In Japanese, hikikomori 引きこもり means a "shut-in." Someone who "shuts [themselves] into [somewhere]," hikikomoru 引きこもる, like in their room, or in their home.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
otaku オタク
In Japanese, otaku オタク means a hardcore "anime fan," or, more generally, a "nerd," a "hobbyist." It's abbreviated ota オタ. Sometimes, otaku お宅 means "your house" instead, and may also mean "you," used as a second person pronoun.
Manga: Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san. よんでますよ、アザゼルさん。 (Chapter 27, 苺の戦士)
Saturday, July 30, 2016
moteru モテる
In Japanese, moteru モテる means "to be popular," in the sense of a guy being popular with girls, or of a girl being popular with guys. Being romantically popular. Like a bishoujo 美少女, with thousands of admirers, love letters, a boyfriend, and so on.
Anime: Gintama 銀魂 (Episode 256)
Not to be confused with: the homonym moteru 持てる, which means "to have" or "to hold" something; or with ninki 人気, which means "popular" in the general sense.
ikemen
In Japanese, ikemen イケメン means "hot guy," "handsome," "cool guy," as in a "pretty" guy, an "attractive" guy. It's a slang. Similar words include bishounen 美少年, "beautiful boy," and binan 美男, "beautiful man."
Character: Masamune Makabe 真壁政宗
Anime: Masamune-kun no Revenge, 政宗くんのリベンジ (Episode 1)
Anime: Masamune-kun no Revenge, 政宗くんのリベンジ (Episode 1)
Friday, July 29, 2016
bishoujo 美少女
In anime, a bishoujo 美少女 is, literally, a "beautiful girl," or less literally, a "pretty girl." Characters called bishoujo or introduced as bishoujo are supposedly more beautiful than the average anime girl.
Character: Teruhashi Kokomi 照橋心美
Anime: Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan 斉木楠雄のΨ難
Anime: Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan 斉木楠雄のΨ難
Body Parts
For reference, all the Japanese vocabulary concerning body parts that you'll ever need.
Let's start with the word for "body" in Japanese: karada 体. It's often read tai 体 when it's part of another word, e.g. tainai 体内, "inside of the body.
Let's start with the word for "body" in Japanese: karada 体. It's often read tai 体 when it's part of another word, e.g. tainai 体内, "inside of the body.
"Body" in Japanese
There are various ways to say "body" in Japanese. A physical body is karada 体, or karada 身体, but the word mi 身 is used in some cases. The morpheme tai 体 is used to refer to aspects of the body. And words like nobody, somebody, anybody, everybody are formed with dare 誰 plus some particle.
This article is about the word for whole "body." See Names of Body Parts in Japanese for a list of terms for specific parts.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Moon Phases in Japanese
The terms for the "moon phases" in Japanese, gessou 月相, would be:
| English | Romaji | Kanji |
|---|---|---|
| New Moon | shingetsu | 親月 |
| Waxing crescent Moon | jougengetsu | 上弦月 |
| Full Moon | mangetsu | 満月 |
| Waning crescent Moon | kagentsu | 下弦月 |
The word for "Moon" in Japanese is tsuki 月, e.g. tsuki ga kirei 月がきれい, "the Moon is pretty." This word is the kun'yomi 訓読み of the kanji, getsu is the on'yomi 音読み.
Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
omake おまけ
In Japanese, omake おまけ, also spelled omake お負け, is something given as an extra when selling a product. In manga, anime, and games, omake are bonuses generally bonuses included at the end of the an episode or tankōbon 単行本 volume.
Manga: Fullmetal Alchemist, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師
kimochi 気持ち
In Japanese, kimochi 気持ち means literally "feeling," a noun, but it's used in some weird ways that don't make much sense. In this article, I'll explain what kimochi means, how it's used, and the difference between kimochi, kimochi ii, and kimochi warui.
Manga: Prison School, 監獄学園 (Chapter 168)
Monday, July 25, 2016
shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei 少年, 少女, 青年, 女性
By the way, "a shounen protagonist" is the protagonist "of" a shounen manga/anime, not a protagonist who "is" a shounen, i.e. not a boy protagonist, a protagonist of a series for boys.
