[Intermission] キュアメイドにシ徒、襲来 (A Raid upon Cure Maid-Cafe by the Last Servant)
If you happen to be in Tokyo, and a big fan of Evangelion, you would be sure that Cure Maid-Cafe is supposed to feature Evangelion themed service. Actually this is not their first time doing this, but this year must be more than last year since the Evangelion movie DVD has just released. I have been to this maid-cafe a long time ago, but there was nothing special but humble maids. So I hadn’t been here since then…
Meanwhile, I was looking for a new character I cosplay next time a while ago, and I decided to do Nagisa Kaworu for some reason. I am an オトメン, not ガチホモAnyway, just after I got the hairdresser’s to cut my wig, I got an e-mail from the certain writer. She was going to interview Cure Maid-Cafe, so asked me to go in cosplaying Kaworu. Well, I hadn’t tried my Kaworu’s costume out, so I had no idea how it went…But yes, I was on it.
ドラゴンボール現象[Dragon Ball genshou]
Needless to say, Dragon Ball has been in the mainstream for ages though the series has finished. When I was a kid, it was already that popular among shounen manga fans. Well at that time, speaking of the mainstream anime series, I can think of Saint Seiya[聖闘士星矢], Kin-niku man[キン肉マン], City Hunter[シティーハンター], or Fist of Northern Star[北斗の拳]. Oops, you already figured out my age? Anyway, I must say Drangon Ball had been at the top for a long long time…The main theme of this anime is, as you know, adventure, dream, and friendship. Goku quests the world to find out the seven Dragon Balls in the sake of somebody or for the certain purpose with his fellows. On the points of his journey, he encounters a lot of enemies who are basically stronger than him. He stands up to the enemy with his fellows, defeats it, and thankfully the enemy is to be Goku’s new fellow. In this way, he has actually got a lot of fellows Oolong, Yamcha, Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Majunior, or Vegeta…Even though they show up as Goku’s enemy, they shall be friends with him after the duel…
Yes, same goes to any other shounen anime. Look at One Piece, it’s a perfect example,isn’t it? A young boy Luffy starts his voyage, and meets people who are going to be his fellows. Even if the person is supposed to fight against Luffy, he would end up following after the battle. This is what’s called, ドラゴンボール現象[Dragon Ball genshou]. Genshou means a phoenomenon. If you look at any adventure anime, you might know the story goes like this rule-of-thumb.
Having said that, above is only one definition of this term. Actually there’s one more…what’s that? If the anime is too popular to end, watch out, this phoenomenon is happening. Actually Dragon Ball was supposed to end when Goku defeated Majunior, however, Goku’s elder brother showed up as a new enemy from all the way his mother planet. I still remember Kamesen-nin said もうちっとだけ続くんじゃ[it will last a bit more] at the very end of the last episode[when Goku defeated Majunior]. A bit more? How many years did it take?? In this way, whether the author wants to finish doesn’t matter so long as fans want to see. Yes, in other words, it has to last, shouldn’t end. Even if the author has no plot, it would be okay. His staff can create a new story so that the series never ends. Speaking of such a never-ending-anime series, I can think of D.C[ダ・カーポ], Sazae-san[サザエさん], or Kitarou[ゲゲゲの鬼太郎]. Well, Kitarou could be. That’s the series which has been re-created again and again. In that case, Toki wo kakeru shoujo[時をかける少女] could be as well.
One more thing, there’s the way you can check this is happening to the anime you are watching. If the story goes on so slowly, or doesn’t carry on at all, watch out, the author is still making a story. If the anime is based on the manga, the anime should basically follows it. The manga comes first, and next is the anime. Come to think of it, this used to happen when I watched Dragon Ball. One punch took 30 minutes, and two kicks took two episodes. In Captain Tsubasa, it takes at least 5 minutes from Tsubasa shoots at goal to the ball reaches. Ugh, how come no one can blocks?
オラニャン[oranyan]
Thanks of one of the regular visitor w, I got a tip for this post. Well, if tsundere is supposed to be a girl who is always cold but sometimes sweet to you, would it be alright to describe such a guy? If he is so cold to you, but sometimes becomes nice, could he be labelled as a tsundere as well? Well, maybe yes. Tsukimori Ren in Kin-iro no Corda or Wolfram in Kyou kara maou could be. But is there any other saying? Yes…that is オラニャン[oranyan].
