Core - PinocchioP feat. Hatsune Miku [English Translation]

Core [English Translation]

Core – Various colors I like are gathering
Core – The illness of the soul dissolves away
Core – Recalling scenery filled with nostalgia

Core – A single dream which everyone has seen

Those days are continuing onwards
There's no charm in them and no magic either
Even so, I'm still here

Core – Overflowing with dazzling light
Core – Just a minute of sadness and the colors increase
Core – Wallowing in the sounds of machinery

Core – Just for right now I'll forget about the end

Just a small breakthrough
There's no sanity and no guarantee either

If only the search would come to an end

Core – Various colors I like are gathering

Core – The illness of the soul dissolves away

Core – Recalling scenery filled with nostalgia

Core – A single dream which everyone has seen

Core – Overflowing with dazzling light
Core – Just a minute of sadness and the colors increase
Core – Wallowing in the sounds of machinery

Core – Just for right now I'll forget about the end

Wolf Children: Hana's Dream

I'm going to translate Wolf Children Ame and Yuki for fun, not for commercial profit or what have you, and mostly as practice. I still have to use a dictionary quite a few times and this is the Kodansha Winged Literature edition [its for elementary school students]. As I haven't fully looked at the regular edition, I'm going to presume the difference is that this version has furigana. Also, as the chapters are quite long I'll try to break them up into parts. Enjoy.

"For those who have come to love wolfmen."

Shortly after her chance encounter with him, Hana fell in love.

At that time, Hana was 19 years old, and, with the exception of a crush she still had a faint yearning for, still hadn’t had her first love. It seemed that falling in love, to Hana, would be something very strange indeed. As strange as it was though, if it were to happen, in her heart she knew that she would gladly accept it.

Before she met him, she had this dream.

In a wide meadow, a faint light shone forth.
The whole field  was covered in fully bloomed wild flowers, and Hana lie in it.
She was happily taking a nap, beginning to wake up, and taking a deep breath, opened her eyes.
The smell of the grass and the warm sunshine instilled in her a wonderful feeling.
A gentle wind blew and stirred her bangs.

And then,
“——————?”

She had a feeling that there was something close by. Slowly she pushed herself up, and saw the reason for that feeling. In the distance there was something walking towards her. It waded through the grass on four legs, and she spied the silhouette of pointed ears.

———A wolf.

At that moment, Hana knew it was a wolf. Why exactly, she knew that, she did not know. But there was no mistaking it, she definitely thought it was a wolf.
The wind blew, and the wolf drew closer. She never looked away. The wolf was on a one-way path to her. The rhythm of its steps were lovely.

She wasn’t afraid.

As that wolf came, even though it was coming through such a wide open space, she had a feeling it was coming for her. She probably couldn’t say herself why it was she waited.
The wolf’s sudden appearance was just like a ghost.
Yes, it was so much like a ghost that’s what she could have called it.
The air around the wolf shimmered, and in the next instant there stood the figure of a tall man.
Hana was startled.

—————A wolfman.

That was the word that came to mind.
The tall man now started to walk towards her.
Hana gulped and held her breath.
Her heart began to throb.

 That was how the dream ended.

The dream could only continue behind the fluttering of her eyelids. No matter what, afterwards she was unable to see that scenery. That wolf, I wonder what it meant. The image of the tall man still remained burned into her heart.

[Kalafina] moonfesta [English Transliteration]

moonfesta～ムーンフェスタ～

The night of the full moon is what I’ve longed for
I had practiced for the dance in my mirror
My yellow dress that I embroidered up so prettily
And the bunches of white flowers I wove into my hair

Moon Festival twirling polka
Going around Closing in and repeating
My dearest is who I reach for
I’ll continue with these triumphant steps as
The sound of the pipes reverberate

In the darkness of the forest there exists a radiant square
Where the flames of festival lanterns reach up into the air
Stepping lightly in these new shoes as light as a feather
So as not to step on my dearest one’s toes

Using my heels Pounding a rhythm
Going around Joining in with the taiko
Pearlescent moon, is  tambourine
I’ll take it in hand and strike it up to ringing as
The sound of the pipes reverberate

