Getting Bilibili videos

Note to self.

To download videos from Bilibili, youtube-dl can be used.

youtube-dl -F <url>

to list the formats available.

Then,

youtube-dl -f 0 <url>

to download the format you want. In this case, 0. Can be any other number as shown in when formats available are listed.

Also, this tool called annie can be used too.

Download from the releases page, then extract the executable, and move it to the /usr/local/bin directory.

sudo mv annie /usr/local/bin

Then, just

annie <url>

will allow the Bilibili video to be downloaded.

Recording live stream from YouTube

The other day, there was this live event on YouTube which I was watching, and I was wondering if there is any way to record what has already been played for future playback.

Turns out youtube-dl won't work since YouTube no longer uses HLS but has switched to DASH. The tools will work for recording what is currently being streamed, but you cannot rewind back to a certain point in time.

After hours trying to figure out what to do... I did the most basic of things.

I played back the stream (still on-going) in YouTube, rewinding it to the point I wanted to record. Then, I played it fullscreen, and used vokoscreenNG to do a video capture of the screen. I had to remember to close other applications (like email and instant messaging) which would display notifications since that would ruin the video and audio recording. But it worked.

However, it also meant I could not use that PC for the entire duration of recording. So I started thinking... maybe I can use a Raspberry Pi and a HDMI capture device to do something similar.

1. Connect RPi's HDMI output to a HDMI capture device.

2. Plug in HDMI capture device to PC.

3. Use something like VLC to record whatever is being displayed by RPi using the HDMI capture device.

4. Play the YouTube live stream to be recorded on the RPi rewinding back to whichever point to start recording from.

I haven't really tried this yet, since there is nothing that I want to record now. But theoretically, it should work. So if the opportunity comes, I may give it a try.

Looking back at autumn 2020 anime

This is going to be quite a lengthy post since I am trying to sum up seven anime series and one movie. Anyway, for the autumn season of 2020, I followed these anime series:

Fly Me to the Moon (トニカクカワイイ Tonikaku Kawaii)

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina (魔女の旅々 Majo no Tabitabi)

The Day I Became a God (神様になった日 Kami-sama ni Natta Hi)

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (キミと僕の最後の戦場、あるいは世界が始まる聖戦 Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjō, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen)

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (くまクマ熊ベアー)

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (魔王城でおやすみ Maōjō de Oyasumi)

Adachi and Shimamura (安達としまむら)

On top of this, I also caught Violet Evergarden the Movie (劇場版 ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン). (Okay, this premiered in September, so it should be a summer anime... but I watched it so many times in autumn that it feels like an autumn anime too. And it looks like it will continue to air in cinemas next year, so maybe it can count as winter 2021 anime?) I also caught Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train (劇場版「鬼滅の刃」 無限列車編).

First, for Violet Evergarden the Movie, my review is here and other related posts (many of them...) can be found here.

The Demon Slayer movie is a hit in Japan, with box office earnings reaching 32.4 billion yen as of this past weekend, toppling the previous top earning movie, Spirited Away. Given that Spirited Away took 253 days to cross the 30 billion yen mark, Demon Slayer achieving that same feat in 59 days was... truly amazing. I did enjoy watching it in the theatre, and seeing the fight scenes on the big screen is truly amazing. There are also touching parts of the story, seeing Rengoku go all out to protect other people, and how Tanjiro steeled his heart to escape the dream trap. Yet somehow, it did not draw me back to watch it again. Not like Violet Evergarden the Movie which I have watched 10 times so far. I guess it is also why I haven't written a post on this movie even after watching it.

Okay, now that I am done with the movies, time to move to the anime series.

My favourite for the season is Tonikaku Kawaii. It is simply heartwarming and fun, giving me that warm and fuzzy feeling. I really hope they come up with the next season for this, since this season only covered the very first part of the manga series. It ended with a summer festival episode which I don't think was in the original manga. There was also a recap episode (Ep 12.5) but personally, I would have hoped they used that 13th episode to cover more of the original story. I have already written about this series in a separate post so I shall not touch more on it here.

 

Next must be Wandering Witch. Elaina's story is a good mix of serious themes and light-hearted fun. I really like the opening song, which makes me want to go on a trip. There is a bit of soft yuri element to the story too, but this is a series about witches, so I guess there is an abundance of female characters. The staff tried to add an element of world building by coming up with their own alphabet script, but it is nothing like Violet Evergarden. I mean, it was quite obvious that the text in the anime were in English, just that the alphabet is written in a different way. I hope they make future seasons of this since the original story has quite a lot of material left that was not covered in this season.

