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aoi-midori · 7 years

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Brotherhood Chapter 1

new chapter, new narrator. i’m really glad people liked the prologue, but this one is a lot more interesting imo. also it’s just more exciting overall. if you guys want to read the prologue but haven’t yet, or you have no idea what i’m talking about, i’m going to post the link here right before the read more!

Chapter 0 (Prologue)

Chapter 1: First Mission [Minami Cho]

I was thrilled to be back with ETMA after being gone for so long. It felt like I was waking up from a long-ass dream, only to find myself in a familiar setting again. I was finally at home.

The first few days back on base went pretty well in my opinion. Out of the twenty of us called in, fourteen were new to ETMA, so all we had been doing since then was training. A few of us, myself included, had each been training several of the others over the years, so everyone was pretty skilled when it came to using their powers. This exercise though was mainly thought of as an icebreaker, to get to know each other more. So all in all, things worked out well!

As for that day… Ugh, one thing that I definitely did not miss while I was gone was the early morning schedule. While I was away from ETMA training new recruits, I was in charge of the whole enchilada, so that meant that I could pick and choose all the training times and everything. Not anymore, I couldn’t! So that morning, I was forced to wake up at the crack of dawn, and it was a real pain in the ass.

“Hey! Cho, time to get up!”

I slowly opened my eyes and raised my head up to see my roommate, Sammie Phoenix, prodding me on the shoulder. “Ugh… What time is it?”

“Ehm…. About 7 AM?”

“... Oh hell.” I threw myself back into my pillow with the full intention of going back to sleep. But before I knew it, I was shivering all over - Sammie had pulled the covers off of me.

I put my arms around me and curled myself up into a ball as Sammie shook my shoulder. “Come on Cho, we’ve got to get moving!”

“Says who? And why the hell are you so damn chipper?”

“Shuuhei sent out the assignments for the first mission he’s having the mages go on. And we both got picked!”

“Oh yay… Woo,” I groggily gave her a high-five. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some more sleep.”

“You can’t go back to sleep, we have to leave!”

“Augh…” I turned over onto my side and looked her in the eye. “Right now?”

“Well… Shuuhei did say to meet him in the briefing room as soon as possible, so yeah.”

“Fuck.” She had me at the word ‘mission’. Despite how early it was, there was no way I could pass up the opportunity. After all, I was actually kind of hoping I’d get the first one anyway. So how could I say no?

“Alright, alright, I’m up.” It took me a few seconds, but I finally managed to sit up onto the mattress. Yawning, I raised my hands to my face and worked to rub the sand out of my eyes. “Augh, I can’t function this early in the morning, I don’t know how you do it.”

“Heh heh, well it just takes some getting used to. You’ll get back into the swing of things before you know it! Now how about this: you go ahead and get yourself ready while I’ll go and grab us some coffee. Sound good?”

“Sure, sure, fine. I’m goin’.” Even after Sammie had left, it took me about five more minutes for me to actually get out of bed. So I went through the usual morning routine - shower, hair, teeth, clothes - as fast as I could at 7 in the morning, which was definitely a lot slower than normal. And about 30-40 minutes later, Sammie and I were on our way to the base’s main building with hot coffee in our hands and a sports bag slung over my shoulder.

“Okay,” I took a swig of coffee as I pulled up Shuuhei’s e-mail on my phone. “Let’s see what we got here…”

And the e-mail was exactly what I expected it to be- a shit-ton of words. Shuuhei did love to ramble when it came to anything, but I didn’t have the time or the patience to read it all, so I just skipped down to the bottom to see everyone assigned to that mission. Sammie and I were there obviously, and so was Joe; including him, that made three veterans going on the mission. Then three of the new recruits were coming too: Al Smith, Emma Parker, and Ren Witten.

“Huh. Okay then…” I scrolled back up to the middle to find those three names in the team roster. I knew that Ren went way back with Shuuhei, Al was one of Joe’s kids, and I remembered Emma from training. But the thing I was looking for in the e-mail was their abilities. After each name, their ability and mage classification were also listed. And according to that…

Well, Al was a water Elemental; hadn't seen many of those in a while. Then Ren was a Tectonic with bio manipulation- didn’t know what the hell that was, but whatever. The thing that got me interested though was Emma’s. She was listed as a fire user, which would’ve been pretty normal if it weren’t for the one word right next to it: Tecmentic. As to how a fire user could be a Tecmentic in the first place, I didn’t have a clue, but I figured I’d find out soon enough.

It turned out that it’d be a lot sooner than I thought. Sammie and I had reached the briefing room, and Shuuhei was waiting for us in there along with both Al and Emma.

“Morning!” As soon as I walked in, Shuuhei brought out a box of doughnuts as if it were a peace offering. “I brought breakfast!”

I eyed him suspiciously. “Uh huh, I see what you’re doing here. Don’t think you can pull one over on me, Shuuhei.” Of course, I said that as I grabbed two doughnuts and stuffed one of ‘em into my mouth.

“I know, I know, but it’s the least I could do. The fact that you all got here early shows your dedication, so you deserve this!”

“Thanks. But goddammit Shuuhei, does the mission have to be this early in the morning?”

“Eh… Kind of, yeah. You’re going overseas for this one, so it’s absolutely necessary.”

With my mouth full of doughnut, I set my sports bag down on the floor and plopped down into the seat nearest him. “Figures.”

“Well… I guess you don’t necessarily have to go. I can always assign someone else to go in your place if you’d rather sleep-in.”

I shook my head vigorously. “No no no, I’m fine! It’s all good!” I still felt like I was gonna pass out any minute, but I sure as hell couldn’t let Shuuhei down. He specifically asked for me, so I was gonna do everything in my power to deliver.

“Alright, if you’re sure…”

I leaned back and slid down in my seat as I looked up at the clock on the wall to check the time. It was almost eight, but Joe and Ren still hadn’t shown up yet, so I figured I’d kill some time until then.

“So,” I looked over at Emma and caught her attention, “you’re a Tecmentic, huh?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, I guess I am! But I’m not sure what that means though…”

“Yeah, I’ve also been curious about that,” Al nodded his head as he pulled out his phone. My guess was that he was pulling up that e-mail of Shuuhei’s from earlier. “I know that these are supposed to be mage classifications, but could someone at least explain what those are exactly? We weren’t really told anything when we first got here.”

“That is an excellent question!” I became fully alert when Shuuhei spoke. I had always dreaded hearing those words from him. “Now where should I start… Oh, right! You see, the magi-society-”

I bolted out of my chair and shoved my hand over his mouth before he could say anything else. “Don’t even think about it!”

“Come on Cho!” Shuuhei actually managed to say that and still be loud enough to hear despite having his mouth covered. “I have a really good answer for this!”

“Hell no. No one wants to hear your dissertation on ‘the Fundamentals of Mage Classification.’ We’d be stuck here for days if we let you talk!”

“But-”

“No buts! If anyone’s gonna do the talking, it’s gonna be me.” I figured we were safe at this point, so I moved my hand away. “So pipe down already!”

“Aw…” Not surprisingly, Shuuhei looked pretty disappointed there. “Well, alright.”

“Thank you.” I turned away from him to face Emma and Al. “Okay, so think back to training- both from the past few days and with Joe. You use your powers, but at some point you reach your limit and start getting really tired and can’t use your powers anymore. Am I right?”

“Yeah…” Al nodded, “But then eventually you gain all that energy back.”

“Yep, that’s right. But here’s the question you should be asking here: how? Where does all of that energy come from?”

Both of their faces were blank, which was my cue to grab a dry-erase marker and start drawing on the whiteboard. “Mage abilities are typically powered by three different sources. And as such, it’s these sources where the classifications come from.”

I started off by drawing five small circles grouped together, each one labeled with the thing it represented. “First up are these guys- the Element Spheres. There’s some big myth about it, but I’ll spare you the details, unlike somebody I know.” I looked over at Shuuhei to get my point across before turning back to Al and Emma. “Anyway, the gist of it is that the Element Spheres supposedly carry all of Earth’s magical energy or somethin’.”

I pointed with my marker to each of the circles on the board. “Each sphere represents one of the classical elements: fire, water, earth, wind, energy. So naturally, it’s these guys that power up mages with elemental abilities. It’s kinda obvious really. But yeah, we call these guys ‘Elementals’. They’re probably the most common type of mage around to be honest, since there’re so many of ‘em out there.”

"Okay," Al raised his hand slightly, “so would that also apply to mages with abilities that aren’t one of those five elements in particular? Like my dad, for instance? He can control darkness, so…?”

“Basically saying, yeah. I mean, you’re gonna have a lot of stuff that branches off from one of those main five elements. Like sand. Sand is another form of earth, and I know at least one person who can control plants. And then darkness is definitely a sub-form of energy… Point being, Elementals are really common.”

The second thing I drew was my lousy representation of the earth. “Okay, mage type number 2 is the Tectonic. They’re powered by… you guessed it- plate tectonics. Don’t ask me why, that’s just how it is. Anyway, Tectonic mages have abilities that have something to do with the physical body, whether they affect themselves or other people. More often than not, the user is affecting their own body.”

“Like my brother, right?" Emma spoke up this time. "I think the e-mail said that he was one…”

“Your brother? Yeah, let’s see…” I quickly looked through that e-mail again and found his name in the list. “Will Parker, right? Ah, so he’s an endurance-type, interesting… Yep, that definitely fits! He’s basically like a tank; you know, super resistant to physical and magi-attacks and all that. Pretty convenient!”

“But anyway, there’s a lot of variety when it comes to Tectonic abilities. Super speed, invisibility, shape-shifting, and a whole lot of other things. They’re not as common as Elementals, but still pretty common all the same.”

