Week 4: Chapters 10-12
Start Date: September 21st
Previous: Week 3
Next: Week 5
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This week we will also pass the halfway mark! On this occasion, I want to ask you another question.
Will you stay along for the second volume?
Start date: 2nd November (2 weeks break)
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Aww, so sad to see you go, @anon89323260! Thanks for all the time, it was really nice reading alongside you! I really enjoyed your comments. 
On the other hand, I’m happy that you’re still planning to catch up, @anon54313967! Best of luck! 
(and time, and energy)
Definitely have not given up. Just having a bit of a juggling issue between my two book clubs, grammar study and few other home projects going on. I’ll try to power my way back up to be back on track this week.
My comments/questions for this week:
So, it has been proven that Dazai is not just being lazy. He simply cannot work! As it may bring the great danger for the world!
I wonder about that “raining javelins” comment from Tanizaki. Is it popular myth/joke/idiom in Japanese? Something like “raining dogs and cats”? It’s the first time I heard about raining javelins in Japanese fiction.
Does anyone has any idea who is the one “going to that extent to stop” Dazai? The god? xD
Um, it isn’t only me who cannot possibly read this, right? No matter the zoom, letters are just too blurry.
Anyone knows what Tachihara is saying here? 
Also, I feel uncomfortable about Q being played for laughs or being loose at any point of the story. Q’s just too creepy for me.
So, as proven by Chapter 10, the ghost is just doing a favour for the Agency - this way Dazai will not accidentally work or anything like this!
I wonder about the title here. I found proof it’s either “wars” or “vows”. And both seem to fit here… Maybe wars fit a little better…?
And this I simply do not understand.
Btw, everyone who is catching up - do not hesitate to comment, however late it may be. The more the merrier!
Finally managed to get last weeks reading done so I can actually start this weeks reading tomorrow. I love this manga so far, it just makes me love BSD all the more as a series.
I feel like this week was harder to read than last week.
I already heard it before. It not common thought.
I was wondering if Dazai did not did it himself to not work.
I can’t be sure for the first kanji but I believe it is
「繰り返します隕石は軌道を」
So “I repeat the meteorite trajectory…”
I don’t get it either sorry. I feel like it means she got the information correct but not the entire thing or something.
Cmon he is soooo cute. Look that this angel
I think wars fit better.
I think it means “you can call it the enemy’s last struggle” Not sure though.
Sorry I tried to help but I don’t think I could answer half your questions 
I will laugh if Dazai actually faked the entire thing. He always seems to be scheming something.
Yeah I love Q !!! I just find him cute. Cute and creepy but hey !
I had trouble with this part:
On another note, I found it funny that Dazai was only hit by a woman. Then he probably tormented the other two in exchange for his help.
Kind of a weird chapter in my opinion. I believe it’s another “Dazai wants to be lazy” plan
But I must say I was impressed with the number of kanji back to back.
For those interested:
哺乳綱(ほにゅうこう) = mammalia
異節上目(いせつじょうもく) = Xenarthra
有毛目(ゆうもうもく) = Pilosa
Have fun I will call it a sloth.
I am ready 2 other books before this one so I normally only post on Wednesday. I plan to post every week so count me in.
There is a second volume???
COUNT ME IN
cough… cough…
I mean Yeah I can see what I can do. You know I am a busy person after all.
There’s 6 books so far…
And if we’re gonna to do 1 volume/2 months there probably will be more when we finish.
I do admit I would love to cover the material they gonna use in the above-mentioned anime adaptation before it airs. I wonder how much it will be for the first season.
Yes, and that’s being on time. 
I meant other people who are now reading chapters from previous weeks.
It’s okay, you already helped a lot, thank youuu~! 
It’s amazing how you assume that everything is part of the Dazai’s part, even the meteor… worst thing is, you may be right. 
That kanji-fest with a sloth was truly amazing. I was like “why??? why include all this taxonomy stuff???”.
You are amazing for being able to read that small font! 
As for your question,
I don’t think Q’s power is mixed in this. Higuchi is comparing all the marks to the rock-paper-scissors game. I think she expected rock to come next, but instead it was a peace sign. ダブルピース = double peace sign. I only understood it because peace sign (made with both hands, so double) is what you get in the images section when you google this phrase .
Same here, then I can see how much I actually understood from reading 
I know right. Imagine he just don’t want to work so he place lance and frog outside then release them when everyone is looking then fake a radio report. Knowing Dazai level of intelligence I would not be surprised.
I never realized the face mark was rock paper scissor thing. Now it makes sense thank you.
Do you think that’s what Tachihara was saying “you get the situation but not the how it’s working?” 「あってるけどあってない文面」
Well lots of fun incoming. 
Btw do you have any plan to read the main serie’s series light novel or manga?
