99.9~Keijisenmon Bengoshi~ sII [Episode 2 Extra Notes]

And I'm back with episode 2 (again, sorry for the wait). This episode also came jam-packed with a lot of little cute details so here I am to explain some of them to you. Also, the puns in this episode were kind of difficult to work through, so I'm going to be explaining some of my translation choices in this post too for anyone who is interested.

Episode 2

1. Madarame's Office!

The flower in Madarame's office are from clients we saw in season 1 who Miyama helped out. There are flowers from MaxV (episode 1), Kikuchi Akio (episode 4), and Orogon Hobby (episode 7).

2. A stray director!

 

This man here is actually the director of the show, Kimura Hisashi!

3. Itokonchi Details

 

Kanako's latest single "オヤツじゃないのよバナナは (Oyatsujanai no yo Banana ha) is a nod to the song "飾りじゃないのよ、涙は" (Kazurijanai no yo, Namida ha) by Nakamori Akina. 

The side of the CD jacket actually says "this is not a parody, it's an homage".

 

This is an autograph from Okada Kazuchika, the pro-wrestler who appeared at the end of the last episode, and who has been mentioned at various times throughout season 1.

Kanako's Kanabunbun Night - Kanabun is a type of beetle, hence why in the poster Kanako is a bug. The actress, Kishino Yuki has also appeared in MV's for a band called "KANA-BOOM".

4. Bees?

This moment here is a nod back to season 1, when a beehive fell on Akashi in this very spot during episode 6.  

5. Miyama's restaurant

The logo for Miyama's dads restaurant is a beetle - possible a reference to a Miyama Kuwata/stag beetle.

6. Matilda-san?

Matilda-san!

This is a reference to a character in the anime Mobile Suit: Gundam, Matilda Ajan.

Also, Akashi repeatedly saying "Akashi OO-masu!" (in this episode, it's "Akashi spreading out!" is also a reference to a the main character in Mobile Suit: Gundam, Amuro Ray, who would often say "Amura, heading out!" (Amuro ikimasu!)

7. A hint about the culprit

On this sweets package, the description reads "An-nin Ogura" and "an-nin" sounds very similar to the the word "Han-nin" (criminal), who is the police officer, Ogura Manabu.

8. Milk?

The milk is called "ひゃくまんゴクゴクフルーツ牛乳" (Hyakuman GokuGoku Fruits Milk) which is a nod to "Kaga Hyakuman GokuGoku", a term often associated with Kanazawa in the past. 

Kaga was the old name for Kanazawa. Goku (Koku) was the term for the amount of rice an adult eats in a year. Hyaku-man = 10 million. It was used to reference how agriculturally prosperous Kanazawa used because it implied Kanazawa could produce 10 million times the amount of rice an average adult would eat in a year. 

9. Don't read this vertically!

The two signs on the top left and bottom right of the book cases. 

For the bottom right, if you read the first character of every line it says "タテに読むナ"--don't read this vertically.

For the top left, if you read the first character of every line it says " 今更デすガ大友は元金沢ノ検察" or "Just so you know, Otomo was a former prosecutor in Kanazawa".

10. Mountain jokes

 The name of the shrine is 羽津鯉神社 or "Hatsukoi Shrine". Hatsukoi also means first love (初恋)

The sign with the red words says "Be aware of a large amount of praying mantis'". Kagawa Teruyuki is a show on NHK where all he talks about is bugs, and most importantly, the beloved praying mantis.

The paths on this mountain all have some punny names.

いろけよりくい池 (Irokeyorikui ike | Irokeyoriikui pond) - 色気より食い気 (Iroki yori Kuiki - food over romance)
阿波展望 (Awaten Tenbou | Awaten ook out) - あわてんぼう (Awatenbou | Air-headed person)
とつきと丘 (Totsukito Oka | Totsukito Hill) - 十月十日 (Totsukitouka | a phrase referring to how long a woman is pregnant)

Despite the shrine being for love, all the things on this charm reference specific bug spray brands. The charm itself is supposed to ward off bugs.

Also - the reason the fish on the charm is a koi fish is because koi is another word for love!

11. Puns explained

• Better vs Bitter: At Itokonchi, Kanako says she wants to go to Kanazawa because she might be a healing presence to him (iyasaru) but Bando jokes that Miyama always tries to avoid her (inasareteru). They sound very similar in Japanese, so I used the words "feel better" and "feel bitter" to match that.
• Here is your meal-night summer dream: In Japanese, Miyama's dad is playing with the phrase "Omachidouzo" and changing the last part to "summer dream". I wanted to keep the "Summer dream" to stay consistent. When I think of the words "Summer dream" it makes me think of Shakespear's "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and since "Meal" and "Midsummer" both start with M, I kind of stretched it out to incorporate Miyama's dad's play on words. So "Midsummer" turned into "Meal-summer". 
• Asahi Juice or Acai Juice?: In Japanese, the words Asahi sound similar to how they pronounce the word Acai (Asai). Asahi is a beverage company in Japan (think Asahi beer) so I was playing with that idea. I felt like even in English it's pretty understandable to see how "Asahi" and "Acai" might sound similar if you stretched the syllables enough. 
• It's my cup of pee: This one took me a long time. In Japanese this is a poop joke (unko no aji vs un, kono aji), and the only thing coming to my head was "This is delishits!" but a 10 year old boy would probably not be able to say that, so I had to think of something slightly more age-appropriate. I really wanted to keep the potty humor though, so instead of saying "This is my cup of tea!" I changed tea to pee. Aren't I a genius? (*runs and hides*). 
• Bon A-gatha Christie: Again, this is another of those word plays that is really just adding a word onto the end of another word. In Japanese, the dad is combining the words 召し上がる (meshiagaru) with Agatha Christie. I was smushing together "Bon Appetite" with Agatha Christie. 
• Not clearing away?: When Sada has the gold on his face, Miyama says "tashikani toketenai" in response to Sada saying "nazo ga toketenai". Miyama is actually teasing Sada about the gold leaf that hasn't been dissolved/wiped off, but to Sada it just sounds like Miyama is agreeing with him because the word for melt (溶ける) and to solve (解ける) are both pronounced tokeru!  
• Been invisible or bean invisible: A terrible pun. I really couldn't think of anything related to green beans related and played around with a lot of different things. In the end I went for something as plain and simple as possible - mixing up the words "been" and "bean". Not terribly clever, but everything else I came up with was really bad. (hint: invisible turning into invisibean - I was desperate!)
• Cucumbers and tomatoes!: These veggie puns really killed me honestly. In Japanese, the "cucumber" part is also a pun as I explained. kyuuri is a play on kyuu ni, but I didn't know what to do with that so I just left it. Tomato is supposed to be a stand in for "To my toes". So. "I'm as cool as a cucumber, from my head to my toes (tomatoes)". 
• Eggplants: I guess it was a bit of a cheat, but honestly, how do you make a pun with the word "eggplant"? Splitting up the word was a lot easier, and I feel like it still follows the same tune of what Miyama said in Japanese (ナスすべなし) which means to be all out of ideas/be at one's wits end, which I feel like... if your plans fall apart, that's the situation you would be in to? Maybe?

12. Random other things:

• Apparently the lawyer who had the files for Miyama's case was from "Naruse Law Office" - a nod to Naruse Ryo, the name of Ohno's character in the drama Maou.  
• Miyama's mom's name is apparently 深山翔子 (Miyama Shoko). Now. Miyama's dad's name is 深山大介 (Miyama Daisuke). If you are familiar with the kanji for Miyama's name, 深山大翔 you will notice his name was formed with a character from each of his parents' names!