Bonus Translator’s Notes

Chapter One

Universal Century

The mech identification codes are all Gundam references.

Yandere

A yandere is a girl who is loving and sweet until it turns out she’s actually possessive and crazy. The specific scene in this volume appears to reference Mirai Nikki (Future Diary).

Kappa

A Japanese water demon. Its head has a depression on top filled with water; if you can trick the kappa into bowing, the water will pour out and the monster won’t be able to move. They are also usually depicted with short, bowl-style haircuts, which is the detail Shinichi has in mind here.

“A Kawaii-ness All its Own”

In Japanese, Shinichi uses the word kyuuto (cute) in katakana, so we figured turnabout was fair play.

Cross-Dresser

Jp. otoko no ko. When written with the characters for “male child,” the phrase otoko no ko simply means “boy.” However, some Japanese cross-dressers replace the character “child” (ko) with a different one meaning “daughter” or “girl” (also pronounced ko) as a play on words.

Cour

While Western TV series are usually divided into “seasons,” and the term is sometimes informally used to refer to sets of episodes of an anime series, the technical term “cour” (apparently derived from the French word for “course”) is more precise. A cour is usually thirteen episodes.

Weapons Systems Don’t Have Jugulars

The Japanese expression, mi mo futa mo nai, literally means “to have no body [i.e., container] and no lid,” and idiomatically means “point-blank,” “blunt.” So Shinichi accuses Minori’s declaration of being mi mo futa mo nai (too blunt), to which Minori replies that weapons systems have no containers (mi) or lids (futa).

About to Attack

The reference is to Attack on Titan, which is called Shingeki no Kyojin (literally, “Attacking Titan”) in Japanese. Shinichi suggests that the robot might be about to “shingeki” (assault, attack). This makes the Japanese allusion perhaps a bit more clear than the English one; we compensated by using the word “titan” in the next sentence.

Ult**man

That is, Ultraman. This character’s face is clearly humanoid, but lacks much in the way of facial features, which is the point at issue.

Lauron Selioz

Jp. Roron Seriozu. The Japanese sound usually romanized with an r is really somewhere between an r and an l, and when to use one letter or the other when localizing a character’s name can be a thorny problem. In this case, we took the name as being akin to “Lauren” and romanized accordingly.

Garaham

Jp. Garahamu. Sounds much like the English/Germanic name Graham—which means “gravel” in its oldest form.

Elementary-Schooler Backpacks

Elementary-schoolers (shougakusei) in Japan all wear distinctive red backpacks.

Otome Game

A visual novel aimed at women (that is, most of the romantic prospects are guys).

Boys Over Flowers

We very rarely take it upon ourselves to insert references that aren’t in the original, but in this case we took the liberty. This reference actually ends up being a bit dizzying to contemplate. The original expression hana yori dango (“Dango [rice balls] over flowers”) means to prefer the practical to the merely aesthetic; the manga series of the same name punned on the expression to mean “Boys over flowers,” and now we’re using the English translation of the Japanese pun in the manga title with the understanding that “flowers” means girls. But we kind of love it for that.

Kagemusha

Literally “shadow warrior,” this term refers to a body double employed by a feudal daimyo, as Shinichi suggests. Like he hints, it’s also the title of a well-known movie by Kurosawa Akira.

Isukiri

A particular town in Aomori (a prefecture in northern Honshu) contains a tombstone alleged to be the burial place of Jesus Christ. Historically, people in the area have believed in the legend Shinichi describes: that it wasn’t Jesus who died on the cross, but his younger brother Isukiri (a name transparently derived from Iesu Kirisuto, the Japanese equivalent of “Jesus Christ”). Jesus himself escaped through Siberia and wound up in Aomori, where he lived out the rest of his life.

Teachers’ Room

That is, the shokuinshitsu (staff room). Every Japanese school has one of these, so although it hasn’t really been mentioned before, it makes sense that Shinichi’s school, which is explicitly built on the Japanese model, has one as well. Each teacher at the school has a desk in the staff room where they can keep their papers and supplies and prepare for lessons. Teachers can generally be found in the staff room when not teaching; students may be summoned to the staff room to see a teacher or may go there of their own volition if they need something from a particular sensei.

