Miles' Japanese Blog!

 For this assignment, I'm choosing to review episodes 944 and 945 of the popular anime, One Piece. I usually watch this show in dub, due to the large number of episodes, but I am no stranger to watching tv shows or movies in Japanese.   In these two episodes, the paths of Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist, and Big Mom, a powerful foe converge on the island of Wano after following their respective journies individually for some time. I thought the payoff was decent, as the moment of surprise at their first encounter was pretty funny and the chaos that ensued was entertaining. Getting into the Japanese aspect of this review, I noticed that certain characters (mostly villains) sounded different, in a general sense, which I assumed was matching certain voices to character archetypes (coward, hot-tempered, etc...). It was neat to start to pick up on words and pieces just from the Japanese audio alone, instead of being 100 percent reliant on subtitles. I still have quite a ways to go...

 1. Brief Introduction of Myself My name is Miles Thornburg. I'm from Dallas, Texas, although I was born in Miami and have lived there and Atlanta as well. I'm a sophomore studying Finance and Economics currently living in Dillon Hall. I'm not quite sure what it is I want to do career wise, but I'm looking into consulting. I have two younger siblings, a brother and a sister, and a golden retriever named Finley. Some of my favorite foods are pasta, sushi, and tacos. I play the saxophone in the marching band here at Notre Dame. I like jazz, rap, and indie music. 2.  Why I Chose to Study Japanese I chose to start learning Japanese as I will hopefully be accepted to the study abroad semester program in Nagoya that I applied to. This would be next spring, so I want to start learning as soon as possible as to have the best possible experience during my time abroad. I've wanted to learn the language even before I applied however, and I'm excited to make progress in thi...