#How To YouTube Video Uploading on Japanese YouTube Channel

[yuikomorii]

did Rejet delete ataraaxia‘s account just like Robert Rogers 😭?

// Probably yeah. Although I get a lot of people can’t buy the games, I’m really against the idea of posting gameplays on YouTube, for the reason that this is a place Rejet is actively monitoring.

Western fans often don’t realize how differently Japanese companies operate. They tend to be much more conservative and place a stronger emphasis on copyright protection, so uploading content without permission directly violates their intellectual property rights. Many otome games also feature popular voice actors, and their contracts usually include strict clauses regarding how and where their voice work can be distributed. It’s not necessarily that the VAs don’t want others to experience the games, it’s just that allowing that kind of distribution would break the terms of their agreements.

If Rejet finds out that someone has uploaded the full gameplay on YouTube, the best-case scenario is that they’ll just take down the videos or the entire channel. The worst-case scenario? You could be sued and face legal consequences, even if you didn’t have bad intentions. T-T

And if this kind of behavior continues, Rejet might respond by region-locking their content again, just like they did a few years ago. 🥲

[davekat-sucks]

Daaaamn that last ask I made did numbers! I think I’m gonna do a part 2, the alpha version.

1st, some addendums:

1. I saw that reblog saying people were flanderizing Gamzee as being a religious healer and spiritual person when he’s a juggalo and I just wanna say, okay I did lean in hard on his spiritualism but you gotta remember Alternian juggalos are part of an obscure clown cult and Gamzee was heavily invested in Miracles so I still think he’d make a Yourube channel for spreading his gospel, but doubles as also a music review channel. He 100% is invested on who’s part of the rap game and wants to teach people how to spit bars. His rap game is just so ass people would rather watch his miracle videos instead. Also when he livestreams he does it on his unicycle to keep him “physically and mentally balanced” as he says

2: my headcanon is that everyone is alive and living on Earth C as adults because I can do anything when Lord English is dead.

3: I could not say enough how many combos everyone would interact each other. There’s some underrated dynamics here like Eridan being Rose’s #1 hater and claiming all her evidence and recordings of the horrorterrors summoning black magic can be scientifically proven to be fabricated, and when John steps in and says he knows when to spot a fake and this is 100% real Eridan just calls John a simp.

Now that that’s off of my chest, what is everyone else up to?

Alpha trolls/

Damara: she’s not a Youtuber, her aggression and comments usually get her banned from interacting with her other friends, she more uses Instagram and Pinterest to upload her story. It’s a lot of photos of landscapes, anime girls, and for some reason the interiors of mansions color shifted to be green. Her captions are all in japanese (or East Alternian) and usually vaguepost towards how she’s lost and abandoned, she wants to be alive and someone to be with her and understand what she’s actually saying and that everyone who has wronged her is going to inevitably suffer. Her posts usually get 1-2 likes and they’re from Rufioh and Aranea.

Rufioh: he is an anime news and fandom channel. He is quite the reputable journalist and consistently finds leaks and obscure interviews from creators to share what is coming soon for the anime industry. When he’s not making news he does speculation and powerscaling videos, a lot of “what if” ideas and top 10 lists for hottest anime baddies. How does Rufioh stay so much on top of anime news? You’d have to ask his ex-girlfriend.

Mituna: Guy Who Annoys You On Purpose. Mituna is someone who since has been left by his friends for his declined mental cognition decides to have fun by trying to make new friendships his way, unfortunately that way is his erratic and vulgar way. He likes to go on GTA V servers and Omegle chat rooms and annoy people. He likes to quip jokes, distract or overwhelm people with his rambling and his body language. He most especially likes when it gets quiet and he jumpscares everyone with a loud scream. It makes him laugh his full body suit off.

Kankri: Video Essay Breadtuber. He makes those 2-4 hour long videos stitched together and scripted about different pieces of pop-culture or the current thing on social media through a lens of social justice, but his version of social justice happens to be morally condescending and judgmental. The average title of his essays would be stuff like “Michael Bay’s Transformers, the uncritical advocate for the patriarchy.” And you know these get dislike bombed into hell and back. A surprising theme of many of his video essays is the themes of sex and family dynamics. These essays commonly conclude that the only liberating relationship is lesbian polyamory and men should be celibate to save their sperm for the next generation of people to be raised.

Meulin: 100% a drama channel that covers recent topics, like Penguin0 but Charlie is a cat lady and the video focus is much more on people than online trends. Meulin loves to speculate and draw diagrams on the personalities and types each person has and what other e-celebs are the most compatible with. This discussion goes off topic from the actual events happening and usually becomes a nuisance. The neat thing is all her videos have working subtitles, since she wants deaf people like her to enjoy her content as well!

Porrim: Lifestyle Blogger. Porrim wants to show the world there’s a different way for women to love by and their own way to go, so she bought a farm and raised herself in the homestead. She likes to do many things around the house, like home improvement, cattle handling, cooking and cleaning, and decoration. Her audience is such a mix because her subscriber base is both lesbians that want a pretty lady like her and misogynistic guys who view her as a “tradwife” who is missing a worthy husband. She has the most subscribers out of any channel, reaching 750k subscribers and getting her own Youtube awards.

Latula: She’s quite the gamer. She reviews video games and loves to livestream her playing various Esports titles like League of Legends or Street Fighter. She encourages her subscribers to stay physically fit and active, and her Youtube shorts consist entirely of a Go-Pro recording her doing sick skateboarding tricks. When she’s not recording anything she’s miserable and uses Mituna as an emotional crutch to keep her happy. Kankri also tries to call and text her, but Latula never replies.

Aranea: She loves to talk about things that happened and her opinion on them. She is the Sarah Z of the Homestuck cast. Her focus, similar to Sarah Z is also on fanfiction and fandom culture. Her Youtube channel has about 225k subscribers but her Tumblr blog only has 20k. Such is the rot of this hellsite.

Horuss: Men’s Advice Channel. The twist for Horuss that deviates himself from the likes of fitness YouTubers or pickup artists is he actually strives to be a Beta Male. He makes videos with titles like “don’t let the others get in your head, Beta is Better” or “Smile and keep quiet, you will be rewarded” and goes on and on about being submissive, obedient, and empathetic are actually the good things men should do and Alpha Males get it all wrong and push women away with their misguided masculinity.

Kurloz: he’s the silent type. His videos probably would be more akin to artistic performances or interpretative dancing. Kurloz’s way of dancing, however, is more akin to doing mime things and charades than bodily rhythmic motion and expressionism. In a way, doing mine shit is one of the greatest ways to express one’s self through silent theatre.

Cronus: He’s the nerd. To try and connect with humankind as much as oossible and be humankin he has tried to buy as much content and toys from human media as possible to connect and act like a human. He 100% has a wall of Funko Pops, and he wants to show you them.

Meenah: She’s a Sims Youtuber, but instead of making silly guys from cartoons and TV shows interact with each other, all her episodes involve her ex-friend group and the Alpha kids. She likes to play God, randomly rewarding and punishing her sims in ways she sees fit. She finally has the control she always wanted, and amazingly she has 400k people subscribed to her antics.

Wow the alpha trolls were quite a group, now onto more familiar faces!

