Report -Kazuma_'s Profile

happy bday

Happy birthday! :D

Hello again! Welcome back to MAL! I finally can reply lol.

Yes, kind of. Some people speak it more rapidly than others, and I believe it depends on the person’s location or dialect (like Spain Spanish or Mexican Spanish). Also, some Spanish speaking countries have different words for things than other Spanish speaking countries. For example, some will say “the bus” as “la guagua” while others might say “el autobus.” That’s cool that you only study Japanese through the internet! I think that without my Spanish classes and books (in addition to the interent), I would not have learned as much as I have.

Yeah, there are a lot of assignments in schools, and they get more challenging the older you get. Now that I’m on the teacher side of things, I feel bad that my students get so much work! Most of it is out of my control too – I have to follow the curriculum and assign work based on it. The creative aspect has more-or-less been taken away, and there is a lot of “teaching to the test.” Do you feel / have you ever felt like a lot of your assignments are like that? Hopefully not so much in college but I dunno. I did submit my bingo chart for MRC, but I did not reach the genius level. I did achieve the pro level though!

That feels like it was so long ago (2022)… I really liked it, especially since it was easy to partake in, unlike the Easter one. I always struggle with the Easter themed ones and decided not to look at it this year. I don’t remember how many groups I guessed lol, but I guessed on quite a few of them! What did you think of the event?

No, I agree with you though! Often I avoid romcoms because many times I get bored with the romance bit (exceptions for romance / drama when I’m in the mood… I remember enjoying Nana and Toradora). Kaguya-sama was different than those in its witty battles amongst brilliant protagonists, and I really enjoyed all of it. Yes, the drama aspect of the series mixed with the comedy is why I enjoyed it so much. With only comedic parts, the show would feel hollow. I finished the third season back in the fall, but when I went to MAL today (4/7) I just discovered there is a sequel movie?? Have you seen it, and is it worthwhile to watch (or should I just wait for a fourth season, if any come out?)

Okay… Dorondororon… I ended up disliking it as it progressed. I liked the bond of the characters and I liked its initial chapters, but I remember reading it and getting to a part that I disliked… and then I felt forced to finish it because I already started it. I can’t remember the exact chapter where I felt it turn… but it was sometime after the villain Hidehisa was introduced. It wasn’t initially in chapter 9, cuz I thought Hidehisa was cool, but it was a little while after his introduction that my feelings changed on the series. In the end, I dropped the manga at chapter 36.

Yeah, I know. BUT I did watch the first episode of the final FINAL season. I liked that it was long, among other things, but I don’t want to spoil for you. I see on MAL you haven’t watched it yet. The sad part is that the second (and final!) episode will not air until the fall. I understand that it takes time to create episodes and animate the scenes, and I would rather them take their time and not rush, but it still will be hard to wait. I like that thought… I hadn’t thought of it that way. It might have made more sense for them to delay part 2 and then add another 4-6 episodes to it, rather than take another year to complete it.

I might pick up the Kaguya-sama manga this summer! Like we talked about, the characters are well-written and the genre mixture / plot is also awesome. With how busy I have been, it might be easier for me to enjoy content more in a reading / “read at your own pace” format. I love anime, but finding time to sit and watch an episode can be difficult for me now.

Ahh, I see. I’m sorry you cannot watch anime alone. It is enjoyable to watch with someone else, but watching it alone sometimes is easier if you have conflicting schedules. Does your brother have the same anime taste as you, or do you both feel differently about different series? My sister hates all anime lol so she and I do not see eye-to-eye on anime at all. I tried to get her to watch some but it did not work.

I’m glad to hear Spy x Family’s anime was good! I’ve read a bit of the manga and plan to watch the anime in the future. I also plan to watch Chainsaw Man because I’ve really liked the manga so far. MHA I kind of gave up on. I can’t really explain why… but I fell behind in the anime and somehow lost interest in the series. I left off somewhere in the middle of season 5. Should I go back to it? (Without spoilers, one of the parts I really wanted to find out in MHA was if Todoroki was related to Dabi somehow… I have a weird feeling they’re brothers or half-brothers… like Dabi is the angsty teen who wanted to rebel against his heroic dad and decided to leave the family and become a villain lol).


