Details announced!
We’ve decided to release a BD box in perfect HD!
Let’s sing the Seioh Gakuen school song at the Bizan Summit!

This is an event where we’ll be talking more about the decision to release a completely HD Blu-Ray boxset!
Let’s sing the Seioh Gakuen school song at the top of the Bizan summit together with Ai Nonaka!
Maybe there might even be some awesome extras in the Manabi BD box?!
Blu-Ray Disc release details can be found here -> http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/manabi_bd/

Don’t worry if you can’t read the details about the BD on that site, because Anime News Network’s got you covered. Very interested to see how the reshot of episode 12 looks like, because I bet it’ll be fantastic.

Addendum to Addendum, 10/6: Blu-Ray announced. In full HD, presumably with all the trimmings of the DVD releases. No release date or price set yet, although I’d bet on “later” and “sounds about right for R2 BD”. Also announced: “Manabi Straight Time” at MachiAsobi vol. 7, featuring Ai Nonaka (Mika Inamori) — I presume it’s a panel — on October 9, for an hour and a half. So that makes it different than the 10/8 mystery screening, which might be a preview of the BD version? Heyyy, I’m game. I guess we should expect ufotable to have all their cards on the table by the end of that panel.

Also, insert Ai-pon fansquealing here. Okay, I’m done, g’night, hehh. ▲

Addendum, 9/20: The MachiAsobi site has since then announced that they’re screening the entire series from 2 to 8 this Saturday 9/24 for 1000 yen per four-episode ticket for a total of 3000 yen (but 2500 yen if you intend on watching ‘em all). However, a schedule flyer posted to the Tokushima Prefecture website also tells of something on October 8, for free, plainly labeled “screening”…for one hour. What Manabi-related things can you show for an hour?! THE PLOT THICKENS. ▲

(image credit Gigazine)

Speaking of anime series I like…there’s something going on with Manabi Straight.

Like, something timely. Really timely. Like, posted yesterday while I was asleep, so I didn’t catch it at first.

Like the above picture of a couple of guys setting up advertisement posters for Machi★Asobi vol. 7 — posters of Haruka Amami, Newtype’s Moving Pictures Festival, Manami Amamiya, and Saber.

Of course, I’m trying to get your attention to the one character second from the right who’s not been seen since something like 2008, when the final DVD went on sale. If that was the end of it, I’d imagine ufotable just wants to rip my heart apart by getting my hopes up. Well, let’s examine the evidence, shall we?

ufotable’s got this tradition of having seiyuu do the announcements for the ropeway funitel system at Bizan every time MachiAsobi comes to town. For example, last time, they had Miyuki Sawashiro do the announcements during MachiAsobi vol. 6. Here’s a video of Aki Toyosaki doing the announcements during vol. 4 (thanks, Gigazine).

Two weeks for Manabi. Three days (or a typo) for Fate/Zero. In either case, two weeks for Manabi? Might as well make a megamix of old ufotable productions. Toss in some Coyote Ragtime Show, Dokkoida, FutaAlt…unless you’re doing something with Manabi. Which, you know, might be the case.

Let’s take a look at exhibit number 2. This is a poster advertising what’s getting featured in Machi★Asobi vol. 7. To the right are representative works being featured, of which Manabi is really close to the top of the list. Cool! Obviously ufotable’s doing something like a marathon of the entire series and calling it quits or something, because they wouldn’t actually do what I think they might actually do, right?!

Oh, wait, here’s exhibit number 3.

Yeah, uh…I might opt to hold my breath for this one. Don’t disappoint, ufotable!!

I think I’ve mentioned I love Sketchbook before, so hopefully that needs no introduction. If you need one, consult Wikipedia.

Recently, two members of the Sketchbook cluster on Twitter traveled to Fukuoka with the intent of visiting its suburbs, of which the anime adaptation Sketchbook ~full color’S~ largely draws its scenery from. One of them, doujinshi artist Yuzuneko, posted his notes and photos to his blog; I asked him for permission to translate the post, which he graciously granted (thanks!).

What follows is my (very rough) attempt at translating his post.

A couple of notes:

• This is, once again, a rough (and sometimes loose) translation.
• Picture tooltips provide episode numbers and cue points, synced to SpoonSubs’ fansub releases, since that’s probably what most English readers will have access to. For those who actually have the DVDs (good job!!!), if the point is after the opening, you can subtract about seven seconds to get to where you want to be.
• Picture tooltips that aren’t necessarily linked to a specific episode cue were fabricated by me. Go go HTML 5 standards and WordPress’ insistence on adhering to them. (Well, that’s fine.)

–

I’ve mentioned this in my previous post, but over the course of two days, 9/9 and 9/10, I went on a Sketchbook pilgrimage disguised as a simple trip to Fukuoka. There’s a friend who went with me for the same reason. He hadn’t lost his interest in the anime and whatnot, but the so-called Bennett-like Kakashi was a complete novice to everything Sketchbook-related.

…well, I think that’s fine.

There isn’t too much that’s been said about holy-land tours like this. I’d almost thought about winging it, but then I thought about the disastrous time I attempted Comiket without scouting circles out first, so I ended up concocting a plan while consulting trailblazer sites and footage. I screencapped some shots from the anime, took a look at each and every locale, marked maps, and, most importantly, put all the details together. And suddenly, everything had been compiled.

But meanwhile, I’d collected so much info; I ended up putting together a PowerPoint with 30+ slides, sorta like putting together a proposal. It took about an eighth of a day, and the labor costs were about xx yen (truncated)

Anyhow, I gathered together the materials and put together a route.

