The young witch Wadanohara has returned from a journey across the sea, only to find that her peaceful ocean home has come under attack from the nefarious Tosatsu Empire. Alongside her faithful familiars – Memoca, Dolphi, and Fukami – Wadanohara promises to do all she can to prevent a terrible war. But when a mysterious figure from her past demands that she leave, can the pure-hearted Wadanohara muster the courage and magic she needs to save the Sea Kingdom once and for all?
Details
We are reading this book as part of the Absolute Beginners Book Club. This book club will be starting in early September with an official start date to be decided on soon. Everyone is welcome to join the book club! Previous grammar and vocabulary knowledge is helpful, but we will have a vocab sheet and lots of people to help with grammar questions, so please don’t be discouraged if you are just getting started on your learning journey! If you want to see if this book if for you please check out the nomination post and a reading sample on Bookwalker.
How Book Clubs Work on WaniKani
For each weeks reading we will have a new thread for discussing the chapter. In the thread you can ask questions on grammar/ vocab, talk about the book, and help others stay motivated! We also will have a shared vocab sheet. If you plan on reading along I would highly recommend setting this thread to watching and bookmark it, so you will be up to date and have easy access to the discussion threads!
** To buy the digital version from amazon you will need a Japanese amazon account that has a Japanese address or else the book will say unavailable.
** Notes on Physical Copies: This book is unfortunately difficult to get a physical copy of. Both CDJapan and Amazon are sold out. Manga Republic has it available (used but in excellent condition) with worldwide shipping. However, their shipping times are decently long and the supply is limited, so if you plan to order from them I would do so soon.
I read ahead this time cause I knew i wouldn’t have time on the weekend. I have to say that since this is the first book club I do I am definitely feeling the progress in my reading skills, even though it’s very light reading I feel like I am getting better at recognizing clauses and grammar points, and it’s also thanks to the breakdowns in the threads I think the difficulty of this manga has been perfect for my level, even if some things are quite confusing I have been able to follow the storyline and the progression of the plot is slow enough that I don’t get overwhelmed but not bored either. I would definitely join a Volume 2 reading.
Now my questions for this chapter
page 88
So I get that Memoka’s talking about “that land… Totsusa Kingdom” but the last speech bubble got me confused, and then Dolphi is like “but it’s a very scary place”? I didn’t really get it.
And then on the same page…
“that savage, good for nothing land of rabbits!” but i also couldn’t decipher the other part
Yeah, I’m surprised it’s so quiet this week. I might be reading this chapter a bit last minute at the end of the week, but I’m hoping to keep up. Busy times, sadly, so I didn’t get around to it on the weekend.
For the ‘other part’ you mention at the end, let’s break it down:
「すぐ争いをふっかけていつもほかの国々と喧嘩してるわ．．．」
First let’s see what words we’re working with:
すぐ = immediately/at once/right away
争いをふっかける = to pick a fight (lumping these together because they work together)
いつも = always
ほか = other
国々 = countries
喧嘩 = quarrel/brawl/conflict
So now that we know what words are in this sentence let’s start putting them back together:
すぐ争いをふっかけて = picking fights right away and… - the ふっかける here is in て form, so it is acting as a connective
いつもほかの国々と = always with the other countries - the と here I would say is expressing a with relationship (two parties are involved - Totsusa kingdom and the other countries - this will become clearer with the next part)
喧嘩してる = brawling/quarreling - してる here showing continuous state
And finally:
すぐ争いをふっかけていつもほかの国々と喧嘩してるわ = (they) pick fights right away and are always brawling with other countries
For this one, it might help if you look at the context that sentence is in.
Memoca is using the ばいいのに structure to list all the things she wishes were the case: “If only things could stay like this”, “If only Wadanohara could play the piano as much as she likes,” etc. It’s the exact same idea here, except the いいのに just got dropped.
If you’re wondering about what さえ means, さえ～ば is another set form. It means “if only this one thing were the case” or “as long as this one thing is there”. In this case, if only Totsusa Kingdom just didn’t do anything and stayed away…(everything would be fine).
I’m not really sure why she uses ね here, I would expect a よ, as in “Letting you know that I’m going out for a bit”, does the ね imply something like that it was bound to happen or that they cannot disagree on the fact that she’s going out? I don’t get the nuance here.
Page 82
I am a bit confused here, wouldn’t a は or a が come after こと or am i misunderstanding the structure of the sentence? I just don’t get why 自分のこと is not marked at all.
Is せっかくだす something like “to take out your troubles”? It sounds a bit too literal hahaha.
Also I’m not sure of the でも part, I would guess で is the particle marking ピアノ, but what does も do there then? I had seen でも where で is the て form of the copula, but I don’t think this is what that is?
The lack of particle happens again here, wouldn’t a が come after このまま? It’s weird how it’s just together with なにも. I understand the sentence as something like “It would be nice if nothing changed in this current state, so wadacchi would relax”, but don’t get that lack of marker again
Page 94
I’m not sure about the meaning of 滅茶苦茶 here, is it something like chaos? As in “As I make your country fall into chaos” or something like that?
Wow, lots of doubts this chapter, I don’t know if it was the chapter itself or me paying more attention to my problems. It really seems to be ramping up, It was sort of a cloud of unknowning before but it seems to be starting to dissipate finally. I can appreciate the fact that we don’t know what happened because the characters themselves don’t even know.
