#well this is fansubbing but it goes in this tag too

[mechaseraph]

Duel Masters Win episode 1-5 English subbed (not clickbait)

come get you card gamers juice over here

[newhologram]

Fukai Mori - Do As Infinity lyrics and translation

ᵁˢᵘᵃˡ ᵈᶦˢᶜˡᵃᶦᵐᵉʳ: ᴵ’ᵐ ᵃ ᴶᴾ ˢᵗᵘᵈᵉⁿᵗ, ⁿᵒᵗ ᶠˡᵘᵉⁿᵗ, ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ˡᵉᵃʳⁿᶦⁿᵍ. ᴵ ᵃˡˢᵒ ᵗʳʸ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵈᵒ ˡᶦᵗᵉʳᵃˡ ᵗʳᵃⁿˢˡᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿˢ ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ᶦᵗ ᶜᵃⁿ ᶠᵉᵉˡ ˢᵗᵃˡᵉ. ᴵᵗ’ˢ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ᶦᵐᵖᵒʳᵗᵃⁿᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵐᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵖʳᵉˢᵉʳᵛᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵉᵉˡᶦⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵃⁿ ᵗᵒ ᵍᶦᵛᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃ ᵇᵒʳᶦⁿᵍ ᵈᶦʳᵉᶜᵗ ᵗʳᵃⁿˢˡᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ. A classic song that most anime fans grew up hearing late at night, famous for being the 2nd ending song for Inuyasha and helping a lot more people fall in love with the titular character's hot older brother Sesshoumaru. I listened to a lot of Do As Infinity in highschool, and this song always stayed a favorite. There's a well-known clip of the band performing Fukai Mori in which Tomiko Van, the lead vocalist, expresses that this song is special to her and that she was feeling emotional. She seemed to struggle and missed a few lyrics as the emotions took over. From this clip came a rumor that the song was written in response to the grief she experienced when a friend took their own life. This is most likely false, as some sources say the song was written by the band's former composer Dai Nagao before they officially debuted. Even though it was just sort of an urban legend, because of how it spread, a lot of people to this day associate this song with loss and grief, including myself. I listened to this song a lot when my cat was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. After she passed in 2013, I stopped listening to it for a long time because it was too painful. Even to this day, I choked up a lot listening to it while I translated it. The past few years have been a lot of intense mourning, and this year it's really hitting me hard. So I was drawn to close out 2022 with this song. Whatever the true story is, it's a powerful and beautifully written song that speaks of the conflict between wanting to hide our hearts away in order to protect ourselves, and wanting to live in the moment even if it's painful.

Fansub here preview here Gifsets will be in my gifs tag More translations Like my J-Pop translations? Donate to my ko-fi or become a Patron.

Translation, romaji, and kana below

-----

In the deep, deep center of the forest I'm sure that even now The hearts we leave behind remain hidden

Without the strength keep searching Completely worn out Each person disappears into the infinite darkness

Even if I kept my heart small, maybe I'll still be able to find it

As we live on We lose ourselves little by little Facades and lies wrapping us up Until we're frozen in place, unable to cry out

The blue, blue color of the sky goes unnoticed As each passing day changes

If we go beyond these made-up systems We'll live in the moment And our rusted hearts will beat again

If we can grasp the rhythm of time, will we be able to fly once more?

As we wander on We live life wherever it takes us I still believe in the search for light So I'll walk with you now

As we live on We lose ourselves little by little Facades and lies wrapping us up Until we're frozen in place, unable to cry out

As we wander on We live life wherever it takes us Looking back, we close off the path we took And we walk on for eternity

Frozen in place, unable to cry out We'll live on for eternity

-----

fukai fukai mori no oku ni ima mo kitto okizari ni shita kokoro kakushiteru yo

sagasu hodo no chikara mo naku tsukarehateta hitobito wa eien no yami ni kieru

chiisai mama nara kitto ima demo mieta kana

boku-tachi wa ikiru hodo ni nakushiteku sukoshi zutsu itsuwari ya uso wo matoi tachisukumu koe mo naku

aoi aoi sora no iro mo kidzukanai mama sugite yuku mainichi ga kawatte yuku

tsukurareta wakugumi wo koe ima wo ikite sabitsuita kokoro mata ugokidasu yo

toki no RIZUMU wo shireba mou ichido toberu darou

boku-tachi wa samayoi nagara ikite yuku doko made mo shinjiteru hikari motome arukidasu kimi to ima

boku-tachi wa ikiru hodo ni nakushiteku sukoshi zutsu itsuwari ya uso wo matoi tachisukumu koe mo naku

boku-tachi wa samayoi nagara ikite yuku doko made mo furikaeru michi wo tozashi aruiteku eien ni

