メシウマ[meshiuma]
There is an old proverb, 他人の不幸は蜜の味[tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji], or others’ misfortune is sweet like honey. If you are happy now, you would hope everybody else would be happy as well. But even if you are not happy, would you hope so? If you say yes, you might be hypocrite though I don’t want to say like this. Yes, people would be negative towards others unless we are in a happy mood. Then you might hate everybody else…everything in this world!
Such is the reason why this term was born, I suppose so. At any rate, メシウマ[meshiuma] is an abbreviation of 飯がうまい[meshi ga umai] or my food tastes good. Why does my food taste good? Because someone else is not happy now. Now my face is like below.
See? What an obnoxious face! It is written as メシウマ状態[meshiuma joutai], and it means to be in a state of メシウマ. Now you are happy since someone you don’t like is not happy. Does your food taste good? Anyway, this term started to be used among baseball fans who were against the great team, 巨人[kyojin], that is the anti-巨人 fans. Whenever 巨人 is defeated, their food tastes good. Come to think of it, I saw some of my colleagues who were actually kyojin fans were in a really bad mood when kyojin was defeated. I am not interested in baseball, so I don’t really care. But in such a time, I could be in a state of meshiuma. I was a prick, I know. Also, those baseball-related video on Youtube or Nico Nico douga shall be called メシウマ動画[meshiuma douga] or meshiuma video.
It is not necessarily baseball things. Let’s see…when a celebrity gets a divorce, when a politician gets arrested or something like that. 藤原紀香と陣内智則の離婚もメシウマ？Well, if nothing else 2ch bugs love such a scandal to be in a state of meshiuma. That is why some more spin-off words were born after メシウマ.
- meshi futsuu-food tastes normal.
メシフツウ[meshi futsuu] means food tastes normal, that is, nothing special. It is boring.
- meshimazu-food tastes bad.
When someone else is happy, you would be in a state of this, メシマズ[meshimazu] or food tastes bad[飯がマズい]. Looks like it really hates others’ happiness. If you get an invitation for your old classmate’s wedding ceremony, you might be in this state. The more you hate him(her), the worse your food tastes.
- haraheri-I am hungry! More food!
ハラヘリ[haraheri] means hungry. Yes, you are hungered for others’ misfortune. You need to be stuffed!
- sakeuma-sake tastes good!
酒ウマ[sakeume] is an abbreviation of 酒がウマい[sake ga umai] or sake tastes good. Not only food but sake also tastes good when someone else is not happy.
I read something like this before. There is Japanese great novelist named 芥川龍之介[Ryunosuke Akutagawa], and one of his great works 鼻[hana] or Nose. This story follows a monk named Naigu[内供] whose nose is too prominent. He hates his nose because he feels everybody else ridicules it. So he does everything he can in order to make his nose look normal. Finally his nose becomes normal and he feels very happy with it. But actually everybody else makes a fun of him more than before. Eventually, he gets back his prominent nose.
The monk seems to relax in the end, but no. No matter what he does, his weird nose and his doing are メシウマ for people around him. Observers have no responsibility, so they can say whatever. This is a paradox hidden inside your mind. Of course, anyone feels sympathy for others’ misfortune. However, if the person surpasses the misfortune by oneself, you might be bored somehow. You want to make him have the same misfortune…in this way, you might be negative towards the person.
メシウマ might embody such a dark side that anyone has in mind, I think. So my food tastes good today…Sorry, this is just who I am.
ずっと俺のターン！[my turn forever!]
If you happen to follow Yu Gi Oh[遊戯王], you might be familiar with how often nico bugs coin a new word from the series. I have introduced ふつくしい[futsukushii] before, but there are some more terms as a matter of fact. I am not following Yu Gi Oh, but a while ago I found some really funny terms so I should make a post on this.
I have no experience in playing with trading cards, but for those who really like it, there’s no need to explan how the various cards work. Once I have had a duel with my friend at school, I had no idea how those cards worked. So I gave it up soon. だって全然分かんないんだもん…The rule was too complicated, and there were too many exceptions.
Especially, the certain cards can skip or stop your enemy’s turn so that you can continuously attack it twice or more. In this way, to keep attacking your enemy all the time shall be called ずっと俺のターン！[zutto ore no turn!] or my turn forever! There is no turn for your enemy so that it can do nothing while you attack it.
