Gratuitous Japanese: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:cit_jastusa_web_comic_22_-_rites.png|frame|[[The Worf Effect|Worf-san no warrior skills are now perfect desu.]]]]

 

{{quote|''Hey bitch you look [[Kawaii|kawaii]].''|'''Willow''', ''[[My Immortal]]''}}

Using any of these words without context [[Hypocritical Humor|makes you a]] [[Baka]].

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== 日本のアニメ <small>(Anime)</small> ==

* Fansubs can also have this, with some things being written in Japanese in the subs, with an accompanying translation. The most infamous example is the "Just according to keikaku (Translator's Note: keikaku means plan)" meme from a parody of a [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]] fansub.

** Note there are fansubs who invert this, absolutely refusing to give notes and explanations even if that means butchering a joke based on wordplay or Japanese culture, or giving slang and other untranslatable words absurd translations ([[Tsundere]] doesn't mean "bipolar", despite what some would let you believe). Note these tend to be [[Troll|trollsubs]] that [[Spice Up the Subtitles|make up most of the text anyway]], so this is the least of their issues. All in all, [[Take a Third Option|extremes are bad]].

*** It can also be a useful way to cope, when you're trying to do a 'sense' translation<ref>where the meaning, not the words, are what matters</ref>, and you realize the English word that would fit the meanings would be instant [[Narm]].

* Done deliberately as a [[Woolseyism]] in the first volume of ''[[Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]''. When Kaere is in her [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Kaede]] [[Split Personality|personality]], she uses several Japanese phrases, which are transliterated (rather than translated as they would be for other characters) and she even refers to herself as a [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]. All of this is to show how this personality is an exaggeration of how an actual Japanese person would act.

** They also refer to their teachers and other respectables as "sensei", which is used for those in respectable occupations (the manga translates this as "master," an example being "Master Kakashi"). If one were to listen, however, using "sensei" gratuitously in an English dub is actually more common than one might think.

* Virtually all non-official translations of ''[[One Piece]]'' have left "Nakama" (similar to [[True Companions]]) in place of all possible translations. Many, many translations mix-and-match attack names, such as Luffy's "Gomu-Gomu no" almost always being left untranslated but the attack itself ("Fusen" vs. "Balloon") is often either translated or not. Shichibukai is kept as a title (ex: Gekko Moria will be called the Shichibukai Moria. "Shichibukai"'s literal translation is "Seven Military Seas", but the dubs use the serviceable term "Seven Warlords of the Sea"), Tenryuubito, or the Celestial Dragons, constantly remain untranslated.

** Though not something you'll find in most subs, [[Fan Dumb|certain fans]] of the series refer to the crew of the main characters (The Strawhats) as the original term "Mugiwara". The characters "Whitebeard" and "Blackbeard" are also sometimes referred to as "Shirohige" and "Kurohige" for some unfathomable reason.

* The English dub of ''[[Duel Masters]]'' included some Japanese phrases such as "Ike" and "Todome da" during the games.

 

 

* The comic artist Pat Lee used a Katakana font to put random Japanese letters beneath his name [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:FuNaNa.jpg in a header for his website]. The problem: that makes his name "Michiyamenotehi Funana." This "Japanese translation" actually comes from a rather misleading website who proposed to "translate" your name in Japanese, but all it did was to change each letter for a specific katakana.

* One of the reasons that Drift from IDW's ''[[Transformers]]'' comic drew so much hatred before his debut was the Gratuitous Japanese ("Dorifuto") and rising sun motif on his car mode. According to his creator, Drift is supposed to be a tribute to the land that birthed [[Transformers]]...[[Did Not Do the Research|which is an even bigger backfire because while the toy molds were indeed Japanese, the brand and the characters were of American origin]].

*** And even then, Takaratomy basically deals with the ''engineering'' aspect of the toys, the designs are still made in America by people like Aaron Archer, Bill Rawley, Eric Siebenaler, etc.

