Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans

 Even if you are not an otaku, I think you would be sure of the nightmare in Akihabara where an insane man stabbed several people at random last Sunday afternoon. Tell me this is just a bad dream!! If you happened to be kindly worried about me, I must say I am okay. Hopefully, I was not there on the day, but at the local karaoke to clear my frustration. All of a sudden, a friend of mine called me, and she was so upset. She told me about the incident and two of our mutual friends were at the site at the moment. I immediately tried to ring them, but neither answered the phone. But after some calls, one of them finally answered and told me the both were okay. Even though I wasn’t there at that time, I was there before the day, around the same hour as the incident. What if it happened one day earlier?

 Following the incident, I got a lot of e-mails and phone calls from my friends to make sure I was okay. The news spread out so soon that even my friend in UK mailed me. I am working near Akihabara, so I went to the site next day. A lot of flowers were dedicated already…

 Now I am so scared, and really worried about what will happen after this in Akihabara. I guess the main boulevard woundn’t be blocked off as a walkers’ paradise for a while, and the police would be patrolling more strictly. Nowhere is safe, you know. Anyway, as for the murderer, it needs more investigation. But what I want to know is that he is actually an otaku or not. If he is, the media would paint a dark image on otakus like they did so when Miyazaki Incident happened. If he is not, why did he choose Akihabara? He came all the way from Shizuoka Prefecture in order to kill people? Anyone should be fine? No reason? Did he think it is okay to kill otakus? What deserves to die is not otakus, but him.

 I can’t help but praying for people who had to leave this world…Ah, rest in peace, rest in peace…

* All the photos are taken by the certain writer I work with.

 OMG, this has got into the mainstream already, so there’s no need to explain…However, I thought this genre of moe is supposed to be for men. But actually even among female otaku including fujoshis, this is getting very popular. To get to the point, ケモミミ[kemomimi] is an abbreviation of 獣の耳kemono no mimi], which means animal’ ears. If he/she has an animal’s[bat, pig, fox, rabbit or whatever] ears, whatever it is, it shall be called ケモミミ. And if this turns on you, you sure have ケモミミ萌え[kemomimi-moe].

 First, it used to be just a cat’s ears thing, 猫耳[nekomimi]. Those cute girls who have cat’s ears on their heads can count. Whichever the ears real or fake doesn’t matter. Speaking of a 猫耳 girl, I can immediately think of Shugo Chara!, Di Gi Charat(I know it’s a bit old), OMG, Arare-chan in Dr. Slamp also cosplayed a nekomimi girl…, however, even some maids poccess a cat’s ears lately…At any rate, humanized cats used to play an important role not only in anime, but any other genre of arts. Personally, I wonder why it had to be a cat. Cats are moody but adorable, I daresay they are kinda tsundere whereas dogs are obedient. In fact, I had a cat years ago, and she used to cling on me when she got hungry, but left again after I fed her. >< When she felt lonely, she showed her dere-side. I suppose this tsundere attitude quite embodies girls’ temper, so that’s why nekomimi has become a kind of moe…no?^^ Just kidding.

 But this nekomimi thing is not for male otakus anymore. Female otakus and fujoshis are intrigued to it for sure now. Come to think of it, we have seen girls always make guys dress as a cat in anime, haven’t we? In Code Geass, Miraye made Lelouch and Suzaku cosplay a cat, and the same went to Maebara Keiichi in Higurahi no naku koro ni. Why do girls make guys dress as a cat?? Yes! Actually this happened to me! Anyway, there are even some anime where bishounens with nekomimi show such as LOVELESS or Lamento. 

 As I have said, nowadays other animals’ ears are also getting popular like a fox, a racoon dog, a frog, a sheep, a pig, or anything. There are all classified as a ケモミミ[kemomimi]. Speaking of a ケモミミ anime, I can think of A Wolf and Spice, Shugo Chara!, Inuyashiya, Utawarerumono, or Gintama.

