| 5 kwestionz! |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|08:07 pm] |
1) Out of any mecha anime you've watched, which main character would you like to be and why?
Hmm...Kaine Wakaba from Dragonar. He got a major GOOD END in that series, like all the other heroes.
2) What kind of degree do you have/are going for?
Ph.D in history. My field of study specifically concerns African-American intellectual history, specifically the relationship between African-American intellectuals and religion over the period from the end of the Civil War to the end of the Cold War.
3) What's your favorite RPG?
Final Fantasy 6, prolly.
4) Which fandoms do you classify as fandumbs?
Pretty much all of them XD It's really just another term for fandom, like I use 'nuu haus' for 'new house' and so on. Its connotations are derogatory, of course, but thats cause every fandom has dumb people in it, right? XD
5) What's the silliest thing you've ever done?
I dunno...possibly spawning the whole "Prunyuu~" thing in the Castlevania fandom. XD XD XD |
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| Different Levels of Politeness |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|04:25 pm] |
I've been to many clinic, 2 hospitals, a dentist, and various chiropractors. They've all called me チェンさん or シンさん and always greeted me out the door with お大事に.
I tried going to a different dentist this time. They called me シン様 and greeted me out the door with お大事にどうぞ.
I think some of them have trouble figuring out what my family name is, and the ones that figure it out call me シンさん. I don't really mind either way, but I suppose I prefer being called by first name.
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| Summon Night X |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|01:23 am] |
Wow, this game's story is totally Suikoden V! I wouldn't be surprised if they got inspiration from it.
Quite a big departure from the traditional Summon Night, which isn't known for political intrigue.
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| Anime - Double Standard |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|09:21 pm] |
Genshiken, Ep. 2, 15:00
The other day, in Kohsaka's room, I found a ton of porn magazines with anime characters.
W-What is it?
Well, um...
It's not that earthshattering.
But it's anime! Anime! That's perverted!
I-I think you can treat them the same way as a regular porn magazine... I-It's just a matter of preference.
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That double standard definitely exists in real life. The other day, I attended an ALT hosted event - Charity Auction + Dinner. I brought my K-On wall scroll to auction. When my item came up, they were saying "C'mon, you perverts. You know you want this! LOL!" Now it was a normal pic of all the K-On girls in their typical school uniform, just the same as all the high school students here wear. Just because they're anime girls, anyone who's interested is suddenly a pervert? Earlier, they were auctioning off a real pornographic book, full with boobs and pubic hair, no one said the word "pervert" then. But my innocent all ages K-On wall scroll is perverted? Yup. Double standard. That's why I like Genshiken, very realistic while being comical at the same time.
The guy who ended up buying it decided he didn't want it and he tried to get rid of it, I said "hey, if you don't want it, I'll take it!" I dunno if he realized I was the one brought it in. Funny, it got sold at the auction and I got it right back for free.
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| 箸 一膳 |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|09:08 pm] |
I've always wondered what the counter for pairs of chopsticks was, I remember asking some of my brightest students during lunchtime and they had no idea.
Well today, the clerk at the supermarket taught me. I bought a bentou at half price. I can't eat the included chicken of course, but since it's half price, it's still worth it even if I throw out the chicken. So at the register, she asked me お箸は一膳でよろしいでしょうか？
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| Genshiken |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|07:57 pm] |
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Wow, this anime is really accurate so far about otaku. Other shows like Densha Otoko, Akihabara@Deep, Lucky Star are kind of over-exaggerated, Genshiken is the closest thing to what real otaku are like that I've seen. |
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| Summon Night X = Kimi no Yuusha |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|02:44 am] |
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The battle system reminds me of Kimi no Yuusha. Grounds units on the bottom, flying units on the top screen. While there are link attacks, it's nowhere near as cool as the combo system in Kimi no Yuusha. Kimi no Yuusha's biggest problems were meh story and way too easy battles, same with Nostalgia. Summon Night X doesn't have those problems, lots of political intrigue so far, reminding me a bit of Suikoden V. And while mk2 reviews aren't up yet, amazon reviews are complaining about the high difficulty. |
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| More abbreviations |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|11:28 pm] |
シオエフ - King of Fighters
エスカプ - SNK Vs. Capom
マン研 - Manga Club
I learned these from Genshiken Ep. 1.
