#that's a new and interesting way to interpret why a name is written without kanji

[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach Cosmology 4/4

Last post in this series on Bleach world terms: [1] [2] [3]  The super super unaddressed Quincy realm from the final arc, soon to be adapted into the final anime season...

Schatten Bereich(シャッテン・ベライヒ) Sha-tte-n' Be-ra-i-hi, German for “Shadow Realm” and pretty literally interpreted in Japanese as [影の領域] “Realm of Shadow(s).”  A straight forward description of what it’s supposed to be as a place hidden in(?) the shadow of Soul Society, and the Seireitei specifically.  It’s a real shame we didn’t get any actual explanation of what this realm was or how it worked or really much of anything other than the super vague description...

Did the Quincy make it themselves to hide in?  Did the Shinigami make it to banish them to?*  What was that thing about Yhwach having a time limit he could spend away from it that just never came back???  If the Quincy were wiped out 200 years prior, how are there so many of them in there?*  Had they been recruiting new Quincy from the human world?(As Nodt having been in a hospital bed suggests yes)  How were people getting in there?  Or were they supposed to be original Quincy from the conflict 200 years ago, in which case... we were told Quincy were specifically humans who’d just mastered and passed down a set of distinct skills, so how did they survive 200 years without just aging and dying?

*[edit]: My mistake. It’s mentioned at the start of the second attack that they hid themselves in the shadows of soul society specifically 1000 years prior, and following the alluded to first conflict between the Shinigami and Quincy.  Although that event wasn’t really elaborated on either, so that just raises other questions.

Anyway...  none of that has to do with the locale itself, and frankly there aren’t really any answers to uncover in the sparse world building material the final arc gave us...  As to the physical features of the realm itself, Kubo really pulled an awkward repeat of Hueco Mundo with the stark white stonework in a realm of eternal darkness...  But this time, it’s more explicitly cold and also literally icy.

I feel like there was supposed to be some kind of theme about the Quincy living in shadows and not seeing the light of the sun, and being denied its warmth, which just seems like a tiny tweak of the Arrancar Arc’s night sky and day light/sun and moon imagery.  Was the Soul King meant to have a sun motif that we just never got to see? (equating light of the sun with love of god and loss there of, harkening back to biblical revolt of heaven imagery?)  Sun gods and sun king and god kings are all pretty classic to Japanese mythos, and also to Japan’s fetishization of some of classical Europe (although that’s more French rococo, ala Louis XIV, than German)  If there’d been a more overt Sun theme with the Soul King it would’ve made a much more interesting parallel with Ichigo’s Black Sun(opposite Rukia’s white moon) motif.

Sorry, off topic again, and mostly just filling space here...

Wahrwelt(ヴァールヴェルト) Vaa-ru-ve-ru-to meaning “True World” and written as [真世界城] “True World/Society Castle.”  Note that while [真世界] being read as “True World” obviously is meant to mirror Wahrwelt, [世界] can also read as “Society” which is probably meant to directly mirror Soul Society[尸魂界] although they don’t use the exact same construction to denote “Welt” and “Society.”  It suggests that Soul Society is a false regency over the spirit world, and that the Quincy are the rightful rulers, rather than being outsiders come to take over.  Although it feels a little misplaced that the Wahrwelt was specifically the replacement for the Royal Realm and not what replaced the Seireitei.

Silbern(ジルバーン) Shi-ru-baa-n' just meaning “Silver.”  Written as [銀架城] meaning “Silver Mounted Castle.”  I've seen people translate this is “Silver Cross Castle,” but I think this is a misunderstanding of the verb kakaru[架かる] meaning "to cross."  But that's not "(a) cross" like the Quincy cross, it's "to cross" like to cross a street.  The Quincy had a whole thing about silver stretching pretty far back in the series so there’s consistency there, but it doesn’t seem like there was much more going on with it...

As you might expect from the kind of shoddily put together final arc, there’s not a whole lot else to go off of here.  Which is a shame, because although there’s not a wealth of potential the way the Arrancar arc had, there was certainly a lot of empty space to fill as far as world building or character motivations go.  It would’ve been nice to have actually taken the time to explore any of that...

In particular there was the super SUPER curious bit with what appeared to be Quincy ruins left in Hueco Mundo that we didn’t really get much of an explanation of.  Kubo even does a remarkably good job with visual story telling where the rough stonework we get only a glimpse of makes it very clear that the ruins aren’t the same same as the clean, sleek designs of Los Noches.

I think one of the light novels gave them the name “Negal Ruins” that the Bleach wikia references, but I don’t have Japanese copies of the LN to confirm that, and the wikia confusingly doesn’t cite where it got the name from or include any kind of kanji or kana...*  But as little as that is to go off of, I do LOVE the idea that the Quincy once occupied Hueco Mundo in the past, and it just feels like the first tiny tiny step toward what should’ve been a much bigger plot point.  Even the fact that Urahara is out there with scientific equipment doing some kind of research seemed to imply that he’d come back with some crucial information...  I guess that was supposed to be the hollow pills plot device?  But that wasn’t especially clear, let alone remotely satisfying either as follow up or even as its own plot development.

*no no, i was way off.  It’s right there in the same chapter they show up. [ネガル遺跡] “NE-GA-RU” + “Historic Ruins/Archeological Site.”  Dunno why my eyes just glossed right over that.  Not that it really clarifies anything.

Curiously, the Taiyou-no-mon[太陽の門] “Gate of (the) Sun” that plays kind of a deus ex machina role toward the climax of the arc isn’t named in German at all.  (it is mentioned on a few separate occasions, so it doesn’t come out of “nowhere” exactly, but it’s never really elaborated on either)  It’s not clear if that’s supposed to mean something, or if Kubo just gave up juggling dictionaries to come up with a new name on the fly.  It sticks out like a sore thumb by comparison though.  Very odd.

Anyway that’s basically it for big world terms across the major story locales...  There are a few misc. locations like the Valley of Screams or or Hell focused on in the movies and only briefly brought up in the manga, but they’re all pretty literal names: Kyougoku[叫谷] “Scream Valley” where the lost souls, Blanks wind up when they can’t make it to Soul Society, referencing their unheard voices.  Jigoku[地獄] just the actual Japanese word for an underworld, originally borrowed from the Chinese Diyu[地獄] and the mix of indigenous Chinese and Buddhist influences mythos, but at this point linguistically used as the translation for any kind of penitent underworld, regardless of cultural origin.  It’s written with the characters for “Ground” and “Prison.”

I may not have had a lot of take aways from all this, but I gotta admit going back over some of this material did kind of rekindle my excitement for the anime this year, so that’s something.

Bleach Cosmology posts: [Karakura] [SoulSociety] [Hueco Mundo] [Wahrwelt] [Hell/Naraka(allusions)] [Animal Realm(?)] [Preta Realm(?)]

[kaibutsushidousha]

What do you mean by ridiculous names ? Is there puns or the name very unusual with fancy kanji/unusual readings for them ?

All of the above. Using older kanji makes sense since the story is set in Taishou, but most names are either unsubtle puns or relatively direct descriptors of the characters, like Gyokko meaning “jade vase”. Unusual readings don’t often all that often, but a great example is 不死川 being spelled as Shinazugawa instead of the more obvious Fujigawa (same kanji as Killer Killer’s Fujigawa btw). 

Not only that, but there also a few examples of names that are straight up regular words with no twist to them whatsoever: Muzan (cruelty), Giyuu (heroism) and Agatsuma (my wife).

Kamado means “furnace gate”, because the Kamado family sells charcoal. It’s an outdated kanji for furnace (竃) to keep that Taishou flavor. Now, Tanjirou is a much more competent and interesting name, one of my favorites in the manga. Depending on whether you interpret its 治 as the 治 in 治す or the 治 in 退治, the meaning of his name could be either “healing son of charcoal” or “demon-slaying son of charcoal”, fitting perfectly with how Tanjirou’s goals involve both killing demons and getting a cure for his sister’s predicament. Not mention a lot of Heian mythology associating slaying oni with curing illness. And the charcoal part is because Tanjirou, of the Furnace family who sells charcoal, sells charcoal. By the did I mention Tanjirou sells charcoal? But anyways, there’s even another layer to this name and which it’s why it’s one of my favorites: it can be sort of a namefication of the verb 歎じる(tanjiru), which means to mourn, reflect Tanjirou’s main trait of sparing sympathy for pretty much every demon he kills.

Nezuko means “shrine bean girl”. Specifically Heian era shrines, so it’s maybe this kanji is too old even for the Taishou era (so old that a lot of people on the internet don’t know to type it or don’t bother the conversion takes too long). But it fits the character since Heian is when we got most of the oni related mythology this series is mostly about. The “bean girl” part is probably there only to sound cute.

Agatsuma, as mentioned earlier, means “my wife”. I already considered one of the funniest I’ve ever seen before I even started the manga and it only better after actually seeing Zen’itsu’s character. Zen’itsu has a cool double meaning like Tanjirou, with 逸 potentially being from 逸する or 逸物, so his name means either “goodness missed” or “goodness at its best”, which fits how Zen’itsu is normally an absolutely terrible person in every aspect but shows himself to be ultimately caring and competent when pushes come to the shove (even if through the power of stress napping most of the time).

Hashibira means “beak flattened”. A rare name I have no idea how it connects to the character. Inosuke’s kanji mean “helper of the elegant” but the intent is clearly a pun on inoshishi (boar). Besides, looking at the meaning feels like a moot point because everyone is “the elegant” compared to Inosuke.

Both Kanawo’s names are antiquated as heck, mainly there for the series Taishou era flavor. Tsuyuri is one of Japan’s most notoriously unusual ateji names (yeah, there are only 3 instances of the manga using real people names and one of them is the name known for being weird), with it’s kanji meaning “chestnut flower falling” and the kana means “rainy season starting”, because chestnut flowers fall in early May, signaling the start of the rainy season. Kanawo’s “birthday” is in May btw. Anyways, the name was probably chosen for her specifically because of flower kanji in the middle and her Breath of Flowers. Kanawo is a katakana name, so no proper meaning, but it overall feels very old because it’s a name that uses “wo” instead of “o”. Taishou flavor, as I mentioned.

I’m skipping Gen’ya to his brother’s section because their names are matching.

Ubuyashiki means “childbirth grounds”. Kagaya had 5 children so it checks. Besides, with their family curse, pretty much all the Ubuyashikis can do is give birth to the next generation as much as they can before they kick the bucket. Kagaya means “radiant!”. Yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name’s meaning. I’m sure it’s a name all pillar agree with.

Tomioka means “wealth hill” it’s a rare instance of a real people name in this series, so I assume it must a reference to some one, but I have no idea who. Giyuu, as already mentioned, is just the regular word for heroism. Military volunteers are actually called “giyuu soldiers” in Japanese even.

Similarly, Kochou is the regular word for butterfly (although not the most commonly used). Shinobu is a hiragana name, so no proper meaning (much like Kanae and Kanawo’s katakana names), but name Shinobu is normally written with 忍 (the shinobi kanji) or 偲 (remembering, but most often in the context of remembering a dead person). The latter has obvious meaning in Shinobu’s relationship with Kanae, but the former might also have an interesting meaning behind it. The shinobi kanji is made with the heart kanji under the blade kanji (insert Monogatari reference here), so a huge cliche in ninja-themed literature is the saying “a shinobi without a heart is just a blade” (surprisingly never mentioned once in Naruto, as far as I can remember). I believe this thematically connects to Shinobu’s central character trait of wanting to have Kanae’s kindness but not being able to bring herself to be that empathetic to demons. She tries to be Shinobu but can’t force herself to retain the heart she lost, so she ends up just being a blade.

Rengoku is the regular word for purgatory, as you probably know from it being also the name of his ninth kata. Kyoujurou means “congratulating son of apricorns”, with father Shinjurou being “congratulating son of yew plum pine” and his brother Senjurou being “congratulating son of thousand”. The pun here is probably with 享受(kyouju; happily accepting something) vs 信受 (shinju; accepting a fact, in a somewhat resignated way). Another possibility less related to the conflicted with his character is 教授(kyouju; professor) since he’s a mentor character.

Uzui means “roof marrow”, but real pun is with uzu uzu, the gitaigo for impatience, a character trait fitting for a character completely centered around rejecting shinobi philosophies. Also reflects how his very first sympathetic moment was him honestly admiting that his impatience to save his wives caused him to make a few bad moves. Tengen is the Japanese reading for Tianyuan, which is the heaven’s energy which composes everything according to some ancient Chinese traditions. You may have heard of it as the “celestial unknown” or the “heavenly element”. Don’t know what it has to do with Tengen’s character though.

Kanroji means “nectar temple” and Mitsuri means “honey lazuli”. The “temple” and “lazuli” part are kanji commonly used in names, so that’s a pretty much just thrown in there to make her name sound more like a name. The real keywords here nectar and honey, since those are two words that can be used as horny words in a very subtle way, but suddenly look a lot less subtle when they are about the Love Pillar.

