So I went to see Inu-oh (2021)... [reposted from tumblr]

I went to see Inu-oh in theaters this past weekend. The morning after, my friend read me some absolutely horrible takes on this film from tumblr dot com. If you thought that this movie was about a “gay rock band,” then either you slept through the whole film or you’re sorely missing all the historical and cultural context. This post is here for those of you in the latter category. 90% of what I am about to say can be verified via English Wikipedia. The rest comes from Japanese sources including Wikipedia and Kotobank. I’m not in academia anymore so I’m not giving specific citations for the whole piece. I have been researching and writing this for 2 days now.

The Tale of the Heike, is an epic about the fall of Taira no Kiyomori and his subsequent extermination of his entire clan during the actual real-life event known as the Genpei War (1180-1185 CE). Science Saru has an excellent 11-episode anime that covers the whole epic. EVERYONE except the POV character DIES. The opening paragraph of this epic is: > In the sound of the bell of the Gion temple echoes the impermanence of all things. … The proud ones do not last long, but vanish like a spring night’s dream. And the mighty ones, too, will perish like dust before the wind. Citation: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1000ce_heike.htm
Crunchyroll subscribers can find it under “The Heike Story”.

Relevant details are that Taira no Kiyomori married his daughter off to Emperor Takakura. They had a son in 1178. His majesty dies, and their infant son gets named Emperor Antoku at the age of three. When war breaks out, the Tairas take the baby and run. The final battle of the Genpei war, the Battle of Dan-no-Ura, is a last-ditch effort naval assault that goes horribly awry. Realizing there’s absolutely no way out of this but death, the Emperor’s grandmother/Kiyomori’s widow, Taira no Tokiko, grabs now seven-year-old Emperor Antoku and jumps overboard. A lot of the Tairas forces jump overboard after her—they’d rather drown now than be executed later.

There would undoubtedly be a mass of treasure to salvage from all those sunken ships. On the boat with the Emperor was the Imperial Regalia—three divine treasures you can read more about in the Kojiki, or if you played Okami back in the day. These were considered lost for a time, particularly the Kusanagi/“Grass cutter” sword. This legendary blade belonged to Shinto deity Susanoō, and was used to slay the eight-headed snake beast Orochi. To be perfectly frank, the Wiki page for the Kusanagi sword doesn’t seem to clarify whether the sword the Imperial Family has in storage today is in fact the original blade. There are a couple fingers pointed about how it went missing but not so many about its recovery. For the most part we should assume the one that exists today is the same sword. Also, according to Wiki sensei, no one outside of the imperial line has actually seen it and survived. We have one description of the sword from a high priest whose entire sect appears to have died shortly thereafter. Everything after that is artistic renditions. Hold this thought for a moment.

Biwa hōshi were a variety of traveling entertainers during this period. They dressed like Buddhist monks, though they weren’t necessarily affiliated with temples. They were medieval bards. Yes, they did employ the blind. They got super famous specifically for recanting the Tale of the Heike—enough that it became a separate genre. The first written version of the Tale of the Heike is dated around 1330. Akashi Kakuichi (1299-1371) is accredited with the most widely read account, which has the official compilation dated at 1371. Hold onto this for a moment too.

If you remember anything about the Tokugawa Shogunate from world history class, you might remember there are a few more shogunates that predate that. The Ashikaga shogunate (1336-1573), and very specifically Ashikaga no Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), negotiated the end of a 57-year political conflict known as the Northern and Southern Courts period (1336-1392). This bureaucratic mess was nowhere near as exciting of a story as the Genpei War (1180–1185). In broad strokes, the country was split in half as a result of a hitch in the imperial line of succession from several factors, including the failed Mongol invasion of Japan (1274, 1281), overthrow of the Kamakura shogunate (1185-1333), failure of Kenmu restoration (1333-1336) to restore the Emperor as de facto head of state, and some more civil war. The Ashikaga clan endorsed the Northern court. Yoshimitsu was a star negotiator—just read his wiki page—who consolidated his power and legitimacy by acting as go between for a while. He even convinced the Southern court to give up the imperial regalia to the Northern court. (This was later given back when the Northern court eventually fell. As history is written by the winners, it is generally accepted that the emperors of the Southern court were the true imperial line.) The sword that Tomona and his dad recovered for those noblemen at the beginning of the movie was the Kusanagi sword. Those noblemen were almost certainly sent on behalf of the Ashikaga Shogunate, and recovering the sword was probably part of a political ploy. Tomona went blind and his father died because they were not supposed to see it as they’re not divinities on earth.

Ashikaga no Yoshimitsu was also a fan of Kan’ami Kiyotsugu (1333-1384)—author, actor, and musician who, along with his performer and playwright son, Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443), are accredited for the foundation of Noh theater. Kan’ami’s troupe performed for Yoshimitsu around 1374. Yoshimitsu was totally enamored with 12-year-old Zeami’s performance and became a massive patron to Zeami. We are not going to get into the weeds of that relationship. You can read the scholarly accounts and conclude what you want on your own post. I would have to watch the movie one more time, but I’m pretty sure the child dancer in Yoshimitsu’s introductory scene is Zeami.

Yoshimitsu’s legitimate wife was Hino no Nariko (1351–1405). Nariko married Yoshimitsu around 1375 or 1376, and only gave birth to a daughter. Since daughters can’t hold office, said daughter’s birth date isn’t something I can easily grab without sifting through dense scholarly text which I currently don’t have access to. If I could, I would probably be able to date this movie based on Inu-oh’s final performance being during her pregnancy. For reference’s sake, Yoshimitsu’s concubines had the sons, the first one having been born in 1386.

Inu-oh (?-1413) was a real person. Not much about him is known other than he existed and he was a good performer. He respected sarugaku-noh trailblazer Kan’ami, and even performed for Kan’ami’s memorial service. He was also extremely well praised by Zeami. Ashikaga no Yoshimitsu, however, did not like Inu-oh. He eventually swayed the shogun’s forgiveness, but was still not all that much in favor. He was then subjected to imperial inspection in 1408.

Based on the above information, and the fact that the passage of time in this film is specifically not marked, I guestimate that the opening scene happened sometime during 1360’s, and that Tomona’s execution was probably in the late 1370’s or 1380’s. I might be able to pin this down a little further if I could get Nariko’s daughter’s birthdate, or the name of the person whose funeral Ashikaga no Yoshimitsu was conducting in his introductory scene, but again, I am just some weeb with a degree in Japanology on the internet. If I was still in academia, I might actually go on a medieval Japanese scavenger hunt.