 On a side note; there’re a lot of Comic Markets in Japan, but if you really love nekomimi or kemomimi, you can even find a comic market selling ears-related comics only. We shall call this minor event みみけっと[mimiketto]. Oh, it should be written in hiragana.     

 Alright then, I shall upload a photo of me with kemomimi. If you don’t mind, I hope you could see. But I don’t take responsibility if you get sick. Read the rest of this entry »

 Since I learned buying costumes by auction, I have started to get more costumes. Thanks to this, I can buy a lot of costumes at the reasonable price, and because of this, I can’t stop cosplaying!! More and more characters I want to cosplay come up. Come to think of it, how come I had not tried auction? Because I was afraid of those bad auctioneers. However, I didn’t have to be worried about this since we can choose those reliable ones.

 When I was thinking about the next character I cosplay, I got a wonderful present from my friend…and this is it.

 This is Japanese traditional school unifrom, 学ラン[gakuran] which is a collared button-down jacket. When I was a junior high-school student, I used to wear this, but since then, I had never wore it (In my high-school, the uniform was a blazer). And now it has come to me again?? He bought this gakuran for cosplaying, but this is unfortunately too tight for him, so that’s why he kindly sent it over as a gift. Oh no, what shall I do? Now that I got such a wonderful present, I should use it, shouldn’t I? So I started to think of any characters who wear a gakuran…

 However, I couldn’t come up with a lot. Shibuya Yuuri in Kyou kara maou wears a gakuran all the time, but I am not a shota-looking so it doesn’t suit me at all. Umm…who else? Maybe I should find other characters who occasionally wear a gakuran, I mean, not all the time…So I decided to cosplay him.

 He is Rukawa Kaede[流川　楓] in Slam Dunk. If you haven’t watched this anime, maybe you might be sure that this is a basketball anime. In my school days, this anime was really popular as well as Dragon Ball and Yu-Yu-Hakusho. I have never been a sport guy in all my life(of course not, I am such an indoor otaku!), but in fact, I used to yearn to be a sport guy. Rukawa is actually a man of few words. Oh no, I didn’t realize, but he is a tsundere! A male tsundere because he doesn’t speak at all and very cool. But I wonder if he shows his dere-side…Anyway, at this Shouhoku High-School[湘北高校], the school uniform is a gakuran, so I can make the most of it. ^^

 Meanwhile, I was strongly recommended the anime which most JUMP fangirls love…yes, that is Gintama[銀魂]. Actually this anime is so popular among not only manga fans but cosplayers and fujoshis. I have seen a lot of Gintama cosplayers at the events. Because I wanted to challenge more characters, I started to read the manga. This is hilarious, and makes me laugh so much. Anyway, I decided to cosplay these two guys.

 The left guy is Okita Sougo[沖田総悟] and the right guy is Hijikata Toshirou[土方十四郎]. Both are the members of the police, Shinsengumi[真撰組]. Hijikata is the lieutenant, and Okita secretly tries to take his place. Yes, he is a 腹黒. Hijikata is so manly that he is pretty far from the real me. Maybe Okita might be easier than him, but my cosplay buddy told me that his sharp eyes look like mine a bit so I would look nicer as Hijikata. I don’t know…

 If you go to COSPA, you can buy not only Shinsengumi’s outfit but Gintoki’s costume. But the price is over 10,000 yen(about 110$). I think you could get it around 5,000(50$) yen or so.

 As usual, I shall upload some photos here. Read the rest of this entry »

 There’s no need to explain this term now since a lot of anime fans actually do this. But I wonder if foreign anime fans who come to Japan to do this know how this action shall be called. Yes, if you really really love the anime, would you like to travel some points where the anime used as a background if the infomation is clear. I know not only my friends but even foreign tourists who happen to be anime fans visit some spots where their favorite anime actually used.

