Attaining Allusions of Grandeur
some might consider not getting this to be a good thing, but I beg to differ
While I was cropping, rotating, and resizing headers for the new layout I thought to myself, “How can I make this interesting?” CCY had the idea of incorporating the relevant taglines into his rotating headers, but they weren’t funny. Kabitzin had an equally great idea of inserting a witty, self-referential line into his layout that he occasionally changes, but it didn’t coincide with his headers, and sometimes barely made sense unless he explained it. Then I had a flash of inspiration. Why not use both?
This is a test of otaku knowledge that isn’t as balanced or fair as I’d have liked (because they include Touhou references, even if they’re not particularly hard), but I’m curious to see how far my in-jokes go — popular memes, literary references, medical anatomy jargon and song lyrics among them — they’re all relevant to the image on which the text’s located, and I’m wondering if my readers ever pay attention to them. The filenames may or may not be helpful. Two of them require a dictionary (unless you’re a medical student), and another two require Google (or a decent knowledge of post-/prog-rock song titles). How many did you get, and can you explain the connection between the image and tagline? Answers after the cut.
a-man-thing.jpg: A reference to gattai, Gurren Lagann, and the proverb “Two heads are better than one”.
a-pun-on-kimodameshi.jpg: Imperishable Night reference, puns related to the Extra Stage.
alice-was-a-triumph.jpg: This references Portal and Rozen Maiden simultaneously.
her-only-selling-point.jpg: Medical jargon. Axillae = Armpits, referencing Delicious Armpits.
kyon-wants-to-be-the-little-girl.jpg: The Reverse Haruhi Gender project, referencing Mahou Sensei Negima’s Reverse Hikaru Genji project.
oh-god-magic-team-is-hot.jpg: Imperishable Night’s Magic Team in the picture, and game script.
once-a-contractor-always-a-contractor.jpg: Darker than Black. BK 201 is Hei’s star number, and the (46) in brackets is meant to be read as “24601″, which, along with the filename, alludes to Les Miserables due to an interesting parallel between Hei and Valjean.
seven-apples-on-the-reaper’s-tree.jpg: Two 4chan Death Note memes, “Swimming Lessons” and “LADIES NIGHT” respectively. Filename is a pun on the Spice and Wolf ED.
she-is-an-astronaut.jpg: The tagline is the name of a God Is An Astronaut album; requires Google, in addition to referencing the violent/bright nature of danmaku, and how Flandre is a scary Extra boss.
sugoi-hikouki.jpg: The Place Promised in Our Early Days; “2004″ references the year it came out, and the filename is a nod to this.
the-last-love-song-on-this-little-planet.jpg: The Saikano tagline is a red herring and a morbid pun at the same time; the tagline and picture both reference Saya no Uta.
the-size-of-an-ocean.jpg: The tagline references lyrics from the Oceansize song Amputee; requires Google. Bikko happens to be one (Link is NSFW).
think-long-faces.jpg: Medical jargon. Orchis = testicles = nut, Vesica = bladder, referencing the popular Hidamari Sketch nutbladder meme.
twintails-have-to-be-tsundere.jpg: God I miss this show.
wonder-what-that-makes-letty.jpg: The entire thing is a reference to Advent Cirno, an Advent’s Children/Touhou crossover doujin that is made out of win.
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a-man-thing.jpg <– Gurren Lagaan + the old adage “two heads are better than one”
a-pun-on-kimodameshi.jpg <– I somewhat get this, somewhat don’t.
alice-was-a-triumph.jpg <– Truly, I lawled. Rozen Maiden + Portal’s “The cake is a lie.”
her-only-selling-point.jpg <– Yummy Raymoo armpits.
kyon-wants-to-be-the-little-girl.jpg <– LAWL, Kyonko + Negima.
oh-god-magic-team-is-hot.jpg <– Failed.
once-a-contractor-always-a-contractor.jpg <– Failed this too.
seven-apples-on-the-reaper’s-tree.jpg <– Haha, Death Note’s infamous ending. Kira loves to give you swimming lessons doesn’t he?
she-is-an-astronaut.jpg <– Failed
sugoi-hikouki.jpg <– Byousoku 5cm, obviously.
the-last-love-song-on-this-little-planet.jpg <– I got the Saikano and yandere parts.
the-size-of-an-ocean.jpg <– Failed
think-long-faces.jpg <– Nutbladders, fuck yeah.
twintails-have-to-be-tsundere.jpg <– Oh you… tsundere is NOT bipolar!
wonder-what-that-makes-letty.jpg <– Failed
The entire anime blogsphere: copying Kabitzin since 2007!
No wonder I was feeling like this blog had suddenly improved by about 500%…
Time to grab a pen or a coin and get to work on the refresh button.
