#this goes for both Japanese and Chinese anime

[shouyou910]

I just heard what kuroshitsuji sounds like in the english dub and that shit is ATROCIOUS (the accents?????? Horrible)

I’ve never liked watching anime in anything other than japanese and for good reason. I HATE what the english dubs do to the characters names first of all. second of all, why do all of the english va’s sound like it’s the first time they’re voice acting???? seriously they’re all over doing it just chill wtf

[demonslayedher]

Nerdy cultural details about the word "Hashira"

Some details can be hard to pick up without context or in translation. I recently went over a few details about the Hashira's names, Breaths, or symbols, but today I want to focus on the word "Hashira."

To get this out of the way, I use "Pillar" all over this blog because I thought that's what they were called. I was astounded that phrase was not translated, as it is a (somewhat rare) case of a one-to-one translation equivalent. They are the pillars that support the Demon Slayer Corp, after all. The kanji for it (柱) very literally means "pillar" in any modern day Japanese to English dictionary. But since you all know the word "Hashira," let's climb up and see where it takes us! First, the kanji itself (brought over from China and given the Japanese pronunciation "hashira," based on the existing spoken Japanese language), is composed of 木 for "tree" and 主 for "master" or "main/principal," among other semi-literal or more widely applicable possible meanings in modern kanji dictionaries. However, Prof. Owada Tetsuo, a retired university professor who published an unofficial book of his own Kimetsu no Yaiba interpretations based on Japanese demon slaying folklore, points out that 主 can also be interpreted as a still flame atop a candlestick, and that 柱 (hashira) is a tree that cannot be moved. (I'll continue to use a lot of Prof. Owada's details in this explanation, as well as details I have picked up in other research.) That makes 柱 closely associated with holy trees found in, or treated as, Shinto shrines throughout Japan. As Shinto is a nature-based belief system, trees are often something that a kami (deity) will inhabit. Keep Shinto in mind, because we're going to focus on that a lot.

Before that, let's finish up with the kanji 柱. According to the first official fanbook, there is an upper limit of nine Hashira because there are nine strokes in the 柱 kanji. (See this dictionary entry for a breakdown of those nine strokes.)

Now that the easy official tidbit is out of the way, back to the Shinto fun stuff and conjecture! We need to dive a bit more into the spoken Japanese language, from which a lot of Shinto terms derive. For starters, the Japanese language uses counter words for when you say a certain number of beings or objects. You could think of this as "a sheet of paper" or "three rolls of tape." It is an annoying part of starting out your study of the language because there are a lot to memorize based on sizes, shapes, types of animals, etc. Deities also have their own counter word: 柱 (hashira). This goes to show how the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corp are something more than human, what with how much power they possess.

Now if we think about the pronunciation of the spoken Japanese word from long before a Chinese written character was assigned to it, the "hashi" of "hashira" is a "bridge." Clever ones among you might know that "hashi" also means "chopsticks." But even chopsticks have the same effect as a bridge! They serve as a connection, bridging the gap between you and what was another living thing, that which will become a part of you as your sustenance. "Hashira," as pillars, are likewise something that serve as a connection, in this case, a vertical one. They are that which connect us with the heavens, or in the case of the Demon Slayer Corp, they bridge the gap between the limits of human strength and the inhuman strength of demons.

As another Shinto tie, one of the connections that Prof. Owada and I both made was that there are nine pillars that support the main sanctuary in shrine architecture like that of Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine. Or rather, in the case of at least one of the historical iterations of Izumo Taisha, there were nine groups of three massive tree trunks each, resulting in a shrine over 48 meters in height (see here for photos of how big the remains of those pillars are and how exciting the archaeology is). These pillars give you a sense of awe for just how powerful pillars can be, especially when you have a spread of nine to distribute the weight. Now, there's more that Prof. Owada and I would both say about how Izumo Taisha also ties in with the "Ubuyashiki" surname or the "yakata" title by which the Hashira address him, but that's a dose of nerdery for some other time.

[rubykgrant]

I finally figured out the new version for the design of my musical super hero! She's part of the group of hero and villain kids I've been playing around with for about 16 years (dang). I started the story with my best friend, and the characters have all gone through a LOT of changes, but because I've had them so long, I sort of know how to keep the core of who I wanted them to be~

(also, thanks to some of my friends for giving me some suggestions on her look in the past! @v-voeux and @bonkalore I appreciate it~)

As a regular kid, Min is 14 years old, a new student at school. She's a social butterfly, who is also very smart and creative (her main talents are music and fashion, but she also takes gymnastics and ballet). She's studied a lot of classical instruments, but she also has a passion for modern styles of music, so her personal taste is very broad. Min participates in a lot of talent shows. chorus groups, and plays. She makes her own fashion designs, for herself and people she knows well. Her signature outfit has a little bit of an 80s-vibe; loos short-sleeve shirt tied at the side (with a rainbow of sunset colors), over a seafoam colored jumper dress, dusty-blue leggings, and pink shoes (her favorite colors are pink and different shades of blue/turquoise). Her hair is black (with a rosie-brown shine), cut in a bouncy-bob, with two little pink hairclips. She has a pink bracelet on one wrist, and a pale-pink scrunchie on the other. Min is chubby, but also very athletic.

Her fun personality makes it easy for people to be drawn to her, but she's very aware of how fickle and fleeting popularity is when people become demanding... and then get upset when you aren't what they want you to be. Although she's sweet with a pretty face, Min is perfectly comfortable confronting people who try to boss her around, and isn't afraid of rejection (this also goes for teachers; she's a straight-A student, but pushes back when adults try to put pressure on her to succeed). At first glance, she's a bubbly and cute, and while that isn't UNtrue, Min is also subtly tenacious, capable of deep thoughts and emotional insight, and very self-assured. She truly values real friendship, and loves making the people she cares about happy with fun activities. She's also very good at being motivational and encouraging.

Her mother is Chinese, and her father is Japanese, both working with animals (for years, they've been doing wildlife studies and rehabilitation, meaning they've moved around often, visiting different places. recently, they've started working with a zoo and an emergency animal care facility). Her aunt (father's sister) is recently divorced and living with them, with her two sons (Min herself is an only child, but gets along well with her cousins). She can be flirty at times, but isn't interested in anything serious yet. She casually dates, but because she's always nice, nobody feels too upset when she kindly lets people down/ends a relationship (when she gets a little older, she figures out she's polyam, ace, and attracted to any gender identity; she uses the pan flag because she likes the color combo~).

When she begins to develop super powers, Min discovers she can literally create "musical energy"; turning sounds into something with a shape. She can do anything from snapping her fingers to send out a chock-wave, or creating vibrations in the air that take the form of a musical instrument (interacting with it, and using it for attacks or defense). Things around her that involve music/sound can also be influenced by her (such as radios, or loud bells in towers). She can manipulate sound to isolate a specific noise, use echolocation, imitate another person's voice voice, and translate any language she hears. Because music can have an emotional response, she also has powers that follow "musical rules"... that is, breaking into song, and having her friends join in, literally has an effect on reality (she often provides mood music when the hero group needs some motivation while fighting various bad guys).

She has an affinity for butterflies, so she creates little wings made of the pink musical energy, letting her fly like a fairy (they aren't connected to her, instead floating behind her back, and disappear when she isn't flying). Min designs her own outfit, as well as the ones the other hero kids wear. Hers is similar to a marching band uniform, a dark pink vest and shorts that are cuffed. Part of the vest is a pale-gray, with lines styled to look like a violin. Her leggings are also pale-gray, with two different patterns (one leg has vertical stripes that look like piano keys, the other leg has thin horizontal stripes that look like sheet music). She has dark pink boots with little butterfly designs on the toes/heels. Her shoulders have short butterfly sleeves, and the vest also has a pattern of musical notes with butterfly wings at the edge, Min's super her symbol. She has the same shape made out of the musical energy as a headphone/mic. Her mask is shaped like a butterfly as well. Min's hair is more curled, and pulled up in a side-ways ponytail, with one final butterfly clip.

In the past, I've had Min's hero design look like a simple "super hero swimsuit" with pink butterfly sleeves, and I've also had versions with a skirt so she has more of a classic magical girl look... but I wanted to really try for something more unique, make the music theme very clear, include her butterfly designs, and also make it a little more sporty~

[all-hallows-street]

Ok so do you think that there will one day be a season 5 though?

I have no doubt there will be a season 5 in the future, anon! The new three volumes were published recently, merch for it keeps getting released, and nothing seems to indicate WSJ is doing so badly it would get cancelled. Well, if you really want me to get negative: WSJ is the least popular of the three main webcomics FENZ publishes by a wide margin. Here is an example of the engagement from the latest comic releases for FRZ, YSY and WSJ respectively.

However, I think WSJ importance to FENZ goes beyond its local popularity: with the donghua WSJ became their big series for the foreign market, specifically Japan. I would attribute this the donghua's unique style and the fact that western myths and monsters are more appealing outside of China (Watching Fei Ren Zai atm and I have been forced to learn Chinese myths and history at the end of every episode!). I think it's pretty clear that only because of ASS's success in Japan a Japanese dub of Fei Ren Zai to be released! Sorry for my previous ignorant joke, honestly, I have been enjoying FRZ. If you haven't, do give it a try!

In short: Season 5 (and probably beyond) is still happening. The studios that work on it: FENZ (they do everything including animation and is the lead studio for the adaptations for both FRZ & YSY) and HMCH (the lead studio for WSJ's adaptation and, as I talked about in the previous asks, have their own projects going on) have been busy, so it will take a while.

Also.... I just learned that you can just watch YSY (Fabulous Beasts) on YouTube? With subs? Might be worldwide?!?! You have to become a member of the YouTube Bilibili channel but at least for me it's really cheap (under 5 dollars per month, can cancel any time and they do have a lot of other donghua there). Dammit. Why can't Tencent do this as well?!?! I hate broadcasting/streaming companies so much... Well check it out if you are interested: 《Fabulous Beasts》theme song sung by Luo Tianyi【Join to Watch latest】 (youtube.com)

[ghawst37]

An explanation to camuroland the shipname: "犬炎"

Although I do supposed that at this point everyone just used to "camuroland" as their official ship name. But as part of the eastern side of the shipdom, mashing their names together should be taken it with some extra steps, for the sake of self-indulgance haha.

So I propose a side one that is "犬炎"

I included it in the template that I posted as sort of a teaser. But I feel like it deserves a bit of an explanation, as a bit of an apreciation for kuso en translation(?) team, just on some parts. (spoilers, Camu's deserve to be praised, Roland however, was a miss. Kuso, how you have fell off.)