Fig*a

That is, Figma, a brand of Japanese figures renowned for its highly articulated models.

Mike-mike Osuwari

Most likely a reference to Minami-ke Okawari, the second season of the anime Minami-ke. The show was about a family named the Minamis (the word minami means “south”), and the character Shinichi refers to has the surname Kita, which means “north.” (“Okawari” means “seconds,” whereas “osuwari” means “sit!”, as in a command you would give a dog.)

Faerie Field

This is a fun one: フェアリー・フィールド (Fearii Fiirudo), featuring a character named Serris, is a light novel (not a video game) by... Sakaki Ichiro. In the Japanese here, he’s “changed” the name by rendering it as フェアリイ・フィールド, handling the final vowel of the first word with a second i character instead of a long-vowel dash. There’s no official English version of this series, but we thought it would be more likely to be called Fairy Field, so we similarly changed the (hypothetical) spelling of the first word somewhat.

A Certain Such-and-Such Savior Legend

This is a Fist of the North Star reference. It seems to allude to the video game Hokuto no Ken Seiki-matsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu (Fist of the North Star: Turn-of-the-Century Savior Legend).

The Epic of a Certain Meiji-era Swordsman

This is a reference to Rurouni Kenshin, which had the subtitle 明治剣客浪漫譚 (Meiji Kenkaku Roman-tan) or “Romantic Tales of a Meiji Swordsman” in Japanese. (The elaborate subtitle doesn’t seem to have been carried over in the English release of the manga.) There’s a sequence late in the manga (spoiler alert—it wasn’t in the anime) where Kaoru is killed—but it later transpires that the thing Kenshin saw “die” was actually an elaborate doll, and Kaoru is okay.

Kurobe Dam

An actual dam in Japan that is a popular tourist destination. It doesn’t appear to have any currency as a pop-culture metaphor, so it seems Shinichi is only referencing it because it’s well known.

“It—It Gets Lonely, Does It Not?”

In Japanese Petralka says simply, “Sa—Sabishii, dewa nai ka” (“L-Lonely, no?”). Because an explicit subject isn’t usually necessary in Japanese, she can leave it artfully ambiguous who she’s talking about. She might be referring to herself—but then, maybe she’s talking about Shinichi, or even just a general atmosphere.

Bittersweetness

Amazuppai (bittersweet) can refer to a flavor, but also means the sweet-but-also-bitter pangs of adolescent love.

Chapter Two

Prepure

A reference to the Precure franchise and a show that Shinichi has mentioned before.

A Passionately Celebrated Hero

Shinichi describes Brooke as an “atsui” rizaadoman no eiyuu (“hot” lizardman hero); atsui here, considering the highlight quotes, is probably an incidental pun on lizards being cold-blooded. (In Japanese, the word atsui, or “hot,” can be used to mean “passionate” or what we might call, ironically, “hot-blooded.”)

Slutty Bottom

Jp. sasoi-uke, that is, an uke who takes the initiative in beginning a sexual encounter (the Japanese literally means “inviting bottom”). There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent English expression, and although the Japanese term has some currency in English fandom, in this scene it’s specifically being contrasted with sou-uke (total bottom), which we translated when it appeared in Minori’s lesson many volumes ago, so we wanted to maintain the English usage.

The Ending Song from Prepure

The Precure anime has something of a tradition of ending sequences that use CGI to create convincing renditions of the animated characters doing song-and-dance routines. It’s easy enough to find clips and compilations of them on YouTube if you want to see the sort of thing Lauron is probably watching.

Overwork

The Japanese term karoushi literally means “death from overwork,” and that’s what it describes: someone who has worked so hard that they reach their physical limit and die (such as from a heart attack or stroke). In Japan, it’s especially associated with the bubble economy of the 1980s, when many office workers kept absurdly long hours; however, it remains an issue today in Japan’s work-conscious society.

