kate

So the rumors, if that's what you call leaking packages that say "S'mores Oreo," turned out to be true: S'mores Oreos are indeed a thing, and Nabisco has announced that they'll officially hit stores this Friday. The cookie, with a graham-flavored wafer and chocolate-and marshmallow-flavored cremes, is only around for a limited time, of course — just like red-velvet Oreos. But how do you think it'll fare in the microwave? What's a s'more if not warm and gooey?

[Time]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: sweets, nabisco, oreos, s'mores oreos

AND…freshly solicited is the THE ART OF MOUSE GUARD: 2005-2015 HC due out in July.

Each month, the GM Toolbox offers advice and insights on topics specifically for those brave souls who keep the action moving–the Gamemasters. This month, we continue our series on different play styles with The Silent One, The Alpha, and The Storyteller.

The Silent One:
Frequency: You’ll know it when you see it.
Terrain: In the background
No. Appearing: Usually one…unless they’re hiding from you….
Special Attacks: Hiding
Special Defenses: Shyness

Somewhere in the vicinity of your table, far from the spotlight, you may have a Silent One. Silent Ones often appear with one or more players. Maybe they’re someone’s friend or significant other and they’ve joined the game as a way to spend time with friends or loved ones. Or perhaps they’re just shy and wouldn’t want to find a game on their own. Silent Ones pose no threat to the sanctity of your table per se. Indeed, their unassuming nature makes them quite easy to get along with. And therein lies the problem.

How to deal with them:

Silent Ones generally fall into two categories: very shy/self-conscious or along for the company. For the latter, the best thing you can do is accept that they’re having the level of engagement with the game that they feel comfortable with. As long as they aren’t disrupting everyone else’s fun, that’s absolutely OK. For the former type, you’ll want to make sure they have opportunities to drive the action or offer input to the party’s decision making. It can be easy for quiet players to go unnoticed and eventually become disengaged from the game if more vocal players dominate the game. With that said, you’ll have to do your best to strike a balance between providing opportunities and putting pressure on a Silent One to participate. Offer chances to do so with a light hand…lest you cause them to withdraw even further.

The Alpha:
Frequency: The Right Time, of course.
Terrain: Leading from the front or behind the scenes
No. Appearing: Pray its only 1
Special Attacks: Rapid Fire Decision Making
Special Defenses: Certainty

Alphas have a need for control that can quickly lead to other players becoming discouraged or leaving the game altogether as the Alpha tries to drag the game in a direction that other members of the party might not be comfortable with. Alphas tend to hog the spotlight even if they don’t mean to, because unlike the Silent One, they have no problem at all speaking their mind. Alphas can be quite good at keeping the game moving when a Rules Lawyer feels compelled to argue the finer points of some esoteric use of a skill, or when a Thespian’s soliloquy begins to drag on. In these ways, an Alpha can be helpful…ish. Many Alphas see themselves as careful tacticians and are fond of developing intricate plans then lobbying the party to go along with it. At their worst, Alphas can be overbearing and a bit too fixated on their own fun at the expense of everyone else.

How to deal with them:

Channeling the energy that an Alpha can bring to the table is the key to smoothly integrating such a player into your group. Alphas tend to have a natural penchant for organization and for providing their fellow players with a sense of direction. This can be very helpful if, like the Rules Lawyer, you delegate some of the bookkeeping to them, like tracking the party’s loot, or having them update a list of NPCs the party has encountered. If it sounds like the strategy is “keep them busy”, then you’ve got the gist of it, but it needs to be something of helpful to everyone at the table. And like all players, be sure to give the Alpha their moment in the sun occasionally, as they place a particular importance on being able to lead the charge.

The Storyteller:
Frequency: In Three Acts
Terrain: In the background
No. Appearing: A dime/copper/cred-stick a dozen
Special Attacks: Incessant Narration
Special Defenses: Meticulously Kept Campaign Notes

A somewhat uncommon denizen of the playerverse, the Storyteller takes pleasure in obsessing over the most intricate details of worldbuilding. A Storyteller’s character will almost always have extraordinarily detailed back story, which they will eagerly provide you. Much like the Thespian, they often immerse themselves deep into the psyches of their characters, but they’re far more concerned with how their character interacts with the world than with hamming it up in the spotlight. Storytellers arrive at your table in search of their character’s narrative and exploring that narrative in the campaign world. They are creatures of wild and fanciful imagination and are mostly harmless…as long as they perceive the story being told as interesting. If not, they’ll do anything to make the story bend to their personal whims.

