-What A Summer It has Been- -Blog/Life Update/Featuring My Cousins New Youtube Channel-

What a summer it has been! Traveling to many places like the Milwaukee County Zoo and the Wisconsin Dells resort areas (Mt. Olympus and The Wilderness), as well as traveling to places beyond my state such as Florida and Minnesota, and recently getting my drivers license.

 

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As summer comes to a closing end with endless months of reflecting on what to do during/after summer, seemingly, Anime wasn’t one of the things that I really wanted to do. Cutting to the chase, I have not written a blog post in over two months. And in my own perspective, deep into the mind of Mark (myself), I’ve yet again lacked the encouragement to continue watching anime/films, unless they predominately came from Studio Ghibli. Why? Much like what my brother would tell me, I can be over critical when it comes to critiquing an anime/film (or at least the trailers of the anime/film) without even watching the anime/film itself, as well as also looking at what previous critics have said about a so or so film, making me somewhat biased. But not to worry, I will be creating mini anime critiques on Attack On Titan Season 2, Koe No Katachi (animated film), Howls Moving Castle (animated film), and also both versions of Hell Sing into one whole post.

 

 

(Some Of My Most Favorite Sound Tracks From All Animes Mentioned Above)

 

Before I go, I’d like to feature my cousin Jaden, a Youtuber that’s just starting out and currently creating vlogs on his channel, Jaden Yang! He currently has two videos. One introducing himself, and one on his trip to downtown Milwaukee.

I subscribed and commented already, and have also thoroughly enjoyed my cousins content!

(Edit), it’s been a week since I’ve actually written this post and it goes to show where my priorities are when it comes to actually having time to write blog posts, and me being overall lazy as a blog poster. But either way, my most recent priority as of recently, is having school tomorrow. Summers been great, as said before, and I’m going to rewatch the animated movie, When Marne Was There before school starts. A.k.a, the first animated film/any film to actually make me cry.But anyways, hope you guys have a good day, and see you guys later. Peace!

Happy Easter, From Mark!

Hello, once again with the holiday posts. Just wanted to say, happy Easter! I just wanted to thank a lot for my friends (you know who you are: Nathan. NoRedInk with that colon grammar), family, and as well as you the viewers and followers for always sticking around my blog! With a simple goodbye, see you guys later, peace! 

(Photo from The Secret World Of Arriety. Created by Studio Ghibli)

The Modern Animated Classic, Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli): Review By, Mark Yang

 

A classic story of a 10-year old girl named Chihiro, as she and her family drive around the forest in hopes of moving into their new house but unknowingly stumble upon the world of spirits, a place where humans aren’t supposed to be. Later on, the gluttony of Chihiro’s parents, as they ate food meant for spirits, has turned them into pigs. So, with the help of a spirit named Haku, he helps Chihiro by letting her work at the bathhouse of the spirits as both helping each other to remember each other’s names, as stolen from the witch of the bathhouse and to leave the world of spirits.

(Spoilers are beyond this point)

Ironically, it’s been 10 years since the last time I’ve seen Spirited Away. The last time I remembered watching Spirited Away was when I was around the age of 4-6 years old (2004-2006). I still have the movie myself, as I remembered that my parents originally bought it for my brother when he was around 6-10 years old. And sometimes it makes me wonder as to why my parents would buy multiple movies from Studio Ghibli such as Ponyo, Arrietty, Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Grave of The Fireflies, and not remembering at all as to why they bought all of those films. Maybe it was a coincidence? And they were all films I’ve grown to watch and enjoy throughout my whole lifetime. But back on topic to Spirited Away, it’s been over 10 years since then.
My first time watching the film made me have a mildish course of fear and has made me feel this way throughout most parts of the film. But instead of always being in fear, it made me very sympathetic towards characters such as No-Face. In my childlike perspective, I felt that No-Face was this evil like character, a “monster” that gobbled everything and everyone. But No-Face was really a lonely person that needed someone to be with, and it was eventually not Chihiro, but Zeniba. And throughout my childhood and like most children, it’s hard learning a concept such as sympathy. But I felt that Hayao Miyazaki greatly made me as a kid learn the concept of sympathy, since it was from a perspective of an adolescent main character, Chihiro. As she sympathized with No-Face by letting it come along with her to Zeniba’s house. It was a short yet meaningful scene of always having the right person to always keep you company. A scene even today I haven’t forgotten.

But looking at the movie now, I wasn’t as nostalgic and I even forgot the concept of Spirited Away. As I always imagined the movie being a bathhouse filled with spirits and just Chihiro and Haku, and thought nothing much about the movie until now.

