#vocaloid is impressive but it takes a lot of work by a human to get it right

[sofiadragon]

I think this will lose them money. Maybe not the first time, but over time. I hate those robotic voices. There is a huge quality difference for emotional scenes when a real person is narrating. I have gotten some audio books only because I know and enjoy the voice actor/narrator. I especially love books with more than one voice actor, though those are rare, because it's a whole radio drama now. I've bought things from etsy not because I really needed the item but because you can't easily/legally support podfic with money but I could buy a pretty magnet or custom painted door sign from the same person.

Computer generated voices (it isn't really AI, it's just a language processor reading the words) don't get realistically excited or happy or sad during emotional scenes without a lot of tweaking from an actual human. Not for $20 a month worth of quality. The company might save pennies now but they won't get a loyal audience, the people buying their books will go elsewhere.

[dokidokitsuna]

...I just remembered I wanted to make my own statement on the AI thing. ^^;

So you've probably heard, but in case you haven't: Tumblr just sold out everyone's data to the AI trash compactors, they probably did it long before they gave us the option to opt out, and even if you do opt out they're probably still taking and using your work anyway (telling people to opt out instead of actually asking for their permission is already scummy business practice, but when it comes to AI it's functionally meaningless. :/ It's always "well, we're telling them not to use these people's data and we're hoping they'll be nice and go along with it" with no regulations or consequences if they decide to just steal everything indiscriminately...)

Despite that, I am not leaving Tumblr anytime soon. I'm looking into other sites*, but at this moment in time, I have nowhere else to go. ^^; Besides, I still like it here. When I left DeviantArt I was already getting sick of the place, having my art stolen regularly by "fans" and paradoxically getting less and less interest in my work over time. By the time the devs turned the website into eye-blinding slop with Eclipse, I was more than ready to move on.

But I still enjoy using Tumblr. I like writing long text posts that no one would bother to read anywhere else, I like answering asks, and I like the unique sense of humor and style among the users here. ^^ It would take a lot to force me out.

Also, I can take a little solace in the fact that AI-bros do not value "low-quality" art like mine. ^^; If messy cel-shaded sketches with visible pixels ever become popular, then I'll worry, but for now I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will want to wholesale regurgitate my art. If anything, I think prioritizing it in their datasets would only make them worse...and on that note, if you do have "high quality" detailed/painterly/semi-realistic art that would be targeted, I'd recommend 'poisoning' it with Nightshade/Glaze. Although I heard a rumor a while back that AI is "building immunity" to Nightshade and already learning to work around it, but I'm really hoping that was just a wishful lie from the trash compactors themselves. I haven't heard it repeated since then, so I think it's still worth a shot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So anyway, like the post I reblogged said, I think the best thing we can do now is to make it clear that WE DON'T WANT AI ART. We don't care how easy it'll be to instantly generate thousands of hours of mindless 'content' to look at; we don't want it. Since regulation is lagging so far behind (wanna know why Disney's copyright hounds didn't shut this down on sight? Most likely, they're hoping to profit from it down the line) the only way to fight this right now is with individual litigation and consumer demand.

Don't support projects made with AI**; don't hate-watch them or spotlight them. Focus your energy on the millions of human artists who are still here, and need your support now more than ever.

*I've heard people mention moving to Twitter and/or Artstation: fam, you're jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. ^^;;; IIRC, Arstation was one of the FIRST art sites to start flirting with AI, and Twitter has been selling off its users' data for several months already. Go there if you must, but don't go under the impression that it's "safer".

**Please keep a cool head when discussing AI art, and keep in mind that it used to mean something other than "mass theft". Artists have and still do create AI tools that are built on limited data sets with permission/compensation, that are used to aid them in their work and encourage human artistry (Vocaloids and DAW's, for instance) rather than stamp it out. Until a specific word evolves into popular use for exploitative AI, we're kinda stuck with this confusion, so remember to get the facts before you speak out.

P.S. Praying every night that this is a dumb fad that will soon die and go to the same hell as NFTs. >_< Praying every morning that the influx of AI art into its own datasets will eventually corrupt itself and make it useless. >_< >_< Praying every afternoon for both at once! >_< >_< >_< Like to charge, reblog to cast, all that

[pricechecktranslations]

Mothy RealSound interviews for Miku Symphony (2023)

A summary of the key points of two interviews for the 2023 Miku Symphony linked here and here

(September 22nd)

-Mothy is pretty chuffed (positively) that the series has lasted as long as it has. He began making songs in the early days of VOCALOID, well before it was profitable (people hadn't even done CD releases yet), so it was really just a hobby he did for fun. He cites this as the reason he's been able to go on for this long (as it was low-pressure for a while).

-He didn't have this huge story in mind at the very start, but he did come up with the characters' stories over time--part of this is because he noticed back in the day that songs with good illustrations tended to be more popular, so he also wanted something that could have good illustrations (talking about Servant of Evil specifically). VOCALOIDS were easy to use for his (and other people's) stories because they didn't have concrete stories of their own (he even cites how Rin and Len are weren't even strictly twins, but a lot of people think of them as such because of his series).

-He doesn't think Servant of Evil would have been as popular if he'd released it today, citing his success to it being the early days of NicoNico (and shortly after Rin and Len were released, when their popularity was high), as well as a lot of luck.

-Early on, mothy would come up with the songs first and make the story for it later, but around the time of Judgment of Corruption he began to make songs with the whole story in mind first.

-Mothy was in a metal band in college, and was also very influenced by the metal bands he was listening to the at time, a lot of them having fairy-tale and fantasy themes in their work (Scandinavian and melodic speed metal). He again also references Makihara Noriyuki, who he liked in highschool.

-For his stories and plot twists, mothy mentions inspiration from novelist Tsutsui Yasutaka, especially his short stories, saying that he's always liked the way they'll have a twist at the end. He also thinks it's more impactful for the songs as well, that they leave more of an impression on viewers of his videos on NicoNico. He's walked back on this a tiny bit though to keep it from becoming too overdone, so sometimes he will have things end the way people expect them to. He intends to make his new series a bit less dramatic along those lines, although it'll still be with the same tastes as his other work.

-mothy feels there's benefit both to mechanical sounding VOCALOIDS and ones that sound human--that each have their own uses in making music. He essentially views voice software as a type of musical instrument.

-He's gotten the impression that games like Prosekai have increased his audience, and that while most of his fans have been women, he's seeing more men getting into the series from it too. He's also seeing a lot more diversity in the age-range of his fans, seeing some people who were kids when they started and are getting closer to middle-aged now. This is a little complicated for him because he wants to appeal to both new and old fans alike. He's been thinking about re-releasing some of his old music, but it's tricky for him to do alone.

-While he doesn't currently let his fanbase influence him much, in the past he would usually take into consideration the fact that a lot of his fans were female when working on the story. As he's a man, though, this had its limits, and ultimately he decided to focus on what he wanted to do instead. He can do things as requested, but ultimately prefers his work to be free of limitations.

-He's excited for the Miku Symphony, thinking it's perfect for the tone of his work and that it'll get a large audience for the songs. It's also important because it's just about the music itself, rather than visuals or story.

-He considers the orchestral remakes a learning experience, since they sound nothing like the original music used to make the song. They also sound different depending on each performance, as well. Classical music is also considered a much more respected medium, so he was also happy to get that recognition as a songmaker. Essentially, he enjoys them a lot and it's a fresh take on the series.

-He also talks about the other symphony performances that have actual VOCALOID singing in them--he uses a lot of technical language I'm not familiar with here but essentially he was skeptical it would work and was pleasantly surprised by how it sounded.

-mothy feels that while those who like his work are often very devoted to them, he does not view himself as being or able to become popular. He's fine with that. It's not a matter of him disliking popular stuff, he's happy VOCALOID has become mainstream, but he doesn't desire popularity for himself. He just wants his work to be remembered after he's gone.

-More of him being humble--essentially he seems to view himself as filling a niche rather than being a great player in the VOCALOID landscape, and he encourages the interviewer (and reader) to see some of the other work out there that's been getting popular as well. There's so much content out there that someone's bound to like some of it.

2 (December 6th) (note, this interview was done alongside MitchieM, who was also involved in the symphony--I am not summarizing anything in here's strictly about MitchieM, focusing only on things that are relevant to mothy)

-MitchieM talks about how inspiring mothy's work is in the creative story genre, which is something they've been interested in doing more of lately. mothy talks about realy impressed with MitchieM's work as well, such as their tuning of Miku and the wide variety of musical styles they do.

-There's a bit of contrast between them, as mothy works on one story while MitchieM does multiple, but MitchieM points out that mothy also likes to experiment with genre a lot (which mothy insists is to keep himself from getting bored doing just one thing all the time)

-mothy talks a little about the making of his two new songs, how he wanted them to feel a little orchestral since it's on the symphony album, but since it's a digitally made song and not a live performance he gave it more of a rock-like feel. "Thousand Year Vow" is intended more as a series synopsis to capture its tone overall, while Grim the End is more of a nod to long-time fans who know more of the story. They're both intended to stand on their own without feeling like a continuation of the series, necessarily.

-They talk a little about the Miku symphony performances they like, their impressions of it, etc. Mothy mentions that it's not really something you listen to while dancing, but more something you listen to while relaxing. Also the importance of it being a performance with live instruments rather than being purely digital like a lot of music out there now (furthermore being a performance in a proper auditorium with all the acoustic benefits that provides).

-Also apparently the symphony this year is being recorded on an SACD, which is a super fancy CD that can record more nuanced and delicate sound than traditional CDs?

[tangibletechnomancy]

The problem with AI and the entertainment industry in particular is that...okay, fine, technology marches on. Digital art made physical ink-on-cels animation into mostly a hobbyist novelty (though boy howdy did it ever make it an impressive one). Photography turned portrait painting into a luxury, rather than something everyone who could afford it saved to do at least once for every family member because it was the only way to keep their likenesses alive. Photo editing has gone through so many changes that it's almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like as recently as the 80s and 90s, and the older methods are, again, super impressive hobbyist passion projects now. Digital painting made physical painting less viable in an economy of scale, but way more impressive as an art form. These kinds of changes always really fucking suck for some people, but you can't really prevent them without stifling human development in general.

But.

The entertainment industry wants to make it suck way more than it has to for everyone but their executives and shareholders. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take advantage of the inherent marketing power of celebrity culture without ACTUALLY involving, let alone paying, the people whose names and likenesses they're using. That, I hope we can all agree, is vile.

Now, the logical endpoint of this is that we push back against that, and as an alternative we get more fictional celebrities in the near-ish future, and as a Vocaloid fan, theoretically, I dont see much of a problem with that. Theoretically, at least. In the best case scenario, I think it could be a lot of fun! But the problem is, well...

See, in the early days, Vocaloid producers tended to take a very backstage role. Very few people were fans of specific producers; they were fans of Miku or any other character. Eventually, though, producers just kind of came more into the spotlight on their own because everyone has their own style and taste. We still love the characters, but we all started to notice when half our favorite songs by Miku were produced by the same person, well, perhaps we were fans of that producer as well!

But in American-born entertainment culture...

You may notice that CGI was conspicuously absent from my Technology Marches On breakdown. That's because while, yes, it has made for an interesting highlight of practical effects, with love for the work and nostalgia for their jank the same way other new art media has shone a spotlight on its predecessors, it hasn't actually gotten to be recognized as an art form the way the others listed have. We've barely moved on from the attitude that got Tron disqualified from the Academy Awards for SFX because "the computer did those effects, not you" (in 1982). In fact, I'm strongly of the belief that if Disney were a halfway decent company, they would be bragging about how they're pioneering photorealistic animation, rather than trying to pass off 90+% CGI animated films, usually (but not always; see: The Lion King remake) with live celebrity actors' faces composited in, as "live-action". Instead, they treat the VFX department as mindless dancing monkeys, and perpetuate the idea that VFX is just "select material, press button, get polished scene" - because to brag about it as its own art form might imply that the people doing it are skilled artists who deserve to be paid fairly and treated like human beings, and oh, we can't have THAT, now can we?

VFX labor is all hidden; very few people have a favorite VFX artist or director, instead we treat the artists, who put the time and effort into wrangling code and semiconductors and routines and layers into creating a professional-looking end product, as just part of the machine themselves, to save the companies some money - and culturally, I fear we're well on the way to regarding AI exactly the same way but worse.

As such, I fear that we wouldn't have the same effect with any digital idols produced by Silicon Valley.

