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rogumi · 1 month ago

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Hansuke's Spring and Autumn, from Ninmyu 12 again!

This reveals key points of the story, so be careful!⚠️ Doi reminisces about his past with Nue from Kaentake ninja and reveals it all to the upperclassmen.

I want to give big thanks to Tome for helping me out and reading over my lyrics! I'm extremely grateful.

半助春秋 hansuke shunjuu

ゆらゆらと花籠を手に持ちて笑み笑みと yurayura to hanakago wo te ni mochite emiemito 春の野に乙女子は楽しげに蓬つむ haru no no ni otomego wa tanoshige ni yomogi tsumu 暖かき春の日の長ければすみれ草咲く野辺をとつおいつ atatakaki haru no hi no nagakereba sumiresou saku nobe wo totsuoitsu 嗚呼、風は微笑む石は黙すうちつれてきみと帰らん aa, kaze wa hohoemu ishi wa mokusu uchi tsurete kimi to kaeran 弓箭は埋もれて草茂き城跡に kyusen wa uzumorete kusashigeki shiro ato ni ただ一人佇めば遥かなる思い出この胸によみがえる tada hitori tatazumeba haruka naru omoide kono mune ni yomigaeru 秋の夜の長ければうら悲しい虫の声 aki no yo no nagakereba uraganashii mushi no koe 嗚呼、星は囁く月は語るいつの日か此処に帰らん aa, hoshi wa sasayaku tsuki wa kataru itsu no hi ka koko ni kaeran

(unofficial transcription!)

If you're having a feeling of deja-vu, it's because I revamped an older post (I swear I tried to edit it but it wouldn't let me!). The song translation was reworked and I added to the initial notes. If you've seen the old version of this post, I recommend you give it another watch! As usual, translation notes and commentary are under the cut. While not spoiling either Ninmyu 12 or the Strongest Tactician, I'll refer to both, so again if you want to watch them completely blind be careful.

Amako Soubee has written a number of songs for the Nintama franchise, both for the anime and the musicals, and this is one of them. While Nintama TV anime uses Japanese that is easy to follow, Ninmyu is something else entirely, and this song is a good example of that difference in language. It uses archaisms and takes from classical poetry, so I had a hard time translating the first time I tackled it. I really, really love this song though and it's been on my mind since I shared my first attempt at a translation, so for months I've been going back and forth editing it. Unlike a number of songs from Ninmyu, I couldn't find any written lyrics online (but they are apparently written in the pamphlet for the musical! I looked and looked but I don't think anyone attempted to put a version online, so I guess I'll share my transcription.), so it wasn't a work of just checking a word I don't know in the dictionary and fill in the spots, I started by writing a good chunk of it phonetically and look up the constructions, expressions and words I didn't know... haha. Needless to say this was a text above my humble level of Japanese. But it was interesting! And I regret having rushed the first time I translated it... but I'm glad I gave it another try. Plus, this time I've had Tome read over my transcription of the Japanese lyrics and confirm them (thank you sooo much!), so I'm all the more confident in what I'm sharing today. Yay!

Now, on to some translation notes and commentary:

Yogiri (夜霧), the name Nue gave Hansuke before he was Hansuke, means "night fog". Doi (土井) is spelled with the characters 土 "earth" and 井 "well", or "community" (as people gathers around the well in a town). Another alias of his, Tenki (天鬼), is spelled with the characters 天 "sky", "heaven", and 鬼 "demon", "ogre", "oni". I think it's interesting that two of his aliases, Yogiri and Tenki, are linked to intangible concepts, while "Doi" feels definitely palpable and rooted in every day life. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Nue (鵺) got her name from nue, a chimera-like beast in Japanese folklore.

He who doesn't dare cross a 1-jou moat, Should not strive to cross a 1.5-jou moat. They literally say a "1 jou moat" and a "1 jou and 5 shaku moat", but I didn't want to make the text too heavy. Jou (丈) is an unit of measure that is approximately equal to 3 meters in length. Shaku (尺) is another unit of measure that is approximately equal to 30 centimeters. So 1 jou is equal to 10 shaku, and 1 jou and a half is equal to 1 jou and 5 shaku.

Hansuke Shunjuu (半助春秋) Literally, Hansuke's Spring and Autumn. An expression used in the sense of, the life and times of Hansuke, the highs and lows of Hansuke, but because the song directly references spring and autumn, I guess the title can be translated literally! Following that idea, the stanza about spring evokes a high point for Doi and the very picture of peace to him, while the long nights of autumn remind him of darker times. Incidentally, isn't it interesting how The Strongest Tactician takes place in autumn? Well, I'm not going to ramble about it all over again, but if you want to read about my thoughts on Doi's character, The Strongest Tactician, and how this song fits into it all, there's a big block of text waiting for you here.

The song uses a lot literary constructions and words that wouldn't make for very interesting explanations given my own lack of knowledge on Japanese literature and poetry. But there's a basic notion that might be fun to bring up, and it's 季語 kigo, or seasonal words. As the name imply, they are words whose function is to indicate the season referred to within a poem or the stanza of a poem. There are entire dictionaries dedicated to them, and some are more obvious than others... I feel they are not only essential to Japanese poetry, they are also good to know when interacting with any Japanese art, including visual arts and even anime. Again, taking The Strongest Tactician as an example, visual motifs in this movie include the moon and pampa grass among many others, two kigo associated with autumn. Let's list some big ones present in the lyrics.

Warm spring day 春の野 haru no no, "spring field", "calm fields of spring", our first kigo, and it's an explicit one even to non-Japanese speakers. When spring comes, snow melts, flowers bloom, and the spring field gains color with each passing day. Mugwort here refers to 蓬 yomogi, the Japanese mugwort, primarily used to make sweets with, notably (and relevant to the time period) kusamochi, yomogi leaves mixed with glutinous rice to make sweet, green dumplings. Kusamochi was offered during hinamatsuri, a holiday celebrating girls, and was eaten wishing for the good health of mothers and children. すみれ草咲く野辺をとつおいつ sumiresou saku nobe wo totsuoitsu, "She wanders and lingers in violet-dotted fields", or more literally "She goes back and forth in the field where violets bloom" The violets here are likely viola mandshurica, a wildflower largely mentioned and celebrated in poetry.

Long autumn night 弓箭は埋もれて kyuusen wa uzumorete "Remnants of battle lie buried" It's not a kigo but I want to point it out, 弓箭 kyuusen is literally "bow and arrow", but obviously evokes remnants of a past battle here. It's not just "insects" but specifically "the cries of insects" that are a kigo. Which insect isn't specified, but it could be a number of them, as some specific insects and their cry are associated with autumn. I guess the first that comes to mind to me is the bell cricket, or suzumushi. You can listen to its very distinct sound here (I picked a video without visuals if you don't like seeing critters up close) 月は語る tsuki wa kataru "The moon speaks" Like I said before, the moon is an autumn word. To be associated with tsukimi, or the moon-viewing celebrations that come with the harvest moon in autumn. Also, 語る kataru is to be understood as to speak out loud, to tell, to reveal, to announce.

Kaentake Castle カエンタケ kaentake, poison fire coral, a deadly poisonous mushroom. Also spelled 火炎茸, lit "flame mushroom", hence the red accents on their outfits.

#ninmyu #video #translation #this song... thank you so much for the translation #i can't thank you enough

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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Nintama Communities

English speaking communities:

Nintama/RKRN Amino Community Nintama Rantarou Discord Server Tasogaredokijou Discord Server Nintama Dreamwidth Community r/Nintama on Reddit Nintama Rantarou Tumblr Community

All communities vary in activity and speed but have been active in the last couple of weeks, as observed at the time of posting.