Much like my past self, I still sympathize with No-Face, but other than that concept, I started to notice a recurrent theme throughout the movie, and it was characters majorly understanding other characters. Mostly just Chihiro for the most part. Characters such as Lin, and Kamaji are great examples, as they hated Chihiro in the beginning of the story, but in a sense, they really just wanted to help her by staying away from the world of spirits, as well as to prevent her from being taken in by Yubaba. And despite an antagonizing and grumpy attitude towards Chihiro, they never really got used to Chihiro or openly warmed up to her, they understood her position, a deep understanding of who she is and how they can help her. Whether if it were to discourage her from working in the bathouse, or even if she were to work in the bathhouse. It was interesting as I continued to watch the film, as personalities like Lin and Kamaji are usually shown to be antagonizing, and that there would be nothing else about them but just to antagonize. Such as in other films, they would be depicted as evil characters, as they would usually be this antagonistic character without any good reason towards why they’re being antagonizing. These characters would usually be people you would hate, but they were characters who sympathized with Chihiro while having good intentions, and this made me think of it as more of an empowering moment in the film itself for showing a deep understanding of empathy and “love.” To understand what empathy truly looks like is what made this concept, to seem so beautiful.

Speaking of love, another minor detail about the movie that I really just can’t get enough of is, is the expression of “love.” Throughout the film, we continue to see the progression of Chihiro and Haku, as they both help each other and eventually come to care about each other deeply. Although this film is not a romance film, the idea of “love,” is personally for me, beautiful. And knowing how Hayao Miyazaki likes to stay away from cliches and stereotypes but also incorporating humanistic ideas mixed in with supernatural elements, his idea, and his incorporation of love in Spirited Away, is both figurative and literal. And you can see it within Chihiro and Haku, as they help each other but truly care for one another, while others pointing out the situation between the two for what the idea of “love” is (Kamaji and Lin).

Before the story of Spirted Away has even occurred where both Chihiro and Haku meet in the bathhouse of spirits, near the end of the film we know that Haku is a river spirit that no longer exists. And even though there was quite simplistic and cheerful dialogue between Chihiro and Haku that references this, I was surprised as to why this idea was even brought up, but knowing how Hayao Miyazaki’s deep fascination with nature, Haku was added as a character to be the symbolism of being a part of nature. As Haku says, “That’s why I can no longer find my way home,” and knowing how the construction of buildings such as houses. It can just destroy others homes (animals), destroy renewable resources, and even possibly destroy a part of nature itself. As people wouldn’t be able to acknowledge the importance or the potential scenery that nature can hold itself before construction or the depletement of nature occurs. Despite this slight reference of Haku being a river that once saved Chihiro from drowning, I always found the various references throughout the film of Chihiro drowning in the Kohaku river to being one of my most favorite scenes and references of being aware of nature.

(Click Here For Haku Remembering His Name, By IBMD)

As for the film as a whole, I came to find it as a beautiful masterpiece of its own kind. A film that finally has an adolescent as a protagonist, a strong female character, the deep incorporations and references throughout the film, the unforgettable orchestral music, the uncliched portrayal of “love”, and everything as explained to the reasoning on why this film is a masterpiece of its own.

(Here Are A Few Videos You Can Watch Related To Spirited Away!)

(Spirited Away Playlist: 6th Stop Is My Favorite Sound Track!)

(107 Facts On Spirited Away By ChannelFrederator)

Hello, if you gotten this far, I just wanted to say that I truly love and enjoy Studio Ghibli films, and that after watching Spirited Away since 10 years ago, I’ve truly understood and fully appreciated the work that this film tells compared to my younger self and as to what I would have known 10 years ago. But watching the film today makes me glad that I’ve waited 10 years just to watch Spirited Away again, and that I hope one day I would hope to do the same thing for the next generation of children or even potential animation viewers to have their own views on the film currently as an adolescent, and after adolescence. As I couldn’t believe a film could get better with age, and the same goes to other films created by Studio Ghibli such as Princess Mononoke. Thank you the viewers for reading my blog post and I hope you’re inspired to do the same and thank you Studio Ghibli for creating beautiful films. There’s nothing quite comparable to the works of Studio Ghibli, and maybe there’s not quite as beautiful, adventurous, and diverse in stories as Studio Ghibli.

Thank you once again for reading. See you guys in the next blog post, peace!

Aviation And WWII: Studio Ghibli Animated Film, The Wind Rises, And Review By Mark Yang

A dreamer of aviation, both figuratively and literally. To be able to create planes, even at a time of war, and with his country in great poverty. He’s on a journey where his creation of planes, makes the wind rises. (There will be spoilers beyond this point).

For a period of time, I stopped watching Anime (a couple of months ago). But after watching the official (English dubbed) trailer for The Wind Rises, and listened to a beautifully created song by 97SPECIAL, which 1171Domino made a collaboration of both his song and the movie. I was inspired to watch The Wind Rises.

