Desu ex Machina

If you’ve been reading blogs about anime or related culture for any amount of time at all, you know one thing. The internet is serious fucking business. And while I’ve had this post floating in the thinktank for a while, there’s no better time than now to let’er rip. So what is an otaku? Let’s see.

“Otaku” (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese slang term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games. (Wikipedia)

And that is as tame as it gets. See, on Wikipedia they have to maintain a neutral, balanced, and objective view on topics. It’s fine if you’re researching things like monolithic kernels or the history of Poland, but it’s totally different when you’re reading about a topic that is so crafted by public perception that its dictionary definition is totally buried and forgotten. Let’s look at examples from a source more shaped by community perception.

Otaku is extremely negative in meaning as it is used to refer to someone who stays at home all the time and doesn’t have a life (no social life, no love life, etc)

- death_to_all, Urban Dictionary

Otaku is a Japanese word for house.
As in you never leave it.

Please don’t call yourself an otaku, especially in front of real Japanese people, which you most likely never meet.

- jingjong, Urban Dictionary (link)

And I can’t even find a specific sentence to quote from here. As you can see, and I assume it being no surprise to you, the word “otaku” is not generally seen in a very positive light here on the tubes. For good reason. You’ve been to Sankaku Complex. You’ve read about the 2d waifus and epic otaku rooms funded by thousands of dollars for merchandise. When I was younger, in high school, I had a friend whose AIM was “superotaku544″ or some number. He was basically every negative stereotype against us anime/manga fans all rolled up into one. You know, that guy. The Naruto/Inuyasha fanboy that won’t shut up even if you’re totally not interested. The guy who cosplays to conventions despite having no idea what the hell he’s doing. It’s worse sometimes when they actually don’t even know that much about anime in general. “Oh, so what are you watching this season?” “Oh, I only watch Naruto. Dude check out this awesome forehead protector I bought”.  This was back before I really picked up anime. When I finally started anime I was rather weary at first, just because of what I have seen from my otaku-challanged friend. People like him create the stereotype of anime/manga/eroge/whatever enthusiasts, and to be honest, it’s unfortunate. When people with whom I am not super close with ask me about my hobbies, I don’t tell them that I enjoy watching anime. The perceived notions, stereotypes, and negative judgment is just so much. “Oh Kevin, you have a blog? What do you write about” “Oh, umm… anime” “Oh. *look of total disdain* I see.”

Now, I know there are a good plenty number of friendly folks who enjoy anime to a slight degree and watch very casually. That’s fine, if you’re having fun, who cares? The thing is that you don’t go around calling yourself that terrible word and thinking it’s some kind of badge of honor. Because I can tell you, it’s not. The word “otaku” has become a label; a label infused with all the facepalm worthy, idiotic, and humiliating things some overzealous fans do that makes everyone who enjoy this medium look bad. I’m sure that fans of English soccer (or football. Whatever) are not all crazed hooligans that burn cars and kill people when Manchester loses. I’m sure that not all Italian nightclubs and bars are run by the mafia. And it’s the same way; not everyone who watches anime and enjoys anime culture goes to school wearing a fucking furry tail. I’m not making this up. Oh god bad memories.

And of course, now they are also on the internet. Remember that incident with Chihara Minori’s waterbottle? Admittedly, that wasn’t too big of a deal to me. Sure, you’re putting your dignity as a human being on the line, but Setsuna is a pretty cool guy, it got Atarashii Prelude a whole mountain of hits, and it basically became a kind of a joke. Good for them; if I could trade some of my dignity for hits on Desu ex Machina, I would consider it. No, I’m talking about people who name their blogs “The Otaku Discharge” and talk all day about how they do nothing but watch anime, how awesome their “otaku lifestyle” is, post pictures of their shitty cosplay, and masturbate to Danny Choo. If you exhibit any of these symptoms, I have some advice for you. A blogger heart to heart, if you will. Shut the fuck up. No one cares.

