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In Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi!, in the scene where the girls draw lots from the lottery box, the lottery box is shown with some characters crossed out:

Searching for めだちた leads me to the dictionary entry for 【目{め}立{だ}ちたがり屋{や}】, which means "attention seeker". However, it feels a bit out of whack here.

What is the significance of this box? And why are the words crossed out?

nhahtdh
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    This is a pun on the suffix -がる _-garu_ (the one you attach to the -たい _-tai_ form to express that someone else wants to do such-and-such), which sounds very much like ガール _gaaru_ "girl", so that what we effectively have here is 目立ちたがる _medachi-ta-garu_ "to want to stand out" being crossed out and replaced with 組みたがる _kumi-ta-garu_ "to want to join together". Haven't gotten that far in Yuru Yuri, though, so I dunno what exactly the joke is. – senshin Mar 03 '15 at 17:09
  • @senshin "to want to stand out" might be a reference to Akari as during the serious she always express how she wants more presence. as for the box i'm quite sure that's the Suggestion Box Kyoko made which gets reused a couple of times for different purposes – Memor-X Mar 03 '15 at 21:16
  • @senshin: Would you mind expanding that into an answer? I think the question would be more fully answered with the information in your comment. – nhahtdh Aug 11 '15 at 15:04

2 Answers2

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I believe this is the same box that was used earlier in the series for drawing lots. It's a running joke that Kyouko kept on pulling out the box, crossing out what she originally wrote on it, and writing something new.

The first time, in Episode 1 of Series I, everyone put in things that Akari could do to try and stand out more as a main character, which is probably what "めだちた girl" refers to. The manga translation that I read translates the word as "star wannabe girl". Yui thinks that it sounds pretty horrible when she sees it, so it seems like that out of whack feeling was intentional; it was supposed to be Kyouko--intentionally, since she's always messing with Akari, or possibly unintentionally--using a term with the negative connotation that Akari was trying to draw attention to herself.

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Another time, which seems to have only happened in the manga, Kyouko filled the box with conversational topics like "Club activities" and "I'm hungry" and penalties like "Say 'Shazam!' at the end of your sentences" and "Talk erotically". (Akari had to say "Shazam!", while Chinatsu had to talk erotically.) There were other instances across the manga and anime where Kyouko pulled out the box and wrote something new on it; being Kyouko, it wouldn't be too surprising if everything she wrote was some kind of pun on the original "めだちた girl".

Torisuda
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  • I do remember Kyouko pulling it out a second time in the anime (though i don't remember when) as i haven't read the manga and i remember someone noting it was the same suggestion box and i remember the club activity suggestion "i'm hungry" as it was Kyouko and Yui retorted her for it not being a suggestion – Memor-X Mar 09 '15 at 21:20
  • @Memor-X Kyouko uses the box several times in the manga, and probably several times in the anime, but those were just the times I could remember. I feel like she also used it to make pairings in the first anime when everyone paired off for Christmas dats. – Torisuda Mar 11 '15 at 02:34
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At nhahtdh's request, here is a brief explanation of a Japanese pun that is happening here. It probably doesn't make much sense if you don't know Japanese, but oh well.

First, note that the box reads medachi-ta-girl, with the medachi-ta crossed out and replaced with kumi-ta.

This is a pun on the suffix -がる -garu (the one you attach to the -たい -tai form to express that someone else wants to do such-and-such), which sounds very much like ガール gaaru "girl". So, what we effectively have here is 目立ちたがる medachi-ta-garu "to want to stand out" being crossed out and replaced with 組みたがる kumi-ta-garu "to want to join together".

Perhaps the notion is that rather than being "girls who want to stand out", they are "girls who want to join together". I haven't gotten that far in Yuru Yuri, though, so I dunno what exactly the joke is; see Torisuda's answer for more information on that.

senshin
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  • I haven't seen Nachuyachumi, but according to the Wikipedia summary, the girls pair up for a test of courage, and Kyouko tends to whip out that box in situations like this, so that's probably what the pun is--they want to join together into pairs for the test of courage. – Torisuda Aug 13 '15 at 06:40