This reminds me of a LN series I’m reading in English (Dahlia in Bloom) and at the end of each book there’s translators notes that get into this exact topic. How they translated niche cultural concepts and the difficultly in finding a balance between getting the gist across and adding excessive explanations so non Japanese readers understand what it is. Adding in that it’s set in a fantasy world, and the process is anything but easy.
Incidentally this is why I never click on forum topics related to translation. NO ONE is ever satisfied.
Yesterday I finished 狼と香辛料 2, one of my benchmark books. The usual devious plot with - to use Frank Herbert - plans within plans within plans.
This time I needed under four weeks, which is way faster than the almost 7 weeks for vol #1. But otoh I also had more time, vol #2 is longer, I did not use a vocab list, so all in all it‘s not really comparable.
Though I could reach 8.8 lookups/page in the last week, the book’s average was still above 10, at 10.8 lookups/page. That’s about one lookup less than for vol #1 , but it’s still no comfortable read. So for now I will not continue with vol #3, but wait another year and see.
And now? One or two in-between manga, for sure, like 葬送のフリーレン 6, but then I will probably go for つながりの蔵, some less difficult more urban fantasy(?)…edit: just saw-this book also has a 四葉ちゃん, we cannot escape her…edit2: ah, but she is called よつは, so the furigana.
Reading vol 12 now! I’ve been listening to the audiobook while following along with the book but I thought I’d try just reading the book first and then listen to the audiobook while I work or do chores.
I’ve noticed that my reading speed has increased, I’d usually hover around 30-40 pages per hour but It seems to have gone up to 40-50 pages per hour. I wonder if just listening to those audiobooks has done something or maybe it’s because I’ve started speaking recently
During my very first conversation on italki, the tutor thought I was lying when I told her that I’d never had a conversation in japanese before. We also read an article and she said my reading was smoother than her N1 students. I felt like I scored some points for Stephen Krashenn after that! But then I was like, maybe they were just being nice
I’m already thinking about what series I want to read next. Now that I have access to audible, Ive been curious about Harry Potter but I’m not sure if its worth reading/listening to translations. Either 新装版フォーチュン・クエスト | L27 or 薬屋のひとりごと | L38 might be cool to dive into.
Finally finished 葬送のフリーレン 1 | L26. Vol 1 was kinda boring (as expected), but vol 2 has been interesting enough. Just like the anime, it starts to pick up when Stark shows up. I really miss the scenic visuals and music from the anime tho. I appreciate that Stark & Fern’s faces look a little younger in the manga, since they’re teens after all.
Read and liked 赤髪の白雪姫1 | L26. It’s not in “makes my eyes light up” territory, but it’s pretty unique so far, and seems like it will be a tale of friendship that happens to also be a romance. To my surprise, my comprehension is terrible, which has me all the more interested in reading the rest. Will probably wait until I’ve bought physicals to continue it.
Reread ささやくように恋を唄う | L20 including the most recent chapters! Loved it as much as the first time, and walked away with a few revised impressions. I was frustrated that I still had to look things up sometimes, but overall it’s very easy to understand. Hopefully next time I can get throughout it with no lookups. Also enjoying the anime, tho it’s a bit different from how I imagined.
What’s different from how you imagined? I rarely watch anime after reading the source because this disconnect happens often, so I’m curious what it was for you. Feel free to spoil early plot or scenes.
Was unavoidable in this case, since it was 一目惚れ ever since I read the manga last year, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the anime since they announced it. (The key visual has even been my phone bg for the last 8 months).
ささこい impressions
Voices are different than I pictured them. I imagined Himari a bit more like Ayaneru (Sakura Ayane), and especially Aki I imagined like a slightly exasperated Sawashiro Miyuki. Moment to moment pacing feels slower than I thought, though the overall plot pace is pretty much the same, and they’re doing things by the book. OST is occasionally different than I would have expected… more scenic(?) idk how to put it.
I also feel a bit mixed about the band music so far. Yori has a relatively low vocal range, but the band’s vocals are in a higher register… which is not impossible, but felt off. The music should hypothetically be a bit rougher at this point… but that would be a very risky choice from a production standpoint. (Bocchi pulled that balance off surprisingly well, but even then ppl criticized it for sounding too good at times, like when things were going wrong during their performance).
One thing that was interesting: in the manga you get the “first day” events from Himari’s perspective, and then in the second chapter from Yori’s perspective. In the anime you hear both of their thoughts in real time - which I think was definitely the right move.
Anyway, the changes aren’t making me grumpy or anything, and I’m anxiously awaiting next ep. It’s just the diff btwn 4 vs 5 star for me.
Edit: also I’m sooooo glad I’m watching it in JP. Some of the comments I’ve seen about the EN localization are very, very odd
I read both volumes back when they were free to read on Booklive. I didn’t find volume 1 boring, but I hadn’t seen the anime before hand, so it’s not surprising.
