Katajikenai
May. 28th, 2007 10:11 pmThis short animation thingy (~5 minutes long?) somehow manages to alternate among being adorable, tragic, hilarious, and mystifying (though it would probably help if I could read the single speech balloon toward the end, and had a better understanding of the general cultural context).
I found it while looking for more information about the word that forms its title, which I encountered written out in kana in "Sore wa..." and have finally found the kanji for (忝い)-- it's an archaic and extravagantly humble way of expressing gratitude; as I pasted into that earlier entry, "It means both ‘I am insulted' and ‘I am grateful'[; ...] by this term you say that by the extraordinary benefit you have received you are shamed and insulted because you are not worthy of the benefaction."
Some notes from re-watching:
1.) I'm not sure what the critter is, though I'm inclined to interpret it as a small dog or perhaps even fox. It is, however, deeply cute.
2.) Despite the ghostly floating skull partway through, they're not dead in that scene; the dark thing across the guy's back is an empty travel bag, not a slash wound, and they're just prostrate from the summer heat.
3.) When they hungrily dream of food but then don't have enough money to buy anything from the odango vendor, they eat an onigiri that'd been left in front of a Jizo statue.
4.) I have no idea what the deal is with the angelic figure(s) at the end.
I found it while looking for more information about the word that forms its title, which I encountered written out in kana in "Sore wa..." and have finally found the kanji for (忝い)-- it's an archaic and extravagantly humble way of expressing gratitude; as I pasted into that earlier entry, "It means both ‘I am insulted' and ‘I am grateful'[; ...] by this term you say that by the extraordinary benefit you have received you are shamed and insulted because you are not worthy of the benefaction."
Some notes from re-watching:
1.) I'm not sure what the critter is, though I'm inclined to interpret it as a small dog or perhaps even fox. It is, however, deeply cute.
2.) Despite the ghostly floating skull partway through, they're not dead in that scene; the dark thing across the guy's back is an empty travel bag, not a slash wound, and they're just prostrate from the summer heat.
3.) When they hungrily dream of food but then don't have enough money to buy anything from the odango vendor, they eat an onigiri that'd been left in front of a Jizo statue.
4.) I have no idea what the deal is with the angelic figure(s) at the end.