Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Name
Hiragana reading
Notes
first mentioned in
赤川次郎
あかがわじろう
the author
cover
岡本聡美
おかもとさとみ
main character, manga course participant
chapter 1
箱根
はこね
town in Kanagawa
chapter 1
戸沢
とざわ
secretary general from S Publishing
chapter 1
七ツ谷むらさき
ななつたにむらさき
the female manga teacher
chapter 1
菅野尚子
すがのなおこ
course participant
chapter 1
山名武三
やまなたけぞう
the prisoner
chapter 2
田所隆
たどころたかし
the police officer
chapter 2
中島
なかじま
local policeman
chapter 2
ミキ
みき
middle school student
chapter 3
笠原信二
かさはらしんじ
ミキ’s father, course participant
chapter 3
百合子
ゆりこ
ミキ’s mother
chapter 3
宇部果林
うべかりん
course participant,『か』of 『カバカ』
chapter 4
馬場しのぶ
ばばしのぶ
course participant,『ば』of 『カバカ』
chapter 4
加藤ジュン
かとうじゅん
course participant,『か』of 『カバカ』
chapter 4
富田丈一
とみたじょういち
尚子’s fiancé (full name in chapter 5)
chapter 4
堺法行
さかいのりゆき
course participant
chapter 5
相沢弥生
あいざわやよい
course participant
chapter 5
宝塚
たからづか
Takarazuka Revue
chapter 7
長谷川清美
はせがわきよみ
lodge keeper/employee?
chapter 7
河本さつき
かわもとさつき
course participant
chapter 7
安楽深雪
あんらくみゆき
course participant
chapter 7
真田万里
さなだまり
course participant
chapter 7
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
Will you be reading with us?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
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And I finished a couple books and now I’m along for the ride.
It’s been a really smooth read so far. I love how all the characters are basically caricatures of some trope. And it looks like I came in at a good time - I’m sure things will be happening soon!
…!! Alright, 4 deads, it’s started I guess :o
Took me only 20 minutes to read this chapter! (I was proud of myself and then checked the number of physical pages for this chapter, only 5 haha… oh well I’ll take it)
Chapter 7
Because I’ve looked it up, someone else might too, so here’s what I found:
これで階段に豆電球つけたら、宝塚
宝塚 is a reference to Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theater troupe. The theatres where they perform are known for being extravagant and beautifully lit, often with many lights.
戸沢が仕方なく解説を加えると、「あんなに暗くて、よく勤めてられるね」
Not sure what happened there? “How do you work in such a dark place?” as in for a company in general? Or because he knows where she works? Or something completely different I’m missing?
Took me an hour for this part.
Hahaha the end of the chapter is so dramatic.
It’s all because of the <mark> tags. If you remove the tags, the table would still be table, but it would look much more readable for those with dark theme
Thanks for saying so
I use the dark theme too and I stole this from another BC, I thought it was black on purpose so that your eyes are not caught by the text unless you really want to read it. I can just remove it
The あんなに暗くて、よく勤めてられるね line is said by one of the カバカの子たち, not 戸沢, by the way. I would say this is a contraction of 勤めていられる (-ている plus potential form) and translate the whole line as “being that gloomy it’s a wonder she can hold down a job”, but I’m not super confident in that.
I could tell that 戸沢 is not pleased to be driving, but couldn’t work out this sentence. No matter how many editors are in charge, it’s unbearable…??? I’m sure that’s wrong
Chapter 7
Summary
I wasn’t quite sure what the reason was that 七ツ谷むらさき took against 安楽深雪’s name and suggested that she needed a penname. Satomi and Naoko seem to think that there is a backstory? Am I missing something?
And then later
女流漫画家の視線は、「飛び入りの客」から離れなかった。
The gaze of the female manga artists didn’t leave the last minute guest???
[I thought at first it was Murasaki sensei who was leering at the young female manga artists, since Tozawa immediately after this is telling him to behave. But that doesn’t seem right. So I’m a bit confused here.
都会では失われた野性があるわ、あの子には
I’m a bit stumped by this too, and actually quite a bit of this page’s dialogue I couldn’t work out (partly because of the difficulty of who was saying what, but also what was going on).
Something about wildness in the city in that kid. (I’m presuming this is Murasaki again. Is he talking about Jouichi? )
Not sure about your other questions, but for this one:
That’s exactly how I understood it, that the mangaka lady has her eyes on the fiance.
