Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻)


Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻) is a rom-com anime adapted from an original manga by the famous Takahashi Rumiko (Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, etc) about young college student Godai Yusaku who falls in love with his apartment building's new manager, Otonashi Kyoko. However, their fellow tenants will stop at nothing to create misunderstandings and confusion between the two.
I remember that last semester I posted about the opening theme song of this show, and now I decided I’d write a きくしゅくだい about it. It’s probably my favorite アニメ; I remember how upon finishing it almost a year ago I couldn’t pay attention in my classes for a week because the ending was so emotional, and after 96 episodes, one really does become attached to the story and characters. I’ve attached a link here to watch it on Youtube; unfortunately, the only high-quality Japanese dub I could find is subtitled in Portuguese, so がんばって下さいね. Also there is some mild nudity in the first few episodes. Sue me.
As I watched the show, I found it interesting how many real Japanese sentences I can already understand with only a first-year skill level. For instance, in the first episode, the new manager introduces herself with: わたくし今日からこのアパートの管理人になりました。音無響子と申します。I also like hearing grammar we've just learned in class; as when roughly a minute later Godai also says something: ここの人たちは冗談が好きなんですよ。In episode 23, Otonashi expresses relief using a てform we've heard in class many times: それをきいて、安心しました。

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuCiwmDyrv9yPeF1fG2aGFlpQ9dDEcVU2


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

聞く：戦艦の世界

Image
World of Warships is a free-to-play online game made by the Russian company Wargaming, who also made the more famous World of Tanks . Players take control of World War II era warships ranging from destroyers to aircraft carriers and compete against each other in teams usually consisting of ten players. The game ends either when one team secures 1000 objective points or when one team sinks all the other team's ships.  The real IJN Fusou ( 扶桑)  in 1933 About a month ago, I changed my game language setting to Japanese because I typically use the Japanese ships, and I thought it would be good fun and practice to set the language to match. The game is difficult enough as it is, and not understanding some of the vocal cues and none of the written ones at first was not much help. However, while I still don't know any of the kanji in the game, I can now say that when the game announcer yells "終了まで、残り五分です" or "敵軍の優勢になりました" or, my personal favorite, "右舷から、魚雷接近,...
Read more

Nobunaga: King of Zipangu

Image
Nobunaga: King of Zipangu is an NHK drama from the early 1990s that follows the life of Oda Nobunaga, who fought to unify Japan during the Warring States period of the sixteenth century. The first episode is about his father's struggle to establish control over their home province of Owari amidst interference from the lord of Mino, Saito Dousan, and the shogunate's nominal governor. He must also decide an heir, since Nobunaga, despite being his eldest son, is unpopular due to his perceived stupidity and femininity. In the background throughout the episode is a story about certain Portuguese monks who were the first Europeans to visit Japan. The Japanese spoken in King of Zipangu is very different from what I have heard in other Japanese media. The characters use very formal styles and vocabulary; for example, 御座る seems to be preferred to ある.
Read more

聞く：キング・オブ・ザ・ヒル

Image
 I have never actually watched King of the Hill, but I know enough about it to find a Japanese dubbing hilarious. The show is a slice of life comedy about the Hill family, who live in a small town in Texas. In this clip, Hank Hill, the main character, is teaching his son Bobby that smoking tobacco is wrong by forcing him to smoke dozens of packs of cigarettes, which results in Bobby learning his lesson and vomiting. I could understand much of what was said, but I do not think I could rewrite the script from listening to the video; their casual speech is too syncopated. It was interesting to see how both father and son use extremely casual forms with each other and to see 「いいか？」translated in at least three different ways. Also I noticed 「えんぴつ」was translated not as "pencil" but as "dowel," a strange complication as seems common when subtitling Japanese programming (I have never heard the word "jalopy" once in my life, but anime translators have some aversion...
Read more