Is どんな in this context a question?

Question

I was reading some web novels online but I'm kind of stumped by this particular dialogue.

佐倉ちゃんがどんな子供とぶらぶらしてても...

僕で遊んでくれて...

こうして虐めさせてもらえて...

To put some context into this, a little kid wants to play with his friend Sakura. Sakura feels guilty because she ignored him last time to play with her siblings. There are breaks in the sentences because the little kid is crying.

What I'm wondering here would be if the 1st line translate to "What kind of kid does Sakura-chan hang out with?" How does ても fit into that sentence? It makes me think it's not actually question. Am I wrong?

Because the kid is crying I thought there is an implied continuation to the sentence. Is it correct to assume that?

Answer 1

There are various "WH" words in Japanese -- the question words, like the English "who, what, where, when, why, how" -- that shift in meaning when used together with the inclusive particle も.

も in Japanese is sometimes translated like "even, also". In combination, it's also a bit like "-ever": 何 "what" + も "-ever" → "whatever", 誰 "who" + も "-ever" → "whoever". Note that this is not an exact translation -- this is meant to simply give you an idea. When used with negatives, for instance, 何も is better translated as "nothing" or "not anything".

In the specific context of your sample sentence, the first line uses どんな ... but then it's also got that も towards the end, which does affect the meaning of the どんな. Rather than a straight question word as "what kind" or "which", it comes across more as "whatever kind" or "whichever".

佐倉ちゃんがどんな子供とぶらぶらしてても...
Whatever kind of kid Sakura-chan hangs out with...