LAWL, Kabitzin.
Kuro barely passes as he got 7 out of 15 correct on the OSOWOK, or Owen’s Scale Of Worthless Otaku Knowledge. Good job nonetheless. Btw, for those of you who are trying, don’t post the entire URL in your comment, please, filenames are enough (since a full link will inevitably break the blog page and mark your comment as spam).
Kabitzin: But you can just look at the directory!
Owen, you should add this one to your rotation! LOL
I think DS won it. It is an inbred joke, but so topical, I laughed.
Lol touhou hijack, especially the “delicious armpits” and Advent Cirno ones.
rofl, you silly DS. No.
Let me try a hand at this:
a-man-thing.jpg <– Gurren Lagann”
a-pun-on-kimodameshi.jpg <– Touhou IN reference: Both EX-Keine and Mokou were bosses in its EX stage, which was essentially a ‘test of guts’ given by Kaguya to the team selected. Plenty of references to the uses of Mokou’s LITERAL guts (e.g., her intestines) by the youkai sides of the equation.
alice-was-a-triumph.jpg <– This flew by me, sorry.
her-only-selling-point.jpg <– Waki-miko, definitely. Did you know that Reimu now has a companion, waki-wise in Sanae?
kyon-wants-to-be-the-little-girl.jpg <– Reverse Suzumiya Haruhi. A friend showed me a related pic a day or so ago and, uh, I wonder at the wierdness of the world.
oh-god-magic-team-is-hot.jpg <– That’s a doujin from Personal Color, methinks. The Magic Team is another reference to IN, where we have Marisa and Alice Margatroid team up to solve the Lunar crisis. Personal color tends to draw Alice as much MUCH taller than usual, and Marisa shorter, if only to set up cute encounters between the two. Oh, and did you know that they also made a porn doujin of said pairing?
once-a-contractor-always-a-contractor.jpg <– This seems to be from Darker than Black
seven-apples-on-the-reaper’s-tree.jpg <– Death Note? Barely survived the manga, never watched the anime, so can’t be too sure.
she-is-an-astronaut.jpg <– This is Flandre Scarlet, Remilia’s little sister and yandere to the extreme. Also part of Marisa’s harem. Cute, very deadly, EoSD’s extra stage boss.
sugoi-hikouki.jpg <– Makoto Shinkai? The Place promised from Our Early Days comes to mind, but might be something else.
the-last-love-song-on-this-little-planet.jpg <– Sorry, missed this one.
the-size-of-an-ocean.jpg <– This one felw past me too.
think-long-faces.jpg <– Hidamari Sketch, mm,….
twintails-have-to-be-tsundere.jpg <– Lucky Star plus a.f.k.’s translation shenanigans?
wonder-what-that-makes-letty.jpg <– Advent Cirno, Letty would be Zack (it’s been hinted at several times) in this doujinshi adaptation by One Night Stand.
Hmm, I didn’t get many there. But then, I fill my posts and their titles with music references and I’ve yet to see anyone get them either. Here we go then.
a-man-thing.jpg: Gurren Lagann. Like newspaper crosswords, I guess the first one is deliberately an easy one to get you hooked and try the rest…
a-pun-on-kimodameshi.jpg: Kimodameshi is a ‘test of courage’ game Japanese kids play…I don’t see the connection with the pic though. Guts involved in the show?
once-a-contractor-always-a-contractor.jpg: the other obvious one for me – Hei and his star designation(?) Not sure what he’s holding, though. It looks like a knife but doesn’t have a handle…
seven-apples-on-the-reaper’s-tree.jpg: Lyrics from the Spice and Wolf end theme linked to Death Note. Swimming lessons? Ladies Night? Is DN on Adult Swim or something? Googling led me to this.
she-is-an-astronaut.jpg: a pun on the nu-gaze band and one of their albums. Pretty pic – who is it??
sugoi-hikouki.jpg: the filename’s the subbing group, and I’d recognise the pic and tagline a mile off. ;)
the-last-love-song-on-this-little-planet.jpg: the filename’s Saikano but I don’t recognise the image.
twintails-have-to-be-tsundere.jpg: I remember someone posting something about the twintail/tsundere connection but the link escapes me.
wonder-what-that-makes-letty.jpg: It’s Final Fantasy but that’s as far as I can go with that one.
*Sigh* Talk about feeling ‘out of the loop’. I promise to LURK MOAR on IRC when I get the net installed in my new place. ^_^
Matin: Kurogane and I pretty much answered most of it.
Phew, updated the post with answers at last. I eagerly await your IRC presence, Martin. :D
Myssa Rei scored a 7 out of 15 on the OSOWOK scale, Martin 5 out of 15. Not bad! The lower your score the less otaku you are.