ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest book club! 🌳 (Absolute Beginner Book Club)

[ChristopherFritz]

Welcome to the ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest book club!

This is the main thread for reading the manga ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest together with the Absolute Beginner Book Club. If you have some experience with Japanese (such as having finished Genki 1 or similar) but are new to reading manga, this is a great way to start.

Reading is split across a weekly schedule, each with its own thread for asking and answering questions. A vocabulary sheet will be available to help with looking up unknown words.

To participate, buy the book and join in the discussion! Be sure to set this thread to “watching” to receive notifications when weekly discussion threads are posted.

If this will be your first manga and you don’t know if you’re up for it yet, there’s no harm in trying it. Ask every question you have about the material as we work through each page, and you are guaranteed to come out with more knowledge and reading readiness by the end.

Not sure if this is manga for you? Check out the Nomination Post and read the first chapter for free on bookwalker.

Where to buy

Physical: Amazon JP
Digital: Kindle・Kobo・BOOK☆WALKER

Reading Schedule and Discussion Links

Week	Start Date	Chapter	Pages	No. of pages with text
Wk 1	May 13	Ch 1	1–8	6 pages
Wk 2	May 20	Ch 1	9–15	7 pages
Wk 3	May 27	Ch 1	16–23	7 pages
Wk 4	Jun 3	Ch 2	25–35	10 pages
Wk 5	Jun 10	Ch 2	36–47	9 pages
Wk 6	Jun 17	Ch 3	49–58	7 pages
Wk 7	Jun 24	Ch 3	59–71	9 pages
Wk 8	Jun 1	Ch 4	73–85	11 pages
Wk 9	Jul 8	Ch 4	86–97	10 pages
Wk 10	Jul 15	Ch 5	99–107	9 pages
Wk 11	Jul 22	Ch 5	108–117	11 pages
Wk 12	Jul 29	Ch 6	119–129	10 pages
Wk 13	Aug 5	Ch 6	130–141	9 pages
Wk 14	Aug 12	Ch 7 + omake	143–157 + 159–164	18 pages

Note: No. of pages with text is the number of pages with more than one short sentence.

Vocabulary List

ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん Volume 1 Vocabulary List

This vocabulary sheet was built with OCR to give a populated sheet to start with, so it may contain minor errors (such as misreading a kanji). Don’t hesitate to correct any issues you recognize along the way!

Auto-filled translations show in gray text. If you know the best translation as it’s used on the manga page, go ahead and fill it in. The text will turn black on its own.

If a word is missing, feel free to add it!

Member List

Are you planning to read ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest with the book club?

• Yes
• Yes, but I might start late
• Not sure
• No
• I’ve read it before, but I’ll join in the discussion

If so, which version will you be reading?

• Physical
• Digital
• I’m not sure yet

Additional Polls

What is the highest-level book club you’ve joined before?

• This is my first book club
• I’ve joined the Absolute Beginner Book Club
• I’ve joined the Beginner Book Club
• I’ve joined the Intermediate Book Club
• I’ve joined the Advanced Book Club

What best describes your reading experience?

• This is my first manga
• I’ve read other manga, but only easier ones than this
• I’ve read other manga or books around this level
• I’ve read other manga or books that are harder than this one

[MrGeneric]

I’ve set the thread to watching, but just in case, when you do have a set schedule, would you mind tagging me so I know about when I should post the polls/nominations in the main thread?

[ChristopherFritz]

The schedule has been added. Consider it tentative pending any discussion that the page should be faster.

I’m uncertain whether to split chapter one between two weeks or three. A slower pace at the start is customary. RuriDragon started around 9 pages per week, then went to 11, then ends at 17 pages the last few weeks.

Splitting chapter one across only two weeks gives 10 pages per week, then each two-week chapter after gives 9 to 11 pages per week.

If the increased pace at the end of RuriDragon goes well, we can do the same here, putting chapter 5 at 20 pages and chapter 6 at 19 pages.

Here are the results from some Ruri polls on how readers were doing.

@Start of week two poll:

About 30 struggling but managing.

@Start of week three poll:

About 19 struggling but managing.

(Some may have dropped out between weeks two and three.)

@Start of week 10 (before experiencing a pace increase):

Down to about 5 struggling but managing, and maybe 1 ready to drop the book.

