Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans

 I have been so busy lately, and things don’t seem to settle down…I don’t have much time to post. I am sorry about this. Having said that, I didn’t miss Tokyo Game Show.

 Well, I am quite curious about this kind of thing often happens abroad. In the anime Ookiku furikabutte, the protagonist Ren Mihashi who had previously held the position of ace pitcher in his middle school’s baseball team, but only due to the fact that his grandfather owns the school…In other words, he has a connection with something that gives him a better chance than anyone else. Yes, we Japanese say コネ[kone] which derives from connection though it doesn’t sound good. When I was a student at university, a lot of career advisors used to say like ”The more connection you have, the better” or something like that. (Seriously, I couldn’t believe how they could say like that in front of all the students?) At any rate, how many connections you have could give you so much possibility…Yes, in Japan the great power works so well. In Ren’s case, the reason why he used to be rejected by his teammates is not only the fact he has a connection, but also the real him…so eventually they were jealous of him.

 In this way, コネ makes it easier to start something. But even if it comes to pass, it might matter to you somehow…like Ren. Having said that, I think I have seen so many people who got famous just because of コネ, especially in the entertainment industry such as Koutaro Koizumi(Japan’s ex-prime minister’s son), Hikaru Utada(the singer Keiko Fuji’s daughter), or Mari Sekine( the comedian Tsutomu Sekine’s daughter), Emiri Henmi(the singer Mari Henmi’s daughter), Shouko Kitano(the filmmaker Takeshi Kitano’s daughter), and so on. Just because he/she is the son/daughter of someone who is a great celebrity, they can get into the same industry as parents…this is what’s called, 親の光は七光り[oya no hikari wa nanahikari, "one's parent's coattail"]. The more common form should be abbriviated as 親の七光[oya no nanahikari].  Literally, I could translated it as parent’s light has seven layers (correct me if I am wrong). But why seven? I quickly investigated, and the number Seven stands for such a strong great power, so seven itself is not so meaningful…

 I am not saying that all of above celebrities are doing good. Even though some of them made a debut thanks to 親の七光, the glory didn’t last so long…For example, Shouko Kitano made a debut as a singer at the age of 15, and her first song was composed by Yoshiki(the ex-leader of X-Japan). However, she could only release two songs. Even her first album didn’t come out. Meanwhile, Hikaru Utada still keeps working because she is a talented singer although she has a connection with music industry. After all, unless he/she is quite something, they can’t survive so long…though even now this still happens.

 What about in your country? Does this kind of thing happen so often?

 There’s an often old saying; female otakus like to imagine and picture a story on their minds whereas male otakus would prefer to see how a story goes “visually.” The theory has brought about this…yes, it’s ドリーム小説[dream shousetsu, "dream novel"]. It’s also said as 夢小説[yume shousetsu]( 夢 means a dream). To get to the point, ドリーム小説 is a fan-made novel on the net, and some of those characters’ names can be decided by readers, so you can enjoy the story as if you were in there. Most stories stem from manga, anime, otome games, or live-action movies or whatsover. So all you have to do is just enter your name before you start to read it, and you can be the heroine in the story…and have fun with your favorite character.

 It sounds like most readers for dream novels are fujoshi(BL fangirls), but actually not necessarily. Though such fan-made, I mean BL fan-made novels are everywhere on the net. Some fujoshi might dislike dream novels whereas other dream novel readers(from now, we can say ドリーマー[dreamer]) might insist they dislike BL…and they would say they are 夢見乙女(dream novel reader). In fact, I asked my fujoshi friend how she feels about ドリーム小説, and she said like;

 ”Well, I for one shall play otome game if I want to have fun with bishounen. It would be boring to put myself into such a dream novel. If I read a fan-made novel, it should be BL because that would be much enjoyable. I don’t think I want to enjoy dating in such a dream novel. I am not so “dreamy,” you know.”

 …O-Okay, so then I shall explain some terminology for dream novel readers here.

1. 裏[ura]; Literally it means reverse or back. But in dream novel circles, it also means a dream novel which includes some pornographic contents.

