I’ve been rather enjoying this manga so far, I really love the art style ^^
How’s everyone doing pace-wise? We’re scheduled to be doing the next and following chapter at 1 chapter/week, is everyone still okay with that?
0 voters
Where’s the “I just like to click polls” option? 
I’m way behind (still on page 64) but hoping to catch up to chapter 3 this weekend… This week has just been insane life-wise, so Japanese went out the window… 
I’ll probably still post a couple of questions in this thread if anyone checks it
Chapter 3 thread is up 
that is such a good idea
I’m heading out to buy post-its this afternoon.
You guys are so high tech. I just pencilled the page number in on every 5th page. 
It’s not about being high-tech, it’s about not sacrilegiously defacing a book
You’re as bad as @seanblue
I 
my lovingly annotated books.
Heehee
To be fair, I sometimes re-sell manga, so I do have a practical reason not to write in them 
Finally finished chapter 2 this evening
I was finding this manga a bit ho hum, but much to my surprise, pp92-101 brought a tear to my eye.
And now… on with Ch3!
Oh no I’m way behind again…
What does キュウ太郎 mean by saying まいりました over and over?
I have come. (To get my name back)
I juuuust figured out how to configure the manga to read on my devices properly. I should catch up soon! 
I’ve only started reading this book after so collecting dust for so long in my shelf. I’ve watched the first couple of episodes but stopped because of life.
Question:
On page 68, lower most right panel where 夏目 saysこういう時、口下手なのがいやになる
My guess: if I take that word for word is, In times like this, I’m starting to hate a poor talker …? Does he mean the old lady that he talked to a page back? It doesn’t add up
Question 2:
When ニャンコ先生 said あのばあさんそう長くないな, does he mean that that old lady doesn’t have long to live?
皆さん答えてくれてありがとうございます！
I’ve been excited for this chapter! I really love this one.
I hope everyone is prepared for me to have approximately ten thousand thoughts about it.
つまらん奴だ友人帳がガンガン薄くなっていくではないか．．．
いっそのこと隙をついてこんなガキ喰っちまおうかな
Does anyone know maybe a neater way of understanding がんがん here? I feel like I mostly saw descriptions relating to sound.
I was also trying to figure out 隙をついて and realized it was most likely 隙を突く: to exploit a gap (in attention, security, etc.); to catch off guard.
私達にもばんばん甘えてね
家族が増えて幸せだわ
Touko is so cute… That said, I’m having a little trouble with parsing her first line? I’m not really familiar with ばんばん. I’m assuming this usage of 甘える is the one that means “depend on”? I see the official TL ended up translating it as “you can ask us for anything.” Would anyone else feel more comfortable parsing this line?
身寄りのないところをひきとってくれた心優しい藤原夫妻
This line is immediately after. I was trying to figure out how to parse it at first, and then I saw that ところを is also a grammar point?
From here: ～のに／～だったのに Shows consideration for other party's situation and that speaker has done something regardless of that situation. Often used idiomatically in greetings to show gratitude.
So if that’s the case, I would parse it as: “Even though I don’t have any relatives, I was taken in by the kind-hearted Fujiwara couple.”
He’s here… Tsuyukami. The character that will make me start to practice other registers more…
ニャンコ先生はまねき猫を依代に封印されていたんだおれがうっかり解放してしまって．．．
Natsume using てしまう in this explanation is honestly so funny to me.
その縁で妖怪について教えてもらうかわり死後は友人帳を譲る約束だ
Oh, his explanation of the promise is interesting. In the anime it’s mostly just Madara’s side being emphasized over and over again (getting the book after Natsume dies), but I like Natsume saying that in exchange, he’s getting Madara to teach him about youkai.
だからなるべく早く逝っておくれよ夏目
LSJKDGLSGJL THANKS MADARA
こうなったらひっついてる奴にも同時に名を返すしかないな夏目
Trying to figure out how to parse こうなったら. “If it’s come to this”? I think that makes sense. Also I’d need to check, but I’m pretty sure that in the anime that Madara doesn’t make this suggestion to return both names at the same time—it just skips to the next scene. So this is nice to see.
私やレイコが出会った頃は人間くらいの大きさだったな
Oh, this little detail is interesting, too. I remembered this comment from the anime (which I rewatch more often than I reread the manga), but I don’t remember Madara commenting on knowing when Reiko met Tsuyukami. Again, I’m always so curious about how Madara seems to know so much about her!!
