In this usage, I think this と is used for quoting:
「メールには『大変』としか書いてない」
Seen this way, “As for the text message, nothing was written except 「大変」.”
The 「しかし これは」 begins as a new sentence, “However, this is…]”
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When manga does that little bubble off of a bigger bubble, is that always a new sentence？
Serves me right for copypasta into a s/s… missed that
と as a quote… ack, yeah, have done that, but it’s normally so well formatted that it makes it obvious… were there any clues here (in the manga formatting) that this was a quote?
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It depends on the author. (I know, not the answer you want to hear.)
Here are examples from other manga.
In the first panel (top-right), Kei is speaking one sentence in this “combined two bubbles”. However, it’s two sentences joined into one by けど.
In the last panel (bottom-left), Chinatsu’s two joined bubbles are two completely separate sentences. (Well, the first is more of an interjection, and the second a sentence.)
In this one, Rinko is fitting three sentences into the space of two joined bubbles.
When it’s a quote, you’ll often see after it one of the following:
言う (to say “…”)
思う (to think “…”)
書く (to write “…”)
This one’s a bit trickier because it has the しか…ない pattern mixed in.
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そうなのよ
how best to translate this? this grammar point is muddling me up I think
I’m taking the よ off as emphasising
is it そう なの
or そうな の
if it’s the former, that makes more sense to me, we covered なの on the first week, the second way doesn’t make sense to me
is it basically: oh that !
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Don’t forget the page numbers 
I believe you are talking about the page 21, panel 2
I believe it’s just そう. よ is for emphasis, の is explanatory. The answer has の because ゆい asks her for an explanation in the previous phrase by also using の.
な here is a bit added to na-adj in order to connect them to explanatory の (And here な,I think, is a conjugated copula だ).
The grammar point you referring to is not applicable here in a way it’s laid out:
Verb + そうな + Noun
They are using そう to describe the following noun by the means of the preceding verb or adjective, just like you would do with a standalone na-adj.
Speaking of translation, I doubt there is a decent one that is close by grammar concepts. そう used as a general agreement with what ゆい said before and barely has any meaning. My best guess would be
ー 何かあったの？！
Something happened?!
ー そうなのよ。大変なのよ。 これ。
Yes. Terrible [thing]. pointing finger at bananas This.
._.
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Literally, I’d probably go along the lines of, “It is so,” but this sounds a bit awkward, so more loosely I’d pick, “That’s right” as a translation for そうなの.
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Just did my first read-through of everything. Thanks for the vocabulary sheet words it was a huge help! I found this week the easiest so far.
There are a few sentences still giving me some trouble even with the vocabulary sheet:
- Page 17, Panel 3: その案には賛成 虐殺の限りを尽くしてやる. This one I’m particularly not sure about, my guess would be The idea to support is to exhaust the limits of the slaughter
-
Page 21, Panel 6: かあちゃんそんなことで呼んだのかよー
I think this is something along the lines of Mother did you call me for this kind of thing? -
Page 21, Panel 6: あーそんなって言ったね 今
I think this is the mother replying back a bit sarcastically along the lines of Ah that kind of reason you said now? - Page 22, panel 2: ということでバナナを売り歩いてくれのだカラーズ諸君 My guess would be The colors were called to sell the bananas
As always, thank you for all of the guidance and for making this reading possible!
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Pg.17, Panel 3
I think it’s actually two separate sentences:
その案には賛成
“I agree with that idea.”
虐殺の限りを尽くしてやる
This one’s a little more awkward for me:
“We will go all out with the slaughter.” or “We will slaughter (them all).”
It’s a bit harder to break down but:
虐殺の限りを = the extent of slaughter, with を particle, marking it as the direct object of the verb
尽くしてやる = 尽くす in conjunctive て-form with やる, meaning along the lines of, “to do completely; to do to exhaustion”
I definitely struggle to come up with a clean English translation for it, but above was what I would settle on.
Pg. 21, Panel 6, Both Questions
I think you have that pretty much right.
“Mom, you called for such a thing?” was my reading, but same difference in this case.
For the second question on the same panel, I actually read it as:
“Ah, you said something like that just now…” with an implied, “but” in there, before she goes on to hint in the next panel as to why Sacchan should care about there being unsold bananas. Namely: that she would be eating nothing but bananas for the next little while.
Pg. 22, Panel 2
I would actually say, “So/therefore/because of that/insert your preferred とういことで transition here (the point being that she is referring back to Sacchan’s statement about having to eat a bunch of bananas if they go unsold), go out and sell the bananas, Colors!”
It’s a request because the 売り歩く verb is conjugated into a form of てくれる: 売り歩いてくれのだ
てくれる can be used in a couple of ways based on context:
- To request a favor from someone
- To express that a favor was done for you
Context shows that she is requesting they do this favor, in this case.
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Page 22, Panel 2
I read that as 売り歩いてくる - to start peddling / to come to peddle as there’s not a れ there, but it being manga could be that it’s dropped…
Same sentence: why did I struggle to find a translation of とういことで is it a phrase rather than a word, using ichi, jisho didn’t really help me there, is there another resource that can help?
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Yes, that’s 売り歩いてくる, not 売り歩いてくれ, but I don’t think it’s the grammar point you linked to. It’s probably the same くる as in 行ってきます, meaning go peddle and come back.
Now という in all its variations is something that you’re going to come across all the time, and at some point you’ll start developing a feel for it. I know it was the one most frustrating thing for me when I started out, and I still don’t understand it 100%. Looking it up in dictionaries is also sometimes more confusing than helpful. I’ll try and break it down:
という quotes something that’s been previously mentioned. If you see と at the start of a bubble or sentence, you know it refers to something previously said. ということ is the thing that’s been said. You will often see this with は or だ and can be translated in all sorts of ways, but basically means that what has been said leads to whatever follows. So some valid translations might be “This means”, “Therefore”, “That said”, etc.
Hope that helps.
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I think that 売り歩いてくれのだ is 売り歩いてくれのだ with a dropped る because of informal speech (I’m not 100% sure why てくれ is allowed but googling came up with results example 1, example 2).
I was also completely lost for ということで and didn’t consider that the thing that was said was the thing that was in the last panel!
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くれ is the informal imperative of くれる. However, in this panel, it’s not 売り歩いてくれのだ but 売り歩いてくるのだ. のだ can also be used to make a request, by the way. Here’s a quote from a Wasabi article on making requests:
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Thank you for clarifying my typo! I copy everything to a google doc and had mistyped this and didn’t realize it! With your quote it makes so much more sense.
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Yep! this has caught me out several times too…
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I was looking at a really useful site about Japanese contractions and their use in manga the other day (like とこ for ところ). I think it was linked from this book club but I can’t find it for the life of me. Does anyone have it? Yeah have looked in the popular links sections. Thanks
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thanks, wasn’t the link I was looking for but useful nonetheless
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I linked the other to not overwhelm people, but another nice one if you’re looking for more is this one.
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That was it! thanks (& bookmarked!)
thanks for the prompt replies
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