If you would like your community to be added, please let me know! For now, I've only added English speaking ones, but would love to add communities for other languages.

#nintama #nintama rantarou

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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This post is about Nintama fandom's presence in Super Comic City 32! Held back in May, Super Comic City 32 spanned 3 days across two cities: Tokyo on May 3-4 (Golden Week) and Osaka on May 18. On Day 1 and Day 3 of the event, Nintama fans held 超忍FES 2025 in both Tokyo and Osaka! The turnaround was huge. SCC32 Tokyo had 10k participating circles and 2k of those were Nintama-centric. That's a whooping 20% of all circles. SCC32 Osaka had a lower participation rate, at 4k circles, but almost 15% of them were Nintama circles! Which is also nuts. Behind the cut, you can see the breakdown of popular ships. The source of all this information is the あのアレどこ blog, that compiles event information like this!

Due to limitations with tumblr formatting, I suggest you look at the dreamwidth mirror instead. Parting thoughts: Day 1 had a total of 231 different characters and ships but I cut down a lot that only had a couple just because it was getting too long. Same with Day 3, it had 123 different entries listed. If you want to see the full list, please look at the blog listed above!

In comparison, Nintama's 2024 超忍FES had 269 circles participating.

Ships that exploded in popularity between SCC 2024 and 2025: Ridoi 5 → 371 Zatsui 5 → 170 Doikiri 3 → 131 Rikoma 8 → 127 Monsen 9 → 115 Tomei 9 → 79 On the other hand, some smaller ships like Hama/Miki remained static with the same warriors showing up both time, maybe gaining a couple of new ones. I salute them. 🫡 People continue to follow their heart which is the kind of energy you love to see. It's hard to gauge character popularity sometimes so this was interesting to see. The last official poll took place in 2011 and you can see the results here! Otherwise, you can sort of get an idea of a character's popularity by the amount of art you see and the resale value they have lol. Isaku and Doi are as popular as you'd expect. Kanemon's small presence at the event surprised me a little, since he's also incredibly popular. In the discord server, I translated this tweet (translated chart available here) talking about how many Howanui plushies had been won in 2 days and Kanemon was second. Anyway! I recommend looking at the full thing if you know kanji. The post was getting long but it's really interesting to see how many passionate fans were drafting works even if they were the only ones showing up for their faves. I love the fannish subculture. Would love to hear your thoughts!

#nintama #nintama rantarou

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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Originally I wanted to write about both Oshitsu's mask and Shousei's face... but then I kept thinking of things I want to talk about regarding both Oshitsu and Shousei separately, so for now let me just ramble about Tasogaredoki's niche guy and I'll save A Shousei Post for later lol. While I won't be spoiling key story elements, I'll mention his role in the third movie, The Strongest Tactician, so be warned!

The guy of the day!

Oshitsu Osaretsu of the Tasogaredoki ninja army! He's one of those characters that has a very small role in canon but still benefits from relative popularity among fans. Especially after the third movie, in which he plays a part, people got really curious about him mostly because of his voice actor. If we consider Zatto and Sonnamon the "main" characters of Tasogaredoki, all their supporting cast is dubbed by relatively small voice actors (so much that they are somewhat inconsistent), yet somehow Oshitsu has the luxury to be consistently dubbed by Nakamura Yuuichi, who has had so many of his roles break into the mainstream by now that even casual anime watchers across the globe are bound to have heard his voice before. Pretty funny given how little appearances Oshitsu makes in the anime!

Let's get over his profile quick. I'll be translating his description from The Strongest Tactician's visual book:

Oshitsu Osaretsu, subleader (kogashira) of the army's Black Eagle squad of Tasogaredoki's ninja army, tasked with infiltrating and investigating the enemy. He wears a soriko paper mask.

If you want to read more about how Tasogaredoki ninja army is organized and about the role of each squad, you can read about it from kumigashira himself here.

Unlike Zatto, Sonnamon, Yamamoto and Jinnaizaemon, his age, star sign, and blood type are unknown, so there's not much to add in term of purely canon fact, except that as subleader of the Black Eagle squad, he's on equal footing with Yamamoto in term of hierarchy, and he has Shiira Kansuke, Soriya Souta and Gojou Dan under his command.

His name is spelled 押都 oshitsu 長烈 osaretsu, with characters that are mostly used for phonetic purposes. 押 oshi is used in the verb 押す osu, "to push". 都 tsu means capital or big city. 長 osa means long, and 烈 retsu means fierce, vehement (blushing emoji). But really, the intent is for his name to sound like 押しつ押されつ oshitsuosaretsu, "push and pull", or more literally "pushing and pushed."

In the anime, he makes his first appearance during Hama Shuichirou's introduction arc, the holding the fort at Hodohodo Castle story. It starts on 23-22, but Oshitsu appears from episode 23. Interestingly, the second part of 23-22 (and then most of the rest of the arc) takes place as night, and even before Tasogaredoki is physically introduced into the arc, the sound of a owl hooting can be heard in the background. It's a sound effect that could seem incidental if it wasn't associated with Tasogaredoki on multiple occasions. Zatto makes hooting sounds himself in the fifth musical:

Zatto: (hooting sound) Takiyashamaru: What was that, just now? Zatto: It's~ a~ se~ cret~!

(in the encore, there's another scene where Zatto does it in front of Isaku, and you can hear some hooting back. Isaku reacts "these aren't the cry of birds, they are people!")

In the second movie, more hooting and an owl is physically present when showing us Isaku and Rantarou, just before Zatto can quickly pinpoint their location and attack them:

In the third movie, Tasogaredoki initially works with Ninjutsu Academy and seems to have no problem going in and out, and Oshitsu is seen running across the school without seemingly being bothered by Komatsuda (in the novel version, there's a part where Zatto explains that only Sonnamon got bothered by Komatsuda at the entrance but everyone else managed to sneak in lol, and Oshitsu's sudden appearance startled Yamada-sensei, who couldn't sense him). That is to say that they make little effort to hide themselves from Ninjutsu Academy in the first part of the movie, but events lead them to stop working with the school later on. In the second half of the movie, an owl can be heard and seen again, this time spying on the fifth years getting some info from Dokutake:

I'm not randomly talking about owls lol, my point is that even though Oshitsu rarely makes appearances, him and his squad, in charge of spying, collecting intel and reporting back to Zatto, might be much more omnipresent than they appear. It's evident that Tasogaredoki uses hooting sounds as their yabane, or secret code, but I think the visual of the owl itself representing Oshitsu becomes the most explicit in the third movie, where he physically disappears from the story (up until the very end) but Tasogaredoki manages to continue keeping tabs on Ninjutsu Academy anyways. These owls (and their cry) never show up at random times too, it really shows how efficient and scary Tasogaredoki can be, Zatto is always ahead of everyone huh!

His profile mentions the soriko mask he wears. You might have seen similar ones in other Japanese media, probably most famously in Spirited Away? I also assume that in Kimetsu no Yaiba, the paper mask worn by Tanjirou's father during the Hi no kagura ritual dance takes inspiration from such masks.

hoot hoot hoot... hoot hooooot...

