Cardcaptor’s Blog

Published in Weekly Shounen Magazine 33 (2006)

This chapter is a collection of short gags involving various 2-C and 2-D students. Minor characters like Kinugawa, Shigeo, and Madoka are given their five minutes of fame.

• The chapter starts with 2-C students discussing their just-finished Kyoto trip. Tenma complains that the trip is now over. Tougou blabbles about something I don’t really understand, but he seems to like the trip a lot. (What’s 一字を取る means, anyone?) Madoka tells Shigeo that when they went to Byoudouin alone together was the most wonderful experience. Although it would seem that Shigeo didn’t go there. (Huh? Why? How? I think I missed something in the last 5-8 chapters.)
• Tenma tells Karasuma that Mount Kurama is the place where Minamoto no Yoshitsune learns the way of sword (剣法) from a Tengu. Then she says that something suits Karasuma well. I guess it’s the way of sword or Jidaigeki drama in general. Karasuma mistakes what she said for Tengu costume and dresses accordingly.

We have Kappa Karasuma, now Tengu Karasuma?

• Tenma is jealous that Nakayama holds hand with her boyfriend, so she jumps into water hoping that Karasuma will pull her up with his hands. Well, he does pull her up, but with an elongated Tengu fishing rod.

Tenma can be fished in Kyoto area.

• One day, Imadori goes to Nara. Wanting to save money to buy a souvenir for her brother, Karen doesn’t want to ride the train (Come on! It’s just about 1,000 yen!), so she rides a bicycle there. (Wow! She puts Tour de France competitors to shame!) However, five minutes after meeting Imadori in Nara, Imadori says he wants to go back. Luckily, he wants to go back by bike with her, but she has to do the cycling, of course. (Imadori, you bastard!)

Karen’s misplaced expection of Imadori’s gentlemanliness

• Seeing Asou looking at Mikoto and Hanai, Suga asks if Asou doesn’t feel anything. Asou denies and keeps silent. Suga says he understands Asou well since they have been friends for a long time, then he says that he’s not gonna ride on the trolley (just like the one that Miko uses to transport Hanai around) that Asou have. The sidebar of this page says that Asou likes car. So that must be why he wants to be a (trolley) chauffer like Mikoto?

• Mikoto asks Samuel, the big white dude with an afro, why Hanai became injured. Samuel said that it was not him. The giant raccoon (again?) that got loose while being transported over the airport did it.

Hanai and his arch-nemesis.

• Fuyuki wants to take picture of Akira, who is now clad in Ninja robe. Before he can take a snapshot, Akira escapes with Substitution-no-jutsu, and puts the photographer to sleep with a dart. Viva l33t ninja skillz.

Akira has l33t ninja skillz.

• The guy with pointing hair tries to strike a conversation with Kinugawa, the bathhouse girl. He begins the conversation with the question of who Kinugawa’s favourite track-and-field athete is only to find that her attention is given to the Kagos that run alongside the Shinkansen. The guy finds the Kagos so interesting that he forgets about Kinugawa altogether.

Impression

This chapter feels a lot like a collection of 4koma, which is a good thing because I like them. Nevertheless, I find some jokes quite hard to understand. This may be because my Japanese is not that good yet, and Kobayashi Jin generally uses a lot of colloquial languages in the dialogue. The Hanai-and-the-Raccoon gag is just hilarious. I pity him for having to be a punchbag of the creature.

Vocabs