So “what happens to pre-Urano Myne” is pondered on in the series, but later than the material for this book club.
In the part 1 anime Myne’s own thoughts are:
that pre-Urano Myne died of the fever, and reincarnated Urano took over what would otherwise be a corpse. The way it’s portrayed in the opening to the anime and manga both would support this interpretation.
The author’s thoughts in an interview were basically that that’s “too sad” and she likes to think of it that Myne and Urano basically got merged into the Myne we see in the novel. It would also explain some of the more childish aspects of Myne’s personality
Near the end of the anime of part 2 Ferdinand seems to have the opposite opinion to Myne. He sees it as this world’s Myne inheriting the memories from another world. So in his view, it’s really Urano that is gone, not original Myne
Urano and Main hold the same soul, Urano reincarnated as Main but due to her past memories came back when she was 5, her memories of her present life were overwritten so that Main doesn’t think of herself as Main but as Urano.
I mean, it doesn’t really conflict with what is said in the interview, now that I think about it
Finished the reading! Enjoyed it. I must say it ended up being quite the love song for Japanese cleanliness & convenience. How do those crazy gaikokujin / wegukin get by!
About halfway through this week’s reading. I demoted myself to to junior edition even though I read in an app that allows me to do lookups on the fly AND by default I tell the app to turn off furigana unless I do a lookup. I think I also like that my progress goes 2x as fast in the jr book since the story is split over two volumes.
I’m actually really surprised that I’m following along so far. There have been a lot of lookups for me, but the grammar is easy enough. It’s definitely more challenging than the aotori/tsubasa bunko books I’ve been reading lately, but I’m not in over my head.
I’m also reading along to the audiobook like a number of people in the bookclub and oh man when she started with the title/author in that super high voice I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it, lol. I’m actually pretty pleased with the narration though, and I thought her dialog with 修 was quite good.
Pleasant surprises all around
Oof yeah, I read some of the side by sides for the parts I had read already and I wouldn’t be able to get through it in English I don’t think. I guess that’s one of the nice things about reading in a foreign language, you’re happy if you can just follow the plot and don’t have a good sense of tone or style yet. It’s kinda freeing in a way
Jidojisho. It’s Android only, and takes a fair bit to set up, but it also reads Mokuro manga files (pre-OCRed manga pages). Between finding that app and Natively my Japanese reading has 50-100x this year over last year.
It’s been cool rereading so far. I like it as much as the first time around, and am checking against translation. Realized that my expectations for comprehension have gone way up since 2.5 months ago. This time around I’ve been reading first, then rereading with the audio (last time I did audio first). Not sure whether that’s the most optimal method.
Surprised to see how many people find Myne annoying. If anything, I was impressed at how grounded she is about her new reality, and what she needs to do to improve her conditions. The fact that she has an end goal to drive her through everything makes sense. I also get kind of obsessive about my interests, so I guess I find that part of her relatable. Curious to see how people will feel over the next few chapters.
Interesting seeing @Athakaspen and other’s thoughts on the translation. I didn’t think it was so bad, and felt like the relevant emotions came across. But maybe I just filled that stuff in subconsciously, while I was reading.
I might have missed something, but the only mentions of her being annoying I saw (well, mine included) are about her attitude in the whole book in general, not this specific section.
Entirely possible that it got blurred together in my head then. Honestly it’s been so hot here lately (and I don’t have A/C ) that I’m just glad I typed out a coherent reply
Aaaand finished this week’s reading. With uhh, 1.5 hours left before the week’s over. But I did it.
To be honest, most of that was me procrastinating on sitting down and getting through it. I did chapter 1 in 3 hours in one sitting, which I had hoped to avoid and don’t plan on repeating next week, but I had put it off until late in the week and got through it.
The slower pace did help really empathise with Myne’s feelings about finding herself in this world compared to her original one.
Tbf, I always thought she was somewhere on the autistic spectrum and don’t forget that she is thrown into a world she doesn’t know, living with people she doesn’t know, into a body that is weak and sick. Everything is strange, she lost everyone and everything she knew - and thus she seeks the only thing she has ever really loved/enjoyed. Getting some control over her life. It made sense to me, but yeah she is hella annoying at the beginning.
Depends on the area I have found. Europe (as a whole) often gets an おしゃれ with the idea that everything is nicer, cleaner and prettier than Japan ( ) - at least until people have actually been there or met people from there. (There is very little distinguishing between countries.)
Finished last week’s reading. tbf I moved countries this week, so I had a bit of an excuse
Following up on multiple comments, about (how are we romanizing マイン?), towards the end of chapter 1 definitely was thinking, I get it, everything is dirty, but I think in all honesty she was pretty chill about her situation. I think annoyance with her probably comes more from the laser focus on her complaints than the character herself–at least as far as I’ve read. I wouldn’t want anyone up in my thoughts whenever I’m forced into an uncomfortable situation ( ), but as a work of fiction there are probably better ways to get across how different (and inferior) the new setting is.
Just saw this edit of yours. Each week’s thread will have what should be the official English, Japanese, and Korean versions of the names, at least as far as I can find them:
English
Japanese
Korean
Notes
Myne
マイン
마인
Protagonist
Tuuli
トゥーリ
투리
Myne’s older sister
Effa
エーファ
에파
Myne’s mother
Günter
ギュンター
귄터
Myne’s father
So ‘Myne’ in this case! (Though you’ll see some forum members refer to her as ‘Main’, which is the localization used by iirc the anime at least.)
(very minor spoiler) it’s also how it is spelled in universe (spoiler because we do not know that characters exist at this point of the story)
That makes it physically painful for me to write her name any other way.
In the manga adaptation, it is part of this book, so people who check it will eventually get there. I don’t remember seeing it directly in the novel
(I’m not pushing people to write it that way by the way. Death of the author and all that. Plus, the in universe spelling of some words makes no sense)
I’m late to the party since I’ve been busy, but I just finished the prologue + chapter 1. I haven’t had any previous exposure to the series, in LN, manga, or anime form, so this was completely new to me. I can relate to the obsession with books (and the disgust for how dirty it is wherever she’s been isekai’d… it sounds gross). Frankly, I think that she’s coping pretty well in a very stressful, disorienting situation and I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.
Japanese-wise, this wasn’t too bad. I’m reading a physical copy and I’m only looking up a word per page, so it’s quite breezy compared to the last book I read, which is lovely.
My second attempt at this book. The first time, I made it a third of the way through and felt it was OK albeit slow because of my reading speed, then just drifted off to something else. Thought the club aspect might help motivate me somewhat, so here we are.
Thoughts: Effective introduction. The first person voice can more easily lead to some of the issues alluded to earlier in this thread, but I get the sense that the author wants readers to discover this world along with Urano/Myne rather than showing their hand too early.
) that I’m just glad I typed out a coherent reply 
