Nani mo Wakaranai - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 - Nothing Can Be Understood

[MangaDex]

 

[nisor]

More to come.

 

[Xzayer]

Nice I can only remember one story that had a similar premise. Hopefully this doesn’t get canceled

 

[lesseffective]

More to come.

I'm down for more. Though for page 4, shouldn't Chapter 10 be "First Exploration Part 3" or am I missing something here?

 

[a_singular_strike]

Thanks for the translation.
Seems really nice at a first glance and language barriers (in this case even common knowledge) in stories are always interesting to read.

 

[Mr_Leixas]

Oh? A conlang? That's pretty rare for a manga, even more if it ends up being kind of functional.

Anyway, I'm interested.

 

[grantgigant]

I like the concept and the art is cute.

 

[nisor]

I'm down for more. Though for page 4, shouldn't Chapter 10 be "First Exploration Part 3" or am I missing something here?

You are absolutely right. It's been fixed now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Veruschka]

Looks extremely insteresting

 

[mrboxeater]

Reminds me of Dungeon Osananajimi somehow, interrsting...

 

[NilTheRunaway]

There's another manga that focuses on anthropology, culture and communication between humans and monsters. EDIT: This one's [Heterogenia Linguistico: An Introduction to Interspecies Linguistics]. Thanks, Count_Terranova!

And another manga (a romcom?) about an isekai'd person having to learn how to communicate with the demon king (some girl) and that one ended already. EDIT: This one's [I Was Summoned by the Demon Lord, but I Can’t Understand Her Language].

 

[vannn]

I feel like this trope is really underutilized, following to see where it goes.

 

[tuatara1]

I think this premise would be significantly more interesting without the memory loss angle. Making the protagonist basically a blank slate rarely works out well.

 

[Count_Terranova]

There's another manga that focuses on anthropology, culture and communication between humans and monsters.

Heterogenia Linguistico: An Introduction to Interspecies Linguistics

 

[Miserys_End]

I think this premise would be significantly more interesting without the memory loss angle. Making the protagonist basically a blank slate rarely works out well.

Eh, the MC isn't really a true blank slate. His first words were about amnesia. So he seems somewhat educated about stuff and things, just lacks the more personal memories that defines a person's individuality.

In the end it does leave him in a bit of a bind, bit should make adapting to a new world somewhat easier.

 

[Mangamoz]

I'm getting good signs from this one, since unlike the demon girl manga, in this story it seems that the protag is at least trying to get by the language barrier.

Unlike the lazy dumbfuck in that other story.

 

[mornoon]

am i misunderstanding something cus why the fuck did he try to slice his wrist with the sword? and why the hell did that not kill him?

 

[Landale]

am i misunderstanding something cus why the fuck did he try to slice his wrist with the sword? and why the hell did that not kill him?

He cut the topside of his arm, which would be less dangerous than cutting at wrist, so it wouldn't be super dangerous exactly.
As for why, he was trying to provoke her to use magic. The sudden weapon grab would possibly provoke an attack, the injury would possibly provoke healing. As it turns out, the sword is either too blunt to cut or, as he's assuming, his body is especially durable.
Basically, dude caught on that it's an isekai thing going on and is poking at things trying to figure out how they work.

 

[NilTheRunaway]

that one. it's a nice read!

 

[Lunkli]

@nisor For future chapters, I feel like it'd be better to transliterate the furigana for the elf(?)'s language in more standard manner. Like, on p14, you have "douh" and on p15 you have "ah." Based on the raws, the Hepburn transliteration of these should be "dō" / "dou" and "a." ("dou" is probably better, as we don't know if it's meant to be a long vowel or sequential vowels, and "ou" can be read as either.) This would also include some rarer kana combinations like the "di" on p23 and the "tyu" on p1, of course.

Because we don't know what this language is meant to actually sound like and we don't know what's important, it's better to be more literal about what the Japanese version says rather than trying to approximate it as something more Englishy-looking. Like, right now it's unclear if those "ah"s are long or not, or if that "douh" actually has a consonant H at the end or whatever else.

You might also want to distinguish the katakana and the hiragana in the furigana, as it seems to use both and I'm sure that's not for no reason. (Like, maybe kata is for grammar words while hira is for content words?) All caps for katakana is a common enough standard to be recognized, I think. (If you insist on using a font without a clear caps distinction, you can use bold or something on the katakana as well, as long as its different.) Also, the words are seperated pretty clearly, so I think you ought to copy those spacings as well. Taking everything into account, the "dou" line I mentioned would be "TOJU sui DE paidou," for example, instead of your "TOJU SUI DE PAIDOUH"

Even if this might stylistically look worse, it's better than having to go back and change everything when it turns out certain things you messed with do matter, don't you think? The language is clearly important here, and being literal means you're giving the exact same interpretations the author chose to give Japanese readers regarding it.