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FractalSandwich posted:This isn't necessarily obvious, and I find it pretty funny: the 百 momo in 百姫 "Momohime" sounds exactly the same as 桃 momo "peach". 100% of the 1 native Japanese speakers I've polled about it were pretty confident that it's a deliberate joke about the other princess called "Peach". I'd actually bet more on it being a nod to Momotarou than Mario.
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May 5, 2016 12:32
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Chimera-gui posted:And speaking of the Japanese language: If you see a heavy amount of profanity, it's usually because the translator added it. Fansubs are especially infamous for doing this in an attempt to spice up the series. This depends on a number of things, actually, including what you define as profanity. If you define profanity classically (as in, profane words, that show disrespect to God), then you're correct. If you consider its more modern definition as a basic synonym for vulgar language, Japanese actually has quite a bit of it. In an effort to establish Kisuke's manner of speech (his speech is very informal and he uses incredibly rude language in addressing people), vulgar language is a pretty reasonable thing, and it's not really what I'd call a "heavy amount". Guy's using language that would get him outright fired in Japan (address your boss as "teme" and see how long you stay employed!). Do some groups overdo it? Naturally, but generally speaking if you have any history with fansubs you know which groups are troll subs anyways Omobono posted:Vanillaware's designs are really pretty most of the time, even if now and then you just have to ask, WHY? (See Dragon's Crown Amazon and Witch) I dunno, one of the later bosses here kinda shows where Vanillaware's mind was at for some of that stuff. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 11:06 on May 10, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 11:04
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Highwang posted:I think for me it might be a clash of mindsets since I played the Wii version first. The dub from Marvelous(?) didn't really portray kisuke as a violent or rude person, so it feels like an abrupt shift to see him like this. That's an entirely fair viewpoint, and goes back to individual choices the translator makes. I don't know if it being on a Nintendo console influenced those choices, but it very well could have. Chimera-gui posted:Admittedly I was generalizing when I said that since I can see a character in a franchise meant for an older audience being more inclined to use vulgar language. The kind of inappropriate levels of vulgar language I was talking about was the stuff in a more PG series like the one in the video I linked. Also fair. A clever translator can modify language as needed, since the Japanese basically stays the same. The voice of the character in translation should match the tone of both the character in the original language and the content. So some guy screaming "baka-yarou" in a much more child-oriented show could (and should) be translated more along the lines of "stupid idiot" than "dumbass" even though both are accurate. Translation!  Omobono posted:I think Jinkuro didn't kill Momohime's fiancée. Isn't he Yukinojo? What happened is that when Jinkuro tried his body steal technique on the guy Momohime shielded Yukinojo and got swapped instead. This is correct. Yukinojo appears several times. General Video Stuff: Muramasa is indeed set in the Edo Period, when the Tokugawa Shogunate reigns over Japan. This is when Edo/modern day Tokyo was first being established as the place in Japan as the seat of the Shogunate, even though the capital/Imperial seat was still Kyoto. On whippersnapper: There are a lot of diminutive terms for children/young people in Japanese. I'd have to hear the entire line to tell you what word, if any, was used, but the idea of an old priest calling someone a whippersnapper isn't too out of line. On the haiku: This is an amusing nod that you really only get if you're into Japanese literature and poetry, but the poem that is used is a very famous haiku by poet Matsuo Basho. It's arguably his most famous poem and one that is, at least according to NHK, the most widely known Edo haiku. On music: Pretty much the entire soundtrack is amazing. My personal favorite is Seasonal Beauties (雪月風化). This term refers to the four beauties that inspire the best poetry: the snow in winter, the moon of autumn, the wind of summer, and the flowers of spring. On Musashi: the old province of Musashi is a part of the modern-day Tokyo metropolis. It includes, if memory serves, Yoshiwara (where this video ends), which remains one of the primary red light districts of Tokyo, host to the majority of soaplands in the city. On Yagyuu Shinkage: "Shadow Slay" isn't an accurate translation. 新影 is, as a rough translation, "New Shadow". It was originally developed as Shinkage Style, but when it was passed down to Yagyuu Munetoshi, he appended his name to it. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 23:42 on May 10, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 22:45
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Rigged Death Trap posted:The young monk, Ikkyu, is named after the Historic monk of the same name. Ikkyu is great. He was a drunk and (to a certain degree, if memory serves) whoremonger. Basically like the worst kind of priest, who still managed to walk very far down the path of priesthood. On Iga: Iga Province is where current-day Iga City is, located in Mie Prefecture. It's home to the Iga Ninja Museum, but also to the Iga-Ueno Castle, which has the tallest walls of any castle in Japan. God I forgot about this boss fight. I hate it, but that might be because I've dealt with oversized mukade (not building-sized) and they terrify me. It's not particularly hard, I just can't stand centipedes. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 23:16 on May 14, 2016 |
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May 14, 2016 23:12
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FractalSandwich posted:Well, you can always just leave it as it is and hope no-one else notices. Could also just claim that you're embracing the culture of the LP and everything should be viewed from right to left. 
