Glossary

Ever wondered what the hell I’m going on about when I start referring to all the in-jokes this blog has built up over the months? Be at sea no longer with this handy glossary.

• BI: A preference for both men and women. BI is generally seen as more advanced and contemporary than plain HARD GAY, and has gained support among young people and forward-thinkers.

Origin: First embraced by Haseo at the end of .hack//Roots.

• Chaos: A force seeking to plunge the world into dark times.

Origin: Used extensively in the ROTK anime.

• Damn you!: A blanket exclamation for whenever things go wrong in anime.

Origin: Used extensively in the ROTK anime.

• DOG: A type of Pleasure involving dogs, DOG is seen as a shameful last resort by most.

• Ezo: A particularly small wang, often a cause of embarrassment to its owner.

Origin: Japan’s Ezo Republic, as referenced in Winter Cicada and Iroha; in the former, a character was heard to exclaim “My, Ezo sure is cold” prior to HARD GAY with a named character, leading one to suspect that he was referring to his small wang.

• Flashback Mode: The process of showing a flashback in order to save animation budget or explain a character’s actions.
• Gaydar: an object or innate ability that allows the user to sense whether anyone nearby is gay.

Origin: originally used by Bender in an episode of Futurama.

• Generics: Nameless characters of simplistic or cloned character design, used in crowd and battle scenes.

• Gwakaka: An evil laugh, as adopted by the typical wine sipping, chair-bound villain.

Origin: This laugh was first used by Niwe of Utawarerumono.

• HARD GAY: A preference for other men, HARD GAY still has the most popular support, but is now beginning to be considered outdated by the supporters of BI. Specific types of HARD GAY include Sword, Spear, Gun and Bow.

Origin: first identified in Meine Liebe.

• HARD YURI: A preference for other women, often accompanied by disdain for or hatred of men.

Origin: first identified in .hack//Roots.

• Huang Gai: The ‘Wang Guy’, a backstreet seller of Pleasure products and wannabe rival to New Wang.

Origin: named after Huang Gai, a Wu soldier in the Three Kingdoms era.

• Hung like a grunty: A phrase used to describe a particularly well-endowed man.

Origin: derived from ‘hung like a horse’, combined with the .hack beasts known as grunties.

• HORSE: A type of Pleasure involving horses, HORSE is considered both desirable and acceptable. Brown and bay horses are most commonly used.

Origin: first identified in SaiMono, when Seiran had three brown horses with him.

• House shots: Lengthy still shots of homesteads, often for no apparent purpose.

Origin: Noein spent all of its animation budget on CG shots of the lead’s house.

• Hyper Self Pleasure: the act of Pleasuring oneself, usually performed with the hand; a last resort to fulfil the urges of those without a partner.

Origin: In a chapter of the Welcome to the NHK manga, Satou decides to sate his growing urges with his self-invented Hyper Self Pleasure, which involved giving himself a hand job whilst naked, sniffing drugs and watching pornography on the computer. Sadly, his mother walked in on him.

• Ireland: The place where objects and characters that disappear for no apparent reason are said to go to. They can return at any time without explanation.

Origin: In Fate/Stay Night, Irish hero Lancer disappeared after the early episodes before suddenly returning towards the end. It was theorised that he was vacationing in his home country in the interim.

• Lord’s [object]: Any object which bestows special powers, usually Pleasure related.

Origin: The Lord’s Head in Iroha, which possessed people and filled them with HARD GAY power.

• Liang: Wang.

Origin: see Zhuge Liang.

• Magic CCTV: A device used by villains to keep track of the heroes. Usually consists of one or more television screens in the villain’s hideout, although it occasionally takes other forms such as a magic mirror or pool of water.

Origin: First acknowledged after Fei Wong was seen watching Syaoran on one in Tsubasa Chronicle.

• Mother died and Father disappeared: A common fate of the parents of named anime characters.

Origin: Used to introduce practically every chapter in the first volume of Binbou Shimai Monogatari.

• New Wang: A company specialising in upgrading wangs for a reasonable price. Their products include anything from simple enlargment to more extravagant custom models.

Origin: Name derived from Utawarerumono’s Nuwangi, reputedly the first person to use New Wang’s services.

• Pleasure: A blanket term for any kind of intimacy. The ‘weapon’ used in Pleasure usually has its first letter capitalised (e.g. Sword, Spear, Gun), whilst any object or animal involved is fully capitalised (BOOK, DOG, SHIP, HORSE).

• STRAIGHT: A preference for members of the opposite sex- considered quite radical and lacking in support.

Origin: First identified in Busou Renkin.

• Sweet potato dango: A blanket term for any hallucinatory substance, used in the context of having been consumed by the writers at Sunrise prior to creating a particularly nonsensical anime.

Origin: Started out as magic mushrooms in Mai-Otome and Cowboy Bebop, before their form was finalised in episodes of Keroro Gunso. Special dango were seen in the ‘Sunirase’ studio writers’ room.

• WOOD: Wood in any kind of plot related role, such as fences, gates and stumps. Tends to get smashed by angry characters.

Origin: Proved to be an obstacle in the Utawarerumono game.

• Zhuge Liang: A huge wang- often used as a boast or a term of respect.

Origin: Named after Zhuge Liang, Shu’s chief strategist in the Three Kingdoms era.

Think there’s an Azure Flame specific term that I should have covered but didn’t put on this list? Use the comments section to request it.