This kind of paper mask is called zoumen, and it's used in bugaku, the dance and choregraphies performed with gagaku, the traditional court music of Japan. Gagaku became a tradition for the elite as early as the 8th century, and was developed after the court music of China and Korea (respectively yayue and a-ak) were introduced to Japan, along with others influences from India and south-east Asia at large. The repertoire involves highly codified religious dances with slow, stylized movements repeating itselves in patterns, with performers wearing sophisticated costumes and masks depicting characters that can be animals, humans, and gods. While most bugaku masks are carved from light wood and such solid material, zoumen are made with a thin layer of silk glued to paper, then decorated with near abstract, geometrical shapes meant to look like a human face. The mask Oshitsu wears has a design unique to the soriko zoumen. It takes its name from its associated dance, Soriko, which you can watch for yourself on Youtube. Imported from Korea, it seems to be tied to rites in festivals tied to the brewing of alcohol, and gods of the hearth in Buddhism and shinto alike ; gods that are always linked to purity and cleansing by fire, but really the idea of alcohol brewing and worship of the hearth is to be associated with the safety of home, isnt it? All in all, the history of this mask is blurry, the certainty of its meaning is lost to time, and all that's left is its eerie design and the otherworldly dance that accompanies it. Now given how little we know about him, I'm not sure how does all that ties to Oshitsu's character, but it's good food for thought... ...Though the ideas of Tasogaredoki and fire together doesn't really bring ideas of safety to me.

Then again, in 24-23, when Oshitsu makes a fool of Bouta, he does it with a certain enthusiasm for the performance, so maybe he's just really into the arts!

Doesn't that make you curious what the man actually looks like under the mask?

In the meantime, Amako Soubee showed just "just a glimpse at his dandy beard" in The Strongest Tactician's visual book! Oh, he's not just an amateur of the arts, he's also into the latest men fashion in the west... Dreamy... Just who are you, Oshitsu??

#oshitsu #tasogaredoki #meta #nobody does it like tumblr user jinnaizaemon

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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"are you wearing the-"

the snoots? yeah i am

#kisanta

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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1ro being Heita + 3 passenger princesses is canon btw.

(unserious) What would the Nintama driving tier list look like

"I'm da king of da highway" was a huge hit among Tasogaredoki ninjas.

#1ro

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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S33 - E14: A Day Without Critters [ENG SUB]

Since Takeya Hachizaemon-senpai and Igasaki Magohei-senpai are always taking care of the critters of their committee as well as watching over them, their kouhai suggests the two of them forget about animals and go out to town for once.

mediafire pixeldrain

#translation #thank you for this!#nintama wordplay too strong

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rogumi · 1 month ago

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Nintama Rantarou Movie 2: All of Ninjutsu Academy Ready for Action! cheat sheet

Our translation of the movie is finally available to download! whee! I had made a similar cheat sheet post for the first movie that you can find here. Movie 2 is longer and I have more to say about it, but hopefully it won't be too boring a read. I know I made a post about this same movie before, but since we finalized the subs I wanted another go at it. I'll be honest, I'll paste and reword some part of the older post into this one and then add new thoughts, observations, and comments about the finalized subs into it. Consider it a V2... Enjoy!

This time again, I'll try to follow the movie chronologically (though some back-and-forth can happen) and write about all my thoughts and comments about the movie itself and translation choices we made. Let’s begin under the read more! Beware of spoilers if you haven't watched it yet, and forgive my bad English.

A little background first of all: The first Nintama Rantarou movie came out in 1996. This one, Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudou! no Dan, came out 15 years later, in March 2011. We went with All of Ninjutsu Academy Ready for Action! for the English title. More precisely, this movie came out in theaters on March 12 2011, that is to say one day after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11 2011 ; it resulted in promotional events related to the movie being cancelled, and in general theaters in Japan shortening screenings or closing entirely. As a consequence of this, the movie is a box-office failure, despite having extremely positive reviews.

Between the first two movies, the franchise grew and so did the cast of characters, so this movie was made with the intention of showcasing all of Ninjutsu Academy. It adapts the contents of volume 37 and 42 of the manga, which had already been animated in the 16th season of the anime series, making the movie a remake of sort with original scenes, and an adaptation of the plot so that it includes every member of Ninjutsu Academy.

Opening scene

Nintama plays a lot with historical accuracy and I always think it does so in a really clever way. The very first scene shows the circumstances in which the very unfair deal between Oomagatoki and Tasogaredoki Castles was made. Tasogaredoki's army looks threatening with its skull emblem, equipment and sheer numbers. It contrasts with Oomagatoki's blobby emblem... and the plastic chocolate and candy wrappers its lord dropped to the floor along with a war fan. To me that shot really is Nintama in a nutshell lol. War, but still funny!

It's interesting going back to this movie after watching the third movie, The Strongest Tactician. Both open with a scene displaying the horrors of war in a family-friendly, sensible way. In movie 2, torn flags lay on the ground as both armies are battling in the background. Cloth in general is a recurring motif in this movie: lords go to war with flags adorned with their family emblem on them, and they walk around in opulent silk fundoshi, while the people have to use and reuse every piece of cloth they can find to dress their wounds. I really like the symbolism in Isaku reusing war flags to use as bandage to treat the wounded. Also, if the movie starts with showcasing these flags, it also ends with Kisanta waving his own! He also turned a war lord's display of opulence into Ninjutsu Academy's own flag for peace and independence. Beautiful!

Next, we get Zatto's fateful meeting with Isaku. It's a nice touch that while we're seeing through Zatto's eye, the bottom left corner of the screen is greyed, where the bandage covering his right eye would be.

Isaku is dressed as yamabushi, practicioners of shugendo, known for retreating to the mountains for ascetic practices, rituals, etc. In the context of nintama, the outfit helps Isaku hides any affiliation, making him an enemy of no one, and signify a knowledge of herbs and medicine giving him credibility to care for the wounded.

A lot of people were puzzled by Isaku's hair color in this scene, and I wondered about it too. It appears too dark if the goal was just to have the movie's usual color palette but more dulled. I really wonder if it's another attempt at increasing the realism for this scene, since it contrasts with the one just after with Rankirishin in present time. It's not like Nintama TV anime uses dull palettes at all, but except for the scenes with Tasogaredoki's army battling Oomagatoki, Tasogaredoki and Oomagatoki having dinner at camp, and later Tasogaredoki's army marching towards Sonoda Village, movie 2 picked especially bright and vivid colors, and I genuinely think it's a deliberate choice to have these contrast so much visually.

Ninjutsu Academy

Again, I love the sudden change in color palette compared to the scene just before. It's like the children get to live in a much more innocent world than the adults directly confronted with war, and how there's hope in the present and future. In Zatto's words, nintama are potential, aren't they?

The TV anime seems to go back and forth with this, sometimes showing background students in classrooms, sometimes showing very small classrooms (like how 1-i and 1-ro each have 4 known students, and they are sometimes the only ones in their classroom while sometimes there are more desks occupied by nameless mob characters), but the movie features a BUNCH of unknown, nameless students appearing in the back. It’s probably an effort to give the school a feeling of greatness to fit the grand scale of the story, but it’s a bit weird to see unfamiliar students especially in older years haha.

Tegata Kessai brought the Headmaster the local specialty of Sonoda Village. I like how much this little flower relates to Isaku. Like how Zatto never got Isaku's name throughout the movie, it remains unnamed. Obviously, it has a white color, like the yamabushi outfit he wore on the battlefield (plus, obviously, the green leaves like his uniform). It's unassuming ; despite showing up many times throughout the movie, no big attention is ever brought to it. But despite appearances, it's an efficient painkiller than can be toxic used at a wrong dose, mirroring Isaku's skills both in medicine and in ninjutsu. Its role is made obvious in the very end, though, when Zatto uses it to stop Dokutake army. Not in a lethal dose though, he can't make members of the Health Committee sad...

Tegata Kessai's name comes from 手形決済 tegata kessai, meaning to pay a bill or settle a debt.