When I googled why Japanese people way back when could change their names on a whim, I couldn’t find any good English sources. A summary of my Japanese sources is that it’s not totally on a whim. It’s about census data and tax evasion. The Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907) had some really awesome stuff going on, so Japan decided to copy them. This legislation was called the Ritsuryō system, and was implemented in the 6th century CE. This introduced koseki, the family register, which basically lists who is in your house: births, deaths, marriages, divorces, or adoptions. Legalese is boring. Laws have changed. Permanent identities like we know them now come out of the Meiji period (1868-1912), because they changed the tax laws and citizenship rules from fiefdom based to modern standards, and suddenly everyone needed surnames. If you were important enough to have a surname or a clan name, that was pretty much permanent throughout your whole life unless you married into someone else’s clan.

Personal names had more stuff going on. When you were born, you got a name from one of your relatives. You’d eventually grow out of that. You had your adulthood ceremony and you gave yourself an adult name. Then you need a court name because you had to deal with the imperial or shogunal court. Maybe you got a title or a moniker. Maybe you gave up the working world and became a monk/nun—then you got a Buddhist name. And then when you died, you got a posthumous epitaph. But that’s just for important people! What if you’re a pleb? To a certain degree, you really could just do whatever you wanted.

As with all cultures, your parents usually gave you a name and hope you make it to adulthood. If you entered a skilled profession, clergy or otherwise, you got a name. Having a part of your name bestowed upon you by a celebrated personage was a huge honor. When Tomona joins Kakuichi guild of biwa hōshi, he is given the character “ichi” from Kakuichi, making his name Tomoichi, and cementing his membership in the guild. Emphasizing again here that Kakuichi is not any old blind musician but THE Akashi Kakuichi.

Lifehack analyzer lists three reasons for why you would not continue to use your childhood name as an adult.

1. Strangers don’t need to know your real name. If they did then they have the power to curse you. (ANYONE IN THIS THREAD READ XXXHOLIC OR TOKYO BABYLON?)
2. The name your parents gave you expresses your thanks to them. As an adult, you want to express your thanks to someone else. It’d be too intimate for a total stranger to call you by your kiddy name when up until this point, the only people who knew you were family members, friends, and people in the neighborhood.
3. You need a public name.

Insofar as Tomona’s major life transitions, I would assess that changing his name to Tomoichi encompases point 2 and changing his name to Tomoari encompasses point 3. Changing it back to Tomona of Dan-no-Ura immediately before his execution is a strange flex in real life, but it’s important as a point of narrative catharsis. After Tomona’s story ends, and irl Inu-oh goes out to become the person history remembers, he also has a couple name changes. Pulling from Japanese Wiki: Ashikaga no Yoshimitsu’s Buddhist name was 道義 Dōgi. Inu-oh borrowed that and changed his name from 犬阿弥 Inuami (not getting any hits for this one) to 道阿弥 Dōami (finding a more entries under this name). Going out on a limb here and assuming that Inu-oh changed his name to Inuami because of 観阿弥 Kan’ami in the interim.

Have some non-encyclopedia citations:

戦国武将や貴族など、昔の日本人が名前を頻繁に変えた理由とは？ | ライフハックアナライザ

https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1902/04/news017.html

昔の人はなぜ改名する人が多かったのですか？ – 明治やその前の時代の人はほとんど名前を変えてる気がします – Yahoo!知恵袋

I’m not going to go into yōkai, cursed objects, masks, sarugaku or noh theater since that’d required more research outside my area of undergraduate expertise. For yōkai, I’d highly recommend The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster. Honestly not sure where to redirect you for theater stuff.

Switching gears to the rock opera part. If you’ve seen Rocky Horror Picture Show or Jesus Christ Super Star, then you know what a rock opera is. It was breathing new life into the musical in the 1960’s. If you’re even vaguely familiar with the music and aesthetics of David Bowie, Alice Cooper, KISS, Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, and to a lesser extent Elton John or Queen, then you’re at least vaguely familiar with glam rock and hair metal. I am not going to post YouTube links because those get region locked by IP address. It was a flamboyant, consumeristic, androgynistic, and campy kind of style with emphasis on outrageous costuming, makeup, and hairstyles among other things, from the early to mid-1970’s. The point was counter-culturalism toward gender norms.

Now we move forward to the 1980’s to Visual-kei. It’s basically the same aesthetics but with arguably different underlying politics. This all begins with X Japan. Let’s take a pause here to listen to their 1989 album Blue Blood. Other bands of the era include Luna Sea, Glay, Pierrot, Malice Mizer. As we move later into the 1990’s and 2000’s we get bands like L’Arc~en~Ciel, Shazna, Alice Nine, Girugamesh, Miyavi, Antic Café, The Gazette, and Versailles. Wiki sensei claims that visual-kei is not only inspired by western glam rock, but also by kabuki theater. Kabuki is what happened when Noh got old, stiff, and no longer accessible to the masses. And the androgynous element of traditional Japanese theater IN GENERAL is probably more on the fact that women weren’t allowed to be employed in theater than anything related to #/gender. Quoting the X Japan wiki entry directly:

Yoshiki briefly described their early years and the movement’s development, saying “when we started the band, the problem was we didn’t belong anywhere. Because we were playing very heavy music, we were wearing tons of make-up and crazy outfits. So we couldn’t belong anywhere”, “[We did our own thing and] that eventually became visual kei.”[183] He added “But visual kei is more like a spirit, it’s not a music style or, you know… I think it is a freedom about describing myself, a freedom to express myself, that’s what I believe visual kei is.”[183]

(I’m also going to shoehorn in here that in 1999, Yoshiki was formally requested by the Japanese Government to compose and perform at Emperor Akihito jubilee celebration.) The major criticism of later visual-kei is that the original spirit has been lost. That the bands of this movement started their fashion trend to stand out. Now new bands are doing it to fit in so the whole thing’s falling apart. I don’t have any more spoons to do a deep literature dive into the politics of what visual-kei represents over the past 30 years and how much the gay community may or may not have been involved. I haven’t found anything explicitly connecting the two communities at all. It’s been all set dressing and no soul, like Christmas and KFC.

Finally, subjectively, calling “Inu-oh” a “queer masterpiece” is giving credit where it is not due. Casting Avu-chan, the lead singer of fashion punk band Ziyoou-vachi (QUEEN BEE), as the voice of the titular sarugaku star exclusively for her queerness has about as much weight to it, OP feels, as casting Will Smith in “I, Robot” for his blackness. The studio needed someone who could perform in the role competently. For those out there deeply sighing about the #/Wokeness of the #/Gay Agenda, (yes, the theater community, rock/metal communities, and the queer community have historically had some crossover) that’s not what’s on display here. Conversely for those out there who think this is the gayest film of the year, those arguments sound like projection or wish fulfillment. For the shippers, your ship is not my ship and that’s ok. Queerness is certainly a part of counterculture but not all counterculture is inherently queer. If you at least came away with an understanding of art vs government censorship, authority of the narrative, the mythology of the masses, how theater magic works, and what exactly counterculture means in this context, you got the movie. If you feel otherwise, you don’t need to bite my head off.

