Another apology - this manga contains fewer frames than my first one, but the files themselves are larger. Hopefully you won't run into loading problems.
What you'll find below is a second manga, again drawn in about a week's time, as my first project for my second semester of Japanese. I wanted to create some contrast between my first project and this one, and it occurs in a few ways. The first that I decided upon was the length of the manga, which was shortened in order to A) reduce the bulk of drawing that I would have to do, thereby B) giving me time to make the project more complex, visually and in terms of script. Since my first project, I've learned a lot of vocabulary and grammatical structures that contribute to my ability to write more fluently and express something closer to what I'm really trying to get across - this is probably obvious, since you can see that my blocks of writing are much longer. I also wanted to show off the kanji that I had learned - only a few of them so far, but they're in there. The last thing that I wanted to do with this project was show whatever I had learned about Japanese culture, which comes through in a more subtle way. The vocabulary I know didn't really allow for me to set up situations where I could discuss that sort of thing, so I was a little limited.
I enjoy noticing how, as I learn more Japanese, I feel like I have to make fewer and fewer compromises with my word choice and ideas. It's not that I was able to express everything I wanted to in this manga - initially, I was going to make it more autobiographical, but I just don't have the vocabulary to describe my own transition from high school to college - but I felt like once I picked a thought to write about, I could write a lot more fluently than I was able to in the past. I didn't feel like I had to just dance around or hint at a subject, for the most part.
The only thing I felt I really didn't accomplish to the extent that I wanted to was to throw in Japanese culture to a recognizable degree - because of my lacking vocabulary to broach the subject, I was left throwing in visual cues to attempt to say "Hey, this is Japan, by the way." You'll notice the main character sitting at a kotatsu, pictured with a futon in a japanese-style room, wearing a high-school uniform, in a photo-booth picture with her friends, and wearing a kimono. Other things I wanted to put in were specific drinks (like the canned coffee that Mitsuru is drinking. The picture wasn't big enough for me to label what it was) and graduation traditions (which I couldn't find information on until the culture blog so handily enlightened me. I substituted in a picture of the girls wearing kimonos).
In conclusion, I know some areas are lacking and there are mistakes, but I feel like, especially when held against my first project, this represents very well how I've been progressing in the language, and I'm pleased with that alone. In particular, this is a very good example of both the presentational writing and kanji skills I've developed since then.