(The Wind Rises Trailer)

(Beatutifully created song by 97SPECIAl, and awesome collaboration of the both the beats and the movie, created by 1171Domino)

As I still continue to watch the movie, I’ve only gotten halfway through it. Not that it was a long movie, in fact it was only two hours, but because I was busy, I stopped watching it as of right now. Although I wasn’t emotionally attached to the movie like most movies created by Studio Ghibli, I was more so interested in the imagination of the main character Jiro. Instead of your original tear jerking story, or uplifting kids film usually created by Studio Ghibli, the Wind Rises portrays the deep thought of a person’s aspiration and dreams, for aviation. As this idea was brought up early on throughout the movie, it didn’t take long for me personally to understand that this dream of a young boy, and what his dreams and deep thoughts shown throughout the movie are, by showing us a character and taking us through his journey. It was as if we were in his mind. as if we were experiencing the living memory of Jiro’s perspective, and his journey and the fate that he goes through, of both good and bad times of his life.

My first impressions on the movie were simply, it must be another heart felt kids film about a boy, but with planes, and it’s going to be a good movie. But I always ask myself, “how will they make it a good story? How will they come out with this awesome fresh story that they always create?” Continuing on, throughout one fourth of the way through the movie, the main character Jiro, has dreams about a famous Italian inventor of avtiaon,  Caproni. And this made me think it would be a movie cattered to children, simply because the main character was a child dreaming of an aviator. But as I see the dreams of Jiro, the scenery reminded me of another film, and it was Howls Moving Castle (will explain later). Not until latter that they started adding more adult themes, such as teens and adults smoking (was acceptable for the Japanese), the references of war ( WWII), and the eerie feeling by just watching Jiro imagining the destruction of his planes. After seeing all that, I noticed that the story is actually a pretty deep, and not so simple story. But after thinking about comparisons of this movie with others, it was quite similar to Howls Moving Castle. When we get to see blood from Howl, and also a fictional war going on in Sophie’s world, the plot from both movies were indeed quite similar in a sense. And I’d say The Wind Rises is on the same approach as Howls Moving Castle, but the movie relates more to a realistic theme, more adult themes, and having more sophisticated or certain tastes that would make people appreciate the movie.

The Wind Rises is visually appealing, and by all means has a great story. What I’m trying to get here is that, people may have personal preference between liking fantasy movies like Howls Moving Castle, or liking historical movies like The Wind Rises, Everyone has their own different liking in sub-genres, but personally, I love all kinds of genres. Just as long as they’re interesting and in no shape or form cliched or felt rehashed, but I’ve felt Studio Ghibli does a lot of things to keep their movies feel new. Every movie I’ve come across with Studio Ghibli films so far, were as if I was a kid listening to a folk tale, or an urban legend. A story where even hundreds of other stories have copied off of, but Studio Ghibli, they rarely copy stories (some fi;ms use literature adaptations),they create them. And so, The Wind Rises is one out of every Studio Ghibli film that are an what I consider, an exceptionally great film.

Yet again, I’m not emotionally attached to the film but, I can’t deny that the film is a one of a kind, and in some ways inspiring. But what I’ve seen so far throughout the movie, things are not going to be so great, and maybe Jiro’s dreams may be flawed. But I’ll continue to watch the film, and fully experience the bad side of the movie (in a good way).

I’ve had a fun time creating this blog post, especially after I haven’t been posting as much, and not watching Anime in quite a while. I had a great time watching The Wind Rises, especially since it’s a more serious movie created by Studio Ghibli, and with the ending of my post, I am happy to watch the movie, The Wind Rises.

See you in the next blog post, peace.

“The Wind Rises: a movie that truly emphasizes the true meaning of chasing your dreams, even if they may seemed flawed, some part of the way through them.”

-Mark T Yang Jr

 

-Arizona and California Future Trip and Arcade Games!? Day 2, In The Life Of Mark- – (Real Life)-

Decembers here, and there’s a heat wave trip off to Arizona! Well, I mean, not yet that is. As school is still here to come (for two weeks), and it’s no longer fall (officially), that only means one thing, Christmas! Yay? When I depart to Arizona, that means I won’t be home where it’s always snowy, and I won’t celebrate Christmas with my main family, or a majority of them. Because the reasoning for vacationing in Arizona is because of my aunt’s wedding, and after the wedding, it’s time for actual vacationing in California.

Well anyways, besides going to Arizona and California, I’ve always wanted to play one of my most favorite video games, and it’s Tekken! And if you didn’t know, the new game Tekken 7 is being released in all ready 1 buildings in December! And just my luck! California has a few Ready 1 locations! And I’m also sure there’s a Round one somewhat near me, but it’s an hour away from my house (I second thought, maybe it’s not so near me). And since Tekken was created in Japan, and the arcade machines were released in Japan first, now it’s our turn! Tekken 7 has already been released in a few Dave and Busters around the U.S, but none of them nearby where I live (which sucks).

