My friend just moved back to the states from Brazil, where he taught English as a second language. Obviously he speaks Portuguese quite well. While I was attempting to lose him as a friend by introducing him to anime, he brought up a legend about "arigato"

He said that the Portuguese had a fair amount of trade with Japan, and the word obligado (oh blee gadu) was adopted into the Japanese language and evolved into arigato.

Is it true? I don't bloody well know, but it's a nice story.

As for as easing him into anime, so far I have lucked out with Daily Lives of High School Boys, but I'm on episode ten, so I need to come up with something next. D-Frag is too "yelly", I think, and Nichijou is too, umm, I don't know, but it is too that.

I don't want to go into long term stuff like Vandread or Geminar yet, and I want to stay with comedy for now. Maybe Moyashimon?

Posted by: topmaker at 07:34 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 172 words, total size 1 kb.

Iwatani Naofumi is one of four "Saints" summoned from (probably) our world to this new world in order to fight an evil called Calamity. He is the hero of the Shield - a defense player with very high resistance against damage. the other Saints are the heroes of the Lance, the Bow and the Sword. Amongst the four he seems to have the weakest stats, so the local warriors join up with all the other heroes except for him.

In the end a beautiful woman named Mein Sofia joins up, just so he has someone on his side. He receives his portion of gold from the King, which is to be used as his operating budget. She teaches him the basics of this new world and takes him to the local arms merchant to weapon up and get him a set of chain mail. He is pretty happy with the way things turned out this strange first day.

As he wakes up the next morning, he finds his gold and chain mail gone, and is accused of attempted rape. Mein testifies that she went to the a bar, met with one of the other heroes, who happened to be the guy she originally joined up with, and when she got back to the room, drunk, the shield hero attacked her. Hearing her scream, the lance hero guy rescued her. He happens to be wearing the chain mail, claiming that Mein gave it to him.

The hero cannot simply be replaced, since all four heroes must die for a new set to be summoned. The hero then is released but the King makes sure that the whole village knows of his foul deed.

The hero is pissed. Really pissed and vows to make things right and see the truth out. He scrapes together enough money and points to buy a meager outfit and buy a low level slave to use as an attack character. Unfortunately she is weak and timid, but she's all he can afford. They set off.

It didn't even take a trip to the refrigerator to see the whole problem with the false accusation. Once he met up with the arms dealer again, who shows some pity even as he reproaches the falsely accused hero, he could have brought him before the King and testify that he sold the hero the chain mail, thereby shooting one hole in the accuser's credibility right away. After that doubt was cast, he can ask why no one else but the lance hero heard Mein screaming for help (how far away was this bar, anyway)?

Meh, I guess they needed to set up his reputation and circumstance and couldn't come up with anything better.

In the latest (overused) example of game themed stories, this one at least only uses what is necessary to help the plot along. The hero gets to see how he powers up, accumulates items, and etc. Interestingly, the other heroes recognize much of this world because of games they have played. They already sense how they need to act. Our hero, an otaku, gets sent to this world through a book in a bookstore, not a game.

He learns pretty fast as he goes on, and he is shown to be harsh on his slave, but mostly because he needs her to shape up. He shows kindness when she does well and surprises her with his attitude of rewarding her and knowing that a cooperative helper will perform better than a beat upon slave. He senses that much of her problem is centered on her past.

We are only about three chapters translated so far, but the path of discovery for both of them is underway.


more...

Posted by: topmaker at 02:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 876 words, total size 5 kb.

Is there a difference between these?

Posted by: topmaker at 01:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.

"What is it, that it is, this theory of mine?"
-Anne Elk

All groups worthy of permanent recognition in the annals of pop music must have, in their Golden Period, at least three albums where the casual fan will like every song on the album (yes, I will call them albums, because this theory - which is mine and nobody else's - is mine"). I don't mean the casual listener, mind you, but the casual fan. Someone who is inclined to like the music this artist/band is inclined to perform.

This what separates The Cowsills from Creedence. What divides Bowie from Badfinger. Queen from Quatro. It does not mean that there aren't important bands that left a mark with only a hit album or song. Sometimes those guys were important because they were one hit wonders. They had a unique sound that grabbed listeners (Falco, Men Without Hats) but that were unsustainable or created dance crazes (1910 Fruitgum Company, the Archies) and even genres (bubblegum pop), but they did not have the constant sustainable talent in songwriting, production, performance and also had luck in timing and radio play.

The greatest artists moved the medium because of a special talent in either the combination they made as a band (The Beatles, Rolling Stones  - note the different sounds with different guitarists), or the unique contributions in songwriting or interpretation they could perform as solo artists (although always those with excellent back up bands), such as Billy Joel, Cat Stevens or Elton John.

Some one hit (or two or three) wonders  might have made it if not for tragedy or business reasons (Badfinger, for example), but it was not to be, so they did not have the impact that these paragons of Rock had. some just made it into the Golden Three camp, like Stevie Ray Vaughn. In my age of music discovery, most of these groups reside in the 60's and 70's, but I'm sure the formula works for all decades.

Some artists might have more than three, of course. You can take a Bowie fan like myself and go all the way back to Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and finish with Station to Station. An excellent live album was in there as well. Same with Jethro Tull, where there were at  least three phases of three excellent albums.

Here's some examples:


more...

Posted by: topmaker at 07:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 707 words, total size 6 kb.

Putting Index and Misaka Mikoto ahead of the others. Ahead of the beautiful Kanzaki Kaori, the devilish Lessar, Sister 10032, and that cute Amakusa girl who fell in love at first sight:

"Please. Lend me your power so I can save them both.”

In that instant, Index, the Anglican nun wearing a white habit and carrying a calico cat, fell silent for a moment. She slowly narrowed her eyes and thought on the meaning of the words coming from Kamijou Touma’s mouth.

In that instant, Misaka Mikoto, the girl with the nickname Railgun and wearing the blazer of Tokiwadai Middle School’s winter uniform, stopped moving as if thinking over the words she had heard.

They did not think it was too much to ask.

They did not find it to be a bother.

They had been waiting for those words for so long.

How long and painful had that wait been? The boy who had naturally spoken those words did not know how those girls felt. It would have taken hours or even days for them to say everything they wanted to say, but that did not matter for the moment.

The answer they had to give here was not something so long and unending.

They could take their time with that once this was all over.

They knew what would currently feel best as an answer for that boy who felt cornered and was seeking help.

"Leave it to me.”

"Leave it to me.”

The two girls took a large step forward to protect Kamijou Touma.

At the same moment, the train shot back into a tunnel.

Ahead of them was the Gremlin magician named Freyja. Behind them were the sounds of destruction as Níðhöggr Vol. 02 charged into the tunnel. It was clearly too large for the half circle space of the tunnel. If it continued forward, it could easily blow away the two remaining cars of the train. A powerful enemy lay ahead and behind, but Index and Misaka Mikoto both gave thin smiles.

They had nothing to be afraid of.

Their enemy was most likely unaware that they now stood in the place they had long dreamt of being in.

Posted by: topmaker at 07:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 423 words, total size 3 kb.

Does Pixy have a page that gives a lesson for a baka like myself to set up a side bar for favorite links?

I have treated you guys who put me on a follow list badly and I want to correct that.

I also want to give my few non registered readers places go where they can find similar interests they themselves have.

Posted by: topmaker at 06:37 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

Out for a walk late at night?

Well then, here is a truly useful flashlight.

Posted by: topmaker at 06:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.