Lucky Star - Episode 23 Discussion / Poll

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

It's an original piece written by Shiraishi called "ミクル変身！そして戦闘" or "Mikuru Henshin! And then Battle!"

Its not an original piece, its Shiraishi's version of 'Mikuru henshin! Soshite sentou!', track four of the official soundtrack to The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode episode --- composed by Kousaki Satoru.

[Moridin]

@ All the people talking about japanese food.
Im kinda new to Animesuki and I decided to check out the Lucky star thread. All I can say is that this wasnt what I was expecting, and i mean that in a good way.
I came here to see what people thought about the jokes in this episode, and that went well. But thanks to you, I now feel educated (Im still a beginner at anime and japan) and hungry too.
Now its time to go hunting for some asian/japanese store around here... havent checked before so I dont know if that exist yet, but Im hoping.

I want to try this:

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

Spoiler for Unhide to view Donbei Video:

but before I do, I REALY have to know what that brick-like squishy thing ontop is! Can someone of you experts help me?

@all
Incase you are wondering, then yes, I copyed this to avoid what happend to Kuroi-sensei ( I do that by reflex cus it happens all the time to me at youtube )

[darksider]

Originally Posted by Moridin

but before I do, I REALY have to know what that brick-like squishy thing ontop is! Can someone of you experts help me?

That is called abura-age.
In short, it's thinly sliced and fried (and then flavored in this case) tofu. A common foodstuff in Japan.

[Moridin]

Thanks

Now Im going to find one of those noodles and then rewatch episode 23 while eating that
Maybe that experience, eathing that very same food that (that/wich?) he fails with, will bring the enjoyment of this episode up to ten points?! Without my noodles I thought that this episode was worth a nine.

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by darksider

That is called abura-age.
In short, it's thinly sliced and fried (and then flavored in this case) tofu. A common foodstuff in Japan.

It's called Kitsune in in Kansai when it's on top of an udon bowl, but yeah abura-age is the generic term for fried tofu. This is why this is the Western Japan version.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I put water in a pot and put the pot over an open flame. Is that weird?

Actually that's the best way to cook instant noodles... put the noodle in after it's boiling along with some veggies and some ready-to-eat things like chikuwa, kaban-age or ika-maki. Cook until the noodle's the right texture and then put a raw egg on top. Make sure you get some really good raman noodle packs so the soup base is good.

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Please pardon the off-topicness again. Japan's Head Otaku is set to become Japan's Head Man, for real. While his promotion of manga culture is welcome, his erm, hawkish views regarding certain "aggressive neighbours" certainly leaves a lot to be desired, and those said neighbours happen to be one of the largest foreign consumers of Japan's manga industry, if you think about it. It's still too early to say Rozen Aso would take over, but we'll wait and see.

Actually I was half-joking about Aso being PM... he is too hawkish and will make East Asian relations worse than Koizumi. I really rather NOT see him as PM, even though he is next in line. He would have to get more conservative votes to really be the PM. Plus, Japan isn't going to be run better just because the PM reads BIRZ every month.

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Its not an original piece, its Shiraishi's version of 'Mikuru henshin! Soshite sentou!', track four of the official soundtrack to The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode episode --- composed by Kousaki Satoru.

Thanks! You're more knowledgeable than some J-otas then! That's great! For otaku references I only cut and translate, so I can't know for sure.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I'm just checking out the upcoming fall shows, and it appears that there are two new characters in Genshiken 2 that have western names, and are played by Gotou Yuuko and Kaida Yuki. Perhaps we will see two more permutations of gaijin otaku.

And on the off-topic political subject, any move to make Japanese relations with China even worse would be a horrible thing. One of the good things about Abe was that he was not as chauvinistic as advertised. My choice for PM is Fukuda Yasuo, the older guy who did such an impressive job as cabinet secretary until he was tripped up in the pension-contributions thing. He has good relations with neighbors as part of his core policy.

[Claymore_Obsessed]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

I'm just checking out the upcoming fall shows, and it appears that there are two new characters in Genshiken 2 that have western names, and are played by Gotou Yuuko and Kaida Yuki. Perhaps we will see two more permutations of gaijin otaku.