tachisukumu koe mo naku ikite yuku eien ni

-----

深い深い森の奥に 今もきっと 置きざりにした心 隠してるよ

探すほどの力もなく 疲れ果てた 人々は永遠の 闇に消える

小さいままなら きっと 今でも見えたかな

僕たちは 生きるほどに 失くしてく 少しずつ 偽りや 嘘をまとい 立ちすくむ 声もなく

蒼い蒼い空の色も 気付かないまま 過ぎてゆく毎日が 変わってゆく

つくられた枠組みを越え 今を生きて 錆びついた 心また動き出すよ

時のリズムを知れば もう一度 飛べるだろう

僕たちは さまよいながら 生きてゆく どこまでも 信じてる 光求め 歩きだす 君と今

僕たちは 生きるほどに 失くしてく 少しずつ 偽りや 嘘をまとい 立ちすくむ 声もなく

僕たちは さまよいながら 生きてゆく どこまでも 振り返る 道をとざし 歩いてく 永遠に

立ちすくむ 声もなく 生きてゆく 永遠に

[lovelypurplefox]

I got him!!!

Part 1

Part 2

So… last week, I made a post showing off my Taruruuto plushies. And in part 2, I said that there was another one I was missing which I couldn’t find on ebay and it led me using a service called Japan Rabbit to help me buy it.

Today… I got him! And Japan Rabbit is legit! But dear god… I paid $40+. One for their service and one for shipping. And what’s worse, I needed to sign for my package and FedEx’s website was having issues where I couldn’t do it online. I was worried it would come by the time I leave to head out for my art class (I have it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). With plushies I get, I don’t need to sign my packages but boy I woke up early and I was anxious as heck. The anxiety was kicking in strong.

But, I was waiting outside in the cold and I was almost mad; nearly was gonna call FedEx. But FedEx arrived and I signed the screen and got him! The guy who delivered my package was nice. Niruru (who is Taruruuto’s rabbit friend) is here! With the tag too. And I guess my Taruruuto plush collection is completed. It’s pretty small too, but it goes well in between Taru and Mimora.

Never buying from Japan Rabbit again… but I would recommend them if you’re looking for stuff that’s in Japan. :)

Go check out Magical Taruruuto! It currently getting fansubs! I love the anime so much. :)

UPDATE: IT SQUEAKS!!!!

[viva-el-belt-libre]

Comparing Yashahime's Translations #3

We are back to a new edition of Viva Compares Translations or Something Like That! You can read parts 1 and 2 on my blog, under the tag "yashahime translation comp".

In this edition: Houshi-Sama!

Ah, yes, one of the classic Translations from Japanese discussions! What the eff do you do with the honorifics?

If you are a fan translator (fansub, scanlations, etc) you will probably use it. Your audience is the die-hard fan who is already used to it. But if you are an official translator for manga or anime you probably won't use it, because you are hoping to reach a wider audience, one that has absolutely no idea what the hell those honorifics mean, and you are not about to alienate them. It's better to figure out some other way to show formality.

As expected, none of the languages I analyzed used honorifics, but they still leave Miroku with a bunch of different names, because just calling him "monk" won't do for most of them. It would be awkward, nobody speaks like that naturally, and you want it to sound as natural as possible.

Anyway, let's focus on Sango, who famously never ever called him by his name in the original Japanese. She refers to him twice. The first when she is talking to Kagome about their children's names, when she actually doesn't say houshi-sama at all; and the second when she saves him in the battle, when she does call him houshi-sama.

For the first mention, English and French choose to just use his name. That's what wives do I guess, call their husbands by their names.

Portuguese just dodges this bullet. Kagome mentions his name right after, so they get away with just saying "he" (ele). We know who Sango is talking about anyway.

[and by "he" they don't mean Yotsume, even though he is the one in the shot.]

But finally we have my favourite. Spanish just goes all in. Oh, Sango only uses his religious title? I'll give you a religious title.

The sentences are a little different between Latin American and European, but they both use the same term. Su excelencia. Holy-moly, I love it.

Moving on to the next scene, most of the trends remain.

Spanish keeps the Excelencia.

God, I love it so much.

English is the one to just omit the pronoun this time.

French goes with his name again.

I know it looks like they omitted the rest of the sentence, but it's on the next block of text, I couldn't be bothered to print because it's not relevant to this. I even double checked to see if she used the formal "vous", but no. Just the familiar "tu".

And Portuguese shines by moving to the other direction entirely.

Querido. "My dear".

Yep, Sango in Portuguese does not use his name (in this episode), she uses sweet terms of endearment. Which is very on brand for Brazilians, so the goal of making it sound natural was 100% achieved. Not what I would have gone with (my dream translation was "o senhor meu marido"), but I guess my suggestion would be too long for subtitles.

That is such a wife-y thing to say, and like one of those old time-y wives as well. Beautiful. I love when translators get playful like that.

