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Level 25
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また、同じ夢を見ていた

Novel
by 住野 よる
( 312 ratings, 39 reviews )
person( 214 reading, 480 finished )
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Blurb

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A layered coming-of-age story from the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and At Night, I Become a Monster. An unhappy girl who engages in self-harm, a woman ostracized by society, and an old woman looking to live out her twilight years in peace—what could three such different people have in common? That’s what grade schooler Koyanagi Nanoka is trying to find out. Assigned by her teacher to define what “happiness” means to her, Nanoka sets out to get to know these three strangers—and thro...
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Specs

Page Count:
304
ISBN:
4575521256
ISBN13:
9784575521252

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Reviews

(4.12/5)
312 ratings39 reviews
Entertainment(3.82/5)
71 ratings
Language learning(4.65/5)
71 ratings
Talndirsays
June 20, 2025

Great story, good for beginners

A girl has to give a presentation at school answering the question "What is happiness?" To do this, she goes to her three odd friends - an old lady who lives in the woods, a young woman who meets customers at night, and an upperclassmen who self-harms. Her conversations with them, as well as an interesting situation with a classmate, lead her to her answer.

This is a great story with a simple premise but very interesting characters. Although ostensibly for children, there are some very deep and

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Gradings:3
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midori_ribbonsays
March 7, 2025

A great book for language learning and long sentences

It started out kind of dry but as it went on, I really enjoyed the story. It has a really wonderful meaning in the end for anybody. I may have even cried a bit. Had me thinking that maybe the cats in this story are actually God lol. A decent beginner book with sentences that don't lack in length. We're talking many 4-6 line, long sentences, billions of commas etc. By the end of the book you'll at the very least be much better at reading those. Overall, highly suggest to anyone

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samanthaadamssays
March 2, 2025
Simple vocabulary, although the story gets complicated towards the end which got me pretty confused, so I think this book isn’t quite as easy as people act like it is in comparison to other Japanese novels around this level. Anyway, a girl has to figure out what happiness is to her and has a lot of different experiences that get pretty trippy towards the end that help teach her that and how to live a fulfilling life with others. It has a lot of interesting themes regarding the different paths th
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Gradings:13
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yotsuba_readersays
February 7, 2025

Good for learning, interesting story

This was a great book about an individual's search for happiness. I was a bit surprised by some of the sad scenes in the story, though, because of the reviews I read beforehand that mentioned the humor. I went into the story expecting it to be a little more lighthearted and then the story got quite heavy in the middle.

As for language learning, I felt pretty comfortable reading through it at my current level (N3ish). I definitely struggled with the longer sentences and some of the conversation

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bigpawssays
January 28, 2025

Perfect for learning indeed

I will parrot what most are saying, this is excellent for beginners to pick up their first novel. First 20 pages for me were a big struggle, parsing longer sentences. Then i got used to them. First 100 pages were going slow. Next 100 pages I was struggling but going at decent pace. Last 100 pages were at a speed I was satisfied with for now. So within a span of a single novel I saw huge improvment in my reading. Countless mangas would not do that.

As for the entertainemnt value - it's okay. I l

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Gradings:6
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chiyosays
December 27, 2024

Extremely cute

I liked the story. The protagonist was cute, the characters were nice, and the story overall was good. For someone just starting out reading books in Japanese, this is a good book to go with.

Gradings:6
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FuwaFuwaDragonsays
October 6, 2024

I'm very torn, I guess it was okay?

I read this book after I had seen it be recommended a lot. I learned many new words, but oh boy.. the story definitely wasn't for me... Unfortunately I found it very boring, often I had to force myself to keep on reading. I kinda liked the end, though I wish it had been more conclusive? I feel a lot was left unsaid...

I guess i m kinda proud i read through it, as its my first book i completed in JPN.

Gradings:5
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Zeref_desusays
October 3, 2024

The perfect gateway to reading overall in japenese.

The strory is really interesting, yet i wish that the conclusion was a little more explained .

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Legatosays
June 18, 2024

Happiness is having a good audiobook to listen to.

No, really. The audiobook is fantastic. Even if you don't usually do that, do yourself a favor and read while listening to it!

Gradings:7
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Niiikasays
May 9, 2024

I love books that leave behind important questions.

