Sunday, July 18, 2010

女性声優140人ソート
男性声優160人ソート
I saw the above links and couldn't resist taking the survey.

No sure when the surveys were compiled, but they seem to lack some of the newer seiyuu. The female seiyuu list is missing a lot of seiyuu, especially considering that there's more female seiyuu than male seiyuu out there...

Here's the result for the top 14 female seiyuu:
1 桑島法子
2 朴王路美
3 坂本真綾
4 釘宮理恵
4 田中理恵
4 豊口めぐみ
4 久川綾
4 雪野五月
9 伊藤静
9 井上喜久子
9 堀江由衣
9 三石琴乃
9 皆川純子
9 ゆかな

No surprise on the top two there as they've always been the 1st and 2nd on my list. Kind of figured Sakamoto Maaya would be the 3rd, too. The list from the 4th place down doesn't quite fit what I would imagine it, however. I'd probably replace a third of the people with others placed lower than 15th.

Top 13 male seiyuu result:
1 石田彰
2 小野大輔
2 宮野真守
4 置鮎龍太郎
4 神谷浩史
4 小西克幸
4 子安武人
4 関智一
4 中井和哉
4 中村悠一
4 福山潤
4 保志総一朗
4 若本規夫

Ishida Akira at the top is expected. Seki Tomokazu, whom I had stated as my 2nd favourite male seiyuu back in 2008, is 4th place. This actually fits what I've been feeling lately, that his 2nd place standing is being threatened by a few other seiyuu. Those other seiyuu are Ono Daisuke and Miyano Mamoru, which are placed 2nd here. I think this list is quite accurate if I were to compile a list myself.


That was an interesting hour spent doing the surveys and writing up the post. XD
Mukashibanashi chapter1 昔話第1章

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. I really am starting the Mukashibanashi project. I know I probably should write about my experience at the Anime Expo 2010, but I secretly made a resolution to write about this topic if I saw this at AX.

I kind of figured there's probably still people cosplaying Sailor Moon, but I wasn't sure if I'd actually see any. I did. And you might be able to guess what the topic is by now, at least partially.

セーラー服(Sailor uniform) Uniforms

(Before I start on the actual post, let me just remind you that Mukashibanashi is derived strictly from my own memory, and memories do fade or get dressed up with the effect of time. If possible, try not to take everything seriously.)

Students in Taiwan, at least in my time, have the privilege of not having to think about what to wear to school in the morning. Every school has its own design, and there's tales of girls aiming for particular schools when doing the high school entrance exam for their cute or pretty looking uniforms, according to my Mum.

The uniforms for my elementary school were pretty much the same for both boys and girls: plain white button-up shirts with black shorts for boys or dark blue pleated skirts for girls. Short sleeves in the summer and long sleeves in the winter. The uniform for the lower grades up to maybe Gr.3 (can't remember) have suspenders. Both boys and girls wear long pants in the winter. There's no school jacket so students just wear their own jackets.

The uniforms for my junior high school were a bit more interesting. The design for the boys uniform is basically the same as the elementary school uniform, except for the colour of the shirt. Instead of white, it's light lime green. I know, not the most appealing nor complimenting colour on a person. The dark blue jacket helps concealing the green somewhat in the winter.

The girl's uniform is sailor style in white except for the two dark blue bands on the collar and maybe the short tie (can't remember). It's still pleated skirts for the girls in the winter, only with thicker fabrics. Same jacket style as the boys (I think), and same white socks to just beneath the knees as the boys. There's a rule for the shoes but I can't remember what; I think it has to be white.

The delinquent girls in anime or manga are always depicted as wearing overly long pleated skirts, but it's actually the opposite in my junior high school. The usual length of the pleated skirt is around the knee area. A few 'delinquent' wannabes would wear them near mid-shin, but most of them would scroll up the waist or cut off the bottom to shorten the skirt to near mid-thigh. Mid-thigh is probably nothing in the distorted modern standard, but it was a sign of rebellion in my time.

I used to think that all school uniforms are similar to the ones I had seen, until a Taiwanese from my high school (in Canada) read the draft of a story I was writing and wanted to know why I picked the style for the lead male's school uniform (white shirt and black pants). So the myriad and sometimes senseless uniform designs I've seen in anime and drama aren't just limited to Japanese schools! They do exist in Taiwan as well!

On a side note, my junior high had hair restrictions. Guys had military cuts, and girls' couldn't be longer than 2~3cm under the ears. No perming or dyeing as well. It was a pain to maintain the hair. There's a girl in my class who had naturally lighter hair so it appeared dark brown, and she also got questioned by the teachers. Apparently, hair restriction isn't enforced in all public schools, either, as I recently found out!

For reference, both the elementary school and junior high I went to were public schools. I think there's one or two private junior highs in my county that didn't have hair restrictions; one of the reasons that some people from my elementary school took the entrance exams for them.



I've been meaning to post this earlier, but Blogger hasn't worked for me since I came back. I finally got fed up waiting for a fix and went searching the forum today and found a work around to get past the issue.

There won't be a template to follow for Mukashibanashi posts, since it's mostly just incoherent babbling as I tap into my frontal lobe (which reminds me of Full Frontal from Gundam Unicorn and his ridiculous hairdo XD). As such, beware of abrupt endings or incomprehensible analogies and references. You know how old people like to rant about anything? There you go. XD