And onto the next volume! There’s an odd number of chapters in this volume, which means either a week of three chapters or a week of one, so I arbitrarily decided to make it one week this week. (I could have, I suppose, done the single chapter on the Easter weekend instead, on the off chance that people are going away, but, well, I said I decided arbitrarily, and I meant it.)
Chapter twenty-six’s title image doesn’t appear to be a reference to anything, though I feel like it ought to be.
Page 9, I’m not entirely sure who Kemonoria are meant to be a reference to, but the Namba Girls are, perhaps, a combination of Number Girl and Osaka’s Namba. Though, aren’t both of these bands just Kessoku Band with different hairstyles?
Page 10, though, the members of SIDEROS who (spoiler alert) we’ll meet in person later, take their names from the members of Kinniku Shoujo Tai. Yoyoko is named for the lead vocalist Otsuki Kenji.
I had no idea what that weird X kanji was but found out a few days later it’s 〆 and it’s a shorter version for words like 締切 (shimekiri, deadline) if I got this right
4koma strikes again
Chapter twenty-nine’s title image doesn’t appear to reference anything - it’s just a Christmas Special style thing. Chapter thirty’s is from “Sentimental Sister” by yonige.
We’re doing the Christmas chapter during Easter weekend. Someone’s got their Jesus festivals mixed up. No notes for this chapter, though.
Moving onto the second chapter, on page 40, Kita’s friends’ suggestions for Bocchi’s karaoke reference Aimyon and Higedan (which is an abbreviation for Official Hige Dandism).
Page 41, Kita’s 富士の樹海 is specifically referencing Aokigahara.
Page 42, Ryo is being extremely disrepectful towards ゆるキャン△ there…
Page 50, Chibi-Ryo’s “Back” manga is presumably a reference to 90s rock band manga Beck.
Nice chapter, laughed a few times (リョウ with the 雪だるま and ぼっち about to sing a song when the guitar cord breaks ) and enjoyed the sistery bond at the end.
“Away”, as in “the away team”. They’re playing in someone else’s “turf”, as it were, so the home crowd isn’t about to support them with the same fervour as they do their own team.
Pretty fun set of chapters. I liked the glimpse into Ryou’s home life. Kita going full shoujo mode in despair was pretty funny too. And Nijika’s fancy outfit was cute (they didn’t draw any attention to it but I thought it was neat)!
I can’t help but feel a lot of the vibe I’m getting is “I can’t wait until the anime adapts this” … perhaps partially an example of the limitations of 4koma as a format in that (almost) everything has to be a punchline. I really liked the jam session though.
A few things I didn’t quite get:
- Did Hiroi’s point card ‘present’ already expire?
actually that was about it
I think I need to flashcard the names - I can’t remember anybody but the main four lol. Hiroi’s comes up a lot and I blank every time
I like how she’s pointing upwards to refer to the previous panel, I forgot that it’s a manga so they can just do that lol
Bocchi forgot something and I did too
Specifically, she was trying to bribe her way out of the job, since she was flush with cash (and too shy to quit outright). It’s Nijika who assumed Bocchi was thinking of buying a birthday present.
Not gonna lie, had the Wikipedia page opened on the side when I was reading to know who are we talking about and in which of the band they are with whom. Could be even better if they had pictures in the article. Might be a bit spoilery even without pictures since we are only at volume 3 so open at your own risk.
… and then the black and white and the 4-koma format came back and it felt pretty hard again x)
) and enjoyed the sistery bond at the end.
