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juicygravitas · 1 year

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When it comes to Pokémon plushies, I've always been a huge fan. They're fun to collect and often come in really soft and high quality fabric, making the experience of owning one even better. However, a certain plushie that's always piqued my interest would be the Banpresto crying Manaphy plushie.

I saw this plushie whilst looking at Manaphy merchandise a while ago, and it really caught my eye. Something about the plushie radiated a bit of mystery and nostalgia to me. At first I didn't really think much of it; I just scrolled past and went about my day. But as time went on I wanted to know more about it. Where it came from, etc. But as I tried to do "research," I noticed that it was rather obscure; sure there was evidence that it existed, but there were only a few pictures (one seen above) of it and I couldn't find much information. I saw one for sale on a foreign selling website, which made me even more curious as to how much people even owned one. The plushie had a "partially lost media" vibe to it, and I was itching to find out these things:

• Where did it come from?

• Where was it released?

And,

• How many people have it/how rare is it?

So I took to Tumblr and managed to find a post of someone talking about the plushie (@santapaws) and commented on their post expressing my interest. I just left the comment there in general not expecting an answer, but OP actually responded and sent me a message! Apparently they owned the plushie as well and even provided some pictures.

They bought it off a Thai eBay listing after searching for it for years and currently had it in their possession and sent me a few links on a Japanese auction site where it was on sale.

This kicked off my drive to further investigate. After a while of digging around and paying close attention to where I searched, I found a little "wiki page" of it on Flickr:

• The origin of the plushie originated in Japan (obviously) around 2006 (most likely, as that was when Temple Of The Sea came out and marketing for it was high). Apparently it came from a "UFO Catcher" set.

But, what is a UFO Catcher?

A UFO Catcher is basically a Japanese claw machine often found around Tokyo arcades that contain plushies of a variety of different characters, but the prizes often change, so they become out of production very quickly. With that being said, this Mana plushie was most likely one of many that could be won as a prize from a UFO Catcher around that time. These were special because they could not be purchased in stores nor centers, just specifically available at an arcade.

And apparently there was another Manaphy that could be won at a UFO Catcher as well! This one is more content.

And here's another from 2007!

And here's another one....

Another holding May's hat...

And here's a whole lotta them with Piplup making a cameo!

However, out of all, the crying Manaphy seems to be the most uncommon, retracing my words back to the beginning of it being rare (on top of it being available for a limited time so long ago!). I'm not too sure how many are in this "set," and just like the crying Mana, there could be more undocumented ones.

• Now, my final point, how many people own them? It's hard to say. OP of the post, two for sale, and another blogger that have them only tally up to four (unless you or someone you know have one lying around!). As I've mentioned before, these were limited and produced over 15 years ago, so it's hard to say how many saw the light of day. And when it comes to the crying Mana plushie, there could be very little that exist.

• What are my overall thoughts?

Well, for my first post on this site ever it's rather a mouthful, but I wanted to express how intresting I find this. I love miscellaneous merchandise! There's a bit of mystery and obscurity about it that fascinates me. How this plushie was so close to becoming lost if those photos/auctions weren't posted on the internet. Although it's just a plush, I would like it to get more spotlight. The fact that few have it and not much is known about it is what makes it intresting.

That's my rambling wrapped up. If you have any words of your own don't be shy to comment. Chances are I won't bite.

#manaphy #plushies #first post #pokemon

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qsmp-slime · 2 years

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Oooohh ok, what about places like, las nevadas and lmanburg, are they pre-existing cities and country's? Or were they created by wilbur and quackity as in canon?

-🍎🧃🍎

OKAY SO this is oemthing we hadnt EXACTLY fleshed out but i think how we're gonna go with it is like

l'manburg was a pre-existing country already. wilbur still had his presidency and stuff, but it had existed for a while before that. it does still kinda get fucked, but wilbur wasn't the one to blow it up!! the biggest lore thing we have is that it got blown up by like. a Different Person. random person kinda. wilbur still. died but it was more like "assisnation / got caught in crossfire". got revived by phil and kristin. also ghostbur still exists because fuck you i say so, it was a by-product of the revival. something something seperation of the body and soul that couldn't be mended. (this is not the reason that wilbur is sof ucked up. he's always been like this.)

las nevadas, however, was a place that quackity created himself still! less a proper city or country, more a "settlement" that expanded outward the more visitors came and settled. it's largely a gambling/tourist sort of city, though, hence most of it being casinos, hotels, etc. (basically, las nevadas is a lot more parallel to actual canon.)

#i really hope all this made sense ogh #i feel like we explained lmanberg really poorly but hopefully the point conveys #wither.txt #wither.ask #applejuice anon #dsmp witch au

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roxannepolice · 2 years

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Grandiloquent ramblings about Power of the Doctor, das Selbst and simulacrae

I have been struggling with myself on whether to write this stream of consciousness for some 24 hours, because, surprise, it can come off as negativity, which I genuinely don't like plopping on other people's dashes. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate POTD. By Chibnall standards it's well written, the actors put their all into performances and their all is a lot, there are some amazing character moments and on the whole I enjoyed it. But I couldn't shake off the sense of something being wrong with this episode, I couldn't shake it off so much I had problems sleeping for two nights in a row, and not in a fun way. It's like a rock in a shoe but for your brain. Idk, I can only imagine this is what the TARDIS feels like about Jack Harkness, you know it's good for what it is, you know there is no good reason to hate it but you still feel an atavistic sense of wrongness. So, hoping that cutting the post under the title and adding proper tags will prevent it from upsetting anyone, and also that I will finally sleep well and get a good warm up for productive writing, here goes nothin'.

