You know, I thought it was weird that the series starts when Sakura already has some of the cards, but just imagine if we started at the very beginning and it took another two volumes to get to this point 
Week 3: Chap 25 Pt 2
The test has begun…! Let’s cheer Sakura on!
Check out the home post for details on the week’s reading.
Happy discussing!
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It would have been nice to at least see her get the first card.
Question from last week.
OG Page 104
ケロちゃん (if I can call him that now) says (at the bottom of the page):
“月とつるんどったちゅうことか?” Is the verb here つるむ, to hang out with? And I see ちゅうこと as って言うこと meaning “that means”. So “Does that mean you’ve been handing around with Yue?” That would fit with what 観月先生 says on the next page, but I don’t have a lot of confidence.
OG Page 104 = Refurbishment Page 107
I think he might qualify for ケロくん, but if you want to make him feel at home, ケロはん is acceptable.
Kind of.
You won’t see this in dictionaries, but 連む can be used to mean conspiring or collaborating (usually used in a negative sense).
I believe Kero is suggesting Mizuki was conspiring with Yue, possibly suggesting they’ve been working together in the background.
We can “translate” どった to だった and ちゅうことか to ってことか:
This gives us:
「月とつるんだったってことか?」
And from there you can expand って to と言う:
「月とつるんだったと言うことか?」
Thank you as always for your explanations! 
Still about 5-6 pages away from finishing this week’s reading. Sooo much dense lore and exposition, I’m finding it a real struggle to get through it and understand everything 
will probably need to review this one a few times
It is dense for sure. But you’re near the end, and some of those last pages are lighter!
Don’t forget it’s only Sunday. You’re doing great!
Wow, so I fell waayyy behind this summer, thanks to having to move… But I’m settled into my new home, and thanks to the 24-hour autumn readathon (I somehow read 75% of V5 and 75% of V6 in single day… 
), I’ve managed to catch up! やった! And just in time to see the manga version of one of my two favorite parts of the anime - yay! 
That said, I’m really struggling with understanding page 123 (RE)…
Top Right Panel
さくらとは違うがかなり強い力や!
I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be saying (loosely) “Touya’s power is different from Sakura’s but very strong”, rather than “Unlike Sakura, Touya has a considerable amount of power”, but I’m having trouble figuring out why exactly… Does anyone else know how to break to this down?
Bottom panel
Are Li and Tomoyo suggesting that Touya also opened the book, and that’s why (they think) Yue, as Yukito, became his friend? Because I’ve re-read this panel at least 10 times and I’m still confused…
Congratulations on settling into your new home, and on catching up! We’re glad to have you back!
Top Right Panel
さくらとは違う
“(It) is different from Sakura’s”
が
“But”
かなり強い力や
“(Touya’s is) a relatively strong power”
If Kero wanted to say Touya’s power was strong, unlike Sakura’s, the が wouldn’t be there.
I’m honestly not confident about the bottom panel, there’s a lot going on there and it seems to tie into the earlier panels as well! I might take another look at it later in the week as I’m a bit sick right now.
Thanks, so the が is functioning as a ‘but’ in that sentence? I’ve been neglecting my grammar study for months now, so I guess I was forgetting that was one of it’s possible functions…
Oh no - I hope you feel better soon!
Let me try the bottom panel, because I think I know what’s going on. Corrections welcome
RE 123 bottom panel
First Li says “あいつが本を開けたのも!?” The key word is あいつ which is a derogatory pronoun. I don’t think Li would use that word to refer to Yukito. In fact, I think the only person he’s referred to like that is Sakura. I think Li has just realized that Sakura is the one who opened the book to let the cards out (from what Kero is saying, though I’m not sure about that; Kero doesn’t seem to specifically say that). So “She’s the one who opened the book!?”
Then in 月城さんが本を開いたさくらちゃんのお兄さまのお友だちをだったのも…!, I think that the 本を開いた part is modifying さくらちゃん. If so, it’s complicated to render into English, but something like “Mr Tsukishiro even became friends with the older brother of Sakura; she is the one who opened the book”. (It’s hard to make it clear Sakura opened the book in the same was Japanese has it.)
Thanks! 
RE 123 bottom panel
Huh, that’s an interesting thought. I figured the あいつ was referring to Touya, since it makes sense for Li to be disrespectful towards him - they clearly don’t like each other much. But I don’t remember if he’s ever actually referred to Touya that way before, and he has used it for Sakura… But that would mean that Li didn’t realize up til this point that Sakura opened the book, which I was assuming he did… Hmm.
In Tomoyo’s line, I did wonder if that 本を開いた was modifying さくらちゃん, but the list of の’s after that was throwing me off…
Phew, all the stuff to handle with my new has not left me much time and energy. Feels like I’ll fall behind a bit 
Thanks for the well wishes – I’ve been spending the week resting at home!
So, the reason I didn’t have the juice to look at that last panel earlier is that it ties heavily into the panels before, meaning you have to translate the whole page, and even the page before to really understand it, lol. There’s also some Grammar Stuff going on in them.
Let’s start with page 122.
RE Page 122
Tomoyo: 雪兎さんが…クロウカードの関係者だったなんて…
“Yukito-san was… related to the Clow Cards…”
Li: 力の気配なんかまったく感じなかった
“Somehow I completely didn’t feel any power from him!”
