Absolute Beginners Book Club // Now reading: Ruri Dragon // Next: The Wolf of the Small Forest

[MrGeneric]

Wonderful, thank you very much! Whenever you get the home thread made up for Hunter x Hunter, just post it here, and I’ll get it added to the first post! If you have any questions regarding scheduling, please feel free to bring them up, and we will hammer out a schedule!

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Other orders of business:

I just made a ton of changes to the first post (moving things around as they should be after the poll end, and the like); if I messed anything up that I didn’t spot, and you spot it, let me know so I can fix it!

I have also gone ahead and removed 日本昔ばなしアニメ絵本 18冊全巻セット - Japanese Fairy Tales - Set of 18 books from the list of nominations, as discussed. This does not mean that it can never be nominated again, but be reasonable if you choose to do so and really weigh out if you think it has a chance to win, or if it would just end up in the same cycle again.

Related to that point, while I will keep an eye on how many nominations we have at any given point, I think we ought to start following the <25% support in the past 3 polls means it gets removed from the nominations rule. We could be a little more lenient and bump that up to 4 polls, given that we do have a lower influx of nominations than other clubs by nature of having less suitable material. If it seems like we will start to starve ourselves of options by doing so, I will gladly reverse this line of thinking, or if somebody really strongly disagrees and can make a solid case as to why we shouldn’t implement it at all, please speak up!

Side-note: To elaborate further on this, for the time being, I’ll only remove one nomination at a time to ease us into the rule, unless we suddenly get a large influx of nominations and it feels like we can safely remove several!

Anyhow, on that note, nominations are always accepted, even if the title doesn’t say we are currently seeking nominations, so just a reminder to everyone to feel free to put those nominations in whenever you like if you have them! The earlier you put them in, the more chance people have to see the sample pages and judge the difficulty, so we can get a better sampling of how appropriate it may be for the club as a whole (so long as everyone votes in the difficulty polls! nudge nudge)!

[hakulus]

First question about Hunter x Hunter: Does X mean vs (versus) or something else?

[MrGeneric]

It’s not an x, but a ×. It’s a multiplication symbol.

It’s essentially just a stylistic choice, by my understanding, put there so that people wouldn’t think it’s Hunters hunting other hunters, but just the word Hunter repeated twice (seems that didn’t work out, eh? ). It’s not even intended to be said when you say the name aloud.

But that’s not necessarily a hard and fast rule. Some manga/anime have the same symbol and intend for you to pronounce it, such as ロミオ×ジュリエット、where it’s pronounced as と (meaning “and”, obviously).

So, the tl;dr: it doesn’t mean much here besides to show that it’s not a “Hunter” hunter, but just the same word twice; and it’s not intended to be pronounced.

[ChristopherFritz]

Another example of random(?) × usage: SPY×FAMILY

[MrGeneric]

Random usage, and funnily enough, inspired by Hunter × Hunter.

Per the editor:

I just slapped a placeholder name on it at the draft submission stage. Endo-sensei sent in this draft for a serialization without deciding on the title, so we just worked with the title “Spy Family” written in Japanese characters for the time being. And then, when it was actually going to become a real thing, we decided we’d better have a proper name for it. It took us forever to decide on anything! (laughs) I thought “Spy Family” written in Japanese was just fine, but Endo-sensei was worried it was a little too… straight-forward. I swear, he came up with over a hundred names and we went over all of them together. And at the end of it all, we just took the name we had and put it in English characters, with a cross between the words. We talked about how the title of “HUNTER x HUNTER” is super simple, and it how it has the same thing going on.

[ChristopherFritz]

ふだつきのキョーコちゃん

Summary

Fudatsuki Kenji is known in school for two things: for being a delinquent and for having a sister complex. He constantly follows his sister Kyoko around, fixing her giant ribbon and chasing off any boys who might be interested in her. However, the truth is much stranger than people believe. He actually doesn’t have a crush on his sister—in fact, he likes Hibino, the only girl in class who isn’t afraid of him.

