Intermediate Japanese Book Club // Now Reading: セーラー服と機関銃

Nice to see 魔法少女育成計画. I’ve been interested in reading that since ages ago :slightly_smiling_face:

It’s a shame there seems to be no ebook version available, but I probably could dig my pockets this one time.

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I’m kind of at the point where I’m going to just read what I want. The next two books I’m planning to read are 魔法少女育成計画 and 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (not necessarily in that order). So unless something else wins here that really catches my interest, I’m going to skip the group’s book and do my own thing (partially because I already bought those books and I don’t really want to place an order for a single book).

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We should probably just remove it from the list then. In the beginner book club we have a section for stuff removed from the list after not being selected (e.g. too hard, already has it’s own discussion, etc.). We could do that here too.

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This one has some very questionable lolicon imagery in it (manga specific afaik). I would not recommend reading this with a bookclub unless everyone knows what they’re getting into.

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Everyone knows that @neicul only supports 狐 lolis.

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I haven’t come across this term before but my google search seems to hint at it meaning child abuse? I’d very much not like to read something like this. Thanks for the heads up!

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You’ve… never heard that term before?

ロリコン is short for ロリータ・コンプレックス. Literally a lolita complex.

Similar terms are シスコン (sister complex).

I guess I’m one of the few persons that have not come to Japanese through Manga :rofl:
(I don’t read comic books in general, it’s not just manga specific). So I don’t know about all the genres and subcultures either…

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It’s one specific panel, which is honestly very much out-of-tone with the rest of the manga…

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Oh ok. So it’s not the general topic of the manga, then?

Here’s what happens when you don’t know these terms.

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Oh, very no. General topic of the manga is “descend through the abyss filled with strange things to find mother”.

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I see - that actually sounds much more interesting :smiley:

It is definitely not just one panel… Did you read through the whole manga up until the current chapter? There is quite some ‘fan service’ especially as extras iirc…

Here’s one of many threads on reddit discussing this:

Edit:
That said, the manga itself is pretty enjoyable, but those scenes might not be for everyone in my opinion.

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I wouldn’t remove a book from the nominees just because it got it’s own thread. The format and content of such threads is quite different and maybe it could still be read as part of the book club too. That’s just my two cents though.

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Wow, after reading that thread I don’t think I’ll ever read the series. Fan service and sexualization of characters to that extent is just not something I can enjoy.

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When I watched the anime I remember thinking I can’t believe a team of adults read, approved, animated, colored, voiced and edited this and no one said wtf?

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Well, no, to be fair. I’ve only watched the anime and read two volumes of manga.

Hmm.

From what I’ve read of the manga so far, I thought they took the worst bits out of the anime?

(This is starting to ruin my enjoyment a bit. Mebbe I’ma put my hands over my ears and shout “I can’t hear you”…)

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I didn’t read the manga so I can’t compare it. If you don’t want to talk about it anymore feel free to ignore this but for clarity because you kind of asked, what made think okay wtf that was weird was:

The scene in which riko was strung up naked

when riko was sitting there with her shirt off after reg saved her from the flying monster

Any other time riko needs run around naked which happens so often it’s weird

BUt what was undeniably weird and made me uncomfortable and question the choices the team did or didn’t make was

When reg gets a boner in the bath with riko.

I mean why was that necessary for the audience to know in the context of the story? I mean We talked about this earlier but I get strong second hand embarrassment and it was pretty embarrassing for reg especially in front of another person outside of the situation (nanachi). Who kind of laughed and made fun of him. And throw in the fact that these kids look 8 (but are really 12?) I just felt kind of sick and grossed out. Its the same way you wouldn’t want to think of your parents or kids or siblings like that. I just never needed to know that.

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It gets worse the further you go to be honest. If you can ignore those parts the actual story and world building is good though. It’s kind of a shame really…