Watching Violet Evergarden The Movie at a Dolby Cinema, again (16th viewing)

Recently, it was announced that Violet Evergarden The Movie has won the Dolby Cinema Award at Dolby Cinema Japan Awards 2024. The movie would also return to Dolby Cinemas in Japan for a limited period.

Today was the first day of that limited period. As a good Violet Evergarden fan, I dutifully booked a ticket to see the movie for the 16th time in a cinema. 😊

It is so nice to see this at the cinema.

And to see this return to the cinemas.

 

I received this commemorative "ticket" again.

 

It was actually given out to viewers the last time when the movie screened at Dolby Cinemas.

 

Tying in with this return to the big screen were some new merch from Kyoani, which was also on sale at the cinema. I had already placed my order on kyoanishop.com but I couldn't resist...

 

Having watched this movie more than 20 times (including at home on the Bluray, on TV, and the audio commentaries by the production staff, music staff, and voice actors), I didn't think I would cry as much as before. So I told myself, I would not resist the tears.

It was the start of a weeping marathon lasting 2 hours 15 minutes.

Tears started flowing right at the start, at the scene in Ann's house when photos of her and her family came into view. And didn't stop until the end of the movie. I think I cried even more during the credit roll because of those familiar names. To the lady sitting beside me, sorry for the disturbance my crying must have caused you. I was sitting at the end of the row, so there was only one person to my side, which was a saving grace since otherwise, I would have disturbed two persons.

The movie is as great as I remembered it. And yes, the Dolby Cinema version is worth it. The sound effects and music coupled with the greater colour contrast really makes it so much more visually and audibly stunning. I think many fans shared my view too, since the place was almost full; only some of the seats at the front and to the sides were empty. And this is for a movie that had premiered more than 4 years ago, is available on streaming services (Netflix), and on Blu-ray and DVD. There is no need to spend money to watch it at a cinema, but many people did. Because the experience really is different, and worth it.

Hopefully, I can find some time to go catch it again... 😅

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.

Calligraphy piece 亲爱忠诚

My alma mater's motto is 亲爱忠诚, and there was once a plan to write each character and give it to the school every decade after graduation. The first one written was the character 亲. However, I kind of missed the second decade, and I didn't know if I will remember the fourth decade, or if I would even be around then, so I decided to write all four characters and give it as a present from the class to the school.

This is the piece that will be presented to the school. (size: hansetsu 半切 aka 35 cm by 135 cm)

My former classmate who is helping me to frame up the above piece also wanted something for himself. In the end, I passed this to him.

Final calligraphy exhibition submission for 2024

I have finally submitted my piece for the New Year Exhibition of Sankei Sho International Association 産経国際書展新春展 (deadline 15 November 2024; actual exhibition 22 January to 3 February 2025). This is the final submission for 2024 before the next round of submissions start in April 2025.

For this exhibition, I decided to write a phrase from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

其疾如風、其徐如林、侵掠如火、不動如山

which means something like "fast as the wind, quiet as the forest, aggressive as fire, and immovable as a mountain".

Warlord Takeda Shingen took this phrase and used

疾如風 徐如林 侵掠如火 不動如山

as his war banner, and this phrase is also shortened to 風林火山 too.

Note: The actual piece submitted will be in a subsequent post, after I see it at the exhibition venue in January 2025.

Here are examples of an earlier version, with a layout of 2 lines, 8 characters per line.

I then decided to change the layout to something like this, same two lines, but 9 characters in the first line and 7 characters in the second line.

I also tried writing the phrase using a different type of brush stroke.

 

The final leg of preparation, which lasted about two weeks, generated this amount trash.

Well, now that I have submitted the piece, time to start thinking about what to write for next year's round of exhibitions!

Sound! Euphonium The Kitauji High School Concert Band 8th Regular Concert

It is not often that something related to a Kyoani work has an event in Yokohama, so when I found out that Sound! Euphonium The Kitauji High School Concert Band 8th Regular Concert (『響け！ユーフォニアム』公式吹奏楽コンサート～北宇治高校吹奏楽部 第8回定期演奏会～) will be taking place in Yokohama, I decided to try balloting for a ticket. And was lucky enough to get one for the afternoon performance (there was also an evening performance on the same day).

I have only attended a Kyoani-related concert once, and that was the Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021. It was again a rainy day today, but the rain wasn't that heavy so I managed to get to the venue (Kanagawa Kenmin Hall) after riding an hour on Vivi, my little 50cc scooter.

There wasn't any banners or such but I knew I was at the right place because I was greeted with this scene.

 

There was still close to two hours to go before the concert, but there was already a crowd. People were queuing to buy merchandise.

I decided to see what was on exhibition at the gallery instead.

An hour before the concert, we all started queuing to enter the concert hall. My seat was on the second floor.

