1. The world is really, really messed up. Buddhist thought considers “this transient world” to be a pretty nasty place, and it’s not good for the soul to be too attached to it whether out of greed for money, power, lust, violence, and so forth. In short, the future Tokyo of AKIRA takes everything people saw as vulgar “worldly affairs” in 1980’s Tokyo, cranked it to an Xtreme level (to use a modern cliche) and used these images to demonstrate why salvation is necessary.
2. We’re not ready to be saved – yet. Our protagonist has the universe hand him incredible psychic powers on a silver platter. Does he stand up for world peace? Eliminate hunger? Save the environment? No, he blows stuff up, kills the people who cross him, kills some of his old friends who annoy him, gets his best friend spending the latter third of the film trying very hard to kill him, and in general demonstrates that handing a little kid a laser cannon is not going to lead to good things.
3. But anyone can be saved who turns towards the Path. Yet by the end of the film, not through being a better human being like the titular Akira, or a lost soul like one of the stunted growth psi-children, our protagonist Tetsuo loses control, leaves the boundaries of the flesh, and, while his former best friend is saved by an act of mercy by the aforementioned psi-child, Tetsuo, by leaving the shackles of the flesh behind, discovers a greater, more enlightened universe awaiting mankind. Even evildoers who spend a great deal of time off the path can still be saved if they get on the path at the end – if not by their own agency, but rather the acts of others and the whims of the universe. Tetsuo, facing agonizing death, was finally ready for the change, and found it.
4. There is thus hope for us all. If that bastard can do it, then as the final words of the film suggest, perhaps not so far in the future, we can, too, in spite of, well… humans sucking in general as they are currently constituted.

So that’s it in a nutshell. Humans suck, but there’s still hope for us, we can be saved, we just need shock therapy and to get with the program already. After you’ve watched a few Evangelion movies it’s hard to be shocked by the notion anymore. Besides, this all fits in neatly with left-wing academic thought of long standing, whereby modern progress is destroying Gaea, humanity must radically change to embrace the planet and renounce, if not all modernity, then certainly excessive wealth and production, and just in general, humans need to suck less, cooperate to settle their differences and then… maybe… in spite of our previous unworthiness, we can find Nirvana, perhaps right here on this planet. Or, at least make the vulgar world more livable in the meantime. I don’t necessarily subscribe to all this in a blind smattering of huge, but that’s not the point. The insanity in AKIRA is not a bug; it is a feature of a much older philosophy that shaped Japan through the centuries. If the movie is hard to understand, it’s nothing against the intelligence of the viewer; it’s simply not having been exposed sufficiently to a particular world-view and its accompanying intellectual argument. So yeah, in my case, watching more anime (and reading a little) made me “get” it.

English: “The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat” 

Here’s a good example of another light novel adaptation. For the most part, this is a comedy series dominated by the interpersonal relationship between the main character, who is an ah, let us say, enthusiast about the female physique, but not someone who would hurt a single hair on a girl’s head, and a pair of unfairly adorable younger girls who acquire crushes on him. The broader plot is very deeply about “be careful what you wish for“.

Quick note: No porn, nothing hardcore, not even close. Plenty of teases and suggestive situations, but they never cross the line into actual “hentai” territory. I thought you’d like to know that early on.

Wishing upon statues of the Cat God has both comic and very serious consequences for the characters of this show. The most long-lasting consequence that we see on the surface is the leading heroine, depicted above, who surrenders her on-the-surface emotion and becomes a “stony cat” herself in that sense, which lends fuel to the entire show by making her so adorable it hurts.

There’s other girls worth noting, though I’m not actually going to note them here; there’s some nice girls involved and that’s sufficient for a quick review. More importantly, I want to note that the plot is zany, a sort of “truth and consequences” theme with a lot of very weird situations and people in between, and those expecting a coherent plot expect in vain. This is character exposition, interpersonal conflict, and a lot of eye candy, which makes me rate it a solid 8 out of 10 for keeping me entertained and having cute girls without so much sugar one gags on it, which is actually an impressive feat.

Nonetheless, the limitations of a 12-episode anime run are evident in spades here and one has the feeling that the novels might be a tad more fascinating, but obviously well beyond the reach of most anime viewers. There’s also a very strong sense that more could have been done with this material, and could have been, but we’re not going to see it here. That’s a shame in some sense, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

“Translating” a video game to anime is always risky business because the experience cannot but be different. In the first place, players with a given video game generally have a wide number of choices, or at least a few highly critical ones, which shape the direction of the ending. Directors therefore must choose one option, stick to it, and try to make the viewing public like it. Full disclaimer: I have not played the game. I have heard complaints from those who have, though.