Camu: Crocotta in chinese/original is 卡穆 · 狂犬 And Roland: Flambeau is 罗兰 · 戏炎 What's super interesting to me is that their frame's name does not change in the japanese version (Camu is カム · 狂犬, Roland is ロラン · 戏炎) "But, you don't know chinese, how are you gonna make any of this work," well I'm Vietnamese, and I can use transliteration to aid me. And trust me it helped me understand these two on a much deeper level. In that vietnamese guy we trust, always :D

Their names are simple, "卡穆" and "罗兰" are simply "Camu" and "Roland" in chinese dialect. The fun part is in their frames' name.

Camu goes first. And I would like to say that the direct translation for his frame's name is so insulting because why are they calling our boy a "rabid dog"?? Although that's the thing, it's really what "狂犬" means. "狂犬" in romaji is "kuángquǎn", and in Vietnamese transliteration is "cuồng khuyển." And to my other vietnamese people, I agree this sounds a lot better than calling him "chó dại" haha. "Cuồng" is basically to describe something wild and uncontrollable, you can use it to describe a natural disaster as well as a person, in some cases. Pretty much means "crazy," but unlike "rabid" that's mostly only used on an animal. "Khuyển" is pretty much an untamed dog. This is when I have to brought this up because I had issues with this too, specifically the differences between "cẩu" and "khuyển," as both of these words are to refer to a dog. A "cẩu" is a domesticated dog, a house pet. Obedient and behave nicely to its master. And a "khuyển" is a masterless dog, barks and bite and misbehave and uh yeah.... has rabies (this came clear to me from a lil comedic story that I came across explaning exactly just that haha.) At the same time, it's used in a very insulting manner, to refer to a lowly, pathetic dog. Now I think I understood whoever made Camu's frame see of him. SMH But to my knowledge, "masterless dog" can also be used to refer to wild dogs, namely hyenas. Which is absolutely interesting, because it's believed that hyenas were the animal that inspired the legend of the creature "Crocotta." I think the english translation team deserves some credit for this one 0)-(

Roland on the other hand, is surfacely the less intersting when first roughly translated during his debut in the cn server.

"戏炎" in romaji is "xìyán", and that is "hí diễm" or "hí viêm" (either way has a nice ring to the ears.) During Roland's debut his frame's name was translated to "theatrical flame", which is so much better than what the direct translation gave me (because "play inflamation" sounds like... absolutely nothing.) This is worth pointing out at least imho, using "戏", in romaji and transliteration is "hí", translated to theaters is pretty shallow in terms of meaning. To put it simply, it's not just any general theater, it belongs to the combination "戏曲", "xìqǔ" or chinese traditional opera, Peking opera is what it's more widely known currently. Now I'm not here to give a history lesson on something I'm not very well-versed, but for what Roland does, consider to what Peking is with its combination of story telling, singing, dancing, martial arts and acrobatic performance, I don't think the theater they refer Roland to is "just western theater," the good ol we all familiar with. Especially with the martial arts and acrobatic performance, for what Roland is capable of (or consider his battle performance), he exceed just being some reality show performer. That's traditional art. Albeit Roland is referenced (quite heavily) on a Frankish knight, that's very much just a title, much like his role on the stage. It's always better to consider him as someone more than just his role. And that is where the localization and translation team failed to make justice of what his name could have been, or if only someone could have point it out earlier. "Hỏa" ("火") means literally fire, but "viêm" ("炎") is a blaze (literally two fire syllables on top of each other.) It can also be use as an adjective to describe heat in some cases. "Flambeau" is pretty much a torch, even much less meaning than "theatrical flame", but it gave me this idea that said flame is being contained within an object and/or a place. Although it's not even flame, but an even much larger fire. (A friend after hearing me telling them all this said that it felt like a very symbolic fire, it could be seen as Roland's passion for the art of performance, which I very much agree. It burn hot and bright but it also contains him, imprisoned him almost.)

That's a long dissecting section, so what does that leave us with? Well, I tried all combination with each syllables including ones from their names, and only the combination of "犬" and "炎" sounds the less cringe (haha) ("chaotic opera" "狂戏" could've worked if only 狂 isn't a very fitting adjective for 戏) If i respect the shipping community rule of name position (top's name at the front, bottom's at the back) then that gives us "犬炎". But personally, it's doesn't matter, the Vietnamese transliteration left me with "khuyển diễm" but I'll fw "viêm khuyển" as well.

Còn với những người anh em đồng hương của tôi, con ship này cũng có tên việt, là "Sói Lửa" (camuroland can be very international)

And with the usual english speaker, my friend have suggested "Blazing Canine" and I happily approve of the idea (it's so much better than my "hot dog".....)

And with that I would like to conclude my TED talk. Thank you anyone who reached this point (❁´◡`❁) I hope it gave you something, or wasted your time in a enjoyable way haha /gets kicked off stage

//And if anyone is like "why does Roland get such a long analyzation for his part," here's a diet one for Camu. While Roland's chinese name is just a dialect of his name ("ro-ran") Camu's does has a meaning but it's on its own is so good and I'm not sure if anyone has point this out yet, and I frankly don't think it would be very fair if i take Roland's frame name just to combine it with Camu's name. "卡穆", romaji "kǎmù", Vietnamese transliteration "khải mặc" (or in any case of you stubborn people like, fine "ca mặc", it doesn't change the meaning) means "a silent protection." Consider he always has us play where's Waldo, he's really just at the flank and back protecting everyone on his own in denser punishing zone, it's rather fitting. And it's not that he doesn't complain, it's just that whenever he does and curse at Roland hahaha

[hellcatinnc]

The Apothecary Diaries Anime Review

Spoilers Included...

I got pulled into this anime mainly cause I kept seeing these hot pictures of Master Jinshi that were all over Tumblr. Anyways I looked into it and it was a chinese era in the game and normally I'm not pulled to much of anything chinese however this one pulled me in, who knows maybe it was because it was in japanese or because Jinshi being so attractive that I stuck with it.

That being said this show was sweet, sometimes seductive, and funny. The way Jinshi hid a secret from everyone and every woman wanted him however he had no interest in them until he met Moamoa then his mindset changed, probably because she was the first woman to not fall over themselves to be with him. That being said the show is about them two overcoming the ins and outs of their life near the palace as well as how they both blend so well. This is a very slow bun romance. Even by the end of the show you see he is madly in love with her but she is still trying to figure herself out and his actions because she doesn't understand love well she was brought up in whats practically a whore house by a father who wasn't hers and a mother that wasn't in the picture but tried to kill her.

As time goes on you see how he first starts by picking on her like a school boy that has a crush on a girl to a man who actually deeply cares about her. She is an apothecary so she test tastes thing for poison which is really weird cause she enjoys it. At first he is intrigued by this but after he starts caring he will do anything in the world to get the poison out of her system so nothing happens to her. His flirty nature is so hot but she shuts him down over and over again sometimes without even trying. He even has a jealous streak when he sees her talking to another man, he pouts like a spoiled child.

She really is a beautiful girl so much so the moment he first sees her dressed up he loses the ability to breathe. I mean seriously he sees her walking towards him with all her sisters who are practically whores and he notices none of them but her and they have alot of cleavage showing, thats when you know this man is gone he sees no woman but her. So much so that when he realizes other men are checking her out he is one who wants to cover her up so no one can see her but him like that. Its rather adorable to watch Jinshi lose his mind over her she makes him feel things he never has before and not even like its on purpose from her.

They really are the cutest together and I love the shut down comments she makes to him at times. Like later it can get annoying since you know he is in love but in the beginning she kicks his ego down a couple notches which he does need it makes him way more humble too. However his jealousy is the icing on the cake he can't handle it and it drives him insane he wants to be the center of her attention always. He is like a needy child and can be very clingy but its what makes us love Jinshi.

The moment when she finds out there is to be someone killed and she runs into the building even after being beaten by the guards to save him is one endearing part. They are both confused to see each other there since its for royalty and no one know his secret that its what he is posing. He caries her out of the building all the way to care you could so tell in this moment if you didn't see it any time before he was so in love with her it hurt him to see her like this. The rest of the season after this he is always checking on her to make sure since she breaks her stitches several times.

Now lets take a moment to notice how beautiful this man is, like damn he is a seductive man with a flirtiness about him but he is even drawn sexy. I love every angle of this man I sure wouldn't kick him out of bed.

He got drunk one night and she fell off a wall on to him but it didn't take long before he had pulled her in flushed and asked her if he could hold her a little longer as tears formed in his eyes. He has a loneliness about him but to be next to her to be close like this is what he wants so much that this was the only way he knew hot to express it, of course she didn't understand. She has always been independent cause she has to be but his vulnerability is so sincere.

The way he looks at her he is so smitten and he really does care when she tells him about her childhood and being sold and raised in a whore house. He wants to take her way from that so much so he pays for her freedom. The sweetest indirect kiss was at this part when he touched her lips then kissed that same place on his fingers while she looked on shocked.

The ending was sweet but also frustrating in the whole show you only got one kiss and it was the indirect one, you also knew he was madly in love with her but you didn't truly know how she felt. Don't get me wrong in the manga it tells you they will end up together but its a long drawn out path with alot of ups and downs. However she is the only woman he has ever loved and ever will. It will be great to read about it but I'm afraid if its long and drawn out that just means we will get another season if we do with alot of cock blocks to never get a kiss again that or the last episode one. This is a super slow burn show but so worth the watch whether you like them together, you love drooling over Jinshi or just the comedy in general. The sadist thing is you get to find out at the very end that her father didn't know about her and he was madly in love with her mom who went mad after poisoning herself.

[valentine-cafe]

Hii

I'm in a very struggling situation so is it okay if you give me fun facts about Zhao Yizé 9948e? Doesn't matter what it is. Just no angst and nsfw fun facts.

He is my comfort character and I need to read something about him to ease my stress. You can take your time on it tho!

— 🎨

⊹ ۪ ࣪ ᥫ᭡ oh darling we really are sorry and we hope things ease up for you :(( sending you lots of love! we composed this real quick for you

𖹭. he plays the guqin! he's very good at it too

𖹭. can recreate animal sounds very very accurately

𖹭. he treats mister squiggles like a genuine pet snake when in fact squiggles is his familiar —

𖹭. he can speak fluent japanese!

