I’ve finished two books and reviewed them on there entertainment and learning. In July, I read Digimon: Last Kizuna Evolution. I used to hate it when I couldn’t go watch anime movies in theaters due to it being a one or two day thing. Luckily, with these novelizations, I get to enjoy the story.
I still have about 6 chapters of 少年探偵団 to read but I should be able to finish it before the month is over. Just like the Detective Conan novel, even though it has furigana it’s hard to read. The vocabulary is relatively old (they had to explain some terms here and there in the Aotori Bunko version and relate how much money some things would cost in our time). I’ll get into more detail about this book in the review later this month.
Beat Kingdom Hearts in Japanese
I successfully beat Kingdom Hearts on Proud Mode. It was a fantastic experience going through the game on my own. You know, instead of scripting dialogue, translating, making explanations, etc. on substack. Great experience and it gave me an even greater appreciation for people who work in translation and localization teams. I think I’ll write up a separate review for this game.
Right after finishing that, I started playing one of my least favorite games out of the series: Re: Chain of Memories. Forgot it has a lot of text and no cut-scenes when you are going to the different worlds. For the most part, I was able to understand majority of the text so I guess that’s good.
Finish Reading Kanji de Manga: Yojijukugo
This was a fun book to look over and I bookmarked a few of them for future reference. I talked a bit about it on a Japanese Event a while back here if you are interested.
PROGRAMMING
Finish Python Crash Course Book
Decided to focus only on Python. I got through the chapters and the first two projects. The Django project is a whole other beast. I think I might have to do it all over again.
While struggling through the last project, I found a useful YouTube channel called Learning Python. Tried getting it connected to the server… And it didn’t work. I’m so used to Pycharm Community Version taking care of everything so running the command prompt was out of my reach.
If you are going through this book I do recommend his playlist. Just be careful with the command prompt stuff when you get to the Django project. He uses a Mac and the commands are somewhat different from Windows.
I did make a small program that makes a monthly reading plan. I have it set up where it asks the user how many pages are in the book, how many pages they want to read each day, etc. It tells the user whether that is possible or not. If it is then it puts out a monthly reading plan. There are many things I still want to do with it but here’s a screenshot of the results when I used it for the Detective Conan book.
Since I got a lot of python books from Humble Bundle, I think I’ll give Automate the Boring Stuff a try like Michael suggested. Or the Impractical Projects. Now that I have the basics, I’m looking forward to what else I can make.
Shogi
Solve 5-move Tsume Puzzles
Solved all 63 puzzles in the Tsume Shogi Book. They were harder to figure out but they were fun to do. Even found myself solving more than two a day.
澄（すみ） Considering this is given an honorific (two but we’ll get to that), we can safely assume this a name. However there are many ways you can interpret this as a name. They call this 名乗り（なのり）which means name readings of kanji. However, this kanji has four different names. There is:
※きょ ※すす ※すみ ※み
After reading the chapter, I found out that it was すみ.
ちゃん This is an honorific suffix that is usually given to someone’s name that you are close to. In this chapter, a tall girl named 瀬楽（せらく・Seraku） is talking about her best friend, Sumi-chan. But what’s with the さん? We’ll get to that next.
さん Before I read the chapter, I interpreted it as someone trying to add a familiar tone to a person’s name while still trying to be formal. As I read the manga, one of the main characters of this manga calls her 澄ちゃんさん. I figure this is because she has no deep relationship with this character so she adds the more formal honorific suffix さん onto how she was introduced to the name 澄ちゃん by Seraku。
So far we have “Sumi-chan-san”. But this seems to be too many suffixes to me so I’ll change さん to Ms. instead. So we get “Ms. Sumi-chan”.
と
Depending on the situation, this particle can mean “and” or “with”. So, after looking at the rest of the title I’ll make my final decision.
女子（じょし） This can mean “woman” or “girl”. Considering this manga is in a high school setting, I think that “girl” would be best here. I mean 女子makes up one part of JK aka 女子高生（じょしこうせい）or High School Girl.
の This is a possessive particle so it’ll take on the form of an apostrophe s on our last word 女子. So we have “girl” turn into “girl’s”.
証明（しょうめい） The first kanji （証・しょう）means “proof” or “evidence” or “certificate” and the second kanji（明・めい） means “light” or “bright”.
