#because there's 1) the reading. 2) the kanji meanings. 3) the kanji stroke number for fortune reasons

[minimalist-language-learning]

My advice on Remembering the Kanji (RTK)

Before I share my learning routine and advice for RTK I would like to write about my personal experience first:

When I started to learn Japanese, kanji seemed incredibly difficult. They were just a complicated combination of strokes to me. Then I came across the book Remembering the Kanji (RTK) by James W. Heisig. Volume 1 presents a total of 2.200 kanji (including most of the Jōyō kanji).

I used the german version of Remembering the Kanji

The beginning was promising. I easily learned the first few hundred kanji. This experience was amazing. I never thought that this could be possible. But then I made the mistake of proceeding too fast. I saw forum posts of other RTK users who claimed that they “finished“ RTK in 3 months or even less. This motivated me and I tried to learn 25 kanji a day. Even though it was difficult to create memorable stories for this amount of kanji every day I moved on. After my first try to learn kanji with RTK, I forgot a great part of it after I "finished" the book.

I was not satisfied but I decided to move on and tried to read as much as possible instead. My idea was that I would make faster progress if I don't learn kanji consciously. It's not impossible to learn some kanji by seeing them repeatedly in context but it didn’t worked as well as I expected. 

Kanji seemed not as complicated like before but because of the great number of kanji and a lot of similar looking kanji they were still a great obstacle for me. Then I noticed that I still remembered the meaning of a number of kanji I learned with RTK. When I came across these kanji in context, I was able to understand new words without looking them up. Knowing their (rough) meaning really made a big difference. This made me think.

Around this time, I gave RTK a second chance and learned from my mistakes. I realized that if I really wanted to benefit from RTK I need to think long-term. It's not that you do RTK for only 3 months and you are done. What I needed were sustainable strategies. 

I finished all 2.200 kanji (RTK volume 1) a while ago and I know most of them well now. By reviewing my RTK deck my recognition rate will further improve over time. My RTK knowledge helps me enormously with reading japanese books. I’m really happy that I gave it a second chance. That’s why I want to share my experiences and tips in this blog post. I hope that this post can be helpful for Japanese learners who struggled with RTK.

My learning routine

My usual learning routine looked like this (more detailed tips below):

1. Review

Every day, I used Anki to review my own RTK deck. 

Read the keyword and (if in doubt) the hint

Try to remember the elements of the kanji and their positions and write the kanji in the air

Turn the card and check the kanji

If it was wrong, change the hint and/or improve the story

2. Adding new kanji

After reviewing I usually added around 10 to 15 new kanji a day. My cards contain not only keyword and kanji but also fields for hints, elements of the kanji and the story. Here's an example (my original cards are in German so this is just a rough translation):

Hints: If the keyword was very similar to another kanji I added a hint to reduce the risk of mixing them up.

Elements: I also added the elements of the kanji. This is useful for two reasons: By writing them out I become more aware of the elements which helps to remember new or complex elements correctly. Plus, by putting them on the back side of the card I can refresh my memory during reviews without using the book.

Story: Instead of creating a story only in my head I added the story to my cards. The reasons are the same like for the elements (see above).

. . .

After adding 5 new kanji I made a small break, came back and reviewed the new kanji. Then I repeated this process for another 5 kanji.

I usually added around 10 to 15 kanji a day. This was my sweet spot. Since I work full time and because my main focus was on reading japanese books I hadn't a lot of time for RTK. By not adding more kanji that I can handle I made sure that I remember them well. 

Then I continued reading a book in Japanese and/or listened to something in Japanese. RTK was just a small part of my learning routine. My goal was not to finish it as fast as possible but to make sure that I remember these kanji as well as possible. Slowly but steady I learned more and more kanji. This gave me a noticeable advantage while reading.

RTK is not a race

As I wrote above, I made several mistakes myself but instead of blaming RTK I realized that I need to take the explanations in the book more seriously. It's really important to make sure that the stories are memorable and that you pay attention to the details. 

The most important lesson I learned was that RTK is not a race. During my second attempt, it was not my goal to "finish" RTK as fast as possible but to remember these kanji LONG-TERM because this makes reading and learning new words much easier.

By proceeding too fast, the risk of forgetting a lot of kanji is very high. When it comes to RTK, a high recognition rate is more important than speed, in my opinion. That’s why I created sustainable strategies that helped me to remember most of the 2.200 kanji long-term.

5 Tips on Remembering the Kanji

Tip #1: Don't underestimate the power of writing

In the beginning, I used to write every kanji on paper. Now, I only write them with my finger (either in the air or on the table). This is much faster and easier.

Why writing them at all? Some people say, being able to recognize them is enough. Personally, I remember them much better through writing (even if I just write them in the air; the movement of the hand makes a great difference for me). In my experience, writing works much better than just looking at a kanji because through writing I become aware of every detail. Many kanji look pretty similar. Sometimes only one little detail is different. The risk of mixing them up is much higher. 

I tried the "recognition-only approach" in the past and it didn't work well for me. The ability to recognize and distinguish kanji just by looking at them has its limits. It's not very accurate, that's why I still mixed up similar kanji. 宇 and 字 or 烏 and 鳥 for example look very similar at the first glance. The original RTK method on the other hand helps to avoid that because you pay much more attention to the details.

Plus, writing in Japanese by hand is important to me. I love writing and kanji are very beautiful! That's the reason why I want to be able to write in Japanese. But even if you don't want to be able to write kanji, I recommend to write them in the air during reviews to reduce the risk of mixing them up. It may not seem like this could make a big difference but in my experience it's really helpful. The power of writing should not be underestimated.

Tip #2: Add hints

When I repeatedly mix up kanji or when I can't remember how to write them correctly, it's a sign that the story is weak. I pay attention to the story and try to make it more memorable. Plus, when I confuse a kanji with another I add a hint to the card like "Don't confuse with [similar keyword]".

It's also helpful to copy the definition of the keyword from a dictionary and/or a japanese word written in hiragana that contains this kanji and add it to the card. This way I have more context and this prevents me from confusing a keyword with a similar one (because the definitions are different). 

Using little hints is a great way to make the learning process less frustrating. Over time, I need these hints less and less. Eventually, I remember difficult kanji correctly. 

Tip #3: Take the time you need

It's also very important not to rush. I barely added more than 15 new kanji a day. Most of the time, I only added about 5 or 10 a day. Since I work full time and because my main focus was on reading japanese books I hadn't a lot of time for RTK.

During reviews I pay attention to the things I described above. Do I mix them up? Can I remember them correctly? Whenever I have trouble to remember certain kanji, I improve the story and/or add some hints. Some kanji may be more difficult than others, but over time you can learn every kanji by paying more attention to them. Paying attention to why you didn’t remember some kanji correctly and eliminating sources of error is really important. If a story doesn’t work don’t hesitate to improve it.

However, there's no need to be too strict. You don't need to nail them down to 100% before you move on. But I think it's a good idea to give new kanji time to sink in a bit before continuing. That's why I recommend to slow down the pace instead of rushing through the book.

Tip #4: Be creative

The meaning of some primitives chosen by Heisig are not optimal for everyone. It works much better if you choose something that has a strong meaning to you (like, characters from your favorite series). Just make sure that your personal meaning doesn't conflict with later keywords or elements. Ideally, it's as close to Heisig's word as possible or it's so unique that it's impossible to mix it up with other words.

If a kanji is used as part of another kanji (like 青 in 請 for example) you don't necessarily need to use it in it's combined form if it's difficult to create a good story. You can split or combine the elements of a kanji the way you like if it helps you to remember the kanji.

Tip #5: Combine RTK with reading

Some people recommend beginners to do RTK at the very beginning of their Japanese learning journey. The idea is, to complete RTK as fast as possible so that you can focus 100% on the language itself afterwards. However, I think depending on the person this can be counterproductive. RTK is probably more difficult for people who just started with Japanese because they can’t see the benefits of RTK yet. When you have no use for what you are learning it’s hard to stay motivated over an extended period of time. I think this is one reason, why people who tried RTK gave up.

When I started RTK I wasn’t a complete beginner of Japanese. I did RTK in addition to my other Japanese activities like reading books. This way, I often came across kanji I just learned. I saw them in context and they helped me to understand new words without looking them up. Experiences like these were a strong proof for me that RTK really pays off and this gave me a motivation boost.

So instead of doing RTK at the beginning and doing nothing else, I recommend to wait until you can read at least graded readers or easier novels, for example. Otherwise it’s probably too hard to stay motivated for so long. 

. . .

I hope these tips can be helpful for someone. It's sad when I read that some people gave up because they constantly mix up or forget a lot of kanji. There are also people who rush through RTK without creating memorable stories for each kanji and stop doing their reviews after "finishing" RTK. And then they claim that RTK is a waste of time and doesn't work because they can't remember most of the kanji — which is no surprise in this case. 

While I absolutely understand that RTK may not work for everyone it's not fair that people who didn't take the explanations in the book seriously claim that it doesn't work in general. 

Learning kanji takes time. This is absolutely normal. It's not a shame if you need more than 3 months or a year to complete RTK. In my opinion, if the goal is to remember these kanji long-term 3 months are very unrealistic for most people. Seeing people who "finished" RTK in a short amount of time creates false expectations. RTK is not about breaking records. To me, it’s much more important to make sure that you remember these kanji long-term. Every learned kanji is already a little advantage, that's why speed is not so important anyway.

Without RTK learning kanji would have been much more time consuming and frustrating for me and the risk of forgetting and mixing them up would be much much higher. To me, there's no real alternative to RTK and now that I finished it I'm very happy that I put in the work and time.

Maybe I will also learn the additional 800 kanji from volume 3 in the future. But for now I'll focus on consolidating the 2.200 kanji from volume 1 and on other learning activities.

[stillness-in-green]

No, Re-Destro Is Not Destro’s Literal Son

and

Yes, I Will Die On This Hill

I have a number of small, persistent quibbles with some of the widespread misapprehensions I see included in BNHA fanfic, quoted as fact in meta posts, even cited on the wiki. Quirk cancellation restraints, what the 20% quirklessness data point means in practice, when Kurogiri comes into existence relative to the time of the Shimura Family Massacre, things like that. My biggest one, though, is as the title suggests: the idea that Yotsubashi Rikiya is Yotsubashi Chikara’s son.

