Monthly Koguma #7 The Movie

Movie Week

Lately, I've been watching movies and anime downloaded on NETFLIX on the train ride home from school. Including the ones I've mentioned in my diary recently, I think I've watched about 4 or 5.

It started with the Romance chapter of The Confidence Man JP, then I watched Your Name, Horimiya, and the Doraemon movies Nobita and the Galaxy Super-Express and Nobita and the Dreamed Three Swordsmen.

While all of them were interesting stories, I was a little happy that I was able to incorporate this habit of watching NETFLIX into my life.

A while ago, I used to watch one episode of a drama during my break at my part-time job, but recently I haven't been able to get enough shifts to even get a break (and even if I did, I would have been playing P5X), so that habit itself was starting to fade away.

Besides, I'm the type to watch dramas often, but when it comes to movies and anime, I don't feel like watching them unless I have the time and the mindset of 'Okay, I'm going to watch this,' so I thought this was a good opportunity to make effective use of the time I spend commuting on the train.

Just yesterday on the train home, I finished watching the aforementioned Dreamed Three Swordsmen. I'm thinking of watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory next. At my part-time job, I plan to watch Fictional OL Diary.

I thought I had canceled Amazon Prime and narrowed it down to just NETFLIX, but I was a little shocked when a friend told me that the movie I've been wanting to watch for a long time, RRR, is on Amazon Prime. (Though RRR has to be rented.)

If there is anyone looking for good movies or dramas on Amazon Prime, Fences is also recommended.

I loved it. Even now, the scene with Ee-san (a police officer character) remains in my heart. I think it was that moving and intense of a scene.

How long will this movie week last? Will I still be watching even after summer vacation is over? Well, I suppose it will end once I run out of movies, anime, or dramas that I want to see or am curious about...

It's kind of a good hobby, and I'd like to keep it up.

Wings of Freedom

This time, I will write my impressions of the concert for the ATLUS game, Metaphor: ReFantazio.

The Metaphor concert had a program that is sure to excite anyone who is playing Metaphor: ReFantazio.

I arrived at Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park at 10:30. And my destination was the Tokorozawa Civic Cultural Centre Muse Arc Hall, which is a few minutes away. Since the doors open at 12:00, I aimed to arrive 1 hour and 30 minutes early, thinking I might be able to buy merchandise in the meantime.

However, when I arrived and went to the entrance of the merchandise venue, I found the staff holding a sign that said 'Pre-opening merchandise sales have ended,' so I left.

I decided to line up in the queue for the venue.

It seems you can buy merchandise even after the doors open, so I waited in line for that. Around me were nerds like me, nerds who brought Metaphor ita-bags (I don't personally like that name much), and many other Metaphor nerds.

And then the doors opened.
I bought a keychain and a pamphlet.
I can't show you the inside of the pamphlet, but it was absolutely overflowing with "artistry".

Also, the keychain is modeled after a CD jacket. If you touch it with your smartphone, it connects to a YouTube playlist containing the songs from this program, which I thought was an interesting idea.
I wonder if they could introduce this for the merchandise of my favorite musicians too.

Then I headed to my seat and waited for a few minutes. The time was 1:00 PM. The Metaphor concert began.

//The setlist was something like this

Since Metaphor has a strong connection to Etrian Odyssey, I was happy that City of the Dragon's Blessing was performed as part of that. (For details, search for Metaphor Etrian Odyssey.)

Personally, I like the songs in the second half of the CD from Virga Island to The Fantasy Lives On, so in that sense, it was great that End of the Death Line, which plays during strong boss battles, was also performed. It really shone in an orchestral setting.

Also, more than I imagined, Mountain City Altabury fit perfectly with the orchestra, which was great. This song has both a solemn atmosphere and a gorgeous one, so it was wonderful to see that image brought out so well.

If I had to ask for more, I would have liked to hear the flow of The World to be Culled → King of Ruin → The Fantasy Lives On , but that can't be helped. The chorus for the two songs performed this time was truly the best.

//The major theme for the background music of this Metaphor: ReFantazio was 'religious music,' and every song brought out that color, which piqued my interest, and I'm sure that's why they were confident it would sound great with an orchestra.

It seems it recently surpassed 2 million copies sold, and if things continue to go well, perhaps we might get additional stories through sequels or DLC.

Where will the heroes who have gained the wings of freedom head next?
I hope that we, the Seekers, can see their destination once again as their guides.

Right now, are you seeking 【】?

I am...

There is a part of me deep in my heart that is seeking stimulation. Lately, despite being busy, I've been living a life that feels almost nihilistic, and I feel like the depths of my chest are empty.

In times like those, I usually created someone I liked within myself. I've always done that until now. In middle school, high school, and so on.

