ルーパーズ ♾ Chapter 8 (Visual Novel Book Club)

[Daisoujou]

Current chapter start date: September 2, 2022
Home thread: ルーパーズ ♾ (Visual Novel Book Club) // Currently Reading!

Previous part: Week 7

Next part: Week 9

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

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

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

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

[Redglare]

I just have to say I really enjoy the background music.

[Daisoujou]

Finished reading, I did my usual absent-minded character count clearing, but with the combination of my estimate from yesterday, it looks like roughly 7,000 characters. Not so bad, and in my opinion, the chapter keeps conversation mostly simple, though there definitely were some new words for me in relation to cities and stuff.

@Redglare

I just have to say I really enjoy the background music.

Oh me too! Especially late in this chapter there’s a very nice piece.

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Spoilers

Ok, I like ミア a lot. This whole chapter could kind of be an extension of the slice of life type thing, but breaking ミア out of her shell definitely feels more substantial, and this was easily one of my favorite chapters yet for just being really sweet the whole way through. Both of them grew on me for how much she was characterized and then seeing how タイラ remains so thoughtful about helping others. His little treasure hunt philosophizing might be a little on the nose, but VN characters love to directly address concepts sometimes lol.

I had a great time reading this but feel like I don’t have a ton to say about it. Lovely art as always, especially nice applied to fireworks. I kinda wish the chapter name didn’t spoil exactly where this was going, though. I didn’t know the word 観覧車, but seeing 花火 kinda told me what the treasure hunt was about from the start.

[adamstan]

Reply to spoiler

@Daisoujou

breaking ミア out of her shell definitely feels more substantial, and this was easily one of my favorite chapters yet for just being really sweet the whole way through.

Oh, yeah, that was absolutely amazing. And Mia is so cute

@Daisoujou

I kinda wish the chapter name didn’t spoil exactly where this was going, though.

I on the other hand sometimes enjoy it, since it’s still interesting how will it go there

[AzusaChan]

This chapter wasn’t too bad difficulty-wise, one of the easier weeks, I think.

Spoilers

I don’t really have too much to say on this chapter since it mainly continued with the slice of life stuff from last chapter. Lots of focus on ミア and タイラ these last chapters, makes me wonder what ヒルダ has been up to this whole time?

Was a cute chapter overall though. ミア has been my favorite for a while now so I appreciated seeing her be real happy like that. When they were doing the treasure hunting, I was curious if the scene from the prologue was gonna be referenced. I’m pretty sure that girl was ミア and I remember her being super excited in the hospital back then, so I thought it’d be a very nostalgic memory for her that would have been brought up here. I’m sure they’ll end up mentioning it later on.

The CG’s in this chapter were real cute, I liked this one the most

[adamstan]

Spoilers

@AzusaChan

I was curious if the scene from the prologue was gonna be referenced. I’m pretty sure that girl was ミア

Yeah, their personalities seem somewhat similar, and I think hair color too?

@AzusaChan

makes me wonder what ヒルダ has been up to this whole time?

If my memory isn’t playing tricks on me again, we’re going back to Hilda and Leona in the next chapter (or the next-next-one - I’m not sure). But I won’t say what they’re up to

Btw, Smiling Mia is one of the cutest things in this VN

[rikaiwisdom]

Chapter spoilers

What a great chapter, loved it. This and the previous one, I think some relaxed atmosphere was needed, even though I was enjoying all the mystery and tension from the other chapters but I now see how important is getting to know the characters a bit more.

At this rate I don’t think I can say ヒルダ is still my favourite character ;-; . Right now it’s タイラ, ミア and サイモン. I still like ヒルダ but I’d like a similar chapter just from her side, showing more about her than just her care for レオナ. And also サイモン, I’d like to know a bit more about him too. I don’t feel particularly interested in the other three, to be honest, the first impression wasn’t so great, but I guess that could change at any moment.

Now that I remember, ミア seems to have a memory lingering in the back of her mind about タイラ in the hospital, right? She had a moment of almost clarity but quickly moved on. I’m sure it will be addressed at some point. There’s no way that girl in the hospital wasn’t ミア .

