[ngmatsu]

are you still okay with people requesting to follow your matsu art archive? if not i understand, thank you for your time!

sorry I'm not sure what you're referring to -- official art? fanart?

EDIT: oh you mean that 10 year old twt account yeah. even if i had the pw for it, that's locked forever. you have to like message me off anon and be my friend if you want me to share old art with you

[osmt-hkw]

hi, i made an account to share the sprites i stole got from osomatsu san hesokuri wars because i’m obsessed with the game and the vast amount of sprites it has. there’s about 340 completed sets in the link.

i also got all (?) the backgrounds available in the game if you’d like to look at those too.

i should note:

EDIT: there’s a side characters folder now! it contains dayon, dekapan, hatabou, iyami, totoko, and the matsuno parents.

these are sprite sheets, so all the “animations” (ie the walk, the attack, the death) are on one image, so there’s only about 6 pictures per folder.

i generally named the folders how the hesowars wiki titled them, but instead of “18 year olds” i used “18matsu”, and instead of “musical” i used “musicalmatsu”.

i didn’t edit the images in any way aside from changing their orientation + file type + file name, so that weird chunk of nothing under the backgrounds confuses me as much as it does you.

link to the folder

^contains both the rar file with everything in it AND all the folders seperated so you can just download any file individually.

[ngmatsu]

Hey, you probably don't check this blog anymore, but I want to say that I really love your translations! They're the most natural-sounding Hesokuri translations out there, I can see why they took so much effort to make. Good luck on your new projects!

this acct is linked to my other tumblrs so i do get notifs, and thank you anon :) it's hard for me to read my old TL attempts, but i'm happy to hear they read well to you! and i hope my efforts were successful at capturing a good 4% of the stories put out in the hskr app...to date i still feel the storytelling in hskr during its heyday was worthwhile and special, like a weird nerdy cousin to the tv series that was doing something more experimental and creative than it had to. it sticks with me...it tantalizes the imagination

[ngmatsu]

I'm not the only one who thinks there's something super suspicious about Karatsugu in Denki am I? He has no real ties to the village and had to be brought there by a mysterious phone call tip. Mysteriously somehow knew to bring charmed jackets for all the brothers for Dayoko's wedding. Works for Matsuzou but somehow not knowing that he's his real dad? No mention of his Dayon dad at all? It doesn't help that the newest set reveal has the adopted girlymatsus all have tiny shadow Beelzebub designs on their umbrellas and that Beelzebub in the worker set had flowers and an umbrella referencing Denki.

You know, I've definitely had suspicious feelings about Karatsugu - but to be honest I've had suspicious feelings about a lot of the denkimatsus, which is justified because a lot of them are hiding secrets! Denki's interesting in the way the matsus keep pairing off and having private conspiratorial interactions, where they share information that stays between them.

Anyway Karatsugu is very bombastic (like Karamatsu) but definitely comes off more contemplative and knowledgable in some scenes - which is of course very suspicious, because he is Karamatsu.

-The phone call: I don't think this makes Karatsugu seem suspicious necessarily... the bigger question to me is who called him. There is something weird about the fact that Kara AND Hajime both grow up in the city away from the others, but that's still unexplained...

-Don't remember if this was ever hinted, but I've been assuming it was Matsuzo who provided or suggested the thing with the protective matsu charms on the suits. he apparently has a long history with the village, and is worried about Karatsugu going there, so it makes sense to me. Kara makes it sound like he knows of a SPECIFIC person who wore a protective charm on the mountains and it saved them - to me Matsuzo is the most likely candidate.

-Matsuzo is the bigger question mark, I can't really wrap my head around what the stories are implying, but it seems there's a strange link between Matsuzo, the matsus, and the Dayodads, them sharing handwriting (and poses, in the "sang" sprites). There's so many questions with Matsuzo because basically nothing about him is explained in the stories... how did his sons end up with the Dayons? Why did he keep this secret from Karatsugu? etc.

