#syrpai

[yunoteru4ever]

Yuno's redrawn facial expression in OP 3

So @syrpai left this comment on the gigantic analysis of the three OPs that I posted yesterday, and I wanted to give it its own post to highlight their observation.

I'm so glad we have this community of fixated and observant experts, because I'd never noticed this before! And it's fascinating.

Here is how Yuno looks when she hits Twelfth/Yomotsu with her ax in episode 5 (an extremely memorable shot, IMO):

And now, here is how Yuno looks in the version of the scene that runs within the kanji in OP 3:

Yes, obviously the screen-shake/wobble and hair movement is VERY sped-up in the latter, but more importantly? Look at her mouth and eyes. That's where you see the altered expression which @syrpai observed and brought up. Between these two scenes, Yuno's mouth is completely different, and her eyes/eyebrows are also heavily altered.

So... why?

I don't imagine that they manually changed her face just for the flashing images in the kanji of the later OVA. While that's not 100% impossible, it's a tough idea to swallow. I can't imagine any studio justifying the effort that would go into such a redraw for something so briefly and partially glimpsed solely within a non-televised bonus episode. That's just too wild an idea for my taste. And even if they did somehow justify said redraw, I can't imagine any good reason WHY they'd choose to do so. As such, this other version is likely an alternate, unused "take" of the same scene from episode 5.

We can only guess as to why this exists. But here's my theory: The manga doesn't actually show us Yuno's face clearly at the moment she strikes Yomotsu, right? That means there was some room for the anime artists to interpret what she'd look like when they decided to change the composition of the shots for this moment in order to make the sequence more dynamic in motion. And sure, it makes a basic sort of sense for Yuno to look aggressive/determined while she's chopping someone in the neck. That's probably a very easy assumption to make about anyone in the midst of such an action. HOWEVER... ! The manga may not let us see her face in this precise moment, but it DOES show Yuno smiling calmly both immediately before and immediately after it (momentarily, in the latter case — just before she collapses from exhaustion). And based on those panels of smiles, the calmer expression used in episode 5 is likely more accurate to what Sakae Esuno intended Yuno to be expressing at the moment in question.

In summary: My theory is that the version they put into OP 3 was accidentally pulled from an early draft/cut of episode 5 — before either the episode director or the showrunner or Sakae Esuno himself requested a change to her expression so as to better reflect her intended mood/attitude in that moment.

Of course, I again remind you that this is all just my theory. I just think it's the most plausible source of the difference.

Sadly, even if we could somehow ask everyone involved with the production today, it's doubtful that they'd remember how this happened. Anime productions are frantic, and a ton has happened to all the artists involved since completing the anime a decade ago.

[mirainikkicentricblog]

I decided to post some of my favorite fanarts here.

Я очень люблю творчество Сырпая! Я просто надеюсь что она снова начнет регулярно публ��ковать сообщения.

Translation:

I love @syrpai's artworks so much! I just hope that she starts posting regularly again.

[sunniedesi]

Rare Future Diary Merch Art (Part 2!)

In case you haven’t seen my last post on this topic, I’ve been working on recreating rare art only seen on obscure merch from Future Diary, namely T-shirts. The first post focused on a T-shirt that was part of a raffle, which featured a design I fondly call “meditating Yuno.” This time around, I’m working on the designs of four shirts that were sold in the Live World Concert. I recommend you read that post first if you want more context. To make things easier to explain here’s a list of the shirt designs I’m referring to:

Purple/Gray Yuno Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

Rock Minene Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

DEAD END Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

The Live World Deus Shirt

As you can see, three out of the four shirts were made by the brand MARS SIXTEEN. This brand no longer sells those shirts nor has any images of them available, so we can only rely on the very few, poor-quality photos found on some older Japanese blogs. The fourth shirt isn’t associated to any particular brand and was made/sold exclusively for the concert. The first two highlighted shirts are the ones we’ll be covering on this post, leaving the last two for a separate part.

Firstly, we have the Purple/Gray Yuno shirt, which features a stylized view of a cityscape on the front, and a unique graphic of Yuno on the back. We can see none other than Tomosa Murata (Yuno’s VA) wearing the gray iteration of this T-shirt in a recording of The Live World concert.