Ahh, I see… I feel that in a way. I’m not burnt out of manga (or anime), but I feel like I don’t have enough time to keep up. I’m disappointed that after spending years catching up on One Piece, I miss a month’s worth of new chapters and am now about 15+ chapters behind. The same happened with PPPPPP. If you are burned out, you could keep taking a break! It is up to you in the end.


Did you like the Fantasy Anime League event? I’ve seen it advertised on MAL before but I don’t think I’ve participated (if I did, it was once and I had no idea what I was doing).

Hopefully you’ll get a job after you finish college! And hopefully you’ll have a better work-life-fun balance than I do xD.


Okay… anime I watched last year…
I guess I’ll start with the now (April 2023) and work backwards?
Yesterday I watched a movie called “Bubble” I really liked the animation of the movie, and they developed the main characters well (Hibiki, Kai, Uta) during its duration. However, it was not perfect. It left some hanging questions (why was this “raining bubble phenomenon?” among other things that I won’t spoil) and it felt like a knock-off / parody of “The Little Mermaid.” Most of the series was predictable, and a couple of storyline events felt unnecessary. I still gave it an 8/10 though because it felt like my way of returning to my old anime-watching enjoyment. Online, people claim it’s a cheap knock-off of “Weathering With You” but I haven’t seen that movie yet.
I’m rewatching Vinland Saga while doing cardio so that I can watch season 2! It’s currently airing and I’m hoping that rewatching the first season will help me remember the characters (I remember what happened in season 1 very well since I read the manga prior to season 1 airing, but the names of some of the characters are a little fuzzy for me.)

Now to 2022…
1. Ranking of Kings – first half was very good, but the second part fell a little flat for me.
2. I was about to say “do not watch To Your Eternity” but you’ve already seen it and given it an 8?? What did you like about it (I ask this in a curious way, not in an insulting way). I gave it a 6 – I didn’t like how the main character (Fushi) kept meeting these people, bonding with them, and then someone would die because of the Nokkers. Then Fushi could take that person’s/creature’s form and continue life. The cycle felt too repetitive for me. I also disliked that these Nokkers felt like they came out of nowhere. There was no real explanation about them. If I wasn’t using it for my 2022 challenge, I would have dropped it.
3. Another negative lol :0… I think I’ve fallen off the Demon Slayer hype train. I can’t remember why… I will say though I liked the District Entertainment arc more than the train arc.
4. A positive! Ping-Pong the Animation was a good sports anime. I really enjoyed this one. :) AoT Season 4 part 2 was also super enjoyable!
5. Did we talk about Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop?? I don’t think we did, but I remember talking about it with somebody on MAL… now that was a great movie! I’m gonna look and see if I can find what I wrote about it in that moment, because I had a lot of good stuff to say about that movie. Okay, I found what I wrote about it, but most of it is spoilers :/. I do not want to spoil anything about it, but I will say it had unique, bright, colorful animation; good symbols/theme(s); characters that were interesting (Cherry and Smile), and a good plot. I don’t want to accidently spoil any of it, so I’ll leave it at that for now. :)


Ah, I see. That’s fair – finding different interests or hobbies is also part of life! I’ve never played Granblue Fantasy before, but it sounds familiar… like maybe it was a sponsor for a YouTuber I’ve watched… No worries! No I am not mad, never was. However, I was a bit worried something happened to you irl. I had a MAL friend once who taught me a lot about setting up my profile page. Suddenly that person deleted their account, no warning or goodbye note. That made me feel a little sad, because it kept me wondering why they left, and although I never knew them irl, I hoped that whatever made them leave was not due to something bad happening irl. So again, no I’m not mad at you, just happy you’re alive :).
(Part of the reason I haven't been online much since 2023 started is because of work, but also because I began learning how to play chess! I knew the basics, but now I am putting in a little more effort to get better at it)

Edit: Turns out I did complete Dorondororon but never put in the last three chapters?

Hello! I am so glad you're alive! Lol I was worried for a while. I am not mad, just way more busy than I was a year ago. I can't get into all the details right now, but I am working a full-time job now as a teacher and it has been WILD. I promise to respond fully when I can, but for now I just want to acknowledge that I've seen that you've messaged me and I will try my best to get back to you later this week :) and I will say it again - I am not mad, just glad you're back :) Lol I hope I can be more back now xD - I've barely had time for any anime / manga.

kinda based put fate zero over fate stay night

Happy birthday!

