ギザカワユス[gizakawayusu]
There’s a remarkable idol not only among anime fans but also non-otaku people. She is 中川翔子[Shouko Nakagawa], and everybody calls her しょこたん[shokotan]. So she is well known as an オタクアイドル[otaku idol] because she loves to collect cards, watch anime or manga, and do cosplay. Sometimes she even shows up in a certain costume such as Tsukino Usagi, Suzumiya Haruhi, or whatsover. And all the costumes she possesses belong to her, not rental. She sometimes teaches some otaku interests to other entertainers she works with. If necessary, she makes them try out some costumes.
So she has made up some terms for her use(but she never personally admit those terms belong to her), but lately it is becoming popular among some anime fans or otaku. Even non-otaku folks sometimes use. Yes, that’s しょこたん語[shokotan-go,”shokotan language”]. Can I say like Shokotanese? Just kidding. Okay, I shall explain some of them, especially major ones.
1. ギザカワユス[gizakawayusu]; It simply means very cute, very pretty. It derives from かわいい[kawaii]. ギザ seems to mean “super-” or something like that.
2. コワス[kowasu]; It means scary. The original form must be こわい[kowai].
3. キモス[kimosu]; It means awfully grotesque, hideous. It derives from 気持ち悪い[kimochiwarui]. キモイ[kimoi] is also a slang, but it is already common in general.
4. ウマス[umasu]; It means delicious. The antonym is マズス[mazusu].
5. ヤバス[yabasu]; It means risky, seriously dangerous. It derives from やばい[yabai].
6. エロス[erosu]; It means sexy, obscene. It derives from エロい[eroi].
7. モユルス[moyurusu]; In kanji, it can be both 燃ユルス and 萌ユルス. The former means to be absorbed in sth, or be intent on sth, and the latter means the same as 萌える[moeru], which means to be sexually obsessed with sth, or freak out…
Needless to say, these terms seem to origin from 2ch, but not really. For people who are not familiar with 2ch, these terms are regarded as しょこたん語 as the press focused on her. Inside 2ch circles, this is kind of controvertial because some of them insist those terms don’t belong to her. Having said that, some terms she made up got into 2ch. It sounds like they are exchanging terms each other. So it’s confusing, which term was born in which side?
You can go to her official blog here; http://yaplog.jp/strawberry2/ (in Japanese)
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 
w said,
August 9, 2007 at 7:48 am
Oh no! Did you purposely spell アイドル as “idle”? It’s really “idol”, but I guess it’s a common English pun to call idols “idle” (e.g. American Idle).
I once saw a youtube clip of Shokotan teaching otaku culture to this other Japanese celebrity whose name really escapes my head (she’s very tall, and has a deep voice.) I found it rather strange and I kept wondering “are they showing this on TV?…” Shokotan even dressed up as Ayanami Rei, I think.
khursten said,
August 9, 2007 at 8:46 am
@w… Oh! I know that! It was Akiko Wada! I learned a lot of terms there such as vipper. But then again lately, you can’t really distinguish the difference of vippers among others. ^^;;
I thought that the -su in shokotan’s language is similar to the -chu or -gema suffixes that’s I used to hear in animes like Digicharat or maybe even Gunsou. I think other characters also do these to be cuter, maybe? Sometimes I hear Tamama go “Umaissu” ^^;;
bangin said,
August 9, 2007 at 8:50 am
w-dono:OMG! I made a big mistake! It wasn’t on purpose.
I’ve got to correct it now, otherwise I would have a lot of complaints from fans of her. (;゜д゜)アワワワ Thank you for correcting, w-dono. ^^
But I didn’t know that it is also common. I learned.
Yes, she also dresses up as Souryu Asuka Rangley. And I think she covered the OP theme song of Evangelion.