Basically, I felt like POTD had a hollowness at its core. Or maybe not hollowness, but more like instead of a solid, hot, dense core that keeps a spheric entity together, there was a very nice hardened glass ball with a core of roughly the consitency of a shower jelly dropped into warm bath. And that frustratingly though prettily slipping through your fingers core is - what exactly does the episode have to say about being the Doctor? And is it a purely simulacric self-referential w?nk in front of a 60 year old mirror, or is there actual reverberance with the rest of, for lack of better terms, collective consciousness and unconsciousness?

And, let's put it bluntly - NuWho has been suffering from navel gazing from the very beginning, and it's not anything inherently wrong. DW is a mass culture phenomenon like few others and post-modern self-reflexivity can be beneficial to the text. I would say, though, that where RTD's w?anking was more about the Doctor as the last of the time lords - i.e. the only person in all of existence that has a glimpse of multiple pasts and futures at once and has been left unsepervised as to what to do about it - Moffat went textual with the Doctor's name becoming a universal secret and so on. But where Moffat stayed purely simulacric with his questions being more important than answers and mysteries that don't really matter, Chibnall continued this explicit navel gazing but tried to make it more grounded. Which was not a good idea, because it lost the lightness that it had under Moffat, at least initially. Now, we have the idea that the Doctor has always been the Doctor, and in fact is the reason the word "doctor" means what it does, and the TARDIS always looked like a police box, and for all we know this may have been going on since before the first of the universes came to exist, because why not.

Which leads to one of the key questions of contemporary philosophy: essence or existence? Both words have been used, abused and misused in different contexts, but generally speaking they mean, respectively, a belief that the essence of a person (a soul, a disembodied consciousness stuffed in the synapses, etc.) comes before their conscious existence, and a belief that is the existence (the choices, the interactions, etc.) that "make" the essence. At the extremes, the former has a thoroughly religious meaning, in that you existed before you were born and will go on existing after you die, be it in a god's soul repository or some reincarnation cycle, and the latter boils down to tabula rasa, the idea that a newborn can be completely shaped by its surroundings. By now, with psychiatry and neurosicence, it is pretty much agreed that neither is 100% true. As my psychiatrist put it, my problems are a result of both my traumas and two proud lines of people with fried nerves. So as far as thinking about actual animals with nervous systems and suchalike is concerned, the answer the unsatifying but only productive "both". But in fiction, especially science fiction which at its best can serve as a sandbox for all sorts of thought experiments, the question remains: what is the Selbst make up of your hypothetical beings in the world roughly obeying known mathematics?

A linguistic note: I think the german word das Selbst is more appropriate for the analysis than any English word. It is is usually translated as "self", and indeed the latter derives from the Germanic root, but I think das Selbst has maintained a more objective/objectivizing connotation, whereas "self" has slipped a bit too close to subjective/subjectivizing for my liking. Case in point: self-explanatory gives most agency to whatever explains itself, while selbsverstandlich (translated as self-explanatory but really closer to self-understandable) keeps a passive/objective/outside vibe.

And the matter of das Selbst as something determined by/determinable from outside seems... well, crucial for POTD. The case in point is that I'm not sure if the case the episode makes for what makes the Doctor the Doctor is that the Master ascended from Heath Ledger's Joker insanity to Terry Jones' Simon Zinc-Trumpet-Harris, married to a very attractive table lamp and managed to club himself unconscious with the butt of his gun, insanity to think he can make the Doctor regenerate into himself because what really matters is the magic of friendship existence/interaction with others, or that his plan was bad but at least not self-contradictory? Anyway, in the best case scenario there were supposed to be a few additional lines of dialogue that CC kinda forgot to include and they live in the same limbo as the explanation that no, the Doctor doesn't think suffocation/starvation with maybe some nice cannibalism phase is more humane than shooting, she had a plan where to take those spiders once they've been contained.

Intermission/digression: it's kind of interesting to consider if recognition of das Selbst functions different among time lords than with humans. Evolutionarily, that would have been helpful. Historically, we have examples both in favour (Utopia where the Doctor recognizes the Master in the person looking 100% the same as Yana the moment their eyes meet across the room) and against (The Five Doctors, Dark Water, where the Doctor can't even tell Missy's species until she has him grab her boob, Spyfall). And that's fine, I don't ask or even want strict consitency in 60 year long text. Though you'd think when it starts asserting self-awareness it would at least bring that up.

Returing and starting from the thing that first put me on track of why the core of the story is... wobbly. The point is, the message kind of tries to promote existence/interactions being more important for the make up of das Selbst (as Yaz explains to a person who you'd think knows more about regeneration process than her, or most of the time lords for that matter considering how they've been dragging on in the most outlandish ways imaginable), while relying on essentialism for the stakes to even exist. What exactly are the implications of the Doctor being forced to regenerate into the Master? Ok, it erases their existence for the future, but what about the past? It sure as hell hasn't just popped out of existence, or else the companions might be at least ackonwledged to have Amy-like memory problems. So far, so good, das Selbst is determined by the existence. This could even be argued to be well symbolised by the Doctor's continued presence in the story as the TARDIS's memory interacting with companion's memories.

