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Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
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.
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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.
How was Kero’s Osaka-ben this week?
Do you like any of the newly introduced characters?
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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”]).
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For the Bookwalker version of this manga, the page numbers in the panels and the page number in the UI are always 2 apart. If you subtract 2 from the UI page number, this will give you the accurate page number!
Proper Nouns
Name
Reading
Image
Notes
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
ケルベロス ケロ
ケルベロス
Sakura’s companion
Discussion Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
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Gone is the archaic spellcasting dialogue, and this week we instead get a round of character introductions. More text, but hopefully more manageable text at that.
Dialect Guide
We get our first taste of Kero’s Osaka ben this week. Osaka-ben along with Kyoto-ben and a number of related nearby dialects are together known as Kansai-ben which is the most common dialect you’ll see in media. It’s often associated with characters from Kansai obviously, but also rougher or comic characters, so here’s some substitutions:
ちゃう (N4) - to do completely and/or accidentally e.g. 遅刻しちゃう “I’m completely/totally late!”. ちゃう is the casual form, there’s also てしまう which is the standard form
hooray, new week! i’m excited kero speaks osaka-ben – i’ve been watching The Makanai and when I saw ええ i was like oo is that what i think it is
I started on the first page already, so I do have a question!
last line on first page, question + attempt at translation
The furigana here that says え, does that mean what kero actually said was "えええになるわ”? i’m not sure why 画面 would have え as furigana? i know 絵 is え, is it related to that? or is it a casual/regional way of saying it?
also, the meaning of “ええ画面” here – the direct translation is “good image” but i assume it means here “looks good on the screen”?
my attempt at a literal translation: “Truly, since the model is good, it makes for a good image”
my attempt at a figurative translation: Wow, since I’m such a good model, I look great on the TV!"
This week was fairly simple, I’ve read it in one go, I got something like 90%. I’ll try writing down my complete translation later.
I notice that when speaking to us, Sakura uses a somewhat strong よ ending. While when speaking to her brother, she uses what I believe to be a more childish tone when protesting with -ないもん. Am I correct or is this something else ?
My understanding was that he’s saying ええ絵, (which can also be written as ええ画), as a pun (えええ). The kanji clarifies what he actually meant.
Kinda like in the first week, what Sakura said was written as English furigana (レリーズ - release) while the actual meaning was given in kanji 封印解除 (ふういんかいじょ)
Not related to this week’s reading, but this explained so much for me! I’ve been reading 100日後に死ぬワニ on the side, and ワニくん frequently end his sentences in -ちゃお, which I now assume is a cutesy/friendly way of saying the same. Thank you!
Back to topic. There was a particular font for this week that caught my eye - not sure what page it’s on for various versions so I’ll put the text below:
Not really any plot in here, but I'm extra careful with spoilers:
それは話せば長いのよ
It’s my first time seeing something like this - is this a creative stylistic choice? The circles in は, ば, and よ are totally against stroke format/order and feels very illegal, lol.
I’ve seen this in a few manga, and it’s nearly always in large (often drawn in outline) text. I’ve been reading it as basically the Japanese equivalent of Impact font.
I relied a little too heavily on other’s translations last week so this time I’m trying to write my own translations (even if they’re wrong). I tried skipping past かって The first time I saw it, but seeing it again on the third page of the reading tells me I need some help. I thought maybe it was the て form of 買う at first just without the kanji, but it doesn’t feel like that makes sense contextually? Would really appreciate some help with this. Talking about なにかって and 映画かって on second and third pages of the reading.
I think in both cases it’s just か, followed by って. However, it’s not the same use of か or the same use of って in those two examples, I think.
Page 16
さっきのビデオなにかって？
Something about that video just now?
Sakura remembers that there was something she should do about the video she had just been thinking about, the next panel indicates that something was to return it to Tomoyo).
So for this one, the か is part of なにか (“something”), then the って is basically a casual version of は. This is a N3 usage, but it’s everywhere in manga.
Page 17
映画かって？
In this case, か is adding uncertainty about the 映画, and the って is the casual quoting particle, basically like と。
So basically this line is
“Movie?”, you say?
Since Japanese is a pretty context dependent language, we’re left to fill in that she’s projecting on us, the reader, the idea of asking “was that a movie?” for the stuff we read in week 1.
