As per the vote last week, we’re now speeding up to read two chapters a week.
Manga-to-anime correlations are a little bit complicated this week. Most of chapter eight comprises the first and last thirds of episode four, but the first handful of strips make up half of the cold open for episode five. An interesting side effect of this rearrangement is that while Ryo writes the music before Bocchi writes the lyrics here in the manga, it’s the other way around in the anime, so some dialogue has been tweaked to account for that. Chapter nine, with a significant amount of extra content added (including the fact that they actually play the song they wrote), comprises the remainder of episode five.
Chapter eight’s title image does not appear to be a reference to anything, though the albums they’re surrounded with are apparently all Asian Kung-Fu Generation album covers. Chapter nine’s title image is from Atsumare! Party People by yabai T-Shirts yasan (though you need to get right to the very end of the song before the relevant frame shows up).
Aside from that, there’s not much by way of references. Many of them I’ve noted on the vocab sheet. For example, the thing that Bocchi receives as her pay on page 69 reads 福沢諭吉 - he’s the guy on the obverse of the 10,000-yen banknote. Similarly, on page 76 she pays with a slip of paper reading 野口英世 - he’s the guy on the 1000-yen banknote.
Page 71, Bocchi’s “curse” lyrics are a reference to the stereotype of nailing a straw doll to a tree to cast a curse (like a voodoo doll, only shinto).
Page 72, when Bocchi is trying to imitate Kita, she says この指とーまれ - this appears to be a playground chant meaning “gather 'round”. For example, 鬼ごっこする人この指とまれ = “anyone who wants to play tag, come here”. Like “stop at this finger”, or something. It also used to be a variety show on Fuji TV which was airing at about the same time this volume was being published originally, so it might be a reference. Not sure.
Page 73, Bocchi’s へい大将やってる？ line when entering the cafe, I’ve been unable to determine whether this is a reference to something, a meme, or just a stereotype. In the anime version, she also raises one hand as though parting an invisible noren, which suggests that it’s a possible reference, but I haven’t been able to connect it to anything. Perhaps my search fu is just weak. Maybe that can be a bonus question for the readers to investigate. (Crunchyroll subtitled the line as “Are ya winning, diners?”, a reference to the “Are ya winning, son?” meme, which was… a curious choice.)
Top of page 81, Ryo’s ビレパン is a reference to ヴィレヴァン, aka Village Vanguard Shimokitazawa.
Page 83, the anime version of the first strip’s final panel is replaced in true “Nice Boat” style with some live-action footage of dams in Japan undergoing water releases, and some nice classical music - for anyone interested, these dams are: Takizawa Dam in Saitama, Kurobe Dam in Toyama, Yuda Dam in Iwate, and Misogawa Dam in Nagano. I’ve walked across the Kurobe dam. Wait, that last one in kanji is 味噌川. A river of miso? This I gotta see.
