I hosted a magma sesh for drawing sillies for The Daily WISE Cipher....
... and it did NOT disappoint!
This was a memorable & hilarious session spent in our Discord VC exchanging ideas of how we wanted to represent TDWC, and I was leaning for something more meme-y and unhinged (the perfect energy to represent TDWC and the moots of this server), and I think the art can speak for itself:
Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to just spend time with Spy x Family moots. We're all working adults from different parts of the world, and it's really hard to make plans. This spontaneous idea was born from just having a sense of community with like-minded and wholesome moots.
All of us actually ended up staying up super late in our own timezones just from laughing and having a blast in call together, and I really hope we can have more silly and fun memories like these again this year. I really missed our VC adventures and sillies.
Thank you so much to @ideksams, @buf309, @rafaron1223, @yatorivevo, @awphooey2u, & @connoisseursdecomfort for this evening of sillies and laughs. Just being in your presence was not only healing but it just felt so damn good to laugh so hard until my stomach and face hurt. To many more nights like this in 2025!
Oh and, Happy Valentine's Day to you and our beloved moots in the WISE HQ Discord <3
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A Linguistic Analysis of the Spelling Names "Ania" and "Anya" (and the chapter and languages of Ostania)
This includes spoilers from Short Mission 11, or Chapter 90.1
It's not a secret that Anya's (Ania) name change was officialized along with Loid (Lloyd) and Yor (Yoru/Yolanda) in July 2019. I do recall that our loveable Forger family had different spellings in the early manga releases. Many believed that it was Endo-san's way to cover up the spelling mistake, but I believe that, whether or not the origin and/or intention was a mistake, it paved a beautiful opportunity for a deep dive into linguistics and character analysis on Anya Forger.
First, I'd like to address my thoughts on "ANIA" as the spelling. Here are a few of my impressions on this:
"ANIA" could be perceived as her original spelling because wherever she came from used this spelling.
"ANIA" could just be her limitation as a child when it came to spelling her name.
"ANIA" could be an acronym from her lab that probably served the purpose of her existence.
"ANIA" could be the name of her mother/creator. And she was subjected to share the same name of her creator for "sourcing" purposes.
"ANIA" when applied to numerology number, reinforced her code name which is 007 (which is super meta to me, but probably is a coincidence because we all know 007 was Endo's way of referencing James Bond). S/O to @momentocollector for sharing this!
Second, I'd like to address "ANIA" as an identity for our precious baby girl.
"Ania" is the chosen spelling. This could possibly mean that this is her real name and how it should be spelled (You, as the owner of your name have every right to decide what your name should be, spelled, or pronounced after all).
"Ania" could possibly be an influence of either her mother-tongue language's spelling.
"Ania" could possibly be due to her limitation of spelling. (I don't think she is aware of how her name should be spelled.)
Recall that Yor carved out Anya's name as "Ania" and didn't question it. This could be a reflection of Yor's own lack of familiarity of Ostanian orthography since she is academically limited, and she would have listened to how Anya would have wanted her name to be spelled. Furthermore, this tells me that Yor's absence of questioning reflects that she accepts her daughter no matter who she is, be it "Ania" or "Anya".
Third, I'd like to address "ANYA" as her name's spelling.
"A-N-Y-A" is the spelling that her papa gave her, which tells her that she can now be on the same playing field as her parents. Their names and titles are all "masks" in this masquerade that they call "Forger". So, to little Anya, it means that she finally belongs with someone. Anya has essentially found "her home".
We also know that Franky did do a lot of paperwork and found that "Anya" is the spelling that was written down on her adoption papers. This reinforces that "Anya" is the standard Ostanian orthography of her name.
I perceive Loid as a person replicating the "average Ostanian" (since this is a deep cover mission after all), so to also tell her that her name is spelled a certain way reinforces that she has a new identity as an "Ostanian child". (I find this quite ironically poetic because it's a "fake man" giving a "fake name" to his "fake daughter").
