Friday, May 31, 2024

Watching 映画『からかい上手の高木さん』 (live-action adaptation of Teasing Master Takagi-san) on opening day

The live-action adaptation of Teasing Master Takagi-san, Teasing Master Takagi-san Movie (映画『からかい上手の高木さん』), opens in Japan today, with a stage event featuring the cast that was live-streamed to cinemas across Japan. A typhoon was passing by this area today, so I was a bit uncertain if I could actually get to the cinema, but the typhoon passed earlier than expected and I didn't have to brave the wind and rain to catch the movie.

The stage event took place after the screening of the movie, and featured Nagano Mei who played Takagi-san, and Takahashi Fumiya who played Nishikata, as well as Eguchi Yosuke as Tanabe-sensei, and Shiratori Tamaki who played Ozeki Miki and Saito Jun who played Machida Ryo (these two are new characters for the movie). Director Imaizumi Rikiya also joined them on the stage.

You can find a video of the stage event on YouTube too.


I had been a bit apprehensive about this movie, after the disaster that was the live-action adaptation of Whisper of the Heart (my review here, plus additional thoughts here) which also had a "10 years later" story. I can proudly say that those fears were unfounded. Somehow, director Imaizumi managed to come up with a story that maintains the relationship between Takagi-san and Nishikata, while allowing them to each grow up mentally (and not just physically) in a story set 10 years after their days in junior high school.

This is no small feat. Nishikata has grown up to become a PE teacher at his alma mater, but he still retains his awkward personality, which makes it believable that he still behaves in a similar way around Takagi-san. Takagi-san, already more mature in the first place, continues to use that maturity to tease Nishikata, but also hoping to take their relationship to the next step now that they have both grown up. The relationship between the two of them is familiar to fans of the series, but they both showed aspects have having grown over the past 10 years, and the story even had episodes that showed that they have clearly grown.

It is a 119-minute movie, and the story itself can be a bit slow. However, I think this slow pace was to slowly build up the story, because in the end, I found myself shedding tears as the emotions struck me toward the end of the movie. I mean, I wasn't expecting to cry in this movie, but I was actually moved to tears. I would really recommend this live-action adaptation to fans of the series, after they have watched the live-action TV drama series, as a conclusion to the live-action route. The movie even ended with a scene referencing the spin-off series Teasing Master (Former) Takagi-san.

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Hits and misses: calligraphy brush

Calligraphy supplies are not exactly cheap, especially larger brushes and good paper. So I try to source for supplies on auction sites and flea markets. Such purchases are mostly hits and misses. While paper is paper and you can still write on them, brushes can be difficult to judge when deciding if you want to try to buy something or now.

For example, a while ago, I managed to get this brush on Yahoo! Auctions. It didn't look like it was in the best condition, but it still looked usable. Goat hair calligraphy brushes of this size can be really expensive, and this looked like a good offer.
 
But then I washed it, and it looked like this. Basically, a lot of the hair had broken, to the extent that trying to use this brush as a normal one would be impossible. It can now function as a thin brush with extra long hair, though...😅

Compared to how a healthy brush looks, like the one below (which I wrote about here), the difference is quite obvious.

Since then, I have become a bit more picky about what I pick up on auction sites and flea markets. I am just glad that I picked up the "extra long hair calligraphy brush" with a bunch of other, usable brushes so it wasn't actually a loss.

Monday, May 27, 2024

A bit of apprehension

A live-action adaptation movie of からかい上手の高木さん (Teasing Master Takagi-san) will premier this Friday. This movie is a continuation of the recent live-action adaption drama series (8 episodes on TBS), but it will be set 10 years after the end of the drama series, with Nishikata now a PE teacher at his alma mater, reuniting with Takagi-san when she arrives at the school as a trainee teacher.

My experiences with such "10 years later" sequels have been mixed. On the one hand, we have the Laid-Back Camp movie that managed to creative an original sequel set X years later after the girls' time in high school. At the same time, we have the disaster of the live-action adaptation of Whisper of the Heart (my review here, plus additional thoughts here), where the movie had adults who behaved like teenagers.

While I am very excited to catch this new movie, I cannot help but feel apprehension that this will turn out like Whisper of the Heart, with the characters, who are working adults now, behaving like teenagers. I mean, Takagi-san's teasing of Nishikata would work when they were in junior high school, but if 24-year-old Nishikata acts like 14-year-old Nishikata, we would all think he has some mental development issue. Especially after watching the trailer... I really really hope the trailer used those scenes to capture existing fans of the series, but the characters in this sequel movie have actually grown up mentally and not just physically. I mean, it would be nice to see how Nishikata got together with Takagi-san in the end, since this was not covered in the manga, but it would be just lazy writing if they decided to make the 24-year-old Nishikata and Takagi-san, who are teachers now, act like there were still students in junior high school.