The standard pattern of creating someone I like, having a one-sided crush, and hurting my heart. The pain that occurs deep in my heart at those times becomes a good stimulus. That stimulus is what makes me feel like I want to do my best.

Perhaps it's because when I have someone I like, I want to show them my cool side. It's probably the ultimate motivation switch that comes from such human instinct.

So, whenever I felt unmotivated or felt like I was being scatterbrained lately, I usually made it a point to find someone to like.

Using the convenient excuse that I just happened to fall in love before I knew it.

Perhaps sensing a crisis in my current "not going well" self, the phrase "I want to fall in love!" suddenly popped into the back of my mind. At the same time, I remembered that ache deep in my heart.

However, unfortunately, there are no members of the opposite sex in the robotics course I am currently enrolled in. As for my part-time job, I don't want to mix those things in, so that's out of the question.

In the end, this "desire for the stimulation of romance" ended up left hanging in mid-air.

Ultimately, these kinds of feelings are just temporary worries that resolve themselves if you sleep on them for a day or watch something. Even this intense urge to hug someone that I'm feeling right now.

…How disgusting it is to write it down like this.

But it happens, those times when I really, really want a hug. I feel like hugging someone would heal my fatigue. I think all of this is because I hugged someone just once a long time ago.

What were the circumstances behind that again? I only remember the warmth from that time, but I've forgotten the circumstances. That's the saddest part. Because only the feeling is truly left hanging in mid-air.

Well, if I've forgotten it, it can't be helped, and it just means it was a memory that was only worth forgetting in the end.

If only I could just forget this desire for heartache as well, it would be so much easier...

Getting used to it

One day, a few weeks after writing the article above.

For some reason, I've suddenly started thinking about romantic relationships again lately. It feels like there's a switch inside me between periods of thinking about it and periods of not thinking about it at all.

Sine waveIt doesn't change slowly and gently like a , but rather it feels like it changes abruptly, like a switch-toggling waveform.

That means someone must have flipped my "desire for romance" switch. ……Who? I can think of various things, but is it really because of my part-time job after all?

The scene I talked about before is one thing, and if anything, recently his girlfriend visited the store, and I saw my senior guiding her around.

I was thinking, "That's an awfully intimate customer..." but when I heard about it later, it turned out to be that senior's girlfriend. No way, I can't believe he can just bring his girlfriend to his part-time job like that.

I probably can't do it.

After all, it's obvious that I would feel envious when I see people being lovey-dovey, or rather, having that kind of close, wonderful relationship, or seeing a loving couple. If I'm honest with myself, I think it's a fact that I'm looking for that kind of existence.

But the most troublesome part of this "envy" is that there's nowhere for these feelings to go. Even if I write them down in an article like this, it doesn't mean I can vent them cleanly.

Right now, there isn't even anyone I like. I think it's also a problem that I'm looking for someone, yet there's no specific person. Besides, there is a part of me that has gotten used to this feeling as if a hole has opened up somewhere deep in my chest.

Of course, it stings from time to time, but there's a part of me that brushes off even that pain as if it were something trivial, thinking, "Ah, this pain again—I know, I know."

Is this "getting used to it" or "giving up," I wonder...

Summer vacation is almost here. Come to think of it, I made a promise earlier this spring to go with a friend to that Yamaha experience shop in Minatomirai, Yokohama, but we couldn't find any time at all, and I feel like the plan just drifted away with us saying, "Let's do it when our days off match up again."

...Well, it's probably impossible.

We both seem busy with our part-time jobs (or so I think; I've certainly packed mine full), and I want to go to job-hunting events, and if I get accepted, I want to go to open company events too.

Also, I want to go see the ocean again.

I want to go see the ocean, so that I can wrap these murky, confused feelings in the sound of the ocean waves for once and tuck them away in a corner of my heart. To fill this longing with something else.

The Hot Spot

I finished watching the drama "Hot Spot," written by Bakarhythm, so this is a review episode. Man, I really wish I could have watched this in real-time.

The setting is Fujiasada City (modeled after Fujiyoshida City) at the foot of Mount Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture. The protagonist, Kiyomi Endo, is a single mother with a daughter in her second year of junior high school, and she works at a hotel called Lake Hotel Asanoko.

Basically, the story unfolds around Kiyomi and other employees working at this hotel, and her three childhood friends who often have tea with her in Fujiasada City: Hatchi (Hazuki Nakamura) and Minapu (Minami Hibino), along with one other person.

On her way home one day, while Kiyomi was riding her bicycle, she veered off the road and was about to be hit by a truck. Then, in the next instant, she was saved in the nick of time by her senior at the hotel, Kosuke Takahashi, who scooped her up along with her bicycle and moved at high speed.

