The Vol 7 reading pace poll is up!
Let us know what pace you’d like to read the next volume at. I’ll be closing the poll in a few days!
I fell a bit behind (mostly caught up now, just short a few pages). These last few weeks I’ve found the vocabulary the most challenging. I swear I’ve looked up 候補者, 審判, 選定者, 攻撃 every time I come across them. Usually I can pick up the chapter-specific vocabulary after a few exposures, but ever since 月 showed up nothing is sinking in anymore. I’m finding it’s really slowing down things for me and making it hard for me to find that nice reading flow.
Good work catching up!
I totally agree, Sakura’s test has been really challenging! Yue has a lot to say and it includes a lot of words we haven’t heard before. And unfortunately I haven’t had the time to proactively flag difficult grammar or vocabulary in the readings.
If it helps to hear, I think the next volume should be a little easier to read, because the focus returns more to school life, which is a more familiar subject for us.
Vol 7: Week 1 is here!
We’ve successfully made it through our first reading pace increase for the club, and we’ve also officially halfway through the series!
It’s been a pleasure reading with all of you – there’s no way I would have been this consistent for over a year if we weren’t doing it together. I’ve even started to be able to casually read simple Japanese manga for fun – I’m finally getting through the volumes I bought last year on my trip to Japan!
If you’re done with Vol 6, come join us in the new thread!
Woooo!!! Halfway there!! This is awesome to hear too, zucchi - we’re all progressing together! I’ve been super MIA the last couple weeks, but like @Dimsumwitch, sat down and managed my way back up to speed. What an end to the volume 6. Excited to see what the latter half of the series has in store for us. Thanks for keeping things going week after week zucchi
Halfway already?! Wow! Thanks again @zucchi for hosting this adventure 
Some Qs on the last few pages (I believe it starts at pg 177), can you folks help out with my translation?
Tomoyo: 私まだひとつわからないことがありますの
どうして李君は月代さんには真っ赤になってケロちゃんとはあまり仲よしでなくて観月先生にむっとなって
さくらちゃんは月代さんにははにゃーんとなってケロちゃんとはあまり仲よしだったんでしょう？
There’s still one thing I don’t understand
Why did Lee get flushed around Tsukishiro-san, didn’t get along well with Kero-chan, and got angry with Midzuki-sensei
(while) Sakura was crazy about Tsukishiro-san and Midzuki-sensei, and became close friends with Kero-chan?
Midzuki-sensei: 李君の魔法は月の力をより多く使ってるから。。。月に強く反応してたのね
でもさくらちゃんの魔法は太陽の力も月の力もちょうどバランスよく溶けあってる
Li’s magic uses the moon’s power (comes from the moon?), so he had a strong reaction to Yue
But Sakura’s magic is a balance of the sun and moon’s power blended together
Kero: 小僧がねーちゃんを気にいらんかったんはクロウカードに使われとった月の力とは別の力をねーちゃんが持っとったからや
This guy didn’t like Midzuki-sensei. He was trying to collect Clow Cards with moon power, and Midzuki-sensei possess a different kind of power
[next page]
Midzuki-sensei: おまけにクロウが創った「審判者 月」が負けてまうきっかけを持っとったんやからな
クロウリードのちをひって月の力を使う者としては仲よしにはなれないわよね
(Not sure who is talking here): けどさくらにとってはねーちゃんは自分を助けてくれる人や
無意識のうちにそれを感じてはにゃーんとなっとったにゃな
Clow made this gift to give the possessor a chance to make Arbitrator Yue lose
Clow Reed did not form this person (Yue? Midzuki?) from his own blood and moon power to be a friend
But Sakura on her own identified them (Midzuki?) as a helpful person
She came to this through her own unconscious feelings
Feeling super rough with that last page :\ There’s so many nested particles in the sentences, I’m having a hard time tracking what the actual topic and subjects are in there.
Gonna do each page separately because each one is more than long enough on its own, lol.
Pg 183 (RE)
Tomoyo:
In your transcription of Tomoyo’s lines, the last one should be:
「さくらちゃんは月代さんと観月先生にははにゃーんとなってケロちゃんとも仲よしだったんでしょう？」
(Your translation of her is fine, though.)
