I’m impressed by Mogumo being firm on not wanting to be labelled as a 男の娘. I’ve been in similar situations before, and it’s really tempting to just go with the peer pressure and convince yourself it’s not that big of a deal after all, so this hits close to home and I’m proud of Mogumo. Especially since being in that situation after just getting hired is an extra difficult position. Also, I’m happy to see Tetsu being so committed to being a good ally.
I really love this manga so far, if it wasn’t for this book club I’d be really tempted to binge this series as quickly as my level of Japanese allows haha
I agree! Especially since Mogumo is looking so sweet and cute, and this type of outward appearance usually isn’t associated with being so assertive and adamant. So it’s really nice that such かわいい-looking person is being portrayed as also being determined.
Also, your comment reminded me that this cafe is actually a job. It really feels more like getting into a new circle of friends to me, and I now realized that it’s actually a thing which gets you money and all
It doesn’t mean that Mogumo’s situation would be any less difficult, though, if it was “just a chance for a new friends” because this people still seem more open-minded than average person, so it’s still would be scary to potentially chase them away.
All in all, go Mogumo! I’m also very proud of you!
Yesss, already one potential candidate to read the rest of the volumes together
Absolutely! And to add onto that, I really appreciate how Mogumo isn’t a super confident take-no-BS-from-anyone type of person. The fact that they do seem uncomfortable about the whole situation makes it even more admirable that Mogumo is standing up for themself.
I started reading the second chapter today and I already have a small question.
On page 43 (I hope I counted right) one of the boys says 俺いけるかも and I don’t know what いける means here… The sentence seems to mean something like "I might … " but I don’t understand the verb. I searched for it on Jisho but I feel like none of the translations fit. I might be missing something though. Any help would be appreciated
Agreed I just wish I had more time, it’s always so hard to stop in the middle of a chapter until I find the time to continue.
It’s the potential form of 行く to go. So “I can go”.
With the かも, and making it more natural in English you would say “I could go for it”. That is, he wouldn’t mind going out (or more, I guess) with the main character.
I also really like this manga so far, if I can keep up with the first few chapters I’m inclined to finish the series. I’m only half way through this week’s, gotta catch up. A quick question though:
First panel of the chapter, "年の離れた兄” - what does the 年の part mean? 離れた here seems to mean the brother is no longer around, so is it like a “long-lost” kinda meaning? Additionally, at least on my copy, there are dots next to 兄 and 女性. Is that meant to draw your attention to their juxtaposition or something? Thanks
Honestly didn’t expect this manga to get this interesting!
Plot stuff (with spoilers from the chapter)
About the conflict with Mei: I get the feeling that Mei also doesn’t identify as a boy and has put up with it until now, so she’s angry and jealous about Mogumo fighting for their identity? Could be wrong, but I’m looking forward to seeing if they explore in-depth each character’s identity and gender expression. Mogumo and Tetsu are cuter than I thought they would be, and Mogumo’s determination surprised me as well!
Anyway, there’s a sentence I don’t understand. It’s on page 50 -I think-, by Mogumo:
自分と同じ性別って感覚がよくわかんないの。
Context:
“I don’t really understand the feeling of being attracted to someone of my own gender” terrible translation, but what I imagine they’re saying here is: since they’re neither a boy nor a girl and they haven’t met anyone like them, they don’t understand what it means to be attracted to their same gender? I took the being attracted part from the conversation with Satori
I think you’ve pretty much got it, I don’t think it’s necessarily about attraction though. I read it as like “I don’t really have a good sense of what ‘same-sex’/(same-gender) would even mean for me,” like their gender is undefined enough that the binary same/opposite construction that feeds into labels like gay/straight doesn’t really make sense in the first place.
That’s an interesting theory. It would explain why Mei is getting angry at Mogumo again. That confused me a little after the way Chapter 1 ended, to be honest.
There is a sentence I don’t understand in the top panel of page 45:
そう思ってたのに
あんなのに真剣に願い事してるんだもんな
My knowledge of grammar being basic, I tried to split the phrase:
そう - demonstrative
思って - て-form of 思う
たのに - I don’t know this structure
I understand something like “I think so”
あん - does it correspond to this kanji 案, meaning plan/idea?
なのに - yet
真剣に - serious. I saw on Jisho that it’s a な-adj. Does using に instead of な make the adjective an adverb? 願い事 - wish
してる - ている-form of する, i.e. progressive from
んだ - casual form of のだ
もんな - casual way to emphasize
I guess that んだもんな does not bring additional meaning to the sentence and is just a colloquial ending for an affirmative sentence.
Then, I came to the meaning “I think so, yet, despite this plan, I am seriously wishing”. But wishing what? The first part of the sentence would refer to the previous panel, where Tetsu says that he is affected by Mogumo’s situation (I think). The rest does not make sense to me.
You can see I am pretty confused about these two pages (44 & 45), so I would be glad if someone could help me.
I’ll try to explain it as best I can (but please feel free to correct me, because it’s possible I got something wrong).
It’s Tetsu internal dialogue, so “そう思ってたのに” is “そう思っていたのに” (in textbooks they usually forget to mention that it’s pretty common to omit the い when forming the continuous tense, or, in this case, the past continuous form). So “I thought that…”. “That” being what he said on the last panel. After that, there’s のに ending the sentence, which expresses “although, even though”. Here’s a Maggie sensei’s post on this grammar point. Basically: “That’s what I thought (that Mogumo was unaffected by the mean comments), but…”.
Then, あんなのに真剣に願い事してるんだもんな.
あんな is a word in itself, meaning “such/like that”, and then the のに, I think it’s different from the last one and the の is describing the situation and the に making it an adverb. The rest of the vocabulary is right, but he’s referring to Mogumo’s wish of being understood, not Tetsu’s wish.
I would translate the whole sentence as “That’s what I used to think… but they actually had such an earnest wish”. English is not my native language so it might be a bit off, but I still hope I could help you in some way!
PS. About the んだもんな, which I’m not really familiar with, here’s a language exchange post about it.
Thank you so much for your answer, this is really helpful!
Thank you also for the links to the grammar points, it is definitely what I was missing.
It makes more sense now that you correctly split the sentence parts .
Reading a text using colloquial language is way more challenging than I expected, as you said, a lot of forms are contracted and slightly different than in textbooks.
But I am so grateful for this book club, with everyone’s help it is possible for beginners like me to enjoy mangas about super interesting topics!
I am having a problem with the dialogue in pages 59-60 when Mogumo says:
End of Page 59 僕だけ言わないっていうのは…
Page 60 言いたくないからっていちいち説明すんの？ それはダサイにゃ
僕 - I
だけ - Simply
言わない - not say (Short form negative)
っていう - Meaning, called, said のは - Reason?
言いたくない - don`t want to say
から - Because
って
いちいち - One by one
説明すんの? To explain (Grammar here should be んです - Explanation mode)
それは - That is ダサイ - Lame にゃ - Unless, have to
The only thing I can think of is
I don`t want to say it because I would have to explain (The non binary case) one by one. And that is Lame to have to do it
Well, the first problem you seem to have is that it’s not もぐも talking on page 60. (While it could be any of the other 3, the にゃ strongly hints at てんちゃん)
Only
というのは definition 2 “how about”
→ what if just me doesn’t say it…
It’s する + の. の is just an end marker for question.
That has no meaning, it’s just てんちゃん being a cat.
→ So because you don’t want to say it you are planning to explain every single time? That’s lame nya.
.