Not Red Reviews

Again some horrible rakugo from Kigu.

Jintan here isn’t the main character from Ano Hana, it’s a breath freshener candy. All the others are references to real Japanese booze snacks and sweets.

John Carpenter directed the 1978 Halloween horror movie (and worked on a few of its sequels).

As you’re probably used to it by now, Urayasu refers to Disneyland. She’s saying Disney popularized the whole Halloween hype in Japan (for obvious business reasons).

Familiar with the concept of political correctness? A few lines later she mentions the “precious rights of people” too. If in this world Disneyland can’t even be mentioned on air, there are some serious problems.

She’s mimicking Mickey Mouse’s voice.

Yep, it is.

Japan has plenty of territorial disputes with its neighbors. The most recent and most escalated is the one about the Senkaku islands with China. Burning the country and experimenting are references to North Korea and its threats to the South. The North Korean army threatened to burn the whole “Southern government” (eg Seoul) to ashes. They also threaten the whole world to lift the trade embargo against them or they’ll do even more nuclear experiments.

The flashing images are all Halloweenified Japanese festivals. The first is the usual end-of-the-year charity fundraising. The second is the traditional (New Year’s) prayer at shrines. The next is some Buddhist imagery, must be some god or something. The one on the image above are the koinobori “flags” traditional on the Boy’s Day (Children’s Day) on May 5th.

She’s innocently referring to the story of Momotarou, who gave his companions kibidango in exchange for following him. The drug thing is a possible reference to Oshio Manabu’s drug scandal that led to the death of a hostess.

Peach John is a company specializing in female underwear. It’s also connected to Oshio Manabu’s case.

Peach Girl and Wedding Peach are real manga. Princess Peach is a character in the Nintendo Mario Brothers.

Songs from the Nerunerunerune and Umaibou ads.

For your information, KISS is not death metal.

They’re really only saying that. Or actually, at one or two points they may change it to “pork bowl” but I’m not exactly sure about it.

I see what you did there.

Kukuru refers to Johannes Krauser II from Detroit Metal City, but Marii mistakes that for Wolfgang Krauser from Fatal Fury 2.

Joshiraku is an MBS production, while K-On! was TBS. The K-On! movie is about the girls going to England.

Kyoto Animation and JC Staff. The former produced K-On! (and are obviously based in Kyoto), while the latter produces Joshiraku, based in Musashi-Sakai, Tokyo (I was going there shopping all the time when I lived in Tokyo).

They’re doing the red paperclip / Straw Millionaire kind of trading. Also that’s an obvious Madoka reference there. The DVD in the previous shot was Milky Holmes (probably).

The three syllables of “sweets” (お菓子 okashi) are the initials of the three things that kids must remember in case of disaster (as pointed out in the end). The girls’ education must’ve been bad, because Gankyou lists Osprey, Kashiwazaki and consumption tax. All of those refer to current topics of Japanese politics. The Osprey V-22 planes are feared by the Japanese because they are believed to have lots of accidents, causing damages for Okinawans living near the American bases. Kashiwazaki is a city in Niigata with a nuclear power plant, referring to the public (almost panic-like) opposition to nuclear power in Japan since last year’s earthquake and the following nuke plant problems. The government has also decided to raise the consumption tax from 5% as well (I think it’ll be 10% in a few years). Kukuru mentions Obama, Kaddafi and “the warlord”, a common nickname for Kim Jong-Il.

Suehirotei is a real rakugo theater in Shinjuku. Apparently that’s where the girls belong. (Sadly I couldn’t spot anyone on the schedule with the girls’ names.) Drop by if you’re in Tokyo and know enough Japanese to enjoy comedy.

In the background, Yoshinoya, a Japanese beef bowl fast food chain.

Again, it’s a real place. I guess you get the idea what kind of a place it is from the dialog.

