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In the bonus episode, the group of players who don't make the cut to play in the competition form a B-Squad named Monaka, after the first character of their three second-year members' names.

When they announce this name to the rest of the club, Asuka misunderstands and thinks the name has something to do with youth:

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Asuka: "Monaka". We're in the thick of our youth! Or something.
Girl: No, we just took the start of the second-years' names.

Where did Asuka think they had gotten the name "Monaka" from?

Torisuda
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  • i wouldn't be surprised if Asuka was getting it from the Kanji or it's meaning shown in the first frame since i have see stuff like that before like in Death Note in how Misa describes how Light's name is written as Moon and [this in Aoishiro](http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/11697/1587). though i don't know what that meaning could be since i can't read it – Memor-X Jan 16 '17 at 00:45
  • @Memor-X I can't read it either, but I thought it might be important so I included it. – Torisuda Jan 16 '17 at 00:48

1 Answers1

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Here is what Asuka said in Japanese:

なるほど…最中【もなか】。私達【わたしたち】は青春【せいしゅん】真っ【まっ】最中【さいちゅう】～的【てき】な？

I see... monaka. We're in the middle of our youth~ or something?

The idea is, 最中 (in the middle) is usually read as "saichuu", but also has another reading of "monaka". As for why Asuka connected it to "youth", it's a common idea that school life is related to youth life.

Monaka itself is actually a wafer cake filled with the bean jam. The origin of monaka is from 最中【もなか】の月【つき】 which has the meaning of "the shape of full moon".

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Aki Tanaka
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