Then I went on to draw some stars and a few bigger circles. “The last source is the stars and planets, and they’re responsible for powering up Psychics. These are the guys with ESP. So telepathy, precognition- all of those’ll fall under that. And Psychics are pretty rare compared to Elementals and Tectonics. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but most of the Psychics you’ll come across will likely be top-notch. Heh, I actually have a friend who’s a Psychic. Really powerful and all that! But she hasn’t been around for a while…”

I didn’t know why I mentioned that in the first place. All of a sudden, it just came right out of my mouth without me even realizing it. And then there I was, thinking about her along with those other two friends of mine all over again. ‘Seph, Hans, Derek- how long had it been since I’d heard their voices, seen them smiling, laughing? I really missed those days, but nothing was the same anymore, not since that time…

It was Al’s voice that brought me back to reality. “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” I grasped the back of my neck and massaged it gently. “Sure sure, I’m fine.”

Sammie saw right through me though. Before I could say anything else, she placed her hand on my shoulder. “I’ll take it from here,” she whispered into my ear.

I nodded and handed the marker over to Sammie. As she continued the mini-lecture, I moved away from the whiteboard to sit down on top a nearby table. After taking one long sip of coffee, I noticed Shuuhei standing there in front of me. Despite that blindfold hiding his eyes, I could easily tell the look he gave me was an understanding one.

He handed me another doughnut. “Here.”

I took it almost immediately. “Thanks.”

Shuuhei sat down next to me as I took one huge bite from the doughnut. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know… I mean, it’s been seven years since the incident. That should be more than enough time for me to move on and shit, but I still haven’t been able to get over it. And it’s like everyone completely disappeared off the face of the earth! ‘Seph I could care less about, but Hans and Derek? It’s been ages since I’ve heard from them, and I haven’t been able to get in contact with them at all!”

More doughnut and more coffee. “It’s just so damn frustrating. They were my best friends, and now they’re all gone. You and Sammie are all that I’ve got left.”

There really wasn’t much else to say about it, at least with Shuuhei. He knew, he’d heard it all many times before this, and he listened every time I brought it up. Because of that, I could always rely on him when I needed that kind of support.

True to form, Shuuhei wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled himself closer so that our sides were touching. “Well, there isn’t a whole lot I can say that’ll make you cheer up, but things like this definitely take a long time to finally move on from. And I know I’ve told you this about a hundred times already, but I’m always here for you. If you ever need to talk about anything, you just say the word. I’ll drop whatever I’m doing if it’s you.”

That was exactly what I needed to hear. I leaned in against him and rested my head onto his shoulder. “Thanks Shuuhei.”

We just sat there in silence for a few minutes, eyes closed and leaning against each other. Then eventually Sammie spoke to us after finishing up with the mini-lecture. “Hey, what time were we supposed to start again Shuuhei?”

“Around eight. We’re just waiting on Joe and Ren now.”

“Well, this is Dad we’re talking about,” Al sighed as he checked his phone again. “If it’s after eight, then he’ll probably be here any minute.”

And sure enough, as if right on cue, Joe appeared in the doorway. “Good Morning! I hope I didn’t keep everyone waiting too long!”

Al rolled his eyes without even looking up from his phone. “And what do you know, there he is now.”

Coming in after Joe was a girl with short brown hair and blue eyes, and I assumed that this had to be Ren. “Sorry Shuuhei! I wanted to be here like fifteen minutes earlier, but someone just couldn’t be bothered to leave until after eight o’ clock.”

“Oh come on, I’m just having some fun. Relax!” Joe clapped her on the back. “You’re way too uptight.”

Ren sighed as she sat down in the chair opposite me and Shuuhei. “Maybe. But if there’s a specific time that I need to be somewhere, I like to get there ahead of schedule and not be late!”

“Don’t worry about it Ren, it’s not a big deal,” Shuuhei assured her. “And now that everyone’s here, let’s get down to it, shall we?”

We both stood up; while I found the chair with my sports bag and sat back down, Shuuhei remained standing. “So, we’re takin’ down a Chang-Lo op?”

“Yes,” Shuuhei nodded. “Over the past several weeks, we’ve been working to stop one particular operation of theirs involving illegal drug manufacturing. We’ve been able to uncover most of their distribution facilities and take those out, but recently there have been a few problems concerning that.”

“Meaning Melisma?”

“Yes, exactly. While those missions were successful in the long run, our agents had started to struggle completing them efficiently once Melisma mages came into the picture. And that was only with about two or three mages stationed at each facility.”

“But anyway, back to your mission. Just the other day, we finally found the location of their main factory, where they actually make the drugs. I’m almost positive that this place will be very heavily guarded with Melisma mages, so that’s why I’m sending the six of you to do this.”

“So, what do you need us to do exactly?” Sammie asked him. “Are we actually going to be destroying the factory?”

“No no, that shouldn’t be necessary.” Then he looked over in my direction. “I mean, as long as the source of the drugs has been taken care of, then that should be satisfactory enough, I think.”

I nodded. “I gotcha. So you want me to find the source and blow it all up, am I right?”

“That’s the idea.”

I smiled and got to my feet, slinging that sports bag of mine over my shoulder. “Well, blowing stuff up is my specialty! So what’re we waitin’ for?”

“Right,” Shuuhei looked between the six of us. “Well, if there aren’t any other questions, then let’s get to it.”

He pulled out from his pocket a light-blue sphere about the size of a golf ball, which Sammie, Joe and I all knew was a portal sphere. Ren at least looked a tiny bit familiar with it, while Emma and Al, unsurprisingly, had never seen anything like it before. Shuuhei caught on to that too, since he immediately went to use it and made… a portal to our destination. “A portal sphere,” he showed them before pocketing it again. “It makes travelling instantaneous! Pretty neat, huh?”

Emma nodded very enthusiastically as she followed Sammie and Ren towards the portal and stuck her head in. “Whoa, yeah! This is awesome!”

“Yep, it sure is!” Joe then motioned to Shuuhei. “And I’ve got my own for the trip back, so don’t worry about us.”

“Noted.”

“Wait a minute,” Al stopped just before the portal and turned to face Joe. “You have one?”

“Yeah. I’ve had it for several years actually.”

“.... Well if that’s the case, then why did we have to take a plane to get here?! We could’ve just used that!”

Joe turned Al back around and guided him to the portal. “I figured that it would be better if we got to spend some more quality time together. You understand, right?”

“Augh, whatever, I don’t care. Just don’t mention it to Lex, okay? She’ll be pissed as hell if she finds out.”

Eventually, it was just me and Shuuhei in the room. “Are you sure you can handle this one?” Shuuhei asked me with a concerned look. “You did only just get back and all…”

“Shuuhei, relax! I’ve got this!” I pulled the strap of my sports bag up a little to draw his attention to it. “This baby should take care of everything!”

“Alright then. Well, good luck! And just call me if you need anything, okay?”

“You got it!” I gave him a thumbs up before stepping through the portal myself and joining back up with the others. Then as soon as the portal closed up behind me, I took a look around our new surroundings.

The six of us had come out onto the roof of a large run-down looking building, apparently in the middle of nowhere. It was nighttime, so we had to be in Asia, most likely somewhere in China since it was the Chang-Los we were dealing with here. “Okay,” I sighed as I placed a hand on my hip. “Now where can we drop down…”

“There’s an open window over here!” Ren was crouched down near the edge of the roof and was looking down the building’s backside.

The rest of us approached her quietly. “Is it wide enough to pass through?” Joe asked.

“I’ll check, hang on.” She climbed down so that she was hanging from the roof, and then she swung herself through the window. After a few seconds of silence, she poked her head back out and nodded.

One by one, the rest of us out there did what Ren did and climbed down carefully until we were all safely inside the building. The window we had just come through was part of a bare empty room that we all soon left in any case. Soon enough, we came out onto a metal walkway that wrapped around the entire inside of the building. Down below on the ground level were a whole lot of machinery along with a couple of guards patrolling the area.

“Okay,” Sammie whispered, “So how do we want to go about this? Keep the stealth game up?”

Joe shook his head. “No, I think we’d be better off if we just go in guns ablazing. Besides, the Chang-Los aren’t a threat here, but Melisma is, so we’re going to need to find those mages as quickly as possible.”

“Alright,” I fingered the strap of my sports bag, “what do ya got in mind?”

“We should split up.” He gestured to himself, Al and Emma. “I’ll take these two, and we’ll act as the distraction and flush out the enemy, get as many of them onto us as possible. Then you guys can go for the drug source without too much trouble.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Al looked over the railing. “So how should we get their attention then?”

“Leave it to me.” Not even a second later, Emma had sent a fireball down to the ground, and boom- all the nearby machinery had caught on fire.

“Works for me.” Al followed Emma over the railing and down to the ground level.

Then Joe climbed onto the railing himself. “Well, good luck!”

“Yeah, you too. Don’t be too rough on those guys!”

As he jumped down after Emma and Al, Ren called down to him. “Be careful, alright?!”

“Sure, sure!”

Making sure my sports bag was secure, I started running down the metal walkway along with Ren and Sammie. “Okay! So where should we look first?!”

Sammie was the first to come up with something. “Well, this is supposed to be a factory, right?! Whatever we’re looking for is probably going to be in some kind of big container, or tank, or something like that! And it would definitely be on the bottom floor for safety reasons!”

“Alright, so we’re lookin’ for some huge-ass tank then, sounds good to me! But we should probably get as close to the other side before heading down there! We don’t wanna get in Joe’s way!” And as if right on cue, we could hear screaming enemy guards beneath us followed by lots and lots of fire.

“I’ll scout on ahead!” And just like that, Ren was dashing off at the speed of light.

We couldn’t argue with that. So Sammie and I kept pressing on down the walkway at our own pace. We ran into a few Chang-Los along the way, but they were a cinch to take care of; we didn’t even break a sweat. But something was just a little off.

Looked like Sammie thought so too. “Okay, I know that most of the guards are going to be downstairs, but why haven’t we seen anyone from Melisma yet?! You’d think they’d come for us right off the bat, right?!”

