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apothecaryscript · 27 days ago

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Drama CD vol.1 of Light Novel Apothecary Diaries vol.11 - Girls' Talk at the Jade Pavilion / 薬屋のひとりごと 11巻　ドラマCD　vol.1 ―翡翠宮ガールズトーク―

The drama CD is a bonus for the special edition of light novel vol.11, and you can find the audio on You Tube. One of the characters in this story will be making his first appearance in coming Season 2 in anime. There will be no spoilers about the main story, but you will know what kind of person he is, so if you don’t want to know about him yet, please don’t read now.

Please note that the English lines are just my translation.

This post cannot be reblogged, and please do not repurpose it, since I have no intention of infringing the copyright of this drama CD and I don’t want this post to be distributed to an unspecified number of people.

So if you’d like to share this post with someone, please advise them to visit my blog. I’ll put a link to this post on the home page of my blog.

桜花「あ～！やっぱ蒸したての包子は最高だわ！」

Infa “Aaa! Yappa mushi-tate-no paozuwa saiko dawa!”

Yinghua “Ah! Freshly steamed baozi is the best!”

蒸したて: “蒸す（むす/Musu）: steam”＋ “～(し/Shi)たて/Tate: has just finished～”

包子(パオズ/Paozu): baozi, Chinese bun, bun with pork or something inside

貴園「本当ね、桜花。あ、ちょっとお茶取って、愛藍」

Guien “Honto-ne, Infa. A, chotto ocha totte, Airan.”

Guiyuan “You’re right, Yinghua. Oh, can you pass me the tea, Ailan?”

お茶(おちゃ/Ocha): I guess Guiyuan meant the teapot near Yinghua on the table since she wanted to pour another cup of tea herself.

愛藍「あ、はい、貴園。あと、ほっぺたについてる…」

Airan “A, hai, Guien. Ato, hoppeta-ni tsuiteru…”

Ailan “Here, Guiyuan. And there’s something on your cheek…”

ほっぺた(Hoppeta)： casual word which means cheek. Formally it is written as 頬（ほお/Hoo） or ほほ(hoho), but when speaking, it is too short, so ほっぺた is easier to hear and use. We also use ほっぺ(Hoppe) for cheeks, and it sounds cuter so men don’t use it as much.

貴園「ありがと、愛藍」

Guien “Arigato, Airan.”

Guiyuan “Thank you, Ailan.”

桜花「玉葉様には感謝しないと。鈴麗公主様もお昼寝中だし、こんなにゆっくりなのは久しぶり！あ、猫猫、ちゃんと食べてる？」

Infa “Gyokuyo-sama-niwa kansha shinaito. Rinrī-hime-samamo ohirune-chu-dashi, konnani yukkuri-nanowa hisashi-buri! A, Maomao, chanto tabeteru?”

Yinghua “We have to thank Lady Gyokuyou. Princess Lingli is taking her afternoon nap, and it’s been a while since I’ve had such a relaxing time! Oh, Maomao, are you eating well?”

猫猫「頂いてます」

Maomao “Itadaite-masu.”

Maomao “Yes, I am.”

頂く(いただく/Itadaku): Keigo(humble style) of “eat” or “take/being given”

頂いてます(いただいてます) = いただいています（“いただく”＋“～しています: be Ving”）

桜花「足りないわよね？貴園、猫猫の分、追加追加！」

Infa “Tarinai-wayone? Guien, Maomao-no-bun, tsuika, tsuika!”

Yinghua “It’s not enough, is it? Guiyuan, add some more for Maomao!”

追加（ついか/Tsuika）: addition 　追加する(ついかする/Tsuika-suru): add

貴園「はいはーい」

Guien “Hai-haaai.”

Guiyuan “Yes, okay!”

猫猫（いや、こんなに食べられないんだけど…断っても無駄だろうな…）

Maomao (Iya, konnani taberare-nain-dakedo… Kotowattemo muda-darona…)

Maomao (No, I can’t eat this much… I guess it’s useless to refuse…)"

桜花「猫猫はもっとお肉をつけるべきよ！園遊会の時もそうだけど、毒見役は体力勝負でしょ！体力つけるには食事！ご飯食べる！おやつ食べるのー！」

Infa “Maomaowa motto oniku’o tsukeru-bekiyo! En’yu-kaino tokimo so-dakedo, dokumi-yakuwa tairyoku-shobu desho! Tairyoku tsukeru-niwa shokuji! Gohan taberu! Oyatsu taberunooo!”

Yinghua “Maomao, you should gain more weight! Just like at the garden party, being a poison tester needs a lot of stamina! You need to eat to build up your stamina! Eat food! Eat snacks!”

体力勝負(たいりょくしょうぶ/Tairyoku-shobu) = 体力（たいりょく/Tairyoku）: physical strength ＋勝負(しょうぶ/Shobu): game, battle, competition

愛藍「イ、桜花！火傷(やけど)しちゃうから！猫猫に桃饅(ももまん）押し付けちゃ駄目！」

Airan “I-Infa! Yakedo shichau-kara! Maomao-ni momo-man oshi-tsukecha dame!”

Ailan “Y-Yinghua! She’ll get burned! Don’t push the peach bun onto Maomao!”

火傷する(やけどする/Yakedo-suru): get burned

しちゃう(shichau) = casual way of saying してしまう(shite-shimau): have done something bad, have done something unintentionally.

桃饅(ももまん/Momo-man) = 桃饅頭(ももまんじゅう/Momo-manju): Chinese sweet bun in the shape of a peach

猫猫「…助かりました」（園遊会の時から、なんかさらに食わされる量が増えてる…）

Maomao “…Tasukari-mashita.” (En’yu-kaino toki-kara, nanka sarani kuwa-sareru ryoga fueteru…)

Maomao “Thank you for your help.” (Since the garden party, I’ve been fed more and more…)

桜花「ともかく、猫猫はちゃんと食べるのよ！」

Infa “Tomokaku, Maomaowa chanto taberu-noyo!”

Yinghua “Anyway, Maomao, you have to eat well, okay?”

ちゃんと(Chanto): properly (In this case, I translated it as “well” which seems more natural.)

猫猫「あ…はい…」

Maomao “A… Hai…”

Maomao “Ah… Yes…”

貴園「（はむっ）…そういえばさぁ、今更だけど、園遊会で誰かいい人いた？」

Guien “(Hamu)…So-ieba-saa, imasara-dakedo, en’yukai-de dareka ii hito ita?”

Guiyuan “(nom)…By the way, I know this is a little late, but was there anyone nice at the garden party?”

はむっ(Hamu): onomatopoeia for eating something softly. Maybe it comes from an old word “食む(はむ/Hamu): eat.”

桜花「貴園！私達には玉葉様がいらっしゃるでしょ！不敬な事言わないでよ！」

Infa “Guien! Watashi-tachi-niwa Gyokuyo-samaga irassharu-desho! Fukeina koto iwanaideyo!”

Yinghua “Guiyuan! We have Lady Gyokuyou, don’t we? Don’t say disrespectful things!”

不敬な(ふけいな/Fukeina): disrespectful, irreverent

貴園「もちろん分かってるよー。でも、いろんな人が来ていたじゃない？例えば…その中で、気になる人が仮にいたとすれば…」

Guien “Mochiron wakatteruyooo. Demo, ironna hitoga kiteitaja-nai? Tatoeba…sono nakade, kini-naru hitoga karini itato sureba…”

Guiyuan “Of course I know. But, weren’t there a lot of different people there? For example, if there was someone you were interested in…”

愛藍「そ…そう言われると…」

Airan “So… So iwareruto…”

Ailan “Well, now that you say that…”

桜花「仮、ね！あくまで、仮よね？」

Infa “Kari, ne! Akumade, kari-yone?”

Yinghua “It’s just hypothetically, right? It’s just hypothetically after all, right?”

あくまで(Akumade): just, only, merely, at most, after all

貴園「そうそう。あくまで仮よ」

Guien “So-so. Akumade kariyo.”

Guiyuan “That’s right. It’s just hypothetically.”

猫猫（…ソワソワしてる…。好きだなぁ～、この人たち、こういう会話）

Maomao (…Sowa-sowa shiteru… Suki-danaaa, kono hito-tachi, ko-iu kaiwa.)

Maomao (…They look excited… They love this kind of conversation, after all.)

桜花「わ、私は、かんざしを5本もらったんだけど、どれも義理っぽかったり、オジサンだったりだったわ」

Infa “Wa, Watashiwa, kanzashi’o go-hon morattan-dakedo, doremo girippokattari, ojisan-dattari dattawa.”

Yinghua “I-I was given five hairpins, but they were all either consolation or from older man.”

義理（ぎり/Giri）: There is no word in English that corresponds to the Japanese word for 義理(Giri). In the main stories of Season 1, Lihaku and Maomao say 「義理のかんざし」, that were translated into “consolation hairpin”, so I followed it. 義理 means something you should do as a person or something you should do toward other people in your social life, even if you don’t really want to do it. It’s a kind of manner, courtesy, or obligation in our social relationship with others.

貴園「私も、私も。なんか来ている顔触れも、前の時と変わらなかったわよね」

Guien “Watashimo, watashimo. Nanka kite-iru kaoburemo, maeno tokito kawara-nakatta-wayone.”

Guiyuan “Me too, me too. The faces that came were the same as last time.”

愛藍「うん…うちの翡翠宮、侍女が少ないから、私たち毎回出ているし、誘っても来ないって分かってるんだろうね」

Airan “Un… Uchino Hisui-Kyu, jijoga sukunai-kara, watashi-tachi maikai dete-irushi, sasottemo konaitte wakatterun-darone.”

Ailan “Yeah… Our Jade Pavilion doesn’t have many ladies-in-waiting, so we have attended every time, and I guess they know that we won’t come even if they invite us.”

桜花「で、でも、もう少し頑張ろうとか思わないわけ？こーんな愛らしい優秀な侍女たちがいるのに！」

Infa “De, Demo, mo-sukoshi ganbaro-toka omowa-nai-wake? Koonna airashii yushuna jijo-tachiga iru-noni!”

Yinghua “B-But don’t they think they should try a little more? There are such lovely and excellent ladies-in-waiting!”

猫猫（玉葉妃がいるんじゃなかったのかな？）

Maomao (Gyokuyo-higa irunja nakattano-kana?)

Maomao (Didn’t she say we have Lady Gyokuyou?)

貴園「仕方ないよ。他にもっといい返事する女官は、たくさんいるんだもの」

Guien “Shikata-naiyo. Hokani motto ii henji-suru nyokanwa, takusan irun-damono.”

Guiyuan “It can’t be helped. There are plenty of other ladies in waiting who could give better replies.”

