Bonus Translator’s Notes

Chapter One

Sambo

A Soviet martial art.

“The Scare in Red Scare”

The Japanese describes this “Putin” as “the image of oso-roshia (おそロシア).” This is a really, truly terrible pun on osoroshii (scary) + roshia (Russia). It has fairly wide currency on the Japanese internet as a way of referring to any of the less savory practices of the Russian state.

The Bol**oi Circus

That is, the Bolshoi Circus, an auditorium and performance venue in Moscow.

Cat & Bunny

A play on Tiger & Bunny.

Nooooeeees!

Jp. rame. This is a corruption of dame (no!/don’t!), made prominent by the series Doruaga no Tou (Tower of Druaga).

A Different Direction

Shinichi says that there were eight attackers, and that “each of them came from a different direction.” This implies one from each of the cardinal directions (North, South, etc.) and one from each of the ordinal directions (northeast, southwest, etc.). “The eight directions” (happou) is also a common expression in both Japanese and Chinese meaning “everywhere at once.”

Type 64 Silenced Pistols

The Type 64 is a semiautomatic pistol formerly used by the People’s Liberation Army.

Consumption Tax

A consumption tax (shouhizei) is assessed on most goods sold in Japan. The rate of this tax has been raised a number of times, but Shinichi’s dad is probably referring to the increase to 8% in 2014.

Assemblyperson

A giin or member of a prefectural assembly (gikai or ken-gikai), which are the legislative bodies of Japan’s individual prefectures.

110

The number for emergency services in Japan, equivalent to 911 in the US. It’s often referred to as “hyaku-tou-ban,” combining the number 110 (using an alternate reading of the number ten) with the suffix -ban, or “number.”

Without Even Taking Off Their Shoes

In Japan, you are expected to remove your shoes almost any time you enter a private residence (or for that matter, even a school). To fail to do so—and therefore to track dirt and filth from outside into the home—is considered tremendously rude.

Heavily Accented Japanese

In the original, this is indicated by using kanji where they would be expected, but then rendering the rest of the sentence in katakana. (For example, 我々ト共ニ来イ! [ware-ware TO tomo NI koI!, “Come with us!”) This makes the sentence somewhat more readable, and therefore seem less “stumbling,” than the all-katakana lines of the Eldant characters.

Spread the Word

The Japanese is kakusan kibou, literally “share wish,” that is, “I hope you’ll share this.” “Plz share” might be another viable translation, but wouldn’t have had the gravity that was necessary for this line in this scene.

LINE

An instant-communication app that launched in Japan in 2012.

Ni** Nama

Nico Nama, Nico Nico’s live-video streaming site.

Chapter Two

Airsoft

A team shooting game similar to paintball, where teams of players hold battles using replica weaponry. Unlike paintball, though, airsoft pellets don’t mark their targets. Airsoft originated in Japan, although now it’s known around the world.

Nasty Otaku

Jp. kimo-ota, a contraction of kimoi otaku. Kimoi (itself perhaps related to kimochi warui, “sickening”) means disgusting, the sort of thing that makes you sick to your stomach.

Egao Video

Egao means “smiling face,” and is a clear play on niko-niko video, the Japanese streaming site. (Niko-niko, or in the site’s spelling, Nico Nico, is roughly “grin.”)

Thinking the Exact Same Thing

In the Japanese, Shinichi says he and Myusel shared aun no kokyuu. Kokyuu means “breath.” Aun (or a-un) refers to the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. In many Japanese temples, a pair of imposing statues can be seen, one with its mouth open to represent the sound a, the other with its mouth closed, making the sound un. Between them, they represent the beginning and end of all things. The two are considered to be in perfect harmony, and therefore the expression aun no kokyuu (“[sharing] an a-un breath”) means to be of one mind.

Sneak Tourism

Jp. O-shinobi kankou, “sightseeing on the sly.” This must be used by people who have spotted Shinichi and the gang out and about but trying to be inconspicuous.

A Certain Anime Event

Shinichi may be referring to Summer Comiket, or just perhaps to the now defunct Tokyo Anime Fair, though that was mostly held in February or March.

Intercom

An intercom providing audio and often video from a buzzer at the front door is a feature of many Japanese residential homes.

A Supra, a Skyline, or a Fairlady Z

That is, a Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline, or Nissan Fairlady Z, all well-known Japanese sports cars.

Systema

Another Russian martial arts system. There are actually a couple of characters in popular fighting games that allegedly use Systema, but the games (including Street Fighter V and Dead or Alive 6) are too recent to be specifically referenced here.

“More Subdued Arts”

Judo and aikido (a martial art similar to judo but with less emphasis on competition) are widely perceived as being “gentle” arts; they’re often associated more with joint locks and control holds than with direct physical strikes. Karate and to an extent kenpo (a somewhat broad term) are associated with punching, board-breaking, and “karate yells” (kiai). Police forces in Japan frequently learn “softer” martial arts so that they can respond to and control situations and suspects. It would be a mistake, however, to think of these arts as harmless; they have punches, kicks, and other physical strikes like any other martial art, and both are known for their devastating throws, such as the one Reito performs on the Russian agent.

