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[notesonleaves]

The Fall of Language in the Age of English

The title of this book is somewhat misleading, as in the original it was more like “The Fall of the Japanese Language...” rather than just language generically, and the real meaning is really more about the fall of Japanese literature (the novel) rather than how the health of a language is nowadays determined in the eyes of linguists (which is dependent on how many speakers it has and what role it plays socially, not on whether people write good novels in it). As the author, Mizumura Minae explains in the English language preface, one thing omitted from the English version was a passage in which she addressed the book to readers mourning the decline of Japanese literature, and having done that, she felt little need to justify this claim (because it is so widely shared, apparently; although when the book was published in Japan it was both highly popular and incredibly controversial). But this really makes the last part of the book confusing, because if that’s what the title means, it would seem important to explain why the current Japanese novel is so bad. I have this book in Japanese (I didn’t realize it was actually the same book and thought it was a continuation) so maybe when I read that version there will be more information, as Mizumura says she rewrote the last chapter for the English version. 

The book is structured as follows:  it starts with the author going to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, where writers from all over the world are paid to attend. This part reads like a novel and is probably the most entertaining, with Mizumura reflecting on the midwest and her impressions of the other writers, some of whom are quite prominent. This experience serves as part of the inspiration for her book, because the fact that most of these writers are writing in their own language is a historical anomaly. In the past, most writing was done in a “universal language” such as Latin or Classical Chinese. At the end of this segment, Mizumura describes her unhappiness at the current state of Japanese literature:  “Unsuited even for a poetic description like ‘bleak wasteland,’ it was more like a playground where everything was small and clamorous -- just juvenile.” 

The second segment is about the fall of the French language from being a lingua franca, including a talk she gave about modern Japanese literature and time/temporality, although it really seems as though time is language here(?), as it’s about how those who live in the “universal time” can communicate with the rest of the world, creating a vast spiritual community. She also reflects that Japanese is fortunate to be considered a “major literature,” unlike many other non-Western countries, in the sense that Japanese literature is widely translated and respected. (She recounts a meeting with a writer who read Sasameyuki by Tanizaki Junichiro and was outraged by the way it ended, for example). 

The third, fourth, and fifth chapters:  These explain the idea of a “national language” and its relationship to national identity, the novel/vernacular literature, first in Europe, and then in Japan. The part about Europe is fairly long, and I’m not sure that amount of background was necessary. The part about Japan is much more interesting to read, especially the story of Fukuzawa Yukichi. The is also a discussion “miracle” of Japanese literature during the Meiji-Showa eras, with reference to Soseki’s Sanshiro, especially the various political, social, and economic reasons for it (which is why it is ‘miraculous’ rather than being inevitable). 

Finally, about 80% the way through the book, we get into the part I was waiting for, the “fall” of language. This seems to be a result of globalization, competition by other forms of art/entertainment, and contemporary Japanese authors writing “rehashes of American literature” which fail to reveal the current society. So now we get into what was probably the controversial part:  what the author thinks needs to be done about this. According to Mizumura, the Japanese educational system fails to teach the literary canon adequately, not even requiring students to read any novel other than their textbook, which she blames on the phonetic kana reform, because that makes it harder to read pre-war literature. Is the old kana really that huge of a barrier against people reading Meiji/Taisho/early Showa literature? It’s this part I found a bit strange, and maybe it doesn’t really come through in English. Also, she think the education system should abandon the goal of universal bilingualism in favor of only teaching reading in English and having a small part of the population go on to advanced English study (...this seems easier said that done? and arguably currently reading is what the current system best teaches anyway). I guess I’m somewhat cynical about how much compulsory courses can impact literature and literacy, although it does seem like the Japanese educational system has a comparatively low emphasis on literature. 

Note:  I became interested in reading this book because of this article:  https://lithub.com/the-murakami-effect/ , which has more background information on the author and her other books. 

[notesonleaves]

Crunchyroll anime, cont

After awhile I hit a snag in reducing my backlog, and then I added more titles, so I am over 30 again, orz. 

However, I finished watching Jojo Part 3 (finally), which is very faithful to the manga, although it has been so long since I’ve read part 3 that I forgot a lot of the details (oddly I forgot the most in the final fights for some reason, maybe because they were so long? Or fairly complicated?) Anyway it just continued to feel weird that they portray all the gore by blacking things out, and I’m not sure if the fact that I remember these gory scenes from the manga makes it more weird or less. Also, the way many of the characters (ok, not so much Jotaro, but it seems like everyone else) likes to helpfully monologue and give the audience lengthy explanations is feels especially jarring now that the narrative has started to emphasize time as a factor, so then it makes you think about things like “uh, they fell like fifteen feet, yet had time to talk for like thirty seconds?” or “dude, you said you stopped time for five seconds, but you were clearly going on longer than that.” 

