Ueno-san wa Bukiyou - Vol. 5 Ch. 49 - P0GO Stick

[Oeconomist]

@Bainhardt—

I may be belaboring this issue, but I think that the relationships between Nº 13 and Ueno and between Nº 13 and Tanaka could take interesting paths.

Nº 13 was asked “Ueno-san, how do you feel about Tanaka-san?” [ul]If Nº 13 thinks that she is Ueno-san, then her answer follows somewhat naturally.
If Nº 13 was told to pretend that she were Ueno-san, then again the answer follows somewhat naturally.
If Nº 13 understands vocatives and if emotions of Nº 13 mimick those of Ueno-san and if Nº 13 presumes that everyone knows as much, still either “Ueno-san loves him” or “I'm not Ueno-san, but she loves him” is more natural.
If Nº 13 doesn't understand vocatives, then she was answering for herself.[/ul] Probably the best thing would be for Ueno-san to develop a robotic Tanaka-san for Nº 13. (But Ueno-san shouldn't use Tanaka's heart for that; we know how that would go.)

 

[oofdere]

I'd like to draw attention to how tennis girl's scream wraps around the window on page 10. Nice touch.

 

[Bainhardt]

@Oeconomist Ohhh, I see now. You raise an interesting point.
Checking the raws again, in No. 13's debut chapter she pretty clearly asks Tanaka "Do you like Ueno?" (although she is interrupted) near the end. Unless she was referring to herself in the third person and by the name Ueno, it suggests she's acting with regard for Ueno's feelings as separate from her own. There have been times since then, like in ch 29, where she doesn't seem as concerned with Ueno's feelings and appears to act more in self-interest, though.

That aside, in this chapter and her interaction with Minamine, I think it comes down to some differences between how Japanese and English construct sentences, as well as some possible simplification on my part in translating it. The specific text in JP was, as seen below, 上野さんから見て田中さんはどういう印象なのでしょうか

Spoiler

The most literal way I could transcribe my read of this line would be something like "From Ueno-san's perspective, what is the impression of Tanaka-san?" And No. 13 provides a true answer, 好き, "like/love." Minamine believes she's speaking to Ueno, and No. 13 believes she's simply answering a question truthfully. I translated it as I did both to sound more like how people naturally speak in English, and also to allow for the intended misunderstanding to follow. As for the like/love distinction, I wrote love this time because I wanted Minamine's extreme shock to make a little bit more sense (and if you ask me, No. 13 would probably call it love regardless, where Ueno would probably answer in vaguer terms).

 

[Oeconomist]

@Bainhardt—

Thank you for the various clarifications!

if you ask me, No. 13 would probably call it love regardless, where Ueno would probably answer in vaguer terms

Haha! I think that Ueno would have been the one to run from the room, albeit with still more panic to her mortification.

 

[Winderlies]

There have been times since then, like in ch 29, where she doesn't seem as concerned with Ueno's feelings and appears to act more in self-interest, though.

You say that, @Bainhardt , but she balanced herself very fast once she noticed that Ueno was in Tanaka's arms. What if No. 13 is actually fully aware of Ueno's feeling and has reached the conclusion that the best way for them to be together is for Ueno to take action? She's just being a good wingwoman.

That would explain why No. 13 was being so bold during her debut and in chapter 29. If this hypothesis is correct, going forward, I'd expect No. 13 to do only the bare minimum to rile Ueno up, but move out of the way once she notices they are both together.

 

[AnimuVsMango]

I absolutely didn't notice the title, but it doesn't make it any less genius.