but a lot better for my anixiety than speaking to a real person! Has only 10 free messages per day, but if you speak/write a lot, you can really make them count.

Deutsche Welle - I honestly don't really love their explanation and find them a bit lacking, but I wanna use their german course as a bit of a crutch to my real life one!~

LEO - it's not a learning app per ce, its a dictionary. And really good one, at that! Really useful for me to find those pesky articles xD

CHINESE // second row

HelloChinese - my main app. And really, it's the app that brings me the most joy. It has native people speaking, it has a funny mascot, and honestly, it's first language learning app where I really think about buying premium at some point. It's really good, and fun!!

Lingodeer - a bit less fun and more focused. I find it a lot more "school-like", if that's make sence. Almost no fun, 100% concentration on a study. I am using it from time to time, but it's a lot harder for me to stay commited to it.

Immersive Chinese - basically a character drill app. A lot of concentrated knowlege and uses for a specific characters, I honestly use it and Lingodeer pretty interchangebly.

JAPANESE // third row

Renshuu - my main app. It has character drills, it has fun, it has everything. Honestly, one can use this as their main app, and with some books an youtube get pretty good, I think!~

Learn Japanese - kanji & hiragana drills, a bit extra to rensuu ones!

YuSpeak - basically a bit extra, as well, but in sentences and learning. Haven't use it as much as Renshuu and Lean Japanese, but it's a lot similar to HelloChinese (even from the same developers? Not sure) so hopefully will use it more in future~

Please, note that no app, even the greatest app in the world, will teach you the language by itself. But it can always be a fun hobby, give you a really strong foundation for a future course, or even just give you a bit of a taste for language to understand, do you want to commit or not, and it's tottaly, 110% okay.

Just make sure to not get unrealistic expectation of "I finish course in app X and will be fluent". It does not work like that, nor should it.

[tokidokitokyo]

明けましておめでとうございます。今年も宜しくお願いします。

Happy New Year! Thank you for your continued support this year.

This is the traditional New Year's greeting in Japan (formal). If you'd like to be less formal, you can just say

明けましておめでとう！今年もよろしく！

And with your close friends, to be even less formal (because Japanese people love to say things in shortened format):

あけおめ！ことよろ！

The year is new and I think we're all motivated to study Japanese more than ever. Have you set your goals for the new year already? I haven't yet (that's what this post is for) but I like to wait until the year has turned and then come up with my goals. Usually because I'm continually running around up until the New Year, so I don't have time to sit down and put my goals into writing until the new year has already come.

This year I'd like to set out some general goals, as well as small goals I'd like to make into daily habits (along with the daily habits I already have). This will be a long post, so read as much or as little as you like! 2025 Goals below the cut!

Past Goals from: 2020 | 2021 (no post) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

Tips for Setting Goals

Some things I've learned from the past 4+ years of setting Japanese language study goals that might help you too:

Be realistic: It's great to say you will memorize 10 kanji a day every day for 365 days, but is it realistic? Will you do it every day for a year? What if you get burned out in February? Will you be able to come back to it in March? I know the extent of my free time and my own ability to be consistent, and I try to be realistic for my own sake. If I make a goal more flexible, like memorize 10 kanji a week instead of daily, it gives me more leeway to take a day off here and there, and to recover from burn out when it happens.

The goals you set are flexible: Rigidly adhering to your goals doesn't help you and it really doesn't make a difference to anyone else but you (I speak from experience). Set goals you think you can accomplish, then change them if they aren't what you need. They aren't set in stone, and they can be changed as often as you want. No one will think anything of you for changing them, and being kind to yourself is a good thing.

Be broad when setting long term goals, but remember why you want to set those goals: "I want to be fluent in Japanese" is a good many-year long-term goal, but how you get there is something that can be made into short-term goals. Do you want to improve the number of vocabulary words you know? Kanji recognition ability? Listening in conversation or anime? Maybe a better long-term goal might be "I want to improve my conversational listening ability in Japanese," and then you can create attainable short-term goals from there.

Goals aren't for everyone: Maybe you don't need goals for 2025? Or to post them publicly? I set goals because I am that kind of person who likes to look back and to track my progress. And I feel like posting publicly holds me accountable (before I go ahead and meet none of my goals). But maybe goal setting isn't for you! If you want to study for the JLPT because of work-related needs or bragging rights, maybe just setting up a study schedule using one or more of the study textbooks for the JLPT is enough. Or if you are just learning Japanese to learn Japanese, maybe just continually watching anime or chatting with people on HelloTalk is enough for you. Do you need goals to motivate you? Keep your goals super realistic. Do you just want to track your progress? Make a spreadsheet or get one of the many tracking apps. Goals aren't for everyone, and in the end they really only matter to you.

Without further ado, my goals...

