Chapter 1
[1] The original word used here is ‘hankouseimei’, which is the same as a claim of responsibility (for a crime), but that sounded too hefty in English.
[2] The Japanese word for ‘vex’ (nayamashi) can also mean ‘seductive’, which leads him to his next thought…
[3] The original Japanese dictates that the kanji for female teacher (女教師) would be more erotic if it were read as ‘onnakyoushi’ (woman teacher) instead of‘jokyoushi’ (female teacher).
[4] A brand of cigarettes in Japan
[5] Reference to the drama Drop-out teacher returns to school (Yankee Bokou ni Kaeru), in which a former gang member returns to his old high school as a teacher. He’s an enthusiastic teacher who tries to help students graduate out into the world.
[6] The word for perky in Japanese is ‘kiki’ which rhymes with ‘chichi’, meaning breast (This guy is such an idiot).
Chapter 1-2
[1] Refer to the prologue.
[2] The service described here is sexual.
[3] In this context, he’s referring to the desire to have sex. This is a line often said by Date Masamune from the game Sengoku BASARA. It’s a colloquial phrase often used when expressing your enthusiasm to do something.
[4] Reference to Usopp from the manga One Piece.
[5] Reference to the manga Galaxy 999 Express in which the protagonist, Testuro, aims to obtain a mechanical body to live an eternal life. Queen Promethuem, however, plans to transfer his consciousness to a bolt.
Chapter 1-3
[1] Matsushima Tomoko is a Japanese singer who was attacked by both a lion and a leopard when she went to Kenya to film for a variety show.
[2] Kaiji is a manga about the art of gambling.
[3] A ‘choose your own adventure’ book.
[4] Reference to the child detective Conan from the manga Detective Conan, and his famous phrase
[5] Reference to the chojin (superhumans) of the manga Kinnikuman.
Chapter 1-4
[1] This is a play on a Japanese riddle which asks ‘There is a flood above but a blazing fire below, what am I?’ The answer is a bathtub. The joke is that you’re crying because your house is actually on fire. (Too difficult to translate =.=)
[2] The Nighthawk’s Star is a Japanese fable about a bird called Nighthawk who is ridiculed for his ugliness. He yearns to fly far away and as a result, he dies. Afterwards his body becomes a beautiful light that produces an ever-shining star.
[3] Reference to Prince Vegeta from the manga Dragon Ball who is known more for his fighting abilities than his intelligence.
[4] A Japanese idiom meaning to hide a failure or an inconvenience through underhanded means.
[5] By ‘the stench’, Yukinoshita is actually saying that he is aware of the fact that he ‘s a ‘nuisance’. The Japanese word for something that smells bad (kusaimono) could also refer to someone who is a ‘nuisance’. This leads to the following joke he makes.
Chapter 1-5
[1] Reference to Golgo 13 from the manga Golgo 13. Golgo 13 is a professional assassin.
[2] Reference to the place of the name in the manga Dragon Ball. Characters use it in order to undergo intense training as one year in the chamber equates to one day in the real world.
[3] Reference to the manga Revolutionary Girl Utena.
[4] A line of manga magazines aimed at boys.
[5] Reference to the RPG Medabots. A robattle is an activity in which one medafighter fights another with his/her medabot.
[6] The original word used here is roribaba, which refers to a woman who acts and looks like a little girl but is actually a lot older.
[7] Tsundere is a term used for someone who appears cold on the outside but is in fact warm on the inside. (Tsuntsun = turn away in disgust. Deredere = lovey dovey.)
Chapter 2
[1] Reference to the mighty prison belonging to Ken-Oh from the manga Fist of The North Star. It is also known as the ‘City of Wailing Demons’ and was used to imprison martial artists who had forfeited their ancient scrolls to Ken-Oh in his goal to create the ultimate martial art.
[2] Reference to Kenshiro, the protagonist of the manga Fist of the North Star. Kenshiro protects the weak and innocent from the numerous gangs roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland, eventually gaining his reputation as the ‘Savior of the Century’s End’.
[3] Reference to Thouzer from the manga Fist of The North Star whose organs and pressure points are reversed. Due to a traumatic event in which he killed his sensei, he disavowed all feelings of love and compassion. He then took on the title of Holy Emperor and enslaved children with his army in order to construct the Holy Cross Mausoleum, a shrine to his deceased sensei.
[4] ‘Kounibyou’ (高二病) literally translates to ‘Second year of high school sickness’. It is characterised by a dislike of ‘chuunibyou’ (Second year of junior high sickness) in which teenagers become overly self-conscious.
[5] Keigo Higashino is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. Isaka Koutarou is a Japanese author of detective fiction.
