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escapeoclock · 6 months
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When Jinshi is such a mood.
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Sauce: The Apothecary Diaries
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moonlightsdream · 2 months
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Yubisaki to Renren ゆびさきと恋々 — ep.07 | let me introduce you to my girlfriend
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arataka-reigen · 7 months
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I think some of you should watch more stuff with female main characters and become obsessed with a real weirdo girl. I think that would fix you.
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nijigasakilove · 3 months
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His aura is so crazy
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aishiteru-kenshin · 11 months
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Loving Yamada-kun at Lv999 | Akito Yamada
Though Yamada is attractive, he’s quiet and reserved. Though he’s blunt, he’s rather kind. Everyone who knows him well would understand that. …But he can also be quite cruel.
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shironity · 4 months
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Yona, my queen. I've spent a lot of days in this illustration because every time I tried to continue it, something terrible happened. In some point I felt in a sitcom
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Twitter post Instagram post
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feymure · 1 year
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Shoujo & Josei Anime to look forward to in 2023
With a new year comes a new post from Yours Truly! And this year, us fans are getting an actual year of shows to look forward to! Thank you all for your support that has brought these anime! Please continue to show the love this year and onwards!
Series coming in 2023
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Movies coming in 2023
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MAL(My Anime List) Links:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52173/Koori_Zokusei_Danshi_to_Cool_na_Douryou_Joshi
https://myanimelist.net/anime/53126/Yamada-kun_to_Lv999_no_Koi_wo_Suru
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49980/Sugar_Apple_Fairy_Tale
https://myanimelist.net/anime/46422/Niehime_to_Kemono_no_Ou
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52308/Kanojo_ga_Koushaku-tei_ni_Itta_Riyuu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50652/Tsundere_Akuyaku_Reijou_Liselotte_to_Jikkyou_no_Endou-kun_to_Kaisetsu_no_Kobayashi-san
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51215/Seijo_no_Maryoku_wa_Bannou_Desu_2nd_Season
https://myanimelist.net/anime/53438/Higeki_no_Genkyou_to_Naru_Saikyou_Gedou_Last_Boss_Joou_wa_Tami_no_Tame_ni_Tsukushimasu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/53300/Ojou_to_Banken-kun
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51956/Paradox_Live_the_Animation
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52962/Tearmoon_Teikoku_Monogatari__Dantoudai_kara_Hajimaru_Hime_no_Tensei_Gyakuten_Story
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51552/Watashi_no_Shiawase_na_Kekkon
https://myanimelist.net/anime/53097/Tokyo_Mew_Mew_New_%E2%99%A1_2nd_Season
https://myanimelist.net/anime/53716/Hirogaru_Sky_Precure
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51065/Sazanami_Soushi_ni_Junketsu_wo_Sasagu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/54850/Oooku
https://myanimelist.net/anime/44081/B-Project__NetsuretsuLove_Call
https://myanimelist.net/anime/54294/Dog_Signal
https://myanimelist.net/anime/48917/Stand_My_Heroes__Warmth_of_Memories
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52999/Ensemble_Stars_Tsuioku_Selection_Element
https://myanimelist.net/anime/54858/Hypnosis_Mic__Division_Rap_Battle_-_Rhyme_Anima__
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49842/Otome_Game_no_Hametsu_Flag_shika_Nai_Akuyaku_Reijou_ni_Tensei_shiteshimatta%E2%80%A6_Movie
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51716/Bishoujo_Senshi_Sailor_Moon_Cosmos_Movie
https://myanimelist.net/anime/39905/Collar_x_Malice
https://myanimelist.net/anime/54118/IDOLiSH7_Movie__LIVE_4bit_-_BEYOND_THE_PERiOD
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52186/Kin_no_Kuni_Mizu_no_Kuni
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52364/Hirano_to_Kagiura
https://myanimelist.net/anime/55153/Yuzuki-san_Chi_no_Yonkyoudai
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vulpixtual · 6 months
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violetearuby · 6 months
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The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague - Miyuki Tonogaya
・Demographic: Josei
・Genre: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Himuro-kun is a living descendant of the Snow Woman from Japanese folklore. But anytime he's around his eccentric yet kind colleague, Fuyutsuki-san, he totally freezes up! Despite the snowstorm of love that rages on in his heart, and her complete cluelessness, will he take a step forward or stay frozen in place?
