This is the main thread for reading the manga along with the Absolute Beginner Book Club here on the forums. If you have a bit of experience with Japanese, but you are still easing into reading, then this would be a good place to start! If you have questions about whether or not you think you’re ready, feel free to ask them here, or in the ABBC main thread, but also please check out @ChristopherFritz’s guide for joining the Absolute beginner book club.
Page Numbers are based on printed page numbers in the Bookwalker edition. They should match the “refurbished”/hardcover editions. Other editions (in particular, anniversary or soft cover editions) will have different page numbers. The menu in the bookwalker app (and most e-readers) will be show a page number 2 higher than the actual page number, due to treating the covers as pages.
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Proper Nouns
Name
Reading
Image
Notes
Main Characters
木之本桜
きのもと さくら
Main character
大道寺知世
だいどうじ ともよ
Sakura’s cousin and best friend
木之本桃矢
きのもと とうや
Sakura’s Older Brother
月城雪兎
つきしろ ゆきと
Sakura’s Older Brother’s Best Friend
ケルベロス ケロ
ケルベロス
Sakura’s companion, the beast of the seal
Locations
友枝
ともえだ
Sakura’s Neighbourhood (and school)
Resources
Membership
Will you be reading with us?
Yes
Yes, but I might start late
Maybe
No
0voters
Which version will you be reading?
eBook
Paperback
Hardcover
0voters
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to be notified when weekly threads get posted!
i feel like i should point out for those in the us that want physical copies kinokunya also has a US page, Kinokuniya US, where you can order the japanese versions of books from…as well as japanese textbooks themselves, its where i ordered my genki and japanese from zero books from
Page Numbers are based on the numbers which appear in my Bookwalker digital copy, which are 2 lower than the page numbers reported in the Bookwalker app. This is a 90s manga, so there have been a few editions, so page numbers on your copy may vary. I’ll include the last panel and last line of dialogue on each weekly thread when we split chapters.
Also my edition at least places the chapter title card (along with a brief featured character bio) pretty randomly mid-chapter, so don’t mistake them for the chapter boundaries.
So the breakdown of the book is as follows:
(Pages hand counted, “with text” means at least one, non-sfx, dialogue box)
Looking forward to this! Definitely past the target audience as I’m reading along with the IMC, but I read all of the Clear Card Arc in Japanese, so now this is reason to revisit the original in Japanese.
For anyone reading the Nakayoshi 60th Anniversary edition, your volume will have 7 chapters whereas other releases have 5 chapters. Incentive for an offshoot club?
I’m reading digital, but I did buy the physical set a few years back with the intent to read it eventually:
It was almost perfectly going in one direction, but then week 8 had to come along and ruin everything
Apart from that fatal flaw the schedule looks good. 13 weeks seems appropriate for 196 pages at L20, and looking at the chapter lengths I don’t see any way to make less weeks without crossing chapters anyway.
The only thing I’m wondering about is if the first week should be even shorter. Something like 8 10 12 12 for the first 4 weeks maybe, if there are decent enough points to split like that?
I’ve noticed those coloured pages are B&W on mine, so they’re just another regular page. That’s why the number of the pages get more and more far from each other as you get close to the end. I guess at your version, a coloured page equals to two/three pages.
pg 7-13: cold open (note pages 7 and 13 are sfx only, so this is only 5 pages of actual text, otherwise it would be a good stopping point for week 1)
pg 14-20: Sakura’s family + kero intros
pg 20-24: Sakura goes to school
pg 25-26: Tomoyo introduction
pg 27-33: backstory (this is likely to be the hard part for our newbies)
pg 34-40: transformation sequence (very text light)
pg 40-44: Tomoyo and Sakura’s relationship
pg 45-49: PE lesson
pg 50-52: Inter chapter art
The latter part actually fits the story well to the schedule, but the first part isn’t so well fitted. Unfortunately, without a 5th week for chapter 1 (making the first 3 weeks 7-13, 14-20, 21-26), I don’t see a better fit. If people are willing to go to 14 weeks for a smoother intro, we can do that, but the feedback I got on my last two book club schedules was the schedule I was proposing was too slow, so I didn’t.
I checked out the pages in question (it’s free to read until Sunday here) and wow, that’s a lot of text per page after page 13. I think adding a 5th week to chapter 1 with your proposed 3 first weeks sounds great. Not just to relax the week 1, but also to relax weeks 2 and 3 which really need it, I think.
So if you’d rather go with a 14 week schedule, I’d say: Go for it!
Card Captor Sakura Book Club!
Is just so cute.