Daily Goals 2025

In 2024 I had a set of daily habits that I did a very good job of keeping up. Some days it was harder to fit in everything than others, but having a set of daily goals and a small minimum time commitment (10 minutes) helped me to maintain my study momentum, even if sometimes I had less motivation. After all, the key to progress in Japanese is using it every day.

Daily Habits from 2024 (that I'd like to continue)

Study Japanese for at least 10 minutes a day

Read something in Japanese every day

Speak Japanese daily

Listen to/watch something in Japanese every day

New Daily Habits for 2025 (that I'd like to add)

Learn 1 vocabulary word daily

Learn 1 kanji daily

Write one sentence daily

Weekly Goals 2025

I didn't consciously follow a lot of weekly habits in 2024, but I'd like to be more mindful of incorporating certain aspects of study on a weekly basis.

New Weekly Habits for 2025

Study one N3/N2 grammar point weekly

Listen to one podcast weekly

Watch one TV show episode/movie/YouTube video weekly

Write on HelloTalk once a week

2025 Goals

These are my more general goals for the entire year and what I want to accomplish by the end of 2025.

Finish 総まとめ N2 (Sou-matome N2) workbooks: I started these workbooks last year but never got into a routine with them. This year I'd like to complete them.

Read 3 Japanese novels level N3 or N2: I will use Natively to help me to find books that sound interesting and match the level at which I'd like to read.

Work through the 漢字検定ステップ6 (Kanji Kentei level 6) book: I have had this book forever but stopped using it seriously a few years ago.

Read 3 Japanese textbooks from the Libby Japan Foundation LA Library: I found some Japanese textbook study type books for Japanese learners and some for Japanese elementary school students on the Libby Japanese Library (needs a US phone number), and I'd like to read at least three of these.

Consistently watch one Japanese drama: In 2024, I watched the NHK Taiga Drama Hikaru Kimi e (光る君へ) every week, and although they used old Japanese, poetic Japanese, and lots of ancient government-related vocabulary that took me time to pick up, the consistency of watching the drama every week (and knowledge of Murasaki Shikibu's life) helped me to understand the drama without subtitles (JP or EN). I'd like to pick a new drama for 2025 (even if it's not year-long) and keep up with it.

Thanks for sticking with me! I hope your studies in 2025 will be productive and fun! If any of this helped you, great! And if it didn't, that's ok too. Whether you set goals or not, remember to be kind to yourself this year. And if you have set goals, let me know your number 1 goal (I'm actually really interested to see what everyone's goals are!).

素敵な一年になりますように！

Wishing you a wonderful year ahead!

[vonbabbitt]

What was the process like for coming up with/picking names for the cast (both the students and doctors)?

Are there inside jokes hidden in some of the names?

im actually a bit of a name nerd ngl, i really like names and i keep a little journal of all the names ive ever heard that i liked. naming is just super fun for me

so the tetro naming process was a lot of looking through names and kanji and sounds and seeing how those fit the characters. i honestly dont worry too hard about the meanings of names in any language, like thats cool that your sons name means Screaming Eagle or smth but nobody is gonna think of that when you say your sons name is Franklin bro. for me its more about the sound first and foremost

example: hama ran. very short blunt sounds. sounds tough. tsuno manami has that sharper harder tsu sound that makes it sound a bit sparky. harada having two extremely similar sounds back to back when pronounced properly in japanese makes it sound a lil silly and bouncy. stuff like that

no inside jokes though lmao, sorry chat

[daily-hyosatsu]

Today, we try to solve a mystery that has bothered me for a while: What does it say on this sign that I see outside of soba shops? And what direction should it even be read in?

The left-most character is clearly 生, meaning raw/fresh, in which case it would usually be read なま. And the right-most character looks like maybe variant of hiragana む...

I want to assume that the む is for 麦 [むぎ], meaning barley/wheat. Soba is actually written 蕎麦. And it's not inconceivable, I guess, that the middle character could be a variant of き. Except......

If we read it from the right, it would say むぎ生 [むぎなま], but that's "barley fresh," not "fresh barley." And if we read it from the left, it would say 生ぎむ, which is...... nothing. That's nothing.

But guess what? I am not the first person to google 生ぎむ to try and figure out what is going on at my local soba shop!

So what does it say? The "what" is easy to understand. The "why" is a little harder (as is often the case with kanji).

Long ago, it used to say 幾楚者, which most people would probably read either きそもの, きそしゃ, or い��そもの. However, it is actually...... きそば!

幾 means how ~ (how many/much/far/long), some, or several. It's read いく-, いく.つ, いく.ら, or キ.

楚 is only used today in proper nouns, but it means whip or cane. It can also mean graceful or neat. It's read いばら, しもと, すわえ, ソ, ショ.

者 means person or someone. It's often used as a suffix (person who ~). It's read もの or シャ.

Over time, through the vagaries of handwriting and hentaigana, this turned into 生そば [きそば]. Which means soba noodles made from 100% buckwheat flour (no wheat flour added).