Thankfully, to combat this is are heroes of justice , who seek to clean the annals of the blogosphere once-and-for-all. They have keyboards, and they mean business. Of course, I’m talking about the ‘Otaku’ Elimination Game. Here, they take four blogs a week from their index of blogs about the anime subculture and tear them the fuck apart. I guess I feel rather flattered that I was on their initial hitlist of blogs, which was a who’s who of the anime internet. The list has grown since then, since you get added if you just give them your URL. As Desu ex Machina’s eventual public flogging approaches, I’m rather interested to see how other people feel about this whole “otaku” business. People who whine and complain about the Otaku Elimination Game can’t take a joke. Be happy that people actually took time to read your writing and evaluate it and maybe, just maybe, consider if there is truth in their comments. Regardless, that site has good resources on the concept and more detailed information on the perspective of “otakus”.

Before this post was published, I have used the word “otaku” on this blog exactly three times. And that was because of the lack of a better word. I don’t consider myself an otaku, and that’s because, in case you have not already gathered, I find the term borderline derogatory. Just like with black people with the n-bomb, though I think the context is rather different. But a dilemma does arise. If we do not consider ourselves otaku, what do we call… well, ourselves? If nothing else, humans seek identification, a label. “American”, “Irish”, “11’s”, “Democrats”, “Republicans”, “homosexual”, “transsexual” etc. What is this culture that we write about? Just earlier in this post, you’ve seen me tripping and grasping for words to describe it. “Anime/manga/eroge/whatever enthusiasts” and the like. What term links me to j1m0ne, CCY, Pontifus, Danny Choo, and Moogy? “Anime bloggers”? Then what about Tiamat and manga bloggers? What about m3rryweather and Micchi and eroge bloggers, what about figurine bloggers? Art bloggers? We all share interest in the same culture, but what is it called? Japan? Well, I feel it almost condescending label anime and games as solely “Japanese culture”, because that’s sad. Japanese culture is much more rich and deep than this, we are not worthy of that name, quite simply. What is this network of blogs I read called? “The Otakusphere”? Well, is there something else to call it?

Sometime in the last 24 hours, Desu ex Machina got its 5000th hit! (since I’ve started counting like 2 months ago). While it’s quite a humble feat, I’m glad I at least got this project of mine up and running. I remember when I got this thing started up back in June, I didn’t know how or if this was going to work at all! How would people get here? Would they like reading me ranting about anime? How do I use Wordpress? But thanks to my readers and bunch of great help and my friends and collaborators, I’ve gotten this far. Thanks, everyone. Usually there would be some art I drew saying “thank you 5000 hit!! xD” but you seriously don’t want to see me draw. Just take my word for it.

Needless episode 19 is out. I heard it was awesome, I’ll have to grab it later.

Because of random stupid complications in my life, I am without internet in my apartment for a few days. I have been heading to my university’s library for internet and right now I am typing this is an empty board room in the business school building. Saturdays are fun because everything is abandoned.

At first I was in much despair, but after a day or two it wasn’t too bad. Late at night I would catch up on some older shows I need to finish but mainly I have been rewatching some anime. I’m on episode 18 of a rewatch of Toradora and I hope to finish tonight. I watched the show as it aired and it’s nice and refreshing to come back to it. I remember I picked up Toradora on around episode 5 or 6 after all the hype drew me over and while I enjoyed the show quite a lot, my critique senses were always active. Now I come back and the show has nothing to prove to me, and it’s just a boatload of fun. Toradora’s well balanced cast, voice talent, quality animation, disciplined directing, pacing, and well conveyed plot and dialogue all contribute to a near flawless product. It’s very difficult to make an anime like Toradora, because so much can go wrong. Anyways, enough fagging here. This post is about rewatching anime, and why we do it.

The first reason is quite intuitive. You miss it.

Much like Toradora, my rewatch of the entire Aria series (starting Origination tonight) is fueled by the feeling the series gives me. Of course, you will pick up one or two little new things along the way, but you seek to relive the magic a show enchants you with. The thing with the rewatch is that you are confident you will enjoy the show. Leave your critical analysis aside and just enjoy the show and relive why you loved it so much. I wouldn’t call an anime I finished this January “nostalgia” but there must be some word for the feeling that overcame me the first time I heard Undine again.

