Chapter fifty-eight’s title image is from “Daiichiji Sekai” by NEE. (Warning: there’s a lot of strobe effects in this one.)
Chapter fifty-nine’s is from “Mayday” by w.o.d.
Page 4, 超谷 is a reference to 大谷翔平, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Mona Lisa”, “Venus” and “Louvre” are, I assume, apparent enough that I don’t need to link them.
Page 7, 反マッチ隆 and his song 毒SON is a reference to 反町隆史 and his song POISON - presumably the reason they’re playing it here is that it went viral a few years ago for its inexplicable ability to soothe crying babies.
Page 16, Bocchi warming Oyama’s shoes is perhaps a reference to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who originally got his start as a sandal-bearer for Oda Nobunaga.
thanks… both of these jokes were completely incomprehensible without knowing these bits of trivia lol.
Half done for the week and I’ll get to the other chapter tomorrow. I think i’ve come to accept that the effort/understanding/enjoyment ratio is starting to slip significantly for me (in that it’s getting much harder for the enjoyment I get out of it). So now I’m just reading without bothering to look much up and that seems to be working alright.
With only two vols left it seems like a bit of a waste to stop here, but equally I don’t really want to spend a fair amount of time each week looking up esoteric things to get esoteric jokes, so I think this is probably the right approach for me.
I think I need my eyes checked because I thought 食べ放題 was like an all you can eat buffet and 1000円 feels crazy cheap, I guess it’s domestic and there’s gonna be a lot more seafood than cattle or whatever but dang
Based off of 留学生, 留守番 and even 留置 I always thought of 留 as not just somebody whose temporarily there, but also as somebody who stands out, and it would seem even more the case now with 留年, but after looking up the meaning of the kanji I got basically just stop or detain. So it’s kinda got me wondering if there ever was any emphasis on somebody standing out to begin with or if that was just coincidental
I’m fairly sure there’s a 外 scribbled out on the actual product label, though it’s scribbled out so completely that it’s kinda hard to tell. Why imported crabs should make for such a difference in price, though, I’m not entirely sure - from a bit of casual googling, prices on Rakuten for both domestic and imported crab are completely all over the shop, but there’s certainly nothing lower than about 4000 yen.
Chapter sixty’s title image is from “Village Man’s”, by Village Man’s Store. (Are they sure they don’t have those backwards?)
Chapter sixty-one’s is from “Material”, by Oisicle Melonpan
No notes for chapter 60, but on page 34, what about your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate, Bocchi?
Chapter 61, I really feel like they should be running this Christmas concert idea past their manager. But in any case, on page 40, Bocchi’s comment about ベロマーク in the top-left panel references the Bellmark Foundation, but ベロマーク also happens to be the Japanese name for the Rolling Stones’ “Hot Lips” logo.
looking it up quickly, it seems that’s the general passing grade for high school semesters, but can’t find an (english) source rn. a fair chunk of people surprised at it though (me included, and i taught middle school for a bit…)
I gotta say, I really don’t enjoy the chapters that focus hard on just how painfully awkward Bocchi can be, and lately it feels like those chapters are increasing in frequency…
Not… not that 59 is one of those chapters. Bocchi’s cameo in the title image is her only appearence in 59. Though I do find Oyama and Hinata about as exhausting as Bocchi and Ryo do.
Chapter sixty-two’s title image is from “Boku Kara Kimi E”, by Galileo Galilei
Chapter sixty-three’s is from “Te o Tatake”, by NICO Touches the Walls. Unfortunately I’m struggling to find an online version of the actual music video besides one on Facebook with Spanish subtitles, but this is the song, in any case:
I did manage to find this short clip from said video, used in a commercial, so that gives you an idea:
Page 45, Bocchi’s distinctive greeting (and the commenter’s comparison to “Bikakin”) is a reference to Japanese YouTuber Hikakin. Page 47, トップバリュバリュ is a reference to TopValu. Page 49, エリキシー, アーニーボーロ and ダダリア reference real-world guitar string brands Elixir, Ernie Ball and D’Addario. Page 53, バイオ is probably a reference to the Resident Evil series, which is entitled バイオハザード in Japanese.
Page 55, peeking out from behind Bocchi’s head there is SoftBank’s emotion-reading service robot Pepper-kun. What exactly makes him relevant to the decor (or the remainder of the chapter) is entirely unclear. Page 60, Ryo’s Yamada Method is a reference to the Suzuki Method. Hiding at the bottom of the third panel of that page, 億ション is a pun on マンション - just in case anyone’s not getting the joke. Though I confess my eyes kinda bounced off all the text in that panel. Page 61, しじみ帝国 is a reference to… uh, “shoegaze” band きのこ帝国… whatever “shoegaze” is.
shoegaze is amazing. I guess you could think of it as droning rock. though my favourite shoegaze band name is probably Tokyo Shoegazer (東京酒吐座) just because of the kanji
Delayed but finally ‘read’ through this segment. Looking forward to coming around to it with a fine tooth comb in a few months/years though because without lookups I’m definitely only at 50% comprehension, being generous.
