JBC's NO.6 's Discussion Thread

NO.6 Volume 1NO.6 cover

Current chapter: 5
Start date: Sunday, August 6th, 2017

Main thread

Okay, so today we open up discussion for Chapter 1 of No.6

We’re going to try to keep the pace one chapter a week, which averages to about 5 pages a day. If most people cannot keep up with this pace we can adjust to allowing more reading time before opening discussions of the next chapter. If it seems like a lot of people can keep up, while the other lot can not, then we can have two discussion threads with different speeds.

Please use spoiler tags for content that would be considered a spoiler, and state where in the book it is. Page number or paragraph number from the start of the chapter (for those who are reading digitally).

We’re discussing grammar, vocab usage, and context, checking that our reading comprehension is right, and interesting plot/character development, ect.

EDIT: Reading pace has been adjusted to one chapter every two weeks, which is about 3 pages a day. Discussion about any place in the book for the beginning through chapter 2 is welcomed. Discussion for chapter 3 will start on 9/17/17.

Reference Lists

Characters
  • 紫苑 (しおん) - the protagonist

  • ネズミ - the secondary protagonist, a mysterious young man

  • 布沙 (さふ) - Shion’s childhood friend

  • 山勢 (やませ) - Shion’s coworker

  • 火藍 (からん) - Shion’s mother

  • 羅史 (らし) - An investigator/officer for the 治安局

Places
  • 月の雫 (つきのしずく)No. 6’s 市庁舎(しちょうしゃ, town hall); an intimidating white dome structure in the center of the city.

Memrise course by @riccyjay on

  • Character names
  • Vocabularies (up to mid 2nd chapter)
  • Kanji (non-Joyo please)
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I’ll start… ネズミ is a person, not a mouse!!

That took me way too long to realize.

:mouse:

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Same. :joy:

PS – when commenting on something from the current 5 pages or earlier, no spoiler tag is needed, right? Like it’s assumed that if you are reading this thread, you are up to date?

To be fair, I think the first few sentences are deliberately constructed to give you that impression so don’t feel too bad about it.

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Ooh, it’s nice a roomy in this thread.

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Read my first 5 pages. There are a few words I couldn’t find in the dictionary: ぬるりpg. 7 (physical book), くらり pg. 8. Any ideas? I think both are と adverbs.

I’m enjoying it. It’s really different to the other kind of stuff I read in Japanese. I haven’t really read any sci-fi-ish stuff before.

Edit - apparently ぬるりと is the same as ぬるぬる, or “slimy, slippery”

Second edit - ah and therefore くらりと is the same as くらくら, or “dizzy”? I guess you can replace the second half of these kinds of words with り? Anyone know anything about that?

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Yes, I think so.

Finally finished my first 5 pages. This book contains quite some words I don’t know yet … This is going to take a lot of time per day, at least at the start. :smiley:

I’m a bit confused by this sentence (pg 11):

母さんの声は、少しも大変そうに聞こえなかった

I understand all the words and all the grammar but I just don’t get what he’s saying. Is it supposed to be he’s surprised to hear a lack of emotion in his mother’s voice?

Also, am I right in saying on pg 13 he doesn’t actually go outside? He shouts, takes his clothes off, shouts more and gets soaked by rain blowing in the window - but running around outside is just something he imagines, right? First time I read I thought he actually went outside and that was when Nezumi entered the room. Now it seems it’s hinted Nezumi enters when he turns to push the environmental control system switch.

I read it as a sort of irony, in that he’s immediately contradicting exactly what his mother just said – kind of pointing out how she’s full of shit - just pretending to be concerned.

Like maybe one way to translate would be:

Mother: “In the west block, they’re using it as water… たいへんよね”
紫苑: (my mother said this without an ounce of たいへん in her voice)

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Ah-ha! Yes, that makes perfect sense. I was so fixated on the sentence itself I didn’t even notice she’d just used 大変 herself.

Cheers!

Edit: I reckon 大変 must be a contender for most difficult - or at least varied - word to translate into English.

I was about to say the exact same thing… especially in this case, even if you find a good translation for it in the first sentence (“it’s terrible isn’t it”)… it doesn’t work in the second! ("She didn’t have an ounce of “terrible” in her voice) !?

Maybe “isn’t it troubling?” … “she didn’t sound even slightly troubled”

I think in English you’d just have to use two different words. Like you said: “Isn’t it terrible?” for the mother and then, “She didn’t sound even slightly troubled” for Shion. Loses something by not having the same word repeated, but I can’t think of an English word that would fit both cases.

Also, interesting how the mother is portrayed as being very passive, almost kind of dying inside in this chapter. I think 大変よね can give that sort of feeling - like such a common phrase you just say it on automatic without necessarily feeling anything.

On p1 I couldn’t figure out what ぬるりと means… I keep seeing what looks like masu-stems being used in ways I don’t follow.

Like: Same page - 血液凝固が始まり傷口を…

Or “concerning”?

“Isn’t it concerning?”

She didn’t sound the least bit concerned.

Bit weird.

Yo guys, tell me. So far, is the novel worse, as good, or better than the anime? Just curious.

I was curious about this too. After a bit of googling, I actually found a guide to onomatopoeia on Tofugu that was quite helpful.

It seems like Japanese has quite a few onomatopoeia that end in らり, (e.g. くらり) and have several other forms with similar meanings (くらくら、くらっ、くらりくらり、etc). There’s a section in the guide where the author talks about the effect of the glottal stop っ and the り endings, saying:

“The onomatopoeia form ending in り conveys a feeling of softness or slowness. It’s basically the opposite of a glottal stop. It’s something long, or deliberate, not short or abrupt.”

Following those explanations there’s a big ol’ list of onomatopoeia, and you can control+F り or らり to see some others that have those endings. Unfortunately it seems like the author often gives the same definition to the っ and り forms rather than keeping the distinction mentioned above but, I think it gives a good general idea of the different forms onomatopoeia can take.

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Cheers. That Tofugu link is quite helpful. Onomatopoeia is definitely a weak area of mine.

PS I highly recommend everyone google image searching “what does ぬるりと” mean"