It seemed that we were tempting fate there, because right that second some flying guy appeared a few feet in front of us. “Ah, there we go!” I stopped in my tracks and got the Melisma grunt’s attention. “Hey you! Ya wanna fight, let’s go then!”

Sure enough, he came right for me. I was ready for him though. But before I could make my move, Ren came right out of nowhere and jumped straight onto the guy from above. And then just like that, she shoved him face down onto the walkway.

“Aww, come on! I was gonna get that guy!”

“We don’t have time! Let’s just get this thing over with!” Then she motioned for us to follow her. “Come on, this way! There’s a stairwell up ahead!”

We did as she said and followed her down said stairwell so that we were finally on the ground floor. And luckily for us, there just so happened to be a giant tank right there in the center.

But before we could get to that, we had to take care of some minor nuisances first. Some more Melisma grunts had shown up, including one who could control wind. Anyway, this guy sent some wind blasts my way, which to my disappointment was not even enough to shift my footing.

I shook my head very unimpressed. “You call that wind? Here’s some real wind!” I retaliated by sending a mini tornado at the guy, and it swept him up along with a few of his friends in the process. Anyway, the thing sent them flying aways back, leaving my path to the drug tank perfectly clear.

“Alright you guys, cover for me for a minute, will ya?!” I shouted over my shoulder to Sammie and Ren. “Also, once this thing blows, we’ve gotta hightail it outta here, got that?!”

“Sure thing!” Sammie replied. “I’ve got your back!”

“Thanks!” Then I went to work. I knelt down on one knee as I let the strap of my sports bag slide down into the nook of my arm. I unzipped the bag, and without further ado, I pulled out my primary weapon of choice: the green bazooka.

“Augh, the blowback’s gonna be a bitch, but who gives a shit about that now?” After pushing the now-empty sports bag back over my shoulder, I braced myself as I took the bazooka and aimed at the tank. I didn’t know how tough or sturdy that thing was, so I figured multiple shots should probably do the trick. Also, the tank itself was still pretty far away, so we’d definitely have enough time to make a break for it.

Without wasting any time, I fired three consecutive shots of energy, and a few seconds later, they gave me that explosion I’d been hopin’ for. I quickly got back up with the bazooka in hand and shouted out to the other two. “Okay you guys, let’s move it!”

They didn’t need to be told twice. The Melisma grunts scrammed once the tank blew, which left me, Sammie and Ren free to head back to the other side of the facility where the rest of our group was at. We were probably about half way there when all of a sudden, some sort of shockwave hit the ground and sent the three of us flying, through the nearest window and several feet all the way outside.

“Owww,” I groaned as I slowly got back up on my feet. Surprisingly enough, the bazooka hadn’t been blown out of my hand. “How’s everyone?!”

“Okay, I guess!” Sammie replied with a wave of her hand. She had been able to break her fall with some sort of rock wall, so she didn’t look too bad.

Ren, on the other hand…. Well, we had landed pretty close to each other, and the first thing I noticed when I went to check up on her was that her foot was bent backwards. “Holy shit, are you alright?!”

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine! Don’t worry!” She went to touch her injured foot and, wincing, was able to twist it back into place. And then at the same time, any scratches or bruises she had previously gotten were now completely gone. “There, see? Good as new!”

“Well, okay, if you say so.”

Sammie then joined us and looked back over towards the facility. “What was that anyway? It couldn’t have been from the explosion, could it?”

Ren shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure someone did that deliberately.”

“Well whoever it was, they just pissed off the wrong person!” I marched forward a few steps and fired the bazooka at the building, not even caring where I hit it. It ended up blasting a huge hole in the wall, which worked out just fine for me. Who the fuck cared about property damage anyway? Not this chick, that was for sure!

In no time at all, the three of us made it back to the building, and with me taking the lead, I stepped through the hole back inside. “Alright, who the hell did that?!”

I spotted Joe, Al and Emma right away, and then not too far away from them were two other guys. My guess was that one of them was responsible for the shockwave earlier. “You two! Who’re you, and what do you-”

Then I saw their faces. I hadn’t seen them for years, but I recognized them immediately. “... H-Hans? Derek?”

It was them alright, no doubt about it. And they sure looked surprised to see me too. “Cho?! Hey! Long time, no see!” Hans was beaming and waved at me, but Derek looked on edge. It was as if he didn’t want us to have met, and that got me suspicious.

I kept a firm grip on the bazooka as I took another step forward towards the pair of them. “What are you guys doing here anyway?!”

“Hm? Oh, well we heard there was some trouble over here, so we came over as fast as we could to help out!”

Again, that look on Derek’s face was making me a bit uneasy, and for good reason. I hadn’t heard from them in ages, and now of all times they decide to show up? Without any warning at that. Something was up…

I raised the bazooka and pointed it in their direction. “No, this is a Chang-Lo operation. So what are you doing here?”

The smile on Hans’ face faded, and he moved to scratch the back of his head- the one surefire way to tell when he was anxious. “Well, you see, umm….”

That got me thinking. They had come there to help? But how did they know about what was going on there? Unless…

“A-are you with Melisma?”

It was then that both of their faces went pale. “We need to leave,” I heard Derek mutter to Hans.

“Wait, what? B-but what about Cho?”

“We can’t stay now, we’ve said too much.”

“Hey! Are you with Melisma?! Answer me!”

As soon as I started making my way towards them, a portal appeared behind them. Then I noticed Derek holding a portal sphere. “We need to go. Right now!” He pushed Hans through before he could say anything else.

“Hey wait! We’re not done here yet, get back here dammit!”

I was too late. By the time I had reached the place where the portal was, it had already closed up behind Derek. They were gone.

From somewhere behind me, I heard Joe whip out his phone and dial a certain number. “Shuuhei? Yeah, we’ve got a problem. No no, the mission was successful, but we weren’t able to apprehend anyone. Well, because… Hans and Derek interfered, and it turns out that they’re with Melisma now.”

All I could do was stand there, staring at the spot where the two of them had been seconds earlier. At first, I couldn’t place my head around it. Why the hell would they join Melisma in the first place? They had been with ETMA for so long, and even after they left, they still had some incentive to come back one day. But then for some reason, they just abandoned that idea and went off to join an enemy organization. So why…

But then it got me thinking. While I was sure they still held a lot of respect for Shuuhei, there could only be one explanation for them joining Melisma that made any sense to me at all. Maybe they didn’t join because it was an enemy organization. What if it was because of someone they really cared about? Derek’s behavior pretty much confirmed my suspicions for me. He looked uneasy because he knew that whatever their reasoning for joining was, I wouldn’t like one bit.

What if, the leader of Melisma was… “‘Seph.”

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FEEDBACK GUYS. PLS PLS OH PLSSSSSSSS.

#my story #my ocs #my minami cho #my bhood ch1 #pretty sure i'm gonna keep this trend up #i have seven chapters written so far so i'll post a chapter each day until chapter 7 #i'm working on 8 right now #and i actually got quite a bit done with that today so i'm proud

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accidentalajumma · 3 years

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Warning: Tsunami talk.

I was reading the reports of the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which prompted me to buy Richard Lloyd Parry's Ghosts of the Tsunami, one of the most powerful books I have read in a very long time. Be warned it is, unsurprisingly, emotionally heavy going, focusing on what happened at Okawa Elementary School, where 74 kids and 10 teachers died. (In total, only 351 out of more than 18,000 victims of the earthquake were children. Of those, only 75 were in the care of their teachers at the time. All but one died at Okawa Elementary.)

I am kind of hung up on that disaster because I was in Tokyo on that day, on the 36th floor of a building that rocked like a ship in rough weather. Nothing bad actually happened to us, though the following two weeks were one of the most anxious times in my life thanks to the Fukushima disaster. But my proximate experience, tiny as it was in comparison with anything that people on the north east coast and in Fukushima suffered, makes me sensitive to anything about that disaster.

I have also been watching a bunch of the videos that people took of the tsunami, which continue absolutely to shock me with just how powerful that thing was. Literal obliteration. (The link is to a YouTube video of the tsunami hitting Minami Sanriku Cho. The first 6 minutes or so show basically all the buildings getting completely pulverized into matchsticks.)

Horrifying.

#tsunami #great east japan earthquake

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ocsandallthatjazz · 3 years

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Haikyuu!! OCs

Name: Masami Nekomata

Face Claim: Arden Cho

Love Interest: Ukai Keishin

Story title: Look at Me Now

Summary: tbd

Name: Nana Yonamine

Face Claim: Minami Gessel

Love Interest: Ennoshita Chikara

Story title: The Good Things

Summary: tbd

Name: Sachie Ohto

Face Claim: Minami Hamabe

Love Interest: (eventual) Sakusa Kiyoomi

Story title: tbd

Summary: tbd

Name: Thalia Yates

Face Claim: Daisy Clementine Smith

Love Interest Kuroo Tetsurou

Story title: Be My Baby Tonight

Summary: tbd

#*housekeeping #*masterlist

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yurimother · 5 years

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KyoAni President: “Kyoto Animation Will Not Give Up”

Kyoto Animation posted a message on their website “to everyone in the world” on July 29, 2019. The statement was posted in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and German. That message reads:

An unprecedented atrocity has robbed many of our friends and colleagues of their bright futures and has left many deeply injured. News from all over the world tells us that amazingly many number of people has sent us their hearts and prayers, which are like candles in the darkness, for those of us trapped in the darkness of deepest grief. There are many friends and colleagues who are hospitalized and suffering, fighting for their lives. Please give us some time. We promise that Kyoto Animation will continue to create animation that help people have dreams, hope and impress them. Kyoto animation will continue to make its employees and staff lead happy lives, and contribute to society and local community. I assure you that Kyoto Animation will not give up, we will not go quietly into the night...we will not vanish without a fight!

