http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns

Japanese, unlike English, allows all pronouns to be omitted from sentences when they can be inferred from context. In spite of this — or perhaps because of this — Japanese has far more pronouns than the average language. There are more than three dozen Japanese words that can be translated as "I/me"note modern Japanese doesn't really have inflected pronouns like European languages: there's no distinction between "subjective I", "objective me", "reciprocal myself" or "possessive mine"; the so-called Japanese pronouns behave just like all nouns and don't make a difference as a grammatical "part of speech" and even more that can be translated as "you". Each of them makes a different statement about the speaker's gender, age, social status, and relationship with the addressee(s). To capture a little of the flavor, English translations sometimes use "this (category of person)" — this little girl, this humble peasant, this Badass.

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Writers, naturally, take advantage of this. The "wrong" pronoun can be a moment for comedy (see Different for Girls); the specific choice can say a lot about the character speaking. And it's easy to avoid revealing characters' names, for whatever reason.

Note that, even more so than in most forms of media, the language used in anime is heavily stylized and quite different from the way actual Japanese people speak in real life. Take everything you hear in anime with a grain of salt — foreigners who watched too much anime while learning Japanese are easy to spot.

See also: Royal "We", Pronoun Trouble, Hey, You!, Third-Person Person, Japanese Honorifics, Keigo.

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I (first person pronoun)

Atai あたい Originally used by women in certain red light districts, it later spread out and was eventually picked up by those wanting to cultivate a "bad girl" image. Characters who use this pronoun are implied to be lower-class, uneducated, and flippant. It's also a Kagoshima regional variant of atashi.

Atai Examples

Atashi あたし Informal, assertive, yet feminine version of "watashi". It is most commonly used to make a female character sound very casual, which makes it perfect for tomboys who aren't tomboy enough to use the male pronoun "boku". Amusingly, its casualness also makes it a good choice for characters who are confident about themselves and their femininity, especially if they're to be put in contrast with a "watashi"-using Shrinking Violet. If a male character uses atashi it is almost certainly meant to imply that he's Camp Gay. In Kagoshima, it is atai above.

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Atashi Examples

Boku 僕 "I, a non-threatening man." An informal masculine pronoun more assertive than watashi but less so than ore, it's typically used by men who want to sound casual without coming across as rude or aggressive—for instance, it would be the normal pronoun for a man to use in an informal TV interview. It's also the default pronoun for young boys. In anime, it can also be used by tomboyish girls; these characters are known as Bokukko. (Note, however, that the bokukko phenomenon is a prominent example of how anime dialogue differs from actual spoken Japanese; in the real world, it would be a bit weird for a female native speaker to refer to herself as boku). Female singers and poets may also use boku purely for metrical purposes. Interestingly, in some recent anime, this pronoun tend to be used by androgynous characters with either Ambiguous Gender or/and Viewer Gender Confusion, such as Yubel, Crona, or Ashuramaru.

Boku Examples

Chin 朕 The form of "I" used exclusively by Emperors. Hirohito stopped using it after losing WWII and it has fallen into disuse. Analogous to the Royal "We".

Chin Examples

Original Japanese-Language Works Aisin-Gioro Puyi, Emperor of Manchukuo in Fist of the Blue Sky.

Yondemasu Yo Azazel San: Azazel uses it while he's on a power trip.

Japanese-Language Localizations The Japanese translation of the (apocryphal) Louis XIV quotation "L'État, c'est moi"

Jibun 自分 "Myself." 99% of the time this serves as a reflexive pronoun just like its English translation, but occasionally it can also be used as a general first person pronoun. Because it's quite detached and impersonal, military types may use it to indicate professionalism. Although more often heard from men, it's technically gender-neutral, so jibun can be useful if writers want to disguise a character's gender. Confusingly, in Kansai-ben jibun means "you" instead of "I" (when not being used for a reflexive).

Jibun Examples

Maro 麿 "Oneself", very archaic. It was used as surname of prestige in the Nara period, then it became a first person pronoun in the Heian period (792 CE) and used until the late 18th century. Nowadays, the Maro pronoun stereotypically represents the Japanese supreme court judges.