I don’t entirely know where this confusion comes from. As far as I can tell, the early scanlations didn’t get it wrong—one rendered the line in Chapter 218 about Destro having a child he didn’t know about as being children, plural, but otherwise, they were all accurate enough. It seems people just assumed that the child mentioned in 218 must be Re-Destro, who was, after all, right there on the panel. Even though the scanlations never said it, even though the official translation never said it, even though ample evidence in the manga disproves it, the idea still got around that Rikiya is Chikara’s son.

I have and will maintain that this is obviously wrong if you stop to think about it for even a moment, but unfortunately, most people don’t. The error can be found on less well-tended parts of the fandom wiki[1]; it’s in tumblr meta posts about the villains; it’s in fanfic.

And now, god help me, it is on the official anime website, too.

“Stillness-in-green, maybe you should consider that you might just be wro—”

I will face BONES and walk backwards into hell.

But if you want, you can come with me, and I’ll explain on the way. Hit the jump.

Dialogue + Narration

There are two places where the relationship between Chikara and Rikiya is explicitly addressed—the lead-in to the dinner scene in Chapter 218 and the fight between Clone!Shigaraki and RD in Chapter 232. If you include the Ultra Analysis databook, the number goes up to four: once each in Re-Destro and Destro Classic’s character blurbs.

Let’s take a look at each of those places, shall we?

The relevant Japanese text here is in the first narration box: 子ども, kodomo.

Kodomo is not gendered. It literally just means child. The key kanji is 子, ko. Like most kanji, it has a lot of potential readings, and you can add other kanji to it to modify it. Add 息 and you get musuko, son. Pronounce 子 as shi instead of ko, and you get a term that is frequently, though not exclusively, used to refer to boys. Add 女 to that reading and you get joshi, woman/girl. 子 is in a lot of words, many of them gendered! Used for kodomo as Hori does here, though, it does nothing to indicate a gender one way or the other.

Also too, it does nothing to indicate that Rikiya is the child in question; it simply states that there was such a child, somewhere in the world. Now, the natural assumption for anyone who knows how the graphic novel medium works and who understands basic literary analysis would be that the significant character we just met is, in fact, the child in question—except that everything else we learn about Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army here makes it entirely impossible.

I’ll do a full breakdown on why that is in the next section. In the meantime, here’s the next reference:

Here, we’re looking at the phrase the Viz translation renders as, “His blood runs through these veins.” The literal Japanese there is, Desutoro no matsuei chi o tsugu mono! In a literal translation, chi o tsugu mono means, “one who inherits the blood,” or, more loosely, “blood successor.” It’s matsuei—末裔—that’s the key word here.

Japanese has several words to express the concept of “descendant.” Matsuei is one word; the data book uses shison. So what’s the difference? Well, I’ll talk about shison in a moment, but I had an inkling of it just from looking at the kanji in matsuei—“end” and “descendant” respectively, leaving me with an impression of something like a final descendant or the terminus of the bloodline. Further research confirmed it: shison can refer to any lineal blood tie, but matsuei refers to a bloodline’s final inheritor, the person at the end of a long line of many, or even countless, generations. It’s the difference between being able to point to a grandparent and the kind of painstaking genealogical research that lets you[2] point to a famous royal from eight hundred years ago—matsuei is a word that very much assumes the existence of those countless generations.

So not only does Rikiya’s line there not imply that he’s Chikara’s son, but his specific word choice also tells us that he cannot be Chikara’s son. That’s, uh. Pretty conclusive, I would say.

Lastly, though, there’s also the data book. This is, perhaps, the actual closest you’re going to get to a manga equivalent of those character blurbs on the anime website, at least until such time as Hori deigns to give the MLA types character profile pages. (I live ever in hope.)

There are two relevant bits of text, one in Re-Destro’s entry, and the other in Destro Classic’s. The first describes how Re-Destro organizes the MLA as Desutoro no chi o tsugu mono: the same phrase he uses for himself in the manga, minus the matsuei. @codenamesazanka (the one who told me about the databook references among other citations, bless) rendered it as “Destro’s blood successor”; I have also seen it given as “the successor of Destro’s bloodline.” Note again, the lack of reference to a father/son bond.

Chikara’s entry uses that other descendant word I mentioned before, 子孫, shison. Notice that the term uses that ko kanji from kodomo before? As it does in joshi, 子 here reads shi. The other kanji, 孫, means grandchild. Thus, literally, grandchild-child—or, in the vernacular, simply descendant.

And then we have the anime website.

So, for comparison’s sake, the anime website uses 息子—the same combination of kanji that I said earlier gives you musuko, son. Heck, it even uses 父, chichi, for Destro—father. It’s as explicit as it’s possible to be, and I just don’t know why or how the anime website could fuck that up so bad when absolutely nothing in the manga describes the two Yotsubashis that way, and, indeed, one specific word choice actually rules out the possibility.

So, that’s all the manga says directly. It’s not the only evidence there is, though. In fact, the next piece makes it even more clear how colossally and impossibly wrong a father/son connection for Destro and his modern successor is.

Timeline

The long and short of this section is, “Since Harima Oji was Sako Atsuhiro’s great-great-grandfather, there is no possible way that Destro—who pre-dated Harima—can be Re-Destro’s father.” If you read that sentence and nodded your complete understanding and agreement, feel free to skip ahead to the last section. If you’d like the full explanation it takes to reach that sentence’s conclusion, though, read on.

So, aside from the word matsuei, the timeline is the most telling piece of evidence to my eye. I address it secondly rather than firstly because it’s less direct than the explicit narration; it relies on drawing conclusions based on things we’ve been told elsewhere rather than on the immediately relevant text. Oh, Mr. Compress’s relationship to Harima is explicit enough, but on what am I basing my claim that Destro predates him?

Regarding that, there’s no explicit year relative to My Hero Academia’s current events given for when Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army were active; the same is true for Harima Oji’s escapades. However, we are given some broad-strokes information, relative not to current events, but rather to the history of heroism as a legal institution in Japan.

We know that there was a widespread, lengthy period of chaos following the rise of quirks—called meta-abilities in those early years. At some point, however, people began to search for a way for meta-humans to live in peace with non-metas. The compromise that was reached was the foundation of professional heroism in Japan—while the use of meta-abilities would be legal in private settings, it was only by becoming licensed by the state as “heroes” that people could use their quirks in public.[3]

The legislation curtailing the use of meta-abilities—and the appropriation of a dead woman’s language to popularize a law establishing exactly the opposite of what she used that language to call for—is what catalyzed the rise of the original MLA. Thus, we can position Destro as being alive and active around the same time that heroism as a legal institution was being formed. Since we further know that he committed suicide in prison, we can assume that his child was conceived at some point prior to his capture. Ergo, Destro’s child, were they alive today, would be as old as Japanese professional heroism itself.

Next, consider Harima Oji, the Peerless Thief, a criminal who targeted the riches of “sham heroes.” We’re specifically told that he was active in the days in which the current system was settling into place—e.g. he only became active once the Hero System was established enough to have produced corrupt heroes. We’re told he preached reformation—he wasn’t just some pre-existing criminal who saw a shiny new target in heroes; he had specific grievances which he wanted addressed by the system, and which the system was not addressing.

The earliest Harima could possibly be active, then, is concurrent with Destro—Harima fighting against the corrupt people who had found their way into the new heroic institution, and Destro fighting against using the institution of heroism to oppress non-heroes. What I think is more likely, though, is that Harima came after Destro—Harima needed to have had time to realize what kinds of fakes had been drawn to this shiny new career path, maybe even to spend some time trying to change things the legal way.

I don’t suspect they were separated by very long—I would imagine Destro was easily within Harima’s living memory, and might well have influenced why he chose the path of protest that he did—but I do think they were separate.

Moving forward, then, Mr. Compress is four generations distant from his famous ancestor. Thus, even if you assume that Harima is of the same generation as Chikara, that’s what you’re looking at for Chikara’s child: someone who, were they alive today, would be old enough to be the great-grandparent of a thirty-two-year-old man.

Re-Destro’s probably a few years older than Mr. C, sure,[4] but that man doesn’t have Ujiko’s slow-aging quirk. Unless you want to start pulling theories about cryogenic stasis the story for some reason never saw fit to mention out of thin air, Re-Destro is in no way old enough to fit the bill.

This is backed up by one other piece of the timeline as well, and one more place we can look at language:

The small child at the center of the image is Rikiya, so young that he’s in schoolboy shorts for a meeting otherwise so formal that he’s been made to wear a tie. He’s, what, six to nine here, tops? And the adults speaking to him say that they’ve been in hiding for generations—代々, daidai, the kanji for generation followed by a kanji that just means, “See that kanji written right before me? Yeah, just read that one again.”

The original MLA was active for only a handful of years, and, per Chapter 218, they didn’t dissolve until Destro was captured. Thus, we can assume they have been in hiding since then, but not before then. With that in mind, this is another line that renders a father/son relationship impossible.

Remember, Chikara already had a child in the world circa his capture. If Rikiya were Chikara’s son, then Destro’s capture and his army’s subsequent dissolution could not have happened any farther back than nine months plus however old Rikiya was in this exact moment of his youth. Rikiya, who we see here as a child of less than ten.

Ten years in hiding doesn’t make one generation; it damn sure doesn’t make multiple ones.

Now, you could make theories about cryogenic statis that would explain this ludicrous discrepancy, sure. You could also theorize about e.g. artificial insemination,[5] or time stop quirks, or any number of other possibilities in the vast panoply the HeroAca world offers. The point is, though, that you don’t need to. There was, in the manga, no discrepancy that needed to be explained. It is only fanon misinterpretation and a glaring disinterest in the series’ villains from official sources that have presented this issue.

I’m praying that it’s all just a misunderstanding on the part of whoever maintains the website, and that the anime itself will render the relevant bits of dialogue correctly. Given the extreme cuts and alterations that My Villain Academia has been subjected to thus far, though, I’m sure you can appreciate my being concerned.

…So that’s the meat of it. The idea that Rikiya is Chikara’s son is wrong simply on the basis of what’s said in the text, and it’s doubly wrong on the basis of the timeline. There is, though, one other thing I think points towards Re-Destro being exactly the descendant he says he is, not a son playing down the connection out of humility or something. This one is a lot more headcanon-y, though, so I saved it for last.

