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

Ooo, ooo, yes, yes, I have a nomination!

Hopefully not gonna continue the trend of giving books the touch of death by nominating them…

Slow Loop

Slow_Loop_volume_1_cover

Natively: スローループ 1 | L20??

Summary

Japanese

「なんか、最近、釣りが楽しい…」

海辺でひとり、亡き父に教えてもらった
フライフィッシングを嗜む少女・ひより。
そんな時に出会ったのは、母親の再婚相手の娘・小春で…?

ひょんな出会いから「姉妹」になった小春とひよりと一緒に、
「釣り」をしながらスローに過ごしてみませんか?

English

Since childhood, Hiyori Yamakawa has witnessed her father’s various eccentricities, but one activity she has always loved doing with him is fly fishing—a complicated yet rewarding method of catching fish. Even after his sudden death, Hiyori still visits the seaside in her spare time, savoring the joy that her father’s memento brings her.

Three years later, Hiyori’s mother decides to remarry and arranges a dinner with her fiancé, his daughter, and Hiyori to celebrate. Anxious and wanting to pass the time, Hiyori goes to her usual fishing spot when a rather energetic girl named Koharu Minagi suddenly appears before her. The two soon become acquainted, with Koharu taking an interest in fly fishing herself. However, their meeting is more than just a coincidence: Koharu turns out to be Hiyori’s future stepsibling, which is only the beginning of treasured memories the both of them will reel in as they foster their sisterhood.

Availability

Physical:
Amazon
CD Japan

E-Book:
Amazon
Bookwalker

Personal Opinion

This is the manga that is for fly fishing what Yuru Camp is for camping - cute girls doing cute things, and in this case the thing is fly fishing. Yuru Camp meets Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater. So I figured I’d nominate it at this book club tier because this is where Yuru Camp was. Amusing, informative, unexpectedly hard-hitting at times, but iyashikei throughout.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • It’s cute and fun.
  • It’s intended to introduce the reader to fly fishing, so any complicated terminology gets explained to the reader-avatar character.
  • There’s an anime, which covers the entirety of the first volume, so if people want to hear the dialogue aloud, it’s there.

Cons

  • No furigana.

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One



Additional Pages



Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • 1 - No effort at all
  • 2 - Minimal effort
  • 3 - Moderate effort
  • 4 - Substantial effort
  • 5 - So much effort my head might explode :exploding_head:
  • I don’t know

0 voters

11 Likes

Is there a list of current nominees? :thinking:

2 Likes

The Current Proposals section of the first post keeps a fairly up-to-date list of current nominations.

Edit: Items currently missing from the proposals list:

6 Likes

Ohh right I see thanks!

Also, アオノハコ is on there as blue box, so it’s just スローループ that’s missing.

4 Likes

It is now up to date

At the very least you got me interested in reading this

6 Likes

Vote for the next book - now!

Can I vote?

If you are interested in joining the next book club we run, you can - and should - vote!

Please look under “Current Proposals” in the first post for more details on each option, including links to sample pages which will help you gauge the difficulty.

Please take difficulty into account

Some people do find that reading a work they love or know already is inherently motivating, but please be realistic. Look at the samples and compare to others. Remember that both language and density contribute to difficulty.

Difficulty Scores

For most items we list two different difficulty scores. They are displayed in [] in front of the name of the book/manga. The first score is determined by the polls within the nomination posts. These polls only take previews into account and are very tightly bound to the people that give feedback in the polls and are therefore not objective measures of difficulty. The second score is the Natively level (if available), because of the rating system the ratings without ?? should be more accurate, but the levels with ?? are just an initial guess that must be taken with a pinch of salt.

When will we start and how many will we pick?

We will likely begin reading on the 5th of November, right after we finish reading 耳をすませば. If a short manga (expected less than 8 weeks) wins we will also read the second place option following that without holding another vote. (The short manga determination is not final since it is based on limited information and might change)

How does the vote work?

The poll will be closed on Sunday, September 25th at the latest.

You can vote for up to 5 options.

You can change your vote at any time by clicking ‘Show vote’ at the bottom.

  • [2.17/L20??] Slow Loop [short Manga]
  • [1.75/L25] Blue Box [Manga]
  • [2.36/L25] God Bless the Mistaken [short Manga]
  • [2.91] 妖怪ギガ [Manga]
  • [3.13/L22] ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 [Manga]
  • [2.85/L25??] Deep Sea Aquarium MagMell [short Manga]
  • [2.86/L25??] 5分後に笑えるどんでん返し [Book]
  • [2.00/L24??] Full Moon [short Manga]
  • [2.80/L24] Mashle: Magic and Muscles [Manga]
  • [2.58/L25] Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun [short Manga]
  • [2.70/L25] Ranking of Kings [Manga]
  • [2.00/L25] ひらめきはつめちゃん [short Manga]
  • [2.45/L27] The Promised Neverland [Manga]
  • [2.69/L20] Rainbow-Coloured Photograph [short Manga]
  • [2.71/L24] This Art Club has a Problem! [short Manga]

0 voters

13 Likes

If one of the regulars could change the title to the following, that would be great! Thank you!

[Now Voting!] Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 耳をすませば

5 Likes

I see that Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun might get picked this time … I thought I should let you all know that I don’t think I can run the club this time around (and especially not in December) … Sorry if this causes any problems. :frowning:

8 Likes

No problem! You have no obligation to run the club and I’m sure we will find someone that will!

As for the poll for those of you who haven’t voted yet, you have about 32 hours left!

9 Likes

Come on you remaining- (does math) 22 people who are all too busy to vote at the moment! Blue Box can still win!

6 Likes

With 22 more votes, anything can win. :stuck_out_tongue:

But vote for Slow Loop.

9 Likes

That was a tough vote… :flushed:
Fifth pick was a real toss up between Blue Box, Rainbow-Coloured Photograph and Full Moon
I was very happy to see that all the books I thought interesting seem to be quite popular - so I’ll probably be happy with the outcome any way :smiley:

albeit a little surprised that Full Moon is so far below :o

5 Likes

It would be less behind if you had voted for it. :stuck_out_tongue:

6 Likes

Thank you, I really appreciate that! Now I can just look forward to it … Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is one of my favorite anime comedies. :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Yeah, mine too! It’s just sooo good. I wonder if the manga lives up to that.

Also I’m really glad God Bless the Mistaken won this time! I thought it sounded really, really interesting and I was getting excited about it, and then it lost so narrowly last time, haha.

I’ll probably be on a trip in Japan when the club starts, and I think I won’t get much reading done then, but on the plus side that means I can (try to) pick it up as an actual physical manga!

11 Likes

oh…fun…depending on the break I might still be in Hokkaido…guess I should take this one with me… would be fun to join the bookclub from Japan :smiley:

4 Likes

Haha true that
I did think about changing my vote when I saw it was down there, but… :woman_shrugging:t2::joy::sweat_smile:

As I said: tough vote (for me) x)

4 Likes

We have a winner the next Manga we will read is God Bless the Mistaken!

Since it is a short manga we will also read Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun afterwards!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

We will also have to say goodbye to some of the nominations:

  • Mashle: Magic and Muscles [Manga]
  • ひらめきはつめちゃん
  • Ranking of Kings
18 Likes

Could one of the regular change the title to

Beginner Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: 耳をすませば

Thank you!

4 Likes

That one looked like fun, but I don’t know if I could put up with that name appearing in thread titles every week. :stuck_out_tongue:

8 Likes