First of all, seeing this for the first time, you can say it looks a bit difficult. Also, I’d heard that Shioujiyama, Dazaifu High School, and Houmangawa would take a terribly long amount of time without a car, so I planned this kind of rotation:

Although you could call having concrete plans like this ideal, I opted for grabbing some alcohol as I made my way around town. Although it’s easy to imagine what bad things might happen when two guys go around on a weekday drinking beer flailing their cameras around…well, I don’t have too much self-control, so yeah.

–

In any case, day 1. Choosing to take the first train and following airplane out, I arrived at Fukuoka Airport at a little past 8:30. Just as planned, I headed over to the Shime area.

This isn’t from any scene in particular, but first of all, truthfully, my target was actually pretty far from the station. Well, not like I have a problem with walking, but there wasn’t a convenience store to be found — and thus, no chance to grab a beer, which sucked.

In the end, I found one…right next to my destination.

To begin with, a drink.

Below, some Shime area comparison shots.

Shime: Railway Park

The park neighbored the convenience store from where I bought my can of beer. It’s formally known as the “Shime Railway Memorial Park”.

The two students waiting for Kasugano-sensei. Although my friend got my shoulder and back point right, I guess I should’ve moved a bit further forward.

You’re supposed to see the coal mine from the front of the park like this, but it’s actually hidden if you take the picture from the same angle. Moving left a bit, it slightly changed.

The place where Kallen Kozuki and Diethard — I mean, Asaka Kamiya and Kuma meet. Identical.

The place where Sora feeds Haa the expired salmon. The shady guy in the middle there is me. At this time, I’d finished my alcohol, so I felt slightly loopy.

Although there’s only one bench, this is the place, right?

Looks a bit forced, but this is the only shot in which I could get the coal mine, a house, and a tree in a single picture.

Shime: Intersection

The place where I’d heard Asou say “birubiru” instead of “biribiri”. Behind it is a commerce building.

The scene where Hazuki’s hyped up about the sale. The traffic light provides a subtle difference.

The scene in which our lead character arrives. The shape of the roof is the same.

The dashing scene. Although the building on the left’s the same, the right building’s definitely off.

Although identical, in the anime, the building’s shorter.

Anime version Sora’s traumatic moment…just kidding, her small victory over her shyness. I’d say the angle of that roof needs someone like Peter Parker to climb it…

Shime: Bus Stop

Although it looks like it’s close to the Railway Park in the anime, it’s actually pretty far away.

The bus stop bench. Incidentally, the real version’s business isn’t actually in front of Nishitomo.

There’s no tree in the background, as confirmed by a previous report. Although it’s funny how they put it in there so that Kuri-chan could play with the walking stick.

The Suzukaze combo version. Probably the same place, but it seems like they’ve added more to the bus stop…

The scene in which Kasugano-sensei arrives. But, well, having seen the background in real life, the bus stop is unfortunately the only thing that remains.

Shime: Neighborhood

Cuts in which you can see the coal mine from town. Because it’s hard to do this from a car, I ended up searching by foot.

The scene where Inuo’s following Negishi-kun, who’s returning home. Thinking about the angle of the coal mine and the two rooftops, this shot might be wrong.

The scene in episode 11 where Sora catches a cold. Questionable, but this is the only place in which I could get a shot with the coal mine angled like this.

*There actually aren’t any more buildings further down from here.

Forgot which episode this is from, but the scene in which you see the coal mine. Keeping the balance of telephone pole and whatnot in mind, it seems like it’d be this area.

Here’s where I took my second drink.

–

Even though there isn’t a point in the anime where they have a shot of the coal mine up close, I ended up taking a look anyway.

Formally, it’s known as the Shime Mining Industry Area Shaft Tower. It was built nearly 70 years ago. I’m not especially a fan of ruins, but I couldn’t help but think of Hinata from Ro-Kyu-Bu (unrelated) going “oohhh”.

At this point, it was 1 in the afternoon; remembering my plans, I thought, “Oh, yeah, let’s head over to Hakata.” In the interest of speeding things up a bit, let’s head over to Zasshonokuma.

Zasshonokuma

The nice town in which the protagonist lives and often appears in. I’d made some screencaps of this iconic place, but in the end I didn’t jot down any particulars…

I’d thought about grabbing a drink from that 24-hour liquor, but it had changed into a flower shop.

Instead, I opted to go inside a nearby 7-Eleven to grab this.

The shot in front of the railway crossing in front of Gourmet City, looking up. The back was under construction, so that’s rather different. As an aside — I thought I’d heard of the name “Gourmet City” before, before I realized that the 24-hour supermarket I always get my liquor from is also a Gourmet City.

Had to pull the camera a bit back for this one, but here’s the railroad crossing scene. It’s a bit hard to see, but the cleaning shop’s there.

The scene in which we see Natsumi and Hazuki, who didn’t go to the sketching session. The cleaning shop on the left is as-is. I ate lunch at Sandoria, the café on the right.

–

Because I ended up with a bit more time on my hands, I decided to head over to Nishitetsu Futsukaichi that day instead of going on Day 2.

–

Nishitetsu Futsukaichi Station

The station that appears in the overnight trip episode. Nearly identical, save for a handful of subtle changes.

This definitely looks like a forced comparison…

Aside from the window and a couple of other things missing, it’s identical.

I’m a bit further away from where I’m supposed to be, but if it weren’t for the cars, I guarantee you I’d have this shot down.

Once again, I’m a bit further away from the actual spot, but standing in the road’s dangerous.

Mostly matching. The “travel company” sign isn’t there, but I guess that’s a sign of the times.

Here, the “travel company” sign is also missing. The person I don’t know in the picture I took is unrelated.