I also see that when Anya's eyes light up, it could also mean that this new identity in her spelling change meant she was finally liberated from her days as a lab experiment and living in an orphanage.
Fourth, I'd like to address spelling etymology.
Since I'm not a Japanese linguist expert, I found @connoisseursdecomfort post to be quite educational when it came to Japanese spelling.
What we learn from the above post is that "Ania" is an acceptable name spelling in "Old Japanese". But as time progressed, the spelling changed to "Anya" which is the modern-day spelling of this name (this may tie into Anya's character lore).
We can track "i" becomes "y" in the evolution of the alphabet from Phoenician (c. 1000 BC) to Archaeic Greek (c. 750 BC). S/O to @rachellysebrook for this link. (Again, what this reinforces is Anya's background with an unidentified mother country/mother tongue language).
Another thing is that Yor Forger did not react to the spelling of "Ania". It could possibly be that she recognized Anya's limitation, given that her daughter already had poor scores since her admission.
We also learned that Yor, a real Ostanian, seems to be limited with Ostanian orthography which is most likely due to her dropping out of school to take care of Yuri (fake Ostanian /j). From her interaction with Anya, off-screen, it appears that Yor seems indifferent to spelling standards of names (Which is nice! She is subtly against society's norm and I love her for that). Had she been aware of the spelling, she would have been the one to ask instead of Loid. (But again, it must be Loid because it's poetic and has a much more meaningful interaction between "Loid" and "Anya").
Fifth, I'd like to address the name's (possible) impact on character purpose in the story.
"Anya" means mother in Hungarian (S/O to @httplovecraft1890. This inspired my thoughts on "Ania" as a name in the lab). Could this possibly be an inspiration or coincidence? It could be a stretch, but perhaps Anya's purpose in the lab is that she's a "mother weapon" for war.
"Ania" means "gracious" and "merciful" according to Google. Which makes me think that the lab scientists went with this name because it would represent her purpose as a weapon of war. Perhaps Ania becomes the "truth serum" and could be seen as the "angel of death" because she knows the war captor's thoughts and inevitably they are executed (a possible headcanon).
Sixth, I'd like to discuss the factors of the mysterious "unidentified language".
Anya did use "oui" in the anime when Loid had adopted her. This automatically made me think her possible origins could be French, but it could also take another step back in the language family: Romance. What makes this work is that we treat "Classical Language" as a dead language based on what we read/saw in the manga/anime like Latin. Anya has an innate potential to be bi-/multilingual.
Bonus: Seventh, I'd like to talk about the languages in this anime (This is a bit of a ramble but since we're talking about linguistics, I thought why not)...
Based on the dialogues spoken in the anime, we can confirm that English exclamatory (Oh my God, Goddammit, Shit, Wow, Elegant, etc.) and the Japanese language are the main components of the Ostanian language. This is reinforced by many characters who have used English expressions (Loid, Yuri, Yor, Anya, Damian, Henderson, etc.)
What does bug me is whether or not "oui", a French exclamatory, should be categorized as part of the Ostanian language or if that should be categorized for Anya's hidden lore. The reason is that when Loid/Twilight heard Anya say "oui" in front of him, he did not question it. (Perhaps he was too tired to process this, or he excused it as something Anya could have seen on TV and is merely mimicking. I really don't think Twilight would be the type to excuse this realization had he not had the aforementioned state of mind). I'm leaning more towards the latter as this is from Anya's mother tongue language.
In conclusion (or tldr;): "Ania" may be her real name, but "Anya" is her new identity as part of the Forgers.
If you read everything, thank you for your time! The linguist in me is so happy that Endo-san is steeping his foot into linguistic territory. As short as this chapter was, it said A LOT to me linguistically and provided more details to the scraps of lore that we know of Anya but it also tells us a bit more about Yor, Loid/Twilight, and Ostania.
This post just inspired me to make an appreciation post for Yor/Thorn Princess's kicks.
