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.

“Hanashi” is the root for the verb “hanasu” (話す、はなす), or “to talk”. Hanashi is “a” talk, more specifically. It is speech; it can also be taken as conversation, though we’d use “kaiwa” for conversation per se, and “soudan” for a discussion per se. 

“Hanashi ga aru” can be read as “I have a talk (to have with you)“. In something that resembles English, this is very much like “We need to talk.” There’s an unspoken emphasis behind this; as in, we need to talk, now. You can also legitimately read this as “I need to talk to you.” In this case, there’s an implication of “to you, in private“.

The example that prompted me to write comes from the Valkyria Chronicles anime. I played the first game on PS3 in Japanese and loved it; the anime diverges quite a bit in places, some good things and some not, but it’s very pretty. One of the divergences is that the two main characters become part of a budding love triangle involving the leading male’s best friend going after the leading female.

After a lot of awkwardness, and the girl (Alicia) moping over it, she suddenly realizes that this is way too much thinking for her and she needs to make things clear. So, she storms over to the guy (Welkin), invading his office, and demanding a talk with him:

“Welkin!! Chotto hanashi ga aru n da kedo…”

The other words that modify and alter the tone of the phrase are as follows:

Chotto: This actually has kanji, though you’ll probably never see it in normal use; literally it’s a tenth of a small unit of measurement. In practice, it stands for “a bit” or “a little bit”. So a “chotto hanashi” is a wee little talk.  This is slight verbal understatement (with a loud voice mind you).

N da: This is a softened version of “no da”, which would be a plain form of “no desu”. In other words, it’s a sort of middle point between really formal and really informal/ rude. It’s a pretty neutral in that sense.

Kedo: This is like a verbal ellipsis, like “ka” is a verbal question mark and “tte” is like verbal quotation marks. It’s a softener expressing something like “but”… <- just like these three dots. In other words, not literally “but” so much as making it come across less as an order. (Alicia is an NCO and Welkin is her officer, see.)

So, in toto, the most harmonized way to deal with it is “We need to have a little talk…” The grammar includes the three dots, but this would be very delicate to voice act with perfection. The bias would have to lean towards the strong tone. – J

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

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

I haven’t done one of these in a while because it’s hard to get used to the “train of consciousness” type of writing. In fact, I won’t really do that. I’ll break this up into little sections and make it easier to read that way.

Mouretsu Uchuu Kaizoku (Bodacious Space Pirates)

I still find this to be a really good show. The best part is very much the interaction between girls, and now there’s a princess who looks like Sailor Moon wearing a middle school fuku to attract attention. She’s quite adorable, really. Being a crazy-good hacker adds to her charm, but she really wasn’t prepared to be borrowing Captain Marika’s pirate outfit (with a pleated skirt) in Episode 9.

Anyway, this show has teased certain things but we know that things will get a lot more “serious” in episodes to come. The pace is rather Goldilocks: not too frantic and not too slow. Of course some may disagree on that. The show also has a memory, like about Chiaki’s weakness for parfaits. (Then again, why would any self-respecting girl resist…?)

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

I made a little review of this on this blog, but just to reiterate: I liked this show more than I expected, but actually, what drew me in was a really zany Monster Hunter spoof, since I have played many of those games. As usual, I’m not quite the game fanatic some of my friends are, but still, it was interesting. Anyway, the show rose above cheap comedy and became more complex comedy with a lot of laughs, cheap and otherwise. It’s hard for me to watch a show about ordinary people in comedies, somehow. This bunch of weirdos makes it somehow pleasantly tolerable.

Food and Fashion

I’ve been expanding my reading material lately. One is a food blog called Just Hungry; the other is a fashion site called Tokyo Fashion. Both are about Japan’s food and fashion, of course. I have to say, my hardest translation jobs – at least, before finding broader, more thorough Japanese sources – were always: a) food; b) songs; c) songs about food, in ascending order of gratuitous work. (Mahoromatic manga, I mean you.)

