Each week, we will aim for approximately 25K characters. Some most weeks will be longer or shorter, depending on appropriate breakpoints! Check this section in each weekly thread to see the stopping point. There is the possibility of some mild spoilers some weeks, so be aware!
This section will have the list of choices that you should select if you are following along exactly with the book club. While you of course can read the VN however you like, it will be really difficult to contribute to the discussion threads if you are reading a different arc than the club, so please keep that in mind!
This week's choices
うん、じゃあ気を付けてね
Discussion Guidelines
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
I see I predicted the outcome of the nomination process mostly correctly, though I didn’t expect Miharu to pick Rinka’s info as the reward. I suppose she probably got all Sonia’s card info from her directly, and then made that choice to give the impression of a 仲間割れ as pure misdirection?
So, Miharu committed suicide after learning about Rinka’s death. She has already died for her sake once and is determined to do it again if necessary. This also explains her behavior and hesitation at the theme park. Seeing that Rinka is alive must have been quite a surprise.
Miharu: I love you.
Rinka:…
Sonya: Farew…
Miharu: I don’t like this word. Instead, pray for our happiness while you are dying.
重いいい
I am not Rinka but even I do feel the burden. I assume that the developers considered these two being together at the end to be the happiest of the endings. I disagree.
In the earlier stuff where the setup is explained, is everybody supposed to have died at literally the same moment, or is it only roughly the same time, like same day or thereabouts?
At first, I thought they all died at the same time but then Odette said she saw/read the news about Ro Chanho’s death and the news disappeared later. Not the same moment but in a day maybe? I will check the text and edit my answer later.
As far as I’ve learned through my research, 刻 has several meanings related to time. It means time, hour, moment, period of time etc. Taking Odette’s words into account, we can conclude that the participants didn’t all die simultaneously. One of the meanings of 刻 is associated with Chinese zodiac. According to the 十二時辰 system, one day is divided into 12 parts, each spanning 2 hours and corresponding to a zodiac sign. Wikipedia: 十二時辰
e.g.:
子の刻: hour of the Rat (around midnight, 11pm to 1am, or 12 midnight to 2am)
丑の刻: hour of the Ox (around 2am, 1-3am, or 2-4am)
Similar to this, 刻 might indicate a time span of two hours. Or it might refer to a different period of time.
I’m super pleased to say that after starting my second session of reading for this week, I managed to finish about 9,300 characters in an hour. That’s a new high for me! If I can keep pushing my reading speed I won’t feel quite so overwhelmed with the stuff I’m trying to do
Spoilers
If I was in this game, I’d be such a nervous wreck. Rinka goes into it sad but just like “well, guess we know it’s Sonia’s turn” – I’d be in an eternal state of panic that without me realizing at all, someone has learned things about me. 12 weeks of terror.
Pretty good stuff this week. I feel bad for the poor girl getting nominated. I didn’t quite anticipate how this VN is more interested in the melodrama than anything, but I don’t necessarily use that pejoratively. It’s been working out mostly fine.
I guess Miharu’s trick also helps, at least a little, throw people off the trail of how she died, so she can stay in the game and help longer.
We’re definitely getting little hints that there is something unseen going on with the game and that the setup is imperfect; something must eventually happen to reveal more truth behind it or subvert the rules somehow. I wish people would let Parca talk more haha.
With the train bomber(?) coming up, we might be in for some interesting reveals soon about what was originally going on. I wonder if there’s some scheme behind how some of them originally died that ties into things? The very natural deaths are hard to see fitting into that, but we know about train bombing and a boat going down, at least…
Random thoughts from my bus ride to work this morning. (I’m still early in this week’s section)
Sounds like Miharu’s death may be suicide.
So they made a point to mention that Sonia’s actually speaking Japanese, not having the book translate for her. However, it also sounds like she’s actually understanding what the people around her are saying - she’s not relying on the book to translate other people’s words for her, either. (since there was at least one time when she asked about the meaning of a word) In that case, though, Sonia has excellent listening comprehension in Japanese! (though I realize that’s partly for plot reasons so they don’t regularly have to stop to have people repeat stuff for Sonia’s benefit)
After completing the reading for this week, I’ve come to realize that I jumped to the conclusion too quickly about Miharu’s cause of death. We learned a bit more about her surname, but it’s still not entirely clear. Does everything about Miharu have to be so complicated? However, I must admit that I enjoy guessing a lot
Until now, I believed that all of you guys had a reading speed of 20k/h or more. I usually manage to complete my readings on the last day. Considering that I finished two days earlier this week, I can say that this VN became easier, or perhaps I didn’t struggle as much due to getting accustomed to the vocabulary. Regardless of the reason, I’m finally enjoying reading.
Probably about half that. I usually finish the reading for this club early in the week largely because the club week starts on a Saturday and so I can take a weekend morning or afternoon to play through it in a couple of long sessions.
I can’t imagine I read anywhere near 20k/h. Though this VN does seem a bit easier than the other ones I’ve read recently - namely デスマッチラブコメ and Higurashi. Though that may just be because I’ve gotten better at reading Japanese through reading those other VNs. The former was definitely harder, in part because it doesn’t have any voice acting… and it was also the first time I tried to read a VN fully in Japanese. Plus, it was never released in English so there’s no translation for me to compare it to. It was such a relief to switch to Higurashi and find out that it was fully voice acted.
Curious what my average is, though! Maybe next week I can time how long it takes me to finish the reading for the week to get a sense for how fast I am generally. (since I’m playing on Switch, I can’t easily see how many characters I’ve read in any given play session)
(though I realize that’s partly for plot reasons so they don’t regularly have to stop to have people repeat stuff for Sonia’s benefit)
It was such a relief to switch to Higurashi and find out that it was fully voice acted. 