Melon Pan!
Hiyori's lunch is another otaku staple food called the
Melon-pan. It's a sweet-bread that's popular in Japan and Asia. Although mostly green, Melon-pans are not made from melon fruit but it's named after its appearance. It gets its flaky top via a thin layer of cookie dough, while the rest is a sweet bread. Sometimes you can find them filled with custard or other fillings. Melon pan became an otaku favorite since it's the only food Shana from Shakugan no Shana will eat. A version of Melon pan also exist in HK and Taiwan, where its called "Pineapple Bread". It's unclear where the bread originated, but it's pretty much certain that is not Europe.
Also many Westerner will find it strange, but bread is absolutely huge in Japan. Every street has a bakery or sorts and most Japanese eat toasts for breakfast now (as you can tell from anime). IMHO bread in Japan and other part of Asia are 100 x better than the bread in the US, and since they really fuse the best of all worlds, the best bakeries in Japan are even better than the best bakeries in Paris. You really have to visit one of them to really know the incredible variety and flavors Japanese bread offers. Same goes with Cakes and other sweets, but that's another post altogether.
One of the best selling lunch food:
Bizarre Jump
Hiroyi's Awesome Twisting Action is A Reference to ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), one of the biggest shonen manga ever. At 92 plus volumes, it's also one of the longest. What she was parodying I have no idea; never got into Jojo.
It's bizarre that Jojo never got himself an anime.
Apollo Who?
The two chara in Hiroyi's non-slumping sketches are 王泥喜法介 (Odoroki Housuke) and 牙琉響也 (Garyuu Kyouya) from the DS hit game
逆転裁判4 (Apollo Justice, Ace Attorney in the West). This is the 4th game of the Gyakuten Saiban series, the first 3 is know as "Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney" in the West. Non-gamers like Yutaka have no idea who they are. Hiroyi is probably going to yaoi them in a doujin... from the looks of it, Odoroki is seme and Garyuu is uke).
Odoroki in the middle, while Garyuu is on top:
Cosplayer in Saitama
The cosplayers the girls meet are of course cosplaying Edward and Roy of "Full Metal Alchemist". The keitai strap "Ed" was holding is Al, Ed's poor body-less brother.
Even cosplayers are cuter in Anime...
Bowling Fun
The pseudonym Fujoshi Hiroyi reserved their bowling lane under was 枢木スザク (Kururugi Suzaku) of "
Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion" The CLAMP series seemed to be a favorite doujin target for the BL community.
SOS-Dan Bowlers and their score by the 7th frame:
- HARUHI: 155 (she's good!)
- KYON: 88 (he sucks!)
- YUKI: 129 (she sucked at first but got better)
- MIKURU: 19 (she's there for Kyon's enjoyment)
- ITSUKI: 92 (busy watching Kyon's, most likely)
Poster Bug
The poster Yutaka's trying to post is a newsletter from the Nurse's Office on Athlete's Foot (水虫, mizumushi) prevention. Due to the long raining season and the mostly humid condition of an island nation, Athlete's Foot is a problem bothering most people, especially active students. Everyone is taught how to prevent Athlete's Foot in school, and medication for them is a big category in Japan.
An office poster on Mizumushi prevention:
Attack of the 50 foot Yutaka
In our favorite Fujoshi's imagination, Yukata-chan became a gozilla-like monster. The picture she has in her head is a parody of the poster of the 1958 science fiction classic, "
Attack of the 50 foot Woman". Compare the anime to the poster below:
I think we'd all prefer a 50 foot tall Yutaka:
YAOI?
These no-ota L*S girl sure know how to ask questions. First we have a question about chinchin, now Yutaka drops the bomb and ask the forbidden question: What is Yaoi. I think most people knows about it, so I'll just post the two possible meanings Hiroyi could have given:
Accepted Definition: "山なし", "落ちなし", "意味なし" (
Yamanashi,
Ochinashi,
Iminashi), signifying the lack of climax, punchline, and meaning in a graphical story about two men having sex.
"Real" Definition : "
やめて", "
おしりが", "
いたい" (
Yamete!
Oshiri ga
Itai!), signifying what's usually said after the aforementioned men on men sex took place: "Stop! My butt hurts!"
Super Yaoi!
Sea of Trees
In the LC, Shiraishi bragged about being an "outdoorsman" for going to popular vacation spots like
Jogashima Island (the location for all the live-action EDs). Akira then mentioned the benefit of "
Forest Bathing", a popular excuse for outdoor travel as it was wildly believed that the air in the woods contain a lot of negative ion which will improve your health. I have never heard anyone using this term in the West.
Akira-sama then asked Shiraishi to take a trip to the "Tree Sea of Mount Fuji". The stated reason for the trip was to "fetch her some of Fuji's famous water". While Fuji-san's water is famous for tea-making (quality of water is a huge deal for tea-otakus), the parody here is that in a 1993 special of a very popular comedy show "ダウンタウンのガキの使いやあらへんで!! (Downtown no Tsukaiyaarahende!!) called the 罰ゲーム (Batsu Gemu), where a comedian was punished to goto France to
fetch some Evian water from the source. The REAL reason for the trip was that the famous
青木ヶ原 (Aokigahara or"Tree Sea") in the foothills of Mout Fuji is a
popular suicide spot for the Japanese. Due to it's location, it's also considered THE most haunted place in all of Japan, inhabited by kami, oni, and ghosts of past victims of suicide. Shiraishi is scared for that reason, but of course Akira-sama just wanted him to off himself while he's there... That's why Akira said "you have past the line of Death." The producers were probably to film his suicide for the finale ED. Oh Joy! I think death of Shiraishi is what many viewer were calling for.
Stuff on Shiraishi's neck: A cross, ring of garlic, and a couple of Japanese charms - all good stuff to bring to a haunted forest.
Spooky!