Genshiken VS Kaiji?
2Nov2008 Filed under: moto neta Author: Miao Ji
Genshiken being a manga about otakus means that there are countless netas from manga/anime/games. Some of them I get, some of them I don’t. But reading Genshiken manga again this morning brought me to the picture on the left. Vol 2 Page 75, when Sasahara said that Madarame got the rare Kujian trading card, a very distinct sound effect was used. The “ざわ” (zawa) of Kaiji fame. I am not an expert in Japanese, so I can’t say that Kaiji is the first manga to have used ざわ as a sound effect for suspense. But the ざわ used in Genshiken is in a very specific font, that made me quite sure that it is a parody of the Kaiji ざわ. Genshiken started in 2002, and Kaiji 1996. The timing is correct too.
Just 1 column, really makes me appreciate how much thought and effort was put into the making of Genshiken. So sad that the second season of the anime failed to come to a satisfactory ending like the manga…
About this blog
Neta <ネタ>
Neta means things, goods.
【Era】 Edo Times~
【Type】 Reverse expression
Explanation:
Neta in Japanese means the "goods to survive". It is the reverse of "rice seeds" (米の種). Seeds in Japanese is "tane", and the reverse of it is "neta". There are other reverse expression in Japanese such as "moku"（もく） meaning tobacco in the edo times (because smoke from tobacco is like clouds- kumo). Personally, I don't really understand the reverse expression thing, but I guess it is kinda fun and confusing?
So neta is the livelihood of every profession, such as rice is to rice stores, fish to sushi, punch line to comedians, and evidence to police.
Moto neta（元ネタ） is something like "the origin of the neta". In this blog, I will try to theorize and speculate the many netas in the ACG world (anime, comics and games), so its just useless information...
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