MLA Social Dynamics

It’s quite simple. We have, in the MLA, a group of people that venerates Destro’s bloodline to an obviously unhealthy degree, putting up portraits of him wherever they can get away with it, tagging his successor with a “Re-” as if to invoke reincarnation or miraculous return, entirely willing to throw their lives away for what they think was his cause, and others’ lives if those others say anything too scathing about the words Destro wrote, quite as if they treat Destro’s memoir as some sort of holy writ.

They venerate Destro that much, and you’re trying to tell me that they wouldn’t just call a spade a spade and acknowledge RD as the son of their great leader? Come on.

Since long before I turned up the matsuei factoid in researching this piece, since long before Mr. Compress gave us such a helpful generational comparison, I’ve held the opinion that, given a group that holds their leaders in such high esteem, with such particular regard for bloodline, the only reason Rikiya does just call himself a descendant, rather than citing the specific term for what he is, is that the specific term is distant enough that it actually does sound more impressive to just say “descendant,” rather than something like, “great-great-great-grandson.” That kind of thing just begs the question, “What took you guys so long?” or, “You and how many other people, buddy?”

Mr. Compress may have the panache to carry off a line like that, but Rikiya’s a different story. If he had something so amazing up his sleeve as, “I am the son of the great Destro,” I have to think he’d just say it proudly, not fall back on the impressionistic vaguery of something like chi o tsugu mono. Even if I had no other evidence to work with, I’d think the same—all the evidence you need is right there in the character writing of who Rikiya and the MLA are and how they talk about the man whose dreams Re-Destro was raised to carry.

A closing note: I will allow that Rikiya is being overdramatic when he uses matsuei and its connotation of countless generations. There are a few other things we can use to trace the history of heroism—Ujiko’s age, and the 18-years-or-less periods that One For All was held by its pre-All Might bearers—and running those numbers leads me to believe that it is, in fact, entirely possible to count the number of generations between Rikiya and Chikara, and the number, while higher than one, is probably not all that high. Certainly matsuei is being more dramatic about it than is entirely warranted, hence the poetic flourish of the official translation’s, “His blood runs through these veins!” The theatricality only makes me fonder of him, however.

------------------------

FOOTNOTES

[1] It was changed and reverted on Re-Destro’s page at least twice before it finally stuck in January of this year. Chikara’s page took until July to be corrected, and it’s still wrong on various other subpages.

[2] Or your kids, if you have those. Only the last generation in the bloodline is the matsuei, but that’s a moving goalpost as long as the bloodline is still propagating.

[3] This summary of events combines what we know from both My Hero Academia proper and the Vigilantes spin-off, which I recommend to anyone who’s at all interested in finer-grained worldbuilding on Hero Society Japan than the main series makes time for.

[4] I personally headcanon him as 42.

[5] To which point I would refer back to the word kodomo, and note that that word choice indicates that Destro had a child in the world. Not a sperm sample kept in a freezer somewhere, waiting for the right would-be mother: an actual child. Some quick research on my part says that the farthest that term stretches is in using it to refer to yet-unborn children, fetuses still in the womb. Seeing as Japan doesn’t even allow inmates conjugal visits in real life, much less in a setting where villains are so dehumanized that Tartarus is an acceptable punishment for them, the line about Destro “having a child out in the world” takes us right back to a date of conception no later than Destro’s final night of freedom.

[vespersposts]

Wildchild [4]

Thank you to everyone who supports me in this adventure, especially because it is a struggle to read a very long and detailed story. As always, advice, criticism and requests are welcome. Drop me a line if you want to be tagged !

Happy reading!

Masterlist chapters:

[1+2], [3]

Tags: @aizumie, @storyhuntress13

'Try it now,' says the middle-aged man in lab coat and gloves with a skeptical expression.

You run your hands over the keyboard and the sound spreads powerful, round and clear throughout your room, but when you reach D major something still doesn't sound as it should.

"It's that damn new hammer that doesn't want to work," he explains, pulling a large, hook-headed screwdriver from his pocket, "Ah, but as soon as Kenta arrives it'll all be ok," he concludes, smiling.

"Thank you so much, I was told it was impossible to fix " you confess him, resting your fingers on the lacquered surface.

"As with anything, it just needs a little extra attention and someone who knows what he' s doing" he nods playing the keys on the right "These are fine, let's wait for my nephew and then it will be as good as new" he concludes satisfied. 

"Mr Naoto, how about a matcha?" you ask him and he willingly agrees, following you downstairs. 

"This house reminds me of my childhood in Hokkaido" he tells you, stroking the oak kitchen table "It's rare to find such a well-kept building and someone who still knows how to make a good matcha" he tells you, raising his cup in gratitude.

You smile at him and just as you are about to thank him you hear someone knocking at the door.

"I'm Kimura Kenta, ma'am!" he announces immediately and you can't hold back a smile, partly because of the unnecessary formality of his tone, partly because even you weren't that insecure with strangers at his age.

"Hi Kenta, nice to meet you. Would you like something to drink? Some matcha?" you ask him, leading him to the table where his grandfather is already putting on his gloves.

"He only drinks those sugary konbini drinks, he doesn't even know what matcha tastes like" the adult interjects, making the poor boy blush.

"Some of them aren't that bad" you interject but realise the conversation has already been interrupted and follow the two men upstairs, giving the younger man permission to enter your bedroom and sit wherever he wants. 

Kenta looks lost, a victim of the shame it causes him to be in the room of a girl a little older than him for the first time: his hands stuffed in the pockets of his sweatshirt, his eyes to the ceiling and from there to the windows and back to his feet when he realises you are watching him.

You would like to say something to help him, but your intervention would mean endorsing his grandfather's description of him: brilliant in studies and sports but mediocre with the female sex. 

"As beautiful as you are, he won't say a word to you, now guys don't have courage anymore, they're absorbed in social media where everything is easier!" finishes Naoto removing the lid from the piano and asking you to bring the light closer while he is already immersed in his world.

"Are you in any club?" you ask, approaching Kenta who takes a step backwards and almost falls onto your bed, drawing your attention to a package you hadn't noticed and which falls to the floor, leaving only a white envelope on the bedspread with your name written in long kanji.

"I'm sorry... I... " he stammers, lifting the gift from a corner, causing the thin tissue to tear open, letting out the contents, which the boy retrieves on the fly, bringing back a smile and his voice.

"How cool is that? Vorpal Swords!" he exclaims at the top of his lungs, lifting the red and white t-shirt with two hands to read the number "It's Aomine's jersey from the Vorpal Swords!!!" he continues, looking at you as if he has discovered the treasure of an ancient culture "Aomine Daiki!" he repeats, too high on his feet to notice your astonished expression.

"And who would that be?" grandpa interrupts him, turning away, probably annoyed by all the fuss.

"Only the greatest basketball player in Japan!" his grandson replies piqued, continuing to cradle his precious, laying it on the bed to better admire it and wondering how you got it.

"We're childhood friends," you manage to say, before turning around to find the tuner's stinging eyes on your face.

"Tall, tanned, blue-eyed, dark-haired and the son of a magistrate?" he asks you seriously, as if drawing up a sketch of a dangerous serial killer. 

You nod, as Kenta begins to find his grandfather's words interesting.

"He came by this morning. We spoke, he's friendly. Having said that, stop messing around or I won't be able to finish before dinner,' he concludes, turning his back and resuming his work in silence, amidst the protests of the boy.

"Why don't you come with me to the konbini,Kenta? Let's buy something then stay for dinner" you interject, sure that an argument would break out between the two men shortly.

"Will you tell me about Aomine?" the young man asks.

"I'll tell you everything, if you help me cook," you answer him, earning a grateful look from Naoto.

You look up at the sky beginning to turn the red tones of sunset, seek out the intersection with the kindergarten, and shortly afterwards the green and red neon sign of the neighbourhood supermarket appears to you, pale in its tiredly flickering neon.

Next to you Kenta is listing a number of dishes you can prepare with minimal effort, then attracted like a moth by the light, he stops at the vending machine to get a grape juice.

"Want some?" he tells you, uncorking the can and offering you the first sip. 

You shake your head and look at him tenderly, because suddenly you are 15 years old too and you are back with your childhood friend having ice lolly at konbini at the end of a hot summer day.

"You know Aomine, how cool is that?!  What's he like? Is it true he has a bad temper?" he tells you after drinking the can in one go and wiping his hands in his trousers.

"He is stubborn, fickle, annoying and tremendously lazy" you tell him with a smile "But he is the most loyal person I know, a really good friend. And like you, he hates bitter things" you conclude by showing the young man a goya, arousing his immediate disgust.

"How did you two meet?" he asks, lifting the shopping basket from your hands.

"You must know Kuroko Tetsuya from Seirin" you tell him getting a nod "Well, Tetsu's mum was my first music teacher. Momoi, Tetsu and I spent many afternoons together before basketball came into their lives. We were inseparable at the time of Teiko. I met  Aomine-kun soon after  starting middle school. He was the new kid from the block whom my grandmother invited over to play with us and he became my friend and then member of the miracle generation," you conclude, taking a piece of tofu.

"What a freaking monster!" the other comments, catching a stern look from you.

"Daichan is neither a freak or a monster, he just has exceptional talent,' you correct him, noticing only later the change in your tone of voice, which suddenly became sharp.

You stretch out a hand to Kenta's forearm but he's already distracted as a group of boys he knows call his name.

You watch him walk away, and head for the cooler to get a couple of cans of grape juice and some wine for Mr Naoto, pass the tea rack and a little further on to find the magazine stand. You run your fingers over the covers of the men's magazines with their alluring pictures of lingerie-clad idols and choose one to give him, sure you're doing him a good service for the little wrong you've done.

"The magazines you bring me are the ones that give me the most pleasure, if you know what I mean!" 

You can still see the shameless look on his face as he receives the monthly from your hands in front of the whole team, amused by even trying to put you on the spot.

"As if you ever could Daichan" you think out loud, paying the bill to an astonished shop assistant. 

You step out of the shop and are immediately enveloped in the humid, hot cloak of the summer evening, sure that the little group was keeping an eye on you, considering the hubbub that your approach intensifies.

Kids with hormones skyrocketing, staring at your sundress as if it could slip off you at any moment.

"Kenta-kun can we go home? It's so hot," you chirp, slipping your fingers between his as you hand him the little bag with the groceries.