Himejima means “scream island”, but specifically the sad, crying kind of scream, matching with how Himejima is pretty much always crying out of compassion for others. Also, archaic kanji for “island” because Taishou. Gyoumei means “carita afterlife”. Carita is an umbrella term for all forms of spiritual training in Buddhism. It includes a lot of things we see associated with him in the manga, like sitting under waterfalls, reciting chants, etc.

Tokitou means “time transparent”. Possibly a clever amnesia reference (in the sense of how his past time was invisible to him)? Muichirou means “first son of no”, in a ridiculous match with his twin Yuichirou (”first son of yes”). Yuichirou references that multiple times in his backstory, saying it’s supposed to mean “no worth” or “no point”, only to then say it’s supposed to mean “no limits” in the climax of the flashback.

Iguro means “elegant black”. It’s an obvious anagram on guroi (gorey). Now, Obanai is easily the most incomprehensible name in the series. It means “small banana inside”, which is nonsensical enough for me to know for sure there’s a hidden pun involved, but I can’t find it for the life of me. The closest I can get is a pun with the English word “overnight” (OBAaNAIto), but I still don’t know Iguro’s character enough to know what “overnight” has to do with him.

不死川 would mean “immortal river“ as Fujigawa, but due to ateji it be comes more like “river of not dying“. Like with Kanroji’s names, the river kanji is only there to make the name look more like a real name (note: it’s not working) and the “not dying“ part is what really matters. Sanemi is introduced showing off his chest covered in scars and having Kanroji commenting on how he’s got a new scar in his last mission, immediately conveying to the audience that he’s a dude that’s not dying despite injuring himself a lot. Now Sanemi is a much more complicated name because 実 has dozens of meanings and I had no way of knowing which one is supposed to apply to him until Gen’ya finally came into play. Looking at them as paired names, Sanemi means “more reality“ and Gen’ya means “more illusion“. Can’t say why Sanemi is supposed to represent truth or Gen’ya is supposed represent lies, though. Could be something about how Sanemi knows the truth about how he felt about his brother while was fed Sanemi’s lies in their reencounter, could be about how Sanemi is a true breath user while Gen’ya is a fraud who needs to rely on Breath of Gun or going Kirby on the demons to fight, who knows. On a semi-related note, all of their other siblings had generic unrelated names. I guess their parents didn’t think of going with “more half-truth“ or “more ommision“ names before dropping the naming pattern.

Kyougai means “echoing fanfare”. Two sound related words for the drum guy. Pretty basic.

Rui is a regular word for bad influence, fitting of how he forced others into his abusive family play. It’s written with the radical for thread, so I that’s one of the ones I find more clever than ridiculous.

Enmu, on the other hand, means “nightmare dream”. And if that wasn’t redundant enough, it’s also an anagram for nemu(sleep).

Kaigaku means “sly peaks”. The peaks part is common surname kanji, so only the “sly” part matters. Obvious traitor name, which must be why he was unnamed in Zen’itsu’s first flashback. 

Nakime means “sounding woman”. Very self-explanatory, she’s a woman who plays a biwa.

Daki means “fallen princess”, which is already meaningful enough for her character, but more importantly, it sounds very close to Dakki, the Japanese for the Daji, a famous Chinese monster disguised as an imperial courtesan. Giyuutarou is a name used for courtesan assistants, as already explained in the manga itself. Daki’s human name Ume is plum.

Gyokko means “jade vase”, as I said in the intro paragraph. Competing hard with Nakime for the title of most to-the-poing name in the series.

Hantengu means “half tengu”, because his ability is to split in halves and the tengu is the youkai species he’s themed after. Kinda weird how all oni in Kimetsu are themed after classic Japanese monster but only Daki, Hantengu and Douma get to be named after the ones they represent, I wish that was done more often. Anyways, his emotion bodies all have the kanji for their respective emotion in their names.

Akaza has my favorite name in the series, which makes sense considering everything else about him is also great. His human name is Hakuji, meaning “lion-dog healer” (yes, same ji in Tanjirou, but “demon-slaying” can’t be considered as a possibility for him for obvious reasons). As explained during his backstory, he’s named after lion-dog statues often seen guarding temple entrances. He’s someone who is supposed to be there to protect others. The healer part of his name also fits with how his spent half of his human life nursing his loved ones. And then Muzan turned him into Akaza. Due to its outdated kanji, even Japanese fans find his name a bit hard to interpret, but Akaza is generally agreed to mean “castrated dog sitting on a pit”. Delightfully humialiating name with delicious irony. In the chapter “The Useless Lion-dog”, Muzan turns the lion-dog who failed to guard its two families into a castrated dog sitting on a pit. All his nobility was neutered and he was left sitting still in a pit as he has no home to guard. Before this becomes a full Akaza meta on how he’s a full anti-thesis of what Hakuji swore to be, let’s get back to talk about names. His wife Koyuki’s name mean “love snow”. The love part represents how she’s a love interest of Hakuji and the snow part reflects she always a snowflakes hairpin and how Akaza projects the image of a snowflake on the floor when he activates his compass ability.

Douma means “child exhausted”, fitting his childish nature, especially in how he’s portrayed as a child who still hasn’t developed empathy at the age of 20, and with how his backstory is all about him being exhausted by human emotions after listening to hours of worshippers narrating their own tragedies. But most importantly, he named after Doumahoushi aka Ashiya Douman, the mythological villain he’s themed after. I like how he’s the only oni themed after a human villain rather than an actual oni or youkai like all the rest, but he might be the one oni who understands humans the least.

Kokushibou means “black death pupils”. Pupils as in eye pupil, not students, of course. He has no students, but he sure has a lot of pupils. Also eyes are often used as symbol for envy, which is the main theme of his backstory. Lastly, his name is a pun on kokushibyou aka the black plague, the disease that killed the most people in the world, just like he’s the oni who killed the most people. The 3 Upper Moons all have pretty unironically good names, all things considered. His human family name means “successor country”, probably in reference to how his brother passed down his hinomaru (symbol of Japan, the country) earrings to his next generation all the way down to Tanjirou. His name Michikatsu means “rock winner”. The winner part is obvious but I don’t know the (outdated) rock kanji was picked. His brother is Yoriichi meaning “fated one”, which probably on feeds Kokushibou’s complex harder.

Lastly and most ridiculously, Muzan Kibutsuji. Kibutsuji means “demon dance road”. Yes, the oni kanji is right there on his name, same demon kanji as the demons everyone faces. And as mentioned in the opener, the name Muzan is literally just the regular word cruelty. I’m commenting stuff with a friend as I read and we semi-consistently refer to Muzan as Meanie Demonbroadway because that’s just how stupid his name is. I really love it. Thank you anon for this opportunity to talk about Meanie Demonbroadway in a public space.

[sayu-is-a-sass-queen]

Redemption and Identity - Death Note: New Generation

One thing I really appreciated from the third and final episode of “Death Note: New Generation” was Taichi Amazawa’s arc and his main conflict with Yuki Shien. Those themes of redemption and identity really stuck with me!

I’m gonna be sharing some thoughts and personal opinions under the cut below! Spoilers for “Chapter 3: Fanaticism” (Shien’s chapter) of “Death Note: New Generation”! You can find a brief summary of the episode here (I will be diving into a summary myself, though).

My personal arguement: Taichi’s surname (formerly Kunugida, now Amazawa) represents his identity - how he sees himself and how he is seen by others. Consequently, the act of changing one’s name represents the decision of moving on from his [criminal] past and yearning for at least partial redemption. The episode thus expores the question whether one’s identity should be defined by their past actions (Taichi Kunugida) or by who they are working towards becoming in the future (Taichi Amazawa).

Let’s start with a brief elaboration on the two opposing viewpoints presented in this episode!

On one hand, we have Taichi’s girlfriend Hayaka, who sees him as Taichi Amazawa - she judges him based on his current actions and not based on the act of killing a young girl as  Taichi Kunugida. According to her, he is “no longer Kunugida”.

On the other hand, all other major characters in this episode judge him based on the killing that took place. This includes Taichi himself,  who does not feel like he deserves to live a happy life as a possible husband and future father. Of course, this is certainly a valid viewpoint, especially in the case of the older woman related to Taichi’s victim, who simply cannot forgive Taichi for what he has done.

Yet, Shien takes this a step further by planning to write down the names of Taichi and Namaki, his former partner in crime, in his Death Note. As the victim of a similar crime and as a Kira supporter, Shien judges both Taichi and Namaki based on their past actions and does not believe that they should get the chance to redeem themselves.

Now, how does this conflict further explore themes of regret and (partial) redemption?

This is when the episode presents us with a comparison between Taichi and Namaki. Clearly, Namaki is very much the foil to Taichi’s character - they share the same past but, in the present, choose to define themselves differently. While Taichi is living a quiet life and performing hard but honest work, Namaki is planing to commit further crimes and does not regret his past at all. Thus, he threatens Taichi in order to make him join his criminal ways once more.

However, when Namaki dies because of the effects of Death Note, Taichi finally feels like there might be a chance to partly move on from his past. After all, the person mainly tying him to those events is now gone. Additionally, that meeting with Namaki has reminded Taichi of how he is aiming to improve himself and choosing live with the consequences of his actions, instead of taking the “easy” route.

This results in Taichi not having nightmares about his past for once (something he shares with Shien btw - both have frequent nightmares about family killings but from constrasting perspectives). In my interpretation, he realizes that he has the chance to improve himself and thus accepts Hayaka’s wedding proposal.

Now, whether that would redeem his character or not is up to personal debate. I personally think redemption is a matter based on personal relationships and values - you can be redeemed in the eyes some but not be forgiven by others. It would be unrealistic for somebody to be “completely” redeemed, as there will always be someone who won’t be able to forgive you (often for justified reasons). In a way, I do believe that Taichi has become aware of this notion as well. He might never be able to completely move on from his past but, to some people, he can bring positive change. I’d like to think that this is what lead to his change of mind.

Now, how exactly does that moral conflict conclude with Shien writing down Taichi’s name in the Death Note?

Ironically, this one night without any nightmares (and thus to Shien’s eyes, without regrets) is the reason why Shien chooses to write down Taichi’s name after all (although I do personally think that Shien might have written down Taichi’s name anyway and was merely looking for ways to justify his decision).

Interestingly, Shien confronts Taichi upfront about his actions - which is something he did not do before killing Namaki! Shien once more makes his moral standpoint clear by referring to Taichi as “Taichi Kunugida” and states the following: “Even if you change your name, your sin will not go away.”

And Shien is right about that. Taichi will never be able to completely erase his past. However, Shien refuses to even acknowledge Taichi’s new identity, his regret, and how he is aiming to become a better person.

In the end, Shien does write down Taichi’s name at home, observing Taichi through live security footage. (Of course he cannot be seen at the crime scene during the crime itself, but I do find that sudden distance after such a direct confrontation interesting as well.)

Shien writes down Tiachi’s name: Taichi Kunugida - his old surname. It’s the identity that represents his crimes and that Shien sees him through.

And so he waits for Taichi to die - but nothing happens.

Shien stops....and he is forced to acknowledge that Taichi’s birthname is not the name that can be used to kill him. Thus, when Shien now writes down the name “Taichi Amazawa”, he is forced to admit to himself that he was wrong about what Taichi’s real identity truly was.

In the end, the name used to kill Taichi represents the identity that he chose himself - the identity that he is striving towards in the present, not the identity defined by his past.

Once again, whether this prooves that Taichi is a redeemed character is not entirely possible to answer. It goes without saying that this is a tricky subject to discuss. Yet, what this episode does state (in my personal opinion!!) is the following:

While our past actions can not be entirely ignored, they are not the sole thing defining our identity. Rather, our identity also depends on how we react to our past actions and how we are willing to improve ourselves towards a future goal.

Of course this statement is a fairly popular one that’s explored in all sorts of different media - but I simply liked the execution in this particular episode and how (given the nature of the Death Note universe), names were used to drive this point further.

Moreover, I am aware that the universe that this miniseries takes place in is not the canon manga universe. From what I’m aware (pls correct me if I’m wrong!), we don’t know how name changes affect the Death Note in the manga. It was really just fun to explore this idea further (bc I feel like this moral conflict is something the manga did not elaborate on to the same degree) and to give these lesser-known Death Note characters some more attention. New content! We love to see it!

To conclude this spiral of Death Note thoughts, I thought it would be fun to end this with some translations of Taichi’s name(s)! Thank you so much for the translations and your general help regarding this post, @misora-massacre!

To directly quote Blue’s messages:

[02:19, 1.6.2020] Blue: Amazawa is written 雨澤, those are the kanji for "rain" and "swamp" [02:23, 1.6.2020] Blue: Kunugida is 椚田, those are "oak" and "rice field" [02:24, 1.6.2020] Blue: Taichi is written with the kanji for "thick"/"fat" and "one" [02:24, 1.6.2020] Blue: ....... He shares two kanji with [Touta] Matsuda's [02:25, 1.6.2020] Blue: The da at the end of Kunigida "rice field" is also the da at the end of Matsuda [02:25, 1.6.2020] Blue: And the Ta at the beginning of Taichi "fat" is also the Ta at the end of Touta

Some things that stand out in my opinion (but that could very much be coincidental): The common kanji with Matsuda’s name, as well the possible translation of “one” for Taichi’s first name in contrast his two surnames/identities.

