Japanese by Example
Learning through examples in manga

Losing all that built-up friendship with 水の泡になる

Manga panel from 一週間フレンズ。 showing example of Losing all that built-up friendship with 水の泡になる.
一週間フレンズ。 » Volume 3 » Page 51

Although Fujimiya loses her memory of friends every Monday morning, she and Hase have become close enough that she feels comfortable around him when meeting him “for the first time” at school each Monday. Hase fears that progress will be lost during summer break.

長谷(はせ):
(おれ)はせっかくの(いま)までの努力(どりょく)(みず)(あわ)になるのが(いや)なの!」
“I hate seeing all my hard work up to now go down the drain!”
藤宮(ふじみや)さんも頑張(がんば)ってきたのに!」
“Fujimiya-san has worked so hard, too!”
桐生(きりゅう):
「あーはいはい」
“Yeah, got it.”

Key Points

  1. The idiom (みず)(あわ)になる
    • Literal meaning: “become bubbles on water” (bubbles vanish quickly, leaving nothing)
    • Common English equivalents: “go down the drain”, “be wasted”, “all for nothing”, “come to nothing”
    • Basic pattern: Ⓐが (みず)(あわ)になる → “Ⓐ ends up completely wasted / for nothing”
  2. せっかく + の + noun
    • Emphasizes that the noun was obtained “with great effort”, “after so much trouble”
    • Often carries the nuance: “It would be a shame if this were lost”
    • Typical feeling: disappointment when hard-earned progress is threatened
  3. ~のが(いや)だ / (いや)なの
    • Pattern [clause] のが(いや) → “I hate it when [clause] happens”, “I hate the fact that…”
    • Expresses dislike for an entire situation rather than a single object
    • (いや)なの (explanatory のだ-form) → softer, more emotional/justifying tone common in speech (“That’s why I hate it…”)
  4. Double が construction
    • The sentence has two grammatical subjects at different levels
    • First が → marks the subject inside the embedded clause (努力(どりょく) (みず)(あわ)になる)
    • Second が → marks the whole long clause as the subject of (いや)だ (【clause】が (いや)なの)
  5. Multiple の usages in one sentence
    • せっかくの → adjectival (“hard-earned”)
    • (いま)までの → temporal modifier (“up until now” modifies 努力(どりょく))
    • (みず)の → possession (“bubbles of water”)
    • …になるの → nominalizer (turns verb phrase into noun)
    • (いや)なの → explanatory のだ (giving reason/emotional tone)
  6. Embedded clause structure
    • Core: 努力(どりょく)(みず)(あわ)になる (“effort goes to waste”)
    • Full layered version: せっかくの (いま)までの 努力(どりょく)(みず)(あわ)になる
    • The entire phrase is then nominalized with の to serve as the subject of (いや)なの
  7. Second sentence: 藤宮(ふじみや)さんも頑張(がんば)ってきたのに!
    • も → “too”, “also”
    • inclusive → “not just me, but Fujimiya as well”
    • 頑張(がんば)って + きた → “has been working hard (continuously up to now)”
    • 〜のに → “even though”, “despite the fact that…” → conveys regret, frustration, or sense of unfairness

See Also