How to deal with them:

Storytellers are, at the end of the day, at the table to have a good time just like everyone else, but in some ways, it can feel like they’re gunning for your role in running the game. Be prepared to answer questions about the cultures/languages/economies/religions and other extreme minutia of your campaign setting with a Storyteller around. Feel free to tell them “Eh, I don’t know”. Then feel free to listen to their ideas about it. Nod thoughtfully often. Eventually they’ll move on to ponder something else. The key to dealing with a Storyteller is striking a balance between letting them explore the deepest aspects of their character’s inner nature while also reminding them to engage with the other party members and the overall story. Asking a Storyteller to help contribute to the party’s campaign notebook is a good way to keep them engaged in events transpiring at the table that don’t involve them. Storytellers can often fall in and out of love with their creations, and don’t be surprised if they switch characters (all with pages of background info) several times throughout a campaign. As long as its not going to adversely disrupt the game or the other player’s enjoyment, there’s usually no harm in letting them do so.

Parting Thoughts:

While the six player styles we’ve covered in the series covers most of what you’ll encounter as a GM, in reality most players will have elements of all of these styles in varying degrees. Be sure to match your tactics to the players you’re working with! Everyone, myself included, has player habits that can sometimes cause GMs and fellow players headaches. Hopefully you’ll be able to use this as a basis for being aware of the blind spots in your own play style the next time you sit down on either side of the GM’s screen.

Ghibli fanarts by Bill Mudron.

lolfactory:

Life without the oxford comma.

We released the Richard Anderson cover for Victor Milán’s The Dinosaur Lords last year with a bit of fanfare....Mostly of the “Holy Sh*t!” variety. The book roughly mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…but the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. As I said then, a painting of knights riding dinosaurs was either going to be a cheesy disaster or pure awesome. Thankfully (if not surprisingly) Richard Anderson delivered the awesome.

The subject matter was just too rich not to indulge a little, so we commissioned Anderson to create a few interior drawings for the chapter heads. While Anderson is busy on the cover art for the sequel, The Dinosaur Knights, I thought I’d show off a couple of these drawings.

[Dinosaurs!]

If you are wondering what George R. R. Martin has to do with The Dinosaur Lords, you can read Victor Milán’s essay here. Or if you, like me, enjoy looking at a boat-load of dinosaur art, check out our “Picturing Dinosaurs” gallery.

The Dinosaur Lords will be out July 28th.

It’s time once again for an episode of Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan? If you missed the first installment (which we really should have given a clever name like Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan? ~Unexpected Opening to the Truth~) you can check it out here.

Today, we’re taking a look at a hotel in Japan that seems to be clamping down on solo peeing, with a sign posted in its lobby that requests visitors “Please refrain from using the bathroom alone.”

At first glance, this might seem like the sort of announcement you’d come across in a love hotel that specializes in a very specific kind of clientele. That’s not the case, though, as the very bottom of the sign identifies the location as a branch of the Richmond Hotel, which offers mid-range accommodations for both business and leisure travelers.

▼ The atmosphere is more “comfortable” than “kinky.”

While Richmond has properties all over Japan, none are in any neighborhoods so rough that you need to have a friend watch your back while you take a leak (honestly, Japan is so safe that taking a dump without backup is never something to worry about). And while many Japanese hotel chains have become more conscious of the environment over the last decade, their eco-friendly policies are usually along the lines of not replacing the guestroom toilet paper roll until it’s completely used up or only providing a new set of towels during a two-night stay if the customer specifically requests it. In other words, the Richmond Hotel isn’t asking that guests maintain a ratio of at least two deposits in the bowl for each flush.

So now that we’ve eliminated those possible explanations, let’s move on to the real culprit, mistranslation, and break it down like a bunch of bilingual DJs who’re overly fond of shouting “Word!” in multiple languages to try to amp up the crowd.

▼ Even if he’s in it, M.C. Linguistics is too dedicated to his field to ever use the word “hizouse.”

First, let’s take the original Japanese and write it out using the English alphabet.