Read Here
this manga is incredibly cutee. filled with charming and adorable characters that makes me smiling from ear to ear. one of my comfort manga(s).
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blueiight · 9 months
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FROM FAR AWAY [ 彼方から , KANATA KARA ] — by KYOKO HIKAWA
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escapeoclock · 5 months
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Out of words.
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Sauce: The Apothecary Diaries
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glowgelido · 10 months
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...you came to seduce the demon king?
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saffronapplemanga · 1 year
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Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch’s Life in Mongol - 天幕のジャードゥーガル
HISTORICAL, DRAMA
Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol by Tomato Soup
(1 volume, ongoing)
JP only. Hopefully, it gets licensed! Please hire me to translate this, publishing companies. The first 5 chapters are up for free in JP here.
Links to my other manga posts here
An Irani girl named Fatima who’s a captive of the Mongol Empire and uses her education to her advantage??? 
Hello, my name is Fatimah, I’m half Irani, and it’s finally my time >:)
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I hope you guys are ready for history and cultural lessons! I worked really hard on this post and she’s a long one... I literally just came back from an Iran trip and got some books, took pictures, and consulted people who know more than me for this post (the trip wasn't for the post, that was a coincidence lolllll).
This series won first place in the オンナ編 (Female Category) for the このマンガがすごい!2023 / Kono Manga ga Sugoi 2023 / “This Manga is Amazing! 2023″ which is a rather prestigious award. I’ve talked about the Male Category’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners (2nd place will have a dedicated post one day), and plan to talk about the Female Category’s 4th and 6th place winners eventually. I guess I have good taste, what can I say? Jk, jk, but check the links if you’re interested :)
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This post will be broken up into the following sections - What's It About? - Some Background - Representation - My Localization Choices - Story - Art - Culture Time! - Let's Talk Religion - The First Word From God, "Read".
Enjoy!
What's It About?
I usually don't like to go into plot details too much so you can discover the story for yourself. But since it isn't currently accessible in English at all, I figured I’d summarize the first chapter so you at least know what it’s about. Then I’ll summarize the rest of the chapters in a spoiler section for those who are interested. That way, we can all be informed enough to discuss it. I might touch on themes or other things outside the first chapter in the discussion, but I’ll try to do it in a way that doesn’t spoil for those of you who want to wait and read it for yourselves.
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Chapter 1
We kick off with a rather poetic reference to scholars using geometry to measure the earth and the idea of trying to quantify fate. In 13th-century Iran/Persia, in the city of Tous, we meet a family looking for a domestic worker. The family is a woman, Fatima, who is newly widowed, her son, Mohamed, and her brother. A slave trader offers her some options, but they are rather pricey. So he suggests she take a little girl, Sitara, for a heavily discounted price. The slave trader asks Fatima to educate Sitara since they are a scholarly family, so she does.
However, Sitara plays dumb to ensure her value as a slave stays low. That way, no one would bother taking her to faraway lands to sell her for higher prices as she wants to stay close to her home to try and go back. Sitara tries to sneak out and runs into Mohamed, who talks to her about why he thinks learning is so great. He inspires her to pursue an education so she can have the tools to handle whatever life throws at her. Mohamed wants to travel and learn from others to find the "truth" for himself. He promises Sitara that he'll write letters to her and his mother, which further inspires her to learn to read.
The chapter ends with Mohamed leaving Tous, and the narrator tells us it was the last time Mohamed and Sitara ever saw each other.
Chapters 2-5
I'm going to speed through the rest now that we got the setup out of the way.
***SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 2-5***
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8 years have passed since Mohamed left and Sitara has been pursuing an education under the direction of Fatima and her brother. While the Tous army is investigating strange activity near their borders, Fatima shows Sitara some things her late husband left behind such as books and astrology tools.
As the Mongols are closing in on Tous, Fatima and Sitara hunker down in a cellar to wait the threat out. Unfortunately, they're found, and one of the Mongol princes takes a book that belonged to Fatima's late husband. Sitara tries to stand up to him, causing her to be attacked. Fatima takes the blow, saying, "Don't touch my daughter," before passing away.
Tous is razed to the ground, and its citizens killed or driven out and forced to march to the Mongol camp. Sitara finds out that the city of Neyshabur, the city Mohamed is studying at, was also attacked. His whereabouts are unknown.
Interestingly, the Mongol prince was specifically looking for the book he took since his fiance had asked him for it. However, the book is in Persian and they are unable to read it. Sitara meets a boy who is interpreting for the Mongols in an effort to make himself more useful to avoid becoming a meat shield in battles for them. While he can speak Mongolian and Persian, he can't read. But, Sitara can. He asks her to team up with him to help each other become more valuable to their capturers. Sitara will read the stolen book, and the boy will translate. He suggests she come up with a more "elegant" or "majestic" name before presenting herself to the Mongol princes. She steps into their tent and introduces herself as "Fatima".
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***END OF SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 2-5***
Some Background
Quick disclaimer, I'm by no means an expert. A lot of this is what I know and what I've experienced. I might have to make some generalizations or else we're gonna be here all day.
I feel like I’m about to overshare but I want to offer my perspective on this series. I don’t get to do this often so indulge me please lol. This background is so you have an idea of some things that influenced my perspective on this story.
For those of you new around here, I'm a Kuwaiti/Irani-American, Japanese to English translator (I speak English, Arabic, and Japanese).
What that means more specifically is that I've grown up/lived in America my whole life, visiting Kuwait when we could, until I moved to Japan after college. My parents are both Kuwaiti with Kuwaiti fathers, born and raised, but both of their mothers are Irani. They know Farsi to varying degrees of fluency as a second language. I never learned it since their first language is Arabic and that was the language they focused on teaching me while living in America. They usually spoke Farsi if they wanted to keep me and my brother out of a conversation between adults, rude. But I can sometimes pick up on some things being said. One of my best friends is Irani-American (Her name is also Fatimah! It's a ridiculously popular name) and our experiences are quite different, but there's overlap as well!
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For those of you who don't know where Kuwait is. It's a tiny little country in the northern end of the Persian Gulf in Western Asia. FYI "Mina" in "Mina Al Ahmadi," which you can see on the map, means "port".
Most of our Kuwaiti relatives have Irani roots and some Turkish. There are a lot of ethnic groups in Kuwait because it started out as a port city that was a part of the Silk Road network. (I actually wanna study the Silk Road more!) So lots of people from all over gathered there. There are black Kuwaitis, those with blonde hair and blue eyes (my mom's relatives are like this), those with more East Asian features (my cousins), those with darker features (my dad's side), etc.
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The Silk Road in the 1st century, courtesy of Wikipedia. You can see the route going through Kuwait. It was specifically part of the Maritime Silk Road route.
Because of all the trade, you can see the influences of many other regions in the food, clothes, language, culture, and so on.
But, yeah! History is cool.
Representation
I am indeed one of those people who is annoyingly passionate about representation. Like, I could write a whole Master’s dissertation on why it’s so important, but I’ll spare you… for now. More eloquent people have already done so anyways.
As you can imagine, I’m not used to seeing myself represented in media. And any representation I did get, was… well, how do I put this… not great? Bad™ actually. Beyond racist tbh. So can you blame me for being excited? I’m still mad about that one episode of Grey’s Anatomy when that girl whipped off her scarf/hijab to save a patient IN A FULLY STOCKED HOSPITAL!!! That would never fucking happen ;_; like imagine if you pulled your pants off to put pressure on a wound when the gauze is literally right there. I CAN’T, where do I even begin??? But I digress.
