ONIMAI Episode 12 – Japanese Trivia and Nuances Lost in Translation


*For those that missed my previous posts, this is a post where I talk about some trivia on Japanese culture and some nuances that were lost in the translation from the Japanese audio to the English subtitles of the newest episode of Onii-chan ha Oshimai! (ONIMAI:I’m Now Your Sister!). I’m using the subs from CrunchyRoll since it’s probably the ones that most people watches the show with.*

*Disclaimer: This is only meant to be as interesting things that I wanted to share, and not as saying that the official translation was bad or wrong. Translations between two languages are often interpretations and translators tries to make a compelling story for their target audience. Also, I’m not a native speaker of either English or Japanese, so don’t take anything I say as gospel.*

# Episode 12 ([Video format](https://youtu.be/E_2tUk451XE))

## Faceprint [0m38]

[When Asahi put her face in the snow](https://imgur.com/a/dTaWMA2) at the beginning of the episode, she used the term 魚拓(gyotaku). The original meaning of it, is to talk about making a fish imprint.

You would soak a fish in some ink and press it against paper to make an imprint. It was mainly used to make a record about a fish that you would have got, with some info like the date, the size and the weight.

This term can also be used on the internet to talk about taking a snapshot of a webpage to archive it, make an imprint of the page.

Source: [https://kotobank.jp/word/魚拓-53422](https://kotobank.jp/word/魚拓-53422)

## Ryokan [3m42]

The ryokan that the gang went to during their trip might be based on an actual one in Kyoto: [https://www.tsukimikan.jp](https://www.tsukimikan.jp)

EDIT: The location is actually most certainly inspired on the Ginza Onsen in the prefecture of Yamagata

The name on the [front of the building](https://imgur.com/a/GcIQHK1) is written in reverse (館見月 instead of 月見館), but later in the episode we can see it written normally on something that [Miyo holds up](https://imgur.com/a/jV2U1k1) at \[5m43\].

The name Tsukimi(月見) is written with the Kanji for “Moon” and “Looking”, which is also the name of a festival in Autumn.

It’s a little bit similar to the Hanami Festival in spring, but with the moon. (花見:”Flower” and “Looking”)

## Ladies Room [3m55]

[It’s shown very briefly](https://imgur.com/a/9xxWaXH), but we can quickly see a name plate in front of the entrance of the room the gang are staying in.

It’s pretty common to have certain names for rooms in more traditional building to express a certain feel or thematic.

It was translated into Ladies Room, from 百合の間(yuri no ma).

A more literal translation would be Lily’s room, the flower, and it also has the double meaning of the Yuri genre of girl’s love stories.

## Yukata [4m24]

I don’t know much about flowers, but each of the girls has a certain type on their yukata.

* Momiji: has maple/autumn leaves on it, which in Japanese is もみじ(momiji).
* Asahi: Sunflower (Asahi = “Morning” + “Sun”)
* Miyo: Lily (JP Name = Yuri/百合)
* Kaede: Rose?
* Mihari: Crocus?
* Mahiro: ?

## Doll [4m51]

When the girls are wandering around, [Asahi shows a Kokeshi Doll to Momiji](https://imgur.com/a/Ar6k266), which is the same thing that [Mahiro thought about](https://imgur.com/a/VDXIMqL) when thinking of an animal for Momiji in episode 11. It also appear to have a Maple leaf on it, representative of autumn colors (もみじ/momiji)

## Detox [8m03]

In the onsen scene there was actually a little play on word.

After Mihari and the others talked about “detoxing” their bodies, Mahiro used the expression 目の毒(me no doku).

It’s something used to talk about something tempting, something that shouldn’t be seen, but the literal sense is a “poison”(毒) to the “eyes”(目), which links to the “detox”

## Flower in snow [17m29]

Once again there was a close-up on [some flowers](https://imgur.com/a/4dnN2a4) in this episode. I think that they might be Crocus flowers, and can represent the coming of spring since it’s one of the first flowers to grow and pierce through the snow.

## Train [21m31]

Towards the end of the episode, the [next train stop](https://imgur.com/a/KD4ewZm) is announced to be Ounimai(逢二妹), which obviously reflect the abbreviation of the title of the show おにまい(onimai), but it’s also written with the Kanji for “Meeting”(逢), “Two”(二) and “Younger sister”(妹).

The last one(妹) is also being part of the word 姉妹(shimai): “sisters”, that could be seen as a double meaning in the full title: Onii-chan wa o**shimai** (お兄ちゃんはおしまい).

## Momiji’s Hoodie [21m35]

[The hoodie that Momiji have in this episode](https://imgur.com/a/ymEdPTn), has “ODEKAKE” written on it. It’s the Japanese word for an “outing”, a “trip” outside (お出かけ).

For those that have watched SPYxFAMILY, it’s one of the word that Anya tries to say a bunch of times.

#

# The End

And that marks the end of this series of post. I hope that you learn something new with them and made you a bit more interested in the amazing Japanese culture and language.

I’m not sure yet, but I might check for covering Oshi no Ko or Jigokuraku during the Spring season. Only time will tell.

Also, a bit of a shameful plug: I have a YouTube channel where I make videos with pretty much the same info as in those post, but with visuals to accompany the points.

I still have a lot to improve, but I think that I still made good progress since I started, so if it’s something that could interest you, go check it out: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLLavznNjz7hkkJcj07DZw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLLavznNjz7hkkJcj07DZw)

I’m approaching the one year mark since my first upload, and I was trying to see if I could reach 1000 subs in that time span, but even if I don’t think it’s gonna be happening, I’m still amazed that more than 350 people liked something that I created myself and wanted more of it, or just wanted to support the idea of what I’m doing.

Anyway, enough with my babbling, thanks for everyone that read my posts, and hopefully we get some nice Anime this spring!



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