Wow, suge! I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe Gotuza-sama will have a more masculine role? Or maybe she's gonna be in a maid dress again ^^;

[Calawain]

I would definitely look forward to more Gotouza-sama roles compared to Mikuru-chan roles. Although she does do great in both, I'd like to see some variation in her roles.

[Shiroi Hane]

Originally Posted by Zero Shinohara

Also, Patty's comment: "Isn't this image bugged up?" shows that she's probably just been introduced to hentai and the like, at least in a major way. I mean, a great deal of what's published in the hentai/doujin circle has to be censored by law, right? She shouldn't have been so surprised by it if she had. Poor Patty-chan, being corrupted by Konata's legacy

Hentai DVDs and the like are often/sometimes decensored in the US release* and Patty is from America, so perhaps the producers had this in mind.

*very little Hentai makes it to the UK.. just a few cut/cencored releases like Urotsukidoji that I don't even own (if it got through the censors at all hardcore stuff would by R rated and have to be sold in specialty stores so there is simply no viable market), so I don't have a great working knowledge here.

[Meophist]

I typed this up last night but the Internet went screwy on me so I couldn't post it. Fortunally, my browser lets me keep what I typed even if I hit back, so I just copied to my notes.

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

The fate of the Japanese video industry with many software houses having to write games catering to Western audience is exactly why the otakus are panicking. It hasn't happen yet, but I do worry about the prerogatives of the racist Hollywood execs who would have zero respect for anything Japanese for the sake of profit.

Well, the Japanese video game industry was pretty much dying, forcing software developers to look towards other countries for sales. Fortunally, Nintendo was there with the DS, single-handedly reversing the downfall. However, I don't know what the otakus think about that.

As for catering to a western audience, I only really see Capcom, and to an extent, Namco, doing so. I don't actually see the cross-over to be much of a bad thing, however. There's much stagnation within the industry; a bit of western influence on the part of Japanese developers and a bit of Japanese influence on the part of western developers can do the industry good. Of course, some of this is annoyance that western software fare poorly in Japan overall, while the reverse is far from true.

In any case, I am unfamiliar with the anime industry in terms of health, but it doesn't seem too bad at the moment at the very least. It's hardly seems to be "thriving", though.

[Zero Shinohara]

I'm just checking out the upcoming fall shows, and it appears that there are two new characters in Genshiken 2 that have western names, and are played by Gotou Yuuko and Kaida Yuki. Perhaps we will see two more permutations of gaijin otaku.

True, I actually just saw something about that in the Genshiken 2 topic at the Unaired section. It's really good that they're giving some characters a little insight on us, gaiji-otas. From what Shiroth said in there, the character played by Yuuko Gotou has an interesting personality, but I hope "interesting" in a good way. I'd be really saddened if the two gaijin-otas are portrayed the way Americans are usually portrayed throughout the world. You know what I mean, right?

@Shiroi Hane:

Yep, that could be a possibility, although I don't think that Patty would have any experience with Hentai DVDs and things of that sort because it's implied she's not 18 yet, thus not able to buy any of that stuff.

However, now that I think about it, doesn't Patty know about Otome Road, Yaoi and Yuri and seems to be quite versed with Hiyorin's works? If so, then it would be really strange for her to react to Kona's game in that way. Or perhaps, her experience with censorship has consisted mostly of the "black bars of death", instead of the usual CG/Colored pictures' "damned pixels of oblivion". But again, why I'm even dwelling too much on this is a bigger mistery.

@darksider:

Oh, thanks. I was also looking for that information. Not the biggest fan of tofu, but it sure does great in a Miso-soup and with a little seasoning.

[Skane]

It occured to me that for all the "ranting" about the excessive "food-talk" in the early episodes of Lucky Star, here we are happily posting away about the various "right methods" to cook instant ramen. In a way, I suppose the current AnimeSuki-viewership has been filtered enough so that most of those still watching at this point are the ones that "get it".

"Who the Hell talks about food this much?"
"WE DO!"

