"Ultimate Online RPG Action"

So, I’ve Been A Busy Boy.

This is not for the faint of heart, but I did the lion’s share/ heavy lifting for a fansub (“fan subtitled video”) of a “media briefing” (in the vernacular: press conference) for the still-in-development, upcoming online RPG, Phantasy Star Online 2. You can check it out here. There are high hopes and a lot of strong wishing involved. It was like 38 minutes. That’s some work, people. And I didn’t get paid a dime for this, either.

I have no intention of stealing the thunder of Producer Satoshi Sakai, who seems to genuinely know his gaming stuff and is a breath of fresh air here. This has the feel of a very good online action RPG that can actually fulfill its potential. The original Phantasy Star Online was ten years ago, and therefore very primitive by today’s standards, but is still beloved by many for creativity and concepts… but can go much further. Would-be successors didn’t cut it; not enough, though the most recent portable ones (PSP) are “better” (though probably shouldn’t be called great either). This has a shot at greatness.

At any rate, when a guy’s opening gambit is “Is there adventure in RPG’s today?” then let me make this clear: adventure is good. Sense of adventure is very good and most critical. Feeding that beast is a Good Thing.

Anyway, my work is done, and I credit Velocity7 for the work he’s put in, and those who helped on the other end of things. I hope people appreciate it all. I’m interested in the game after all this, at least. The rule is, promise much… and deliver.

The alpha test is on the 18th, two days hence. – J

Usually, when お疲れ様です (o-tsukaresama desu) rolls off the Japanese tongue, it can be safely understood as “Thank you for your hard work.”

The “o” part means that this applies to someone else. The “tsukare” part is a direct reference to fatigue.

The “sama” part… in kanji, this is the same “sama” that is used as an honorific, but there is another, highly relevant reading here. This kanji is used in words and idioms relating to situations. Or rather, what something seems to be.

Example:

様子 (yousu) = appearance

様式 (youshiki) = pattern

様相 (yousou) = aspect

It is in this sense that 様 marks that someone else (because of the “o” honorific) seems to be tired.

The “desu” is simply a copula adding a verbal punctuation mark affirming the sentence in a polite manner (as it is the polite form, not a plain form like “da”).

So, by idiomatically remarking upon how someone else is tired, this is implicit recognition of that person’s hard work.

An Anime Pun

In the mecha anime television series Godannar, puns are heavily involved in the names of people and machinery. But never mind that. We’re focused on a different pun.

When the leading character of the show, Go (shown above), is done his “work” for the day (he’s a giant robot pilot, that’s his day job…), he gets mobbed by staff who keep going

「お疲れ様です」

in different speaking styles. At the end of the ritual, he wearily remarks

「疲れてねえよ。」

“I’m not tired.”

(The writer of this article takes a brief moment to laugh.)

Now, where it really gets funny is… at the start of the show, it’s his wedding day. (So of course some giant monster picks that day to attack. Of course.) And his angry left-at-the-altar wife pursues him all the way onto the battlefield, not being the “nobly waiting” type.

To boot, she calls him by her pet name for him, Go-chin. Rather than -chan, this uses -chin because put together, this is an… impact sound effect. gachin, gochin… it sounds very similar. It’s like the sound made when an anime hero smashes something with his fist, like Go’s personal combat style.

So with all this revealed in front of his co-workers, he is greeted with the following:

「お疲れ様です、ごーちん。」

“O-tsukaresama desu, Go-chin.”

(The author rolls on the floor, laughing.)

So after that, Go says very wearily,

「疲れてねえよ！！」

“I’m not tired…!!”

Perhaps not in a physical sense…

So there you have it. A gag based largely upon a literal response to a figurative expression.

Did you know Japanese had it in it? Did you? Well they know how to do pun gags too. Note it for future reference. – J

I only just saw this, but try this link and take a look. It’s by the Japan Foundation and well, I can’t draw and I can’t program in Flash by myself, so I don’t want to repeat anything that might be done here.

What I don’t know, being a hardened veteran, is how much this will help people in intermediate levels of learning. By all means, I want to hear how it works out for you. But that may be asking too much.

Still, enjoy the link and the site. It’s there to be used. Use it.

“Shinobi” Comes From Somewhere

Now, very serious ninja fanatics may know, or suspect, that the word shinobi, used as a synonym for ninja (even by the Japanese), is derived from the verb shinobu (忍ぶ、しのぶ), meaning to hide (and also, to endure, but that is not the focus here).

