Ep16: The Alluring Trap

Whoa! This one took me a while. I was traveling this weekend, so had no time – and weekdays are busy, so it took me until today, Wednesday, to finish this.

Anyway, it’s not a very confusing episode, since it’s about a lolicon (see 07:44) who is hated… and we have a classic Jigoku Shoujo hate-cycle going on.

07:44
Lolicon – comes from LOLIta CONplex (yes I know I spelt it wrong). it means pedophile, basically. Frowned upon in Japan (like anywhere else), but it’s especially a problem there because all that anime with little girls (e.g. Cardcaptor Sakura – she won internet character popularity contest).

Anyway, not much else to say – oh yeah, voice actors include Haruhi ones, namely Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon) and Kuwatani Natsuko (Asakura Ryoko).
And, you must appreciate how we now know Ai can see the future! Who is she, a god?!

Ep15: The Tortoise and the Hare

Hello everybody! Sorry about ep. 14 – it’s being encoded, and as some of you know, the first encode failed (;_;). So, while I post these notes, we still have yet to release ep. 14 – and for that matter, 15. Although, Koukaku no Regios got released today, so I’m happy \\(^o^ )( ^o^)//

Anyway, about this episode. I was surprised someone in Jigoku Shoujo finally got a boyfriend (I mean, they’re all meant to be cute, right? Also, Ai has thousands of admirers including beanbrew XD). Also, I found the sibling relationship rather interesting – aren’t siblings meant to get along?

Notes are minimal for this – note (heh) that Usagi (the girl’s name) means Hare, who is ironically called a Tortoise all the time, and Michi could mean Road or Unknown, pointing to the fact that his future path was rather indeterminate.

04:46 – Valentine’s Chocolates – In Japan, Valentine’s Day is when girls give guys chocolates, and White Day, about a month or so later, is when the guy would reciprocate those feelings with a gift back to the girl.

05:43 – Culinary School Book – When applying to college and high school, there are specific prep books for each one – in this case, Usagi has one for Culinary School. These books apparently sell pretty well. Some of these colleges (like Tokyo University) have books over a thousand pages long.

12:14 – Notice it’s an Apple iPhone. I know for a fact that SoftBank carries them in Japan, and they’re actually pretty nice – they have a Japanese style keypad setting, interfacing, GPS features… much like a normal Japanese phone, except with a bigger screen and no TV features. Yes, in Japan, many cell-phones nowadays are used to watch TV! Also, It’s weird how while ALL computers in Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae are PC’s running Vista with MSIE 6, Ai has a Mac (see previous episode) and now Michi has an iPhone.

13:24 – Yakiimo – This is the food she’s eating, sweet potato, known in Japan for giving people gas and making people fat, making it a frequent “guilty pleasure” of girls and women.

That’s it for episode 15… this series is rapidly developing like any Jigoku Shoujo series does at the end, which is both good and bad, I guess. I mean, next episode doesn’t even have a hell-sending – it’s only about the effects of sending someone to hell, according to the preview.

Ep14: The Street Corner of Hatred

w00t! Finally finished!
Yes, I know, this is late. But we picked up Regios this weekend, and that took priority (it’s a new anime, after all). I personally also had a busy weekend. Look forward to both this and that this week, though v(^_- )

Anyway, this was an interesting episode in that this takes place soon after the events of episode 13, and we finally get some explanation of the series. But of course, it’s still far from ideal.

00:30 I would translate all these book titles, but I’m too lazy. Unless Yuurisan wants to typeset all of it.
Anyway, some interesting ones:
1. Black Knight (the blue book near the very left) – Code Geass, anyone?
2. Tarizania (to the right) – I first thought, “Tytania”?! but I was wrong.
3. Strawberry Logic (two books to the right) – sounds VERY familiar… like, a mix of Strawberry… something and Maria†Holic.
4. Shonen Myanpu (dark blue, cover up) – Shonen Jump, with one character changed.
5. Shonen Monday (to the right of of the last one, light blue) – there’s a real magazine called Shonen Sunday.

00:38 Harajuku is a large shopping district in Tokyo, probably known for the brand of the same name.