We were going to create an anime/manga club in my school and I was to be 2nd in charge; but when proposed, the bigwigs said そんな暇あったら、早く帰れよ. I dunno if other high schools have an anime/manga club, but from what I hear, a マン研 is rather common in Japanese universities.
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| Summon Night = Dead |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|09:34 pm] |
On the main series, they've only been making side games ever since SN4, including the latest Summon Night X. The closest thing in terms of traditional SN gameplay would be Sacred Blaze on PS2.
Maybe they saw how good Luminous Arc was and figured there was no way they could make a traditional Summon Night SRPG better than Luminous Arc?
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|03:12 pm] |
Miami Crisis and Time Hollow were both a blast to play. Most professional reviews slammed them -- just goes to show Westerners don't really understand these types of games.
Miami Crisis must be the closest thing you can find to 24 in a video game, while Time Hollow is the closest thing you can find to Butterfly Effect.
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| Miami Law |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|12:28 am] |
Daniel: Some of my talent will be jonesing when my stash runs out.
My electronic dictionary does not have that word! Meaning that a Japanese person playing Miami Law in English would have to google "jonesing" to figure out the definition, the same way I often do with words in Japanese games!
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Overall, the story reminds me of Donnie Brasco(one of my JTEs loves that movie). |
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| Gamebook |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|11:33 pm] |
As a kid, I remember reading a Batman choose your own adventure book. Suppose on p. 7, Joker invites you to save Comissioner Gordan by coming alone. If you decide to obey and go alone, go to p. 33, or if you go with the entire Gotham City police force, turn to p. 99.
Sword World Gamebook 2 on NDS is a lot like that, but in a fantasy setting. I like it so far, the default speed for auto-scrolling text is just right for me. On the other hand, To Heart 2 Portable on PSP's auto-scrolling text is super duper fast. I'm guessing well-read native Japanese can read at that pace, but not me. In fact, I want to bring it to school and ask various people if they can keep up with the pace at which the text scrolls, but I think some of the teachers might speak out against me freely displaying my PSP in school. Because if Japanese REALLY can read that at pace, my next goal would to reach that level of reading speed. In a way, it's really just a high-tech novel, but the other teachers don't really understand video games, they'll just see the PSP and think EVIL!
Gamebook's wiki has very little info on the matter unfortunately. |
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| The curious case of the reflex |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|04:53 pm] |
While everybody's got their panties in a twist over Modern Warfare 2 coming out next week, another story has been going on about this year's Wii Call of Duty offering. It's not Modern Warfare 2. No, it's actually a port of the original Modern Warfare released two years ago for HD consoles, and retitled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition. In addition, Infinity Ward isn't doing development work on this port. Instead, Treyarch, the "other" Call of Duty developers, are handling all work bringing the title over to the Wii.
Now let's consider the bizarre set of circumstances surrounding this game. As of today, Activision has not released a single offical screenshot or video of the game. Zero. Nothing. Doesn't it seem odd that a port of 2007's "Game of the Year" has not a single official press asset or advertisement to its name? Back in August, a few lightly poop-seasoned screenshots were posted up on IGN, but these screens were shown to be from a pre-alpha build of the game and were never meant to be revealed to the public.
Then, a few weeks ago, a NeoGAF member by the name of "fyzxwhyz" began talking about the game, claiming to be a Treyarch developer. As it turns out, Treyarch was ordered to do a straight port of the game. No new textures. No new game modes. Just fitting Wii controls over a two-year old title. In fact, this port is apparently so true to its predecessors that Treyarch's logo isn't even displayed in the opening credits roll for Reflex. According to fyzxwhyz, the only place Treyarch staff is even mentioned is in the middle of the ending credits.
In summary, it would seem that Activision/Infinity Ward is trying to cover up all evidence that the game even exists, and for the few people who do end up finding out about Reflex, that any involvement by Treyarch be quietly swept under the rug. Why? It's not like Reflex edition is going to cannibalize any sales from Modern Warfare 2. Some people have begun to point the finger at hubris on the part of Infinity Ward versus the desires of their parent company, Activision.
