Sora Yori Takaku - Vol. 26 Ch. 330 - Sora Helpless Before the Edo Mobile Suit!?

[MangaDex]

 

[TheBlarfe2000]

21 chapters left!

 

[SystematicChaos]

Okay, explanation time...

The two samurai that had their duel in the middle of the chapter are references to two Japanese politicians, Muneo Suzuki and Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
Muneo Suzuki is a member of the LDP, Japan's right-wing long-time ruling party. He hails from Hokkaido, and one of his pet issues has been the return of the four Kuril Islands off the shore of Hokkaido, which Japan lays claim to but are currently part of Russia. He got into a huge scandal in the early 2000s over building a "friendship house" on one of these islands using no-bid contracts. This was reported in the media as the "Muneo House." (They referred to him by his first name because his last name is one of the most common Japanese last names.) He was arrested and convicted for taking bribes from the companies he awarded the no-bid contracts to and went to prison over it. He was also banned from running for office for five years after his prison sentence was up, but that ban was lifted in 2017 and he's back in office now. If you want an entertaining way to find out more, the manga below is all about the Muneo House scandal written from the point of view of one of Muneo's political allies. Plus it's drawn by Junji Ito.
https://mangadex.org/title/37c8394a-f3aa-43d9-acc1-21615681cec8/yuukoku-no-rasputin

As for Kiyomi Tsujimoto, she was a member of the SDP (Social Democratic Party) at the time of this manga; she's since been in whatever center-left party has existed since then. She got nationwide attention pretty quickly after she was elected for yelling "Prime Minister! Prime Minister!" over and over during a budget committee, trying to get then-PM Koizumi to answer for something (I can't find a good source that says exactly what, but I think it might've had something to do with the Iraq War and Japan's decision to send JSDF troops there). She's since done the same to other prime ministers. She was also one of Muneo's harshest critics during his scandal.

The last guy in the daruma mech, Hiraga Gennai, is a real historical Edo-period polymath who invented things like an electrostatic generator and a thermometer. He also wrote the satirical work "On Farting," which I thought was germane to mention here.

21 chapters left!

My dude, don't you think it's still way too soon to be doing the countdown?

 

[Boring-Ash]

robot runs on electricity
feudal Japan

And suddenly I'm remembering Robot Carnival's Tale of Two Robots

 

[Exquisitus]

Okay, explanation time...

The two samurai that had their duel in the middle of the chapter are references to two Japanese politicians, Muneo Suzuki and Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
Muneo Suzuki is a member of the LDP, Japan's right-wing long-time ruling party. He hails from Hokkaido, and one of his pet issues has been the return of the four Kuril Islands off the shore of Hokkaido, which Japan lays claim to but are currently part of Russia. He got into a huge scandal in the early 2000s over building a "friendship house" on one of these islands using no-bid contracts. This was reported in the media as the "Muneo House." (They referred to him by his first name because his last name is one of the most common Japanese last names.) He was arrested and convicted for taking bribes from the companies he awarded the no-bid contracts to and went to prison over it. He was also banned from running for office for five years after his prison sentence was up, but that ban was lifted in 2017 and he's back in office now. If you want an entertaining way to find out more, the manga below is all about the Muneo House scandal written from the point of view of one of Muneo's political allies. Plus it's drawn by Junji Ito.
https://mangadex.org/title/37c8394a-f3aa-43d9-acc1-21615681cec8/yuukoku-no-rasputin

As for Kiyomi Tsujimoto, she was a member of the SDP (Social Democratic Party) at the time of this manga; she's since been in whatever center-left party has existed since then. She got nationwide attention pretty quickly after she was elected for yelling "Prime Minister! Prime Minister!" over and over during a budget committee, trying to get then-PM Koizumi to answer for something (I can't find a good source that says exactly what, but I think it might've had something to do with the Iraq War and Japan's decision to send JSDF troops there). She's since done the same to other prime ministers. She was also one of Muneo's harshest critics during his scandal.

The last guy in the daruma mech, Hiraga Gennai, is a real historical Edo-period polymath who invented things like an electrostatic generator and a thermometer. He also wrote the satirical work "On Farting," which I thought was germane to mention here.


My dude, don't you think it's still way too soon to be doing the countdown?

Thank you very much for the exhaustive explanation, I wouldn't have understood anything otherwise. I even have a physical copy of the Juni Ito manga, but I would never have got the reference.