I could check the sentence thanks to online preview It’s さしあげ(る) (conjugated), to give, to offer. I guess it’s confusing that the word is split up on two lines
It’s stylistic as in it sounds like slurred speech. Dario sounds drunk. (And he probably is)
P21
To incur. So, it’s basically what you think, but it’s made her die rather than let her die.
Let’s break it up:
ひとりでも Even alone
生きられる I can live/survive
が but
→ Even though I can live alone
利用できるもの things (もの) that can be (できる) used (利用)
は (topic marker)
何でも anything
利用してやる I will use
→ I will use everything and anything that I can use
Even though I could survive on my own, I will take advantage of anything I can take advantage of.
P25
てやがる is thug speech, used to show contempt for the thing that was in front, specifically やられる (literally to get done, but meaning “to get beaten up” or “to get killed” in a fighting context). JoJo came to save (her) but instead got beaten up.
You’re amazing I understand everything so much better now and learnt some new interesting things about the Japanese language. Thank you sooo much. (You should be a teacher )
I just started reading this week’s portion. Much more interesting and intense than I remember. I’ll bite my tongue on discussing it for a couple days. Volume 2 is gonna be awesome
Last night I was able to catch all the way up (and actually wound up reading a single chapter ahead). So that takes me through the “Invader Dio”-branded chapters. (Though I’ll only talk about 1-3.)
I like the narration’s comic-booky exaggeration. This especially struck me as it expounded upon JoJo and Elena’s (Erina? How do official translations handle her name, considering it appears carved into the tree but is kind of nonsensical?) blossoming love. “Love! That joyous curiosity now drove JoJo’s actions!” (That’s probably not quite right; going off of memory without the manga in front of me.) It’s cute.
It’s really difficult to sympathize with JoJo’s father at all, considering how transparent Dio’s abuse seems to be. Or rather, it’s simply difficult to accept given we never see him interact with JoJo in a positive light, and because of the heightened melodrama of the series.
I’m kind of shocked that this took off, and at Araki’s gumption for willing to stick with such a bleak picture of abuse for the first month of the manga’s run. For all the melodrama of the presentation, there is still a lot of time spent simply dwelling on the realities of JoJo’s increasing isolation and depression. A surprisingly grim start to what is ostensibly a pulpy action series running in a boys’ magazine.
E-name-I-daren’t-romanize washing her mouth out with mud is so good. That scene is surprisingly intense.
Dio standing up from his chair as he taunts JoJo’s manners as he’s charging in for a fight, and his subsequent head-crook panel are v. good.
The action hasn’t yet been a highlight, but you can see some signs of the intense posing and positioning that I know through osmosis become hallmarks of the series.
I suppose that’s all I really have at this point. I have to confess that while I enjoy the series well enough while reading it to want to plow forward (Araki is smart about cliffhangers and tension), I’m not all that grabbed right now in the sense that I find myself dying to keep going once I’ve stepped away. I’ve been reassured by people that the beginning is one of the rougher parts, but whether it’s just the series finding its footing or it really not clicking for me in ways that will never completely change, I can’t say.
Encountered memes: 1, English: The “It was me! Dio!” scene. Tbh, I only really know two memes from the series, and the other is in Japanese and I’m pretty sure a long way off.
Btw, since I never specified what version I was reading: The black and white digital volumes currently available on Amazon Japan. No idea which print release they correspond to.
Just to touch on this, I think it might be a product of its time? I know Dr. Slump (and other early '80s Toriyama shorts I’ve read) forgo furigana a lot of the time, so I think it was just the standard for JUMP before the mid-late '80s. I’m not sure what drove the switch, and if it might have had anything to do with the ease of different layout and editing techniques. (Furigana increased before digital layout would have really picked up, though, so I can only speculate. Would love to have someone knowledgeable weigh in.)
The girl’s name is Erina Pendleton. She’s a nice character and I admire her willingness to stick it out with Jonathan as his image is being dragged through the mud. That becomes even more apparent later.
Regarding George, yes, most agree that he’s a buffoon of a character, and is oblivious to Dio’s abuse. I can’t really say much in regards to this, he’s the typical oblivious adult that inadvertently moves the plot forward by not preventing the conflict. What can I say. George has style though.