PASH! 2023 Illustration file GEAROUS Staff Comment

Production Secret Episode: We asked the Production Staff all about the gorgeous illustrations GEAROUS sensei handles for the “Madou Soshi” Radio Drama.

The Genbu Grotto^1 illustration contains everyone’s combined effort and feelings.

—What do your production requests look like when GEAROUS-sensei creates an illustration for you (e.g., a jacket illustration or a numbered episode cover illustration)?

For the episode title cards or CD special insert illustration, on our side, we specify a desired scene or theme for each episode, and the characters, and place the request to the artist. For example, for the title card for Season 3 Episode 1, we specified “BouSen (=WangXian) together, Hyakuhou Mountain^2 kissing scene”.  The flow for each season’s key visuals and the CD jackets [starts with] the standard BouSen pair without any additional details about the specified scene from our side; we leave the rest to GEAROUS sensei, then we pick one from the numerous rough drafts they submit, and give our thoughts on revisions. Materials for PASH! can go either way, and depending on the which episode is being published in each issue, in order to recreate the scene from the source material, there are times [a scene] is specified from our side, and others where we specify only the characters and the time of year, and leave the rest to GEAROUS sensei. In the event of a collaboration or an exhibit, we basically specify the theme and characters on our side, and hand over specific references for poses and costumes based on that theme to the artist.

—What sort of back and forth do you have during the production process?

On our side, it isn’t so much about the presence of specifics or lack thereof; the workflow is Basic Sketch → Colored Rough Draft → Completed First Draft → Final Adjustments. When we send a retouch request, it’s not just character poses or their line of sight, we consider the illustration’s use, the layers, the composition, the camera angle, the color saturation, head-to-body ratio, etc. There are cases where we’ll send revisions for even the tiniest of details. In the case of title cards, because they change size based on their use—whether that’s on the [MiMi FM] app, on X (formerly known as Twitter), magazine publications—we submit revisions to make designing easier, like “pull the camera out a little bit” or “supplement the hands and feet, and hem lines.” In the case of the CD jacket illustration, they’ll be full-sized large panel displays in storefronts, so we asked GEAROUS sensei to “split the BouSen layer in order that they could be used individually,” but no matter how much we fussed with it, in the end, we chose the illustrations where they couldn’t be separated. Whenever they’re made into full-sized large panel displays, I laugh thinking how huge they are (laughs).  Otherwise, regarding BouSen illustrations, we have meticulously consulted with the artist about accessories and hand placement, line of sight, etc., in order to bring out the sexual allure. For example, the “PASH! Jan 2023” cover illustration—we received an illustration of the two just getting out of the bath, without even their belts tied; originally, Gi Musen (=Wei Wuxian) was supposed to have shoes on, but an internal revision arose: “wouldn’t it suit the ambiance better and be even more erotic if he was barefoot?” so we sent GEAROUS sensei a revision request. Speaking of lines of sight, Sensei has a consistent setup of basically “Ran Bouki (=Lan Wangji) only looks at Gi Musen”, and that’s magnificent, so we staff want to keep with this configuration.

—Could you staff folks speak about what you feel is the allure of GEAROUS’ illustrations?

First of all, they have much better proportioned faces than average! We’re all attracted to good looks, so we love GEAROUS’ illustrations.  Also, they send in such detailed scenes for us. We already spoke about Rand Bouki’s line of sight, but on top of that, I think it’s magnificent how elaborate they were with the details, from how they put Ran Bouki’s headband on Gi Musen, or the way they put BouSen’s accessories’ image colors on each other. And not just BouSen, but the other characters’ designs were spot on too. Every time we order an illustration for a newly introduced character, we’re filled with excitement that it’s just so “This is it! This is what they look like!!!” at a single glance. We’re blown away by how much illustrations with new original costumes for event exhibitions exceed our imaginations too; we may have sent the references, but we’re moved by the theme, and by the how well the costume designs complement each character, down to the poses. Moreover, I think that the composition of GEAROUS’ illustrations is fascinating. While we do have some specifications from our side, the artist will compose a variety of roughs for us from the same scene, and they’re all fabulous, so picking a single rough sketch is a struggle.

—Does the production staff team have a favorite illustration out of all of the ones GEAROUS sensei has handled to date?

It has to be the Genbu Grotto image from the PASH! September 2022 edition. The image decorating the [magazine] cover was quite the shocker (laughs). Also, since I’ve seen comparatively few illustrations of the Genbu Grotto scene, I thought it was an especially memorable piece personally. It was a first-time challenge making somewhat different [illustrations], and I’m glad it had great reception from the fans. Actually, we did not decide to have two different illustrations from the get go. The fully clothed version came first, and because none of the Chinese staff had really seen BouSen naked, nothing felt out of place, but then the Japanese staff pointed out, “aren’t both of them shirtless in this scene?” so we double checked the source material and the radio drama scripts, and they had indeed taken their clothes off. However, having them half naked and biting an arm on a magazine cover was rather sensitive, so the staff opinions were split as to whether to be faithful to the source material and request the revised illustration, or to proceed with the fully clothed one. Then [our contact at] PASH! proposed, “why not use both…?” and all of the production staff thought that the best course of action, so we discussed it with the artist. GEAROUS sensei was incredibly cooperative, and promptly made the second image for us. Both illustrations are absolutely phenomenal, so, in the end, I think using both was the most correct answer. Even at the time of the notice, it stirred up statements like “the illustration will evolve”, and everyone was excited. I think that illustration contains everyone’s combined efforts and feelings.

—Are there any aspirations(?)—projects you wish to pursue—together with GEAROUS sensei going forward?

Illustrations with the original radio drama character designs are a given of course, but we’d also like to see the “Madou soshi” characters in different costumes. Going forward, we’d like to challenge [ourselves with] various themes, and when I was able to meet with GEAROUS sensei, we also had an enthusiastic conversation about what themes they wanted to do for upcoming episodes. Both we and GEAROUS sensei have already come up with prospective themes we want to do, and I absolutely think we will be able to make those a reality soon. Moreover, the radio drama is embarking on its third season, so the distance between BouSen should close even further. On the illustration side, I want to see more illustrations of BouSen packed with a different sort of eroticism than they have ever done before.