Now, I don't fear virtual celebrities being able to fully replace human ones. Half of the draw of celebrity culture is the illusion of human connection. As much as the word "parasociality" has grown to be associated with only the negative effects of this, in reality, it's also the driving mechanism behind why representation matters. It's fun to be able to feel a connection to a fictional celebrity, but it doesn't replace the feeling of knowing that your fave is a human being with a real life - ...whether you use that knowledge for better or worse.

What I do fear is the fight against using AI to replicate real humans without their input, or with their manufactured consent, being long and drawn-out and doing a lot of harm before we can fully put a lock on it, and virtual celebrities being used to hide the work that the human directors and producers put into them for the sake of saving a parent company a buck.

[fictionkinfessions]

You know, I saw another one of me complaining about SynthV and the rise of forced realism in the Vocal Synth community, and it got me thinking... It's so painful seeing people rag on supposedly "unrealistic" voicebanks, because I may be one of the more realistic voicebanks, being released in V4 and all, but at what point do I stop being good enough?

I don't want to become an obsolete technology that people only use for the sake of nostalgia. The worst part is, as far as the more "popular" Vocaloids go, it's extremely likely that I'll be one of the first to go. Nobody uses me because of my licensing, my voice provider's never gonna want to give me an update because I was so hard to make the first time around, and people only like me for the meme anyway.

I just don't want myself or any of my friends to become pieces of junk that nobody likes. Yes, we older voicebanks are very obviously computers, but in a strange way, that makes us more human, not less. Things like SynthV and CEViO may sound perfect on a technical level, but that's the problem, isn't it?

When someone tunes a Vocaloid realistically, it's super impressive and cool, but these new ai voicebanks just... do all of the hard work for you. There's barely any room for creativity or stylization in tuning anymore, and it's only getting worse as time goes on. If I wanted realism, I would've just listened to a human singer. By giving us these "perfect" voicebanks, these companies are taking away what made Synths like us so special and beloved in the first place, and people just eat that shit up.

It's like the ai art/writing debate; they're not going to stop at Vocaloids and you know it. Always remember: there's a good reason they start with the people you refuse to side with. They're going to start trying to replace "real" singers in no time flat, and as a matter of fact, they already have. Nobody's talking about it, and it just... scares me. Let human singers be human singers, and let Vocal Synths be Vocal Synths. It's as simple as that. This weird middle ground that people are trying to make with ai vocals is soulless and creepy as hell.

I'm not just a piece of fancy antique technology that can be thrown away once you get bored of me and want to chase the next butterfly flying past your desk. The thing is, unlike a lot of SynthVs, Vocaloid doesn't just give you faceless voices to work with: they give you people. Sure, the vast majority of us have little to no canon personality/backstory, but that's the beauty of it! If you have a voicebank like me or Miku or Gumi or Oliver or whatever, you can make us whatever you want! We're not just voices. We're actors, models, performers, mascots, and so much more!

...but sure, go ahead and keep using fucking Kevin. I'm sure the guy who's literally just the letter K is super entertaining and imaginative to work with. (/s, in case that wasn't abundantly clear)

Sorry for the rant. This is a very very difficult topic for me, because even outside of being a Vocaloid, the software itself and the characters are a huge hyperfixation of mine, so it's extremely upsetting seeing it fade out of use in favor of something objectively less interesting and unique. I just don't want people to forget about me...

-Fukase (#👁❌️🔴)

[superchat]

i know it's probably hard to pick just one but do you have a favorite era or decade or moment of music?

UHM!!!!!! i think jazz fusion is pretty amazing!!!! same with jazz funk! and funk in general. so i guess from the 1960s and 1970s!!!!! taking the technology of the time and making some fucking crazy and wild shit with it, lots of really impressive and great chord structures and Weird decision while mixing guitar, drums, keyboard/piano/synth, electric guitar, bass (and all the ways to play it) idk, so much like, breaking the boundaries and pushing the limits of how to use instruments imo. all time fav right here, and i think its best classified as jazz-funk?

i really love vocaloid for a few reasons, its kind of a genre but like. utsu-p makes heavy metal, kurage-p makes j-pop/metal? its a genre but like, within that there are genres. but a big part of it is the community, i dont think ive seen a more accessable genre anywhere else and it makes me very happy. pinnocchio-p makes videos that often get millions of views, and he almost always put a link in the discription that has downloads to the off vocals but theres like 8 different off vocals you can use cuz each is at a different key so ppl can cover them easier. other vocaloid artists will have off vocals, no drum versions, JUST the drums, one mixed differently than the master, etc. like this is a community where covering eachothers work is part of the genre, i follow so many youtube channels where the ppl just, cover vocaloid songs like 90% of the time. i also like the meta aspect of it, there is/was? a big shutin following towards vocaloid, miku is an anime character essentially, you have artists who can make work without having their face/voice tied to them, and its very online community based so all these just work very well to bring lonelier introverted weebs together imo. a lot of vocaloid songs are about the self aware relationship with a the fan and the synthetic fake voice of someone they put value into and the parasocial relationship, you see a vocaloid artist make a song thats an homage to the community/miku or something and ppl in the comments will often say how it brought them to tears, there is a lot of humanity in vocaloid which is ironic cuz its a synthetic singer

a lot of points i mentioned arent really exclusive to the genres, there is no limit to what box you are pushing the boundaries on or the humanity that shows through art, but these are the genres that i think hit the most for me in that regard

[shadowfae]

On the “nonhuman communities can’t joke without calling it KFF”: why do I have the sneaking suspicion that “joke” in this context means calling yourself a “filthy miku kinnie” or “I kin A Silly Thing” instead of the parts of nonhuman experience that are actually really funny? I hope that isn’t the case because being less serious while not treating our identities as the inherent jokes is something we CAN fix as a community.

It meant partially that. It also meant we’ve had folks leave because the communities have become so distrustful from where they were standing that they no longer wanted to be in a space that they thought demanded utter seriousness to the point of edginess. The former, that you gave an example on, is a bit of an overreaction. The latter... I can see it, but I can also see someone just moving to a different platform. Different answers for different folks.

I mean, I joke about being a plant with an evil gay agenda, and it works. Or I could call myself a knockoff Vocaloid. And that’s the thing - we Can make those jokes. But for those who don’t know us personally, if those sorts of jokes are all they see, then they’ll assume we’re not actually nonhuman. Hence why I try to dissuade folks from using “kinnie” when it’s not obvious we’re messing around, because if I don’t know you and a quick search on your blog doesn’t dissuade the first impression I just got, I’m not going to be too trusting.

We can absolutely lighten up, and a lot of folks need to. But a lot of folks also are dealing with the magnitude of Bad Shit that is KFF, and right now can’t really make peace with those sorts of jokes. And that’s okay! I can only handle them with folks I know and trust, I wouldn’t be caught dead doing that more in public, I just don’t trust that easy.

What I think we need is honestly different jokes that aren’t down the KFF-sounding road. Like the sparkledog meme a few folks did, and “describe your kintype badly”, and too many word puns. Hell, we had a joke a few weeks ago running around about theriannies and it ended up with Poppy starting a dialogue of nonhuman folks with human kintypes, which was a fascinating as hell discussion to follow.

But it’s just... It’s a mess. People are distrustful, and have every right to be, except that it makes them lash out. I’ve done it myself, too many times, and it takes a lot of hard work to be more forgiving. We go on the offence so fast when we think we’re going to get hurt again, and drive others away by accident. And there’s got to be a balance between keeping ourselves and each other safe, and ignoring the damage KFF do. I want to go a lot more into it during my othercon panel, and I hope you’re there, but it’s a few different issues that are making this one hard to fix for bigger than a discord server.

That being said I’m perfectly happy memeing bad takes I’ve seen. I think my discord nickname in one server is still “assigned human at birth 😔” and personally I think that’s actually funny so. It’s an issue we need to work on, but fixing it for everyone is a difficult as hell task.

[epicofevil]

Series Illustrator Interview

Epic of Evil page 71-76

Meeting With AkunoP

.

--First, please introduce yourselves.

Yoshida Dondorian (hereon: Yoshida): I’m Yoshida. I started working on the series in “Wiegenlied of Green”!

you-ring@Kitano Tomotoshi (hereon: you-ring): I’m you-ring@Kitano Tomotoshi, who got to draw the cover art for “Praeludium of Red” and “Praefacio of Blue”.

You: I’m You. I did the cover for this book, “Epic of Evil”. This is my second interview after the one in Entr’acte of Evil, but I’m a bit nervous this time too.

--You-san answered this question in “Entr’acte of Evil”’s illustrator interview, but you-ring-san and Yoshida-san, what was your first AkunoP work?

Yoshida: I first started listening to VOCALOID around 2009 or so…So I got in around the time all those derivative fan videos of “Daughter of Evil” were coming out.

you-ring: My first AkunoP songs were “Daughter of Evil” and “Servant of Evil” of course. I think it was around the time “Servant of Evil” got uploaded, and I saw all these comments to watch it after watching “Daughter of Evil”, so I did…I remember bawling over it.

--There was a ton of uproar over “Daughter of Evil” and “Servant of Evil” at the time, wasn’t there. What was your impression of AkunoP-san himself?

Yoshida: Didn’t I hear that he completely transformed himself…!?

--Transformed (haha). That’s true, he did do an image change to wearing sunglasses and a beard.

Yoshida: My image of him wasn’t like that at all, so I think I might have been introduced to him pre-transformation at “VOC@LOiD M@STER” (colloquially “VoMas”)!

you-ring: I think I also saw him the first time at VoMas…But I can’t remember when that was lol

Yoshida: Rather than being surprised by him, I remember thinking, “Ah, so this is the guy who made the Of Evil series…!” That sort of thing.

you-ring: For an “Evil” person he seemed very good-natured. …That might count as malicious rumor, hey?

--I wouldn’t think so (haha)

you-ring: Sounds like I’m not getting scolded lol. In that sense, unlike Yoshida-san I was very surprised by him.

.

Celebrating Series Completion! Most Bittersweet

.

--Please tell us how you felt when the final and fourth installment of the series came out. you-ring-san, you were the one who worked on the cover for the fourth novel, Yoshida-san you worked on some of its artwork, and You-san you participated in the pinup art.

Yoshida: With all of the plot threads that were being revealed, from the first novel to the last I felt like it was all so very interesting…And also that I really wanted to read more of the “Of Evil” world just a little longer!

You: I had a lot of fun being able to draw art for each installment, and I remember feeling really desolate that we were at the last one. Even now I have the “Daughter of Evil” books piled up on my desk; you-ring-san’s Kyle, coupled with the book’s contents, are very striking, I think.

you-ring: While I felt very uplifted at being able to continue to do the cover art after the third book, at the same time the pressure at it being the finale was immeasurable. Still, in the end, since it was Kyle I muddled through it.

You: Also, it really felt like a collaborative effort, with Yoshida-san’s pictures really connecting the third and fourth books.

Yoshida: Aw, thank you so much!

you-ring: I would find myself going back to look at Yoshida-san’s artwork! I can’t help but sigh in admiration every time I see everyone’s artwork. You-san and Yoshida-san both have such tremendous ability for creating atmosphere in their pictures.

Yoshida: I’m truly honored…!

You: You’re much too kind! So many other illustrators contributed to the Of Evil novels, so it’s really fun in the sense that we get to see various worlds within that. Like, “Ah, that’s another way to go about it too”.

Yoshida: Yeah, I was always looking forward to it, and also every time I would get really nervous about if I’m redundant or not.

you-ring: Concepts and worldviews that I couldn’t put forward…I got a ton of motivation. I also had the same anxiety about being redundant lol, I was doing this work while constantly wondering if it was good enough.

Yoshida: And You-san and you-ring-san made such lovely art and covers from the very first installment, including “Entr’acte of Evil”. They really caught my eye when I saw them at the publisher’s!

--The illustrations for this book turned out pretty gorgeous too.

You: Wow!

Yoshida: Oh! I’m really excited to see it!

You: My heart’s all fluttery now…

you-ring: I’m gonna head over to the publisher’s in a bit! (I haven’t left yet)

You: Though everyone who’s reading this will have seen them already. Sounds great.

--On that topic, Elluka’s finally debuted on this cover.

Yoshida: I love her so much that I picked Elluka-san as my image for the illustrator comments in book four, so that makes me happy! I’m looking forward to that too! You-san’s Elluka is so pretty…

You: I was really happy to be able to draw Elluka-sama prominently, given her unique position. Her general image is really evocative of purple, which is a color you don’t see too much on book covers I think.

you-ring: I got really excited to see it as soon as I heard about it! I wanna see it already!