And even if I wasn’t a person from this culture, it’s just cool to see rep we don’t usually get! For example, Requiem of the Rose King is fresh in my mind right now, but having an intersex main character is not something I recall seeing. While not intersex myself, nor a noble from ye olde times, I related to Richard a lot and appreciate what the story did. I can see people from other cultures relating to Tenmaku no Jadoogar, or simply just learning new things about a culture we don’t get to see a lot of rep about. (I plan to write a follow-up post after I finish the series and talk about the rep in Rose King a bit more.)
My Localization Choices
There are no official spellings for this manga, so some explanations as to why I wrote things the way I did. Thankfully, these are all real-world names with context, so I'm not pulling nonsense out of thin air. Localizing uncommon/made-up names is... hard... traumatic flashbacks to when I had to look up official spellings for Gundam and Kamen Rider and the client didn't give me glossaries... Literally did research about Sypha Belnandes' name localization being all over the place for this blog post. Spoiler, I don’t think it was supposed to be Belnandes.
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It really be like that...
Sitara - シタラ "Shitara". This isn't a name I was familiar with, so I asked my mom and Irani-American friend if it sounded like a name they knew. I wanted to say "Sitra" sounds like something that has a more "West Asian pronunciation" than the Japanese pronunciation in the manga. I was wrong and it's "Sitara" which means "star" just like what they said in the story.
Fatima - ファーティマ "Fātima". Same as my name! It's a super popular name. I katakana-fied my name as ファティーマ, which is the same, I just put the dash that elongates the sound in a different place. Why? Fatima is an Arabic name فَاطِمَة. In classical Arabic, it's pronounced like Fā-dtee-ma or Fadt-ma in Kuwaiti Arabic (the letter طِ doesn't exist in EN/JP and the best way I can describe it is it's like D+T sound.) An Irani pronunciation is more like Fā-teh-meh, which is what my grandma and Irani-American friends call me. In English, I personally pronounce my name like Fa-tee-ma, but people have various preferences. So basically, I took the Arabic and English pronunciations and katakana-fied it how I thought it would sound best in Japanese. And no one has ever pronounced my name wrong in Japan since katakana is phonetic and is actually pronounced how it's spelled. Wild I know. Meanwhile in America... *cries* I have a half-Irani-half-Japanese acquaintance who doesn't put any elongated sound in her name like ファティマ, and it's all just preference tbh. There are also different ways you can spell it in English, but "Fatima" is the most common way.
Mohamed - モハンマド "Mohanmado". This one is pretty straightforward. I think most people are familiar with this name. Also super popular. There are various English spellings as well, so I just went with a common, shorter spelling.
The title, 天幕のジャードゥーガル Tenmaku no Jadougal (this is how it's romanized on anilist), also doesn't have an official translation. It basically translates to Witch of the Marquee. Tenmaku="tent/marquee" in Japanese. ジャードゥーガル comes from جادوگر "jadoogar" meaning "witch" in Farsi. The romanization of the title should actually be Tenmaku no Jadoogar. There is no "L" in Japanese, so it often becomes "R". In Japanese, ジャードゥーガル is "Jādoogaru". Without context, it's often hard to tell if it's supposed to be "L" or "R" so I don't blame them for the mistake. But yeah, that's why I wrote it as Tenmaku no Jadoogar for the title at the top of the post. How do I contact the anilist admins about correcting that? Lol. The way my brain is short-circuiting trying to combine Japanese, English, my nonexistent Arabic reading skills since Farsi uses basically the same alphabet, and consulting my Farsi "sources"... my brain can only handle two of the three languages I speak at the same time...
1/7/23 EDIT: I asked anilist to fix the spelling of the title and it's been changed!
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Shout out to Fatimah #2 for putting up with all my questions <3 Farsi has some extra letters that aren't in Arabic and I didn't know about that one...