In fact, this was not born in the otaku society, but kogals’ circles. To get to the point, オラニャン is an abbreviation form of オラオラニャンニャン[ora-ora nyan-nyan]. I can’t translate it! オラオラ[ora-ora] sounds like a rude guy’s shouting. Maybe you could hear this in such a delinquent boys’ story like Gokusen, Bebop High-School or something like that. Well, how can I put it…sounds like “Oi! Oi!”?? They would say like 行くぜオラァ！[ikuze, oraa!, let’s go, guys!]. オラオラ金出せや！[ora-ora, kane dase ya!, Oi oi, give fucking money, eh?]. Does it make any sense?
Meanwhile, ニャンニャン[nyan-nyan] is actually a cat’s mew-mew. Caught on, haven’t you? Although he is so cheeky and rude in front of everybody else, he would be very sweet to a girl who he loves. Probably he could be still sweet even when others are there. In this case, it might be called as オラデレ[oradere]. There is a more common word to describe this type of guy, 恐妻家[kyousaika]. However, this is something like a husband who is under his wife’s thumb. Even though he is arrogant to his surbordinates, he can’t resist his wife or be very sweet to her.
I think you can see a オラニャン guy in real life. I have seen it in Korean soap operas. Umm, this is an irrelevant note, I have shared a room with Korean guy a long time ago. He was definitely a oranyan. He used to be very rude to me and other roommates, but he changed his attitude when his girlfriend was near him, or phoned him. In fact, he was hated by anyone else…To tell the truth, I didn’t like him, nor like this type of guy. Because I am an otomen, you know.
At any rate, speaking of oranyan, I can think of Inori and Morimura Tenma in Harukanaru toki no naka de, Maebara Keiichi in Higurashi no naku koro ni. Unlike tsundere, he would have to be cheeky[生意気], rather than cold. This is the most distinctable point between tsundere and oranyan.
悪魔デレ[akumadere]
Okay, this is still a new type of -dere. Yes, that is 悪魔デレ[akumadere]. If she is a real Satan or so evil like a devil, she could be labelled as this. Needless to say, 悪魔[akuma] means a devil. Mostly in this genre, a devil comes to you to make a contract. Thanks to(because of) this, you can get an awesome power, but you have to work for her, in other words, you could be her slave not knowing what you are getting yourself into. Having said that, she should make you alive under the contract…so no matter how she is cruel and mean, she would protect you when you get in danger. Would you like to say thank you? Go ahead, she would reject it coldly. This is a bit her tsuntsun side. Sometimes she would get dressed as a maid or other occupations, and serve you. But don’t get confused. She is moody but actually lonely…well, I must say there’s less chance to see her deredere side than any other tsundere girls. She is not a human being, so basically she is bored with human world…What intersets her is, yes, you. While you are alive, she takes care of you. But after you die, she would take you to the hell…And she would find another contractor. Yes, she is the devil!
Speaking of 悪魔デレ, I can definitely think of C.C in Code Geass. Umm, she gets dressed as a Goth girl and a junior high-school student using Nunally’s uniform. Yuti La in Heroic Age could be. And this is not anime, but in BLAN’s Dining(you can see this manga’s review here), a Shinigami(an Angel of Death) named Blan forces the protagonist to contest the contract which he has to find out criminals of cases he encounters. Blan is such a diminutive lolita-looking angel and always annoys him. In this way, 悪魔デレ girls mostly bother you. However, when she stays away from you, you would miss her. Yes, because you have a 悪魔デレ萌え[akumadere-moe].
I want to count Jikoku Shoujo, but too bad, she never falls in love with anybody.
[Intermission] コスプレでしょ？でしょ？[Cosplay, right? right?]
It started since I got e-mail from the certain person one day…
When the young and talented photographer, Windbell told me he had planned to come to Japan, I asked him to take photos of my cosplaying. Since my cosplay buddy who used to do it went back to his hometown, I seriously needed a photographer… I thought this was a good chance…and he kindly took my request. I was quite pleased to hear it, and I started to find someone who could cosplay with me. The more people, the merrier, right? So I spoke to the young and nice cosplayer named miho whom we got to know at the cosplayers’ circle. I was really happy that things went well as planned. She accepted my request. Oh no, if nothing else, terrible things happen here. How could such a young girl take a request from someone whom she had never seen?? Though I told all the information to her very carefully as much as I could…
I booked the certain place for the cosplay shooting, and finally the fateful day came…Around noon, Windbell, double, miho, and I met up, and started the wonderful shooting. Miho cosplayed Suzumiya Haruhi, and I did Kyon. Hey, she is 19! Ugh, my age! Ouch! No one wants to see オジサン’s Kyon. At any rate, Windbell is awesome. He brought a very gorgeous camera and good took care of the shooting place. I am not familiar with this kind of thing, so left everything to him and Double who worked as a sub photographer.
