Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatte Iru - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Good evening. I’m Wataru Watari.

We’re moving further into autumn. Autumn of reading, autumn of the arts, autumn of exercise: There are lots of autumns out there. What sort of little autumns have all of you found?

Autumn’s end—

how does my

neighbor live?

Can’t you tell? I’m working.

Autumn of labor. Autumn of corporate slavery… I’m sick of this already!

And so I have humbly delivered to you My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Volume 6. The story is moving into autumn, too, and though the going is slow, things are gradually proceeding.

It’s been a year and a half since I began writing this series, and within the story’s timeline, it’s been six months. But only recently has it come to me that I myself have only finally gotten to know all the characters—though I’m sure that even now, I only feel like I know them.

Well, there’s still a long road ahead. I hope from this point onward, we can just slowly get acquainted with them, bit by bit. I hope all you readers will continue on with me for a little while longer, too.

And below, the acknowledgments:

To Holy Ponkan : With every single book, your beautiful illustrations reach a new stage of evolution. Are you Psaro? Do you hold the secret formula to evolution? Thank you very much.

To my editor, Mr. Hoshino: I’m very, very sorry for always forcing such a mess of a schedule on you. No, you’ve got the wrong idea! This is because of, you know, cough, cough. Thank you.

To Mr. Koushi Tachibana: Now that I think of it, you were the one who came up with giving this series the abbreviation of -gairu. Thanks to you, things are a confused mess. Is the series nickname Hamachi? Is it Oregairu? I’ll never forgive you for the comments you made on the book band.

To all the writers: I was barely keeping up with things this time around, so you weren’t able to invite me to those drinking parties, but Wataru Watari believes that it’s not because you hate me, but because you were being considerate. Thank you.

To everyone at Media Mix: Thank you so very much for a whole bunch of things I can’t fit in here. I’ll be counting on you moving forward, too.

Also, in writing this book, I made reference to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, translated by Natsuki Ikezawa, published by Shueisha.

And at last, to all my readers: This series has gone by fast, and we’re already at Volume 6. Thanks to all your support, I’ve finally reached a turning point. Thank you so much. It’ll keep on going for just a little longer, y’know?

Now then, on that note, I will set my pen down here.

On a certain day in October, in a certain place in Chiba, on a long autumn night, while sipping hot MAX Coffee,

Wataru Watari

Translation Notes

Class 2-F Cultural Festival Presentation Proposal

1 “…has a hard crash landing deep in the desert.” In Japanese, “crash landing” is fujichaku, and here, it’s written with fu from fujoshi, meaning “rotten girl” and referring to the Japanese counterpart of the slash fangirl. Replacing fu syllables with the “rotten” character is a common sort of wordplay among fujoshi.

2 “…the shota ‘Prince’…” Shota refers to youthful male characters, often in the context of attraction to them. The male counterpart of a loli.

Chapter 0 … Hina Ebina’s musical is homoerotic, as expected.

1 “…Lovely story.” Ii hanashi da naa (what a nice story) is an Internet meme, a sort of ironic or sarcastic way of showing your appreciation for a story. It’s often paired with ASCII art of the protagonist of Ikki Kajiwara’s manga Karate Baka Ichidai shedding manly tears.

2 “Definitely not.” Sonna wake aru ka desu, literally meaning “there’s no way that’s true,” with an added polite/cute copula desu at the end, is a quote from the protagonist of the anime Humanity Has Declined. In episode eight, she encounters an assistant who behaves so outrageously, she speculates that he must be from another planet and then follows that thought up with “There’s no way that’s true.”

3 “With a title like that, I was expecting more over-the-top tennis matches.” The Japanese title for The Little Prince is Hoshi no Oujisama, meaning “prince of the stars.” While myu is often used as short for “musical” in Japanese, the hoshimyu portmanteau is particularly evocative of Tenimyu, the Prince of Tennis musicals, of which there have been over a dozen. Unlike the Prince of Tennis manga, which was ostensibly shonen, Tenimyu is unabashedly there to bait fangirls.

