| Start Date | Chapter | Start Page |
Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 28 | 88 | 51 | 8 |
| 89 | 59 | 8 |
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Chapter eighty-eight’s title image is from “Sekai ga Owarumadewa…” by WANDS.
Chapter eighty-nine’s is from “Send To You” by luv.
Page 52 seventh panel, “pohyb” is “movement” in Czech, which is one of the meanings of 運動, but 训练 is the Chinese equivalent of 訓練. (Where’s the Urdu, though?)
Page 53 third panel, I don’t think Japanese can be entrusted with polysyllabic foreign words like “hierarchy”…
Same page final panel, Bocchi’s referencing basketball manga Slam Dunk. (Fun fact, Sekai ga Owarumadewa was the anime’s second ending theme.)
Page 54 fourth panel, 幻の6人目 is a title given to Kuroko Tetsuya, protagonist of basketball manga 黒子のバスケ. Kita possibly thinks she’s referring to Marvel’s X-Men, but perhaps not. (Henceforth, this series shall be known as Bocchi the Baske.)
I want to say the commentators on page 55 and the spectators on 58 are also a reference to one or both of those manga, but I haven’t read either of them, so I don’t really know for sure. They fit the general sports manga tone, though. Google tells me that 海帝高校 (page 58) is the name of the high school in a comedy manga called 帝一の國, but it’s not a basketball manga.
Page 58 eighth panel, the narration text is calling this chapter 87. Did I miscount somewhere? Or count something as a chapter which wasn’t a chapter?
Page 60 fourth and fifth panels, turns out that having multiple wakaba marks is not illegal. Dunno why I thought it might be. You must display one on the back and one on the front, but beyond that there’s no restriction. You’re even allowed to continue displaying it after the required one-year period, if you still feel inexperienced.
Page 62 fouth panel, Nijika’s use of 備蓄 in her reply suggests this panel might be a reference to the Japanese Government Rice Stockpile - to counter rising rice prices, they basically released the entirety of it onto the markets in 2024-25. Same page fifth panel, Kohoku PA (though the lighting’s not great).
Page 63 seventh panel, Ebina SA, Ebina JCT. Google Maps says Ebina SA is about twenty minutes’ drive from Kohoku PA, but ironically enough, there’s congestion right now as I’m checking it which is adding an extra seventeen minutes to that.
Page 64 first panel, road sign.
Page 65 first panel, this is almost certainly a real product, but… I don’t wanna Google that. Someone else can. 
Page 66 second panel, the record Yoyoko is referring to is the most freshly-baked sweet buns sold in 48 hours. (Is there a different record for savoury buns? For not freshly-baked?) Fourth panel, they cost 380 yen each; three times 380 yen is 1140.
Nice fun Bocchi and Kita adventure, and Nijika and Ryo adventure. With the whole band on adventures it makes me wonder if they’ll follow up with a chapter that’s big on story?
I read the chapters a little far apart this week and didn’t have anything in particular to talk about, but I didn’t know melon bread was a thing, now it’s like melon soda I wanna try it
| Start Date | Chapter | Start Page |
Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 07 | 90 | 67 | 8 |
| 91 | 75 | 8 |
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Chapter ninety’s title image is from “Headliner” by Retroriron.
Chapter ninety-one’s is from “fiction escape” by KEYTALK.
No notes for chapter ninety.
Mentioned in the second panel of 75, shown in the fifth panel of 76, and featured throughout the rest of the chapter, チカレコ is Tower Records. Third panel of 76, Shiba isn’t specific here, but presumably she’s referring to the Tower Records branches in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.
I feel bad for most of the responsibility falling on Nijika most of the time lol, like not even last week she became the band’s driver
Is it just me or did these two chapters feel like they went by really quick? I know some earlier ones this volume felt a lot longer. Maybe they’re just paced a bit faster which would explain the shorter notes too
Reckon it’s because they’re largely doing things rather than talking about them.
