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 haven’t read this chapter yet, so I’m replying without context.)
Often when you see a verb ending in the い vowel sound, followed by another verb, the two form a sort of compound word (for lack of a better term).
Here, 叩く (“to strike; to beat”) and 潰す (“to smash; to crush;”) together become 叩き潰す (“to smash up; to defeat crushingly”).
Then the verb is changed to end in the あ sound and followed by ねば + ならない, for a meaning of “have to do; must do”.
I might translate this dialogue along the lines of, “They must be crushed as soon a possible!” (Note that this focuses on being natural English, not a strict translation keeping Japanese nuance.)
Also, I think this may be the first time I’ve ever seen the kanji for the plural ら. I couldn’t even get it to come up in my IME. Had to use Copyfish to OCR it so I could drop it into a J-E dictionary and confirm it was what I thought it was!
I’m kind of annoyed I didn’t recognize that, because in theory I’ve seen that grammar point before. But alas, I appreciate the help. I probably wouldn’t have realised that those two words form a compound word on my own either.
And yeah, I’d never seen that kanji either, I just deduced that it marked the plural from context because I know ら can do that, and hoped I was right. I was more confused by the reading きゃつ for the kanji before it, so I had to look that up.
The poll to vote on the start date for volume two will close tomorrow evening (Tuesday). If you would like to join in on the next book you can vote here → Volume 2 Home Thread
Don’t really have much to contribute, but just wanted to say that after noticing the thread for this book club last week, I decided to catch up. Been enjoying the story and reading everyone’s comments about the previous chapters!
Although I did infer the meaning from context, I don’t believe I’d seen it before either…so I appreciate @ChristopherFritz confirming that it was an N2 grammar point I just hadn’t covered yet, rather than something I’d forgotten
Just wanted to say I thought this chapter was much harder going! If we weren’t so close to the end I might have suggested we spend two weeks on this chapter to give people more time to get through it. The vocab sheet has twice the entries this week too!
This chapter was definitely a jump up - a lot of unknown vocab for me (I’m learning a lot of words for attacking/betraying/invading lol - will probably help with more action-heavy shonen stuff when I start moving into those haha) and even some peeks of classical-style japanese (which I have a passing familiarity with from trying other stuff where it popped up)
Spoilers to the end of the chapter
Though it was a step up in difficulty, I also felt like it was a step up in quality. I felt like this chapter was the most interesting so far, giving us bits and pieces of Wadonahara’s past while keeping it mostly shrouded in mystery, developing some lore for the underwater kingdom, setting up the rabbit kingdom as a looming threat, and giving more immediate threat with the possibility of a traitor in the midst. I’m interested to see how all this will resolve
I looked into it a bit more because I didn’t realise it was a N2 grammar point (and I have definitely not covered N2 ). I must have been confusing it with なければいけない and the similar N4 grammar points. Now I’m slightly confused about how those two grammar points differ…I suppose I’ll have to study more.
I don’t think there’s any difference in meaning. Just that ねば is an older expression which sounds a bit stiff, so you probably wouldn’t see it used in modern japanese. Otherwise they’d be interchangable.
I feel that I understand all the words, but I just can’t make a meaningful sentence…
Looking at grammer & vocabs I would translate to panel as: If something were to happen to Wadanohara because of them.
But from context I would assume that it actually means: Because of them that thing happened to Wadanohara.
In the second case I just don’t know how to incorporate もしも.
There is, of course, also the possiblity that the sentence means something else entirely…
Page 102
Same problem, different page: I think I understand all words, but just don’t get the meaning of it all…
あなたを早く帰還させることになってしまった: I got to making you return early (or probably more loosly: Because of me you returned early)
In the second panel, I am not sure how to translate 油断しなけらば. The last part is used to indicate that something has to be done (must do), if I’m correct, but how can I integrate that into the sentence?
私が油断しなけらばこんなことには: I had to neglect that sort of thing.