I love how Anya imagines her mother's combat style is hand-to-hand combat and does imagine her kicking her enemies (probably recalling the time when she saw her parents fight during the Newton's Castle episode and when Loid came home from being kicked by Yor lol)
Also, I love that these kicks seem to be mirroring/referencing previous episodes (let me geek on their similarities)
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The Daily WISE Ciphers (A Dedicated SxF Analyses Podcast)
Good morning, or should I say good evening fellow moots, oomphs, agents, and analysts in between!~
I am very proud to share a new, clandestine project that I have been patiently waiting to work on since last month. To help with this project, I have recruited my lovely friends, Aniastarlight ( @connoisseursdecomfort ) and Moss ( @mossshrooms )--who are phenomenal analysts in their own right--when revisiting Spy x Family manga chapters starting from the very first chapter. These ladies have always brought up interesting observations and analyses when discussing the latest Spy x Family chapter, and I thought why not pursue this analysis revisit project with them? And the experience did NOT disappoint.
Disclaimer: Please note that this is a manga spoiler podcast.
The Daily WISE Ciphers--a nod to "The Daily Ost"--not only offers interesting analytical lenses from a literary and illustrative stance from multiple perspectives; but also analytical points from our respective disciplines and experiences when parsing the brilliant details created by Tatsuya Endo in Spy x Family.
tldr;; this is a Spy x Family manga re-read and analysis commentary and discussion podcast.
This is an ongoing cross-reference across manga chapters, manga language versions, interviews/commentary on the manga chapters, anime, and references on future chapters. Due to the nature of this podcast, recent chapters will be mentioned. Once again, this is NOT a spoiler-free podcast.
It is with great honor that I am able to share this passion project of mine with beautiful and intellectual moots from this fandom. To have a linguist, a literary historian, and a scientist exchange observations on a series we love is nothing short of a miracle. Our first episode together is already a testament of how much love, dedication, time, and research Endo-san pours into Spy x Family--and how much we all appreciate his efforts. We find it with great pride and honor to share our findings and excitement over finding new Easter eggs and parsing Endo-san's tactical literary implementations. We hope that we can help bring a deeper appreciation for Spy x Family with this podcast!
I spent 6 grueling hours researching how to protect one's photos/scans so you wouldn't have to--And these are my findings:
As the title states, I spent 6 grueling hours researching how to protect one's photos/scans in case other collectors want to protect and/or receive credit for their photos.
Once more let me emphasize THEIR PHOTOS.
Backstory:
It's not a secret that I'm quite a big collector of official Spy x Family merchandise, specifically clear file folders, stationery, and acrylic stands. I own so much, in fact, I have a tendency to own a handful of duplicates and had the crazy idea to start a small business selling these duplicates via Ko-Fi. A thought came to me that since I had already invested in a light box and a scanner for selling my merch, why not also use them to share pictures of my collection for other fans to view and appreciate?
And that was when I had sought the opinions from my good friend, @yumeka-sxf. Yumeka has been kindly posting high-resolution scans of her SxF merch (clear files, pages, etc.) on Tumblr. She is someone I also deemed as an expert when it came to uploading merch on the internet. She gave me incredible advice with awesome foresight when it came to watermarking high-resolution pictures and scans. She easily predicted what disrespectful people would do if I hadn't moved my watermarks to certain (albeit not really appealing) spots. And, just like she said, someone did attempt to remove my watermark using AI. You can read about it here. @yumeka-sxf also provided her own insight to watermarking merch here--if ya'll are interested to read.
I won't go into too much detail, but essentially they're long posts meant to educate people on why fans, who own the official merch, put watermarks on their pictures. The bottom line is, we're claiming the picture for ownership, NOT the merch.
Second, did you know that people have found ways to remove watermarks?
That gives me enough incentive as to why I want to take it a step further to protect my photos/scans.
