It was my first time reading manga in Japanese.
At first it was hard, but thanks to your help and the vocabulary list it was much easier.
The only part I hated was the part with the Kansai dialect. I was so confused because I didn’t know if it was grammar points that I haven’t seen yet or just the Kansai dialect >.<.
I confess, regularly, when Daigo and his mother was speaking I just read but didn’t try to understand everything. I just focused on the general meaning.
I feel the same. The jump in time is too brutal.
I think I will reread this series in a few months to verify if I can read it more smoothly. And maybe try to understand the Kansai dialect this time.
I had been willing to write my thoughts earlier on this week, but I have been very very busy and I wanted to post calmly! However, since it seems today will also be chaotic, but I can´t wait any longer to transmit my gratitude, I´ll do that briefly for the moment and write my impressions later on.
My deepest gratitude to all of you who accompanied me in the journey of reading my first manga (and Japanese material). This, in particular, goes to @ChristopherFritz (not only for coordinating the schedule, the vocab sheets, the threads and everything needed to let us enjoy the reading, but also for all his brilliant and detailed answers, his patience with us beginners and his willingness to help at any moment), @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz , also for his equally brilliant and detailed answers and @BarelyFragile, for more of the same reasons. I´ll never forget neither レンタルおにいちゃん, for being my first ever manga in Japanese, nor you guys, my first reading peers here on Wanikani. Many thanks again!!!
And, of course, many thanks to all of the readers who at some point participated in this club, asking or answering questions. They also made this possible!
Hi everyone! I´m back in order to finally write my impression on the series!
First of all, I definitely agree with @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz that this is an excellent manga for introducing oneself to reading real native material. Naturally I couldn´t have any prior reference, since this was my first reading experience, but there was a time when I was still with volume 4 and had started tackling Takagi-San. Having now reached volume 3 of the latter, I can definitely see how the grammar patterns and the speech style (and I have come to acknowledge this as very important) are much more clear in レンタルおにいちゃん. Of course there were quite difficult points along the way (especially for an absolute beginner), not to speak about the Kansai-ben, but globally, I personally can´t think of an easier manga with the same “deepness” of content.
This takes me to the second part of my impressions, the content itself. I have to say I personally am a very very impresionable person, and thus maybe I could be a bit biased, but I got to say I loved both the characters and the story. I think it teaches a lot of life-lessons and, indeed, makes one want to empathize with the characters. I´m so so glad we had a happy ending, by the way. Regarding the time jump, I do like these kind of techniques, especially when it seems that at some point too much detail could make the story start to drag out. I think the author took that it mind. Moreover, it can contribute to create a bigger effect on the final conclusion (seeing a fresh new Kanami starting her Middle School). Needless to say, these are just my own feelings! Maybe the only point in which I missed some detail was in the arc in between Misuzu´s revealing of Kazutaka´s bullying and Kanami deciding to stay with him. After the emotional conclusion of volume 3, not presenting Makoto´s reactions to the foretold could turn out to be a bit unrealistic.
My biggest question when I finish a series is: Would I like to read it again? And in this case, I definitely would.
Once again, my deepest gratitude to everyone!! See you in future readings and in the Community!
Edit:
What I understood from context (and thus interpreted) was in @ChristopherFritz ´s line: that somehow those bullies knew he was “unconventional” and simply took advantage of it to make use of their bruteness
100% agree on that. I also understood she was their biological daughter, but the stark contrast in how the parents treated one and the other asked for more details.
Maybe we should contact the author to ask all this doubts?
I think the meeting with Misuzu transitioned into a hospital visit in one brief motion. By the time everything settled, Makoto could see that Kazutaka was finally on the right path.
I don't recall if I wrote on this already, so my apologies if I repeat anything I already wrote.
The following is a combination of information available in the story, and my personal interpretation.
Mr. Tachibana owned/headed/ran a successful business, to the point that his family didn’t have a want for money. They were very well off. I imagine they likely even owned their house fully (not renting, no mortgage).
For Mr. Tachibana, the most important thing (perhaps after the business itself) was the future of his business. The only way to ensure his business would survive would be through his son, his first-born male child.
Mrs. Tachibana wanted her husband’s love and acknowledgement. Likely he gave more attention to work than to her, but by assigning their son’s upbringing as the future owner of the company to her, she had a chance to win her husband’s attention and adoration. Except, it didn’t work out.
