@AozTkM
I don't have a great knowledge, probably less than some posters here. But, I am surprised how some readers here misread Yuzu's character since she has a very serious way to name her love for Mei. When she said I love you to Mei, she used "Suki Da yo" in chapters 16 and 33. The romantic way to express love between two lovers.
In chapter 36, the Japanese title has 愛してる, Ai shiteru. Here, it's serious business, you never say that except when you're very seriously involved and picture yourself in a kind of love that is forever.
So, Yuzu's Japanese way to express her love increases in seriousness, it's not a teenage crush in the wording.
Mei never uses suki, she's abstract in her letter, she uses omoi ("my feeling for you" but Mei always uses a deflected way to express things, she's not direct), the noun to talk about the feeling but never explicitly talk about the feeling of love directed toward Yuzu. "I was allowed to honestly love you" she just uses a word about honest feelings, feeling honestly (without restraint).
Interesting, she mentions the way she thought she was allowed ... the same word than in chapter 38 when Sara talks about it ("i am not allowed to ask anything", so what can be seen as a redundant conversation points toward something in Mei's mind). The sentence " I fell for you to a point in no return" has でいっぱい. Here again, the love word isn't here, it's more "to be full of someone".
In fact, the author is very subtle and the wording she uses for each character is very enlightening and show a real degree of mastery. Much more than people here give her account. She has a bigger picture in her writing than we can think. She also uses many echoes, some words resonate from one chapter to another one separated sometimes by a volume. And indeed, characters' complexity is lost in translation.
Talking about context, you are right. In fact, there is a great number of speeches, in the manga, that can have different interpretations.
Last but not least, let's take the grandfather's words in volume 1.
Japanese: それから芽衣お前もしばらくの間は自分の意思で行動しなさい
(You can do as you please/forget about me for a short while, for some time)
English translation by Yuri Project: You should do what you want to do and not worry about me"
Official one: it's time for you and you alone to decide how to live your life
But しばらくの間 means for a short while. That's why the author left a note saying reading in retrospect the manga allowed to see new things. I don't think it was just an awkward way to explain things people missed because Japanese perfectly understood the "for a short time" implication of the grandfather's words.
And here, many readers just thought the grandfather forgot about his promise when he never said to Mei she could do what she wanted forever. And Mei knew about that ... so it can shade a new light on some previous volumes. How a simple word ("for a short time"), forgotten cause it seemed, some years ago, a detail, is important with what happened in volume 9.
To conclude, I think the manga is subtler than we can say without of course making it a masterpiece in the writing and the plot department, there are flaws.
But, it's clear, as good as translations are, this subtlety is lost because, as you said, there are so many different ways to express something in Japanese for which English has only one or two words.
It's always interesting to try to have the original meaning in mind and dig a little to see beyond appearance.
@sadhomu82 : in the chapter, the team translated Sara's sentence about a "citrus event". She uses ゅずぽっちのイべントに当たって so it's related to Yuzubocchi's event. (ゅずぽっち). I guess the correction was made.
I read every single word, absolutely brilliant,it does sheds light on aspects, I personally hadn't quite grasped and makes me rethink about the whole thing in a whole new light, oh how I wish I could properly read Japanese, but this comment, is so good, thank you random Internet person!!!
