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Another Moe English DS (With Game Promo Video!)
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 3:00 PM on May 30, 2008
Remember that English-teaching jailbait DS game featured on Japanese site Famitsu? Well, here's another. Innocuous enough! Dubbed Moe Sta, the title features 5,000 English questions that cover the spectrum from junior high school school tests to the Tokyo University entrance examination to help players "level up" their English. Hit the jump for the slightly NSFW promo trailer that features the angels Grammar, Idiom and Word. Might want to watch it without the sound — unless you want a headache. Or have developed a tolerance to being jabbed in your ear drums with sewing needles.
Moe Sta [Akiba Blog]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Anonymoose
Posted May 31, 2008 10:01 PM
Once upon a time, I spent two years in Japan on a working holiday teaching English. I taught at a junior highschool.
A lot of the lesson plans were really boring, so I was always on the lookout for new materials. One night, I was browsing the language section at the Kinokuniya bookstore in Kawagoe, and I saw one of these "Moe English" books ("Moe-tan: Methodology of English, the Academic Necessity"). I opened it, and the first example sentence was something like, "I will destroy the world with my army of killer robots."
"Fuck yes!" I thought, "These will be great." I bought one, and the girl behind the counter wrapping it up in brown paper didn't really tip me off, because they do that for everything.
Fast forward to Monday, and I threw it down on my hardass co-teacher's desk. "We're going to find a way to use some of this vocabulary. Kids love robots." He opened it at random to see "Magical Henshin #11", a picture of a ten year old girl having her bare ass molested by a wisp of smoke or something. Silence. Throat clearing. "X-sensei, I'm not sure this appropriate."
In closing screw the makers of this entire segment of the educational sector for what was possibly the most embarassing thing that has happened to me at work, ever.
Batousi
Posted 3:23 PM 30/5/08
@LuppyLuptonium: Then I envy you with all my might
Batousi
Brian Ashcraft
Posted 3:18 PM 30/5/08
You mean, you guys actually like that song? Ungh.
*goes back to listening to John Lee Hooker*
Brian Ashcraft
ittekimasu
Posted 3:15 PM 30/5/08
so if it teaches english then i should easily win at this game! just have to figure out that japanese menu now..
ittekimasu
Lezard
Posted 3:11 PM 30/5/08
Why is it the Japanese get crazy language training games with jiggly-breasted jailbait and Americans get stuck with bland crap like My Spanish Coach? It's not fair, god damn it!
Lezard
impreza
Posted 3:09 PM 30/5/08
where's the english version that teaches me japanese?
impreza
amost
Posted 3:09 PM 30/5/08
wait wait wait... the lyrics are all wrong, they're clearly INじゃない intead of INじゃNICE
amost
LuppyLuptonium
Posted 3:08 PM 30/5/08
@Batousi: Because I'm a shameless pervert?
LuppyLuptonium
jeffx
Posted 3:07 PM 30/5/08
Without the sound? That song is fantastic.
jeffx
amost
Posted 3:07 PM 30/5/08
is "on goal" supposed to be "encore?"
amost
amost
Posted 3:05 PM 30/5/08
this song is my new ringtone.
amost
DariusEnigma
Posted 3:03 PM 30/5/08
When does Play-Asia ship this?
DariusEnigma
Batousi
Posted 3:01 PM 30/5/08
How come American games won't give me a chance to live a life of perversion and shame?
Batousi
Lyrai
Posted 3:45 PM 30/5/08
Winamp started playing See Saw - Obsession as I was watching this. It matched up in frightening ways.
Lyrai
Does Not Equal
Posted 3:40 PM 30/5/08
Shit, now I wanna learn English.
Does Not Equal
jenvik
Posted 3:37 PM 30/5/08
This whole "throwing random English words into the song" thing doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the program... do they actually fit into the Japanese sentences?
Also, I hope they have some songs in English on this thing. If you're going to get annoying catchy songs stuck in the user's brain, they might as well be memorizing some vocabulary at the same time. Words in Rammstein songs comprise about 60% of the German vocab I have left, it totally works.
jenvik
Channing
Posted 4:06 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft:
C'mon. Who doesn't like listening to weird moe moe music?