Why does 幾楚者 mean buckwheat noodles? Well. A soba shop owner is a person who (者) deals in noodles. A considerable amount (幾) of noodles. And noodles are long/thin like a cane or a whip (楚), and/or they're also neatly (楚) bundled. Apparently.

(This sounds like one of my more abstruse mnemonics for remembering a kanji, but like............ I make those up to remember arbitrary things that are already decided. Why would you name something this way yourself, if you have input? It doesn't have to be this difficult.)

Anyway. 生 means life, birth (and it happens that today is my birthday!), genuine, and fresh/raw. We will cover its many readings more in depth later because this post is already very long.

蕎 means buckwheat or soba. It's read そば or キョウ. It has the same on-yomi as 橋 bridge; they both use the 喬 high/tall radical.

麦, as we touched on earlier, means barley or wheat. It also often refers to beer. It's read むぎ or ハク.

[theyanderespecialist]

Their Genya (Scenarios) Yandere Upper Moon 4 Soulmates (Aizetsu) X Adult Genya (Demon Slayer)

[Hello, My Sexy Muffins, so the votes of Tumblr did the story and so the winner is Aizetsu who deals with him first so yeah good luck! 

(Disclaimer: Genya is aged up to 19 in this! He is an ADULT, no gross kid stuff allowed! 

Disclaimer: This is a soulmate AU In which Supernatural Things Like Demons develop Soulmates. Upper Moon Four all Have Genya Named Tattoo On Their wrists. Ever since they become demons. Genya only gets their name marked on them when he is touched skin to skin by them since he is half demon sometimes. He cannot fully feel the connection to his soulmates. But they can feel the connection to them and felt it since he was born. Their wrist with Genya's name will burn when they make eye contact with Genya, it is a semi-onesided soulmate connection! 

Disclaimer: Upper Moon 4 and His Emotion Clones are Not Yandere in canon! This is just for fun, and not to be taken seriously at all! Simping for fictional characters and yanderes is fine! Just do not be illegal or gross about it! You know who you are! Your Dirty, Flaky, Biscuits! Yanderes are not ideal partners to have in real life! Also, remember to separate fiction from reality and headcanon from canon! Thank you!) 

Now let's do this, enjoy this!] 

(Upper Moon 4, Sorrow/Aizetsu) (Heartbreak) 

(Aizetus's POV) 

I had come out when someone shot Sekido's and Karaku's necks. To say we had to fight was a typical thing, but then I looked into his eyes. He was glaring at me and I felt my wrist born. Our Soulmate was here, and he was a demon slayer? I stared at him and then he went to shoot me, did he not feel the connection? It was rare for Demons to meet their soulmates. It was even harder to find them. We have heard that while a demon's soulmate is human, they cannot feel the connection to their demon soulmates.  I did not want to fight our soulmate. It broke my heart to attack him but he was giving me no choice. I grabbed my spear and pierced him into the wall.  "Sekido, Karaku, Urogi!" I call out. "We have no time to waste here! We have to kill them now, Genya, our soulmate is here!"  Genya froze and looked down at me. I know he must be confused so I reached out and touched his wrist and as I did my kanji Sorrow was burned into his skin.  "W-What the hell did you just do to me!?" He demands of me.  "Do not fight it, dear," I tell him. "We will kill those vile humans and take you from his place." 

He- He should be bleeding more. Why is his body healing? He growled and I saw his hair color change at the tips, as well as his eyes, and he grew fangs. "Genya, dear..." I say as I look at him. "What are you?"  He slashed claws at me and lunged forward, biting into me. He ribbed off a piece of flesh and swallowed it. Was Genya a certain type of human that could have demon traits? He got stronger and went to punch me before he fell to the ground. It... It looks like he felt the pain of trying to kill one of his soulmates. Soulmates could not intently kill each other. So Genya is some type of demon and he can feel a semi connection.  "What the hell did you do to me!" He shouts at me drooling from the mouth.  My heart is breaking at how much pain he is in. I have no choice I have to knock him out. I began to fight him and soon knocked him out. Sekido and Karaku walked over, and Urogi touched down.  "They are dead?" I asked gently picking up our soulmate.  "Yes, Everyone in the sword smith village is dead. So are two Hashiras." Sekido says. "We better get out of here."  I nodded and Nakime opened a door for us to go back to our quarters. Since I found Genya I was then to clean him up. The others were jealous, but when I explained what I knew they gave in. The six others would meet Genya soon enough and Lord Muzan would want to learn more about Genya's sort of Half Demon ability.  I got him dressed in some clean clothes and with his demon ability, he was fully healed. I sit next to him, I know he will be so angry when he wakes up. But he is ours, he is mine, I cannot and would not let the demon slayers have him. He belongs to us, me. I kiss his cheek and take his hand in mine.  I feel the heartbreak that he does not love us yet, and it makes me so sad... but he will one day love us, love me. He is never ever leaving us after all and soon enough we WILL turn him into a full demon and he will NEVER Escape us. 

[YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS first part of this mini-series is done! Now who would you like to see next with Aged Up Soulamte Genya  Sekido (Anger), Karaku (Pleasure), Urogi (Joy), Physically Aged Up Zohakuten (Hatred),  Urami (Resentment), Hantengu (Original/Fear)

Vote which one and I hope you all enjoyed this, and stay sexy, all of my sexy muffins!] 

[mezzy303]

One Piece mythology from chapter 1138

Major lore dropped!! I'm freaking out!!!

I've been at the edge of my seat waiting for when the story of the Ancient Birkans would become relevant!!! Like hello?????

There's so much to unpack on just this page, both in the text and this mural. I'll start with the text first and look into the translation differences from the scans and the official, taking a page from the Elbaf giants and consider every interpretation as valid lol.

In my interpretation, in the First World, the world may have been engulfed in war by the greed of humanity (fire = war). Then Nika appeared when the enslaved prayed for him, and he battled the "god of the land/earth god" and a "serpent of hellfire," which resulted in the destruction of the world. There's some differences in the translations with who touched "forbidden sun/star." The TCB scans say is was the slaved, which the sun then might refer to Nika himself, since it has already been said that those in power fear him and how he brings a new era, aka their own fall, thus his presence is something taboo. But the other two translations say is was humanity that reached for the forbidden sun, which makes me think this is an Icarus and the Sun situation. Man was greedy and tried to go reach for something unattainable. I think this first world is from thousands of years ago, and the result of this war was when the Ancient Birkans moved to the moon and created the underground colony there. We don't know when this happened, but we do know that around 1,100 years ago, they returned to earth due to lack of resources (and they would then become the Skypieans, Shandorians, and Birkans). I'm so confused on who the "they" is in the final lines of each section, but if it's the Birkans vs the earth god, then it would make sense considering the Birkans moved away from the earth, and even when they returned, they all lived on the sky islands (even the Shandorians eventually).

The Second World is a bit harder to interpret, but the last few lines are pretty clear. They refer to the end of the Void Century when the Allied Kingdoms killed Joy Boy/Nika and became the World Nobles. The "wrath of the sea god" refers to how the sea rose 200m. I saw a very interesting theory on twitter that the "forest god" refers to whoever created the devil fruits and I'm going a little insane over that. And with the enraged sea god mentioned at the end, the "they" in the last line could mean how devil fruit users can no longer swim. I'm unsure which side the forest god was on and what the different moon references mean, besides possibly those descending from the Ancient Birkans? There's also so many other people that are related to the moon too, like the Minks and the Kozuki clan (the kanji in 'Kozuki' are 光 'light' and 月 'moon').

The Third World, obviously, is the present and looks into the future. How the World Govt was unsuccessful in completely erasing the memory of the Great Kingdom, how Nika would rise again and bring in a New Dawn. And "half-moon" is once more mentioned, but it seems related to the memory of the Great Kingdom. Could be the poneglyphs, which the Kozuki clan created. Maybe the "they will surely meet" means a peace between all peoples will be achieved, which makes me think that the "they" in all these sections refers to the opposing sides in the wars. "They will/could/would not meet" as in "they couldn't see eye to eye" in the end. But the prophecy for the third world suggests that finally, or at least hopefully, all races will find harmony with each other.

Something I noticed in this mythology is how there's mentions of a sun god, a land/earth god, and a sea god, which matches with the ancient weapons: Uranus - god of the sky, Pluto - god of the underworld, and Poseidon - god of the sea. Idk where to go with these interpretations but it's interesting nonetheless lmao.

Turning to mural, the images kinda match up to the text above them.

The first section, we see an industrialized city, likely being run by the Ancient Energy that Vegapunk talked about. The energy also seems to power a giant ship(?) that reminds me a lot of the mural Enel found on the moon. At its head is a king, indicated by the crown. And also the serpent of hellfire mentioned in the text. Other points to note is the flying ship spewing lighting which could be Uranus (I've been theorizing for a while that Enel's Maxim could mirror the weapon and this image could confirm it!!), the moon above, and another ship with a wing figure an animals that could depict the Ancient Birkans moving to the moon. That imagery is also very similar to Noah's Ark with the people and animals around it. Maybe the construction of the current Noah was history attempting to repeat itself.

The tree may refer to the "forest god", and if that's true, the bird might be the "sun" that spreads the fires of war. The bird being the sun would also match how its battling the serpent of hellfire in the first section. Is the tree a depiction of the Treasure Tree Adam? The Sun Tree Eve? I'm not sure, but in the original Romance Dawn chapters before One Piece was ever serialized, the devil fruits were called "dream fruits" that came from a "legend tree" (幻の木/maboroshi no ki in the first version) or "devilish tree", and maybe this mural depicts that very tree that bore the devil fruits.

