性転換[seitenkan]
Gender-bending School Days
As it is, this merely means gender-bending. In real life, someone who really wants to change the sex undergoes a surgery. No no no, that’s not what I am going to tell. Okay, if you happen to be a big doujin fan, or a doujin artist, you would be definitely sure of this. Yes, switch your favorite characters’ gender and let them make love, so you can create 性転換[seitenkan] or gender-bending.
Basically, this method used to be popular among BL fangirls who don’t want to see a favorite character having a sex with a girl (but die to see his own nudity!). Using this method, seme can be an uke, and there’s other way around. But after all, it’s 夢オチ[yumeochi]…Ugh, this is too typical. Having said that, this seriously requires viewers’ understanding. Sheer fans would hate it, so that this genre might be cliquished. Even if you come across such a blog or video, a note says in advance for sure.
Meanwhile, this method is used to make a joke. For example, such a bishoujo gets a muscular body (but her face still remains)! Or else, Jojo (Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure) or Kenshiro (The Fist of the Northern Star) has a ribbon in his hair or wears over knee socks (yes, zettai ryouiki for sure!).
However 2006 onwards, there has been a lot of decent gender-bending fanarts. They just enjoy gender-bending, so it’s not even necessarily yaoi. It’s more of a parody, yes, here’s the most famous parody series, 性転換エヴァンゲリオン[Gender-bending Evangelion] which all the characters are gender-benders. I must say this genre has been in the mainstream.
Needless to say, this is definitely popular among cosplayers. Well, a better saying is crossdressing though. The intersting thind is that there are a lot of cosplayers who even do Suzumiya Haruhiko series[gender-bending Suzumiya Haruhi]. So girls can cosplay Kyonko or Itsuko, and guys can do Haruhiko or Yuuki. Either way, I won’t do this though.
きんもーっ☆[kinmooo☆]
Yes, this is a slang to describe something ugly or weird as you can imagine, and the plain form is 気持ち悪い[kimochi warui]. Normally, young people would say キモい[kimoi] which is an abbreviation of 気持ち悪い, however, why きんもーっ☆[kinmoooo]? Why ☆? This sounds like someone is just saying, but why is this famous among otaku people? This is based on the certain incident which happend a couple of years ago…
On August 12nd 2005, there was a mega doujin event called Summer Comic Market[夏コミ] at Tokyo Big Sight. There was a hot dog stand catered by Nathan’s Franchisee of Japan, and the incident happened because of the serving girl. She was a student who worked part-time, and came to the site for work. The problem was her personal blog that she wrote about the work. If she had written about just the work, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But she actually insulted customers(yes, otaku) on her blog, saying きんもーっ☆. To much worse, she even uploaded some photos in which some customers and her who wore the uniform with no permission. The date, the place, and the uniform…yes, these things could make it easier to identify her, so 2ch people immediately made a fuss. Because of this, Nathan’s had to deal with a lot of complaints and apologized. In this way, a fuss or a skirmish on the net is what’s called 炎上[enjou], and when 炎上 goes too far, it shall be called 祭[matsuri] or carnival. Particulary, this one is called きんもー祭[kinmoo sai].
Needless to say, she had to terminate her blog. But what did she say actually?
1. コンビニ行ったら、るるぶの萌え版があった。もえるるぶってどないやねん！きんもーっ☆[I found a moe edition of Rurubu(a famous guidebook) at the convinience store. What’s a moe edition? Kinmoooo☆]
2. 客の大半はオタ。これがぶあああっているの！怖い！キモい！[Most of the customers were otaku. There were too many! Horrible! Ugly!]
Having such a big trouble, this 祭 was over somehow. But きんもーっ☆ has been famous among bloggers, so even now people are still using it. Personally I don’t like it, though…At any rate, this kind of incident is not only this, but others happened so far. For exapmle, the certain mixi blogger insulted a customer on his blog, and got fired since someone reported it to the store. In USA, some companies prohibit staff from writing about the work, that’s what I heard. Well, I don’t think this works perfectly because they can’t interfer in private concerns…
Blog is good, but we have to use it well, otherwise it’s going to be 沢尻方式. No no, it could be much worse!
