A recent post by Marth brings up the idea of how our perception of an anime adaptation can be greatly influenced by our prior knowledge of the anime’s original source material. This can apply to all forms of media really, such as book-to-movie adaptations or movie retellings of TV series. In anime fandom, there’s strong opinions among those who intensely care about faithfulness to the source material and those who don’t know or care…

Some say that we should judge an anime in “its own right;” that its interpretation of the original source material deserves the chance to be viewed with an open-mind and not a mind dead-set on seeing an exact replica of the source material. Actually, that’s the principle I follow most of the time when I watch anime…but that’s mainly because I pretty much only watch anime. I rarely read manga or light novels and play little if any visual novels or video games besides Pokemon. So I almost never have this prior knowledge of an anime’s source material that many fans have.

But despite being more or less an “anime-only” fan, there are a handful of series where I had read the original series before watching the equivalent anime episodes. They’re not the most poignant examples but Inuyasha, Cardcaptor Sakura, Haruhi, and Chobits are such examples for me. In these cases, did my usual attitude of judging the anime independently of the source material hold up? I would say it did, but I was obviously aware of what was changed in the anime with these titles. However, I didn’t make it a rule in my mind that change is automatically bad. I tried to put my feelings for the source material aside and look at how the story is treated in the anime. For example, I believe that the anime version of Cardcaptor Sakura is at least as good as the manga or even better. With 70 episodes and two movies adapting a 12 volume manga, the anime version showed how Sakura captured many Clow Cards that weren’t even seen in the manga, and with that, more opportunities for character development and having a more complete story. For Cardcaptor Sakura, the anime is like an extended version of the manga story, which I feel makes it better despite the fact that there are some lesser things in the anime that I wouldn’t have wanted changed from the manga.

But Cardcaptor Sakura is an unusual case, as most anime adaptations change or leave out things from the source material rather than extend the story. While Haruhi has one of the most faithful anime adaptations I’ve seen, the 2-part “Remote Island Syndrome” story had some noticeable changes from the light novel, most prominently the fact that Kyon’s sister goes with the group to the island (she doesn’t go in the light novel) and a scene not shown in the anime where the SOS Brigade partake in some wine at dinner and get hilariously plastered. Despite the fact that there were reasons in this case for why these things were changed (KyoAni wanting to sell Kyon’s sister merchandise and the taboo in Japan of underage drinking, respectively), freaking out about changes like this is rather nitpicky in my opinion. They’re not changing the story or depictions of the characters in any significant way so I don’t have a major problem with it.

But what if they do change the characters and story significantly in the anime version? Does that necessarily mean it’s inferior to the original source material? I think in cases like this where the the anime and source material end up telling two different stories that the idea of judging the anime independently is most applicable. At the halfway point of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime, the creators decided to take the story in a totally different direction than the then-incomplete manga. In spite of this, many thought highly of the anime version even after Brotherhood aired. In the case of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, it would be wrong to judge it solely by how it followed the manga because it clearly wasn’t trying to follow it. But if Brotherhood had never been made, I can certainly understand fans of the FMA manga being upset and holding a grudge against the anime version. After all, I would want to see a faithful anime adaptation of a manga I love and would be disappointed even if the changed anime version is good.

Then there are the cases where the anime is trying to follow the source material but doesn’t do the best job of it. More than others, these are the times I feel it’s right for fans of the source material to get perturbed. The first episode of Inuyasha The Final Act rushed through nearly ten chapters of manga material, with the rest of the episodes rushing through just as much and leaving out many good manga stories. The Chobits anime only had 8 volumes of manga to adapt into 26 episodes, and unfortunately the anime creators didn’t pace it well – anime-only material was placed sporadically and wasn’t meshed well with the canon stories. While I don’t think this kind of poor pacing automatically makes the anime version totally worthless, I can understand the gripes about it because, unlike the original FMA anime where it obviously wasn’t even trying to tell the same story as the manga, these anime are trying to follow the source material and are changing it for the worse rather than better. I don’t care if the anime wants to take a few liberties with the source material, but if they’re obviously trying to follow it and wind up doing a half-assed job, that’s not good. Then there are the cases with seasons of filler episode in shonen manga to allow the manga creators to churn out more material. But most of the time the anime creators aren’t even trying to make these filler episodes fit into the chronology, so if you’re like me and prefer watching anime over manga, you can easily just skip filler episodes and get otherwise good anime adaptations of Naruto and One Piece.

I think there’s some merit to the fact that not being familiar with the source material makes you more open-minded with an anime because you have fewer expectations and have little invested in how an anime is versus how it should have been. Even for the few series I watch with prior knowledge of the source material, I still try to follow my idea of judging the anime independently as much as I can. I’d like a faithful adaptation of a story I love, but I don’t mind if a few things are changed – it might even be refreshing to see a different “side” of the story and characters. However, I do have a problem when the anime version is obviously attempting to follow the source material but doesn’t follow through with the quality.

Now that I’ve covered the Japanese syllabary and writing systems, in this section I’ll be going over the basics of Japanese sentences. To me, the most fundamental parts of Japanese grammar are particles and the “to be” verb, です(desu), which is what I’ll be discussing here in Part 3…

The verb です(desu) and its informal equivalent だ(da) are often called the “to be” verb in Japanese, though they don’t have an exact English translation. In most cases they’re used to indicate if something “is” or “isn’t.” Like other verbs (which I’ll discuss in Part 4), です(desu) and だ(da) conjugate.

The reason the hiragana は(ha) is pronounced “wa” in the first sentence and others will be explained in a bit.

Like in Spanish, if the subject of the sentence is already understood, pronounces such as “he” and “she” aren’t typically used in Japanese. Therefore, in the case of the second sentence, who Tanaka is would depend on the context (for simplicity’s sake in the following sample sentences, I’ll keep it as “It’s Tanaka.”) The first sentence however, specifically states who the lawyer is, in this case it’s the speaker. If it only said 弁護士です。(bengoshi desu.) without the pronounce for “I,” like the second sentence we’d have to determine who it’s talking about through context.

In more colloquial, casual speech, では(dewa) is contracted to じゃ(ja). With that, the present-negative conjugations of the sentences would be じゃありません(ja arimasen) and じゃない(ja nai) respectively.

Again, では(dewa) can be contracted to じゃ(ja) for colloquial speech, so the first sentence would be じゃありませんでした(ja arimasen deshita) and the second would be じゃかった(ja nakatta).

Particles in Japanese sentences are used to “codify” words and connect nouns, verbs, and adjectives together. They can be tricky for English-speakers to grasp since English has very few particles in comparison and they’re used quite differently. There are a lot of particles in Japanese and I won’t be able to cover every single one in this post series. But I will cover the most basic ones in this part and will cover a few more in later parts.

は(wa): は is the particle that marks the topic of the sentence and introduces what the sentence is going to be about. Although it’s usually translated as “is” or “are,” it more specifically means “as for…” Like in the sample sentence I used for です(desu), the は(wa) in 私は弁護士です(watashi wa bengoshi desu) indicates that “As for me(私/watashi), I’m a lawyer(弁護士/bengoshi).” It’s written with the hiragana symbol は that’s usually pronounced “ha,” but as a particle it’s pronounced “wa.”

Example: 正子は学生です。
Masako wa gakusei desu.
Masako is a student/As for Masako, she’s a student.

Again, if it’s already understood that you’re talking about Masako, you could just say 学生です。/gakusei desu. (She’s a student.)

—–

が(ga): While は(wa) marks the topic of the sentence, が(ga) marks the subject of the sentence. It’s easy to get these two mixed up so let’s look at an example.

Example: 兄はすしが好きです。
Ani wa sushi ga suki desu.
My brother likes sushi.

