A lovely old-fashioned restaurant in Ginza! The large kanji in the middle says 季の庭 Toki No Niwa (and the smaller characters on the left are furigana: ときのにわ). The small characters on the right say 春夏秋冬 (Shunkashūtō), .
季 means season, and its only reading is キ. Its radicals are 禾 two-branch tree and 子 child.
庭 means garden, courtyard, or yard. It's read にわ and テイ. Its radicals are 广 house on a cliff, 廴 long stride, and 王 king.
春 means spring. It’s read はる or シュン. The bottom radical is 日 sun, and the top is made up of 一 one, 二 two, 人 person, and 大 big.
夏 means summer. It's read なつ, カ, ガ, or ゲ. From top to bottom, its radicals are 一 one, 目 eye or 自 self (to be it looks like self; not sure why it says both but okay!), and 夂 late/delayed/winter.
秋 means (you know where this is going!) autumn. It's read あき, とき, or シュウ. The radicals are 禾 two-branch tree (again!) and 火 fire.
冬 means winter. It's read ふゆ orトウ. Its radicals are 夂 late/delayed/winter (naturally), and two dots 丶 or ice 冫.
Finally, while the word 春夏秋冬 does mean the four seasons, it's kind of a.... fancy/literary/idiomatic usage. In daily conversation, you are more likely to hear 四季 [しき], and that mostly from older Japanese people who are convinced that the four seasons are a phenomenon that is found nowhere else in the world.
Also as much as I love SQX with my whole heart, Xie Lian is ultimately my favourite character, and I love him the most. I missed his very human outtake on stuff, and his slightly cynical inner narration. I don’t normally laugh at jokes in TV shows but when he heard the Three Tumours were generally disliked and thought ‘well why isn’t it Xie Lian, Xie Lian, Xie Lian’ I literally cackled.
I’m enjoying season 2 so much! I love how all the characters interact, and I was surprisingly taken by Lang Qianqiu, someone I wasn’t too fussed about before (I didn’t even recognise him at first btw, I didn’t expect his character design to look so skinny haha). Anyway, super excited in general, I want to write some analysis about how both the books and TV show ‘humanise’ demons and other stuff.
Also, as always from an artistic standpoint, the character designs of even minor background characters are great, the background art is great, the opening and ending sequence artstyles are great and the music is spectacular! I’m so greatful we received this masterpiece, after the arrest of Jiang Guangtao I was convinced that season 2 would never see the light of day. But here we are, and I can’t help but be so happy and excited!
May the glow of the moon surround you and light your way to health, happiness and prosperity. Wishing you a happy and prosperous Mid-Autumn Festival from Buffetlicious.
i have a love-hate relationship with the designs of the Seasons quartet, so I decided to redesign them put my own spin on it!
if i'll be honest, spring and autumn are mostly fine (i particularly adore autumn's hairstyle and her grapes motif), and winter is.. ok.. but summer?! i'll be super honest here and say her design was so confusing initially that i neglected to build her kit. just.. yikers.
not to say i don't understand what LAM was going for—each of the 4 are tied together as a cohesive set through elements like their black ruffled collars, red tips of their hair, and skirts with flower petticoats, and yet each of them vary slightly in these aspects which clearly shows they're all united as seasons yet have very different personalities. i wanted to honor that, so in my own tweaks of their collars i thought about all giving summer and winter scarves instead.
(here are annotated pictures of both summer and winters' sprites for reference btw)
..so yeah. if i ever try to expand on this, another thing i would probably heavily edit is the white "panels" of their hair. again, it's another element that makes a lot of logical sense in terms of character design, but doesn't work super great imo. maybe after trying to tweak it i may change my mind, who knows
Honestly, I’m having so much fun with this, there wasn’t a single moment I didn’t enjoy. The way Hua Cheng manages to keep everyone ‘happy’ while maintaining composure and an aura of strength is so well done, and really displays his intelligence.
Also, he’s the biggest simp on earth. That mantou was mank beyond belief and he’s just there smiling while holding it in his hands like it’s the greatest treasure in the world. Xie Lian literally told him it was stale and he’s like :) but it’s from you :D… this man I swear.
Lang Qianqiu is so great!!! I love him and his steadfast morals & hotheaded nature, I really enjoy characters that are kind and impulsive at the same time. SQX, LQQ & XL are such a great trio, they really have a good dynamic. The episode was less centred around her, but Shi Qingxuan is still wonderful, I love how exasperated he sounded the whole time, and his disbelief at how Hua Cheng was acting despite being part of the whole Banyue Pass Debacle is funny as hell.
Getting to see the first crumbs of romantic Hualian scenes is great, it’s been a long buildup and the payoff is satisfying and so sweet. After Xie Lian having shit luck his whole life, Hua Cheng gently takes him by the hand and helps him overcome it. The whole scene, as ridiculous as it was, was genuinely heartwarming.
Well except for poor Lang Qianqiu, but his decision to go against the second highest supreme in his own territory was not the brightest. He was very lucky Xie Lian came with him, I’m not sure what the outcome would be otherwise. Although I do feel sorry that he got smacked by pretty much everyone including Shi Qingxuan..
And the cliffhanger!!!! Poor Lang Ying man, I’m looking forward to next episode but he just seems to have misery after misery.