Midzuki-sensei:
There’s a bit of extra nuance here:
より多く is “more/mostly” here (specifically, this is より (“more”) + 多く (“many”). See JLPT sensei, specifically the part about “When used before an adjective”.)
So:
“Li’s magic mostly uses the moon’s power, so he had a strong reaction to Yue,” implying that Li might also have a bit of magic coming from the sun (or elsewhere?)
Kero:
There’s three parts to this statement, broken up by two は particles.
Also, the sentence ends with から/(“because”), but you can’t really do that in English, so I’m gonna slap that at the beginning using “The reason that.”
Pt 1: “小僧がねーちゃんを気にいらんかったんは”
“(The reason that) Syaoran (that brat) didn’t like Midzuki-sensei (big sis) is that”
Pt. 2: “クロウカードに使われとった月の力とは”
クロウカードに使われとった is describing 月の力.
使われとった is kansai-ben for 使われていた, or “was used by”
So “クロウカードに使われとった月の力とは” is:
“The power of the moon used by the Clow Cards”
The とは is comparing this part to the next part, but it’s hard to translate without the full picture.
Pt. 3: “別の力をねーちゃんが持っとったからや”
“(Because) Midzuki-sensei has a different power (than the one listed before).“
As stated above I’m going to move the “から” for clarity. I’m also going to put this part before the last one for clarity.
The full statement:
“The reason that Syaoran didn’t like Midzuki-sensei is that she had a different power than the power of the moon used by the Clow Cards.”
Alright, here’s the big one!
The three parts below are regarding 184 (RE).
Statement 1
おまけにクロウが創った「審判者 月」が負けてまうきっかけを持っとったんやからな
First note:
Notice the てまう and 持っとったんや in this statement? Those are kansai-ben. The speaker is still Kero. Midzuki-sensei only speaks in the next panel, where you see the text bubble pointing directly to her face.
Anyways, this statement is really tough as an English speaker because the grammar is very not English-like, and the hints one would usually use to find the subject in a Japanese sentence are a bit misleading here.
For example, there’s a が after クロウ. Does that mean クロウ is the subject of the sentence? No.
クロウが創った is a relative clause modifying「審判者 月」. (Please see Tofugu, speficially the “noun modification” section, for more detail on relative clauses. As a quick note, you can recognize a relative clause because it’ll be what looks like a sentence ending in a plain-form verb, and it’ll come right before a noun without any particles or punctuation.)
So クロウが創った「審判者 月」 means
“Judge/Arbitrator Yue, who was created by Clow.”
クロウが創った gives us more detail about Clow, but isn’t required for the sentence to function. Let’s get rid of it for now, to make the sentence structure simpler.
That leaves us with:
おまけに「審判者 月」が負けてまうきっかけを持っとったんやからな
Look, another が, this time after 審判者 月! Is 審判者 月 the subject of the sentence?
No again. きっかけ is a noun meaning, roughly, “opportunity” or “impetus.” Another way to put it is that it’s a thing that causes another thing (but not necessarily directly – it can be more like an initial spark).
「審判者 月」が負けてまう is a “sentence” ending in a plain-form verb that comes right before きっかけ. In other words, It’s a relative clause again!
So,「審判者 月」が負けてまう きっかけ means:
“An opportunity for Judge/Arbitrator Yue to lose.”
Let’s remove the relative clause again, for clarity.
Now we’re left with:
おまけにきっかけを持っとったんやからな
…Wait, there’s no more がs! That’s right, despite there originally being two subjecty-looking things in the sentence, the actual subject isn’t listed in the sentence at all! Let’s try to find it through by translating what’s left of it.
“What’s more, it’s because X held the opportunity.“
…Okay, it’s actually really hard to tell what this means without more context. Let’s finally bring back those relative clauses.
おまけにクロウが創った「審判者 月」が負けてまうきっかけを持っとったんやからな means, roughly:
“What’s more, it’s because X held the opportunity for Judge Yue, who was created by Clow, to lose.“
Though as I mentioned earlier, きっかけ doesn’t only mean “opportunity,” but a “thing that causes another thing.” You could translate as “spark,” or “impetus” or something, but I think it’s easier to understand if I translate this more plainly:
“What’s more, it’s because X held the thing that could cause Judge Yue to lose.”
Now we’ve got something to work with. Kero says this right after he says, “The reason that Syaoran didn’t like Midzuki-sensei is that she had a different power than the power of the moon used by the Clow Cards.”
