Hi guys!:3 The new thread is here, I can’t edit the main post, so sorry about that, I think it’s a bug that’s going to be fixed And I’m gonna catch up soon too
Thank you so much @Micki! Thank you for your explanations; and explaining that it is all one long phrase modifying “senpai” makes it much clearer, thank you so much!
いつもそばに, always close by, is a funny chapter/page, but I’m having problems with the last panel…
彼女と別れても 寂しそうにみえない 雰囲気に 安心して 涙が出そうになった
彼女 - girlfriend
と - with
別れて - break up (in て-form)
も - even if
寂しそう - looks lonely
に - direction particle
みえない - the negative of 見える, to be seen, to seem, ie, to not be seen, to not seem?
雰囲気 - mood
に - direction particle
安心 - peace of mind
して - the て-form of する
涙が出そう - looks like crying
に - direction particle
なった - past of なる. Became.
Okay, so I’ve got the words, but I’m lost on the grammar, especially the two て-forms in this sentence. And I’m confused when it says “looks lonely に not looks”!
My best guess would be “Even though he had broken up with his girlfriend, in the atmosphere [he presented on Facebook] he did not look lonely. I seemed to shed a tear of relief.”
I know it definitely got me to switch to a different digital manga to read while on the bus. (Likewise for page 51.)
A tiny bit off topic
Back in my early days of Japanese (when we had to fight off a triceratops to keep it from eating our flash cards), I learned that Japanese sentences always end in a verb. And because everything matches the properties of equality in math, I mistook this to mean a verb will only be at the end of a sentence. Since all the sentences we did in Japanese class only ever had a verb at the end, my delusion remained unhindered for some time.
I must say, when I learned about verbs being used to modify a noun, I suddenly felt like I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about Japanese. It was a massive revelation, and to this day there’s still a tinge of excitement when I see a verb modifying a noun (which actually happens a whole lot!)
This guy gives me no end of trouble, grabbing at cords and getting stuck under furniture. Just today he got into the bathroom and ran out of battery. But I could definitely understand せんぱい’s feelings as I read through this week’s material.
I think you have the gist of it. The first て form is the ても construction meaning “even if”. The same construction is in the title of the book actually!
I would say the second て form is continuative - “I was relieved and nearly cried”. Not sure of the best translation of the last bit - literally it’s something like “became like seeming to begin to cry” - so I guess it’s something like “nearly cried” or “my eyes welled up”.
Ans whilst you are online… can I take advantage of your good natures just a tad longer and ask about that first caption on page 51…? What is the meaning of the し in 映し…?
It’s 映す in stem-form, which is sometimes used as the continuative in place of the て-form. Which is to say, the sentence continues in the next narration box.
Thank you Belthazar! You, Kazzeon, Micki, and others must have explained that to me a dozen times over the past couple of years! One of these days I’ll actually remember it! Thank you so much!
This is the other ～そう ending, which means “I heard that…” or “people say that…” So, for example, おいしそう = it looks delicious (i.e. conjecture), while おいしいそう = I heard that it’s delicious (i.e. hearsay).
And I’m gonna catch up soon too 
I’m really loving this manga.