Terrified Quack

休暇中

[akumadeenglish]

Obon

Yana’s blog post from July 2011

Blog title: *Obon

[*Obon is a traditional Japanese festival usually held in August to honour ancestors and/or deceased family members. There are many regional differences as to how and when to celebrate it.]

Translation:

“It's the Obon season~. When Obon comes, it feels like summer has arrived and makes me a bit melancholic. Unlike Halloween in the Western culture, the Japanese Obon is not so much of festive nature, nevertheless, the scent of incense and looking at the *Butsudan (*mini Buddhist altar) decorated with a lot of fruits somehow makes me feel at ease.

This year, I spent Obon all alone for the first time in my life. I didn't even know whether our family would celebrate Obon in July or in August [...]. I didn't really remember what to prepare. I wish I had asked [my mother] more about these stuff.

To all my ancestors, I'm sorry if I got something wrong! But well.., it's the thought that counts, right?

When I visited [our ancestors] grave carrying a paper lantern, people really stared at me. I guess nowadays this is not so common anymore?? 

I asked my assistants how they prepare for Obon, but it seems it's pretty different depending on the region. Just as the very same dish tastes different in different parts of Japan, Obon seems to be different from region to region which is quite impressing. Anyways, I forgot to prepare the bush clovers this year, so I'll be more careful next year...

I personally believe that the act of sitting in front of a *Butsudan and putting one’s hands together in prayer is an act meant [to help] those who were left behind. After spending today [celebrating Obon] I felt that I'm happy to be born in a country with this culture.

Death is an 'end' that comes to all living beings, but for us living it is not an 'end' but a ‘parting’. And I think Japan is a country that is good at coping with parting.”

.

.

Not sure if I managed to convey the immense melancholy in this blog post, so here are some additional information:

general info about Japanese Obon 

A Butsudan (Buddhist altar) is a household mini shrine to honour the deceased. It’s decorated with photos, flowers, fruits and things the deceased used to love. Unless you live in the countryside and own an ancestral butsudan, you usually only buy a butsudan when a close family member died. So the fact that Yana owns a butsudan (and mentions it in her blog) implies that she lost a close family member.

Obon is pretty much the equivalent of Christmas in Western culture for it’s a season where families and relatives gather together. Each region, each family has their own way to celebrate Obon. So now that Yana’s mother died, there’s no one to teach her the traditional Toboso-family way of celebrating Obon and since she’s an only child (iirc), she has to prepare/celebrate it all alone. 

We usually put our hands together in front of the butsudan to pray for the deceased, so it’s seen as an act for the sake of the deceased. Yana on the other hand believes this act is for the bereaved - to sort themselves out and cope with the death and pain. 

the blog post is from 2011

[margalotta]

This Polish commercial is the purest thing I ever seen in my entire life.

I’m not crying, you’re crying.

[akumadeenglish]

Hi, I just wanted to ask a quick question about Japanese- I’m in a beginner’s class right now, and we’re learning hiragana. I’ve only ever spoken English, but we’re already on rows 4-6 of hiragana and our test is tomorrow (we JUST learned it today) do you have any tips for memorization? On the test on the last three rows (today, learned two days ago) I blanked on four of the letters >~< it’s just difficult when we have to work so quickly. Any tips would be super appreciated. Sorry to bother you!

Hi, first of all, I’m sorry for the extreme delay in replying! I guess by the time you read this, you are already done with Hiragana and probably started to learn Katakana and Kanjis, so I know it’s super late but nevertheless, I hope you did well in the tests!<3

Anyway, now about your question, I’m afraid you asked the wrong person!^^; I learnt Hiragana/Katakana when I was in Kindergarten~elementary school, so it’s a very different situation from yours. You’ll certainly get more useful tips from those people who studied Japanese as a foreign language at school/uni than from a native speaker (especially from someone like me who is too lazy to learn a completely new writing system from scratch and therefore only learns European languages xD). Anyway, fortunately, there are many people who studied/are studying Japanese in this Kuro fandom, and they can surely give you some good advice :)

That said, I think the most common and also the simplest way to learn Hiragana is ‘practice by repetition’, i.e. writing down each Hiragana over and over until you master it. There are lots of Hiragana/Katakana writing practice sheets online, so you can download them and for example do one work sheet every day. Actually, I used to do this, too, to improve my handwriting and it does work! Also I’m sure there are some useful Hiragana practicing apps out there, so try them out, too.

