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Nintama's "plot episodes" from season 33

I finished translating them! Yaay! So I get to ramble about them here as a treat. Beware of spoilers if you haven't watched them yet! Let's talk about episodes 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 from season 33, in a messy mix of cultural and translation notes, characterization talk and shameless fangirl squeeing. Episode 33-63 already got its own post here.

33-61: "Why We Wear Sunglasses" Literally, the title is "The reason for the sunglasses". The titles for the episodes this week COULD have been written in a consistent pattern but they are not while also being kinda similar and it drives me insane, so I gave up trying to make them match in English.....

Those episodes are the occasion to slip in bits of characterization here and there, and surprisingly we got a little Isuke crumb early in the episode: he borrowed a book about "pretty flowers", きれいな花 kirei na hana. Funnily, kirei means pretty but also clean, tidy...

It's a recurrent thing to show us how much Chouji adores Kirimaru, so it makes sense he would spoil his kouhai a little, but it's sweet to see how beloved he is by all his committee. Looks like you can't buy Kyuusaku with feelings though, he's the only one immune to Kiri-chan's charms...

Sigh. Sounin. These twos. I GUESS that where Fuwa Raizou goes, Hachiya Saburou follows, and that includes committee time. I like that Raizou takes decisions for Saburou and Saburou doesn't object, I guess he's happy as long as he gets to hang out together... Interestingly, later on in this season, in 33-71, they're together again when Saburou got a request from the Headmaster as advisor of the Class Presidents Committee. Raizou asks why he's here if he's not in the same committee, and Saburou tells him that "where Hachiya Saburou goes, Fuwa Raizou follows"...

I love the Equipment Committee. My friends do, too. Maybe it's why there are so many Equipment Committee on tasogaredokijou... Anyways, the evolution of their dynamic before and after the inclusion of Shuichirou is so interesting to me. Long are gone the days of Kema-senpai traumatizing his kouhais, he's much more caring and gentle nowadays... Just like how everyone in his committee loves and cares for Kirimaru, we're shown how spoiled and loved Shinbei is in the Equipment Committee. Interestingly, as Tomesaburou became softer, it seems Sakubei took on the role of the tough, strict senpai. Sakubei is definitely an extremely caring and responsible senpai and person altogether, but I really find it funny how quick he was to snitch to Tomesaburou what Shinbei did. I guess that even if Tome became gentler he still has a strong grip on Sakubei haha.

I love the Equipment Committee but their episodes inevitably come with stupid puns. Let's compare the original text and the subs.

Shinbei: アリさんが来ませんように。みんな、ありがとう！ arisan ga kimasen you ni. minna, arigatou! lit: May ants not come. Everyone, thank you! Kisanta: アリが十匹...　ありがとう。 ari ga juppiki... arigatou. lit: There are ten ants... Thank you.

Basically, ari is ant, ga is a particle marking the subject, and juppiki is ten. Another way to say ten in japanese is tou, so if you switch juppiki for tou, you get ari ga tou, which sounds like arigatou, thank you.

Now to the Health Committee ; Rantarou is spoiled and loved by his senpai in his own way. Isaku's "be careful on the way, and come back before it gets dark" sounds almost maternal it's really cute... I guess there's no contrasting member of the Health Committee to be strict and rough like Kyuusaku and Sakubei are in their respective committees. I wish Sakon could be like that, it'd give his character a little bit of individuality and flavor within the committee.

If Ninjutsu Academy's Headmaster is gakuenchou in the original text, Happousai is the kouchou, pretty much a synonym, so he's the principal in English.

Oh my god, Fubuki. That feels wrong. Put those glasses back on. The bit about Shibuki purposely trying to look like Tomesaburou is a fun bit of retrospective writing after Years of pointing out that a number of characters look like Tomesaburou. They should make it a series and explain some deep lore reason for Tome to have a twin all the way in Sagami Province... Obviously, such sunglasses were not a thing in the Sengoku period, but Technically sunglasses made of smoky quartz existed in China, so we could imagine that Dokutake has them imported from abroad...? Anyways, on a more grounded level, a similar technique can be achieved with a blindfold or eyepatch. In 18-04, Kinoshita-sensei and Tomesaburou wear an eyepatch to get their eyes accustomed to the dark quicker, and Kazuma points out that pirates in the west uses a similar technique. The kawarigoromo no jutsu, or clothes substitution jutsu had already gotten a lengthy explanation in this episode.

33-62: "The Reason I Became A Teacher" This one absolutely made me lose my mind. Prefacing this by saying I have a certain bias with Nomura-sensei where I am a big fan of his original voice actor, the late Fujiwara Keiji. So when his voice inevitably changed in later seasons I admit my reaction was "you'll never be my goat!", so weirdly enough, Nomura was a character I had a hard time warming up to... But that episode was so good I was able to put my stupid biases aside. I liked how young Nomura sounds, him trying to appear cool in the toughest of times VS sounding much more vulnerable addressing the Kinrakuji's head priest-then-traveling-doctor-monk... That story also made a lot of things click for me regarding Nomura's character in a "I get it now!" way, so here I am with newfound appreciation for him...