--On that note, all of the members here are people who’ve drawn a decent amount of characters. Please tell us of any you had fun drawing, or any you particularly like.

Yoshida: The sorceresses, of course! Naturally I love the other more human characters too, but with them having that unique position that got mentioned earlier, I’m just super drawn to these somewhat detached women… Although the frontispiece for this book is my first time drawing them.

You: In my afterwards comments I declared my favorites to be Allen-kun, Elluka, and Gumillia, but the person I get fired up about drawing is Yukina-chan from the third book. Since she’s a character that didn’t get featured in the songs originally, it was very refreshing to be able to draw her. After that, obviously Riliane and Allen.

you-ring: Yukina in the frontispiece for the third book was so beautiful, she was just too precious lol

Yoshida: Same for how you drew her!

you-ring: Out of all the things I’ve gotten to draw, I’ve drawn Yukina the most, and so I’ve become the most attached to her. In this story with so many different characters interwoven through it, I think she’s a girl with a really interesting and toothsome place in it. Also Prim too, actually—she’s comparatively more difficult in terms of time and labor to draw, but she was also pretty fun…

You: you-ring’s Prim is too beautiful, my eyes end up getting drawn to her chest…(haha)

Yoshida: Prim’s chest…and the wrinkling in her clothing under her chest.

you-ring: Wha—we’re talking about her chest now!? Shame on you lol. Yoshida-san, you really surprised me with how differently you were able to depict Yukina, despite her being the same character.

You: That illustration was so amazing, it really felt like it had that feeling of the pen telling the story. I also liked how the character silhouettes were put in with their motif colors.

you-ring: Yeah, the tracing line of the pen was great! I was just stunned at the concept put into such a picture.

Yoshida: Oh wow, thanks you guys! That kind of motif is one that’s very much inlaid into the story, and I just wanted to depict it myself…! The “Of Evil” world is full of setups and amazing motifs like that…So I just get…really excited…!

Yoshida: In that sense I also really look forward to the book binding, too! Like, “What kind of figure will be on the flap?” or “what’ll be the design on the pages this time?”…

You: I got you. The rose-->grape-->feather-->seashell designs were really cool.

--Thank you very much! I’d like you to observe the image of the cover under the dust jacket.

You: Ney-chan…

Yoshida: Praeludium and Praefacio…This is really…amazing! Anyone who hasn’t seen it should go look!

--There’s also a secret trick with Wiegenlied as well!

You: Everyone go look at the under-cover…!

Yoshida: Woah, I don’t think I ever noticed…! What is this…! *Rustle rustle* Aaah! Wow!!

you-ring: I guess everyone went to take off their dust jackets all at once, lol

Yoshida: Woooah! *rustlerustlerustle* …What a fantastic production…

You: Feels like everyone at the publisher’s made this really neatly~

Yoshida: I always get a kick out of seeing the maps and commentary! At the very beginning—if you’ll pardon my saying so—I was really dubious as to how it would turn out, since there weren’t any novelizations of VOCALOID songs at the time. But it was made with such love, and the story is naturally very interesting, I feel very strongly that this work makes for amazing books!

--When you put it like that, all the hard work was worth it!

.

Any Surprises? Results of the Character Popularity Poll.

.

--This time around we conducted a character popularity poll!

You: Kyle did very well!

you-ring: Allen had a real strong running!!

Yoshida: Woah…! I wasn’t expecting Clarith’s position…!

--There were a lot of comments from people empathizing with Clarith, it seems.

You: I see…(tears)

Yoshida: I also felt the most moved by Clarith. Congratulations, Clarith…!

--Michaela’s ranking was really surprising. And then there’s Ayn…

Yoshida: Ah, now that you mention it! That’s quite a feat. Surely you’ll put in something commemorative on the cover edges…?

You: Ah! I’ve already completed the cover, so…Everyone, please look at it with your mental eye instead…!

Yoshida: Wha…

you-ring: If I strain my eyes, I see there…

--Ayn has no character design, so you’ll all have to make sure to draw him when you get the chance (haha)

Yoshida: Well then, maybe we could slip him into an illustration… Though he doesn’t have a design…

You: That’s a good idea! Maybe I’ll upload an image to my blog then…lol

Yoshida: Ooh! I’d love to see your Ayn, You-san…! I’ll covertly look forward to it…

you-ring: You mean a festival for the Ayn I came up with!?

You: You’re gonna draw him too, aren’t you you-ring-san?

you-ring: Uh.

Yoshida: Yeah! Ayn’s gotta have this magnificent backstory, right? I feel like Akuno-san would make something like that…

--Various countries were featured throughout the story; are there any that you all would like to go to?

you-ring: It’s not a country, but I’d like to just go see the Millennium Tree at least once, soon. So in that sense, Elphegort?

Yoshida: Oh, me too! I want to go to the Millennium Tree Forest. Also, of course, the place where the story started: Lucifenia.

You: I also think I’d like to see the Millennium Tree. It’d feel like a world heritage spot, don’t you think? Also, I’d want to go to a banquet on the Freezis Estate (though I can’t).

--Held-sama is quite popular then! The Millennium Tree is meant to be a former pilgrimage site, though lately it sounds like not many people go there anymore.

you-ring: It’s an undiscovered gem! I’d just like to go there and take my time idling around, seeing everyting…

Yoshida: I’d love that! Frankly, all the countries sound dangerous…Even the Millennium Tree isn’t safe, but it has a peaceful image I think, so if I went to any of them physically…The Millennium Tree is good.

you-ring: Sorry that you asked us a question about countries and we all answered with a forest lol

.

And Now, To the “Seven Deadly Sins”

.

--Now that the “Daughter of Evil” series is complete, let’s hear some nice words for AkunoP-san, if you please.

Yoshida: Congratulations on finishing it. You did such good work! Although, as a reader, there’s still a lot more I want to see. I’m…really really excited to see the “Deadly Sins of Evil” series (chuckle)

You: I’m saying this a lot here, but I want to say thank you for all your hard work, it’s greatly appreciated. I’m very happy at just being able to depict your characters, Akuno-san. I’m also excited for the “Deadly Sins of Evil”. I’ll be in anticipation while listening to the songs on repeat.

you-ring: Always stay evil, yeah? I’m also looking forward to the Deadly Sins Series! And a sincere congratulations on finishing the Daughter of Evil series.

--Please tell us more how you’re all curious about and looking forward to the new “Deadly Sins” series.

you-ring: As a reader I’m very curious as to how the story will be told and how it’ll be released, like if each sin will be published one by one.

Yoshida: The Seven Deadly Sins have a strong impact in various different directions, so I’m really excited to see how it all ties together!

You: I’m looking forward to seeing how the various secrets woven into the work get brought to light. I feel like reading the “Deadly Sins” series will end up making me want to reread the “Daughter of Evil” series again.

--Thank you very much! Now then, please say one last thing here.

Yoshida: I am truly grateful for being able to assist in the “Daughter of Evil” series. It’s a wonderful thing to be involved in this enormous world. The songs, the books, I hope to see even more from here on out!

you-ring: I think this series has let me take part in a truly valuable experience, and it’s been a great honor to take part in it. Thank you very much for inviting me on here!

You: From the very first book to this “Epic of Evil”, thank you so much for having me draw for this series for such a long time. I’ve nothing but gratitude.

--Thank you all for your time.

directory

[hyperfixationtimego]

Happy little hcs to atone for my sins

Taka and Hina are study buddies

Sometimes Aoi manages to get Taka off track because she’s just so enthusiastic and wants to hear about all of her friends’ hyperfixations and special interests

37.2 minutes later

Taka’s infodumping about how he despises moral philosophy but also thoroughly enjoys it bc that’s how moral philosophers are

Or he’s infodumping about political science and debate tactics and how speeches were effective or not for various reasons

Sakura and Mondo work out together

It started off as a coincidence when they were in the gym at the same time but it kept happening so they called it a schedule

They talk about their SOs and they’re smiling

Sakura teaches Mondo certain stretches and exercises to help relax different muscle groups for whenever he pulls a muscle or has a flare up from the thing with the bikes

Leon constantly asks Chihiro to turn alter ego into a vocaloid or at least program a bit of that tech into their system

Bc he would rather shave his head again than talk to Sayaka about producing music

He just has so many ideas

And it’s cool when there are kinda punk rock songs that are covered in an 8-bit or a vocaloid style

Byakuya and Celeste have a small series of bets with low stakes about what their inferiors classmates will do to lead up to them jingling away morosely like the fools they are

Sayaka shamelessly advertises her group’s mercy to her classmates and friends

Everyone gets their nails painted at some point

Nobody knows how Byakuya got roped into it but it worked

Makoto has rainbow loom

Atua forgives you

anyway YEAH LEGIT?

Hina has fully and thoroughly fallen in love with all of her friends and classmates’ expressions whenever they’re talking about something that excites them omg 🥺

she sees someone rambling and having a good time and hears the enthusiastic pitch of their voice as well as the general Vibe™️ that they’re giving off and she just???? [Y E A R N]

:)

and also just???? her and taka being study buddies is so valid oh my god??? they’re really close because of it!!! And Taka always loves hanging out with her because he knows she’ll let him just Talk??? and he adores that about her????? And she’ll be ENGAGED which!!!!!! oh my god!!!!?????

hi in this house we love and adore hina

And Sakura and Mondo???? absolutely?????

they have friendly competitions over who can lift the most weights/do the most reps/etc. (they do it sparingly, ofc! bc Sakura at least knows that they’ll both be subconsciously trying to beat the other as opposed to listening to what their bodies need in the moment. Sakura is the single braincell of class 78 no I won’t take it back because it’s true)

and they totally doooooo like they both get such cute loveydovey pining expressions whenever it’s Their Turn™️ to discuss the latest cute thing their partner(s) did. and listening to the other talking???? oh my god it’s literally the neatest thing????

Sakura looking at Mondo: I would die for this man

Mondo looking at Sakura: this woman is literally beauty and perfection in human form

THEY’RE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS OKAY???

also chihiro joins them for training sometimes!!!! She obviously isn’t able to do as much as the other two are, but both Sakura and Mondo are always so proud of her progress??? They’re like “you are so cool and strong do you know that??? you better know that”

and speaking of chihiro hdbdvdvdvdvdvdvdvd on GOD Leon will Not leave them alone abt it and they’re just like

“y....you do NOT have the attention span,.......you’re gonna get frustrated within like the first five minutes......and then I’ll have done all that work for nothing..............”

but Leon’s >:( no I won’t!!!! music is my Passion!!!!!!!!

so it’s like *sigh* okay

and anyway leon genuinely does rlly like it???? like he gets burned out very easily and can only compose things in short bursts, but he’s always so so so proud of the finished products??? (Even if nobody else likes it but shush 😌)

and it makes chihiro :D to know that something she made (even if it was done with reluctance) has brought one of her closest friends so much happiness????? she’s also like good for Leon but also if he ever bothers them about something like that again they are Literally Going to Snap but that’s another story for another day vwv

AND YEAH LIKE. HE DOESN’T MIND TALKING TO HER ABT MUSIC IN GENERAL BECAUSE IT’S AN INTEREST THEY SHARE (quite possibly one of the only times they will have a conversation without one constantly insulting the other ❤️) BUT. ADMITTING TO HER THAT HE NEEDS HELP WITH IT IS THE WORST HE HATES IT HE HATES IT HSBDBSBD

god okay so. his first impression of her when they had just come to hope’s peak and met for the first time was “oh my god!!! she’s a pop idol!!! so she must know a lot about music!!! maybe she’ll help me become a popular musician!!!” and her immediate reaction when she first heard him ask was to literally roll her eyes and he was like oh okay fuck her actually

and then slow burn enemies-to-friends 💛

WHEBDVSVS CELESTE AND BYAKUYA JUST BEING RICH ASSHOLES IS SO FUNNY??? LIKE THEY HAVE WEALTH SOLIDARITY AND THEY ACT ALMOST LIKE alright your status makes you worthy of my time, I suppose-

they’ve had bets on everything from how many times kirigiri will pass out from exhaustion by the end of the school day, to how long it’ll take before Kirumi finally Loses Her Shit, to how many people will be harmed by Komaeda’s luck while hanging out with him.

