Oooh his memories got erased too!!! Stakes got way higher all of a sudden
I liked the entire conversation with the lawyer. Lots of interesting concepts brought up (do memories make a person? when would memory erasure be justified?)
At ~30% (right before I stopped) there is a sudden time skip where the MC says that he first met Takahara (the lawyer) 4 years ago. Like @bizoo I am very confused about the timeline here — I thought this conversation took place shortly after the lawyer’s lecture at uni, but now I’m not so sure. Or maybe they knew each other beforehand? I’m confused
New words:
산전수전: all sorts of hardships (literally “mountain (山) battles (戰) [and] sea (水) battles (戰)”)
I read a few pages beyond that and let me clear up your confusion.
It seems to be a POV change to a female POV. This character reveals her name a few pages in. If you search her name in the book, the lawyer mentions “우리 도노무라” and asks the MC not to tell her something. My guess is that she is his wife or girlfriend in the present. Actually, I recommend looking up “도노무라” and rereading that page. The MC’s reaction to the call makes me wonder if this book is going to be about the psychological battle between the MC and the lawyer / 기억술사 or something. With his memories regularly getting deleted.
Week 3:
I actually read week 3 and a little past last week, since we’re officially week 3 here are my thoughts:
Finally, it’s getting really interesting!!! The reason I read so far last week was that I actually just wanted to keep reading.
About the timeline and the phone call from the lawyer : I think from the phone call, we can guess that they got in contact after the lecture. I was actually surprised when the story moved on to the second year without any follow-ups from the lawyer, but that was all because it was erased from his memory !!! He probably got these memories erased not long before the phone call. We’ll probably learn more about that timespan later. I also really enjoyed the conversation with the lawyer. True to himself, the ML is still very self-centered with his views on the 기억술사. I did have this passing thought as well that the lawyer could actually be the guy, but then why would he contact the ML again ? The phone call wouldn’t quite make sense I feel. Unless he wants to convince the ML he’s indeed a selfless saint ??? From the conversation, I think his interest for the 기억술사 might have something to do with 우리 도노무라 or even himself, he seems to have a strong opinion about how people can truly suffer from their memories. I’m really curious to know what his role is in the story.
Week 4 spoiler about the timeline I also got confused at first, but my first thought was, it doesn’t sound like this can be the ML, and that’s what kept me reading a bit further until I could confirm it was indeed a change of POV as suadang clarified. The epub chapters didn’t get imported in kimchi reader. Now that I’ve just looked up the chapters titles, I think I would have spent less time guessing and figuring stuff out, but I also feel I would prefer not to have read them lol.
I read until 29% earlier this week and then didn’t read the last 1% until tonight. I am liking the legal discussions around memories - have to say that I didn’t see that coming and it’s interesting to think about. Why is the lawyer so sus though??
Spoilers for 30 ~ 33% and notes about the pov change:
I was reading through everyone else’s thoughts and saw some speculation that the new narrator is female or the woman mentioned at the end of the chat with the lawyer? But I’m not sure, because the new narrator is actually male? 아쓰시 / Atsushi is a male name haha. Unless I hallucinated about reading the name being that…but the lawyer keeps referring to him as 군 which is another sign! So, how is he gonna be related now?! I’m so curious!
No I’m just silly because I’ve seen boys referred to as 짱 and girls referred to as 상 so I thought maybe he was using 군 gender neutrally HAHAHAHAHA. Reading one page further showed me that the new character is in fact male.
“······그 사람의 기억 속에 있다가 지워져버린 쪽에서 보면, 그 사람 안에서 죽임을 당한 거나 마찬가지 아닌가요?”
this is a melodramatic but I get what he means.
vocab
부티가 나다 - to give off a rich vibe
So that 해바라기 한가운데 저울이 있는 badge, were we supposed to recognise it? is it a real thing?
spoilery thoughts from this week under the cut
Umm 다카하라 what you doing dude stop propositioning the club staff??
When 다카하라 invites the dude into his home to offer him the cleaning job and it’s a total state. It’s really giving The Housemaid vibes.
“······다카하라 씨, 게이는 아니죠?”
Yikes. no author be better
나나미의 아버지는 나나미가 다카하라의 사무소에 빈번하게 드나들고서부터 신경을 써서 매번 이와 같이 딸 손에 뭔가를 들려 보냈다.
Every man in this book is the reddest flag?