I can so easily recall several conversations with my friends in which we discussed various foodie-topics for hours on end. Few things are as universal as what constitutes as good food to fill a man's stomach up.

"More salt."
"NO! Less salt!"

While our hobbies may not always overlap, every man has to eat in order to live. It is something that all brother-in-arms can relate to (unless you are some sort of unlucky bastard who has to live on an IV-Drip since birth). The topic of food is an universal language. A gift of fine cuisine is something that is almost always appreciated.

Cheers.

[AVPlaya]

I'm going to keep this thread alive by adding bits and bits of references. Please feel free to discuss or offer corrections.

I think most of you got that joke about Kagami typing on Konata's computer is about Japanese input, probably not many of you understood exactly what is so funny about it. First of all the Japanese input system works by having the person type in the kana in romaji or kana-keys, and then if Kanji is needed the Input system will automatically map to a best guess kanji or compound based on your most recent usage history. Due to the fact that many Japanese words has similar sounds, this can cause quite a bit of confusion if you're using another person's computer and its kanji conversion history isn't what you expected. The conversion system also works for katakana or even English alphabets as well. Hence the background of this sketch.

I'm going to break down each sentence into what Kagami wanted to write, what she ended up writing, and my take on how it got that way.

Sentence #1

What Kagami wanted to write:

「最近少し不調だったのですが、」(Saikin sukoshi fuchou datta no desu ga,)

"Although recently the conditions were a little bad"
[不調 (fuchou) = bad condition]

What Kagami actually wrote:

「最近少し婦長だったのですが、」 (Saikin sukoshi fuchou datta no desu ga)

"Although recently it was a little head-nursed."
[婦長 (fuchou) = senior or head nurse]

The joke is that the kana "fuchou" was mapped to "Head Nurse" instead of "Bad Condition". It seemed that Konata spend a lot of time talking about Nurses, which are popular characters on many eroge. Perhaps there's a game which featured a Head Nurse and she spend time online discussing strategies to past her stage to get to the "good stuff".


Sentence #2

What Kagami wanted to write:

「間に合いそうなので」 (Maniai sou nano de)

"Since it looks like it's going to be on time"

What Kagami actually wrote:

「マニア移送なので」 (Mania isou nano de)

"Due to 'Mania Transfer'.."

For an otaku the subject of being a Mania of something sure comes up a lot, but I'm not sure why "transfer"'s about... perhaps it's a techie word used often in sci-fi anime and games.


Sentence #3

What Kagami wanted to write:

「もっと助走をつけて、」(Motto Jyosou wo tsukete,)

"Adding more approach,"
[助走 (Jyosou) = an approach]

What Kagami actually wrote:

「もっと女装をつけて、」 (Motto Jyosou wo tsukete,)

"Adding more crossplay"
[女装 (Jyosou) = drag or cossplay in verb form]

Maybe Konata has a thing for crossplaying akiba maido and "man-faye".


Sentence #4

What Kagami wanted to write:

「かつ勢いだけじゃなく委員会の雰囲気も大切にしつつ、」
(Katsu ikioi dake janaku iinkai no funiki mo taisetsu ni shitsutsu)

"Moreover we should pay attention to not only the energy but also the mood of the committee."

What Kagami actually wrote:

「かつ勢いだけじゃなく委員会のふいんき（←なぜか変換できない）も大切にしつつ、」
(Katsu ikioi dake janaku iinkai no fuinki (<- nazeka henkan dekinai) mo taisetsu ni shitsutsu)

"Moreover we should pay attention to not only the energy but also the fuinki (<- somehow this can't be converted) of the committee."

The joke here I believe is that the word 雰囲気 (fu n i ki, mood) is very often misspelled phonically as "fu i n ki", and of course the input system won't be able to convert it to correct kanji. Some folks in 2ch then added the sentence "(<- somehow this can't be converted)" after writing ふいんき in hiragana, and it became the defacto form of the word for mood (雰囲気) in 2ch as a running joke. Kagami made a typical typo, but what came out is all 2ch otaku-ness. Some even invented a new kanji compount 不陰気 (fuinki) to add to the Input system and use it in the same joking manner; this new word looked very negative so it probably has the notion of "negative mood" attached to it. This is very 2ch-ish so I wish some expert would explain more to us.