Possibly my only wish
Before the moon begins to slip away
It needs to leave my mouth before it can come true
This throbbing heart echoes with romance
You must remain my secret

Floating in the sounds of paradise
The stars have started to descend
Setting silvery wings to trembling
Because tonight is a night of magic
The sound of the bells on my shoes
Will never end

The full moon crosses over into the darkness
Admiring it my heart sends to it my deepest hidden wish
The song of the bonfire vanishes into the night sky
So much like a lantern with a small wish for the future

Smiling faces become circles
Going around joining in with the taiko
The sound of bells heading to the sky
Ringing forth the light

Moon Festival Life is a circle
Encircling Closing in and repeating
My dearest’s hand held within mine
We sway to the remains of the boisterous noise
Until the dawn when the bells reverberate

Youkai Calisthenics [English Transliteration] [TV Size]

Youkai Calisthenics TV Size

Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling

Youkai appear, see them come forth

Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling

Youkai appear, see them come forth

Roar Roar Join my group

Friends are most important!

Youkai Youkai Youkai

Watch bewitch!

Can Can Key Key Queen Queen ‘Kay ‘Kay

Come Come Youkai Watch bewitch!

I found this morning

That I had overslept

I was in a dream

That I just couldn’t shake

Why are you so sleepy right now?

Why are you so sleepy right now?

Uwa-a-ha-ha

Youkai were at it again.

And that’s why!

Watch, what’s the time?

Let’s get serious!

Whisp!

Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling

Youkai appear, see them come forth

Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling Yo-deling

Youkai appear, see them come forth

Roar Roar Join my group

Friends are most important!

Youkai Youkai Youkai

Watch bewitch!

Can Can Key Key Queen Queen ‘Kay ‘Kay

Come Come Youkai Watch bewitch! 

Swan [English Transliteration]

Swan

Just like a duckling, Just like a duckling,

I stumbled in barefeet to you heaving a sigh

As long as you’d like, As long as you’d like

To the ending that I just don’t want to feel

A dazzling light, A dazzling light

I’ll spread my wings along this wind, I’m spreading them

It grew so painful, they became useless

You’d grown into a swan, what’s up with that

The sun just keeps on moving closer, every day to every day

The medicine sits beside me as I just look right out window

To where the sand pit’s watering can gathers moss

And that lonely wooden swing ties it all together

I wonder if the words “I’ll be here” were all just a lie

I let out a laugh, I’d rather just laugh

In any case even this blunder  seemed beautiful

These wings are twisted, this bird can’t fly

This town was carelessly filled up by a flock of swans

The sun just keeps on moving closer, every day to every day

These wings will fade and grow hidden as now we move to the end

Hit unaware by the growing unknown

The butterflies all gather and die by the street lamps

That final ball tossed to you is at the other side of the sea

The sun burns all the bad thing away so you can be free

The words “I’ll be here” weren’t a lie afterall

You’re shadow that I’ve been chasing after and my own

Are just like a duckling, so much like a duckling 

Apologies for the inactivity

Sorry this blog has been so inactive, I'll try to start updating more. There are a few transliterations I've done, that I just want to double check for accuracy.

Quick Look! Final Spring Turn-Out!

Long time no see, though I promise it's been unintentional. I've been really busy with a number of personal things, but promise I have big things in store, including reports on completely ridiculous things I find that I can't promise as news (but as humorous, nonetheless). I'll try to start doing some more VOCALOID translations as well to fill in the gaps as they don't always take that long.

Out of the series I threw up in my last post, I only ended up following through with two of them and adding on a few others that were continuations of past series. So here's my quick look at where things stood.

Arata the Legend
I'm actually watching this one much slower, and so I haven't caught up with it yet. The reason is simply because  I want to savor the work of my favorite studio, knowing more won't be on the way until the Moretsu Pirates movie in 2014. As a series itself, it's not bad.  The theme song leaves some to be desired, and I would certainly like to see more of the shenanigans on "our" planet throughout it. It would be interesting to see Arata as...well..how others see him acting in different ways, but Satelight rarely embraces that gag. When they do it's worth it. The whole thing comes off very Avatar the Last Airbender sometimes, which isn't a bad thing. Combined with references to traditional Japanese culture on occasion, and animated splendidly, I recommend it.