Put these two kanji together and you are shining a light on the evidence. Letting people know that there is evidence or proof to something being stated. In a short and less poetic explanation it just means “proof” or “evidence”.
After the と, we have “Girl’s Proof” or “Girl’s Evidence”. I’ll go with the former. So let’s see which makes more sense for と. Will it be “Ms. Sumi-chan and the Girl’s Proof” or “Ms. Sumi-chan with the Girl’s Proof”? Once again, I’ll go with the former. And of course there is roman numeral 1 at the end so I’ll add that…
So in all, we have…
“Ms. Sumi-chan and the Girl’s Proof I”.
This chapter title comes from a manga called 僕が答える君の謎解き which means “I’ll Solve Your Mystery”. I finished the manga last month and ended well. You can find me blabbing about all the chapters on MAL.
Here are some past thoughts on this title.
Considering this chapter just came out yesterday there isn’t an official translation just yet.
This manga is being adapted from the novel written by Kamishiro Kyousuke (known mostly for Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta). In the manga, the character design is done by Haori Io and the art is done by Higuchi Mei.
This is a mystery manga about a girl named Rinne who is gifted when it comes to solving mysteries. However, she only gives the answer (the culprit) without telling her clients the other details and how she figured it out. Luckily she has a fellow student working with her. A boy named Touya, who tries to reel Rinne in, investigates the case, and helps her explain the details for the client. If you are interested, you can find the first chapter on comic walker.
郷（ごう） This kanji can mean “hometown （きょう）”, “country（ごう）”, or “village（さと）” depending on which reading you use. Since we already know the correct reading for this we can go with “country”.
に A destination marking particle. Since we are talking about a country it is safe to say that it should be translated to “in”. It could be “to”, but I’ll change it if need be later on.
入り（いり） This comes from the verb 入る（いる）which means “to enter”. You can also interpret this as “entering” when you are using just 入り（いり）. So we’ll go with “entering” for now.
ては
は is a topic marker particle that usually means “is”, but when put together with て, it takes on the meaning of if.
To go into more detail it is an expression that means “if you are going to…”. So from what we have gathered from the other words it seems someone is entering a country.
So, we can translate this to “If you are going to enter a country then,”.
郷（ごう） Same as the first word, so it means “country”.
に Another destination marking particle. So this could be “to” or “in”. Let’s look at the next word to make the decision.
従え（したがえ） This is a verb that means “to obey”. It’s more suited and used for obeying laws, rules, or an order. It has many other similar meanings as well like “to follow”, “to abide by ” and “to conform to”.
So I’d translate this into “Conform to the country” or “Obey the country’s laws”. Think I’ll go with the former.
“If you are going to enter a country then” ＋ ”Conform to the country” =
If you’re going to enter a country then conform to the country.
This means that if you travel to another country then you should conform to how that country does things. This seems similar to a common phrase:
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
合わせるって（あわせるって）
I’ve seen this kanji from another verb, 合う, which means “to match” or “to fit”. The って at the end can be used to quote things like 仕方ないって (“It can’t be helped” you say). In some situations って can be used to put what someone says into question. Kind of like you are trying to confirm if that is what they seriously think.
Furthermore, it can also mean “as for the term” or “As for”. I’ll be taking some liberties here and using something similar to “as for”.
“To fit in” ← I think this would be a good translation.
大変（たいへん）
So in this word we have the kanji 大（たい）which means “big” and 変(へん) which usually means “strange” and similar words to it. However, there is a more suitable meaning for this context. That would be an “incident” or “change”. So together this means “big incident” or “big change”.
But that still doesn’t seem to be right. So I think it should be the word “difficult” or “hard”.
です This is a copula. Or in other words a full-stop period that lets us know that the sentence is over. And speaking over let’s get this part over with.
“It’s hard to fit in.”
Similar but considering the show, I think “It’s hard to fit in” would work better here.
This episode title comes from the 4th episode of 小林さんちのメイドドラゴンS or Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S. The S just stands for Second as in (Second Season). Other than this show I’ve only seen Railgun add S (for second season) and T(for third season) with their sequels.
