#fansubs

The difficulty is just on another level, so whether I work on it or not depends purely on my mood and my medical conditions as it requires a lot of research and brain power. But I'm hoping it'll be finished one day! Not sure how long that will take, but I'll try my best. In the past, people waited years for fansubs, so good things come to those who wait. If you know Japanese or have Japanese friends that wouldn't mind helping, you're always free to contact me to speed up the process.

Just an FYI since I saw someone completed the drama with the Chinese subs that are on YouTube. I'm not one to talk badly about someone's work, but those subs are such a disservice to the drama, so be wary when watching those if you speak Chinese. I wouldn't recommend those as they made up entire lines whenever things got hard and they didn't even get the basic lines right. Just compare the section at 41:34 with Matsuo Bashou's poetry. Even though it's shown on the blackboard, they made up their own lines about going to the countryside and meeting a woman, so you can imagine how the rest of the lines are. I can't blame them for it since this drama is really hard to translate, but they literally went and created their own storylines.

Also, I noticed a typo in credits for episode 1! Sorry about that. I'll fix episode 1 for the final version once I get to episode 10. I also forgot to explain "monkey-face" in episode 1. It's a very popular slang in gay circles and it's used for men with single-edged eyelids and short hair, usually brown (basically like monkeys).

As always, thank you so much @furritsubs for coming back for another final check even though you're busy. We've gone through a lot of versions for this ep, but I'm confident now most of it is right. We just need to finish the first half of the drama which is more difficult. After that, it gets slightly less difficult.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the second episode! We've worked really hard on it.

You can find episode 1 here.

Episode 2:

Mega

Dailymotion

Pixeldrain

Translation notes:

00:59 To protect ourselves against thieves, so no intruders can get in.

In Japanese, there's a word "dorobou neko", lit. thieving cat, which is used for boyfriend/husband snatchers.

10:25

The fishing boat "Taihoumaru" is actually still available for rental! Here's the official website.

This is the second Taihoumaru. It's quite similar to the first one as you can see. You'd most likely find it docking in the Toi Port if you visited!

This is the first Taihoumaru from the drama:

18:28

They're talking about kanreki (還暦) here which is your 60th birthday (or 61st birthday if you go by the kazoedoshi system in which you are born as a 1-year-old). Kanreki is connected to your Chinese zodiac, and it represents the end of a full cycle, and a return to your birth (a rebirth of some kind). It takes about 60 years to fully cycle to your birth zodiac and its element going through all the possible combinations (12 zodiac animals and 5 elements).

19:52

As mentioned in the subs, they were born in the Fire Horse Year (hinoe-uma 丙午), and there's a very common superstition associated with it. It's said that women born with the Fire Horse zodiac are strong-willed, energetic and decisive. They are said to bring ruin to their families and husbands (even be fatal to their husbands). Japanese couples would go as far as avoid birthing children in this year (either through planned contraception or through abortions). The superstition hides a dark past that I won't go into, but 1966 actually saw a decrease of 25% of births from the previous year.

But why am I mentioning it again? Because 2026 is a Fire Horse Year which started in February! It's kinda a fate I'm releasing this episode this year, isn't it? So this means most of the class was born in 1966, with Chino being born shortly after in 1967, most likely in February or in March. So age-wise they are 27 or 26.

This makes me wonder how many births we'll see from Japan this year. In an already declining population, the birth rate might stagnate even further. I haven't seen the statistics for this year yet, but I'll definitely check it out at the end of the year.

If you'd like to know more about the legend that birthed the supersitition, I recommend this article.

25:17

There are three dramas namedropped here: "Dare ni mo ienai", "Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari", and "Akuma no Kiss". It's quite unusual for a network to namedrop other network's drama these days (you almost never see it), but there's a reason why these two were namedropped.

Dare ni mo ienai was another shock factor drama that was popular in 1993 depicting an intense obsession.

Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari is a long-running TBS series spanning 1990 all the way to the present. In the drama, they are referencing the second series which ran from April 1993 to March 1994. Its popularity was quite high as well.

Recently, a drama with an AI script trained on the scripts of the previous instances has been broadcast... I think it's a disgrace, but you do you, TBS... Not expecting good things from you.

The third drama is Akuma no Kiss, a Fuji TV drama. This was another shocking 18+ drama that aired around the same time starring a lesbian character.

29:55

A game of chicken (チキンレース) is a competition of who's braver. Even though it's literally a "chicken race", it can be used for anything, not just races.

36:30

Here you see chindon-ya! A group of traditional street performers dressed in eccentric wear. They are a rare sight because they have more or less disappeared now.

37:28

Chino asks if she can order something with "saisho" (or I'm completely mishearing). I have no idea what this is and I already searched everything. I even searched for local specialties with ice cream and I still have no idea. Anyone has any idea? Then she orders two of those.

41:34

Here Shidehara is reading a passage from Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior), a famous work by the poet Matsuo Bashou.

"hyakudai" (百代 - often translated as eternity, literally hundred generations) here is read as "hakutai", and it's a common mistake students make.

You might think this is random, but nothing about the script of this drama is random (if only we had the script...). There was thought put to everything. Matsuo Bashou was a poet who was fascinated with homosexual love, and is said to have had several of his disciples as his lovers.

The title itself could very well be a reference to anal sex (oku is the word for going in deep, and hosomichi is a narrow path).

42:27

Fuuma uses kimchi here in place of cheese or smile because that's how they do it in Korea.

42:36

Yoga is a part of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.

my knowledge on terms used mostly within the context of the show's time period and related to ninjas is a little rusty (see comment about subbing), but I tried my best. if any history nerds want to chime in and correct me, sound off in the comments below haha

the name of senzou's weapon: Bomb was easier to conceptualize visually for a general audience than fire arrow, but I added an extra note up top in case someone comes across the latter term so it isn't immediately unfamiliar. both the official nhk episode index and amako soubei's book on ninja equipment use 宝禄火矢 (hourokuhiya) as the spelling in kanji, so I went with that for the translator's notes.

zanchi saga 1 (background): perfunctory research refers to zanchi as spies left to infiltrate enemy territories for extended periods of time to establish relationships with the local population and gather intel, though it mostly seems to be in a modern context (notably, Onoda Hiroo who actually fits Senzou's description of a zanchi pretty well). i'm not sure if its usage and meaning differs in a muromachi period context or not, though. history nerds! sound off in the comments!