This picture fucks so hard. There's multiple races depicted, from the top down we have: lunarians, whale people? (how fascinating if people living in land whales used to be a thing), minks, the iron giant aka Emet <3, Nika, the ancient giants, the people of Wano (they have topknots and hold swords like a samurai), the fishmen, the dwarves, and regular giants. There's also people on a boat with a sun symbol that's suggested to be the symbol of the Great Kingdom. And a couple of more people in boats that I'm not sure what race they represent. But they all are facing a large figure holding the sun and another boat of people, which probably represent "chaos" aka Imu possibly holding the Mother Flame and the World Govt/Celestial Dragons.

I feel out of breath. Mentally at least ahaha. I'm gonna think about this page nonstop and consume any other theories I can find on it!! Many thanks for reading my thought dump <3

[mochayoubi]

vocab from today! there were 100 from my N1 studies but im not going to list all those out lol

ペーパーマリオRPG 羅針盤（らしんばん）：compass 古（いにしえ）：antiquity; ancient times 台座（だいざ）：pedestal 住処（すみか）：residence; dwelling 意地汚い（いじきたない）：gluttonous; greedy 根性曲がり（こんじょうまがり）：villanous; twisted 似顔絵（にがおえ）：portrait 捻くれる（ひねくれる）：to become twisted お仕置き（おしおき）：punishment

ぼくのなつやすみ２ 日記帳（にっきちょう）：diary ラジオ体操（らじおたいそう）：radio calisthenics 繊細（せんさい）：delicate; sensitive 夕日（ゆうひ）：setting sun ちょっぴり：a tiny bit 標本（ひょうほん）：specimen; sample

something tricky i've noticed with some of the games i've been playing is that they're actually harder for me since they're mostly in hiragana (bc they're mainly kids games). then i look it up and see the kanji and im like ohhhhh. but we push forward and stay silly and whatnot 🫡

[pikahlua]

Silly/ignorant question, and feel free to pass over it as it's not an mha question but rather a translation one. Can you break down for a foreigner what the japanese...alphabets... are? Like, i understand kanji are the symbols (that i cant read) but when you provide translations, there's also japanese words written in an alphabet i DO understand (is this hiragana? Furigana?) of which i've picked up some words. But...what alphabet are those words part of? Does this question make sense? If i study those words, am i not really learning japanese, because it's not kanji? Is it meaningful to (recreationally) study japanese these way? Am I ultimately making the language "harder" for myself by not learning it the "right" way (whatever that way might be)?

Thank you!!

Japanese has three writing systems: kanji (which are pictographs), and hiragana and katakana (collectively known as kana, which are syllabaries). To learn Japanese, you would need to know all three (no one knows ALL kanji, but you need to know the standard amount required for fluency).

Hiragana is the syllabary for Japanese words. Katakana is the syllabary for foreign words (though it can be used for other things too, like as capslock or for emphasis).

Furigana refers to the tiny kana written over kanji to let you know how the kanji are pronounced. This is often done in written material aimed at younger readers who may not know enough kanji yet.

Romaji (sometimes known as romanji) refers to the way a Japanese word is transcribed into the Roman alphabet (the one I'm using right now).

For your reference, all new learners of Japanese start by learning hiragana. You need that as your solid base for reading Japanese in textbooks. You then learn katakana. You also slowly start to learn kanji at the same time, and you're pretty much always learning new kanji from that point on. If you don't have a solid grasp of hiragana and katakana, I would suggest starting there.

Hope that helps!

[anjumstar]

Why Katsuki reads as queer coded.

Long before I shipped bkdk, Katsuki read as a queer character to me. Not meaning that Hori was assigning a sexual orientation to him but that he has qualities that parallel or make sense within the common narrative of the (western, I'm reading this through a western lens) queer experience. Here's why:

Disclaimer that this isn't to say that these traits make someone queer or that Katsuki is being intentionally written as queer, it's just reading Katsuki through a queer theory lens 👍

1. Perfectionism

Katsuki, if nothing else, is an incredibly hard worker. It's clear that in middle school, he worked to be at the top of his class. While he's a naturally intelligent and talented guy--as we see with his early skills in both sports and kanji in flashbacks--it's implied that he works for it. He doesn't have to work as hard as Izuku does, but it seems as though he works harder than, say, Todoroki does. I interpret this due to the way he berates his friends for underachieving in class. He knows that he's inherently smart, but he also knows that he achieves what he does via hard work, and so--as with Izuku in the flashbacks--he doesn't understand why his peers don't achieve the same.

Perfectionism is a classic queer-coded trait because it's a shield. If I'm otherwise perfect, no one can hate me for the thing that makes me different. It's a queer impulse to try and disguise "negative" traits with armor in the form of positive traits. You see this in people who are bullied becoming the class clown, for example, using comedy as their armor. If a queer person is afraid of not being loved for who they are, there's an impulse to be valued for what they can offer. This can manifest in overachieving and overcompensating so that they are never looked at with scrutiny, so that they can never be found out.

