Mistilteinn, Treesea’s other name.  If you’ve spent a lot of time watching anime or playing video games, you’ve probably seen the name appear in a few places.  For example, in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, it’s one of Hayate Yagami’s attacks.  Of course, if you know anything about etymology, you know this word didn’t originate in Japan, or even in our modern English.  You can trace the word back to Old Norse, where it meant mistletoe.  Of course, back then mistletoe didn’t have the connotation it has today.  Rather than being part of a Yuletide tradition, it was a god slayer.  Gather around, children, because I’ve got a story to tell.

Well... she certainly looks the part.

Some of you have probably heard of one important figure in Norse mythology: Baldr.  For those of you who aren’t, he was the second child of Odin and Frigg.  Baldr presided over the domains of light, joy, and purity, among other aspects.  Once upon a time, Baldr had a terrible nightmare.  He dreamt of his own death.  Alarmed by this, his mother, Frigg, tried to make a pact with everything in existence.  I do mean everything: plants, animals, objects, and forces of nature.  She pleaded with them to spare her son.  Frigg received oaths from all but one, the mistletoe.  I’m sure you can see where this is going.  When you make a foolproof plan, you had better make sure it covers everything!

What with his new invincibility, all the other gods had great fun using Baldr for target practice.  Whatever hit him would just bounce off without a scratch.  Loki, the trickster god, decided to take advantage of this.  He approached Frigg and asked if her son were truly invincible.  Without thinking, she told him his one weakness.  Loki quickly crafted a weapon made of mistletoe.  Some accounts refer to it as an arrow, while others call it a lance.  Loki gave the weapon to Hod, Baldr’s brother, and convinced him to throw it.  Sure enough, the mistletoe shaft pierced the god, and shortly thereafter, he died.  Another of Odin’s sons puts Hod to death, and the gods ultimately bind Loki for his actions.

Most of you would probably see this as a Very Bad Thing.  You don’t know the half of it.  Some accounts point to this event as the ultimate cause of Ragnarok, the Norse end of the world.  Everyone can pat themselves on the back for breaking the world now.  However, it wasn’t all bad.  Odin goes to consult the wise jotunn (giant) Vafpruonir.  Odin wins a battle of wits with the giant, and besides gaining insight into Ragnarok’s outcome, secures a promise.  As Baldr and Hod are already in Hel’s embrace, it will conceal them during Ragnarok.  After the end of the world, they will rise again.  Their deaths before the inevitable end of the world allow them to be one of the few remaining deities to lead the world.  Yes, it sounds arbitrary, but to an extent, that’s mythology for you.

All that said, I doubt Baldr's death looked this cute...

So why did I present all this information?  Etymology in itself can be pretty interesting at times, but on top of that, let’s think about the character’s name.  It’s possible the writers might have chosen it simply because it sounded cool.  On the other hand, it’s a suspiciously specific name to pick.  At face value Merry Dream Eater’s Mistilteinn is a malevolent being.  She not only kills, but also seems derives pleasure from it.  However, characters have had their motivations turned on their heads constantly.  It’s possible Mistilteinn has a greater purpose than meets the eye.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

I could foolishly attempt to analyze the play of this game, but as I’m not well versed in football, it’d ultimately be futile.  I instead direct you over to Emperor J’s coverage of the episode for a more thorough look at the tactics.  Instead, I’m going to focus on a single character aspect of the episode.  I imagine you’re wondering what on earth a sunken rice paddy has to do with a sports anime.  It turns out it’s time for another etymology lesson, this time revolving around Kubota.

Yeah, that's right. This vapid dude.

We can divide the name Kubota into two root characters.  The first one, Kubo, defines a sunken ground.  The second, Ta, refers to a rice paddy.  The Ta character appears in many Japanese surnames due to an edict in the Meiji era.  Every person had to provide a surname, and many chose it based on their surroundings.  Thus, the surname Kubota, meaning “sunken rice paddy,” is formed!

So why exactly is his name relevant at all to his character?  We’ll start with the first character because it’s the easiest to explain.  The adjective sunken refers to an object which has been submerged in water.  Water can distort or hide the things you put within it.  For example, a glacier looks like a small point of ice poking out of the water.  Easy to navigate around, right?  Unfortunately, water hides a sizable portion of submerged glacier.  If you only made a slight course adjustment, you might end up losing your boat!  Thus, Kubo refers to his hidden potential.  What you see on the surface only hides his true abilities.

This works very nicely with the second character, the rice paddy.  Rice, cooked on its own, generally comes out quite plain.  You can eat it as a dish, but it doesn’t really bring anything special to the meal.  It’s also incredibly common, and a staple of many meals in Asian countries.  There’s a reason many languages have the same or similar words for “rice” and “food.”  I learned that from Good Eats.

If you've watched this series at all, you know what's coming.

This requires me to go back and change my evaluation of Kubota, which I made in episode 18’s post.  At first, I thought he acted timidly.  Instead, he’s simply plain.  Plain, plainer, plainest.  So plain he might get easily confused for plain yogurt.  A blank sheet of paper has more going on than Kubota’s outward appearance.  I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea.  However, only a fool would believe this is all rice has to offer.  Remember those hidden depths.

Rice has a great deal of versatility.  You can eat it perfectly fine as a plain dish, but you can also do so much more with it.  You can use boiled rice in many soup recipes, as well as combining it with different types of meat.  Adding sweeteners can make a dessert, rather than an appetizer or meal.  A countless variety of fried rice exists in Chinese cuisine.  The Iranians used it to develop pilaf, while centuries later the Italians made risotto.  Again, I could go on forever, but you get the idea.  Rice is one of the ultimate culinary multitaskers, able to work well with many dishes in many cooking styles.

Now put it all together.  On the surface, Kubota looks plain as can be.  You could easily mistake him for an amateur amateur-league player.  His appearance hides his incredible abilities.  In the direct sense, he has incredible control of the ball.  He can probably kick circles around anyone in the league if he really wanted.  In an indirect way, he plays exceptionally well with others.  His versatility allows him to link up with all three of his fellow forwards, even defying Hauer’s language barrier.  While they’ve only shown him working as a playmaker, he could probably score goals of his own as well.  Kubota’s name defines him perfectly, and Dulfer has managed to land himself quite a gem for the Osaka Gunners.

I hope class is in session, because you just got SCHOOLED!