02:23 This is large station – Shinjuku judging by the transfer stations (I actually researched this – the Yamanote (JR), Oedo (Toei), Marunouchi (Tokyo Metro), and Keio lines point to Shinjuku as the station), and the scene above ground, but the line itself is a mystery to me. It looks like the Odakyu line, since it’s blue, a non-JR line, and has a similar line structure. How this relates to the episode, I have no idea.
Oh, and I guess all that research was useless; 04:09 reveals it’s ACTUALLY Shinjuku. (;_;)
BUT, it does mean we can guess where Saigawara is – it might be in the Shizuoka prefecture, upstream from cities like Yokohama and such.

06:42 As a Mac fan, I must say I love the Macintosh Plus that Ai uses.

09:46 Cram school is like tutoring, except it’s not one-on-one, I’m pretty sure. She’s taking practice exams like how Americans would take practice SATs.

13:22 Here we see why the series is called Mitsuganae, which means Three-Legged Cauldron. He says people’s hearts are like these cauldrons with the 3(!) feelings of Hatred, Suffering, and Envy supporting them like legs. Yay for explanation!

15:49 “Aniki” means big brother – in this case, it functions like “senpai” I guess. Signifies respect for the person.

19:24 Return of the grandmother! I missed her… and her one line ^^

19:25 Nagajuban is a type of Japanese clothing – that is not a kimono. Apparently there are differences in how you wear it, and it was mostly worn in the Edo period for more relaxed, casual settings. Juban, which the Nagajuban is a type of, are sometimes regarded as underwear, but they’re unique as it has and is accepted as appropriate dress to be seen in.

20:12 This eye is the Eye of Shinjuku (L’Oeil de Shinjuku), located in the JR Shinjuku Station, West Exit (I believe), and was made in 1969. It’s actually pretty cool; the pupil has waves in it that look like they’re moving.

Well, that’s the long-awaited episode 14. We’re off to a bad start for 2009, looks like. And beanbrew just doesn’t seem to like us at all, either. I wonder when he’ll come back…

鋼殻のレギオス (Chrome Shelled Regios)

Well as you’ve seen, Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae ep. 14 is taking a while.
That’s because “we” picked up another series for this season: 鋼殻のレギオス (Chrome Shelled Regios). And just because I had no knowledge of this series before, it makes the vocabulary and such hard to decipher.

Not sure what to say, other than it looks like an exciting series, which is labeled as a “Fantasy School-Life” series according to the Japanese Wikipedia page.

Oh and I’m translating this as part of Yuurisan-Subs, so マイワイフ is uninvolved for this one. After all, beanbrew started this only to support his waifu, Ai; which reminds me, have any of you seen him lurking on the interweb recently?

（*´д｀*））Д Ｈаррч Йёш ЧёДЯ（☆≧∀≦★）

ｱｹｵﾒ! Happy New Year everyone!

I’m still in Japan, enjoying New Year’s Day in Tokyo now; I took the Shinkansen from Nagoya today.
On another note, I met an old friend in Nagoya yesterday; we went to a manga store (I bought doujinshi there), karaoke (10 floors!?!?!), and a cosplay café (Code Geass costumes, with Suzaku (uniform), Shirley (uniform), and C.C. (Black Knights uniform)). It was… interesting XD

Anyway, enough about me, thanks for watching our subs this past… 3 months! Although yuurisan still does much more work than we do (no really, I just translate and she does checking, timing, typesetting, and more…), it’s nice that this site has over 4,000 hits. Our season is finally half over (whoa, that’s a lot of time I spent translating), and there’s finally some plot, in a very characteristic and unique Jigoku Shoujo style ^^ www

Well, enjoy our (according to one AnimeSuki poster) “frankly not that good” subs for another year! No, really, if you have any problems, feel free to comment. I’m always idling in #maiwaifu, so ANYTHING you say there I will see. Eventually. I check that channel about once per day. Also feel free to AIM me (zaudragon) or e-mail me (tmurayama@gmail.com).

Well, Happy New Year yet again! Hopefully you all have a good year of the ox! Right? Yes. ｱｹｵﾒ!\(‘∀`)/

Ep13: The Six-Scripted Lanterns

Oh so I noticed that this post is more me talking about Akihabara than the actual notes, so you can skip whole paragraphs if it gets off track ^_-

So I’m in Japan right now, and I went to Akihabara today. I was in Gamers for quite a while, and visited most of the floors (I stayed away from the adult section)… it kind of scared me how 1. expensive and 2. ridiculous most of the merchandise was. I bought 3 books, the 2 Kara no Kyokai books, and the 9th novel of the Suzumiya Haruhi series. Cost me about $30. Oh and the 4th Lucky Star manga at another store. But it was worth it. Anyway, I did not have enough money for a figurine or anything… that was probably a good thing.

