Watching The Quintessential Quintuplets* 五等分の花嫁＊

The Quintessential Quintuplets* (五等分の花嫁＊) started screening in Japanese cinemas today, ahead of its TV broadcast later in the year. It is a 47-minute OVA focusing mainly on the main character's honeymoon with the quintuplets. While not covered in the original manga, the manga's author Haruba Negi supervised this story, so it can be considered as "canon".

I thought the anime adaptation of this series ended with The Quintessential Quintuplets∽ (五等分の花嫁∽) but I guess I was wrong. Having already caught The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie (映画「五等分の花嫁」) and The Quintessential Quintuplets∽ previously when they screened in Japan, I thought I should keep up the "tradition" and so I got myself a ticket and went to catch this show during its first screening at the local cinema.

I got to the cinema on time... due to heavy morning traffic. Still, I managed to get to my seat before the OVA started so I guess it was okay.

I think the best way to sum it up is that this is an OVA for fans, to give a nice conclusion to the story after the wedding. What the quintuplets are doing five years after they graduated from high school. As the honeymoon took place in Hawaii, there was a side character, a Hawaiian girl, but she was voiced by a Japanese voice actor so the English sounded a bit awkward. But I guess it won't really matter since this character isn't really the main focus of this OVA. I guess this is the author's way of giving a proper conclusion to the story, instead of leaving it to fan fiction writers. Those who are not die-hard fans should probably just wait for it to air on TV.

Violet Evergarden The Movie 4th anniversary

Four years ago, I went on this day to catch Violet Evergarden The Movie.

To get information about the movie, I even created a Twitter (now X) account. 

Since then, I have caught the movie15 times (as of today), including several events which included the voice actors and the production staff.

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

I also wrote more than 100 blog posts about the series.

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

 

Violet Evergarden light novels and short stories are available officially only in Japanese, so I tried to translate some of them into English for fans, including a letter from author Kana Akatsuki.

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) 

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

I also wrote an app that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android which translates to and from the Tellsis language used in the writings found in the series.

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

Plus a bit of decoding (translating?) work on some of the stuff written in the Tellsis language.

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

I even attended the Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021.

And when the Blu-ray was released, I watched the three audio commentaries and provided a summary of them.

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

I am hoping that Kyoani will hold a 10th anniversary event for the series. Given that the series celebrated its 5th anniversary last year, this means we have about 3.5 years more to go!

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.

Mid-autumn calligraphy piece

Today is the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, which is also the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). Thus, I wrote a piece about the moon, since this is traditionally a day for getting together to enjoy the full moon.

月是故郷明 (meaning the moon is brighter at one's hometown, expressing the longing for one's hometown)

I have been trying out a slightly different style of writing, and here is the same phrase written in that style.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2024

The 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar is celebrated as the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). It is a day for getting together to enjoy the moon, which was almost at its fullest (the actual full moon is tomorrow morning at 11:34 but it won't be visible from here).

(Canon EOS 550D, 400mm zoom, f/6.3, exposure 1/200s, ISO 200)

 

I also spotted Saturn next to the moon, so I did my best to capture them on camera together.

Large characters using diluted ink

Recently, I wrote about diluted ink. The reason was because I wanted to try creating a large work with large characters using diluted ink. I did a few drafts and recently came up with something like this, using diluted ink made from 蒼苔 (a "blue" ink (青墨) from 古梅園).

For the characters, I chose 雪落音, using characters from a recent draft. The size of the paper is 70cm by 175cm, to fit within another frame size (2.6 feet by 6 feet) that is used in some calligraphy exhibitions. I may actually submit this (or something similar) for the upcoming Dokuritsu Sho Exhibition (独立書展).

Machines for grinding ink

Grinding solid ink sticks to make ink can be a time consuming task, especially if you need a lot of ink (such as for larger works, or lots of practice). This is why ink grinding machines (墨磨機) were invented. While there are different models from various companies, such machines usually come in two types, which I will be touching on in this post.

