Week 1: 聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men 😇

[NicoleRauch]

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聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men Home Thread

Week 1

Start Date: August 15th
Next Part: Week 2

Reading:

Week	Start Date	Chapter	Pages (physical)	Pages (ebook)	Page Count
Week 1	August 15th	Chapter 1 + 2	3 - 26	5 - 27	20

Vocabulary List

Saint Young Men Vocab Sheet

Discussion Rules

• Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
• When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
• Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
• To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun!

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

• I’m reading along
• I have finished this part
• I’m planning to catch up later
• I’m skipping this book

[valkow]

I definitely didn’t fully get some of the jokes, but other than that it was a super quick read. This club seems like it’ll fly by.

[downtimes]

My biggest problem was the Buddhist vocabulary in the first chapter and on buddas shirts.
And who knew jesus is YES in japan ^^.
I like the humor so far lets see if it keeps up and where it goes with its jokes.

Except the “button” press but I fear it will be a recurring joke

[Kumirei]

Finished the first two chapters. Honestly not impressed so far, but maybe I’m not really getting the jokes

[NicoleRauch]

Maybe we can collect some of the jokes? Let’s see how far I can get:

p2:
T-shirt outside: Joshua (maybe https://jisho.org/word/51869ecad5dda7b2c6082238 ?)

Bag: Nirvana (rock band vs. paradise)

B’s t-shirt: シャ力族 ?? What does that mean?

p3:
Start scene where all the animals come: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclining_Buddha “I’m not dead yet”

J’s t-shirt: アー メン (amen, looks a lot like ramen to me )

B: ほっとけ! - Leave me alone / Ignore me!
J: 仏なだけに? I don’t really get this, apart from the wordplay of ほっとけ and 仏… Is this a reference to https://jisho.org/search/仏ほっとけ神構うな ?

B’s t-shirt: Siddhartha, i.e. Buddha’s real name as a human https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_Gautama

p5-6:
Jesus looks like Johnny Depp but Buddha looks like Buddha

p9-10: “Maybe we should say something – like: This is not where the doors will open”

p12: 巣鴨にヨン様放つようなもん: I think this is a reference to Sugamo and to his age

p13: https://jisho.org/search/パンチパーマ

[Belthazar]

@valkow

I definitely didn’t fully get some of the jokes

@Kumirei

but maybe I’m not really getting the jokes

Yeah, I started reading, and four panels in, I’ve already hit three jokes. I wonder if we’re gonna need an “explain the jokes” section. Think we’re definitely gonna want at least a Buddhist/Christian terminology vocab sheet.

@downtimes

And who knew jesus is YES in japan ^^.

Well, Iesu, technically. Blame the Latin. Though yeah, the option for puns is certainly there.

@NicoleRauch

p4:

I think your page numbers are out. The first chapter’s title page is page 3.

@NicoleRauch

T-shirt outside: Joshua

“Jesus” is the Greek version of the Hebrew name “Joshua”.

@NicoleRauch

p14: 巣鴨にヨン様放つようなもん: I think this is a reference to Sugamo and to his age

It’s a reference to Bae Yong Joon. I’m fairly sure the image in the background is a rendition of an actual photograph taken from a time he visited Sugamo, but I’m having trouble Googling up the exact image.

[NicoleRauch]

@Belthazar

I wonder if we’re gonna need an “explain the jokes” section.

Glad I’m not the only one who thought like this! Although I was really not sure what to explain and what to skip as it will be obvious for everybody …

@Belthazar

I think your page numbers are out. The first chapter’s title page is page 3.

Dang, sorry! I looked at the ebook pages and thought they line up (which they do for some manga but don’t for most). Will fix!

[downtimes]

@NicoleRauch

B’s t-shirt: シャ力族 ?? What does that mean?

How about シャカ族 https://jisho.org/word/釈迦
Edit just to make sure you get it: I changed 力 with 片仮名 か

[NicoleRauch]

Oh neat! I tried all sorts of combinations with Katakana カ and Kanji 力 but did not get anywhere…
(so yes, I got it, thanks for pointing it out!)

[NicoleRauch]

@Belthazar

I wonder if we’re gonna need an “explain the jokes” section. Think we’re definitely gonna want at least a Buddhist/Christian terminology vocab sheet.