Identical, aside from the shop. The old lady who I don’t know who happened to be in Kasugano-sensei’s position is also unrelated.

–

We also wrapped that up in a short amount of time. If this were day 2, I’d be visiting the school after this…then I looked at the map and decided that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, as planned, our next destination was Nishitetsu Fukuoka (Tenjin).

–

Nishitetsu Fukuoka (Tenjin)

The first-years’ party of 4 visited this town in episode 12. Compared to when I visited before, there were a lot more people. Sorta reminded me of Ikebukuro and the like.

From this angle, it seems to be simply unchanged.

The lion. I like the Ginza lion better, myself.

The pole on the right-hand side is different, but other than that, it’s the same.

They just did away with the specifics for this one, ouch…although they got the lights right.

I needed to ability to Force Jump my way up to the angle I would’ve liked, so I gave up on that.

The objet d’art in front of the bank. Although it’s quite easy to compare the two, it seems like a stamp rally point.

I couldn’t quite find a park that matched completely…but I managed to find this, which almost gets the job done.

–

Afterward, I’d head back to the inn at Hakata, visit two bars, and because I’d be driving that rental car tomorrow, I ended up drinking just once more before turning in for the night.

That said, Kyuushuu shochu is pretty reasonable. At a shop offering beer for 490 yen, the shochu was 300 yen – for a sizable portion, at that! I can say going for more shochu than beer on a Kyuushuu trip is definitely the right choice.

Although this post ended up being quite long, I’ll start working on Day 2 tomorrow. I’ve got a lot of pictures, so I imagine they’ll take some time to process…

–=–

He’s since posted part 2 (in fact, he posted it this morning), so if you’d like, you can go ahead and read that. Hopefully I can knock out a translation later out this week…

What follows is a loose translation of the pixiv entry on July 7th — the holiday of Tanabata in Japan. I figured I’d see what other characters’ birthdays I could rep other than Tsukasa Hiiragi and Kurihara-senpai (above), triggered by a couple of folks repping Senjougahara (Bakemonogatari‘s stapler heroine) on Twitter.

In any case, here you go.

–

July 7th (７月７日 – pronounced “shichigatsu nanoka”) is the 188th day of the year (189th on leap years). On pixiv, there are a lot of Tanabata-related pictures that get posted.

What’s celebrated on this day?

• Tanabata
• Yukata Day
• River Day
• Bamboo & Bamboo Shoot Day
• Gift Day
• Scent Day
• Ponytail Day
• Hiyasuhi Chuuka (cold Chinese noodle dish) day

In history:

• 1777: In the American Civil War, the Battle of Harborton.
• 1798: Mock wars were staged in preparation for real battle.
• 1807: Alexander made peace with Napoleon at Tilsit.
• 1898: Hawaii is accepted into the United States of America.
• 1919: Calpis (Calpico) is first sold.
• 1978: The Solomon Islands become independent from Britain.

Birthdays

Actual people:

• Naoko Ken
• MISIA

Fictional characters:

• Hitagi Senjougahara (Bakemonogatari)
• Rinna Kazamatsuri (Stellvia of the Universe)
• Ruri Hoshino (Martian Successor Nadesico)
• Mizuha Kusuha (Super Robot Taisen series)
• Houki Shinonono (IS -Infinite Stratos-)
• Kagami Hiiragi (Lucky☆Star)
• Tsukasa Hiiragi (Lucky☆Star)
• Kiba Inuzuka & Akamaru (Naruto)
• Killua Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter)
• Soletta Orihime (Sakura Taisen series)
• Sara Yuuki (Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God)
• Mamoru Takamura (Hajime no Ippo)
• Shu Mikami (Forbidden Siren 2)
• Tsuyoshi Yamada (Densha Otoko protagonist)
• Yuri Tanima (Wedding Peach)
• Ririka Moriya (Nurse Angel Ririka SOS)
• Miho Umeda (I My Me! Strawberry Eggs)
• Kirari Tsukishima (Kirarin☆Revolution)
• Hime Onizuka/”Himeko” (Sket Dance)
• Yuuka Haruno (kids’ cooking show “Hitori de Dekiru mon! Doki-Doki Kitchen”/”I Can Do It Myself! Heartbeat Kitchen”)
• Suzume Sakurajosui (Cyber Team in Akihabara)
• Karl Lichter von Randoll (Future GPX Cyber Formula)
• Marilyn Lee Cross (Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations”)
• Kanade Misagiri (Magisuki ~Marginal Skip~)
• Yuina Himou (Tokimeki Memorial)
• Kirico Kyuubii (Armored Trooper VOTOMS)
• Haru Glory (Groove Adventure Rave/Rave Master)
• Lucia Raregroove (Groove Adventure Rave/Rave Master)
• Ise Nanao (Bleach)
• Fumitsuki Nanakorobi (Happy★Lesson)
• Asahi Sanjou (Marriage Royale)
• Reiko Akimoto (Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen-mae Hashutsujo)
• Gomesu Tonda (Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen-mae Hashutsujo)
• Seiji Hokuto (Ultraman A)
• Minami Yuuko (Ultraman A)
• Jenos Hazard (Black Cat)
• Aoi Sakuraba (Ai Yori Aoshi)
• Tamaki Kousaka (ToHeart 2)
• Aoko Aozaki (Tsukihime, Melty Blood)
• Kagami Sumika (Muv-Luv/Muv-Luv Alternative)
• Ryokan Kurita (Eyeshield 21)
• Nanami-chan (NHK-BS’s 15th anniversary mascot character, shown prior to an airing)
• Amano Sakogami (Happy Seven)
• Iori Yuzuki (Yotsunoha)
• Sarah (Animal Crossing)
• Ayano Terada (Gintama)
• Hokuto Kusanagi (Gear Fighter Dendoh)
• Kana Aikawa (Town Memory)
• Mone (Yumeria)
• Mikoto Hebigami (Mr. Fullswing)
• Malariya (Quiz Magic Academy series)
• Litchi Faye-Ling (Blazblue)
• Nagisa Kurihara (Sketchbook)
• Mokuba Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
• Kyouji Kimura (GET LOVE!! ~King of the Field~)
• Nana Takenouchi (Muhyo and Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation)
• Yoshiyuki Yoshio (Normandy Secrets Club)
• Azuki (Minna de Kitaeru Zenno Training/Complete Mind Discipline Training with Everyone)
• Hoshisa Kawai (Elite Yankee Saburou)
• Mio Asanagi (Asanagi no Aqua Notes/Asanagi’s Aqua Notes)
• Koronero (Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn!)
• Asuka Wakamiya (Ashita no Kimi to Au Tame ni ~Till I Reach Your Tomorrow~)
• Hisae Mayama (Apathy Rental Family)
• Nanase Haruhara (Triangle Heart)
• Nanami Makino (Suigetsu)
• Hisau Maiya (Fate/Zero)
• Euforbia Malginata Shiroyuki (Manabiya)
• Elsteria Marigold (PrismRhythm)
• Nanaka Yugiri (Twinkle Crusaders)
• Mare S. Ephemeral (Hoshizora no Memoria/Memoria of the Starry Skies)
• Casio (Greed Packet∞)
• Nokia (Greed Packet∞)
• Nanako Chikami (Ao to Ao no Shizuku -a calling from tears-, 3days -Michite Yukukiza no Achi de?, FESTA!! -HYPER GIRLS POP-)