Maro Examples

Imagawa Yoshimoto from Sengoku Basara.

Luke Valentine used it in the omake chapter in Hellsing Volume 9.

Ojarumaru and his father.

Me, Mii ミー "Me" in its Gratuitous English form. Used either by Eaglelanders or people trying way too hard to be Westernized — like some indeterminately Japanese characters as a sort of Poirot Speak. This can be used as both a singular and plural pronoun: "Me-tachi ga You wo mamoru", or "We'll protect you", for example. See also Anime Accent Absence.

Me Examples

Ora おら A once-common dialect form of ore (see below), with connotations of being from a low-class, rural area. Oira おいら is a somewhat more playful variation, making it a popular choice for mischievous kids and small, cute creatures.

Ora/Oira Examples

Ore 俺 "I, a tough young person". A casual, assertive masculine pronoun used mainly by young men (from adolescence to around middle age, usually) in casual contexts, such as hanging out with friends. As such, it's traditionally considered rude to use it with strangers and people above one's own social standing, but nowadays younger men use it even with strangers in all but formal situations (where its use may lead to Asian Rudeness). Used by a vast majority of male leads in anime, especially in shounen, and also occasionally by extremely tough and aggressive women, mainly in fiction. Also oi in many of Kyushu dialects (compare ware > wai).

Fun fact: until the 1960s shounen heroes used boku. Ore became fashionable with manga such as Ashita no Joe that changed the basic "shounen manga hero" formula by featuring wilder and rougher main characters and presenting them as role models.

Older Than They Think: Until late Edo Period, the pronoun ore was a gender-neutral pronoun also used by women. This pronoun has evolved into an aggressively masculine pronoun since the Meiji Restoration, and is rarely used by women since. However, it's still found in some dialects, mainly rural-living women with Tohoku Regional Accent.

Ore Examples

Ore-sama 俺様 "My magnificent self," perhaps, or "my most serene highness." Attaching an honorific that indicates great respect to the most macho of first-person pronouns makes it a highly emphatic, arrogant and presumptuous version of ore. Used either tongue-in-cheek, or by the smuggest of men.

Ore-sama Examples

Sessha 拙者 "This humble, unworthy, clumsy fool". Archaic, not in use nowadays. People who use this in anime are usually samurai or Ninja. Probably the closest parallel in English is "your humble servant", sometimes used in correspondence as a first person pronoun.

Sessha Examples

Sessō 拙僧 lit. "this humble priest." Archaic, masculine, used exclusively by Buddhist monks. There's an equivalent in Chinese which literally translates to "this poor (broke, janky) monk".

Sessō Examples

Aobōzu and Hitotsume-kozō from Onmyōji.

Kūkō Harai from Hypnosis Mic.

Yamabushi Kunihiro from Touken Ranbu dresses and acts like a Buddhist monk, and he uses this pronoun for himself. It's often translated as referring to himself in third person as "this humble servant of Buddha".

Shoukan 小官 Literally "petty official", it's also an old-fashioned, humble way for military or government officials to refer to themselves.

Shoukan Examples

Often used in Legend of Galactic Heroes on both sides.

Riou Mason Busujima from Hypnosis Mic uses this, befitting his background as a former sergeant in the military. He carries this to his songs as well.

Shousei 小生 Another archaic, self-deprecating form of "I" used by men with their equals and subordinates. Nowadays it's rare but still used sometimes in letters and such.

Shousei Examples

Soregashi 某 Literally means "so-and-so." Used mostly by men, usually samurai; now archaic. Like sessha, it's self-deprecating and denotes excessive modesty and humility.

Soregashi Examples

Sanada Yukimura and Maeda Toshiie in Sengoku Basara. Also, Tokugawa Ieyasu by the third game.

Akitsu Masanosuke from House of Five Leaves.

Gorobei in Samurai 7.

Raidei The Blade in Trigun to fit his stereotypical samurai behavioural and speech patterns.

Konotegashiwa in Tales of the Undiscovered Swords. In most of the fic's English text, it's sometimes written as "this humble warrior".