I know the show you mentioned, and the woman you meant must be 和田アキ子(Wada Akiko). She has a long career as a singer, and she’s thick-skinned. However, when Shokotan taught her something, she wore Suzumiya Haruhi’s costume. And she even copied Haruhi’s personality, and said to her, “Don’t you know that? Are you idiot?” Everybody else is scared of her, but Shokotan did it. So hilarious.
khursten: I think everyweek a teacher should be changed in the show, right? Shokotan was the first teacher, I suppose so.
The term I don’t get it is ワロス. I thought it is supposed to be vippers’ use…Or else did Shokotan just use that? I know some people regard ワロス as Shokotan-go.
Avplaya said,
August 10, 2007 at 12:26 am
I saw that clip with her and Wada-san. She’s really rude to her, I was so shocked.. but it’s almost like Hard Gay… if someone is so openly offensive, people actually just take it well. I guess if you want to offend someone, be in a costume and people will forgive you. ^^;;
Is she really that popular with main stream TV? Is she a tarento now?
It seemed しょこたん語 is mostly replacing “i” with “u”, but it’s funny 2ch isn’t really embracing her as much as I thought… Maybe she’s too mainstream?
bangin said,
August 10, 2007 at 3:50 am
I agree. Haruhi has to be like that, so that means someone in Haruhi’s costume has to be as well. That’s why Shokotan was allowed to be rude to even Akko-san. ^^
I think she is what’s called, バラドル[baradoru, an abbreviation of バラエティーアイドル] such as Hiroko Moriguchi or Miyuki Imori. Shokotan mostly shows up in talk shows or other entertainment shows, and sometimes sings. So she is a tarento.
Some of Shokotan-go sound the same or similar to 2ch. Thanks to her, 2ch terms got popular in public, some people say. Others say she plagiarized those words. 😦
She also uses お(o) as a suffix to replace よ(yo). Like 行ってきたお(I went), or 行ってくるお(I will go).
bi said,
August 10, 2007 at 9:16 am
Ahahahaha, she is an interesting idol 😀
I’ve only seen her once in a special show dedicated to Clamp. They drew storyboard for a short comic, then she dressed up like the heroine and posed for pictures, and then they made the comic using Shokotan pics 😀 It was interesting, she was all excited to talk to them and see how how they work, her reactions were very much like the ones I would have had XDD
bangin said,
August 10, 2007 at 11:19 am
I think she can even draw pictures, and do seiyu. What got me the most was that Shokotan did a short dialogue of Evangelion by herself. She acted Shinji and Rei Ayanami, (maybe Asuka, too) by turn. It was dangerously real!
I for one, appreciate her doing. It’s a really good job. 🙂
w said,
August 11, 2007 at 11:05 am
bangin and khursten: Yes! That was it, Akiko Wada! Thank you. I still am so shocked over the way she talked to her like that. But like Avplaya said, I guess it’s like Hard Gay.
I never heard much about Shokotan-go before this though. I always thought things like お and ワロス came from vippers first. Don’t a lot of people find using お kind of gross though? Like ・・・だっておｗｗｗｗ and 勝ったお（ ＾ω＾） or whatever. I dunno.
Would you say the appearance of tarento like her signify a big change in the role the anime industry plays nowadays? I mean you probably didn’t see stuff like this in the 90s or 80s… did you?
bangin said,
August 12, 2007 at 8:00 am
No, I didn’t see any tarento trying out some anime coutume and showing up on TV so much in the 90s or 80s. In many ways, Shokotan really works a good job. Nowadays, the number of male cosplayers are increasing, and non-otaku people seem to be getting interested in otaku culture. I think she made a connection between the general society and otaku circles…
まみたん[mamitan] or まみたお[mamitao] are also her use. It functions as ました[mashita] and ましたよ[mashitayo]. Both could be placed at the end of the sentence. I can’t use them! (;゜д゜)
Avplaya said,
August 16, 2007 at 8:41 pm
The most famous non-otaku cosplay show on TV is that 全日本仮装大賞 where all the judges cosplays. Do they still do that?
