avislux

[avislux]

2024 May 13

Some COO shmuck fired me so I have some free time on my hands now. Honestly don't really want to go back to the 9-5 grind but I kind of need the stability.

How do I feel? Life has some ups and downs. Right now I just feel a bit overwhelmed. And the feelings will pass once I work past them.

I have guidance on how to work myself out of the loneliness situation. It's just a question of how much work ethic I have now.

I just want the pain to stop.

[avislux]

I'm just done

I tried to be optimistic for a while but I'm just tired now.

[avislux]

Anime Expo 2023 recap

Well it's long since I've lost my fervant passion for Bocchi The Rock. I still love it, just not to the extent that I'm thinking of it every second. I went to Anime Expo 2023 for 4 days, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Made some friends. Got to see Rie Takahashi in person. I wish I was more excited for that but I was excited enough.

Day 1

Panels all day long. Got up to 6 to arrive in LA around 7:20. Encountered some traffic on the way surprisingly, so I made a note to get up earlier. Lined up for the queue to get in then for the first panel of the day, Colorful Stage with Tomori Husonoki and Hinata Sato. Unfortunately I don't know these two seiyuu that well. I downloaded the game but haven't played it yet. Dunno if I will, I have enough time invested in gacha games. They basically talked about the game and answered some trivia about it. The voice actors visited Santa Monica and they said it was like a pilgrimage for a Japanese show that was shot there. Next up went to the Eminence in Shadow S2 premiere which had Cid's VA Seiichirou Yamashita. I got in while the panel was on going so I missed part of it. Apparently he speaks decent English. Kind of an entertaining guy I think. He didn't say "I am atomic," though. Then saw the first ep of S2. Checked out the entertainment hall for a bit before lining up for the next panel. To my surprise and excitement, they were playtesting Taiko no Tatsujin. Apparently I was the first person to do Oni difficulty. Lined up for the TOHO Animation panel after. Room was full though I barely got in. I was lowkey hoping they would announce something for Takagi-san with Rieri on the panel but that was not the case. They showed some upcoming shows such as JJK, spice and wolf. Last was Spy family, which Takuya Eguchi appeared for. I was walking out to line up for the spy family panel up until Eguchi appeared. Then I stayed. Spy Family Panel with Eguchi was right after that. A friend saved a seat so I got to be near the front. He basically answered a bunch of questions about himself and the show. Did a live reading of one of the lines in the first episode where he is in the train. He also did another scene I think it was about protecting children. He's pretty entertaining. I've listened to the Spy Family radio so I'm kinda used to hearing him. He really likes drinking. Half his answers were related to beer. What's the best way to eat peanuts? With beer. They also gave away a shikishi with his "absolute masterpiece" of a drawing. "Do you guys really want this?" he asked. After the panel, played some Taiko in the entertainment hall. Saw a real pro FC Hibana Ura. Lined up for the Mashle panel. They had the EN and JP voice out for this. Aleks Le apparently went to Japan to work with Kobayashi. They made molds of their fists. No cream puffs though. I'm not the biggest fan of Mashle. I like gag humor but the show's humor doesn't really hit for me. Aleks wore a robe out and brought one for Kobayashi.

Day 2

First was Twisted Wonderland panel. I do not play or care for it, I just wanted to see the voice actors. It has a more female demographic it seems. It was Natsuki Nanae, Chiaki Kobayashi, and someone else I forgot. They did some trivia on stage. Got to check out the exhibits today. Found a lot of bocchi stuff. Lined up for the CDawgVA panel with Ironmouse. Not a huge fan but I saw a clip of them last year and it seemed good. I lined up 30 mins in advance rather than the typical hour. The line went out the hotel. It was fun. Although I wish I left it early as I needed to catch the next panel. The Yakuza panel filled up, I didn't think it would. A lot of people were there to camp for the FGO panel that was next. I watched the panel on stream instead while in line. Strangely, once the doors closed, the line collapsed on itself. Anyway, I got to be on the right most side for the FGO panel and I was able to get into that. I don't care about FGO at all but I needed to see my oshi. She covered her mouth with her hands as she walked out due to all the cheering. The panel itself wasn't very smooth though. It seemed very awkward for the guests. It seemed like they answered questions the guy wasn't asking. Not sure. Overall the guests didn't talk much so they didn't seem like they were necessary for the panel. I just stared at Rieri all the time. She tends to make a lot of cute gestures as others are talking. The panel itself announced a bunch of Fate stuff and updates for the game, none of which I cared about. RIERIIII.