Aye, but there's the rub. Memories. Shouldn't the regeneration of the Doctor into the Master imply he now has their memories, which can be described as the internal side of existence as building das Selbst? I mean, the reference to the Doctor's forced regeneration is, correct me if I'm wrong, the Two-Three time, and Three more or less remembered everything Two knew, putting aside messier that usual post-regenerative stress. So, does the Master now have all of the Doctor's memories? That would be the logical answer, right?

So why is he not affected by them?

If existence, internalized as memories, is more important to das Selbst than the essence, then why does he not even have a Lady Cassandra-after-being-in-a-conscious-tissue-resource's-brain moment? Or am I supposed to wallpaper Dhawan's acting over the gaping hole and say, he totally had. Offscreen. Incidentally, if you're upset about Thirteen regenerating into Tennant then perhaps you'll be interested in my headcanon that atron nergy was affected by her subconscious screaming maybe we should go back to giving the Master nonconsensual hugs.

Is it because, you know. The Master is bad? I mean, of course, it's a text, that's his purpose and only moral context. But again, it's the text that started flaunting its navel gazing as self-awareness first, I'm just asking for being consequential about it. Because in a self-aware text that relies on existence and magic of friendship to be Selbst-determining it's not the case that the Master can't be the Doctor because they're bad only they're bad because they weren't collecting friends that would shape their existence into a good person that could be the Doctor!

EXCEPT IF SO THEN, AGAIN, WHY IS HE NOT AFFECTED BY THE DOCTOR'S INTERNALIZED EXISTENCE?!!!

TLDR of the above: the Master's plan to force the Doctor into regenerating into him so he'll be the Doctor is fundamentally flawed because das Selbst is made more by existence than the essence. Except he is not affected by that existence in any meaningful way, so there's a core contradiction: das Selbst is shaped by existence but the existence-as-memories doesn't shape das Selbst.

EXCEPT NONE OF THAT MATTERS BECAUSE APPARENTLY HE DOESN'T HAVE THE DOCTORS MEMORIES, OR ELSE HE WOULD KNOW WHO RUTH!DOCTOR IS!?????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, this is the point where there's likely a page of the script rolling around CC's house, unionizing with the one from AITUK about pest control. Establishing that somehow forced regeneration would erase the Doctor's memories. Which, may I point out, would have been a very solid stake. But it's not there in the text.

But if that's the indended reading, and please tell me if there's something I missed, then the Master's Don't let me go back to being me is. hollow. It aches me to say that but that's the conclusion. Because the narrative lacks a solid core about what das Selbst/being is. There is no actual difference between the Master being the Master and the Doctor being the Master, because das Selbst has not been affected by internalized existence. At least as far as I can see, feel free to point me in its direction, but again, I have been mauling over it for 24 hours. Or, the Master lost it completely and is now a solid candidate for the Upper Class Twit of the Year. And also thought Sheev's plan in The Rise of Skywalker was great writing.

#cultural ramblings #tw: negativity #chibnall critical #i don't tag it anti chibnall because believe me this is good faith getting rid of a shoestone in your brain #i'm not even putting it anywhere in the main tags because i really don't want to upset anyone #but if someone felt the same hollowness then i hope i put the feeling into words #i can abide by gimmicky science pseudo psychology and even preaching but i can't swallow hollow philosophy #long post #meta

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rayofsunas · 3 years

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otherworldly! s/o

A/n: happy monday! I woke up at 7am and since then I've been grinding out assignments/classes and now this, so I actually feel productive even though I've been staring at my computer for a while. but thank you for requesting anon! I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it! <33 also to understand this more, I'd like to point out that this connects to the speculation Genshin and Honkai are alternate universes of one another. so for example, Scaramouche is a harbinger from his time, but he may have been a warlord in a different, with a completely different name (keeping his appearance ofc) hope that makes sense. so if you've paid attention to what I've been saying about Scara and his mini-series, etc. you'll understand what I mean in Scara's lol. his reader insert is fem for the same reason as above btw!

Summary: otherworldly! s/o who arrived as a fallen meteor, that can bring back plants to life/heal deep wounds/scars and resurrect people.

Parings: Albedo/Gn! Reader, Xiao/Gn! Reader, Scaramouche/Fem! Reader

Warnings: swearing, fluff, alternate realities/time traveler au! (reader is not the traveler), death/resurrection

Word count: 1.7k

Albedo

you don't have a vision like some people in Teyvat, because you're not from there; you're from a whole different world itself. instead, you have healing abilities that allow you to any energy you absorb in the form of food/sunlight, and you can use that energy to heal others. though, the healing can only go as far as healing minor injuries such as shallow cuts, scratches, or smoothing out scars. the same can work if you were to heal yourself.

Albedo is so intrigued when he finds you passed out in the pit of a meteor, half of your body hanging out while the other is awkwardly still in it

one, because who is this stranger in a meteor for crying out loud

and two, he notices your wounds on your arms are healing by themselves, slowly though

as someone who studies alchemy, life forms, and such, he's very intrigued that you're able to heal yourself without medicine, and he wonders if you can do the same to others

so he takes you to his lab, and runs a few tests

yes, you're still passed out when this happens, but he's just so curious and couldn't hold back

don't worry though, he's just drawing some blood and testing to see what you can do, because who knows, you may not even speak his language and won't be able to communicate with him (doesn't make a difference Albedo, you need COnSENT-)

so, just for science, he cuts the palm of his hand a little and decides to see if you can heal him

it doesn't take him long to notice the way the tips of your fingers are glowing a light greenish-yellow, so he immediately assumes that's the source of your powers and places a finger on his palm

it takes a second before anything happens, but eventually his cut starts to slowly close

once again he's even more shocked and intrigued

you have the natural ability and he's never come across someone with so much raw strength being able to do that

so you're right up his alley

when you wake up you're confused as hell (obviously) but thankfully, you can speak his language and are able to share your story