Alpha kids/

Jane: baking and food palette channel! Her cooking skills are unrivaled, and she’s even sold a few books on how to cook like her. While her cookbooks are good for generally feeding yourself with delicious recipes, her Youtube channel is more focused on fun and entertaining an audience. Her spin is every plate she makes is treated like a detective story. The ingredients for the recipe are used as clues for a crime scene, and she even uses tape, chalk outlines, and utensils in plastic bags as props for her investigation. Every crime is solved when the culprit is revealed to be the completed dish and the crimes they commit vary from wanting to not be eaten, or first degree homicide against multiple minors (don’t worry the minors in this case are chicken eggs)

Roxy: Genetics and Cat videos. Roxy is a cat breeder Youtuber that wants to show you how to make a cat even without a mate, and she does this through the wonders of ectobiology! She has tips and tricks for how to set up your ectobiology machine, how to track your cat through space and time. How paradox clones are made and when you can retrieve your cat at the right time, and most importantly, how to store freak clones of your favorite pet. Dave has gone on her channel to explain and show how animals are preserved in resin (yeah remember that’s a thing Dave liked to do? Reread his introduction pages back on Act 2)

Dirk: Animation and Story channel. Trying to pick up off of Dave Strider’s work on Sweet Bri and Hella Jeff, Dirk has took it on his own to create the next generation of incredible irony. He has made a 134 episode comic series about Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff coming across a portal to a parallel universe where they meet their bizarro twins, Sweet Jeff and Hella Bro. The webseries has it all, a simple start full of lighthearted shitposting and comedy evolving into a metanarrative about the nature of humanity, the struggles between stoicism and the desire to be loved and vulnerable to others, a Geromy redemption arc and a plot thread involving the Mane Six from My Little Pony becoming REAL. It’s considered the greatest work of Internet culture since Problem Sleuth 2: The case of the Midnight Crew.

Jake: Reaction Channel. Jake does not have a creative bone in his body, and rarely an original thought, but what he absolutely loves to do is support his friends, so he made a reaction channel where he reacts to the videos other people have made. He’s reacted to a lot of content, like all of the Alpha and Beta kids content, Karkat’s rant videos, Equius’s electrical engineering work and even some aloha trolls like Latula and Mituna. It’s the lowest bar for Youtuber content but tbh Jake is a page and it’ll be a while until he reaches his full potential and starts making his true calling: videos of himself shooting things from very far away. He’s a Marksman still getting used to his aim.

Yeeeeah! I did it woooooo all alpha trolls and kids done!

These are so goddamn good!

[burinazar]

I've been giving some thought to "what is the best way for a person in 2024 to get into/get back into Sound Horizon" as I reconnect with it myself (the more I do so the more I realize how massively and almost ridiculously influential it was to what i like in storytelling...)

I'd like to post more about some options now and then. Lately I've enjoyed these Youtube uploads by QueenoftheHorizon of the album Elysion, which are bundled with not only translations but tons of additional notes and information.

Elysion is, like certain others of Sound Horizon's albums, a series of interconnected stories with tragic thematic elements in common and a general framing device in the form of one story that connects them; in this case the framing story is that of a father and daughter -- an assassin and his sickly albino child El, both of whom pass away in the events of the first song. The child hopes they will somehow reunite someday in Paradise. After death, the father's soul begins to wander, seeking a person conceptualized as 'Elys' (representing the longing for his lost daughter), and we see the tragic stories of various other girls that his soul perceives, wondering if they are the one he seeks...

Elysion was probably the first Sound Horizon album I heard (i'm 70% sure a stage show video of "Ark" was my actual intro to Sound Horizon; since it was like 15 years ago and I rapidly watched as much as I could of them in the ensuing hours and days the memory is unclear haha.) This channel and playlist first went up in 2010 so, and thus wouldn't have been around when I first got into Sanhora in idk ~2008, which is a pity, because they're a wonderful entry point for a canon that can be inaccessible to those who speak little or no Japanese -- in addition to the English translations themselves in each video, the uploader has packed the video notes with explanation and analysis of each song's associated story.

If you are interested in "Elysion" as an entry point to Sound Horizon, I highly recommend watching the videos on this playlist and reading both the video descriptions and the pinned comment for each list, for both translations and a wonderfully detailed explanation and further analysis of each story. For example, the one for Ark elaborately lists out not just the events that are likely to have transpired within the song but also alternative explanations to the common fandom interpretation as well as highlights of extra material (ex. a two-chapter special manga release) that support the ambiguity of interpretation.

Also, definitely check both the video notes and the top comment, where the uploader put translator notes. Here are some of the uploader's translation notes for "Baroque" -- they really are amazingly thorough and interesting, and are a can't miss if you are a language learner yourself who wants to connect with and understand the original wording as much as possible:

Elysion also has music videos and stage shows (ex., Ark stage, Stardust stage, El no Rakuen MV. 'Probably-scary doll' warning for that last one-- in fact the use of BJDs in their shows and videos is how I first heard of Sound Horizon lol, they were being discussed on Den of Angels.) This is material that I think is wonderful and, as mentioned, this kind of thing is the way I personally first experienced the tales; anyone who enjoys these uploads will hopefully go on to look them up. However, the stage shows and MVs are targeted at existing fans and often assume the audience already knows the story (or at the very least speaks Japanese!), so for anyone who doesn't speak fluent Japanese and wants to get the meaning of the songs, their plot and theme and characters, this is really an unbeatable way to enjoy the music for the first time.

[xbuster]

I just watched the funniest video from a guy trying to perpetuate fake culture war outrage. He went to Japan, got his Japanese cameraman to ask a few people how they feel about the historical accuracy in the trailer for the new Assassin Creed game, expecting them to be mad about a black samurai, but every single one of them went “I don’t think there’s anything weird in the trailer. It looks well-made.” He uploaded this video to his own channel.

Not a single interviewee gave him the answer he wanted, so he then asked his Japanese cameraman how he felt about the trailer since his cameraman is supposedly a fan of his and already agrees with him, but his cameraman goes “Yeah, I don’t actually know that much about Assassin’s Creed and if it was fiction I would be okay with it, but you guys have said it’s supposed to be historical so that’s not okay.”

EVEN HIS CAMERAMAN FAN DOESN’T ACTUALLY AGREE WITH HIM. HE ONLY THINKS HE DOES BECAUSE HE WAS LIED TO ABOUT THE ASSASSIN’S CREED FRANCHISE BY PEOPLE LIKE THIS YOUTUBER. I HAVE TO SAY AGAIN THAT THE YOUTUBER UPLOADED THIS VIDEO.

[weather-cluddy]

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WATCHING MILGRAM (as of the end of the 2nd trial)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

INTRO

What's Milgram? Milgram is a multimedia project whose central concept revolves around the audience judging the character's crimes. All of them stand accused of murder after being brought to the mysterious prison of Milgram, but were their actions truly wrong? Only the audience, through the medium of the amnesiac guard Es, can decide that. Vote them GUILTY or INNOCENT according to your ethics or your whims over the course of three trials , and watch how their lives change in response.

