レンタルおにいちゃん - Week 10 Discussion (Absolute Beginners Book Club)

Japanese Language Reading
#3

Page 127
I had a lot of trouble with this sentence:
おにいちゃんを取り返しのつかないことに巻き込んでしまうかもしれない
Until I finally dumped the whole thing into jisho in frustration and found out that 取り返しのつかない is an adjective expression meaning “cannot be undone” and now it suddenly clicks. So posting that here in case others are confused.

Page 129-130

What happened?

Did the clock stop? The drawing looks like the second hand is still moving, but Kanami says 止まっちゃった like it broke again? Or is that line referring to even farther back when it was originally broken? And then she flashes back to おにいちゃん telling her to call him if it breaks again, but she knows she can’t so she’ll leave it as it is. Or is she leaving it as it is because it currently working is a reminder of おにいちゃん?

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#4

It did indeed stop. The sound effects essentially say: “Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick… (Silence)” When Kanami says 止まっちゃった, it’s because of the clock having just now stopped moving in the present. You’re correct that the flashback is her recalling that Rental Big Brother said she can call him if it breaks again.

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#5

I’m just realizing there’s an absolute beginners book club! You’re already on week 10, will there be a new round starting soon? I don’t think I’ll have time to get caught up right now, but I would REALLY love to participate next time!

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#6

I guess I’m still confused why the second hand is different on page 130 then. When it stops it looks like its about at 14 seconds but then on 130 there’s a clock at 21 seconds. Drawing mistake? Deeper meaning? Metaphor?

Or maybe I’m thinking too much about this. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#7

The clock was made in Italy. It doesn’t know Japanese, so it doesn’t understand its role in this scene.

Seriously, though, I’m going with drawing mistake. We see the back of second hand is pointing at 8 before the clock stops, then at 9 after it stops. And then past 10 on the next page. Is it possible another artist worked on backgrounds and made a mistake? I can’t imagine the author/artist would make a mistake like that, but maybe. I’ve seen some art mistakes in later volumes, similar to what I’ve seen in Sailormoon and other comics. Mangaka are only human!

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#8

Absolutely!

We’ll be starting a new book in November:

You can check out the Absolute Beginner Book Club home thread here:

You can also pick the current manga or a previous book club book, and you have access to all our discussion threads and vocabulary lists, and you can still ask questions on the weekly threads.

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#9

Thank you so much!! :smiley:

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#10

Good spot! I’d picked up that the clock stopped from the カチ、カチ、カ…

But I hadn’t spotted that this middle panel showed the sound effect シン - which jaded network lists as meaning “silence”.

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#11

Has the grammar sheet always been there? How did I miss it! Thanks!

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#12

All caught up after a few weeks of slacking! I have to say, I can understand almost none of this manga lol :joy: but I will keep on reading

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#13

It was added withing the first weeks, I believe =D

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. If you can get even just the gist of what’s going, but still pick up some grammar along the way and recognize them when they come up again later, you’ll find known grammar showing up more and more over time.

I recall that you were going through the Genki books. Were you able to get into reading Genki II? Have you been spotting grammar you know from Genki while reading レンタルおにいちゃん?

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#14

I like the idea of a metaphor being used here, even if it’s probably a big stretch of my imagination. Since Kanami has decided to stop renting Oniichan, their time together has actually stopped in Kanami’s heart. She can’t hear the ticks of the clock anymore. This however, is not true for Oniichan, who we know actually cares for her, and thus the clock he’s fixed valiantly continues forward! … or something.

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#15

I am on Genki 2 now, though moving slower than I’d like. I do recognize some of the grammar, but there are just some challenges seeing them in a more “natural” setting and I think with this being my first manga too. I am getting the gist on most of the pages at least, and that is enough to keep me motivated

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#16

Those are definitely two big hurdles, but as you keep at it, you’ll find yourself past them sooner than you realize.

Back in my high school Japanese class, everything in the textbook was ます this, ません that, so when I first got into the seeing Japanese outside of that environment, I was completely lost when all the verbs didn’t end in some form of ます.

I imagine going from Genki to manga isn’t nearly as big of a shock, but there’s still the contrast of going from fully formed sterile textbook sentences to manga where it feels like 2/3 of the sentence is missing, and the other third has been colloquially contracted beyond recognition.

