Luna's Learning Log

Japanese
648

Cool. Sadly not jpdb nor jiten deck for this (tho I have my hands full with the 花物語 vocab rn anyway)

2 Likes
649

If there are no subs it makes sense, since I think that’s where the TV and movie decks come from anyway.

I have to work on my big robots go pew pew vocabulary anyway… one of these days I want to also watch all of the Macrosses in Japanese too.

3 Likes
650

You’d think that, but they have an utena deck, and I didn’t find subs for that… Still, how else could they do it?

I don’t really watch/read much of it… But I should probably work on fantasy or sci-fi vocab in general… It never ends lol

Somehow I’ve never heard of Macross till now (or managed to forget)

2 Likes
651

That was at some point on Netflix Japan bc I rewatched the first arc there, so subtitles must be kicking around somewhere online…

It wasn’t just dubbed but massaged into Robotech in English, so maybe you heard of that instead? I don’t actually remember anything from Robotech except that it was kinda like Voltron and Transformers, both of which I loved when I was little. Basically, I liked anime but didn’t that at the time :joy:

2 Likes
652

It doesn’t particularly ring a bell

Same on Voltron and Transformers (tho the latter I wouldn’t describe as JP anime)… Wonder what I’d think of Voltron now - but 20 million other things to watch

悔しい… sigh

2 Likes
653

It was animated by a Japanese studio, but a western production. I put it into the half anime category from the 80s and 90s when a lot of North American and European studios sent projects to Japan to cut costs (lol). Back when I was a wee one, they were different than most of the other cartons that were on tv and I was drawn to the art and the non-episodic storytelling.

だよね

3 Likes
654

Ok I am reaaaaally hooked on this show, but I’m missing enough to the point where I’d either have to constantly rewind & check the EN subs, or just leave them on. So I’ve given in, and put on the EN subs, and trying to active as much as I can. I can tell already it’s the sorta show I wanna rewatch someday… So I’ll look forward to eventually getting it in the future. Also I think it is Utena-level hard after all, for different reasons.

This & all the lookups with わたおし is making me think I should find some sort of sci-fi or even fantasy deck to do… Maybe Gundam Wing is the way to go with this, once I finish this show :thinking:

3 Likes
655

I finished Simoun (incredible) - turns out there’s a PS2 game - which I think is a mix of VN/ADV game + some combat? Anyway I’m mining words from it as I go, and making an anki deck with words I’m grabbing from it. So that will do the trick

@eefara reaffirming what I said, the gender selection thing has story significance in various ways throughout the anime. The thing I mentioned before that skeeved me out didn’t go where I was fearing, and overall I would describe the show as little to no fanservice. Lmk if any questions

3 Likes
656

Sweet, thanks for the update! Maybe I’ll give that a shot someday when my listening’s better, then.

3 Likes
657

Have been super into the Simoun Game. Pulled about 180 words into an Anki deck so far, and it’s been cool doing reviews for words I just saw, rather than words I haven’t seen yet.

Decided to give 新機動戦記ガンダムW | L29 a try, to see if it would be beneficial. Some of it definitely feels familiar from high school - but right this second I’m not in the mood for it. I’m realizing one of the things I really liked about Simoun is it’s not a space show - the whole thing takes place inside an actual country/planet. Feels much more organic - and instead of starting off with all this space-techno babble, it just starts off with the characters & their relationship issues… Anyway I’m not quite ready to shift gears here yet, so I guess I’ll keep playing the game… but now I’m in a spot of wanting to either A - rewatch the whole anime, B - watching something “kinda like” it… but have no idea what that could be… I am kinda considering trying ヴァイスクロイツ | L30?? (a very, very gay and melodramatic show about an assassin group) at some point

Have not been getting any reading done otherwise… and I probly won’t till I beat the game lol

2 Likes
658

I haven’t thought of that show in ages although with all the fanfiction I read from it I’m not sure how I could have ever forgotten it:sweat_smile: I’d be interested in your thoughts on it now… I can’t remember if the show was any good, but I do remember loving all of the music.

2 Likes
659

I watched ep 1, cuz I was getting a bit burnt on the game… So far it’s living up to the “totally unrealistic, and ridiculous, and borderline so bad it’s good”… Was potentially gonna watch more, but I couldn’t find JP subs or jpdb deck for it, so I’ll wait. The music is good so far… the theme towards the end of the ep definitely sounded familiar.