2. 男主人公[otoko shujinkou]; Basically, you can be the heroine in a dream novel, but in this genre, you can be the hero. So the name you shall enter must be a male one, and you would move on with the story. Yes, you could feel a buddy friendship, otherwise you would end up placing yourself in a BL story…

3. 逆ハーレム[gyaku harem]; In this genre, the heroine should be surrounded by several bishounen. Sounds like otome game! The exact opposite of harem…逆[gyaku] means a converse.

4. クロスオーバー[cross over]; A dream novel where some characters from a different series show up. Like Harry Potter world gets a connection with Load of the Ring world.

5. 作品傾向[sakuhin keikou]; This term is used to simply distinguish what kind of taste the dream novel is. For example,

 a. 友情[yuujou]; It depicts two(or more) boys’ friendship.

 b. エロ[ero]; It is porn (including BL).

 c. ギャグ[gag]; It is just a gag story.

 d. 悲哀[hiai]; It is a sad story.

 e. シリアス[serious]; It is a serious story, no joke.

 f. ダーク[dark]; Very depressing…we can also say 鬱展開[utsutenkai].

 6. トリップ[trip]; It means to cross the faraway space in order to go to the place where the story takes place such as Yuuri Shibuya in Kyou kara maou.

 7. 逆トリップ[gyaku-trip]; Yes, it means that those characters cross the faraway space in order to come to our real world.

 8. パラレル[parallel]; In this genre, the setting where those characters are, is completely different from the original. Like…well…Inuyashiya happens to be a school student and plays tennis.

 9. 未来[mirai]; Those characters are living in the future world which is made by the author. Like Ryoma Echizen happens to be a pro-tennis player and Tedsuka buchou happens to get married. And they are over 25 years old…

10. SS; It is an abbreviation of Short Story. This is the shortest in all the genre. The longest order is 長編[chouhen], 中編[chuuhen], 短編[tampen], and SS.

 I have introduced a term, 乙男[otomen] here, so I made up a new word. What about a guy who loves dream novels? Can I say like 夢見乙男[yumemi otomen]?

 Oh, never mind. (´・ω・｀)

  A fascinating and interesting news has come to all the karaoke fans who especially love Gundam Seed. I am sorry that today’s post is not about anime terminology, but I am really intrigued to this. Well, accroding to the resource, the enterprise which works a good job with karaoke, Daiichi koushou(第一興商) will install a new serivice. Yes, this is it, 歌唱戦士ガンダムSEED[Song Fighters Gundam Seed]. In this program, those characters from Gundam Seed shall evaluate your singing while you sing any songs from the series. As you can see in the right image, before you start to sing, you shall select your mobile suit. And the movie would start…but the interesting point is, the movie would be different depending upon which mobile suit you select. While you are singing, Halo which shows up at the corner on the screen, would keep reacting your singing(sounds very cute!). After you finish, any of them shall evaluate your singing(see the left image). I do wonder whether we can even select an evaluator because I definitely want to select Haine whose seiyu is T.M.Revolution if he is available. And I am not willing to choose Asuran because Ishida Akira never sings…and I know his singing is…umm…not very…

 Anyway, this service will start from the beginning of next month. So I think I will dash to the karaoke booth immdiately after I finish the work, and try some my favorite songs such as Tomorrow, Primal Innocence, Ignited and so on. And we can see how we are placed on the ranking all over the country…so I can’t help but fight against any other competitors.

 I also wonder how much it can exploit from Gundam fans.

 It is said that there’s an ultimate genre of 萌え(moe) among akibakeis. That is a forbidden space where akibakeis never get in…What’s that?

 The clue is, yes, over knee socks. We are often seen maids wearing these, aren’t we? The bare thighs of her between the skirt and the socks…is what’s called, 絶対領域[zettai ryouiki]. 絶対[zettai] means absolute, and 領域[ryouiki] means territory. So literally, it means an absolute territory. Why absolute? There are some rumors but none of them is so admissable.

