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

Just in case you google these Russian nuclear lakes. I don’t actually know that there are “loads” of them. I think because “radiation hot spring” is a category, it made me think that this is common. But I assure you, it is a thing. I have a high school acquaintance who went to one of these resorts. I’ve seen the vacation pictures. But as far as I know it might be the only one.

I doubt any level of radiation can be healthy. Unless you aspire to become the next spiderman. But radon is so weak it’s almost harmless. I doubt it will heat water. Radon is somewhat of a nuisance for house and real estate owners in (i think allover) sweden. As I understand it, if the radon just stays in the ground, it’s harmless. The problem is that it sticks to dust particles and such and when you breathe those they can stick in your lungs and cause real damage over time. But I’m far from an expert on this. Anyway…

My theory is that perhaps the radon gives the water a pretty colour. People have probably bathed in these springs since before Niels Bohr. Noone knew better, but noone died either. So why shouldn’t this magic coloured water be a unique selling point. Just a wild speculation. If radon even can dissolve in water, I don’t know what colour it would have.

Edit: I read just a little bit of about the radiation hot springs. If I got it right, they claim that small amounts of radiation is proven to be beneficial. I wonder if the right amount of uranium is beneficial as well… either way, unless they are outright lying, I’ll just have to accept that it’s true. Maybe it’s not so strange… I mean, isn’t the right amount of UV-rays from the sun also proven to be beneficial?

I was gobsmacked by the number of bottles Alicia was stockpiling! When Akari fell asleep, I thought the pages following were going to be a dream sequence, which would explain all kinds of weirdness. But no… :rofl:

Actually Akari and Aika’s ages are mentioned in the next chapter (which I was reading on the plane yesterday)
In semi-related news… reading manga in Japanese is a great way to impress airline hostesses. :joy:

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Did no one read or talk about the Special Navigation? I just noticed that there were no words in the spreadsheet, so I was wondering…

Also, next chapter is here:

In light of this chapter, I find the back cover image (Alicia being drunk to the point of not being functional in the morning) a lot less funny.
(I posted a picture in the previous chapter’s thread)

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I read it a few days after the main chapter but because it wasn’t that long I didn’t fill out the vocab sheet that time. The crazy antics of アリア社長 that make you wonder if martian cats are really any different to Earth cats. :grin:

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But beyond that, I didn’t have much to say :stuck_out_tongue:

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Yeah, I just noticed that the vocab sheet wasn’t filled out. I didn’t read the thread for comments about it because I didn’t want the main chapter spoiled. I’m still trying to find time to read chapter 16.

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Ah, yes, sorry; that makes sense.
To be fair, 17.5 is really short and easy to read, so that’s probably why :slight_smile:
just a few more chapters and you’ll have some time to catch up!

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Yep, I think it’s the only really short Special Navigation. The others are like 20 pages, so they’ll be read in their own weeks. And yes, I should have no problem catching up during the break.

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Yeah, it’s not really an overarching story like the others either; just short little sketches (which are all related to the nature of アリア社長). I haven’t had time yet to read chapter 17 itself properly D:

I admit, I forgot about special navigation. But I’ve read it now. And I’ve looked up a few words. I’ll add them in the tab, so it won’t look so empty.

That transparent bag アリア社長 likes jump into, is it a plastic bag?

I was taught as a child to never pull a plastic bag over the head (of myself… or anyone else, for that matter) because of the suffocation risk. But then is saw Aika use the bag to chuck アリア社長 as far as she could along the deck… and I wasn’t so concerned about suffocation anymore.

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Page 233, panel 4: 私め - Google results seem to say that it’s a humble way of referring to oneself (especially when talking to princesses?) but what exactly is going on with this assemblage?

Page 238, note on vocab sheet: “What about the clumsy boys?” Maybe ドジ尾?ドジ介? I’d say the lack of a specific word is down to the fact that clumsiness is not seen as an endearing trait in men. :stuck_out_tongue:

Page 239: I love the reprise of the トン・トン・トン・ジャボ…「じゃぼ?」 joke from volume one.