Attack on Titan
This is continuing into summer, and it has every reason to. With an intense plot and high on emotion, as well as lovingly animated by the studio, it's everything an anime this season should be. Out of the spring season, I would pick it as the winner hands down. There are more secrets to be revealed, and almost every episode spawns a meme of some sort. It's even been referenced in several other anime, such as Free! in the summer season.

Flower of Evil
This anime was heavy. And it wasn't just the rotoscoping that made it that way, though it did make it interesting. I initially planned to drop it, but it's ponderous attitude and thoughtful pacing made sticking with it worth it. The anime is more real than anything I've seen in a while, perhaps since Wandering Son, and tries to look at the difficulties of being a teenager all over again. If you enjoy haunting music and an anime that watches like it's novel inspiration, check it out.

Uta no Prince Sama LOVE 2000%
Alright, this was my guilty pleasure anime. Unless you enjoy reading between the lines and picking out which boy you'd like to see with another, protagonist be damned, don't pick up this series. It's silly, full of catchy male idol songs, and pampers to fujoushi in as many humorous ways as possible. Okay, those my be exact reasons to pick it up, but if it's not your thing, there isn't really any other reason to watch it. That's what made it my guilty pleasure for the season.

Until next time!
~AAO~

Quick Look! Spring Season 2013

Unlike the past year, this spring season is pulling me in with more shows that look to be fairly interesting. And, luckily enough, Crunchyroll has nearly all of them streaming, so that's great! A few, though, are sequels so it would be best to take a look at the first season before continuing onto the next one, such as Oreimo and Uta no Prince-sama (even I have to go back and watch Uta no Prince's first season). So let's take a look.

Yamato 2199
Okay, to be fair this one is a remake and isn't streaming on Crunchyroll, but it's a continuation of a classic and looks to be a really awesome one at that. It's very much like the original, in that there will be the Yamato space colony designed to protect humanity and, of course, the evil aliens to be fought. I would give it a watch just to see how they're doing it this time and how they plan to handle some classic material.

Karneval
This one has been in my newsfeed for promotion for about two seasons, so needless to say I'm looking forward to see if it lives up to that hype. The animation looks pretty nice, and the story is somewhat fresh as well, though it seems to be following off the "who am I" trope that most stories do these days. I'm not saying its a bad thing, as when done correctly it can really make an anime interesting. Besides, I don't think a circus themed Defense Agency in space has even been done yet. Karneval is being streamed by Funimation.

Attack on Titan
I actually don't know much about the story on this one, but the art style seems to stick so much to what I've seen of the manga that it looks really interesting. The manga, from what I can tell, goes with a grittier feeling, which I hope will translate over well from stills to animation. Attack on Titan is streaming on Crunchyroll.

HENNEKO ~ The Hentai Prince and Stony Cat
The manga this is based off of is still ongoing, and from what my friend explained to me starts off humorous and gets a little more serious. It starts off with a male protagonist who can't help but say anything perverted, painting him in a bad light, and a girl who wishes she wouldn't feel sad any more making a wish upon a stone cat said to grant wishes. The comedic bit I thought it would take would be for them to switch personalities but...they end up with worse ones instead and embark on a quest to regain who they really are. HENNEKO is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Arata the Legend
I only found out about this one when I visited Studio Satelight's website not too long ago. Based upon a manga by the same author that did Ceres, and animated by my favorite studio, it was hard to pass up. The story follows a world in which gods exist, and the shenanigans that one boy must endure...and most likely romance as well. Arata the Legend is streaming on Crunchyroll.

It seems I just keep adding more and more to my queue to see how they turn out, but as I said, this season is stacking up to be a good one.

Snow Day and Love Song [English Translation]

This is the story of a little girl
That grew up all alone
And the icy “me”

When I opened up the door
The snow was everywhere
Oh so fluffily
the snow seemed to fly through the air
Advancing at a run and resounding
with a fluffy little song
That was my rhythm

For the very first time
I played within the snow
Running and making a ball
My face was quite bright red
Within a daze I rounded out two of them
Then I stacked them onto on another
I had done it!

