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When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.
My first comment is regarding the language–I’ve been excited for this as I’m considering it my intro to trying sci-fi/fantasy in Japanese, and I was curious how I would be dealing with the specific vocab difficulty.
So far I listened to the first chapter from the audiobook and I’m pretty happy with my comprehension. I struggle a bit with long detailed descriptions of the surroundings, but plot-wise it was fairly easy to follow.
Still happy that I’m reading along too, because a lot of terminology makes so much more sense when you see the string of kanji, for example 夜間外出禁止令 (might be the longest kanji chain I’ve seen so far, I love how self-explanatory it is).
This first chapter we already have a strong characterization of the main protagonists and I’m definitely curious how the next chapter will connect. Looks like there will be a time skip, but how long?
I finished this week’s chapter. I was a bit worried at first since the physical page count is much longer and I don’t have much experience reading physical Japanese books so I was worried about comprehension but it went so much better than expected! There were a lot of compound kanji words that I had no clue how to read aloud but could still understand their meanings. I also learned some interesting words like 局部麻酔. Also 趣味が悪い threw me off the first time I saw it since I had only seen 趣味 used for hobbies before.
The story seems interesting so far and I’m looking forward to the next chapter!
(I ended up listening along this chapter, too tired. The audiobook is very slow compared to Slayers so it gives me a lot of time to try to parse kanji I do know and to be impressed by how much I don’t know if the long kanji combos)
Chapter 1
The first sentences are indeed built to make you feel like Nezumi is an actual
No tall buildings, city design makes me feel like it was lift and shift rather than any kind of natural development.
Can I please have your home temperature control system, Shion?
“This drenched in rain kid that broke into my flat can’t possibly be a legal citizen” feels like a crazy leap to make. It probably says a lot about what’s not acceptable in their society.
Shion is a poet~ a romantic~
Being set for life since being 2 years old is… Interesting. Somehow similar to Psycho Pass probably, people who don’t get the highest ranking are less happy, but getting a guaranteed place to live in a good area because your baby is smart sounds neat for a single mother.
(A bit later) Except that no, she doesn’t seems to be enjoying her life either (gaining weight and complaining so much Shion calls it her catchphrases)… Interesting.
The spoon thing would’ve awakened something if Shion was in/past his puberty
The first chapter was a great start. I agree that the banter was pretty entertaining between Shion and Nezumi. I laughed when Shion told Nezumi he’d always wanted to try administering a shot while brandishing the needle.
I wasn’t really sure what was going on with the bolded 壊せ dialogue. At first I thought he was hallucinating, then I thought maybe something was speaking to him since he seemed surprised the second time around. I’m not sure how sci-fi this series actually is though.
The bolded dialogue is a mystery so far, but in the audiobook the narrator is voicing it in a voice completely different from Shion’s.
In my perception it almost felt like a kid talking back to an announcement made by an adult woman.
Made it through the first week! (Two days late though…)
Not much to add, but I liked how this chapter was interesting from the first page (I think the author really succeeded in writing an interesting beginning to the book).
Also, first time I’m reading a book in Japanese with very long paragraphs… Scary, but also quite interesting to see.
Looking forward to the next chapter, and to see where the story goes after this!
Tangenal to this, one thing I thought was really clever and interesting is when the author mentions Shion and his mom’s life being secured/guarenteed (保証), instead of the usual 証 she uses the less common 保障; this しょう can mean to damage or interfer. I thought that was really cool symbolism given the distopian vibes of the book so far
I just finished the first chapter because I started late and it was really long. I haven’t got that much Japanese novel reading experience (I think this might be about my seventh). It seems interesting so far. I’ve not seen the anime so this is all new to me. I’m not into BL and didn’t realise that this is BL but I’ll read the first volume and see how I go.
welcome, welcome. Reading at your own pace is always an option. It’s not supposed to be stressful.
I heard it’s pretty light on the BL and heavy on the story, so it might still be for you.
Finally I was able to start the novel. I had totally forgotten to order it, then shipping was there & then life happened, but today I finished the first chapter. It ends on page 42 in the physical version
The beginning really confused me. Is the narrator even human? The way it was described I would not have been surprised if it really were a mouse. I only understood it later when Nezumi was sitting in Shion’s room.
Chapter 1 thoughts
I also was first thinking that the POV would be continuing as Nezumi because I did not recognise that Shion was a name and later accidentally just assumed the kanjis would be a cool way to read Nezumi or would have been his priorly human name … . My mind was thinking and getting distracted a whole lot there
How convenient for Nezumi that Shion’s family usually has their garden security system turned off and how convenient that Shion had the window open and Nezumi could come in there.
But wtf! A 12 year old doing a surgery? And wanted to try it once in real? He indeed is a smart one! I was wonderin with all the way how this was described, whether they want to keep the smart people on close watch so they could not destroy the whole system. Maybe there is a whole different outside world and No 6 is actually something like a population experiment?
(Did you get the physical book with those shiny new obis?)
Chapter 1
Nezumi is human, but it does seem like it’s intentionally described vaguely in the beginning. Possibly for that extra street-rat vibe?.. we’ll see if this keeps happening later in the book/s or if this was one-off.
It’s destiny
(Lol)
Well, not surgery, yeah? What was it, “old school” anesthesia injection and some stitching? (Do I still remember that correctly?)
It did feel like someone with a lot of knowledge and a huge desire to try it all out.
(I’d be soooo frozen and afraid to screw it up. I wonder if being a child in such an elite course makes him less afraid of failure)
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did not even take a second breath at the POV switch … luckily it doesn’t happen too often but I often get confused when there is no real pause between paragraphs.
Hm, though he intentionally did not cut him open, the anesthesia and stitching is part of a surgery Though I’m no pro here. Nezumi did say later to not do a second surgery when it was about the VC chip.
Totally agree!
Oh that sounds confusing with the audiobook as well. I would have imagined a bigger pause between.
Oh that’s interesting. I was also wondering who was talking here. Whether the security system was broken, whether something else came in with the taifun or whether something psychologial in Shion
Same here, like who would have always dreamed of this as a 12-year old and this came so unexpectedly when Shion was trying to figure out the real reason behind helping Nezumi.
I’m still kind of not following here. Might need to do some googling
Same here! Until now it’s okay but I need to check some more vocabularies than usual or concentrate more on the long phrases. It’s interesting so far
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Looking forward to more Nezumi