Adachi and Shimamura is another soft yuri series. A slice of life story about two high school girls and their blossoming friendship that all started because they were both skipping classes and ended up in the same place. The story is still on-going so I hope they make a future season for this too. It is nice to see how the characters deal with the everyday "struggles" of being high school girls. Nothing epic. But it is the everyday that endears these characters to me.

On a similar note is Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. Usually, the overpowered protagonist in another world is a male character, but this time, we have a teenage girl as the overpowered protagonist. Just that she gets her powers from wearing a cute bear costume. And uses her powers to satisfy her craving for good food, but ends up helping people with their problems.

Sleepy Princess is yet one more light-hearted fun series. This little girl, a princess, was kidnapped by demons and imprisoned in their castle, but a princess leading a spoilt life couldn't sleep because her bed was not soft enough, the pillow not soft enough, and the bed sheets were too rough. So she went around the castle searching for materials to make her own bed, and in the process, ended up terrorising the demons and monsters around her. In a way, she is the true demon of the castle. But she is a cute demon, and we can all forgive a cute princess girl for all the naughty things she did, right? 😅

Oh, by the way, I actually didn't set out to follow Sleepy Princess at first. It just so happened to air after Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and I just went with the flow and watched it. But the gap moe struck a note and I continued to follow the series for the entire season.

At the start of the season, I followed Our Last Crusade because it seemed interesting. In the end, I must say that the story is... so so. This is probably because this season covered only enough material (the original is a light novel) to form the setting for a future story. Now that I understand the setting, I hope they continue to adapt the rest of the story into anime so that I can find out what actually happens to the two protagonists, who are on opposing sides of a war but both wanting to end the war.

Finally, we come to The Day I Became a God. Given that this is a series written by Maeda Jun, who wrote Clannad and Angel Beats (among others), I had expected it to be more touching. In the end, I think it fell short. Way short. Like, horribly short. Like Episode 5, which is... well, somewhat touching. But it pales in comparison to Violet Evergarden's Episode 10. I think Maeda wanted to create a bubbly Hina so that he could set a contrast with Episodes 11 and 12, using Hina's sorry state to shock viewers, and making viewers cry when they see Yota struggling to bring back Hina in these two final episodes. I know I was supposed to cry when watching Episodes 11 and 12. But it just didn't work its "magic".

 

Anyway, this series wasn't very well received in Japan by fans, and it seemed Maeda received a lot of harsh criticism. So much so, it seemed he deleted his Twitter account, and wasn't even there for the end-of-production celebration. The show's radio program, hosted by the voice actors for Yota and Hina, even mentioned something about "we lost contact with Maeda-san". I really hope he hasn't disappeared, because it would then be another case of Internet bullying. But still, for this series, I think the story didn't build up enough of a bond between Hina and Yota for me to want to empathise with them.

For the upcoming winter 2021 season, I actually have 12 series that I want to watch. This is going to be tough on my sleep... 😅

(All pictures taken from the respective Wikipedia pages of each series.)

Raspberry Pi as WiFi to Ethernet bridge

I recently tried to play around with my Raspberry Pi 4 to see if I can use it as a Wifi to Ethernet bridge for my Blu-ray player (which is old, does not have WiFi, but has an Ethernet port). After some searching, I found this on the Raspberry Pi forum which seems to work. While this is for a Raspberry Pi, I think it should work on any generic device running Linux.

First, update and then install the required packages.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get install rpi-update dnsmasq -y
sudo rpi-update

Set up WiFi, if not done already.

sudo nano  /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

then add the following to the file.

network={
        ssid="mynetwork"
        psk="secret"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Next is to set the RPi with a static IP address on its Ethernet port.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Comment out the existing etho0 line (if any) and add the following.

