Desert Island 'Nanas

[hinarei]

*WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS*

"Around 600BC, the city of Todai was the heart of the great Turtle civilization that spanned the entire Pacific Ocean. It was a glorious utopia, almost five times the size of Pararakelse and blessed with all of Nature's beauty. There was no strife in this paradise, only man and turtlekind living and loving peacefully together. As legend has it, all that was needed for peace or everlasting love was for two species or lovers to make a pilgrimage to this religious mecca together" - Seta Noriyasu, Professor of Archaeology (June 2001) - LH13, Hinata 112.

Its fun to see all the film and brand connections and in-jokes in the Negima and Love Hina series, but if you scratch beneath the surface and explore beyond what may seem obvious you can end up pleasantly surprised. A high percentage of material isn't truly original, but when you find out the inspiration behind something, it can make for an "ah!" moment. Like when I first found out the meaning behind Rei Ayanami's name, the blue-wolf-haired beauty from EVA.

Spoiler

Rei means zero in Japanese, an inference that in the story she can start over from the beginning, with NERV keeping a stable (or should that be a 'tube'?) of Rei 'clones', seemingly in preparation for the dangerous work the Children are performing, but sharing some knowledge of previous Reis' lives. Ayanami is the name of an old Japanese battleship. How's that for a name?

Japan is a country of over three thousand islands, scattered around the Pacific in close proximity to the four largest islands, but we visit two specific islands in the course of the Love Hina series, 5km southeast of Japan, on or about the International Dateline. In the anime, we see Pararakelse, home to Nyamo Namo, the islander Shinobu-alike. In the manga, as well as being informed in a little more depth about Pararakelse, we also take a quick look at Kaolla's home country, MolMol. I wish the countries had been covered in more detail, because they both appear to have an interesting make-up and history to them. Being either side of the International Date Line makes them integral locations in the story as well, and is interesting in itself.

Judging by the amount of digging Seta, Keitaro, Naru, Haruka and Sara undertake while visiting, the islands have obviously been inhabited for hundreds of years, with many ruins of ancient building, lots of pottery and machinery, and evidence of older civilisations dotted throughout the books.

Much like many other Pacific Isles, these islands have probably had unannounced visitors claiming bits of them for centuries, ever since nations got it into their heads to take to the seas. Dating back to, as Kataja has noted to me in PMs, Captain Cook and earlier, people have been exploring the Pacific and coming across pockets of previously remote peoples and adding to, borrowing from, or in many cases, stealing from and changing their cultures beyond recognition. Many explorers though, would have been benign, but exert a certain influence over the culture they discovered. MolMol and Pararakelse certainly seem to be in the same vein.

Molmol does seem to draw from many influences. Indian culture is prevalent (note the decorative 'bindi' mark on Kaolla's and Amalla's forehead as merely one example), and indeed Kaolla is originally thought to be from India (which she denies, failing to disclose where she's actually from until much later in the series - "It's a secret!" ). Their architecture seems drawn from mostly Middle Eastern and Asian themes; towers, minarets, high-vaulted domed structures. In my experience these forms were popular in India and Turkey (among other places, I'm sure). This place seems to have been visited by other countries the world over (or possibly even the other way about, but I'm not so sure on the exploratory tendencies of any resident other than Kaolla, who does love her tunnels )

The Todai temple ruins found in a remote desert location (North-west area of the MolMol island) are both of major archaeological and, latterly, commercial importance to the island. Strong traditions seem to be in effect around the ruins, not least the one that states that lovers married in the ruins stay together forever.

The opening line of this piece is courtesy of Seta. We are given a short, if bombastic, history lesson when he, Haruka, Sara, Keitaro and Naru go in search of the ruins. The islands appeared to have had an age of peace for centuries. Peace and turtles.

Seta's monologue also implies that MolMol was the centre of a vast network of islands, linked by a culture that revered the tasty turtle, mainly as a friend and not food. Perceptions may have changed somewhat over time, at least in MolMol.

Todai is also the name of a Buddhist temple complex in Nara (also visited during the series - "The deer, the deer!" - by Kaolla and Shinobu). This could perhaps be another link to the Todai temple ruins on MolMol.

MolMol's religion isn't specified as such, but may have something to do with a symbol that runs throughout the series. The "three eye" mark seems representative of the Kingdom of MolMol, in many capacities. It is to be found on many public buildings, on machinery that Kaolla develops, on ceremonial signage, on warships, even on day-to-day items such as pots and pans. Whether this is just a country symbol, heraldic device, trademark or religious icon is unclear, but its definitely quite important.

