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

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Oddly enough that’s why I didn’t watch the anime. I watched start of the anime and was like “what is thisssss all the good stuff has already happened nooooo”

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aww everyone’s so supportive. Be expecting lots of late “I looked this up but still can’t figure it out!” questions with page references. :slight_smile:

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I didn’t really know much about the manga or anime when I decided to watch the anime. All I knew was the manga was made by the same mangaka who made 青い花 and that was enough for me.

I just wish it wasn’t 15 volumes, because that’ll take forever to read through!

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Hmm, maybe not as long as you think. If I remember correctly (I might not) I think it tends to be kind of light on text, actually. She has a very subdued and subtle method of storytelling, where she often even cuts past what would be an emotional confrontation, in what I felt was always a really smart move, because some confrontations can’t be realistically portrayed - or if they could, they’d be so unpleasant to watch you wouldn’t want to anyway. Does anyone really want to overhear an entire argument between two 10 year olds? Do you want to hear the talk someone’s unsupportive parents have with their ‘son’?
Not really. You can imagine the important parts.

I remember respecting the storytelling a lot.

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Yeah, I can understand that. From the anime alone, I really liked the way the story was told and the way the characters were portrayed. They felt more “real” than most anime characters.

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I have one more I haven’t suggested yet, but if I do, 1/4 of the suggestions would be mine :rofl:
Still might, but I do want the other suggestions more :wink:
I was thinking of maybe suggesting “My Hero Academia”, but think the others are better anyway.

Another one I’ve wanted to suggest, but didn’t own yet, is “Attack on Titan”
I just wanted to look, found a good deal on volume 1-27!

Bought it, and got this mail shortly after: “This book is written in Japanese. It is not English edition. Is it OK?”
I bet they have had more than one accidental buy :rofl:

I might suggest it once I get it =)
Feel free to do it now if you have it (and want it), cause I won’t get it in another 3-4 weeks, which will be too late for this vote =P

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My problem with shounen action manga (even more so than anime) is that basically nothing happens in the first volume. They are too slow, which is why there’s inevitably several dozen volumes.

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Don’t worry, that is NOT a problem in this one! :rofl: (Attack on Titan)
The best part of the story is in the first volume, and very action packed (action that actually goes somewhere) from page one O_o
(I went to look at the English version to confirm before commenting, if anything the first volume here gives you so much it is worth reading even for those who don’t continue)

Also have much less manga specific words (some, but no where near as much as magic/ninja ones does)
The specific words are fairly relatable anyway: 巨人 (giant/person) = Titan. And some military lingo, but that is mostly later on.

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一週間フレンズ (Manga)

Summary

From MyAnimeList ( Isshuukan Friends. (One Week Friends) - MyAnimeList.net )

Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else.

Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori’s cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her.

Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: “Would you like to be friends?” Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Availability

An ebook is available (same link) and you can also read the first chapter (look inside)
edit: adding these links as the look inside seems to be clearer:

Personal Opinion

I haven’t read the manga, but I watched the anime and it was one of the easiest to understand anime I ever watched in Japanese, especially the first half. (I think the manga might be a bit more challenging because most of it seems to be 4-koma and rather condensed) The vocabulary is mostly everyday vocabulary that learners usually learn pretty early on. Later on as the story progresses some more memory-related terms pop up, and it get’s a little bit more difficult, but especially the start is more slice of life than anything else. I personally also found the story cute and wholesome and while not the most compelling overall, I can see myself reading it as well. There’s also both an anime adaption and a (live action) movie around, for people who enjoy that.

Format-wise from what I’ve seen in the first chapter it seems to switch between 4-koma and not-4-koma, but I’m not sure if this goes like that through the whole manga or not.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Everyday vocab
  • Furigana
  • Quite wholesome story
  • I think it actually has quite a lot of speech, so lots of material to actually read

Cons

  • Might be not the most compelling story out there?
  • has quite a lot of text for a manga at times, might seem overwhelming when you get started

Pictures

The pictures don’t seem to be very clear, but @NickNickovich mentioned the ebookjapan und bookwalker versions look cleaner

First Three Pages of Chapter One



Additional Pages




When it’s not 4-koma it’s usually more scenic, and less text-heavy:


Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Just right
  • Challenging
  • Impossible, even with everyone’s help
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)
0 voters
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If the attack on titan manga starts like the anime, it will be a really nice volume 1

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Looks cute, although with such a ridiculously specific and arbitrary condition, it would have actually felt more realistic if it was magic >_>

Is there a bigger preview available somewhere? The text is too small for me to be able to read it in some of those images.

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Oof, yes. I’m using a big monitor right now and I still can’t read a lot of those kanji.

I watched the first couple of episodes of that anime and found it pretty adorable. I can’t remember why I dropped it :thinking:

Did you click on the images? I think they show up slightly bigger then. I got the images from the amazon page, not sure if you can zoom better there and maybe see it better?

You can go to amazon page and click on the cover. Than you can zoom the picture, but it’s still quite blurry.
For some reason ebookjapan and bookwalker versions look much cleaner:
ebookjapan (click 試し読み button)
bookwalker (click on the cover)

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Thank you, I added the links to the post as well

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The anime was really cute. I’m a bit surprised it’s a 4-koma manga, but it seems to work relatively well based on those sample pages.

@Belthazar @cybershark @sumsum Please add your nominations to the first post following the existing format. Feel free to leave the average blank and I’ll fill that in later.

Oh, I’m supposed to do that?