Bit of a late start on Chapter 8, but it’s rough balancing two book clubs and a new video game release lmao.
Thank god for all of the sprawling scenery pages! I was able to catch up easily enough. Most of what’s slowing me down is all the vocab like everybody else haha.
It really is cool to see how much the series was actually improved in the adaptation, tbh. While Afro undoubtedly does a great job at capturing the comfy nature of traveling, camping, and cooking, the anime adds so much with color, motion, and music. Those screentones aren’t doing the scenery any favors haha.
That said, Afro really does have some fun comedic timing/paneling. For example, when Rin is furiously scooting to the onsen and subsequently disappointed, or the 4koma at the end with the girls buying more scotch eggs.
Rin's deadpan bold text never fails to make me smirk.
Yes indeed. Colour especially - there’re whole chapters which are shaded like the sun’s right on the horizon setting, but it’s actually supposed to be high noon. Or at worst mid-afternoon.
Yeah I noticed that. The way he shades in the bulk of his B&W manga pages is rather binary, or at least very heavily muddied with the screentones to the point where everything is painted in rather broad strokes.
Which is a shame really, because Afro's full color spreads are absolutely gorgeous.
I quite want to read Mono, though I keep forgetting to check if my local Kinokuniya has it. Basic plot summary (as I understand it): newly-minted photography club president looking to find a goal for the club teams up with a manga-writer looking for a new series to write, to (respectively) go places and take photos of things, and make a manga about cute high school girls going places to take photos of things.
I picked up a volume of the Manga Time Kirara magazine on my last trip in Japan (or was it the one before?) because it’s the magazine that Yuru Camp is published in, and there happened to be a chapter of Mono in the same volume, which featured the characters retracing the steps of one of the earlier Yuru Camp chapters, so I’d initially taken it to be an autobiographical story of Afro and friends going on research trips for Yuru Camp (especially as one of the characters is a manga writer).
Oh whaaaaat that’s so cool! I love how location-based his work is. It really does a lot to help ground the world and characters. Definitely adding it to the read list. Though, without a book club it might be slower for me since I’ll have to look up all the vocab myself haha.
I didn’t even think to use my local Kinokuniya, especially now that I’m starting to read more Japanese media. Looks like I can get a copy of Mono from them as well as more Yuru Camp volumes. Now I’ll actually have a reason to browse their Japanese section, lmao
I gave Mono a peek and it doesn’t seem to have the screentones, which in turn made me consider Afro’s art style changed with time, and taking a look at the first chapter of Yurucamp volume 10 and he seems to have abandoned them. So we have something to look forward to as a club as we progress through the series!
Consciously or coincidentally?
I’ve been hoping it’ll go on sale (which feels unlikely since it’s fairly new) but if you ever find time to read it I would be happy to make a spreadsheet for it regardless of whether or not it gets a proper club–I’m always happy for an excuse to buy and read something good.
Huh, I never noticed. But the Mono chapter I have is in the May 2018 magazine, while the Yuru Camp chapter in the June 2018 magazine was later part of volume seven, so if screentones weren’t dropped until volume ten, it might be less a case of art evolution and more a case of readers sending in comments on Mono saying “wow! I can actually see what’s going on!” Also, I think Yuru Camp went online-only at some point, so I wonder if that’s got something do to with it. Not sure what point, though (and I hope it’s not a sign that reader interest is waning…)
On the part of the characters? Um… consciously, I think - I’m not sure. “TVアニメ放送記念ゆるキャン△聖地巡礼編第三話！” is written across the top, so it’s obviously deliberate on the part of Afro, and one of the characters comments on a building by saying “マンガだともっとボロくなかったっけ？”, and one presumes the manga in question is Yuru Camp. Also, “「ゆるキャン△」のなでしこがどこかに…？” is written down the left-side margin. Maybe I should sit down and read all the dialogue at some point.
The chapter also includes a “story so far” summary in the margin on the second page, so I presume this chapter is meant to exist in the series continuity, so perhaps Yuru Camp exists as a manga in the Mono world? It’d be nice if it were a shared universe, though.
Though, what’s definitely a coincidence is the chapter they’re retracing is this one that we’re currently reading, mostly. On the first page, they visit Jinbagatayama, which I don’t recall seeing in Yuru Camp so far, despite this being the page where the “マンガだと” comment above was delivered. On the second page, they visit Komagane, which Rin visits next volume, so I won’t link to it right now.
Then they visit Takabocchi, take a bath in Katakurakan (which shows the exterior of the building, so my research above is confirmed!), and then finish by waving at the camera at Kirigamine (from the end of last volume). And, uh… that’s it. Just six pages. Probably some special-edition chapter.
Ah, ～ばよかった is “I should have done” or “I wish I had done”. And (item)にする = “decide on (item)”. So, “I should have gotten 日待ちするクッキー (for Nadeshiko).” Yen Press has assumed that it’s just “cookies [because] they keep longer”.
Ohhh yes, you’re right; thanks for explaining. Now I’m interested what 日待ちするクッキー is. While searching up on google, I found cookie set/box images with blog titles like４ヶ月待ちのクッキー (and another that was 一年待ち!); does this mean they waited for 4 months/1 year to get hold of this cookie set?? Haha. Anyway, I thought it might be related to 日待ち, but maybe not
It should also be 持ち in @paupach’s examples. Those would be cookies you can keep for 4 month or 1 year.
The 1 year ones are actually a kind of emergency food that people keep in case of catastrophe. They are supposed to taste horrible but I love them. I never miss a chance to grab some when my workplace is distributing those that are about to expire.
I really liked waitress Saito too, as well as window-Saito on this chapter’s title page. I presume she was walking through the courtyard and saw Rin and decided to go say hi, and I really dig that detail.
What’s the story on 食べつつ on page 65? I saw verb＋つつ in the poetry book club and presumed it was some sort of classical conjugation and sorta breezed over it. I looked it up and it’s N2 grammar. Is it really just Eat rice while you eat your meat (a cute/teasing reminder)?
While the meat’s cooking. And I don’t think it’s a cute reminder, but rather the legitimate next item in their planned menu. Perhaps a palate cleanser or something.
Also amused by the offertory box joke.