“My” icy body was all made
Touching you I started to melt
Sweltering now
Chilling down now
Those eyes started to look at me
I looked at you “me”
And the two of us fell into love

Within that instant even “I”
started to melt so it was the
time for goodbyes

As time flowed on
The snow was everywhere
It’s been such a long time
Since I played in the snow

We were just a little detached
from the children’s circle
in our sailor uniforms.

My friend also came along
And we chatted a bit
All together we made it
“I” was circling again
Everybody became friends
with this “me”
How happy!

The five of them were so nice I think
Chatting away
Listening too
My friend and everyone all together
And so no matter how many years passed
We can always meet on a snowy day

“We” are always right here
After having fun it’ll be time for Bye-Bye

A considerable time passed
Snow was everywhere
A tiny hand pulled against mine
From behind

The girl had become a wonderful woman
“My” heart was crying!

“My” icy body was all made
Touching you I started to melt
Sweltering now
Chilling down now
This feeling I wanted to convey to you!
At that one chance meeting
It was nice that you could find a replacement

Within that instant
You were all grown up
And it warmed up this icy person

Therefore this legend
May someday fade ­away
Even though you’ve grown up
It’s time for “see you next time!”

A Lie and A Stuffed Animal English Transliteration [嘘とぬいぐるみ]

A Lie and a Stuffed Animal [Transliterated Lyrics]

A Lie and a Stuffed Animal

Rigu Ragu Ron Ton
Kindly chant it once for me
Do me a favor and erase these boring things

I’m not lying at all!
I promise that to you!
Those wrung out feelings will soon inflate again

“Something like magic can’t exist” ain’t really blunt
Oh, now I get it
Just shut up and you’ll be happy!

Sing-a-ring-a-ring
You and rubbish and my love
Sparkle-Sparkle-Spark
Let me polish that right on up for you

Wippa-Wippa-Win
This one thing now is quite important
This person called “I” don’t you dare defy them

Rather recently my very close friend
Has started to be distant
That’s Mimi, so you know.
“Is it your boyfriend I wonder?”
“Or a different trouble maybe?”
“Should  I ask this kid what’s making her feel glum?”

“It’s just a stuffed animal.”
You say making fun of me.
Oh, I get it now!
This boy has no dreams at all.

Sing-a-ring-a-ring
Tedious evenings and you as well
Twinkle-Twinkle-Twink
I will give you a good time
Wippa-Wippa-Win
One other most important thing
This person called “I”, follow along after them, okay.

Your so calm and always look so stylish
But you hardly ever let out a smile,  ain’t that right?
Just like that I’ll trifle with you
I’ll throw your pace all out of order
Playing around is just something I like…

I’m so sorry!

Sing-a-ring-a- ring
You and rubbish and my love
Sparkle-Sparkle-Spark
Let me polish that right on up for you

Wippa-Wippa-Win
This one thing now is quite important
This person called “I” don’t you dare defy them

Sing-a-ring-a-ring
Tedious evenings and you as well
Twinkle-Twinkle-Twink
I will give you a good time

Wippa-Wippa-Win
One other most important thing
This person called “I”, follow along after them, okay

An adult is what I’ll pretend to be
Not really doing anything at all…Oh Yea
I hate those sort of things! Yeah!

A Very Studio SATELIGHT Season

Over the holidays I watched and started watching quite a few series, most of them from Studio SATELIGHT. It's really no secret that they're my favorite animation studio, and for good reason. Yet strangely enough their shows are dropped pretty early on. So I thought it would be fun to to take a look at where these shows shine their brightest and where they fall into a black hole. I'll try to take a look at each one individually, but I don't plan on reviewing every show, simply because I would have to pick up another and throw into my watch list. So here's a master list of what I plan on looking at, shows I've watched (or am the process of watching) in the past year.

-Aquarion EVOL

-Moretsu Pirates

-AKB0048

-Macross Frontier

Until next time.
~AAO

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

It's been a while! If I wanted to, I could gladly review the anime I've been watching in the fall, but some of it is from summer, some of it fall, and some of it from the eighties. So instead, I thought I would do a quick post on Dobutsu Mori Tobidase! or Animal Crossing New Leaf.
When I saw that a special edition 3DS XL was coming out for it, I got pumped and decided that that was the Japanese 3DS I wanted to play my games on. Especially since I was waiting for three years...