Albedo decides to make a deal with you

he'll help you get home if you can educate him more about your ability and your homeland. you agree

it works out perfectly, because you both have something the other needs/can do for the other (you have your power that he's interested in, and he's found a way for you to return home)

it's also easy to work together because of those same common interests, and it helps that he studies alchemy cause he's way more knowledgeable about you and the process can go a tiny bit quicker for you if you wish to return home sooner

at first you're merely friends, co-workers if you wish

but then he starts falling for you and vice versa

you both genuinely enjoy each others company, so you decide to stay in Teyvat a little while longer, even after he finds a way for you to go home

I wouldn't put it past Albedo to want to return to your world if you allow it

he'd be interested in this new or not so new world ;)

Xiao

you're like the traveler in a sense, where as soon as you climbed out of the meteor, you felt this connection to Teyvat and your vision randomly appeared. you have a dendro vision, something you learned was a rarity within liyue and mondstadt. along with that vision, you had the previous ability to grow/heal plants. you can bring back dead plants, though if they've been dead for a very long time, that's beyond your ability. they also can't be brought back if they've been badly burned.

Xiao may not be interested at first about what vision you have or even where you came from + why the hell you climbed out of a meteor

he's more interested in getting you home so you can stop asking questions about his own abilities/vision and odd, unfamiliar, but beautiful world

but boy when he catches you bringing back a wilted Glaze Lily?!? shook

he secretly thinks you're so cool and it piques his interest

he's never seen anyone do this before, and though his eyes were deceiving him when he first saw the lily spring to life again

but then when he catches you healing more plants, on your way to Liyue to hopefully find Zhongli for answers, he's so interested

he doesn't ask a crapload of questions, BUT he's going to ask at least one or two

"how're you doing that?"

"what are you?

the questions are kind of vague and require more in-depth explanations than he'd originally hoped, but he's surprisingly willing to listen to your story on the way to the harbor

after he learns your story and calls for Zhongli, he'll immediately leave and claim he has no further interests in you

but he's obviously lying

he finds as he's sitting on top of one the smaller mountains one night, looking down at the glowing Liyue town, he has more questions

way more questions

surprising Zhongli, Xiao shows appears when he's showing you around and getting you accustomed to the people/culture

he finds himself hoving behind you, shyly almost, never asking questions (at least not in Zhongli's presence

his reason for standing behind you is to protect you from any harm, so that way, when he decides to ask you more questions, you'll be there for him to do so and not dead or lost

when you tell Zhongli you'd wish to stay in Teyvat, specifically Liyue, Xiao is happy ngl

he can ask you questions and now that you're somewhat used to Liyue, having been here for four months already and planning to stay forever, he can catch you alone and ask questions without Zhongli hovering or acting as your tour guide lol

slowly, and I mean sluggishly slow, he's going to ask you more questions and he may, emphasis on may, tell you his own story

Scaramouche

you're from an alternate reality of Teyvat, a former doctor in your world. basically, Teyvat hundreds of years in the future. you've studied the human body to become a doctor obviously and you used to be able to bring back the dead using your bare hands. it didn't matter how far back ago they've died, as long as their full-body was still intact (full skeleton needed). though, the further back they died, the more energy you'd use, and if you run out of energy too soon, you couldn't bring them back. but now in this strange land, you can't. in exchange for your powers being lost, you're given an electro vision.

Scaramouche is tasked with finding out more about these odd meteors that keep appearing in various corners of Teyvat

and one very large one

he doesn't care who you are, what you are, what your excuse for being in Teyvat is, but he's been ordered to explore the fallen meteor and since you happened to be passed out inside it upon further exploration, you're part of the mystery he's been told to check out

and, it doesn't further help your situation that you landed in Snezhnaya, in the weirdest, not-so-warm clothing AND he finds you attractive (yes, you heard it here folks), plus you're going to catch hypothermia out here dressed like that

it would suck for a pretty girl such as yourself to be frozen to death

so Scaramouche decides to take you to the Tsaritsa, who leaves you in Scaramouche's care since he found you

she says he can do whatever he wants you, dispose of you, etc.

when you finally come too in an odd room on a couch in front of a fireplace, you're confused, cold as hell despite the flames, and when you see his face, you're immediately angered, which he finds odd

it's almost as if you recognize him... but he doesn't recognize you so he's confused as well

"what're you doing here?"

bold of you, he thinks. to question him with that tone as if you have authority here, over him

"watch yourself. I was going to ask you the same."

you don't seem too pleased with him though

"we agreed to never speak again, or so I thought..."