This was the view from my seat.

I was in an audience of about 2,400 people, it seems.

The concert started with a euphonium player playing "Moonlight Serenade", kind of the season 3 of the TV series. We then had TRUE singing "ReCoda" and the band playing "Disco Kid". It was like watching episode 1 of season 3. The concert's MC was the Kitauji Quartet: the voice actresses for Kumiko, Reina, Sapphire/Midori, and Hazuki.

Other pieces performed include "Koi" and the cello players performing "Salut d'Amour" as a duet, like in the TV series. The band also performed "Polovtsian Dances". They also performed the songs that the school band played at the national finals: "Scherzando" and "Hitotose no Uta: Suisogaku no Tame no". TRUE sang "Soundscape" and the band also performed "Neiro no Uta" but the quartet didn't join and sing. There was also a duet (trumpet and euphonium) performance of "Ai wo Mitsuketa Basho". Of course, no Sound! Euphonium concert can end without a performance of "Hibike! Euphonium", the piece that gave the series its name.

The concert ended with TRUE singing "Dream Solister", the opening song for season 1, taking everyone right back to where it all started.

When the concert ended, there was already a lot of people waiting for the evening performance. I wanted to join the queue to get the booklet with the concert's program, but it looked like at least an hour of queuing so I gave up, as the weather forecast said it would be pouring at night, and I wanted to get back before it started raining again.

The car park had more cars this time.

Personally, not being a hardcore fan of the series, I didn't find the concert as enjoyable as Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021 (which I truly enjoyed). But I was really impressed by TRUE; she really took all the attention whenever she comes onto the stage. Maybe if I had watched the TV series several more times and can recall the scenes where each song played, I would have found the concert more interesting.

 

The Sound! Euphonium 10th anniversary event is going to be held in March 2025 in Yokohama too. But I think I will be giving it a pass. I don't feel like a hardcore-enough fan of the series to be truly able to enjoy it. 😅

PS. The ticket came with this.

It is a replica of Kumiko's score and the photo taken after the national finals.

The (future) cost of AI

ChatGPT and other LLMs are seeing wider use in society. We also see Stable Diffusion and other generative AI being used for creating illustrations. While we are able to run smaller models on our own computers, as long as we have the hardware (usually a modest GPU), the bigger and more powerful models are usually provided as cloud services, hosted on servers in data centers. There may be free plans, but access to better models usually require some form of subscription, or are charged based on usage.

Right now, the price of using such AI services may still be low, with companies keeping prices low to attract a wider user base. However, such a pricing model is not sustainable. Think about the hardware needed to configure such servers. Think about the money needed for building and running data centers, including construction, staffing, and electricity. Data center GPUs like the H100 can easily cost the price of a car. The cost of setting up data centers for AI services and operating them can easily run up to billions of dollars. Do you think the low prices now will be able to actually cover the money invested? Of course not.

This is where the sinister part of capitalism comes in. Companies providing AI services are not trying to cover costs now in the short term. The short-term goal is to expand user base and develop user reliance, and eventually drive out the human alternative.

Wait, what is driving out the human alternative? Well, it is simply the forcing out of the competition from humans providing that same service, whether it is artists who draw illustrations, translators, writers, musicians, singers, narrators, maybe even video creators. Low pricing of AI services providing such services now makes it hard for humans providing such services to compete, eventually forcing humans to seek other jobs. In a few years, we will see entire sectors of jobs disappear, replaced by cheaper AI services. In another few years, such skills would be lost due to lack of use and practice.

And that will be when companies collect on the actual cost of AI. When there is no human alternative left, companies can easily hike up prices, justifying price hikes by showing users how much it actually costs to run their data center. And users will have to pay because they have no where else to turn to. Such a day is not an "if"; it is a "when". When that day comes, it will be too late; our reliance on AI will be so entrenched in our lives, we have no choice but to pay. And pay we will, because AI is not cheap. All these companies didn't spend billions on training AI models and building data centers to earn 10 dollars from you each month. We will end up paying for years of R&D and infrastructure investments, plus the operating costs of that infrastructure.

If anything, just think about self-driving cars. Today's self-driving cars have not reached Level 5 autonomous driving. Such cars will probably be driven by cloud services; the core model driving the vehicle will be located in the car, but required data (such as maps and traffic information) will be made available to the AI model via the cloud. With time, all cars will be replaced by self-driving cars; to prevent accidents, countries may even require everyone to switch to self-driving cars. A few years later, no one will actually be able to drive a car. Other forms of mobility (like trains) will probably end up being replaced too. Once getting around becomes a cloud service (except walking), companies can then charge you anything they want.

Convenience and speed comes at a price. We may not be paying that price today, but companies are not charities, and the day will come when they come to our doors, ready to collect. And we will have to pay, with no other alternative.

