Japanese can be an extremely entertaining language to learn, because the country produces (and consumes) a ridiculously high amount of media.

The only downside to this is that it takes kind of a long time to reach a level where you can enjoy all of that awesome media.

*cries*

So I was researching fun stuff to discuss for these lessons, and I came acrossthis article, which talks about how manga artist 佐藤 秀峰 (satou shuuhou, "Shuho Sato") removed all copyright restrictions from his bestselling manga series, ブラックジャックによろしく (burakkujakku ni yoroshiku; "Say Hello to Blackjack").

It's nice to see awesome people being awesome.

I then proceeded to find this copyright-free manga right here on this manga website.

The kindle version on the Japanese Amazon store is also free!

You can even read it for free in English on this site.

Let's look through the first few pages together, yeah?

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The Title

As many of you are likely already aware, よろしく (yoroshiku) is a most-useful word in Japanese.

You say it when you first meet someone, right? After exchanging names and whatnot, you say:

宜しくお願いします！
yoroshiku onegai shimasu
Nice to meet you.
(Semi-Literally: "Please treat me kindly.")
(Note: This is commonly written without kanji, too.)

But you can also say:

NAME によろしく
NAME ni yoroshiku
Say hi to NAME for me.

Thus, the official titles are:

ブラックジャックによろしく
burakkujakku ni yoroshiku
Say Hello to Blackjack

I usually add a ね to the end of this.

For example, if Rei is talking to her mom on the phone, I might say:

お母さんによろしくね
okaasan ni yoroshiku ne
Say hi to your mom for me.

BUT!

There's an even better way to say this. Or, I should say, a more common way to say this:

お母さんによろしく言っといて
okaasan ni yoroshiku ittoite
Say hi to your mom for me.

This 言っといて (ittoite) is an abbreviation of 言っておいて (itte oite):

てお → と

We add おく (oku; "to put; to set; to place; to leave; to do in advance") to the end of te-form verbs in order to say "do in advance" or "leave done."

For example:

Ａ：窓閉めようか？
mado shimeyou ka.
Want me to shut the window?
(Literally: "window + shall I shut?")

Ｂ：いや、開けといて。
iya, aketoite.
No, leave it open.
(Literally: "no + open ～といて.")

In a more formal version, that would be:

Ａ：窓を閉めましょうか。
mado wo shimemashou ka.
Would you like me to close the window?
(Literally: "window + を + shall I close?")

Ｂ：いえ、開けておいてください。
ie, akete oite kudasai.
No, please leave it open.
(Literally: "no + open + おいて + please.")

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The First Few Pages

If I explain the first few pages in as much detail as I'd like to, we'll probably be here all day. Instead, I'll just pick out things here and there to explain.

Here's what we'll be looking at:

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Frame #1

８千人．．．
hassennin...

毎年８千人が
全国にある８１ある
大学医学部を
卒業してゆく
maitoshi hassennin ga
zenkoku ni aru hachijuuichi aru
daigaku igakubu wo
sotsugyou shite yuku

---

Frame #2

永禄大学医学部　卒業式
eiroku daigaku igakubu sotsugyoushiki

---

Frame #3

君たちは
その８千人の
トップの８０人
である！
kimitachi wa
sono hassennin no
toppu no hachijuunin
de aru!

---

Frame #4

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Frame #5

日本の医療を
背負っていくのは
君達です！！
nihon no iryou wo
seotte iku no wa
kimitachi desu!!

---

Frame #6-9

眠そうだな
斉藤．．．
nemusou da na
saitou...

うん
さっきまで当直
だったから
un
sakki made touchoku
datta kara

---

Frame #10

きのうの
朝から
もう２４時間以上
ここにいるよ
kinou no
asa kara
mou 24 jikan ijou
koko ni iru yo

オレもさ
ore mo sa

---

Frame #11

教授の実験の
手伝いでさ．．．
kyouju no jikken no
tetsudai de sa...

３時間しか
寝てねえ．．．
san jikan shika
nete nee...

---

Frame #12

じゃあ僕の
勝ちだ
jaa boku no
kachi da

---

Frame #13

２時間しか
寝てない！
nijikan shika
nete nai!

---

A Note About Reading Manga

Many of you will already know this, but we read manga from right to left, top to bottom.

So if we have two pages like this:

Then we read them in this order:

Now let's look at some translations!

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English Translations

I'm including the English translations that I found online for these few pages... but I will also point out a few places where I would have translated things a bit differently. Less because it's linguistically enlightening and more because I just think it's fun thinking about how I'd translate things.

Maybe you can compare the two translations and come up with even better ones. ^_^

Here we go...

---

Frame #1

８千人．．．
hassennin...
8 thousand people...

毎年８千人が
全国にある８１ある
大学医学部を
卒業してゆく
maitoshi hassennin ga
zenkoku ni aru hachijuuichi aru
daigaku igakubu wo
sotsugyou shite yuku
Each year 8 thousand people pass final exams from the 81 medical universities of the country.