** Drift's toy makes it all the funnier, though, thanks to the addition of gratuitous Japanese on his totally badass plus one sword. This sword is an ancient Cybertronian weapon passed down through the mysterious third faction of Knights Of Cybertron, and the implication is that Drift basically defiled it with the kanji for "peerless" to be more gratuitously Japanese.

 

 

* Parodied in [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6883898/1/ this] ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' fanfic.

* The ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' fanfic ''[[Tenshi Trail (Fanfic)|Tenshi Trail]]'' takes this to ''ridiculous'' extremes, making completely unnecessary word substitutions in both the dialogue and actual writing. What makes this even more baffling is that the show does not take place in Japan and ''none of the main characters are Japanese.'' Some examples include:

{{quote| ''"Dozo let me stay."''<br />

 

== 映画 <small>(Film)</small> ==

* In ''[[Cannibal the Musical]]'', the characters meet a tribe of Indians called the Nihonjin, who speak Japanese.

* In ''[[Erik the Viking (Film)|Erik the Viking]],'' the oarsman taskmaster is inexplicably Japanese, who hilariously insults the galley slaves:

 

== 文学 <small>(Literature)</small> ==

* In Alison Goodman's ''Singing the Dogstar Blues'', one of the heroine's [[Has Two Mommies|two mommies]] is Japanese, and the heroine has picked up some of the language from her and scatters it at random in her speech (as does the mother in question). Unfortunately, it's [[Did Not Do the Research|not very good Japanese]] -- which might be excusable in the heroine's case, since she's not fluent, but the mother should know better than to refer to the heroine as "nee-san," which means "older sister."

* Carmela Rodriguez of ''[[Young Wizards]]'' does this occasionally (though usually only with the odd word in Japanese rather than whole sentences).

* Subverted in ''[[Red Mars]]'': the First Hundred colonists were primarily Russian and American, but a major figure among the First Hundred was Hiroko Ai, who {{spoiler|pioneered the gift economy that eventually contributed significantly to the sustainable lifestyle that came to dominate a terraformed, colonized Mars}}. Her phrase ''shikata ga nai'' (literally: choice is not present [casual speech]; idiomatically: there is no [other] choice; it's used in an "oh well, that's life" sorta way) becomes a proverb used by the First Hundred when confronted by a dilemma forced upon them by circumstance. It is both grammatically correct and used appropriately for once.

* In the web-novel ''[[Domina (Literature)|Domina]]'', Lizzy insists on only using Japanese when speaking with her Japanese friend Akane. A few comments imply that she tries to speak to ''everyone'' in their native language, but Akane is the only one who understands the language in question.

 

== 実写テレビ <small>(Live Action TV)</small> ==

 

== 音楽 <small>(Music)</small> ==

* [[Queen]]'s song "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" uses this -- it's hard to tell, because Freddie Mercury's pronunciation is terrible, and the lyrics sheets use archaic romanization that renders "wo" as a terminal "o" on the end of the preceding word, rendering portions of the lyrics gibberish to people only familiar with more recent romanization systems. This isn't enough to make it one of [[The Oldest Ones in The Book]], but it is enough to make it [[Older Than They Think]]. This being the 70s, the song was written specifically as a thank you to their vast legions of Japanese fans.

** A similar example would be their song "Mustapha", which is basically Gratuitous Arabic. At least "Let Us Cling Together" used real words.

 

== オペラ <small>(Opera)</small> ==

* The march of the Mikado's troops in ''The Mikado'' is an actual Japanese marching song, not an invention of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], although the very, very old-fashioned Romanization might make it hard for a modern speaker to figure out:

{{quote| Miya sama, miya sama,<br />

 

== テーブルゲーム <small>(Tabletop Games)</small> ==

* Since [[Japan Takes Over the World|Japan took over the world]] - economically, at least - in [[Shadowrun]], several Japanese terms have made their way into the common vernacular. So it isn't "gratuitous" in-universe, but during gameplay? It's gratuitous as HELL, omae.

