I read this today at a 多読クラブ, and when the time was up I stopped reading at what seemed like a natural pause. When I got home and looked at this thread, I realized that I stopped reading exactly where the break is for this week–apparently the meeting time was the perfect length to read this installment. I found this week easier to understand last week; last week there wasn’t anything super tricky language-wise, it was just that starting a new thing in Japanese haziness that I still feel quite strongly each time. (… I still felt it this week, but less.) I also need to look at the name list again because I have already forgotten.
Since I have a week before reading on, I should really go back and reread, given how vague a lot of this feels in my brain. Maybe I can find the discipline before next week!
I’ve read it so far, but I feel like I will have a lot of trouble trying to stop myself from reading ahead of the schedule and finishing the book in a week…
That’s a standard problem with WK book clubs. From experience, finishing early makes it less fun, as you can’t discuss theories about what is happening at the moment…
My strategy is to just read other things on the side to fill the time.
About this week, kinda repeating myself, but I’m still getting Haruhi vibes. In particular the description of える(? I forgot her name already something 反田) reminds me of Haruhi pre-haircut. And we have a mystery afoot…
千反田. When Satoshi meets her on page 26, he gives a pretty good mnemonic for remembering the first kanji - her family is the “thousands” in the four powers-of-ten families in the town. Which, by the way, is definitely not Takayama in Gifu prefecture, that’s crazy talk - it’s clearly Kamiyama.
Because this girl is a high school student, she’s a “joshikousei”, but because of the paleness and unreliable thin lines of her lips, I rather want to give her an old-fashioned title like “jogakusei”.
yes? Is “jogakusei” old-fashioned? And what’s wrong with her lips?
Interesting. But “figure” seems to be missing from this part of the clause - in fact, there’s no noun at all, unless it’s harkening back to くちびる.
Ah, that moment on page 21 when he almost gets away scot free, but then he does what every culprit in Ace Attorney does, and turns back to get in the last word, which traps him.
Well, it does say “体格や体つきなどが細い”, and that’s as close as any to saying “a slender figure”. And, I’m pretty sure this part is not related to her lips.
Edit:
I realized that you meant there’s no “figure” noun in the sentence itself. But that’s totally fine, because this definition is for “線が細い”, in which 線 here acts as the noun (referring to “the line of her body”).
I want to check my comprehension of this one since I’m not that familiar with this grammar.
手には竹刀こそ持っていないものの、持っていいとなれば持ちたがるに違いないと俺は思った。
I interpret it as ‘Even though he wasn’t holding a bamboo stick, I thought for sure he would have wanted to hold one if it had been possible’ (If it had been good, he would have wanted to hold one)
It sounds a bit weird so I’m not sure.
礼をわきまえて場をわきまえない千反田の態度に、俺はついにやけてしまう。
Not sure about this one. Something about knowing the right way to bow but not the right place/situation?
Yep, exactly. Carrying a shinai around would be against school regulations; it’s just a manga/anime trope. Still that teacher looks like the kind who would want to enact that trope.
礼(節)をわきまえる is to remember (practice) proper etiquette
場(所)をわきまえない is to not understand the situation one is in
She is being perfectly polite, but misses the crucial non-verbal clues of the situation.
Even if I assume that all the long kanji strings are occupations + names I still don’t get the whole thing. Is the 桁 supposed to be about columns or order or magnitude (as in, how important each of them are)? And in the last part I’m even more lost. Are those another 2 families that are the antagonist of the previous 4? Or is it just saying that they are the only ones near that level of importance/popularity?
Apart from that I’m done with the reading. At first I was confused about her being inside a locked room and 奉太郎 not saying anything so I was relieved to see I hadn’t missed anything. A bit concerned about the guy’s observation skills though.
And it seems we have our first mystery.
You know I’ve never looked into 線 to see what it might mean on its own (besides “line”), but it seems like the meaning associated with 線が細い・線が太い is “impression one leaves; air one gives of”, so I guess it works either way.
Orders of magnitude, but it’s nothing to do with relative importance - the names literally increase by orders of magnitude: 十文字>百日紅>千反田> 万人橋.
And yeah, I think the last line is saying they’re the only ones near that level of importance.
What happened to the small kana in your furigana, though? Just because it’s hard to tell the small from the big in the book doesn’t mean you have to follow suit.