Outbreak Company: Volume 8 (Premium)
Page 20
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.
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Copyright
Outbreak Company: Volume 8
by Ichiro Sakaki
Translated by Kevin Steinbach
Edited by Sasha McGlynn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 Ichiro Sakaki
Illustrations by Yuugen
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2013 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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Ebook edition 1.0: April 2019