Uchi 家 A word for "I" or "my own" used in Kansai-ben (including Osaka-ben) and Kyushu dialect by women. Thus, one may hear a female idiot from Osaka refer to herself as uchi, in addition to other characters from the Kansai region.

Uchi Examples

Wachiki わちき/私 A feminine pronoun stereotypically used by prostitutes in the Edo period and every bit carries the same connotations as atai above.

Wachiki Examples

Male example with Kongōkō Bosatsu "Kaoru" from Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-.

Gentarō Yumeno from Hypnosis Mic on occasion lapses into watchi, a variation.

Wagahai 我輩/我が輩 Every bit as arrogant and presumptuous as ore-sama, with the added benefit of being quite archaic. Note that 50% of the time you see this, it's an allusion to Wagahai wa Neko de aru (I Am a Cat), a well-known Japanese satirical novel.

Wagahai Examples

Warawa 妾 An archaic feminine form. Originally it was humble and self-effacing (the kanji means "concubine"), but in modern historical anime/novels/etc. it's used by female characters of high social standing (usually royals or aristocrats) with old-fashioned speech patterns. In contemporary settings it's used by supernatural beings (goddesses, demonesses, spirits, etc.) who hold human society beneath them; because they existed when the address had its original nuances, their usage of it is loaded with irony. Don't confuse it with ware wa, which is "I am" with the pronoun ware.

Warawa Examples

Ware 我 An archaic first person pronoun, that means "I, me, oneself", usually male, alternatively written as 吾 (although this is more literary).

Once the traditional and most common of the first person pronouns used in Japan since the ancient times, it was widely used until the late Edo period, when 私 had been preferred, even though it was in common use until WW 2, after the Meiji school reforms began to shift written japanese (as it had remained the same since the Heian Period, around 800 CE) to modern and increase the literacy, which reduced the use of "Ware" and other now near-archaic pronouns like "Washi" and "Wai" in regional dialects.

Nowadays it's quite uncommon, rather literary and stiff, but extremely formal and polite, as it is used in speeches and formalities to give an intentional traditional and formal tone that gives a lot of emphasis on one's self. It is commonly used for book titles, like "I, robot" (我はロボット) or songs in classical (pre-1946 writing) japanese songs like 吾は海の子 (I, kin of the sea).

It's used more freely in fictional writing, where usually it is used by gods and powerful immortal entities, as well archaic kings, self-proclaimed lords and rulers. It is commonly used by [[Demon Kings]]/Lords to emphatize their wise and archaic age.

Incantations will likely use this pronoun for the first person. A Talking Weapon is also likely to use this to refer to itself. Due of the fact it's extremely old, it retains its own possessive form: waga (我が) which is composed of the ancient Japanese language pronoun "Wa" (I, us) with the "ga" particle, which was used to express possessiveness with certain nouns only, or used as nominative particle, but this last usage of "waga" is obsolete.

In western japanese dialects, ware is occasionally used as second person pronoun, "you, yourself" (also archaic and dialectal nowadays), the equivalent of omae in Tokyo dialect.

It's extremely archaic, as it dates back before the Nara Period (600 CE) and was first used in the Man'yōshū.

In Okinawan (not to be confused with Okinawan dialect of Japanese), a variant of 我, わん (我ん, i), descended from Proto-Japanese "ban"(which later became pan and later wan due of phonetic change) was once used as exclusive first person pronoun in Okinawa, but the school laws reform done in the Meiji period (late 19th century) led to it become archaic and becoming rarer due of declining local use of Okinawan to dialectal, Okinawan Japanese.

Ware Examples

Washi 儂 In popular media it's reserved for elderly men only (except for some Jidaigeki dramas and suchlike), but in real life it used to be popular with men of all ages, especially in the mid-western regions of Japan. By now its usage has faded among the younger generations, due to the effects of the aforementioned popular media.

Washi Examples

Watakushi 私, わたくし An ultra-formal term, often used in anime by characters who are profusely polite, very sophisticated, or somewhat old-fashioned. Fictional royalty tends to use this, especially princesses and the like. It's also used in place of watashi in very formal speech (for example, a job interview). A more feminine variant is atakushi あたくし.