It was a bit expensive to get, as I missed out on preorders, but was really worth it. It came with the game installed on the SD card, and it's really just nice to play it on such a big screen. The resolution is amazing. There are so many unboxing pictures out and about that I would feel silly posting my own (especially since it sprouts a Christmas Elmo and Gundam Front charm on it).

I have a wig on in this, but just know my hair is ridiculous.

Right, so, I started playing back in November a little before finals week, and quickly realized that it was going to be slow playing for me if I played my usual way and talked to everyone, ever. Just getting through the intro was a little difficult for me, but I made it through. After which, through some miracle, I managed to determine (with the help of a kanji dictionary [oh by the way, it has furigana built in, which is super nice]) that I was now the mayor of NERV. I suddenly felt like I should have been a male named Gendo, but alas, I ended up as the super standard Animal Crossing character that they don't even show in demos.

One of the features I like in the new game is that you have the ability to stack fruits up to nine times, which means that you save so much time running into town and then up into the shopping area across the train tracks. The island you can go to for 1000 yen is also guaranteed to turn you a profit if you focus just on fishing up big fish or diving (yes, that's right, diving) for something like urchin or Nautilus. If you do this you can make a profit of about 100,000 bells at a time. Which is good because...

Aw man, what a shame...my axe broke...

The debt increases so astoundingly fast. It might have to do with the town I picked (you choose a town law at the beginning of the game that you can then change for 20,000 bells later on), but I'm onto paying off a third room which costs a whopping 498,000 bells. Again, with fishing and island fruit, its not that bad, but there are a great deal of places your bells could go. They can go to community projects like building a new bridge or a camp site, or to one of the many stores. If you really want to get things going, you can spend 10,000 bells and give 4 gold ore to the new refurbishing alpaca to make you a random piece of gold furniture. Ore? What is this black magic I speak of? Well, just like there was a money rock, there is now an additional random rock. Hit it with your shovel and you'll suddenly find yourself in possession of an ore (I've seen emerald, gold, and sapphire so far). As far as I know, no one has managed to figure out how to make a golden shovel in this game, and you don't really need one because your shovel is indestructible (but your axe, sadly, is not).

There are so many new characters too, that you never know who your neighbors will be. I ended up with two familiar faces and two residents that I want to leave, but they aren't getting the pitfall hints, as they've made it so that you can just walk around it to get into their house. Oh well...

Events are still around, and if anything you can always have a party somewhere in ACNL. Will I be buying it again when I return to America (hey, that's quarter two so it should be out, right?)? Yes. Absolutely.

Congratulations on the new year! Here's hoping this year is another great one!

For now, I hope you all have a brilliant and lucky year!
~AAO

Gekkou Symphonia [Aquarion EVOL ED 1]

Aquarion EVOL 1st Ending Theme: Gekkou Symphonia
Composer: Yoko Kanno
Performed by Akino ft. bless4

Translation:

The wind blew away the meaning
A courageous one-way trip
We had to accept this disaster

There must be a hole here in my heart
I refuse to let it grow any larger
You and the future are what I must rescue

A way to protect that important person
There is not a single one that I possess
That’s the way you
Find yourself astray in the great wide sky

In the end you are the one that I cannot meet by chance

Resisting the moon’s long FLARE [Everyday waiting in this land]
It’s the beginning of a legend with no end
I was injured by the gentle melody that imprisoned me
Performing my extent, singing my extent, falling from the top of it

You are the one I’m longing for

The dream of the moon we rode upon
The sad song of love we sang
It all came to naught
Let’s return to the stillness of winter

I do not know the chafe of affection
I am lost in the fog of the deep forest
It goes on for a distance of one thousand years

The ash color of harmony
Is like the cause of this love
Why is it we are unable to have that chance encounter?
Someday the wasteland will become dew…

The weight of my heart
The weight of my love
I’ll listen the whole way through to
The sublime melancholy retreating

I’ll make sure that your dream never gets stolen away

Resisting the moon’s long FLARE
It’s the beginning of a legend with no end
The sky you left behind for the face of the earth
The incomplete symphony
Only you are
Only you my dear
Are the testament of the stars

It is you whom I wish to love

Notes:

I really probably shouldn't be trying this one with the sort of grammar that shows up (wow, double double subjects), but the point is I tried because I have not seen too many English translations out there.

