Mushi:Vol1 TLnotes
蟲と眼球とテディベア
Night 1[edit]
kakka[edit]
Literally means "Your Excellency", "Your Lordship/Ladyship" etc. The kanji is "閣下". Here we have chosen to go with 'Milady' throughout Mushi to Medama.
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Rinne[edit]
Her given name is written with characters roughly meaning "sound of bells", 鈴音.
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Daddy-Long-Legs[edit]
An anonymous benefactor. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy-Long-Legs_(novel). This is slightly different to the more popular concept of Sugar Daddy, where the benefactor is certainly not anonymous. But then again, Sakaki isn't being anonymous at all, so Sugar Daddy might be a better comparison here.
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Mushi and Bugs[edit]
Mushi means Bugs in Japanese. However, the kanji used here (and in the series title) is 蟲, as opposed to the one for bug, 虫.
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Sentience[edit]
The ability to feel and perceive subjectively. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience
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Filial Imprints[edit]
A phenomena where animals learn or imitate certain characteristics of a stimulus. Its used in this case to descibe animals which treat the first thing they see as its parents. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)
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Gankyū Eguriko[edit]
Literally means Eyeball Gouger - a person that digs out eyeballs. The kanji is "眼球抉子"
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Night 2[edit]
Prince Charming[edit]
The original compared Sakaki's features to that of Pan An, a legendarily handsome man in ancient China. His elegance and beauty had been compared to that of 'a willow of jade swaying in the wind', and is considered to be one of the five most handsome men in Chinese history.
Since this cannot be translated appropriately into English, we've taken the liberty of placing this into the context of popular fantasy, which hopefully relates more to English readers. Surely we all know about Prince Charming.
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Neptune King[edit]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptuneman. I don’t know anything about this.
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Yang Guifei[edit]
Once again, I have taken the liberty to change the original reference, which was made to the extraordinarily beautiful Royal Consort Yang of the Tang Dynasty in ancient China, to another equally legendarily beautiful queen that English speakers would know more about, that of Helen of Troy.
Despite Mushi to Medama being written by a Japanese, Royal Consort Yang is known in the history of many far-Eastern countries. In fact, it was said that Yang fled to Japan from China and lived out the rest of her life in Japan, making it somewhat credible that some Japanese may indeed be her descendants. Her beauty had caused incest and civil war. The Asian proverb that woman is the the source of evil stemmed from her.
Used in this context, it can be considered as an innuendo that Rinne was the key to Sakaki's downfall into sin and purgatory.
Like pocket bells, personal computers, sexual harassment, or convenience stores[edit]
The Japanese abbreviate pocket bell into 'pokeberu', personal computer into 'pasokon', sexual harassment into 'sekuhara', and convenience stores into 'konbini'.
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Doraemon[edit]
Robot cat from an old manga/anime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon
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Night 3[edit]
Nutgall[edit]
Tumor-like growth of plant tissue caused by infectious agents such as bacteria and fungi. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutgall
The nutgall mentioned here is a specific type grown on certain poplar trees, extremely poisonous, and used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is also the name of the traditional Japanese story mentioned here.
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Obake no Q-tarō[edit]
This is an old manga/animation involving a little mischievious ghost who's horrified of dogs. It was serialized between 1964-1966 and 1971-1974 as a manga, and was adopted into animation 3 times during the 60s, 70s and 80s.
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Night 4[edit]
Kotatsu[edit]
A form of traditional Japanese furniture, featuring a low table with a heat source beneath it and covered by a blanket. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu
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Final Night[edit]
Indulgence[edit]
A form of penance certificate given out by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and thought to be able to discount any sins the person had already confessed and been forgiven. Detailed information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence.
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Guriko's Offering[edit]
Getter Robo[edit]
An old manga/animation that had 'New' Getter Robos, which involved improved designs of normal Getter Robos. It is referred here as joke about Guriko's attempt at changing her own name. More information is in the wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter_Robo
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