Holmes of Kyoto:  I started this series on a whim and usually I don’t really like detective shows that much, and I have been trying to avoid light novel based anime, but that didn’t work out this time, ha. I guess the problem is that I like these shows because often the writing seems better, but then I realize the story is continued in the light novel and become annoyed. Anyway, this show is about a young antiques appraiser, Yagashira Kiyotaka (nicknamed Holmes, which is sort of a pun), a high school girl, Mashiro Aoi, getting over a breakup who starts to work at the shop, and how he ends up having to solve these mostly non-murder mysteries he either is asked to solve or accidentally runs into in the course of normal business. There’s lots of interesting information about pottery, woodblock printing, painting, etc. All of this takes place in Kyoto and at times I did wonder whether they got funding from a Kyoto tourism board. Also, there’s Enshou, a master counterfeiter turned monk, who is improbably gifted in various arts and seems to have decided on his own to be Moriarty because it gives him some purpose in life. (Despite leaving the monastery once he is exposed, he continues to dress as a monk). Aoi’s issues with her ex are relatively quickly solved, and she and Kiyotaka (who first offers her a job because he suffered a similar experience where his ex left him for some Osaka guy; his ex-gf, Izumi shows up a lot to ask him for help with a lot of her problems!) soon start to have a lot of UST which is noticed by everyone but neither of them can get around to starting a relationship. (this develops in the light novel). I also was intrigued by how Holmes explains that the other reason he dislikes Enshou so much (besides the fraud and Enshou being a jerk in general) was that he envies Enshou’s artistic talent (which Enshou perversely refuses to use to create original works). 

As a detective show though, this is may not be very satisfying because most of the mysteries aren’t “fair play” and rely on a lot of knowledge that the viewer obviously won’t have. 

[notesonleaves]

Watching more things on Crunchyroll

I have recently started watching more things on Crunchyroll (never let it be said that I don’t support the anime industry!) as most of the time I ignore it and let my backlog sit around. I currently have around 35 or so things in my queue. 

How to Keep a Mummy:  Painfully cute story about people keeping fantasy creatures, although it has more serious parts about the threat to the creatures and the issues the main characters face in their friendship. This was better than I thought it would be, although I’m confused about what the abilities of the mummy (up until one scene it seems like Mii-kun is really lacking in abilities compared to the other ones, especially the baku) are and other basic questions that the show doesn’t really delve into. (I was also unclear about whether the various creatures are adults or babies. Conny, the oni, seems to clearly be a baby who will grow up to be an human sized adult who can talk, which makes things actually pretty weird when you think about it. Ok, maybe the scene where the critters all learn how to write at a preschooler level too)  

Sengoku Night Blood:  I played this game for awhile, and I enjoyed some of the art, although the paltry story hardly went anywhere, and like most free games, I hit a wall after awhile so I got tired of it and uninstalled. So I tried watching this wondering if they ever reveal anything about the main plot. No, they don’t, this game has so many characters you can’t really do anything in 12 eps, and the heroine is incredibly uninteresting even by mobile otome standards. 

Diabolik Lovers:  Most otome anime should not be watched, but I watched this one because I was curious about the game but not enough to play it. However, it is even worse than Sengoku Night Blood and mainly exists as an excuse to animate the heroine, Yui, having her blood sucked by the vampire boys. I’m told the second season is even more incoherent. 

The Royal Tutor:  This is a fun, ridiculous shoujo-ish (based on a manga running in G-Fantasy) show about a tutor (who looks like a little boy, but is an adult man) summoned to teach four difficult princes. He quickly wins them over and helps them grow and become candidates to the throne. Anyway, though I enjoyed this anime, it really illustrated a “problem” (most people don’t have an issue with it) that I have with anime these days. Most anime is based off an ongoing manga, and when I finish the anime I become annoyed because the manga isn’t finished. I think a lot of people who watch anime prefer watching anime and are anime fans, whereas I find manga just as good of a way to experience a story and only feel a strong need to watch the anime if I’m very curious about how it was animated or want to see how they changed it. So if I were told both an anime and a manga existed, I think generally I would be more interested in reading the manga. 