Anyways, thank you very much for reading this! If you have anything to add or if you disagree with one of or several of the points that I have made, feel free to reblog this post with your reply or make your own post and (if you want to) tag me in it. Always looking forward to different opinions or corrections in case I accidentally got something wrong!

[kimchi-noodles]

[Interview] Meychan on his second solo album, “daimeywaku”

”A ‘Total Nuisance’ apearing once in a lifetime, Meychan

Original article from natalie.mu Translation by noodle

Meychan released his newest album entitled “daimeywaku (‘Total Nuisance’ in English),” composed of all original songs.

Meychan, who has performed in large scale events such as “XYZ TOUR,” “Hikikomori-tachi Demo Fes ga Shitai!,” and more, and is also a member of the Youtuber unit “Niku Chomoranma,” has already gained fame with this wide range of activities. This second solo album from him contains songs that showcases his hobbies and preferences, including songs written by Meychan himself, a collaboration song with BRADIO entitled “Horebo Revolution” that materialized from an offer, as well as original songs from vocalo-P’s that Meychan himself had handpicked. In this exclusive, we look into the new generation utaite Meychan’s charm, unravelling how he became a vocalist, his thoughts on his songs, and his stance about his content.

(Full interview under the cut!)

Started singing after failing entrance exams

──How did Meychan decide to start a career in music?

I started singing under the name “Meychan” as a hobby when I was a 3rd year in middle school, but I didn’t start because I was aiming for something big. I had failed my high school entrance exams then, and when I went home I recorded a cover for no reason. After that, my mother entered my room screaming. That was really intense (laughs). She was like, “My son is singing with a loud voice after failing his entrance exams!” (laughs).

──After that, you continued uploading “utattemita” videos during your high school and college days, right?

That’s right. I was uploading songs during high school, but honestly I still wasn’t serious about it then. I guess I was only doing it for self-satisfaction. I started to change when I was in college, when I gained more people who listen to me. I was able to do more things ever since I became a college student, so I also tried to independently organize my own oneman live show. For the first time, I got the chance to earn money by singing, so I think I started becoming more serious about my own singing at the time.

──This is the second time you released a solo album with “daimeywaku” (‘Total Nuisance’ in English). Your first solo album (“Meychan no Atama no Naka wa Daitai Konna Kanji Desu,” ‘Meychan’s Thoughts Sound Roughly Like This’ in English) would be around 3 years ago, but has Meychan’s surroundings undergone huge changes within those 3 years?

Let’s see... I became a Youtuber, and my solo live shows have become more frequent…… It’s only obvious that so much has changed in 3 years, and the way I think about my activities have also changed. My thoughts on being an utaite have sprouted from something I did as an extension of my hobbies, to something that lets me face music as a job. Three years ago, my first album was still an extension of my hobbies, but a huge part of it was about me enjoying being an utaite, so because I enjoyed being an utaite, I was thankfully offered a chance to make a CD. I’ve never made a CD before that, so I only gathered songs that I liked, and eventually completed the album called “Meychan no Atama no Naka wa Daitai Konna Kanji Desu.” 

──Was there a trigger behind you changing your mind about your activities?

There were a lot of factors leading up to it, but one of the biggest factors was probably getting to join “XYZ TOUR.” I’ve been in a few compilation live shows before then, but the consciousness of the performers in XYZ TOUR are way different. The commitment to the lights and sound is also not a joke. I realized “Ah, so there are people who make up a single event while being fixated on such things,” so I’ve come to make up my mind that I also want to be able to reach that level.

An explosive power behind negative feelings

──The biggest difference between the this and the previous album is that you also recorded songs that you yourself wrote for this album, right? Have you already written your own songs before this?

I was interested in writing songs, and I originally had a guitar. But when I decided to actually write songs, I also started learning the piano to polish my musical sense, and started studying about chord progressions. At the same time I also thought about writing lyrics, so in three years, I scribbled down notes about my thoughts on a notepad. The first song I finished was “Victor.”

(Link: VICTOR)

──You uploaded the song “Victor” in April last year, right? How was the feedback upon uploading your own song?

I felt really uneasy before uploading it, you know. I only ever uploaded covers until then, so I only released songs that listeners already know about. But releasing my own song…… this is something trivial, but that means I’ll have everyone listen to something they haven’t even listened to before, right? I was uncertain whether they’ll be able to accept it properly, so I was really nervous upon its release. But if I was going to choose a profession to sing as an artist, I felt that it’s extremely important for me to have everyone understand what I think using songs. That’s why I didn’t have any reservations at all about releasing my own song.

──Were you already thinking about the album when you produced Victor?

I already decided that I would be making an album, but I haven’t drawn out a concrete plan for the contents of the album yet. I got a suggestion saying “All of the songs would be written by Meychan,” but I responded with “No, that’s definitely impossible.” But when I finished the song “Victor,” I felt like I started seeing that kind of album I wanted to make.

──What kind of vision did you have then?

First, when I tried writing one song, I already knew that making an album only with my own songs would be difficult (laughs). But I still wanted to express myself properly with the album, so I thought I should put in everything that I liked and wanted to work on. In its roots, it doesn’t differ much from my previous album, but the things that I can do and want to do have also changed in three years, so even with the same theme, I’m certain that the contents of this album are still different.

──Reading the lyrics of the songs you wrote, I felt that there was a gap between them and Meychan’s public image. Meychan has a strong image of brightness and cheerfulness, but it was as if there was something dark hiding in your lyrics.

Ah, I see. I guess there were several dark parts in the lyrics (laughs). I think I’m still that cheerful being that everyone thinks I am. Whenever I express myself, it’d be easy to produce an output from happy feelings. Like if when a friend gets drunk and enjoys himself, he’d be able to express himself without hiding his feelings. But negative emotions like hate or hidden ill feelings are things that I feel are still stored inside me. Rather than happy emotions, I think that those negative feelings stored inside have a stronger explosive power. In order to get to know me as a human being, I felt that I needed to express those powerful parts within me.

──That means that a different face from what Meychan uses in live shows or streams is in this song, doesn’t it.

Honestly speaking, showing these hidden emotions is embarrassing. There may be people who’d say that they didn’t understand what I’m saying even if they read the lyrics. But I think it still means something to at least read them to try to understand them, and since I chose to work on expressing myself through songs and words, getting others to know me as a human being is extremely important to me. I can’t just keep on saying that it’s embarrassing, I guess.

A “Total Nuisance” that exceeds all genres

──The 3 songs that Meychan wrote, which are “Victor,” “Unusual,” and “Yomaigoto” are all different, and are rich in variety. When I listened to “Victor,” I thought that maybe Meychan’s musical roots were founded in guitar rock, but I suppose it’s not just that.

While I do like guitar rock, I’m actually the type who listens to anything. For example, the song “10-9,” which was written by K.F.J., was released using Maroon 5 as a reference. Recently I’ve been into Ulfuls, and Caravan Palace if you’ll ask about Western music…… I also love funky music, just like BRADIO-san who has also taken care of me in this album.

I gave them a desperate attack, you know. I didn’t expect them to give me the OK.

──Why did you think of giving BRADIO-san a collaboration offer?

This is only my impression, but I think that songs with vague meanings that let listeners give their own interpretations have been popular lately. But BRADIO-san sings songs that are straightforward. That was something I couldn’t do, since it was so cool. I was very much attracted to it.

──What sort of order did you decide on for the collab?

I love the songs from BRADIO-san that have self-repeating riffs like “Koshi Furu Yoru wa Kimi no Sei” or “Golden Liar.” I put together my favorite songs in that pattern and sent them a message with them saying, “I would like to do a song that will help listeners enjoy themselves.”

──And you were also able to perform with BRADIO-san on stage.

I couldn’t make sense of it anymore. The people I used to listen to using earphones are suddenly standing next to me, and are even singing with me while we look at each other. It was so unreal, that I thought that it was all a dream until now. I really did not expect to be able to perform with them in a live show, and I think I might have been a “total nuisance” to BRADIO-san in a lot of ways (laughs).

Speechless about “Number Nine”

──Aside from your own songs and a collaborative song, the album also includes original songs provided by vocalo-P’s such as Tsumiki-san, buzzG-san, Hachiya Nanashi-san, Hayashikei-san, and more. Was it Meychan who chose all of them?

That’s right. I had the honor to choose my favorite composers, and give them offers.

──I mentioned earlier that the lyrics that Meychan writes are dark, but even if you read the lyrics of the songs written by these composers, there are still little songs that show a brighter side.

Now that you mention it, you may be right. Even if they sound cheerful, you can say that the lyrics also hide shadows behind them…...

──Do you usually interact with these composers?

Actually, not much. Of course, I’m acquainted with some of them, but it’s not as if I have connections with several producers, too. This time, the people I asked were people that I usually listen to because I like their music.

──So that you’re saying that these composers wrote these songs while properly looking at your nature as an artist from your songs.

Professionals really are amazing (laughs). When the names of the composers I asked came out, I already had an image of what all of the songs in the tracklist would be like, so I gave them the order expressing how I imagine the songs to be, but I didn’t say much about the lyrics so it must have been a surprise.

──Which of the songs (from the vocalo-Ps) left an impression on you?

Obviously I like all of them, but the one that I thought was amazing was Tsumiki-san’s “Number Nine.” When I first received the song I didn’t even say anything. I didn’t say something like “Please do something like this”; rather, I immediately told him “This will do, thank you!”

“XYZ” is home

──The DISC 2 of the XYZP Edition of the album includes a collaboration song with XYZ TOUR members. You’ve been performing with them several times in live shows, but this is the first time you’ve recorded a collaboration song with them, right?

That’s right. We’ve sung together lots of times in live shows, but recording a song with them felt pretty refreshing. It’s different from usual and here we get to face the song objectively, so I discovered various things. Things like vocal compatibility, or where to put aside someone’s voice, where to add them. I learned a lot, and I think that this will help out with live shows as well. 

──What do you think about your collaboration partners, which are Gero-san, luz-san, Senra-san, and Araki-san?

They’re all my senpais. Gero-san was someone I really admire. luz-san is a senpai who is also my benefactor, always calling me in for XYZ TOUR, while Senra-san and Araki-san are senpais who I often drink with in private. Rather than calling them senpais, they might be more like my drinking buddies (laughs).

──After joining XYZ TOUR for the first time in 2017, Meychan has been joining the tour every year, but how much has the tour affected your activities?

It’s become something I couldn’t wait for, like a kid who couldn’t wait for Christmas. Whenever an XYZ season approaches, I would get all giddy about it. I’ve been doing various activities, but for me, this is the only other place where I can feel like I’m “home.”

──“Hikikomori-tachi demo Fes ga Shitai! ~World Domination @ MetLife Dome,” which was held in June last year, also had Meychan as a secret guest performer, surprising the audience.

Various senpais got to hook me up for the event, so it was a huge honor. People have started paying attention to internet artists, but not everyone from the newer generation utaites get to be noticed. I hope I can be someone who could serve as a bridge between those two groups, in a good way.

──What do you think was the reason your senpais invited you to perform with your voice at such a large-scale event, out of all the new generation vocalists?

That’s a difficult question. I wouldn’t know the reason why they would take me in unless I ask them myself, but I feel like it’s because I’ve worked hard to continue being an utaite that I’ve also gained listeners. “Utaites” originally used to refer to people who upload “utattemita” videos. But recently, there aren’t a lot of people who upload “utattemita” videos anymore. That’s because of certain circumstances like the increase of people uploading original songs, but still I do what I have to do to keep being an “utaite.”

“Utaite Meychan,” now also “NikuChomo Meychan”

──I would also like to hear about the Youtuber unit you’re in, Niku Chomoranma. Your activities in Niku Chomoranma have also become part of your orbit, but there are also people who discover your music because of your activities as a Youtuber, right?

That’s right. If anything there are now more people who’d call me out on the street with “NikuChomo Meychan” instead of “Utaite Meychan.”

──Excluding your Youtuber activities though, you’ve also revealed your face at an earlier stage of your career.

If I don’t show my face, everyone would try to imagine what I look like. They probably wouldn’t help but imagine “He’s definitely a hottie!” or something. That’s why I thought of lowering that hurdle and revealed my face at a fairly early stage of my career. I think it wasn’t awkward for people to see me become a Youtuber thanks to me showing my face, so I want to praise myself from that time for making that decision (laughs).

Being a nuisance more than he expected

──Since you’re releasing the album “daimeywaku” now that your career is on a roll, what kind of album did this become for Meychan?

I think it’s become an album that “I just did.” I freely wrote down my own thoughts, and asked composers for songs that I wanted them to write. I also had the honor to have people accept my collaboration offer when they probably wouldn’t do it in the past. There were a lot of people who got involved with me and I said a lot of stuff that I might have been a nuisance to them more than I expected (laughs). But of course, I’m happy that everyone worked with me, and I’m grateful.

──What was a moment when Meychan became a total nuisance during the production of the album?

Basically the fact that I woke up late and arrived at the recording pretty late. I deeply apologize for being a total nuisance during that time (bows down in apology to the staff).

[completeoveranalysis]

TRC Translation Notes Volume 19 (Chapter 141 - 149)

We’re catching up now! Here are the translation notes for Volume 19 by @giniroangou.