 I have a fujoshi friend who is crazy about the otome game, 遙かなる時空の中で[Haruka naru toki no naka de]. The stage closely resembles for the old Kyoto[京都]. Although most tourists visit 金閣寺[kinkakuji], she (or other fangirls) visit other points where the game actually used like 船丘山[funaokayama]. To her surprise, at those spots, you could buy some goods of the game. So this means a lot of fangirls do the same thing as her.

 Come to think of it, when I went to Korea, I visited Nami Island where the famous soap opera, Winter Sonata used as a filming place. I am not a fan, but I had to go there for some reason. Now that non-otaku people visit such places, no wonder anime fans do the same thing. So to visit the same places as anime (or movie, TV drama whatever) used as a background shall be called 聖地巡礼[seichi junrei]. 聖地[seichi] means a holy place, and 巡礼[junrei] means pilgrimage.

 When my friend, Windbell came to Tokyo a while ago all the way from Singapore, he did 聖地巡礼 for 秒速５センチメートル[byousoku go senchi metoru] in Shinjuku[新宿]. I think this should be easy for me to do since I am working in Tokyo. Maybe at best I could do my 聖地巡礼 for School Days in 神奈川[Kanagawa]. But now it’s not possible since I have no time…

 Now that I mention this term, I know I should do it and upload some interesting photos. However as I have said, I have no time to do it. If I had a chance, I would definitely give it a try. And my ideal 聖地巡礼 is for The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi in Hyougo[兵庫].

 OMG, I feel like cosplaying out there. Above photos are from this site. And I shall leave some links for other 聖地巡礼. No English site is available, but I think you can enjoy seeing some photos.

 Lucky Star.

 Air.

  So, where would you like to go for 聖地巡礼? 

 There’s no need to explain ツンデレ[tsundere] now, but like xxデレ[xx-dere] has a lot of types, there are some different types even on tsundere depending upon her temper. So today, I shall focus on some classification for this.

 This is something like a comparative form in English, in other words, it should be decided depending upon how cold and sweet she is to you.

a. ツンテレ[tsuntere]: Don’t mispronounce it as tsunDere. This テレ means 照れ[tere] which is a noun form of 照れる[tereru]. 照れる means to be shy. Literally it means cold-and-shy. Caught on, haven’t you? This type of girl is cold to you like tsundere, but she is too shy to be perfectly cold. Furthermore, she often blushes at you in spite of being cold. So we can easily tell she tries to be stronger in order to hide her shyness.  

b. ツンアホ[tsun'aho]: You can also say ツンバカ[tsunbaka] or ツンドジ[tsundoji]. アホ, バカ, and ドジ mean the same thing, stupid or an idiot. Even though she is so cold to you, she seems to be clumsy. She would goof up or mess things up, so eventually she can’t be cool in front of you. Because she actually cares about you so much, whatever she does doesn’t go well. You would see how clumsy she actually is. I think Louise in Zero no tsukaima could be this type.

c. ツンドラ[tsundora]: I already mentioned this a long time ago, however this time is different. If she is too cold and cool to show her dere-side, she would be this. Like tundra, the way she treats you is like a blizzard! Maybe C.C in Code Geass could be.

d. ツンギレ[tsungire]: ギレ[gire] stems from a verb, キレる[kireru] which means to get mad. Nah, it’s cold-and mad?? What’s that? If she keeps being cold and you don’t know why, watch out, it might lead to her breakdown. You have to figure out her feeling before she gets mad! Find out her dere-side no matter how hard she is! Don’t leave her alone! lol

 So I would like to place like below,

 ツンアホ＜ツンテレ＜ツンデレ＜ツンドラ＜ツンギレ

 Then I might add ダンデレ and クーデレbetween ツンデレ and ツンドラ if possible. And the superlative is ヤンデレ

 Oh, speaking of C.C., I went to eat ramen with her. There’s almost no dere-side in her! XD Read the rest of this entry »