あいつの兄貴のほうがよっぽど…！
Literal: “That guy’s brother was more by far…!”
In context, likely: “I felt much more power from her brother…!”
(Note the use of あいつ here, obviously referring to Sakura. Because of this and other context, I’m confident Li is referring to Sakura when he says あいつ again later.)
That page gives us context for page 123 (and 124):
RE Page 123-124
PANEL 1
Kero: せやから月は桃矢にーちゃんの友だちとして始終そばにおったんや
“That’s why Yue was Touya’s friend, and always by his side.”
Kero: 桃矢にーちゃんには力がある
“Touya has power.”
Kero: さくらとは違うがかなり強い力や!
“It’s different from Sakura’s, but quite strong!”
PANEL 2
Kero: わいがこの町きてだれかが本開けるの待っとったように
“Just like how I came to this town and waited for someone to open the book,”
Kero: 月もこの町でそのとき一番力が強いもんのそばで
“Yue also, at that time, in this town, by the side of the one with the most power,”
Kero: わいが選んだ次のクロウカードの主候補が
“(waited for) the one I chose as the next candidate to hold the clow cards”
Kero: カード封印し終わるのを待っとったんや！
“To finish sealing the cards!”
(The “waited for” only appears at the end of the sentence but it’s impossible to translate that way in English.)
Kero’s statement in panel 2 is very difficult, but it’s critical to understand the bottom panel.
Let’s look again at the last part of that sentence:
…カード封印し終わるのを待っとったんや
“…waited for (her) to finish sealing the cards.”
Notice that の there? Why is that there?
In this sentence, it’s what we call a nominalizer.
カード封印し終わる is not a noun, it’s a clause. In Japanese, clauses cannot be the objects of verbs. So you add の to the end to make it a noun. (Sorry, I couldn’t think of a good way to explain this that didn’t involve specific grammar terminology.)
Now, let’s look at Li and Tomoyo’s statements.
Li: じゃあいつがほんをあけたのも?!
That first part is pretty simple: “Then, she opened the book?!”
But what’s that のも?
の turns the previous clause into a noun, just like in Kero’s sentence. There are various ways to do this, but I think the easiest way here is to say “the fact that…”
も means “also.”
So this is “Then, the fact she opened the book is also?!”
As for Tomoyo’s statement, it’s:
月城さんがほんを開いたさくらちゃんのお兄さまのお友だちだったのも
Or “The fact Tsukishiro-san was the friend of the brother of Sakura-chan who opened the book is also?!” (lol this sounds terrible if you translate it literally.)
The fact is also… what?
Well, Kero was just talking about how Yue was Touya’s friend because he was waiting for the cards to be sealed, and Touya was the person with the most power (I guess Yue chooses the person with the most power because they can hide his magical presence?).
So, Li and Tomoyo can’t help but wonder, is the fact Sakura opened the book also related? After all, a person so closely related to the Clow Cards was her brother’s friend. Maybe he influenced her into opening the book or something?!
While Li and Tomoyo don’t spell those things out directly, this interpretation of those statements is supported by Kero’s response on the next page:
いや、それは偶然や!
“No, it’s a coincidence!”
In other words:
Even though Yue stayed by the side of the person with the most power while waiting for the cards to be sealed, the fact that that person’s sister ended up being the one to unseal the cards was a coincidence.
Kero even explains later on page 124 that Yue didn’t even know Sakura was collecting the cards. After all, Yue was “sleeping” – Tsukishiro had no idea he was Yue, and wouldn’t have had any knowledge of the Clow Cards at all.
Hope you’re feeling better, and thanks so much for the thorough breakdown! Lots to absorb here… I think I’m going to need to re-read both the pages in the manga and your breakdown multiple times to make sure it really clicks. (And clearly, I need to get back to my grammar studies!)
Thank you for this breakdown!! I did end up powering through the rest of the chapter before returning to this thread, and things started to make more sense to me by the end (thank you Sakura for re-explaining things in a way that kids can understand!). I caught most of the things in your breakdown but I did think they were talking about Touya the whole way through. Ie I thought the kids thought Touya opened the book, and Kero was telling them he didn’t/it’s all a coincidence . Not the biggest misunderstanding but still changes the meaning quite a bit!
It’s been great having you back, but if you need to slow down a bit that’s okay too!
Week 5: Chap 26 Pt 1
Time to start the final chapter of the volume! Will Sakura pass the test…?
(Almost forgot to post this week, oops!)
Check out the home post for details on the week’s reading.
Happy discussing!
Participation Poll:
- I’m reading along
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Week 6: Chap 26 Pt 2
And here it is…! The final week! Sakura has received a gift…let’s see what she can do with it!
It was quiet last week, eh? But it was actually a pretty tough section! As a reminder, you’re welcome to go back and ask questions about previous weeks’ readings if you need to.
I’ll be putting up the reading poll soon. It’s time to consider how you’ve felt about the increased pace for this volume – did it feel right to you? Do you want to return to our original pace, or do you want to read even faster? Whatever we choose, I’m grateful that you’re still reading with us!
Check out the home post for details on the week’s reading.
Happy discussing!
Participation Poll:
- I’m reading along
- I’ve already read this part
- I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this section yet
- I’m reading this after the book club has finished
0
voters