Yeah I just got bored with mal

Hey! I haven't heard from you in a while, and I see that you haven't been on MAL for a while. How are you? Totally understand if you're busy with school and stuff, but I hope you're doing well!

You’re welcome! And lol you have too much faith in me and my work ethic xD but thank you! I appreciate that you won’t wait a month to reply XD.

Sure! I’d be happy to learn some more from what you’ve learned so far. True, I bet learning the history of a language is fun! I don’t know much about the history of the Spanish (or English) language(s), but I do know they have Latin origins (99% sure of that). Yes, I also know that Spanish came from Spain (and English came from England/The U.K) and spread all over. One other fact I know about the Spanish language is that the way of speaking differs, and it’s more than just different countries have different words for bus and such. For instance, one of my professors was born in Mexico, and when talking about the different variations of talking in Spanish, we talked about how in Mexico it’s more sing-songy (for a lack of a better term lol) while in Spain it’s very, very fast. It’s similar to how in the US there are regions where they talk slower and move at a slower pace and there are regions where everything is quick quick quick in terms of speaking and lifestyle.When studying kanji, do you use flashcards, either physical flashcards or digital flashcards, to memorize them? Or do you learn them in a different way?

Oh I see! Okay. Hmm, that’s so odd! I’m glad imgur isn’t blocked for you, and that you could see the image in the spoiler tag :). Thank you! My card is like a neon blue color, and alongside mostly white and black manga pictures, it’s hard to see them well. That was my reasoning behind dimming the picture, like you pointed out. Okay! I’ll use this board then as my progress board. I’ll put it in a blog post and on my profile page soon. I think I’ll update it either monthly or once every other month, depending on how many series I read in February. I’m currently 9/38 (pro level goal), 9/49 (full board goal), so I might hit Genius level! Yeah, we still have 11 months, so don’t worry too much yet. :)

Yes! I really enjoyed Kaguya-sama, and I can’t wait to watch S3 in a couple months! As a whole, I really like the characters, even the side characters like Miyuki’s dad and Miko. It currently isn’t a 10/10 for me only because the first few episodes of both S1 and S2 didn’t hype me (or make me laugh) as much as the later parts of those seasons did. I liked introducing Miko into the mix, and the whole reelection arc, school festival arc, and Ishigami’s arc really made S2 awesome. I was shocked that people thought Ishigami was a stalker and obsessed with a girl! He seems frightened by women (particularly Kaguya and Fujiwara) so I never suspected him to be seen that way. I felt that the arc was written and animated well, and the whole thing at the end of him seeing the eyes of his co-cheerleaders made my heart warm. It sort of reminded me of A Silent Voice, where the mc starts to see people’s faces instead of x marks over the course of the movie. I found the whole underwear segment to be really funny lol, and also unexpected. Ishigami is literally me though - like there are times where I have thought “I want to change my clothes here, but is this okay?” In high school, I’d run to go change into my uniform, and by the later half of my high school years I wasn’t even hiding behind a curtain: I’d just step into the bathroom or locker room, find a random area (looking back on it, I typically chose an inconvenient hallway in the locker room that got in everyone’s way LOL) and just throw off all my clothes and put on my uniform without a care in the world. Sure, these were locker rooms and not a random classroom, but that S2 scene still reminded me of those times. The trailer was one of the best trailers I’ve seen - it was practically a mini-episode! However, the OVA was a little… I’m not a fan of ecchi stuff, and this kind of felt out of sorts for the series. It was still good, but I’d prefer not to see any of that in the series again 0_0. Overall, I look forward to S3.

Thank you brother.

And it's going fine. How about you?

It’s okay! I know the first week of classes can be busy. I was lucky to have a lighter schedule this semester, but I know that’s not the case for most folks, and I also know in a couple weeks I’ll be working 20 hours a week plus doing school… so my amount of free time will decrease soon. I’m glad it sort of went well! I’m sorry to hear they assign a lot of homework. Hang in there! And don’t worry about late replies. As long as they aren’t like a month later (or beyond lol) I completely understand.