Day 3

I woke up particularly early today for the Rurouni Kenshin panel. Needed to line up early then book it to the queue for the event hall. It worked, I got seated near the front. And for the moment, I was happy. I got to see Rieri up close. She apparently shopped at vintange stores while Soma Saito bought a guitar. Apparently Rieri only addresses Saito as Saito-san whereas she uses "kun" for others. First time for both of them to be in America. Overall a better panel than the FGO one. They got to talk a good amount. I'm trying to remember more from the panel but it's not coming up. It was a good panel though I hope they release the vod somewhere. I checked out the Aniplex and A1 panel for a bit before dipping to explore everything. Had to line up for the Yamada panel at least an hour in advance, and I got in somewhere near the middle or so. This one featured Koki Uchiyama. The whole time he didn't seem like he wanted to be there. Maybe he was tired. I don't think a whole lot of interesting things happened but they announced an English dub. Uchiyama talked really fast. I then stayed to camp for the Rascal movie. It was fine, won't rock your socks off but wasn't bad. Checked out the entertainment hall again before leaving

Day 4

Just lined up for the Horimiya panel and saw that as my only panel for the day. Uchi is here again and he seemed more energized. They actually did some live readings in this panel. Rest of the day was exploring things.

[avislux]

Lets talk about Bocchi the Rock!

Well it's been a long time since I've found something to absolutely love.

But first a shout out to Lycoris Recoil for also being a pretty good original anime. Good mix of action and slice of life. I liked it enough such that while I was on a trip to Japan I looked for the book that was coming out during the trip. I managed to get it. Still haven't read much of it though. Then I found the book in a local Kinokuniya in December. I also bought a manga, thinking it was new original content. No they actually adapted a manga from the anime. It's usually the other way around. Oh well. Merch.

Bocchi the Rock just connects with me on a way no other show has. I have never seen social anxiety depicted in a way that is so relatable and funny. They were not afraid to use a variety of different animation styles. From live action shots, to random 3D renders to crayon drawings that may have been drawn by actual children. Some of the animators even commented on twitter on some random scenes they did. (There's another tweet about the black hole simulation I can't at the moment)

I lived that life growing up without having close friends. Could barely say hi to people. Mostly kept to myself instead of socializing. Well I didn't exactly have 0 friends. But even now, I'm not sure if I can call anyone close. Never hung out much outside of school. No one ever invited me to any parties. Never celebrated any birthdays. I remember looking at the top right of Facebook hoping there was a new message. Didn't really occur to me to reach out to anyone.

I really connect to all the monologuing Bocchi does. I don't think any show has done it as much as Bocchi has. Many of the feelings she shows I've experienced myself.

Then there's the music, which is just really good. It's honestly way too good for typical high schoolers to compose, but we can let that slide. Each band member gets their own character song. Although Bocchi's (Loneliness, Guitar and Blue Planet) is sung by Kita. Bocchi gets to sing the AKFG cover at the end. And I absolutely adore it. It connects to me in particular since I have a deep connection with music having a dozen instruments in my room.

They released an entire album on Spotify consisting of all the music in the anime and then some more songs. And it won't surprise me if at the end of the year, Spotify Wrapped tells me they're my number one listened to.

I really can't think of any premise that can top this. Like I had a thing for Takagi when I discovered that. Somehow any other show that does a male and female pair romcom doesn't come close to it. Maybe it's due to the song covers and having additional content by Rie Takahashi to watch. But also no other anime is as pure is Takagi. Closest is probably Kubo-san.

Like what if a you took the same premise of Bocchi the Rock but made it all male characters? Would it be as popular? Don't think it will ever happen though.

Also all of the instruments and equipment in the show are based off real equipment. All the performances are animated accurately to what's being played. The drums are animated beautifully. Non-musicians wouldn't even notice it.

On Youtube, Aniplex has a series of Bocchi's voice actor Aoyama Yoshino learning guitar to play Seishun Complex, the OP. Bocchi's guitar is based off a Gibson Les Paul Custom. it's 7 grand. Epiphone gave her voice actor an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Ebony (around $730), which looks pretty close to Bocchi's except the edge around the body is white. I went around looking at Les Pauls for a bit, then found the exact model Epiphone. After sitting on it for a bit, I bought it. The sales guy even gave me a deal setting me up with a service plan. Funnily enough after I didn't like how it felt after getting it set up the first time, I learned guitar set-up myself. It's not that bad. Although good tools cost money.

I did a search for the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Ebony while the show was airing and saw a couple on Sweetwater. The next week they were gone.

Then I wanted Bocchi's new guitar, a Pacifica PAC611VFM. Not sure I really needed it since I already had enough guitars. I tried to mod my Squier Strat to look more like it. Unfortunately Squier pickups don't match Fender's. I managed to replace the pick guard and knobs although one of the pick guard screws was misaligned with the body. Probably bad manufacturing, but it mostly fits just without the one screw.

