Marriage to the Wolf: BLCD Mini-comic

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Remember I mentioned that the BLCD I got for Marriage of the Wolf had a little comic on the inside? I didn’t show the picture, only mentioned it. WELL. I decided to do a “translation” post. I remember trying my hand at one, what, almost seven years ago?! Except that then my Japanese level was at absolute zero and now I like to think it’s at like 0.1.

Also, I did have someone actually look over what I did vs. now it’s just me. So really this isn’t a translation, per se. It’s more me showing you all my bad handwriting, sharing some words and phrases (maybe), and the overall sense of the comic!

As you can see, the comic is tiny but oh boy did it take me hours to get through this! I had an idea already of what was going on. I think it’s short enough where you get a sense of it, but it was nice actually understanding (mostly) what was going on

So what I like to do is write and rewrite everything. Not just so that it’s in a size that’s friendlier for me (especially the more elaborate kanji) but because I want to learn how to write. So I wrote down the dialogue that I wanted to focus on, which ended up being 9 lines. I threw these into translate, and what I wrote to the side is what it translated to

After this, I went through each line and worked out what was happening. Again, I’m learning kanji and writing so under some of the characters, you can see that I wrote down what each individual character stands for. Sometimes it’s easy and the character only has one meaning (alone) but sometimes it’s hard because some characters have multiple meanings and sometimes they even contradict

Things seemed pretty simple at the start. We start off with Kaede coming in and calling out Ren’s name. 練さん

Then we have お弁当忘れてましたよ, which took me a while to pull apart because it has “words” that don’t mean anything (to me). Plus, having to just read up on what the て particle means was its own struggle. Luckily, I sort of remembered that よ was usually a form of emphasis and didn’t worry about this. Basically, Kaede is saying that Ren forgot (忘れ) his bento (お弁当). Definitely, a word I want to learn how to write and recognize!

After this we have ほい, which I couldn’t find, but that I understood to mean something like “here” to which Ren responds with a sorry or my bad (悪い). This one also took me a while to figure out. I imagined it meant this but I couldn’t get a direct answer on most sites. I didn’t look into the text between them since I can’t read it…

After this, we have これ今なにしてるんですか? According to translate, Kaede is asking Ren what he’s doing. We have 今 which is now but これ threw me off since I’ve heard it used as “this” (ie. this pen). なに is pretty simple. That’s the question of what. I could also eliminate ですか from my research. This left してる which I found out means to do or doing. I suppose it’s doing in this case since we have 今. Oh, I wonder if これ今 would be something like “right now”. Not sure. So he’s basically asking what Ren is doing. Also yes, I did just ignore the floating ん

The truth is that I hadn’t figured out what it was but I’d gotten the gist of the meaning. It wasn’t until later that I found what it meant. Apparently, んです is (in my eyes) further emphasis on Kaede’s question. Sort of like “what are you doing now? explain/tell me about it” because んです means that you want more information about a situation. It’s kind of crazy how I’ve heard this used often enough but never really registered it as んです. I wonder if I’ll be able to hear it now that I know of it!

After this Ren tells Kaede 書類見てハンコ押してる, which does have me a bit confused. 書類 means official documents, 見 is seeing or looking, て is probably the same particle from Kaede’s first sentence, 押 is to push or seal, and してる is again to do/doing. Can you believe I’m jumping into kanji and doing pretty well memorizing them but I still struggle heavily with katakana? Yeah, I couldn’t figure out what ハ was at first but I figure out it was ハンコ or はんこ. This is the signature stamp that all people in Japan have and use for official paperwork

So Ren is saying he’s looking at some documents and stamping them. I went with “and” since he uses two verbs (見 and 押) but I didn’t really understand how this worked until I read this. Turns out this て was different! Maybe. Again, I don’t know the grammar

Then we have the small bubbles on the side, which I wasn’t going to try and translate (I can’t read it) but the more I looked at it, the more I recognized some of the kanji. Kaede says 僕も押していい, which we can break down to “I too stamp do” but していい is moreso him asking for permission. So he’s saying something like “Can I stamp too?” to which Ren replies with だめ or no. Poor Kaede!! But I get it, using those stamps is hard. I still struggle

Wow, I can’t believe we’ve only gotten through three panels and that was me skipping a potential sentence. But we’re almost done. I think the next is the last panel with lots of words. I’m also glad I actually figured out what this little side dialogue said because then what Kaede says next makes more sense

Kaede says じゃー僕うち戻るんで while lifting his fist. Ren looks at his gesture with confusion (eyes, question mark). We have “I” again in the form of 僕 and うち, which is house. 戻る means to return or go back. From here I guessed that Kaede said something like “I’ll go back home”. The part here that threw me off was the じゃー since I’ve heard that to be “bye” but it didn’t make sense to say bye before you leave?