I do want to keep going with that series someday, but it’s just one of many and I have very little time.
Looking forward to your comments on the other volumes!
The beginning is just as boring (or not) in the anime (the anime is basically identical). I really had to push myself through it. If it wasn’t for the fact that my friend was really into it, I probably wouldn’t have made it.
It’s a “me” thing tho, I just have trouble with slow pacing, and it’s a series that very much likes to take its time - which is also largely its charm
I have officially started the series I plan to use for “longest TBR”; it’s the series that almost singlehandedly convinced me to start learning Japanese, and remains one of my absolute favorites to this day: SILVER DIAMOND | L28! (I believe volume 11 is probably the closest contender I have for “single volume longest on TBR”). It’s also the series my avatar comes from. This was one of those, “I didn’t want to read this until I’m good enough at reading to read it fluently, with no dictionary!” kind of series; I wanted that full experience, as close as I could get to reading in English, before I started it. I was looking up the odd word or two as I read volume 1, and it’ll take me a bit to get used to the author’s writing style, but I think I can safely say I’ve waited long enough. I certainly don’t want to wait another 10 years…
I was devastated when Tokyopop went under and took Silver Diamond with it, especially considering that their German branch was: a) doing fine, and b) also translating SD. Why I thought it would be a better idea to learn Japanese rather than German I’ll never know; I suppose there was enough pressure from other Japanese media I wanted to consume that pushed me down that path. I was also quite mad when I found out it was being localized in French, yet another common language I didn’t know, haha. I waited hopefully for years to see if SD would get picked up in Spanish (which would have cut out an early reason to learn Japanese), but no dice afaik.
(Edit: Thinking on it, another reason I probably didn’t go down the German path because it was probably inconceivable to me to learn the language on my own, outside of school; I had no previous standard for that. Whereas with Japanese you had mystical tales online of people learning Japanese outside of school, potentially fully self-taught, so maybe it seemed like a more realistic plan to me at the time, haha.)
Dunno how long it’ll take me to work through SD now. I don’t want to rush; I want to soak in the nostalgia and happiness from finally reading it in the OG.
I also need to write up a nice review for volume 1, too…
I started 現実もたまには嘘をつく | L22?? and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s about these two kids (probably high school age, but can’t really tell) who became friends from an online game and decide to meet in person. One is a girl and the other is a guy, but he uses a female avatar in the game so she thought he was a girl too. She forces him to crossdress when meeting her family, but so far there are more chapters of them just hanging out normally, as the crossdressing really only comes up when he interacts with her family. This is not what I expected (since the crossdressing was in the premise), but I’m enjoying it regardless. So far the two main characters have good chemistry, so it works regardless of how they’re hanging out.
The anime at least does seem rather oddly paced – I was just settling down to enjoy it as a slow paced slice of life thing and then it suddenly switched gears into a fast paced shonen battle style thing for a bit…
I can 100% relate. Ever since I started language tandems, I am more and more convinced that it‘s basically impossible to learn German
(Actually one of them learned German up to native-level standards, including most of the pronunciation - so I know it’s possible, just extremely hard).
German is easier than Japanese, though, unless you are a Korean or Chinese native. And if you ignore the more finer details of grammar (such as gender and cases), German is actually quite simple. (and you don’t really need those finer details) And there is some overlap between English and German vocabulary. The main hurdle, imo, is motivation/use.
and sometimes you learn a unpopular language which doesn’t even have a good online dictionary (Serbian). I do think Serbian is harder as a self guided learner because there is really little material, not many other learners (and all learners I encountered so far are heritage speakers anyway) and not a lot of grammar books, even though you have to consider gender (even in verbs), 7 cases and even a bit of pitch accent.
Technically also 2 alphabets but Cyrillic really isn’t that hard…
(I am always so relived when I switch from my Serbian conversation lessons to a Japanese conversation lessons and I can just speak when I know a word instead of stumbling over gender and cases )
Just started reading 黒い雨 | L49?? coming off of 痴人の愛 | L42 and getting quite a bit of whiplash from the change in mood and style. I reckon it’ll take me at least twice as long to read. Historical novels aren’t my forte, but it’s undoubtedly an important read.
This was one of those, “I didn’t want to read this until I’m good enough at reading to read it fluently, with no dictionary!” kind of series; I wanted that full experience, as close as I could get to reading in English, before I started it. I was looking up the odd word or two as I read volume 1, and it’ll take me a bit to get used to the author’s writing style, but I think I can safely say I’ve waited long enough. 
I certainly don’t want to wait another 10 years…
- so I know it’s possible, just extremely hard).
(Serbian). I do think Serbian is harder as a self guided learner because there is really little material, not many other learners (and all learners I encountered so far are heritage speakers anyway) and not a lot of grammar books, even though you have to consider 
)
