If anything, I’d guess that the structure is [noun phrase]くらい[noun phrase].
Also don’t forget the だそう at the end, so there’s some hearsay involved. I don’t have the book in front of me to check context.
Ah, okay, so it would have to be a noun phrase rather than an adjective on its own? Like you couldn’t have 猫は牡牛くらい大きいです or similar?
Don’t worry, I clocked the hearsay 
just totally failed to include it in my translation D: (she’s describing the supposed cat king to Akira)
That’s a good question and I’m honestly not sure. I was only trying to point out in my original response that in this case くらい was modifying (for lack of a better word) 大きい黒猫, not just 大きい. I’m curious if what you asked would work.
Ha, it’s not just me that does that!
1 Like
Aaah, I see - yes, I understand it’s modifying 大きい猫 in this case, but I guess it didn’t occur to me initially that the noun might be a necessary part of the construction. Now I really want to know 
gdi I’m usually so careful!
Found this example so maybe it’s okay?
静かです。恐ろしいくらい静かです。
2 Likes
And it doesn’t have to be a noun before either, it seems. Thank you!
It should be alright. I checked on the HJGP (くらい 3A and 3B) and sounds like it’s allowed.
In general it seems whatever precedes くらい is a descriptive quantity of what follows or in general of the context.
2 Likes
A few more questions ^^
Page 124
Right-hand panel
何だか
まるで
What does まるで mean? 
Page 127
Top panel, left-hand speech bubble
こんな所に
つながっていた
なんて
つながる hadn’t been added to the vocab list and I wasn’t confident of which definition it is. ‘To lead to’? So is the translation vaguely ‘why have we been lead to / why does this lead to such a place?’ ?
Page 129
Bottom panel, right-hand speech bubble
空気が
止まってる
Am I right in thinking this is more along the lines of ‘the air is totally still’ rather than the literal ‘the air has stopped’? She’s also saying that there’s no sound, for context.
This is not a question, but… on page 131 I suddenly noticed what absurdly impractical shoes Aika seems to be wearing!
1 Like
Completely out of context still, but I’m pretty sure I took it as the definition of “completely” for まるで. まるで - Jisho.org
I’m doing my second read through tonight, so I’ll try to answer more then if I know.
1 Like
Ha! This is something that I didn’t understand at first too. The problem is the line is split in two between the two panels:
何だかまるで迷宮に迷いどんだ見たい
I think @seanblue is correct about the まるで. It should roughly translate to:
Somehow it feels like we are completely lost in a maze
I kinda tried to translate it literally for you 
I guess you can guess the sense.
This is something I learned the hard way: assume there is no meaning in the line breaking or balloon division. Everything is just a continuous stream of words.
This translates into:
This place seems to be connected (said with a pinch of surprise)
The ending なんて is not a question, it’s not 何. It’s a way to express a personal evaluation, something equivalent to “in my opinion” or “I’m made to believe”. Often accompanies the speaker’s surprise, unexpectedness, or scornful feeling
Yes, I think you are right. I think that’s to express that it feels like everything just froze in time, and not that the air doesn’t move (as in “stagnant”).
Thank you both, that clears up a lot! I keep on forgetting to consider that the speech bubbles might be more connected than I realise, but I think I still would have struggled not knowing that まるで itself meant ‘completely’.
Ooh 
I thought こんな indicated more of a ‘such’ vibe rather than just meaning ‘this’? As contrasted with この所につながっていた, for example.
I just checked なんて quickly via jisho so obviously that didn’t work (何て is usually written in kana, but I guess it wouldn’t appear floating at the end of the sentence like that?). From another brief look it seems like it can also be used to express surprise (or emphasise strong feeling of some kind) over the preceding sentence or word.
Along with こんな that feels like it make more sense to me - she’s never been here before, so it seems more likely she’d be saying something like “it leads to such a place as this?!”
1 Like
Oh? Does the “It’s quiet. Too quiet.” horror movie cliché exist in Japanese too?
Aye. Himeya uniform. It looks even more impractical in the anime - one anime episode shows, in close-up, Akira having to brace the gondola with those ridiculous shoes on.
The Aria Company shoes have always been my favourite. They look so nice and comfy.
1 Like
I don’t think that’s the appropriate translation for なんて.
Instead, it’s usually an exclamation expressing surprise or disbelief (there are other meanings, but not applicable here).
Whoever is talking is just very surprised “that it would lead/is leading to a place like that”.
4 Likes
Yeah, admittedly the translations I gave were not the best
Here is the definition I tried to express:
(the above definition is a little lacking context, but in the examples given in the grammar handbook なんて is used as sentence termination in most cases)
The context in the panel is pretty calm and silent so it triggered a less “sparkly” translation, if it makes any sense.
Ah, I see the problem.
Followed by an expression to show the speaker’s evaluation; not なんて itself.
Indeed, you can say 〜なんて、うらやましい or the like.
なんて itself does not mean “in my opinion”.
The definition is the same as mine, though “Often accompanies the speaker’s surprise, unexpectedness, or scornful feeling”.
I’m not sure I get what you mean, actually. I was just referring to the fact that “seems” and “I believe” are not correct in your translation. The character is instead reacting to what they do see, so they have facts. (Also, my point was that なんて does not carry this nuance)
1 Like
You are right actually there :\ my bad. I checked on the DxJG and you’re right.
Scrap that… it doesn’t make any sense any more
I’ll amend my above message.
1 Like
Page 127 (the bubble right before the one Radish posted earlier).
まだアクアが火星って呼ばれていた頃の入植地跡ね
This is a little confusing, partly because 入植地 has the furigana プラント, since these don’t seem to mean similar things. That aside, is Aika basically saying that this structure is a settlement/plant/whatever (depending on what 入植地 or プラント mean) from when Aqua was still called Mars? I wonder if that means it was from when it was being colonized but not yet terraformed, or if it had been terraformed already but simply not yet renamed.
I don’t pay enough attention to notice these kinds of things, so thanks for pointing it out. Those really don’t seem practical…
1 Like
A wild Lurker appeared! (ง ˙o˙)ว
まるで can also mean ‘as if’, which I think fits the situation better.
http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=marude
I’d translate 何だかまるで迷宮に as: “somehow, as if we’re in a labyrinth…”
In fact, in the anime Akari uses まるで liberally to describe all kinds of wonders she encounters (like, “as if in a dream”), invariably followed by Aika’s “恥ずかしいセリフ禁止！”.
4 Likes
Welcome to the active discussion! 
Pamput’s translation of “somehow it feels like we are completely lost in a maze” also sounds reasonable. So it seems like in this case both the “as if” and “completely” definitions fit well.
Got another question, page 132. The handwritten text looks like 「迷うこたーないわよ」, but if that’s the case I can’t make sense of it.
2 Likes
Chapter one said that it was renamed Aqua after the polar ice cap melted, which was a consequence of terraforming.
So not terraformed yet or at least not completely.
(You would probably not stay in that place if you were free to go leave anywhere else… but that’s only my personal opinion)
1 Like