The first type is the revolving type. Here, an ink stick is held in place and the ink stone revolves under it, grinding the ink. (There is also a version where the ink stone is stationary, while the ink stick revolves above it.) Here, the revolving "ink stone" is usually not an actual ink stone; that would be too heavy and require too large a motor to drive efficiently. Instead, it is usually a round plate with a grinding surface inside.

Model SS Sumi-suri Shokunin (墨磨職人) from 墨運堂

 

The advantage of such a system is that the walls of the grinding plate can be made higher to hold more water. This means more ink can be made at one go. The disadvantage is that the grinding plate is a consumable; the grinding surface wears down over time and eventually, you need to get a new grinding plate. Of course, such replacements probably take place once every few years or even decades. The problem is, the company may no longer be making such parts or even be in business by then, which is a risk that you have to take when using consumables. (For the revolving type where the ink stick is the one that revolves, there is no such issue and the ink stone used is usually a normal round ink stone.) Another issue is that the mount holding the ink stick usually cannot hold ink sticks beyond a certain size.

The other type is the piston type, where the ink stick is mounted on something like a piston, which is then used to move the ink stick horizontally back and forth on an ink stone.

Tetsujin (鉄人) from 墨運堂

The advantage of such a system is that you can use a normal ink stone (but it has to be quite large) and the mount can usually fit most ink sticks, even very large ones. You are more or less getting the same ink as if you are grinding it yourself, although you cannot really vary the amount of force being applied. Another disadvantage is that the amount of water that an ink stone can hold is usually quite limited; if you need a lot of ink, you may need to grind in batches. Piston-type machines are also much larger than size compared to the revolving ones.

Here is an example of the revolving type. It can hold up to 40ml of water, so I usually run it for 2 hours, then dilute with another 40ml of water to get about 80ml of normal-concentration ink.

For the piston type, while my ink stone can hold about 20ml of water, the piston action causes the water to splash all over the place. So I usually use only 15ml of water, then run the machine for 2 hours too. After which I dilute it with 65ml of water to again get 80ml of normal-concentration ink.

In the end, the sweet spot is around 2 hours of running the machine. This gives you about the same amount of soot and you just need to water it down. For the piston type, running it beyond 2 hours gives ink that is too thick to "collect" from the ink stone. Meanwhile, I am sure I can run the revolving type for 4 hours with 40ml of water, then water down with 120ml of water to get 160ml of normal-concentration ink. I try not to do that, though, because the motor may get too warm from continuous operation; in the end, I run it for at most 2 hours, then give it a break if I need to run it for another 2 hours.

My thoughts about the poor reception of new works in old franchises

In recent years, we have seen how new works in old franchises (such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) have been poorly received. One major issue is that these new works sometimes deviate from what existing fans already know about the franchises. That is to say, they contradict existing "canon".

Canon is a very touchy issue when it comes to adaptations and spin-offs. There are fans who refuse any deviation, big or small, from the source materials, even if such deviations make the adaptation a stronger story in its new medium. There are also fans who are willing to accept some changes as long as the adaptation adheres broadly enough to the source materials. But there are also times when deviations from the source materials end up creating a work that is just as interesting, even if it is somewhat different, as the original work.

 

Related posts:

Anime-original or stay true to the source?

Live-action adaptation does not always work

Spin-offs and other derivative works are even touchier, as can be seen from the poor reception of The Acolyte (set in the Star Wars universe) and Rings of Power (set in the second age of Middle Earth). Or the Dune-related books by Brian Herbert, the son of Frank Herbert. But there are also successes, such as Teasing Master (Former) Takagi-san, a spin-off from Teasing Master Takagi-san.

When I see people trying to make new works in old franchises, I am reminded of how The Return of the Condor Heroes has been repeatedly adapted over the years into movies, drama series, and even anime and comics. Not all of them are successes, but it does show that, if the story is good, a new adaptation of it will still draw an audience. At the end of the day, it is the story and how it is presented. A new adaptation of a past, well-received work means part of the work is already done; you already have a good story. All that remains is to present it in a new way to an audience. We see this in Dune and Lord of the Rings too. These works have been adapted several times in the past, with varying reception according to how they were presented each time.

