Episode20

The Pun Stops Here
    This proud episode of Nadesico begins with Yurika singing the opening theme with a horrible tone and even worse pun.  "They make up a part of your dreams" is how the lyrics go, but Yurika says, "They make up a part of your drapes."  Yes, it's a pun, a pretty awful one.  In Japanese, the original lyrics for the song is "yume no kakera sa" but Yurika mangles this to become "yume no Takeda san" where Takeda-san is "Mr. Takeda" in English.  Obviously this wouldn't work in English, so I translated it went with the dreams/drapes reference.

In the Proud Tradition of All Great Anime Engineers…
    As you know, Uribatake is one of the greatest geeks of all time.  Not only does he work on mechanical hardware, but he also like watching anime about them, and so it no surprise that idolizes the greatest mechanical engineer to ever have graced the anime screen.  While they don't say it right out, it is abundantly clear the Uribatake line of "I thought this might happen, so…" is a homage to Mr. Sanada from the classic Japanese space opera anime show Space Battleship Yamato.  (Of course, they had to change the names of everyone when the brought over Yamato to America, and Sanada’s name was changed to Sandor.)  This lines or variants of it have became staple for anime shows from Love Hina to Excel Saga, where characters always seem to have the just the right kind of hardware to get them out of a tight spot.  In case you didn't know, in the original Yamato, when the Yamato was trapped in some ugly situation, Mr. Sanada would often come to the rescue with a mechanical contraption HE JUST HAPPENED TO BE WORKING ON and save the day.

The Stealthy Kannazuki.
    The Jovian Federation ship featured in this episode is the Kannazuki, commanded by the charismatic captain, Genpachiro Akiyama and his executive officer, Saburota Takasugi.  As with the case of most capital class Jovian Federation combat vessels, she takes her name from a name for the moon in the traditional Japanese lunar calendar.  Kannazuki refers to the first new moon of the lunar October, which would be about November 8th now.

Killer Photography Equipment
    Another wonderful Izumism.  The onomatopoeia for speaking quietly in Japanese is "boso," as in "bosoboso to shaberu (talking in a hushed tone.)"  She combines this with the Japanese onomatopoeia of an expletive for someone impressed, "ho~."  The end result is "boso … ho~" or "boson hou" or boson cannon.  The best I could come up with was "My boss is really into photography…  Boss owned Canon…"  When I originally translated this line, I wrote in footnotes, "Kill me now."

Akiyama's Musings Part I
    In an odd twist to Japanese language, Akiyama merges two Japanese sayings to come up with a new one.  He combines "Koketsu ni irizunba kozi wo ezu," which literally means "To obtain cubs, you must enter into a tiger's den" or more vernacularly "High Achievements comes to those who are willing to take risks," and "Shishi wa usagi to karu toki mo zennryoku de nozomu," which literally means "even when hunting an insignificant rabit, the lion does not withhold anything," or more vernacularly "If you wish to be successful, you must devote yourself entirely to any endeavor, even a seemingly trivial one."  The final outcome "When hunting a rabbit, a lion must enter a tiger's den," may have been written to convey the impression that the long years of isolation that the Jovians went through contributed to the bastardization and transformation of common sayings into uncommon forms.

Akatsuki the Shy Bard
    This was an episode with a steady stream of obscure references, and on top of the list was this one.  When Akatsuki was floating in his Aestivalis waiting in ambush for the Jovian Kannazuki, he recites the short line, "Totechitekenzya..."  I'll be honest.  I could not tell what it was at first.  But I also remembered hearding it from my childhood.  It took some digging and the help of my friends, but I was able to figure it out as one of the most often quoted lines of Kenji Miyazawa.  Miyazawa is one of the most acclaimed original folk stories, children's story authors, and poet that Japan has produced.  Many of you might be familiar with The Night of the Galactic Express that has been turned into an animated movie.  But the quote in questiib was from Eiketsu no Asa ("The Morning of Fateful Decision,") a short ode to his dying younger sister.  The entire line goes, "Ameyuzyu totechitekenzya" ("Please bring hither the snow sleet (that has rained outside.)"  It's a line spoken by a dying younger sister to her older brother on her deathbed.  It is very difficult to decipher for those that are not familiar with regional dialects of Japanese, as this is spoken in a thick Iwate dialect.  Here’s a comparison of the two lines.

Miyazawa's sister's Iwate dialect
   Ameyuzyu totechitekenzya.
Standard Tokyo dialect
   Mizore yuki wo totte kite kudasai na.
As you can see, the lines sounds very different between the two dialects.
    It is interesting to note that Miyazawa refers to global warming in his novel, Gusukoobudori no Denki ("The Biography of Gusukoobudori,") considering he was a man born in 1896 in a rural town in northern Japan and that he never achieved any fame or extensive contacts with the outside world while he was alive.  He died in 1933 after publishing just two books while he was alive.  He became an internationally acclaimed author only after death.  Of course, it is even more curious that Akatsuki is the one quoting from an author known for his delicate sensibilities and acute attachment to land and rural life.
    I'd like to thank Mr. Ran Hiryu for giving me pointers about the line.

Double Hit Combo!! Floating in Space...
    Another wonderful Izumism.  Just reading out loud the original Japanese line will illustrate how powerful this double hit combo was.  "Uchuu de fuyu chuu…  Nezumi no zekku wa, U! chuu."  In English, it comes out to being "In a state of (chuu) Free floating (fuyuu) in space (uchuu)…  A mouse baffled (Zekku no nezumi) [would say,] Gak! Squeak (U! Chuu…)"
    After pulling out all my hair and being prescribed painkillers, I somehow came up with "Less filling diet cola float…  But there is no such thing as a free float."

Akiyama's Musings Part II
    One of the expressions that Akiyama uses to describe is "kaidanji" or as I translated it, "a dashing man of action."  Kaidanji is a difficult term to translate because there is so much meaning attached to it, but it basically is a term of admiration for a noble hearted man, someone you get a warm feeling just by watching him (yes, him) do something, like valiantly thwarting evildoers from picking on a young girl or teaching a young boy to behave.  It is one ideal image for a man in Japan, and that's what make it so infuriating for Yurika to be labeled as such.

There are actually even more Izumisms in the very end of the episode when they are doing the previews for the next episode, but I'll talk about that another time.


Back to Main Menu