I would really like to read it aswell but I think I my level is still to low.
Do you think it is better to wait until my japanese is at a better level or should I give it a shot?
My vocab and Kanji knowledge is basically limited to the stuff Wanikani teaches up to my level.
I’m also only halfway through with the N5 grammar points (According to Bunpro).
It depends a lot on what your tolerance is for looking stuff up. Honestly, I’m not that far ahead of you, grammar-wise. Even though my WK level is high, I still end up looking up quite a few words because I don’t do much vocab study outside of WK. I’d say take a look at some of the samples provided by seanblue here and see how you feel. If they seem challenging but manageable, I’d say go for it ^^ (Keep in mind, you’ll have at least a month to make more progress between now and when we start. And of course, we’ll all be here to help you out!) If you start the book and it turns out to be too much, you can always set it aside and come back to it later. If reading the sample pages feels like banging your head against a wall, I might wait xD
You will most likely come across Kanji and vocab you haven’t learnt yet, and since you only use WK at the moment for vocab, there is a really high chance that you won’t learn that vocab at all through WK, as it is primarily a Kanji learning site.
Having said that, I don’t see why you shouldn’t give it a try though. You will learn tons of new and interesting stuff, and the manga format is a good way of visualizing content. Also, I can only second everything what @windupbird said, and maybe add that we will “only” be doing one chapter at a time, and you can move on to the next chapter at your own pace.
Mhm thank you @windupbird and @Eilan for the link to the samples and your opinion.
I tried to read them and… it went terrible. 
I only read some of it but it took me ages because I had to use the dictionary alot. It wouldn’t bother me that much if I had to look up a bunch of words, but translating a sentence word for word is a bit to much. I think I will be better off spending some more time studying instead of reading.
Looking through the The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List it seems like an Anki deck would be a viable choice for additional vocab no?
That being said, I think I will order the book even if I can’t read it right now. Given enough time I will be able to do it one day, so it’s good to have it already at home when I’m ready.
One option for additional vocabulary is iKnow.jp. It has 6000 vocabulary that are supposedly the 6000 most used words (more or less) in groups of 100. Here is my referral link in case you want 3 free months (and to give me 3 free months) if you sign up for annual. I’ve gone through a little over 2000 of the vocabulary so far, and I think it works pretty well.
As I’m sure you know, grammar is very important too. Make sure you are learning grammar in a way that lets you practice. Bunpro is great for review, but I don’t think it should be used on its own.
Totally makes sense. ^^ Anki decks are definitely a viable free option for vocab. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of Anki in general, but hinekidori’s premade Anki vocab decks are nicely formatted out of the box (basically mimicking WK’s format), so I would definitely recommend those if you choose to go the Anki route (the default Anki is terrible). I believe that most (if not all) of the ones linked on the resource page are made by him or with his template.
As for me, I’m definitely going to use that referral link @seanblue, I’ve been meaning to sign up for iKnow anyway xD
Since we’re going to have two versions (which I believe was also the case with Kiki), we should figure out what the page-number offsets are for converting from the original two-volume edition to the Masterpiece version so we can keep references in the thread consistent for lookups and future readers.
Since the Masterpiece version is likely to be the most popular of the two within this group, we should use it as the standard.
As we saw in the other thread, in the original version, almost every page is numbered; both volumes end at 176.
From what I looked at yesterday, I don’t think there will be a constant offset. For Kiki, the vocabulary sheet had separate columns for specifying page numbers. Whenever somebody with the other book had a question, I used that as a page reference. But this only works if people are filling in page numbers in the vocabulary sheet for both copies of the book.
I’m really looking forward to this! I haven’t participated in the book clubs before (or hung out on the forums that much, for that matter). Hope my level can handle it c:
Just to make things weirder, Aria the Masterpiece flipped chapters 7 and 8 for some reason. We’ll have to be extra careful that people reading Aqua read the right chapter those weeks.
That aside, it looks like Aria the Masterpiece always has two additional pages at the end of each chapter. So it will get shifted from Aqua by two more pages each chapter.
Just bought Aqua 1 and 2 today! Can’t wait for us to get going on them x3
I guess doing that puts the two Aria-centric chapters next to each other?
From a quick look, it doesn’t look like the chapter before is about Aria. The chapter that was moved is probably not particularly relevant to the main story. So my guess is that it improved the pacing by moving it earlier and finishing with two “real” chapters instead of just one.
It’s the chapter after that’s about Aria. 7 and 9, in the original ordering. Though your next line makes me wonder if we’re talking about different chapters altogether, because swapping 7 and 8 does nothing for the last two chapters, which are 9 and 10. Plus a “bonus navigation” (though I’m honestly curious as to when that particular chapter was written, considering Alice features prominently - there’s even an omake page hanging a lantern on it).
“Chapter 10” isn’t an Aqua/Aria chapter and isn’t included in Aria the Masterpiece. It’s just some one-shot that was apparently bundled in with Aqua volume 2. Look at the reading schedule I made in the main post to see the chapters I’m talking about, and you’ll notice that I don’t even include chapter 10 in the schedule.
Ah, you’ve included a schedule. Chapter 10 in my book is 花火, though to be fair I’m currently just looking at the English version. Haven’t checked out any Japanese editions yet.
ヒーロー見参 appears to be missing - it’s the other Aria-centric chapter I was referring to.
Now I’m even more confused. Wikipedia lists the chapter you’re talking about, making it 10 real chapters and the bonus chapter. But the Japanese copy of Aqua I was looking at online for comparison didn’t have it.
Can someone with Japanese physical copies of Aqua 1 and 2 post pictures of the table of contents?
EDIT: @Belthazar If your copy of Aqua is an official English publication, can also post pictures of the table of contents?
I was checking the original website of Aria the Masterpiece, and that chapter (ヒーロー見参) became chapter 12, part of the second volume.
Other than that, I don’t see any difference in terms of chapters over the first 4 volumes (Aqua 1-2 + Aria 1-2 versus Aria the Masterpiece 1-2).
So it’s a bit annoying for the people who bought Aqua, but it will not matter in the end if people keep going with this series (outside the book club, like yotsubato)
I don’t know. If it’s aria-centric, it might work better overall in terms of flow? 
(I know nothing of the actual story, so I can’t judge).
I will try to buy the masterpiece edition, anyway. Seems like it will be easier to follow along that way.