On the next issue I'll keep on the Miroku theme, but this time on how to translate Kohaku's ani-ue.

[spockandawe]

HEY THERE, you have me interested in The Untamed but I'm a little lost as to where to start, there's both a 50 episode normal version and a 20 episode special edition, which should I watch/start with? Also WHAT does your svsss tag stand for? I'm seeing "The Untamed" and "Chén Qíng Lìng" and "Mo Dao Zu Shi" and "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" thrown around as synonyms or related pieces of media, but nothing with svsss!

Sure thing!!

Okay, to start with, I’d definitely go with the 50-episode version. It’s a Lot, and there is some padding added to the story compared to the original book, but twenty episodes seems really, really short to do justice to the central plot 

(a quick skim of google tells me that the special edition leans harder into the original novel’s gayness, which the show has to be coy about, because china. i think there are expanded scenes featuring the two leads, which is awesome, because their acting is AMAZING, but that just means the plot scenes are even more compressed. I saw at least one person recommend that you not do the special edition unless you’ve consumed the story in at least one other more standard format already)

Also! Iirc, the show is available on youtube and netflix, among other platforms, though those two are wonderfully accessible. However, comma, I do hear from people fluent in chinese that the subtitles sometimes are inaccurate in unnecessary/unfortunate ways. From what I hear, viki has the best complete set of subtitles (I think there may be fansub projects in progress, but I am not at all in touch with those. I still haven’t watched the show myself).

And the general summary of my current webnovel fixation! There’s this webnovel author who goes by mxtx, who currently has three complete books out, which have all been translated into english. Then after I finished those, I started branching out into other authors and webnovels, though I’m not too deep into that end of the pool yet. I’ll break each book into a separate paragraph for clarity. 

Oh, and. Each of these books is explicitly gay, and set in ancient fantasy china, in a wuxia/xianxia setting, which I’m not too familiar with myself, but I believe it functions a lot like how authors will use ‘ancient fantasy europe’ as a playground where they don’t necessarily need to match up to established countries/cities/etc, but they expect readers to recognize certain conventions, like I’d be able to recognize a western author writing a basic feudal setting, or recognize witches and wizards, without them explaining the whole thing from the bottom up. Since I’m not familiar, it raised the difficulty level a little for me to get into the genre, but the webnovel translators tend to use footnotes and I picked up a lot as I went on.

(if you are interested in any of these, novelupdates.com is a good central resource collecting links to various fan translation projects)

So! Mxtx. Her earliest book is The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS), which is also the shortest and most linear of her books. The general premise is that a guy who’s been hate-reading this (straight) stallion harem webnovel with a dark protagonist. He goes to bed, and wakes up in the novel, as the protagonist’s dickbag teacher, who is doomed to eventually die horribly. He wants to not die, and is also a decent human being, so the book follows the “original” novel derailing from its intended path, and accidentally getting super duper gay. This one is about to come out in donghua form, but I think that may be its first non-book adaption.

Her second book, which was adapted into The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling (CQL), is also known as The Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS), which really manages to be the hardest of her books to summarize. Wei Wuxian, the grandmaster of demonic cultivation, dies. Thirteen years later, he wakes up in someone else’s body. Most of the world would like him to stay dead, tbh, but he’s a good egg, and he and his old friend(????) go forth and solve a necromantic mystery together, and also there is romance-romance and ten million family feelings. This one gets nonlinear, with several extended flashback sequences, and the story STARTS at about the midway point of the plot. This has been adapted into an audio drama at least once, a manhua, a donghua, and now a live action show, so it goes by a million different names in its various formats.

Her third book, and the LONGEST, is Heaven Official’s Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu (TGCF), and oh my god, it’s so long, and I love it so, so much. This gets into high fantasy much  more than the other two, including the idea that as people develop their cultivation and powers, they may eventually achieve immortality and ascend to the heavens. The story follows Xie Lian who achieved immortality and ascended to heaven! And then fell. And then ascended! And fell again. Eight hundred years later, he ascends for the third time. He meets Hua Cheng, the ridiculously powerful ghost king, who most of the other immortals are terrified of. But Hua Cheng seems to like Xie Lian! And Xie Lian thinks Hua Cheng is a sweet boy! (hua cheng is a sweet boy, but only for xie lian). This also has extended flashback sequences, but is a more linear story than MDZS, I think. Also it made me cry, which, wow, rude. I love it so incredibly much. This also exists as a manhua, but I think it’s still being published? I haven’t read it yet.

NOW. Mxtx is working on a fourth book, but it’s not out in chinese yet, never mind english. But I needed More. I was getting some SVSSS vibes from this one other book, which, *wobbly hand motions*, but I am enjoying the hell out of this book purely for its own sake.

