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

:thinking:

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:woman_shrugging:

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Ack! I missed it! I feel like I used to get notifications of lists in the threads I watched in a different place…

i think you are watching the intermediate club, any how it’s the second week, plenty of time to catch up with next week’s break

Maybe I did decide to drop beginning book club. Now that I’m thinking about it, I remember being disappointed that all of the nominated books were manga. I really want to read more novels.

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maybe you should suggest a novel!

I wouldn’t know where to begin! How does one learn about novels in Japanese that are suitable for beginners?

amazon’s suggestion for already read books maybe? amazon japan has a children’s book section

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books/503578

all three novel read by this book(zenitouden, mysterious town, kiki) club are on the first page of the most sold books.

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maybe use this as a starting point?

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Nominations

Alright! The current pick will be finishing in February, such that we’ll be starting a new pick on the 20th. That means we’re coming up to voting season :grin:

I will be opening the vote on Wednesday, so please take the time over the next few days to look through the sample pages of our nominations (listed with links in the OP) and rate their comparative difficulties. I’ll check back through the thread today to make sure there aren’t any missing.

It’s helpful if you rate the majority of the picks, as we need to know which ones you think are harder than others comparatively.

If you have any last-minute nominations to submit, please try to do so before the end of the weekend, so that people have a few days to check them out. Sorry that this is quite a last-minute deadline, but we have enough nominations for a vote as is.

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Sounds like I need to pick out about half the books from my library to nominate!

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Recently, I’ve been reading some ongoing manga series. Typically I prefer to read series that are complete, although I mostly make an allowance for slice of life.

I was curious about the length and ongoing/competition status of the current manga nominations. The results:

|Title|Volumes|Status|
|–|–:|–|–|
|不可解なぼくのすべてを|4|ongoing|
|にじいろフォトグラフ|3|complete|
|北欧女子オーサが見つけた日本の不思議|5+1|ongoing|
|青の島とねこ一匹|3|ongoing|
|この美術部には問題がある!|13|ongoing|
|地縛少年 花子くん|14|ongoing|
|マギ|37+19|complete|
|僕のヒーローアカデミア|29|ongoing|
|デスノート|12|complete|
|名探偵コナン|98|ongoing|
| +チック姉さん|16|ongoing|
|日常|10|complete|

Notes:

The status for にじいろフォトグラフ was determined by it no longer appearing in the monthly まんがタイムきららフォワード magazine (as per Wikipedia).

The first five volumes of マギ are free to read until 1/14. Check your preferred e-book retailer for 「マギ 期間限定 無料お試し版」 (no quotes).

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日常 (daily life)

Summary

Nichijou follows the everyday lives of various people in the town of Tokisadame, centering on the energetic Yūko Aioi, the bright and cheerful Mio Naganohara, the quiet and deadpan Mai Minakami, the anxious android Nano Shinonome, her young creator the Professor, and a talking cat named Sakamoto, along with an ensemble cast of characters. Random and/or outlandish events regularly occur throughout the series, mainly through the mundane situations each character goes through.

Availability

physical: amazon.co.jp|cd japan

ebook: amazon.co.jp | Book walker

Personal Opinion

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • slice of life(even the title is daily life)
  • has had a well received anime
  • funny
  • short chapters(18 chapters)
  • fairly easy
  • furigana
  • has action, sometimes

Cons

  • well received anime, so many have already seen the anime

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

image



image

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

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added nichijou and plastic nee san to the main topic. can any one check if i added them right?

ミンゴ イタリア人がみんなモテると思うなよ(Mingo, don’t think that all Italians are popular. )

Summary

Peppe, popular resident of TV series “Terrace House” will start a new manga series in the upcoming issue 46/2019 of Weekly Big Comic Spirits titled “Mingo” about an italian otaku coming to Japan & finding love.