#iface eth0 inet manual
allow-hotplug eth0  
iface eth0 inet static  
    address 172.24.1.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    network 172.24.1.0
    broadcast 172.24.1.255

Save the old dnsmasq.conf file and create a new one.

sudo mv /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.conf.orig  
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

Add the following:

interface=eth0      # Use interface eth0  
listen-address=172.24.1.1 # Explicitly specify the address to listen on  
bind-interfaces      # Bind to the interface to make sure we aren't sending things elsewhere  
server=8.8.8.8       # Forward DNS requests to Google DNS  
domain-needed        # Don't forward short names  
bogus-priv           # Never forward addresses in the non-routed address spaces.  
dhcp-range=172.24.1.50,172.24.1.150,12h # Assign IP addresses between 172.24.1.50 and 172.24.1.150 with a 12 hour lease time  

Enable IPv4 forwarding by

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

and then uncommenting

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Set up the IP tables

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wlan0 -j MASQUERADE 

sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat"

Then

sudo nano /lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-hooks/70-ipv4-nat

and add:

iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat

After rebooting, it should allow devices connected via Ethernet to the RPi to connect to the Internet as long as the RPi is connected to the Internet via WiFi.

Oh, I also needed to edit /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf because it assigns my hostname to eth0 instead of wlan0.

In it, I replaced the line

send host-name = gethostname();

with

interface "eth0" {
        send host-name = "pi_lan";
}

interface "wlan0" {
        send host-name = gethostname();
}

Replace pi_lan with whatever you want to hostname to be on Ethernet. This makes sure my RPi is available on the main WiFi network as whatever the hostname says it should be.

Then,

sudo dhclient

to make sure it works. Or just reboot.

Update (January 9, 2021): Editing /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf didn't seem to help, my hostname still gets assigned to eth0 occasionally. Changing avahi seems to work, though. I edited /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and added, under the [server] section

allow-interfaces=wlan0

to make avahi only use the hostname on wlan0. So far so good.

Update (April 13, 2021): Adding allow-interfaces=wlan0 to /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf didn't seem to help, my hostname still gets assigned to eth0 occasionally. Adding a hostname entry to it seemed to help, though. I edited /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and added, under the [server] section

host-name=myhostname

to make avahi only use myhostname (replace with whatever your hostname is) on wlan0. So far so good.

Some more findings after watch Violet Evergarden the Movie for the tenth time

「愛してるを知ったから、愛してるを伝えたいと思いました」

 

I needed to see if the lighthouse in Violet Evergarden the Movie is the same as the one on Folegandros, so... I went to watch the movie for the tenth time. 😅

First, nope, the lighthouse in the movie has a smaller building, a huge door to the building, and the lighthouse itself is right beside the building on its short edge (the one on Folegandros has the lighthouse on the long edge of the building).

(Picture is one of the official bookmarks from KyoAni's store.)

This time, I properly counted the number of orange and white roses in Yuris' room. When Violet first visited him, he had 15 orange roses in his room. On subsequent visits (and at his death), there were 13 white roses. As for their meanings,

Orange roses: Bond (as in strong relationship)

15 roses: I am sorry

White roses: Purity, deep respect

13 roses: Eternal friendship

When C.H. Postal Company was turned into a museum, one of the typewriters on display can be recognised as the same one that Iris was using. 60 years later, the typewriter looks older, but it is still the same one.

Oh, some may have noticed that when Violet was talking to Yuris, and Yuris was talking about how he will turn cold before winter, Violet used her right hand to wipe her face (she was probably weeping) as she was standing up.

There are other things I noted but I will update my past posts instead.

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie.

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

 

Unrelated: When I went to watch the movie today, I was handed a Fate/Grand Order door gift instead of the Violet Evergarden postcard. Which I really didn't mind, since I have quite a few of those postcards already... but it seemed the cinema staff made a mistake, so one of them actually came inside and went from person to person to exchange the Fate/Grand Order door gift for the Violet Evergarden postcard.

Jupiter and Saturn conjunction

It is not often that we can observe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, also known as a great conjunction. They occur around every 20 years, but according to this NASA article, it has been almost 400 years since the two planets appeared this close, and about 800 years since it occurred at night.

So I took the DSLR out of its bag and went out to see if I can catch a glimpse, and hopefully a photo. But before that, I checked Google Maps to see how to orient myself in a southwest direction, since the planets were supposed to be in that direction in the evening before they disappeared below the horizon.

 

Trying to capture it on my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S7, at around five in the evening gave me a dot. No sign of another planet anywhere near.

Post processing it with GIMP revealed no other planet.

An hour later, at six in the evening, it was much darker. I still could not really make out the second planet (Saturn) with my naked eye, but it kind of showed on the phone.

 

Blowing up the photo on GIMP showed that Saturn was faintly to the upper right of Jupiter.

Using my DSLR with a 18-135mm lens, I set to max zoom, exposure to 0.6", and somehow managed to capture something without having to use a tripod (which I don't own...)

Using GIMP to blow up that particular spot gave this.