Spin-offs and derivative works are even harder because they are basically new, original works that need to work within confines determined by another work. Even then, it is slightly easier for works that continue from the original story; the past has already been written for them, the writers just need to think about the future. If you try to create a new work set in the past, you have to consider the existing canon, and also how your new work will affect the original story. All of them are additional factors that further confine your new story and form trip wires that may cause your story to feel inconsistent with the original work.

So instead of trying to come up with new stories in old franchises, maybe Hollywood can take a leaf from Japan's entertainment industry and instead adapt works that already sell. There is a reason why many Japanese movies, anime, and drama series are based on novels, light novels, and manga. The source materials have already shown that they can sell; they have good stories. The directors just have to work on presenting those stories in a different medium. There are probably enough novels and comics in the English-speaking world that have sold quite well. This may be the time to work on adapting them, instead of trying to find talented writers to come up with new works which no one knows will sell or not.

It takes talent to come up with new stories. Having a world setting sometimes make it easier to create a new story, but that world setting also confines that new work; a certain level of talent is still required to be able to make use of that baseline help offered by an existing world setting (for example, the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms stories). It is not impossible, but maybe it would be good to stick with adapting existing works, and then finding people with a track record of good adaptations to offer them a chance to come up with something new.

Diluting ink (蒼苔 from 古梅園)

In calligraphy, ink can be diluted to achieve a light colour as well as a different effect.

For example, I tried diluting 蒼苔, which is a "blue" ink (青墨) from 古梅園. Although 青墨 (blue ink) usually refers to ink made using soot from burning pine wood, in this case, this ink was made using soot from burning oil, and added with indigo to give it a more pronounced blue colour. (Related post: About calligraphy inks, liquid and solid)

First, I made "normal" ink using 2ml of water. Then, I diluted it with different amounts of water. The photo below shows the results. The "normal" ink is at the top left, followed by more and more diluted versions going down the left, then continuing on the right.

Left: Normal (made using 2ml of water) -> +5ml -> +10ml -> +30ml -> +40ml -> +50ml

Right: +60ml -> +70ml -> +80ml

If you zoom in, you can see that when the ink gets diluted, there is a "blurry" edge around the darker "core" line. This "core" is the part that is actually written by you, and the blurry edge comes from the ink soaking into the paper and spreading out. The blurry edge is most pronounced above when 20ml of water was added to the ink. When the ink gets too diluted, it does not have a very distinctive blurry edge anymore, because there is not enough animal glue to help carry and spread the ink.

I also tried writing the character for dragon, 龍, using the diluted ink (+80ml of water), to see how it looks. You can see the pronounced bluish tint.

Actually, I conducted this mini experiment because I am thinking of creating a piece with diluted ink for an upcoming exhibition. Let's see how it goes.

Some thoughts after watching Garden of Remembrance and The Colors Within (きみの色 Kimi no Iro)

 

Director Yamada Naoko's newest movie The Colors Within (きみの色 Kimi no Iro) opened in Japan and I caught it on its opening day. At the same time, her short film Garden of Remembrance also started becoming available on streaming services. After watching both of them, I have some thought about what these two works are about.

First, Garden of Remembrance was unveiled in 2022 as an anime short film. Lasting 17 minutes, it has no real dialogue, with besides the music, has two songs playing in the background. It portrays a girl who has taken to alcohol after losing her boyfriend, as she tries to cope with the loss. Anemone flowers feature in this short film, and in general, anemone flowers in Japan symbolise "I love you", "transient love", and "forsaken". Specifically, the red anemone symbolises "I love you", the purple anemone "I am waiting with firm belief in you" and "strong promise". Meanwhile, the white and pink anemone flowers symbolise "hope" and "expectations".

