In Japanese, a sequence of w's written at the end of a sentence in an internet comment (w, ww, www, wwww, and so on) is a slang like "lol," "lmao," or "rofl" in English. In manga and anime, it's particularly used by internet troll characters, and otaku, leaving snarky comments and starting flame wars.
Since it's almost Christmas, I figured I should make a list of Japanese words related to the holidays, including some assorted vocabulary and phrases, too.
For starters, chuuni 中二 is the abbreviation of the school yearchuugaku ni-nen 中学二年, meaning "middle-school, second-year," however, it's sometimes used to refer to a specific type of character or person.
In this case, chuuni 厨ニ (spelled with different kanji) is an abbreviation of chuunibyou 中二病, "middle-school second-year syndrome," which refers to when someone acts and talks like they live in a fantasy game, in the manga world, with magic, evil organizations, and stuff like that.
Character: Dark Flame Master, Togashi Yuuta 富樫勇太 Anime: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! 中二病でも恋がしたい！ (Episode 1)
Literally, chuunibyou 中二病 translates to "middle school second-year syndrome," as in a disease someone around 13–14 years old would get. It's also romanizedchūnibyō.
Sometimes, an anime character is said to have chuunibyou, to be a chuuni 厨ニ, but what is chuunibyou? Is it even a real disease?
Not really. The term chuunibyou 中二病 refers to thinking, acting, or talking like you live in a fantasy game, or in the world of a manga, with magic, secret organizations, super powers, and so on. Something which is extremely embarrassing and cringe for anyone older than 13 years old, and that you'll absolutely regret doing in front of others later in your life.
Character: Dark Flame Master Anime: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! 中二病でも恋がしたい！ (Episode 1)
In manga and anime, sometimes when characters are introduced by a panel with some text, there's a certain kanji followed by a number that doesn't make much sense. Such kanji are 小, 中, 高 and 大, and the numbers often range from 1 to 3. But what does it mean?!
In anime set in school it's normal to hear a bunch of words containing sei 生 that mean "student, " be it gakusei, shougakusei, chuugakusei, koukousei, seito, ichinensei, tenkousei, rettousei, danshikousei, joshikousei, and so on. But what's the meaning of these words? And the differences between them?
For reference, a list Japanese school years, grades, and the ages characters attend school in anime. Including terms like shougakkou ichinen 小学校一年,.chuugakkou sannen 中学校三年, koukou ichinen 高校一年 and so on.
Most anime is in a school, and everybody knows "school" in Japanese is a gakkou 学校. But is it a shougakkou 小学校 or a chuugakkou 中学校? Wait. What's the difference between shougakkou and chuugakkou, again? What about koukou??? What are the meanings of all these words?!
In Japanese, bakagaijin 馬鹿外人 means "stupid foreigner." It's also spelledbaka gaijin バカ外人.
In English, baka gaijin is a meme, a self-deprecating phrase used sarcastically by weebs and people learning Japanese.
Note that the word gaijin, "outsider," is considered to be rude by some, and gaikokujin 外国人, "person from another country," would be the less offensive term. However, since the point of the meme is being self-deprecating, it's baka gaijin, not baka gaikokujin.
In Japanese, gaijin 外人 means "foreigner." Literally "outsider." It's synonymous with gaikokujin 外国人, except that gaijin is considered to be offensive while gaikokujin is not.
The word betsuni is one of those words you're sort of forced to hear in anime. Every tsundere must be fluent in betsuni before getting their license, and every bored character must be able to say betsuni in answer to practically every question in order to show how much he doesn't care about things. But wait... are these two betsuni the same betsuni? What does betsuni mean in Japanese?
This season we have Juuni Taisen 十二大戦, "the great battle of twelve [warriors]," and one cool thing about this anime is that every warrior has a different way of killing, and that way of killing gets an immense tagline on screen.
Each tagline tells what a character is about, but some subtitles' translations have taken some huge liberties in translating the taglines from Japanese, so watchers end up associating phrases to characters that the original author didn't intend for people to associate.
In this post, I'll write the original Japanese taglines and some very literal translations, and explain how the Japanese works and their actual meanings in English like chewing and putting in mouth in a way easy to understand.
The word masaka means "it can't be," right? Or "could it be," right? That's its meaning, right? That what masaka means in Japanese, right? I mean, bakana! doesn't actually mean "impossible!" So... could it be that... masaka...?!
In Japanese, baka na バカな means something is "stupid."
But, often, b-b-b-bakana!!! translates to English as "impossible!!!" or "it can't be!!!" and it's typically used by villains when the protagonist does something extremely absurd that ruins all their plans.
Bakana! How can this be?! From the translation, the word bakana has literally nothing to do with "stupid." It means "impossible," for kamisama's sake! So what's going on here?
In anime, a "moe attribute," or moe zokusei 萌え属性 in Japanese, refers to something which someone thinks is cute in a character or situation, or, more broadly, feels moe 萌え towards. See types of moe for a list of examples.
Basically, it refers to a fetish, but the term "fetish" carries a sexual connotation, which isn't necessarily the case with moe attributes.
For example, if you like characters that wear "glasses," megane 眼鏡, then you're "glasses-attribute," megane-zokusei 眼鏡属性. Conversely, a character that's designed specifically to appeal the glasses-loving folks is also said to be megane-zokusei.
In anime, a moeblob means a character that is extremely cute, moe 萌え, and that's it. They have no other qualities, no other defining features, hence why they're just an indiscernible "blob" of moe.
This is a western anime slang normally used in criticism against such characters.
In Japanese, moe moe kyun 萌え萌えキュン is a cutesy phrase from the anime K-On! It doesn't really mean anything. In article, I'll explain why, and how the sentence is constructed in Japanese.
In Japanese, moe buta 萌え豚, "moe pig," is a derogatory and often self-depreciating slang referring to a type of otaku that likes manga and anime focused on moe 萌え.
In other words, it refers to anime fans that like anime with lots of cute girls and bishoujo 美少女 characters. It's derogatorily because they're admitting they'll watch anything if the author puts a cute girl in it. They're easily bought with cuteness.
If you give them moe, they'll flock to you like pigs.
In anime, gap moe, or gyappu moe ギャップ萌え, is a type of moe where a single character or scene features two vastly different and perhaps opposing characteristics, unlikely to occur with each other. Specifically, the term refers to moe 萌え derived from this "gap" between the characteristics.
A classic example is a heartless school delinquent who finds a stray cat in the rain and decides to keep it. The gap between his usual uncaring self and his pet-caring self is considered gap moe.
In Japanese, moe 萌え means a sentiment of affection and joy toward fictional characters, scenarios, and designs, and may refer to countless things. In English, moe means basically a "cute" anime girl.