Channing
pekcun
Posted 4:04 PM 30/5/08
Moe is always a selling point for ronery Japanese hicks
Make a game with moe styled characters in Japan and - cha ching
Good job, Japan.
pekcun
Terance!
Posted 4:02 PM 30/5/08
I wonder if I can reverse learn Japanese somehow this way.
Oh, who am I kidding? I just want the jailbait girls :(
Terance!
SsLordMagus
Posted 4:00 PM 30/5/08
The song is ok. Its not bad but not super. And the video is not THAT nsfw.
Is there any game footage?
SsLordMagus
Batousi
Posted 4:00 PM 30/5/08
Wait wait...I finally listened to the song.
Awww shit I just found my new ringtone!
Batousi
Comatose Turtle
Posted 3:55 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft: Haha, come on, Bash. You can't be that surprised. Where do you live again??
@jenvik: Yeah, I was thinking the same as your first sentence there. If they were hoping to inspire confidence in their English ability with that song, they have officially failed miserably.
Happy lucky? Come on. you can't just throw 2 nouns in there and call it an intelligible sentence.
Any other Japanese theme song I'm willing to accept these shenanigans from, but it's slightly silly in this context.
Comatose Turtle
Americo
Posted 3:54 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft: A little bunny told me to just torment my ears with it. It was pretty damn catchy. I almost missed out on it because I was doing as I was told.
Americo
Ashton
Posted 3:54 PM 30/5/08
There are a hundred songs that would be worse than this.
Ashton
Zero_Beat
Posted 3:53 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft: I didn't really like it, but I didn't dislike it. I could take it or leave it, but if someone else was playing it at work or something, I wouldn't complain.
Zero_Beat
kosbee
Posted 3:52 PM 30/5/08
I would so play this on a bus...
kosbee
Jaimz11785
Posted 4:26 PM 30/5/08
DOUBLEYOO TEE EFF
Jaimz11785
Comatose Turtle
Posted 4:21 PM 30/5/08
Oh! Oh! Check out the box art. Out of "Grammar", "Idiom" and "Word", the one carrying a dictionary is "Idiom".
I do hope you catch the irony.
Comatose Turtle
Keanu
Posted 4:48 PM 30/5/08
See? Why couldn't English class be with some girls like this... (minus the whole "happy super fun time" music)
(some reason I was expecting this to get all these stupid comments like that Moetan post)
Keanu
drewskisama
Posted 4:46 PM 30/5/08
I think my English abilities actually dropped after watching that video. ABC What?
drewskisama
Calhoun
Posted 4:32 PM 30/5/08
How is this any more or less crappy than the other 5 billion high-pitched, warbling jpop songs Japan excretes on an hourly basis?
Calhoun
Zyzex_Remix
Posted 4:32 PM 30/5/08
If I was Japanese and was in need of an English teaching tool; this would be the one I'd get.
Moe~~!
Zyzex_Remix
Kaizuden
Posted 5:07 PM 30/5/08
What is it with the new fad of dancing para para girls?...
Kaizuden
Rehabilitator
Posted 5:06 PM 30/5/08
IKE IKE IKE POWER WA!!!!
Rehabilitator
Xeneizes
Posted 4:58 PM 30/5/08
I feel really filthy for watching this.
However, I expected more jiggling than what I saw. I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Xeneizes
Ruzi
Posted 5:26 PM 30/5/08
[www.appletreeblog.com]
Ruzi
Vidunder
Posted 5:47 PM 30/5/08
I mean, the connection with needles and such :D
Vidunder
Vidunder
Posted 5:47 PM 30/5/08
I don't understand what's wrong with the drums.
Anyhow, that reminded me a lot Wario Wares Wii :b
Vidunder
jello44
Posted 6:07 PM 30/5/08
@jello44:
Oh nevermind, I looked at the cart case and it looks like lolis, but the actual game movie isn't.
jello44
jello44
Posted 6:06 PM 30/5/08
Pedobear is all over this one.
jello44
WasabiJoe
Posted 6:23 PM 30/5/08
Man, I lost it when they intro'd the character and the name is "Grammar".
