Oooh, if there’s a resurrection, I’m interested in joining. I’ve had the first 2 vols for a few years now and it’s always available at BOOKOFF in the one hundred yen section
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There’s currently at least three of us intending to get into it, so yes, do join! I’ll try to get my comments on ch 1 up soon.
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Oh my gosh, that was tiring!
re: migraine's notes
I thought of it as the conjunctive て, I guess? “Want to see → see: it’s not like that, though.” “It’s not like I see them because I want to see them” is a good way of putting it IMO.
Midorikawa catching strays 
Would you be willing to share with the class?
my own thoughts
Wow, I forgot how sad this manga can be! Natsume bringing Nyanko to the manjuu place his grandma liked is so bittersweet.
I hadn’t realized that a lot of the youkai’s names are very poetic. That’s one of the many nice side effects of reading this in the original language.
The idea is that Nyanko will get the book after Natsume dies, right? Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but I’ve always wondered why Nyanko agrees to help Natsume even though he knows Natsume intends to get rid of the names in the book, i.e., make it less powerful.
I have a lot of grammar questions, but I’m going to try to search through this thread before asking stuff that’s already been answered.
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LMAOO
Response to additionalramen's commentary
I definitely interpret it as that he only gets the book if Natsume loses his life in the process (and there may not be a book left by the time Natsume dies). In general I don’t necessarily take Madara’s comments at face-value, and I think in some ways his motivations occasional mirror Reiko’s: this is a good way of killing time. He does also genuinely sound a bit regretful about what happened with Reiko, and he obviously knows a lot about her despite everything. So I think he has more attachment than he lets on. I also don’t think that he could actually use it, since I’m pretty sure only a blood relative can use it/release the contracts. The risk is more to the youkai whose names are in the book, because of what happens if it gets damaged. So I think that’s why this deal happens without too much fuss.
I feel like some of what I was writing about in my own notes was already discussed, but!
Misc grammar notes
人の手に負えるものか！わかっただろ私におくれ
At first I was wondering about the lack of negation in this sentence, but that was because I hadn’t encountered ものか before. I found a good explanation of it here.
I guess one other small thing there in case people haven’t encountered it was that the おくれ was just another form of てくれる.
唯一血縁のおれくらいはその名を憶えていたり、遺品を大切に預かってたり．．．．．．
Here, I was just fumbling over くらい. I feel like sometimes it clicks for me and sometimes it doesn’t; I feel like I have the easiest time with the くらい that’s similar to 程. Very roughly understanding it as: “As her only blood relative, at least I can remember her name, and take care of her inheritance…” re: くらい: this page is really useful for looking at different usages of くらい (with the second definition being the one here).
I also didn’t look up the difference between 覚える and 憶える here, but I’d assume the usage here focuses much more on memory because of the 憶.
ある意味祖母がお世話になった妖怪達だ
I hadn’t encountered ある意味 before, but it seems like it’s mostly about… considering something from another perspective? So something like: “If you look at it another way, my grandmother owed the youkai.” (This sentence also tripped me up because of the usage of お世話になる when previously I’ve only really thought of it as looking after someone.)
EDIT: Actually wait when reading this over again I realized this is actually dead simple to understand now that I’m just trying to read it literally. If I just look at ある意味 as “one meaning/another meaning” then it’s: “Another meaning of this is, my grandmother owed the youkai.” I like thinking of it this way better at least to internalize what’s happening with ある意味 so that I don’t feel like I’m always translating to English in my head!! (Although obviously if I were translating this properly I would still choose the smoother translation. This is just better for parsing in Japanese.)
ようかろう
Madara’s usage of ようかろう was something I was curious about. I looked it up on Weblio where it mainly explains the following:
| 方言 | 意味・解説 |
|---|---|
| よか・ろう【良か・ろう】 | 良いだろう。〔推量・念押し〕 |
Madara’s 甘くみん is 甘く見る, which is to take something lightly (+negative). So, “Naturally! The Ayakashi aren’t to be taken lightly!”
Both だって and もの were things I was struggling with, but I feel like I’ve gotten a better handle on them lately. ChristopherFritz did a really excellent write-up of both of these concepts in this post here. The だって is a follow-up to what Hishigaki was saying, but it’s also contrasting. So I understood this response from Reiko as: “Yeah. You say that, but, the thing is: I’m really strong.”
I was looking up the difference between 逢う and 会う, which is disambiguated here.
…Other than that, the only small thing was just looking up to confirm what exactly was happening with てやる, which I saw used sometimes. I found out it was just another form of てあげる.
I hope this helps!!
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Response to migraine's notes
When does Madara’s name get revealed? I missed so many names the first time I read this chapter. I thought I checked Ch 1 twice and it’s not there? I talked about it with my Japanese friend and she mentioned Madara, and I was like, who’s that 
oh is that what that is? I thought it was some injury from her scuffles with previous yokai and she was lying about the cause.
In that case and especially where it’s positive I’m usually interpreting it as a quoting particle without saying the rest, e.g., ということ and variants, used to nominalise and talk about situations like they are things.
