First round of question since I only got to page 100 today ! I will finish populating the vocab on my end tomorrow
Page 83
空を走れるのに学校行ってる場合じゃなくないと思って
I struggle with this sentence, I’m unable to make a good connection between each element.
Page 84
Which も is it in this context ?
綿矢さん転校してきたばっかで初めての人ばっかだもんね
I understand the first half of the sentence : " You just transfered school Wataya"
but the second half ? I don’t understand where’s she is going with this
Page 85
ちゃんと手も動かせよ
“Move you hand seriously too”
Is that what I’m suppose to understand ?
Page 94
あなたは思いつきだけで生きてんの
“Do you live just by your ideas ?”
Has someone a more natural translation to suggest ?
Page 97
元はといえばお前が
“Originally, if we are speaking about you…”
To convey that she is responsible of the situation
Lots of question this time!
About 一蓮托生
I found the word 一蓮托生 to be interesting.
Since the meaning was to be in the same boat I wanted to understand where this was coming from, so I looked at the composition.
一: One / 蓮 : Lotus / 托 : Entrusting / 生 : Life
It didn’t help much so I went online and I found this explanation, very poetic in my opinion !
It’s colloquially used to mean “being in the same boat/situation/condition.” But originally, it’s a term that has its root in Buddhism and means the intertwining of fate and karma in an irrevocable bond that after death reincarnates in a lotus blossom together. Lotus blossom has a special place in Buddhism because it’s a beautiful, pure flower than blossoms in a muddy pond. The stem and the root are hidden in the muddy bottom and the water and represent our mundane, often messy, lives. Yet the flower grows through the muck and emerges beautiful and pure on top. So to explain the term in more detail. it’s like two people who are joined together in the trials and tribulations of life, relishing the joys and sharing the pain, and in the end, emerging or being reborn as a beautiful flower on top of the water.
Not sure how exactly to translate this literally to english, but my understanding is the following:
空を走れるのに学校行ってる場合じゃなくないと思って
so, here のに is used to show a discrepancy between two sentences, in this case:
空を走れる => able to run in the sky
学校行ってる => going to school
“Going to school despite being able to run in the sky”
場合じゃない is a set phrase that literally means “not the situation for”, and it’s usually translated at “this is not the time for”. It’s used when an event doesn’t make sense in a given situation. So here the situation of “Going to school despite being able to run in the sky” doesn’t make sense to her.
She uses 場合じゃなくない, which basically just adds a double negation (“isn’t the situation for …, is it?”)
In short, she’s explaining that she thought that going to school was a unthinkable given that she could run in the sky. So she prioritized running in the sky over going to school.
A somewhat natural translation would be “I thought ‘Why would I go to school when I can run in the sky!?’”
Page 84
My understanding is that she’s contrasting her situation (of being classmates with Teo for a long time) with Kon’s situation.
初めての人ばっかだもんね
初めての人 => new people
ばっか => only
だもん => gramatical structure that makes the previous sentence a explanation or reason for something.
ね => confirmation-seeking ending particle.
So basically, since Kon just transfered here, all of his classmates are his classmates for the first time from his point of view. It’s full of (ばっか) new people (初めての人).
だもん is making the whole sentence into a logic reasoning sentence => because he just transfered, everyone he meets is new to him.
Page 85
My understanding is that 手を動かせ is a common way to tell someone to get to work. Here the teacher is scolding them for just talking and not working on their assignment.
Page 94
思いつき refers to ideas that are sudden and that have not been thought through - that’s why it also means whim, fancy or impulse.
My suggested translation is “Do you live by your whims?”
Page 97
My understanding is that here いえば refers to 元, and not to a person. “If we were to talk about the origin (of this event / issue / problem), you… (are the one who caused it!)”. Jisho lists “as for what started it” as a possible translation to 元はと言えば, which I feel fits here.
If I recall there was an initial discussion on the chapter title between かいだん being Staircase 階段 or conference 会談. But in the end, it’s a wordplay between 学校の階段 and 学校の怪談.
Just finished this section and it was my favorite chapter so far n_n
I really like ほの’s character. She seems a little mischievous and wholesome at the same time. I thought the word play was cute too and It made me really glad that I was reading this in Japanese instead of using an English translation.
Phew, that was a lot of text for me, but I managed to finish in time! (Yeah, I didn’t have much free time this weekend…)
Most of the grammar questions I had have been already asked, but there is still one remaining.
