Is this series done by the same person as Ichigo Mashimaro? If so that would explain a lot. The artwork looked the same so I figured I was getting into some nonsense lol.
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No, but I admit that thought has crossed my mind more than once. They’re the same sort of genre, though.
Mitsuboshi Colors is by Katsuwo, who also did Hitoribocchi no 〇〇seikatsu. Meanwhile, Ichigo Mashimaro was Barasui, and that’s basically all he’s done.
Though, has anyone ever seen Katsuwo and Barasui in the same room at the same time…?
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Is it worth picking up a copy of this book as a beginner?
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It’s excellent for reference. The explanations are very brief, and the meaning is better illustrated by way of a few example sentences, but I find that, strangely, it includes more points and nuances than the three volumes of Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar. I believe these are more recommended for beginners, especially the first volume, as they’re wordier in their explanations. But in the end it all boils down to what you’re looking for, beginner or not.
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I’ve not been keeping up as well as I would like, just starting reading this week’s section now, but here are my questions:
Page 17
In the second panel, the sentence 「そうだ…足りないものだ」, This seems to be a big long chain of modifiers. この街の平和を守る seems to be modifying 私たち to mean “we, the protectors of this towns peace”. Then に marks that whole clause as the target of 足りないものだ。So I’ve translated this as “that is the thing that we, this towns protectors, lack.”. Is that right?
Kotoha’s stuff in panel three has already been talked about a lot, I just want to say I’m continuing to love how bloodthirsty she is. I am however wondering what sacchan was about to say when she was interrupted. What do people think the でさー was going to be?
Page 19
In panel 1, I’m assuming that Yui refers to さっちゃんのおばちゃん rather than のおかあさん is the usage of おばちゃん as a catch-all for older women?
Then panels 2 and three are the joke about Sacchan’s mum spontaneously turning inside out that has been talked about earlier in the thread. I’m wondering if ～って何 is a canned phrase, like a sort of “you said what??”, or if it’s just grammar applied in the usual way.
I’m not sure how to translate the second half of panel 4. Is 「出動要請」two words or one compound word? If it’s two words, my best guess for the meaning is “This is a call for our (we, Colours, the protectors of this town’s peace) dispatch!”.
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Pg. 17
Yep, I think you’ve got it exactly right.
Remember, a ー in Japanese is different than an English -. It doesn’t indicate anything being cut off or interrupted, it indicates the sound before it being elongated. It could also be written as でさぁ, for example.
でさー is essentially very similar to だよね… It’s kind of a colloquial, “Right?” indicating agreement with whatever was said before. You’ll usually see it at the end of sentences, but it can be used at the beginning and middle of sentences. In the beginning of a sentence, it could either be a sound of agreement with what was said previously, or it could be a “continuation” of the previous sentence, “Oh! That’s right, and” sorta vibes to it. In the middle of a sentence, it’ll usually be a filler sound.
I know that one character in a mobile game I play uses it constantly as she speaks (the character is supposed to be from Okinawa, iirc), pretty much just as filler speech. “They were like this, right? And so I was doing this, right? And it was super cool, right?” would be the closest English example I could come up with. She uses it often enough that I read the でさー in her exact tone of voice because my brain is trained to hear it that way. 
That’s how I’ve seen it used. If there are other uses, or if there’s anything more in-depth to it than that, I don’t know it.
Pg. 19
Yep!
If you mean in the way that it’s a boilerplate/common response to bizarre things in anime/manga, I mean, yes, kinda? But it’s also just a casual と quotation particle + 何, so it’s also grammar applied perfectly normally:
“What (do you mean by), “Turned inside out?!” That’s scary, Kotoha!”
As for 出動要請, while it doesn’t show up on Jisho, it does show up in Weblio when searched, as one word: “Dispatch request.” I can also say it shows up as an option in my IME without me having to do anything special, so I’m fairly comfortable saying it’s supposed to be one compound word (It’s also a title of a song from the Fire Force soundtrack, for what it’s worth. ). Either way, the meaning of the sentence isn’t changed all that much whether it’s two words, or one compound.
“This is a dispatch request for us Colours, the protectors of this town’s peace!”
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I’ve been a bit truant these past few days due to a few things, but it’s good to see the thread’s been growing =D
My reading of page 17
From page 17, I take it that Sacchan feels the three members of Colors aren’t enough to protect the district on their own. With チューチューカブリラ, they would be able to. (At this point, even a Japanese reader won’t know what that is.)
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About Page 21 Panel 6:
> あーそんなって言ったね 今
I was wondering if the space between ね and 今 actually meant someting? In my first go (before reading the discussion about this) I thought that the first sentence ends with ね and then 今 is used as a transition to the next panel. so: That’s what you said. Now, … and then she transitions to the sentence in the next panel. Do you think that’ a possibility?
