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「振ったり出会ったり」 (Futtari Deattari)
“Swinging and Meeting”
Three episodes in and things finally seem to be settling down a bit. While this series still has its fair share of really awkward moments like the random mariachi band trio that seems to have appeared out of nowhere, I’m really starting to enjoy the direction that the story seems to be headed in. And as an added bonus, it seems like the awkward pacing issues that episode two had are a thing of the past.
Honestly, I was afraid that this episode would continue the awkward pacing from the last one. With the preview from the last episode focusing on something badminton related and then something on the beach, I couldn’t imagine just how the two would fit together. But lo and behold, there’s not only an answer to my question but a rather cute one at that! While I expected that the girls would destroy the boys in a badminton match, I wasn’t expecting Konatsu to follow up with a combined club proposal. Besides finding a way to accommodate everyone’s needs (Tachi and Badminton; Konatsu and Choir) I thought it was awfully cute how she handled the whole situation. Then again, I myself probably would have felt guilty after attempting something as bold as having three people serve all at once!
Through all the antics, something else stuck out just like a sore thumb — Wakana and whatever influence her name holds on all the administration as well as random strangers. Because as I’m sure we’ve all noticed, the Vice Principal and Konatsu don’t get along very well. And after watching the bitch her crumple and toss away Konatsu’s dual-club proposal, it felt like things were about to get quite heated in that small hospital room. The thing is, even though the group managed to get their club approved, it never fails to aggravate me whenever people accommodate things when Wakana gets thrown into the mix. Just something about this power her name holds over people seems a little unfair and like a cheap way to move the story along.
But in the end, the singing is what matters right? And even without music, three out of the five members of the Choir and sometimes Badminton club sing pretty darn well! Throw in some make shift drums and what looks like a lute and they sound amazing! And the best thing about it — you didn’t even see it coming!
P.S. Everyone, sorry for the late posts. I’ve been working 12 hour shifts for the past few weeks and it’s really getting to me. Once again, thanks for all the comments you leave in my posts and thank you for reading them!
Preview
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That’s some flawless Spanish I”ve ever heard in an anime, if not ever.
But Wakana’s dialogue “I don’t money” has made me laugh and sad at the same time. Really P.A.Works 2012? Prioritizing Spanish over English? Not to mention with the amount of Supplementary classes Wakana has been taking, she should at least be fine with her grammar.
I can understand her a bit though. In my country, even people who’ve studied English for 12 years still can’t communicate with foreigners with English. Even though they do fine in the test, they seem to can’t use the knowledge to speak due to nervousness, shyness, unfamiliar with the tongue (there’s almost no speaking lesson in English class over here). Thus, resulting in broken English.
I’m a English teacher in Brazil and, for what I’ve observed here, with 1 or 2 years of study people can handle basic conversation and with 3 to 5 years of study people can communicate with native speakers just fine.
I mean, people will still speak with a broken English, but that’s irrelevant because you’re able to communicate (that’s the main thing), it doesn’t matter if you’re doing it with a perfect or with a broken English. And, well, you aren’t a native speaker so, it’s normal to have a broken English (and nobody is expecting non-native speakers to sound like a British gentleman or something). LOL.
In the beginning was afraid of speaking (and writing in English on the Internet), but then I realized that, as long you don’t make many mistakes in a sentence and your text is readable, people don’t care.
Speaking from my own experience, the best way to get better at speaking a language is immersion, because it’s really hard to practice otherwise. For all we know, her written grammar might be flawless, but under pressure (assaulted by random Spanish guy), her oral work fails.
In Asia, students studying English in high school do well on paper (exams/tests, etc). That’s because they can cram all the grammar rules and words and unload them in exams and tests. Sometimes their essays might be even better than a Westerner who grew up speaking English. But they don’t use it everyday and as a result their practical (conversation) fails.
But anyway, I like Konatsu.
@AvgJoe Because the seiyuu is an actual Spanish speaking native.
@cowazaki then there’s such a things as an oral examination aint there ;D
How i learned speaking English? Well, in a uncommon way. I found some “Clan” in a MMOG and we used Teamspeak. And on TS the main Language was English 🙂 With time you get the habit. Just “translate” the entire Line you want to speak inside your Head, then you should speak it.