ミア
「でも、この感じ、どこかで・・・・」
「・・・・もしかして、タイラは・・・・」

タイラ
「ん？ どうかしたか？」

ミア
「いえ、何でもありません。・・・・次を探します」

[Sylph]

I’m very late but trying to catch up. Read this one today and it was pretty nice. I wasn’t missing all the yelling and craziness.
This one took 55 minutes.

[MissDagger]

144 lookups and around 2-2.5 hours it took me. Not 100% sure when I started today, and not sure how long the bit I read yesterday took. I did read the bulk today though. Was a bit dismayed that I looked up a specific word three times this chapter (never seen it before), at least I recognized it the fourth time. (Don’t think it showed up again after that, but maybe once more.)

Very nice chapter. A fun CG, and nice to see more expressions from Mia. She definitely looked prettier in an older type of way. Seems like Tyler noticed too for a moment. This kind of treasure hunt I can totally get behind. Leading to beautiful places at opportune times.

[TobiasW]

My fastest read so far at 2751/h! It was a lot of slice of life though, so I don’t expect to hold this during the next chapters, haha.

Also, it finally want’s me to actually buy the game. That was a long demo.

Also I didn’t even know there were chapter titles, and since I really dislike spoilers I have no desire to find out where they are.

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Chapter notes & reactions

@Daisoujou

This whole chapter could kind of be an extension of the slice of life type thing, but breaking ミア out of her shell definitely feels more substantial, and this was easily one of my favorite chapters yet for just being really sweet the whole way through. Both of them grew on me for how much she was characterized and then seeing how タイラ remains so thoughtful about helping others.

Yeah, and I’m so happy to see her out of her shell! And I’m glad that Tyler had a treasure hunt with such a nice “treasure” at the end. I was a bit worried that it might be something a little more disappointing (i.e. Snoopy 2.0) for their Mias… well, second treasure hunt, right? (Although luckily she was pretty into it either way!)

I took a screenshot of the exact same scene as you for the thread, haha. I wonder if I’ll also encounter this second one.

@AzusaChan

The CG’s in this chapter were real cute, I liked this one the most

Ah, there it is

@rikaiwisdom

Now that I remember, ミア seems to have a memory lingering in the back of her mind about タイラ in the hospital, right? She had a moment of almost clarity but quickly moved on. I’m sure it will be addressed at some point. There’s no way that girl in the hospital wasn’t ミア .

ミア
「でも、この感じ、どこかで・・・・」
「・・・・もしかして、タイラは・・・・」

Haha, yeah. I was like “About time Mia, about time…”

---

Questions

Here’s the script (sadly no character names - it’s from my texthooker file) for this chapter. Hopefully it helps with context if needed - it’s been a while after all!

Tyler: 「お金で買える楽しさとはまったく違う、別次元の楽しさを教えてやろうって言うのさ！」
Mia: 「す、すごく明るく言ってますが、如何わしさは拭えない……」
Tyler: 「だから言ったろ！ 宝探しだ、って！」

…is that ろ short for だろう?

Mia is treasure hunting, and running towards the last goal to not be late. Tyler doesn’t think she needs to run.
Tyler: 「今のミアなら、一目で見破れるって」
Mia: 「それは見破ってから聞きますっ」

Is Mia saying “I’ll listen to that once I have seen through it”, i.e. “I’ll only calm down when I have actually reached the goal.”?

Tyler: 「でも、この景色はみんなのものだし、ケチケチしてもしょうがないぜ」

Is that last part “even if you’re stingy, it can’t be helped” = “even if you’re stingy, you feel compelled to share it”?

Mia: 「……自分だけの、秘密の場所にしたい気持ちです……」
Tyler: 「気持ちは分かる、俺も独り占めしたいって思う」
Tyler: 「でも、この景色はみんなのものだし、ケチケチしてもしょうがないぜ」
Tyler: 「なにより……こんなに喜んでくれるミアの顔が見られたからなっ」

“More importantly, because I’m able to see Mia’s joy-giving face”
Is the face giving joy? Or is she looking joyful? And is there something omitted from the sentence?