First is the topic 兄/ani (my brother) followed by は(wa). This indicates that what follows is going to be concerning the speaker’s brother. Then the subject すし/sushi marked by が(ga) indicates what the verb or adjective is acting upon. In this case, the adjective 好き/suki (likable) is describing where the topic (my brother) stands as far as the subject (sushi) is concerned. Translated very literally, this sentence would mean “As for my brother, sushi is likable.” And again, if “my brother” is already understood as the topic under discussion, you could just say すしが好きです。/suchi ga suki desu.(He likes sushi.) Not all は(wa)/が(ga) sentences follow this pattern though…I personally still have trouble differentiating the two particles.

—–

に(ni): に(ni) is a direction or placement particle; it indicates direction towards which a verb is heading or where something is located. It comes before “movement” verbs such as 行く/iku (to go) and 来る/kuru (to come) and after a location where something is indicated to be. It usually translates as “to,” “on,” or “in.”

Example: 山本はアメリカに行きました。
Yamamoto wa Amerika ni ikimashita.
Yamamoto went to America.

The verb 行きました/ikimashita, conjugated from 行く/iku (to go), is a verb indicating movement. So に(ni) following アメリカ(America) indicates that it’s the place of destination.

Example: テーブルの上に新聞がある。
Teeburu no ue ni shinbun ga aru.
There’s a newspaper on the table.

The words translate as follows; テーブルの上/teburu no ue (top of the table), 新聞/shinbun (newspaper), and ある/aru (to be/exist).

—–

へ(e): へ(e) indicates the direction of motion and is interchangeable with に(ni) in these cases. In my first sample sentence for に(ni) for example, へ(e) could be used in its place. It’s written with the hiragana symbol へ that’s usually pronounced “he,” but as a particle it’s pronounced “e.”

—–

で(de): で(de) indicates where an action is taking place or by what means some action was done.

Example: 私は図書館で待ちます。
Watashi wa toshokan de machimasu.
I will wait at the library.

待ちます/machimasu (to wait) is the verb. で(de) follows 図書館/toshokan (library) indicating that it’s the place where the action of waiting is or will take place.

Example:　バスで学校に来た。
Basu de gakkou ni kita.
I/He/She came to school by bus.

バス/basu (bus) で(de), literally “by means of the bus,” 学校に来た/gakkou ni kita (I, He, She, etc, depending on the context, came to school).

—–

を(o): を(o) is the direct object particle. It comes before a transitive verb and after the thing to which the action is being done. It’s written with the hiragana symbol を that’s usually pronounced “wo,” but as a particle it’s pronounced “o.”

Example: リンさんはレストランでピザを食べた。
Rin-san wa resutoran de piza o tabeta.
Mr. Lin ate pizza at the restaurant.

食べた/tabeta (ate) is the action, so the direct object which has the action being done to it is the food, ピザ/piza (pizza).

Example: 本を読みました。
Hon o yomimashita.
I/He/She read a book.

読みました/yomimashita (read) is the action, and 本/hon (book) is the direct object that this action is acting upon.

—–

と(to): と(to) generally translates as “and” or “with.”

Example: 私と明は大学生です。
Watashi to Akira wa daigakusei desu.
Akira and I are college students.

と(to) can only be used as “and” for nouns. It can’t be used in such a sentence as “he’s nice and handsome” since those are adjectives being listed.

Example: 友達と宿題をした。
Tomodachi to shukudai o shita.
I did homework with a friend.

Here と(to) translates as “with.” The rest of the words are 友達/tomodachi (friend), 宿題/shukudai (homework), and した/shita (did).

—–

の(no): の(no) is the possession particle. It acts a lot like the “apostrophe ‘s’” in English. It comes before the noun that is in possession and after the noun that is the “possessor.” It can also mean “of” or “from” when describing how one noun relates to another.

Example: さきの車だ。
Saki no kuruma da.
It’s Saki’s car.

Example: これは日本の歌です。
Kore wa nihon no uta desu.
This is a Japanese song/This is a song from Japan.

—–

か(ka): か(ka) is the question particle. It acts like a question mark in English (though question marks are also used to some extent in Japanese). Unlike English however, there’s no need to change the original sentence when making it a question – just putting か(ka) at the end makes it a question in Japanese. か(ka) can also mean “or” within a choice of noun as in the second sample sentence below.

Example: 昨日テレビを見ましたか。
Kinou terebi o mimashita ka.
Did you watch TV yesterday?

Taking the か(ka) away simply changes the sentence to a statement, 昨日テレビを見ました/kinou terebi o mimashita (I watched TV yesterday).

Example: 車かタクシーで行く。
Kuruma ka takushii de iku.
I will either go by car or taxi.

—–

And that’s all the particles I’m going to cover here. Like I said, I feel that these are the most fundamental ones and I’ll most likely be discussing a few more in later sections.

So to end this post, below are simple anime-related sample sentences I made up to help reinforce what I covered in this part =)

ピカチュウはポケモンです。
Pikachuu wa pokemon desu.
Pikachu is a pokemon.

シンジはエヴァンゲリオンのパイロットだった。
Shinji wa Evangerion no pairotto datta.
Shinji was an Evangelion pilot.

こなたとかがみとつかさはコミケットに行った。
Konata to Kagami to Tsukasa wa comiketto ni itta.
Konata, Kagami, and Tsukasa went to Comiket.

ライトはデスノートを持っている。
Raito wa desu nouto o motteiru.
Light has a Death Note.

唯はケーキを食べたい。
Yui wa keeki o tabetai.
Yui wants to eat cake.

キュゥべぇと契約しますか。
Kyuubee to keiyaku shimasu ka.
Will you make a contract with Kyubey?

エルリック兄弟は錬金術で何かを作った。
Erurikku kyouda wa renkinjutsu de nanika o tsuktta.
The Elric brothers made something with alchemy.

—–Back to Part 2: Reading

I’m getting close to six years of blogging now and during this time I’ve picked up on the variety of ways people comment on blogs, whether they own a blog themselves or just read them. Naturally the diversity of blog comments and the authors behind them can’t all be categorized nicely, but I have noticed some interesting blog commenter trends…

For anyone who has had a blog for a certain amount of time and has received at least some comments, or even for someone who is just an avid blog reader, I’m sure you’ve noticed some blog commenter “archetypes” if you will – in other words, noticeably reoccurring voices behind blog comments, at least in the anime blogsphere. Here are some, among others, that I’ve noticed (sorry I couldn’t think of clever names for them):

Argree-er: These commenters always agree with the posts they read and comment on. Often they reiterate a bit of what the post said in their comment along with things like “Great post!” and “Thanks for writing this!” Some blog authors might interpret too much of this as the commenter trying to suck up to them for whatever reason, but I think most of these comments are where the true fans of the blog and/or its author lie.

Disagree-er: The opposite of the Agree-er, these commenters only pop up to disagree with posts. Sometimes they write passionately detailed comments to dissect every part of the post they disagree with, or sometimes they’re very concise and will just be like “I disagree, [something, something]” and that’s it. As long as these commenters are civilized and open-minded in their disagreement, I’m sure most of us don’t mind them and enjoy their criticism. But what puzzles me about these commenters who only leave negative, argumentative comments on a specific blog is that, if you like a blog enough to keep checking its new posts, why not leave a positive comment once in a while? And if you don’t like the blog because you’re always disagreeing with the author, why keep visiting? I suppose exchanging criticisms and nothing more is one way a blog commenter can relate to the author.

Expander: This kind of commenter always expands on the information in the post, offering extra insight into the topic that the blog author didn’t talk about or may have been slightly inaccurate about. I enjoy these comments because the kinds of posts I write often lend themselves to additional input and I love learning more about a topic I’m interested in. But on the flip side, too much of this might make the blog author feel that the commenter is trying to “show them up” or act like a know-it-all. That could be the case in some situations, especially if additional facts is all the commenter ever offers. But for the most part, I think info on the post topic continuing into the comments is a good thing.

