Reading
Frieren Notes:
It felt really cringy just copy pasting these into the Frieren thread so I’ll ask questions separately.
Page 129
With a chapter title like “magic that kills people” I’m sure this will be a very cheery chapter.
Page 130
慣れてきたね
慣れる = to get used to
きた from 来る
together → you’ve came get used to
→ you’re getting used to
Frieren has to be pretty confident in Fern’s abilities to just blast that much magic at her though. Little ominous what she means by “practical use,” who are they going to protect themselves from?
Page 131
I aimed at the gap in your defence. If this wasn’t a practice battle, you’d be dead. How, how will you deal with that?
Frieren sounds so teachery 
Page 132
こうします
looks weird but I think it’s actually just “I’ll do this”
Page 133
So much text. Imma make tea first. XD
Frieren: Defence magic is powerful, however, consumption of magic power is very big.
Frieren: if continuing deployment of vast range, in several 10 seconds magic power will become running out of.
These bad english translations look bad, because they are bad, but they’re helpful because I can break down the sentence one bit at a time and then mentally autocorrect what’s going on. Rewording also helps, hooray.
For that panel, Frieren is warning Fern that although the defence magic they were just using is powerful, it also uses a lot of her magical power. So, if she tries to use it over a large area, like the bubble around herself, she’ll be out of magic in about a minute.
Fern: [at the moment of impact, partial to make development do] correct answer to say conclusion from reasoning.
Frieren: yes
Here, I think Fern is saying she has concluded the correct answer (to Frieren’s earlier question of how will you deal with me aiming for the gap in your shield) is to only create the shield at the moment it is needed. I’m not sure if Frieren is saying that is the right or encouraging her to continue.
Fern: just practice of denfence magic, right?
Frieren: survival rate, to directly link, because
So, they only practiced defence magic (today? up to now?), and the reason why is because it is directly linked to not dying.
Fern: Certainly. Using one defence magic, mostly attack magic, defend against, because.
Fern: too much powerful is strange (???)
So the first bit is Fern saying that what Frieren said makes sense, because you can defence against most attack magic with one defence magic. Perhaps in this context in would make more sense to be calling them attack spells and denfence spells. The second bit is trickier, though it’s not the “too much” definition of 過ぎる as 強力 isn’t a verb. Perhaps she’s saying it’s wonderful to surpass powerful attack spells with a single defence spell? ASK ABOUT THIS ONE.
Frieren: Fern, book of magic history that was handed over, you haven’t read, have you?
Frieren: magic is just putting into practice, not important reason
I think the first bit is “Fern, you’re not reading that magic history book I gave you.” Then the second is more difficult, I think it’s something like, the bit of magic that gets put into the practice isn’t the only important bit, so don’t come to that conclusion, but I’m not sure how the grammar works. ASK ABOUT THIS TOO
Frieren: I knew it, reading aloud to each other before going to bed, not doing for someone, something is bad.
Fern: I read by myself.
Some handwriting I can’t decipher.
Is this Frieren saying it was bad of herself that she didn’t read Fern a bedtime story, where that bedtime story would have been this book of magic history, and Fern’s all, I know how to read, don’t treat me like a kid. Actually, now that I have that in mind the start of the handwriting looks like 子供じゃないんだから。(That’s the whole thing, I can decipher it, hooray). So, I read by myself, because I am not a child. (Could put this in thread even though I did decipher it to get clarificaiton on Frieren’s bubble though.)
(The next couple pages also had loads of text and this was a lot of deciphering so I’ll leave that for another day.)
Read a little bit of スーと鯛ちゃん because フリーレン feels like too much effort.
Summer Solstice Reading Challenge Start:
フリーレン notes:
Page 135
Bit of confusion over whose speaking in the first couple panels.
grammar of 知らせていないよ？
I think those two bubbles are along the lines of “really, how do you know this? No one is supposed to know about this thing.”
Then the old guy is like, about 30 years ago Himmel started coming here every year or so to check on the seal. (Or maybe until 30 years ago he was visiting every year? Since that’s pretty close to his death)
I think the old guy is saying how Himmel was kind of an inconsiderate person when he visited (it looks like he’s complaining about being bored) but not so inconsiderate that he’d abandon the town when that seal fails.
Page 136
Just to clarify, is Friren in the top bubble saying that tomorrow she’s going to unseal this demon and then defeat him? Perhaps because that is more permanent than putting another seal on.
Fern asks Frieren if she was the one who put the seal on in the first place. Then asking, even though [you’re the one who did that] what’s your reason for this [unsealing the demon to defeat it once and for all, not that Fern’s figured that out yet.]