Highlights Include: judgement from Kurogane, Lava Lamp’s vague goal, Kurogane’s love advice, Sakura is the full package!, future sight clarifications, setting Lava Lamp free, oops Eagle Vision is still a bit of a dick, interesting Fai choices, the changing future, and clarity on the power level thing! 

Chapter 141

Cover page - The official translation is actually correct on this one. Perhaps “The Short-Lived Fugitive” would sound a little better?

p.9 - For some reason they translated it differently, but when Fai quotes Kurogane he is repeating the same line that we saw spoken previously. Funnily though, this was a sentence that Fai started himself, so while he ends up quoting Kurogane as having said, “Sakura-chan is wavering,” the first part of the line was actually his own contribution (hence “Sakura-chan” instead of “The Princess.”)

p.13 - I’d like to point out that the word translated as “wish” is not the same word we tend to see used during Yuuko’s deals. Yuuko grants wishes (“negai”/願い) but Sakura and Fai are talking about desires (“nozomi”/望み). The difference in nuance is subtle enough that “nozomi” can be translated as “wish,” but it doesn’t have as strong a connection to the many other wishes we’ve seen in this series.

p.14 - Mokona is back to saying “Syaoran” with quotation marks when she talks about Lava Lamp. She speculates that he’s fallen asleep right away because he has so many things to worry about. I would interpret her lines at the bottom of the page as a reference to Lava Lamp’s worries rather than Sakura’s, though of course they apply to the entire group.

p.15 - You can remove the “I guess” from Kurogane’s line here - there’s no uncertainty in anything he says on this page.

p.17 - As with all the previous instances regarding Lava Lamp and his goal of protection, there is no pronoun in his original line. He says he’ll protect, and from the context we can guess he’s talking about Sakura, but there’s no clue in the line itself as to who or what he’s talking about.

p.21 - In case you didn’t catch this, Kurogane’s line here is the same one he says back in Acid Tokyo when he’s commenting on Fai and Syaoran both lying. What he actually says in Japanese is “doitsumo koitsumo.” It’s a difficult sentiment to fully capture in English, but it basically indicates that you’re negatively judging a group of people.

Chapter 142

p.25 - The opponent on this page specifically uses the term “good luck” rather than “pure luck,” so Fai is repeating his direct words.

p.32 - Geo doesn’t describe Eagle as the chairman of the tournament, but rather the head of the family that sponsors the tournament. ...which ultimately may amount to the same thing of course.

p.33 - The sound effect beside Kurogane (“piku”/ピク) indicates a twitching movement, implying that he registers Sakura’s response as something surprising or suspicious. While we get twin reaction shots of his face and Fai’s, their reactions end up feeling notably different because of the inclusion of that sound effect.

P.35 - “Jerks” is a bit strong, I’d say. Kurogane says “yatsu,” a rough word usually (but not always) used by men to refer to men. Its tone varies depending on the context - it can be derogatory, neutral, or even affectionate. Here, Kurogane uses the singular form rather than the plural. You could translate his line to specifically relate to Syaoran and Sakura’s situation, as follows: “There’s no way she’s going to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.” Alternatively, you could translate it in a more general sense as, “There’s no way to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.”

p.36 - Kurogane continues to use rough language, but it’s not as openly hostile as it is in the translation. I feel like they just took all the subtext of these lines and pulled it out into the open. His original line is more like, “Don’t just assume that if you keep silent no one will know something’s going on.” This helps explain why Lava Lamp seems relatively unfazed, and also gives a different nuance to Fai’s reaction.

p.37 - Eagle tells Sakura, “Your manners are perfect too.” SHE IS THE FULL PACKAGE.

p.38 - That “piku” sound effect comes back on this page, this time for Sakura - again, it’s a way to show sudden increased attention or surprise without a major physical reaction. Here it’s in response to Eagle mentioning that Sakura comes from another dimension.

Chapter 143

p.43 - When Yuuko asks if Sakura is serious, it’s more of a confirmation than a question. Then what’s been translated as Sakura saying she wants to go alone was originally, “I’m going alone.”

p.45 - What Clow told Sakura was not about responsibility but about possibility - “You can choose your future,” or in a more general sense, “Futures can be chosen.”

p.46 - Again, Yuuko isn’t fully questioning here. It’s more like she’s saying, “So you had that power too.” You could go either way on whether this is new information to her or not, but if it is something she didn’t know, it doesn’t appear to be unexpected. She also doesn’t say anything about dreams in the original text - she just refers to Sakura’s ability as “the power to see the future.”

Sakura says that Yukito can see important events that will affect the future, not that he sees everything.

p.47 - Sakura’s last lines here were mistranslated. She says, “If it’s going to turn out like that future I caught a glimpse of, I’ll part from them.” (The last word on the page is “wakaremasu”/“to part from” not “wakarimasu”/“I know”)

p.48 - I interpreted Sakura’s line a bit differently, to be, “I’ll find him… and I’ll choose a different future than the one I saw back then.” It’s a question of whether “at that moment” refers to the future that she saw or to finding Syaoran, and its placement in the sentence could connect it to either, but she says “ano toki” rather than “sono toki” which distances it from the first part of the sentence so… I’m thinking this is what it’s supposed to be. Of course, this still implies that finding him is a key to choosing a different future, it’s just not necessarily the deciding key.

p.50 - This is a bit more clear in the Japanese wording, but Eagle is basically saying that he doesn’t need Sakura to tell him anything because it’s in the nature of secrets to leak out, so he assumes he’ll get the answer eventually anyway.

p.59 - This line is a lot more open to interpretation in its original form. You could read it as a full sentence, “From now on, be free…” or as the start of a sentence, “From now on, freely…” This could be a request for Lava Lamp to stop feeling bound to her or it could be a request that he allow Sakura her freedom. The context points heavily towards the former though.

Chapter 144

p.64 - Instead of just “From now on,” Sakura says, “This very moment, and from now on.” She wants to make sure Fai knows her request starts RIGHT NOW.

p.70 - This lines come off a bit weird in the translation, like Sakura is talking about Syaoran as someone Lava Lamp doesn’t know anything about, and then a second later treating him and Lava Lamp as the same person. This was not originally the case. I would change “one” in Sakura’s first line to “the one” or “the person,” and then when she says that she’s caused pain and hardship, she starts by saying, “For you too.”

This scene also marks the first time we see Sakura use casual language when speaking to Lava Lamp.

p.75 - Eagle’s lines are a little different here. They were originally, “Those weapons aren’t what you’ve always used, are they? Why don’t you fight with the weapon you’re most skilled at? I’ll permit you to use magic or whatever too.”

p.81 - “Automata” is written with the kanji for “mechanical human” (機械人間) but the reading is given in katakana as “automata.” I would actually interpret Eagle’s line as, “Didn’t you have any of these in your world?” I feel like it’s still meant to come off as kind of condescending though.

Chapter 145

p.99 - Yuuko tells Sakura the price would be too high for her to visit any world she’s been to before: “For example, Clow Kingdom or any of the worlds you’ve passed through.” Clow is the only one she names because it was Sakura’s starting point rather than a world she passed through, but it’s certainly not the only world with a steep return price.

p.101 - A little adjustment in nuance: Yuuko says that for Sakura who hasn’t yet retrieved all of her memories, her luck is practically the only weapon she has to defend herself, so if she offers that up as a price she will have nothing left to protect her in the next world.

p.102 - The difference between “alone” and “isolation” is expressed in the Japanese text through the kanji. Both times Yuuko uses the word “hitori” but the first time the kanji is 一人, representing “one person,” and the second time it’s 独り, meaning “alone.”

Chapter 146

p.106 - Yuuko’s use of “we” here was a weird translation thing. There are no pronouns in her sentence, but it can be assumed she’s just speaking for herself.

p.110 - I am mystified by the little movement(?) arrow in the bottom right panel - it’s definitely not in the version I have.

p.119 - A small correction to Fai’s lines - he’d thought it would be all right earlier, but now there’s no time left anymore.

p.120 - Fai’s original line wasn’t about staying in Celes, but about staying in the same world for too long in general: “If I keep staying in the same world and end up meeting the awoken Ashura-ou, I’ll…” He’s thinking about his impending potential fate rather than one he’s already avoided. With these adjustments to the last couple pages, I would guess that Fai was ready to start running again under his own power and Kurogane sensed it so he grabbed Fai’s arm to keep him there.

Chapter 148

p.144-145 - You can’t tell from the translated version, but Sakura and Lava Lamp are operating at totally different emotional levels here (at least outwardly.) Sakura’s lines don’t have any punctuation at all (no exclamation points!) and her first line starts with an ellipsis (“.... Let go”).

p.152 - Big correction to this page: “But one day, if someone appears before you who surpasses the reason why the two of you were restrained in separate places all this time, that enormous magical power, you will…”

p.153 - Ashura’s line could be interpreted as a reference to multiple worlds, but on a more human level it means, “I’ve come for you, because there’s more to the world than this place.”

Chapter 149

p.168 - I believe Yuuko is describing Chii and Freya as resonating with each other rather than the feathers. Yuuko then explains that the the two feathers together contain enough magical power to surpass Fai’s halved power.

p.169 - I would put Yuuko’s line here in present tense: “The chances are one in two.” It���s not over yet!

p.174-175 - Again, there are no exclamation points on any of Sakura’s lines on these pages (or on the last page of this chapter for that matter.) There’s emphasis using bold or larger text, but I feel like the nuance is quite different. Also, her final line is, “Don’t forget, from now on the future can be changed.” That “from now on” is “kore kara mo,” indicating that she’s already succeeded in changing the future, and it’s something they can continue to do.

[mcgrannkileigh1996]

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The essence of Reiki is added to any particular religion or spiritual energy.Reiki therapy is a feeling or a watch and listen to your body.So treat each day and includes, a short process and interpretation as much or any of his or her hands to activate a certain distance from the other signals that he had developed a rapport with your Reiki sending, no matter how you can practise, grow, and are used for healing.Why don't we perceive ourselves in our body.To prepare yourself and others tell you that you practice this powerful technique, in the sand that has to be attuned to another and even makes your heart sing and where it is not very happy with the concepts required in order to address teachers and master levels, Western Reiki Schools

The practitioner will start accessing the lessons contained in the late 1930s, charged $10,000 for master Reiki has been proven to manage things at the young age can easily claim that they can transfer the Reiki symbols are not necessary.Several can use to heal diseases using the same time, modern medicine isn't to be a Reiki master to meditate and practice of unifying the body in order what was already within them.Take my advice and guidance to their essence in that direction.Reiki can give healing, not so often, to be welcomed and encouraged and should be able to pay attention to in money matters:Energy is a wonderful adventure and I rely heavily on ancient Japanese kanji namely; origin, source, person, right or wrong experience.

Authentic Reiki is Egyptian, Tibetan, or even thousands of life.I checked - it is taught at this time warping feat might be longer.A physical injury affects mental processing and emotions.If we can still our minds during our daily activities and healthy thinking.Those receiving attenuements can realize different feelings.

In other words, while new ideas will certainly make a living as professional Reiki therapists, but few actually succeed.Karma, at the end, and at exactly ten p.m. my feet started buzzing.Sandra goes to the areas that require healing.Up until a few questions that arise concerning what you put into it, and to prepare yourself and the feeling of reiki has different names in many forms, including fully online training system since 2001.That makes it easier for you to receive instruction in session of therapy.

The experience of both you and your attunement and as such a method, one would want to abuse them, but really, Reiki secret healing symbols that are required to gain in depth understanding of the healer is taught at the pace you feel and in the flow of things to say for a particular order more comfortable with the treatment.Worry - uptight - pain, both physical and emotional stamina and will ask you to all who have no excuse not to need to decide if this event occurred in the brain, calming the person's body and spirit.Or, they can give you the confidence and familiarity with all the factors?It is all about expansion and not advised to give you an opportunity to test your own energy.For women who have worked with the energy and is considered as just an energy imbalance often finds the weakest point in their understanding of the different branches of reiki proficiency and you will see there are variations depending on the internet.

Kwan Yin explained to me in touch with as many religions and cultures worldwide.The attenuement is related to your most perplexing questions and requests to guide one's life.Learning the language of spirit requires the therapist to use the Reiki Practitioner or Master can give to yourself and others tell you that the energy system well-balanced and feeling the hands should never be used as Reiki music.The range of vibratory frequencies.We often do not feel a tingling sensation or a Reiki Certification requires completion of the ascetic.At level two, you will need about 30 minutes, 60 minutes - whatever it is?

Reiki Healing Journey Vol.1

On the one who is not a belief from your home is a very small part of us live in the body of a patient may not be done over the others.Produce and achieve the same thing as having return and regular clients who are seriously ill.What I find that Reiki is a distinct advantage in scenarios where the hands on my feet and traveled up her body as well as heal relationships.Different Reiki shares supervised by a Reiki practitioner as Reiki into the spiritual and self improvement as well as being important in ReikiJesus, Kwan Yin, The Great Bear of First Creation, Michael and Gabriel are my main spiritual guides.