Oh, I see. It's interesting that it happens in your language and in Japanese too. Thank you for explaining it more in Japanese - it was fascinating to read how some of the kanji have similar meanings and that some words are used for the same meaning (like your love example). Also, it was cool to see how combining words adds to the meaning or even changes it. Oh wow, that’s a lot of kanji! You can do it! It might take you years though XD.

Ah I see. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. That’s true - this pandemic has made me stay home more too. It’s best to stick to whatever is easiest for you :).

Oh okay. I’m glad you liked mine :). Oh no! I clicked on the link you sent of your board awhile back and it still works! Maybe you can redownload the picture and continue editing? Here is the link you sent me before: https://i.ibb.co/LtgPf2M/Untitled13-20220124121533.png. I’m not 100% familiar with this image storing site, but I do know some sites will delete your stored picture within a certain timeframe, so be careful. Wait… on my second read of that paragraph… are you talking about my board image on imgur? The one I sent with the manga boxes? I’m able to open it… but if you’re referring to it, then I’ll just link it directly into this message (in a spoiler button). I’m going to post everything on your profile as is, and then edit the spoiler button once I check if the image appears. If it appears for me, then the message is fine and it could be that the site I use is blocked for you? If it doesn’t appear on my screen, then I’m going to play around with this response for the first 15 minute or so to see what I can do to change that. Edit: I checked twice, and it appears under the spoiler button for me, and hopefully will appear for you too. If you’re able to see this variation of my board, I’d love to hear whether you think this one or the other one (with the checks and x marks) is better. True, coloring the picture would take a long time. I might just stick to black and white then. Definitely understandable. I had 4 hours of homework to do this Wednesday for my Thursday class, which was a lot 0_0. It didn’t help that all 4 of those hours were movie-based (I had to watch a 1 hour documentary and a 2 hour movie :/ to be ready to discuss in class Thursday, followed by analyzing a particular painting.) Oh, then reading it for the challenge brings you a great reason to read the series! Lol take your time, there’s still about 11 months left xD

Aww, thanks! I just have to start putting more effort into studying lol xD. True true! And yeah, from my perspective, Chinese, English, and Spanish are (possibly) the big three of languages. I know my friend from Korea came over partly to become more independent and partly to learn and apply English. Her mom knows Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (and I think English but I can’t remember), so I know from what she has shared that knowing languages to communicate with current and future business partners is huge. I feel bad if and when English is forced onto people though. For instance, my student who spoke almost only Spanish: I was able to translate things for him because I believe the value of learning (whether it’s math or reading or whatever) overrules the value of learning or being forced to learn a language (not that he shouldn't learn English, but that it should be incorporated gradually with his native language as a substitution for the bulk of the material for the time being), but now that I’m gone there isn’t someone there to translate stuff for him throughout the day. I worry about how that will impact him. I know he will learn more and more English, which will make school easier for him, but it will probably make school a ton more challenging and less enjoyable for him. That’s okay! I had a hunch you might feel more comfortable in your other language, but I wasn’t entirely sure. It does take a long time to learn a language, and then you have to maintain that language. I’m at a more maintaining level than learning level with Spanish, but there are still things I’m trying to learn in terms of the language. What’s interesting about languages is that they vary by country / region. For instance, in English, some people call sandwiches grinders and some call them subs. Comparing US English to UK English, some people say “chips” and some say “crisps.” In Spanish, there is more than one way to say bus, but the common way to say bus depends on which country you’re in. Is that something that happens in your native language or in Japanese? I know you mentioned that the kanji can have more than one pronunciation… Lol yeah it might take years to get to an average Japanese person’s level, but keep going! You got this! :D

Yeah, you totally should consider reading more ongoing manga in Shounen Jump. Just know that not all ongoing series are there (example: March Comes in Like a Lion isn’t a shounen series, so it won’t be on the app). You don’t need an account to use the app. However, I made an account because it’s free and it remembers my favorite manga (keeps them all sorted under a separate space than with the random manga that pop up). Hmm… I’ll take a look around to see if I notice anything about points on the Shounen Jump app and website… it may only be for the Japanese sites…

