It’s like one of Aesop’s fables, but better in every way.
This story is about one Mt. Kachikachi. The original story actually has nothing to do with a race, and you can look it up if you’re interested. Only the core element, which is a rabbit messing with a tanuki, is really preserved in the show. In any case, this note is about the pun. ‘Kachikachi’ is the sound of fire crackling, and when the rabbit sets the tanuki on fire, the latter asks what the noise is. The rabbit claims that it’s just old Mt. Kachikachi, who they happen to be near to, making noise again. That’s pun number one, the sound of fire. Number two is a complication introduced by Heya, who mashed this up with the Tortoise and the Hare. It now being a race, the players can declare victory, which is ‘kachi’ in Japanese. That’s number two. They were dealt with as ‘catching’ (as in ‘to catch fire’, when Aoi’s banging flint) and ‘catch me’ respectively.
Hot pot’s good for winter months. Stay warm, and watch out for surprise attacks!
Pareidolia’s rather broader than mentioned in the episode here, being any pattern in any ambiguous or random visual context, but it is, as here, usually applied to faces.
Don’t forget to get out for some exercise once in a while! Yuru Camp isn’t as athletic as its mountain-trotting cousin Yama no Susume, but the campers get some mileage in nonetheless.
The Fuji Five Lakes (in the established rendering and the one used here) are, of course, five lakes near Fuji. All five are on the Yamanashi side. Kawaguchi’s closest to Fujiyoshida, where we were last episode. Far out to the west lies Lake Motosu, which you’ll remember from the main series.
Just to remind you, ‘-ko’ means ‘lake’, and so ‘Lake Kawaguchiko’ is abomination.
This show is actually just an ad for Yamanashi. If you were expecting actual room activities, you were a fool.
The Fujisan World Heritage Center is of course a real place, in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi. They’re all going to be in Yamanashi.
The myriad ‘local Fujis’ are mostly named after the area they’re in. The one exception this episode is Nanbukata Fuji, which is actually Mt. Iwate. One explanation is that ‘Nanbu’ (‘Southern Part’) refers to the side of Iwate that looks like Fuji (the pretty southern part; viewed from the north, Iwate’s kind of deformed). Another is that that side of Iwate looks like Fuji when Fuji is viewed from the south (i.e. Shizuoka). ‘Kata’ (‘partial’, ‘one (of two)’, ‘one-sided’, whatever else you want) perhaps refers to that the mountain’s deformed and only one side is pretty, or that only one side looks like Fuji, or that the south side is the side that looks like Fuji, or it looks like the south side of Fuji, or any number of things. It’s one of those things nobody actually knows. ‘Nanbukata Fuji’ might not be the best way to break up that combination (as it’s unclear where the adjectives end and how they attach), but it really doesn’t matter and it was better to be consistent with the other ones. Just for your interest.
We’re back! Welcome to a new season, a new year, and a new decade! Even I don’t have much to say about a show this short. If you’ve seen Yuru Camp (and you have, right?), you know exactly what to expect, so just chill out and enjoy comfy time.
Final box! What a lovely show. I’ll try to spare you from all of my thoughts (not the least as I’ve forgotten most of them, having finished it myself months ago), but it’s one of those quiet gems that are always the best in their seasons (unless you count Sunshine 2, yeah boiii). The whole post-apocalyptic aesthetic, the slice-of-life format until the last two episodes, the military setting… It’s more than a little depressing, but in an optimistic way? It should all remind you of the best anime ever made, and it’s a great show for similar reasons. Go out there and find some joy and meaning in your life, even if there isn’t any. Fun things are fun, but terrible things are fine too.
What I’m trying to say is that cute girl shows are a pure expression of the Dao. And the still water in this pool is bright and clear.
Anyway, for acknowledgements, I’m indebted to the Amazon subs, terrible as they are. A thank you also to whoever produced this reference to the stylized kana, which saved me a lot of time in deciphering the signs. The biggest thanks to tkmiz and White Fox, of course. Do do your part to support the creators of the work, and why not check out the manga, which wasn’t totally adapted? And of course to joletb, who foolishly agreed to this project (a year and a half ago!) and did the other half of the work.
Speaking of manga, there’s a bonus chapter that came with the BDs, which we’ve translated and put up as well. It’s really a lovely addition to the show that captures its essence pretty well (unlike the shorts…), so do give it a read (thanks also to eli, who typeset it). There’s one small note about it (mentioned also in a TL note on the manga itself), which is that the poem referenced is by one Hermann Hesse, titled Auf Wanderung (Dem Andenken Knulps). I think tkmiz did an original translation into Japanese, and I used that Japanese (not the German) as the base for the English. Poetry does tend to be harder to translate, and so I took even more liberties there. As always, @ me with your complaints, I’m game.
On a personal note, this is my (tsuru’s! Not joletb’s or Akatsukin’s or Asenshi as a whole’s or anyone else’s!) last project for the foreseeable future, so good news for you if you hate lengthy noteposts (bad news if you like cute girl shows!). It’s been a real privilege to be able to work on the shows I’ve done with the people I have, and I really do appreciate all, like, thousand of you that actually watch my stuff (and all ten of you what read my posts). It’s been a wild ride. I’ll probably miss it.
Please do continue to support the group, and thanks as always for watching Asenshi.
Edit: It’s just me, tsuru, what’s retiring! Asenshi is more than one person! Yagate will get done soon, probably, and Violet is up to the whims of Vivid, and with neither of those shows was I even involved to begin with! I was out here doing Yuru Camp and Yama no Susume and such. Those might still eventually get batched. That’s a big might. And don’t act like I’m dead!
