Sarazanmai さらざんまい

The anime Sarazanmai さらざんまい airing this season has so many puns and cultural Japanese references that I thought it'd be a good idea to list them here for further reference. This way you'll finally be able to unders... to understan...

...

Okay you won't be able to understand the anime, but you'll be able to understand the Japanese part of the anime, and that's one step, at least, so let's content ourselves with that. Anyway.

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS!!! The first part of the article assumes you have already watched at least the first episode. After that, there's a second spoiler warning, and sections spoiling each and every episode. So scroll with caution!

• Kappa
  
  • Shirikodama
• Puns
  
  • Sara
    
    • Zanmai
    • Dish
  • Guddo Sarakku
  • Saratto
  • Sara ni
  • Sarasu
  • Kapparau
  • ア Symbol
  • Kawauso
  • Kaisou
  • Tsunagaritai
  • Recurring Phrases
• Background Music
• Episode Notes
  
  • Episode 1
  • Episode 2
  • Episode 3
  • Episode 4
  • Episode 5
  • Episode 6
  • Episode 7
  • Episode 8
  • Episode 9
  • Episode 10
  • Episode 11

Kappa

The kappa 河童 is a legendary creature part of the Japanese folklore, an youkai 妖怪

Etymologically, it comes from kawa 川, "river," plus waraha 童, "child." So a "river-child." The waraha わらは changed pronunciation to wappa わっぱ, joined together kawa-wappa かわわっぱ, then turned into kappa かっぱ.

The kappa are said to like cucumbers.

They have a "plate," sara 皿, on top of their heads. This is very important.

• Sara touches her sara.

It's said that if the plate dries, they die.

• kappa no mizu-abi, osara ga ureshii
  かっぱの水浴び　お皿がうれしい
  The water-bathing of the kappa, the plate is happy.

Shirikodama

The shirikodama 尻子玉, "butt-child-ball," also spelled shirikodama 尻小玉, "butt-small-ball," is a an organ that the kappa can extract from the butt of a person. Some legends say the shirikodama is the intestine or the stomach, but the anime follows the legend it's a different, fictitious organ.

• shiri 尻
  Butt.

According to the legends, the kappa would drown people in the river and then extract their shirikodama.

The origin of this legend might be the fact that when someone dies they stop contracting their muscles. If they drown, water will start entering their mouth, and then bowels. And then, because their anal sphincter, which is a muscle, won't be contracting any longer, it dilates, they will just shit themselves. Literally. That's what the shirikodama is.

Puns

There's a lot of puns in this anime, and I can't really say I got all of them.

Before anything, let's start with the obvious someone who doesn't know Japanese is going to miss.

• yokubou, kibou 欲望, 希望
  Desire. Hope. (both end in the same bou morpheme.)
• sakushu 搾取
  Extraction.
  • shibori-toru 搾り取る
    Squeezing out and taking.

You don't even need to know Japanese to get this one, but:

• keppi けっぴ
  (the name of the kappa prince, "Keppi," is almost "kappa".)
  • kappa かっぱ
    Kappa.

Sara

The word sara 皿 means "plate" in Japanese, like the plate of a kappa.

And Sara is the name of the idol girl in the anime, Azuma Sara 吾妻サラ.

You'll see there are some other things called Azuma in the anime, like Azuma-bashi 吾妻橋, "Azuma Bridge," the bridge where they fight in the first episode.

Zanmai

A plate, being a flat object, is counted with mai 枚, the counter for flat objects like sheets of paper.

The number "three" in Japanese is san 三.

• sanmai 三枚
  Three [flat things].
• sara-zanmai 皿三枚
  Three plates.
  • sa さ becomes za ざ due to rendaku 連濁.

Meanwhile, the word sanmai 三昧 means the "samadhi," which is a Buddhist term for a state of intense concentration achieved through meditation.

When used as a suffix, it becomes -zanmai ～三昧, again because of rendaku, in which case it can mean "to be immersed in" whatever it's suffixed to, in the same devoting sense as becoming in a "state of intense concentration achieve through meditation."

• sara-zanmai 皿三昧
  Being immersed in plates.
  Being absorbed by plates.
  Indulging yourself in plates.
  It's all about these plates floating around all over the place in this anime!

You'll see that characters they defeat in the anime that have an fixation for something will say something-zanmai when they're defeated.

Note that, normally, you would be able to tell between the two sarazanmai from their kanji:

• 皿三枚
  Three plates.
• 皿三昧
  A bizarre sort of plate addiction.

However, the title of the anime was stylized in hiragana, as sarazanmai さらざんまい. So you can't tell if it's one thing or another. Which is precisely why, normally, you wouldn't spell it like this.

The title is deliberately ambiguous, so it can refer to the fact that we have three main characters with 3 plates on their heads, on the fact that there are plate references everywhere in the anime.

• During sarazanmai, you can see their sarazanmai.

Dish

Often, Sara will end her sentences with "dish," dhisshu でぃっしゅ. This isn't a Japanese word, it's the katakanization of the English word "dish." A dish is a kind of plate.

