Saturday, January 14, 2017

1. An unusual murder in Nagasaki


July 9, 2013. It was released that the police's criminal investigation unit had begun to carefully question a first year middle schooler boy from the same city (12) regarding the news of the kidnapping and murder of Tanemoto Shun (4) at Nagasaki City Kindergarten .Meanwhile, on the internet, from July 7 the news was spreading that the criminal was a young boy, long before the school and officials had begun the process of identifying him.
 
There was still no agreement on the issue when I, as a news expert in the making, stopped to check the reports. However, on July 9th, the dam was broken and the news began to appear on TV at once.

It happened in the morning. I immediately fired up the video capture software on the pc, I switched from channel to channel, trying to understand the status quo.

The on site cameras and the people's testimony, the footprints left at the scene and the local school stuff, and other news sources I watched, convinced me that the young boy was the culprit.

First thing I turned to securing the boy's name and picture. What kind of person was he? I was dying to see the boy's face. But no picture could be found on internet bullet boards, so I began investigating.

On the internet, the underground news site Cybazzi was set in motion with the force of crashing waves. At the same time, the site 2ch's news board was set into motion, going into a so-called 'festival'. The manager of the site, Hiroyuki-sama, even built a dedicated board.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Why Shouldn't I Kill? - Foreword

Foreword

A news web site is required to both go deep into details, and to do so in a timely manner. Like TV, one can't afford to wait until info is absolutely certain, like saying to a dumbass on the street 'you are a dumbass'. Sponsors and forbidden words, excessive preoccupation with human rights, they are less than secondary concerns. News from the TV invariably makes its way online, and it takes less than 30 seconds for TV news to trickle its way onto the Internet.

I scrape these news together, pick up the most interesting, and manage them all on my own web page eagerly. The remuneration? The reader's intellectual and emotional satisfaction. I pretty much don't make any money at all.

In spite of constant improvement, the news site receives on average 10,00 visits a day. So, why do we bother improving?

Maybe for the sake of carrying a message to unknown comrades. The blood of an explorer flows through our veins. Or, possibly, we just really want to know what a given event is all about.
Now, something truly outrageous is happening!”


We, the news site editors, wish to reach out to as many people as possible. Along with the flickering cursor on the screen, the eye flashes through news that move at the speed of light. 

'Why Shouldn't I kill?' Back Cover and Index

Back cover:

I want to kill my mother.
A girl is fascinated by the case of a murderous 12 year old in Nagasaki. The girl that wanted to kill sent a one-page letter to a news web site that covered the case, TBN.

'Why shouldn't I kill?' Following the girl's question, anonymous but gentle hearted readers chose to take action. More than 100 notes were sent, and the words from their fervent hearts are reported in this book. These written words, that cast light on the darkness of today, will surely touch your heart as well.


Foreword

1 Abnormal murder in Nagasaki

2 A letter from a certain girl

3 Postwar's endless Japan

4 Letter from the girl to the readers

5 Boy / girl crime

6 My letter to the girl

7 Reader's letter to the girl

8 Sight lost on humanity

9 Endless resistance [repulsion]

Appendix: parents' authorization exam

Epilogue: a message from the girl


Afterword

Dōjin Translation Blog going Live

Hello there!

You might know me from my dōjinshi reviews at The Random Museum, which focuses on non - H and original (not fandom) works. What you might not know is that I am also a student of Japanese: I took classes at Uni but, nowadays, Google-sensei is my main teacher. Having recently approached the point where I can read fairly easily manga-style dialogue, I decided to confront myself with something slightly more challenging. So I thought, why not put together my two main interests, and translate some dōjinshi?

My translations will follow the same rules as my review site - no H and no derivative materials - with an added focus: I will be translating dōjin novels. There are various reasons for this decision: no scanning / retouching / etc hassles, the desire to distinguish myself from the bazillion scanlations sites already active, and a chance to make available in English a subset of dōjin material which is usually largely overlooked by Western japanophiles.

Keeping in line with my mission statement, my first project will be as obscure as it gets. Those who follow Japanese news might remember the murder of a 4 year old by a 12 year old in Nagasaki, back in July 2003 (just one, actually, of many high profile murders of youths by youths in Nagasaki since then). The incident made the rounds of online news sites, eventually landing on minor aggregator Today Best News. On the site's public forums, however, things quickly escalated when an anonymous girl affirmed to be obsessed with the Nagasaki murder, and that she was planning the killing of her own mother. The chilling question she posed to the forums' members was as following:

"Why shouldn't I kill?"

What followed was a Densha Otoko style chain of back and forth, where a number of people attempted to persuade the girl away from her grisly task, to which she followed with a rebuttal, and so on. Seemingly, the young lady was eventually won over by the forum goers' appeals, and gave up her plan.

なぜコロシてはイケナイの?, 'written' by 高橋健, is a supposedly faithful report of the forum exchange. It's written in a very interesting style too, which preserves the 'forum post' format of fairly short back-and-forths. Niche, I know, but an interesting read nonetheless, and very good Japanese practice as well - the style is fairly colloquial, and the syntax is usually not too convoluted.

So yes, enjoy. As a caveat,  I of course do not ascribe to any schedule, and make no promises of any kind...