Calligraphy draft: 疾如風、徐如林、侵掠如火、不動如山

疾如風

徐如林

侵掠如火

不動如山

敬老之日思信玄

疾如風、徐如林、侵掠如火、不動如山

is the phrase used on the battle standard of Takeda Shingen (武田信玄), a warlord who lived during Japan's Warring States Period.

It came from the phrase in Sun-tzu's The Art of War,

故其疾如風，其徐如林，侵掠如火，不動如山

which means "as swift as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as fierce as fire, as unmovable as the mountain."

 

This is still a draft; it obviously needs more work before I can come up with something that I find satisfactory. Do compare the draft with the final version (when it comes out...) 

Update 25 Sep 2022: Another draft.

Update 1 October 2022: I think I like this the best.

Violet Evergarden The Movie, 2nd anniversary

Today is the 2nd anniversary of Violet Evergarden The Movie, which was released in Japan on 18 September 2020. I caught it on the day it opened in the theatres, and went back many, many times after that. At 14 viewings on a big screen, it is the movie that I have watched the most in a theatre, and will likely remains so for the rest of my life.

 

Since then, I have worked on translating some of the short stories, and even wrote apps to translate to and from Tellsis, the language used in the series. (Links at end of post.) This series has really changed my life.

My tweets to mark this day.

今日は劇場版 #ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン 上映2周年です。
春も夏も秋も冬も、いくつも季節が過ぎましたが、続編の季節だけ巡ってきません。
2nd anniv of #VioletEvergarden The Movie.
Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Many seasons have passed, but I am still waiting for a sequel. pic.twitter.com/1jd3hbWTZT

— V Ng (@VNgMRRBK) September 18, 2022

Two years since #VioletEvergarden The Movie started showing in Japan.#ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン#劇場版ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン

About Tellsis language translator:https://t.co/NtLkfpn0Au pic.twitter.com/Ixl4Lxaatw

— V Ng (@VNgMRRBK) September 17, 2022

 

春も夏も秋も冬も、いくつも季節が過ぎましたが、続編の季節だけ巡ってきません。

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Many seasons have passed, but I am still waiting for a sequel.

 

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

Post on Sumire Philharmonic Orchestra's Violet Evergarden (unofficial) orchestra concert

 

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

Audio commentary notes for TV series

 

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

Free art? Maybe not

Recently, we see AI develops pushing out new platforms for using AI to create art. Examples include DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.

But are such platforms really free?

It is often said that if a service is free, then you are the product. In the case of such AI tools for art, is this also true?

Deep learning neural networks have brought about significant progress in image recognition technology. The move from recognising images to creating them is part of the natural progression. There is, however, a core problem for computers in the creation of images: what to create?

Computers are great (and getting even better) at doing what they are told to do. They can now automatically control a series of machines to produce a product. They can drive a car to reach a designated location. But they still lack that upstream process: What to make? Where to go?

In art, this is the same. What to draw?

So while the use of AI tools for creating art may be free to the user in terms of money, make no mistake: you are paying. With your ideas. The ideas of what to draw is being collected, which can then be used to further train AI in that aspect that they lack: what to draw.

And when AI eventually learns human creativity, what is going to set us apart from machines? What is the value of an artist's creativity and techniques, when an AI can do so much better, having been trained using the creativity of millions of artists and billions of art pieces?

Official piano score of "Though Seasons Change"

When it was announced that the hardcopy of the official score of "Though Seasons Change" is going to be available on-demand, I got myself a copy, and it recently arrived. (Electronic version available here.)

Updated 2 May 2023 with details on how to buy the hardcopy outside Japan.

It is basically the same as the electronic version, just printed and bound. The quality of the paper is good, with the hardcopy using glossy A4 paper. The cover (front and back) are printed in colour, and the pages inside in black and white.

Of course, with the electronic version, I could have just found a way to print it out on my own for a hardcopy, but I think paying 3,300 yen was worth it, since the printing is of a good quality and it came bound. I mean, if I did my own printing, it would be stapled together or using some other primitive method.

Now to learn how to play the piano... 😅

Those who wish to purchase a copy overseas can try buying from Buyee, which is the site that I got referred to when I click on "ship overseas" on the Japanese site. It says that Buyee is the official international shipping partner of honto.

First, go to the produce page on honto here.

Add to cart

 

Then, in this area here

 

click this link, which is about overseas shipping.

 

A bubble will appear at the bottom of the screen.

Click on add to cart

 

 This should bring you to Buyee, where you can complete the purchase.