Ochikomi Tengoku Beat Paradise (The Cemetery of Youthful Embarassment) "A theatre that's always depressing, but sometimes fine" from Animage vol.136, 140 Original story & art Copyright (C) 1990 Nagano Noriko/Tokuma Shoten This English translation Copyright (C) 1993 Goddess Studio Translation by Kaori Hasegawa Proofreading by Iain Sinclair (axolotl@socs.uts.edu.au) CHARACTERS: Hakase-kun (bespectacled, mild-mannered teenage boy) Anime-kun (dashing, handsome boy) Youkai Tsukkomi Babaa (cranky old woman) Nagano (the artist) Muska (evil genius) (Note: these characters turn up in all major Nagano mangas, in one form or another.) =========================================================================== Animage vol.136 p.166 N: Hi, Kiki-chan. This is the first time ever my heart was really with an anime character. N: Until now, I longed for the ``supporting characters'' or... N: ``Villains'', but... Heheheh. (Faces: Snafkin from 'Moomin' [about a hippo called Moomin] Annie from 'Candyman' Jeanne Andre from 'Berubara' [abbreviation for 'Roses of Versailles'] Non from 'Majoko Meg-chan' [a forerunner of magical girls anime] Colonel Muska) Kiki: Doheee!! N: Yes!! You chose to wear dirty, black clothes... And around the boys and girls enjoying their youth: ``Huh. Weeelll, you guys are having fun!! I don't care about myself'', in your dark youth, you glared at them!! ``I understand, I understand,'' you're my ``peer''. Well, I'm remembering back to my younger days... Sign: Special Program - The Dark Youth Theater Spring in Paradise N: Fu fu fu... Your eyes leave your body and sink into the dark zone of youth... Gasp, gargle, Now 6500 meters for the best record in the world... More, more... Fu fu fu. N: A-ko, the self-appointed ``Victim of Sensitivity'', was... A-ko: Fu fu fu. ``Love'', ``bright days of youth'', and ``chasing along the beach'' won't matter to me throughout my whole life. N: ..So, she was wild... N: She did one stupid thing after another. p.167 N: But, one afternoon... N: As usual, A-ko was climbing the stairs with ``the rhythm of the breath of consumption...'' N: Then!! (Dozens of students run down the stairs, screaming in delight, crying 'Awesoome!', 'For real?', etc.) N: Strangely enough, (They run past 'A-ko') N: I smelled something fascinating, ``a sweet fragrance,'' from the group that had just passed by. N: Ah, this fragrance is! N: The fragrance of ``The Paradise of Youth,'' that I cannot enter... N: ...whatever, with that feeling that would cut my own neck... N: A barren feeling came into A-ko's heart!! N: And, in the end, what was it? That ``strange sweet fragrance''. N: That's one of the ``Seven miracles of my youth.'' N: One thing I can say is... N: It was ``Like the muscat candy from Kasugai!!'' H: The thing I remembered when I saw ``Kiki's Delivery Service'' The living thing, called Harmonium, which lives dead underground, has only two phrases of conversation. They are: 1. I'm here and its reply... 2. I'm glad you're there. A: Anyway, we're looking for memories of embarrassing stories from youth which would make you turn red. Please send mail to: Tokuma Shoten, Animage 'Ochikomi Tengoku' Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. ZIP 105-55 4-10-1 ============================================================================== Animage 1990 vol.2 p.194 A: Hi!! Everyone, the winter is getting deeper. H: Do your best, Juken-sei!! [Juken-sei= student studying for Juken/entrance exams] N: JUKEN! ?: I remember the flowers of Juken-sei floating on the Tamagawa River, when the dry wind blows over the Kantou Plain. The red setting sun, and withered grass. Hey, ``Juken-sei Nagano'', are you still wandering around with chocolate in your hands... N: I am a jibakurei!! [Jibakurei= a ghost doomed to haunt one place forever] A: Oh!! ``Joking alone and replying to yourself!!'' [lit. "hitori boke tsukkomi''..] H: She seems depressed. A: So, then. ?: 'My heart is a like a cloud in the sky in the north country, I want to flow with that cloud.' ...That's why Rounin-sei Y-ko-chan suddenly said that winter... ?: Get this winter over with!! A: I know, it gets to you around this time. N: Fu fu fu. Now... N: I'll show you some good stuff. N: This is the ``Cheer Up Diary,'' that I secretly wrote when I was a Juken-sei. p.195 N: Grading every day's results!! H: They are almost all D's and C's!! N: This is an E. H: Don't be proud of it! H: Wow, stuff like this was drawn, too. A: It really got to her. H: Ah!? And what's this!? N: I just made up characters and let them encourage me... B: That, that girl.. B: How did you have time for study when you were drawing those things?! H: Good boys and girls don't do this. N: I just wanted to say.. N: ...Being encouraged by my favorite characters from anime and manga, see, I tried to get over this hard time. N: To all of you. All of you, don't give up. I had a very hard time going through the tundra!! But!! Right now, I've become a manga artist!! Three socks on a foot!! With a jacket on, drinking Unkel, putting on the midnight radio as BGM, I stayed up all night to work!! I became happy or depressed with each month's results... And if it goes under the passing line, it's helpless, throw it away. Am I still a Juken-sei!!