𖹭. his english given name is mathew ( he hates it XHVKBK )

𖹭. on the topic of languages, he speaks more english than he does chinese as he's not around the zhào estate too often and rather lives in the society of shades

𖹭. he is associated with dull shades of blue

𖹭. one of our voice references for him is from this audio

𖹭. as a child, he loved hiding around the ponds of the estate garden, swimming among the lotus flowers and sometimes laying on the big lotus leaves. he also had a small water fan he’d use to splash his older brothers with. they never knew it was him that did it.

𖹭. when yizé first got mr. squiggles, the first thing the both of them did was have a race in the training grounds. he won, and made squiggles get him ice cream as a reward.

𖹭. in yizé’s late teens, he had developed an odd habit of sleeping in the tree branches because he’d sit in the garden at ungodly hours to do homework for school. it became a comfort to him, and he liked when the birds nestled up to him.

𖹭. yizé helps a lot of the community around the estate and makes sure everyone goes around and are safe. safely getting elderly and the young across the road, making sure cats and dogs don’t run out and get lost and is also one of the people who makes a bunch of food for his neighbours and hands it out to them when he can.

𖹭. at work, yizé really likes the missions where he gets to go to the last sector of the society. because it’s a place surrounded by nature and it just comforts him. he loves the areas of the inner society too! the last one just reminds him of home. and also there’s deer!

𖹭. though he doesn’t read books, he has a special thing for comics. he doesn’t read — but he loves looking at all the art. he’s never been too good at art, but he admires it so heavily. he’s always trying to draw something! even if it comes out a little messy, he still feels proud of what he makes

𖹭. yizé is the only one in his family that manages to get brain freezes whenever he drinks cold drinks or eats something cold too fast, nobody knows why.

𖹭. he really likes dancing on roller-skates and is quite good at it too! he often goes to some of the clubs around the society to dance around with them on. one of the reasons for this is because it reminds him of his best friend lorenzo.

𖹭. he has a special soft spot for reptilians, and adores salamanders specifically. he can’t explain why, he’s just always loved how silly they look.

𖹭. has a bit of a tendency to get lost whenever he’s out, but he always find his way back home ! ( he calls his fire dad or his ceo dad or his mama )

𖹭. his younger sibling and him get along really well, and often enjoy running around the parks close to their home, catching bugs and critters for them. yǔ xī has always been able to relate to his love for all wildlife, and it’s refreshing. they like to sit and study them while eating ramen

𖹭. he likes to visit his older brother xīyang whenever he has time. he knows he is sick often and because of this, he really likes bringing him soup and food. and although they’ve had a rocky past together they also share lots of laughs when they get the time. last time they laughed over squiggles accidentally dipping his tail in yizé’s soul when he went to hug xīyang

𖹭. really likes to bully his boss/dad rasui, calling him an old man and sometimes not listening to his orders at work because he likes to prove there are different ways to do things. and he can see even when rasui scolds him, there is pride for his adaptability. ꒱

[axl-ul]

Writeblr (Re)Introduction

Hello! After some time of being inactive, here's a small reintroduction from me:) And I also guess that this is the exact aesthetic I aimed for. Finally!

General info:

(Nick)Name: Axl-ul, but you can address me as Axl^^

Likes: Writing, reading, drawing, crochet, mythologies and folk stories, tea, doggos, cattos, battos (majority of animals that are fluffy)

Stuff I like to listen to: an ENORMOUS range that goes from og dubstep to chillstep to metal to edgy yeehaw dark country (among my fave artists are Bonobo, Nujabes, Burial, Hugo Kant, Sigmun)

Favourite movie: Noroi, The Vanished Empire

Favourite show: Mononoke (2009) it's actually an anime and yes I do consider it a show, Red Dwarf

Favourite book(s): The Witcher saga (Season of Storms was a little bit mid in comparison to the rest, still enjoyed it though), Solomon Kane, The Hobbit, Whiskey, Blood and Silver, The Warlock, Journey to the West (still reading it)

Favourite manga: anything by Junji Ito, Berserk

Favourite games: The Witcher trilogy, DreadOut, Condemned: Criminal Origin, TES V: Skyrim (also slowly getting into Oblivion), Sleeping Dogs, Darkwood, anything made by Fromsoftware (a fanboy)

Favourite genres: horror, mystery, (dark) fantasy, comedy

Favourite tropes: animal companion, found family, rivals to best friends

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Writer info:

Genres I write in: horror, mystery, dark fantasy inspired by world mythologies, dark comedy, my wips might have a touch of detective stories to them, too^^

Tropes I use(d): found family, animal companion, rivals to best friends, rivals to friends to lovers (used only once as I don't like romance that much, why it appears in my wips is a looong story), orphaned MC

POV: 3rd person, multiple POVs with main focus on 1 to 3 characters max

I tend to write in quite a flowery language and in poetic prose, but since English isn't my first language it can come across slightly awkward (TL; DR I do plenty of updates and edits to my posted stuff)

My wips are inspired and sometimes directly refer to a certain mythology, such as Slavic (this one is also most widely used as I like to read local legends of Serbia, Russia, the Czech and Slovak Republic, Ukraine, Poland and so on), Chinese, Nordic, Japanese and Indonesian. HOWEVER I love to create my own mythos and so the world is a blend of characters directly based of a mythological figure exploring environement both familiar and completely new to them. (I've always been intruiged by a question what would happen if world mythologies bumped into each other and what would be the consequences of it.)

My own mythos are pretty much eldritch-like oriented with a significant touch of folk horror. I'm not going to lie, I'm a FromSoftware fanboi, I see Bloodborn or Kuon, I'm going feral and so is my inspiration.

There are many occuring themes about substance abuse, addiction, health issues, gore, extreme violence, sexual assault/rape and other strongly 18+ stuff, so I'd appreciate if only 20+ y.o. people (or be at least 18, really) follow this account. In other words - PLENTY OF NSFW THAT'S NOT DIRECTED AND INTENDED FOR MINORS.

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WIPs

Not all from my wips have a proper introduction (a.k.a. there's no link for their Tumblr WIP intro). BUT I do plan on doing them, so expect the links to be updated. These are just quick summaries of them.

The Flight of the Western Crane - A dark retelling of Journey to the West where Sun Wukong tries to protect the young Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang while meeting a duo of a stranded Princess of the Great Tiger Kingdom and her foreign advisor Lady Wolf Witch. Their common journey starts out as an innocent one. However, it soon evolves into a dangerous chase where the Monkey King must face the worst of his opponents.

City of False Gods - Hybrid of wuxia, mystery and film noir genres set on a fabricated island near Hong Kong. The fiction evolves around the Monkey King who's, after his yet another imprisonment, woken up to a strange world of 1920s where his powers are under a radar by the local supernatural cop unit and is forced to live among the poorest while trying to solve strange happenings in the city. City of False Gods also serves as a sequel to The Flight of the Western Crane.

Empire of Dust - Historical dark fantasy with horror elements set in 330 Constantinople. The story follows two little sisters one of whom is considered neither dead nor alive. One day, Ulfrika sets out for a strange task in order to provide for her dear little sister. Her pure-hearted intention, though, may lead her down the rabbit hole which may devour her sanity.

Ratpeople - An outline idea for a standalone story involving Ulfrika and her time in the Wild West, where the soulless hybrid discovers an eerie town in the desert while chasing after a man who stole one of her horses. The story is related to weird western (mostly its horror and fantasy elements and no sci-fi stuff) and mystery genres and also mythology related things.

Boy Who Chased a Dragon - Another outline story outside the universe of The Legends of No-man's Land. The story takes place on an island of eternal summer and flower bloom, where mythical creatures live peacefully. One day, Dado* loses his pet dragon, a creature his sister gave him for his 8th birthday, in a harsh storm. Now, he sets out for a long journey to retrieve his best friend from the claws of the cruel Ember King.

*because this is still in a process of an outline/1st draft, I'm still not sure about the name, it's only a working name for the protagonist

[princesssarisa]

The next set of stories I've read in Cinderella Tales From Around the World are from East Asia. They start in China with the tale of Ye Xian (sometimes also romanized as "Yeh-Hsien" or "Yeh-Shen"), the oldest known Cinderella variant apart from the Egyptian Rhodopis. Then comes a second, lesser-known Chinese variant, and others from Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

*In all these East Asian variants, the heroine has just one stepsister, or half-sister, or foster sister. In fact apart from Ye Xian, the stories tend to be named after the two sisters, not just the heroine: Beauty and Pock Face (China), Pigling and Her Proud Sister (Korea) Kongji and Patji (Korea), Benizara and Kakezara (Japan), Tam and Cam (Vietnam), or Kajong and Haloek (Vietnam)

*Also in all these stories, the heroine's real mother is dead, and her abuser is either her stepmother or her foster mother. But as in the European versions, it varies whether the heroine's father is alive or dead, and in Ye Xian, which is the oldest of these stories or at least the first to be written down, her father is dead. (You might think the variants with a living father would be older, and that his death was a later attempt to soften the story for children rather than portray a negligent parent, but such isn't the case.) It also varies whether her father married the stepmother after his first wife died or whether he married two wives at once, as in Ye Xian.

*The Korean Pigling and Her Proud Sister is the only variant in this group where the heroine's stepfamily gives her a rude nickname. (Her real name is Pear Blossom.) All the others have her go by her real name or by a flattering nickname, while the stepsister has an unflattering name or nickname to reflect her ugliness and wickedness: e.g. Beauty and Pock Face, or Benizara ("crimson dish") and Kakezara ("broken dish").

*The two Chinese versions (Ye Xian and the lesser-known Beauty and Pock Face) and the two Vietnamese versions (which are near-identical to each other) both follow the same basic formula. The heroine cares for a fish, or some other animal – in three of these four versions it's a fish, while in Beauty and Pock Face it's her mother reincarnated as a cow – until her stepmother kills it and cooks it. But she saves the bones, which from then on grant her wishes.

**In some versions she goes to a festival, in others to a procession or to the theatre, but in some she doesn't go anywhere, but just wears her finery when she's alone, as in Perrault's Donkeyskin.

*In the two Korean variants, Pigling and Kongji and Patji (the latter isn't included in this book, but I've read it elsewhere), much of the story revolves around the stepmother setting various impossible chores for the heroine to complete before she can go on a picnic, or to a dance, or to the city see a royal procession. But various different animals come and complete the tasks for her. Pigling doesn't receive magical finery, but just puts on her own elegant clothes when her chores are done, while Kongji is given finery by a "celestial maiden."

