anime | voice actors | kenjiro tsuda

I love that even though he used to not get a lot of new voice work, he’s now considered a “popular VA” and turning into this generation’s Koyasu Takehito. As in he could be in every other anime but just never as the main character. He does a lot of narrating jobs now too, so you hear him randomly when watching Japanese variety tv and that makes it so much more bearable.

Sunset at the Giza Pyramid and Sphinx

Royal Cartouches of Horemheb

Hieroglyphic decoration bearing the royal cartouches of pharaoh Horemheb, detail of a wall painting from the Tomb of Horemheb (KV57). New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, ca. 1319-1292 BC. Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.

Batman Vol 3 #99 (Cover art by Jorge Jimenez)

Ramesses II Smiting his Enemies

This block relief is decorated with a traditional scene representing King Ramesses II massacring his enemies. He wears a complete, elegant costume; the Blue Crown adorned with the uraeus, the collar called usekh, an elaborate garment, two armlets, two bracelets and sandals. He holds, in his left hand, three prisoners by their hair while in his right hand he holds an axe with which he is about to strike them. The facial features, the hairstyle and the beards of the enemies indicate that they belong to three different peoples: the Nubians, the Libyans and the Asiatics.

The theme of the pharaoh massacring enemies is an ancient one, known since the First Dynasty and can be seen, for example, in the palette of King Narmer.

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, ca. 1279-1213 BC. From Memphis. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 46189

Priest Seto’s right to the throne

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium World, Atem’s legitimacy to rule is questioned by Aknadin who claims that Seto should be king instead of Atem. Aknadin argues that Priest Seto is of royal blood (as Atem’s cousin) and therefore has a right to the throne.

However, from an ancient egyptian perspective, Seto is not of royal blood and has no more right to be king than Mahad or any of the other priests.

The rules that dictated who could be king and who was part of the royal family were quite different in pharaonic Egypt than what prevails nowadays in modern monarchies.

In Ancient Egypt, the legitimacy to be king derives from the fact that your father was a king. The preference always goes to the children of the latest king to have ruled. So in Yu-Gi-Oh!, only two characters are eligible to be king: Atem and Aknadin as both had a father who ruled Egypt, although Atem is the favoured one out of the two since he is the son of Aknamkanon who ruled last.

From this perspective, Priest Seto is completely out of the line of succession since his father (Aknadin) has never been king. For this same reason, he cannot even be considered a prince of royal blood.

Thus, Atem’s most probable heir, until he had a child of his own, was Aknadin. As Aknadin dies before Atem, that leaves Atem and/or his courtiers to designate a successor. As we all know, Atem chooses Seto which then and only then makes Priest Seto legitimate as pharaoh.

One of the beautiful and fascinating things about this is that this kind of transfer of power actually happened in ancient Egyptian history, in particular during the transition from the 18th to the 19th Dynasty.

Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten (the crazy guy who turned Egypt monotheistic for a while) and the last king of his royal bloodline: after Tutankhamun died as a teenager his advisor and commander of the army Horemheb became the ultimate successor after a brief power struggle with the old vizier Ay. Horemheb was of common birth and he never had any children so the 18th Dynasty ended with him.

Horemheb appointed his vizier Paramesse as his successor: this guy (born from a noble military family to a father called Seti and actually serving Horemheb as a High Priest of Set) assumed the throne as Ramesses I and established the 19th Dynasty. His immediate successors were Seti I and Ramesses II.

Long story short, you literally can not make this stuff up. If I recall correctly, Atem is described as an 18th Dynasty king in the manga.

Cartouche of Seti I

Pinterest.

Golden Throne of Tutankhamun

The throne of Tutankhamun is made of wood, covered with gold and silver, and ornamented with semi-precious stones and colored glass. Two projecting lions’ heads protect the seat of the throne while the arms take the form of winged serpents wearing the double crown of Egypt and guarding the names of the king.

It was discovered in the Antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) beneath the Hippopotamus funerary bed. The throne is called (“Ist”) in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs after the name of the mother goddess Isis, who was usually depicted bearing a throne on her head as her characteristic emblem. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 62028

Photo: Sandro Vannini

Tomb of King Seti I

The upper burial chamber opens onto the spectacle of Seti’s lower burial chamber. Deities and constellations stand out against the rich blue background of its curved ceiling, representing the vault of the heavens. Tomb of Seti I (KV17), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. 