Bash script to resize photos for Instagram

A while ago, I created an Instagram account, but it kept cropping and resizing my photos and so I haven't been uploading photos there regularly. Instagram likes the 1:1 aspect ratio, 1080 x 1080 pixels. Other aspect ratios are also supported but this is the main one. For the supported ratios, see this help article.

 

Being sick of my photos being weirdly cropped on Instagram, I wrote a simple bash script to resize photos.

 

instaresize.sh

--------------

#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]
then echo No photo file designated
else
    filename=$1
    basefilename="${filename%.*}"
    convert "$filename" -resize 1080x1080 -gravity center -background "rgb(0,0,0)" -extent 1080x1080 "$basefilename"_instasize.jpg
fi

--------------

Basically just use

instaresize.sh "my file to resize.png"

and it will output a 1080x1080 file, padded with black, to a file named

my file to resize_instasize.jpg

For example, this input photo

 

will be converted to this

 

Hope this helps.

My instagram account: maplerain78

(mainly for my calligraphy stuff)

Update: I have added this script to my repo of snippets.

https://github.com/vivian-ng/snippets/

Violet Evergarden The Movie wins Dolby Cinema Award at Dolby Cinema Japan Awards 2024

Today, it was announced that Violet Evergarden The Movie won the first Dolby Cinema Award at Dolby Cinema Japan Awards 2024.

「劇場版 #ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン」がDolby Cinema Japan Awards 2024「初Dolby Cinema賞」を受賞いたしました💐
受賞を記念して、11/15(金)より全国のドルビーシネマにて本作の上映が決定！ぜひこの機会にドルビーシネマ版をご堪能ください。https://t.co/MkLqmT6U3l#VioletEvergarden pic.twitter.com/e3ryRliMmr

— 「ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン」公式 (@Violet_Letter) November 4, 2024

The movie will also return to Dolby Cinemas in Japan from 15 November 2024. I have watched the movie 15 times in a cinema, so I guess I will be able to renew that record. 😍

(Update 15 November 2024: I renewed that record 😊)

(picture source: Dolby Cinema Awards Japan 2024)

 

At the rescreening, they will also be handing out this "ticket" to viewers.

(Image source: Official Violet Evergarden website)

It was actually given out to viewers the last time when the movie screened at Dolby Cinemas too.

 

The Dolby Cinema version of the movie was really good. After watching the normal version several times, I watched the Dolby Cinema version several times and was amazed at how much better it was. When I went back to watch the normal version, I could really notice the differences.

 

Violet Evergarden The Movie was also the first new anime movie to be adapted for Dolby Cinema. Meaning it was released, and while still screening in theatres, the Dolby Cinema version was created and screened. This also created a trend, with other popular anime movies doing the same thing.

So I think it is really fitting that Violet Evergarden The Movie won this award. Director Ishidate really did a great job with the studio that helped to adapt the movie for Dolby Cinema.

 

Congratulations to the Violet Evergarden team!

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.

October 2024 miscellaneous calligraphy pieces

These are some other calligraphy pieces that I wrote in October 2024.

 

Some random pieces

 

I needed to use up some leftover ink, so I wrote 江心秋月白

 

and 門前馬鞍稀

Rubbish generated in two weeks

 

Plus generating more trash...

 

September 2024 miscellaneous calligraphy pieces

October 2024 calligraphy "homework"

The "homework" pieces that I submitted for October 2024.

Hanshi kanji 半紙漢字: 獨自下寒煙

 
Single character 一字: 遥


Unsubmitted pieces:

I also made a mistake and thought the 半切漢字 piece that I was practising was for November when it was for October... in the end, I didn't submit it with the rest of the other pieces for the month, missing the deadline.

 

September 2024 calligraphy "homework"

Note: I also submitted my piece for Onchikai Shodo Exhibition 温知会書道展.

Watching A Few Moments of Cheers 数分間のエールを

A Few Moments of Cheers (数分間のエールを) actually started screening in Japan way back in June. I was slightly interested in it, but in the end, didn't really find time to catch it. However, a few days ago, one of my favorite anime reviewers on YouTube gave it a strong recommendation, mentioning that it is back in cinemas (Dolby Cinemas and those with Dolby Atmos sound) now for a limited period of time. So I did my best to adjust my schedule (including working a lot more on weekends and at night) to squeeze out time to catch the movie today at the local Dolby Cinema.

 

The story is about a high school boy who recently got into making music videos using 3D animation (the movie actually had a scene showing him using Blender). He saw someone singing with a guitar at a bus-stop (or taxi stand?) one day and was so impressed by her voice that he decided he would make a music video of her song. This is a story that will resonate with anyone who dabbles in some form of art, who strives to create something in hope of being recognised by others. I was moved to tears several times during the movie (I stopped counting after two), which says a lot since this is a short movie at 68 minutes.