WasabiJoe
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Posted 6:56 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft: You're not quite there yet Bash... a torturous path of Otakudom lies ahead of you 'till you get used to and eventually starts liking this sort of music. :P
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Wapanese
Posted 6:41 PM 30/5/08
@jello44: That's probably what they were aiming for. It seems as if they're trying to hide the boobs by having the characters hold things in front of them. I wonder if anyone would be disappointed to find the characters more endowed than they thought...
By the way, I am in utter dispair after seeing that video. I can only hope that people are only buying it for the moe, not the English.
Wapanese
lammy742
Posted 9:35 PM 30/5/08
I think it might be cool to buy a game to learn another langauge, make something boring fun. Kinda like this but without the perversion and loss of self respect.
lammy742
quen
Posted 9:27 PM 30/5/08
@quen: Link to Wedding Peach opening was broken, sorry, try this:
+ Watch video
quen
quen
Posted 9:26 PM 30/5/08
@Brian Ashcraft: Aww, the song's not that bad. It's not great or anything but it's a decent effort. I've got much worse songs... admittedly mostly on character-song CDs.
By the way I'm sort of amazed that they have literally made an anime opening sequence, complete with original song, just for a DS game about learning English? I mean this has to be like half the budget... I suppose after they went to the trouble of getting character designs, they thought why not.
@jenvik: There were English words in the song? I just heard lots of Japanese words like 'level up' and 'let's go' and 'challenge' and 'ok'.
:)
Seriously, at least level-up, version-up etc are standard (pop culture) Japanese. I don't know about 'on goal' though... but the song doesn't really seem to contain so many English words that it would be out of place in a similar song that isn't about an English-teaching game (apart from the ABC etc). For example, I think my favourite use of English words in songs is the
">Wedding Peach opening, seen that? I really like that song, and yes I've got that group's (the voice actors') album. :)quen
theCornerinvasion
Posted 11:28 PM 30/5/08
Wouldn't it be "Moe Star"? Because that's the same way "Lucky Star" is written in Japanese (except its in hiragana「すた」 as opposed to katakana「スタ」 like this game).
らき☆すた - Lucky Star
もえ☆スタ - Moe Star*
It could not be the case, but sounds more logical as opposed to it being called Sta. Unless that's a short of some word I don't know.
theCornerinvasion
eugaet
Posted 1:05 AM 31/5/08
Who wanted the song for a ringtone?
moe_sta.mp3 2.37M 1:38
[www.eugaet.com]
You're welcome.
eugaet
fuchikoma
Posted 3:19 AM 31/5/08
Not nearly as bad as Moetan. These even look like teenagers AND they're less blatantly nude. It's like a random harem anime that looks no riskier than a random console Suchi-pai title like this one.
+ Watch video
@theCornerinvasion:
yes. You're right and the "mo" of "moe" is even in a star.
（゜∀゜）萌え～！
(But as a sidenote I noticed moe as 燃えused the same way way before it was common.)
@quen:
I expected this:
+ Watch video
(But I guess that's "DX.") Funny enough I've never even seen the show but I found the OP back in the days before you could get a whole ep of anything online. Saw some manga of it in a mag my Japanese teacher had though... it also had Super Mario Bros comics.
fuchikoma
Comatose Turtle
Posted 3:45 AM 31/5/08
Also, I can't help thinking that "Moe Star" is actually some crude pun on the word "molestor".
Comatose Turtle
Jinto
Posted 11:11 AM 31/5/08
Why does everyone rip off the opening animation to Haruhi these days?
Jinto
Gaff
Posted 1:30 PM 31/5/08
In before Maritan reference.
This isn't the worst thing I've seen.
+ Watch video
And of course... [maritan.ytmnd.com]
Gaff
Jotsy
Posted 6:13 PM 3/6/08
what the heck is going on at 0.26??
....
... looks like fun...
Jotsy