愛藍「そうよね。金剛宮の侍女たちなんて、目を爛々とさせていたわ…」

Airan “So-yone. Kongo-Kyuno jijo-tachi-nante, me’o ran-ranto sasete-itawa…”

Ailan “That’s right. The ladies in waiting of the Diamond Pavilion had their eyes lit up with excitement…”

桜花「あそこの侍女たちって薄情そうだから、いい殿方見つかったら、すぐに仕事辞めそうよねぇ」

Infa “Asokono jijo-tachitte hakujo-so-dakara, ii tonogata mitsukattara, suguni shigoto yameso-yonee.”

Yinghua “The ladies-in-waiting there seem cold-hearted, so if she found a good man, she’d probably quit her job right away.”

〇〇そう(so) of “薄情そう(はくじょうそう/Hakujo-so)”、“辞めそう(やめそう/Yame-so)”: look 〇〇, sound 〇〇, seem 〇〇

殿方（とのがた/Tono-gata）: old word for “man” “gentleman”

貴園「桜花。言い過ぎ。でも、確かに…」

Guien “Infa. Ii-sugi. Demo, tashikani…”

Guiyuan “Yinghua. That’s too much. But, it’s true…”

愛藍「後宮だと、殿方と会う機会なんてそうそうないし…」

Airan “Kokyu-dato, tonogatato au kikai-nante so-so naishi…”

Ailan “In the rear palace, there aren’t many opportunities to meet men…”

三人「はぁ～。出会いなんて、無いわぁ～」

San-nin “Haaaa. Deai-nante, naiwaaa.”

Three ladies “Hmm. There is no chance to meet a nice man…”

猫猫（…んなもんだろうなぁ～）

Maomao (…Nna-mon daronaaa.)

Maomao (…I guess that’s how it is…)

んなもん(Nnamon) = そんなもん(Sonna mon) = そんなもの(Sonna mono) : like that, how(what) it is

んなもんだろうなぁ =　そんなものだろうなぁ(Sonna mono daronaa): I guess that’s how it is (in reality).

桜花「猫猫はかんざしもらったけど、使い方間違ってるしさぁ…」

Infa “Maomaowa kanzashi moratta-kedo, tsukai-kata machigatteru-shi-saa…”

Yinghua “Maomao got a hairpin, but you used it wrong…”

猫猫「そんなこと言われましても…」

Maomao “Sonna koto iware-mashitemo…”

Maomao “Even if you say that..."

そんなこと言(い)われても…: "There’s no point in saying such a thing." (Maomao hesitated to say that and didn’t continue the words.) This phrase is used when you are criticized for something in the past or something you can’t do anything about now.

貴園「そうだよねぇ、猫猫ってば…殿方の話とか興味ないって顔するし…」

Guien “So-dayonee, Maomaotteba… Tonogatano hanashi-toka kyomi-naitte kao surushi…”

Guiyuan “That’s right, Maomao… You look like you’re not interested in stories about men…”

愛藍「壬氏様のことさえ、あまり気にかけないよね。むしろ、めんどくさそう…」

Airan “Jinshi-samano koto-sae, amari kini kakenai-yone. Mushiro, mendo-kusaso…”

Ailan “You don’t seem to care much even about Master Jinshi. Or rather, you look like feeling him like a hassle…”

桜花「猫猫、あんたの好みはどんな人なの？言うまで帰さないわよ！」

Infa “Maomao, antano konomiwa donna hito-nano? Iu-made kaesa-nai-wayo!”

Yinghua “Maomao, what type of men do you like? I’m not letting you go home until you tell me!”

猫猫（いや、帰さないとか意味分からないんですけど…）

Maomao (Iya, kaesa-nai-toka imi wakara-nain-desu-kedo…)

Maomao (No, I don’t understand what she means she won’t let me go home…)

貴園「桜花。横暴(おうぼう)よ。猫猫困っているじゃない」

Guien “Infa. Obo-yo. Maomao komatte-iru-ja nai.

Guiyuan “Yinghua, that’s tyrannical. Maomao is in trouble, isn’t she?”

～じゃない(Ja-nai): usually it means “～ではない(dewa-nai): isn’t, don’t,” but in this case it means the same as “でしょ(desho): is, do”. In English, “…, isn’t it?” or “…, doesn’t it?” is close. Men say “～じゃないか” but women often say without “か”.

愛藍「そ、そうだよ」

Airan “So, So-dayo.”

Ailan “T-That’s right.”

桜花「何、あんたたち気にならないの？」

Infa “Nani, anta-tachi kini nara-nai-no?”

Yinghua “What? You all aren’t curious?”

あんた(Anta): casual (or more rude) way of saying あなた(Anata)

貴園「気になるけど…こういうのって、やっぱり言い出しっぺが先に言うべきじゃない？」

Guien “Kini naru-kedo… Ko-iunotte, yappari ii-dashippega sakini iu-beki-ja nai?”

Guiyuan “I’m curious, but… shouldn’t the person who first brought it up be the one to say it first?”

言い出しっぺ(いいだしっぺ/Ii-dashippe): the one who brought it up, the one who started it

愛藍「そうね。桜花の好みは��どんな人なの？」

Airan “Sone. Infano konomiwa, donna hito-nano?”

Ailan “That’s right. What type of men do you like, Yinghua?”

猫猫��♪桜花―さんのー、ちょっといいとこ、見てみたい～」

Maomao “♪ Infaaa-sannooo, chotto ii-toko, mite-mitaiii.”

Maomao “♪ I’d like to see the good side of Yinghua…”

桜花「んんっ…何なの猫猫？いきなり…何それ？」

Infa “Nn… Nan-nano, Maomao? Ikinari… Nani sore?”

Yinghua “Wh-What’s going on, Maomao? All of a sudden… What’s that?”

猫猫「市井(しせい)で使われる音頭(おんど)です」（主に酒の席での）

Maomao “Shiseide tsuka-wareru ondo desu.” (Omoni sakeno seki-deno.)

Maomao “It’s the lead in singing used in the town.” (Mainly at drinking parties…)

市井(しせい/Shisei): in the town (where lower or common people live)

音頭(おんど/Ondo): marching song, the lead in singing

貴園「ほらほら桜花。白状しちゃおう？明確に名前を出せ、とは言ってないわよぉ」

Guien “Hora-hora, Infa. Hakujo-shichao? Meikakuni namae’o dase, towa itte-nai-wayoo.”

Guiyuan “Come on, Yinhua. Come on, confess. I never said you had to give us a name clearly.”

愛藍「ウフッ。桜花。観念してね」

Airan “Ufu. Infa. Kannen-shitene.”

Ailan “Yinghua, give up.”

観念する(かんねんする/Kan’nen-suru): give up (resisting), throw in the towel, accept without a fight

桜花「うう…みんなも、後で言ってよね！」

Infa “Uu… Minnamo, atode itte-yone!”

Yinghua “Ugh… Everyone, tell me later, okay?”

貴園「分かってる！」

Guien “Wakatteru!”

Guiyuan “I know!”

愛藍「うんうん」

Airan “Un-un.”

Ailan “Yeah, yeah.”

桜花「私の好みはぁ…文官か武官かと言えば、武官かな」

Infa “Watashino konomiwaa… bunkan-ka bukan-kato ieba, bukan-kana.”

Yinghua “My type is… if I had to choose between a civil servant or a military officer, I’d prefer a military officer.”

貴園「ほうほう」

Guien “Ho-ho.”

Guiyuan “Uh-huh.”

ほう(Ho): a response when listening to a story with great interest

桜花「身長は高めだけど、あんまり威圧感がない人がいいかも。ちょっと人懐っこい感じがあればいいなぁ。フサフサした大きな犬みたいな感じの」

Infa “Shinchowa takame-dakedo, anmari iatsu-kanga nai hitoga ii-kamo. Chotto hito-natsukkoi kanjiga areba ii-naa. Fusa-fusa-shita ookina inu mitaina kanjino.”

Yinghua “I think I like someone who is tall but not too intimidating. I’d like someone who is a little friendly. Like a big dog with thick and fluffy fur.”

フサフサした(Fusa-fusa-shita): bushy, a lot of fluffy (hair or fur) Speaking of “フサフサした大きな犬”, I imagine “Bond” in “SPY×FAMILY”.

猫猫（人懐っこい大きな犬…）

Maomao (Hito-natsukkoi ookina inu…)

Maomao (A friendly big dog…)

桜花「休日には、ちょっと素敵な茶屋なんかに連れて行ってくれたら、なんて…」

Infa “Kyujitsu-niwa, chotto sutekina chaya-nankani tsurete-itte-kuretara, nante…”

Yinghua “I wish he’d take me to a lovely teahouse on his days off…”

猫猫（素敵な茶屋…）

Maomao (Sutekina chaya…)

Maomao (A lovely teahouse…)

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

李白「よう！待たせたな、桜花」

Rihaku “Yo! Matasetana, Infa.”

Lihaku “Hey! Sorry to have kept you waiting, Yinghua.”

桜花「いいえ、私も今来たばかりです、李白様。今日は、お勧めの茶屋に連れて行ってくれると聞いたもので、楽しみにしておりました」

Infa “Iie, watashimo ima kita-bakari desu, Rihaku-sama. Kyowa, osusumeno chayani tsurete-itte-kureruto kiita-monode, tanoshimini shite-ori-mashita.”

Yinghua “No, I just got here, Master Lihaku. I heard that you would take me to a recommended teahouse today, so I was really looking forward to it.”

李白「ああ、うまい茶を出してくれる店があるんだ。少し遠いから、馬車を用意している」

Rihaku “Aa, umai cha’o dashite-kureru misega arunda. Sukoshi tooi-kara, basha’o yoi-shite-iru.”

Lihaku “Yeah, there’s a store that serves delicious tea. It’s a little far away, so I prepared a horse-drawn carriage.”

桜花「ありがとうございます」

Infa “Arigato gozai-masu.”

Yinghua “Thank you.”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

桜花「都の…随分南のほうにあるんですね…少し治安が悪いような…」

Infa “Miyakono…zuibun minamino-honi arun-desune… Sukoshi chianga warui-yona…”

Yinghua “It’s quite far south of the capital… It seems a bit unsafe…”

治安が悪い(ちあんがわるい): (The place is) dangerous, unsafe, rough, high crime rate

李白「大丈夫だ。ちゃんと格式ある店だから、警備はしっかりしている。何より、俺がついているぜ」

Rihaku “Daijobuda. Chanto kakushiki-aru mise dakara, keibiwa shikkari shite-iru. Nani-yori, orega tsuite-iruze.”

Lihaku “It’s okay. It’s a prestigious store, so there’s good security. And best of all, I’m with you.”

桜花「じゃあ安心ですね！お店も期待しちゃいます」

Infa “Jaa anshin desune! Omisemo kitai shichai-masu.”

Yinghua “That’s a relief! I’m looking forward to the store.”

李白「ああ、あそこだ」

Rihaku “Aa, asokoda.”

Lihaku “Ah, over there.”

