Can you hear?

In my first foray into the wonderful enchanting world of Mushishi, I was treated to a very rare instance of deafness in anime. In episode 3 of Mushishi, Tender Horns (sub here or dub here), we delve into the concept of sound and silence along with a hint of a fascinating biological theme. Naturally, I have a great deal of interest in this episode and thus shall explore this lulling sublime story about a boy and his mother.

Do you know that there is an organ in the ear which looks just like a snail?

The Un is a mushi that consumes sound, and its appearance is that of a snail. So it comes to no surprise to me that it would emulate the organ responsible for our perception of sound itself. This portion of the auditory system is the cochlea, which is from the Latin of snail-shell. Within the fluid-filled cochlea is the Organ of Corti, holding thousands of minuscule hair cells. This is how the cochlea works in bringing us sound: First, sound waves enter through the ear canal and enters the fluid in the cochlea. The waves are transferred to the fluid, creating a wave motion that moves the hair cells. The hair cells, sensing this motion, sends a series of nerve signals to the brain and voila, sound.

When I was born, the hair cells in my cochleae were undeveloped. What this mean is that, although sound waves could go all the way up to the cochlea and enter the fluid, there were no hair cells or they were simply too underdeveloped to help carry the signals to my brain, thus rendering me deaf. Loss of hearing can also happen if the hair cells are infected or damaged by other causes. So beneath all the cases of deafness in this episode, there is a perfectly plausible biological basis on how the villagers became deaf. As for the unceasing sounds that inflicts the boy and his mother, a different biological plausible basis is given, though it is rarer.

I want to get a good sleep in a place where no noise will reach.

The boy, Maho, has grown horns and suffers from ceaseless noises. His mother has suffered the same infliction and has died, unable to bear the noise no longer. I can empathize with Maho’s mother about being unable to sleep at night, as that has happened to me a few times in the sound of either a ringing or steady tone. There is no need to be alarmed about my case, as this is a natural effect brought about my underdeveloped hair cells and it rarely happens, thankfully. So with this experience under my arm, I feel for Maho and his mother as they have had to endure long nights of insomnia. Could you imagine being unable to sleep for more than one night in a row?

The cause of this infliction is the Ah, a mushi that consumes silence, with its shell in the opposite direction of the Un‘s shell. This infliction brings to my mind one similar real world symptom that I previously alluded to in empathizing with Maho and his mother, tinnitus. Tinnitus happens when there is no sound to be heard in the environment, and yet, an out-of-place sound such as a ringing, hissing, humming, or steady tone is heard. There are many possible causes of tinnitus, and there are extremely rare cases of incessant tinnitus like Maho and his mother’s cases. But out of all these causes, one is relevant to this episode, the sound of the human body.

Maho... Can you hear it? This is my sound.

The human body is perfectly capable of producing sound. You already know one familiar sound: your heartbeat. And as a special relevant bonus, I’ll teach you where you can hear another sound from your body. That heartbeat is what keeps your blood flowing throughout your body, and there is a vein, the jugular vein, that passes near the ear. This vein can be pulled closer to the cochlea by the muscles surrounding the ear, and the rhythm of the vein’s blood flow in turn stimulates the fluid and the hair cells to create sound, causing a fleeting tinnitus in the sound of a pulse. Unfortunately I cannot attempt this and confirm it, but you can actually try hearing this for yourself; this is most noticeable with your head on a pillow with your ear closed off by the pillow.

Maho’s mother, in the end, was not trying to close off Maho’s ears at all; she only wanted him to hear her sound. It is said that the sound of the muscles in the hands sounds like the sound of lava, crackling. Maho’s mother, once a long time ago, viewed an eruption of a volcano and kept that sound as a remembrance of memory and life. Although I still cannot hear this, the crackling of muscles is another sound that you can hear from your body. That sound, along with your heartbeat, is a testament to the fact that your body is thriving and rich with life.

It's a pretty sound... enough to give you the chills.

Along with the sound and silence motifs, I loved the themes portrayed here in this sublime episode. We are treated to some wonderful moments and to the trained or hearing ear, some melodious and subtle background music as has been pointed out to me by a friend. A tale about the sound of life, this is one sound that I may never be able to relate to in my lifetime, but perhaps, you may just be able to hear your own sound.