Troll: I’m sure we’ve all encountered this kind of commenter in varying degrees; sometimes they’re amusing, sometimes they’re annoying. I don’t get many of these comments on my blog, but what throws me off when I do is that I don’t always know what kind of reply comment to leave (since I try to reply to all my blog comments if I can). I guess I’m just a very sincere, honest, down-to-earth person, so that makes it difficult for me to “play along” with a troll comment. I don’t mind them if they’re done in good fun but if they’re offensive, crude, or flames, even as a joke, that doesn’t sit well with me.

Lurker: It might seem weird calling a Lurker a type of commenter since the definition of one is someone who follows a lot of online discussion but doesn’t partake in it themselves. But they do make their presence known sometimes – I’m sure a lot of bloggers enjoy those comments that start “I’ve been visiting your blog for a while but haven’t commented before…” Sometimes the Lurkers might leave this comment and never leave one again, or they might continue to leave comments from then on (and perhaps turn into another commenter archetype).

Replier: These commenters tend to reply to other people’s comments more often than leave a stand-alone one of their own. They could do this in many ways; for example, they could be be an Expander and reply to people’s comments because they want to give them additional information or correct them about something, or they could be a Disagree-er and reply only to comments they disagree with.

Mixed: These kinds of commenters are mixed in their commenting style depending on the type of post or the blog they’re on. They might leave short, trolling comments on one blog and extensively written comments on another. Or even within one blog they could agree with the author just as often as they disagree with them.

Like I said, there are way too many kinds of commenters in the aniblogsphere to give an accurate label to them all. The above were simply some I found most noticeable. Thinking about the varying voices of blog commenters makes me wonder about a couple of things. One, how many people are Mixed in that they have one commenting “personality” on one blog and then change it on another. Or, for example, if they have a very serious voice on their blog but write joking, trolling comments on other people’s blogs. Which personality is their true one? Basically I wonder how many bloggers and blog readers tend to change their blog commenting style or are consistent with it no matter what post they’re on. And two, it seems like there’s a strong connection between the writing style of the blog author and the writing style of the commenters, something that Feal87 from EmptyBlue discusses on one of his posts. Blogs that focus on extensive, informative posts with a serious tone tend to have serious, extensive comments while blogs that are more comical tend to have more trolling comments.

As for me, I would say I’m mostly an Agree-er and an Expander in my comments, both on my own blog and on others. I could be a Disagree-er at times but usually I’ll only leave disagreeing comments if it’s a subject I’m really passionate about. I’m not much of a Lurker since I usually comment on all the posts I read (as well as on the few forums I visit). And as I explained above, my personality makes me unable to Troll, my Internet voice always being about saying something significant rather than provoking reactions. I’d rather leave comical posts to bloggers more talented in humor than I.

And now if I may inquire, what kind of commenting style do you as a blog writer or blog reader have? Do you agree with the ones I’ve listed and can you think of more?

The spring ’12 anime season started rather late this year, with some series already five episodes in and others only two or three. Because of this, I was debating whether to make my seasonal “first impressions” post or not. But since I ended up watching more shows than I originally intended, and I have a lot to say about them, I decided to go ahead with it despite being further into some shows than others…

Fate/Zero 2
Episodes 1-4

The second cour of Fate/Zero continues right where the previous one left off. As far as quality is concerned, it has all the same fantasy-rich goodness, intriguing character dialogues, and well-animated, magic-imbued action scenes that its first thirteen episodes had. Not every moment of Fate/Zero has me at the edge of my seat – it’s the kind of series where most of it is good but there are a few really great moments. I thought the third episode was a prime example of this, with the shocking, tragic demise of Kayneth and Lancer and the revelation of Kiritsugu’s true agenda. As someone who hasn’t seen Fate/Stay Night before going into Fate/Zero, I look forward to seeing how the Holy Grail War ends!

—–

Natsuiro Kiseki
Episodes 1-4

If you’re not someone who has an aversion to anime starring angsty and somewhat immature young girls having slightly whimsical slice-of-life adventures where they obtain personal growth, then Natsuiro Kiseki is a decent series thus far. Though the four girls have personalities we’ve seen many times before in anime, they bounce off each other well. I even thought the whole sequence of Natsumi and Saki getting stuck to each other in episode 2 was pretty funny. The body-switching thing in episode 4 was funny as well…I didn’t think laughs were what this series would give me so I was pleasantly surprised XD Even though the seiyuu are part of a real idol group and the show gives us some idol themes, it’s not shoved down our throats like I thought it might be…though the opening song by sphere is probably my favorite song of the season. I love that kind of upbeat, nicely harmonized j-pop song. The magical background behind the wishing stone is virtually non-defined at this point, so I’m hoping it’s addressed by the end of the series as there isn’t much else as far as plot goes. As long as you keep in mind that our protagonists are middle school girls and you don’t expect them to act like adults in certain situations, I think Natsuiro Kiseki will be alright.

—–

Uchuu Kyoudai
Episodes 1-5

One of four series I wasn’t planning on picking up but decided to last minute. And I’m glad I did because Uchuu Kyodau/Space Brothers is great. Like Sakamichi no Apollon, it’s not a typical anime centered around school girls or fantasy/sci-fi, but a down-to-earth and universal series more concerned about telling a story than catering to the otaku fanbase. I got some Bakuman vibes from Space Brothers because it follows the lives of two guys (brothers in this case) who are trying to achieve their dreams (well, one is still trying hard) of becoming astronauts while the series follows us through, giving us fascinating insight about the tests astronaut candidates have to take and how they’re chosen, much like Bakuman gives us interesting insight about the manga industry. I also felt the same suspense together with Mutta during his tests the way I did with the Bakuman duo as they awaited the results of their latest manga. Speaking of our main protagonist Mutta, he’s a funny guy and very easy to relate to. His relationship with his brother Hibito is well developed through easily digestible bits throughout the series – not too long or too short. We haven’t seen much of the rest of the cast, but they look to be good too. All in all, I have a feeling that Space Brothers will be able to keep up its current quality.

Also, the Space Brother’s opening has the most epic first twenty seconds of an opening I’ve seen in a while XD

—–

Hyouka
Episodes 1-2

A highly-anticipated but latecomer to the season, it’s hard to judge Hyouka at only two out of twenty-one episodes. I certainly see potential in it even though the plot, if there will be one, is still meandering at this point. The four main characters look like they will have good chemistry and the luscious animation with detailed backgrounds courtesy of Kyoto Animation help, too. Not being familiar with the source material, I wonder how much of the series will revolve around mysteries, how much about the classics, and how much about the characters. I look forward to finding out.

—–

Arashi no Yoru ni
Episodes 1-3

I said this would be my guilty pleasure for the season and it definitely is :3 There isn’t much to say about it beyond the synopsis that it’s about a wolf and a goat that become friends despite their species being natural enemies. There are a few more goat and wolf characters introduced besides the main two, but strangely, the show takes place in this huge expanse of plains with no sign of human civilization and even no other animals besides goats and wolves…how convenient =P Despite it being painfully obvious that this show is aimed at children, even younger ones than Naruto and One Piece, what’s unique about it is that it’s fully in CG and it’s being broadcast in dual-audio. So it has an official Japanese dubbing, actually with a few well known seiyuu – Rie Kugimiya and Hirokyuki Yoshino as the two main characters for example – and an official English dub produced by the studio. Since it’s such a simple, easy-to-understand series, I’m watching it raw in Japanese to help me with my study of the language. As far as children’s anime go, it’s decent. It’s a cute story and the CG is interesting to look at despite seeming amateurish compared to what can be seen in Pixar films.

