I feel called out I’m so bad at finishing book club books when it’s a book I’ve already read!
It’s interesting that you’re both lukewarm about starting vol 2 right away. That one was actually my favorite! The premise is about - warning, really high level spoilers - Kiyoi and Hira’s daily life as a couple together working and trying to figure out being in a relationship when they both are the way they are. There are still some minor misunderstandings but they’re more comedic since they’re already together
Oh, no I wasn’t lukewarm about starting at all especially since I’ve heard similar things about the sequel lol I’ve just really been itching to read 流浪の月 for awhile now since I really wanted to see if I enjoyed 凪良先生’s writing outside of the series (because her books are so popular right now!)
I’m actually almost done so I’ll probably be starting the 2nd book very soon!
Oh nice, enjoy! I liked that one even though it was a bit sad. I started 汝、星の如く last year too and actually ended up DNFing it. I haven’t read so many of her books but I guess for now I’d say I prefer the BL ones to the non-BL ones.
So I just finished 流浪の月 – it was a emotional rollercoaster for sure. I went into it not knowing anything about the plot so I had some reservations once I started reading but I’m really glad I stuck through it. It really spoke to me in a way I wasn’t expecting!
There was some commentary at the back that compared it to a BL book she wrote years before called あいのはなし, which had a very similar plot but different relationship themes. I’m really curious now how her BL writing compares to her current mainstream literary writing.
Can I ask why you didn’t end up finishing 汝、星の如く? Light spoilers are fine!
I’m really looking forward to reading 美しい 2 now as a palette cleanser lol
One of the main topics of the book is codependency and children who care for their parents (FML has an alcoholic mom and MLs mom is a snack bar mama who has various issues), and I just find that hard enough to process irl, so reading about it was already hard…it was also very melodramatic like 流浪の月 was, but cranked up a notch further. In the end it was too stressful for me to read so I ended up putting it down. Too bad, though, since the writing was very lovely.
Ahh… I see. I forgot where I read it but like the female lead in 流浪の月, the author also was abandoned by her single mother and raised in an orphanage, so I get the feeling that she puts large parts of herself and her experiences in her literary books, that’s why they’re so melodramatic and realistic.
I also really enjoy her writing style… so I’ll try to tough it out though.
I thought here is a good place to ask, it’s there anyone who read both manga and novel and would you recommend reading both? I would like to start with the manga and then work my way up in difficulty. Same with the filmic adaptations, would you recommend watching both the movie and series, and in what order?
I am biased because when I read the books the show or manga weren’t out yet, (I did books → live action → manga) but I think the books are a nice starting place because both the lead characters are kind of…unique …and getting the insight into why they’re that way from the book and then watching the drama and reading the manga gave me more あー、尊いー feels since I “knew” them both so well already. But, if you are concerned about difficulty obviously the manga is way easier since it has less text!
Other random consideration, I didn’t really like the illustrations in the books and think they’re kind of outdated by now. If I had watched the drama or read the manga first it would’ve been nice for visualizing everything better.
It would probably be a good idea to start with any adaptation first to see if you even like the story at all and want to consume several different versions of it! In my case, the answer was yes, but I know it’s not for everyone!
Just wanted to say, I started reading the novel a week ago, but I’m doing so at a quite slow pace, since I decided to do a thorough read with vocab deck this time (about 5% per week so far, which hopefully puts me at 20 weeks to finish?).
This is my 2nd novel I started and it feels a bit easier than Semantic Error so far. It seems to be a bit more expressive and I think I can get a good feel of Hira’s inner turmoils. Also you learn a ton of onomatopoeia, and many refer to body characteristics - I remember すらり、すらっと and ほっそり spontaneously
So far I’m having very conflicted feelings. Like the author captures the feeling of doom and hopelessness perfectly, but it’s really kinda sad to read. I don’t know if I should feel for Hira, of course I feel pity for him but when I thought of him as a real person it reminds me of some people that I had to cut ties with since I couldn’t help them without being dragged down myself. I guess there will be some development but also drama, I’m hoping he’ll find peace somehow.
Language-wise I found it a bit hard during the chem room part to figure out who is talking in the dialogues but I’m slowly getting better at recognizing the speech patterns, still missing a lot of vocab sometimes to figure out the right context. There’s a ton of those compound verbs which kinda feel vague and nuanced.
I’m a bit confused why sometimes sentences are in the past and sometimes in the present. Generally the novel is past tense? Not getting the feel yet why there are some sentences ending in present.
In the novel I’m at the part around where Hira learns about the contest and buys Kiyoi’s magazine, I did skip ahead a little reading through the manga and watching the first episode of the drama.
A bit messy and maybe I shouldn’t mix so much, though it did help me a little check whether I understood the contents right.
So the manga follows the novel relatively closely but the drama seems to take some liberties. I’m not sure if I’m super satisfied with those changes, I feel like it changed their characters quite a bit. For example, for me it feels like the Kiyoi in the drama cares way too much. From the novel I had the impression so far that Kiyoi is as depressed and checked out as Hira, but showing it in a different way.
That kinda makes him feel nicer, but also meaner, because he would have the capabilities to be nice? It’s hard to describe.
Interesting. I also had the same impression as you about Kiyoi, for what it’s worth. Haven’t seen the drama to compare, sadly, but it’s good to hear that the manga follows pretty closely.
I have another question, re-reading the parts where Hira and Kiyoi get closer. Specifically regarding the name suffixes. Maybe korean input would also be helpful here, how did they translate that part? Since I know that honorifics are also super important.
Spoilers high school part
So when they start hanging out, Kiyoi asks Hira to stop calling him Kiyoi-kun and just call him by his name. Of course, this has a big implication in Japanese with their honorifics and stuff, but I wondered how to interpret that.
I read some reddit posts and some said that Kiyoi wants to be closer to Hira by him dropping the honorific, but I’m not sure if I completely agree with that (or I partially agree but see it more nuanced).
So what my impression is that in high school age, -kun would probably be used mostly by girls, whereas boys probably use it only in the beginning and then drop it soon after (cuz they’re boys and having boyish banter?). I did a search of -kuns and no one else uses it except the Hii-kun and Hira using Kiyoi-kun.
By Hira using Kiyoi-kun, he avoids that banterish area and stays in the distanced area, together with the girls who may or not be fangirling about Kiyoi.
So does asking to drop it mean Kiyoi wants Hira to be closer? I don’t think so, I felt more like he wants Hira to stop acting less like a creep (aka fangirl) and be more “like the other boys”. I think there’s a difference between that and “wanting to be closer”. I mean, in the literal meaning it is that, but I hope you get what I mean.
I think that’s the impression I got as well in that part. Not wanting to be closer per se, but wanting to move to a more normal relationship between the two.
I’m so bad at finishing book club books when it’s a book I’ve already read!
That one was actually my favorite! The premise is about - warning, really high level spoilers - Kiyoi and Hira’s daily life as a couple together working and trying to figure out being in a relationship when they both are the way they are. 
There are still some minor misunderstandings but they’re more comedic since they’re already together 
I started 汝、星の如く last year too and actually ended up DNFing it. 
I haven’t read so many of her books but I guess for now I’d say I prefer the BL ones to the non-BL ones.
I went into it not knowing anything about the plot so I had some reservations once I started reading but I’m really glad I stuck through it. It really spoke to me in a way I wasn’t expecting!
I forgot where I read it but like the female lead in 流浪の月, the author also 