Clearly, two distinct planets. The brighter being Jupiter (it is bigger and nearer) and the dimmer one is Saturn. Not having a tripod is the reason the planets are not round. I held my breath, kept my elbows close to my body, but there was still a bit of shaking while taking the photo. Not a bad attempt, I would say.

 

The next time they will be this close is 2080. I don't think I will live to see that day. Guess this is a once-in-a-lifetime treat. 😅

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

In Violet Evergarden the Movie, there is an island called Ekarte. The island produces grapes, has a lighthouse that served as a post office, low fences made of stacked stones, and white colored low houses.

Some sleuths on social media have narrowed down to conclude that Ekarte Island was probably based on the Greek island of Folegandros.

First, this is a picture of the lighthouse in the movie's merchandise.

This is the Aspropountas Lighthouse on Folegandros.

(Photo source: Page on Aspropountas Lighthouse in Folegandros website)

 

I think the two lighthouses seem very similar... only problem is, I seem to recall the lighthouse in the movie being a bit different, with the lighthouse tower more to one side. Guess I really need to watch it a tenth time to confirm. (Update: After watching the movie for the tenth time, I can confirm that the lighthouse in the movie is not this one. The one in the movie has the lighthouse and building side by side, and the building is much smaller. See picture below.)

(Picture is one of the official bookmarks from the KyoAni store.)

This is the island on Google Maps.

(Source: Google Maps)

The shape of the island looks similar to Ekarte Island in the movie. The architecture looks like this.

(Source: Google Maps Streetview)

And the paths like this.

 

(Source: Google Maps Streetview)

 

Which almost reminds me of this.

 

I guess that is enough traveling via Google Maps and Streetview for today. But I have a hunch the social media sleuths got it right this time... 😉

 

Anyway, my review of the movie can be found here. 

 

Update October 19, 2021: The hospital where Yuris stayed has been narrowed down to be based on Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain. According to something I read on a Japanese blog. And the Imperial Castle in Cochem, Reichsburg Cochem, is the basis for the location used in the Gaiden movie.

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

The Promised Neverland (2020 movie)

I managed to catch the live action movie The Promised Neverland on its opening day in Japan. The original work is a manga which also has a TV anime adaptation. Season 1 of the anime series was shown on Fuji TV, and this live action movie was also produced under Fuji TV. Season 2 of the anime series will be showing on Fuji TV from January 2021.

Anyway, the movie basically covers the exact same storyline as Season 1. From Coney's departure, up till the great escape. I guess this is also to be expected, since both anime series and live action movie are being produced under Fuji TV. They probably want to avoid overlaps between the movie and the upcoming second season.

This post is not going to be a review, but more about my thoughts on the movie. Personally, I think this live action adaptation was okay. Not great. But not bad. There are many cases where live action adaptations fail, but this is not one of them. However, what prevents it from being great is the story. Live action adaptations usually work better when the story itself is more realistic in terms of human behaviour. Emma, Norman, and Ray, though, are not characters that you will actually find in the real world. They are very extreme characters. Which makes the movie a bit hard to accept when these characters are being portrayed by real people. I mean, when they appear as hand-drawn characters in manga and anime, it is easier to accept their extreme behaviours. But when you see a person in flesh and blood trying to do the same... it is harder to believe, and therefore harder to accept.

The movie covers the same story as the first season of the anime series, which means you are trying to fit a 4-hour story into a 2-hour movie. Obviously, this means certain portions are not given the same attention as in the anime series. Especially the first part of the movie, which really skimmed over many details since the real action is in the later part of the movie (the escape). But it is the first part which provides the setting and the context to understand the later part. Personally, I think the movie managed to get most of the important parts in, but I really don't know why Japanese live action movies seem to keep within 2 hours nowadays. If they had devoted an extra 15 to 20 minutes to give expand on some of the scenes, it would probably be easier to understand the overall story. 

 

The cast was also another issue. The manga has characters below 12 years old. Trying to find child actors who can portray such extreme characters properly is a challenge, so I can understand the production staff changing the setting to 16 years old instead, and getting teenagers and young adults to play the lead roles. But it is the young age of the original characters that made the story so captivating. Raising that age makes it easier to find people to portray the characters, but it takes away an element of excitement from the overall story.