This movie is produced by Hurray!, the team that creates music videos for Yorushika, so the music videos in this movie can really be actual music videos by themselves. In the end, to those of us who pursue an art, this movie is kind of like asking us: Why are you doing this? What do you seek? I really really recommend this movie to anyone pursuing any form of art, who creates anything for others to appreciate.

 

Spoilers after the photo

 

The protagonist is Asaya Kanata, and the person he saw singing with the guitar turns out to be his new English teacher in school, Orie Yu. Orie was actually singing her 100th song, the song that she wrote as a final work for her singing journey, after having tried to create a career as a singer but not making any headway. Meanwhile, Asaya only started making music videos when he entered high school, so he is still very passionate about wanting to create something that would move the hearts of others.

I think all of us who pursue art in some form would understand this initial passion, to want to create something that move others, that others appreciate and praise. We all seek that recognition, even though recognition may not be the sole or major reason for our pursuit of art. But along the way, with time, some of us may realise that we will never get that recognition. Those who seek to make a career out of their love for their art may realise that such a day may never come. Such setbacks over time may eventually lead us to drop our pursuit and seek something else. Such was the case for Orie, who decided to stop pursuing a singing career, and took up a job as a teacher.

Meanwhile, Asaya was just embarking on this pursuit. He sees things positively. Even when Orie's 100th song was one about giving up, Asaya interpreted it in a more positive way, and made a music video with a positive story for that song. Yet that was not what the song was about, which led Orie to reject his first music video. But through talking to Orie, and seeing his good friend Tonosaki give up going to art school, he remembered his own feeling of giving up once. Back in junior high, he used to draw, but when his friend Tonosaki won the prefectural governor's award, Asaya gave up drawing, and eventually found a new passion in creating music videos. Able to better understand Orie's 100th song, he gave his second attempt at creating a music video for her, and this time, he was able to create a more fitting music video, and his passion even influenced Orie to give singing a second try.

 

Official website of 数分間のエールを (in Japanese)

Calligraphy scroll 百年好合

I wrote the phrase 百年好合 and had it made into a scroll as a gift for my sister (who just got married recently).

This is how it looks.

Scrolls aren't exactly cheap to make, but it is nice to have a company (actually, a few companies) in the area providing such a service. 😊

Lesson: Don't tell them your budget. They will make full use of it. 😅

Photographing comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Photographing C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was a challenge.

 

It started with trying to find the comet. Instead of trying to strain my eyes, I just took photos using my camera in the general direction until I found something that looked like the comet, then zoomed in to see if I can get a better photo.

 

In the end, I managed to take two photos that turned out quite okay at a focal length of 400mm, f/6.3, shutter speed of 2s, with difference between the two being one at ISO 1600 and the other at ISO 3200. It was very windy so any exposure longer than 2 seconds didn't turn out very well.

 

Canon EOS 550D, focal length 400mm, f/6.3, exposure 2s, ISO 1600

 

Canon EOS 550D, focal length 400mm, f/6.3, exposure 2s, ISO 1600 (zoomed in)

 

Canon EOS 550D, focal length 400mm, f/6.3, exposure 2s, ISO 3200

 

Canon EOS 550D, focal length 400mm, f/6.3, exposure 2s, ISO 3200 (zoomed in)

 

All this in 16 degrees Celsius cold... I didn't think it would be so cold and didn't wear a thicker jacket (the temperature was close to 30 degrees Celsius yesterday, after all), and ended up suffering for more than an hour.

My 100-piece trauma

About 10 years ago, when I was preparing for an exhibition, I wrote about 20 pieces and sent the best to my teacher (who was helping me to submit for the exhibition). If she had no comments, then she was going to submit it for me.

Well, she came back saying that, not specialising in kanji calligraphy (she specialises in kana calligraphy), she asked a fellow teacher for comments. And the other teacher only said, "You need to write at least 100 pieces when preparing for an exhibition."

I went back and wrote about 100 pieces.

Since then, this experience stuck with me, and so I end up writing 100 pieces (actually, more than 200 or more) whenever I am preparing for an exhibition. In the process, I use up a lot of paper and ink, and generate a lot of trash.

Exhibition season is here again, with submissions due in October and November. I am in my final leg for these upcoming deadlines, plus I also need to start thinking about what to write for the other exhibitions with deadlines in the first half of next year.

September 2024 miscellaneous calligraphy pieces

These are some other calligraphy pieces that I wrote in September 2024.

 

野

百年好合

 

Frigate names

 

Rubbish generated in three weeks.

 

Rubbish generated in two weeks.

August 2024 miscellaneous calligraphy pieces