I apologize, too much yuri (and related discussion) has rotted my brain… so “a gap” became “age gap”
Anyway gotcha. I felt like it comes out plenty in both the anime and the novels… But I guess Yumi’s inner monologue builds her up much more
Which I guess sorta goes along with the gap thing too?
Well even just in this chapter, the way she forcefully pulls Yumi (a complete stranger) into this whole mess, and tries to force her to be her sister, really put me off. But yeah, I can’t really talk about stuff I dislike this early on. So I’ll look forward to chatting about it sometime in the future, hopefully.
As an aside, I have 2 favorite characters in the series besides Yumi, and I also hated them at first… This series has a thing for bad 1st impressions lol or maybe I’m just harsh
I had trouble understanding this. I think it’s JLPT N2 Grammar: ては・では (tewa /dewa) Meaning – JLPTsensei.com for some reason では as “if” (instead of で+topic particle) is new to me. But then, it’s N2 grammar and I stopped textbooks after Tobira, which seems to be closer to N3.
See https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/s/QrqGHyCT0Q (a random deleted Reddit user isn’t a great reference, but it’s what I found). じゃあ is similar to meaning 1. That’s quite different to me from the 4 (なら), which was new to me. I agree with your breakdown. I think it’s similar to xなら大丈夫, „it’s fine if it’s x“/„x can do it“.
Funny, I was thinking 4 seemed different also (maybe bc なら seems more hypothetical, and では seems more settled)… But if I take the original sentence and put なら instead of では, it does make sense
I’m fairly sure the の at the end is a feminine language/emphasis thing
Response
It doesn’t make sense for Shimako to answer a question, about why Shimako did something, by starting with Sachiko
Sachiko was asking Shimako to be her sister - so it doesn’t make sense that Sachiko wouldn’t think Shimako would be fit for her
We’ve already seen that Sachiko isn’t very concerned with suitability - she literally asked a complete stranger (Yumi) to be her sister in the first chapter
Edit: vague story knowledge comment I maybe should have left out: I have additional story knowledge reason to think that Shimako didn’t perceive Sachiko’s thoughts as “Shimako wouldn’t be a good fit for me”, and is not trying to report what she thinks Sachiko’s thoughts were here
For what it’s worth, the translation I found has:
“In my case.”
Shimako-san looked up at an oblique angle, still in thought.
“I am not a fit for Sachiko-sama. Conversely, Sachiko-sama is not a fit for me, either.”
Given the context, I thought the の is used to provide an explanation to the question why she rejected Sachiko but then I confused who is speaking, so what do I know.
Some thoughts and notes for section 2 after finishing:
Chapter 2 section 2
――この学校は、マリア様が守ってくださっているから
Is Yumi religious? I don’t think she really means it seriously here, but it’s interesting to wonder about.
グノーのアヴェ・マリア
I wouldn’t have been able to connect グノー to
Charles-François Gounod even if I knew the guy. But then I study Japanese, not French.
To the people that know the anime. Did they show Sachiko performing? The book suggested it was piano and organ, which sounds unusual to me. Did Sachiko play the Bach prelude and the organ the melody?
Is the piece used in the soundtrack throughout the anime? It reminds me of ユリ熊嵐 (anime from Utena creator) which used the piece prominently/presidentially and apparently (as I heard in one of the many Yuri Kuma explanation/analysis videos I watched) it has a history in shoujo anime.
☆× ※△
I wish I knew what expletives a prim and proper pupil of a Catholic school would use. What did she say in the anime? (I mean, I’m pretty sure she didn’t use any actual words, … but there is a small chance she swears like a sailor)
「リズムは･･････一、二、三、四、二、二、三、四」
Okay. This one had me confused for a while. And I think I found my first error in a Japanese book. First, she probably wanted to count 1, 2, not 2, 2. And then I think she meant beat, not rhythm. But maybe those words are used differently in Japanese or the difference isn’t as strict as I seem to think.
それはあなたの義務ですからね
Lol. Yumi didn’t agree to anything. But Sachiko seems to run by Sachiko logic.
ゴミの分別のように明快に仕分け されている
I don’t really have anything to comment here. It’s just a nice smile I thought was amusing.
Answer, but spoilered in case it was a rhetorical question: she is casually/loosely religious, but not necessarily overly orthodox in her views. Additional background about her household (mild future spoiler for later volumes): her brother has Buddhist religious items, and there has never been any sense of conflict within their household about this (if people would rather I didn’t include future spoilers at all, even with appropriate tags lmk and I’ll remove)
My impression when she said that is it’s one of those things that everyone’s told, repeats, and somewhat believes (well some probably really believe it). I’m not sure how serious she was being at this particular moment either.
That threw me off too! And like I should know the piece from college (which to be fair was a long time ago)
I think it showed Sachiko playing organ at the ceremony. I don’t think there was also a piano in that scene. Maybe @earwen can confirm? I didn’t think the book was suggesting both, when I read it tho (but did find it confusing, who was being described when, in that scene)
Yes, a few times, at fitting moments. That and マリア様の心 - which has a really nice melody. Interesting about Yuri Kuma - thx for sharing!
The book is accurate. That first number is the measure number, so the next time it would be 3, 2, 3, 4 - that’s a conventional way to count either multi-measure phrases or pieces in general
I think they’re interchangeable in this context, even in English. She’s playing the part as she’s speaking/counting the beat outloud.
