放浪息子 (Wandering Son) miscellaneous discussion

I can’t imagine trying to read a mystery or something like that. :cold_sweat:

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But you’ll always be surprised! : D

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Thankfully the language is easy enough in 放浪息子 that I can do that. Many of the chapters so far I’ve been able to read quickly, just looking up a bit. And then I can go back and reread the stuff I missed, looking up more. Other manga I’ve read (ご注文はうさぎですか!) have been much harder, resulting in more of the “what did I miss” feeling, because I know I legitimately did miss a lot, even if other parts would be explained if I kept going.

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You don’t want to read the 古典部 series? (The anime Hyouka is based on it.) It probably would be hard, but it could be really interesting too!

I mean I love mysteries, and psychological series, and stuff, but I don’t mind waiting until my vocabulary and grammar are a bit higher to read those.

Also, maybe think about that after I finish with like the next 3 (+ よつば and 放浪息子) book clubs. :joy:

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Yeah the trick is that you can’t actually know which is happening. Although I find that even when I legitimately am not understanding the text, often what follows helps me understand the part from before. But not always.
But for example, when you’re like, “wait, is she going, or is he going? Who is doing what?” you’ll often just find out which by continuing to read, and then you can try to reverse engineer the grammar from before with the knowledge that, oh, it was he who was going.

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Let’s see. :eyes:

Chapter 2.-

Page 34: I've noticed that jisho doesn't always help with radical based kanji.


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Google Translate got it on the first try. :joy:

Page 42

What’s with everyone getting there and then just leaving?
Like, I get they’re kids and they’re doing whatever they want, but. .-.
It just felt a little artificial.

Page 45

Excuse me?
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Did she just call her what I think she did? :no_mouth:

Page 46

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ダスキン?

Well, that was fun, and quicker than expected, perhaps? (only half an hour!) A lot less trouble with kanji, maybe it was just less this chapter. :joy:

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Page 42

You don’t know how much time they spent dressing up Shuuichi. The two boys left right away because they were worried the girls would try to dress them up too.


I assume it’s this: Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary


I originally assumed it was 出す金. But googling ダスキン is only returning some cleaning company. Now I’m wondering if that’s a household name in Japan and that’s what it’s referring to. I’m not really sure.

That’s アマ tho. :thinking:

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That it is. Wow, that’s mean haha.

To be fair, I barely notice those when reading and only looked at it for the first time 10 minutes ago.

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… Is it? Maybe I should check the actual meaning.
I just know it’s the female equivalent of この野郎 (which isn’t a nice thing to say either, but it’s not that bad)

The definition is apparently 女性をののしっていう語。

Jisho gives an approximation of that by translating it as bitch.

Also, the kanji (ateji) spelling for this meaning says something about it as well: 阿魔

Well, that’s what people would say in English, I guess :thinking:
I was referring to the あま part, which is simply 尼. I didn’t see it coming.

… What? That’s not what my google fu returned. :sweat_smile:

Yeah, slang is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

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Alright, I should use a dictionary instead of chiebukuro next time :sweat_smile:

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Hi everyone,
It’s the first time I’ve joined a book club, so I’m pretty excited about it. I’m currently reading chapter 5 of book 1, and so far it has been really enjoyable. But I’ve been wondering whether comparing my own understanding of the plot with some broader known translation would be countereffective or not. What is your experience? Also I have a question regarding chapter 2:

Page 37

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どうせ and のに within a single sentence really confuses me here. What does she mean? She noticed on a previous panel that Takatsuki had got some new clothes.

So is it like: “Even though you don’t ever wear them.”?

General Thoughts

I feel like it doesn’t need to be mentioned, but 千葉さん is quite cute.

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Welcome to the club! As for comparing to an official English translation, that’s tough to say. I imagine it could help sometimes. But you’d have to be really careful not to rely on it as a crutch (e.g. by looking up translations before doing a proper analysis yourself). I did this a few times (unofficial translations though) with ご注文はうさぎですか until I realized that the translations were often worse than my own understanding.


Page 37

Sounds fine to me. Maybe I’d say “Even though you don’t wear them anyway”. Either way gets the same point across (and my translation isn’t necessarily better anyway).


General Throughts response

I definitely had the same thought. I think the mangaka did a great job with her character design.

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Thank you for response!

千葉さん looks like 二鳥 with a wig, I prefer 高槻’s design. :eyes:

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