Meatbun is an author with other books that I haven’t read yet, but I am currently in the middle of The Husky And His White Cat Shizun/Er Ha He Ta De Bai Mo Shi Zun (Erha/2ha), which is at this moment being adapted to a live action tv show called Immortality. There are MANY warnings that go with this book, though the google docs translation files do a good job of placing warnings at the front of every document and in front of relevant chapters. The general premise! Mo Ran basically conquered the entire world, put down all resistance by force, and was a super powerful but Kinda Dumb emperor. As part of this, he took his old teacher, who he despised with a burning passion, prisoner, and abused him a Lot. The story starts as rebels try to mount an assault on his palace, and Mo Ran’s cousin gets impatient with how slowly things are moving and runs ahead of the group. He finds that (suicide warning:) Mo Ran has... taken poison, and is in the middle of dying. This doesn’t stick. He wakes up as a teenager, apparently having traveled back in time, and starts living through events again, with the knowledge of his past life. It took me a while to warm up to this story, but ohhhh my goodness, it’s so TASTY. The translation for this one is ongoing, and I am in AGONY waiting for further updates.

So those are the ones I’m currently into and mostly blogging about! I also read Dreamer In The Spring Boudoir, mostly because feynite wrote an SVSSS fic set in the universe of that novel, which was good in some ways, left me cold in others (and the original novel is straight, with a society with rigid gender roles, so making it super gay in the fic made the setting much more interesting to me). Meatbun has other writing, which I haven’t sampled yet, but I am definitely interested in doing that sometime soon. 

Sorry, I know this is a LOT, so if you have any other questions feel free to ask me!! I got into these mostly via being interested in the untamed, so I read them as 1) mdzs, 2) svsss, 3) tgcf, 4) erha, which was an order that worked well for me. But if someone was looking for a general order to read them in, independent of that, I might suggest 1) svsss, 2) mdzs, 3) tgcf, 4) erha. They’re all really good, and scratch different emotional itches, and each of them has at least a few characters who sucker-punch me RIGHT in the goddamn heart. They’ve been a HUGE help for me dealing with the restlessness and/or apathy of quarantine, so I’ve been evangelizing them to pretty much anyone who will listen to me, hahaha

[skammovistarplus]

Culture and Translation - S01 E02 C04-C07 and SKAM+ Clip 1

Hi hi! Okay, so I’ve both gotten a bunch of followers and the tag is a lot more poppin since the last time I posted one of these. Quick explanation: when I got into og Skam, I felt I had to piece together a lot of the cultural context behind it, such as, yes, Russetiden, but also stuff like the cost of a bunad or sex without protection. I’ve also read from multiple Norwegian people that the fansubs didn’t do justice to the slang Skam characters use. So these posts provide cultural context. They also provide explanations for the translation I went with in the subs and the best approximation to the slang the Skam España characters use on the show in the cases where I felt the translation didn’t fully do justice to the actual dialogue.

Note: these posts are based on my own subs/translations, so they might not make as much sense if you hadn’t watched those.

Note 2: You can check the culture and translation tag for the rest of the posts.

CLIP 4: In which I learn that a dj system is not a mixer.

This clip was shot in the Pinar de Chamartín subway station. It’s the only station that connects another line with lines 1 and 4, and the show thanks Metro Ligero in the credits. Pinar de Chamartín is a Metro Ligero subway station. (There are several kinds, depending on which company manages the station.) They probably used this station because it’s big and doesn’t get a lot of commuters. Otherwise, it’s completely out of the way of anything these characters would go to.

Hola acosadora! (“Hi creeper!”): would be closer in meaning to, “hi, harasser!” (which doesn’t flow well in English) or “hi, stalker!” (but Eva uses the word in English right after). So creeper it is.

Dale duro (Subs: Hit it hard): I don’t really have any comment about this, other than it seems to be Lucas’ signature phrase. He’s always saying it.

La gente se cree que hacen una movida los DJs que flipas (“People think DJs are some kind of crazy wizards”) Holy shit, I had so much trouble with this sentence. I wish I knew whether this line was on the original script or if Jorge’s actor reworded it. As per the FormulaTV article, the actors get to reword lines if they think it’d sound more natural some other way. Alas, I couldn’t think of how to translate “movida” in this context (it comes up again later), so I settled for the line in the subs. Let’s just say that the implication is that DJs are almost unknowable in their mad DJ skillz, what with the “movida” and the verb “flipar” that we’ve seen so often at this point. I find my translation much inferior to Jorge’s line, which provides such a vivid visual and is hilarious.

Hablando de punchi punchi (“Speaking of sick beats”): Jorge obviously doesn’t say sick beats, but he’s trying for an onomatopoeia for the beat in dance songs. There are a lot of variants in Spanish for this specific purpose of talking about the beat in a song. Another popular one is, “chunda chunda.”  I’m actually really proud of how I translated this line, lol. Too bad I can’t put it on a resume.