This was the first book in Japanese - it gave me self-confidence and the desire to continue reading in Japanese. I highly recommend it!

The story itself made me think - what is happiness for me? I am still looking for this answer.

Gradings:7
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Oiantakusays
April 27, 2024

The Best Beginner Book

If it wasn´t for learning japanese, there was no way in hell i would have read this kind of novel - ever. So color me surprised when i say that i actually came to enjoy it more than i thought.

This story is told by a child, but neither its themes nor its writing style is particularly chilidish. Meaning it can very well be enjoyed by an adult and doesn´t leave a lot to be desired kanji-wise compared to many actual children books.

I´ve conquered a few books before this one, all of which wer

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Gradings:5
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freddygsays
March 26, 2024

Great book

The rumors are true. This is a good book.

  • The language is accessible in terms of vocabulary.
  • The girl thinks about what she will say and what others will say and considers the situation so there is some natural repetition and regurgitation of similar sentences making it great for language learning.
  • There are humorous sentences and scenes maintaining some mild entertainment

It took me awhile to get into this, as usual for me, as not much really happens in dramas like this following the

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Gradings:1
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julienmartletsays
February 13, 2024

Very approachable slice of life novel with likeable characters

This was my first novel in japanese. Considered myself at a ~N4 level, and it took me about 50 days to finish, looking up everything I didn’t recognize (made a 800 words deck (!) and learned a hundred new kanji). This could have been a chore, but the pleasant tone and characters meant I never got close to giving up.

Outside of my limited vocabulary, the main difficulty was understanding the longer sentences (textboooks don’t prep you for this). Understanding the vocab and the grammar isn’t alwa

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krghtjsays
February 1, 2024

My First Full-Length Novel

Before reading this book, most of my reading practice was non-fiction or objective material such as the news. In my head, Japanese was connected to studying, objectivity, and emotionless small talk. My experience with the language was dull. It may sound a bit pretentious or strange that I'm saying this, but it truly opened my eyes. Before I only had exposure to "duller" uses of Japanese. For the first time, I was able to read Japanese that was written for an artistic purpose. I was surprised tha

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Triscuit1113says
January 31, 2024

A good first novel

I made the serendipitous decision of reading The Little Prince before starting this, completely unknowing that the two books are quite intertwined, so if you enjoyed The Little Prince and want to see that evolved into a slightly more matured story, then this is for you.

As I was reading I found myself wavering back and forth on whether or not I was really enjoying it. In retrospect, the pacing of the book makes a lot of sense with the thematic elements all laid out in the end, but as you read

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Gradings:4
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Mateussays
January 8, 2024
After reading some ratings on Natively, I thought it would be a boring but useful novel to start reading novels in Japanese, assuming that the fact that the main character of the story was a 9-10-year-old girl would impede me from really enjoying it. Color me surprised—not only was the novel really interesting, but many of the topics introduced had me contemplating the way I live my own life. An amazing novel with an even better ending. 10/10.
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NYANKITTENsays
January 7, 2024

Captivating read

This was my first Japanese light novel. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to other Japanese learners or people who are generally interested in Japanese culture.

In terms of Japanese learningthis is a good book for early immersion. There is a good amount of drilled repetition, grammar points (I found N2 and N1 grammar points in the book, although most are N3), and useful daily use vocab and phrases. However, despite the easy language, the content and themes in the book can be difficult to gra

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Zanzousays
December 21, 2023

Although it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, it was a sweet wholesome story full of good life lessons that should be applicable at any age. It seems like an excellent first novel for someone who has passed N3. The majority of it should be immediately comprehensible, but as always some look ups might be required for a few more advanced grammar points and additional vocabulary.

Gradings:5
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Yaiba93says
November 15, 2023

Good first read

This book was recommended by a Japanese language teacher as an introduction to reading on YouTube and so I decided to deep dive in. As the main character is a child the language is not overly complex. However, at the same time the underlying themes can be quite difficult to grasp as it requires the reader to read between the lines.

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spidermansays
August 5, 2023

Great repetition for language learing and great plot for entertainment

I enjoyed the plot as like reading a detective story. The book is middle leveled. I would recommand this book to friends even not learing Japanese

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