[6] Gagagaga Bunko is a light novel label published by Shogakukan. Oregairu is published by them. Kodansha Box is a publishing line from the major Japanese publishing house, Kodansha.
[7] The original Japanese expression is ‘Hataraitara make’ (働いたら負け).It is a view commonly expressed by NEETs and school students who believe there is no point in working if what you earn is less than the amount of welfare you can obtain.
[8] ‘Concrete road’ is a song written by Shizuku, the protagonist of the Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart. Her love interest, Seiji Amasawa, is cruel in the beginning and tells her that she should ‘give up on ‘Concrete road’’. After which, she mutters ‘jerk’ under her breath numerous times all the way home. Hachiman is saying that, that is how much he hates Yukinoshita.
[9] Look up ‘kimedashi’, the sumo-wrestling move, for further information.
Chapter 2-2
[1] Reference to the Argentinean soccer player Diego Maradona who scored a goal with a handball that was later called ‘The Hand of God’.
Chapter 2-3
[1] A line from theme song of the kids’ show ‘Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Donuts’. He’s referring to the fact that the original scale ‘Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti’ doesn’t end in an ‘o’ sound but a ‘ti’ sound.
Chapter 3
[1] The word for sarcasm is 皮肉 (hiniku) and also contains the kanji for meat which is 肉 (niku).
Chapter 3-2
[1] I think this is a reference to a series of short novels called ‘青年のための読書クラブ’ (Seinen no Tame no Dokusho Club). It is known as ‘The Reading Club for the Youth’ in English.
[2] A hikikomori is someone who is socially withdrawn.
[3] Murakami Ryuu is an author who wrote a novel called ‘Almost Transparent Blue’ that deals with the issue of promiscuity and drug use among Japanese youth.
Chapter 3-4
[1] The original phrase used here is 'yareba dekiru ko', which can refer to someone who can do it if they try. However, thanks to the ambiguity of Japanese phrases, it can also be used in a negative sense to mean somebody who can't do anything at all, even if they try. Yuigahama uses it in the first sense and Hikigaya uses it in the second sense.
Chapter 3-5
[1] Reference to the superhumans from the manga Kinnikuman.
[2] Namahage are men dressed up as demonic monsters to scare children who are guilty of bad behavior. I’m not sure what the scalp thing is about but I believe it’s because ‘namahage’ means ‘scalper’ as in a person who removes someone’s scalp.
[3] There’s a pun here. “Okashi” means both “weird” and “sweets” in Japanese (of course the kanji is different, but the pronunciation is the same). So he said something “okashi” about “okashi.” Hurr hurr hurr.
Chapter 3-6
[1] The word for 'rehash' in Japanese literally means 're-bake', hence the double meaning.
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Chapter 3-7
[1] ‘Apron of Love’ is a cooking show loosely based on ‘Iron Chef’. Over the course of the series, female celebrities compete against each other to be the Top Apron. They are known as the ‘Apron Girls’ and their dishes are judged by male celebrities and the hosts, with the results appearing on the Ranking Board. The show’s catchphrase is “Cooking is love, and if done with love, Love is O.K.!’
[2] The original word used here is ‘chuunibyou’, which literally translates to ‘second year of junior high school sickness.’
[3] The ‘naru’ in ‘narugaya’ stands for narcissistic.
[4] NEET stands for ‘not in education, employment or training.’
Chapter 4
[1] He referenced a Japanese idiom, tried to translate it into English, and then corrected himself. It’s not too important to understand the idiom – he’s just screwing around a bit.
[2] Could be a reference to the Kannagi opening theme, but I’m not positive.
[3] An obvious reference to Photoshop.
[4] A term referring to people who are doing well and satisfied with their real lives.
[5] She says “flashy” here, but that actually has a bit of a negative connotation in English, so I opted for something more positive.
[6] “Kodoku no Gourmet.” It’s a manga.
Chapter 4-2
[1] A reference to Ojamajo Doremi characters. Hey, did you know our group also does the translation for this series? You can check it out here!
[2] I’m not super sure, but this might be a reference to Yamunaku Kakusei! Jashin Oonuma, which is also a light novel published by the same publishing house. (Jashin means evil God).
Chapter 5
[1] What now follows is a page of discussion on Japanese dialects. Please take pity on your poor translator who will do his best to get through this section in English without making things sound incoherent.
[2] Yeah they didn’t say this at all. They actually talk about different ways of saying the word “bruise” in Japanese dialects. But because there is no common variation on the word “bruise” in English dialects, I chose to just change the text around and go with something that does have common dialectical differences in English.
[3] A parody of the Trans-America Ultra Quiz, a Japanese game show.
[4] If you plotted this on a map, this basically crosses the very top of Chiba Prefecture, and misses the bottom 80 percent of the prefecture.