"are you stupid or are you just playing the stupid card to be released?" he'd say

though as soon as you burst and yell at him about a situation he's not familiar with, he's starting to understand a bit more

you're not from here, not anywhere in Teyvat at least, and by the way you're talking to him as if you know him, he assumed correctly that you're from an alternate reality, where he's also present

though despite his correct assumption, he demands answers and you cannot be allowed any kind of freedom until he gets them

you tell him your story and how in your world, a version of himself exists and that you were briefly married, though split because he was too much of a control/power freak for you and your daughter

he disagrees with the last part about him being a control/power freak ofc but

he decides he'll keep you around, against your wishes

one, because you can become useful if your resurrection abilities are awoken; you'd be able to save many fallen Fatui soldiers, with more training so you don't run out of energy ofc

and two, he doesn't think his other self would miss you very much if you're both on bad terms, he sure would miss such a pretty face if you were to leave though, that's for sure...

so, he's going to keep you around, so he can help train/get used to your electro vision. it works best that way since he has the same vision and can train you more efficiently (I think Scara has electro powers, just an assumption!)

he will also hopefully be able to awaken your resurrection abilities and if you can't, well then sorry you're disposable

overtime, all the Harbingers tease him about his little crush and he either denies it or strongly provokes it cause his ego is through his fucking hat

exhibit a. literally doesn't care that he's caught by childe staring at you train and will say something like, "and? you're just jealous she's not interested in you like she is me."

exhibit b. will throw a fit if someone accuses him and says he has, "no room for crushes or love." even if he was somewhat capable of it in your world...

3.22.21, rayofsunas

#rayofsunas #genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact scenarios #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #albedo #albedo x reader #xiao #xiao x reader #scaramouche #scaramouche x reader

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fenoderee · 3 years

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Shinya [Drums] Interview

Our fourth solo interview is with Shinya, who is the foundation of the band. Shinya has been focusing on simple phrasing and groove in recent years, so how did he approach his latest album "Oboro"?

Basically I don't think about the details, I just do what comes to my mind and I don't worry about it.

-It seems that the songwriting process started very early on, but did you have the new album in mind from the beginning?

Shinya: That's right. I've been working on the songs for the new album. So we decided to release a single, and we talked about which of our existing songs we should release as a single, and "Oboro" was chosen.

-In your case, I personally feel that you've always written songs with a lot of energy or beauty. When you were thinking about the album, what kind of ideas and images did you have in your mind in the early stages of composition?

Shinya:I didn't really think about it before I wrote the song, I just started writing it, and as a result, I couldn't write anything but intense stuff.

-When you say "intense," do you mean songs with a fast BPM?

Shinya: That's right.

-There are several ways to compose a song, how did you do it this time?

Shinya: Recently, I've been using a plug-in guitar instrument that I really like. It has a lot of heavy sounds in it, so I just play it and think about what I want to do.

-What kind of composition system do you currently have at home? It is known to your fans that you are an Apple fanatic, and you seem to be changing to the latest version every year. Do you use the same kind of system for your compositions?

Shinya: It's the other way around, I'm very minimalistic now. I only use one laptop for composing.

-Do you want to install all your DTM software on the computer?

Shinya: That's right. I don't play guitar anymore when I write songs, so I've removed the audio interface. It's a very compact period.

-At the time of this writing, you are touring the country with the "Meguro Rokumeikan Gig", but if you take that computer with you, you can compose music in your dressing room?

Shinya: If I wanted to, I could, but I don't think I will (laughs).

-Did it change the way you came up with the ideas and the process of shaping the songs?

Shinya: That's right. When I used to compose, I used to play my guitar at home and write riffs by myself. But now I don't have a guitar and I'm working on it, so I think the guitar phrases I make have changed.

-So the intense songs you wrote were not chosen for the single, but do you have any plans to make it into the album?

Shinya: The song wasn't selected when it was written, so it was probably rejected (laughs).

-That's not something to say while laughing (laughs). By the way, Shinya, you're the type of person who actively goes to see other people's live performances. I think the main reason is because it's your favorite band or artist, but I also think that seeing a live performance can stimulate you in terms of calligraphy and creative therapy. Now that I have become a member of Corona, I can no longer go to live concerts, and DIR EN GREY has almost completely stopped performing. What do you do for musical input in such a situation?

Shinya: Hmmm... I don't think so at the moment (laughs). Especially when it comes to music.

-Do you ever go through various albums and videos by yourself?

Shinya: No, I don't. I just use what I have inside me right now.

-Shinya's musical tastes are well known to his fans, but is there anything new that has resonated with you during this composing process?

Shinya: Hmmm... I haven't explored anything new in the other solutions.

-Did you go back to your roots and what you like?

Shinya: No, I didn't think about that too much, I just made the songs naturally.

-How did you spend your time at stay home, as a musician and as an individual?

Shinya: I was doing nothing but editing videos (laughs). That's why I was spending most of my time on my YouTube channel.

-I've been watching it for a while now, and I'm also a subscriber to the channel, so please answer me politely (laughs).

Shinya: Oh, thank you very much (laughs).

-Of course it's fun to do, but is there anything exciting about it?

Shinya: When I was working on it, I thought that it was very similar to songwriting. You can keep working on it, and it never ends.

-If you want to be particular, you can go all the way.

That's right, even for a single video, there are endless things you can do.

-The timing of inserting a subtitle, the choice of font, etc.

Shinya: Yes, yes (laughs). Once you start paying attention to the details, there's really no end to it. It's similar to songwriting..

-Is Shinya the type of person who spends a lot of time focusing on various aspects of a song, even when he's writing it individually?

Shinya : With DIR EN GREY, I always bring the original songs to the studio before I've finished them. I know that as the members' ideas come in, it will definitely change from the shape I've created. That's why I don't go into too much detail (laughs), I only make it to a certain point because it's going to change anyway. I try to make it so that the members can understand the side of the song.

-You said that when you select songs in the band, you don't know who wrote which song. Do you ever get feedback from the band members afterwards?

