Mobile Era 8013...
This anime is made for the viewer to enjoy the cuteness of robots, while enjoying a hardly noticeable, inoffensive investigation.
On Earth, where humans have long been extinct,
the hordes of military robots that were left behind
continue fighting an endless war.
The war's seriously not ending.
Let's obtain laughter... at any cost...
I was sorting through my library again yesterday,
and found another new document on laughter.
I've been meaning to say this for a while,
I think you're sorting through your library too much, Kato.
What did you find this time?
Apparently the organic life forms called humans,
that once inhabited this planet, used a technique
called "saying something clever" as a method to cause laughter.
Saying... something clever?
The audience would listen to what was being said,
(Saying) Something Clever (noun + adjective) To be good at word play.
and think, "how clever!" In other words, "very good," and that would cause laughter.
I didn't know there was anything like that!
Anyway, Fujii, try saying something clever.
R-Right... Okay.
What's wrong, Fujii?
Well, I feel like I always have to start...
It's not that I really mind being first, but...
Every time I do, we seem to start off badly,
so I feel sort of bad and sort of apprehensive...
I guess it can't be helped.
All right, I will start today.
Wait, Kato... Let me go first once in a while...
It's all right. I'll go first today, so you can just watch.
If I don't go first sometimes... It's not fair to Fujii...
I can't help but feel that you're not worthy of going first.
Kato! That's so mean!
Ah! Don't fight! I'll go first after all, so it's okay.
All right, go ahead.
What?!
O-Oh, okay...
It appears that the three of them are showing a bit of progress...
So I just have to make you think I'm saying something good.
Right. And of course, please, use the weather as the theme.
All right, I'll give it a try.
Um...
It is quite sunny. Peacefully it stretches out,
the clear, vast blue sky.
How was that? Did I read that well?
What exactly was that supposed to be?
Well, it's called "senryuu,"
and is a poem you read following the 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
Since it was my first time, I'm not very confident that I did a good job...
Yeah, I didn't really get it.
I think... that's not what they mean by "something clever."
I guess I failed again.
An opening where Fujii's prediction was spot on.
According to another document,
there's a trick to saying something clever.
For example, saying the same
sounding word with two different meanings, but finding a connection.
Oh, I see.
All right, I'll try one more time.
Sure.
Wow, it's so sunny out, it feels great.
Thank you, God!
It's nice and warm, perfect weather for a walk.
Thank you, God!
But if it were to suddenly get cloudy after this,
and drops fell from the sky, then I'll get all sticky.
I'm telling you, I'll get all sticky!
Dot... Dot... Dot...
How was that?
I thought I said something quite clever this time.
Would it be all right if I asked for an explanation?
Well, you see,
the drops weren't a description of the rain (ame),
but the type of candy (ame) humans ate.
Candy is something that is made by solidifying sugar,
so that got stuck to my body, making me sticky.
See? Didn't I use both variations of the word well?
I couldn't really follow the situation.
I'd have to see it in print... to understand it...
What? Really?
Not to mention, I think the whole thing about
it being sunny in the beginning was unnecessary.
Oh, the first half,
was where I was saying a prayer to God,
and the phrase "amen" was apparently used,
so I tried throwing that in there, too.
But this is really hard.
Actually, Fujii attempted a rather high difficulty clever saying.
If you had thought about it that far,
why didn't you explain it to us properly?
Fujii... you're "ame"-zing...
I did my best, but it didn't work too well.
Apparently, explaining things properly is important.
I'll give it a try next.
Okay.
My name is "Kato," right?
When you sweeten something, you can also say "kato."
Right.
Other than that, being inferior is also "kato,"
and it can also be used in the context of "Let's win this fight."
I see.
I'll use all of them and give it a try.
Now,
let us sweeten, and win against the inferior beings!
For I am Kato!
So, this is where you laugh.
U-Um, I'm not sure what it is...
You explained everything prior, so I couldn't find anything new...
I felt conflicted (kattou) watching it...
And I thought it went pretty well, too...
As usual, Mori says clever things so simply.
Apparently, it won't be so easy...
Oh, how about this?
There's a form of wordplay, a "riddle," where
you say something well, but very simply.
Riddle (noun) Word puzzles, or thinking of clever ways of using words.
It's a game where you're given a certain subject,
and you see who can say the most clever thing.
If we look into a specific example, we might understand this more.
Find one that is easily understandable by robots.
Right! Then...
What do a robot and a crime have in common?
They both require "sousa" (operating/investigating).
It's true that you solve a crime by investigating it...
But none of us... are operated by anyone...
That's true. I don't really get it, either.
Other than that, there's "What do a robot and a sneeze have in common?"
They're both susceptible to "koshou" (malfunctions/pepper).
It's true that robots are susceptible to malfunctions...
But I wonder what "koshou" means in relation to human physiology.
I've never heard of it...
It's true that it's rarely ever seen in the real world.
Isn't there anything else, Fujii?
Well... Oh, this, apparently, isn't a good example.
That's fine. I'd like to compare, so go ahead and say it.
Okay...
What does a robot and an android have in common?
They're pretty much the same thing.
That is very easily understood.
I wonder why it isn't a good example.
Androids are a kind of robot!
Very easy to understand.
Anything else?
Let's see... What do a robot and a rocket have in common?
They both start with "R", end with "T,"
contain the same amount of syllables, and they're both science fiction related.
What a miraculous example... There are four similarities!
Why... is this not good?
I'm really not sure.
Unfortunately, it looks like this time ends in failure, too.
We're trying so many things, but nothing is working.
It can't be helped.
We robots hadn't had a chance (kikai) to experiment with laughter.
Indeed.
It appears they haven't noticed,
but they managed to lump robots and machines (kikai) together.
But we shouldn't stop here.
If we give up, the robot world will be in danger (kiki).
Indeed.
And they managed to throw robot and machinery and tools (kiki) together, too.
I don't want to see... anymore... broken robots...
The robots that lost in battle... and come in for repairs...
their wiring (haisen) is destroyed...
Wiring and lost battle (haisen), yet again, well played.
Let's not hurry and take care of this carefully.
Yes!
As they take a breather,
the story of the robots also takes a breather.
To be continued in the second half.
I found the word "pun" in a file,
along with data suggesting it was a popular way of producing laughter.
Pun?
Let's try... pun!
Yes!
Subaru!
In the file, there was "The futon went flying" (futon ga futtonda),
"Japanese food came out and was a shock" (washoku ga detekite, wa, shokku),
and "The principal is on a roll" (kouchou sensei zekkouchou),
so let's run a simulation for all three of them.
Experiment start.
Pun Festival
Principal
is on a roll
Principal is on a roll
Maybe there were fewer casualties?
But it doesn't look like something we can do in the real world.
Experiment... Failed!
Could I try an experiment, too?
Sure.
So, apparently, making people think you're fighting, and then
kissing produced laughter for some reason.
How curious.
Subaru!
Experiment start.
Public Kissing
Maybe it worked a little bit?
It just seems like something unnecessary got involved with the fighting.
Yeah.
Experiment... Failed!
I want to... try one, too...
That's rare, Mori.
I found something called "Who the hell are you?" in a file
and it produced laughter.
Oh, I see.
Well then, let's try this "Who the hell are you?"
Yes!
Subaru!
Experiment start.
Suspicious Beings
It looked like it made fighting the most difficult so far but...
It didn't seem to be enough to stop the casualties.
Experiment... Failed!
Next time on Straight Title: Robot Anime:
Episode Eleven. You're terrib—
Episode Eleven
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