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At the end of Golden Boy Episode 2, there's a message written by a girl to MC-kun. The subs say it translates to "Call me any time". But I can't make out the "call me" part in Japanese.

image of japanese text

To me, it looks like "いつでもTeLしてネじ". The parts I don't understand are "TeL" and the weird "じ"-looking thing at the end.

For context, the anime takes place in the early 90s. Also, consider not asking what material/object the message is written on @.@

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    Tel is different-case spelling of ＴＥＬ (noun and suru verb: "telephone call; phone call​"). I do not know if there is any character after "ネ", maybe big "。".
    – Arfrever
    Commented Feb 22 at 5:26
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    @Arfrever that looks like a ♡ (heart symbol).
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Feb 22 at 7:23

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The last symbol looks like a heart - it's just that the stroke is less intense and looks blurry at some places (which I guess can happen with not so clean handwriting). The symbol here doesn't carry much meaning other than adding a playful tone. The same goes for the hiragana/katakana swap (ね/ネ) at the end.

Telする is "to call" in casual written language (less common in spoken language).

いつでもTelしてネ♡

いつでも電話してね。 ("Call me any time.")

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  • As a quick follow up, is "Tel"する still in common use, or is it more of a 90s/00s thing?
    – chausies
    Commented Feb 22 at 17:28
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    @chausies Very much a last century phrase. Or at the very least a pre-smartphone era thing. Kinda amusing: komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/topics/id/1025104/all
    – Will
    Commented Feb 22 at 18:39
  • Many in the linked thread said it's more for written communication. Tel is much easier to write than 電話, while テル is not much easier to say out loud than でんわ.
    – Yusuke Matsubara
    Commented Feb 23 at 2:05

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