** For some, it can be easier than busting your [[Unusual Euphemism|hoop]] trying to get the game's future slang down, chummer.

 

== ゲームソフト <small>(Video Games)</small> ==

* Used by the Aldrin Colony pilots in the [[X (Video Game)|X]]-Universe games. The Terran Democracy and the Argon Federation pilots sometimes use it, but less often. Justified in that Japanese became a major language on Earth prior to the discovery of the jumpgate system

* In the English version of ''[[Persona 3]]'', Bebe, the foreign exchange student, constantly uses Gratuitous Japanese, followed by English translations. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that it's difficult to think of ''another'' way to emphasize that he's going out of his way to speak Japanese when it's not his native language... in a game that's now in English.

* Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka of ''[[Wing Commander (Video Game)|Wing Commander]]'' typically greets the player with "Konichi-wa", and often uses honorifics in her speech in the first game, referring to the player by his last name and callsign as "-san", and once refers to the colonel as "Colonel-sama", in order to represent her Japanese identity. In the second game, she mostly refrains from doing this, except for sometimes substituting "Arigato" for "Thank you" and saying {{spoiler|"Tengoku de omachi shite imasu!" ("I will be waiting for you in Heaven!") before her death}}.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X 2|Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission]]'', which uses the American voice-actors, occasionally Yuna will use badly-pronounced Japanese words during combat.

* The original [[Fan Translation]] of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' left every instance of "hiryuu", or "flying dragon", untranslated and romanized, for no apparent reason. ''[[Final Fantasy V]] Advance'' got a little clever - they translated the species as "wind drake", but King Tycoon's wind drake is actually named "Hiryuu."

** There was also the Power of "Mu," or "Void," but that may have been a text spacing issue.

 

== ウェブコミック <small>(Web Comics)</small> ==

* Parodied in the webcomic ''[[Sword of Heaven]]'', wherein one of the characters bears a weapon named "Muhoushuu-Nihongo-Namae" -- a subtle joke by the author, as the name means "Gratuitous-Japanese-Name."

* ''[[Ronin Galaxy (Webcomic)|Ronin Galaxy]]'': There isn't too much of this surprisingly, given that the comic takes place on the equivalent of Japan-the-Planet. The examples of this trope are primarily in the titles of the chapters: Chapter One - Gaijin Girl and Chapter Two - Cho Han Hustle. Kira Moritomi also calls Leona a "stupid gaijin" on [http://www.roningalaxy.com/comics/chapter-2/page-60/ page 60.]

* [[Walkyverse|Ninja Rick]] occasionally uses this trope

* In [http://www.housepetscomic.com/2011/09/21/the-staples/ this strip] of ''[[Housepets (Webcomic)|Housepets]]'', Earl Sandwich even mentions the trope by name, saying that Itsuki can keep using it [[Rule of Cute|because it's cute]].

 

== ウェッブオリジナル <small>(Web Original)</small> ==

* ''[[Large Bagel]]'' is possibly even worse about this, however it's an obvious joke.

* ''[[TV Tome Adventures]]'' does this with the scant voiced lines for a few characters and attack names in "homage" to fighting games that commonly went without english voicework in localization. The actual dialogue, however, is completely in english except when it's played for laughs. Some examples didn't do the research, like is "Kalasu Angel", a name the creator (initially) thought meant "Angel of Death" but actually meant "Angel of the Crow".

 

== 西洋アニメ <small>(Western Animation)</small> ==

* ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]].'' In their case, the characters are meant to be Japanese, and they don't tend to use any complex terms. This does lead to a strange case with the theme song (the full version, at least), where Japanese singers are singing an English song that has gratuitous Japanese thrown in at several points.

* Averted in [[South Park]] since Trey Parker actually speaks Japanese, adding in [[Bilingual Bonus]] jokes here and there, particularly in ''Good Times With Weapons'' with the song "Let's Fighting Love".