Lexical Aspect

In grammar, actionality, or aktionsart, refers to a temporal property of a predicate. The term lexical aspect is used for the actionality of words (lexemes). Words that have different lexical aspects yield different meanings when used with the same syntax. For example:

• "Tarou is running" means that "Tarou already ran" for a while, even if just for one second.
• "Tarou is dying" doesn't mean that "Tarou already died" for a while, not even for one second.
• Tarou wa hashitte-iru
  太郎は走っている
  Tarou is running. (translates to progressive, "is ~ing.")
• Tarou wa shinde-iru
  太郎は死んでいる
  Tarou has died. (translates to perfect, "has ~ed.")

Above, we see that the verbs "to run," hashiru 走る, and "to die," shinu 死ぬ, have different temporal meanings when conjugated to the same forms, the progressive form in English, and the ~te-iru ～ている form in Japanese.

This happens because these words have different lexical aspects.

Note: "lexical aspect," goi-teki asupekuto 語彙的アスペクト, shouldn't be confused with "grammatical aspect," bunpou-teki asupekuto 文法的アスペクト. The progressive, perfect, perfective, imperfective, and so on are grammatical aspects, not lexical aspects.

• Theories
  • 金田一 (1950)
  • Vendler (1957)
  • Issues
• References

kuro-mesen 黒目線

In Japanese, kuro-mesen 黒目線, "black eye-line," or just mesen 目線, "eye line," also known as me-kakushi-sen 目隠し線, "eye-hiding line," are black censor bars covering someone's eyes used to make them anonymous in order to protect their identity and privacy.

Note: mesen 目線 also has other meanings.

Anime: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 侵略！イカ娘 (Episode 3)

• Usage

mesen 目線

In Japanese, mesen 目線, literally "eye line," can mean various things: one's "line of sight," their "gaze," the direction toward which they're looking, their viewpoint, how they view things, and black lines covering someone's eyes.

Manga: Seitokai Yakuindomo 生徒会役員共 (Chapter 8)

• Meaning
  • Line of Sight
  • Viewpoint
    • 上からの目線
  • Censor Bars

Cobra Twist

In Japanese, a "cobra twist," katakanized kobura tsuisuto コブラツイスト, better known in English as "abdominal stretch," is a wrestling hold in which a wrestler, from behind, locks the opponent's arm, and bends them to a side. There are variations, but essentially:

• Left arm weaves in front of the opponent's right arm and behind their neck.
• Right hand grabs left hand, pressing the forearms against the opponent's neck.
• Left leg wraps the opponent's left leg, or is placed in front of it.
• The attacker squats, or pushes the receiver down by their neck, shoulders, bending their trunk, abdomen, to a side.

Attacker: Mizuki Natsumi 水木なつみ
Receiver: Yamaguchi Daisuke 山口大介
Anime: Mama wa Shougaku Yon'nensei ママは小学４年生 (1992, Episode 1)

• Examples
  
  • Peculiar Examples
• Octopus Hold

manji-gatame 卍固め

In Japanese, manji-gatame 卍固め, meaning "swastika hold," known in English as "octopus hold," is a wrestling hold resembling a "swastika," manji 卍, due to the placement of the limbs of the wrestler, with all four knees and elbows bent. There are variants, but essentially:

1. Left arm locks the opponent's right arm.
2. Left leg wraps around the opponent's neck.
3. Right leg wraps around the opponent's right leg.
4. Right elbow held against the opponent's ribs.

Attacker: Kinoshita Yuuko 木下優子, dressed as Kinoshita Hideyoshi 木下秀吉
Receiver: Yoshii Akihisa 吉井明久 as
Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni'!, !バカとテストと召喚獣 にっ！ (Season 2) (Episode 3, Stitch)

• Meaning
  
  • Translation
    
    • Octopus Hold
    • Manji Hold
• Origin
• Examples
  
  • Ground Variant
  • Peculiar Examples
• Cobra Twist

maji-manji マジ卍

In Japanese, maji-manji マジ卍 means the same thing as maji-yabai マジやばい. It's a JK slang used when something is intense, either intensely good, cool, awesome, epic, or intensely bad, horrible, awful, terrifying, dangerous.

The manji 卍 is also used as an internet slang when you're hyped up, excited for something.

See the article about the usage of the swastika in Japanese for details. This article is just for examples of usage.

Manga: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Chapter 82, かぐや様は断らない)

• Examples

manji 卍, "Swastika" in Japanese

In Japanese, a "swastika," manji 卍, is sometimes seen in text as a word, in which case it has various meanings depending on context.