In the Japanese Benizara and Kakezara, the stepmother sends the two girls out to gather chestnuts, ordering them not to come home until their bags are full, but secretly puts a hole in Benizara's bag so it will never fill up. Benizara tries to fill the bag until after dark, then gets lost. But she finds the house of an old woman, who gives her directions home, a full bag of chestnuts, and a magic box that will grant her every wish from then on.

*In some of these tales, most notably Ye Xian, the heroine's eventual husband is a king. But so far, East Asia seems to have the highest percentage of Cinderellas who don't marry royalty. Most of their husbands are just lords or gentlemen.

*The heroine never meets her future husband before she loses her shoe: instead, what usually happens is that either a bird picks it up and carries it to him (as in the Egyptian Rhodopis), or else another person finds it and sells it, and it changes hands again and again until it finally reaches the king.

**There's no lost shoe in Pigling or in Benizara and Kakezara. In the Korean tale, Pigling just meets a wealthy young man while visiting the city and tells him where she lives, and he arranges their marriage, no fuss, no muss. In the Japanese tale, the lord Benizara ultimately marries just sees her at the theatre, notices her give some candy to Kakezara (an equivalent to Perrault's Cinderella sharing her citrus fruits with her stepsisters), and concludes that they must be sisters, so the next day he goes straight to the stepmother's house. Kongji and Patji, the other Korean Cinderella that isn't included in this book, does include a lost shoe, though.

**Beauty and Pock Face has an odd variation on the shoe loss. Beauty loses her shoe in a ditch while riding her magically-given horse, and doesn't want to leave it lying there, but can't climb down to get it in her finery. A fishmonger, a rice broker, and oil merchant each pass by in turn, and she asks each one to pick up the shoe for her, but each insists that she marry him in exchange. She refuses because they're respectively too smelly, too dusty, and too greasy. Finally a handsome young scholar arrives, he also agrees to give her the shoe if she'll marry him, and this time she says yes.

*Ye Xian has a strangely bittersweet ending that casts both the stepfamily and Ye Xian's royal husband in a more complex light. After Ye Xian leaves, the stepmother and stepsister are killed by "flying rocks" (since they're cave-dwellers, I assume this is a cave-in), and their tomb comes to be called The Tomb of the Regretful Women. Their spirits atone for their cruelty in life by assuring marriage to anyone who prays to find a spouse at their tomb. Meanwhile, Ye Xian's husband the king becomes greedy and uses her magic fishbones to make constant wishes for wealth, until after a year, they lose their power. So the king buries them on the beach, where the tide eventually washes them away.

**Beauty and Pock Face and the two near-identical Vietnamese versions all continue the story after the heroine's marriage with a "murder and replace" plot line. The stepmother and stepsister kill the heroine, making it look like an accident, and her grieving husband marries the stepsister yet never loves her. But the heroine's spirit comes back in various bird and plant forms, each of which are destroyed by the stepsister, until finally she returns to her human form in the house of an old woman, who becomes her foster mother until eventually her husband finds her. The stepsister is boiled to death: in Beauty and Pock Face, both sisters have to jump into hot oil to determine which is the "true wife," and Beauty is unharmed but Pock Face dies, while in the Vietnamese versions, the heroine tricks her stepsister into boiling herself, claiming it will make her beautiful. Then her flesh is salted like fish and sent as a "gift" to her mother, who either eats it or is about to do so when she realizes what it is, and either drops dead or is left in horror and grief.

Next come the variants from Southeast Asia.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[p5x-theories]

P5 Collab Chapter 1 Summary

(last updated 6/4/24)

Usual disclaimer: Please keep in mind this game still has no official English translation, so this summary uses a mix of what happens visually, what I understand of the Japanese dialogue, and Google translate for the Chinese text, in order to get the broader picture here. This will be focused on summing up everything that happens overall, without getting into a line-by-line translation.

Contrary to this blog’s name, this post is going to have as little speculation as possible, and stick to confirmed facts.

This post will cover the first chapter of the P5 Collab, also called the "Castle Chapter". Some parts of this have been fan-translated elsewhere already, so I'll link to videos of those where applicable.

Part 1-1

Wonder and Ruferu meet up with Motoha to head into Kiuchi's Palace again, with Ruferu commenting they've made a lot of progress, and they're getting close to the Treasure. Wonder takes out his phone to enter Mementos, but this happens instead (video description below as always):

The MetaNav glitches, and the screen switches to the P5 Collab animated opening. Wonder, Cattle, and Closer find themselves standing in front of a castle, to their confusion. Closer asks Cattle what happened- aren't they supposed to be in Mementos?

Cattle replies he doesn't know either, but it seems like they're still in the Metaverse. Closer and Wonder note that it's a castle, and definitely doesn't look like Kiuchi's Palace. Cattle warns them that this is an unknown Metaverse location, and they're in their Phantom Thief outfits, so they're definitely not welcome, and need to be careful.

Closer suggests maybe they should leave, and Cattle agrees, but finds some kind of force field preventing them from doing so. They realize they're trapped, and they'll need to find a way out from the inside. Cattle adds that he senses something similar to a Treasure in the castle, meaning this may be someone else's Palace, so stealing the Treasure may free them.

Closer thinks that means this can be like a practice run for Kiuchi's Palace, which helps her relax a bit. Cattle warns her not to let her guard down too much, then they head over to the front doors of the castle.

Closer notices they're not locked, and Cattle finds this suspicious, wondering if that means someone else snuck in first. He warns them to be extra vigilant.

Sure enough, when they head inside, they find two other people getting surrounded by shadows- a boy in a skull mask, and a catlike creature.

Some more shadows begin to approach, so Cattle says he'll stick with Closer to take out the new ones, while Wonder goes to help the two strangers getting overwhelmed.

The catlike creature is confused, but then says Wonder doesn't seem like an enemy. The boy in the skull mask grins, and says he's glad for the help.

After the fight, the boy thanks Wonder, and starts to introduce himself as "Sakamoto", but the catlike creature gets mad at him ("How can you tell your real name to someone you don't even know?!"), and he corrects himself, saying he's Skull instead. He then introduces the cat as Mona. Mona immediately says he's not a cat, but Skull ignores him, and asks who Wonder is. Wonder introduces himself by codename as well.

Closer walks over, and asks Wonder if he's okay, then notices the "giant cat" with surprise. Mona again insists he's not a cat. Cattle then rejoins them, and says he could tell from a distance that Mona isn't human.

Skull, now the surprised one, asks what Cattle is, guessing maybe a giant tarsier. Cattle, insulted, says he's not a tarsier, and introduces himself.

Closer, meanwhile, agrees with Skull that she finds it kind of confusing, too. Skull says Mona's also weird, so there might as well be more like him. This angers both mascots- Mona's mad he called him weird, while Cattle's mad that he compared him to Mona.

Wonder has the option of commenting that either Cattle, Mona, or both are cute. If you pick "both are cute", Skull says he has a weird sense of cuteness. Cattle clarifies he doesn't mind being called cute as a compliment, but he does mind being referred to as similar to Mona. Mona agrees they're different, but also says he appreciates the compliment.

Skull asks what Wonder and the others are doing here, and mentions he and Mona are lost. Mona complains he shouldn't tell that to the strangers they just met. Skull says they did just help them out, though, and Mona can't refute that.

Closer says they just got here, but they're lost too. Cattle then berates her for giving information that Skull and Mona weren't going to share. Closer insists it's fine, because they're all in the same situation. Cattle relents, and Closer continues to say they were trying to go somewhere else, but ended up here instead.

Skull explains that basically the same thing happened to them, and Mona starts to complain again, but Skull brushes it off. He and Mona came here with more people, but they got separated during a shadow attack. The two of them were about to look for the others when they were surrounded, and that's when Wonder, Cattle, and Closer arrived. Mona gives in, now that the whole story's out, and tells them that while they came here by accident, they do know the way out. Within this castle, there is-

-Something like a Treasure, and if they steal it, they can leave, Cattle finishes for him, cutting him off. Mona demands to know why he cut him off to say it first, and Cattle complains that he was dawdling. Mona gets mad, but then realizes that means they know about Treasures, too.

Skull adds that they also know the owner of the castle, and a bit about the layout. But...

He doesn't think that bastard would have a portrait like that. Mona agrees that this probably isn't Kamoshida's Palace, even though it's similar.

Closer says they know about Palaces, too... but it sounds like they think this just looks a lot like the Palace of the "Kamoshida" guy they mentioned...? Skull says that's right, and she seems smart. Closer realizes she never introduced herself, and starts to say "Arai", but then corrects herself and says Closer.

Mona says it's nice to meet them, and Cattle points out that in the end, they all shared their codenames and purposes anyway. Closer suggests they work together to find Mona and Skull's missing teammates and then get out of here, and Wonder and Skull agree. Mona thinks to himself that cooperation would also mean an exchange, and agrees they'll share what they know about the layout if it means Wonder, Closer, and Cattle will help them out in combat. Closer thanks him for the help.

Skull points out that saying they're going after "something like a Treasure" is kind of long, and suggests they call it something else. Wonder comments that it's important, because it's the center/core of the Palace, and Cattle latches onto that; they should call it a "Core". Mona says he was thinking the same thing, good thinking, tarsier. Cattle angrily shoots back that he doesn't want to be called "tarsier" by a catlike creature.

They argue for a bit, and Closer brushes it aside, saying it's decided that they'll call it a Core. They'll all look for Skull and Mona's companions while also searching for the Core.

Part 1-2

Skull comments that this spot is kind of miserable; what just happened is actually a bit similar to what happened when he first came to Kamoshida's actual Palace, when shadows surrounded them in the entrance hall like this. They didn't have Personas then, so they got captured. Closer says it sounds like Skull hasn't had an easy time either, and at a time like this... Wonder then finishes for her, either "Let out your emotions through exercise!" or "Go for a run and feel refreshed!"

Closer immediately agrees this is a good idea. Skull says he knows what she means, but he's surprised she's into sports. Closer offers to exercise with him- to Skull's confusion- and decides the best exercise they could do here is a few short sprints back and forth. Skull wonders how the conversation got here, and Wonder explains that Closer's just like this. She announces they'll go that way, then takes off running.

Cattle, smiling, says in that case, there's nothing to do but run. Mona says Closer has a good character, and it's Skull's turn now! Skull tells them to just watch him, then calls after Closer that he won't lose.

They head up the stairs behind them to the distorted portrait, and Mona recalls it led to a secret passageway in Kamoshida's Palace. Sure enough, Wonder tries it, and falls through.

They head over to the upper elevator, and take it up to a more distorted area, again much like Kamoshida's Palace.

