@Radish8 @Gsai まだまだ has a meaning of “there’s still a while to go” so I’d say
even though it’s August, it’s still a while to go 'til Spring
Okay, this is kind of… the way I translated it but was hoping was incorrect 
Edit: okay, so 服姿 on its own brings up ‘(organisational) uniform’ in Jisho, so I’m wondering whether it’s literally just he (?!) wants to see her uniform, no figure involved. I’m gonna believe that, anyway 
Ah, I was wondering if it was some kind of exciting form of と言う (but had never come across ども before). Thanks very much for the breakdown!
Ah, I thought it was just repeating まだ for emphasis. Does the timing not mean that it’s effectively April and therefore already Spring? 
one of the alternatives given on that page is “still more to come”, and a few of the example sentences seem more along the lines of “it’s not over yet”…
the next comment on the page is something about it’s a bit cold in the mornings which could infer either meaning so…
I think 姿 can just means someone’s appearance too. Are you guys that worried that アリア社長 is a pervert?
Monolingual definition:
人のからだの格好。衣服をつけた外見のようす。
I’m pretty sure she’s surprised because on Earth (in Japan) the 8th month is summer, but on Aqua the 8th month is still only spring. And it’s early spring at that, so there’s still a chill in the air.
I’m guessing that ８月といえども、まだまだ春 means “Even though it’s August, it’s still spring”. The まだまだ could just be a repeating まだ, or perhaps it indicates that it’s really early in spring.
Side comment: Whenever the manga gets past 12月 we’re going to have to start describing things as the Nth month instead of the name of the month. Unless we want to make up English words for months 13 to 24. 
13 = Undecember
14 = Dodecember
(Thanks, Julius Ceasar, you’ve made things all weird now.)
No 
I certainly hadn’t interpreted the ったら bit in the same way as tessberg, haha. I just knew that kanji as ‘figure’ and was a bit weirded out that he apparently wanted to see her figure?! In every other way he’s been the epitome of adorableness, so that’s why I was hoping I was wrong 
I know, that’s why I wasn’t sure whether to refer to it as August or just go straight for describing it as month 8… I quite like @Belthazar’s suggestion though, so I reckon we’re fine!
I absolutely loved the use of different art styles for comedic effect in this chapter. As someone who hasn’t really read much manga before it’s really cool to see that kind of effect in its original form rather than just in anime. I’m surprised by how effective it is in print, to be honest.
Technically in Cambridge, but close enough. We were exceptionally blessed!
I think the president wanted to see the uniform being worn. → Not so much because Akari has a lovely figure, but just because seeing someone wearing something is better than seeing the same item on a hanger. If I gave you an item of clothing as a gift, I’d want to see it on you/you in it!
今度 also means “recently”
from goo.ne.jp: ３ 最近。このごろ。「今度九州に転勤しました」
In case you feel inspired by the book, you too can learn to row a gondola.
I don’t think アリア社長 is a pervert. Not a pervert for humans anyway. But he does some pervy things. Like sneaking up in bed with the new employee and being eager to see what she looks like in uniform (the last one is still up for debate, I suppose). But he also does various other not pervy weird things as well. Like さかあがり and gobble up his breakfast in a split second. I think he is just uninhibited in general. But since he has the mental capacity of a human and hold a human job (as the boss of the company), we still see him a little bit as a human anyway. That causes some awkward situations and “hilarity ensues”.
I didn’t intend this to be what I propose the proper english translation of the line should be. It was more intended to indicate a direction of how ったら is used (according to my very limited experience). I didn’t bother coming up with something more subtle . As far as i know ったら itself doesn’t mean anything. I guess I’m saying that it means whatever the translator think they would have said instead, had they been speaking english.
I wonder if the proper term would be « to scull a gondola ». Because rowing is usually done from both sides, with the oars horizontal-ish, while sculling is done from the back, with the oar rather vertical.
And… do you know how gondoliers manage to go in a straight line while sculling from one side of their boat ?
Because the keel of gondolas is not straight but curved to compensate for that
I wonder if it’s mentioned anywhere in Aria. We’ll see.
As well as referring to paddling by sticking a single oar over the back and twisting it back and forth, sculling is also done from both sides, with the oars horizontal-ish. Like so:
Supposedly in rowing racing, “sculling” means each rower has two oars, while “rowing” means each rower has one, though I don’t know if that particularly applies here. The Wikipedia article on gondolas confuses the issue by saying “rowing… in a sculling manner”. In Venetian, they use the terms vogare (paddle) or spingere (push).
We could just sidestep the issue and say “pilot”. Or “steer”.
Fun fact: the gondolier stands so that they can see obstacles in the water ahead. Also, the figurehead has a specific shape referencing the doge’s cap and the six sestieri of Venice. After a one-upmanship war among the city’s rich types of who could have the most ostentacious gondola back in the heyday of Venice, a law was passed requiring them to all be painted black. Obviously, neither of these last two sentences seems to apply in Neo Venezia.
This is my absolute favourite kind of historical fact. This is why we can’t have nice things!
If only we could, as a species, agree to do the same with car tuning…
I had been wondering exactly the same thing.
Thank you both, I love learning interesting things beyond the Japanese.
I could read this book on my own but it wouldn’t be half as much fun!
感謝しています、皆さん
It is not surprising that there is no specialised term for this way of propulsing a boat in English. What I am referring to is described precisely by the french term “godiller”.
Although it is known in the UK, probably more in the southwest, it is not often done there. It is very popular in the atlantic and english channel harbours in France, but unknown in the mediterranean harbours. It is also popular in the Netherlands and Germany, and in some parts of Sweden.
Edit:
And of course the Venezians are the mediterranean exception.
Well not really, as the main movement used by gondoliers is not the “figure of eight” movement of godille, but a type of rowing, pushing water back. They only resort to godille in very narrow spaces.
So only used in a few places, except… it’s used a lot in Asia. if you go to Vietnam, they do exactly the same thing, but from the bow of the ship (the movement is the same but with the oar slanted the other way, in reverse). And in Japan, it’s popular too. Like in this japanese boat that visited Brittany 10 years ago.
I’m doing my second read-through now, where I’m looking up all the words I don’t know. I must have glossed over the handwritten text at the bottom of page 59 the first time because the handwriting is hard to read. Apparently it says 「私…バーチャルネットのシミュレーションをずっと独学していただけだったから…」. So Akari is explaining why she was rowing from the wrong side of the gondola. I really like how the futuristic aspects of the world creep into the story from time to time.
Also, on page 61 I can’t help but hear Akari saying ありがとうございますうううう！in a half-sobbing voice.
Okay, first question. On page 67.
The handwritten text in the second panel says (I think) 全然追いつける気がしないわあ. I’m a little confused by this. Is there any reason it’s written this way instead of 全然追いつけない気がするわあ?
In English, it’s unnatural to say “I don’t have a feeling that we’ll catch up”. You’d always say “I have a feeling that we won’t catch up”. Are both versions valid in Japanese? And if so, what’s the nuanced difference between the two.
Guess my other questions were answered already, so that’s my only question for the chapter.
You can’t say that in English?
(I would word it “it doesn’t feel like we can catch up” though)
Maybe think of it like “I don’t think we’ll be able to catch up.”
Pretty sure the difference is confidence - “I don’t think we will” is, say, 25% certain that we’ll fail, “I think we won’t” is 75% certain. I made up those confidence values, though.
@Naphthalene You’re right, I guess it just depends on the wording. Maybe I was thinking too literally, taking the meaning from jisho and trying to use it in my English version.
@Belthazar Yeah, that makes sense. I wonder what the actual (approximate) confidence levels would be though.