Anyways, This show follows the slice of life story of an OL (office lady) that takes in dragons from another world. Pretty out there right. But wait there’s more. The dragon, named Tohru, feels indebted to Kobayashi so she ends up becoming Kobayashi’s maid. Her Dragon Maid. After Tohru shows up, more dragons start to flood into Japan and into Kobayashi’s mundane yet peaceful life. Kobayashi’s days become livelier as she teaches Tohru and the others how to live in this new world.
Now after 4 long years, Kyoto Animation (the studio who worked on the first season and currently this season) are back and hitting the ground running (If you haven’t seen the first season, you gotta try it out because the 1st episode of this season is amazing). There was an arson incident that occurred a couple of years ago. At the time, I feared that the studio was going to shut down. I’m really glad that they are back.
The OP from both seasons are very catchy. So I’ll put them here as well.
The group known as fhána made this song. If you are interested, here is their music video.
I love how it looks like the first OP from Nichijou. Another fantastic show made by Kyoto Animation.
fhána also made a music video on the Dragon Maid’s second season OP as well.
※The second OP’s music video has subtitles in English, Japanese and Korean.
This title comes from episode 951. If you are not caught up on One Piece I won’t spoil much for you. (With a title as vague as this, it doesn’t really give much away.)
オロチ This is someone’s name. Names are usually written in katakana in Shonen anime like One Piece. The name is Orochi. If you remember Orochimaru from Naruto (if you watched it that is), then you will probably get the idea that this name has to do with snakes and you would not be mistaken.
Orochi means big snake or serpent. There is also something called a やまたのおろち (Yamata-no-Orochi), which means eight-headed, eight tailed serpent. This is a serpent from Japanese mythology which also appears in Persona games.
の This is a possession particle where someone or something is taking possession over another person or thing. 僕の靴 (My shoes)、私達の勝利 (Our win), ヒビキの日記 (Hibiki’s journal).
追手（おって） This means pursuer, pursuing party, or posse.
So, to put the first sentence together we have オロチの追って！which means “Orochi’s pursuing party”. This means that Orochi has a party, a band of people, that are pursuing someone or something. Now, on to the next part.
忍者・軍団（にんじゃ・ぐんだん）
Kanji can be grouped together like this so to make it easier to follow, I have split the word up into a more comprehensible way with a dot. On the left side we have にんじゃ. Many may be familiar with this word. It says ninja.
On the right side, we have ぐんだん, which means something like an army corps, which is a group that is under someone else’s command.
VS
Now you are probably wondering “Why is he going over this, we already knows it says VS aka versus”. This only because when the title is being said by Luffy, he says たい instead of VS/Versus. But what does たい mean actually. Basically the same thing. Someone is opposing someone else or in this case someone is fighting someone else (hence the VS).
ゾロ
Katakana. Must be another name, and his name is Zoro. So let’s wrap this last part up.
Put this second sentence together and we have 忍者軍団VSゾロ which means “Ninja Army Corps (group) VS Zoro”. This means that Zoro is going to be fighting a band of ninjas. Now the translator’s have translated this title to English making it:
“Orochi’s Hunting Party! The Ninja Group vs. Zoro!”
Have some important things to take care of so I’m going to be taking a break from the weekly posts. Still going to do the book review. I’ll post a previous What’s in a Title on Sundays for now.
When I saw this book on my second trip to Kinokuniya, I hurried up and grabbed it off the shelf. If you haven’t notice by now, I’m a huge fan of Detective Conan. This novel is separated into three cases involving the Black Organization. The following is the list of the cases with their respective episode and volume they are from:
Reunion with the Black Organization (Ep. 176 – 178, Vol. 24 Files 7-11 )
On the Trail of a Silent Witness (Ep. 309 – 311, Vol. 37 File 5 – Vol. 37 File 7)
Contact with the Black Organization (Ep. 309 – 311, Vol. 37 File 8 – Vol. 38 File 1)
It was fun to read the majority of the book while being able to remember majority of the plot from when I watched it about 7 years ago. The third section wasn’t as enjoyable as the first and second due to it following up on the peak that occurred in the second section of the book.
Overall, I’m happy to make this my first ever physical novel.
LANGUAGE LEARNING
This will be the first and (hopefully) last time I underestimate a book just because it has furigana. This book has furigana but, the vocabulary was kind of hard. Especially around the deduction parts. You can probably piece the deduction together with context clues but have a dictionary just in case.