Watakushi Examples

Watashi 私 A standard, polite word for "I", usable by both men and women in formal situations. It's also fine for women in informal situations; a man who uses it in an informal context may come across as business-like or aloof, sometimes effeminate. In the case of children, watashi is often used by girls, but never by boys, who use boku. In Japanese as a second language courses, watashi is almost always the first word for "I" learned. In the Tohoku Regional Accent, it may be pronounced watasu instead.

Watashi Examples

Yo 余 or 予 Archaic, dignified, elevated form of "I", most often used in entertainment media. It's occasionally translated with the Royal "We".

Yo Examples

You (second person pronoun)

There are even more words for "you", carrying implications ranging from extreme deference to deliberate deadly insult. In real life, pronouns for "you" should be used carefully and as rarely as possible, as it can seem either distancing and cold or obtrusive to use them instead of one's first name. In general, it is better to address a person either using their title or using their name with the appropriate honorific.

Anata 貴方 (gender-neutral), 貴男 (male) or 貴女 (female); The standard polite word for "you". Also translates to "my dear" when a wife calls her husband anata.

Anata Examples

Anta あんた The familiar or condescending form of anata, depending on use. This can be used by girls who refers to themselves as "atashi", or by guys to refer to people whom, while they respect to a degree, they still don't want to use "anata" on.

Anta Examples

Ase 吾兄 lit. "my older brother". Archaic, feminine, used to refer to a man to whom one's familiar with and not necessarily one's brother.

Ase Examples

Kei 卿 Archaic second person pronoun, used mostly by men. It can be used among peers to denote light respect, and by a superior addressing his subjects and retainers in a familiar manner. Like kimi, this can also be used as an honorific (pronounced as kyou) in which case it's equivalent to "lord/lady" or "sir/dame."

Kei Examples

Used profusely in the Empire in Legend of Galactic Heroes, to indicate the characters' archaic and sophisticated speech (somewhat akin to The Queen's Latin). Even close friends such as Reuenthal and Mittermeier use it with each other.

Byakuya Kuchiki in Bleach uses this with other captains (when he's not mad at them) and, later on, Ichigo. Curiously, though, Kubo uses the kanji "兄" which has no such meaning and is only a homonym.

Matsunaga Hisahide uses it with everyone (and always in a very patronising way) in Sengoku Basara.

Meta Knight from the Kirby anime is referred to as Metaknight-kyou by practically everyone; he's also sometimes called 'Kyou' by his subordinates.

Kiden 貴殿 Archaic pronoun used by men when addressing equals and superiors (only men) in a polite, respectful manner.

Kiden Examples

Bishamonten from Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-

Some characters such as Yukimura and Nagamasa from Sengoku Basara.

Appears in the Aoi Bungaku version of Hashire, Melos! in a formal letter from Joushima's wife to the main character. The story takes place in 1950 so apparently it's not as archaic as it would appear. It's definitely out of usage nowadays, though.

Raidei The Blade in Trigun uses this together with soregashi.

Kikou 貴公 An archaic male term used to address other men who are equal/inferior to oneself. Due to its association with samurai, it can come off as a little haughty.

Kikou Examples

Hakumen from BlazBlue.

Hildegard von Krone from the Soul series

Komamura from Bleach.

Mogami Yoshiaki from Sengoku Basara uses this and -kun for everyone.

Taigong Wang from Warriors Orochi, being an immortal sage with magic powers and all.

Kikan 貴官 Used when formally addressing government officials and members of a force (e.g., policemen, firemen and the military) in a respectful manner.

Kikan Examples

Used all the time in Legend of Galactic Heroes among and referring to members of the FPA military. (The Imperial military prefers the more archaic "kei".)

Also used in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, mostly by Aramaki.

Kimi 君 A somewhat informal but still polite second-person pronoun used mostly by men when addressing their equals or younger men and women. In a romantic context, the boy (or both boys) might refer to the girl as this. There are female examples, but they are incredibly scarce. The kanji can be used as an honorific as well, pronounced kun.