As I mentioned earlier, finding images of these designs was pretty difficult. In terms of this design, I only had a flat image of the Yuno graphic, which I upscaled and redrew for better quality. The cityscape design I only managed to find in listings of the shirt, which I took as reference and completely redrew. It was probably one of the more complex designs of the bunch, so hopefully the final result turned out decent. Here’s the front (I made two purple versions because I couldn’t decide which one I preferred).

And here’s the back design

Next, we have the Rock Minene shirt. This is a purple top inspired by Minene, which has a graphic of speakers blasting on the front along with the title of the series, and an exploded view of a grenade on the back. It also features a small graphic of Minene and the text “9th” on the sleeves. A large amount of the cast wore this top in the concert, as you can see by the following images.

I fortunately had flat images of every graphic, though I still had to redraw them because the image quality was very, very low. The design of the exploded grenade on the back had a little text attached to it, which due to the grainy pixels was difficult to read. Our little community over here came to the rescue and helped me figure out a text that’d match the original. Very special thanks to @syrpai for coming up with a paragraph that looks very similar to the original (I only had to tweak it a bit to fit the frame). With all this yapping out of the way, here are the results:

Lastly, we have the design of the sleeves. Minene’s silhouette goes on the left sleeve, while “9th” goes on the right.

[ouchmaster6000]

Vote Hinata x Mao!

@yunoteru4ever @yunocre @minenesupremacy @mirainikkicentricblog @mothy-chan

@syrpai @legendaryfacecoffee

[syrpaiautomotive]

As per notified by the Commissioner of Transport, the registration process of BS4 vehicles is opened in VAHAN subject to compliance of the Apex Court intructions. Refer to file attached for clarification. #syrpaiautomotive #shillong #onebagfuleach #mahindra #mahindrarise #liveyounglivefree #liveresponsibly #resolutionforgood #mahindragreatescape #mahindraadventure #mahindrabolero #butthisisnotenough #riseagainstclimatechange #InspirationOnWheels #safetyfirst #stayhomestaysafe Syrpai Automotive website: www.syrpaiautomotive.co.in With You Hamesha (at Syrpai Automotive Mahindra Showroom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEqfX3EFkyL/?igshid=3xuzpuz7dccc

[sunniedesi]

Future Diary x Detective Akechi Crossover TL

Before anything, I want to thank @syrpai for providing screenshots and information about this crossover after my first post regarding the subject (seriously, you're the goat). I was correct about this story not being in the original manga, though I made the glaring mistake of assuming Shonen Ace didn't digitalize their releases. Turns out they do! And this crossover was featured on their March 2018 issue:

So in conclusion: the crossover between Future Diary, Detective Akechi and Esuno's other works was made after ending volume 2 of Detective Akechi, to commemorate its release, and it was featured directly on Shonen Ace's next issue. With this in mind, I'll leave you with the TL.

Though first, I have to share some important context to understand the story: "Detective Akechi is Berserk" follows the story of Mayumi, a high-school girl who is being possessed by the spirit of acclaimed detective Akechi Kogorou to solve mysterious crimes involving "phantoms," who are criminals from a gang that Akechi is pursuing. The end of volume 2 (the volume that precedes the Future Diary crossover) introduces a new character named Grimoire, a kid and member of the phantoms who lost her dad to a murderer, and later lost her mother to an illness while walking with her in a mall. Grimoire lost consciousness during this tragic event, so her mother got taken away from the scene before she could say her last goodbye. Grimoire used to roam the mall, searching for the place where her mother passed away, until Mayumi helped her find the spot, thinking that Grimoire was nothing more than a lost child. From this point on, her and Mayumi became acquainted, though Akechi doesn't seem too fond of Grimoire... (Mini-spoiler: we also learn at the end of volume 2 that Detective Akechi was likely the one who killed her dad, meaning Akechi is probably more of a villain than a hero). Btw Grimoire is a girl but people refer to her as a boy because she looks more boyish.

The eeeeend!

A few things to note before ending this post:

The quality of page 2 is a little wonky because I accidentally did the cleaning for that image on a version that was a lower resolution, and since I had to redraw a great portion of it in order to clean it... I didn't wanna redo it (sorry!).