This term stems from the certain scene of episode 162 in Yu Gi Oh. There is a duel between Dark Yugi and Insecter Haga. Yugi gets furious for some reason and uses the magic, Berserker Soul. He keeps using his monster cards ignoring Haga’s turn. Almost no mercy and no forgiveness. Yugi nearly finishes him off because of this. I am sorry for the bad subtitles.
This one-way attack was named ずっと俺のターン！ among the fans, and it started to be so famous that the bloggers used it everywhere. As for the most typical example, on such a bulletin board you might see someone who keeps insulting the certain person. The victim seems to have no turn to fight back. Yes, that is ずっと俺のターン！
Okay, I must say Yu Gi Oh amazingly made some famous words. I don’t know anything else that has done something like this. At any rate, if you see someone being blamed on the board, you could see another person who is shouting もうやめて！○○のライフはゼロよ！[mou yamete! xx no life wa zero yo!] or Stop it! So-and-so is almost dead! Seemingly, this seems to save the victim to accomodate. But actually no. This is actually used to make things worse. Saying something like this, it makes the victim look much more mizrable.
This comes from Kyouko who watches over the duel in the episode. She tries to cool Yugi down, and says もうやめて！遊戯！とっくに羽蛾のライフはゼロよ！もう勝負はついたのよ！[Stop it, Yugi! Haga’s life is already zero! The duel is over!] She shouts this at 4:25 in this video. Check it out.
Then, I shall show you an example. This video is from Final Fantasy Ⅶ International, and shows Barret conquers Ruby Weapon. This enemy is outstandingly strong, but gamers always find a breakthrough. I don’t know how the player let this happen, but Barret keeps shooting at Ruby Weapon so that it can do nothing…and the battle ends. Yes, this is ずっとバレットのターン！[Barret’s turn forever!] and please shout もうやめてバレット！ルビーウェポンのライフはゼロよ！[mou yamete Barret! Ruby Weapon no life wa zero yo!].
Wow, I bet Barret saying 覚悟しろよ！このウェポン野郎！[Get ready, you fucking weapon!]
アラフォー[aro-four]
I know it is too late to introduce this term, but I am getting more nervous than before when I come across it. That is because I am starting to care about my age. Oh what shall I do? Someone, please stop the time!
I’m sorry, I’ve got to stop whining, haven’t I? Okay, let’s get down to the topic. This term was actually one of the yearly famous words last year, and there was the same title TV drama series called Around 40～注文の多いオンナたち～[Around 40 -Demanding Women-]. In this drama, the heroine is a 39-year-old psychologist who is worried about being single. And most of the other leads are women aged around 40 years, and this story depicts what the real happiness for women is. We Japanese shall abbreviate around 40 as アラフォー[aro-four], and for some reason(or because of this drama?) this term got popular. Having said that, there was another word before this word came, that is アラサー[aro-thir], or women aged around 30 years. Yes, アラフォー stems from アラサー, and started since 2007. As you may know, these are Japanese-English[和製英語], so around 40 in English does not work the same way in Japanese. Technically, アラフォー indicates any women who are from 35 to 44. Those women at this status seem to pursue some even higher career thanks to Equal Employment Opportunity Act for Men and Women(1986)[男女雇用機会均等法]. This act could give all the women more chances to come to the society. Even that, there is some invisible sexual barrier left though. Anyway, at the same time this act might have given another option that they don’t need to hurry to marriage. Because of this, they might be worried about the following future while they are working well if they are single. Yes, the far important thing is a delivery thing. The older they get, the harder delivery is. If they are childless, they would have to consider how they live after they retire.
So I am not sure if アラフォー is a honorable word or an ironic one. The good side is that they are professional women, but the bad side is that they are desperate women.
Speaking of アラフォー, I can think of the certain Japanese celebrity. She is Ayako Nishikawa[西川史子], and everybody calls her 西川女医[Dr. Nishikawa]. She is a cosmetic surgeon while she often works as a celebrity. I wonder when she works as a surgeon because she shows on TV too much. She is thick-skinned and powerful. And she definitely wants men to make over forty million yen a year(年収4000万以上の男性). As far as I know, she is still single though she is about 37 or so.
Here is something we should discuss. In my opinion, even if such a man exists, I doubt he is willing to marry a woman like her. Dr. Nishikawa already makes a killing as a doctor, so most men would give her up. I don’t know exactly how much her annual income is, but it must be more than over twenty million yen. At this point, most men have nothing on her. Also, even if a man whose annual income is better than hers showed, he would not be willing to marry her(of course if he loves her, things would be different), I suppose so. Because she is too smart. 男を立てるってことが出来ないタイプの女性…って英語で何て言うの？Well, a woman like her is not able to put a man up forward みたいな…So I doubt even such a rich guy can get along with her. So he might choose other girls who easily fawn on him, his money.