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May 15, 2016 11:44
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This is nitpicking a bit for general purposes, but Momohime, as written, cannot translate to Peach Princess - rather, the character 百 is read in her name as Momo, which is a homophone for peach. It's a logographic pun. If you want to explore the amazing world of logographic puns, China Digital Times has an amazing lexicon of Chinese puns. On the haiku: it's not that it was the most influential piece of literature, it's that as far as Matsuo Basho's haikus, and of haikus in the Edo period itself are concerned, that's the most famous one. Of interest is Jinkuro mentioning Yukinojo's status as the "personal swordmaster of the shogun's family". After Yagyuu Munetoshi created Yagyuu Shinkage Style (basically name changing the Shinkage Style he learned), he taught it to his son, Yagyuu Munenori, who established the school in Edo. He eventually became the tutor of Ieyasu's son Hidetada - making the Yagyuu Shinkage Style the shogun's official style of kenjutsu. It's a pretty high honor, as you might imagine (as well as a strong position of influence). Yukinojo, here, has inherited that position for the shogunate. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 05:41 on May 18, 2016 |
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May 18, 2016 05:32
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All right, stuff to start with: The word you're looking for with regard to Ikkyu isn't really "evil" or anything like that. He wasn't a bad person, so much as he was just a really bad priest. Keep in mind that when talking about Japanese religion, we're mainly speaking of Buddhism (state Shinto became a thing much later.) In indulging himself in liquor and women - and thus indulging himself in ties to the physical - he's technically acting counter to what he should be seeking as a priest, ie enlightenment. On Owari: a former province that became part of Aichi Prefecture, and includes the city of Nagoya, one of Japan's major ports and the third largest city in Japan. It's also the province where Oda Nobunaga would begin his rise to power. On mode names: Musou 無双 means "peerless". Makes sense for a mode where you can run roughshod over everything, and is also probably a nod to KOEI-Tecmo's long running Warriors series, which in Japanese also runs under the title "Musou", ie Sangoku Musou for Dynasty Warriors, or Sengoku Musou for Samurai Warriors. Shura 修羅 is the Japanese word for Asura. Fury mode is actually called Shikyou 死狂 which, roughly translated, means "death madness" or "death craze". It actually scales according to Legend, but with the 1 HP caveat. On the skeletal warriors: they're, from what I've found looking around, called Shikon 士魂, or the souls of samurai.
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May 22, 2016 08:20
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Travelogues! Kai: One of the original provinces established in the Nara Period (710-794) when the capital was, as you might imagine, in Nara. Now a part of Yamanashi Prefecture, it was at one point ruled by the Minamoto family, and then the Takeda family, including Shingen Takeda, whose territory also contained Shinano, which we'll talk about in a bit. It was also situated in a good position to defend Edo from two major access points. Shinano: Part of modern-day Nagano Prefecture, was also ruled by Shingen. Hida: Honestly, nothing really of note to this place. It's now modern-day Gifu Prefecture. The most interesting thing I could find was that it used to be written 斐太 and there's a high school in the region named for it. Sweet potatoes: Takibi (bonfires) are pretty popular, though they takes a variety of forms. About four years ago during the winter I was running, and came across a couple of my students and their families outside cooking sweet potatoes on a bonfire. It's a kind of winter comfort food. Music: I was the one who mentioned Seasonal Beauties and what it means. Shamisen (this in particular is likely Tsugaru jamisen) are such a beautiful and unique instrument that add a fantastic layer, due to featuring both plucking and percussive instrumentation. They're very versatile instruments, capable of finding niches in both very classical Japanese music as well as modern arrangements. Ippondatara: A pretty well-known youkai, though there are a variety of interpretations of it. Generally speaking, it has one eye and one leg. Because of the name association with furnaces, there are also views that Ippondatara is actually Ame no Mahitotsu no Kami, the mythological god of blacksmiths, fallen from his station.
