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Participation Poll
I’m reading along
I had already finished this part before the thread was posted
Would somebody be able to help me understand this sentence on page 38?
代わりの目覚ましを探さないとな
I understand it up until とな, I don’t understand what those particles are doing here. I assume と is being used as a conditional, but I am not really sure how I am meant to interpret it here.
代わりの目覚ましを探さないとな
The と is indeed conditional, think of it as an abbreviation of ~ないといけない which means “must”: if not X, then that won’t do. The second part of the grammar pattern can be omitted and will be inferred: If I don’t get a different alarm clock… [that would be bad, so I have to get a new alarm clock].
Surprisingly slow-paced and introspective story for the second chapter of a book that started with so much mystery. I really had no idea what this book was going to be about, and I’m still pleasantly surprised.
Great artwork as in the first chapter. I’m finding that I really ought to read the chapter twice. The first time I’m really focused on the language and translation, which is somewhat slow going. (Big thanks to those who are filling the vocab spreadsheet!) Then a second time to appreciate the artwork and the pacing of the story.
p.45
丑三さま
I’m pretty sure this is the protagonist’s surname. I didn’t catch it on page 9, but there it shows her full name. Is this a common Japanese surname, or could there be more meaning embedded? Jisho had en entry for 丑三つ時 (うしみつどき） meaning “dead of night”, officially between 2.00-2.30 or 3.00-3.30 AM.
Me too, but I’m doing it the other way round - during the first read I focus on the art and see how much I can understand without looking anything up and then I really should do a second round where I try to understand the text, and one of these days I’ll actually get around to doing that.
In this phone call, our cyborg girl switches from hiragana to katakana. What do you think this signifies? Is she switching languages?
huh, I interpreted the “受理シマシタ” as a reply from who-/whatever she is speaking to over the phone, for example the AI/robotic administrator for the cremation ovens. In my experience katakana is often used to give a sense of robotic/stiff speaking pattern, this combined with the font choice left no other option in my mind
cyborg girl
I’m thinking more of “just” transhuman with all the eating and sleeping, maybe some nanomachines thrown in…
At first, I thought this was similar to BLAME!: A lone operative walking the earth looking for things amidst vast derelict architecture. But after the second chapter, this feels more like a grim version of WALL•E with our protagonist having to “clean up” the remains of civilization.
Update: I even think this panel is an homage to BLAME! since the protagonist there also eats nutrient bars that pretty much look like these:
Defenitly found this chapter a lot harder to understand than first, but I think I mostly go it.
Summary
They gather up the bodies of those who die from the crystal disease and cremate what they find every month. And the facilities were initially used a lot more and were to mourn the deceased.
However, I really do not understand what is being said on page 56 and 57. I understand all the words, but feel like there is some naunce that I am not getting.
Overall, really enjoying it so far!
That is the gist of it, at a very high level. What I took from it is, following the cremation, our protagonist has some self-doubt: she feels like the people really ought to be given an individual farewell, but she cannot bear that. The robot caretaker consoles her that these kind of ceremonies change depending on the era and the circumstances, and she’s doing the best she can.
56-58
I understood all of the text on these three pages to be one long sentence. Breaking it down on quasi-translation:
For all of the people already resting here, and for all of the people who will be laid to rest here in the future…
Here’s where the おそらく comes in, to my understanding. It implies that her work is not over yet, and many more people will have to be mourned. The negative undertone on these pages (literally “Fearing…”) contrasts with the next part of the sentence on the following page, that starts with いずれにせよ.
The sentence then ends with a hopeful message: at least, if there’s an afterlife, it would be nice if they can peacefully pass their time there.
I read it as emphasising the contrast; things in this world look grim and they will likely stay that way, but hopefully these people will have a peaceful time in the afterlife.
In the middle panel on page 53, the administrator explains that the facility’s original purpose was to allow for “high efficiency” funeral services for victims of disasters. Presumably to assuage her feelings of the rites performed being too impersonal, but that would be by design.
Thank you both for the help and further explanations! I do think right now I mostly getting the gist of what is going on and is being discussed, which while fun, I could be doing better.
I am reading the book physically and I find I often lose track of details across pages and speech bubbles. How do you keep the bigger picture in your head when reading? I’ve been considering taking notes as I go.
That’s probably because you need to focus on the individual speech bubbles instead of being able to grasp what’s happening. This problem will disappear over time, but until then, either summarizing to yourself, what happened on that page after you’ve read it, or as you’ve said, taking notes should help.
Simply re-reading may be the way to go, especially when the manga isn’t very dense like in this case. The second time around you spend less time deciphering the Japanese which should improve your “big picture” comprehension.
What helped me read my first native material in Japanese (it was よつばと! ), was already knowing the content, having already read it translated so I could concentrate on deciphering the Japanese instead of also trying to keep track of the story unfolding. But be aware that a translation cannot be a 1:1 mapping from one language to another as translators (need to) take liberties to make it sound natural in the target language. Unfortunately, there is no translation published of ウスズミの果て yet as far as I know.
I second re-reading.
I read chapters twice: once at the start of the week and then at the end of the week after reading week’s discussion and some words memorization once again.
I’m trying to keep up with several book clubs but only Usuzumi I’m reading twice atm. I think it’s combination of unusual and sparse vocab and very nice art.
Ahhhhh she’s wearing a suit! I know it was on the chapter cover but I assumed it was just like when characters in manga wear random outfits on the chapter covers.
I love the setting, these big empty concrete structures are so atmospheric.
Ok, after finishing the chapter I had difficulty with some of the sections (what exactly the robot guy was saying to her about the funeral services) but the discussion cleared it up already. This pick is really cool so far!
huh, I interpreted the “受理シマシタ” as a reply from who-/whatever she is speaking to over the phone, for example the AI/robotic administrator for the cremation ovens. In my experience katakana is often used to give a sense of robotic/stiff speaking pattern, this combined with the font choice left no other option in my mind 
This pick is really cool so far!