To have a chance encounter or to meet by chance is a really tricky verb, I think, to translate in a way that makes sense
The final few lines use both "anata dake ni" and "kimi dake ni" which both mean "only you [are]". However, kimi is something used between two people that are super-duper close, which is why when I translated that second one it is "only you my dear."
Disaster uses the same kanji as tragedy
There are a lot of references just to the love of Silvia and Apollo in this who, if you aren't familiar with the series, are two lovers that are fated to never meet, no matter how often they return.
"The sublime melancholy retreating" was a hard line to wrap my head around. Because the last word in the sentence literally means "retreating thing" and there's only one verb. It's two nouns following one another which was quite a boggler to me, since I have not gotten to that sort of grammar.
It's also fun to note that most of the song is done in a casual speech, so it would be two friends or two equals communicating with one another.

"You are the one I'm longing for" and "You whom I wish to love" are also pretty similar lines if you translate them literally. The "longing" is actually "koi", a sort of romantic love. "Ai" is a "serious love" which is such a complex idea that it's pretty hard to express succinctly in English.

Chitter-Chattering in Sickly District [DaniwellP]

Notes: Uh...all of these lyrics are by ear, so there's no saying what it really is unless Daniwell releases them. And if he asks me to take down the lyrics I gladly will. If you have anything to fix also feel free to let me know, because Japanese is such a complex language that these could all just be non-sense lyrics. It seems a little dark if you go literally for a daniwell song too, so there's that.
Chomuka is slang for "very sickening" so I'm guessing sickly is a good guess. Chome is used for areas of a large district or town and usually has a number in front of it. Because "sick district" seems a bit weird I just left it vague.
Temuterararu is a string of nonsense really, but it could maybe be a form of temukau, to resist, so I left it in its potential form in translation.
It seems like just a fun song about chattering in towns, and since its usually paired with stop motion trips through cities, that's probably the real meaning for it.

Kana lyrics:

ざわつきでもびよういんびよういん
でもでさがちょむちょめぷ
ざわつきごとやめなん
てむてららるちょむちょめに
ぜんぶでざわざわたられる
ざわつきごとやみやめに
てむてららるちょむちょめぷ

Romanji lyrics:
zawatsuki demo biyouin biyouin
demode saga chomu chome pu
zawatsuki go to yamenan
temuterararu chomu chome ni
zenbu de zawa zawatarareru
zawatsuki go to yami yame ni
temuterararu chomu chome pu

Transliterated lyrics:

The chattering in the salon salon
When I start to go into the district
All the chitter-chatter pitter-pattering
I can resist the chatter in the area
Everyone has the chit-chat ability
Chit-chattering stops when the darkness comes
So I can resist my chit-chattering needs in this area

I've Den to DenDen Town!

Sugar Chocolate Waffle! That is what I'll eat!

A group of us took a trip to Nipponbashi, otherwise known as DenDen Town the other week. Why is this significant, you ask? Well DenDen Town is essentially Osaka's Akihabara, the DenDen being written with the characters for electricity twice. As you can imagine this is a pretty big deal. As a quick follow up to last post, however, I feel a need to show you two other foods (hopefully the last in the conbini series).

Another one of the many Miku items FamiMa [Family Mart] stocked during it's We Love Miku! campaign was a sugar chocolate waffle based on the song "Waffle." They really could have done something weird with it, but they luckily just left it at sugar and chocolate and it's a dessert I wish they continued to carry, even if it no longer had Miku on it.

If you can find it, drink it. NECTAR OF THE GODS.

The second is something nearly all conbini stock and some vending machines if you're lucky. The taste can only be described as liquid mahou shoujou. It's lichi water. It's probably one of the most delicious flavors of anything out there. It's sweet and refreshing, and probably because of that it seems an awful lot like mahou shoujo.

