ロジカとラッカセイ ・ Rojica and Rakkasei 🥜 (Beginner Book Club)

Welcome to the ロジカとラッカセイ ・ Rojica and Rakkasei book club!

This is the main thread for reading the manga ロジカとラッカセイ ・ Rojica and Rakkasei together with the Beginner Book Club. It’s suggested that you have a solid understanding of N5 grammar and at least some of N4. If you have finished Genki 2, or have finished an Absolute Beginner Book Club and thought it went rather well, this might be at a good next step for you!

We’ll be reading together according to a weekly schedule, ask and answer questions in weekly threads, and we’ll have vocabulary and grammar sheets we’re building together to make this easier for everyone.

The vocab sheet will be especially useful since this manga doesn’t have furigana! (Although you can always use KanjiTomo on Windows 10, or other kanji recognition software - we might talk a bit more about that in this thread.)

ロジカとラッカセイ ・ Rojica and Rakkasei

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Description

Rojica and Rakkasei lead a cozy countryside life, exploring their world’s whimsical, fascinating creatures. Through their scholarly friend Isaac, they learn about many bizarre artifacts and the ancient civilization that once inhabited their planet. A vinyl record and a twister mat are just some of the items with mysterious purposes!

When there is nothing else to do, Rojica and Rakkasei investigate their strange neighbors, like the secretive Shi-san, the off-putting and incoherent Mrs. Grace (who terrifies Rakkasei) and Mrs. Massu, the kind old lady from next door.

Adventures are had, new friends are made, and every day they discover something new. There are a lot of things that the two still don’t know about the place that they live in…

Trigger Warnings

  • death (major spoiler)

Since that’s not really clear from the description above, and I feel like it should be clear to people who are expecting nothing more than a fun and cute story: It does have lots of lighthearted silliness and a fair portion of wholesomeness, but it also can and will get surprisingly dark in some places.

More info about the manga

  • Nomination post (with preview pictures to see if you like the looks and the difficulty, and more information)
  • Natively (a website that compares the difficulty of mangas and other books)

Where to buy

Physical: Amazon | CD Japan
Digital: Kindle | BookWalker | Kobo

Schedule & Discussion Thread Links

Volume 1

Week Start Date Chapter Pages No. of pages with text
Week 1 May 6 1 5-24 14
Week 2 May 13 2 25-40 12
Week 3 May 20 3 41-56 12
Week 4 May 27 4 57-72 13
Week 5 June 3 4 73-90 14
Week 6 June 10 5 91-118 23
Week 7 June 17 6 119-151 28
Week 8 June 24 7 152-174 16
Week 9 July 1 8 175-203 19
  • Pages are physical page numbers (they are printed on some pages). Ebook reader pages might be off by a bit.
    • Page offset on Amazon Kindle: Location - 3. E.g. location 28 is physical page 25.
    • Page offset on Bookwalker: Number in bar below - 2 (left) / - 3 (right). E.g. when the bar below shows 9, the left page is physical page 7, the right one physical page 6.
  • No. of pages with text is the amount of pages with more than one short sentence.

Later Volumes

Vocabulary Sheet

Grammar Sheet

Will you be reading with us?

  • Yeah!
  • Yeah, but I’ll start late
  • I’m not sure yet
  • I’m skipping this one
  • I’ve read this before, but will join in the discussion
0 voters

How will you be reading?

  • Physical
  • Digital
  • I’m not sure yet
0 voters
11 Likes

Additional polls:

Have you joined book clubs before?

  • This is my first book club
  • I’ve joined the Absolute Beginner Book Club before
  • I’ve joined the Beginner Book Club before
  • I’ve joined the Intermediate Book Club before
  • I’ve joined the Advanced Book Club before

0 voters

(Select the highest that applies.)

What’s your reading experience?

  • This is my first manga
  • I’ve read other manga, but only easier ones than this
  • I’ve read other manga or books around this level
  • I’ve read other manga or books that are harder than this one

0 voters

(Select the highest that applies.)

Don’t worry if you see lots of “I’ve read other manga or books that are harder than this one”: That just means that there will be lots of people to help you when you have questions!

Have you read manga without furigana before?

  • Yes
  • No, only with furigana
  • This is my first manga

0 voters


Kindle_2023-03-19 20.09.43.227

I’m looking forward to reading this with all of you, and I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did!

14 Likes

Counting pages with more than one short sentence:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2: 12 pages
  • Chapter 3: 12 pages
  • Chapter 4: 27 pages
  • Chapter 5: 23 pages
  • Chapter 6: 28 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

Schedule ideas

7 weeks - full steam ahead:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2 & 3: 24 pages
  • Chapter 4: 27 pages
  • Chapter 5: 23 pages
  • Chapter 6: 28 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

8 weeks - full steam ahead, but with more time to warm up (“why not just read a chapter each week” edition):

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2: 12 pages
  • Chapter 3: 12 pages
  • Chapter 4: 27 pages
  • Chapter 5: 23 pages
  • Chapter 6: 28 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

8 weeks - with weird chapter-crossing splits:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2 & 3: 24 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 1): 19 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 2) & 5 (part 1): 19 pages
  • Chapter 5 (part 2) & 6 (part 1): 20 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 1): 20 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