—–

Sakamichi no Apollon
Episodes 1-3

With music by Yoko Kanno, directing by Shinichiro Watanabe, and production by Tezuka Productions, a lot of people have high hopes for Sakamichi no Apollon/Kids on the Slope. And so far I don’t feel like it’s disappointing at all. As much as I love typical otaku-aimed anime, I can also appreciate anime that don’t pander, like this one and Space Brothers. I was already gripped by the first episode with Yoko Kanno’s music, the unique setting of 1960s Japan, likable characters, and its serious yet also light-hearted tone. So far these early episodes are establishing character and theme very well, though the love triangle/unrequited love plot in the latest episode threw me off a bit. I look forward to seeing what it will lead to. With only twelve episodes, I hope Sakamichi no Apollon has the time to tell its story to the fullest.

—–

Acchi Kocchi
Episodes 1-4

I wasn’t even considering watching this series until a friend of mine showed me the first episode. Acchi Kocchi has the kind of subtle yet well timed character-driven humor that I enjoy very much. Though it’s not the caliber of Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, I get a few good laughs out of each episode, which is enough for me. I find Tsumiki rather unique for this type of moe/slice-of-life anime in that she’s tsundere in her feelings for Io but she’s never violent or foul-tempered about it. When she goes tsun, it’s not in an angry way but in a…cute way. Io also isn’t a typical wimpy male protagonist nor a tsundere one either – he’s just a gentle nice guy totally oblivious about Tsumiki’s feelings for him. Add the mischievous comical duo Mayoi and Sakaki who try to get Tsumiki and Io together, and the hapless brunt-of-jokes Hime, and there’s much fun to be had. The series also has an interesting animation style, utilizing cartoonish on-screen arrows and cutting to comical diagrams to make the episodes flow more humorously than they already do. If you enjoy slice-of-life/comedy anime that actually have male characters and a light romance, Acchi Kocchi is a great pick.

—–

Furusato Saisei: Nihon no Mukashi Banashi
Episodes 1-5

Like I said in my spring ’12 preview post, Folktales from Japan is exactly what the title is. Each episode tells three Japanese folktales with very kid-friendly animation and dialogue. Interestingly, each story has noticeably different character designs and art styles, which is refreshing. Unfortunately the animation and even the voice acting is a bit low-quality at times (it sounds like they use the same few voice actors in every episode). But obviously it’s not a series meant to cater to the otaku anime audience but is meant to be a mainstream family series. I’m mostly watching it to learn about the various Japanese folktales since I don’t know much about them. And much to my surprise, I like the opening and ending songs. They’re both sung by Shoko Nakagawa, probably most famous for singing the Gurren Lagann opening “Sorairo Days.”

—–

Medaka Box
Episodes 1-4

I was on the fence about this one last time but decided to check it out. I thought it would be annoyingly fan-service filled but it’s not too bad. Besides a few random shots of Medaka’s voluptuous body, it does seem more focused on character relationships and fun misadventures than just flashing female parts. It actually had some genuinely funny scenes, and the relationship between Medaka and Zenkichi is kind of endearing. Medaka herself is a pretty unique protagonist for this genre of anime – she’s not a haughty tsundere, nor is she an overly polite yamato nadesico, nor is she a cheerful genki girl. She’s actually hard to describe, which is a good thing. The male protagonist Zenkichi is a bit blandly bad ass but not too much. And side character Shiranui is actually pretty funny. The rest of the characters are forgettable so far but it’s still early in the series. Medaka Box definitely isn’t a top tier seasonal pick for me but it serves its purpose as something to relax with after watching more complex and story-heavy anime.

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Sankarea
Episodes 1-4

And last but certainly not least, we have Sankarea, another series I wasn’t intending to pick up until I heard good things about it. I’m liking it very much so far – by the first episode I was already totally hooked between a zombie-obsessed kid trying to resurrect his dead cat and a girl smitten with him who has a sexually abusive father. By only the second episode I could already feel a lot of sympathy for Rea because that episode conveyed her relationship with her father so well. And Babu is a very cute anime kitty (What’s up with his tail though? It looks like it was set on fire like a candle wick or something). The only thing I don’t like about the series is its intent on making fan-service Wanko’s main purpose – more than others, those panty and boob flashes are really disruptive to the mood of this show. And Mogi and Yasutaka are so obviously Those Two Guys that it hurts. But luckily they’re all minor characters, at least at this point, so it doesn’t diminish the overall quality of the series much. Now that Rea has become a zombie, I look forward to seeing how things will unfold from here on. Sankarea is only slated for 13 episodes…I feel like it should be a two-cour series for some reason, but oh well.

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I can’t believe I’m watching this many shows for one season – there are just so many good ones =D I mentioned last time that I was planning to watch the AKB0048 anime, but at this point I just don’t have anymore time for it.

Anyway, I hope you’re all enjoying the spring ’12 season as much as I am. See you next time~

Here’s Part 2 of my ongoing Fundamentals of Japanese post series. In Part 1 I went over how to pronounce Japanese and read it using English letters (romaji). Now I’m going to discuss how it’s read using the three Japanese alphabets…

The Japanese language is written and read using three writing systems – hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana, which together are called kana, represent the sounds of the Japanese syllables I went over in Part 1 and don’t have any particular meaning on their own. Therefore, there’s one hiragana character and one katakana character for each Japanese syllable, making it possible to write the entire Japanese language in kana if one doesn’t know any kanji. Kanji are also pronounced with the syllables of the Japanese language, but unlike kana, kanji represent meanings rather than just sounds and most of the roughly 2,000 kanji characters in modern use today have more than one reading.

Let’s take a look at each writing system:

Hiragana is the most basic of the three alphabets and is used to write Japanese words that don’t have kanji characterｓ. Some Japanese names, usually first names, are written with hiragana. It can also be used if one doesn’t know the kanji for a particular word. Typically hiragana is used for anything that’s not a noun and not the stem of a verb or adjective. It’s mainly used for Japanese grammar particles and as the conjugated bases of verbs and adjectives (all of which I’ll cover in later sections).

Here are the hiragana characters for all the Japanese syllables:

And here are the syllables that use combinations with や(ya), ゆ(yu), and よ(yo). The や, ゆ, and よ are written smaller for these.

Words with double consonants that I mentioned in Part 1 are simply written with a small つ before the doubled consonant. So “kekkon” would be けっこん　and “issho” would be いっしょ.

Katakana is most commonly used for foreign words and names, including loan words from another language that have been adapted into Japanese. For example, any Western name such as John (ジョン) would be written in katakana as would anime (アニメ) because it’s a loan word adapted from the English word “animation.” Basically any word that sounds like English or another language that doesn’t adhere to Japanese syllables, such as the word for “hamburger” in Japanese, “hanbaagaa” (ハンバーガー), is written in katakana. A lot of fictional words not assigned kanji by the creator are written with katakana, such as Evangelion (エヴァンゲリオン), Death Note (デスノート), and the names of all the Pokemon. Occasionally katakana is also used to give emphasis to certain names or words to make them stand out even if they’re Japanese in origin. Naruto’s (ナルト) name is always written in katakana as is Shinji’s (シンジ). Katakana is also used for sound effects such as the Japanese equivalent of “meow,” “nyaa” (ニャー).

Here are the katakana characters for all the Japanese syllables:

And here are the syllables that use combinations with ヤ(ya), ユ(yu), and ヨ(yo). Like with hiragana, the ヤ, ユ, and ヨ are written smaller for these.

Also like hiragana, words with double consonants in katakana are written with a small ツ before the doubled consonant. So “kappu”(cup) would be カップ　and “shokku”(shock) would be ショック.

Unlike hiragana however, long vowel sounds are indicated with an additional character,　ー, in katakana. So the word for “taxi” in Japanese, “takushii” (obviously adapted from the English word) would be written as　タクシー not　タクシイ and “kouhii”(coffee) would be written as　コーヒー and not　コウヒイ.

