おじさまと猫 (Ojisama to Neko) Volume 2 Discussion

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1

Vocabulary List

おじさまと猫 Vocab Sheet

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Shoutout to @Sarabrina for starting this book club and @frayderike for starting us off with such a lovely vocab sheet.

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Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for content that would be considered a spoiler.
  • When asking for help, please mention the page, panel, and speech bubble…
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.

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2

I will finally start reading this week! Is there any kind of schedule we’re following with the chapters?

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3

It looks like the majority voted for 3 chapters a week.

It looks like I posted this thread about a month ago.

So, for the timing, it should presumably be
Week of Dec 7- 文章 16-18
Week of Dec 14- 文章 19-21
Week of Dec 21- 文章 22-24
~Insert winter holidays break as it seems most of the forum enjoyed one~
Week of Jan 4- 文章 25-27
Week of Jan 11- 文章 28-30

Hmm, but it gets a little iffy with page numbers. Since 25-30 are a bit shorter than usual (15 pages), I propose that 兄弟 be included with next week and the rest is as follows:

Jan 18- 私も猫が好き＋守護戦士ふくまる
Jan 25- パパさんがくれたもの＋大切なもの＋少年時代
Feb 1- 1 week break between volumes
Feb 8- start volume 3

Thoughts?

4

I like this schedule! I approve of adding in more chapters to weeks with below-average page totals.

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Yeah, unfortunately 28 and 兄弟 are each 8 so it would be awkward to add them to the weeks before.

Also, I counted how many pages 少年時代 is and it’s 13. It might be better to split some of the later ones not according to chapter list…

Hmm, it doesn’t have distinctive text, but 127 where Fukumaru gets the nyoomies might be a better division so

Jan 25- Papa and Important things (through 126) (15ish pages)
Feb 1- Nyoomies and Boyhood (17 pages)
Feb 8- 1 week break
Feb 15- Vol 3 start

6

I’m still almost a whole volume behind, but I hope everyone is doing ok and enjoying the new chapter this week!

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1 week break time! I will email myself as a reminder to start the next volume’s thread. I hope to catch up soon.

8

Volume 3 thread is up :smiley:

9

I know it’s really late to ask this, but is anyone else bothered by how formally our guy talks to Fukumaru? Like we’ve seen him speak casually to his childhood friend, so we know he can, but he speaks so formally to a cat he thinks of as being like a kid.

10

I love how on the first page of chapter 21, Kanda is actually noticing he’s becoming a crazy cat lady lol

11

I almost cried at the last page of chapter 21, where Kanda is able to take out the mug his wife gave him, ngl. Just the idea of enjoying companionship with a sweet, fluffy creature to the point of where things in the past don’t hurt so much anymore is so comforting. It makes me want to provide a home and care for a cat. I wish my apartment allowed them.

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12

Updated pace: try to finish Vol 2 by the end of March 2021

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13

I’m down to just 24 pages (last two chapters) left in volume 2 =D

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14

Nice!

I may or may not have about 100 pages left, but I plan to binge after an irl deadline has passed this week.

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15

Page 42- that note from his friend is so mean :joy:

Have you ever been silly mean to your friends as a joke? I’ve only done that sort of thing in person, but with a clear deadpan so it’s obvious that it’s a joke from the start.

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I love that ojisan sleeps so much better now that he has Fukumaru. They’re so cute!

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On page 58 (Kanda is trying to getting Fukumaru to sleep with him), the last bottom left panel has 振り出しに戻(もど)る。Would “[Kanda] is recovering from being suddenly dumped,” be a suitable/natural English translation?

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18

re chapter 27

why are they all attracted to him… Like I understand him being an ikemen, but like he’s not quite had George Clooney aging… Is everyone in this manga just attracted to older men?

I’m starting to understand why my coworkers stopped reading after vol 1… One of them even asked me if Kanda was my type. At the time, I was like ??? I am here for cute cat content that I no longer get irl??

#minorRegretButDeterminationToReadToTheEnd

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19

On page 87 the young guy at work seems to be thinking 怖(こわ)い先輩(せんぱい)に 逆(さか)らえず。今(いま)は音楽教室(おんがくきょうしつ)で働(はたら)いているけど. I get that the sentiment is that he won’t go against the scary senpai and that he’ll work in the music classroom, but I don’t understand the grammar of the bolded part. How exactly does that part work?

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The term 振り出し is used to refer to a starting point.

In the first panel on the page, we see Fukumaru being carried to the bed, meaning our beloved Ojisama sought him out, picked him up, and carried him to the bed. In the final panel, our devoted Ojisama is following after Fukumaru to do the same again.

For this act, the starting point was when Mr. Kanda first went and got Fukumaru, so now he’s returned (戻る) to (に) the beginning (振り出し).

In English, we’d likely use the expression “Back to square one.”

My take on it: He’s an ideal. The traditional distinguished older gentleman. He has the sort of gentle kindness you don’t see in “today’s generation”. He’s someone they can all look up to. He has it together in life. Nothing gets to him. There’s likely also a bit of distance, where the younger teaches feel he’s unapproachable, because he’s so experienced and they’re (in comparison) just starting out. Yet he doesn’t look down on them. He address them in a polite manner.

逆(さか)らう means “to go against” or “to defy”. (We’ll learn this from WaniKani when we reach level 28.)

The potential form of this verb is 逆らえる. Potential means what you are able to do, or can do. So “to defy” becomes “able to defy”.

Finally, ず is sort of like ない. It makes it negative. “Able to defy” becomes “not able to defy.”

(For anyone who thinks they are not familiar with ず, if they’ve completed WaniKani level 10, then they actually do know it. The verb 思わず is covered in that level. Whereas 思う means “to think”, if we add ず, we get the negative 思わず “to not think” or “without thinking”. But you’ll see it listed by WaniKani as “unintentionally”, which is when you do something…without thinking.)

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