And when I get to Round One, I’m going to play my main character, Kazuya Mishima! And if you’re a fan of the Tekken series, “Why Kazuya? He’s the worst Mishima character?” And that’s because he’s actually a good character if you took the time to play as him. He’s the fastest Mishima than the other Mishima’s in my opinion, his moves are quite flashy and really aggressive. I also like to think of Kazuya as a solid character, without too many unsafe moves like most characters, but I guess this also makes him predictable. Since Kazuya doesn’t have a lot of high moves (besides his 1+1+2. 1+1+1. 2+2 and back-back 2 ←←+2, and etc), I believe Kazuya has a lot of mid and low hit moves that can absolutely kill crouching characters or people who are bad blocking low hits (or what I like to call it, a check, or singular mid hits and low hits). And since I’ve always played on the pad (a controller), I’m going to mess up on doing moves like forward dash (Constantly pressing/moving your stick/controller ⇛⇓⇘) and backward dash  (⇚⇚⇓⇙⇚⇓⇙⇚) movement, and even doing the EWGF (Electric Wind God Fist/ ⇛⇓⇘+2 at the exact moment. It’s harder than you think) on Kazuya. And since I’m only a Tekken 5 player, I don’t know how the new moves that Kazuya has like his devil form move set, and what his play style is like. And not to mention, some moves are updated or different from Tekken 5 when I transition to Tekken 7. So it’s going to be a big challenge!

(I better start remembering on how to use new moves!) 

(And I need to learn how to use the arcade stick! This video includes swearing words and could offend others, but it’s a legitimate guide on how to move faster in Tekken. And TheMainManSWE is my favorite Tekken player).

And another character that I’ll try to play as is a new character to the Tekken franchise, and it’s Josie Riztal!

And why would I choose her? Well, this character is a fast hitter, has many check/poke moves, and is pretty much a combination of all of my favorite characters (Bryan Fury, Bruce, Mishima’s, Jin, etc). She just has so many moves that make her look like a fun character to play as. Being a fast hitter and poking is one of my most favorite things to do in Tekken, and I like technical characters (the game slang “technical”: countering an enemy’s hit with one of your hits) and only doing a few unsafe moves that can actually land into high damage for other characters. It’s somewhat of a boring play style, but professional players do this all the time, and it’s pretty much play tactfully or high-risk high-reward/high-risk big loss.

Now off topic from Round One; as I eat a turkey (and many other delicious foods) on Thanksgiving, I had one heck of a break! I won a game that requires a sibling game (and real people. A.K.A my family), I got to play video games, and I just relaxed for the week (7 whole days of break). And if my younger sister (who’s actually just one year younger than me) is reading this; we have sibling telepathy. Now anyways, I don’t want to constantly talk about video games, so let’s talk about stuff related to Japan! In other words, anime and manga stuff, but this time, it’ll mainly be anime!

If you didn’t know, I actually watched the first few episodes of Cowboy Bebop, and I’ve read the current chapters of Bokura Wa Minna Kawaisou and I read the most recent chapter of Tokyo Ghoul:Re. And if you know me, I rarely watch anime anymore! It’s not that I don’t want to watch any anime shows, I just don’t have a lot of time to binge-watch a show (also because most mainstream animes are cliche and complete garbage. No offense). And since I am currently watching Cowboy Bebop, I’m going to continue on watching it (when I try to watch two animes, I just completely stop watching anime). So anyways, in my own opinion, Cowboy Bebop isn’t all that bad and it’s not that great (or yet that is). I kind of like how the humor and deep scenes aren’t like many other cliche animes like scenes from one piece. I mean, I love their back stories, but they just keep coming up with characters we don’t really care about, or that they are just cringe worthy back stories. Like for example, Franky, Chopper, and Brook’s backstory was actually pretty sad and interesting, despite the three of them being free going and at some points annoying in the anime. You really can’t hate them because of their tragic backstories. And let’s fast forward through the series. Let’s have Rebecca as an example. Okay cool, she’s a queen of a dethroned king, then you have her mother get killed for a piece of bread, which was cliche as heck! Like that hasn’t happened already in the anime! (I was being sarcastic). And then you don’t really see Rebecca change too drastically when she was a kid to her now as an adult, like come on, think of something better than her being trained from a freaking wooden toy and end up being a character who we could care less about. Not to mention that she’s supposed to be this warrior figure woman, but you just wind up having her look very sexualized and have a “wimp” mentality. Like, come on! If you wanted her to not be perfect, at least make it have some meaning! Like, make her lose, and make her learn from her mistakes, instead of this wimpy looking lady! Sometimes I feel like One Piece could do better. And at least make one female character without oversized breasts without a stereotypical female personality. Sometimes I question this a lot in anime in general, especially in mainstream animes. Cliche is a common occurrence nowadays in animes, that it’s just discouraging.