So after all, men who come to a woman like her are good-for-nothing[ダメ男], gigolo[ヒモ], or ドエム[doemu]. That should be pretty easier for a woman like her. She just gets such a man and treats him as a pet, that’s it. So that is why it is not unusual to see a pairing of a rich woman and a shabby host. うっ、夜王の見過ぎかな俺（笑）.
Come to think of it, I still remember an interesting song. That is 夏が来る[Summer comes(1994)] by Maki Ohguro[大黒摩季]. This song depicts a woman who is waiting for her prince coming. Although she is doing her best, no chance comes to her or something like that. Here is some quotation;
“何が足りない どこが良くない” どんなに努力し続けても[what do I lack? How can I improve myself? No matter how much I keep trying to do my best,]
選ばれるのは ああ結局 何にも出来ないお嬢様[the chosen one is, ah eventually, a helpless indoor princess]
残されるのは ああ結局 何でも知ってる女王様[the spinster is, ah eventually, a queen who knows how the world works]
When I heard this song, I was still 13 or so. But now I can understand what this is supposed to mean. The more perfect she is, the less men comes to her.
Smarts and wealth don’t necessarily bring about happiness, that’s what I believe. Ugh, I am already an アラサーcosplayer! GYAAAAA!! どどどどーしよー！！Hey, I am sounding like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Can I be a writer? lol
All hail, アラフォー！！アラフォー万歳！
Sex and the City
サービスカット[service cut]
When you watch anime or a movie or whatever, you happen to see a girl’s panty or her nudity. And that has nothing to do with the storyline, but you don’t complain nor ask why, do you? Because you could see her panty or nudity. If it is an eroge or ero-anime, that would be normal, but otherwise, it is going to be サービスカット, サービスシーン[service cut, service scene] or fanservice.
The speaker is Sekai, but we are looking at the other thing.
Basically, this term was born in the film industry in order to market a movie. Putting such a service cut, they seem to intend to get more audiences. They often show such a service cut on CM in advance as a preview, and we are going to watch it. Having said that, most audiences would be disappointed if they highlight a service cut too much. Because fans might expect it as such. And if they use too many service cuts, the story would be meaningless. So that is why the usage of service cut is not that simple.
But well, it seems like a service cut is not even necessarily such a nudity or a panty. For example, when a girl gets captured by the evil agents, she gets cuffed and chained…and she screams, “NOOOO!! STOP IIIT!” or else, a bishoujo(or a bishounen) licks ice cream like doing a blow jThis kind of thing would make fans imagine “something” unless it is porn. Whether the director intends or not, we are not sure, but fans would end up finding out such a service cut. Such a service cut shall be called オタ的サービスシーン[ota-teki service scene] or otakish fanservice.
Meanwhile, fujoshis are also good at finding out a service cut. For us guys, it is seemingly normal but they might think it is a service cut. Umm, I know they like to have a dellusion though. Let’s see some examples.
These cuts are from the Melancholy of Suzumiya Harhi. On the way back from the desserted island where Koizumi’s relative pocesses, Kyon and him are having a chat on the boat. While Koizumi is speaking to him, he gazes at a mole on Kyon’s neck(Kyon is not aware of this). What’s the point in this? Why is he doing this? And how come this cut has to be here? Anyway, this kind of service cut shall be called 腐的サービスシーン[fu-teki service scene] or fujoshish service scene.
Next, above is from a scene in which Koizumi guides Kyon a closed space. Koizumi grabs Kyon’s hand. I don’t see it anything particular, but for BL fangirls, it is not so. This shot is a split second, but the more it ends quickly, the more it turns fujoshis on! Oh no, please more!
This is an absolutely service scene, and the most famous scene in Neon Genesis Evangelion. If nothing else, it is. こんなあからさまなサービスシーンもないよなァ（笑）At any rate, Kaworu got a fame as a ガチホモ[gachihomo] with this scene.
No matter what, it is not a bad thing that they give us a fanservice. But sometimes it makes me laugh when I can see the director’s intention before it turns me on.
さーて、次の話もサビスサビスぅ！(゜∀゜)
スイーツ（笑）[sweets(warai)]
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Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 