Feels like a fairly chill reading so far, except I was having a lot of trouble with page 13-14. (To be fair, Nako-chan also seems kind of confused lol.) I’m putting my translation + interpretation here to get opinions!
Page 13
B: Um… Nako-chan
N: Mmhmm
B: Um…
N: ?
B: Nako-chan, you’re (<- implied) always fiddling with your phone, but… (speaking in monotone)
N: Something started… (I assume the context here is like “something weird is happening” or “Bocchi’s trying to do something, but I don’t know what…)
B: You’re doing something… what is it?! (literally just “What are you doing?,” but I’m trying to translate the whole “it looked like a regular sentence and then she enthusiastically added “ka” at the end” thing)
N: “It’s a game.”
B: “A g-game…”
B: “G-game… game…”
N: “…”
B: “On the topic of games… since there’s no choice, is it okay if I shoot?”
- this is the line I really wasn’t sure about. To be fair Nako-chan also seems confused. (her next line is, I think “What do you want to do?!” or maybe more naturally, “What are you trying to do?!”
Based on the next page, Bocchi seems to want to say “Is it okay if I send you a message?” I think she assumed Nako-chan had been messaging people, and was going to follow up with “Ah, then can I message you too?”
When Nako-chan instead said she was playing a game, Bocchi panicked. Trying to find a way to tie “gaming” back to her original plan, she came up with saying “is it okay if I shoot” (using the verb とばす, which is used both to shoot projectiles as if in a video game, and to shoot someone an email).
I’m not sure why she says “since there’s no choice”. I think she means more like “oh it can’t be helped, since we’re already on the topic of games, I have to talk about this related thing!”
Does that seem about right?
Page 14
B: I don’t really touch my cell phone…
That’s because… I don’t really have frie… (in the vocab list “友達がい“ is listed as “true friendship,” but is this not just “友達がいない but cut off early?)
Because… I don’t have them… Wahhh…
N: (Ah… she wants to exchange emails, huh?)
N: I’m your friend.
B: …!
N: So… from there? (I assume this means, “so, now that you’re done crying, want to try again?”)
B: Since there’s no choice… is it okay if I shoot…”
N: Shoot!!! (Maybe more naturally, “Shoot it already!!”)
B: “I will hear your email address” (maybe more naturally, “Please let me know your email address”? Why is this in quotation marks?
Is that what she thinks Nako-chan would say in response to “Is it okay if I shoot you an email”? Or is Bocchi herself trying to ask for Nako-chan’s email, and it’s in quotation marks because she’s quoting a stock phrase?)
N: Nah
B: (Bocchi is so shocked and sad her hair stands up?)
N: “If I reply, I’ll die…” (Is the context here like, “It would gross me out so much to exchange messages with you that it would kill me”? Is this in quotation marks because she thinks Nako-chan is thinking that?)
B: It’s a joke, dumbass!
Also, I like the bit on page 15 where they split 交換 into its individual kanji. Like the kanji that mean exchange are being exchanged themselves. Cute!