At least Shokotan seemed to be a real otaku… I see more and more of young women pretending to be otaku trying to otaku to fall for them. Bangin-sama, maybe you want to do a post about some of these otaku idol groups like those Nagano Fujoshi Sister?
bangin said,
August 17, 2007 at 5:56 am
Yes, they do. But actually it’s getting midiocre lately. Less impressive than before. Years ago, I saw a judge in Obocchama-kun’s(おぼっちゃまくん) costume. That was the funniest one in me.
Ah, now that I mentioned Shoko-tan, I should have written about them as well! I like Chiaki the most…I have been to Nakano, but never to Nakano Broadway where is a sanctuary for fujoshi as well as Otome Road in Ikebukuro(I have been there a couple of times).
Do you know about Ami Tokitou, Avplaya-sama? I wonder if she is an otaku idol…I think she is just a メガネっ子.
Avplaya said,
August 17, 2007 at 10:45 pm
ano.. sama’tte….?!? ^^; I’m no sama… I’m barely a kun. ^^
おぼっちゃまくん.. that was a while ago wasn’t it? I’d love to see someone cosplay THAT ittle freak, especially that hair. ^^
Isn’t Nakano the New AKIBA? I read a lot of news now days about otakus abandoning Akiba and moving to Nakano. Is that true? Gaijin rumors are nothing compare to the authoritative words of bangin-dono.
As for Ami Tokitou, I didn’t know much about her but I’ve seen her youtube clips. From reading about her I feel she started out as a gravure idol, and she probably just targeted the Akiba-kei as her audience (since she’s really not pretty enough to make it for real). I don’t think she’s an otaku at all.. she just like otaku money, I think. I think wotas would be more interested in her．
BTW, is もむすヲタ or “WOTA” the proper term for Momusu otakus? You should write a post about the proper OTAKU names if you haven’t already… like ﾊﾟｿｺﾝおたく，電車おたく，etc. There are a lot of non-anime otaku in Japan, right? I watched enough TV Champion to know the awesome power of Japanese ANYTHING-otaku.
bangin said,
August 19, 2007 at 9:19 am
Ha ha, so then should I call you Avplaya-san? ^^
Let’s see…there’s an often told saying, if Akihabara is a sanctuary for male otaku, there must be other places for female otaku. Yes, those places are Ikebukuro and Nakano. In Nakano, there’s a big department store called Nakano Broadway. They handle not only BL stuff, but also costumes or any other anime products. And there’s some maid cafes, but not as much as Akihabara. So nowadays, more and more male otaku go to Nakano than before. Even male otaku could enjoy shopping there. I guess some of them go there to see the events by Nakano Fujoshi Sisters. But I assume it doesn’t even necessarily mean they abondon Akihabara. At least, loads of fans of AKB48 absolutely have to go to Akihabara. If akibakeis want to go to a maid cafe, they wouldn’t choose Nakano because there’s not much.
Meanwhile, Ikebukuro still holds a lot of fujoshi. Even though there’s an animate and some maid cafes, most shops handle BL stuff.
WOTA is the propper term, but in general, モーヲタ or モーオタ would be more common than WOTA. If he loves not only Momusu but 美勇伝, メロン記念日, or amy other groups from Hello Project, he should be a ハロプロヲ(オ)タ.
Good idea, I will write about those terms. Thank you for the tip. 🙂
Avplaya said,
August 22, 2007 at 1:01 am
Yes that’s fine… BTW, AV = Audio-Visual, not the other AV…
I heard Nakano was for the BL-kei, so I’m surprised akiba-kei started going there. Maybe there’ll will be an otaku turf war? Nah, all akiba-kei wanted to do is to date the fujoshi, and the fujoshi will just ignore them. ｗｗｗｗ
I suppose you’re right of course, there’s just too much history and facilities for an akiba-kei to enjoy himself in Akiba. But wasn’t there a lot of complaits about small shops being pushed out by big box stores? Akiba is a very special part of Japan and I hope it will stay that way.