Majority of the grammar was relatively easy to understand. Found some interesting technology words and even a voicemail template that I can use.
Since I enjoyed this mystery novel, my next book will be 少年探偵団 (Detective Boys) by 江戸川乱歩 (Edogawa Ranpo).
It’s a lot shorter than the book I read for this month but it appears to be interesting. Plus, it looks a bit spoopy so its the perfect thing to end the summer off with.
Very self explanatory here. Having a bad mouth in the US usually means using vulgar language. However, in Japanese it is more than that. You can use it to express someone saying horrible things about you at your past job like in RELIFE. Or someone talking bad about you behind your backs like in One Week Friends.
対話／DIALOGUE
Can’t believe they haven’t watched it yet.
[見なかっただと？！]
A: すっげえ。何を見てるのか？
B: お、これ？化物語だよ。
A:ばけのー何だっけ？
B: もし見たことない？
A: ない。Ｆａｔｅをたくさん見たばっかりだから、複雑なストーリーで疲れた。
B: えーと。。。
A: どうした？
B: 残念ながら、このアニメはちょっと複雑なんだ。1話だけ見るのか？
A: いいよ。
[You haven’t watched it?!]
A: Dude, this looks cool. What are you watching?
B: Oh this. It’s Bakemonogatari.
A: Bake- who now.
B: You never watched it.
A: Nah, I just finished watching a lot of Fate, so I’m kinda burnt out on convoluted plots.
B: Uhh…
A: What’s up?
B: I hate to tell you this but, this show is a little rough. You want to watch an episode.
A: Sure.
タイトルを見る／WHAT’S IN A TITLE
立夏、それぞれの想い
立夏（りっか）
So we have 立 from the verb to stand 立つ. This kanji can mean stand up, rise, or set up.
夏 is one of the four seasons called summer. Just looking at it makes me feel 暑い.
This is a word that describes seasonal changes. Here’s a chart that I found:
This chart is called the 二十四節気（にじゅうしせっき）which is a calendar that splits the solar year into 24(二十四) segments.
立夏 is the “first day of summer”.
それぞれの This can mean either “each” or “respectively” and the の seems to be using possessiveness or it is nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Let’s take a look at the final word and finish the translation.
想（おも）い
The kanji 想 in 想い can mean things like idea or thought. The word itself can mean how someone feels or what they think. Considering this is a noun it is safe to say it is being used as a possessive here. Now that we know we are dealing with how the characters feel about the first day of summer, we can express that in the title.
Perhaps “Everyone’s Feelings about the First Day of Summer”.
Or maybe “Their Feelings at the Beginning of Summer”.
Or “Each of Their Thoughts on the Beginning of Summer”
I’ll go with the last one.
“Each of Their Thoughts on the Beginning of Summer”
Good. Really drives home the meaning.
This title comes from 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん or Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie. Considering she has the kanji 守 in her name, it goes perfectly with the plot of the show. Shikimori is dating this guy named Izumi Yuu （和泉 幽）. She is gorgeous but sometimes she acts like a total badass. I’ll get into that later but first, going back to Yuu’s first name seems a bit foreboding considering it reminds me of the word 幽霊 or ghost.
Thanks to Shikimori he doesn’t have to worry about being one. Because she protects her boyfriend from a lot in this show. Falling down, things falling down to crush him, not even Truck-kun can take this unlucky fellow out thanks to Shikimori.
So far I like the show, but I can see how it can get old fast with the whole “his unluckiness gets him harmed or almost killed and his girlfriend bails him out” spiel.
After healing my Pokemon and getting a few items from the Mart, I went into Ilex Forest. The trees are covering the sky. I wonder if it gets bright here during the day? Found the apprentice but he seems worried. He lost a Pokemon named Farfetch’d. Ah, so they use that Pokemon to cut the charcoal. Sounds convenient. He’s too scared to go look for it. That’s a bit inconvenient. So what if it’s a little dark in here. I’ll look for it myself.
Found it but it keeps running away. Figured out a way to get it back to the entrance. But then a Pokemon named Oddish got in my way. I caught it and named it Mikazuki since it appears to like the moonlight.
