Noragami Chapter 59

We interrupt your usual fantasy-action story to bring you… politics! Read in awe as your favorite characters discuss climate change, immigration, colonialism, income inequality, and taxes!

Don’t believe me? Read it here

As usual, feel free to redistribute and use as a base for non-English scanlations. Sample images and translation notes below:

Translation notes below:

Page 10

This chapter contains a lot of current event and historical discussion. While climate change is something most people know about, however Japan is also currently facing a population crisis due to not enough people having children.

Page 12

Many of the gods in the Japanese pantheon were adopted from Buddhism or Hinduism. Bishamon is one of them (which is why some translations call her Vaisravana, her original Sanskrit name).

Page 14

If you’ve seen “Princess Mononoke”, these are the same Emishi. They were the indigenous people of Japan and lived in the north, but were wiped out by Imperial Japan between 500-1,000 years ago.

Page 23

As mentioned on the page, Google Translate translates “hafuru-mono” as “Sprinkles”, which is hilarious. The poll I had yesterday overwhelmingly asked that I just leave the term as-is, so I did. However, other possible translations were “The Undertaker” or “The Sepulture”.

Page 24

Bishamon says that Sprinkles was sealed for “thousands of years”, but if she was the hafuri of the Emishi during the great purge, then that should be no more than “thousand” (singular).

Page 29

The god of business and commerce is a socialist, and that is also hilarious. For those who don’t know, a so-called “fair tax” is one in which everyone pays an equal income tax rate. It sounds good in theory except 1) someone who needs every last dollar of their income to meet living expenses is going to hurt a lot more getting a flat 15% shaved off than someone who earns an ample excess, and 2) the poor tend to earn 100% of their income through their job, while much of the very wealthy earn 30% or less of their income from their job, and the rest is from investments in the stock market or interest on savings (capital gains), which are not taxed as income and thus not even subject to the “fair tax”.

Page 39

It’s not entirely clear who “Aya-sama” is. It could possibly refer to Ayakashikone, a goddess from the generation of gods immediately prior to Izanami and Izanagi. However, some Japanese readers think it may be a traditional god of the Emishi. Either way, it doesn’t appear to be a name we’re supposed to immediately recognize, so I didn’t make a note.

Page 42

The name given to Sprinkles by Bishamon means “seven” (七). Since she was immediately summoned as Shikki, it’s not clear whether her given name is simply “Nana”, or “Nanaha”. Because she’s different and is basically meant to be a sacrifice, Bishamon may not have bestowed her family name on her, similar to when Tenjin named Saku (Kugaha).

Page 46

According to this ad, the Noragami Aragoto OST comes out on 11/25, which seems kinda early since the series won’t be over yet by then. So we may get some spoilers of how far they’re going by looking at the track titles.