“¿Te renta?” is another idiom that often comes up on Skam España. I’ve been told it’s Madrileño slang, but I’ve personally never used it or heard it before the show. (Which doesn’t mean it’s not in use, lol, just that it hasn’t made its way to me yet.) A literal translation would be, “Is it worth it?” Jorge asks Lucas whether it’d be worth it to Lucas to do something this weekend, and Lucas responds going out for beers would be worth it to him. In this case, I didn’t go for the literal translation as this scene is already too long and involved to be throwing more idioms into the mix. Other times, I’ve translated it as is, because I do feel it sums Madrileños up well. Like, we can’t be bothered to do anything or go anywhere if we don’t feel it’s worth it.

Keli (“House”): This has been Madrileño slang for decades at this point. It just means house.

Sí, movidas, ya sabes (“Yeah, shit, you know”): “Movidas” comes up again, this time in the context of Lucas’ home life. Basically, there’s trouble, but the use of “movidas” implies movement, i.e. it’s an active, ongoing situation.

Tengo un programita (“I have some ‘wares”): The literal translation is, “I have a little software,” but I remembered downloading completely legal software from sketchy websites, which would call them ‘warez.’ I thought this phrasing would be more vivid for English speakers. Also, there’s really nothing about Jorge’s persona that suggests this software would’ve been obtained legally, so yeah.

It’s unclear what part of what Eva is saying Jorge reacts to when he says, “Fuck…” Personally, I think he’s impressed that Eva has scammed a rich dude out of an invite to that huge-ass house. But it could also be that he’s proud she’s making plans with the girl squad! Either way, he’s impressed!

Pico, pala, pico, pala (“Joke, flirt, joke, flirt”): OKAY. So, the literal translation of this is, “Pick, shovel, pick, shovel.” This is fairly common Spanish slang for the process of flirting with a girl until she is won over, or she is less reluctant to flirt back. Visually, it makes you think of a miner having to put in long hours of exhausting physical work in order to get results. It makes it sound like more scummy than it is, kind of? I translated it as “joke, flirt, joke, flirt,” because that’s what it usually amounts to. As we’ve seen from Jorge, he does voices, gives odd nicknames and generally aims to be cute in a cheesy way. That is the kind of techniques that are meant to win a girl over, or at least get her to joke along with you.

One more objectionable maneuver, which would still fall under the umbrella of pick and shovel, would be Cristian’s “my DMs aren’t working” move to get Eva to give him her cellphone number.

Final lines from the clip that didn’t make it to the episode:

Eva: But, okay, no. Save up or ask your parents to get it for your b-day, no?

Jorge: Nah, maybe I’ll just get one secondhand.

Lucas: And you lend it to me.

Jorge: Okay.

Lucas: But you can’t… [cuts off]

I love the way all the dj system talk ended up having no impact whatsoever on the plot. It’s not like I had to look specific terms or anything.

CLIP 5: The girl squad chooses an impractical, yet picturesque, meeting point

Eva is waiting right outside Tribunal subway station. I’ve met up with friends at this station probably since I was allowed to hang out on my own, lol.

You can barely make out a building behind the girls. It’s this one: Museum of History of Madrid. Entrance is free, and it has tons of cool stuff to check out.

The girls have a quick chat on how they’ve dressed up for Cristian’s party. Cris says it was about time they had a chance to dress up. Nora says she put on one of her daily outfits, but the girls don’t buy it and tease her over it. Honestly, she doesn’t look overdressed at all? She wore an actual dress for New Year’s Eve.

Maripili! (“Maripili!”): Maripili is a name, which Nora randomly uses to call Viri over. It doesn’t seem to be a meme, so I think Nora is just teasing Viri with a name that sounds dated and cutesy. It’s very gentle teasing though.

Al chino (“To the convenience store”): Eva instructs the girls to go to “el chino,”  which is slang for a type of convenience store owned by immigrants. These are usually Chinese immigrants, hence the name, but stores owned by Maghrebi and Latinx immigrants are also fairly common. The name “chino” has stuck regardless. These convenience stores sell a small range of foodstuffs, such as canned food, microwavable food, some fruit and vegetables, ice cream, bread, and, as the scene implies, booze. They also remain open longer than most grocery store chains, often until 23:30 on a weekday and way past midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. They’re not allowed to sell alcohol to minors, but I guess they don’t mind breaking the law? I don’t know, guys, we got older students to buy us booze lol.

Que me acaba de dar un cringe (“I just cringed a lot”): “Cringe” is an English loanword, which is obviously the word cringe.

Tú la que más, tú la que más (“You’re partying the hardest, you are”): The literal translation is: “You’re the most, you’re the most.” It’s implied that whichever girl is “you” (it’s the singular form, so Cris doesn’t mean all of the girls) is doing something the most, but the sentence doesn’t have a verb. Basically, it’s a way of hyping themselves up for the party. I assumed Cris meant “partying” from context, but it’s not explicit.