Chapter 5-2
[1] Chuunibyou refers to (relatively) mature people who are overly absorbed in fantasy worlds, often pretending they are some fictional character that only exists in their heads.
[2] The Hachiman Great Bodhisattva is a deity of archery and war in Japanese mythology. And yes, also happens to be the name of the main character in this novel.
[3] The period between around 1400 to 1600 in Japanese history. Overlaps quite heavily with the Warring States Era.
[4] In Japanese, “chuu” (pronounced like “choo”) means kiss.
[5] “Jakigan,” literally “evil eye,” is another word that can be applied to chuunibyou. It is a derogatory reference to the “third eyes” that characters have which grant them special powers in many action series aimed at younger audiences.
[6] Countdown TV is a Japanese late night music TV show.
[7] A famous line of rulers of the Minamoto clan, one of whom is Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun who united Japan after the Warring States era and kicked off what is considered to be early modern Japan. Ashikaga Yoshiteru is also (probably?) considered to be part of this line.
[8] Most famous shrine in the city of Kamakura, and of course one meant to worship the deity Hachiman.
[9] Turn based strategy game which has groundings in Japanese history.
[10] I seriously didn’t know this was a thing, but apparently it is.
Chapter 5-4
[1] Furigana: In Japanese writing, sometimes a kanji is used but is meant to be pronounced in a different way, which is indicated by small furigana above it. For example, you could write down the kanji for nightmare, 悪夢, which is pronounced “akumu,” but above it in small print you write “ナイトメア,” or “naitomea,” which is a clear reference to the English pronunciation. This is often used to force more “Western” pronunciations of certain things, especially proper nouns, but overuse of this technique can often make a work rather childish and heavy-handed.
[2] Nouryoku means “ability” while chikara means more something like “power.”
Chapter 5-6
[1] Japanese word for “voice actor.” It’s one of my rules to never translate this word, just because it has such a different nuance when put into English…
Chapter 6
[1] I just want to mention that after translating so many volumes of light novels, this is probably the very first pun I’ve encountered that I could translate almost verbatim into English. Bring out the champagne.
[2] Fairly standard, somewhat affectionate honorific for older brothers.
[3] A sweetened coffee drink. Actually, one of the only places in Japan these things are sold is in Chiba, so this makes sense.
[4] Japanese TV drama.
[5] A term often used to refer to soccer players who are especially proficient with their left foot.
[6] Plaster (the kind used in casts) and ointment are very similar in Japanese. It’s “sekkou” versus “nankou.”
[7] Reference to Issei Fuubi Sepia, a musical group active in the 1980s. Komachi says “soiya,” which is a weird way of saying “souieba,” which apparently is something this group is known for saying.
[8] This is a reference to a brand of ham sold by the Marudai food company that was marketed as a good type of ham to give as a gift during holiday times. The “ham person” or “ham man” (I didn’t use the latter here because Komachi is referring to a girl) is a reference to Bessho Tetsuya, an actor who was in so many commercials for these ham products that he picked up “Ham man” as a nickname (You can see an example here). This is a bit of an unfortunate spot of translation catch 22, since “candy man” is actually a recognizable phrase in English, while “ham man” is not, but it is the reverse in Japanese.
Chapter 6-2
[1] He uses the phrase “fantasista,” which is Italian in origin but way too obscure in English for me to leave raw in the text.
[2] Reference to soccer when a player passes a ball to another player without looking.
[3] Not in English, Hachiman. Not in English. Also, for those of you who don’t know what a sexaroid is… it’s exactly what it sounds like.
[4] Raccoon dog, similar to a fox. Known to be mischievous.
Chapter 6-3
[1] He says “wiener roll,” but to me that’s a friggin hot dog.
[2] Onigiri is a triangular shaped cake of rice, often with filling (in this case tuna).
[3] Apparently it has soba noodles and stuff in it. What in the world….
[4] The more literal translation here would be “drooped,” but that sounds rather ugly in English.
[5] Where two people in love kill themselves together.
[6] This is a rather bad misuse of this idiom, which generally is used to refer to only a group of people.
Chapter 6-4
[1] He ends his sentences with “nari,” which is characteristic of this particular character.
Chapter 6-5
[1] The saying implies that lions train their cubs by putting them through much hardship. Of course, the last part of Yukinoshita’s version, “kill them,” is not in the original saying.
[2] After much Internet searching, I’ve found both of these sayings floating around, along with many claims that one or both of them are actually bastardizations of older sayings dealing with lion cubs. But whatever, I don’t think the etymology is very important here.
[3] Actually, she begins to write it in hiragana, which comes off as really informal and kind of childish.
[4] As in, a stamp that acts li
ke a signature.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru - Volume 01 Page 24