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Participation Poll
I’m reading along
I had already finished this part before the thread was posted
I started reading this a while ago, it’s really good.
As already mentioned in the parent thread there’s a very stylized futuristic font used in some images that’s pretty hard to read, it’s usually not critical info but I thought I’d transcribe it here for those who care to read everything:
p009
On the display:
name: 丑三 小夜
登録利用者数：１．８６９．９２３
施設利用者数：１
施設稼動状態：正常
汚染率：０．[truncated]
p020
On the sign:
共同集合住宅 (not entirely sure about the first two kanji)
第四居住区
On the retina display:
汚染率 ９２％
反応有
結晶体
This is just handwritten text that’s a bit hard to read:
p026
Dedication behind the painting:
少シデモナガク残ルコトヲ願ウ
p026, decoded
If you can’t make sense of the above, the trick is that all kana are written in katakana instead of hiragana for some reason. Unclear what the intent is here as far as I’m concerned, maybe it’s supposed to look futuristic? Or just alien/foreign? I’ve already seen katakana used to denote foreign languages so maybe it’s meant to convey that this isn’t actually Japanese as we know it.
The text is therefore:
少しでも長く残ることを願う
Which I think means something like “I hope/wish that it remains even just a little bit longer” although I struggle to translate it exactly. I think it’s purposefully unclear what the こと is. The painting? the moment? Life itself?
p033
On the candy bar: 開ク
This one is not too difficult to read but it’s an other example of katakana-in-lieu-of-hiragana, so maybe that’s just how Japanese is written in this universe.
Hi everyone! this is my first book club! looks like an awesome community. two quick questions:
a dumb question, but, for the schedule, are we meant to read chapter 1 between July 13th and July 20th (and post on the week 1 page anytime in that range?). and then chapter 2 between july 20th and july 27th. and so on?
does anyone have advice for figuring out all the onomatopoeia? i keep googling up stuff and not finding it on official lists…
To be a bit more precise, July 13th, July 20th and so on are the dates that the threads for discussing a specific range of pages (like this one) are made. You can read it any time you want, earlier (you just can’t discuss it yet because there’s no thread up), during that week or later. Most participants will read during that week or very shortly before to join in the discussions, but even if you read it later you can still use the Week 1 thread to ask any questions you have about pages 1-35, the Week 2 thread for pages 36-59 and so on.
I usually use The JADED Network and fall back to google when I can’t find something there.
I have a trick I use for them, most onomatopoeia appear in dictionaries just fine, but you need to modify them a bit.
Some are simple, like the slightly gruesome シュウウウ on page 024.
First of all, duplication disappears, so it just becomes シュウ, and secondly, proper form, katakana lengthening becomes ー.
If you look up シュー, you’ll find hissing, fizzing
Sometimes one additional trick that happens is a と or っと gets added as a sort of “do while sounding like x” particle.
For example, page 017, ガララ becomes ガラっと and page 020, カチ becomes カチッと
I just don’t, for the most part. It’s not usually an issue. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar has a section on “sound symbolism” that gives some rough guidelines:
Over the next few pages they give more examples of the various patterns. Eventually through sheer exposure you start getting a feel for it, although it takes a long time.
Every time you see ヲ you can be pretty sure that it’s katakana-for-hiragana in my experience (or some weird name I guess). Although generally when I’ve encountered this type of text it’s full katakana while here the author has kept the kanji:
Ah, but I guess there are different kinds of people/creatures that have different effects based on whether they were directly exposed to the gases via indirectly through the 断罪者?
You aren’t breaking any rules, do not worry. Though instead of using spoiler tags, which barely cover up the images, I’d suggest using [details] tags:
[details=Some title here]
Your spoilers go here
[/details]
p19-22
Those aren’t corpses of humans. On this page you see the sudden appearance of alien lifeforms mentioned. These are those.
Also, it’s important to mention, that it’s not poisonous gas, but specifically 瘴気, “miasma”, aka infected or disease causing air.
These aliens were attacked by humans, because, as you’ve seen later in the chapter, they are quite aggressive when alive.
p25
No, this is basically the thesis of the whole manga. “What do you do with your life, if you know that you are dying”. Guy chose to paint his lover.
p31
You’ll know by the end of the book, it’s part of the plot
Ooh I’ve been waiting on this club to start for months! I bookmarked the home thread forever ago and just put the club start date as the name in all caps.
I’m sick and I’m also reading a few other things right now, so I hope I can keep up.
I bought both volumes so it’d be awesome to get an offshoot club afterwards. Does anyone know if those will be the only volumes? Does it seem like it concludes with the second one?
Quite a bit of exposition, but it was well-integrated with the action. And still so many questions: is the girl really the last living person? Who/what is her side-kick? Is she even human, shrugging off an attack like that?
I really liked the art style, with hatching used to show the decayed architecture of the city. It contrasts with the clean look for the main character and her pet.
that could actually help my katakana handicap lol because even though at first glance it looked absolutely unreadable to me, for some reason, when I actually tried, I understood! xD ^^’
(if they’re from that book club I’m very sorry for the incredibly stupid question, but it looks more like a game to me )
Edit:
oh wow … I totally didn’t intend to even join this book club lol but for some reason I guess I just read through the whole first chapter
it’s been way too long since I’ve joined any book club (or read any manga for that matter) anyways, so … hey why not ^^’ … well I mean let’s see if I’ll keep it up - but I actually liked that a lot! very beautiful, atmospheric, interesting (start of) story
it’s actually the first time I’m reading a digital copy of something… I was checking out the 試し読み on Bookwalker - and I was wondering (should I buy it there) are there hotkeys (or can the book then be downloaded)…? the kanji are sometimes quite small in their “standard setting” and enlarging by clicking the button x times for every page seems kinda bothersome tbh
p19-22
but yes I totally didn’t get the (bashed in) corpses are supposed to be aliens either
