Nani mo Wakaranai - Vol. 1 Ch. 5 - Outside World

[Sakidornis]

Here are the color pages from the original webcomic:

Holy wallaby, it actually looks like the Australian Outback lol.

 

[tnemmoComment]

I don't get what he got the enhanced body for. Would have been better without it

I, for one, see it as a good thing. Hopefully, it's a sign that the author wants to focus on the aspect of learning a mystery language without having to be encumbered by the more mundane issues.
I want the stakes to be language-acquisition-related, not whether he's capable of hunting a rabbit or whatever.

 

[wakanana]

Ya, my immediate thought was that he's an android made by now-ancient humanity, made to terraform or otherwise aid in colonizing the planet

The torch that doesn't run out of fuel seem to be at odds with a sci-fi setting. I think a magical different world is more likely.

 

[AzrefReza]

Blue sky, red rocks, green hair... Color vocab chapter incoming?

Serious answer here: that would be a nightmare for him. Concepts of colors are way more variable from one culture to another than one might think.

For instance, Latin’s got a distinction between bright white (candidus) and dull white (albus), and in the same way between bright black (niger) and dull black (ater). It also has a specific word for the whole range of colors from gray to white found in old peoples’ hair (canus).

The language also doesn’t separate “normal” colors the way we do. For instance, flavus is generally understood as yellow, but it’s more acurately the color of wheat, so it ranges from golden to the green of young plants, while also meaning blonde. On the other hand, luteus is the kind of bright yellow you might find in lemons or clothes and can even border on red like saffron, and luridus is the very pale yellow of someone deeply sick.

Then you’ve got glaucus, that is the blueish green of shallow sea water, whereas caeruleus is the blue of deep sea or the dark gray of the sky on a rainy day (yes, that’s the same color to Romans) and lividus is the blue of blood in veins or bruises so it can also mean the paleness of a corpse.

Clearly not the best way to start creating an understanding…

 

[N2O]

The torch that doesn't run out of fuel seem to be at odds with a sci-fi setting. I think a magical different world is more likely.

Mm well, sci-fi being the "true" background of a magical fantasy setting is a very common trope. Magic being nanobots or whatever other nonsense

 

[sephtis]

I wonder what she's trying to tell him repeatedly on pages 8 and 10? Either way, cute.

Oi
...oi

stop ignoring me....

Is the impression I'm getting.

 

[rgtm573]

Now is the time to point at objects and ask her what the right words are, like trees, rocks, even the sun.

 

[RandomnessOfTheMathWorld]

I, for one, see it as a good thing. Hopefully, it's a sign that the author wants to focus on the aspect of learning a mystery language without having to be encumbered by the more mundane issues.
I want the stakes to be language-acquisition-related, not whether he's capable of hunting a rabbit or whatever.

Well It's not like he needs an enhanced body either. The manga can still stay language focused with a non-op character

 

[Mah_Buddy_Keith]

This chapter feels kinda awkward because of how much color is being described and it being in black and white

 

[Carn109]

The grammar is indeed interesting. I hope we can find out more soon
Also the red environment is just like the Aussie outback

 

[sillybear25]

Serious answer here: that would be a nightmare for him. Concepts of colors are way more variable from one culture to another than one might think.

For instance, Latin’s got a distinction between bright white (candidus) and dull white (albus), and in the same way between bright black (niger) and dull black (ater). It also has a specific word for the whole range of colors from gray to white found in old peoples’ hair (canus).

The language also doesn’t separate “normal” colors the way we do. For instance, flavus is generally understood as yellow, but it’s more acurately the color of wheat, so it ranges from golden to the green of young plants, while also meaning blonde. On the other hand, luteus is the kind of bright yellow you might find in lemons or clothes and can even border on red like saffron, and luridus is the very pale yellow of someone deeply sick.

Then you’ve got glaucus, that is the blueish green of shallow sea water, whereas caeruleus is the blue of deep sea or the dark gray of the sky on a rainy day (yes, that’s the same color to Romans) and lividus is the blue of blood in veins or bruises so it can also mean the paleness of a corpse.

Clearly not the best way to start creating an understanding…

The potential difficulty in relating color information does make it an interesting topic to explore in a story centered on trying to learn an unknown language, though.

Oh, and there's another great example of color confusion in more-or-less modern Japanese: Prior to WWII or so, green wasn't considered a distinct color family, with various hues of green being categorized mostly as blue (ao), but occasionally as yellow (ki/gi). Fully modern Japanese took the word midori, which was previously defined as something like "leaf blue", and promoted it to a basic color. However, there are still plenty of examples of words and phrases that predate that shift; most of them are the common names of plants or animals, but one that tends to stick out as odd to foreigners is that the "go" light on a traffic signal is referred to as blue.

English has some carryover examples, too, like the fact that we call it "red" hair even though it's typically more orange than red.

 

[jvlg]

He's Minecraft Steve.

Nope, wrong manga.

 

[wakanana]

I wonder what she's trying to tell him repeatedly on pages 8 and 10? Either way, cute.

Oi
...oi

stop ignoring me....

Is the impression I'm getting.

She's trying to restart him. xD

 

[JPtripleM]

Thought of another piece of evidence this is Mars, when he picked up the sword he said it seemed to weight about 3 kilos, but in the cover we see it's a "stone sword" a piece of stone that size should be way heavier... unless the planet he's in has reduced gravity compared to earth