1 Like
660

Aaaand I found my answer:

Seems to have a perfect vocab set + excellent subs (even have OP & ED) + jpdb deck, and most importantly seems like a show I will really enjoy. Gonna go 1-2 episodes at a time w/ this one, so I get the vocab. Also contrary to the EN name, it appears to have little to no fan service

2 Likes
661

I still can’t get シムーン S1 | L31 out of my head, so I’m rewatching the the entire show audio-only, but rewinding lines (and checking EN subs if necessary) when I don’t get it. And I’m adding all the looked up vocab as Anki cards… which I’ll make a jpdb deck out of. Most of the words are new words, but there’s been a good handful of words that I’ve known, but didn’t immediately recognize when watching - so just Anki won’t cut it. I need to actually hear the words when I review them. Tho of course some of it is just "words sound different when they’re being spoken in fast sentences… actually I’m realizing most of the words in here are already marked on jpdb as Never Forget… I guess I’ll have to unmark those

Even with checking the subs and reverse engineering the words, there’s still a number of times where I just can’t tell wtf they’re actually saying in Japanese. Also since I’ve had to rewind frequently, it’s been cool seeing just how often context is informing my comprehension

Episode Vocab cards Unintelligible
1 22 5-10
2 18 5?
3 22 3-5?
4 14 1-2?
5 20 4
6-7 30 5-9
8 15 A lot
9-10 34 A lot
11 37 Stopped Caring
12 7
13-14 16
15 10
16 9
17-26 53
Total 307

Update: I kept adding words through the final episode, but gave up on a lot more words when I was in the final stretch.

Anyway that means モーレツ宇宙海賊 S1 | L30?? is on hold till the weekend. Gonna try the same method there. Thankfully it has JP subs!

2 Likes
662

Finished:

Had conversation lesson - which went by pretty quickly and had less awkward pauses. I tried explaining why I’m probly gonna hate Watanare, and also why I hated (and forgot to finish) the most recent season of DanMachi, which I only felt like I sort of got my point across in both cases. Also I mentioned that I usually like reading reviews or analyses of weekly shows (or even old shows), but sometimes if I like a show too much, I’ll avoid reading them (b/c I don’t want to hear negative opinions), and my teacher mentioned that one of the characters in 月刊少女野崎くん | L26 said something similar

Watched ep 4-5 of モーレツ宇宙海賊 S1 | L30 - and omg they sci-fi babble waaaaay too fast. Jpdb decks have helped, but even then I paused ep 4 a lot, and looked up 32 words. By ep 5 I decided to let it just go by. I’m pretty ambivalent on this show, but I’ve been told it’s worth hanging in for

I do like this “make an anki deck as I go, and review cards afterwards” approach. But I think it’s probably only productive for things that are more i+1 or that I’m really, really into. So I think I won’t bother for Space Pirates

There’s a part of me that actually wants to watch シムーン a 3rd time :sweat_smile: I’m satiating that urge by replaying the game a bit to get various character moments. (Tho skipping most of the main story scenes so far). The battles actually have decent replay value. It would be even better if I knew wth various mechanics were, cuz then I might be incentivized to try some new stuff.

I still have 1 letter to finish

4 Likes
663

Read a lot of the 対あり lines at real speech rate, and with various degrees of fluidity, in my lesson today. Still not as smooth as I’d like

Got through ep 8 of モーレツ宇宙海賊 S1 | L30 and ep 2 of 機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女 S1 | L30 . I’m really enjoying the vocab I’m picking up from the jpdb decks… though there’s been a fair number of “I used to know this” words - great vocab expansion. Also added in the 声優ラジオのウラオモテ #06 夕陽とやすみは大きくなりたい? | L28 jpdb deck a bit - and that’s a lot of “I sort of know this” words - great vocab reinforcement.

Had a really rough time with the 3 eps of BLUE DROP ～天使達の戯曲～ S1 | L30 - I was basically totally lost with most of the sci-fi parts, since no subs. I wasn’t so into it, so I dropped it.

Feels weird being so light on the reading lately, but I’ll finish 声優ラジオのウラオモテ 6 over the weekend to make up for it.