As for why Sara keeps saying "dish," it's just how she speaks. In anime, it's common for characters to end their sentences in some weird way or another, like cat-girls saying nya にゃ, "meow," at the end of everything. It doesn't really mean anything. It's just a cute way of speaking.

The word "dish" was probably chosen because it resembles desu です, which is a polite copulative verb and as such is normally at the end of sentences in Japanese.

The term for such things is gobi 語尾, by the way. Other gobi's include:

• desu wa ですわ
  Often used by "rich girl," ojousama お嬢様 characters
• dattebayo だってばよ
  This is Naruto.

By the way, Keppi, the kappa prince, uses a kero ケロ as gobi, which is the sound frogs make, "ribbit."

Guddo Sarakku

The phrase guddo sarakku グッドサラック is a pun made by Sara with the word sara. It's supposed to mean "good luck," which would be just guddo rakku グッドラック without the sa サ instead.

She also uses other English phrases, but those aren't puns, I think, like:

• gummoniin
  グッモーニン
  "Good morning."
• rakkii jidori misshon ラッキー自撮りミッション
  "Lucky" selfie "mission."
  • jibun de toru 自分で撮る
    To take [a photo] yourself.

• gummooningu ★
  kyou no akki jidori misshon
  konpuriito dhisshu ★
  グッモーニング★
  今日のラッキー自撮りミッション
  コンプリートでぃっしゅ★
  Good morning ★
  Today's lucky selfie mission
  is complete dish ★

Saratto

The word saratto さらっと is a mimetic word for "smoothly," "simply," generally about doing something without any trouble, or bothering with anything.

It has nothing to do with "plates," sara 皿, but it's used in anime because it also has sara in it.

Like other, similar mimetic words, saratto is a base sara plus the adverbial particle to と joined by a glottal stop expressed by the small tsu っ.

The base is also the simplex of the reduplication sarasara さらさら, which means "rustling," like tree leaves, and, also, "free-flowing."

Sara ni

The phrase sara ni 更に means "further," as in "more." It's an adverb.

• mai nichi happi
  rakki didori de sara ni happi!
• 毎日ハッピー
  ラッキー自撮りでさらにハッピー！
  Everyday happy,
  With lucky selfies, even more happy!

Sarasu

The word sarasu 晒す means "to expose," like oneself naked (expose one's shame), or expose one's secret.

Kapparau

The word kapparau 掻っ払う means "to steal." It has nothing to do with kappa, but the word was probably chosen because of how it sounds.

Literally, it's kaku 掻く, "to scratch," plus harau 払う, "to pay," but in this case, "to wipe away." The ha は becomes pa ぱ because of sokuonbin 促音便.

• kapparae! 掻っ払え！
  [Go] steal! (imperative.)

• kapparatta! 掻っ払った！
  [I] stole [it]! (past form.)

ア Symbol

The symbol in a bunch of dishes around the anime is a single katakana character:

• a ア
  A.

If you were going to say abcdefgh... in Japanese, this would be the first letter... after the 50 hiragana, which come before the katakana.

It's likely this a ア comes from Asakusa Sara Terebi アサクササラテレビ, Asakusa Sara TV, which is the title of Sara's (the idol's) TV program.

• Asakusa 浅草
  The name of a district in Japan. This is an actual place, and you can find a lot of the locations shown in the anime in photos in real life.

• Top-left:
  • Asakusa Sara Terebi アサクササラテレビ
• Middle:
  • Sara Terebi サラテレビ

This ア symbol is literally everywhere in the anime. Like, LITERALLY, EVERY, SINGLE, WHERE.

Kawauso

The word kawauso 川獺, also spelled kawauso 川ウソ, means "river otter" in Japanese. Reminder: Kappa are river creatures.

The symbol on the back side of the a ア dishes is a river otter.

The police box where the police officers are has a sign that reads:

• kawauso kouban 川獺交番
  River otter police box.

Like the kappa, the otter is also said to be an youkai in Japanese folklore.

Illustration by Toriyama Sekien 鳥山石燕 (in Public Domain, see SekienKawauso.jpg - wikimedia.org)

Kaisou

This is even said on screen, but:

• kaisou かいそう
  (in hiragana.)
• kaisou 回想
  Reminiscence. Flashback.
• kaisou 海藻
  Seaweed.

Tsunagaritai

The phrase tsunagaritai 繋がりたい means "want to be connected." The anime makes a few puns around this verb. For reference, some conjugations:

• tsunagu 繋ぐ
  To connect.
  • tsunaida 繋いだ
    To have connected. (past form.)
• tsunagaru 繋がる
  To be connected.
  To be tied together. To be interlaced.
  To be linked. To be related.
  To lead to. (if you follow the connection to the other thing.)
  
  • tsunagatta 繋がった
    To have been connected.
  • tsunagari 繋がり
    The act of being connected. Of connecting.
    A connection.
  • tsunagarenai 繋がれない
    To not be able to be connected.
• In soccer, passing the ball around to score a goal is also called "connecting" in Japanese.

