Ep23: Sunset Hill
So I had time this morning, and translated the next episode of Mitsuganae. Which means I’m almost caught up, except for the episode that aired today (I have it downloaded already XD). Anyway, this is another easily understood episode hopefully; it’s something that could happen in any country that requires tuition for school, for example in the US, entering college might end up like this.
So, onto the small number of notes. These are again beginning to be things that interest me and are notable about Japanese culture, rather than things important for the plot. After all, anime watchers probably should know more about the culture they’re so in love with, right? ^_-
04:10 Recommendation – to get into high school in Japan, there are multiple ways. Normally, you would take the entrance exam (for which there is a unique one for each school), or more rarely, your middle school would recommend you to a high school, and if that’s accepted, you don’t even need to take the test. This is also notable in the last episode (22) since Sumika got into college through this same recommendation process, while Yuika had to take the test.
05:39 Some movie titles of note that I found hilarious, with references in ()’s:
- Rote of the Rink (Lord of the Rings)
- Jurassic Pearl (Jurassic Park)
- Heaven Girl/Tengoku Shoujo (Hell Girl/Jigoku Shoujo)
- Parry Potter and the Immortal Cat Knights (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?)
- Parry Potter and the Goblet of Wood (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
He really has WAY too many expensive things, though. What is that, like 10 different DVD/Video/BluRay/HDDVD/LaserDisc/BetaMax/CD/LP/8-track etc. players?
10:50 Koushien (甲子園) is the national high school baseball tournament in Japan, which goes on during the summer. It’s a really big deal, since it’s when you would get recruited to the Japanese major leagues and stuff. Lots of matches, lots of coordinated marching and fanfare.
13:27 Smoking seats – most restaurants in Japan still have smoking seats. They’re usually separated from the non-smoking area, but usually just by distance, not by any physical barrier. And regardless of what you think about second-hand smoke, remember that Japan’s life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, so it’s not THAT bad.
24:47 The next episode’s title has two translations: “Mayfly” or “Ephemera.” I guess they’re the same, in that both signify something lasting a very short amount of time.
Well, that’s it for this episode. Hopefully I can get 24 done soon, since it aired today, and people want their Jigoku Shoujo, especially as it reaches its finale. I’m excited; this was a long series with not a lot a plot until recently. Like that scene at the end of this episode when she saw all the people she had come into contact with involving the Hell Correspondence. That was spooky.
We definitely had too many hell-sendings-of-the-week in Mitsuganae, but this was a good one to end with. It sums up a couple of the main points Jigoku Shoujo likes to make: revenge is ultimately futile, and there are always two sides to the story. The rich kid and the bully are both sympathetic; damnation solves the rich kid’s immediate problem, but there are always more coming, and he’s all outta souls to sell. The bully’s sister is the real victim, of course, and that’s always how it is when people take revenge on each other. I’ve read about a scene in Kill Bill where the Bride, who’s on a bloody vendetta, meets the young son of a woman she’s just killed… and tells him she’ll be ready when he comes to take vengeance on her. “Cycle of violence” is a cliche, but there’s some truth to it.
I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the Ring movies, but lately Ai is borrowing more tricks from Sadako’s book. This is about the scariest thing she can do as far as I’m concerned, since Sadako scares the living hell out of me. This week’s example was her sudden appearance in the rich kid’s window. With trees behind her, she looked just enough like Sadako on the TV screen to spook me.
The last scene with Mikage did a good job setting the stage for the grand finale. Ai is still trying to get her point of view across, and it’s working. I was surprised at how few of the cameo characters I recognized… the stories this season have been memorable enough, but I guess that doesn’t mean I’ll know the characters to look at them.
I continue to get a big kick out of Kikuri… and I remain impatient to find out what the hell her deal is. She’s obviously not possessed by the King of Hell anymore. She’s not human, so what IS she? And why does she want to be Hell Girl now? I think the possibility was brought up at one point in Futakomori and she was indifferent to it.