[Intermission] Otomen of the Rebellion-反逆のオトメン-
On August 10th, 2010, a.t.b., the Holy Empire of Britannia overpowered Japanese forces and conquered the country with robotic weapons, the Knightmare Frames, in less than a month. Japan lost its freedom and rights and was remaned Area 11. The Japanese people, renamed as “Otaku,” were forced to survive under the harsh discrimination, while Britannians lived in first-class settlement. As the prejudice and the discrimination became worse, some Japanese people became insane and started to struggle against the Empire or even slay each other.
As the Emperor did nothing to stop this never-ending-skirmish, the otomen named bangin vowed to destroy Britannia. He tries to construct a world in which all the otaku people can live happily without descrimination, and all the otomens can come out of the closet with no hesitation…
Oh never mind^^, I am really happy that I could finally cosplay Zero! This is what I have been longing for. I must say this cosplay got me to do a lot of things…you know, Zero’s costume is kind of tight, and clearly shows your physique like a plugsuit in Evangelion. So this requires a good shape to look good. That’s why I started to work out since January, I mean, go jogging and go to swim at the local swimming pool. It doesn’t have to be muscular, but slender like a hourglass. Hey CLAMP-san, why don’t you design a character more naturally for cosplayers?
I finally ordered this costume last month, but there was no photographers as usual. Can I grab any one of them and geass? However here comes the Messiah, I mean, the young talented photographer Windbell came to Tokyo! So I geassed himasked him to take a photo. This is my first cosplaying Zero, nonetheless, I got such a nice photographer…嬉しすぎる～！！ Read the rest of this entry »
L5発症[L5 hasshou]
I think I should have introduced this when I made a post on ヤンデレ[yandere]. Well, if you have watched the famous yandere anime which origins from its doujin comics, Higurashi no naku koro ni[ひぐらしのなく頃に], you would be sure of this. L stands for Level, so L5 means level 5. And 発症[hasshou] means to sicken for illness or to develop the symptom. But what kind of level? Why 5? Yes, this stems from 雛見沢症候群[Hinamisawa Shoukougun], which means Hinamisawa syndrome. Trying not to give away any spoilers, I shall briefly explain this. This story follows a transfered schoolboy named Keiichi Maebara who starts a new life in the small village, 雛見沢[Hinamisawa]. He makes friends with several bishoujos at school, but it seems that they are hiding something horrible behind. As he tries to figure it out, he experiences a nightmare that those bishoujos become murderous.
The main reason why they become so murderous shouldn’t be mentioned here, so I must say sorry about this, but you should watch it if you haven’t. At any rate, the important thing is the level shows a person’s anger and ranges minus 5[-5] up to plus 5[+5]. When the level comes to 5, it sickens for Hinamisawa shoukougun, and drives him/her crazy. Needless to say, the action is to insult, or even to murder. That is L5発症[L5 hasshou].
Among non-otaku people, there is a similar word, マジギレ[majigire] which is an abbreviation of マジでブチギレ[maji de buchigire] which means to seriously get mad. This is a bit old, but MK5[five seconds prior to breakdown] used to be popular among schoolgirls. So when otaku people use L5発症, it means almost the same thing. Not to become like Rena. (;^^)
Well, if level 5 is the point of breakdown, what kind of symptom can be seen as of level 3 or 4? Let’s see an example with Kotonoha Katsura in School Days. While Makoto tries to ignore her, she starts to be sick in love. I think it’s level 2 when she is making a scarf for him, and it’s 3 when she is talking to the answering machine as if she is speaking to Makoto. It’s 4 when she is waiting for him under the mistletoe, and it’s finally 5 when she finds Makoto’s…So it sickens for L5発症, and she calls Sekai in order to…
However, L5発症 is not just an otaku thing anymore because this kind of thing really happens in Japan. A while ago, a 15-year-old girl killed her father while he was sleeping. She was not acting weird at all till the incident, but she had a nightmare that her father killed all of the family. So she decided to kill all of a sudden. Actually the police found out she poccessed some comics of Higurashi, so first it seemed that she became yandere all of a sudden like those girls in Higurashi. But the truth is that she had been suffered from the stress for long. Though she was an A student, her grade became worse, and got scold by her parents. Such annoyed and tired her, so she decided to end everything by killing all of the family. Yes, it sickened for L5発症. Since the father was phisically strong, she killed him first while he was sleeping. She meant to kill her mother, younger brother, and…herself.