Recurring Phrases

A few phrases that are said over and over in the anime and you might want to pay attention for:

• {dare nimo ienai} himitsu
  誰にも言えない秘密
  A secret [that] {[I] can't tell anyone}.
• ubau 奪う
  To steal. To take [from someone].
• tori-modosu 取り戻す
  To take back.
• kankei-nai 関係ない
  There's no relationship.
  That has nothing to do with anything. With you.
  It's none of your business.
  • kankei-aru 関係ある
    (antonym.) "Relationship exists."
  • kankei oo-ari da!
    関係おおありだ！
    "A lot of relationship exists."
    It has a lot to do with [me]. Etc.

Background Music

I'm not sure how hard this is to notice, but pretty much every episode has a background music featuring a chant of the words sara, kappa, or a keyword of the episode over and over.

Spoilers Below

From here on, there are episode-specific notes.

Episode 1

The place where they buy things from:

• kappazon.co.jp
  A parody of amazon.co.jp, an online shopping website.
  Maybe a pun on "kappa zombie," kappa zonbi カッパゾンビ, since the kappa zombies through the anime say the word "zon" when they die.

This place actually exists in Japan, by the way.

カッパに遭遇してきた #さらざんまい pic.twitter.com/z1xVIBKr0p

— 武村 (@kikuhun) May 16, 2019

The name of the bad guy is:

• Hakoda Osamaru 箱田収丸
  Box-field Reap-ball.
  • osamaru 収まる
    To settle down.
    To fit in. (a box.)

• Destination:
  • Azuma-bashi 吾妻橋
    Azuma bridge.
• Receiver:
  • Hakoda Osamaru 箱田収丸
• Tooi no yokubouトオイの欲望
  Tooi's desire.

The phrases on the walls while they're going to the bridge:

• yokubou no hako
  欲望の箱
  The box of desire.
• yokubou to hako
  欲望と箱
  Desire and box.
• yokubou wa hako
  欲望は箱
  Desire is box.
• kappa towa senshi no koto
  カッパとは戦士のこと
  Kappa is warrior.
  • The next ones all have the same meaning.
• kappa towa senshi nari
  カッパとは戦士なり
  Kappa is warrior.
• kappa towa senshi kero
  カッパとは戦士ケロ
  Kappa is warrior-kero.

Episode 2

Puns and notes for episode 2:

• Harukappa 春かっぱ
  "Spring kappa."
  The username of Haruka 春河.
• nyan-tarou にゃん太郎 (or Nyantaro)
  (the cat's name.)
  • nyan にゃん
    Meow.
  • tarou 太郎
    Common name suffix, given to one's first son.
• kappamaki かっぱ巻き
  Cucumber sushi wrapped in nori (seaweed).

• o-sakana-zanmai お魚三枚 (or おさかなざんまい)
  Three slices of fish. Fish fillet.

The slang for "weed" in Japanese is happa 葉っぱ, "leaves," which sounds like kappa.

During Sara news, the ukiyo-e 浮世絵 parodied was:

• Urusasau うるささう, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年.
• Photo from: 芳年と国周―「風俗三十二相」と「見立昼夜廿四時之内」 - ukiyoe-ota-muse.jp

• te wo tsunagu
  手を繋ぐ
  To interlace hands.
  To hold hands together.
• tsunaida te wa ai no akashi!
  keshite hanasaremasen'you!
  繋いだ手は愛の証！決して離されませんよう！
  Interlaced hands are the proof of love! By no means let [them] go apart!
  • Lewd.

Name of the bad guy:

• Nekoyama Moukichi
  猫山毛吉
  Cat-mountain Fur-luck.

During Sara news, words are replaced with cat-speak containing nya にゃ, "meow":

• nyanto! ニャンと！
  nanto! なんと！
  What did [you] say that happened?! (interjection.)
• namen'nya yo なめんにゃよ
  nameru na yo なめるなよ
  Don't lick [me]. (literally.)
  Don't underestimate [me].

The phrases on the walls going to the bridge:

• sarazanmai towa
  さらざんまいとは
  Sarazanmai is...
• ishiki kyouyuu 意識共有
  ...sharing consciousness.
• sarazanmai niwa
  さらざんまいには
  For sarazanmai...
• risuku ga tsukimono
  リスクがつきもの
  ...risk is an attached-thing. (i.e. risk always comes with sarazanmai.)

The pun when he's defeated:

• neko-jerashii 猫ジェラシー
  Cat "jealousy."
  • This one is either:
• neko-jirashi 猫じらし
  Cat "teasing."
  • A way of playing with cats.
• neko-jarashi 猫じゃらし
  Green foxtail. (Setaria viridis.)
  • The green grass thing used to tease cats with.

When the cat zombie disappears:

• shini zon nyaa
  死にゾンにゃ～
  (this doesn't mean anything.)
  • shinu 死ぬ
    To die.
  • shini 死に is a conjugation, but it needs to come before something else, like shini-sou or shini-tai.
  • zon ゾン is from "zombie," zonbi ゾンビ, and nyaa is the cat thing.

In the post-credits:

• nyanii~ ニャニィ～
  nanii 何ぃ～
  Whaat?

