Episode 5: Girlish Body Restoration ★ Lucky Revo!! |
The name of the Episode itself is a reference to the 2006 otome game
"Otometeki Koi Kakumei ★ Love Revo!!". It is also sometimes called
"Girlish Body Revolution" in English. The game revolves around the
female protagonist, Hitomi Sakuragawa, formerly a very beautiful girl
who won countless beauty contests, who over time becomes increasingly
fat, reaching a weight of 100 kilograms by the time the game begins.
The goal of the game is then to help Hitomi attract the game's various
male love interests while working to reduce her weight.
Similarly, in this Episode, "Girlish Body Restoration ★ Lucky Revo!!",
the protagonist must help Kagami, Miyuki, and Kuroi Sensei lose weight
in order to fit into their dresses for the beauty pageant that's going
to be held during the Outou Festival.
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In the intro, Konata and Tsukasa talk about "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a historical novel taking place
in China following the fall of the Han dynasty, in which China broke off into the titular three kingdoms of
Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. It's one of the most notable and influential works of literature in East Asia.
Consequently, as Konata goes on to talk about after the above lines, it has many adaptations and alternative
versions made based on it.
The "robot anime inspired by it" Konata is talking about is "SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors",
an adaptation that substitutes characters in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with different mobile suits
from the Gundam franchise.
As for the word "chin" that Konata says is Chinese, she's talking about the first person pronoun
朕, which when used in Japanese is romanized as "chin" and is how Konata pronounces it.
This pronoun is similar to the "royal we" in English, used by the emperor to refer to himself.
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Once again, this moment from the intro is a reference to the "flat chests are a status symbol" line
Konata is famous for quoting.
As mentioned in the translator's notes for Episode 2, the game she is quoting is the 2004 visual novel "Shuffle!".
Specifically the character Mayumi Thyme, who takes a lot of pride in her small bust.
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In the intro, Konata tells Miyuki that she has the vibes of a yandere, leading to the above lines as she
explains what a yandere is.
This is a reference to the character Sheryl Nome from the anime "Macross Frontier", who is voiced by
the same person who voices Miyuki, that being Aya Endou. In the universe of "Macross Frontier", Sheryl Nome
is a famous singer who aims to become the best in the galaxy, which is why Tsukasa calles Miyuki a
"songstress of the galaxy". Though, ironically, Aya Endou doesn't actually perform Sheryl's singing.
That's instead done by the Japanese singer, May'n.
Additionally, while it is true that, matching Konata's description, the events of Macross Frontiers
has Sheryl Nome in a love triangle, Sheryl doesn't really have the characteristics most think of
when it comes to yandere, in particular the extreme and often violent lengths they will go to in order
to get the boy they love. In general, Konata's classification of Miyuki as a yandere is admittedly a bit dubious.
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A continuation of Konata and Tsukasa calling Miyuki a yandere following the lines in the previous note.
As mentioned in the translator's notes for Episode 1, this is a reference to a famous 4chan thread,
the "nice boat" thread, reacting to the airing of the final episode of the anime "School Days"
being replaced with scenic live action footage. This decision to not air the episode was due to the
at the time recent axe murder of a teenage girl by her father in Japan, as the "School Days" episode
features similar murder scenes involving characters being killed with a knife and a handsaw.
The connection to yandere is a lot better here compared with the reference to Sheryl Nome, since the
murders in the "School Days" episode were committed by actual yandere characters, those being
Sekai Saionji and Kotonoha Katsura.
This clip shows the murder scenes contained within the episode that caused its delay.
WARNING -- GRAPHIC CONTENT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gd6u8nCIW4
The footage that was aired instead. The "nice boat" appears on screen at the 45 second mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwortdC_o14
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If the protagonist runs into Konata on the way to school on the first day, Konata will say the above line
as an explanation for why he knows the name of his homeroom teacher despite never being told it as far as
he can remember.
A "Newtype" is an evolved form of human beings in the "Gundam" series that came into being out of a need
for humans to adapt to living in outer space. Amuro Ray, the protagonist of "Mobile Suit Gundam", is probably
the most notable example of a Newtype in the series, though he is far from the only one.
The primary ability of a Newtype that distinguishes them from regular human beings, sometimes referred to
as "Oldtype", is heightened mental awareness and empathy. However, the exact nature of Newtype and their abilities
is not something that is fully understood and can be a bit convoluted. That is, a character being a Newtype
can at times be a hand-wave explanation for how a character is able to do something they logically
shouldn't be able to in the Gundam series.
So, when Konata says that the protagonist inexplicably knows Kuroi Sensei's name "Because you're a Newtype",
she's not necessarily saying that him being a Newtype would actually explain what's going on, but rather that
being a Newtype is a catch-all explanation for anything that doesn't make sense.
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If the protagonist decides to look up the location of the school online before heading out on his first day,
he'll decide the best way to start his search is to try "Geagle".
Though it likely goes without saying, this is in reference to the popular search engine "Google".
Additionally, while it also likely goes without saying, and it is something that's been seen
in Episode 1 as well, the operating system that the protagonist uses, "Macindows VRISTA" by "Orange",
is in reference to the "Macintosh" operating system by Apple and the "Windows Vista" operating system by Microsoft.
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