Welcome to the first official day of bookclub! I’ve been really excited to see everyone’s discussion and really have appreciated the grammar explanations. 
It does seem that some people are a little disappointed to have missed out on a lot of the discussion that was had in the last week, since the thread was up early. So, if it’s alright with everyone I will probably wait till the day before to post the future threads, this way people who are reading along with the schedule can still participate in the discussion as much as those reading ahead. However, feel free to fill in the vocab sheet whenever you are reading! I think a lot of people have been finding it very helpful, so thanks to everyone who has contributed!!!
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I wondered at the brackets, too. Since I have only been familiar with the brackets as quotations, I looked it up and apparently this is a way of bringing attention to a new piece of information that is important (and thus this should be the only time it’s in brackets I think). It made me think of playing Zelda when you get a new item and the text is a different size and color 
In any case, I think this alludes to it being one of the main story drivers- there wasn’t much revealed in the first chapter, so that gives us something to cling to.
Other than, of course, this mysterious past person and her sudden conviction to return home in order to protect it [her home]. I think having something a little more concrete to look forward to, aka her memories returning, was a good use of the emphasis. Memories aren’t tangible, but it still adds to the quest aspect of obtaining something.
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Thank you all for the really insightful discussion above (particularly with regard to the first page which was a real doozy!). Thankfully the rest of the story so far seems to be written in much easier language.
I did have some questions which I have set out below - any help would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Page 4
大丈夫かい? 大海原。
This is a minor point, but why is there an い after the か? I would have thought the expression should just read 大丈夫か?
Page 5
大魔女様の力でキミの「記憶」もきっと。
My best guess at a literal translation here is “The Power of the Great Witch of your memory is also certain”, but I’m not sure if that’s right. Also, I’m not entirely sure as to why 記憶 is in quotation marks. [EDIT: Apologies, I see the brackets point was already discussed above!]
Also, I’m not sure how to read the word in the last panel that’s in a different font - does that say わだち?
Page 7
誰もまたあの海のどこかで月を見ているのだろうか
From context, I’m guessing the meaning here is something along the lines of “I wonder if someone in that sea is also looking at the same moon.” However, my best guess at a literal translation doesn’t exactly add up to that, my main issue being with the first part which reads 誰もまた - I presume this means “no-one again”?
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かい is a special kind of question marker.
Here’s some info with example sentences: かい - Japanese Grammar Explained | Bunpro
page 5
You’re missing part of the sentence:
大魔女様の力でキミの『記憶』もきっと取り戻せるはずさ
Do you think you can figure it out now? If not, let us know 
The Katakana is キミ = 君 =きみ , meaning “you”. (It’s often used in songs, too)
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Super helpful, thank you! Just added かい into my BunPro reviews.
And dang, the perils of zooming in on manga panels while reading lol, I knew something wasn’t adding up there. In that case is the translation of the full sentence something along the lines of:
“The Power of the Great Witch where your memory is (i.e. is located) is certainly bound to return”? I’m still not entirely clear why the particle で is there - is it the case that the memory is located within the power of the witch (as the way I learned it, で is used to mark either location or the method by which something is done)?
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I would translate で with “by" or “with”, like when you say “going by car” - 車でいく
or like this: 日本語で何か言う - say something in Japanese / by using Japanese
ETA: で only marks the location of an action, not of the existence of something or someone.
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Over time, as you expand your reading, you’ll see かい come up a lot.
If you watch anime (or other Japanese video/audio), you may start to notice it now. For example, in the animated film My Neighbor Totoro, the father uses it all the time.
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Really enjoyed the chapter and the discussion around d it. Very interesting. Nice to come across some different, other worldly language made reading this a lot of fun.
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Ah that makes sense, in that case the translation is probably something like “You will probably return/regain your memory by way of/with the Power of the Great Witch” (which of course makes a lot more sense!)
Thanks so much for your help 
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hello there!
I had a (potentially) simplistic question, but I was a bit confused about something not strictly language-related and i was hoping someone could help. I know a prologue is typically for a chapter that happens before the main story, but I was a bit confused as to when this prologue actually takes place. I’m not sure if it’s intentionally ambiguous or if I missed something…
Could someone potentially confirm where it fits in with the rest of the story?
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So based on what I know so far, which is only the prologue, is that the first page presumably happens some time after the story since it seems to be framing the rest as a tale being told to an ambiguous audience stand-in, while the rest of the prologue takes place within that tale. Can’t really say where it takes place with regards to the rest because we haven’t reached that yet (and so I haven’t read beyond that prologue). All we really need to know for now is that the prologue happens, and working out when it takes place can come later if it’s really disconnected from the rest of the story (otherwise it’s fairly easy)
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You pretty much interpreted that sentence the same way that I did, except you have a typo: 誰 → 彼. So it’s more like a particular “him” instead of just “someone” in the sea looking at the moon. I don’t know who, but probably the person in the bottom middle panel and the next page. The も would be “also” as in she is looking at the moon, and she’s wondering if he is too.
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Going through the prologue again, and had the same question as Alphatt here, could someone break this down? I also had the same initial interpretation but not sure how to make sense of the grammar.
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Think of it like the ～てもいい pattern. You could write it without the も and it would have a similar if not identical meaning (in this context that is; see the note at the bottom of the link there).
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In that case, would it mean something like “it’s okay even if you’re not nervous” (since it’s negated)
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It’s not the contrastive も (even), its the inclusive one.
So it’s not “even if you’re not nervous” it’s like “feel free to not be nervous” or “there’s no need to be nervous”. You could say 心配しなくてもいい and it would mean basically the same thing; this is just how you ask or give permission in Japanese.
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That makes sense, thanks!
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What do you feel you missed out on participating in?
There were some early questions (pages 1, 3, and 4 IIRC), and a bunch of meta discussion (vocab, SRS), but FWIW I expect the discussion to pick up now that the club has started proper
I am reading ahead for now, but I’m trying to keep my questions in pace with the club.
In からかい上手の高木さん book club I fell behind by a lot and expected to do the same here. I initially mistook when the club started (I thought 1st rather than 11th), then I decided that instead of waiting I would read ahead and try populate the vocab sheet - usually I heavily use the vocab sheet and wanted to pay it forward as this community has helped me so much and I usually can’t give much back.
I’ll be going in for surgery in a few weeks where I’ll lose the use of my left arm, in the worst case it might take me out for a while, so I didn’t expect to stay ahead for long.
Although so far I’ve been finding this easier than からかい上手の高木さん, so I may adjust my pace post-surgery to line up with the schedule.
+1, we should try our best to have everyone included
Day before is good, since today is the 2nd day for the club in AU/JA/NZ =p
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Page 5.
Correct, I think it says わだっち and is a nickname / contraction of the main characters name わだのはら.
You didn’t miss it, As @VikingSchism mentioned, the first page (page 1, before TOC) appears to be someone telling the story in hindsight, but otherwise you’re not missing any context.
page 5 spoiler
I think this uncertainty / confusion is kind of fitting given the prologue’s discussion of Wadanohara’s memories on page 5.
I found this occurrence a little confusing, as my naive literal translation for “Xてもいい” is “it is okay to do X”, which in this case would be “it is okay to not be worried” which doesn’t work in English.
From context I was able to work it out, but it probably means I need to better understand the nuances of てもいい.
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