Myriad of Leaves

Profanity censoring in manga

In the manga, “Hero Organization”, we follow the quest for mecha-based revenge of Leonidas Tyler and some of his fellow pilots. One especial scene, with its related call-back have apparent seen some light censorship in terms of swearing, namely that “fuck” has been rendered into a more verbose insult, surprised?

New Years Greetings in Japanese

Since we are nearing the very end of the year, I thought it'd be very topical to give a detailed view over the various ways that you can in Japanese express felicitations for such occasion. And also, bask in the etymological joys of everything. 新年明けましておめでとうございま Shinnen akemashite omedetou

Xmas - Snowman in Japanese

When you refer to the anthropomorphic lump of snow, minerals, cloth and vegetables in Japanese there's a few options: Yukidaruma (雪達磨, lit. "snow Bodhidharma") - Literally referring to one of the key figures in bringing Buddhism to Japan, this monastic moniker for the man of snow

Xmas Article: The Little Match Girl - Translation Comparison

Hans Christian Andersen's tragic story, from 1845, of the young girl who succumbs a wintry death whilst comforting herself with visions of warmth and at last the spirit of her late grandmother, has become not just a literary classic, but also the match-girl herself has become a symbol

Halloween Special - Aliens

There are several Japanese word for out-world denizens, but here are some of the most common ones considering the pertinent season that we are in. SEIJIN (星人) Literally "star/planet person", this works as a generic suffix for extraterrestrials from various planets, such as ナメック星人 (Namekku-seijin) for the

ISM: A Street Fighter term

ISM in Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 refer to the three varieties of super gauges that the player can pick, that greatly effects the properties of their super combos. ISM itself is explained by the official guide to stem from the English suffix '-ism' "that signifies a

Elden Ring DLC-related musings

The story-trailer for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion dropped, and I will covering the Japanese counterpart to the English one: …ミケラ様は、仰っていた はじまりは、誘惑と裏切りだった 黄金はそうして生まれ また、影も生まれた そして戦いが起こった 決して謳われぬ、隠された戦いが 祝福も、名誉もない、粛清が …メスメルの火が だから、ミケラ様は全てを棄てていく その黄金の身体も、力も 宿命も それでも、私たちは追う あのお方の行く道を …君も、そうなのだろう？ ... Mikera-sama wa, osshatte ita Hajimari

Gouki's SF6 Shungokusatsu Poem

Note: This is an updated and wholly rewritten version of a blog post that I wrote a week or so ago, when the trailer for Gouki/Akuma’s inclusion into the cast of SF6 was published. The former blog post was riddled with mistakes, this has been ameliorated. Within the

Kono teido ka...

Many a moment in an anime, tv-series or game you will in Japanese media hear the phrase この程度か (kono teido ka), which at its most literal is "is it to this extent?", but is deeply dependent on the scene and it most often occurs during fights where the

japanese

Regarding Arisen Ones

WARNING – Spoilers regarding the Dragon’s Dogma games. The term “Arisen” is used within Dragon’s Dogma and its related games to refer to an individual who has entered a pact with a dragon by having their heart taken by force or willingly to then have the power to command

japanese

In memoriam: Akira Toriyama

Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama (05.05.1955 - 01.03.2024) 御冥福を御祈っております A luminary in the industry, not just for his work Dragon Ball amongst others, but also for his design work on games like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest. His influence reached far wider than merely his creative

japanese

Return of "Old Sport"

I wrote a while back about how a Japanese translator handled the adaptation of the term "old sport" in the seminal novel The Great Gatsby. This time around I have not just one, but three more translations of the term from their respective translations and the choices are

japanese

Piece of my mind to feast upon

In a Christmas Carol’s third chapter, wherein the Ghost of Christmas Present, a towering incarnation of Yuletide jollity, guides Scrooge through the homes and streets of various people that the miser knows, but does not know his impact upon, he comes across the humble house of Robert Cratchit and

christmas

Quick X-Mas post update

Greetings of the winter variety, readers! I am bringing a much needed update as regards the posts, and when you can expect to see more of them. Life has been hectic on my end and time has been sparse in terms of writing articles. Suffice to say, though, expect a

names

Of Margarethus and Mathildus

There are countless female names derived from male names, such as Joanna, Jacqueline, Roberta, Victoria and so on, but the reverse is also true. There are quite a few purely female names that have male counterparts, such as Mathilda becoming Mathildus, Elisabeth becoming Elisabethus and Catharina becoming Catharinus. These are

japanese

On Bison and Cammy

It's a common misconception that Street Fighter character, the amnesiac British soldier Cammy's relationship to the mysterious main villain of the series, General Vega ("Master Bison" in the West), is a creepy one. So, Cammy approaches Vega and asks him to tell the truth

japanese

Baronet Eagle of Street Fighter

So, Tiamat's otherwise superb Street Fighter Plot Guide mentions this bit about Eagle, a tonfa wielding gentleman from Street Fighter 1 - this regards his opening bio in the arcade mode of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper: Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper:  Eagle, a bouncer from Great

japanese

Speech Patterns: Akatasuki Musashi

SNK’s timeless classic The Last Blade, and its sequel and spin-offs, feature a host of fencers and fighters who are based off actual historical people or out of entirely new fictive cloth. Akatsuki Musashi (暁 武蔵) himself is not merely inspired, but is heavily implied to be the very

japanese

Speech Patterns - Palpatine (Star Wars)

Palpatine (“Lego Star Wars – The Skywalker Saga”, 2022) The duplicitous Sith Lord turned chancellor turned emperor from Star Wars has to wildly varying modes of speech depending on which of the personas that he is using, Sith Lord or politician, the former speaks in Classical Japanese using regal language and

Speech Patterns - Sunpoo (Chibi Robot)

Sunpoo (“Chibi Robot!”, 2005) The ursine stuffed imitation from Nintendo’s eccentric adventure-platformer “Chibi-Robo!” (GameCube, 2005),featured a diminutive automaton, the titular Chibi Robo (ちびロボ, lit. “tiny robot”) whose quest to bring happiness to the household that he lives with leads him to meet a cast of weird and sometimes

japanese

A question of Hokuto Fists

In the seminal martial arts epic “Fist of the North Star” (Hokuto no Ken), there is a scene near the end of one of the early major story arcs, where the brothers Raoh and Toki face off. These two are practitioners of the eponymous Hokuto Shinken, (北斗神拳, “the Divine Fist

japanese

One word, multiple kanji

In Japanese you will from time to time encounter that a verb can be written synonymously with different kanji, but these meanings whilst sharing similarities can differ in usage. For example: Tsukuru (つくる) – “to create/make” 作 – Making of smaller things. 造 – Making of medium/large things 創 – Making of

japanese

Writing out the I

In the manga adaptation by Gatou Asou of the 2012 CGI animated feature of Shoutarou Ishinomori's classic, Cyborg 009, titled "009 Re:Cyborg", I am across a panel that stuck with me in terms of how it highlighted the nature of Japanese writing. The main character,

japanese

Aggrandising Japanese Keigo

Whilst browsing through some of the linguistics that I own, I encountered this gem from Bjarke Frellesvig's excellent A History of the Japanese Language, p. 371: The inventories of forms used in these functions have changed over time, as have rules for their combinations. However, with a few

names

New Years Post + Quick Name Analysis

Before ringing out the year 2022 and in with 2023, I thought I may make a quick post related to a classic Science Fiction franchise and its relation to the as classic tropes of naming characters: Enter Doctor Emmet Lathrop Brown: When we discuss naming characters in fiction, we typically