I actually made some quick illustrations from the certain fragments of the anime in order to learn good pose. Well, we shall call it ネタ写[netasha] to copy a certain scene, situation, or pose. Anyway, miho is awesome. She can cosplay not only Suzumiya Haruhi but Nagato Yuki as well while she said she had been a cosplayer for a month or so. She looked a bit nervous(of course, she came to the three unknown guys!), I was quite surprised to see how well she acted as I asked. And of course I really really want to say thank you to Windbell and Double for their good job.
Okay here it goes! Well you can see on his blog, though. Read the rest of this entry »
ダンデレ[dandere]
This -dere thing never ends…What is coming this time??
Umm, I don’t think this is very different from クーデレ[coo-dere]. To get to the point, ダンデレ is an abbreviation of だんまりデレデレ[danmari deredere]. だんまり[danmari] means to be calm or to shut one’s mouth up all the time. And デレデレ means, you know, such a sweet attitude. She doesn’t speak at all mostly, but when there’s no one else but you two, she would be sweet to you. In other words, she would be in deredere-mode. I am not sure why this term had to be born. Now that there’s this term, it has to be different from クーデレ…What’s that?
Coo-dere girls have to be cool. Does カッコいい[kakkoii] come first when you hear “cool” in English? At any rate, I assume she has to show her something special side, far from other common girls. Look at Kawasumi Mai in Kanon. She is actually a demon slayer, so she can fight with a sword. Next look at Ayanami Rei, she can pilot the first Eva, in other words, Chosen One. Nagato Yuki in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi is actually an alien, and she can protect Kyon.
However, だんまり[danmari] doesn’t sound so cool if you ask me. She just shuts her mouth and show her dere-side when she is near you. Maybe ダンデレ is much easier to become than クーデレ if you want to turn someone you like on. Having said that, those mentioned girls could count as a ダンデレ because they don’t speak at all.
Umm, I can’t think of a good example. Such a common girl without any special skills doesn’t speak at ll…Ah, what if she is too shy to speak to him in front of everybody else? And what if she starts to show dere-side when she is near you? In that case, I can think of Kiyoura Setsuna in School Days. Yeah! She is not so special, but doesn’t speak at all…and she even kisses Makoto while he is sleeping. Okay, she is labelled as a ダンデレ.
ふたなり[futanari]
This post contains some pornographic contexts. Viewers’ understanging is required. Read the rest of this entry »
極道へようこそ！Ⅱ[Welcome to Gokudo! Ⅱ]
I don’t know how many anime fans would like to learn yakuza terminology, but I got a request I should make a post on this again here. So I shall introduce some which I didn’t do last time.
Too bad, there’s not much anime series which follow yakuza society. However, there are quite a few yakuza manga. As far as I am aware, two major yakuza manga-ka are 池上遼一[Ikegami Ryouichi] and 倉科遼[Kurashina Ryo]. Speaking of the former’s famous manga, I can definitely recommend HEAT, and the latter, it should be 女帝[jotei] and 美悪の華[biaku no hana]. Okay, so I shall mention some new words here…
1. 弾く[hajiku]: To assassinate someone especially with a pistol. 拳銃[kenju] is also read as はじき[hajiki]. If someone says, 堀田さんが弾かれました![Hotta-san ga hajikaremashita!], it would mean Hotta-san got killed with a pistol.
2. 殺る[toru]: Yes, to kill someone. But in this case, it would emphasize he seriously would like a big reputation, so that he dies to kill a high-rank person in the yakuza circle.
3. 命[tama]: 命を殺る[tama wo toru] means to kill someone.
4. 臭い飯[kusai meshi]: Literally, it means a stinky food, but actually this means to go to jail. It probably origins from a horrible food in prison. But just 臭い飯 doesn’t work. You ought to say 臭い飯を食う[kusai meshi wo kuu], and it works.
