A not entirely helpful description which will probably only amuse manga readers.

[msagara]

So, we are trying to make room for things in the West household. This involves getting rid of rather a lot of other things. I was downstairs making dinner and my husband was upstairs, inspecting the bookshelves (there are bookshelves in all of the rooms of the house except the kitchen).

He just came downstairs, and asked if I needed the Japanese language Kenshin (I don't, although I told him to hold on to the French versions until the kids are done with French in school). Then he asked about one or two others (all not needed) and last:

"What about the other Japanese ones?"

"Which ones?"

"The ones with the short, obnoxious girl."

Comments

[larryhammer]

Er, no, that's not entirely helpful.

(Surely he doesn't mean Yotsuba&!?)

---L.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Actually, though, he meant Kodomo no Omocha, but it took me a while to figure this out.

[kitkabbit.livejournal.com]

aaaack!!!
get rid of Kodocha?????
how COULD he???
why don't you just double stack them instead...?

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Well... I did keep the DVDs (up to episode 21), but the truth is: It takes me 4 hours to read a page in original Japanese, and because it's all informal, I usually have to ask my son's godfather when I've reached the limit of my very, very small Japanese; I found the Kenshin easier (although he said it's much harder) because so much of the speech is more formal.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

And, well, asking him isn't always easier, either. 'Cause, you know, there might be sarcasm somewhere, lurking. Or he might use the dreaded Socratic method. Pain all around.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I used to be that slow at reading manga in Japanese. It definitely takes a large time commitment to get faster.

Short, obnoxious girl? Right, as if they're not omnipresent. :)

[poslfit.livejournal.com]

Little spring!

[poslfit.livejournal.com]

小泉！

[msagara.livejournal.com]

小泉

I believe what I said was "little fountain?" because the characters made no sense in the context.

...

Clearly, I haven't been making your life miserable enough lately.

[poslfit.livejournal.com]

I believe what I said was "little fountain?" because the characters made no sense in the context.

The problem, if it is one, is that capitalisation is one of the many features of the English language with which Japanese is so delightfully unfettered, rendering it such an easy language to learn. Whereas in English, if the person's name is Little Fountain, you have to remember to capitalise both words; in Japanese such things are simply left to the native speaker to infer from context.

[lianthe.livejournal.com]

Kodocha is brilliant, in a bizarre almost surreal way at times. I imagine it would be useful to keep around, if only to see exactly how DUMB a character can be, and still be completely adorable.

[larryhammer]

Okay, Sana is indeed a short obnoxious girl. But she's so fun to watch.

I can understand just needing the English version though.

---L.