AKB48… their 会いたかった hooked me and now I’m a fan. I heard they are getting more popular with girls now. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a show where half of them are wotas and other half actual high school girls. Now that’s a wota’s dream, doing a ケチャ with a high school girl.
Yeah I have seen those Oriental Radio ヲタ芸部 clips… Do otakus actually do things like OAD and PPPH? Is that show just making fun or are they actual ota-gei moves? If they are, PLEASE do a post on them so the gaijin otas can copy it and have videos posted to youtube for all to enjoy. ｗｗｗｗｗｗ
bangin said,
August 23, 2007 at 5:29 am
AV stands for Audio-Visual, yes, but mostly…www
Yes, most fujoshi would go to Nakano to buy BL stuff, not to date akibakeis. well, if an akibakei boy is such a bishounen such as Kira Yamato or Asuran Zara, things would be different…
Let’s see, Akiba is the largest electric town in Japan as you know, and there’s some narrow streets for real akibakeis. Yes, such big department stores are seen on the main boulevard, but such small shops for akibakei are out of the main street. But it’s fine with them because they tend to get together at the same area. So that means such a narrow street becomes a ヲタ街エリア. Having said that, there’s some big department stores for akibakeis on the main boulevard such as メッセンサオー or とらのあな(both handle fan-made manga).
Ah, ヲタ芸! I should write about it! It’s not a joke…seriously they do like ロマンス or ロミオ. That’s a good tip! My friend who is a crazy fan of Aice5 does ota-gei when he goes to the concert.
Avplaya said,
August 23, 2007 at 6:37 am
Thanks for the info on otak-gei! Please write it so poor gaijin can undestand why OAD stands for “Over Action Dolphin”. It looks easy but it’s HARD! Especially moves like “The Matrix”. Who says otaku can’t do sports? Man it’ll be hard for ota-gei to migrate to gaijin-land because a lot of otakus here are big and fat – デブヲタたち。。。ｗｗｗｗ
It just so happened that my non-otaku wife who enjoyed Haruhi was watching the Haruhi concert, and she was asking me what was were the audience doing, She then did a “Romance” and ask me what it was. I nearly died laghing…wwwwwwwwwww
bangin said,
August 26, 2007 at 3:13 am
Yes, they can carry very heavy backpacks and do very intensive otagei…I think they have physically potential power. Having said that, there has been some incidents called オタク狩り(otaku-hunting). Some poor otaku got ripped off. Offenders say they carry loads of money and are so week…How come they don’t fight?
Was that Hare Hare Yukai? Personally I want to copy the real dance, not otagei. The original one is cooler than otagei, isn’t it? wwww
Avplaya said,
August 27, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Well, she was watching 涼宮ハルヒの激奏 concert, so there are a couple of Hare Hare Yukai dances in it. She was just wondering what’s the ota doing while they’re singing? The real dance is very popular around the world now… a lot of gaijin girls are learning the dance as you know. Now the big thing is Lucky Star dance, I think we’ll see more videos of that.
Bangin, I know this maybe a tough topic for you, but you mind talking about otaku-gari a bit? I think it’s something gaijin may want to know since they will be visiting akiba a lot now.
bangin said,
August 30, 2007 at 1:42 am
Hehe, I wish I could copy that dance. That’s so cool!
No, okay. Well, I don’t hear a lot about otaku-gari lately, but such happened last year so much. The victims were mostly junior high-school boys. They got terrorized by some delinquent guys…though those poor boys sticked together. Those shabby guys said, anime otaku are easy targets. I guess those incidents happened around such backstreets called ヲタ街エリア. Nowadays policemen are monitoring, but I don’t think they’re targeting foreigners because they can’t speak English. Unless they’re snatchers, foreigners don’t seem to get in a trouble.
music said,
January 8, 2008 at 1:29 am
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader