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.

イチゴの悪魔でてきてにょりん ピロリロリロリーン イチゴたんのターンキターー イチゴたんはオレのヨメーー カタカタカタタ
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.

Mantama まんたま, a parody of Gintama 銀魂, features Kintoki 金時 as the last man in the world, so all the girls fall in love with him, because he's literally the only boy in the world.
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.

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.

A bishoujo anime girl.
Character: Teruhashi Kokomi 照橋心美
Anime: Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan 斉木楠雄のΨ難

Body Parts

WIP
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.

"Body" in Japanese

There are various ways to say "body" in Japanese. A physical body is karada , or karada 身体, but the word mi 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.

Terms for the four phases of the Moon in Japanese.
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.

おまけ 2巻からは主役交替で『焔の錬金術師』が始まります transcript from manga 鋼の錬金術師
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.

ん?なんだ・・この気持ちは・・
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

What's a shounen manga? A shounen anime, or even just "a shounen"? What's the difference between shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei? What's the meaning of these words in Japanese?

They are demographics: shounen 少年, "boys," shoujo 少女, "girls," seinen 青年, "young men," and josei 女性, "women." A shounen anime is so-called because it adapts a shounen manga, which is so-called because it's serialized in a shounen magazine, which is so-called because it targets a "boys" demographic, its primary audience are underage boys, it's marketed toward them.

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.

Example of shounen manga 少年漫画, shoujo manga 少女漫画, seinen manga 青年漫画, and josei manga 女性漫画.
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!

yobisute 呼び捨て

WIP
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.

~sama ~様 (Honorific Suffix)

In Japanese, ~sama 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.

神様!仏様!古見様!!
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.

プハー 仕事終わりの1杯は最高だね!! 小林さんかわいい
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, 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.

どうかお願いしますサターニャさん・・・ いえ サターニャ様
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.

理由はすぐ分かった ぱーーーーん わひひあひー この男バカなのである
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)