Komatsuda was probably too busy thinking about his big brother, owner of a fan shop, to notice the pattern on the floor spelling へっぽこ heppoko, “useless”, “incompetent”.

When 1-ha is discussing the mixed-up homework, Chouji is shown growing asagao, Japanese morning glories. Because these flowers grow fast and easily, they are often used as teaching material in lower grades of elementary school where students have to care for them and report on their growth as homework.

In the same scene, while all of 1-ha is laughing, only Shouzaemon and Kingo stay serious, Shou-chan being Shou-chan and Kingo showing worry as Kisanta’s roommate!

Before the Headmaster enters, there’s a sheet of paper on the floor with every student’s name and the homework they received. If they got the right homework, it’s marked with a O. Flipping and zooming on this frame reveals whose students got the wrong homework, and what the assignment they got was. Sadly, since the text is blurry I couldn’t decipher everything. But I can tell you that apart from Kisanta, Monjirou, Chouji, and the Rescue Team… Heita, Kyuusaku, Shirobei, Sakubei, Kazuma, Takamaru, Heisuke and Hachizaemon got the wrong homework too. Sakubei had to make a map of Dokusasako Castle. Kazuma had some ninja code to decipher. Heisuke had to steal a rooftile in Naruto Castle. Hmm... familiar. I think Hachizaemon had to get Harumaki Gyouja's autograph.

…And Takamaru’s summer homework was “crossdressing”.

Kisanta Rescue Team’s introduction scene has a LOT of interesting details, so I already dedicated a post for it.

Talk with Tegata Kessai

Tegata Kessai explains how he wants to get a 庇いの制札 kabai no seisatsu from Tasogaredoki’s lord, which I translated as a “protection decree” for ease of reading, but it’s actually a little bit more specific. In the words of Doi-sensei: “Don’t burn, steal, and kill. Basically, a document prohibiting the army from committing violence.” kabai means protecting or sheltering, while seisatsu refers to an edict publicly displayed on a wooden board to make the public aware of a law in place in the area, a recent proclamation of the local lord or of the shogun, etc.

Danzou misunderstands kabai no seisatsu as kaba no keisatsu, literally “a hippo policeman” - I don’t know if the average Muromachi child would be knowledgeable of animals in Sub-saharan Africa, though! It became hipprotection in the subs.

I think the people behind him are Maasai people, but I’m not very knowledgeable so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

The movie has a lot of on screen text, so initially, the subtitles, the Japanese text, then the English captions made for really crowded shots... But isn't it nice and clear like this?! Azul even made the text zoom in and fade out, that's so cool!! I'm so happy with the end result. Everyone clap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the English subs, Rantarou says "what does collecting intel means?", in the Japanese script, he asks what does 印をとるshirushi wo toru, literally "collecting marks", means. That might be either unique to Nintama or is some obscure military/ninjutsu expression... a recurring problem I have when researching ninjutsu stuff is that ninjutsu websites will often quote Amako Soubee/Nintama so it's hard to find actual sources sometimes. Anyways, as Shouzaemon explains, it's to scout an army to deduce its numbers, amount of supplies, etc.

In this post, under the read more, I wrote about the meaning of the words “Tasogaredoki” and “Oomagatoki”.

Kousaka makes his only appearance ever in civil clothes in the next scene. I have to point it out. It’s important, okay. Incidentally, he's dubbed by Wataru Takagi, Takiyashamaru's voice actor here... ugh.

By the way, badminton only became a thing in the 19th century. But feudal Japan already had a similar game called hanetsuki, which started as a game reserved for nobles, but grew in popularity during Muromachi and became a New Year tradition by Edo. He’s not being anachronistic… just a little bit avant-garde.

Opening theme and to Sonoda Village

The noodles they are eating is a dish called kuzukiri, a popular, refreshing summer dessert from Kyoto, so it’s a local snack for nintama. It’s made by mixing kudzu starch with water, and once thickened, cut in the shape of noodles with the tool seen above. It’s then served with black sugar syrup traditionally, and with a variety of others toppings in modern times.

Given Danzou, Isuke and Heidayuu’s reactions, it looks like there wasn’t enough for everyone.

Are the people walking on the path in the foreground on their way to the battlefield, too? Since the war between Tasogaredoki and Oomagatoki is on an apparent standstill, a large camp has been set for soldiers, so they are likely to be carrying supplies there. It's because those "stand-by camps" were so large and attracted so many peddlers and entertainers that it's possible for children to be there as young laborers or entertainers, making 1-ha sneaking in to "collect intel/marks" plausible.

What is translated as "page”, as in a manual worker, is 夫丸 bumaru in the original script, and is a word specific to Muromachi-Edo. The bu part means male and maru is a suffix for names used at the time for children (like Kirimaru!) or lower-class workers. Shinbei explains that they are “the people carrying supplies to the battlefield”, which is true, but it seems that the word refers to lower classes laborers in a more general way.

When Kirimaru explains how he traded his lunchbox for a bunch of things until he got the Oomagatoki hands’ uniform, Rantarou tells him it’s just like Warashibe chouja, or the Straw Millionaire story. It’s a folktale that became popular during the Muromachi period, about a poor man who starts by trading a piece of straw, and after a series of trades, meets with a rich man who offers him his daughter in marriage, making the poor man a millionaire.

Rantarou misreads the tag as “Size rerere” because the roman letter L looks like the katakana character レ, which is read re. So レレレ is read rerere. Became lelele in the subs.

When Kirimaru first tries to carry Shinbei on his shoulders, they both talk in a very theatrical, over the top way, and wear red make-up. You can also hear a nohkan flute, hyoushigi wood clappers and tsuzumi drum in the background. This is all typical of Kabuki theater.

Zatto gesturing at a subordinate off screen to go after the 1-ha kids with finger gestures, Oomagatoki not being able to see him, is really cool to me haha.

It's so cute how Rikichi carried Shouzaemon on his back. You can only see his ponytail peeking from over Rikichi's shoulder when he lands.

Rikichi has some stag-gering news! Hahaha!!! Because he's holding a deer!... Right?! Right... We really wanted this release to not have any translation notes on screen, so it was important to find another pun for this scene. It took a while and after long, long brainstorming Azul found something... I'm so grateful.... In the original script he says 斯く斯く然々kakukaku shikajika, which simply means “this and that”, “such and such”… while holding a puppet of the bishop shogi piece, called kakugyou or kaku for short, and a puppet of a deer, or shika in japanese. So the joke is that as he says kakukaku shikajika, he shows a kaku and a shika… hm…

I really really love Yamada-sensei blushing and coughing at his son's embarassing attempt at joke.

Hinata mentions that Oomagatoki doesn't have enough power to spy for intel, but to be more precise they employ no ninja at all. Well... in the TV anime, Oomagatoki orders Iba Tooru and Kaibara Tarou, originally two foot soldiers, to become ninja despite them having 0 knowledge of ninjutsu, because "having no ninja at all is kind of a bad look".

惣 sou is an historical term referring to rural local self-governments. As Shouzaemon explains, because Oomagatoki lacks power as a lord, the villages in his domain are organizing towards self-governments, or becoming sou, hence why he needs Tasogaredoki's strength to oppress them back into obedience. If all his villages were to become independent, they wouldn't pay him taxes anymore, he wouldn't be able to hire them for his army, etc. It's because he feared losing his power and wealth that he agreed to that "9 for me, 1 for you" deal with Tasogaredoki.