Yes, life is hard, life is in pain. But to kill somebody changes nothing, but ruins your life. Surpassing the hardships, you can be grown-up. Don’t let L5発症 happen! But in 2D, it’s okay.
ヤシガニアニメ[yashigani anime]
Nowadays, there are too many decent anime and anime studios such as Mad House, Key or Kyo-Ani, so that you won’t come across such a terrible anime. If you have been an anime fan for 20 years, you might be sure of what I am going to tell…There was a period when a lot of anime series amazingly came out because of the hit anime, Evangelion. At that time, anime truly became a pop-culture, and anime otaku gradually started to come out.
In such a time, there was an amazingly notorious anime called Lost Universe which was aired from April 3rd to September 25th in 1998. Yes, it was in 1998, not so long time ago. But if you see this anime, you might mistake it to be far older one. Particulary, this anime was designated as a legendary horrible anime…ヤシガニアニメ[yashigani anime]. But why yahigani[palm crab]? The answer comes up with the 4th episode of this anime, ヤシガニ屠る！[Kill a palm crab!] Lost Universe is based on its light novel by Hajime Kamisaka[神坂 一] who also created Slayers. Even the anime studio was the same as Slayers…Because of the dramatical growth of anime, most anime studios were lack of manpower and budget. So eventually, this brought about such a horrible anime…I can’t describe how pathetic the anime actually was, so I shall upload the video here, just check it out. Though the seiyu’s acting is not bad, but animation is…
However, such a horrible anime came up later again. That is a film named Gundress in 1999. You might be suprised to hear that this film was released although it was incompleted. Because of this, almost all the tickets had to be reimbursed, and they issued completed videotapes for free. In 2002, there was Varanoir[学園都市ヴァラノワール] which the character designs were too horrible. So Lost Universe, Gundress, and Varanoir are summed up as the Three Great Yashigani Anime(ヤシガニアニメ３大作). So please look at the right girl carefully when they are eating okonomiyaki(ugh, looks like monjayaki!). She is moving very weird! WHAT!?↓
It seemed that no more yashigani anime was coming up anymore, however, the record was smashed by Musashi Gundoh [MUSASHI GUN道]in 2006. This must be the best in all the yashigani anime because even the staff seemed to admit this anime was sucks. They even released such DVD to put those horrible scenes together. Besides, some of the certain lines got famous among anime fans like うおッ、まぶしッ！[Wow, it’s bright!]. You can see why. ↓
The quality of anime is getting better, but that’s why horrible anime stands out. In the anime, Yoake mae yori ruri iro na[夜明け前より瑠璃色な], there is a notorious scene called キャベツ事件[Cabbage Incident]. In the 3rd episode, there is a scnese where the two girls are cutting a cabbage. But the cabbage is…
I know we shouldn’t blame anime studios because they are seriously lack of budget because TV sponsors shall take up almost 80% of it. However, at least I think they could have designed the cabbage much better. orz
Let’s say これはひどい[kore wa hidoi, this is horrible] after you watch these video.
素人萌え[shirouto-moe]
This is basically a genre of AV (porn video), so I don’t know since when this got into the mainstream of moe. If you happen to be in Japan and hopefully an adult, go to the rental video shop and see how it is. You will be able to see all the video get classified and find one of them saying 素人[shirouto] for sure. 素人 literally means an amateur, so in this genre, such amateur girls show as a pornstar…I am not so sure they are really amatuers or merely pretend to be. But why amatuer?
There’s often an old saying, 畳と女は新しい方が良い[tatami to onna wa atarashii houga ii] or the newer tatami(Japanese mat) and women, the better. You know, fresh tatami is vividly green, but it is going to be yellow as time goes by. The same goes to women, in other words, the younger the better. Well, I think all the men prefer young girls. Oops, there’s other way around. I will mention it later.
So this assumption brought about this genre of moe…that is 素人萌え[shirouto-moe]. If you prefer such an amateur girl rather than a seasoned one, you belong to this. What is so special about this?
Naturally, only professional people can survive in the entertainment industry. However, we have seen too many professional people so that people seem to be bored. Because anyone looks the same; same songs, same singing, same dance, same looking…anything. 素人 is very innocent and doesn’t seem to get used to the work. That’s why it is remarkable and get people into it. Their performance is not so good that it requires some patience. People who have 素人萌え eventually forgive such an immature performance, and get satisfied.
