~Notes about Names~

(Quoted from AnimEigo's liner notes, due to an attack of Sophonisban laziness)

The Japanese, like most Asians, put their family name first; all of the credits in these liner notes and the videos follow this convention. They also often refer to people by their family names; this is considered to be more polite. Use of a given name implies a certain level of familiarity and intimacy. In addition, the Japanese often use "terms of reference" such as "big-brother," "little-sister," "Aunt," and so on, both alone, as a suffix, and even in a friendly way to refer to people they are not related to, but who, if they were, would fit into that category.

For example, children will often call young women "Onee-san," which means "Big Sister." These same young women dread the day the children start calling them "Oba-san," or "Auntie."

On top of all this, suffixes are tacked on to names to add inflections of politeness, and to specify the position the person holds. Thus, if Mr. Suzuki were a company president, he would often be referred to as "Suzuki Shachoo," "Mr. Company President Suzuki."

How to appropriately deal with all of these terms in a natural manner is the recurring nightmare of Japanese translators. We also had to deal with the problem that many of the characters call each other by their last names. English speakers would not do this, but if we changed the subtitle to read "what the person would say if they were speaking in English," you would read one name and hear another. Since some people find this dissonant, we have decided to subtitle what they say, except that we translate terms of reference to the appropriate name where it would be awkward to use them in English.

Since many of these terms of reference and suffix combinations are either rarely used or nonexistent in English, it is inevitable that some of the flavor of the original Japanese dialogue is lost when it is translated into English. The following brief guide to the most common terms should help you notice some of the nuances and increase your appreciation of the film.

Suffixes: suffixes are added to names to denote different levels of politeness or intimacy between the speaker and the person being mentioned. There are 4 basic suffixes.

-san: the basic neutral polite suffix, equivalent to "Mr.," "Mrs.," "Miss" or "Ms." in English.

-sama: denotes someone in a higher social position than the speaker, or whom the speaker holds in great esteem.

-kun: is the standard suffix added to the names of boys and young men. It is also used by older men in reference to younger men, especially subordinates in a business situation. "kun" is also more intimate than "san."

-chan: is the equivalent of "kun" for babies and girls, but it is also used when an intimate friendship or other relationship exists between the speaker and the person being referred to. While "chan" is rarely applied to adult men, in situations where two men have had a long and close relationship, they will often be "chan" to each other. "chan" also pops up in the mass media a lot, because of its intimations of intimacy; perhaps the strangest example of this is that in Japan, Arnold Schwarzenegger is often called "Shuuwaa-chan."

In addition to the top 4, there are many suffixes that denote job relationships, such as the above-mentioned "Shachoo." Of these, the most commonly heard is "-sensei," or "teacher," which is applied not only to teachers, but also to doctors, masters of particular art-forms and business mentors. Recently, due to all the people sucking up to other people by calling them "sensei," real sensei's have been complaining about "sensei-inflation" reducing the prestige of the term.

~Terms of Reference~

Common terms of reference include:

otoo-san: someone's father.
chichi: my father (when talking about him to a non-family member).
okaa-san: someone's mother.
haha: my mother (when talking about her to a non-family member).
onii-san: older brother.
ani: older brother (when talking about him to a non-family member).
onee-san: older sister.
ane: older sister (when talking about her to a non-family member).
otooto: my younger brother.
otooto-san: someone else's younger brother.
imooto: younger sister.
imooto-san : someone else's younger sister.
You'll usually address your own younger siblings by their names, sometimes with -chan attached.
oji-san: uncle.
oba-san: aunt.
ojii-san: grandfather.
obaa-san: grandmother.
kanrinin: apartment building manager. Although this is a job description, the holder of said job is often addressed and referred to as "Kanrinin-san."
The next four are quoted from the AnimEigo notes:
anata: "you." "Anata" is particularly used by Japanese women to refer to their husbands or lovers when talking to them. Depending on the tone, it can range in inference from sweet to caustic, though the usual meaning translates to "dear."
omae: lit. "in front of me." A less polite of saying "you."
kimi: a very sweet way of saying "you." More polite than "omae," but less polite than "anata."
sempai: "someone above me in a hierarchy."
kouhai: "someone below me in a hierarchy."

~One, Two, Buckle My Shoe~

One of the first things a newcomer to Gundam Wing, Maison Ikkoku, or this story notices is the prevalence of numerical names. MI-wise, indeed, the name most often corresponds to the room which the person in question inhabits: Room #3 remained empty because the character Mitaka Shun had his own house.

ONE: The Ichinose family. "Se" refers to shallows or rapids, so a figurative translation of their surname would be "the first navigation hazard of the river" -- a good description of their function in relation to the inhabitants of Room #5. ^_^
Ichinose Kentarou's given name also refers to "one" more obliquely: "-ta" or "-tarou" is a common ending for the name of a first-born son.

Both An and Hiiro are also related to the number one. An is the Japanese pronunciation of "un," the French word for one; Hiiro's cognomen Yui, while it can mean "cause" or "to leave behind at death," more often means "only," "sole," or "one and only"; while "Hiiro" itself can be taken, by a process of transfer of vowel quality, to be from "hi-rou," the native Japanese prefix for "one" attached to a common male name suffix, or just to evoke a sense of "one" in the same way that Lucas chose "Darth" to evoke a sense of darkness and death. (I must say, however, that either of those is stretching it.) So, for that matter, are Duo's father Ace and friend Solo -- in fact, there are an abundance of numbers one.

