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I
read this on another forum some time ago, but haven't
been able to relocate the site since then. It took awhile,
but I finally found Omniglot, which has examples of
just about any written language you can imagine so I
could confirm it. Anyway, the person on that other forum
said that the letters Mr. Fujishima uses for Yggdrasil
Code Speech are actually a computer font used to print
Thai in. So those are Thai letters being used when Belldandy
and the other goddesses are casting high level spells
and writing mandelas. (Since the Dark Horse printed
images are often reversed it takes some study to compare
them to the letters in the real Thai alphabet. A mirror
helps.)
The question remains whether they actual spell out anything
or are just random letters printed for appearance, sorta
like cartoon swearing. Any Thai fans out there who might
know?
(A
later reply confirmed that these are indeed Thai letters
put backwards. The letters are random and thus don't
form words or phrases)
In
the manga and movie, when Belldandy and Urd give Keiichi
their business cards the first time they meet him, they
are following correct Japanese business protocol. According
to the U.S. State Department post report for new employees
sent to Japan, the offering and exchange of one's business
card (usually printed in English on one side and Japanese
on the other) is a requirement when meeting someone
for the first time with whom you may be having formal
social or business matters to discuss. This custom doesn't
apply to normal meetings or introductions but is often
followed by people who do have those sorts of meetings.
Not having a card shows that Keiichi is still a student
and doesn't have business dealings and Skuld is too
young to be dealing formally with people. That they
were dropped from the OAVs was probably either an oversight
or to save animation time.
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