Although the sun forgives you, Yuuki
Miaka will not! Instead of the sky, I'll punish you!Liner Notes Chapters 1-5
Kiyotsukete!!! These liner notes contain SPOILERS for FY chapters!!! Be careful about reading ahead, you might learn something before you want to!!!!!
Chapter One"Who is the author of Tsurezuregusa?"
Tsurezuregusa is a collection of essays from the Kamakura Era of Japan, believed to have been written between 1310-1334. The author is Yoshida Kenko, and it contains two essays, "Souheki" and "Makura no Soushi", which are considered the greatest essays in the history of Japanese literature. Students probably have to read from Tsurezuregusa all through their schol years, like Shakespeare for the Western World. ^^
in lieu of the usual bucket of water
Ever notice that in anime and manga, whenever a student is in trouble, they have to hold a bucket full of water while they stand out in the hall? You see this in Ranma, Sailor Moon, Hime-chan, Touch, etc etc etc. Since it appears so often in their stories, it stands to reason that real-life Japanese students have to do this as well, ne??? I wonder if this would have worked on all those annoying troublemakers that were in my school classes. ><
On his forehead...there's a kanji!
Short explanation: a Chinese character. Long explanation: Japan's written language has its roots in Chinese. Long before modern Japan, monks who traveled to China brought the Chinese writing system to Japan. This writing system consisted entirely of "kanji", which are those fancy symbols you see all over the place in Chinese and Japanese writing. Each symbol can be thought of as a pictograph, and represents a thing or idea. Over time, the Chinese kanji were slowly adapted to Japanese use. They were often simplified, their pronunication changed, and their meanings slightly altered. It is because of their Chinese origins that almost all Kanji have two different readings, or pununciations. One is the "On" reading. This is the reading taken from the original Chinese. The other is the "Kun" reading, which is entirely Japanese. Again, these two readings MEAN the same thing, they are just pronounced differently. One Kanji can have over 5 different readings, depending on the context of the sentence, and the nuance desired by the author. To further complicate matters, written Japanese does not consist entirely of Kanji, but contains the much more simple characters, known as Hiragana and Katakana, or just "kana" for short. These characters are NOT pictographs, they have no meaning alone. Instead, like our own alphabet, they are used for pronuncation. But unlike our alphabet, they can be either their own words, or modify a Kanji. (By modify, I mean that a word is created by combinging Kanji and Kana, with the Kana usually at the end of the word. Verbs are the best example of this. "Taberu" means to eat. The "tabe" part is written with Kanji, and "ru" in Kana. To conjugate the verb, the Kanji stays the same, but the Kana change. "Tabemasu, Tabemashita, Tabete imasu, Tabete kudasai, Tabeta, etc etc etc.) Hence, a Japanese sentence usually contains both Kanji and Kana. A sentence can NOT be written without some form of Kana, but it CAN be written without any Kanji. (In other words, if you wanted to, you could write all those different forms of "Taberu" without any Kanji at all, but just Kana. Either way works, but the first--using Kanji--is more formal.) I hope you are not confused!!
Try this English example:
& - this is a symbol we all know to mean "and". We know it means this because it was taught to us. In the same way, English has its own kanji. @ = at, # = number or pound, $ = dollar, % = percent, = = equals, etc etc etc. These are NOT words, they do NOT tell us how to pronounce them, but they all have meaning. So I could write an English sentence using our own Kanji: "@ the store, I bought #3 brand soap, & it was discounted by 50%, so the total amount I paid = $3.00." Or, I could write the exact same sentence without our Kanji, just in our Kana: "At the store, I bought Number Three brand soap, and it was discounted by fifty per-cent, so the total amount I paid equaled three dollars." Sugoi, ne???
Yen is the national currency of Japan, just as the dollar is for the US. 1000 yen is about a ten dollars. For a rough estimate of yen/dollar price conversions, move the decimal point in the yen amount left two places. So 1000 yen becomes $10.00. Or, 592 yen becomes $5.92. This is not a solid rule, but it gives you a good comparison. ^^
The sign of the Oni on his forehead
Tamahome's Shichiseishi mark is a normal Kanji used in the Japanese language. The Kun reading (see above in the Kanji liner note) is "Oni", and means devil, ogre, spirits of the dead, hobgoblins, normal goblins, you get the idea. My old fansubs use "ogre", Viz's manga translation uses "Demon", and Pioneer's commercial subtitles also use "ogre". They all work. I chose the keep the original Japanese, as we are educated fans interested in learning all the cultural details behind our beloved anime. ^^
Although the sun forgives you, Yuuki
Miaka will not! Instead of the sky, I'll punish you!
Miaka's voice actress, Araki Kae, is also the voice of Chibi Usa, from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Like Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon makes a declaration of the evils of the enemy she is about to fight, and always ends her statement of hostility with, "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!" As an inside joke, Miaka follows the same form here.
Aja is a famous Japanese woman in professional wrestling. (Miaka, the queen of opitmism! But I sure would hate to make the girl mad!! Ghaaa!)