TWO: Duo Maxwell. As he himself pointed out, his name means "two" in both Latin and Classical Greek -- modern Greek pronounces the word more like "dio." (In Latin, actually, it only refers to the masculine and neuter genders; two feminine things are "duae," and I can't think why sex-change stories don't use this.) It has therefore become used in English both for a musical piece for two instruments and for two people in partnership... and the phrase "Dynamic Duo" might have been coined to describe him. The apartment was previously occupied by Nikaidou Nozomu before he went off to college.

THREE: Both Trowa Barton (a back-formation via Japanese from French "trois") and Trey Maxwell. Trey, while possibly from Latin "treis" or "tria," is more directly from cards, in which one, two, and three were usually known as ace, deuce, and trey. (One may presume that the redoubtable Mrs. Maxwell put her foot down over her son's name as well.)

FOUR: (Sekoi?) Yotsuya, man of mystery. During the widow Otonashi's tenure as apartment manager, he treated "Yotsuya" as his family name and produced varying first names on the rare occasions when one was demanded. He has a talent for suddenly appearing and disappearing: the former tenant of #5 described him as "Profession: Unknown. Age: Unknown. Hobbies: Peering at people." According to TOP, he is in fact (as fans have speculated) identical with Sekoi-san from Takahashi Rumiko's five-episode short "Dust Spot," translated by Viz Comics under the name "Wasted Minds." The name Yotsuya means "four valleys" or "fourth valley," and is a place in Tokyo, as well as a subway stop where the Marumouchi and Namboku lines cross. Four is considered a very unlucky number in Japan because it can be read "shi," a homonym for the word for "death." (One wonders occasionally what the creators of Gundam Wing were thinking of...)

FIVE: Chang Wu-fei (Gohi). His given name means "Five Flight." Most Chinese, when in a foreign land that uses kanji, tend to answer to their names pronounced as one would when reading the name in that land's language: hence "Gohi." The previous tenant of the apartment was Godai Yuusaku, presumably named after the well-known temple.

SIX: Roppongi Akemi. Roppongi is a section of Tokyo known for its bars and nightlife -- Miss Roppongi would be right at home there. The Roppongi subway stop is on the Hibiya and Ooedo lines. Roppongi means "six trees (counted by their trunks)." Her given name means "red beauty," undoubtedly why the animators chose to give her red hair.

Roppongi, Yotsuya, and Ichinose are all places in Tokyo. The first two are also subway stops; there is a misunderstanding that Ichinose is as well, although this seems to be a mistake for Shinjuku line stop Ichinoe (first waterway.)

Although there are only six apartments in Ikkoku-kan, that is by no means all of the number people -- as well as the Noventa family (Latin, ninety), Median (not precisely a number, but a median is one of the three kinds of averages, namely the one smack in the middle of a sorted series), and Treize (French, thirteen; as the apartment manager, he also holds the position of the "zero" placeholder, and his name does contain "rei," Japanese for "zero") there are quite a few more that have yet to make an appearance or be addressed by name.

~Story 1: The Pirot Episode~

Aunt Ruth: The name, the error (and the resulting pilot/pirate confusion) are an homage to one of the most successful operettas, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.
"I was, alas! his nurs'rymaid, and so it fell to my lot / To take and bind the promising boy apprentice to a pilot -- / A life not bad for a hardy lad, though surely not a high lot, / Though I'm a nurse, you might do worse than make your boy a pilot. / I was a stupid nurs'rymaid, on breakers always steering, / And I did not catch the word aright, through being hard of hearing; / Mistaking my instructions, which within my brain did gyrate, / I took and bound this promising boy apprentice to a pirate." -- Ruth's first song, usually referred to as "When Frederic was a little lad."

Harlock and Ryohko: references to the highly popular anime shows Captain Harlock and Tenchi-Muyou! respectively. Captain Harlock, exiled from Earth because of his principles, flew the pirate flag over his ship Arcadia (known for its ridiculously high damage tolerance and for having a steersman's wheel on top for Harlock to stand at, steering from outside the ship) more as a sign of the Arcadia's freedom from any bounds save the ones its crew chose for themselves than as a job description. Ryohko, a hard-drinking hard-living completely-ignorant-of-Japanese-social-rules sexy female alien, is one of a cast of exotic women whom a mild-mannered Japanese schoolboy (Tenchi) somehow acquires as housemates... Tenchi-Muyou! is one of several shows that borrowed some themes from Urusei Yatsura and then ran with them.

Room #5: This is a holdover from the Maison Ikkoku show; not only is #5 the natural gathering spot for the residents, but anything odd that happens in the Ikkoku-kan vicinity almost invariably happens in #5. Perhaps the room itself is a Weirdness Attractor; the simpler answer for why the weird stuff happens in #5 is "Because Takahashi-sensei Said So."

Dyssemia, autism, Asperger's: autism, as a term, covers a broader umbrella of symptoms and cases than the average layperson tends to associate with it. A set of children with similar symptoms at the higher end of the spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders were very fully described by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, in the 1940s. It is not known for certain whether the condition -- officially recognized as Asperger's or Asperger Syndrome in 1994 -- is in fact "related" to autism or merely shares some clinical similarities. It is characterized by normal (or often high) intelligence, motor clumsiness in childhood, eccentric interests, and dyssemia. (The NLD on the Web site defines dyssemia as "Difficulty in using and understanding nonverbal signs and signals; a nonverbal communication deficit." Obviously, this is a condition shared by many of the inhabitants of the Takahashiverse.)

Drinking coffee in the morning: One of the more common propositions, at least as of a few years ago, was "Ashita issho ni kohii o nomimasen ka?" The implications are that you will be drinking coffee together tomorrow morning because you will have spent tonight in bed (and not sleeping either). The piano, however, is Maxwell exaggeration.