-It IS weird and intriguing that Karatsugu never mentions his Dayodad! This has never stopped bothering me...

but ANYWAY, these new sprites: yes, oh my god I love it, the Beelzebub thing. The description says "they tried to run away, but come morning, they found they were back in the Mutsushika house. oh my. who gave her that umbrella?" Yeah gee I wonder who!! wow Karamatsu, first you get special denki significance because your yokai form is the ao-andon (summoned by the 100 ghost stories game) and NOW your demon form is distributing umbrellas to kidnapped orphan girls??

I don't know if this means I should side-eye Karatsugu more... personally I don't, but again, all of the denkimatsus are mysterious, and unless they release stories from Kara's perspective like they did with Takashi, I can't tell if he knows more than he lets on.

[ngmatsu]

OMG DID YOU SEE THE NEW MUTSUSHIKA WOMEN EVENT??? FINALLY THEYRE BACK!! AND A POSSIBLE CONTINUATION FOR THE DENKI STORYLINE NO LESS!! Are you by any chance gonna translate the stories of that one??

the new sprites are soooo cute, love the adopted girls ;_; if there's a story to go with them then yes i will definitely read it and, if i dont have time to translate [i'm pretty distracted from matsu lately!] at least post a description/impressions. [at the moment i don't see anything about a new event on their twitter...]

[ngmatsu]

when it comes to the yokai, there’s ambiguity as to when it’s the matsus POSSESSED by yokai, and when it’s REAL yokai (who also happen to resemble the matsus)... i saw people point out, for most of the yokai sprites, when they’re hit they have normal hit sprites of the matsus (suggesting they’re real, physical possessed humans). but for the hyakki yagyo sprites and the snow sprites, they vanish after being hit. also the descriptions for those two sets don’t say “this is todomatsu possessed by a yokai”, they say “could this be todomatsu possessed by a yokai..?” etc. so those are probably actual yokai and not the possessed matsus.

[ngmatsu]

what's up with the denki stuff in the recent youkaimatsu house attraction? I mean, the youkaimatsu in general, but

(oh my god ive been so distracted from my matsu timeline, i didn’t even notice they put out a new set of stories!!! omg.)

i just read through this and i can type up a summary again! theres actually quite a lot of denki references, and a few other references, some of which i don’t really get. it seems to happen around the time of the last yokai event, from november 2016. [i’m not sure when specifically, though - in that event the matsus are possessed by yokai, but at the end they cast them out. that’s what’s visually represented in the attraction sprite, where their house is covered in seals and karamatsu’s ao-andon blue glow is glowing from inside. that said, at the end of the original yokai event, they say there are still yokai around at the end, so maybe they came back and repossessed the matsus?!? or did this happen in the middle? i dont know.]

tl;dr in these stories, the yokai-possessed matsus travel to a bunch of places and seem to experience time-travel-weirdness, and at one point they directly fly over Akatsuka Village and try to save the denkimatsus while they’re being sacrified. ALSO, some of the little object yokai (tsukumogami) show up in the regular town, including the best one, kankan (ozo’s animate coffee can...)

LONG DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW YOKAIMATSU ATTRACTION STORIES:

STORY 1:

-totoko wanders around with a huge katana, through the yokai-overrun version of Akatsuka District [from the 2016 yokai event], seemingly in a daze, singing “matsuno wa itsumo no basho...” [this is the song that appears in denki, that is apparently magical and used to ward off spirits] she slices at unseen entities [probably yokai] with her katana

- “a few days previous”, in a normal-looking Akatsuka District, totoko’s parents are concerned that she’s sleeping a lot, and wonder why she’s so tired.

-that night iyami is walking down a dark street in a business suit, commenting that the sun went down surprisingly fast. he feels eyes on him... totoko appears, seemingly in a daze, and says “someone is calling”. then an unknown sketchy entity gifts totoko a katana, that is said to cut spirits(ayakashi). iyami sees that there are tsukumogami (the little object yokai) around her and pisses himself in terror. narration says that strange entities/yokai have started appearing in Akatsuka District, and it is said a hunter appeared to hunt them down.

