Hope you enjoyed your break! We’re continuing with book 4 in the 夜カフェ sequel. This thread will serve as a discussion thread for book 4.
This is an offshoot book club for 夜カフェ which we originally read with the Beginners Book Club. Please follow the links below to guide you to the other volumes in the series.
Start date of current chapter: 4th March 2023 Next time: Vol 4, Chapter 2
The vocab list is a community effort, so if you contribute to the list or even just point out a potential error/typo, you’re helping your fellow readers out! It goes without saying, but feel free to peruse the list to help make your reading experience easier! You’re not obligated to contribute but any help you provide is truly appreciated.
Discussion Guidelines
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Feel free to jump in at any point in the discussion - you’re never too late to the party!
Sharing your impressions and predictions of the reading are highly encouraged! It’s fun to see if the story pans out the way some of us think. Just be careful not to give away anything if you’re reading ahead.
Well, I certainly did not expect them to be second-years already. That seems… awful sudden.
Nothing more to say about ch 1 really except that I’m glad Hanabi and Yayako aren’t suddenly buddy-buddy, though I still don’t get why Hanabi wants to be nice to her, especially when Yayako still clearly wants nothing to do with her except to torment her.
We’re getting some foreshadowing into this book’s main conflict. We meet the new characters and 1st year students, and we see Tina is already popular with them because of her appearance but also her parents. She would rather people leave the topic alone. Sounds like Tina will be the focus, and we’ll see how she can overcome her embarrassment over her parents’ scandal.
Tina officially becomes the target in this book. I like that the author decided to tackle the issue of cyber bullying since it’s really a big problem everywhere including among Japanese students.
Who knows if revealing Tina’s relationship to her infamous mother was done with ill intentions or it could be the work of a 1st year who really admires Tina but doesn’t have a lot sense.
I find it oddly suspicious that after this problem erupts, some college guy scouts Tina for a movie.
That’s a lot of coincidences this chapter. Well, two, but that’s still a lot for such a short time period. At least, assuming it is that someone unrelated made that tweet after the Middle Schooler Night attendants learned who Tina’s parents are, like it’s looking like, and it’s not because Saki doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. And then for the college student who at some point saw Tina and decided she was perfect for the lead role in the movie he was writing to come in at a time where introductions would occur and he could actually ask her…
Part of me feels like there’s no way any of this is coincidence, but also part of me feels like it probably is, though whether it’s poor writing (contrived conflict) or just because it’s for kids, I dunno. I don’t trust this author so I feel like any could be possible lmao
Honestly I was a little nervous when, when flipping ahead partway through ch 5, I saw that ch 6 was titled “これが恋?” I also tried not to be leery of Ritsu, and Tina and Hanabi being alone with him and the people he’s making the film with. Most adults aren’t predatory toward children, and it’s good for kids to have older friends to look up to and turn to outside of family. Intergenerational friendships in general are good. I’m glad he’s not looking skeevy, though it is still weird that he’d look at a middle schooler (if she were a third-year, maybe) and go, “She’s perfect for this role of a high schooler!” Especially since Tina has never been described as looking older, at least not that I remember. I’d say she also doesn’t look older, but the cutesy art style kinda lends toward everyone looking young lol
I’m also glad that the only thing that’s relevant to that chapter title is Tina having feelings for Ritsu and being at that age where despite knowing that other people would find a romantic relationship between a middle schooler and a college student inappropriate (to put it mildly), she doesn’t yet see anything wrong with it herself.
It still came out of left field though. In ch 5 it didn’t seem like she liked him very much at all, and now suddenly she’s got a crush on him? How? What? Why.
But man these kids really can’t catch a break at all, can they.
I also wonder at that choice to have that ch 7 illustration be of Tina surrounded by fellow students rather than reporters. That’s not what happened.