Otearai nomi no goriyou ha goenryo itadaite orimasu.

The o in otearai and go in both goriyou and goenryo are just prefixes tacked on to make those words more polite. It’s a common practice in the service industry, but they’re not really critical to understanding the phrase, so let’s chop them off.

While we’re at it, itadaite orimasu is a more refined way of saying itadaku, so once we’ve scrubbed all the polish off this refined way of speaking, we’re left with:

Tearai nomi no riyou ha enryo itadaku.

Tearai, while literally meaning “hand washing,” is a common way of saying “bathroom” in Japanese. Riyou is the noun “use,” making tearai no riyou “use of the bathroom.”

We’re going to skip past nomi for right now, but ha (or wa, if you’re spelling it phonetically), simply marks “use of the bathroom” as the subject of the sentence. Enryo means “refrain,” as in “refrain from doing something,” and while itadaku is often used to mean “receive,” it can also mean “have (someone do something).” So the direct translation from Tearai no riyou ha enryo itadaku would be “We will have you refrain from using the bathroom,” or, phrased more naturally, “Please refrain from using the bathroom.”

Whoever translated the sign into English stumbled over nomi, though. Nomi means “only,” or “just.” For example, if you go to the hair salon and just want a cut, with no shampoo or coloring or perm, you’d ask for katto nomi.

Nomi can also be used in talking about people, though. For example, a special offer that only students are eligible for could be described as gakusei nomi, or “only for students.” And while it might be wordier way to phrase it, you could also describe that gakusei nomi offer as “for students alone” and still be grammatically correct, in the sense of “for students alone, and not anyone else.”

Unfortunately for the Richmond Hotel, “only” and “alone” aren’t perfectly interchangeable in English, and it ended up with “Please refrain from using the bathroom alone.” Really, the sign’s Japanese text says “Please refrain from only using the bathroom.”

In other words, the hotel is asking that people not stop in just to use the lobby restrooms without also being guests of the hotel or its attached restaurant. Why is this an issue? Because this particular Richmond Hotel is located in Asakusa, one of Tokyo’s most popular tourist destinations. The neighborhood receives huge crowds of travelers, both foreign and domestic, who flock to the area to see its famous Sensoji Temple, and apparently a lot of them also have been making use of the Richmond’s restrooms regardless of whether or not they’re staying at the hotel. The Japanese text at the very bottom of the sign directs those looking for a restroom to instead use the public ones located between the hotel and Sensoji.

▼ Kanji safari fans can also spot the characters for goriyou again.

So don’t worry, while Japan is totally down with communal bathing in its hot springs, peeing and pooping are both still private matters.

Source: Reddit via Byokan Sunday
Top image: Imgur (edited by RocketNews24
Insert images: Richmond Hotel, Wikipedia/Mbdortmund, Imgur (edited by RocketNews24

Origin: Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan? Part 2: Please refrain from using the bathroom alone
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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bear1na:

Adventure Time #41 - Finn by Jake Wyatt *

Hey! I drew this! I didn’t know that it’d been released yet. But I guess EVERYONE ELSE ON TUMBLR DID holy crap.

-Jake

Dear Prudence, April 2015:

Q. Disrespectful Teenage Daughter: My stepdaughter is 14 years old, and has demonstrated problematic behavior toward me recently, in my opinion. I have been with her mother since 2013, and the girl has radically changed her whole identity. My wife and I are moderate liberals, while my stepdaughter is now a left-wing lesbian. She has cut her hair short, prefers listening to abrasive music, and has made friends with other “LGBTQ,” or whatever the current acronym is. We are an accepting family, and we know several gay people. My family and most of my friends are rather conservative, though, and I would like my stepdaughter to at least put on a dress when we see them, and also refrain from mentioning things about her politics and sexuality. Her mom disagrees, and as a result, we are banned from family events, and I have lost friends. The girl says I can’t decide these things or punish her, since her parents approve of her new identity. Should I keep pushing her and her mom, so that I can retain my other relationships, or should I simply cut my losses?

Dear Stepdad,

Here you are, trying to be the coolest stepdad of all time, and your stepdaughter defies you by wearing pants and listening to the youth musics! You’re giving her miles and miles–she can wear clothes she doesn’t feel comfortable in! she can pretend to disavow her sexual orientation and tell outright lies about what she believes in order to maintain your social profile with bigots–and she wants A WHOLE INCH of being allowed to be the 14-year-old young woman she is!

