魔女の宅急便 (Kiki’s Delivery Service) Discussion Thread: Chapter 8

Double post time! Gotta keep on readin’.

So, is it just me, or has this chapter been tougher than average? I’m only four pages in thus far, but I’ve been running into a lot of stuff that takes a few reads, or sends me off to Jisho. Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, rereading pages 3-4:

  • キキはつぎつぎコキリさんのやっていたことを思い出しながらも、どれ一つとして、正確におぼえていないのです。- Is she talking about not perfectly recalling practical witch things, or just memories of doing things with Kokiri in general?

  • どれ、どれ、ほんとだ。- Anyone know what the どれs are doing here? This doesn’t literally translate well.

  • ふつうの猫でわるうございました。- This one had me stumped. There’s an explanation up in reply #10, though. It’s the same transformation that はやい goes through to become おはようございます

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Second definition here? Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary

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This made sense when you first said it, but then I went back to the sentence, and it stopped making sense: “as soon as…” What? Actually, I noticed that there’s no verb before that かと思うと, there’s just an adverb hanging there. Is it normal to just end a clause with an adverb? Or is there an implied verb?

What sense do you make of this clause, from the first page of the chapter:

そのたびにかんたんなつくりなキキのみせは、 小さな声を上げて揺らました
Here’s what I’ve got:
そのたびに each time (I assume the wind blew, as that was the previous sentence)
かんたんな a simple
つくり make, build
キキの店 Kiki’s shop

Each time (the wind blew), Kiki’s simply built store sent up a quavering little sound. ???

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I read it as the shop making noise (creaks, howls, whatever) when it shook due to the strong winds.
Didn’t she move her shop into what was essentially a flour storage room or something? I can’t remember at all, lol.


Yeah, I feel like it’s a harder chapter, too. Especially later on when the talkative おばあちゃん appears.

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I have the usual feelings I get when reading Kiki - eh, this speech pattern isn’t so bad…
few pages later
Oh, wait. It is bad after all.

But so far my questions had already been answered during the previous discussion.
(And unfortunately, I’m not sure enough to reply to any recent questions that still don’t have a solution.)

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The next…two pages seemed…somehow shorter, than usual…As though…something, other than japanese…was, taking up, some of the page…

I’d list the pages my thoughts are from, but frankly I feel like if you don’t have a general idea, you haven’t read them yet.

  • 毛をそめてまっ赤にするとか、サングラスをかけちゃうとか、さ - I feel like I’m missing something. Why is he making these suggestions here after what Kiki said previously?

  • 倅った…ら、行っちまっ…たんですよ - Hoo boy. I could just imagine the confusion this could bring to someone just trying to get by on machine translation. There are some other definitions for 倅 that do not fit the situation.

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I think she suggests that so Jiji wouldn’t stand out (since he was complaining about the neighborhood kids peeping), because the kid peeking through the door said he heard the eyes of witches’ cats glow blue-green like a flashlight when it gets cold.

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Ah, I was misunderstanding who was speaking. Whoops. An embarassing mistake to be making this far in. That makes far more sense.

Anyway, the next couple pages weren’t too bad. The grandma that insists you put something on your stomach instead of in it. Despite a little wordplay, it was all simple enough to understand on my first readthrough.

Come to think of it, this book sure does seem to have a lot of sweet old grandmas in it, huh? Very comforting subject matter.

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I like the old grandma. Nice chapters to end my week :grin:

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And done with this week’s reading. Feels good to get through it on time. Only read one page last night, and there was nothing worth bringing up and questioning, though I will note that before I reread it, I thought it had said that Jiji liked the haramaki. Read it as イライラない instead of 気にいらない. Guess I’d ought to brush up on my cat body language.

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Way back on page 165 (V2), when the kids were peeking at Jiji, he says some words I can’t find. I’m assuming they are either colloquial pronunciations, or Jiji talking funny for some reason:
わるうございました and
やんなっちゃう.

The first one in guessing is わるいございました, although I have no idea why he’s using keigo.
The second one I have no idea, other than it ends in てしまう. Any insight is appreciated!

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I used @Kyasurin post from 2018 for that fragment, although the answer why keigo isn’t there, only a confirmation that that’s indeed keigo :smiley:

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On page 166. (V2), the knowing grandma is talking to Kiki on the phone, and she says:
ぐみの木どおりのににんが四ばんちよ
Did anyone figure it what ににん (or maybe ににんが) means?

My best guess is
ににんが=2人家=a two person house.

Also, on page 169, I think I just found a pun!
へそ曲がり means a contrary person.

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Well, this’ll be a first. Unless radish gets here in the next twenty minutes or so, I’ll have completed both my reading and rereading before the next week officially starts.

…Yep. Ready for reading once more. So, Koriko’s gulf has a peninsula named Morimo? This author does love her rhyming names.

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The more I’ve read of the book the more I enjoy the way that Kiki (and Jiji) get characterized. Especially here in the latter half of the book, it’s good seeing Kiki have her arc from bratty petulant know-it-all to slowly opening up and learning what it means to not just live in a town, but be part of a community. Granny-san has been a welcome change of pace and a nice grounding presence for Kiki.

The last chapter was good to get somebody friendly around Kiki’s age, but considering how Osono and her husband don’t have nearly as large of a role in dialogue compared to the movie, it’s nice to have an older figure support Kiki. Koriko has a more specific identity here through the townspeople that the movie does a great job of transposing into the visuals. I think it’s just my 20+ years of attachment to the movie that had Kiki’s initial petty brattiness as extra-abrasive haha.

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If @Radish8 won’t appear tonight, I’m considering hijacking this book club, although I won’t be able to edit the first post of the home thread. :no_mouth:

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No protests and 2 likes, so I’m doing it.

Repeat Club Discussion (Week 15) Starts Here!

Chapter 8 Part 2

V1: Pages 189 - 200
V2: Pages 172 - 181

We’re reading to the end of Chapter 8 this week.

10th October 2020

Please briefly check whether questions have already been answered above before posting them, but otherwise don’t hesitate.

  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading but haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m a superhero who’s read it before but is here for chatting
  • I’m dropping this book

0 voters

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Finishing up Part 1 and hoo man this dialogue with Granny is a bit rough to get through. It’s not necessarily that she’s tough to understand (though there are quite a lot of vocab words and turns of phrase), it’s more that it’s a bit of an endurance test to read through long stretches of rather stream-of-consciousness dialogue.

In comparison, Chapter 7 flew by because most of it was fairly digestible bits and pieces with Kiki’s inner dialogue and Mimi’s childish conversation. Felt my head mildly spinning from the couple pages about Granny’s son and his boat work.

It’s certainly interesting to see how character personalities shine through in Japanese, all things considered.

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I’m still reading along, I promise, though I may be absent from the thread and my usual rereads this week. October is busy for everyone, it seems.

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