The following are some notes to help you understand the episodes better. In-episode notes are something I try to avoid as much as possible. They are very distracting and I really hate them. Getting distracted by them really pisses me off. Some notes are unavoidable like for important signs, proper names and certain events and objects.

Escalator (Itakiss 03)
The escalator refers to the easy entry for students to climb from one level of education to another.

For a high school to university escalator, the high school will have some kind of affiliation with the university. This allows for students to bypass requirements such as an entrance exam since the university would know the exact level of education and exams offered in the high school.

Graduation, boy’s uniform 2nd button (Itakiss 07)
It’s the second button because that’s the button closest to the heart. The 2nd button is given by the boy to the girl he loves.

Valentine’s Day (Itakiss 06)
Unlike in western countries, during Valentine’s Day in Japan, it is the girl who makes the move, by giving chocolates to boys they like. These chocolates are divided into 2 categories, giri(obligatory) and honmei(true feelings). Obviously, there are no physical differences between the chocolates of those two categories, simply the thought behind giving them. Giri chocolates will given to a non-intimate partner, while honmeis are given to a lover or a crush as a declaration of love.

Akanbe (Special A 07)
A rude gesture done by pulling down one’s bottom eyelid followed by sticking out the tongue.
Akanbe

Koushien (Myself; Yourself)
Koushien Stadium is the name of a baseball stadium in Japan, home to the Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional Baseball Central League. Annually, the national high school baseball championships are held there. It’s a huge and very important event as players reaching Koushien have a good chance of being drafted by professional teams. Think of it as a Japanese high school level World Series. A nice distracting note was also included in the episode.

Amai (Itakiss 08)
When the professor is giving his little speech to the Class-F students, he uses the word amai, which means sweet, but also means naive. After he says that they’re being naive, he follows it with a joke by saying that it’s as ‘amai’ as honey flavoured daifuku, which is a Japanese sweet. Having a note to explain a joke is… well… a joke. We just skipped it instead of trying to do anything with it.

Hamburg (ハンバーグ) (Itakiss 08 and Special A 08)
This is slightly different from an American hamburger, as it doesn’t come with buns. In case you didn’t know, a hamburger is not ham + burger. It’s Hamburg (the German city) + -er. It has always been made of beef. I’ve even seen a TV programme where they visited the first hamburger shop in the states, and it was made of ham! OMFG! What a bunch of idiots! Oh, and while I’m at it, french fries weren’t invented in France.

Narita Divorce (Itakiss 15)
Narita is Japan’s largest airport, I guess, and it’s located near Tokyo. A Narita Divorce would be a divorce at Narita Airport after a married couple returns from their failed honeymoon.

Various (Nogizaka Haruka 06)

  • The guide by Nobunaga is an imitation of the guide being seen by Amuro Ray while entering the cockpit of his Gundam in Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • When they were lining up for buying the doujin, Yuuto asked Haruka why she wanted to buy the doujin from A Cat Bus Stop, Haruka replied because she liked the artist. In fact, the artist is the one who drew Haruka. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaa -> click on his personal website… and mind = blown )
  • The person who Nanami dressed up as was actually Taro Aso , he is a famous politician, also is known to be a manga fan. He was seen reading Rozen Maiden at the airport, thus earning his nickname ‘Rozen Aso’.
  • The day this episode aired was actually the start of the real C74 in Tokyo.

There are many differences between Japanese and Western culture. And the differences in language between English and Japanese is like day and night. A lot of stuff can easily get lost in translation, or simply difficult to translate accurately. Thus, at times – though we try to minimise this – certain words are left untranslated because they translate poorly into English. If you’re new to anime fansubs, here’s a short guide to the words you should know to get a better understanding of the shows.

Honorifics

Initially, I used to leave this out of my translations. I’m not actually sure why I started leaving them in. Perhaps it’s bad practice and I should start removing them again. However, this is pretty much standard practice in fansubs and I’m just going with the masses. If you watch a lot of fansubs, then you’ll have to know these anyways. Even Gonzo leaves honorifics in their translations, which is kinda odd for professional subs.

You’ll often notice words like ‘-san’, ‘-chan’, etc tacked on to names. These are simply titles of respect like Mr, Sir, etc. So, what’s the reason we leave those in?

In English, it’s extremely odd to call your friends Mr or Miss. Often times, it’ll be just the first name alone. This is different in Japanese culture, which is more hierarchical. It is not terribly unusual to call your classmates by their surname + san. This shows the level of familiarity and closeness. Given names are only used for close friends, and for men, sometimes, that may not even be the case. These honorifics are left untranslated so that you’ll know the closeness of a relationship between characters.

Note: It is bad manners to use honorifics when referring to yourself or your own family members.

Here’s a quick rundown of the most common honorifics used: san, chan, sama, kun, sensei.

San is the most generic and general honorific. It can be used in most situations, especially for strangers and co-workers.

Chan is used for small and cute things in general. Young children and girls are often addressed with chan. It is also sometimes used for family members.

Kun is used for colleagues and schoolmates of similar or lower status. It is often only used for men. It would probably not be appropriate to use kun for your boss, but it’s okay for upperclassmen and such.

Sama is used as a term of great respect. It is often used when addressing important guests and customers. It is quite widely used in anime; probably far more often than it will ever be in real life.

Sensei is a term used for learned people. Most commonly, these are teachers, doctors, chess masters and politicians. Non-Japanese often confuse sensei to only mean teacher. However, sensei is a simply a title. In English, a good example would be Doctor and physician. Doctor is the title and physician is the profession.

There are many other honorifics. There are some odd ones like chama and tan. As your level of otakuness rises, so would your knowledge of these honorifics.

Family

East Asian culture is generally well known for strong family ties. There are words to describe almost every possible family relation. English is very simple when it comes to naming family members. Father, mother, grandparents, brother, sister. There’s no distinction between older and younger sibblings. No distinction between paternal and maternal grandparents.

Being regarded as family is of course a great thing. In East Asian culture, this is extended to strangers as well. You would call them Uncle, Grandpa, Sister, etc. Which one to use is entirely based on age. If someone is old enough to be your father, you’d call them Uncle. For young children, they would address older kids or young adults by using Brother or Sister. For people younger than you, just call them by their names.

Here’s a quick run through of some common family relations. Otou-san, Okaa-san, Onii-san, Onee-san, Oba-san, Oji-san, Obaa-san, Ojii-san.

You’ll notice that there are honorifics attached to the words above. It is not unusual to call your father ‘Mr Father’ in Japanese. (although Mr and san are not synonymous) San can also be replaced by chan or sama (but not the others) in the above cases. When talking to your family members, it’s okay to use honorifics. When talking about your family to strangers, it is more polite to not use honorifics. I hope you understand the logic behind why you’d do so.

Otou-san and Okaa-san mean father and mother. Without honorifics, it is chichi and haha.

Onii-san and Onee-san mean older brother and older sister. Without honorifics, it is ani/aniki and ane/aneki.

Oji-san and Oba-san mean uncle and auntie. Without honorifics, it is oji and oba. There are different terms for whether they are older or younger than your parents, but lets not get into that.

Ojii-san and Obaa-san mean grandfather and grandmother. Without honorifics, it is sofu and sobo.

This is the miscellaneous section. I didn’t know where to include all this stuff, so here they are.

Recommendations: Looking for good anime to watch? (It’s rather outdated) Click here.

Aegisub LUA scripts

  • Line Adder – Inserts any text you input into the beginning of each line. Works in a similar fashion to the simple \k replacer included with Aegisub.