Example: “how do you do?” if you just speak out what you thinking. it can sound like “how” pause “do you” pause “do?”
Just wanted to chip in to what cowazaki and Pleiades said aboveーI can read and write JP pretty well, but when put in a situation where I’m extremely nervous (e.g. not in a classroom and not amongst friends), my speaking is extremely subpar until I get my nerves in check.
Keep in mind that Wakana was being spoken to in Spanish, which she probably didn’t even comprehend, so she was surprised and couldn’t conjure up a grammatically correct sentence in English as a result.
um, some joint venture Project, with Japan/Nippon school and some School outside the Country that teach Japan/Nippon Language?
So the ones in Japan, learn to use the Language, and the person outside Japan, learn to use Japanese, In time of INet IP TV, it should not be a Problem. Okay, the Timezone Difference can be one. And if you cycle the Persons on the TV you learn to speak to a Stranger.
Perhaps you have Relatives outside Japan, that handle the Language much better, and you are in contact trough IP TV? Try to improve both sides Talking, for “Holiday Visiting” Language 🙂
and if you still have problem with pronouncing. Try to think the Word you wanna say as Music 🙂
Yeah, English as Music
You bring up an excellent point (listening to Music). Unlike spoken dialogue,
which tends to be a conversation speed, music, because of it deliberate
(usually slower) phrasing, gives you time to pick out enunciations and individual
words that are otherwise lost to someone (like myself) unfamiliar with the
(Japanese) language.
I really watch the OP/ED karoke, and especially if the Japanese script is included.
So, my brain has become used to the sound of certain verb structures, and as I watch
the subs, my eyes can usually skip those (in English) and go to the words that I
don’t know. All of this translates to less pausing of the episode while I’m watching.
It isn’t a matter of priorities, it’s a matter of a Spanish character speaking Spanish fluently (as expected) and a Japanese character who doesn’t have any practical English skills throwing whatever “Engrish” words she knows at that Spanish person in hope of getting rid of him .. it’s natural that the Spanish used would be fluent and the English wouldn’t XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ijKB0U6zc
What he says in this clip though doesn’t really make much sense. He says, “Don’t return today, listen to me.” You can figure out what he means by context, but it is really awkward for someone with such an accurate accent and wording to make an error like that. He could have said, “No te vayas, escuchame.” Other than that, excellent job P.A. Also Spanish has a lot in common with Japanese pronunciation.
The mistake may have to do with the dialect. He’s speaking castillian, or the native Spanish from Spain rather than the dialects from the Americas. This can also be supported because of that trio of old men. The style they played in was similar to Spaniard music, like the Gypsy Kings. They were definitely not mariachi though.
It’s not an error, it could depend of the context, maybe he really meant that she shouldn’t return today. But until the story goes on, we can’t know.
But it’s true there are little variations in the way of talking comparing how a real spaniard talks. For example in the beggining when he asks to see the bike he says “Muéstramela un momento, por favor” (show me it, please). It’s correct, but “muéstramela” is more used when you want to display something or emotions rather than see if there is a problem in an item. It would be more natural if he said “Enséñamela un momento” (“Enseñar” can mean show or teach, in this case is show, and it’s a more colloquial form) or “Déjamela ver un momento” (let me see it, please).
Probably they are trying to avoid any way of talking that can confuse people and use the most correct form without synonyms. He has a quite neutral way of talking, but he has a strange intonation when he talks. Even with those details, it’s good they decided to use a native spanish speaker rather than a japanese who can speak spanish and it’s a good work. I remember in Toaru majutsu no Index 2 when Orsola spoke italian or in the second Evangelion Rebuild film at the beggining, when those native english speakers were talking in engrish. And my ears bleed when I remember that.
Ah, I see. I was raised with parents from north Mexico, my Spanish is heavily battered with tejano slang and norteno mannerisms and I’m not familiar with formal castillian lol. Orale pues, que te vaya bien carnal.