桜花「あの、李白様…？茶屋…ですか？」

Infa “Ano, Rihaku-sama…? Chaya…desuka?”

Yinghua “Um, Master Lihaku…? Is this… the teahouse?”

李白「最高級の茶を入れてくれるぞ」

Rihaku “Saiko-kyu-no cha’o irete-kureruzo.”

Lihaku “They’ll make you the finest tea.”

桜花「門構えからして、茶屋というより、妓楼（ぎろう）…」

Infa “Mon-gamae-kara-shite, chaya-to iu-yori, giro…”

Yinghua “Judging from the exterior, it looks more like a brothel than a teahouse…”

禿(かむろ)「あ～、李白様だ！」

Kamuro “Aaa, Rihaku-samada!”

Servant girl “Ah, it’s Master Lihaku!”

禿(かむろ/Kamuro): servant girls training and working in brothels to become a courtesan in the future

李白「おう！茶を飲みに来たぞ、禿ども！」

Rihaku “Ou! Cha’o nomini kitazo, kamuro-domo!”

Lihaku “Hey! I’ve come to drink tea, servant girls!”

禿「李白様、お茶もいいですけど、今日は白鈴姐さんがお茶挽(ちゃび)きなの」

Kamuro “Rihaku-sama, ochamo ii-desu-kedo, kyowa Pairin-neesanga ocha-biki nano.”

Servant girl “Master Lihaku, tea would be nice, but today, Big Sis Pairin is making tea.”

お茶挽き(おちゃびき/Ocha-biki): making tea = secret word for not having customers in brothels

李白「茶挽き！？つまり、休み！？…あ、空いているのか…！」

Rihaku “Chabiki!? Tsumari, yasumi!? …A, Aite-iru-noka…!”

Lihaku “Making tea!? You mean, she’s off!? …She’s free…!”

空いている(あいている/Aite-iru): available, empty, vacant, free, open

禿「李白様、今日は懐の中身は温かいの？お連れ様いるけど…別室でおもてなししておく？」

Kamuro “Rihaku-sama, kyowa futokorono nakamiwa atatakai-no? Otsure-sama iru-kedo… besshitsude omotenashi shite-oku?”

Servant girl “Master Lihaku, are you feeling deep-pocketed today? You’ve brought someone with you, so should I entertain her in a separate room?”

懐(の中)が温かい(ふところのなかがあたたかい/Futokorono nakaga atatakai): deep pocketed, one’s wallet is fat, have much money

李白「いや…今日は…！」

Rihaku “Iya… Kyowa…!”

Lihaku “No…today…!”

禿「今日なら少しお得だよ。今月はお客の入りがちょっと少ないから、遣り手婆もまけてくれるかもよ」

Kamuro “Kyo-nara sukoshi otoku-dayo. Kongetsuwa okyakuno iriga chotto sukunai-kara, Yarite-Babaamo makete-kureru-kamoyo.”

Servant girl “It’s a little good deal today. There aren’t many customers this month, so the old Madam might give you a discount.”

お得(おとく/Otoku): good deal, good buy

禿「行こうよ！ねぇ、行こうよ！」

Kamuro “Ikoyo! Nee, ikoyo!”

Servant girl “Let’s go! Hey, let’s go!”

李白「う……んん…桜花、申し訳ないが、一時間ほど別室にて待っ…」

Rihaku “U……Nn…Infa, moshi-wake-naiga, ichi-jikan-hodo besshitsu-nite matt…”

Lihaku “Um…Oh…I’m sorry, Yinghua, but could you wait in another room for about an hour…”

桜花「最っ低！！」

Infa “Saittei!!”

Yinghua “The worst!!”

最低(さいてい/Saitei): the worst ⇔ 最高(さいこう/Saiko): the best

李白「うわっ！」

Rihaku “Uwa!”

Lihaku “Whoa!”

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猫猫「その人はやめておいたほうがいいかと。花街に本命の女性がいますから」

Maomao “Sono hitowa yamete-oita-hoga ii-kato. Hana-machi-ni honmeino joseiga imasu-kara.”

Maomao “I think you should give up on that person. There is the woman he really loves in the pleasure district.”

本命(ほんめい/Honmei): one’s true love, the one, the favorite

桜花「えっ、何？いきなり何なのよ？猫猫、その人って誰よ？花街とか、何？」

Infa “E, nani? Ikinari nan-nanoyo? Maomao, sono hitotte dareyo? Hana-machi-toka, nani?”

Yinghua “What? What’s this all of a sudden? Maomao, who’s that person? What’s this pleasure district thing?”

猫猫「いえ、こっちの話です」（さすがに李白でも、女連れで花街には行かないだろうけど）

Maomao “Ie, kocchino hanashi desu.” (Sasugani Rihaku-demo, onna-zure-de hana-machi-niwa ikanai-daro-kedo.)

Maomao “No, it’s nothing.” (Even Master Lihaku wouldn’t go to the pleasure district with a woman, after all.)

こっちの話(こっちのはなし/Kocchino hanashi): It’s nothing, It’s my own business, It doesn’t matter for you.

桜花「猫猫はたまに訳分からないこと言いだすわよねぇ…。もう私は言ったからね！次は、貴園よ」

Infa “Maomaowa tamani wake-wakara-nai-koto ii-dasu-wayonee… Mo watashiwa itta-karane! Tsugiwa, Guien-yo.”

Yinghua “Maomao, you sometimes say something that I can’t understand… I already told you! Next, it’s you, Guiyuan.”

貴園「私かぁ。私は逆に、文官の方がいいかな。一緒に読書とかできるでしょ？」

Guien “Watashi-kaa. Watashiwa gyakuni, bunkan-no-hoga ii-kana. Isshoni dokusho-toka dekiru-desho?”

Guiyuan “Me? On the contrary, I think I would prefer a civil servant. We could read books together, right?”

逆に(ぎゃくに/Gyakuni): on the contrary

桜花「ほうほう」

Infa “Ho-ho.”

Yinghua “Uh-huh.”

貴園「桜花と違って、視線が近い方が嬉しいかな。背は私より少し高いくらいで、年齢も同年代。男性としては小柄だけど…その分、頭の回転が速いと嬉しいわ。私っておっとりしているから、ちょうどいいと思って」

Guien “Infato chigatte, shisenga chikai-hoga ureshii-kana. Sewa watashi-yori sukoshi takai-kuraide, nenreimo do-nendai. Dansei-to-shitewa kogara-dakedo…sono-bun, atamano kaitenga hayaito ureshiiwa. Watashitte ottori shite-iru-kara, chodo ii-to omotte.”

Guiyuan “Unlike Yinghua, I like it when our eyes are close. He’s just a little taller than me, and we’re about the same age. He’s small for a man, but… I’d be happy if he could have a sharp mind. I’m a very easy-going person, so I thought that would be perfect for me.”

頭の回転が速い(あたまのかいてんがはやい/atamano kaitenga hayai): have a sharp mind, clever, quick-witted

おっとりしている(Ottori-shite-iru): easy-going, calm and gentle, laid-back

猫猫（ふんふん。同年代。小柄で頭の回転が速い）

Maomao (Fun-fun. Do-nendai. Kogarade atamano kaitenga hayai.)

Maomao (Hmmm. Same age. Small and having a sharp mind.)

愛藍「そういえば、貴園って、前、メガネをかけた人ってかっこいいって言ってなかった？」

Airan “So-ieba, Guientte, mae, megane’o kaketa hitotte kakko-iitte itte-nakatta?”

Ailan “Now that I think about it, didn’t you say before that people who wore glasses were cool, Guiyuan?”

貴園「そうなの！メガネ！あれいいよね～。すごく知的に見えるの」

Guien “So-nano! Megane! Are ii-yoneee. Sugoku chitekini mieruno.”

Guiyuan “That’s right! Glasses! They’re great. They make him look really intelligent.”

猫猫（メガネ…）

Maomao (Megane…)

Maomao (Glasses…)

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

羅半「はいどうぞ、貴園さん。以前読みたいと言っていた書物です」

Rahan “Hai dozo, Guien-san. Izen yomi-tai-to itte-ita shomotsu-desu.”

Lahan “Here you go, Miss Guiyuan. This is the book you said you wanted to read before.”

貴園「ありがとうございます、羅半様！ずっと��みたかったんです」

Guien “Arigato gozai-masu, Rahan-sama! Zutto yomita-kattan-desu.”

Guiyuan “Thank you, Master Lahan! I’ve always wanted to read it.”

羅半「いえ、お安いご用です。貴園さんのような美しい女性とお茶が飲めるだけで、僕にとっては役得以外の何物でもありませんから」

Rahan “Ie, oyasui goyo-desu. Guien-sanno-yona utsukushii joseito ochaga nomeru-dakede, bokuni tottewa yaku-toku igaino nani-mono-demo ari-masen-kara.”

Lahan “No, no sweat. It’s nothing but a benefit to me to have tea with a beautiful woman like you, Miss Guiyuan.”

貴園「まぁ…！ところで、羅半様が持っている帳面は何ですか？数字がびっしり書いてあるようですけど…」

Guien “Maa…! Tokorode, Rahan-samaga motte-iru chomenwa nan-desuka? Sujiga bisshiri kaite-aru-yo-desu-kedo…”

Guiyuan “Oh…! By the way, what is that notebook that you have, Master Lahan? It seems to be full of numbers…”

羅半「気になりますか！？お目が高い…！これは円の周りの長さを直径で割った数字です」

Rahan “Kini nari-masuka!? Omega takai…! Korewa en-no mawarino nagasa’o chokkeide watta suji desu.”

Lahan “Are you curious!? You have a good eye! This is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter.”

お目が高い（おめがたかい/Omega takai）: You have a good eye.

貴園「円の周りの長さ…」

Guien “En-no mawarino nagasa…”

Guiyuan “The circumference of a circle…”

羅半「計算の仕方は簡単で、円の周りの長さを直径で割ればいいだけですが、問題は最初の円の周りを測る時点でズレが出てくることでしょうか。もしもっと優れた計測器があれば、もっと正確な数字が割り出せるのですが…難しいものですね。異国の学者の話によれば、円周と直径の比率は割り切れず、終わりがないとされています。面白いのは、その数字は循環しないことで…」

Rahan “Keisanno shikatawa kantande, enno mawarino nagasa’o chokkeide wareba ii dake-desuga, mondaiwa saishono enno mawari’o hakaru jitende zurega dete-kuru-koto deshoka. Moshi motto sugureta keisokukiga areba, motto seikakuna sujiga wari-daseruno-desuga… Muzukashii mono desune. Ikokuno gakushano hanashini yoreba, enshuto chokkeino hiritsuwa wari-kirezu, owariga naito sarete-imasu. Omoshiroi-nowa, sono sujiwa junkan shinai-kotode…”

Lahan “The calculation is simple; you just divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, but the problem is that there will be an error when you first measure the circumference. If we had better measuring equipment, we could get a more accurate figure, but it’s difficult. According to foreign scholars, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is indivisible, and is said to have no end. The interesting thing is that the numbers don’t repeat…”

貴園「あ、あの…ありがとうございます。た、ためになります…。ところで、今日のお召し物、襟巻が素敵ですね。見たことがない柄です」

Guien “A, Ano… Arigato gozai-masu. Ta, Tameni narimasu… Tokorode, kyono omeshi-mono, eri-makiga suteki desune. Mita kotoga nai gara desu.”

