#oba-chan

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Miss Ribbon

Debut: Rhythm Heaven Fever

International Womens' Day has been upon us! Everyone say thank you women! And also apologize to women. Gaming is full of iconic female characters, from Opila Bird to Slow Seline. But none quite as female as this one!

Miss Ribbon is pink. She wears a ribbon. She's named after the fact that she's a girl with a ribbon. That's all there is to her! There is absolutely no concept to this character design. She's a Girl One, but she exists in comparison to one of the most bare-minimum character designs possible.

Here she is with Marshal and Cam, the other two little ambiguous humanoids in her clique. You have the Main One, the Glasses One, and the Girl One, of course. How else would you be able to tell them apart? Every friend group is like this. If no one in your friend group is the Glasses One, well... you just might be more Glasses than you think!

Marshal and Cam are boys. OBVIOUSLY. You'd be a fool to think otherwise. Do you see any defining gender markers on them? Exactly! That means they're male, because they're default. And I mean really default. Rhythm Heaven is full of these little featureless white homunculus characters in all sorts of situations, as sort of the bare minimum kind of Person that can exist in the world. Always male, since they don't have any Female accessories, like eyelashes (please do not look at SpongeBob). Just like humans, where girl babies are born wearing pink bows. They weave these bows in the womb using their silk glands!

I'm torn between Miss Ribbon being hilarious and infuriating. She is the laziest Girl design possible, and the concept of Girl Versions is rather funny to me, but I'm laughing at it, not with it! I want female characters to have actual designs! And maybe I could forgive Miss Ribbon more if the Rhythm Heaven series was better at female characters in general, because. Well,

Here are a bunch of the female characters featured in Fever's rhythm games. There are a lot of women in these games, which is good, but they're nearly all the same woman! The ol' Ko Takeuchi sameface. That guy loves his Girls, but perhaps it's more accurate to say he loves his Girl, since he basically keeps drawing the same one in different outfits and with different hairstyles. Essentially no variance in facial layout, skin tone, or body type to be seen anywhere! A whole series, victim to the Cute Girl Curse... and if she isn't this kind of design, she's a Girl Version of an androgynous male character. I certainly hope Groove makes some more unique women. But as of now...

Congratulations to Oba-chan from Rhythm Tengoku, for being perhaps the most distinct female character in the franchise! She has a humble, respectable job; a unique, more realistic body type; and a face that isn't the same as every other Whythm Woman's. This is probably because she's meant to be old, so it's also nice to see an older woman here! Of course, it's quite a problem that age is seemingly the only factor that will get this designer to draw a different-looking woman. And now I'm learning that she only appears in the Try Again screen of a certain minigame, so while she may be kind and encouraging, her only role is to appear in the event of failure. Geez! I think Groove should only feature old women, in every role. I think that's the only way feminism can truly win.

[psychomurderz]

Madam, is there anything you want to tell us...? Perhaps about your Good Friend...?

[katlimeart]

Made in 2023

If you’ve seen this anywhere else, I posted it back on my deviantArt when it was made.

Mario girls cosplaying as characters from the Rhythm Heaven series

1 + 2. Poline

3 + 4. Calligraphy People

5 - 9. Red Donpan

10. Oba-chan

[csmeatonimages]

おば ちゃん, 2005

[psychomurderz]

That granny is a caregiver i believe ohh also the old bitch who didn't help tenko

A lot of questions. Is it the same character or is it a random NPC with a similar design? If it's the same, then it's doubly interesting.

[jemyoshioka]

Working on my newest autobio comic. It’s about war, my oba-chan and the way we inherit trauma from previous generations. Some of the panels are a bit empty without the text, but I’m happy with how it’s coming togehter.

It’s nice working in black and white rather than colour. It’s looking more or less how I want it to, and it’s a good challenge to find different ways to add depth to pictures rather than with shading.

