Abusers often have a knack for picking out people with low self-esteem, or people with low credibility. I feel like the teacher knows exactly what he’s doing, and that out of all his pupils she is least likely to give him trouble.
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(Sorry, pushed the wrong button on my phone…)
Well, that was a week’s reading in which a lot happened and it’s even almost time for Obon again. I definitely hadn’t expected that.
I thought that perhaps what disturbed her so about the phone call was that Natsuki has friends that she can chat to in that way and Kise might not (but it’s hard to tell because we really don’t know much about Kise yet).
Yes, I agree that she is uncertain about how ‘improper’ it is and like she says whether it isn’t just that she is too self-conscious about it. I have never had to experience anything remotely like this so I cannot imagine what it’s like, but I do think that these are thoughts that a child (or perhaps even a grownup) might have at such a time, out of a human tendency to downplay the seriousness of the situation that you are in.
Perhaps I’m projecting too much, but I also thought that her use of the word おかしい might be related since it can mean ‘improper’ but also just ‘strange’ or ‘funny’. I don’t know for sure, but there are probably more definitive words for ‘improper’ in Japanese (probably at least some kind of jukugo word).
It might still be an intentional double meaning by the author. 
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Well,
what on earth. Felt mildy sick while reading that last part, not gonna lie.
I feel so bad for Natsuki. She really doesn’t have it easy in any part of her life. Heartbreaking that she actually seems to believe the negative stuff her family says about her.
Based on her family’s behavior so far, it’s also not hard to picture them not believing her even if she did say something about the teacher. Even telling her friend might be tricky because she seems to like the guy so much. I think I agree that Natsuki might not even be truly aware of how bad that situation is, but even if she was, it would be hard to blame her for not saying anything. That situation would be difficult even with a functioning support system, which she doesn’t even have, so… What a shitty situation to be in.
Random question, but do we know what year the story takes place in? I was wondering whether Natsuki would potentially have the internet as a source of information (since she doesn’t have anyone supportive in her life that she could ask). I don’t remember any mentions of computers or cell phones so far, just the landline, so I suppose it might not quite be present day?
On the topic of phones - unless it just wasn’t mentioned, it doesn’t seem like she ever talks to Yuu on the phone. I wonder why. You’d think that was the next best option if you miss someone you can’t see in person for a year…
Language question (sort of):
I'm not sure I get this part:
私は拳をぎゅっと握りしめた。これも最近覚えた魔法だ。親指を握ると、手の中に暗闇ができる。上手すると、手の中の暗闇を、真っ暗な、宇宙に近い色にすることができる。
You can’t really clench your fist so hard that your hand turns black… can you? Am I reading this wrong? What exactly is she doing here?
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She is saying that she just learned a new magic where when she squeezes her thumb (i.e. tucks it into the fist) then it gets dark inside of the hand (in this little cavity that is surrounded by the palm and fingers), and when this is done very well, it gets about as dark as outer space.
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I’m just sitting here, trying to reproduce that hand movement 
I guess it works when you try to look into your hand from the side where the thumb is not? Either way, I think I get the idea. Thanks!
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I imagine it to be something like this:
Well, I mean, if you look inside, of course the darkness is gone, right? 
So the whole point of it is believing that it is there.
By the way I do believe that it can get as dark as outer space inside my fist.
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Not necessarily. If you leave a little bit of space between your fingers and palm, and then look through that little hole that forms where your pinkie is, it’s pretty much pitch black.
The next line in the book is
私は手の中の宇宙を見るのが好きだった。もっと上手になったら、来年の夏、由宇に見せてあげよう。
so I figured it was something actually visible and not just imaginary. But it probably also doesn’t matter that much
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Ah, I was more thinking along the laws of Physics. You know, if you can look inside, then light rays can also go inside, and therefore it cannot be 100% dark, technically speaking. But yeah, for a 10-year-old that method might be totally sufficient
Good point! So she really looks at it 
Thanks for the clarification!
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I think this week for me it was Natsuki’s world view.