All according to plan. The Farfecth’d moved just how I wanted it to. Well almost. It ended up running into some trees but it reached the apprentice just fine. Oh? His master is here.
As thanks he gave me HM 01 “Cut”. Ah so it is like the TMs. So Farfetch’d wouldn’t listen to him because he doesn’t have any gym badges. That’s rough. The apprentice gave me some Charcoal. It’s perfect for fire type Pokemon it seems so I’ll give it to Hanabi. Better than paying 9800 yen for it at the Mart.
Looks like he wants me to work here. It wouldn’t hurt to train one of my Pokemon that can learn Cut, so I stayed there for a day. Mikazuki and Hanabi are the only ones that can learn it, so I trained Mikazuki in the way of the Cut. After a day or two, Mikazuki could cut down small trees with no problem. Before I left the town, I picked up Fast Ball from Kurt.
In conclusion, I hope that this series is helpful with your journey to learning Japanese and/or taking an interest in the country’s culture. Until then… また来週！
The stage play for World Trigger that was scheduled to open on the 7th in the Shinagawa Prince Hotel at 5:30 pm has been cancelled.
The announcement was reported on the official site, “Due to the illness of staff that are involved in the 5:30 pm performance, it will be cancelled. We sincerely apologize to everyone who was looking forward to attending the play with this last-minute announcement and ask for your understanding”.
Sales for the play will be held for ticket holders until 8:00 p.m. Information regarding refunds for tickets will be announced at a later date.
The same play is planned to be performed until the 14th in Tokyo and Kyoto from the 19th to the 21st.
Even before Covid, the main performers got the flu or other illnesses and the plays were suddenly cancelled. That goes for plays and concerts. Of course there weren’t as many cases as the pandemic though. Even though they cast the role with an understudy in case of situations like this, testing for Covid and other things happen that cause these events to be cancelled or not able to resume.
You never know what will occur right before the curtain raises. I think it would best to buy tickets with that in mind.
There’s been a lot of news like this lately.
Because of the Corona pandemic, of course the cancellation of the event is inevitable and its all the staff can do when someone gets sick. However, I feel bad for those who travel a long way for “this day”. Especially if they only get a refund. Of course, I do believe they are prepared for things like this but it just seems not to be worth it.
Once again another play being cancelled on the day of the play lol.
How about we stop going to see these half-assed plays. Maybe then management will start to have a sense of crisis and cancel the show in advance or set up some kind of guarantee system in case of cancellation for the customers.
To be frank, this industry underestimates the amount of people who see these performances.
It’s probably because the where they do rehearsal and where the performance is being held are in the same location, but the play for Spirited Away at the Gionza Theater is still going to open.
Kind of a shame. I like World Trigger and these kind of stage plays would be interesting to see one day. Hopefully they have their refunds by now. Considering what I saw in the comments, these cancellations have been quite frequent. Nonetheless, there’s nothing that can be done. The health of people shouldn’t be trumped by entertainment. On the other hand, I can see why someone would be upset by this if they planned out a whole trip centering around events like this.
V (Plain form) + というより(は) N + というより(は) い-Adj + というより(は) な-Adj + というより(は)
This is used to express something in another way. Like to make things more clearer. There is a casual way to use this as well with friends. And that is ていうか.
There is also a idiom というよりはむしろ is often used with this grammar. It means “rather than… instead…”.
Ex: 彼はゲームで日本語を勉強するというより練習するのです。
(He practices his Japanese rather than studying it with video games.)
Ex: 僕はマスターというよりはオールラウンダーです。
(I’m an all-rounder rather than a master.)
Ex: 彼女はかわいいっていうか美人だと思います。
(She’s more of beauty than a cutie.)
Ex: この本は無理というよりは難しいです。
(This book is hard rather than impossible.)
[ところで]
by the way
This is a conjunction that allows you to change the subject. A similar word to this is ちなみに.
Ex: ところで、昼ご飯一緒にどう？
(By the way, how about we go get lunch?)
Ex: ところで、明日空いてるの？本屋に行かない？
(By the way, are you free tomorrow? Do you wanna go to the bookstore?)