I quite enjoyed the “Tower” Records story. They’re an actual professional band now, with their CD in a real shop.
Heck yeah it’s such a big milestone, even though it’s not a chapter where they’re playing live or something it’s moments like these that I think are just as important
| Start Date | Chapter | Start Page |
Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 14 | 92 | 83 | 8 |
| 93 | 91 | 8 |
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Chapter ninety-two’s title image is from “swim” by 04 Limited Sazabys.
Chapter ninety-three’s is from “Yasashisa ni Afureta Sekai de” by saucy dog.
Page 84, in the fourth panel, Bocchi’s imagine spot is referencing All Night Nippon, a late-night talk show which has been running since 1967. Sixth panel, Yamada is referencing School of Lock and radio host Ijuin Hikaru.
Page 88 fourth panel, Ahab and Starbuck are characters from Moby-Dick (captain and chief mate of the whaling ship Pequod, respectively).
Page 89 sixth panel, maritozzo was a fad in Japan from about 2021 to 2023. Google reckons the third, and currently last, boba tea fad (i.e. the タピオカ that Bocchi started to say) was already peaking in 2019 before The Plague killed it dead the following year, so, as Kita comments in the last panel, maritozzo is at least a step up from that.
Page 92 fourth panel, you get a discount of approximately 30% if you enter or exit the ETC network between midnight and 4am. Same page seventh panel, Yamada’s comment is perhaps a reference to the manga 一畳間まんきつ暮らし！.
Page 96 fourth panel, not a reference, but I’m completely with Nijika on this - those one- or three-hour forest sounds or ethereal singing or whatever ASMR videos are almost invariably just a thirty- or sixty-second track that’s looped a thousand times, and by about the third or fourth repeat it’s starting to drive me nuts instead of relax me. Shorter videos are more likely to be one long passage with no repeats, but then they’re shorter videos. And the ads. Ugh, the ads. You’ve just reached peak relaxation, and then the video ends and the ad starts playing death metal at ten times the volume.
I love the way they drew everybody this chapter (after they lose their minds from sleep deprivation) Also, after we’ve been through so many chapters and volumes, I think Ryo’s gotta be my favorite character, she has so many funny bits that never fail to make me laugh
Just one box this week, I caught a stomach flu probably from the temperature/humidity rn oof, but I’m looking forward to feeling better next week, it’s time to indefinitely finish the volumes with a bang!
| Start Date | Chapter | Start Page |
Page Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 21 | エピグラフ1 | 101 | 8 |
| エピグラフ2 | 111 | 8 |
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Is everyone ready to see them kick off their tour? Well too bad! We’re getting origin-story flashbacks this week. Nothing particular to note here, though. Not even any title images.
That was the most refreshingly easy Bocchi pages I’ve read in my life 
Looking forward to the tour-hen next volume.
It’s funny seeing them reminiscence when they’re already so young and it’s only been a year, it also surprised me when the flashback said 1 year ago, I thought it’s been like 2 or 3 years, I remember Bocchi being like “oh no new class or seating arrangement” or whatever it was and idk it just felt longer to me
I do like the traditional manga style every now and then after the usual 4koma, it indeed is refreshing
With the volume’s releases averaging about a year apart and the manga on hold because of the creator’s health, it sounds like it’ll be quite some time until volume 9
I’m not sure exactly how long we’ve been doing this but it feels pretty dang long and reading Bocchi kinda became a weekly ritual, ya’ll got any other rituals planned or thoughts about the manga as a whole?
In the meantime I’m gonna read what I got until the next good time to do a big manga order, thanks for the discussion every week!
We started volume one on November 16th 2024.
Reading the anthology series or the Hiroi spinoff are potential options, though I admit I’m not completely sure how much interest I actually have in those… There’s already six volumes of each available. The spinoff somehow manages to averave a volume every four months, which is remarkably fast.