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May 25, 2016 12:20
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Goggle Fox posted:Ah, hadn't run into that. Makes a lot of sense, and well, that'd be quite a fall, from forging the imperial treasures. That sounds correct. On further reading, I've scrounged up a bit of information that's quite interesting. Ippondatara is generally described, by legends in Wakayama and Nara, as appearing in the mountains only on December 20th. Coincidentally, there's also a large wild boar that was killed by hunters, returned as a spirit that attacked travelers in the guise of a demon with one leg, and was sealed by a priest, with the seal only weakening on one single day - December 20th. The boar's name? Inosasaou.
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May 25, 2016 22:33
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On the hot spring: I think I'd agree about character development in the hot springs if either Kisuke or Momohime knew each other. They don't, and since in the hot springs you're Momohime and not Jinkuro-Momohime, there's no real reason to expect a princess to talk shop with some random guy in a hot springs when she's already freaking out about him being there in the first place. On the chimera: This is an actual thing. Monkey's head, tanuki's body, tiger's limbs, snake's tail. There's an amusing moment in a chapter in Heike Monogatari where a chimera appears to terrorize an imperial party. A magistrate puts Minamoto Yorimasa in the hot seat. Heike Monogatari posted:"Yorimasa is the one who can eliminate this monster."
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Jun 1, 2016 02:00
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Skippy Granola posted:Bishamon's just a warrior god in Japan - one of the folkloric Seven Lucky Gods Not a made-up name, an appelation: 血狂毘沙門. Or, "Blood-Crazed Bishamon". On Pandemonium: This is an interesting translation, but your comparison to Valhalla/Hel are both mistaken. Norse mythology indicates that those who die gloriously in battle go to Valhalla to fight and drink in preparation for the end of the world. This isn't anything like that. In Japanese, Pandemonium is called Shura-kai 修羅界, or the World/Realm of the Asura. Asura are generally reincarnated from people who were very warlike in life - it's actually technically speaking a form of existence above that of humanity, in that it is not generally speaking an existence that falls prey to the same forms of suffering that humans endure. However, they are also obsessed with fighting, hence why they cannot attain enlightenment, as it is simply a fact of their existence (only humans can attain enlightenment). Hence, while asura live an incredibly long time, when they die they reincarnate somewhere along the karmic path until they return to being a human and have another shot at enlightenment. The Pandemonium translation is understandable on a number of levels - asura are closely associated with carnage and chaos (one definition of pandemonium), and inhabit a different realm to that of humanity (the Miltonian Pandemonium), and could arguably be defined in a Christian sense as a form of demon or devil. I don't like it because I hate mish-mashing religious terminology together - asura are decidedly not devils or demons in the sense that would invite the word Pandemonium. It is, however, a word that is instantly associative in English, and so while I don't agree with it, I can understand why they opted for it and accept that as a play on words it's a pretty good one. EDIT: derped on a key term. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jun 12, 2016 |
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Jun 12, 2016 10:55
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IMJack posted:This helps me understand Digital Devil Saga a lot more. Glad to have been of help, even if I hadn't intended it to help with DDS. In fact...  Let's talk about Buddhism! (this does actually explain some things that happen later in the game, so while it can be skipped there are some concepts/tropes that pop up that this might help explain)First, let's establish the basic tenets of Buddhism. The basic premise in Buddhism is that all suffering in the world is caused by attachment, be it to people or things. Ergo, to achieve enlightenment is to divest yourself of all earthly and spiritual attachments, which allows you transcend samsara. When we talk about karma in the modern era we tend to talk about it in terms of good and bad karma that returns to you, but all karma in Buddhism is essentially the same - weight in worldly attachments. Good karma that you accumulate lets you be reborn in a "better" existence - devas and asuras are both described, generally, as living long, satisfactory lives measuring great lengths of time before they reenter samsara. Now, about the wheel, there are six different "realms" or "paths" in Buddhist thought. They are deva, asura, human, animal, preta, naraka. Based on how you lived your life, you'll reincarnate in one of these paths - good karma tends to lead you toward the