Chapter 227 - Separate and Cut It Off Are Things You Say to People With Tails

Title

The title of this chapter (別れろ切れろはしっぽの人にいう言葉 Wakareru kireru wa shippo no hito ni iu kotoba) is a pun on a line from Izumi Kyoka's story "Yujima no Keidai". The original sentence reads something like "Separating and cutting it off are things I said when I was a geisha."

First published June 23, 2010.

Page 1

Cutting off the tail

In Japanese, "cutting off the tail" is a euphemism for "scapegoating". The characters used for both terms are very similar, as well.

Page 2

Resignation drama

The TV says "Forming a new cabinet", and the person shown there is Yukio Hatoyama. At the time this chapter was published, Hatoyama's cabinet was in the process of collapse, and he would soon be out of office, replaced by Naoto Kan.

TV (Panel 5)

The show on TV is "In the morning is ()()clear TV!", a reference to an afternoon news show called "In the afternoon is ()()resolution TV!"

Page 3

Tuna Toro

A very fatty cut of tuna.

Page 4

Titles (Panel 1)

Most of the mounts on Abiru's wall have readable titles. From upper left to lower right, they are: "Shin", a Chinese dynasty; "Citizen"; "Rocke" (probably "rocket); "Associated with a super computer company"; "Space Research"; "Secretary No. 2"; "Secretary No. 3"; and "TCM Man", TCM being an acronym for "Traditional Chinese Medicine."

Page 11

Payabusa-2

Reference to the Japanese space probe Hayabusa, a probe designed to collect samples and place a mini-rover on the asteroid Itokawa. After suffering several problems, such as faulty altitude sensors which caused the mini-rover to miss the asteroid and float into space, as well as cause damage to the main craft during collection attempts, the probe limped back to Earth, where it delivered a (nearly) empty sample canister on June 13, 2010. The rocket seen in the panel above is an HIIA booster, which is typically used for Japanese space probe launches.

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