Rookie Policewoman Kiruko: Research Notes

Maxybee's is image heavy so it can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_NZdxScnLOlzanB64ISiNdimuL1ILz_BxVTlLaVAWSU/edit

Tucker

Title:

• Shinmai Fukei Kiruko-san  新米婦警キルコさん
  • Sheem-mai Fɯ-kay Kee-rɯ-ko sahn
  • “Rookie Policewoman Kiruko-san”
  • “Shinmai” literally means “unpolished rice,” but is a common way to refer to someone who is new/inexperienced
  • Due to a common sound change, most native speakers would pronounce the “n” in shinmai as an M sound (technically, it assimilates the bilabial feature of the following phoneme, but we don’t need to get technical if you don’t want to, baby).

Author

• Hirakata, Masahiro 平方 昌宏（ひらかた まさひろ)
  • Hee-rah-kah-tah, Mah-sah-hee-ro

Characters

• Otonashi, Kiruko 音無キルコ（おとなし キルコ）
  • Oh-toh-nah-shee, Kee-rɯ-ko
  • Family name is written as “without a sound” but also sounds very close to the adjective “otonashii,” which means obedient/well-behaved. Obviously supposed to be ironic.
• Anjou, Haruki 安錠 春樹（あんじょう はるき）
  • Ahn-joe, Ha-rɯ-kee
  • Family name means “safety lock,” personal name means “tree blooming in spring”
  • We need a safety lock on this dude’s pants
• Tsutsu’i, Kanjuurou 筒井巻十郎（つつい かんじゅうろう）
  • Tsɯ-tsɯ-ee, Kahn-jɯɯ-roe
  • family written as “round well,” personal name written as “boy/man with ten scrolls”...I don’t think it has any significance
• Uchigane, Chiaki 撃鉄 知秋 （うちがね ちあき）
  • Ɯ-chee-gah-nay, Chee-ah-kee
• Onigawara 鬼瓦 （おにがわら）
  • Oh-nee-gah-wah-rah
  • Written as “ogre roof tile” for some reason
• Rai and Mei Cooper
  • Like “rye” and “may”
• Jean Smith
  • Katakana suggests that this receives the English pronunciation rather than the French pronunciation, so it is the same as “blue jeans”
• Otonashi, Touko 音無トウコ
  • Toe-ko

Other

• Orthrus
  • A two-headed dog who was the brother of Cerberus in Greek mythology. Killed by that fuckboy Hercules.
• “Weed Spirit”/雑草魂 (ざっそうだましい) Zassou-damashii
  • This is a shitty translation of 雑草魂. While it does literally mean “spirit of weeds,” it’s more a saying that refers metaphorically to the tenacity of weeds (hardy, grow anywhere, hard to get rid of). Translating it literally like this makes it seem like the protagonist is a stoner out of nowhere
• Jibapunahan’
  • Apparently it’s Malay for “extinction”
• “Gravure Idols”
  • “Gravure” is short for “rotogravure,” which is a type of printing.
  • I’m not totally sure what on earth they’re referring to with this, but I bet it’s something similar to what in English we would call “pin-up girls”