And from GEAROUS-sensei themself...

–GEAROUS sensei, Is there anything you are particularly conscious of when illustrating for “Madou soshi”?

When I draw Ran Bouki, I make an effort to dra him with a robust physique. He has a gorgeous visage, but I think he’s rather strong and well built, so I draw him such that his physical strength can be felt from even outside his white robes.

In Gi Musen’s case, I pay special attention to his facial expressions. I draw him bearing in mind that “his smile is remembered as someone’s first love”; I think his smile holds an unforgettable mystique to the person thinking of him.

When I draw them together, I make an effort to present a change in atmosphere, especially around Ran Bouki. Even if his face bears the same old cold expression when he’s with Gi Musen, it has some softness somewhere. I pay meticulous attention to expressing that ambiance.

NOTES

^1: 玄武洞; “Xuanwu Cave” or something like that. I didn’t find a 100% match in my very brief review of the books.

^2: 百鳳山; 7S vol 3 chp 15 pg 259 uses “Mount Baifeng”. ExR chp 69 uses “Phoenix Mountain”.

PASH! Illustration File 2021-2022 GEAROUS Special Making & Interview

NOTE:

This is a reprint of the interview in the December 2020 edition of PASH! This time we have added an additional segment where we ask GEAROUS sensei about their illustration.

> Creation process for the magazine’s cover illustration with commentary from the artist!

(Please note these pages are really glossy and OP is not a great photographer; I did not have access to a scanner when I originally uploaded this. All images below are detail shots of a larger magazine page. The step-by-step captions are translated below the image gallery.)

1. Rough & Sketch
   I do a rough sketch on paper. From this, I can figure out how to scale down the entire illustration. Drawing on paper gives me an idea of how it will look printed.
2. Rough & Sketch on PC
   I create a rough sketch in CLIP STUDIO PAINT based on my paper roughs. I make use of the narrow lines on the monitor to clarify the drawing and focus on details.
3. Rough Color
   I complete the rough sketch by adding color, so I can grasp what sort of atmosphere is needed for the illustration.
4. Creating the Line Art
   Using the G-pen in CLIP STUDIO PAINT, I clean up the line work on each character and the accessories. When the line art is compete, I separate the foreground, middle ground, background, and background scenery onto different layers with the coloring tool.
   (T/N: I think this is the Fill tool but I cannot swear on it.)
5. Painting the Background Scenery
   After I’ve revised the line art, I use the watercolor brush to color the background scenery. I use blue as the base color for the entire background; first I draw tree branches, then the flowers from darkest to lightest. When you decide on the darkest color, please make sure to add blue. This adds depths to the trees.
6. Decide on the Characters’ Base Colors
   I decide on the colors for the skin, eyes, accessories, clothes, and such for each section of the characters. I also add shadows to the brightest parts of the flowers and additional details.
7. Adjustments after Coloring
   Once I’m done coloring the characters, I apply shadows and even more texture. I also added the flower petals to the background and up front. When I want to emphasize characters, I make them reflect the atmosphere using the background scenery colors.
8. Finishing Touches
   After I finish the illustration, I go to bed and look at it with fresh eyes the next morning. This allows me to look at the illustration objectively, notice parts that bother me, and amend them. I removed Gi Musen’s leg and added “Emperor’s Smile” on the bottle based on feedback.

GEAROUS Special interview

PASH! December 2020 interview

I exchanged opinions with the production staff carefully.

–Please tell us about how you became involved with the “Madou soshi” radio drama.

I’d been obsessed with “Madou soshi” since the first day I heard about it, and constantly supporting it. Then in 2019, around Gi Musen’s birthday, I received an email from the “Madou soshi” radio drama staff. To be given the opportunity to work with “Madou soshi” … I still feel like I’m dreaming.

–How did you first hear about [MDZS]?

My friend would call me every day and translate the novel. That’s how I was able to understand the story. And not just that, I also wanted to dig deeper into the world. So being an illustrator for the Japanese audio drama is a dream come true for me.

–Did the Chinese or Japanese production staff have any requests regarding character designs?

“Madou soshi” has been produced in various countries and various media already, and various character designs already exist. So, in order for the radio drama represented in Japan to feel special, I exchanged opinions with the Chinese and Japanese radio production staff both carefully and sincerely.

–I’d like to ask you something about illustration. Which character was comparatively easier to draw?

No one in particular, but I can draw Ran Bouki naturally. I love Gi Musen too, so I can understand how he feels.

–Then, is there a character who was difficult to draw?

Gi Musen.

– Was there anything you specifically kept in mind when you were drawing Setsu You for the latest episode?

He has an outward appearance so charming it may as well be fatal poison. Setsu You’s poison should also be charming. I put those sorts of thoughts into my illustration.

–Do you have a personal favorite character?

I love Gi Musen the most. He always accomplishes what we cannot do no matter how much we think about it. Actually, if I could meet Gi Musen, I probably couldn’t take my eyes off him.

–What do you think of “Madou soshi”’s popularity in Japan?

I’m incredibly happy! I’m still cheering it on to become even more popular as its biggest fan.

–Have you received any emails or letters from fans?

I’ve received tons of messages from my social media followers since the start of the Japanese radio drama. They’ve been quite encouraging. Thank you everyone.

–Could we ask you for a message to everyone?

As an illustrator, I am truly delighted to be able to walk through the world of “Madou soshi” with the Japanese audio drama production staff. Since I’ve met “Madou soshi”, their world is always in my heart. Everyone, please continue to keep an eye on Gi Musen’s activities together. I am always thankful for everyone’s love from the bottom of my heart.

New interview

I’m obsessed with the illustration for Season 1 Episode 5.

–What sort of theme or image did you use to create this issue’s original art?

I drew it with the theme of after Gi Musen and Ran Bouki are tied together, Gi Musen is getting stronger with his demonic cultivation* and Ran Bouki in the middle of flowers.

(T/N: For the folks curious about what term is used here, it’s specifically madou. 次第に魔道が濃くなっていく魏無羨)

–Out of all the illustrations you have done for “Madou soshi”, which are you most attached to?

Many illustrations come to mind, but out of all of those, I’m most obsessed with the illustration for Season 1 Episode 5. Gi Musen holding a bottle of Emperor’s Smile and laughing with Ran Bouki. I reread the scene in the novel where they first met, and when I noticed that this was the most peaceful epoch of Gi Musen’s life before he died, my heart ached.

–What sort of “Madou soshi” illustration would you want to make in the future?