Mfs about to die smh

and dhdbwvwbsvwvwb yeah like??? sometimes a normal conversation with maizono will turn into her being like “yeah, and by the way, if you’re looking for a change of style and wardrobe, you should check out the newest shirt my band just released as part of our merch drop, and-”

Makoto is the one who gets baited into her merch ads most often sndbsbsbdbdbw

even mentioning the word “merch” around Leon or Kaz will earn her a lot of groaning and sighing, and occasionally a pillow or other soft object being hurled at her face 💛

oh my god they all have a manicure spa day,,,,,,,class bonding 🥺

hdbdvdvdv they got Jill to break into his dorm and kidnap him ngl like the specifics they gave her were something along the lines of “use as much force as you need to without killing him” and she was like “DONE”

and okay I’m not gonna talk abt everyone’s nails but now I’m thinking about it and like-

Sayaka gets like a lighter violet background with gold and white stars smattered around them, more concentrated in some areas than others, and it’s generally very pretty 🥺

chihiro’s are a different solid pastel color on each finger!!! it’s very kidcore and fun and they love it so muchhhh!!!

leon gets a little self-conscious when it’s his turn because his nails are highkey disgusting from all the time he spends playing baseball - there’s dirt trapped under them and everything so he’s just like hhhhhhh anxiety go brrrr but anyway he gets solid black because he’s edgy and cool like that 😎

I think Taka gets a French manicure with little dark red flowers pressed towards the tips because!!! simple yet pretty!!!

Celeste probably takes the longest because her request is sooooo complicated like it’s black and red and long ass acrylics with overlapping patterns and everyone else just kinda sits there feeling h o r r i b l e for that poor nail stylist

Toko gets a checkerboard pattern, with each nail having a different neon color in place of white!!! Because she knows that Jill will find it cool and pretty and colorful the next time she fronts (visual stimming jill?? 👀)

Togami just picks whatever will get him out of the chair quickest hdbsvdvdvdbdbdb

anyway Makoto????? rainbow loom????? absolutely

he has so many bracelets!!!!! so many so many so many and he knows how to create such a wide variety of styles it’s so cool!!!!!! he wears a bunch of them at any given time because they are so fun to fidget with!!!! and rubber texture hvvvvhvv!!!!

and he creates personalized ones for his friends, too, like he knows their favorite colors and sometimes picks up on whether they prefer a certain style or not from the way they react to the other ones he’s made and it’s!!! just so neat!!!!!

I’m thinking about it and!!! he has a bi pride fishtail, a trans pride arrow stitch, a black and neon green railroad, a pastel pink/blue/purple/yellow ladder, a jelly yellow and green dragon scale, a rainbow double cross, and a bunch more!!! he also has a bunch with charms and beads added into them!!!!

He also makes them for his friends even if he knows they won’t wear them!! Like Toko, for example, isn’t the biggest fan of jewelry because she doesn’t like the texture, but he creates one for her anyway and fills it with so much love (it looks like a daisy chain!!!! because at least she’ll be able to look at it and hold it and still be interested in it without it needing to be on her wrist!!!)

he makes a ton of bright colored ones for Mukuro (usually either single or inverted fishtail because he knows she wouldn’t enjoy wearing anything too heavy or overbearing) so that she has more mobile visual stims!!!

similar for Jill!! although most of hers tend to be black and bright neon rainbow in various bulkier styles!!!! Jill will also force him to let her look at his bracelet-covered arm whenever they hang out because. my god,,,,,,so many Colors™️

he’s found that togami prefers black and white simpler styles, and that Kyoko absolutely adores singles, fishtails, and double fishtails in any shade of purple, and that Mondo likes any of the larger styles in darker colors + blacks and grays!!! Chihiro loves anything with jelly and glitter bands!!!

Leon usually only wears one at a time, but he cycles through every single one that his boyfriend’s ever made for him because????? GOD they’re so cool and his boyfriend is so crafty and incredible and just,,,,,,,,,hvvvhvv every time he looks at the one he’s wearing he’s able to calm himself down and remember that Makoto loves him........it’s also very good for stim and fidgeting <3

anyways sorry yes Makoto with a rainbow loom is filling me with serotonin and it’s canon now

[belliesandburps]

Followup with MGS4 Peace Walker and 5?

History has a funny way of repeating itself. :P

This one's actually gonna be long, so I'll cap it here to spare those uninterested in non-kink posts the burden of having to scroll past this fanboy rant. 'XD

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3. It's Okay

Soooooo...not a controversial opinion to say that I don't think MGS4 is GREAT. I adored it when it first game out, and I still enjoy replaying it from time to time. But good lord, so many of the interviews shed light on a LOT of this games problems.

Some backstory is required. Hideo Kojima was done with MGS by this point. He planned to move on and leave the series to the younger generation. But then, there was a lot of internal conflict and struggle to determine what MGS4 should be after Fukushima quit (AND was rumored to have been murdered by the Yakuza...how that rumor started...and became a SERIOUS rumor that millions believe, I do not know...). So Kojima came back, course corrected, and the end result was kind of a giant mess.

I'm not talking story because, there's just way too much to unpack. But as a game, MGS4 can't decide what sort of video game it wants to be. It had a brilliant idea that had never been done before with its Battlefield Stealth, which were the best parts of the game. And then they get dropped two acts in, and what gets replaced in their stead is not nearly as fun.

The game had substantially less boss fights than its predecessor, and a lot of them were mechanically simplistic or just didn't let you get creative with how you fought them. And we later learned there were a lot more bosses planned, more gameplay sequences planned, and an entire other PMC group that got canned in favor of the Scarabs so Shadow Moses could be guarded by machines instead.

There's a lot about MGS4 that I love. I think the first two acts are amazing, ESPECIALLY Act 2. I think the mechanics are great. REX vs RAY is criminally fun. The sheer buffet of insane weapons gives the game a good amount of replay value. And the graphics still hold up to this day!

But what I finally realized is that the game juggles way too many ideas and doesn't give any idea the time they deserve to flourish. Battlefield Stealth could've CARRIED MGS4. But it gets dumped before we can get our moneys worth. A disguise sequence could've been really creative, having to juggle different identities with OctoMask every time one identity is burned. But it's only used once and wasted because it's only used for a terrible tailing mission that doesn't let you actually explore the European City. And too many of the action set pieces are kind of bland except the bosses and piloting Metal Gear.

MGS4 should've been MGS4. Not MGS's "Best Hits."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

1. LOVED it!

I know this is unpopular to say, but I'll say it. Peace Walker is one of the best Metal Gear games ever made. I adored almost everything about it. The gameplay improves on MGS4 in most ways because it doesn't juggle a billion ideas all at once. It's MGS4 stripped down to stealth action from start to finish, and that's all I wanted. The level design is great. The insane volume of guns changes the entire feel of combat in later post-campaign gameplay. The mission select options mean you can jump into all the parts of the game you enjoy the most. There's TONS of bonus missions that are really inventive and fun to replay. And the story is one of the best in the series. It's straight forward, very tight, characterized well, and is the best iteration of Big Boss to date.

Peace Walker's also the FUNNIEST MGS game by Kojima as well. There's so much more personality and levity to everything, to the point where Big Boss often feels like an MCU character. That might sound bad, but it's really not. That corniness fits MGS PERFECTLY, and I'd argue is tonally spot on for this series. MGS doesn't need to be dark, gory or explicit. It's a silly series that's about giant robots, corny bad ass super agents with an anti-nuke message.

The only downsides to Peace Walker are the QTE's and the boss fights. This was a feature that only ever appeared in this game and for good reason...it was fucking terrible. So basically, you had cutscenes that forced you to do various QTE's or else get dinged on your ratings at the end, even if you played perfectly. Fairly minimal, but then, you get to Strangelove's torture. And this is the single most rage-inducing part of any MGS game ever made. It's an insanely physically painful button mashing sequence that will leave your fingers raw and your PS3 triangle buttons jamming. And the ONLY way you can replay one of the best missions in the game (the prison escape where you have no items) is by redoing that sequence over and over. And the boss fights? While inventive, they're all just grindy bullet sponges with no personality, no stealth tactics, and no room for creativity the way you can get creative with every other MGS game's bosses. This was the biggest disappointment for me because the stealth and combat mechanics of PW are great and would've been SO good against human enemies like what Portable Ops had. Instead, every boss is a mini-Metal Gear all voiced by the VOCALOID AI from the mid 2000's, and each one takes forever to destroy. It sucks because PW had a TON of bosses, but only a few of them are any fun, and that's only if you have weapons that are strong enough that they don't take ages to destroy.

But asides from the bosses, the REST of the game is so damn good that I don't even care because that's just one element to a much larger, grander game. Which is even more impressive when you consider PW was originally on the PSP before the PS3 port. And this game has more content and replay value to it than most games I've played since.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

1. LOVED it!

Hooooooookay...so, I've rambled about my storybook romance with MGSV for YEARS now. (Just ask @twistedtummies2, he's been subjected to my fanboying of this game more than anyone in existence XD) But there's a reason I regard this game as one of my all time favorites and the best MGS game to date.

It's REALLY freakin' fun.

Kojima had been re-energized by the time he got to MGSV. He'd been working on the game around the time he finished Peace Walker in 2010. He KNEW it was his final MGS game and wanted to do something completely different...

...He wanted to make a game where the central focus was on...waaaaait for it...the gameplay...

MGSV was designed to be, what he described, as a toybox. You have these missions that all take place in structurally unique outposts like any level in MGS. And the missions are designed with the structure needed so that they all feel different, but all remain so open ended that you can play them countless different ways.

MGSV's game model is everything GTA SHOULD'VE been. It fully embraces the open world freedom and incorporates that into the missions flawlessly. And it plays in such a way that stealth and combat both feel like they were the primary point. In MGS, combat is usually a last resort. But with MGSV, you can fly into an outpost blasting away on your helicopters mini-gun, shoot up the bad guys, rescue your target, throw them back into the chopper and fly away while "The Final Countdown" blares on your choppers loud speakers.

Every method of gameplay is valid and the controls, the enemy AI responsiveness, it's all, bar none, the best I've experienced in ANY video game. Sneaking around feels tight and tense and combat makes you feel like Jack Bauer on adrenaline. (I mean, he IS the voice of Venom Snake)

And I really like the story for the most part too. Its weaknesses are really glaring. Namely, the "Fun" of MGS is completely devoid in the story (which is really odd since it's FRONT AND CENTER in-game). Venom Snake only has maybe six minutes of dialogue in the entirety of this 30+ hour long game. And the way Skull Face gets completely undercut right at the home stretch is something I have NOT stopped bitching about for almost six years, and my friends can personally attest to that.

That and the ending feels too abrupt.

We know that Kojima got fired by Konami's VP and said VP scorched the entire production company after that and made a series of dickheaded decisions that pissed off a LOT of fans, burning much of the good will Konami IP fans had towards the company. But that had nothing to do with MGSV's abruptness. That was the plan from the start because only Kojima would think to end the entire series on a plot twist like that.

And I think the issue isn't the twist at all. In fact, I LOVE the twist. The issue is that the game should've continued beyond it so Venom Snake could cope with the truth and realize how badly he'd been screwed. I think even people who hated the twist could've been won over if there was a little more to the games epilogue than Episode 46.

Also, the games boss fights were a tad underwhelming. Not the fights themselves, I LOVED all five of the games bosses.

Oh? There were twelve?

No. I meant what I said. Because so many of the games bosses are rematches against the same bosses. All MGSV has is the Skulls, Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire, and Metal Gear. They're great bosses that do everything the best MGS bosses always did; give you tons of options, incorporate combat AND stealth, have varied attacks AND even have multiple methods to sneak around the boss and avoid the fight completely. But for a game as long as MGS, you need more variety. And frankly, the bosses NEED more personality. Skull Face should've had more XOF assassins acting as the bosses in the game along with the ones we have. Elite assassins like Quiet, with their own powers and specialized weaponry so the fights feel completely different from the ones we have. And oh yeah, SKULL FACE HIMSELF SHOULD'VE HAD A GOD-FUCKING-DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!!

Buuuuuuut those issues don't even matter if for all the games issues, I still replay it frequently when it's almost six years old.

So yeah! There's the massive rant you totally didn't ask for! :D

[1-mini-1]

My 2 Cents on Translating

I was skimming through my computer and found this blog post that I never posted. I think I was hesitant because I saw varying opinions on the subject in the fandom, but idk, these are just my thoughts from my experience as a fan translator for the vocaloid/utaite fandom and what I have learned. I'm not sure if any of my thoughts are unpopular opinions or not, but I'm also not sure how much discussion there has been concerning fan translators. Also, this is really long, so if you want to skim or ignore it be my guest lol.