Kyoto Animation Co. CEO Hideaki Hatta

Notably, in this statement, Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta thanked the world for their support, requested that everyone give the studio time, and promised that Kyoto Animation would continue to create animation.

This statement follows a horrific fire at Kyoto Animation’s 1st Studio building in Kyoto Japan, killing 35 people and injuring 33 others on July 18. A 41-year-old man was arrested as a suspect and the fire is being investigated as arson.

This suspected attack was the largest massacre in Japan since the Myojo 56 building fire in 2001, which claimed 44 lives, and the second-largest overall since World War II.

I will continue to send Kyoto Animation my heart and prayers, those “candles in the darkness” and encourage you to do so as well. If you want to make a monetary donation to help support the studio and victims of this horrific attack you can send money to the following bank account set up by Kyoto Animation:

Bank Name: The Kyoto Shinkin Bank Swift: KYSBJPJZ Branch Name: Minami Momoyama Branch Branch Number: 048 Address: 16-50, Yosai, Momoyama-cho, Hushimi-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-hu, 612-8016, Japan Account Number: 0002890 Account Holder: Kyoto Animation, Co., Ltd., representative director Hatta Hideaki

I hope that everyone at Kyoto Animation takes the time that they need and I will look forward to their efforts to “continue to create animation that helps people have dreams, hope, and impress them.” I can think of no better way of celebrating those lost and their legacy than to continue their amazing work.

Sources: Kyoto Animation Website

#news #kyoto animation #kyoani #anime #kyoto #japan #fire #arson #kyoto animation fire

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harudokuro-traducciones · 4 years

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ZONE OF OVERLAP (Español)

Intérprete: ŹOOĻ Isumi Haruka (CV. Hirose Yuuya), Inumaru Touma (CV. Kimura Subaru), Natsume Minami (CV. Nishiyama Koutarou), Mido Torao (CV. Kondou Takashi)

Single: Bang!Bang!Bang!

Fecha de lanzamiento: 15 enero 2020

ZONE OF OVERLAP ZONA DE SUPERPOSICIÓN

さあ DARK NIGHT　身にまとって Saa DARK NIGHT mi ni matotte Vamos, vístete con la oscura noche

漆黒の夜を遊べ Shikkoku no yoru o asobe Y juega con la noche negra azabache

［SHOW ME NOW, SHOW ME NOW, BEYOND THE WORLD］［Muéstrame ya, muéstrame ya, más allá del mundo］

さあ BRAVE ACT　踊れ騒げ Saa BRAVE ACT odore sawage Vamos, actúa valiente, baila y haz ruido

欲望のままに YES, HERE WE GO！ Yokubou no mama ni YES, HERE WE GO! Justo como lo desees, ¡Sí, aquí vamos!

'ちょちょちょ、シケた面じゃツラみ “Cho cho cho, shiketa tsura ja tsurami “Una cara tan vacía y adolorida

炙り出しなよイケたエモーション Aburidashi na yo iketa emooshon Que logró revelar emociones

LOOKING FOR LOVE？ HATE？ ¿Buscando amor? ¿Odio?

OR VENTURE ¿O aventurarse?

求めてんだ HUMAN NATURE' Motometenda HUMAN NATURE” Buscando cuál es la naturaleza humana”

流行りの何かみたいに移ろい消えてく［WHY？］ Hayari no naka mitai ni utsuroi kieteku［WHY？］ Parece como algo que está de moda y luego desaparece［¿Por qué?］

定義を教えようか？ PLEASE TEACH ME Teigi o oshieyou ka? PLEASE TEACH ME ¿Vamos a darle una definición? Por favor, enséñame

JUST MAYBE... Sólo quizá...

過去と現在(いま)がオーバーラップしてんだずっと Kako to ima ga oobaarappu shitenda zutto El pasado y el presente siempre se superponen

侘しい怒りを [OH, LIKE SADNESS] Wabishii ikari o [OH, LIKE SADNESS] Gritando exageradamente [Oh, como la tristeza]

大袈裟に叫んで Oogesa ni sakende Esta miserable ira

虚しさなんて感じる前に荒ぶりゃいいよ Munashisa nante kanjiru mae ni araburya ii yo Así que está bien ser un poco salvaje antes de que me sienta vacío

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

さあ DARK CLOUD　オレを試せ Saa DARK CLOUD ore o tamese Vamos, pruébame, nube oscura

画期的　革命起こそう Kakkiteki kakumei okosou Vamos a despertar una revolución sin precedentes

［SHOW ME NOW, SHOW ME NOW, BEYOND THE WORLD］［Muéstrame ya, muéstrame ya, más allá del mundo］

さあ BRAVE SONG　響く声は Saa BRAVE SONG hibiku koe wa Vamos, una canción valiente resuena en nuestra voz

切望の誓い YES, HERE WE GO！ Setsubou no chikai YES, HERE WE GO! Y es la promesa de un deseo desesperado, ¡Sí, aquí vamos!

満たされない気持ち [HUNGRY] Mitasarenai kimochi [HUNGRY] Con sentimientos insatisfechos [hambrientos]

喉はカラカラだ [THIRSTY] Nodo wa kara kara da [THIRSTY] Mi garganta está seca [sedienta]

興奮で CLICK　潤そう QUICK Koufun de CLICK uruosou QUICK Y con un click de emoción, nos enriquecemos rápidamente

こんな場所(とこ)で終わる様な気質じゃないだろ [NO] Konna toko de owaru youna kishitsu janai daro [NO] No es como si mi espíritu terminará en un lugar como este [NO]

さざめきと歓声を GIVE ME SOME MORE Sazameki to kansei o GIVE ME SOME MORE Dame un poco más de ese alboroto y esos gritos de alegría

I KNOW RIGHT Yo sé bien

現在(いま)と未来がオーバーラップしてんだずっと Ima to mirai ga oobaarappu shitenda zutto Que el presente y el futuro siempre se superponen

殴り書いた MY SKETCH [OH, LIKE WEAKNESS] Naguri kaita MY SKETCH [OH, LIKE WEAKNESS] Y si pudiera exponer [oh, como la debilidad]

提示できたなら Teiji de kita nara Mi bosquejo garabateado,

どんな傷でも必要だって思えんのかな Donna kizu demo hitsuyou datte omoen no ka na? ¿Crees que cualquier herida es necesaria?

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

さあ DARK NIGHT　身にまとって Saa DARK NIGHT mi ni matotte Vamos, vístete con la oscura noche

漆黒の夜を遊べ Shikkoku no yoru o asobe Y juega con la noche negra azabache

［SHOW ME NOW, SHOW ME NOW, BEYOND THE WORLD］［Muéstrame ya, muéstrame ya, más allá del mundo］

さあ BRAVE ACT　踊れ騒げ Saa BRAVE ACT odore sawage Vamos, actúa valiente, baila y haz ruido

欲望のままに YES, HERE WE GO！ Yokubou no mama ni YES, HERE WE GO! Justo como lo desees, ¡Sí, aquí vamos!

誰にも [TO YOU...] Dare ni mo [TO YOU...] No quiero perder [a ti...]

負けたくない [TO ME...] Maketakunai [TO ME...] Ante nadie [a mí...]

高い塔へと上っていく Takai tou e to nobotte iku Voy a subir una torre muy alta

誰にも [TO YOU...] Dare ni mo [TO YOU...] Y no dejaré que nadie [a ti...]

邪魔させない [TO ME...] Jama sasenai [TO ME...] Se interponga [a mí...]

全てをこの手に掴むまで... AH YEAH... Subete o kono te ni tsukamu made… AH YEAH... Hasta que tome todo con mis manos… Ah yeah...

どんな傷でも必要だって思えるように Donna kizu demo hitsuyou datte omoeru you ni Como si creyera que cualquier herida es necesaria

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

さあ DARK CLOUD　オレを試せ Saa DARK CLOUD ore o tamese Vamos, pruébame, nube oscura

画期的　革命起こそう Kakkiteki kakumei okosou Vamos a despertar una revolución sin precedentes

［SHOW ME NOW, SHOW ME NOW, BEYOND THE WORLD］［Muéstrame ya, muéstrame ya, más allá del mundo］

さあ BRAVE SONG　響く声は Saa BRAVE SONG hibiku koe wa Vamos, una canción valiente resuena en nuestra voz

切望の誓い YES, HERE WE GO！ Setsubou no chikai YES, HERE WE GO! Y es la promesa de un deseo desesperado, ¡Sí, aquí vamos!

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

疲れも知らないで　[踊れ騒げもっと] Tsukare mo shiranai de [odore sawage motto] Sin saber qué es estar cansado [baila y haz ruido, aún más]

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

操ろう THIS OVERLAP　[踊れ騒げもっと] Ayatsurou THIS OVERLAP [odore sawage motto] Manipulemos esta superposición [baila y haz ruido, aún más]

[HI BOY, SO WHATEVER YOU LIKE] [Hola chico, bien, lo que sea que te guste]

HERE WE GO！ ¡Aquí vamos!

