Darlo's World

Ok, so right now I’m in a completely different mood to how I was when I wrote yesterday (aka – I’m smiling). I’ve just been having a great laugh for the past hour courtesy of the doujin (fanmade) Higurashi DVD I bought last weekend. While I’m not going to do a proper review of this, I thought I’d share my thoughts on it with you guys. Also, bonus points for anyone who can explain the term “shiggles and gits”.

Freett 18′s そのひぐらしのなく頃に (Sono Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni) is something I’ll definately take my hat off to. I wasn’t expecting much (judging from the box), and I guess to be honest I was right in that regards, but it’s definately the best DVD I’ve bought here. Huge points go to them for actually going and filming in (I’m guessing) 白川郷 (Shirakawa-gou), the village that the Higurashi village of Hinamizawa was based on as this really helped give it more of a Higurashi vibe. The major downside to that is that because it’s a public place, let’s just say they had more extras in the background (and at times in front of the camera), staring at the cast wondering what they were doing.

They followed the story from the first anime arch (don’t really like that term) where Keichi is introduced as the newcomer who doesn’t know anything about the atrocities of the villages shady past and for the most part follows it quite well. There are some changes to that original storyline and it seems to make Rika out to be the villain. Amusingly Rika and Hanyuu are always seen hanging around in the background, the most entertaining moment was seeing them have a fist-fight.

If I’m going to get technical about what I thought “could have been improved upon” (I didn’t want to say “was bad”), the sound was all over the place for most of the film where the audio seemed to have been recorded in post-production and (not too well) lip-synched to the video. Sound effects also seemed to play a major part with the frequent use of 蜩 (higurashi – cicada) cries in the background. Filming … beware of mirrors and other reflective surfaces. I had a laugh and a giggle seeing the dramatic moment where Keichi practices bat swinging talking to Mion … with Satoko and the camera man staring at the pair.

However, for all it’s faults this DVD was balanced by a sense of effort and fun that cannot be taken away from the film makers. Despite the fact it was raining for most scenes (camera man had an brolly, but hey I won’t complain), the cast were out there brolly-less enjoying what they were doing. I don’t think this, or the next two films they did, were meant to be taken seriously, much like Stephen Fry’s contribution to Little Big Planet. It reminds me much of whenever we made films and such back home, something I miss actually.

Though I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone who wants to see something made by determined fans to show their appreciation for something they truly love, I have no idea how most of you guys would find a copy since I found mine by shere fluke in a second hand shop in DenDen Town. Good luck though! In the meantime, here’s the opening to the movie.

Today is Valentine’s Day, a day in which couples get sappier and singles get whinier, generally speaking that is. Being one of the latter it did mean that I was free to enjoy my day without the social obligations of meeting the missus. But that doesn’t mean I completely missed out on the tradition.

In Japan the tradition (in a nut-shell) is for girls to give chocolate to boys. There’re two kinds of chocolate depending on who you’re giving it to, and I don’t mean with nuts or without … although reading between the lines it probably does. First is 義理チョコ (girichoko) which you’d give to someone you feel you have a social obligation toward. This might be your boss, teacher, dorm manager, but not only people ‘socially higher’ than you, you might choose to give some to your friends and so on.

On the flip side to this is 本命チョコ (honmeichoko) which you’d give to your boyfriend, lover, husband or a boy that you fancy. Don’t worry girls, boys will come to return the favour next month on White Day, and for guys who got no chocolate, we can all get together and celebrate the Korean Black Day in April, but more on those days as they come.

My plan for today involved a trip to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) and Denden Town. If you remember my previous blogs it’s an area that’s known as the 秋葉原 (Akihabara) or Osaka, with plenty of manga and anime related stores, cafes and … stuff. So we headed downstairs (in the lift) and were greeted by the dorm manager. His wife had bought a small piece of chocolate for all the dorm residents (male dorm don’t forget). How kind of her; clearly this was girichoko (especially since it was her husband who gave it to us).

This wasn’t the only chocolate I received this year though. During the week some of my friends who frequent the Ajisai room had brought in their own home-made chocolate and biscuits and shared them around. Delish!