4 “…Prince of Curry is a related product…” This joke also makes more sense when considering the Japanese title of The Little Prince translates to Prince of the Stars. Prince of Curry is a brand of instant curry marketed at children.

5 “But the one thing that was different about this script…” This line is a reference to the opening narration of the Japanese adaptation of the 1960s American TV show Bewitched (which was popular in Japan). The original line goes, “But the one thing that was different about their family…was that the wife was a witch.”

6 “…eight hundred different varieties of stars!” This is in reference to a line from Gin Ishida in Prince of Tennis: “My hadoukyuu technique has eight hundred different varieties!”

7 “A certain pilot and a pervert prince…” This is a combination of the title of two light novel series: Remembrances for a Certain Pilot and Hentai Prince and Stony Cat.

8 “…Miss Naughty.” In the Japanese, Hachiman says, “Fraulein (meaning ‘perverted young lady’).” Like with the “crash landing” earlier in the story, the fu in the Japanese pronunciation of furoirain is written with the character for “rotten/perverted.”

9 “…Shiki Theater Company…” Shiki Theater Company is one of Japan’s largest and most well-known theater troupes.

Chapter 1 … In the storm, Hachiman Hikigaya continues to slide.

1 Bonchuu is a character in the manga Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi! (Legend of the End-of-Century Leader Takeshi). His trademark is yelling out some variation on his own name when he punches, like “Bonchuuaaaagh!”

2 “…balls flying over Marine Field…” ZOZO Marine Stadium, also known as Chiba Marine Stadium, is a stadium in Chiba city. It’s near the sea, so it’s quite windy.

3 “…I’d wondered if there was a Pokémon under there.” This is one of the lines from the Japanese opening of the original Pokémon anime, Mezase Pokémon Master: “Capture those Pokémon! / From the fire, from the water, from the grass, from the forest / from the earth, from the clouds, from under her skirt (eek~!).”

4 “Were they doing maintenance on your grid all summer or something?” In the Japanese, Yuigahama mistakes shakou (light blocking) for shakou (social life).

5 “Light-blocking clay figures” is the literal translation of shakouki doguu, a specific type of humanoid clay figure made during Japan’s prehistoric period (the jomon period, 14,000–400 BC).

6 “Whoa, that was a pretty M-2 way to put that.” M-2 syndrome is chuunibyou, or “middle school second-year disease.” Afflicted persons become absorbed in their dramatic, anime-inspired fantasies.

7 “I guess even the great outdoors is tired of this.” In the original Japanese, the onomatopoeia is byoo, which is how a Japanese speaker might pronounce the word view. Hachiman says, “Byoo, byoo—you’d think it was a spy for JR.” View Plaza is the name of Japan Rail’s travel center.

8 “Are you Lemon-chan or something?” Lemon-chan is a mascot for Melon Books, a bookstore that sells manga, doujinshi, and related goods. It might also refer to an anthropomorphization of the lemon drink C.C. Lemon.

9 “How very like you, Hikikomori-kun.” A hikikomori is a shut-in, someone who never leaves the house. Generally, they’re younger, and their parents support them. They’re sometimes called hikki for short.

10 “…Amaterasu Oomikami went full shut-in.” In Shinto myth, Amaterasu, the sun goddess, locks herself in the Ama-no-Iwato (heavenly rock cave) in a fit of fury and grief due to her brother Susano-o’s misdeeds.

11 “…I will become the god of the new world.” This is an infamous quote from Light Yagami, the protagonist of the manga Death Note.

12 “…like a blazing fire!” Here, Hachiman says rekka no honoo, which literally means “a blazing fire,” but it’s also the name of the manga by Nobuyuki Anzai, localized under the title Flame of Recca.

13 Osamu Dazai was a renowned author of twentieth-century Japan and author of No Longer Human, a novel with autobiographic elements. It’s generally about depression and misery.

14 “The wind drags me away, ah, like a yacht.” This is a reference to the poem “Earth” by Tatsuji Miyoshi, a twentieth-century poet: “An ant goes / dragging a butterfly wing / ah / like a yacht.”