Apoya comprando el original

#Ainana #Idolish7 #zool

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missmyloko · 5 years

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What’s In a Book? Part 29

While going through my collection I managed to find a few books that have yet to be featured on here yet. I decided to go with this one as, upon further review, I noticed that it actually contained a wealth of information that I had previously ignored ^^;

Image of book’s cover courtesy of myself. Hana Akari: Showa Meigiren (はなあかり: 昭和名妓連) - Brilliant Flowers: The Showa Period’s Finest Geisha by Kobunshi Katsura (桂小文枝) (ISBN Unknown). Date of Publication: 1988 Language: Japanese and English (Some Essays and Names Only) Format: Hardcover Availability: Can be found up for auction on a fairly regular basis Price: Anywhere from $30 - $80 Errors: 0 This book is interesting, and that’s putting it mildly. Basically, it provides us with some of the best raw data for its time: The names of the most prominent geisha in each district of each city across all of Japan. It is a literal who’s who guide to the karyukai across the country in the late 1980s and is illuminating both in small essays that can be found at the front and back of the book explaining various schools and styles, but especially because it provides us with images, most in full color, of these amazing women. The book overall is divided into regions which are then broken down further from there. The regions, cities, and districts of each named geisha are: Part 1: Hokkaido (北海道) Set 1: Asahikawa (旭川) - Kofune (小舟) Set 2: Sapporo (札幌) - Onobu (お信), Itoko (い登子), Izumi (いづみ), and Charako (茶良子) Set 3: Otaru (小樽) - Komomo (小桃), Mametarō (豆太郎), Kiku (㐂久), and Gorō (吾朗) Set 4: Muroran (室蘭) - Chonko (﹅子) Set 5: Hakodate (函館) - Nantoki (喃登希) and Kohide (小ひで) Part 2: Tohoku (東北) Set 1: Morioka (盛岡) - Tsutamaru (都多丸) Set 2: Hanamaki (花巻) - Kimiko (君子) and Keiko (桂子) Set 3: Aomori (青森) - Chame (茶目) Set 4: Yamagata (山形) - Kochō (小蝶) and Kinta (金太) Set 5: Akita (秋田) - Chiyogiku (千代菊) Set 6: Obara (小原) - Ikkyū (一休), Aki (秋), and Kogiku (小菊) Set 7: Fukushima (福島) - Sakura (さくら) and Hidemi (秀美) Part 3: Kanto (関東) Set 1: Takasaki (高崎) - Kiyoko (清子) Set 2: Kusatsu (草津) - Sankoma (三駒) and Harumi (春美) Set 3: Sarugakyo (猿ヶ京) - Kikutaro (菊太郎), Koshizu (小��) Set 4: Minakami (水上) - Yutaka (ゆたか) Set 5: Oyama (大山) - Kunika (くに香) Set 6: Tokyo (東京) - Fumie (冨美江) and Wakaryū (若龍) Set 7: Yugawara (湯河原) - Okame (お加目), Matsue (松栄), and Taeko (多恵子) Part 4: Chubu (中部) Set 1: Niigata (新潟) - Chiyogiku (千代菊) Set 2: Takada (高田) - Kazuko (加津子) Set 3: Shibata (新発田) - Renko (れん子) Set 4: Kamidayamadatogura (上山田戸倉) - Senryū (泉竜), Suzuyakko (鈴奴), Saizō (才三), and Utamaru (歌丸) Set 5: Kamisuwa (上諏訪) - Chiyomaru (千代丸) Set 6: Isawa (石和) - Miki (美樹) and Koyakko (小奴) Set 7: Kōfu (甲府) - Misako (美佐子), Kimika (君香), and Hisayo (久代) Set 8: Inuyama (犬山) - Misako (みさ子) Set 9: Hamamatsu (浜松) - Gonza (権三), Ichitarō (市太郎), Otomi (乙美), Koman (小萬), Eiko (栄子), Hatsutarō (初太郎), Tsuruchiyo (鶴千代), Yasuyo (泰世), Sakura (佐久良), Sachiko (幸子), Toshie (利枝), Komomo (小百々), Momoko (百々子), Fumiya (二三弥), Mitsugiku (光菊), Azuma (吾妻), Akiko (明子), and Ichiha (市羽) Set 10: Kanazawa Higashi/East (金沢東) - Koman (小まん) Set 11: Kanazawa Kazuemachi (金沢主計町) - Hitoha (一葉) and Kyōko (京子) Set 12: Kanazawa Nishi/West (金沢西) - Mineko (峯子), Sachiyo (幸代), and Marichiyo (まり千代) Set 13: Fukui (福井) - Makiko (真㐂子) and Yurako (由良子) Set 14: Yuzawa (湯沢) - Katsumaru (勝丸) and Hiromi (弘美) Set 15: Nagoya (名古屋) - Fukuchiyo (福千代), Takako (敬子), Tsuruko (つる子), Mitsuyo (光代), Kiku (喜久), Emiya (英美弥), Sanchō (三長), Satoyo (里代), Mitsu (未津), Ayako (あや子), Kinmaru (金丸), Naoe (直枝), Fukuwaka (福若), Hisae (比三枝), Mako (間子), Yasuko (康子), Toshino (とし乃), Koie (鯉恵), Mariko (まり子), Katsuko (かつ子), Maiko (舞子), Kingyo (金漁), Hideka (秀佳), Chiyoe (千代江), and Motoko (素子) Part 5: Kinki (近畿) Set 1: Osaka (大阪) Part A: Osaka Minami (大阪南) - Yukiharu (雪春), Kikutsuru (菊つる), Kikue (菊恵), Rikimaru (力丸), Kinko (きん子), Yukiji (ゆき路), Kōjirō (廣二郎), Yoshiko (よし子), Terugiku (照菊), Midori (美登利), Hankō (はん幸), Kazumi (かず美), Yukie (ゆき恵), Yūka (勇花), Suzuka (鈴佳), Masako (まさ子), Fukuemi (福笑), Masachiyo (政千代), Kikufumi (菊二三), and Yūko (祐子). Part B: Osaka Horie (大阪堀江) - Temari (てまり) Part C: Osaka Shinmachi (大阪新町) - Hatsuko (はつ子) and Tamao (玉緒) Part D: Osaka Kitashinchi (大阪北新地) - Komaka (駒香), Umesada (梅さだ), Umetomi (梅十三), Suzume (寿々女), and Umemitsu (梅充). Set 2: Kyoto (京都) Part A: Gion Kobu (祇園甲部) - Komame (小まめ), Hisae (久栄), Katsuyū (かつ勇), Haruyū (春勇), Miyokazu (美代一), Fukusono (フク園), Satoharu (里春), Yoshigiku (義㐂久), Kōsono (晃園), Teruha (照葉), Mamekō (まめ晃), Fukuyū (福勇), Kanoko (かの子), Machiko (真知子), Kumiko (玖見子), Kohana (子花), Takayū (孝友), Teruchiyo (照千代), Takeha (竹葉), Nakako (奈加子), Mameyū (まめ勇), Sonoko (その子), Tomichiyo (斗美千代), Yoshimame (芳豆), Kofumi (小富美), Kanoju (かの寿), Mamechiyo (豆千代), Katsufuku (かつ福), Mameji (豆爾), Toyochiyo (豊千代), Katsuji (佳つ二), Ichigiku (市季久), Mamezuru (まめ鶴), Koman (小萬), Michiko (道子), Miyokichi (美与吉), Aika (愛香), Teruyo (照代), Fumichiyo (富美千代), Kikuharu (菊春), Masuko (ます子), Momoko (桃子), Kosode (小袖), Chōji (長治), Tomigiku (冨菊), Komasu (小ます), Emiji (恵美二), Dan-e (だん栄), Koyū (小ゆう), Yukiryō (幸良), Hanachiyo (花千代), Miyuki (美ゆき), Masaru (勝), Kanoji (かの次), Hiromi (廣美), Kotomi (小とみ), and Ainosuke (愛之介). Part B: Pontocho (先斗町) - Miyofuku (美代福), Hisakō (久幸), Raiha (来葉), Momiha (もみ葉), Ichiko (市子), Shinatomi (シナ富), Mameharu (豆治), Hisafumi (久富美), Ichisen (市扇), Mameyuki (豆幸), Umeyū (梅佑), Ichitoyo (市豊), Mameshizu (豆志津), Ichisono (市園), Mamechiyo (豆千代), Hisaroku (久ろく), Ichimitsu (市光), Momizuru (もみ鶴), Hide-e (英江), Tomizuru (富鶴), Emiju (笑寿), Fudeya (フデ哉), Miyosaku (ミヨ作), Ichihiro (市宏), and Shinateru (シナ照). Part C: Gion Higashi (祇園東) - Toyoji (豊治), Fumie (章栄), Chika (ちか), Tsurukazu (つる和), Tsunekazu (つね和), Tsunehisa (つね久), Masuko (ます子), Toyohisa (豊寿), and Masako (満佐子). Part D: Miyagawa Cho (宮川町) - Wakaharu (若晴). Kanae (叶恵), Fumichō (富美蝶), Mikiryū (三木竜), Wakachika (若千加), Fukukazu (ふく和), Toshiyū (敏祐), Suzuchiyo (鈴千代), Hinachō (雛蝶), Chikayoshi (千賀俊), Mieko (美恵子), Fukusome (冨久染), Tane-e (種栄), and Tanekazu (たね和). Part E: Kamishichiken (上七軒) - Tei (てい), Emi (恵美), Katsukiyo (勝㐂代), Tamafuku (玉福), Fukuzuru (福鶴), Hisazuru (久鶴), Tsuruzō (鶴三), Hisawaka (久若), Tamaryō (玉龍), Shimeyo (〆代), Katsumaru (勝丸), Naoko (尚子), Kokimi (小㐂美), and Kohan (小はん). Set 3: Nara (奈良) - Suzumi (須寿美) Set 4: Genrō (彦桹) - Kikuyū (菊勇) and Masaya (政弥). Set 5: Otsu (大津) - Omasa (おまさ) Set 6: Kinosaki (城崎) - Tomiyū (富勇) and Kanoko (佳乃子) Set 7: Wakayama (和歌山) - Kikuchiyo (菊千代) Set 8: Shirahama (白浜) - Tsutagiku (蔦菊) Set 9: Osaka Imasato (大阪今里) - Koito (小糸) and Kichihide (吉秀) Set 10: Imasato (今里) - Kichitama (吉玉) Set 11: Kyoto Shimabara (京都島原) - Hana Ōgi Tayū (花扇太夫) Part 6: Chūgoku (中国) and Shikoku (四国) Set 1: Tamatsukuri (玉造) - Naoko (尚子), Yae (八重), and Kishi (貴志). Set 2: Okayama (岡山) - Yakko (奴) and Chizu (知寿) Set 3: Takamatsu (高松) - Hamachiyo (浜千代) Set 4: Matsuyama (松山) - Ippei (一平) Set 5: Tokushima (徳島) - Fukuyo (福代) and Akiyo (明代) Set 6: Kochi (高知) - Kimiryū (君龍) and Sadamaru (貞丸) Part 7: Kyushu (九州) Set 1: Hakata (博多) - Mieko (美恵子) Set 2: Kurume (久留米) - Okiyo (お清) Set 3: Ureshino (嬉野) - Hisamatsu (久松), Komatsu (小松), Koshin (小新), Hisaryū (久竜), and Marikō (まり幸). Set 4: Isao (武雄) - Fumiya (文弥) Set 5: Beppu (別府) - Mitsugiku (光菊), Fujikatsu (ふじ勝), Umesono (梅園), and Tomiko (富子) Set 6: Kumamoto (熊本) - Ayako (あや子) Set 7: Kagoshima (鹿児島) - Aimaru (愛丸) The only areas that I noted are missing are some of the hot springs towns. I’m not too sure why they were skipped over, but it’s possible that the author did not have any connections to them. The most informative part that I admit I skipped initially is the small print under each geisha’s name: their natori specialty, natori teachers, and natori names. This means that we can trace back what schools were the main specialty of each region going back decades. Since this is invaluable for anyone studying geisha over time, I’ll write in what schools were followed, but I will keep names a secret. Districts are as follows: Part 1: Hokkaido (北海道) Set 1 Asahikawa (旭川) - Kineya (杵屋) Set 2: Sapporo (札幌) - Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Tadeko (蓼胡) for song Set 3: Otaru (小樽) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tadeko (蓼胡), Kineya (杵屋), Kiyomoto (清元), Shunnichi (春日), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Set 4: Muroran (室蘭) - None Given Set 5: Hakodate (函館) - Tanaka (田中) for dance and Matsunaga (松永) for song. Part 2: Tohoku (東北) Set 1: Morioka (盛岡) - Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Set 2: Hanamaki (花巻) - Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 3: Aomori (青森) - None Given. Set 4: Yamagata (山形) - Fujima (藤間) for dance. Set 5: Akita (秋田) - None Given. Set 6: Obara (小原) - None Given Set 7: Fukushima (福島) - None Given. Part 3: Kanto (関東) Set 1: Takasaki (高崎) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 2: Kusatsu (草津) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance. Set 3: Sarugakyo (猿ヶ京) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 4: Minakami (水上) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 5: Oyama (大山) - Kineya (杵屋) Set 6: Tokyo (東京) - Taguchiko (田口湖) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 7: Yugawara (湯河原) - Tanaka (田中) and Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Kineya (杵屋), and Tadeai (蓼相) for song. Part 4: Chubu (中部) Set 1: Niigata (新潟) - None Given. Set 2: Takada (高田) - None Given. Set 3: Shibata (新発田) - Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 4: Kamidayamadatogura (上山田戸倉) - Bandō (坂東) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Shunnichi (春日), Kineya (杵屋), and Kiyomoto (清元) for song. Set 5: Kamisuwa (上諏訪) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 6: Isawa (石和) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Mochizuki (望月) for song. Set 7: Kōfu (甲府) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Okayasu (岡安), and Nagami (長巳) for song. Set 8: Inuyama (犬山) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 9: Hamamatsu (浜松) - Fujima (藤間) and Fukuwara (福原) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Yoshimura (芳村), Shunnichi (春日), Nishikiharu (錦春), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Set 10: Kanazawa East (金沢東) - Kamizaki (神崎) for dance. Set 11: Kanazawa Kazuemachi (金沢主計町) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) and Mochizuki (望月) for song. Set 12: Kanazawa Nishi/West (金沢西) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Okayasu (岡安), and Kashida (堅田) for song. Set 13: Fukui (福井) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Utazawa (哥沢) for song. Set 14: Yuzawa (湯沢) - None Given. Set 15: Nagoya (名古屋) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Tokiwazu (常磐津), Sumida (住田), Kineya (杵屋), Kishizawa (岸沢), Shunnichi (春日), and Fujimatsu (ふじ松) for song. Part 5: Kinki (近畿) Set 1: Osaka (大阪) Part A: Osaka Minami (大阪南) - Onoe (尾上), Fujima (藤間), Bandō (坂東), and Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Kondo (今藤), Mochizuki (望月) and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Part B: Osaka Horie (大阪堀江) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance. Part C: Osaka Shinmachi (大阪新町) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kineya (杵屋), Shunnichi (春日), and Ogie (荻江) for song. Part D: Osaka Kitashinchi (大阪北新地) - Nishikawa (西川) and Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kineya (杵屋), Tamura (田村), Uji (宇治), Tokiwazu (常磐津), Tagawa (田川), Kiyomoto (清元), and Yoshimura (吉村) for song. Set 2: Kyoto (京都) Part A: Gion Kobu (祇園甲部) - Inoue (井上) for dance. Part B: Pontocho (先斗町) - Onoe (尾上), Nishikawa (西川), and Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Kondo (今藤), Nakamura (中村), Ogie (荻江), Bungo (豊後), Kineya (杵屋), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Part C: Gion Higashi (祇園東) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Yanagi (柳), Nakamura (中村), Kineya (杵屋), and Tōsha (藤舎) for song. Part D: Miyagawa Cho (宮川町) - Umemoto (楳茂都), Wakayagi (若柳), and Rokugō (六鄕) for dance and Kondo (今藤), Bungo (豊後), Kiyomoto (清元), Yanagi (柳), Yamakishi (山岸), Utazawa (哥沢), Tadeko (蓼胡), and Umeya (梅屋) for song. Part E: Kamishichiken (上七軒) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Shunnichi (春日), Toyomoto (豊本), Kiyomoto (清元), Tōsha (藤舎), and Kiyoyuki (清之) for song. Set 3: Nara (奈良) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 4: Hikone (彦桹) - None Given. Set 5: Otsu (大津) - Yanagi (柳) for song. Set 6: Kinosaki (城崎) - Wakayagi (若柳) and Onoe (尾上) for dance. Set 7: Wakayama (和歌山) - Onoe (尾上) for dance. Set 8: Shirahama (白浜) - Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 9: Osaka Imasato (大阪今里) - Kineya (杵屋), Shunnichi (春日), and Kiyomoto (清元) for song. Set 10: Imasato (今里) - None Given. Set 11: Kyoto Shimabara (京都島原) - None Given. Part 6: Chūgoku (中国) and Shikoku (四国) Set 1: Tamatsukuri (玉造) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 2: Okayama (岡山) - Onishi (小西) for dance. Set 3: Takamatsu (高松) - Kiyomoto (清元) for song. Set 4: Matsuyama (松山) - Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Set 5: Tokushima (徳島) - Yoshitō (芳膛) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Set 6: Kochi (高知) - Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Part 7: Kyushu (九州) Set 1: Hakata (博多) - Kondo (今藤), Shunnichi (春日), and Kashida (堅田) for song. Set 2: Kurume (久留米) - Tokiwazu and Shunnichi (春日) for song. Set 3: Ureshino (嬉野) - Hanayagi (花柳) and Fujima (藤間) for dance and Matsunaga (松永) and Tagoto (田毎) for song. Set 4: Isao (武雄) - Fujima (藤間) for dance. Set 5: Beppu (別府) - Tokiwazu (常磐津), Kiyomoto (清元), and Hisago (瓢) for song. Set 6: Kumamoto (熊本) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kondo (今藤) for song. Set 7: Kagoshima (鹿児島) - Kineya (杵屋) and Tagoto (田毎) for song. The reason why this book has no ISBN is because it was self published. The original cover price was ¥30,000, which is almost $300 USD. This price was likely set due to the vast amount of research done, including acquiring the many photographs, and printing costs. This price was also likely due to it being targeted at serious karyukai connoisseurs as that price in the 1980s would have been much higher now due to inflation. Nowadays you don’t have to pay as much for this book as most Japanese sellers see it as outdated and it can be found quite regularly on Japanese retail sites, such as Yahoo Japan Auctions or Rakuten. The only “errors: that I could find were some spelling issues, but that’s because they’re using the Japanese way of writing Romaji and not the Hepburn System. So, I’m not counting them as errors, but rather just making note of them to anyone who purchases this book. Rating: ✪✪✪✪ (out of 5)