Lord Oomagatoki, in hiding, wears a raccoon dog mask to conceal his face. Raccoon dogs with the ability to shapeshift to conceal their true identity and play tricks on others are a common motif in japanese folktales and they are known as bakedanuki. They are usually portrayed as goofy and fun characters, with um, large testicles reminiscent of Oomagatoki’s chin under the mask lol. If Oomagatoki is the short, plump, funny bakedanuki, I guess it makes the taller, slender, cooler Tasogare Jinbei a bakekitsune, a shapeshifting fox.

"9 for me, and 1 for Magatoki-dono..." I really, really love this scene. While Tasogare Jinbei has a young boy pouring him alcohol in a large, lacquered dish, Oomagatoki Magatoki isn't even invited at his side, and has to pour himself drinks in a small cup. Tasogare eats red sea bream, madai in Japanese, a luxury food typically served for special occasions like New Year, and is also a symbol of wealth, abundance and good fortune. Magatoki gets a very thin piece of said sea bream, two grilled small fish (I think smelt?) and some pieces of takuan, pickled radish. He specifically got the end part of the radish, which is the driest and most bitter part! Usually, in Nintama, they usually aren't too specific with food, and the Cafeteria lady typicall serves anachronistic dishes like hamburg steak or curry rice. Here, they specifically depicted brown rice on Tasogare's plate as back then, polished white rice was not common at all. Back to my point between the varying degrees of realism between "the world of adults" and "the world of children" Nintama depicts: later on, Shinbei eats the Equipment Committee's packed lunch, which consisted of... white rice balls.

Zatto turns his head to listen to lord Tasogare from his right side, since he’s deaf in his left ear.

It seems the owl symbolizes Tasogaredoki spying on Ninjutsu Academy, using hooting sounds as 矢羽音 yabane, their secret code. It's made more explicit in the third movie, where a similar motif is used.

Sonoda Village

Everyone is here! This is the part where you point in excitement at your fave getting two seconds of screentime.

(insightful commentary) Everyone's different sleeping position is so cute. Heidayuu is like a cat...

Chouji is shown with the 震天雷 shintenrai, or thunder crash bomb, which will play a big role later in the story. The thunder crash bomb, or heaven-shaking thunder bomb (cool name!) originates from 13th century China. It's already an old weapon by the time Nintama takes place. More modern, specialized, and of course safer cannon balls and hand grenades have been developped since then, but hey, if it's just what they needed, why not? Personally I find it so funny that while they point out how dangerous that bomb is, there's no adult to supervise the nintama during that whole scene. Oh, Ninjutsu Academy...

There are a few words used related to Ninjutsu Academy’s whole defense tactic that are a bit specific, either to warfare or to the period, which I swapped for ease of reading. For example, 逆茂木 sakamogi is “abatis”, as in a fortification made from stacking wood. I left it as simply “barrier”.

The rabbit design of the telescope is explained in the manga and TV anime, but not in the movie. According to Shousei, it’s a common motif on telescopes, but when I tried to find pictures of real telescopes with a similar design I only found Nintama Rantarou related webpages. So. Okay stay with me this is a little look into how tricky nintama can be to translate sometimes hahaha… (Actually I'm so glad they didn't explain it in the movie. I wonder if we'll translate the TV anime version of this arc eventually...) The design is a pun based on the 12 animals of the zodiac, ordered like this: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. If you count ten animals starting from the rabbit, you end up with rat. Rat in japanese is nezumi, or “ne” for short. “tenth is rat” is 10番目がね juubanme ga ne, which you can also read as 十目がね toome ga ne, which is itself an homonym of 遠眼鏡 toomegane, “telescope”. …Phew!!!

In Japanese, Heidayuu says 弱点を逆転 jyakuten wo gyakuten, literally "to reverse the weak spot" of the barrier. Because of the -kuten syllables being repeated twice, Shinbei mixes up the two words, so we changed it to "strenghten and weaken".

It's interesting that that Tasogaredoki soldier specifically aimed at Torawaka with his matchlock. Tora noticed him before the shot too, but had kind of a deer in headlights reaction? Or is it his own interest in firearms that made him stop and think? Anyways what matters is that he gets saved by Shousei, and I love the composition of that shot. Just before, he's guarded by his classmates, but Tora lifts his head to look up at Shousei, and there's that panning shot with Shousei looking really cool, front and center of the screen, and almost god-like with his head and matchlock surrounded by blinding light... While poor Torapapa is in the background, his face not visible, almost swallowed by Shousei's radiant light... I love seeing Tora's adoration for Shousei conveyed with such striking visuals.... gudaguda.. gudaguda... gudaguda...

Interestingly, Shousei arrived to Sonoda Village without his usual black horse. Where is it.....

Shousei addresses Torawaka as 若太夫 wakatayuu, which I initially translated as "Young Master". The issue is that Seihachi addresses Danzou as 若旦那 wakadanna, which I had also translated as "Young Master", so the distinction was lost... Lizzie, who edits my ESL messes of translations, changed it so that wakatayuu became Young Sire, and I love it sooooo much. Genius, genius, genius. If they're both "young master" in English, what's the difference? The 若 waka part is the same, and means young. 旦那 danna refers to the person in charge of a house or a business, so depending on context it can be translated as "husband" Not yet, Seihachi, not yet., "boss", "master"... Since Danzou is the son of the Katou horse carriers' boss, it makes him the young master. 太夫 tayuu, or taifu by itself, is a title associated with the fifth court rank from the ritsuryou, Japan's historical legal system. It's not the highest nor most illustrious rank, but it's the lowest rank to get a honorary title, so it felt prestigious for samurai to be called tayuu. The word came to mean a distinguished person in the more general sense, so tayuu also refers to a kabuki actor in the leading female role, among more example. So because of its association with nobility, something like "lord" or "sire" works better than the more general "master". And so we got young sire! Young Sire...!!!

Speaking of, even though we don't see him in the movie, Seihachi is working with Satake at this point of the story. I wish we could have seen him in action...

When the Explosives Committee destroys the bridges leading to the village, Takamaru and Saburouji, being newer additions to the committee, have to cover their ears while Doi and Heisuke are okay. Cute detail.

While most soldiers in the Tasogaredoki army simply wear the skull kamon (emblem) of their lord, higher ranking members wear kabuto helmets with… interesting designs, like a crab, squid, or a banana design. In the Muromachi period, when the tanegashima matchlocks were introduced, armors had to be redesigned to become thicker and bulletproof ; as their design evolved, so did the datemono, or crests on helmets. Initially U shaped, these crests got a number of designs, usually one’s kamon or fortuitous animals like rabbits, dragonflies, etc. Yes, samurai walked around with cute rabbit ears. The country of moe, truly.

When Mikiemon goes "What are those disappointed faces for, you 1st years brat?!" he pushes Tora off screen, and we can't see his expression... I really wanted to see it lol.

And just after, Tora says this line. In Japanese, he asks Shousei to be his 薬込役 kusurigomeyaku. This word is brought up in Nintama TV anime and the original manga, and in context is the person bringing new, loaded matchlocks to the person in charge of firing. Looking up the word outside of the context of Nintama brings up results relating to spies of the Edo period... it's another case of me not knowing if it's an historical fact so obscure it only brings up Nintama related results, or if it's just a word the author used to sound historical, specific, and cool. Ahhh, sigh. Anyways, I wanted something equally specific in English but that would remain understandable in context, so it became powder boy. Powder monkey, or powder boy (no way I'm calling our Young Sire a powder monkey!!!!!!!!) is actually a naval term and refers to young sailors tasked with loading cannons with gunpowder. Not exactly the same, but I guess it works! If Sensei does it, so can I.

Here, Isuke and Shouzaemon call Hieta Happousai 冷えた発泡酒 Hieta Happoushu, hieta meaning cold and happoushu is an alcoholic drink similar to beer. It became Happoucider in English to keep the "sai" sound.