Guiyuan “Um, well… thank you. I-I’ve learned a lot from you. By the way, the scarf you’re wearing today is lovely. It’s a pattern I’ve never seen before.”

羅半「これですか…お目が高い。幾何学模様と言って、西方から伝わったものです」

Rahan “Kore-desuka… Omega takai. Kikagaku-moyo-to itte, seiho-kara tsutawatta mono desu.”

Lahan “Do you mean this? You have a good eye. It’s a geometric pattern that was brought over from the West.”

幾何学模様(きかがくもよう/Kikagaku-moyo): geometric pattern

貴園「幾何学模様…？と言うんですね。どうりで、あまり見かけないものと思いました」

Guien “Kikagaku-moyo…? To iun-desune. Doride, amari mikake-nai-monoto omoi-mashita.”

Guiyuan “It’s a geometric pattern…right? That’s why I thought it’s something I don’t see very often.”

羅半「はい。気に入っているんですよ。単純な図形の組み合わせのように見えますが、実は螺旋状になっています。螺旋というのは自然の中で、貝や植物、渦潮などにも見られますが、数式として…」

Rahan “Hai. Kini itte-irun-desuyo. Tanjunna zukeino kumi-awaseno-yoni mie-masuga, jitsuwa rasen-joni natte-imasu. Rasento iu-nowa shizenno nakade, kaiya shokubutsu, uzu-shio-nado-nimo mirare-masuga, sushiki-to-shite…”

Lahan “Yes, I like it. It looks like a combination of simple shapes, but it’s actually a spiral. Spirals can be found in nature, in shells, plants, whirlpools, etc., but as a mathematical formula…”

貴園「あ、あの…ありがとうございます。た、ためになります…」

Guien “A, Ano… Arigato gozai-masu. Ta, Tameni nari-masu…”

Guiyuan “Um, well… thank you. I’ve learned a lot from you…”

羅半「…そういえば、僕としたことが、忘れていました。貴園さん」

Rahan “…So-ieba, bokuto shita-kotoga, wasurete imashita. Guien-san.”

Lahan “Come to think of it, what’s the matter with me! I had forgotten something, Miss Guiyuan.”

僕としたことが（ぼくとしたことが/Bokuto shita-kotoga）: What’s the matter with me! What’s wrong with me!

貴園「はい」

Guien “Hai.”

Guiyuan “Yes.”

羅半「そのかんざしは造形として、大変美しい」

Rahan “Sono kanzashiwa zokei-to-shite, taihen utsukushii.”

Lahan “The hairpin is very beautiful in its shape.”

造形(ぞうけい/Zokei): molding, modeling, shape, form

貴園「ありがとうございます。この間、気に入って買ったんです」

Guien “Arigato gozai-masu. Kono aida, kini-itte kattan-desu.”

Guiyuan “Thank you. I liked it so much that I bought it the other day.”

羅半「大変お似合いです！ただ、かんざしの挿し位置を北北西の方にあと一分ずらし、着物ももう少し赤みが強いものを入れたら完璧ですね。あ、それとここ最近、天気が悪く外出することが少ないようですが、体調は大丈夫ですか？」

Rahan “Taihen oniai desu! Tada, kanzashino sashi-ichi’o hoku-hoku-seino-honi ato ichibu zurashi, kimonomo mo-sukoshi akamiga tsuyoi mono’o ire-tara kanpeki desune. A, soreto koko saikin, tenkiga waruku gaishutsu-suru kotoga sukunai-yo-desuga, taichowa daijobu desuka?”

Lahan “It suits you very much! However, if you moved the position of the hairpin a little more to the north-northwest and wore a kimono with a stronger reddish hue, it would be perfect. Oh, and by the way, the weather has been bad recently and you haven’t been going out much, but are you feeling okay?”

貴園「…ええ。どうして私の体調が悪いことが分かったんです？」

Guien “…Ee. Doshite watashino taichoga warui kotoga wakattan-desu?”

Guiyuan “…Yes. How did you know I was feeling unwell?”

羅半「はい。前回会った時より、腰回りが明らかに一寸増えており、動きが悪くなっておりますよ」

Rahan “Hai. Zenkai atta-toki-yori, koshi-mawariga akirakani issun fuete-ori, ugokiga waruku natte-orimasu-yo.”

Lahan “Yes. Since the last time we met, your waist has obviously grown an inch, and you got slower.”

貴園「ら、羅半様…本をありがとうございます。そのうちお返ししますので」

Guien “Ra, Rahan-sama…hon’o arigato gozai-masu. Sono-uchi okaeshi shimasu-node.”

Guiyuan “M-Master Lahan… Thank you for the book. I’ll return it to you before long.”

羅半「おや貴園さん、もうお帰りで？動きにくそうですから、馬車でも呼びましょうか？」

Rahan “Oya Guien-san, mo okaeri-de? Ugoki-nikuso-desu-kara, basha-demo yobi-mashoka?”

Lahan “Oh, Miss Guiyuan, are you going home already? You seem hard to move, so shall I call a carriage?”

貴園「余計なお世話です！」

Guien “Yokeina osewa desu!”

Guiyuan “That’s none of your business!”

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猫猫「その男もやめてお��た方がいいですよ」

Maomao “Sono otokomo yamete-oita-hoga ii-desuyo.”

Maomao “You should probably give up on that guy too.”

貴園「え？なんで？…ていうか、その男って誰？」

Guien “E? Nande? …Te-iuka, sono otokotte dare?”

Guiyuan “Wh-Why? …I mean, who is that guy?”

猫猫「…いや、えっと…学者肌には変わり者が多いですから」

Maomao “…Iya, etto… Gakusha-hada-niwa kawari-monoga ooi-desu-kara.”

Maomao “…Well, um… there are a lot of eccentric people among the scholarly types.”

変わり者(かわりもの/Kawari-mono): eccentric person, weirdo = 変人（へんじん/Hen-jin）

猫猫（女性関連で失礼なことは言わないだろうけど、絶対思ってるから、奴は）

Maomao (Josei-kanrende shitsureina kotowa iwanai-daro-kedo, zettai omotteru-kara, yatsuwa.)

Maomao (That guy probably won’t say anything rude about women, but definitely does think it.)

貴園「学者様がいいとは言ってないけど…メガネかけているとしたら、そういう人しかいないのかな？」

Guien “Gakusha-samaga ii-towa itte-nai-kedo… megane kakete-iruto-shitara, so-iu-hito-shika inaino-kana?”

Guiyuan “I’m not saying that scholars are good, but… if they wear glasses, are they the only ones?”

桜花「まあ、私の好みじゃないから。猫猫の意見には賛成だけど。さて、次は愛藍か」

Infa “Maa, watashino konomija nai-kara. Maomaono iken-niwa sansei-dakedo. Sate, tsugiwa Airanka.”

Yinghua “Well, it’s just not my preference. I agree with Maomao though. Now, next up is Ailan.”

愛藍「わ、私も言うの？」

Airan “Wa, Watashimo iuno?”

Ailan “Wh-What, I’m saying too?”

桜花・貴園「言うの！」

Infa, Guien “Iuno!”

Yinghua & Guiyuan “Sai it!”

愛藍「ん～、私の場合…ずっと年上の方がいいかも。歳が近いと緊張しちゃうから…」

Airan “Nnn, watashino baai… zutto toshi-ueno-hoga ii-kamo. Toshiga chikaito kincho shichau-kara…”

Ailan “Hmm, in my case… I think if would be better to have someone much older. I get nervous if we’re close in age…”

緊張する(きんちょうする/Kincho-suru): get nervous

桜花「普通、歳が離れている方が緊張するもんなんじゃない？」

Infa “Futsu, toshiga hanarete-iru-hoga kincho-suru mon-nanja nai?”

Yinghua “Normally, wouldn’t it be more nerve-wracking to be with someone so much older than you?”

貴園「あれじゃない？お父さんくらい年齢離れているとか」

Guien “Areja nai? Otosan-kurai nenrei hanarete-iru-toka.”

Guiyuan “Is it like… about the same age as your father, for example?”

桜花「え～？まぁ、好みは人それぞれだからいいけど」

Infa “Eee? Maa, konomiwa hito-sore-zore-dakara ii-kedo.”

Yinghua “Eh? Well, everyone has their own preferences, so that’s fine.”

愛藍「おっとりした人がいいかな。声が大きかったり、体が大きい人も怖いし…」

Airan “Ottori-shita hitoga ii-kana. Koega ooki-kattari, karadaga ookii hitomo kowaishi…”

Ailan “I think a laid back guy would be good. I’m scared of people with loud voices or big bodies…”

猫猫（年上。おっとりして、威圧感がない人…）

Maomao (Toshi-ue. Ottori-shite, iatsu-kanga nai hito…)

Maomao (Older. Gentle and not intimidating…)

桜花「愛藍ったら、背が高いのに、気が小さいものねぇ…。虫も殺せないような、優しい人とかいいかも。男だからって偉ぶらないで、お茶やお菓子も準備してくれる人とか！」

Infa “Airanttara, sega takai-noni, kiga chiisai-mono-nee… Mushimo korose-nai-yona, yasashii hito-toka ii-kamo. Otoko-dakaratte erabura-naide, ochaya okashimo junbi-shite-kureru hito-toka!”

Yinghua “Ailan, even though you’re tall, you’re quite timid… Maybe a gentle man who can’t even kill a bug would be good. Someone who doesn’t act superior just because he’s a man, and who will prepare tea and snacks for you!”

貴園「あー、桜花。それって自分の願望入ってるでしょ」

Guien “Aaa, Infa. Sorette jibunno ganbo haitteru-desho.”

Guiyuan “Ah, Yinghua. That includes your own wish, doesn’t it?”

桜花「ばれたか！」

Infa “Baretaka!”

Yinghua “You got me!”

ばれる(Bareru): (about secrets or what you have hidden) being revealed to others

猫猫（虫も殺せないような…お茶やお菓子も準備…ん～）

Maomao (Mushimo korose-nai-yona… Ochaya okashimo junbi…Nnn.)

Maomao (A man who can’t even kill bugs… prepares tea and snacks… hmm.)

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やぶ医者「愛藍ちゃん、今日のおやつは月餅でいいかい？」

Yabu-Isha “Airan-chan, kyono oyatsuwa geppeide ii-kai?”