This mayn’t stand. You’re the totally reasonable head of household here–after all, you know some gay people who the Bad Advisor is totally sure would count you among their closest confidantes–and here’s this uppity whole total other young human being asserting themselves in the world with the support of their parents, with nary a thought for how it’ll affect your Wine Of The Month Club membership.

You have to decide what’s more important: the love and support of a family you’ve pledged yourself to and from which you might derive a lifetime of affection and personal and political growth, or the dudes who get you the best tee times. 

Do indeed “keep pushing” your wife and her daughter–you’ll soon find that the scads of increased leisure time you find yourself trying to fill will be blessedly more predictable.

Carolyn Hax, 28 April 2015:

Dear Carolyn: My 13-year-old niece is tiny and has a big nose. We live in a community where a lot of teenage girls have cosmetic surgery at 16. I suggested to my brother in private that his daughter may be a candidate for this procedure. (My 19-year-old stepdaughter and my wife have had nose jobs.) My brother was deeply offended and angry over my remark. We are not talking. Was I over the line in making this suggestion in a private setting?

Dear One True Arbiter of the Appearances Of Women People,

You couldn’t possibly have been “over the line” in suggesting to your brother that his kid’s face is gross and needs surgical intervention. If anything, you erred in presenting this to him privately–as if it’s somehow inappropriate for a grown-ass person to suggest that a 13-year-old girl should go under the knife to appease the personal tastes of others.

Now, you’ve set up a situation in which you may feel obligated to keep quiet about how ugly you think untold scores of other girls and women are–when the onus is, and should be, on girls and women to amend and adjust their bodies to suit your aesthetic preferences! This creates terrible precedent. Without your indispensable input, given publicly and freely at your convenience, girls and women may come to believe they have a right to look however the fuck they, rather than you, want them to look.

Your brother has a moral obligation to get control of his household, and ensure that any of his females therein work tirelessly to fulfill your expectations for their personal appearance. 

By refusing to engage with you, your brother is causing ongoing and irreparable harm not just to you, but to anyone who may be offended by the way your niece looks. The public at large may lose a valuable opportunity to shame this 13-year-old girl, and countless other women and girls, into compliance with arbitrary and culturally defined beauty standards that must be used to judge their value as human beings.

You’ve done all you can–your brother’s silence is a cruel and unnecessary rebuke, but perhaps at least he’s given you–and definitely not his niece–the gift of not ever having to come face-to-face again.

clio-jlh:

brak666:

i-want-life-to-be-art:

First look at Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Grace and Frankie, a new original Netflix series that follows two long-time rivals, who are brought together after their husbands announce they are in love with each other and plan to get married.

The series will debut on May 8th, and also stars Martin Sheen, Sam Waterston, June Diane Raphael, Ethan Embry, Brooklyn Decker and Baron Vaughn, with recurring roles set for Geoff Stults, Joe Morton, Ernie Hudson and Barry Bostwick.

OHMYLORD HOLY FUCK

I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE!

cannot wait for this

tastefullyoffensive:

He looks so concerned about everything. (photos by egzo)

Previously: Albert the Angry Sheep Cat

This post was sponsored by Johnny Trovato. If you’re interested in submitting topics for the blog, or just like my writing and want to sponsor Ogiue Maniax, check out my Patreon.

—

It is a somewhat common mistake to assume that Japan as a wholly foreign and alien culture despite events such as the influence of China on its development, the appearance of Commodore Perry, and various interactions with nations such as Portugal and the Netherlands. However, no matter where it comes from, Japan’s own history can be considered unique (and just about any culture or area can say the same), and there are certain implicit and assumed elements that can permeate Japanese culture.

I was asked by Johnny Trovato to address broadly the subject of how theological differences between Japan and countries with more of a Christian history affect how anime and manga are viewed. Truth be told, even though I’ve watched plenty of series which reference religion and spirituality such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Inari Kon Kon Koi Iroha, and Hermes: Winds of Love (don’t watch that last one), I’m not really an expert on the subject. I originally planned on tackling the subject from a fairly limited perspective, but fortunately I recently discovered a book called Holy Ghosts: The Christian Century in Modern Japanese Fiction by Rebecca Sutter. While it’s not quite on the subject of Japanese religions and beliefs, it did help me to realize an aspect of Japanese culture, media, and literature that I believe sheds a bit of light on how religious beliefs are used in anime and manga.