 Having said that, most people seem to equate サイハイ(saihai,”thigh high socks”) with オーバーニーソックス(over knee socks) or ニーソックス(knee socks). Actually, both over knee socks and knee socks could show almost all her thighs though they can cover her knees. In order to make 絶対領域, almost the half (that depends) of her thighs should be covered by socks (look at above image). Unless she wears thigh high socks, it wouldn’t mean 絶対領域. In spite of the fact, most otaku people seem to prefer to say ニーソ(ni-so, abbreviation of knee socks) or オーバーニー(over knee, abbreviation of over knee socks) rather than saying サイハイ.  The rumor has it that those two terms, ニーソ and オーバーニー got common ahead of サイハイ, so that’s why most otaku are not willing to correct it anymore although they know the truth…Come to think of it, some of the words I have introduced so far got common among anime fans with no proper definition…how come this happens in Japan? I am Japanese, but sometimes I wonder things like this would happen abroad.

 Also, thigh high socks could be found in some fashion magazines or whatsover. But actually, they are sometimes introduced as knee socks or over knee socks…well, they might even say like ultra-over knee socks or something like that.  Well, I had better not resist rule of thumb, so I should call it ニーソ or オーバーニー, shouldn’t I? 

 I am not sure who made up this term, but I think this is well put, and I really want to appreciate it. Yes, normally it should be written as 一般人[ippanjin] which means “general” people. But actually this kanji 逸[itsu] stands for deviation. Techinically it could be said like 逸脱[itsudatsu]. So the first kanji shall be replaced by 逸, this term was made up…See what I mean? If non-otaku folks are 一般人, otaku folks are 逸般人. 逸般人 means those who live outside the general society…literally. And then those 逸般人 can say those who live outside otaku circles are 一般人. I guess some otaku people might find this so insulting, but personally I like this term. Yes, I am a 逸般人.^^

 Also, how can a 逸般人 be a 一般人?  Yes, there’s one appropriate term to answer it. That’s 社会復帰[shakai hukki]. It simply means rehabilitation, to return to the society. But actually, in 逸般人 circles, 社会復帰 means to stop being a otaku in order to be a 一般人(general person). Again, some otaku people might find it insulting…because all the otaku people are not those who really need to rehabilitate such as Sato-kun in Welcome to NHK! in the first place. If you don’t want to say 社会復帰, you can also say like カタギになる[katagi ni naru, "to stop being a yakuza to be a general person"] or 足を洗う[ashi wo arau,"wash one's feet"] to mean to be a 一般人. Both stem from yakuza terminology, but are already common among general people.

 Having said that, in 逸般人(or doujin) circles, they seem to say like 一般禁[ippankin] to keep such 一般人 out of their circles. 禁[kin] stands for forbiddance. It could be said like パンピ禁[pampi-kin] or P禁[p-kin]. パンピ is a more casual form of 一般人, and P stands for ”p” of パンピ["p"ampi].  Some real 一般人 would say like otaku people often draw a line to quarantine themselves by using such a word, but personally I don’t think so.

 Well, mostly 一般禁 can be labeled on a fan-made comic(同人誌), especially BL manga. In such a big otaku event(like Comic Market), some 一般人 would join. So in order to warn this kind of thing contains something 一般人 dislike, it is supposed to be labeled. Or else, it is used to inform that you don’t understand what this fan-made comic talks about unless you know the original of it so well. So that’s why I think 一般禁 is not used to keep 一般人 out…What if a 一般人 picked up a BL manga not knowing what it is? Neither 一般人 nor 逸般人 feel good…At any rate, they just implore those who are not intersted(or dislike) in their genre not to take it by using 一般禁.

 I am hoping both of the two societies could mutually esteem more than ever and have fun. (´・ω・｀)

　If you happen to be a cosplayer, you would be definitely sure of this term. When I heard of this for the first time, I could guess this should be an abbreaviation of ダンスパーティー[dance party]. I was…maybe right, roughly. In fact, this term is common among cosplayers, and it means a dance party for cosplayers. They join this party in order to have fun with dancing…with anime songs. Having said that, lately non-otaku people or those who are not such deep otaku are also coming to ダンパ. And songs are not only from anime but such pop-music. So some cosplayers who love ダンパ or ヲタ芸師[otageishi] could even dance パラパラ[parapara routine]. Yes, I have actually witnessed a group of ヲタ芸師 starting to dance パラパラ after finishing otagei on the main street in Akihabara.

 Speaking of cosplayers, I have no experience in cosplay(I wish I could) but I have been to some events for cosplayers such as Comic Market or whatsover. So, I shall introduce some terms those are so common among cosplayers. 