(Note that going forward, they sometimes don't have the full cast visible in a cutscene for some reason, but everyone is still there. In this case, Closer is with them still.)

Cattle comments the distortion is stronger, and Mona adds that means the Core must be closer. Cattle says they should search these upper floors. As they do, Mona and Skull help explain mechanisms from the castle's puzzles to them.

Before long, they run into some shadows.

After beating them, they realize they've hit a dead end. Skull suggests they try searching the west building next, and Mona agrees, saying they'll go back through the central hall and find a way into it.

Part 1-3

When they return to the central hall, there's a problem- there's a gate blocking the side path that leads to the west building. Mona suggests they head back outside the castle, climb some scaffolding out there, and come back in through the window, using the chandeliers above as platforms to cross over.

Their timing ends up being perfect, as when they come in through the window above, they look down and see the guards have all gathered in the central hall now, meaning the west building should be less guarded. However, there does end up being one shadow blocking the entrance, which they ambush and take out.

As they head down the hallway to the west building, they come across a treasure chest.

Wonder needs to pull the switches in the correct order to open it, but when he does, there's a loud noise from the mechanism as the gates open, and Mona becomes suspicious when no guards appear. Skull says they should just open the chest, but Mona and Cattle warn him to be prepared for anything.

Sure enough, when they open the chest, a guard appears.

After they defeat the guard, Cattle comments that the aesthetic taste of this castle is worrisome. Closer recalls that Palaces are supposed to reflect the distorted desires of the Palace ruler, and says that Kiuchi's Palace was strange, too- it wasn't a normal stadium. Cattle adds that both Palaces have a vulgar sense to them.

Mona says that, knowing Kamoshida's deeds in reality, he also wants to leave this tasteless Palace-like castle as soon as possible. Cattle asks him what kind of castle he thinks is tasteful. Mona thinks about it, and says something gorgeous and cool... and Lady Ann is there... and... okay! No time to chat, let's go! He runs off.

Closer is thrown off by the abrupt end to the conversation, but Skull just seems exasperated. They follow after him.

On their way continuing to the west building, they come across a side door covered in chains and locks. Cattle senses treasure behind it.

Sure enough, after finding the key and unlocking it, they find a pile of treasure guarded by a shadow. They take out the shadow, then grab the contents of the three treasure chests behind it.

(This serves to introduce the concept of these bonus doors with hidden keys that the player can find; a few more are present in later parts of this chapter, but not embedded into the story, so I won't mention them here.)

They then continue on through the main door, and find stairs going down.

They speculate that Skull and Mona's companions might be down here, and Skull says they'll just have to keep moving forward.

Part 1-4

You can watch the beginning of this part fan-translated to English here.

Closer comments that this area is darker than Kiuchi's Palace, and it's making her a bit nervous. Skull adds that it's the kind of place you might find ghosts, and Mona comments that it's not really like a Western haunted house. Closer says they shouldn't say that; she's not good with this kind of stuff. Wonder calls out to startle them, spooking all three of them. Cattle yells at them all to be more quiet, they're supposed to be professional infiltrators! Wonder thinks to himself that Cattle is also being pretty loud.

Moving forward, they overhear some guards talking about hiding their keys from the intruders.

After defeating the shadows, they discover one of the keys leads to the underground prison, and Mona sadly says that it seems they really did catch Lady Ann.

Closer suggests they take a quick break, then head to the prison.

Part 1-5

They reach the underground prison, Cattle commenting that he didn't expect to get here so smoothly. Now their focus will be looking for clues towards Mona and Skull's companions.

After some exploration, the first thing they find is a cell with chains, and Mona identifies evidence that one of their teammates was here (though it's never clarified what this was, specifically).

They follow footprints from there to another cell, which they obtain keys from a guard to unlock and investigate, and discover another ambiguous clue. A third clue, again following the footprints, is discovered on top of some crates, and the footprint trail finally leads to a cell with someone in a red catsuit, who Mona calls out to as Panther.

This section has been fan-translated as well, and you can watch it here.

Mona asks if she's okay, and Skull asks how she got caught. Panther's glad they came for her, and says she got surrounded. She asks who the people with them are. Wonder introduces himself, but then a shadow comes up behind them and attacks. Once the shadow is taken care of, they let Panther out of her cell, and she thanks them, then asks again who they are. Wonder, Closer, and Cattle introduce themselves, and explain what's happened so far. Panther says it's amazing there are more people like them out there, and introduces herself properly to them. Closer complains that it's ridiculous of the shadows to have locked a girl up in a place like this. Panther agrees, but says it's better than getting nailed to a wall. Closer asks if that happened to her, and Panther says it did, once. Panther then asks Skull and Mona about Joker, but Mona says they got separated. Skull doesn't seem worried- he can take care of himself, and is probably looking for them, too. Closer asks if they're talking about one more person from their group, and if he's really that powerful. Skull says Joker's amazing, and it feels like he can do anything. Panther describes him as the kind of person you rely on without realizing it. Closer says that's just like Wonder, and Skull agrees, feeling they're similar in a way he can't explain. Cattle asks if that means Closer relies on Wonder, and she confirms, saying he's their leader, after all. Wonder gives a short response- either "thank you" or "that's embarrassing"- and Skull says even that answer is similar to Joker, and wonders if they're twins. Panther brushes him off, and says they should focus on finding Joker. Skull says they know he's not *here*, at least. Mona says they'll look for Joker, then go after the Core.

Part 1-6

The start of this part is fan-translated here.

Skull complains that this place always feels gross. Panther agrees that, just having been trapped here, it's the worst. Mona says Kamoshida's distorted desires are reflected here, too. Cattle comments that this "Kamoshida" really seems like someone with taste, and Closer asks if he's joking- how can such a cruel person have taste? Cattle, annoyed, says he's being sarcastic. Closer mishears him, thinking he said something about meat (the words are more similar in Japanese), and Skull and Panther both ask about meat as well. Cattle exclaims that he's surrounded by idiots.

They continue through the underground prison, following footprints up to a locked iron door.

Panther says the key to it should be up in the west building, but they should get out of here, first.

They push through some more fights, and finally reach the door to the west building. Cattle suggests they rest before heading in, and Panther agrees.

Part 1-7

They enter the first floor of the west building, and start looking for the prison key. However, they quickly reach a locked door. Cattle suggests they look around for clues, and Mona notices some of the suits of armor in this hall are missing their weapons or shields. They decide to look for replacements, to see if that opens the door.

They quickly find the two weapons they need in the weapon depot nearby, but also discover the entrance to the hallway with the suits of armor has been blocked by a gate. Cattle suggests they continue forward and find the shields for now; someone must be controlling that gate.

The first shield comes easily, but they end up having to fight a guard shadow pretending to be a suit of armor to get the second shield they need.

They find the gate has opened again when they return to the hallway, and replace the missing shields and weapons on the suits of armor there. As expected, this opens the door.

Inside, they find a chest with the key to the Training Ground of Love, but then a guard ambushes them from behind.

They deal with the guard, then plan to head back to the prison to unlock that door, which apparently leads to the Training Ground of Love.

Part 1-8

They return to the locked door to the Training Ground of Love, and Mona warns them to proceed carefully.

Within the underground passage leading to the Training Ground of Love, Skull and Panther recognize footprints and a scrap of fabric from Joker. Mona says there's no mistaking it- Joker went this way.

At the end of the passage is the door to the Training Ground of Love, but there's a shadow, which they have to take out to proceed. Just past the door is a secluded area with a table, and Mona suggests they take a break there, as the Training Ground of Love itself is likely to be even more heavily guarded.

Closer and Skull agree, and they take a short rest.

When they head into the actual Training Ground of Love, they immediately hear a female voice calling for help. However, there's another iron door in the way, and they end up having to go around the other side of the Training Ground first to find the key and open it.

They discover, in the far cell that they heard the voice come from, that there's a group of women running on a brutal treadmill; Skull comments that this place is as bad as ever. Closer says they have to rescue them, but Mona explains they're just cognitions, not real people. Closer recalls that Cattle explained that as well, but still feels bad about leaving them alone.

Cattle wonders about what kind of desire leads to this sort of cognition, and Skull starts to say that bastard Kamoshida is the coach of the volleyball team, and he makes the members- wait, the people down there-

-aren't members of the volleyball team, Panther finishes for him, also surprised. Closer takes a closer look, and realizes one of them is Tomoko, panicking (though Cattle reminds her what Mona just said, about them being cognitions).

Closer shouts back that even if they're not real, corporal punishment like this is too much! Especially if the people in reality were also hurt...

Panther catches on, and asks if the girl that Closer pointed out is her friend. Closer confirms this, and explains that the real Tomoko was pushed onto train tracks by a man named Kiuchi, which injured her to the point that she can no longer play baseball like she loves. That's why she's determined to make Kiuchi have a change of heart.

Panther mentions that her own best friend was abused by Kamoshida, the guy that owns the real version of this Palace. She wants to make him repent, for Shiho's sake.

Closer says they all have to work hard for their friends, and Panther agrees, they'll make those rotten guys pay. Skull reminds them they still have to get out of here first, since this isn't Kamoshida or Kiuchi's Palace.

Cattle asks what it means, then, that it's similar to Kamoshida's Palace, but also has aspects of Kiuchi's. Mona wonders what this place really is, but their train of thought is cut off by a shadow running up to them.

The rest of this section, and the entirety of the next, are fan-translated here.

The six of them get overwhelmed by the assault from the shadows, everyone complaining about how powerful they are and wondering what they can do. Just as Wonder thinks he'll have to take it on alone, however, someone else joins in, who Mona immediately recognizes as Joker.

Part 1-9

Wonder recognizes Joker, too, as the one who saved him and Cattle in Mementos during the main storyline. Joker asks if he can still fight, and the two of them take down the main shadow together. Skull and Closer comment in amazement, while Wonder and Joker stare silently at each other, which Panther comments on. She adds that she feels more at ease now that Joker's here, which Skull agrees with, and Closer mentions that she'd feel odd without Wonder around, too. In response to this, Wonder and Joker both rub the backs of their necks in almost-unison, and Skull says even their actions are the same. Brushing this aside, Mona declares everyone's here now, and Panther says this means they can go after the Core. Cattle explains he already knows approximately where the Core is, so they can head there. Mona claims they can leave it to him, and Cattle tells him not to steal his lines. Mona grins and replies that stealing is part of being a Phantom Thief. Cattle promises to retaliate later, and Mona says he can try. Skull says they're acting like a couple, and they respond "Absolutely not!" in unison. Panther smiles and adds that they're even responding in sync. Closer announces they'll all go find the Core together.