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I finally finished with this week’s reading! Not counting 琴葉さん and her wierd humor, it wasn’t too hard to understand.
I still have a question about page 22
Page 22
かあちゃん says: うん 素直でよろしい！
I was wondering what a good translation of よろしい is in this context? It know it means ok or good, so a quite literal translation would be: Yes, with honesty (that) is good. Could I translate it as Honestly, I’m glad! as well?
Thanks!
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Pg. 21, Panel 6
Good eye! I didn’t actually notice that space there (this is the first manga I’m reading that seems to actually utilize spaces in a meaningful matter, so I’m still trying to train my brain to actually pay attention to that! Time to make myself slow down a little bit more as I’m reading, I think).
I think that’s perfectly possible, and even likely. I still get the same Vibe™ from the sentence regardless of where we place the 今 in the end, with a slight difference in how I would phrase it in English. Taking the space into account:
“Ah, you said that (but)… Now, if the bananas aren’t sold out by the end of the day, in that case…”
So, same basic meaning, just slightly different phrasing. I do think your interpretation that the 今 is placed with the next sentence is correct, though. I just need to pay more mind to the spaces!
Pg. 22
I think that’s a serviceable interpretation, in this context.
“Yes, to be honest, (you doing this for me) is good!” was the route my brain took, but your interpretation sounds like a more natural English response, though not a direct translation.
(うれしい would be the more likely term to use for an actual, “I’m glad.”)
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Alternate translation for the line page 22: “I like your honesty” (since they went from being 「えーーー？！」 to being “I’ll do it!” when a reward was mentioned)
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That does fit, and I like the way it sounds, but can you explain the use of the で particle in that instance? I would expect a は or other particle for that interpretation, but I fully admit that I still suck with the で particle.
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I think it’s the same as covered here:
https://maggiesensei.com/2014/05/20/〜でいい-〜でもいい vs 〜がいい-de-ii-demo-ii-vs-ga-ii/
よろしい works like いい, so checking articles on grammar for でいい will apply to でよろしい as well.
As for the grammar behind it, I’m not certain in this case. I think it is “て form” of だ here.
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Ah, I didn’t realize that よろしい behaved the same as いい in this way. Good to know, thank you! I think you are correct in that it’s the て form of だ; I just wouldn’t have made that connection without it actually being いい that follows.
Does よろしい behave like いい, because they have similar meanings in this case, or do I need to prime my brain to watch out for other い adjectives following で in a similar fashion?
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よろしい is the sonkeigo version of いい, so you’ll always use it in place of いい when the situation calls for it.
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This is the second time this week that I should have recognized a sonkeigo term/way of speaking, and just didn’t. Guess I know what I need to study more! Thank you for pointing that out!
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Week four’s thread is up!
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Managed to finish this week rather quickly actually. Maybe I got used to some of the vocab or to the humour being borderline incomprehensible, but it wasn’t too hard to get the basic gist of what was going on this time…
this thread helped clear up some misconceptions I still had.
A minor question: on page 19, we read どおかした and it took me a while to recognise that this is actually どうかした… is this sort of “typo” common and if so, is it done on purpose or just one of these mistakes native speakers tend to do (like English speakers mixing up “there” and “their”)?
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I’m no expert, if anyone thinks I’m wrong or has more to add, but I think you’re just going to see these sort of misspellings to represent pronunciation all over the place in manga. It’s very unpleasant when you’re learning, but the more you do it, the quicker you’ll catch what word it almost is that makes sense. A lot of the times they follow the same sort of logic too; I’m pretty confident I’ve seen お in place of う for those sorts of long vowels before in other words.
…of course, I say that, having come off it taking me a frustratingly long time yesterday when I encountered “チミ” for the first time to realize it was きみ (In my defense, like, nothing the guy said was spelled “properly” so context was hard haha). The learning never stops 
Also, congrats! It’s going to feel arduous for a while, but the early burst of comfort with reading, in at least being able to figure out SOME stuff better, really does come on quick. And, as people always say, usually starting a new book/series/etc is the hardest part.
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I don’t think these should be considered mistakes, such as your example of misspelling “their” as “there”. These are more a stylistic choice on the part of the author. So どう might appear as どう、どお、or どー、or maybe written in katakana.
Sometimes it’s reflecting spoken pronunciation, like in English a character saying “wazzup” rather than “what’s up”.
I’m not sure if there is a subtle difference in pronunciation between どう、どお、and どー? I’d always thought of this one as being different style choices but I may be wrong.
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