Pacificas in general have been on back order in Japan due to the anime. The PAC611VFM is surprisingly hard to find. The black color in particular. All the other finishes look kind of ugly. It showed up on Ebay one day and I got it. I love it. Hoping to mod it as well. This anime has made me spend more money than any other show has. I even bought a new pedal and might get some more.

I also bought all the Bocchi manga.

Still trying to learn all of the Bocchi songs. Haven't had as much time as I'd like.

Alright I think that's enough writing for now.

[avislux]

An opinion on Overwatch 2

Copied this from a thread i posted on twitter. It's late so i'll add to this later

I usually don't do Twitter 🧵s but I'm particularly interested about the state of #Overwatch2 and its battle pass system. The battle pass system was invented by Valve for Dota 2 in 2013 and popularized by Fortnite. 1/?

It's an ingenious system to allow consumers pour an indefinite amount of money into a game. I've purchased every battle pass for Dota 2 up until now. Why? It gives me tons of perceived value for money (at least it used to), and secondly... 2/?

I respect that nothing you can buy in the game gives you any gameplay advantage. All heroes are free. There are no stats or whatever you can buy. I have more cosmetics in this game than I know what to do with. Many F2P games don't do this sort of thing.

I don't even play Dota much anymore yet I still buy the passes. Overwatch 2 on the other hand starts out with the battle pass and if you don't own OW1, some of the new characters are locked behind it. Kiriko unlocks at rank 55. How long does that take to get?

Granted, you don't have to spend money to get her, but that is a fairly big time investment. If I had to grind that, I would drop the game immediately. I don't like OW enough to play it that much. There are much better things to do with my time. 5/?

I was really only checking the game out for Kiriko's design and the fact that Sally Amaki, who I recently became a fan of after watching the Aniplex stream, voices her. I don't have any interest in playing the game much. 6/?

I heard that originally OW was going to have the heroes requiring to be unlocked but someone pushed back so they were unlocked at the start. I believe this to be important to the competitive balance of the game. Now they've switched to locking them out. 7/?

The launch really reeks of some exec making the call to turn a 1 purchase P2P game into a F2P one in an effort to make a bunch of cash to appease shareholders. I know well I won't be spending money on it and I can't imagine it doing very well in the long run. 8/?

And I'm really sick of all these games having a battle pass in them. This direction that #Overwatch2 is going though is amusing to me though. Have a good game running for years, shut it down and relaunch it as a memeable F2P game with barely any new content. 9/?

And the sad thing is it wasn't always supposed to be like this. #Overwatch2 was originally supposed to be a PvE horde game IIRC. I haven't kept up with it and now it's this... thing. Oh well. Another game not to play. 10/End

Twitter thread ends there and here's where I left off. I don't have much more to add as I'm not really playing the game regularly. Barely touched it since the transition. Turns out I didn't like how Kiriko's voice turned out, but that's not the voice actor's fault. I did have a nagging thought when I tried her then only fully realized it once I read a comment about her lines. The lines are just kinda lackluster? I think? Maybe the voice direction. Sally is a good actor so it can't be that.

[avislux]

What defeatist thoughts will I bring today?

One reason I write these things is to catalog my growth over time. I enjoy just randomly reflecting on my life and sometimes I write them down. It's 1:17 AM on a Monday morning. Let's see what ideas I have to write down.

Remember that the lives people show on social media isn't real. By scrolling through your feed you comparing the positive experiences that people share, with your entire life experience. People don't share their negative experiences, generally. I do that here sometimes. I'm different in that regard. Everyone has mundane day to day. They have bad experiences you will never know of. They may have experiences and emotions they won't show. What is shown on social media is just a small facet of people's lives. It is not their life.

As for myself, I'm generally more interested in the thoughts that people have. People don't actually use status updates on Facebook though. My feed is mostly just birthdays and posts from groups now. As for instagram, I guess it's fun seeing people's lives. Although I also use it to follow updates from actors and whatever.

Instagram's ad targeting is on point even though I've tried to limit what Facebook can collect on me. I could probably take extra measures if I wanted to though. The occasional ad for voice acting stuff is informative. But I also get a bunch on dating sites and relationships and stuff. God damn.

I never understood the point of instagram stories and snapchat. Don't you typically want to keep the videos you make? I guess those two serve different purposes. Do people actually enjoy editing videos on their phones? It feels like worthless entertainment. I guess I like the type of entertainment that can teach me something. I don't post this type of stuff because I don't think it's worth the effort to make something that has no value. Well, to put it another way, it's boring to me.

Hell, I listen to Japanese podcasts and radios more than English ones even though I can't completely understand it. I've realized it's kind of frustrating kind of knowing what's being talked about but not all of it so I'm planning to actually take Japanese classes.

Ummm in a bit of a lull here...

I have plans for voice acting, but can I make it achievable? I don't think it's something I can dead set focus on but still something I can dabble in. But if I treat it like that, I'm not going to get anywhere with it. Gotta find auditions I actually want to do.

