This one’s for the ladies again. Click for source.

There’s gonna be a ton of images this post… but there’s only really two lines of note that I wanted to discuss from episode 8. The vast majority of this post is going to be about Watanuki’s T-shirts.

(Wrote this in a rush before an appointment yesterday. Slightly updated it, with links to YouTube videos of the songs mentioned and a bit more detail in some parts. Might update it more later)

You may or may not have noticed, but Watanuki usually wears a different shirt not only every episode, but also on different days within the same episode. All of them are emblazoned with tough guy/delinquent slogans. For what should be obvious reasons, we did not typeset his shirt since it was moving around unpredictably all the time and a different shape in every scene. Still, I find them amusing, and perhaps you will, too.

First appearance. Fittingly enough, his shirt says 不良 (“furyou”) which means “delinquent”. The ruby above is ワル (waru) which is a slang term that means the same thing (Watanuki’s catchphrase is in fact most accurately translated as “I’m a delinquent.” Translating ワル as “bad” is about as stupid as translating つまらない as “it won’t fit”).

The kanji are 本気 (honki) and the ruby is マジ (maji). Both mean “dead serious” but the latter is, as you might expect, more informal.

This is the “Heaven and Earth” phrase that I mentioned in my first post.

And this is the delinquent version of “nice to meet you” that I also explained in that post.

“Always ready for a fight” or “bring it on”. Again, refer to the Localization Notes 1 post.

“I’ve been a bad boy since I was little.” This is probably related to the quote that I’ll explain a bit further down.

地元じゃ負け知らず = “Undefeated on our home turf”. It’s a quote from the song “Seishun Amigo” by Shuuji & Akira, which was the theme song to the TV drama “Nobuta wo Produce” (apologies, couldn’t find a better video). Skimmed the lyrics; it’s apparently about a pair of rowdy youngsters in Sicily.

夜の校舎　窓ガラス壊して回った = “Went around smashing the school windows at night”. Another song lyric, this time from the song “Graduation” (sotsugyou) by Ozaki Yutaka. Read the lyrics in a bit more detail today; pretty interesting actually. It’s less of a straight-up rebellious teenager song than I thought at first. Rather, it’s a song reminiscing about being a rebellious teenager: that time when it felt like the adults of the world were all against you, when you had to roll up your sleeves and battle it out to prove yourself among your peers, when you went around school at night smashing windows (I hope none of you reading this actually did that) just to take our your frustration. The refrain muses, “I put up with it all, just knowing I’d eventually graduate from this prison.” A few other lines: “We convinced ourselves that listening to them would be giving in. I didn’t drop my tough act in front of my friends, even if it hurt them sometimes.” “How many times must I graduate from myself before I discover who I am?”

Had to squint a bit but I managed to make this one out. ちっちゃな頃から悪ガキで、15で不良と呼ばれた = “I’ve been a bad boy since I was a kid, and they called me delinquent by 15″. As various folks have quipped online, isn’t 15 awfully late? I mean, if you don’t got a bad rep by 12 at least, how can you call yourself delinquent?

This is from “Gizagiza Heart no Komoriuta” (“Lullaby of the Jagged Heart”) by The Checkers. Give it a listen. Again, the lyrics are quintessential rebellious teenage boy.

“Heaven and Earth” again. I’m disappointed, david production! Watanuki should have a new one every day!

今日も一発ドカンを決めたらヨーラン背負ってリーゼント more or less describes the classic delinquent image: a long, almost coat-like version of the gakuran known as “youran”, a big pompadour out front (better images via Google), and heavy, baggy, uniform-style pants. You’ve almost certainly seen this type in anime.

And before someone asks, I was unable to make this one out. The second character looks like 極 but this one just isn’t shown from enough angles for me to tell.

Okay! That’s the shirts done. On to the juicier stuff.

Escro pointed this out to me when he reviewed the script and he’s correct: the “~tamae” verb ending is a command, whereas “beseech” is more of a plea. In this case, I decided the most important factor was that Ririchiyo was using an overly melodramatic, silly-sounding, and somewhat old-fashioned phrase, since she then proceeds to curl into a ball of embarrassment at ever coming up with such a ridiculous line. Hence, “beseech”.

I originally had something a bit silly for this pun (“I ain’t licked yet!” or something) but escro suggested something better and I ran with it. Maybe a bit too far; this ended up being a bit dirtier than the original, but I considered it within bounds.

This is a pun on “nameru” which can mean “to underestimate or take lightly” but can also mean “to lick”. Thus, Watanuki is saying “Don’t make fun of (nameru) me!” to which Zange responds, “But licking (nameru) you would be disgusting!” Obviously this doesn’t work in English, so with escro’s help I came up with “Don’t screw with me!” / “Oh my, but that’s so indecent!”

That face is adorable. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

So obviously the entire episode is about Ririchiyo’s coffee plan, so why “tea”? Well, those who aren’t British enough may not be aware, but tea is also the name of a meal. In this episode, “tea” generally refers to the meal, and not the drink, which is why I chose to use “teatime” (as one word) to emphasize that. Having coffee for tea may sound a bit weird, but having coffee at teatime is a bit more natural… at least that’s how I figured it.

… well this ended up being more image heavy and less text heavy. Anyway, hope this was informative.