You can read a list of trigger warnings here. Who's working on it? The musical and visual components are led by the vocaloid producer Deco*27 and his employees at OTOIRO, with him working on the lyrics and composing half the songs, while the other half is handled by Rockwell. Teddyloid often works in the songs' arrangement as well. Yamanaka Takuya is in charge of all writing in the MILGRAM project, except for the novels and their manga adaptation which were done by Nami Tsumi. His works tend to revolve around trauma and people's inner darkness, and are often music-related multimedia franchises such as the Caligula Effect series, Utagoe wa Mille-Feuille and Boisterous Six. (Fun fact: the last one was prompted by the thought that if he made a collab with the Takuya Yamanaka who's part of The Oral Cigarettes, maybe people would stop confusing them. It did not work.)

For more details, check the wiki's Staff page.

How do I vote? You'll need an account for either Twitter or LINE (Japanese texting app). Then go to the JUDGE page in the official website and click on the icon of a character that's not grayed out. (If they all are, then you need to wait until the new trial starts). You'll be asked to give the site permission to use your Twitter/LINE account. The website should remember your credentials afterwards. You can vote once a day every day for as long as the poll is open. The general rhythm of the project is that a song releases, then another releases next month and the next one takes two months to come out. Since each poll lasts for three months, this means that there should always be two characters available for voting, unless there are delays or you're at the very end or start of a trial.

How does this guide work? / Usage notes Due to Tumblr's restriction on the amount of links per post, this guide will have three parts. They're organized content according to platform/format, but I also paid mind to original release date and overall importance to the plot.

I recommend watching all the first trial content before starting with the second trial. So, begin with the 1st set of voicelines, then the videos and timelines, then double back onto the second set. Everything from the Illustrations and Previews section onwards isn't part of the main game and can be ignored if desired.

I've added some supplementary notes and explanations when I thought it was relevant. Sometimes the information is part of a larger theory post, but please don't take the link as endorsement of any particular theory.

There will be links to the MILGRAM wiki, which is not spoiler-free. If you navigate to the character's main pages, you will immediately see images that spoil developments in the latest trial. This also applies to the official website's character pages. There will also be Youtube links. Since the suggestions can also contain spoilers, you can copypaste the link into Polsy to avoid them. You'll still get videos thumbnails when you pause or when the video ends, but from what I can see they're limited to the videos found on the uploader's channel.

TRANSLATIONS

Official Website

Character Profiles milgrammer (Click "profile" for each prisoner)

Voicelines First trial: milgrammer (Same as above) Second trial: Rochisama (Section: Voice lines)

A different set of translations can be found in the Milgram wiki. It is also the easiest way to access the audio, as old lines get retired from the official website and Wayback Machine is inconsistent in saving them. The quotes can be found in their own subpage, such as https://milgram.fandom.com/wiki/Momose_Amane/Quotes . Substitute character names accordingly, and keep in mind that Muu and Fuuta's names are spelled with two u's.

According to the writer's tweets, the prompts for the first trial's voicelines are: 1) Introduce yourself. 2) You're a murderer, aren't you? 3) Is there something you'd like to tell the guard (me)? 4) and 5) What do you think about Milgram?

And for the second trial: 1) To the awakened guard 2) Regarding the first trial's results 3) Regarding changes in the second trial 4) Comments on the first trial 5) What do you think about Milgram?

Loading Screen During the first trial, the loading icon for the website displayed the message "Sing your sins." When the second trial started, the icon was changed. Now it looks the same as the first one for a second, then morphs into "Doubt your punishment." You can see a gif of it here.

Youtube Channel

Teasers These are brief videos which feature the characters speaking sentences out of context. So far we've seen some, but not all of them pop up in the series itself. Some seem to take place in the past, so it's likely not all of them will show up. Note that these videos contain flashing lights, chaotic visuals and screaming. Translations can be found in comments. - First season teaser - Second season teaser

Voice Trailers These trailers have normal and glitchy lines. The normal parts are taken from the website voice lines, while the glitchy lines aren't featured anywhere else. Translations for the static-filled lines can be found in the comment section, and Rochisama also translated the second-trial lines in their website. - First season voice trailer - Second season voice trailer

PV Technically our first real intro to the series, but given the unstranslated onscreen text and the dodgy subtitles, it can be skipped. There's some concept art not shown elsewhere; A cleaned up version can be viewed here and here. The website features a lower shot of the same art shown in the last link.

Song trailers These feature short snippets of upcoming content: songs and one sentence per prisoner. You can skip this if you've already watched the songs and voice dramas in question; the only difference is that sometimes the translation is slightly different. - First trial - Second trial

Main Songs, Jackalope Videos and Voice Dramas In-universe, the voice dramas take place before the songs. However, up until midway through the second trial the songs were uploaded first and the albums (containing the dramas) would be released 1-2 weeks later, so it seems the intended viewing order is the other way around. The tracklist order also supports this, so I'll be using the song->voice drama order. ES and Undercover are special cases. Undercover doesn't seem to exist in-universe, with the timeline for this one being A Milgram Anybody Can Understand->ES->Website voicelines. For the sake of consistency, I still used the song->VD ordering, with A Milgram being placed afterwards due to being released later.

Lastly, some of the official English titles are different from the Japanese ones. I wrote down both the official translation, marked (EN), and a translation from Japanese marked (JP)

First trial Official song playlist

Undercover (Instrumental) Notes: Milgram's theme song and its first release. The official subtitles were changed during the second trial to reference the song titles, at the cost of being less accurate to the original Japanese: you can see the original lyrics here. The lamp that shows up at 2:11 says 御霊燈, "spirit lantern." This kind of lantern is placed at the house of the deceased for 49 days after death. It serves to both announce that the family is in mourning and a guide for the spirit of the deceased; fire being a way for ghosts to find their way from and to the afterlife is a common motif in Japanese folklore. The kanji above the scratched-out text reads "deceased." Text on the sticky notes on Mikoto's screen. ES (Text)

A Milgram Anybody Can Understand

Weakness (EN) / The Weak are Meat, Eat your Fellows (JP) (Instrumental) Notes: A theory post analysing the title and word choices used. Writhing of the Weak (Text)

Umbilical (Instrumental) Relative Zero (Text)

Bring It On (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. Cultural context on lyrics. Braze you!! (Text)

After Pain (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. Crying B (Text)

Throw Down (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation Moloch (Text)

This Is How to Be in Love With You (EN) / It's Love! (JP) (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation Love is Mine (Text)

half (Instrumental) Gouging In The Night (EN) / Night of Exposure (JP) (Text)

magic (Instrumental) Notes: Onscreen text translation. (Some corrections: "Happily supporting" is more like "Happiness-supporting" and "Weird Monk" would be "Mysterious Monk.") Apostle and Death (EN) / Apostle and Death and (JP) (Text) Notes: The odd extra "and" in the Japanese title is to make the title sound more repetitive. It's pronounced Shito to Shi to.

MeMe (Instrumental) Notes: The yellow sign at 1:28 reads "WARNING. This is private property! It's not a public dumpster! Don't just throw your trash wherever you like. Anyone caught fly-tipping will be reported immediately. WARNING." The tarot cards (probably) say "MIKOTO TAROT CARD" at the bottom. John Doe (Text) Notes: "Remember your murder" should be "I'll remember that, you murderer!"

