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Chapter 1 … Shizuka Hiratsuka feels keenly nostalgic about the past.
1 “…the word calm has an abnormally Shizuka Hiratsuka vibe to it.” Heisei, meaning “calm,” includes the kanji for “flat” (hira) and “quiet” (shizuka), which appear in her name.
2 “…very likely the school would ‘make inferences’ and act based on what they believed she wanted.” The term used here, sontaku, is very specific to Japanese business culture, and it means to make inferences about what important people want and then acting without specific approval in order to appease them. It was a buzzword especially around 2017, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe got into a number of scandals involving discounted deals or special contracts granted to him based on things he had never said, as people tried to get on his good side. This business culture has been criticized as a way for people in power to avoid responsibility.
3 “It’s like turtling with Guile.” In Street Fighter II, crouching with Guile is known as the machi-gairu (waiting Guile) stance in Japanese and was a popular tactic.
4 “…then you start reading ahead into each other’s moves like you’re Yoshiharu Habu at a shogi tournament, and before you know it, you’re getting sorted into the social equivalent of Habus and Habu-nots.” Yoshiharu Habu is a professional shogi player. The original pun here was on Habu’s name and the word “social exclusion” (habu).
5 “In these games of reading one another, if you lack the Guile to roast the competition, then forget T. Hawk or Eagle or even Birdie—you’re just a cooked goose.” The original Japanese line here is a succession of puns: “In these games of reading one another, if you can’t win [deep-fry], you’re not zangi [fried chicken / Zangief] or kara-age [fried chicken] or anything—you’re just yakitori [fried chicken, failing to win a single hand in a half game of mah-jongg].”
6 Treasured Tool is a term for special weapons in the Fate universe.
7 “Maybe soon enough, they’ll be saying the term political correctness is discriminating against people who failed their civics class, and that word will be politically incorrect, too, I dunno.” In the original, this was “…they’ll be saying the term word-hunting is discriminating against hunter-gatherer people, and that word will get hunted [too]…” Kotoba-gari (word hunting) is similar to what we might call the “euphemistic treadmill” in English, with the most taboo words tending to be associated most often with disability and class.
8 “Strength is power.” In Japanese, this line is Chikara wa power, literally “Power is power,” a nonsensically redundant quote from Black Zeus in Shin Bikkuriman.
9 “…lifting is the most powerful solution. You get what I mean? Because I sure don’t.” Lifting Is the Most Powerful Solution is a comic life-advice book by the author Testosterone that was popular in 2016. Meanwhile, “You get what I mean? Ahhh, you won’t get it” was the catchphrase of Chitose Shokakuya, a singer / TV host who was big in the 1970s. Here, Hachiman is taking advantage of the vague subject to make it about himself.
10 “Mach stress” is another Buronto-ism, the famous FFXI player of “With this, I can win” or “Rarely often happens” fame. Many of his remarks have become Internet memes.
11 “If I don’t, then Doraemon can’t go back to the future…” This is a famous line from an episode of Doraemon where Nobita is in a fight with Gian, and he says, “I have to win on my own, or Doraemon can’t go back to the future!” (Doraemon is a robotic cat from the future sent to help Nobita.)
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Chapter 2 … There’s something Iroha Isshiki wants to make sure of, no matter what.
1 “What the heck—is she a gate guard at Edina or what?” Edina is a town in Dragon Quest III where the guards won’t let anyone through who isn’t noble enough.
2 “Oh-hooo, verily sooo?” Ee, hontou ni gozaru kaa? is a quote from Sasaki Kojirou / Assassin in the Fate franchise.
3 “But what does it all meeeeean?” In Japanese, this line ends with dattebayo, the iconic verbal tic from Naruto. Originally, it was just Naruto saying, “What do you mean?” but the line turned into a meme on the Naruto threads on Futaba Channel. There were a number of nonsensical memes only understood by insiders (“It’s Izanami”; “It’s become a sacrifice”), prompting people who weren’t in on the joke to respond with this line, which then became a meme in its own right.
4 “…Seventeen CosmoGirls with Vogue thoughts in their heads…” Originally, these magazines were Akamoji (meaning “red letter”), Popteen, and Pichi Lemon.
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Chapter 3 … Yui Yuigahama continues to stand back and watch, to the end.
1 “Fashion-wise, I was in the old Takanohana-oyakata style.” Kouji Takanohana is a former sumo wrestler known for always wearing scarves just hanging around his neck without wrapping them, and he has a lot of scarves. (Oyakata is a rank for someone who manages other sumo wrestlers.)
2 “Even if I say, Vaaaanilla! Vanilla! Great pay! she’s not gonna come follow me, huh?” Vanilla is the name of a recruiting service that seeks girls for sex work businesses.
3 “Aha! So you’re actually a good person, eh?” This is the same reference as “Aha! Then she’s a hot stud, eh?” from Volume 12. It’s based on the Internet meme Hahan! Sate ha hizokusei da na (Aha! Then fire element, huh?) over a picture of a swimmer with a silly expression on her face. The meme is used whenever coming up with guesses that are very apparently wrong.
4 “So she’s actually a genius, eh?” This is the same reference as above.
5 “Times like these, you have to take a helping hand from anyone, even a cat!” A common Japanese idiom is “borrowing a cat’s paw,” meaning “being so busy you would even accept help from a cat.”
6 “…and we’ll get a new Armored Core game!” Armored Core is the series FromSoftware did before Demon’s Souls, but since Dark Souls became such a hit, fans are generally resigned to the knowledge that they’re basically never going back to Armored Core.
7 “Who are you saying hello to? Pathos? Or courage? In that case, first you have to say farewell, no tears…” This is a reference to the lyrics from the opening song to the tokusatsu show Space Sheriff Gavan.
8 “So down-to-earth! Like the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs!” The original line here is “Dry! Komachi is Super Dry!” (like the beer). In Japanese, dorai means “unemotional” or “down-to-earth.”
9 “Praise the Earth” (“Daichi Sanshou”) is a very standard choral number in Japan, and you can find many recordings of it on YouTube. “Song for Leaving the Nest” (“Sudachi no Uta”) is a standard graduation song.
10 “And, like, that’s the acclamation, and that was elementary school.” The acclamation, or yobikake, is a part of elementary school graduation ceremonies where they line all the children up to give recitations about their time at school and thanks toward the teachers.