Episode 3

Puns and notes in episode 3:

• kisu キス
  Kiss.
  • kisu 鱚
    Sillago. (type of fish.)
  • kisu wo kutte kisu wo migake
    キスを食ってキスを磨け
    Eat sillago and polish [your] kisses. (polish in the sense of improving.)
• gomen'nasara ごめんなサラ
  (a word with sara forced in it.)
  • gomen'nasai ごめんなさい
    Sorry.
• uso 嘘
  Lie.
  • kawauso 川獺
    uso 獺 (or oso)
    River otter.

The ukiyo-e parodied was:

• Uta Makura 歌満くら, by Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿.
• Photo from 今「春画」が女性を夢中にする理由とは? 橋本麻里さんに聞いた“ギリギリ”の魅力 - excite.co.jp.

The place where Enta and Kazuki practiced soccer exists in real life.

さらざんまいで燕太がサッカーの練習をしてた場所#さらざんまい #さらざんまい聖地巡礼 #さらざんまい好きな人と繋がりたい pic.twitter.com/yp5CuvWoiT

— akio@派手髪iOSエンジニア (@akio0911) May 15, 2019

The name of the bad guy:

• Kissu Mottokuree
  キース・モットクレー
  (literally...)
  • kisu motto kure
    キスもっとくれ
    Give [me] more kisses.

The officers' lines:

• ore-ra tsutta
  俺ら釣った
  We caught [him].
  • tsuru 釣る
    To fish. To angle. To lure.
    To catch [a fish].
• kinou no kisu
  昨日のキス
  Yesterday's kiss.
  The Kissu of yesterday. (Kissu as in the bad guy.)

During Sara news, there's a reference to the anime movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

The phrases on the walls while running to the bridge:

• kisu wo kutte kisu wo manabe
  キスを食ってキスを学べ
  Eat kiss, learn kiss.
• kisu wo matte kisu wo nogase
  キスを待ってキスを逃せ
  Wait kiss, miss a kiss.
  Wait kiss, let a kiss go.
  • nogasu 逃す
    To let free. (e.g. a fish.)
• kisu de semete kisu de horobe
  キスで攻めてキスに滅べ
  Attach with kiss, be ruined by kiss.

The bad guy's desire is too high level for me:

• kisu-zanmai
  きすざんまい
  Fixation to sillago/kisses.
  Three slices of sillago.
• takusan no kisu wo tsutte sanmai ni orosu
  沢山のキスを釣って三枚におろす
  (too much pun.)
• takusan no kisu wo tsuru
  沢山のキスを釣る
  To reel in a lot of fishes.
  To reel in a lot of kisses.
  • tsuru 釣る
    To fish. To angle. To lure.
• sanmai ni orosu
  三枚におろす
  To fillet in three [slices].
  • mai 枚
    Counter for thin things. In this case, slices of a fish.
  • sanmai oroshi 三枚おろし
    In cooking, to cut the head of the fish off, the slice the body twice, so you get three slices: the left, the middle-and-bottom, and the right. In order to do this, you need to remove the bones. ^{[twitter.com/0_equal_all, accessed 2019-04-05.]}
• hone-nuki ni suru 骨抜きにする
  To make it so it's boneless.
  • Consequently, to make it lose its core structure and become weakened.
  • To make someone lax in their morals, as opposed of firm, because they're now boneless.
  • In romance, to make someone someone completely in love with you, fall head over heels, "lovey-dovey," deredere デレデレ, etc.
  • hone wo nuku 骨を抜く
    To extract the bones.
  • hone-nuki 骨抜き
    Bone-extracting.
  • -ni suru ～にする
    To make [something] become [somehow else]. (e.g. you become bone-extracted.)

Stealing someone's flute, also called a "recorder," rikoodaa リコーダー, to go have an indirect kiss with them is is something perverted to do. That much is obvious. But note that this is a recurring trope in a number of anime, to try to frame someone as a recorder-stealing pervert, it just that this almost never actually happens, they're normally false accusations.

The logo of the hospital is an a ア as the alphabet "A."

• Asakusa Sara Sougou Byouin
  浅草皿総合病院
  Asakusa Sara General Hospital.

Episode 4

Puns and notes in episode 4:

• soba 蕎麦
  Buckwheat. (a plant)
  Noodles made from buckwheat floor. (a dish.)
• soba 側
  Near. Next. Close. By [someone's] side.
  • soba ni iru そばにいる
    To be by [your] side.
  • ima made soba ni ite-yarenakute warukatta na
    今までそばにいてやれなくて悪かったな
    Until now, [I] couldn't stay by [your] side, [I'm sorry].

The name of the gang seems to be:

• kamome 鴎
  Gull. (a kind of bird.)

The name of the bad guy.

• Sobatani Yudeo
  蕎麦谷ゆで男
  Soba-valley boiling-man.
  • Sobatani is a real name.
  • yude 湯で
    To boil. (e.g. noodles.)
  • -o ～男
    Suffix meaning man.

The name of his soba shop:

• soba no yu 蕎麦の湯
  Soba's hot water.
  • yu 湯
    Hot water.
    The "hot water" of a bath, for example.

