ルーパーズ ♾ Chapter 7 (Visual Novel Book Club)

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Current chapter start date: August 26, 2022
Home thread: ルーパーズ ♾ (Visual Novel Book Club) // Currently Reading!

Loopers

Previous part: Week 6

Next part: Week 8

We’re reading ルーパーズ as part of the Visual Novel Book Club!

As of the time of posting this, reading is scheduled for 1 chapter per week. But feel free to jump in and ask questions or give your thoughts later! There are always people watching these threads :eyes:

Pace

The current chapter can be seen in the menu, and you’re encouraged to keep an eye on that if you wish to read at the club’s official pace! To make this easier, the following image also marks the end of the chapter. While the image may not necessarily be a meaningful spoiler, it’s collapsed by default as there’s no reason to immediately display the images to anyone who crosses through this thread. 用心するに越したことはない

Chapter End Image

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Discussion Guidelines

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, do your best to provide context. Pasted text, screenshots, descriptions, etc. Unlike book clubs we can’t flip to relevant pages, so we may need a little help identifying exactly what is being discussed.
  • Feel totally at ease to ask questions or give your thoughts, any time! Clubs live and die by participation, and asking whatever question you have, no matter how silly it may seem, helps others who are reading it and even the answerer themselves.
  • Have fun, and do your best to interpret anything said with as much good faith as possible :slightly_smiling_face:

Participants

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading but haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m no longer reading

0 voters

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Hope everyone’s enjoying their reading! I’ll leave my thoughts for later, though I’m liking this chapter, other than it definitely needing the usual volume warning haha. Bit of a busy day for me today, just wanted to check in and say I read ~3600 characters and the chapter is not over yet. Most have been longer so no real surprise there. If no one else has done it, I’ll hopefully be able to get the character count tomorrow (though that’s also a day with limited time for me so no promises :crossed_fingers:).

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Oof, I haven’t read the chapter, but I did a quick click through and got just under 10k characters. I guess we’re making up for the shorter ones earlier. There’s multiple transition screens too, so I seriously thought I was going nuts for a bit there.

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Welp, I’ve been clearing my log recently because I keep switching between a few VNs and of course I just immediately hit that button by reflex (and also didn’t remember in time to undo because I’m super scatterbrained haha), so thank you so much for this! I could add but knowing me I’ll delete it again. I’ll go add 10,000 to the list.

I should’ve expected I’d end up spending all of my free time on Splatoon Splatfest premiere anyway so I probably won’t finish reading today either :sweat_smile:

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Done, quite the long chapter!

Spoilers!

For better or worse, the length of visual novels really allows for drawing out the time spent hanging out with the characters and just kinda vibing. This VN is still on the relatively short end compared to most, but that was how I felt about タイラ time in this chapter. A break from the action to just feel the characters out for a bit.

It’s interesting how we have a half answer about レオナ and 探し女. For the former, it makes me wonder if it’s a future occurrence. Perhaps レオナ is going to wake up before the end somehow and be in that sort of frenzied, loss of self-control state? I guess since she always resets to getting a headbutt it could’ve been a former loop where she went off once or twice, since it doesn’t matter in the end, but the degree to which creepy レオナ seems unhinged makes me wonder about those people who lose themselves. 探し女 could be something from the past, but it also adds an interesting way for someone to be potentially correct amid our theories that she might be a character we already know :eyes:

I figure 胡蝶の夢 is a Daoism reference to the Zhuangzi (great read by the way), so that was really cool to spot!

Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

I don’t think this game’s gonna dig deep into this stuff but we do hit on attitudes about how much harming others is bad when they’re guaranteed to not hold onto that memory. Not exactly a deep question cause it’s certainly bad, heh. But they do gloss over that hard, at least for now. I mean, タイラ’s antics seem to just be a little joke while he gets that out of his system, but that time he died must’ve been pretty traumatic for those watching him, for one day. Goes to show what tone and presentation does when ultimately that didn’t make me half as uncomfortable as that bit where they got clothing for ミア…

This didn’t really sell me on the other members yet, but I wonder how much they’ll be off the side since they’re still primarily not focused on. ミア is likeable anyway. Certainly an odd hobby she mentioned having. Wonder what ヒルダ has been spending the last few days on…

Anyway, there is virtually zero chance we don’t have some sort of emergency make some people nearly fail to escape in the end, y’know? Luckily, if the whole gate thing is in a sense a treasure hunt, they have just the guy for that.

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A long chapter this time for sure!

