三ツ星カラーズ Volume 1 (Absolute Beginner Book Club)

Japanese Language Reading
#171

Speaking of other book clubs, I found this link that you posted in another book club: Japanese Slang 101 That Will Make You Sound Like a Local - Kawa Kawa Learning Studio to be super helpful for me in this one as well. It talks about a lot of the contractions or changing of vowel sounds that occur in everyday speech (so they are common in manga dialogue).

For some one like me really trying to read native material the first time, I am start to pick up of these things as we go through the book, but in the first couple chapters it is really easy to get lost because of how informally people talk in the book vs the more polite speech taught in Genki and the like.

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#172
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#173

How are you all liking the manga so far? I’m about to start the final volume of ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活 (one of my favorite manga) by the same author. Part of me wants to think I’d like 三ツ星カラーズ since it’s by the same author, but the previews give a very different vibe, so I’m unsure.

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#174
My unhelpful comparison point of view.

Keeping in mind I’ve only read volume one of ぼっち, I’d say the two series are different enough that being by the same mangaka doesn’t mean anything. Sort of like going from Azumanga Daioh to Yotsuba (if you’ve read those).

ぼっち カラーズ
Characters Larger, varied cast. Smaller, simple cast.
Story (I assume) overall story that steadily moves forward. Random event with no overall plot.
Humor Packed with punchlines (one every four panels). Slow-paced with more childish humor spread out.
Art Simple, basic backgrounds. Ueno, Ueno, and more Ueno

Aside from that, I nominated it, so I’m biased toward it =D

I do think the whole first volume is enough to get a good feel for if you’d like it. I’d say the first three chapters may tell someone is they’re not interested in reading the series, but a few more chapters may be necessary to determine if you are interested.

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#175

Thanks for sharing! I have my own biases as well. Specifically, I really like the 4-koma format for comedy manga, so that’s a point against 三ツ星カラーズ for me!

In case you’re curious, the story does indeed move forward. Though it’s still primarily focused on the comedy.

I definitely noticed the childish humor on the Amazon preview, which is not really my thing. Would you say the majority of the jokes are based on childish humor?

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#176

A lot of the humor is based in the personalities of the main characters, and only one produces childish humor.

Overall, I’d say it comes to…maybe 10 to 20%? But also note that the format doesn’t require two punchlines per page, so the humor is more sparse.

The other two main characters provide dark humor and comedy duo straight man humor.

There’s more to the three of them than that for comedy, but that’s the basics.

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#177

4 panel comic manga?! News to me! Found a filtered listing of 4-こま manga and checked a few previews. Very interested. Thanks for the heads up!

Searching the forum doesn’t immediately reveal any 4-こま books having been elected for book clubs, could be missing it. Unless someone points it out to me I think I’ll just take the opposite approach as @seanblue and branch of into ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活.

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#178

So far I’m not very interested in the story, but I didn’t read all the current content yet. (I guess I’ll try to catch up later.)
I think as was said there is a lot of childish humour in it, which I think is cute, but well it’s just that: cute :slight_smile: Not really anything to keep me hooked or interested.

@liveunderwater I’m currently reading a previous book from this book club which is 結婚しても恋してる. This is a 4 koma style book.
Edit: Ah it’s not really 4 koma but only short story :smiley: remembered it wrong :sweat_smile:

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#179

Ahh, you ninja’d my “wth?”

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#180

We did read One Week Friends in the BBC, but only the first volume. It’s 4こま with “regular” manga portions mixed in. It was too dense for me to continue, especially when I had already read much of it in English not long before, but I may get back to it eventually.

I’d say カラーズ is sort of a “comical slice-of-life”. So, on one hand, you have to like slice-of-life. On the other hand, the comical portions may make it feel not enough like slice-of-life for those who do like the genre. (A double-edged sword?)

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#181

If I remember correctly, 一週間フレンズ is partially 4-koma. And also シメジシミュレーション is. Both of those were read in the beginner book club (though I didn’t read either of them).

In any case, ひとりぼっち is a great choice for a first 4-koma manga. It’s relatively easy (even considering the lack of furigana) and not very dense, but is still really funny and has great characters. I’m not sure how much the lack of kanji would hold back some people, but at level 51 on WaniKani that aspect shouldn’t be a problem for you.

Other than that, most of the 4-koma manga I read are from Manga Time Kirara. Specifically, my favorites are:

  • ご注文はうさぎですか (all time favorite manga)
  • こみっくがーるず
  • ブレンド・S

I’ve tried a few more too. Some I dropped because I didn’t like them. Another only has one volume so far, so not really worth mentioning. Even if some don’t land for me, Manga Time Kirara is the only magazine (really three magazines) that I specifically go to for recommendations.

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#182

If ひとりぼっち is really easy, maybe this could be suggested in the ABBC as a book?
I really like the author’s drawing style, since it’s very adorable, so I might be tempted to give ひとりぼっち a try! :smiley:

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#183

Actually, yeah, I just gave the BookWalker preview of ひとりぼっち a run through and it seams pretty straight-forward.

Thank you very much for your additional recommendations (and a reminder to use MD from time to time):smile_cat:

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#184

Has ABBC ever read a book with regular kanji usage and no furigana? I suspect it would be better for BBC than ABBC for that reason alone. But ultimately you guys would know better than me.

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#185

I’ve only been around for a couple of picks here, but if there is no furigana, I would agree that it would be a better fit for BBC. I think the lack of furigana is a bit too intimidating for those just starting out in reading. It just adds another layer of difficulty to something that is already fairly difficult (given how many folks join these clubs with reading experience mostly limited to guided experiences like graded readers and textbooks, which don’t really cover casual speech and the like all that well). I can certainly say that I would never have joined a club reading a manga with no furigana as my first pick when starting out.

As it is, as much as I am enjoying this manga, I think it occasionally borders on too difficult for ABBC here and there (though it’s also a bit too easy for BBC, or at least, compared to the current pick, so I totally understand why it landed here). If the other manga is by the same author as this one, and is lacking in furigana, I think that would pretty firmly push it into BBC territory.

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#186

I’m not around for a lot of picks either, but I agree with @MrGeneric that the lack of furigana would be probably too intimidating.
There was also a recent discussion that manga usually don’t get picked in the BBC (I sort of remember reading this somewhere?). So I guess the chance that it will ever get picked are slim. Too bad then. :frowning:
I’ll put it on my to read list though! :smiley:

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#187

Nah, BBC picks a lot of manga. It’s IBC that rarely picks manga.

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#188

I enjoy being able to learn from it and that I don’t feel as hopelessly lost anymore as in week 1. But I can’t say that I enjoy the story or the characters so far. I just don’t find grade-school girls particularly interesting and I kinda find this particular bunch particularly insufferable. That being said, I’m still sticking with it for the language learning aspect.

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#189

What? You mean you don’t find someone randomly shouting うんこ to be the epitome of comedy?

Koichi does, if the ol’ Durtle Heaven puzzle is anything to go by.

And then there’s the mnemonic for 幺…

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#190

Week 7 is now up:

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