I did go and catch up on spoilers for the Royal Tutor and really the crux of the story is why the King feels it is so necessary that all of his younger sons be suitable for the throne, and the reason is because he secretly thinks his eldest son is not qualified, despite most people thinking he is highly suitable. Conveniently, this reason is a secret which has yet to be revealed in the manga, although if it’s just that he’s terminally ill or whatever, the behavior of Count Rosenburg (his steward who attempts to disqualify the younger princes) is also puzzling. 

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi:  Regarding the English title, I kind of find “bed and breakfast” incongruous for what seems more like a resort hotel? Anyway, this is based off of a shoujo light novel where the protagonist, Tsubaki Aoi, was raised by her grandfather after being abandoned to starve to death by her mother, who rejected her because she could see spirits. Aoi was saved by a mysterious ayakashi who gave her food. Her grandfather, Tsubaki Shiro, teaches her how to defend herself from ayakashi by giving them food. Because of Aoi’s high spiritual power, her food has the ability to restore their strength. After her grandfather’s death, Aoi is spirited away to the world of the spirits where she finds out that her grandfather promised to marry her to the Master Innkeeper of Tenjin-ya, in return for his massive debt. Aoi refuses to marry the Master (an oni whose name is unclear, everyone calls him by his title), and instead opens up an eatery at the hotel, with the help of the nine-tailed fox Ginji, who I guess is sort of like the assistant manager. I find all the various titles they have at these inns (there are two of them, Tenjin-ya and Orio-ya) confusing, as is a governmental structure where inn managers are also the regional governors... 

The story is mainly how Aoi (who is much more brash and reckless than she seems at first) wins over ayakashi who are at first hostile to her, through the power of her cooking and her insistence on helping others despite her not having any real obligation to in many instances. There’s kind of a vague triangular relationship between Aoi, the Master of the inn, and Ginji, although I feel sorry for Ginji, since he’s clearly not going to win, both in a structurally obvious way from the beginning, and for other reasons later revealed. 

I think I’ve enjoyed this one the most, although I have some issues with it:  a) the animation quality is inconsistent, at times distractingly so, b) since I have not yet had the opportunity to get bored of kaiseki ryouri, I’m actually not that interested in some of the foods featured (the wealthy ayakashi who can afford to stay at a four star resort hotel are, so they’re intrigued by the more modern Japanese foods Aoi cooks), c) can someone please tell the author not to name all of the characters in the later arc after various Sengoku figures? It’s seriously boring. A lot of the other names are sort of stale, but I was better able to ignore that. But I’m interested enough in the worldbuilding and like the slow burn romance going on. From what I googled online, it sounds like the finale of the light novel is approaching also. 

[notesonleaves]

update (after a yr)

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted here. I’ve simply gotten out of the habit of blogging on Tumblr, mostly because I post on Discord and other fora these days, but now that Tumblr has banned a lot of content (while continuing to run poorly in many ways), the platform seems to be declining in earnest. In any case, here’s some books/tv shows/whatever that I’ve been watching:  

Houseki no Kuni (anime):  This is really worth seeing because it does CG animation fairly well (especially with the sense of space and action scenes), and it’s nice to see the characters in color. Would be great to have a sequel, especially when the manga is finished, although given the glacial pace, that will be awhile. 

Advisors Alliance (season 1, up to episode 30 or so):  I watched this on my own up until episode 20 or so and am now rewatching and beyond in a fairly leisurely way with a friend. I’d like to watch the second season if I can figure out how to find it. (The first season is on Youtube). Wish I spoke Chinese (or even read it, given that there are Chinese subtitles). The other thing which really gets me is that although the real title also adds that it’s about the great military advisor, Sima Yi, he uh, in the first season does not seem to do much military advising at all, other than going on a diplomatic mission to convince Sun Quan to ally with Cao Cao so they can get rid of Guan Yu. Which is not a small thing, but I think it gives a misleading impression of what the show is about, especially when a major subplot is civil service hiring reform (whee!). 

Cells at Work (anime):  If you’ve ever wanted to watch a pretty fluffy show about, surprisingly, mainly the immune system, this is the anime for you! Not much to say about it otherwise. 

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (book):  An enjoyable exercise in sophistry/trolling. The philosophical author concludes that all books, including the ones we have actually read, are books that we haven’t read. Given that is true, this book is really how to talk about all books. 