10 weeks - with even weirder chapter-crossing splits, and more time to warm up:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2: 12 pages
  • Chapter 3: 12 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 1): 15 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 2) & 5 (part 1): 15 pages
  • Chapter 5 (part 2): 16 pages
  • Chapter 5 (part 3) & 6 (part 1): 16 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 1): 16 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

10 weeks - the almost leisurely route, except what’s up with chapter 5:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2: 12 pages
  • Chapter 3: 12 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 1): 13 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 2): 14 pages
  • Chapter 5: 23 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 1): 14 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 2): 14 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages

11 weeks - the leisurely route:

  • Chapter 1: 14 pages
  • Chapter 2: 12 pages
  • Chapter 3: 12 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 1): 13 pages
  • Chapter 4 (part 2): 14 pages
  • Chapter 5 (part 1): 11 pages
  • Chapter 5 (part 2): 12 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 1): 14 pages
  • Chapter 6 (part 2): 14 pages
  • Chapter 7: 16 pages
  • Chapter 8: 19 pages
6 Likes

Where’s the poll. :eyes:

5 Likes

I wanted to leave it up for discussion for a bit first, to see if anybody has any other ideas or opinions on it that would change/add poll options.

2 Likes

Chapter a week would be my vote

8 Likes

Might be joining this, so I’ll put my thoughts out too, I also vote for chapter a week

5 Likes

Alright, here are a few :sparkles: polls :sparkles: for the schedules proposed a few posts above! All of them are anonymous.

My favourite option is:

  • 7 weeks (mostly one chapter/week: first week 14 pages, everything after 16 - 28 pages)
  • 8 weeks (one chapter/week: first 3 weeks 12-14 pages, everything after 16 - 28 pages)
  • 8 weeks (weird chapter-crossing splits)
  • 10 weeks (even weirder chapter-crossing splits)
  • 10 weeks (every week 12-19 pages, week 6 23 pages)
  • 11 weeks (every week 12-19 pages)

0 voters

I’d be fine with:

  • 7 weeks (first week 14 pages, everything after 16 - 28 pages)
  • 8 weeks (first 3 weeks 12-14 pages, everything after 16 - 28 pages)
  • 8 weeks (weird chapter-crossing splits)
  • 10 weeks (even weirder chapter-crossing splits)
  • 10 weeks (every week 12-19 pages, week 6 23 pages)
  • 11 weeks (every week 12-19 pages)

0 voters

I feel like my fastest possible reading speed would be:

  • 15 pages/week
  • 20 pages/week
  • 25 pages/week
  • 30 pages/week or more

0 voters

(If you feel like you cannot go faster than e.g. 15 pages/week, don’t hestitate to select that! If there’s lots “30 pages/week or more” that’s probably coming from all the really experienced participants.)

7 Likes

I’m excited to try reading this book! ルリドラゴン is the first book I’ve read but I’m doing pretty well reading it with the ABBC so far, and I don’t think ロジカとラッカセイ would be a huge jump in difficulty judging by the Natively levels (L21 compared to L18)? And the story looks really cute from the description :smiling_face:

4 Likes

Glad to have you on board! I think it’s a bit harder, but yeah, if you’re doing well with Ruri Dragon you’ll probably be good. The speed will be a bit faster though!

Just as a bit of preparation, since not everyone might have read my nomination post, I’ve just added this to in my opening post:

3 Likes

Yeah, this is the main thing I’m worried about. Not so much “I won’t have enough time to read!” but more, “I’ll spend too much time reading and not enough time doing stuff I need to do irl!” Especially with my tendency to over analyze every sentence before moving onto the next one :sweat_smile:

understood. I’ve also already read the “major spoiler” trigger warning tag so, I’m prepared lol

4 Likes

Haha. That was me when I first read it. I never read anything in Japanese quite as fast as this. I finished the whole thing in 4 days because I couldn’t stop. :laughing:

5 Likes

Will all your nominations get the “I’ve already read this part” treatment every week? :joy:

2 Likes

Hahaha!! Is it too late to change my vote to the maiko manga??? rip in pieces :eyes:
bocchi-bocchi-the-rock

ファイト!!!!!!

6 Likes

Only one way to find out!

Kindle_2023-03-20 16.28.28.038

If you are reading digitally, there are several ways to deal with this. E.g. on Windows you can use KanjiTomo which will look up anything you mouse-over, or on any system you can use Mokuro which doesn’t just add furigana to most of the manga, but even makes the text selectable so you can copy it or use Yomichan (a browser plugin for really easy instant dictionary lookup).

4 Likes

I’m jumping in! I’m starting to get used to the pace/understanding with Ruri Dragon, but I wouldn’t say it’s easy for me, so I hesitated a lot before joining this one. The temptation was too strong though, and I’m ready for a challenge :smiling_face_with_tear:

(I might read a bit of HxH in april, so here’s hoping I don’t fall behind too much)

7 Likes

Looks like the manga has some points back sale on Kindle and Bookwalker right now.

5 Likes

Can you explain how that work on Bookwalker? Anything you have to choose when you purchase it or is it done automatically?

Do I have coins?

This is how it looks for me, do I have coins?

3 Likes

I agree, and while we are motivated it is worth a try. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? Not being able to understand? I’m already lost most of the times anyways! :sweat_smile:

4 Likes

I believe it’s done automatically - you’ll get 50% coins back instead of the usual 1%. The 840 on top is your coin total and the bottom is showing how much more you would have to spend to “rank up” and earn more coins back on future purchases.

6 Likes