[KennethDK]

Are there other Japanese bookshops that ship to Europe? I have no luck with amazon.jp

[Nicko1412]

Manga-republic should work very well, and they have free shipping as well. (USED) Manga Chiisana Mori no Ookami-chan vol.1 (ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん 1 (MFコミックス アライブシリーズ)) / Wataame | Buy Japanese Manga

You can find a lot of japanese manga both used and new, but they usually are in really good condition when used, so I’d say it’s usually worth buying used.

[wanisnani]

I gave up RuriDragon because it was too hard for me with its contractions and colloquialisms.
Excited to give the book club a second chance with this manga. I bought both volumes on manga-republic. Hopefully I will have a better time with this one.
Thanks for organising!

And I already have a question :
Why ちいさな and not ちいさい?

[Gorbit99]

CDJapan tends to. Also, for Amazon, theoretically you have the option of having it be delivered to an intermediary and then have them deliver it to your place. But that will obviously be more expensive.

[MaraVos]

Good question! Comparing the two on jisho, looks like ちいさな is specifically about size, whereas ちいさい can be used in a metaphorical sense for a bunch of things, such as age, importance, and sound level.

[Gorbit99]

ちいさな puts a bit more emphasis on the fact that it’s small, while ちいさい doesn’t do such a thing. At least afaik. But they are pretty much interchangeable in this scenario.

[sgwaltney3]

This led me really deep into the weeds of grammar, both English and Japanese.
The best summary I can find is this: grammar - Why does Japanese have two kinds of adjectives? (-i adjectives and -na adjectives) - Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Spoiler, ちいさな is a third type of Japanese adjective that I had never explored before.
Mostly it feels more old fashioned/poetic.

[carouseal]

I believe 小さな also needs to go directly next to the noun it’s describing, whereas 小さい has a little more flexibility in where it can be placed.
So you could say both 小さい森 or 小さな森
but if you wanted instead to say something like “The forest is small”, you could NOT use 森は小さな。You have to use 森は小さい。
Someone please correct me if this is wrong!

This was my first manga that I read! I decided at the time to read it alone since all of the AB books at that point seemed too hard for me, so I’m really glad to see this is getting on here finally! It’s been a little more than half a year since I first read it, so I’m excited to see how much more smoothly it goes for me this time around n_n

[Yabashiri]

I’m getting more and more confident with my grammar so I’ll try to keep up with y’all this time

[Greymanic]

Honestly I personally like the number of pages as is for the moment but this is going to be my second book as part of the group so I might be in the minority.

Unfortunately while I enjoyed Ruri I only got to around week 7 before I started to struggle balancing it with work commitments. Maybe that’s more my issue than the groups but I would think keeping the commitment low, and encouraging people to read other books if they find themselves with extra time during a week to be a good idea.

That said, I’m still following along with Ruri just at my own pace and given up on the idea of catching up so the same could work here too.

[PhilipZ]

Hi everbody,

Last month I’ve had my third go at learning Japanese within 5 years. I’m currently doing the third chapter in Genki 1, but already enjoy working myself through easy articles with the Manabi reader. I realize even simple mangas are way beyond my level, but I can’t help my curiosity, so I ordered a physical copy (thanks for the hint when amazon.jp doesn’t work!) and will tag along, one way or another.

It’s probably not perfectly on-topic to introduce myself like that, but this thread and its members will from now on define a part of my Japanese learning experience, so it felt only right to at least say hi, and thank you for this amazing community.

よろしくお願いします!

[ChristopherFritz]

@PhilipZ

I realize even simple mangas are way beyond my level

The nice thing about participating in a book club is that it drastically lowers the level you need to be at to participate. You can ask questions and get answers about anything that comes up.

That said, at the third chapter of Genki, you’re probably going to be encountering a lot of new information to take in as we get into even just week one. You’ll see all kinds of grammar and its terminology on top of all the unknown vocabulary words. (I actually plan to start doing posts in this thread about recommended words to know before we start.)

If you treat this manga as a learning experience, with the understanding that you are deciphering a new language (rather than reading a comic), you will benefit from the experience.

[PhilipZ]

Thank you, I will keep that in mind. Indeed, this is not just comic reading for recreation, but studying and research combined to decipher the puzzle of new grammar and semantics. But the pictures are eye-candy, the fact I’m reading a manga bait before and bragging-right after the reading, and the community is backup and motivation combined. I’m very much looking forward to this experience.