STORY 2:

-back at the matsuno house, the parents are terrorized by the sextuplets, who yokai-possessed, dancing around in their room. totoko shows up at the front door mid-battle and asks the parents if the matsus are home; they say yes they're upstairs, and she runs up... but then leaves, screaming "where did you go you neets?!" - clearly the matsus ran away.

-cut to the yokai matsus flying away, marveling at how fast they can soar, away from the town... to a mountain region, where they see a festival, and humans tied up, seemingly for sacrifice. they want to save the humans - kara shines a bright light but it does nothing; choro flaps his wings, then it rains rocks and dark clouds form, raining on the fire below. they flee when a helicopter shows up. 

-they flee to a place (forest?) that's full of sakura petals and smells like flowers - their appearance seems to suck up the pink of the flowers (the sakura!yokai sprites). they make merry, totty dances, oso drinks, but then suddenly it gets dark again and the flowers disappear. jyushi sees a sunglasses-wearing-man in a nearby park, runs over to talk to him - the man seems to be working on design drawings, and says that jyushi’s cool yokai appearance inspires him. [note: this is coachmatsu, specifically the version who appears in the yakuza au (gokuroumatsu), who designed the yakuza!matsus’s yokai tattoos! this is such a cool reference...]

-moving on, they remark that the seasons seem weird, since right now it’s autumn in Akatsuka District, but then they saw a summery mountain and a springy flowery forest. suddenly they’re in a snowy landscape - it's cold and they seek shelter in a temple, that someone seems to have opened for them. oso starts to get more yokai-y, enraged that they left their beer at home. jyushi says they should probably go home soon. then he seems to pause - "something's burning. the autumn mountain. the base of the mountain..." ichi tells jyushi to go home. [note: i’m not sure what the temple and the “autumn mountain” are. potentially referencing the superpowered samurai event [which has a temple], or some people were saying cyberpunk? (i still havent read that one.)]

STORY 3:

the next morning, back at the matsuno house the sextuplets are fast asleep; matsuyo pulls at their horns and tails but they won't come off. her and matsuzo talk about how theres been a big disaster throughout town with people becoming yokai-possessed, and theyre miserable abt having kids who are neets AND now yokai. dayon shows up at their door (dressed as a shrine maiden) advertising Mr. Flag's exorcism business. they take a leaflet.

later on, kara is "working" [as an ao-andon] while keeping a wary distance from totoko, who's still swinging her sword around. he goes to a dark warehouse somewhere, where two figures are telling ghost stories and blowing out candles. he excitedly waits after the 99th one (dokidoki) but they deliberately don’t say the 100th story, creating a “seal”. karamatsu sadly goes back to akatsuka district - where all the matsus are now being attacked by totoko. their parents look on semi-approvingly (hopeful this will cure their sons.) exorcist!hatabou says he wants to buy her katana. THE END

[ngmatsu]

thinking about hero ichi's nicknames for the magical girls being based on the hero names, about todo's being "spirit M", trying to work out what the joke is, and then realising i don't know if it's a pun on "spirit medium" or "spirit masochist", because one is a phrase like "platonic love" and the other one… sounds like ichi's impression of love…

its mysterious right... since “M” is usually short for masochist in jp im sure ppl around totty would be assuming it’s that =3=

[ngmatsu]

do you know of any timeline that lays out where all the individual events and short stories in the denki universe take place in relation to each other?

instead of answering with a timeline, i’ll be honest...after the stories released in 2020, the timeline’s gotten really confusing and even more hard to figure out, so i don’t have a great sense of everything myself. 

here’s a japanese post theorizing the full timeline. i dont think i have the energy to make an english timeline right now!