Infinity Ward staff have gone on record saying they refuse to develop for the Wii, so it was unlikely they would have created a port of Modern Warfare 1/2 for the Nintendo Wii. The problem is, last year's Call of Duty title, World at War, sold rather well on the Wii. Surprisingly well. Now Activision, seeing the opportunity to expand its Modern Warfare 2 profits, asks IW to make a Wii version of MW2. But they won't have any of that. So instead Treyarch gets the order to make a port.
This is where the conspiracy theory comes into play. IW apparently wanted the Call of Duty spotlight to itself. But when Treyarch, a "B-rate" development team, received high praise for their work on the XBOX port of CoD2, IW got nervous. This could be how the pathetic state of Reflex came to be. Not only does IW actively hate on the Wii, but the thought of Treyarch taking yet another one of their treasured IPs and improving on would be a nightmare scenario for Infinity Ward.
Thus, the private spat between Infinity Ward and the world has resulted in no media being created for Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition. The only assets available today are flimsy YouTube videos of early pirated copies of the game. And guess what, it's apparently pretty good! Treyarch has done extensive work on letting the player customize Wiimote pointer control, implemented leaning, did a good job downsizing the HD graphics down to a level the Wii can handle, and created a "hotfix" system to patch any bugs that might be discovered on online multiplayer.
While the previous two paragraphs are full of conjecture, the fact still stands that Activision has done nothing to adversit the Wii version of Modern Warfare, despite it being a very solid port. Why am I even posting this? Because the circumstances surrounding the game truly are something to think about, plus I've kind of been hating on MW2 more and more as time goes on. |
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| Mother Theresa |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|10:26 pm] |
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That name came has come up a lot throughout my life. But now, I'm actually finding out who she is thanks to Pen & Teller Bullshit S03E05. Before then, I always thought of Mother Theresa as Greenhill's mayor(Suikoden 2). |
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| Who does my new icon surprise? |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
The correct answer should be "no one", but yeah.
Transliterated Bad Apple!! also (someone already translated it quite well). I have to get that tut written, and... then I guess I'm translating some more Dept. Heaven stuff! /idk man
And playing some more of that tonight, hurr. :D
( Bad Apple!! ) |
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| Fujoshi |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|12:34 am] |
I've been reading this encyclopedic manual of fujoshi vocabulary lately, as they use a lot of vocabulary that normal Japanese people don't understand. One part talks about how even after you read the book cover to cover, you might still hear fujoshi using unfamiliar vocabulary -- chances are high they it's a 4-letter word, the first two being the 攻め character, the last two being the 受け character.
The key word that struck was 4 letters. Then I realized that all the video game title abbreviations are 4 (kana) letters. キンハー、ストつう、エフエフ、ドラクエ、すばせか、クラコア、テイルズ、スパロボ、ハガレン、幻想、メルブラ.
I guess 4 is the magic abbreviation number in Japanese. Some series that I don't know how to abbreviate: 真三国無双、ワイルドアームズ（＝ワームズ？）、イース、英雄伝説：空の軌跡、スターオーシャン、ロックマンetc.
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| Yet another randumb quote i like |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|03:33 am] |
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A man who thinks he is a threat to you is very often dangerous to you. However, in my experience, a man who thinks *you* are a threat to *him * is very often even more dangerous. |
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| Bullshit |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|07:27 pm] |
Got back to watching it, on the episode about the drug war.
They call alcohol a drug many times throughout the episode, but can we say the same in Japanese? アルコール＝麻薬?
Here's a statement from wiki:
たばこやアルコール飲料については薬理学としては中毒性物質ではあるが、ニコチン依存症やアルコール依存症・急性アルコール中毒という習慣性・常用・乱用に発展するという点で、保健衛生上はドラッグの一種に含む。国内では、違法麻薬に指定されている薬物を麻薬と呼ぶため、たばこやアルコールは麻薬と呼ばない。
I guess drug and 麻薬 have somewhat different definitions.
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No random breast shots in this episode, I could possibly show this in school sometime. Only 30 minutes to subtitle too! |
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amused