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I understood a lot more things this week, I don’t think it’s due to my skills improving already but simply because there was a lot more dialog the voice acting is nice, it’s a different voice for each character (so far), and different from the one of the narrator.
If I’m not the only one listening from the playlist, I can include the links to the video each week? If someone listens to a different version and wants to provide timestamps, I can include them in the first post too.
I’m really enjoying this story, great pacing and developments that fit the club pace rather well
3 人か魔か notes
Interesting mention that the mother didn’t remember one of the stories. Hmm… I like the build up in this chapter with the letter arriving and everyone getting into position, and then waiting it out the final hours with father and son in the study.
The jewels - gone! Great chapter
4 魔法使い notes
Oh dear, so I still didn’t want the thief to be the fake son, but the next clue that it’s definitely not the son (aside from it just being the two of them) is the smile. And then when he makes the rude comment I’m like, oh no, poor dad is going to be so crushed that his son is not really back and instead he’s been made a fool of. Somehow I was expecting more gentlemanly conduct from the thief. (Irrational, yes)
The pistol threw me off because I thought, hmm, he didn’t sound violent, so it was funny when it turned out to be a toy. Poor dad!
And then he disappeared out the window. Nice cliffhanger, lol, that we don’t know if the trap has done its job…
Done with this weeks reading. Nothing much surprising.
I wrote down the following comments:
Chapter3:
Katakana letter. Ugh, surprisingly hard to read but I could decipher it…
The tabletennis ball was the distraction. I’m 100% certain the son is the thief. The examples he brought from the “newspaper” to instill fear in the target to get him to take the diamonds out was skillful.
Chapter 4:
So I was right all along. I don’t feel the story is necessarily bad but really predictable at the moment. The fake gun was the first little surprise.
I’m looking forward to next week though. Let’s see how the escape will work out. He has to get away though, for the detective to come in.
Oh so that’s what it was. I forgot about this detail. At some point in the audiobook, they said something very slowly, pronouncing each syllable distinctly. Probably because they were reading this letter then!
I found that my simultaneous reading/listening to the audiobook was better this week in that I understood more right away – I think that was probably because there was more dialogue, which generally is just less complicated and therefore easier to pick up.
I was also thinking that the son might be the thief – but I didn’t predict that it was going to be the thief in disguise as the son! Poor dad…but wait, isn’t he a jerk?! Lol.
Now that ~the crime~ has been committed, I wonder if we’ll see 明智 小五郎 and his sidekick soon! I’m excited to get to know those characters and see what their personalities are like since they were mentioned in the prologue, but we haven’t seen them in ACTION!
I actually finished week 2 along with week 1, but didn’t have the time to comment yet.
I agree, this week was easier to follow along.
About the story
I somehow found it funny how everyone got their jobs in protecting the diamond. The strategy seemed good though.
I mean we all suspected something with the son, but this is definitely just the first of many layers of truth. I also think it’s best not to tease the obvious for a long time. I expect the story will proceed rapidly.
I found this week very dynamic and easy to read, nice!
I don’t have much to say about the story this time. It was a but obvious so far, albeit still interesting. I especially liked the tension around midnight. Looking forward to the trap! It is the second time our week is closed with the trap mentioned in a “you remember the trap, right? right?” way
Uh. The most obvious thing did really happen. Which means that in a sense the least obvious thing happened?
No idea where we’re going from here. Into a Looney Tunes trap apparently. I expect some kind of subversion but maybe I’m wrong again and the thief will just get caught immediately. The rest of the book follows the trial in great details.
Lots of fun this week, like many others I had an easier time. I also really liked The countdown towards midnight. The tension build was really good, especially since the reader is almost certain that the diamond will be stolen.
I started a little late, so I didn’t post anything for the first week. I am learning a LOT of new vocabulary and expressions!
Week 2 thoughts
I really like how the narrator stops to address the readers (読者諸君) once in awhile and the tension that built up with the count down to midnight. Although the son Souichi turned out to be Twenty Faces (二重面相) I guess it’s not surprising that the twist was so predictable, since the story is written for young readers?
I thought the phantom thief would be similar to “Arsene Lupin The Gentleman Thief” by Maurice Leblanc. It was written around the same time as 怪人二十面相 and was revived by a Netflix series called Lupin. But unlike Lupin, Twenty Faces seems to be more boastful and provocative, sending notices in advance and then revealing himself to the victim before running off.
I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes, more specifically, where the thief’s leg ends up!
My favorite word this week is 十重二十重. Much to my disappointment, it is not pronounced じゅうじゅうにじゅうじゅう It’s pronouncedとえはたえ meaning “multitude” or, according to this post from 五文字熟語 (which itself is a 5-character word) “layer upon layer” describing a physical or metaphorical complexity of multiple-overlapping layers (In the book, it is used on p.20 to describe all the different ways the Hashibas fortified the house against Twenty Faces)
the voice acting is nice, it’s a different voice for each character (so far), and different from the one of the narrator.
It’s pronouncedとえはたえ meaning “multitude” or, according to