Glyphs

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Runes used by the people from the city of Orth (Orth runes) occasionally appear in the series and directly match the Japanese syllabic kana alphabets.

The easiest way to decode them is reading the anime opening and end credits, where the names of the staff are laid over the corresponding Orth runes. Since each symbol is a match for a kana sign, anyone with a moderate knowledge of Japanese can easily decode them. As a result, a few people decoded them independently; the result could be found on the Internet. Manga readers faced the problem earlier and thus found the solution first. There are some differences in style but in overall it is possible to read both manga and anime texts (if you know Japanese well enough to read it without kanji).

Written text is mostly used for illustrative purposes to create a mysterious look, but does not bring any significant new information. However, it is fun to read some short texts if you know Japanese or with help of Internet translation tools. In the table above, the translation from Orth runes to katakana is presented, and below there are some examples of translated text.

Overall, such types of writing are bad news for non Japanese community, since all runes are strictly linked to Japanese language.

Examples from the Anime
The first appearance of the runes in the anime is in episode 1 (9m 44s), where a book falls down and its cover is visible:



Letter of Lyza to Riko. It translates to "Waiting at the bottom"



One of the largest texts are Riko's notes on Reg :

1. kaminoke hair 2. 3. kohi chotto gakai like coffee (skin) 4. teheso belly button chinchin childish term for penis  5. chotto kawatta beruto switching belt 6. herumetto helmet; bottom line: kawaii cute or tiny (chinchin) 7. 8. nande chinchin ga tsuiterun tarou why is there a penis attached (why does he have a penis) 9. te_shi_tsu_na_su_ru Don't hesitate to translate ;)

Awesome signature of Nanachi (ep.11 12m 07s):



There are funny things with books in anime series. Titles of books are all copied and there are only few original titles. One text is copied from poster in episode 1 and used later in episodes 7 and 13. ibetsukaishi??unokihan (please translate)



Page of the book ep.13 9m 05s. ka e ra zu no mi ya ko na so "Capital of the Unreturned"



Cover of the same book (ep.13 5m 04s). Larger letters: "Exploration notes of the Abyss"



Mitty's passing is confirmed by the indicating lamp which turns off. Each lamp is marked with a name. It is strange that there is no lamp with Nanachi's name among approximately 30 readable tags. There are no names of Lyza and Reg (we do not know his real name) as well. Looks like all the lamps are indicating children of experiments or persons who descended below that level.



Examples from the Manga
Nanachi 's drawing for the letter to the surface ( Chapter 39 ). Labelling the characters; Reg, Riko & Meinya , Nanachi and Prushka (pointing to the whistle).







Runes appearing in the afterword, Distant Writings 1&2, of Chapter 39 ).

 