Harrow (Instrumental) Notes: Summarized onscreen text translation (highlighted comment). Alternate full translation. TASK (Text) Notes: "Heh, I should be the one thanking you" / "Heh, you’ve gotten the order of expressing gratitude wrong." should be "That's not the kind of face you should be making when thanking somebody"

First trial closing video

[apothecaryscript]

Special Video for KNH Valentine Visual Image / バレンタインビジュアル　スペシャル動画

You can see the video on YouTube uploaded in the middle of February by the official TOHO animation channel account, although it’s actually the picture and some recorded conversation.

Please note that the English lines are just my translation.

小蘭「ねぇ、猫猫、知ってる？お世話になっている人にチョコレートを渡すっていうのが、お妃様たちの中で大流行してるんだって。私も、渡したい人がいて…作るの、教えてもらえないかな？」

Shaoran “Nee, Maomao, shitteru? Osewa’ni natte-iru hito’ni chokorēto’o watasutte iu-no’ga, okisaki-sama-tachi’no aida’de dai-ryuko shiterun-datte. Watashi’mo watashi-tai hito’ga ite… Tsukuru’no, oshiete morae-nai-kana?”

Xiaolan “Hey, Maomao, did you know? Apparently it’s all the rage among the concubines to give chocolate to people who have supported you. I also have someone that I want to give some… Could you teach me how to make them?”

大流行している、流行っている（だいりゅうこうしている/Dai-ryuko-shite-iru, はやっている/Hayatte-iru）: be all the rage/mode/fashion, currently popular

お世話になっている（おせわになっている/Osewa’ni natte-iru）: be supported, be helped

This is typical and common phrase in Japanese, that is hard to be translated into English. Mainly on business, we Japanese say “お世話になっております（おせわになっております/Osewa’ni natte ori-masu）” instead of “Hello” or “Good afternoon,” as a greeting. It means “Thank you for your support as always,” but it doesn’t really matter whether you are grateful or not.  We believe that as long as you are working in society, you’re always supported or helped by the people around you, so this is how the phrase became a greeting.

猫猫（お妃様がどんどん取り寄せて、手に入りやすくなったのかな…）

Maomao (Okisaki-sama’ga don-don tori-yosete, te’ni hairi-yasuku-nattano-kana…)

Maomao (Maybe the concubines ordered more and more of them, making them easier to get…)

取り寄せる（とりよせる/Tori-yoseru）: order, put something on backorder, send away for

手に入る（てにはいる/Teni hairu）: get, acquire, come into hand　= 入手する（にゅうしゅする/Nyushu-suru）

猫猫「よし、一緒に作ろうか。材料はもらってくるから、ちょっと待ってて」

Maomao “Yoshi, issho’ni tsukuroka. Zairyo’wa moratte-kuru-kara, chotto mattete.”

Maomao “Okay, let’s make it together. I’ll get the ingredients, so wait a bit.”

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

猫猫「それじゃあ、始めようか。まずはこれを混ぜてみて」

Maomao “Sorejaa, hajime-yoka. Mazu’wa kore’o mazete-mite.”

Maomao “Well then, let’s get started. First, mix this together.”

“みて” in “混ぜてみて” gives a softer nuance than just “混ぜて”. This is not “見る（みる/Miru）: look”, but “してみる(Shite-miru): give it a try��.

小蘭「うん！わかった！…うわぁ～、入れすぎちゃった！猫猫～！」

Shaoran “Un! Wakatta! …Uwaaaa, ire-sugi-chatta! Maomaooo!”

Xiaolan “Okay! I see! …Oh no, I’ve put it in too much! Maomaooo!”

猫猫「大丈夫だから。落ち着いて」

Maomao “Daijobu-dakara. Ochi-tsuite.”

Maomao “It’s okay. Calm down.”

小蘭「ん～？これ、どうやって使うの？」

Shaoran “Nnn? Kore, do-yatte tsukau’no?”

Xiaolan “Hmm? How do I use this?”

猫猫「こうやって持って、そうそう。ゆっくり混ぜてみて」

Maomao “Ko-yatte motte, so-so. Yukkuri mazete-mite.”

Maomao “Hold it like this, that’s right. Try to mix it slowly.”

小蘭「すご～い！なめらかになってきた…！」

Shaoran “Sugoooi! Nameraka’ni natte-kita…!”

Xiaolan “Amazing! It’s getting smoother…!”

猫猫「よし…これを型に流し込んで…後は固まるのを待つだけ」

Maomao “Yoshi… Kore’o kata’ni nagashi-konde… Ato’wa katamaru’no’o matsu-dake.”

Maomao “Okay… pour this into the mold… and then just wait for it to harden.”

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

小蘭「完成！猫猫ありがとう！」

Shaoran “Kansei! Maomao arigato!”

Xiaolan “Finished! Thank you, Maomao!”

完成する（かんせいする/Kansei-suru）: finish, complete, done

猫猫「うまくできてよかったね。じゃあ、あとは渡すだけだね」

Maomao “Umaku dekite yokatta-ne. Jaa, ato’wa watasu-dake-dane.”

Maomao “I’m glad you did it well. Now, all that’s left is to give it to someone.”

小蘭「うん！…えへへ…えっと～…猫猫、手伝ってもらっちゃったけど、実は、猫猫に渡したかったんだ。いつもありがとう！」

Shaoran “Un! …Ehehe…ettooo…Maomao, tetsudatte-moracchatta-kedo, jitsu’wa, Maomao’ni watashi-takattanda. Itsumo arigato!”

Xiaolan “Yeah! …Hehe…Um…Maomao, I had you help me, but actually, I wanted to give this to you. Thank you as always!”

猫猫「…そっか…それじゃあ小蘭、一緒に食べようか」

Maomao “…Sokka… Sore-jaa Shaoran, issho’ni tabe-yoka.”

Maomao “…I see… Then, Xiaolan, shall we eat together?”

猫猫・小蘭「ハッピーバレンタイン！」

Maomao, Shaoran “Happī Barentain!”

Maomao & Xiaolan “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

In Japan, several decades ago, a chocolate company advertised chocolate with the slogan “On Valentine’s Day, women give chocolate to the men they love,” and this became well-known. Gradually, women began to give so-called “義理チョコ(ぎりちょこ/Giri-choko)” to all the men around them at work, and Valentine’s Day became more casual event. March 14th became known as “White Day,” and a culture was established in which people who received chocolate gave sweets in return, which became too much of a burden for both parties. So, in recent years, Giri-Choco has been decreasing rapidly.

From the end of January, a lot of chocolates are sold in Japanese chocolate shops, department stores, supermarkets, and all other stores that sell sweets. (I worked part-time at the chocolate shop a few years ago, so I know how busy they are around Valentine’s Day and White Day.) Not only are they delicious, but they also sell a wide variety of unusual and cute chocolates in a variety of flavors, so recently more and more women are buying them to eat themselves.

Some people, like Xiaolan, give chocolates that they made themselves. Especially teenage girls often make a lot of chocolates by hand and give them to their friends. Anyway, Xiaolan is really cute!

[floatingcatacombs]

More Yuri About Adults To Accompany Your Seasonal Festivities

12 Days of Aniblogging 2024, Day 12

Happy Christmas and Hanukkah!

Per usual, I will close out this year’s blogging by going over some yuri I read this year starring adults.