Keeping my fingers crossed... 🤞


Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Watching Trapezium (トラペジウム)

Trapezium (トラペジウム) is a novel written by former idol Takayama Kazumi, and it was recently adapted into an anime movie. I had been somewhat interested in this movie after watching the trailer, but it was quite low on my list. Still, after hearing someone mention that it is worth a watch, I managed to squeeze out a bit of time in between work to go catch it today.
 
When the movie started, I was greeted with the familiar names of Kakihara Yuko and Yokoyama Masaru. It signaled that the script and music would be good.
 
A brief synopsis: The protagonist, Azuma Yu, wants to be an idol. She has this idea of gathering members from the four points of the compass (north, east, south, west) to form an idol group. So she goes off to high schools in her town, visiting one in the south and west and befriended one girl at each school. She also reunited with a childhood friend, who was studying at a high school in the north. With herself being from the eastern side of town, she now has a team of four girls from all four directions, and she works to turn this group into an idol group.

Those who watch this movie expecting to see an idol anime would likely be surprised. While the story is about a group of girls who formed an idol group, the story is really about their different views. It was more human drama than idol anime. It was also very real, since the author was a member of the idol group Nogizaka 46. Similar to Oshi no Ko, it reveals a side of the idol industry in Japan. Like when it was made very clear to the protagonist that, the group with members drawn from and based on the four directions only really had value as a group.
 
The characters' names were also based on the four directions. The protagonist Azuma's name is 東 in kanji, which is the same character as east. Katori Ranko, who comes from the south, is given the nickname Minami, which is south in Japanese. At the same time, another hint was in her name, Katori, written as 華鳥. In China (and Japan), the phoenix, or 朱雀 or 朱鳥, is the animal symbolising the south. Katori has the character 鳥 in her name, linking her to the south. Meanwhile, the girl from the west is Taiga Kurumi. Her surname Taiga is written as 大河, which means big river, but is also pronounced in the same way as tiger. And guess what, the animal symbolising the west is the white tiger. Finally, Kamei Mika is the girl from the north. Her surname is 亀井 in kanji, with the character of 亀 or tortoise in it. Once against, the black tortoise (玄武) is the animal associated with the north. If you look at it this way, all of them have names associated with the four directions, but only Azuma's name was a direct reference. I was wondering why she didn't have an animal symbol for her name, but I guess the dragon 龍 (or 竜) would probably not have made for a cute girl's name. Also, a direct reference hinted that she is the true idol, the real "east" while the rest were just associated with their respective directions.

The story itself could be a bit too... devious? scheming? for people. The girls thought it was fate that brought them together, but the truth was that it was all Azuma's scheming. She planned for it from the start, venturing to schools in other parts of town to intentionally scout for potential teammates. They went volunteering, but it was not out of goodwill; rather, it was Azuma's plan to create some positive elements in the group's backstory. They thought it was a lucky break that they got to appear on TV, but it was again Azuma's plan to expose the group to media attention by volunteering at a place that was gaining popularity with tourists. In a way, she wanted to fulfill her dream of becoming an idol, and she dragged her friends into it. Kind of selfish, but to someone who thinks that being an idol is the dream occupation, she didn't see her actions as selfish but more like "I am helping all of you to become idols, the best job in the world! What is there is complain?"
 
Still, the story managed to wrap up on a positive note. And I think that is what made this movie enjoyable. It was not just an outright criticism of the idol industry. It was not just about a scheming, selfish girl. It was a human drama about people with different dreams, different views, about struggling to find your own place in a group, about dealing with other people. It could easily have become very negative, but it did not. That balance kept it real without making it too real. I mean, no one wants to see real life in movies; we see that every day in our own lives already. "Real but not too real" made it a relatable story that could be enjoyed as entertainment.

I hope more people will actually go watch this movie. I was greeted with this view when I went to the cinema today. 13th day of screening after the movie premiered on 10 May 2024.
Eventually, a few others trickled in and there was a total of 4 persons, including me, watching this screening of the movie. It is quite sad that this movie isn't getting as much attention as it deserves.

Monday, May 20, 2024

Summer is here

The days are getting longer and hotter, so I thought I would write the character for summer 夏 while practising calligraphy. Here's the two versions I came up with.


Thursday, May 16, 2024

Violet Evergarden orchestra concert in Beijing, China on 8 June 2024

The first Violet Evergarden orchestra concert outside Japan was just announced today.