Katsuki makes himself scrupulous. He has an interest in maxing out every merit-based skill that he can so that he is no longer able to be scrutinized. He even takes advantage of popularity despite not liking people, as it's social capital and makes him more untouchable. He doesn't ever want anyone to look deeper than the skills that he offers. And when this strategy is interrupted, we see--

2. Anger

Anger comes from fear of vulnerability. In the context of the queer experience, this can easily be a reflex to keep people at a distance, as the perfectionism does, and a manifestation of repression. For Katsuki, it's both.

I don't think I need to put much explanation into how anger distances Katsuki from others. People's first impression is to fear him and then either avoid him or follow behind him. This collapses somewhat at UA, where people don't fear him, but it keeps him from forming bonds with people on any other basis than mutual respect. There's not a lot of intimacy like we see in, say, the early Todoroki + Iida + Izuku dynamics.

There's an argument to be made that Katsuki's explosive personality is a nature/nurture mix from his mother. That he's mirroring her behavior and that's basically it. No repression or fear involved. But we don't see enough of his parents/childhood to really spell that out. What we do get a good view of is his early desires from Izuku.

In those aforementioned flashback scenes, we see Katsuki not simply being confused when Izuku is unable to juggle a soccer ball, skip stones, or read kanji--Katsuki is upset by it. He's having strong feelings that he doesn't understand (not necessarily romantic! They're young!) and he covers them with anger. This continues through to middle school, when Katsuki is angry that Izuku is applying to UA, angry when they're paired against each other in the first partner exercise and Izuku has some success, when they're paired together for the final exam. These are BIG feelings and what for?

At first, Katsuki wanted Izuku to be on his same level, in the flashback scenes, and he was let down when Izuku wasn't. Then, after the river scene, Katsuki switches, and wants Izuku to be pushed down, to prove his own superiority in the face of Izuku's inherent goodness. This pairs his need to be perfect with an inability to face his admiration for Izuku. When he begins to see enviable qualities in Izuku, he represses those positive impressions. Whether or not you're reading bnha through a bkdk lens, there is repression here. Katsuki doesn't want to feel that there is something desirable about Izuku, that there's something he could be given by Izuku. That feels unsafe to his sense of self, and hence: anger. Anger, which is a trait also found in--

3. Masculinity

Masculinity is different culture to culture, and I'm not cultured enough to unpack the differences between western and JP representations of masculinity, so we're just gonna cast a wide net here.

Katsuki's parents are fashion designers, yet Katsuki pursues the absolute most violent career path that exists. And yes, this is because being a hero is the best (meaning very public to a young child with the trappings of fame and valor), and because his quirk is compatible with it, but that's not where the story ends.

All Might is Katsuki's role model. And yet, the persona Katsuki takes up is nothing like All Might's. As stated earlier, Katsuki is smart. He's smart enough to recognize that All Might is kind, friendly, generous, and likeable and that those are inextricable parts of his brand. And yet, Katsuki goes out of his way to instead be cold, mean, and unapproachable.

Again, wide net, but these are masculine traits. They keep a person closed off and inaccessible. They make it impossible to get close enough to really see a person. This is the same kind of shield that the perfectionism provides: armor against intimacy and scrutiny.

And, of course, the thing that a man can never be is weak. Weak is feminine. For a man, weakness is queer.

Katsuki's greatest fear seems to be being found out as weak. We begin to see him unpacking this, as he begins to admit to himself that Izuku is stronger than him, but, of course, we also see just how much work goes into him unpacking it. It only comes from honest self-reflection about himself, his bad defense mechanisms, and his relationship with Izuku. With introspection, he fears weakness less.

In conclusion

Queer theory is about heteronormativity and what it means when a person deviates from the norm into queerness. Katsuki's story in bnha is very much one of a character having many layers of armor to make him free from scrutiny, and slowly peeling those off to reveal his imperfections. This is the queer arc of a character being closeted, to a character coming out. Again, it's not to say that Katsuki is literally in the coming out process, it's to say that his narrative arc is a very queer arc, and it always felt that way to me. And, of course, as a bkdk, I see both those original closeting moments and the coming out moments as pretty much all being linked to fundamental interactions with Izuku.

Tbh, this theory is still a little half-baked. I don't know enough about queer theory, and I'm lacking a bit of cultural knowledge to give Katsuki the full breakdown. But before I had a single bnha ship, it was my impression that Katsuki was gay coded, and I've had these thoughts rattling around in my brain for over three years and I finally wanted to get them out (after a previous attempt that tumblr ate, rip). Maybe later on I'll do an analysis about who I think that Deku's experience is all about compulsory heterosexuality, hehe. Thanks for reading!