Petty Japan Politician Griping

There’s a lot not to like about the political situation in Japan. Recently we saw the sitting Prime Minister declare that no one bears individual responsibility for the Fukushima disaster. First, when everyone’s responsible, no one is. Second, the very idea that a single person should be a scapegoat for a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami is patently ridiculous. I know that’s not exactly what was being talked about, but really, it’s close enough.

I’m still not happy about finding out that all the (mostly) spent fuel rods stored in those reactor housings were there because environmentalists sabotaged every effort to find/ build a better place for them, greatly raising the possibility that if there was a disaster, it could get ridiculously out of hand.

There’s also the constant denial that they can do without any nuclear power at all and still have a reliable and functional economy. I appreciate the faith of the anti-nuclear crowd, but unless they’re willing to go back to an agrarian society with dirt-poor peasants, they need energy. Energy that doesn’t cost them internal organs would be good. This whole mess with Iran isn’t helping them at all, but if they don’t cooperate in shunning at least 20% of the oil they import from Iran, the United States has essentially promised to destroy their banks’ ability to do business with America and its ‘real’ allies. Not pleasant.

Gundam AGE

I shunned this show for a long time. Now that there’s a 2nd arc running, I can tolerate the apparently obligatory references to the first Gundam and the heretical idea that the “friend on the other side of the warring nations” would actually spare the protagonist’s life. Well, he did, or we wouldn’t have much of a show left.

Right now, this show is more than tolerable. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, people. I’ll see where it goes.

Aquarion EVOL

This show has to be some of the funniest stuff around right now… for a mecha show… oriented towards guys. Actually, I’m assuming it is; there’s certainly pretty boys stuck in there for show for someone. At any rate, the show isn’t afraid to get ridiculous… in a good way.

Armitage III

It’s only taken me over a decade to see this Original Video Animation (4 episodes). Well, at least the ending wasn’t complete suck. Better for the characters, but like was intended, it sure makes you wonder what side was right, whether any of the struggles really mattered… but, they mattered to the characters, so maybe that’s what counts. Anyway, not a bad show in the slightest, for as long as it lasted anyway.

Brave10

I didn’t gravitate to this right away. I watched episode 8 (or was that 7? I can’t remember) then found a little of the manga to read to understand the basics of where this all came from, then watched episode 9 where a major plot point is dropped, and no, spoiling wouldn’t be a good thing here. I half-suspected the twist but I had no idea why anyone would go that route. Guess I’ll see. This is the kind of show that could have been a lot more annoying but doesn’t really feel that way.

Unemployment Blues

I’m still stuck between jobs. Somehow I need to build contacts all over again and get some translation or tutoring work to fill a gap before my future job comes into being. It’s coming, things are just too darn slow. Establishing a company isn’t easy, apparently. I’m helping my father prepare for production where and how I can, but the gap is still really annoying for everyone involved. Even so, I love languages, so I’m going to have to do something about it. – J

Better Than I Expected

When I first started watching “Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai,” which I mentioned before in saying that “haganai” as a nickname had to do with reading “wa” as “ha” (though in this grammar role it is NEVER pronounced anything other than “wa”), I expected simple zany comedy. It became more than that.

While this certainly is a comedy, the characters are not one-dimensional, though they act like it a lot of the time. The characters are… well, the expression, “She’s a real character,” comes to mind. As in, these are oddballs. They know they’re oddballs. We know they’re oddballs. And yet somehow it works. We feel relieved of the obligation to gauge them against the actions of normal human beings, not because they shoot fireballs from their fingertips, but because their personalities vary so wildly.

At its core, this show is about a bunch of oddballs who don’t fit anywhere normal, and so, as if reeled in by force of gravity, become part of a club ostensibly about “making friends”. There’s quite a lot of comic conflict between the girls involved. One girl in particular, Sena, fits the anime fan role of a pin-up model on the Internet. But never mind that. The strength of the show is that ostensibly ordinary things go crazily, horribly wrong, but relationships still manage to deepen as the club members become a tight-knit little community.

Having said that, without spoiling, this series can’t be truly enjoyed without making it all the way to episode 12 (the final one). This episode essentially rewrites the first episode and manages to leave a good taste in the viewer’s mouth. A good ending is a truly valuable thing.