As usual Nippombashi was tons of fun and rumaging around the second hand book shops I found plenty of cheap manga, starting as low as 10 yen (about 8 pence by today’s exchange rate). As per usual DVD’s are expensive, though some stores here were considerably cheaper than the status-quo, and walking past the doujinshi covers you could see the usual ‘dripping’ images. Funnily enough afterwards I was talking with another friend about whether doujins are rated on some sort of ‘drip-scale’ or ‘dripometer’. Don’t get me wrong however, I did spot some of a non-sexual nature, and had I been interested in the series may have considered buying.

After my friend headed off home I stayed around for a walk and a wander. I was actually surprised how close Namba was to the area and ended up eating lunch at a Matsuya near Namba Parks. Though 95% of the time my self-navigatory skills are spot on without the use of a map, the cloudy day and the fact I’d spun in a few circles nosing around and exploring this new area meant I had no direction which way was North, and thus was a bit muddled. However (as all great men say at some point in their lives) I was not lost, I could have turned around and gone back the exact same way I had come from (something I usually find odd that people don’t do when they are ‘lost’), but prefer the fun way of walking and hoping until eventually passing out.

Thankfully I didn’t faint, but instead found a familliar sight in the distance. It was a large arcade (sega arcade I think), that I’d passed on the way. Keeping this to my right hand side I kept on walking and soon found myself on familiar ground.

On my way I found myself drawn to a particular retailer. The small table-top store was selling Monopoly … Osaka Edition! Now I can’t remember if my familly (we’re competitive when it comes to Monopoly) had asked me to buy one in Japan, but me here staring the the Osakan version of Monopoly took my by complete surprise! The only thing stopping me from buying it was the price of 4500 yen (£33.97 by today’s exchange rate). Even now I’m still umming and ahhing about it. I guess I’ve still got some time left here so I don’t need to make a rush decision about it.

To get to Nippombashi it cost me 230 yen (£1.74) on the underground, but me being me, the stubborn money saving twazzerk, thought “nuts to that” and walked home. Quite ironic when you consider my Monopoly incident. The walk (which according to google is just over 3 and a half miles) took somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. Due to complications with a watch and a phone call, I really don’t know.

It was actually on the way home that I made my biggest cock-up of the day, possibly the week (or longer >_<). When things are put ‘on sale’ in Japan, they might be marketed by a number of prices rather than the one you actually pay. To be fair this isn’t something that’s exclusive to Japan, just think of the times in shops you’ve seen £10 in huge letting next to something expensive only to look at the very small ‘off’ next to it. Well todays balls up was quite simple. I saw a sign saying 800 yen (£6.04) and jeans. Due to an unfortunate split in one of my pairs of bottoms I’ve been left juggling between a few pairs as of late.

Anyway, after nosing through the rail which was out the front of the store, I eventually found a pair that matched my size. Smiling like an idiot at the thought of picking up a bargain, I take my new jeans into the store and head for the desk. Something struck me the moment I entered the shop, and it wasn’t the low signage by the door. This was a nice looking shop, the kind where it looks like all they need to do is sell one thing in order to cover all their overheads, the kind of shop I never (like to) enter!

Being served by two very well dressed well mannered young men felt somewhats off-putting, me standing their in an old work-uniform coat, a University club jumper and jeans that … well, they’re almost as holy as the Pope. When it came for me to pay I stuttered and stammered. I had misread the sign outside, and the jeans were 800 yen off, not 800 yen. A total of 2800 yen (£21.14) for the jeans was paid, 2000 yen over what this idiot had thought they were. To be fair (trying to justify stupidity is something that can seldom be done well, but I’ll give it a go) even at 2800 yen, compared to other shops I’ve been here they were pretty cheap. A lot of people may say that Uni-Qlo is Japan’s cheapest clothing store, and about as close to Primark (oh beloved Primark) as you can get, but in my eye it’s still expensive. Perhaps it’s all these years of buying Tesco and Asda jeans that have conditioned my mind.

Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