When you see it this way, the boyfriend (who is represented by the blue anemone) is very special to the girl and they probably had a strong promise between them. This is further emphasised by the girl (the main character, or MC) being represented by the red anemone, showing that she continues to love him. Meanwhile, the other girl with the spectacles (the childhood friend, according to the synopsis) is represented by the purple anemone, and could be waiting for the MC to get back on her feet, firmly believing that she can overcome this loss. The white anemone sprinkled here and there hints at there being hope.

Watching this short film together with the feature-length movie made me see both works in a different light. To me, they both seem like director Yamada Naoko's tribute to the victims of the Kyoani fire. I see this message strongly in Garden of Remembrance, which is really about mourning the death of a loved one, trying to get through each day, and finding ways to connect with the memories of that loved one. And with hope that, someday, things will work out. Simply put, the MC represents director Yamada Naoko, the boyfriend represents the people she lost to the fire, and the childhood friend represents the people around the director offering her support in these sad times while believing in her.

Once I started seeing Garden of Remembrance in this light, I came to see the characters in The Colors Within in a similar fashion too. But it is not as straightforward, with the main characters all representing director Yamada Naoko, but a different aspect (role) each.

Kimi and her brother left their parents to go and stay with her grandmother. I see this as Yamada Naoko leaving Kyoani and being taken in by Science SARU. Kimi's brother could be a reference to Fujita Haruka (who directed Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll), who has also left Kyoani and has since then worked on a few projects with Science SARU and CloverWorks, including as a unit director on The Color Within. Kimi feels bad about keeping a secret (that she quit school) from her grandmother, and she also never really told anyone about why she and her brother moved out of their parents' place to go stay with their grandmother. This could be saying that Yamada feels bad about not letting Science SARU (or rather, the people who has since taken her in) know about the real reason why she left Kyoani.

Meanwhile, Rui is implied to have lost his older brother, and all hope are pinned on him now. I think this is like Yamada losing the people she looked up to at Kyoani, like director Takemoto Yasuhiro, Kigami Yoshiji, Ikeda Shoko, Ishida Naomi, Takahashi Hiroyuki, and Watanabe Mikiko. All hopes are pinned on her now to carry on their legacy. Even though she may want to pursue something else. From her recent works, we can see that Yamada wants to pursue a more artistic side to anime works, but Kyoani (as a for-profit company) is more focused on the commercial aspects. Just like Rui having a passion for music (an art) even though he knows he has the responsibility to take over the family business of being a doctor.

Like Kimi, Totsuko has moved out of her parents' place and is now staying in a dormitory. To be with Kimi and Rui, she formed a band and even told lies so that she can continue playing together as a band. She is the one that is not afraid to pursue her passion, as symbolised by her color red. She seeks to be with Kimi and Rui, and I see this as Yamada seeking to reconcile the three aspects of herself, and even telling some white lies in the process of trying to do so. Maybe she told a few white lies to Science SARU and others about why she left Kyoani?

Which could be why Christianity featured strongly in this movie. The act of confession to ask for forgiveness was touched on several times in the movie, and Totsuko was seen praying, saying the first line of the Serenity Prayer. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." Yamada cannot change the fact that many of her fellow coworkers at Kyoani had died. This was like a prayer for strength to accept that fact. But Totsuko was reminded by Sister Hiyoko that the prayer has two more parts to it.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

This brings me to Sister Hiyoko. She guides Totsuko along in the story, and was revealed to have formed a band herself in her younger days. It is almost like she represents Utsumi Hiroko, who used to work as a director at Kyoani and later moved on to become an independent director working for several studios. More generally, I think Sister Hiyoko represents the other senior figures in the anime industry outside Kyoani, such as Yoshida Reiko, who helped guide Yamada along as she embarked on her own path to pursue her passion of creating more artistic anime instead of commercial ones.

Well, these are my thoughts on who the characters in these two anime works represent. Please share your thoughts in the comments too! I may further update this post when I catch the movie again.

Official website for Garden of Remembrance

Official website for The Colors Within (きみの色 Kimi no Iro) (in Japanese)