One of the more enjoyable aspects of learning a foreign language like Japanese is what I call the “joy of enlightenment,” when you’re able to work out a puzzling linguistic problem, correctly write a difficult kanji or comprehend something for the first time. I’ve experienced this many times during my career as a learner of Japanese and an anime fan, starting with the first time I heard dare da! dare da! dare da! in the classic Science Ninja Team Gatchaman opening song and understood that they were saying, “Who is it? Who is it? Who is it?” Also, in the anime and manga Maison Ikkoku there’s a numeric code built into the names of the characters, with Kyoko Otonashi as the “zero” character, and I’ll never forget the rush I got as my brained cracked this code for the first time. Recently I was watching the currently airing anime Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, an odd-but-irrisistable moe show about a girl named Erio Touwa who thinks she’s an alien life form. The show is rife with E.T. jokes, but I missed one of the biggest, hidden in the initials of Erio Touwa’s name. Incidentally J-List carries many products to help you learn Japanese, whether you’re trying to master basic hiragana and katakana or are preparing for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this December.
Denpa Onna is moe + emotional problems + E.T. jokes..
