Can I trust this Magazine?

[faith]

It's called "MGazette" and it ran from around 1996-2001. I found an interview with Mana, supposedly, from 1997 (?) where he was talking about...well...his obsession with old stuff and board games, and inability to finish garage kits. You know, the normal. There were pictures of him I'd never seen and everything, and they didn't look photoshopped when I took a magnifying glass to them either.

It looks like it's for real. The things I didn't get was that he was...

1. talking informally (like, he used "wa" once even, and that's girly speak)

2. talking to Dada, who in contrast was speaking pretty respectfully until about half way through, and who he had apparently asked to help him out making a garage kit. Dada was dressed like a sparkle-cow ^^

That was in Dada's column, Dada wa Tsurai (TM). It was trippy. Just wondering. I've never seen a Mana interview like that before...and I don't know if Dada's always 100% in reality so.

But there were pictures of the two of them goofing off together, as much as Mana goofs. That does imply some sort of third agent/interviewer, non? Any opinions?

 

[flowersofnight]

As a man of science, I can't say till you post lots of scans

Seriously though, did you try checking the magazine's thanks section? The indies magazines I have all have profuse thanks sections where they thank any and all artist/labels related to getting some content into their rag; maybe this one does too. See if Mana and Midi:Nette are in there...

 

[Emirufish]

If Dada was interviewing, there's the good chance he added in his own few words o_O;;;

Where'd you find this MGazette by the way? You know I searched all over Tokyo for these ><;;

 

[Pessimiste]

I'm sorry that I can't answer your questions ^^; but I'd like to ask you *puppy eyes* if you could scan it for us please?
Well...ok, maybe I have a little answer anyway: Mana can be very goofy

 

[Wife_of_Mana]

Scans are always good. ^_^b

 

[ange_de_lumiere]

Nobody likes opinions formed from thin air

I definately agree with Flowers, being an analytical thinker myself. You must scan before I can state my opinion.

 

[faith]

Where'd you find this MGazette by the way? You know I searched all over Tokyo for these ><;;

Ochanomizu (near Akihabara). There's a huge street lined with only furuhonya and Disk Waves. Most of them are just boring book stores, but the Book Brothers is a music magazine only store. I also took a walk and got lost for 7 hours one day. On the way back I checked every magazine store I could find and hit YahooJapan Auctions when I got home. I think I need 1 more now. Yay.


I'll have the scans as soon as I buy I keitai >_< But then people will call me, and so maybe that will take a while for me to get kinda. I'll check the back of the magazine out though.

 

[Emirufish]

Oi, that's why I didn't find it. I never went anywhere near Akihabara :?

 

[gwendel]

I will add that judging by Mana's form of speech doesn't really mean much, from my experience with reading what he has to say. He's used a variety of speech patterns the few times that I've volunteered to translate his asthetics section, and the most memorable to me was the one where he announced Schwarz Stein's breakup/his bithday event. That was a mix of polite Japanese, slang, and sound effect kanji at odd places. He sounded drunk at first, but really, once I read it over, I realized he was trying to be cutesy/diva-like. The best I can equate how it sounded in English would be Oprah's "homegirl" style of speaking. Not quite gay (I've heard gay Japanese speak before), but very diva-like.

He's also used Japanese baby-talk once in a candid photo shoot, but that was part of a joke, so...

I guess I need to read more of Malice Mizer's earlier articles, though. Thinking of Mana using feminine forms doesn't strike me so odd, I guess because I'm used to Kaya's super-girly lyrics.

Let me ask you one other thing, because I don't know: is Mana from the Kansai region like most of the other Malice Members? Or let me put it this way, because you probably would know: was he using Osaka-ben? If so, the "wa" at the end is typical of the dialect for men as well as women.

I'm just grasping at straws here as someone who hasn't seen it. As everyone else said, I would like to read the scans first if you would be so kind to scan it big enough to read. ^.^;

 

[flowersofnight]

Let me ask you one other thing, because I don't know: is Mana from the Kansai region like most of the other Malice Members? Or let me put it this way, because you probably would know: was he using Osaka-ben? If so, the "wa" at the end is typical of the dialect for men as well as women.

Mana's actually from Hiroshima, which I don't think is in the Kansai region (not 100% sure on that). So I don't think he was using Osaka-ben unless he was just trying to throw us off

 

[gwendel]

Thanks. Although he could have been just using Osaka-ben as a way of being funny. The Japanese equate the dialect with comedy because there are so many great comedians from Osaka who use their dialect as part of the routine. It's hard to watch Heyx3 Music Champ or Utaban without knowing the dialect (or at least learning it that way ^.^) because the MCs use it often.

Again though, I was just grasping at straws. I remember that one set of photos of MM someone on the Klaha forum was asking for a translation of, and all the silly comments were in Osaka-ben. That reminds me, I need to go finish the rest sometime...

 

[faith]

Mmm...actually、at that point Dada was making fun of him, like he was like, *teach me how to do that* (mimicing Mana's general way of being)
Interviewer laughs
Mana *Am I really like that?*
Dada *yes*
So I suppose he might have been being not like that for a while, whatever it may have been...

What really surprised me is that he was talking to Dada so casually I guess. Hiroshimaben, huh? Washi... (^o^)

 

[gwendel]

Washi? Now that just sounds like an old man. XD

 

[faith]

I know XD For a while I went through a "washi," "arararara" stage, just because I could. Everyone laughed at me.

Mana's never used washi. But I heard it's not uncommon for boys/teens in the more rural parts of Hiroshima to do so...

 

[gloombox]

Why am I seeing Mana in overalls and a flannel shirt? .__.;;

 

[Emirufish]

Washi? Now that just sounds like an old man. XD

Mana is an old man. He's like over 400-something odd years old.

 

[gwendel]

I know XD For a while I went through a "washi," "arararara" stage, just because I could. Everyone laughed at me..

Maa...kono-goro no wakamono...... XD

If I could get away with an un-feminine way of speaking, it would probably be male osaka-ben, especially if I were upset at someone.

nanni o shittoru, omae? aho na :smack:

Mana's never used washi. But I heard it's not uncommon for boys/teens in the more rural parts of Hiroshima to do so...

Interesting. I don't personally know much about Hiroshima, but I'll file that in my memory. That place usually gets pushed aside in general media by more dazzling places such as Hokkaido, Osaka, and Kyoto.

 

[faith]

Maa...kono-goro no wakamono...... XD

O~i! Wakamono nante iu na! washi-sama wa mou sukebe-oyaji nan da wa! Kusouu...

*dies* yeah. I read someone's 100+ essay on Hiroshima-ben, but other than that there's absolutely nothing available in America.

 

[Eresjkigal]

this thread makes me laugh
and i'm confused.

 

[gwendel]

:pitures Faith on the train reading plain-cover hentai books: XD

Was this a hardcopy essay or something you can find electronically?I would love to read it if it was something I could get my hands on, but anyway...Osaka-ben is much easier to find if you know enough Japanese to read the numerous dialect dictionaries for it there are online. However, I only know of two English books about it, and one is out of print. And there's that great site I found that teaches Kansai-ben using translated Beatles lyrics. ^.^