Poking Around Pt 75 (Patreon)

Similar to the last page, this one was heavily rewritten a bit. But good news, it’ll act as the final bridge to the part that everyone’s been waiting for.  For I have laid my soul bare and worked out my inner conflicts. Or something…  and see, I started tying things together a bit, at least visually.  And fleshed out Jichō; I hope it's pretty obvious what he's talking about since that's kind of based on me.

Anyway, that’s all.  Enjoy and look forward to the next part.  TL Notes below, which took me a while because it's a nightmare trying to find region-free links so no one gets geoblocked out.

TL Notes: 

• 1st Panel: It’s a visual reference to the Beatles’ album cover for Abbey Road, - that pedestrian crossing still exists today. The dragon in front is called Abygale (yes another Buddyfight reference)  Also, SpiritTomb because I couldn't think of a way to incorporate the swirly vortex thing on Abygale's head.  Oh, and EconoSmart is an alternate version of this store which you can visit in the games. 
• The JoJoin Us Brigade: A portmanteau of this long-running franchise, this newer one, and this newest one.  And well, it’s my reflection on those movements that take off out of nowhere like this one and this one… Notice I didn’t actually specify what the brigade was campaigning for? I’ll leave you to work that out for yourself. Or be as mystified as I am when it comes to certain phenomena.  Oh well. 
• “Modern Crusade”: I actually like this song (alternate link here), made famous more recently by an aforementioned anime. 
• “You too can become a Didatic Legend”: A reference to an extremely long space-opera anime  that has been going since 1988 and still continues to this day.
• “Score Hearts Online”: Very obviously this. 
• “Clique Bait”: This social media site.
• “Team Yobbo Rules!”: Riffing on these guys. 
• “Get Pharos Zapped”: A portmanteau of Ampharos and … well, everyone knows what this is, right?
• “Dr Geasstone’s Cram School”: A portmanteau of what I call Pizza Hut the anime (for obvious reasons, yes this is real), and this more recent anime/manga. 
• “Gohdasaru & Korinko”: A reference to My Love Story!!  "Gohdasaru" is a fusion of the titular character, Takeo Gōda and Infernape’s Japanese name, ゴウカザル Goukazaru.  "Korinko" is a fusion of the girl Rinko Yamato and Shinx’s Japanese name, コリンク Korinku.  The umbrella thing is an ai-ai gasa or love-love umbrella, the equivalent of the heart with an arrow through it.
• “Landlow Estate Agents”: A pun on this beastie’s Japanese name ランドロス Landlos and landlord. 
• どすこい/ “Dosukoi!”: A sumo-wrestler yell when attacking. The move Saruto is performing is a harite 張り手 (which isn’t a slap, that’s a sound effect).  I guess for those who play the games or watch the anime still, the official Pokémon move equivalent is either a Force Palm or Arm Thrust. 
• Shounen: meaning young man.  One of very few times I'll go on model.
• Sagari: Bit of a double pun. If written like this さがり, it means those dangling tendrils on the front of a ceremonial mawashi. If written like this 下り, it can mean “downwards”. So for example 上がり下がり agarisagari means ‘rise and fall/ fluctuation’, which I kinda felt about myself really. Ties nicely into…
• “What-a-Slip-Down’: riffing on Watership Down, but also me wondering if I'm actually doing any good on this... 

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