If you need any general info about the book, please check the Nomination post for more details (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) Also, note that this is an offshoot club’s thread, meaning that we have already finished reading the first volume, that you can find at それでも歩は寄せてくる ・ When will Ayumu Make his Move? - Volume 1 thread (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Reading Schedule
Week
Start Date
Chapters
Week 1
May 14th
第69-70局
Week 2
May 21st
第71-72局
Week 3
May 28th
第73-74局
Week 4
June 4th
第75-76局
Week 5
June 11th
第77-78局
Week 6
June 18th
第79-80局+おまけ
Vocabulary List
Please read the guidelines on the first page of the sheet before adding any words.
Members
Mark your participation status by voting in this poll:
A new character injecting some drama into the situation seems like it should be tons of fun. I love that Kagawa almost seems like a female version of Ayumu (if more formal than he is). I also like that she speaks more formally, though, to be honest. As I reach the end of the Quintessential Quintuplets and will be saying goodbye to Itsuki’s speech patterns, I was realizing that she has been my main source of exposure to 敬語, so seeing another character come up with a similar speech pattern will be good, I think.
Also, feeling daring this week, eh? 24 pages instead of the usual 16.
Oh wow, this volume was intent on changing our rhythm no matter what, eh? I was mostly joking a bit, anyhow. At this point, with the exception of shogi-term heavy chapters, this manga is quite easy. An increase in page-count doesn’t change the time it takes to read by much anymore, I think.
Before checking whether to include one chapter or two in week one, I wondered, “Should I poll on whether we want to switch to three chapters per week sometime?”
Then I saw the lengths of the first three chapters, and thought, “This would not be the time for such a switch…” (Even though probably everyone reading along can handle it, I’m sure plenty of us are reading other things too.)
I think I also wouldn’t mind reading 3 chapters per week. Currently I usually read both chapters in one sitting on either saturday or sunday and the time consumption is not huge.
Other book club/reading
Meanwhile I’m struggling to keep up with the 夜カフェ (Beginner Book Club) pace, I’m still one or two chapters behind. Luckily there is time for catch up next week!
But I think 夜カフェ is still on the easier side, since for my japanese class I’m currently reading Suspect X(容疑者Xの献身) and in comparison it’s insanely complicated!(!!!)
Also if you really consider changing to 3 chapters:
I would be thankful if we wait until July to do that, since I’m taking the JLPT N3 exam in July and I’m in serious study mode right now.
Please don’t leave me behind! But I guess in case it happens I can still catch up later.
Honestly right now I’m reading ayumu and takagi on the same day (Sort of in a Souichirou day, and also works since they are the easiest manga I’m currently reading), and it’s the right amount of manga for one day for me. However, if everyone else wants to switch to 3 chapters a week I think I probably would still be able to manage!
Some of you may or may not have noticed that my avatar has changed like five times since last night. I was a bit torn, because I was tempted to go back to one of my favorite between-chapter drawings from this series up to this point, but I also wanted something with color, instead of being in black-and-white, so initially I settled for something different. But today, I’ve been a bit ill and unable to properly focus on reading properly, but still found myself wanting to occupy my mind somehow. The decision I made? To colorize the panel that I actually wanted as my avatar, despite my image editing skills being limited to poorly-cobbled memes and one graphic arts class in middle-school. I never said I was smart…
But anyway, the result is now I have a colorized avatar of the panel I wanted (most of you likely recognize it as the avatar that probably lasted the longest for me).
Before:
After:
I’m not 100% sure I’ve got the right tones for her skin and hair color when put directly side-by-side the colored avatar I grabbed from online (and I feel like the eyes maybe came out a bit more flat than I would like), but they are close enough for me to be content (especially since I definitely spent more time on this than I probably should have). But I figured I’d share the work with the group, so it doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time.
It was surprisingly quite cathartic. I haven’t colored anything in a long time, and while this was a far cry from colored pencils (pencil crayons, if they are called that instead where you are from), it still had the same relaxing vibes to it. Might be something I do again sometime!
Regarding this week’s reading, it certainly did not disappoint! This is normally a series I enjoy reading, but I’m not necessarily jonesing to get to the next reading. But this is twice in a row now that I just wanted to keep going.
Spoiler talk
Rin is awesome! I love the attitude she takes with people she beats. Also, I felt bad for Ayumu, but the face he made when he lost was too good. And I’m so happy the Shogi Club is official now. Progress! Looking forward to Rin taking a shot at the queen next week
I have a question regarding pg. 28 (I think it was chapter 71?)
私がどうこう言える雰囲気じゃないじゃん
I think it means something like “This is not an atmosphere where I can say anything.” but I have to say I don’t really understand the grammar and I don’t know what どうこう is supposed to mean when it’s used in this way.
Can anyone help?
Also not sure if you are all already way too knowledgeable or don’t have time, but I’d appreciate it if someone would help filling the vocab sheet!
I’d totally forgotten we had seen it once before in this series! That was early enough in my reading journey, though, that I would definitely have still been more in the “keep my head above water” portion of reading, where those kinds of phrases would have flown by me as “too complicated to remember, focus on grammar and common stuff for now.”
Crazy how that’s not all that long ago, but it feels like ages ago, regardless.
Edit: Though it is a bit funny to me how each series singled out different pieces of the phrases. Now we just have to find manga that focus on the other two pieces…
I also like that she speaks more formally, though, to be honest. As I reach the end of the Quintessential Quintuplets and will be saying goodbye to Itsuki’s speech patterns, I was realizing that she has been my main source of exposure to 敬語, so seeing another character come up with a similar speech pattern will be good, I think. 
But I guess in case it happens I can still catch up later.