[teddybear-93]

On the very last night that my husband and I were in Japan, we were taking a train from Shibuya to get back to our hotel in Kanda. Since it was the very end of our vacation, we were both exhausted. Our train made a stop at a station and was taking longer than usual to start up again. Usually the trains only stop for a minute or two. After awhile, a recorded message played on the train speakers and the majority of the passengers got off. A few people stayed on, so we assumed that the train was still in use and was just delayed. An elderly woman started to make her way up from the end of the train to our cabin (which was near the front). Imagine a typical Japanese grandmother in your mind-- what you imagined is probably nearly exactly what she looked like. We decided to try and ask her if the train had broken down or not. We barely spoke/understood Japanese, and she didn’t seem to know much English, but we were able to communicate enough to figure out that we should stay on this train if we wanted to get to Kanda. She then proceeds to pull out steaming hot food from her hand bag and give it to us. I could understand enough Japanese to know that she said, “please eat it while it is hot and good.” She also said, “I’m a grandmother so I always have food with me.” My husband and I had just gotten back from an all-you-can-eat Shabu Shabu restaurant so we were very full.... but how could we say no to this kind grandma?? I thought it was such a sweet gesture. She also gave us hard candy (of course, haha). During all this our train had begun to move and we continued to (try) and talk with the woman. We told her how we were on our honeymoon (a lot of people in Japan understood the word “honeymoon”) and showed her our wedding rings. She was very happy for us. When we reached Kanda we had to leave quickly (the trains don’t stay still for long) and said a bunch of quick thank you’s and good-byes. 

And that’s the story about how my husband and I obtained our very own oba-chan. 

I still have the hard candy. It was such a nice memory, I can’t bring myself to eat it. I’m glad that was our last memory of our trip to Japan. :)

[completeoveranalysis]

xxxholic Translation notes

As usual we have some excellent commentary on some of the translation differences in the last few chapters of xxxholic. And, also as usual, this is all thanks to the wonderful giniroangou. Because she is amazing and I have no idea how she does it. 

First of all, when the fortune teller mentions Himawari, her actual line is a bit of a mix between the fan translation and the official one. More accurately, it would be, “It seems there’s a girl you’ve taken a liking to. But if you find out what’s going to happen there it’ll be boring so I won’t say any more.” Also, since I figured you might find it interesting, she seems to be speaking a form of Kansai dialect. It’s not super Osaka like Sorata and Kero’s speech styles, and it’s not Kyoto dialect (which gives off a distinctly different impression from other Kansai dialects - Subaru’s grandmother uses this). I can’t say for sure what region it’s from - I love learning about dialects but I’m honestly not that great at pinpointing them - but in any case, it fits her very well. I think she comes off a little warmer than she would if she were using standard Japanese. The scene where Yuuko is offering to help Watanuki with his relationship issues and mentions giving a “peep show” in the official translation is actually based on a sort of pun. The phrase she uses is 一肌脱いで (hitohada nuide) which would literally translate to “remove a layer of skin.” It’s an idiom that means “to help out,” but I went looking for its origin online and I guess there used to be a custom where men would often remove one shoulder of their kimono before undertaking a task to show their resolve, and the phrase originally referred to that action but has since acquired its more idiomatic meaning. Now on to Doumeki. First of all I felt like I should mention that his name (which is the family name by the way) is written with the kanji for “Hundred Eyed Demon.” You asked about his speech style, and you’re right in your initial guess that he’s speaking more casually. Though his speech verges on rude on occasion (he’s not as bad as Kurogane, but there some similarities in their speech styles) he uses polite speech whenever he directly addresses Yuuko, and in general the language he uses just creates a rough/masculine effect without being outright offensive. While I’m at it, I’ll make a few other notes on the language each of the characters use. The three kids all speak casually with each other and politely to Yuuko. Himawari’s speech, aside from being lightly feminine, doesn’t seem to have any significant quirks to it. The most notable aspect of Watanuki’s speech is his tendency to leave off the first syllable of “desu.” He doesn’t do this all the time, but it comes out a lot when he’s either angry or not concentrating very hard on his surroundings. A general rule for Japanese is that the longer a word or sentence is, the more polite it is, so in shortening “desu” (a basic polite sentence marker), the speaker is showing slightly less respect to the person they’re addressing. It’s not uncommon to hear younger people do this, and in some contexts it’s acceptable, while in others it can come off as inappropriate or rude. I suppose it’s similar to a contraction in English, since it cuts out part of a word and sort of slurs it with the word that comes before to make it easier/faster to say, though the “desu” thing is certainly more noticable and less common than contractions are to us. And finally, Yuuko’s speech is generally casual and quite feminine.

— giniroangou