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The 10 anniversary and the French concept album Enjorlas are the best things to ever happen to me. 10th anniversary, Michael’s voice is just amazing. The French concept album, we got DiscoEnj. (And also he sounds the most gayest) Please use this post for when you all think about them

Japanese character names

Not much info out there on Les Misérables 1929( Aa Mujo, Seika Shiba ), but I managed to scour some fun info about it. Specifically, character names! The movie takes place during the Meiji restoration, so stuff had to be changed I guess. Citation about name meanings are from Pinar, A. Western Literature in Japanese film (1910-1938) ISBN 978-84-490-8727-1

Valjean- Jaan Gijūrō (邪安義十) The first kanji for his name means “wicked” or “evil”.

Javert- Jashiro(蛇四郎) The first kanji is for “snake”. Snakes were traditionally percieved in Japanese Buddhism as messengers of gods, but during the Meiji Restoration, the religious reform banned beliefs and worship of ancestral gods. Subsequently, negative perceptions of snake arose, and they acquired harmful symbolism.

Bishop Myriel-nun Mitsuki (光月尼). Myriel has here been adapted into a Buddhist nun. Her first kanji means light, or illumination.

Marius-Ushigoro(牛五郎) His first kanji means “bull”, suggesting a nonconformist personality, vigor and force.

Cosette-Harue(春江) Her first kanji represents spring or puberty.

Fantine-Otsune(お常) The kanji in her name means unchanging or eternal.

I only have the most basic of kanji skills and this is all cited, so if there’s anything to add or something that seems wrong hmu :) the film itself is not housed in any archive and is believed lost. At the time it was considered by ciritcs to be populist and made as a cash-grab because of the popularity of Les Miserables in Japan at the time. Here’s some surviving stills from it.

An illustration from my Enjoltaire fic Drink to Forget, which I've just finished writing yesterday! You can go read it in its complete state. This is a scene from chapter five where they're sitting under the wisteria (my favorite flower) that made me happy to imagine so I hope you like it too.

The Three Grantaires

A little illustration I drew for my fic Drink to Forget.

I don't really wanna spoil it in regards to why there are three of them but I will say that the protagonist Grantaire is the one on the right, showing off his lovely little sutures. Hopefully for those who haven't read yet maybe this will entice a little I guess.

“Give to this dog son of a wolf a human face, and the result will be Javert.”

I think a lot about the folkloric story that Victor Hugo describes (or invents) in Les Mis, that uses dogs/wolves as a metaphor for that way that Inspector Javert betrays his own social class. It feels very fairytale-like, so here’s a Lotte-Reiniger style adaptation. Many thoughts, many emotions. I may animate this eventually. (And thanks to @valvertweek for the motivation!)

JBM steal! for @lesmisshippingshowdown !

On the FAR other end of my artistic experiments: so back in canon era (or so I've read) there were people along the fashionable strolling boulevards who did quick drawings and sketch-paintings for souvenirs. These were in no way artistic portraits--like good carnival caricaturists today, the artists made up their speed by relying on a small set of colors and some recognizable shortcuts /stock types of Person to Draw. It's always seemed like the sort of thing that JBM would pick up on a whim. This was something I tried to draw super quick, with a limited set of overbright "paints".

...also, there's this song. Which I've always loved for its sweet wistfulness-- the way it's about a time and a love that is gone and was probably even grieved, but long enough ago that now what remains is just the fondness. So , here, a filk for Musichetta, and JBM, some time Long Later when the paints and the memories are faded but still there. Also there is a bonus picture under the cut, after the filk:P (241 words,if I can trust my program!)