The disparity in acting skills was also somewhat distracting. Kitagawa Keiko is the perfect Isabella. Hamabe Minami is a good actress and she can play the role of Emma well... maybe too well. Emma's character is endearing because there is a small naive part of her, but I think Hamabe Minami overemphasises the character too much, and a naive 15 year old is no longer endearing; she looks plain childish instead. The rest of the cast are a bit too inexperienced to fully portray the complexities of their roles, although they did put full effort and I can see they have done their best.

But if anything, this show is worth watching just to see Kitagawa Keiko as Isabella. The perfect Mama. I don't think it is fair to say she is a perfect fit for Isabella. Maybe it is more accurate to say that Isabella seemed to have been created for her to portray. 😅

Anyway, it is in the theatres now, and better than some live action adaptation that I caught a couple of months back...

Last updated on 19 December 2020

List of 35 victims of KyoAni fire listed in credit roll of Violet Evergarden the Movie

(Note: I originally listed the names here, but it did not seem fitting so I moved the names to this separate post.)

 

Last year, there was some controversy in Japan when the names of the deceased from the KyoAni were released to the media. It is a very personal thing, I admit, but I am also torn because I want their memories to be honored. I have added a list of names I found at the end of the post for those who want to know. For those who do not, stop scrolling down.

 

 

(Logo source: http://www.kyotoanimation.co.jp/en/)

 

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Below are the names of the deceased which were disclosed last year. They are not in any particular order (okay, they were in some order, first in the time of disclosure, followed by the places they live in, and then in Japanese name order, but I have removed the places of residence). Ages at time of passing away in brackets. There are only 35 names disclosed. The name of the 36th victim, who passed away in October 2019, was not disclosed to the media. As you can see, anyone who was not directly involved in the production of Violet Evergarden the Movie has been listed in the credit roll as part of the supporting staff. 😢

(Source: 京アニ放火事件、２５人の身元公表　全犠牲者明らかに)

笠間結花さん (22): Supporting staff

木上益治（三好一郎）さん (61): Supporting staff

津田幸恵さん (41): 仕上

横田圭佑さん (34): 制作マネージャー

栗木亜美さん (30): 原画

宇田淳一さん (34): Supporting staff

大村勇貴さん (23): Supporting staff

武本康弘さん (47): Supporting staff

西屋太志さん (37): Supporting staff

渡辺美希子さん (35): 美術監督

石田奈央美さん (49): Supporting staff

兼尾結実さん (22): 制作マネージャー

川口聖矢さん (27): 原画

草野すみれさん (32): 原画

佐藤綾さん (43): Supporting staff

松浦香奈さん (24): Supporting staff (probably sister of supporting staff 松浦礼奈)

村山（中峰）ちとせさん (49): Supporting staff

森崎志保さん (27): 原画

佐藤宏太さん (28): 原画

武地美穂さん (25): 原画

藤田貴久さん (27): 制作チーフマネージャー

丸子達就さん (31): 作画監督

時盛友樺さん (22): Supporting staff

石田敦志さん (31): Supporting staff

岩崎菜美さん (31): Supporting staff

大當乃里衣さん (26): 仕上

鈴木沙奈さん (30): 原画

高橋博行さん (48): 小物設定、原画

寺脇（池田）晶子さん (44): 原画

松本康二朗さん (25): 制作マネージャー

宮地篤史さん (32): Supporting staff

大野萌さん (21): Supporting staff

西川（壬生）麻衣子さん (29): 原画

明見裕子さん (29): 作画監督

渡辺紗也加さん (27): 原画

 

Related news and articles:

Kyoto police release compete list of names of all victims who died in Kyoto Animation arson attack

Kyoto Animation to release full list of arson attack victim names in credits of new anime movie

Kyoto Animation announces it will build two memorials to victims of anime studio arson attack

京アニ放火事件 本社ある京都宇治に碑を建立へ

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

First, this is not a review. It is just a list of scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie which made me 😢 or 😭. I am basing this list on my recollection from watching the movie nine times.

Yes, I watched the movie for the ninth time today.

 

Why? Because... yesterday, when I checked the movie schedule for the nearest Dolby Cinema, the movie was no longer on the schedule for this Friday (tomorrow). I thought the movie was ending its run, and went to catch the movie again today... until I realized that the Dolby Cinema I went to will still be showing Violet Evergarden the Movie next week. It is just not on the schedule for this Friday to Sunday (probably to make way for the new movies being released this week).

 

Anyway, if there is a ninth, might as well try for a tenth. 😅

Okay, before I go on, this list is going to be about the movie and may contain spoilers. So for those who haven't watched the movie, you can either hit the back button or close the window, unless you are okay with reading spoilers. Also, the review I wrote can be found here.

