I completed a first reading session until page 28. I will resume reading another day !
Page 18
その助手なんだけど,
Do I get it correctly if I assume Kon is saying something along the line of “What is this assistant thing about though?” probably Kasane made him her assistant without really consulting him beforehand ?
Page 25
なんかみんなゆるいよな
Is Kon saying this because everyone seems kinda carefree about the situation and he is the only one worrying ?
Page 26
得体が知れなさ過ぎてなんかやだ
“Something like this is too suspicious, no way (I’m eating this)”
That’s how I understand it, but I’m not too confident.
I agree with Kasane, I don’t understand what Kon is babbling here
The best I can come up with is :
“(If) something I didn’t eat becomes non existent, something I eat should as well, right ?”
Comment on the chapter so far
About the world exposition
Exposition about the world rules was less smooth than the character introduction. Like Kasane explaining to Kon what is going on with the buggy world. He has been arround in this world for 18+ years, he’s probably familiar with all this by now !
I found it better to dilute some infos in the interaction with the various townspeople they met. Like the old lady who introduced the 市の例外課 which I assume to be a division responsible for managing issues that could occur during an exception event
Kon the assistant
Kasane essentially making him her personal lab rat and luggage carrier cracked me up. Poor Kon, it’s though to be a university student !
That is my interpretation too. Given what Kon says in the next panel, it’s clear he has not heard any details on what being an assistant implies, so it’s very likely he was made an assistant kinda arbitrarily.
Page 25
I agree with your interpretation. He saying literally “Somehow everyone is taking this very leniently”. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s worried about the situation, but more like he’s surprised everyone is taking things so lightly.
Page 26
My interpretation is slightly different here. I believe here なんか is modifying やだ - the excessive strangeness (of the asparagus) is too much, so that makes him somewhat reluctant (なんかやだ → literally “I kinda don’t want to”).
Page 28
I mostly agree with your translation, though I feel Kon is talking more in general and not about himself in particular:
食べてないもの => Thing that was not eaten.
無かったことになって => becomes nothing.
食べたもの => Thing that was eaten
そうじゃないの => would also (do that), wouldn’t it.
If something that was not eaten becomes nonexistent, wouldn’t the same happen to something that was eaten?
Maybe I’m just missed something but they haven’t mentioned where Kon was before he moved in or how long the bugging has been going on, right? I’m assuming either Kon moved from somewhere that was less impacted to the epicenter of the bugginess and/or things have not been bugged his whole life.
On page 32, Kon actually tells one of the kids that he’s a middle school student, not a university student. I guess we’ll find out later why he’s living in that place with Kasane as his landlord.
Well, I don’t know if it’s geography dependent but I think they set the world being in this state since a long time. Kasane was talking about a research conducted long ago about someone trying to eat stuff related to the bug to see if there would be any danger. But honestly he somehow had to explain the basic rules in chapter 1, so it’s not like it’s a bad thing
Point taken. I thought he looked kinda young for university and it makes more sense with the comment on how he left his parent home at a young age. But that means there’s a line I haven’t quite understood page 18
Page 18
これでも一応大学で授業も持ってるんだぞ
Apparently there something I missed in this line by Kasane. What is she saying exactly, because I thought it implied Kon being a university student haha
I wasn’t sure about this one, but in response to Kon’s question, “Why are you explaining it like you were giving a class?”, I interpreted the answer as something like “There are university classes taught about this subject, you know.” Basically saying that these bugs are taught about in university classes, so it isn’t out of the question for her to explain it to him that way.
Ahh I totally forgot that whole section started with 昔!
Page 18
From the previous panel she says "はい、こんくん”, as if she was calling on him in a class
Kon says "なんで授業”, which I understood to be something like “What’s with the lesson/Why are you acting like you’re teaching a class”
Then Kasane says “これでも一応大学で授業も持ってるんだぞ”, which I understood as something like “This is more or less a university-level lesson taking place”
I don’t think it can be interpreted as being about her working at a university. But I’m not sure if it can maybe be interpreted as her saying that she specifically teaches university classes on the subject, as opposed to just saying that university classes are taught on it in general.
Yeah, the ol’ “as you know…” trope. Explaining stuff to the audience by having one character explain it to another, but hanging a lantern on the fact that they ought to already know this stuff by prefacing it with “as you know…”
I have a bunch of questions (I’m reading a few pages a day, so the questions might come in batches, I hope that I’ll be able to keep up with you all, I’m painfully slow…)
Page 24
もうどれが売り物だか
As far as I understand, the florist cannot tell which plants are for sale and which plants just happen to be there, is it correct? Could it be translated as something like “Gee, which ones were for sale?”
小麦粉から芽だ出てびっくりよ
I translated it to myself as “Surprisingly, wheat flour has sprouted.”. Is it correct? Because it seems to not make much sense since making the flour pretty much destroys the grains, but the world is buggy, so who knows…
あら姫崎さんとこのお嬢ちゃん
I have no idea how to interpret it, did the elderly lady mistake Kon for a girl? I’m quite confused here.
Page 25
ありや (outside the speech bubble)
I understand is as something like generic “Oh my…”. Is that right?
Page 26
Could someone help me with identifying kanjis on the asparagus box? I tried to find them, but I’m quite bad at reading handwritten kanji…
Also, is it just me, or is Kasane’s way of speaking a little bit masculine?
I parsed this 姫崎さんとこ as being short for 姫崎さんのところ (Himesaki’s place/house)
Kind of like this example.
I thought of the whole sentence as something along the lines of “Ah, It’s the Himesaki’s young lady.”
Thanks a lot for your answers! As I can see, I guessed the first kanji on asparagus box right, but wasn’t sure about it With the second kanji all makes sense now.
This was another translation that I considered (since it fits much better in the context), but I couldn’t match it up with the sentence construction so I gave up on it. The stack exchange answer really clears it up though. Thank you a lot!