放浪息子 (Wandering Son) miscellaneous discussion

Yeah, I thought high school age too, so it is a bit weird.

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I mean, it’s “weird” because she doesn’t know their age.
You don’t really ask someone you meet their age immediately if you think it’s similar to yours.

I thought much older actually (25-30). Goddam shotakon.
It might not be as bad as I thought though.
Still, she asked if it was Takatsuki’s first time doing something (I forgot what, buying stuff at a fast food joint?), plus the middle school uniform does put Takatsuki on the younger side of the scale (12-13).
goddam shotakon.

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Unless they’re in a private school! When I moved to the city I saw elementary schoolers in uniforms.

I also thought the same. I was like STRANGER DANGER. Even if she’s a high schooler, what the heck was she thinking??
Pretty sure she asked if it was Takatsuki’s first time coming somewhere far away. (But how did she know??)

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Takatsuki (actual age 10-11) can’t look old enough to be in high school though.

Because it looked like Takatsuki was looking around nervously? It is still a leap I guess.

EDIT: the verb was 寄り道 by the way.
寄り道ははじめてなの?
ひと仕事終えたぜ みたいな顔してんだもん

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If anyone doesn’t know, 寄り道 is often used specifically to refer to going somewhere after school instead of going straight home and changing first (Takatsuki is wearing a school uniform), which incidentally is actually against a lot of school’s rules.

If I recall, Takatsuki is wearing his brother’s middle school uniform, so he is being mistaken for at least a middle schooler, but yeah, I think she still explicitly knows he’s a fair bit younger than her.

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Exactly. Even stretching it, Takatsuki would be 14 at the maximum. And honestly, I don’t see how that would seem possible.

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I just read chapters 5 and 6, so I’m finally caught back up to where I had binge-read on my computer a couple weeks ago. Just want to make sure I’m not missing a plot point in chapter 6 though.

Pages 134-137

Takatsuki gives Shuuichi the hand-me-downs that she doesn’t want. It looks like he tries it on in front of Takatsuki, his sister, and his mom. The mom then says よく似合ってるじゃないの with a (maybe nervous?) あはは laugh. Then a couple pages later Shuuichi is looking at the sailor uniform and the mom says やーだ。なにセーラー服見つめちゃってお昼できてるよ。

So was the mom kind of nervously/reluctantly letting Shuuichi try on the sailor uniform, but then doesn’t really want him to be interested again? Not sure if I’m reading too much into this exchange.

Also, this seems like a basic question, but what is なに doing in that sentence? It’s not a question, and it’s not attached to the usual か or でも or whatever to give different meaning.

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It is a question :sweat_smile: What are you doing staring at that sailorfuku? Lunch is ready.

Those two sentences are separate, by the way.

Edit: just checked the book, and I don’t think the mother is making a big deal out of it (but that she probably would if she knew more about the situation)

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But but it ended in て form! Yeah, okay casual speech is weird. Thanks!

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Yes, there’s an implicit end to that sentence (e.g “and not doing something else”).
The mother also dropped all the particles. All of them. 日本語文法 books around the world cry a single tear in unison every time that book gets printed.

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Just read chapter 7. That was a tough one to read… Because of the emotions. Poor Takatsuki. :cry:

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I just reread chapter 8 (last chapter of volume 1) and I still have some questions.

Chapter 8
  • On page 167, is the text outside of the speech bubbles actual letters/notes that were given between Shuuichi and Chiba? Or what they are thinking?
  • On pages 177 to 181, I’m really confused by the timeline. Is all this happening linearly or jumping back and forth? On the bottom of page 177 suddenly Takatsuki and the boy have scuff marks (and a band aid) so it looks like a fight happened. Then it looks like the boy apologizes (even that’s partially unclear), but the Aikawa kid won’t apologize so then Takatsuki fights him?
  • I’m missing something about the very end. On page 185, is Maho saying that maybe she’ll buy something for Shuuichi? It looks like it’s volitional, so she’s not saying maybe the grandmother will buy something, right? And I don’t really get the significance of the last line of the chapter: おばあちゃんにも買えない.

P.S. How’s the series coming along for everyone else?

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Chapter 8

I believe so

I think it’s linear. From what I’m seeing, Aikawa tells the one kid how to piss Takatsuki off (because he knows about the pads). It works, so you see them after they’ve clearly been in a fight, with the parents meeting. The mom of the other kid says it’s her kids fault, but the kid tries to say that it was because of Aikawa (but his mom tells him not to blame others). This clicks with Takatsuki, because Takatsuki now understands that Aikawa must have told the kid how to tease him. So the next day he kicks Aikawa’s chair out and hurts him. Then Takatsuki won’t apologize for doing it.

You’re asking about なーに買ってもらおっかなー? If so, she’s saying like, what will I get her to buy for me~?
Not positive about the last line. I’d say “even my grandma can’t buy me (this)”

I haven’t really been reading because I’ve been distracted and depressed, I just open the book when there are questions ^^

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Chapter 8

Wow, I really didn’t understand that interaction at all. Now that you’ve explained it, it all makes sense.

Okay, that’s more or less what I was thinking. I just couldn’t put it into words.

Thanks as always!

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The speed with which the author jumps from one point to another is genuinely confusing!

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Hopefully I get more used to filling in the holes over time!

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Well…I started! \o/ But I haven’t even finished the first chapter of the first volume yet :laughing: I have to say, the time jump between when they leave their house and when they arrive at school confused the heck out of me at first :sweat: (Like, where the heck did Shuu’s sister go? She was literally right there! Why do we suddenly not know where she is?) Obviously I eventually figured it out when the whole situation was revealed a few pages later :woman_facepalming: , but I’m really bad with time skips in manga for some reason. My initial reaction is that I must have missed something in my interpretation of what’s happening (rather than “oh, there’s just some missing information here”), so I spend a bunch of time fruitlessly searching for what I could have possibly missed that would make the situation make sense xD

Anyway, I’m definitely feeling the “this book expects you to infer a lot” thing already…I don’t know how well that’s going to go xD

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I relate to this so much. I imagine native speakers, since they understand all the language easily, just keep reading and fill in the gaps. I think the lesson is to just keep going, and come back to the earlier parts of the chapter later if it still doesn’t make sense.

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Yeah. If you think about it, a lot of the media you consume skips around like this and retroactively fills you in. The difference is that you’re confident enough in English and media-savvy enough to go “I don’t know what’s going on, so they’re clearly going to fill me in later”
Whereas in Japanese, you think “I don’t know what’s going on, I must have made a mistake” and you grind to a halt trying to figure it out.
Often if you just keep reading things will piece together, I think.

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