The second reason could be that you want to give it anther chance. Did you miss something? Did you not understand something? Perhaps you want to enjoy the show, but you didn’t when you first watched it. Why?

H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~ is rather niche but people who have seen it generally like it a lot. I didn’t mind it but I’m still in the dark as to why it has seen so much praise. You have to realize that sometimes you don’t like a show and it’s not the show’s fault. I found H2O to have an interesting plot and pacing, but some of the motifs are totally undercooked. I don’t want to feel “left out” of the H2O party, nor do I want to come off as closed minded. Perhaps I did miss something here.

And the third reason is that Kyoto Animation thinks it’s 1998 and aired Clannad After Story and K-ON! in 4:3. Now that widescreens (and even Blu-rays) are out, I’m doing a nice slow rewatch of them. As with other anime I am entertaining myself with, I’m planning on finally finishing Gundam 00, which I started almost two years ago, sometime this month. I missed the party with Macross Frontier and Detroit Metal City as well. Those will be complete in a week or two.

*ding dong*

Oh, hi there. Thanks for coming to Desu ex Machina in your annual costumed pagan inspired candy run. Dasaku is a decent neighborhood of trick-or-treating, but only if you know what the good houses are. The old man at Mega Megane Moe, the house down the street, never answers his doorbell. Cokematic gives out cans of soda, he’s that strange man in every neighborhood that thinks soda-pop constitutes as a treat, and that house around the corner is kinda scary. Definitely wanna hit up the house across the street, however. Xephfyre gives out extra candy to Fate/Stay night cosplayers and even copies of Together with House-Husband. Yes, books on Halloween. How many times have you seen that. The dude at the house all the way at the end of the street is psyched for Halloween, with decorations and everything. He’s handing out eroge, so I’m not sure parents want their kids heading over there.

Before I continue, excuse me. This is obligatory.

I am actually tempted to watch Umineko for Maria. Horie Yui voicing a crazed loli? Whom I happened to be 100% pedo for? Perhaps sometime down the road after the whole show has aired and after a night of drinking. Maybe.

What has kevo done for Halloween weekend so far? Well, given that it’s Saturday night Halloween and I’m at home blogging, I’m not exactly going crazy. I did get to go see Tiesto last night. It was intense. I live in Minneapolis, not somewhere cool like Malaysia where I can go to see Chihara Minori and steal her water bottle. Regardless, I like electronica and Tiesto is the best in the business. Imagine like 1000 people squeezed into a cramped nightclub jumping to the beat of Escape Me and I am still trying to figure out how my limbs are all in tact. My ears are still ringing, however.

Watched the new episode of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun today. Ever since K-ON, I’ve slowly begun to really like Toyosaki Aki’s voice work. She has that cute, sweet, airheaded vibe. Railgun is doing around 200 times better than Index so far. The episodic, scenario-based structure is working well to explore the wonderfully interesting characters in the Indexverse. The problem with Index was how it focused on characters no one cared about and threw it’s main cast almost to the curb. Plus, the pacing was terrible for a show that wanted to convey some kind of plot. Railgun will do well to just keep it up at this pace and it will be one of the most solid shows of the season.

Second Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann movie is gonna premiere in San Francisco in November. In English subtitles, no less! I like the movies as supplements to the series, as you can never get enough TTGL and the little changes they make are cool. It’s like a quick rewatch of the whole series. I’m excited to see what they changed in the second movie, as the second half of the series was fucking epicsauce. Oh right, no candy for you if you don’t like TTGL. I hope the DVD will be on sale soon. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to San Fran because I have neither time or money for a pilgrimage. Regardless, Gurren Lagann the Movie 2: The Lights in the Sky are Stars, opening at Viz Cinema on November 17. If you’re in Cali, go for it. (sauce)

What? You want candy? Fine, here have some. Kids these days…

Art courtesy kohaku (pixiv)

I know you instantaneously clicked in as soon as your read the title. Who wouldn’t? It’s the divine combination of Naruto and hardcore rap, dawg. It’s a tad old (a few months ago) and I found this on a forum and I thought I would share. Did I mention this is a combination of Naruto and rap?