They used the firefly jutsu on Dokutake. It's a technique used multiple times throughout the franchise, and it consists in diverting the enemy's attention by spreading a (possibly false) rumor.

In English, the secret message is "wrapped around a 3 centimeters wide stick", but in Japanese he says a 1 sun wide stick. The unit of measure was swapped for clarity. 1 sun is 一寸 issun, which might sound familiar if you played a certain Capcom RPG.

I had already written about it in my post about the first movie, but Takiyashamaru is holding a 水中すいり suichu suiri, a ninja tool for crossing water discreetly and safely.

"They're keeping my slugs as hostages! Ah, but they're slugs, so maybe I should say slugages." Hostage in Japanese is 人質 hitojichi, the first character, 人 hito, means person, so Kisanta comes up with the word ナメ質 namejichi, slugage, swapping the "hito/person" part for the first syllables of ナメクジ namekuji, slug.

Kisanta being diligent enough to try and complete homework that is absurdly too hard for a student his age is so cute and touching. And he planned to stay here until he rescued his slugs... I also find Kisanta's reaction when seeing that Senzou is here to rescue him so cute. It's heart-warming how much they love each other (…despite everything).

Look at how cute Hikoshirou dozing off is. Yes, that’s all.

Monjirou mentions that Zatto used the 逃止の術 toushi no jutsu, halted escape jutsu. It involves shaking the enemy off and infiltrate the place once the enemy thinks you've fled.

This scene puts a lot of focus on the two tins containing the leaves from Sonoda’s local flower ; it can be used both as a painkiller or a poison depending on the dose. When Zatto enters the room, Fushikizou throws a bunch of stuff at him, including one of the tins. Just after, Fushikizou notices that Zatto took one of the tin with him… but doesn’t seem to have told anyone about it. I guess that makes the first time Zatto and Fushikizou work together!

Speaking of, I guess Zatto didn't care enough to move, but it's impressive that Isaku managed to aim right at Zatto's forehead when he threw the bandage.

For someone like Zatto who only knows allegiance to his own folks, Isaku is a complete mystery. Treating anyone without discrimination, risking your life and wasting precious supplies on potential enemies makes 0 sense to him, and I love that it bothered him enough that he went out of his way to meet with Isaku again in private to ask him about it directly. The thought of this grown man being tormented all summer remembering his kind, anonymous benefactor is so much lol. But it goes to show how much of an outlier Isaku is not just as a ninja, but also as a person.

Despite everything, Kazuma is a great ninja. He reacted quick seeing Zatto and quickly shielded Sakon with his own body. Too bad about the Health Committee's bad luck though... In the spin-off of the 14th musical, he earns a lot of praise from Zatto for his skills.

Remember how the first movie had wolfholes? Well, time to introduce foxholes. A foxhole is a small hole dug to fit one or two person with a role similar to a trench, where the person inside can fire from it while also covering themselves if needed. As Monjirou said, if you're going to dig foxholes, do it on the frontlines! In Japanese, foxhole is タコ壺 takotsubo, literally "octopus pot". Kihachirou named them respectively Taako-chan (feminine name) and Tawaemon (masculine name), keeping the "ta" part from tako, octopus. So if our octopus pots became foxholes, I guess it's logical that they are now named Miss Foxy and Mister Fox. It's convenient that both languages evoke animals...

"Senpai, thank you for always taking care of us..." "Always?" Apparently Rantarou is oblivious to the all the misery Shinbei and Kisanta inflict on Senzou lol.

Tasogaredoki’s assault

2011 is written on the telescope Tomesaburou is holding! It's the year the movie came out.

I LOVE Mikiemon's lack of actual combat experience showing in this arc. He claims the cannonball won't reach and is visibly in shock realizing he might be wrong. Everyone gets down when ordered to, and Shousei, well aware of Mikiemon's lack of experience, jumps to make him get down. It's like one frame but he does hold Miki down by the shoulders... All in all the events at Sonoda Village must have been a very humbling experience for Mikiemon.

1-i and 1-ro dodging the cannon ball are so cute lol. Ayakashimaru almost passes out.

Meet Lucy, Lucy the mortar. She's Lucy because she looks up in the sky.....!!!! Yes there is a Beatles fan among Tasogaredokijou. It's another joke that had to be swapped if we wanted to avoid TL notes on screen. The original dialogue literally goes like this:

臼砲のきゅうちゃんだ。 kyuuhou no kyuuchan da. It's Kyuu-chan the mortar. きゅうちゃん? kyuuchan? Kyuu-chan? きゅうちゃん。 kyuuchan. Kyuu-chan. なるほど、　上を向いている。 naruhodo, ue wo muiteiru. I see, it's looking up.

Mortar in Japanese is kyuuhou, so we've got our Kyuu, but why does Heidayuu say it's looking up? Because singer Sakamoto Kyuu sang "Ue wo Muite Arukou", "I Look Up As I Walk", in 1961. Now I don't think this is a joke that the average Japanese kid would get, and it's anachronistic given Nintama's setting lol. So hey, a Beatles reference makes a good swap for an English speaking audience, I think! And that's how Sakamoto Kyuu became Lucy in the sky with diamonds. By the way, here's a cover of Ue wo Muite Arukou by Kanemaru Junichi, Raizou's voice actor.

This is another moment which makes me really glad to do these subs with Lizzie because she made the lyrics for the song so fun. It really makes me think how lucky I am to be part of a group where we can brainstorm ideas and work together like this to put out something we wouldn't have been able to pull as a solo work. Also, sometimes I find myself humming Yuuki 100% but I go "hai hai, sore wa boku ni yarasete kudasaiii!" before going Uhhh wait wrong lyrics lol.

The tactic used by Ninjutsu Academy to defend the village against Tasogaredoki is very reminiscent of the battle of Waterloo, 1815, where Wellington’s army was posted on a slope made muddy by bad weather, slowing down French troops.

Tasogaredoki's army is stopped, and the Satake folks raise their flag! The Satake emblem is a centipede. Mukade, the Japanese centipede, is a rather big specimen, venomous, known to be aggressive and said to never retreat. This, plus their link with Bishamonten, god of war and bringer of justice, made them a popular family emblem for samurai.

We talked about kusurigomeyaku / powder boys earlier, and we can see Saburouji and Heisuke of the Explosives Committee fulfilling the role here. Mikiemon also got to help Shousei, good for him!

"Gotta go back home and tend to the rice fields..." A good chunk of the army wasn't employed full time as trained soldiers, but were common folks hired for the duration of campaigns. Typically there would be more people to hire during agricultural off season, but a lord could requisition them if a big battle is coming.

火矢 hiya is literally fire arrow, but it's also rocket. Which I guess Heidayuu kind of invented just now.

I love this scene so much… even though he’s the titular character, Rantarou rarely gets the chance to shine like this, doesn’t he? After this line, you can hear hyoushigi wood clappers again, as Kirimaru and Shinbei cheer for Rantarou. This evokes Japanese theater again ; what they are doing is called kakegoe, shouts from the audience to encourage performers. When a kabuki play reaches its climax, when an actor does something really impressive, he will often strikes a pose and the story will stop for a moment just for the audience to shout such kakegoe.

I don’t know if it’s intentional, but there’s that scene earlier in the movie where Tasogare Jinbei repeats multiple times “Nine for me, and one for Magatoki-dono”, referring to their respective share at dinner but obviously to the taxes taken from Sonoda Village, too. Yuki wasn’t here to witness it, I think, but I find it ironic that she specifically goes “One for my lord” here as he hasn’t realized yet his scheme has been found out.