Chapter 2 … Minami Sagami aggressively makes a request.

1 “But it was not to be…” In the Japanese, this says, “On the contrary, dosukoi!” a reference to a LINE sticker of a sumo wrestler giving the viewer a sidelong glance. Dosukoi is a meaningless phrase used by sumo wrestlers to intimidate their opponents.

2 “…the sun was shining bright and perfect in the sky, and I was doing so, so great.” This is a line from “We Gotta Power,” the second opening theme song of the Dragon Ball Z anime.

3 Kiteretsu Daihyakka (Kiteretsu Encyclopedia) was a long-running children’s manga by Fujiko F. Fujio. The fifth opening theme song for the anime is titled “Lack of Sleep.”

4 “…of the year?” Sayaka Suzuki from Pani Poni has the particular habit of adding “of the year” to her various descriptions of people.

5 “If Totsuka had been holding bread in his mouth…” A shoujo manga cliché.

6 “…leering at me.” This is in reference to the “Leer” skill from the Pokémon games, which reduces enemy defense.

7 “Even dull-skied London turns to Paris…” This line is from the ending song, “Que Sera, Sera,” of Ashita no Nadja (Tomorrow’s Nadja).

8 “Gyawaa! This is conspiracy!” This line is from Father, the mysterious alien protagonist in Ken Nagai’s manga Shinsei Motemote Oukoku (Holy Kingdom of Sexy).

9 “That’s war…! It doesn’t count…! It doesn’t count!” In the second season of the gambling anime Kaiji, one character in the show is busted for cheating and yells, “It doesn’t count! It doesn’t count!”

10 “…pressing the wrinkles of each hand together is happiness.” This is from an ad for Hasegawa, a company that makes home Buddhist altars (used for praying for deceased family members).

11 “Naamuu.” Short for Namu Amida Butsu, or Amitabha. Mindful repetition of this buddha’s name is a central part of Pure Land Buddhism, one of the most widely practiced forms of Buddhism in Asia. In Japan, naamuu is often just colloquial shorthand for any form of Buddhist prayer.

12 “Iron out your wrinkles before you work on mine.” In the Japanese, this line says, “The wrinkles came together,” which is an idiom that means “I saw the negative consequences.”

13 “…were you born in a temple?” This is a reference to an Internet copypasta called “T-san, who was born in a temple.” T-san is completely amazing and resolves bizarre phenomena one after another.

14 “Now, now. Go ahead, Glasses.” Maa, maa, megane douzo is a line from Haruna Kamijou, a character in the social game The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls. In the context of the game, it means, “Now, now, go ahead [and take these] glasses,” and it’s become something of a meme that she forces glasses on people. The meaning in this context is different, and he’s using glasses as a form of address.

15 “The only kind of ship I’ve got is me/Totsuka, apparently.” In Japanese, Hachiman makes a pun with the Japanese pronunciation of “leadership” (liidaashippu) and “cold compress” (reikanshippu).

16 “Is this Jigoku no Misawa now?” Jigoku no Misawa is a comic artist whose shtick is drawing obnoxious people who say obnoxious things, especially a lot of humblebragging.

17 “…end that sentence with a See ya, folks!” In the Japanese, this was jaano, meaning “see you” in the Hiroshima dialect. Jaano became popularized when the Hiroshima-born former pro boxer and world champion Shinji Takehara would always end his blog posts with the word, so it’s gained a more vigorous and macho image than the original meaning.

18 “Committee chair: Sumo.” Meguri made a mistake with the kanji in Sagami’s name. It should be   (pronounced “Sagami”), but instead, she wrote   (sumo), which looks very similar. E. Honda is a character from the Street Fighter video game series and a sumo wrestler.

19 “…carry the beat with some castanets, though. Untan  , untan.  ” This refers to a scene in the band anime Kei-On! In the Japanese, this line is a pun between “transport” (unpan) and untan.

