Aria the Masterpiece: Chapter 17 Discussion (+ Special Navigation: 社長の日常)

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#1

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Aria the Masterpiece Chapter 17: 桃源郷

(+ Special Navigation: 社長の日常)

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Start Date: October 13th
Previous Chapter: Chapter 16
Next Chapter: Chapter 18

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Aria the Masterpiece: Chapter 18 Discussion
Aria the Masterpiece: Chapter 16 Discussion
#2

Okay, I gotta ask…

The towels are a manga modesty thing, right? People don’t actually wear towels into baths, do they? Please tell me they don’t. I’m just looking at Aika stepping into the water wrapped in a towel and my brain is screaming that is literally the most absorbent thing you could possibly wear whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

also Aika’s hair is cute in this chapter

also also omg アリア社長 in the tub - I can’t just comment on how cute he is every chapter but every chapter he’s just so goshdarn cute

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#3

Yes, it’s a modesty thing. It’s actually forbidden to do that.

That being said, some people wear towels on their head.

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#4

phew

Okay, that makes me feel a lot better about the whole chapter :smile:

I have no problem with head towels. Just… swimming around in a towel :stuck_out_tongue:

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#5

I was googling about why manga do that, and I could only find one question on chiebukuro.

The answer was “duh, because those manga are for underage kids”. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#6

Ahaha :joy:

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#7

There are two things I find cringey about this chapter though:

The structural integrity of the building, like seriously you can’t have unprotected people, even more naked people in a crumbling building. And the fact that Alicia is drinking a lot. 6 bottles by herself in two hours? And pushing minors to drink? What? It’s fine to have a character having flaws, but it feels problematic to me to have the story let it go like its nothing :frowning:

I really like the manga, though, and I don’t want to be complaining all the time :sob:
At least there was the special navigation just after to make me feel better :slight_smile:
Ooooh Aria社長, you silly goose cat.

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#8

I noticed that no one else had done the vocab sheet for this yet, so I took up the challenge. It felt like p.234 would never end at one point. And I still didn’t work out the nine different kinds of treatment classifications. did anyone else?

Other notes -

  • hologram furigana for 映像記録 :grin: - (but really, how much of it was a hologram??)
  • what is meant by 味出して p.242? “have a taste”?
  • exclamation of 大人だ！when Alicia starts pouring the beer on p.246. I imagine a few relaxing drinks would go well with an onsen. :grin:

I haven’t read the special navigation bit yet. Will do later.

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#9

I somehow failed to notice that ヒメ社長 came along until I spotted her riding along in アリア社長’s barrel. Going back to see where she was before that was fun :smile: The short bonus chapter was really great, but all the chapters where アリア社長 gets the spotlight have been, so that’s nothing new.

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#10

Psst, poll here!

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#11

I… found the building improbable but was able to give that a pass on the basis of it being a space-faring civilisation which might be perfectly capable of making something life that safe without altering the appearance too much. It seems unlikely that Earth is seemingly so regulated but that that apparently hasn’t spilled over into the Mars culture at all though. But again, I think it’s the author using poetic licence, trying to highlight those kinds of differences.

I did not notice that Alicia was drinking that much! Also, are Akari and Aika actually minors? I don’t know why, but I assumed they were both at least / about 18. Just hadn’t drunk before.

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#12

For some reason, I thought they were 16.
I remember that some of their data were on the inside cover of AQUA, but I don’t have the books with me, so I can’t check. I’m going to ask google sensei.

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#13

Yeah I have no real idea. I guess I just assumed that as Akari was leaving home and striking out on her own she was 18. Please report back on google sensei’s teachings!

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#14

She is 15.
Alicia is 19 and would not be legally able to drink in Japan, by the way.

#15

FIFTEEN?!

I mean, props to her for literally moving to a different planet. But still. Yeah. Not being a great role model there, Alicia.

I mean, they are living on their own, as full-blown and employed adults. But like… at least make her 17 or something. Jeez.

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#16

regarding types of hot springs
I looked into it for a bit but gave up. All of them have japanese wikipedia pages. But it’s going to be tough to find nice english translations for them anyway. Besides they are all hot springs with water rich in this or that mineral… with the exception of 放射能泉, which is a hot spring heated by radioactivity. I’m only guessing this but I hear there are loads of radioactively heated lakes in Russia. Sounds nuts to me, but apparently you can swim in them (unless you are pregnant). The other exception is 単純泉 which isn’t rich in anything. A possible third exception is number 2. I couldn’t identify the middle kanji. So I have no idea what that is.

Earlier I said it’s going to be tough to find translations. It was a little bit of a lie. My dictionary app actually had two of them. They are
鉄線 てっせん chalybeate spring, ferruginous spring, iron spring
and
単純泉 たんじゅんせん Simple thermal hot spring (less than 1000 ppm dissolved minerals)

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#17

@tessberg By the way, I noticed our troublesome 本番 from chapter 14 again on page 230. This time it’s being used with winter instead of autumn! So I think our guess that it meant something like ‘the heart of’ holds up here too. Like ‘true winter’ or ‘true autumn’.

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#18

Yeah, I noticed that too. Now only 春本番 and 夏本番 remains. I have a feeling we’ll see those before long.

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#19

Haha, I’m hoping so ^^

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#20

Oh wow. When I saw 放射能泉, I just dismissed the whole thing thinking it was BS, but I guess I will have a more careful look, then.

Edit: okay, this page describes the 10 common types of onsen: https://www.spa.or.jp/onsen/501/

The radioactive one contains radon, but they say it’s way less radioactive than taking an Xray radio. On the other hand, I’ve never taken an X-ray that lasts more than a fraction of second, so I don’t know how to really compare the two.
Anyway, such low radioactivity is supposed to be good for health.
I’m skeptical.

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