This isn't the first time Takamaru makes a fool of Tasogare with a stupid haircut, it happens at the end of the Double survival orienteering arc in season 19.

It's funny Tasogare says that Oomagatoki has strange tastes for being into Denko. In the 6th musical, he has a whole song number about courting her and he gifts her a rose. Even after Denzou tells him "I'm actually a man", Tasogare replies that he doesn't mind and tries to kiss him. Also in season 20 he acknowledges Denko as a woman... and Sonnamon even gets hit for not agreeing with his lord. Character development!

The word Komatsuda uses for "secretary" here is 右筆 yuuhitsu, and is another specific, historical word. It refers to the private secretary of a noble or castle lord, tasked with writing and stamping official documents, records, decrees, etc. The profession came to be because initially, not every samurai knew how to properly write and format official documents. Then it became common for the most important ones to have a designated secretary to handle their paperwork! So it's a different word from the usual "secretary" found mostly in Komatsuda-related episodes of the TV anime, which is the more common 事務員 jimuin, clerk, office worker. It ended up being the same word in English, spoken by our usual secretary, so I wanted to point it out! They do different things!

Again, I love how this movie plays with realism. The ominous Tasogaredoki army marching at the beginning of the movie was reduced to a cartoony dust cloud by the end. It's the Ninjutsu Academy effect!

When the kunoichi watch Oomagatoki get undressed they all make disgusted expressions while the Cafeteria lady behind them is just "?" LOL I guess she has seen worse...

The war flags from the beginning of the movie are cut and turned into bandages. We've come full circle!

I guess it's something we never really captioned, but Dokutake's war flags spell どく doku.

...And Tasogaredoki ninja corps used the leaves taken from the Health Committee earlier to stop Dokutake. They aren't getting involved in the battle of Sonoda Village, but Zatto can't have anyone go against his lord... while still respecting Isaku's ideals. So cool~

Credits

It’s more explicit in the manga but Monjirou is bonking his head because he’s frustrated he didn’t get to fight haha.

And Kisanta isn’t the only one who completed his summer homework in the end, Isaku got to bring back a Tasogaredoki war flag back to school!

Finishing with one last pic because Doi crying for Kisanta is just way too cute.

And now I'm done with the Second Version of this post lol. It sure is longer... this time I hope I didn't forget anything. It's funny, when I was done writing the first post I concluded saying that I hope I didn't forget anything. Well I did! I forgot a lot of things! And also after rewatching the movie since them I kept noticing and thinking about new things... This movie is full of little details and it makes it a treat to rewatch every time, isn't it? I hope it wasn't too boring a read! Thank you for reading this far.

#meta #translation #thank you so much for all of this!#great info and insight

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rogumi · 1 month ago

Text

YuuDemo Ship Manifesto

(I'm going fujo on main for a second)

Sometimes people become attached to pairings because of the pair's fun or intriguing interactions, their canon pasts with each other, what each of them is known to think of the other.

Sometimes people become attached to a pairing because the two of them showed up next to each other once.

Komatsuda Yuusaku/Demo Shikanosuke (YuuDemo) is one of the latter, and there's the image that started it. As someone who's already written thousands of words of fic about these two, I'd like to try and share just what got me - and keeps me - invested in this pairing.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the pairing itself, it'll be helpful to first look at the characters individually.

Yuusaku

Komatsuda Yuusaku, age nineteen, is the first and oldest son of the Komatsuda family and has taken over as head of their folding fan business. Besides running their store, Komatsudaya, he's most often seen with his younger brother, sixteen-year-old Komatsuda Shuusaku. They're quite close, and have likely been so all their life: Shuusaku regularly sends letters to update Yuusaku on his life (vol 35, pg 47 and ep 13-05) and Yuusaku mentions that he often worries about Shuusaku (ep 28-48).

As someone likely primed to take over the business from a young age, Yuusaku is a polite and tactful young man with a sense of responsibility. He's also well-spoken, using proper speech when talking to everyone other than Shuusaku. Whether from a natural inclination or from his experience growing up and taking care of Shuusaku, he's more patient than most characters in Nintama. This patience is especially prominent toward Shuusaku, where Shuusaku's actions or way of thinking would irritate most anyone else. The way he talks in ep 28-48 after Shuusaku botches an attempt to rescue Yuusaku is a good example, as he doesn't berate Shuusaku but instead advises Shuusaku on what he should've done.

He has his idiosyncrasies, though not to the level of his brother. In episode 20-37, he declares he's decided to study to be a swordsman and will leave the store to Shuusaku; in episode 13-05, he cheerfully reads out letters where Shuusaku relays being yelled at and smacked around by Yoshino. He's level-headed, but in some ways he goes at his own pace.

Episode 20-37 aside, Yuusaku tends to take his familial and business duties seriously and usually does things for others or for a bigger cause than himself. Even episodes like 16-97 or 31-30, where he goes to take Shuusaku back to the store, are fundamentally about what Yuusaku thinks would be best for the business or for Shuusaku - not what Yuusaku thinks would be best for himself.

(I wrote far too many words about Yuusaku here in case you wanted to read more about him and what I think of him)

Demo

At eighteen years old, Demo Shikanosuke has built a life for himself as a freelance ninja. He's a highly talented, first-class ninja who can back up his constant boasting with his ninjutsu skills. Everyone who meets him can attest to his talent… but they almost always follow that up by mentioning his awful personality. He can act professional, charming, and innocent, but his true nature is a bit more unpleasant. He's selfish, often blinded by his pride, and doesn't let hurting other people get in the way of his goals.

His main aim throughout the series is to get a job as clerk at Ninjutsu Academy. Being a pro ninja is tough; being clerk at the school is easy, keeps him safe, and lets him study ninjutsu (vol 33, pg 44 and ep 12-06). A fine goal, but one that's complicated by a certain someone: Komatsuda Shuusaku, who currently holds the position Demo's aiming for. Time and time again Demo cooks up a scheme to oust Shuusaku, and time and time again he fails because he can't understand why Shuusaku has stayed employed in the first place. Shuusaku gets along with everybody while nobody can stand Demo for long, even if he's skilled and hardworking.

Demo tries to project an air of unshakeable confidence, seeming to accept how poorly others view him (vol 50, pg 141 and ep 20-84) and even taking it as a compliment (vol 50, pg 53 and ep 20-79). However, underneath all his bravado lies vulnerability. For example, he'll take every opportunity to brag about his skills - but he reads as insecure because those skills tend to be all that he measures himself by. His skills are the only thing he can rely on, so he clings to them as proof of why he's a worthy person. When things don't go his way, he gets emotional and lets his true feelings out, even to the point of bursting out crying (ep 32-66). Characters have pointed out that he tends to give up when things get tough (vol 50, pg 144 and ep 20-84), perhaps because he chooses the easiest path. He blames others because otherwise he'd have to own up to his own failings.

So let's return to the scene that started it all.

This shot comes from episode 23-50, "The Excellent Secretary" (優秀な事務員の段) (which has been lovingly translated by the Tasogaredoki Jou team!). Yuusaku is holding a special bargain sale at Komatsudaya and wants Shuusaku to come help. Shuusaku's supervisor, Yoshino, agrees to let Shuusaku go as long as he brings in someone to replace him for the day. Shuusaku ends up bringing in Demo as his replacement, and Demo starts his usual scheming to usurp Shuusaku's position. However, Yoshino decides to make Demo do all the tasks that Shuusaku couldn't - so many tasks, in fact, that it overwhelms Demo. Demo runs out and ends up taking Shuusaku's place at Komatsudaya's big sale instead.