Going to hit me: The protagonist of Urusei Yatsura was named Ataru, a verb meaning "to hit or strike." When he heard the fielder shouting "Ataru! Ataru zo!" he presumed he was being hailed, with predictable painful results. The joke doesn't make as much sense this time around, but that's the price of parodying humor. ^_^

Flintstone: The Flintstones were a very popular 1950s American cartoon about a nominally Stone Age family that, oddly enough, behaved just like a typical '50s American family, and disgusted many people in the field of education by giving children the tenuous impression that dinosaurs were around for the dawn of humanity. It has been exported to several different countries by now. (If you have somehow managed to miss them -- you're not missing much.) Fred, the paterfamilias, had a thick shape that was not helped by wearing a shapeless orange fur with large black spots.

Blunderbore: The name of one of the giants in the Cornish folktale "Jack the Giant-killer." The name's derivation is uncertain, but it may be onomatopeic.

The manager in Maison Ikkoku often wore a pale yellow apron with a large picture of a baby chick and the roomaji words "piyo piyo" emblazoned across the breast. Apparently, she left it behind for the next manager. Its appearance on Treize Khushrenada has to be seen to be believed.

the weird Society of Gonzo Admirers: The wSGA is a currently defunct fan club for the Great Gonzo. Contact the founder, Luriko-Ysabeth for any and all information.

Anoko: This is a pun that almost isn't. "Anoko" means "that child (at a distance from the speaker and the listener)." However, perhaps given the frequency of female names ending in "-ko," "anoko" can also mean "that young woman," i.e. "her" when applied to a girl. The character "ko," on its own, often means "son," so Invader is trying to say that the opponent is his son over there. (Properly, it ought to be "konoko," the boy being Invader's own son and figuratively closer to him than to the Terrans, but Invader doesn't really know that much Japanese either...)

moss-green: The official statistics do, in fact, describe his hair as moss green, despite the fact that in the Gundam Wing anime it seems to be a nice dark brown. Tyr of Gundam Wing Addiction has stated that "Moss green is a technical colorist term for dark brown." Alternatively, several of the Mizuki Ken illustrations show him with what a large portion of the world would describe as "moss green hair"; a dusty green, a little greener than olive. For the purposes of this fanfic, he has hair the color of the Mizuki illustrations.

Outlanders: Manabe Johji's first long-running manga, it centered on a Terran photographer (Tetsuya) who managed, in the middle of an invasion by the alien Santovasku Empire, to acquire their princess Kahm and fall in love with her. (The Santovasku saw it as coming home only to find that a horde of humans had invaded THEIR holy planet). In the ensuing magical and technological war, the Earth got blown up, making nobody happy. Tetsuya and Kahm survived, already having rebelled in the grand space-operatic tradition.

talking octopus: This is a reference to the Mendou family (from Urusei Yatsura) and Mendou's pet octopus from when he was young (which, apparently, talked to him.)

In Urusei Yatsura, Ataru had a number 4 on his tank top. 'In Japan, "4" is actually an unlucky number, because it has two different pronunciations--"yon" and "shi," where the latter "shi" also happens to be a pronunciation for "death."' I really want to know why the creators of Gundam Wing didn't use that...

horns: A cuckolded husband is said to have horns. Duo points out that, as he is not even seeing someone on a steady basis (let alone married to someone), it is near-impossible for another man to plant cuckold's horns on his head...

Terebithia: Bridge to Terebithia, by Katherine Paterson. By and large, books will not receive a special mention in the liner notes unless of overwhelming cultural interest or not otherwise identified, in the sake of preservation of sanity.

And the first of many many cameos... the umpire is Tiara from Shamanic Princess in her souped-up magical form.

"Mokkori-taishou" is Saeba Ryou's (from City Hunter) way of referring to his avocation and lifestyle. (City Hunter by day, Stud of Shinjuku by night, Number One Lech in Japan by personal choice...) "Mokkori" is the sound effect of a woodchuck popping out of a hole, and by extension an all-purpose part of speech for anything having to do with sexual intercourse. An army taishou is a general, a navy taishou an admiral; the functions of a mokkori-taishou may be deduced. ^_^

The mysteries of the subjunctival: Duo is correct in that "X shiyoo" can mean "I have the intention of doing X," particularly when followed by a verb of saying or thinking. However, when that tense is used by itself when addressing another person, it means "Let's do X"; particularly in the case of "Kekkon shiyoo," which almost always means "Let's get married."

The other half of the joke 'is based on a myth that says that an Oni has to grant a wish to whoever grabs its horns... This particular myth originated in Nara, where deer herds are abundant, and bucks are routinely shorn of their horns as a method of population control.' Hiiro just managed to completely misunderstand Duo's wish.

Sometimes fully translating dialogue is counterindicated. For those who really want to know, however...
Duo: I won! Let's get married!*          --*mistake for "I'm gonna get married!"
Hiiro: Understood. Mission accepted. I will marry you, Darling.

-tcha: Hiiro speaks a dialect which commonly ends sentences with an otherwise meaningless -tcha, the name of which I cannot recall. Cf. the use of -nyo, -nyu, and -gema in DiGi Charat.

