Anime Review (1): Aria the Animation

Picture this: Italy on Mars paved with endless blue, blue sea. Then you have gondoliers as your tour guides around this Neo Italian city. A smile on this young female tour guide showing the lovely sites. Everyone seems content and relaxed. This is what this anime provides. It shows you the wonderful world of Neo Venezia through the eyes of Akari Mizunashi as she trains her way to be a professional gondolier meeting new people and experiences.
Oh Aria... Such a wonderful Anime. The ultimate slice-of-life anime out there with a fantastical edge. :]
My top favourite anime out there. I full-out recommend it. Like most slice of life, not a lot is progressed in the series. But after you watch season 1 and 2, a lot of changes happen in the last season (there's 3 seasons in total) in the most epic way. It's one of those series where it gets better in each season. Each character is likeable, relateable and has a story.

You can purchase it on DVD here :]

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Japanese Lesson (7): Pronouns

Very different from English, the Japanese language has various, variations (haha) on how to describe "I" and "you"
It mostly just depends on how you see yourself as in terms of femininity and masculinity.
Here's the mostly used-terms for "I":

• 私 watashi (unisex, standard); sounds like WA-ta-SHEE
• 私 atashi (female use); sounds like AH-ta-SHEE 
• 私 watakushi (selfish); sounds like WA-ta-koo-SHEE
• 僕 boku (male); sounds like BOU-koo
• 俺 ore ("manly" male); sounds like Oh-leh

In Japanese culture, it's really not polite to use "I" every so often. But when prompted, these are the terms you would use. Japanese people are usually seen as indirect and unselfish being that's their culture and they value of being discreet. Which is why they probably view the U.S. as stereotypically obnoxious whenever we use our pronouns.

Here's the mostly-used terms for "you" (which are all not usually polite to use, unless there's no choice in the matter)

• あなた anata (general); sounds like Ah-nah-tah
  note: wives usually refer to their husbands as that term though I'm unsure if the kanji is different, but the sound is the same.
• あんた anta; sounds like Ahn-tah (more informal and sometimes rude)
• 君　kimi; sounds like KEE-me (used for friends and probably little kids)

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Anime/Manga & Japanese Lessons (3&6): Kansai and ラブ★コン

何でよね！

Like any country, there are various dialects that is somewhat different from its standard language. One dialect in Japan I'll be talking about is Kansai dialect. It's a pretty funny dialect that is often used in Japanese comedic groups. It's most prevalent in the city of Osaka in the Kansai region.

In the anime world, characters from Osaka are often seen as side characters. You can say they're like the 'hick' part of Japan. Often teased about by the way they talk and their different customs. It's nothing to be offended about since we do it ourselves when you think about it.

A great anime to watch with prevalent Kansai dialect would be Lovely Complex (usually seen written as ラブ★コン　in Japanese media). When you watch plenty of anime and then watch Lovely Complex, you start to hear differences. Honestly, rarely you would find the main character with a Kansai accent/dialect in various anime. This is a great recommendation to notice standard Japanese and not-so standard haha.

Don't forget kids, that the U.S. has various dialects as well. We can understand each other (most of the time), we just sound different and sometimes funny.

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A short Anime/Manga lesson (3): Seiyuu

For those wondering, the term seiyuu (pronounced as SAY-you) just means voice acter/actress usually for anime.

It's seen written like this 声優. A nifty thing to note is that the kanji for  声 means voice.

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