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This is the list of scenes in the movie that made me 😢 or 😭.

 

- The letters from Clara Magnolia to Ann Magnolia 😭

- Violet saying she should not be praised because she killed many people during the war 😢

- Violet asking Hodgins about what to do about an impossible wish 😢

- Violet telling Diethard that forgetting is impossible 😢

- Violet's excitement about being able to receive some of Gilbert's old toys 😢

- Yuris saying that he will be as cold as Violet's hand before winter 😭

- Violet feeling uncertain before she set off to Ekarte Island 😢

- Violet's letter while on the way to Ekarte Island 😢

- Gilbert expressing his guilt to Hodgins 😭

- Violet telling Gilbert through the door that she understands his guilt 😭

- Yuris telling Iris that he is glad that Violet got to meet Gilbert 😭

- Yuris over the phone and through his letters 😭

- Gilbert reading Violet's letter (voiced by Violet; the last line is not read out) 😭

- The song "Michishirube" playing at the end of the letter 😭

- The fireworks scene when Hodgins looked beside him and Violet was not there 😢

- Daisy's letter to her parents 😢

- Credit roll, knowing that some names are no longer with us 😢

 

There is something wrong with my tear glands. 😅

Kyoto Animation productions in the works as of December 2020

This is just a quick post on upcoming Kyoto Animation productions.

 

We know there will be a sequel to the Sound! Euphonium series featuring Kumiko in her third year of high school and therefore final chance at the nationals. But so far, there is no news on when it will air, and in what form (movie or TV series).

One of the light novels, 『二十世紀電氣目録』, will also be adapted. Similarly, there is little news about this in terms of format and airing date.

【特報②　アニメ化企画始動】
さらに…新プロジェクトとして『二十世紀電氣目録』のアニメ化企画も始動！現在企画進行中です。
京都アニメーションが送る新たな“恋”物語にご期待ください！#KAエスマ文庫#でんもく#恋 #アニメ化企画始動 pic.twitter.com/rWaAnkDAXv

— KAエスマ文庫編集部 (@KA_esuma) July 27, 2018

A new movie in the Free! series will air in 2021. I have not watched the Free! series before so not much for me to add.

 

Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon is getting a second season. It will air in 2021 and the official site is here.

(Picture source: https://maidragon.jp/2nd/)

 

Tsurune will also be getting a sequel movie, but the air date has not been confirmed. Given that the announcement was in October 2020, I think we should be looking at 2022 for the movie to hit the big screen.

If I notice anything else, I will update this post by the end of the year.

Man charged with murder over 2019 Kyoto anime studio arson attack

The man who set fire to Kyoto Animation's 1st Studio has been officially charged with murder (and attempted murder and arson). While this is not going to bring back the dead, I hope it helps the families and injured to find some form of closure, if that is even possible.

 

Below is one of the news reports on this:

Man charged with murder over 2019 Kyoto anime studio arson attack: Report

I mentioned this when I first watched Violet Evergarden the Movie. Director Yasuhiro Takemoto was one of the names listed in the credits of the movie as a supporting staff. I think many of the 36 who died in the fire were also involved in the movie's production in one way or another, since KyoAni is not a very big production studio. Let me see if I can spot any of their names tonight.

(Note: I originally listed the names at the end of this post, but it did not seem fitting so I move them to a separate post.)

Update 12 May 2023: The dates for the trial have been set.

Trial of KyoAni arsonist to begin in September, ruling due in January

京アニ放火殺人、９月初公判　来年１月に判決―京都地裁

5 September 2023: First hearing + 9 more session

October 2023: 10 sessions

November 2023: 6 sessions
13 December 2023: Final hearing + 4 sessions before that
25 January 2024: Verdict

Watching Violet Evergarden the Movie again (8th time)

Violet Evergarden the Movie has been showing in the theatres for quite a while... in fact, we are now in the 13th week of its showing. I was a bit worried that it will stop showing soon, so I decided to go catch it while I can.

 

And so here I am, watching the movie for the eighth time.

 

When I went to catch the production staff event in Shinjuku, it made me realize the difference between a normal theatre and a Dolby Cinema. Good thing there is a Dolby Cinema nearby (within traveling distance) so I decided to catch the movie there.

 

Before I left for the movie, I checked the online reservation status and saw about 20+ seats reserved. But after the credit roll, I took a look around and saw around 50 to 70 viewers. Guess the movie is still able to draw a crowd.