I enjoy every part I draw, but especially like to draw [a scene that] comes up a little in Gi Musen’s imagination where he covered in mud plowing a farm and Ran Bouki is cooking and weaving. I also want to draw characters I haven’t drawn yet. I’d love the opportunity to draw two-shot of Kou Enri and Kin Shiken, or the Ghost General and On Jou [Wen Qing].

–Could you tell us why you decide to become an illustrator and why you started your job?

I had to move overseas when I was very young, so pictures were the only way I was able to communicate. I could make friends around the world because I drew, I could express what I liked because I drew, and at some point along the way I decided to become an illustrator. I still communicate in pictures now, and I confess my love for my favorite characters through drawing.

–Are there any routines or rules you abide by when you work?

I don’t have a given routine. I have paper and pencils all over my home, so I can draw wherever I feel like it. When I leave my house and feel the urge to draw, I draw on whatever paper or wrapping paper is around. When I do art for jobs, I first read the novel or request details, and draw something that comes to mind while listening to music that suits the atmosphere.   

– If something doesn’t go right while you are working, do you have a way to refresh yourself?

I keep drawing, even if the picture isn’t turning out right. No matter how many images I draw, they’re all pictures I drew, so I have come to stop worrying about it.

–Do you have any future aspirations?

I want to come to love more works and connect with everyone in the world through my art. Thank you very much.

Image source

Madou Soshi anime ad translation

As promised, some info from the JP dub of the donghua from 2021.

T/N: Personal names don’t get glossed but sobriquets and place names do. The anime’s approach to personal names is in line with the novel; the audio drama is an outlier for overlocalization. This whole thing is 5 pages. Alt text added for all images.

Red banner: “Madou soshi” Japanese dub starts airing January 10, 2021 on WOWOW, TOKYO MX, and BS11

Bottom text: (TV scheduling information.)

The world was fed up with the limits of the Kizan Wen clan’s tyranny, and the people were wheezing with anguish. The disciples of the cultivation world—the Koso Lan clan, Unmu Jiang clan, Ranryou Jin clan, and Seiga Nie clan—joined forces for the “Sun shot campaign” and succeeded in subjugating the Wen clan.

Wei Wuxian, the Iryou Elder, contributed greatly to the success of the “Sun shot campaign,” but due to the fact that his mastery of kidou (鬼道) made him the most powerful, he was feared by the people, slandered, and ultimately beckoned the total destruction of his body.

And now, 13 years later…Wei Wuxian, who was supposed to be dead, is brought back to life by magic, and reunites with his old friend, Lan Wangji of the Koso Lan clan, and his brother Jiang Cheng of the Unmu Jiang clan. However, the mysteries of the past have not yet vanished, and society begins to doubt him all over again.

All stories start with a chance encounter during their youth.

(T/N: I’m not going to rekey the relationship chart. It doesn’t say anything you don’t already know. Full cast list in the Wikipedia link below.)

Wei Wuxian caption: An innocent, uncontrolled free-spirit. Frivolous, but has the makings of a genius. Manipulates corpses with the sounds of a flute, and creator of “kidou” (鬼道), [a technique that] utilizes yin energy. Subjugated 13 years ago, but brought back to life with magic. Also called Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji caption: The second son of a famous cultivation household, the Koso Lan clan. Remarkably excellent, and of irreproachable conduct. Extremely serious and fastidious. Long ago he had many skirmishes with the free-spirited Wei Wuxian. Excels at using the Lan clan’s secret technique with the guqin. Also called Lan Zhan.

Panel 1
WWX: Lan Zhan! Our story’s finally going to start in Japan!
WWX: Let’s introduce some of the difficult-looking vocab so everyone can enjoy [the show]
LWJ: …

Panel 2
WWX: Alright, start by explaining “cultivation clans” and “cultivators” right off the bat.
LWJ: “Cultivators” are disciples who exterminate ghosts and evil spirits and protect people’s safety.
LWJ: Cultivators are affiliated with “cultivation clans”, and discipline themselves in order to further their knowledge and hone their craft.

Panel 3
LWJ: “The Five Great Clans”—the generic term for each cultivation clan is the “the cultivation world”; of those, the best are the Koso Lan clan, the Unmu Jiang clan, the Ranryou Jin clan, the Seiga Nie clan, and the Kizan Wen clan, thus the “Five Great Clans”.
WWX: That’s too long-winded!

Panel 4
WWX: If you think there’s too many kanji, you can just tell everyone apart by color.
WWX: Like, the Jiang clan’s purple!
JC: Hey, that’s crude.

Panel 5
WWX: Zombie-like monsters called “corpses” will appear, but I can manipulate them with mu flute.
WWX: Lan Zhan can defeat them with his koto!

Panel 6:
WWX: Make sure to tune in for the Japanese dub broadcast this January!

Kimura Ryouhei (voice of Wei Wuxian)

—Tell us something you find fascinating about the original work or characters.

It’s the most exciting world with a combination of the air of another country and fantasy. Please look forward to the drama depicted between characters who are so finely chiseled they’re true-to-life living there!

—Do you have a message for viewers awaiting the dub broadcast?

You’ll probably be perplexed by all the names and factions, and proper nouns you’re not used to hearing, but that’s okay! The story will lead you along. If you stick with it, you’ll surely have a wonderful time. I’ll be happy if you fall in love with the vivacious cast!

Tachibana Shinnosuke (voice of Lan Wangji)

—Tell us something you find fascinating about the original work or characters.

No matter how many times I say it, the art is absolutely gorgeous! There’s a beauty to the Chinese style coloration, but I feel like the work’s atmosphere can be conveyed just by looking at the art. And the characters move a lot. I feel like I can perceive the vitality and ambiance on my skin. Also, there are a ton of hot guys (laughs).

—Do you have a message for viewers awaiting the dub broadcast?

This internationally acclaimed work has finally touched down in Japan with the Japanese anime dub! I hope you enjoy a host of characters who bustle around, their sentiments and exchanges, and the subtleties of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s hearts. I look forward to enjoying this magnificent story together with everyone ☆

Full staff and cast list (T/N: again, I’m not rekeying that. Here it is on Wikipedia instead.)

Opening theme: “Senya souka” by CIVILIAN (JP LYRICS)

Ending theme: “Kiro” by Aimer (JP LYRICS)   

Visit the website at https://mdzs.jp/anime/ or follow us on twitter @/mdzsjp

Source: https://mdzs.jp/anime/special/book/

Chapter 2 荒狂 Rampage [ExR trans: Aggression Part 3]

While I continue to struggle with not having enough hands to both live blog MDZS and pet a dog, and that autosave bug that kept eating my edits, I’ve been worrying for the last couple days about how I might be shoving a key into the ignition of a clown car with the license plate “pandora’s box”. You guys have been great so far, and I really appreciate it.

