Not Red Reviews

I’m not translating Nyarlko, but I check the script before it gets edited and try my best to make it funny when the Japanese is funny. Sadly that’s quite hard. But at least in the form of these notes I want to explain what are references and jokes in the episode. I hope reading these will make it more funny for you – it sure is hilarious for me. I use wikis, 2ch, blogs and of course google to find out what’s supposed to be what.

The most important part of the show.

I suggested changing “mother” to something like “great breeder” (the one who bred Mahiro) and “son” to “scion” or “offspring”, to make her lines sound more… Nyarlathotepian.

Her line here (未来もとい星の国からはるばるとやって参りました mirai motoi hoshi no kuni kara harubaru to yatte mairimashita) is a reference to the first episode of Doraemon, where every Japanese person’s favorite earless blue cat introduces himself as having come “all the way from the distant future”. She almost says that too, but “corrects” it.

CR did a great job with this line, something about a “Hanabatake farm”. The Japanese original (脳味噌お花畑牧場 noumiso ohanabatake bokujou) literally means “a ranch of flowery fields in your brain”, but of course it’s not meant to be literally interpreted. It means that you’re going nuts from positive emotions, like happiness or love.

I can’t catch what exactly is she saying in Japanese, so I had to trust CR with this. If you know what this “false god hunter of the black book” is, tell me.

Why can’t I hold all these Evangelion references?

If you take out the ザ (za) from the マザーズ・アタック (mazaazu atakku), then you get Mars Attacks!, the 1996 sci-fi comedy movie. In the original novels it’s a bit different, there it’s a Gundam reference.

She’s addicted to sononium and husbandic acid. She needs to get a dose of it every once in a while or the withdrawal symptoms drive her nuts.

This whole thing is a Monster Hunter reference. The way she looks in the flashbacks looks like Yukumo from Monster Hunter Portable 3. The “Let’s go hunting!” (一狩りに行くわよ hitokari ni iku wa yo) is probably a reference to a variety program of a similar title (一狩りに行こうぜ hitokari ni ikou ze) that’s all about Monster Hunter. The False God Hunter Frontier (邪神ハンターフロティア jashin hantaa furontia) is a reference to Monster Hunter Frontier. The subtitle is “Over a pile of dead bodies” (いくつモノ死体をかさねて ikutsu-mono shitai wo kasanete). If you recognize the monster she’s slaying, don’t hesitate to tell me.

I don’t think I need to explain the “love” + “craft” joke.

Apparently “kissy-kissy lovey-dovey” (ちゅうちゅうらびゅらびゅ chuuchuu rabyurabyu) is the name of the marriage system in the PSP game Elminage II. You can have babies from monsters you summon and you can give them weapons and gear just as Cthuko says.

I have no idea what that “Kyubatan” is supposed to be.

The Dreamlands are a location in Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle. The Leng Plateau mentioned in episode two is a part of it.

I think “hopelesserious” is a good translation for 激マジ (gekimaji, lit. overwhelmingly/violently serious).

Pioneer’s LaserActive game console.

That’s the way you order insane amounts of topping (quite literally a mountain) in the popular Ramen-jiro (ラーメン二郎) chain restaurants. The fans of the restaurant are called Jiroreans (ジロリアン), which is why…

Here we have the famous DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future.

She quotes the opening song of Kamen Rider W word for word.

Even false gods learn.

Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, an Outer God or Great Old One (opinions vary) in the Cthulhu Mythos.

Xbox, PS3.

Sonic bombs are iconic weapons in Monster Hunter.

That’s Hastur’s mark, the Yellow Sign. Hastur is apparently a god of the wind, though I have trouble finding any official references to this.

They’re actually selling this “yes/no cushion”.

This is a quite complex reference. I think they’re directly quoting Code Geass or Kamen Rider W, which in turn both paraphrase Marlowe: “don’t shoot it at people, unless you get to be a better shot.”

If you know Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), then you know this (lines from Toki vs Raoh, pose from Rei and Kenjiro’s “match”).

Another Cthulhu Mythos creature.

He says 時間の角に頭をぶつけて (jikan no kado ni atama wo butsukete, lit. break your head on the corner of time), which is a paraphrasing of the the common curse 豆腐の角に頭をぶつけて死ね (toufu no kado ni atama wo butsukete shine), which literally means “smash your head on the corner of a tofu block”. It’s a way to tell idiots to fuck off win a way that they won’t understand (try breaking your head on a block of tofu and you’ll know why). I guess that for a false god who exists outside the binds of our concepts of timespace, hitting her head on the corner of time is just as absurd. Sorry for losing the joke.

The Dunwich Horror is one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories. (Really bad pun. Dunwich is a village.)

Moe overloa— ohwait.

The center of ultimate chaos is Azathoth, the greatest god in the Cthulhu Mythos. She’s raping a men fashion magazine’s catchphrase, “Gaia told me to sparkle brighter” (intentionally fabulous translation by me – original: ガイアが俺にもっと輝けと囁いている gaia ga ore ni motto kagayake to sasayaiteiru).

Not “hasta la vista” (yet, though I can totally imagine them pulling that joke), just Hasta (ハス太 hasuta, where the ta is a typical suffix in boys’ names). She adds the honorific “kun” typically used for boys. We don’t use honorifics, so youncle serves that purpose. In the Cthulhu Mythos Hastur may be actually older than Nyarlathotep and Cthugha, but here their ages are not clear.

“New product! Tokyo Burger!” and “WiFi available”. The dog reminds me of the mascot dog of Softbank, a Japanese cell phone provider.

Celaeno is place in the Cthulhu Mythos, also present in ancient Greek mythology (where it refers to a number of creatures).

Hastur’s father is probably Yog-Sothoth.

I wonder what this “great X conspiracy” will be. It’s probably a reference to something again, but there are just too many possibilities.

This entry was posted by Vale.