Have you ever asked yourself, how did people manage when they had a bad eyesight before glasses were a thing? Well, the short answer is that they usually just focused on activities that didn't require good eyesight. But here, we're shown a story of hard work and perseverance against the odds! It's an episode that is all about legacy and inspiration with a lot of mirroring between characters ; the Kinrakuji priest inspired Nomura, who inspires Rantarou in turn... not only that, but there's a beautiful Isaku/Rantarou parallel with the Kinrakuji priest and Nomura too. Anyways! Glasses! It's an episode all about glasses and bad eyesight! Now, were glasses actually a thing in 16th century Japan? It's... complicated. It wasn't a common item at all but a curiosity, so multiple characters in Nintama wearing glasses is totally an anachronism. But let's dig a little deeper for the sake of nerdery. First of all, if someone in Japan had access to eyeglasses, they would either be the sunglasses imported from China we mentioned earlier, or it would be eyeglasses with the effect of a magnifying lens rather than correcting eyesight per se. Meaning that Rantarou, his dad and Nomura have 0% chance of owning corrective lenses, and that suits the idea of great effort to make up for "a disadvantage without a solution", what Rantarou sees as "bad luck". You know who owned glasses at the very end of Sengoku? Tokugawa Ieyasu, Big Winner of Sengoku Himself. A pair of tortoiseshell glasses that he owned are stored in Kunouzan Toushougu, the shrine in Shizuoka Prefecture where he is buried. There is no certainty as to where those glasses come from ; one theory is that they were imported from abroad, another that they were gifted to him from the Spanish or Portuguese (the Spanish famously gave him a beautiful, ornate clock after all), and another that they are from a glassmaker from Kyushu. Now, if it takes being Tokugawa Ieyasu to own glasses, it makes characters from poor backgrounds like Rantarou and his dad very unlikely to import them, right? If we suppose that Nintama works on the assumption that Japan was able to manufacture glasses, these still have to be very rare and expensive items to own. Personally, I like the idea because it matches this episode making glasses a symbol of perseverance and hard work. It'd make Rantarou a very beloved child with huge support from his family in regards of achieving his dreams, too... ...

This bit is a typical "this sounds cool in Japanese but just obvious in English" but it is how it is. 医僧 isou is literally made of the characters for 医 i, doctor and 僧 sou, monk. Can't get any more straightforward than that. Given it's exactly what Isaku does as practice and what he's shaping up to be post graduation, I find it interesting that it's Kirimaru who exclaims "I know what that is!" instead of Rantarou... Does Isaku keep that activity a secret from his kouhai?

I like these lines a lot! Chafurin is a great voice actor, and it's always impactful when Nintama tackles war and death. This episode does it pretty elegantly too ; Nomura's castle "fell", his lord has "gone missing", and he's seen with only one wounded comrade left, but well, it's evident what happened to everyone. Reminds me of Hinata-sensei having that habit of keeping up a bright smile to cope with being a battlefield ninja. All these teachers have so much war trauma haha. Nintama anime does so much elegant wording around death, then here comes Ninmyu Zatto terrorizing Rankirishin and Fushi with "My dad took a cannonball to the head it was such a mess I found nothing left to bury". Oof. We learn a lot in this episode! Nomura acts cool to keep up a facade, when in reality he has only ever known defeat. He lost all his battles then became a teacher, ending his career as a war ninja with 0 victory! That must have hurt his ego! He lost all his comrades but one then "escaped" to Ninjutsu Academy. On top of his wounded ego, could there be shame and survivor bias too under that proud facade...? The fact he's an i-class teacher is the cherry on top for me given the profile of known i-class students. It really makes me wonder about what the future has in store for the little 1-i kids... sigh. Stay safe...

33-63: "Since When Have You Been Bad At Directions?" I had already written a post about this episode, and yes, I changed the episode title since then haha. I'll just add that the revelation that Samon has not always been directionally challenged kind of changes the game for 3ro in my eyes. I always pictured Sakubei being a shepherd dog for both Samon and Sannosuke since their first year, but actually Samon used to be a much more meek follower. I wonder how Sakubei feels about him getting worse to manage with time, the more confident he grew lol. By the way, it's something I failed to convey in subs before but I'd like to do better from now on, but Sakubei has a rough way of speaking that I find really cute. He tends to correct himself and speak better in front of senpais, though. Basically, he slurs? the end of certain words, notably the -nai endings turn into -nee, and speaks in that rough masculine way... So cute.