#maiko #geiko #geisha #book review #hana akari #data #research #karyukai #舞妓 #芸妓 #芸者 #本 #批評 #はなあかり #資料 #探究 #花柳界

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ortensia-mizu-seiryuu · 5 years

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Hello guys. Please read this post if you want to help KyoAni and the victims' families. If you want a particolar figure or nendoroid is time to get it! Nippon-Yasan will give 5% of their sales to KyoAni (shipping costs excluded), but only if the item is IN STOCK: https://www.nippon-yasan.com/726-figures?rewrite=1&orderby=quantity&orderway=desc&p=4 If you have any interest in this, you can think about donating to this bank account, which was open just for this purpose: BANK NAME : THE KYOTO SHINKIN BANK SWIFT : KYSBJPJZ BRANCH NAME : MINAMI MOMOYAMA BRANCH BRANCH NUMBER : 048 ADDRESS : 16-50, YOSAI, MOMOYAMA-CHO, HUSHIMI-KU, KYOTO-SHI, KYOTO-HU, 612-8016 , JAPAN ACCOUNT NUMBER : 0002890 ACCOUNT HOLDER : KYOTO ANIMATION CO.,LTD., REPRESENTATIVE DIRECTOR, HATTA HIDEAKI Or maybe you can buy a wallpaper on the KyoAni Shop, where you can fine a lot of beautiful arts about Free and Hibike Euphonium at a really paltry price: https://kyoani.shop-pro.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=2434161&csid=0&sort=n Hideaki Hatta said they will do animation again, so we have to help their future and all the affected families. Thank you from the bottom of my heart 🙏🏻 #kyotoanimation #kyoani #kyoanifire #help #donation #japaneseanimation #helpkyoaniheal #freeiwatobi #harukananase #hibikeeuphonium #rinmatsuoka #violetevergarden #chuunibyou #hyouka #kon #asilentvoice #yuihirasawa #mioakiyama #kyokainokanata #nichijou #haruhisuzumiya #themelancholyofharuhisuzumiya #kobayashisanchinomaiddragon https://www.instagram.com/p/B0VVCiqoGft/?igshid=wprgn22ct0y6

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fy-produce48 · 6 years

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Mic Is Mine! Masterpost

Kwon Eunbi & Yoon Eunbin (Tell Me)

Kim Sihyeon & Kojima Mako (Heavy Rotation)

Ichikawa Manami & Shinozaki Ayana (Sakuranbo)

Hwang Soyeon & Kang Damin (BBoom BBoom)

Kato Yuuka & Shiroma Miru (Kokoro no Chizu)

Park Jieun & Kim Hyunah (Because You’re My Girl)

Sato Minami & Asai Nanami (Anpanman’s March)

Shin Suhyun & Kang Hyewon (Sweet Heart)

Muto Tomu & Iwatate Saho (Maru Maru Mori Mori!)

