So’s we can give a more informed answer, what’s the book? ![]()
きみと雨上がりを
It’s an official pokemon novel, completely free to read with an official music video by YOASOBI.
I figured pokemon gets recommended to beginners so often, we would have enough people with interest/nostalgia to get a book club going ![]()
I have trouble finding out how many pages it has (you scroll through it) but I don’t think it’s too long…? ![]()
A quick check indicates that it’s 35,000 characters (measured using Javascript’s .length() and some browser console quick check to remove whitespace). For comparison, the junior version 本好きの下剋上2 which is 250 pages is 65,000 characters. So I’d guess in book form it would be about 125 pages. In length at least it’s comparable to previous novels read in the club like Zennitendo and Ogawa Mimei’s short stories.
Seems right. They seem to give page numbers for the illustrations, and the last one, which is right at the end of the book, is given the page number 115. That is below the clubs upper limit of 200 pages then ![]()
I’d say go for it and nominate it. While Natively is nice for difficulty measurements (or at least better than the old system of in thread polls), I’d hate to be ruling things out because Natively don’t have their web novel support yet (it’s on their roadmap for November, though been a while since that’s been updated) and we don’t enforce a minimum number of ratings for stuff listed on Natively anyway.
I had a look and the language seems reasonable for the club too. I imagine since it’s been so long since we read a novel in the club that any novel is going to be change of pace for people to adjust to if it does win.
きみと雨上がりを (After the Rain With You)
Full furigana: No
Summary
English (from bulbapedia)
“The world was beautiful, but it’s become far more beautiful ever since I met you.”
Nemona, the student council president of Naranja Academy in the Paldea region, shows Anna, a girl who has just moved in as her neighbor, the way to school. During a Pokémon battle soon after they meet, Nemona sees something glimmer deep in Anna’s eyes.
The skilled novelist, Ayano Takeda, depicts the story of the two’s “Treasure Hunt” from a unique perspective.
Japanese
パルデア地方のオレンジアカデミーの生徒会長であるネモは、近所に引っ越してきた転入生の少女・アンナを学校まで案内することに。 出会ってすぐのポケモン勝負で、ネモはアンナの瞳の奥にきらめくものを見る。 実力派作家・武田綾乃が独自の視点で描く、ネモとアンナの2人の「宝探し」の物語。
Availability
Free to read here.
Apparently you could get physical copies in the Pokemon Center stores, not sure if that is still possible.
Personal Opinion
The Pokemon games are a common recommendation for beginners as a way to get more familiar with the Japanese language. Since the franchise is targeted at children, the language tends to be very accessible and the content more wholesome and simple than complicated.
I had been out of touch with Pokemon for some years, not even playing the new games. But I have recently started watching the Pokemon Horizons anime as easy listening practice - and on recommendation of a friend started playing Pokemon White for the first time. Not sure how long this new Pokemon phase of mine will last, but when I heard about there being an official tie-in Pokemon novel - and it is free to read - I knew I had to read it! ![]()
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free to read!
- Browser extensions such as Yomichan work! Unfamiliar Vocab or lack of furigana won’t be an issue
- Written by the author of Hibike! Euphonium
- Likely a wholesome story about friendship
- Has an official Music Video by YOASOBI (who you might know from the Frieren or Oshi no ko Openings)
Cons
- Lots of “useless” Pokemon vocab like names of Pokemon, moves, locations etc.
- No physical copies from what I can tell
- No English translation to double check your understanding
- Is based on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (might be a Pro?)
Pictures
I will spare you the screenshots. Check out the entire book here!
I just checked that the Firefox extension Furiganize works too, for those of us who like their kanji better with furigana ![]()
I would remove the furigana from manga if I could ![]()
Thank you! Guess I’ll try going through it on my own with the help of this thread ![]()
While it’s probably way too gory to be in the main book club, I highly recommend reading it. I think the style of Japanese used in it is really fun and intuitive to read- it’s a lot easier to understand than most other shonen I’ve read, and there’s a great amount of personality in the dialogue!