This will be a very different and drastic post than the usual. Why? Because pride was at stake here and unwanted terrible memories flashed back for me. I refer to a Twitter drama conflict that took place recently in which I intervened of my accord, and the cause of all this was just one guy expressing himself. Since then, I’ve begun to have sleepless nights and greater stress in daytime, though I’m beginning to mellow down a bit now just writing this post. I am writing this as a neutral mediator who stopped this conflict by myself, and I wish to share my personal thoughts with you. I am not holding anything against anyone; that’s just life. Because this is a very sensitive ordeal (at least for me), I will not be naming anyone and I shall refer to the aforementioned guy as “John” for anonymity’s sake.

John put out a call for justice to fellow anime fans in a particular group. This was concerning a Twitter argument between himself and a girl who disrespected people with anime avatars on Twitter. Now, I don’t know the exact details of the argument, but it was enough to set off a fire. Seeking a place to let it out, he went to this particular anime group to tell his story. The admin responded saying that this was not the right place to tell the story, and I agree very much, since this group has a different purpose and is not meant to be used to reach out for anything (unless within limits) other than the group’s sole expressed purpose. Better to blog about it instead of posting it in a group where no one didn’t want to hear about it. John was understanding at first and left it at that.

But then some people replied to John in manners that were not appropriate and could have been worded better and carefully. John was offended and it all spiraled into pure drama and dark humor from then on at both sides’ expenses. That’s when I stepped in and intervened. The end result was that both sides have come to a standstill with bruised egos and scratched prides, but no real damage. The group voted not to ban John, but it felt to me that the group believed they were doing the right thing especially after some of their members’… lack-luster reactions. John was willing to apologize, but unable to make peace, he has decided to leave the group of his own volition and yet, I still have doubts that he’s learned his lesson. Although the outcome was not ideal, I feel relieved that this situation was resolved somehow. My opinion is that both sides were in the wrong for letting this situation blow up. You both made a huge public mess with a complete lack of discretion and regard for several bystanders around you, including me, who were just looking to have a good time online with anime.

But for all the big trouble caused, this did give me a unique insight into this niche anime community as an intermediary. The online anime community is an entity, and it is very capable of inflicting harm in real life, make no mistake. People may interact with close friends in different ways such as a love/hate relationship, but when interacting with a stranger in that same way, it may have different consequences. While I’m fortunate enough to have stopped this from escalating further, I cannot help but wonder what would have happened had I not intervened. John could have been completely banned and ostracized, and the group may then be viewed as being too elitist or a bigger authority which to fear in the anime-blogging community. Quite frankly, this seem like a social nightmare to me. It makes me question exactly what kind of society fits the anime blogging or twitter community. True, the ani-sphere twitter community is a far less formal medium than the blogging medium, and it has allowed for a greater interaction amongst anime bloggers and thus better flow of ideas for the blogging community. But this atmosphere also increases the risk of bolder actions and skirmishes in the twitter community with a major conflict emerging once in a while, like this situation. This situation reminds me of myself in a way somehow. Being deaf, I have gone through several ordeals, but there is this one particular ordeal that I have never mentioned about with anyone, not even my family, before until now simply because I did not want to remember it.

In late middle school, there was this group that was composed of “popular” people (such as jocks, cheerleaders, etc. The cliché kind). Some of them were grouped with me for a team project, and I didn’t really get along with them well at all due to my extremely poor communication skills. One of them mistook my poor communication skills for ignoring them, and he didn’t like it not one bit at all. So, he started to spread rumors. Within a week, I was ostracized. People started ignoring me or hurling minor insults laughing at my expense, and the people I once considered friends began to leave me one by one. I started to lash back at them but to no avail, as that only served to stir them up more.  This escalated until I was completely isolated and powerless to even fight back. Although they started it first, I was still in the wrong for lashing back and letting the situation get worse. And I regret it.

But there was this genuine good-natured person who had strong influence and helped me. He was the student council president. He knew about my circumstances from his parents who were friends with my parents, and when he finally heard about the rumors, it was too late. He did the best he could to stop the rumors, and he did manage to curb the rumors eventually. But the heavy fallout was still there when we graduated from middle school two weeks later, and by the start of high school, all was nearly forgotten. But I was still ignored for some time throughout high school with fewer new friends who stuck with me, including the now former-president. Pride was not an issue here unlike the Twitter drama, but it bears some resemblance to the situation I went through in middle school. It’s far too easy to overwhelm and goad one person with great numbers, and I’ve never really recovered from that, which is why I have a tendency to avoid large crowds today in addition to the noisy and busy atmosphere.

