Hearkening back to one of my earlier posts where I remarked on how some characters in Japanese comics would use an overly assertive or informal pronoun, i.e. ore, when speaking in keigo, polite speech, I encountered the element in probably one of the most egregious cases.

Case in point:

Wherein Akechi meets a local lord and half-arses his introduction.

In the game Sengoku Musou 5, or Samurai Warriors 5 as it is known in the West, is a game that has just been released in Japan, based off the popular Musou franchise of games and also Japanese medieval history. Akechi Mitsuhide, a fictionalised version of the Japanese samurai of the same name, and his vassal Toshimitsu Saitou, also based off a real historical person, meet Yoshikage Asakura, the lord of Echizen.

Said lord meets them after they have fled from an attempted death-by-fire and Asakura greets them after which Akechi apologise their rudeness and gives a "proper" introduction:

これはご無礼を…俺は明智十兵衛光秀と申します。…して義景様、越前にいったい何が…?
Kore wa goburei o... Ore wa Akechi Juubee Mitsuhide to moushimasu. Shite Yoshikage-sama, Echizen ni ittai nani ga...?
"Do apologise our rudeness... I'm this dude called Akechi Juubee Mitsuhide. Apropos, Lord Yoshikage, what on Earth is Echizen...?"

Now, all of the characters in this game, the returning one at that, have received a rehash in their design and personality, which include speech patterns, as such Akechi who previously would speak in pitch-perfect keigo to whomever he met, employs in this latest iteration goburei, the honorific form of burei (impoliteness/rudeness), mousu (to be humbly be called/named), but whereas his former self would use watashi or perhaps even watakushi, he uses ore the de-facto assertive informal male pronoun that sticks out like a pair of grotesquely polka-dotted Bermuda shorts at a formal office meeting.

Thus, even though Akechi prefaces his introduction with apologising for having been discourteous towards the lord Asakura, he outright messes it up with the ore in his very stating who he is.

His vassal, Saitou, however is through and through polite, having earlier asked his lord:

お待ちくだされ、殿! どうか休息をお取りいただきたい…
Omachi kudasare, tono! Douka kyuusoku o otoriitadakitai...
"Please wait, my lord! I entreat Your Lordship to have some repose..."

And said character also uses soregashi (某, "this one"), a self-deprecating archaic pronoun, and you can also hear it when you select him prior to a mission:

殿、某に万事に任されよ
Tono, soregashi ni banji ni makasereyo
"My Lord,pray, entrust all tasks unto this humble one!"

Using the archaic passive-respectful imperative of makaseru (to entrust; to leave to someone to perform), thus this is technically how Akechi ought to have spoken to lord Asakura.

It appears that using ore is a firm part of Akechi's characterisation in this game being a more assertive and macho version of his previous self?

This is not the first time that this happens in the game nor the series, something which I shall look into in a future post.