Spoilers

A majority of this chapter felt like some slice of life character interactions you’d get at the beginning of a visual novel instead of in the middle. I guess since the two main characters only recently realized they are looping its not deep into the plot yet despite being chapter 7 but yeah.

I was kind of hoping サイモン was gonna say tough luck to タイラ and ヒルダ when they went to that restaurant and ordered a bunch of food just to realize that they don’t actually have enough money to pay for it :sweat_smile: サイモン has that kind of rude “smart” guy look to him, but so far he seems nicer than I thought he’d be. I’m definitely starting to think ミア is my favorite character now though.

I felt really bad for レオナ when they mentioned that. That has to be an awful way to start every day for how long she had been looping. I can definitely see why that could make her go crazy after a while.

I wonder how long タイラ and ヒルダ will be stuck in this time loop and if we’ll get a “time skip” at some point saying they’ve been repeating the same day for years etc or if something will go down before then. It is a Key game so I am expecting something bad to happen eventually (probably to ミア since she seems to be getting more focus now?), hard to say for sure though.

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This was a long one but I read it faster than others at 1h 20 min.

About the chapter

Agreed that this was mostly a… chill with the characters and get used to the consequences of the loop kind of chapter, but it was interesting to see. It also got me thinking about what I’d do with all those possibilities but I realized I’m a very boring person and I’d probably spend all that time studying stuff and I’d just buy all the expensive online courses since you can’t really change your body so exercise is a bit pointless sadly. I’d also probably eat really tasty stuff every day. I don’t really think you can get bored of that.

And boy ミア having to watch タイラ get crushed on the floor… not cool man.

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Reply to the chapter things

無駄. Everything you buy will disappear at each reset - including online things. Whole state of the world gets reset except Loopers’ memories. I guess that could work if you had exceptionally good memory and do them in a little chunks each day - carefully keeping track of what you learned :wink:

Yeah, this loop is ideal setting for that - especially with no side effects next day :smiley:

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Simon, I like your character, but any time you open your mouth to fill the whole text window with words I have never seen I think of stopping here for the day. :frowning_face:

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Finally got around to finishing this. On one hand it’s nice to see the story going somewhere on the other I really want Simon to shut up already. Let someone else speak! Two chapters of exposition-chan going at it made the last third feel really nice. However, as much as I like the whole gothic lolita style dresses and costumes, they made that scene pretty creepy yo. I won’t bother starting on chapter 8 until tomorrow, but I really hope they branch out and give the other characters some air time. We’ve been with our main clique for a while and I’m kind of tired of them (screaming in my ears).

quote spoils

Same here. It would have been a good way to teach them a valuable lesson. Especially with the way Tyler acts afterwards it just feels kind of brushed off a bit even if he was kind of justified with the card.

That she seemed so used to it kind of scares me. Mia isn’t entirely emotionless, but she took that way too well ><

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Just very quickly dropping in to say I’ve been enjoying reading all your thoughts so far while I’ve been catching up!

That part actually made me laugh :see_no_evil: The way she was just like ‘あ、落ちた’ in that pretty nonchalant way… :joy:
(But also, ouch.)

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Chapter thoughts

So Tyler earned himself that splat fair and square. Not only from his climbing shenanigans but because he used Mia as a doll. >_>

I looked up 256 things, which is my highest number so far. This is also the longest chapter, but would you believe I hit like 175ish around the end of the freaking restaurant scene?

I’m really liking Simon. He’s certainly gaining on the favorite character role quickly, but 90% of the time he opens his mouth, I also want to strangle him. Lol. So many lookups!

At least he mostly use the same words, so I’m kinda starting to recognize them. Except when he has to use new ones of course, then I’m lost again. *le sigh*

Reading this is kinda a rollercoaster. I’ll get on a roll where lookups are manageable, and then I’ll have too long stretches where I look up SO MUCH.

Considering the lookup amount and that it has now slipped into a lecture plus antics with no story meaning, I’m getting kinda… bored? Overtired and therefore bored feeling? Any chance the story starts picking up again next chapter? Please… :disappointed:

Although, my guess might be that we’ll do a Hilda round first. Which might be yay, considering she has been my favorite character. If she hangs out with Simon, then I’ll probably like it.