The problem is that his sister is literally a monster. She’s a jiangshi (vampire), who is much stronger than an ordinary person and who needs a certain amount of blood from Kenji each day. Her ribbon keeps her in check, but if it comes off, she instinctively attacks the nearest person. Her ribbon also has a huge effect on her personality. With the ribbon, she’s irritable and sharp-tempered, but without it, she’s extremely sweet and apologetic (while she attacks). Will Kenji be able to keep his sister from hurting anyone, and maybe find some way to overcome his sister-complex reputation enough to have a chance with Hibino?

(copied from MyAnimeList)

Availability

Physical: Amazon JP・CDJapan

Digital: Kindle・Kobo・BOOK☆WALKER

Personal Opinion

As an earlier work from the creator of Teasing-Master Takagi-san and When will Ayumu make his move?, this series has a similar charm. For fans of those series, I feel this one will be a good fit.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• Similar difficulty to other works by this mangaka that were well received in the ABBC.
• Has recurring themes from chapter to chapter.
• Uses furigana.
• The series is complete at seven volumes, so if you want to keep reading, you don’t hit a drought waiting for releases.

Cons

• Heavier in dialogue than the noted other works.
• Longer chapters mean every chapter would be split across multiple weeks.

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

• No effort at all
• Minimal effort
• Moderate effort
• Substantial effort
• So much effort my head might explode
• I don’t know

[MrGeneric]

I halfway feel like I’m cheating a bit by voting in this difficulty poll; being so familiar with Yamamoto-sensei’s writing style at this point, that “minimal effort” vote might even be a bit of a stretch… Maybe I’ll take my vote out when it’s time to do the averages.

And now I can’t help but wonder if you are about to nominate くノ一, and that’s the typing I’m seeing…

[ChristopherFritz]

ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん

Summary

There is a small forest on the outskirts of a village. That place has been feared by people since a time long past. Within that forest is a strong(?) and scary(???) wolf.

This series follows the daily life of the kind and hardworking オオカミちゃん and the animals she lives among.

Availability

Physical: Amazon JP・CDJapan

Digital: Kindle・Kobo・BOOK☆WALKER

Personal Opinion

An adorable and easy-going series. Situations and dialogue in this series are fairly simple while still being enjoyable as a slice-of-life series.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

• Simple situations with easy dialogue.
• Slice-of-life.
• Uses furigana.
• Large resolution images for digital readers.

Cons

• The turtle uses 老人語(ろうじんご).

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

• No effort at all
• Minimal effort
• Moderate effort
• Substantial effort
• So much effort my head might explode
• I don’t know

[ChristopherFritz]

@MrGeneric

I halfway feel like I’m cheating a bit by voting in this difficulty poll

Just wait until you see the difficulty of my second nomination there as a comparison.

@MrGeneric

And now I can’t help but wonder if you are about to nominate くノ一

Nah, if I waited so long to start reading it due to outfit designs, I wouldn’t nominate it, due to outfit designs. But if someone else nominated it and it was picked, I’d follow the club. (And I’m still going to continue reading the series.)

[MrGeneric]

@ChristopherFritz

Just wait until you see the difficulty of my second nomination there as a comparison.

…point taken.

@ChristopherFritz

Nah, if I waited so long to start reading it due to outfit designs, I wouldn’t nominate it, due to outfit designs. But if someone else nominated it and it was picked, I’d follow the club. (And I’m still going to continue reading the series.)

Yeah, definitely fair. Fwiw, that keeps me from nominating it as well (I also haven’t read any of it to confirm that the content itself is fine, though I’m sure there’s nothing beyond the questionable outfit designs).

[ChristopherFritz]

@MrGeneric

I also haven’t read any of it to confirm that the content itself is fine

From what I’ve seen so far, the content is fine. Aside from the aforementioned outfit designs, there isn’t really anything much worse than comes up in the author’s other series.

Disclaimer: Wait until we get to the next volume of Ayumu before making anything of that. The next volume thread will include a content disclaimer.

[MrGeneric]

@ChristopherFritz

Disclaimer: Wait until we get to the next volume of Ayumu before making anything of that. The next volume thread will include a content disclaimer.

Well, that seems surprising for that series. Now I’m curious…

@ChristopherFritz

Cons

• The turtle uses 老人語(ろうじんご).
• New volumes seem to come out once every other year.

Maybe the internet is wrong, but it seems as though the series has finished its run? Or is that simply referring to the run in magazines, and they are still publishing the volume collections?