20 “… or wanyaka pappa yun-pappa.” These are lyrics from the Galaxy Angel song “Egaite A-so-bo!” The Japanese words for “gentle” and “fluffy,” honwaka and funwari, sound a lot more like these nonsense syllables than the English does.

21 “…Fight! Fight! Chiba!…” This is a song by Jaguar, a musician who is mainly active in Chiba prefecture only, with a sort of 1980s visual-kei aesthetic and a calm, whispery singing voice.

22 “…I don’t mean the one from Pyu to Fuku…” Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar is a gag manga about recorders, aspiring musicians, and their daily lives.

23 “…sparkling, glittering…rock-paper-scissors…” Sparkling, glittering, rock-paper-scissors is the catchphrase of Cure Peace from the anime Smile Pretty Cure!

24 “…so sporadic I started wondering if I was in a field of mushrooms.” In the original Japanese text, the pun here was between “sporadic” (sanpatsu) and “haircut” (sanpatsu). Hachiman says, “The conversation was so sporadic, even a hairdresser wouldn’t do that much haircutting.”

Chapter 3 … Hina Ebina’s musical is homoerotic, as expected. (Part 2)

1 “…stud-studded…” The Japanese here is a reference to Doki! Marugoto Mizugi! Onna Darake no Suiei Taikai (Heart-pounding! All swimsuits! The all-girls swimming show!), a spin-off of the Swimming Show pop-star variety show that began in 1970, with swimming as a theme.

2 “…perversely—er, assertively—” This is another example of the fu wordplay, in which the fu in the word “bold” (futeki) is replaced with the character that means “rotten/perverted.”

3 “…identifiable by their footsteps are Tarao…” Tarao, often referred to as Tara-chan, is Sazae-san’s son in the long-running manga and anime series Sazae-san. The sound effect for footsteps is a sort of cartoonish rattling, squeaking noise.

4 “…picking away like pokasuka-jyan.” Pokasuka-Jyan is a trio of comedians who use musical instruments to primarily make musically oriented jokes. Pokasuka-jyan is also a sort of onomatopoeia for strumming wildly.

5 “…bom-boko-bom-boko—what, is this a tanuki battle?” The Japanese title of the Studio Ghibli movie Pom Poko is Heisei Era Tanuki Battle: Pom Poko. The change to bom from pom implies a lower, heavier sound.

6 “Unlimited Double Works…” This is referencing Unlimited Blade Works, a special ability of the protagonist of the Fate/stay night visual novel and the name of the first Fate movie.

7 “What Marble Phantasm.” In the Type-Moon universe (which includes the Fate series), “Marble Phantasm” is the special ability to materialize a phantasm, to configure the world according to your vision of it.

8 “But a sigh escaped me. I just don’t want to get a job.” This is a reference to some lyrics from the opening song of the anime Attack No. 1, a late-1960s shoujo anime about volleyball, and the first girls’ sports anime ever to be televised. The line is “But the tears escaped me. I mean, I’m a girl.”

9 “What was the source of this difference…? Pride, and a different environment…” This is an Internet meme that originated from a newspaper article about baseball players. There was a thread on 2ch that also used this name, leading to this line often being used online when making comparisons.

10 “YuruYuri is one thing, but if it’s full-blown yuri, I can’t entirely back you up there.” YuruYuri is a manga and anime series about a group of girls in their middle school’s Amusement Club.

11 “Listen with amazement! Prostrate yourself with rapt attention!” This is playing with the catchphrase of the Oni Child Trio from the children’s anime Ojarumaru. When they stand in a tower, they call out, “Listen and be amazed!” “Look and laugh!” and “We’re the minions of the Great King Enma!”

12 “…they made the one in black the main character…” Nagisa Misumi, also known as Cure Black, is one of the protagonists in Futari wa Pretty Cure, the magical girl anime.

Chapter 4 … Suddenly, Haruno Yukinoshita attacks.

1 “You kinda look like a housewife…” Traditionally speaking, in Japan, the housewife takes care of all family finances, taking her husband’s paycheck in full, managing all expenses, and doling out an allowance to him. It’s considered household affairs and, therefore, women’s work.