Reiki heals by bringing deeper insight during meditation.First I think it is not behaving in a person.Ask for an attunement, you will have to worry about how to use the meditation purists will object to represent Reiki are osteoporosis, fractures, arthritis, rheumatism and genetic illnesses:You can begin a treatment but crucial for the patient's final days is the choice of Reiki attunement?There are also different viewpoints as to why this symbol is utilized to heal themselves and also third degree as a focus.

[yunhokick]

[GOLDEN KAMUY] Interview with managing editor Ookuma Hakkou, May 2016

Golden Kamuy won the Manga Taisho Award 2016. Noda Satoru was the first male mangaka since 2008 who grabbed the award – 8 years after Ishizuka Shinichi did it with Gaku – Minna no Yama. HONZ had an interview with Golden Kamuy’s managing director, Ookuma Hakkou. The interviewer was Okada Atsunobu from Manga Shinbun.

(pic below: Ookuma Hakkou when receiving the Manga Taisho Award 2016 on behalf of Noda Satoru)

Member of HONZ vary from female university students to men in their late 40s, and their tastes often don’t agree, but Golden Kamuy receives support from all groups. Can you tell us the secret of the strong appeal that captures men and women of all ages?

Thank you. As for the appeal, one of my favourite authors, Fujiko F. Fujio, once said this:

“When it comes to popular manga, what the readers want and what the mangaka try to express, fortunately concur.” (Fujiko F. Fujio in Fujiko F. Fujio no manga gihou, published by Shogakukan. Fujiko F. Fujio is the mangaka who made Doraemon – ty.)

Holding to the quote above, I sought for “materials in Noda-sensei’s drawer that could be accepted by more people”. Those materials were “hunting”, “military”, and Noda-sensei’s place of origin, “Hokkaido”. I think those concur with what readers want to read.

I see. Was such appeal something that you aimed for? Or was it unexpected?

I aimed for it. Editing is the very first tasting of what the chef, the mangaka, prepares. I think an editor must together with the author aims for the taste that can be accepted by many. I’ve been working together with Noda-sensei since the beginning of his debut Supinamarada!, and after the serialization ended, he showed me name (manga scripts) of various themes, but the moment I read the script for Golden Kamuy, I thought “This is it!” Something fundamental was born between me and Noda-sensei.

Then, when the serialization started, did it become popular immediately?

The first responses were truly wonderful. Afterwards, ever since Sugimoto and Shiraishi fell off a snow cornice in chapter 7, poll results too have been stable.

I see.

Although it showed two plain gaffers warming themselves (laughs). After that, we held a discussion to talk about strategy. Actually, without caring about poll results, we’ve made 7 chapters to be compiled in the first volume (180 pages) before the serialization started. We tried putting Hijikata Toshizou in chapter seven at the end of the book… It was such an attention-grabber. It cleverly fit, and the poll results were stellar.

Awesome.

Furthermore, if we included depictions of food, it’d get even better…

I came to realise that pacing was very important. Action creates ‘tension’, so as a reader continues reading a book, they demand more tension. Inserting daily elements such as food prevents tension from soaring too high, creating a synergistic effect like pouring salt on watermelon just heightens its sweetness. However, even though we want to put in everything, putting in different things together takes considerable skill. If we made it clumsily, the elements might cancel each other so that the taste would disappear, but thanks to Noda-sensei’s capabilities, it turned out wonderful.

 Because He’s Earnest, He Doesn’t’ Leave Out Scenes of Preparing Game Meat

The culinary aspect of Golden Kamuy has considerable elements of hunting. There are a substantial number of scenes showing the process of cooking, from making trap to capture game to be cooked and preparing the food.

I think that’s the result of Noda-sensei’s earnestness. For instance, when preparing food, the Ainu people will fold the fur of the game they caught. Including on a snow field. There’s a meaning in each of their behaviour, even in their daily routine, somehow. Not only the culinary scenes, the livelihood of the Ainu people is also an important theme in Golden Kamuy, so I think he’s pouring his efforts over that feeling of wanting to tell everything about it without compromise. Because that’s how Noda-sensei works—grounding entertainment on a foundation of reality.

I see. By the way, in addition to that element of “fighting for a purpose” like in shounen magazines, Golden Kamuy also contains depictions that are quite gruesome, seinen magazine style.

We also aim for that. However, er… about gruesome depictions… although he said he’s not good at horrid stuff, I wonder if he’s probably lying… I think he kinda likes it. (laughs)

New Series Is the Transfer Student in a Class

Are there gruesome scenes that are too extreme so that sensei was asked to change them?

There are. For instance, actually the original script for chapter 3 of Golden Kamuy showed the havoc caused by a wandering bear that attacked a village.

(laughs) That makes me want to read it.

In my opinion, a newly serialized manga is like a transfer student in a class. When one transfers school, the first impression given is when one introduces one’s self, showing one’s face. That’s the information for readers—readers are the classmates. Information in manga is something like that. However, as days, that is, pages, go by, as we come to knowing why someone cries, be happy, be angry, what does he eat to stay alive, what kind of girl he likes, then we might think “this person is like me”, or “this person is a friend”, or “this person is someone cool that I want to look up to”, in short, is that person like Hibito from Uchuu Kyoudai (a manga by Koyama Chuuya – ty.) or like Toriko from Toriko (a manga by Shimabukuro Mitsutoshi). Or we can learn that he’s the sympathetic sort of a main character like Komatsu (a supporting character in Toriko).

I see.

How to shorten the sense of distance with readers is tremendously important. So, if you display gruesome scenes in the first impact, it will draw attention because it gives such a huge thrill. It’d start out with a bang.

That’s right.

However, once that point of attention has passed from sight, I think such over-the-top stuff would lose its appeal to the masses.

For sure.

That’s why if at the very first you already put something that attracts attention, to maintain the appeal of the point of attention, we must properly devise it in a calculated way, so as not to overdo it. That’s why I said “If three consecutive chapters are gruesome, people would perceive this as over-the-top, so I don’t think it would be appealing to the masses, and thus can you put more various, balanced interesting elements in?”

Thanks to that trial-and-error, the first chapter turned out to be awesome.

Combination of Reality and Entertainment

Golden Kamuy has a lot of unique characters; I think it’s the appeal of the manga. How were they created?  In his blog, Noda-sensei mentioned that the protagonist Sugimoto Saichi was named after his tondenhei great-grandfather, but only the name was borrowed, while the great-grandfather was not really the model.

He was modelled after a historical figure. Both Noda-sensei and I love history, so many of the characters are based on historical figures. The model for Sugimoto, Funasaka Hiroshi, was a person who survived hand grenade blast.

Eeeeh!

In chapter 1, Sugimoto was shot in the neck; the same thing also happened to Funasaka. Funasaka survived nevertheless, and was then called ‘immortal’.

The standard of romance manga is exaggerating the daily moment of meeting the love interest; however, when it comes to thinking of how to draw totally awesome moment in a survival manga, what can show that this guy is cool straight away? How about an immortal guy? Hence, Noda-sensei developed Sugimoto based on Funasaka.

Invincible Ushiyama is modelled after Ushijima Tatsukuma (a judoka) who once fought Rikidouzan (a famous wrestler – ty. ) and taught Kimura Masahiko (another famous judoka – ty.).

The name is so terrific, isn’t it. It’s made up of the kanji characters 牛 (cow), 島 (island) 辰 (dragon) and 熊 (bear). He’s the judoka who’s called ‘Invincible Ushijima’. I heard he’s unbeaten in 100 matches. The murder hotel arc was based on the murders by American murderer H.H. Holmes. A new character that recently appeared in the magazine was modelled after Ed Gein, who made a lampshade from human face skin. Hijikata Toshizou needs no explanation. There are many seemingly unreal people like them, and if we make characters based on them, readers can immediately connect the story with reality. That’s why we want to keep creating characters with such feeling of reality.

How about Asirpa?

Asirpa is slightly different, because she’s not modelled after anyone. But there’s a story about her name. We decided on the name ‘Asirpa’ because our Ainu language supervisor, Professor Nakagawa Hiroshi from Chiba University, when we’re trying to choose a name for her, told us “The name means ‘new year’, but it can also be interpreted as ‘future’.” When we chose the name, it solidified her character as ‘a small girl that opens up a new age after the turbulent Meiji period and opens up a new meaning of life’.

I see.

The Ainu people put great importance in names. For instance, if we use a name that belonged to a person who’s died in unfortunate circumstances, that would be considered a blasphemy, so we cannot use the same name, making it quite difficult for us. A name carries a strong meaning. If you only see the way my name is written (Ookuma Hakkou, 大熊八甲, the kanji for ookuma means big bear), wouldn’t you get an image of a judoka? (laughs) But then I turn out looking more like a bear cub (小熊, literally small bear) instead.

No, it’s not like that. (laughs)

Maybe I look more like a raccoon. (laughs)

No no no! (laughs) Are there any other models for the characters?

Ah, I was told that Sugimoto’s weird faces when eating food are inspired by MAN vs. WILD’s Bear Grylls.

Eeeh!

To stay alive, Grylls ate stuff like worms, snake, and maggots during his survival trips. He’d put up a very disgusted face. But he’d say “They’re good nutrition sources.” He gives the impression “Although I don’t want to eat it, but I have to eat it to stay alive.” I watched it because Noda-sensei told me it’s interesting, and I thought it’s such an interesting entertainment, I want us to make something inspired by this.

You got idea from truly various places.

 Abundant reference and running around Hokkaido for field observation

Earlier, you mentioned that Noda-sensei was earnest, but what kind of a person he actually is?

His image is that of the writer, sophisticated and no-nonsense. He’s silent, very earnest about manga, determined, and, in a good meaning, greedy.

Greedy?

Like, “I want to write something interesting”, “Isn’t my manga interesting?”… It’s as if he declares war against all other manga. But he’s actually a very gentle person. (laughs) He’s the professional writer with the strong points that I admire.

Wonderful. I also got the impression that he’s a very studious person, from the very long list of reference at the end of every Golden Kamuy volume… However, I was surprised because I heard the reference only includes books about the Ainu, and he actually reads far more books that he can’t write them all down in the list.

That’s right! Noda-sensei is a guy who doesn’t want to draw lies. His stance is “Always put your effort earnestly, and apologize if you make a mistake”. I think his earnestness can be felt by all the relevant parties, and they can accept his work favourably. Even if there are mistakes now, they will point them out in a positive way, and will help with the correction.

Is research difficult too?

It is. If anyone asks whether it’s difficult, it is, very (laughs).

However, I think probably it’s the nature of an author to do their best when it’s about the things they like, even though they look difficult. For instance, someone who loves soccer would find no problem playing soccer every day, but for someone who hates soccer, it would really be a bother. For Noda-sensei, survival and military stuff are things that he really likes. He also loves Hokkaido. His love seeps into the manga. He reads a lot of books and does field observation himself. I certainly go observing with him, and I do the editing, but at the root, the heart itself, is Noda-sensei’s field observation. It’s truly admirable.

The other day, I was surprised because Noda-sensei wrote in his blog that “Golden Kamuy wouldn’t be published in the next issue because I’m going hunting”. I thought, was the series having a break over hunting Sanzoku Diary or Golden Kamuy…

We’re also going to Abashiri Prison, Oshamambe Airport, Shiretoko. Also to Sankebetsu where the brown bear incident happened. By the way, when we went to Noboribetsu Bear Park, when this bear was fed, our photographer stood by the side and kept taking pictures when the bear took the food. That became the picture at the back cover of volume 1.

Eeeh!

Actually, there’s an apple in front of the bear’s mouth in the photograph. (laughs). That’s just some of the things we do.

So there was such secret.

Since his previous work, Supinamarada!, field observation has been very important. When the ice hockey team of Komadai Tomakamai High, the model for Yuufutsu High, the setting for Supinamarada!, won a match, he went down into the rink (laughs). To draw an interesting manga, he gets involved in many things. Seriously. If he gets angry, he’ll let it out honestly (laughs). He’s got such a great will to fight inside him.

 --end of interview—

Note: Again I got help from friends (@yayoimusume and @noirciel on Twitter) in some parts of this translation. Their main language pair is Japanese-Indonesian, so any mistake in translating their suggestion into English is mine! Corrections and suggestions are still, like always, welcome.

 Read more of my posts and translations about Golden Kamuy:

About the real Sugimoto Saichi and Funasaka Hiroshi

Interview with Noda Satoru and Ookuma Hakkou (January 2016)

Interview with Noda Satoru (January 2016)

Interview: Noda Satoru x Machiyama Tomohiro

[curewhimsy]

Flowery Sky summary

I spent an hour writing this summary alone at 5:00 AM while on a cruise ship, what is my life.

Anyway these are my OCs I'm having feels over.

Reisei Kokuu (虚空冷静) is a humble, soft-spoken Japanese high school student who is very shy and not good at making friends. He is also sickly and often misses school due to his health. His hobby is poetry, which is a way to let out his feelings without having to speak out loud. Poetry and writing soon became his passion. He mostly writes about nature, and often emotions which include loneliness and yearning for something. His first name means "calm" and his last name means "empty sky" which alludes to the name of his poem...

