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Here is a shot from Baby Steps, episode 20 at time mark 16:46:

girl with sign on back reading, "The Best Meat Buns"

I think "The Best Meat Buns" is the English translation of the sign Nat-chan is wearing on her back. She is considered one of the prettiest and most popular girls in her high school. She is wearing a maid-cafe outfit for the cultural festival, and her group is selling meat buns. In English the sign is an obvious double entendre. What is the literal translation of the sign? Would Japanese folks see it as a double entendre too? (Maybe in Japan, "buns" just means buns.)

I think if it is a Japanese double entendre, Nat-chan would be in on the joke. She is not portrayed as just a clueless girl.

RichF
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    It's not really a double entendre, other than in the sense that if you try hard enough, anything can _double_ your _entendre_. 肉まん _nikuman_ is just a particular type of meat-filled dumpling; １番 _ichiban_ just means "number one" or "the best". – senshin Feb 04 '17 at 21:04
  • @senshin From your translation, it sounds like Japanese folks would interpret the sign with no extra connotation than "really good meat-filled dumpling". // Maybe I'm just the classic "dirty old man". If so, I was a dirty young man as well. *Buns* has had the connotation of *ass-cheeks* since I was about 7. I probably started seeing "meat" used with an extra connotation when I was about 20. I'm not alone in the double entendre interpretation, though -- a Google search found several forum posts giggling at her sign. – RichF Feb 04 '17 at 22:03

1 Answers1

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You might be overthinking this.

Remember that this is at a cultural festival. Natsu with the ad on her back, wearing a China dress, is more likely out there to be a poster girl of sorts to advertise her class's themed cafe,inside the building.

If a double entendre was intended it would make more sense to put the ad on the front versus the back, below the actual goods. Even if this were true, why advertise the class when the advertised product is right there?

кяαzєя
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  • That is definitely possible -- I'm good at that! // Hmm, IIRC there used to be another answer to this question which showed that, if there is an association in Japan, it is with meat buns and *breasts*, not *ass-cheeks*. This is in-line with your answer, in suggesting that a double entendre would have moved the sign to her front. But in my frame of reference, the sign is near her, um, buns. // Bottom-line, I agree with you and @senshin and the mystery answerer -- there is no double entendre intended. – RichF Mar 03 '17 at 19:51