Maybe I — erm, ahem, Funimation should’ve made it a part of the Viridian Collection.

This post is actually a serious post, mind you. From SVGL’s Resort Anthem cabinet:

PLATINUM

• Mermaid Girl
• Mendes
• Dances with Snow Fairies
• Mei
• Reunion

GOLD

• AA
• Breaking the Ground
• Shakunetsu Beach-Side-Bunny
• Nageki no Ki
• Sakura Storm

SILVER

• Yuuyake ~Fading Day~
• Perditus†Paradisus
• Fantasia
• Daydreamer
• Passionate Fate

BRONZE

• Vermillion
• Golden Palms
• Tropical April
• Aegis
• Albida

I wish I were joking. I’d rather have Yuuyake up in Platinum replacing Mermaid Girl. And Blust of Wind needs to be in there somewhere…also, Ookina Koe De and Kagenui.

So life happened, and by “life” I mean “a bunch of things”. Well, I guess that’s sorta what life amounts to. I’d also like to think that life would give me a bunch of things to blog about, but either I end up pretty lazy, or I become too busy to the point where, by the time I would’ve posted it, the entry in question wouldn’t be as timely as I’d like it to be. Anyway…happy new year, two months in.

Manabi Mode seems like such a 2010 thing, despite what my Twitter says (“I heard [ufotable producer] Hikaru’s coming to SF for a Kara no Kyoukai event!! MAYBE I SHOULD COME UP TO HIM WITH MANABI STUFF AND HAVE HIM SIGN IT AND TALK ABOUT IT WITH HIM MASSUGU GOOOOOO”). But if you check my Twitter, you’ll notice that I also happen to be tweeting a lot about Sketchbook. As of late, I figured I’d start tagging stuff with #sketchbookmode, to see how long this particular round of obsession lasts.

If you know me well, I have a list of three series that I consider my god-tier-will-rewatch-or-reread-any-time-I-feel-like-it-which-is-often series: Manabi Straight, Sketchbook, and Hidamari Sketch. (As an aside, there are two other anime rated 10 on My Anime List — Azumanga Daioh, which is more of a sentimental rating than anything; and ARIA the Origination.) At any point in time, I will be unusually hype for one of those three series. Right now, it’s Sketchbook. For a moment inbetween all of my Manabi hype last year, it was Hidamari Sketch.

As they say, parting makes the heart grow fonder. The three series are in different positions. Manabi, with its thirteen episodes, OVA, and four tankoubon, is completely done; in the end, there’s nothing truly new I can experience from that series. Hidamari Sketch‘s manga is ongoing (on its fifth volume right now); the anime has three seasons and I wouldn’t be surprised if SHAFT animated a fourth.

Sketchbook, however, is somewhat interesting. The manga is ongoing (the seventh volume hit Japanese bookshelves in early October, and it’s understandably not been licensed for the English market); and the anime, full color’S, is a 2007 thirteen-episode release whose only official English release has been on Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll’s license for the series, as of last June, seems to have expired, and thus everything but the first episode has been taken down. The series covers some three to four volumes of scattered content…most of it resides in the shucchouban – a special volume comprised of comics (with most of the content actually not being 4-panel!) that were published in the spinoff Comic Blade Masamune.

I’ve mentioned before that Sketchbook, to me, is a really great series; in fact, I prefer it over ARIA. I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone why, though. Some people have dubbed me slightly odd, but at the very least, we all recognize that to each his own.

Anyway, as of recent, I’ve somehow ended up following a couple of Japanese Sketchbook fans. They seem pretty passionate about the series. I read their tweets whenever I’m bored and whenever they make a reference, I get it, even if in Japanese…but I can’t respond, nor make appropriate replies/comebacks, because despite my ability to read/recognize Japanese text, I’m not very good at actually forming sentences, and thus not very confident about using it, either.