On the subject of religion, Pararakelse has a history of worshipping a turtle god, which feasted on young virgins "as snacks", possibly as sacrifice, called Namusan Sapou. The holy call of the turtle god was "myah".

I recall that Nyamo actually understood English which is why, when pressed, Shinomu was able to make snippets of conversation with her. This implies if not actual settlement by English-speaking colonists, at least a heavy influence through trading or such. Whether this apparent settlement or else had connotations elsewhere is as yet unexplored. Perhaps though its just that English is understood and used for trading pretty widely nowadays that its taught in schools on the island?

Interestingly, Pararakelse has a natural rock formation at an oasis strikingly similar to the shape of the architecture of Tokyo University, or Todai

Pararakelse, aside from that English connection, does seem to have been based on Kusu Island in Singapore. The name means "Tortoise Island" or "Turtle Island" in Chinese, so it's not hard to see some sort of inspiration here at any rate. Legend has it that a magical tortoise turned itself into an island to save two shipwrecked sailors - a Malay and a Chinese. The two men gave thanks according to his belief system, the former by building a Muslim keramat shrine, and the latter by establishing a Taoist shrine. (Source: Kusu Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). A scene in the anime where Tama appears in Motoko's dream as a huge water monster may also bear out a connection to a turtle island

After all, if you're going to have your characters sing to control anything, it may well be a horde of rampaging turtles

May your 'nanas be plentiful, your turtles tasty, and the skirts you see be mercifully brief and leafy

-hina

(A lot of this article may seem tenuous, but keep in mind that inspiration comes from many sources).

I need to go through this and properly record my sources

[Aniki]

aha, very interesting

very informative

[Grey Fox]

Coolio

[Ryo Misaki]

Lol... That's all that people can say on this? Wow...

Ok, before I forget, there's one thing that stood out as I read this...

Originally Posted by Hina

I recall that Nyamo actually understood English which is why, when pressed, Shinomu was able to make snippets of conversation with her. This implies if not actual settlement by English-speaking colonists, at least a heavy influence through trading or such. Whether this apparent settlement or else had connotations elsewhere is as yet unexplored. Perhaps though its just that English is understood and used for trading pretty widely nowadays that its taught in schools on the island?

You state that Nyamo knows English. Correct...
But the assumption that this makes one believe that Pararakelse was inhabited much by English speaking settlers or heavy trading may be not so correct...

Didn't Nyamo spend a lot of time with that older man? The one who's picture was in the locket? He was an English speaker, right?
So perhaps Nyamo's English is because of the time spent with him and Seta.

...or perhaps the fact that that man and Seta were in Pararakelse to begin with is proof that it had a lot of English visitors.


Anyway, that said, BRILLIANT piece, Hina~!
Lots of interesting background information on the possible influences and histories of Molmol and Pararakelse. Great job!

The only thing that seems to be a little weak with this writing... Is a proper conclusion.
It ends too abruptly without any sum-up. O_o

Either way, I loved it... It'll make me think differently about the Love Hina Islands. ^__^

[hinarei]

glad ya liked it, Ryo-san

I'd originally intended it to be added to or filled out if needed. I wanted this to be a wiki-ish piece, rather than a straight narrative, hence the lack of a summation, but there wasn't much to pull it together, I'll give you that.

If I recall correctly, the older man (whose picture was in Nyamo's locket) was her grandfather o_O If he spoke English, I assume he'd have learned it growing up, so would think that it'd been known on the island for some time.

It may not have been trading, but it was definitely something like that. I don't think English would necessarily be an original language of Pararakelse. So how else would it have got there? That's the thing, yes? In my mind, it'd be the usual English-speaking voyages and explorations, either for imperialism or trade (or perhaps even slavery?)...

[Aniki]

I thought she knew japanese? or did the old geezer originally speak english?

[Mr.Anderson]

Ok this is too much to read moments before I gotta go to work, I'll read it later

[hinarei]

as far as I can recall, Aniki, and looking through my books again to check, I'm pretty sure Nyamo can speak a little Japanese (pronouncing Shinobu's name "Shinomu"), but only through aping Shinobu. In fact, Shinobu states that Nyamo can't speak Japanese.

I'll quote pages if I can once I'm back home

tl;dr Mr A?

[Mr.Anderson]

Haha, I didn't know what tl;dr means, but you gotta love urban dictionary though tl;dr take a look at 4..

Anyway, not really. I really had to go to work (just came back and since it's past midnight and I have to work tomorrow I'll bail again. I have some time tomorrow though.