If you follow this link, you can see sample pages to help you decide if it’s a reasonable level for you. Most people think it belongs in the beginner level, especially since we will have a spreadsheet for vocabulary. If you want more reading, there is often an article at the end, but it isn’t required to follow the story, so you can also skip it. If you just want to be able to follow the games in the Manga, you may find my Guide to Shougi Pieces helpful.
We read volumes 1-3 on a schedule, with vocabulary sheets. I’ve archived the schedules and vocab sheets below.
While I did watch both seasons of the anime, I would prefer starting from 1, so I don’t think I will join. Although if someone wanted to read a book a week until this one starts I would be down for that.
I’d personally recommend starting with volume 1, even if you’re eager to find out what happens next. Even if people have seen the anime, content was likely cut/changed to some extent. Also, most people probably watched the anime with English subtitles, so they wouldn’t be used to the writing style and speaking style of the characters (at least not completely). Reading from the beginning allows readers to learn about all the characters’ speaking quirks and how they speak differently to one another.
I’ve never seen the anime, so I wouldn’t be interes–wait, this mangaka name looks familiar… Ah, it’s the mangaka of Honey and Clover! The lack of furigana gate-keeps me out, but I’m definitely going to have to keep this series in mind to check out after I complete WaniKani.
@Wildjinjer, what would you say your expectation is on your reading speed for a series like this? Are you able to read at a comfortable speed with the lack of furigana, or do you need to stop and look up a lot of the kanji? Do you expect to read one chapter per week, or one chapter per month, or otherwise?
I’d say a chapter a week is very reasonable at our level, (especially if you skip the shougi article at the end), but I do have to stop and look up Kanji pretty often-- about 5-10 Kanji per comic page. (I haven’t tackled any of the shougi article pages yet). I’m super motivated to read volume 10, so I looked up all the unfamiliar Kanji in the first 2 chapters in the last 2 days. But that’s a “motivated” pace. As a book club, we can share the work of looking up Kanji and entering them into a spreadsheet.
I wish I timestamped old posts with my WaniKani level–I think I originally wrote this at about level 20. At level 33, I find a chapter pretty easy to read, especially since I’ve gotten used to some of the mangaka’s alternate kanji choices for common words.
I actually already bought the whole 15 volume set, so I’d be happy to start with volume 1, but I’m maybe not motivated enough to look up all the kanji and enter them in a spreadsheet BEFORE the book club starts. I would contribute as we go, of course. Is a chapter a week too slow for you advanced peeps?
The good thing about book clubs is that everyone can help filling in the vocab sheet as you go. It’s less work for everyone. No one is expecting you to fill it in yourself
Definitely not. I’m already part of a number of clubs, and am catching up with other clubs, so I have plenty to read anyway. A chapter per week seems to be pretty standard in the manga clubs
I just read the first chapter of volume one. There isn’t that much text (may change wildly by chapter, I guess), but I’d say it’s somewhere between beginner and intermediate. It feels on par with Girls last tour from the beginner book club, and I don’t think people complained it was a hard read at the time? Ah, but the book club had a vocab list, that must have helped lower the difficulty. So probably lower intermediate without any assistance.
Edit: I just saw you mentioned spreadsheets. Well, then Beginner club level of difficulty
As for the start date, do keep in account that shipping is a real pain in the butt at the moment due to the coronavirus! My previous order from Japan took two months to get here
I don’t know if I just got lucky, but I ordered the complete set of these just recently, and it came in two weeks. Also, you can buy them digitally at the same link where you can preview the text. But to be safe, feel free to choose a late month!
I’m going to waffle back and forth on this one for a bit (before likely passing due to lack of furigana), but out of curiosity, I checked the chapter lengths for volume 1 (based on the table of contents on the preview):
Chapter
Length
Chapter 1
30 pages
Chapter 2
16 pages
Chapter 3
16 pages
Chapter 4
16 pages
Chapter 5
18 pages
Chapter 6
11 pages
Chapter 7
21 pages
Chapter 8
14 pages
Chapter 9
18 pages
Chapter 10
?? pages
At these lengths (and considering chapter 1 has a lot of pages with little to no text/dialogue), I might be able to handle this. Gotta think more. I’m about to finish some really easy series I’m reading. (I can also set aside the more difficult ones I’m reading, but I hardly get to them as it is…)
My participation vote is currently “Undecided”. It’d be “No” but that the mangaka is Chica. Is there anyone familiar with this series and Honey & Clover who can give a general comparison of the vibe/atmosphere of the two?
That’s about the same as 少女終末旅行, which we read with the beginner book club. I feel like people were generally fine with that level of difficulty (thanks to the spreadsheet, I guess).
Speaking of the book club, I don’t know how I feel about “beginner book club” being literally in the title while this club has nothing to do with the actual beginner book club. (I do realize it’s not a trademarked name or anything, I’m just worried about people getting confused in the future).
Probably. It’s hard to say, because when I’m reading something with furigana, I never bother looking at the vocabulary sheet (unless I’m adding entries to it). It’s often quicker/easier for me to pull up a J-to-E dictionary on my e-reader.
In the Kiki re-read club, I’m never looking at the vocabulary spreadsheet, but that’s because the ebook is a text file, so I was able to rig something to run it through a tokenizer to split up the words, get the readings, and grab J-to-E dictionary entries. I can’t do that with an e-manga, which is made up of image files. (Not for lack of trying.)
I see. I’m such a paper person! I’m reading the 10th book right now, and I feel like there’s a lot of kanji. She uses Kanji for words I usually only see in hiragana, so that’s maybe an issue. Up to you.
Sadly, it didn’t work out for me when I tried it previously =( It had probably more than a 75% failure rate on reading the kanji.
I used to be, but e-manga has some conveniences that I can’t do without: 1) I have access to everything I’m reading when I’m away from home, and 2) being able to zoom in on smaller text. It does have its own drawbacks, of course.
If I were starting at book one, and if each book has about ten chapters per book, and if I read at a rate of one chapter per week, and if my math’s not off, that’d be a bit more than a year and a half to reach book 10. At the rate I’m advancing in WaniKani lately, I’ll probably be around level 35 by then.
Since I buy electronic, I can waffle back and forth up to day one =D