分＝part, minute of time, segment, share, degree, one’s lot, duty, understand, know
From the kanji itself, you can get a feel for the meaning of this verb. Another reading of this kanji is 分（ぶん）which means part, portion or share. With this verb you can use it to say you’ll share something with someone else. Like RIn (poorly) offering to share her lunch with Shiro.
Or you can use it to mean to distinguish something from another thing. Like how Kagami is questioning if Konata can separate reality from a dream.
This verb can be used by itself. However there are other ways to use it such as:
切り分け = to divide（分け） something by cutting（切り） it.
Like a ring being put in a cut-up pie from Is the Order a Rabbit.
使い分け = to use（使い） something for different （分け）things.
Like a voice actor using their skills at karaoke in Lucky Star.
見分け＝To make a distinction（分け） by sight （見）.
Like Sawa-chan can’t tell Mio and Azusa apart without her glasses from K-ON!.
[Trying something new] A:This restaurant has delicious food. B:It looks like it. Do you go here often? A:I eat here a couple of times out of the week. Oh, here’s the menu. B:What? A:What’s up? B:What’s this? U… na… jyu… where have I seen this before? A: Oh, unaju. Probably Genta from Detective Conan. It’s Genta’s favorite food. B: Oh, that’s right. Looks delicious. A:This restaurant is famous for it. B:Then, I’ll have this. A: Me too. By the way, it’s on me. B: Wow, thanks.
タイトルを見る／WHAT’S IN A TITLE
恋の打ち上げ花
恋（こい）の This may be familiar to you. You probably have seen this kanji in 恋人（こいびと） or 恋愛（れんあい）for those who have listened to Renai Circulation for the umpteenth time. This kanji refers to love in the romantic sense. So I’ll go with “Love” here. The の connects 恋 to the next word. It’ll most likely be “of” or be given a possessiveness. Let’s take a look at the next word.
打ち上げ（うちあげ） 打ち comes from the verb 打つ and 上げ comes from the verb 上げる. There is one definition I found that fits for 打つ in this context and that is “to move” and 上げる means “to rise”. So to move upwards?
The word 打ち上げ also reminds me of a certain movie by Shaft.
『打ち上げ花火、下から見るか? 横から見るか?』or Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom? From this you can see this word is used to say “launch fireworks” or just “fireworks”. By looking at 打ち上げ that makes sense.
花（はな） This basic kanji here means flower. However, as you could see from that movie title it is usually paired with the kanji 火 to make fireworks. Think of a firework and how it sprouts out like a flower. I guess that is how the word 花(flower) 火(fire) came to be.
Without that kanji it just means something like “Launching flowers”. Perhaps they were going with something more poetic. So maybe I’ll go with that spin as well and go with a more “literal” translation.
Launching Flowers of Love
That works. This title comes from the show Boruto (episode 260). I know I’ve talked about Boruto in the past but I found this episode interesting (plus I want to rant about the absolute state of Boruto on Crunchyroll).
This episode was a good one to have during Summer. Mainly because of the fireworks.
So this episode was like Tamaya (玉屋・たまや) and Kagiya (鍵屋・かぎや) with a bit of Romeo and Juliet mixed in. Interesting. Tamaya and Kagiya were rival firework makers in the Edo period. People used to cheer for one or the other when they held a competition for who had the best fireworks. That’s why you sometimes hear someone say 「たまやー」(Tamaya) or「かぎやー」(Kagiya) during fireworks in anime.
And now on to the rant.
I know that I’ve talked about this anime before but I wanted to talk about the current state of Boruto on Crunchyroll. It’s better to say the absolute state of Boruto on Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll has been going on a deleting/spoiler marking spree on Boruto comments for months now. It seems to have all started with episode 246. Even my comment got deleted XD. Good thing I put my comments on MAL. Here is what I said:
“Holy cheeseballs. I wasn’t expecting Boruto’s Karma showing up. Darn I forgot Iwabe and Sarada can use medical ninjutsu. Thought she wasn’t good at it. Still think they could’ve used Hibiichigo’s sewing technique here. That could’ve been helpful. Did Tenma really just die though? What the heck. Isn’t he supposed to be strong. Then again he had a flashback so that usually means a death flag.”
Funny thing is I think they marked it as a spoiler at first. However looking back now, it just says [COMMENT DELETED].