Deep in the pocket of an old worn out day skirt I chanced to discover an old memory Three for a quarter-franc boulevard portrait Taken of Joly and Legle and me

He's in the corner, his shirt collar open Like some Spanish lover, some bold Hernani Each of them smiling and holding my hand close It's Lesgle and Joly, they're smiling for me

It must have been sometime in June 1830 That hopeful bright summer, we knew we'd won free I took their arms as we walked through the arcade Three young believers on a half a franc spree

Three for a quarter franc Boulevard portrait Painting our loves for the whole world to see Hey kiss me quick, 'cause the sunlight is fading It's fading on Joly and Laigle and me

Waiting on that late night omnibus back home They held me warm, in the cool evening breeze All of us swore to be in love forever Forever for Joly and Lesgles and me

Three for a quarter franc Boulevard portrait Painting our loves for the whole world to see Hey kiss me quick, 'cause the sunlight is fading It's fading on Joly and Lesgueles and me

Three for a quarter franc boulevard portraits Three young believers on a  half a franc spree I saved your picture in my day skirt pocket L'aigle and Joly, do you have one of me

Joly and Lesgle, do you have one of me

(Note: no IDEA if those prices would make any sense, but the Vibes Were Right. Also: Astute readers may notice one portrait is missing. this is NOT because I ran out of time and wrists , it's because that one was Bossuet's and well. His luck is Like That-- he misplaced it long before the end, though if he'd turned out his pockets one more time he might have realized he actually had it there all along...)

Enjolras in Korean can be spelt with Ahn as the first letter, which works because Ahn can be a surname.

This awoke a memory for me of a jokey tale I told on ao3 many years ago:

Grantaire is Korean, and he is dating Enjolras. The problem is, Enjolras is White (and he's a man, but that was lowkey irrelevant lmaoo). This takes place in the late 80s/early 90s.

Grantaire tells his parents that he's dating Mx. Ahn.

You see, Grantaire had always wanted to date a foreigner, mainly because his father was very racist and Grantaire himself was seen as a burden on the family, a black sheep if you will.

So, to piss him off, he had dated many foreign men. Enjolras was the only one who was living in Korea and could speak some Korean.

When his family finally wished to see Mx. Ahn, Grantaire felt pressured to introduce him to the family.

All throughout the lead-up to this family introduction, Grantaire had never indicated that Enjolras was White (and a man, I suppose).

It wasn't until when Enjolras came through the door with a tiny whisky in hand did everybody find out on the day what kind of preferences their Grantaire had.

Enjolras knelt in front of the matriarch and poured whiskey for the drunk and disinterested father, and finally got accepted and was allowed to continue dating Grantaire.

You see, before this meeting, Enjolras was given a 'practice run', given how serious this meeting was going to be.

Éponine, a Japanese friend of Grantaire, decided to act as a ''matriarch'. She had asked Grantaire what she was supposed to do, and how she was supposed to act, and given her young age, really took a dramatic and comedic approach to her role as the matriarch.

She pointed at the cushion in which Enjolras was supposed to sit in, had a huge fan in her hand, and started being condescending and judging about him.

"You're a man." She said as she fanned.

"Yes, I think so."

"You're American."

"I'm French."

"What's your name?"

"Éponine, you know me."

"No I don't! I am Mrs. Kang, the head mistress of the household and you will address me as such! Where's the whiskey?"

He popped out a bottle into sight. Grantaire sighed in unison with the action. He had pushed for him to get a large bottle, and indicated, through mimes, to Éponine that she should remark on its size.

"Why is your gift so cheap?"

Enjolras glared at his boyfriend. "I am not getting drunk."

And so on.

“All Armenians know the name Victor Hugo thanks to Les Misérables— a delectable book that every last one of our peasants and the humblest of our village schoolteachers have read and reread and that has become like a second gospel for our people.”

- Arshag Chobanian (1902)

[The first Armenian translation of Les Misérables created a] "Hugolatria that bordered on mania," taking hold of many Armenian readers and writers and leading them to treat Hugo like a kind of oracle."

- Not the original person who said the quote, but I got it from the Manoukian's 2022 paper

Finally getting into les mis :)

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Ponine & Cosette