Also: just last week was protagonist Sora Kajiwara’s birthday. The moment it hit midnight on February 4 in Japan, a good chunk of the Sketchbook cluster cheered as much as they could. Some talked about how glad they were to be Sketchbook fans, and to have met like-minded people. Some posted birthday pictures. Some rewatched an episode or two of the series. Some sent congratulations to @KajiwaraSoraBot. Some admitted that Sora’s birthday was the first time they got really, really hyped up over the birthday of a fictional character. Fun times were had.

Somehow, in addition to my wanting to be a great translator/interpreter/teacher of the Japanese language someday, I now have a very active reason to study Japanese. And now, as of late, I’ve been practicing my Japanese to no one in particular, unless someone replies or mentions me in Japanese. Then, I try my best to form a reply. (As an aside, I love you, love you, LOVE YOU, codefromtokyo; his Japanese dictionary for iOS has come in useful when I can’t come up with words or phrases I need.)

So, long story short: due to the fandom, Sketchbook continues to be relevant for me as I continue my study of Japanese language and culture. And so, from time to time, I’ll be posting a handful of notes here on the usage of Japanese, in an attempt to explain it…and maybe it’ll be useful to other people studying Japanese. And, like I’ve been doing lately on Twitter, the examples are probably gonna be Sketchbook-centric…though I could probably go either which way with that.

Anyway…頑張ります！そして、よろしくお願いします！

I’ve never finished Tales of the Abyss, despite having attempted to play it three times prior and being intrigued by the story; something just happens to come up and get in the way of me finishing the game, somehow.

Now, I’m starting a fourth game of Abyss with a pair of friends – namely, mDuo13 and Tsubasa – with the full intention of finishing it before taking on anything else. We’ve already gone through a playthrough of Tales of Graces (that was before Tales of Graces F for the PS3 was announced with that after-story segment — we’re probably gonna play it again!) and it went well, so we figured we’d keep this up with other games.

So, while Tsubasa’s searching for that one not-used copy of the PS3 version of Eternal Sonata (née Trusty Bell), we decided we’d attempt to play Tales of the Abyss, with our inaugural session last Wednesday. As with Graces before it, we joke around quite a bit while playing, and thus this gives rise to a handful of (often pretty stupid) jokes, of which some of them recur. After the break is a list of what we came up with after our first session; and, of course, spoiler alert for stuff up until the Kaitzur checkpoint.

–

Italicized items indicate recurring jokes.

• Fonists: Fon sounds like “phone”⁽¹⁾. This has affected several plot points:
  • Everyone has a cellphone (hidden from view), from which they invoke artes. (Think Properly Learned Modern Magic.)
  • Phoneons are little particles in the air that, as the name implies, work to keep one’s phone active.
  • Likewise, a Field of Phoneons is a denser field of said particles, allowing your phone to work twice as hard.
  • Phone Master Ion can phone-a-friend in order to summon a giant laser from the sky, immediately obliterating mobs within a certain radius. Of course, he takes all the credit.
  • Capacity Cores are now accessories that you can equip onto your phone in order to make it more powerful.
  • Having your phone slots sealed involes the use of a virus that removes any traces of a usable signal within a given radius. So, it’s sorta like Largo forced Jade onto AT&T⁽²⁾ in that one scene. It’s already bad enough that they’re in rural areas for 99% of the game…
• Van, at least in the dub, sounds almost like the narrator from the English dub of the Pokémon TV series.
• Speaking of Pokémon, we’ve made several jokes about what it means 2 B A (Phone) Master.
• United States of Whatever: Due to Luke’s bratty nature, it became appropriate to summarize plot points in a nod to Liam Lynch’s (in)famous song:
  • “So I went to Engeve and ate an apple…they were like “hnnngh” and I was like, ‘WHATEVER.’”
  • “So I was in the woods, and this liger comes up to me and goes “RAWR”, and I was like, ‘WHATEVER.’”
  • “So I was on the Tartarus, and this chick comes up to me and goes “MMMM♥” and I was all like, ‘WHATEVER.’”
  • “So I’m here getting my pants wet crossin’ this river…this chick comes up to me, starts going ‘You killed my mommy, I’ll never forgive you’ and I went ‘WHATEVER.’”
    …and so on and so forth.
• Star Wars: Aside from the hero’s name being Luke, and several things regarding Luke and his destiny, a joke was cracked in reference to a parody of the aforementioned song: “So I was on the Tartarus, and I accidentally stabbed a dude, and he goes “GUH” and I’m, like, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
• Engeve sounds like the Japanese term 園芸部 (engeibu), which means “gardening club” (makes sense, right?)…I’m taking that literally. They’re not a town. They’re a club, meeting in the middle of nowhere to get their Harvest Moon on.
• Sayonara Memories, supercell’s song about graduation, conveniently became a referential pun (and a song about amnesia, instead) when Luke told Jade about losing his memories to the Malkuth guys.
• Guy isn’t scared of women…he’s just scared of Tear. (Mostly because Ion’s around and he’s been known to fool people. And by ‘people’ I mean ‘me’, at the very least.)
• Anise was localized as a valley girl…and isn’t voiced by Halko Momoi, so we’re getting an undub for our next session, dammit.
• Tear is tsundere. There are a handful of instances in which this happens, such as Tear looking at the sleeping Luke in Engeve and smiling (her dere side), but the best (and most messed-up) instance of this session?
  I..it’s n-n-n-not like s-s-she’s killing people because she wants to, or anything…!
• Dist the Rose? More like Dist the Fabulous. I’m sure everyone’s made that joke, though, but I figured I’d make a note of it anyway.
• Luke x Guy capped off our session — all we wanted to do was stay at an inn to restore our health and Luke and Guy are swordfighting in the night: “I need help with something…it’s embarrassing, but I’m asking you because you’re the only other person around here who uses a sword…” Keep in mind, all three of us normally don’t do that ‘pairing’ thing, but man, NamBan. (Coincidentally, Tsubasa and I attended Yaoi-Con⁽³⁾ that weekend…)