Working on getting out more and building connections. People are busy though. People aren't interested. People don't want to respond. People don't care. People have their own goals, it's typically not worth it for them to help you meet yours. Fine then, I'll try something else. I will transform myself into a likable person. I will improve my personality. I will no longer have a personality of a doormat.

I've heard simply writing these sentences down is a step to improving. Maybe it will turn into some sort of revelation for me.

It's 1:49 now. I guess I can stop here. I haven't done an anime/game update in a while. Nothing's really obligating me to. Who's reading anyway?

[avislux]

Metroid Dread done

Beat Metroid Dread in 10.5ish hours on normal difficulty. 16ish total the game said at the end. It's my first Metroid game. It's been a while since I've played a game with bosses that felt hard but fair. I would generally die a few times while learning the attack patterns, then once I got them, things became easy to dodge and the guy went down. EMMI sections were kinda annoying. Some of the shinespark puzzles required some ridiculously accurate inputs so I didn't feel like getting all of the items. But overall it was longer than I expected it to be and was really satisfying to play.

[avislux]

Dating apps don't work.

I'd put this on twitter or something but I have a feeling it's going to bite me in the ass later so at least I have the option of hiding the post here.

Here's my experience on dating apps as of late

CoffeeMeetsBagel: Shows me girls I am physically attracted to, but also shows indirectly how much they've been liked by others. Also I get absolutely no likes on this platform but it's nice that it tells you when someone has liked you, which has only happened to me literally twice.

Bumble: I use this less than others but all I see are white chicks.

Tinder: Mostly staying away from this. Lots of pretty revealing bikini photos. Kinda freaked out by it. I'm not super into hookup culture

OKC: I like this the most and may consider actually putting money into it. I like that I can build a long ass profile and hopefully it will catch SOMEONE's eye. Unfortunately I don't think most people care about that and judge on pics. TBH though I think the person that I would like would also have a long profile.

Hinge: What actually prompted me to write this. I had okay experiences to start but as of my last swipe session I got like 10 fat chicks in a row. In a row. How does that happen?

Kippo: You can't actually build a decent profile with this. The most you get is a paragraph and 4 pictures. Then you have some arbitrary quiz questions and an anime list. That's it. I've got some matches on this though so it's aight. For some reason every other girl seems to play LoL, Valorant, or Apex Legends. I've only seen one profile with Dota on it. Free tier gives you like 25 profiles and 1 DM a day. 1 DM a day is pretty ass, but it guarantees the other person will get it.

And I also started on Hily which I'm still evaluating. I set up a call with a matchmaking service Tawkify. I'm pretty sure it was more of a sales call. VIP tier is somewhere like $34k, Standard is in the thousands like $4k. Both are out of budget for me. Or I can ask to be put into their database of candidates to be called for $99 for a year, which is a bit more reasonable to me. But that has me wondering, what kind of woman is the type that will spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a matchmaking service? And I'm reluctant to sign up unless I know the answer to that.

I did manage to meet a girl IRL organically and got her number. She doesn't seem to be interested in dating in general though. It's nice meeting people IRL Touching grass is nice. Get some air.

In the short term maybe actually considering visiting a pub one of these nights. Got a bit scary a few months ago with Omnicron but I think everyone in the area is so done with COVID now. I have a longer term plan to meet people in a way that might be enjoyable and developing to me.

The apps with the swipe limits really get to me because in order to get the most out of it you have to consistently feed yourself depression on a daily basis. I've learned that it's better not to suffer through that. Only take as much depression as you can handle and then take a break for a few days.

And if anyone I know reads this I hope I don't put off any neckbeardy vibes with this post. And if I do know you, why don't you reach out to me? I know it's not good face to vent out negative feelings somewhere but I feel like they gotta go somewhere on one of my media pages. Srsly though send hugs.

[avislux]

I asked Xander Mobus a question on twitter spaces

Hastily written thing just to write it down while I remember. Something along the lines of

Have you ever had financial struggles early in your VO career or periods where you didn't have work?

His response along with David Errigo, who voiced in SMT5

When he moved from Seattle he had months without work. He started in commercials to build up a profile (a nesting egg as he described it). He said he started out on Newgrounds.

There is a mentality that is endemic to young actors that they want to go 0 to 60 without the 59 steps in between. For every Jennifer Lawrance who became successful without taking acting classes, there are 100000 other actors who won't be successful even with The adage "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" is BS. Making your hobby a job is one way to lose your enthusiasm for i t.

His GF delivered him a shepard's pie while hosting and he could not taste it at all due to Covid.

[avislux]

The new nintendo switch model

Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/nns7zi/my_logo_for_the_rumored_new_model/

[avislux]

Iwanai Kedo Ne (recorder version) from the Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san from the soundtrack. I thought the track was cute so I wanted to wanted to play it myself. I arranged the recorder and piano parts.