It’s the area where the people who lived around the Kisshou temple moved after the great fire in the Meiji era, bringing the name with them. The universities mentioned later have moved their campuses to the suburbs of Tokyo. The Mukougaoka theme park shut down in 2002. Yukarigaoka is named after eucalyptuses (called yuukari ユーカリ in Japanese). Most of the background shops are references to real places too.

Again a reference to Ebizou’s encounter with tequila and an ashtray.

The Wanderer’s Notebook featured a famous somersault scene, mentioned in an earlier episode too.

The sign reads “Anime Character Battle Royale Fair”.

That sounds and looks like Mickey Mouse beating up Doraemon.

It was (is) considered the red light and mafia (yakuza) district of Tokyo. I once walked through there alone in the night, let’s just say I wouldn’t advise you to do the same. The local police have been putting in huge efforts to break down crime and raise public safety, and it’s working, but still. I actually share Marii’s opinion, it was kinda cool to have a district like that too. The shops and establishments in the following scenes are references to real places as well.

The South Bronx picture is a reference to the movie The Warriors, and the Johannesburg scene refers to the South African sci-fi District 9.

Back in the day, Iranians selling illegal phone cards, or people trying to sell you thinner bottled in energy drink bottles was common. The guy riding by dressed in flowers on a bicycle is probably the legendary Shinjuku Tiger, a real person. Getting invited to hostess bars every step is still common. Gang wars aren’t.

That sign is in the wrong place (it should be back at the Loft Plus One scene). I guess that’s my fault, because I translated and used the timestamps from the TV recording and not the raw used in the release.

The English title of the movie is Yakuza, but the Japanese title literally translates to Like a Dragon.

Obviously dentists make the least profit off stuff covered by insurance.

That’s the Camera Man from the famous Movie Thief warning showed in Japanese cinemas before movies, warning you not to pirate. (Now it’s ironic that someone actually recorded and uploaded the warning itself.)

Lots of puns. Dentist clinic is shika (歯科) in Japanese, something that’s very easy to mix into other words, especially adjectives. Apparently lots of clinics have punny names like that. I wrote puns for them, but here are the originals (skipping the one above):

• 田野歯科 (tano shika), pun on 楽しい (tanoshii), “fun”
• たくま歯科医院 (takuma shika iin), pun on 逞しい (takumashii), “strong”
• ア歯科 (a shika), pun on 海驢 (ashika), a kind of seal
• ナウ歯科クリニック (nau shika kurinikku), a pun on ナウシカ, Nausicaä
• 岡歯科 (oka shika), a pun on おかしい (okashii), “weird”
• スヴァラ歯科 (suvara shika), I’d say a pun on 素晴らしい (subarashii), “wonderful”
• 久和歯科 (kuwa shika), a pun on 詳しい (kuwashii), “detailed”, “well-informed”

It’s about Cheburashka, a Russian cartoon mouse(-like creature).

Those would be a pain to translate into puns and even more to typeset. Here they go:

• がっきゅう医院 (gakkyuu iin), pun on 学級委員, “class representative”
• そこが医院 (sokoga iin), a pun on そこがいいん, “that’s the place”
• フェード医院 (feedo iin), a pun on “fade in”
• かふぇ医院 (kafe iin), a pun on “caffeine”
• きゃ医院 (kya iin). I’m not exactly sure about this one, could be a pun on the grammar structure “it’s fine as long as”
• すてぃーぶまっく医院 (sutiibumakku iin), a pun on Steve McQueen
• めん医院ぶらっく３ (men iin burakku 3), a pun on Men in Black 3
• 九医院ずぶれいど (kyuu iin zubureido), a pun on Queen’s Blade

Friday the 13th and Psycho.

A twist on the Hi there old man (ハイサイおじさん haisai ojisan) song.

The music here is very much like the theme song of Pythagoras Switch.

JC Staff must’ve had lots of animation money left to do this.

Nishiyama Hidehiko, Japan’s nuclear agency spokesman regarding the Fukushima accident.

This entry was posted by Vale.