One of the more major lessons I took away from reading Holy Ghosts is that Japan has historically approached religion in a rather pragmatic way. Shintoist, Buddhist, and Confucian beliefs exist together in Japan, but only as far as they’re convenient. When Portuguese Jesuits arrived in Japan and sought to convert its people, not only did the Japanese sometimes interpret Jesus as a kind of “Buddha” that conformed to their own polytheistic views, but many of the daimyo who converted did so because the Portuguese also sold firearms. Spirituality exists, but it has existed to to serve the people, rather than having people be absolutely beholden to one or more gods. Even the idea of the Emperor as god was a response to the prominence of other religious beliefs being used as tools to control territory.

To take what is probably too big of a leap into the present day, I think we can still see this tendency at work when it comes to the utilization of religious aspects in anime. Evangelion famously features Christian imagery and mythology mainly as a way to provide something fairly exotic to Japanese viewers, while Spirited Away is just as much about encouraging young people to rediscover nature regardless of overt spirituality. This, I believe, is where a good deal of the confusion or dissonance might lie when it comes to how people in the United States and other traditionally Christian cultures interact with anime. Of course, not every person who lives in those countries is necessarily religious, and there has been plenty of media that plays fast and loose with the Bible, from Bruce Almighty to Teen Angel (I still love that show, by the way), but often there’s some kind of counter-play with the assumption that many people know at least the basics of Christianity and that there are plenty who firmly believe in its tenets.

I’m going to use two examples of media, one from the US, and one from Japan. Xena: Warrior Princess was a popular show when it aired. Having begun as a spinoff of Hercules: The Legendary Journey, it at first focused mainly on ancient Greece and the presence of Greek Gods. Eventually though, they decided to branch off and include Christianity in the show. Xena meets both David and Jesus, and any historian would probably tell you that it makes no sense. It didn’t matter in the show itself to a certain degree, but it was directly up against the value of Christianity in the US, and how accurate or (intentionally inaccurate) a work it was factored into how it was perceived.

Now contrast this with Devilman, the story of a teenager who gains the power of a devil so that he can fight other demons. Its creator, Nagai Go, stated that he designed Devilman to resemble a bat, even though that’s not quite the imagery people in countries more familiar with the idea of Satan and Hell would utilize. Eventually Satan himself appears, and he turns out to be a hermaphrodite because Lucifer has been described in some texts as being as such. However, the main value of Lucifer’s dual-gender appearance is visceral shock, and Devilman as a whole didn’t have to take into account how much its readers would be going to church every Sunday. Devilman, if I recall correctly, also mixes in various spiritual beliefs including Japanese ones, and it all effectively works to (on a somewhat pragmatic level) help the story along.

The idea that religion isn’t this overwhelmingly powerful subject in Japanese culture and society isn’t necessarily shared by all who live there, of course, but I think there’s a lot in the old adage that says, in Japan, you have a Shinto birth, a Christian wedding, and a Buddhist funeral. That synthesis of beliefs and the ability to mold them into whatever you want defies the idea of religion as this overwhelming, monolithic thing that cannot ever be altered, and anime and manga are proof of that.

Early manga adapter Dallas Middaugh, who has been involved in most of the major moves that changed manga from an obscure niche in US fandom to a permanent part of the pop culture landscape, has left his position as Senior Director of Penguin Random House Publisher Services to join Crunchyroll as Head of Brand and Community. He’ll work with the streaming anime service to expand the brand globally.

“With his experience and understanding of our audience and the Manga category, Dallas will be able to contribute invaluably to expanding the Crunchyroll brand and further deepening the relationship to our audience,” said Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao in a statement .

“Crunchyroll currently brings Anime and Manga to millions of passionate fans,” said Dallas Middaugh. “We have opportunities to reach an even larger audience and bring that audience not just more content, but more fun and exciting ways to interact with it. I’m looking forward to engaging with the community that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of for many years, and providing more ways for them to connect with and experience the best that Anime and Manga — and Crunchyroll — have to offer.”