(Also, I translated the title for the second pick, but not the first, because I’m torn on whether that ふだつき is just the family name, or a pun on the word that means “notorious; infamous” )

[ChristopherFritz]

@MrGeneric

Maybe the internet is wrong, but it seems as though the series has finished its run?

It’s a web comic, so individual chapters appear online before publication in a volume.

For example, there’s a new release that came out this month.

At least, I’m assuming they’re chapters. I haven’t signed up and paid to check. I’m fine waiting to pay 600円 per volume every other year, versus 300円 to 500円 per month to see the posts.

Of course, for all I know, the series ended after two volumes, and the mangaka’s Pixiv fan page is for viewing monthly artworks =P

@MrGeneric

because I’m torn on whether that ふだつき is just the family name, or a pun on the word

Additionally, 札 refers to Kyouko’s ribbon (as it’s a talisman). Now if only the つき part were written as 付 rather than 月…

@MrGeneric

Now I’m curious…

If it helps sate your curiosity any, you’ll find out in a month

[Gorbit99]

So I’m looking for suggestions for the schedule

Hunter x Hunter is 8 chapters long, all of the chapters around 20-25 pages long, so whole book is 187, 140 pages of actual dialogue. Issue with the 8 chapters is that because they all have around 18 pages of dialogue (and this number never goes below 16), they are just not short enough to do in 1 week (imo, tell me if you think otherwise), but splitting each into 2 weeks results in 16 weeks, which is a bit long.

What a 16 week schedule would look like

Week	Start Date	Pages	No. of pages	Dialogue Pages	Chapter
Week 1	Aug 27	5-25	21	10	Chapter 1
Week 2	Sep 3	26-38	13	11	Chapter 1
Week 3	Sep 10	39-48	10	8	Chapter 2
Week 4	Sep 17	49-62	14	9	Chapter 2
Week 5	Sep 24	62-72	11	9	Chapter 3
Week 6	Oct 1	72-82	11	9	Chapter 3
Week 7	Oct 8	83-94	12	8	Chapter 4
Week 8	Oct 15	95-104	10	8	Chapter 4
Week 9	Oct 22	105-112	8	7	Chapter 5
Week 10	Oct 22	113-124	12	9	Chapter 5
Week 11	Oct 29	125-135	11	9	Chapter 6
Week 12	Nov 5	136-144	9	8	Chapter 6
Week 13	Nov 12	145-154	10	9	Chapter 7
Week 14	Nov 19	155-164	10	9	Chapter 7
Week 15	Nov 26	165-175	11	8	Chapter 8
Week 16	Dec 3	176-183	8	8	Chapter 8

Any ideas? I didn’t think to have weeks where we read the end of one chapter and the start of the next, though maybe that’s an option? Ideally I would have either 10 or 11 dialogue pages per week, that would make the club take either 14 or 13 weeks

[Cathm2]

I had a look at the Bookwalker preview - it looks like many of the pages of dialogue only have a small amount, with about 7-8 with a larger amount. But I’m not sure I viewed a whole chapter in the preview.

It may be worth starting off with 2 weeks for the first chapter or two, and then increasing the speed to one chapter per week.

[MrGeneric]

I second @Cathm2’s suggestion.

Easing in with the first two chapters each taking two weeks, then upping the pace to a chapter a week (depending on how everyone in the club is doing), would be my suggestion as well.

While there are some heavier dialogue pages based on the preview, they aren’t too bad, so I think once folks get used to the writing style, it should hopefully go fairly smoothly.

[sansarret]

@Gorbit99

Availability

E-Book: Amazon , BookWalker
Physical: Amazon , CDJapan

I think nomination post for Hunter x Hunter has a typo regarding where to get the book. Both Amazon links are 1) the same 2) point to English edition.

I think these are the correct ones:
E-Book: Amazon
Physical: Amazon

[MrGeneric]

Good catch! I hadn’t clicked the Amazon links for that one (this is one I am skipping over. Though I will join for Cells At Work), just the Bookwalker for the preview!

[Gorbit99]

ah, didn’t notice, it points to the same link because I didn’t know, that amazon had different links for those different editions

[hakulus]

Thanks much for the answer!