"Y-yes" he nods like an android, but at least you move quickly away from his friends.

He doesn't say a word all the way to the front door, but he turns often and smiles at you, happy that you are so amused by the whole dynamic. In the bright kitchen of your grandmother's house, you watch him chop vegetables as he tells you about his shyness that keeps him from asking the girl of his dreams out, his constantly feeling like a failure to Naoto and his father, and thanking you for giving him some credibility with the group of the most popular boys in school.

"We've all been there, you know? We've all been afraid of being invisible in the eyes of our loved ones,' you tell him, intercepting his doubtful gaze.

"Everyone. Your grandfather, your father, me, even your hero Aomine. You're confused, and that's normal because you're young, but if you keep pretending not to understand, I'll have to beat you up! " you repeat, threatening him with a large metal spoon.

Kenta laughs and shrugs his shoulders, before saying something that surprises you.

"Aomine is a basketball genius, but he's a fool if he never noticed you," he says, placing the knife on the cutting board. 

"I can hide well" you to reply with a tired smile, as from the stairs his grandfather's voice calls you back upstairs.

After almost three hours of extra work, Naoto gives you a smile when he hears the voice of your piano fully restored by his expert hands singing the notes your hands teach him. You sit at the oak kitchen table and Kenta gets compliments on the excellent food he has prepared. You look just like any other family, too bad that's not the case.  Standing in the doorway, you greet the man and surreptitiously hand the boy his gift, the only way to convince his idol to show up at the gym, and he hugs you happily, unaware of the contents of the canvas bag. 

You close the heavy door and all the cheerfulness dies down in an equally heavy silence.

You clear the kitchen, rinse the dishes and cutlery and cover a yawn with one hand, tired of carrying all the day's load over your shoulders. Outside the kitchen window the sky is dark and the windows of the nearby houses are lit up, a sign that it is time to take a bath and go to bed.

You retrieve your mobile phone, which vibrates briefly in your suit pocket, notifying you of the arrival of an e-mail with the subject line 'That annoying guy from Kyoto'.

You smile and feel a pleasant sensation of warmth flush your cheeks because that gesture at that moment means everything: you never know what to expect from him, but you also know that he will never let you down.

You reach your room, sit down on the piano bench and take a picture of yourself with the dark instrument behind and, as per his request, you tell him about your day, reading the story of his several times to try to pick up some details to bring into your dreams.

You move the sheets but that red spot prevents you from getting into bed.

You pick up the jersey and its tissue, roughly fold the garment and lock it in the wardrobe, tear the wrapping into small pieces and move towards the bed to do the same with the unopened envelope that accompanied them, but a part of you can't resist curiosity.

You sit up, breaking the seal and tearing open the envelope, which reveals a card on which his chaotic, swift and messy handwriting writes you a few, simple words.

Happy birthday babe.

Until our next game, wildchild.

When Sei had told you that he had your old piano tuned up so that you could train, you had not foreseen that you would have a house party, a party at which the main guest was missing.

[tokidokitokyo]

Ateji 当て字

Aside from 音読み (おんよみ) and 訓読み (くんよみ), there is a type of kanji reading called 当て字. This reading is the phonetic reading of a character, and there are three types.

1) The first type are words that use the phonetic reading of the characters. This is common in the kanji names of foreign countries. The names of countries were written using kanji that matched the phonetic pronunciations. The shortened versions today come from those original names.

America was written 亜米利加 (あまいりか) ➡ 米国 (べいこく) - rice

France was written 仏蘭西 (ふらんす) ➡ 仏国 (ふっこく) - Buddhism

Thus, the kanji associated with these two countries don’t necessarily relate to the countries themselves, but to the 当て字 used to write them. Most country names are now written in katakana.

America 亜米利加 (あまいりか) ➡ 米国 (べいこく) ➡ アメリカ

France 仏蘭西 (ふらんす) ➡ 仏国 (ふっこく) ➡ フランス

Portugal 葡萄牙 (ぽるとがる) ➡ ポルトガル

寿司 (すし) is also an 当て字 word, which is why the word is made up of the characters for longevity and government official.

2) The second type are words that borrow the meaning of the characters but not the reading. These words derive from words that existed in Japanese before kanji were conscripted, and since there was no existing character for that word they borrowed a different kanji.

Tobacco (煙草 - たばこ) is made up the characters for smoke and grass, and the reading matches the loanword from the Portuguese, who brought it to Japan. Today it’s normally written in katakana.

Shrimp (海老 - えび) and seaweed (海苔 - のり) are also this type of 当て字.

3) The third type of 当て字 use both the reading and the meaning of the word. This comes from kanji that already matched the reading and meaning of words (usually foreign).

合羽 (かっぱ) is the one that you usually learn in Japanese class. This word means raincoat and was introduced by the Portuguese (capa). The kanji for join and wings were selected to make this word - apparently it reflects a bird’s wings coming together to protect from the rain - and the reading already matched.

Today, most foreign loanwords are written using katakana, so 当て字 words are usually from before the Meiji Era. Most country names and words like tobacco are written using katakana now, but you still see the kanji names of countries in the news.

当て字 in Names

当て字 is also commonly used in names. When parents select a name for a child, they want auspicious kanji that will match the reading but provide a meaning that will bring luck, make them a good person, or even have an auspicious number of strokes in the whole name.

Personal Note: In my husband’s family, the parents traditionally go to a fortune teller/priest to select a name that matches the future predictions for the child, will bring good fortune, and has an auspicious number of strokes including the last and first name. My husband and brother-in-law both had their names and kanji selected by the priest. My sister-in-law let the priest select her daughter’s name and kanji, but we wanted a particular name for our son and so we told him the name we had in mind and then he selected the kanji that best match the reading and last name. My husband, son, brother-in-law, and niece all have 当て字 in their names because of this selection process.

[dokidokivisual]

Gochiusa BLOOM episode 3 impressions

Previously: episode 2, episode 1 (seriously, the number of notes on ep 2 review is too low...)

Welcome to another review of Gochuumon wa usagi desu ka? BLOOM. In this episode, the series explores a topic it rarely touched previously, which is school life. Unlike many similar slice-of-life series, Gochiusa rarely concerned itself with such a mundane setting, preferring the ambience of cafés and cobblestone streets. There were a few exceptions, such as the first half of season 2 episode 10, but this is the first episode fully dedicated to a school setting.

Another distinguishing trait of Gochiusa is that the group of main characters attends not one, but several different schools. In particular, there are two high schools: a “normal” one attended by Cocoa and Chiya, and an “elite” one attended by Sharo and Rize. Moreover, there’s a group of middle school characters on the verge of graduating. As such, the question of which high school will Chino, Maya and Megu eventually choose was bound to come to the forefront at some point. And that’s exactly what happens in this episode.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff to discuss, so let’s get down to business...

The episode opens with a shot of Aoyama Blue Mountain on a boat, which also appears in the beginning of season 1 episode 1. By the way before COVID you could totally ride a boat like this in Colmar. Just watch your head...

Yeah, this is under the bridge from season 2 ED. Filmed by me.

Anyway, I’m being sidetracked. What’s important is that this is the only shot where you could tell it’s morning, because of the angle of the shadow from the bridge. It is indeed morning, and we see Cocoa and Chino walking down to school. Seems the summer vacation is over and it’s already September? Cocoa, the self-described pikka-pika no onee-chan, tries to coerce Chino into committing to enter the same high school as her, while Chino is not sure about that. We’ve seen Chino being unsure about her future as recently as this season’s episode 1, and in regards to the high school choice the time for a decision is quickly approaching.

Soon we see Maya and Megu who are facing the same decision. Megu seems to have already decided on what Maya derisively calls the gokigenyo school. The greeting gokigenyo (ご機嫌よう) comes from the word “kigen” (機嫌) which means “mood”, and can be literally translated as “how do you do”. However the same word is also used as farewell, which often causes troubles for translators.

The concept of “gokigenyo school“ has been popularised by the light novel and anime series Maria watches over us (Marimite), which is also one of the most influential works of the yuri genre. This concept has also been parodied a number of times, for example in the excellent episode 5 of Flip Flappers.

Megu manages to convince Maya and Chino to come with her to a tour of this school, and we get a close-up of Maya hinting that she’s definitely hiding something.

Meanwhile at Cocoa’s school, the class president declares the theme of the cultural festival being “cafe”, and puts Chiya and Cocoa in charge of it, because they work at a cafe. It seems that Chiya is considered to be more dependable than Cocoa by her classmates, since she got a higher rank. Nevertheless, it is Cocoa who mostly delivers the speech to fire up the other students.

Note the usage of Chinese tally marks to tally the votes. The five strokes comprising the character 正 (”truth”) equate 5 votes. This method is popular across East Asia, even in Korea where Chinese characters are no longer used.

Also I’ve seen a lot of people were confused by the inclusion of “sex museum” as one of the proposals, which is how 秘宝館 (hihokan) has been translated by the official subtitles. This word, which literally means “the hall of hidden treasures” has been used by various establishments of this type in post-war Japan, however only few of them remain open now. I think “sex museum” is a bad translation because, while technically correct, it breaks mimesis, or in simpler terms, immersion. The English translation is so blatantly inappropriate that it would never make it onto this blackboard, whereas the Japanese word is obscure and innocent-looking enough that it just might. A better translation would be “adult museum”, in fact that’s what the most well-known hihokan, Atami Hihokan uses for its English title.

As proof of each other’s ability, Cocoa mentions Chiya’s triple tray wielding skill (お盆三刀流 obon santoryu) which has been demonstrated in season 2 episode 1. Chiya brings up Cocoa’s “basking in the sun” (日向ぼっこ hinatabokko) attitude which supposedly makes her popular among customers. This is a reference to season 2 episode 5 where Rize says Cocoa always either practices latte art or basks in the sun.

On the way back from school, we learn that Chiya is actually scared of the responsibilities placed on her, and her dream of becoming the president of Ama Usa An franchise (which has been mentioned in s2e1, s2e9 and maybe other episodes I forgot) might be ruined because of this. Cocoa consoles her, again showing her motherly side.

Back at Rabbit House, Cocoa explains how the upcoming festival will be exciting (wakuwaku) and fluffy/cuddly (mofumofu). This is one of several times Cocoa uses silly onomatopoeia to describe something in this episode (aforementioned pikkapika onee-chan and describing her school also as mofumofu in a latter scene). Interestingly, all of these lines are anime-original, and at this point seems like an intentional effort to make Cocoa speak in a more eccentric manner.