Devil Survivor 2: The Animation takes thirteen episodes to tell its story, charting its own independent path, killing off characters just to show they can be at times (since the people who have played the game say such-and-such can’t be killed off in the game itself, for instance). This is part of a certain tradition in anime, an end-of-the-world story where people fight for the opportunity, not to prevent the end, but to shape the new beginning. However, in this case, our protagonist, Hibiki, given power he did not ask for (but deep down wanted when it came down to saving others), is the boy standing astride the apocalypse yelling, “Stop!”

Essentially a narrative is shaped, filled with fixtures of the Shin Megami Tensei game series such as “demonic” beings summoned by humans, such as the Godzilla-sized, “evil” version of the cutsey series mascot, called (in English) Black Frost, whose picture graces the top of this post. Such is the symbiotic supernatural power that is used to combat the “monsters” that assail humanity, part of a trial by a being/ system that views humanity as unworthy of continued existence. The real conflict is still man vs. man, between one iron-willed individual who thinks that humanity as it stands now truly isn’t worthy of continued existence, and Hibiki, who wants to save not just the world, but also Yamato, the strong-willed individual in question who tries to take the whole world on his shoulders (even as it is consumed by the void).

So does it work?

I found the show to be tolerable because the varied core characters were mainly worth watching, and because the high powered battles were, broadly speaking, done well with a lot of action. Thirteen episodes wasn’t enough time to slow things down and take one’s time. While I’m not as big a fan of the mouthpieced philosophical debate at work – you shouldn’t have to try this hard to justify stopping global universal genocide – my bottom line is, the protagonist and antagonist are both well-acted (so to speak) and carry their crosses convincingly. You don’t have to agree with both of them – or either of them – to take away the sense that the characters believe what they’re saying and believe that they’re right. Any show that can’t produce a credible conflict is difficult to watch, and this show does have a conflict, and does resolve it. That’s important.

I would not nominate this show for true greatness, so I’ll give it a 7 out of 10 with a nod to the animation and song work, but as much as I think the character designs were mostly outstanding, this is a conflict that has been done before and which was handled in a way that feels heartfelt to the main character (at least), but certainly not original. There are also minor characters who were “weakly acted” and deficiencies in the writing, but hey, video game adaptations are hard, and decency is something we should be grateful for. I enjoyed my time and that is that.

I have solemnly come to crash this wedding.

約束、守りに来ました！

At the end of a recent anime (High School DxD), a forced wedding is being crashed by the above youth (with the fancy gauntlet). He couldn’t accept being defeated and seeing the lady he served carried off in a wedding she didn’t want. That, of course, is because the bridegroom is a complete jerk.

The elements in this sentence are:

Yakusoku (約束、やくそく): A promise. While anime presents promises as having almost supernatural power, and sometimes not “almost”, let’s put this in context: trust is extremely important to Japanese society because people want to know a friend, a business partner, a longtime client, etc., will not betray them. Betrayal is very painful and deeply frowned on… but it happens. It’s part of why trust is so emphasized.

Mamori ni (守りに、まもりに): From “mamoru”, usually “to protect” or “to guard”, but it gets translated as “to obey” too because “rule o mamoru” is to follow the rules. In fact, I’d prefer “follow” there, but “obey the rules” does work. The “ni” works as a “to” here. We’ll get back to that in a sec.

Kimashita (来ました、きました): Polite past form of “kuru,” to come. If you haven’t learned verbs yet this can be hard, but otherwise is very simple grammatically.

The total package therefore is:

(I’ve) come to keep my promise! 

In other words, you didn’t see an I or a have in that sentence, but they’re implied strongly and, well, what else could it mean?

Also you can see that “mamori ni” is interpreted as “to keep” because that’s our habitual situation in English. You keep your promises in English. You “mamoru” them in Japanese. – J

Although there are other ways of expressing certain kinds of fractions, like hanbun (半分、はんぶん) for 1/2 or 50%, 2/3 would be expressed as “san bun no ni” (三分の二, さんぶんのに). That is, “of three parts, two“. Actually, with Japanese grammar it’s nearly impossible to express this any other way.

Consequently, yonbun no san (of 4 parts, 3) is how 3/4ths would be expressed. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple.

There’s also another expression you should know: gobu-gobu (五分五分, ごぶごぶ), which means 5 parts/ 5 parts, or in “our” language, fifty-fifty. Remember that “juubun” (十分、じゅうぶん) assumes that the “bun” part (for divisions) is 10 parts, and therefore, 5 of 10 parts is half, or 50%, and 10 of 10 parts is all, or 100%. If you’ve put in 100% effort, that’s considered enough. If your odds are 50% success or 50% failure, they’re 50-50, or gobu-gobu.

