Right across the road from JR Takadanobaba Station under the Yamanote tracks is a colorful mural of manga art featuring characters created by Osamu Tezuka. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)
When I started watching anime, one of the first words that I latched onto was the name of a beloved and classy grandmother figure everyone called baa-baa, like in “black sheep have you any wool.”
It sounded like a katakana version of “barber.” I later heard a sharper rendition of the word used in an angry situation, and it was easy to see that it meant something like an old hag.