I don't really understand why this translator chose to write "pass final exams." The Japanese says 大学...を...卒業して (daigaku... wo... sotsugyou shite), which just means "graduate from university." There is no mention of a test here. I would have translated it as:

"Each year eight thousand people graduate from the 81 medical universities across the country."

I would say "across the country," because we have 全国にある (zenkoku ni aru), which literally would be "all over the country."

---

Frame #2

永禄大学医学部　卒業式
eiroku daigaku igaku bu sotsugyoushiki
Eiroku University Medical School Graduation Ceremony

---

Frame #3

君たちは
その８千人の
トップの８０人
である！
kimitachi wa
sono hassennin no
toppu no hachijuunin
de aru!
Among them, you are the Top 80.

As a personal preference, I would have written:

"Of those eight thousand graduates, you are the Top 80!"

That's not fair of me to say, though, because the translator likely had space limitations.

---

Frame #4

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Frame #5

日本の医療を
背負っていくのは
君達です！！
nihon no iryou wo
seotte iku no wa
kimitachi desu!!
Japan's medical system's future lies in your hands!!

I would write:

"The future of Japanese medicine rests in your hands!"

OR

"The future of the Japanese medical system rests in your hands!"

You may be thinking, where is the word "future" in this Japanese? Well, it's not there. He says, 背負っていく (seotte iku). The verb 背負う (seou) means "to carry on one's back."

By putting that in te-form and adding 行く (iku; "to go"), we get a sense of "carry on" or "carry forward." "To carry from here on out."

Which... in English, would probably just become "the future of." Although one could argue that something like this is a better translation:

"It is you who must carry Japanese medicine on into the future!"

Agh! I still inserted "future." Oops.

---

Frame #6-9

眠そうだな
斉藤．．．
nemusou da na
saitou...
You look tired, Saito...

うん
さっきまで当直
だったから
un
sakki made touchoku
datta kara
Yes, I just ended my shift.

I would have said:

"Yeah, my shift just ended."

Or even:

"Yeah, I just finished my shift."

As a reminder, we saw さっき way back in Lesson #23!

(Also, don't tell anyone, but I had to look up this word 当直 [touchoku; "(work) shift"].)

---

Frame #10

きのうの
朝から
もう２４時間以上
ここにいるよ
kinou no
asa kara
mou nijuuyo jikan ijou
koko ni iru yo
I have been here for 24 hours since yesterday morning.

(Note: Notice that it's not nijuuyonjikan. It is nijuuyojikan.)
Is it just me, or is this translation really strange?

They're using casual Japanese, so I think "I have" would be "I've."

Also, the phrase "for 24 hours since yesterday morning" needs a comma after "hours..." I think. But I should probably avoid talking about grammar before another one of my readers starts ripping apart my state-of-the-art English sentence thingies.

Long story short, I'd have written the following (one of which is technically a fragment ^^):

"I've been here for over 24 hours. Since yesterday morning."

Or something like that.

I would definitely say "over 24 hours," though, because we have ２４時間以上 (nijuuyo jikan ijou; "24 hours over").

オレもさ
ore mo sa
Me too.

From English to Japanese, wouldn't "Me too" just be オレも (ore mo; "I + also")?

If so, what's with this さ (sa)?!?!

We saw さ very briefly back in Lesson #43.

I also talked about it a bit in this article: "How to Say 'So I was thinking" in Japanese."

In those cases, it meant "like."

In this case, it means... nothing!

Rei called it:

ただの語尾
tada no gobi
It's just something that gets added to the end of a word.
(Note: That's a long translation, but the literal translation would be: "just + の + word-tail." I talk about the word ただ in this article.)

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Frame #11

教授の実験の
手伝いでさ．．．
kyouju no jikken no
tetsudai de sa...
I was helping the professor with his experiments...

This could also be:

"I was helping the professor with an experiment."

It's hard to know without context, though.

Actually, I think we also have the option of not translating this as a full sentence, but rather the first half of one senence:

"Since I was helping the professor with his experiments..."

３時間しか
寝てねえ．．．
san jikan shika
nete nee...
I've only slept for 3 hours...

Note that he's using somewhat rough language by saying ねえ (nee) instead of ない (nai) (which is what Saito uses in his last line).

Also, he said オレ (ore) earlier instead of 僕 (boku), which Saito is using.

These two things contribute to the sense that this medical intern speaks with a bit rougher language than Saito. We briefly saw some examples of ねえ back inLesson #21.

Also, we mentioned using しか instead of だけ quite a bit back in Lesson #38!

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Frame #12

じゃあ僕の
勝ちだ
jaa boku no
kachi da
Then I win.

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Frame #13

２時間しか
寝てない！
ni jikan shika
nete nai!
I've only slept for two hours!

Yeah, that was still really long, huh?

Props to those of you that got through it!

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Bonus Phrases

これどこに置けばいい？
これ　どこ　に　おけば　いい？
Where should I put this?

オレも。
オレ　も。
Me too.

僕も行きます。
ぼく　も　いきます。
I'll go too.

たったこれだけ？
たった　これ　だけ？
This is all there is?
Literally: merely + this + only?