Boy Meets Shinrei Girl - Vol. 2 Ch. 7 - #AJICHALLENGE

[MangaDex]

 

[Mr_Leixas]

... Exorbitant "membership fees", aggressive pressure toward its members, fringe/occult-ish dogma which promotes a way of life centered exclusively around its products and practices... Yeah, that Koufuku Japanese food society is definitively a cult, most likely of the new-age type. I wouldn't even be surprised if they were the one responsible for Kingyo's death, or if they were planning on somehow transforming her in a mermaid for their own interests.

 

[EightPercentScans]

Something fishy is going on here, for sure.

 

[Giguv]

I wouldn't even be surprised if they were the one responsible for Kingyo's death, or if they were planning on somehow transforming her in a mermaid for their own interests.

Ohh, if it ties into the Japanese legend of eating mermaid flesh to gain immortality that would make a lot of sense.

 

[feignedremoteness]

the TL note about the bacteria stuff isn’t quite right, it’s a gut bacterium that got genes from marine bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. (it’s only for breaking down porphyran though, which while that polysaccharide is a big part of nori, it’s not like you can’t digest the other parts of it if you don’t have it.)

but it’s not like it’s a bloodline thing….this aspect of the topic is too dense for a layperson to research, but your gut bacteria composition is formed from the environment. I’m not sure if this particular one can be passed from mother to child, or if it’s just something you’d pick up eventually (from people not washing their hands or something). (I think the “rare” thing that the quoted article is describing is the original horizontal gene transfer from marine bacteria. you can get new gut bacteria all sorts of ways.) it IS mostly in Japanese populations though. (which makes it kind of funny to see “porphyran superfood” type articles that talk like everyone has the bacteria. porphyran seems like it might be beneficial even if you can’t break it down though? and seaweed is good to eat overall)

it seems to be quite a beneficial bacteria, so if you have it, make sure to feed it plenty of nori!

 

[EightPercentScans]

the TL note about the bacteria stuff isn’t quite right, it’s a gut bacterium that got genes from marine bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. (it’s only for breaking down porphyran though, which while that polysaccharide is a big part of nori, it’s not like you can’t digest the other parts of it if you don’t have it.)

but it’s not like it’s a bloodline thing….this aspect of the topic is too dense for a layperson to research, but your gut bacteria composition is formed from the environment. I’m not sure if this particular one can be passed from mother to child, or if it’s just something you’d pick up eventually (from people not washing their hands or something). (I think the “rare” thing that the quoted article is describing is the original horizontal gene transfer from marine bacteria. you can get new gut bacteria all sorts of ways.) it IS mostly in Japanese populations though. (which makes it kind of funny to see “porphyran superfood” type articles that talk like everyone has the bacteria. porphyran seems like it might be beneficial even if you can’t break it down though? and seaweed is good to eat overall)

it seems to be quite a beneficial bacteria, so if you have it, make sure to feed it plenty of nori!

My apologies.
I had vaguely remembered a research paper on this and ended up on the 2017 Springer document so my knowledge is limited to that specifically.
While it is a complicated subject I'll try to adjust the note to refer to this comment.

 

[shelliana]

... Exorbitant "membership fees", aggressive pressure toward its members, fringe/occult-ish dogma which promotes a way of life centered exclusively around its products and practices... Yeah, that Koufuku Japanese food society is definitively a cult, most likely of the new-age type. I wouldn't even be surprised if they were the one responsible for Kingyo's death, or if they were planning on somehow transforming her in a mermaid for their own interests.

The cutesy propaganda video where the "skeptic" is immediately convinced and the group's actual beliefs are left super vague is pretty spot-on too.
The focus on fish and seaweed reminds me of macrobiotics, though that's more "convincing cancer patients to stop chemo and eat a diet that gives them malnutrition" than "burning down people's houses".

 

[feignedremoteness]

My apologies.
I had vaguely remembered a research paper on this and ended up on the 2017 Springer document so my knowledge is limited to that specifically.
While it is a complicated subject I'll try to adjust the note to refer to this comment.

thanks!
gut bacteria composition is so complicated and still so under-researched…

I think the main thing two things I would emphasize are
1. that it’s received through your environment, not your genes. it seems to be mostly in Japanese populations, but theoretically you could “give” someone the bacteria and it would live in their gut just fine.
2. that while the porphyra polysaccharide is a significant part of “nori”, nori is made up of a lot of things, and the ability to digest that is present in other populations. (one paper even mentions that specific bacteria for digesting agar are present in both Japanese and North American populations.) so it’s not like it’s “indigestible” to non-Japanese people, and it’s not like Japanese people are the only ones with special bacteria (but ones for porphyran seem to be a bit more unique).

(I read a bit more of some articles, so I wanted to comment with more info, such as about the agar digestion. it’s a very interesting subject.)
(also, other populations around the world have been eating seaweed since ancient times, but for various reasons (capacity of the seaweed to be farmed at an industrial scale, negative associations with poverty food, etc) they aren’t necessarily common or well-known. laverbread, for example, is made with another edible seaweed.)

 

[fight2live]

i love the science discussion of this comment section

 

[shelliana]

(also, other populations around the world have been eating seaweed since ancient times, but for various reasons (capacity of the seaweed to be farmed at an industrial scale, negative associations with poverty food, etc) they aren’t necessarily common or well-known. laverbread, for example, is made with another edible seaweed.)

Just want to add that while laverbread is made from different species from nori, it's very closely related, in the same genus or same family depending on the species (since multiple species are used for both and give similar enough results). When you buy nori in English speaking countries the translation on the package is often "laver".
In fact, the modern cultivation of nori owes itself to a scientist named Kathleen Drew-Baker who was studying the life cycle of British Porphyra species.