閑話休題
kan.wa.kyuu.dai

Literally: leisure – talk – rest – topic

Alternately: “But setting that aside….” A phrase used to put an end to a digression, aside, or idle chatter, and return the listener’s attention to the main topic or thread of conversation, or the main plotline in storytelling. A more casual way to express the same thought would be それはさておき (sore wa sate oki).

Notes: This phrase comes from a passage in the famous 14th century Chinese historical novel Water Margin (Japanese 水滸伝, Suiko den).

閑 may be replaced with homophone 間, “interval,” without any change in meaning – note that both 閑話 and 間話 can refer to “idle talk,” although the latter compound seems to be less commonly used in current Japanese.

One of the “scene change” panels from the original Bakemonogatari anime