Anyway, on to the translation notes. Not like they’re that extensive. And I was all excited about actual plot in this episode… but it was pretty minor, more of a “and now the action will start” kind of turning point-ish episode that really doesn’t say much. I look forward to the change in Yuzuki’s character, though.

01:22 Hah, that’s the store Akira-kun was in with the woman from episode… I forget which.

07:23 MM… croquettes. The Japanese kind usually involve deep frying mashed potatoes with meat in them, crusted with bread crumbs. The sauce on top is Tonkatsu sauce, the type you also put on breaded pork (Tonkatsu) and fried octopus (Tako-yaki). That’s cabbage on the side, which is really good with that sauce, if I might add (^_-). Croquettes are actually quite difficult to make well (they can break easily, and you have to cook the mashed potatoes BEFORE frying), so it’s quite something that Akie has made them. … How did this note get so long?

12:12 Yes, in Japan High School is not required, so you can not go if you wanted to… of course, as the father points out, it’s hard to do anything if you DON’T go to high school.

13:22 Have I said this before? Mansion means condominium in Japan.

16:37 !!!! Shibata-sensei! It’s Tsugumi from season 1, what, 20 years later? OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, you would expect her to know a lot about Hell Girl, especially after season 2 where her father, I think, was doing more research on Hell Girl.

22:01 I must say that was good planning, with two different dolls and timing skillz. This also marks the third time I think where we have something like a 10 time repetition of one word: first with DIE! and then twice in this episode: Hypocrite! and Akie!

Well, that was an interesting episode. Hope you like next week’s, “The Street Corner of Hatred”! That preview with Ai translucent talking to Yuzuki looks very interesting. Oh and that blue ball that came flying out of Hell to Yuzuki was interesting.

OK, I’m done. You can go enjoy all your other Fall anime final episodes and Winter firsts now. There was a huge Akikan! advertisement up in the Akihabara JR station, by the way. I watched the first episode of that this morning… it’s interesting, I guess, but weird at the same time. And it seems like Toradora! and To Aru Majutsu no Index are pretty popular right now… with displays all over the place and all. Of course, most people had bags from Comiket with pictures of visual novels I’d never heard of. Anyway, keep watching!

★:゜*☆※＞o(‘▽’*)Merry Christmas(*’▽’)o＜※☆:゜*★

メリクリ！Merry Christmas!
By the way, if you ever need Japanese emoticons for any reason, the internet rocks. Especially for the Christmas ones.

Anyway, we (or actually, just I, which means beanbrew, edit this if you want to!) at ﾏｲﾜｲﾌ just want to say thanks for watching our subs. They might not be the best, but hey, I put lots of work into it! Although, Yuurisan puts way more into it than I do (I get the fun and easy job (^_-)v ).

I’m leaving for Japan on the 26th, so it’s going to be interesting whether or not I’ll be able to get translation in. Of course, I can watch all my anime in real time if I wanted to (wait, most of it’s past midnight, so maybe not…), which is AWESOME yet kind of sad at the same time, since I’ve been watching 10 different fall series and now some are ending.

By the way, since I haven’t heard any negative comments recently, I guess you guys are content with our subs. Hopefully enough to keep watching them!

Merry Christmas! Wait, I said that already.
Santa＆Reindeer *∠(´・ω・)っ-┗|´・_●・|┛

Ep12: Mid-Summer Graph

OK, these notes are based off of the TV-J raw, which might not be what we used. So, timing may be off. And hurray! I kind of finished on the same day as airing!

Anyway, some preliminary notes: the main character here is a stereotypical Japanese “キモヲタ” which is short for “きもいオタク” which means “disgusting nerd,” if you don’t know what “otaku” means. I know beanbrew does. Luckily, he barely *ahem* completely misses this category. It makes for an interesting episode.

And poor girl at the end. You’ll know which one I’m talking about afterward.

01:13 – Yakisoba is fried noodles, the noodles being wheat flour. It’s a very common Japanese summer food, and can include everything from chicken to beef to seafood. Usually flavored with a strong sauce, and some salt and pepper. Easy to make, especially on a hot-plate. You might try to make some sometime. Just throw in all your extra vegetables! And the next day, you can put it in bread or an omelette… or maybe that’s just what I do.

