Kamidu

Poking Around Pt 96

Added 2020-07-15 01:17:09 +0000 UTC

Phew. Another Poking Around page has appeared and it is stuffed to the gills with a lot of subtext. So much so, I had to trim down to the bone so this page wouldn’t take any longer to produce than it has done. So I say at nearly 2am at the time of writing this entry before posting. (EDIT: In fact, I had to reupload this several hours later because of several typos I had missed! Sorry!)

Anyway, I’ll say this too: it’s just a story, and not an actual reflection of my present views or harsh criticism or anything to get worked up about. Please remember that from the mid-2010s, a lot of things changed very fast, and I’m basing this loosely on what happened just before then. I also had to be careful with the TL notes too, of which there are a lot.

Please do enjoy this page, and, in a first, please also enjoy the attachments of what the younger Kuroki was looking at in the final panel. More next month!

TL Notes:

奥手 okute: Late-bloomer (colloquially, someone whose physical or mental development is slower than average)
出る釘は打たれる: Reads as deruku gi hautareru. Kuroki already translated it.
May-Lee: Reference to when a fairly flamboyant character decided to imitate his rival. To this day, I think “May, We Harley Drew’d Ya!” is the best dub-title I’ve ever seen.
“You-Know-What”: The word Kuroki is avoiding is オカマ O-kama, a Japanese term that used to refer to effeminate men, particularly cross-dressers. But it doesn’t specifically mean they’re part of the well-known umbrella acronym (which would be ゲイ gei). Anyway, the concept used to be a popular brand of slightly off-colour humour, which led to a number of issues when some Japanese products were localised for American audiences. Most notably on my radar, this popular pirate franchise and this paper-themed video game. However, its use has very slowly declined in Japan since the 2010s, due to negative connotations and evolving ideologies/sensibilities.
海月姫: Reads as Kurage-hime, or Princess Jellyfish. Based on the manga, the 2014 movie and 2018 tv drama centres on five socially-awkward young ladies trying to save themselves from being evicted with the help of a fabulous but mysterious ‘Kurano’… . The creature wearing the shirt is meant to be this.
‘Change your Universe’: a portmanteau of this character and this creature. I’m sorry, I just can’t un-see it.
The girl in the hat: A reference to this, though the uniform is based on the movie version.
Panpourah’s Box: A mash-up of this monkey, and a Greek story, immortalised as a phrase.
がいオタ: Gaiota is a portmanteau of 外人 gaijin (foreigner) and オタク otaku (geek/nerd/enthusiast). Portmanteaus are really common shorthand in Japanese.
Gakusei: Spelt with this Kanji 学制, it means the Japanese educational system.
‘Sou Lah Gei’s How to Look Good, NOW’: Referring to another makeover TV show of the 2000s. Sou Lah Gei is derived from 소라게 solage, the Korean for hermit crab: part of a portmanteau of this crab and Gok Wan (the presenter of aforementioned show).
‘Queens of Straight-Up Fashion’: Spoofing a then-popular American makeover TV show of the 2000s. Recognise the characters depicted?
Manufactured positivity: This chap can explain it better than I.
Ginpachirasu-Sensei: A portmanteau of 銀 gin (silver), this electric squirrel, and Kinpachi-sensei, a long-running television drama focusing on the titular teacher dealing with Japanese social issues of the day. The progressive series (it was the first mainstream Japanese television show to examine gender dysphoria back in 2001) ended after a massive 32 years in 2011.
The Asanan Shinpou: Spoofing one of Japan’s oldest national daily newspapers, it’s a mash-up of the Japanese name of this creature, and 新報 shinpō, an outdated term for newspaper. Nowadays, 新聞 shinbun is used instead.
どうしよう同窓会か: Reads as “dōshiyō ni dōsōkai ka?” which translates to “What Shall We Do With the (Graduate Class) Reunion?”
クーリエ: Reads as courier. The ‘I’ is a double-meaning as both “I”, and 愛 ai (love). The final episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion used this double-meaning, but actually took the phrase from an American sci-fi story collection.
怪しいお菓子か食べますか? : Reads as “kaishī okashi ka tabemasu ka?” which loosely translates as “Do You Eat Suspicious Sweets?” It’s probably grammatically wrong, but coming up with alliteration in Japanese is hard…
LG Horizon: A portmanteau of this tech firm and this... thing that somehow survived a tax evasion scandal and got a third anime series commissioned.
Nirvana and Gehenna: Pretty much heaven and hell, though in some belief systems, Gehenna is seen more as Purgatory. It was also a Buddyfight episode and surprisingly, the card deck it was based on remained unaltered in the West, despite the quasi-faith-based overtones.