AD Vid-Notes

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AD Vid-Notes is a special feature on recent ADV Films DVD releases which provides pop-up glosses or running notes on assorted cultural references throughout an anime. The format is similar to that of VH1's Pop-Up Video. They are essentially quick tips on the subtext of another culture. Not only do they explain jokes, they may point out their very existence. Without the notes, the intended effect of some content could be entirely lost on the untrained foreign ear if not explicitly pointed out.

[edit] Example

AD Vid-Notes are frequently used in seasonal festivals, untranslatable puns and other word play, various aspects of pop culture, in jokes, proverbial sayings, idioms, literary allusions, historical figures, and dialects. On occasion they can fill up the entire screen.

These anime footnotes are not limited to Japanese culture. Within the first few minutes of the 12th Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi episode "Huge Reversal?!", on the DVD entitled "There's No Place Like Home", the following pop up:

  • American comics style, e.g., Mike Mignola.
  • The term for Zen priests refers to members of the Fuke sect, who play a wooden flute (shakuhachi) when begging.
  • "Many worlds" and "Copenhagen" are interpretations of quantum physics's wave-collapse
  • Sasshi enters the world like the The Terminator (1984).
  • Arumi drops in like Reese
  • A reference to "Tokyo Story" (1953) by Ozu Yazujiro.
  • A dark, sedate domestic drama.
  • That all the black and white characters speak standard Japanese.
  • Monty Python's Lumberjack sketch.
  • Masa's actor did this for the Japanese Monty Python dub.

[edit] DVDs that have had an AD Vid-Notes feature