It will be held this year on June 8, 2024 in Beijing Zhongshan Park Music Hall (yes, in China).
TRUE and Chihara Minori will be singing and music will be performed by Dijiu Orchestra (帝玖管弦乐团) (I think you can find videos of them performing VE music on YouTube). Pieces will mainly be the ones from the 2021 orchestra, but there will be a new duet piece by TRUE and Chihara Minori for this.

紫罗兰永恒花园 交响音乐会 北京站
6月8日 北京中山公园音乐堂 (Beijing Zhongshan Park Music Hall is the Forbidden City Concert Hall)


There will be 26 pieces, and the concert will last around 130 minutes. On 9 June 2024, there will be a merch signing event with a talk session by the production staff (anime and orchestra concert).

I am so sad that I can't fly to Beijing for this. I hope the fans in China enjoy it. Meanwhile, check out my post on the 2021 orchestra for a recap.

Update: The concert was announced at noon JST today, and about seven hours later, when I checked back at the ticketing site, tickets have sold out.

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie

Events:
 
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")
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:
Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert
 
Insights on the movie:
 
Audio commentary notes:
 
 
All posts related to Violet Evergarden.


Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Coloured calligraphy paper

Chinese/Japanese calligraphy is not only written on plain white paper. I have previously introduced processed paper, and this time, I will be touching on coloured paper in particular.

Most common is red paper, which I used here when I wrote about non-vermilion/red calligraphy seal paste.

Red paper can also be sprinkled with gold flakes, like the paper used for this piece.

Yellow is another common colour. Black ink on yellow paper can look very impressive.

There are other colours too, like beige/brown, which is somewhat darker than unbleached calligraphy paper.
 
And blue and green too. Even black (which I do not have...)


Of course, not all of them go well with black ink. For example, paper with darker shades of blue and green would go better with inks of brighter colours such as gold or yellow. I will provide such an example when I write about gold and silver inks in the future.

Monday, May 13, 2024

Horse 馬 and eagle 鵰

When I practise calligraphy, I like to write what I want to write. These are usually characters that come into my mind at that point in time, or phrases/poems that I like. Today, I decided to use the characters for horse 馬 and eagle 鵰.

鵰 refers to a broad family of eagle species, but I like this word because it is used in the wuxia novel 神鵰侠侣, or The Return of the Condor Heroes.
 

I used a goat hair brush on old paper (slightly brown). The calligraphy seal was affixed using 仿古 color seal paste to give an overall oldish look.

Wednesday, May 08, 2024

Large goat hair calligraphy brush from South Korea

Recently, I found someone selling this large goat hair calligraphy brush from South Korea on a flea market website.

The hair portion is 102mm in length with a diameter of 18mm. I needed something of this size for writing larger characters (two rows on 2x6 feet paper) and it was reasonably priced, so I bought it.

It writes reasonably well, though with the large amount of ink it can carry, it is best used with thicker paper (that can hold more water/ink without smudging) or sized/cooked paper (which doesn't absorb water/ink).

For example, this is written on unsized/uncooked paper.
You can clearly see the smudging.
 
This is written on thick unsized/uncooked paper.
There is a lot less smudging, since the paper is able to absorb more ink.
 
This is written on sized/cooked paper.
There is no smudging, but it took quite a bit of time to dry because of all that ink on the surface.
 
In terms of size, this brush seems to work for two rows of characters (7 to 8 characters per row) on a sheet of 2x6 feet paper. I will have to experiment around a bit to see if I can use a smaller brush for the same layout, and how it works for larger characters (5 to 6 characters per row, two rows on 2x6 feet paper).

Thursday, May 02, 2024

My thoughts on the (Japanese) anime market saturation

Today, we are seeing a lot more Japanese anime TV series and movies being produced. A decade ago, I think each season (quarter) saw around 30 anime TV series. That number has since more than doubled, with over 60 series per season and going to around 300 series each year.
 
This is in spite of a shrinking population (and therefore, work force and market) in Japan. The main reason is that the market for anime has expanded, and streaming services allow Japanese anime to be easily distributed to viewers outside Japan. Better connectivity also allows Japanese production studios to contract people outside Japan to work on their anime works, whether these people are freelancers outside Japan, or entire production studios (usually in China, South Korea, and various countries in Southeast Asia). Globalization has expanded the market and available work force even though the domestic situation is in decline.

In the long term, though, I see such an approach leading to an overall decline for Japanese anime.