Wow! I like how you shaded in the boxes you completed. It looks much more sophisticated than mine. I still have that one with dots and checks and “coming soon” buttons, but I also started one with the pictures for the completed boxes. This version has all the pictures of the manga I completed so far minus Flat (which will take up spot 65). I still need to add my picture for that one. As much as I like how my anime 2021 board looked with pictures, I’m not sure it’s working the same with the mange because most of the pictures are in black and white. I saw someone was coloring in their manga pictures… maybe I’ll do that too? Not sure yet. I think you’ll achieve genius level too! Yeah, you did say you weren’t reading one shots... oops XD! That’s okay! It happens. You’re brave taking on a 250+ chapter manga for MRC! When I see a challenge, and then I see that many chapters, I start to panic even though I know that it’s only January and I have about 10-11 months left to go XD. I’m currently doing the Magical Girl/Boy manga item, but that’s not a genre I usually go for…

Also, I know you said you start your college classes this week! I hope they all go well :D

thank you man, and no problem 😄

Thank you for providing the link! I’ll definitely have to watch it once I finish S2. :) Ooh, déjà vu dreams… I sometimes feel like I have these, but most often they aren’t about anime characters.

True! Most often the sound effects aren’t translated into English. That’s a smart idea, reading the chapter translated in English first and then trying to read it in Japanese. Lol yeah, I like languages xD. Unfortunately I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, that I really won’t be able to learn all of those languages. If I was able to just live life without needing to earn money, then I would want to spend some of my days dedicated to learning languages. I feel like understanding another language helps bridge the barrier in communication amongst people of different cultures, and that it will make the world a better place. So often I feel like English is forced upon people because it’s a popular spoken language, but how is it fair that other languages aren’t given their fair share of attention? Why not learn other languages, so that if/when you travel to a country or meet someone who speaks that language, you can speak to them in the language that feels most comfortable to them, rather than assuming they all know English? For example, although my favorite tennis player Rafael Nadal is fluent in English, I saw him interviewed on TV once and he told them he wanted to answer some questions in Spanish because that’s his native language. That’s the language he’s most comfortable with and feels he can express himself with to the fullest extent. Lol not sure if that makes sense… but hopefully it does. That’s good to know about Korean. I started self-studying Korean back in middle school, but I stopped doing it once I got to high school. Now, I remember 0 Korean words and nothing about their alphabet :( so I’d have to start again from scratch. True true. I feel like the hardest part about self-studying, at least for me, is ensuring I dedicate time to it. There’s so much I want to do, and so much I have to do, and so much that I can actually fit into a day that it usually gets pushed aside. Oh wow, okay! That’s a good amount of time – not too challenging to fit into a week (the 2 hrs/wk). 10 hours a week is a lot of dedication!

Using the app, I’m reading the following: Dorondororon, Choujin X, PPPPPP, and One Piece. There are some others that I’d like to read with the app (example: Spy x Family) but I’d have to catch up on the locked chapters first in order to get the free recent ones. I just checked out MangaPlus because I hadn’t heard of it before. It looks cool. I think it’s like the Shounen Jump app and their counterpart website VIZ. The website I just attached is directly connected to the app (if you’re signed into your account on both – accounts are free unless you want to pay to get the locked chapters). I like the points concept. I wish Shounen Jump’s app had that. Okay, that’s fair. It is kind of new and not much has happened yet. I like the concept of having Dora and Kusanagi, the mononoke, work together. Kusanagi is cute. I don’t know how I feel about the heroine yet, but it’s not like I dislike her. I’m expecting it to improve as well. It’s hard to do a lot with only 6 chapters, so it has to get better / more interesting! Yeah, that is a good idea. I might use it for MRC but we shall see. I’m looking at my board (currently I have finished 7/49 boxes) and now I’m thinking I could probably do the Expert level… then I’d have a better place for Yomi no Tsugai to go. How is your board coming along?

