No notes this week again. This is getting to be a trend. Though I guess it’s been a bit of a training-slash-flashback arc, so they’re not really discussing or enountering anything new.
That said, this is the final chapter that was adapted for the anime series, which first aired in 2003. Up until this point, it was a fairly faithful adaptation (save that anything involving Kiryu was completely excised), but with this chapter, the adaptation just ends, leaving the story unfinished.
I do love how fast Suzuki in the last few pages goes from “I better keep an eye on this kid, she’s my biggest threat” to “never mind, I’ve been crushingly defeated”. (Also, it mildly bugs me that only Fuchuya is identified on their tracking computer by his family name alone, though I guess he’s the only one of them with three kanji in his family name, and his given name adds another three.)
I wasn’t familiar with the shadow stick method for finding directions. It’s not explained in the story and I couldn’t work out what she was doing with the stone.
On looking it up - you put the stick in the ground and use a stone to mark the end of its shadow, and then wait 15 minutes and mark where the end of the shadow is now. You can then join those points together to make an east west line.
I think the picture in the manga is a bit misleading though - this picture makes more sense of what it might look like.
Need some notes this week. Gonna note all the things. Well… thing.
Page 46, the stars these two are listing are all, as Marika comments, the brighest stars in their respective constellations (which I guess makes them the most famous). Vega is in Lyra, Altair is in Aquila, Regulus is in Leo, Arcturus is in Boötes, and Spica is in Virgo. Spica, Arcturus and (sometimes) Regulus together also form the Spring Triangle asterism, while Vega and Altair form the Summer Triangle with the addition of Deneb (which is in Cygnus). (Dunno why Marika’s giving up so easily - I can name three more without even trying: Polaris (Ursa Minor), Betelgeuse (Orion) and Alpha Centauri (Centaurus)… though that last one might be cheating. Not to mention Sirius (Canis), which is the brightest star in the night sky. Guess it’s possible they’ve already been playing for some time.)
I’d love to comment, but tbh, the only reason I know any stars at all is Re:Zero. Apart from that I’m sadly unable to work up any interest in astrology.
No idea if it’s intentional, but this chapter’s guest character Haijima Ryohei happens to share his family name with Haijima Station - Yaginuma-sensei has a tendency to use station names for the names of random background characters, though I confess I haven’t spotted him doing it so far this series… and Haijima isn’t exactly a background character. Though, come to think of it, Sano, Sakashita and Shibata are all station names too (though not Shiomi - his name is spelt 塩見, but the Shiomi Station in Tokyo’s Koto ward is 潮見.) But I digress…
(Fun fact: although the drama version of this series completely omitted Lion-san, and any other supernatural aspects, this chapter’s story was largely retained. Though they made Haijima a woman.)
Page 69, the book Asumi is reading is Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, which was the best-selling science book ever published in English… until 1988, when Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time came out.
Page 70, for the 旧 in 旧国際宇宙ステーション, remember in this universe, the ISS reached the end of its lifespan, and was de-orbited at the start of volume 2.
Nice chapter, again some sad memories from the past and half the characters in tears.That was a nice touch inviting him to the bench for Lion to sit alongside and play the harmonica.
Also - 友人 gets a lot of stick on Wanikani for appearing early but being a rare word. It actually seems to come up quite a bit in manga!
Page 95, this thing that Suzuki is looking at is an election poster board - candidates for whatever political office is currently up for grabs are assigned a space where they can put posters touting themselves on these things. Near as I can tell, it’s just called 掲示板 in Japanese, with 選挙ポスター added to the front if greater specificity is requred. I kinda think they’re a bit of an eyesore, but I guess it’s better than the practice we have here in Australia of letting candidates put up corflutes on every single bit of civic infrastructure they can wrap a cable tie around.
(Bit of a tangent, but they apparently had a bit of… fun with these during the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election - a right-wing nutter whose party runs entirely on the premise of cancelling NHK licencing fees somehow managed to gain control over 24 of the 48 spaces on the boards, and was selling them to donors to use as they pleased… which included adult shops, adult media, adult everything. Turns out such a thing was not actually illegal, but people were definitely Not Happy, Jan.)
I tried to find origami instructions for how to make stars like they’re shown here, but all the ones I found either require scissors, multiple sheets of paper, or they’re the little lucky charm stars that you squeeze so thay they puff up.
Nice chapter. Made me want to do some origami. I remember meeting an older guy in Nara who had a plastic box full of origami frogs and was giving them away to children.