Sentence #5

What Kagami wanted to write:

「課題の内容を詳しく詰めて行きたいと」
(Kadai no naiyou wo kuwashiku tsumete ikitai to)

"(We) will want to continue to discuss the content of the assignment in detail."
[内容 (naiyou) = content]
[行きたい (ikitai) = wanting to continue or go]

What Kagami actually wrote:

「課題の無いようをｋｗｓｋ詰めて逝きたいと」
(Kadai no nai you wo kwsk tsumete ikitai to)

"(We) will want to kwsk-ly discuss the nothingness of the assignment and then die"
[無いよう (naiyou) = way or manner of nothing]
[逝きたい (ikitai) = wanting to die]


A lot of funny bits here. First of course "naiyou" was mapped into some nonsensical netoge speak. "kwsk" is the short hand form for romanized form of "kuwashiku" (詳しく), and it actually means "Explain more in detail" or "Please tell me more about it". It seemed to have gotten started in 2ch's live news boards. Konata seemed very curious about something... hmmm... The ikitai joke was not a 2ch usage as far as I know, but it sure is common amon suicidal kids... should we be worrying about Kona-chan?

One last note about this segment - Kagami seemed to be a bit lazy. She can easily go back and change the conversion before committing the sentence. But I guess if she has done that, there would be no joke won't it?

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Zero Shinohara

I don't think that Patty would have any experience with Hentai DVDs and things of that sort because it's implied she's not 18 yet, thus not able to buy any of that stuff.

There are ways to get uncensored hentai without going into a store or even spending money. Patty seems bright enough to have figured this out for herself if she was motivated enough.

[Psycho Power J]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

Actually that's the best way to cook instant noodles... put the noodle in after it's boiling along with some veggies and some ready-to-eat things like chikuwa, kaban-age or ika-maki. Cook until the noodle's the right texture and then put a raw egg on top. Make sure you get some really good raman noodle packs so the soup base is good.

I think he's talking about heating hot water in a pot to pour over the cup noodles instead of any fancy dispensers. But I do that sometimes with the cup noodles. Take everything out of the bowl and put it into a pot then add more stuff.

Originally Posted by Skane

"Who the Hell talks about food this much?"
"WE DO!"

Yes. Yes we do.

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

Kagami meets Kona-computer fun.

Thanks for explaning those parts. It's great to have more of those bits of jokes on contemporary internet grammar usage. We don't see a lot of references to other countries' typing quirks, or of sub-groups'.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

There are ways to get uncensored hentai without going into a store or even spending money. Patty seems bright enough to have figured this out for herself if she was motivated enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MvSAoJdMW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnJjOlg1ssc

The internet is for porn, the internet is for porn~

[Zero Shinohara]

There are ways to get uncensored hentai without going into a store or even spending money. Patty seems bright enough to have figured this out for herself if she was motivated enough.

Oh sure, of course that goes unsaid. Take me, for example. I'm downloading a 54-gig batch of uncensored, English-subbed hentai series at the moment. However, again, if you're into hentai, you're bound to bump into a lot of pixelized/black bar pictures, so I don't think "Image is bugged" would be a line appropriate for her. Perhaps a "Ah, the pics are censored here?" would be more on-the-spot. But again...

[Meophist]

I just got the thought that maybe in the next episode…

Spoiler:

Konata, Tsukasa, Kagami, and Miyuki go to a Karaoke place at the end?

Anyways, I wonder if KyoAni is planning on continuing Lucky☆Star in the future…

[Proto]

Hmm.... it seems Konata uses winrar and WMP 10 to watch her avi's, not to mention Windows XP default theme. Bleh, despite being more tech savvy than the average joe she's attached to such trifle mainstream applications. pttf...

[Wavedash]

Many thanks, AVPlaya. I picked up on the typing joke when I paused to read and noticed the conversion of the "mania" part, but that was the only one I got.

[kevin13]

Maybe patty just isn't into hentai, perhaps shes not really into it so doesn't have much experience. Porn & Hentai isn't for everyone, even otaku's.