In the episode, clip 5 became two different clips to account for the train ride. That’s why there’s a timestamp in the middle of the clip when you watch the episode version.

Cristián lives in Pozuelo de Alarcón, an affluent Madrid suburb with its own city hall. At the time, twitter commentary from Spanish viewers was critical of the show choosing to make the girls meet in Tribunal, because public transit from Tribunal to Pozuelo takes too many connections and it’s not like Madrid isn’t rife with convenience stores. I included both the route the girls take, and an alternate for ur edification.

I just realized that when Viri goes over to greet Lara, you can clearly hear Lara saying, “what’s up, dude?” in response.

And also, when Eva begs Nora not to leave her alone, Nora teases Eva by saying the sentence back to her. That’s why Eva laughs and says Nora is being dumb.

A saco (“going all out”): “A saco” is that kind of slang that’s hard to translate, but Eva means that Viri is assertively taking the lead in pursuing (and making it clear she wants to make out with) ALEJANDRO, rather than waiting for him to notice her.

CLIP 6: Viri lost a battle, but she didn’t lose the war!  

Nora’s ringtone is so… She truly leaves me speechless sometimes.

No soy celoso (“I’m not possessive”): I translated “celoso” as possessive, because if I translated it as “jealous” it would mean that Cristian, right this moment, doesn’t feel jealous of Jorge. In fact, what Cristian is saying that this is a general personality trait of his, like being blond. He is totally chill with any and all girls he is interested in having boyfriends. That’s not at all an obstacle!

It’s also a very corny thing Spanish guys say all the time when a girl says she’s taken, hence Eva’s uncomfortable smile in response.

As Inés and Alicia greet ALEJANDRO, he seems pretty annoyed by Viri floating around him, clearly laying a claim on him. The three of them intentionally crowd Viri out.

CLIP 7: Hard work pays off

En doce siglos (“in twelve centuries”): This is Amira’s catchphrase for measuring time. She also uses it during the truth or dare game.

One of the season 1 mysteries: what did Alicia say to Inés to make her leave so quickly? In hindsight, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jorge, but that was one of the popular theories at the time.

Another detail: Cristian is behind Inés, seemingly on her side of this girl fight. ALEJANDRO’s crew seems to be pretty friendly with Inés and Alicia. They celebrated Inés’ birthday together, and often post ig stories together.

Social media:

I already mentioned this in a post, but Cris’ instagram makes it very obvious that Cris is a stoner. Her rainbow tops are peak Spanish stoner girl fashion, the soap video she regrammed is the sort of thing a stoner would be fascinated by, she follows ifyouhigh and highpeopledoingstuff, and she’s holding a blunt for her first ever ig pic. So yeah. I also just realized the implications, seeing she’s the s2 main. I don’t think she’ll lose a bunch of weed, but she might smoke it with 🐸?

“Perezón,” i.e. the title of clip 4, would literally translate to sloth or laziness, but its actual meaning is “what a drag,” as in “that party/those people/going to that rally is such a drag.”

Viri’s house is pretty basic-looking. What we can see of it looks like a working class household, but it isn’t the borderline hoarder situation in Vilde’s clip.

Eva watches an 11-episode show, which may or may not be Skam s1. The fun thing is she promises she won’t watch episode 12. The NYE special is listed as episode12 on the Movistar site.

Jorge got ahold of a charger after midnight!  

SKAM+ #1:

This clip takes place between episode 2 clips 6 and 7. Specifically, 20 minutes before the last clip.

Aitana is a Spanish singer born in 1999. She became famous thanks to talent show Operación Triunfo, where she came in second. At the time season 1 aired, she had only dropped two songs, Lo Malo with Ana Guerra, and Teléfono. Both of these songs played a prominent role on the show.

Cristian’s dad works at a record label! Explains Cristian’s huge ass house and mixing room!

ALEJANDRO asks Aitana where she’d like to hang out with him at Retiro Park. Retiro Park is one of the largest parks in Madrid. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park. It’s one of the most picturesque sights in the city and it’s overrun by people. So I don’t think it’s the place you want to take a celeb on a low-key date, but otherwise, good choice! Almost makes it seem like ALEJANDRO isn’t after sex!

Hasta yo preferiría a Aitana (“Even I’d rather Aitana”): That is… so lesbian of Viri.

Speaking of lesbians, Cris is also absolutely overcome by Aitana’s beauty.

In case you weren’t aware, Spaniards greet each other with two cheek kisses when we meet someone. Touching people’s hair without their permission, though, is still a no-no.  

[furederiko]

The 2nd episode of Kyuranger paves way for an intriguing Duo of Thieves!