It also felt more like Kaede was letting out a breath. A sort of “ah well” because Ren told him no to the stamping (or a moving on sort of noise). There was also んで but I was able to figure out that this was a shortened version of ので, perhaps similar to you all and yall (in that we eat letters). This apparently meant something along the lines of “because of that or that being the case”. So I suppose he said something like “Ah well, it can’t be helped. I’ll go back home.”

Next, he says お互い一日頑張りましょう. 頑張り being a form of がんばれ or “you can do it/good luck” (or similar). Another one I should be able to write and recognize since it’s used often! ましょう is one I only slightly knew and had to look up. I’ve heard it often as いきましょう but wasn’t sure how it broke down. I know, but I wanted to make sure since I never actually learned the word for go. It was more just recognition. Another part of this sentence is お互い which means each other. I did have a bit of trouble with 一日. Individually, I knew 一 was one and 日 was day or sun, but together…was it one day? today?

It didn’t make complete sense to me until I figured it maybe meant “each moment” or “each day”. So then we have Kaede saying something along the lines of “Let’s always work hard/give it our all for each other.” I think I’m melting

And then this is when things get a bit crazy. You know how Ren was like “what the heck is he doing with his hand”? Well, in the next panel we see him go ん, which is apparently the sound of a kiss. Yes, I do believe he kissed Kaede’s knuckles/fist. And they just so happened to have an audience! We see someone in the back, I believe it’s Ren’s dad, drop the papers he had in hand バサ or ばさ

My last struggle of the day was intense. We have Kaede yelling なんでも口ですなああああ. This one was tough and I’m actually going more with my gut feeling and saying that Kaede said something like “Why did you/Why would you use your mouth?!” 口 is mouth, なん is what, でも is but, but then なんでも can also mean everything? なんで can also be a form of why but that leaves も hanging. Confusion in my brain

I tried doing some research and found that も can also add emphasis so maybe I’m on the right track! I found that な worked similarly in that it indicated high emotions or added emphasis. And Kaede is yelling this at the top of his lungs

As for the little text right under…I had to pull the text using my phone. I managed to get ス スミマセンお取りみ中に but I was one kanji off and I didn’t recognize it. Maybe it’s not an exaggeration to say it took me almost an hour to figure out what I was missing. ス スミマセン is pretty simple. The first ス is a stutter since the dad did just walk into a very EHERM compromising situation. But that left the rest of the sentence that didn’t make a lot of sense. 取 alone means to take or fetch. 中 is middle. に was probably a particle so it wouldn’t give much of a hint. お was probably a show of respect to 取り and み, well, I don’t know. It wasn’t in kanji so what could it be?

Eventually I figured out the missing kanji was 込 (こ). So the phrase was お取り込み中に and lo and behold 取り込み中 means busy or being in the middle of something. So the dad’s saying something like “S-sorry for interrupting” and we all know what kind of “busy” he was thinking of, kekeke. And Kaede knows too because he responds お取り込み中じゃないです. じゃない is a word I know very well. It’s a negative so he’s essentially saying they are NOT busy/he’s not interrupting ANYTHING

The very bottom of the comic has a picture of Kaede’s distressed face and the words やっぱわからない or that he seriously has no idea what’s going on

How fried was my brain after doing this? VERY. But I was also SO HAPPY. I’ve mainly only been pulling kanji from places like titles (BL isekai), the news (got a few 雨 words), and even some newspapers that people leave lying around. This is the first time I thought I’d try my hand at a small comic (from start to finish)! I hope to do more down the line. Then, when someone asks how I learned Japanese I’ll be like, it was the BL. It showed me the way!!

終わり