Quack Doctor “Ailan, would you like mooncakes as a snack today?”

愛藍「あ…はい。ありがとうございます、医官様。では私はお茶を用意しますね」

Airan “A…Hai. Arigato gozai-masu, Ikan-sama. Dewa watashiwa ocha’o yoi shimasu-ne.”

Ailan “Ah…yes. Thank you, Doctor. I’ll prepare some tea then.”

やぶ医者「ああ、座って座って。私が用意するから。珍しい茶が手に入ったんだ。せっかくなんで入れさせておくれ」

Yabu-Isha “Aa, suwatte suwatte. Watashiga yoi suru-kara. Mezurashii chaga teni haittanda. Sekkaku-nande ire-sasete-okure.”

Quack Doctor “No, please sit down. I’ll prepare it for you. I’ve got some rare tea, so please let me make it.”

愛藍「ありがとうございます」

Airan “Arigato gozaimasu.”

Ailan “Thank you.”

やぶ医者「…ああ、新しいもの��と香りがいいねぇ」

Yabu-Isha “…Aa, atarashii mono-dato kaoriga ii-nee.”

Quack Doctor “Ah, fresh things smell good.”

愛藍「月餅もおいしいです。中にクルミとヒマワリの種が入っているんですね」

Airan “Geppeimo oishii-desu. Nakani kurumito himawarino tanega haitte-irun-desune.”

Ailan “Mooncakes are also delicious. They have walnuts and sunflower seeds inside.”

やぶ医者「そうだよ。蜂蜜がたっぷり染み込んでいて美味しいだろう？」

Yabu-Isha “Sodayo. Hachi-mitsuga tappuri shimi-konde-ite oishii-daro?”

Quack Doctor “Yes, it’s delicious because it’s soaked in plenty of honey, isn’t it?”

愛藍「…ほっぺが落ちそうです」

Airan “…Hoppega ochiso-desu.”

Ailan “…It melted in my mouth.”

ほっぺが落ちそう(Hoppega ochiso): My cheeks will fall. = Japanese phrase used when eating something very delicious.　Ex) このケーキは、おいしすぎてほっぺが落ちちゃう！: This cake is so delicious that it’s like my cheeks are falling off!

やぶ医者「あと、棚の上に焼き菓子もあるんだ。せっかくだから食べてしまおうか」

Yabu-Isha “Ato, tanano ueni yaki-gashimo arunda. Sekkaku-dakara tabete-shimaoka.”

Quack Doctor “Also, there are some baked goods on the shelf. Let’s eat them up while we’re here.”

愛藍「…えっ？いいんですか？」

Airan “…E? Iin-desuka?”

Ailan “Oh, is that okay?”

やぶ医者「食べないと、悪くなるからねぇ…よしっと。えーっと…いやあぁぁぁ！」

Yabu-Isha “Tabe-naito, waruku naru-karanee… Yoshitto. Eeetto… Iyaaaaaa!”

Quack Doctor “If you don’t eat, it’ll go bad. Okay. Umm… Noooooooo!”

愛藍「…どっ…どうしたんです？」

Airan “…Do…Do-shitan-desu?”

Ailan “Wh-What happened?”

やぶ医者「…ああ…くく…む、虫！あ、あの…黒くて、光る…」

Yabu-Isha “…Aa…Ku, ku…mu, mushi! A, Ano…kurokute, hikaru…”

Quack Doctor “Ah… ahh… an insect! Um, that’s… black and shiny…”

愛藍「えっ！ええっ！？」

Airan “E! Ee!?”

Ailan “Huh!? Huh!?”

やぶ医者「た、退治しておくれぇぇぇ～！」

Yabu-Isha “Ta, Taiji-shite-okureeeeee!”

Quack Doctor “P-Please get rid of it!”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

猫猫（…やぶ医者しか思いつかない…）

Maomao (…Yabu-Isha shika omoi-tsuka-nai…)

Maomao (…The only thing I can think of is Quack Doctor…)

思いつく(おもいつく/Omoi-tsuku): think of, come up with, come to mind

猫猫「愛藍さん」

Maomao “Airan-san.”

Maomao “Ailan.”

愛藍「どうしたの？猫猫、深刻な顔してるけど…」

Airan “Do-shitano? Maomao, shinkokuna kao shiteru-kedo…”

Ailan “What’s wrong? Maomao, you look serious…”

深刻な（しんこくな/Shinkokuna）: serious, grave, severe

猫猫「ゴキブリは…退治できますか？」

Maomao “Gokiburiwa…taiji deki-masuka?”

Maomao “Can you get rid of cockroaches?”

ゴキブリ（Gokiburi）: cockroach (Actually, we don’t want to say its name and we often call just “G” or something in our daily lives.)

退治する（たいじする/Taiji-suru）: get rid of, exterminate

愛藍「ゴキブリ…？ひ、必要なら、頑張って退治するけど…」

Airan “Gokiburi…? Hi, Hitsuyo-nara, ganbatte taiji suru-kedo…”

Ailan “Cockroaches…!? I-If necessary, I’ll do my best to get rid of them…”

猫猫「なら問題ないです。幸せになって下さい」

Maomao “Nara mondai-nai-desu. Shiawaseni natte kudasai.”

Maomao “Then there’s no problem. Be happy.”

愛藍「う、うん…」

Airan “U, Un…”

Ailan “Uh, yeah…”

桜花「ちょっと、さっきから何なの？猫猫は。次はあなたの番よ。どんな人が好みなの？」

Infa “Chotto, sakki-kara nan-nano? Maomaowa. Tsugiwa anatano ban-yo. Donna hitoga Konomi-nano?”

Yinghua “Hey, what’s been going on this whole time, Maomao? It’s your turn next. What type of man do you like?”

番（ばん/Ban）: turn = 順番（じゅんばん/Junban）

猫猫「大体愛藍さんと同じでいいです」

Maomao “Daitai Airan-santo onajide ii-desu.”

Maomao “It’s fine if it’s roughly the same as Ailan.”

貴園「え～、ずるーい！猫猫も、もっと具体的に！」

Guien “Eee, zuruuui! Maomaomo, motto gutai-tekini!”

Guiyuan “Eh, that’s not fair! Maomao, please be more specific!”

具体的な（ぐたいてきな/Gutai-tekina）: specific, concrete, particular

猫猫「そう言われましても…ていうか皆さん、普段壬氏様のことを話している割に、好みの中には入っていませんでしたね」

Maomao “So iware-mashi-temo…te-iuka mina-san, fudan Jinshi-samano koto’o hanashite-iru-warini, konomino naka-niwa haitte-imasen-deshitane.”

Maomao “Even if you say so… I mean, everyone, even though you all talk about Master Jinshi all the time, he was not one of your preferences, was he?”

桜花「あー、壬氏様かー。壬氏様は特別だから」

Infa “Aaa, Jinshi-sama-kaaa. Jinshi-samawa tokubetsu-dakara.”

Yinghua “Oh, Master Jinshi. Master Jinshi is special.”

貴園「だよね～。見ているのは素敵だけど、隣には立ちたくないかも。��信がある人でないと無理だよ」

Guien “Dayoneee. Mite-iru-nowa suteki-dakedo, tonari-niwa tachi-taku-nai-kamo. Jishinga aru hitode naito muri-dayo.”

Guiyuan “Yeah, I agree. It’s nice to look at, but I wouldn’t want to stand next to him. Only a confident person can do that."

無理（むり/Muri）: impossible

自信がある人(じしんがあるひと/Jishinga aru hito): a confident person

自信がある人でないと無理（じしんがあるひとでないとむり/Jishinga aru hitode naito muri）: It’s impossible for a person who is not confident (to stand next to him.)

愛藍「えぇ…観賞用だもの」

Airan “Ee… Kansho-yo-damono.”

Ailan “Yeah… he’s just for watching.”

観賞用（かんしょうよう/Kansho-yo）: for ornamental purposes (for plants, usually)

観賞する（かんしょうする/Kansho-suru）: admire, watch and enjoy (flowers or movies, usually)

〇〇用（よう/yo）: for the purpose of 〇〇

三人「ね～！」

San-nin “Neee!”

Three ladies “Right!”

猫猫（この三人、夢見がちに見えて、現実分かっているところあるなぁ）

Maomao (Kono san-nin, yumemi-gachini miete, genjitsu wakatte-iru-tokoro aru-naa.)

Maomao (These three seem to be dreamers, but they also understand reality.)

桜花「でも、想像は、一回くらいしちゃわない？」

Infa “Demo, sozowa, ikkai-kurai shichawa-nai?”

Yinghua “But haven’t you just imagined it at least once?”

愛藍「分かるかも」

Airan “Wakaru-kamo.”

Ailan “Maybe, yes.”

貴園「分かる分かる」

Guien “Wakaru wakaru.”

Guiyuan “Yes, I have.”

桜花「ねぇ、壬氏さまと付き合うとしたら、猫猫、どう思う？」

Infa “Nee, Jinshi-samato tsukiau-to-shitara, Maomao, do omou?”

Yinghua “Hey, Maomao, what do you think about going out with Master Jinshi?”

付き合う（つきあう/Tsuki-au）: dating, going out (please note that つきあう doesn’t always mean dating as a boyfriend/girlfriend, and it sometimes means just having a relationship with someone. It depends.)

猫猫「ありえないことですけどね～…」

Maomao “Arie-nai-koto desu-kedoneee…”

Maomao “That’s impossible though…”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

壬氏「おい、薬屋」

Jinshi “Oi, Kusuriya.”

Jinshi “Hey, Apothecary.”

猫猫「何でしょうか、壬氏様」

Maomao “Nan-deshoka, Jinshi-sama.”

Maomao “What is it, Master Jinshi?”

壬氏「せっかく一緒に茶を飲んでいるというのに、なぜ隣で薬を作っている？」

Jinshi “Sekkaku isshoni cha’o nonde-iruto iu-noni, naze tonaride kusuri’o tsukutte-iru?”

Jinshi “We’re drinking tea together, so why are you making medicine next to me?”

猫猫「薬を作っているところを呼び出したのは壬氏様でしたので」

Maomao “Kusuri’o tsukutte-iru-tokoro’o yobi-dashita-nowa Jinshi-sama deshita-node.”

Maomao “It was you who called me while I was making medicine, Master Jinshi.”

壬氏「いやー、そこは悪かったが…何か話すこととかないか？」

Jinshi “Iyaaa, sokowa waru-katta-ga… Nanika hanasu-koto-toka naika?”

Jinshi “Well, I’m sorry about that, but… is there anything else you’d like to talk about?”

猫猫「強いて言えば、なぜ壬氏様が茶を飲むのにわざわざ市井の店を選んだか、ということでしょうか？」

Maomao “Shiite-ieba, naze Jinshi-samaga cha’o nomu-noni waza-waza shiseino mise’o eranda-ka, to-iu-koto deshoka?”