Magical Rampage

Jp. mahou no bousou. This expression is associated with the Dragon Quest games, and refers to a random phenomenon where a spell will be more powerful than normal when used.

Yodeling in the Alps

A reference to the 1974 anime Arupusu no Shoujo Haiji, or Heidi, Girl of the Alps. Notably, the series was directed by Studio Ghibli founder Takahata Isao.

“Dutch Wi—”

I.e., Dutch wife, in this case, a body pillow or sex doll. The reference to “the passenger seats of cars” relates to how some people allegedly use inflatable dolls to make it look like there are more passengers in their cars than there really are, allowing them to use the quicker carpool lanes to avoid rush-hour traffic.

Minori’s Posture

The way Minori leans on the table with her fingers steepled in front of her face is a direct reference to a posture frequently adopted by Ikari Gendou in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The narration and dialogue that follow both contain multiple allusions to the same show.

Chapter Three

Japan’s Educational System

Education in Japan often relies on a good deal of rote memorization—something that’s hard to avoid when your written language consists of thousands of distinct characters, but which can (critics allege) stifle the development of independent creative thought when extended to the rest of the curriculum. That’s the criticism Hikaru is alluding to in this discussion: the focus on memorization over understanding.

Goethe or Heine

Johann Goethe (1749–1832) was a German writer and thinker whose work encompassed a dizzying variety of fields and subjects. Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) was a poet, among other things, who leveled a good deal of sarcasm at the romantic movement that gripped poetry around the time of his life.

We Have No Choice but to Die!

A line from Madoka Magica. In Japan, the line (“Shinu shika nai ja nai!”) became the basis for a number of memes.

More Yan- than -Dere

Again, a yandere is an archetypical character (usually a girl) in anime, who is in love with the main character (that’s the -dere part), but also has a tendency to inflict severe physical violence on him (that’s the yan-).

Disaster Relief

As we’ve noted in the past, the Japan Self-Defense Force is very limited in the specifically military activities it’s allowed to undertake. Peaceful operations, however, are allowed, and the JSDF is frequently deployed in response to natural disasters, somewhat in the way the Coast Guard is used in the US.

Auto-Changer

In Japanese, the power is called jidou shokubai (auto-catalyst), and glossed with the katakana ooto cheinjaa.

Chapter Four

“My Name Isn’t Bunny...”

The reference is to Tiger & Bunny, which is frequently characterized as a “buddy hero (baddii hiiro) action” show on the Japanese internet.

The Sandman

The Japanese version of the Sandman is the suima (睡魔), composed of the character for sleep and the character denoting a magical being. In Japanese Shinichi literally says Myusel seemed to be “fighting an especially vicious suima/sleep spirit.”

Bombing Hurricanes

This is something that has actually been proposed in the past as a way of averting especially bad storms. As Shinichi remarks, though, a hurricane simply contains too much energy for it to be neutralized by any reasonable amount of weaponry. (That’s not even to mention the potential problem of fallout when using nuclear bombs.)

What Do You Want to Do?

This entire line comes from an episode of Gundam Unicorn.

Byar**nt Custom

The Byarlant Custom, a powerful Mobile Suit from the same series.

110mm LAM

LAM is short for Loitering Attack Munition, a system in which the weapon (such as a drone) stays in one area (that is, loiters) until it finds a suitable target, which it then attacks. As Shinichi says, this was also referenced during the sequence in Bahairam in Volume 5.

People Seem to Get Stronger During a Crisis

Just as a point of interest, the Japanese for this is kajiba no baka-jikara, literally “outrageous strength at the scene of a fire.” The image is of someone doing something extraordinary in the face of a raging inferno, equivalent to the proverbial mom lifting a car off her child.

Atmospheric Lid

空気の蓋 (kuuki no futa, “air lid”) in Japanese. This appears to be an invented term. Perhaps it involves the toilet mages creating a wind phenomenon that prevents sprites from escaping.

Afterword

Nou-kan! Nou-kan!

A reference to the anime version of the series Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji, a story about gamblers which we’ve encountered in these notes before.