Crazy Rich Asians trilogy:  This was better than I expected, since the author clearly loves Trollope and other 19th century comedy of manners sorts of books and is trying his hand at writing a modern version. It suffers from the common flaw (?) of these books that the main characters are often the most boring, especially since the real point is to do these small portraitures of the various types of insane wealthy folk. (Astrid and Kitty have better stories, I feel) The writing feels more convincing when he focuses on Singapore itself, rather than the other settings. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses (trilogy):  This was worse than I expected. When I read these I wanted to write a blog entry about them, but I never got around to them. I started to read them because I was intrigued by one of the plot developments I’d read about. This series is either YA or Adult Fantasy, depending on which country it is published and who you ask, and some aspects of the early story remind me of the hunting scenes in the Hunger Games, but much of that is swept away later in favor of it becoming a big epic fantasy series set in fairyland. What is wrong with these books? I am not entirely sure. I think it’s partially the prose, and partially that the writer has good ideas but fails on the structure and execution, and a lot of the endless beautiful and powerful fairies etc. is harder to pull off than it looks. Many of the plot important scenes feel perfunctory and unconvincing, although the more fairy tale like scenes often are pretty effective. I feel like someone out the probably has written something that does explain what are the problem(s) but I can’t find the post. 

The Shaman and the Heresiarch:  A New Interpretation of the Li Sao:  The Li Sao is one of the long poems in the Songs of Chu, and is often interpreted to be about Qu Yuan’s problems in his career as an official. This is really interesting as it argues that the poem is mainly about spirit possession and conflict between factions of Confucians and shamans. 

Lust, Commerce, and Corruption:  An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard, by an Edo Samurai:  A translation of an anonymous Edo period text, which was probably by a low ranking samurai who acted as a sort of lawyer. The author is fairly conservative and upset about what he sees as the corruption of the Edo period state, especially the rise of the merchants and move to urban society. 

[notesonleaves]

Devilman (manga)

I finished reading the five volume Devilman manga in preparation for seeing the latest anime. This is a short, intense read. It starts out as vaguely Lovecraft-esque horror, turns into action/horror/battle for about two vols, and then the protagonist addresses the reader with a warning, and then it turns into the apocalypse, and ‘is humanity worth saving---- wait, ok, that’s kind of a moot point now, and now it’s time for the story to shift to Satan for the last scene.” Then I read summaries about what had happened in the sequels/prequels, which both clarify and confuse. (Go Nagai created Devilman after doing another devil-themed series, which was inspired by a campaign against an ecchi manga he had previously done) 

After I finished, I was discussing with someone who had also read the manga about Ryo’s realization that he is Satan. From what I understand it goes --->Satan awakens and decides to destroy humanity --->decides to become a human in order to understand them well enough to get rid of them ---> with Psycho Jenny’s help, becomes Ryo Asuka ----->Understands humanity and creates plan to destroy them. Up until this point this all makes sense, but then at some point, Ryo meets Akira, falls in love with him, and decides to save him by using Amon to make him a Devilman. Then later, Ryo realizes that “Ryo Asuka” does not exist, and he becomes Satan again. However, how do the demons know of Satan’s plan? Wouldn’t Ryo have to become Satan in order to communicate the plan (as well as their desire to save Akira)? Is this just so we can have the effective scene of Ryo realizing that his existence is a lie and are able to empathize with Ryo as a human up to this point? Or is it something like “Satan subconsciously communicates with them” or “Satan occasionally awakens off-page, and then later just becomes Ryo again?” I guess I’ll see how the new anime handles this. 

Why doesn’t God try to save humanity? Or is the Devilman army truly the army in revelation? Or is God just out to ruin Satan’s day? 

BTW I feel sorry for Xenon. He has a very unreasonable boss. 

I can definitely see the influences this has had on other anime. Would actually sort of be great to see a list of the most influential anime/manga some time. 

[notesonleaves]

Houseki no Kuni manga, vols 1-8

I just got around to finishing up the Houseki no Kuni manga (or Land of the Lustruous, in the official translation), which has recently been animated. The premise is that in a far future earth, where most land has been destroyed from objects hitting it, humanity has been wiped out and the remaining land is now inhabited by beings made out of gems. The gems are actually crystals in a humanoid matrix held together by microorganisms, and they are based off of humans somehow, as are the mollusk people who inhabit the ocean and the moon people. There are only twenty-eight gems, who are genderless and led by the mysterious Kongou-sensei, who resembles a Buddhist monk. The gems a re threatened by the moon people/Lunarians, who attack them (in sort of a kaijuu way) in order to use them for decorations. However, things are more complex than that. Sensei is really the character whose non-actions everything revolve around, really. 