Seems like this demon was too strong to be killed at the time, so all Frieren could do was seal it, but now she is stronger and can properly defeat it.
Page 137
人を殺す魔法 is magic that kills people.
ゾルトラーク is a mystery. Maybe the name of the spell? A spell that kills people, named in katakana. (perhaps german-based word, check thread later)
So, this fellow (what an odd thing to call a demon, ask about this) was the first mage to create a spell that puts holes in people.
Specifically, through their defensive magic and their magic resistance equipment, and then directly destroys the person.
I think the next bit is that this thing killed 40% of the adventures and 70% of the magic users in this area.
殺されたといわれている
that’s the quoting と
So, 殺された - were killed
いわれている - it is being said (???)
so, more of a “they say that 40% of the adventures and 70% of the magic users in this area were killed by this spell.”
Did Frieren use a sneaky seal that used the demon’s power against it?
Page 138
What even is this book Fern hasn’t read? Do your homework Fern. Frieren-sensei will read you a bedtime story if you don’t.
Page 139
This scene is actually rather amusing. 
Page 140
This sentence では敵討ちといこうかのう has difficult grammar to ask about.
Why is it surprising that Fern can cast a defensive spell at this altitude? Is it more difficult to do magic when you’re high?
Page 141
It’s a good thing Fern was able to defend even though she’s clearly rather shocked at WTF even was that. The dots instead of furigana are for emphasis like italics, right?
So this demon being sealed means that all the magic users across the continent were able to develop a better defence magic. I actually really like this use of sealing magic. Not, I’ll seal you away and then it’s someone else’s problem when the seal weakens and you get out, but I’ll seal you away and then spend a significant chunk of that time figuring out how to better handle you next time.
Page 142
大人しくしていれば - the base is 大人しい and the れば at the end is a conditional, but the middle confuses me.
So, if he’s figured out the defence probably takes a lot of magical power, which it does, what’s stopping him from just blasting them repeatedly until Fern gets tired?
Page 143
Yes Frieren, of course he noticed, you just spend ages exopositioning him instead of killing him.
Page 144
Ah, Fern is just that good. Good to know.
Page 145
Did Frieren just figure out how to cast his spell just via watching him??? If she already knew it, she would have cast it at the beginning. So she must have been figuring it out during the battle.
Page 146
I see that Fern is doing her homework.
Page 147
Surely lots of people wear this hat?
Page 148
sweet
Well, I finished the chapter, hooray!
time: 1hr 5m
pages: 14
しろくまカフェ notes:
This week is the long chapter and I decide whether or not this is worth continuing.
It’s still just really not my kinda thing. However, it will annoy me to have an unfinished book so I don’t really want to completely drop it. But I’m not gonna stress about the week to week reading.
time: 18m
pages: 12
レンタルおにいちゃん notes:
Another week complete. I remembered what happened from last time again, so the whole my brain was just “Sae you conniving bitch.”
Next chapter has Kanami and お兄ちゃん on the cover, and I don’t remember reading anything about them being happy, so I think next time I read there will be new stuff.
time: 15m
pages: 16
スーと鯛ちゃん
Just reading a chapter, I wanna save this for days where I need the easy reading.
time: 4m
pages: 8
にゃんにゃん探偵団
If I recall correctly, we have a case about a missing cat from a locked house.
Pages 60-61
I think Hanae is asking whether there is just one person who has a duplicate key. The daughter, Lily, also has one, so she could also be the culprit. She lives in a boarding house, which may or may not be relevant. She’s not been home in some time, despite wanting to return. (Who is wanting, Lily or her mother?)
Pages 62-63
I shall assume Gonjirou was the exhusband. Since mother immediately dismissing the daughter as a possibility, the rules of story says she’s probably more involved than is immediately obvious.
Perhaps, since the cat likes Lily, this is what happened: Lily came home during a break from studying, but her parents weren’t there, so she left. The cat followed her, but she didn’t notice. She locked the door behind her, with the cat stuck outside.
I think this next bit is (I really wish I could remember this lady’s name) is saying that whenever her ex approached the cat, the cat would run away from him. That would make it very difficult for him to catnap her.
Pages 64-65
I think they are suggesting that perhaps the cat thief could have picked the lock (and locked it again behind them? not likely).
I believe this lady is saying the room is exactly as she left it when she went out three days ago, she hasn’t cleaned it yet. (Great for clues!) Next sentence is about how the cat was inside at the time the Lady filled her bowl with cat food.
Page 66-67
Something along the lines of how a thief would have taken the valuables in the chest of drawers, and the narration seems to be agreeing that this wouldn’t be a normal thief.