Totally agree 
I would love to read the main series as well, I don’t know if my grammar is good enough but it’s definitely very high on my list. Same for the novels.
I just want to read all the BSD materials that there are, it’s one of my favourite series.
Maybe if I ever get good enough I might attempt some of the works by the authors mentioned in the series…
I also wanna try some of the author in the book. Altought I don’t know how my knowledge of old japanese is.
The old Japanese is my concern as well. Tofugu did the below article with some tips on reading Kobun since apparently it was sometimes still used up until WWII, but I still struggle enough with modern Japanese 
Maybe some kind soul has done a version of the books using modern Japanese…
Well, like I said, I have no idea what he was saying, but your translation fits, so 
I think I’ll stick with the Polish/English translations. Classical Japanese scares me a lot.
Modernization would still be sort of translation, so in every case something would be lost.
And how I can not like our Polish translators, since one of them even mentioned Bungou Stray Dogs in the introduction to the Dazai’s short stories collection?
(As an example of Dazai living in the modern pop-culture.)
But I definitely want to read all of the light novels & original manga in Japanese. I even do read new chapters of main manga in Japanese now, but I’m still too slow. I need to pick up the speed to reread it whole.
I picked up with manga only from the endpoint of the anime (and I switched to Japanese only for the last 3 chapters of so), but I heard about some little changes in manga vs anime, so it’s worth it for me, rereading it. 
Btwwww… @DollyDaydream, wasn’t it BSD light novel you used for Kindle presentation in this post? 
Have you started reading it?
Yeah that thought had crossed my mind as well about switching to modern Japanese, it’s not the ‘original work’ so to speak.
That’s something I would maybe do for classic Japanese literature like that, read it in English and then attempt it in Japanese, I could use the English translation as a parallel reader of sorts.
Best translator, no doubt.
Wow well noticed and remembered. It was actually just a sample of the book, I downloaded it to see how difficult it looked…
…but when I buy my next lot of manga from Amazon JP I do plan to buy it along with the first few volumes of the main manga. I don’t mind reading it again from the beginning as it’s been a while since I watched season 1 and 2 of the anime.
I need to increase my reading speed as well before I tackle the novels I think. Given the book clubs I’m in if I started the novel now it’d probably take me a year to read it
I mean if you always wait to be faster to read it will be long before you can. I started with a novel and it took me 9 months reading at a pace of 1 page per day. You can probably do better than me. To become better at something nothing beats doing it 
That would probably be about all I could manage, reading books fatigues me so much quicker than manga, given the lack of pretty artwork to give me hints when I get stuck
I find it so much easier to pick up manga and children’s books to read (they at least usually have some pictures) and I keep putting novels off. I should really just pick one and start reading, see what happens.
I’m not too sure about that but thanks for the vote of confidence
I find I have issues with that sometimes, I know nothing beats practice whether it comes to Japanese, my artwork etc but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and overthink things a lot. I go to do something and I envisage so many different ways it can go wrong or not be ‘perfect’ that a lot of the time I never get started
I do think I am getting better at just doing things now and trying not to overthink, for Japanese the book clubs definitely help with that, I don’t have too much time to think if I want to stay on schedule
in mean in the first pages my book had the word anticoagulant so your is probably gonna be easier You have had practice with manga at that time I had none. I believe in you 頑張れ
Same building up motivation is hard. This is why I read japanese book everyday so that now it’s more an habit than a work so no need to motivate myself. Also I can relax more if I take some advance because reading every day make it really easier to read a lot.
Btw you are doing artwork? which kind? can I take a little peak at it? pretty please
Building motivation is hard, it’s also so easy to lose motivation as well. I think I’ll try to clear my bookshelf first, I have a few children’s books I can read, once I do those I might try to read some of the past book club picks. I think it’s the reading every day thing I need to get better at, sometimes I get my reading for the clubs done quickly then don’t do much, or any, other reading that week
Yeah I like to doodle and sketch, I haven’t really done so properly in years but I’m trying to get back into it. I used to do paintings as well. At the moment I’m just doing quick re-draws of anime/manga scenes I like or characters, just to try and get back into the way of doing things. I might have a few sketches I’ve done recently lying around, if I can find them I’ll post them. They’re probably not the best though
Just to add what other people have said 
味見しまくったんだな Literally means “He filled himself up with taste testing…”
しまっくている means いっぱい basically
【しまくっている】とはどういう意味ですか？ - 日本語に関する質問 | HiNative
【Ｎ１文法】～まくる | 毎日のんびり日本語教師
あちち is something you say when something is h o t lol.
あちちとは？ 意味や使い方 - コトバンク
And I guess my attempt at translating that sentence:
ほらこうなった - I knew it! (Literally "look, it became this)
なると思ったよ！ - I knew this was how it was going to end! (I knew it would become (this))
I hope that helped…it’s kinda late but just in case, LOL 
