Japanese Culture FAQ

Welcome, here I will attempt to explain some of the things in Japanese culture which confuse your average anime watcher....


The japanese name ending FAQ...I have compiled from my anime and language experience a more or less correct guide to the endings of japanese names...

san
This one's easy...Mr. or Mrs.(or Ms.)....it's just an added term of respect...usually for an equal that you don't know or a stranger. It is the default, remember it is considered very rude not to use an honorific (these name endings) when speaking to somone in Japanese....
Ex: Hibiya-san (Chobits)

dono
Exactly like san but polite...used rarely....this appears frequently in Kenshin...
Ex: Kaoru-dono (Kenshin) Kaoru-dono (Ai Yori Aoshi)

chan
This is probably the hardest to pinpoint...it can be used for various things... It can be simply a child....a younger woman...often times lovers and and good female/male friends will use chan...(oftentimes the male calls the female chan and she calls him sama...but that's not as frequent nowadays...and usually only among married ppl...).....
Ex: Yumi-chan(Chobits), So-chan (APN hehe),

sama
This one is also rather easy...it means literally Master...it is often used by the female in a marriage/dating relationship....but also for a higher up...a lord...one of a higher postion than you etc...or simply someone one respects.
Ex: Ilparatzo-sama(Excel Saga), Fujisawa-sama(El Hazard OVA)

kun
Most often in anime it refers to a young man, much like chan refers to a young woman. It is also used for all employees by say the leader of the company/business.
Ex: Kyo-kun (Fruits Basket), Yahiko-kun(Ruroni Kenshin), Shinji-kun(Neon Genesis Evangelion), Excel-kun (Excel Saga)

senpai
Basically one's senior....someone who joined an organization before one but is not necessarily ABOVE one....can refer to a mentor (ocaisonally)..(NOTE: Pronounced Sempai, written "senpai")
Ex: Motosuwa-senpai (Chobits), Naru-sempai (Love Hina)

sensei
This one can refer to scholars, teachers or doctors or anyone who has acheived particular success in their field.
Ex: Fujisawa-sensei (El Hazard OVA)

Here's some less common ones

chama
This is simply a combination of chan and sama, sometimes translated as "young master" it isn't horribly common, it denotes respect, but is not as distant as sama, implies a closer bond.
Ex: onii-chama (Sister Princess (this is what Hinako calls Ani))

han
This is san in the Kansai dialect, some characters in anime speak in this dialect and this is the dialectual equivalent to san, sometimes also pronounced "yan"
Ex: Hibiki-han (Vandread (Parfet uses Kansai)), Naru-yan (Love Hina, Su)

ue
This is sama++, uber respect, literally means "above".
Ex: Anee-ue (Love Hina, Motoko to Tsuroko), anii-ue (that one chick on Sister Princess)

ya
This isn't horribly so much an ending, it's sometimes added to a name by a very young person, and only sometimes I have yet to truly nail this one down.
Ex: nii-ya (Sister Princess, Aria uses this)

tama
Yet another one I really have no idea about....one of the chicks on sister princess uses it....Hanako I think (cute name that one, "flower child")

me
This is a DISrespectful name ending, if you add me to the end of someones name it has the force of using "temee"


1. What is this Tanabata thing?
Tanabata is something like a Japanese Valentine's day....It is a holiday specially important to lovers...The story behind it involves the stars (which represent gods) in particular Altair and Deneb...these two gods became enamored with eachother and their lovin' got to a point where they were neglecting their duties...So the gods created the milky way to separate the two (milky way = great river for the purpose of this story). But not being completely heartless...they were allowed one special day when they could cross the river and be together...and that day is Tanabata. This was featured in Kenshin ep 66 primarily but has been involved in others...One can actually observe this in the night sky in the northern hemisphere...Altair is the head star of Aquila the eagle and Deneb is the bottom end star of the great northern cross (which is the brightest stars in Cygnus)...thus on a dark night you will find these stars separate by the Milky Way...pretty cool huh? better than some stupid cherub that shoots ppl with arrows.....:)[/b]

I feel like I wanna add some new stuff to this FAQ. I'll get right to the point

Expressions:

Ara
Means something like "Oh, look" and is only to be used by females. This might sound funny sometimes because of thier r/l sound, so if you hear "ala" it's the same thing

Oro
A word for expressing astonishment. See "Rurouni Kenshin" and you'll know the meaning of the word. It's only to be used by males opposed to "Ara"

Itte
"Does hurt" would the correct translation be, but it's mostly "ouch". Other forms are "Itta" (that hurt).

Hentai
Now there are two meanings to this word. The first one is when talking about anime. Hentai does not mean simply porn, like a lot of people think, but something really perverted like monster-rapes, tentacles and so on. The other meaning for this word is when it's used by female characters. It's not as bad as it sound, something like "baka" but in a sexuall way. Ecchi might also be used, and is even nicer than Hentai. When speaking about movies Ecchi means normal porn (human sex).

Shounen
Literally means "boy", when used with anime or manga it means that the anime or manga is mainly made for boys

Shoujo
Is the japanese word for girl (shoujo no hito). When talking about anime or manga it means the opposite of Shounen, in other words anime and manga for girls.

Well, it became more of a "anime words FAQ" then a "Japanese Culture FAQ" but that's just the way it is. To add some cultural aspects, in Japan the roles of male and female are really important. The language is very different from boys to girls and it's very strict. Of course things change over time and Japan is becoming more open and equal but there's a long way left to go.

That's all folks... I think

PS. I just had to use one of the new smilyes ... Aaa, I did it again :D .DS

[Sacrifice]

I love this information.

more more more!

[Ketsuron]

Itte is the te-form of iu (say) but the te-form of itai (hurt) is itakute and the ta-form is itakatta.

NOTE: itai is not a verb it's an i-adjective, so you have to use ku & ka in your spelling. Itai must not be confused with the adverb ittai which means "what around all in the world / for".

he's referring to the pronounciation of "ai" to "ee" in (mostly) male colloquial speech and in anime, so as much as it sounds like itte, it's actually itee, as the ai part goes to ee, and yes that pattern is repeated, it's the same for things like ja nee (ja nai). So if it were to be corrected, itee would be more correct. I could add more but i'm a little lazy, I'll update this at some point, when I've got more time maybe....like that'll ever happen..

[Arcardo]

senpai is also used to refer to a fellow student / pupil in a higher year/lass

btw.. if its pronounced seMpai.. why is it written seNpai???

[Ketsuron]

there are writing rules and one of them is that if n stands before p, it gets an m ...

First of all Musashi I got to say what a great list of name endings you have but I got to add a super rare one. I don't know if it ever appears in anime but I am sure it does from time to time. The name ending is Shi. It is to show a lot of respect and is usually used on the news.

Thats all I can think of to add.

Again a very good list.

Jei

[CodeWordChobits]

In Yumeria, Kuyo refers to her sister (Nana-ne) and kind of adopted brother ( Tomo-ni) with Ne and Ni after ther names instead of san or chan or any of the other common suffixes. I took this to be a shortening of Onee(sister) and Onii (brother). Just anotherone of the less common suffixes for the building info here hehe.

yeah, little kids will shorten things, kinda like "bro", so I dunno if I'll include that in the list, maybe just keep your note there or make a note myself in the main post