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1. Yes, I know it’s a play off of the other kind of ‘phone’ and/or the suffix phon-. For the purposes of this playthrough, we make jokes based off of the use of “phone” as in “cellphone”.
2. AT&T is an American telephony/internet/television company here in the United States, slightly notorious for dropping calls all over the place and/or having slow over-the-air data due to customers’ ubiquitous adoption of the iPhone.
3. Just so you know: we didn’t attend it for the yaoi. But that’s another story.

So the Rihoko arc has just started in Amagami SS, which means I’m actually compelled to watch it. She’s my favorite character — mostly because, like the protagonist Junichi, I get to comment a lot on how she’s a fatty.

However, unlike Junichi, I happen to be a fatty, too. Because of that, Rihocchi pretty much became my nakama of the series.

Of course, I figure her arc is going to have a lot of eating in it. Thus, this post.

I concocted a little drinking game back when the series first started. It went something along the lines of “Take a shot whenever Morishima-senpai describes Junichi as being yasashii.” If I remember correctly (I don’t have the episode on me for reference), that ended up being somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 shots for episode one.

When the next arc started, in my boredom, I started picking on Rihocchi again, and made a drinking game for her. Sorta.

The Sakurai Rihoko “Drinking” Game

The main rule: you don’t drink. In lieu of shots are those small snack-size cups of ice cream. You can go for the generic brand pack of cups-that-try-to-masquerade-as-a-parfait-or-something-schmancy-like-that (something like $6 for a dozen cups?), or you can be a bit more upscale and grab the name brand of your choice (around here, Dreyer’s⁽¹⁾ cups were $1 a piece; Häagen-Dazs went for $1.25 each and were smaller). Go to your local supermarket. Depending on which episode(s) you and your friends are going to watch, attempts at this game can range anywhere from 6 to 60 to 600 cups a person. (If you’re going to attempt the entire series — and if you do, please do reply or send me mail⁽²⁾ with pictures of the aftermath! — I strongly recommend the use of a mini-fridge.)

There are simply four instances in which you’ll have to chow down:

• Whenever Rihoko appears, eat a cup.
  A good guideline for “appearance”, especially in her own arc, is sorta like having a combo count in a game — if the show transitions into a new scene and she isn’t there, a new instance of her appearing would trigger a cup.
• Whenever Rihoko is shown eating something, eat a cup…
  You can either set this trigger to “item”, “course within a meal”, or “meal”.
• …plus another cup if the item/course/meal in question is fatty enough.
  You get to decide whether it’s fatty or not. Rule of thumb? Everything she eats is fatty.
• Whenever Junichi implies that Rihoko is a fatty, eat three cups.
  This is also a subjective interpretation. I play by the loosest interpretation — most of the time, if Junichi mentions the words “belly”, “food”, “diet”, etc., etc., in reference to Rihoko, that’s a trigger.

Like any other drinking game, you can adjust the rules, but abolishing them isn’t any fun⁽³⁾! Oh, and of course, make sure you’ve got an empty stomach (even if you’ve got a second one for dessert) – episode 17, by my count, was a 25-cup smorgasbord.

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1. If you live anywhere that’s not in the Pacific time zone of the United States, you probably know them as Edy’s. For the curious, of course, Wikipedia can explain why.
2. My e-mail address is obtainable via a link in the footer. I don’t actually expect anyone to do this, of course, but I can at least imagine something akin to Kara no Kyoukai’s 5th chapter, with all them strawberry ice cream cups.
3. If you don’t think this could be amusing at all, you may substitute the word ‘fun’ with ‘fatty’.

So the first episode of Tamayura - Junichi Sato’s (and HAL Film Maker’s) new slice-of-life OVA project – aired on AT-X, as what I figure to be a teaser of sorts. It teases, alright. Having marathoned ARIA the Natural and ARIA the Origination instead of taking it easy on getting through the series out of fear that I’d put it on hold yet again, I might even go so far to say I might’ve been going through SatoJun iyashikei withdrawal. (As an aside, thank you very much, RightStuf — let it be known that I love you guys!)

For a moment, I went through a bit of a phase: what was I supposed to do to get my fix of fresh iyashikei, having finished ARIA? Well, I guess there’s Kaleido Star, of which the second season boxset sits shelved right next to the first boxset of Someday’s Dreamers — neither of which I’ve actually really gotten my hands into.

I prefer it, however, when there’s not too much emphasis on competition — as with ARIA or Hidamari Sketch, both of which have some elements of competition that aren’t not shown very often if they’re not lighthearted. Or series where there’s not really anything going on at all, as with Sketchbook. Or, maybe, if it’s got one main conflict that quickly resolves itself, then sets up a huge sign that tells you when to say “AWWWWWW,” as with the Animal Crossing movie.

Or, I could talk more about Manabi…but if I’m going to talk about Manabi (as iyashikei or otherwise), I’d rather link to people who can describe the experience much better than I can, then link to the one guy aggregating ‘em all.