I’ve added a vocab sheet, and to keep things simple I guess we could try to have the unusual vocab AND the joke explanations in there together? (Because sometimes the jokes are because of the buddhist vocab, so it would sometimes be hard for me to separate them…)

I added everything that was mentioned in this thread so far, so you can have a look and see if this makes sense to you all.

(The sheet is divided into the chapters to make things more accessible, but the link in each week’s OP only leads to the first of the two tabs for the week.)

Would be great to get some feedback / suggestions / entries

[Belthazar]

Looks good. I’ve added a couple.

Trying to work out if the face Buddha makes after drinking the beer on page 4 is a reference to anything. Or the name of the magazine Jesus buys, which I can’t read at all.

[maskedkoala]

This one’s pretty challenging for me. I love the concept, but some of the jokes are flying over my head, so I’m glad you all are putting together a spreadsheet.

Whew, it’s a lot slower when I can’t just touch the words to look them up. I’m surprised at how good the Midori app is at recognizing my crappy right thumb drawn kanji, and this will be good for developing my flick input skills.

I like the short random bits of information thrown in. Like that Buddha quit piano because the place was packed with kids, and Jesus is into the theremin (??? I had to look up what that was).

[downtimes]

How far did you read? or are we reading the same chapter 1 and 2 of the manga? Don’t remember anything about music yet ^^

[NicoleRauch]

It’s on page 11, there is some text outside of the picture boxes, with the heads of Buddha and Jesus (like a character introduction).

[downtimes]

Ahh somehow missed this extra information. Thanks for brining it to my attention テルミン looks like a fun instrument ^^

[NicoleRauch]

@Belthazar

the name of the magazine Jesus buys, which I can’t read at all

My Personal OCR Expert™ suggested it is シラヌ V but we don’t know what it might stand for… The closest I could get was V magazine? That’s a fashion / movie / etc. magazine which started to come out in 1999, so this kinda fits Jesus’ description of “a movie magazine or something” together with him blushing… (maybe?)

Other than that, thanks to Belthazar for deciphering all the t-shirts; I did not realize there were so many!
I also added some explanations that I could make sense of. Did not expect this to turn into a full-blown research project

Looking forward to next week’s reading.

[Belthazar]

@NicoleRauch

My Personal OCR Expert™ suggested it is シラヌ V but we don’t know what it might stand for… The closest I could get was V magazine?

Well, perhaps a reference to 知らぬが仏? Not too sure how that’s relevant to movies, though. Unless being compared to Johnny Depp was somehow unfavourable at the time this was written? Are the girls making fun of him? Am I reading too much into it?

Also, why does he make udon? I mean, not everything has to be a hidden joke, but still. It seems random.

[NicoleRauch]

@Belthazar

Unless being compared to Johnny Depp was somehow unfavourable at the time this was written?

The manga started in 2006, which is in line with their mentioning of having arrived in the 21st century. The (in my opinion) movie that made Johnny Depp really famous was “Pirates of the Caribbean” which came out in 2003. I don’t think that was considered an unfavourable comparison in general…

Trying to read what the girls are saying, I get to 「激似じゃん？！」ー「カタカナTシャツ着てるし！」
but I don’t understand what his t-shirt would have to do with that?!

@Belthazar

Are the girls making fun of him? Am I reading too much into it?

One can never be sure But I tend to not think so.

@Belthazar

Also, why does he make udon? I mean, not everything has to be a hidden joke, but still. It seems random.

Hahaha, I wondered about that as well! Looks like we’re getting really neurotic here

[Belthazar]

@NicoleRauch

Trying to read what the girls are saying, I get to 「激似じゃん？！」ー「カタカナTシャツ着てるし！」
but I don’t understand what his t-shirt would have to do with that?!

Yeah. I tried to Google the connection, but all I got was a bit of fuss on the internet about Johnny Depp’s daughter wearing a T-shirt with kanji on it, but that was in 2015.

[maskedkoala]

The manga started in 2006, which is in line with their mentioning of having arrived in the 21st century. The (in my opinion) movie that made Johnny Depp really famous was “Pirates of the Caribbean” which came out in 2003. I don’t think that was considered an unfavourable comparison in general…

I remember checking out a book store in Ginza in 2007. I was surprised that there was an entire Johnny Depp section. They were obsessed with him at the time.

I actually took a picture of it (with our fetal skeleton, Fetal Steve):