The really elongated and stylized character designs take some getting used to, and to me have a retro feel in keeping with a lot of the visual design and paneling in the manga. The simplicity of the lines and the amount of negative space also lends to the otherworldly feel, as does the strange mix of vaguely the vaguely modernist ‘school’ and the Buddhist designs of Kongou-sensei and the moon people. Personally, I found the character designs often hard to keep straight, since only a few of the gems play really important roles in the story and they all have the same body type. (Color of course would help a lot, but it’s manga). 

The story is not one with a lot of filler; Phosphophyllite, the protagonist, is a weak and klutzy gem in the beginning, but changes vastly through the story:  quite literally and amazingly quickly, by manga standards. Anyway if you’re annoyed by Phos’s personality at the beginning, stick around (although you might be annoyed by them later, it will be for other reasons). 

For me I think the main appeal in the story is for the worldbuilding and the plot, although in some ways (although in vol 8 we get a huge amount of important information) I feel like it’s at a risky point in the story, as we might even be nearer to the end. 

SPOILER COMMENTS TO FOLLOW:  

One thing that struck me throughout the story is that Phos’s relationships with the other characters were somewhat unpredictable and they never really did end up finding, for example, Cinnabar a job. (In fact Phos in the end made up their own job, which is now to get Sensei to pray the moon people away as they so ardently desire, by convincing some of the other gems to go the moon, which would be a shocking betrayal of Sensei...?) At first it seems like Phos’s strongest friendship is with Cinnabar and then with Antarcticite, but then they are BFF with Ghost Quartz who is partially destroyed and become Caimgorm (Phos now ORDERS Caimgorm to go to the moon with them, when they told everyone else they should go to the moon only if they really wanted to). But anyway, now that Phos has Lapis Lazuli’s head they have gotten perhaps too clever for their own good, since I just don’t understand why they think this scheme will even work?

Since it is revealed that Kongou-sensei is a machine created by humans to pray for their souls, and is as a machine prohibited from doing certain things, how do they know why he is not praying for the souls on the moon? (Anyway, I don’t see why other people couldn’t do it... True, everyone dislikes the moon people so they wouldn’t want to pray for them anyhow.) 

[notesonleaves]

Started reading Tesso no Ori

I started reading an extremely long novel in Japanese, Tesso no Ori, by Kyogoku Natsuhiko. This is around 1367 pages in bunko form, and concerns the unsettling murders of some monks in Hakone. I have to say, I kind of wonder whether it really had to be THIS long. I am currently about a fifth in and so far there has been one definite murder, a possible other murder, and long stretches in which major characters sit around an inn. Also, we have been treated to passages about the tourist industry in Hakone. 

The novel starts out strong and enigmatic, with a scene where the blind masseur Oshima stumbles on what he is told by a monk is a dead body in the snowy mountains of Hakone. The monk says he killed the person, and then rambles on in a confusing fashion about how the dead person is an ox and he is a rat. 

Then, we go to the Sengokurou, a very old traditional Japanese inn, where an antiques dealer, Imagawa, has been waiting for days to see a monk, Ryounen, from the nearby Myoukeiji Soto Zen temple who offered to sell him something amazing. For whatever reason we learn a lot about the personal history of Imagawa, whose family traditionally makes maki-e, but who ended up taking over his cousin’s antique shop after the war. Also at the inn is Dr. Kuonji, who was the father of the ill-fated Kuonji family from Ubume no Natsu (the first book in the series). Probably so as not to spoil anyone, the events of that book are only alluded to by the other characters, and not described. After what happened he closed his clinic and retired to live in the inn. Imagawa and Kuonji become friendly and play go together, and Imagawa observes an Ichimatsu-doll like girl in a kimono some distance away in the mountains. Frustrated by the failure of Ryounen to appear, Imagawa tries to ask the cashier in the inn to check the records of his cousin’s visit. However, the records have been destroyed, presumably by rats. 

Then, Chuuzenji Atsuko (a journalist; Kyogokudou’s sister) and Toriguchi (a photographer) walk to the inn, where they are supposed to meet another journalist who is in charge of a project to profile Myoukeiji temple, which has decided to participate in a study of the brain waves of meditating monks. On the way they pass by a young monk, who does not belong to the temple. 

There, Toriguchi notices a mysterious scroll painting in his room of an oddly dressed man, a circle, and an ox-like animal. He is also taken by the scene of Imagawa and Kuonji playing go against the backdrop of the snowy garden with its huge tree, and receives permission to photograph them. After this, Atsuko rejoins them, after having met the other journalist, who is ill. As they drink tea by the garden, suddenly, they notice there is a monk there, sitting in a zazen meditation position, covered in snow and obviously dead. Somehow, the monk has appeared, despite no traces in the snow. (Was the monk lowered from the tree? Was he perhaps always there and somehow hidden?) 