Shinya: I was asked afterwards about the songs I wrote this time. "That's Shinya's song." Then, he said, "Oh, I liked it."

-So you've had that conversation? If you listen to the demo, do you know who made it?

Shinya: Yes, you're right. Yes, I don't have a definitive answer, but I can vaguely tell.

-Although it wasn't adopted, it's nice to be told that it's your favourite song.

Shinya: Well...yes, but the song selection is a majority decision.

-There are always multiple layers to a song, but each time you're inspired to write a new song from a different angle?

Shinya: No, I don't have any particular plans at the moment, since I'm in the middle of an explosive screening (laughs ). Once the songwriting starts again, I'm sure I'll be motivated like you said. I still have my computer with me, but I'm not writing songs, I'm collecting videos (laughs).

-That's a good point (laughs). You've been working on the album for a long time, what do you hope to achieve with it?

Shinya: Up until now, I've been thinking of songs that can evolve in a live setting, but this time, even if we make an album, we don't know if we will be able to perform live or tour like we have in the past. So I've been thinking about it with that situation in mind.

-In other words, rather than evolving through live performances, do you have a sense of construction that evolves completely during the production process?

Shinya: Well, to put it simply, it's a nuance.

-Do you want to take a different approach to the drums?

Shinya: No, when it comes to drum phrases, I don't think about the details, I just do what comes to my mind. I don't worry about it too much.

-What was your impression of this single, "Oboro", when you heard the original song?

Shinya: Well... I was working on several songs at the same time, and I don't remember what the original "Oboro" song sounded like.

-Were the other songs that you were arranging and pre-producing at the same time too strong for you?

Shinya: It was all very strong. The drum approach for "Oboro" was just what I thought of when I heard the original song, without any worries.

We're going to do a live performance for an audience on the 6th of May, but we don't know what's going to happen after that, so we're going to do it as if it might be our last one.

-You said that you often set up an electric drum machine at home and make drum arrangements while playing, is this the same style you used for "Oboro" and the new songs you were working on?

Shinya: When I'm thinking of drum phrases, I don't use an electric drum but just use the mouse. In the past, I used to focus on the basic groove of the song, and I used to add drum phrases while actually playing the drums. But the period of thinking while playing is over now…

-I didn't know you had such a time frame in mind (laughs). Thinking with the mouse is a way of avoiding the first days of DTM, isn't it?

Shinya: Yes, it's the way we did it in the beginning. I think the period of time I was thinking about it while I was in the city changed my way of thinking about drum place. It's hard to describe it in words (laughs).

-I'll take care of that. I'm a subscriber to the Shinya Channel, so be nice to me (lol).

Shinya: Well, I guess I should say I've got it all figured out. I've learned about the advantages of using an electric drum and the differences between using a mouse and thinking with an electric drum, and now I'm able to create phrases and grooves with just a mouse while playing the electric drum, so I think it's not a problem. I can now type in rhythms and phrases with the same time signature as if I were actually playing.

-Do you find it easier to come up with something unexpected by not thinking of phrases as you play?

Shinya: Yes, one of the advantages of playing the piano is that you can create phrases that you can't edit. You can create phrases that you can't edit with your own hands. That's why I started thinking about drum arrangements by typing with the mouse in the early days. In this song "Oboro", I used the mouse a lot in the A melody and other phrases. The demo phrases that I came up with using only the mouse were much stronger and weaker, but when I actually played them on live drums, I couldn't get that level of intensity.

-Do you mean simply the volume?

Shinya: That's right. The core of each sound has to come out properly in live drums, so even if you add a strong instrument, if it's too weak, the core won't come out. The image was different from the one I had in the mouse, but it turned out good, so I didn't have any trouble. I also thought a lot about the guitar in the drum braise of "Oboro". It's the solo part.

-It's a drum approach that is making a difference.

Shinya: Yes. I tried to make a good movement when I hit it. The form of the striking and the movement of the arms are flowing.

-You have a large number of cymbals anyway, and they are set up around the effects cymbals. Effect cymbals have a shorter blue sustain than normal cymbals. That's why when you use a lot of cymbals, do you consider the tendency of the sound of each cymbal and the length of the sustain while constructing the phrase itself?

Shinya: That's what I'm trying to do, to make it so that it's smooth and the previous movements flow. But when we were recording, we didn't talk about it that much. At the live show, I think "I used this cymbal on the recording, but I'll use that cymbal at the live show", so at the live show, I try to pursue the movement more.

-You‘re a drummer who can go beyond. You mentioned that you bring the same cymbals and settings to your recordings as you do live?

Shinya: There are as many cymbals as there are live, but the tycoons are more like two thimbles, two toms and one floor. It's a set of two toms and one floor.

-I think it's important to be careful when making drum sounds.

Shinya: Yes, it is. The drums are the most important part of the sound. I leave it to the tuner. I asked the tuner to listen to a demo of a drum phrase that I typed in with my mouse, and then I asked him to create a drum sound that would fit the phrase. I didn't start working with the drum tuner on recordings until 2019 (The World of Mercy), and he also joined me on several occasions during the tour. The sound on that tour was so good that we started asking them to play on 'The World of Mercy'. It's easier to make a good sound in a live setting, but if the tuner can make a sound that I'm happy with, then I can trust him for the recording. For the recording of "Oboro", they tuned it to the sound I had imagined from the beginning.

-I get the impression that you always do your recordings without getting bogged down, but this time?