Because katakana is used to write foreign words that don’t adhere nicely to the very vowel-centric Japanese language, sometimes liberties are taken with katakana to enhance pronunciation. For example, although the “v” sound doesn’t exist in Japanese, sometimes a voiced ウ(u) (written as ヴ) is used for it, as in Evangelion (エヴァンゲリオン). Other examples include combing a フ(fu) with a small オ(o) to make the フォ(fo) sound in “California” (karuforunia/カルフォルニア) and a テ(te) combined with a small イ(i) to make the ティ(ti) sound in “party” (paatii/パーティー). There are more examples like this and they’re something best picked up through experience.

Unlike the kana characters, each of the approximately 2,000 common use kanji characters has its own meaning, sometimes more than one. Each kanji can also have a different pronunciation depending on the word it’s in. Because there are so many kanji, each with different meanings and readings, they’re not something that can be learned in a short time, unlike kana. Kids in Japan learn kana early on but continue to learn new kanji all throughout their schooling years. Since full coverage of 2,000 kanji characters would require nothing short of a dictionary, I can’t list them all here like I did with kana. However, I will go over some kanji basics:

The different readings a kanji could have is its on-reading, which is the reading based on its original Chinese reading, and its kun-reading, which is the Japanese-based reading. Any given kanji could have only one of the two readings, or more than one of each.

Let’s look at a couple of kanji. 火 is a kanji that means “fire” and it has one on-reading, か(ka), and kun-readings ひ(hi) and び(bi). By itself it’s typically pronounced ひ(hi) and means “fire.” Another kanji, 花, means “flower.” It’s on-reading is also か(ka) and its kun-reading is はな(hana). By itself it’s typically pronounced はな(hana) and means “flower.”

When used together, these two kanji make a word, 花火 (hanabi), which means “fireworks.” It’s pronounced using the kun-readings of both. Like I said before, if you didn’t happen to know these kanji, you could write “hanabi” as はなびusing hiragana instead (kanji is always preferred). Sometimes small hiragana is written on top of kanji to show how it’s pronounced, most often in text targeted at young readers who haven’t yet learned a lot of kanji such as in shonen manga. This kind of hiragana aiding for reading kanji is called furigana.

Now let’s look at another kanji, 山. It means “mountain” and its on-reading is さん(san) or ざん(zan) and its kun-reading is やま(yama). By itself it’s pronounced やま(yama) meaning “mountain.” Like 花, it can also make a word when combined with 火. That word would be 火山 (kazan/かざん) which means “volcano.” This time you see that the on-reading for 火 is used as well as the on-reading for 山.

Let’s look at a more complex kanji.　空 means “sky” but it can also mean “emptiness” or “vacancy” depending on the word it’s in. Its on-reading is くう(kuu) and its kun-readings are そら(sora)、あ(a)、and から(kara). When read by itself, it’s usually pronounced そら(sora) and means “sky.” It’s also a stem in the verb “to be empty,” “aku”(空く) where it’s pronounced with its kun-reading あ(a).

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Now that you’ve seen all of the Japanese kana characters, and have a basic idea of how kanji works, let’s take a look at a Japanese sentence that utilizes all three writing systems and take each one apart.

- 来: A kanji that means “to come.” Its on-reading “rai(らい)” is used.
- 年: A kanji that means “year” Its on-reading “nen(ねん)” is used.
When combined, the two kanji make the word 来年(rainen/らいねん) which means “next year.”
- フランス: “France” in Japanese, written “furansu.” Since it’s based on the word “France,” it’s written in katakana.
- に: に(ni) here is used as a particle to indicate direction (more on particles in a later section). Grammatical aspects like particles are written in hiragana.
- 行: A kanji that means “to go.” In this case, the kanji is used as the stem of the verb. It’s kun-reading い(i) is used.
- きます: The conjugated part of the word 行きます(ikimasu) written in hiragana. The kanji holds the meaning while this part shows what tense it is (polite-future tense in this case).
- 。: A Japanese period to end a sentence is a small circle. Commas, question marks, and exclamation marks are also used in Japanese to some extent. 「 and 」 are used for quotation marks.

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Properly writing all of the kana and kanji characters involves knowing their correct stroke order – in which order you write the lines that make up the character. Typically it’s top to bottom, left to right, though there are exceptions, especially for the kanji. Writing Japanese with correct stroke orders and learning how kanji are classified by radicals and such is beyond the scope of this post series. With the advent of computers and cell phones, nowadays a foreigner can get by pretty well just speaking and reading Japanese. But learning how to write is still part of learning the language and I highly recommend practicing writing as you go along if you’re serious about learning Japanese.

Well, I hope this section has given you a good understanding of how the Japanese written language works. Next time in Part 3, I’ll cover some fundamental aspects of Japanese grammar, including particles. Until then, I’ll be back with an anime post next time =)

—–On to Part 3: Particles
—–Back to Part 1: Pronunciation

An interesting thought occurred to me recently in terms of how anime series are structured. It seems that most anime series focus on “building” one out of three narrative aspects – either building the story, building the characters, or building the world. Some focus on two out of three, a few manage to focus equally on all three – but it’s intriguing to think about which of the three each series is most concerned with…

For the sake of clarity, I’ll discuss each of these three “building” categories and provide a few examples.

Anime that are focused on building a story don’t spend a lot of time showcasing the setting or delving too much into the characters. That doesn’t mean that the setting and characters are bad; they’re just not what the series is focused on conveying as much as the story. The settings tend to take place in the real world, so there’s no need to explain them, and if they do take place in a fictional world, it’s usually kept simple. The characters could be well written and all, but they’re not focused on independent of the plot and often aren’t given the marketable anime archetype personalities that would make otaku focus on them. Just about everything in story building anime is about moving the plot and subplots forward.

Examples: Death Note would be a good example of a story building anime. Little to nothing about the setting is dealt with (it’s just modern Japan) and even the secondary fantasy setting, the world of the shinigami that has the potential to be delved into, is vaguely defined. The majority of what we see of the characters relates back to the plot rather than any “filler” situations. We don’t get any episodes that are all about a characters’ backstory or all about the relationship between specific characters. Death Note is driven by the suspense of its plot, a plot that’s constantly progressing.

Fate/Zero would be another good example. Even though it does delve into the characters more than Death Note, everything that happens relates back to the main plot of the Holy Grail War. We get some but not a ton of exposition about the many fantasy elements in the series. So while the series can emphasize the characters and fantasy-rich world at times, it’s brief compared to the focus on advancing the plot.

Additional examples: Bakuman, Index, Code Geass, Eden of the East

Character building anime are driven by their characters more than their plot – sometimes they won’t even have a plot to begin with, or if there is one, it’s simple and isn’t the central focus of most of the episodes. Whether we find these anime appealing or not comes from how much we find the characters entertaining and whether they’re able to move us, i.e, did they make us laugh? Did they make us cry? These anime could still have a decent plot if there is one, but again, the main drive comes from character interactions and themes involving their relationships. Like the story building anime, there’s little need to flesh out the world that these anime are set in, but unlike the story building anime, the character building ones typically have a lot of popular anime character archetypes to enhance the show’s marketability through the characters.

Examples: All of the slice-of-life “cute girls doing cute things” anime, from Lucky Star and K-ON to Azumanga Daioh and the currently airing Acchi Kocchi, would fall into this category. They’re virtually story-less and there’s little to say about their setting either. They’re all about building the appeal and entertainment value of the characters in every episode with either no overarching plot or a dismissible one. But character building anime aren’t limited to this type of anime. I would place something like Mawaru Penguindrum in this category. As I mentioned in my post about it, little explanation is given to its world’s fantasy elements and its plot is rather convoluted with no easily definable progressing storyline. In its symbol-filled way, it’s about the characters coming to grips with inner demons and realizing things about their relationships. Bakemonogatari would also be character building. Its “plot” is a simple one about Koyomi helping girls overcome demon possession…and other than that it’s all about the characters conversing and building relationships with each other, however odd they may be.