Up until now, the narration has been in 3rd person limited, but now we switch to the first person perspective of the novelist Sekiguchi, who has been invited to a trip in Hakone by his friend Kyogokudou (this is actually the name of his bookshop; his real name is Chuuzenji Akihiko), who in his role as a rare book dealer (as opposed to his roles as Shinto priest/exorcist) has been hired to appraise some old books found in a buried storehouse. Actually it more seems that he invited Sekiguchi because he wanted Sekiguchi’s wife to keep his wife company, since the rich guy, Sasahara, whose property it is is paying for them all to stay in an inn. Note that this isn’t the Sengokurou in, which is at least a train stop away (the book actually tells us how far everything is, by foot and train, since it is the 1950s). Anyway they go to Hakone (I think this is near Yumoto?) and Kyogokudou and Sekiguchi go to look at the storehouse. Kyogokudou suspects that the storehouse was not buried naturally, and he also finds that many of the books are related to Zen and the most recent date from the Meiji era. However, there is no nearby monastery. 

While their wives sightsee and Kyogokudou is working, Sekiguchi hangs around the inn and does nothing, mostly (I’m cutting out a lot here; honestly, I don’t dislike Sekiguchi as a character but in this book I’m kind of wondering what he’s doing here. He’s like a Watson character, if Watson was prone to lapsing into depressive fugues and did not really have any useful skills.) He hears a strange local legend of a ghost girl wearing a kimono who sings a disturbing song, and also hears about Oshima’s terrifying experience (the monk and body disappeared afterwards). Kyogokudou comes back for awhile and lectures Sekiguchi about his philosophical distaste for parapsychology, the story of the Tesso (see here and here) and his thoughts on the story about the girl. He is disturbed to hear about Oshima’s experience and orders Sekiguchi not to get involved. However, when only Sekiguchi is there, Toriguchi appears at the inn and tries to get him to hinder Enokizu, who has been hired by Kuonji to investigate the monk’s death. Apparently Enokizu is held in such low repute by both Toriguchi and Atsuko that they believe he will only make things worse, because of his lack of detective ability. (Harsh, as he is a private detective! )  When he hears Kuonji is involved, Sekiguchi then resolves to go and see him, as a way of proving to himself that he has changed and overcome the issues in his past. (Great, this sounds like he’s going to get into even more trouble and probably make matters even worse). 

[notesonleaves]

Kyousougiga

I watched this with several other people based off of some rec, but while I feel that I hadn’t wasted my time watching it, I’m not sure I’d recommend it to others. Parts of it are visually stunning, especially the earlier parts that are more based off of real sites, but in the end as a fantasy story, I felt it was somewhat of a mess and the character it should have been about, in terms of who is driving the story, wasn’t the actual main character(s). The problem is that the story goes at a leisurely pace and then in the last few episodes everything is explained very quickly and somewhat unsatisfyingly. It feels almost like one of those fantasy or mystery novels where the earlier parts are amazing, mostly on an aesthetic or suggestive level, but then when the author must inevitably reveal everything, it goes downhill. Also, my recommendation is not to watch episode 0 (because it’s incoherent and everything is shown later) or episode 10.5 (because contrary to what I read somewhere on the internet, it really doesn’t reveal much). Instead just watch it all the way through and don’t expect too much. Below the cut spoiler-related thoughts. 

1. I hate it when they do that thing where they flash text on screen, but so quickly you can’t read it. It just pisses me off. Thankfully they stop this after awhile. 

2. I am still confused at how the earlier parts about Myoue (actually Inari) relate to Inari’s true nature as a god, as revealed in later episodes. Are we just supposed to take it as one of his incarnations? Ok, but why didn’t they bother to explicate this? It feels like then we can’t take everything that was revealed earlier at face value, but more like a metaphor or the explanation that was received by Myoue (Yakushimaru). 

3. So if there are vaguely Shinto-esque gods, what are Buddhas? How do they fit into all of this? So what was all this stuff about Koto (Sr.) borrowing the Buddha’s body? 

4. The flashback sequences about Inari’s life as Myoue are really the best visually and I think thematically. 

5. The story is poorly paced and, especially, the characters of Yase and Kurama were surprisingly underused. 

6. Koto (jr) and Myoue (Yakushimaru) are the main characters, yet honestly I didn’t feel that interested in them most of the time, especially Koto. I think it’s mostly personal taste, but I felt she was best in the flash-back episodes about her upbringing in the shrine. 

