I’m having a bit of trouble breaking down the first panel on this page
…本を書いたり大学で教えたりしているらしいけど正直あまり仕事らしいことをしているところを見ません
Is he basically saying he never sees her working even though she’s supposed to be writing a book and teaching university?
Comments about the story
lol poor Kon… Last time he was a bit freaked out by the bug and he kind of got suckered into trying it anways. And now Kasane is the one freaked out by the bug and he’s still suckered into being her lab rat.
I hope Kasane ends up giving this bug a try. It’s only fair!
Yes, that’s my understanding too. The first らしい implies that the book writing, and the teaching is something he’s heard is happening, but hasn’t verified by himself. The second part, 仕事らしいことをしているところを見ません, means he never sees her do something that looks like work.
Story comments
Hmmm my understanding was not that Kasane is freaked out - rather that she’s unable to experience bugs, in the sense that a bug that affects people have no effect on her. In page 52 it’s mentioned that Kasane バグらない => she won’t “bug out”. In page 59 Kon asks her if there are other people who don’t experience bugs like her and she talks in a way that makes it pretty clear it’s a condition, rather than a choice.
I understand what Yoshino wants to convey but when I’m trying to read what she literally says, I’m not sure. Here is my breakdown
やっと : Finally
家の中で : In the house
根っこに : on the roots
つまずかなくて : don’t trip
よくなりましたね : became better
So litt “Finally in the house, on the roots you don’t trip and it became better” In proper english maybe something like “Finally things got better and you don’t trip on roots in the house anymore”
Page 56
一ミリも脈無いのにすげぇなな恒成は
“Even though there’s not one millimeter of hope, incredible Kousei”
Obviously given her face, she’s being sarcastic. Is it another case of Japanese implying part of the sentence in regard of context. Because I feel like it’s lacking either a noun+だ or a verb to make a proper sentence.
“Even though there’s not one millimeter of hope,(You’re are still trying) you’re uncredible Kousei”
Chapter thoughts
So Kasane is immune to bug, it’s even more so surprising since she infers that she might be a unique case in the world.
If bug is the norm and she doesn’t bug, doesn’t that make her a bug in a bug ? Bugception
On a side note, better not be strolling in the sky when the bug ends
Thoughts on this week's reading, plus speculation/predictions
More like she’s the only bug since everything else seems to be the normal state of affairs. xD
Also your side note, I was thinking about that while reading the whole part. Just look at the guy who was chilling in the sky, just laying down daydreaming. What would happen to him if he did that while it ended?
Considering the people don’t know how long a bug stays, and it seems variable, who would trust the bug will stay for any length of time? It would be fun to walk on air, but not if it could stop working at any moment.
Speculations/predictions starts here:
So Kasane is weird, and supposedly the only weird case in the whole world. To me, this makes it so much more likely that she is the cause of them in some way. Obviously I have no idea if that is true, but the anomaly is the thing to watch for sure.
What is the point of studying something that only sticks around for a few hours/days? Like figuring out like the dangerous of them, sure. But the full extent of them? What is the point if the bugs don’t repeat? And so far we’ve had no indication they do.
I’m intrigued, but I might be thinking too much about it because now I’m starting to wonder how this can come together as anything more than a bug of the week slice of life (like a monster of the week one). I imagined this to be more of a mystery story that we’d figure out the answer to. Now I’m not so sure.
But honestly, since the mood of the story is pretty light, it’s probably not of concern. Realistically speaking such a set-up could make for a pretty dark and heavy atmosphere since some bugs could potentially lead to all sort of dramatic accident.
Speculations/predictions starts here:
She might be related, but I don’t know if she knows herself because behind the smile she seems quite down spirited and genuinely sad about the fact that she is not affected.
I believe , she is studying human behavior around bugs, so maybe more of an anthropologist approach
That’s true. Probably too early to draw conclusions but I do hope there will be a main story line that will progress over the chapters !
I’m not very confident on this sentence, but my breadown is the following:
やっと => finally
家の中で => within the house
根っこに => on plant roots
つまずく => to trip
つまずかない => not trip
つまずかなくていい => it’s okay not to trip
つまずかなくてよくなる => become okay not to trip
つまずかなくてよくなりました => became okay not to trip (polite form)
ね => confirmation-seeking ending particle
“Finally, we don’t have to trip around on plant roots inside the house”
Page 56
I feel these are two proper sentences, though certainly the meaning is very dependent on context. The “verb” in the first sentence is 無い (not exists). This first proper sentence is connected to the next one by のに. The second sentence uses the i-adjective すごい, which is never followed by だ (but can be followed by です if one wants to be polite). The informality of the sentence is moving 恒成は to the end, though certainly in a more structured sentence that would be at the start.