- Our episode opens with "The Space Shogunate, Jark Matter has designated the insurgent force Rebellion's Kyurangers..." Wow. Looks like the Shogunate is controlling the media as well, because the news comes up really quick. LOL at that bounty photos. Even Lucky is showing a "For real?" expression on his headshot. Hahaha. - As hinted last week, we get to see two more core characters of this show. Namely, the golden-colored robot(?) Balance (VA: Yuuki Ono, whose image song as Wen Yang in "Dynasty Warriors" series is to-die-for), and the silver-haired humanoid Naga Rei (Taiki Yamazaki) whose name might be derived from 'Nagareboshi' that means 'Shooting Star' in Japanese. Gold and Silver? Yep, that's a bit on-the-nose, eh? Both of them are already introduced in the opening, so not really a surprise. This duo is located in an industrial planet called Planet Jigama, and are inhibiting contrasting personalities. Hmmm... - Hooo... interesting! Raptor is briefing Lucky and Garu about the Jark Matter's... pyramid organizational structure! We actually always had this in past titles, but I think this is the first time it's been charted so... neatly. Above the cannon fodd... er I mean Combatants, there are Malisters (Daikaan in Japanese) who are essentially the MotWs. In higher rank, there are Menasters (Karo) who represents the 88 constellation systems (That's A LOT). And on top is Don Armage himself as the Shogun. I think the more important part would be that top-left part, the "Lecture by Raptor 283", because she IS acting like a lecturer. A strict one at that. I told you last week that her personality would clash with Hammy's, and well... it's happening already. LOL. We need more of this internal conflicts! By the way, Over-Time has changed Dorado Yellow's naming from Sparda into Spada (as well as Planet Jagama into Jigama, and Malicestrate into Menasters), which might be more appropriate. So I'll be following suit in my reviews. - Updated opening sequence! Lucky and Garu are in it now. Judging from the preview and the pattern so far, we're going to get the complete (9 Kyurangers) version come episode 5! Hey, I just noticed the sequence actually includes scenes from this episode too. Hope this trend continues. Oh, and yeah, the Lacerta Kyu Globe (Tokage/Lizard) has also debuted in this episode! During the CM that is (Kyuranger Choco!!!)... LOL. - Dumb Lucky is trusting people TOO easily. I'm considering to call him Dumb-Luck from now on. In case you're wondering why Balance and Naga call themselves as BN Thieves, that's simply their initials put together. All those colored-skinned aliens reminds me of "Guardians of the Galaxy", but this diner scene also easily reminds me of Star Wars' Mos Eisley. Does this mean the BN Thieves are nods to Han Solo (or should I say, Duo)? I used to think that way last week, in that Naga might be serving as a Han-esque figure, while Balance as his Chewbacca. But it seems I might have been inaccurate. In fact, Naga's lack of emotion might be a nod to a particular Marvel's movie character instead: Drax the Destroyer! Then again, he also has that lack of social knowledge, that makes him feels like... a robot? A clone? Okay, hold that thought. Turns out everyone in his silver-haired planet also LOOKS the same. Creepy. Like, "Children of the Corn"-level creepy. By the way, Naga's actor looks so MUCH better without that silver wig. It's amazing the effect of make up to people, right? - Dumb-Luck is also very naive, isn't he? Or perhaps, too... optimistic? But that's why I can't hate him, because he's basically acting like a little brat. Speaking of personality, Balance is VERY lively. And he's sleazy too. I LOVE HIM already LOL. He reminds me of Hondo Ohnaka from "Star Wars REBELS". The fansub might not reflect it, but he has a habit of spouting slang and/or making wordplay in his speech. Like that line "Nice to meetcha!"? In Japanese he actually uses the word 'Shiku-yoro' instead of the spelling-correct 'Yoroshiku'. Perhaps, this is his character's signature style? He makes a fun pair with Naga though. One half who doesn't know how to express emotions (and longs to obtain ones), the other is expressing a little too much (without caring for other's emotions). There's a hint that Balance is just using Naga though, so I can't help but wonder how the two of them get together in the first place? Hmmm... - We have a big cast, and that's a fact. Which is probably why, the transformation and stylish roll calls are incorporated in the battle. I like this approach. Of course, this goes for the Kyurangers who are not taking the spotlight. In this case, it's the other Kyurangers beside Lucky, who plot-wise, are put to the side. That's both the advantage and disadvantage of having a big cast. - Our MotW is Malistrate Gammetsui, who seems to be based on... a turtle? Salamander? He's the boss of Jigama, and he's interested about the Kyuranger's 50 million bounty. But the team is divided into two, so which one will he target? Lucky for him, it's Dumb-Luck's team. What about the other team? Eridron (who shoots arrows, obviously, since he's from Sagittarius) himself deals with Spada and the rest. This is just episode 2, but already a Menaster is on the front line? And forcing our heroes to run for their life? NICE. After all, it's 9 Kyurangers against... the galaxy *sigh*. - Great Gawd, Dumb-Luck