Aria the Masterpiece Home Thread (Beginner Book Club / Aria Book Club)

The forum rules don’t appear to prohibit it, but there’s no subforum where it feels like this would be welcome. It seems more like it would be awkward, rather than disallowed, since self-promotion and profit doesn’t really fit with the culture of the community.

Maybe we’ll figure something out while preparing for the next book, though, because it is a good idea.

Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, that’s the part I’m struggling to envision; it would be nice to facilitate joining up buyers with sellers so that we could more easily pass reading material amongst ourselves, but selling doesn’t really fit with the general vibe of the community.

This is kind of a reminder to myself to flag this up when reading actually starts, but I tried reading a little bit last night to see whether it was remotely comprehensible for me and noticed a stylistic thing that I can imagine will trip up very new readers.

Basically, there are a number of words which have a fancy-pants in-world term in the manga, but which use traditional kanji. They use katakana over the kanji to tell you how to ‘read’ them, but this reading doesn’t relate to the kanji at all.

For example, the earth is written using the normal knaji, 地球. However, in this universe earth is now called ‘manhome’ and thus the reading is stylized as マンホーム (from memory).

Just something probably worth pointing out at the beginning of the first chapter thread.

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I’ve actually noticed that in other books I’ve read, and I don’t really understand it. Not that it’s a made up term next to the kanji, but that it’s a weird pronunciation of it. I keep meaning on making a topic about it on the forum, but always forget and then lose any examples I find xD

Thanks for the heads up though!

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Do you mean an unusual but legitimate reading, or a totally different reading? I feel like this already is a thread somewhere in the forums about this topic.

I seem to remember there’s a stylistic thing writers will do where they put a different reading above the kanji as a kind of symbolic double meaning?

Typicaly the first instance, at least, is the expected/normal reading, then later on there is this completely new reading. I can’t recall if they were legitimate readings or not, since by then, I pretty much knew the kanji combination and didn’t need to look it up. If I find another pair, I’ll make note of it.

I’ll try to look for the thread too! It would be nice to clear up this confusion I have about it xD

Yah, I noticed that. Like 水先案内人 (which is weirdly the first suggestion my IME throws up when I type “みずさき”) is ウンディーネ and 惑星地球化改造 is テラフォーミング. I’m also weirdly amused by マルコポーロ国際宇宙港 - like, with 宇宙 instead of 空.

Yah, as @Radish8 says, it’s for the double meaning. What they say is the furigana, but what they mean is the kanji. I saw an absolute gem of furigana somewhere recently, but now I can’t find it again. Hmm…

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That’s interesting :o Thanks for confirming! Do you know why they switch it up throughout the manga? (I don’t mean Aria in this case, as it seems to be an exception, just the others that I’ve read.) Or is that just to help kids off from the start of what the real reading is?

I was extremely pleased with myself for deciphering this one, cos I’d just learned 国際 in WaniKani and 宇宙 not too long ago :grin:

Apart from the ones you listed, the other I noticed was sometimes (not always) reading Mars as Aqua. I’ll try to remember to point this out and list the specific instances when the first thread gets opened.

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Well, there’s various reasons. One example that springs to mind is Negima, where Negi’s spells are written with the meaning of what he’s saying in kanji, but the furigana is in katakana-ised Latin. Or Greek, for Evangeline.

Sometimes it’s a character trait. No specific example of this, but it might be something like, a character calling someone “great king” with the furigana, but the kanji underneath reads “piece of filth”, or whatever. It’s like, they’re referring to the person with respect on the face of it, but there’s no respect at all underneath.

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Interesting! The ones I’ve found this in were Detective Conan and Inuyasha, though they seemed like normal Japanese words, nothing special. Unless they were shortening it for convenience or something? Like how we say “app” instead of “application”. I appreciate the examples, will definitely help me in trying to figure out the context in the future :slight_smile:

Didn’t mean to derail the thread though xD I can wait until I find examples again and make a separate one for it if I need to :slight_smile:

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There are a few threads about that technique on the forum. You’ll get a lot more examples in there :slight_smile:
(I’m on my phone, so finding links is a bit annoying)

Edit: there’s this one for instance.

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Ready :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m really excited about reading Aria! I had a few of the English books when they came out. I’m out of the loop, so I didn’t even know there was an anime. I just got mine in the mail today. These books really are pretty.

I tried to read along with Kiki, but I didn’t have the time and just wasn’t ready for that level yet. I plan to give it another try after getting more reading practice. I’ve been reading Yotsubato while I wait. The old book threads really are helpful.

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I finally filled in the Vocabulary List Guidelines section of the main post. It ended up a bit large, but I think all the information in there is important. If anyone has any feedback on it, let me know.

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Alright, here are the latest polls, to get a sense of how many participants we’ll have for chapter 1.


Do you have your copy of Aria the Masterpiece or Aqua yet?

  • I have my copy already and I’m reading ahead
  • I have my copy already and I’m waiting for the official start date
  • I’ve ordered my copy and it should be here by the start date
  • I’ve ordered my copy, but it might get here after the start date
  • I haven’t ordered yet, but I probably will soon
  • I’m sitting this one out

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Also, what version of the book will you be reading? Please only vote in this poll if you already have your copy, or if you have at least ordered it.

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looks like aria the masterpiece is the most popular

:radio_button: I have my copy and I’ve flipped through the first few pages, but mostly I’m waiting for the official start date.

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I just got my copies today =^_^=

Mine are second edition at least, but I wish I’d gone for Masterpiece… Didn’t realize there where more in them until after buying, and found normal Aqua at a lower price.

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I read the first chapter to check I wasn’t going to completely fail at reading it, but otherwise I’m waiting for the official start date (and intend to re-read the first chapter properly at that point).

Thanks for your work on the vocabulary guidelines. They seem very clear and comprehensive.

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