…You know, now that you mention it, I don’t remember this chapter from the anime. I only watched the first few episodes but… runs off to Crunchyroll
Edit: I skimmed the first episode, but Chapter 2 just isn’t in there.
I actually read it as a modifier, too. I interpreted it differently originally, but your way makes a ton of sense. I thought they were pretending not to be Panda and Shirokuma at all, but they’re actually saying something like (overly literally) “We have not-Shirokuma-and-Panda names.”
edit: Though I’m still not clear as to whether he’s saying “Those aren’t our names at all; we have other names,” or “We have names other than those.”
Panda: Our friendship…(Pretty uncertain about this one. There might be stuff implied here that I don’t understand, and I don’t really know what the の is supposed to be doing)
I like to think that Panda-kun uses an odd mix of kanji/kana because his primary character traits are:
A. Cute
B. Lazy
So the katakana gives him kind of a cartoony/cute/lazy tone, in my opinion. (It could be that I’m influenced by his voice actor and personality from the anime.)
I have seen 「あと、〜」or 「後、〜」in context when customers are ordering food. Usually they use it to mean, “Also, 〜” when they have first ordered one item, and then would like to order another.
Example from Satori Reader:
では、それを4人前お願いします。あと、お茶を4つお願いします。
“Then, four servings of that please. Also, four teas please.”
I think it is best to translate it as “it is a crisis”.
“there is a crisis” would be 危機があるよ
we can also say “it’s a crisis, you know” to take よ into consideration
I was looking for the anime on youtube to have an idea of how the chars speak and behave, and found this Let's Read Manga in Japanese #Shirokuma Cafe ┃FULLY in JAPANESE - YouTube she’s reading out loud and giving explanation in Japanese.
I just started the first pages, my first book, and considering she said this is the best/easier for beginners… she scared me to death.
I love the way you set out your sentence breakdowns and translations. And the way you go back and add the strike-throughs and corrections is genius, and must also be a lot of work. You have my gratitude and admiration!
まあまあ - “Now, now” (in the sense of telling someone to calm down)
Shirokuma: Now, now
Panel 6
Shirokuma: どうせサカナ食べないじゃん
どうせ - in any case, after all, anyway, etc.
サカナ - fish (written in katakana)
食べない - don’t eat
じゃん - isn’t it (contraction of じゃない)
Shirokuma: You don’t eat fish anyway, do you?
Panda: まあね
まあね - Well, I must admit, etc.
Panda: Well…
Shirokuma: キャッチ ＆ リリースさ
Panda (thinking/commentating): キャッチ ＆ リリースさ
キャッチ - Catch
リリース - Release
な - right?, isn’t it?, you know, etc. (equivalent of ね)
さ - (assertive emphasis)
Shirokuma: We’re doing catch and release, right?
Shirokuma: We’re doing catch and release(Might be a different way to phrase this to account for the さ particle.)
Panda (thinking/commentating): We’re doing catch and release(Might be a different way to phrase this to account for the さ particle.) (Thanks @NLeseul!)
Afterword? text (only in the Bis version)
Little bear cupcake thing: いつか「本名」が知りたい…
いつか - sometime, someday, one day, etc.
本名 - real name
が - (subject marker)
知りたい - want to know/be aware of, etc. (“want to” form of 知る, to know/be aware of, etc.)
Little bear cupcake thing: Someday, I want to know their real names
Isn’t that さ rather than な at the end? I have no idea what さ would mean there, but it doesn’t have enough strokes to be な.
Edit: Also, I think that’s Panda’s thoughts/commentary, rather than dialog from Shirokuma, since it’s written in the scribbly font. Even though he doesn’t eat fish, he was still upset that Shirokuma ate the one he caught, because he was planning to release it.
「さ」, which is basically a very casual form of 「よ」, is similar to the English “like” in that some people throw it in at the end of almost every single phrase. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a very sophisticated manner of speech but just like using “like” all the time, I cannot deny that it is an easy habit to fall into. In that sense, due to its over-use, it has almost lost any specific meaning
Okay, that makes a LOT more sense. I thought it was weird Shirokuma was saying that after having eaten the fish. I only thought maybe it was supposed to be ironic. Also makes sense why it was hand-written (or supposed to look hand-written) and harder to read than everything else.
I like the idea of linking them better because it gives more context (i.e. the discussion that happened around the post) for how we came to that translation.
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