Not Red Reviews

Best girl besting in your OP.

She’s performing The Pike of Meguro (目黒のさんま). The punchline (on screen) is that the lord thinks Meguro’s pike is the best, while Meguro isn’t even on the seaside.

This screen is a lie. The Suehirotei is always full of people even before the first act starts.

Remember the ending song?

The music is Schubert’s 8th (unfinished) symphony.

Chunichi Dragons.

Do you happen to know a manga character with striped hakama? Oh right, it’s Itoshiki Nozomu. That also tells you who are those mangaka.

For a moment here I thought I was watching Nyarlko. Kamen Rider Stronger parody.

Pun on 真人間 (maningen, right/virtuous person) by replacing the “right/true” in it with 間 (also read as ma, meaning “spacing”). The way “pounding time” is said is probably a reference to Doraemon.

Actually this line should be “We could do it lightly (un-tan), just how a certain band-like group did it”. Reference to K-On.

When pounding mochi, you need to flip it with water. You’ll see.

If you don’t know what/where Jinbocho (神保町) is, you should watch Read or Die. It’s the city of books.

This part is full of references to various publishers and institutions, usually by twisting one or two characters. Just a few: Shueisha, Shosen, Houga Bookstore, Senshu University, Suit Select, Kimuraya, Imoya, Kitchen Nankai, Rice Curry Manten, Yousukou Saikan, Sankoen, Shinsekai Saikan, Shougakukan etc.

She wants to pay them a “visit”.

Kumeta Kouji’s two previous works, the tropic ice hockey one and Katte ni Kaizou were both serialized in Shonen Sunday (by Shogakukan).

Doraemon (friendship), Case Closed (determination), Oishinbo (victory). Kukuru says it’s Jump because those three keywords are the “slogans” for Jump.

Touch or H2 (love), Inuyasha (youth), Case Closed (Conan).

Probably refers to the hilariously long hiatuses in Hunter x Hunter.

She’s quoting the company philosophy of Shogakukan word for word.

She literally says that. He was a great nature lover (beside being the 5th Tokugawa shogun). He even issued a “green” law that Gan mentions the next line.

Ozaki Yutaka, whose Night of the 15th was referenced in episode 4 too. The bike stealing thing is in the lyrics of the song. The Oyama Masutatsu and Kajiwara Ikki are just as Kigu explains. Google if you want to know more. Later Gan refers to Kajiwara’s most famous works (Karatebaka Daiichi, Ashita no Joe, Kyojin no Hoshi).

Yeah well, just look at those kanji. It must be tiring to write them all the time. And as you know from episode 7, “misfits like complicated characters.”

The blue one is Yazawa Eisaku from Chameleon and the red one is Asagiri Shinnosuke from A-bout. What’s the black thing?

They’re talking about themselves.

She’s quoting one of Terayama Shuji’s poems. He wrote the opening song of Tomorrow’s Joe.

Just as Rikishi Toru was a fictional character. Mami from Madoka and Fire Fist Ace from One Piece. Spoiler alert, I guess.

Refers to Drops of God, a successful manga about wine, written by Kibayashi Shin.

Mentioned here. ViVi, with, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine (abbreviated as Betsu-Maga).

Uzanu with Sanosuke from SZS.

Literal translation of the Japanese title  (びっくり集中), which is a reference to the Taisho-era rakugo Surprise Double-Suicide (びっくり心中), which in turn is a parody of the rakugo Shinagawa Double-Suicide (品川心中). It’s about a guy who escapes the red-light district with a prostitute and they decide to commit suicide together, but of course it wouldn’t be a comedy story if it went that easy.

Reference to Maeda Atsuko from AKB48. On a mixer party she got so drunk that Sato Takeru (the actor of Kamen Rider Den-O) carried her home. The graduation ceremony part is about Maeda Atsuko’s too. She really moved to New York after graduation.

I think her intent is that since the bird hardly moves, it’s very boring to watch so you can’t concentrate on it.

Those black lines are called the focus lines. Breaking the 4th wall, are we.

A reference to Shimamoto’s Transfer Student of Fire (炎の転校生).

Reference to Dezaki Osamu’s art style. He’s worked on stuff ranging from Astro Boy to Clannad.

Ebizou, ashtray, tequila. Don’t make me go over the story again. The “dictator” is the former governor of Tokyo, Ishihara (he was jabbed at during the Tsukiji part in episode 7 too.

Rei from Evangelion, Yui from K-On, Madoka and Kirito from Sword Art Online.

Shimada Shinsuke comedian, reporter and celebrity.

Also known as “intensive care”. Had to keep “focus” in there somehow.

This entry was posted by Vale.