And that’s why I absolutely hate these kind of conflicts to the extent that I’d involve myself in this Twitter conflict. I hate the fact knowing that it’s now perfectly possible for this kind of situation to happen anywhere, whether online or in real life.  Not only because this is demeaning but because I’ve personally went through this kind of fight and ostracism and I know the feeling and pain very well. It’s thanks to this past experience that I’ve learned to stay calm, cool-headed, and semi-neutral at all times. But for the first time since middle school, this Twitter drama shattered this barrier and brought back burning emotions. I acted quickly and as calmly as I could, keeping my emotions in check. Truthfully, I was pretty close to lashing out on both sides, but thankfully, my conscience and experience held me at bay.

So, if something like this happens again (and it will!), I implore you to use your common sense and be reasonable no matter which side you’re on. If you can’t handle it, walk away and don’t look back. If you want a fight, then by all means, go ahead; I just hope you’re prepared for the consequences, unlike me. If you’re having fun, well, who am I to stop you but yourself? If you want to stay out of this, that’s fine I suppose, since this is the Internet where anyone can be anonymous (I know I will the next time this happens even if it is hypocritical for me). The only reason why I got involved in this conflict is that I know and like both sides too much to let the same situation that happened to me pop up again. Do not bother telling me face-to-face that you were just joking around; to me, this was not funny at all. I have to say this to the anime blogging/twitter community and to the world as well: Do consider and think about the other side’s circumstances plus the time and place before you start to react, and know how and when to stop.

I’m not asking people to change and I also don’t care if you choose to ignore or bash this post. I’m just glad that everyone have purged the hate out of their systems and that Valentine’s Day was here to soothe people. At any rate, if anyone’s still feeling uneasy, look to your friends for support. And just remember; we are still humans, capable of making mistakes. There is no need to go further than necessary.

*Comments have been disabled since I only want to share my message, not to start discussions or arguments. The past is past. This is very personal and somewhat traumatic for me, so I thank you for reading this post if you’ve made it this far and I apologize for posting such a drastic post. Believe me when I say that I have thought long and hard about whether to publish this post or not to the point of nearly scrapping this entire post, but with this, I finally feel much better and more composed getting it out of my system…

Time is a strange, finicky thing. Time is a one-way route with no way of turning back. Therefore, time is precious to those of us who wish to live our lives to the fullest. And this is especially no exception to anime fans with a myriad of anime series begging to weave their stories and pander to us. So how does one manage time efficiently with anime and real life? Kai from deluscar has proposed and invited me to join the Anime Time Management project, which is great timing for me to explain my current situation.

As a college student, you might think I have plenty of free time, would you not? On the contrary, as I am an honor student and working as a student mentor and leader, these responsibilities have brought more work to my schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I attend classes normally in the morning, lead a TA’s session in late afternoon, and work on homework or lesson plans at night. Tuesdays and Thursdays are filled up with classes from morning to late night. Friday night and weekends are the only free times I have, and I spend most of it on anime or my hobbies. So all in all, I’d say that about 20% of my average week is spent on anime or hobbies, which I shall call anime time for convenience’s sake. Although this doesn’t seem much, real life does takes priority.

A big hurdle in managing my anime time is that I have my style of watching anime. For me, I take great care to consider my mood and atmosphere for watching anime. Often not, I sometimes goes to great length to wait for the perfect time to watch anime. But lately, I’ve resorted to watching anime more often at inopportune times because of my hectic schedule, which means that I’ve violated and temporarily suspended my policy of “a time for every anime series.” This may impact my enjoyment of watching anime, but as long as I can keep up with what everyone’s talking or tweeting about, it’s merely a small price to pay.

And then there’s the whole file-hosting legal situation online. Well, let’s just say that I can’t afford to download torrents on campus and with file hosts being strangled and limited, it’s getting tougher and time-consuming to be able to find fansubs and download a series episode. That’s one wrench in my plans. Blogging is another time-consuming activity as well for obvious reasons, but I won’t let this get me down at all. I’ve endured tougher situations, and like my deafness, I’ll not let time get the best of me!

