This is something that caught my eye when I was reading the comms today and saw your post for Michelle and wanted to come to you about.
In her post, Michelle referenced the Japanese name, "kyoka suigetsu," but when she connected the sword's name to the actual proverb it comes from, she raised China as the word's origin. That's not to say the Chinese didn't have that proverb as well, but it struck me as weird that even if someone weren't familiar with either language, they would take something that is clearly Japanese and then refer back to a totally different language.
It seems like Michelle has some knowledge or interest in Japanese, since she calls herself by a Japanese name on the network, so I was curious why you didn't just have her say that it was a Japanese proverb (it's a pretty big one, and if you search on Google it shows up on a Wikipedia article high up on the results list)?
Also, in your application, you mentioned red beans with bread was what triggered michelle's first echo, giving her a weird sense of taste. It's not to say Orihime didn't eat strange things because she totally did, but "red bean with bread" is actually a legitimate form of sweets that's pretty prominent in Japanese culture, taiyaki and anpan being very iconic examples that are mentioned even in manga and anime a lot.
Again, Michelle seems to have some extent of knowledge about Japanese things, and while I won't say that there aren't people who'll find that they think red bean tastes weird, it catches me as strange that Michelle will take something iconic in a culture she knows about, then Echo back Orihime's sense of taste, especially because Orihime was a born-and-raised-in-Japan all-around Japanese girl who would've definitely grown up knowing that "red bean with bread" is pretty normal.
They're minor, but there are little details in the way you play her that make it seem like she knows about Japanese, as well as details such as the ones above that contradict it, and that causes inconsistencies! There's no need to become an expert and I know that not all information is easily available, but I think it will help you to research more about the cultures you draw or plan to draw references from. Even if it's small things like the popularity of red beans eaten with bread in a tiny country across the ocean.
thank you for the feedback. i'm gonna try to answer all this and hope it makes sense!!
first of all, michelle is partly japanese by ancestry, but i actually didn't intend for her to be very familiar with japanese culture at all. i was thinking she'd be fairly far down the generation line (like 3rd or 4th or further), though i never thought to put that in my app anywhere, whoops.
the idea behind 'ai' as her network name was basically that it'd be a "fangirl japanese" sort of handle, like say, 'neko' or 'desu' or something along those lines. the counterpart to her acting like a ditzy airhead irl is acting basically like a 14-y/o internet newbie on the network, which is what i was going for with that name. also it was me thinking i'm lolclever because it means love and she's so bitter about love
regarding kyoka suigetsu, ADMITTEDLY i wrote the post at like 4 am, and i was getting really frustrated with only getting pages and pages of results about aizen when i googled for that phrase. the bleach wiki referenced the chinese proverb and that's all i could seem to find anywhere, so i just assumed it was a borrowed expression that originated in chinese. that might have just been my google fu failing me completely tho if it's easy to find on wiki, or maybe my spelling was off when i searched?? idk idk.
also you're totally right about the red bean paste thing! when i submitted my app the mods actually asked me for a clarification on that which i was dumb and never added to my actual app after i got accepted. basically what i was going for was paralleling the scene in the early manga where she brought literally an entire loaf of bread to school as her entire lunch and ate it with red bean paste? i'm sorry if that didn't come across properly! i probably could have phrased it better as her strange eating habits in general.
It all makes sense! Thank you for getting back to me and clarifying; it cleared up a lot of things!
I totally understand about the Aizen stuff. I made sure I searched "kyoka suigetsu" on Google so I knew what would show up and I had to try out a bunch of variations on searching it (like "kyoka suigetsu" with "meaning" "origin" and even "japanese" or "proverb") to get anything different. I also found several areas where Bleach related websites or forums mentioned the Chinese too so I had a feeling that was the case, but I thought I'd ask! And I'm glad I did because it all makes sense now and again I toootally understand.
And the red bean thing is no problem! I admit I hadn't seen the mods' clarification at the time of your app and I was going off of what was on the journal. So thank you for the full story, and I now see how that Echo worked, then!