The second part here is difficult for me because so many grammatical constructs are used at once
After some deciphering, I think it reads: “Even though (they) should not have been able to enter through the barrier of this country”?
Is this correct?
I don’t really understand how the first speech bubble works… Is he just saying the same thing twice?
どうしてはいって Why did (they) come/enter
きちゃうの (They) came back
Page 90
My question here concerns the story itself. Why was he banned for not remembering what he did/where he went that night? I mean… Wadanohara remembers nothing at all and she is not banned. I don’t get it… Seems a bit harsh. (especially since it doesn’t seem that they have any other evidence that he worked with the rabbits)
Page 91
I am bit lost here… What I have so far:
お楽しみのところ : Such an entertaining place!
悪いんだけど : but it’s bad…
Is she saying that Wadanohara is playing the piano badly? Or is it bad because she has to interrupt the enjoyable thing they are doing to tell Wadanohara that the 姫 wants to see her?
I don’t think it’s because Samekichi can’t remember, I think it’s because Wadanohara can’t remeber and so can’t say for sure whether he’s innocent ot not.
Page 91
悪い can be an informal way to say “sorry” (Jisho, meaning 8). So I think she’s saying something like “Sorry to interrupt you while you’re having fun, but the princess is calling for you.”
よ sounds a lot more forceful and authoritative than ね does, and ね also has an implication that you expect the person you’re talking to agrees with your statement (even if they actually don’t). It’s like the difference between “I’m going out for a bit, okay?” and “I’m going out for a bit, and that’s that.”
page 82
The particle after 自分のこと would be を、as that’s the particle usually used with 大事にする. It’s fairly common in casual conversation to just drop は、が、and を from sentences when speaking. What’s considered grammatically correct and what’s considered normal conversational speech are not always the same thing, in English or in Japanese. People take verbal shortcuts all the time.
page 83
せっかくだし is not a verb conjugation, it’s a noun/adverbial word with the copula and a particle attached to it. せっかく can be used in a few different ways, but the one that’s most relevant here is when you want to take advantage of an opportunity that doesn’t happen very often.
だ should be self-explanatory. し is a particle used to explain reasoning , similar to から and ので. How it differs from them is that you can use it to list multiple reasons at once instead of just one, and it can be viewed as more casual.
I suppose one way you could translate せっかくだし is “because we don’t get this chance very often”.
Again, it’s not uncommon for subject particles to be dropped in casual speech. But in this case, putting が after このまま would not be correct because このまま is not the subject of the sentence. It’s a descriptive expression meaning “like this” or “in this state”. Sometimes the particle で (or に, depending on context) comes after it, but it’s frequently used without any particle. Might be one of the things you just have to see used in context a few times before you get used to it.
I’m not used at all to the particle drop and the fact that I’m still not that used to their uses either doesn’t help haha. Also seems i completely misunderstood, I thought だし was 出す but it was だ し which i had seen before but didn’t consider, it makes so much sense now!
Thank you so much for your insight! I’ll study and see if I can be mindful of these things from now on
Interesting! I considered that but it seemed even more unrealistic to me. I mean… if Wadanohara does not remember but the shark familiar does, couldn’t he just say where he went? Also, the fact that apparently nobody knows where the shark familiar went, suggests to me that he went somewhere alone. So even if Wadanohara remembers, she probably does not know where he went either, right? Consequently, there would be no way of ever proving him guilty/not guilty. There is, of course, the possibility that the shark familiar and Wadanohara went somewhere togehter, without any other familiars. But again… if that was the case then he could just tell them that or make up a story where he and Wadanohara went. To me, there is no point in banning him, just because Wadanohara does not remember.
One could argue however, that he does remember but does not want say where he went, which would make him suspicious. But again: if he was alone and remembers, why not just lie if he does not want to tell the truth? If he went with Wadanohara: why not just lie/make up a story for the same reason? Also: he could always argue that he remembers but can’t say for some reason (e.g. rabbit threatened him, etc.). If he has been a faithful familiear up to this point (at that seems to be the case) then to me there should be no reason to ban him.
But maybe I’m just giving this way too much thought!
At this point, all I can really say without giving large portions of the plot away is that there is a specific reason why he can’t just explain what he did. The circumstances behind that reason are not revealed until the Sea of Death volume.
Just like others, life has been pretty busy for me lately. I just starting this week’s chapter now. I voted “I’m reading with the schedule” since I plan on catching up this weekend.
I’ve felt pretty burnt out on WK lately. I haven’t done any new lessons in a while so hopefully that will give me more time to focus on reading (although I’m still slowly going through Bunpro, that’s not too taxing). I know people say reading exposure helps a lot, but the progress is definitely less visible.
Thanks everyone for posting questions and explanations! I’ve been pretty busy, so I haven’t been able to take the time to post in these threads beyond what others have been sharing, but I have been reading every single post, and it’s immensely helpful!!
If you plan on reading along I would highly recommend setting this thread to watching and bookmark it, so you will be up to date and have easy access to the discussion threads!
I think the difficulty of this manga has been perfect for my level, even if some things are quite confusing I have been able to follow the storyline and the progression of the plot is slow enough that I don’t get overwhelmed but not bored either. I would definitely join a Volume 2 reading.
The story is definitely picking up pace!
