Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima cover

Edited: I found the correct furigana for the oyster restaurant so I'm changing the way I write it in the translations. The old reading was just my best guess. :P  The problem with names of things in kanji is that you can sort of read them how you want to, and the "correct" reading is the one used by the owner or creator.

So I'm reading through a manga I bought in Miyajima because, hey, more fun than a textbook! And I thought it would be a good motivator to post my progress on the blog and explain what's going on in the story.

I have no idea if an English version even exists. I've literally never seen this book anywhere else besides the gift shop on top of Mt. Misen on the island itself. In fact I'm pretty sure this book was created just to stick a bunch of Miyajima trivia in a paranormal high school romance. So if you're a fan of shoujou and sightseeing...this is the book for you?

With no further ado, here are the front and back covers:

題名 title

きよらかなる宮島

Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima

宮島初の本格的な恋愛マンガ誕生

The birth of Miyajima’s first genuine love manga!

きよらの恋の行方は？

What is the outcome of Kiyora’s love?

宮島の見どころ

満載コラム付き

Highlights of Miyajima

A full column included!

Text in manga image

お。。。んがくん？

O…nga kun?

立ち入り禁止の大杓子

The off-limits giant rice paddle

み。。。

Mi...

 

Text on back cover

世界中から多くの観客が ねる広島県廿日市市の"宮島”。宮島にある、紅葉まんじゅう屋“もみじ姫”の一人娘“きよら”は、同じくみやじまにすむ牡蠣料理屋“火鬼八”の息子"恩賀”に密かに思いを寄せている。きよらが恩賀との距離が縮まらずモヤモヤしていると、カラス天狗や弥山を守る三鬼、嚴島神社に祀られている三姫たちからあどばいすが。一途な思いを寄せるきよらの恋の行方は？

Miyajima: The city in Hatsukaiichi, Hiroshima prefecture where many travelers come from around the world. Kiyora, the only daughter of a momiji manju shop, has feelings for the son of the oyster restaurant (Kakiya), Onga, who also lives in Miyajima. As Kiyora is depressed over the distance between her and Onga, the crow spirit and the three demons that guard Misen, and the three princes enshrined in Itsukushima shrine give her advice. What will become of single-minded Kiyora’s love?

 

My notes: 

On the title: I asked my Japanese speaking friends, and it seems like Kanaru is most likely a character's name. The implied meaning is "Kiyora loves Kanaru." I'll have to wait and see if someone called that shows up...Manga and anime don't usually pronounce extra characters in the title. (For example, xxxHolic is just "Holic.") So I'm just calling the book "Kiyora Kanaru Miyajima."

Kiyora is a fairly standard name, but Onga is very unusual. I'm thinking that there might be some secret meaning or family history behind the name.

Momiji Manjuu (cakes shaped like maple leaves) and Kaki (oyster) are both famous foods from Miyajima. 

And finally: This is me by the giant rice paddle. (With カキ氷.) I, of course, did not climb over the fence. 

恩賀くん、一体何をやってるの？禁止だよ！Onga-kun, what on earth are you doing? It's prohibited!

Thoughts on Rewatching Magic Knight Rayearth

So I'm just rewatching the first season of one of the first animes I enjoyed, Clamp's Magic Knight Rayearth. I've never seen Sailor Moon, so this was my introduction to magical girl with sword anime. I just wish I had seen this one a few years earlier, for example at 13 or 14 because I think I would have really enjoyed seeing three girls saving a world and kicking butt on-screen.

My thoughts on the first episode are as follows:

The three main girls all sound pretty different. Fuu, for example, sounds like no 14-year-old girl ever sounded ever except when giving a speech about humanitarian issues in front of a large audience of adults. She refers to herself by "watakushi" instead of "watashi" which sounds very formal.

Hikaru, by contrast, sounds very childish compared to the other two. She almost sounds masculine. (I think she used ~nda instead of ~ndesu.) And Umi is the most bratty and self-centered of the three. I can't think of particular phrases she uses now, but her voice is very whiny.

Another character we meet is Clef, and he refers to the three girls as "o-mae" or "o-mae-tachi," which surprised me at first because it's talking down to your conversation partner. I think this is just to show that although Clef is drawn to be kind of a dwarf, he is actually an adult talking to children who he's trying to guide. On the whole, he's puts up with a lot from the three main characters, and he only gets a little ticked at Umi once in a while.

It's a gutsy move by the story writers to have this character taken out by the main bad guy at the end of the episode. Because there's obviously a lot of work in this character design and character personality. It's a corny anime, but there is real danger in this world. So far the three girls haven't even come to a consensus that they want to help the land of Cephiro. Fuu and Hikaru get right on board, but Umi is more skeptical. I'm kind of on Umi's side.

Another character we meet is Alcyone. It's very hard to take her seriously in the outfit she wears. Her voice is very soft and feminine, which I think is supposed to hide the crazy underneath.

All the villain characters are hiding behind these waterfalls in a huge cave, while Zagato, the main baddy stands in the center. I wonder if all the minions have any facilities back there. Do they have any furniture? Or do they just have to stand around waiting for Zagato to ask them to do something? The architecture doesn't work at all. But it looks cool.

You very rarely see Zagato's arms in this series, as I remember. But you do see them once in this episode when he casts a spell. His costume is pretty huge, with a bunch of robes and cloaks and a wacky headdress. But I think that sort of fits the character. He doesn't move around a lot in this series; he just sort of sends out his minions to do shit for him. So he's more the quietly menacing villain.

The word "kehai" was used in this episode. It was translated as something like "the sign of my presence." That was useful for me because I had to learn that word for the N2, but I find it hard to use in a sentence.

I am interested to see the characters introduced in the upcoming episodes. So I will keep noting anything interesting about the plot or the Japanese language version.