Oh, very nice! I guess I totally missed that
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Honestly I just pulled that link up myself from my bookmarks, so if it was shared here, we both missed it! I like all the detail, but worried that showing it to people who are just starting might be a little more despair-inducing than helpful, so I went out looking for a simpler version for my earlier intro post, haha.
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Having just scrolled all the way through that I realize I’m going to have to take that in in small chunks. Here I thought maggiesensei lessons were long.
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Oops! I even went back and looked at the panel and still missed the typo! My bad!
Honestly, if I run into a large phrase like that and I’m not sure where to begin breaking it down, I will type the phrase into Google and follow it up with the English word grammar. It’s not perfect, but it will often net some kind of starting point. That said, like @omk3, という is something that I still occasionally battle with, and was something that I did not like at all when I initially came across it because it’s so complex and versatile; I definitely vented my spleen about it in a couple of my posts in the Takagi-san board. 
Editing to add: As for some actual resources aside from just looking it up like I mentioned:
Japanese StackExchange, and similar Q&A forums like HiNative.
I will often check one of those options as well, to see if there is anything on a grammar point. The issue there is that you have to hope that you are breaking down what you’re looking at correctly!
That said, yeah, you will get a feel for it as you inevitably see it often.
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hahaha, yeah… just started to come across these versatile grammar points in my N4 progress, よう、ところ、という … brain is feeling very foggy
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Broccoli defenders assemble.
Page 17
You know, I just came across 限り elsewhere earlier today, and couldn’t quite feel it out so I shrugged it off cause the meaning was intuitive enough. I’ve been poring over the Maggie Sensei page, and as best as I can figure out, this use (her only examples of “の限り,” in what seems to be a frustratingly broad amount of uses) is what she translates to “as far as.” Which I guess makes sense intuitively for the idea of an extent. So in that bottom right panel it’s essentially just a particular way of setting the object in this case, if I’m interpreting it correctly? Like, “I’m going to devote myself to the slaughter,” perhaps a little more literally like “as far as the slaughter is concerned…”
Is this right? I think I get the panel, I’m just looking for confirmation on this and/or anyone’s insight on 限り generally if they happen to have it.
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Pg. 17
I’ve been digging around on 限り myself because I haven’t found a solid enough foundation on it to marry it in the sentence yet in a way I liked. But then it occurred to me; maybe I am marrying it to the wrong part of the sentence. And lo and behold: 「限りを尽くす」の英語・英語例文・英語表現 - Weblio和英辞書
When it’s tied to 尽くす, it seems that it has a “commit all kinds” vibe to it!
So, in context, 虐殺の限りを尽くしてやる would be, “(We/I will) commit all kinds of slaughter!”
Or at least, that’s my read on it, after finding that.
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My interpretation is that 限り is a concept that conveys the extent of something up to the point it reaches some sort of limit; the dictionary assigns terms like “the end” or “as far as~” to 限り.
限り is a noun, and as such needs to connect to other words in the normal ways a noun does. 虐殺 is a another noun, so this leaves の as the most common way to connect them: 虐殺の限り is simply “the extent”, “the limit” or “as far as” slaughter goes. The extent of the slaughter to the limit possible.
尽くす is a verb that means to exhaust. It has a secondary meaning (to devote or to do fully) which is just basically an extension of exhausting; when you devote yourself to something you do it until exhaustion. This secondary meaning is intransitive while the main meaning (exhaust) is transitive.
虐殺の限りを尽くす - here 虐殺の限り is the direct object of 尽くす. Since this sentence has a direct object, we know that 尽くす is being used in the “to exhaust” sense.
So basically this sentence literally says that the subject of the sentence (which is not explicitly stated, but that would be the girls in this case) will exhaust every possible limit of slaughter - in plain English, that they will slaughter to the maximum in every possible way. It’s a superlative sentence; an exaggerated way to say that they intend to do the slaughtering as fully and completely as it’s possible.
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@anon99047008 @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz
Much appreciated, both of you!
I see, yeah. That all makes sense, I only fixated on the の because Maggie presented so many different use cases and most of them specified being に限り and the like. But this whole thing really is just the intuitive way I saw it at first, before overthinking it. It’s just, something like “to exhaust the extent of the slaughter” at first glance seemed too hard to work into something coherent without running the risk of making up my own, close enough story. Just need more experience seeing and dealing with these uses. But I get how that functions as exaggeration now, thanks! I also hadn’t realized the two uses of 尽くす differed in transitivity, so that’s much appreciated too. I really need to pay more attention to those details…
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To add to this excellent explanation, the “Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns” lists Nのかぎり・Vるかぎり as meaning “to the utmost limit” or “all”. There is no specific pattern with 尽くす, but one example sentence includes it:
あの大統領は、権力の絶頂にあった頃ぜいたくの限りを尽くしていたそうだ。
The translation, interestingly, includes neither limit nor all: I heard that the president indulged in a life of luxury at the peak of his power. So it seems it’s used to emphasize or exaggerate, but doesn’t necessarily need to be directly translated, depending on context.
Edit: Expectations of content often hinder comprehension for me. Having cute little girls talk about committing slaughter is the strangest thing in this sentence actually. Combined with an imaginary creature’s name, it’s quite hard to make sense of right at the beginning of the chapter, and still so near the beginning of the book. Last chapter there was poop mentioned out of the blue, now this. I’m sure by the next few chapters I’ll have learnt to expect the unexpected.
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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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