The ending here is certainly a bit... confusing. Considering Esuno's three magical girls are, well, magical, it makes sense that they'd dodge bullets with ease. So I guess that explains that part of the ending. Everything else is left a bit more open-ended, which isn't too surprising considering this is probably more of a gag story than something to take as canon. Still, my favorite chapter of Detective Akechi lol.

I know that the majority of people reading this have not read Detective Akechi, so sorry if me dissing this series comes out of left field. I'm not planning on reviewing it, because to be quite frank, I don't think I totally understand the plot lol. So, instead, I'll leave you with my personal thoughts: It's just... incredibly bizarre, and the fan service didn't help. I originally stopped reading after volume 2 because of a particularly distasteful scene where Akechi possessed Mayumi to assault another girl (because he's a huge creep btw), and essentially assaulted both of them in the process, which is just... I think my brain genuinely tapped out after reading that, like how the hell do you come up with that? I decided to read over the series again to write this post, and it just gets weirder and weirder. Including, but not limited to, Mayumi having an Eiji and Sena moment with her brother (iykyk). Out of complete nowhere too. As I mentioned in my previous post, I generally don't have an issue with nsfw topics in stories, in fact, some of my favorite stories do cover nsfw and unhinged plots. As long as it's done with a purpose and isn't mind-numbingly dumb, I don't necessarily mind. Detective Akechi though is just weird, horny, and weirdly horny in ways that detract from the story. This is a personal opinion of mine, but I think it's quite funny that Esuno's favorite topic to write about, which is supernatural detectives, isn't exactly his forte. Something about the Future Diary formula, which probably wasn't intentional, managed to combine his bizarre plot points with the broken psychology of his characters in a way that just worked, though he unfortunately hasn't been able to recreate it since :/

[sunniedesi]

Future Diary Radio TL

Here’s the (long time coming) update on the Future Diary Radio CDs! I’m sorry it took so long to finish this project, as always, school has me on a chokehold, but I’m glad to say the translations are finally done! In case you missed the original post, the Future Diary Radio CDs are an obscure piece of media from Future Diary that include commentary from some of the show’s voice actors, regarding their experiences voicing the characters and opinions about the series. You can now find the three tracks with the translated subtitles on my Youtube channel (daisynilla) or on the links down below. Special thanks to @iwanpepsu, @syrpai and @the-chosen-blood-teller for helping me gather the tracks from the radio CDs.

And on a semi-related note, I also wanted to use this post to comment on a couple of things that came up while doing research for this project.

1. In all of the three Radio CDs, the voice actors mention something about a live concert that happened at Shibuya AX on July 29th. I'm not sure how well-known this concert and the music featured in it are among the fandom, but given how much it is talked about in the radio CDs (and how much information I gathered on it incidentally), I figure I should make a separate post dedicated to that. Especially because of… this: 

2. On one of the Radio CDs, there was a mention of the DVD cast commentaries done by the Japanese voice actors. I don't own the DVD, but I was accidentally sent the audio for these Japanese cast commentaries in response to my last post about the Radio CDs. For my sanity’s sake, I’m not translating this, (I feel like the radio CDs are a good enough stand-in for the cast commentaries) but given its mention, I wanted to provide some of the context surrounding it. Like your regular cast commentaries on any DVD’s bonus features, the voice actors share their comments of the show as they watch the episodes. The order of the voice actors featured in each episode goes as follows:

Episodes 1-2: feature commentary from Misuzu Togashi (Yukki’s VA) and Tomosa Murata (Yuno’s VA).

Episodes 3-5: Aizawa Mai (Minene’s VA, ps her voice is so high it caught me off guard), Kawahara Yoshihisa (12th’s VA) and Sendai Eri (Tsubaki’s VA).

Episodes 6-8: Sanada Asami (Reisuke’s VA) and Mizuhara Kaoru (Rea’s VA).

Episodes 9-11: Ishida Akira (Akise’s VA), Matsuoka Yuki (Hinata’s VA) and Hiramatsu Hirokazu (10th’s VA).

Episodes 12-14: Ishii Makoto (Nishijima’s VA) and Tanaka Masahiko (Kurusu’s VA).

Episodes 15-17: Seki Tomokazu (Marco’s VA) and Kuwatani Natsuko (Ai’s VA).