Just keep practicing, go out with friends and refresh your mind, take a good rest (very important bc your brain needs good sleep to memorise things), and then practice again the next day. Hard work will definitely pay off! :)

継続は力なり。がんばれ～😉✨

Bonus: 

Just remember you’re not alone, Ariana Grande and many others are struggling with Japanese, too :)

okay I know Ariana quit learning Japanese because some stupid bullies called her out for cultural appropriation whatsoever which I find ridiculous because afaik no one in Japan ever had an issue with it 

And from a point of view of a Japanese (yeah we proud Japanese with the lowest English proficiency rate in Asia lol), it’s already really amazing that you take the trouble to learn our language, so don’t be too hard on yourself!<3

[akumadeenglish]

Hi there ducky! I was happy to see representation of the Chinese translated manga haha. Just some of my input here. 死𡃁仔 is not the same as 死孩子，孩子 just refers to a child neutrally while 𡃁仔 refers to a rascal/brat, and usually has a negative connotation to it. So 死𡃁仔 is more slangy than the mainland Chinese translation. As for the unofficial translation, I would say 臭小鬼 is milder than the Cantonese translation, 小鬼 refers to a mischievous child but is more used as a term of endearment.

Hi there and thanks for your input<3

Ahhh so it’s not the same, I see! 

So if I understand correctly, it’s

这个死𡃁仔 = ‘that damn brat’ > 这个死孩子 = 'that damn child’ > 那个臭子鬼 = 'that mischievous child' 

in order of rudeness? (and I suppose ’死’ in this case means something along ‘damn’ ‘bloody’ ‘shitty’ etc?)

And would you say that “ 死孩子 “ and “臭子鬼“ are still slangs (i.e. did Sebastian swear)? How rude would you say these terms are, respectively, on a scale from 1 to 10?

Idk but somehow I have a soft spot for Sebastian using swear words/slangs so I’m very curious lol 

[akumadeenglish]

HKer here -- i haven't read any chinese-cantonese translations of kuro, but somehow my mind immediately thought of the term "死𡃁仔": which is basically the cantonese (slang) equivalent of "shitty brat/little brat" for boys (+ a sort of equivalent for "son of a b/tch" based its use); "𡃁仔" is a derogatory slang term to refer to boys/young men and "死" means DIE so....!! not sure if the translations (official and/or by fans) actually use that but thought i might share a bit of canto slang anyway!!

(related to this post)

Hi there, thanks a lot for your input! <3

Luckily, I got my hands on the official (mainland) Chinese version of that chapter, and it seems Sebastian indeed says

「这个死孩子」 (I’m just gonna assume that 死孩子 is the same as 死𡃁仔 just with simplified Chinese characters).

It’s kinda cool that Chinese!Sebastian uses real slangs here. And the intended rudeness seems close enough to that of the original Japanese phrase, so I really like this translation!😂  

And btw, I also found the online Chinese translation of that chapter and in this version Sebastian says

「那个*臭小鬼」

I can vaguely imagine what it means, but could you maybe explain this phrase, too? I’m especially curious about whether this is ruder than the term the official translation went with (死孩子). Though just judging from the characters, I kinda feel like 臭子鬼 is a bit milder than 死孩子, but yeah, maybe that’s just me because in Japan when we say ‘子鬼’ (lit. baby demons), we imagine something like this:

 😂

[akumadeenglish]

Hey Ducky! Are all of the kuro musicals canon material? :0

Hi, sorry for the late reply!

Story-wise ‘Lycoris’ (2014,2015), ‘Noah’s Ark’(2016) and ‘Tango on the Campania’(2018) are canon because they are based on the arcs from the original manga. 

