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So I finished already. Took me roughly 42 minutes, and I had to do a lot of look ups .
Beware not to stop early as there’s a 2 in the middle of the chapter, it’s just a sub-chapter number. You have to read up to 二章 ジハード appears.
Story wise, I’m not sure if I’d been able to follow that much, had I not read the light novel in English, read the manga, and watched the anime. Granted this was quite a few years ago, but I guess it left that kind of impact. The delusions might be a bit hard to follow for first timers.
Also I didn’t remember it went so hard against the Jews in the epilogue. It catched me a bit by surprise as I didn’t recall that part.
And it’s just giving an example, not actually the MCs opinion, as I understand it. It’s just an example how people come up with conspiracy theories, giving that as an example… granted, not the best choice of example, but for Japanese probably less 重い than for us. Probably similar to if an US author used Zainichi as an example for discrimination instead of Native Americans or something.
Just finished this week’s reading! So far the vibe of this is really different than anything I’d normally read (not necessarily bad). It this feels much easier than I was expecting, relative to fantasy stuff I’ve read around this level (ex: 灰と幻想のグリムガル | L31 and ソードアート・オンライン | L33). Maybe it gets harder as it goes?
Does 六畳一間 == approx 118 sq ft (10.96 sq m) studio apartment? If so, wow that’s cramped!!
The conspiracy theory examples in the beginning… I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that antisemitism exists in Japan too , even if it’s a fringe thing
The whole drug trip thing was interesting… particularly adding さん to all the inanimate objects was kinda funny.
Slight relatability on the 引き籠もり thing
It’s interesting for me reading stuff from the perspective of a 引き籠もり. I have some similar tendencies, in the sense of not leaving my apartment for weeks, having minimal contact with other people, etc… I’m lucky to have things in my life to prevent that from getting too extreme… but it’s still something I 悩む over occasionally. In any case, it makes me kinda curious to seek out actual accounts from irl 引き籠もり, or to read other fiction that might contain a less anguished/in-deep-pain 引き籠もり protagonist.
Also just finished, also didn’t love all the antisemitism (even as a for instance) in the prologue. Also found it quite a bit easier to read than I was expecting. There were a ton of lookups, but like @暁のルナ mentioned, they were a lot of words I could surmise from context, e.g. lots of new words for being laughed at.
I thought tonally that the prologue and the first chapter was a fun comparison. Sato* starts out with “hey, so I know how conspiracies work and here’s all the ways that people get sucked in, but hey, I found this one, and believe me, it’s the real deal”
The real deal: I was tripping so hard I was talking to the furniture and thought someone was keeping me from leaving my house and then I realized that the NHK is out to make us all hikikomori~~!
Yeah, uh, sure guy.
Anyway, enjoying this a lot more than I expected to so far. Actual lawl at him coming up with the “real” NHK meaning. Excited to see where this goes.
*Saito? I know his name is one of the two but am bad with name kanji
hikikomori fears? aspirations?
First off, is anyone who spends a decent amount of time on an internet forum not at least somewhat of a shut-in?
But in all honesty, I worry about this for myself sometimes too. I have a partner, which means I do have a high amount of human contact, but he’s also happy with low levels of interaction. I also struggle to make friends with randos and most of the people who I click the best with are the people who stay home because the people outside are exhausting.
My friends and I were absolutely the people posting the “introvert’s dream come true” memes at the very beginning of the pandemic.
I assume not, particularly with mobile these days. I imagine people at least go out for walks sometimes. Maybe I’m wrong tho
Tbh covid shutdown was a very minimal change for me… I work remotely and mostly keep to myself anyway, so I just went out even less than the already minimal amount I used to. I’m just not very interested in being social most of the time… home is comfy, so I’d rather stay inside. It’s more of a hypothetical concern, living on my own now (tho that’s been great for my mental health)
I don’t have a lot of overlap between my interests and the occasional people I come in contact with these days… Sometimes I wonder if I should try to find local people with common interests, but it doesn’t seem worth the trouble.
Anyway it’s not really the same, but it’s not hard to imagine I could end up there someday either
My childhood bedroom was about 5 m² and apart from clothes, I had everything in there… bed, desk, couch, bookcase and even a piano. I’d feel right at home in a 1 K.
Oh, it’s probably comparable to an average/smaller studio in NYC then… and about the size of my bedroom. I could do it if I had to, but I’m definitely grateful to have a living room!
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, even if it’s a fringe thing
I’d feel right at home in a 1 K.