In the next scene Sharo becomes angry at Chiya for keeping secrets from her, and blows her cheeks, which makes her turn into a Fugu fish, according to Chiya. Fugu is famous in Japanese cuisine for being a highly poisonous but sought after delicacy, however in this case the comparison has to do with the tendency of a live fugu (as well as other pufferfish) to inflate its stomach, giving it an almost spherical appearance to deter predators.

Next there’s another anime-original CocoChino scene where Chino asks Cocoa about what her school is like. This is my favorite part of the episode because it’s just so adorable. Like, even the fact that Cocoa is drying Chino’s hair with a towel after bath shows how close they became. The direction and the delivery of the dialogue is masterfully executed. Cocoa would be really hurt if Chino chooses any other school, and Chino knows that. But Chino can’t admit she’ll choose her next school because of Cocoa, at least not yet.

Now we move on to the main plot of the episode, which is Chimame visiting Rize and Sharo’s school. Like I said in the preview, this episode covers chapters 10 and 11 of the volume 5 of the manga, which in-universe occur at the same time. However while it fully covers (and has the same title as) chapter 10, only the first half of chapter 11 is included. So about 2/3 of the episode are dedicated to the story of chapter 10.

Chimame attend a speech by “OG” Mate Rin. OG in this case doesn’t mean “original gangsta”, but “old girl”, which is a Japanese term for female alumni of some school (there’s also OB for men). Chino recognizes Rin as the editor of Aoyama Blue Mountain, and I’m not sure if Maya and Megu ever met her, so they don’t. When Rin recalls a senior who turned her life around, Chino recalls her chance meeting with Cocoa. In particular the phrase deai ga taisetsu (”chance meetings are to be cherished”) sticks with her. On the other hand, Maya seems to be interested in the fact that Rin was recommended for scholarship. Interestingly in the manga, Maya slept through most of the speech. 

The senior Rin was talking about was obviously Aoyama and we see that there’s actually a huge bounty placed on her. The currency sign consisting of combined letters G and U wasn’t seen before, with prices usually displayed in yen, but there was a Euro-like sign at an open market at the beginning of season 2 episode 1, which might be a shorthand way to write GU. Either way this currency must have a serious hyperinflation problem as the reward for finding Aoyama exceeds 10 billion GU. In countries affected by hyperinflation, a stable foreign currency is often used to perform economic transactions, which might explain why most of the prices are in yen.

But is there some significance to this exact number? Why, yes, 10/27 is Aoyama’s birthday! It is also the start of “reading week”, which actually lasts 2 weeks, until November 9.

After the speech Megu gets separated from the rest of the group, and the other two also get lost in the vast campus of the school. As seen from the above interior shot of the school, it is also inexplicably rabbit-themed (or maybe just this particular hall is), with golden rabbit statues and also a picture on the left wall with the kanji for rabbit (兎).

Through a series of misunderstandings Chimame end up infiltrating the school with Sharo and Rize providing uniforms for them to blend in. Despite having trouble to behave “ladylike” before, Maya naturally blends in once she treats it as a game, and even gets invited to a tea party. She makes a mistake though by mentioning moyashi (bean sprouts) which is considered a cheap and low-class food, but she’s saved by the fact that the rich girls don’t even know what that is, and Sharo explaining how to prepare it in a fancy way.

Eventually the groups meet each other and Maya reveals she has been recommended for scholarship due to her good grades. Perhaps she also treated her school grades as experience points to gain, as the title of the episode (and the manga chapter) ”The whole world is my experience points” seems to suggest. This is the idea behind a real concept of gamification, by the way.

There’s also a callback to the season 2 episode 8, where Maya asks Rize for advice while Chino and Megu are spying on her. It is worth to rewatch that scene, because it’s full of foreshadowing for this episode. Back then Maya thinks she’s the only one of the three to go to this school, but now she thinks there’s a good chance all three will still go to the same school. Chino doesn’t seem to feel this way though.

In the end we see Cocoa and Chiya joining the group, also wearing the elite school uniforms, which is briefly explained by them gathering supplies for the cultural festival. I guess the next episode will explain how they ended up there. In the manga even the fact that they have a cultural festival wasn’t revealed until this point. Also in the manga fukiya club president, Karede Yura, inexplicably appears for just one panel so that Cocoa and Chiya could thank her, without any lines. In the anime she appears just as (if not more) suddenly, however there’s some foreshadowing with her inviting Rize to a tournament earlier, and she gets quite a few speaking lines.

If you listen closely there’s a funny sound effect as she looks at Rize, and then at Sharo. I really liked her design since her first appearance in the manga, and Koi probably does too, as her role has greatly increased in the recent chapters. Consequently her single-panel background appearance has been expanded as well in this episode, she got her full name mentioned in the credits, and there’s even a Karede Yura character song included on the second BD volume (which includes this season’s episodes 3 and 4). All things considered, I fully expect Yura to appear in the episode 4 as well.

The episode ends with Chino looking at the sky with a worried expression. It just hit her that both Megu and Maya are going to a different school than she is expected to go to. As Megu and Maya have a clear path forward, Chino’s future has become even more uncertain, and she feels like the odd one out in the group. Now the part of the ending where Chino is suddenly alone makes sense:

this is basically her imagining the future where Maya and Megu leave her. The coffee cup transition symbolises Chino waking up and seeing that MaMe are still her friends and aren’t going anywhere. We’ll see though...

This time it’s Megu doing latte art in the ending, and the picture is of Chino and Maya dancing. The weird thing is, Megu wasn’t even present at this scene, so how did she draw it in such detail?

Also another random fact I noticed: Chino’s Alice costume actually appeared in the opening of both season 1 and season 2. Here’s a comparison for reference:

Anyway, that was the third episode of Gochuumon wa usagi desu ka? BLOOM and I hope you enjoyed reading my review. See you next week... or so.

[isshonihongo]

Kanji (An Introduction)

Happy New Year everyone! It’s already 2020 here in Japan but I hope you are bringing in the New Year in good spirits. Depending on where you are, here’s my first / last post of the year!

Once you learn Hiragana and Katakana, the last hurdle (more like a final boss) of reading and writing Japanese words is Kanji. Many people either put them off until too late or just decide not to tackle them at all. I want to help you avoid those mistakes!

Kanji represent ideas, so in the same way that we look at English words, you will come to look at each Kanji character and understand the ideas that it expresses. If you focus on learning a few (4 or 5) Kanji a day, you will get to the point where you have a good system of learning in place. In this post I want to talk about some of the things you should keep in mind as you start to learn Kanji. I think they will help you as you continue learning, and improving at Japanese.

1) Stroke Order

When you write the letter “t”, do you start with the vertical line, or the horizontal line? Whichever way you write it, you end up with a “t”, right? Well the first thing you should realize is that all Kanji have a “correct” way to draw them. This is called the stroke order of a Kanji character. Japanese children learn and practice this order hundreds if not thousands of times until it is burned into their brains. This is not something to stress over, but it’s good to at least be aware that this is a thing in Japanese. Below is the stroke order for the Kanji 男, meaning “man” or “male.” It has 7 strokes.

In a later post, I’ll go into more detail about the pattern behind stroke order. Good news: It’s not as random as you might fear it to be!

2) Radicals / Parts

If you look at the 男 kanji above, you see that it has 7 strokes. But there is another way to look at the character. Take a look at my picture below:

Isn’t 2 parts easier to remember than 7 strokes!? This is the idea of radicals, or smaller parts that make up an individual character. Some very advanced Kanji may have 20 or more strokes! Thinking about them in smaller parts helps you both draw and remember them more easily. Kanji dictionaries use radicals to group Kanji. For me, the main benefit of radicals is distinguishing between characters that look really similar.

Here is a great article written from the people behind WaniKani that does a great job explaining radicals / Kanji parts and generally how to study Kanji.

3) On’yomi

Earlier I showed you the Kanji 男 which represents the idea of “man” or “male.” But how exactly do you read this character? This is when you need to know about Kanji readings. A majority of Kanji have different ways to pronounce them depending on their environment. A single Kanji character can appear in 3 kinds of situations: (a) “attached” to another Kanji, (b) by itself, or © with hiragana characters “attached” after it. This is a VERY loose generalization, but in situation (a) you will use the on’yomi reading(s) of a Kanji character.

In English, think about the letters “ough.” Depending on the letters that come before them, the pronunciation changes completely. Rough, cough, through, and dough all sound different, right? Kanji have a similar thing going on. On’yomi readings do make things a bit tricky when learning Kanji, but once you get the hang of them, your Japanese will improve by leaps and bounds!

4) Kun’yomi

In Situation (b) from above, a Kanji character sometimes can appear by itself. In these cases, you will GENERALLY use a different reading for the character, called the kun’yomi reading. For on’yomi readings it turns out that there are only a set number of choices for a Kanji character’s on’yomi reading. On the other hand, a character’s kun’yomi reading can be anything. You will learn and remember these just from practice.

5) Okurigana

The last thing I’d like to talk about is okurigana. These are hiragana characters that are “attached” to Kanji characters in order to complete the word. While a Kanji character by itself represents an idea, it doesn’t always represent a word. Most of the time, you need either another Kanji or okurigana to make a Japanese word. Thank goodness, because okurigana, hiragana and katakana help to break up a sentence into dividable parts that will be easy to understand as you learn Japanese. Below is a picture with some examples with the 男 Kanji.

There you have it! I think that if you keep these 5 concepts in mind as you learn Kanji (and vocabulary), you will be in a great position to improve quickly and really understand how Japanese works. I plan to write more-detailed posts about each of these 5 concepts, so stay tuned by following me.

Have a safe New Years and I hope to help your Japanese improve in 2020. Thanks always for reading. 

Rice & Peace

– AL

👋🏾

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

HGPC 17 - 21 | Koi to Producer 2 - 6 | Appare 5 - 8 | Fugou Keiji 4 - 6

...only just realised I was missing some tags. They should be there now or soon.

HGPC 17

Why do I get the feeling the Sawaizumi family will be held hostage one day…? (Maybe I’m just being negative?)