Rating: 9.5/10 for characters and situations I actually found quite funny, extremely high production values (cel/ voice/ sound), and pacing that manages to work. – J

“Bodacious Space Pirates” 

I’m not sure whose idea it was to translate the title as “Bodacious Space Pirates,” and perhaps it’s from the Japanese studio, but that’s OK. “Mouretsu” usually stands for something more like marauding, or at least that’s what I’d use. Episode 8 just aired, and it’s a really good show.

Before getting a bit more into the meat, here’s the quick hits so far:

• Endearing characters and lots of them
• Very funny in numerous places
• Serious and deep science fiction when it wants to
• Pacing allows viewer to ease into a deep, complex world
• Excellent production values
• Intelligent writing
• Nothing ecchi; safe for sensitive viewers

That last part is important for some people so I mention it prominently. I’m really enjoying this show, though some have accused it of having a “slow” pace to start. I address that a bit below.

Plot & Premise

This show has received such hype that it has the confidence to start in a way some may call “slowly”, with the main character, Marika, discovering in the middle of Episode 1 that she is the heiress to a pirate ship captained by her father, who she knew basically nothing about. In this futuristic environment, pirate ships must still operate by a variety of public laws, and piracy is partially tolerated, but dangerous in the wrong circumstances. Only blood heirs can inherit. Marika’s new status as a potential captain, for she hasn’t decided yet, makes her a target, while her new homeroom teacher – a member of the Bentenmaru crew, who served under her father – arranges for an “education” to test her mettle and prepare her for the job.

Marika

The girl in the image at the top of this post is Chiaki, who is very good at denying her interest in seeing Marika in her outfit at a maid cafe in a part-time job. Chiaki obviously has some pirate involvement herself, but I won’t spoil exactly what. She’s capable, smart, prideful, and has a secret soft spot for Marika, in spite of Marika starting out as a girl with big, glaring holes that call into question her fitness as a potential captain.

What Marika does have is amazing decision-making capability and a massive amount of drive and effort. This is demonstrated by the end of the first arc in Episode 5, where a “school trip” in an actual spaceship (a former pirate ship converted to a training vessel) results in a cat and mouse game of electronic warfare and other festivities with a vessel trying to take their ship over. Marika leads a student counter-attack, which takes an unexpected turn as the other side, seeing their computers about to be taken over, simply turn the computers off and start taking beam gun potshots through manual, optical aiming. I won’t spoil more but, seriously, why can’t you do just that and pull the plug? People with thinking caps on wrote this script.

By the end, Marika has found her calling and agrees to push to become the full captain of the Bentenmaru. This isn’t a spoiler, since without this, there wouldn’t be much of a show left.

By episode 8, Marika has engaged in a couple of “pirate takeovers” with a really funny twist: namely, that she appears before the passengers who must surrender their valuables like a sort of rock star. (It’s a bit difficult to explain out of context, but man is it entertaining.) At the end of her second “raid”, a stowaway comes aboard: a real, live princess who becomes the engine for the plot for the foreseeable future.

In Episode 8, “The Princess and the Pirate”, our lovely princess becomes a transfer student at Marika’s high school. (That goes a way towards shutting up any notion that she was kidnapped, I imagine.) I don’t have a picture I can upload yet, but the girl has a schoolgirl look that greatly resembles Usagi from Sailor Moon except with four thin braids instead of two thicker ones, both sets dangling from twin “dango” (meatballs) in a very blond hairstyle with blue eyes, as represented. (In anime, even Japanese girls can be shown with all sorts of hair and eye mixes for differentiation; it’s useful to tell people apart, you see. Everyone just goes along with it.)

The show’s shaping up to be quite something, with a lot of characters who add to it, lots of good science fiction, and we get to feel like we’re learning about the world along with Marika. It’s a good feeling and I expect great things from the show as it continues. – J

My name is not "Bunny-chan". It's BARNABY.

An Impressive Show

Long story short, Tiger & Bunny is an unlikely “bromance” anime viewed through the “Amerikomi” (American Comic Book) superhero genre. Superheroes capture crooks and save civilians live on HeroTV, all sponsored by major corporations. Yet a strong current of real heroism animates the show itself.

