Panel 1: Ninjette is, of course, saying “Nani?”—that is, “What?” in Japanese, here specifically written in hiragana characters based on the very particular font used in untranslated manga. For some reason, I really enjoy trying to emulate that font by hand, though this isn’t one of my more successful attempts. Er, make that that “enjoyed,” past tense, as nowadays I just scan words like this straight outta my manga tankoubon (untranslated paperbacks), to save a li’l worktime. 

Panel 3: Behold, Emp’s Big Pouty Lips next to Mellow Mr. Monkey’s Big Knitted Lips! (Needless to say, in previous volumes’ commentaries I was completely mistaken that this stylistic riff would start fading out in frequency by this time in the series. Maybe during the next volume…?)

Today’s Patreon update: As it’s a Wednesday, time for the $5+ Patron tiers to get their weekly dose of commissioned damsel-in-distress content, along the lines of the same material was eventually reworked into Empowered. (No idea what as to exactly that might be at this time, though; these commentaries are written much further out from posting than are my often last-minute Patreon updates.)

-Adam Warren