Part 1-10

They discover the way to the Core involves a path with swinging blades, and try to figure out how to get past it. Closer notices a mechanism on the wall, and recognizes it as a switch to disarm traps that they've seen in Kiuchi's Palace.

There are three holes in it, so they'll need to find the three baseballs that go in, in order to turn off the blades.

Searching around, they end up heading out a window, and down and around the outside of the castle (moving in the reverse of the direction the P5 Thieves take to get up there in Kamoshida's actual Palace). Before long, they run into a powerful guard, who drops the first baseball they need when they defeat it.

Part 1-11

They continue through the castle in that direction, and before long, stumble into the church area.

It's guarded, but they suspect the thing sitting at the base of the statue may be another baseball, and head in that direction, sneaking around the shadows via the scaffolding overhead.

The rest of this part is fan-translated here.

They reach the statue, and find the second baseball there. Skull and Panther say they're starting to get tired, and Mona admits he wants some of Boss's coffee and curry. Closer asks if "Boss" is Mona's owner, then wonders if cats can even have coffee and curry. Mona takes offense to this, responding with the usual "not a cat!". Panther explains that "Boss" was referring to the owner of the cafe in Yongen-Jaya where Joker is staying, called Cafe Leblanc. She says both the coffee and curry there are really good, and Skull complains this is making him hungry. Mona tells them not to reveal the hideout of the Phantom Thieves so casually. Panther says it's fine if it's Closer and her friends, since they saved them! Closer promises to keep it a secret, and asks Panther and the others not to reveal *their* identities as phantom thieves either. Panther replies that of course she promises! Wonder clutches his head, thinking of Leblanc, and the fact that Joker and Mona are staying there. He's not sure why, but he already knew this. He then shakes it off, and thinks to himself that they should look for the Core.

Part 1-12

With the baseball in hand, they sneak out of the church area and deeper into the castle, but are ambushed by a group of guards waiting to punish them for "defiling" the church.

With the guards out of the way, Skull realizes they're close to the library, but they hear more guards coming, and duck into a nearby room to hide.

Part 1-13

Once the guards have passed, they reemerge from the room, and take stock of the situation. There's only one baseball left to find, but security has also heightened a lot- they'll need to be cautious moving forward. Mona recalls that the library in the real Kamoshida's Palace had a secret room, and suggests the next baseball might be there. Panther and Skull back him up, and Cattle agrees it's good to have a goal in mind, so they might as well head that way.

When they reach the library, they discover that, much like the one in the real Kamoshida's Palace, it's missing three books. Cattle reasons that finding those books will-

-open the secret room, Mona finishes for him, again stealing Cattle's line, to his annoyance. They bicker a bit, but Mona does admit that he thinks that's how it'll work here because that's how it worked in Kamoshida's Palace. Panther adds that the books were in different rooms, not the library itself, and they head out.

The first book they find is called the "Book of Baseball". Closer says it's all about Kiuchi's time in the limelight. She thinks that's suspicious, and Cattle agrees, so they take it.

As they look for more, they hear a shadow talking about guarding an "important book", and defeat it. On the shelf behind it, they find the "Book of Dominion". They glance inside, and Cattle describes it as "mixing the desire for control and love towards the opposite sex". Closer notes that it has her name, Tomoko's name, and the names of many other girls inside. Cattle comments that this one seems to be related to Kiuchi, too, but then why did these books appear in a place imitating Kamoshida's Palace?

The final book is the "Book of Punishments". Closer says this one refers to Kiuchi's act of running into people as a "punishment", and she calls him a despicable person. With all three books, they return to the library.

As expected, putting the books on the shelves opens the door. Closer, amazed by the hidden door opening, exclaims it's like a mystery novel.

Inside the room, however, a shadow appears. Mona and Cattle both comment that this was about what they expected (in slightly different ways), and the shadow attacks.

Once the shadow's taken care of, they find the third baseball in the room. Panther cheers, and Closer suggests they head back to the swinging blade mechanism and turn it off.

Part 1-14

They insert the three baseballs into the mechanism, and the swinging blades stop, as predicted. Heading across the path and up the stairs, they find themselves at the door to the throne room. Mona senses the Core inside.

When they enter, they find a shadow with a strange, metal-looking, chickenlike head, standing with its arms crossed over its chest, in front of a giant crown with a baseball mitt atop it.

Closer guesses that must be the Core. Skull comments that the shadow gives the impression he's challenging them to just try and take it. Panther says she's not sure if it's the shadow, but there's a subtle, nauseating feeling that's giving her goosebumps. Skull agrees.

Mona starts to wonder if the Core is a kind of treasure, and gets very excited about it, startling Closer and Wonder. Panther admits she's a little excited now that they're so close to it, too. Cattle reminds Mona that this is a Core, not a Treasure, and tells him to wake up.

He adds that it's like Mona was smoking catnip, and Mona snaps out of it, reminding everyone he's not a cat. He then asks Cattle why he, an owl, is wearing that weird hood, and Cattle, offended, says it's elegant and fashionable. Closer tells them to stop arguing, but they still growl at each other.

Skull says they just need to beat that guy to get the Core, right? Let's do it! Wonder and Joker express similar sentiments.

Though not translated, you can watch the boss fight and aftermath here.

The combined group of Thieves turns toward the shadow, and it erupts, turning into something similar to Asmodeus (the monstrous form of Shadow Kamoshida), except wearing the Core on its head instead of Kamoshida's Treasure. Its text box seems to give it the name "Rāga". When its health is beaten down to zero, a cutscene plays, featuring each of the Thieves playing a role in its takedown. After, Rāga swirls, and turns into a smaller version of the Core. Panther says she feels like she's seen that monster somewhere before, but Closer doesn't think it matters, because it's been dealt with. Cattle instructs Wonder to grab the Core, but as soon as he does, it vanishes, and the castle begins to shake. Cattle says that, sure enough, when the Core that the castle formed around is gone, the place begins to collapse. Mona announces it's time for a tactical retreat, and they all run out of the castle. Skull, Panther, and Closer comment on making it out of the castle in time, and being tired, while Cattle explains that now that they've taken the Core, the barrier that was keeping them in has vanished. They should evacuate immediately. Closer asks if this means it's time to say goodbye to Panther and the others. Panther says Closer needs to go avenge Tomoko, and Closer wishes Panther luck in doing the same for Shiho. Panther thanks her, then complains about having to say goodbye when they finally became friends. Skull suggests that they might meet again, if the MetaNav glitches again, and Panther doubts whether that's really a good thing. Closer laughs, and assures her they'll definitely meet again. Mona and Cattle complain that this is no time for a leisurely farewell, and they have to leave. Skull comments that they really are quite a match. Joker and Wonder thank each other for their help, and the groups part ways. Back in the real world, Motoha, Wonder, and Ruferu stand by the entrance to Shibuya station. Motoha drifts off, asking what they were about to do... then remembers, they were going to head into Kiuchi's Palace. Ruferu repeats his comment from the very beginning that they've made a lot of progress, and they're getting close to the Treasure. Wonder thinks to himself that he feels like he went somewhere. Ruferu asks if something's on his mind. Wonder feels something in his pocket, and pulls out a miniature, palm-sized version of the Core.

[capostone]

The Research Begins

So essentially, I have three ideas. Two of them exist in a similar sphere and have some relation to each other, while the third is completely different and arguably more limited on the conceptual level. But I think they're all worth exploring anyway, so let's get into it. 1. Event Planning. This is the outlier of these topics, and the one with the most solid Form potential from the jump. I'm involved in Castle Point Anime Convention, and that sort of event planning is one of my favorite activities. The logistics of putting such an event together are fun to consider, and there's always something new to consider or focus on. The type of venue, the types of vendors or guests, the types of attendees we'll be catering to and what kind of activities they'll want, how to get around things like distance limitations, food options, space limitations and how to get around those, security and medical information, the list truly goes on (https://www.socialtables.com/blog/event-planning/how-to-get-logistics-right/). Then there are other considerations such as how to comfort paying customers when they worry things may not be going to plan-- good PR and polite lying are crucial for event planning. In general, there are a lot of interesting things to consider with this topic, but not many unique directions to take it.

2. Makeup. Why do different makeup looks look different? Why do different countries have such different ones? Why are certain makeup looks considered more socially acceptable than others when the only difference is color or sparkle? Why is it only acceptable for some people to wear makeup? And when people that aren't them wear it, who decides what styles are acceptable? Why is that where the line is drawn? There are so many questions and not that many answers when it comes to this topic. I'm particularly interested in the differences between different makeup styles across different countries and cultures. As an example, Japanese eye makeup (https://www.tumblr.com/asian-makeup/177452951954/japanese-eyes-makeup) vs Korean eye makeup vs Chinese eye makeup vs the typical American eye makeup look.

Makeup as a general tool for self-expression and by extension for gender nonconforming purposes is also an interesting subject, with things like drag makeup existing in its own space, and men's makeup becoming an increasingly feasible market (https://www.forbes.com/sites/dahvishira/2024/03/06/makeup-is-more-than-a-trend-for-men-its-a-rapidly-rising-market/). Graphic makeup styles and similarly artistic and over-the-top styles are super interesting to me, too. These sorts of style also play into some really interesting fashion subcultures like Gyaru, Decora, and China's Dopamine Girls.

3. Gender-neutral fashion. Fashion as expression is super interesting to me and I love looking into different subcultures and their rules, but one thing I've noticed seems to have no rules is gender-neutral fashion. I largely believe this is because in the fashion world, "gender neutral" is equal to masculine or masculine presenting. A quick Google of "gender-neutral fashion" yields dozens of pictures of tall, thin models with good proportions and no real curves or unavoidable secondary sex characteristics wearing largely masculine clothing silhouettes. The occasional masc model in a sweetheart neckline or skinny jeans pops up, or a prominent LGBT celebrity wearing a dress to an event everyone would expect a suit. Otherwise, staples like dresses, skirts (particularly anything shorter than knee-length), and even crop tops are almost entirely left out in favor of blazers, slacks, loose-fitting t-shirts and sweatshirts, baggy jeans, and oversized cardigans. Generally, a lot of the more obviously feminine or revealing clothing is seemingly relegated to femme-presenting models as well. The idea that only men's clothing is gender-neutral is fascinating to me, as someone who likes dressing both ways and exploring these things in other cultures is also really interesting. Different cultural standards lead to different ideas of gendered and gender-neutral fashion, and that's also something worth exploring further. Social expectations, the idea of gender-neutral as a concept, male as default, the fashion industry, I think it's all worth considering and researching further going forward.