Shit son, these tracks are tite, yo!

I love how the track is not processed or mastered in any way so the “s” sound and other sharp sounds literally hurts your ears. Definitely exacerbated on my performance headphones. I know, I know, I shouldn’t make fun of this. This is technically doujin music! The doujin community is the crux of the anime community. But I can’t resist pointing out that the in footage in the “music video” you can see fansubs. This person didn’t even bother finding raws.

This, however, is legitimately funny good (embedding disabled, sorry). Soulja Boy Naruto parodies by law cannot be bad. Now, I complement Eddie Rath on his… creativity and his dedication to umm… anime. I can choose to make fun of him a bit more but I’m not that much of a jerk, so and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then three YouTube videos should be worth over nine thou- *ahem* a million. If your eyes ever lay upon these words, Eddie, may your Naruto inspired musical drive prove fruitful.

Support the artist! Buy his album!

For all of you who don’t read Coke’s blog, you’re not getting out of this.

Speaking of which, it’s about time for me to get around to Needless…

It’s September 11th today so that means it’s my birthday. It’s quite uneventful. My friends and I are going out to dinner tonight but besides that I don’t have anything slated. So ronrey…

But whatever. It’s not like this is a cool birthday like 18 or 21 where I can do something cool and new. I guess the best thing about today is that I’m going out to eat. Oh yeah! No ramen tonight!

But I’d like to take this time and reflect upon this blog and how it’s been doing. I started this blog at the beginning of summer as something for me to do. A pet project, of sorts. I like to write and by no means do I claim to be good at it, but it’s fun to do and I like anime as well. Let’s put two and two together and not spend the summer just watching anime and fapping but writing about it as well. Desu ex Machina has exceeded my expectations. Though I am but an embryo in the wonderful world of anime blogging, you, my wonderful readers with your awesome comments and feedback, have given me the privilege of experiencing how fun it can be. Thank you, all my loyal readers. All three of you.

To show my appreciation (actually this idea came up on IRC and I made it because I have way too much time on my hands), I have spent the last two days toiling in my underground laboratory. Then, during a thunderstorm I let it get hit by lightning and now IT”S ALIVE. Behold, my greatest creation, and a present from me to you.

Click for full size. Oh you BETTER click for full size.

I used various popularity polls and my own opinion to place the seiyuus from most the least valuable. I know start is “スタート”, but it wouldn’t fit. You just have to say start really fast, ok? Besides that, every effort has been put into making this resemble a Monopoly board as closely as possible (the fonts and stuff). I hope you all enjoy my seemingly completely inane labor. Well, that’s it I guess. I wonder what the pieces should be…

Alright, folks, schools is almost back in session. Have your brains turned into mush? No worries, kevo’s awesome Anime Aptitude Test (AAT) will get you back into academic shape! How sharp are you at the numerical arts? We shall see.

The following problems are arranged in no real particular order (though the good ones are at the back). There’s a little bit of everything on here, so give everything a shot. It took me a while to come up with some of these. I have all the answers so if you want to respond just comment. That probably means the comments are spoilers! I would definitely have a calculator on hand for just about all of these. Ok, good luck, have fun!

Sanzenin Nagi lends money to Tachibaba Wataru at a yearly intrest rate of 6.6 percent compounded monthly. After 24 months, Nagi has accumulated 318,000 Yen in intrest (Wataru has yet to make a payment). How much did Nagi lend Wataru?

Hayate has yet to make a payment on his loan from Nagi either. If Nagi has already made a 17% profit on intrest from her loan to Hayate after two years of continuous compounding, what is the intrest rate Nagi charged Hayate?

Okazaki Ushio is blowing a bubble. Write the equation for the surface area of the bubble as a function of how much air is inside (the volume).

