In search of YORU TO, and YOREBA and KAGIRI

I realize that I have very few days between now and when I take my JLPT, so I'm going to start doing something EVERY day, and if I can, double up on grammar points. So today's inexorably long post is going to be dedicated to YORU TO/ YOREBA and KAGIRI (HA/DEHA). Both are found in volume two of Time Stranger Kyoko by Arina Tanemura.

I used to be a huge fan of Arina Tanemura, even if I could hardly tell her main characters apart. Then, her type of love story started to get a little old (the basic love story is "hate each other than fall in love" which has been her MO for everything except FOS). She is famous for Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, a story about a magical girl who is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc with inexplicably Japanese-styled clothing for her seifuku, and Full Moon o Sagashite, a story about a girl with a beautiful voice who finds out she only has a year left to live and tries to fulfill her dream of becoming a pop idol.

It was once said that Time Stranger Kyoko was Tanemura's favorite work, something I think is true... for the beginning at the very least. What starts out as a fun magical girl manga about a princess who's trying to collect the 12 Strangers so she can awaken her twin sister Ui soon becomes a rushed affair with very poorly constructed twists. I think this is because Tanemura-sensei got the idea for Full Moon o Sagashite and felt the need to wrap up Time Stranger Kyoko as fast as possible. That is just supposition, mind you, brought on by the fact that I wanted TSK to be longer.

1. YORU TO/ YOREBA

First off, I need to make sure you don't ever get this mixed up with NI YOTTE! They have the same root, which is "depends/according" but they are used very differently!

But let's start with the easier of the two, YORU TO/ YOREBA. This grammar point is used when you want to say "according to so and so, this is the truth". For example:

• ブームによるとJLPTのため勉強していることが楽しいだけど。。。
• Acording to Boom, studying for the JLPT is fun...

So basically, it's NOUN + YORUTO + Whatever the Noun says.

Shall we to the manga?

The phrase I want to use is in the right hand corner, and is cut off... Sorry!

I'm going to put things in context really quickly here in order to move things along. Kyoko has discovered that the 12 Strangers she needs to find are leaders of various clans. For example, she's of the Royal Clan, so she's a Stranger. Her best friend is of the Flower Clan, and her romantic interest is the leader of the Dragon Clan. Both of them are Strangers. She then goes on a journey to go find more Strangers so she can use their power to wake her dormant twin sister. Of course, she's only doing this so she doesn't have to be a princess anymore, so it's not like she's really all that much of a philanthropist despite the good deeds she manages to do in every chapter.

So, the sentence in question is this: 

• でもウワサによると仲の良かった２つの村が最近になってケンカばっかしてるみたいなのよね。。。
• Demo, UWASA ni yoruto naka no yokatta futatsu no mura ga saikin natte KENKA bakkashiteru mitainanoyo ne.
• But according to rumour, it looks that these two clans who have always had good relations are bickering. 

Yes. I was a little liberal with the translation. But I kept what was important. Moving on.

So using YORU TO and YOREBA is really easy. Forgive me for repeating myself, but it is just:

• Noun(A) + NI YORU TO/ YOREBA (B) + rest of sentence(C)

This makes:

Rumour (A) NI YORUTO TO (B) + (They are bickering) (C)
According to rumour, they are bickering. 

I'd love to go into the distinction between YORU TO and YOREBA, but I have a lot trouble already trying to distinguish between "if" as in TO and "if" as in BA, so I don't think I'll be any help. Sorry. If someone could enlighten me, though, I'd be forever grateful!

2. KAGIRI 

KAGIRI has three uses. Fantastic. Are you ready?

The kanji for KAGIRI is 限り, which means "limits" or "bounds". What this should give you an image of is that whatever it's describing, it is no more than that. It is used in these three senses:

• 1. As long as
• This should make you think of SAE BA a little bit, but the image is a little different. Here, it's like until that limit of something is reached, something will stay the same:
• 日本にいるかぎり、チンさんはわたしに連絡してくれるはずだ。
• 2. Within the limits of
• This is a description of where knowledge comes from. It's often used with 私が知っている限り, as in "as far as I know". The text book has a great example that takes this further and it uses 電話で話したかぎり, which sort of means "as far as he said on the telephone."
• So, really, the translation is probably almost uniformly "as far as"
• 3. Up until
• This actually translates as "as far as" most of the time. Like, 能力のかぎり頑張ります. "Up until the end of my talents, I'll try." Ouch. That reallly sucks in english, huh?

As for context, it's a whole lot of spoilers, so I'm not going to give you it. I don't know if it's that important. It also has nothing to do with the mysterious guy smooching her. The king, on the previous page, is talking about events and his last thought ends as she's waking up to be orally violated.

I will say the king talks a lot about how she has powers like Chronos, and that awakening her sister doesn't mean she'll escape her fate. This isn't a spoiler, I swear, because he doesn't say what fate and it's strongly insinuated that it's her fate as a princess that can't be escaped.

• 「みんなを守りたい」と思うかぎりー。。。
• "Minna wo mamoritai" to omou kagiri-...

What sucks is that this sentence doesn't end, which makes it an absolute crap example sentence. Why did I use it then? Well, I'm getting desperate. The test is coming up soon and I need something! Plus, this really challenges my way of thinking about KAGIRI so it's good that I have to think this through.

But first, I want to show this absolutely hilarious translation.

And this is why we DO NOT use online translators. Either that, or we only use translators whose language that it is going to be translated into is their native language. First off, that first sentence is about how Kyoko's hair will change back from red to brown. There is another sentence in there that uses DARAKE (魔族だらけの未来) where he says a "a future full of demons".... but according to this, the Mazoku went to the future where Ui's moment of awakening vanished! 

But I'm digressing. 

Let's look at the three translations for KAGIRI. There is "As long as", "As far as" and "Up until". Which is best here?

Well, I for one, agree with the translation above. It is "'Everybody defended' and to think as much as possible". Oh, wait, no I don't! That's ridiculous! I mean, it suggests that there is a limit, so that's good, but other than that, WHAT THE HECK?!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, it's not definition 3. That leaves us with 1 and 2:

Previous sentence: "After all, you can't escape your fate of awakening Princess Ui."　（結局おまえは憂を目覚めさせる運命から逃れらないのさ） 

• 1. As long as you think that you want to protect everyone...
• 2. As far as you think you want to protect everyone...

So which one of those sounds right? That's right! One! It's inverted sentence! Oh Japanese, how you love to toy with me.

"After all, you can't escape your fate of awakening Princess Ui... as long as you think you want to protect everyone."

In a normal, formally written sentence using KAGIRI, this would be flipped like this:

結局、「みんなを守りたい」と思うかぎり、おまえは憂を目覚めさせる運命から逃れらないのさ。

I'm a little hesitant to end this post because it makes me feel so nostalgic. I remember ten years ago when the first chapters of this came out. I bought the manga for a exorbitant price online, and muddled through with .txt translations because I had no idea how to speak Japanese at the time. Sometimes, I wonder if child self would be impressed with me. Other time, I wonder if child self isn't a little disappointed that I'm not further along.