That’s the magic of learning a new language. 
When you’re like, I get it now! 
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Fun chapter. But I think I’m most excited to learn more about Jambo (Takashi)!
Note that the vocab sheet says “Jumbo’s real name is Takashi,” but I think that’s not quite right. His (and his father’s) surname is Jambo; Takashi is his given name. (Also we can see from the flower shop on p. 61 that the correct Romanization is “Jambo” rather than “Jumbo,” or “Janbo” as I previously thought.) It’s normal for Japanese friends to refer to each other by their last name (or their first; whichever the person prefers).
Of course I have no doubt the character’s name was an intentional pun on the part of the author!
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Nah, Jumbo’s surname is 竹田 (which is an intentional pun, mind - Jumbo grows fast like a bamboo shoot), though I don’t recall exactly when we learn that. ジャンボ is a nickname referring to his size, and given that fact, the best romanisation is “Jumbo” with the U, even though a direct transliteration is “Jambo” or “Janbo”.
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Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that. I never studied Volume 1 with you lot.
Then why is his dad’s shop called Flower Jambo? 
(Great catch on the Vol. 1 reveal — I did read that but had completely forgotten!)
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Cause Azuma-sensei didn’t realise that ジャンボ is spelt “jumbo” in English. Or for an in-universe answer, whichever member of the Takeda family named the shop didn’t know. 
You’ll occasionally see examples in manga (and sometimes even real life) where Japanese people have tried to write something in English, but have just converted the katakana loanword version into romaji instead.
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My question was more about the name of the shop rather than how it was spelled. I guess we have to infer that the order of events was (1) Takashi was born; (2) he grew surprisingly fast/large and gained the Jumbo nickname; (3) his father then opened (or renamed) his flower shop, and named it after his son’s nickname (even though he himself still calls him Takashi).
All seems a little far-fetched to me, but I think I’m well into over-thinking it land by now. 
Yeah, I’d say you’re over-thinking it. The shop simply popped into existence, fully-formed, the moment Yotsuba saw it from the bus. 
It’s alternately possible the shop was always called “Flower Jumbo”, and then Takashi grew really big, as a sort of nominative determinism, but honestly, it’s not hugely important. Jumbo works at a shop called Jumbo.
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So, is Yotsuba some sort of Haruhi Suzumiya? I’d be down for that canon.
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More that she’s the Quantum Observer. Nothing exists until she has observed it.
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That could be it, but.
Isn’t it better to think that Yotsuba imagined Jumbo to work in a flower shop called Jumbo (since that’s the only way she knows him as) while she was on the bus, since she remembered they needed flowers, and as such, it came to pass?
Edit: And now that I think about it, makes more sense that since she only had 10円, everything suddenly was 10円 for her to take.
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Page 70
There’s a bit from ジャンボ’s father at the bottom of page 70 which I think I’ve got, but can I check?
ひまわりならよそには負けねー！どーだい！？きれいだろう！？
ひまわり - sunflowers
なら - when it comes to
よそ - elsewhere
に - to
は - subject marker
負け - can’t lose
ねー！-ending particle
どーだい！？- why’s that?
きれいだろう！？- beautiful!
“When it comes to sunflowers, [you] can’t go wrong. Why is that? [Because they are so] beautiful!”
Or, just possibly, could it mean “When it comes to sunflowers, [we] can’t lose [out, to elsewhere/our competitors]. Why is that? [Because ours are so] beautiful!”
I interpret this as “How’s that?” since どう is more like “How”. Otherwise, I think your interpretation is fine.
If it’s sunflowers, to other places, (we) cannot lose! How’s that!? Pretty/beautiful, aren’t they!?
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負けねー : 負けない
My translation would be: “If it’s sunflowers, we won’t lose to anyone else. How’s that? Pretty, aren’t they?”
Note that it’s not “can’t lose”, that would be 負けられない. Although it also makes sense in English.
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You’re right, I kinda glossed over 負けねー : 負けない. For casual male speakers, ない endings can often turn into ねー.
“won’t lose” is more accurate than “cannot lose”.
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Thank you so much @Kazzeon and @BobaGakusei; it makes perfect sense to me now! Thank you both so much!
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So, rewinding waaay back to this question from two weeks ago: I came to a sudden realisation when a character in an anime movie I was watching said 戻ってこい - it’s a word I know the meaning of, and it’s functionally the same as 帰ってこい, albeit with difference in subtext. At which point, I realised 帰ってくる is literally in the dictionary as an expression.
The difference is simply that 帰る is “return home”, whereas 帰ってくる is “return here”, becase here is her home.
I feel a right fool now. Overthought it way too much.
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Ah, so it’s an expression after all! Thanks for revisiting this point.
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