Death Note | Week 2 Discussion

Pages 30-53

Chapter 1 - 退屈

Start Date: 29th January
Previous Week: Chapter 1 part 1
Next Week: Chapter 2

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Vocabulary List

Please read the editing guidelines in the first sheet before adding any words!


Discussion Guidelines

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6 Likes

On page 32, the reporter states: 皆ぶじの様です。

I am kind of confused at what they are saying. Is it just that everyone appears to be safe? I guess I am unsure of which 様 definition is being used here.

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This is more often written in kana I think, it reads よう and means “appearing”. So, like you say, the reporter just says “Everyone appears to be safe”. :slight_smile:

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On page 31, when Light turns on the TV and says ってマジになりすぎか, I don’t understand the meaning of なりすぎ, how do you guys understand it ?

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That’s なる and すぎる (definition 6 on jisho), which basically means “too/excessively”.

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He’s saying I’m becoming too serious (about this).

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Thanks ! I thought it might なる and すぎり but I didn’t know how to interpret it ^^

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yeah finished…this is definitely well above my skill level… so many noun phrases and grammar all mashed together… (as if it’s actual proper Japanese or something) haha - but happy to be at least not falling behind (yet)

upside…got through the vocab sheet so it’s mostly populated…(though I didn’t bother with the rules on page 52 since the English is right there…

a reminder to those adding/modifying the vocab sheet …when I started it had barely been filled out but the first few lines were a bit dicey… already fixed what seemed suspicious - realizing the sheets will never be perfect and no one ever means ill intention…so just a kind reminder…

  1. please use dictionary definitions (i.e…jisho)
  2. if you are unsure of the meaning, please don’t add it
  3. grammar doesn’t belong on the vocab list (please post those questions in the forums)
4) when in doubt the first tab of the spreadsheet has the editing guide

if you don’t know the meaning or understand something from context, post the question to the boards first… an example I found is one word had used bystander but the actual definition is random attacker… just slightly different meanings eh? not a big deal and it will happen in every book club but if something is unclear post the question up and ask…then go back and fill in with the correct answer … otherwise true beginners get led astray

and please remember to use the dictionary the definitions…could be mistaken but it appeared some of what had been filled in seemed to be from a translator or someone’s personal interpretation (guessing deepl, google etc)

lastly… remember grammar doesn’t go in the list (this one is a harder one because sometimes grammar looks like vocab and to beginners and sometimes it truly is more like vocab)…I’m sure I still screw this one up from time to time with advanced grammar I haven’t learned yet…

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Yes, I also feel that it’s a very wordy manga. Almost reads like a book. (Not a bad thing, but definitely takes some work to translate here and there. Does give satisfaction when you finally figure out the sentences.)

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Hello, here is my take on translating of one of many passionate passages by ライト, with question part in bold, and any feedback welcome.

Page 44.
いいや やめちゃ駄目だ。。。 精神や命を犠牲にしてでも誰かがやらなくてはいけないんだ!!

Translation and the question

No. Quitting is not allowed… (better English: I cant quit!)

Even if I have to sacrifice my soul and my life, someone has to do it.

At the end of the sentence, “やらなくてはいけない”
なくてはいけない is an expression “cannot do without something; absolutely necessary;have to do”.
やろ before it - I think it is やる (to do) conjugation, if so then which one? if not what else?

Also is it correct that Light speaks about himself sacrificing “soul and body”, not sacrificing other human lives to perform “the cleaning”?

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My understanding with those ‘なくて’ expressions (they trip me up often) is that you’re taking the plain negative form and then converting the negative ない part into て form.
In this case - やる → やらない (casual negative) → やらなくて
So not really a separate conjugation of やる per se, just the negative stem that you need to use to make that expression.

Hopefully that’s kind of clear? I’m sure someone else could chime in with a better explanation.

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Back with my own question :slight_smile:

Last bubble, p 51

All of my attempts here have come out rather broken. Best notes at this point:
この事件 いくら私でも 警察の手を借りないわけにはいくまい

I see the いくら…ても construction around 私 - my best understanding is something to the effect of ‘no matter how much’ - I know it can be used with a noun, but had trouble sifting through example sentences to figure out how that would translate here - the closest I got was ‘even I’, which I can’t make work in the sentence

わけにはいくまい - the closest thing I’ve found as I hunted around was わけにはいかない - I’m guessing this is related, but not sure if it’s the same? I got a general sense of ‘must not/intend not to’

I tried stringing some of it together a few ways, but never came up with something that made sense - I clearly need help here.