Maomao “If I had to say, I would ask why you chose this store in the city in order to drink tea.”

壬氏「えーいや、うまい茶と菓子が食えると聞いたもので…」

Jinshi “Eee iya, umai chato kashiga kueruto kiita-monode…”

Jinshi “Oh, um… I heard that you can have good tea and sweets here…”

猫猫「はい。毒見役として私の仕事は終わったと思いますので、薬づくりを再開しました。それと、高順様、ずっと戸を押さえていますが、大丈夫ですか？」

Maomao “Hai. Dokumi-yaku-to-shite watashino shigotowa owatta-to omoi-masu-node, kusuri-zukuri’o saikai-shimashita. Soreto, Gaoshun-sama, zutto to’o osaete-imasuga, daijobu desuka?”

Maomao “Yes. I think my job as a poison tester is done, so I’ve resumed making medicine. Also, Master Gaoshun, you’ve been holding the door the whole time. Are you okay?”

高順「わ、私は大丈夫ですから…壬氏様と小猫は茶を楽しんで…んっ、ん…」

Gaoshun “Wa, Watashiwa daijobu desu-kara… Jinshi-samato Shaomaowa cha’o tanoshinde…n, n…”

Gaoshun “I-I’m fine… Master Jinshi and Xiaomao, please enjoy your tea… hmmm…”

壬氏「全然、大丈夫そうに見えない…」

Jinshi “Zen-zen, daijobu-soni mie-nai…”

Jinshi “He doesn’t look okay at all…”

猫猫「壬氏様が店の戸を全部閉めないうちに覆面を脱ぐから…」

Maomao “Jinshi-samaga miseno to’o zenbu shime-nai-uchini fukumen’o nugu-kara…”

Maomao “Since you took off your mask before closing all the doors of the store, Master Jinshi…”

閉めないうちに（しめないうちに/Shime-nai-uchini）: before closing

〇〇しないうちに（〇〇shinai-uchini）: before 〇〇ing

猫猫（下界に降り立った天女が如き御仁を見るために、老若男女問わず観客が押し寄せている…）

Maomao (Gekai-ni ori-tatta tennyoga-gotoki gojin’o miru-tameni, ro-nyaku-nan-nyo-towazu kankyakuga oshi-yosete-iru…)

Maomao (Audiences of all ages and genders flock to see the personage like a heavenly maiden who has descended to the earth…)

下界（げかい/Gekai）: earth, this world ⇔ 天界（てんかい/Tenkai）: the heaven

御仁（ごじん/Gojin・おひと/Ohito）: personage, person worthy of respect

老若男女（ろうにゃくなんにょ/Ro-nyaku-nan-nyo）: All ages and genders

壬氏「いや暑かったんだ。仕方ないだろ」

Jinshi “Iya, atsu-kattanda. Shikata-nai-daro.”

Jinshi “No, it was just hot. It can’t be helped.”

猫猫「早く茶と菓子を食べてしまいましょう。高順様がもう限界ですから」

Maomao “Hayaku chato kashi’o tabete-shimai-masho. Gaoshun-samaga mo genkai desu-kara.”

Maomao “Let’s hurry up and eat the tea and sweets. Master Gaoshun has already reached his limit.”

限界（げんかい/Genkai）: limit

高順「お二人共、ごゆっ…あっ…」

Gaoshun “Ofutari-tomo, goyu…a…”

Gaoshun “You two, p-please take your time… ah…”

猫猫「高順様！」

Maomao “Gaoshun-sama!”

Maoao “Master Gaoshun!”

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

猫猫「碌(ろく)なことはないと思います」

Maomao “Rokuna kotowa naito omoi-masu.”

Maomao “I don’t think there’s anything good in it.”

ろくなことはない(Rokuna kotowa nai): There’s anything good.

桜花「…ごめん、私も同じだわ」

Infa “…Gomen, watashimo onaji-dawa.”

Yinghua “…Sorry, I feel the same way.”

貴園「やっぱそうだよねぇ～…」

Guien “Yappa so-dayoneee…”

Guiyuan “That’s true after all…”

やっぱ(Yappa) = やっぱり(Yappari): I knew it, as expected, after all, actually

愛藍「うん…高望みは良くない…」

Airan “Un… Taka-nozomiwa yoku-nai…”

Ailan “Yeah… It’s not good to aim too high…”

高望み（たかのぞみ）: aiming too high, having high expectation

猫猫「でしょ？」

Maomao “Desho?”

Maomao “Right?”

三人「はぁ～…どっかにいい人いないかなぁ～」

San-nin “Haaaa… Dokkani ii-hito inai-kanaaaa.”

Three ladies “Hmm… I wonder if there’s any man out there for me, somewhere.”

紅娘「おやつの時間は終わった？壬氏様たちがいらっしゃるから、早く片付けてお出迎えしてちょうだい」

Hon’nyan “Oyatsuno jikanwa owatta? Jinshi-sama-tachiga irassharu-kara, hayaku katazukete odemukae-shite-chodai.”

Hongniang “Is snack time over? Master Jinshi and others are coming, so please clean up quickly and greet them.”

Hongniang: I think this line is Hongniang's, but she must be in her 30s and the voice sounds much older... But anyway, there should be no one else.

三人「はーい！」

San-nin “Haaai!”

Three ladies “Yes!”

< End >

#apothecary english #apothecary romaji #the apothecary diaries #apothecary diaries #learning japanese #japanese #薬屋のひとりごと #薬屋のひとりごと　英語 #薬屋　英語　学習 #japan #KNY #script

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mofffun · 2 years ago

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23/7 Kingohger Summer Stage REPO

programme:

11:00 Hero show

11:30 Cast Talk

11:40 Waking the King + OP live

~shake hands with heroes for purchase >2000~

Full cast.

I got here at 10:40am so the queue was already rather long. the paying tickes is numbered up to 1000 but you can watch the event for free as well since it's outdoors. Naturally I was standing further back (even though I didn't queue up yesterday.) Kinda feels like there's more people? but that'd be weird because there were geats-only fans yesterday too. maybe it's the sunday.

Hero show

part 1:

So the first part is Hero Show, but it's more just an interactive session. Act 1 has Red Yellow Blue fighting two foot soliders. Gira got a solo fight and then it's the Yan Hime combo fight. Shipper lens ON. Himeno did a cart wheel holding onto Yanma and Yanma princess carried Himeno for a spin attack while she ojousana-laugh! Yanma complimented on Himeno ("Yarujanika" "arigatou")

part 2:

Then the MOTW aka Bug Host shows up and makes small talk with the audience. He's a lot of fun, questioned if we really like Kingohgers so much and hate the Bugnaroks so bad, then asks again and says bugnarok fans can get presents. He also keeps reminding the crowd to beware of heat stroke and drink water. Even commented that "looks like there're a lot of idling adults at the back" haha.

A boy and a girl, both 4 years old are invtied to play musical chair on stage. The girl cried at the first round when the foot soldier took her seat. So the host pulled the boy aside and give him the "men should be kind to girls talk" while the foot soldier plays peekaboo to cheer her up. But they both sat on the seat in second round anyway. However the gift bag they won is 01 and Kiramei cutlery and stationery 😂 According to host, those are for "leftover stock for adult reasons"

Part 3:

Dango Mushi Jim is the MOTW.

the whole team appears on the stage and did the Kingohger Spell from ep10. Maybe it's just that line but Himeno's audio here sounds like it's cut from the ep. Rita also did the "taskforce" speech so it connects to Gira calling "Ohsama Sentai" and the others responding "Kingohger". Kaguragi gets a solo fight with his ep4 speech.

What I love about Papillon's suit action is they can't always wait for the enemy to come at them in order to fit the "immovable" image. they don't rotate in himeno's sense but they rotate to always face the enemy (himeno's earth versus rita's moon if you will) and always keeps the enemy at sword's length. Both today and G-Rosso's Rita-sama is good at fighting with just one hand and they'd put their other hand holding the cape at the back of their waist and that is so good. love that move where they hit the MOTW in the face with the pommel of the sword.

Blue and Yellow reappears and THE FIRST THING, Himeno runs to ask if Rita is ok. <3 They brought Rita offstage so it's Gira's solo.

the team gathers again and INFERNO plays. Gira ask everyone to do the finisher together but Yanma kicks him. Then they do the finisher together.

OP DANCE!

This Yanma is the tallest and has the most movement during the dance. Rita's steps the bottom limit of what is consider a step and their legs would not move fro the arm shakes.

Gira in suit is so cute he saw a kid dressed as Gira and excitedly waved and pointed to himself with Rita. who simply nodded. this went on three times.

Rita's wave is your old-man-government-leader wave. 90 degrees elbows/shoulder, palm 90 degrees turn between facing themself and their left.

Cast Talk

matsumoto hiroya hosting.

to be called "Sukapon Tanuki" to my face... shiawase!

声小さい！　*crowd cheers* *Yanma turns his back to the crowd but gives thumbs up high in the air*

Kaku introduced himself in Jeramie's voice "Kaguragi Dybowski, lordly king of this country Toufu... tosa."

Jeramie has to repeat now (name/a storytellier behind the times tosa.) so he follows up with the opening narration, than Kagu immediately interrupts him with a "too long!" to which Masahi: "Otto"

Part 1: Movie

Q1: memories about filming

Gira: performing with Sakurai-san (Debonica). the cast knew her from reputation and especially Himeno is jealous-in-a-good-sense about Taisei getting to work with her a lot.

Q2: with Hinagata Akiko (Iroki)

Kaku: (pretty much the same answer as yesterday) She is an approchable person so it seems she's quite different from the character setting before filming starts, but once on the job, there's an evil ruler aura about her.

Q3: RBP with Nakamura Shido (Rainoir)

Taisei said "Aoto and Yuzuyan"

something about his professionalism

one thing that made Aoto very happy is Nakamura's son's fave is Tonbo Ohger.

Erica was great at fanservice! She's always looking off stage and waved and made finger hearts at the crowd. I think as a model she's just really good at locating where the camera is.

Erica spoke of the assets and CG specifically made for the movie that impressed her, then asked the audience to raise their hands if they'll see it in theaters. She interacted with the audience like this again towards the end.

Yuzuki talked about seeing a new side of Rita again (pretty much same as bandai ad). It was fresh for her to film something different than TV's Rita. (I wonder if one'd use 'fresh' to describe it if they're just being their usual self but in front of the camera?)

Yuzuki is not very good at answering questions on the spot so sometimes either she says a lot of filler words or her greeting and answers to promotional questions that have been asked a thousand times sound rehearsed.

Yzy and So are truly close friends. they'd chat off-mic and at one point So pointed at Rita fans in the crowd for Yuzuki.

Part 2: Questions from cast members

Q1: "これからも一緒に頑張ろう　碧斗❤"　(Let's keep on working hard together. from Aoto❤) Host reads out the heart too.