I must humbly thank one of my fandom elders for reminding me that translation is a form of transformative work, and therefore subject to Death of the Author (and Skopos of the client). Translation theory and translation studies in general is mostly done at the graduate level; of what I’ve been exposed to at the undergraduate level, Skopos theory is the only one that did not strike me as totally self-indulgent. I’ll do my best to lay out the facts as much as can be done, and leave the literary analysis to you.

Today we’re looking at the tail end of Chapter 2, Frontier Works pg. 41-53, and a tiny bit of the audio drama, Season 1 Part A Episode 1 first 12 minutes. After this, I’ll be taking a short aside to translate another Japanese audio drama article from PASH! magazine, and a supplementary PDF from the anime’s ad campaign website before moving on to Chapter 3. Strap in, this is a LONG POST.

[[MORE]]

I spent these past 12 pages fixated on a particular notion: “I don’t think Mo Xuanyu is necessarily insane”. I will get back to that in a bit. Let’s talk about everything else first.

I know I’ve mentioned this before there’s been a bit of ambiguity regarding whether the body part rampaging Mo Manor is a hand or an arm.

Suddenly A-Ding cried, “Hand… His hand! A-Tong’s hand!” (ExR)
その時突然、阿丁が泣きだした。「手……阿童の左手がぁ！」 (FW pg. 44)

bt. In that moment A-Ding suddenly burst into tears. “His hand… A-Tong’s left hand–!”

It’s a hand in this one segment. I’m using “burst into tears” to indicate more clearly that “cried” here should be the weeping kind, not the shouting kind.

On the next page

Suddenly saying this… It doesn’t seem like a coincidence. (ExR)（突然こんなことを言うなんて……まぐれとは思えない。）(FW pg. 45)
bt. (Suddenly, saying this sort of thing [out loud]… I can’t think of it as a fluke.)

Clunky, but within a reasonable margin of error.

Moving forward a few pages to when Wei Wuxian turns the deceased Mo manorial lords into his minions… Do you think he is allowed to swear? やがる is an auxiliary verb meaning “to have the nerve to do X”, and in a lot of cases, it can be used as a free pass for an emphatic and/or expletive.

“Wake up!” (ExR)

「起きやがれ！」 (FW pg. 49)

“Wake the fuck up!”

In case you were wondering, he was politer to the first batch of corpses.

We finally get our first instance of 凶屍 kyoushi/xiong1shi1 on FW pg 50! I’d been wondering when that word would show up. I really hate “fierce corpse” but ExR’s use of “cruel corpse” instead doesn’t make it any better. I don’t think this term translates. As far as I know, zombie lore in English comes out of Central African mythology via the Caribbean. I worry that there are not enough similar base concepts between these two cultures that we even have the vocabulary to express the concept with words that are not Chinese.

And finally, 含光君 han2guang1jun1 = gankoukun. Sobriquets don’t get glossed. What’s it mean? May I direct you to this post? At some point I will revise the Chinese-to-Japanese table of proper names to include monikers and place names. Once I figure out a good way to format it for web…

Alrighty, now time for the thesis part. One of the central motifs of MXTX’s writing style is setting up a characterization based on third hand accounts, and then using the characters’ actions to subvert those expectations. The very first instance of this is in MDZS is the irony of Wei Wuxian, in the body of Mo Xuanyu, being the smartest person in the room despite never taken seriously. What do we actually know about Mo Xuanyu himself? What has he actually told the reader? He hasn’t. He’s very dead at this point. Everything we know is filtered through A) Wei Wuxian, and B) a third person limited POV narrator, both of whom are notably not omniscient. What we can take away from the diary entries is only what Wei Wuxian can surmise (FW pg. 18-19).

• Mo Xuanyu is homosexual.
• He is a famous cultivation clan leader’s bastard, clearly out of favor with his father’s clan.
• His grandfather is the Manorial lord Mo.
• The Manorial lord’s legitimate wife birthed his oldest daughter. Oldest daughter’s husband was legally adopted into the Mo clan. Oldest daughter is Mo Ziyuan’s mother.
• The Manorial lord’s second daughter, Mo Xuanyu’s mother, was a maid’s daughter. She was good looking, so the Manorial lord had planed on marrying her off anyway.
• MXY’s mother’s pregnancy at age 16, and his entire existence was seen as a mark of shame upon the manor until the Manorial lord realized how to use this new relationship for financial and political gain, i.e. the alimony stipend from the paternal cultivation clan and the allure of cultivation to boost the manor’s standing. This lasted until Mo Xuanyu was 4 years old when his biological father ceased visitation. MXY and his mother then fell out of favor for a decade.
• At age 14, MXY was taken in by his paternal cultivation clan for training. Within the Mo manor, he returns to being in favor based on an expectation of success in a skilled profession. He loses favor again when he failed to meet that expectation, and is sent home.
• The legitimate Mo manorial lords and their servants are verbally and physically abusive towards him. (FW pg. 14, 26)
• Mo Xuanyu committed suicide to enact vengeance against his abusers via dassha of Wei Wuxian. (FW pg. 16)
• He is older than Mo Ziyuan. (There are a couple different ways to spell “cousin” itoko, and relative seniority is built into the word: 従兄 older male cousin Mo Xuanyu vs 従弟 younger male cousin Mo Ziyuan.)
• Mo Ziyuan’s exact age was never confirmed. Wei Wuxian just guessed “17” and the reader has to roll with it.
• さらに悪いことに、莫玄羽にいったい何があったのか莫家に戻った時にはまるっきりおかしくなっていた。ごくたまに正気に戻るものの、まるで何か恐ろしいものでも見て、精神をやられたかのように–。ここまで読み解いて、魏無羨はぴくりと眉を動かした。絶袖はまだしも、気が触れていたとは。これで合点がいった。(FW pg. 19)
• bt. And to make matters worse, what on earth happened to Mo Xuanyu when he returned to Mo Manor, he had become completely funny. Although on rare occasion he returned to sanity, it was as if he may have seen something dreadful and whether his mind suffered damage–Perusing up to this point, Wei Wuxian cocked an eyebrow. Better gay than touched in the head. This is what he made out.

Note 1: おかしい okashii means “funny” in both the comical and the eccentric sense. It runs the gambit from “amusing” to “strange” to “wrong.” It gave me a slight headache trying to translate Lan Jingyi’s 「あいつは本当におかしい！」 “aitsu wa hontou ni okashii!” in Aggression part 1. I almost went with “What a weirdo!” but decided against it because I wanted the double entendre. I am being overly literal above to demonstrate ambiguity.

