So we have finally reached the last week of this bookclub and, while you’re gonna enjoy it as the previous ones, during next week I will throw some polls in the main thread to see if anyone wants to keep going with それでも歩は寄せてくる as an offshoot club (^ヮ^)/
Both chapters were pretty cute this week - and both felt relatively easy for me which is nice, no real questions to be had from me
Thanks to everyone for being involved with the club, and hopefully I’ll see some of you in the next club pick, or the Beginner’s Book Club (which just started their next pick today). As for a spinoff for Ayumu - I wouldn’t mind joining in with one seeing as I picked up the second volume for free a little while ago so might as well continue right?
Volume two continues the usual story beats from volume one, while also taking things up a notch. And we get some really great expressions from Urushi along the way.
Those of you who’ve enjoyed volume one, chances are you won’t want to miss volume two.
Being early for once, I thought I could get some of my questions in before others ask and actually feel like a participant in this club. But then I come to find I (think I) actually understood 13 with ease???
This x20. Like, wow, that felt good, and I 100% want to attribute it to having gone through all the previous chapters with this book club. So, thanks.
Also just wanted to throw my hat in and say I’d also be down for an offshoot club for vol. 2… and I’ll maybe actually try to be an active member next go around…
Thanks a lot for helping me get my first “real” experience with Japanese at the start of this, and especially thanks to all of the great people who helped me along the way. I appreciate this club a lot. This week has been… particularly rough, just in life totally outside Japanese studying, so I’m just barely dragging myself along to keep doing Japanese stuff.
So I read 13, and I think I got most of it, but I was kinda mindlessly looking everything up and just moving through it. Not quite mentally all there right now. Still, chapter 13 was cute! I’m really happy for those of you who had an easy time with it, nice job! Hopefully I’ll find the energy for 14 tomorrow.
As for an offshoot, I’m interested but hesitant to fully commit yet, just because I’m certainly doing the next manga, and have quite a few things I’m balancing trying to read on my own when I can. Don’t want to take on too much, but I think I’m leaning more towards yes right now?
Thanks so much for organizing! No questions on ch 13 (just general appreciation of Urushi’s Best Dismay Faces And Ayumu Making It Weird As Usual) and looking forward to doing ch 14 and the Bonus maybe later this week.
I’m definitely up for reading more Ayumu, although I admit I was theoretically also doing the Takagi-san offshoot club and then totally fell behind on it… I probably have bandwidth to do only one book club in real-time, and I’ve enjoyed them both, but if I had to pick one at this point it would probably be Ayumu. So hope to see you round!
Today I finished the chapters + bonus. It was a great read! Thank you to everyone who is organizing, participating and answering questions. Overall it was a great help. (I also always love the vocab lists!)
Since I grabbed the second volume when it was free on bookwalker a while ago, I’d join the offshot bookclub as well.
Overall the grammar and dialogue was not so hard in these last chapters and it sort of felt a bit different from the other chapters. For some reasons there weren’t any shougi terms and Urushi never asked if Ayumu liked her! I think overall the last chapters felt sort of peaceful?
I have one question for the omake though:
時間差やめろ！(last page)
I checked on jisho for 時間差 but found nothing. Does someone know what it means?
Jisho translates 差 as difference, and yomichan translates 時間差 as time difference/time lag. Combined with やめろ!, I tend to think it means “Stop stalling!”
And for something a little closer to the Japanese, I’d probably go with “Stop the time lag!”, as in meaning “Don’t take so long to comment on my different hairstyle!” (Kind of hard to translate directly into English either way!)
That shirt is amazing. I’m not sure if it’s photoshopped, but I really want one! I was already thinking of making some と金 stickers. I got as far as making a paper prototype to put on my mug:
For once I’m not behind! Almost finished the chapters and I’ll at least start the bonus today. I’m struggling with the very last sentence in chapter 14 though:
Page 130
「お前のせいで ムリそう なんだけど」
I don’t think this interpretation is right, but the closest I can manage is “Even though (だけど) it seems impossible (ムリそう) because of you (お前のせいで)”. Although I’m not sure what purpose 「なん」 serves here.
Is she saying that it’s impossible to find new members because of him?
I believe this grammar structure is once again our good old friend explication-tone の
ムリそう is a な-adjective, so it needs a な before のだ (shortened to んだ in this particular case). She’s using the explication tone because in this case she’s giving a reason why it’s impossible (as in, because of him).
Now, regarding what exactly she’s talking about, it does feel somewhat vague to me. The previous panel though, seems to be pretty clear on the fact that the topic of the sentence is Ayumu’s wish:
My interpretation is that the fact that Ayumu’s constant-but-never-completely-open advances on her always throw her off her pace, making it really hard for her “to stay as herself”, which is Ayumu’s wish. Not completely sure on this one.
I’m curious to hear how others interpreted this sentence.
Wow, something just clicked in my brain when I read that! I have a feeling I’ve made that mistake with そう before because I didn’t realize it was a な-adjective. I’m learning… very slowly… but I’m learning.
I finished Chapters 12, 13, 14 and the おまけ chapter today! Finally had some time to sit down and read. Didn’t really run into anything that threw me for a loop, and all the chapters were quite cute. Will probably share my thoughts on the panels and story in more detail later in the week.
As for an offshoot club, I am definitely down to participate in one! I also picked up Volume 2 for free, so no reason not to, especially since I do enjoy the series and will continue it with or without a club.
Thanks everyone for participating and special thanks to @anon45600167 for suggesting this manga and organizing the club!
This has been so much fun, I’ve been focusing more on my grammar lately, watching the cure dolly videos that i think have helped me understand the structures in this volume with more detail. I feel a definite improvement from my reading of my first manga volume, Takagi-san.
Yamamoto-san surely knows how to make a manga about basically nothing fun and I’m glad i liked this one just as much as Takagi-san. I’m looking forward to the selection and I will probably continue reading in the offshoot book club if it is made.
Thanks to everyone for your contributions, I’m really happy this bookclub exists, it’s a great motivator!
I think overall the last chapters felt sort of peaceful? 