So then, I guess that’s all I had to say for my post! Look forward to my other posts, as I’ll be writing about my thoughts on a few chapters of the manga Bokura Wa Minna Kawaisou, and I’ll be writing a review on the cartoon, Over the Garden Wall! Also, I’ll be posting my first chapter of a fall themed story somewhat inspired from Over the Garden Wall (if you’re interested in that kind of stuff). And no, it’s not a fanfiction, and I’m making sure that it doesn’t become one. But there will be some obvious references from Over the Garden Wall being placed into my story. So stay tuned for those posts, peace!

-An Anime I w̶i̶l̶l̶w̶a̶t̶c̶h̶ Want to See But Haven’t Yet-Day 6/30Day Anime Challenge – (Anime)-

Believe it or not, I’m was ranting about Anime on this post, so hey, why not just start from scratch? (I might make a separate blog post of me actually ranting about anime, so stay tuned for that? Don’t know who likes rants related to anime, but if you’re that type of person to hear out opinions, look forward to it). So, an Anime I want to watch but haven’t yet!

I choose Cow Boy Bebop. I mean, you might’ve already known that Cow Boy Bebop had an advertisement created from Crunchy Roll (or some other company), and it definitely looks pretty dope (my opinion), but I’m not interested because of the advertisement itself, but because I heard it was a classic anime. And I mean it when I say classic this time. It’s an anime with jazz-themed beats based on the future but still having that old past like feeling to it (if that made any sense) and it was created in the year of 1998.

(“3, 2, 1, let’s jam”)

I’ve always heard so many people say that Cowboy Bebop was just one of those animes that you have to watch, and I’m definitely tempted to start watching it. Not to mention spoiling some scenes for myself to see what it’s all about.

(Bell Peppers And Beef Scene)

I’ve actually seen a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop, and it’s pretty good. It always reminds me of a “wild west” theme but in the future (music and setting of the anime), and some hilarity but with action and very deep scenes. It definitely makes me want to watch it all, and it’s something I’d definitely love to watch, due to it’s wild west theme combined with anime.

(Cowboy Bebop Funimation Trailer)

So that wraps up my short post (sorry). If you’ve already watched Cowboy Bebop, give me your thoughts on the anime! So anyways, see you space cowboy, peace!

 

Hopefully I would have the time to get to know you! Follow me on Twitter and add me on my MAL (My Anime List) account!

(MyAnimeList) ImMark

 (Twitter)@OfficalMarkYang

(Have any other social medias that you would like to see me on? Give me a comment!)

-An Anime I’m Ashamed Of That I Enjoyed- -Day 5, Of The 30Day Anime Challange-

Well, I can’t really think of one that I would be extremely ashamed that I’ve ever watched, but I guess you can say, Death Note is an Anime that would make me feel ashamed but still enjoy it.

Whenever I watch a scene of Death Note on youtube to remind myself what kind of Anime it was, I remembered that the main character Light Yagami was trying to play god and kill everyone “evil”, and just remember how intelligent he was to keep himself from dying and being caught to being Kira (killer) . But then you had L, pretty much the antagonist, and had similar smarts to Light Yagami. And the show was basically a battle of wits of “Kira” against “L”.

Why did I feel ashamed of watching it? Well, because I enjoyed the battles of Light Yagami outsmarting a lot of characters (like Ray Penber. Sorry, I just really thought his name was funny. But now that I think of it, I’m pretty messed up. Mr. Ray Pepermint. Okay I’m done, I’m serious.), which resulted in the characters (mostly innocent) deaths, but then you had the moral going around in the Anime telling you, “is it really okay to play god and possibly kill innocent lives”?

(Sorry Mr. Ray Penber/Spoilers Ahead)

And knowing how Light Yagami was, and his psychotic nature. Just watch this video, and you’d understand.

(Do not watch this video if you haven’t seen Death Note/Don’t care about spoilers)

Because when you enjoy someone killing off characters as he tries to play as god, you know you’re just as messed up as Light Yagami (but I’m not a psychotic killer, so I know what’s right and wrong, and I’m just extremely interested on how Light Yagami thinks). So don’t suspect me to be a Kira (unless we were playing a game of detective, otherwise I’d be like Kira. Oh no my only weakness! I’d just said it out loud. On second that, wrote it on a blog. Meh.).