At Random House, Middaugh oversaw their partnership with Kodansha that saw such blockbusters as Attack on Titan. Prior to that he worked in RH’s own in-house Del Rey manga division; co-founded publisher Seven Seas; and served as marketing director for Viz during the crucial 2000-2003 period. In short, he’s da man.

Crunchyroll offers streaming anime such as Naruto Shippuden, Attack on Titan, and One Piece, and also allows subscribers to read manga and purchase related merchandise. It gained prominence by offering close-to-simultaneous access to hit Japanese shows soon after they aired.

Chappie, an R-rated science-fiction film directed by Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 and Elysium fame), has been out in U.S. theaters for over a month now, but it still hasn’t been released in Japan due to the time it takes to be translated and dubbed.

During that time a storm has been brewing over the film, starting a few days ago when Sony Pictures Japan released a controversial statement: the movie will be censored and edited down to a PG-12 rating.

Japanese netizens who were looking forward to the film are upset over the watered-down version they will be getting, and even though Sony claims to have the support of the director, Neill Blomkamp himself insists he knew nothing about any such cuts.

If you haven’t heard of Chappie, here’s the trailer for your viewing pleasure. With a title like “Chappie” it may sound like a silly little movie about a robot with emotions, but after watching the trailer you’ll see it’s just a bit grittier than that.

Whether or not the movie is your cup of tea is up to you of course, but Japanese people who were looking forward to the film were rightfully expecting to see the same film that the rest of the world got.

However, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case. It all started when Sony Pictures Japan tweeted this: (translation below)

映画『チャッピー』へ頂いたご質問に関しまして。 http://t.co/7sbslQ672d

—
ソニー・ピクチャーズ (@SonyPicturesJP) April 15, 2015

“Thank you for your questions regarding the film Chappie.

In order to ensure that the film reaches as wide an audience as possible, we will be releasing it in Japan with the ‘PG-12′ rating. This is a decision that was reached jointly with our offices in the U.S., the Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee (MPCEC), and has the approval of the film’s director, ensuring that the integrity of the picture will not be compromised.

Please understand that we cannot disclose the opinions of the MPCEC, nor any of the changes made to the film. We will also be unable to respond to any individual questions related to this matter.

There are no plans for an uncut version to be shown in Japan.

Thank you very much for your understanding, and we hope you enjoy the film.”

The MPCEC is the Japanese version of the MPAA in the U.S. It’s responsible for assigning movie ratings, and for requiring cuts in order to receive certain ratings. The MPCEC currently has four ratings for movies in Japan:

G: Anyone’s welcome. Hooray!
PG-12: Parents are advised to accompany children under the age of 12.
R-15: Only persons aged 15 and older allowed.
R-18: Only persons aged 18 and older allowed.

So if we’re keeping all of the ratings straight, what was originally an R-rated movie in the U.S. (R-18 equivalent) has now been cut down to what is basically a slightly cheeky film that’s suitable for both adults and older kids. And despite Sony’s insistence to the contrary, the film’s director seems to have not been a part of the discussion in this decision, as can be seen in his tweeted responses to a Japanese fan:

@mazy_3 don't know what you mean. One edit...worldwide

—
Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) April 15, 2015

@mazy_3 @SonyPicturesJP no... I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. Was Never told

—
Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) April 15, 2015

With both the controversy of the cuts and the director being kept in the dark about them, Japanese netizens had lots to tweet about:

▼ “So basically they just said: ‘We don’t give a crap about you.’ Thanks Sony!”

「お前らに答える義理はねぇ！」と来たね！さすがクソニーだね！ RT @SonyPicturesJP 映画『チャッピー』へ頂いたご質問に関しまして。 http://t.co/Ck4NhbmKda

—
ヒロコン (@V570) April 15, 2015

▼ “Are they idiots? I was looking forward to this, but now I’m definitely not going.”

@SonyPicturesJP バカじゃねえの。観る気満々だったけど絶対行かねえ。

—
いくと真打@ドエル (@irekomi_dra) April 15, 2015

▼ “I’ve been waiting for the release, but I’m very disappointed by this. No way I’m going!”