Yep, a drama through and through, and after a bit of a rough start it’s finally starting to settle. Our MC still irks me though, but things take a turn for the better next ep. Thanks for everything Takaii :D! ganbare~
English, german, french, malay, chinese, russian and now spanish… Anime characters certainly going multi lingual
I don’t money!
Pure gold.
I love this show.
Takaii, thank you so much for keeping up blogging this series despite your heavy workload! I like this show very much. And you are right, Konatsu’s way to solve the club problem was indeed cute! I think she is my favourite character atm.
They’re really ramping up the anticipation of Wakana’s inevitable return to singing. I can’t wait. I was struck with her from episode 1 despite both Konatsu and Sawa being more obviously in the spotlight.
As for the VP, I don’t mind how everyone seems to tiptoe around her so much, especially because I think they address it much better than other stories that tried. I can get why the VP would go “soft” around Wakana, especially since she’s the daughter of her late (probable) best friend.
Takaii, take it easy and don’t work too hard!
This is best!! The build up does not drag the whole show, and at the same time, they do not rush the build up. They do it at a pace and progress that many 1 course anime have been missing. One of my favourite at the moment. Only flaw is, they nvr let them finish the song, only let us listen for a bit and then cut it off half way, unfortunately, episode 4 also like that.
“And after watching the bitch……”
Yeah, no need to correct that, that description is PERFECT for her. I’d say whoever crated her character did a fantastic job, because she’s one of the few fictional characters that can actually cause me to get extremely angry at their actions (a good character doesn’t necessarily have to be one you like). There’s probably a story behind her actions and stuff, but still her personality is the type that usually drives me crazy with madness.
Glad you’re still covering this, can’t wait till all of them sing together!
Your wish of seeing/hearing them sing together will come true very soon .. in ep4 (best ep so far).
You can also hear all of them (with the exception of Wakana, of course) singing the ED song at the end of this episode. I can’t wait until Wakana joins them in singing the ED song too, which I’m sure will happen eventually.
For a presumably one-cour show, P.A. Works obviously put in a lot of time and effort into this ED song/sequence. As more characters join the choir-sometimes-badminton club, they also appear by the fountain (Wakana’s position changes as well) and join in singing the ED song. It makes me wonder how many times they (especially Sawa and Konatsu’s VA) had to record this song.
I just can’t wait till she enjoys it in the story for real. We know it’s obvious that she’ll return, so her currently actions just frustrates me quite a bit. She seems to be constantly running away from music. Of course there’s some unknown reason behind it, but still it looks like she’s forcing herself not to get back into it in my opinion.
I don’t money!!-1
I don’t money!!-2
Clearly the influence Wakana’s name has is because of who her mother was, clearly all the people who react to her name knew her mother pretty well (like the school principle), and from that we can easily tell her mother was such a fantastic person and an inspiring talented artist (or so it seems) that people are willing to do favors to her daughter to honor her memory, there is nothing cheap or weird about this .. it happens.
I’ll admit that was initially watching this for Sawa and Konatsu (with my goggles on) but now I’m starting to find Wien’s dorkiness endearing to watch.
Waiting for Wakana to join the singing fray, especially considering Takagi Ayahi actually have a musical education (music college, opera singing if I’m not wrong) in contrast to a lot of seiyus and idols (not saying that all others are bad, for example Hayami Saori is really good and Konatsu’s seiyu is not that bad either).
LOL, all of them serving at the same time! That totally got me! ^O^
Anyone else notice that the ending keeps changing? Hopefully Wakana will be in it by the 5th ep!
All 3 of them serve at same time was so cheating was my first impression but seeing 3 cute girls doing cute things, you just can’t help but shake your head and laugh.
SPANISH RULZ YEAH! AND I DON’T MONEY MOM!
Di que sí, con un par xD
For me, Wakana’s the good story that nobody’s telling. I can’t stand Konatsu. She’s sort of the “does-whatever-she-wants-and-gets-away-with-it” type of character and I hate that. The fact that most of the story is about her, I’m not liking it as much =/. Hopefully we’ll see more Wakana’s story soon!
I’m just waiting for the boys to have an actual role, so far they haven’t done anything useful.