The officers' lines:

• soitsu wa ore-ra ga utta no sa
  そいつは俺らが打ったのさ
  That guy, it was us who caught him.
  • utsu 打つ
    To hit. To strike.
  • soba wo utsu そばを打つ
    "To hit soba noodles."
    To make soba noodles. (e.g. そば打ち動画 - youtube.com)
  • kawa wo utsu 縄を打つ
    "To hit the ropes."
    To catch a criminal and bind them with ropes.
• sore wa kinou no soba na no sa
  それは昨日のそばなのさ
  That's yesterday soba.
  That's the Soba[tani] of yesterday.

During Sara news:

• higeki! sakki made soba ni ita noni
  悲劇！さっきまでソバにいたのに
  A tragedy! Even thought [it] was in the soba-noodles just a moment ago.
  A tragedy! Even thought [he] was next to [me] just a moment ago.
  • Note: iru いる is used with people and animated things. The verb aru ある means the same thing, but is used with inanimate things, like noodles.

The moving text at the bottom reads:

• "Sara ha jitsuha udon ha dish."
  Sara wa jitsu wa udon-ha dhisshu
  サラは実は饂飩派でぃっしゅ
  Sara actually prefers Udon, dish.
  • udon 饂飩
    A thicker type noodles.
  • -ha ～派
    Used after something you prefer, like saying your team.
    • neko-ha 猫派
      [I'm of] the "cat-team."
      [I] like cats.
• "Nazenara saraudon ha arukedo saraSOBA ha naikara dish."
  nazenara saraudon wa aru kedo sarasoba wa nai kara dhisshu
  なぜなら皿饂飩わあるけど皿蕎麦わないからでぃっしゅ
  That's because "sara-udon" exists, but "sara-soba" doesn't, dish.
  • Sara is saying she prefers udon over soba because there's a dish called "sara udon," but there's no dish called "sara soba."
  • sara udon 皿うどん
    "Plate noodles." A dish native to the Nagasaki prefecture. ^{[ちゃんぽんと長崎華僑, P101 cited in Sara udon - en.wikipedia.org, accessed in 2019-06-26.]}
• "Sara to zaru ha betsu dish. Darenimo ienai himitsu dish."
  sara to zaru wa betsu dhisshu
  dare nimo ienai himitsu dhisshu
  皿と笊は別でぃっしゅ
  誰にも言えない秘密でぃっしゅ
  Plates and "zaru" are different things, dish. [This is] a secret [I] can't tell anyone, dish.
  • Although sara-soba doesn't exist, zaru-soba 笊蕎麦 does exist. It's served on a zaru 笊, which is a plate made out of bamboo. Sara is saying a plate made out of bamboo isn't a sara, so it doesn't count.
  • By the way, "darenimo something himitsu" is the phrase used by the bad guys and everyone else when their shirikodama is about to get stolen.

What's written on the walls while running to the bridge:

• soba-ha 蕎麦派
  "Soba team."
  Prefers soba. (e.g. over udon.)

During the fight:

• hai dondon, hai janjan
  はいどんどん、はいじゃんじゃん
  A chant used in soba shops when serving more and more soba.
  • hai はい
    Yes. (used when accepting an order from a customer.)
  • dondon どんどん
    Gradually. More and more. (mimetic.)
  • janjan じゃんじゃん
    Continuously. (mimetic.)
• nokori-yu 残り湯
  Remaining hot-water. Leftover hot-water. (generally bath hot water.)
  • nokoru 残る
    To remain. To be left.
• soba-yu 蕎麦湯
  Soba hot-water. (water left in the pot after boiling the soba.)
• temee no wagamama wo oshi-tsukete
  soba ni itai da nante
  amai nimo hodo ga anda yo
  てめえのわがままを押し付けて
  そばにいたいだなんて
  甘いにも程があんだよ
  Pushing [onto others] your selfishness,
  saying "[I] want to be by [your] side,"
  there's a limit to being naive.
  • amai 甘い
    Sweet. (taste.)
    Naive. (thinking.)
  • andayo あんだよ
    aru-n-da yo あるんだよ
    aru no da yo あるのだよ
    There is.
• ii dashi moratta
  いい出汁・・・もらった
  [I] got a good soup-stock.
  • dashi 出汁
    Soup stock. (used with soba.)
    Because it's used to improve the taste of food, it also means:
    Something you use for your own benefit.
• nusunda nokori-yu de soba yudetakatta-n-da
  盗んだ残り湯で蕎麦を湯でたかったんだ
  [He] wanted to boil (in hot water) the soba-noodles with the leftover bath (hot) water [he] stole.
• yude-zon da ゆでゾンだ
  [I'm] a boiled "zom."
  • zonbi ゾンビ
    Zombie.

Not a pun, but:

• ima sara dare ni nani wo iwareta tte kamawanai
  今さら誰に何を言われたって構わない
  Now, after all this, whatever [I'm] told by anyone [I] don't care.

The episode title:

• tsunagaritai kedo
  soba ni inai
  つながりたいけど
  そばにいない
  [I] want to connect but, [I'm] not nearby.