Now you know why I felt ashamed on watching Death Note, but knowing the sadistic side of me, I enjoyed it (to an extent). Death Note was definitely one of my most favorite animes, and I truly believe it deserves the name of, a “classic” around the anime community. Hope you enjoyed my post on my 30 Day Anime Challange, “An Anime I’m Ashamed Of That I Enjoyed”. So see you guys later in the next post, peace!

Enjoy some videos from Death Note

(Death Note OP 1: The symbolism in this opening gets to me all the time)

(Death Note Ending 1/When Light throws an apple to Ryuuk; epic)

(Death Note ending 2/When going up an elevator couldn’t get more hype)

(Freaking L; Light meets L)

(When Light get’s rekt)

-Day 1, High School; In The Life Mark- – (Real Life)-

High school life isn’t all that bad, in fact, it’s probably more interesting than it is stressful. In my sophomore year, I’m currently enjoying my time in school. We get to learn how to blow things up in chemistry (Alkali metals), we read books for at least 15 minutes in English (I read the book, Ready Player 1; the ending just killed me), we have gym, and I get to learn how to understand and read the Japanese language/writing (writing; hiragana, katakana, and soon kanji)! And don’t get me wrong, everybody has their own school experiences, so if you’re an under classmate (middle schooler and below), I don’t want you to have the idea that school will be good or bad for you. So with that in mind, experience things for yourself and give your own opinions (I presume that are reading this) under classmates.

Anyways, to the people who don’t know/to the people who do know what happens to alkali metals and water, here’s a video for you to learn/remember.

(I’m not responsible for any potential injuries and do not attempt this at home, you have been warned).

“Things gradually become more terrifying as we go down through the group. Let’s try Cesium, our fifth alkali metal.” I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy chemistry.

Back on topic; like I said in my old post, I had the chance to watch Grave of the Fireflies in my Japanese class, and I was just dreading with excitement (not until I remembered that it’s not a happy movie, that this was based on a real story), and the week after that, I actually had the chance to meet and talk to a foreign exchange student from Japan. It was definitely interesting. Because just the way me and a couple of friends talked to him, our countries customs didn’t differ too much with his customs. We all laughed at jokes, he spoke English fluently (of course he was puzzled on some of the words we said, mostly slang words), and of course, he was like all of us, human. I kind of felt irritated how I’m more accustomed to stereotyped interpretations on any culture, but I was never blinded from the stereotypes. Meaning, I knew better, and I can’t make assumptions about a culture that I’ve never seen before; face to face. And in a way, I felt ashamed for our country as an entirety for creating stereotypes. Not just one person or a specific race in the wrong, but our country in an entirety.

(This video of Morgan Freeman pretty much explains things similar to what I’ve said. P.S, this paragraph was somewhat inspired from this video of Morgan Freeman.)

(I also stumbled upon this video, and I was pretty furious watching it. Definitely a shame to the Asian community)

But yeah, it was definitely an interesting time meeting a foreign exchange student from Japan.

Now, when I was in my photography class, we had the chance to use photoshop. Let’s just say, things got pretty spooky (because it was on the 31st of Halloween), and the week after that, my photoshopped photos looked pretty awesome!

The left photo is the photoshopped photo, and the right photo is the original (I mean, I guess you would already know, but oh well). And if you also might not know, I have my Japanese initials written on my shirt in the photoshopped version (マ-ク). What’s it say? It just means mark (but if you pronounced my name and don’t say “my name is Maku” in Japanese, they wouldn’t understand what you just said), but it’s pronounced, MaaKu. And if your wondering why not just say MaaRuKu(マ-ルク), don’t ask me, my Japanese teacher gave me the name. The only reason I think she said my name in Japanese should be Maaku is because, MaRu(マル), means circular, and then you just have ku (ク/久), meaning sky or long time. So it would pretty much make my name mean, circular sky (sounds like a pretty poetic name, but oh well) if I said MaaRuKu(マ-ルク) in Japanese. Also, I googled what the meanings were, so please butcher me on my Japanese if you find any mistakes on what I just said. But anyways (I’ll start counting how many times I say the word “anyways”), photography class was fun (I’m definitely not joining photography 2 next year. I’m being serious. It’s harder than you think. Unless you’re the most talented and going into a profession into photography, that’s who’ll be joining it next year).

Off topic from school; so where am I regarding Anime and Manga’s? I recently just read Tokyo Ghoul:Re’s 100th chapter (chapter 99 just brought in the nostalgia) and I’m almost finished with the Anime Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront! And since I’m here, I’ll just say my over all thoughts on Kekkai Sensen. It sometimes can get boring, but it has some pretty awesome animation and suspensions at some situations (although I may consider some scenes of suspense to be cliche, I still thought they were pretty good). Especially towards the last three episodes of Kekkai Sensen, the back story’s of Black (ブラク/Bu-Ra-Ku) and White (ワイト(Wa-I-To) was just straight up sad but meaningful. And especially Black’s speeches at some times were extremely poetic, and I just love that about his character. And especially how Black is just so sociopathic like, but he’s a unique kind of sociopath. Hopefully you give this anime a chance if you’re into futuristic and old school like animes, and all though I haven’t watched Cow Boy Bebop before, I’ll just say it’s pretty similar to it.

