Aria the Masterpiece: Chapter 1 Discussion

Yes, but then she rowed backwards (i.e. as if she’s in a rowboat - you notice Mr Postman has to warn her to watch behind her) meaning she’s put herself at the front (i.e. relative to the direction of travel). Like I mentioned, this gets highlighted more clearly next chapter. And then basically forgotten about for the rest of the series.

Aye, it’s “affectionately known as”. I mean, a direct translation is something like “had become familiar as”, but that not nice English, sooo…

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Haha, I’ve heard that sentence so many times that it’s hard to believe it’s not a set phrase, but yeah, it’s 頂く(連用形) plus 誠にありがとうございます.

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その街からもろくに出たことなかったのに何言ってるんだか

The first meaning is a bit more complicated than that, and does not translate easily in English. It basically means to get rid of trouble/unessential things, so that now it feels good. She is explaining how every city on Earth feel good now that they have beautified/rationalized everything… but ;).

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Now if only I could fully make sense of that sentence.

その街からもろくに出たことなかったのに何言ってるんだか
“Even though I haven’t fully* left that town, what am I saying?”
*I wasn’t really sure how to translate ろくに naturally.

Assuming I’m not completely off (:man_shrugging:) , I’m not sure if Akari is saying this because she only just left or because she emotionally is still partly back in that town. But either way, I’m not sure why the statement before のに would result in her saying 何言ってるんだか. Like she shouldn’t be commenting about that town feeling unsatisfactory because she just left?

Also, how does going from から to からも change the nuance of the sentence?

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I feel like she’s commenting on how she shouldn’t be commenting on the convenience of life in Earth cities, since she’s never lived anywhere without such conveniences.

も can also mean “even though, although”.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

I thought she was thinking “What am I saying, when I’ve barely spent any time out of town?”

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It’s amazing how one word can change a sentence. “barely” makes a lot more sense than “fully” (or even the jisho definitions “well; enough; sufficiently”) and making the sentence positive makes the translation much more natural. Thanks!

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Ok I’m moving super slow so forgive me but page three says, 本日は太陽系航宙社東京=ネオヴェネシィア便をご利用いただきまことにありがとうございます。

With using the vocab list I was understanding it to mean something along the lines of, “Today, the solar system space travel company sincerely thanks you for using the flight from Tokyo to Neo-Venezia.”
But I can’t figure out what the ご is for. 利用 is a word on its own and the particle を was before it to indicate the flight was what was being acted on so I’m just not sure what purpose it serves.

And then at least the bottom was easier.
“The plane will soon be entering the atmosphere of planet Aqua.”

Also super thanks to everyone making the vocab list.

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ご is the honorific prefix. ご利用 is more formal than just 利用. There’s some words for which it’s essentially been permanently fused to the word, such as ご飯, but for the most part, you add it on when you want to be super-polite. We’re talking talking-to-a-social-superior polite, which fortunately you most likely won’t need to do (which is good, because keigo adds a whole level of complexity to Japanese).

You’ll also see it as お - as in, for example, お姉さん, お父さん, お手洗い and so forth. Typically it’s お when the word uses kun’yomi and ご when it uses on’yomi, but (as with all rules in Japanese) there are exceptions.

The kanji (which isn’t always used) is 御.

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Yep, you’re right, that would be the more correct translation.

Oh. That’s what it’s called? Good to know. I haven’t looked into formal speech much (make that “at all”). I get the feeling that this 連用形 is used even in pretty informal text. Anything more formal than chatting, basically. I was wondering why this was legal and why I for the life of me couldn’t find any explanation of the rules. I guess the reason is that it’s hidden in the formal speech section. I accidentally stumbled upon it just now while looking for what 〜ておる means. So it was big news to me… but I guess it was pretty old news to the rest of you guys.

It was used all over the place in the non-dialog parts of 魔女の宅急便, so I had to learn it then. I just didn’t know it could also be used verbally in formal situations like this. For what it’s worth, I only found out that it was called 連用形 a few weeks ago. :slight_smile:

Nah, it’s pretty new to me, just this last week I’ve been reading through this introduction to Japanese syntax & grammar. Here’s the relevant sections:

Inflection bases - Basic explanation of the different base forms, 連用形 is the continuative and conjunctive form.

Conjunctive grammar - this part explains how the plain 連用形 is used as a conjunction. It’s also used together with て to make the Continuative, or て-form, among other things.

Okay, here’s some more questions!

Page 7: ヴェネツィアをベースに造られた水と共に生きる港町でございます

There’s a port city of some kind, I got that, but I’m kind of confused about how all the parts before 港町 fit together. ヴェネツィアをベースに造られた looks like the passive, with Venice being constructed by… ベース? And then all that is applying to 水 somehow, which is together with living? Idk, it makes no sense, I’m clearly missing something here.

Page 8: なつてみせましょう「ウンディーネ」!

What does なつて mean here? I’m only finding things relating to summer when I try to search for it, but you don’t usually use て with nouns, right?

Page 14: 火星猫 生で初めて見ちゃった

When she says 生で does she mean she’s seen a live 火星猫 for the first time (implying she’s seen dead ones?!) or would it be a better translation to say she’s now seen one “in person”?

Page 18: おうっ立つと危なえーぞ!

I can’t find おうっ立つ referenced anywhere and was wondering where the おう part comes from and what it adds to the meaning? Is he just shouting out Ohh! maybe?

No, they are talking about Neo Venice being build by taking Venice as a base.
The sentence means “it is a port city that lives together (ie in harmony) with water, built by taking Venice as a base”

It’s なって :stuck_out_tongue: damn those fonts, amiright.

Yes, that one. (I’m on my phone, so it’s a bit hard to give links to references, basically 生で contrasts seeing it on video or the like)

Yes as well. The small つ is there because his shout is “interrupted” (I don’t know how to explain better… he goes from shouting to not shouting very quickly… and then shouts the next part of the sentence)

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“Live” can also mean “not recorded”, so yes, “in person” also works. She’s seen pictures on the internet, I imagine.

Yeah, that’s exactly it. “Whoa! It’s dangerous if you stand up!”

Oh yeah, the font used here makes it really hard to spot small kana. Compare the ずっとずっと in the panel above.

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Whoops didn’t see you were replying as well. Well, there’s no such things as too many answers :+1:

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Yes, please give me all the answers! :grin:

Thank you both though, everything is much clearer now! The font does make it tricky to see the difference between つ and っ… if it’s something I’m familiar with it’s fine, but if not then it’s a pain. So I guess she’s saying she’ll be able to see what it’s like to become an Undine, right?

And that makes so much sense that 生で can mean “live” as in “not-on-video”, I’ve just mostly seen it in regards to food being raw or fresh, so it had a bit of a gruesome connotation in my mind!

The おうっ I realized as I was typing out the question, but I figured I’d ask anyway since I’d already typed it out, just in case!

ヴェネツィアをベースに造られた still seems a bit odd to me, even knowing what it’s supposed to be saying. I thought に usually connects things to the verb, so I’m not sure how you’re supposed to know the base is also referring to Venice… Maybe it was left out because it was redundant, and I’m just not familiar how it would be if it were included?

Xと共に生きる = Live together (ie. in harmony) with X, so we’ve got a “lives in harmony with water” city. Makes sense!

皆さん、まことにありがとうございます!:wink:

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I confess I’m not entriely sure what function the に is playing here, and the grammar dictionary isn’t really helping. A small note, though: particles don’t “connect things to the verb” but rather they define what function a word plays in the sentence.

Tokyopop’s translation has gone with “modeled after Venice”.

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