Akashiya Moka is standing up in a pantyshot scene. A pantyshot results when the camera’s line of sight is focused on the inner side of the skirt farther away from the viewer, as seen in the diagram below. The camera is 41.36 cm away from Moka’s skirt and 30 cm under Moka’s waist, from a perspective looking up her skirt at an angle of 15 degrees. Given that Moka’s skirt flares from her waist at an angle of 105 degrees, and that the skirt is an isosceles trapezoid, what is the length of the outseam of Moka’s skirt, x? Round to the nearest centimeter.

Aika and Akari have a gondola race over a 10km course in Neo Venezia. Aika sets off from Aria Company at noon and finishes the course in 7692.3 seconds in fair conditions. Akari forgot when the race started and sets off from Aria Company at 12:30PM and rows for 30 minutes, covering only 1800 meters. She then rows backwards the rest of the way and finishes 812.3 seconds before Aika. At what time and point in the course does Akari pass Aika?

Alice wants to try, too. The next day, she sets off from Aria Company at noon with a 0.3 m/s counter current along the entire length of the course. Two minutes in, she realizes she forgot something and doubles back to Aria Company to get it, immediately setting off again upon arrival. She then completes the 10km course without incident and still beats Akari’s time by 7.63 seconds. How fast is Alice? Round to the nearest tenth.

Sorry for the lack of updates the past week. As I have said, I moved back into college this week and I had to wait a bit for internet. A day after the internet came, when everything has just been set up, and just when this year of college was starting off perfectly smooth, my laptop rolled over and just died. 12 days after the warranty expired. It has been one year. So a trip to the computer store and $1000 later, I’m back here again. I got a nice new HP HDX but to be honest I’d rather have my old Acer and 1000 bucks back (no, I will not buy a cheap computer. I am the President of the Video Game Club and I am a techie. A graphics card is synonymous to food for me). Budget is going to be really tight this semester. Oh right, my two Saimoe blogs… yeah CCY’s gonna be kind of upset.

In the meantime, I rewatched both seasons of Rozen Maiden in the last week. And because I didn’t have a computer Thursday night, the re-watch of Rozen Maiden Traumend became the first 13 episode anime I have ever watched in one sitting (t’was a quite fortunate way find out that my roommate’s PS3 can read data discs and play avis). As my first anime (childhood anime on Cartoon Network don’t count), Rozen Maiden has a special place in my heart. I remember how much fun I had with the series and how excited I became. A few years later, that feeling is still there. Sure, I’ve watched tons of really great stuff and 100 more anime since then, but this show is still just so amazingly solid. I also returned with deep appreciation for how talented Rie Tanaka is. My love for Suigintou is like a truck.

That look on Gin's face is absolutely priceless.

To cheer me up, however, gg gave me Christmas in August and did a triple release yesterday. Episode 7 of CANAAN was really cool, and the last two episodes were kind of a slowdown. That’s ok, not every anime can be Tengen Toppa Gurenn Lagann. There’s lots of talking and only little bits of Maria being annoying but nothing too intense. The story in confusing and the way it’s explained feels rather forced and gets in the way of the flow of the show. Regardless, they are at least trying and the character development is decently solid. Liang Qi especially stands out for her lunatic antics, zettai ryouiki, and bb gun action. More Rie Tanaka faggotry on my blog right here. I gotta take care of my favorite voice actor of all time you know. She is at her best when her character is batshit insane.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei continues to be freaking awesome. They animated one of my favorite chapters of the manga this week, about the Winter Shogun. Hopefully, they will animate my favorite chapter sometime. To continue the voice actor fagging, Horie Yui is in this week’s episode as chain sale schemer Maruuchi Shouko. I find it quite interesting that they are adding new people into the anime, and it hasn’t become overwhelming. I hope the infinite sales girls show up more in the future. The characters are extremely easy to figure out with minimal amounts of explanation needed. Characters are really what makes Zetsubou-Sensei gel and click together as a strong, enjoyable comedy anime.

If this was intentional, the seiyuu joke is clever.