(Not to mention the opening and ending songs are just awesome)

(The ending song is just a mixture of happy and sad. I like 🙂 )

Hopefully you guys enjoyed a blog post about my life. So then, I guess that ends this post for today. See you guys in the next blog post. See ya later, peace!

Hopefully I would have the time to get to know you! Follow me on Twitter and add me on my MAL (My Anime List) account!

(MyAnimeList) ImMark

 (Twitter)@OfficalMarkYang

(Have any other social medias that you would like to see me on? Give me a comment!)

-The Japanese Classroom And Haiyo Miyazaki Films- – (Anime/Real Life)-

Grave of the Fireflies; Movie Box

So just recently, me and my Japanese classroom had the opportunity to do two things; do homework or watch Grave of The Fireflies. Of course, we did both, but most of us decided to watch Grave of the Fireflies. When given the chance to watch Grave of the Fireflies, I’ve already watched this film dozens of times as a kid (around 4-9 years old), and most of the time frightened to death from all of the dead corpses and bloody bandages from the civilians of the story.

As my years as a high school student, and learning about the history of our past wars, Grave of the Fireflies was based on World War II(2), where America attacks Japan, as America were victorious with the bombing of Japan. But after Japan dealt a terrific bombing, it caused many kids to become orphans, as many adults were dead as the result of becoming a part of the army and also because of dying from the nuclear bombing. And also because of the bombing, there was a huge famine, (Spoiler) and this is also the reasoning of the death of Seita and Setsuko; a famine (End of spoiler). As it shows the horrors that the Japanese went through as they face through a bombing and a war, and the movie is basically saying, not everyone wants war.

(Grave of the Fireflies trailer)

Howl’s Moving Castle; movie box

Unfortunately, our class did not finish the whole movie yet, and when we stopped watching the movie go home, I noticed a few classmates crying, and a few in disgust. I knew that a few of my classmates were also Anime watchers, and most of them already seen the movie, so I’d assume they already knew what happened. And just like them, I was close to shedding tears, as I also knew what happens to the main characters later on.

Now besides watching Grave of The Fireflies, I decided to watch another studio ghibli movie myself, and it was Howls Moving Castle! And much like Grave of the Fireflies, I’ve watched this movie pretty young, but it didn’t frighten me too much, and I didn’t understand the plot (also I didn’t finish the movie Howls Moving Castle, so there’s that convenience).

(Howls Moving Castle Trailer: Does Anyone Else Hate The Cliche Voice That Explains A Movie In Every Movie Trailer Ever?)

And as usual, Haiyo Miyazaki tends to create masterpiece movies, and Howls Moving Castle is definitely one of them. Despite Howls Moving Castle being a bit slow in the beginning of the movie, I came to enjoy the story overall (so far).

Some things that I also tend to realize is, Haiyo Miyazaki creates his movies based on books (no wonder they’re a masterpiece). Like, When Marnie Was There, created by Joan G. Robinson, and of course, the movies I’ve mentioned before were also based on books (Howls Moving Castle, created by Diana Wynne Jones, and Grave of the Fireflies, Akiyuki Nosaka).

After watching some of the movies that I’ve never really understood during my childhood, I really just came to appreciate and understand what the complex stories have to tell us. And with all of the Studio Ghibli films that I’ve currently watched, I enjoyed every single one of them. Each movie always has a story that’s never been told before, and I just adore that; not cliche. Not only are they unique and diverse in culture, they’re always interesting in their own ways, and that’s why I entirely enjoy Studio Ghibli movies, and hopefully you guys enjoy some of Haiyo Miyazaki’s films as well!

Well, that ends off my blog post! I would just like to thank my Japanese teacher for showing us the movie Grave of the Fireflies, and I had a good time watching the movie! So thanks once again! So then, see you guys in my next post, peace.

(Listen To Some Music From Studio Ghibli)

(Howl’s Moving Castle Main Theme)

(Princess Mononoke/ Mononoke Hime)

(Spirited Away)

 

P.S, Turnip Head is probably my most favorite character in Howls Moving Castle.

 

-Already Stunned By 5 Chapters Of Koe No Katachi/A Silent Voice- -(Manga)-

The regret of a boys past, where to the point of suicide for his own selfish needs later on in life, but changes his thoughts for his own scheduled death after apologizing to the girl 5 years later for bullying her for her deafness. As he knows the “voice” of the girl he bullied 5 years ago as a child and now asks for apology within her “voice”; using sign language. As he later on signs to her, “can we be friends?” In just 5 chapters, Koe No Katachi was already a masterpiece.

