Japanese Honorifics: Difference between revisions

** During an argument between Yuuno and Chrono in the third sound stage of the first season, sparked by Chrono calling Yuuno a familiar, Chrono complains about Yuuno not using honorifics on him (although he doesn't seem to use them on anyone), and Yuuno claims he gave him permission to do so.

** Fate uses "-kaasan" as a suffix in order to clarify whether she's talking about her biological mother ({{spoiler|actually creator}}) Precia or her adoptive mother Lindy. ("Around Lindy-kaasan, it took a lot of time before I could call her 'mom' naturally").

** Sanji calls the ladies using these. There's Nami-san, Vivi-chan and Robin-chan.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' uses -chan to address all the Inner girls, including Rei. Reh herself, on the other hand, uses ''-chan'' for Usagi once, then stops after Usagi angers her and from then on she refers to her as simply "Usagi". On the other hand, she refers to Mamoru as "Mamo-chan" as they become the [[Official Couple]], and calls the Outer Senshi "-san" since they're older than them.

** This is actually common in Japan with young women thanks to [[Kawaii|kawaii culture]] and the [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|pressure for women to act young and innocent]].

* In ''[[Paprika]]'', Atsuko Chiba claims to be annoyed when Tokita addresses her as At-chan. Although one initially assumes that it's because such a form of address is way too intimate between co-workers, it later turns out that {{spoiler|it's because she herself is in love with him.}}

** He's also called Metaknight-kyou by nearly everyone, and simply "Kyou" or "Tono" by his subordinates.

** Fumu is referred to as Fumu-sama by [[Dogged Nice Guy|Kine]] (and sometimes Sword or Blade), and as Fumu-tan by her creepy otaku stalkers.

** When Yuno and Miyako are looking for dried squid to bring Sae, Yuno finds a package calling the contents "Ika-kun". In the manga, Miyako says she doesn't think it's an honorific in this case; in the anime, she explains that it probably means "jerky".

** When the girls are watching the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Lovely Detective Chocolat'', the girls muse that Chocoyama is getting too old to be called "-kun".

** Tomoya gets upset whenever his father calls him "Tomoya-kun" instead of just "Tomoya", because it implies that he is no closer to his father than a friend.

** Kotomi insists on being called "Kotomi-chan", and literally does not respond to anything else. This very familiar form of address is pretty awkward for most people meeting her for the first time, which may be one reason why she doesn't have any friends. This goes along with her childish nature in general. {{spoiler|This is also a plot point when it's Tomoya who she asks to call her "Kotomi-chan", as it turns out that Kotomi was his childhood friend.}}

* While ''[[Steins;Gate]]'' doesn't have any particularly unusual uses of honorifics, there is one scene that bears mentioning: during conversation, [[Tsundere|Kurisu]] casually refers to the protagonist by his first name, Okabe, with no honorific. When he [[Berserk Button|flies into a rage]], she hastily tries to explain that, despite how ''he'' view their relationship (scientist -> assistant), she doesn't actually have any respect for him and is even older by a couple of years. Even though it turns out he's only angry because [[Do Not Call Me Paul|she called him "Okabe" rather than "Kyouma"]] and couldn't care less about honorifics, the fact that she was genuinely afraid he was about to start ''beating her over it'' does illustrate just [[Serious Business|how seriously this can be taken over there]].

* In [[Mai-Otome]], when Yukino calls out "Haruka-chan!" after Haruka falls off a cliff (having forgotten to get permission to activate her GEM from Yukino), Haruka tells her that she "told (her) not to use -chan in public", as Yukino tends to call Haruka "Meister Haruka" or "Brigadier General" when on official business. Mashiro tends to not use honorifics on anyone, but uses "-me" on Nagi after learning about how horrific his plan really is toward the end. Mashiro is also called "Mashiro-chan" by Arika and Mai, but never complains about this.

* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', while the god Zeus is called Zeus-sama by most angels, some of the high-rank angels will use -dono for both Zeus and each other to convey (often sarcastic) respect without belittling their own station. When not making subtle digs at each other they almost always drop honorifics altogether, whether friends or enemies.

* In ''[[G Gundam]]'', Domon used to refer to Master Asia as Shishou since he was his mentor and martial arts teacher, but stopped doing so after Asia's [[Face Heel Turn]]. Since Domon has ''very'' rough speech patterns (he uses ''ore'' and ''omae'' to refer to himself and others, and almost never uses honorifics on people unless they're highly-ranked), he calls Master Asia by full name from then on, which is seen as Domon losing '''all''' of his respect for Asia. {{spoiler|When Domon calls him ''shishou'' again, it's when the old man is actually ''dying'', and Asia himself is very surprised at that fact. [[Tear Jerker|"After all I've done to you... do you still respect me and call me 'master'?]]"}})

[[Category:Useful Notes/Japanese Language]]

[[Category:Useful Notes/Japan]]