Lee Chaeyeon & Cho Yeongin (Trouble Maker)

Bae Eunyeong Wang Yiren (Girl’s Generation)

Takahashi Juri & Yabuki Nako (Koi Suru Fortune Cookie)

Yoon Haesol & Won Seoyeon (Yes)

Yamada Noe & Jang Gyuri (Love Is An Open Door)

Lee Yujeong & Hong Yeji (Tears)

Cho Kahyeon & Kim Nayoung (Crooked)

Shitao Miu & Oda Erina (Hopeful Refrain)

Kim Doah & Jang Wonyoung (Galaxy)

Matsui Jurina & Lee Gaeun (Best Friend)

Choi Soeun & Han Chowon (Apgujeong Nallari)

Goto Moe & Kim Dahye (Good Day)

Honda Hitomi & Nagano Serika (Odoru Ponpokorn)

Wang Ke & Kim Minseo (Fantastic Baby)

Kim Chaewon & Kim Suyun (Love Scenario)

Huh Yunjin & Jo Yuri (Holiday)

Nakano Ikumi & Park Minji (Bang Bang)

Ahn Yewon & Lee Sian (Heartbeat)

Park Jinny & Cho Ahyeong (Gotta Be You)

Aramaki Misaki & Kurihara Sae (TT)

Lee Haeun & Cho Sarang (Red Flavor)

Murakawa Bibian & Imada Mina (Mr. Taxi)

Park Haeyoon & Na Goeun (Like a Dream)

Murase Sae & Nakanishi Chiyori (Cutie Honey)

Kim Minju & Yu Minyoung (Tried)

Asai Yuka & Chibi Erii (My Sun)

Son Eunchae & Kim Choyeon (Pick Me)

Matsuoka Natsumi & Naiki Kokoro (Youkai Exercise #1)

Alex Christine & Park Seoyoung (Uptown Funk)

Choi Yeinsoo & Miyazaki Miho (Mister)

Park Chanju & Lee Chaejeong (I Am The Best)

Mogi Shinobu & Hasegawa Rena (PPAP)

Choi Yena & An Yujin (Love’s Battery)

Kim Sohee & Ko Yujin (Tears)

Kim Yubin & Kim Dayeon (Outsider)

Motomura Aoi & Miyawaki Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Takeuchi Miyu & Lee Seunghyeon (Instagram)

#produce 48 #mic is mine!#video #masterpost

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minnadaisuki48 · 6 years

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AKB48 Team Shuffle (Project)

This is my own project I’ve been working on for a while. This is NOT an official shuffle from AKS or anything like that. I do not work for AKS in any way. Thanks for reading.

[AKB48 Teams]

~This took some time since I really want the teams to be even in old & new as well in power & popularity. ~I also added a mentor system so that senior members like Miichan don’t take a leadership position away from a younger generation member but can still have a side position for support. ~If there was a 16th gen that isn’t listed that means I demoted them or there wasn’t room in the team I wanted them in.

AKB48 Teams-

Yokoyama Yui- AKB48G Captain (GM)

Okada Nana -Team A Captain Ota Nao -Team K Captain Takahashi Juri -Team B Captain Murayama Yuiri -Team 4 Captain

Okabe Rin -Team A Co-Captain Muto Tomu -Team K Co-Captain Kato Rena -Team B Co-Captain Iwatate Saho -Team 4 Co-Captain

Minegishi Minami -Team A Mentor Miyazaki Miho -Team K Mentor Kashiwagi Yuki -Team B Mentor Oya Shizaka -Team 4 Mentor

Team A-

Sato Minami Sato Shiori (Draft) Yahagi Moeka Muto Orin Minegishi Minami Okada Nana Yokoyama Yui Iriyama Anna Takita Kayoko Nishikawa Rei Tanguchi Megu Sasaki Yukari Tatsuya Makiho Okabe Rin Oguri Yui Sato Akari Shitao Miu Tanikawa Hijiri Cho Kurena Yamada Nanami Terada Misaki Utada Hatsuka Hitomi Kotone Kuranoo Narumi Okumoto Hinano

Team K-

Ota Nao Oda Erina Shimizu Maria Nakano Izumi Hama Sayuna Hidaritomo Ayaka Yokomichi Yuri Yokoyama Yui Yoshida Karen Hirano Hikaru Fujizono Rei Miyazaki Miho Muto Tomu Mogi Shinobu Kojima Mako Ichikawa Manami Yumoto Ami Goto Moe Shimoguchi Hinana Mukaichi Mion Nakanishi Chiyori Umemoto Izumi Shoji Nagisa Okada Rina Yamauchi Mizuki Katsumata Saori

Team B-

Omori Maho Michieda Saki Inagaki Kaori Kobayashi Ran Asai Nanami Kashiwagi Yuki Kato Rena Omori Miyuu Takahashi Juri Fukuoka Seina Kubo Satone Hiwatashi Yui Komiyama Haruka Nozawa Rena Yamada Kyoka Onishi Momka Sakaguchi Nagisa Sato Nanami Takahashi Ayane Miyazato Rira Yoshikawa Nanase Rissen Airi Mitomo Mashiro Okuhara Hinako Hashimoto Haruna

Team 4-

Gyoten Yurina Sato Shiori Takaoka Kaoru Nagano Serika Honda Hitomi Yamamoto Ruka Hattori Yuna Noda Hinano Ito Kiara Kawahara Misaki Takahashi Sayaka Oya Shizuka Iwatate Saho Kitazawa Saki Shinozaki Ayana Murayama Yuiri Sato Kiara Chiba Erii Yamabe Ayu Ma Chia-Ling Kawamoto Saya Yamane Suzuha Yasuda Kana Homma Mai Suzuki Kurumi

~Will post custom made stages [setlist] in the coming days. ~As well as the other groups teams shuffles. Thanks

~SakiMai

#AKB48 #akb48 team shuffle #custom #idol project

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hollowsart · 6 years

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All my Team Rocket oc’s:

- Ghost, Markus Tremaine

- 514, Satou Akemi

- 413, Tanaka Fumihiro

- 918, Mori Hibiki

- Takahashi Akinobu

- Barrel, Minami Yuu

- Tamada Ren

- Akeem Akiyama

- Bernadette, Yukimura Kaori

- Kimura Yuuta

- Oshiro Takara

- Kita Cho

- Minami Takumi

- Amano Joji

- Amano Kioko

- Aiko

- Odette Heikki

- Nakano Michi

- Akiyama Yoshirou

- Ishikawa Shouhei

- Hashimoto Nori

- Fujioka Kenshin

- Kawaguchi Arata

- Red Punk boy

- Neon Girl

- Purple Goth girl

- Yoshida Hayate

- Geno Gattani

#Ghostie mumbles #HI I have too many grunts but I cannot bring myself to be rid of ANY of them

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yuriplisetsky-rp · 2 years

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My husband was great! A bit shy of GH’s scores from last week, but still very good! So proud of him!

Short Program

Otabek Altin - KAZ - 99.89

Kenjirou Minami - JPN - 95.85

Joseph Tremblay - CAN - 89.57

Chang-min Cho - KOR - 86.78

Adam Arsenau - CAN - 74.85

Kreo Zupan - CRO - 72.97

Carlos-Emiliano Serrano Aguado - ESP - 71.10

Avel Romanchuk - UKR - 69.89

Henrik Hatala - FIN - 69.34

Luke Elkin - USA - 67.48

Jevgeni Semenjov - EST - 67.28

Benoni Kukowski - POL - 66.33

Akira Yoshida - JPN - 64.97

Zakhar Plotnikov - GER - 61.91

Ivan Gusev - FIN - 60.43

Sung-hoon Nahm - KOR - 53.94

Dymtro Bondar - UKR - 53.59

WD - Hakan Matarci - TUR

WD - Ozan Solak - TUR

Free Program

Otabek Altin - KAZ -196.67

Kenjirou Minami - JPN - 193.75

Adam Arsenau - CAN - 170.89

Chang-min Cho - KOR - 148.93

Akira Yoshida - JPN - 145.80

Carlos-Emilliano Serrano Aguado - ESP - 138.24

Joseph Tremblay - CAN - 133.17

Sung-hoon Nahm - KOR - 129.15

Kreo Zupan - CRO - 125.02

Avel Romanchuk - UKR - 125.01

Luke Elkin - USA - 124.24

Zakhar Plotnikov - GER - 123.05

Jevgeni Semenjov - EST - 115.81

Ivan Gusev - FIN - 115.66

Henrik Hatala - FIN - 108.94

Dmytro Bondar - UKR - 103.25

Benoni Zukowski - POL - 96.53

Overall

Otabek Altin - KAZ - (1, 1) - 296.56 @otabekvoiceblog

Kenjirou Minami - JPN - (2, 2) - 285.68

Adam Arsenau - CAN - (5, 3) - 245.74

Chang-min Cho - KOR - (4, 4) - 235.71

Joseph Tremblay - CAN - (3, 7) - 222.74

Akira Yoshida - JPN - (13, 5) - 210.77

Carlos-Emilliano Serrano Aguado - ESP - (7, 6) - 209.34

Kreo Zupan - CRO - (6, 9) - 197.99

Avel Romanchuk - UKR - (8, 10) - 194.90

Luke Elkin - USA - (10, 11) - 191.72

Zakhar Plotnikov - GER - (14, 12) - 184.96

Sung-hoon Nahm - KOR - (16, 8) - 183.09

Jevgeni Semenjov - EST - (11, 13) - 183.09

Henrik Hatala - FIN - (9, 15) - 178.28

Ivan Gusev - FIN - (15, 14) - 176.09

Benoni Zukowski - POL - (12, 17) - 162.86

Dymtro Bondar - UKR - (17, 16) - 156.84

WD - Hakan Matarci - TUR

WD - Ozan Solak - TUR

#ic #nebelhorntrophy22rp #otabek altin #otayuri #yuri plisetsky #otabek x yuri #blog canon

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91denden · 6 years

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My textile works for graduation exhibition at spiral garden in Jan 2018.