Additional examples: Ano Hana, OreImo, Clannad, Fruits Basket

World building anime are unique. Rather than focusing on the expected story elements – story and/or characters – these series are more into building the setting, or rather, the “world” that the anime takes place in. These anime take place in detailed and often fleshed out fictional worlds, sometimes going so far as to give the world its own set of politics, history, and a dictionary’s worth of fictional terminology. A lot of story building anime could have detailed settings like this too, but what sets the world building anime apart is that they’re not that focused on a progressive story nor is character development a big point. There could still be a plot and developed characters, but they’re mostly about immersing us in that fantasy world, making it believable and appealing to us.

Examples: Aria (the first season as I haven’t seen the others) is a prime example of a world building anime. So much depth is poured into developing the setting of Neo Venezia, from history and architecture to the lifestyles of the citizens – even the DVD box set came with a booklet all about Neo Venezia as a detailed world. But as for story and characters? It’s pretty much an episodic slice-of-life series with no specific plot and the characters are standard; nothing about them really hooks us in other than making them pleasant to be with as they take us through their world. I would even say Pokemon is a world building anime. It’s really all about being immersed in the “Pokemon world” as the characters aren’t particularly well developed or dynamic, and the majority of episodes are episodic fillers. And for a last example, I’d put Mushishi in this category. The series has only one main character and is totally episodic with no continuing plot. The main emphasis is on the mysteriously fascinating world of the mushi and how they affect the human world.

Additional examples: Moretsu Pirates…having trouble thinking of more =O

Of course, a lot of anime don’t fall into just one of the building categories. There are plenty that utilize two. Cowboy Bebop is one example as I would say it focuses on building both its characters and world. I feel that we really get to know the Bebop crew in terms of personality and background history. And the futuristic world of the series is amazingly defined visually without the need for much exposition through dialogue. It’s lacking in the way of story though as the majority of episodes are stand-alone and the only reoccurring plot isn’t emphasized until the end. So I wouldn’t categorize Bebop as story building, but definitely the other two.

There are some cases where an anime manages to focus pretty equally on all three building methods. I’ve noticed this most often in longer series that have ample number of episodes to flesh out all three narrative elements. Naruto and One Piece have used their 400+ episode length to build major and minor plots, a large cast of well developed characters, and very detailed fictional worlds. Some shorter series do occasionally manage to give focus to all three too. Arguably Evangelion could be one such series as it has story progression, I felt that the characters got development and attention, and that the post apocalyptic world was pretty well defined.

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There are still a lot of example I could give in all the categories but I’ll stop here. Actually, there are quite a few series whose building categories I’m in doubt about. Is Steins;Gate just story building or is it story and character? Is Toradora just character building or does it have enough of a storyline too? And I’m not sure where Madoka would fall in all this.

If you feel that these three building categories for anime are solid or if more should be added, let me know. I’d also love to hear how you’d place different anime series within these categories =)

It’s been a while since I wrote a standard anime review post (I believe the last one was for Steins;Gate in September). Since I can’t think of any theme-based post to write for Mirai Nikki, I opted for a general review of the series…

When I first started watching Mirai Nikki, I’ll admit that I thought of it as the offspring of Death Note and Eden of the East. It emanates the former’s taste for suspenseful mind games and questioning of morality when humans are given godly powers, and the latter’s overall premise of twelve individuals in a cell phone-based survival game. But it’s since established itself in its own right in my mind, and while not up to the quality of the aforementioned two series, I still found it above average.

The majority of Mirai Nikki’s episodes follow our two main future diary holders – the rather naive and bewildered Yukiteru and yandere poster child Yuno – as they work together to defeat the ten other diary holders in order to gain the powers of the enigmatic god of the world, Deus Ex Machina. Yuno’s blatant yandere-ness for “Yukki” and Yukiteru being constantly torn about whether or not to return the love and trust of this emotionally unstable girl who’s so quick to murder for his sake, makes them quite a gripping duo to observe. The series doesn’t scrimp on the various eccentric personalities of the other diary holders either, nor the interesting tweaks in how each of their diaries predicts the future. While some of them were given a more complete backstory and personality than others, they were all pretty memorable, and because they were all different in terms of character and diary power, I could never predict how their demise in the survival game would come about.

Unpredictability wasn’t limited to just the outcomes of each diary holder. It was also prevalent in the series’ other plot points such as Yuno’s real motives, who Akise is, and what would happen with Deus and Murmur towards the end of the survival game. I thought the foreshadowing and eventual revelation about Yuno was done very well, as was the establishment of Minene as a solid supporting character. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for Yukki and Yuno’s classmates Hinata, Mao, and Kousaka. Besides the totally pointless yuri between Hinata and Mao, the three of them weren’t terrible characters, but they could have been a lot more likable too.

Speaking of the characters, that was one thing I realized while watching Mirai Nikki – almost all the characters, even ones we’re supposed to like, are murderous and selfish. As much as the series wants us to like Yukki’s dad in the end, killing your wife and abandoning your son is pretty unforgivable. Even though Minene becomes more or less an anti-hero “good guy” by the end, it’s hard to forgive the fact that she was previously murdering innocent children at Yukki and Yuno’s school. Having a tragic past like she did doesn’t automatically make your sadistic actions forgivable. And as interesting as the 7th diary duo Marco and Ai were, again, having a messed up past doesn’t make it okay to act like dicks to everyone else. I’m not saying that making the characters this way was a flaw; it was just something notable I wanted to mention and was why I could find them entertaining, but not very sympathy-invoking.

Like I said, the unpredictability of the series held up until the end as the latter episodes fell out of the “kill the next diary holder” formula and focused on wrapping up the show’s other plot points involving Yukki and Yuno. Unfortunately it got rather convoluted with introducing the three separate timelines, bringing Minene back, and suddenly making Murmur a key character. The fact that the Yuno we’ve been following was actually from another timeline did surprise me, and again is why I enjoyed the suspense of her character development. I also liked how Yuno became more dynamic in the end, and we finally see something besides Yukki – the relationship with her parents in this case – move her heart. The ending itself was surprisingly tragic, only offering a slight glimmer of hope in literally the last couple of seconds with Yukki and Yuno supposedly being able to see each other again. Exactly how this comes about and why it took so long isn’t explained, which unfortunately hurts my rating for the series as a whole.

Despite this loose ending, the rest of Mirai Nikki was a fun ride. It had its share of flaws, but for me, nothing too glaring. I enjoyed the wild diversity of the diary holders and the unpredictability of the storyline. The series can be pretty gruesome at times and has a noticeable lack of anything sunny and happy…but maybe those could be considered strong points to some people? If you want a darker twist on the Eden of the East plot with the supernatural elements of Death Note, I would give it a watch ;)

*Omake*: Just wanted to share this hilarious Mirai Nikki x Lucky Star crossover picture (I believe it’s an official one drawn by Lucky Star’s manga-ka, Kagami Yoshimizu)

Welcome to the first installment in a series of posts I’m going to be writing about the fundamentals of the Japanese language. Part 1 will be an introduction to the post series as well as covering an aspect of the language I feel is the very first step one should start with when learning it – pronunciation…

I apologize in advance for the introduction being so long, but I feel it’s all important stuff that should get out of the way now.

Why am I making this post series?
I had a “Learn Some Japanese” page on my old AnimeYume.com fan site for many years. At first it was just a list of common words and phrases until I decided to do more with it, dividing it into sections much like the ones I’ll be doing for this post series. However, it was terribly outdated as I didn’t even know how to type Japanese characters on my computer back then, and of course my knowledge of Japanese has improved significantly since. So I figured it’s time for it to be updated and I want to see how much better I can make it all these years later, especially here on the blog where I’ll be able to get reader feedback through comments.

I’m not going to be doing all the posts in this series back-to-back. I’ll still continue to do my regular anime-related posts in between and have a Fundamentals of Japanese post every once in a while.