Note 2: The green highlight is a two part subjunctive. I am highlighting this because it’s the strongest “if” in the entire info dump. Everything up until this point is a “based on evidence, WWX concludes that” sort of subjunctive. Japanese can get pedantic with subjunctives.

Note 3: 気が触れる ki ga fureru = to go mad; to go crazy; to lose one’s mind​. Also see 気が狂う ki ga kuruu (via Jisho.org)

Preliminary conclusion: Despite the commonality of polygamy at this time, there are clear political advantages that he does not have due to his lack of blood relation to either the legal or favorite wife in either the Jin or Mo clans, combined with his discontinued apprenticeship. Anything Mo Xuanyu does is going to be an uphill battle. Untreated trauma is definitely involved. Do I trust a normal teenager to tell me they’re insane? No. Would I trust a fictional one? Even less. Sanity is relative.

(I don’t think anyone in this readership cares if I spoil Trails of Cold Steel IV. There’s a boss rush segment right before the final dungeon where one of your parties is about to take on a massive beast of a thing, and one of the mages says “um how about we not? Maybe let’s go get the giant robots and circle back?” and everyone else, including one woman whose only goal left in life is to fight GOD, like any good JRPG hero, is like “nah, we can take it as is.” This lady–who can wield a Zweihänder single-handedly if she wants to–honestly could have taken down the beast by herself. She’s one of the most powerful characters in the franchise, so desperate for a challenge that her moniker includes reference to a Buddhist man-eating demon, an all-but-confirmed war criminal, and you cannot tell me she’s sane. Sane people do not nip at the ankles of a dragon with a big fucking sword and call it a mild workout.)

Now what does everyone else say about him?

I genuinely don’t know what the original text has to say. I cannot read Mandarin. Nor do I have access or the skill to listen to the Chinese audio drama. CQL is off the table as there is no accessible JP dub as far as I am aware. Between Death of the Author and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, I’m already too many layers removed from “original intention” for it to matter. Japanese novel!Mo Xuanyu is effectively a different character from every other instance of Mo Xuanyu in every other medium and every foreign language translation.

In rewatching the first episode of the donghua, the term used appears to be 瘋子 feng1zi5. Lin Yutang’s Chinese-English dictionary of Modern Usage defines 瘋子 as madman, half-crazy person, a “nut.” This is not a Japanese word. In fact, the only word I can find that uses the same character is 瘋癲 fuuten, which can be either insanity, or a vagabond/wanderer (Jisho.org). The Green Goddess offers 1) 狂気 lunacy, mental derangement, madness, insanity 2) 家出した若者 delinquent youth, a youth vagrant.

If I shove 瘋子 into the Weblio’s Chinese-Japanese dictionary, I get the definitions 気違い kichigai = madman, enthusiastic (derogatory) and 狂人 kyoujin = crazy person, lunatic. I’m going to add this additional note from WaniKani. Image transcription in alt text.

Based on this, I can conclude that Donghua!Mo Xuanyu is mentally ill, and being described in a highly derogatory manner.

I have NOT watched the Japanese dub anime so we’re going to put that on back burner for now. I’ll probably get to it later, when I can finally get my hands on it.

The Japanese dub audio drama I only went in to double check what Mo Ziyuan and Madam Mo call Mo Xuanyu in the first 12 minutes. I did NOT bother listening to the whole episode. Transcriptions and translations below. Bold is OP’s emphasis.

00:05:10
魏無羨：お前は……
莫子淵：ふざけるな！このイカレ野郎目！！
莫子淵：お前が今住んてるのは誰の家で

Gi Musen: You are…
Baku Shien: Don’t fuck with me! You damn bastard nutcase!!
Baku Shien: Whose house do you [think] you’re living in and

Note 4: Gi Musen = Wei Wuxian; Baku Shien = Mo Ziyuan.

00:09:23

魏無羨：（M）ふん、つまらん
莫夫人：早く追い出して！
莫夫人：このイカレ野郎を出したのは誰！

Gi Musen: (mentally) hmm, boring
Madam Baku: Get rid of him quickly!
Madam Baku: Who let this bastard nutcase out!

00:11:23
莫家の下僕男A：早く行こうぜ、病気が伝染っちゃう
莫家の下僕女A：あのイカレ野郎、また出てきたの？

Male Baku household servant A: Hurry up, let’s go, or we’ll get infected
Female Baku household servant A: That bastard nutcase got out again?

Jisho.org defines いかれる ikareru as: 1) to break down, to become broken; 2) to be crazy, to be nuts; 3) to be infatuated with; 4) to be outdone by someone; to be beaten in a contest. 野郎 yarou Bastard in the above instances is simply for its derogatory meaning, and has no implications of linage. So you see how I ended up with イカレ野郎 = bastard nutcase? Japanese audio drama!Baku Gen'u (=Mo Xuanyu) is also mentally ill, and it is being described in a derogatory manner.

Back to the novel! Over these past 40 pages, I’ve seen several different words come up in addition to what was written above.

痴れ者 shiremono fool; dunce; idiot​ (via Jisho.org). This is the most common one, and what the Manorial lords and their servants all call Mo Xuanyu. Even Lan Jingyi calls him this once in frustration. I’m not going to to the full nine yards on this one. I did quite a bit in the Aggression part 2. But just for completeness’ sake, I give you a couple more.

「俺を蹴ったな！この痴れ者め、殺す気？」 (FW pg. 46)
(Lan Jingyi speaking) “He kicked me! Damn idiot, you got a death wish?”

From The Digital Denjisen via Kotobank

１ 愚かな者。ばか者。A foolish person. A stupid person.
２ 手に負えない者。乱暴なもてあまし者。An incorrigible person. A violently unmanageable person.
３ その道に打ち込んでいる者。その道のしたたか者。Someone dead set in their ways. A strong-willed person.
「我がものならば着せてやりたい好みのあるにと―が随分頼まれもせぬ詮議を蔭では為べきに」〈露伴・五重塔〉
[類語]（1）愚人・愚物・痴人・愚か者・愚者／（3）マニアック・病的・クレージー・いかれる・神経質・凝り性・モノマニア・モノマニアック・偏執狂・執念深い・アブノーマル・異常・異様・狂的・ディレッタント・物好き・酔狂・好事家・虫・おたく・狂・狂い・気違い・マニア・通・こだわり・こだわる・道楽・凝り屋・執拗・しつこい・サブカルチャー

From Meaning.jp

愚か者・馬鹿者 foolish person. stupid person.
騙されやすい・お人好し someone easily tricked. an easy mark.
考えなしで分別にかける人 a person with thoughtless discretion.