(Random note: Technically speaking, ない is an i-adjective, not a verb)
Story comments
My impression was that she doesn’t make any strong statements on that regard. She literally says “If you searched you could find more, though I have never heard of one. I might be the only one” . Before saying that she uses “さあ”, which gives a strong sense that she hasn’t really researched into that. Seems to be rare enough, since she hasn’t heard about other ones, but she doesn’t really know. She doesn’t really seem to care much about finding out either.
I also found this strange. The best explanation I can find is that it seems that bugs all last at least several days, and this just seems to be the first day, so everyone is confident enough that it’s not going to stop so soon. I hope we get more details about this next week!
I wanna see his 英作文 in English. Bit interesting how we met the world last chapter, and now we’re meeting the characters.
@Shadowlauch Can you post the bubble we’re finishing on? I’m not too clear on where to stop.
Story discussion
I figure that since the first chapter established that people who subsisted only on bug-created vegetables for two weeks didn’t starve to death after said vegetables vanished, that the world is set up in such a way that people in potentially harmful situations are deposited somewhere safely rather than just dumped where they are. (Similar to objections in Avengers: Endgame of what happens to people in aeroplanes when they were snapped? Easy, they were un-snapped with conscious thought by a scientist wielding a magic glove - Bruce just put them on the ground somewhere.)
On a different note, when coming into this manga, I was kinda expecting to find that the main character would be the only person aware of the bugs. Like, to the rest of the world, the giant tree in the middle of the city would have always been there. Turns out it’s a different character who’s immune, albeit in a different way.
Iyoda is a boy, or am I missing something? I’m asking because, according to Jisho, 英 is a “Female given name”.
page 53
もし無理だったらビターン！
What is ビターン? I couldn’t find it in any dictionary or anywhere, but when I search this term in Google images, I come to a conclusion that what I see in the pictures can best be described with a word “faceplant”. Is that correct? From katakana alone, I’d read it as either “V-turn” or “B-turn”, but the definition in urban dictionary (obviously, I’m not English native speaker) doesn’t fit the context here.
Plot
Somehow, by mistyping kanji last week I “predicted” that Kasane works at University I didn’t read ahead, I swear!
I’ve already written that Kasane is sus to me last week. She reminds me of Chloe from Life is Strange, not because of her personality, but because (beware, Life is Strange spoiler ahead) of the role that she played in the story. It feels like Kasane might somehow be a cause of the bugs, even though she may not be aware of it. To me, it’s similar to Chloe that was causing the “bugs” just because her life was saved by Max’s magic, apparently breaking reality.
I really liked how the author presented more details about the main characters. That was quite smooth trick. It was fun to read!
I think Jisho is unnecessarily pigeonholing the name as a female name. I’ve seen Akira used for male names, too (though admittedly either with different kanji or no kanji at all). As far as I am aware at this point, Iyoda is male, but they could also be androgynous.
Pg. 53
So, I don’t have any more solid of an answer for this because I couldn’t find something to corroborate what I’m saying besides images as well. If somebody has better sources, that would be great, but for me, I just read it as an onomatopoeia expressing that if he can’t do it, he’ll fall. I know ビタ for sure is used as a descriptor for a moment’s hesitation. The addition of dragging it out and adding an ン at the end conjures an image in my head of like, old Loony Tunes, with Wile E. Coyote and the pause before the fall gag.
I could be mistaken, for sure, but that was my interpretation of it. It does seem like from the images in Google that it refers just to the sound of hitting the ground (some of them aren’t even necessarily faceplants)
So, yeah, I agree with you that describing it as being similar to a faceplant or more generally just hitting the ground, but I’m going from what the context seems to say, similarly from a Google Image search, as well as the onomatopoeia that I know the meaning of, so I don’t have anything more concrete than you, just another voice in solidarity.
For what it’s worth, going by sound alone and isolating it from the scene in the manga, it makes me think of a reverberating sound like when a bell is struck.
I am really enjoying this story so far! Reading along with everyone is such a good motivator. Like watching a new episode of a series released every week and sharing the joys of what happens with friends, I look forward to seeing everyone’s posts.
Summary
Like many others I also feel like Hime is sus! Something is for sure going on there.
The way she spoke, without interest, about other people who can’t experience bugs made it almost feel like she was being coy. Trying to downplay the importance of her not being able to experience the bugs. I assume the bugs have been happening for quite some time so if others existed surely by pure coincidence, you would have some awareness of them. Her deflection makes it feel like she doesn’t, so instead of outright admitting she is rare and unique she deflects it by implying surely there must be more!
When I get time to sit down and type properly, I have a few vocab/grammar confusions.
to much Oshinoko recently…
I didn’t read ahead, I swear!
Thanks!