Vibe Check #9

Welcome to the ninth edition of our Vibe Check, where we talk about what's been going on in the end of the month dealing with anything Japanese-related, anime-related, or anything that's on the top of my head. Hope you have a fun time reading!

Check #1: Love and Translation

There was a reality dating show from TLC that I finished watching called Love and Translation, and it was barely decent. For people that don't know about the show, it's about 12 women from outside of the United States fighting for three American guys just to have this social experiment of "finding true love despite not knowing each other's language." Like I said, it was barely decent (at best). Mainly because from the audience's perspective and my perspective, the people there are not "right in the head" or tend to be lowkey egotistical about fighting for the 3 American guys. Plus even the dudes were iffy for me because they're still young and not that mature nor emotionally there.

While yeah, the show was barely decent and constant times I wanted to go to sleep during the show, there was this one woman that made me want to keep watching (and almost everyone else wanted to keep watching as well).

Airi from Fukuoka, Japan was basically the main reason the show have some light in the tunnel. While she tends to be timid and graceful, she have this adorable smile and bubbly personality that made people have this "protect her at all costs" mindset of her. She's basically the real-life version of Anya from Spy X Family.

Out of all the women in the show, Airi tends to be one of the fan favorites (from the comment section on TLC's YouTube page), and she even appears in Talk Shows despite not knowing any English. 

Her being genuine and not being able to throw herself, her dignity, and her self-respect to keep a guy around made her a huge fan favorite. 

To be honest, if she would've quit on romance and left the show, that would be the final episode I would watch.

Would I watch it again? Highly doubtful, but if there's another season, I might give it another try.

Check #2: Bare Knuckle Series

While I should've been watching Spy X Family and Jujutsu Kaizen to catch up on both the series and the movies, there were two anime series that immediately caught my eye and made me watch it immediately after the RAW Japanese version drops.

The first one was Wind Breaker. It's about Haruka Sakura (girly name but I guess...) trying to fight his way to the top of Furin High only to realize their hierarchy is a lot more complicated than he thought. Seeing the MC (main character) brawling an entire gang of thugs is really nice.

The fight choreography is really great and the story has been interesting because the character development of Sakura was there. Although he tends to be a fight-first type of dude, he does have a kind heart inside. However, in my prediction, we might be able to see what his childhood is like and why he tends to be a fight-first lone wolf type of person.

The fighting was the reason it got me hooked and seeing them doing good in their community does have a nice mix of action and slice-of-life. 

The second series was Viral Hit (喧嘩独学= "self-taught fight"), and it's my first Korean manhwa that I watched that was animated. It's about a bullied high schooler that have his life changed after one video of him fighting back against one of his "bullies" went viral and made him become a fighting NewTube (equivalent to YouTube in real-life).

From learning how to fight to learning how to become a successful vlogger, Viral Hit was a super nice and funny series to watch. My main concern was the subtitles being translated from Korean to Japanese to English. While it tends to be a straight Japanese to English subtitle tons of anime fans know, translating from three languages would confuse me. The reason is the audio tends to translate it in Japanese but the subtitles would still have Korean names on it.

Then again, it's the first time watching manhwa, so it's a learning curve I would need to do.

With those two anime series and Blue Lock coming in next month, I would need a lot of popcorn, ramune, and udon noodles to eat through the entire month.

Check #3: Japanese Athletes in America

As I do pay attention to Japanese athletes that are playing in collegiate and professional leagues in America, there has been some bad news I found out for this month.

Yuta Watanabe, a professional basketball player from Yokohama, Japan, basically retired from playing in the NBA because of mental health concerns he experienced while traveling from team to team. It's sad because he was one of those player that gave his very best no matter where he goes around the league. 

A journeyman (a player that basically goes from one team to another for their entire career) is a lot better than being just a one-season wonder, and seeing Yuta going from Memphis where it starts off and when he completed his season is a great feeling to see.

So, Yuta would return to Japan and play for the B.League (Japan's top professional basketball league). Knowing what Yuta did for Japan, I know he would have a standing ovation for the entire country to see.

Rui Hachimura, a professional player from Toyama, hasn't been in stride for the post season. It was a lot more concering for me since he's one of my favorite player (hence why I spent my birthday money for this month to get his jersey), and seeing him perform in the playoffs is really hard to see.

In the regular season, seeing him balling out and being super efficient and aggressive on the offense is awesome to see, but to just do a stock market crash of performance in the playoffs is just so sad and it made a lot of fans (like me) wonder "What happened that made him underperform so drastically in the playoffs?" Even against the Pelicans, he underperformed.

If the Lakers tend to be swept by the end of the month (in which don't fully quote me on that), fans would immediately suggest to trade Rui for someone else. 

The good news for Japanese players despite not doing so well in the NBA right now, they're balling out and doing extremely well in the MLB. Ohtani and Yamamoto from the Dodgers, Yoshida from the Red Sox, Suzuki from the Cubs. 

It makes people wonder if there will be more Japanese players making riots for the entire league by the way they're performing.

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That's it for this month's Vibe Check. Tune in next month for anything Japanese and anime related! Hope you enjoy~