Get the sheet music here: http://avislux.github.io/music/

I also bought a tenor recorder just for one bar.

[avislux]

Life tax

I’ve only had two seizures in my life. April 27, 2013, and February 1, 2017. US health insurance shenanigans made me change my neurologist which is always a hassle as specialists tend to be booked for months in advance. Here’s what my new one told me.

There are those who may start to get seizures around age 11 and stop around age 19 while the brain is still developing. After that, the brain doesn’t change much anymore. Based on the age I had my first seizure, it was very likely that whatever issue my brain has is permanent and if I were to stop taking my medicine I would have a 60% chance of getting another seizure.

I guess life had to grant me one defect. Paying monthly for medicine is pretty lame. The one I’m on has supply issues in some pharmacies for some reason. I like to think that I have a quirk that gives my brain more processing power in exchange for a chance to overload.

Fuck the US health care system.

[avislux]

Once upon a time in summer school

Back in elementary school my mom enrolled me in some summer school every year to essentially give me a head start for the school year and ensure my brain wasn’t wasting away. I remembered a time in probably the summer before 3rd or 4th grade.

The place this isn’t a school anymore. In its place now is a boba shop and a pharmacy. There was a girl I sat next to who was rather talkative. One time she wrote something down on a piece a paper and covered it with her hands. “Read this,” she said. She showed the sentence to me for a second before covering it again. She was embarrassed and wouldn’t show me again. From her reaction and what I was able to make out I believe the words were “Will you be my boyfriend?”

I didn’t think much of it. I hadn’t gone through puberty and didn’t like girls yet. I believe she shared the same name and look with a classmate at school. I remember asking my classmate whether she attended the summer school and she said she didn’t. I don’t think I ever saw that girl again.

If it’s one thing I regret from grade school it’s that I wish I had been building relationships with classmates while at school. I never really talked to many people. Girls especially. Just way too shy.

To this day, that event was the closest I’ve had a girl to asking me out.

[avislux]

Life update Oct 2020

October 5/6 2020. Time to write 2 hours-ish. Oct 6 12:57 AM.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a life rant. When’s the last time I did one? 2017-2018? Well a lot can happen in that amount of time. What was notable? Read on to find out!

Ha! As if I had any active followers. As if anyone I know still keeps up with me. As if anyone even uses this site anymore. That’s okay. I decided long ago that I would do things for my enjoyment and not so much for the popularity. If popularity came then great.

In a middle of a pandemic and the US is doing the worst due to having the most corrupt administration in its history, combined with having a fucking idiot for a president. So all the things I was looking forward to back in March are all canceled. This includes the first Dota Major in LA, and three concerts I was really looking forward to including FLOW, RADWIMPS, and Hatsune Miku. I’m not really a Hatsune Miku fan but I’ve listened to some vocaloid music and decided it’s not bad. The Hatsune Miku thing seems like something worth experiencing once. Who knows when I’ll get a chance to go to concerts again.

I’ve been lucky enough to keep my job and work remotely during the last.... seven months?! I preferred the office originally as it was easier to focus on work but I’ve gotten into the remote work lifestyle and I don’t hate it. I’ve saved so much money on gas and I rarely have to go outside anymore.

I rarely have to go outside anymore. There’s nothing to go outside for anymore. Not that I went out for much anyway. I don’t have any friends to even do things with. My one best online friend I had I thought I would be friends with forever. He decided he changed his life and doesn’t talk to me anymore. No one invites me out. Am I even worth hanging out with? I’ve started floating the idea of going to a karaoke place solo at some point. Exactly like Retsuko.

How do I even meet people in this situation now? I was always really shy in school and I feel like now I can be a bit more open. I really do want to meet people and make friends but I’ve never enjoyed outdoorsy things. I floated joining a local chess club, the only thing I could think of. Discord you suggest? I’m in like thirty different servers now and I can’t care enough to participate enough in any of them. I don’t know, something about Discord culture doesn’t rub me well. I feel like I need a smaller server that’s more close-knit with several shared interests. I’ll follow conversations in some channels but I’m not going to take the time just to sit down and chat. I’m always doing something else with a higher priority.

Looking for a girlfriend. I’m using dating apps but really don’t want to be taking the time to use them. Honestly just feels gross using them but what other choice do I have? I don’t get many matches. The ones I do get are usually not attractive enough to me to reach out. And my Bumble matches don’t message me at all. I guess I should lower my standards. I swear all the attractive girls are probably already taken. At the very least I want someone I can just chill with every few days or so. Enjoy time remotely.

Hopefully I can look back on this post some time in the future and see if I’ve improved my life. It will be a nice recollection of what I’ve had at this point in time.