The episode title mentions Chiyu by name, so I wonder why the translation didn’t…

Customer service! You can’t get away from it, even in COVID times…! (Impressive!)

Hmm…you can actually read part of the booking for the Smiths in the book if you know the kanji.

I thought the Smiths would speak in English, but they actually speak in fluent Japanese if the word “susume” was any indication.

Ah, Sukoyaka sweet buns! (from the other episode about the festival)

HGPC 18

Don’t burn down your house with scented candles, kids!

Also remember to use your knees when lifting heavy boxes! (<- says a charity store volunteer, who does this stuff on the regular)

These days the mascots usually have a human form. I wonder if this is implying that particular direction…? (I woke up today and was craving a certain oneshot I’d read during my scanlation days…if it is, it would fill that niche nicely.)

I wonder if the kids will recognise this Ashita no Joe parody…?

HGPC 19

“…since you were young?”

Oh! Element of Wind again!

Koi to Producer 2

This almost feels like Victor is assigning a school project to Protag-chan…it’s a bit sad, really.

It’s nice they let Protag-chan have a personality.

It’s fine if you can’t read the katakana, but Gavin’s name is Haku in Japanese, so it throws out the immersion somewhat…also, I know I shouldn’t be complaining – I’m the target audience here – but do these guys look kinda similar or what…? (partially kidding)

High school sweethearts, huh? “Childhood friends” is my favourite angle of a romantic relationship, but it gets so overused by harems it comes around to being boring…!

I-Is this Stand My Heroes…?! (LOL…?)

Can we not with 1st person cam…?

As cute and dorky as this stuff gets…how does Gavin never get found?! Does nobody ever look up in this city?!? (I thought Evolvers were meant to be a secret…?)

GPS tracker? That’s no better than large corporations using your location data…Isn’t that creepy…?

Hold on, when did she get his phone number? You would assume it was before this entire chase after the boy happened, but still…?

LOL, the English on the board.

This anime is gonna cause me some frustration, but it gives the good stuff in roughly equal measure. It seems to omit the fact you interact via phone with your bois for intimacy (in the game).

Koi to Producer 3

LOL, that’s so clearly Gavin…

By googling, you find out Uptown and Queens are in New York.

Ohmygosh! Did the creators know I love the trope where only people with superpowers can move in certain circumstances?!

Uh…his name is Kira in Japanese? Did someone read the katakana wrong?

Pictured: Depressed bishonen eating bad pudding. (…That joke sounds better in my head. I forgot what meme I was meant to be parodying there, but I had a meme in mind.)

Lemme guess…this man (I dunno if it’s one of the previous bishies with an identical face or a new one) is looking for MC-chan. *sigh* Update: Yep, just Victor again. To be honest, I don’t like anyone who calls harsh words “their sign of love” – love should be honest and upfront. That’s how it becomes heartmelting.

Koi to Producer 4

Okay, in order, it seems to be hexadecimals, Javascript (you can tell from the “const”), some kind of profiles which are apparently for human lab rats (which seem to have some kind of nonsense filler text), a DNA model and DNA bases (ACGT).

The text on the screen says something along the lines of this being an official broadcast of this man’s arrest and this man was a genetic researcher. Obviously, if I wanted to put more attention into what it meant, I would, but I won’t sweat the details this time (because it doesn’t seem to impact the plot).

The guy’s name is Minor because minor key (geddit?)…that’s my guess.

I started playing the game due to this anime, if you didn’t know, and I unlocked an expert in ch. 2. I thought he was Minor, but turns out his name is Spine (an older man).

The diary, true to form, contains details about either one case or several cases, two involving children. The bottom of the 1st page says “if it’s fake, I’ll laugh”.

Hey, I once told Crunchyroll I wanted an anime about hacking (so is this a dream come true? I reveal all in the next sentence!). Hackers don’t congregate like this…they’d be too conspicuous, even with the secret hideout!

The code in the top left appears to be…C? I think? (Note they declare “unsigned int”.)

Kiro sometimes reminds me of Masayoshi (SamFlam)…it puts a derpy smile on my face.

*blah blah blah I’m Key* - Wuh…? F*** you, Kiro!!! (There is such a thing as piling too much cool stuff on to a character, y’know – I’m guilty of it in my own writing.)

3684 isn’t a very safe password (says someone who once aspired to be in cybersecurity).

What bugs me is that Simon is a perfectly fine name…it’s just a bit boring. Kiro/Kira I get (a bit), but Lucien/Simon…? *shrugs*

Ohh! Based MAPPA! Thank you for making this adaption look great!

Koi to Producer 5

Oh, I got an SR in the game recently and it has a line like, “Only a fool stays up all night to do others’ work. Victor talks like that a lot…

The sign so obviously says “Renka”, meaning “love flower”. “Loveland” really is a step down from that…

Where’s Gavin’s guest badge…?

“Happiness Noodle Store”…?

“…the end of our first year…”

If this weren’t a Chinese work by origin (or Japanese work by translation), I’m sure Protag-chan would have gone after Gavin, despite being told the contrary.

Kanya = Minor. I’ll take a note of that.

One of the books behind Minor says “Gale Start”…hmm…

That GPS tracker is still unintentionally creepy, IMHO.

Koi to Producer 6

…oh. (dejected) Probably a beach episode or something.

What the actual heck was going on with Lucien…? It’s like he was having a tiny stroke there…

Lucien’s power is listed as “???” in the game. I thought he was an aura-reader when he said “show me your colour”, but that shield thing he did means he might just have various psychic powers…? *shrugs* We’ll find out eventually.

Running in heels is hard…

LOL, that’s so clearly recreating a CG from one of the cards.

This is the 2nd time this has gone pseudo-isekai. As much as I like to joke about it…I fully expect someone to be sent to another world at this point.

I couldn’t possibly see Victor on any kind of game show, come to think of it.

Appare 5

This guy’s middle name is “Rich”! That’s silly!

A boombox from the 19th century…makes sense, somehow.

I only just (?) realised Al has a tiny tie on his usual outfit.

Back to the beginning already…just start!

Appare 6

…I just realised Appare mouths “I got it!” in the OP.

Al Lion (sic…?)

Isn’t Sofia in that train…? Update: She might have been, she might not. Hard to tell when they don’t confirm.

This series seriously could’ve done with a dub…Even with weird hokey Hetalia accents, it would be good stuff.

These bunches of people at designated points…reminds me of the book I was reading while in Japan. The Long Walk by Stephen King (part of a compilation). It still gives me shivers down my spine when I remember it.

This “leave in the middle of the night” thing reminds me of the Amazing Race.

“Valley of Despair” is made-up, but Death Valley exists. It’s one of the hottest places on earth, hence the name.

LOL, Kosame scores himself one (1) prarie dog and two (2) Hototos.

I thought Appare was being inconsiderate at first…but he’s being considerate, in his own way.

Oh! I didn’t realise, but Saito Soma is Al.

Appare 7

“It’s not one plus one, but one times one!” – LOL.

Hybrid engine? In the 1900s? Hmm…

LOL, I think Al just did a hadouken.

This stuff’s like an animated Galaxy Brain meme! It’s amazing!

I managed to successfully predict – without watching ahead – Appare would catch himself with his traps.

Kosame with his hair down…is rare. Not exactly attractive because we have to care about the racers rather than lust after them (and the artstyle actually prevents me from doing so, because it’s deliberately quite cartoony), but it’s rare.

Appare is surprisingly childish…that’s what makes him more than a Sheldon Cooper, I think.

The spelling of the place is actually “Ely”, if Google-sensei is any indication. C’mon, subbers! You’re American (most likely)! Can’t you put in the legwork (or the Google-fu) to discover what place in Nevada this is?!

Subbers make characters say “shit” a lot in this show, hmm? (contemplative)

Now this evil guy here *points to screen*…that’s hair I like.

Appare 8

I just love this OP…don’t you?

I like how the steam/gas boat/car has Chinese numerals on its dial.

Kosame means “small rain”, so “heavy rain” is obviously to contrast that.

The Hototo joke never gets old.

I thought I just saw someone leave the saloon…

Nice hair + terrible face = bad equation.

I can almost imagine the wee-oo-wee-oo-ooooooo…wah-wah-wahhh…(You know the one sound snippet, right? The one theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - or whatever movie it is – that maybe involves a tumbleweed rolling across the screen, and then a huge shootout? If you don’t know it, play a sample on this Wikipedia page!) playing in the background.

It’s convenient the prarie dog didn’t appear when Hototo (old) had his revenge spree.

I noticed there’s a bit of a mark under Kosame’s left eye…it suggests that he’s been crying (or maybe it shows tiredness from the race…?), but it’s not that noticeable.

So that’s the real Gil…and tose were his henchmen that threatened to hang everyone bar Kosame. Got it.

(notes to self) So, for charting a course with Appare Ranman!, it’s Los Angeles -> Death Valley -> Ely -> Denver -> ??? -> New York. Got it.

Fugou Keiji 4

“Daisuke-sama” isn’t “Lord Daisuke”, it would be “Sir Daisuke”, I think…but “lord” has a proper translation in Japanese.

The truck has a Shinagawa licence plate. Anime really does like Shinagawa, huh? (Based on ID: INVADED and this.)

I think it’ll be interesting to see Kambe handle this without HEUSC.

The board for Sanchome (which is equivalent to a suburb…or a county, I guess?) has posters saying stuff like “take your dog poop home” and “let’s protect the environment!” (technically, it says “let’s protect the region/area!”, but that doesn’t translate right. There’s even a flea market. Still, those posters don’t have any big hints…not that I know of so far.

I kind of forgot that dude was the gardener for Kambe’s house…er, mansion.

I noticed a poster in the kouban says haru (spring) on it. That’s probably the same one that Haru’s name is signified by, assuming that’s not in combo with another character or few.

Oh great…the sister is an overbearing one.

Ahh…he doesn’t like natto. So that’s the problem. Daisuke is childish (like Appare)…Note I don’t like natto either, but I wouldn’t run away from home (or similar) because I was fed natto.

I noticed Kambe uses shinseki (which doesn’t refer to close family). “Relative” is a correct translation of that word, I just wanted to check that word was the right one for the context.

There’s a green tea bottle by the sink…I don’t think I’d mistake that shade of green for anything else.

LOL, I didn’t think we’d actually get to see Kambe with his hair “down”, so to speak. It’s…an interesting look, for sure.