~Story Two: Twine Balls and Gentle Monsters -- Not to Mention an Oil Crisis~

'The words "Senshoo," "Tomobiki," "Sembu," "Butsumetsu," "Taian," and "Shakkoo" are known as "Rokki," a kind of "Rekichu," or diary reference, in Buddhist reckoning. They refer to how "lucky" a given day will be. These names are used to determine which days will be best for important events, especially weddings. "Taian," the luckiest day, means "great peace." "Tomobiki," which means "pulling friends" or "friends coming along," is the name of the high school and area of Tokyo (fictional) where much of the series takes place. It also means a day of no winners and no losers, wherein the early morning and late afternoon are lucky, and the rest of the day is unlucky, as opposed to "Shakkoo," which is just the opposite. People try to avoid having funerals on Tomobiki, because, as its name states, it will pull friends along, and cause them to suffer the same fate as the deceased. "Butsumetsu," which means "the death of Buddha," is considered the unluckiest day, and is also the name of the girls' school next to Tomobiki High. "Senshoo" means that the morning is lucky, and the afternoon is unlucky. It also means that one will be lucky with things which one is doing in a hurry. "Sembu" is the reverse: unlucky mornings, lucky afternoons, and luck in taking things easy. The joke about using these names for place names is that no one would normally even think of using them to name a place. Calling a school "Butsumetsu," for example, connotes a feeling of extreme unluckiness--certainly not a place where one would want to send one's daughter.'

The authors of Undocumented Features popularized, among other things, a division of the day consisting of morning, midday, afternoon, evening, gweepning (the time of day -- or night, rather -- when most of the computer people are doing recreational computer stuff), and OhmygodwhatamIdoingUPthislatening, which last begins around 2 AM. Duo has apparently been reading the Good Stuff -- UF is one of the oldest collaborative fanfics on the Net, and one of the only tolerable self-insertions.

Biggest Ball of Twine: This part of the story is based on a song by Weird Al Yankovic called "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota." The song is apparently original, although a prominent employee of the NCAA has stated that a portion of the chorus is reminiscent of the chorus of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Shonen Sunday is the magazine in which Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were originally serialized. 'Manjuu are little cakes made of a sort of pancake-like batter, or sometimes with a rice-cake outside, and filled with bean-jam paste. Sooshiki manjuu (Funeral bean-jam cakes) are differentiated mainly by their black-and-white color. By contrast, red-and-white manjuu represent a happy occasion, such as a wedding.' The joke is mostly that these are not quite the food one would normally take along on the outset of a trip.

Beefbowl (gyuudon) is the quintessential Japanese fast food; students eat it the way American students scarf down burgers or pizza. Waka Daisho, played by Kayama Yuzo, was the hero of a long-running series of the same name about a thoroughly likeable talented Big Man on Campus and his various adventures. As far as I know, he has no theme parks yet. Gobo roots are long, thin, and orange and taste like salty carrots. Hyakunin-Isshu, the Hundred Poets' Collection, consists of one great poem apiece from the works of a hundred of Japan's greatest poets; it is the basis of a card game that is 'a popular New Year's pastime, wherein one person reads the first part of a poem from that collection and the players try to be the first to find the card containing that poem.' Mito Koomon became the hero of a popular period drama of the same name; 'Mito Koomon was an actual Edo-period historical figure, whose real name was Mito no Mitsukuni, and he was a member of one of the three main Tokugawa families. The basic plot of each story is the same: Mito Koomon travels the land, his true identity concealed, rooting out evil... Episodes of Mito Koomon always have the following in common: The bad guys are rich, noble oppressors of the people, and, after the big "by the way, have you seen my family crest?" scene, the bad guys attack Mito Koomon and his assistants, whereupon the body-count becomes astronomical. The bad guys are always offed in reverse order of their importance, and the top bad guy usually gets it while trying to run away. Surprisingly, none of the bad guys ever get the bright idea of attacking the good guys en-masse; they go to their graves one at a time.' It seems to be the equivalent of the Lone Ranger or "Have Gun, Will Travel."

Sakamoto Ryouma, one of Japan's legendary heroes, was also famous for having an extremely lax concept of personal hygiene, even for the radical group to which he belonged. He is primarily famous, however, for getting the heads of government for the two states largely responsible for the Meiji Restoration to sit down and talk to each other without waving around long sharp pointy objects.

One of the states was Choushuu, who was partially responsible for worsening the situation by firing on a British ship in the straits of Shimonoseki. The other was Satsuma, which consisted of most of the western half of Kyushu.

Walker's shirt is a reference to certain of the older American otaku, who have shown up at SF conventions wearing shirts nearly identical to his. Dirty Pair itself is a classic series about two female members of a task force whose duties are something like "SWAT Teams By Request." Kei and Yuri, in partnership with an alien ship pilot, form the top-ranked team Lovely Angel. However, since they always get the impossible jobs, and since doing the impossible usually entails a fair bit of fallout damage, they have long since been dubbed the "Dirty Pair" -- much to their displeasure.

Pocky: One of the best-known Japanese snack foods, it consists of something like an unsalted thin pretzel stick dipped in chocolate or some other flavor the consistency of chocolate. Occasionally almonds or cocoanut are added to the mix. They have a mysterious tendency to disappear in about five minutes after being opened, longer if it's a really big box.

Duo's song is literally "The sake is ninety-nine cups, the sake is ninety-nine; if you drink one cup, the sake is ninety-eight cups." Given that double consonants and n by itself are their own syllables, it even fits the tune.

Ibaraki is a prefecture slightly north and east of Tokyo.

A ryokan is the old-fashioned sort of Japanese inn.

Gloria: a reference to the long-running manga series, From Eroica With Love (see eroicafans.org for more information). The main character is the Earl of Gloria. My, Treize gets around. (Or got around; the manga was set in the depths of the Cold War.)