Story
I’m starting to realize that I really dig historical fiction. Things like Requiem of the Rose King (current read, I'm obsessed), Vinland Saga, Bride’s Story (a priority TBR of mine), and Ertugrul (this one is a Turkish drama, highly recommend!) are so fascinating because we get to take a peek at what life used to be like, especially if the author did their homework. This story reminds me of Ertugrul at times since they both take place in West Asia during the 13th century, and the characters in both had run-ins with the Mongols.
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This baddie took out three Mongolian soldiers on her own!!! Well, her horse helped. Horses are great. I'm a horse girl, literally took riding lessons for ~4 years.
I found out while researching for this post that this story is in fact based on a real person in history! Here's the Wikipedia page, more info here by Dr. Jack Weatherford who wrote a book that I'm totally going to read once I can get my hands on it. I think this manga is going in a similar vein as Vinland Saga where the events are real historical events, and some characters were actual people in history, but the author is going to take creative liberties. (Check out Merphy Napier and Philip Chase's Vinland Saga discussions. They're great and Philip has a lot of historical knowledge relevant to that series that's super informative!)
The characters are lovable and interesting. I like Sitara's spunk, Mohamed's thoughtfulness, and Fatima's gentle nature, just to name a few. The relationship Sitara has with Mohamed and Fatima was very sweet. I'm interested to see how the relationship that I mentioned at the end of chapter 5 goes. Also intrigued by the bits of relationship dynamics with the Mongolian characters we have so far.
I got super excited when the theme of "learning/education" came up. Seeing how that looked back in 13th-century Persia, which was a hotspot for advances in many fields, is so cool! This story led me to do some research and asking around on topics I was familiar with, but not an expert on, and I learned things about my own culture/religion. More on learning and education later. But overall, a strong start and I can't wait to read more!
Art
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My twitter reading thread for this series
The art is very stylized, like a chibi-esque style with Persian art influences. I like the contrast between the simplified shapes and the detailed bits. I’m a big fan of inky blacks and white whites. I know all manga is black and white but this one feels like it has more contrast due to the simplified shapes. It's got tons of charm!
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The shoujo-esque flowery background, but make it Irani-flavored✨ It looks like the rug we got in Iran!
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Some pictures I took at historical sites in Tehran with more examples of flowery imagery. Sorry if the image quality sucks, I didn't have my good camera :(
Culture Time!
As soon as I saw this cover, I felt a sense of familiarity. Particularly, the style of henna on her hands made me go, “Hey! That’s similar to how we do our henna!” While we also do the mehndi style henna (Is that the right term? Help) in Kuwait because of Indian influences due to longtime trade, we have another kind as well. You take the paste and hold it in your hands while curling your fingertips into it.
I had such a hard time finding pics that weren’t the intricate mehndi design ones. I would’ve just put henna on my own hands and taken a pic to show what I’m talking about, but it’s winter and it’s not good to use henna in winter because it has a cooling effect. I put henna on in winter once, and it made me so much colder. But makes you feel nice and cool in the summer! That’s why it’s traditionally applied to the head, hands, and feet, which are places you have a lot of heat dissipate from and it saps the heat away. I remember my mom doing that for me and my brother all the time when we were little during summer.
But! With the help of my mom, she helped me narrow it down. I didn't know the actual name of this style of henna. I just called it Kuwaiti-style henna lol. Apparently, it's حنه قصعة henna gasa'a, and bingo!
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It doesn't show super well here, but the tops of the fingertips are also dyed like on the cover of the manga. Love that nazar ring though, so cute! 🧿
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This is the mehndi style henna that people are most familiar with.
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When I was little, I assumed that henna was made from soil because there are soils that can dye things a reddish color. But it's actually from a plant! The leaves are ground into a powder and then made into a paste when you want to use it.
Health, cleanliness, and hygiene are big deals in Islam. Other than being used for beauty and it’s cooling effect, henna is also used to keep oneself clean and smelling nice. It’s said that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) utilized henna as well.