7. So this story is as far as I can understand, about how Inari semi-suicidally was tired of it all and illegally created a parallel world, but didn’t explain his plans, causing a great deal of trouble and confusion to the rest of his family as they all ignorantly stumble about trying to resolve things, but eventually his dad told him it was like, ok to retire, so he did and so they all live happily ever after. Which is, ok, I can buy a family story which is about how the dad causes a lot of problems for everyone because of his issues which he never discusses with anyone (although I’ve more often watched it as tragedy rather than farce), but then in this situation shouldn’t the dad be the protagonist or at least the deuteragonist? 

8. In conclusion, based on ep 5.5, I now really want to visit Kouzanji. 

[notesonleaves]

Yuri on Ice

I finally finished Yuri on Ice, via a two-day group watch through. Two days is great way, IMHO, to watch 12-13 ep anime. By now everyone has probably said everything that needs to be said about it. I caught some of it from a distance:  it’s a gorgeous anime that is compelling to watch, and it doesn’t waste time, which is always good nowadays.  (spoilers cont) 

As a sports anime, this is atypical because it is the epic story of how a man rose.... four rankings, from #6 in the world to #2. Normally a sports anime doesn’t start with the player being in the top ten internationally (especially when it often seems as though the difference between them is just one misplaced glance into the stands), but it makes a lot of things easier and they can focus on the psychology and art of figure skating. 

At first, though, you don’t really realize it because Yuuri is so depressed and considering retiring, until thanks to the power of irresponsible social media uploads (Instagram plays a huge role in the story), Victor pops up and decides to become Yuuri’s coach (fulfilling Yuuri’s forgotten drunken request) in order to make him realize his potential. Yuuri often seemed lacking in the consciousness of being the national champion to the point it was almost rude to the other Japanese skaters (who he pretty much crushes at a national level qualifying event). 

(To be honest my interpretation of how this all happens makes me feel sorry for Victor, since what kind of person buys wedding rings and then denies what they are when others interpret it as Phichit does (which is entirely reasonable). Although the story isn’t told solely from the viewpoint of Yuuri, it often does seem as though a lot of it is warped by his introverted vision. However Victor rolls with everything, no matter how strange it becomes. [I stress it’s entirely a personal interpretation as I’m aware the fandom is extremely contentious.]) 

[notesonleaves]

Koumei no Yome (vols 1-6)

As the title implies, this is a manga where one of the main characters is Huang Yue Ying, Zhuge Liang’s wife. It’s a 4-panel comic that runs in Manga Home (a 4-koma manga magazine). Like most 4-koma manga I’ve seen, the style is pretty cartoony/SD, and mostly light slice of life. The story starts basically with the marriage, but as a romantic comedy, everything proceeds so slowly it’s like almost nothing happens for chapters and chapters as the main characters attempt to improve crops and agricultural machinery. But that’s ok, because I was mostly interested in the details about life during the end of the Han Dynasty. Then more characters, such as Pang Tong and Xu Shu, begin to show up. Like Zhuge Liang, they’re underemployed graduates of the same school. 

Eventually, though, events begin to encroach on the story, with Guo Jia’s scheme to economically impoverish Jing Province (the scene of the story), which is currently ruled by Liu Biao (who is married to Yue Ying’s aunt, Lady Cai... which I did not recall, actually), which is foiled by Zhuge Liang and others. (Strangely then the manga for awhile follows what Cao Cao is doing provinces away). Then Liu Bei appears, and people (well, the Cai family) try to kill him, which starts all this action which I wish was in a normal manga rather than a four panel comic strip. On various fronts, we begin to feel the stasis beginning to crumble:  Lu Su (who is visiting Jing Province) tries to recruit Pang Tong, who refuses; Xu Shu decides he has to make something of his life and successfully gets hired by Liu Bei. (Albeit under a false name because of his criminal past) But knowing what will become of Xu Shu and his mother (who knows that her son destined for something better than running a diner) makes this a poignant scene, for example. So I wonder when the mangaka is going to stop and what note it’s going to end on? (I think the three visits by Liu Bei would be a good place)

[notesonleaves]

Sengoku Choujuu Giga

Another series of anime shorts, this time humorously re-imagining anecdotes of various Sengoku-era generals as <s>furries</s>animals drawn in the style of Choujuu-Giga. I knew some of the stories, but not all of them, although most are probably much better if you do know who all of them are. The website also helpfully states why they chose which animal to make them (if it’s not obvious... personally I was surprised they made Mitsunari a hawk rather than a fox). 