Episodes 18-20: Yukana (Mao’s VA) and Shiraishi Minoru (Kousaka’s VA).

Episodes 21-23: Inada Tetsu (Ryuji’s VA, aka 11th’s secretary) and Konno Hiromi (8th’s VA).

Episodes 24-26: Domon Jin (3rd’s VA) and Honda Manami (MurMur’s VA).

(Also, I'm pretty sure the English version of the DVD includes cast commentaries too, but I don't know if those are the Japanese cast commentaries with translated subtitles or if it's commentary from the American cast… probably the latter, but I guess I’ll have to look a little deeper into that.)

[yunoteru4ever]

As shown above, @syrpai figured out that I was on the wrong track. :) It just looked so detailed that I figured it had to be a pasted-in cover from a real work, but NOPE!

Before @syrpai got me to realize and accept that it was fictional, I was already chasing down every shōjo manga magazine that existed in Japan before 2011. 😂 Needless to say, none of them matched this image for the above-stated reason. :P

I'm impressed with the fake they put on display, though. It's quite convincing, clearly! LOL

I’ve been trying - and so far, failing - to identify the manga that Murmur is reading in this scene.

Does anyone know it or otherwise have the ability to identify?

[yunoteru4ever]

The most common ship tags/names from the Japanese Mirai Nikki fandom

So today, I accidentally started discovering the ship names often used by the Japanese fandom for various character pairings. I just sort of stumbled into a tag that turned out to be the single most common tag for the Yuno/Yuki ship, and that wound up inspiring me to find what ship names they’re frequently tagging on various other character pairings over there.

Yukiteru Amano/Yuno Gasai = ゆのっき, aka Yunoki/Yunokki. Much like the English “Yunoteru,” it’s another way of fusing their given names together. Easy, breezy, beautiful.

Uryuu Minene/Masumi Nishjima =  西みね, aka Minenishi. I’ve seen “Minejima” and “Nishimine” used in English for them, but I don’t feel like either one has ever managed to stick as the “most common” on our side. I’ve always been disappointed that we never managed to nail something down for those two.

Yukiteru Amano/Aru Akise = 秋雪, aka Akiyuki. Except, um, that’s Chinese. That’s not Japanese. And yet, even the Japanese artists on Pixiv are using that Chinese character tag for these two! I have to assume this is partly because  those two Chinese characters (秋雪) can also be translated as “Autumn Snow,” and you know how much shippers love it when they can combine two characters’ names to make a recognizable word/expression.

Marco Ikusaba/Ai Mikami = マル愛, aka Marcoai. Do these two even need a “ship name”? They’ve been paired off for most of their lives, and they already come packaged as a unit! 

Aru Akise/Tsubaki Kasugano = アキツバ or Akitsuba. I remember that I first heard about this one from @syrpai a while back. And at that same time, @sermeno14 informed me that the most common ship name used in English for them is “Akibaki.” Which is pretty adorable.

Yuno Gasai/Aru Akise =  秋由乃 or Yunoaki. If you didn’t already know that there’s a contingent of the fandom that ships these two, I’m sorry to be the one breaking the news to you? Unless you’re interested Ofc…

Hinata Hino/Mao Nonosaka = Nothing. I had to include these two, because they’re actually more commonly shipped than the three pairings I listed before this! But alas, they just don’t seem to have a common Japanese ship name. I found a couple of attempts to make ひなまお (aka Hinamao) work, but that portmanteau is already associated with a pairing from “Ensemble Stars,” so it never gained much traction. Most of the ship art just labels itself as “Mirai Nikki Yuri.” Which I mean... okay? How about this: Let’s try “Nonohino.” What do you think?

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to the one brave fandom artist that’s trying to make ジョンかま or Johnkama (y’know, the ship between 11th and 8th) happen. Good luck and godspeed, you eccentric outlier.