The Earl of Ickenham was created by the late great P. G. Wodehouse. To explain him, I cannot do better than to borrow the words of one of the members of the Drones Club itself (the only place where you could find such sound, penetrating material in those days): "The trouble with Pongo's Uncle Fred is that, although sixty if a day, he becomes on arriving in London as young as he feels -- which is, apparently, a youngish twenty-two. He has a nasty habit of lugging Pongo out into the open and there, right in the public eye, proceeding to step high, wide, and plentiful. I don't happen to know if you know what the word 'excesses' means, but those are what Pongo's Uncle Fred, when in London, invariably commits."

Sugar, Ginger, Pepper: An amalgamation of Relena's three unnamed followers (from Gundam Wing) and the three "sukeban" from Urusei Yatsura. In UY, Sugar had the ability to sneak up on anyone; Ginger could sham dead very, very convincingly; and Pepper, when grasped, could squirm out of her skin and run away in the one underneath, leaving the person who'd grabbed her with an ugly limp person-shaped bag.

Kay and Yuri: Another reference to Dirty Pair.

Theamelpos: A beautiful, balmy island mentioned in several of Gordon Korman's books, most notably A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag.

Punny Girl: Hilde says "Don't summon him! If you do, he'll take you over, no question!" 'The word she uses in Japanese, "toritsukareru," implies something evil is taking over, say, a parasite or an evil spirit. In other words, it means that {Relena}'s plot to sacrifice {Duo} in a ritual aimed at summoning {Hiiro} back to Earth will result in {Hiiro} taking possession of {Duo} if it succeeds--a sort of techno-magic pun.' Later, when she says "Get swallowed down by an oni. See if I care," the verb she used, "kuu," while a synonym for another verb meaning "to eat," also is a crude sexual metaphor. The translation attempts to convey the (probably unintentional on her part) double meaning.

The standard Japanese punishment for misbehaving in class is to stand in the hallway, holding water buckets. Duo has obviously found his own ways of getting around that. ^_^

In Exodus 20:4, the Israelites are commanded to make no "likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"; in Exodus 25:18-20, they are ordered to make two gold cherubim for the Ark of the Covenant, facing each other with wings arching up over a gold thing on top called a "mercy seat." Between those two, about the only thing one can deduce about the cherubim is that they probably did NOT look like fat, winged children.

Doonesbury is a comic strip known for its remarkably deep topical humor. It is also a good guide to recent history: locate someone who was reasonably aware of current events in the late 1970s and early '80s and ask them why any given contemporaneity-dependent strip from that period is funny.

Before Disney bought up all the Pooh rights, Jimmy Stewart made a small record of some of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, in which Pooh had "an eager voice."

Esper, as nearly as I can figure out, was coined by Andre Norton (one of the Grandmasters of Science Fiction) to describe a person with psychic powers. The common Japanese word for someone with psychic powers is 'esupaa,' literally "esper." I can only presume that Norton was at some point very popular over there.

Oro (and any lengthenings thereof) is the trademark "surprised-or-startled-or-out-of-it" phrase of Himura Kenshin, from the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin.

"Wakatta" (or its more polite form, "wakarimashita"), while literally meaning "understood," works out in practice to "yes, I've heard you (and I'll do it)."

Takahashi's mini-series "Dust Spot" (Trashcan) was about the adventures of two psychics, Tamuro Gomi and Enjouji Yuura, who worked for a national security agency under a man named Sekoi (who bore a remarkable physical and mental resemblance to her later character Yotsuya). Yuura was immensely strong, while Tamuro could teleport from trash to trash. Here, the first assistant is a fusion of Gomi with Mobile Suit Gundam hero Amuro Rei, while his partner/girlfriend might be a reference to either Irma Beltorchika or Sayla Mas -- or both.

A drakling is one of the widely accepted terms for a young dragon.

The letter's closing refers to a scene on the Muppet Show where Kermit says "Introducing the Incomparable Marvin Suggs." Pauses. "I call him that because I can't think of anything to compare him to." (He played a Round Warm Fuzzy Xylophone with mallets, by the way.)

~Story Three: Fish and Visitors~

The story's title is a reference to an old English proverb, "Fish and visitors are good for three days" -- the implication being that they begin to stink after that. ^_^

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Product of the inspired insanity of Douglas Adams, the Guide "was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor - of which no Earthman had ever heard either. Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one - more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly, it has the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover." --Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, prologue.

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough's memoirs of their trip to Europe, is a classic that ought to be taught in schools, but doesn't seem to be. This is a shame, because it's one of the funniest true stories I've ever read.

In this story, Hiiro's cousin Meia arrives on Earth like Uriko, inside a gigantic long skinny melon. The Uriko (Melon Child) story is a variation of the famous legend of Momotaro ("Peach Boy"), only with a female protagonist. 'In the Momotaro legend, a very old, childless married couple, find the gigantic peach, talk about it for a while, then decide to "cut it up and see!" And bingo, there is a boy inside! In the story, Mrs. {Ichinose} says the same thing, and then tries to slice the peach/{melon} in question. The {melon} is very tough, and the knife doesn't go through--because {Meia} is doing the infamous Ninja sword-master trick! (stopping the incoming swing of a sword with bare hands above {her} head, which in Japan is considered one of the most difficult techniques, which can only be mastered after decades and decades of sword training!)' Her name is also a pun: "jari" means "brat," which she most definitely is. And, on top of all this, although it's not very apparent from the letter, Meia speaks in Osaka dialect.