Games I’ve played since 2018 that I can remember

Ni No Kuni - Was on my list for a while. I got bored probably a third of the way in and have been playing it on and off for a few years before deciding I need to finish this. Roughly 50 hours total and I set the difficulty to easy just to get thru it faster. I started Ni No Kuni 2 first but paused to complete this.

RDR2 - Yeah I guess it’s good. I don’t think it changed my life in any meaningful way

Ori Will of the Wisps - I loved the original. I loved this too. Played it on hard. Again I missed a skill I didn’t know about until after I had already beaten the final boss: Recovery. This would have made it all so much easier. ~25 hours. The story isn’t very deep though.

Skyrim - Beat the main campaign. Final boss was a joke. Still haven’t beating all of the DLCs. Not sure if I will.

Spiderman PS4 - Good game. Props to Insomniac. Except the parts where you don’t play as spidey.

Cadence of Hyrule - Beat it once and haven’t touched it since. Pretty cool combination of indie game and large franchise.

Half Life Alyx - Best VR game so far. It was hard on my 1060 though so didn’t get a fully enjoyable experience.

Outer Wilds - I liked the experience of the game. I did not like how it ended.

Currently playing: The Last of Us Pt 2. I have some opinions on it but I’ll probably put those in another post. Still have a large backlog of games to play but I’m trying to stick to one “large” game at a time and aw crap Cyberpunk is coming out soon.

For multiplayer games I’m still just playing Dota.

Anime:

からかい上手の高木さん - Teasing Master Takagi-san - Nichijou takes place as the funniest anime I’ve ever seen and my favorite. Takagi-san takes place as the most wholesome. It’s a rare treat where I force myself to watch one episode a day just so that I don’t binge and I can enjoy the show for longer. I just wish I had a girl to talk to every day at school. I wishlisted the VR game on Steam. It also introduced me to some new Japanese artists and I’m listening to all the Takagi covers on Spotify. This is my current favorite thing right now. I felt a little empty after finishing the final episode of season 2. Going through the manga slowly.

This anime also introduced me to a favorite seiyuu Rie Takahashi, who apparently voiced Takagi in manga promotional videos before the anime was even produced. I thoroughly enjoyed the Takagi content she did for the DVDs and other things. I seriously just started watching other anime shes in just because she’s in it

Konosuba - It’s enjoyable, but I don’t think it will change my life. Megumin is cute though. Currently on season 2

Rent-a-Girlfriend - Still watching. Has a lot of cringe moments. I haven’t even seen Rie’s character yet. I like the intro though.

Oresuki - Heard it had a similar romcom vibe. Still watching

Kaguya-sama - I like this one. It’s not as wholesome as Takagi though. I’m amused that Chika Dance is a thing. I really want to know who thought of making that, because it’s glorious.

Amagi Brilliant Park - Watched because KyoAni. It was fine.

Eromanga-sensei - I heard something about the MC wanting to fuck his sister and wanted to see through it to the end. This one’s pretty weird

Joshiraku - Funny in the same vein as Nichijou but you have to follow a blog of translation notes to understand everything. Thoroughly enjoyed

Steins;Gate - Binged this one. It was good but I felt like the plot didn’t went in a circle and nothing actually gets accomplished. I guess character development was the point? Dunno if I’ll watch Steins;Gate 0.

Kill la Kill - I’ve got nothing

K-On - Cute girls doing cute things. Only finished first season. Maybe I’ll do the second at some point.

Bunny Girl Senpai - 10/10 Relationship and character development

Attack On Titan - Binged season 3 in a weekend.

Interspecies Reviewers

Projects and hobbies

While I still want to make a game some time in the future I think it’s fairly ambitious with my time management and what little time I have. I decided to start focusing on music. Currently looking to make a few more videos of me doing some acoustic covers and few more arrangements.

Maybe I’ll transition this blog into its own website. Also plan to play with the OpenDota source code to generate stats for Dota for turbo since I can’t find any data on those stats.

Still studying Japanese when it’s convenient for me. I find it hard to take the time to sit down and actually study. I played Animal Crossing in Japanese for a bit. Still can’t understand everything but a decent amount. Game seems to be more fun in English though. I also completed the Duolingo Japanese tree and have an over year long streak on it. Learning Japanese has been my most persistent hobby so far.

Current feelings

Mood: Neutral but kinda lonely

Outlook on life: Not pleasant but not apocalyptic.

Current goals: Advance career. Produce videos and music. Be more interesting. Find someone to love.