Also the must-know vocabs sounds like a great idea, I’ll make sure to put them on my flashcards! I always learn the vocabulary before starting a new Genki chapter, it should likewise make the reading go easier on the manga / chapters.

[taiyousea]

i was checking out the bookwalker link and noticed that books 1 and 2 are both on sale for 50% off right now, which is definitely enough to get me interested see you all at the start!

[Anth01ogy]

Really excited to start this!! I’ve tried reading manga before (Yotsubato and One Piece which was way too difficult), but couldn’t stay motivated. Very much looking forward to starting!

[ChristopherFritz]

Vocabulary To Know Part 1

If you’re new to reading, you may lack a strong foundation of vocabulary words. This post lists some of the most frequently used vocabulary words in ちいさな森(もり)のオオカミちゃん, in case you want to pre-learn a few of them.

I’ve included examples of the words used in other manga. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything doing on in the dialogue in these examples.

する

The verb する is a basic action similar to “to do” in English.

In pretty much anything you read, the verb する is the most commonly used word.

Yet, it often appears very little as 「する」.

You can learn about all the different ways する appears in advance, but it’s also fine to wait until you have a little exposure to it before you dive into learning the details.

Here are a few examples of する in the wild:

To do something with する.

In the background, a young girl, Nagi, is kidnapped by two men who force her into a car. Nagi calls out for help, catching the attention of Maria and Hayate.

「何(なに)をする！！」

“What are you going to do!?”

する turning a noun into a verb.

In this scene, the girl, Naho, has a wound on her foot. The boy, Kakeru, says:

「消毒(しょうどく)するよ」

消毒(しょうどく) is “disinfectant”.

Here, “to do disinfectant” means to do the action of applying disinfectant.

する often attaches to a noun to turn it into a verb.

To not do something with しない

The negative of “do” is “do not”. In English, we use “not” as negation.

In Japanese, negation is typically done with ない. When the verb する is negated with ない, it becomes しない.

In this comic scene, it’s the girl’s turn to (try to) catch a Pokemon.

The boy in bug-catching gear says, “You think it’ll be caught by you?”

The girl replies, 「バカにしないでよ」“Don’t make fun of me.”

The word バカ means “fool”. The phrase 「バカをする」 can mean to make fun of someone, or look down on someone, or make light of someone.

As a negative, it means “don’t make fun of me”, “don’t look down on me”, “don’t make light of me”, etc.

Can do with できる

In English, when we say it is possible to do something, we say we “can do” it.

In Japanese, する transforms completely into できる for this purpose.

When Neko, a young witch in training, arrives in a new town, she expects others to be in awe. Instead, one girl asks, 「魔女(まじょ)って何(なに)ができるの？」 “What can a witch do?”

オオカミ

オオカミ refers to the animal called “wolf” in English.

The kanji for it, 狼, comes up in WaniKani at level 14, but I don’t think we’ll see it written this way here.

森

森, pronouced もり, is the word for a “forest”.

• 「綺麗(きれい)な森(もり)ですね」
• “It’s a beautiful forest.”

• 「西(にし)の森(もり)」
• “West Forest”

行く

The verb 行(い)く means “to go”. It’s in WaniKani at level 5.

• 「あの… どこに行(い)くんですか？」
• “Um, where are we to go?” (“Where are we going?”)

• “Where’s Asahi-san?!”
• 「もう学校(がっこう)行(い)った」
• “He went to school already.”

私

Pronounced わたし, 私 is a common pronoun like “I” in English.

No examples for this one because if you’re not familiar with it yet, you’ll become familiar with it fast.

パトロール

Among the most common usages of カタカナ letters is for English loanwords used in Japanese. You’ll also see them used for non-English loanwords, as well as Japanese words that happen to be written in カタカナ often.

Some words are tricky, as they may have a different meaning than the word they are taken from. But in this case, パトロール is “patrol”.

楽しい

An adjective, 楽しい (pronounced たのしい) means “fun” or “enjoyable”.

Chi’s mother asks her how school went.

• 「んー？ 楽(たの)しいよ」
• “Mm? It was fun.”

• 「お花見(はなみ) 楽(たの)しいねー。」
• “Flower-viewing is fun, huh?”

人間

Something we’re all probably familiar with, 人間 (にんげん) means “human”.

If you don’t know all these words, it’s all right to hold off on learning them until later.

[marsh_mellow]

すごい! That’s such a helpful resource, thank you!