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!

It’s always surprised me how unpopular Sal Jiang is amongst yurigoers. This is a woman who knows exactly what she wants in her stories and executes on it every single time. The thing in question just happens to be masochism. The pain in her work exists on a spectrum from physical to emotional, and honestly the emotional side feels like even more of a punch to the gut than watching women punch each other in the gut.

That all said, Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko is the first time Jiang plays her shtick for laughs, and to great effect. Hiroko is comically self-torturing, the kind of work-closeted lesbian who has developed insane control issues because of this and freaks the hell out at the mere thought of PDA. So naturally, her work kouhai, Ayaka, is a silly little femme who is head-over-heels for her and really wants to show it. Unfortunately, Hiroko thinks Ayaka is straight, and just being overly familiar and close because straight women are like that sometimes. A comedy of errors ensues that leaves Hiroko in her own personal lesbian hell. It’s fifth-dimensional lesbian kriegspeil, and it’s great! The usual Sal Jiang emotional violence is played for slapstick, and she’s a natural at it. There's even honest-to-god dyke drama at a lesbian bar! The emotions depicted in this manga feel very real, even as exaggerated as it all is. We need so many more stories about punished lesbians who will sooner eat their own organs than make a move if there’s even a hint of ambiguity. It’s such a fun character type to poke at.

This manga actually got a TV drama adaptation earlier this year, which I’ll have to check out! I hope she got paid plenty for it.

Wicked Spot

That’s right, we’re double-dipping with Sal Jiang manga this year. Wicket Spot is a new series that's currently being published under a new LGBT imprint from Kadokawa. It’s worth it for the “Oh yeah, I’ve been getting into Wicked” jokes you could make alone. This one's another comedy series, and I’ve liked what I’ve read so far. There’s plenty you can do with the modern-day-witches premise, and we'll just have to see how far she's willing to go this time around. The character faces are incredibly dynamic, and I love how much she’s leaning into the cheesiness and camp with stuff like that.

Jiang noticeably draws black leather with a lot of love and consideration, and I just think that's neat.

The Dentist Won't Stop Teasing Me

Look, I don’t want to be mean, but all of the yuri manhua series that make it over to Dynasty-Scans have even goofier and more contrived premises than comparable Japanese lilyschlock. At the same time, I appreciate how quickly they tend to spell it all out. This may be pure pulp, but teeth are important.

_

Sal Jiang has a Youtube channel where she'd upload ukelele songs, so I was going to link her cover of All I Want For Christmas Is You to cap things off here. Unfortunately, at some point she privated all of her videos! You'll just have to take my word that the gentleness with which she plays was hilarious given her work. So go check some of that out, or barring that, get in a sexually-charged fistfight with another woman. Mariah Carey would approve.

[theflowergothic]

i am not watching that video someone transcribe it//

basically her five facts were

"1. i prefer hamburger to pizza

2. i love bread and jam, or bread and butter

3. i'm really scared of planes, people know i travel a lot, but i'm deathly scared of them

4. i'm crazy about hand creams, i carry a bunch in my purse

5. i love horoscopes and love reading about them"

it just sounds so ridiculous for me cause first of all, how much of your life do you have to share for these to be your answers when someone asks "what's 5 things people don't know about you", like this is all so boring

and secondly, she didn't even do it right like we know you like horoscopes and crystals and all that shit, you keep fucking posting them

Here, let me show Kelly how it's really done. Five things y'all most likely do not know about me:

I mostly uploaded Kingdom Hearts AMVs when I started my YouTube channel.

I played violin and viola while at school (And I still promise that I will get back into the viola ONE DAY...one day...).

I appeared on the local news once for donating blood at the start of COVID getting REALLY bad. I didn't eat enough and threw up before the reporter approached me. None of my interview was usable but I appear in the background.

I took Japanese in high school and can still speak a little to this day (like... the fluency of a four year old, I feel).

Unlike Kelly (probably), I once had a case of otitis that was so bad I had to go to the hospital.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (February 11-17, 2024)

Warner Bros. unfurled the second trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which seems to be going over much better than the first. There are multiple glimpses of the ice Titan Shimo throughout, and an even briefer look at Mothra reflected in Jia's eye. (My favorite shot, of course, is Kong decking Skar King as he's holding out Suko like a wriggling shield.) The rough shots from trailer #1 still look rough, but at least the new footage is more impressive.

The new issue of Empire (how fitting) has a short article on GxK—the big revelation there is that Godzilla Evolved is pink simply because that's director Adam Wingard's favorite color. Collaborations are also popping up. Circle K is offering a movie-branded sandwich, chocolate bar, and Froster drinks/cups. Godzilla and a seriously wizened Kong are also entering the mobile game Lords Mobile.

I don't know much about Oscar politicking, but Takashi Yamazaki's strategy of bringing a model Godzilla with him everywhere he goes seems like a winner. Both appear in the "class photo" taken of all the nominees at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon. At the same event, Yamazaki and Godzilla met with Steven Spielberg, who told Yamazaki he had seen Godzilla Minus One three times. Posting their photo together on Twitter, Yamazaki said he had "met God."

Toho's English Godzilla YouTube channel also uploaded a six-minute video on Minus One's VFX, with a focus on the various ways the production was able to shave off costs. Officially translated behind-the-scenes featurettes for Toho Godzilla films are a rarity, a sign of how badly they want that little gold statue. It's worth watching just for Yamazaki scooting his chair around the office.

Shout! Factory's onslaught of old Toei tokusatsu films on its streaming service turned out to be a prelude to offering them all on disc. The Classic Tokusatsu Collection Blu-ray set includes Planet Prince (1959; called Prince of Space), Invasion of the Neptune Men (1961), Watari the Ninja Boy (1966), The Golden Bat (1966; called Golden Ninja), Magic Serpent (1966; called Dragon Showdown) , Ninja Scope (1969), and Terror Beneath the Sea (1966). None have ever been released on English-friendly Blu-ray before; some haven't even made it to DVD. The set is $70 and limited to 2,500 copies.

Major caveats seem to accompany every English-language release of vintage tokusatsu these days, and unfortunately this set's no exception. Despite the existence of English dubs for at least some of these films (two of them riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000), only Terror Beneath the Sea is dubbed; the rest are Japanese-only. And the dubbed Prince of Space well-known to MiSTies was actually an amalgamation of Toei's two Planet Prince films, only the first of which is present here. (Even the first film seems like it's going to be in upscaled standard-def, going off the streaming version.) No special features in the production description either, although one person who got the set early reports that at least one trailer is included (for Invasion of the Neptune Men).

IDW has announced still another Godzilla miniseries, Godzilla: Skate or Die. First-issue description:

It's Australian skater punks versus Varan and the King of the Monsters in this thrilling debut issue by writer/artist Louie Joyce (A Fistful of Pain)! Four years ago, four best friends and die-hard skaters found the perfect location for a DIY skatepark. After months of hard work, they created the world’s sickest spot that they could enjoy for the rest of their lives… That is, until the ferocious Varan appeared in the middle of central Australia and started making a beeline for their beloved park. Why is Varan on a rampage? Why did Godzilla just appear off the coast? What does their beloved skate spot have to do with this? And most importantly…what are these punks willing to do to save it?