08:26 – I’m not sure what people say about eating too much chocolate in the States, but in Japan, it’s said that you get a bloody nose, hence Yama-waro’s reaction. I for one have eaten lots of chocolate, but never have gotten a bloody nose from it. Which reminds me, Nomura-kun has a strange reaction to things remotely sexual.

10:29 – I think you know what lolita is… basically, a girl that looks/acts young. It’s from a Russian book called lolita, where I think an old Russian dude likes 14 year old girls because his crush died when he was 14 and she was too. A ridiculous story I might read at some point, but not now.

EDIT: Hey, I got feedback! The commenter below (KoSSa) likes to be more specific:

Lolita as term for young girl or girl acting as yong one is based upon Russian-American autor Nabokov’s book Lolita.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

That was the book I was trying to refer to, by the way ^_^

11:05 – The Sign!

Notice
To Residents
Since recently there have been many bikes parked not of our residents, to combat this we have decided to instate sticker permits for parking.
Those who wish to park their bikes, even though it’s trouble, please see the city council and please apply there.
Also, the deadline is the end of this month, so please, again, do not forget.
July 1st Saigahara City Council

11:48 – I’m pretty sure you know by context that lowering your head is a sign of respect.

13:56 – I love that tiger and air guitar combination XD Either a reference to something that I don’t know, or alternatively, it’s just him as the character in the manga he drew.

24:15 – This is a standard Japanese practice of sending souls down a river using lanterns. It’s pretty to watch, if not cool enough for its soulfulness.

Well, I’m done! I’m excited for next week… looks like there’s going to be some plot this time!

Ep11: The Blotted Page

Well, here’s episode 11. I’m on a roll! Anyway, this episode was tight in that… well, I’ll explain later not to spoil the fun. A writer writes a book that inspires serial murders, is the general premise. Sounds so anime-like that it’s ridiculous.

1:04 – Here’s the newspaper text (Yuurisan might typeset it, but you’re not about to read it carefully):

Mysterious Serial Murders by Pushing Victims off of a Building: 4th Victim!
A Mysterious Mystery, the perpetrator is yet to be found
    5 months almost pass after February this year, when a 17 year old girl was found after falling to her death. Victims have increased, and the beginning of this month marks the 4th victim.
    The girl was found shortly after falling, and according to witnesses, a dumbbell suddenly fell from the building. Even though it is unbelievable, shortly after, the girl smashed against the sidewalk.
    After seeing such a gruesome incident, of the witnesses, 5 fell over from shock and losing consciousness, and an ambulance was called. One is still in the hospital.
    From these incidents, excluding this one, it is important to note the misery from the past 3 occurrences.
    With similar modus operandi being used in 4 incidents within 5 months, the police are chasing the murderer as a peculiar and dirty crime, with full commitment. However, after having yet another victim appear again, some doubt the process of investigation.

04:38 – Kamisaka Rokurou, the author, searched for his book, 『摩天楼の影』 (Matennrou no Kage, The Skyscraper’s Shadow) in what looks like Google with two e’s, and is looking at 5-chan (clearly a reference to 2chan) and reading people’s reactions to his book, and the murder. “nanasi” is a prolific poster – because it means “anonymous.” Here is the full text of the conversation on the internet, if Yuurisan doesn’t typeset it:

82:sora 07/06 08:22:11
   Isn’t that dangerous? He’s encouraging crime!

83:sandawww 07/06 10:10:10 ID???
   Serial. The murderer evidently became someone different, I presume. Not stopping at coming out so much

84:nanasi 07/06 10:11:12
   It won’t get censured after becoming a murder manual, right?
   As a fan, I’m worried about that.
   The main character’s state of mind, I can relate with

85:nanasi 07/06 14:50:08
   Dangerous idea
   Maybe the author has some problems with the world?
   Demagogue. This is bad.

86:ppdppdd 07/06 17:20:03
   The end of the word, eh?

87:kheh 07/06 22:10:04
   I offered flowers to the 4th one. And a skyscraper… was there.

88:kkokko 07/06 22:57:18
   Touché

89:nanasi 07/06 23:59:01
   He’s mad

90:ppdppdd 07/07 00:00:00
   Yet again the relation with the incident is questioned.