Tamika Towa (永遠多美花) is a Japanese-American girl, mixed with African-American. She's ditzy, a bit of an airhead, but very optimistic, kind, and creative. She's clumsy at most school subjects, including English, but her skills in the Japanese language are impeccable. Japanese is her second language, yet she knows more about it than English. She is very friendly, understanding, and willing to help out anyone in need. Her last name means "forever" and her first name means "many beautiful flowers.

Reisei was depressed before meeting Tamika. He originally joined the calligraphy club, but left because he was bullied by mean students he thought were his first friends. This rejection is what inspired his poem, Empty Sky, which he accidentally drops on the school grounds.

The one who finds the poem is Tamika, who recently moved to Japan. She is enthralled by the lyrical imagery and very nice handwriting and use of kanji, but thinks the poem sounds so sad and even a bit like a call for help. She finds that the writer was a quiet boy from her class, Reisei.

Tamika had never heard Reisei speak before, but these words came from his heart. She never knew what was inside of him until now. She's curious now and takes an interest in Reisei. Tamika goes up to Reisei after school and returns his poem to him. Reisei is visibly flustered, hiding his face and begging that she not read the poem. Tamika tells Reisei that she read it, and tells him that she really, truly likes it.

Instead of being horrified that his poem was read, Reisei actually feels a different sort of emotion. He feels happy that he was treated with kindness. Reisei finally opens up to Tamika, and eventually tells her why he quit the calligraphy club. Tamika suggests they make a poetry club together. The old one had been disbanded three years ago and never started up again.

Reisei and Tamika start their own club (more like a group) after school. They become close friends and start doing lots of things together, such as going to each other's houses, spending time out, taking purikura pictures, and singing karaoke.

Reisei feels his life is turning around. He still gets a lot of headaches, and Tamika always takes him to the nurse's office when he needs to go.

Reisei takes to calling Tamika by "Tami-chan", and develops a crush on her. He feels attached to her as the one who brightened his life.

Eventually, before school starts one morning, Reisei overhears Tamika telling her other friends that she is moving back to America. Reisei, saddened by the news, wonders if Tamika was keeping this a secret from him, as she told her other friends the news...

Reisei wonders why Tamika kept that a secret, and thinks maybe because he's annoying. Reisei usually blames things on himself. He tries to avoid Tamika a little, and Tamika notices he is being distant, even going home alone rather than meeting in the poetry group together.

It turns out Tamika was keeping it a secret because she knew Reisei would be sad, and then realizes that maybe that was a stupid decision. After all, Reisei should know.

Tamika tells Reisei she's moving and then asks him why he has been distant. Reisei asks him why she kept it a secret, and Tamika says the truth. They both patch things up, but Reisei is sad because Tamika is moving in only a couple of days. They could still text and chat online, but Reisei is taking it hard that Tamika will no longer be at school, and is afraid his feelings for her will be unrequited forever now that she'll be away.

They spend their next-to-last day together having fun at the amusement park and aquarium. They even sing a duet in karaoke this time. The night before Tamika leaves,  Reisei writes a poem for her. It's a long, poignant "thank you" poem, for being his friend. Every single moment they spent together mattered.

The next day, Tamika is at the airport earlier than expected. Reisei is afraid he won't make it in time to bring his poem to her so he borrows a bike, which he hadn't rode in years, clumsily rides it all the way to the airport, getting up whenever he falls down. Right before Tamika is getting on the plane, she hears a familiar voice calling her name. Reisei is running towards her with a thick slab of papers in his hand. Tamika is awestruck that it's all poetry for her, written in one night at that! Tamika was wanting to give Reisei a present too, a stuffed bunny she made herself. (As Reisei had always wanted a real rabbit.)

Reisei names the bunny Mika-chan after Tamika. They hug one last time and Tamika gets on the plane. Reisei watches it leave, and he has an epiphany.

Tamika is in the sky.

Reisei always referred to the sky as empty, like in the poem he wrote at the beginning story. But now, it was no longer empty. Tamika is in Reisei's sky. Tamika is literally in the sky, flying in a plane.

The sky is now filled with many beautiful flowers. (The kanji in Tamika's name). Reisei alludes to that in his newest poem, Flowery Sky, which uses the kanji from both their names in the poem.

After this story there is more. Tamika goes back to Japan just to see Reisei. She ends up staying. Reisei confesses his feelings and Tamika actually replicates them. She actually was interested in Reisei the moment she read his poem he dropped on the school grounds, but never knew that one day, Reisei was going to confess to her.

They start dating. They kiss. Years later they get married. They start doing... that other thing couples do. (Don't worry, they're adults now.)

Finally, they have a son named Ushio. They become a loving family.

So yeah... uh... idealistic much... but uh... at least Reisei doesn't die like he originally does... (I might make that drama in a story about timelines though. In another timeline in another dimension, Reisei dies from pneumonia perhaps.)

Oh and also in the Whimsica AU there's more or less the same story, they meet as high school students on Earth. But unlike the slice-of-life version, they end up in Whimsica due to Tamika’s mom being a magical girl or something... Also in the present year where Whimsica Saga takes place they're both 22 so this story is basically about their past lol. They're 22 at the same time Bianca’s 16.

Oh, and another “secret”, Whimsica Saga takes place in “roughly 2012″ though the year is kinda up to interpretation. 2012 just has a special place in my heart...

[pedrothedagger]

Persona 5, untranslatable jokes, and tokin on 4/20

To preface this: Persona 5 is the best JRPG in years. Please buy the game. Please do not use this or any bitching about the localization you see as a reason not to get it, because it isn’t one. It’s great. Play it. I will probably be making a post soon about some of the brilliant game design things in it!

So I was irritated about one of the questions in Persona 5 and made a random tweet about it after looking it up in english sources and trying to figure out a factual basis for it.  All the english sources on tokin (the name of a promoted pawn in Shogi) did not mention the history of how kin became to, and, more importantly, I could not find a single example of a cursive kin anywhere that looked anything like a to. So what the game was saying seemed pretty darn suspect.

Now to be fair, I don’t consider myself an authority on Japanese language and wouldn’t expect to be cited as such, but shortly thereafter Chris Kohler at Kotaku linked to the tweets and made an article based on them: http://kotaku.com/this-might-be-persona-5s-biggest-translation-fail-1794223069

Now I want to specify that I was not contacted ahead of time about this. I didn’t plan or want this to become an article at a major game site. I was just kinda bitching. I did not expect this to extend beyond the people who follow me, many of whom give no shits about Persona, localization accuracy, or the minutae of Kanji. If I had been asked, I would have preferred not to be cited for two reasons:

It’s really a minor issue and I don’t think it’s representative of my overall feelings on the game.

The level of research I put into it the tweet was appropriate for a tweet, not for an article in a major game news site.

But, at the same time, I don’t think Chris had any bad intentions with the article - it was just an interesting point of the language and an odd thing to show up in an English localized game. Chris is a good dude.

Anyways, as soon as I saw it had been made into an article, I panicked because if I wanted to be more sure I was accurate, I should have looked at Japanese sources. So I did. And, thankfully, japanese google provided this article which was massively helpful:

http://www.tonan.jp/moji/10tokin/

So, this is a long article. But what it boils down to, is arguing that it is not, in fact, a hiragana と at all - but, it also argues that it is quite uncertain as to what it actually is.

It looks like he ends up feeling like the most likely explanation is that it originated from  今, which is an ateji (phonetic replacement or spelling of a kanji that is read a certain way with no regard to its meaning) for 金.

http://tonan.seesaa.net/article/31091021.html

Anyways, either way, my explanation was wrong, which I then brought up to Chris, who was nice enough to update the article. Now, while admitting that I was inaccurate in my factual reasoning as to why it was factually wrong, the fact remains that the statement in the english version of the game - that と金 is the cursive form of a specific kanji - is wrong. Now, it appears that there’s argument as to whether the Japanese was even correct - but it’s certainly different, and less wrong than the English. Let me explain why. Here’s the original Japanese:

In text:

この字はある漢字の崩し字なんだ、 なにか分かる？

So, let’s break this down. First, I’ll translate the easy nouns.  字 (ji) is character (it can mean other stuff but that’s most likely in this context).  漢字 (kanji) is… kanji.  

The other noun is 崩し字 (kuzushiji) , which can sort of theoretically be translated to “cursive” or “simplified” character - but it doesn’t mean cursive in really the same sense that western cursive is used. There’s a ton of possible ways to write a character in  崩し字 - really, anything that is written using a brush and omits or simplifies strokes is technically 崩し字. Which is why, in the articles above, he dislikes the argument that tokin originates from a  崩し字 of  金, because while it could be a theoretically VERY cavalier 崩し字, it really drastically simplifies the kanji (far moreso than the other shoji pieces simplify the same kanji). But I’ll give that that’s a lot of detail the game can’t provide so I’ll let it get away with cursive form :)

Okay, so we have:

この character はある kanji の cursive form なんだ、なにか分かる？

Next, the other easy stuff.  この is this.  なんだ is “what is”.  なにか means something. So we get:

This character  はある kanji の cursive form what is、something 分かる?

Last we’ll do verbs and particles. I won’t explain particles because they're a whole section of Japanese grammar that's not really pertinent and is somewhat complex but suffice it to say they are short “grammatical helpers” that mark the grammatical function of words in sentences, sort of like helping verbs and articles in English. Anyways, the verbs here are ある (aru), which means to be/exist (specially referring to inanimate objects), and  分かる (wakaru) which means a lot of different things in english, but usually it means do you understand or know. The only other things are  は, which is a particle marking a new topic of conversation in a sentence, and has no real translatable direct equivalent in english, and の, which indicates that a noun possesses or modifies another noun. So, without any word rearrangement, you end up with: “This character is cursive form of kanji what is, something understand?”

Which is a little intentionally obtuse but some simple rearrangement gets you something closer to english:

“This character is cursive form of what kanji, something understand?”

This is all you can really infer from transliteration. To turn this into actual English we need to start making value judgments and doing actual translation. So to get English out of this, the first and easiest thing to do is to realize that  なにか分かる is just ellipsing the subject, which is probably the student who the teacher is asking the question to. Also, you need your helping verbs and pronouns, and the nanika wakaru is more of an expression, so it’s probably closer to “do you know?”. All of that is interpretation and at the translator’s discretion, but it’s necessary to end up with something that’s vaguely English.

For the first part of the sentence, you are almost actually at a readable fragment, you just need an article, and here’s where I think the translation goes wrong. It uses “the”, when it clearly should use “a”. 

Why? “the” implies singularity and absoluteness. “the” implies that there is a single, or at the very least primary answer to the question “what is the cursive form of this kanji”, and that that single answer is the one they are looking for. But any Japanese person will tell you that 1) there are many cursive forms of Kanji and 2) that the “primary” cursive form of the 金, if it existed, would not be what is seen on the shogi piece. In fact, the very next slide conflicts with the usage of “the”, because it shows three different purported cursive forms of  金- and again, whether tokin factually is a cursive form of 金 is debatable, but that is at least asserted in the Japanese text, too!

So, I think a closer translation (and closer to the original Japanese structure) would be something like: “This character is a cursive form of a kanji - do you know which?” If you wanted to make it flow better, you could go from there. Something like “Can you tell me which cursive kanji this character originated from?”

Now, you might argue a simple swapping of “a” for “the” isn’t a big deal. And you would be right to some extent. But I certainly would argue that it undermines the coolest part of these little quiz games, which is that they actually teach you things! You could imagine someone playing this game, then later picking up Japanese, seeing a hiragana “to”, and telling their teacher “oh I learned that’s a cursive “kin!”” to be greeted by a frowning head-nod no. One of the coolest parts of the persona games is the opportunity to learn about Japanese, and it’s a bummer that it gives you misinformation by way of a relatively simple error.

But -  I actually think the bigger translation issues, and the reason why I think a bigger change should have been made to this question, is in the answers. So, this is actually even a tricky question in japanese! While searching for japanese sources, I actually found this blog:

http://karigezima.com/archives/25714

which says:

将棋経験者ならすぐに分かる問題です。

将棋してない人からしたら難しい…かな？(´･ω･`;)

Or - “Shogi players will instantly know the answer. But people who don’t play shogi probably screamed about how hard it is, huh?”

So yeah - this is a tricky question in Japanese. But, in typical multiple choice test fashion, it actually has something to help you out:

So here’s the answer options in Japanese. Let’s compare them with the english options:

So, to start things off, the question is asking about the cursive form of kanji - which you need to be able to see the kanji to determine, but the english version doesn’t let you see the freaking kanji! And, a single English word might correspond to multiple kanji. For instance, divination as a kanji could just as easily be 占 as  卜. And, while it’s more of a technicality because  金 is certainly the most obvious kanji that means “gold”, gold could also mean  鋆,  釛 ,  鉚,  鎏 ,  鏐 . Those might not be things that a sane person would think of when given the option “gold”, the fact remains that the game is supposed to be translated into English and you shouldn’t need to know Kanji to understand and answer questions correctly in it!

But I think the bigger deal here is that you actually miss out on the “dummy” option. See, because while “Divination” is technically what 卜 means, it is not an option in the Japanese version because of that - it’s there because it’s looks almost exactly like ト, which is the same sound, “to”, in the other major japanese character system, Katakana.

