After each chapter you are brought back to the menu to select the next chapter to play, so it should be easy to tell when you have reached the stopping point. This week covers the Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2.
Discussion Guidelines
Please blur / hide any major events in the current week’s portion (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s: [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
Don’t hesitate to ask questions! I know that some of you might be feeling shy, or don’t want to bother others with their questions, but you don’t have to worry: People love answering questions. You’re making the thread more lively, and you’re also helping anyone who has the same questions. So please, ask a lot of them!
Join the conversation — it’s fun!
Participation Poll
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m planning to catch up later
I’m skipping this VN
The club has already finished, and I’m reading this VN now
This was a fun for me and not for Jing lol, poor guy and not entirely unexpected chapter considering the shadiness of 江. I realized afterwards that the chapter title 江湖 is a pun… of course.
One thing I found fascinating (and would be curious to see how the Japanese version handles it) is that 湖 (the mafia guy) speaks pretty bad and heavily accented Mandarin. It sounds to me that he’s actually a Cantonese native speaker. Maybe from Hong Kong? I think HK in the 80s had a lot mafia related shenanigans.
I noticed this after I saw ruby text on the chinese text:
It repeats in the chapter for both accent (like pronouncing zh → z) and also the guy straight up saying words in Cantonese instead of Mandarin lol. I also considered if he was speaking some other Chinese dialect but he called Jing 靚仔 and 詐傻扮懵 which are both mostly Cantonese terms so…
Also, kudos to Jing for managing to keep his nerves. Idk if 3000 yen is worth nearly getting shot… wonder what 湖 would think if he knew they got tricked by a can of cat coffee lol.
This was a cute chapter, I like Emi and Jing’s dynamic a lot. Eventually they are going to find the cat… I wonder what Jing will think once he realizes he’s been calling Emi “friend” all along lol.
I think I’m warming up to Kanna a little more, she’s dealing with a lot of stress, pain, and social anxiety, especially at her age. I guess the way I handle stress/anxiety tends to be the opposite of hers where I would rather blame myself over other people (especially when they are strangers) so I didn’t really get it, but the snippets of her POV this chapter helped.
Also, I keep getting tripped up on this, does anyone remember how old Kanna and Jing are? I thought they were 15/16 and 21 for some reason but maybe it’s actually 16 and 19? It refuses to stick in my head lol.
Man, I’m really enjoying this game more and more. Even if I tell myself that I’ll only read half an hour or so, in the end I read an hour to finish the current chapter.
Chapter 7
Well, that was unexpectedly exciting. Glad that Jin got out of it fine in the end. Well… physically at least.
江 in Japanese to the Yakuza: 「ここはウチの物件なんだけどな……」
それが江さんの第一声。ヤクザを前にしても、恐れている様子はなかった。
そして俺は、物件という言葉から
ようやくこれが、地上げによるイザコザであることを理解した。
He said that in Japanese though, so how would you understand it, Jin?
Jin didn’t seem particularly impressed either. I was actually pretty surprised 江 didn’t give him more to entice him. Jin was reluctant in the first place, and now he knows that something he considers really dangerous doesn’t actually pay that well. I thought 江 would be more crafty.
I’m not sure my Japanese is good enough to judge if the Japanese is bad
I could screenshot any lines you’re particularly interested in.
Haha. If you hadn’t posted it, I would’ve.
We also had some Nekowine Whiskey last week that I forgot to post then!
I’m glad Jin cheered her up! (Using the universal language: breakdancing )
Chapter 8 questions
たぶんヤキモチのような嫉妬じゃない。
“Probably… jealousy-like jealousy.”? Is ヤキモチ a special kind of jealousy?
きっと、悔しかったのだと思う。 そして、寂しかったのだと思う。
Is she guessing about her own feelings there? The ones that lead to the jealousy and her “憎まれ口”?
表に出ると、いつしか降りだした雪。
思わず吐息が真っ白に煙った。
Does the second sentence mean he unintentionally blew out a lot of breath to see it turn white?
どちらからでもなく、ホームのベンチに腰掛ける俺達。
What does どちらからでもなく here mean?
Chapter 9
Jin: 「なあ江さん、あの子も金が必要らしい」
What the heck, Jin?!
Jin: 「……いかがわしい仕事だろ？」
I think that thought is a little late, Jin, and the answer is: Of course it’s something dubious! I think he made it pretty clear that pay is only good when risk is high. That’s why you have been refusing him all the time, right? What the heck are you thinking getting Kanna involved?
And now that he actually used the note-exchanging both ways with Sakura-san, I’m a really surprised he’s not thinking of using the same method with Kanna. I assume it’ll lead to that soon?
学業の合間のアルバイトとはいえ - Although it’s work while pausing studies
それなりの金額となる為 - for making a reasonable amount of money
中には彼女のように - among them are some like her
本業と大差なく働く者 - who are working without a big difference from their main occupation
も多いそうだ - …seems also be a lot.