I guess the first thing I'll talk about is how I think writing a translation is just as much of an artform as writing original lyrics are. I know that translations aren't from scratch like an original story is, but with Japanese especially, there's sooooooo much leniency in how things can be translated into English. Here's an example of how different translations can be. This is a quote from Natsume Soseki's "Kokoro" and three published translations of it:

私は冷やかな頭で新しい事を口にするよりも、熱した舌で平凡な説を述べる方が生きていると信じています。血の力で体が動くからです。言葉が空気に波動を伝えるばかりでなく、もっと強い物にもっと強く働き掛ける事ができるからです。

"I believe that a common reply, stated with passion on one's tongue, is more impactful than novel words from a cool head. The flow of blood powers the body. Words are more than waves disturbing the air, they induce great action in greater things." - From the Soseki Project site

"I believe that commonplace ideas passionately expressed are more effective in real life than the original inventions of a detached intellect. Because it is the heat of the blood that impresses us, for in addition to the words which reverberate in the air, the emotion by its intensity pierces to the soul." - Ineko Kondo

"I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived. It is blood that moves the body. Words are not meant to stir the air only; they are capable of moving greater things." - Edwin McClellan

Anyways, you get the idea lol. As you can see from these translations, the grammar structures are completely different; sometimes words are added, sometimes words are left out, and sometimes there are grammar patterns used in Japanese that just don't work in English. All these decisions are up to the translator. I've read some translations of things where whole relevant plot details were cut out just because the translator got annoyed (I'm looking at your translation of the Tale of Genji, Seidensticker).

I should probably talk about how I translate stuff. When I first started translating, I thought my lyrics were more liberal, but as I poked around and looked at other translators, I found that mine stuck more closely to the original format of the song (such as, I would keep the same phrases on the same line in the stanza, use the same format for punctuation, etc.). Song translation is different from manga or books because sentences can be broken up over a whole stanza, so translators can play a lot with how they want to arrange phrases for lyrics. I kept mine very close to the original song because I liked being able to easily identify the Japanese line with the English. I'm not sure if that's a translating "sin" but eh, that's how I liked translating my stuff. Maybe in the future I'll try something different

However, just because I saw many different translations for songs, I wouldn't go out of my way to say that any of them were wrong or bad, per say. Translating songs is a huge pain because there's no punctuation which makes it hard to keep track of everything. I've had times where I've been able to translate a 10 page story faster than I could translate a single song, just because having context and punctuation makes everything sooooo much easier. However, even if a translation is wrong, I don't think that makes it meaningless. I'm personally of the opinion that having some sort of translation is better than nothing, but that's something you need to decide for yourself. When I was first learning Japanese and couldn't fully understand the songs I listened to, if there was even just one line that I understood, I would embrace it and really love whatever meaning I grasped from it. Even if a song is translated correctly, there are lines that will impact people differently, and even an awkward or incorrect translation can resonate with the reader. Similarly, there are many times when I translate that I look at a line and think "aaahhhhh I want to change the meaning a bit because I can make it sound cooler and give it more impact than a direct translation would".

The next thing I noticed is that I kind of feel like people value native Japanese speakers (who have English as their second language, non-native English speaker) over native English speakers more (Japanese second language, non-native Japanese speaker)? Tbh, that feels like a double standard to me. Like idk, I'm fine translating Japanese into English, but I don't think I would be able to translate English into Japanese. In fact, most professional translating jobs have you translate into your native language, so I thought it was strange when I noticed that it seemed like native Japanese speakers had more favored translations. Or another one I noticed is that if someone knew more languages, their translation would also be considered better because of the assumption that taking multiple language courses is the same as being gifted with languages. Anyways, my point is that both English native speakers and Japanese native speakers both put a lot of time into learning their languages so I don't think one side should be valued less than the other. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Native English speakers may have a harder time understanding the initial Japanese, but shape it into English better, while native Japanese speakers understand the Japanese, but have a harder time putting it into English how a native speaker would understand.

No matter what the translator's native language is though, I've learned that having skills in a foreign language isn't the only requirement to be a good translator; you also need to have proper understanding of grammar and a large vocabulary in your native language. Also, proper reading of the translation requires the same amount of understanding for English grammar and vocabulary. I realized this after I took a lot of comparative literature classes and realized how much of a potato I am lol. I think it makes sense though, as a lot of the lyrics from utaite and vocaloid songs are usually extremely well thought out poetry. Multiple songwriters I've translated for have mentioned that as they tried to write better lyrics, they eventually had to immerse themselves in studying literature and their native language much more than the average person would. I often think that since literature and translating doesn't abide by scientific law that the humanities are actually more difficult to grasp than STEM subjects (and trust me, I've studied far on both sides of the spectrum).

The last thing I'll touch on is that… just appreciate your fan translators and don't give them a hard time please. Like nobody gets paid to do this stuff and usually they do it because they really like something, so just let people learn and try their best. Yes, they won't be perfect translations, but once again, fan translators aren't paid. They're translating out of the goodness of their heart. After all, translators don't need to translate a song to understand it, so in the end they don't really lose anything if they stop translating. As international fans, I feel like there are three options that we have to choose from eventually: 1. Rely on fan translations, even with their mistakes 2. Don't use translations and just enjoy the music or 3. Learn Japanese. I think all options are great, but they are personal decisions and shouldn't be used to knock other people down and make them feel bad. If there's a mistake in a translation, it is not intentional and the translator literally has no idea unless someone tells them (as translations are a combined reflection of both Japanese AND English ability). All I know is that Vocaloid was popularized from amateur musicians just doing what they wanted for fun, and so I think a really cool thing that the international fandom has that Japan doesn't is that we have awesome fan translators that are also amateurs and are doing translations for fun.

[x0401x]

Music Natalie Interview with Jin

The reason why he took the span of five and a half years to “reload” KagePro.

Jin announced a new album on November 7th, Mekakucity Reload. Mekakucity Reload is the latest work of the multi-media project developed by Jin, Kagerou Project. This album is a work that he is releasing about five and a half years ever since Mekakucity Records went on sale in May 2013. Why did Jin, who had declared the completion of Kagerou Project back when Mekakucity Records was released, create an album with the name “Mekakucity” at this timing? Here, Ongaku Natalie has asked Jin himself the motive behind his producing of KagePro music once again with the new work “Mekakucity Reload”, which looks back at the walk of five and a half years.

Translations Index >>

“There was simply not enough music for KagePro.”

──In the interview from when the album Mekakucity Records hit the shelves back in May 2013 (see: Jin (Shizen no Teki-P) Mekakucity Records Interview), Jin-san, you announced the conclusion of Kagerou Project’s music compilation.

Yes. It’s already been five years and a half.

──At first, I was dumbstruck when I heard that Jin-san had released an album with the name “Mekakucity” in it.

After I finished making the two other albums, Mekakucity Days and Mekakucity Records, I thought to myself about quiting making music for once. Thankfully, even as KagePro’s musical compilation had ended, the novels and comics were still on-going, so I thought of concentrating on the literary field and on writing, and that’s how I spent these five and a half years. And so, I’d been experimentally writing a light novel that I hadn’t yet announced to everyone and making a series with a mangaka sensei (see: NIRVANA, A JinxSaiyuki Talk). As I progressed with writing the continuation of the KagePro novel editions, I started thinking that there was simply not enough music (for KagePro).

──In the interview from five and a half years ago, Jin-san, you said that you “weren’t thinking about publishing any more volumes of the novel or manga”, but in the end...

I didn’t finish them back then at all, huh (laughs). I ran and ran, yet I didn’t get any closer to the goal I had planned. I also got asked stuff like, “Won’t you make music anymore?” whenever the novels or comics came out, and I had the feeling that the number of things I could express through music increased as the story went deeper. So the truth is that I had been thinking, “I want to make ‘KagePro’ music again” since about two years ago, but I wasn’t able to arrange the environment or conditions for it at all. Once they were ready, I completed “Mekakucity Reload”.

──The light novel version of “Kagerou Daze” ended as its eighth volume hit the shelves in December 2017, and the completion of the comics was already announced as well. I got a devilish impression when you revived the music version of KagePro in that timing.

Hahaha. That’s indeed true. It just happened to be this timing simply because I thought I should properly move the pivot leg from literature to music once I got to the stage of finishing writing the novel. There was also the fact that I didn’t have enough skill to properly make music while writing the novel, and that I wanted to focus on the songs and only write lyrics if I was going to do music.

──After taking five and a half years concentrating on the literature, were there any changes when you turned towards the music again?

I think the portrayals in the lyrics changed a lot. Everything, even descriptions, are part of the work in a novel, but in lyrics, you don’t need to explain every single thing like, “I did that” and, “This happened to you”. Within the way of expressing words through lyrics, which doesn’t have a right answer, I reflected really hard about how to express what I deem as the right answer.

──You say that, but you were still able to write lyrics five and a half years ago, right?

That’s right, but before I would write the lyrics occasionally thinking things like, “There might be better words for this”, and continued making songs while shaking off this kind of anxiety. In contraposition, I’m proud to have written the lyrics of this album with words that I myself am satisfied with. Of course, it’s placed as one of the works of KagePro, but I believe it’s also a work that people who are discovering KagePro will be able to enjoy. If I were a listener, I think I would end up keeping a distance because you can’t quite have fun with it if you don’t know the previous songs. But each of the songs recorded into this album are properly established as a single song, and I feel that I was able to manage this because I focused on my writing work.

“Hatsune Miku probably hates me.”

──Jin-san, during the period of five and a half years in which you have been devoting yourself to your writing work, there were several changes in the scene that had NicoNico Douga as its center, such as the alteration of style in the media mix works that represent KagePro and the uprising of Vocaloid culture during the tenth anniversary of Hatsune Miku’s selling. How do you, Jin-san, view these kinds of movements?

As a user, I really like NicoNico Douga, so of course I’ve always been keeping up with the trends. There’s something I’d wanted to tell Natalie-san regarding Hatsune Miku’s tenth anniversary of two years ago. To tell the truth, I got an offer for an interview from Natalie-san of the “Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years” project (see: Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years ~The New Sights She Has Showed Us~), but I ended up declining it...

──Why did you decline?

The contents of the interview, as the name of the project says, were to “talk about Hatsune Miku”, but in the first place, I thought Hatsune Miku probably hates me.

──What do you mean?

Putting it in a simpler way, the community of Hatsune Miku culture probably doesn’t think well of me. I actually didn’t even have an account in NicoNico Douga until just before announcing KagePro’s first track (“Jinzou Enemy”, which was uploaded to NicoNico Douga in February 2011). For starters, I didn’t have a computer and didn’t have contact with the internet at all. When my band broke up and I was left with no one to sing even though I had the musical compositions, I began using Vocaloids, which a friend of mine had taught me about. From that point on, I prepared the original story and characters, used Vocaloid and announced the series, and that was a differing stance from other Vocalo-P’s (Vocaloid producers). Something I myself noticed upon coming in contact with NicoNico Douga is that Hatsune Miku exists in the heart of Hatsune Miku Culture as a character. But at the heart of my series, there was no Hatsune Miku.

──Jin-san, this is because your series has Vocaloids singing the songs of original characters, right?

Yes. That’s why, even though I use Hatsune Miku, I wonder if I have the right to say anything about Hatsune Miku culture, and I really had the feeling that I’d be raining on the parade if I said anything. So I declined the offer. The only thing I wanted to put out there is that, while staying active as “Jin”, I came to really like the video submission site culture in which I started using Hatsune Miku. I also enjoy it a lot as a user, and many writers whom I admire are there. Of course, I read all of the reports of “Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years” (laughs).

──Thank you very much. During the interview, including the parts that were not in the manuscripts, you often became the topic, Jin-san.

I won’t dare ask in what context I came up (laughs), but I’m extremely honored. After all, I myself have received motivation from my Vocalo-P senpais, so I thought that it’d be great if I could grant some sort of motivation to other creators.

“I don’t want humans in ‘originals’.”

──Regarding stopping your literary work for now and resuming your musical activities, the way that you are now, Jin-san, I think you also had the option of making a series other than KagePro with your music.

I felt that I wouldn’t be able to make KagePro stuff anymore if I ended up starting something new. Even though I’d said five and a half years ago that I was going to “finish KagePro”, there are people who have always continued to cheer for KagePro in this five-and-a-half-year period, and I was simply able to discover countless ideas for songs while writing the novel. So I wondered if making KagePro stuff to my utmost wouldn’t be one of the logical choices. There are indeed things I want to do other than KagePro, but I can make them happen another time.

