にゃんにゃん - Kitty Detectives - Vol. 1

That was my first thought! But then I saw it was “height” rather than “expensive”, but, yes, that alone is joke enough! Thank you aiju!

The adjective nominaliser -さ is a productive ending, which means that native speakers will freely add it to an adjective to create a noun, whether or not they heard that particular noun before. It’s very similar to English -ness but more regular: 高い->高さ rather than high → height. But note: expensive → expensiveness. I think usually with these pairs you can assume that all meanings of the adjective can potentially carry over to the noun form as well, even though the dictionary lists only the usual meaning “height” rather than the somewhat unusual “expensiveness”.

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Page 99

ここで でていかないと かえってあやしまれるわい

ここで = here
でていかないと = if you don’t leave
かえって = on the contrary (却って) ? or to return (帰って)
あやしまれる = (あやしむ in passive) to be suspected?

where I then read something as:

If you are not leaving from here, you will be suspicious.

First, I’m not quite sure, and second, I don’t quite see how かえって comes into play there. Is it that the かえって is a warning like “Or otherwise…”?

If you are not leaving from here, otherwise, you will be suspicious.

What a tricky sentence!

I think いこう is a bit of a clue what’s going on.
You basically got it but I think the subject is “we” (the gangsters, I mean, art traders), not Hanae.
“Let’s go. If we stay here, we will be all the more suspicious.”
Basically, the boss is pointing out that not helping the old man might draw suspicion on them.

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Thanks from the confirmation! I actually had the same interpretation than you, that the boss was talking to his gang. However, I thought it was just telling them to get out of the street to not get noticed.

Also, you made me notice I misread the いこう before! Actually, I don’t know why I read it as a “come on!”. Probably too much french and spanish in my head ^^.

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Note that 出て行く = literally “leave and go away (from where I am now)”. To get out of the street you might expect something ending with 来る to suggest “come to me (inside)”.

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I see! Thank you so much for such an informative and useful explanation!

Page 98

怪盗ミミッチーマウスが うちをねらってるって うわさですぜ。

What a long string of kana, makes my head swim!

怪盗 - mysterious thief
ミミッチーマウス - Mimichi Mouse
At first the only association that came up was Mickey Mouse, and then I found this… みみっちい
が - が particle (identifier particle, ie. Mimichi Mouse was the one)
うち - 内 - us
を - を particle (the direct object particle)
ねらってる - from 狙う, to aim at​, to be after (something)
って - quotation mark - but I don’t really understand how it’s being used here.
うわさ - 噂 - rumour; report; hearsay; gossip; common talk​
です - copula
ぜ - “I can tell you

I can think of 2 translations:

  1. “I tell you, this is a story put out by that mystery thief Mimichi Mouse to get at us”.

  2. “I tell you, I heard a rumour that that mysterious thief Mimichi Mouse wants to get us”

Which is better, or are they both way off the mark?! lol!

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Yeah, I think it’s a pun on Mickey Mouse.

I think が is used here simply as a “new information” marker since he’s introducing Mimicci Mouse into the conversation.

To quote the rumour.
Literally something like “There is a rumour: ‘The mysterious thief Mimichi Mouse is after us’”
More naturally “You know, there is a rumour that the mysterious thief Mimichi Mouse is after us.”

I think that would use a particle other than って such as のに.

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Thank you so much!

Page 100

なんだか、この人たちのほうが よっぽど あやしい。

なんだか, - 何だか - (a) little; somewhat; somehow​
この人たちのほうが - the manner of these men
よっぽど - 余っ程 - very; greatly; much; to a large extent; quite
あやしい - 怪しい - suspicious; dubious; doubtful; dodgy

“Somehow, the manner of these men (as we walked back to the house) was pretty suspicious”.

Have I got it?

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Page 101

Here’s my best shot at the notice

さがしています - 探しています - looking for
体色 - たいしょく - body colour
??? 反色 ??? anti-colour???
体長 - たいちょう - body length
1メートル - 1 metre
特長 - とくちょう - noticable features
ぱっちりした目 - large bright eyes
みつけた方は00-xxxへ - 見つけた方は00-xxxへ - if found, please phone… (just guessing from context!)

Any ideas on what colour the little alien is?

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のほう here is a bit strange so I don’t quite know what’s going on. Normally it’s how you make comparisons

XのほうがY “X is more Y” (than an alternative previously mentioned)

I suspect the use here is like
“Somehow, these men are most suspicious.”
(i.e. just emphatic, with no actual comparison)

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I think that’s 灰色 “grey” (literally “ash colour”).

みつけた relative clause “[who] finds”
方 person
へ to/towards

so something like “The one who finds [please tell] to 00-xxx”
I wonder whether this is a phone number or part of an address, though.

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Thank you so much again!

By the way, when looking up handwritten Kanji, it usually pays off to think about strokes.
A Japanese person will usually use the right strokes in the right order but they may be careless about making them look neat.
In this case it looks like it’s at least three strokes in the box, which rules out 反 which just has two in the box (four in total).
You can see the right “drop” radical of 灰 quite clearly in the book, but I agree the left one is hard to see (it looks like there are two strokes in an X pattern instead) and I only noticed it after comparing it with 灰 (which I found by looking for characters with a half-box like this and a drop radical).
But once you found 灰, it’s clear that this is the right kanji if you look closely.

Also look at the handwritten form at

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Thank you aiju.

[二冊本が来た。…and now for some binge reading to catch up!]

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二巻. Or 二冊 :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks - I’d been told it was まい for books as well as paper. I do remember that ‘radical’ from before I reset, but it doesn’t come up in kanji/vocab until lvl 19 and I wasn’t that far along.