triggers the alarm on purpose, and calls it LUCK *smh*. He sees the good in everything, doesn't he? Holy twist, Balance actually SELLS OUT Lucky to Gammetsui. That's 'GOI-SU'!! (FYI, 'Sugoi' means 'Awesome', but you've probably known that already). All for the sake of the blue-colored treasure he's trying to steal. Technically, he's acting like the episode's 2nd MotW, much to Naga's dismay. Hence, the part where Naga chooses to be a 'friend' for Lucky and betrays him, gives Balance the shock of his life. Worse that that, Lucky actually believes that all these are merely Balance's plan? He IS that naive, eh? Wait till he knows the truth... - Which won't happen. LOL. Of course, Balance's conscience wins over him, thus he chooses to rescue Naga. It seems they are connected with a bond that's stronger than... wait a sec?! Why do they remind me of... C3PO and R2D2?!! OvO... Anyways, thanks to this rescue, we get to know who, or WHAT exactly Balance is. He's a machine organism who has the ability to control other machines. Basically, like the antagonists of "Chouriki Sentai Ohranger". Hmm... it'd be great if he is from one, right? Because that would make both series canon. Naga on the other hand, has the ability to freeze enemies just by glaring at them with his glowing green eyes. A neat nod to Greek Myth's Medusa, perhaps? - Balance wants to team up with Lucky to get loots, and also emotions for Naga. So definitely NOT in this to play a hero. He blatantly says this goal outloud, and Lucky's okay with it! I think it's good that these 2 new members have their own 'selfish' goals to be part of the Rebellion. In fact, we need more heroes who function in grey-areas like these. And nothing's wrong with that, because hey, they have awaken their Libra and Ophiucus Kyu Globes JUST because of that. Random trivia: in the recent 13 Zodiacs concept, Ophiucus is also a horoscope sign just like Libra. It's closely aligned after Scorpio, which will have a representation in this show very soon. - Yep, Balance and Naga are the focus characters, so they have the rights for a full transformation and roll call sequence. #4 The Trick-Star Libra Gold and #6 The Silent Star Ophiucus Silver make their debut! Before you complain that Leo Red is tagging along, do remember one thing for the sake of being fair: he hasn't had the chance to do these properly last week! XD. And yes, though many might be annoyed with it, I'm loving Libra Gold's dandy atttitude and attention-seeker poses too. It makes him stands out and... unique. At least audience would be worried that Naga might be in some bad company! Hahaha. Also... LOL at that not-so-subtle Kyu the Weapon's sales promotion. But never mind that, because the cool group finisher "All-Star Crash" is genuinely cool. - First 'earth'-based mecha battle and also first shot of the enlargement method for the show's MotW. Looks like all Jark Matters have the ability to do this, with the help of that weird Empire's symbol. I'm liking how Libra Voyager and Ophiucus Voyager have two forms, the spaceship one and humanoid. And the way the two practically kicks Chamaeleon Green and Dorado Yellow out of Kyuren-Oh? LOL to that. They even have their own finisher, the yo-yo slam "Kyuren-Oh! Trick Break! Super Galaxy". Due to the limb-changing concept, looks like TOEI can't rely on stock footage for the mecha's transformation and final moves this season. I hope this means we'll be getting a variety of new combination every week. - Since they have officially joined the team, Naga wears the Rebellion's uniform, while Balance? He gets a new paint-job. The best part of this closing scene, is already we're seeing personality clashes. The easy friction between Hammy's manner of speech with Balance, or how Balance and Spada seems to be on the same 'dandy' page. Whoops, that's not the closing scene. We get a quick glimpse of the next Kyuranger. This mysterious man (seriously? XD) has an Orange Kyu Globe, but his pendulum looks like a Kyu Globe too, and it's colored... Blue? Hmmm... intriguing! - Ending sequence is obviously updated as well. The BN Thieves are now included, and put center stage. It looks even crowded now, and we still have two more! At least the dance is fun, right?

Overall: This episode introduced two more characters, and more importantly two more different types of personalities. It's going to be interesting to see how they interact with the previous six members (including Raptor). The dynamic of Balance and Naga Rei was more than just intriguing or fun to watch, it evoked questions and mysteries as well. These are great potentials that are prime to be explored in future episodes, and I sincerely hope that will indeed be the case. After all, opportunities to dish out and develop every characters are just too good to ignore. On a side note, we're only in episode 2, and we already have seven Kyurangers. Do you think the plot is moving too fast? I mean, they could've simply made the BN Thieves intro into a 2-parter, right? If the show gathers all its core heroes in just 5 episodes, I wonder how the story will play out in the episodes that follow? Hmmm... Next week: Meet the Dragon Commander! Also, beware the sting of... Dopplegangers?

Episode 02 Score: 8 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: February 19th, 2017 - Version 04. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.