Incidentally, ninja is 忍者, so the kanji for ninja is simply an “on reading” of the same kanji, whereas “shinobu” is from the “kun reading” (native Japanese) of the kanji.

Anyway, that’s not really the point.

忍び込む

This compound verb, shinobi komu, is a combination of “shinobu” and “komu.” The latter means, and this is my estimation more than any firm rule, to place / to insert. It is used in the sense of packing.

Combined with the shinobu verb, the dictionary will say that this means to creep in/ to steal in.

I would submit that there are even better ways to think of this: to infiltrate / to embed (oneself).

In other words, to infiltrate the enemy’s camp/ to embed oneself in the enemy’s camp.

This is a good and proper reading of the Japanese intent.

Cultural Relevance

This compound verb is used when someone has entered a place that ought to have been secure, and the occupants of that place are/ were caught unaware. Even if the infiltration is discovered, the term will still be used – in a past tense – to refer to what the intruder did.

This is not the same thing as an “internal spy” betraying; it means an outsider who has somehow managed to evade security.

Thus, this is very much a term that would be used in ninja contexts, as well as special forces, anime villains, and so on and so forth. The term gets around, and has such a nice and special ring to it that I consider it good to know. – J

The word はっきり (hakkiri) exists only in hiragana.This does not mean it is unimportant. Rather, it simply means that its roots are entirely native Japanese.

This word is most often pressed into service as a “suru” (する) verb, which means, adding “to do” (or conjugations thereof) at the end. So, we get this:

hakkiri suru

This means, to make clear, to make plain, to make distinct.

In other words, to make things plain, to make things clear.

Example

Annoyed townsperson: “All I saw at the time was a red hat… ah!! はっきりした!! I know exactly who the thief is now!!”

This uses a past form (“hakkiri shita”) to say, outside of English grammatical order, that it is plain, and clear, what was true in the past.

Put another way:

Random townsperson: “All I saw at the time was a red hat…. ah!! I know exactly who the thief is! I’m sure of it!!”

Now, to hakkiri suru is to make something plain in the present and near future. Other verb conjugations can be used to further refine the use.

If you want to hakkiri sasetai, this is adding saseru + tai. This means, you want something made clear… by someone else.

Cultural Relevance

This isn’t just a phrase used in detective mysteries (though it is). One of the most important themes in Japanese popular culture is sincerity, after all. People want to see others face up to their feelings (because that’s hard) and bring drama to a conclusion.

For example, by having the main heroine confess her love to the main hero. Or something.

Romantic plots are something that the audience wants made hakkiri by the end of a show. They are not always, and audiences are usually disappointed if that is the case.

Not Every Situation Is Formal

One of the real, visceral failings of standard Japanese courses is that they only teach the formal versions of verbs in the classroom. Granted, this is good for academic situations, the conduct of professional business, and interactions with public officials, and all students do need to learn formal versions. Nonetheless, students are tangibly harmed by the inability to use and understand plain and informal Japanese that is commonly employed in real life.

For our purposes, the classroom is not real life.

Anyone attempting to read manga to learn Japanese (and if you want raw material for this, just go to J-Comi; see previous post) absolutely will not succeed without a broad understanding of informal Japanese.

Furthermore, informal Japanese is necessary for full enjoyment of anime, film, and normal, everyday conversation with Japanese natives.

For businessmen, small talk is far more difficult to engage in without informal Japanese. Thus, a firm grounding in it is necessary.

The Really Basic Basics

基本の基本は (The basic basics) are like this:

行く　（いく） = iku, “To Go.” Root version/ plain, informal version.

行きます 　（いきます） = ikimasu, “To Go,” Formal version.

Let’s alter this slightly.

We’re going to use the volitional tense, which reads like “Let’s do X.”

学校に行こう。（がっこうにいこう。）= gakkou ni ikou. “Let’s go to school.”

This is the plain version.

学校に行きましょう。（がっこうにいきましょう。） = gakkou ni ikimashou. “Let’s go to school.”

This is the polite version.

The first version would be naturally spoken by young boys, but the second version would be naturally spoken by young girls.

This is such a basic, basic, fundamental comprehension issue that it is scarcely worth the time to even try to teach someone how to read manga if this is not covered.

It’s vital to understanding the feel and tone of Japanese dialog. If you have an interest in this, make it your business to learn the plain forms of Japanese verbs – starting with the most common ones that you will see. Besides, the plainest form is the root form, also known as the dictionary form. You do want to be able to look these up in a real dictionary at some point, don’t you?

– J