それでも歩は寄せてくる ・ When will Ayumu Make his Move? - Volume 5 Thread

[ChristopherFritz]

In my experience, 「どうも～みたいだ」 has a sense of “apparently”.

In other words, it seems the kouhai likes the senpai, but it’s not definite (to the reader?), so rather than saying he likes her, Urushi says “apparently” he likes her.

Looking online (which risks finding false positives), I came across this Japanese posting which says the English word “apparently” is like 「そうらしいね」 and 「どうもそうみたいだね」 in Japanese, but also mentions 「どうも～みたいだ」 as the kind of situation you would use “apparently”.

Regarding 自分(じぶん), I’ll quote 's sister site:

Quote collapsed into a details tag due to length.

Although 自分 usually refers to the subject or the topic of a sentence, sometimes what it refers to is unclear in complex sentences with multiple perspectives. Or, sometimes, it just depends on the context.

Although reflexive pronouns only refer back to a word within the same clause in English, 自分 can refer to a subject in a different clause.

• マミは、カナエが自分を責めてるって言ってた。
• Mami was saying that Kanae blames 自分.

In English, who Kanae is blaming or who 自分 refers to, could only be Kanae. However, in Japanese, it’s unclear who 自分 is — it could refer to Kanae, or even Mami, despite the mention of Mami being far away in a separate clause.

Now, let’s say your friend asks you why Mami is crying. The exchange could look something like:

• Your friend: マミは何で泣いてるの？
  You: カナエが自分を責めてるって言ってた。
• Your friend: Why is Mami crying?
  You: She said that Kanae blames 自分.

And even in this case, 自分 can still refer to either Mami or Kanae. Mami is even in a separate sentence, but in this context where Mami is who you and your friend are talking about, it’s very possible it could be about her.

In other words: 「subjectが自分(じぶん)」 can be tricky to know who 自分(じぶん) refers to, so you just kind of need to feel your way through based on context.

…is what I get out of it.

I’d figure since the conversation is about the main character, that’s (how we can determine) who 自分(じぶん) is referring to.

@sakuchu

なん - honestly I’m always troubled with these kind of words, so I’m not sure what the correct translation is for this.

When you see a word that normally ends in だ, such as みたい, and instead it ends in なんだ, that means it’s the explanatory の. I’ve posted an explanation and examples, based on what helped me finally properly grasp the explanatory の.

Story comments chapter 59

@sakuchu

I mean Urushi is so very serious about shougi and I suspect she practices a lot, so I can’t imagine how it would be possible that Ayumu spontaneously starts shougi and gets better than her in a reasonable timeframe.

What if we found out after all this time that Urushi is actually really bad at shogi, but we couldn’t see it because she had no one to play against except a total beginner?