Practice and quick processing of these words will enable you to understand the message with startling speed, allowing you to focus on other things. – J

桜前線　（さくらぜんせん)

“Sakura” (cherry blossom) is a word many people know well. Sakura viewing is “hanami” (花見、はなみ), or lit. flower viewing. Outside of a weather context, “zensen” (前線、ぜんせん) would mean “front” in the sense of WWII’s Eastern Front or Western Front in Europe, but here it means weather front. 

The reason for using “zensen” here is because cherry blossoms do not bloom across the entire country at the same time. The “cherry blossom front” moves northward over time as warmer weather hits different parts of Japan. That’s why the information follows normal weather reports during early spring.

I learned the term from this site but you can find a 2012 sakura front prediction (i.e. a schedule) at this link here. I would care to point out that if you’re looking for Japanese tutoring, you can always just ask me, too. Not for absolute free, mind you, but Skype lessons mean instant feedback and help. – J

You Don’t See This Every Day

Actually, this is a crossover with Nobunaga’s Ambition, a venerable wargame series out of Japan, but that’s niche stuff. The kind of niche I’m into, mind you. The people are similar, though: it’ll be Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide, Oichi, Takeda Shingen… with pokemon. Holy cow. 

Anyway, it’s a crossover I never expected to see. The famous generals, along with Oichi who never took a battlefield in her not-so-charmed life in real life (I think), will be shown in a more anime-like vibe as shown in the picture above. For a much larger one, you’ll need to go to the Japanese website. Apparently Oichi will be the first personage figured in a series of short manga stories that will run six volumes long. That’ll be a webcomic starting on the 16th of this month (March) according to what I read on that site.

I’ve played Pokemon games in the ancient past, but I’d long lost track of the franchise. (I also never came close to finishing the first.) Tossing in famous warlords is a new spin on this and might make it very amusing indeed. I might even want to play such a thing. Time will tell, but this is one of those crazy things you don’t see every day. – J

“Mushiro” is one of those words that isn’t in everyone’s speaking style, but it’s really good to know what it means and how it’s used. The English output differs because different words fit different sentence situations. The word itself demonstrates the better option among two or more.

Picking Shoe Color

Japanese

その服には青よりむしろ茶の靴が似合う. (sono fuku ni wa aoi yori mushiro cha no kutsu ga niau.)

English

Brown shoes are a better fit for these clothes than blue ones.

The Words Being Used

sono = this

fuku = clothes (general)

ni wa = defining what precedes as the topic and what follows as relating to the topic

aoi = blue

yori = what follows is “more than” what precedes

mushiro = defines what follows as the better option, the higher preference

cha = “tea color”, a lighter brown like a lot of leather clothing

no = connects the preceding with the following

kutsu = shoes

ga = defines the subject of the verb that follows

niau = verb; to suit, to match

You Should’ve Done It Yourself

Japanese

彼に頼むくらいなら、むしろ自分でやったほうがいい (kare ni tanomu kurai nara, mushiro jubun de yatta hou ga ii)

English

If you could ask him to do it, you ought to have done it yourself.

The Words Being Used

kare = him

ni = the following applies to the preceding

tanomu = verb; to request, to ask someone to do X

kurai = degree

nara = if

mushiro = the better option

jibun = yourself, oneself

de = “by” in this case; indicates the means of doing something

yatta = verb; past tense of ‘yaru’, a general verb for “to do”

hou = direction; think of options as arranged in a circle around you

ga ii = declaring that the preceding “is good”

Expanding On These Sentences

Here’s how the structure works:

The first option discussed  -> The better, higher option

There’s other instances this could crop up, too.

“We could go to the baseball game, or rather, the mall.”

Perhaps you see the problem here? A lot of people would never use “or rather”. That’s the same in Japanese as it is in English. In the first place, the “or” would be indispensable if using “rather” in this location. If not “or”, it’d have to be more like this:

“We could go to the baseball game, but I’d rather go to the mall instead.”

This is why you can’t just blindly translate from dictionaries. The context is dictating the grammar. Indeed, the grammar is dictating the vocabulary in turn. My advice for dealing with “mushiro” is to focus on what it means, rather than what it says. If I’m just skimming Japanese text, I don’t need to worry about translating; I just accept “mushiro” is stating a preference and move on. It’s only if I have to turn it into English that I have to fiddle around.

I reiterate: the real issue is not drowning in the grammar when someone else uses the word. Learners probably shouldn’t try to use it themselves until they’ve heard it used in context at least a good hundred times. Even then, using it properly would not work in all settings. It’s still really good to know what it means and not trip all over it. – J