Reito’s Gun

Japanese gun laws are exceedingly strict, generally allowing only law enforcement officers and a small handful of game hunters to possess firearms. The only other people who carry guns are gangsters. Reito obviously doesn’t spend most of his time in the mountains stalking wild boar, so his having a gun marks him out as either a constable or a criminal.

Special Security Team

A counterterrorism arm of the Japanese Coast Guard.

Tracing the Character for Person on One’s Palm

The character for person (hito) is 人, two simple strokes, making it easy to trace quickly and repeatedly. This helps provide a distraction and calm anxiety.

Chapter Three

The Going Is Easy, but the Coming Home...

The title of chapter three alludes to an Edo-era children’s song which includes the line “Iki wa yoi yoi, kaeri wa kowai” (the going is easy, but the coming home a fright). The tune (the song is known as “Touryanse,” or “Come On In”) is—or used to be—commonly played at street crossings in Japan when it is safe to cross, and as such is probably familiar to most anime fans who have seen any series with a contemporary urban setting, even if they don’t know what it’s called.

Specialty Shops

As Petralka discovers, because gacha are dispensed at random, it can take a fair amount of time (and money) to get a specific figure you want. For this reason, some shops purchase the figures from the gacha machines themselves, so customers can pick the figures they’re after and purchase them individually.

Otome Road

An “otaku street” in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district that appeals especially to women. (And especially to fujoshi.)

Tourist Sites

In thinking about where Elvia might want to go, Shinichi ticks off a whole list of otaku-oriented attractions in the Tokyo area. A giant Gundam statue has stood in the Odaiba area since 2009 (originally erected to celebrate Gundam’s 30th anniversary); in 2017 the original statue was replaced by one from Gundam Unicorn. Comiket (short for “Comics Market”) is a semi-annual convention focusing especially on doujinshi, while Nakano Broadway (so called because it’s a large thoroughfare-cum-shopping district in the Nakano area of Tokyo) is another shopping area with lots of stores selling anime-related goods.

A couple paragraphs later, he goes on: “Rat Kingdom” (Nezumi no Oukoku) is an attraction in Urayasu City in Chiba Prefecture, next door to Tokyo. The Ghibli Museum is located in Mitaka, on the western edge of Tokyo’s metropolitan sprawl. It’s not far from Kichijouji, the “trendy” district Shinichi mentions. Kichijouji has a lot of green space in the form of Inokashira Park (which includes a zoo), as well as shopping and eating opportunities.

Aniki

This is a reference to Billy Herrington, a gay porn star who became an internet meme in Japan. In his popularity, many mashups of clips from his videos were made. (The mashups are known as gachimuchi, which Shinichi uses in this sentence and which we translated simply as “mashups.” Literally, though, it’s derived from gay slang referring to someone with a muscly but sexy body, like a wrestler.) Herrington became known as Aniki (“Big Bro”) on the Japanese web. Many of these mashups play on deliberate mishearings (in Japanese, soramimi) of lines from his films; soramimi is what Shinichi accuses Elvia of when he exclaims “You misheard!” Herrington sadly died in a car accident in 2018, at the age of just forty-eight.

M4A1 Carbine

A gun similar to an assault rifle currently favored by the US armed forces for a wide variety of applications, largely replacing the familiar M16.

Aggregator Blog

In Japanese, matome burogu (or saito, site). These are websites that collect information or links about a specific topic. Sometimes also called “curator sites.”

CH-53D Sea Stallion

As Shinichi explains, the Sea Stallion is a heavy transport helicopter used chiefly to ferry troops from one place to another. The crash he mentions is probably one that occurred on 13 August 2004: a CH-53D belonging to the US Marines at Futenma Air Station crashed into Okinawa International University. The crash didn’t cause significant injury or damage, but it did exacerbate tensions with residents of Futenma, where the airbase is not very popular. Other incidents in the years since this book was published have continued to make the base a point of contention and have fueled calls for its closure, although as of this writing it is still open.

Hayate

The term Hayate can refer to a few different military vehicles, but the one Shinichi seems to have in mind is the so-called koukidousha, or High Mobility Vehicle (HMV). It’s a JSDF personnel carrier that looks a bit like a beefy Jeep. Its nickname, Hayate, literally means “[a] swift wind.”

Afterword

KanColle

Short for Kantai Korekushon (Fleet Collection), a browser game that features classic Japanese battleships personified as young girls.

Manuscript Paper

Called genkou youshi in Japanese, this is a type of paper printed with a grid of either 200 or 400 squares, each intended to accommodate a single Japanese character (kanji or kana) or punctuation mark. Genkou youshi is ubiquitous in Japanese life, being used, for example, to do school assignments, so any Japanese adults would have a sense of how much text is represented by a certain number of pages of manuscript paper.

Yuugen Character Designs

Strawberry Mar**mallow

Refers to Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro), a manga that started in 2002 (there was an anime in 2005). Petralka’s outfit in this volume resembles the clothing worn by the characters in this series.