At Last, Negicco’s “Canale no Madobe” is Subbed

Greetings!

At last, I have done the subbing process of Canale no Madobe. Special thanks and heartfelt apology to Tomomi who has been really really helpful in translating and explaining the lyrics and also waiting very very long for this release, which the blame is totally on my side m(>_<)m.

Anyway, it is another great song from Negicco. Calm and comforting melody, suitable to accompany your lazy evening. I think the lyric is quite sad, hinting that the singer has been left by her lover. But being sung in a cheerful mood by Negicco made me think like they meant to cheer those who felt that way. “It’s sad, we know, but it’s okay! Remember it as good memory and move forward!”, something like that. And it also has some Niigata hint (the city described is possibly Niigata according to Tomomi).

I also want to apologize for the MV quality degradation. I still do not understand what part of my subbing process caused it, maybe the sub burning activity.

Nevertheless, please enjoy and share!

Update 21-06-2017

Gobusata desu, mina-sama!

[Sorry that I have been away for a long time, people!]

But, alas, I cannot promise you that I will be a lot more active after this post. Gomen gomen.

A little update on my life:

• My Boss has just resigned. What a bummer! I think we were just started to consolidate and found out our shape of organization, but then he got a surprise for us. I understand though that his workload was inhumane and pretty menial; it would have been unjust to ask him to stay and live such kind of life longer. Sayonara, Shunin! Thus, here I am, going back to a limbo with unclear responsibility and career path.
• My latest subbing project, which was started on December 2016, is still not done yet. I am planning to finish it soon. Really soon! I owe a lot to Tomomi-san who has done the translation on December and now waiting for me…for 6 months…
• I got a lot more active in playing multiplayer games with my old friends, but at the same time less attached to my co-workers. Well, what can I say, it’s definitely cheaper to gather online than a Friday night meetup at a restaurant in Jakarta.

Why did I not ask for that?

These previous weeks, I had the spare time to read a book given to me by my mentor-who-went-away-to-England-and-never-contact-me-anymore-since-then titled “Too Busy Not to Pray” by Bill Hybels. There is an interesting point in a section of that book, which addresses one cause one does not ask for a particular thing in one’s prayer; one’s disbelief on the ability of the wish grantor. He shared his story of how he had never asked his father to bring peace on earth, because of his knowledge that his father has no power to do so.

It points out an interesting question for me; is it the same  with me? I do not think I have ever prayed for world peace or things like that. I did pray for hunger relief in the past, but that was in a mass prayer which the person on stage urged us to. Am I questioning God’s ability in those grand matters? I wonder.

March Loot: Kamei Eri Surprise Package

One of the reasons I am not quitting my current job is that my job provides me with means to purchase things I could not ask from my parents; like idol goods.

Late Christmas present?

I bought a surprise package from a fellow Indonesian fan of Morning Musume.  It was a Kamei Eri package and it is understandable if you never heard of her. She was a member of “old” Morning Musume, entering at the same time with Sayumi, and graduated on 2010. Now let’s take a look at the contents:

Birthday Card

Front

Back (her photo with Japanese scribbles my google translate unable to comprehend)

Inside (her name card with a congratulatory message (?))

 

Concert Name Tag? From 10 years ago!

Front

Back

 

Morning Musume Card; is she supposed to be the queen card? Or joker?

Front

Back

 

Plushy Key Chain

Plushy key chain

Her photo at the back

 

Her photo wearing cowboy hat 

Hmm… I wonder from which single or concert was this one from? I think it came from the Platinum Era.

Her polaroid photo with her writing

I wonder what she wrote. I really like this one since it gives off custom-made limited product impression with her marker handwriting, not-so-professional photo shoot, and “not for sale” note on the bottom; not like a mass-produced product.

 

Idol Hachimaki

For that moment when I ever feel like going full-wota mode. But it is outdated -_-

 

“If you spend your time thinking “I want to become happy, I want to become happy…“
You’ll spend the rest of your days just thinking about how you want to become happy.
But if you think “ah, I’m so happy“? You’ll always be happy.”