Photo: Araldo De Luca

i’m so glad i live in 2016 so i dont have to deal with these massive terrifying animals except the blue whale, but shes gentle and good

Hell pig

I love the addition of Hook by the croc

So, basically, evolution killed off all our Pokemon evolutions?

friendly reminder that the blue whale is the largest (confirmed) animal to have ever lived and we are lucky enough to be here with it

Everyone NEEDS to see this.

Of Gackt, Square Enix and Genesis

It is a really funny idea that some people created a rumor that because Gackt holds the copyright of his face on Genesis Rhapsodos’ design so Square Enix cannot make another game with Genesis in it.  Duh, Gackt is not some demi-saison celebrity that he has nothing to do and has to cause some scandal to become famous. Gackt has been famous in Japan since the the 90s and he was invited as model for so many things that almost any Japanese know about him.  Square Enix’s main sale is the Japanese customers (hence why you get so many differences between the Japanese version and Global version of any of their games). And since Gackt is famous in Japan, why the heck shouldn’t they work together, Square Enix gets more sale from Gackt’s fans and Gackt gets even more fame?  And sure, Genesis-trashers would say they hate Genesis because he is Gackt’s self-insert character into the franchise. Oh for fuck’s sake, do some research before saying so. Gackt doesn’t have much free time to go ask a game director to put him in a game, bruh.  Anyway, to put this short, if you are eager to get new games or whatever, it’s your problem, don’t try to find any unproved reason to blame someone for anything. Unless Square comes straight out to say that it’s because of Gackt that they cannot release new game then sure, but for now, there is no source for that, stop spreading the bullshit.  P/s: I’m sooooooooo tired with this kind of rumor. Really, while Japanese gamers have no problem with Genesis, the American and European gamers have to keep being racist against a character based off a Japanese celebrity. 

It’s amazing to me that hating on Gackt is still considered to be like the “cool” thing in the west while these days in Japan he is almost universally admired and respected, except maybe for that very vocal group of people who unfortunately lost money in that cryptocurrency fiasco a few years back.

People need to realize that Gackt, besides being an artist and entertainer, is very much a businessman who dabbles in a lot of stuff and over the years has been an early adopter of many things considered new in Japan that he expected would become lucrative for him. This is why he is so damn loaded and Japan loves that quirky air of perfection and can-do-it-all he has about him.

He was the first Japanese musician to make his catalogue available on iTunes, he was the first to have Vocaloid software based on his voice, he was on TikTok already 3 years ago, and as far as I know Genesis was created way before it became common for video games to have original characters with their likeness officially!! based on real life famous people.

By the way, in a stream on 17live around the time the FFVII remake came out he literally said that he would love to appear in one of the Square Enix games again if they asked. So we can only assume that they just didn’t ask yet.

Hate to break it to you, but...

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japanese-social-conformity-behind-wearing-of-face-masks-amid-pandemic

“Conforming to social norms is the primary motive for Japanese people wearing face masks during the novel coronavirus pandemic, survey results recently showed, dismissing the oft-touted reason that wearers are putting them on to protect themselves and others.”

I am living in Tokyo and right now there is immense social pressure to wear masks in any and all situations except for the ones where it matters most such as confined drinking and dining spaces. There are people walking their dogs in quiet neighborhoods with a mask on.

Just a while ago a person who was infected was confirmed to have committed suicide because of the extreme social scrunity they experienced from their community. This person’s parents had to quit their jobs and move to a different city.

Social conformity literally kills people. Please don’t spread disinformation about a culture when you are here but couldn’t even bother to learn the language.

Usekh Collar of Ahhotep I

Queen Ahhotep’s adorned collar, with clasp made from two hawk heads, formed by small elements representing baboons, quadrupeds, birds, crosses, bells and geometrical motifs. Made of gold and semi-precious stones.

Second Intermediate Period, 17th Dynasty, ca. 1580-1550 BC. From the Tomb of Queen Ahhotep, Dra’ Abu el-Naga’, West Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 4725A

Pyramidion of Amenemhat III

Under a winged sun-disk are hieroglyphic texts offering the king access to the sun-god. From Dahshur. Reign of Amenemhat III. Middle Kingdom,12th Dynasty. ca. 1860-1814 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 35133

Ancient Egyptian architectural capitals, from the Lepsuis expedition, 1842-45