Background
I’ve discussed my background in Japanese in several past posts already, but for those who don’t know, I first began dabbling in a few Japanese words in the early 2000s and began formally studying the language at my junior college in 2004. I took all the Japanese classes that college had to offer (up to Intermediate) and I even had the opportunity to study abroad in Japan for a month with some classmates. When I transferred to a university in 2007, I continued my studies and took courses in Japanese literature, history, art history, politics, and Japanese language up to the end of Advanced. I joined the Japan club at both colleges I attended and got my B.A. in East Asian Languages & Literature. Right after I graduated in 2009, I had another lucky opportunity to spend three weeks in Japan via a private organization. Since then, I’ve been trying to keep up my study of the language through self-study at home, using the many textbooks I have and sites like Lang-8.

As of now, I feel like I have a good grasp of Japanese grammar and only need to learn more kanji (I know about 500+ as of now) and vocabulary. I would say I’m roughly 30%-40% fluent, which obviously isn’t enough to formally teach it to others, but I do feel I know enough to give potential learners a good foundation in the basics of the language.

Aren’t there enough Japanese-learning resources available already?
Probably the main reason I want to do this post series is because, while there certainly are plenty of other Japanese-learning sources out there, from my experience with the kinds of textbooks and teaching methods that are used, I feel that often the fundamentals of the language are glossed over in order to get right to memorizing words and grammar aspects. That happened to me in my very first semester of Japanese where we just went right to learning polite Japanese phrases and didn’t even discuss things like proper pronunciation, how the writing system works, the basics of the grammar, etc. So I ended up having to get separate textbooks on my own and teach myself the fundamentals we didn’t learn in class. I suppose they feel that most people don’t want to learn Japanese as much as just memorize enough to help them in business situations or to get through a vacation in Japan, and aren’t serious about really understanding the language. I think this is why a lot of English-speakers tend to struggle so much in beginner/intermediate Japanese; I feel it’s important to learn about the language first before jumping right into using it. If you don’t have a good foundation in the beginning, things get even more difficult later on.

So again, I know there are plenty of other sources for learning Japanese, but I feel there are a lack of sources that offer a good overview of the very basics. So that’s what I want to give here. And since this is still an anime blog, I’ll try to add anime references when I can to make it more fun, like in sample sentences and such ^_^

Goals
With what I said above, my goal for this post series is to give people starting to learn Japanese from scratch a good foundation in the fundamentals of the language so they can then continue to learn it on their own if they want, or just take what they’ve learned from it to enhance their anime fandom XD Even though the series is intended for people who are total beginners with Japanese, I hope those who already know Japanese will find it interesting too. Any feedback is appreciated!

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Now that the long intro is out of the way, let’s get started!

Japanese is a very syllable and vowel-centric language; with only one exception, all of its syllables are made up of a consonant plus one of the following five vowel sounds:

A breakdown of all the possible syllables in the Japanese language are as follows:

The five basic vowels: a i u e o
k+vowel: ka ki ku ke ko
g+vowel: ga gi gu ge go (always a hard “g” sound, like in “go”)
s+vowel: sa shi su se so (always a soft “s” sound like in “sew”)
z/j+vowel: za ji zu ze zo
t/ch+vowel: ta chi tsu te to
d+vowel: da ji zu de do (the repeats of “ji” and “zu” will be explained in a later section)
n+vowel: na ni nu ne no
h/f+vowel: ha hi fu he ho
b+vowel: ba bi bu be bo
p+vowel: pa pi pu pe po
m+vowel: ma mi mu me mo
y+vowel: ya yu yo
r+vowel: ra ri ru re ro (the “r” sound is soft, somewhere between an English “l” and “r”)
w+vowel: wa, wo
And lastly, the one lone consonant: n

Combinations of some of the above syllables with “ya”, “yu”, and “yo” are also used to create new syllables:
k + y syllables: kya kyu kyo
g + y syllables: gya gyu gyo
s + y syllables: sha shu sho
ch + y syllables: cha chu cho
j + y syllables: ja ju jo
r + y syllables: rya ryu ryo
n + y syllables: nya nyu nyo
m + y syllables: mya myu myo
h + y syllables: hya hyu hyo
b + y syllables: bya byu byo
p + y syllables: pya pyu pyo

In certain words there are also double consonants, such as “kekkon” (marriage) and “issho” (together). These are simply pronounced with a slight “stuck” emphasis on those consonants.

…and that’s it for all the possible sounds in Japanese. Not too difficult at all compared to other languages. While English letters have different pronunciations depending on the letters around them, like the “e” in “elephant” pronounced differently than the “e” in “screen,” and the silent “e” at the end of a lot of words, Japanese syllables always sound the same no matter what word they’re in. So once you know how to pronounce all the above syllables in bold, you’ll be able to say any Japanese word correctly! =)

Now I just want to cover a few more points about pronunciation:

The process of writing Japanese words into English is called romanization (the written words are called romaji.) Certain sounds in the English language such as “l,” “v,” and “c” by itself, do not exist in Japanese. So these letters are often written differently in romaji depending on how they sound. “l” is usually replaced with “r,” “v” is usually replaced with “b,” and “c” is replaced with “k” or “s” depending on how it’s pronounced in the word. To give examples, the name “Lina” would be written as “Rina” in Japanese and the name “Celty,” though officially spelled with a “C,” would be written with an “S” since that’s how it’s pronounced.

Because just about all the syllables in Japanese are made up of a consonant plus a vowel, writing an English word or name that has consonants together can be tricky. Often it comes down to taking whatever syllables in the Japanese language sound most like the word. For example, the word “drink” would be written in Japanese as “dorinku,” using the syllables “do,” “ri,” “n,” and “ku.” The name “Alice” would be “Arisu” (a+ri+su) and “Light” would be “Raito” (ra+i+to). People even have different preferences on how they want to romanize the Japanese syllables, for example, some prefer “zu” to be written as “dzu” or “ja” to be written as “jya.” So just be aware that there could be more than one correct way of writing a Japanese word in English.

There are certain Japanese words pronounced with a long vowel sound, such as “shuumatsu,” “kouen,” and “bataa.” It’s important to take note of which vowels have a long pronunciation and which do not because some words may seem to be exactly the same without this distinction. For example, “shuujin” means “prisoner” while “shujin” means “husband;” “oba” means “aunt” while “obaa” means “grandmother;” “biru” means “building” while “biiru” means “beer.” Correct romanization of these words is important to clarify meaning, but sometimes they are disregarded when written in English. For example, the correct romanization of “Tokyo” is “Toukyou.” But “Tokyo” is considered the correct spelling of the word in English. Since long vowel sounds aren’t as essential in English as they are in Japanese, they’re sometimes omitted as a means of simplifying the word for English speakers. However, they’re extremely important when writing correctly in Japanese because the Japanese characters used in words are different depending on whether the vowel is long or not. The way I see it, “Tokyo” is English while “Toukyou” (to+u+kyo+u) is romaji.

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That’s all for Part 1. Now that I’ve talked about how Japanese is pronounced, in Part 2 I’ll be going over how it’s written by discussing its three different alphabets. I plan to have Part 2 up sometime before April is over.

In the meantime, I’ll be back in 3-4 days with an anime post next time! ;)

—–On to Part 2: Reading

This topic was a recent entry on AnimeNation’s Ask John column. It begs the question of why American anime fans are often vehemently opposed to moe, fan service, or any other type of anime that sexualizes its characters, while anime that feature extreme violence are rarely opposed and are instead praised. The opposite seems to be true in Japan, with the Japanese fandom adoring fanciful, cute series while the dark, violent series are fewer and less adored. So what determines this difference between how American and Japanese fans react to sexuality in anime versus violence in anime?…

In the original post, John brings up the idea that the Japanese have a greater liking for light-hearted, cute, whimsical anime rather than dark, serious, violent anime. The long-time mainstreamed success of Ghibli movies and family-friendly anime series such as Doraemon, Sazae-san, Pokemon, and One Piece could attest to that. Even though One Piece, Naruto, and other shonen series do have a lot of violence and dark themes, for the most part they remain optimistic and wish-fulfillingly fun without getting too adult-oriented. But while you don’t see flat-out nudity in these kids anime, some of them have no qualms about vaguely showing the unclothed female body or talking about private parts. Of course, such a thing would be unheard of for American kids shows. It comes down to a difference in culture that I’ll discuss later.