Yes, it is very very interesting how JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure grew with this. I’m willing to bet something that early on, many Shonen Jump readers just saw it as a knockoff of Fist of the North Star, which was huge in the 80’s. I think this series started gaining more serious traction with part 2. Some of the art and fight scenes are still very Tetsuo Hara-inspired, but Araki was making an effort to pull back on that artistic influence, thus starting to make his own story, and part 2 is remembered much more fondly than part 1. That being said, the turtle outran the hare, in my opinion. North Star was/is considered the superior of the two, and grosses much much more than JoJo’s, but to be honest, as someone who has read all of it, I can say that besides the fantastic illustrations, FOTNS did not try to reinvent itself and thus feels like reading the same plot for 27 volumes. First 5 volumes is the peak of the series. Didn’t think it would make for a captivating WaniKani book club, hahaha!
The action in volume 1 is super limited, as we’ll see, volumes 2-5 are a different story. I wonder if when kids in the 80’s were reading this, they thought as they got to the second volume, “Finally, no more of this soap opera crap!”
That’s a possibility. That being said, getting too far ahead is frustrating too, since I can’t excitedly ramble about the plot until much later… and by that time the excitement is pretty much over.
Also, I have many other books to read right now, plus 4 or 5 other book clubs, so it’s easy to keep busy
I really like Erina’s portrayal so far in the manga. Those who have seen all of the anime know that women and girls are pretty underrepresented in JoJo compared to male characters, and sometimes Araki seems a little confused what to do with them, especially in earlier parts. I was surprised how much great characterization he was able pack in for her in just a few pages, through the art and through her interactions with JoJo and Dio. It’s easy to root for their romance after a few short pages, because we’ve spent so much time watching Jonathan become more and more isolated. Watching her wash her mouth out with mud and glaring defiantly after Dio’s assault is SO satisfying. That scene is incredibly intense because you can feel instantly what the violation means to her and will mean for Jonathan.
Some of the art in these early volumes is… not the best, lol. What even is happening with dad and Dio’s figures here:
But, even at the beginning Araki is already pretty great at communicating character and through the art. The visual storytelling is so good right out the gate. Even if it doesn’t look that pretty, he knows exactly what to show to get a sequence of events or tone across with stuff like this:
Just finished my finals, so now I am trying to catch up but I have problems understanding something Dio says at the beginning of chapter 3 so once again I will ask for your assistance.
Dio says: [この女が親からレヂイの教育をなされていればなおさらだ」
I think the first half should be something like “the education this girl got from her parents…” but I have no clue what the second half means.
Just to root the scene in context, Dio is speculating that if she’s been trained in propriety, the impact of the kiss on her dignity/relationship with JoJo will be all the greater.
First of all thank you mate for always giving me an hand (I think this is like the fourth time you explain something I didn’t understand), I will try to finish chapter 3 now.
Also the fact that I hadn’t realize that “レディ” means “lady” makes me feel dumb.
We’re already nearing week 3! How are people up to speed? Are you caught up? Not yet? Falling a little behind. For those done with week 2’s chapters, what did you think of these two compared to first week’s?
I fell behind due to exams but managed to catch back up.
Also this 2 chapters are a little better than the first one but I do not particularly like the beginning of part1 of jojo. It gets interesting only later on in my opinion.
Fell behind too due to work and working out, but I’m furiously trying to catch back up this week. Gonna try to isolate myself during lunch to try to get through at least a whole chapter today.
I’m caught up! I might read a little ahead… I think difficulty-wise, this week’s chapters were slightly easier than last week, just because I’m getting into the flow of how it’s written.
I was reading another manga that I love this week, 極主夫道 (Way of the House Husband), which has waaay less dialogue than Jojo, but I realized that Jojo is actually easier to understand because it doesn’t have a bunch of yakuza slang words that aren’t in the dictionary
I know quite a bit of the grammar I’m learning while reading this is probably not appropriate for most conversations, but I’ve been able to plug into Bunpro quite a few new grammar points that I’ve been learning along the way. Pretty soon I’ll also be able to speak in my Japanese class like I’m a shounen fighting manly dude. I’m sure that’ll go over well.
Finally got at least through the week 1 readings. I’m gonna try to tell my wife to leave me alone so I can try to read the next two chapters before week’s end. I’m probably gonna end up being a week behind most of the time.
It’s さしあげ(る) (conjugated), to give, to offer. I guess it’s confusing that the word is split up on two lines 
I understand everything so much better now and learnt some new interesting things about the Japanese language. Thank you sooo much. (You should be a teacher 
)