Kiyotsukete!!! These liner notes contain SPOILERS for FY chapters!!! Be careful about reading ahead, you might learn something before you want to!!!!! I MEAN it!!!!
Chapter Two
As explained in the kanji liner note above, Japanese writing is based on Chinese. Tamahome's "normal" name is written in kanji. The Japanese reading of his name's kanji is "So Kichiku", but a Chinese person reading those same kanji would see "Xong Gui-Siu". I haven't the slightest idea how to pronounce that, but when my Chinese/English bilingual friend gets back to me, I will be sure to add the pronunciation here. ^^
It's a safe bet the name of every Chinese person and place mentioned in FY is said with the Japanese reading. Since FY is told in Japanese, this seems only natural. I seriously doubt Miaka can speak ancient Chinese, yet she has no problems communicating with the other characters in Konan. *shrugs* Artstic license, right?? But a conflict does appear in later eps...hmmm....
If you've watched just about any anime out there, you've heard this phrase at least once. "Lucky!" Of course, it ususally sounds more like "Rakki!!!" This English word has been adopted as Japanese slang, and is said in appropriate situations as an expression of delight at one's good fortune. Another English word with similar usage is "Chance!", which ususally sounds more like "Chyansu!" with that Japanese accent, and is used when a great opportunity presents itself. ^^
One of the four gods
Seiryuu, Gembu, Byakko, and Suzaku are not FY exclusives. They are taken from very ancient Chinese astronomy and religion, some of which is still practiced today. To sum up, each of the four gods are the rulers of a quadrant of the sky, corresponding to the four directions--and the position of their country in the setting of FY. The names of each Shichiseishi are the names of the constellations within each quadrant of the sky. However, remember that the kanji used to write the names of the four gods, and the names of the constellations, are pronounced differently in their original Chinese. As mentioned above, the only reason Suzaku is pronounced Suzaku is because this story is being told from the Japanese point of view. ^^ These four gods can be found in quite a few anime titles, under different incarnations and very different circumstances. For example, in Yuu Yuu Hakusho, in the late teens tv eps, the four heroes each battle one of the four gods. Interestingly, Suzaku is the last god they fight, and considered the leader and the strongest of them all. ^^ In YYH, Suzaku isn't a bird. Instead, Suzaku looks like a normal, red-headed guy with the ability to control lightning, and a nasty tendency to use helpless girls to manipulate the hero, Yuusuke. Girls and manipulation. Sounds kinda familiar, ne??
"She is our country’s protector, Suzaku no Miko!"
A "miko" is a girl who works in a religious shrine, and communes with the gods. In a way, she is a medium between a normal person and the gods, like a priest in western religions. For a non-FY example, Rei in Sailor Moon is a "miko". And when her grandfather is hitting on all the young girls (and guys...), he invites them to also be miko in his shrine. Sakura in Urusei Yatsura is also a miko. In both cases, they are miko in Shinto shrines. I am not sure if other religions have miko, but at leat in Konan they do. ^^
As you will formally learn later, "no" implies ownership, and Suzaku is of course the name of Konan's god. In other words, Suzaku no Miko really does mean "Priestess of Suzaku". ^^
Kiyotsukete!!! These liner notes contain SPOILERS for FY chapters!!! Be careful about reading ahead, you might learn something before you want to!!!!! I MEAN it!!!!
Chapter Five
This is one of FY's famous puns. "Suteki" means "pretty" or "beautful" in Japanese. But it sounds like the Japanese pronunciation of the English word, "stick." Hence, Miaka's joke. Welcome to the first bad pun of FY. ^^
With a smile, Nuriko leaned back, pinky proudly held aloft. "I can put aside my manhood for love."
This is from an old Chinese folk legend, which over the course of years became Japanese as well. The legend says that two destined lovers are bonded together with a red thread of love and destiny. The thread is tied to a pinky finger of each persons, connecting them and their fates. When talking about a girl, a boy would lift his pinky to imply she's his sweetie. However, if they lift their pinky when talking about another man, the gesture means the other guy's gay. ^^ Pretty cool, huh? Watch for this--you'll see it used in other anime as well. d:) Thanks to Barbara Chambers of the Technogirls for teaching me this in their Shounenai Classics fansub tape!!
Ashita tenki ni nare! and Bosan go he o koidaaan!
I once thought these were nonsense words, but they do have meaning!!! When I find out the translation again, I will be sure to place it here.
With this second usage of "suteki", Miaka is cracking another pun. "Suteki" is the Japanese pronunciation of "steak." And it also means "gorgeous" and "pretty." Heh! Mmm...steak... Okay, I'm hungry now. X_x
She struck a defiant pose, finger pointing towards the succulent odors’ source.
It's another parody of Sailor Moon!! This is the pose that both Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon strike at the end of their declaration of hostiliy. To see what SM has to do with Miaka and FY, click here.
The liner notes were last tweaked on 11-15-01. I added the notes for Chapter Two!