Slowly, but surely, I’m starting to get a handle of my new-paced schedule 1 month after the start of the new semester. But at the end of a long busy day, it’s still always nice to just wind down and enjoy anime at your own pace. And presently, I’m just simply living my life to the fullest and the best I can in real life and online in the anime community.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a review, so now it’s time to switch gears and blast off into space with Starship Operators, a drama, military, political space opera!

For the 73rd class of cadets of the Defense University of the small planet Kibi, a cruise on the fleet’s new starship Amaterasu is a fitting last moment before graduation. As they return to their home planet, however, they are shocked to hear news of a declaration of war by the aggressive Kingdom against Kibi. When their planetary government surrenders without a struggle, the cadets decide to launch their own war, aboard the Amaterasu. To gain funding as a self-government, they make a deal with a galactic news network – and find themselves the stars of their own reality show.

Starship Operators is a 13-episode space soap opera series, and is one of the few rare anime series that incorporates political themes. Politics is usually a dry topic for most people to delve into, but this anime has done a well good job playing with the politics and consequences of the decisions made by the governments. The premise, at first, may seem cliché with the subplot of having teenagers fight a major force by themselves, but this series has turned over all stereotypes and tossed them out the window.

The political theme is very interesting here, as the progression throughout the series have been realistic and legit. The students get funding from a media-broadcasting network, making for subtle jabs against media culture, and everything is strategized carefully and thoughtfully. The power of politics is more apparent in the incredible final episode, and we can really see and feel the consequences and emotions.

Since this is only 13 episodes long, the characters are not as fully developed themselves but when it comes to the crew as a whole, that’s where they shine. Each character has his or her own role in navigating and managing the Amaterasu, and there are a few characters who you will grow to care about. For me that character was Kouzuki Shinon for her romantic relationship which I shall not go into details to avoid spoilers. Also, this is the kind of series where people do die when killed. You can expect some angst, but the right kind of angst to deal with.

The animation is pretty nice, and the space battles are very impressive and realistic in terms of strategies and maneuvering spaceships. The character designs are okay to me, but the real defining point of this series would have to be the music. The opening is nothing really special, but I took a great liking to the ending with its stark visual artistic style and a great song. Starship Operators is an extremely good anime series that brings everything together in the end, and still leave no bad taste.

So would I recommend watching this anime series? I’d say yes, if you have a strong interest in politics. If you do, then you’ll be in for an excellent time!

Gong xi fa cai! It’s the New Lunar Year today so it’s cause enough for an obligatory holiday post. So enjoy your red envelopes, firecrackers, and festive food!

On a different note, I’ve been busy lately since I’ve just gotten back to college and has had to sort out quite a lot, neglecting my poor blog in the process. Regular posting will probably be back late this week when I finally finish sorting out my work and school schedule.

The merry carnival finally ends today, and to commemorate the past week of great ramble and hubbub, we shall have a parade to wrap up this one long, fun night!

Yumeka mentions two categories of scoring: the head and heart scores in which the head score determines how the anime achieved the usual technical aspects and the heart score determines how she enjoyed the anime overall. This was a very interesting concept, so first up, we have the bloggers who have scored anime based more on the head score; the technical aspects such as story, animation, music, etc. along with a little extra spice to make it more relevant to them. AceRailgun brings up an interesting trend where people seems to always give 7′s, 8′s, 9′s, and 10′s but never below. Nopy replaces the story factor with one factor with the condition that the anime must hold his attention long enough in his criteria, and Hoshiko brings up her criteria: story, characters, and ending in which she prefers that the anime be engaging and having a satisfactory conclusion.

Marina notes that the voice of the anime must feel natural and consistent to her, and that her ratings reflects the nostalgia experienced for any certain anime. Sam brings up another interesting important factor to consider: the age of the anime as in when it was released and whether its quality was consistent at its time. Mira says that to earn a 10/10 score, the anime must raise a new standard for her, and that nothing can top it at all. SnippetTee even goes so far as to draw up a complete statistical chart outlining what weights the most when watching and why she is entertained by the anime in the most general sense.

