Do not doubt my ability to make everything I sub into an idol anime
This was a very satisfying and vindicating episode in terms of content, as it reflected talks I’ve given in the past about certain connections in logic that aren’t obvious at first glance, but are screamingly obvious in retrospect once pointed out. Yes, I’m being intentionally vague so as not to spoil you if you’re reading this first, but it’s at the end of the episode. No, my talk isn’t available, but I’d be glad to induct new followers into the Church of Idol.
Good lord this episode was hard to do. I’m not even going to explain every last little thing we had to do to make it work, but there are a couple of points worth mentioning. First is the eponymous story of the tanuki and Mount Kachi-Kachi (details here on wiki). The summary is that kachikachi-yama isn’t a real place, it’s the sound of crackling wood on fire. This is also where the boat of mud comes from, and how it melts in the water.
Second is the relation between tanuki, sometimes called raccoon dogs in English, and their etymology. Something I only learned through research for this script was that actual raccoons, called literally “washing bears” in Japanese and several other languages, probably got that name from the original taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, who named them Ursus lotor for “washing bear”. It was only later when raccoons were separated into their own genus. The point of all this is for a joke that tanuki can be mistaken for raccoons, which are called bears in Japanese.
And finally, the more astute of you will notice that Trigger screwed up left and right field positions. A native English speaker would never do this due to the commonality of the phrase “out in left field” meaning in the middle of nowhere, but whoever wrote the line was confused.
Finally, I can put my biomedical background to good use subbing. It’s rare that I can translate things related to my actual field. We’re starting to see where BNA may be going from here on out, setting up for some later reveals, and exploring more of the world from inside and outside Michiru’s perspective. Also, Nina is cute.
Welcome to this, the final episode! Thanks for sticking around. I hope you all had a nice time with this nice show! As is typically the case for shorts like this, Heya wasn’t really as good (I’d personally hazard not even close to as good) as its parent Yuru. The writing I’d call a little weaker, the atmosphere a little thinner, the cast a little smaller (best girl was only in two episodes!). But it was charming nonetheless, and we certainly all learned a lot about Yamanashi. Though you all already knew that commercials could make for good anime, didn’t you? Especially that one Subaru one.
Ultimately it was just a stopgap, anyway. Look forward to Yuru Camp Deltwo in Winter 2021! And the movie, uh, sometime!
They’re going hard with the beast wordplay, which we have done our best to turn into understandable and equivalent English. For example, the word for a resident of a city is 住民 (juumin), but here they change the first kanji to 獣 for beast, and it’s pronounced exactly the same. You can only see the difference when it’s written out. This happens a few other times, but your viewing experience should be exactly the same as a native speaker.
And we’re back with Trigger’s newest anime, this time about what it means to become an animal in a world still dominated by humans. Looking back, we’ve actually done quite a few from their studio, haven’t we. Although half the series was already released on Netflix, I’m personally taking it one episode at a time as we go. This was a good start, and already you can tell the themes are going a different direction than the recent Beastars. It’s also always a pleasure hearing Morohoshi Sumire in a leading role. You can feel some of Trigger’s signature style all over the episode, so here’s hoping for an exciting ride.
For once, no notes. It’s a pretty straightforward episode! They’re in Narusawa, famous for the ice caves (or ice cave singular; it’s not a terribly meaningful distinction).
* – Regarding release schedule since Netflix will release the first six episodes on the 21st: We will likely do episodes in a weekly fashion. (or alternatively, whenever we’re done with them)