The story follows Mingo as he moves to Tokyo from Italy and tries to find love while being an otaku

Availability

amazon.co.jp

Personal Opinion

This book was recommended to me a while back. i think the story is somewhat relatable since most people here want/have to go to japan(at least that’s my impression).

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • realism
  • slice of life
  • somewhat relatable character as he is much older than a school boy(AFAIK)
  • different drawing style

Cons

  • no furigana
  • some frontal nudity

the ebook is 限定無料 until jan 13 on amazon

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

nudity



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

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This one’s a sort of slice-of-life, so it’s ok to vote for it. :grinning:

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Maybe if it were for volume 2, with all that nice friendly furigana…

I’m not sure I have volume 2. I seem to have only bought 1 and 3, for some reason.

Maybe it’s sitting somewhere out of order…

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ラーメン大好き小泉さん

Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles

Summary

Japanese

クールで無口、他人と馴れ合わないミステリアスな転校生・小泉さん。彼女は、日ごと美味しいラーメンを求めるラーメンのプロだった――!?あんなラーメンやこんなラーメン、すべて美味しくいただきます!ガツンと本格派ラーメングラフィティ、いよいよ着丼!

English

Cool, quiet, and mysterious, Koizumi-san is a transfer student who doesn’t get along with others. She is a ramen professional who searches for the best ramen every day! Ramen like this and ramen like that are all delicious! The authentic ramen graffiti is finally here!

Availability

Amazon
Bookwalker
Can also read chapters 1-3, and assorted others, for free on the publisher’s website.

Personal Opinion

Well, ramen is yummy. And they eat at real places that you can actually go and try for yourself. And this series is pretty amusing.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Fairly short chapters, fairly straightforward.
  • Real world situations, so easy to relate to.
  • FIrst three volumes (and counting) have been released in English. There’s also an anime series and a four-episode-plus-two-specials drama series.

Cons

  • Dangerous to read while hungry.
  • Some technical ramen terminology is used, but they generally get explained to the viewpoint character.
  • No furigana.

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One

Additional Pages

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Moderate effort
  • Significant effort
  • So much effort my head might explode
  • I don’t know

0 voters

5 Likes

Vote for the next book - now!

Can I vote?

If you are interesting 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 of the options, 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 / makes it easier, but please be realistic. Don’t just vote for your favourite story without looking at the samples yourself and comparing to others. Remember that both language and density contribute to difficulty.

Difficulty Scores

The number in front of each option is a difficulty score based on club members voting, where 1 indicates “no effort at all” and 5 indicates “so much effort my brain might explode”. These scores aren’t objective by any means, so please look at the sample pages of options you’re interested in.

When will we start and how many will we pick ?

We will likely begin reading on the 20th of February, one week after we finish reading ハイキュー!!. If a short manga (expected less than 8 weeks) wins we will also read the second place option afterwards without holding another vote.

List of "short" manga

At a guess, the following manga would be considered ‘short’. This is purely based on a quick look at the contents page - I’ll check any manga in the running more carefully once we have some votes in.

  • FukaBoku: Love Me For Who I Am
  • Nordic Girl Åsa
  • Rainbow-Coloured Photograph
  • This Art Club has a Problem!
  • Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

You can vote for up to 4 options.

  • [2.36] FukaBoku: Love Me For Who I Am
  • [2.59] Rainbow-Coloured Photograph
  • [2.56 ] Koizumi-san Loves Ramen
  • [2.71] Nordic Girl Åsa
  • [3.12] Ao’s Island and a Cat
  • [2.31] Nichijou
  • [2.68] This Art Club has a Problem!
  • [2.64] Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
  • [2.54] Magi
  • [2.57 ] Plastic Elder Sister
  • [2.84] My Hero Academia
  • [ 2.71] Death Note
  • [3.43] Great Detective Conan
  • [3.11] Scary Lessons // Book
  • [2.50] Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories // Book

0 voters

You can adjust your vote at any time by clicking ‘Show Vote’.

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