What I want most right now: Friends.　友達。友人。仲間。

[avislux]

Persona Q and Q2 Thoughts

After finishing Persona 3 last year (2018) I considered playing Persona Q. I had purchased the Dancing games. Conveniently I checked the 3DS eShop and noticed it on sale for $9.99, which I pretty much had to take. I purchased it January 8th, 2019, and finished it April 27 in around 93 hours on the P4 side. So roughly 3-4 months. Preceding PQ2's release on June 4th I finished platinum'd Persona 3 Dancing. I had platinum'd P5 Dancing earlier. I did P5 Dancing first as it had the weaker soundtrack and to be honest I think I like the characters in P3 more. Just today (September 15th) I finished PQ2 in 113 hours. I probably could have done it faster but I went out of my way to find all the treasures and get 100% complete compendium.

So starting with PQ1, I particularly enjoyed seeing all the characters interacting with each other. The "Strolls" are essentially fan service skits. The levels have some nice puzzles in them. The spooky labyrinth actually startled me upon entering it and frightened me when the jump scare FOEs showed up. I had to make sure I wasn't facing the direction it was going to pop up as it startled me even when I was expecting them. Some situations force you to use an escape tool to get out, which happened enough times for it to be annoying. The themes are essentially a mix of both P3 and P4's themes, because why not. I was pretty touched from the climax to the ending. The story revolving around the main character is more of a sad one so it wraps up pretty emotionally.

Much of the Persona cast are mostly written to be caricatures of themselves. A unique aspect of them is taken and stretched and repeated to the point of making them silly. For example, Chie likes meat, so every conversation she comes up in involves meat. Same goes for Teddie and girls, and Akihiko with protein. The level designs were all unique and interesting and they had some cool puzzles.

I liked that in battle your party would comment on what type of shadow you're fighting.

In PQ2 there are more voice lines for actions. Strolls turned into special screenings which combine a side quest with character interaction. The writing is much more grounded. However, due to there being so many characters no one gets to have a spotlight on them. The level design seemed like more of an afterthought as there were no challenging puzzles at all. The way forward always felt very clear such that you could almost call it linear. I imagine it like a curvy rope with some threads dangling in various directions that lead to treasure or shortcuts.

Here I left this blog on 9/23/2019 and I came back to finishing 1/13/2020.

When PQ2 was announced for western release without a dub there was some disappointment in fans. However I enjoy the Japanese voices more, so it was actually a blessing for me. I took every opportunity I could to learn and translate some of the lines. Especially some of the battle lines which had no caption on them. Each character had lines for attacking, cancelling, boost, targeting weaknesses, and various status effects. Near the end of the game I started writing them down for funsies. With what limited knowledge of Japanese I had it was fun picking out the changes done with the localization. These mostly included puns and idioms. Junpei's "Ace Detective" joke is "お手上げ侍" and each time it's mentioned someone has their hands in the air. Aigis says “サラダバー”　at the end of the game. In short it's a Japanese meme One annoying thing I did notice was that Fuuka's lines for injured party members in Japanese is essentially the same for each member. It may have been the case for the other navigators as well but I used Fuuka the most for the battle navi. I believe it was something along the lines of ”天田くんは危ない状況です。注意してください！” - "Amada-kun is in bad shape. Please be careful!" Fortunately the localized lines were rather varied and it seemed that the localization team did a good job to keep it from being repetitive. I loved the four battle themes and boss theme and have added them to my Persona playlist. Also adored the ending song "colorful world" so much I asked for a translation and transcription of the lyrics on reddit because they were non-existent. I had tried doing it myself but it was way off the mark. I would still would like to make sheet music for it.

Both games are hard to recommend if you are not a fan of the Persona franchise. They certainly do require the main games to be played to get the most enjoyment out of them. A game that requires the completion of three games as a prerequisite would be hard to sell. Back when I finished P4 I debated whether or not to play P3. I'm glad I did play it because it allowed me to enjoy all of the franchise spin-offs. I really did enjoy playing all of these games. I don't really have much Persona media to consume any more now having finished all the animes. The rest of the games I have left to play are all the visual novel games (P4D and Arena games)  which I found out I have a hard time slogging through. Can't wait for Persona 5 Scramble though.

[avislux]

Junpei Ace Detective in Japanese

Currently playing through Persona Q2. Some fans of the Persona franchise are bummed by the decision to not voice the game in English. I can understand the decision. The 3DS is nearing the end of its lifecycle and the game probably isn’t even going to sell well in the West. Would it be worth the effort of bringing 30ish voice actors in for it?

I’m not disappointed though. I’m actually quite fond of the Japanese cast. Not that the current English cast is bad though. It helps that I’ve studied enough Japanese to understand most of the unsubbed lines. Of course when going through the completely voiced cutscenes I’ll try to compare the translation with what Japanese I understand. I’ve even compiled a list of some of the ones I’ve found interesting.

When introducing Doe, Ryuji asks something like "Dough, as in cookie dough?" in the localization. In Japanese, he says "kin gin dou". I'm assuming in kanji this is 金銀銅. As in "gold, silver, copper". More directly I believe the translation would be “どう as in metal copper?” It’s normal for the localization to rewrite some of the lines that don’t translate well.