Back to the topic of DenDen Town. If you have ever been to a convention then you know about the massive amounts of anime goods there usually are. If you've been to a used electronics store than you know that feeling of being surrounded by silicon and wonder. If you combine the two into a city, then you have an idea of what it's like. Mind you, that's just a feeling. The place is so big that we were only able to explore a small portion of it, but that's largely because we grew so distracted by the arcade. It was a terrible idea to say "hey, let's meet up at the huge arcade with Space Invaders on top of it." A really. Really. Terrible idea.

Because we never wanted to leave.

The Arcade Gods would not let us.

What could be so interesting that it kept us there for two hours?

One game was a taiko rhythm game that we waited in line for, watching some really amazing people going at it. I'm still not sure how they read rhythm notes that fast. It was a little ridiculous. Meanwhile one of our other friends was taking several goes at the new game Gyrozetter which incidentally has me hooked as well. It's a pretty straightforward game on the outside. It looks like a driving game that also happens to have giant robots in it. When you sit down to play, though, you realize that you also control the giant robot. During a transformation sequence you lift the steering wheel to sit horizontal on the main console, at which point mech controls emerge from the machine. By pushing or pulling the trigger you control how strong the mech's attack is as well as select what type of attack you will get. They also had Music Gun Gun, a music game combined with a shooting game, where you have to fire in time to the music. It was only later I found out you can increase the volume of the music by using main controls next to the guns. To really understand these games I recommend checking them out on YouTube. Gyrozetter recently received an anime thanks to the popularity of the games, and has probably one of the best endings I've seen in a while (giant robots dancing? Yes please).

The sign reads "Dr. Pepper served cold."

Thanks to the popularity of Steins;Gate, Dr. Pepper is available is Japan, but its still very hard to get. It's my favorite soda so I really missed it as well as home, so imagine my surprise when I saw Christine advertising a store's stock of the stuff. Of course I immediately grabbed a can, as well as several others in the group. We were really confused by the store, though, as it appeared to be a military surplus store on the outside, but when we entered became a figure and gunpla store. When the clerk asked what I wanted, I pointed to the cans of Dr. Pepper that had just been brought down and asked for a normal one. It was super duper exciting and a great way to top off a trip to the doujin store.

I think the story about the doujin store is for another time, though.

For now know that if you ever need an Akihabara in the Kansai Area, you should check out Den Den town.

Until Next Time!
AAO

Conbini Madness

There are two big convenience store chains in Japan: Lawson and Family Mart (FamiMa). These two stores, from time to time, will run promotions for different movies or characters. Lawson recently teamed up with Evangelion to provide Eva themed snacks and clear files. I purchased a microwave yakisoba with a rather happy looking Shinji on it, backed by a berserk Eva.

A Berserk Eva? A happy Shinji? That doesn't make much sense.

After adding the flavoring, which was both sweet and punch to the mouth spicy, I understood.

However, happy Shinji, in his plug suit, on a clear file I do not. It's pretty awesome nonetheless.

What I was really excited for, however, was FamiMa's partnership with Crypton in celebration of Miku Hatsune's birthday. As a result products such as PoPiPo vegetable juice:

 Miku Hachune Steamed Meat Buns:

 And Daughter of Evil brioche:

There is also, apparently, Kaito themed ice cream, but as I don't often go to the freezer section it's not surprising I didn't see it. I did, however, catch some Tuna and Negi (Luka and Miku) onigiri. They really know how to market off of character items.

There are, of course, just general food items that show up in anime that may appear on this blog later...

Until Next Time!

~AAO~

I made it safely to Japan, which is awesome.
I will continue to do my reviews here, and will even start up a section called "This Wasn't in Anime!" It will probably repeat off my tumblr, but I will detail it a bit more on here.
If you're interested in my specific non-otaku experiences, then you can check out the blog Zenko Abroad.
For everything else just sit tight!