1. オールジャンル[all genre]; Like a Comic Market, an event which has no specific theme. So anyone can dress up whatever they want. That means so many attendants would join, so the arena should be such a bigger place like 国際展示場[kokusaitenjijou].

2. オンリーイベント[only event]; The exact opposite of オールジャンル, this event should specify the theme.  If an event is for One Piece, only One Piece fans are allowed to join. Also, in BL circles, they can specify even the pair. For example, if the event is for Zoro×Sanji, only those who love this pair could join. I am sure those who love Sanji×Zoro pair never join. XD The good thing of this kind of event, it is much easier to find mates who have the same taste as yours. 

3.ナベシャツ[nabe-shirt]; What is it? It’s a T-shirt which is used by female cosplayers when they get dressed as a man. Yes, it is capable of pressing the breasts…to try not to make remarkable. ナベ[nabe] means a pot, but actually it also means a woman who pretends to be a man, or who functions as a male in a Lesbian couple. Incidentally, カマ[kama] means  a man who pretends to be a woman. I am not sure there’s also a カマシャツ[kama-shirt] for male cosplayers when they get dressed as a woman(女装”josou”).

4. レイヤー[reiya-]; Yes, it means a cosplayer. If you happen to see a very…umm…hid–us cosplayer, don’t say kimoi(キモイ), but be kind of saying 痛いレイヤー(itai reiya-). 痛い is more modest than any other direct negative adjectives.

5. 肌出し系[hadadashi-kei]; Any characters those are almost naked or wear such dangeroussexy costumes. Otherwise, such cosplayers. I think Rum in Uruseiyatsura is this kind of thing. We can also say 露出系[roshutsu-kei] to mean it. 露出 means exposure.

6.  合わせ[awase]; If you try to be a cosplayer, whatever it is, would you like to accompany some more cosplayers from the same series as yours? If you are in Haruhi costume, would you like to accompany Mikuru or Yuki? Yes, it would be much better, wouldn’t it? So 合わせ means to accompany some cosplayers who get dressed as other characters from the same series.

7. 盗撮の盗撮[tousatsu no tousatsu]; 盗撮 means to take a photo of someone with no permission. Such people are what’s called 出歯亀[debagame] which means Peeping Tom. Well, of course there are a lot of paparazzi called カメラ小僧[camera kozou](sometimes it can be abbreviated as カメコ[kameko]). However, some of them sometimes take a photo with no permission…this is 盗撮. The funny thing is that some paparazzi would take a photo of such Peeping Tom with no permission. This is 盗撮の盗撮. Mostly, such photos would be posted on the net, and saying like “Be aware of those paparazzi.” This is dangeously hilarious…ugh.

 By the way, the above image was taken when I went to the event, Chara Hobby 2007. She is wearing a leotard of Char Aznable…umm, gorgeous. (*´Д｀*)ﾊｱﾊｱ However, after I saw this, I encountered a woman who must have been in 50’s and wore the same costume as this…

  痛い痛い痛いぃぃぃぃぃぃ！！(((;°д°)))

 In fact, I am a big fan of yakuza(Japanese maphia) or host-and-hostess manga such as Ikegami Ryouichi(池上遼一) or Kurashina Ryo(倉科遼) . However, this kind of thing are hardly made into anime because of excessive violence and sex scene. So I was a bit surprised to know this anime, 瀬戸の花嫁[Seto no Hanayome] which happens to relate to such a yakuza society. Even though such excessive murderous depiction can’t be seen in this anime, I couldn’t help but paying attention to some yakuza terminology. Actually in episode 5, when San’s father replaces the ex-teacher, he makes his students take a kanji test. But the funny thing is that, all the words on the test are yakuza terminology. Also, those words are in accordance with the way yakuza folks say…So I shall mention some yakuza terminology here.

1. 刺青[monmon]; Normally, it is read as irezumi which means tattoo. I think it should be 紋紋[monmon] in kanji. 紋[mon] stands for emblem or logo, so 紋紋 stands for an emblem of yakuza…yes, that is tattoo.

2. 手錠[wappa]; Normally, it is read as tejou which means handcuffs. Actually, this term could also belong to police terminology. When they cuff someone, they would say ワッパをかける[wappa wo kakeru] to mean to cuff. Besides, to get arrested could be said パクられる[pakurareru].