The humans nesting in their city of neatly lined up baby factories. People serving the city as two kinds of tools. The home room teacher moving as society’s chess piece. I just really like this kind of writing.
A slight parallel with かがみの孤城: it reminds me a bit of Masamune’s view of how compulsory education causes everyone to blindly do as their told, intimidated by teachers of inferior intelligence because it is the normal thing to do. The big difference being that for Masamune (and his parents) this is a reason to rebel against the system, whereas Natsuki is still striving to at least fulfil her duty as one type of tool. However, as Natsuki grows older and into adolescence (and learns from her experiences) I can totally see her changing course and rebel as well.
Not necessarily, I think. Maybe more a criticism of suburbanism.
I don’t think it is that sad. I think Natsuki is right at that age where children go through an existential phase where they suddenly (think they) see the world for what it is, in simplified (as you and @jhol say) but very strong terms. As grownups we might think that these are sad thoughts for a child to have, but I think it is part of the adolescent process (I certainly went through some black and white opinions as a teenager) and later you learn that the world is more nuanced (both in positive and in negative ways…)
You mean クラッシュボンバー笹本? 
(Is that my favourite word this week?) I think that that right there is one reason why the mother acts like that (Natsuki is simply the next one in the pecking order), although I’m also expecting that we’ll learn more about クラッシュボンバー’s past later. And I think there is also a bit of the old pick-on-the-second-child thrown in.
To me, Natsuki seems on the cusp of independence from her mother: she still often says that her mother is right about what a dropout she is, but I feel that deep down inside she already knows that that is not true. But at the moment she only explicitly thinks that way about her magic.
Mr. Igasaki
That was uneasy to read. He seems to run a sophisticated scheme where he probably thinks that he can always claim that it’s all just a big misunderstanding and it was all just in the interest of education.
The whole thing was chilling, but this in particular for me: 先生はどうやってそれが私のものだと見分けて持って来たのだろう？ As if the guy wasn’t already creepy enough…
I’m not entirely sure he is only doing this with Natsuki. Just before the last scene, Natsuki remarks that it hadn’t happened for a long time. Either he had restraint (which I doubt) or his attention was on other girls for a while.
By the way, how do we know that he is called Igasaki and not Ikazaki? Is that from the English edition? I don’t remember any furigana (which was slightly frustrating).
All of this is just in addition to all of the excellent comments above. I feel like I want to quote all of your comments to add I agree, but I’ll leave it at one big “I agree!”.
Oh, and favourite word of the week: all of the nicknames. It’s a lot of fun to pick them apart to figure out their meaning.
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Yes, he is called Igasaki in the English translation.
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Speaking of names, how should I read her friend 静ちゃん’s name? Is that just しずか?
Some questions about the text this week:
In the paragraphs just before the phone call with 静ちゃん, Natsuki at some point says:
宇宙船が見つからなければ、私はきっと他の誰かとつがいになって、世界のために人間を産まなくてはいけなくなるだろう
My question
Why would she have to do that if the spaceship is not found? I would think that she would have to get with someone else if the spaceship is found because then Yuu would leave her, right?
Or (I just thought of this as I was typing) does she mean that if the spaceship is found, she and Yuu would leave together, but if the spaceship is not found, then they stay, but Yuu might not be able to have children because he is an alien (which she mentions in the previous sentence) so then she has to get with someone else to fulfil her duty? Man, it’s pretty complicated to be married to an alien…
In the scene with her mother and the neighbour, her mother says:
お嫁の貰い手もないだろうしね、…
I assume that this means something along the lines of:
Natsuki probably not being able to get married (because she is such a disgrace) but it’s a difficult sentence for me.
It literally says something like “she’s probably not someone who receives (貰い手) being a married woman (お嫁)”?
It’s hard for me to wrap my head around how it is clear in which direction the ‘receiver’ works (apart from context). In particular because お嫁 can also mean daughter-in-law, which obviously does not apply here.
