Tetsunaki no Kirinji 20

Hey guys,

We finally reached the end of Volume 2! I'd like to thank xGeo and WhITelion for enabling us these quick releases lately! At this pace we might even catch up with Japan! It feels great completing a volume, here's hoping many more volumes will be completed by our group!

Like at the end of volume one, there's a name analysis and commentary of the volume by me, below <3.

Thanks to xGeo for cleaning and thanks to WhITelion for typesetting!

Enjoy!

Chapter Link
Volume Link

"Cinderella" (ન_੦)

Alright, let's start from Chapter 11: Thread. 

This was a very important chapter with big reveals. I had trouble translating the "Spider's Thread" analogy, since it's very impactful if you're familiar with the story, which a majority of the Japanese people are. Kandata is the name of the main character from the novel and Kandachi's nickname. Kandachi starts talking about how living on mahjong is hell. So you have Kandata and Hell in context, then Rinji delivers the emotional analogy:

 "I AM in hell already, I tried to climb out many times, but failed each time. This challenge of living on mahjong is like a thin spider thread, lowered down from Paradise to Hell, to an useless father, to me. But, unlike Kandata's spider thread, MY thread will never break or snap, since the thread I'm climbing is a thread connecting a parent and child. All I have to do is keep standing up each time I fall and the thread will be waiting for me to make a new attempt."

That's what I would have really liked to convey, hope I did to some people. Also in this chapter we have a new name revealed:

Hanako 「華子」:

The kanji mean Flower and Child. It's a rather common female name in Japan, except that the flower kanji is usually 「花」. The Child kanji has no real meaning in names, it's often used in female names like a filler and sometimes young women are called 「子」, but that's a bit old-fashioned. Her name binds Hanako to flowers, and, sure enough, there are flowers at the end of the chapter, and she talks about roses.

Chapter 12: Sleepless Night

For those wondering, the CUG48 part is originally AKB48 short for:

Aka no Hokabito 「アカの外人」 - Complete Stranger

Kaisho Nashi 「甲斐性なし」 - No Reliability

Bakuchi Uchi 「バクチ打ち」 - Does Gambling

I never heard it myself, but I suppose it's commonly used in the financial world of Japan. Japanese sure love abbreviations.

The "Best Place Possible" part is Debasai 「デバサイ*」 in the original with a * explaining: 「出場所最高のこと。」(Debasho Saikou no Koto)(lit. The place it came out of is the best). This is practically a common Mahjong abbreviation.

Chapter 13: Father's Day

I would like to point out that the bus station is named Pinfu 「平和」 which is a mahjong yaku. There is a mahjong related naming theme going on in these series, and I slipped on this one,WhITelion actually pointed it out to me. I wonder how many more I missed? New name is introduced:

Arino 「有野」:

The kanji mean Existence and Field. Not common at all, and kinda sounds omnipotent. The Field part is, again, kinda filler with no real meaning, commonly placed in male names. Similar to Rice Field 「田」 in Saruta 「猿田」. The real meaning behind this name is that Ari 「蟻」 means Ant in Japanese. This name practically binds him to be the Ant of the overarching "The Ant and the Grasshoper" theme going on, similar to how Kiriya binds Rinji to be the Grasshoper.

Chapter 14: Three Monkeys

The shopping district where Rinji plays is named not-so-subtly Sanen「 三猿」 which just means "Three Monkeys".

The door has 「三沢不動産」 written on it, which means "Misawa Real Estate". So I guess Misawa is the owner? New names:

Misawa 「三沢」:

The kanji mean 3 and Swamp. It's a rather common name. The 3 obviously is because "Three Monkeys" and Sawa, again, kind of a filler. Like in the name Kurosawa 黒沢 ;). His name is also phonetically similar to 「見ざる」 Mizaru - Doesn't See

Iwami 「岩見」:

The kanji mean Rock and See. Common name, uncommon kanji for the name. Rock I suppose because he seems rough, and silent, and hard. The See part because he sees? He's not Mizaru I suppose. And his name is phonetically similar to 「言わざる」 Iwazaru - Doesn't Speak

Tsukiko 「月子」:

The kanji mean Moon and Child. A really cool name, I like it a lot. It's common but not with these kanji. The moon part can be interpreted in many ways, my guess is Night and Coldness because of her dark past, but can also be The Brightest Light in the Night Sky. The Moon kanji is popular among fictional characters which are cold, calculated and very smart. The Child part is filler again, same as in the case of Hanako.

Chapter 15: Dive Into The Muddy Stream Dripping With Sweat!

Chapter title was hell to translate. Literally: 「汗だく濁流ダイブ！」 (Sweatingly - Muddy Stream - Dive!)

The first page uses a cool picture which shows the famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa with mahjong tiles, referencing flow. New name:

Hiroshi 「ヒロシ」:

This one is written in Katakana. It's a very common name, since it's in Katakana I can't tell the meaning. Most commonly: Spacious, Wide, can mean Doctor. But I guess in this manga the relation is with the city Hiroshi is studying in: Hiroshima! Not sooo subtlee ^_^; Pandata - Kandata is too obvious, won't waste time on that.

Chapters 16-19

Not much to say here, mainly just them playing mahjong. I will commentate on the titles though. Accordingly to the overarching animal theme of the series, the chapter titles are animals. Here they are fish. Rinji as a Shark diving in the depths of the ocean is losing miserably. The more he dives, the more he loses. It's in Flying Fish where he realizes he has to adapt to the environment of a small pond. So the Shark turns into a small Flying Fish, jumps out, calls that Riichi, splashes Tsukiko in the face and TSUMO. Epic, love the analogies, love the imagery of his hand reaching out of the water, with small fish swimming beside him.

Chapter 20: Magic Riichi

So we have our final names of the volume here:

Sakiyo 「咲代」:

The kanji mean Laughter and World. The laughter or smile is probably because of her past, where she was famously beautiful. Can also mean "Bloom" like in another popular Mahjong series ;). The World kanji can also mean Generation or Age or Substitution, so there you go, not so subtle again.

Shige 「シゲ」:

Katakana here again. There are, again, many meanings, but I will go with my favorite: Boss. Nickname was  Majin「魔人」, which is Magic (Mostly Evil) - Person. It can mean Demon, Male Witch, Genie, basically any magical person, but most commonly as Demon.

Alright people, that's it for my analysis of this volume. Hope you enjoyed, you're welcome to share your thoughts and views. Hope to see you again at the end of volume 3!!! Thanks for reading!