And from Word-dictionary.jp

ばか者、おろか者 a stupid person, a foolish person
一つのことに心を打ちこんで夢中になっている人 a person who has devoted their heart to a singular thing and becomes obsessed.

I am genuinely unsure if there are any unspoken connotations of this word, and thus far I have not been able to dig any up. I need to watch more period J-dramas.

バカ baka idiot; moron; fool​ (we’ve watched enough anime. I don’t need to provide all 14 definitions listed on Jisho.org)

このバカ、こんな時まで笑うなんて！虚け者なのだから (FW pg. 44)
What a moron, laughing at a time like this! Cause he’s an airhead…

虚け者 utsukemono fool; blockhead; idiot; dunce​ (see example above). The more common spelling of this word is 空け者. I like “airhead” for this one because 虚 “void” 空 and “sky” both also mean “empty.” Let’s take a look at a couple more dictionaries.

うっかりしている人。中身のしっかりしていない人。単に「うつけ」とも言う。(Weblio)
An absentminded person. Someone who does not take proper hold of their substance. Also said utsuke.

For utsuke because I didn’t get a result for utsukemono
1) 中のうつろなこと。から。からっぽ。2) 愚かなこと。ぼんやりしていること。また、そのような者。まぬけ。(Digital Denjisen)
1) To hollow out the inside of something. Empty. Vacant.
2) Foolishness. To be absentminded/careless. Or someone who is thus. Half-wit.

恥知らず haji shirazu shameless

(Madam Mo in response to Wei Wuxian’s allegation of theft against Mo Ziyuan)
「この恥知らずが、皆さんの前でなんてことを！阿淵はあなたの従弟なのに！」 (FW pg. 28)
“What a thing to say in front of everyone, you shameless person! Even though A-Yuan is your cousin!”

阿保 aho fool; idiot; simpleton

(Lan Jingyi speaking) 「え？あの阿保を捜してどうするんだよ？俺に殴られるのが怖くて、どこかに逃げたんじゃないかな」 (FW pg. 52)
“Eh? What’re you gonna do if you go searching for that dimwit? He probably ran off somewhere cause he was scared I was gonna punch him.”

変人 henjin eccentric. Truth be told, I’m not sure why this is in my notes. Past me didn’t leave a page number.

There is a specific word for madness I was looking for, something containing this character: 狂. And there is only one instance I found where it shows up (not counting the chapter title).

With nails that multiplied in length, foam gathering at the corners of her mouth, and shrieks that were enough to uplift the ceiling, she [the animated corpse of Madam Mo] looked extremely insane. (ExR)

右手の五本の指の爪は数倍にも長く伸び、口元には白い泡を吹き、甲高い咆哮は屋根を吹き飛ばそうな勢いで、もはや狂気の沙汰だ。(FW pg. 50)

bt. The nails on the five fingers of her long hand extended by several times, white foam spewed from her mouth, her screeching roar had the force to blow a roof clean off, and she was already in a state of madness.

TLDR: Japanese novel!Mo Xuanyu is generally described by other people as a dunce, not necessarily a lunatic. The only “insanity” to be had is a dead person’s fighting style.

A little thought experiment I keep finding myself in, as I’m sure a lot of people do who are reading literature in a language they are learning, is “if I were to translate this into my first language, how would I say X?” I would need a word that

• encompasses “stupid”;
• does NOT encompass “clinically insanity”;
• is derogatory;
• and most importantly, destroys all credibility.

“Oh, don’t listen to him. He’s just ___.”

“Idiot” is the clear choice, as it is the most common denominator of all of the above, but I feel it’s not strong enough to devalue all of MXY’s credibility. “Simpleton”, “airhead,” “dimwit,” “halfwit,” “moron,” “blockhead” again, not mean enough. “Dunce” or “fool” might be on the right track, but they’re not really in the modern vernacular, so still not strong enough on their own without going out of my way to make the rest of the setting and everyone else’s speech patterns artificially archaic. “Maniac” doesn’t seem accurate to the characterization. “Deluded” perhaps? “Deranged” feels too close to “raving mad”. “Beyond help” or “lost cause” or “unreasonable” would work in the above instance, but not necessarily in other instances, like “He kicked me! Damn ___!”

…and this is how I found myself up the creek without a paddle, and asking whether I have to start looking at yesteryear’s terms for the disabled to find a label mean enough to destroy credibility. FOR EXAMPLE, I would not be opposed to an autistic reading of the character based on the above amalgam of terminology, but endorsing such a reading would be going into head canon territory and straying too far from the original text. I don’t know what’s going on deeper in the fandom. I see a lot of arguing I don’t want to deal with, and the less I know, the better I feel.

All I can and will say about Japanese Novel!Mo Xuanyu is that no matter how he is labeled by his relatives and household servants, the kid is caught between a rock and a hard place on multiple fronts. Being homosexual in a homophobic world isn’t helping, nor is whatever enduring trauma he experienced right before his return home from cultivation training. His anger and frustration before his untimely demise were likely justified. It is highly unfortunate he found catharsis in death, but without it, this story would have no protagonist.

Confessions of a Manga Translator – The Comics Journal

Translation discourse online always leaves me a little nervous because anyone can and usually does say anything, and it’s nigh impossible to check credentials. I keep thinking back to this article from 2016.

I also did follow up with Jay Rubin sensei about the introductory quote in this article. (Rubin sensei is an American Japanologist and translator most noted for bringing the works of Haruki Murakami 村上春樹 into English. Also if you’ve never has the opportunity to try translating Murakami, let me attest that it ranked #3 on my college struggle bus after Genji monogatari and the kanbun bits of my capstone project.) The closest he was able to track down was a passage from a “Critic’s Notebook” piece he did for the magazine AMERICAN THEATRE in February 2006 (p. 36). Sensei attests the 99% figure comes from someone at the theater, not himself.

Sitting in the darkened hall and listening to the lines of Steppenwolf Theater Company’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short-story collection after the quake, I had a thrill unavailable to anyone else in the audience–even to Murakami himself, had he been there (which may never happen)–because I was the one who wrote those very lines the actors were speaking. True, Murakami was author of the original work I had translated, but those were my words. When, in the well-attended post-performance discussion, a member of the staff assured the audience of the fidelity of the adaptation by noting that “99% of the words you heard were Murakami’s,” I sat in the back of the theatre, violently shaking my head. Okay, translator’s tantrum aside, it really was a thrill to hear those familiar words being spoken by a live cast, to rediscover the dramatic force of the original, and to see the audience’s openly emotional response to one of Murakami’s most affecting works. It was a wonderful night of theater.