New Academic Year

Happy New Year’s Eve!

With that said, here’s my resolution: by the end of the year, I want to be able to play Quiz Magic Academy confidently. And by that, I mean “man I can actually read Japanese to the point where I can play online and not look like an enormous gaijin by missing obvious questions I’d get if I could actually read”.

Trying to play Quiz Magic Academy DS (single-player, of course!) while I’ve only got not-even-a-3-kyuu’s worth of Japanese language knowledge is interesting. A lot of the questions I get right are the ones that are heavy on the katakana, because they’re references to Western (pop) culture —

Q: In the movie ‘Star Wars’, what’s the name of Mark Hamill’s character?
1. Luke / 2. Knight / 3. Bishop / 4. Mark

— or are pretty simple Anime & Game category questions like the following:

True or False:
Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) has a character named Heart, who is female.

I figure QMA would be a fun game if I knew how to read the Japanese it throws me, which is most often heavily draped in kanji, unlike the original equivalents of the two examples above. When I can read the questions, it’s an enjoyable experience. When I can’t, it’s a less (but still somehow) pleasant experience in guessing.

That, and the fact that I’ve wanted to get into QMA for a while (I played it once two years ago during a visit to Japan, and never again, for that meant that I would actually have to play against people who could actually read Japanese!) combine to make this New Year’s resolution.

And, lastly, as an aside, it only helps that Aloe, the character I chose, is voiced by Ochiai Yurika. Which makes sense; the script changes according to character, and Aloe’s is all too reminiscent of ToHeart 2‘s Konomi. Too good!