Kimi Examples

Kisama 貴様 Archaic, somewhat haughty word for "you". Nowadays it's mostly used in a hostile context in anime and other forms of entertainment; however, in older feudal times it had no offensive overtones and was used to address subordinates and people below one's rank in an informal manner. Note that there are many different translations for this word, similar to kuso (basically a general-purpose expletive)—anything from "motherfucker" to "you bastard" to just plain ol' "you" would be acceptable, depending on the context. Japanese politeness levels are sort of complicated.

Kisama Examples

Nanji 汝/爾 Another archaic form, roughly equivalent to "thou." Used in The Bible, and to translate the speech of Quakers in films. Incantations, spells, and the like tend to use this for the second person.

Nanji Examples

Omae お前 Used mostly by men with their close friends, children, kohai, etc. Denotes self-assertiveness and informality, so it's insulting to use it with strangers or in less informal situations (usage is commonly related to ore). However, it's perfectly fine and non-insulting in informal situations, such as with friends or among siblings. Women also use it but less frequently. There is also a version with rougher pronunciation that is said omee, which is a typical manly "long-vowelization" of "diphthongs" such as oi (as in sugoi > sugee), ai (as in yabai > yabee) and ae (as in temae > temee).

Omae Examples

Onore 己 An extremely insulting word for "you." Often the last word shouted by a Super Robot villain before their critically damaged Humongous Mecha explodes. Lacking a proper English equivalent, it's mostly translated as a variant of "Why you!..." because of its common use in the heat of battle. In some cases it is used as a general term for "self," not unlike jibun. Also the pronoun used in much Buddhist literature, possibly due to the humility expected of monks.

Onore Examples

Onushi 御主 Archaic mode of address used by samurai, nobles, and really old or old-fashioned people. It implies that the speaker is a superior or equal in social standing to the one being addressed.

Onushi Examples

Otaku 御宅 An old term for "you" that fell into general obsolescence and became a subcultural shibboleth, giving the word its more common meaning. Still pops up as a pronoun once in a while, typically by the military sort who might refer to himself as jibun.

Otaku Examples

Alvin from Tales of Xillia. His peculiar dialect is one of the (many, many) red flags that there's something up with him.

Gundari Myōō from Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-.

Sasuke from Sengoku Basara uses it occasionally, but only toward his enemies.

Cobra from Space Adventure Cobra uses this to address strangers, usually ones he doesn't trust and isn't trying to flirt with.

Sokomoto/sonomoto 其許, 其元, 其処許/其の許 Archaic, masculine, used by samurai and is equal in connotation to sonata or omae. When used as a noun, it has a sense meaning "there" similar to soko.

Sokomoto/sonomoto Examples

Sonata そなた/其方 An archaic form. Historically it was used to address people of lower social standing in a respectful way. In modern works this is the standard second-person pronoun used for archaic type characters, and depending on the context can either be used as anata with an archaic flavor or as a version of the more friendly kimi for these characters (which is happening more and more often with modern works).

Sonata Examples

Temē てめえ A very insulting word for "you," almost exclusively used by rough-talking male characters. Commonly translated as "you bastard." A corruption of the archaic first-person pronoun 手前 temae, literally "that which is in front of you," which was very humble and self-effacing.

Teme Examples

Unu 汝/己 Similar to onore, it's also either very insulting or very archaic; rarely heard.

Unu Examples

Wagimo/wagimoko 吾妹/吾妹子 lit. "my love" (and not "sister"). Archaic, used by men to refer to their wives, lovers or women they're close to.

Wagimo/wagimoko examples

Man'yōshū poem number 3764: Yamakawa o, naka ni henarite, tōku to mo, kokoro o chikaku, omoose wagimo.

You, Yuu ユー The Gratuitous English counterpart to me/mii, for use by Eaglelanders and wannabe Eaglelanders only.

Yuu Examples

Pegasus deeeesu! Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Date Masamune of Sengoku Basara uses this once or twice, befitting his love of Gratuitous English. You see?

Ooba in Kemonozume.

Don Kanonji in Bleach.

Real Life Example. Johnny Kitagawa, the president of Johnny and Associates, uses you so much that it's both trademark, and will grab the attention of ALL of his talents in the room no mater which one he's talking to. In fact, the only person he doesn't call you is, fittingly enough, actually named You.