@SonyPicturesJP 公開を愉しみに待っていたのにこの仕打ち、本当に心から失望した。絶対に見に行かん！

—
源河真之 (@ShindenJ7W1) April 15, 2015

▼ “I wouldn’t be surprised if they just get some stupid flavor-of-the-month comic actor to do Chappie’s voice. It’s all a part of their plan to somehow benefit from enraging their fans as much as possible.”

@SonyPicturesJP ついでにチャッピーの声は（今が旬の）お笑い芸人さんで吹替するんですね。なるほどー と云う冗談はさておき、ファンを敵に回す炎上マーケティングが有効であると云うデータでもあるんでしょうかね。

—
キ之國屋紊左ヱ門 (@kinobun) April 15, 2015

The backlash against the changes is so great that a petition has been created calling for the film’s more violent scenes not to be cut:

▼ Even Chappie himself seems to have signed it, so it has some official support.

Change.org

Unfortunately, no matter how many signatures the petition gets, the odds that anything will change are very small. Japanese fans of the film will just have to wait until it is released on DVD/Blu-ray to see the director’s true vision. Let’s just hope that the home-releases don’t get the same cuts too, or else we’re going to see a whole lot of imported movies make their way into Japan.

Source: Twitter via My Game News Flash
Featured/top image: Twitter

Origin: R-rated movie “Chappie” gets severely nerfed for Japan release, director knew nothing about it
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Star Wars Celebrations is underway and Twitter is collectively peeing its pants as announcements roll out, but here’s one of the first:A new limited series for Lando Calrissian to be written by Charles Soule with Art by Alex Maleev. SOLD RIGHT THERE.

“Is Lando Calrissian the coolest character in all of Star Wars? Depends on who you ask, probably. But if you ask me, the answer is yes, and I plan to prove it with this story,” says series writer Soule.

In Marvel’s Lando, developed closely with Lucasfilm, the titular character — in the days before he became a hero, but still with Lobot at his side — looks to steal one of the galaxy’s most valuable ships. But, as usual, he may be in over his head.

“Before Cloud City, before his glorious Death Star run,” continues Soule, “Lando Calrissian was just a man trying to make his way through an uncaring universe determined not to recognize that he was undeniably the coolest man in the galaxy. But Lando’s got a plan to change all that… and it starts with the deal of a lifetime.”

Marval has alreayd done the obvious by giving Darth Vader and Princess LEiz there own solo titles for the first time, and sales have been through the roof. Will Lando live up to the sales? I wouldn’t bet against it.

Gundam Build Fighters Try has made a number of references to fighting styles from other anime, manga, and games, especially towards the end of the series.

In Episode 19, the character Ichinose Junya pulls off a couple of attacks from various fighting styles. This includes a demonstration of boxing, which might look familiar:

This is actually Makunouchi Ippo’s finishing combination from Hajime no Ippo: the Liver Blow, the Gazelle Punch, and the Dempsey Roll.

Next, Junya demonstrates attacks from Ba Ji Quan:

This specific sequence leading into the shoulder tackle is one of Akira’s signature attack strings from the fighting game series Virtua Fighter:

In Episode 20, Kamiki Sekai, one of the central characters of Gundam Build Fighters Try, sends a burst of energy rippling forward by slamming his fist into the ground:

This is a reference to Terry Bogard’s special move, “Power Wave,” which he’s used since the original Fatal Fury and all other games he’s appeared in.

This last one I’m not 100% certain on, but in Episode 23 Junya appears again and confronts Sekai:

I believe it is supposed to be an homage to Fist of the North Star, specifically Souther’s Nanto Hou’ou Ken style:

That’s all I’ve spotted for now. If there are more, then I’ll probably make another post.

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The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful.

These are the first batch from the new season and now we’ve broken them into (helpful?) categories:

Sentence: Free to Go

Listen – First impressions of The Heroic Legend of Arslan from Liden Films. It is streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Listen – First impressions of RIN-NE from Brain’s Base. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of My Love Story!! from MADHOUSE. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches from Liden Films. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sentence: On Parole

Listen – First impressions of Re-Kan! from Pierrot+. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Show by Rock!! from Studio Bones. It is streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Listen – First impressions of Seraph of the End from Wit Studio. It is streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Listen – First impressions of Sound! Euphonium from Kyoto Animation. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold from Toei Animation. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Blood Blockade Battlefront from Studio Bones. It is streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Sentence: Lock ‘Em Up and Throw Away the Key

Listen – First impressions of Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma from J.C. Staff. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Punch Line from MAPPA. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – First impressions of Urawa no Usagi-chan from A-Real. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Beginning today and on the second Sunday of each month, Save vs. Me will highlight a different Player by sharing their stories and thoughts on tabletop gaming. We kick off our interviews with Shaz—Player, DM, and mother of two with a fondness for flames! 