Oh my gosh! It cost him (Haru) $15!!! (LOL, cheapskate…says the cheapskate…*suddenly droops and stops laughing*) Update: Sorry about the sudden downer there. I was having what the kids these days call a “woke moment”…at least, I think that’s how they use that term.

…I’d watch that crime drama. It’s funny.

Just realised Kato has an older model of phone than Kambe does.

This episode was kinda like a Tokyo Sonata kind of thing, huh? The sensational in the middle of the not-so-sensational…”sensational” for this show, anyway.

Those kids look like the ones from Erased.

*lightbulb goes off in brain* What if the dog went to Kambe’s…?

Can Suzue actually hear HEUSC while Kambe is using it…? $2.46 though…that is cheap, in comparison to the ham.

This was the cheapest episode so far (about $550)…probably because it was an insight into Kato’s life, more than Kambe’s.

Fugou Keiji 5

The flag seems to be based on Cameroon’s (which is in Africa, not America) and the “Arita Kinen” seems to refer to Arima Kinen, meaning this episode is set around Christmas-ish. Credit goes to Kambe Zaibatsu on this show.

I-It’s a Humvee!

Polyadoll (sic)…?

The Poliador guy speaks perfect Japanese…(?)

The star! It’s a key thingy!

I thought Kamei was the 1st Division dude with the reddish hair. Turns out it was the blonde…? Update: Redhead is Hoshino.

Ummmmmm…he was reading porn…? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…okayyyyyyyyyyyyy…

…oh, the costs for Kambe’s tuxedo are on there. So’s the cost for repairing the bike Suzue rode.

Fugou Keiji 6

I never knew there were so many money proverbs to be used as episode titles…

What is Kambe doing with his hands…? He’s not even using the computer.

Imura seems to use a Windows 10 with Cortana on the taskbar.

HGPC 20

What’s with all the Naruto running this episode…?

HGPC 21

(no notes, sorry!)

[keepmewithyourwords]

Documentary evidence submitted during the trial of Michael Walker. Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:44 PM From: michaelwalker1260@pimail.com To: yuki_yamamoto@suuji.co.jp Subject: Reading By Numbers 1 – I met your mother in a number garden in Hokkaido. 2 – When I was 5830 days old I saw a news report about Professor Sujimoto. He had made a virtual number garden for his students. 3 – I vowed I would study in Japan and started learning Japanese. 4 – I was accepted into the University of Sapporo and enrolled in their math department. Professor Sujimoto’s fame had increased after he had discovered what was, at the time, the largest prime number ever found. 5 – Sujimoto conducted all of his lectures online in a VR environment he had created himself. 6 – When I logged in, I was presented with a menu that allowed me to create an avatar to represent myself. I chose the symbol for pi. 7 – An oak tree stood in the center of the garden. It reached unending into the sky and its trunk was alive with an army of marching ants, each of them carrying a glowing neon digit. Together they formed the prime number Sujimoto had discovered — a number more than 42 million digits long. 8 – Twenty-three other students attended that lecture. Their avatars took the forms of anime characters, kawaii cats and other fantastic creatures. Sujimoto’s avatar was reminiscent of a monk — wearing brown robes and conical hat. 9 – A text bubble appeared in the air beside the monk. “Welcome to this year’s first class on number theory.” 10 – “Numbers have a purity that words cannot match.” 11 – “They are the building blocks of science. By studying them we can learn about ourselves and our place in the universe. I have created this garden to give you a chance to explore the world of numbers and their hidden beauty.” 12 – He pointed to the garden beds where different colored numbers grew. “There are transcendental numbers, abundant numbers, undulating numbers, pandigital numbers, deficient numbers, surreal numbers, happy numbers, weird numbers and my personal favorites, the 13 – vampire 14 – numbers.” A bed of numbers erupted from the ground in front of Sujimoto. It contained the numbers from 1 to 1000 arranged in orderly rows. The numbers were purple and had pale, green stems. “I want you to pick one integer. This is going to be your special number for the year. Then explore the garden.” 15 – The student avatars crowded around the purple numbers and started plucking them. I wanted to choose 3, 7, 22 or 227 because they are used when estimating pi, but some other students must have had the same idea. I chose 220 instead. 16 – I wandered past a garden of hyperreal numbers and came to a numberfall. A torrent of digits cascaded down shiny, black rocks and emptied into a gleaming, blue lake. I queried the VR interface and discovered the numberfall was displaying part of the infinite sequence of digits that makes up pi. I waded through the water until I stood underneath the numberfall. The digits crashed all about me. I was submerged in infinity. 17 – A unicorn splashed into the lake. It had the purple number 284 wrapped around its horn. When the unicorn saw the number stuck to my side, it started bouncing up and down in excitement. Someone was pressing the jump key too often. 18 – “Look at our numbers!!! We have to be friends. It’s fate!!!” 19 – That was how I met 20 – your mother. 21 – It took me a moment to grasp the significance of what she was saying. 220 and 284 are the smallest pair of amicable numbers. The sum of the proper divisors of 220 (1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55, 110) is 284. The sum of the proper divisors of 284 (1, 2, 4, 71, 142) is 220. The numbers are bound together. 22 – Your mother decided we were meant to be together. I had only just arrived in Japan and I didn’t have any friends. So I was happy to meet her after class. 23 – She was also interested in codes and sent me emails with hidden messages. A message with (32) at the end meant I had to read every thirty-second line to find the meaning. 24 – We fell in love. 25 – The next four years were the happiest of my life. I specialized in the process of random number generation. Computers usually only generate pseudorandom numbers. Deterministic algorithms can be recreated, so the numbers aren’t truly random. Eventually a pattern will emerge. To get true random numbers, computers have to rely on external sources, such as devices to measure atmospheric noise. 26 – We got married after we graduated. Some of my friends in Australia warned me about the difficulties of intercultural relationships. I thought our love for numbers would help us bypass that. 27 – Cultural differences sometimes even extend to numbers. In western countries we count in thousands, but in Japan they count in ten thousands. 20,000 is not 20 thousands, it is 2 ten thousands. I also learned other numbers have been polluted by superstition. 28 – The end came when I saw a documentary about an autistic savant who could perform astonishing feats of calculation and memory. He recited pi from memory to 22,514 digits. I could not do this. 29 – He said that in his mind numbers have different shapes and colors. I could not see this. The numbers I loved had 30 – betrayed me. 31 – They had shown themselves to others, but not to me. 32 – Kaori told me she was pregnant. 33 – At the time it was an unexpected and unwelcome 34 – addition. 35 – 1 + 1 should not equal 3. 36 – Your grandmother said we had to go to a 37 – fortune teller 38 – to help us choose your name. 39 – A fortune teller had chosen your mother’s name by selecting a kanji with a lucky number of strokes. 40 – Your grandmother poisoned your mother’s thinking with superstition. 41 – We argued. 42 – Then 43 – your grandmother 44 – became ill and was admitted to hospital. 45 – When I arrived at the hospital, 46 – she was asleep. 47 – Kaori sat by her bedside. 48 – She looked pale and tired. 49 – I had brought some flowers, 50 – so I 51 – put them on the table by the bed. 52 – Kaori stared at the flowers. “What are those?” she demanded. 53 – “I bought some flowers for your mother.” 54 – “They’re chrysanthemums!” 55 – The old woman stirred in her sleep. 56 – “What’s the matter? I thought your mother would appreciate them. They are Japan’s national flower.” 57 – “You never give chrysanthemums to someone in hospital! They’re only for funerals.” 58 – “How was I supposed to know that?” 59 – I picked up the flowers. “I will get rid of them. There’s no need to get upset. You’re acting like I 60 – killed 61 – her.” 62 – “That’s because you bought four of them! 63 – I’ve told you before, four is an unlucky number in Japan. 64 – It sounds like death. 65 – You want my mother to die, don’t you! You’ve always hated her.” 66 – “What are you talking about? That’s crazy.” 67 – “Then why did you bring her four chrysanthemums?” 68 – “The shop only had four left,” I replied. “They’re just flowers.” I threw the flowers in the bin. 69 – “I was only trying to help 70 – her.” 71 – Kaori stared at me for a long time. Then she reached into her handbag and took out her ATM card. 72 – “What about this?” She flung the card at me. “You changed the PIN on my card yesterday, didn’t you? I had to go into the bank to find out what the new number was. And you know what the new number was, don’t you? 1260!” 73 – “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. 74 – “1260 is a vampire number,” Kaori said. 75 – “I don’t know anything about that. The bank must have given you a new number for some reason. It was probably just chosen randomly.” 76 – “Don’t lie to me, Michael! I know all about your so-called random numbers! You chose that because you want to frighten me.” 77 – “Please calm down. Your mother isn’t well, and you’re pregnant. You’re very emotional.” 78 – “I don’t love you any more, Michael.” 79 – “That’s not true.” 80 – “You need to get help.” 81 – In case your mother has neglected your education I should explain about vampire numbers. They are numbers with an even number of digits that can be equally divided into two so-called fangs. These fangs are factors of the number and contain all of the digits of the original number. 82 – 1260’s fangs are 21 and 60 (21×60=1260). 83 – Your grandmother died that night. 84 – Kaori divorced me. 85 – Now, I sit in my small room and think about my mistakes. I thought numbers had betrayed me. But now I know it was not their fault. 86 – They are always true. It is superstitious people that sully the perfection of numbers. 87 – If someone tells you they love you, how do you prove it’s true? Even if it is true, how do you know it will be true tomorrow? 88 – Numbers are eternally perfect. The square root of 100 will always equal 10. 89 – Japanese law doesn’t recognize the custody rights of foreign parents. I have never even met you. But that will change one day soon. 90 – I will come for you and your mother. 91 – I have begun to make my own simple number garden. 92 – I have marked the walls with some of my favorite numbers. 93 – 220. 94 – 284. 95 – 1260. 96 – Sometimes numbers grow into things they shouldn’t. 97 – I am watching these numbers closely. One day they will grow into something very special. 98 – My health has been poor. To help me relax I perform simple integer divisions. 99 – But I am very careful about what numbers I choose to divide. 100 – I am always happier when there is no remainder. (10)

Reading by Numbers by AIDAN DOYLE

[shiguremachi]

帝国少女 / Imperial Girl (english lyrics)

Producer: R Sound Design (twitter/website)

R’s self-cover

This has also got to be the hardest (and longest) song I’ve translated to date :< Translation notes are interspersed throughout the lyrics. General comments* can be found at the back too.

