"Why yes, Chiaki does think in references to retro video games and anime, why do you ask?"
- Late in the prologue, Chiaki has an Imagine Spot comparing her, her crush Fumiko, and her boyfriend Kenta Maeda to the Hero, Princess Gwaelin and the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest I, respectively.
- Shortly after getting sent to another world, Chiaki notes having "seen anime like this", with The Vision of Escaflowne and Fushigi Yuugi coming to mind for her.
- Jocelyn opens The Rant to "Unbound" with a reference to the Simpsons episode "I Love Lisa":"Watch this, friends. You can actually pinpoint the second when [Chiaki's] mind rips in half."
- Whilst Chiaki is talking to Nara about cat girls and winged humanoids, Fam from Ruin Explorers and Nina from Breath of Fire I appear as examples.
- Keegan's reaction to Theo yelling at him in "Expensive?" is, per Jocelyn herself, loosely based off the fox in the "it fucken wimdy
" meme. - The Rant to "Tutor" opens with Jocelyn quipping "Read! Or the skyfolk will teach you!" as a nod to an early strip of El Goonish Shive.
- Page 55's title, "Gasp of Ember", is a blatant play on the Breath of Fire series. The page itself features Chiaki giving a broad strokes description of the series to Nagisa, and the iteration of Nina from Breath of Fire II comes to mind for her as an example of a Winged Humanoid with black wings.
- Chiaki's first attempts at using magic has her copying spell-casting poses and spell names from the Final Fantasy, Persona, and Dragon Quest series. The Rant specifically notes the last pose to be inspired by Jessica's casting pose from Dragon Quest VIII, which came out four years after the story takes place.
- The self-portrait on Chiaki's door is based off of a shot of Chocola◊ from 1995 anime Sorcerer Hunters.