[blizzardsuplex]

Floriography prompt fill for @milk-crater: ELP and Shota Umino, white lily (sweetness, purity) + foxglove (insincerity). Special thanks to @naritaren for characterization help!!

That he's gone from having a whole group backing him up to being about to be left up the creek without a second person to paddle doesn't disappoint Phantasmo. Not really. He's happy for Tama and Tanga Loa, and now that he's found his stride in being a standup man around town again he can be open about it instead of worrying about violating Mean Girls-esque convoluted Bullet Club etiquette. As for Hikuleo...well, he hadn't brained ELP with a steel chair just yet. They could still be saved, which would be nice considering Tag League was looming and there weren't a lot of people who were free to team with, even in Hontai.

Just in case, though, he had a backup plan, which is to say he brought to his target as a courting gift a sizable bribe. A sweet, cold, creamy bribe.

"How did you get this?" Shota Umino enthused, waving his spoon around so hard Phantasmo was kind of worried it would fly out of his hand with enough force to smash through the guy's apartment window. "I thought this edition was sold out a month ago."

"I have my ways." He keeps his non-explanation short and mysterious, mostly because it had been way harder than he'd thought to get two pints of kinako-flavored ice cream with mochi squares.

"And how did you even know I liked it?"

Well, that was easier to answer. "Hey, I travelled with GoD, too. I knew you had good taste in ice cream. " That and he knew enough kanji at this point to search through Shota's tweets efficiently for clues on his frozen dairy preferences, but Phantasmo digresses.

On Shota's face appears the smile that parts a thousand people from their money at the merch tables—and he can't blame a single one of them. Lucky was the man who could be both a motorcycle-riding, leather-jacket carrying badass and a sort of bright-eyed ingenue. "Well, thanks," he says. "I'm glad you came over to visit—with a great gift, too. Since the injury, it's been..." He searches for a word, shakes his head. "Hard."

The younger man's sincerity is breathtaking. Great, ELP thinks. Now he has to really be careful not to sound like a total douche following those words up with a direct request. "How long did they say you'll need to heal up?"

"A couple of months at most." Now his smile is one of relief. "At least there's that."

"At least," Phantasmo echoes. He lets Shota have a big spoonful of ice cream before fielding the question. "Actually, I have something to ask you about when you get back..."

"Hmm?"

The sound is pleasantly non-committal, but this isn't ELP's first rodeo—he knows that his best bet of seeing the truth of the other's response is in his eyes, and true enough Phantasmo catches a glint of steel behind the warm brown. He isn't at all surprised by that, either; as almost all pro wrestlers had to go through at one time or another, it wasn't just a tag team that broke when things came to a head.

He's already deciding what to say to abort mission when Shota speaks again. It's just one word ("What?") but it's still enough to draw Phantasmo's attention from his planning. The look the younger man gives him is not the total enthusiasm of a while ago, but it isn't completely remote, either. More...expectant, but not (he feels) of betrayal. An affirmation of trust, maybe, some shining light that cuts straight through suspicion learned the hard way.

Or maybe his death glare is being softened by the mess on his face. It's hard to take anyone seriously with an ice cream stain on their cheek. Either way, Phantasmo decides, they didn't need to do this now.

"What ice cream flavor should I get to celebrate?"

[rigelmejo]

Part of the reason I am planning to finish the Glossika Japanese app course is because I can find NO reviews of anyone who's finished it and what their language skills and ability was like upon completion.

I can only find beginner reviews of the Japanese course, and I found one language learner share their results after finishing the OLD Finnish course (3800 sentences not the new 6400 amount) and they already had a large vocabulary from LingQ so Glossika was for grammar exposure and improving in speaking with the sentence rep drills. Which did work great for them! But does not tell me how much of an increase in vocabulary a person would see, and how much that would make more understandable etc. And the new app courses have 5000+ words so that would also make a difference. I found one person who completed the Russian app course, they saw an improvement to speak about daily life things in all areas and talk to people (which is great!). I do not know how that will compare to the Japanese course experience.

If anyone has seen someone share their results and language ability after completing Glossika Japanese, or Mandarin, please let me know! Please send me a link, I'd really like to read what people have said once they FINISHED glossika.

As for my own experience so far: I did not start Japanese Glossika as an absolute beginner, but instead an upper beginner. I knew 1500-2500 words already, and only encountered around 500 new words in the A1 section. They were useful new words, but the majority of A1 was review for me or studying of unfamiliar grammar. The A2 section is still mostly words I know, I am 1/4 through the A2 section. I am finally beginning to encounter an unknown word maybe every 20 sentences. I've gone through ~3800 sentences now and am concerned a majority of the 6400 sentences in the course will be in the A1 and A2 sections.

