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I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this chapter yet
Considering the slightly awkward poses in some panels (like Akari in the second panel of page 69, ouch), I feel like this was written back in the Aqua days. It was included in the second print of Aqua, but not the first, so I’m honestly curious as to what the full story is. (Mind you, the second print also includes 風邪とプリン, which most assuredly was not written back in the Aqua days.)
Don’t think I stumbled over much. Only query: second last panel of page 76, just what is Aika calling Aria? あんちくしょう?
Yeah it’s a variation of あの畜生, so maybe something like “that (white and round) animal”?
I understood it as Aria社長 not being able to face the little girl – it was being narrated that Aria社長 was feeling sad because he had gotten the little girl’s precious doll all muddy, so in the end he felt like he couldn’t face her, so he put it at her doorstop instead and sadly walked away
I know if it was released in a magazine as a serial you’d want some exposition to set the scene, and as hilarious as the intro is, I think we already know by now that President Aria is a cat, which does make it feel like it’s been taken out of sequence.
It’s also in keeping with the similar 遠い未来…とある惑星のとある町に intro from Navigation 7 (rather than a 前略 narration from Akari), which almost makes me wonder if these were actually one-shot chapters released prior to the series altogether. Note that neither chapter says that “とある惑星” is Mars or Aqua, neither chapter features gondolas or the word “undine”, and the two of them are, from memory, the only Aria-centric chapters in the entire series.
It also explains weird oddities in Navigation 7, like how the characters keep jumping from floor to floor, and why Hime’s got her tongue out in every panel she appears in.
It suddenly ocurred to me, though, why they moved this chapter to later in the manga: because they’re wearing their winter uniforms. Never noticed that before.
And speaking of things I’ve never noticed, since when did the Aria Company weathervane have an anemometer instead of a rosette?
So I saw the comment on the vocab spreadsheet about there probably being a better way to translate the meaning of 見参 in this chapter’s title ( ヒーロー見参), which I agreed with, so after some reading online I saw it described as when someone あらわれるs, AKA appears, so it seemed appropriate to think of it as something like “A Hero Appears” for a more fitting translation
Then, I was perusing a site about it and happened to come across a link for a Yu-Gi-Oh fan wiki, and look at the name of one of the playing cards!
*as a small aside, I used to be really into collecting Pokémon + Yu-Gi-Oh cards with my older brother when I was younger so this excited me
And if you look for the corresponding card on the English Yu-Gi-Oh wiki, you get:
So… yes, I don’t know exactly where I’m going with this, but I just wanted to share my findings with you all c:
Jisho’s definition seems to be a completely different part of speech, though, unless I’m missing something (like how newspaper headlines in English practically use their own grammar, but still make sense).
I think the meaning is just not well-captured by the dictionary definitions because it’s an old-fashioned word and doesn’t seem to really have a direct equivalent in English I’ve been seeing it described in Japanese dictionaries as the (privileged) meeting of someone who is usually of higher rank
I also dared to enter the second page on Google and found a question about it, and it was explained by a native that it’s more commonly seen in things like a prologue of a hero or heroine in samurai dramas and anime with a common construction of “○○○ (someone’s name)、見参！” – this does seem to fall best in line with the English way of saying things like “A Hero Emerges!”, despite seemingly obscuring the nuance of the Japanese meaning
What’s this? Another chapter devoted entirely to the fabulosity of アリア社長? Count me in!
I’ve just done one read-through without any lookup tools or anything, so I’m sure I’ll have questions later on, but I was pretty pleased with how much I was able to understand (or at least infer) of this these little comedy chapters are a nice motivational boost!
I’ve been seeing it described in Japanese dictionaries as the (privileged) meeting of someone who is usually of higher rank
these little comedy chapters are a nice motivational boost!