I also had some trouble with the small talk about Yukatas between Natsuki and 静ちゃん when she arrives at the Juku:
金魚の可愛い柄のやつ、この前見たんだ
But that was only because I didn’t know yet that やつ can also mean ‘thing’ (which makes more sense here than ‘dude’ 
).
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I figured that for whatever reason she simply wouldn’t be permitted to to marry him.
I watched The Power of the Dog on Netlfix which has some powerful themes on strength—true strength, and the illusion of strength. What I really like so far about this book is how undeniably strong Natsuki is. She is able to be the trash can and accept all the abuse, which is very sad, but she never folds under it. In fact, it only reinforces her resolve to study hard and try to become a better member of society. The fact that she can keep everything in perspective and not simply pass the abuse onto someone else is true strength. Contrast that with her mother who at first appears strong, bossing Natsuki around and telling her how weak she is. But now we’re seeing that maybe she’s not in control of her life like she wants to be. Maybe she was abused, as I think others have speculated. Maybe she’s projecting her own weakness onto Natsuki…
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For your first question, I am with your second interpretation: If she cannot find the spaceship and get away with Yuu, she needs to fulfill her role in society, and for that she clearly needs another person.
For your second question, I am not sure, but here are some thoughts:
First of all, お嫁 - Jisho.org means “bride”.
Secondly, I found this hinative post: 【嫁の貰い手】とはどういう意味ですか？ - 日本語に関する質問 | HiNative which says that お嫁の貰い手 means “bridesgroom”, basically (i.e. the person who is the receiver of the bride). This makes sense to me (I actually speculated it could be that before I read the article), but what confuses me is that it is followed by ない (and not いない as I would have expected to be used for a human). But maybe that’s just the mother speaking sloppily, or maybe there is some other reason.
Putting it all together, it means something like “she can’t possibly expect to find a husband” (with lots of translator’s liberties 
)
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Thank you @NicoleRauch! That makes sense. We probably shouldn’t worry too much about the missing い.
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Is there some cultural context? The best I could find were what looked like some browser or phone games? Interestingly the English translation localizes it as “Godzilla Sasamoto”
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Ha ha, no not particularly. I was a little surprised like you when I tried to google and couldn’t find anything appropriate, because for some reason the term immediately clicked for me. For me, クラッシュボンバー conjures up associations with someone who has a tendency to crash into a situation and explode (a crashing bomber plane perhaps that appears out of nowhere?), which for me matches the mother’s tendency to criticise Natsuki out of the blue in public in ways that are inappropriately negative and she seems unaware that she is crossing that line. And it also matches her bad temper and emotional instability, which I think the colleagues were also referencing. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. For some reason I immediately thought that it was an apt nickname. I am quite curious if Murata based it on anything specific. It is interesting that the translation uses a different (and arguably more obvious) term!
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I also got curious and googled it. I found a game with that name which seems to just be a ‘match 3’ kind of game. The bombs count down when you match them, and matching number 1 bombs causes them to explode. If they’re referencing this game, maybe the nickname is an allusion to her seeming like a bomb with a lit fuse that could explode at any time? It’d make sense from what we know so far. I’m not sure how well known this game is, but then again the naming had to come from somewhere, too. So it’s possible that the sound of the words themselves brings that sort of image to mind.
Here’s a short YouTube video showing the game:
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I definitely think it’s just a connotation-of-the-words thing not a specific reference.
Hulk Hogan had a wrestling move when he wrestled in Japan called the アックスボンバー, and Mega Man 2 has a weapon called クラッシュボム, which is just to say the naming scheme doesn’t seem that unusual to me when it comes to silly nicknames for things (and I think that game is another separate example).
I figure it’s as simple as she crashes into people and explodes at them, so she’s クラッシュボンバー笹本.
(and in context that’s what the two extras are complaining about when they mention it)
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Interesting then that they localized it to Godzilla. Definitely a creative liberty. The Japanese nickname does pack more of a punch though—it’s pretty funny.
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That’s how she is called in the English translation.
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