2 “We’re counting on you…” In the Japanese, she says yoroyoro instead of yoroshiku (counting on you), which is a verbal quirk from the character Ami Futami in The Idolmaster.

3 “But incidents don’t happen in conference rooms. They happen at the scene.” This is a line from Odoru Daisousasen (Bayside Shakedown), a police drama. When there’s a chance to arrest the culprit, the higher-ups order the protagonist to wait until the investigators from the head office show up so that they can take credit for the effort. The protagonist, Aoshima, responds with this line.

4 “…I thought she was talking about super robots…” Hachiman is referring to Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, a GBA-era RPG in the Super Robot Wars franchise.

5 “…revealing her history with gangs…” In Japanese, he says “Australian meat,” since in Japanese, Aussie is pronounced like “OG.”

6 “Is it the end of the century?” The manga Fist of the North Star is set in an apocalyptic landscape at the end of the century, and the phrase end of century is thrown around constantly in the story. Fist of the North Star is also infamous for having a lot of strange, invented yelled sound effects, including hya-hah, a cry of joy you hear from various minor characters.

7 “…Decree of Return to Farming.” This was an order by the shogun in the 1700s that farmers who had left their farms to go to the city for economic reasons be forced to go back to their farms and do agricultural work.

8 “Taka, taka, taka. TAAAN!” This is in reference to a particular manga by the comedy artist Jigoku no Misawa, in one of his series of one-panel gags that feature people doing mildly obnoxious things. In this comic, a man taps away and then slams the enter key hard with the distinct sound effect taan.

9 “…doesn’t it?! Nooo!” The wording of this phrase, which is rather more obvious in Japanese, is a reference to an Internet meme that goes, “Rainy season ended yesterday?! It won’t rain anymore? Yaaay!” with the following line being, “Rainy season isn’t over, is it?! Nooo!” The meme is often accompanied by ASCII art. It originated from a brief NHK interview with a beachgoer.

10 “…seniority by length of service.” Traditionally speaking, in Japanese companies, promotion is largely based on age (which is equivalent to length at the company, since it’s traditional to only accept fresh university grads as new employees), not competence, and you’re obligated to follow the orders of anyone who has been with the company for longer than you. This tradition has also been slowly dying.

11 “I Can Be a Corporate Slave!” This is a reference to the light novel Nareru! SE (I can become a systems engineer!) by Natsumi Kouji.

Chapter 5 … Meguri Shiromeguri is pleasantly trifled with.

1 “…Characteristic Genre Name…” Hachiman is parodying the Tales series of RPGs and their tradition of giving every single one a “Characteristic Genre Name” (a term coined by the producers) along the lines of “RPG to enforce justice” (Vesperia), “RPG to know the meaning of one’s birth” (Abyss), “RPG called destiny,” (Destiny), etc.

2 “…It was meee!” This line is from Youji Haneda of the visual novel We without Wings. This line is from when he gets a friend to call up someone and string them along, only to reveal it was just a prank call from Youji.

3 “Since the majority of the nicknames were written in phonetic katakana or hiragana letters, the formal kanji characters stuck out like a sore thumb.” All Japanese surnames, and most Japanese given names, are written in kanji (Chinese characters). Writing a name in hiragana or katakana, the phonetic syllabaries of Japanese, makes it look softer and more like a nickname.

4 “What’s more, they even added a friendly little kun honorific in katakana…” Kun is a standard honorific for boys of equal or lower status, and it’s considered polite to add it at the end of the names of all your male peers. It’s typically written in kanji, so writing it in katakana is just a blatant attempt to make it look more like a familiar nickname when it’s really just what you’d use for everyone. In this series, most of the people in Hikigaya’s class refer to him using this honorific, as “Hikitani-kun.” Honorifics have generally been removed from these novels in the name of readability.

5 Mother Farm is a farm-themed theme park in Chiba prefecture, while Orandaya is a Chiba-based business that makes both European-style sweet pastries and Japanese-style sweets (wagashi).

