It’s absurd, genre-wise. Look, it’s pretty weird, which is probably not the most helpful thing when you’re just learning to read, but just try to keep that in mind when working out what’s going on. We’re all here to help!
It starts on page one. Yes, before the title page and several pages before the contents.
There are no wasted pages - no spacers between chapters - so don’t accidentally read too far. The page footers have a little おわり note on the last page of each chapter; look out for those.
ASK QUESTIONS. We’re all here to learn, and the book club is as lively as its members - without questions, there won’t be much discussion! So never feel hesitant to ask as many questions as you want.
Just remember: please include the page number so we can find the bit you’re talking about, and search the thread for that page number before posting to check your question hasn’t already been asked. It’s often helpful to transcribe the bit of Japanese you’re pondering - no need to blur that out, but please blur your attempts at translation if they give anything away at all.
I didn’t look too close, just grabbed it since I was getting the other manga anyway so better to save on shipping.
Since I didn’t check anything at all, I was a bit surprised by the bizarreness. But, honestly, been exposed to enough Japanese media to only be mildly surprised, mostly by not being aware it was one of those
Ah yes, reading bizarre stories like this is always an adventure when you’re not fluent in the language. At least it’s a manga, it’s nice to have pictures to confirm that I didn’t misread anything, the weird thing actually happened It’s challenging me to read more closely than I normally would, which is nice.
Not gonna lie, this was quite the challenge for me
Mainly because I didn’t realise when I looked at the book for the first time on Bookwalker, how blurry the Kanji and Furigana are.
Well, I will work my way through the book and re-read the first chapter but I think for later chapters I will wait until the vocab sheet has more words so I can refer to it when I can’t read the Kanji or Furigana
Looking at some Japanese pages talking about it (such as here), there’s speculation that this use of 「ララバイ」is a pun on 「さらば」. I get the impression it’s not used in a way that “makes sense” for Japanese readers, either. (We’re in for some fun with this one!)
Since it’s worded as 「ララバイします」 (“to lullaby”), I think this is a case where considering what that would mean in English works. In English, if you were “to lullaby (something)” (as nonsensical as that sounds), it’s when you’re putting (typically) a baby to sleep. Thus, it may be that she’s putting her phrase “to rest” for today, since the other girl gave a normal response.
I liked the first chapter and it’s a bit different from other manga I’ve already read. Just a small question: at page 10, the girl says フツー子じゃい and I’m not particularly sure about the meaning of フツー. Is it another way of saying 普通 (ふつう), thus translating as “not a normal child”? Thank you in advance for the help~
Yeah it seems (from the little I’ve read) that katakana is used when there is a verbal emphasis on something, kind of like bold or italic letters. It’s always weird seeing words like that in katakana, you never know what it is until you look it up and are like “duh, why didn’t I notice that”.
This was cute so far! I like weird and surreal things, so this one seems like it may be up my alley. I had to laugh at the big arrow pointing to the key sticking out of Shinonome’s back every time she worried people would think she wasn’t normal. Poor kid, lol.
on page 6, i think i get the first half of the big speech bubble, but what does she mean with なかなかないから？
seeing the response im thinking something like, it being very unlikely?
she’s saying it’s lucky because very few people have been hit by kokeshi falling from the sky.
人生の中で - amongst all of humanity
こけしに当たるなんて - something like being hit by a kokeshi
なかなかない - very doesn’t exist (I dunno how to translate this and preserve the structure )
から - because
As I understand it, なかなか + (negative form of thing) can be translated like “by no means (thing)” or “not readily (thing)” so I think it’s like, “does not readily exist.”
It’s challenging me to read more closely than I normally would, which is nice.
)