Land of Asparagus
LandLadyankee!!
Mai-chan no Onee-san Shiiku Gohan c003, p09: Sulking
What is City Pop?
I’d been wanting to do this post for a while and I kept forgetting to do it, but here we are finally. So, City Pop! What is it? And why is it relevant?
City Pop became popularized in Japan in the 1980s, but it had its origins in the 1970s with Japanese artists like Tatsuro Yamashita and a group called Happy End. It is described as a fusion of a number of different musical styles including funk, R&B, soul, jazz, and boogie. Its popularity in the 80s was actually attributed to the spread of car stereos, which led to music with a distinct city theme (I guess, because you listen to it when you’re driving through the city). As a result, Tokyo became the inspiration for many of these songs.
The popularity bled out into Korea, and there were a number of artists in the 1980s and 90s who created…
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Deng Xiaoping discussing American interference in 1989 – befitting of Venezuela in 2019
An excellent post from Reddit today from KanyeFellOffAfterWTT highlights a speech given by former Communist Party of China Chairman Deng Xiaoping. The reference to American interference could well have been spoken in today’s Venezuela.
Comrade Xiannian is correct. The causes of this incident have to do with the global context. The Western world, especially the United States, has thrown its entire propaganda machine into agitation work and has given a lot of encouragement and assistance to the so-called democrats or opposition in China — people who are in fact are the scum of the Chinese nation. This is the root of the chaotic situation we face today.
When the West stirs up turmoil in other countries, in fact it is playing power politics — hegemonism — and is only trying to control those other countries, to pull into its power sphere countries that were previously beyond its control. Once we’re…
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Princess Connect – Ep. 8
Perfect episode right here! We had: Yuuki prompting everyone to help ‘Little Lyrical’, aka the kids from episode 3 (I think it was ep. 3?), on how to become a guild. Karyl being a perfectionist angry frazzled cat. Peco being a cutie and also loving Karyl of course. Kokkoro seeing Yuuki doing dumb stuff XD. Just overall super fun and cute!
We also got some Karyl and Kokkoro moments.
And of course, angry Karyl taking care of her seeds!
Princess Connect – Ep. 7
What an episode! I loved it! Fun battles, cute moments, hearfelt moments, Karyl x Pecorine moments, and the Hatsune and Shiorin sisters moments! I think this was one of the best.
We start off where we left off last episode, with the ‘Shadows’ attacking the forest and now moving forward to attack the town. Yuuki, Kokkoro, Rima and Aoi volunteer to help go look for Shiorin with Hatsune; Pecorine is about to, but she notices Karyl is missing, and so wonders where she is and goes find her. Of course, Karyl is conflicted. The mention of a ‘swordswoman dressed in black’ means that it is her superior that is attacking town and swallowing people with the ‘Shadows’.
Karyl, in fact, has wandered around and ended up atop a hill, where she wonders what she should do. There, Pecorine finds her.
Pecorine, who had noticed Karyl seemed lost and looked down, questions Karyl. She asks her if she’s feeling alright, and tries to comfort her. Meanwhile, Yuuki is unconscious as the save-Shiorin group is battling the swordswoman.
Pecorine and Karyl notice that the Shadows are attacking town, and go help. Well, actually, Pecorine is the one that attacks them head-on, while Karyl hides behind and watched Pecorine, still debating what to do. Thankfully, her will and heart win above her ‘loyalty’ to the evil group that commands her (and let’s hope this is her turning point), and she goes help Pecorine, with actualyl really amazing magic.
And we get probably the best Karyl x Pecorine moment in the whole series so far:
Those smiles! Blushing! Karyl showing her feelings! Tell me they aren’t in love!
Princess Connect – Ep. 5 & 6
Gotta say it, Episode 5 was all over the place. Episode 6 picked up, though, and was really cool. Episode 5 just… introduced three new, pretty annoying characters, and one of them took the spotlight so that basically the whole episode was about her, which wasn’t to my liking at all. It also failed to properly pace the episode, the pace was slow and a bit boring when that chara had her moments all the time. But, it still gave us pretty cool stuff, like the next picture:
And also poor Kokkoro freaking out over Yuuki being ‘operated’ on by some, literally, quacks.
