This Dark Kingdom speech is really slowing me down. Lots of vocabulary look-ups. Is it using a lot of olden speech, or do I just not know so many villain words???
One benefit of slowly reading through in Japanese is there are scenes I don’t remember all from reading this in English many years ago. I feel like I get more out of it reading a chapter over a week rather than in ten minutes.
Now to see if I can finish up the last few pages on the bus Friday before Act 8!
I’m kind of cheating through this section…
Right?! I never look forward to these pages 
at least this time I found what was being said actually interesting (more about Berly and how she found this other locked up queen - I forgot the name of - and her becoming power-hungry) and the classical Japanese didn’t bother me this time (but as always lots of vocab to look up).
I tend to read any chapter in two parts, and usually I’ll pause either right before or right after a lot of Dark Kingdom because yeah, it is super slow and a lot of different vocab. So that is usually my cut off point (unless the chapter starts with it). Otherwise it tends to be any other long conversation I struggle with that makes me pause.
(Of course, I haven’t actually read Sailor Moon for a few weeks now, but I was ahead and still am.)
Yes that definitely happens to me too. They’re so long winded too. 
Act.8 begins the second half of the first Sailormoon story arc.
We’re still keeping with the same thread for now. (Maybe through Act.14?) Feel free to keep asking any questions you may have in Act.1 through Act.7. Be sure to make use of the [spoiler] tags for anything spoilery, as some readers will still be working through earlier Acts. For any spoilery images, [details] works nicely as well.
Kanzenban is up to volume 2. Tankoubon has a couple of chapters until the next volume.
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Remember, you can always change your answer later if you’d like.
| Release | First | Last |
|---|---|---|
| Tankoubon | 91 | 138 |
| Shinsouban | 51 | 98 |
| Kanzenban | 3 | 52 |
(Last pages are estimated, so it may be a page or two shorter.)
Important: Tankoubon readers, be sure you get the third volume soon if you haven’t already!
A new vocabulary sheet has been created for the second half of the story arc. I’ve also added tabs for all 7 acts, in case anyone reading ahead would like to add a vocabulary word or two along the way. (And a huge thanks to everyone who’s contributed!)
Finished reading Act 8. What a cliffhanger!
I forgot that Sailor V was pretending to be the princess but while reading Act 8 I faintly remembered. I just don’t remeber why she’s doing it but I guess it’s to protect Usagi. We’ll find out soon, I guess!
I don’t know if it happened before and I just didn’t notice but in Act 8 I saw these weird… dots? And I’m wondering if they serve any purpose? 
The dots are for emphasis! Like making something bold or underlining it. I’ve also seen them used in a children’s book to mark a key word (in hiragana) that might otherwise get lost in the sea of hiragana.
(Apparently I never posted this last week and it has been sitting here this whole time. Oops!)
More questions and observations and things:
S.7.29
What does くり mean here?
This chapter/act feels rather long…
S.7.30
I can’t quite make out what Naru is saying in the handwritten bit. After the こんど I am lost.
おっきな seems like a weird way to write 大きな, unless I’m missing something (likely). Also, I find it funny that this location is not as dated as it might be outside of Japan. Also, that number and name feel reminiscent of the not-so-subtle bus!
S.7.34-35
This would be very unwise in real life.
S.7. 36
The switch in tone between page 35 and 36 is funny to me.
Is there any reasoning for how pages are numbered? We can go like, 10 pages without a single number, and BAM, 34 and 36 are numbered in my edition.
S.7.37
攻撃的 is fun to say!
She’s calling out both girl’s names. If you take a look at the next page, you see both girls and their names with arrows pointing at them, so you know who’s who.
Maybe it’s おごりなさいよ?
I think it’s a colloquial term for https://jisho.org/word/大きな. For 大きい, I also found this: https://jisho.org/word/大っきい
I completely missed those arrows. Thanks!
Pretty nice indeed. I also liked the kiss being originated by Usagi. I was kinda afraid that there would be a will they, won’t they situation for books on ends. Well, t may still happen in a way, considering that she has a fairly different personality most of the time.
As reading through in Japanese forces much slower reading for me than in English, and I’m appreciating the artwork much more, I’m also finding…Ms. Takeuchi has made some silly flubs along the way!
First that stood out to me was in the Mars intro chapter, on the bus. While I agree that bottom-left panel wouldn’t look as good showing Usagi’s profile from her other side, considering the position of the person looking at Usagi she really should be shown facing left (in my opinion):
More recently, in Act.8, we open with a (part of the story) color page showing Venus holding/dropping her removed gloves, but in the black and white pages after, she’s still wearing her gloves until after she attacks Tuxedo Mask, after which she takes them off. The color page was included in the original Nakayoshi release, so my best guess is that was created separate from the actual story pages, so Takeuchi didn’t pay attention to making up that detail.
The big one for me is on K.8.27, the page after Usagi meets with Mamoru by the fountain, where she takes out Mamoru’s pocket watch. Usagi uses her left hand to get the watch from her pocket, then her right hand is shown holding it, and then we see her holding it in her left hand. Was she playing her own version of hot potato?
That aside…
My favorite scene in Act.8 is definitely Usagi telling her family that she is, in fact, actually the heroine of justice known as Sailormoon.
I’ve also found with the ような’s in Act.8, I’m finally starting to get a grasp of understanding them when I read them. ような seems straightforward enough, but after knowing its meaning for years, I found that when reading (which I only really started around 2019, not counting analyzing every line of a manga in 2018), I had to think about ような whenever I encountered it. With as much as it came up in Act.8, I’m starting to have a “feel” for its meaning when I read it, without thinking. Progress =D
Final thought before I write up the post for the next chapter: I noticed right away in Act.8 that when Usagi transformed into Sailormoon, she didn’t have her mask to toss away. And then, when confronting Kunzite, sudden she’s throwing her mask up into the air. Did she hide her mask somewhere after transforming so she could toss it aside before the enemy later!?
We’re still keeping with the same thread for now, and probably through to the end of the current story arc. (More than halfway to the end!) Feel free to keep asking any questions you may have from earlier in the series. Be sure to make use of the [spoiler] tags for anything spoilery, as some readers will still be working through earlier Acts. For any spoilery images, [details] works nicely as well.
This is the final Act in tankoubon volume 2. Next week will be volume 3 for tankoubon readers:
0 voters
Remember, you can always change your answer later if you’d like.
| Release | First | Last |
|---|---|---|
| Tankoubon | 138 | end |
| Shinsouban | 98 | 142 |
| Kanzenban | 51 | 96 |
(Last pages are estimated, so it may be a page or two shorter.)
Important: Tankoubon readers, be sure you get the third volume soon if you haven’t already!
A new vocabulary sheet has been created for the second half of the story arc. I’ve also added tabs for all 7 acts, in case anyone reading ahead would like to add a vocabulary word or two along the way. (Once again, a huge thanks to everyone who’s contributed!)
I just checked and saw this was the last chapter I read, which was over a month ago. I’ll probably reread this chapter sometime this week and then at least keep up with the club. I don’t wanna fall behind. 
Yaaay - I’m all caught up!
I appreciate all the discussion and vocab lists - even if I’ll most likely always just lurk. 
One silver lining of the early start of deskwarming season is the time to catch up! And, i was able to finish a whole chapter yesterday! (That’s a big deal for me!)
S.9.121
I do not understand 売った in this context. Is it more like spent, or used-up? Sold just does not make sense to me.
S.9.133: Allergy season vibes.
And I’m done! Yay!
I found this chapter really hard to follow. What was happening? When was it happening?! I think I got it, but it was tricky.
