Subject:  re: The meaning of the suffex "-cha"?
Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 13:00:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark Crispin 
To: Aaron Spinak 
CC: urusei-yatsura@Panda.COM

This is a Frequently Asked Question.

First of all, there are a number of suffixes to a name:
        -san    generic, effectively means "member of our community", and is
                usually "safe" to use.  Not used with the famous (if you said
                "Clinton-san" it would imply that you know the US president
                personally) or with the infamous (criminals, etc. who have in
                effect been expelled from society).
        -sama   an honorific term, showing deference, usually used to a
                superior.
        -kun    [tradition] used by men to close friends or inferiors.
                [modern] used by men to girlfriends.
                [modern] used by men and women to boys.
        -chan   used to refer to young children; "little cute one"
        -shi    generic "Mr.", suggests "outsider" status

Titles are also used as suffixes; "Suzuki-kacho^" means "Section Chief Suzuki"
and if you were in his section you would call him "kacho^" not "Suzuki-san".
This form is used with the famous and infamous as well.

As far as Lum's -cha goes, this is *NOT* a name suffix.  Lum applies it to verbs
and to the copula (the closest Japanese equivalent of "to be").  Usually there is
a glottal stop, so it's more properly represented as -tcha or -ttya.
Hence:
        suru ("to do")  => surutcha
        da (copula)     => datcha

It conveys no meaning.  It is an affectation, and a disgustingly saccharine sweet 
affectation at that.  I translate it as "ie-poo".  Hence "surutcha" would be "do-ie-
poo".  Imagine having this girl hanging around you who always ended every 
verb that way!  You'd understand why Ataru behaves the way he does!!!!

It is apparently used in certain dialects, but not to the extreme that Lum uses 
it.

Another affectation of Lum is to call herself "uchi" (literally "household"), again, 
an extremely feminine affectation.

Subject: Re: UY question (fwd)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 96 22:57:09 -0800
From: grocholl@vm1.nodak.edu (Luke Grocholl)
To: urusei-yatsura@Panda.COM

>       I had a question. I'm trying to do the anime turnpike quiz contest
> and not being a UY
> person really, there's a question I thought you might be able to
> help me with it. the question is, What is the name of Ataru and Shinobu's
> future son?...

        The story is from one of the early manga, and I don't know if it was ever 
animated.  In the story Ataru is late for school so Lum helps him by opening up 
an extra dimentional tunnel for Ataru.  Ataru arrives at school alright, but 12 years 
in the future.  In this future Ataru and Shinobu are married and have a son named 
Kokeru.
        In the course of Urusei Yatsura, however, the story shifted from an 
Ataru/Shinobu love story with Lum constantly keeping them apart to a 
Ataru/Lum love story with Ataru keeping them apart.  This lead to something of a 
dilema since the end of the story was already written.  This crisis was solved, of 
course, in the first OAV Inabia the Dream Maker where all the characters 
"preset" futures are destroyed and "new" futures can now take place.

==============================================================
         ___             "A pig that can't fly is just a pig."
        /   \            - Porco Rosso
       <^   |
       /    \__           Acsii drawing by Dennis Supachana
PIYO  |        >  PIYO
       \_____/
      \/  _\             LUKE  
===============================================================

Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 10:29:59 +0100
From: Matthew 
Subject: UY Complete Music Box

URUSEI YATSURA COMPLETE MUSIC BOX

If there are any die-hard fans out there with money to burn, this
fifteen disk boxed set is worth a look, but there are a few things you
should be aware of:

Though the set professes to contain every piece of UY music ever played,
this isn't quite the truth. It does contain about 99% of all UY music,
but there are a few tracks missing here and there, notably from the
second film BEAUTIFUL DREAMER.

Having said that, it's still a remarkable collection. Disks one thru
five contain TV music; both themes and background, totalling about
175 tracks in all. Quality is varied: I doubt anyone will like
everything, and you'll probably cringe at one or two... or more, but
some are excellent.

Disks six thru eleven cover each of the six films. There are one or two
omissions and several ADDitions, suggesting that the soundtracks on the
disks were from the original score before final editing.

Disk Twelve contains "Other Songs", generally very enjoyable if you like
J-pop. Triangle Love Letter is here, and the thirteen minute 'goodbye'
song, Mata Aeta-tcha!

Disk Thirteen is the UY Symphony. You'll either like it or you won't,
but one of the tracks contains an entertaining parody of the
'Conversation' from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Discs fourteen and fifteen are a sort of catch-all for things missed,
although some music still slipped through the holes. But here you'll
find the disco music from the TV episode Disco Inferno and other
'incidentals'. I have to say that though I play 1 to 13 fairly
regularly, there's nothing that interests me on 14 and 15.

If you have any UY discs, you'll find their contents repeated somewhere,
but unless you have a big collection, you'll certainly get a lot more
than you have now. The collection comes with a booklet containing lyrics
to all songs, tables of where the TV music appeared, and a complete
discography if you haven't used the one at Tomobiki-cho recently.

At around US$350, it's pricey, and the music isn't to everyone's taste,
and it isn't quite 'Complete'. That said, I'm very pleased that I bought
it, and it gets listened to a lot.

If anyone is interested, it can be purchased from Nikaku Animart.
Their e-mail address is:

                nikaku@netcom.com

You can send either a specific query, or send an 'empty' e-mail with
'catalog' entered in the subject line - this gets you a hefty listing of
all their products. They will mail all over the world, but outside the
US there is a minimum order value of $100.
-- 
Matthew
--
      "DOKE DOKE! Kegashitemo shiraneezo!"
[GET OUT OF THE WAY! I don't care if you get hurt!]
                        - Benten, 'UY*Mata Aeta-tcha'

Date: Thu, 03 Oct 1996 10:51:17 -0400
From: mson@OTTAWA.NET (Mason Ikkoku)
Subject: Lum's hair

>BUT- JUST WHAT COLOUR IS LUM'S HAIR?! Turquoise (cyan) or green? Or somewhere
>in between? I know - I'll look at some of the scans I've downloaded... ARGH!
>It's purple in one and orange in another! Fellow Lum-otaku, suggestions please!
>
Actually Lum's real hair colour is neither.  The reason that you'll see her
hair in different colour is that her intended colour is multicolour.  Her
hair has a rainbow effect that goes from pink to light orange to yellow to
green to darker green to blue and back again.  This is how Takahashi
intended her hair to be, but seeing as it could be a pain to colour it that
way all of the time, she often chose to keep it one colour.  That is why
you'll often see her hair either blue, green, red, pink, orange, etc.  Since
her hair is "rainbow" colour, she can have any hair colour she wants.  

For the anime they got rid of that idea and kept her hair a turquoise-green
colour if there is such a term.  Not completely turquoise, but not
completely green either.

=================MASON IKKOKU=================
      Mason Proulx (mson@ottawa.net)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            VISIT TOMOBIKI-CHO, 
The world's largest Urusei*Yatsura web site
http://www.ottawa.net/~proulx/uy/uyhome.htm
==============================================