Introduce yourself!

The Yo-Kai Watch video game series has been a smash hit in Japan, even managing to outsell Pokemon. Recently there has been news to start bringing the franchise and its accompanying merchandise to English-speaking audiences, and the main character of Yo-Kai Watch, Amano Keita (pictured above, right), has become Nathan Adams. This leads me to speculate on the specific choice made here, and to think about how it compares to the meaning inherent to the original name.

Video games are no stranger to changing characters’ names to make them more culturally accessible, but a question arises as to whether there is any meaning lost (or even gained) in localization of names. For example, a lot of Pokemon characters names gain become much more explicit in terms of wordplay though in a way that has less to do with the inherent meanings of names and more to do with how they sound or have built up associations through culture and history (Lance the Dragon Master, Brock the Rock Gym Leader).

In the case of Amano Keita (which sounds like a fairly typical Japanese name) in Japanese his name references very specific things, and because the name has official kanji it becomes easier to see what it could mean. Amano Keita is 天野景太, where 天 means “sky/heaven,” and 景 means “scenery/view.” The Ama in Amano is on a basic level associated with the Japanese goddess Amaterasu (EDIT: It also might very well refer to Amanojaku, a demon-like creature in Japanese folklore. Thanks to Zack Davisson for informing me!). Thus, Amano Keita’s name basically means “a view of the heavens,” which I think associates him with spirituality and mythology and thus the titular youkai in Yo-Kai Watch.

What about Nathan Adams? Initially, what can’t be ignored is the fact that “Amano” and “Adams” sound somewhat similar. I have little doubt about that.

In terms of basic meaning, a Google search reveals that both Nathan and Adam are Hebrew in origin (Adam being a little more obvious in that regard), so there might very well be a continued connection to heaven and spirituality through the name as well. At the same time it probably won’t earn the ire of those who don’t wish to associate Judeo-Christian beliefs with the Japanese occult, because even though Nathan means “gift from God,” Nathan Adams is also fairly generic-sounding and few truly associate names like “Christopher” with Christ anymore.

However, I’m not sure if this is the actual reasoning, because as explained above, I don’t know the degree to which a localization would actually pursue the deeper origins of names, especially because they don’t have the benefit of kanji to make things explicit. That said, sometimes names are selected because of how they sound, with different kanji used to transform it into a “real” name, similar to English. For example, the female character in Hurricane Polymar is Nanba Teru, or “Number Telephone.”

There is another way in which the English name can be associated with the spiritual and the occult, which is The Addams Family. This, I think is actually more of a likely origin, and while Yo-Kai Watch isn’t focused on the macabre the way The Addams Family is, there’s still that connection with the afterlife, ghosts, and monsters. As for Keita vs. Nathan, I wonder if Nathan was picked because it sounds close to “nature.”

While it’s difficult to draw firm conclusion, I believe that both names spirits and the occult/celestial, though due to cultural differences their exact meanings don’t exactly draw from quite the same concepts. I get the feeling little of this will actually matter in terms of how the character of “Nathan Adams” is perceived, but it was at least fun to explore the potential connotations of his name.

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It looks like Nutella will continue its food mash-up streak with a new line of Tim Hortons baked goods, bringing the nation closer to the American dream of every food being slathered in Nutella or Sriracha.

The Tim Hortons treats, which include a chocolate-hazelnut doughnut and Nutella pastry pockets, are here just for the summer — May 8 through August 18. Participating stores will also introduce the genius strategy of offering Nutella as a rich, nutty take on the bagel schmear.

[CBC News]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, doughnuts, nutella, nutella doughnuts, tim hortons

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has announced two new positions in his administration that will help push affordable internet access to the 27 percent of city residents who don't have it, according to Buzzfeed (by way of Engadget).

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