So Kero is giving an additional reason that Syaoran didn’t like Midzuki-sensei. Also, look at the picture below the text bubble on the page. It shows the magical bell Midzuki-sensei gave to Sakura to transform her staff – that’s the thing that allowed Sakura to defeat Judge Yue. So with all this context, we know who X is – it’s Midzuki-sensei!
Anyways, here’s Kero’s words from the end of page 183 and the beginning of page 184, together (I’ve added lots of detail to the second statement just for clarity):
Kero: “The reason that Syaoran didn’t like Midzuki-sensei is that she had a different power than the power of the moon used by the Clow Cards.
Kero: “What’s more, he also didn’t like her because she had the bell which led to Judge Yue’s defeat.”
Statement 2
クロウリードの血をひいて月の力を使う者としては仲よしにはなれないわよね
As is obvious by the text bubble pointing to her face, this statement is made by Midzuki-sensei.
Anyways, notice something about the grammar of this statement?
Surprise! It’s another relative clause!
This time it’s
クロウリードのちをひいて月の力を使う, modifying 者.
Also, this relative clause has two portions to it. The て on ひいて acts kind of like “and” here.
One more tricky thing here is that 血 here doesn’t seem to refer to literal, physical blood.
Rather, 血を引(ひ)く means “to be descended from” (lit. to pull the blood (of)”).
So クロウリードのちをひいて月の力を使う者 is:
“person who is descended from Clow Reed, and uses the power of the moon”
In this context, the “person” is Syaoran, who we know is descended from Clow Reed and who we just established uses the power of the moon. This is also clear because Midzuki-sensei is shown directly talking to Syaoran in the panel.
After that,
として is “as”, and は is the topic marker.
Finally, 仲よしにはなれないわよね means
“cannot become friends/be friendly (with Midzuki-sensei, since we were just talking about how Syaoran doesn’t like her).”
The よね at the end is a friendly way to ask for confirmation. Here, you could translate it as “hmm?”
So the whole thing is:
Midzuki-sensei: “As a person descended from Clow Reed, and who uses the power of the moon, you can’t become friends with me, hmm?”
Statement 3 + 4 (by mystery speaker)
けどさくらにとってはねーちゃんは自分を助けてくれる人や
無意識のうちにそれを感じてはにゃーんとなっとったにゃな
These are by the same speaker, so I’m gonna put them together.
How can we identify who they are?
This speaker refers to Sakura as さくら, with no honorifics.
They refer to Midzuki-sensei as ねーちゃん.
They use kansai-ben.
With these things together, we can determine the speaker is Kero.
Now let’s get to the actual translation.
Statement 3: けどさくらにとってはねーちゃんは自分を助けてくれる人や
けどさくらにとって is:
“But, concerning Sakura”
ねーちゃんは is:
“Midzuki-sensei (big sis) is”
自分を助けてくれる人や
This has another relative clause! Here, 自分を助けてくれる modifies 人. But this one’s not to bad because it comes at the end of the statement. It means:
“A person who will help her.”
So Statement 3 is:
“But for Sakura (in contrast to Syaoran), Midzuki-sensei is a person who helps her.”
Statement 4: 無意識のうちにそれを感じてはにゃーんとなっとったにゃな
無意識のうちに is:
“Unconsciously”
それを感じて is:
“feeling that,”
はにゃーんとなっとったにゃな is:
she became “hanya-n”!
“Unconsciously feeling that, she got all “hanya-n!”
We’ve discussed “hanya-n!” in the club a few times, so I’m just gonna gloss over that.
Statement 3 + 4
Let’s put this section of Kero’s speech together. (I’m gonna take some liberties for the sake of clarity.)
“But for Sakura, Midzuki-sensei is someone helpful to her.”
“Since she understood that unconsciously, Midzuki-sensei made her get super flustered.”
Whoof, that took a long time! But I definitely understand all that better than I did before doing the breakdowns, so I’m glad I did it.
I hope you enjoyed this journey into relative clause hell fun exploration of Japanese grammar!
Wow, those are huge analyzes 
I read through the first few but I’m gonna have to take some more time to really dig into them and fully digest them. Just wanted to say a huge thanks for taking the time to break those down and provide some links for further reading! 
I really appreciate that you took time out of your day to put those responses together