I actually didn't know much about Iran's henna culture. When I asked my Irani-American friend whose family is from Tehran (northern Iran), she said she wasn't familiar with any. But like Kuwait, Iran has a lot of ethnic groups. It's also a large region (it used to be a whole empire and all that, too), so there are definitely people who do use it!
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Turkmen Iranis, dying their fingertips with henna, exactly like in the manga! My family are Turk, too! (From a book I picked up a few days ago in Iran, "Nomads: Migrating with Swallows". What a pretty title...)
The clothing of the characters also felt very familiar. The cover of volume one reminded me of this picture:
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Maku Kurd girl ("Nomads: Migrating with Swallows")
Iran grows tons of fruit, herbs, and flowers, famously roses! Rose water is a staple we pretty much always had at home.
Rose water is used for medicinal purposes and has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities. People often wash up with it since it has a lovely fragrance and makes you smell nice. It's also used in foods and desserts or added to drinking water for flavor and health benefits.
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Sitara bringing Fatima rose water. It looks just like this 12th-century rose water container. We still have containers like this nowadays and I actually used one to wash my hands recently.
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Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Water Granita With Rice Noodles), Bastani Sonati (Saffron and Rose Water Ice Cream), in Kuwait we say Sharbat Nimil but apparently, it's Tokhm-e Sharbatie in Iran (Rose Water and Basil Seed Drink) Fun fact: Sharbat Nimil means "ant drink" because the seeds look like... ants... and the thought freaked me out as a kid, I never wanted to drink it. I thought my aunt was messing with me but my parents said, "Yeah, no, that's actually what it's called."
Dates! Another staple. Always have some in the house.
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These are ripe dates. We call them "tamar". Sweet, delicious, amazing.
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These are fresh dates! We call them "khalal". Sweet, crunchy, amazing.
The architecture was also, you guessed it, familiar as well. Particularly the courtyards! It really took me back.
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Courtyards! My Irani grandma (also Fatima, I told you it was a popular name...) had a courtyard home in Kuwait too, but less fancy, and she had a huge date tree instead of a fountain. We would play there all the time when we visited. Also reminds me of the houses in some of the Irani movies I've seen.
Let's Talk Religion
I know religion is historically always a fun and totally not divisive topic, but we're all going to be civil and discuss stuff like adults. I'm not trying to convert anyone, I swear. Chasing after people and forcing religion down their throats is actually frowned upon in Islam believe it or not. I’m also not saying it’s a better religion than others or anything of the sort so don’t come for me. It's just relevant to the story and I'm hoping we can interact in good faith, so let's talk.
I am NOT a scholar, this is just what I know and my understanding so please don't quote me. I probably have to gloss over and simplify a lot because there's... too much.
There are various interpretations of Islam. The Quran, to my understanding, is meant to have its interpretations evolve over time to address the issues of people no matter the time or place. Issues faced centuries ago might not be as pressing now, or we might have new issues today that weren't a thing back in the day. Iranians mainly practice Shia Islam, which is also the sect I know most about so that's what we're focusing on.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion. It's also quite misunderstood due to hate/misinformation, AND — I'm gonna just say it, there are Muslims who have skewed interpretations of Islam's teachings. Am I the perfect Muslim and my interpretations are law? I didn't say that, obviously not. But I'm going to call it how I see it. I don't take sides and I'm not going to defend someone just because they identify as Muslim if they're doing stuff that doesn't make sense (that would be un-Islamic and just... dumb imo). But anyways, there are a few points I’d like to touch on so we all have a base understanding.
Many people think that Allah (SWT) is “the Muslim god” but actually, he’s the same god that brought down the Bible and Torah. He's just... God. This is why you’ll see a lot of crossover between these religions. And Christian Arabs, for example, say Allah because that’s just God in Arabic.