As for the extra three. The reincarnation talking, two different colored eyes person—Ritapon…? I can’t remember. They should just get normal so I get to stop having to wade through their speech only to realize it was some mumbo jumbo about reincarnation again or whatever they’ve been talking about. In that way, I kinda hope those three won’t show up much. ^^’

Did I understand Mia right that she’d already done scuba diving until she got bored? And tried all those other things? Or did I misunderstand and she meant she’d be bored by them? Mia is probably the one I have the most trouble understanding, because her dialog seems to wispy, hazy like, so I rarely feel like I get a good grip on what she’s saying.

Lastly, I guess I am building some stamina in reading and lookups for Loopers. I guess some of it comes from the momentum I’m currently gathering and getting used to the style. But I really wish story would pick up, story that involves all of them, not just Tyler and Hilda while the Loopers look on with amusement/whatever-Mia’s-disposition-would-be-called.

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spoilers

Ah yeah, this was the chapter with the nasty exposition dump >< Personally speaking, I mostly had an easier time with things after this. If lookups got hard for me it was usually in short bursts or involved more momentum.

I don’t understand! Ok, not that bad, but her dialogue makes me feel extra kinds of bad. Simon just makes me feel stupid. Ritapon makes me feel stupid and uncultured.

If I’m remembering that scene at the end of the chapter correctly, yes. That’s a good description of her dialogue~

You’ve been rolling through these chapters recently. Great work!

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Spoiler reply

Yeah this and the previous chapter (I think) had a lot of exposition where Simon explained things with a bit of help from Mia. I wouldn’t mind it so much if I knew a few more of the words. :sweat_smile:

I don’t know. I kinda like Simon, and his speech feels pretty consistent and at least not all out weird, so I don’t feel stupid. But I have to look up a lot.

Ritapon though… just throws about so much weird vocabulary and have such a weird view on life… I think? Honestly I understand her so poorly I have no idea what she’s been saying really. Not beyond looking up all the words and going “In the shadows is where I live.” Check. “Reincarnation blah blah.” Check.

I might start to skim read her dialog just to check if it seems story relevant or not. Taking time to figure out what someone said only to realize they spewed a lot of nonesense mysterious I’m so cool crap… Well, not worth it :tm:. :joy:

That scene you linked though, wow. Super cool performance by that VA, also how I imagine some people feel sometimes when I talk to them. When they get that glassy look in their eyes, I know to change the subject or at least step off my fan podium. xD

Cool. And glad I’m not the only one that finds her that way. Don’t get me wrong. I like Mia, she isn’t a favorite of mine, but I might like her better than Tyler after dress-up playing with Mia. xD

(My list is probably: Hilda, Simon, Mia, Tyler, Leona, Jou, those other two.)

Thanks! Yeah, I’m spending at least a couple of hours everyday I think. Hoping to get this finished before 9-nine- starts. Wish me luck!

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Spoilers

Yeah it probably almost never is, haha. It’s the 中二病 thing. I want to say she’s kind of a joke I guess, with how exaggerated she is, but at least from the perspective of a learner it’s really just annoying.

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I feel like I spent the last 30 years not reading Loopers… but now I’m back! And I’m bringing @MissDagger with me!
(Well, soon anyway, when I have caught up with her after chapter 8.)
Actually that doesn’t sound like “bringing with me” then. More like she’s waiting for me. :thinking: Anyway…

This one I actually read a few months ago, and wrote down notes and questions, but then never posted them, so… here goes.

(Also, looking at my notes, I can see why I was exhausted afterwards. All other chapters before took me 2 days, or 3 at most, but this one took me 7.)

Spoilers

Well, this went about how I expected it. I think I would’ve prefer some actually plot-relevant stuff instead of lots of exposition followed by lots of merrymaking, but I trust that’ll end soon enough.

I mean… considering that she’s hanging out with Hilda, I assume she has been headbutted every day of her life anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

But yeah, I agree. Guess I was right on point with my guess there last chapter.

I can sort of see what you are saying in any other setting, but in this “time loop, where nothing matters since everything gets reset, and money is no object” situation… I assume it was more valuable to show them that he got their back then to teach them that stuff has consequences or something like that. It wouldn’t have had consequences either way, only for a few hours, right? (Or maybe I’m misunderstanding what kind of lesson you mean there.)

Wow, that was emotionally painful to watch. What a scene.

Questions

Tyler, Hilda, Simon and Mia at the restaurant.
「うおおおおぉおおおぉ！！ １人前で１万円んんんん！！！？」
「食い尽くすぜええぇ！！ この店の肉、全て！ 俺の胃袋で成仏させてやるぜええぇええぇ！！」
「２人とも、実に元気だね。初日からこれだけ元気な者は初めてだよ」
タイラとヒルダは普段では到底できない贅沢の限りを堪能しようとしていた。

…why is this in the past? Everything else is in the present.