Kagu tsukkomi said hey that's not a question, let's hear some questions

Q2: To Kaguragi, why muscles? from Jeramie.

Masahi: 気になる　I really want to know that

So: (Jeramie voice) Do you want to come to the world of muscles too? Muscles are good for you ;D　筋肉はいいよ

Q3: みんなへ　好きな季節は？　りたっち To everyone, what is your favourite season? Rittachi

(Yuzuki's last ig/cl live mentioned nicknames people called her. Yuzuchi was on the list but at the very last because only close friends from home would call her that. new people she met after entering the proffesion don't usually use it. those that called her Yuzuchi called her that day one they met. IIRC)

So: Summer. Though it's hot, what a nice time to hear sounds of life like cicada.

Host: suddenly became a serious/adult-like conversation?

Yzy:(host made fun of Rittachi) for Rittachi of course it's winter.

Taisei: Girachi is winter

Erica: [Moffun voice] Himechi is spring.

crowd/host doesn't really get moffun at first but yuzuki pointed it out.

[Host asks how to chi-ify Aoto's name] Aochi is summer. Because I get to meet everyone みんなと会いえる + *walks backstage index finger & arm raised*

Q4: 好きなセリフものまね immitate your favourite lines (of another character)

So: Ah I wrote that? Yzy: (tsukkomi) Did you forget?

host: (sth like) you want to do it so bad you did just that haha

So: well then I'll do Gira. "一草一木" line. eh what's next? Taisei follows up to "jakku no ou Gira!"

Erica: Kono Sukapon Tanuki! (i rmb she did the same thing in an interview but i forgot whcih. literally SO adorable my health bar is out)

Aoto repeast the tanuki line

Aoto: O~RE~WA~ JER~RA~MIE.... (make every syllable long like a skipping kindergardtener, got complained doesn't sound like jeramie at all)

Yzy: (in her own voice) ただわがままに　我が道を行く (himeno's catchphrase) (ah... so this is the world where yuzuki's got himeno's role...)

Masahi: (full kabuki face + gestures) Kaguragi Dybowski!

So and Yzy tsukkomi with the usual So Tsukkomi Pose.

Taisei: Then I'll do Onii-chaan! (He said Onii-chan yesterday too [CRY]) Shugoddom's King, Racules Husty. I am the nation. (same as relay interview)

the ep10 cockpit roll call! with jera! (evil king, wise king, queen of beatuy, bounty lord, immovable sovereign, king of the in-betweens)

Music live

original singer of Waking the King. I know he's experienced but he seemef to be quite popular? suddenly a rush of cheers from behind me when he appeared on stage. But his pitch and control was so good though. I like this insert a lot too and the first verse is just his vocals over piano and instantly gave me goosebumps.

he also sang the OP that he described as "a challenge". The cast reappeared after the singer asked us to "called for Kingohgers from your heart!"

The cast came holding their plushies and promote them.

OP DANCE IN REAL LIFE!!

They danced up to before the chorus then walked off-stage to greet the audience. They pretty much went around the whole paid area. Aoto was especially eager to wave at the audience. (It's between his blue hair and Kagu's head that I can spot from the back)

the dance was the energetic version from new op. The suit actors did the in-character dance before them.

When they came back onto stage after greeting, Taisei said something/bumped into Yuzuki and she did her 'clap knees laugh' thing.

Then it's the closing words (your usual "thank you for coming in the heat", "please support us and the film") and a group photo + countdown tiktok with the audience.

Aoto waved back during to the crowd during the photo and Yuzuyan said thank you after taking the tiktok.

there's a kid with a pillbug taxi prop in the front and a kid dressed as Shiokara with his baby brother as Gira. + girls in yellow princess dresses.

#kingohger #kingohger cast #mon mon #no spellcheck we die like women who forgot to buy g rosso merch yesterday #sumasta #tokutrip

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canmom · 2 years ago

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Animation Night 130: Hayao Miyazaki’s Aeroplane Movies

Oh that Hayao Miyazaki! We sure have a slightly complicated relationship to him here on Animation Night!

See for example...

Animation Night 70, where I talk about his early career and years as a Toei union man, up to the founding of Ghibli;

Animation Night 100 where I tell you about one of my favourite ever films Mononoke-Hime;

Animation Night 111 where we look at the fascinating My Neighbour Totoro-Grave of the Fireflies double bill of 1988.

Tonight, we’re going to look at two films, Porco Rosso and the controversial The Wind Rises, which indicate his particular arc through life in, honestly, a rather sad way. Putting them alongside each other to see what we learn...

If there’s one thing old Hayao loves, it is aeroplanes - particularly planes from the early-mid 20th century. No surprise, really: his dad Katsuji Miyazaki ran a company Miyazaki Airplane, which manufactured parts for world war II aeroplanes such as the infamous Zero fighter plane. (Put a pin in that one!) Despite working to arm the Imperial Japanese military, Katsuji was able to get out of actually serving in the war by telling his commanding officer that he didn’t want to fight when he had a wife and kid, which somehow got him discharged with just a lecture.

The young Hayao, born 1941, was therefore surrounded by planes, which were the source of his family’s comfort. He spent his earliest years fleeing from American air raids, suffering from digestive problems, and watching his stern, intellectual mother Yoshiko suffering from spinal tuberculosis (though she ultimately made it to 1983, at age 72). At school in the 50s, he took an interest in manga - which in those days naturally meant Osamu Tezuka; he also went to see drama films with Katsuji such as Meshi (1951).

In ‘58, he saw Toei’s Legend of the White Snake (白蛇伝 Hakujaden), notable as the first colour anime film, sneaking out from studying for his exams. The film had a profound effect on him. In Starting Point, he writes that he fell in love with the film’s heroine Bai-Niang, and yet gradually started to imagine how he might have done the film differently to better show the secondary characters.

Hayao went to university to study political economy with a focus on ‘Japanese Industrial Theory’, and at the same time, started drawing in earnest, cranking out thousands of pages of manga and spending a lot of time sketching and chatting politics with his middle school art teacher. The 60s and 70s were a high point of left-wing activity in Japan, the time of the Japanese New Left and the Anpo protests against the US-Japan security treaty (c.f. Toku Tuesday 33 on Nagisa Ōshima for a truly fascinating filmmaker who rose to prominence at this time!) So Miyazaki fairly naturally became a Marxist, and stayed such as he got his start working in animation, which I’ve covered in other posts.

So at this point perhaps we can see the curious contradiction that sits in so much of Miyazaki’s work: he genuinely loves aeroplanes and other kinds of military hardware on a kind of aesthetic level, and yet this sits pretty curiously against a worldview that went from Marxist to environmentalist and has no love of war or nationalism.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at a few of Miyazaki’s early depictions of planes. First would be his work on episode 21 of Moomin (1969), by TMS entertainment. On this infamous episode, Miyazaki’s senpai Yasuo Otsuka called in his protégé to handle of all things a battle scene with planes and tanks - one which infuriated Tove Jansson, already dissatisfied with the tone of the adaptation, to the point that she pulled the show out of TMS Entertainment and A-Pro’s hands and gave it to Tezuka’s rival studio Mushi Pro instead.

(I can’t find any embeddable version, but I did get my hands on this episode eventually! Lain bless soulseek.)

This did not deter Miyazaki at all. In his work on ‘Green Jacket’ Lupin III Part I, which he co-directed with Takahata and Masaaki Ōsumi as well as animating several scenes, we start to see his love of mechanical detail shine through once more. Miyazaki’s plane obsession would shine through even more strongly with his direction of two episodes of ‘red jacket’ Lupin III Part II (1980), under the pen name “Tsutomu Teruki”, directing animators like the spectacular Kazuhide Tomonaga as @kbnet documents here. By that point his style had matured - the character designs and motion feel like something drawn in Ghibli’s early years, and the plane backgrounds are astonishingly dense with detail. The Castle of Cagliostro is by comparison relatively light on aeroplanes, but truly elevates Lupin’s car to a character - not to mention the film’s ridiculously elaborate finale where the characters battle through an enormous system of gears.

In between these two Lupin jackets came Future Boy Conan, where we start to see Miyazaki find more things to say about planes than “damn cool!”; a full of wonderful plane adventures, yet they also represent the sinister forces of industrialism which destroyed the world once and threaten to do it again.

In an essay from 1979 that opens the collection Starting Point, Miyazaki remarks on the qualities needed to animate a plane on Conan, giving a sense of his philosophy around animated machines - and his perfectionism:

Quite a few of toda’s younger animators plunged directly into this line of work because they were fans. But if I were to ask them to draw a picture of what they think a chaika (a flying boat in Future Boy Conan) would look like in flight, they would only be able to imagine what they had previously seen on past TV anime shows. And I wouldn’t be able to use their work as a result.

To draw a chaika flying in a truly original fashion, you would need to have read at least one book on the history of flying, and then be able to use your imagination to augment what you have read.

This is followed by an anecdote about Russian pilot, and builder of the first four-engine biplane, Igor Sikorsky - the man who for Miyazaki “symbolises the way men really fly”.

Miyazaki of 1979 seemed to have a lot on his mind about the relationship of humans to machines. He criticises the mecha shows of the time for a lack of focus on how the character creates and maintains the machine: “the protagonist should struggle to build his own machine, he should fix it when it breaks down, and he should have to operate it himself”. And true to form, when Miyazaki’s films portray machines, there is as much loving depiction of the maintenance as the actual machines in flight.

We’ll fast forward now, since I talked quite a bit about The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky back on AN 70, and Totoro back on AN 111. I haven’t covered Kiki’s Delivery Service yet, although you can trust we will before too long! No, the first film of interest to us tonight is a bit of an oddball in the Ghibli oeuvre; well known to fans of the studio but not quite as much of a household name. That’s Miyazaki’s flying pig movie, Porco Rosso (紅の豚 Kurei no Buta).

^ here’s your obligatory Yoshinori Kanada-animated background animation scene!

Porco Rosso is Miyazaki’s first movie to not just feature planes, but be truly overwhelmingly about planes. Set in a vaguely Mediterranean world, it expresses Miyazaki’s nostalgia for a lost era of flying before he was born, and yet it’s also tinged with the impending horror of the second world war and the recognition that the planes that Miyazaki loves so much are above all weapons.

Unlike many of Miyazaki’s movies, it centres on mostly adult characters and its narrative arc doesn’t really move to any sort of definite resolution; it’s more a portrait of the era, or rather, Miyazaki’s fantastical imagination of the era, in which there can be sky pirate families flying with dozens of children and, of course, a man can get transformed into a pig. The central character of the film, the eponymous Porco Rosso (so called because he’s a pig (porco) that flies a red (rosso) aeroplane), is an outcast due to his pig curse, but also perhaps because he insists on flying for himself rather than for the Italian military, a stance that is already becoming obsolete.