5 Likes
Last bubble, p51

This trips me up too. For what it’s worth, my analysis aligns with yours. Apparently いくら私でも would mean something like “even if it’s me”, which would imply that what follows is not typical of “私”. わけにはいくまい would be equivalent to わけにはいかない , which would mean “it’s not possible to do”. But what precedes it is negative, which would turn it into “it’s not possible not to do/must do”. 警察の手を借りない confuses me a little too. I’d think it would mean “(not) get the help of the police”, but I get the feeling it means that this person will help the police instead? So all in all, it would either mean “Even if it’s me, I’ll have to help the police on this case” or “Even if it’s me, I’ll need the help of the police on this case”. I found someone asking about this exact sentence on Hinative by the way, and the explanation they got is “Typically this person doesn’t need the help of the police. But about this incident, even though he is, the police needs.”.

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I don’t know if you misread it or mistyped it, but it’s やら, not やろ. So やらなくてはいけない is just the 〜なくてはいけない version of やる.

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Thanks for the grammar point, I was missing it!

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Japanese level up ‘difficulty-level-guide-everything-japanese’ has Death Note manga at 4 stars ‘hard’ difficulty. It’s quite tough isn’t it?

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I also wanted to ask about that sentence because I’m (still) having a lot of trouble understanding it. On the other hand, it might be vague on purpose (in a cliffhanger sort of way) and maybe the sentence will be easier to interpret when we know more about this character.

My thoughts so far

Yes, わけにはいかない is listed in the intermediate grammar book and when it is preceded with a negative verb, they translate it as ‘have no choice but to do ~’ or ‘can’t help doing ~’.

And I think the まい turns it into ‘probably having no choice’ / ‘probably can’t be helped’.

From looking at a bunch of example sentences, I also get the impression that いくら私でも means ‘even I’. I think it is basically the same as 私でも (even I) and adding いくら to such expressions makes them stronger (éven I). Basically as if you are saying “no matter (も) how much of (いくら) me (私) there is (で)”.

So we have: “Even I … help/involvement from the police is probably inevitable”

I feel that there is simply something implied that has been omitted from the sentence. For example, it could be:

Even I understand that involvement from the police is probably inevitable.

or:

Even I can’t do anything about the probable inevitability of the police getting involved.

Or something like that. Like I said above, maybe it is vague on purpose, to build tension.

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Page 36 bottom left
Step by step translation does not makes sense to me. Which of my steps is the problem?

殺した方が世の中の為になる奴ばかりに見えてくる

殺した = killed
方= method
the way of being killed

世の中 = world

ためになる
good for?
in order to become?

奴 = guy, bustard, thing

ばかりに =
about to​
6.
見えてくる
to help to be seen?

All together if translated using the meaning above:
We are still to see if the way of killing does any good to the world?

All together according to DeepL:
It seems to me that the world would be better off without them.

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殺した方が世の中の為になる奴ばかりに見えてくる

The whole 殺した方が世の中の為になる modifies 奴.
I’m pretty sure this is 殺した方がいい with いい omitted. “had better kill”
世の中の為になる= be good for society
Put together: guys who had better be killed for the good of society
ばかりに emphasizes negative reason
見えてくる they start to seem, they continue to seem

5 Likes
殺した方が世の中の為になる奴ばかりに見えてくる

I agree with you about the first part (up to 奴) but I’m not sure what you mean with this last part.

I took the に to belong with 見える: from looking at a bunch of example sentences, I get the impression that Xに見える means ‘it looks like X is the case’ / ‘it seems as if X’.

I took ばから in the way that the basic grammar dictionary states it (‘the basic idea which ばかり expresses is that there is nothing except what is stated’) or in other words that there are only 奴 who should be killed for the good of society.

So taken together with the こうなるとどいつもこいつも I took the sentence to express: if it’s like this, it starts to look like all these people (without exception) should be killed for the good of society.

(But maybe I just misunderstood and you mean roughly the same.)

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