"If I take a picture of something do I own the picture that I took?":
Yes and no. Yes as in, the picture is yours. No, because depending on your subject, it falls under numerous jurisdictions of copyright. You can find all the details in this insightful post from veteran photographers.
But since we're focusing on the topic of photos and scans of merchandise, I'd like to provide these screenshots:
And so, to re-iterate, the only thing you'll get out of copyrighting your photo is just the right to the photo--which is all I want.
The Findings:
6 grueling hours of research for protecting one's picture led me to several insightful directions--one of them amusingly brought me down a rabbit hole of how to protect one's real estate pictures. They did have some wonderful tips if you guys would like to read them!
Unfortunately, I do not own Photoshop so I could not make any edits on the metadata or create a layer that will prevent downloading the content of the picture. Preventing screenshots/right-clicking is limited to control on a website and/or can easily be canceled by plug-ins. So that just leaves me with finding something creative solutions the only tool I have: Canva (more on this later).
I spent some more time reading more journals and visited USCO (United States Copyright Office) and, finally, Pixsy.
I'm gonna be honest, USCO is THE BEST way to protect your media (merchandise, art, etc.) IF you have the money to support it.
Not only do I not have the funding for this type of service, but my photos don't exactly meet "originality" especially when the subject of the photo is copyright-protected merchandise, which means there are severe punishments for those who pursue any commercial purposes (such as selling my photos to make money rather than directing people to purchase the official work from the licensing site). And at the end of the day, I just care about the photo, itself, and receiving credit and source.
It's ridiculously simple to just credit and source a picture, and yet, it'll surprise you how many people just can't do that. This is why, I must take these extra precautions to ensure credit and sourcing.
So, I opted for Pixsy for its free plan that includes 500 images being monitored.
There's no doubt that I'll most likely invest in a monthly subscription if ever I amass beyond 500 pictures for monitoring.
Currently, it has already done an impressive job of identifying pictures I've posted with my watermarks on Ko-Fi, Twitter, and Tumblr. It has even identified reblogs/retweets.
For some odd reason, it uploads my pictures horizontally when it's normally vertical ^^; but it still gets the job done. Interestingly, it hasn't picked up my pictures from Mercari yet. I assume that if I were to upgrade to the subscription plan, Pixsy might be able to find it by then.
Procedures:
I'm sharing my procedures for protecting one's photo (and content, if applicable of course).
Step 1: Register on Pixsy. As I've addressed earlier, it's free.
Step 2: Upload HIGH-RESOLUTION pictures (no watermark) to Pixsy's database. This is probably the most accurate way for Pixsy to identify pictures of the same (or similar) "blueprint". In the picture below, I provided a screenshot of my picture without the watermark (left) with a picture they found of my picture with my watermark on it from my ko-fi shop (right).
Step 3: If you plan to upload a photo/scan with or without watermark, it is recommended to upload your image at 550 pixel image and at 72 dpi. This makes it good for the internet (see first image below). But once you zoom in, you can tell the difference in quality (see second image below).
I mentioned before that I don't have photoshop, so I experimented with what I do have: Canva.
Since I have a premium membership (indicated by crown icons), I just use the following settings:
and it gets the job done.
I am planning to upload my photos without watermarks to the Spy x Family wiki quite soon, so I did all this research to prepare for possible theft and/or the lack of crediting and sourcing--just in case. A friend of mine told me that s/he can try to ensure crediting through the file name, which is a ridiculously kind gesture, but I'm not ignorant of people who change/completely ignore file names. That's unfortunately just the way it is on the internet.
Hopefully, I've curated enough research to help protect photos/scans from possible theft (if reposting is not allowed by the owner).
I don't mind if my photos are used for reference AS LONG AS they credit me and link the source directly to the image itself (not one of those cut-corner kind of way and just link my Ko-Fi gallery). I won't tolerate laziness when it comes to sourcing considering I invested a lot of money to purchase merch and invested hours--even days--to get the best photo/scan + researched information on the merch for public access.