Page 85
繋がっちゃうんだって。。。
I must be parsing it wrong, I see it as something like “It will be connected after all”, but it makes no sense to me. The best I could come up with looking at the context is connecting the increase of stair steps to the suicide, but I feel like it’s too much of a stretch when it comes to grammar.
Plot
I didn’t like Nene at first; she seemed to act like a spoiled brat. But she was redeemed in my eyes when she apologized, it was very cute ^^ Overall, I like that all chapters so far end with a wholesome twist
I also loved the idea for a bug in this chapter! Now I wonder what is the definition of stairs in this context. Are two steps enough? Would they turn into three? Because that could make a significant difference in some places! And I wonder about the confusion of construction managers at multistory building construction sites that would check if the building is built according to the project that day (or maybe the bug would also affect construction design on paper?). This bug is pure evil
んだって is actually slightly different than the だって that means “after all; because” (though related, and sometimes also just shows up as だって on its own, and context will tell you which is correct)
んだって is like, “I heard; it is said that” for the English feeling, and it makes sense to close off a ghost story like that.
Essentially it takes all of those speech bubbles previously and bundles them up as a quote.
Really rough and loose, not keeping grammar perfectly in line:
“There are twelve steps up to the rooftop here, but there are times that it becomes 13, and I heard that it is connected to that day a female student jumped from the rooftop.”
Essentially just saying that the ghost of the girl shows up on days that there is an extra step to the rooftop.
Other basketball player: お前なんでそれで帰宅部なんだよ
Is that “Why are you in the go-home club with this” (=despite being so good)?
Page 85
Student: 階段がどうとか
Is that “Or how about the stairs, for example”?
Page 86
Teo: 知るかよ
Is that “Would I know that” as in “How would I know”?
Page 88
Hono: せっかくだしちょっと脅かしてみよ
What’s the せっかくだし? (And this is missing a う at the end, right?)
Page 97
Hono: まぁ脱出できただけでも
Is that “But we just managed to escape”?
Page 105
Hono: テオハ言わなくてもよかったのに
Is that “It would’ve even been okay without you saying anything, Teo”?
Also, what’s going on in that last hand-written page? I can’t read the kanji in the female teacher’s bubbles…
Chapter notes
While I like Hono a lot, and thought the chapter was fun as a slice of life, this was definitely the weakest one from a bug perspective. The bug is not very interesting (neither by itself nor by the behaviour that might result from it), incredibly specific to the point that it feels more like a joke than anything else, and story-wise its only purpose is to add a tiny bit to the super specific ghost story that coincidentally was told on the same day on which a bug coincidentally recreates those exact circumstances.
And there’s also no researching to be done. I guess I expected more of that in general, given the premise of the manga. Oh, well.
Yes, I agree with your interpretation. それ is being using very broadly her to refer to their basketball ability.
Page 85
My interpretation is this means “or that something with the stairs”, just expressed reaaally vaguely. Sadly I don’t have a grammar explanation to back that up.
Page 86
Yes, exactly.
Page 88
せっかく => “With trouble”
だ => the copula
し => particle that states that the previous sentence is one of various reasons (for something).
せっかく is a used when someone want to take advantage of some kind of effort or trouble they already went through, to do something extra.
In this case she’s saying “Since we already went to the trouble (of getting all the way here). we might as well… (give them a scare)”
I agree that to be correct grammar-wise it’d need a う at the end.
Page 97
Not quite sure about this one, but my understanding is the following.
脱出 => to escape
できた => were able (past tense)
だけ => only
でも => even
“Well, even if we only managed to escape … (it’s fine)”. The sentence ending in demo implies there’s something else that can be derived from context. My understanding is that she means that it’s fine since they managed to escape, despite them losing a shoe.
About 105. I agree with your translation, but I’m not really sure what she means.
As I understand it myself, Hono wanted to take the blame solely on herself. That’s why she said that Theo didn’t need to admit that he was also there; she didn’t want to snitch on him anyway.
Maybe, but potentially very dangerous. Going upstairs with one less step than expected might have you falling forward, and with step more might make you face plant unless you have time to get your hands up. But honestly downstairs is more dangerous since you’ll fall further with an extra unexpected step.
I should know. I have good balance and coordination, except right after I wake up. One day several years ago, I had to dash out the door as soon as I woke up, and had to start going down the stone stairway in my apartment building, and somehow in my sleep-addled brain, I forgot 1-2 steps (I’m unsure how many) and fell without the ability to catch myself, landing on my knees on the floor. Thankfully, I fell enough forward that I didn’t hit the stairs, and I was lucky that I don’t think I even got a bruise, but those few moments in the air of helpless, hapless falling etched itself into my memory. xD