OMG, I must say this is my weak point because I think I have 素人萌え. Whenever I see cosplayers’ pictures, I always recoginse those cosplayers who seem to get used to. Whether they are cute or not doesn’t matter, I mean, they seem to accustom themselves too much. So their faces truly tell they are cosplayers. Personally, when I seek for a cosplay buddy, I don’t value the professionalism since I am not professional either. Rather, I prefer such a beginner because they are so humble.
Well, but people can’t be 素人 forever, so this type of moe is ephemeral. Maybe the allocated time might be one or two years. After the season ends, they won’t be 素人 anymore…then new 素人 comes. This sounds like the big idol group, AKB48. Even though they get trained as an idol, their performance is not so professional. But it must be a good point for fans because they don’t feel such a far distance. And the agency recruites new girls again when someone is gone. In this way, this makes the group keep being young. I must say this is a very shrewed way.
Oh well, everytime I come acorss such a 素人, I can’t help but stopping to watch…Oh please someone, stop my (*´д｀*)ﾊァﾊァ!
I forgot to tell, if you prefer such a middle-aged woman[おばさん], you would have a 熟女萌え[jukujo-moe]. 熟女[jukujo] literally means a ripe woman. Umm, it sounds erotic! Not moe!!
乙女の友情 [Maidens’ Friendship]
In the anime, さよなら絶望先生[Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei], there is a fujoshi schoolgirl who is absorbed in creating her doujin works. Her name is Harumi Fujiyoshi[藤吉晴美], and she is a big fan of Gundam series…What makes me laugh a lot is that she sometimes has a fight with her friends over the pairing they create…like below,
a. テメーのカップリングはキモいんだよ！[Your pairing really makes me sick! It’s a crap!]
b. アンタのよりマシよ！[It should be better than yours!]
a. アンタとはやっていけないわ！[I can’t work with you!]
b. こっちこそアンタなんかお断りよ！[That’s my cue! Neither can I!]
Sorry, I can’t stop laughing. However, this actually happens in the real life, especially among doujin girls including fujoshis. Whatever thier favorite is, fans have a strong bond since they love the same thing. You know, that is what 同人[doujin] fundamentally means…
Having said that, we human beings would change our interests as time goes by. Now if you really really love Gundam oo, you might want to try Code Geass R2 someday. Once you watch R2, you wouldn’t be coming out of Geass world…In doujin circles, this action shall be called 転ぶ[korobu] or 転向[tenkou] which means to change your interest regardless of your will. And if you get hooked on it and forget what you loved before, it shall be called 帰って来ない[kaette konai] which means never coming back. Let’s see some examples,
a. 彼はエヴァンゲリオンのファンだったのに、最近コードギアスに転んだまま帰って来ない。[kare wa Evangelion no fan datta noni saikin Code Geass ni korondamama kaettekonai./Though he used to be a fan of Evagelion, he got hooked on Code Geass lately and hasn’t come back.]
b. あの子、サンゾロだったのにゾロサンに転んで帰って来ないの。[Ano ko, SanxZoro datta noni ZoroxSan ni koronde kaettekonaino./ She used to be in love with SanjixZoro, but she got hooked on ZoroxSanji and never gets back.]
In case you don’t know ZoroxSanji nor SanjixZoro, I shall tell a bit. It’s the most famous pairing in One Piece, and the same time it’s the most cliquished pairing. If you have been to Comic Market in Japan, you might be aware of these two selling booths are apart. Because they would start fighting if they get close.
You know, I had two otome friends who loved the same otome game. Whenever they met up, they started to talk about the game, and never-ending-character-song karaoke. Even challenged cosplay, and finally did 聖地巡礼 together. I was a bit envy of them because I don’t have such a friend
However, things changed when one of the two got a boyfriend in 3D. They became estranged from each other because of this. Even though one who still dwelled on 2D tried to keep in touch with the other who got a happy life in 3D, they couldn’t have fun like before. Finally, they stopped being friends…
To have a friend who has the same interst as yours is a good thing, but if just the interest could keep the friendship, it might be over when he/she changes the interest. That is a bit sad, you know…Otaku friends are very important because you can mutually have fun with your favorite otaku things, however, it would be better to have a friend whom you can have a heart-to-heart talk without otaku things. I for one, think so.
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 