If I had to guess what the she is actually saying, I would translate the whole thing as: Because of my negligence during that incident, you had to return early. But honestly, I don’t see how I would get there looking at grammar and vocabs… So if anyone could help I would appreciate it!
もしものこと is an expression unto itself, meaning “accident”
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but せいで has a connotation of being someone’s fault
Knowing this I think we can conclude that the meaning is (apologies because I’m forgetting who the アイツら is referring to) something along the lines of If an accident happens to Wadonahra because of their fault… so I think your first guess was actually closer
Page 102
So 油断 means neglect, but how is the する after it conjugated? しなければ - meaning “if [action] doesn’t happen” (negative conditional), so this sentence would be along the lines of If I wasn’t neglectful this sort of thing… (the rest is left unsaid but I think you can work out the implication)
Page 110
って here is acting as a casual variant of the topic marker は, so if she was saying「海の中は新鮮だねぇ」you could probably work out what that meant (Under the ocean, it’s so fresh isn’t it)
I’m not too sure about the「あと海の幸も」but from what I can read I think it’s meaning “And there’s seafood too”
Yes, the first interpretation was correct, for the reasons you explained. アイツら in this case would be referring to Totsusa Kingdom and their soldiers, etc.
page 102
For further clarification, なければ does not automatically mean “must”. That definition only applies in the specific grammar pattern ~なければいけない/ならない. The ば form by itself only indicates an if-then statement. In this case, “if I hadn’t been negligent…”
page 110
It’s a joke. She’s saying it’s fresh under the ocean, and the seafood is fresh as well.
Anyways, I finished the chapter today and despite the flood of new words, I’m not feeling bad about my understanding of the grammar. It was a lot to get through, but after pushing through it I’m feeling a bit more confident in my ability to parse sentences out and get the meaning.
Plot discussion
Yes, it’s definitely starting to draw me in more with the plot, whereas before I was mostly drawn in by the characters and art style.
I found it hilarious that Wadanohara basically said “oh, we’ll deal with the barrier tomorrow, it’s getting dark now” then a few pages later it looks like there’s an army at their doorstep. If she knew she were in the middle of a story, she would know not to say such things!
Haha, apparently I just thought nobody had noses in this universe (or this art style) . That makes much more sense, and now I’m seeing it everywhere. Not sure why I picked out that one place.
I know technically we’re on to chapter 7 soon, but I had another question now that I’m trying to actually finish this chapter.
page 107
I was confused by 生かしてはおけん here. Through context I thought maybe the princess was trying to say that if Wadanohara’s ex-familiar had betrayed the country, that she could not let him live. But I didn’t understand this verb form…what is おけん? I find the way the princess talks is kind of confusing, I have the most trouble with her dialogue.
Overall I found this chapter the most difficult so far, like I’ve seen quite a few of you write. I struggled more with it overall (in part due to the princess and how she talks), especially with clearly deciphering the meanings of more complex sentences. I’m sure I misinterpreted several things, but I think I got the overall plot (I hope!).
Sadly I was unable to find definitive proof of this, but my impression is that this comes from some sort of dialect. In Kansai-ben あかん is often used as a way to say だめ, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this follows some similar line of thinking.
A wild guess it’s that it’s some sort of transformation on 置けばいい that means “it’s ok to…” when following the て-form of the verb (like in our case). 置けばいい (good to leave it be) => おけない (not good to leave it be) => おけん.
Nevermind, like Shurin mentions below this is just
ておく => to do something and leave it in that state in preparation or as a measure for something (lit. to put an action in place)
ておける => to be able to put an action in place (potential form)
ておけない => to not be able to put an action in place
ておけん => abbreviation of ておけない
生かしてはおけん => cannot let him live.
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 must have been confusing it with なければいけない and the similar N4 grammar points. Now I’m slightly confused about how those two grammar points differ…I suppose I’ll have to study more.
. That makes much more sense, and now I’m seeing it everywhere. Not sure why I picked out that one place.
