I read 4 pages of 2.43, leaving off on pg 155. Since I’m copying it into a document as I go in preparation for when I translate it (and often translating a bit as I go) (this is why it takes more time and energy to read this than most anything else), I get to practice typing and also get immediate feedback on whether the reading I’d guessed for something was right or not. Typing it helps me remember the item a lot better, and, sure, the meaning often still takes me longer to learn through this since I’m not typing that too and I don’t always understand enough to work it out from context, but the reading at least is faster. And it’s easier to look words up when I know how to read them! Anyway, today was the first time I remembered the reading for 及ぶ and didn’t have to look it up, even though I haven’t seen it in a while! It’s always exciting when that happens.
In non-reading news, I watched the rest of the 2.43 anime, 9 eps. I’m not sure I should include this under my 観たもの, since I didn’t even do all that much actual listening.
This ended up mostly just being rambling about differences between it and the book, and also about sub/translation errors, and also just general fannish rambling, and it got super long, so, under a cut it goes:
I never paid it much attention, but Chika got Yuni 麦茶 (took me a mo to read the kanji because of the font though, but that could also be since it was only visible when upside-down or mostly so) from the vending machine at the coin laundry. In the novel, it was diet cola, but also, the scene was longer and Yuni was actually out there when Chika got drinks. He asked for cola since it was the first thing that popped into his head, and Chika made the executive decision to get him diet. Also there was a lot more time between when Yuni said that he wants to be Chika’s ace and when Chika finally answers him and says that he’s basically already the ace. He spent like the entire walk back from the 合宿所 wanting to die of embarrassment and convincing himself that maybe Chika didn’t hear him, it was great.
On the one hand, I’m disappointed that the anime cut out the bit where the second-years play a prank on the first-years, because Yuni freaking out at every little noise in the dark (and at the dark itself) but then being totally unamused by the second-years’ “ghost” was hilarious, but on the other hand, it brings back Chika’s trauma, and I’m not sure I could handle seeing that. But on the other other hand… the anime really coulda stood not to gloss over just how the events at Meisei affected him so much. Sure, we get bits of it, but episode 5 was just kinda like, “…Okay, then.” Chapter 5, on the other hand… man. (Plus, the 道場破り?? Granted, Yuni declaring one probably wouldn’ta been any less embarrassing than what the 道場破り was reduced to in the anime, but that subchapter was pretty great.)
(I can’t say if I was right or not though about Horie-san using a different voice for Tomoki and Kuroda, as now I don’t remember Kuroda’s…)
Huh, that scene where Subaru and Ochi are talking outside about Subaru always making Ochi tell him to make him a manager on HaruKou’s center court did make it into the anime, but they completely changed it. It’s a flashback, rather than Subaru dragging Ochi outside when he starts being negative before their practice match with Seiin. They’re not facing each other, but sitting facing opposite directions on a bench. Ochi doesn’t start crying, and he doesn’t rest his forehead against Subaru’s clasped hands when he finally tells him. Also, Subaru doesn’t tell him to say it, “even if it’s a lie.” He stands on the bench and turns to him, then orders: “言え、光臣.” And then we flash back to the present for Ochi’s line (skipping, of course, the “嘘なんか……言わんわ”). I’m happy that exchange wasn’t cut, but it was so much better in the novel. (Though, I suppose that’s true for most of it lol)
I’ve talked about this before, but in the LN, Subaru refers to everyone by surname (except, I think, Kouhei), but in the anime, he calls everyone either by their given name or a nickname (except for Ochi, except when he’s serious). I like it better in the anime, though. He’s supposed to be this affable guy (at least that’s the façade he wears; it’s not entirely a mask, but it is about half one; he’s not quite as cheerful and outgoing as he lets on), and him referring to all his teammates familiarly makes him feel more like one—and makes Fukuhou feel closer—than him using their surnames. It’s not like he doesn’t wear the mask with the team, either. He doesn’t want them to get down and would rather take everything onto himself anyway, so it’s not as if him using given names or nicknames along with having everyone call him “Subaru” doesn’t make sense. When I translate the novels for fun and practice, I’m gonna go with the names he uses in the anime. It’s just for myself, so why not? My next watch-through, I should make a list of what he calls each of his teammates, then.