2 Likes
664

It’s hard to put into words, but it feels like my comprehension is getting progressively more fluid lately. Like I still have stuff I don’t understand, but the stuff I do understand comes more naturally. Counterpoint: there were a few lines in 付き合ってあげてもいいかな 1 | L25 that I had to think about but I was also kinda exhausted

Speaking of stuff I don’t understand, I’ve had some times in 薬屋のひとりごと 1 where I’ve checked the translation. I’m honestly not super in the mood for the book rn, but I wanna finally check it off the list.

Finally got myself watching 薬屋のひとりごと S2 | L34 again - bc you can watch Netflix from your phone. Decided to stop stressing about parts I can’t understand in real time, and just grab what I can. Just passed the :frog: episode.

Read some assorted easy yuri manga recently, and stopped myself from grading them - both bc I didn’t feel like it, and bc I probably just shouldn’t grade stuff at that level anymore

Been thinking of picking up 伽藍の姫 -がらんのひめ-: 1【イラスト特典付】 | L25 or 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 1 | L28 for SRS purposes. I could theoretically go through the jpdb deck for 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 | L32 - but that’s a lot more words, and with manga chapters, I can do a small wordset , which I think is more beneficial

Otoh, picked up 百合の間に挟まれたわたしが、勢いで二股してしまった話 | L27 again, which I stopped a year ago. It felt easy enough then, but now it feels breezy. I even put Kindle on the lowest font size, which is helping me read a bit faster. I might wanna try that more in general. Anyway perfect easy read for now - 4 hrs left

Anime comprehension:

3 Likes
665

I do need to get back to トーマの心臓 | L30 and トワ・エ・モア | L28 reread tho, and finally finish my remaining letter. Plus I’ve been neglecting 花物語 上 | L38 . Maybe I should focus on that after I finish ゆりたま. It’s more interesting than 薬屋のひとりごと for me anyway

I’ll probably rewatch シムーン S1 | L32 this weekend. A bit premature, but I was talking with my friend about it, and I’m still in the mood. I mean I watched ガールズバンドクライ S1 | L26 11 times - so why not. Wonder how good my comprehension will be this time around

2 Likes
666

会話だけのレッスンん went decently yesterday, considering I was pretty stressed and exhausted, in general. We mostly talked about current season anime + some manga. I feel like at some point we’re gonna have to talk about something else lol, but so far we haven’t managed to exhaust this yet. Anyway, I might like to talk about something else a bit… but what?

機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女 S1 | L30 is going well - I pre-study two episodes at a time. Ideally I should leave the old decks up, but I don’t want the reviews to pile up, especially since…

I started 勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女 | L28 and am mining vocab from that. I found an easy process for grabbing words from Kindle & transferring them to jpdb (tried anki, but the resources that were up kept failing):

  1. select words as you’re reading in Kindle
  2. Connect kindle to computer, navigate to Internal Storage > System > Vocabulary and copy vocabulary.db
  3. Use dbbrowser or similar to browse the database, go to the WORDS table, and select & copy relevant words from either the words or stem column
  4. Add via text to new or existing jpdb deck

So basically I’m reading in sections, and then SRS’ing those words. I realized it won’t help me when it comes to わたおし, b/c the vocab I have issues with there is political, but still this should be helpful for fantasy in general. And the vibe is very fun & light rn.

I’ve been good at sticking to my “one novel at a time” thing (meaning I’ve dropped 薬屋のひとりごと 1 yet again :joy:)

2 Likes
667

Did ep 9-10 for Mercury Witch… jpdb definitely helps, but at the same time I think it’s not enough lead-in time to be totally useful… which is to say I really need to pick some of these words up through reading, or pause while watching, to understand the sentences. I don’t like to interrupt much, but I do really like the show, so it wouldn’t be a bad thing to make sure I fully get it. jpdb only goes up to ep 12, so making my own decks from the subtitle files

Watched サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと S1 | L30?? 1 - and same gyst: I got a lot of it, but would need to pause certain sentences to get fully.

32 pgs into 勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女 | L28 - it started off roughly for the first few pages, but past that point, it’s been on the easier side

Watched シムーン S1 | L32 1-6 (EN subs) with my friend. I could definitely make out most of the audio without the subs (in part b/c I remembered a lot of the lines)… will be curious to see how it feels throughout the rest of the show (which I’ll watch audio-only this weekend). Since I still clearly processed a lot of the audio (and it’s something I’ve watched before), I’ll log them for listening challenge, but at 10 minutes per ep instead of 15

1 Like