Chapter 10
Kensuke. You were expecting something else?
Though there is a translator’s note at the end saying “ken is the word for sword, and suke is a common ending for boys’ names”.
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I was hoping for a contrived English pun. Sad.
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However usually, the ingredients and way of preparing them are close enough to real-world analogs to make some sense. But the way they make jam from bugs in this chapter is kind of an outlier, or does something similar really exist?
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They seem to treat the bugs like berries. Raios even comments that they’re sweet I think.
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Yes the author is probably appealing to their appearance - glittering and colorful - rather than what they actually are.
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Chapter 10
What’s up with the dog person though.
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禁止魔法
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Chapter 10 / minor worldbuilding detail
They’ll say it at some point if it hasn’t come up already, but it’s not exactly a spoiler, so might as well say that that would be a kobold.
They say kobolds tend to look like dog people in Japan when they might look differently elsewhere.
Specifically the Famicom edition of Wizardry has them look like this:
Wizardry is one of the (if not the) most direct influences on the series (Kui talks about watching her dad play it on the Famicom as a kid in a Famitsu article about her video game habits and influences), so it makes some sense they’d be there looking like that (and I get the impression she probably found them fun to draw…).
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Chapter 11
Start Date: 2024-12-12T15:00:00Z
ソルベ it is then:
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適当 appears a bunch this chapter.
One day I’ll understand what it means…
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I’d say the usage here is a pretty good laboratory to internalize the double-meaning, for what it’s worth!
A dictionary on weblio has for 適当:
１ ある条件・目的・要求などに、うまくあてはまること。かなっていること。ふさわしいこと。また、そのさま。「工場の建設に—な土地」「この仕事に—する人材」
２ 程度などが、ほどよいこと。また、そのさま。「調味料を—に加える」「一日の—な仕事量」
３ やり方などが、いいかげんであること。また、そのさま。悪い意味で用いられる。「客を—にあしらう」「—な返事でごまかす」
Laios uses it in this chapter primarily in the 1st meaning to point out that Falin’s magic was more appropriate to this kind of situation than Marcille’s… (Marcille’s magic is good too but too extreme / too poorly suited for this situation)
… and Marcille takes offense on behalf of Falin because of the 3rd meaning: to say Falin’s magic was 適当 is also to suggest that it was perfunctory - nothing special. When a lesson of the chapter is pretty much to appreciate Falin’s contributions more - her magic wasn’t something to take for granted.
It’s sort of like if the third bed in Goldilocks and the three bears was just a humdrum normal bed (which it arguably is even if not described that way). In a positive sense it’s just right for the situation (because the other beds are ridiculously the wrong size), but in a negative sense it’s nothing exciting / there’s no extra effort put in (because it’s just a regular bed).
(just a 勝手に explanation after flipping through to refresh my memory since it was interesting; sorry if unnecessary or misleading)
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You can 適当にわかる for the most part
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Thank you. That’s helpful. I guess maybe a somewhat related expression in English is “good enough”. It’s fit for purpose but it’s also a bit dismissive.
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p92
There I would say that it’s roughly like, “That’s totally haphazard right??” / “It seems like you’re completely winging it!” / “You’re really half-assing it aren’t you!” / “Aren’t you relying an awful lot on it being an ‘inexact science’???” that kind of a complaint (to give too many similar options).
Chilchuck here is ツッコミ’ing (underlying the gag by retorting to it) the joke in this panel that Senshi is using sugar “resembling salt” as a tenuous reason to add a lot of it to what he’s cooking since it might help with the ghosts (and presumably because it would taste better, even though they aren’t really making this for consumption at this point).
Senshi, of course characteristically, is being distracted by cooking and not so much focusing on the more important goal of dealing with the ghosts - he’s focusing on the cooking but being 適当 about the magic effect, like roughly “and sugar’s like salt so we might as well put some in too, and I’ll put in a lot since it seems like its effect isn’t major.” Rather than like an authoritative exact recipe that will get the job done perfectly.
Whereas Chilchuck equally characteristically is pointing that out from a practical perspective - Senshi’s logic is flimsy and he’s being loose with the ingredients so it seems like this plan might not work.
So it’s a very similar gag to that one about cooking with the medicinal plants that have topical effects I remember describing a while back. For Senshi, (seemingly unconsciously or unavoidably) taste and nutrition always end up a priority in addition to any other purpose of the food. (It seems like it tends to work out anyway though so perhaps Chilchuck should embrace the 適当 in this case).
Looking at what you had - I would say the key thing I would suggest is that 適当 as an insult can never mean “You’re overdoing it!” because 適当 is the bare minimum right amount. The emphasis in めちゃくちゃ適当 is underlying the ‘bare minimum’ aspect, in contrast to what a great job for the task would be. 適当 as an insult is more like “phoning it in”, or not putting in enough care, not making sure that you’re getting something properly right because you’re aiming for the bare minimum. Chilchuck’s not complaining that Senshi put in too much sugar, he’s complaining that Senshi is being so casual about adding it.
I hope that makes some sense!
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Ok I see. I understood the joke broadly (senshi disserting about how various cultures ward evil spirits while obviously using it as an excuse to cook a tasty dessert) but this particular usage of 適当 is still a bit elusive for me…
I guess I should probably remember it as “enough to meet expectations but not more”.
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One tip to maybe help is that with that “enough to meet expectations but not more” gloss, a lot of the time (especially when meant negatively and unless talking about a specific amount of something) the thing that’s “enough” is like, the effort/care put in.
Most of the time in society you’re supposed to be putting in an extra amount of effort and care - doing your best is assumed to be a good thing. So that’s why just enough is often meant negatively and ends up meaning like “rough/haphazard” and like the opposite of “perfectionist”.
Sort of like “gets the job done” - you could say “Hey, it gets the job done!” to positively point out that you can stop putting in effort and care and move on since that task is done, or you could say “Well, it gets the job done…” to mean that you begrudgingly accept it even though it sucks and is terrible and needed a lot more attention. Or neutrally you could say “I think candidate A will get the job done” just to say something’s suitable for a task.
(I suppose the difference being that 適当 can apply to one’s approach to a task too.)
But I’m probably just piling on words! Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll internalize it more and more over time!
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Thank you very much for these thorough explanations, they are appreciated!
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Chapter 11 story comments
Nice to “see” Falin a bit! (even though they maybe ate her ghost (if I understood that right))
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They didn’t, don’t worry. I believe the mechanics are more like ghost’s touch traps you in a nightmare of fear and regret, but they’re not the ghosts of whatever forms they take, they’re just some random ghost
Also either way they didn’t eat any ghosts, they just used them as instant-cryo freezers
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Thank you for explaining dungeon-monster-food basics 
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