I finally found a source to read Koe No Katachi, and after reading around 5 chapters (probably more), I didn’t realize how deep the story was until chapter one and up. I’d highly suggest reading Koe No Katachi if you’re into the more serious and story filled slice of life Mangas, compared to other Animes/Mangas that are slice of life and comedic like Toradora and Tonari No Kaibutsu-Kun, Koe No Katachi is way different from those kinds of Animes/Mangas. And no, the story is not only unique because of it having a physically disabled deaf main character, but because of the way the main character Ishida lives his life and how he drastically changes his fate after doing the various things he does in his past and present life. And not to mention, the various amounts of characters that are quite unique, compared to them being a cliche like character, like being the average bully whom you don’t care about later on in the story. Example; the main protagonist winning a girls heart by beating up bullies, as the bullies now having absolutely no character development to show the reasoning for bullying the protagonist. (Mini Spoilers) But Koe No Katachi is more like, Ishida is the main
protagonist,  his life is flawed and his actions aren’t the best in the beginning of the story. And when Ishida becomes the predator towards people, he soon becomes the one being targeted. And so, this shapes his life later on to what he’s doing now. (No spoilers), so I’d highly recommend reading Koe No Katachi, as it’s definitely a book to read around your teen years-adult hood. And I highly recommend reading this book if you experience loneliness, social problems, are interested in realistic stories, and have some sort of physical or mental disability. I guarantee you’ll enjoy reading this series.

(There will be spoilers beyond this point), so, what are my thoughts on Koe No Katachi/A Silent Voice so far? Even though I’m on the 8th chapter of the Manga, it made me want to binge read it all before going to sleep, but with the time constraints I had, and me needing to wake up for the next day of school, I was really disappointed that I couldn’t finish the chapter I was on. And if I’m not mistaken, Ishida wanted to kill himself after all of his hard work at his job to pay off a debt to her sick mother, and right after his apology to Shōko, but still being alive after meeting Shōko. And then I stopped when Ishida was talking to Shōko on the topic of still being able to meet each other despite their past. And I just kept on wondering what was going to happen to Ishida and Shōko in the next chapter, until I went to sleep. My final thoughts; I felt deeply in love with the story and I still continue to fantasize the thought on what kinds challenges the main characters have to face. It placed a smile onto my face, and ever so rarely have I ever been interested in any story ever, instead of just critiquing it in a poker face, and Koe No Katachi definitely had me wanting more, but with my somewhat busy lifestyle, I had to be patient to continue on reading this amazing manga. But I can wait forever if I have to, to actually read it; because a masterpiece comes once in a lifetime.

Some things I enjoyed about Koe No Katachi; the art style is realistic in a manga aspect (real life buildings, not fantasy like buildings), it’s not a cartoony look, and it’s definitely not an overly top drawn manga, and I came to appreciate that aspect of the Manga. And not to mention, the “X” that’s placed on people’s faces in the vision of Ishida, as it signifies people that he hates or dislikes, and I liked the creativity of that idea. As an “X” only disappears when Ishida gives a person a chance to redeem their selves or becomes “friends” with him.

When it comes to the main characters, most of the time they have a story that signifies who they are, and how it affects them in the future. As this is mainly shown from Ishida and Shōko. And with Ishida being a bullying from 6th grade, to now an emotionally and socially disoriented high school student who now knows what was right and wrong within his past, now wants to make things better again. Then you have Shōko, the girl that was bullied harshly from Ishida in the 6th grade, but despite this happening, still smiling in front of Ishida and making up with him. Little things like learning about the characters and their backstory create a bigger meaning on why they did certain actions in the future. Or that’s how I like to think about stories, but either way, I still find character development as one of my most favorite parts of this story.

And lastly, my overall favorite thing bout the Manga is, the relationship between Ishida and Shōko. And I think you get the point on why I would say this (and no, it’s not because I ship them).

(I just finished reading Koe No Katachi); the ending of Koe No Katachi and the story in general just made me want to cry with excitement. But maybe I’ll talk about my overall thoughts on Koe No Katachi (full on spoilers edition), in a different blog post. And I finished all 62 chapters of Koe No Katachi in 2 days. I don’t feel ashamed for reading the whole story, I just feel satisfied.

I guess that ends my blog post for today, as I can not think up with any other things to talk about Koe No Katachi (also because I don’t want to spoil the Manga for you). So anyways, a cliche goodbye to an awesome post about an awesome Manga, peace!

(Here’s some videos to watch)

(Koe No Katachi Movie Trailer/I Can’t Wait For The English Sub Release! Makes Me Want To Cry!)

(Koe No Katachi Opening)