Meia's calling Mrs. Ichinose "oneechan" (dear young miss) in one scene is a blatant attempt to get on her good side. In Japan, most women above the age of thirty or so, particularly if they're mothers, would be called "obasan" (auntie), especially by young children. Calling Mrs. Ichinose "oneesan," let alone "oneechan," is either high praise or cheap flattery, depending on the situation. Needless to say, she eats it up with a spoon.

Apparently Hiiro is now paying something towards the rent on #2.

Skuld: Norse Goddess of the Future. In the vaguely-Norse-mythology-based manga series Aa! Megami-sama! (Oh My Goddess!), she is the younger sister of the heroine Belldandy, idolizes the gentle and domestic Belldandy, and firmly believes that the hero Keiichi in no way, shape, or form deserves her Oneesama for volumes and volumes. As System Debugger for Yggdrasill, she carries a long-handled hammer (sometimes identified as Mjollnir, although if that's so she's obviously put a new handle on it) to smite Bugs with.

Manos: The Hands of Fate is, of course, the worst movie ever made. It's sloppy, it's confusing, and it's BORING. If you insist on suffering through it, at least watch the MST3K version, which is marginally tolerable. (Even they can't resuscitate it.)

'Propane delivery: In Japan, propane is a commonly-used fuel for stoves and heating. So propane companies deliver propane containers to homes.' As Jan Story pointed out, mixing gas lines and frequent earthquake country is a BAAAAD idea. ^_^

The cartoon "Inspector Gadget" was relatively popular in the 1980s. The title character and hero was the world's klutziest cyborg detective, with about a zillion half-mastered attachments. My sister and I once, after a serious discussion, decided that the only reason he remained employed was so that his Chief could pay Gadget's niece and dog for their work without running into a morass of child labor laws. For more information, see http://gogogadget.simplenet.com/menu.html

Takahashi Rumiko represented the language of the Oni as mah-jongg tiles. Duo, being a relatively "uncultured American," describes them in terms of what he's seen -- namely, a rather popular computer game where you have to remove pairs of mah-jongg tiles from some selected shape until they're all gone.

strange recurring dream: Another Weird Al reference, this time to the Weird Al Show Theme. The hat is out of one of Sophonisba's dreams, though.

Lesley Gore, in addition to several other hits, sang "You Don't Own Me." The song was later sung by Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton (with one line slightly changed to reflect the book's original ending) on the soundtrack-and-more of The First Wives Club.

As mentioned above, to "eat" someone can be to screw them. Meia apparently has a better grasp of Japanese than Duo does.

The evening's action starts with a word play on "Ke." 'Unfortunately, unless you are able to read the Kanji used in the script, you can't understand it! {Treize} thought that {O} said "Hair of something," though what {O} really meant was "some evil thing." Both these words can be pronounced "Ke" in Japanese. Most likely, 99% of the original audience didn't get it as well!'

Elizabeth Bennett touch: a reference to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The heroine, Elizabeth Bennett, almost didn't think she had a chance of marrying the hero at all, until his aunt forbade her to do it. It has been made into several movies, of which the BBC version is probably one of if not the best adaptation.

Valerie Vanderbilt: a reference to Elizabeth Peters' Die for Love, the most hilarious mystery set at a bodice-ripper writer's convention it has been my privilege to read. So, for that matter, is Valerie von Hentzau.

Earth romances: Jane Austen near-singlehandedly invented the genre with her six novels; Andre Norton took time out from her many excellent works of science fiction, fantasy, and tales straddling the line between the two to write quite a number of historical novels and romances; and "the lady who did One Pound Gospel" is of course Takahashi Rumiko herself.

Hsiehsie: Mandarin Chinese for "thank you," romanized according to an older system -- the current one represents 'hs' with an 'x' for the express purpose of Confusing Maxwells, and Duo therefore blithely ignores it.

Kazama Shin, the stoic pilot hero of the manga and anime "Area 88," has been thought to be the inspiration for Trowa Barton -- not only does he have hair over half his face, he has a very fatalistic attitude towards his position as a fighter pilot and his position as a replaceable cog in the war-machine, to be used up as necessary.

"Wolf out of legend": "Speak of the devil..." -- actually a translation of the Latin equivalent.

"And my name is not Shirley" is one of the longest running gags from the spoof movie Airplane (and its sequel Airplane II).

Kill-O-Zap pistols are another of Douglas Adams' brainchildren.

Alvin Fernald, Superweasel involved, among more plot twists than these liner notes can comfortably accomodate, the title character and his friends turning two vacant lots into playgrounds as part of an anti-litter campaign. Of course, he got a superhero costume hand-sewn by his little sister. ^_^

"Hajime": "Start!"

The Ichinose fuufu's argument 'is based on a classic Japanese melodrama called Konjikiyasha, originally a serial in the Yomiuri Times in 1897 by Ozaki Kooyoo, followed by a sequel in 1903 which was serialized in Shinshoosetsu Magazine. The story deals with the relationship between a couple, Kanichi and Omiya, who are engaged to be married. But Omiya decides to marry another man, because he offered her a diamond ring. Disappointed, Kanichi makes a famous quotation: "Tonight, I will make the moon cloud over with my tears." Eventually, Kanichi avenges himself by becoming a loan shark, and using the influence that this gives him to ruin Omiya and her husband.'

"Biida" is the Japanese equivalent of "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah," and is usually said while making a red-eye (pulling one lower eyelid down to expose the bloodvessel-laden inner skin and sticking one's tongue out slightly).