花火はすでに終わっている。
タイラとミアは、観覧車のイルミネーションを、いつまでもいつまでも眺めていた。
気の遠くなるほどの時間を時の渦で過ごしたと豪語するミアは、そんなことさえした覚えがなかった………。

“Mia, who boasts of having spend a ‘the mind becomes far’ (?) amount of time in the maelstrom of time, couldn’t remember having done such a thing before.”?
What’s the さえ doing there? I can’t fit any of the meanings in the sentence.

[MissDagger]

You already finished chapter 8? And here I hoped I’d manage to get back into it before you reached this point so I could continue to stay a little ahead.

[TobiasW]

@MissDagger

You already finished chapter 8? And here I hoped I’d manage to get back into it before you reached this point so I could continue to stay a little ahead.

Sounds like somebody wants a race, huh…

[2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz]

Answers

@TobiasW

Tyler: 「だから言ったろ！ 宝探しだ、って！」

…is that ろ short for だろう?

Yes, that’s right.

@TobiasW

Mia: 「それは見破ってから聞きますっ」

Is Mia saying “I’ll listen to that once I have seen through it”, i.e. “I’ll only calm down when I have actually reached the goal.”?

I believe so, yes. She’s worried she won’t find the treasure in time if it’s been hidden in a tricky way.

@TobiasW

Tyler: 「でも、この景色はみんなのものだし、ケチケチしてもしょうがないぜ」

Is that last part “even if you’re stingy, it can’t be helped” = “even if you’re stingy, you feel compelled to share it”?

Well, my impression is that the reason for the “it can’t be helped” comes from the previous phrase “この景色はみんなのものだし”. Since this view belongs to everyone, even if you wanted to be stingy and keep it to yourself, you couldn’t.

@TobiasW

Tyler: 「なにより……こんなに喜んでくれるミアの顔が見られたからなっ」

“More importantly, because I’m able to see Mia’s joy-giving face”
Is the face giving joy? Or is she looking joyful? And is there something omitted from the sentence?

The most natural way I can think of for translating 喜んでくれるミアの顔 would be “The face of Mia, who has become delighted (for my sake)”. The てくれる grammar structure implies that an action (喜ぶ - to be glad) is performed for someone else. So, it can’t be “joy-giving” because joy is a noun, not an action. The one becoming delighted is Mia, not Tyler.

As to what is omitted in this sentence, that’s more tricky. From what Tyler says, this event of Mia becoming delighted is a reason (the からな at the end) for something. As to what exactly, I can mostly speculate, but I feel it connects to the discussion of “monopolizing” vs “sharing” the view, and in general as to why Tyler prepared this treasure hunt for Mia.

@TobiasW

気の遠くなるほどの時間を時の渦で過ごしたと豪語するミアは、そんなことさえした覚えがなかった………。

“Mia, who boasts of having spend a ‘the mind becomes far’ (?) amount of time in the maelstrom of time, couldn’t remember having done such a thing before.”?
What’s the さえ doing there? I can’t fit any of the meanings in the sentence.

気の遠くなる means losing consciousness or sanity. I am guessing it’s not used literally here, but as a superlative to explain how very long she’s been in the 時の渦.

さえ is one of my nemesis, and I always feel it’s tricky to understand (and even more difficult to explain). Bunpro explains it like this:

さえ is a 副助詞ふくじょし (adverbial particle) in Japanese that is used to place emphasis on something existing in certain state

It has three main uses, but the important one in this case is this one:

類推るいすい - Analogy, (A) is an outstanding example of something.

So さえ is emphasizing how そんなこと is an outstanding example. An example of something Mia (who could boast of having spent such a long time in the time-whirlpool as to drive anyone insane) had no memory of doing.

In other words, the events that happened to Mia in this treasure hunt were something so impressive as having no comparison to anything she had done in her long time in the time-whirlpool.

[TobiasW]

Thanks!

I can’t believe I forgot what verb+てくれる does, grr. Makes perfect sense used that way.

And I’m glad you pointed out that さえ is a grammar point on Bunpro! The dictionary entry on jisho.org really didn’t help there. And since I’m currently slowly going through all the N3 grammar on Bunpro anyway, I’ll just add this a bit earlier.