When Tyler is climbing from the 18th to the 20th floor:
Mia: 「２０階に到達。……だいぶ慣れたものです」
Tyler: 「まだ慣れねぇよ！ まだまだ怖ぇもん、下！！」

…what’s the だいぶ慣れたもの? A thing that she is used to?

Tyler, answering Mia’s question to what he was eating:
「見りゃわかるだろ？ カップラーメンだよ」

Is the first part literally “When you see it, you understand, right?” And better translated, “I’m sure you can tell by looking?”

Tyler and Mia on the beach:
Mia:「きっと……タイラの暑苦しさと勢いに、わたしが呑まれかけている」
Tyler:「いいのいいの、呑まれちゃえ呑まれちゃえ！！ 今日が楽しくないヤツに、明日が楽しく過ごせる道理なし！！」

Is that last sentence something like “If today is not enjoyable, there is no reason for tomorrow to be able to be spent enjoyably?”
What’s the に there?

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I can’t quite remember everything, so it’s possible I might make a mistake by assuming some incorrect context for some of the scenes… my apologies in advance if that’s the case.

Answers

Hmmm not completely sure what you mean. In Loopers the narration is in past tense, while the dialogue is in whatever tense was appropriate for what the character said at that point. So the first 3 lines are dialogue in present tense, but the last one is narration, so it’s in the past tense.

I believe Mia is talking about Tyler, and not herself. “You reached the 20th floor … You’ve gotten quite used to it now”.

ものだ (or ものです) basically means “the way things are”. The two main ways this is used are:

  • In present tense to talk about a general rule:

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  • In past tense to talk about things one used to do (which you mentioned)

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However, it can also be used in the past tense to state one’s objective opinion of how things have become. Example:

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This is the sense in which Mia is using that grammar structure - she’s giving her objective opinion: “The way things are, you’ve become used to it”

Yes, I agree.

I am not confident in the slightest about this one, but my interpretation is:

今日が楽しくないヤツに => To the person for whom today is not enjoyable,
明日が楽しく過ごせる道理なし => no logical reason (leads to) being able to spend their time enjoyably tomorrow

(I believe に is the “To” in the translation of the first part)

“Not having fun today doesn’t logically lead to being able to have fun tomorrow”. I imagine Tyler means this in the sense of there being no guarantees you can enjoy yourself tomorrow, so you might as well try to enjoy today instead. He’s encouraging Mia to get “swallowed” by his enthusiasm so that she starts enjoying herself right away instead of hoping for some uncertain future enjoyment.

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Yeah, I know, it’s been forever! I don’t think you missed any context here, but I’ll link the chapter script the next time I have questions.

Answers to answers

Ha, you’re half-right. I just looked through the script a bit, and while I have no idea why I didn’t notice the past tense narration parts before, there’s a lot of present tense narration too.

E.g., here’s a bit more script from before/after that sentence with narration:

I think the pattern is:

  • Present tense if presenting a general fact. (E.g. the first two lines.)
  • Present tense if talking about something a character is doing right now. (E.g. the last line.)
  • Past tense if something was happening in the past - even if it was just moments ago while a character was talking. (E.g. the line in the middle.)

I really have no idea why my brain was completely fine with this for 6 chapters and then in the middle of the 7th chapter wants to know what’s up with it, haha.

Gotcha! Looks like I would’ve learnt this on Bunpro in the next weeks, now that I’m continuing with the N3 points. I would’ve never guessed that this was a grammar point…

Your translation makes sense to me.

I also agree that your interpretation is possible, although I’m not sure how this is supposed to encourage poor Mia who’s less “hoping for future enjoyment” and more “having given up on the very idea of being able to enjoy herself”…

I wonder if it could also be interpreted as “If you’re not having fun today, chances are you’re won’t be able to having fun tomorrow either.”

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Some additional comments

That’s very interesting. I hadn’t noticed that at all when I was reading the VN :sweat_smile:

I agree, from Mia’s point of view it’s definitely not the most encouraging of phrases.

At this point this just speculation on my part rather than grammatical analysis, and I can’t recall exactly how that conversion between Tyler and Mia continues, but as far as I remember, it doesn’t really have much of an effect on Mia either, so maybe that was expected?

Tyler has this very positive attitude where it makes sense for him to say something about trying to live today to the fullest, which, in the end, the idea behind that phrase I feel.

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