Haiyore! Nyarlko 11 – notes and the like This entry was posted by Vale.
They’re playing Mario Kart on Nintendo 64. The “drifting” and the “banana” gives away the former, their controllers the latter.
Her name, Ghutatan is a distortion of G’tanta, another name for Ghatanothoa (used in the name for the Ghatanothoa Conglomerate) mentioned in Out of the Aeons. The short story features a quite thorough description of what Ghatanothoa is and what it can do. Her pose imitates the traditional greeting of Akari from YuruYuri.
The spiral design of her hair is based on the shell of Gatanozoa (katakana distortion of Ghatanothoa), a giant monster from the tokusatsu Ultraman Tiga. Lloigor are a race that appear as servants of Ghatanothoa in August Derleth’s Lair of the Star Spawn. Major Roy Fogger is a character in Macross. (There’s another reason he calls himself Major, but that reference only becomes clear in the final episode.) By the way, the Lloigor’s voice actor is the same Nakata Jouji who voiced Chaser Jon Doe in Yumekui Merry. Just pointing it out because I love his character.
As you can probably guess, the background is from Monster Hunter (as usual with her scenes). Also: damn applefags.
A reference to My Melody, the main character of (now guess what) Onegai! My Melody. The little creature used to say “pretty please” just the same way.
She twists the word なるほど (naruhodo) into ニャルほど (nyaruhodo) as a reference to her own name. This was a running “gag” in the Nyarlko radio show.
Left: a reference to the cover of Bungaku Shoujo (Book Girl). Right: a reference to the Moe Guide to the World of Cthulhu (萌え絵で巡る！クトゥルー世界の歩き方).
Left: a reference to a colored illustration for R’lyeh Lulu 2 (ルルイエ ルル). Right: the giant robot Demonbane from (guess what) Demonbane (斬魔大聖デモンベイン).
Both are references to former roles of Nyarlko’s voice actress, Asumi Kana. The artistic high school girl refers to Yuno(cchi) from Hidamari Sketch and the (closet) nudist refers to Kitahara Mio from Ano Natsu.
Refer to the preview in episode 10.
Those are shoggoths from the Cthulhu myth (prominent for example in Mountains of Madness). They always cry “tekeli-li”. They’re also on the roof, in a reference to the Fiddler on the Roof parody by the Lovecraft Society titled A Shoggoth on the Roof.
The cover of the game is very similar to that of R’lyeh Lulu 2. The stupidly long title (恋する邪神はせつなくてお兄ちゃんを崇拝するとすぐいあいあしちゃうの It’s tough to be an evil deity in love. When I worship Brother, we iä! iä!) is a reference to an actual eroge with a similar stupidly long title (恋する妹はせつなくてお兄ちゃんを想うとすぐHしちゃうの – I’m not translating this). The thing the girl’s hugging on the cover is probably a Mi-Go (mentioned in The Whisperer in Darkness among others).
A reference to Yayoi’s song from Idolm@ster.
Dagon Yogurt. Is it just me or “yogurt” sounds very similar to Yuggoth? It’s a planet mentioned in The Whisperer in Darkness and also appears in the title of Fungi From Yuggoth. Shaggai (from where those bugs come from) is another planet, further out than Yuggoth. It appears in a Cthulhu myth novel by Ramsey Campbell titled (guess what) Insects from Shaggai.
The way she announces the Mirror’s name is a clear homage to Doraemon’s characteristic way of speaking. The appearance of the Mirror is very similar to the mirror of Atsuko from Himitsu no Akko-chan. Nitocris is mentioned in Herodotus’s Histories as the last queen (pharaoh) of the sixth dynasty in ancient Egypt, but it’s unclear whether she really existed. She’s mentioned as an undead queen of the sixth dynasty in Lovecraft’s Under the Pyramids. The Mirror itself is from Brian Lumley’s Mirror of Nitocris. The way those black tentacle-like hands look and move reminded me a lot of the hands of the Gate from Fullmetal Alchemist.
ISO 9001 is a real quality standard.
Pretty Rhythm is an arcade game. It was adapted to an anime a few years ago as well. When she falls over, she goes gyafun which her voice actress must be really used to. She voiced Harune Aira in Pretty Rhythm, who went gyafun more often than not.
Her pose is a homage to Aihara Nana from the dating sim KimiKiss.
The thing in her hair is probably Ghatathoa.
This one is based on the “I said it twice because it’s important” phrase from a dental tablet’s (Tough Dent by Kobayashi Pharma) CM.
Imitates Munch’s Scream.
For some reason this reminded me of the Adams in Eva 2.22.
Song of Yste is a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore that appears in Robert Lowndes’s Cthulhu myth novel The Abyss.
The girl in black on the left is probably Alicia Y. Armitage from the Cthulhu-themed manga titled (guess what) Alicia Y (the only difference is that in the manga Alicia’s blonde). She’s saying 血を吸うとろか (chi wo suutaro ka), roughly: “Shall I suck your blood?”, which is the running gag of the comedian Hazama Kanpei.
Regarding this grilled octopus stand, refer to my episode 7 notes. The soda she offers is a reference to the Deep Ones from the Cthulhu myth.
Both “lost Shoggoth” and what they say about them (regarding weakness, rarity, XP etc) are references to the Liquid Metal Slime (Lost Metal in the original) in Dragon Quest.
The shoggoth are mumbling “cyclone… metal…” which is a reference to the CycloneMetal form of Kamen Rider W. Nyarlko’s “time to splatter your guts” is reference to Tokiko’s famous catchphrase from Busou Renkin (武装錬金). Her punch series imitates Kenshiro’s Hundred Cracking Fist (Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken) from Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳).
“This is the end nyan.” is a line from Mayoi Neko Overrun’s first opening song. This episode of Nyarlko was written by Kimura Noboru, who also wrote multiple episodes of Overrun.
As far as I know, Hasta’s Windbreaker is not a reference. The word “windbreaker” was imported into Japanese as katakana, and many people don’t know what it actually means. Such people often believe that it’s some superhero’s special ability, because “it sounds so cool”. On the other hand, Cthuko’s Venom is a reference to Dark Schneider’s attack from Bastard! (written 爆霊地獄 but read “venom”).
Reference to Kamen Rider Kiva’s “wake up fever”.
She sings the level up chime from Dragon Quest.
Yamcha fell just the same way in Dragon Ball when a Saibaman exploded on him. It’s a scene that can make any Dragon Ball fan weep.
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.” (“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”) Try pronouncing it, it’s fun. Really feels like you’re about to summon some underworld creature. It’s also the original title of Nyarlko when Aisora Manta (the writer) signed it up for GA’s light novel contest.
After this episode was aired, artwork on the official site only showed Mahiro without any of the other characters. The whole disappearing business bundled with time reset reminds me of the Vanishment of Suzumiya Haruhi and Endless Eight.