5. エンコ詰め[enko dsume]: In this society, there is a weird way to show your apology. Yes, if you make a big mistake, you would have to be punished. So…they would chop your pinky. Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! エンコ[enko] means a pinky.
6. ショバ代:[shoba-dai]: If you make a hot-dog(or takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba) stand on the street, a group of yakuza might come to you and say like どこにショバ代払てんねや、オゥ？[doko ni shoba-dai haroten neya, Ou?]. Even if you get a permission from the police, you yet to pay some money to them if you accidentally place a stand in the yakuza’s 縄張り[shimari]. But yeah? They would just threaten you. You don’t need to pay, but so long as you don’t pay, they would keep annoying you forever. ショバ stems from 場所[basho]. Techinically it is 場所代[basho-dai] which means money to use a space.
7. ダフ屋[dafu-ya]: If you go to a live performance, you would definitely see this kind of yakuza. They are walking around the cencert hall to sell and buy tickets. This is technically illegal, but some lunatic fans die to get a ticket from them. But be careful, they might be selling a fake one or an out-of-date ticket. And if you really really want to buy a ticket from them, you should wait until the show begins, otherwise you can haggle over the price. ダフ屋 means a yakuza who sells and buys tickets at an amazingly expensive price. ダフ stems from 札[fuda] which means a ticket or a token.
8. みかじめ[mikajime]: In kanji, it might be written as 見ヶ〆(not correct). But this is 当て字[ateji, phonetic equivalent], so don’t believe it too much. At any rate, this is something like ショバ代, but if a shop is controlled (or managed) by a group of yakuza, the owner has to pay some money to them. Mostly, this happens to nightclubs or host-or-hostess clubs. They are actually controlled by a certain group of yakuza.
As I said in my previous post, I am just a big fan of yakuza film. Not one of them, really! (;^^)
ボク少女/俺女[boku-shoujo/ore-onna]
There are several kinds of the first person(一人称) in Japanese. When Japanese learners start to work on this, they usually learn 私[watashi] first. This is the most common and polite one, that’s why. わたくし(watakushi, kanji is the same as 私) is too polite, if you ask me. However, if you are learning with anime, manga, TV drama, or whatever, you would definitely know more first persons such as 僕[boku], 俺[ore], あたし[atashi], or わし[washi]. Needless to say, some of them are men’s use, and others are women’s use.
Having said that, especially in anime a strange thing happens(well, a lot of crazy things happen anytime, if nothing else). I mean, even though she is a girl, she might be using ボク[boku] to address herself. Does this ring a bell to you? Grammatically and logically, this is definitely wrong, but for some reason this happens…If you encounter this kind of girl, you can call her ボク少女[boku-shoujo] or ボクっ子(娘)[bokukko]. ボク is mostly written as katakana rather than kanji. Maybe that’s because it would sound cute, I assume. Anyway, this type of girl could be innocent and adorable, and she might be lolita-looking and diminutive. Speaking of a ボクっ子, I can think of Ayuayu[Kanon], Mitsuki[Double Cast], Makoto[Idolm@ster], Ai-chan[Cat’s Eye], Kino[Kino no tabi], Utena, Hanyu[Higurashi no naku koro ni], Akane[Toki meki memorial 2]. Ugh, there’s too many, never ends. If she turns you on, you would sure have a ボクっ娘萌え[bokukko-moe]. But why? I don’t feel anything about this, so I wonder why this could turn you on? I guess a little girl who says boku makes herself more cuddlesome. Yes, of course this can happen in anime[二次元]only. I have seen a real ボク少女, but it was too painful to hear.
Meanwhile, there’s another type of girl. If she uses 俺[ore], she could be labelled as a 俺女[ore-onna]. We don’t say 俺っ子[orekko] for some reason. At any rate, 俺女 might be very cool and such a delinquent girl. ;^^ Yes, she tries to look herself stronger, but the real her is so lonely and weak…When she stops using 俺 and says 私 with a shy voice, she would show you her dere-side. Nah, this is an average クーデレ girl, isn’t it? Anyway speaking of a 俺女, I can think of Touma[Minamike], Kaori[City Hunter], Azumi[あずみ], or Kiyomi[Sotsugyou]. Even though they don’t say 俺, I would like to count Tomoyo[CLANNAD] and C.C[Code Geass] because there’s no feminine utterance from them like ～わよ[…wayo], ～のよ[…noyo], ～わね[…wane].
Too bad neither can turn me on!
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 