This week’s chapter is the second half of the anime’s second epsiode.
If the title image is a reference to anything, it’s too obscure for any of my usual sorces to recognise it, so I guess perhaps a picture of them sitting on the steps at Starry is just a picture of them sitting on the steps at Starry.
That’s… kinda it for references in this chapter. In the anime version, the band that plays while Bocchi is working is instead a boy band called Alexandism, which one source I’ve consulted might be a combination of the bands Alexandros and Dandism, but otherwise seems to be as fictional as Colourful Radical.
And this shot of Bocchi going home after work in the anime:
It’s really requiring a lot of focus but I’m starting to get used to the format and to how compact it is …and then I go read something else and marvel when half a panel is just a picture without text
It took me a while to realise 箱 also means a “public place” (eg a bar like starry) especially when they were talking about Bocchi’s mango box earlier in the chapter
It’s really nice how naturalistic the anime feels despite adapting a bunch of 4koma. It feels free to move panels around or add material to let stuff breath more
Is that the little sister? I struggle to recognize the characters because I always imagine different, more natural hair colors when reading black-and-white manga…
There’s a moment where Bocchi says 500 yen seems a bit overpriced for drinks and Nijika is like that’s kinda the point and here I am thinking dang that’s pretty cheap and they got spirits and everything
I got Nijika and her older sister mixed up one one panel, I thought “Oh there’s that black collar thing so it must be the older sister” but then I realized it was actually Nijika and her clothing just happened to look like that
Do you think Bocchi has the slightest idea of the usual prices in pubs and clubs? As a point of comparison, drinks from vending machines generally cost less than 200 yen. (Though according to Shelter’s website - the real-life Starry - non-alcoholic drinks are 400 yen. Alcoholic ones are 500 and up, with foreign beers at the top of the scale at 700 yen.)
I’m still here, mostly getting by on overly literal translations at times, but I’ve not given up yet.
Page 42
The very last line 「おねーちゃんってくそめんどくさいね！」, I’m not sure if my translation is wildly off (likely) or she’s repeating something Bocchi said about herself.
What I got was “The thing called ‘Sister’ is a bothersome piece of shit” which is both overly literal and sounds way to harsh to be something the littler sister came up with herself. Help?2. 3. 4.
Page 37
The second strip was difficult, I just want to clarify I’ve got the gist of what’s going on.
The drink staff are only allowed to order poured drinks (but unclear on what drinks they are not allowed to order)
Drinks are paid for separately from the entrance ticket, and it’s the drink tickets that are 500 yen.
The reason for the one drink rule is because the alcohol license the club has is more strict than the alcohol license a restaurant would have. (And Nijika is repeating what she heard from someone else)
There would be some kind of business classifying issues if the club could be confused for a restaurant.
It’s a way of getting around not having an alcohol license, you sell tokens and customers can swap a token for a cup (coincidentally filled with an alcoholic drink)
I think they are technically a restaurant which is why they have the strict opening times, but it’s must cheaper and convenient than trying to become a bar or live venue
I think that it’s way too strong a translation, めんどくさい is a fairly common and “PG” insult in my experience, and くそ used a as prefix is just an intensifier like “damned” or “bloody” or maybe “frickin’”.
So it’s more like “big sister is super bothersome” or something like that.
p37
Note that it’s 注文された, not 注文した. It’s passive, so it’s “The drink staff only pours the drinks that have been ordered” (in exchange for the tokens, supposedly).
Yes.
I don’t think there’s a one drink rule at all, instead I think she’s explaining that, for regulation reasons, the live house operates as a restaurant and therefore needs serving staff. Not entirely sure how the token system factors into this…
I also found this strip very frustrating to read and, ultimately, extremely uninteresting…
The literal is ‘bothersome piece of shit’, but the meaning is much softer and closer to ‘a real pain in the ass, huh?’
くそ is one of those extremely contextual swear words where it can be anything from ‘meh’ to ‘fuck you and the horse you rode in on’, depending on tone, who is saying it etc
All I consume is pretty much shounen so くそ is just punctuation at this point, I’m also British so my sensitivity to swearing is much much lower than a lot of people
sometimes i feel like I’m the weird one for being interested in these little nuances lol. I love when places have to do these dumb loophole things to get around seemingly arbitrary laws.
It’s very funny that none of the serving staff can drink alcohol but they’re more than welcome to serve it
…and then I go read something else and marvel when half a panel is just a picture without text 
As a point of comparison, drinks from vending machines generally cost less than 200 yen. (Though according to