Most of the time, it's a slang used by teenagers which means basically nothing, synonymous with yabai やばい, which also means basically nothing.

Manga: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Chapter 82, かぐや様は断らない)

• Meaning
  
  • マジ卍
  • Gangs
  • 卍系
  • 卍卍卍
  • Pose
    
    • Wrestling Hold
  • 卍解
  • 東卍
• Kanji

Anime Faces

For the sake of reference, a list of terms for anime faces, facial features, and symbolic expressions.

Source: Various

• Expressions
• Eyes
• Mouths
• Ears
• Other
• Parody

Four Ears

In manga and anime, sometimes characters have "four ears," yotsu-mimi 四つ耳, in the sense of having "two pairs" of ears, ni-tsui 二対, that are part of their body.

Generally, this happens when the artist adds a pair of cat ears, bunny ears, etc. on top of a human character's head that already has human ears or human-like ears.

Character: Opera オペラ
Anime: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん (Episode 10)

• Various characters in Iruma-kun have "elf ears," erufu-mimi エルフ耳 and "animal ears," kemomimi ケモミミ, although the latter is probably hair... in the same way that Kujo Jotaro's hat is probably hair.

Characters with four visible ears are few, as the lower ears are typically hidden behind hair.

• Explanation
• Examples
• References

usamimi うさみみ

In Japanese, usamimi うさみみ means "bunny ears" or "rabbit ears." It's a portmanteau combining the words usagi 兎, "bunny," "rabbit," and mimi 耳, "ears." In other words: it's an abbreviation of usagi-mimi 兎耳.

Like "cat ears," nekomimi 猫耳, usamimi is a specific type of kemomimi ケモミミ, and normally refers to headbands featuring bunny ears, or characters featuring bunny ears, rather than the actual ears of a bunny.

Character: Nakano Azusa 中野梓
Anime: K-On!, Keion! けいおん！ (Episode 9)

• Examples
• References

Bunny Girl

In Japanese, "bunny girl," katakanized banii gaaru バニーガール, refers to a girl wearing a "bunny suit," which is a well-known and very specific sort of sexy outfit featuring bunny ears.

Often, the Japanese term "bunny girl" refers to the act of cosplaying as a bunny girl, rather than referring to the girl herself.

The words banii-san バニーさん and usagi-san ウサギさん, both literally "bunny-san," are sometimes used to refer to the girl.

Character: Sakurajima Mai 桜島麻衣
Anime: Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai, 青春ブタ野郎はバニーガール先輩の夢を見ない (Episode 1)

• Origin
• Features
• Examples
  
  • Casino
  • Daicon IV
  • School Club Pamphleting
• Bunny Boy
• Reverse Bunny Girl
• References

Know Your Gaos

In the English anime fandom, "know your gao's" or "know the faces" is a an NSFW meme template listing Japanese terms for four types of fetishized facial expressions: ahegao, gesugao, torogao and kusogao, plus an extra deemed the most important gao.

Unfortunately, the way the Japanese terms are labelled, or translated, in the often reposted meme is vague, inaccurate, and incorrect, so I made my own version of it, with literal translations and flowers, and I'm going to explain what the words are actually supposed to mean in Japanese.

• Translations
  
  • "kusogao"
• Origin

fukurettsura ふくれっ面

In Japanese, fukurettsura ふくれっ面 refers to someone's face when they puff out their cheeks.

Character: Hina-ichigo 雛苺
Anime: Rozen Maiden, ローゼンメイデン (Episode 5)

In anime, girls with their cheeks puffed out are considered cute (moe 萌え), and such images are said often to be of girls pouting, that is, they look like this when they're angry, or annoyed, or frustrated.

See "pouting" in Japanese for details.

• Meaning
• Examples
• References

"Pouting" in Japanese

There are various ways to say "to pout" in Japanese, depending on what you mean: hoppe wo fukuramaseru ほっぺを膨らませる, kuchi wo togaraseru 口を尖らせる, suneru 拗ねる.

• In English
• ほっぺを膨らませる
• 口を尖らせる
• Related Words
  
  • 拗ねる
  • プッと
  • ムッと

OAD

An OAD is an anime disc bundled in a limited edition manga volume. Specifically, it refers to an anime that never aired on TV, or anywhere else, that's included as a bonus with the purchase of a manga volume.

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• Definition
• Acronym
• OAD vs. OVA
• References