No matter how much money Mrs. Tachibana put into her son’s education, Kazutaka wasn’t the perfect student she needed him to be. When Kazutaka didn’t perform beyond perfection, Mr. Tachibana blamed Mrs. Tachibana. Because of her son, Mrs. Tachibana was moving further and further from her husband’s good graces.
As a result, Mrs. Tachibana likely came to despise her own son. She reached the point where psychological and physical abuse were acceptable retribution for his slightly-less-than-perfect scores.
On the other hand, Kanami had no expectations. She didn’t need to be primed for running a large business. This meant Mrs. Tachibana held no animosity toward her, and was able to be a proper, kind, and loving mother to Kanami.
The one bright point in all this would be that Kazutaka never became jealous of Kanami. Yes, he wanted to be treated the same as her, but he never grew to dislike his sister because of it. Instead, he remained close with her and was able to help shield her from their parents’ arguments. Once he determined everyone in his life was trash, Kanami remained the strongest holdout in his thoughts.
This could in fact bring up a fascinating discussion on how this manga addresses social issues. I too has realised when reading that, in fact, Mrs Tachibana reached the dangerous psychological state in which she thought her well-being depended on her husband. However, since Kanami was, so as to speak, not related to all the social and moral construction which emanated from him (the running of the business, the fact that Kazutaka was the firstborn, etc.) that could justify that the author decided to leave implicit those details (maybe as well known to the readers).
Another example of this “first born son” concept in fiction is Kyoya in the manga/anime Ouran High School Host Club. In that series, high school student Kyoya is the third-born son of a very wealthy family that has many large business ties. The first-born is expected to succeed their father, and the second-son is expected to work closely with their father. Kyoya has no such expectations, and is left feeling he needs to do something to surpass his brothers.
That is of course a very much fictional example (extremely so), but the idea of first-born son inheriting the family business is (as I understand it) a strong part of Japanese cultural history. (Similar expectations weren’t uncommon in parts of America’s business history, either.)
Although not necessarily first-borns, I think of the company Nintendo, whose first president was succeeded by his son-in-law (who took on the family name upon becoming Nintendo’s president). And the son-in-law was later succeeded not by his own daughter, but rather his grandson. Toyota is another company where family succeeded family.
I don’t know the extent that this occurred in Japanese business or its impact on Japanese culture and media, but I know of it enough that I felt I clearly read this dynamic in the Tachibana family as an explanation of why Kazutaka had scholarly requirements, and Kanami did not.
Wow, such interesting info! Many thanks! What´s more, I´ve heard marvellous things from Ouran, and its in my bucket list since some time ago, so great to know that trope (if I may call it like that) is also there.
What a ride this last volume has been ! While the part about the bullying felt a bit rushed (I didn’t quite understand what they were threatening him with) the part about the abusive parents was quite a shock.
Not that it excuses his behavior, but to not fall into a black hole of despair, loathing, and violence would have taken from him a strength that many people don’t possess.
The whole “unfolding” sequence basically took this one last volume, which I think is good. Might feel a bit rushed, but I’m happy it didn’t drag on.
After all, it’s not like anything here is totally unexpected..
I felt the overall story was quite good, if not a bit cheesy at times, once you suspend your disbelief and accept the weird premise. It does a good job at exploring how violence, trauma, and misery are self-replicating beasts.
Super happy to be finished ! I started reading this a few months after starting japanese, and finished volume 2 two years ago, during summer holiday in my GF’s grandmother house.
These last few months, I didn’t have much time and didn’t make any progress in japanese, only doing my anki, renshuu, bunpro and wanikani reviews each day.
Funny how I said I would be trying to rejoin Sakura book club on July 5. Now, 10 days later, I finished Sakura volume 5, and rentaru onichan volume 3 and 4 ! Probably not getting every last detail, but well enough.
To be done with the first manga I ever really tried to read is a very nice milestone to reach. This really is a very good book to recommend to beginners: easy first chapter, mostly “normal” japanese, engaging story, and only 4 books so you might actually see the end of it.
Thank you everyone for all the messages you left in the various threads, and of course thank you @ChristopherFritz for running the book club !
However, since it seems today will also be chaotic, but I can´t wait any longer to transmit my gratitude, I´ll do that briefly for the moment and write my impressions later on.
See you in future readings and in the Community!
What´s more, I´ve heard marvellous things from Ouran, and its in my bucket list since some time ago, so great to know that trope (if I may call it like that) is also there.