One of the more interesting localization quirks involves Junpei’s catchphrase “Ace Detective”. It’s first used when FeMC meets the P3 squad. In English she says “As Junpei would say, ‘Junpei Ace Detective!’” and puts her hands in the air. And Junpei does the same thing. The original joke in Japanese is 「お手上げ侍」(oteage samurai). This roughly translates to “hands up samurai” or “surrender samurai.” I think the effect is more like that it’s a silly joke to express “I give up”. Each time a character says the phrase, they have their hands up. This action doesn’t make much sense with the English script but works in Japanese.

The nature of this localization means that each time Junpei ,says 「お手上げ侍」, the script would have to be altered to make sense with the new joke. I feel like the localizers could have used a different joke to keep the sense the original joke gave. Ace Detective already has its own meaning in English as a title of merit. Using it as a joke I don’t think keeps the spirit of the original Japanese joke.

In Japanese Persona 3 here’s the scene it’s introduced (video timestamp at 19:32)

Yukari: Good morning 

Junpei: Hey Yuka-tan. This case... Honestly it makes me go “oteage samurai.”

Yukari: Oteage samurai? Are you stupid? ... I mean, are you stupid?

Junpei: You said that twice!

I should say that my translation might not be perfect. Still studying Japanese. Anyway, same scene in English:

Yukari: More like Stupei, Ace Defective.

Junpei: Hey! I resent that!

And with a simple script change, Yukari coins a new nickname for Junpei.

In the Japanese clip the player talks to Junpei after the cutscene and the conversation goes something like this:

Well then Onee-san, Let me borrow your hands.　Now raise both hands up high. Now you oteage samurai together with me.

Player options: “Oteage samurai!”, “....Stupid?”, “.....”

Ah great! Feels good, that tension.

The English script is probably something completely different. I’d thought it would be fun to bring up as I can’t find any discussion of it anywhere on English internet. It appears to be a familiar phrase on Japanese internet. You can easily find fanart by search that phrase.

お手上げ侍！

[avislux]

HTTYD3 thoughts

2/23/2019

I was pretty enamored by How to Train Your Dragon when I first saw it back in 2014. Has it only been five years? Seems like eons ago. I still have Toothless as my phone’s lock screen, and my favorite pose of him sitting as my computer lock screen and Twitter background. Also still have a slide show of HTTYD screens for my desktop. I don’t know if anything else could capture the magic the first film had.

Some spoilers fyi

I just saw How to Train Your Dragon 3 in 3D with my brother. This time around I avoided most of the trailers (mostly due to spoilers) and in general wasn’t keeping up with the hype as I used to. Never got around to finishing all of the Netflix series. Put simply, It is still a great and beautiful movie, but I liked the first two better.

I had way too many issues with the plot and pacing. So Hiccup and gang have been freeing dragons from hunters. Berk becomes a utopia of sorts for dragons to the point where overpopulation is an issue. A new villain is introduced because there has to be one to drive the plot.

The plot is rather predictable. Hiccup has a plan and of course things don’t go exactly as planned. Why do all the dragons have to live on one island with the Berkians when they could expand? How does a guy simply sneak onto an island? Don’t they have sentries around looking for boats? Why was there no warning horn or something when the guy is talking to Hiccup in his house and everything gets lit on fire? The Hidden World is only shown for one scene and in that one scene Hiccup decides to ditch his original plan of moving Berk. Ruffnut leads the villain back to new Berk and Toothless is almost immediately captured. Does every single dragon in the world make it to the Hidden world when the dragons depart? Several scenes seem to go too quickly so the pacing feels rushed. I think the movie would have been improved a lot more if there was more room for certain scenes to breathe. These things really make the film feel like more of a kids movie than the other two.

One of the themes of the movie is about growing up and accepting the loss that comes with it. The ending wraps up with Hiccup visiting Toothless after several years, assuming there has been no human contact with dragons whatsoever within that time. It’s really the only appropriate way to end the trilogy but at the same time it conflicts with this theme somewhat.

Maybe I’m just older now so I’m less tolerant of these things. I feel like the movie wanted me to feel sad when the dragons depart. I kind of wanted to as well, but I didn’t really received that emotional impact I wanted.

To reiterate, the movie isn’t bad, but the negatives stick out more in my mind more than the positives. Hiccup saying “Now you can draw/!” was probably my favorite line. There were also some subtle nods to the previous films and of course in the credits they have select frames from the previous movies shown.

Maybe I’ll finish watching the Netflix shows some time. I still hope there’s a few more stories that they can make for HTTYD. Or maybe another franchise can be made to captivate me again. But anyway. It was nice seeing you Toothless. Hope to see you again some day.