大海原と大海原 ・Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea Absolute Beginners Book Club Chapter 5 Thread

Page 88

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

Hopefully this is helpful

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page 88 first question

For this one, it might help if you look at the context that sentence is in.

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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).

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this makes a lot of sense, i’m just wondering what verb is こなければ? is it 行う / おこなう ?

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super helpful!! thank you so much, i could pick up parts of it but was having trouble putting it all together, thanks for taking the time

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こなければ is the negative ば conditional form of 来る.

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Page 80

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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

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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.

Page 83

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?

Page 87


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 :upside_down_face:

Page 94

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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.

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In this chapter we finally got some much awaited back story! :slight_smile: The story is definitely picking up pace!

I also have a few questions:

Page 89


The second part here is difficult for me because so many grammatical constructs are used at once :sweat_smile:
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?

On the same page:


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?

Thanks!

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Page 90

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.”

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page 89

It’s the same verb as in the first panel, 入ってくる/はいってくる。ちゃう is an informal contraction of てしまう。It indicates emotion/distress.

And yeah, that’s basically accurate for the first panel.

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page 80

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”.

As for でも, it’s a way to make suggestions:

page 87

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.

page 94

See definition 3 and example sentence:

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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

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Page 90

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! :laughing:

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page 90

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.

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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.

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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!!

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:laughing: thanks! Much appreciate the explanation! I will just keep reading! :slight_smile:

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finally caught up (on the last three chapters gah!). this story is really fun so far and i adore all the cute characters. also that scene at the end of the chapter?? OMG.

i’ve been pretty MIA on the threads as this is my first book club so i’m still getting used to the forums and pace, but i definitely plan to finish the book on schedule and will be joining for the next one!

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Wow that last scene! There has always been something very dark hovering in the background but up to now it’s mainly been lots of cute characters having fun!

Can I just mention I love the physics of their underwater kingdom. I’m pretty sure they are under water and not in some underwater bubble? I love that despite being under water they can still do things like drinking out of a mug or playing the piano!

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Ah yes, classic Spongebob logic - can’t wait to see their underwater body of water (though I think that one had a decent justification in spongebob given that it wasn’t actually water but a denser liquid)

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Sorry for being a bit MIA this week, I’m still trying to get caught up :sweat_smile:! However, I do have the new chapter thread up and have made a home thread for book 2! Book 2 Home Thread!. If you plan to continue reading please head to that thread to vote on when we should start!

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