Kitty Detectives! Week 13 Discussion 🐱

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Pages 131 - 139

Story 3: にゃんにゃん大行進

Start Date: 27th January
Last Week: Solution Part 1
Next Week: Solution Part 3

Kitty%20Detectives

にゃんにゃん探偵団 Home Thread

Last sentence(s) of page 139 for eBook readers:
「ざんねんながら、とちゅうでまいごになったらしい。大失敗さ。じゃあな。」

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Week Start Date Part Page Numbers
Week 13 January 27th Solution Part 2 131 - 139
Week 14 February 3rd Solution Part 3 140 - 149

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Not so easy this week! Had a look at the first couple of pages last night and ended up typing them up to translate them. Here were my efforts:

Page 131

はて、なんで やつは いままで にげないで ぐずぐずしていたんだろう？

Well, why would that guy not escape from here, and go slowly?

あ、もしかしたら、まだ、ブルガリアチーズを 手にいれていないのかもしれませんよ。

Ah, maybe, he still hasn’t obtained the Bulgaria Cheese.

え、どういうことだね？

Eh, why would that be?

ねずみが まだもどってこないので、まっているってことです。

Because the rat hasn’t returned yet, he is still waiting.

さっきつかまえた男は ねずみを二ひき，もっていたんですよ。

The man we just caught, had two rats you see.

ナンバー２がいるなら、ナンバー１がいるに きまっていますから。

If there is a number 3, then you know you have a number 1.

EDIT - grammar link from chapter 1 for にきまっている.

うん、そりゃそうだ。

Yes, that’s right.

そりゃ - contraction of それは

Page 132

で、ナンバー２が みんなの 注意をひいているうちに、男は ブルガリアチーズをとり、ハンドバックのかなで ナンバー１の首につけ、すぐに、窓からはなしたんです。

So, while number 2 was drawing everyone’s attention, the man took the Bulgaria Cheese, and inside the handbag, attached it to number 2’s neck, and immediately released it through the window.

ねずみなら、てつどうしのあいだから でられるし、庭にいた刑事さんにも、きづかれません。

As for the rat, because it is able to leave through the gap in the iron grille, also wasn’t noticed by the detective in the garden.

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I think you’ve just slightly misinterpreted the いままで here or something; I think it’s more saying “why, up until now, has he not escaped and is (instead) lingering”.

Other than that looks good to me, though you muddled up rats 1 and 2 in one sentence :wink:

I’m hoping to do some vocab sheeting this evening…

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How thick is Kuroboshi on page 137? “Oh, hey. There’s a guy on a motorbike getting away. Pay no attention to my mouse-themed motorbike helmet.”

Think it’s more along the lines of “why’s he hanging around here instead of just escaping?”

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Thanks both!

Page 130 - does anyone know the meaning of the phrase underneath the words 空き店舗 on the sign? It says: ご用のかたは。

ご用 means 1. your order; your business; official business​ 2. arrest; apprehension; capture​

So it could mean something like “Business’ direction” - maybe meaning “Contact details for the business”

Although maybe a pun meaning could be “The direction of arrest/capture”!

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I thought it meant the same; the “way” or “means” of contacting for business purposes, or the “direction” in which to send official business. Double-checking ご用 on Jisho did throw up ご用の方 as meaning “customer” though, so it’s possible it’s saying “(potential) customers: use this contact”.

Page 134

いったい、どうして、そう推理しきれるんだね？

I’ve not seen this きれる thingy before, so I want to check my interpretation.

推理 means “reasoning; inference; deduction”, and can be used as a する verb.
きれる is an auxiliary verb meaning “to be able to do completely”, and is used after the ます-stem, so it looks like 推理します → 推理しきれる to me.

Is the inspector saying “how on earth do you deduce that (so completely)”?

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Don’t forget, 方 as かた means “person”. ご用の方 = customer, guest. I’ve tried searching for other similar signs on Google Image Search, but while there’s plenty of examples, none of them have exactly the same phrasing, but they’re all contact details for the property owner or estate agent searching for prospective tenants.

So if it’s a pun, it’s subtle.

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On page 130, does anyone know how よう works in ねずみに かくれ家まで まっすぐ 走ってくるよう? I tried looking around but there’s so many よう’s I can’t see the forest for the trees.

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You’re missing part of the sentence - it’s ねずみに かくれ家まで まっすぐ 走ってくるよう調教しておいたんです。The よう is marking the manner of the training - namely, he trained his rats to かくれ家まで まっすぐ 走ってくる

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Ah right, the whole bit I quoted is more or less a ‘subordinate clause’ for 調教しておいたんです? Like ‘ut’ in Latin I guess.