I can understand deleting the typical comments that state how crappy the show is or they spoil something from the manga. However, this isn’t the case here. Lately I have been putting my comments in spoiler tags (because 90% of the time the mods will end up doing it anyway). I found if I don’t and the mods do it, you can’t take the spoiler tag off. The constant “why are so many comments getting deleted” or “why are there so many spoilers” comments shows what kind of a sad state Boruto is in right now.
There are three things I have come up with:
The mods have the power to mark comments as spoilers or delete them (according to a forum I found here).
Hardcore Boruto fans flagging comments as a spoiler or reporting the comment.
The mods somehow put bots on this show’s comment section alone.
Heck, even in this episode, Steelers92 said something about Kakashi drinking tea with his mask on and it got deleted (along with the replies). Then several other people commented about the same thing and they are still there.
Hopefully with the current arc (the Himawari Kawaki Ninja Academy Arc) there will be less of this. Considering they deleted a comment saying “finally some Himawari” on episode 261 that’s not going to happen. I don’t think the person meant anything nefarious by this comment but two people replied to it. Tried to explain why it was deleted in a comment and well… it got deleted.
I went to a charcoal cutter’s house. Maybe he can tell me about this move called Cut. No dice. He’s worried about his apprentice in Ilex Forest. Guess I’ll help him out. When I was heading for the forest I was stopped by Keiji. He heard about the incident and was wondering who took down Team Rocket. He didn’t believe that I did it and challenged me to a Pokemon.
First Pokemon: Gastly. Kochou’s Confusion is super-effective on it (Is it a poison type?) and took it down. His Zubat was also super-effective to Confusion. Sent out Static to take it down with a Thundershock. So his Totodile has evolved into a Croconaw. Sent out Toriyama to hit it with a Sand-attack. Poisoned it with Peter’s Poison Sting and slowed it down with Scary Face. Hanabi is the only one that I can count on to take him down. We were lucky Croconaw kept missing but it almost killed her with Water Gun. We finished the fight with a Tackle.
Weak this weak that. How does his Pokemon put up with him? Looks like he’s got a bone to pick with Team Rocket. Wonder what that’s about? Meh. Anyway I gotta go look for that apprentice. But first: the Pokemon Center.
In conclusion, I hope that this series is helpful with your journey to learning Japanese and/or taking an interest in the country’s culture. Until then… また来週！
Used to explain a concept or a definition. It’s often used with ということです or のことです. When you are using this grammar in a conversation、 you can just say とは instead of というのは.
Ex: 「梅雨入り」というのは、梅雨の季節になることです。
(“Tsuyuri” means the beginning of the rainy season.)
Ex:「名探偵」とは有名な探偵のことです。
(A “great detective” is a detective that is famous.)
[というと]
speaking of, if it were the case that
Noun + というと/といえば/といったら
We know that という mean to say. It allows us to say a quote. The と here means if/when. This と is one of the few ways to make a hypothetical.
This grammar expresses when we are talking about something or if that is what we are talking about. You can use it to bring up a topic.
Ex: アメリカに不人気マンガという、「僕が答える君の謎解き」を思い浮かぶ。
(Speaking of unpopular manga in America, “I’ll Solve Your Mystery” comes to mind.)
Ex: アニメといえば、まだ「名探偵コナン」を見ていますか。
(Speaking of anime, are you still watching “Detective Conan”?)
The kanji is simple but let me get into types of verbs for a bit.
There are two types of verbs: transitive and intransitive verbs. Be careful with these because they can use the same kanji.
Transitive verbs are used for direct objects. They always use the particle を before them. It’s doing something to something else. Here’s an example:
ゲームを買いました。 I bought a game.
The direct object here is the game that was bought.
However, intransitive verbs are used for subjects only. These verbs don’t use the particle を. It can use other particles like に、と、が、and へ though.
These kind of verbs are usually done by the subject itself. Here’s an example.
ドアが開けました。 The door opened (by itself).
This verb here is an intransitive verb. Unlike the verb 売る to sell. This means to sell well like Koro-sensei telling his student that she could make a lot of money by selling a beetle.
Or it can mean that you are popular or in the case of the manga artist from Bunny Drop… not so much. You could also say she’s not selling those volumes that well.