Making an informal club to read it with others (I’m sure there are some who are interested - isn’t Chainsaw Man quite popular?) is pretty easy, so if you still want to read with others that would be a good way!
You just need to:
- Make a thread for it. Doesn’t matter much what exactly you put into it - it’s an informal club. Maybe some information on the manga and about your intention to make this informal book club for it?
- Post it here so people know it exists.
- Wait a bit for people to come.
- Decide on some kind of schedule. Or decide not to have a schedule at all.
- Whenever you want to (or according to the schedule) start reading together. Since you probably don’t have a ton of participants, just keep everything in one thread, and if you have a schedule you can make a “This week we’ll read chapter X, pages Y to Z.” post every week.
- Enjoy your new informal book club!
You could also first make a poll here to see how many people are interested in the first place.
By the way, if anybody feels like reading a non-manga book around BBC difficulty - we’re currently voting in the Children’s Book Club over in the Natively forums! There’s a lot of interesting nominations. (And in case any of you haven’t been to the Natively forums yet: If you have a Natively account, you automatically also get a matching forums account.)
Including, by the way, a certain short stories book
that sadly didn’t gather enough votes here. @hiukan, @ichigo-pocky, @Veebles - if you’re still interested in reading it, that might be our chance ![]()
Although I kinda hope that somehow the Werewolf Game book wins
The poll starts saturday! There’s three spots vacant if anyone has last minute nominations.
Surely everyone will vote for ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活 so BBC and IMC can both read a Bocchi manga at the same time.
I love this theory! I also really loved the anime, so … I’m in!
Book 36 Poll
Closes November 2nd, 23:59 UTC
- きみと雨上がりを / After the Rain With You / (L?? — Web Novel)
- 夜の名前を呼んで / Yoru no Namae wo Yonde (L22 — Manga)
- 午后のあくび / Afternoon Yawning (L26 — Illustrated Children’s Book)
- 骨ドラゴンのマナ娘 1 / The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter (L26 — Manga)
- 尾守つみきと奇日常。/ Tsumiki Ogami & the Strange Everyday Life. (L?? — Manga)
- 現実もたまには嘘をつく/ Real mo Tama ni wa Uso wo Tsuku (L22 — Manga)
- 月曜日の友達 / Friends on Mondays (L27 — Manga)
- ルックバック / Look Back (L21 — Manga)
- かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog saves Tokyo (L18?? — Short Story)
- ヤマノススメ / Encouragement of Climb (L24 — Manga)
- 雪女 / Yuki-onna (L24 — Short Story)
- 先輩がうざい後輩の話 / My Senpai is annoying (L20 — Manga)
- スキップとローファー / Skip and Loafer (L22 — Manga)
- ひとりぼっちの○○生活 / Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu (L21 — Manga)
- スローループ / Slow Loop (L28 — Manga)
- マグメル深海水族館 / Deep Sea Aquarium MagMell (L24 — Manga)
- 満月をさがして / Full Moon (L24 — Manga)
You can also browse the list on Natively. However, be aware that きみと雨上がりを (After the Rain With You) is not listed on Natively as natively does not yet support web novels.
So, I’m all for the Bocchi two-fer, but remember if you vote for Yama no Susume, we can explore actual, real-life places in Japan together.
Or vote for Slow Loop and learn how to fish, and be fed for the rest of our lives. ![]()
尾守つみきと奇日常。(1) | L23 was since discovered by Natively users, and has gotten L23 to replace it’s L?? grading. So a perfect level for the BBC - seems like my instinct was right.
(And it now has a score of 4.67/5, which makes me very happy. Seems like I’m not the only one who loves it ![]()
)
Look back finally came out in Australian cinemas just as i fly away, almost assuredly missing its piss-poorly advertised tiny in-cinemas window.
The almost complete lack of advertising always pisses me off as well. I caught Look Back here in Germany two weeks ago, but only because I happened to see that there would be one (1) screening near me the next day while browsing for other movies, and I only made it by leaving work earlier.