91:nanasi 07/07 11:15:05
   Even though recently it was barely in the corner of a book store…

92:nanasi 07/07 15:32:08
   The influence of the incident is huge! I didn’t know.
   People like us are going to show up.
   Maybe I should write a suspense story.
   Someone write it!

93:ppdppdd 07/07 18:32:20
   I read this book, but it wasn’t interesting

94:nanasi 07/07 20:20:00
   That’s it.

95:nanasi 07/07 23:27:09
   Because of the incident, the book will sell and the author will get famous

96:nanasi 07/07 23:55:14
   Exactly!
   Maybe the publisher is planning it?

97:nanasi 07/07 23:55:14
   I agree probably leaked by the publisher as a publicity stunt

98:nanasi 07/08 01:15:16
   I read the book because of the incident, too.

07:29 – This is most certainly NOT a high class periodical – it’s one of those second rate ones, with fake articles about the book, fights in hospitals, and brainwashing. I guess the youth crime article could be legitimate. But it’s a weird cover for the contents, no?

10:45 – Grades are usually numbered in Japan. I’ve gotten grades out of 5 before, but it seems like their school has it out of 7. Or maybe 10. The 3 for Math could be said to be a a low C or D, in American terms, I guess.

13:58 – If you remember, Shibata from season 1 was a freelance writer, with the same kind of feelings that he had no power or influence. So true. And yet, if you don’t want to sacrifice your morals, I guess you have to make do with what little power you hold.

22:28 – Furigana is what younger kids use to read Kanji (Chinese Characters) in books, that appear as Hiragana in the margins.

Well, that episode was good! Needed quite a lot more time than the last ones, because all the TS work yuurisan needs to do relies on me translating all the different signs (I even translated the newspaper, even though it probably was not necessary!). Hope you liked it!

Oh and I was disappointed – even though 4 curses is quite exciting, I really wanted Kamisaka to curse himself; that would’ve been much cooler (I thought that’s what it was going to be – guess not). That twist at the end was interesting though.

Next time (ep12) comes out Saturday, and I hope we can release it soon after Saturday comes. I mean, we’re fully caught up and everything! What a nice feeling.

Ep10: The Goldfish in the Mirror

Mmm… these translations are going fast! Anyway, this episode, I must say, is kind of ridiculous. After all, as a guy, it’s kind of hard to comprehend why she wants to buy so many kimono. Isn’t a few enough? And, this episode is so vague in its ending that I want to know how it’s resolved. Whatever. Enjoy!

04:10 – This is a classic Japanese situation. The father works so much that he hardly sees his own wife and child, leading his wife to be worried about him, and his son feeling distant, as evidenced by the money present-thing.

05:11 – Hooray for the internet! I feel bad for not knowing this nursery song – I probably heard it growing up, but I mean, it’s not a song you would sing much past kindergarten. It’s about a cute red goldfish – as you could expect from the subtitles, and it’s called “The Goldfish’s Nap.” Anyway, lyrics to those interested (the website even has sound!):

金魚の昼寝

赤いべべ着た
可愛い金魚
おめめをさませば
御馳走するぞ

赤い金魚は
あぶくを一つ
昼寝うとうと
夢からさめた

05:45 – “Fight!” is not what it sounds like. You don’t say it when you want people to fight, you say it when you want them to work hard. Like “Let’s go!” or something like that.

06:11 – 鬼 (Oni) is, to put it simply, the Japanese equivalent of the Greek Cyclops. Imagine giant monsters with big sticks. You might remember that Momo-taro went to kill the Oni. It’s like calling someone the Devil in the US.

06:17 – 閻魔大王 (Enma Daiou) is “the Great King Enma” according to my dictionary. Imagine Hades in Greek mythology, and you get the picture. Also, note that 閻魔 (Enma) is Enma Ai’s name, pointing back to the fact that she is, in fact, descendent (ascendent? haha) from Hell.

06:20 – S is short for Sadism. Likewise, in Japan, M is Masochism. It’s ridiculous how short Japanese people make words sometimes; now one letter in the Roman alphabet has a WHOLE LOT of negative connotation.

08:12 – If you didn’t know, there are so many types of kimono that if the US tried to buy them all, it would make the US go bankrupt and therefore cause global economic collapse. Which would suck.

Well, that’s it. Hope you like it!