And as always, I keep expecting to see wings spread out from behind Yuni’s back when he jumps for that first back attack in the second set in ep 8. HQ has spoiled me lmao. God, I love that clicking sound on the particularly powerful spikes, though. The music and SFX in this anime are great.
lololol Yuni finally gets called a 単細胞, and of course it’s by Aoki.
I just figured out from Yuni’s “何回でも見せたるわ……いくらでも見せたるわ!” before the end credits that 見せたる is a contraction of 見せてやる.
And, man, the end of that ep, after the credits… Putting aside that it’s hilarious that Yuni’s just standing around all like “Whuh?” even though Chika literally just used him in a declaration of war against Subaru and Fukuhou… That scene was so great. It practically gave me chills the first time I watched the ep, and I still feel the same even after watching it, what, a dozen times? I so cannot wait to get to this scene in the book—I think it’ll be at the end of ch 2, so I’ve still got a fair ways to go. Less than 100 pages, though.
Aoki gave me a scare in ep 9 though. I thought I was completely misremembering him hinting that he was planning to keep playing volleyball in college if that’s what Oda wanted, but all I got wrong was that he always was planning that, and also that he said it to Kanno (I forgot he also talks to Chika in this scene). Because at first he says that he’s not continuing volleyball after graduating high school (and in the subs, it’s just “graduation,” but he says “高校卒業”), but then after a flashback to the first day of first year (which is actually a scene from ch 3 of vol 1, and which makes it seem like he was drawn in by how cool super aces are, when it was actually by Oda’s passion and seemingly unfounded optimism), he says that he doesn’t see himself continuing after college (and he does say 大学以上 here), so. I guess he changed his mind halfway through the conversation then, while thinking about how grateful he is to Oda and how, even though this was just a club to him, he’s had fun playing volleyball—and playing volleyball with Oda—these past three years. Geez.
I heard Ochi say ドジ when he said, “Make sure they just laugh at how clumsy I am,” in ep 10. I never heard it before since I only learned it because of クールドジ男子, and I haven’t watched this ep since starting it. It’s a small word, but it’s still nice.
While Hata-kantoku’s giving them orders after the second set, Subaru’s just staring down at his water bottle, at a side that never faces the screen. I wonder if he’s staring at Ochi’s message? I wonder if we’ll get it in the novel? I wonder if this is where we finally learn what Ochi’s message on it is?
Ooh, now I know how to read that banner that Yuni’s grandfather made in ep 11! 全国へ飛翔. I knew the meaning even without the subs, but not how to read that word for “soar.”
あ、終わるのが……惜しい。
Damn, this series is so good.
Ah, okay, I misremembered the scene with Ochi and Subaru alone in the locker room after the match a bit. Ochi does say that he can’t cry if Subaru isn’t, but he isn’t crying at that point. And when he does start crying, Subaru only comments that his cast is pushing into his back. Ochi’s determined that Subaru shouldn’t cry alone, and Subaru’s like, “あほ。誰が泣くか,” but though we don’t see him do so (here), he sounds like he’s about to. And when he finally does, it’s in front of/with the team ♡ Well, ep 12 is the one I’ve watched the least number of times, though.
Aoki’s expression when Oda asks him to continue playing volleyball with him in college… that boy is so gone for him. lol and Chika saying that Yuni is his limbs and Yuni being like, “I have no idea what you just said to me but I know it was an insult,” and then he clarifies that Yuni has wings (!! 羽, just like in his name, 黒羽!) and that those wings are his limbs, and then Yuni gets all fond. I so cannot wait to get to the epilogue of vol 2 and get these scenes in all their glory!
黒羽、一緒にやろう！ ずっと、バレーボールを！
(Though that doesn’t end up happening lol. Chika transfers to Keisei at some point, not sure when, if it’s during/for second or third year, but then they’re reunited again at Keyakisha Uni, along with Subaru and Ochi.)
I’m annoyed that Funimation never changed the bits they messed up on in the subs for the official release. They went back and added the translations for the OP and ED themes in the first few eps that didn’t originally get them, but they never fixed any of their mistakes.
- In ep 5, they say it’s spring break rather than summer break.
- They start out by calling the 新人戦 the Rookie’s Match in earlier eps, but then in ep 6, it’s the Newcomer Match, which is just an inconsistency rather than a mistake, but still.
- Also in ep 6, that Fukurou TV cameraman says that it gets boring “if Fukuhou’s always a shoe in.” It’s “shoo-in.”