[syrpaiautomotive]

Timeless Silhouette. Redefined. All Terrain, All Day High on Adrenaline. High on Safety #syrpaiautomotive #shillong #onebagfuleach #mahindra #mahindrarise #liveyounglivefree #liveresponsibly #resolutionforgood #mahindragreatescape #mahindraadventure #mahindrabolero #butthisisnotenough #riseagainstclimatechange #InspirationOnWheels #safetyfirst #stayhomestaysafe Syrpai Automotive website: www.syrpaiautomotive.co.in With You Hamesha (at Syrpai Automotive Mahindra Showroom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBX3b0lKJM/?igshid=8lew6gw5d54d

[syrpaiautomotive]

Upgrade to take the toughest roads in style. #syrpaiautomotive #shillong #mahindragenuineaccessories #onebagfuleach #mahindra #mahindrarise #liveyounglivefree #liveresponsibly #resolutionforgood #mahindragreatescape #mahindraadventure #mahindrabolero #butthisisnotenough #riseagainstclimatechange #InspirationOnWheels #safetyfirst Syrpai Automotive website: www.syrpaiautomotive.co.in With You Hamesha (at Syrpai Automotive Mahindra Showroom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBDGOgrln7P/?igshid=ljc9s51w6g7u

[yunoteru4ever]

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I actually found a copy of THAT SPECIFIC BACK ISSUE of Kadokawa's magazines on sale via a Japanese auction just last week!

That's right mofos, this is supposedly Monthly Ace Next's September 2001 issue, a.k.a. the one with "Railway Angel." (Or, judging by the cover, it looks like the title might be more accurately translated as The Artificial Angel? Eerrrrrrr... if that's the same story, that is? Hey now, there's no guarantee that the issue only contains one story with "Angel" in the title.)

ETA: @syrpai has since clarified/confirmed for us that "Artificial Angel" is indeed a separate ongoing series unrelated to the "Railway Angel" one-shot. There's just multiple angels up in this issue, that's all. :P

Needless to say, when I saw this lone copy go up, I. JUMPED. ON. THAT. SHIT. It's now coming my way from Japan and should arrive in the next couple of weeks. :D

Although.... just because this is Sakae Esuno's first credited manga publication doesn't mean we have any idea what his involvement was specifically. I'm going to be very curious to learn if this one-shot story features his writing, his art, both (a.k.a. the ideal scenario)... or some other kind of contribution?

(Judging a book by its cover: If "The Artificial Angel" is indeed the story he worked on, those characters on the cover do kinda resemble his art style. Though I guess that might just be because I'm seeing elements of design that are more common to late-90s/early-2000s manga/anime??)

Well, no way to be sure until it's in my hands. Stay tuned for more info! :)

Where the hell is Sakae Esuno’s “Railway Angel”?

If you look into Sakae Esuno’s bibliography, you’ll see that his first big break came in 2001 when he submitted a one-shot manga to Kadokawa’s annual manga contest that earned him a prize recognizing him as an up-and-coming rookie mangaka to watch.

The manga he submitted was titled 鉄道天使, aka “Tetsudo Tenshi” — or, in English, “Railway Angel.” The award he was given was “エース&ネクスト新人漫画賞奨励賞を”, which translates to something like “Ace & Next Rookie Manga Award Encouragement Award.” (…I realize this reference dates me, but yo dawg I herd you like awards)

The winners of these annual awards are supposed to always be published in one of Kadokawa’s manga magazines that year. Not all at once, mind you — they tend to just put out one winner here and one winner there, all spaced over months throughout the year. This one got dropped into “And if this one-shot story of his was good enough to get Esuno noticed by Kadokawa and helped earn him the right to pitch “Hanako” a few years later? I’d sure as hell like to see it and read it for myself!

But as you probably figured from the headline up there, THAT’S THE PROBLEM. I can’t seem to find “Railway Angel” anywhere. At all. I’m certainly not seeing online publications or scans or anything. Furthermore, I can’t even figure out WHAT issue of WHICH Kadokawa publication it might be in!! 

ETA: I finally found out that this story dropped in the September 2001 issue of the now-defunct Monthly Ace Next (月刊少年エース).

I understand that I’m sitting here asking to find a single story contained in a single issue of one unknown, Japanese, Kadokawa-published manga magazine from 21 fucking years ago, and that’s kind of a tall order. Especially when you’re not even located in the same hemisphere as the publication’s origin. :P 

But I’d really appreciate any help that ANYONE out there can provide on finding this thing.