33-64 "Taketaka and Happousai" Another crazy one... Standing ovation for Amako for putting all the tragic yaoi master-vassal tropes in one episode and make it about Lord Taketaka and Happousai of all characters. Again, it's another story full of retrospective writing that recontextualizes a Loooot of things. The biggest challenge in subbing this episode will be to properly render the level of languages used between the characters with Happousai being more or less casual to his lord depending on how old he is at each point of the story.

Giving Happousai and Taketaka-sama childhood names is a way to play with realism and historical accuracy (those episodes tend towards history nerdery more than usual... That's our sensei!) I had written a looong post about how names work, but the gist of it is that throughout each stage of their life, one would get a new name. It's always symbolically charged in fiction, and in this episode it's all about the bittersweet loss of childhood. Happousai used to be Hachiroumaru, and Kinokojirou used to be Kojirou. Happousai is a pun on the vegetable dish happousai or babaocai in Chinese. Hieta means "cold" or "gone cold" so Hieta Happousai is a "babaocai dish that has gone cold". The less puny and silly Hachiroumaru means "eighth son", with maru being a cute affectionate suffix for young boys. Kinokojirou is spelled 木野小次郎 so each character technically means "tree" "field" "small" "second" "son", but phonetically the first half sounds like kinoko, mushroom, to match dokutake, toxic mushroom. It also sounds like kinokojiru, mushroom soup. In childhood, he was Kojirou, "small second son". It conveys a lot of affection doesn't it?

The first thing Kojirou tells Hachirou is that his head is so big, it must mean he's very smart. First, that's adorable and really funny. Second, it really put new context for Happousai bragging about how smart he is all the time. Especially thinking about movie 2 where he's like "My head is bigger thanks to the cinema wide screen, so I'm even smarter than usual!" lol.

Funnily enough, trying to research that one superstition only returns... Nintama related result. A made-up fact or an historical fact so obscure it's not documented online? I have no idea.

I like the depiction of the passage of time and seeing Taketaka-sama freshly appointed lord of Dokutake Castle. But if he's the second son and became the lord of Dokutake Castle, then what happened to his big brother...? The implication makes one of the last line of the episode more tragic!

Oh... It was all about dealing with loneliness by finding an older brother... again.............

As expected of Amako-sensei!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She knows what she's about and I respect her a lot for that. Anyways, the last dialogue between Happousai and his lord are... they are just flirting at this point, right?

Taketaka: Happousai, you were just like a dependable older brother back in those days. Happousai: Back in those days? Taketaka: And you used to be so much cuter too. Happousai: You too, my lord, were incredibly cute. And much more sincere than you are now. Here, I'm done fixing your beloved horse. Ow, ow, ow, ow. Taketaka: And you sure have gotten older! Happousai: Doesn't that go for you as well? We only are one year apart in age, you know! Taketaka: Indeed! ...Indeed, Hachirou.

I love the emphasis on "your beloved horse". The horse is beloved because Happousai made it... it has been beloved all this time because Happousai kept fixing it...! Incredible.

33-65: "The Reason Behind the Uniforms' Colors" I did a lot of gasping watching those episodes and this time it was caused by Seiemon and Kanbei showing up. Yippee!!!!!!!!! Can Ouji and Kouun show up next, please please please? Anyways. The episode opens with the PE Committee being scolded by the Cafeteria lady for coming in while crawling on the floor. I find it so cute that as rowdy as they are, they immediately go "Yes ma'am!" at her lol. They're good kids.

I really like how Koheita's reaction to seeing his senpai's uniforms. It does a good job conveying how grounded and analytical he actually is.

In the subs, I wrote "circles and lattice pattern" to describe the 1st year uniforms, but the # shaped pattern in Japanese is called igeta, and it's much older than the western hash. Igeta actually refers to wooden planks that make the frame of a water well, so it's been a pattern for a very long time with symbolism and meaning completely different from the western #. Incidentally, the character for "well" in Japanese is 井, i. Pretty evocative, huh? The circle pattern looks like the actual kanoko pattern, which looks like the spots on a fawn's coat. The anime references it directly.

Takiyashamaru says that the uniform of the second year is the easiest to dye because the process of indigo dying was already well developed at the time. Getting different hues would require different plants, fermentation time, treatment, number of dips into the dyestuff, etc ; making blue shades easier to produce than deep reds. Takiyashamaru rants about the purple color for a while, but he's right that this color is symbolically loaded, associated with nobility and magic. It does match the quirky 4th years students! But the color makes sense on a more technical level too: the deep purple of the 4th and 5th years uniforms would make them pretty labor intensive to produce. I guess it makes sense that all the uniforms fall in those between green and purple hues, and that the younger years get uniforms that are more easily to produce since they have more students than later years. (though the 1st years uniform get extra labor in adding the pattern for good luck. Making the 2nd years' uniform, indeed, the easiest and cheapest to make.)

That's all for now! Thank you for reading this far! Those episodes really have a lot to them and I feel I didn't go as deep as I wanted but... whoops it's 1 am, enough ranting for today.

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