This is super helpful, thanks so much. I’m only on chapter 10 of Genki so this is obviously way above my pay grade. I’ll try to keep both these uses of って in mind moving forward
Only two pages in before calling it a night. Hidden the phrases I’ve had difficult with under the details
Page 14
うみゆう - just some non-specific waking up mumbling noises?
Page 15
返さなきゃ - I don’t get the conjugation here. Context makes me think Sakura is saying “I have to return this to 知世 today”, but the -なぎゃ seems to be a negative verb ending?
One common form of sentence used in Japanese is, “If I don’t do ____, it is bad” (ending in いけない, ならない, or だめ).
The “it is bad” portion can be left off, resulting in, “If I don’t do ____…” with the implication that it will be bad to do ____.
Since it would be bad to not to the thing, this grammar is often simply taught to learners as meaning “I must do _____” (which obscures the underlying grammar).
Hnnnnnn… that sound…
I’m Kinomoto Sakura, fourth year student at Tomoeda Elementary School.
Good morning Sakura !
Good morning… Still watching that video ?
Here ! This face ! Surely, when the model is good, the image/screen/shot becomes good. Classy, good looking, handsome.
Page 15
Classes I like are music and PE. The class I dislike is math.
Above, I’m a girl whose main thing is being energetic. I’m sticking to literal translation, so this does not sound too good in english.
Eh ? What was that video from earlier, you ask ?
Ah, right.
About this.
STOP
EJECT
What did you doooooo ??! But it was about to be the best moment ! I’m translating のに as ‘but’ here. Also, I think とこ is short for ところ meaning “about to” here.
The most good-looking face !
I have to to return it to Tomoyo-chan today
Page 16
This video was shot [for me] by my best friend and classmate, Daitouji Tomoyo-chan. Sakura then use sentence ender ものなんだけど which is mixing a cute explanatory もの, and then a vague なんだ followed by an open-ended けど. I think she’s basically expecting us to ask her again about the content of the video.
Eh ? You say it’s a movie ? That’s wrong.
This is an absolutely real thing. This time she uses よ. She clearly switched gear now that she’s talking about her battle giant critters using her magic powers
What is that plushy that’s throwing a tantrum ? 暴れる mean to act violently; to rage; to struggle, but that all sound a bit too strong here. Maybe she exaggerating, to tease him
I’m Cerebus ! わい is just a particle that appears to go anywere in the sentence, I think. Similar to ねん in kansai ben ? EDIT: nope it’s actually a first person pronoun in Kansai ben
This kid is Cero-chan !
This is taking a while to type this while looking at the physical book… I need to run, I’ll finish this later.
Like everyone else I had a lot of fun with the Kansai-ben - my favorite was Kero saying おそよ- on page 14 which I guess is a mixture of おはよう and 遅い according to the internet, to mean “good (late) morning”
These chapters have been really good for me improving my knowledge of filler/transition words (やっぱ, とりあえず, さっきの, あれはね, やのに, なんだけど). Not something I’ve seen covered in a lot of Japanese lessons.
The handwritten text was hard to read (on page 17-18) but I think I was just thrown by how they write は
On page 20 I could not parse the repeated もいるし (when Sakura is talking about her family. I just don’t know if it’s a verb or adjective or what even. Any help here is appreciated.
This week’s reading was a lot more satisfying. I actually could understand a lot I at first had problems with after putting effort into it in contrast to last week where I really got nowhere and had to rely on everyone’s translations here.
Also thank you for all the explanations in this thread. I had so many questions about Kero’s way of speaking. And also Sakura’s sentence enders…
So here are the questions I’ve left after reading through the thread
Bookwalker page numbers
Page 17
何すんねん！
Does that mean 何する？ as in “what are you doind?”
いっちゃんええとこやのに！
I don’t understand the grammar combination at the end of that part. やのに what’s the meaning of this?
Page18
Is that なん a casual variation of の as explained somewhere in this thread? And if so what is it refering to in the sentence?
Page 20
んだな
I guess んだ is just indicating the usual explanatory sentence ender? What’s that な thoigh?
Page 20 again
じゃないもん
Is that もん just a cutesy way of speaking by Sakura? Someone herr previously mentioned it shortly. I’d love if any of you guys confirm that this is indeed the case in the part that I’m quoting and that I understood that usage correctly
Card Captor Sakura Book Club!