．．．で、このキュウ太郎はどこの沼に住んでるんだ？
Was attempting to solve the mystery of what on earth キュウ太郎 was and found out it seems to be a reference to オバケのQ太郎.
…Yeah that seems like a fair comparison.
どうして皆には見えないんだろう
少しうらやましい
Natsume…
どうして見えないんだろう。
The way that these two lines of dialogue are back-to-back… the first with his jealousy that others can’t see them, and then this second one, after seeing how Hana and Tsuyukami are practically touching, and yet Hana can’t see him…
I think a lot about the way that this series deals with isolation/loneliness, particularly through being unable to communicate, being unable to be understood, or just being unable to share the same perspective… This is definitely one of those times where I think about that.
けれど時々思うの
思いきって声をかけてみればよかったかしらって
「そうですね」とたった一言でも。
aaaAAAA I still love this whole exchange so much, largely because of how it relates to earlier in this chapter when Natsume first meets Hana:
良いお天気ですね
そうですね
They have such a similar exchange to the one that Hana imagines she could have had with Tsuyukami, but:
こういう時口下手なのが嫌になる
もう少し気のきいた受け答えができればな．．．
Natsume is frustrated with himself for being unable to say anything better than a そうですね when Hana was unable to manage even that, and she regrets not being able to say it, even all these years later…
字しか合ってねぇ！！
I love how EVEN NOW he’s still inwardly critiquing Tsuyukami’s drawing LOL
勝てたら私を喰べてもいいわよ
Forever fascinated by the way that Reiko sounds so!! Cavalier about her own life, or at least—that confident that she won’t lose. I want to study her. Personally, I think it’s just that her own life doesn’t hold that much value for her.
最近はここへ来るのもやっとだったんだ
I feel like I’ve mostly encountered やっと with the meaning of “finally,” but here it seems to be about effort/difficulty instead. That it took a lot of effort for her to even travel here to see Tsuyukami…
OH NOOO I THOUGHT I WAS SAFE BUT THE MEETING WITH HANA!!!
In the anime it was just sliiightly different; they added an extra line with her finally responding with そうですね as she wished she had.
妖怪のことはあまり好きにはなれないが愛しいものとわかりあいたいと
思う心は同じかもしれない。
Ahh, this part at the end. Trying to parse it a bit more neatly… Something like: “I can’t really bring myself to like youkai very much, but… We might have/share the same heart that wants to understand the ones we love.”
Man, that felt like it took me so long to read again LOL But in general I felt like I was having an easier time than I was with chapter one!! And that in general I felt like I was understanding things well.
Plus I sure CRIED!!!
Haha yes love that!
I’ve read the first 13 pages, so I’ll just respond to a couple points.
I love the little scene with Jijii sitting on the pillow and there is an arrow pointing to him since he’s small.
I stopped looking up mimetic words long ago for exactly this reason 
I tried figuring it out and didn’t come up with anything, I wonder if there is some dramatic reference we’re not aware of
I would go more with ‘acting spoiled’ meaning, and she’s basically saying “toward us you can act spoiled / get anything”. And I guess the translation is the most natural way to express it in English
Haha yes I saw that too! Totally blew by it the first time I read this chapter
I laughed at that too!
I gotta go for now but I’ll have a look at the other questions and comments soon 
Belatedly responding now that I have a little more energy again!
I’ve only found one other definition that didn’t have to do with sound, which was: 勢いが盛んで激しいさま。
Ahh, thank you!!! This was actually my first inclination (spoiled definition) but after checking the official translation, it made me second-guess myself And that helps a lot to hear your interpretation!
Looking really forward to hearing what you think of the rest of the chapter!!
Ok I’m back at it! I still have a bit left but I’m responding to some points now while it’s fresh in my mind
I love that you put in so many screenshots for discussion thank you! I’m reading paper and it’s a lot more fiddly to do that
That’s how I understand it, your translation is better than what’s normally in my head, - if it became this situation
I thought that was Tuyukami talking. So he’s saying he was bigger when more people believe in him. This manga feels so much harder to me on this point than anything else I’ve ever read, most of my brain cells are trying to figure out who’s talking
This is what I love about book clubs. I think it would have taken me longer to think about this as a theme.
This mirroring! Nice catch! I didn’t think of it but you’re right it’s the same frustration
Oooh, I didn’t think of that, so the whole I’ll eat you thing could be an act
me too