I get the sense that this use of ようis intended, even though it doesn’t actually say ように: ように - Japanese Grammar Explained | Bunpro

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I can’t see the bunpro link, but for よう I like this video by [George Trombley].(https://youtu.be/GEmzkkftN70) The Latin is lost on me sorry!

I was thinking also how did Hanae miss this? She just blew Kuroboshi’s mind by putting the whole thing together and completely misses the appearance of ミミッチマウス! But I like that it set up for Hanae to meet him alone, to once again be the only one to see his face before he gets away!

The language got a bit easier again in the second half after a difficult start this week!

Just one note on page 138 - what do you make of あらためて in the phrase: それをみおくった ヘルメットの男は あらためて 近くにおいてあったオートバイに またがった。

It didn’t seem to fit as the て form or あらためる, I was thinking maybe the adverb meaning of deliberately? Something like: Having watched them disappear, the man in the helmet deliberately straddled a motorbike which had been left nearby?

One more thing - on page 135 we get to see the stage truck with the cats on board, which makes it easier to understand how the cat stealing took place!

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I thought it was “once again” - that’s the most usual way I’ve seen あらためて being used. I think it’s saying he once again straddled his motorbike, in the sense that he got back on it.

I actually really liked our villain - super cocky, and totally chill chatting to Hanae :grin:

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I just finished reading the first half (up until the page with all the cats, the one with the wizard hat is my winner!) and oof, the difficulty spiked at the beginning. Everything was asked and answered already though, thanks! I’m going to read the remaining pages tomorrow as I’m still recovering from the flu (and didn’t do any reading for a few days :()

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Oh nooo, hope you feel totally better soon D:

Maybe we should hold a contest in this thread for the best cat :thinking:

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Looked at it on bunpro, in the DBJG and watched the video and I still don’t understand why the に is dropped… Is it just casual?

Also not sure if I get this:

page 133
だから、待っていれば、宝石が手に入るはずだったのに、どうしたのかしら?

Therefore, Hanae is wondering why Mickey is waiting in order to get his hands on the stone…?

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Didn’t read page 134 yet but omg yes all the cats!

There's so much going on!

Cat with black ears: “What the f is she wearing?!”
grafik

Left one is definetly the mom. Maybe the right one is the dad?
grafik

“Gimme some fish”
(I also feel like I have seen this kind of image before - a cat with a fish in its mouth. Is that a mascot for a company or something…?)
grafik

I think this one would make a good friend for capone!
grafik

Wow that for sure are some acrobatic skills! This really seems like a photograph. When the picture was taken, one cat wanted to take the spotlight without caring about the others. The cat behind tilts the head so it’s not covered and the poor kitty on the left is shocked >.< about the sudden body contact.

grafik
grafik518×531 134 KB

Is that even a cat?
grafik

And now I finally understand how the cats got taken. I still doubt that the doors would shut fast enough, at least a few cats would have escaped, no?

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So here we have two parts:

だから、待っていれば、宝石が手に入るはずだった

だから => for this reason (in this case since the rat was trained to bring the gem)
待っていれば => if (he) waited
宝石が手に入る => can get (his) hands on the jewel
はずだった => should have.

So, here Hanae is getting to a conclusion, that according to her reasoning, our antagonist should have gotten his hands on the jewel just by waiting for the trained rat to come.

So, here comes のに (despite) which implies that we are going to get a counter-fact to this reasoning:

どうしたのかしら => what could have happened?

So my understanding is that Hanae is surprised because the rat with the gem should have probably arrived here long ago, and the culprit escaped with the gem before they arrived. Yet he seems to still be here, which means something went awry.

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I wondered this as well - it feels like there should be some connection between よう and 調教…

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My reflections on this weeks reading

As @Belthazar predicted 2 weeks ago, I guess its Capone’s time to shine.

Also, why does Kuroboshi not suspect our culprit I mean there has been a burglary and some random guy shows up in the middle of the night, near the burglar’s hideout and tells them that he saw a “suspicious-looking guy” getting away. :smile:

かわいい猫コンテスト has arrived cast your vote now!

aacontest
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My vote is for this little fella. :smile: @Radish8 aawinner

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Lmao, yeah. Love him using the towel there. Kind of like “Oof! What am I even doing?”

Already 2 votes for this cutie, then!

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