‘The most beautiful death’ (2010, 2013) must be canon to some extent, too, because both Eric and Alan made a cameo appearance in chapter 105 and thus became manga-canon characters:

As for the first musical (“That butler, friendship”, 2008), I never watched it, so I can’t say whether it’s canon or not.

Generally though, Yana is a ‘laissez faire’ type of author, so be it anime or musical or live action she’s like “bring in your own ideas and make your own version of Kuroshitsuji, if you need any help or ideas I’ll be there for you”. And afaik, aside from the costumes designs, she didn’t really actively take part in the production of the musicals (she occasionally visited the rehearsals and gave some tips to the actors though) - unlike the Book of Circus anime from 2015 in which Yana was 100% involved. Therefore, while the overall story in the musical is canon (because they are based on canon arcs, obviously), not every single detail in the musicals is necessarily manga-canon (e.g. characters like Sharp Hanks is musical-original afaik).

If you are interested, you can read Yana’s stance toward the musicals here and here :)

[akumadeenglish]

(related to this post)

someone: What year is it?

Japan: It’s H30. Next year will be H31 until April 30, and “whatever-letter-except-M/T/S/H”1 after May 1. 

rest of the world:

Keep reading

[akumadeenglish]

@flustered-earl

A new era begins when a new Emperor takes the throne. The current Emperor will retire due to his health problems and his eldest son, the Crown Prince, is going to succeed him next May. As such, the current ‘Heisei’ (平成) era will end as of April 30, 2019 and the new era will start from the following day (May 1, 2019).

We don’t know the name of the new era yet, it’ll probably be announced sometime by the end of the year! :D 

If you want to know more, I recommend reading this article!

[akumadeenglish]

The name of the next era will be announced tomorrow (on April fool’s day of all days) and everyone in Japan rn like

[akumadeenglish]

So the new era name was announced today and it’s

令和　- REIWA -

which consists of two kanjis: 令 (which has a lot of meanings such as ‘order’, ‘pure and beautiful’, ‘joyous/happy’, ‘auspicious’, ‘oracle of god’, etc) and 和 (which means ‘harmony’, ‘peace’). So together it would mean something along ‘order and peace’, ‘beautiful harmony’ or whatever, basically the interpretation is up to each person. 

Anyway, the funny thing about this whole reveal was that as soon as the new era name was announced, one word started trending on twitter, namely “R18″. It’s common to abbreviate the era name with its first alphabet (e.g. the current year is Heisei 31; “H31″ for short). So following this custom, “Reiwa 18″ (2036) would be R18 - which very much reminds of content rating😂

Bonus: There is an actual Australian company by the name of REIWA (Real Estate Institute of Western Australia)😂 

[catchymemes]

[akumadeenglish]

(related to this post)

someone: What year is it?

Japan: It’s H30. Next year will be H31 until April 30, and “whatever-letter-except-M/T/S/H”1 after May 1. 

rest of the world:

Keep reading

[akumadeenglish]

@flustered-earl

A new era begins when a new Emperor takes the throne. The current Emperor will retire due to his health problems and his eldest son, the Crown Prince, is going to succeed him next May. As such, the current ‘Heisei’ (平成) era will end as of April 30, 2019 and the new era will start from the following day (May 1, 2019).

We don’t know the name of the new era yet, it’ll probably be announced sometime by the end of the year! :D 

If you want to know more, I recommend reading this article!

[akumadeenglish]

The name of the next era will be announced tomorrow (on April fool’s day of all days) and everyone in Japan rn like

[akumadeenglish]

”With my first ever royalties I received from "Rust Blaster" [*Yana's first manga series], I once went to Disneyland to see the "Cinderellabration" [*Cinderella-themed special event] together with my mother who loved Cinderella. At night, when Cinderella appeared in a sparkling pumpkin carriage, my mother was like ‘Look! It's Cinderella!’ and she looked [so happy] as if she was a little girl again. I will never forget that smile. -Toboso”

Every time Yana talks about her memories with her deceased mom, it brings tears to my eyes.