 I have introduced various xx萌え[-moe] and xxデレ[-dere] so far. Like otakus love to come up with crazynew terms, fujoshis(BL fangirls) are also creating brand-new terms. I already explained some classification for top[seme] and bottom[uke] in my previous post, but darn it, I’ve got to list them out in order to update. While I was not aware, they created some new types.

a. 女王様受け[jo'ousama-uke]: This type of uke should be very beautiful and strong. Sometimes even commanding. Unlike オレ様受け, he has to be elegant, not so rude. I think Wolfram in Kyou kara maou counts.

b. ノンケ攻め[nonke-zeme]: ノンケ[nonke] means straight orientation. This type of seme is straight in the beginning. But he would be tempted by uke as the story goes on, and eventually become gay. Come to think of it, in ぼくのぴこ[My Pico] the protagonist salaryman gets into Piko, not knowing he is actually a boy.

c. 姫受け[hime-uke]: 姫[hime] means a princess. This type of uke is surrounded by several semes(more than two tops). I can’t think of a better example. Maybe Shibuya Yuuri? He can be paired up with Gunter or Conlad…but he ends up being uke.

d. 平凡受け[heibon-uke]: 平凡[heibon] means ordinary or common. So this type of uke has nothing special.

e. 無邪気攻め[mujaki-zeme]: 無邪気[mujaki] means innocent and pure. If such an innocent uke-looking boy is seme, he would be. Shimizu Keiichi in Kin’iro no Corda could be.

f. 健気攻め[kenage-zeme]: 健気[kenage] means tough-minded. This type of seme is amazingly tough-minded so that you might be touched. No matter how cold the seme is, the uke follows him. Similar to ワンコ攻め[wanko-zeme].

g. ホモ百合[homoyuri]: In となりの８０１ちゃん[My neighbor Yaoi-chan] which follows fujoshis’ culture, this is mentioned. Literally it means gay-and-lesbian. This pairing consists of two ukes, in other words, both of the two are bottoms.  Mostly they nestle and flirt with each other like lesbian. I was wondering why they made this. The answer is in the film…below is a part of the conversation;

A: あたし、誘い受けや襲い受けのせいで、世の中の８０％の男が受けに見えてしょうがないの！[In fact, about 80% of all the men seem to be uke because of sasoi-uke or osoi-uke.]

B: 大丈夫、ホモ百合を使うのよ。 [Don't worry. Use homoyuri, so you can make a pairing without seme.]

h. サンド[sando]: A bottom for two tops.

 Below is all about genres of BL.

i. ML: Stands for Men’s Love. Technically, BL caters to minors. If a pairing consists of two adults, it should be ML. Well, I don’t think all the fujoshis care about this, though.

j. ロボやおい[robo yaoi]: If either of the two is a robot, it should be this. Whichever the robot becomes, it should have a heart. I mean, it can talk, laugh, cry, angry, whatever like a human being. The only one mistery is how they do it. Well, maybe やおい穴 can clear everything. Speaking of ロボやおい, I can definitely think of Fullmetal Archemist. 

k. 匂い系[nioi-kei]: 匂い[nioi] means smell. Yes, it smells like BL. Even though the story is not BL, it has a scent of BL…For example, Water Boys, Ouran High-School Host Club, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Prince of Tennis or something like that.

l. 健全[kenzen]: It means sound. In short, there’s no sex scene. In other words, you can say NL[Normal Love].

m. 微裏[biura]: I guess this could be an abbreviation of 微妙に裏[bimyou ni ura]. In short, it’s slightly porno. But not too much. At best, it should be only kissing. Not more than that.

 That’s all I can think of now. I think there will be more in the future because fujoshis’ delusion never ends.

 This post contains some pornographic contexts. Viewers’ understanding is required. Read the rest of this entry »

 If you happen to be a shota fan, you might be sure of this genre of shota. Well as you can see above image, kemoshota is a hybrid of an animal(dog, cat, lion, wolf etc.) and a shota-looking boy. It is an abbreviation form of ケモノショタ[kemono shota]. ケモノ means an animal…and if you love this, you would be a ケモナー[kemona-].