I guess you already know this but just in case - it’s not the use in the screenshot, but when there is a negative preceding the と it’s almost always an unfinished command form. Basically with Japanese, if something trips me up, I try to imagine what they didn’t write
I’m reading the paper version and some of the text is so small I don’t bother, thanks for highlighting that!
A lot of things confused me reading this first chapter (I came in totally blind to the story and anime) and I talked about this with my Japanese friend. She said that when Natume tripped on the boundary rope and broke it - which freed Nyanko - then this is Nyanko’s way of repaying a debt of gratitude. And also, perhaps other motives yet to be revealed.
hadn’t thought of that, nice one
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Ugggggggh, now you’re all making me want to actually go back and re-read #1 after all. Honestly my manga reading ability is so much better compared to a year ago I’d probably get more out of it this time.
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yeah one of my fav series and i only have watched the anime … but I have every physical vol
but as you know already have too many books going at once…unless there’s an official weekly schedule or proper reboot…I can probably avoid for now 
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Doesn’t sound like it can be a favorite with that attitude.
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Haha welp it is… I don’t have really any collectables for general stuff but I have the special switch collectible game set, some neato teacups, some other things, and and two nendroids…It definitely is a favorite.
Even bought the Manga set digitally so I could read, so I bought it 2x! Ha… And I also because trying to play the game on the switch… Font is so small so. Impossible! So bought a version of it on steam which I’m slowly playing now.
But I’m also working through wolf book I am thinking you are the werewolf… Haha… Or soggy… And need to finish GLT and others need to finish…
If I quit working retire early I might find time
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Is there a particular day of the week people like reading? I can better keep up with a schedule. Is it safe to assume a chapter a week though?
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re: Madara
I was so focused on the Japanese that I totally forgot about this aspect of Madara’s characterization!
My own background with this series
I have been wanting to really get into this series for a long time, but it’s never truly stuck - I sort of just watch a few episodes of the anime every once in a while when the mood strikes. That said, the most recent time I watched a few eps, I dove into the online fandom a little and read some theories about Madara and what his true feelings/motivations are. Your comment reminded me that there is a lot going on with him under the surface and that I need to be mindful of that as we read!
Ohh right, that makes sense. So all these other youkai who are chasing Natsume are not in it for Reiko’s power, they’re just trying to protect themselves.
Thank you for the extra grammar notes, that was super helpful!
This is such good advice!
Your Japanese friend sounds like a true fan of the series!
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It’s informal but for me I’m going for reading on the weekends and two weeks per chapter. How does that sound? I’m sure there are others reading faster though if you want
She is! She sent me the copy I’m reading for my birthday 
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two weeks per chapter sounds good to me. I was pretty surprised that each chapter is about 50 pages. Maybe I’ll aim for Friday or Sunday since i already have the IMC Saturdays?
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I watched part of the anime a few years ago and I don’t remember it being as hard as the manga. Not that the manga’s really hard or something, just that it’s harder than I expected
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That sounds perfect. Yeah the chapters are long, and it’s harder than I was expecting as well, especially given this was s BBC read!
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Looking at Natively, it’s rated a level 26, which I agree with, and yeah, that’s harder than typical BBC picksね
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Responding to many things??
Responding to mitrac
I’m pretty certain Madara’s name is revealed in the next chapter!! I’m just so used to it that I didn’t even think about it, whoops LOL
Yup! When Madara says that she didn’t get along well/socialize well with humans, he was totally correct. I think that’s also why she’s so disarmingly honest about it—she’s not necessarily socialized enough to think to do otherwise. Much less when talking to an ayakashi, when she interacts with them more!
Ahhh, gotcha!! Can I ask how you interpreted those lines, then? Just to make sure I understood them correctly 
Happy to do that any time!! Years back I got overzealous and bought the first physical volume, and I was amazed at how tiny it was 
My eyes are good!! It’s still hard to read!!
Join usssss I’d love to see your thoughts!!
We’re doing one chapter every two weeks if that’s functional enough as a schedule for now LOL
Responding to additionalramen
Ooh, I see!! Yeah, there’s definitely a loooot of theories swirling around about Madara. My own background is that I’ve been obsessed with 夏目友人帳 since like… 2011 probably? I rewatch the anime like at least twice a year it feels like, and I reread the manga every once in awhile, too. …And you can also see my icon is from it too LOL So I have approximately one million thoughts about the series and it’s part of why I’m really excited to be reading it and yelling about it here!!
My impression is that only Madara is more aware of the true nature of the book! I think the rest of the ayakashi just know that it’s very powerful, and they know the owner of it can control ayakashi with it (since Reiko bragged about it)—but I don’t think they know the conditions of that at all. So some of them are definitely just after it because they think it will make them powerful!
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possibly but wondering is there a schedule post somewhere similar to other clubs?
Didn’t see any schedule at all (except for the original) just saw it kind of jumped from 2018 to now… ?
maybe whoever is leading the charge on the reboot could add/edit/update the home post wtih a reboot schedule?
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I’m starting to work on a post for it! We were just talking about it in the original home thread.
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