3. 縄張り[shimari]; Normally, it is read as nawabari which means turf. Shimari could derive from the verb 取り締まる[torishimaru,"control"] or a noun, 島[shima] which stands for territory(領土[ryoudo]).

4. 拳銃[chaka]; Normally, it is read as kenjuu which means a pistol. But I think this got common for general people though we know this is actually a yakuza terminology. Also, in the olden time, we could read it as hajiki(ハジキ). I don’t hear this nowadays anymore.

5. 刑期[otsutome]; Normally, it is read as keiki which means a prison term. We say 刑期を務める[keiki wo tsutomeru] to mean to serve one’s term. So otsutome(お務め) is a noun form of this 務める. Having said that, we usually use お勤め(otsutome) which means work, not お務め, though. Well, I often hear a woman who is waiting for her husband(?) coming out of the jail in a yakuza film, and when he comes out, she would say like お務めご苦労様でした。[otsutome gokurousamadeshita] to mean welcome back.

6. 女[iro]; Yes, it means a mistress or simply a girlfriend. I have never heard, but even 男[otoko] might be read as iro somehow…Besides, 女 could be also read as suke. Speaking of suke, there’s a term which relates to it, スケこま師[sukekomashi]. こます[komasu] means to cheat or a nuance of ～してやる[shiteyaru]. The closet English is…well, be gonna do or shall do or something like that. At any rate, スケこま師 means a playboy. When yakuza folks use it with the latter meaning, they would say like いてこますぞ[itekomasuzo]. I think the plain form of いて should be いる[iru], and should be written as 射る[iru]. 射る might mean to kill or to beat up for yakuza circles. So いてこますぞ means  ”I’ll beat you up.”

7. 白状う[utau]; Like 手錠[wappa], there’s one more term which is shared with police society…this is it, 白状う. 白状 is normally read as hakujou, which means confession. So the original form is 白状する[hakujousuru], which means to confess some hidden information one knows…Police would also say 吐く[haku,"throw up"] to mean the same thing. In yakuza society, it is said like ウタわしたろかい、おぅ！？[utawashitarokai, Ou!?] to mean “I’m gonna make you tell, eh!?(゜д゜)ｺﾞﾙｱ”

8.強要む[kachikomu]; The advertising line for this anime says かちこみラブコメディ[kachikomi love-comedy]. 強要 is read as kyouyou which means enforcement. 強要する[kyouyousuru, force to do sth, or to threaten] should be the plain form of this 強要む. Or else, it could be written as 殴り込む. Normally, it is read as nagurikomu which means to raid. But in yakuza circles, it could be read as kachikomu.

 Of course, there are more terms that I don’t mention here. But this blog is for anime fans, not yakuza fans, so I’d better stop here, didn’t I? ;^^

 After I posted on ヲタ芸[otagei], I found something was missing. Yes, I forgot to write about this term, 地下アイドル[chika aidoru], so I shall add it now. Well, you could guess what this means. 地下[chika] means underground, and アイドル[aidoru] means idol. So literally it means an underground idol.

 I took above image with my mobile camera in Akihabara(sorry for the bad image quality) when I heard someone was singing on the main street. If you happen to be in Tokyo, just go to the main street in Akihabara on weekend. If you are lucky, you could see such girls or a lot of ヲタ芸師[otageishi]. At any rate, such idols have not made a debut, but they sing or do a photo session.  So that’s why they show up on the street to sing to get more popular. Such girls are what’s called, 地下アイドル(or else ライブアイドル[live idol]). They might show up on the stage of such a tiny clubhouse. And yes, of course otageishi would love such 地下アイドル that they come to tiny events and do otagei or take pictures just like paparazzi…If a 地下アイドル shows up in Akihabara only(or mostly), she might be also called アキバ系アイドル[akiba-kei idol]. Having said that, AKB48 is アキバ系アイドル too although they made a debut. In general, most people seem to put these two kind of idols into the same pot, but technically it’s wrong. Of course, they never forget to introduce themselves on the net. Mostly, they do it on mixi. One more thing, if an idol appears on her site mostly, she might be called like ネットアイドル[net idol]. I am not sure they are really popular among akibakeis.