[arbitrarygreay]

Symphogear attack names

@mimeparadox alerted me to the fact that Kirika's attack names are crimes against linguistics, so I started looking at all of the Gear users' attacks. Much thanks to the wiki, which helpfully compiles not only the attacks, but their title cards, the romanization, and the original text!

I'm only looking at anime attacks. From "least cringe" to "Kirika":

Miku: Two-character Chinese phrases. Short, sweet, dignified.

Hibiki: Cheating because she doesn't get attack name cards at all. See post-ranking paragraphs.

Mid-tier: Maria/Tsubasa/Kanade tie. These girls are chuuni, but are relatively self-aware enough to have some restraint. However, Tsubasa might actually be one tier up by a sliver. She's getting away with some shit by doing hers in foreign language calligraphy, but see the post-ranking paragraphs.

Chris: Name that rock band! Golden spot of delightful indulgence. I dare anyone to not smile whenever MEGADETH PARTY shows up like an old friend. Chris has one (1) genre on her music player, and she doesn't give a fuck.

Shirabe: [greek alphabet letter]-style: {[spinning reference] AND/OR [cutting thing/action reference] wrapper addition/s to make it chuuni}

Kirika: Aforementioned CRIMES AGAINST LINGUISTICS. Build a desired phrase. May or may not include kana-ized English referencing a western fictional character. Add chuuni Japanese as necessary. Find phonetic syllables in Japanese that can be represented by tortured kanji readings that fit desired meaning. Substitute other kana with English alphabet letters. Featuring such great hits as:

災輪・TぃN渦ぁBェル

愚焔・PぇtttE炉

断殺・邪刃ウォttKKK (did you know that you spell Jabberwock with "t"s? that's how Kirika rolls, death)

兇脚・Gぁ厘ィBアa

So, like, there are indications that these aren't relic-defined names, but things that the girls themselves came up with. The strongest evidence for this is Gungnir, which has three users across the length of the show. Not only does the show make it explicit that Hibiki is coming up with the attack names herself, as they are called "Hibiki Style", but even the two who are using Gungnir as intended, Kanade and Maria, have their attacks names tailored to them. Kanade's all involve the "∞" sign, which don't show up in Hibiki or Maria's attacks.

Maria and Chris also both present even stronger evidence, as the rare users who have performed attacks across two different relics, and their tailored quirks are present in both. With Gungnir and Airgetlam, Maria's attacks feature the "†" sign splitting capitalized English. With both Nehushtan and Ichaival, Chris features rock band references in Old English font.

And this isn't even getting into the NONSENSE when combo attacks enter the fray, as each girl's naming quirks get thrown into a blender. Not only do we have Shirabe and Kirika throwing their Greek-letter-tortured-kanji-random-romanized-letters shit together into the likes of "禁合β式・Zあ破刃惨無uうNN", but then you add Maria's cross-capitalized-English-chuuni, and get "禁結終Ω式・爍機†TRINITY".

Another canon case of an attack evidently being named by a person is S2CA, which is short for "Superb Song Combination Arts", despite the fact that it makes zero sense in Japanese, where "Superb Song" is "Zessho". Forced acronyms transcend the curse of Balal!

(Tsubasa sidebar: so if we're assuming that attacks are named by their users, then the likelihood that Tsubasa's attacks are actually more chuuni in the original Japanese goes way up. Tsubasa doesn't know what normal is! Her baseline standard is the Kazanari family, and her ninja idol manager! Not to mention that her main transformation song is already borderline self parody in S2. Japanese imagery, sword, sword, blade, sword, blade, blade, I am sword, sword is me, etc. Maria and Kanade's attack names are constrained by being only 1-2 English words. Tsubasa out here throwing out flowery whole scroll calligraphy. Every added character brings her closer to Shirabe and Kirika's level.)

You may notice that this ranking suspiciously seems to follow the level of lack of blood family and divorce from civilian life. Chris, Maria, Shirabe, and Kirika are all orphans who were coerced into exploitation. However, Maria still had Serena, who overtly shares her surname, which suggests blood ties (they still don't share Anastassia's surname).

One step further on this, though, is that Chris was yet still closer to Kanade's situation in that she did know who her civilian parents were before she lost them. The Yukine surname was never in question, which is not necessarily the case for the Receptor Children. It's possible that some of these kids may have chosen their surnames for themselves after being freed from captivity.

Which would explain why you can get a Gundam-ass name like "Maria Cadenzavna Eve", which makes little to no sense in terms of ethnic name origin. Maria is Greek+Latin via Hebrew, Eve is English via Latinized Hebrew, and then Cadenzavna is a nonsense mishmash of Italian and Eastern European.

"Kusanagi Motoko" from Ghost in the Shell is a pseudonym (admitted canonically in 2nd gig), which is something like "(plain) Jane Excalibur". It seems obvious to me that "Akatsuki Kirika" and "Tsukuyomi Shirabe" are similar. The music/sound-based given names apply across most all of the Gear users, but I can easily see these two goobers picking the edgiest surnames (with shared moon connotations!) for themselves. Which, per the first half of this post, is reinforced by how chuuni their self-defined attack names are. (Meanwhile, Maria loses her little sister called Serena, and then replaces her with two girls with moon-associated surnames, eh. Maria, the Eastern European who would have been more likely to watch a dub of an anime than the sub, and wore that odango hairstyle as a child...)

[nihongoseito]

Hello!

Say, I've been trying to find sources to teach me how to read/understand the fundamentals of 草書 that are not in Japanese. So far I found "The Elements of Sôsho" by Cpt. F. S. G. Piggott but that's pretty much it. Do you happen to know any good books/websites/blogs/videos/anything about that? I can read French, English and Spanish.

I love your blog, by the way! I kinda gave up learning Japanese after a bad experience but I'm slowly getting back to it and your posts played a big part in accepting I'll take this one step at a time.

hi, thanks for your ask!! i'm really happy to hear you enjoy my blog :) i understand completely about giving up on something you're studying after it goes awry....in college i studied a lot of another (not japanese) language, and thanks to *gestures broadly* stuff, i lost what feels like all of it and it often feels like trying to return to it would be really insurmountably difficult. i think for me part of it is like, it's hard to feel like you've moved backwards from where you were in the past. so i'm so proud of you for trying to pick up your japanese study again!! 一緒に、ゆっくりと頑張ろうよ！

as for 草書 (そうしょ = calligraphy/cursive), i honestly know nothing about the topic! a quick online search gives lots of results if you ask in japanese but sadly almost nothing if you ask in english. i found a couple blog links about 草書, but the entries are very short:

something nice about this ^ blog post is it talks about how the hiragana were derived from 草書, it's so cool to see the connections between kana and kanji!

((also, if you're interested in hiragana at all, you should def look into the history of 女手 (おんなで = women's script), as in fact the hiragana were innovated and used by women who were disallowed from learning kanji! which is a really cool large-scale example of how women are typically at the forefront of cultural and linguistic change. here's another blog post about women's usage of hiragana, although it seems you might have to create an account to read it.))

heading back to kanji, here's another blog post that talks about calligraphy in both chinese and japanese:

also, looking at the sources for the wikipedia page for east asian calligraphic styles, there also seems to be a book from the 70s called the art of japanese calligraphy by yujiro nakata, which seems to be available at this site or you could try and get it from a library, especially if your library has contact with any nearby university libraries. it's a little old, of course, but researching it might lead you to more modern sources too!

anyways, thanks again for your message!! if anyone else knows of any other resources about 草書, please feel free to reblog or put them in the comments :)

[torque-witch]

If anyone pays attention to my weird anime recommendations besides friends I pester -

Tsurune was absolutely lovely and emotional even tho it’s *technically* a sports anime. It’s about Kyudo, traditional Japanese archery.

Sasaki & Miyano is just perfect as a BL and the dub is incredible with so many hilarious sound bites and a queer cast. I have actually watched it like 8 times in the last month and half. Judge me.

Fairy Gone is considered a bad original anime series apparently, but I enjoyed what I’ve watched so far. Mobster/Military with fae and fantasy elements.

Hell’s Paradise just came out and it seems like it’ll be done well. Soulless mercenary who travels to the underworld to get a pardon and return to the only thing he lives for - his wife.

Ancient Magus Bride was lovely, season 2 is coming out this month, April. Sorry but skull daddy is for me 🤡

SUGAR APPLE FAIRY TALE - so great I have watched it 2 or three times now. It does end on a frustrating note be warned, and I guess the whole thing is frustrating. But it is enjoyable nonetheless

Heaven Official’s Blessing - Chinese Danmei but also more traditional art style, cute romance, fantasy, mystery, swords

Black Clover I’m assuming is more of a classic based on how many episodes are available, but I like it! Classic hero with a huge disadvantage and a giant sword lol

My Little Monster - frustrating teen rom com but still cute. I think I first watched it when I was in college?

TOMO CHAN IS A GIRL - if you like rom coms it was super cute and well worth it. And I always love a tomboy

BUDDY DADDIES - found family, absolutely a wonderful original anime and of course hot hit men lol

Welcome to Demon School Iruma Kun is cute - about a human who gets adopted into a demon family and has to go to demon school of course. Humans are a delicacy so they say

Rosario + Vampire is a little older and cruder but still an interesting teen coming of age + monster school + human goes to monster school trope

Karneval seems like it could be good but the dub annoys me a little bit

The Case Study of Vanitas if you like vampires + mystery + weird romance + the entire fandom wanting it to be gay bc it kind of is but you’ll see. Vampires desire too many things 🫠

Trigun - watch the original first but they are both masterpieces need I say more? And the Vashwood fan art on TikTok is all I need forever

I’ll update when I remember more

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

No. You are anti science.

Ok so let me start this off by saying one thing very clearly. Far leftists are 100% anti science. They will deny facts right in front of their faces so long as it goes against their narrative, because they only thing they are even good at doing is gaslighting. And most of the time they are not even good at that.

What do I mean? Ok, so what have I seen or heard from Leftists (IE: People that worship the fact they are on the left) are as follows. And while not a comprehensive list, it's enough.

1-"All vaccines are safe and can't harm you"

2-"There is no differences between the sexes"

3-"There are no differences between physical races/ethnicities"

4-"Cat's can be vegan"

5-"Solar and Wind are actually better for the environment than anything else"

6-"Hormone blockers don't have side effects"

7-"Cow farts are killing the planet"

8-"The US and every 'White' Country are responsible for most/all the pollution on earth"

And I could go on. But let's address these shall we?