[notesonleaves]

Wakakozake

I’m trying to watch more things on Crunchyroll to justify my subscription (although now it is hard to justify for another reason:  the damn thing keeps skipping and pausing, and from what I read on forums, others are experiencing this too).

Anyway, this is a series of anime shorts (there’s also a live action version) about a woman named Wakako who likes to go to restaurants after work and have a snack with some beer/sake/whatever. Some of the things are fairly common (potato salad, friend chicken) and others I’d heard of but don’t eat (crab miso... I was told this is too rich to eat on its own). But what intrigued me the most was uni cresson, which is a luxurious Hiroshima dish made of watercress and uni. I’d never heard of this, although I love uni. (Don’t know if there’s anywhere near me that has it, although the price here probably is scary). 

[notesonleaves]

Shimanami Tasogare

Just finished reading what was available of this manga. The type of setting and tone is somewhat like... I guess you could say the more refined or philosophical slice of life, but the themes and action are heavy. Basically, this manga is about a boy, Tasuku, who lives in a famously picturesque town, Onomichi, who is saved by a mysterious, nameless woman, after he considers suicide when he fears the fact that he is gay may be revealed. The nameless woman introduces him to a non-profit group who restore houses (basically like many small towns, there are a lot of disused houses). He soon learns that some of the group members are also LGBT and tries to figure out what he should do next. 

This is kind of a bad summary and makes the manga sound really didactic, it’s really visually strong and does make me curious about what sort of manga it will shape up to be. 

Article (in Japanese) about this manga. 

[notesonleaves]

Reading Taisho Otome Otogibanashi. Struck by to what extent the plot is driven by how Tamahiko’s dad is not only an asshole, but seems to be creating all kinds of unnecessary problems for himself as well. Why bother to tell everyone Tamahiko is dead when they could just as well claim that he was too ill to go to school? Wouldn’t it cause problems if someone he knew ran into him, and the fact that the family is lying to everyone is exposed? 

Strangely I think it almost makes more sense for the father to be the protag if the story is going to be this jerked around by his terrible actions (like in Karei Naru Ichizoku), since if her were the protagonist we would understand his motivations better. 

Enjoying the manga otherwise, although it probably depends on your tolerance for perfectly self-sacrificing saintly characters like Yuzu. 

[notesonleaves]

Han Feizi

from Han Feizi

[notesonleaves]

Staring the Uchouten Kazoku novel sequel

Yesterday I got through about 1/3 of the Uchouten Kazoku novel sequel. It is kind of tiring to read because the vocab is, while often delightful, very rich. (This wouldn’t be a problem if it were in English; I think if it were in English I would read it more slowly to savor it, and also because the pacing in the first parts are often leisurely (despite dramatic things happening like a formal duel, etc). It would be nice if there were a series of books I could read that would suddenly give me a college-level vocab, but that’s not how it works. )  Also the vaguely magical-realism-esque way it tells the story is skillful (I feel like it’s a high level move, in that it is at times more surreal than fantasy, and it feels like a satire or a fable at points, even though I’m not sure if it is) In some ways, the story is very realistic in that there are so many concrete details of places and things, and the subtleties in the relations between characters.

Even though I’m not a writer, this aspect interests me and I just want to know how the trick is done. Before I was reading this, I was reading something else where I felt irritated and bored with the exposition of the sci-fi setting, and the storytelling in general, yet it wasn’t bad and I couldn’t point to a clear reason what was wrong. So maybe that’s also why I was wondering. 

[notesonleaves]

Chinese Art:  A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery

Picked this up from the library and had to frantically read through it when I realized I couldn’t renew it a second time. (Why does the library have this policy...). This is a visual dictionary about the meanings of the various motifs (not necessarily stylized ones, more symbology) appearing in Chinese art, in full color. The motifs are organized thematically (plants, insects, birds, groups of humans, inanimate objects) etc. 

It’s especially interesting to see which plants and animals are considered symbolically significant, and which ones are rarely depicted, especially in comparison to Western motifs. The rose, for example, existed in China, but was not really made much of, and the owl is rarely shown as well. Another interesting point is the extreme stylization of some animals makes them difficult to identify:  the bat (frequently appearing as a symbol of good luck) is often extremely abstracted, so it barely appears to be an animal at all, and the bear (important because it appears on the robes of military officials (military officials have beast emblems, civil officials have bird ones) could be mistaken for a stylized Chinese lion (you can tell because the mane is straight). 

Also, puns are extremely important to motifs. Sometimes a puzzling piece of art is a rebus (a crow with six persimmons, for example), and groupings of various motifs are puns for well known proverbs or blessings.