Story & Premise: The core pairing is Kotetsu a.k.a. Wild Tiger, an idealistic “hero” with old-fashioned notions and a long, long list of fines for property destruction in the course of saving lives. In recent years his rankings have fallen, but he has to put up with sponsor requests because someone has to pay his fines and keep a roof over his head. This culminates in being paired with Barnaby Brooks Jr., who violates “hero” tradition by combating crime under his real name. The pair share a similar power – 5 minutes of greatly enhanced strength, speed, and endurance – and get along famously poorly.

Barnaby is younger, smarter, and reeks of competence, whereas Wild Tiger is something of a goofball. Kotetsu receives a new armored suit to go along with Barnaby’s, complete with new corporate sponsor logos, and has to ride in a sidecar while Barnaby does the cool motorcycle driving. To top it off, Kotetsu plays off his partner’s name and the pointy ears of the suit (see picture at top) to dub him “Bunny,” which really, really annoys him.

Plot W/O Spoilers: Trust between the two goes through several stages of rising and falling. Barnaby has a tragic past and a revenge-oriented mission; in another universe he might have put on a Bat cowl. Kotetsu has a young daughter who lives with her grandmother and a long list of broken promises due to his ever-busy life as a “hero”. Yet through the show’s camp, brilliant action scenes, and ratings-hungry HeroTV spectacles, it manages to not only hold interest, but be itself, build at its own pace, and create an ever growing mythos.

The other “heroes” of HeroTV make a lot of difference. We slowly delve into their stories and find out, in a well-paced sequence of episodes, what makes them tick and where and how they shine. People who were once costumes and stage names – to us real-life viewers, not just the citizens of the city – turn “real” before our very eyes. All have their flaws, but we know them through their deeds; they truly, genuinely care about the lives they save. (Even Barnaby, whose on-the-surface emphasis is saving lives to earn “points” and his Hero Ranking.)

The plot thickens as someone’s going around and killing bad guys instead of capturing them, very against the hero code, and the criminal organization involved in the deaths of Barnaby’s parents raises its ugly head. Any more would spoil, and you don’t want to be spoiled. The intended pace of exposure of information is important for full enjoyment.

Production Values: The show’s production values are very high. Sound, color, sharpness, Japanese voice acting, and overall scripting and feel are all top notch. The show simply leaps out at you. You never feel like the studio is letting you down; you can enjoy the show on its own merits, ride its foibles and great hits, and appreciate it for not being a one-trick, one-tone pony. I really enjoyed watching this show.

Trivia: One thing to point out: it’s not just about the superhero stuff. All the “heroes” above are NEXTs, essentially the Tiger & Bunny world’s version of comic book mutants. You know, like the X-Men. These powers are simply applied to heroism or, as the case may be, criminal endeavors. Some people are causing havoc because their powers have awakened and they don’t know how to control or use those powers productively; others are genuinely mean and nasty people. In the end, it’s the human factor that makes the difference, and that’s clearly the theme of this show.

Rating: Let’s say 9.5/10 with excellent entertainment value, and the only reason I can’t give it a 10 is because some of the late show plot, I could see coming. And some I couldn’t, and I really enjoyed a few “Oh! So THAT’S IT!!” moments as things came to their big climax.

Incidentally, what finally sold me on this show – and I was a late arrival to it – was that it makes comfortable viewing for young adults. It’s not a “kiddie” show at all. It’s mature in a good way, treats itself and its viewers with a lot of respect, and feels like a high quality effort.

Bonus Points: You know, the corporate logos, especially prominent in the opening sequence, are at least partially from real companies, like Bandai, Softbank, etc., which are most definitely getting privileged advertising space in the process.

桜と花見

The blog Surviving In Japan has posted a very interesting and potentially useful forecast for cherry blossom (sakura, 桜、さくら) blooming in Japan for 2012, divided by region and location. Watching blooming blossoms is known as hanami (花見、はなみ), or simply “flower viewing” (flower + view).

If you’re visiting Japan in early 2012, you might want to take a look! Excellent work at Surviving In Japan to make this forecast easy on the eyes. – J