A semi-example in Ever17: Tanaka Yuubiseiharukana prefers to shorten her name to "Yuu"/"You", and everyone addresses her as that. She even lampshades it in her introduction: "I am You!"

Cowboy Andy from Cowboy Bebop uses this constantly. He still uses Japanese pronouns for himself (most commonly "watashi"), but this is the only pronoun he uses for other people.

Iowa from Kantai Collection sometimes uses "you" to refer to the Admiral, complementing her "me".

Plurals

Be forewarned — Japanese has no grammatical category corresponding to the English "plural suffix." "X-tachi" does not mean "the plural of X" (i.e., "a group of Xs"), but rather "the group containing X" much like the casual English expression "X and company," or seeing as this is Japanese, "X and Nakama." For this reason, use of -tachi in conjunction with a gender-specific pronoun does not necessarily specify anything about the makeup of a group as a whole—"atashi-tachi" and "ore-tachi" could both refer to mixed-gender groups.

-domo 共 Another plural suffix, but usually implying that the people or objects described are lowly or humble. Can be condescending when used on others, but using it on oneself indicates humility.

-domo Examples

In the Shusuke Amagai arc of Bleach, a maid for the Kasumi-oji clan uses "watakushi-domo" to say "we" in reference to her and another maid; as they are low-ranking servants, they are presumably expected to be very polite and humble.

Donquixote Doflamingo uses "kozou-domo" ("brats") to refer to Bellamy and Sarquiss, showing condescension. Many captains address their subordinates as "yarou-domo" in their battlecries.

Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star is very fond of using the word "akutō-domo" when addressing multiple opponents. "Base villains" would probably be a decent translation.

Chosokabe Motochika from Sengoku Basara refers to his pirate crew as "yarou-domo" which is roughly the Japanese equivalent of calling them "scurvy dogs" or the like ("you sons of bitches" in the Funimation dub).

Andine from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is rather fond of the phrase "ningen-domo" when addressing the heroes. Kamina and Kittan frequently use "yarou-domo" in their battlecries to address their teammates. Simon use it on himself when he first meet Nia, possibly freaked out that she goes ultra formal and polite on him.

In Seitokai Yakuindomo Yokoshima refers to the student council twice by using a Title Drop, and probably couldn't care less if it sounds offensive.

Gilgamesh likes to use "zasshu-domo", or "mongrels", referring to everyone else but himself.

Alien invaders frequently refer to humanity as "ningen-domo" when gloating over a plan to conquer or exterminate the foolish humans.

-gata 方 From kata, a polite word roughly meaning "honorable person," the "k" changes to "g" when attached to another word. Very polite and formal. It should always be applied to a group not including the speaker; e.g., anata-gata.

-gata Examples

Kuchiha in Amatsuki uses osamurai-gata when pleading for a group of samurai to spare her friend's life.

Uesugi Kenshin and Akechi Mitsuhide from Sengoku Basara use anata-gata. At one point Yukimura addresses a group of soldiers using minamina-sama-gata, which is polite almost to the point of being ridiculous. Considering that Yukimura is far above them by birth and rank, it is ridiculously polite... but that's Yukimura for you.

In Aria, Alice refers to Akari+Aika as "senpai-gata".

In Mai-Otome Sifr, Lena, making an Apologetic Attacker statement to the Five Columns, sans her friend and classmate Elliot, who refused to help them , as "onee-sama-gata"

, as "onee-sama-gata" Darjeeling of Girls und Panzer, tends to address people in the plural as "anata-gata".

-ra ら Works the same way as -tachi, though the two are not always interchangeable; e.g., "Ware" can take "ra" but not "tachi".

-ra Examples

-tachi 達 A suffix used to denote a group that includes the person referred to. [Name]-tachi translates loosely to "[Name] and one or more others"; most singular pronouns can get this suffix attached for a similar effect.

-tachi Examples

Wareware 我々 "We" or "us", the plural of ware above, used by both men and women to refer to a group. Generally used to refer to, say, one's people or one's company, rather than in a "me and my friends" sense. Note that the repetition of the word with the small kanji 々 is a common way of expressing a plural for some words in Japanase − like "hitobito" (人々) for "people".

Wareware Examples