Now the stage has been set. They've met. They've interacted. Where can it go from here? Let's delve into how this pairing could work.

Perhaps Demo's workmanship impressed Yuusaku enough that he calls on Demo to do work at Komatsudaya again; perhaps Demo, finding a job that he sees as safe and easy, asks if he could work at Komatsudaya again in the future. From then on, they see each other regularly.

Since he's working for Komatsudaya, at first Demo is very polite and professional with Yuusaku. He watches Yuusaku, thinking is this really Komatsuda's brother? But as he continues working with Yuusaku, he begins to see some of the ways in which Yuusaku and his brother are similar, and one of the ways they're similar is how they treat Demo. I mentioned it in my big Yuusaku post, but Shuusaku, for all Demo hates him, treats Demo the nicest. Take away everything Demo can't stand about Shuusaku and you're left with Yuusaku. As they continue working together, maybe Demo lets some of his true personality slip out. Yuusaku responds kindly - something Demo didn't expect. Bolstered by that interaction, Demo continues to slowly let Yuusaku see more of his true self. He begins to see Yuusaku as someone he can be himself around, someone he can relax a little around, someone he allows himself to be close to - a closeness that he probably hasn't felt in awhile.

Yuusaku is likely a lonely person, especially now that his brother has left home. A lot of his childhood and adolescence was spent between taking care of Shuusaku, training to take over the business, and schooling, so he grew up without really making friends. Now he's still busy with the business and most of his interactions with others are superficial, or they're with the artisans who see him as their boss. But here comes this man, near in age, and at first Demo is very polite but as he continues interacting with Yuusaku, his true colors start to slip through. Demo is stubborn, prideful, wears his heart on his sleeve. As someone who grew up with Shuusaku and his eccentricities, Yuusaku doesn't judge Demo's way of life or thinking and accepts him the way he is. Perhaps he even sees some of Demo's quirks as charming - how flustered Demo gets, his reactions and facial expressions - and he starts to feel affection for this interesting man.

A note: While they're never shown meeting in the manga, Rakudai Ninja Rantarou, I'm still a fan of manga YuuDemo. In my mind, it's likely that they had to have at least known about each other. Shuusaku writes to his brother about everything, good and bad, and must have written about Demo several times. For his part, Demo seems like the kind of person to find out as much about a person as possible in order to manipulate them, so he would've discovered Komatsudaya during his research into Shuusaku.

We've taken a look at the initial premise for this pairing, so I'd like to dive deeper into why I like these two together.

In some ways, these two are opposites of each other. Demo doesn't do things for anyone else's benefit (vol 33, pg 57) nor does he see the point of being happy for others (vol 64, pg 137). He's dramatic, he brags, he does things with no regard for what other people think. On the other hand, Yuusaku is humble, responsible, and takes things in stride. He spends a lot of time thinking about others and shares in their emotions. While this might seem like it'd make them incompatible, I think of them fitting together like puzzle pieces. Complementary rather than conflicting, so to speak.

One of the main ways I can see this manifesting is them appreciating those differing aspects and eventually learning from each other. Through his time with Yuusaku, Demo could begin to see that he doesn't have to solely measure himself based on his skills, that sometimes he can be happy because of someone else's happiness. Demo speaks his mind always goes for things he wants, and being with him might encourage Yuusaku to do the same.

I'm a sucker for flawed characters who find somebody who gives them unconditional respect and love, and YuuDemo has that in spades. As I mentioned in Demo's summary, beneath his confidence seems to lie insecurity about his worth as a person (distinct from his worth as a ninja). For Demo, "the result is the only thing that matters" (vol 26, pg 237). He measures people by how their results stack up to others, and this is most prevalently seen in how he talks about himself. When Yamada tells Demo that everyone at the school supports Shuusaku because they love him, Demo counters with the fact that he's much better at clerical work and ninjutsu than Shuusaku is (vol 26, pg 235). That is, after all, what he considers the deciding factor in whether somebody is valuable or not. It's what gets other people to begrudgingly respect him, even if they say his personality is awful or they try to get Demo to change for what they believe is the better.

Yuusaku, on the other hand, seems to only measure people against themselves, and measures them not on their output but their input or their nature. He accepts people, flaws and all. Despite receiving letters from Shuusaku that detail the ups and many, many downs of his job, Yuusaku always says that his brother does excellent work as a clerk (see ep 13-05 and vol 65, pg 70). He believes this not because of how good a job Shuusaku does, but because Shuusaku is trying, and I think he'd bring this same sort of view to Demo. Demo views himself as valuable because of his skills and has weathered everyone telling him how unlikable he is. Yuusaku can see past the bluster and respects Demo's good and bad points: his pride, his drive, how headstrong he is. When Demo gets to know Yuusaku, he finds that, for the first time in who knows how long, he's accepted and respected for his whole self.

Similarly, Demo is likely able to view and interact with Yuusaku outside the confines of the roles Yuusaku plays for others. Shuusaku sees Yuusaku as his kind and accomplished older brother, his employees see him as their boss, others may view him simply as Shuusaku's dutiful brother or the hardworking head of Komatsudaya. Demo, on the other hand, can view Yuusaku simply as Yuusaku. He can be honest with Yuusaku, call out Yuusaku's faults and eccentricities, appreciate all the different facets of Yuusaku's personality. Yuusaku, used to having to play all these different roles since childhood, would appreciate the space he has with Demo where he can simply be Yuusaku.

I also see Yuusaku as being the right mix of gentle and firm with Demo. Despite his people-pleasing personality, Yuusaku isn't a pushover. Due to his experience growing up with Shuusaku, he knows how to deal with stubborn boys who live in their own world sometimes. Demo's current interactions seem to be based entirely on trying to gain control of the situation, which is why he tends to get emotional when things don't go as planned. He obviously wouldn't deal well with a relationship in which he has no power or self-determination; however, being in a relationship with someone who always gives into him would also end poorly. If he was in such a relationship, it'd cause him to remain stuck with his current insecurities and vulnerabilities. He might be afraid that if he relinquishes even a little bit, then he'd lose control of the situation and be left alone again. He needs to be in a relationship of equal give and take, which I think Yuusaku could give him.

There's a lot you can do with these two just from these starting points! For example: As the next head of household, Yuusaku is expected to marry and continue the family. How would Demo feel if Yuusaku got married? How would they navigate their relationship after the fact? Tsudoi says Yuusaku has been dealing with a recent heartbreak; what if he realizes he's falling in love with Demo but, because he doesn't want this relationship to end the same way as his last one, forces himself to keep Demo at a comfortable distance?

Yuusaku already worries about Shuusaku working at Ninjutsu Academy, so how does he feel when Demo takes on dangerous jobs? And how does Demo react when someone worries about him, maybe even cries when he gets seriously injured? How do they work through a potential fight where Yuusaku thinks Demo is overconfident and might get hurt while Demo bristles at the idea that Yuusaku doesn't believe in his skills after all?

I could go on, but you get the picture. While their canon interaction lasts only a few seconds, digging into their individual characters and circumstances unearths a rich vein of material to work with. Hopefully they'll interact in canon again one day! Both of them are connected to Shuusaku in some way, so I don't think it's too far-fetched to wish for. But for now, I'll let their few seconds of shared screentime fuel my fantasies - and maybe they'll fuel your fantasies, too.

(A big thank you to everyone in the YuuDemo thread on Tasogaredoki Jou's wonderful Discord server - talking about this pairing with y'all made it easier for me to collect my thoughts together for this manifesto!)

#yuudemo #meta #manifesto #god i love when people do ship manifesto #great read thank you so much as always!

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