This anime boom now in Japan means that all the major publishers are trying to grab their share, as much as they can, as fast as they can. When profits relied on advertising and merchandise sales, the goal was to produce anime that people want to watch, that people want to rewatch, that people want to talk about and spend money on. The goal was, in short, to gain fans. However, today, the main source of income from anime comes from the sale of streaming rights. It doesn't matter anymore if anyone actually watches the anime (which helps to improve advertising income) or become fans and buy merchandise. All they need to do is be able to sell the anime's rights to a streaming service. Whether anyone watches it or not doesn't matter to the publishers; that's a problem for the streaming service.

What this means is that, if anything can be turned into an anime, it will be turned into an anime, whether there is a significant demand/audience for it. It is why we keep seeing a flood of light novels being adapted into anime, with each light novel being more or less similar to the other one. Will an anime adaptation help book sales for the publishers? Maybe. But probably not significantly. Will the production committee earn profits from merchandise sales? Yes, but again, probably insignificant. What is significant is the money that comes from streaming services. Because of the anime boom and tough competition, streaming services are grabbing series when they can; they don't want to be the only service that does not have a series should that series prove to become popular. Streaming services don't know if the goose will lay a golden egg, but they want to be at that table in case it does.

Which means that, for the time being, anime production committees will be able to earn money just by making more anime series for sale to streaming services. The influx of money also means that more and more production studios will be created to handle the increase in demand for new adaptations. If animators and other creators in Japan cannot handle the volume of work, a part of that work will be outsourced to freelancers and studios in other countries. For now, the money is there to be earned.
 
But streaming services also face tough competition, and buying streaming rights and producing their own original stuff cost money. With costs going up, and new subscribers not growing as fast due to intense competition, there will be a point when streaming services will need to start choosing the series that they pick up. This is further compounded by anime series having a range of quality. Because of the 300+ series available in a year, subscribers are not going to be able to watch them all. When they watch enough mediocre anime series in a row, they may lose their interest in anime. Some of them may even end their subscriptions. Loss of subscribers means less money for streaming services to spend on acquiring streaming rights. They will need to start being picky.
 
When the money starts falling, production committees will start seeing losses. Because it costs money to make those 60 series each season. This is a cost that, if not recovered through sales, becomes a loss. But when losses start, it is not the big publishers that close. No, the publishers will continue to launch production committees to make anime. But they will make less anime. Which means all those production studios will be fighting for a smaller pie. And some of them will start to close due to a lack of revenue. People who entered the industry during its boom will start to lose their jobs. Good animators may no longer be earning enough to sustain their living, and end up leaving the industry altogether for another job. Especially freelancers who work for several production studios, only to find half of these studios closing over a short period of time.

The result is an overall shrinking of the industry that may happen quite rapidly. The big companies at the top may feel a pinch, but it is the animators and other creators working day and night to support the industry that will end up suffering. When anime revenue falls, it is not the director or general manager in charge of anime at publishers that lose their jobs; the anime department is the one to feel the axe. The production studios are the ones that lose income. The animators and other creators are the ones that lose their livelihoods. And fans will not see the sequels to their beloved series (or may have to wait a decade or two).

There is a way to avoid this. If the big companies at the top can take a more moderate and balanced approach now, to start scaling down on trying to adapt every single light novel and manga out there, then we have a chance for the industry to become sustainable in the long term. But then, this approach relies on companies reining in corporate greed. That's not really going to happen. Sigh.

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

Calligraphy draft using poems mentioned in The Garden of Words 言の葉の庭

In The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭), two poems from Manyoshu were mentioned. I really like this movie, and always wanted to write my own pieces using these two poems. Finally, I got down to that.

鳴る神の 少し響みて さし曇り 雨も降らぬか きみを留めむ
なるかみの すこしとよみて さしくもり あめもふらぬか きみをとどめむ
雷神 小動 刺雲 雨零耶 君将留
A faint clap of thunder,
Clouds fill the sky,
Perhaps it will rain,
Will that keep you here?
 
鳴る神の 少し響みて 降らずとも 吾は留まらむ 妹し留めば
なるかみの すこしとよみて ふらずとも われはとまらん いもしとどめば
雷神 小動 雖不零 吾将留 妹留者
A faint clap of thunder,
Even if there is no rain,
I will stay here,
If you but ask.
 
I think the layout and overall size could be better if I spent a bit more time on them. I am definitely going to redo them. But for now, these would do.
 
I actually tried a draft using 半切 paper too. This would work if I put them side by side, aka on a piece of 全紙 paper, with the "question" poem higher and the "answer" poem lower.

Update 6 December 2024:
I wrote the kanji version too.