Hanae checks the window, which is also locked from the inside. She opened it to take a look and a butterfly flies in. Which Capone then looks at, and the colour of his face changes? 顔色 can also be expression, which makes more sense here.
Pages 68-69
Capone chasing this butterfly sure is making a mess. Lady’s name is 一本松！Which I read on the nameplate outside their door so I don’t know why I didn’t make that connection.
Page 70
Somehow, Capone knocking over that vase has helped Hanae figure out what’s going on here.
time: 32m
pages: 12
つるのおんがえし
Started another of those children’s books I got. つる is crane, but I’m not sure what おんがえし is. (Paying back a favour, very to the point)
I was able to understand ささっています because I did the 刺さる lesson earlier, hooray for making those brain connections.
Turns page This is the story of the crane bride, right? I know of it, I think I read a version of it, let’s see how similar or not this version is.
はたをおっている must be making of the fabric, I didn’t make sense of it at first, hooray for context. Then はたおりべや should be fabric making room with rendaku.
心配でなりません would be “not become worried” but that doesn’t make sense given the context. I put it into deepl to check, and that translates as “besides myself with worry” so the で must be doing a lot of work there.
This sentence 「わかものは、いても たっても いられなくなりました。」I can’t make sense of. I’ve moving past it for now, but I might wanna come back to this another time.
Moral of this story, if your wife looks tired, ASK her what’s up.
Little different from the version I heard, where she didn’t start loosing energy until the first time he peeked at her, and then she left when she caught him in the act.
time: 40m
pages: 28 (14 if I only count pages with text)
Summer Solstice 24hr Readathon half-way review (halfway compared to when I woke up, not the entire day)
So, I reached the point where I’d normally stop and go eat dinner (which I am about to do), so I figured this would be a good summary point.
time: 2hr 54m
pages: 76
sources: 6
Mostly I’ve read/finished a chapter of things I have in progress. But this is more than I’ve ever read in a single day ever. Theoretically I could (and perhaps should) stop now, but I like the idea of reading even more this evening. I said I’d join くまクマ熊ベア club, and this is a good opportunity to start that.
くまクマ熊ベアー
chapter 1, there are no page numbers, but this chapter is supposed to be 8 pages.
Is the ゲットだぜ a pokemon reference? It sounds like a pokemon reference. There is no furigana, so this will really test my kanji reading abilities.
Friends are not tasty. Do not eat your friends.
That went smoother than expected, though I was having to look up a lot of words, the grammar was simple enough I could just move on.
time: 31m
pages: 8ish
玉藻の恋
thread came up this evening, if I can get next week’s book club stuff read today, I will have time for whatever reading I like
The vocab sheet is empty so I get to be helpful and look up all the words and put them in. So reading this might take a bit more time than normal.
Need to ask what the ずぶ is on page 15. (also, I’m sure I had questions earlier that I forgot about, I’ll run back through this and post in thread tomorrow.) Nevermind I found it.
time: 14m
pages: 8
三ツ星カラーズ
Starting something entirely new, because why not? It’s supposedly at the same level as other stuff I’m comfortable with in book club form, and just realised it was in an ABBC as well so there goes my plan of attempting something of that difficulty without being able to rely on a vocab sheet.
Why is there korean in the vocab sheet? Anyway, I read the first week’s worth.
time: 21m
pages: 6
マジで付き合う15分前
This book doesn’t have a book club, so this one will be an attempt at reading a higher level book without a vocab sheet.
There is no furigana, so this will be more difficult than expected.
Page 5
祐希 is Yuuki, a character’s name. I think it’s the guy, and the girl is telling him that they’re breaking up.
Page 8
I think the どゆこと is like a “what do you mean?” based on hearing it in anime.
幼なじみ = childhood friend
Were they not actually going out, but there was a rumour so she told Yuuki they should stop hanging out? That makes the previous bit where he asks her if they’re dating make more sense, they weren’t and she broke up with him anyways.
否定しなかった
否定 = denial
否定する = to deny
否定しない = not deny
否定しなかった = did not deny
So, somebody did not deny the rumour, and so that somebody is to blame?
お互い決まった相手もなく
まもなく高校卒業を迎えるわけだけど
Struggling to make sense of this next bit. I think she is saying that, from other people’s point of view, it’s already been decided that they are each other’s partner and will get together after graduation. 3rd or 4th defintion of 迎える I think.
That turned out to be a lot more difficult than I was expecting, so I’m calling it there for today.
time: 23m
pages: 2 (if I only count pages with text)
second half subtotals
time: 1hr 29m
pages: 24
sources: 4
actual total: 263m / 4hr 23m / 100 pages / 10 sources challenge is complete, goonight
Daily Rambling
月曜日：
I’m glad to be making such good progress on Frieren. I think this means I should be able to read a lot of the easier books I have outside of book club time, but I’m still ready easy stuff, when I actually get around to it.