-Kamei Eri

 

05-12-2016

 

Wow, this virtual rambling site is eight years old! When I got the notification, I could not contain myself to just jump back to it and write a post. Possibly just a short post haha

Btw, Negicco has released another MV for their single!

What a cute song! And the MV is totally Negicco-like: wacky, sweet, cute!

I was so excited about it that I decided to do another subbing project. I contacted Tomomi and she was also enthusiastic about it. So please wait a bit and I will post my new sub!

Thank you!

 

 

 

Life Lesson From Nichijou Chapter 161

There are times when 2D art product like manga gives a wonderful lesson to us. And one of them comes from an absurd comedy made by Arawi Keiichi titled Nichijou, which roughly translates to “ordinary day”, especially chapter 161 that I will post in this occasion.

Long story short (the story is actually short, duh), Mio (the girl with twin short pigtails) found an interesting vending machine and…

 

Well, she started with small investment or effort to acquire what she wanted, until she realized it did not pay off and she increased her ante…and still..nothing.

She is not a gambler, she just got into it without realizing and she was broke afterward.

After some banging (a lot, actually) at the machine out of her desperation, the machine paid out the prize…but it was not exactly the kind of prize she expected… Poor Mio!

This short story, however, in my opinion, sounds a lot like human life. We want something. We work to get it. We work hard and harder as time goes by since the effort needed to achieve our goal apparently outstripped our initial expectation, but we sacrificed so much already that backing down is not an option we would like to consider. We finally got what we want. Not exactly. We got what we thought we want and we realized afterward it is not as expected. A bummer.

Fortunately, life does not stop there (hopefully). In chapter 164, we found out that..

Yeah, the Lord works in mysterious ways after all.

 

 

Comic Frontier 2016

Another backlog post (☉౪ ⊙)

Comic Frontier (or Comifuro), a visual art market event where local artists and consumers meet (think Comiket). What makes it interesting? For me, it is the “market” atmosphere. Imagine a large mildly air-conditioned (which means quite hot) and mildly decorated room with a lot of artists and large mass of consumers. Each of those artists is given the same desk (as big as school desk) and chairs, which the artist has to decorate (or not), and that is it; not even a booth. Walking around a bit and you can find a lot of comical decorations, made creatively with dirt cheap materials (ex: elementary grade picture drawn with color pencil on an A4 paper). And the participating artists are there personally, with no corporate PR involved. What will you encounter? A lot of doujins, posters, key chain, pins, and home-made games. Oh, and cute artists too 😛

SMESCO UKM building complex. The venue was actually on the right side and not shown in this picture, but you can see the crowd haha

Hideo Kojima made a surprise appearance at Comifuro 2016!!!

Entry stamp. It is supposed to be a girl face. Oh well..

I personally think that Comic Frontier contains some interesting symbolism. First of all is the fact they are using SMESCO UKM building (maybe they will move to other venue next year, I do not know). At one side it symbolizes that doujin-making (and similar visual art making) is more than just a mere hobby, it can also become a source of income with significant demand in the market, and at the other side, by choosing a modest venue (and with UKM title), it also emphasizes that the popular visual art market is not dominated by big profit-hungry corporations, as the grassroots producers, the artists themselves, who create to express their aspiration, are still a considerable force in the market (*cough, not like AF#). Second, the rise of fujoshi and public showing of risqué visual arts. You can say that those are the signs of decadence, but I would like to look it in another light. They signify the progressive transformation of Indonesian people into an open-minded society where everybody may express their creativity without fear of persecution. Do you not remember the sign of Italian cultural renaissance? Naked statue (it is a joke).

To sum it all up, I recommend Comic Frontier for people who want to get in touch directly with local aspiring visual art creators with “market” atmosphere. There is very little amount of third-party meddling here, so you can be sure that your purchase goes straight to the creators (or their friends who tend the stall), which makes the whole experience less like “purchasing” and more like “appreciating”.

My loot from Comifuro 2016

I also won an SSR (Super Star Rare) Lancer pin (Fate series) from a gatcha event.