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 (tumblr link). 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”.
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shirushiwo 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.
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.
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.
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