[ngmatsu]

(starts reading new event) lmfao its stranger things?? of course

[ngmatsu]

do the magical girls have nicknames other than their regular canon names? just wondering since you mentioned that they're characters in ichimatsu's manga in the hero au.

the real magical girl matsus just call themselves by their regular names in the events, since they’re the regular matsus

BUT yes hero!ichi gives them all adorable english language names in his manga, which are

oso - Queen Ruby

kara - Noisy Sonata Cupid

choro - Liberty

ichi - Kitty Shadow

jyushi - Quick Candy

totty - Spirit M (i think? it’s  スピリット•エム )

[ngmatsu]

MUSICAL 2: HIJILIEN BOOGALOO

oh god... hell yes... i havent even read it yet but i will check it out soon

[ngmatsu]

are there any more stories apart from denki and noir in which the sextuplets are human sacrifices, or are we normally just summoning demons

=w= not...to my knowledge. but whatever nefarious shit hatabou’s doing in noir is deliberately supposed to echo denki - there was a plot element of missing gold treasure in the first noir story, which fans realized was probably supposed to link with the gold statues in denki. so yeah those two aus are deliberately implied to have some kind of mysterious connection. (keep in mind the original stories were released less than 3 months apart)

[ngmatsu]

Were did they get Karamatsu and Todomatsu a dragon tattoo except Osomatsu, Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, and Jyushimatsu don't have tattoo, is their something important that tattoo on their body?

you get backstory for the dragon tattoos in the matsu noir prequel story.

context: the matsus have recently graduated from the city police academy and started work as policemen. hatabou’s nefarious company is trying to kidnap the matsus because he believes they are “good luck” and wants to use them in a human sacrifice. after the matsus narrowly escape after being kidnapped, and find out about all of this, karamatsu seems quiet. then a few days later this exchange:

OSO:  ...Huh? Is there something drawn on your arm? Looks like scales. What is that?

KARA:  I got a dragon tattoo. Just what those good luck charm-obsessed friends of ours are looking for, right?

OSO: ...What exactly are you thinking?

KARA: ...You get what’s going on, right?

KARA: They want to sell us off separately. I’m diverting their attention.

TODO: Are you an idiot?! What the hell are you talking about! Now they’ll just go after you, Karamatsu-niisan!!

TODO: Why would you do this when you got worse scores on arrest technique than me?!

[ ...a few days pass... ]

KARA: Wait, you got a tattoo too? That’s... surprising.

TODO: It’s just for disruption, for disruption! Basic tactics!

TODO: You just don’t understand me.

[ngmatsu]

would you ever consider translating the welcome to this world and tenshi biker events?

i love welcome to this world, ive already translated part of it...im just soooo distracted from translating lately but ill keep it in mind ><

the tenshi biker story however is more complicated, it’s about the angel matsus driving around picking up people who die in scenes from OTHER hesokuri wars stories, e.g. the serial killers au. so it’s actually confusing and not very satisfying if you don’t know those other stories. the most important thing to know is that osomatsu is now going by the name “crimson”, named after the band king crimson lol

[ngmatsu]

blog thesis statemtn: i try to understand hesokuri wars so YOU dont have to

[ngmatsu]

Why denki mystery is connected to youkai matsu which is youkai matsu is different story. They mention about youkai names but never appeared from the story.

denki has lots of references to the youkai, here i’ll copy what i wrote in my denki notes

-Each line of the song the sextuplets remember from childhood references their associated yokai

-Rocks rain from the sky after Chorosuke gets upset at the end of the main event - an ability of tengu.

-Jyushimatsu sees a “big dog” when he hallucinates (Story 1), possibly a reference to his associated yokai (inugami).

-Takashi is terrified by a figure shaped like the oni version of Osomatsu in his “rain” sprite.

-In addition, there are six haunted object yokai, or tsukumogami, which show up in the 百鬼夜行 yokai set, that are each associated with one of the matsus.

also there are lots of references to the matsus playing “100 ghost stories” (hyaku monogatari) which is a game where u tell 100 stories and at the end, it’s supposed to summon the youkai Ao Andon (blue lantern), which is also what youkai!karamatsu is

lots of fans speculate that the mysterious lore of the town relates to the youkai, or that the townspeople conduct ceremonies to perhaps appease/repel them