L’Esprit Chatoyant de Ruby la Jewel Pet

I’ve been wanting to do a post on the sparkling wit and hilarious slapstick so abundant in Jewel Pet for some time now.  A 10-second sequence in this last episode (15) will do perfectly.  I honestly don’t know how anyone would translate all of this effectively into English, and since I’m watching this raw [is anyone even subbing this anymore??] I guess I’m not about to find out either.  Anyway, here’s a link to the episode, the scene showing up right around minute 4.

The new girl in this episode is telling Rinko and company about a pen pal she’s had since she was small.  The pen pal happens to be a boy living in France.  This triggers all sorts of thoughts in the characters.

Ah, la France.

Rinko says “How romantic” and she follows it up with “Bonjour” and “Bonsoir”, although this come off sounding like “Bonjuu” and “Bonsuaru”.

Next we see Ruby in France (she’s got a great imagination).  Here’s the image:

Ah, Paris.

Ruby is strolling down the Champs-Élysées, and you can see the Arc of Triumph on the left.  She looks absolument marie-antoinettesque, at least to my eyes, although she’s carrying a loaf of bread instead of a flower.  Look at the Queen:

She said cake, not bread, Ruby!!

What’s funny is what she’s saying.  In very nasal tones, she says [my translation]:

Squids have ten legs,

octopi have eight legs.

The Japanese runs like this: “Ika wa juppon, tako wa happon” [=イカは十本、タコは八本].  The French for Japan is “Japon” which sounds a lot like “ten legs/tentacles = juppon” in Japanese.  What’s more, and I’ll mention this even though I imagine it wasn’t done intentionally, “eight legs/tentacles = happon” sounds extremely close to the Spanish word for Japan, which is “Japón”, where the “j” sounds like an English “h”.

Of course, Ruby’s bold wit has to be punished by the powers that be, and sure enough we see an octopus and a squid falling down on her.  If you look closely, you can see some of the bread sticking out.

I guess it beats the guillotine.

The crushed Ruby cries out: “Nijuu” [二重], which means “double, twice as much, twice the punch.”  This neatly refers to the two sea creatures while at the same time alluding to the French theme, because it ends up sounding a lot like Rinko’s “Bonjuu” earlier!

If you don’t think this is funny, well, maybe it’s a “you had to be there” kinda thing.  Anyway, check the clip and you’ll see what I mean!

Rinko's a daydreamer

~ by Haloed Bane on July 18, 2009.