三ツ星カラーズ — Week 1 Discussion (ABBC)

I was pondering whether to do such a (rough) translation right before week two, so anyone struggling with the first half of the chapter can get into the second half with a clearer picture of what’s going on. If you’d like to do so, by all means go for it =D

(Otherwise, I may still go ahead with it.)

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I assume (and hope) it’s just a case of the author not fully understanding the English and its connotations. In the anime there’s this kind of meaningless yet cute t-shirt:

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There’s also just a general trend that English words on shirts in non-English-speaking countries are often confusing at best… Not unlike people in English-speaking countries getting kanji tattoos that don’t translate the way they think…

無料 means “free,” but not the kind the person probably wanted… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Page 3, panel 4: うんこか!

What’s か doing here? It’s not a question, I don’t think it’s an or

thanks

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As far as I understand it is actually a question.
The dialogue goes roughly something like:

  • Attention (something big) everybody!
  • (Is it) Poop?
  • Why (would it be) poop Sacchan?

I guess it’s funny because poop :woman_shrugging:

If you read it in a different tone the “or” would also work, but I am not sure the kids in the story are that… sarcastic?

  • Something big guys!
  • Poop, or…?
  • E? Why poop Sacchan?
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Page 7 notes! This page is a lot wordier than the ones previously, so it was quite slow to work through! I guess because it’s the first time they’re talking to an adult.
In the first panel, I’m fairly sure that 知らん is just Saitou casually shortening 知らない?

Panel 2

The real Dark Souls starts here. Longest sentence so far, and some interesting constructions. I have いくら情報が欲しくても as ‘No matter how much you want information’, and ヒーローごっこで警察に頼るのはずるいだろお前ら as (tentatively) ‘Turning to the police while you’re playing heroes is dishonest, isn’t it, you scamps?’. I went with scamps because お前ら here I would assume to be more diminuitive than derogatory.

Kotoha responds with a relatively easy-to-understand ‘We’re not playing, Saitou!’, and then Yui makes a fatal error with her incredibly rude ‘You’re a know-nothing Saitou’ (I’m assuming that 知らないな is the negative being used almost as a な-adjective? I can’t see another possible use for the な there)

殺討(さいとう)

Saitou gets very angry and responds with another long speech which I’m much less sure of. The first sentence seems like something along the lines of Shut it, you brat, I’m busy! but I don’t know what the でも is doing there - it doesn’t seem to fit in the sentence.

In the second sentence he’s saying ‘I don’t have time to take part in your games!’. Presumably is just a casual/accented form of ? (side note, I love how it’s possible to add furigana using Ruby)

Panel 4

Absolutely no clue what Saitou is thinking here. One of those sentences where I can sort of work out what some of the words mean but have no idea how they form a sentence. ‘Only this person… in decency… hard to do in reverse’??? Absolutely no clue.

And then I’m pretty sure the last panel is ‘Haa… I don’t know about this monster, but… I might have some information on a panda-looking cat.’ ‘REALLY!?’

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This is actually the sentence ending particle な, (Jisho definition 4), which has a wondering to oneself feel. “You know nothing, then, Saitou.”

There’s no でも that I can see, do you mean ども? If so, it pluralizes what comes before it (クソガキ) in a condescending way.

I tend to come across such sentences in Japanese all the time. For some reason those that I know all the words are the hardest to make sense of. I suspect this means “Only this one, being (で) earnest, is hard to resist/oppose/go against”. Maybe. Edit: @ChristopherFritz already broke down this sentence in this post.


What I’m mostly wondering about is how common it is for children to address adults so rudely. I don’t know how young the girls are supposed to be, but using お前 when talking to an adult (a policeman no less), and addressing him by his plain name without even a さん seems like a huge transgression in manners. Is it normal or tolerated because they’re young? Or are they being intentionally rude?

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Ah yes, I just misread it.

The girls are about 9-10 I think? But I don’t think it’s really being tolerated, considering how mad Saitou is in the next panel. I think this is just Sacchan being 生意気, like the manga’s sleeve says.

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Yah, that’s how I read it. I feel his logic is a bit suspect, though - for example, Batman goes to Commissioner Gordon for information all the time.

But again, I’d say your translation is right on the mark, aside from your misreading of ども.

I read this as something along the lines of “This one alone is so decent that it’s hard to turn things back on them” (as in, it’s hard to make a snappy comeback without upsetting her, sort of thing).

Oh, definitely not. No, these kids are absolute brats, and I’d forgotten a bit how annoying they could be.

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Thanks for all the amazing help this past week, it’s made a huge difference!

As for my question: I find that, even after learning the vocabulary for this week, I tend to read the furigana rather than the kanji. Is this alright or should I be trying to ignore the furigana?

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This is a common issue, reading the furigana rather than the kanji.

Some people use an index card to cover the furigana as they go.

I don’t personally have a good answer here, but I’d say once you reach level 30 in WaniKani, start looking for simple books/manga that don’t have furigana, or have limited furigana. An example of the latter is the manga 「耳をすませば」, which you can probably recognize all the kanji without furigana by WaniKani level 20.