Episode 5

Puns and notes in episode 5:

• kaminari gorogoro kaikan
  雷５６５６会館
  (this isn't on the anime, this is an actual place, but anyway...)
  • gorogoro ゴロゴロ
    *thundering* (onomatopoeia.)
  • From go-roku-go-roku ５６５６. See numbers spelling Japanese words.
• Pro-tip: find a girl that looks at you the way Sara looks at cucumbers.
• sashe サシェ
  Sachet.
• nioi-bukuro 匂い袋
  Smell-bag.
  • fukuro 袋
    Bag. (the fu ふ becomes bu ぶ because of rendaku.)
  • ofukuro お袋
    A word for "mother" in Japanese.

The name of the bad guy:

• nioi-no fuku-rou 匂野福郎
  Smell-field luck-man.
  • nioi no fukuro 匂いの袋
    A bag of smell.
  • -rou ～郎
    A common suffix for male names, as seen in Tarou, Ichirou, Jirou, Saburou, Shirou 太郎, 一郎, 次郎, 三郎, 四郎.

The officers' lines:

• soitsu wa ore-ra ga kaida no sa
  そいつは俺らが嗅いだのさ
  That guy, we smelled.
  • kagu 嗅ぐ
    To smell. (a smell.)
    To sniff out. To discover. (a secret.)
• sore wa kinou no sashe na no sa
  それは昨日のサシェなのさ
  That was yesterday's sachet.

Sara's escaping line:

• saratto dasshutsu
  さらっと脱出
  Simply, escaped.

Before his grandfather died, Haruka and Kazuki are seen wearing pink clothes. After finding out, Kazuki wears a different color. Wearing matching colors is called, in Japanese:

• pea-rukku ペアルック
  "Pair look."
  • sotsugyou suru 卒業する
    To graduate. (school.)
    To stop being or doing something, advancing to a next step. (e.g. wearing matching clothes.)

When Sara shows up:

• saratto o-sanpo shite-kita-n-dhisshu
  さらっとお散歩してきたんでぃっしゅ
  [I] was simply taking a walk.
  • sanpo 散歩
    A walk. Stroll. (the o- お～ prefix she uses is bikago 美化語, "beautification language," as seen in female language.)

The phrases on the walls going to the bridge:

• sashe towa nioi-bukuro
  サシェとは匂い袋
  Sachet is a "smell-bag."
• sashi towa taiman
  サシとはタイマン
  (other two words that mean the same thing.)
  • sashi 差し
    For to people to do something. (like fight.)
  • sashi-mukau 差し向かう
    To be face to face.
  • taiman タイマン
    One-on-one fight.
• saji towa supuun
  サジとはスプーン
  (both words mean "spoon.")
  • saji 匙
    Spoon. (like in Gin no Saji.)
  • supuun スプーン
    Spoon. (katakanization.)
• pafe towa suiitsu
  パフェとはスイーツ
  Parfait is a sweet.
• porushe towa kuruma
  ポルシェとは車
  Porsche is a car.

The battle:

• nioi no kioku wa shinu made kienai
  匂いの記憶は死ぬまで消えない
  The memory of the smell doesn't disappear until death.
  [I] won't forget the smell until [I] die.
  • kieru 消える
    To disappear. To vanish. (e.g. a smell.)

After the battle, Keppi says:

• heso de cha ga waku
  臍で茶が沸く
  The tea boils with the belly button. (literally.)
  • From the idiom:
  • heso de cha wo wakasu
    臍で茶を沸かす
    To make tea boil with one's belly button.
  • heso ga cha wo wakasu
    臍が茶を沸かす
    The belly button boils the tea.
  • Generally means something is too stupid or ridiculous. Obviously it doesn't mean what it literally means. Afterwards, Keppi is seen drinking tea.

Episode 6

Episode 6 notes:

Anime: Osomatsu-san おそ松さん (Episode 6),
Sarazanmai さらざんまい (Also episode 6)

• The "sasheeeeeh" thing Sara does during her news is a reference to a "sheeh" thing from the manga and anime Osomatsu-san.

The ukiyo-e parodied was, probably:

• Ōzumō Torikumi no Zu 大相撲取組之図 by Utagawa Kuniaki 歌川国明
• Photo from 歌川国明: 「大相撲取組之図」 - ukiyo-e.org.

Not a pun, but:

• sarawareru
  攫われる
  To be kidnapped. To be abducted.

Episode 7

Episode 7 notes:

• uso 嘘
  Lie.
• uso 獺
  kawauso 獺
  Otter.
• usoo-kun
  うそ男くん
  Otter-man-kun.
  Lie-man-kun.
  • kun くん
    Names of mascots often get this suffix when it's a male mascot, or chan ちゃん when it's a female mascot.

The subway actually exists, but the mascot is a mole called Chika-o-kun ちか男くん instead. The chika 地下 part means "underground."