Intro

夜ノ匂イ yoru no nioi 車ノ音 kuruma no oto 街ノ灯リ machi no akari 人々ノ聲 hitobito no koe 信号ノ点滅 shingou no tenmetsu 発車ノ合図 hassha no aizu

The scent of the night The sound of cars City lights The murmur of a crowd The flashing of traffic lights A signal to depart

参 san 弐 ni 壱 ichi 始 (hajimaru)

3, 2, 1*, start

First verse

頽廃的都市構想 taihaiteki toshi kousou 浮ついた世のシーンでメロウに uwatsuita yo no shiin de merou ni 雑踏の中息衝いた　 zattou no naka ikizuita Trap Chiptune Neon アラカルト arakaruto

Blueprints for a city whose culture has diluted In a scene from this restless world Breathing mellowly amidst the hustle and bustle Trap, Chiptune and Neon* à la carte (breathing: hinting that the music is alive)

感傷的都市逍遥 kanshouteki toshi shouyou フラついた夜のミームとメロディ furatsuita yoru no miimu to merodi 彷徨って samayotte 行き着いた ikitsuita 路地裏の闇夜に溶ける rojiura no yamiyo ni tokeru

A sentimental city stroll The wavering night’s memes and melody Wandering, I arrive at a back alley and melt in its moonless night

本能的都市抗争 honnouteki toshi kousou 騒ついた銀のホールでファジーに zawatsuita gin no hooru de fajii ni 喧騒の中色褪せぬ kensou no naka iroasenu Vaporwave Makina エトセトラ etosetora

Instinctive city strife In silver halls filled with commotion, fuzzily, amidst the din, they do not fade away Vaporwave, Makina* Et cetera

絶対的都市権能 zettaitekitoshi kennou ヘラついた今日のあいつをバターに heratsuita kyou no aitsu wo bataa ni 強がって tsuyogatte 噛み付いた kamitsuita 聳える都市のシステム sobieru toshi no shisutemu

Absolute city authority They were on edge today, and in a show of bravado bit a piece of butter This towering city’s system

(The other person being referenced here has an unknown gender, since Japanese pronouns do not specify so)

(on edge: nervous, irritable) (I really have no idea what the butter means)

純金製の欠乏感を左の耳にぶら下げて junkinsei no ketsuboukan wo hidari no mimi ni burasagete 芳香性の憂鬱感を纏ったら houkousei no yuuutsukan wo matottara 抗菌性の停滞感を両手の爪に散りばめて koukinsei no teitaikan wo ryoute no tsume ni chiribamete どうせ何も起きることのないこの夜に douse nani mo okiru koto no nai kono yoru ni

A sense of deficiency made from pure gold hangs from my left ear Wrapped in a perfume-like sense of depression, I studded my nails with an antibacterial lack of progression In any case, on this night when I will never wake up — (lit. feeling of being at a standstill)

First chorus

朽ちゆく身体と心を連れ kuchi yuku karada to kokoro wo tsure 一人当て無く漂っていくの hitori ate naku tadayotte iku no 形骸的残響に絆され滅びゆく都市を這い回るゾンビ keigaiteki zankyou ni hodasare horobi yuku toshi wo haimawaru zonbi

Carrying my decaying body and heart Drifting away, with not a single person in sight A zombie creeping about a dying city held together by hollow reverberations (hollow: in the sense of ‘a shell of their former existence’) (all the lines are describing the zombie -- it’s difficult to bring across in English because in Japanese, all the descriptors have been tacked on before the noun)

どんなにどんなに夜に堕ちても donna ni donna ni yoru ni ochite mo 明日の光が世界を染めてく asu no hikari ga sekai wo someteku 蘇る私は yomigaeru watashi wa 帝国少女 teikoku shoujo

No matter how far I fall into the night The light of tomorrow colours this world I, who has come back to life, am an imperial girl

Second intro

好キナ色 suki na iro 好キナ音 suki na oto 好キナ匂イ suki na nioi 好キナ言葉 suki na kotoba 好キナ人 suki na hito

The colours I love The sounds I love The scents I love The words I love The person I love

Second verse

盲目的都市幻想 moumokutekitoshi gensou ひしめき合うスノッブと漂うクロエ hishimekiau sunobbu to tadayou kuroe 私をちょっと狂わせる watashi wo chotto kuruwaseru PUSHER Wave Pablo エトセトラ etosetora

A blind illusion of a city A jostling snob and a drifting Chloe drive me a little mad Pusher, Wave
, Pablo* et cetera

(Who’s Chloe?)

恋愛的都市様相 renaitekitoshi souyou 目眩く夜とジーンのシャワーに mekurumeku yoru to jiin no shawaa ni 直濡れた jikinureta 指の先で yubi no saki de なぞる恋のシニカル nazoru koi no shinikaru

The romantic face of this city I drench myself directly in the dazzling night and a gene’s shower, tracing the cynicism of love with the tip of my finger

金剛性の背徳感を薬の指に光らせて kongousei no haitokukan wo kusuri no yubi ni hikarasete 伸縮性の優越感に袖を通して shinshukusei no yuuetsukan ni sode wo tooshite

Polishing this diamantine immorality with medicine I pass an elastic sense of superiority through a sleeve

(medicine: ...it could be drugs, but who knows)

(elastic: as in this person’s ego varies in size)

後天性の先入観で両目の淵を彩った koutensei no sennyuukan de ryoume no fuchi wo irodotta 違う人とあの部屋で夢を見るならモウ chigau hito to ano heya de yume wo miru nara mou

Acquired prejudices colour the depths of my eyes If you dream in that room with a different person, then — (if you say 「もう」 at the end of a sentence, it’s like exclaiming ‘Again?!’ in exasperation)

Second chorus

私の身体と心を watashi no karada to kokoro wo 傷付けた罪を償いなさいよ kizutsuketa tsumi wo tsugunainasai yo 衝動的感情に流されて行き着く先はshoudouteki kanjou ni nagasarete ikitsuku saki wa クライクライ夜 kurai kurai yoru

Atone for these sins which have scarred my body and heart These impulsive feelings have been washed away into the dark, dark night (atone: this is said in a commanding manner)

あんなにあんなに縛られたのは anna ni anna ni shibarareta no wa あなたに愛して欲しかっただけ anata ni aishite hoshikatta dake 泣き濡れる私は nakinureru watashi wa 啼哭少女 teikoku shoujo

That which has been tied up to this extent is only my desire to love you I, who is covered in tears, am a sobbing girl (the kanji says ‘sobbing’, but it’s still pronounced ‘teikoku’, which is the same way of pronouncing ‘imperial’)

Bridge and last chorus

もう遣る瀬無い浮かぬ日々も mou yarusenai ukanu hibi mo 揺れる摩天楼に抱かれて yureru matenrou ni dakarete ビルにまみえる夜空の星に願いを込める biru ni mamieru yozora no hoshi ni negai wo komeru こんな夜に konna yoru ni

Even the now-disconsolate, gloomy days embrace swaying skyscrapers I send a wish to the stars which mimic buildings in the night sky On such a night — (as in the twinkling stars look like the lights from buildings at night)

（嘆息） tansoku

(sigh)

朽ちゆく身体と心を連れ kuchi yuku karada to kokoro wo tsure 一人当て無く漂っていくの hitori ate naku tadayotte iku no 形骸的残響に絆され滅びゆく都市を這い回るゾンビ keigaiteki zankyou ni hodasare horobi yuku toshi wo haimawaru zonbi

Carrying my decaying body and heart Drifting away, with not a single person in sight A zombie creeping about a dying city held together by hollow reverberations

どんなにどんなに夜に堕ちても donna ni donna ni yoru ni ochite mo 明日の光が世界を染めてく asu no hikari ga sekai wo someteku 未来などどうでもいいのよ mirai nado dou demo ii no yo

No matter how far I fall into the night The light of tomorrow colours this world I don’t care about things like the future!

こんなにこんなに愛した場所よ konna ni konna ni aishita basho yo 何度も何度も歩いた道よ nando mo nando mo aruita michi yo 催涙的郷愁に襲われ sairuiteki kyoushuu ni osoware 黄昏る街を駆け抜けるゾンビ tasogareru machi wo kakenukeru zonbi

The places I loved so, so much The paths I have traversed so many times over Tear-inducing nostalgia hits me, a zombie running through the streets at dusk

私の身体と心の傷 あなたの笑顔も声も全部 watashi no karada to kokoro no kizu anata no egao mo koe mo zenbu ここに置いて逝くわ koko ni oite iku wa 帝国少女 teikoku shoujo

The scars on my body and heart Your smile, your voice, your everything are fading from this very spot Imperial girl

Outro

夜ノ匂イ

yoru no nioi

車ノ音

kuruma no oto

街ノ灯リ

machi no akari

人々ノ聲

hitobito no koe

信号ノ点滅

shingou no tenmetsu

発車ノ合図

hassha no aizu

アナタ香リ anata kari アナタノ聲 anata no koe アナタノ手 anata no te 好 suki 好キナ色 suki na iro 好キナ音 suki na oto 好キナ匂イ suki na nioi 好キナ言葉 suki na kotoba 好キナ人 suki na hito 別レノ合図 betsure no aizu 参 san 弐 ni 壱 ichi 終

(owaru)

The scent of the night The sound of cars City lights The murmur of a crowd The flashing of traffic lights A signal to depart Your scent Your voice Your hand Love The colours I love The sounds I love The scents I love The words I love The person I love A different signal 3, 2, 1*, end

General comments:

1) All English words reference underground music genres

2) The 3-2-1 uses a formal way of writing numbers. The same characters can be found on the backs of the Crypton Vocaloids’ Senbonzakura outfits. In the Chinese language their equivalents were used mainly in recording numbers for bookkeeping, since the numbers’ ordinary forms were easily editable (a shady person could simply add more strokes to change the number ― and that ain’t good). There is an easy way to read these characters: the simple version of the number can be found in them (e.g. 参 has 3 strokes together, just like 三).

3) R himself(?) said the lyrics were chosen more for how they sounded. Which explains why some parts are just weird. Also, he(?) likes how the word ‘zombie’ sounds so yeah. (I can’t find the blog post where this was from argh)