It’s nice to see somebody pick this up. Despite being MTL, they have done a pretty good job of proofreading it to help it flow.
Also, it’s actually a really positive pair of chapters. I am someone that basically doesn’t talk at all when I get my hair cut, so I sympathize a bit. However, I don’t suffer from social anxiety like Hiiragi, so people talking around me doesn’t bother me.
I am hopeful both that chapters will continue to be posted and that Hiiragi has started turning things around.
I debated posting chapter 11 because of the MTL, but with 12 too, and the fact that it’s at least readable, I went ahead.
I do suffer from social anxiety, so this manga really hits home for me. I’ve never been as low energy as Hiiragi, but if you just substitute an endless parade of hobbies and diversions for sleeping, her life is much like mine.
And that’s a lot of what I appreciate about this manga - it’s one of the clearest and most accurate portrayals of social anxiety snd depression I’ve seen, and it’s nicely balanced - neither overly sympathetic nor judgmental. It’s just… realistic. And a bit hopeful.
As a point of comparison, the recent chapters of Gal to Iinchou ga Guuzen Saikai suru Hanashi aren’t MTL, but they are really tough to read. The TL that was doing the chapters in Indonesian decided to also post the English chapters and they are rough.
I thought to mention those too.
I assume you noticed that I posted chapter 11 of it the other day, then deleted it. And likely figured out why - because I only read it after I posted it, and the translation is so awful that I couldn’t in good conscience leave it up. And I didn’t even bother with chapter 12 - I just read enough of it to find it was the same.
A lot of the problem though isnt just that the translation is poor - it’s that that particular manga needs a good translation just to work. Since so much of it is centered around duplicitous supposed friends, much of the conflict is communicated by subtle things the characters say, or notably don’t say, to each other. It’s all little digs and innuendos and passive-aggression, and all of that gets lost with a poor translation.
So I’m waiting and hoping for a better one.
And that’s part of the reason that this one is okay. It is at least a bit better overall, but also, the dialogue and thoughts are straightforward - it’s not people playing complex mind games, but just Hiiragi witnessing her own life. So even when the phrasing isn’t quite clear, we can work out what was meant, since it’s simple and earnest.