Sounds like there's a lot of author appeal here, as Joyce is Australian and calls the tale "inspired by all the amazing DIY spots I've had the privilege of skating[.]" And a meaty role for Varan is a pleasant surprise.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Troll on Netflix, we've got another Scandinavia giant monster movie on the way. Kraken will be directed by Pal Oie (Dark Woods) from a script by Vilde Eide. No cast yet, but here are the plot details divulged by The Hollywood Reporter:

[T]he thriller will follow Johanne, a marine biologist who encounters several strange occurrences while researching a fjord, including the brutal deaths of two local teenagers. “At the bottom of Norway’s deepest fjord rests a mythical monster as large as a mountain, with a myriad of arms ready to crush and devour anything they can grab,” the film’s synopsis reads.

Krakens are certainly having a moment in giant monster stories right now, between Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and the three that somehow wound up connected to the Monsterverse. (To wit: Na Kika was originally called Kraken, the unnamed antagonist of Skull Island bore the same name internally, and the guardian of Atlantis in the Justice League crossover comic is a Kraken as well.) This seems like a more back-to-basics approach.

[bro3256]

FamiWiki - What, why, how?

Hello! It's been a while since I've last posted to Tumblr, but rest assured I have not forgotten about this place. I just haven't had anything interesting to post that would fit here. But let's not dwell on my absence for long, cause I want to talk about a project I've been working on for over 2 years as of writing, FamiWiki.

What is FamiWiki?

FamiWiki (famiwiki.net) is a wiki site that primary covers the Famicom in a Japanese first context. You're probably already familiar what a wiki site already is if you've been on the internet for long enough. For those who don't know what "Famicom" is, it is an abbreviation of Family Computer, which is the name of a home video game console Nintendo released on July 15, 1983 in Japan. You'll likely be familiar with the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES which is a rebranding and redesigned version of the Famicom that released two years later outside of Japan. But why "Japanese first context"? Part of this has to do with primarily covering Japanese material but also it is what makes FamiWiki unique from all other English-based wiki sites on the internet as even when covering Japanese material, it is usually written with the assumption that the western perspective takes priority including things that have never officially released outside of the country.

Why FamiWiki?

I started getting into collecting Japanese video games in the 2020s. I not only got hooked on the "cheap" prices but also the opportunity to learn something completely new from the games I was importing. Something that has always rubbed me the wrong way is how collecting older video games tends to be done for the sake of nostalgia, which is something I never fully agreed with. Sure it's a factor at play and for some a very important one that got them into this hobby but that said, it shouldn't be seen as the only way people can get into this stuff. I got into older video games for the sake of learning about them and being able to sit back and play a relatively simple game compared to modern offerings is a nice bonus. It also helped that this in a way let me engaged with the past since I was born in 2002 and didn't get to experience what it was like back decades ago so older video games are in a way tools to allow me to experience what it was like back then to a certain degree.

Anyways as for why this site exists, long story short I got a bit fed up with how people were covering Japanese video games as it was almost always within the western perspective. That said however, my searching would lead me to discovering a relatively unknown YouTube channel at the time under the name RndStranger. At the time when I discovered their channel, they were still uploading daily videos covering Famicom cartridge software in the Famidaily web series. Needless to say, I have a lot of respect for his work because he gives a spotlight to a particular Japanese game for however many minutes and goes over the context, reviews, and reception all within a Japanese perspective. His videos really opened my eyes to how much we were missing out when not discussing or even mentioning these details elsewhere on the English internet which alongside a few other dominoes that fell, led me to the idea for a Famicom-based wiki site with a Japanese first perspective.

How is FamiWiki?

FamiWiki went online in March 2023. As of the time I am writing this, there are 1,712 content pages, 5,809 pages overall, 2,569 uploaded files, and a total of 25,708 page edits with a 4.43 edits per page average. The site is hosted by The OpenWiki Project who also hosts other wiki sites such as Fire Emblem Wiki, Hard Drop, and WiKirby to name a few.

Currently, FamiWiki has pages for every single commercially released Famicom cartridge software from 1983 to 1994. Now granted the vast majority of those pages are still blank, with a few that are properly covered. Here are a few examples of what to expect from polished software pages.

Gimmick!

Nuts & Milk

Super Mario Bros.

Speaking of which, one of the biggest accomplishments the wiki site has achieved is featuring what I believe to be the most accurate list of Famicom software on the English internet.

List of Family Computer software

English Wikipedia actually used to have its own list of "Famicom games" but then merged it into the "NES games" list. But even so, it seems that Wikipedia list doesn't account for the weird edge cases of certain software not technically being for Famicom. What do I mean by this? There are certain releases that came on smaller cartridges that would need to be plugged into an adapter cartridge which is what actually plugs into the console. So things like the Datach Joint ROM System library often gets mistakenly included when really it should be separate. What makes the FamiWiki list different is that we define what media type is covered. The main list comprises of software that was commercially released on 60-pin Famicom cartridges. There are certain releases that did release on 60-pin cartridges but not to stores so those do not count towards the main list. The same goes for prize cartridges as well. Currently, the count on FamiWiki is 1041 60-pin Famicom cartridge software. Eventually I'd like to get around to making a similarly detailed list for NES cartridge software.

"Wait, NES? I thought you were only covering the Famicom!"

Truth is, the scope for FamiWiki actually goes further than the Famicom. It's actually both the Famicom and Super Famicom, but a more accurate description would be 8-bit Nintendo and 16-bit Nintendo coverage from all regions, but with Japan being priority. It didn't feel right to not include the NES and SNES since having that coverage would provide context for the Famicom and Super Famicom coverage as well. So even if you aren't into specifically Japanese games, you'll probably find something in FamiWiki in the future that will be of your interest in some way. There is a LOT to cover just from Nintendo's 8-bit and 16-bit home console history and I've pretty much been the sole major contributor to the site since it first went online over 2 years ago. I would very much like to get help from others especially in areas that I am not familiar with. It's also embarrassing to admit that despite running a site covering the Japanese perspective... my Japanese is pretty poor at the moment. I have been slowly learning since the site went up and I plan on being "fluent" enough to be able to better contribute in the coming years.

Until then, if any of this sounds remotely interesting to you please consider registering an account and contribute to the wiki site just a little bit. Any edits big or small would really help out. There are a couple of updates to the site that I am currently working on and hope to roll out soon but hopefully within the next few years we will have more coverage on these Japanese games than we did back when the internet was in its infancy.

To end things, here is one of my personal favorite pages on the entire site.

Family Computer cartridge variations

[shiki-aki]

ok so... I'm wondering if anybody would be interested in me translating all the Shikiaki drama CDs and making a masterlist of them? The thing is, I'm hesitant because I'm a beginner in Japanese and only N5 level.

My translation process for drama CDs usually consists of transcribing the Japanese words I hear into text, which requires me to listen closely by ear and type out the individual Hiragana/Katakana. It takes some trial and error with me double checking the vocabulary with a Japanese dictionary to make sure I typed the right word based on the context. Then I paste it into a translation machine like DeepL. When I write the English translation, I have to take care that it's worded in a way that sounds in-character. Regardless, I don't know how people feel about reading a translation that was machine translated, which is why I've been hesitant to translate any of the Shikiaki drama CDs.