A: Hey there, Emi-chan, sorry I’m late. B: Geez what took you so lo- Uh… who are you? A: Eh… really? It’s me, Takeshi. B: Eh?! Takeshi?! What did you do to your hair?! A: It’s been so hot lately, I cut it all off. B: You had such long hair, I barely recognized you. A: Yeah it’s been a while since I had it this short. B: It’s like when you played baseball in middle school. A: Oh that’s right. Well you ready to go to the bookstore. B: Sure… but… A: What’s up? B: It just looks so weird (laughs) A: Meh, its so refreshing. B: Well that’s good. Let’s go.
タイトルを見る／WHAT’S IN A TITLE
EP01 期待を裏切らないね
期待（きたい）を I explained this in a previous N3 Verb segment. You can find that here.
Here’s what I broke it down to:
期待する
きたいする
expectation; anticipation; hope
期 = period, time, date, term
In this context = opportunity, chance
待 = wait, depend on
So if we go in reverse, we have “depend on chance” or “depend on opportunity”. In other words relying on an opportunity or a chance that comes up for you. Kind of like how Sakura was expecting Kero to explain the Clow Cards.
The を is a direct object particle that is leading into an action. Let’s see what verb we are working with.
裏切らないね The first kanji 裏 can mean “back” while 切 is from the verb 切（き）る which means to cut. Put together you get the verb 裏切る. So someone cutting another person’s back? Sounds like back stabbing to me. Funny how words have similarities between different languages. Gotta love it. *Ahem* Anyway…
This verb 裏切る means “to betray”. However, the word we are looking at is in the negative form of this うーverb 裏切らない. So, it means something like “not to betray” or “don’t betray”.
Put this with 期待 (expectation), you get a rough translation like “don’t betray expectations”. Meaning that someone is always dependable. Like people can count on them.
Now the ね at the end here is used to get someone to agree with you. Kinda like “right” or “don’t you think”. Think I’ll leave this out. In addition I think I’ll take some liberties and try to bring that “dependable” feel to the surface of my translation.
We Can Always Count On You
Very good. This title comes from a special episode from the series called “私に天使が舞い降りた!” aka “An Angel Flew Down to Me”. It’s called わたもて or Watamote for short. The story is about a shy college girl named Miyako who works on cosplay outfits. She has a tomboyish little sister named Hinata (who calls her sister みゃーねえ(mya-nee)). When Hinata brings home her classmate, Hana Shirosaki, Miyako is quickly enchanted by her cuteness and begins having her dress up in cosplay in exchange for sweets.
It’s a nice slice of life anime so if that is your thing I recommend it.
Fought these twins named Amy and May at the gym. Looks like this will be a bug type Gym. Toriyama and Hanabi can handle this Gym with no problem. I want Peter to get stronger so I’ll let him fight a bit. Found out that Kochou’s Confusion move is super effective to poison type Pokemon. That’ll come in handy. I also heard that bug types evolve faster than other Pokemon. So that’s why Kochou evolved so fast.
This one kid had this cool looking Pokemon named Beedrill. It went down in one move thanks to Rock Lee’s Rock Throw. I think that’s everyone. Now it is time to take on the gym leader. His name is Buggsy? Sounds like Buggy from One Piece. Regardless, I better take him seriously and use Hanabi or Toriyama first.
One of his Pokemon was a kind of pushover. Then he sent out a Pokemon with scythe-like arms named Scyther. It kept using Fury Cutter. At first it wasn’t that strong but it kept getting stronger and stronger. Bombarded it with Smokescreen. It gave up on that move and started using Quick Attack… but it kept missing! One more Ember and… it’s still moving?! Hanabi used Ember again and it went down. His last Pokemon… was a Kakuna… that’s a bit anticlimactic.
Kochou’s Confusion took care of it. After the battle, Hanabi started glowing! She’s evolving.
Man she looks so cool. She evolved into a Quilava. I got the Hive badge and now I can use Cut outside of battle.
He also gave me TM 49 “Fury Cutter”. I’ll definitely use this. I wonder where I can find this move called Cut though. Can one of my Pokemon learn it naturally or is it like a TM?
In conclusion, I hope that this series is helpful with your journey to learning Japanese and/or taking an interest in the country’s culture. Until then… また来週！
Japanese Practice・日本語の練習 
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