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This is something that caught my eye when I was reading the comms today and saw your post for Michelle and wanted to come to you about.
In her post, Michelle referenced the Japanese name, "kyoka suigetsu," but when she connected the sword's name to the actual proverb it comes from, she raised China as the word's origin. That's not to say the Chinese didn't have that proverb as well, but it struck me as weird that even if someone weren't familiar with either language, they would take something that is clearly Japanese and then refer back to a totally different language.
It seems like Michelle has some knowledge or interest in Japanese, since she calls herself by a Japanese name on the network, so I was curious why you didn't just have her say that it was a Japanese proverb (it's a pretty big one, and if you search on Google it shows up on a Wikipedia article high up on the results list)?
Also, in your application, you mentioned red beans with bread was what triggered michelle's first echo, giving her a weird sense of taste. It's not to say Orihime didn't eat strange things because she totally did, but "red bean with bread" is actually a legitimate form of sweets that's pretty prominent in Japanese culture, taiyaki and anpan being very iconic examples that are mentioned even in manga and anime a lot.
Again, Michelle seems to have some extent of knowledge about Japanese things, and while I won't say that there aren't people who'll find that they think red bean tastes weird, it catches me as strange that Michelle will take something iconic in a culture she knows about, then Echo back Orihime's sense of taste, especially because Orihime was a born-and-raised-in-Japan all-around Japanese girl who would've definitely grown up knowing that "red bean with bread" is pretty normal.
They're minor, but there are little details in the way you play her that make it seem like she knows about Japanese, as well as details such as the ones above that contradict it, and that causes inconsistencies! There's no need to become an expert and I know that not all information is easily available, but I think it will help you to research more about the cultures you draw or plan to draw references from. Even if it's small things like the popularity of red beans eaten with bread in a tiny country across the ocean.
no subject
thank you for the feedback. i'm gonna try to answer all this and hope it makes sense!!
first of all, michelle is partly japanese by ancestry, but i actually didn't intend for her to be very familiar with japanese culture at all. i was thinking she'd be fairly far down the generation line (like 3rd or 4th or further), though i never thought to put that in my app anywhere, whoops.
the idea behind 'ai' as her network name was basically that it'd be a "fangirl japanese" sort of handle, like say, 'neko' or 'desu' or something along those lines. the counterpart to her acting like a ditzy airhead irl is acting basically like a 14-y/o internet newbie on the network, which is what i was going for with that name.
also it was me thinking i'm lolclever because it means love and she's so bitter about loveregarding kyoka suigetsu, ADMITTEDLY i wrote the post at like 4 am, and i was getting really frustrated with only getting pages and pages of results about aizen when i googled for that phrase. the bleach wiki referenced the chinese proverb and that's all i could seem to find anywhere, so i just assumed it was a borrowed expression that originated in chinese. that might have just been my google fu failing me completely tho if it's easy to find on wiki, or maybe my spelling was off when i searched?? idk idk.
also you're totally right about the red bean paste thing! when i submitted my app the mods actually asked me for a clarification on that which i was dumb and never added to my actual app after i got accepted. basically what i was going for was paralleling the scene in the early manga where she brought literally an entire loaf of bread to school as her entire lunch and ate it with red bean paste? i'm sorry if that didn't come across properly! i probably could have phrased it better as her strange eating habits in general.
no subject
I totally understand about the Aizen stuff. I made sure I searched "kyoka suigetsu" on Google so I knew what would show up and I had to try out a bunch of variations on searching it (like "kyoka suigetsu" with "meaning" "origin" and even "japanese" or "proverb") to get anything different. I also found several areas where Bleach related websites or forums mentioned the Chinese too so I had a feeling that was the case, but I thought I'd ask! And I'm glad I did because it all makes sense now and again I toootally understand.
And the red bean thing is no problem! I admit I hadn't seen the mods' clarification at the time of your app and I was going off of what was on the journal. So thank you for the full story, and I now see how that Echo worked, then!
Thank you again!!