Shinya: Just like that. We also recorded the coupling song "T.D.F.F." at that time, but we didn't get stuck. But I recorded it part by part, so it took a bit longer. If I'm happy with the intro, I'll go on to the A melody, and so on, starting from the beginning of the song. It takes a lot of concentration to record each part. Also, sometimes the song isn't written until the day before, so I haven't memorised the phrases yet (laughs). The structure of "Oboro" wasn't even ready until the day before we recorded it. So when I played it, I put the recording side by side and concentrated on each part.

-What did you think of the coupling track "T.D.F.F."?

Shinya: I didn't change much in terms of drum phrases, but I tried to give it a bit more energy. As a result, there are a little less detailed snare phrases than on the original version.

-When you do a self-remake, do you tend to go in with a different stance than the original?

Shinya: It depends on how it's arranged. If the whole arrangement is completely different, I'll consider it a controversial piece and work on it. But basically, I try not to change the original phrases. When SUGIZO joined X JAPAN, he said, "Classical phrases are all different depending on the performer, even if the phrases are not changed“ . That's why SUGIZO said he was playing the same phrases as HIDE. That's why I want to show that although the phrases are the same, they are actually different.

-It's all luck. Even though the phrases are the same, each note is different, and this progression is the growth.

Shinya: Yes. It's a bit embarrassing to call it growth, but I think it's different even though it's the same phrase. But there are things that only the ward of that time could do, but there are also things that only the ward of today can do.

-What mode are you in as a drummer in 2021?

Shinya: I don't really think about it, I just want to play a good drum.

-When I started thinking about the phrases in Mouse, it was also the time when the Band started performing and touring overseas, and the Band's drummers and musicians that I played with at festivals and other events were always saying, "The drums in DIR EN GREY are so circular and amazing. I wondered if Shinya had some kind of special meaning behind the way he phrased the songs“ .

Shinya: Even if I say I've gone back, the way I put it on is completely different from back then. I was thinking of doing something complicated back then, but now I'm thinking of making it as simple as possible. I'm saying that now, but I think it will change depending on what kind of new songs I'm going to play. I'm going to release "Oboro" as a single, but I don't think you can see the spirit of the album from this song alone, in fact I think the album will have a completely different feel. In addition to "Oboro", the other songs on the album will have more impact in the direction of things. I may have done something uncomplicated before the drums... (laughs).

-By the way, today was the first time you met your fans in Osaka, are you getting more excited about the show?

Shinya: Yes, I am. We're going to play to an audience on May 6th, but after that we don't know what will happen. So I'm going to do it with the mindset that it might be my last live. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will be expressed in the actual live performance.

Text/ YUKINOBU HASEGAWA, HIROKI KATAGIRI [GiGS/Equipment]

Photo/ REISHI EGUMA [C-LOVe CREATORS]

Translations by me.

#Dir en grey #Dir en grey Shinya #Dir en grey translation #fan translation #interview translation #Shinya #GiGS #Oboro #Dir en grey Oboro #magazine

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vladdocs · 3 years

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Dracula's life from birth to 7 years by Lyzhina Svetlana Sergeevna (Лыжина Светлана Сергеевна) originally in Russian. http://samlib.ru/l/lyzhina_s_s/dracula_7.shtml In this article I have tried to collect ALL the information somehow related to the early childhood of Dracula, and the story of childhood always begins with the story of the birth, so that's where we'll start. When Dracula was born. The year of Dracula's birth is reported differently by different books. Some say 1429 and some say 1431, but all of these statements are based on the same facts. _ _ _ _ _ Fact 1 - Dracula had an older brother, about whom we know that in 1442 he was 13-14 years old. This is reported in Jean de Wavrin's "Anciennes Chroniques d'Angleterre". Fact 2 - Dracula first ascended the throne in November 1448 and began to rule without the help of a regent, which means that Dracula was already 17 years old at the time. _ _ _ _ _ These two facts are the basis of all the assumptions we find in various books, so it is not difficult to guess where the numbers 1429 and 1431 come from. If the elder brother of Dracula in 1442 was 13-14 years old, it turns out that this brother was born around 1428, which means that Dracula himself couldn't have been born before 1429. At the same time, if you count Dracula's age from the time of his first reign, that is, subtract 17 from 1448, you get 1431. By the way, that is why the birth of Dracula is often associated with another fact - the entry of Dracula's father into the Order of St. George (Order of the Dragon). It is presumed that the accession took place no later than January 1431, since in a letter dated February 8, 1431, drawn up in Nuremberg, Dracula's father, among other things, states that he enjoyed the support of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was the head of the Order. House in Sighisoara It is common knowledge that Dracula's early childhood was spent in the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara, where our hero lived with his father, mother and older brother until the fall of 1436, which means that at the time of his departure from the "land of childhood" Dracula was no more than 7.5 years old. How many memories could Dracula have of Sighisoara? About as many as each of us remembers of kindergarten and the first school bell. Is it a lot or not - you decide. The house where Dracula lived is located on the corner of Zhestianshchikov Street and Museum Square. Zhestvenshchikov Street is a historical name, and Museum Square was a street in the Middle Ages and, of course, was called differently. The most likely name is Blacksmith's, so you can imagine the sounds that little Dracula heard from morning to night. The mint in the house. It is also known that Dracula's father set up a sort of mint in the family nest. Special people came to the house and were engaged in minting gold money - the very coins with dragons, thanks to which Dracula's father got his nickname. The minting process and the coins themselves looked like this: https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../440.../0_acb55_83f50b94_orig Of course, the presence of unauthorized people in the house and the constant hammering of the stamp caused some inconvenience to the family, but it was impossible to move the "production" to another place, because only Dracula's father had the right to mint money, and in order to comply with legal formalities, he had to do it in his own territory. Frescoes in the house Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what Dracula's house looked like in the 15th century. What we see now is the 17th century, but many researchers believe that the house still has something that existed in the 15th century - a mural on the wall of the second floor. I read on the official website of House of Dracula that there were originally 4 people in the mural, although only 3 images have survived. It is believed that the "man in a turban" and the woman next to them are Dracula's parents, and to the right and left of them the artist depicted guests invited to the feast. That the fresco depicts four people, not three, is more than