Date : Jan/25/2018 - Jan/29/2018.

Open : 11:00 am

Close : 20:00 pm

Spiral Garden 5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062

Admission Free

テキスタイルコースの展示に参加しています。

年明けになりますが是非お越しください。お待ちしております。

以下案内です。

武蔵野美術大学　工芸工業デザイン学科

クラフトデザインコース　卒業制作展

クラフトデザイン学内展

1/18(Thu) - 1/21(Sun) 09:00 - 17:00

鷹の台キャンパス

〒187-8505 東京都小平市小川町1-736　

体育館アリーナ

Musashino Art University Takanodai Campus

1-736, Ogawa-cho, Kodaira-shi, Tokyo , 187-8505

-----------------------------------------------------------

テキスタイル・陶磁専攻

1/25(Thu) - 1/29(Mon) 11:00 - 20:00

スパイラルガーデン(スパイラル1F) 〒107-0062 東京都港区南青山5-6-23

Spiral Garden 5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062

入場無料 Admission Free

#Yumi Tanaka

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Cowboy Bebop Designer Toshihiro Kawamoto Talks Art Styles and Live-Action Adaptations

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of working with character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto at FanimeCon 2019 in San Jose, CA. The con had brought me in to moderate two of his events (including a live drawing session that has been uploaded to YouTube), and before getting on stage I had a chance to sit down for a one-on-one interview with Mr. Kawamoto.

Toshihiro Kawamoto is most well-known as a character designer thanks to his sleek, angular designs on series like Cowboy Bebop, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and Wolf’s Rain. But like many designers, he began his career as an animator. He worked his way up the ranks at Sunrise and eventually got a chance to design the characters for Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. After the critically acclaimed Cowboy Bebop, Kawamoto joined forces with a number of key Sunrise staff, including producer Masahiko Minami (who I interviewed nearly 10 years ago!) and animator Hiroshi Osaka, to split off and create their own studio: BONES.

20 years later, Kawamoto serves as an executive at BONES, though it seems that much of his time is still spent working away at his drawings, whether they’re character designs for Blood Blockade Battlefront or key animation and animation directing for Fullmetal Alchemist and Eureka Seven.

My conversation with Mr. Kawamoto covers a range of topics: his design process, his early years as an animator at Sunrise, his consultation on an ill-advised live-action Gundam movie, and yes, his thoughts on the upcoming Cowboy Bebop Netflix adaptation. A huge thank you goes out to Fanime guest staff Jinni and Isabel, interpreter Momo, and of course, Mr. Kawamoto for taking the time to speak with me. Enjoy!

Early in your career you were mentored by animator Sachiko Kamimura. How did you first start working with her?

I first met Ms. Kamimura when I was a key animator for ZZ Gundam. While I was on the project with her, I got to know her. I learned a lot and got some inspiration from Ms. Kamimura.

What kinds of things do you think you learned from her?

I talked to her recently and got the sense that she believes if you allow people to properly learn and train and grow they will be able to blossom into whatever talent they want to get into, and become a full professional in their field. Ms. Kamimura expressed that when I was the only young animator on the ZZ Gundam team. Working together while I was still pretty young and fresh, I think that was a big influence.

Back then and even now I'm not really sure why she was so taken with me and thought I had such great potential. In those days, we had no time to really focus on certain kinds of things. All we could do was sit down and draw as fast as possible. So I really don't understand what Ms. Kamimura saw in me. Even today I think about it.

Ms. Kamimura had this idea that as long as you properly train and teach these young professionals, they would blossom into their full potential. For the past 30 years I’ve really taken that to heart.

Could you walk me through your process when designing a character?

There are two different kinds of processes, depending on whether the anime is original or an adaptation.

For adaptations, I personally feel like I don't want to change the art. I don't want to change the original style of the manga it's adapting from. So I often work with the director, going back and forth and doing a kind of tag team thing to make sure that we accurately portray the original work.

When it comes to original animation, I often meet with the director and talk over what their vision is for the characters. I'll take their descriptions and interpret them into art. Generally I’ll create three to five variations of those characters in order to pinpoint what the director is aiming for.

When trying to understand the director’s taste and what they’re aiming for, we often play “catch.” We go back and forth in order to find out how the characters should be portrayed. That was the process for Cowboy Bebop.

I know some directors contribute their own designs to that process. Is that common for you?

Yes, it does happen for directors that have artistic skills. But in terms of my own work, I often pair up with directors with no art skills. So the director might do a really rough sketch of what they're imagining, but I generally draw it myself and provide that imagery so the director can decide what they want to do with it.

In terms of anime storyboards, generally directors will draw those out, and just by seeing the storyboards it's easy to tell if the director has any artistic skill. For Cowboy Bebop, the director was Shinichiro Watanabe, who later worked on Space Dandy. When I compared the storyboards from the Cowboy Bebop days and the Space Dandy days, I noticed “oh, he’s improved his art skills a little bit.” And before Cowboy Bebop, Mr. Watanabe was an episode director and drew storyboards on Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. If you look at the storyboards from then, well... I don’t want to say too much because it'll sound like I’m complaining or bad-mouthing, but ... yeah. He’s come a long way.

Storyboards for Cowboy Bebop and Space Dandy, respectively.

Something that I admire about your work is that you have a distinctive character design style that’s very much your own, but your adapted works are a little more subtle and complement the original designer’s work. How do you decide where to add the Kawamoto touch and where to hold back a little bit?

Even though other people may think I have a distinct Kawamoto style, when I’m working on adaptations I really want to erase my own unique style. As a character designer, I aim to ensure that the character design techniques and the technical aspects are similar. But in terms of what I want to accomplish, I want to express the original work.

After working on Gundam 0083, I worked on character designs for different kinds of media like Leiji Matsumoto, Tatsuya Egawa, and Masamune Shirow’s works. For those I really tried to deemphasize my own style. But now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if I didn’t do a good enough job. If I do have a distinct style, maybe I’m not erasing my own uniqueness enough.

While I was working on Golden Boy, I also worked on a Sega Saturn game for Gundam. Even though I worked on both Golden Boy and the Gundam project together, I was trying to make sure that they don’t cross over.

Actually, on the subject of Gundam, I have a question about a very weird Gundam project. You’re credited for conceptual design on G-Saviour.

G-Saviour?!

I’m curious what you actually did on that project.

If I look back on my memories, the G-Saviour project was made in collaboration with Studio Sunrise. I had never worked on a Hollywood adaptation ever in my life, so even though I had no experience and was very unsure of myself, through working on G-Saviour I tried to learn a lot and make sure the project went smoothly. In terms of what I did for G-Saviour, if something wasn’t going well or there were some hiccups during the production, then I would submit art for the character’s costumes or certain ideas for what the characters would do. I would express that in a storyboard and then submit the storyboards to help them move things along.

And that would get sent directly to the production team in Canada?

Oh right, it was probably too expensive to do it in Hollywood so they did it in Canada. So I would submit the artwork to Canada.

In fact, the reaction to the storyboards that I submitted to them was so positive, they were like, “Wow, I’ve never seen such beautiful and clean storyboards!” They were really happy to work with me and get those kinds of visuals. Even though they were really happy about it, it made me think, “If they’re so happy with this, where are their skill levels at? What are they used to?” It made me really uneasy to think, “What have they been doing so far?”

Speaking of live-action, I’m sure you’re aware of the live-action Cowboy Bebop series. Have you been consulted on it at all?

I haven’t touched the project at all. I’ve had zero participation in it.

I think it's actually good that I haven’t had any part in making the adaptation. I think that if they asked for my opinion I would influence it too much in a certain direction, so I really want to see what they will make of it on their own.

But there are some things that I am a little bit surprised about. Like Spike Spiegel being played by an Asian actor. (EDITOR’S NOTE: He’s talking about Star Trek and Harold & Kumar’s John Cho.) “Spike Spiegel” is a German name, so I would have expected someone with German ancestry. I find these choices interesting but I don’t want to influence too much or say too much.

Are there any other projects of yours that you’d love to see adapted into a live-action Hollywood version?

I have a lot of challenges in drawing animals in animation. They’re really hard to draw for me. So I’m really interested in seeing a live-action adaptation of Wolf’s Rain. I think that with today’s CG technology it would be very possible.

Cowboy Bebop Designer Toshihiro Kawamoto Talks Art Styles and Live-Action Adaptations originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on May 30, 2019 at 9:55 PM.

By: Evan Minto

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