So Porco ends up adopting a young aircraft engineer - a bishōjo character in the spirit of The Castle of Cagliostro - who is eager to see the world. The largest conflict in the film is Porco butting heads with an arrogant American pilot over the affections of Gina, a woman who runs a bar for pilots - yet the two are clearly more similar than different.

By this point Studio Ghibli is well-established, and Miyazaki can take his pick from some of the best animators in the entire industry. So we see not just Yoshinori Kanada, but also sakuga aces Mitsuo Iso(!!!) and Shinya Ohira(!!!), and with Ghibli money they can truly go all-out. All that attention to mechanical detail, the buliding of machines, is there. Events like the testing of an aeroplane engine are accompanied by incredibly complex multi-layered shots that only a drawing demon like Ohira could accomplish. Only someone whose grasp of 3D form is as precise as Mitsuo Iso could animate some of these shots of subtle wobbles in the pre-CGI era. And on top of that, the colour design of Michyo Yasuda is there in all its beauty, Joe Hisaishi truly came into his own with a score as wistful and nostalgic as such a film demands; it’s an incredibly accomplished work of animation.

But, planes though.

One of the film’s most memorable scenes - one which unites the two films we’re going to see tonight - sees Porco fly up high into the sky to a kind of flying graveyard of aeroplane pilots. It’s here we especially see the ambivalence that obsesses Miyazaki: he finds aeroplanes one of the most beautiful things in the world, idolises their pilots, and yet of course this period of aviation was an incredibly dangerous one, and moreover the aeroplane development was catalysed by war and soon would lead to a level of destruction never seen before in human history with the bombing campaigns of the second world war.

It would be natural to imagine that the workshop where Porco recruits Fio may in some way resemble the workshop run by Miyazaki’s parents - in spirit, as he imagines it, if not in detail. Like Miyazaki Airplane, this workshop in Italy cannot be doing anything but supplying aeroplanes to Mussolini, and indeed we see Porco utter one of the most quoted lines in the film when he tells his old air force buddy “I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.” even though this leaves him essentially a fugitive, on his own with a plane and a girl (like half his age I guess?).

^ This swarm of tadpole-like children was animated by Masashi Ando.

If you actually read Miyazaki’s comments about his dad, it seems a little different. Far from being lovingly crafted, Miyazaki writes, Katsuji would make defective parts and bribe officials to look the other way. He would go to nightclubs right into his 70s and ask Hayao if he’d started smoking yet.

At the time this film came out, Hayao Miyazaki’s father Katsuji would die only a couple of years later, in 1993. We can find a short piece that Hayao wrote about it in Starting Point (page 208-209, My Old Man’s Back):

...And after the war, he had no sense of guilt about having been involved in the military arms industry or having produced defective parts. In effect, for him war was something that only idiots engaged in. If we were going to war anyway, he was going to make money off of it. He had absolutely no interest in just causes or the fate of the state. For him the only concern was how his family would survive.

(...)

When he died two years ago, those of us who gathered together agreed that he had never once said anything particularly lofty or inspiring. If I have one regret, it is that I never discussed things seriously with my old man. From the time I was young, I always looked at him as a negative example. But it seems, after all, that I am like him. I have inherited my old man’s anarchistic feelings and his lack of concern about embracing contradictions.

So the actual reality of aeroplanes around Miyazaki had little to do with the romantic images we see in his films. But that ‘lack of concern about embracing contradictions’ seems important...

In 2013, 20 years after Katsuji’s death, Miyazaki would direct a new film, The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ Kaze Tachinu, lit. The Wind Has Written) - to date, his last film, although of course like clockwork he’s since come out of retirement to work on another one. Ostensibly, this film is a biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, the inventor of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane so vital to the Imperial Japanese war machine.

However, if you look into the details, you soon realise that the story present in the film - particularly its central element of Jiro love interest and eventual wife Naoko Satomi - is a complete fiction. Jiro Horikoshi did marry and eventually had five children, but there is very little information about them, even in Horikoshi’s own autobiography. An article comparing the film against it remarks...

The Story of the Zero Fighter is 80% plane design ideas, measurements and stories surrounding Jiro’s career. There’s so much focus on the construction of the planes there’s a measly 20% left for autobiographical material.

According to that article, Horikoshi’s autobiography describes his initial thrill at reports of the Zero’s success in the invasion of China, then later, the psychological impact of a bomb striking nearby and his gradual realisation of what a war actually meant. It’s an arc towards increasing horror at the measures the Japanese Empire was taking to win the war with it, particularly the announcement of the Kamikaze suicide-bomber tactic:

Jiro was approached by the press to write a short essay on the Kamikaze, but he declined. He found it too emotionally difficult to think when he looked at photographs of smiling pilots boarding Zero’s, knowing they were doomed to death. Sobbing, the only sentiment that encouraged him to put pen to paper was dedicating his writings to the families who had lost their loved ones in the war. In the haunted depths of his mind he wondered why Japan had not just given up the war, and why they had gone to such measures with the Zero’s.

Very little of this arc makes it into The Wind Rises. Nationalism is glimpsed only at the margins. In one trip to Weimar Germany, Horikoshi witnesses a Jewish man being pursued; later, he meats a privately anti-Nazi German man at the hospital who talks briefly about how foolish nationalism will make a country ‘blow up’, and his final oblique conversation with the dream-ghost of his idol, Italian aircraft engineer Giovanni Cabroni, about what it means to build planes when they will be tragically be destroyed.

Instead, we find Miyazaki draw in a different source for the primary character arc of this movie: a novel by Tatsuo Hori that also has the title 風立ちぬ Kaze Tachinu. Set in a sanitarium much like the one in which Horikoshi spends the latter half of the film, it tells the story of the relationship between a nameless protagonist and a woman dying of tuberculosis.

It seems an odd connection at a glance: why would you take this seemingly entirely unrelated novel and apply it to an actual historical person? To me, the most plausible answer is that this isn’t really a film about Jiro Horikoshi. Because recall that, of Miyazaki’s parents, his mother also had spinal tuberculosis, and his dad also made planes for the war. Yet, the Horikoshi of this film hardly resembles Katsuji Miyazaki either, who we’ve seen was far from a workaholic like the film’s Jori Horikoshi. Instead, this would better resemble Hayao himself. So instead, it seems to be using this historical setting as a kind of place to explore Miyazaki’s feelings about his parents, his own craft in animation (wedded to the technical industrial world as it is)...

Inevitably that’s a pretty fraught thing to do! More so than any of Miyazaki’s other films, the film sparked a lot of controversy, mostly for how it handles the topic of the war. You could argue that like, OK, do you need a movie to moralistically lecture you on how invading most of Asia was bad? Must it rub our faces in the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to be a worthwhile movie?

One answer is that with the amount of modern nationalism and historical revisionism out there, it might not go amiss for national hero Hayao Miyazaki to take a stand there! But honestly it’s more that, with such subject matter, seems to go out of its way to avoid showing what the Zero was actually used for. The main tragedy, as far as Horikoshi was concerned, seems to be that so many pilots of this beautiful aeroplane die; that his pursuit of engineering beauty was corrupted by worldly matters like a war.

Which isn’t necessarily a completely inaccurate portrait of the real Jori Horikoshi’s attitude to his creation. The quote that inspired the film was “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.” But then this film goes out of its way to emphasise Horikoshi as a caring family man, a wholly sympathetic character, when to much of the world, Jiro Hirokoshi is a symbol of....

That. (And that’s the low estimate. It could easily be four times higher.)

But let’s look at how it relates to old Hayao and the contradictions he talks about living. If not to the same degree as old Isao Takahata, Miyazaki is an infamously exacting and demanding boss, heavily correcting nearly every cut that passes his desk. He’s spent his life working at a frankly kind of insane pace and expects his employees to keep up. Studio Ghibli has at least one dead body on its hands. Yet if you look at his films, they’re all about freedom and romanticism and the importance of enjoying nature. In Totoro, the dad is pulled away from his desk to play outside by his children. Probably not a good idea at Ghibli.

Then there are all the family relationships, all the way from the panda in Panda Kopanda to the mother in Ponyo. But Hayao Miyazaki was a distant father (he writes in Starting Point that his children were basically raised by their mother), and infamously callous to his son Gorō when he attempted to direct a film that Hayao didn’t think he was ready to handle.

Can we analogise animation to an aeroplane? It is beautiful in much the same way as an aeroplane is: elegant shapes, the technical coordination of many disparate parts to achieve an effect that would perhaps otherwise sound far-fetched (a flying machine? a picture that moves?). What’s the cost of animation? Well, thankfully nothing comparable to killing millions of people. But it is not a light undertaking. It is something that does eat lives. Is that a comparison that Miyazaki would have had in mind? I doubt it, honestly, but it’s what occurs to me faced with this film.

Thus I read the film’s Jori Horikoshi is a strange emotional blend of Hayao Miyazaki himself, an idealisation of his father or perhaps the sort of man he wishes his father was, and the real man who invented an effective fighter plane which helped enable his country to pillage most of Asia. And the rest of us? Well, the person working through these contradictions is Hayao Miyazaki, at the head of one of the highest concentrations of skilled animators the world has ever seen, so it’s going to be shared with nearly everyone. Would it probably have made more sense to do this in something like a manga, instead of a high profile movie? ...Well, I think so. But that’s not what happened, so we have this movie.

Inevitably for a late Ghibli movie, this film is crazy good looking. No Yoshinori Kanada anymore since he died in 2009, but Shinya Ohira is still alive, and he is absolutely capable of handling a Kanada-like background animation sequence. One of the most breathtaking sequences is the portrayal of the Great Kantō Earthquake by Atsuko Tanaka and Taichi Furumata, which combines both brilliant multiplane shots and unbelievably complex full background animation scenes of waves rippling through houses and streets. Tanaka also handled these mindblowing shots of cloth flowing in the wind as Naoko paints that form the film’s major recurring image.

The film uses slightly more digital compositing effects than the 90s pre-digital Ghibli films. For the most part the colours are just as lush as those older films, and there’s even very effective use of CG with handpainted textures now and then; Ghibli weathered the transition to digital a lot better than many studios.

And yet, despite all of this, it is a movie that leaves me feeling pretty unsatisfied, like a lot of late Ghibli movies. Hayao Miyazaki has said that he’s attempted to move away from familiar kishōtenketsu structures and try something novel, but when I watch films like Howl’s Moving Castle, I’m left wondering like... what did all of that amount to, in the end? For all its spectacle, what is this film even saying that Porco Rosso didn’t say... honestly, say better?

Maybe I’ll find an answer on a rewatch. It’s... far later than I planned to start, but if you’re willing to join me, please hop into twitch.tv/canmom and we’ll watch Hayao Miyazaki’s two big films about planes! And I’ll show you the Moomin thing too.

#animation night #hayao miyazaki #animation #anime #the wind rises #porco rosso

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