Chapter 223 - Pluck or No Pluck?

Title

“Pluck or No Pluck?” (摘むや摘まざるや Tsumu ya tzumazaru ya) is a pun on shogi master Sokan III Ito's book "Mate or No Mate?" (詰むや詰まざるや Tsumu ya tsumazaru ya), a collection of shogi problems and puzzles written in 1735.

First published on May 5, 2010

Page 1

Kafuka's song

“Summer’s growing near, 88 nights” is a traditional folksong sung during the tea harvest.

Page 5

Coloring hair and altering your clothes

This stuff is not allowed at most high schools, so naturally these are some of the behaviors of delinquent students.

Page 6

Tea Plantation Sky Girls Radio

The Japanese for “Tea plantation” is “chabatake”, making this a pun on the radio show “Habatake! Sky Girls Radio!”

Page 7

Sprouts of Sin

A parody of a popular Shogakukan magazine about raising and caring for children.

Magazine headlines

“The first signs of badness” (Hajimete no akugo) is parody of the manga Hajimete no aku. “The bomb that destroys the world” is a reference to a weapon in Doraemon.

The ‘it’s me’ fraud sprout

A con in which a scammer calls an elderly person and convinces them that they're the con man's grandparents so that they'll deposit money in the con man's account to get them through whatever financial difficulty they claim to be experiencing.

Chao

A pun on “Ciao”, a Shogakukan shojo manga magazine.

Page 8

Magazine

The kanji in the magazine on panel 2 are commonly used on 2ch as an emoticon for a cup of tea sitting on a dish.

Page 12

Love +

Reference to the DS game “Loveplus”, sort of infamous for the guy trying (and succeeding, I think) to get married to one of the (fictional) characters in the game, Nene Anegasaki.

Heart seeds

The ‘heart seeds’ advertisement on the back of the magazine is a reference to the ‘heart seeds’ from Heartcatch Precure.

The Mebaending Story

Mebae means "sprout", making this a pun on “The Neverending Story”.

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