I recently found out there's another Shikiaki drama CD that I haven't listened to before after doing some digging on Aarinfantasy. There are apparently 6 Shikiaki drama CDs that came with the Shikiaki figures when you bought them (I think? feel free to fact check me on this), but only 5 of them have been uploaded to Youtube this whole time, and I finally found the 6th one.

I'm considering translating all the drama CDs because the Youtube channel that had videos with translations of these drama CDs got terminated a while ago, and I haven't been able to find the translations anywhere else. It would probably take me a while to get through translating all these drama CDs so like, I want to know if people would be interested in these translations before I devote my time to this project lol. I'd also have to bother my friend who's way better at Japanese than me to help me out with these translations, and she's really busy, so again, it would be a time-consuming process that requires commitment.

Otherwise I can just make a masterlist of how to access/download the Shikiaki drama CDs, since I've gotten some questions on that lol.

[fcble]

THE PROBLEM WITH FABLE is a video essay uploaded to YouTube on November 19, 2023. Despite being the channel’s only video, it was quickly picked up by the recommendation algorithm and gained nearly half a million views in its first week. The half-hour video examines and critiques Fable’s concept. Sentiments in the comment section were almost evenly split between agreeing with the video’s premise, and 2000-word essays about how it's wrong. Three days after the video was uploaded, the comment section was disabled.

CHAPTERS AND SELECTED EXCERPTS

THESIS STATEMENT [00:37 - 1:04] … The problem with Fable has always existed. It’s built into their concept—the very foundation of any group. A single concept doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if a group can properly execute and then push the boundaries and truly explore their concept. Fable does none of that. They get on stage in their hanboks only to perform pop song 8265734—now with gayageum.

THE ONLY GOOD PARTS (WHEN THE QUALITY IS BAD?) [03:42 - 6:29] … Before we get further into the bad, there are two—and only two—parts of their Korean concept that make sense. First, Korea has become such a large part of their image that all of their endorsements and brand deals are with South Korean companies. Hell will freeze over before a single Fable member represents a Western brand or product. Second, their dedication to Korean song titles is unmatched. In a surprising power move, Zenith Entertainment usually refuses to provide English translations.

PROBLEM #1 [6:30 - 15:44] … The greatest problem with Fable's concept is their inconsistency. It's been five years and they can't make up their minds about what they want to represent. They cherry pick what they want to represent. An instrument here or an outfit there. Slap a traditionally significant symbol—tiger, magpie, persimmon—on the album cover and call it a day.

For Fable, Korea exists in a bubble, which is obviously not the case, eschewing centuries of cultural mingling throughout East Asia. Their album titles are sajaseongeo—four character idioms—with roots in Chinese chengyu and similar to Japanese yojijukugo. Far from unique. For another example, Confucianism plays a major role not in their music, but in their variety shows and other content. As the state religion and governing philosophy throughout the Joseon dynasty, it was obviously highly influential on traditional Korean culture and eventually Fable. But in their promotion of the ideology, they miss out on swaths of history. While Confucianism’s five constant relationships permeated every social class, philosophy and learning were restricted to the upper class yangban. Which of course, Fable loves to represent themselves as. They’re always kings and noblemen and scholars—without a single mention of the common people. 

Aside from ignoring social class, they also ignore half the population—women. It was, for lack of a better word, shitty to be a woman in Confucian society, and it continues to be shitty to be a woman in a society still strongly influenced by Confucian values. And yet Fable glorifies this past, where women were subservient to fathers and husbands and sons and not much more than property. To make matters worse, they do this all in front of an audience of teenage girls and young women. It’s doubtful that the people in charge of Fable’s creative direction and marketing have ever felt the touch of a woman.

PROBLEM #2 [15:45 - 22:39] … While Fable hasn’t figured out what they’re representing, they’ve certainly figured out who’s doing the representing. The treatment of their two diaspora members—gyopo, dongpo, whatever term you want to use—stands out from the treatment of the rest of the group. Andrew has expressed his frustration with not being able to participate in the group’s music as much as he wants to. And then there’s Mingeun. It’s impossible to talk about Fable without talking about Mingeun’s scandal at the peak of their career, when it was revealed that he had pretended to be a South Korean national for two years. That supposed secret alone should make it obvious that when it comes to the two of them, something is different. It speaks volumes about their goals as a group—fully Korean, for Korea, to the point where even diasporan Koreans don’t belong.

In an ironic twist, their refusal to entertain anyone other than “pure” Koreans becomes even more representative of contemporary Korean society. As the nation’s economy becomes increasingly more globalized, its social attitudes still remain firmly in the past. In Fable’s single-minded focus on Korean history, they continue to perpetrate such ideas. While one kpop group is not going to solve racism in South Korea—an issue deeply entrenched in their hermit kingdom past and the years under Japanese occupation—it becomes hypocritical for them to work so hard to export their culture while being intolerant of others.

CULTURAL REPRESENTATIVES [22:40 - 27:03] … No exploration of Fable’s concept and marketing would be complete without a mention of their nickname. In 2021, they became known as the “cultural representatives of kpop” by netizens. They've seemingly embraced the nickname since, if the way they've never switched up their concept is any indication. Which begs the question: why are they so intent on this direction? Kpop—with its idol culture inspired by Japan’s idol industry and the very industry inspired by the American one—is distinctly un-Korean. Kpop is instead a hybridization of cultures, with musical genres invented by Black Americans and its commodification of art invented by American capitalists. If Fable is really so intent on representing traditional Korean culture, then where’s the pansori song or sijo lyrics? Being the nugu face of the tourism industry—next to much bigger groups like BTS and Blackpink—is not enough. They need to do something other than appear in a Korean Air commercial and gush about how nice Jeju Island is at this time of the year.

SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON [27:04 - 29:12] … The inconsistency and hypocrisy of Fable’s concept does more harm than good. They promote a glorified version of history completely inaccurate to the actual past to impressionable young people and kpop stans incapable of thinking for themselves.

If you enjoyed this video and want to see more, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Since Izanami’s game stretched back decades, if not centuries, isn’t it possible that before the wide spread adoption of television, the midnight channel was accessed through other mediums like books? Heck I image that the earliest incarnation used oral storytelling as a means.

Yeah, I imagine that before the TV, it was through radio that the future victims were known. You faintly hear their voices saying nonsense in the right frequency during a rainy night, and hear their screams if you fail to save them.

And before that, her players would have known who the victim was through theatre. I once read a really cool headcanon which included traditional japanese theatre for past Persona Users in Inaba to discover who their victims were. Tumblr didn't help in finding the post, but I think it involved a bunraku theater where the puppets mysteriously came to life for a private performance where the victim was revealed. This would have been the method that lasted the longest.

But the first games in the 1500s would have been through painting. Some sort of "cursed ink painting" that, if looked at during a rainy night at midnight, shows the faint image of your one true love. The players would have had to give shape to the face that was slowly being painted on the scroll. Kind of like this:

Can you imagine jumping into a painting to other worlds like in Mario 64? Of course, Izanami would have needed to get creative on how her players got to the TV World/Expanse/Shadow World.