Last week i read ahead so i could spend a couple weeks reading 악의 w the discord lot and i am 100% going to have completely forgotten what is happening in this book by next week. thank god for this thread
Week 3 was nice! Now I’m invested.
So one of the 3 people from the prologue really was the narrator. It was also an interesting conversation about memories and identity. I’m not sure where I personally stand on it, but I found both views to be interesting. So far there has been no progress on my appreciation of the narrator though, I’m still not a fan.
On to week 4! I was planning to read for a couple hours yesterday but there was a big old nationwide blackout, which means no Ridi and most importantly no dictionary Today though, today the lights are on and the brain is plugged
Week 4 ! I reached page 120/296 (~40%), turned to page 121 just because I like to resume the book on the next page to read, unwillingly saw the first line and ended up reading an additional 14 pages… (I got stopped by my phone battery reaching 2%)
@bizoo I think the badge is a real thing, it was also a plot element in a Japanese drama I watched.
@suadang Interesting, I actually didn’t mind week 4. I think I just really disliked the first narrator lol. I am not sure I like this second narrator either though
Thoughts on week 4
We got a slow exposition the first time, we’re getting another slow exposition. This book is slow. But I actually didn’t mind it. 우리 도노무라 is indeed male, why did we assume the person the lawyer mentions during the call was a woman lol ? Week 4 had much less of a “mystery feel” as we stepped away from the 기억술사 himself for a bit but it didn’t bother me as we can start to guess why the lawyer is so interested in him, especially page 120.
Agreed, the POV change was unexpected and kind of killed the momentum that was building during weeks 1-3.
Week 4 (read up to 40% ish):
After finishing this week’s reading though, I’m now curious about 도노무라 and where the author is planning to go from here. I was also happy to see the chatroom mentioned again
Honestly, the POV change totally killed the momentum. I’m also begging Japanese authors to drop the terminal illness trope. It feels like half of the non-mystery Japanese novels I’ve read have included it.
Week 4 done.
I actually liked the POV change (but it’s a good thing I knew about it beforehand, I don’t think I would have liked the confusion of trying to figure out what was happening). I just really disliked the first narrator, so I am enjoying the change. I was happy to see him mentionned again though, I like getting different POV of the same events, it feels like I’m in on a private joke.
I’m also glad we’re getting a female character that is a bit more self-driven. So far one of the girls was the protagonist’s childhood friend, and the other was his crush.
What I can’t really get on board with is the fact that 도노무라 just… moved in with a guy he had know for a whole 2 minutes? Or did I get that wrong and he didn’t actually move in, just started working for him?
I also still don’t understand why the lawyer asked him to move in/work for him in the first place. Why is he so interested in him? Is it another case of “they knew each other before but then 도노무라 had his memory erased”? In that case, why would he ask 도노무라 if he knew about the 기억술사?
At least the book is keeping me engaged, I keep wanting to read more and more to understand what is happening.
On another note, I now understand why I see so many Japanese learners struggling to keep track of the names in the books they’re reading, here we are not even dealing with kanjis and I still have a hard time remembering them
honestly I just assumed it was his wife lol. I didn’t expect him to have a live-in housekeeper who he is so attached to. Even 우리 도노무라 himself had to ask if the guy was gay lol
I decided to do the week 5 portion because it’s probably almost week 5.
I was a little surprised that the lawyer just died. It was interesting to finally get some lore about the 기억술사 and how they take requests to delete others’ memories. I wonder what the criteria are and who could have requested to delete the MC’s memories. Now that the lawyer is dead, it feels unlikely that he was the one who requested this. I also can’t imagine 교코 being responsible. But there aren’t that many named characters we’ve been introduced to who could have done such a thing. 마키? lol
Finally caught up and got to 40% today right before week 5 starts.
Good theory, I was wondering that myself!
Like others, the pov change really killed momentum for me this week at first, but I liked seeing the chat room and mentions of the 기억술사 come back so that the narrative thread felt continuous again. I’m wondering the lawyer is interested in the 기억술사 and what memories he has that he wants erased (bc things are pointing in that direction).
This kind of feels more like a normal mystery than a horror book so far, though. I haven’t been scared yet.
I am liking 
Unless I hallucinated about reading the name being that…but the lawyer keeps referring to him as 군 which is another sign! So, how is he gonna be related now?! I’m so curious!
melodramatic but I get what he means.