Leap250 breaks her criteria down into categories using physics terms (which I approve!), and du5k has had a scoring system evolving over time, and his criteria changed from pure enjoyment to consistent quality to meaningful value. The great Overlord-G, late and new to the carnival, lists out his G-view rating system where he gives a numerical score first, then goes into depth about the anime’s content. Kai, another inspired carnival new-goer, scrutinizes anime strictly and always hesitates to give a perfect score believing that a masterpiece is one that sets it apart from all other.

Next, we have the bloggers who have scored anime purely from their hearts or souls, or the heart score. draggle uses Simoun as his only “perfect” anime series as a guide to what he believes that he will know what an A+ anime is when he sees it. Marow gives the perfect score to those that are a mixture of pure enjoyment and the whole overall feel of the anime, as is the case with Aria The Natural. flomu, a lover of Nichijou, says that there has to be that one moment that where he suddenly realizes that it would always stay with him. Two bloggers from the same team blog, @fkeroge and Valence, both gave their perfect scores in different ways, but from the same mindset of the heart, says that the perfect anime are the ones that they would never forget at all. Yi believes us to be connoisseurs of anime, and that the anime’s true essence or aesthetics lends itself largely to her perfect score.

And the night finally ends with me marveling at the wide variety and large subjectivity of all these various anime bloggers. For some, I could identify with very much, and for others, revelations and intriguing observations were made. Now, I still haven’t any slightest idea or notion of tweaking my scoring system, but I do believe that the points brought up by the carnival are very useful to note and may be of help to anyone looking to develop his/her own concrete way of scoring. Perhaps I may consider implementing several points brought up above later on in the future… I have to thank du5k of One Minute of Dusk for putting together this wonderful merry anime blog carnival and giving me a chance to interact with several anime bloggers!

The final list of all the anime bloggers who have participated or joined in later on:

• Anime B&B by Marina (article)
• The Otaku’s Study by Sam (article)
• Anime Viking by Marow (article)
• Nopy’s Blog by Nopy (article)
• Draggle’s Anime Blog by draggle (article)
• Hachimitsu by Mira (article)
• Ace Railgun by AceRailgun(article)
• Leap250′s Blog by Leap250 (article)
• Mainichi Anime Yume by Yumeka (article)
• Lemmas and Submodalities by SnippetTee (article)
• World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko by hoshiko (article)
• Listless Ink by Yi (article)
• deluscar by Kai (article)
• One Minute of Dusk by du5k (article)
• Ambivalence, or is it Ambiguity? by @fkeroge (article) & Valence (article)
• The G-Empire by Overlord-G (article)
• flomu by flomu (article)

Ok, so this is a first for me in which I write about something rather not quite so safe for work: eroticism and smut. To be put simply, the latest episode of Nisemonogatari was chock-full of smut and eroticism.

First, before I go into depth, I’d like to clarify one thing about smut and eroticism. Smut is more of a “softcore” pornography if I’m not mistaken, and eroticism is not pornography itself. Pornography is the use of explicit portrayal of sexual subjects to stimulate sexual arousal, whereas eroticism is about the aesthetics and philosophy of the state of sexual arousal.

Implying that she was prepared to go far.

There were two sections in this episode of Nisemonogatari that got me thinking that, while they may have the same lewd atmosphere, they were both different. Nadeko’s scenes with Koyomi involved Nadeko attempting to show her affection for Koyomi through the use of games that has long been known to generate a steamy atmosphere, such as King’s Game and even using seemingly innocent games, Twister, to foster a more appropriate mood. In playing these games, she is sending subtle lewd hints toward Koyomi. These scenes were seemingly more pornographic, as Nadeko just want to win Koyomi’s affection and get with him.

Kanbaru’s scenes were different in mindset, however. These scenes were more erotic and less pornographic than Nadeko’s scenes. Kanbaru isn’t quite in love with Koyomi this time though. The dialogues in these scenes were purely more about nudity and whatnot. Kanbaru is the kind of girl who loves to show off, I would think, and she doesn’t feel any shame in stripping and showing her bare (admittedly very sexy) body to Koyomi.