Why did God come up with different religions? It’s my understanding each religion was what the people needed at the time. (Also because of the next point)
Muslims DO believe in the original Bible and Torah, but historically there's evidence that these books have been altered by people over the years. (Again, I'm not saying your religion is wrong if you're Christian or Jewish. You do you.) Then what about the Quran? I’ll actually address that later.
Muslims DO believe in Jesus. We just think he's a prophet instead of the son of God or God.
Cool? Cool.
Now to address some religion-related things that came up in the story.
The part where there is the selling of slaves made me raise an eyebrow since slavery is not allowed in Islam, because, duh.
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I did some research and asked around. I was able to talk to my Irani-American friend's aunt when I visited them during my Iran trip last week since she's studied this kind of stuff. She joked that I should save myself the trouble and not touch the slavery topic, especially with Americans since it's... like... a super touchy topic. But this is an important topic and we should talk about important topics instead of shying away from them — respectfully, of course. And maybe we can all learn something. It was a perspective on slavery that was very different from what I'm used to hearing about in America. She essentially confirmed what I was thinking.
The Quran envisions the ideal society as one in which slavery no longer exists. Since slavery was such a widespread issue around the whole world back in the olden days, (it still is an issue today, but I'm assuming it was worse back then) it was unfortunately unrealistic to try and abolish it in one fell swoop. Again, this isn’t just abolishing in one country or region, but tackling the issue worldwide. So, in Islam, the idea is that there are steps in place to phase it out. For example:
No free people can be enslaved, duh.
People cannot be enslaved due to debt or crime.
You are encouraged to help slaves buy their way to freedom by giving them money to do so or buying them to free them.
If you are in possession of a slave, you should free them.
If you house a slave, you must treat them well.
This last one is just an interesting thing I didn’t know about that I saw in my research and it came up in the story — Slaves get half the punishment for a sin than if the same sin was committed by a free person.
I wondered why then, did Fatima's family, not free Sitara and the other slaves? It didn’t look like they had anything stopping them from running away either. Sure, Sitara got scolded by another slave for trying to leave, but she could have tried again and run away. The other slaves in the story seemed like they wanted to/were okay with staying, even though they did wish they could go home and felt homesick. So what’s up?
It's my understanding that back then, it was common for people to take slaves into their families, offer shelter and educate them. It was a way to take them off the streets, away from the slave traders, and keep them safe.
Why not just take everyone back to their homes? Various reasons. They might be in danger if they try to go back. They might not have anywhere to go back to. Also, this was the 13th century. It's not like they could just hop on a plane and go home. There's also no law enforcement the way we have today. Hell, even with all the local and international law enforcement of today, slavery is still a major issue.
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Sitara wants to go home but has no home to go back to.
Is this ideal? As I mentioned, ideally slavery wouldn't even be a thing. I’m pretty sure we can all agree slavery=bad. I'm not here to argue that. But I also think it's important to try and understand what things were like back then and why people did what they did. A lot of times I see people measure things with their standards that were developed in modern day, with their own life experience. You need to be careful when doing that. I'm sure in the future, people will look back at us like, "Damn, y'all lived like that???"
Perhaps, this was the best the average person could do. Try to protect them and offer them shelter and an education. As long as we don’t live in an ideal world, we need to consider various solutions to issues. So this was an interesting way to try and tackle the issue given the time and circumstances. It’s rather different from what I think most Americans know about this subject.
Did everyone do this? I'm going to say probably not. Terrible people always exist. Plus there are plenty of people who say they practice a religion, but cherry-pick what they want to follow, do the opposite, have distorted understandings of its teachings, or just downright weaponize religion to suit them. That's a whole other discussion though, so I'll leave it there.
I would like to read more about this topic though, so if anyone knows any sources, let me know!
The First Word From God - "Read"
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"Slave or not, it is a Muslim's duty to seek knowledge, as stated in the hadiths."
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What's a hadith? Here you go. Also, this is the OG Fatima, Lady Fatima (PBUH).