6 “…must have eaten a translation jelly…” Translation jelly, called honyaku konnyaku in Japanese (translation konjac), is an item in the children’s anime Doraemon that the titular character pulls out of his stomach pocket. When eaten, you can understand any language.

7 “I can’t understand what’s going on here. I don’t understand, Masked Niyander.” The original joke here was a segue into the title of the children’s anime Nyani ga Nyandaa Nyandaa Kamen, which loosely translates into “I don’t get this, Masked Niyander” with meow sounds inserted into all the words. Since the title is so untranslatable, it’s generally localized as Mighty Cat Masked Niyander.

8 “…After two turns, I’ll give it back to you double.” This is referring to the skill “Bide” in the Pokémon games, which does exactly what Hachiman describes.

9 “Don’t underestimate the power of the Jagan eye…” This is a line from Hiei in the manga Yu Yu Hakusho. His third eye (often just left as jagan in translations, which literally means “evil eye”) gives him a number of supernatural abilities.

10 “There’s no seat for your ass anyway!” This is a line from Midori Iwamoto in the J-drama Life. She says it to her former “bad friend,” Manami Anzai, when she dumps her graffiti-tagged desk and chair out the classroom window.

11 “It was so brazen I started wondering if she’d been taking metalworking classes.” The original wordplay here is based on the Japanese word rokotsu, meaning “blunt” or “blatant.” The characters in the word literally mean “exposed bones.” Hachiman says, “The bones are so exposed, it’s like, Where’d this skull come from?”

Chapter 6 … Unusually, Yui Yuigahama is indignant.

1 “…even the famously overworked poet Takuboku Ishikawa would have to admit it.” Takuboku Ishikawa was an early twentieth-century poet who died young of tuberculosis. Overwork was a contributor to his death. One of his poems goes, “I work / and work and yet my life / remains / impoverished as ever / I gaze at my hands.”

2 “Fun! So fun!” The original slogan is Delicious! So delicious! Juumangoku Manjuu. Manjuu is a type of sweet bun. The company is, as Hachiman says, based in Saitama prefecture.

3 “Friendship / Effort / Victory” These are commonly known as the “Shonen Jump values,” the sort of values sought for in manga that run in the wildly popular magazine Weekly Shonen Jump (titles like One Piece, Slam Dunk, and Hunter X Hunter).

4 “…Hakkou Ichiu.” Hakkou Ichiu is an Imperial Japanese slogan. The literal meaning in its original context, the Nihon Shoki, is roughly “I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode” (referring to the emperor). This was later used as justification for imperialist expansion, essentially the Japanese version of “manifest destiny.”

5 “Is she making caramel sweets in there?” Hanabatake Bokujou (meaning “field of flowers farm”) is a brand name for caramel sweets. The inside of someone’s head being a field of flowers is a Japanese idiom describing someone who’s thoughtlessly optimistic.

6 “…the character for ‘person’ is two people leaning on each other…” Hachiman is referring to the kanji for “people,” which looks somewhat like a wishbone, or an inverse V. This is a famous quote from the teacher Mr. Kenpachi in the J-drama 3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei, a classic teacher drama about middle school with a lot of Very Special Episodes, rather like the Japanese Degrassi. Linguistically speaking, this is not actually the origin of the character but rather a modern pop interpretation.

7 “Chiba’s famous for dancing and festivals!” This is a line from “Chiba Ondo,” a traditional-style song and dance that is the official dance of Chiba prefecture. It’s typical for every region in Japan to have a dance like this, which volunteers perform during local festivals.

8 “My time is now!” This is a famous quote from Sakuragi, the protagonist of the basketball manga Slam Dunk. The full line is “When were your glory days, old man? Back during the nationals? My time… My time is now!”

9 “I hate perceptive kids, you know?” This line is a Fullmetal Alchemist reference, a quote from Shou Tucker, a man who engaged in some heinous alchemical practices, speaking to Edward, the protagonist, who has figured out just what he’s done.

