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

Anyone ever nominated 甘々と稲妻 (aka Sweetness and Lightning) before? Considering giving that one a shot…

I didn’t have access to the anime of Girl’s Last Tour, so if the difficulty looks manageable I’m keen for that one.

@Belthazar I don’t remember it being nominated. I wasn’t super keen on the anime to be honest, but I can imagine it might make for good reading material so long as the daughter’s speech isn’t too childlike :thinking:

It’s not too bad. Check out the sample pages, though there’s admittedly not too many actual manga pages there.

Also, no furigana…

I haven’t tried the anime yet past the first episode, but I’ve been enjoying the manga (in English) a great deal.

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Girls’ Last Tour also doesn’t have furigana, but it didn’t seem too bad. I’ll be sure to post a lot of page samples so that it’s representative of the difficulty.

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I’ll check them out, thanks :+1:

Sounds like we’re gonna have quite a number of furigana-less nominations this time round!

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The next book’s thread is up ^^

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I think the proposed schedule had chapter one down for two weeks, to make it a bit less intense :thinking:

I like the addition of the durtle :durtle_love:

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Ah okay, that makes sense!

Heheh, thanks for noticing :purple_heart::durtle_the_explorer:

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ポレポレ日記いざ流星学園へ!

Summary

ときどき、自分のことが、わからなくなる。たとえば、みんなと笑い転げながら、ふっと、作り笑いしている自分に気づいたとき。相手によって、態度がころころかわっていたり、強気でいたかと思うと、すぐに弱気になったり……。こんなわたしでいいのかな? いつか、ほんとの自分がわかるのかな?
――わたし、朝比奈柚は、ダンス部と蓮先輩にあこがれて、流星学園中学校に入学したの。同じクラスの葵ちゃんは、意志が強くてカッコイイ。桃ちゃんは、笑顔がかわいくて、だれとでも仲良くできちゃうコ。自信がないのは、わたしだけ? でもね! ダンス部で、チーム・ギャラクシーに選ばれるようにがんばるよっ! 友情、恋、部活、すべてはこれから。柚の中学校生活スタート!

Half-rushed, not completely literal and kind of awkward English translation(so apologies for any mistakes/weirdness, and feel free to point it out):

Sometimes, I feel like I can’t understand myself. While everyone else is laughing, I suddenly notice myself letting out a forced laugh. According to others, my behaviour is changing rapidly, I may act really confident and then become timid right afterwards. I wonder if that’s okay? I wonder if my true self is changing?

I’m Asahina Yuzu and I have entered Ryuusei Academy Junior High School, which has the dance club I longed for together with Ren-senpai. The dermination of Ooi-chan in my class is really cool. Momo-chan’s smile is cute enough that she could become friends with anyone. Am I the only one that doesn’t have any confidence? But! I’ll do my best to be selected for the dance club’s “galaxy” team! Friendship, love, club activities… it all starts from here! This is the start of my junior high school life!

Availability

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/ポレポレ日記-いざ、流星学園へ-講談社青い鳥文庫-倉橋-燿子/dp/4062855127/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1537556892&sr=8-3&keywords=ポレポレ日記
Ebook: 無料まんが・試し読みが豊富!電子書籍をお得に買うならebookjapan

Personal Opinion

I personally thought it seemed interesting, so I’m hoping someone else will find it interesting too. Judging by the first few pages, it also appears to be one of the easiest books I’ve tried to read.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

Fairly easy and not as much text on each page as other books I’ve tried reading.

Cons

Is an actual book that is about 180 pages long, so much more text than in most manga.

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
  • 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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@seanblue

As requested, and for anyone else interested, here is the front cover of the edition of Penguin Highway I bought:

DSCN5209

It’s the standard Kadokawa Bunko edition, and is presumably a re-release to tie in with the anime. I thought I was getting this cover:

Old Cover

NEOBK-1365476

Also, for interest, here are some other books (Aria Masterpiece edition, a standard Aoi Tori book, and Kiki) for scale comparison. It’s basically the same size as that edition of Kiki but fatter.

Scale

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I saw that in Kinokiniya today. The manga, too. Almost bought it, but decided I should probably focus on the books I’ve already bought.

I did, however, buy 日本人の知らない日本語, which I’m considering nominating sometime…

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And yet, I still bought it :thinking: I’m keeping it as a ‘future goals’ book :wink:

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I currently have half a shelf of future goals books. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Half a shelf as in a row? Or as in floor to ceiling?

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A row. Not all of us are heathens. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Made me nervous for a second there. :stuck_out_tongue:

I have half a shelf (row) of unread Japanese books, but they aren’t really stretch books. In consists of the rest of Aria the Masterpiece, the rest of ご注文はうさぎですか, volume 2 of のんのんびより, volume 1 of 少女終末旅行, 時をかける少女, and Penguin Highway. I’m fairly certain I could read all of those with a decent level of comprehension, even if not in a timely manner.

I haven’t actually ordered any of my actual stretch books yet. Those include things like 空ろの箱と零のマリア (hopefully could read in a year or two), 魔法少女育成計画 (also hopefully in a year or two), and 新世界より (hopefully could read sometime ever :sweat_smile:).

少女終末旅行 (Girls’ Last Tour)

Summary

The series follows two girls, Yuuri and Chito, as they navigate the ruins of civilization after an unknown apocalypse, and as they travel in their modified Kettenkrad, they seek food and supplies while surviving day-to-day. [Wikipedia]

Availability

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/410771781X
eBook: 無料まんが・試し読みが豊富!電子書籍をお得に買うならebookjapan (has the first two chapters in full in the 試し見る.

Personal Opinion

I thought the anime adaption was interesting, if a bit slow. But I think the slow pace will work better in the manga than it did in the anime. I think it’s good for beginners, despite not having furigana (at least the first two chapters were very easy).

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • No furigana, but the kanji overall isn’t bad (based on the first two chapters)
  • Short chapters (usually 18-20 pages)
  • Interesting setting

Cons

  • Yet another slice of life manga.

Pictures

First Few Pages of Chapter One

p03

p04

p05

p06

p07

Additional Pages

p28

p29

p30

p31

p32

p33

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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Judging by the first few pages, I think I can kick back and relax reading this… (famous last words. knock on wood)

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I already have this “for future reading”, so I’d probably be into that.

@seanblue, do we have a deadline for when nominations need to be in by?