When God first sent the angel Gabriel down to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his first word to him was, "read". Education and seeking knowledge are SUPER important in Islam, and should not be kept from anyone regardless of race, gender, etc. Seeking knowledge will make you a more rational, well-rounded person. Knowledge in this context is broad and all-encompassing. It doesn't only mean religion, math, and science, but philosophy, art, and so on. Literally anything. I hope I don't really need to convince anyone that education is a human right and empowering and all that stuff, so let's keep it moving.
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"Isn't that what learning is all about?"
To address this earlier point:
Muslims DO believe in the original Bible and Torah, but historically there's evidence that these books have been altered by people over the years. Then what about the Quran?
Tbh, I hesitated to include this part because people might misinterpret or take offense. To reiterate for the umpteenth time, I'm not saying your religion is wrong if you're Christian or Jewish. You do you. We’re actually told to respect believers of these religions. I swear!
So, yeah. Moving on.
Another reason seeking knowledge is an obligation in Islam is so that you are able to read the Quran for yourself. When loads of people read it, memorize it, and are familiar with it, any changes will not go unnoticed. This is to stop people from weaponizing and distorting the Quran's teachings. And this is why there is only ONE Quran, and not multiple versions (I’m not talking about translated Qurans).
In general, having knowledge about things makes you less susceptible to being lied to or misled, regardless of the topic. Unfortunately, I'm in the camp where I believe not enough people do their own research and reading. And again, I don't just mean religion, but everything. That kind of thing takes effort, and effort is hard.
Go read!
You're Still Here?
Like the first-place winner for the Male Category, The Summer Hikaru Died, which I’ve been pushing on anyone who will listen since volume one hit bookstores in Japan, Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol deserves to win the Female Category. From what I can see so far, it’s well researched and written with love. I'm looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds and I may add more thoughts as we go.
Volume 2 is due to come out February 16th, so I’ll be tweeting my thoughts on my reading thread. The link to this post is on Twitter here if you want to share it there. EDIT: Volume 2 post is up!
If there's anything else you'd like to see me discuss or expand on, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'd love to hear what others think!
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I await your email publishers, my resume is ready... [email protected]
🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿
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If there’s any Japanese-only manga you want me to check out, let me know! No promises, I’ll only read what I’m interested in, but I’ll take suggestions into consideration. Preferably, shorter manga or newer manga with a few volumes out since I like to take breaks from longer series I’m reading :)
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nijigasakilove · 3 months
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😩 Maomao fangirling over Jinshi in this episode was great. We already knew he was a nice looking guy but her shuttering at the idea of him wearing makeup and getting even more attractive was so funny. Would definitely tempt both genders.
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I found the little misunderstanding between Jinshi and Maomao about the freckles to be so cute. She thinks they’re a way to nerf beauty but Jinshi really likes how they look on her and wants some for himself 😂
Maomao was having a little too much fun playing makeup with Jinshi so it’s only right lady Suiren dresses her up too, lol. Man she looks amazing in any outfit. I love how the series gives us so many different Maomao outfits
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I think my fave kusuriya eps are the ones like this with Maomao and Jinshi just going around with their banter and synergy. The switch up on their usual roles with Jinshi being the one to address her formally and him being the commoner was fun. It also gave him a chance to if only temporarily, remove some of the space between the two of them.
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“Is life in the palace that bad?” Aw man, Maomao trying to get away from Jinshi really had him feeling some type of way. Bro just wants to spend a nice day out with her without the whole palace roles and dynamic distance between them.
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And so like I guessed a couple episodes ago, the main way to devalue a courtesan is going after her purity. I really hope that old dude isn’t maomao’s dad.. this series does a good job of throwing me for a loop, so hopefully there’s a twist.
Can’t wait for the next episode.
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aishiteru-kenshin · 1 year
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Loving Yamada-kun at Lv999 | Eita Sasaki ♡
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bishouikemenlover · 1 year
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I7 2nd Beat🌈 IDOLiSH7 & TRIGGER illustrations by Arinacchi Sensei✨
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