For what it’s worth, I don’t expect to read the following volumes and I appreciate any context you can provide from them
Unless it happens to be a spoiler for the first volume as well. Like, they clearly state in volume two who the murder is (if this were a murder mystery) then I might want to read that spoiler when I’m finished. But before that it would spoil the fun of collecting the hints in volume one.
response response
That makes more sense. I mixed up 演奏 and 伴奏 and though she was accompanied by the organ.
Finished chapter 2, for some reason this one gave me much more trouble than the first one with comprehension and speed. I could also feel myself getting frustrated and skimming things that I could definitely be able to comprehend if I read more intentionally… Perhaps I am a little burnt out as this book is above my comfort level and I’m going at a decent pace (for me).
chapter 2
Somehow I don’t trust Tsutako helping Yumi out. Like she must have an angle somehow. She feels like the type that would enjoy gossip herself. I will not be surprised if another picture of Yumi shows up sometime next chapter, perhaps where she is dancing with various members of yamayuri in the last section
Sachiko is kind of obnoxious this chapter, I kind of wanted Yumi to reject her.
In the last section, not remembering who people exactly where was really annoying. I could have looked this page up but I didn’t want to interrupt my reading further than wordd look ups already do.
I don’t really have any further thoughts on this part, I’ll watch the anime section tomorrow.
You might wanna just print out the character names/positions, and have it next to you fwiw. It took me multiple volumes to finally get everyone straight (Rei and Sei having similar names definitely didn’t help lol)
Tsutako ch 2 thoughts: she was pretty open about enjoying gossip (from the sidelines), at the beginning of the chapter - but yeah, it’s hard not to be suspicious, after how the story started
Curious to hear your impressions on the anime, and hope you don’t burn yourself out too much with the book. I’ve had some skimming moments myself (particularly in later books)
The student council setting reminds me of やがて君になる | L23 and in fact I suspect it’s no coincidence that both student councils hold a play. Unless that’s what student councils actually do all over Japan..
I think comparing the characters also helps me understand them better. Both Sachiko and Yumi on the one hand and Nanami and Yuu on the other hand have a kohai/sempai relationship. I guess I’ll see how similar their relationships are and if Yumi will support Sachiko in a similar way. Sachiko doing a lot of 習い事 also reminds me of Sayaka.
some thoguhts on the anime, but also on the novel equivalent.
episode 2/chapter 2
The episode starts off with a scene not in the light novel so far, though it might possibly be pulled from later on, not sure.
First Yumi talking to her younger brother who goes to hanadera, and apparently doesn’t get on with his student council president.
Then Yumi briefly greeting Sachiko and her onee-sama, and afterwards overhearing the rumors about herself first hand. Makes sense as in the book its mentioned in narration instead.
I think Yumi’s narration adds a lot to the piano scene in the light novel.
I think I had this thought while reading the novel as well but, I wonder how much Sachiko is being intentionally manipulative towards Yumi. Like did she intentionally fluster Yumi with the piano so she woudln’t object much to going to rehearsals? And (this is more obvious in the anime with the tone of voice changing) going form demanding to asking when Yumi still hesitates to say yes.
Something that stood out to me was that during the dance practice they were explicitly not wearing shoes in the novel, while they are in the anime. I’m not sure if I misread something here but, I don’t care enough to double check
An important part that I had forgotten is that Youko kind of implies that they WOULD have let Sachiko drop out of the role eventually. I still don’t think it justifies how they went about it though.
Added detail in the anime: Rei steps up to dance with Yumi after her Yoshino nods to her.
In general I think this episode was pretty good, I didn’t have the same problems as I had with the first episode. The only real downside from the novel is that Yumi comes across as more shallow, but that is hard to remedy in the medium.
Incidentally, in my mind Yumi looks like Chiyo from Azumamgadaioh. That’s apparently who comes to my mind when I think of twin tails. I also suspect Yumi thinks of herself as plain and childish compared to Sachiko. And we’ll, Chiyo looks a bit childish for a high schooler (because she is a genius who skipped middle school).
So, Yumi gets excited and flushed when Sachiko touches her, but not when White-Rose does? I’m going to interpret this as Yumi having romantic feelings for Sachiko.
In fact, if I don’t interpret this romantically, I feel this whole story would be a good side plot (next to Yumi aiming for soccer nationals or whatever) but a bit boring on it’s own.
In nurseries? But you can use たら for counterfactuals; this is more of a mental image kind of thing here I think.
Good question…Biscuit coloured, I guess, but probably not circular?? The google hits for the phrase seem to all be marimite related, so I think the author just used a bit of a weird phrase here.
Hadn’t thought about the connection before, but I suspect you’re onto something. Also I agree about the play not being coincidental. Anyway, I’m contemplating parallels btwn them now, thx!
Same question, lol! It is described this way throughout the entire series… If the anime is any indication, it’s seemingly referring to the color?
Really? Maybe there was just too much time btwn when I watched the ep, and when I read it, but I didn’t remember anything special about the narration
I think it’s entirely up to interpretation, and how cynical/charitable you want to be
That sounds right, tho I’m also not about to double-check
Yeah that increased my distaste for the Roses even more… actually at this point in the story, the only characters I like are the first years (plus Rei is alright), minus Tsutako. (My metric for whether I like characters at this point is how nice or mean are they to Yumi lol)
Yoshino was feeling generous that day, I see
I agree about Yumi in the anime. I still liked her (she is my fav, especially at this point), but she’s definitely much more enjoyable in the novels
)-like door?