Here, Koyomi is the voice of reason here, and between himself and Kanbaru, we get to hear two sides of mindset: one of common sense and one of pure freedom from societal thinking. And then while cleaning up all the yaoi books, Koyomi finds Kanbaru’s weak point: by proclaiming that Kanbaru isn’t as big of a pervert as she thought she was. Kanbaru prides herself on being an erotic girl and an attacker, and she’s surprisingly weak when the attack is turned back on her. There’s a term for this kind of person, but I cannot, for the life of me, recall what it is. Nevertheless, I found this episode rather fascinating with regard to the tantalizing atmosphere generated from two characters with different motives.

… I cannot believe I just wrote a post on eroticism and smut on impulse just from watching Nisemonogatari.

If you haven’t heard by now, there is this visual novel that has swept the anime Western community into quite a big storm. What makes this visual novel unique and different from all the other generic, typical visual novels is that the heroines are young girls with disabilities. Katawa Shoujo, five years in making and began on a 4chan thread, allows you to interact with five different girls and unlock their “routes,” where you attempt to solidify a romantic relationship with them. We have Emi Ibaraki, an energetic girl with both legs amputated, Hanako Ikezawa, a shy girl with extensive burn marks on her body, Lilly Satou, a blind elegant girl, Rin Tezuka, the philosophical girl born without arms, and Shizune Hakamichi, a deaf ambitious girl. In addition to the main cast, we also have a supporting character who is crucial to Shizune’s route, Shiina Mikado, a hyperactive sign language interpreter girl. Now today, we have a guest and fellow blogger joining me for this special (albeit longer than usual) collaboration post about our first impressions and thoughts on this visual novel, Foshizzel from Metanorn!

Ku Ku Ku hello readers! So in case you are asleep after reading the intro! Let me get started on why I wanted to team up with my new friend, Ephemeral Dreamer. This game tells a story about several characters with physical disabilities and how each of them adapts and learns how to get through everyday life. When I was six years old I was diagnosed with Ducheene muscular dystrophy. I wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t say this was quite shocking to my family, but we began to work with several specialists and doctors that helped us get by with lots of help. When I was old enough to figure out I was different from my friends at school I would get depressed about it. However I couldn’t sit around beating myself up! After all my family was always there to give me a boost, still, life was tough and by the time I was eighteen, I was still able to walk which amazed several doctors, because most boys my age were in wheelchairs by age fourteen.

While walking was great, it also had its fair share of difficulties such as falling or tripping! This was a constant fear in the back of my mind at school especially in the crowded halls in my high school. However when I turned nineteen I had to get a motorized wheelchair due to back problems, but you know what, those days after were the best! I could finally relax and become somewhat “normal,” well as normal as my unique life was at the time. While having this new wheelchair I continued to have a few ups and downs in life, but I gained lots of friends at school. My new friends looked past my wheelchair to find a person who always had a smile and was always fighting on. There are a few funny moments during those days that always stand out when I think back… I found myself giving people rides to classes. I was often told to SLOW DOWN!! In the hallways by teachers and during lunch, I would always try to power slide after it rained on the slick tiles outside. Yeah I was having a lot of fun until the principal saw me one day…and yeah…lets just say I quickly learned to settle down at school…but as you can tell I had a great time with my new found mobility.

Thanks, Foshizzel, for sharing your story about your disability. When Foshizzel approached me about a collaboration post about this unique visual novel, it felt so natural and fitting considering our disabilities, and I, of course, immediately agreed. As for my disability, if you are a long-time reader of this blog or peeked at my “About Me” page, then you’ll most likely know that I am deaf. To explain a bit about my deafness, we’ll need to go back to the day I was born. I was born with severe-profound hearing loss due to undeveloped cochlear cells, and my parents didn’t discover this until I was around 1 ½ years old (they often wondered why I was so quiet as a baby!). So thereafter, my childhood consisted of having hearing aids fitted, going to speech therapy, and attending special education classes at certain schools. And so I was nearly isolated throughout my childhood and most of my adolescence due to my poor oral communication skills.

Then near the end of my high school career, I decided to take a sign language class at my local community college. Part of the reason was that I needed to take a foreign language class (I would easily fail any other foreign language classes when it comes to speaking) to graduate, but I was also very interested in American Sign Language because it offered a different approach to my deafness. That was about 5 years ago. Now, I am pleased to say that I have become a proficient fluent signer and I have found a certain place of pride amongst my friends and family in the world’s first and only university for the deaf: Gallaudet University. I now prefer signing instead of speaking, because it was so much easier to communicate through it. Plus it gave my hands something to do!