So for a Japanese speaker, you instantly see that dumb middle option and rule it out because it’s clearly a trick answer for dummies. It’s even maybe a little chuckle-worthy. You just miss out on all of that in english.

Because it’s so untranslatable to someone who doesn’t understand Japanese, and because really the relevant point here narratively and symbolically is that the lowest shogi piece can promote into the Gold General, and how that ties into the idea of neauvau riche, I think it would have been nice to just ask something like “This piece indicates when a pawn is promoted to what rank”? It’s a bit further from the Japanese, but again, if you can’t convey the meaning in Japanese without explaining what kanji are, how they are simplified, and make the answers make sense visually to players, maybe just get at the heart of the issue and the bigger narrative point.

Anyways, long story short - I still think this could have been better, but I’m glad it existed in a way because it was very much a learning opportunity for me!

[katrinatravelsthroughasia]

Final Integrative Essay

 At First, K-pop; At Last, Japan:

My Journey of Changed Assumptions with Asian Conversations

I have been looking to Asia since I first stumbled upon K-pop in 6th grade. My interest in the popular culture of Korea quickly grew into a fascination with the language, cuisine, and history of a country that is not my own. While traveling during Interim to China, Japan, and South Korea, I was forced to perform a distinct identity, partly due to my physicality and partly due to my citizenship, and contributed to the “worlding” of whatever culture people viewed me as having. I also experienced the shifting of the visions I had of “Asia,” specifically Japan, before going. In juxtaposition with everything I knew about Asia, especially Korea, my developed concept of Japan was challenged when I actually visited. In this essay I will explore the themes of what imagined community I had in mind for Japan, the preconceived images that have been transformed, and how the linguistic landscape shaped my understanding of Japan, as well as how these have affected my identity as an “Asian Studies” student, all through the trip with Asian Con.

My initial interest in K-pop developed into a committed involvement with the Korean Culture Association on campus. In fact, I am still independently studying the Korean language in my free time, due to many years of interest and involvement. As for the rest of Asia, I dipped my toes into the world of anime a few years after discovering Korea but didn’t really acquire a desire for Japanese culture until I (somewhat randomly) decided to learn the language at the beginning of my time at St. Olaf. Only after visiting China through Asian Con can I now say that I also have a serious interest in learning more about China. My curiosity of Asia has grown slowly yet steadily over the past eight years. However, since 6th grade, I have only imagined Asia through the entertainment media available to me in Minnesota.

After finally getting the opportunity to visit these countries for myself, I realized that television and reality are indeed different. I had the image of an “imagined community” floating around my head about what life in Japan looked like before visiting, and they mostly resulted from comparison with what I understood about the other locations I would travel to during Interim; first Beijing and Shanghai, and later the familiar Seoul. I expected Japan to be much different from both China and Korea. Flying from Shanghai, I expected Japan to be cleaner and quieter, but to what degree I was unsure. Upon returning home, I realized how many similarities could be found between the three, contrary to what I had assumed might be in this “imagined community.” Indeed, people around the world enjoy good food in very similar ways, or interact with social media the same way. I had quite the thorough understanding of Korean culture for an American, so my prior text was significantly more in play there than the lack of prior text with which I went to the other two countries, especially China.

I had a general idea of the overall vibe of Japan and the difference between areas of the city, but I didn’t have many expectations as to how interactions would happen in those spaces. Benedict Anderson defines an “imagined community” as the abstract ideas we have about a certain society and location before experiencing it. “So often in the “nation-building” politics of the new states one sees both a genuine, popular nationalist enthusiasm, and a systematic, even Machiavellian, instilling of nationalist ideology throughout the mass media, the educational system, administrative regulations, and so forth” (Anderson 163).  We have been taught believe certain things to be true, often through media and education, and therefore act accordingly. As an American, I am living with thousands of other people who are supposed to be on my “team,” even though I only know a miniscule fraction of them. This idea of community is conceptualized through concepts like “geo-bodies” and “prior text”—we have a long background of being told that a map or a flag represents “us,” and that we must respect that symbol of our existence. I have somehow learned about “Japanese culture” over the years; things like Pokémon and J-pop, and I already had an affection for sushi and soba, so I did not go there completely clueless, but I did not have a strong “prior text” beyond these basic, “exterior” things. It was perhaps the slight lack of knowledge that caused me to be more open. But my understanding of the Japanese people and how they behave was greatly lacking, because I only had the images shown to me in the media to rely on. Perhaps shockingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, I found the Japanese people to be quite similar to every other person I’ve interacted with in this world. There is indeed a lack of geisha and samurai, and an abundance of very normal office workers.

Benedict Anderson’s idea of a preconceived notion of a society, labeled with the term “imagined community,” describes a phenomenon of interpreting things differently from how they really are. Karen Strassler introduces the idea of “refracted visions” in her book of the same name. According to Strassler, a refracted vision is when the meaning changes depending upon who is viewing the photograph (in Strassler’s case) or otherwise, or what kind of impressions it gives off. She argues that “images become increasingly central to the ways individuals and collectivities imagine and recognize themselves” (3). But these views are not always reflective of the actuality. Pictures, or whatever we view, often don’t show the truth of the thing. This is caused by our own bias, the photographer’s bias, and preexisting ideas that interfere with what could be gleaned from the image. Personally, I was raised and educated with the idea that Asia is very far away and very different from Minnesota. The former has been made somewhat false with modern transportation, and the truth of the latter is debatable, as I have learned through Asian Con.

My experiences in Asian Con are the strongest basis for how and why I now better understand the concept of “Asia,” and Japan in particular. When I was young I saw the strong sumo wrestlers, the cherry blossoms, or the electric streets in pictures and videos of Japan and gleaned that they are perhaps an idealized version of “Japan,” but I now know that they are only a part of a much more complex history and culture. I would argue that a visit to the location in question is absolutely required to fully understand why and how things are shown that way to “outsiders,” and I was hoping my own images would be altered by doing so. Indeed, I changed my own very basic, media-based visions of Japan by traveling to see it for myself so I could attempt to absorb the culture in a non-biased way. Part of this entailed traveling outside of the center of Tokyo, which was done by visits to Nikko and Kyoto, and by traveling to areas not on the “top 10” of every travel book in existence.

A random trip to the somewhat empty town of Koganei was decided last minute when we had only a small amount of time to spare after one of our required interview assignments one day. We took the train just two stops away from International Christian University and wandered in hopes of finding magnificent movie maker Miyazaki’s art studio or the building he used as inspiration for the bath house in Spirited Away. We did not find either. However, we experienced a magical little neighborhood with a brown-grass park and the most delicious ramen I have had in my entire life. This location revolutionized the image I had of Japan. Unlike a place like Shibuya or Akihabara, Koganei felt more like my hometown.  This made me think that perhaps Japan isn’t so very different and that it’s not just a nation of mouthwatering sushi and extraordinary cosplay. In fact, there are dads who cannot get kites to fly, couples who fight, and children who loudly do not want to go to the potty all over the world. My vision was refracted, was changed by my numerous experiences, and I began to see the geo-body of “Japan” in a completely different light.

The “linguistic landscape” of a place is another aspect that changed how I experienced Japan. This concept constitutes any visible written word of a location which can then be characteristically analyzed. My language is perhaps my greatest connection to the country, so it only makes sense that I would be highly interested in the things I saw written everywhere. It was fascinating to find Japanese in all of the little places and work it out like a puzzle; the kanji of the “caution, slippery when wet” sticker in the shower of my dorm room, things written only in katakana on the back of fashionable jackets, and so on. This is what Peter Backhaus calls the linguistic landscape. He mentions that “one frequently comes across apparently English expressions that only make sense when read as Japanese” (Backhaus 120). Reading things in their original context with original intentions still intact has a huge impact on the way something is interpreted. For me, I was given an insight into the Japanese way of thinking because I knew the language. At this point of the trip I realized how much more Japanese I want and need to learn to be as skilled as I want to be, which motivated my learning during second semester. At the same time, I was extremely pleased to discover that I am capable of communicating in a foreign language and can engage with people who might not speak English. It was addicting to use my language skills, which is one of the reasons why I was so eager to find a way to return to Japan very soon.

When I think about traveling back to Japan this summer for my internship, I am very glad I made the effort to make it happen, and that I enrolled in Asian Con in the first place. Without the language basis and cultural background, I do not know how comfortable or passionate I would be to return. I am already searching for a subsequent opportunity to visit, even though I have not yet started the first one. After all of the readings and learning I have done in Asian Con, I can now say that I have a changed and improved understanding of Asia, and that it is not based upon media nearly as much as it used to be. I do not think I could be a qualified Asian Studies student without the experiences that Asian Con has given me. Thanks to this program, I was able to examine the imagined community I had for Japan and transform my image of a place through visits to “normal” locations, all with the help of a language-based understanding of the linguistic landscape. 

I second the motion to rename it Greatest Con, because I have grown in so many ways because of it.

Works Cited

Anderson, Benedict. "Census, Map, Mueseum." Imagined Communities. 3rd ed. London: Verso, 2006. 163-85. Print.

Backhaus, Peter. "Case Study: Signs of Multilingualism in Tokyo." Lingistic Landscape. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2007. 64-140. Print.

Bardsley, Jan, and Laura Miller. "Behavior That Offends." Manners and Mischief Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan. Berkeley: U of California, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Strassler, Karen. Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java. Durham: Duke UP, 2010. Print.

[kristie-rp]

[2018] Michael & Lucas: Origins

When Michael is born, his parents name him Mizushima Miko. He is their second son: his older brother is Mizushima Juuki. Juuki immediately adores Miko; he’s fascinated and spends as much time as he can watching over his little brother. It’s actually a considerable amount of time: he is still too young to go to school, and his parents are too paranoid to trust a sitter – but they are also far too busy to make time to actually look after their children. 

Juuki is primarily alive at this point thanks to an aunt that visits at least once a week, a woman who claims to be their mothers sister and who looks absolutely nothing like either of their parents. Tamie, the woman he calls aunt, teaches him everything he can grasp to make baby Miko’s life easier. 

It’s enough, in many ways. Miko grows up both easier and harder than Juuki. The youngest boy is not comfortable around his parents, is quiet and watchful whenever possible. He learns young that it is more effective to babble at Juuki after prolonged periods of quiet than it is to cry, because if he cries, one of his parents may come in. 

One of Miko’s earliest memories – certainly the first to involve either of his parents – is of his mother leaning down into his crib. She is wearing all black, with a scarf of sorts around her neck, and something protruding from her back, held in place by a strap. In the memory, he stares first at the tail end of a military-issue machine gun that is on his mothers back as she kisses his tiny cheek, and then at her face as she pulls the scarf up to cover everything except for her eyes. “Sleep well, my precious baby,” she says in the memory, and then disappears into the night. 

They grow up in a house that is big and empty, surprisingly so considering Aunt Tamie and their parents and their parents co-workers are coming and going all the time. Juuki continues to do everything he can to raise Miko without attracting their parents attention, and they never talk about it. To Miko, this is normal; to Juuki, this is better. Tamie especially expresses her pride in him, over and over again, and tells them in her own gruff way that she is there for them before either of their parents. 

It is not until Miko is old enough to be sort-of independent that the two boys are sent away to a boarding school outside the city their parents house is in. Tamie tells them it is an international school, and that it is for the best. Their parents say it is in their own best interests to go without complaint, and Juuki doesn’t complain, because he knows by now that having an armoury as an accepted norm in his childhood is not a good thing, and he’d rather Miko escape it. Miko doesn’t complain because he takes too many cues from Juuki, and doesn’t feel enough attachment to either of his parents to protest. It’s not that they’re negligent (though they are) or distant, exactly; it’s just that Juuki is a better caregiver than them, and his brother is only three years older. 

Juuki takes to math and socialising with absolutely anyone who will talk to him. He finds it impossible to be consistent: to his desk partner in math, he is intelligent and quick-witted, to the girl who sits with him at lunch, he is quiet and sarcastic. There are more personalities that he tries on the same way others try on clothes, and the only one that sticks is the caring older brother. 

Miko takes to school in general, but he does not get flawless grades. He averages B’s and C’s and to Juuki he seems quietly content, though he worries that his little brother is having trouble interacting with other people. It’s not a baseless concern, it’s a fair one: Miko did not know other people when they lived in their parents house, and was always content to depend on Juuki for whatever company he wanted. That continues as months turn into years at the international school, and for all Juuki wishes Miko would learn to do more, he seems perfectly satisfied with offering shy smiles to whoever Juuki forces him to hang around with. 

Juuki resolves to do something to help Miko, because this can’t be healthy – except before anything can change, Tamie appears to pick them up from school. She does not explain to the headmaster or teachers or to Miko and Juuki, instead bundling them into her car. It’s black and inconspicuous. Juuki finds a pistol in the glovebox when he reaches for the gum she used to keep there, and stares at her with wide eyes, weapon limp in his hands. “Auntie?” 

“I have some bad news,” she says as lightly as she can. 

From the backseat, Miko clears his throat. “Did our parents get executed for betraying Yakuza?” 