Still, I don't think it will be showing in theatres much longer. Maybe I should try to catch it again next week... 😅

Anyway, my review of the movie can be found here. I update my review and other relevant posts as and when I notice something new, such as when I watch the movie again...

Update: The nearby Dolby Cinema will only be showing the movie until this Thursday. Which is tomorrow! 😱

Update 2: Stupid me... the show is still showing next week at the nearby Dolby Cinema. It just so happens that it is giving way to newer shows for the weekend, that is all.

The dog stuffed toy in Violet Evergarden

In the Violet Evergarden TV series, Violet chose the dog stuffed toy because Diethard called her Gilbert's dog. The dog symbolises Violet, and you can see it in her room at the postal company.

 

I think its location represents Violet's home. Which is why you see it in her room. But you never see it in her travels. She does not carry it around with her. In the movie, it was facing the window, looking out of it. As if it was a real dog looking out of the window, watching to see if it can see its master coming home.

And that is why it is so symbolic that she brought the dog stuffed toy with her in the final cut after the credit roll of Violet Evergarden the Movie. Basically, it means she has moved in with Gilbert, and Gilbert's home is now hers too.

 

Someone make me this stuffed toy please. 😅

My review of the movie can be found here.

断肠崖 (a place from Return of the Condor Heroes)

"十六年后，在此相会，夫妻情深，勿失信约。"
"小龙女书嘱夫君杨郎，珍重万千，务求相聚。"

According to Baidu,

"断肠崖上叹绝情，绝情谷底哭断肠"

Platinum Preppy fountain pens

Just to share. I bought this set of 7 fountain pens in various colors (black, blue black, red, pink, violet, yellow, and green; Platinum Preppy, model number PSQ-300) recently because it was on offer on Amazon. The nibs are 0.3 but I think they also come in 0.2 and 0.5 but with a smaller range of colors.

 

Given that each is a 300 yen fountain pen, I really did not expect much from then. But when I gave one a test, it wrote exceptionally well for its price. Wow!

By the way, these fountain pens do not come with a converter, but they are sold with an ink cartridge of their corresponding color each. They use Platinum's own ink cartridges, but you can also get a Platinum converter for them, though the converter is about 500 yen and is therefore more expensive than the pen itself. Ink cartridges are 100 yen for a pair here in Japan.

For those who are interested, here is an affiliate link to Amazon.com. (They are slightly cheaper in Japan.)

Playing audio file from Google Drive on Blogger

Blogger allows you to upload pictures and videos to blogs, but not audio files. But there is a way to do this, although it can be a bit "manual". The main idea is to find a place that can host your audio file, then use the HTML audio tag to play that file.

In my case, I want to host the file on Google Drive. But the link provided by Google Drive does not work with the audio tag, at least not directly.

I have been teaching myself to play the Chinese traverse flute. A few days ago, I started trying to learn to play "Michishirube". I made a short recording, and I will use that here as an example.

First, after recording the audio file, upload it to Google Drive. Then, on Google Drive, right click on the file, choose "Get link". Then set to "Anyone with the link" to allow the link to be accessed. The link looks like this.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k6gDgXJdbdPxtlqNoBEVDQOzAAJ4pOBz/view?usp=sharing

The part that is needed is the file ID, which in this case, is

1k6gDgXJdbdPxtlqNoBEVDQOzAAJ4pOBz

 

Then, in Blogger, switch to HTML view to add the audio tag. This is how it usually looks like

<audio controls="controls" src="https:// link to file">
</audio>

However, you cannot use the Google Drive link directly. The link that works with the audio tag looks like this:

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=fileID

where fileID is the one mentioned above.

 

So in my case, the final tag looks like this:

<audio controls="controls" src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1k6gDgXJdbdPxtlqNoBEVDQOzAAJ4pOBz">
</audio>

 

Hope this helps!

Source: How to play google drive mp3 file using html audio tag?

The limits of our current machine learning concept

First, to be clear, I am not talking about the actual machine learning techniques and models like RNN, CNN, LSTM, and such. Rather, I am talking about the bigger concept being machine learning (including deep learning) in general.

Our current concept of machine learning involves training a model based on some set of data. There is a "ground truth" in the training process. This is not a problem when trying to differentiate between a cat and a dog, or to recognize the letters of the English alphabet. These data sets have distinct and discrete categories.

But our world is not all black and white.