- Or: “…not only can he pull of spike serves…” It’s “off.”
- They forgot the second ‘on’ in “I can’t have you distracted by what’s going on on another court at qualifiers.”
- In ep 7, they have Ochi say, “Cheering for you guys on the bench at the Spring Tournament is my dream,” but he doesn’t say 春高 here, he says センターコート, because Fukuhou have made it to HaruKou every year (and Ochi’s cheered for them from the bench as their manager every year), but they’ve never made it far enough to play on the center court. It completely changes the feel of the line! Like, there’s a reason Subaru wants to make Ochi a manager who stands on the center court at HaruKou and not just to bring him to HaruKou, and it’s because they’ve gone to HaruKou every year, but they’ve never made it all the way.
- “Don’t panic and cut them off!” Uh, yeah, that construction applies the “don’t” to both verbs. Ya either need a comma or to make them separate sentences. Or even, “Don’t panic, cut them off!” That’s probably better.
- And they translated Subaru’s “ここでブレーク!” as “We got the break!” rather than making it a declaration in the future tense, 'cause, uh, that wasn’t a break. That was the 27th side-out in a row. Chika scored with a dump, bringing the score to 13-13, then Subaru scored, bringing it to 14-13, and declared that they’ll get a break here, and then they got it on the next point when they blocked Seiin’s spike, making it 15-13. That’s also why Fukuhou were only fired up at his “ここでブレーク!” but started celebrating after the block point—that was the actual break.
- And there’s one bit in ep 8 that always stalls my brain because it doesn’t make sense, and my brain can’t consolidate the two halves quick enough into something that does, so I always miss the next line too. “Yeah, but you’re not really setting to Aoki-senpai / the more strain that’s going to Uchimura-senpai…” Yeah, as I thought, even when you read them as one line, it’s nonsensical. Replacing the “the” with “so that’s” would actually make sense, and it doesn’t even take that much longer to read—actually, it takes less, since ya don’t gotta do any mental gymnastics that disrupt your reading flow. Ay, and this is my favorite ep, too…
- And this is more just annoyance than a mistake, but when Yuni slips on sweat and starts to curse, “しまっ,” the subs say, “I sli—” Like, yeah, we know he slipped, and also that’s not what he says. Why can’t they put “Shi—”? (lol and when Chika says the same when one of his tosses is off in ep 11, the subs say, “Shi—” so like.)
- In ep 10: “Don’t lose heart and turn things around in the third set.” Again, you need a comma… Like this, Hata-kantoku’s ordering them not to lose heart and not to turn things around.
- “He’s planning coming right back to the bench.” Uh, ya need an “on” in there. Y’know, I wonder if the same person was in charge of the subs for ep 6, 7, and 10, since they’ve got the most mistakes, and the same kinds of ones too.
Does no one proofread these? They’re a big-name company, not some no-name amateurs. I’m also annoyed that they drop さん and くん, though I suppose I should be glad they at least keep 先輩 and ちゃん, even if they annoyingly italicize them. They also don’t translate the entirety of the eyecatch cards, and they slap the subs overtop the text, so you can’t read most of them. Ugh, well, at least with time, I eventually won’t need them at all anymore and can exclusively watch on my BDs (since you can’t turn subs off on this, since I bought the season rather than am watching on the website. I ain’t paying a subscription).
I did not lie about this getting super long.
Y’know I wonder how the second half of the novel is handled, though, because there’s a lot of going back and forth between Fukuhou and Seiin during this portion. I was thinking at first that we’d get ch 4 from Subaru’s POV and then the 5th from Chika’s, and there’d be some overlap in timeline until the 代表決定戦 at the end of ch 5, but actually there are parts of the match and just before that are firmly Fukuhou, and while some of them I can see Chika being nearby to hear/see, there are others that can’t be from his POV (or anyone else from Seiin for that matter, but it’ll most likely be him), and they definitely can’t all be anime-original. Of course, ch 5 could be Subaru’s POV, but I don’t really see the titular match being from Fukuhou’s POV since it is, after all, 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu, even if Fukuhou are just as much main characters as Seiin in this novel, plus that still brings up the same problems. Unless sensei breaks her pattern until now where only the epilogue would switch POVs between subchapters… Well, I suppose that’s another thing to look forward to!
July 20th 
くノ一ツバキの胸の内 Volume 3 (20% ➨ 37%)
).
July 20