Note: not to be confused with shounen-ai and shoujo-ai, which, in English, refers to gay and lesbian genres of manga and anime.
Source: various
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Oniichan, Oneechan, Otouto, Imouto
Brothers and sisters, we are here united on this day to talk about the difference between "brother" and... "brother"... in Japanese. And "sister" and "sister." Of course I'm talking about the words oniichan 御兄ちゃん and otouto 弟, and oneechan お姉ちゃん and imouto 妹, and some other words related to siblings.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Animals in Japanese - Vocabulary
If you watch anime, you might know that a neko 猫 is a "cat" and that an inu 犬 is a "dog", but what about the others? What are the animals' names in Japanese? Well, I've put together a list of them!
Friday, July 22, 2016
~dono ～殿 (Honorific Suffix)
yobisute 呼び捨て
In Japanese, yobisute 呼び捨て means calling someone without a honorific suffix after their names.
For example, if there's someone called Tarou 太郎, people normally call him: Tarou-san 太郎さん, with the san さん honorific. If you call him by just his name, Tarou 太郎, then that's yobisute.
For example, if there's someone called Tarou 太郎, people normally call him: Tarou-san 太郎さん, with the san さん honorific. If you call him by just his name, Tarou 太郎, then that's yobisute.
~kun ～君 (Honorific Suffix)
In Japanese, ~kun ～くん after someone's name is a honorific suffix used toward boys, male mascot characters, and subordinates, employees or pupils of either gender. It's also spelled ~kun ～君, with the same kanji as the word kimi 君, "you."
Not to be confused with kun 訓, which is the kun'yomi 訓読み reading of a kanji.
~chan ～ちゃん (Honorific Suffix)
~sama ～様 (Honorific Suffix)
In Japanese, ~sama ～様 after someone's name is a honorific suffix, used to refer to people with reverence and respect. It's also spelled ～さま,
In real life, it's used toward customers, clients. In anime, it's used by a slave or servant to refer to their master, lord, or lady. To refer to deities, and to other beings who are superior to the speaker.
Manga: Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 (Chapter 14, あがり症です)
~san ～さん (Honorific Suffix)
In Japanese, ~san ～さん after someone's name is a honorific suffix, not to be confused with the homonymous number "three," san 三.
The san さん honorific is the most neutral and common of all honorific suffixes. In modern Japan, it's normal to call someone by adding san さん after their names. For example: Tarou-san 太郎さん. In English, this is often translated as "Mr." or "Ms.," like Mr. Tarou.
Manga: Kobayashi-san Chi no Meidoragon 小林さんちのメイドラゴン (Chapter 4, トールと嫉妬)
Honorific Suffixes
In Japanese, honorific suffixes are words like san さん, chan ちゃん, kun くん, and sama 様, which are written or said after a person's name when addressing them.
They're also called honorific titles, or keishou 敬称.
There are dozens of them, and they're used for dozens of reasons.
Manga: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Chapter 9)
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Dere Types: Tsundere, Yandere, Kuudere, Dandere + Others
Some words you may often hear when talking about girls in anime are tsundere ツンデレ, kuudere クーデレ and yandere ヤンデレ. Besides being used only when talking about girls and being mostly words made-up by fans, they also got this dere デレ there at the end, so, clearly, they're related somehow. But what do they mean exactly?
baka 馬鹿, バカ
In Japanese, baka バカ, also spelled 馬鹿, ばか, means "stupid" or "idiot." It can mean that someone is stupid, or did something stupid. Or is stupid about something, i.e. fixated on it. That's stupidly high, i.e. absurdly high, extremely so. Or that it became stupid in the sense of it stopped functioning.
Character: Nendou Riki 燃堂 力
Manga: Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan 斉木楠雄のΨ難 (Chapter 2, 最低Ψ悪！？燃堂力)
Manga: Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan 斉木楠雄のΨ難 (Chapter 2, 最低Ψ悪！？燃堂力)
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