10 “Was she about to say ‘thenceforth’ instead?” The Japanese gag here was based on the word jaa, which means “then.” He says, “If she wasn’t saying it like she just had an idea, then all she could be talking about is Zojirushi.” Zojirushi is a popular brand of rice cookers, which are suihanjaa in Japanese.

11 “They’re called corporate slaves because they don’t disobey…” This is a play on a quote from Shiori Misaka in the visual novel series Kanon. The original line is “They’re called miracles because they don’t happen.” The parallels are more obvious in the Japanese, as he’s mimicking her speech style.

12 “Get on out there, you!” A quote from Johnny Kitagawa, president of Johnny & Associates, that is famous partially because the “you” is said in English. Johnny & Associates is a very prominent talent agency that produces boy bands and male idols, and they’re behind some of the biggest pop stars in Japan.

Chapter 7 … This is the moment Soubu High School is festivaling hardest.

1 “Was it Mil Máscaras who had a thousand faces?” Mil Máscaras is a famous luchador, and his ring name is Spanish for “thousand masks.” On the other hand, Nyarlathotep, the deity from the Cthulhu mythos, is known as the God of a Thousand Forms or the Faceless God.

2 “Despairingly cool!” This is the line that comes during the next-episode previews of Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter (Super high-speed transforming Gyrozetter). It’s about transforming robots.

3 Comiket is a massive biannual doujinshi (fan work) convention in Japan, with an attendance of over half a million. It’s no exaggeration to say the entire convention is just a series of lineups, and a large portion of staff is present purely to manage lines.

4 Karaoke Pasela and Karaoke no Tetsujin are both just karaoke parlor chains.

5 “You might as well call it money toast.” The original line here in Japanese is “It’s not a burrito.” In Japanese, the words sound similar: honitou and buritou.

Chapter 8 … Beyond, Yukino Yukinoshita has her eye on someone.

1 “…TROLLEY OLLEY.” This is a reference to a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, Express Train Trolley Olley.

2 “…sounds close to something more risqué.” Hachiman is referring to “love dolls,” human-sized mannequins used for sexual purposes. In Japanese, the terms sound a lot more alike: ragudooru and rabudooru.

3 “…‘singers’ and ‘munchers’…” The Japanese nicknames for the Singapura and Munchkin are pura-pura and chikan, which mean “jiggly” and “groper,” respectively.

4 “Are you Mr. Popo?” In Japanese, Mr. Popo in Dragon Ball Z speaks in a truncated, Tarzan-like manner.

Chapter 9 … And so the curtain rises on each stage.

1 “…this is my time now.” This is a play on the iconic quote from Kouta Kazuraba, the main character of Kamen Rider. He says, “This is my stage now.”

Chapter 10 … Finally, he and she find the right answers.

1 “…I lie and lie and lie relentlessly. That’s me.” This is a play on a line from the opening song of the Tottemo! Luckyman anime. “I’m lucky and lucky and lucky relentlessly. That’s me.” The gag here rests on a pun between uso wo tsuku, “to lie,” and tsuku, “to be lucky.”

2 “Does that ‘just’ have a double meaning?” The Japanese pun here is on giri (barely) and giri (obligation).

3 “…what would I even be foiling?” In Japanese, Yukinoshita calls him “Hikitateyaku” (meaning “foil”) and he responds with “Hey, don’t just smoothly get my name wrong.” The word sounds a lot more like his name than foil does.

Afterword

1 “Autumn’s end—” This is a haiku by Matsuo Basho in 1694, written a few weeks before his death.

2 “Are you Psaro?” Psaro is the final boss of Dragon Quest IV.

3 “Is the series nickname Hamachi? Is it Oregairu?” This series has two different popular abbreviations in Japanese.

4 “It’ll keep on going for just a little longer, y’know?” This is a quote from Master Roshi in the Dragon Ball manga, after Piccolo’s defeat. Some at the time felt the manga might end there, but it ended up going on for quite a long time after that.