I was thinking about this, because it feels like I’m only reading book club stuff. It’s literally because I reduced how much reading I’m doing from every day to four days per week. It has to stay that way until the exam, because I really do need to have the listening be my daily thing, but afterwards I’d like to get back to reading more.
Also, I had a thought that time would be a good stat to keep track of time on my weekly threads. I’ve already been tracking the time, might as well include it. Like, last week I spent 20.7 hours studying and the week before was 17.1. I would have thought last week was less because all my other stats were down. Also, it would probably make more sense for it to be a table.
火曜日：
Did some reviews, did not do a penguin.
水曜日：
I feel ill and don’t wanna do anything. I got through the majority of my reviews but I kept spacing out.
木曜日：
Did a bit of wanikani and 1 frieren page.
金曜日：
So I decided on a whim yesterday that I was joining the 24hr reading challenge today. I’ve already spent 10hrs of the day sleeping, so we’re off to a great start!
That said, I do want to do my other studying pieces as well, so probably I’ll alternate between reading things and my usual studying and later tonight I might alternate between reading and anime or a game or something.
First break, did some SRS. (I only did wk yesterday so there’s a lot)
土曜日：
did some wk this evening but that’s it
日曜日：
I’m taking today easy as well, but on purpose so I’m not allowed to feel bad about it.
Second thought, I found my old daily planner. I’ve got two hours this morning before stuff, so I can do the minimum of my SRS and a penguin, and write up my study log, and then that feels more scheduled than just saying at somepoint today I will do things.
I did almost all of my SRS, but bunpro kinda piled up so I used my handy dandy 10 minute timer, planning to leave the rest for tomorrow, but then there were just 2 reviews left so I did actually do them all. Hooray.
Anime Rambling
For motivation purposes, I’ve looked at the anime coming out next month. I don’t usually watch anime as it comes out, with a few exceptions, but those exceptions were easy to watch because I couldn’t watch the next episode immediately. So if I can choose a few I want to watch, I can pair each one up with an older show I’ve been trying to watch, and watch both as each episode come out, I’ll eventually get through my anime backlog.
Oshi no Ko s2 - super hype about this, and I recently convinced my sisters to watch s1 with me so timing is perfect
Fairy Tail 100 years quest & Fairy Tail 2018 - I love this anime, it was the anime that introduced me to manga when I caught up and needed to know what happens next. However, I never came back to it after the second hiatus and stopped reading the 100 year quest manga when I was in a really low point. So this is the perfect time to catch up.
A Journey Through Another World:Raising Kids While Adventuring - isekai & found family? yes please
Kimi ni Todoke - supposedly very good so I’ll start the 1st season and eventually catch up to the 3rd.
My Deer Friend Nokotan - looks cute
Tensui no Sakuna-hime - maybe
Then for older stuff, there’s a LOT on my to watch list.
Dungeon Meshi - stumbled across this via youtube reactors, I’ve been watching an episode weekly as they watch it
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night - I’ve seen 2 episodes and want to watch the rest
Re:Zero - On the second season, which hasn’t yet grabbed my attention the same way the first season did
Black Clover - recommended to me by my sister
My Next Life as a Villainess - recommended to me by my other sister, who has questionable taste
Inuyasha - it’s fun
Cowboy Bebop - haven’t watched any episodes yet but have heard many good things
Pokemon - I decided I was going to watch all of it from the beginning the same I year I decided to teach myself Japanese. Currently on Advanced Challenge.
there’s more, but I’ll get overwhelmed if I try to watch too many
This is specifically about anime WITH english subs btw. Which reminds me, now that I’m reading manga in Japanese, I’m not buying them in English. I went shopping with my sister and while normally I’d buy loads of stuff, I didn’t because either I couldn’t remember how many I already own in English or I knew I had it in Japanese. Didn’t help my mental state. My sister pointed out Apothecary Diaries manga, which I let myself buy by rationalising that if I’m gonna read the light novels in Japanese, someday when I get to that level, then it’s okay to read the manga in English.
Nothing from the N5 Playlist nor any comprehensible japanese videos. About 5 hours less than last week, which makes sense considering the nothing I did yesterday
The thing I did on Friday where I focused on Reading and did other bits of studying inbetween worked really well. SO. I’m gonna try and do something similar for next week, with I focus on one thing for a day and study the other stuff inbetween bits of that. I’ll see how it goes.
This is your warning that those hide details open up into a lot of text.
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