Anyway, it’s funny how the third point (“nothing really happens a la Sketchbook”) works: when there’s nothing really going on at all, everything mundane suddenly takes center stage, thus making it a top priority to take those things and make them seem more significant than they actually are. That’s probably one of the things that makes Sketchbook one of my favorite shows — I love it when Sora or Hazuki or Kurihara-senpai point out stuff, because they all point out the things I usually don’t pay too much attention to and make them somehow sound interesting…even when at the end of the day, most of the things they point out are truly just plain. (As an aside, I’ve got an alternative hypothesis: the ‘observation’-slash-pun humor in Sketchbook — especially the manga, but certainly present in the anime — is sometimes eerily similar to a handful of my friends’. Like, say, pointers about cheese steak. Cheese steak? That sounds like you’re making a meal out of a frickin’ hunk of cheese — and so on, and so forth.)

Tamayura feels like a Sketchbook 2.0 to me. It’s slow. There’s not much going on. Fu-chan’s got two missions: to take pretty pictures, and to try and become more extroverted — analogous to Sora wanting to capture her life in drawings and perhaps become a bit more extroverted, herself. It’s the change in media — from sketch to film — that really strikes me. I’m not the best person to ask for a sketch (although I could try), but I share the same sentiment as Fu-chan when it comes to photography. That coupled with her shyness — it isn’t quite as bad as Sora’s, but she’s still pretty shy! — made her character someone I could definitely connect with.

I can’t wait to watch the completed work — fifteen minutes is simply not enough. On the other hand, like I said, I guess it’s supposed to be a teaser for a reason…

Sometimes, I wander around my computer and find a folder long forgotten — sometimes, it’ll be a program I don’t often use that somehow takes up three gigs worth of hard drive space; or, perhaps it’s a backup folder, long-forgotten for years after the fact. I happened to stumble across one of the latter, and lo and behold it had basically all of my image data from Waffles, my old, dead anime blog. Let’s tackle that first.

Waffles died in the latter half of 2007 due to a waning interest in actually watching anime compounded with an steadily growing backlog. I figured I’d keep it around for posterity, in case people actually wanted to read my blog.

And then the server I’d been hosted on — graciously provided by Misu, in exchange for writing for his visual novel news blog, VisualNews — disappeared. Whenever I would try to access it, it would shoot out a short error message: the server had encountered an error. The server continued to error whenever I’d try to visit my site. For all intents and purposes, Waffles and VisualNews were gone.

Control of the community forums was eventually given to zalas, who took it and made encubed. Waffles was reduced to nothing but whatever the Internet Archive offered as cache.

And then I made this blog. The first post I made on this blog was a slightly shorter version of this explanation.

It’s been almost two years since I’ve made this blog (my blog enters its third year of service on October 27). In that span of time, I’ve made 120 posts. That means an average of 60 posts a year, or 5 posts a month, or about one-and-a-quarter a week, which isn’t all too bad if I think of it that way as opposed to my ‘burst’ blogging where I blog furiously for a week and a half before disappearing again. Funny, considering that first post — I said I’d pick up regular blogging again, when it was anything but. That’s something to consider for my 2011 resolution. (And speaking of which, my 2010 resolution doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen!)

A lot has happened since then. An arguably good indicator is my style of writing — very much improved from my Waffles days, but still slightly recognizable as my own. This post, as with my one prior Waffles repost, will also be a repost of earlier content — something I found in that time capsule of mine.

Specifically, after the break is the single article I did for VisualNews for gp32′s translation of the short ‘kinetic’ novel A Midsummer Day’s Resonance for visual novel translation summit al|together, unchanged from the original text. I’ve got quite a bit of my clueless, finger-pointing self in there, but I don’t cringe while reading it, unlike my old, slightly embarrassing Waffles posts…Oh, and I hope you’ve played the game, because I’ve got a full breakdown of the plot in the review.

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Once upon a time, the English visual novel community was peppered with translations of full works (or, more commonly, demoes of full works), without love for smaller, more independent reads. That all changed in 2005 when Insani, one of the most prominent English translation circles, gave birth to al|together, which is, in short, a festival for translations of free doujinshi, or self-made, visual novels, starting with Narcissu — the first localization of a doujin game sanctioned by its original creator, Tomo Kataoka of stage-nana. The nine participants pitched in to create seven titles (with an eighth released a bit later). al|together’s first run helped to break many of the preconcieved notions about visual novels held in American otaku society — for example, the infamous “visual novel/AVG = hentai!1! LOLZ” concept, or how the protagonist in any given visual novel (or H-game, depending on who you speak to) would always gain a harem.

Among these wonderful reads is a gem aptly named A Midsummer Day’s Resonance (Japanese: Natsu no Hi no Resonance/夏の日のレソナンス) — a rather quirky visual novel that, as author Kagura Saitoh explains on his webpage Resonance (www.re-sonance.com), is a story of a modern-day summer, a rural location, a girl, a rendezvous, a miracle, a cellphone, the world…and love.

Synopsis

Kasumi Kurasawa is your average teenage girl. She confronts her freshman year of high school with an increasing amount of stress, she battles puberty as her mind and body changes, and she’s beginning to ponder about the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. Everything changes, however, when an accident gives her cell phone the power to connect via a hologram-like screen with two girls from Tokyo. They become friends, but as they do, Kasumi starts to have feelings for Itsuki Mukai, one of the girls she happens to be connected with…

Story | 9/10

Kasumi Kurasawa is having issues coping with high school, puberty, and her sudden awareness of everything. One day, she gets into an accident; to be specific, her bike crashes into a boy’s, sending her backpack tumbling across the street, where it’s ruthlessly run over by a truck, bursting a juice pack all over her stuff. She pines about this to her friend Yuuna, who, instead of offering consolation and sympathy, more or less shouts “AHAHAHAH, THAT SUCKS.” Thus does Kasumi label the day the worst in her life.

