Yeah. It makes a lot more sense when you see a photo showing both of them, so you know it’s actually two items, and not one appearing in two locations based on the angle it was drawn.
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Wh… what the heck is a Great King of Evil? Did they make it up?
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Yup. It sounds like a villain you’d encounter in a Dragon Quest video game, but this seems to be a type of character Kotoha thought up at the time of her request.
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Sigh. Yup that makes much more sense than whatever mental gymnastics I was doing to place 意味 here. All I had to do is negate.
By the way are there any puns with the steps count? The remark feels a bit out of place.
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Yeah, I genuinely can’t work out if that staircase is notable in any respect at all. After a bunch of Googling, I eventually found this page (which appears to be a blog cataloguing all staircases in Tokyo? Whatever floats you boat, I guess…), and that says there’s actually 74 steps, so both of them are wrong. Outside of that, I simply can’t tell whether it’s so well-known that it’s just called “the 74段” or whatever, or why they’re was so sure the Colonel was heading directly for those stairs two panels in advance, considering they’re just retracing their steps at this point (i.e. they already passed the stairs once). And also, to safely reach those stairs from where they are, they need to go past the stairs, use the crossing, and then backtrack (though I will grant that the Colonel probably wasn’t intending to use the crossing).
(And while researching whether or not it’s some form of goroawase, I discovered that the Wikipedia article on Japanese wordplay cites the Tofugu goroawase article as one of its sources. Small world.)
P.S. Finally pinpointed precisely where they are on pages 45-46. It’s here. Had to go back to 2014 (roughly when this volume was released), because in the 2021 Street View, the brick pavers are different and the plant beds along the kerb are missing. In 2014, even the traffic cones shown in the manga are there. Though I feel like the fence shown in the manga is too tall. 
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Had a crazy week of work, and I feel behind. Hoping to make it through all three chapters tonight/tomorrow.
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Catching up, I am on to chapter 13. I am a little stuck on Page 41 Panel 5:
My understanding is that at the top of the page Yui and Kotoha are praying for bad people and chaos in Ueno, and Sacchan is like “wait, what are you wishing for?”
I am just a little unclear on what I think is Yui’s answer: 悪者がいるから正義の味方がいるんだ。
そう悪者がいなくなるそれはカラーズの消滅と同じこと。
I am pretty sure what she is trying to say something along the lines
悪者がいるから - because there are bad people
正義の味方がいるんだ - there are good people
followed by
悪者がいなくなる - the bad people going away
それはカラーズの消滅と同じこと - that is the same thing as the disappearance of the Colors
I think I understand what she is saying, basically, for them to be heroes they need bad people to go against, without those bad people there is no Colors. However, when I really try to pick apart the grammar, I am not really sure how to get to that.
Maybe I am just overthinking it. I feel like I am getting much better at understanding the gist of dialogue even when some of the grammar or words are new to me, but for some reason I am feeling unsure of this bit.
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Allies of justice!
You seem to have it pretty much down pat. Exactly which bits of grammar are you struggling with? (Though there does seem to be some manner of particle or conjunction omitted in 悪者がいなくなる…)
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Actually, I didn’t realize until looking it up just now that 正義の味方 was a bit of a set phrase so the literally translation just felt so clunky to me. I think that was one thing throwing me off. I was also wonder if I was missing something in the first half or is she just saying because there are bad guys, the are super heroes.
Honestly, I am getting more comfortable reading, I think going through a second book of the same characters is really helping. However, I don’t have a ton of confidence especially with grammar, so when it through a chunk of dialogue without looking up too many words or any grammar, I just start to second guess myself.
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第１４話 ミジン子
Start Date: 2022-04-01T15:00:00Z
We’re finally up to that chapter.
Participation
Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(You can change your answer later if you’d like.)
- I’m reading along.
- I have finished this part.
0 voters
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I think, though I’m not completely certain, that the title page is Toden Omoide Hiroba. Uncertainty is partly because I can’t find any photos on Google that quite resemble this one - aside from anything else, the vehicle in the manga looks a fair bit more modern than both of the ones in the plaza (though one of them is numbered 7504). Also, it’s further from Ueno Park than we’ve ever been.
… And then they stay at the koban for the rest of the chapter. That was easy. 
“That chapter” being the one the gif comes from?
I’d have to say my favourite part is Sacchan catching the bazooka rocket while running the other way.
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Yup. Since it was mentioned in the ABBC home thread ahead of the reading start date.
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I’ve found the clip on YT but I have so say the manga version is much
funnier; the anime doesn’t have safety switch debacles, kids
crying because they don’t want to become dust, nor strategy meetings
that turn into a cowardly retreat.
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Which makes it much more special for me too. I guess now I just have to read the Death Note to tick the box with keikaku meme also.
That was incredibly sick indeed. By the way, I misread a few bits so at first, I thought Saito wants to hand in the rocket launcher itself so the authorities can turn it into こっぱ微塵, not the girls (which I would somewhat reasonably expect from a police officer) so I was even more surprised when he actually fired it.
On a side note, I actually just noticed that Saito has a 藤 in his name, a kanji I recently learned. 
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Sorry, I’m a bit behind and haven’t asked my questions for Chapter 13 yet.
Page 41: Particle Questions
I get the meaning but my brain is not comprehending particles apparently.
Kotoha: 降臨せよ
She wants him to appear but what is せ? Also, with よ isn’t she basically demanding?
Saki: めちゃくちゃにしてください
She’s asking him to cause chaos but why に? This would be like “to cause chaos, please,” right?
Page 49: 意味
Sorry, but I’m not following Saki’s 意味 sentence.
Kotoha: 戻ってる。[He’s] turning around.
Saki: 道間違えたか？私が転んだ意味は… Did [he] mistake the road? … …
And then we get “I” “to fall down” “meaning.” The verb seems to modify the noun so, like, “fallen down meaning?” which obviously doesn’t make any sense…
Page 51, Last Panel
Please check my comprehension. My (very rough) understanding.
Yui: [The cat] is going to some private place.
Saki: We can figure that out [bring it to light] next time, we’ve had enough trouble for today.
I’m not quite sure on Yui’s comment as she seems to say “private” twice. I assume she’s talking about where the cat goes.
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It’s a conjugation of する that’s a more forceful imperative form than しなさい
Adverbial form of めちゃくちゃ (because it’s a な-adjective).
She’s most likely omitting a ない - “There was no point in me falling down” (earlier, when she tried to jump the shadow but missed, because now they’re backtracking anyway).
プライベート basically means “private life”, “one’s privacy”. The cat’s private life is a secret.
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Thanks, that helps.
She’s most likely omitting a ない - “There was no point in me falling down” (earlier, when she tried to jump the shadow but missed, because now they’re backtracking anyway).
Okay, that makes sense. I suppose the art is a little confusing as there aren’t really any shadows in the image except for those cast by the kids. I thought the game was to stay inside the shadows, not out.
Unrelated Quoting Question
Hmm… now, why is my quote of you text only, but your quote of me has my name and avatar? How’d you do that?
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Select the text in question in the post and hit the little “quote” button that pops up.
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Ooooo! This is so cool!
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