former three, bad karma toward the latter. As I mentioned before, only humans can actually obtain enlightenment, so the end goal is to reincarnate as a human and achieve enlightenment. (It should be noted here that the goal of enlightenment actually varies among traditions, and then even moreso among sects. It means something slightly different in every major tradition. Japanese Buddhism deals mainly with Mahayana Buddhism, which is where the culture of boddhisatvas has the most purchase, as well as the concept of enlightenment through tariki or another's power.) Now, Buddhism originally came to Japan through China, but didn't have notable sects until sometime around the Asuka period (538-710) when the teachings of six major Chinese sects came across. However these largely paled in influence compared to later sects. In particular, the monk Kūkai (also known as Kobo-Daishi) wrote a great deal and firmly established the Shingon (True Words) Buddhist sect in Japan. This, along with Zen (meditative) Buddhism were two of the biggest sects in Japan until the mid-to-late Heian period, when Jōdo (Pure Land) Buddhism began to grow popular. Its influence grew swiftly, enough that to a point it became the cultural point of reference for Buddhism. In post-Warring States literature, Buddhism is mostly spoken of in terms of Pure Land Buddhism, especially in terms of being reborn in the Amida Buddha's paradise. Another aspect of karma, particularly in Japanese literature of the post-Warring States era, is that karmic bonds between people exist, which influence their reincarnations. In Ihara Saikaku's Five Women Who Loved Love, this is a fairly common thread - in one story, a woman sets a fire in Kyoto in order to meet her lover again (since the last time they met was during a fire), and is executed, but pleas to him that they both be reborn together in paradise. These are all things to keep in mind going forward when things like karma or Buddhist concepts get brought up, because this is the lens through which they were written and meant to be viewed. finished. I'm sure someone could probably go more in-depth but that's enough of a gloss to make sense of most of what gets brought up in Muramasa.On the subject of asura, though, I went back and looked through some older pieces, more specifically Ueda Akinari's Tales of Moonlight and Rain, a collection of short stories, because I remembered asura appearing, and indeed, in the story "Bird of Paradise", we do get a look at this. In this story, a man named Muzen and his son are traveling to Mt. Kōya, a very famous Buddhist temple established by Kobo-Daishi in 819. As night falls, they take shelter on a nearby mountain, despite being warned away by those who have ties to the temple. During the night, they're visited by a party of samurai, who escort Toyotomi Hidetsugu into the temple. At this point, Muzen realizes that all of these men are dead - Hidetsugu and his cohort were all ordered to commit suicide at Mt. Kōya in 1595 - and are, in fact, reincarnated asura. However, the men don't fight, but rather tell tales and generally complain about their lots in their previous lives. When Muzen is discovered, he is asked to tell a poem he had earlier written. The tale ends with Hidetsugu ordering Muzen and his son be brought along the path of the asura, only for his retainers to dissuade him and allow them to go free. Ultimately, asura, while decidedly combative and warlike, are hardly immune to reason. They're compelled to act according to those whims, but are not slaves to them. They are decidedly different to traditional western depictions of demons and devils, which is largely why I tend to resist classification of them as such. Akujiki fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Jun 13, 2016 |
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Jun 13, 2016 07:06
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Also I think the Raijin/Fuujin thing is just doing a play on common modern Japanese fiction tropes. It's a half-assed Classical Japanese that sees a lot of use because actual Classical Japanese would confuse the hell out of everyone given how intricate the language system was then. They use a couple of verb forms and then everything else is just modern Japanese, except using more formal language to seem older-fashioned. Neither Raijin nor Fuujin speak this way, however. They speak what sounds a lot like Kansai-ben - Fuujin says "itazura ha akan", Raijin says "toosahen", both of these are notable Kansai-ben markers. Given that we're in Ise Province, modern-day Mie Prefecture, which is in Kansai, it makes a certain amount of sense. For the unaware, Ise is host to the Ise Shrine, one of the most famous and important shrines in the country, so there's a certain sensibility to finding a path to heaven through there. something something commentary about conflating concepts across religion and region in commentary. There's so much here that I want to talk about but I've already spoken about my opinions on trying to make direct comparisons across religions and mythologies and don't want it to become any more tedious.
