Final thought on Pᴀɢᴇ.14:
Pages 125–126
It’s too soon to be 100% sure of it, but thanks to this scene (especially with Mr. Tanaka), I seem to be able to remember Shuuko’s name!
My thoughts on Pᴀɢᴇ.15:
Page 136
It’s like Shuuko’s not even trying to be an unconcerned loner anymore.
Page 137
Extra points go to Yuuri for the yukata.
I like that a traditional outfit like this has survived through modern times within Japan’s culture. The closest I can think of in American media (that I’m familiar with) is the early 90’s American cartoon series “Doug”, where you could tell if an episode took place on a Sunday because Doug’s family would be wearing their “Sunday best”. (But even that’s not the same.)
Page 139
I like the style of font used for this line.
す⎼⎼⎼⎼…こちゃん
Page 141
「カップル」の味じゃない。「カルピス」の味だ。
Seriously, though, I misread her line as 「カルピスか！」 at first, and wondered why she was getting antsy over the flavor. Thankfully I figured it out after a quick re-read of the line.
Page 142
Actions have consequences.
It’s probably for the best, though. At best she’d be getting an “indirect kiss” from Yuuri.
Page 144
On the one hand, I feel a bit like Japanese “loses” something by having so many words taken from English. (But they have so many words from Chinese, so that’s a very minuscule feeling.)
On the other hand, it’s kind of fun seeing a random katakana word, and trying to determine if it’s from English, and if so, what its meaning is. This one’s a little anti-climatic, though, meaning exactly what one would expect. (I know this is par for the course for loan words, but for some reason I also like that a verb like “keep” gets する added to it to be a verb in Japanese.)
Page 146
I normally don’t look up a word if I feel confident that I know the general meaning from the situation, especially if I otherwise know the kanji. But when I’m expecting a reading like 出会う and I get 出会す, that deserves a look-up.
Upon looking it up:
- 出会す 【でくわす】: [vi,v5s] to happen to meet; to come across
That sounds close to 出会う… Maybe if I look that one up as well, to compare.
- 出会う 【であう】: 1. [v5u,vi] to meet (by chance); to come across; to run across; to encounter; to happen upon
This is why I’m glad I’ve reached the point where I’m able to use J-to-J dictionaries.
My takeaway from this is that 出会う means to meet by chance, and 出会す means to unexpectedly meet by chance. Maybe? Like, you may expect to encounter a neighbor at a festival (出会う), but you don’t really expect to find encounter the-boy-from-the-library at the festival (出会す)?
I decided to look up 「会す」 to see what 「くわす」 by itself means, and the only readings I get are 「あわす」 and 「かいす」…
I think I’m done with this panel now.
Page 149
Kou channeling his inner Kominato-kun.
I’m not certain why I had trouble following the conversation with Futaba and Library Boy Touma-kun (I probably should start learning his name), but upon re-reading this scene, I was able to understand it all.
I wonder if it’s entirely a coincidence that 馬渕 and 冬馬 both have 馬 in them. (And then right after Touma’s name is said by his friends, on the next page Futaba used the word 罵声, which contains 馬 within the first kanji. Does this author enjoy horsing around?)
Page 152
Comments like this are why I’m not allowed around people.
Page 160
I really enjoyed reading this word balloon, because I know a year ago I would have been completely lost on trying to figure out what was going on here. The two 事, the そういう and the ふう. I can really feel my growth. (Sorry Yuuri if it seems like I’m enjoying your rejection!)
Page 169
Kou, with the almost-super hearing.
I’ve seen it in katakana in at least one other manga, although I don’t recall which one offhand. Can’t figure why that decision was made there, either.
I’m mostly just here to fawn over sweet and spunky Futaba 
trying to remember if this is a normal thing in Japanese or if she’s acting more respectful since she’s talking to Kou’s brother
; Futaba: I’ll smash open his chest gate to release his heart!! 