likely, but the assumption that next to the owners of the house are depicted guests, I personally think wrong, because Dracula's parents, ordering a painting, would have preferred to see there not guests, but really close people, i.e. relatives. I think the mural was a family portrait, not just a sketch from life. The gray-bearded man on the right side of the fresco looks a lot like Dracula's maternal grandfather, the Moldovan sovereign Alexandru the Good. If I am right, the portrait on the opposite side, which is not preserved, belonged to the Romanian sovereign Mircea the Old, Dracula's paternal grandfather. https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../4400.../0_acb56_233d42a_orig By the way, there are other frescoes on the second floor, or rather remnants of frescoes. In some places we can see floral ornaments, and on the upper slopes of the windows we can see figures of some people, depicted waist-length and placed in round frames. Most likely, the frescoes on the slopes date from the 16th century, as the numbers 1576 are visible on one of them. The only thing we can say for sure is that these frescoes depict noble people. Near one of the images there is a figure of a two-headed eagle. Next to the other image is the inscription "archi..." (Latin: archiepiscopus - archbishop). In a third image, a woman's hairstyle and a richly patterned dress are clearly visible. https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../440.../0_acb57_354e446a_orig Services in the house Dracula's family was Orthodox, and the population of Sighisoara in the 15th century consisted almost entirely of Catholics, since at that time Transylvania did not belong to Romania, but to Hungary, a traditionally Catholic country. There were no Orthodox churches in Sighisoara at all, and this posed a serious problem for Dracula's father and mother. Dracula's parents were supposed to live a church life, which is possible only with the participation of a priest, who can take confession, baptize the newborn, etc. Dracula's parents lived in Hungary for many years - first at the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg, and then in Transylvania - and all this time were away from Orthodox parishes. For example, it is known that in the Middle Ages there were no Orthodox churches in the Hungarian capital. Such a temple appeared only at the end of the 15th century in the neighboring city - in Pest - and was a wooden church built by the Orthodox Serbian settlers. How did Dracula's parents deal with the issue of confession and baptism of their children? After all, someone had to baptize the newborn Dracula as well! Most likely, the parents, being well-to-do people, hired a certain Orthodox priest, who conducted home services, took confessions, etc. By the way, little Dracula, living in Sighisoara, is unlikely to have confessed, because in Orthodoxy all children under 7 years are considered absolutely sinless, and Dracula at the time of his move from Sighisoara to Romania was (recall) no more than 7.5 years. Dracula's first steps in comprehension of sciences If you believe the textbooks on the history of pedagogy, the basic principles of education since the Middle Ages have not changed so much. In the Middle Ages, as now, science was taught from the age of 7, but Dracula probably began learning a little earlier. The Dracula researcher M. Kazaku suggests that Dracula and his elder brother had teachers in common, as the difference in the age of the brothers was insignificant - two years maximum. If further to follow this logic, then it turns out that the older brother Dracula began to learn reading at age 7 as it should be, and Dracula was put in school at 6 or even 5 - just for the company, so that the younger brother did not hang around while the older one was sitting in class. All the textbooks on the history of pedagogy say that in the Middle Ages the teachers of the "book sciences" were from the church milieu. Even if it was to teach a child who was not prepared for a spiritual career, he was still taught by churchmen, because they were the most literate and educated class. By the way,

this is another argument in favor of the assumption that while Dracula's family was wandering around Catholic lands, an Orthodox priest lived there all the time. Dracula's parents needed this priest also because someone had to teach their children to read and write. In any case, we can say with absolute certainty that the literacy learned by the young Dracula was Slavic. He simply could not have been taught Romanian literacy, because it did not exist in the 15th century. If we look at the history of the Romanian language (old Romanian to be exact) we see that it was an oral language until the 16th century. The earliest known letter written in Romanian goes back to 1521 and is in Cyrillic script, because most of the official documents in Romania at the time were written in Slavonic and the liturgies were held in the same language. Exactly in Slavonic, not in Latin, as many people think for some reason! This gives us reason to believe that the little Dracula, as a child of an Orthodox family, studied first of all the Slavic letters, and not the Latin. It turns out that already at an early age Dracula knew three languages: - Romanian, because it was spoken in the family; - Hungarian, because the family lived in Hungarian lands; - Slavonic, because it was the starting point for literacy. It seems incredible that a child at such an early age could be taught a Slavic language - essentially a foreign language - but there is nothing surprising in all this. At a later time in the so-called "classical gymnasiums" young children had to learn two foreign languages at once - Greek and Latin - but no child died or went mad from this teaching. So could not the little Dracula learn the Slavic alphabet? That is, perhaps, all there is to it, and of Dracula's further maturing one can

#vlad tepes #vlad the impaler #dracula #early life of dracula #history #wallachia #Romania

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