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Jun 16, 2016 23:36
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On Fudō-Myōō: Actually from Buddhism. Fudō-Myōō was originally a primarily Mahayana deity, Acalanatha, and then reinterpreted in Vajrayana Buddhism as a servant of Buddha. It came into China with Tangmi Buddhism, which was where Kobo-Daishi picked it up and incorporated it into Shingon Buddhism when he returned to Japan, On the temple: I don't really think these are supposed to be tough fights, thematically. This is the mook parade before the final boss. You're in their house, so they're throwing everything they have at you to stop you from reaching Rankai, but Jinkurou's too strong to be stopped. It's not amazing game design but thematically it makes a good deal of sense. On Rankai/monks: Corrupted is kind of a loaded word. Wayward is a better term - again, Ikkyu wasn't really going around doing horrible things, he just indulged in things that Buddhist priests shouldn't in their pursuit of enlightenment. For Rankai, the term is more fitting, since he abused his station in pursuit of his goals. On Momohime's ending: As far as "nun" as a term goes, it's used because it's a term that we understand in the west. Are they literal nuns wearing habits, where some become teachers and smack schoolchildren with rulers? No, but they're dedicated, chaste female practitioners of a religion who tend to live separate from society, as most nunneries do/did. There's not really a better term for that than "nun" - I guess you could invent one, but then it'd need to see enough common use to become a part of the lexicon. With regard to Momohime's religious revelation: this is actually a pretty common thing in Japanese literature, though it's also often used to escape unwanted male suitors. Momohime here is entirely legitimate about wanting to pray for Jinkuro - but she also wants to escape a marriage with Yukinojo, because she's seen his true face and wants nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, she has no real power or ability to say no to the marriage, and the easiest way to escape that is to become a nun. Similar events happen in Genji Monogatari where Fujitsubo becomes a nun in an attempt to escape Genji. It also happens with Ukifune, a character introduced later in the tale, who is pursued by Kaoru and the Prince Niou (who successfully sleeps with her), leading to attempted suicide and then becoming a nun.
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Jun 22, 2016 00:27
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Kisuke, leaving the tails is poor form. 3/10 on that tempura. On Kisuke's ending: I'd really argue against your interpretation of his ending sequence. It's not a revenge plot or anything. It's a very period drama-esque ending in a way - Kisuke has accomplished what most actual believers never will, meeting Amitabha (the Amida Buddha, the central figure in Pure Land Buddhism and the figure referred to in the prayer phrase namu Amida butsu), he's actually in the Amida Buddha's Pure Land. He's literally in paradise. In a certain way, Torahime acted as a Bodhisattva and brought Kisuke to the precipice of a form of enlightenment. What makes it so profound is that he rejects this, impaling his heart and destroying the pure land inside of himself to be reborn in the cycle. It's a bit of a futile gesture, and definitely a big middle finger to Amitabha, but that's not really what I'd classify as revenge. Torahime basically ends up completing her rise to the role of Bodhisattva by requesting to be reborn with Kisuke to guide him to the right path to attain Nirvana. I mentioned before, but the Mahayana traditions of Buddhism stress the role of the Bodhisattva a great deal. For the unaware, Bodhisattvas are those who remain in samsara to help guide others to enlightenment. There are many who are certainly capable of achieving enlightenment on their own, but for those who simply cannot, Bodhisattvas are more or less "living Buddhas" whose roles are to inspire and guide those who cannot see the proper road themselves. In Japanese, this is called 他力 (tariki), or "another's strength", indicating the help/guidance of another to attain the goal of enlightenment. It's a very important part of Mahayana Buddhism, and as a result certain figures are very important in Japanese society. Chief among these is Kannon, but others like Jizō are prominent figures. On Siddhartha Gautama (or Gautama Buddha): The original Buddha. All of his teachings are Buddhism.
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Jun 26, 2016 01:58
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Highwang posted:So basically what you're saying is that Kisuke's entire story is like a kabuki play. Less kabuki, more monogatari, which is fitting.
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Jun 27, 2016 00:57
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If you're ever interested in doing something more in-depth on religion, I'm always up for helping out and talking about it. It's good fun and really interesting stuff.
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Jul 23, 2016 01:01
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Highwang posted:Got a steam account or discord account? I wouldn't mind having someone to cross-check my stuff later on. akujiki#2932
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Jul 23, 2016 02:57
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Highwang posted:
Nothing pending, so it might be.
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Jul 24, 2016 00:07
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