Tanabata is on the seventh day of the seventh month. On that day, according to legend, magpies form a bridge across the Milky Way so that the Celestial Weaving Maid (Vega) and her husband the Oxherd (Altair) can see each other for once in the year (the whole shebang is called off if it rains). Talk about your long-distance marriages!

Cardinal Richelieu, the eminent French statesman, politician, and ecclesiastic, is probably best known today as the enigmatic villain-type person of Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Ing is a boring dictator-wanna-be type from Isaac and Janet Asimov's "Norby Chronicles," while Marvin is another guest from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The normal Japanese unit of currency is the en, which tends to be worth a little less than a cent. Due to an archaic romanization system, it is usually spelt 'yen' in English. However, Japanese has no 'ye' sound, so...

incredibly compact: A reference to Damaramu, from Dragon Half.
"You're that guy who killed himself by accidentally stabbing himself in the head that time!"
"Yes, a normal man would have been killed... but MY brain is incredibly compact!"

A UFO catcher machine is that thing with the three-pronged crane you sometimes find in a game arcade, where you try to pick up a small prize and convey it to a funnel, into which you then drop it in order to win it. It's much harder than it looks.

"Flowers For Algernon," a short story by Daniel Keyes which was later expanded into a novel, consisted of the journal of a severely retarded man who agreed to test a procedure which would make him smarter. It did make him (as well as several mice, including the mouse Algernon) very intelligent for a time, but then they dropped back to their original "level" and later died of some unexpected complication.

'Setsubun, or, "The Day Before Spring," comes on February 3rd, according to the old Japanese calendar. On that day, people throw roasted soybeans to ward off Oni, in a ceremony called "Mamemaki."' On Planet Oni, it is the day of an annual contest between the Oni and the Gods.

"Weregild," or man-gold, is an old Anglo-Saxon word for a price set in recompense for a man's death -- one of the useful societal inventions to keep everyone from killing each other off with the steak knives if it could decently be avoided.

There's something about Trowa: Meia's explanation is somewhat confusing, due mostly to the fact that the guy with all the hair in his face took her uncle's place, name, and apparent intelligence. Since Hiiro was promised to the one with the killer bang, not to "Trowa Barton," the prior contract is invalidated (although it could be re-validated by mutual agreement. Hiiro does not, however, appear likely to agree any time soon).

Bailesu (aka John Biles) wrote a truly hilarious fake transcript of a nonexistent text-based RPG called "Shampoo's Quest." The joke in question is the result of a long buildup through most of the story (in other words, you really need to read the whole thing to appreciate the true humor of the situation), but suffice it to say for the nonce that the "it" in question is Shampoo's 'Desire to marry Ranma,' which she has just dropped.

~Story Four: The Swallow and the Penguin~

Among English's many peculiar collective nouns, one may count "an unkindness of ravens." For more information, see the notes to the first sidestory.

Monty Python is a famous British comedy group, and cannot adequately be explained except by self-referral.

The fabled in-joke: "no climax, no resolution, no meaning" would be "yama-nashi, ochi-nashi, imi-nashi" in Japanese, and its acronym "ya-o-i" is the usual term for a m/m sex-without-plot story.

Hooty: Another of the many, many, MANY "G-Force: Guardians of Space" in-jokes.

LAC: Light Attack Craft.

ECM: Electronic Counter-Measures.

Quest for Glory: A role-playing game marketed by Sierra and designed by Lori and Corey Cole. (As far as I know, they're no relation.)

Of swallows and hawks: When the producers of "G-Force: Guardians of Space" were translating the show and coming up with an opening, they claimed that one of the team's signature bird was meant to be a kestrel or merlin, rather than a swallow (as in the original Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman). However, the helmet is still obviously not a raptor...

Duo's book purchases certainly are... eclectic. The Dray Prescot series started off, apparently, as one of the many imitations of ERB's John Carter series -- Akers seems to have taken the idea and run off with it. There are at least thirty books that I know of. Aristophanes, of course, is the best-known of the writers of Greek Old Comedy. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries are still popular (the volume Duo picked up contains three out of the four involving confrontations with an Arnold Zeck). The "Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes" (if I recall the name correctly) was written in a mock-serious style, treating every entry as if the characters and situations existed in the world of fact. The Classics Reclassified is one of Richard Armour's many tongue-in-cheek romps, this one over some of the works of literature most likely to be assigned reading in high school. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko was the character designer for the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, while Yoshimoto Banana is a popular contemporary author.

Tamagoyaki, by itself or as part of nigirizushi, is sort of like slices of a thick, many-layered, sweet omelet. Sophonisba wishes to state that she cannot imagine what it would taste like with wasabi, but she has no desire whatsoever to find out.

Feiying Gaiwak's common English name would be "Operation Condor."

According to some of the books Duo has read, a knife driven under the fourth rib at a slightly upward angle CANNOT fail to miss the heart. I have not had occasion to test this for myself.

Ishmael and How Much For Just The Planet? are Star Trek novels by Barbara Hambly and John M. Ford, respectively.

One of the common ways to package Ritalin, in the 1980s, was as orange triangular tablets about seven millimeters in altitude, which invariably failed to go down the first time when trying to swallow them with water. Loss of weight was a common side effect of the drug (given that this Duo Maxwell has relatively wealthy parents, his slight build cannot possibly be the result of extended malnutrition).

Goddamn, but that bird can waddle!: A reference to a scene from Destiny's Shield, by Eric Flint and David Drake, where General Belisarius is attempting to get from one place to the other as quickly as possible in full armor, and making quite good time to the accompaniment of his troops' cheers:
"Belisarius! Belisarius!"
"Go, general! Go! Go!"
"Goddam, that man can waddle!"