Finally, Bakemonogatari 8. Bakemonogatari is so much storytelling and that storytelling is very masterful. We go into Suruga’s storyline and find out a little about her past. We learn of her nearly obsessive love for Hitagi and how multiple layers of her consciousness respond. This anime is captivating because it works on so many levels and there is meaning and thought in so many aspects of the plot.

I wasn’t really feeling it too much this episode, despite my praise for it. I guess after the first episode of this anime, I was expecting some action. Don’t get me wrong, however. Bakemonogatari as is is absolutely sublime. The drama is good and the show in itself is very thought provoking. I liked this episode’s OP, as Miyuki Sawashiro is a very talented singer and voice actor. I liked the final interaction in the opening animation where Hitagi cuts Suruga in half with scissors. The foreshadow was great symbolism and played into the episode well.

Oh right, Hayate no Gotoku also was released recently. This season has been hella good and HnG has not broken the trend. After three insanely hilarious episodes in a row, this show seems to want to reel back a little bit before it starts killing its fans. Still, this episode was pretty fun and full of lulz. Nagi gets a part time job and Ayumu is moe. There’s also a Haruhi dig, so there’s no reason not to watch it.

I’m moving back to college tomorrow morning. I’m getting an apartment with my friend, which means I finally get my own bedroom and private space. This means I can finally watch anime without giving a damn who is walking into the room. The bad news is that I don’t get internet installed until Wednesday, so I’ll be without internet for an uncomfortably long time. I guess this means I’ll be catching up on a lot of anime. So here is my final blog post for like five or so days.

Watching anime purely for Engrish is actually not a wasted endeavor. The folks on Danbooru have even apparently started to translate Engrish as if it were another language (work safe). Producers and directors can spend thousands of manhours creating, drawing, animating, and writing an episode, working with musicians to create a perfectly functional piece of music for an opening or ending theme. And in the following cases, apparently, no one in the studio spoke a lick of English. I guess since they assume the audience are just random Japanese people it doesn’t really matter. Or maybe it’s “cool” to be Engrish stylistically. We should go the other way and have faux Japanese. Here lemme try: Boku no sugoi chinchin isu inu anata no imouto desu.

This list isn’t exhaustive, instead these are the first six things that popped into my head. If you think I’m missing something drop a comment.

Spice and Wolf ED: Ringo Hiyori by Rocky Chack

I thought I’d start off this post with an example of an Engrish anime song that’s not that bad. Engrish can be AWESOME in two separate ways: pronunciation and grammar. God forbid both. Despite sounding like something a coked up Lewis Carroll would write, all the lyrics seem grammatically correct. Still, the thought of the singer forcing herself to pronounce the l sounds is quite entertaining.

Bleach OP 4: TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT by Beat Crusaders

Back when watching Bleach wasn’t didn’t warrant instant trolling, all the way back at the Bounto arc, the turning point of the franchise, this OP aired. Bleach, regardless of what people feel or think about it, is well known for its solid array of theme songs. The song sounds pretty cool despite making absolutely zero grammatical sense. I am still convinced that one of the lyrics is “tonight constipation”.

Say… what?

Woke up with yawn. It’s dawning, im still alive.
Turned on my radio to start up new day
As goddanmed DJ’s chattered how to survive
Amazing news got over on the air wave

English Translation

I woke up and yawned. It’s dawn and I seem to be alive.
I turned on my radio to start my day.
As the goddamn DJ chattered about how to survive,
I heard amazing news over the airwaves!

Best YouTube Comment

“ur stupid.u don’t like loooooooooooooooooooong animes with a lot of good thinds in it.”

Hajime no Ippo OP 1: Under Star by Shocking Lemons

How awesome is this song? Even the title doesn’t make sense! As the opening theme to one of the most incredibly entertaining, captivating, and gar anime ever, the opening animation is basically an awesome anime version of the Rocky montage except instead of Eye of the Tiger, we get our blood pumping with some dude who wants feeling. iiiitsuuuumooooo. Shit, I wanna eat steak and go beat some people up right now.

Say… what?