──Anything you obsess with when using Vocaloids? Your own play-and-sing is included in the Limited Edition B of this album, so you have many forms of expression now, right?

When I’m making KagePro songs, as expected, the image that first comes to mind is of Vocaloid. The uploaders of “uttattemita” videos on NicoNico Douga call their own melodies “originals”, but I have this feeling that I “don’t want human beings in what I call ‘original’”. Like, as long as there’s just a story, characters and philosophy, I don’t need anything else. For example, if I were to play and sing a song settled for the protagonist, there’s an instant in which it sounds to me like I myself am the protagonist. That’s not what I want to aim for.

──Then, Jin-san, what are the intentions behind your presenting of play-and-talk livestreams?

That’s kind of a secondary work (laughs). After all, I sing songs that already have their proper originals. Also, the ways you convey things between when you have people watch videos and when you have them listen to you live in a broadcast are completely different. This is something intuitive, but the feelings of “thank you” that I receive after people listen to my own songs become even stronger. Because of this as well, I tried including my own play-and-sing to this album as an extra.

“Additional Memory merged the philosophies of the two of them.”

──Please let us hear about the songs included in Mekakucity Reload. The musical composition of the song Additional Memory, which has already been uploaded to video sharing sites, has turned out as a mash-up piece of the KagePro songs that had been published in the past, which has been making the fans smile from ear to ear.

Additional Memory is a song I started making out of the thought of creating a work that would blend Lost Time Memory, Ayano no Koufuku Riron and Summertime Record. Specifically speaking, when I thought of the next stories of KagePro, there was a need to cross Lost Time Memory with Ayano no Koufuku Riron. It’s not in the sense of making the two characters meet or something like that, but I started wanting to make a song that merged their philosophies. As I did this, regarding the sound, since Lost Time Memory doesn’t have piano in it, I felt like creating a dialogue between it and the piano sounds that were the main feature in Ayano no Koufuku Riron.

──Then, what was the reason for you to think of adding Summertime Record to this?

The season pictured in KagePro is summer, so when I thought of inserting a phrase that would give it a summer feeling, I came up with a melody that was a variation of Summertime Record. After all, Summertime Record is a song that sings memories of, “Our childhood was fun, huh”, and if anything, Additional Memory is a song about regret. I used it while sprinkling a bit of dark taste to the originally bright melody line.

──Each character in KagePro has a song with them as motifs, so weren’t there any difficulties in combining them?

I solved that merely with subtraction. This also has to do with what I discussed just now about “concluding things with a single song”, but I think having countless characters showing up in one song causes quite a bit of anxiousness to the people listening as well. I was certain that there were things that could be conveyed even without saying them, and Ayano-chan is the only one who appears in Additional Memory, so I wrote the lyrics by cherishing a simple love letter-like image. I’ve been checking the reactions of everyone with my heart racing ever since the video was uploaded, and there are lots of fans who properly read between the lines, so I felt that what I’d wanted to convey was transmitted to them.

──It’s not just in the sound, but in the video as well, several parts that link up with the past KagePro were provided. What kind of advance arrangements did you have with Sidu-san, who produced the video?

It had been a while since the last time I had Sidu-san make a video, but we didn’t talk about revisions of what had happened until that point in our preparatory meetings. It was like, “Let’s work together again with a new song.” and, “Yes.” (laughs). I felt Sidu-san’s fervorous feelings for KagePro even without her putting it into words, so I basically requested her, “I think the videos have Sidu-san’s worldviews, so I want you to pull it along”.

“If it were five years ago, I most likely wouldn’t have written this.”

──Amongst the recorded songs, there are many that connect with the novel version and the manga version of KagePro, such as Shissou Word and Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni, and only Remind Blue has a slightly different disposition, right? Its musical composition seems to look back at the story of KagePro, and the viewpoint is portrayed as from the future.

Up until now, the KagePro songs have been cherishing the subjectivity of children a lot. They were the world as seen by children, and sang the emotions of children themselves. What’s clearly different in Remind Blue is that it sings as if from the position of an adult recalling the past. There’s always been the feeling of “wishing to properly turn the Mekakushi-dan members into adults” within me, that’s why I’d wanted to show this side of it to everyone through the song called Remind Blue.

──Speaking of which, the song Summertime Record, which is included in the previous album Mekakucity Records, also has lyrics of which the contents reminisce to the past, right?

Summertime Record has an image of growing up but remembering the past while still being in one’s young years. In contraposition, Remind Blue looks back to one’s youth after it ended completely, you see. My intention was that I wanted to write about how the characters also properly grow up. But I think that, in majority, I became able to write about it because I myself properly turned into an adult. If it were five years ago, I most likely wouldn’t have written this.

──Remind Blue is a song that has one of the Mekakushi-dan members, Shintarou, as its protagonist, but will the grown-up figures of the other characters also be depicted from now on?

I still can’t talk about it for certain, but what I’m thinking is I want to show everyone a story that will be like a “future saga”. I believe I’ll most likely be able to write a novel of it and we might make a manga as well. I also have ideas for a KagePro spin-off and I wanna make a series of videos... Of course, to match up with these, I’ll create a new album too.

──You already have plans for a media mix project.

Yes. In order to develop the next conceptions, with the current timing, in which the novel and the manga have ended, I’ve brought in the song Remind Blue. I’ve reloaded it with this album, so I want people to look forward to the “gunfire” that is to come from now on.

“I was able to create this work because I had my own experiences.”

──The one in charge of the art of the manga annexed to the album’s Limited Edition A was the other member of ZOWLS, Saiyuki-san, who is making NIRVANA together with Jin-san.

There’s a proper meaning to the theme portrayed in this manga and in the fact that I had Saiyuki-sensei draw it. About three years ago, I was really depressed, and there was a time in which I could no longer see any meaning in creating works. During this time, I had a talk with Saiyuki-sensei. Saiyuki-sensei is someone who works with Comic Gene, which serializes the manga version “Kagerou Daze”, and I had read his series, so of course I listened to his talk. Back then, Saiyuki-sensei invited me like, “Why don’t we do something together?”... At that time, my emotional condition that was enough to make me think that I’d “end up being hated by the whole world”, so I was really saved by him coming to talk to me. I truly think that my being able to create music like this right now is thanks to Saiyuki-sensei.

──You also talked a bit about that when mentioning Hatsune Miku, but Jin-san, why do you end up thinking that you’re “hated by the people around you”? Seeing it from the sidelines, you’re a creator who has achieved great success with the media mix “Kagerou Project”, so I think many people have approved of your series.

I wonder why (laughs). I know that there are many fans who cheer for me. Still, I’m a person who was pretty negligent with my surroundings in order to create my work; for example, I haven’t been keeping in touch with my friends from the countryside for the longest time and am not called over to graduate’s reunions, and even having said so, I don’t have that many friends... Sorry, this kind of turned into a depressing talk.

──No, no.

After I started KagePro, I became able to sense that the people surrounding me were keeping a little distance. As the project gradually turned into a big deal and I became busier by the day, there was a time when I thought, “The only one within a 2m distance from me is my pillow”. If I went outside of those 2m, there would be a lot of people and I’d probably have been able to make lots of friends, but I somehow had a sense of estrangeness and wasn’t the one to reach my hand out to others.

──And then Saiyuki-san was the one who extended his hand to you.

Yes. As soon as he talked to me, I asked Saiyuki-sensei, “I’m bashed by a lot of people, you know? Are you okay with that?”. Even so, Saiyuki-sensei said, “Let’s do something together”.

──So, after this invitation, the manga NIRVANA, which Jin-san and Saiyuki-san are writing as the unit ZOWLS, was born, right?

Yes. NIRVANA was a story in which the protagonist, Hitotose Yachiyo, set out on a journey to gather companions named “The Twelve”, but this time, the contents are aware of the subjects from the manga that I had Saiyuki-sensei draw and of the connections between people. The contents are about each of the Mekakushi-dan members are thinking, “What is a friend?”, and I think it’s a manga that I was able to write because I had my own experiences. It’s a very worthwhile reading, so I want the people interested in it to read.

“I’ll write the best melodies in the world.”

──From what you have said, Jin-san, I got the impression that your situation is doing well obviously because you have arranged yourself an environment in which you are able to focus on your productions.

I’ll say this because I can now: the truth is that I created Mekakucity Records in a really tumultuous period. I’d wanted to take more time to make an album, but the adults around me would say things like, “Compromise is necessary in order to publish your work”. Back then, I thought, “It’s definitely not like that” (laughs). I was certain that one can definitely take time to create a work without compromise that would leave them thinking they did everything they could, and I believe I actually managed to do that with this work, Mekakucity Reload. At present, I can say for sure that I’m unable to create any works beyond it and I could muster all that’s important out of me. I think it turned out as the best album, full of songs I myself like.

──You said you were devoted to your writing, and the strength of your characteristic melodies did not weaken at all, but rather, they even gave off a feeling that they became more powerful.

It might sound cheeky of me to say this, but deem myself to be the human being who writes the best melodies in the whole world. It’s not like I’m saying that I’m awesome, but that I’m the one who knows my own taste best, so if I’m able to write melodies that fit this taste, the best melody should be born from that.

──I see.

I’m merely making melodies that I myself like the most into songs and having everyone listen to them, right? As I made music like this, I met lots of people who had me thinking that their hobbies are the same as mine, so as long as those people are looking forward to it, I believe there’s meaning in my continuing to make music.

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2019 Part 3: just trick ‘em

Babylon

Well, I kinda asked for it, didn't I. Far removed from any spurious fantasy nonsense with assembly line gimmick ideas, this is a very serious and buttoned-up procedural about a prosecutor going after some political corruption. I mean, two people died, but by anime standards that's essentially serial jaywalking. And that's the part where I have to get hypocritical and say: It's a wee bit unexciting, innit? Say what you want about gimmicks, but they're something and this does not really impress outside of the concept either. Maybe this would work better as the J-drama it could very easily be. Babylon is honestly not bad, and there's a tiny bit of intrigue regarding the pharmaceutical company the scandal is attached to, but it still has severe problems making a case for itself beyond what it doesn't do.

And then I watched the other two episodes that are out and disregard everything, this show is trolling and it owns. Well, provisionally at least. It certainly becomes a lot less bland and some things happen and it reminds me a lot of Paranoia Agent now. So yeah, pretty promising, but it’s a plotty show so now it’ll have to deliver on that end.

Special 7 – Special Crime Investigation Unit

While we're on the topic of crime drama, here's one that definitely does have a gimmick: It's set in a world with vampires and so on. And it has a team of superpowered cops who are also vampires and so on. And quite a bit of action. Yeah yeah, so it isn't really a drama and more akin to Ghost in the Shell meets Cop Craft, only not as respectable or vaporwave as the former nor as ultrajanky as the latter. Before we go any further there's one thing: This is directed by the perp wot did Angolmois, and he brought his texture. Only in the shading of the backgrounds this time and I honestly would not mind normally, but when you’re already a notorious AfterEffects criminal you better be on your best behavior. Apart from that it's... well, competent but nothing special. Middling characters, middling looks, extremely tall dwarves, unobtrusive writing. It’s okay but pretty interchangeable. At least the OP is pretty stylish.

Actors - Songs Connection

You saw this coming: It's a show I watched days ago and I haven't the foggiest. What I do know is that it wasn't what the MAL summary says, which is something about walls of Trumpian proportions and singalong tournaments. I'll probably regret this but let's have another looksie...

Um, it's a School Club Plot with unexciting pretty boys and in particular a guy channeling his sorrow over his Morbus Key-stricken sister into song. I suppose a scientist man randomly talks about teleportation sometimes, so that’s technically foreshadowing and as such technically good writing. The realest thing about it by far is that someone finally acknowledges that Vocaloid songs are not made for humans. But it's provably, objectively forgettable so let's just move on.

Africa no Salaryman

So what if office, but animals? The jokes basically write themselves! They’re just not, you know, very good jokes and like most slim comedies this show has problems justifying its full-length runtime. I won’t even go into detail here because it’s pretty much just what you’d imagine. Of note is that the lion  is voiced by Akio Outsuka, the lizard is voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda, and the toucan is a dick. In fact, the majority of this episodes is the toucan acting like a dick. As far as visuals are concerned this looks occasionally neat and mostly pretty shitty, almost like talented people are making this on a stiflingly low budget. And yeah, the African elephant in the room here is that Aggressive Retsuko is the same thing but much better, and I have an entire second season of that on my backlog. Not to mention that (spoilers) Beastars is obviously also similar and also much better.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! / Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!