Is it “Although it’s work while they are taking a break from their studies, it’s for making money, and it’s seems there are also a lot of people who, like her, are working without a big difference from their main occupation.”? As in, this work isn’t far from what she’s studying for?
「ま、バカが気に入らないなら、甘いってとこだな」
Any idea what to make of that sentence? “Well, when idiots don’t like it, that’s the sweet spot”?
Okay, I actually didn’t understand the pun the first time around, because I only knew of the first definition which is “rivers and lakes” but actually there’s a secondary definition which means “section of society operating independently of mainstream society, out of reach of the law / triads”… which is literally what the characters / this chapter is about.
I’m just mostly curious if they made any attempt to indicate that the mafia guy was speaking in an accent, like using katakana or something.
Somehow I missed that!
Ch 9
Oh, finally some minimum common sense with gesturing and such…
Also Sakura-san did the note thing! With Japanese and Chinese!
Hard agree here… he knows that 江 owns that bar and he nearly got shot by the mafia… talk about being overly optimistic/naive lol
In the Chinese translation it’s something like “not very satisfied”. Seems like 納得 has a sense like that. I think she’s hiding something about the cat
Well, I can’t help with the Japanese, but this is the Chinese:
雖說是勤工儉學，但因為薪酬豐厚， 所以也有不少學生像她一樣把打工當成本職來幹。
Which seems to mean something like “even though it’s a part time job (/work-study), because the pay is pretty good, there are many students like her who prioritize the work over studying”.
I assume this is 江 speaking?
Possibly ってとこ is short for というところ which means “in the (metaphorical) vicinity”. 甘い also has a meaning of “naive” / “soft” which is probably what 江 is complaining about.
Can’t quite tell which line this is in Chinese but maybe the following:
「你這傻瓜，太天真了。」
Which translates to “you idiot, too naive”
And there’s also
「哎，你們兩個傻瓜，繼續犯你們的傻吧。」
later on when talking about Kanna or Jing quitting, which means “you two idiots, keep being idiots” with a sort of “have it your way” kind of vibe He’s just really not impressed / outright insulting, I wonder if the Japanese has the same vibe considering how non confrontational Japanese usually is
I’m liking it more now that it’s picking up. I really don’t want 江 going anywhere near the girls!
I assume this means without a big difference in pay; i.e. these boom economy jobs are so good that people are just doing those without continuing their studies.
This was completely lost in translation - nothing stood out about the Japanese text.
I’ve been toying with the idea of learning Mandarin myself and think voiced VNs might be the way I go about it. I haven’t bitten the bullet yet, though.
fwiw I remember Kanna turning 16 before moving to Tokyo.
Ah. No, I don’t remember anything as obvious as that.
Chapter 9
Yeah, it was really nice seeing them having a conversation!
I don’t see how to get there from the Japanese sentence, but it sure makes sense in context. Thanks!
In my opinion both he and Jin have a rather confrontational vibe going when talking to each other. 江’s side probably doesn’t have to be described, and I feel like Jin’s attitude can be well summarized by this exchange:
江:「お前どうせ暇だろ、少し付き合ってくれ」
Jin:「確かに暇だが、断わる」
None of the usual すみませんが、今はちょっと。。。, he just nopes out of there before even wanting to hear any details about what 江 wants this time
So much this. I don’t think Kanna would be even remotely interested in any offers by him, but I wonder if he’ll try to get her into some kind of scheme. And I hope Emi doesn’t get any health problems that’ll need her to get a lot of money very quickly
Ah, so 本業 as in “the thing they are studying for”?
You know what’s interesting about this is that the Chinese is the translation. So they must have added extra local flavor that the Japanese writer didn’t have the cultural awareness/ability to catch in the original transcript
I kept replaying the lines since this was bothering me! 胡’s Cantonese accent seemed off to me in some sentences, so initially I thought it was either another dialect/accent I’m not used to. But thinking back on it, it does sound like he switches between pure Cantonese and Mandarin (with an accent) with Cantonese terms thrown in but with the Mandarin pronunciation.
Random fact, but I always have to be creative when writing out Chinese names in Japanese lol. I had to use 胡散臭い to write 胡
Wondering why 江 is so obsessed with Jing. Does he just need the manpower or is he supposedly looking out for him in his own way?
Possibly a mix of both, plus at this point he might also be annoyed that Jin is completely disinterested in what he’s offering and enjoys messing with him. But in the end we can only speculate…
And by the way, welcome, glad to have you in the club!
That term is very apt for that guy! Yeah, it seemed that his Chinese was all over the place. I can imagine he just half-assedly learned some Mandarin pronunciation and thought it was enough lol
I also wondered about this. It sounds like he’s annoyed at Jing for squandering his opportunities and just settling for this weird low paying job. Could be an entertainment thing, or could be a “looking out for my fellow countrymen” kind of thing…
(Visual Novel Reading Club)
)
He’s just really not impressed / outright insulting, I wonder if the Japanese has the same vibe considering how non confrontational Japanese usually is