Lol xD I dunno if it’d be rejected… but I guess there’s always that chance… True true. Oh, I see, so it gets better as it continues. That’s a sign of a well-written series! I’m glad you have S3 on your PTW :D. Wait, are you saying that there’s a 10 minute trailer for the new season and it counts as an anime on MAL?! I think I’ll also be watching S3 weekly, especially if I enjoy S2 as much as (or even more than) I enjoyed S1. Okay! Lol, I like how you added the strikethroughs xD and yes, I will never forget her iconic “o kawaii koto.” Lol that’s funny that Kaguya appeared in your dreams! Rarely have I had anime characters appear in my dreams, and when they do, it’s usually very brief and somewhat unrelated to what’s going on… The only example that I remember off the top of my head is Naruto (from Shippuden) doing the Naruto run at night on the roofs of people’s houses. I also like Ishigami and Shirogane. Ishigami made the series so much more enjoyable for me (not that it wasn’t prior to his first big appearance, but he took the series up a notch in my opinion). I agree that Shirogane is smart, hardworking, and thoughtful – someone who puts his all into what he does. Ooh, I’ll have to keep my eye out for Shirogane’s father when he appears so I can see what you like about him! Yeah xD it’s fun to relate to the characters, and it helps connect me to the series more. Thank you! I plan to start S2 soon (as in anytime within the next few hours to the next few days lol, not sure exactly when but it will be very soon).

I’ve heard good things about Hyouka, and like you said it’s very popular, so it’s surprising that there isn’t an official English version. Ah, I see. Sorry to hear that manga isn’t sold much in your country, and that libraries are rare in your country. Okay. Yeah, you don’t have to think much about it then until you start earning money to buy some manga.

Okay, I’m glad it was shared intentionally. That’s understandable, so no worries :). I try to keep my location hidden too, but I kinda exposed my country/location once or twice by accident/coincidence (and when I got pushed into a corner figuratively) :0. I still try to keep it under wraps when possible. I agree, it’s better to keep things like where you live as a secret, because it isn’t necessary info. Plus, then people start connecting your MAL identity to your irl identity, or something! I do know at least one of my MAL friends linked his Instagram to his profile page, which I would never do, but I’m glad he felt comfortable doing it. Everyone is free to make their own decisions… It’s cool that you know a total of 3 languages! Japanese probably comes in handy with reading manga and watching anime. I have considered learning Japanese, but I’ve also considered learning other languages. For example, during my last semester I was working in an elementary school classroom. There were a few Spanish-speaking students in the class, so I’d translate activities and directions for them when possible. About one or two weeks into the experience, a student came to me and asked why I worked with so-and-so a lot, and I responded by saying that he doesn’t know a lot of English so I translate stuff to him in Spanish. The student who asked this replied, “Well I don’t know a lot of English!” “What is your first language?” I asked, and the student said Arabic. I felt so bad – I told him that I knew zero Arabic words! I wanted to learn while being in their class, so he and other students who knew Arabic could also feel appreciated, but I only learned how to say one word fully during the semester. I think I still would like to learn Arabic, along with French, Korean, maybe Dutch, maybe Japanese, maybe Italian… but I’d need to ensure I can dedicate enough time to the languages I am learning. In addition to having a pen pal in Spain, I have a few acquaintances who speak Dutch and a friend who speaks Korean. I think it’d be cool to practice with them, if I can learn Dutch and Korean, because for them those are their native languages. Therefore, they’d know if I’m making a grammatical mistake and can help me if I have a question. The other languages would be useful to know too. Thank you for sharing what you know about the Japanese language! I know almost nothing about the language, so it was interesting to read about hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Yeah, Japanese has a very different structure than English and Spanish. Do you dedicate a lot of time to learning/self-studying Japanese? When did you begin learning Japanese?

Yeah! I started Dorondororon recently! It’s quite the name to pronounce lol. I started it for a silly reason… kind of… So, on the Shonen Jump app, you can access the first three and the last three chapters of a currently publishing manga officially translated for free. Thus, the best and last chance to pick up a series on that app is when it hits 6 chapters. Once it hits 7 chapters, chapter 4 gets locked and I’d have to pay for it (or look for chapter 4 on another, most likely not officially translated, app). Chapter 7 for Dorondororon comes out this Sunday, so if I wanted to read it I had to start it this week and read until at least chapter 4. I thought on-and-off about reading it prior to this week, and I saw you were reading it, so I thought I’d read it too. As for where I’m going to use it in terms of my bingo board, I’m not sure. What do you think of Dorondororon so far? And yes, I forgot about Yomi no Tsugai! I know you told me about the series a while back, but it slipped my mind. I’ll think about reading it soon, but I’m not sure which challenge I will choose to complete with Yomi no Tsugai.