今日、実は行ってきました…ww
昼間だったんで、例のメンテはしてませんでした。#さらざんまい #聖地巡礼 pic.twitter.com/NiRMK9pMig

— 🌕🌎才原茉莉乃🔗🥦 (@Chu_marino_avex) May 23, 2019

• ningyou-yaki 人形焼
  "Doll-baking." Baked doll pastry.
  This is the name for pastry in the shape of small people, animals, and so on.
  • ningyou 人形
    Doll.
  • One of the officers is called a "doll" in this episode. In the previous episode, the other officer also called him "a doll that had lost its emotions."

The officers are eating:

• Usongu Soosu Yakisoba
  ウソングソースやきそば
  "Usong" Sauce Yakisoba.
  • This parodies a real brand:
  • Pasungu Soosu Yakisoba
    ペヤングソースやきそば
    Peyoung Sauce Yakisoba.

The thing Toi complains about:

• yobisute 呼び捨て
  Calling someone informally.
  • Without an honorific suffix. (e.g. -san ～さん)
  • And by first name, Toi, instead of family name, Kuji.
  • From:
  • yobu 呼ぶ
    To call.
  • suteru 捨てる
    To throw away.

Now Kazuki is wearing pink again. The "pair look" thing is back.

The Sara news includes the pun:

• tamageta! たまげた！ (or 魂消た)
  To be astonished. To be flabbergasted. (literally "soul-disappeared.")

The Sara news also has a double reference.

1. E.T., the 1982 movie.
2. Captain Tsubasa, the soccer manga and anime, in which "the ball is my friend" is the main character's motto. Note, however, that the phrase is said in Tsubasa in Japanese, but Sara says it in katakanized English.

The frog-hating Keppi mistakes a word for "frog."

• kangaeru 考える
  To think.
• kaeru 蛙
  Frog.
• The part gaeru がえる looks like kaeru かえる with rendaku. For example:
  • kangaeru 蟇蛙
    Toad.

The text on the walls on the way to the bridge highlights the joke.

• sara no koto wa
  ato de kangaeru
  皿のことは
  あとでかんがえる
  The thing about the dishes [we] think later.
  We can figure out what to do about the dishes later.
  • The dots under gaeru are emphasis marks.
• gaeru ikooru kaeru
  がえる＝カエル
  "gaeru" equals "frog."
• kaeru ikooru saijou-kyuu no bujoku
  カエル＝最上級の侮辱
  "Frog" equals an insult of the highest level.
  

During the battle:

• booru ボール
  "Ball." (English katakanization.)
  • tama 玉
    Ball. (anything round.)
  • tama 球
    Ball. (of a sport, like soccer.)
  • The only exception are in other words loaned from English, like:
  • booru-gyagu ボールギャグ
    Ball-gag.
• tama たま
  Balls. Testicles. (colloquially.)
  • tamatama たまたま
    (same meaning, but used mostly by women. See reduplication of plurals for body parts for reference.)
• tama niwa 偶には
  Occasionally.
  • tamatama 偶々
    Occasionally.
    By chance.
• tamatama toreta
  タマタマ取れた
  [Something] was taken [off] by chance.
  [My] balls were taken [off].
• korya tamaran
  こりゃ…タマらん
  kore wa tamaranai
  これは堪らない
  As for this, [I] can't get enough of.
  [I] can't get enough of this.
  • tamaranai 堪らない
    To not get enough of something. To never get tired of doing something.
• tamashii no sakebi
  魂の叫び
  Scream of the soul.

The piece of cloth Enta wears tied around his nose is a Japanese thing. Thief characters are generally portrayed wearing something like that for some reason.

Episode 8

Episode 8 notes:

• The store Umeya 梅屋 is a parody of a real Japanese brand.
  • Matsuya 松屋

During Sara news, Chikai is the suspect behind:

• Shikotama Sagi Jiken
  シコタマ詐欺事件
  The "Shikotama" Fraud Case.
  • shikotama しこたま
    Lots. Plenty of. (adverb.)
  • So it also means "Lots of Fraud Case."

The goyou da! goyou da! 御用だ！御用だ！ thing Sara does is a Japanese thing seen in historic period pieces, where policemen yell that as they try to catch a fugitive.

Episode 9

Episode 9 notes.

Anime: Sarazanmai さらざんまい (Episode 9, rights reserved)
Photo by Mj-bird (CC BY-SA 4.0, see Ichibanboshi_(Dekotora),_Fuso_T-Series,.jpg - wikimedia.org)

• dekotora デコトラ
  Short for "decorated truck."
• Specifically, this may be a reference to the series Torakku Yarou トラック野郎, aired in the 70's. The main character, Hoshi 星, literally "star," has a truck called Ichibanboshi 一番星, "first star." ^{[トラック野郎 - ja.wikipedia.org, accessed 2019-06-28]}

I don't know if Masa is supposed to mean something, however:

• taka 鷹
  Falcon.
  • The name of the guy Chikai fights against is Taka. Previously, his gang was called Kamome, "gull," which is another bird.

Is this a Neon Genesis Evangelion reference?

Episode 10

Episode 10 notes.

• Kuro Keppi 黒ケッピ
  Black Keppi.
  • I'm probably wrong about this one, but:
  • kuroketto クロケット
    Croquette.
  • I mean, they did talk about croquettes once out of nowhere. But is every word in this show a pun?