I headcanon that should the Investigation Team had failed at stopping the cycle, the next versions of her game would have been through a mysterious Youtube channel simply called "Midnight" where only shaky footage of the victim would be uploaded. Now that sounds like an urban legend I would have been told as a kid. Up there with the Blank Room Soup video

[roguemaki]

Hey! I hope your week is going great :)

Like everyone else, i wanted to send you a heartfelt thank you for your immense efforts and time that you take out of your day to translate and type set these interviews and videos.

It always brightens my day when i get a notification from you and i know I’m in for a treat so it’s really truly appreciated from our end 🙏🏼

I was also wondering that when the asticassia school assembly BD comes out, if you could consider uploading it somewhere so that people who can’t purchase it would be able to watch it as well? I was really looking forward to seeing the VAs performance on stage and also some of the comedic moments like Suletta rapping but unfortunately, money is a bit tight for me right now. 😞

If you could consider it that would be awesome but if you rather not do jt, that’s totally fine as well :)

I also wanted to ask for your advice regarding learning japanese. I took some classes in college but haven’t kept up with it. Do you know any resources that you felt were really helpful to you when you were learning the language? I really want to dedicate myself to it this time! I’d really appreciate any tips, thank you! :)

Hey hey~ I actually got some fantastic news at work, so my week's off to a great start. :3

And you're very welcome! Thank you for enjoying and supporting my TLs.

I pre-ordered the School Assembly BD and am planning to subtitle it in parts, similarly to how I'm doing the Ep 24 Character Commentary… but for an upload of the full thing, I have to be more circumspect: I'll post when the rip is available and give contact info so interested folks can reach out directly. Just trying to avoid getting Eye of Sauron'd by Bandai-Namco, lol.

Regarding Japanese study: we're in similar boats! I also took classes in college and got back into serious self-study after not practicing for a while.

Here are some self-study resources I find useful:

For daily Japanese practice…

Renshuu for vocabulary and grammar. WaniKani for learning kanji. Ringotan for kana and kanji writing practice.

Renshuu is a site (also available in convenient app form) for building up vocabulary and grammar with quizzes, games, and community activities. It's by-and-large free - premium provides some enhancements (like more listening/pitch tools), but isn't necessary for most of the content. WaniKani is a fantastic resource for learning kanji. They use some truly memorable mnemonics to teach radicals/vocabulary and schedule lessons/reviews in a way that promotes real retention. Give Levels 1-3 a try since they're free, and if you like the teaching method, a lifetime premium sub is reasonably affordable when it goes on sale (like on Black Friday). I use Ringotan, a free phone app, to supplement WaniKani (which is focused on reading/recognition) with writing practice.

Other resources/tools...

Install Yomitan, an in-line dictionary extension, on your browser.

Dokusho Bookclub is a site for finding reading materials targeting specific JLPT levels.

Out of the many resources available on YouTube, I want to highlight Kaname Naito's channel - he teaches in depth vocabulary and grammar used in actual conversational Japanese.

I have a routine of always doing my "dailies" and just try to read/watch/play as much Japanese media as possible... Thankfully there's so much good stuff available online nowadays. :>

Hope you find something useful for you in this list. Good luck with your studies!

[onenettvchannel]

BALITANG ENTERTAINMENT: Hawaiian Indie Animation Director and Storyboard Artist 'Kiana Khansmith' discusses behind-the-scenes of "Pretty Pretty Please, I Don't Want to be a Magical Girl" [#OneNETnewsEXCLUSIVE]

HONOLULU, HAWAII -- Japanese-American indie animation director and storyboard artist from the Hawaii state named 'Ms. Kiana Mai Khansmith' treated fans globally during a virtual home media conference last Sunday afternoon (March 9th, 2025 -- Hawaii local time). Known for her work with 'Disney Television Animation' in Glendale, California, United States of America; Kiana recently hosted a LIVE Q&A session on a video-sharing and broadcasting platform 'YouTube' (Google's parent company 'Alphabet'), in which she spoke about her premiere project, the animatic pilot "Pretty Pretty Please, I Don't Want to be a Magical Girl". The event attracted as many with a lot of excitement going on, looking to know more about her creative process and the future of the show.

A smoothie-like approach to "Pretty Pretty Please, I Don't Want to be a Magical Girl" brings something new to the genre. Aika reluctantly fulfills her role as a magical girl at the age of 15 in high school, while trying to maintain the normal responsibilities in real life. Helped by her magical sidekick 'Hoshi' (voiced by 'Christine Marie Cabanos'), and her new friend 'Zira', Aika battles the good fight of her dual life against the antagonist suspects 'Eclipse' and 'Lady DeVoid'. The animatic pilot has humor, heartwarming scenes, and a touch of subversive storytelling, which makes it a great project for indie animation.

Just this past Monday morning ago (Manila local time), her animatic pilot video gained an astonishing 2.5 million views with an estimated uploaded video revenue of U$D3,462 to U$D8,655 (or PHP198,670 to PHP496,676 Philippine pesos) based on global viewing shares survey from our research and analytics team of OneNETnews.

Kiana started her speech by expressing gratitude to everyone who welcomed the animatic pilot positively after its independent release debut. The animatic was originally a portfolio piece but turned into something more to discover from her. Online netizens received widespread appreciation from audiences because it introduced fresh ideas to this said genre.

The virtual home media conference featured Kiana's explanation of how she made 'Aika' and 'Zira' (voiced by the actress duos 'Anairis Quiñones' and 'Bennett Celine Abara') as fictional main characters. She described how she formed her main characters from personal experiences and demonstrated themes common in magical girl shows. She also addressed, in this said conference, how hard it is to find the perfect voice actors that fit the entirety of the series, and how teamwork is necessary to bring her vision to life. Offensive swearing occurs briefly in this animatic pilot.

If requested to turn the animatic into a full-fledged web animated series, Kiana expressed that she would consider the possibility. She mentioned issues of raising funds and corporate licensing but envisioned the possibility of the show and was hopeful. The fans speculated that the series would be picked up by a web-streaming site like YouTube, and by our internet television station 'OneNETtv Channel' (which soon-to-be the first public broadcaster) in Dumaguete City, or on independent crowdfunding like 'Kickstarter' or 'Throne', where it would be able to reach more people without the constraints of children's traditional TV.

Entertainment insiders suggest that the animation process from an animatic pilot to a full indie cartoon series will soon become a reality. Kiana talked about storyboarding and gave advice to up-and-coming creators to chase their dreams and make original content without using any artificial intelligence for the laziest individuals.

In the end, her craft of animation-inspired indie creators adds up from your heart of storytelling and dedication for several generations. Kiana's future, pursuing for excellence looks bright in our eyebrows which deserves for this indie animation gem. The whole animatic pilot is now available to watch for free on YouTube!

PHOTO COURTESY: Kiana Khansmith ( @kianamaiart ) via PR

SOURCE: *https://x.com/kianamaiart/status/1895226009609478299 *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHW5cDpghSc *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7bsmT-Jn0 *https://x.com/kianamaiart/status/1897874861445595663 *https://otakuusamagazine.com/pretty-pretty-please-i-dont-want-to-be-a-magical-girl/ and *https://www.polygon.com/animation-cartoons/532786/pretty-pretty-please-i-dont-want-to-be-a-magical-girl-pilot-youtube

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team