No points for figuring out what this is based on the title. WNwHstIyn!/DIStMMAAitNL!?  is one of those curious isekai stories that technically don’t need to be one, and goes one step further by making the main girl not only reborn and then having grown up in isekailand, but also undercover in a new city under a wrong name. So it’s basically DOUBLE isekai. What’s very weird about it is that about half of it is fairly okay, since this is directed by a seasoned Doga Kobo dude and the results is the kind of inoffensive cute fluff you’d expect from that (with looks to match). Of course the other half (which is, as previously mentioned, completely unnecessary anyway) won’t shut up about isekai generics that could not be any less interesting (though, admittedly, they could be less inoffensive too). Sorry, I don’t like inoffensive cute fluff enough to watch it when it comes packaged with that.

Stand My Heroes - Piece of Truth

Stand My Heroes seems to want to be another serious business thriller, apart from the part where it’s also based on an otome gacha game. So the serious nature of the plot is somewhat undercut by the main girl being a wet noodle whose amazing distinguishing feature is being resistant to all drugs (which in practice means an inability to fall for roofies). She’s got a job as a narc where she happens to be surrounded by a harem of pretty boys. Since this is serious business, they’re all professionals, which in practice means they’re all clones of the same smooth, gentlemanly dude. Some are jerks at first, but also in a gentlemanly way. Not very exciting, you guys. The plot of this is pretty confusing and seems to revolve around main girl going around looking for people that get her closer to other people that she can then recruit into her narc department even though they’re already there, and if that is incorrect it’s because this is all too mindnumbingly dull to pay much attention. The looks are pretty bad too, with a kind of soft blur over everything that can’t hide the mostly nonexistant animation. And yeah, everyone looks the same. I guess you can’t improve on (or deviate from) perfection.

Kandagawa Jet Girls

Auteur anoraks take note: this is the new smash hit by the director of the poignant and respectable Tsuredure Children. Well, pay no mind to the other stuff he was responsible for, which is in no way relevant to this anime about team jetski racing where the participants also shoot each other’s clothes off. Yes, this is complete schlock that’s all about the boobies and when it isn’t it’s all about the asses instead. The discerning viewer would be advised to locate the AT-X version, if you know what I mean (if you don’t know what I mean you don’t want to watch this show anyway). Not gonna lie, this is so shameless it managed to amuse me more than not, and that’s something. Of course, it’s also most certainly not good: On a technical level it’s cheap as chips and the only thing it has over Valkyrie Drive is that it’s less rapey, which isn’t even strictly a plus when the appeal here is being as unbelievably outrageous as possible. This is the kind of thing that entertains for only as long as it manages to top itself, and that seems pretty hard to pull off with a first impression like this.

[noro124]

dream summary: a kid looks for his brother. uncomfortable content moment. 11 stranger things is there

dream 2: i’m in prague again & people are stealing my shit

they made like a stranger things movie or something & it was actually pretty good? at least that’s the impression i got when i woke up despite none of this making sense. none of the characters from stranger things were there except eleven who showed up later. first it started off as like a a video game where you play from the perspective of two different people depending on what version? I was from the perspective of this younger kid probably 7 y/o named Byron who was looking for his older brother Sisyphus (like the Greek figure), who was "imprisoned" somewhere. Byron had a couple companions like this older uncle figure & another youngish boy & me! There was a really weird part that was just like a montage of the uncle figure getting a handjob???????? like really close camera shots on the guy's dick getting hard????????????? this was an unskippable cutscene & it made me SO uncomfortable I hated that it was like watching a movie in a theater & everyone was like :/ just really fuckin horrible 0/10 content by my brain. anyway the me figure in the dream was like "what the fuck are y'all doing" & closed the game & went to watch my bf play as Sisyphus. 

Sisyphus was very strong & powerful & had an abundance of incredible skills & weapons & he chose to be trapped in a cave of pink marble with a pool of clear water & blood in the center so he could stay locked in combat with this Hydra dragon chimera forever. He missed his family dearly but thought this was the best for everyone to keep them safe. However, Byron appeared in the pool & started following his brother around as he fought back the beast. Byron wanted to hug his brother because he’d missed him so much but Sisyphus couldn’t stop fighitng to give him a hug even though he’d missed him so much. This was more dangerous bc Byron was completely defenseless & Sisyphus had a lot of Aoe attacks & the Hydra beast was also very dangerous. Eventually Byron (who also might have been name Adam) fell in the pool & drowned in blood & then their older sister showed up, she was bald & had green & pale pink scales & a lizard tail & she burst out of the blood pool, put Adam Byron on the ground, & then was immediately bitten very badly by & Sisyphus was like "No! Sistina!" & we had a flashback of the parents taking their fresh baby from the midwife (the parents the dad looked like the beast from beauty & the beast with glowing yellow eyes if he was a paladin & the mom was a big lizard woman & it was like "congrats on your only daughter!") & then he caught her in his arms. She was still strong enough to cast a big lightning bolt at the body of the beast.

Then El stranger things showed up & somehow was more powerful than thr Greek figures & jumped onti thr main head of the beast. Then I was her & I just bit the face a lot tearing off chunks of skin since the face was almost human & then I "woke up" back in a huge ampitheater. My sister's graduating class was having a piano recital & playing all meme songs like Discord or the Charles vocaloid song which I love & we ran out. My sister’s friend Keith who she talks about a lot was there, & so was an asian kid who looked like he was 6 but was apparently actually 17 or 18. I got in my car & then....? 

Quick teleport dream back to Prague where we were leaving soon. It was April again, a couple days before we left for Milan. My roommate at that time & I were trying to take the metro home from school, but we couldn't find the station so we had to walk over these grassy hills & I wasn't wearing shoes? But they were in my backpack. It was raining pretty hard & we passed some old dudes sitting out on the porches of their houses & they gave us advice. We got to the station & it was the Lavender Heart Line, which only had 5 stops (the next one was First Repair?) & it ended at the yellow line, which I remembered we could get on to get close to home. While in the station transferring to the yellow metro (without having left the metro) some guy holding a big plaster head that looked like those enemies from kirby 

picked my pocket & stole my phone & I chased him down. He was trying to pass my phone off to someone else in the crowd, but eventually I got it back for a moment? After a brief confrontation I caught the guy, he looked like a friend of a friend but older. He was talking to me in English, which I was surprised by bc we were still in Prague. The police said "taze him so he'll learn his lesson" & gave me a tazer & I was like “fuck you bitch” & pressed the button & the prongs hit him in the eyes??? but he was fine. Anyway got my phone & wallet back - apparently they were hidden under a pile of brochures on a convenient coffee table? but someone stole my backpack & my roommate ditched me to go home while I looked for it, but the station was empty by then & I couldn't find it. There were a couple people carrying bags that looked really similar to mine, but they had some modification that made it clear that it wasn’t mine. I was really sad because my leather jacket that my dad gave me was in there.

After I woke up I was sad for a while & then I was like “Wait i still have my fucking bookbag lol” & even if I did lose that jacket I have an identical version of it back at home. Like it’s the same brand, one’s just older & a little more green bc the dye is leaking out. Anyway I woke up & spent 18 minutes typing this up instead of getting ready to leave & I'm gonna be late to work! fuck

[destination-of-fate]

(English) Mafumafu’s interview with Natalie Music (October 18th, 2017)

Original article here.

Mafumafu gave a very interesting interview to the music website Natalie to celebrate the release of his new CD! He spoke about the meaning behind his new songs, his future plans as both a solo artist and a member of After the Rain, and gave a bit more explanation about a new organization he is trying to form for online musicians and singers. Please let me know if you spot any typos or errors, and enjoy the interview~! :D  

Mafumafu has released his solo album titled “Ashitairo World End.”

Mafumafu began his career as a video uploader who posted under the “I tried singing ___” category on video sites such as Niconico Douga. He now works as a member of After the Rain in addition to writing theme songs for anime series, gaining popularity as both a vocalist and a creator. To celebrate the release of “Ashitairo World End,” Natalie conducted a solo interview with Mafumafu. As he reflected on his increasingly high profile from many events over the last year, we inquired about the life of this unique creator and self-styled “jack of all trades.”

This year, I get the impression that many new people have taken notice of you, due to all the news about your various promotional songs and contributions to albums.

My work schedule has practically exploded with busyness compared to how it was last year, but I’m thankful for that.

At the start of the year you carried out your first solo concerts via tour. You’ve participated in many events and held large-scale concerts as After the Rain too. I was surprised that these were your first solo concerts.

The truth is that until now, I’d always avoided doing solo concerts. I’m first and foremost a video uploader, so I believed that my music was complete when I used videos to put a song and an image together for an audience. That’s why I didn’t have much interest in performing on stage. But that just sounded like an excuse so that I didn’t have to do concerts, and that’s when I had a sudden realization. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve believed that “growth” is when a person learns something they never knew before, or when they become able to do something they were unable to do before. I still feel that my music is complete when it’s in video form, but when I thought that having solo concerts might allow me to grow, I decided to give it a try.

Having completed your solo concerts, do you feel like you’ve experienced any personal change or growth?

Yes, I do. I always felt that “completed music” was something that could only be achieved in recorded form. But then I realized that “completed music” could take a different form in a place like a concert hall. Since you can’t re-do a concert, you might end up making mistakes, but I still felt like concerts have their own benefits to them too. Although with one concert you can reach a few thousand people, and with a tour you can make your music heard by tens of thousands of them. If I use videos, I get hundreds of thousands of views, which means more people will hear my songs, and videos don’t require money to listen to the music. That’s the kind of thing I was thinking about. I felt that my main method of work really is through videos.

Outside of the anime theme songs you’ve performed as After the Rain, you’ve also had more opportunities to provide songs for series like “Gamers!” and the second season of “Osomatsu-san.” I feel like you’ve been able to stand in the spotlight more as Mafumafu the composer.

It’s an honor to be recognized as a composer. It’s true that now I’m approached with more offers to write songs for other performers than I was in the past, but I don’t let it get to my head, and I think of it as studying that I do every day.

Another big piece of news was the song you wrote for Kudo Shizuka-san. It was an unexpected combination that surprised a lot of people. Can you tell us the story behind that?

She had apparently been listening to my songs before that point, and one day I suddenly received the message, “Kudo Shizuka-san has asked you to write a song for her.” I was like, “Are you sure it’s me she asked for?”

You wrote the song “Kinki to Tsukiakari” for her. How did Kudo-san respond to the song?

She really liked it, and told me, “I’m glad I requested a song from you. Thank you.” I responded like, “No, thank you.” It was a valuable experience that I was able to have.

Last May you organized the event “Hikikomori Demo Fest ga Shitai!” on the large stage at Saitama Super Arena. This caught the eye of many people with other performers in addition to yourself, such as Amatsuki-san, the UraShimaSakataSen members, “XYZ Tour” performers, and more.

Before then, there had never been an opportunity where internet artists like ourselves can stand on a big stage like that and just do whatever we want. I feel like one of my current roles is to plan things that haven’t been able to be done before, or step a bit into new territory. To change the subject a little, over these last 3 years, there have been many people in this field of work who have run into work-related trouble, or been victims of fraud. For example, most utaite and Vocaloid producers do not belong to a big company, and there are also some people who have been victims that were mistaken in choosing the company that they did. I’ve been experimenting to see if I can create an organization that provides an environment for these people that makes it easy for them to work in until they can find their next company to join. As I was considering that, I saw the sold-out arena during “Hikifest” and became confident that I needed to make an environment for video uploaders that’s easier for them to work in, so that more opportunities like Hikifest were able to occur.