Vaccines are not a one size fits all. They never have been. Far leftists went from "I won't ever take Trumps vaccine" to "If you don't take Biden's vaccine you deserve to never get healthcare again and or deserve to be put into a wood chipper. Also we don't care if you are immunocompromised the "Vaccine" is perfectly safe. St. Faccui said it was safe for absolutely everyone." I'm sorry if you are like this, you are not "Pro Science". And on ONE person is "The Science". And if you believe otherwise you are a lunatic. Also, adverse reactions are a thing. No matter how rare they are some can lead to life long issues. And some can lead to death. That's just a fact.

There are a NUMBER of Differences between the sexes. And while I could write a BOOK worth of how, I'll stick with a few things. Immune Strength, Quick twitch muscle fiber, reproductive organs, hormonal influence on the body, fat retention, muscle building capacity, speed of development, etc, etc. *The list is long*

OK so this one is one of the dumbest ones I've heard, but let me explain something simple. Between melanin and MANY other variants genetically, we ARE different. Scandinavians are often extremely tall, Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese people tend to be very small. Then there is Sickle cell disease which is ALMOST exclusive to people with darker skin, more often much darker skinned people. WE HAVE DIFFERENCES. And the reason people are often scared to talk about this is because they are afraid that if they do talk about these things that it will lead to bigotry and racism. Except by pretending that all people from all places in the world are EXACTLY the same you are in fact denying science.

I'm not even going to go deep into this. SOME ANIMALS ARE JUST CARNIVORS! Cat's are one such animal. Stop being stupid because YOU chose something for your own life.

OK so I could BOOK this one as well but let me just say a few things. Battery tech has almost not advanced at all in the past 20 years. Every step we have made has been very.....minimal. However Solar panels only last between 5-8 years more often than not, and the amount of resources they take to make needs YEARS to offset how much carbon used to make them. This not also including the destruction of entire ecosystems due to the mining for the resources in 3rd world counties, which have also managed to pollute water reservoirs. No telling the amount of kids that die in the slave labor needed to mine all of this stuff. Or the long term effects on the natives of those lands. Same with wind. Except with wind, they need petrol to work. Specifically the lubes that keep the turbines working. And they don't last very long either. And when they break, much like solar panels, they can't be recycled. And the production of those needs 8-10 years to offset what it costed to produce them. Not to also discuss the amount of land decimated to put up both of them. Specifically bad with wind turbines that tend to kill avian life at a high rate, and when put into the water or on the water, they screw with the sonar of animals in the water that use sonar. Which has sadly killed a number of whales.

Hormone blockers actually have a metric shit ton of side effects. Though I guess you can more say effects. One of which, which is actually REALLY scary for younger people is Osteoporosis. Which is REALLY rare in people under 50. As often you develop it as you age. Except people that take blockers for long enough stop developing. That's the entire point in some cases. And here is what many of you LUNATICS don't seem to get. YOUR BODY needs he hormones it produces for you to develop properly. Your body does not just "Rebound" when you stop taking them. And when you take cross sex hormones, your body does not just "start development again", It has to actively fight it's own hormone production as well as your genetics meaning that there can be many medical side effects in general that can occur. But talking just about blockers your body does not just restart. Your hormones dictate a number of things. Brain development, bone development, immune health, height and weight determinates, as well as most of all your internals. If you pause your development, your body does not just pick up where it left off. If you take blockers for 2 years, you lose 2 years or almost 2 years of development. Many doctors have actually backed up all of this. Denying this makes YOU anti science.

This one is me just taking the piss as it were. Cows live off of what ever diet they have access to. However I have heard people, in no small numbers, say that we should reduce the number of cows. Not that we should change their diets. But that we should just CULL them. Despite the argument being "What they are being fed is producing more methane than usual. So it's fun to consistently hear from leftist that we should just kill a lot of animals.

China, India, and Africa have been not only not reducing their emissions. They have actually switched to using a lot of coal. And their emissions have only spiked over the last several years. It's not even remotely close. Meanwhile the US, UK, and most other Euro nations, have greatly done a lot to reduce emissions over time. If you think "The West" is the issue when it comes to your climate alarmism, then you are SORELY mistaken.

[ellas-journey]

What is an Oni? 🧟‍♀️

At this point I believe we all know the history of Demon Slayer. Kamado Tanjiro, the eldest son of a charcoal seller that decided to enter the Demon Slayer cops to find a way to turn his sister, Nezuko, back to human, after Muzan turned her into an Oni after killing the rest of their family. But what exactly is an Oni? “After the death of Izanami, the female creator of Japan, Izanagi, her husband, and male counterpart, misses her so much that he goes to the nether land to retrieve her. But Izanami says that she has already eaten the food from that realm, implying that it would be difficult for her to return easily to this one. The food produced in the ither world has the power to make one stay in that world, so she tell him to wait and not look. (…) When Izanagi looks at Izanami, however, she is ugly, with maggots squirming and eight thunder deities growing around her entire body. Izanami is furious, probably because he broke the promise/taboo and looked at her changed appearance. Instead of bemoaning her fate and going back to the nether land quietly, she attacks him saying that he caused her undying shame.” - Reider,2010; When we think of an Oni, right know the image of a girl with hair half black half orange, pink eyes in a box with the personality of a cat comes to mind (or Michael Jackson, u choose), even for Japanese people. But it was not always like this. Sometime before 2016 (aka the release of the manga), when we said Oni the image of a “humanoid creature, with horns and fangs and clod in only a plea loincloth”, a terrifying wicked creature was probably the main image. I mean it is not that difference, but Oni were not always cute. Onis are part of the Yokai culture, a concept that was more or less always present in Japanese minds. During the Heian period [c.794-794] [Is it a coincidence that Muzan was turned into an Oni exactly during the Heian times? I don't think so] were going to find a lot of Oni themes in literature. In terms of depictions of said demons, we see them coming to life mainly during the Muromachi period [c.1338-1578], were emakimono [horizontal illustration handscroll] started to appear, followed by encyclopaedias during the Edo Period. Oni’s are probably the product of Japanese people’s fear of the natural disasters that were extremely common in the Japanese territory, for instance, lighting and thunder are strongly associated with then (what would explain a lotttttt, like I’m looking at you Kaigaku). Some even say that if kami aren’t worshiped enough, they will become Oni. The Kami were always related to the yang and the Oni to the yin [meaning the Kami related to the world of living and the Oni to the world of death]. “(…) their souls have nowhere to go and nobody worships them. So they linger in the air and cause various problems…” - Reider,2010; If one truly takes the time to think, there are some Kami that aren't that different from the mono [evil spirits], most of the time, the same characteristic would apply to both entities in terms of power, both were feared, but only one was truly respected. Also, there the theory that says that Oni where the product of the Humans that ended up on one of the Buddhist levels of hell, where Emma-O would turn them into horrifying servants. Other theory would say that a Human would turn into an Oni by committing horrible crimes.

Needless to say, there are various depictions of Oni, they take different shapes depending on which belief we are looking at them either it being the Buddhist cosmology, Onmyodo [Ying yang beliefs], Chinese literature or Japanese imagination. Almost of the size of humans, sometimes taller. With sharp nails, horns, tusks. Big mouths, various eyes. Red or blue skin. Some say they can fly. Some say they have some animal parts. Some also say that a woman can also become n Oni when she is overcome with jealousy or grief. (Which explains the myth Izanami, and that man were always scared of woman, but funny enough the popular image of oni is normally male) Some eat children. Some eat the dead. Some eat souls. They wear loincloths made of the skin of great beasts. What all of this have in common is that they are all scary things. One of the biggest characteristics of the Oni is their huge desire for human flesh. It is said that they can eat a human in one gulp. Their transformative power, they can transform their grotesque forms into handsome man or woman allowing the victim to grown interest in them. Oni would have an extreme strength, some of them being talented sorcerers. Also, people that lived far away from the emperor, or had different customs, would be considered an Oni. People that looked different or thought differently from the normal Japanese were called Oni, this was especially common during the imperialism times. Emotions like anger, jealousy, infidelity, and lust were emotions that one would connect to Oni. But the question of “What are Oni” is actually a really tough question, since we can find a lot of variations of Oni in this huge catalogue. “[…] monstrous and cruel Oni, who eat the flesh of corpses, Oni who devour the living, Oni who murder, Oni who trick people, Oni who cause famine, sickness or plague; and there are humorous and charming Oni, Oni unthreatening they hardly seem Oni at all, totally defeated Oni, pity deducing Oni, etc” - Komatsu,2017; in fact this goes well with the catalogue of Oni characters that we have in the anime, the Upper-moons inclusive.

The ambiguity of the concept of an Oni is something that was adapted in different times in history, but without fully losing indigenous beliefs against the foreign concepts. But some scholars say that what we associate to Oni today was not what they always were. The word simply means something big, and the Oni were a creature that did not show himself except for gathering of spirits were enormous forms were perceived, an invisible spirit. The most primitive form of Oni is said to be the spirits of the ancestors of the village. Oni was an umbrella term for all monsters. But from simple ancestors they would develop into something that the people feared. Yomotsukome [The soldiers that defended Izanami in the myth] are said to be the precursors of the current Onis. In Edo period an one would be a dark enigmatic force that would threaten all the classes. Even tho Oni themes were not discussed in the courts anymore, they would still linger on their personal lives, translated in the literal, visual and performing arts. For medieval Japanese people, Oni were real, they were always lucking somewhere, especially in people’s minds. They were real entities with real substantial bodies, that affected the lives of Japanese people. If they needed to make a day’s long trip, they would carefully plan the trip to never be on the road during the night. But the powerful image of the Oni gradually start to fall. Oni frequented both the urban and rural areas, always making trouble, causing fear. With the mass printing of books that had Oni histories and illustrations this once terrifying beings became an entertainment in the urban areas. Through the hands of the artists, Oni started to be transformed in different kinds of beings. In the Edo times, people were more scared of the samurai than Oni themself, these warriors were a living threat with their ritual, privileges and two swords. For urban residents, Oni’s were creatures of art and literature that flourished in nostalgia and futuristic imaginations. Oni stories started to have sex and violence on their stories and started to be told from their point of view in a kind of victimise way. "If one accepts the tenet that Oni impact the physical everyday lives of people in the culture from which they emerge, then it is relatively easy to make sense of the Oni’s functions within and influences upon the political events that drive Japanese history" - Reider, 2010;

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