So, yeah, Yuuki got sick, apparently with the flu, and they went to a “hospital” that was actually “a prison”, according to the guy who wanted to destroy’s Pekorine’s favourite restaurant last episode. There was also something that didn’t make sense later on in the episode, but oh well. Oh, and it gave us more of Kokkoro, like:
I also thought about what their ages could be, and I came to these conclusions: Kokkoro is probably aged around 15, while Yukki’s probably either 16. I’d say Pekorine is 18 and Karyl 17. Those are my headcannoned ages.
And now on to ep. 6!
Episode 6 is way cooler, but also darker. The guild goes on a trip to some village not that close to the capital in order to gather some spices—or, according to Pekorine: legendary spices!
Either there is no religion here—although Kokkoro does pray to Lady Ameth, but Ameth seems like sort of a mystical being that works mysteriously and knows ‘the truth’ that Yuuki also, apparently, knew, and is now trying to acquire again—or this particular town has no church nor cathedral. We could consider that building right there in the middle of town a sort of church, though, since it has a bell tower.
Pekorine cooked great food for them before they got to the town, which Karyl was really grateful for. In fact, they were about to eat bugs when Pekorine brought over some kind of bird and cooked it carefully.
There’s also a storyline about the Guild which Rima (from episode 4, remember?) is a part of, and there’s a plot about sisters that has just begun to unravel, but I won’t go into detail. It is surprising to me, and a bit overwhelming, that so many characters and plotlines are being introduced in such a short time. They are managing it mostly well, though.
We also got some sweet moments between the whole group, and a bunch of new characters that you better see for yourself, which have some really cool designs.
Well, this is it for today. I wonder which flower is the one Kokkoro has adorning her head.
Infinite Dendrogram and Life
“Well,” continued Nemesis, “even if the experiences and behaviors are the same, there will be differences in an Embryo’s form and skills based on each Master. Also… I think Counter Absorption was derived from your personality.”
“The zeroth form is a time period for Embryos to observe their Masters,” she said. “After observing their psychology and behavior, an Embryo’s first form is then born based on this.”
Sakon Kaidou in Infinite Dendrogram, Vol. 1.
I think the concept of Embryos is a very fun one to work with. It can also be tied with a lot of stuff like the study of style (in writing, but also in life), as that which is ‘the peculiar manner in which someone expresses themselves’, and of course, stylistics, which pays attention to a myriad of different things when analyzing, in the case of a text, a writer’s background, use of the language, use of expressions, etc.
There’s also the topic of ‘is AI actually life’ (well, though the anime and the Light Novel do hint at ‘Infinite Dendrogram’ actually being an actual parallel world or something of the sort, but the theme is there), which I believe will become a constant topic of discussion in the future. In the case of Infinite Dendrogram, it’d seem tech is so advanced that of course Nemesis, even if her birth was tied to her Master’s characteristics in some way, is entirely her own person.
Infinite Dendrogram & Infinite Possibilities
“That’s good enough, Reiji,” he said. “There’s no need to regret the act of choosing something. After all, it’s the ultimate premise to grabbing hold of the possibility leading to the future you desire.”
“After choosing something, all that matters is whether you can see it or not and grab hold of it or not.”
“The possibility is always there — with your will. No matter how small, no matter behind how many zeros beyond the radix point it lies — it always exists. The only time the possibility isn’t there is when you’ve given up on grabbing hold of the future you desire. As long as you don’t give up and keep making choices towards the future you want to see, the possibility won’t disappear, even if it’s far beyond the radix point.”
These words of his were still etched onto my very core.
Sakon Kaidou in Infinite Dendrogram, Vol. 1.
A recollection of thoughts 