[akumadeenglish]

Hi Ducky! I hope you've been doing well 💛 I have a question regarding the latest chapter. I remember watching the Black and White Musical Uehara Takuya was in and the protagonists had a number on their backs. If you read that number in another way, you got a phrase (that had to do with some prophecy in the musical).I'm curious if maybe UT's number has another way of reading it? I'm not familiar with Japanese and I just remembered that detail from b&w so I thought I'd give that theory a shot lol

Hi, sorry for my late reply! 

To answer quickly, no, I don’t think there’s a wordplay (’goroawase’/Japanese wordplay with numbers) at work here (I quickly checked twitter to see if someone else was able to decipher the code, but found nothing interesting). There’s no other reading for 136649, at least nothing that makes sense.

However, what I find interesting about this number is that it’s almost a combination of ominous numbers from all over the world lol.

13 - unlucky number in some countries

66(6) - ominous number in Western countries

4 and 9 - seen as ominous numbers in some Asian countries because they are homophones for “death” (4/shi) and “suffer” (9/ku). [Moreover, “49″ has an important meaning in Buddhism. In Japan it is believed that the soul of the deceased remains in this world for 48 days and on the 49th day (四十九日) after passing Enma/Yama (god of death) judges the conduct of the dead while they were still alive and either send them to hell or allow them to reincarnate.]  

All that said, I think at this point we have just too little information to make any assumptions. The number could be purely organizational (e.g. 136649th shinigami registered in the Shinigami Dispatch Association, or 49th shinigami registeredin 1366, ‘shinigami who died on the 49th day in 1366′, ‘shinigami who died on 13.06.649’ etc), or completely random. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what numbers other reapers got assigned, especially Othello who is said to be UT’s contemporary.

[akumadeenglish]

Hello I hope you're doing well,is Sebastian Last name German (Michaelis) and where did he come up with it or was it Ciel Thank you

I already answered similar asks before, so I just refer you to my past posts. 

Here are some facts:

(afaik) Yana never said anything about Sebastian’s surname (she commented on his first name ‘Sebastian’ several times though).

We don’t even know whether it was Ciel or Sebastian himself who came up with this surname.

It could be a bad pun (’mikaeri’ means ‘return’ in Japanese).

It could be a reference to Michael the archangel.

It could be a reference to real French inquisitor ‘Sébastien Michaëlis’, to real British tea master “Sebastian Michaelis”, real German dentist “Dr. Sebastian Michaelis” or real Canadian consultant “Sebastian Michaelis” or any other real “Sebastian Michaelis” out there for that matter. We don’t know. 

Editor K and Yana know the existence of ‘Sébastien Michaëlis’. 

I for one think it’s indeed a reference to the French inquisitor but unless Yana confirms it, we’ll never know for sure.

[snreads]

When you’re typing in another language on the English keyboard and autocorrect attacks you:

[memewhore]

[akumadeenglish]

That butler, devoted cat lover

Bonus: That cat lover, rejected

[minddpalaces]

bless the founders of urban dictionary bc without them i’d never know what you guys were talking about

[akumadeenglish]

Editor K’s sketches vs Yana’s illustrations

[*Note: “K-san” aka “editor K” is Yana’s editor since 2004. He is a former manga artist.]

1. K-san’s sketch of prototype Sebastian (left) vs Yana’s sketch of Sebastian (right)

Yana’s comment on K-san’s Sebastian (from Kuroshitsuji comicbook vol.1):

“[The way K-san drew] His mouth somehow irritates me.”

2. K-san’s sketch of a “good-looking conductor” (left) vs Yana’s illustration of a “good-looking conductor” (right)

Yana’s comment on K-san’s sketch (from Yana’s former sketch blog):

“This is the sketch my editor sent me like “How about an illustration like this!”. Seriously, don’t you think his 90s-rock-band-style-conductor looks hilarious!?” 

3. K-san’s sketch of idol!Sebastian (left) vs Yana’s illustration of idol!Sebastian (right)

Bonus:  K-san’s sketch of “Ayaka6″ vs  actual illustration of “Ayaka6″

K-san is Yana’s source of inspiration.