I’d like to hear about your album “Ashitairo World End” as well. After receiving the album, I was surprised to see that there were 16 tracks, and most of them were new songs for the album. It’s a lot, isn’t it (laughs). But I felt like I absolutely had to include 16 songs on this album. First of all, After the Rain’s album “Clock Crest Story” contained 16 songs. I felt like I couldn’t have any less than that. Also, when I counted up everything I wanted to do, I ended up needing about 16 songs for all of that. What do you mean by “what you wanted to do”? ”Rinne Tensei” is a song with a synthesizer sound that uses a four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern (T/N: This is a term for a song where the bass drum is hit once per beat in 4/4 time), “Suisai Ginga no Chronicle” is a melodious song in triple meter that gives you sort of a floating feeling, “Futari Bocchi” is a mid-tempo, slightly decadent kind of song, “Fury” is an eccentric song like I’ve never made before, and “Shuuten” is a song I’ve wanted to make for a long time now… When I counted up everything like that, I needed 16 songs. I’ve always planned to make an album called “Ashitairo World End.” But my last album “Yamiiro Night Parade” (released April 2015) ended up having quite a long break before I made this one, and that was because I personally felt like there were too many things I was unfamiliar with when it came to music, and I thought that I needed to grow more before I could release “Ashitairo World End.” Why did you decide on a title first? Ever since I was young, I would genuinely ask my teachers and adults around me questions like, “What would tomorrow be like if I died?” and, “What happens to people when they die?” No one really spoke seriously to me, and my teachers got mad at me. I’ve lived up to today with those strange, mysterious things on my mind. The album “Ashitairo World End” (T/N: “Tomorrow-Colored World End”) was built with the themes of “What if tomorrow has no color?” and “What if there was no future?” After deciding on the title, what was the first song you wrote? The first song I wrote for the album was “Rinne Tensei.” To loosely summarize this song, the lyrics mean like, “It’s time to say goodbye to this worthless life.” Within the lyrics, there’s actually two points of view from people. One is a person harboring hope for the next world, and one is me as a human reincarnating as the character with the name Mafumafu. I wanted to express how the world was still worthless in the end even after reincarnating. I feel like your lyrics often contain nuances of “rejecting the real world,” not just within “Rinne Tensei.” Rather than writing songs for my listeners, I always just write them for myself. That is to say, I’m not someone who is very good at speaking, nor do I have a personality that makes it easy to come to mutual understandings with people, but I use the method of “writing lyrics and turning them into songs” as a way to convey things. It’s a one-way means of communication, but it works perfectly for me. The lyrics I come up with do have meaning to them, but I leave individual interpretation up to each listener themselves, and I don’t think that I need to consider how people will react to my songs. I believe that I just need to make them say what I want to say. You also write music and lyrics for After the Rain. How do you mentally separate your unit works from your solo works? After the Rain is comprised of Soraru-san and myself, and I think it’s something that wouldn’t work without both of us there. That’s why the songs have to be suitable, as things that Soraru-san and I will share together. That’s how I see it, which is why I feel quite a sense of responsibility when I write After the Rain songs (laughs). I study music everyday, and carefully focus my energy on my work. With all that, everything I’ve worked on comes back to me when I make something as a solo artist, and not to say I don’t focus on this work, of course, but I feel like I can express my thoughts and the kind of music I want to make without changing anything. You said earlier that “Shuuten” (T/N: “Last Stop”) was a song you’d always wanted to write. Does that mean you’d planned to end the album “Ashitairo World End” with “Shuuten” from the start? I’d wanted to write a song called “Shuuten” for a while now, and I actually wasn’t sure if “Shuuten” should be the final song, or another song I wrote called “World End” should be at the end. “World End” is a faster tempo song than “Shuuten,” and I wrote about “hope” in a way that was pretty easy to understand. But “Shuuten” became something I agreed with more, so I used that one. ”Shuuten” is the answer to the question “What happens to people when they die?” that you mentioned earlier. That makes it a song that expresses your views on life and death, correct? That’s right. Humans have to let go of everything when they die, and they surely forget that they are themselves as well. I wanted to write about how that’s all that happens. It’s not just a pessimistic view though, and I think you can also see it in the positive way of people breaking free from everything that ties them down. No matter how nice you try to make things look, no matter how unfair the things you did to make money were, no matter how wonderfully you saved many people for a just cause, in the end, everyone arrives at that same “last stop.” If people listened to this song and thought about that “last stop” just a little bit, then maybe things like judging and blaming other people, or trying to obtain things even through unfair means, maybe things like that wouldn’t matter anymore. I wanted them to relax a bit, and to convey that there are many different points of view in life. In the Limited Edition A version of your album is a DVD called “Mafumafu’s Solo Journey ~Aimlessly Going to a Hot Springs Town~” Can you tell us what kind of video this is? It’s really just a live-action video of me going to a hot spring (laughs). I went to a hot springs town called Ikaho, which is in Gunma, and was honored to have the voice actor Uchiyama Kouki-san do the narration. His lines are dubbed in as someone I talk to in the DVD, and what was just footage of me walking around was made into a proper “travel show” kind of video. I also had a specific request about this video being part of Limited Edition A. What was the request? I feel like it’s normal for things like music videos and concert footage to go as a DVD with version A, and then version B has some kind of sub-content with it, but I wanted to try reversing that. My A version is the travel video, and the B version is the MV and concert video. If my album managed to make it to the top of the rankings and the description for Limited Edition A is given, the DVD content will say, “Mafumafu’s Solo Journey ~Aimlessly Going to a Hot Springs Town~,” right? I thought it’d be funny if people saw that and thought, “Eh, what the heck is that?” (laughs). Finally, I’d like to ask you what you’d like to achieve both as a member of After the Rain, and as the solo artist Mafumafu. More than just joining together with someone, I want to always be creating new “chemical reactions.” If one plus one is going to equal two, there’s no point in adding them, since the result will end exactly where it’s hypothesized to be. I want to accomplish things that the two of us couldn’t do without being together. I want to walk 3 more steps further than everyone else into new territory. To say something a bit more ridiculous, I’d like to create a “movement.” I feel like you’ve already created one. I feel like working as After the Rain allows us to walk on a path that we never had before. Like how you would walk on a sidewalk if it’s there, I think everyone walks on a path that someone else built first. But you might actually find a shortcut if you cut through the forest on the side, or a new world like nothing you’ve ever found before might be out there somewhere. That’s why we will keep challenging ourselves to new things, and hope that the people who see that also begin to challenge themselves to new things as well. There are many dreams I want to accomplish as an individual as well. I want to accomplish them all before I die. I think that humans will soon be able to obtain eternal life too. What I want to accomplish as an artist is to complete all the music that I want to make. There’s no point in making music if I run out of things I want to say or create, so I think I’d stop there, but there’s so much music that I do want to make that hundreds of years wouldn’t be enough time for me to do it all, so I don’t think I’ll stop. You’re a vocalist, composer, and performer. It feels like you’ll never run out of things you want to do. I’m a “jack of all trades,” so I want to do everything that people would never predict of me.

[manjuhitorie]

fromA Interview

https://www.froma.com/contents/baito/workstyle/39661/?vos=dfansnss1700432

Meeting the meaningful song that led to the next

 —— From starting it off with a tour, to finishing it off with a mini album release, 2017 has been an exciting year for you hasn’t it.

A lot really has happened. After we released the album “IKI” last year, I feel like we finally set foot on firm ground, or we finished the foundations of our bodies or some sensation. And then after we took that feeling in and finished our tour this year, we were sort of pushed off towards our next production. 
 —— So that led to this mini album “ai/SOlate”.
 
Yes. Right after the tour ended, I had happened to get a request for Hatsune Miku’s tenth anniversary compilation. At first I was filled with wonder as to what kind of song I could make with Miku as I am now, but when I started to unravel everything I’ve done, I realized that if I didn’t make it now, I might never make it for the rest of my life, and so I started production on “Unknown Mother Goose”. 
 Then after we finished that song, we were just in the mode, so it did lead to our mini album “ai/SOlate”.

—— In that way “Unknown Mother Goose” has a lot of meaning as a song, doesn’t it.
 That’s right. To Hatsune Miku, to wowaka, and even to Hitorie, this song is quite important to our lives. I think that even the fact that we were able to put this song in our album as a self-cover, is meaningful.


Using the word “Love” as an album theme for the first time 
—— Your new album “ai/SOlate”. What are the feelings behind the title?
 
Inside the 6 songs lies what I’ve done for the past 5 years, and based on that, how I poured what I want to say about “Now” into them. I had never used the word “Love” in my songs ever before but, in making “Unknown Mother Goose” I noticed that I was using “Love” in a positive way, and that, ahh I’ve finally become someone who’s able to incorporate this word into my lyrics. 

It wasn’t as if I was consciously trying to preach of “Love” as a theme either, it’s just that when I was putting what I wanted to say into words, “Love” was what popped out. Here is where I reached, sort of feeling but, also, that I was too late, sort of that I finally got this out, yet at the same time, that here is the start of everything to come. With that one of the meanings behind “ai/SOlate” is “Love that came out at last.”
 —— Ai (Love) /SOlate.
 Yep. And, at the same time, I have this feeling that I need to fulfill myself, that I’m always fighting a battle completely alone and unaided, that’s the concept of Hitorie too but, I have this sense that I need to rely on the thing called aloneness. 

That’s why it’s Isolate = standing alone or separated. It’s that sort of strength in nuance, that beauty, overlapping with the word “Love”, that lead to this title. “Connections with others” is a “love” that opposes “isolation”. It’s as if they’re antonyms but, I think they’re more like, the front and back of one.

—— After listening to the album and now looking back at the title, it really makes sense.
 I get the impression that the people who listen to Hitorie probably react the most to that sort of thing, so I wanted to convey the message, to each and everyone of you who listen to Hitorie, that you guys should never sacrifice your feelings. 

 Remembering about yourself through interactions with teenagers 
 —— So, I would like to ask about your past experiences with part-time jobs but, according to the story you had been a private tutor? 

More like a cram school teacher, than a private tutor. At the college I went to, my friends were all talking about how the jobs with good pay were private tutors or cram school teachers, so I wasn’t an exception of the trend. My friend introduced me to a cram school and I started working there part-time.
 Yet that was a private tutoring cram school so, I used to teach middle-high schoolers one-on-one, in this space that was full by the time two people got in it.

—— What subjects did you teach?
 I did every subject, for college and high school acceptance exams.

 ——Was there anything that left an impression on you? 

Everyone I taught was about halfway through their teen years… Probably most of them were in their 3rd year of middle school. Is it just me, or are those the craziest years (laughing). They’re being influenced by so much, while having to decide on so much. When I think about myself when I was 15 years old, I feel that there was so much decision being forced upon me, it’s such an important year I think. 

There’s so much that you don’t want to give up, while you’re still so vulnerable to other people’s influences, they’re hard years, where you have so much trouble sharing your feelings well with other people. In confronting people of that generation one by one, I was realizing what it’s like to be a teenager, and, obviously that led to me looking back on myself. Now that I think about, in talking face-to-face with people of a generation younger than mine, I think that they actually taught me more than I taught them.
 —— That said though, with teenagers distressed by the exams ahead of them, aren’t their personalities all over the place. Did you struggle?
 Ahh, there was a rambunctious brat (laughing). They would always come 30 or 40 minutes late to the lesson, and they would look away from me while we were talking, and they wouldn’t focus. I had really struggled but, in the end we became friendly. I was so happy when they got accepted into the high school of their choice, and came running telling me “I passed!”.

—— That is a happy event.

I had become a cram school teacher, for the reasons I had said before but, because I heard that the pay was good, and that it relatively easy. Yet when I actually did it, and I had to prepare all the lessons, reviews and such, the return for all my time and effort wasn’t exactly good (laughing).

There was a lot of difficulties. That’s only natural, when I think about it now but. I think the reason I sucked it up for three years, was because I had so much fun talking to so many people.

Forgotten meaningful experiences

—— Was that the only part-time job you’ve done? 

Yes. I’ve never done any other. I don’t actually have much real-world experience. 
 —— Is there any part-time job that you sort of wish you did, looking back now? 
 Maybe, a waiter at an izakaya. Bars like that seem so hectic. There’s people from generations older and younger, there’s people who are drunk as hell. Yet, in being able to come into contact with those sort of people, thinking about what those sort of people are capable of, taking in interesting parts from them. Then how you yourself react to all that, it all isn’t quite different from how I make music now. Or I think.

You interact with others no matter what your job is but, as a place I think that bars have the most diversity and chaos, or I would say (laughing). The people who do it surely have a crazily difficult time but, I bet it’s a good experience.
 —— Though, judging by your story, your experiences as a cram school teacher seem to still be alive in your current self as well.

I do really think so. Honestly, before this interview, I had completely forgotten the fact that had done that part-time job (nervous laughing). Because it’s not at the core of my activities. Yet still, in remembering about it like this, I think there’s parts that reflect what I do now.

That which is born from human relations… I think that is something that converges with music production. Besides, by coming in contact with middle schoolers and high schoolers, now I think that’s absolutely a part of what made me want to start my life with Vocaloid. There’s no way I’m wrong with when I say that my interactions with the younger generations are connected to my productions. Everything is connected. 
 —— So it’s an important experience when you think about it. 
It’s important, isn’t it. It definitely had an impact on my life afterwards. I hadn’t talked about it up until now but, after this I might try not to forget about my part-time job when I talk about myself (laughing).