Suspicious of that clearly superhuman feat, Kiyomi asks Takahashi about it the next day, partly to thank him. Takahashi answers reluctantly. As a result, it is revealed that Takahashi is an alien.

Kiyomi, who was told this on the condition that she would never tell anyone, couldn't help herself and told Hatchi and Minapu. Afterward, Takahashi is called to a family restaurant, where he ends up talking about his alien abilities and their side effects.

That is the general synopsis.

I briefly mentioned my thoughts on this in last month's Monthly Koguma, but Mr. Kakuta from Tokyo 03, who plays Mr. Takahashi, has a really great touch. His timing for the straight-man reactions is just right. He hits the mark in a way that makes you chuckle.

There's Takahashi-san, the alien, and the people around him, like Endo-san and his two childhood friends. At the beginning, it depicted daily life where he solved small problems using his abilities, but by the end, they fall into a quite tense situation.

Well, that's just the situation, but watching them, you wouldn't think so at all.

My personal favorite parts are the episode where Takahashi-san struggles to deliver an examinee's admission ticket, and the episode where Kiyomi-san fixes the hotel's plumbing by herself. I think they might have been the same episode.

I liked that Kiyomi-san decided to fix it herself out of consideration for Takahashi-san, who dislikes using his powers. And yet, I also liked that Takahashi-san didn't hesitate to use his powers when it was truly necessary.

Also, the title of the final episode, "Saving This Town", is simple yet reflects a sense of determination, which is nice. I was worried about whether Takahashi-san would be able to play a proper role in the finale, but he became a hero at the very last moment, and I honestly thought, 'That's our Takahashi-san!!!'

The slightly strange events in everyday life that Bakarhythm depicts. I thought the same with "Brush Up Life", but it's amazing how the writing makes you think, 'Well, I guess that's not impossible.'

That's how much aliens and the like are blended into daily life. Are they really living in Fujiyoshida City, which served as the model??? Are there really tunnels that allow for time travel???

I'm also curious about 'Kaku-OL Nikki' (Fictional OL Diary), so I think I'll watch that next.

In my mind, it's still July...

First of all, there is something I must apologize for.

This Monthly Koguma is the July issue. However, the current date and time is August 10th. It's already 10 days late. I personally didn't expect it to be this delayed.

This is an excuse, but let's try to remember what I was doing in the last week of July. I had a part-time job on the 27th, and from the 28th to the 30th was the supplementary lecture period, so I was working on assignment reports, and on the 31st, there was the Theo Jansen competition that I had been working on all semester.

At this point, the monthly issue was already behind schedule as I entered August. Then I had a test on August 1st, and since that was the only test that day, my summer vacation technically started from that day.

The problem was the next day. If you ask what I was doing on August 2nd and 3rd without a part-time job, I was just lounging around. I thought, 'Well, the Theo Jansen report will be finished in a day, lol,' and just kept lounging.

August 4th. From this day on, the university started closing at 19:00. It makes sense since it's summer vacation, but until now it was okay until 21:30, so that's a significant reduction of 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The 4th. I was glued to PowerPoint and Word writing the report, but it barely progressed at all. By the time I finished entering the dimensions for each part and summarizing them in the report, I realized it was already that time.

I had part-time work on the 5th and 6th, so I worked at school until 13:30 and went home, but then I received a message from a friend I was writing the report with, saying that the professor had added several new specifications for the report.

And then the 7th. This was the deadline for the Theo Jansen report assignment. I was glued to the computer again, and finally managed to submit it. I was exhausted that day, and after eating pasta with a friend and coming home, I slept soundly.

The 8th. I was doing an internship. Also, since the next day was the open campus and I had been drafted to help out with it, I went with the friend I did the internship with to ask the professor what we should help with.

The 9th. About yesterday. I was wiped out by the open campus, and in the evening I went out for a meal with a friend. I intend to write about this meal in today's (8/10) diary. By the way, I missed my stop on the train again yesterday. Just as I woke up, it was pulling out of my nearest station. The arrival at the next station felt slower than usual.

Well, that's the kind of life I've been living, and here we are today. After all, I've been keeping up with this monthly column since I was in high school, and I have no plans to stop it for now, so I can't just quit so abruptly. I don't want to quit, either.

That said, it's already past the 10th, so I can't exactly shout, "It's the July issue of the monthly column!!" very loudly...

I will write this month's (August) issue much faster. I will make sure to keep an eye on the calendar and write it properly so that I don't end up rushing to finish it in the last week. I'll be careful. I am truly, deeply sorry!!!!!

Somehow, writing the July issue so late has made me feel like it's July again. Huh? That's strange. Is it really August today? It must be a mistake for July. That's right. Why was I in such a hurry! ...Sigh.

It's okay. Mentally, it's July. It's August now, but it's July. Because the fun, fun (painful, painful) summer vacation is waiting for me!