I want to dive…lost mind…
I want to dive…lost mind…
I want feeling…I want feeling…itsumo…
I want to dive…lost mind…
I want to dive…lost mind…
why, why, why, why? I want to dive!
feeling over…

English Translation

I want to dive. I lost my mind. I want to feel someone, presumably because I lost my mind. Why? Because I want to dive dammit!
Oh wait, the feeling is over.

Best YouTube Comment

“Ryu said no, i got timid knee
Is Shoe no! He caught me walking there! YEA
A.M NO! You may want me there! Rollling goo!”

ChäoS;HEAd ED: Super Special by Kagami Seira

You guys were totally waiting for this to show up on the list, I know it. Super Special is by far the best thing about the trainwreck of an anime that was Chaos Head. What’s perfectly appropriate after an intensely disturbing cliffhanger moment that involves grisly murders and suspense? A J-pop song that rejects worldly possessions to call the viewer super special, of course! I also like how the animation makes Chaos Head seem as if its some kind of harem romantic schoolgirl love comedy, which would have made the show about ten times better.

Say… what?

Big sign of love and peace
When there’s enough bombs to blow the Earth
All they cares only
Prioritize money they own

English Translation

I flash the peace sign, my fellow hippie love. It’s really absurd that when the nuclear arsenal of the world’s militaries can destroy the world that those greedy capitalist pigs just care about their own money. DOWN WITH THE BOURGEOISIE, LONG LIVE THE PROLETARIAT.

Best YouTube Comment

“Love this anime 10/10”
“The anime was great, and it also had the best soundtrack.”

Clannad Insert Song: Ana by Lia

I mentioned earlier how Engrish can take the form of grammar or pronunciation. Ana is great not only because of how terrible the grammar is, but how perfect the pronunciation is. I made sure to pick a version of the video that was fansubbed. I notice that Eclipse took the effort of karaokeing the insert song because otherwise I might not have noticed it was in English. As if the accent didn’t tip you off, Lia is actaully fluent in English. You can imagine what she felt while recording this song. Didn’t she have the heart to kindly tell Yuu Hagiwara that plugging things into Babelfish is probably not the best way to write lyrics? (kevo with da research) Stick to Japanese, Key. You guys do a great job otherwise.

Oh right, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Lia on her pregnancy and wish her the best of luck.

Say… what?

The place is so far away be far apart.
People’s hand does not reach, so merely has the worship.
The place is a lofty lord can’t meet nobody put on.
We will lose the place, so lofty which changes.

English Translation

I have no fucking clue.

Best YouTube Comment

The best YouTube Comment is at the end of the video. “Cuting by jamie. subing thanks to eclips subs”. I can confidently say, however, that Jamie’s spelling is better than the grammar in Ana. For them to be equal, it would have to read “cutrig by jeimy. aybing tehanks to eklepes ceubs”

Neon Genesis Evangelion ED: Fly Me to the Moon by Yoko Takahashi

You know how in those American anime magazines about gREATEST ANIMES EVER LOL Neon Genesis Evangelion always finishes first? Well for once it deserves it. The full name of the song is “Fly Me to the Moon (Yoko Takahashi Acid Bossa Version)”. I think the title itself is enough to send Frank Sinatra in a barrel roll in his grave. Fry me to za muun is just extra credit from here on out. I never quite understood why Eva chose to have Fly Me to the Moon as its ending theme in the first place. Then again, I never quite understood many things about that anime, like why people like it or why it was even made. That’s enough trolling Eva for now.

Say… what?

Since Frank Sinatra has a basic understanding of the English language, I’m just gonna conclude this post by being Yuu Hagiwara and using Babelfish to translate the song into Japanese and back into English.

Me do to throw in month me,
some spring reaches
to Jupiter and whether it seems Mars way,
do to permit the fact that you see me
do to permit the fact that you play at interstellar space namely,
namely, the tramcar of my hand in me
who kiss do to grasp
do to fill up my center with song and
with you who sing me permanently
to be long entirely because of I,
do to permit many which are I to worship,
everything which is worshipped namely, namely, truth loves me, be

…
Awesome.