To me it doesn’t sound like this story needs a killer to come for trouble to begin happening x)
Finished the reading!! I am getting more invested and finding it easier to read, which I feel is usually how it goes when starting a new story or author :)) but at other times it can be difficult, or there will be sentences I end up giving up and moving on. But it is only my third novel in Japanese, so I’m trying not to be too hard on myself and just appreciate that I can usually understand all the important points.
I agree, this is one of the sections I highlighted that I didn’t understand. Your guess is what I was thinking too, that he lost his 野性-ness in the city? It’s probably way off base, but I have also heard of 野生的な人. Even if it’s wrong maybe it gives a better idea of what he’s talking about?
Chapter 7 Question - At About 22%
I don’t understand the line
「『あなたが起こしてくれりゃいいのよ』と、七ツ谷むらさきは言ったが、どうも心ここにあらず、という気配」
It’s mainly the part after 「どうも」、I understand all of the words separately, but it might just be a set phrase/expression I’m not understanding. Any thoughts?
Looking forward to next week! Glad I got ahead after being behind schedule for a little haha
The sentence “いくら担当編集者でも、かなわないよな” translates to “No matter how much you are the responsible editor, it’s no match,” or more naturally, “Even as the responsible editor, you can’t handle everything.” Here’s a breakdown:
いくら (ikura) - “No matter how much” or “regardless of how much.”
担当編集者 (tantou henshuusha) - “Responsible editor” or “editor in charge.”
担当 (tantou) means “in charge of” or “responsible for.”
編集者 (henshuusha) means “editor.”
でも (demo) - “Even,” “but,” or “however.” It’s used here to indicate that despite being the editor in charge, the following statement still applies.
かなわない (kanawanai) - “Can’t match,” “can’t compete,” or “can’t handle.” It implies that the task or situation is too much or overwhelming.
よ (yo) - A particle used for emphasis.
な (na) - A colloquial particle, often used at the end of a sentence to imply seeking agreement or to add a nuance of reflection.
So, the speaker is expressing that even if someone is the editor in charge, there are situations or tasks that are too challenging or overwhelming to handle. It reflects a sentiment that certain things are beyond one’s capacity, even in a position of responsibility.
(full disclaimer: this was written by ChatGPT so of course it could be completely off, but sharing it as it sounds correct to me)
Chapter 7
Yes I think too that it is Murusaki talking about Jouichi, saying that there is a certain wilderness in him, that would be lost in the city (whereas its wilderness can reveal itself in a different environment like a cabin in the mountains I presume)
RIP 中島, we all knew it was coming but I thought you’d at least die on-page. Although I’ll hold out hope for him that we’re only meant to think he’s dead and he miraculously survives somehow. It seems like that kind of story!
I kind of loved the teacher in that corny “I have a sixth sense and she’ll die soon” moment, despite the fact that she’s clearly a sex pest. Harassing your editor while he’s driving in the middle of a storm… geez lady
I don’t know if anyone else had this problem, but without knowing which Japanese names are male/female, I had assumed that Murasaki was a male manga writer - which explained some of ‘his’ behaviour in the car, and his general attitude. Started to get confused later when ‘he’ was using 私, though just assumed it was because he was an older male. When I discovered that ‘his’ driver was male, I then made a different assumption about ‘his’ predatory behaviour.
Now some things make more sense…
Oh yeah, I just sorta assumed むらさき was a woman until proven otherwise because she’s(?) brought up as an author for girl’s manga, teaching a class on authoring girl’s manga. As far as I know, most 少女 genre authors are women, and some character would likely have commented if the teacher was different than expected. Poor 笠原’s already been side-eyed at least once for just attending the class!
The other opportunity for picking up clues to whether a character is male or female is their speech style. For instance on the first page of chapter six, Murasaki says 五回は同じことを聞かされてるわ , and that ending わ is often a cue to female speech in novels, as is ending のよ and わよ. (In the real world 女ことば is a much more complicated phenomenon than “women use these sentence enders and men use these ones” but in fiction it’s often a good guide. Akagawa in particular has a strong tendency to have all his female characters speak that way.)
I still sometimes find myself having to backtrack, though, when I initially assume some character is male and it’s not til a few pages later that something cues me in to my having made a mistake.
I spotted the わ (Murasaki has it on most sentences - it was quite a useful clue when I couldn’t work out who was talking!), but didn’t twig that it meant my assumptions were incorrect…
PS @pm215 Thanks for recommending this book - I’m really enjoying it!