The scene with the gigantic swallow and the airplanes is a parody of most of the B monster movies to come out of Toei Studios.

Duo needs to pick a language and stick with it -- either Eiffel Tower or Tour Eiffel, but not both.

Mt. Hood is the most impressive-looking mountain in northern Oregon; it can probably safely be presumed that Aunt Agatha and her daughter Sylvia live somewhere in the general vicinity of Portland or the rest of the Willamette valley.

~Sidestory -- The Interesting Tanabata Experience~

This episode is particularly thick in GoS references, in part because of its taking place in the United States. Most of them are rather vague, due to the author not having seen the show for years.

An's ravens are a combination of Raven the trickster, from Pacific Northwest Coast legend, and the Japanese Tengu, 'legendary goblin spirits. Tengu are also referred to as "Karasutengu," or "Crow goblins," because they resemble crows in appearance.' They have big beaky noses, rather like the original inhabitants of the Northwest Coast. I wonder if there were any contact, or something passed along the coast, or something.

Changed his last name: From Godeharte. Which is a perfectly good surname, but not in connection with the given name of Ace. The other "guest stars" of this episode are Dirk Daring, Agatha June (usually called "Aggie" on the show), and Dr. Benjamin Brighthead. For more information on the show itself, cf. http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/nn23

Carkeek Park, as well as several other places mentioned in the course of this episode, are relatively well-known Seattle landmarks. http://www.meritweb.com/seattle/photos/carkeek_park/Carkeek_Park_photo_gallery.htm

Dirk's sons are mild references to earlier versions of the show that became G-Force -- in Sandy Frank's Battle of the Planets, the second-in-command was named Jason, and in the original Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, he was called Joe (ne George). Median, OTOH, seems to have shown up only in the GW Episode Zero manga.

It is a rule of the GoS universe that Dirk never has any luck with women. For that matter, it is a rule of the Gatchaverses that the #2 has lousy luck with women. This would perhaps explain Duo Maxwell's track record.

The Montlake Cut is a channel dug between two of Seattle's lakes, for the passage of boats and other waterway traffic. On the Fourth of July, the University of Washington has crew races through there, and people come and picnic on the grassy slopes and watch them.

The German, if Duo remembers correctly, works out to "The Princess's bridegroom! Let us in!" Any mistakes are his fault.

inside of the Space Mountain line: He means that it would have an elongated hexagonal cross-section.

"Gimme some sugar, baby": a reference to the popular camp-horror movie Army of Darkness, aka "the third Evil Dead movie." The protagonist (Ash) says the line right before kissing the heroine for the first time.

The Vasa were the ruling house of Sweden in the seventeenth century. They instituted reforms, sat on the barons whenever they got too big for their britches, and in general did a great deal to make Sweden the well-run country it is today.

Brak the Barbarian: The hero of a series of short stories and novels by John Jakes, written after the style of the late great Robert E. Howard.

Dispensation: In the days when the Catholic Church had much more political and social power in Europe than it does today, you were technically not supposed to marry even your third cousins or your close relatives' relicts. Since strict following of this rule would have left a lot of nobility without any nobility to marry, and since a lot of times people wanted to keep a nice bit of property in the family, you could apply to the church to get a dispensation to marry your second cousin or your half-brother's widow or whatever. They were usually granted in inverse proportion to the nearness of the kinship and direct proportion to the importance of the property; it was a pain in the neck to get one to marry your aunt or uncle (An, at this point, doesn't know they're not related) and I don't think ANYBODY ever got a dispensation to marry their own sister.

The blue roof: I don't know if the house still has it, but for years and years, one of the things one could pick out from a boat on Lake Washington, coming south from Sand Point, was the robin's egg blue roof of a house on 38th Street.

"An said that I carried myself": This is most of the explanation of the real error the ravens made.

In the seventeenth-century Europe that An came from, anyone who wasn't nobility or extremely wealthy merchant princes or something knew, absolutely, that somebody above them on the totem pole could come along and stomp them flat and that there was nothing they could do about it except pray that it didn't happen. This knowledge came out in the way they walked, the way they talked, etc.

Duo, Trey, and Median, however, being the children of relatively well-to-do Washingtonians (and of some extremely deadly guys), walk and talk like young teenagers who know that nothing really bad is going to happen to them -- even if some accident were to happen, it's highly unlikely and their dads would probably Do Something. In the old raven's experience, that pattern only matches the sort of people who could relate to a princess on her own level.

(Not saying that the three of them aren't as good as anybody else -- since of course they are -- but the general unkindness probably wouldn't think so.)

peapods: Sugar snap peas.

Dartboard of the Universe: A concept named by Princess Artemis and Lilly Rose on the Real Ghostbusters fanfic mailing list. (The former came up with "Dartboard of Nature," and the latter altered it to "the Universe.")

~Family Reunion Scorecard~

- On Duo's father's "side":

Ace Maxwell (ne Godeharte, pronounced Goodheart)

Dirk Darren (Daring)
   m.1 Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish
       Median
       Jason
       Joe & George (twins)

Agatha June
   m. Somebody Noventa
       Sylvia
       a son, name unmentioned

(Peewee) --} probably not his real name; has not appeared

Tsukuno Nakuhiro (Hooty)

Dr. Benjamin Brighthead

- On Duo's mother's side:

Mrs. Maxwell (given and maiden names not yet known)

Ruth

another sibling
   m. someone
       Emily (the cute one)

a first cousin
   m. Somebody Khushrenada
       Treize

- and, of course:

Trey Aldith Maxwell, little sister sui generis