Page 241, I’ve changed the definition of お屋敷 on the vocab sheet from “haunted house” to “mansion” - which is to say, it’s 屋敷 with honorific お. While typing お屋敷 into Jisho does land you on a page that says “haunted house”, it actually appears to be a redirect for お化け屋敷. And, you know, it’s mentioned that a stylish older couple lived there.

I always fail to notice ヒメ社長. Even when she’s front-and-center, as in page 237 panel 5.. She’s somehow quite unnoticeable.

I gave it a pass on the basis of I wanna go try it out for myself so much. Though, in terms of Japanese sensibilities, the most implausible bit is that there doesn’t appear to be a separate washing area. :stuck_out_tongue:

I just came running up to say this. The downside of taking part in a conversation ten days after it occured. :stuck_out_tongue:

ADV’s translation changes the beer to tonic and the peach cocktail to “peach drink”, probably for this exact reason, and changes the aside comment in page 260 panel 3 to “the rest is mine”, which just makes her sound greedy. Akari’s aside comment in the following panel becomes “She really is crazy.”…

Which, to be fair, is pretty standard for anime/manga progonists. That Alicia is 19 practically makes her an old crone. (But in all seriousness, Alicia’s age stretches credibility beyond its breaking point for me.)

Oh. I didn’t notice this conversation. I’ve gone and added them to the vocab sheet already. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Wait, maybe she is 19 in Martian years :thinking:
That means she’s actually 38 by Earth standards.
That’s my new head cannon.

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Aye, I considered that, but I don’t think that theory stands up to other comments made in the manga. I don’t think it’s ever stated explicitly whether they’re Earth years or Mars years, though.

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This was my doing. The reason was that i found the suffix っ子 with the meaning “someone with a liking or characteristic” and ドジ in my app. I was about to put two and two together and enter “clumsy person” or “clutz” in the vocab sheet. But then I found an exact match on jisho. I was unsure if this exclusively refers to girls. It seems that way. But like 美人 I don’t see that it directly follows from the words components.

Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting on those vocabs. My app didn’t have most of the hot springs, but it did have words like 炭酸水 and 食塩水, so for most of them it wasn’t too hard to get a rough idea what they were. But alas, my english/hot srping/chemistry-skills aren’t great enough to come up with what you’d call them in english.

このわたくしめに
どーーんと
お任せください

I don’t know this one. But I got speculations. My app have and entry for め that says it’s a derogatory suffix when used for others and a humble one when used for oneself. It didn’t go into any further detail about princesses etc. So I didn’t read anything more into it.
I found the adverb どんと meaning “powerfully, vigorously, with all one’s might”. I think this is what どーーんと is. I can’t come up with nice translation using those words. So I might be on the wrong track. “with all your might, leave it to me” doesn’t sound right, does it.
If I was in charge of the english translation (and in addition had a gun to my head) I would make it something like

“just kick back, relax, and leave it aaall to this humble servant”

There’s a どーーんと in the background as well. Is this a joke I don’t get? Or is it perhaps just describing Aika taking on this task “with all her might”.

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Background SFX just says どーん. Something like “bam!”, and it’s a fairly common SFX in manga for lines delivered with great enthusiasm or excitement.

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One more chapter down. Not much to add, other than to say that President Aria on page 237 is so adorable with that towel. And then again on page 241 with that bow/towel on his head while he’s in the bucket. :joy:

Page 234 was a nightmare…


Obviously I know what those would mean at this point, but I looked them up because I was curious how they’d be worded in English. Let’s just say that 春本番 gave unexpected results…

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For instance? I just googled it in Japanese, but I didn’t get anything out of the ordinary :thinking:
春 can refer to adolescence/puberty/sexual maturity, I think (as in 青春), so something like that?

Basically. The dictionary didn’t find anything for 春本番 so it only returned the entry for 春本. I already knew the meaning for 春 that you just described, so it wasn’t surprising, just unexpected.

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:joy: indeed, that was unexpected.

I should have known, though, since I know 春画 :thinking:

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