Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった // Next 葬送のフリーレン, then ウスズミの果て

But… won’'t you then just be buying one book in November? :thinking: or do you mean you’ll have studied more grammar by then and be able to order random other books? You could always order them now to motivate yourself to be able to read them later :wink:

And, because I just plain can’t stop myself sometimes:

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Whats the one on the right in the second photo? 君の名は. When I was in Japan recently I saw that poster EVERYWHERE, but never bothered looking into it because…it was just one of millions of advertisements but now that I’m seeing it again I needs to know;

What is it?

forgive me for not googling instead of asking such a basic question

Your Name. Tsubasa Bunko version, though (intended for younger kids, so more furigana, possibly slightly simpler words?)

I think the book is a novelisation of the film. You’ve seen it everywhere because the film was mildly successful:

Also, at this point it feels like I’ll be reading Natsume on my own :joy: I didn’t even vote for it!

I’m going for a “pass judgement once I’ve read it approach” to book club manga, because they’re relatively cheap and quick to read. I’ve sold all the manga I’ve put up for sale really quickly so far, so I doubt it’ll cost me much if I decide not to keep it, and I like reading as a group.

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I’ll definitely be reading that as well (though I should really get more active in the discussion threads, haven’t posted in the Aria ones for a while, but I’m still reading along).
Not sure why so many people don’t want to read Natsume. I mean, I get that it’s not for everyone due to its slower pace, but the same is pretty much true for Non Non Biyori and Aria. Heck, I’d argue Aria is even slower and less suspenseful than Natsume. Maybe it’s just the missing comedy elements? :thinking:

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Hooray! Okay, I feel better about that now :grin:

Hmm, I’m looking forward to checking it out, but I can understand why some people aren’t enthused. I dropped the anime two or three times before finally sticking with it, because I also found it fairly dull to begin with :thinking: I agree that it’s probably the comedy - I would definitely describe it as a ‘gentle’ anime. I also found some aspects of the story/characterisation a bit cliche at the beginning, which didn’t help my engagement.

By the way, @seanblue, I’m guessing you’d rather not be responsible for creating all the natsume threads if you won’t be reading it?

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I’m with you too!
My grammar is still terrible, so I probably won’t be much help, but I’m here for moral support at least! :joy:
I’m also sad that so many of the active people seem to be skipping Natsume. Guess we’ll just have to get more active :muscle: I’m looking forward to it, although I really know nothing about it except for the description that was given. (As usual, I haven’t seen the anime)

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We can persevere together! :triumph:

I’m interested to see what it’s like to read something with seemingly much longer chapters too. Definitely think two weeks for chapter 1 is probably a good idea.

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Got the shrink-wrapping off the “dual-language” Sherlock so that I could look inside. It’s… kinda ugly. Written primarily in English (in, like, Times New Roman or something), with the corresponding Japanese text for each speech bubble lurking in the page margins.

Yeah, I agree - easing into those 50-page chapters sounds like a good idea. (Although I’m secretly really pleased at how symmetrical the chapters are in terms of length. All those beautiful multiples of 10 :relieved:)

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Really slow paced material is hit or miss for me. I often like the comedy stuff (ご注文はうさぎですか, のんのんびより, etc.), but if there’s little to no comedy I rarely enjoy it. For example, I didn’t like the anime adaptions of Natsume, Kino’s Journey, or Mushishi, even though they are all well regarded. In that sense, Aria is very much an exception for me.

I will if nobody else wants to, but it would make more sense for someone actually participating to create all the threads.

I mainly don’t really want to do Natsume because it just plain doesn’t really sound like my genre. Nothing to do with how slow it is or how funny it is. I enjoyed Mushishi immensely. :slightly_smiling_face:

I can get hold of it electronically, I’ll do Natsume.
I come with no emotional baggage, knowing nothing about it. :joy:
For me it’s just nice to read something which is not a textbook.

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Well I’m happy to create them, but I’ll be in Japan for the weeks of the 3rd Nov and the 10th Nov (assuming we extend to five weeks), so won’t be able to guarantee timely internet. I might need to post them a day or so early, particularly for the 10th.

If somebody else reading Natsume can do it that might make more sense, or I could pass the baton halfway through :slightly_smiling_face:

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I ended up purchasing it because it was relatively cheap at Kino. I might as well try it. Worse case I decide that I’m still not really into it. Glancing through it, there are some intimidating blocks of texts!

Aria actually holds a special place for me because I remember finding a few of the English versions in college and falling in love with the covers.

I’ll need to get more active as well! I tend to lurk a lot on the reading threads. :wink:

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The tone and themes of the story are actually very similar to Mushishi, just less dark, so if you liked that I think you might like Natsume as well. By genre do you mean that it’s technically classified as Shojo? That’s really only because it was published in a Shojo magazine for some reason, it doesn’t really use any of the typical Shojo tropes, aside from maybe some of the art style.

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The art style was very shoujo haha.

A friend of mine is going to japan in october for around 5 weeks and therefore I can order some books :stuck_out_tongue:
I hope we decide on the new book early enough :sweat_smile:

I’m so down for のんのんびより… just finished the first anime series not long ago. But the number of book clubs is going to pile up! I’m going to keep Yotsuba and Aria my priorities but will definitely tag along for this one.

I’m looking around at what else I might like to pick up with this shipment ~ grabbing Umaru vol. 1 as well so far.

I voted for it, but I’m on the fence about Natsume with all the clubs piling up.

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