Fun with Japanese: The Language of Emotions

Think of this as my apology for only showing half of Sasuke's
face last time.

We've already done a language segment on how to express love, but that is only one in a host of emotions in a vast sea of expression. Especially in anime that plays for drama and story, it's only natural that there are countless expressions that characters will utilize, running the gamut from absolute elation to the deepest despair, and everything in between. Naturally we can't go over each and every single one, but we're going to go over five related words and phrases for this article today. Some like determination, which is being aptly demonstrated by Sasuke here, from the series Naruto may not always come up except as represented by body language, but others will come up more often. Either way, they are important indicators in anime as to where the story is going to go. So here we go again language nerds, let's get to it.

Aww...   he actually looks kinda cute when he's not having
one of those annoying angst-fests he's so notorious for.

笑う。
わらう。
Warau.

They often say that laughter is the best medicine, and it may be true. This verb means to laugh, and naturally, this it is a very healthy thing for many characters to do. It can also be used to indicate a smile or a show of happiness. You probably won't hear it as often in drama, but when you do it it generally carries a lot more weight. You can't hear it that well in this scene from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but Shinji uses it in a sentence here to try and get Rei to smile once in a while.

She swears she isn't crying, but the picture doesn't lie.

泣く
なく
Naku

Have you ever wondered why anime characters have such big eyes? I'll tell you. It's because the Japanese believe that the easiest way to look into the soul is through a person's eyes, and therefore it's the easiest way to see a person's heart. Naturally, a characters eyes must be one of the most expressive things about a character. So what's the most expressive thing that a character can do? They can cry. Especially when an emotional character gets all teary-eyed, someone who's trying to get the person to calm down will probably use nakunai, a negative request version of this verb in order to try an calm them down as in this scene from Inuyasha. As you can see, Kagome is not taking Inuyasha's advice.

Wouldn't you be mad too if your manager
was hiring people you didn't like behind your back?

怒る
おこる
Okoru

You don't want to hear this one. It means someone is getting angry, and it's also thrown around a lot in shows that incorporate a good deal of drama. Likely places include heart to heart talks between boyfriends and girlfriends, motherly lectures, points where the villain has had enough playing around... oh yes, and also those moments where someone has done something someone else didn't approve of and is trying to explain themselves. This happens in this scene from Read Or Die (R.O.D., TV version, not the OVA) in which Nenene is grumpy at her manager for hiring bodyguards behind her back.

Be glad you can't hear him crying, this is probably
one of the most grating sounds you'll hear in anime,
at least in the Japanese dub..

強い
こわい
Kowai

This is a common one for children and characters who aren't usually supposed to be on the front lines. Many characters will just say this word, expressing their fear to indicate that they are terrified of what's going on, as can be seen in this shot from Dragon Ball Kai, where poor little Gohan (only 4 and 1/2 at this time in the series) gets lost at the very beginning of the series. It is interesting to note that you will almost never hear this from truly heroic characters unless there is a comedic aspect to the series, and even then, you're less likely to hear it from anyone who is a designated badass unless in the form of a taunt.

Maybe it's just me, but if I were skydiving without
a parachute, I wouldn't be holding hands and talking
about how happy I was. I'd be more worried about how hard the
landing was gonna be.

嬉しい
うれしい
Ureshii

A form of expressing elation that something good has happened. Not much else to say, since that about sums it up. It's often used by someone when they've heard some good news, or something great's happened (no brainer there). It's often translated as "I'm glad", or "wonderful." Either way, it's a good thing to hear, because it will usually indicate that things are looking pretty good, and if events have not already seen a positive trend, it will probably start happening pretty soon. This happy circumstance occurs in the film Spirited Away when Chihiro manages to help Haku remember who he is. It's a very sweet moment, though from the caption, you can see there are some things that could be a little distracting about their situation to some people.

Well that's all we have for today, see ya!

Images taken from Dragon Ball Kai, Inuyasha, Naruto, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Read Or Die, and Spirited Away.

Share this post