Foshizzel:

When I heard of Katawa Shoujo, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play such a game; in fact I was not sure if I was comfortable with such a thing at all. However I decided to play it and see for myself, so I booted up the game and played for a while meeting all the characters. And then out of nowhere, I finally met up with Emi. I was sold, and yes, while she is the usual moe-blob-hyper-girl, I found her to be the most interesting to watch and interact with!

While I have never ran a track in my whole life or have I ever rock twin-tails like her…I fell in love with her thanks to her addictive personality. I just loved watching her crack jokes and smile all the time, and I started to see a lot of myself through her. We both have really strong fighting spirits to never give up, and we both love to follow our dreams and goals in life. If I could learn anything from Emi thanks to this game, it would be mostly related to staying positive! While my own personal love life remains empty for now, I do feel there is someone special out there for me and everyone else reading this. So we should all keep fighting on and make our own lives more Emi-ish! Well, we should try anyway…

Ephemeral Dreamer:

I became very interested in this visual novel from the moment I first heard of it through 2DT. When I checked out the characters, one of them stood out to me and that was Shizune, the deaf girl, for obvious reasons. The day the visual novel was released for free, I played through the first act and aimed for Shizune right from the get-go, successfully maneuvering my way to her route. However, while playing through her route, there was another character that endeared me as well; the hyperactive interpreter Misha. It seemed natural that we should have a deaf girl and an interpreter friend in this visual novel, as this would resolve the communication barrier and introduce a different element of plot, and I was very glad for that.

But let’s not forget that this visual novel looks at their personalities, not their disabilities! When I look at Shizune, I can see some similarities between myself and her. We are both schemers, and we are also born-natural leaders (though my leadership truly shined amongst fellow deaf friends or from the backseat). Except for Shizune’s competitive streak, we were pretty much the same in terms of personalities. As for Misha, we both shared our enthusiasm for sign language and dreams to become a teacher (her as a sign language teacher and me possibly a computer science or math teacher). As I also have hearing aids and can hear fine enough, this also meant that I could help to interpret as well, and I could easily sympathize with her about keeping up with her interpreting and fast signing as well! If I could learn anything from Shizune or Misha, it would be to keep improving my communication and relationship skills, since I was pretty much isolated for most of my life and didn’t have much chances to interact with people. So if there’s any lessons to be learned from playing Shizune’s route, t’s all about communication! This is one of the biggest hurdles if you are a hearing person looking to establish a relationship with a deaf person or vice-versa, and remember, we deaf people are just like regular people! It’s just that we can’t hear anything at all…

Now then, it’s time to wrap up this post! Katawa Shoujo is a great visual novel to play, and I must confess that this is the second visual novel I’ve played in my life, with the first one being RenAi Blogger (anyone still remember this one made by Hinano?). Even so, I do recommend this highly not only because it’s free but because it’s done very well so far with regard to disabilities and stories. And you do not have to worry about having to see the adult scenes as there is an option to disable H-scenes if you are still concerned. At the time of this writing, I still have not yet completed the game (aiming for 100% completion!), so a separate more in-depth review post may or may not come from me in time plus some minor posts about deafness with regard to Katawa Shoujo maybe. I encourage you all to play this fun game if you haven’t done so! (Download links at end of post.)

Foshizzel: 

I have to give a special thank you and high-five to my friend Ephemeral Dreamer! Thanks for teaming up with me for this special post it was truly a special one. And to my boss lady kyokai over on Metanorn! Whoa I almost forgot to share some love with all my special twitter friends out there that pushed me to share my own life story related to Katawa Shoujo. You can follow my twitter and visit Metanorn!

Ephemeral Dreamer:

And I have to thank Foshizzel for appearing on my site on this special post! I haven’t been in the ani-blogging community for long, but I’d like to share my sentiments with my friends, family, fellow bloggers, and twitter friends. And well, you can always come back here, subscribe to my blog, or follow me on Twitter if you like.

Take care and thanks for reading and commenting!

You can check out more information or download this visual novel for free here. If the link is not working well (most likely due to server overload), go here, the blog for Katawa Shoujo.

