Quote:
Originally Posted by Anh_Minh
And superstition? Really? You think people are going to work for them because they've got "four" in their name? Like, say, Four Leaves Technology?
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It's an issue that's built around homonyms - it's the Japanese '4' that people have problems with, because one pronunciation for '4', "shi," is the same as the pronunciation for 'death'.
Hence, they won't have a problem with the English word 'Four'.
(And Japanese (and Chinese) people probably have a much higher sensitivity to superstition than secular people in the West, if only because there are quite a few occasions where we actively avoid using '4'. For example, we avoid giving money at weddings / New Year in sums that have the digit '4' in it (we try to give money in sums that contain the number '8' instead). Apparently, there are even buildings in Japan that skip the fourth level because of this. '9' is also avoided - to a lesser extent - because one pronunciation for it, "ku," is the same as that for the word 'suffering'. In contrast, '13', Friday the 13th etc, mean little to them outside of the pop culture they get from the west.)
So yes, a valid argument for the world of Mahouka, whether you like it or not.)
Though personally, I reckon that a more important reason that they'd have difficulty replacing this butler is the issue of trust. Given the secrecy that envelops the house, how easy can it be to find someone that they can trust with their secrets?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anh_Minh
Tatsuya's the super genius. The other guy is just good at his job. It's like Mozart and Salieri (please don't tell me about the historical reality), except instead of burning jealousy, you've got hero worship.
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But if Tatsuya's the super genius, why do they treat him like crap? Given that his father just stood there and let Aoki completely ignore him and diss him, it looks like it's something completely acceptable in the Yotsuba family. To me, that raises questions about
what exactly it is the family values in their magicians, which I assume to be related to whatever it is that the magic education system believes is valuable (casting speed, the scale of the spell and the ability of the person to 'rewrite information' with their magic (ep. 3)). Doesn't look like super intelligence or high psion count - which Ushiyama's words suggest is a trait of both Miyuki and Tatsuya - count for much.