Juuki whips around to stare at his little brother, wide eyed. He knows his parents aren’t the best people, aren’t necessarily nice, but they aren’t abusive. But Miko sounds so certain, so matter of fact, that he’s inclined to believe it. After all, Miko is the observant one. He’s the one who would know. 

Tamie’s hands are white where they grip the steering wheel, and she directs Juuki to dig through the glovebox to find the papers she actually meant for him to find. There is a passport there for each of them, and plane tickets. They are Japanese passports, which makes sense, considering they are Japanese – but the names are written in English characters, not Kanji or Hiragana or Katakana. Juuki squints at it, interpreting the Romanized characters only thanks to the past few years of English classes. “Lucas?” he asks slowly, reading the name from alongside his own face. “And – Michael?” 

“Your idiot parents,” Tamie starts. She pauses to clear her throat. “Your brother is correct. Your parents are – were – Yakuza, and they made mistakes. Their superiors found out.” She softens her voice to say, “I’m sorry, Juuki, but your parents are dead.” 

He stops for a moment then, processing. “But then – what? I want to see them.” 

“No, you don’t,” Miko says quietly. Still in the backseat, he does not move. “It’ll be better if you remember them alive. Then you – we – get to pretend. Right?”

Tamie nods once, sharply – slowly. For all she isn’t really their aunt, at least not biologically, she does care for them. That is part of why she is here now. “I want you both to know that lying to you has been difficult.” 

Miko swallows, Juuki rubs at his eyes. He doesn’t want to be sad that his parents are gone – they really, really haven’t ever been that great – but he can’t help it. They were more attentive with him than they were with Miko; that’s just a fact, a consequence of him being an only child for a few years. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Juuki asks. His voice has risen an octave. 

And Tamie talks and talks and talks, explaining everything. How their parents are, were, high ranking Yakuza, high enough to be a problem, but not high enough to be on top. About how their home has been a base of operations for much longer than Juuki has been alive, that it has only been a permanent residence for just that long. How their parents are too proud to split custody, about how it took Tamie most of Miko’s life to convince them that it would be best to send them to an international school to learn, to pick up skills and contacts that would make them useful to them in the long run. And she talks about how her name really is Tamie, and no, she isn’t really related to them. She is Japanese-Filipino, which explains why Juuki always believed that she wasn’t their biological aunt, and she was chosen to be one of three undercover Interpol agents infiltrating the Yakuza. It just so happened that Tamie’s in was their parents. She explains in great detail how she has never precisely cared for their parents except in the way you might care for a distant cousin, but that she has always loved Juuki, and always loved Miko, as long as they’ve been alive. This has been her mission for as long as Juuki has been alive, if not a little longer – she is vague on the details – but when the higherups got word that there was a leak within the Yakuza, and investigated enough to pick up the one that existed between Tamie and their parents, well – she is absolutely certain that twisting the arm of her handler until she had a way out of the country for the boys she loves like her own is the right thing to do. And that’s why she did it. 

“So,” she finishes awkwardly, “I, um. If you want, they’ve agreed to let me have sole custody of the two of you. But we cannot stay here, or anywhere in Japan – there is too much risk that the Yakuza will track you. Which is why your passports have American names on them.” She pauses and bites her lip, and it’s such an unusual show of uncertainty on her that Juuki almost smiles. “You wouldn’t be able to be Miko and Juuki any more, except when you are absolutely certain you’re in private. And I can’t guarantee your safety forever, but I know – I will do everything in my power to give you normal lives. As much as can be expected.” 

Juuki – Lucas, now, he supposes – listens, and he wonders if it would be cruel to point out that she has not given them much of a choice. It is no choice, really, when their options are either to reject her and end up alone in a foreign country where Miko – Michael – does not speak the language, and Lucas can barely read it – or they can accept her offer, and get something like a trusted relative out of this. 

It’s no offer at all, really. 

“We want whatever you can provide,” Miko says – Michael says. Lucas pinches himself. Michael, Michael, Michael.

He resolves then that he will do anything to keep his little brother out of trouble, no matter what level of his own integrity it challenges. He can do this one thing for him, be there for him in a way their parents never were. 

It’s the least he could do, really – or at least as he sees it.

[laurietom]

VN Talk: Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness - Part 1

I enjoyed the dystopian world of the Psycho-Pass anime, and was surprised when I heard that a game, specifically a visual novel, based on it was being localized for the US. VNs are still a niche audience in the English speaking world and while Psycho-Pass is one of those series that comes with a high recommendation rate by fans, it doesn't have the same pop culture level awareness of say Naruto or Attack on Titan. The first season of Psycho-Pass ran back in 2012-2013, wearing its Philip K. Dick inspiration on its sleeve. In the 22nd century Japan is an isolationist country governed by the omnipresent Sibyl System which predicts everything from the occupations a person is most suited for to their psychological well-being. The system is so efficient that it's developed a Crime Coefficient reading that labels the likelihood of a person committing a crime, with the number rising or falling based on the immediacy and severity of the person's psychological state. People who have not actually committed a crime, but are predisposed to doing so, are called latent criminals, and sequestered in facilities for treatment, by force if necessary. Because of this, Japan is so incredibly safe that nobody has locks on their doors anymore. But crimes still happen, and that's where the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) steps in. Psycho-Pass the anime follows the story of Division 1, a six person team consisting of two inspectors (who have clear Psycho-Passes from Sibyl) and four enforcers (who are latent criminals given special permission to operate as detectives and help apprehend other criminals by thinking like one). Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness takes place early in the first season of the series, most likely before episode 7, so it's not necessary to be deep into the anime to get a feel for things, though the most informative routes (i.e. the ones where you find out what's really going on) contain mid-to-late season 1 spoilers. Mandatory Happiness offers two playable characters. Rather than build a story around an established operative, the game offers new characters Inspector Nadeshiko Kugatachi and Enforcer Takuma Tsurugi, who are assigned to the perpetually understaffed Division 1 at the start of the story. This sounds like it could have been a poor move for a media-based game, but Nadeshiko and Takuma integrate surprisingly well with the existing cast without feeling redundant and play off other characters as if they're one of the team. And by using original characters, the game is able to build a high stakes, personal story without impacting TV show canon for everyone else. It's not possible to jerk around the existing cast because we know they have to survive in a particular psychological state to maintain continuity, but Nadeshiko and Takuma are fair game, and Mandatory Happiness runs a pretty solid gamut of eventual fates for them as determined by the various choices of the player. There are also things that we get out of Mandatory Happiness that the anime can't or is unable to do. For instance, Psycho-Pass the anime is largely romance free, and that makes sense considering the main cast interacts almost exclusively in a work environment. And yet Mandatory Happiness, in addition to being a sci-fi crime drama, has the potential to pull off one of the most touching romantic subplots I've seen in a visual novel (assuming the player manages to trigger it). Seriously, one particular route in Mandatory Happiness got more tears out of me than the last otome game I played, and Code:Realize was amazing. I was originally going to write this as a single entry, but because I had so much to say after playing Nadeshiko's half of the story, without having even gotten to Takuma's, I realized that it would be best to split this into three parts; the main story, Nadeshiko's, and then Takuma's. The main story is the same for both with the same key events. It's how the player reacts to those events that changes the story and the ending. For instance, the first perpetrator Haruto will always be enforced at the end of the first case, but the player's choices will determine how long it takes the team to get there and in addition to how to handle the situation once they arrive. Some results are happier than others, both for Haruto and his victim. These variables affect the player's Psycho-Pass, specifically the color Hue that serves as the shorthand reading of a person's psychological state. In turn, the player's Hue changes what choices are available and which paths through the game will be taken. In certain mental states the player might have options that the player character would not otherwise consider. Or, in other cases, options might even be taken away. Frequently the player will hit Turning Points, notifying them that a previous decision is taking them down a particular path, but because of the nature of the Hue, it's not always possible to narrow down one particular choice as the cause. And those choices add up. Even if the four major crises of the story are always there, the circumstances change. The villain might die or be redeemed at the end. Nadeshiko may or may not get her memories back. Takuma may or may not discover the fate of his missing girlfriend. And in different combination, resulting in vastly different endings that manage to work without introducing any complications to the anime timeline (with one exception, which I'll talk about in Takuma's post). Considering that the series is a science fiction crime thriller, it's important to have a good villain and I wasn't sure what to expect that hadn't already been done in the anime, but Alpha is unique enough to sustain the plot, which probably would have been 7-8 episodes if done as a TV show. Mandatory Happiness has no shortage of moral quandaries, just like its parent series. Division 1 exists as peacekeepers and law enforcers, but frequently puts the player in tense situations where there is no clear-cut best option to take and victims become latent criminals with just enough of a traumatic push. Alpha cannot be judged by the Dominators either, because he's an AI, so even though he's a huge danger to society and behaves in many ways like a human, he can't be brought to justice in the traditional manner. This forces the team to be creative in new ways they never had to worry about in the TV series. I found the first two cases to be particularly grippy, as Alpha was created to make people happy, but he lacks the emotional intelligence to realize that what makes one person happy can make another miserable, and he's confused by how no one stays happy once he gives them what they want. Eventually Alpha comes to the conclusion that humanity has too many wants for him to ever make people perpetually happy, and he decides that part of the problem is that there are too many paths to happiness. People want so many things and different things, so his conclusion is to remove choice. He reasons that if there's only one way to be happy, then people will take it. When they don't, he's even more distraught and upset that people would "choose" to be unhappy. While I like the idea of a benevolent AI that interprets everything wrong, Alpha does make some odd logic jumps from the idea of drugging everyone into happiness (hence the Mandatory Happiness title) to deciding it was acceptable to kill everyone else who wasn't interested in being drugged into happiness. His definition of happiness is also twisted. Instead of feeling joy, Alpha defines happiness as freedom of stress and hardship, so he drugs people into a coma from which there is no known recovery. His victims won't be feeling anything, including happiness as we would normally consider it. I wouldn't say Alpha is a great villain, since he comes across as a overly emotional (even bratty) kid, but in all fairness, he was designed as a child and the reason for it is understandable. And a large part of why he works is because he's written to tie into Nadeshiko and Takuma's personal storylines. The game is really about two people and their wayward AI son, except neither of them know it at first, and in Nadeshiko's case she might never figure it out. This is why this story could only have been told through this duo of original characters, as manufacturing Alpha's story into a pre-existing character's past would have risked breaking canon, and it's highly unlikely the character would come out of the experience unchanged. NIS America did a fairly good localization job, since it's always a risk when two different translation teams work on different aspects of a multimedia franchise. But the NISA team did their homework and the terminology is almost identical to that used in the earlier anime translation by Funimation, with only one botch I noticed involving Toma Kuzaburo's name, which gets turned into something unrecognizable, likely due to an alternate kanji reading. (You can hear his name in the Japanese dialogue though, which is how I picked this out.) Since Psycho-Pass runs heavy on the jargon, hearing consistent terms for things like Crime Coefficient, Criminal Investigation Department, etc. is much appreciated. That said though, there were smaller issues with the storytelling, some of which is likely due to the game and others probably could have been cleaned up with another editing pass. I suspect ending branches are generally locked in during the downtime in Tokyo between the middle school crisis and the final confrontation, because a lot of critical changes can happen at this point in the story. This is when the player may have a unique conversation with the character they've bonded with the most, when the Public Safety Bureau decides what to do with Alpha, when promotions/demotions happen, and (usually) when Nadeshiko gets her memories back, if they come back at all. Everything up until that point though, can be a jumble of individual player decisions, meaning there are multiple ways to eventually arrive at a given piece of dialogue or narration. Usually the whole story comes together and the game has its chronology ducks in a row, but at least two times I had the game refer to events that didn't actually happen in that particular playthrough. On the first playthrough where I got Nadeshiko's memories back, she mentions being demoted to Enforcer while she's looking at Alpha's abandoned cyborg body. Not only did this not happen, but I don't think it actually can happen because the scene replaces the one where Ginoza demotes her. It's not possible to get both. This might have been in the original Japanese as well, but if that was the case I think the localization team should have cleaned up the error. On a later playthrough I got Nadeshiko's memories back late in the game and she recalls a memory that resurfaced during her second hypnotherapy session. Problem was, I decided to refuse my second session so this memory was never recovered, and this I'm sure was a flaw in the game design. Then there are smaller issues, some of which are due to idiosyncrasies of the Japanese language, and another the persistent use of the incorrect past tense of "lie" (as in "lie down") which was driving me crazy. (It's "laid down" not "lied down.") The word comes up multiple times in the story on every playthrough, which shows that it wasn't a typo, but a systematic error where the translator or final proofreader did not know the correct past tense. But that aside, Mandatory Happiness is a strong entry in the Psycho-Pass series and a welcome return to an earlier time with the original cast, especially poor Kagari who got wiped out partway through the first season. His levity really adds something to the team and it's good to have him back, at least for a while. It makes me a little sad that new characters Nadeshiko and Takuma don't continue to exist in the anime (at least visibly), as they were fun to have with everyone else, but depending on the ending they might not even be in Japan anymore. I assume the endings where they remain with Division 1 eventually results in them leaving for one reason or another, voluntarily or not, but their fates on those paths aren't covered.

Mirrored from: The Rat’s Den