Some very good links to check out about Katawa Shoujo:

• Charles writes about using people-first language and how to apply it to disabled people.
• A personal reflection from 2DT about his involvement in Katawa Shoujo.
• Krizzlybear shares his romantic experiences and relates them to Katawa Shoujo.
• A post by Krizzlybear about Spoon Theory and Katawa Shoujo,
• Inushinde shares a personal note in response to Hanako’s route.
• An inital review from Inushinde.
• Another initial review from Anya.

When I last looked on my MAL (MyAnimeList) list, it turned out that, out of my 284 completed anime, there were only 7 anime that have earned the coveted 10/10 score from me, which is an astonishing 2.4% success rate for a perfect score. du5k from One Minute of Dusk has put together an anime blog carnival, where a group of bloggers contribute to a topic, discuss about it on the posts, and write a round-up post at the end of the carnival. This anime blog carnival starts today, on January 9th, and will end on January 15th.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like these anime have anything in common, with four of them being movies and three being anime series of varying genres.This got me thinking; what exactly were the factors that contributed to these various anime’s “perfect” scores? Let’s take a look at which anime earned a “perfect” score from me:

• The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
• 5 Centimeters Per Second
• My Neighbor Totoro
• The iDOLM@STER
• Redline
• Bakemonogatari
• Mawaru Penguindrum

Looking back at these anime series and movies, the only factors that seem to be almost consistent with my 10/10 scores were storytelling and entertainment factors. Storytelling is an obvious must; after all, if it makes no sense at all, what good is it? Also, in order to grab the audience’s attention, the story must be engaging with several things in mind: interesting characters with their own goals, challenges, and inner conflicts. Bakemonogatari and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya both have their greatest strengths in storytelling, with unique characters and several engaging conflicts. I don’t think that there is any further need to expand on this, being a common factor in scoring amongst various other people, so let’s move onto the next factor.

The entertainment factor is a different story. For this, I consider whether an anime has achieved its purpose, and whether it was entertaining or not. The iDOLM@STER‘s purpose was to cater to the audience through idols, music, and dances, and the series’ popularity reflects its success very well. Redline is an exception to the storytelling factor; rather, it’s all about the action and striking visuals, and it is purely meant to give the audience a hell of a show. Mawaru Penguindrum‘s main purpose is to force the audience to think creatively and actively to figure out the true meanings of the series’s themes or mysteries. Through that, the more persistent audience would enjoy tossing out theories and rejoice at having their theories proven.

5 Centimeters Per Second‘s main draws were the visuals and the poignant, bittersweet romance. Shinkai set out to tell a story by which the audience can easily relate to, and I’d say that he has succeeded very well. My Neighbor Totoro‘s purpose would be to showcase the fond memories of childhood back in the past, and to give the children a chance to imagine and foster a sense of adventure. One of my fondest childhood movies, Totoro has never failed to bring back a strong sense of nostalgia for me at all.

So it would seem that I give a “perfect” score to those that I feel have accomplished their purpose perfectly. Also, on a personal note, I’d say that visuals and animation are also huge factors for me naturally, whereas music and voice-acting are the weakest factors for me, considering my deafness. But there is no actual definitive perfect scoring system set in place, because it’s purely subjective. And that’s where the anime blog carnival comes in. It’ll be interesting to compare and contrast our scoring systems, and we might even tweak our own scoring systems in response to all these discussions. So, do check out the various blogs participating as well below! What makes a “perfect” score for you?

Other bloggers participating:

• Anime B&B by Marina (article)
• The Otaku’s Study by Sam (article)
• Anime Viking by Marow (article)
• Nopy’s Blog by Nopy (article)
• Draggle’s Anime Blog by draggle (article)
• Hachimitsu by Mira (article)
• Ace Railgun by AceRailgun(article)
• Leap250′s Blog by Leap250 (article)
• Mainichi Anime Yume by Yumeka (article)
• Lemmas and Submodalities by SnippetTee (article)
• World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko by hoshiko (article)
• Listless Ink by Yi (article)
• deluscar by Kai (article)
• One Minute of Dusk by du5k (article)
• Ambivalence, or is it Ambiguity? by @fkeroge (article) & Valence (article)
• The G-Empire by Overlord-G (article)

*Round-up post here!