I am hopeful that since it teaches 5000+ words, I will eventually encounter around 2000 new words to learn. I am only working on listening skills, increasing vocabulary, and increasing grammar understanding. The app is working okay for these so far. I think working on reading skill would be possible with the app, and I do read sometimes on it, but I know hanzi from Chinese so I am not having difficulty remembering new kanji in words, and I think an absolute beginner would have a much harder time remembering new kanji and probably would want to spend some review time actually looking at the app screen and re-reading sentences with kanji a lot.

The beginning 1000 sentences will be very rough on an absolute beginner, because the majority of sentences I noticed were translated in indirect wording (which made it hard to figure out what each individual word in a sentence Actually means) were in the beginning of the app course. Around 1 every 6 sentences in the beginning of the course seemed to use an indirect translation, making the guessing of new words quite hard unless you look up the actual japanese sentence provided in another app like Google Translate or look up the individual japanese words. After the first ~1000 sentences this issue happens less, and now I rarely notice it. Perhaps those first sentences in the course are newer, and so have more errors or weirder translations? There's a LOT of repeated words in the sentences, so if you just find you can't figure out a sentence's word meaning? Just move on. Another sentence will contain those words, and have a better translation, and you'll be able to figure out the word's meaning easier in that other sentence.

The beginning sentences are also a bit rough because there's grammar in some sentences that is not taught in typical beginner classes, so if you're also taking a class or doing a textbook, some of the initial sentences will have grammar you haven't seen (this also happens with Clozemaster - and many sentence collection study options). Just try your best to grasp the gist, and move on. You will keep seeing all the grammar structures, again and again in new sentences, and eventually it will make more sense. (And even if it doesn't make more sense, you can learn more words from those sentences at least).

You should be aware when going into the glossika japanese course of some basic things: what is romaji (english letters representing japanese), kana (hiragana and katakana for japanese words and word-endings and katakana for foreign words or emphasis), kanji (characters representing idea, can replace part of or all hiragana in spelling of some words, have multiple pronunciations depending on the word they are in), particles (single hiragana, specific ones, which serve a function in a sentence such as labelling the object some verb happens to, the place something is going to 'to', 'and', 's/of, the time something happens). You can learn particles over time based on the examples, if you wish, but knowing they EXIST and are single hiragana at the end of a word or clause is useful for starting to identify them. Also, japanese has conjugations for verbs and adjectives. Important, if you weren't aware to look for multiple spellings of those things based on other information being conveyed (by the conjugation).

[masaotheheckindog]

really getting irritated with how Duolingo is teaching certain words/wording. At this point, it's starting to remind me of being an ALT in both elementary schools and JHS. In elementary, the teachers would sometimes knowingly teach wrong phrasing/wording/romanization with the assurance of 'Well, they'll learn it the right way when they get to JHS' Of course, what ends up happening is that it's much harder to learn the correct way when you've spent years learning something wrong. I'm not talking about prescriptivist grammar type things, I'm talking things that just end up confusing and frustrating people trying to learn a second language. I hesitate to say this because I fear it can be really discouraging for people just getting into a new language, and I definitely don't want to do that. It's hard to find concise language lessons that are easy to digest, and I think what a lot of people would do here is list a bunch of alternatives to Duolingo, but I find lists like that intimidating and unapproachable. Uh, but anyway, if you're interested...

Different things are going to work for different people, but I have exactly one recommendation to anyone trying to learn Japanese (I'm assuming you already know hiragana and katakana, but if not, please learn them. I honestly don't have any advice on where the best place to do that is because I learned them a long time ago), and that is to please learn a good chunk of kanji early on in your studies, and learn to actually write them with the correct stroke order.

I've seen a lot of people say you don't need to do this, that you should just learn to read them because everyone types and there is autofill and yeah, I realize that, but I think you really cement them into your memory by learning to write them. And anyway, you might want to handwrite something one day, I don't know. Maybe you'll want to take Kanken. Anki is free on desktop/laptops/some tablets (I think the mobile version costs), and there's a deck called Kanji Damage that is imo good for learning to write about 1700 kanji. Now that I've finished the deck, learning new kanji beyond that number is a breeze for me. Content warning that it has some offensive language here and there but tbh I don't use the nmemonics anyway (those have never been helpful to me but if making a story about the kanji is helpful to you, you might also want to pick up the Remembering the Kanji series). You can order kanji writing practice notebooks online for pretty cheap or just use a regular notebook. A lot of people see kanji as this huge monumental task that comes towards the end of the journy of learning Japanese but honestly, you should learn it as early as possible. It makes studying grammar, vocabulary, everything so much easier and should be one of the first things you do. With anki, you can set the pace of how many new cards a day you get so you can kind of limit your study time and take it slow, or go with 20 cards a day and you'll finish the deck in about five months (and still only need to study kanji for about an hour a day on your toughest days.) It just depends on your schedule. If you find kanji really intimidating, just do one or two cards a day! It might take longer, but this isn't a race, and however long the deck takes you, you're going to be way better off studying it than if you don't.