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.
Welcome to the final week of volume 1! I’m unfortunately a bit behind due to some IRL commitments, but should be all caught up by the time we start the volume 2 offshoot club! Here is a link to the Volume 2 Home Thread for people who’d like to continue reading! We will be starting on Nov 20th!
Also, thank you to everyone who’s been asking and replying to questions. I’ve found it really helpful and I’m sure others have too.
Well I was going to read a few pages last night and this morning to get a few questions in this thread, but I accidentally read the whole chapter without much trouble
I’ll still try to ask a few smaller questions later today when I’m not on mobile
I managed to catch up and finish the volume a couple days ago while in bed after a broken wrist and an ensuing surgery, and tried to contribute some to the glossary but it was too much of a hassle this time. thanks to all the others who have been adding to it! I feel so accomplished having completed my first book club I got a bit lost a couple times on the last two chapters but I’m confident I got the most important details. The pace of the manga is perfect to keep me interested but not overwhelmed. Looking forward to starting the next volume
Just finished up now - wasn’t too bad difficulty-wise this week
Story thoughts
And now we get some action. And Samekichi is back - wonder what will happen with him given how there seemed to be some tension about him in the sea kingdom
I would translate the second panel as I really hope it is nothing. But I don’t know how that fits into the context here. In the previous panel, Wadanohara suggests fixing the stone tomorrow first thing in the morning. And from other previous pages we know that the stone is definitly somewhat broken. So what exactly is she hoping to be nothing? Shouldn’t she know first hand that it is broken? She was in charge of the stone after all…
Page 126
Is the second panel just an incomplete sentence? Because otherwise I would not know how to interpret だけでも. I think she wants to say Somehow, Wadanohara simply (has to escape) from this place
Am I misinterpreting this panel?
Yes it’s incomplete - だけでも is a combination of two particles, だけ and でも. だけ implies a limit - “just” - while でも here is most likely meaning “even” so here we have:
大海原だけでも - “even just wadanohara”
and then combining that with the rest of the sentence fragment:
大海原だけでもここから… - “even (if) just Wadanohara (escapes) from here…” is how I interpreted it
My interpretation of it was that Tatsumiya is worrying about Wadanohara having such important responsibilities
My thought process was
本当になにもないと - “If it is really nothing” (と in this case serving as a conditional for the phrase before it)
いいんだ - “It’s fine” (んだ is explanatory tone のだ)
けれど - “but”, and then the contrasting statement is left implied
本当になにもないといいんだけれど - “If it’s really nothing then it’s fine, but…”
Basically, I took it as Tatsumiya trying to tell her that it’s ok if she doesn’t want to. Which lines up with Wadanohara reassuring her that it’s fine and she’ll do her best in the next panel, I think.
Being informed that といいんだけれど altogether should just mean “I hope” (thanks @Shunrin ) I’ve ended up back where we started on this question with “I really hope it’s nothing/of no concern”.
Which I think then is probably less about the stone hopefully being fine and more about there hopefully not being any dangers or difficulties involved with Wadanohara fixing it, and that’s likely how it should make sense in context then
といい/といいんだけど can be used to say “I hope” or “I wish”. 「本当に明日が来ないといいんだけれど。」means “I wish tomorrow would never come,” for example. In this case, I think it’s more among the lines of “I hope nothing happens” (to Wadanohara when she goes to fix the stone).
Me too! Near the end I was starting to worry that it would end on a really depressing note, but Samekichi appearing was a good twist. We’ll see if I can resist reading ahead!
Anyone have a favorite character so far? For me it has to be フカミ. Especially after reading the bonus chapter which I found hilarious.
Anyone have a favorite character so far? For me it has to be フカミ. Especially after reading the bonus chapter which I found hilarious.
I also really loved the bonus chapter! It was adorable!
I think I like most of the characters so far. くろまきさん is definitly my kind of witch! But I also really like the two childlike familiars.
Thank you everyone for reading along with the club! For those who are interested in continuing on, the schedule for volume 2 can be found at the Volume 2 Home Thread. I really appreciated the discusion and help people provided during this club and look forward to continuing reading!
I had maybe six pages left, and I set down to read just a few tonight, but then I ended up finishing the book, haha! I really enjoyed the story, and I’m glad I tried this out! I’m looking forward to going back and reading the book again a couple years from now and seeing how much more I can understand.
I’m also looking forward to volume two! Though I will enjoy the short break we have before starting, haha! Last week was really busy for me, and reading had to take a bit of a backseat, so I’m grateful for the chance to catch my breath for a bit without worrying about falling further behind.
Thank you so much for hosting this, @bearytoast, and for organizing the spin-off club as well!
@bearytoast - Thanks for nominating this book and running the club so well. Volume 1 has been a fun read. I very nearly joined you for volume 2 but I already have a pile of other spin off book clubs to catch up on! Good luck to all those carrying on with the next book!
I’m glad you both enjoyed the book! @Micki I totally feel that. I have a pretty big back log of manga I’m hoping to get to after volume 2 . @fallynleaf I’m excited to read volume 2 as well! I also fell a bit behind, so the break is really helping me out too
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 got a bit lost a couple times on the last two chapters but I’m confident I got the most important details. The pace of the manga is perfect to keep me interested but not overwhelmed. Looking forward to starting the next volume 
I am super excited for the second volume now! 
I definitly want to know what happens next! 
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