 There are technically five types of ケモショタ.

a. A humanized animal(you can say 擬人化[gijinka]). Like above image, it’s like a hybrid of a young boy and an animal. In real life, a musical, Cats can count. This is a fundamental form of ケモショタ.

b. Obviously a human part and an animal part of his body should be separated. Like a merman or Centaur. But this is absolutely less popular.

c. Even though it is totally an animal, it speaks or walks like a human being. For example, Rakushun in Twelve Kingdoms or all the characters in Keroro Gunsou. Deep kemoshota fans love this.

d. A dressed shota-looking boy as an animal. If he wears cats’ ears or doll, it could count as a kemoshota. Some people might count the Suzaku in a cat doll. But actually this is less recognisable as ケモショタ.  

e. If the animal has a shota-looking or is merely childish, it could be. Shamisen in the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi doesn’t count because the way it speaks is too old.

 Although shota fans are everywhere, kemoshota fans are not so. Even in doujin comic markets, there’s not much kemoshota stands though there are kemoshota fans on the net. Umm, this is because they are too shy to come out of the closet? Also in BL circles, this kind of genre exists as ケモホモ[kemohomo]. Ugh, I don’t want to think about it. orz 

 This is something relates to ヘタレ I have already explained here. ヘタレ is such a hopless guy (mostly) who is reluctant to do something.  But in this genre, there is another classification as a matter of fact…that is ダメエリート[dame elite]. ダメ[dame] means no good. In general, such suckers are called ダメ男[dameo]. エリート[erito] means elite. So literally this is a mixture of ダメ男 and エリート. Wait, I need to learn about elite more…I shall find it out in my dictionary. orz Elite means a small group who are powerful or important because they have money, knowledge, special skills etc…Yes, this is it.

 To get to the point, ダメエリート means a clumsy and hopeless guy even though he is a well-born, or a guy who doesn’t do good in the great company. You can simply picture a hetare guy in the elite group. Just hetare guys are everywhere, but how did this ダメエリート start? How come such a hopless could become one of the elite group in the first place?  At any rate, this type of guys are awkwardly pathetic so that there’s almost no salvation. But even that, he tries to make it better…and goof up again. Although any other characters in the story are all smart, he is the only one hopeless. Comparing to just a hetare, dame elite is more awkward. But that’s why this could turn girls who want to help him on somehow…I assume.

 Besides, ダメエリート doesn’t even necessarily mean a hopless worker in the great company, but a sucker in the great family. Even though he was born in the great family, he is a hopeless…Yes, this is ダメエリート, too. I think this could be easily found in anime or manga. Two major ones are Himura Kenshin in Rurou ni Kenshin and Tenka in Houshin Engi. But I can definitely think of Zetsubou-sensei! Though he comes from the great Itoshiki Family, he is in despair. His brother is a doctor, and sister is a master of flower arrangement…but zetsubou-sensei actually goofs around when he stays at his hometown, and plays with some girls…Anyone else? I am so sorry to say like this, but come to think of it, what about Lelouch in Code Geass? He is actually the son of Britannia Emperor, isn’t he? But he abandoned Britannia and started a new life as an ordibary student. Well, I know he is not a hopeless, though. Oh Arima’s father in His and Her Circumstance could be. He is a delinquent guy though he is well-born…Yes in this way, there is a deep story beside a ダメエリート.

 In BL circles, this ダメエリート is quite popular as well, especially when the story takes place between two salarymen(リーマンもの). Mostly a 鬼畜眼鏡 is to be a seme and a ダメエリート is to be a uke, or a ダメエリート後輩[kouhai] is to be a seme and his 先輩[sempai] is to be a uke.

 Jesus.    

 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.

Read the rest of this entry »