Until Next Time!
AAO

Going Abroad

Come next week I'll be in the land of the giant robots. That's right, I'll be in Macross City. I kid. I'll be in Japan, and you can bet I'm pretty gosh ddm excited but also pretty stressed. One of the neat things about the US is that I can like what I like and be labeled a nerd. Not too much social stigma there. In Japan, though, I have to worry about the otaku stigma. Its highly negative and can almost guarantee the loss of a friend or job. However, I'm not sure at what point the label applies, when too much anime is too much and you are labeled one. But I guess I'll find out.
'Til next time,
AAO

Otakon 2012

I did attend Otakon (again) this year. And it was pretty exciting stuff, I must say.
The only industry panel I attended was Satelight, an animation studio that's best known for Genesis of Aquarion and Aquarion EVOL [which, you know, I love] and Macross Frontier [which is in my backlog]. Outside of that, one of their more recent works is Bodacious Space Pirates!, which, as ridiculous as it sounds is really rather good. The plot and animation are excellent.

Shoji Kawamori, the original creator of Macross and a member of the company, had a video message to share with fans. In it he stated he's looking forward to working more with Macross and Aquarion both, and has ideas for future series (!). We were also shown two videos, which were full CG concerts of Ranka Lee and Sheryl performing for a crowd. They were meant to be commercials for the parent pachinko company, but due to the Tohouko Earthquake were unable to be aired and sat in their vaults. So we were the first people of the public to see it, which was really neat.

It was also announced, before Funimation even had their panel, that Funi would be in charge of licensing and releasing Aquarion EVOL.

The Touhou Panel, as always, was excellent. It was fun, there was quite a bit on various doujin works. For those that don't know, Tohou Project is a series of danmaku shooters created by ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice. But mostly ZUN and a lot of alcohol. It features over one hundred characters throughout fourteen games, and the fans are what support the entire series.

Two fan panels of interest was one on Tezuka and how he was influenced by Disney, but did not nearly touch enough on how the reverse also seemed to happen. Giant Robo also went a great deal into the history of giant robots throughout Japan all the way up to today. It was really well done, and the panelists really knew what they were doing, even when approached about Heroman.

While I was in an autograph line for the main illustrator for the latest Macross series and Aquarion, I became all to aware of demographics, as I was the only girl in line, and among the first twenty I was the only one under forty. It was kind of surprising, but we had an interesting conversation while we waited, and I found out that Gurren Lagaan started life as a parody of Redline, which is now in my backlog as well.

Oh, and before I forget.

Here is the most ridiculous giant robot anime you will ever see [which Satelight proudly admitted they loved working on]:

Basquash! [pr: Bas-cash] is about giant robots playing basketball

 Until Next Time!
AAO

We Still Don't Know the Name...

I've been tapping into my backlog of shows since there aren't any shows I plan on watching until the fall, and there are quite a few I've been meaning to watch or catch up on. As Netflix rotates it's shows, I need to catch up on those that will be out of the queue soon.

The accident Menma suffers is hinted at several times.

Among those I've been meaning to watch, is Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi was Mada Shiranai (We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day), or AnoHana. It came out around the same time as Madoka Magica, and as you might recall that was a pretty busy season for me. A lot of good shows came out around that time, and this was no exception. It remains popular enough that in the fall it will even be getting a PSP game release.

AnoHana is the story of a high school boy being haunted by the ghost of his childhood friend who seems to have grown up as well, despite her untimely death as a child. She requests that he help grant her wish so that she might ascend to heaven. The catch is that it's going to require him to reunite the old childhood gang, none of which can see her.It is up to them to trust him that she is there, and to learn to forgive each other for what was ultimately an accident.

The series is relatively short at eleven episodes, and I would have liked to see it extended into at least eighteen. The last few episodes feel rather rushed, and there isn't much time for each character to fully develop. For the amount of time it has, it does a good job of bringing in character flaws, and, to some point, resolving them. There is no ultimate good or bad end for any relationship, but simply a bittersweet end for all of them. Although the plot is rushed, the animation in the last few episodes is wonderfully smooth and fluid, and nothing like that seen in the earlier episodes, which makes me think that it may have had a budget increase later on or a switch with tween animators.

One of the things done rather slyly throughout the series, is the way in which Menma's death is handled. It is never directly said or shown, but is hinted at many times, and is up to the viewer to figure out.

Overall, I would recommend giving the series a watch. It delivers fairly well on the emotional level, especially in the last few episodes...might I recommend a box of tissues for the finale?

Even now, Menma tries to smile...

That flower we saw that day, seemed to bloom only once...
~AAO~