For example, a matchmaking app that uses past data of couples to recommend potential partners. Based on a list of attributes, the model learns what kind of people pair up. It then uses that model to recommend partners to singles. But to the person receiving the recommendation, is this the partner that he or she really wants? What if the model has not taken into account certain attributes? What if the model has assigned weights that are actually different from the target person's? After all, each person is unique, and the attribute space can be extremely large if we keep breaking it down.

 

What happens when our choices become those recommended by a machine? Instead of opening up our options, are we instead confining them to whatever is the limit of the model being used by the machine? Instead of fitting training data to a model, will we end up fitting humanity to a model's limited data space?

This question is always there in the realm of what we call the arts. The non-technical part of our lives. This includes language, which is a major realm of machine learning research. Two main areas are research in machine translation and text generation. But... there is no "right" answer in these realms. "I love you" can be translated as "愛している", but it can also be "月がきれいですね" if you really consider the entire cultural and literary context. But we are creating models that come up with the "right" answers, which in such cases, usually means selecting the best out of several possibilities. Eventually, as we keep selecting a single "right" answer, will we end up reinforcing the model to narrow its selection to that single "right" answer? Will we enter a self-fulfilling reinforcement loop that actually narrows our options, our creativity? Will we end up with translated texts that follow a certain style and uses only certain words and expressions? Will we end up generating texts that follow a certain fixed pattern?

And language shapes the way we think. We can have great ideas, but we can only express them, communicate them to others, through words. The words we can use, then, naturally limits what we can express. We can think, but a thought that cannot be manifested in the physical world remains confined within our own. Will our reliance on AI in the realm of language end up limiting the human mind?

As the character John Keating said in the movie Dead Poets Society, "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."

Will our reliance on AI end up sustaining life but not make it worth living for?

79th anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, 79 years later.

Pearl Harbor dead remembered in ceremony shrunk by pandemic

Each day, there are fewer people who can talk about their experiences of the war.

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

No one can be wrong to call the Violet Evergarden series as a story about love. Of course, I think it is about love not in the narrow sense of romantic love, but in the broader sense of love between two persons spanning a variety of relationships. The entire series (one TV series and two movies) portray a wider range of human emotions than the romantic love between two persons.

But the theme of guilt is also very prominently featured in Violet Evergarden the Movie. Gilbert's guilt for using Violet as a tool of war was part of the story in the original light novel, but because Gilbert was not featured heavily in the TV series, the theme of guilt only came to be prominently featured this time in the movie, when Gilbert becomes one of the key characters. (There is also Diethard's guilt about pushing everything, like carrying on the family traditional, to Gilbert.)

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

We have all done things which makes us feel guilty. It is how we deal with guilt that differs from person to person. Some are able to put it aside, some continue to dwell over it. And sometimes, it helps to have someone else, something else, to be an impetus for accepting guilt. To accept that the past cannot be changed, but our own choices and actions can make a difference in the future.

This was touched on in the TV series, when Violet eventually realizes that her actions during the war had resulted in so many deaths which cannot be undone. But her colleagues at C.H. Postal Company helped her overcome that guilt, helping her to realize that the people she had killed will no longer return to life, but her actions today and tomorrow will help change the lives of others.

I think this experience was what helped Violet understand Gilbert's guilt. She understood that Gilbert feels guilt for using her as a tool of war, for being the cause of her guilt. In turn, she is the cause of his guilt. And because she understood that they are the cause of each other's guilt, she convinced herself that Gilbert was right, and they should not be together. Both Gilbert, who is very good at being rational and controlling his emotions from his life in the army, and Violet allowed their rational minds to suppress their emotional hearts.

 

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

Which makes their reunion all the more dramatic. Since it is the emotional hearts who managed to break through the rational minds. It shows the depth of their love for each other, a love so strong it can overcome the guilt of being the cause of each other's guilt.

 

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

Daisy also learnt how to deal with her guilt for always being so harsh on her mother. Julis finally dealt with his guilt for treating his friend so coldly. Daisy learnt to do so through her journey in pursuit of Violet. Julis learnt to do so based on the advice from Violet.

Sometimes, all we need is someone or something to help us deal with guilt.

(I realized that I have been writing so much about Violet Evergarden, I decided to create a label for posts related to the Violet Evergarden series. But I can't really say I am a fan of the series, since I know of someone who has watched the movie 57 times as of December 4, 2020... 57 times in less than three months since the movie started showing in cinemas.)

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie.

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.