This may sound just a wee bit anti-motivational, but I’m right there with you on going through grammar slower than I’d like. Trying to focus on it a bit more during October…

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#17

Yeah if I only do Genki then I’m a genius lol because it is a lot easier reading the sentences they provide. Once I move to bunpro and beginner books I remember how much I don’t know lol. Nobody said it would be easy though!

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#18

Oof, this chapter was hard on the feelings, between 叶実(かなみ) recalling the warm good ol’ times with お兄(にい)ちゃん and the tension he built with the whole レンタル thing, I think it was my favorite one so far!

I have a few questions:

Page 118

おにいちゃんが叶実(かなみ)にとって信頼(しんらい)できる人(ひと)になってたんだ

How is 人(ひと)に grammatically working in this sentence? Especially the に particle, since なる (なってた) is an intransitive verb, I could not figure out how に fits here.

My translation: (Rental) Brother has become someone I can trust.

Page 123

所詮(しょせん)その程度(ていど)の繋(つな)がりなんだよ

I think I understood the gist of this sentence, but I was not able to put it in proper/understandable English; so I would like to see what was your take on it.

I understood it as saying something like that’s just how this relationship is or something…

この繋(つな)がりはただのレンタル 叶実(かなみ)のわがまま

I feel like this sentence is missing something, or is it me that’s missing the point? Like, what is the core of this sentence? Shouldn’t it have a copula/verb/i-adjective to rule it all? Maybe it is indeed purposefully missing something because of the casual context of it, but I just wanted to make sure.

I ended up translating as: As for this relationship, it is an ordinary rental. I’m selfish.

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#19

Page 118

I´ve just started this week´s pages so I still haven´t got personal feedback on the other pages, but I was currently working on this specific point (since its right at the beginning) so maybe I can help you with the 人ひとに. As far as I know, the verb なる, because it´s an intransitive verb, can´t take the を particle. This means that it has to be attached to another particle. In Japanese, “to become” has an implicit direction-movement nuance, because when someone or something becomes something else, there is a sense of a transition (although it´s not always physical) from one point to another point. For example:

I became an doctor

Here you started from a specific point X (not being a doctor) and reached a new point Y (becoming a doctor).

So in the sentence:

信頼しんらいできる 人 ひと に なってたんだ

The movement nuance comes from the fact of transitioning from the state of not being a person you can trust to the state of being a person you can trust.

Because the に particle is used in Japanese to imply movement or direction, なる takes it. I hope to have been helpful in some way! :smile: :muscle:However, maybe one of our experts can corroborate what I´ve just said just in case it´s not correct.

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#20

Page 118

And now considering @rafascar ´s question, I have one myself. In the quoted sentence above:

おにいちゃんが叶実かなみにとって信頼しんらいできる 人 ひと に なってたんだ

I was having problems fitting in the 叶実かなみにとって not in regards to the grammar, but to the question of who is actually speaking. I saw that @rafascar has interpreted is at being Kanami talking, but since these thinking rectangular blocks start in the 叶実の家には of page 116, where it was Rental Brother speaking, I assumed this sentence was also said by him, since it´s like his continued thoughts. Having said that, even if it actually was Rental Brother speaking, the translation just doesn´t make sense to me:

For Kanami, her brother has become someone she can trust.

Anyone can shed some light? :pray: :pray:I´d also love to hear @rafascar ´s thoughts, since he translated it as being Kanami speaking.

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#21

Tracking speakers in the narration box can be difficult. Main thing to note is that it doesn’t change from one person to another partway through.

Earlier in this chapter (week 9, page 105), narration-in-a-box begins with Kanami noting how nice her (rental) big brother is. This boxed narration continues for the next couple of pages, until the flow goes back to Kanami and Rental talking (and the flashback).

After the flashback, there’s more box narration. Who is narrating? It’s easy to guess in either direction, but mention of 「パパとママ」 sounds to me like something Kanami would say in her mind, not Rental Big Brother.

That brings us to week 10, where the narration continues as 「でも今は」 and Kanami recalls some things her real big brother said previously. She’s able to apply the to Rental Big Brother in narration in the quote in question.

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#22

That makes a lot of sense! Your whole explanation was spot on all the way, I’m sure I’ll remember this concept with ease next time I encounter it in the wild. Thank you!

Actually… I did not put that much thought into it. In fact, I just noticed that whenever I see the rectangular boxes I automatically assume it is Kanami’s thinking (including page 116, which I also translated as Kanami’s), maybe because we are usually experiencing the manga from Kanami’s point of view. Now I’m curious to see how the others are interpreting it. :smile:

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