And then all of a sudden, when walking back home from school, Kasumi’s cellphone emits, out of nowhere, the image of Minamo Kawara, a rather cheerful, hyper, and sometimes dim-witted pink-haired girl. They greet each other and wonder what the heck is going on. Minamo suggests that it might be something with their cell phones. Kasumi experiments by hitting the Call End button…cutting them off. She tries to explain this to her mom and her sister, but they just won’t believe it.

The next day, the same phenomenon happens again, but when it does, a different girl — a sleek blonde wonder — appears on screen. Both of them are surprised, and Kasumi breaks the awkward silence, introducing herself and informing her that this has happened once before. Turns out that this girl is actually a friend of Minamo, whose familiar face jolts back onto the screen upon hearing “Kasumii”‘s voice. She introduces herself as Itsuki Mukai, and asks Kasumi to confirm where she lives, Hino City. The pair of friends represent themselves as Tokyo girls, and they talk for a while…before Itsuki comments that Kasumi looks rather pretty. This flattering comment flusters Kasumi, and sends her into longing for Itsuki.

It takes four more days for the phone to zap back to life, on Kasumi’s way to school, waking up Minamo. Apparently, she’s quite late; her clock says it’s eight, but Kasumi has her time at 7:53 – so she figures that Minamo set her clock early.

She’s connected once more at lunch – this time with Itsuki. They talk about how nice it is to end the week, and Minamo comes up with the idea of meeting up in person. However, tests are around the corner, and thus they’re forced to postpone their meetup until next Saturday.

Throughout test week, they talk together, but sometimes, the conversations they have take a turn for the weird. Minamo sometimes would be unfamiliar with certain terms — such as skiing — and because Kasumi would usually be stuck to that topic, the conversation would instantly end, complete with actual disconnection. However, this doesn’t stop Kasumi from becoming more enamored with Itsuki, until the Friday before the meetup, where Kasumi desperately tries to confirm the feelings between them. Itsuki declares that she’s not lesbian, and that she’s not taking offers, so a dejected Minamo quietly gets disconnected.

However, two days later, they’re scheduled to meet at Tachikawa station at noon. Kasumi, who can’t wait to meet them in person, arrives two hours prior, but doesn’t see them until 1:24 PM — when they get connected. Kasumi tells them that she’s right in front of the ticket stands. They approach the location to find that she’s not there, and Minamo is quick to figure out: they’re on parallel worlds. The most obvious difference? Seven minutes’ difference in time. Itsuki figures out that they cannot ever meet because of this phenomenon, and because of that, Kasumi breaks into tears and runs out of the station. It takes some cajoling from Minamo and Itsuki (“We’re meeting right now, are we not?”) for Kasumi to pull herself together, and they find out where and if things are different between the two worlds. Later, while enjoying some shaved ice, Kasumi finds out that seasons don’t exist in the world of Minamo and Itsuki, and thus they all segue into a discussion about ‘impossibility’ — the likes of which start the novel. Thus does the story come full circle.

A short while after, they are disconnected forever.

However, Kasumi doesn’t realize this until some time, and waits for the girls to connect, every day, every week, every month…but she comes to realize that the miracle can’t last forever, and ties it to a single English word: resonance – a noun, a synonym for an echo.

With her sixteenth birthday, she proclaims herself to have taken one more step toward adulthood.

Gameplay (n/a)

The novel is linear and takes about one to two hours to complete, depending on your reading speed.

Graphics (8/10)

The graphics do their work, helping one visualize parts of Resonance. The reason why I say ‘help’ is that many times, you won’t see what Kasumi’s talking about — for example, a background for a dirt path is the catch-all for walking to and from school. There aren’t any special CGs, either — all you have is the background and the hologram portraits of Minamo and Itsuki. The characters are done well, have a multitude of facial expressions, and blink.

Overall, a decent package for a work of this length, but it could’ve been better.

Audio: (9/10)

Audio is covered by MIDI, but the songs chosen for Resonance couldn’t have fit better. The only gripe I have with the audio is when Kasumi starts crying — if you listen to that song long enough, it suddenly segues into full-blown techno, so that came off as a bit awkward, given its context.

A Midsummer Day’s Resonance is not voiced.

Localization: (10/10)

Seung “gp32″ Park delivers an excellent localization as always, conveying Kagura Saitoh’s work into a sanguine, silly, surreal, yet serious story. Seung manages to keep an active feminine voice, translating Kasumi’s narration into a wonderful read. I certainly can’t find any problems with it.

Conclusion

A Midsummer Day’s Resonance is a cute read, though there are parts that make the story predictable. It’s recommended for both those familiar with the visual novel format and those who have yet to be introduced to it (and I personally got two people — who hadn’t played anything of the sort — hooked on the novel!).

Final Score: 9/10 (not an average of the category scores)

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Looking back on it, the review’s not too bad; the only crappy part of the review is the fact that I didn’t say why I gave it a 9/10 – for the record, I still would. It’s a great (albeit, once again, slightly predictable) story that tugged at my heart, and still does, but not in the dramatic Key cry-some-more!! kinda way. I also liked the subtle modern fairy-tale feel that the story possessed.

Aside from that, there are a couple of other things I’d renew if I chose to rewrite this, ranging from decent chunks like the part of the introduction that introduced al|together, to fleshing out things that aren’t the story using examples as backup — basically, making the review into a more credible one.

I might replay Resonance soon. It’s been a while since I’ve done so, but it remains among Until We Meet Again and Narcissu as one of my favorite works (if not my favorite work) to come out of al|together 2005.

I say ‘might’ because Final Fantasy XIV is in open beta right now.