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Hey Guys :slight_smile:
I guess this is my first halfway decent post on this forum ^^’
I’ve known WaniKani for years but I’ve never really been active here… I didn’t even know (or should I say expect?) everyone’s so active here! :o
I’ve also been a little confused when reading through this thread, that a lot of answers seemed to appear twice (or more)… until I noticed I probably just shouldn’t be expanding the “Replies”…? Oo
So please bear with me while I’m trying to find out how exactly this forum works :see_no_evil: (and sorry in advance for unwritten forum-rules I might be ignoring or spoilers I don’t really know how (often) to use - and my non-native English :see_no_evil: :sweat_smile: :see_no_evil:)

Anyhow…

First off, I wanted to thank @MrGeneric for the explanation on what “fell into the hideout” - I was not able to make the connection to the glasses and was quite confused about that sentence - after reading your take on it, it made a lot more sense though, so thanks a lot! :slight_smile:

Of course thanks to just anybody here, both for asking and answering questions! Up until now I have read through all the posts and I really have to say it made the read a lot easier/ many parts a lot more understandable!
Also thanks to @ChristopherFritz for hosting this club and handing us all the resources (also in the other thread) and great answers to questions!

I don’t know if this is just missing from everyone’s books… (even though it wouldn’t make a lot of sense…?) But I’ve got a digital version where the first page with text says this: アメ横、公園、動物園、上野の街を守るため日夜(噓、夕方まで)駆けまわるのは結衣、さっちゃん、琴葉の小学生3人娘。そう、それが我らが「カラーズ」!
Now there was somebody else asking about the 我らが but I did not quite understand… or rather… I’m still a little confused
If it’s read as our colours I don’t really see how this makes sense…? Is it someone else talking about the three kids being “the colours” of the area…?
So basically what I’m confused about is … who is the “owner”/speaker if this is an “our”?
I first read it as が being a particle so that it would then become we are the colours … not sure this would make any more sense or if anyone is even understanding what the hell I am trying to say… I’m sorry :see_no_evil::sweat_smile:

Also I’m quite unsure if I read this correctly: 日夜(噓、夕方まで)I understand it as “day and night (no, actually just until dusk)” in the sense that the “speaker” corrects themselves because no it actually isn’t through/in the night but ‘only’ until dusk (?)

Lastly for this page: Is the usage of 娘 as girl (as I read it in this context) common? Never seen/heard that before is why I’m asking

Page 6, Panel 3 (?)

I’m a little confused about the すごい すごい thing… Is this just a play on words because すごい can both mean amazing and terrible? So the first person would be saying “it’s terrible” and the second one understanding “it’s amazing” be negating this?

Same Page (6), Panel 5(? not sure if I’m doing this counting right lol)

I’m assuming the こ in front of 殺す is just a stutter?
And the ダメーツ an exaggerated/emphasized だめ…?

This つ everywhere really confused me at first… then I googled it and got a lot of explanations (all more or less in the same vein) but I found this the most useful/comprehensive, in case someone else might be interested: っ - Small Tsu つ | Japanese with Anime
(So I assume the same is true for katakana tsu? or if not I’d need an explanation on that above mentioned word, I guess :see_no_evil:)

And finally Page 8, Panel 2

I’m 100% lost on what Saitou is saying
ま だから 捕まえようもんなら (“well… that’s why (???)” honestly I’m not even sure how to break that last thing apart x-x)
この 街 の 平和 は 守られる こと に なる かも な
“As for the peace of this district … to protect it become may (,right?)” … what the ?? I’m sorry, I just ?? :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

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My ebook doesn’t seem to have this text. It’s in the very beginning you say?
Anyway, 我らが is indeed ‘our’. The narrator, whoever it is, is apparently a resident of this neighbourhood and speaks to us as if we are too. “Our very own Colours!”.

That’s it. “Day and night (that’s a lie, until dusk)”

Yes and yes. And as you found out, the small つ at the end of a sentence, katakana or not, is basically an exclamation mark.

Breakdown

ま=oh!
だから=so/because of that
捕まえようもんなら=if you could catch it
この街の平和は=the peace of this shopping district
まもられる=is/will be protected
ことになる= as a result
かも=possibly
な=right?

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why… why… why would you do this to beginner readers! :sob:

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Depending on the source of the e-book, it may be at the end. I think it’s the “back cover of the book” text.

The artwork on the page can be considered a spoiler, but it’s back cover material meant to help sell the book, so in a way it’s designed to be seen before reading.

For those who don't want to skip to the end of the e-book to see it, here's the page.

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Thank you so so much for taking the time to read through my post and answer my questions <333

haha my first reaction was along those lines too :see_no_evil:

Oooh okay now it makes sense why no-one else seems to have encountered it
I hope it was okay for me to share :see_no_evil:

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Yeah - I want to believe this, but some of the drawings are also from odd angles or a bit more revealing that I would like for children. Some of it also gives me a weird vibe too.

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Really?
Kiss and hug - it might be a cultural thing, but in most parts of the world, there are innocent kisses and hugs, between friends, between family members, between people and their pets …
I find it weird that someone would read “kiss and hug” on a little girl’s shirt and immediately associate that with something sexual.

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It’s not actually the shirt by itself - which I didn’t think anything about until someone else raised it. It is the way some of the girls are drawn. As an example, the color cover and insert both have views essentially up their skirts. There are a couple of other cells that have weird angles. It is not frequent but, like I said, as a mom, it gave me a weird vibe.

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Well, I guess that means it’s a cultural thing. I, too, am the mother of two girls and I did not get weird vibes.
Sure, if I look for it with the intent of finding something that could be regarded as improper, I can find it. But you probably need to be primed a certain way to have those associations at first glance, and whatever you get confronted with in your culture’s media or everyday conversations and issues will play into that.

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