[syrpaiautomotive]

"The Earth is what we all have in common". #syrpaiautomotive #shillong #onebagfuleach #mahindra #mahindrarise #liveyounglivefree #liveresponsibly #resolutionforgood #mahindragreatescape #mahindraadventure #mahindrathar #mahindrascorpio #mahindrabolero #mahindraxuv500 #mahindraxuv300 #mahindrakuv100 #mahindratuv300 #mahindramarazzo #mahindraracing #butthisisnotenough #riseagainstclimatechange #InspirationOnWheels #safetyfirst Syrpai Automotive website: www.syrpaiautomotive.co.in With You Hamesha (at Syrpai Automotive Mahindra Showroom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBCw7ySlJF3/?igshid=atabj8kyu687

[syrpaiautomotive]

Mahindra's very own Hand Sanitizer #m2all #syrpaiautomotive #mahindra http://www.m2all.com (at Syrpai Automotive Shillong) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_4vF3Zl2SP/?igshid=1vvti45glwz8

[syrpaiautomotive]

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[yunoteru4ever]

@syrpai​ Thanks for pointing this out! If I slowed down and thought about this more, I probably would’ve come up with this possibility, but... while I certainly should have thought of it, I admit I’m still kind of surprised by the reality of it. If that 9-minute video is a public taster/proof-of-concept for the eventual series, it’s weird to me to see a trailer for something so very short that is, in turn, already basically an advertisement for something ELSE. It’s like watching a trailer for a trailer for an actual product. :P I suppose we actually do that sometimes — I’ve seen media post five-second clips of a movie trailer to promote the upcoming trailer that will promote the ACTUAL MOVIE — but it never stops being goofy to me.

But yes, I knew about that OVA at least. And if there’s anyone out there who wants to watch that initial OVA of assorted animated scenes? It’s available online with English subtitles right here. :)

So I found a neat website that has interesting promotion videos of the panchinko machine and...? I'm not sure what the second one is. Another panchinko machine? Or perhaps just another promotional video for the same one?

The first one interests me because there's art of the characters I haven't seen before? (Unless I haven't gone digging enough) Some of them just use the art from the reference sheets, but about half of them have (what I believe to be) new art. Also a few different voicelines? (I don't know, I don't think I've heard Takao say that before zjdbdj might be tripping.)

And there's also this promotional video on the same site that has a trailer of Mirai Nikki but with different framing. I also bring this up because it looks so... Different. It's merely a matter of where they changed the camera to be, yet, these shots of the trailer just give a whole different feeling. Maybe discomfort because I know those scenes well and it's just... Odd to see them differently?

Maybe you've all seen these, but hey, if I put this here maybe others will see them too.

It's been a couple of years since I've looked at those first two. I never actually listened to the audio on the first video before... damn, that announcer sounds so dramatic when he says "PACHINKO... MIRAI NIKKI" at the end. :P Andor the record, the second video is a promo reel for the pachislot game — the one WITHOUT any physical elements where a ball drops and is knocked around by plastic versions of the characters, etc. That full-fledged pachinko edition with plastic Murmur and bumpers shaped like Twelfth's head and whatnot came along a couple of years later.

Now, the THIRD video you posted? I've legitimately never seen that before, somehow. That strange music, the complete lack of any logic, the fact that it ONLY showcases images from the first two episodes... I really wonder what the hell this was made for! Maybe it was a VERY early trailer?? People in the comments seem to be talking as though the video predates the very first episode airing, so that might be right. But that music and the fade-in/fade-out presentational style of the random scenes makes for something really tonally bizarre.

Anyway.

For anyone reading all of this who is unaware, one thing that's always excited/fascinated me about the pachislot and pachinko machines is that they both contain unique animation sequences made by Asread AND new performances by the anime voice actors. (For example: Here's a fun bit of business where you can watch completely botch his attack on Minene in the second episode and get totally laid out by her, lol.) Oh, and obviously there's lots of new key art/promo art, but that's pretty well-established by now. I wish there was some way to extract all the video and artwork from the device to obtain clean copies... alas.

@sermeno14 made a really good breakdown of the pachinko machine and what we know about it in this post from roughly a year ago. In fact, they're the one who posted the link to that Episode 2 alternate ending originally. There's loads of good info in that post!