Even among otaku-aimed anime, the “light,” and often more sexuality aware ones, usually overtake the “dark” ones in terms of popularity among Japanese otaku, as one can see by the sales and variety of merchandise for moe, ecchi, and romance-comedy anime versus other genres. There are exceptions of course, such as the notable popularity of Evangelion, Akira, Gundam, and Type Moon titles for example. But generally speaking, the reason we see so much more moe and slice-of-life anime is because that’s what’s more acceptable and adored by Japanese fans. So, because the Japanese are more partial to “light” anime, that’s why we see so much of it and may be a reason why American fans tend to be opposed to it. As John states in his post:

“We condemn moe because we’re overwhelmed by it, and because there’s so much of it available for relative comparison that we’re easily able to distinguish the outstanding from the mediocre. At the same time, we relish and respect bleak anime because it’s relatively rare. With less available to compare to, even weak or mediocre gloomy shows seem better than they may actually be because viewers overcompensate, coloring the shows with their own grateful sentiment.”

Which brings us to the American side of things now. Unlike in Japan, the average American anime fan is more likely to adore dark, violent anime like Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, and Death Note, and more likely to condemn easy-going, cutesy anime like K-ON, Hayate no Gotoku, and Ano Hana. More often than not, American fans praise serious depictions of violence in anime, no matter how gory or torturous, and at the same time, cry foul whenever there’s nudity or any portrayal of younger characters as sexual beings. Seeing limbs torn off and heads exploding in Elfen Lied and Ghost in the Shell? That’s A-OK. Seeing the girls in OreImo wear revealing clothes or the Lucky Star girls bathing together in a public bath? That’s just wrong.

So what is it that brings about these different reactions to sexuality and violence in anime from American and Japanese fans? Why are sexual depictions in anime more acceptable to the Japanese while violence is more acceptable to Americans? I think the reason is clear when we look at the culture of the two countries. As I mentioned in a previous post about why “cuteness” is widely adored in Japan, that also ties into why the Japanese prefer light-hearted or melodramatic anime instead of dark, violent anime. Their history after World War II of having no military, no right to bear arms in their constitution, and basically being a very peace-oriented country, is a viable reason for why they’re more into “peaceful” themes in anime such as cuteness and comedic slice-of-life scenarios instead of bleak and violent stories. As for why nudity and sexuality is acceptable in anime, that again comes from a cultural aspect. Nudity is not as big a deal in Japan as it is America, communal bathing being a perfect example. Public bathhouses are all over Japan, so seeing people naked around you is a common thing if you go to these places. Kids go to bathhouses too, so they learn from an early age that naked human bodies are not necessarily taboo to see.

Now let’s look at America with its prominent military, right to bear arms, and emphasis on the freedom of the individual to do what they want – these values could arguably lead to a liking of violence, especially in media entertainment. As John pointed out in the original article, Americans are used to violence in cartoons stemming back to Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry. American society accepts and even glorifies violence in entertainment, but at the same time heavily obscures nudity and sexuality. So while it’s okay for even kids to see violence, only R or X-rated media can feature anything sexual. It’s alright for kids to watch the Harry Potter movies for example, even though they get pretty violent later in the story, but heaven forbid they see a bare female breast. If such a thing were to be seen in anything other than an 18+ work, Americans would be outraged while the Japanese probably wouldn’t think anything of it. I think John summed it up well when he said:

“Even though Americans have seen such fetishization in imported anime since the beginning of the American anime boom in the 1990s, it’s still a foreign and unconsciously offensive idea to typical Americans. We praise the inclusion of intense violence in anime because its presence validates animation as being more legitimate, adult-oriented literature than mere children’s cartoons. To varying degrees, we oppose or reject anime that sexualizes children because such fetishization opposes indoctrinated American morality.”

In short, the reason violence in animation is praised while light-hearted sexual depictions are condemned in America, with the opposite being true for Japan, again boils down to a big different in cultural beliefs and values.

I’m a little late with posting my thoughts about the last fall ’11/winter ’12 anime I finished watching, as well as picking what anime I’ll be watching this spring season. To get them done faster, I decided to put both on one post…

First, mini-reviews of the remaining five fall ’11 and winter ’12 anime I have yet to talk about (I already wrote about Nisemonogatari and Guilty Crown in case you missed them):

Another

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Bakuman 2

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Black Rock Shooter

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Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

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Shana III (Final)

Shakugan no Shana is the most fantasy-laden anime I have ever seen. Nearly every line of dialogue, especially in this season, contains at least one made-up fantasy name or term unique to the series. This can be confusing at first, but its something one gets used to as the show’s fictional setting comes together brilliantly in season 3. While season 1 was more or less split between the slice-of-life/romance genre and the action/fantasy genre, and season 2 was more focused on the former genre, the third and final season is all about the latter genre. Very few scenes take place away from the fantasy-filled plot – even Shana and Yuji’s classmates Ike and Oga have no role in this season. What stands out about Shana III is that it’s not only about Shana and Yuji trying to reconnect, but it’s mostly about a war going on between the Flame Haze and Tomogara, making us feel sympathy for both sides despite the Tomogara being the bad guys all this time. It’s like the many wars and politics you see in mecha anime except with all magic and fantasy instead of sci-fi. A bit jarring after Shana II, but once you get into it, it’s actually a very well-written, well choreographed conflict.

And let’s not forget the show’s unique characters from previous seasons. They all go through some great character development in this season, especially Margery, Keisaku, and Wilhelmina. And it’s amazing to see how Shana herself has changed from the cold, conflicted tsundere she was in the first season to the determined fighter she is in this season. Unfortunately, too many new Flame Haze were introduced to properly develop them all, but each was given enough screentime for us to get to know them a little bit. The designs of the Flame Haze and Tomogara are some of the most diverse I have ever seen in a single series. After all, in what other anime can you see a mecha samurai fighting a multi-headed dog, a giant magician camel, a barracuda that’s a military leader, a trumpet-playing lion, a Chinese New Year dragon that turns into a van, and all manner of objects that talk, from bracelets to hats, to gourds, and roses, because they have a supernatural being dwelling inside them? Only Shana has this wild fantasy goodness and treats it all very seriously (the show really does have very little humor in it). I honestly think Shana III is the best of the three seasons; an intricate but well constructed fantasy plot, good characters, and great OPs and EDs. I’m glad my favorite flaming tsundere went out with a bang! ^_^

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And now here are the spring ’12 anime I’m planning on watching. As usual, this list could change as I may decide not to watch certain series or pick up more than this.

Fate/Zero 2

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Natsuiro Kiseki

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Furusato Saisei: Nihon no Mukashi Banashi

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Sakamichi no Apollon

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Arashi no Yoru ni Himitsu no Tomodachi

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Hyouka

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AKB0048

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As for winter ’12 seasonal shows I’m still watching, just Mouretsu Pirates and Poyopoyo. I’m still watching Mirai Nikki too, but that will finish soon (and I’ll try to have a post about it). In addition to these spring ’12 shows, I’m also eying Uchuu Kyoudai and Medaka Box. I’m planning to watch Eureka Seven AO but not now – I want to rewatch the original series first.

See you all next time. Hope you’re enjoying the new anime season ^_^

*Credit for the Shana screencaps goes to Random Curiosity*