It's only now that I realize it, but when Black Keppi gets out of Keppi in episode 6, there's a sound of something breaking. I thought it was supposed to symbolize a container, like a vase. But the same sound effect is used when dishes are broken in this episode.

• yokubou ga wareru
  欲望が割れる
  Desire will be split.
  • Keppi was split in two parts: Keppi and black Keppi.
• sara wo watta
  皿を割った
  To have split (broken) the dish.

• tsunagatteiru
  繋がっている
  To be interlaced. Connected. (in this case, two circles.)
  • I guess this is the same rationale behind the Olympic rings?

Episode 11

Episode 11 notes.

Before fixing the broken miçanga, Kazuki says:

• tsunagari wo tebanasanai
  繋がりを手放さい
  [I] won't let go of [our] connection.
  • This mirrors the lines of the officers:
  • yokubou wo tebanasu na!
    欲望を手放すな！
    Don't let go of [your] desire!
  • tebanasu 手放す
    To let go.
  • te 手
    Hand.
  • hanasu 放す
    To distantiate.
  • So literally "to hand-distantiate," to put your hands, grasp, away from something.
  • In the scene, Kazuki physically grabs the miçanga with his hand.
• Since he fixes the miçanga by tying the ends together, that's also a tsunagari.
• nando datte tsunaide-yaru
  なんどだって繋いでやる
  [I'll] connect [the ends of the miçanga] as many times [as necessary].
  [I'll] connect [with you] as many times [as necessary].
  • Wait, does that mean the saying is "no start, no end, no connection" because you can't connect the start and the end in a miçanga-like loop if there's neither a start nor and end? I don't know where the wordplay start and end anymore. Send help.

During the boukyaku 忘却, "oblivion," Enta and Kuji use the verb tebanasu.

• ore wa akirame ga warui kara, nani hitotsu tebanasu tsumori wa nai
  俺は諦めが悪いから、何一つ手放すつもりはない
  I'm bad at giving up so, [I] don't have an intention of letting go of anything.
• naku koto mo warau koto mo yurusarenai ore wa, kibou wo tebanashita
  泣くことも笑うことも許されない俺は、希望を手放した
  I, who wasn't permitted to laugh or cry, let go of hope.

In episode 7, Toi complained Kazuki called him Toi, his first name, rather than Kuji, his family name. This is called yobisute, and implies they're friends enough skip formalities. He always called the other main characters by their family names, Yasaka and Jinnai. In this episode 11, before starting the sarazanmai, he calls the other characters by their first name for the first time: Kazuki and Enta.

The brand of the ball is "kapadas," a parody of the real brand called "adidas."

Later, Keppi says:

• sekai no en wa maruku tamotareta
  世界の円は丸く保たれた
  The circle of the world was kept round. (literally.)
  • marui 丸い
    Round. (literally.)
    From its literal meaning: smooth, without defects, faults, problems.
  • maruku naru 丸くなる
    To become so [it's] round-ly.
    To have its problems smoothed out.

You know, now that I think about it the only real thing that wasn't given a different name in this anime was The Little Prince, which is called Hoshi no Oujisama 星の王子様, "The Prince of the Star," in Japanese.

The ED loosely resembles Toi's story, but it also loosely resembles a lot of other sad stories, including any of the other two protagonists, so I'm guessing it's not an extremely contrived musical wordplay.

Some things did match with the music, though, like this cut which was synchronized with one of the lines:

• hiza wo kakaete akogareteita no wa
  itsuka no zanzou
  膝を抱えて憧れていたのは
  いつかの残像
  Holding-with-arms [my] knees what [I] yearned for was
  an afterimage of sometime.
  • In other words, a memory of something that happened in the past.

The new Asakusa News mascot is a frog now, and "frog" is kaeru 蛙, just like "to return [home]" is kaeru 帰る.

The best anime always end with an egao 笑顔, I see.

Some final notes.

The fights occur in a bridge probably because a bridge "connects" places.

Almost everything that was taken is spelled with two kana or two mora (time taken to pronounce it). Usually, one kana takes one mora to be pronounced.

• hako ハコ
  Box.
• neko ネコ
  Cat.
• kisu キス
  Kiss.
• soba ソバ
  Buckwheat noodles.
• sashe サシェ
  Sachet.
  • she シェ is spelled with a two kana compound, one of them being a small kana. It's a single diphthong syllable and takes one more to be pronounced.
• tama タマ
  Ball.
• Mabu マブ
  (the officer's name.)
  • Although the music is about getting back their "connection," tsunagari 繋がり, the text on the hologram-like rings around the bridge say Mabu, just like it previously said hako, neko, kisu, soba, sashe, and tama.
  • Reo レオ.
    (the name of the other officer.)
• Toi トイ
  (one of the main character's names.)
  • Although there's no fight, when the main characters meet at the bridge, Toi asks what the other two were doing, they explicitly Toi wo torimodoshi ni, "[we came] take-back Toi."
• tsunagari ツナガリ
  Connection.
  • In the very, very last fight, the hologram on the bridge shows a four-mora word instead.

Spoilers Above

Well, that's it, I guess.