Learn Japanese with Yuta: bit.ly/3UO7O90

You forgot to mention that Zero Two actually has a story reason for using 僕. When she was young she learned to speak from listening to Hiro and imitates his speech patterns.

i think a lot of nonhuman girls being the ones using masculine pronouns is maybe a way for the writers to subtly make them feel more bizarre or unnatural in a way that easily clicks as unconventional to the audience, without having to change how they speak too much. it could also be meant to communicate a sort of naivety or inability to understand human concepts or norms!

Tomo from Tomo-chan is a girl used "ore" until middle school. Then I still remember Kukaku from Bleach and Jericho from Seven deadly sins using ore. And in general delinquent girls often are either using ore or atashi.

I also picked up something from Power (CSM) who herself is fairly tomboyish and questionably close to human but that "washi" is really cool to hear with her unique character...

So they're the Japanese equivalent of girls that use "bruh"

another example is Mizuki Akiyama from proseka (not exactly a girl though). I think 僕 fits that character a lot C: also, maybe a lot of non-human girls use 僕 because it implies that this character goes a bit beyond the usual (human) understanding of the male-female dichotomy. idk i'm not japanese lel also also (sorry lol) i get curious about guys that use more "femenine" self pronoun (?). Garry from Ib (japanese rpg maker game) uses アタシ iirc and i never understood why bc nothing about him strikes me as particularly androgynous but maybe i misunderstood something.

8:19 Yuta recognizing Joshikousei no Mudazukai as one of the best anime comedies ever just made my day. I loved it with all my heart and I laughed my lungs away LOL

Yuta, you need to add 「To Love る」to your list. I’m watching again for the first time in about 8 years, and I hardly need subtitles. It is probably the best example of real-life casual Japanese I have found. Plus it solid gold. I’ve watched most popular Anime from the past decade… around 600-ish series… it is perfect for simple & casual Japanese. 俺　- ヤンキー　girls.

And from Higurashi, there's of course Mion calling herself おじさん.

Not an anime, but my mind immediately went to Baiken from Guilty Gear, who is a human example of this. I believe there are more examples of her using "俺” than "僕” as far as I've seen

for a female anime character using the "ore" pronoun, there's one example from this season, The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls U149's Yuuki Haru

I wish you stuck with Higurashi and mentioned Mion who referred to herself as an old man!

I didn't realize how many non-human female characters used boku until you said so.

One character not in the video is Kirijou Mitsuru from Persona 3. She doesn’t use 僕 but uses てくれ、な and ぞ in her sentences quite often. And the only female character that I can think of that uses 俺 is big mom from One Piece.

I thought to sound masculine when saying "Watashi," I had to sound like Toshiro Mifune playing a shogun who is giving a command. I'm learning!

I have been retranslating Shougeki by Yuko Ando for fun to practice writing, and I noticed she uses Boku. Before I watched this video, I thought that it was because the lyrics are from Eren's POV but from your video, it is just commonly used by female artists sometimes?

Great examples !

Another character who uses "ore" is Mordred from Fate/Apocrypha

Good explanation.

My favourite example is Utena, from _Revolutionary Girl Utena._ Right in the first episode, the ironic statement: "Anone! Boku wa joshi!"

It's a pity that "Umineko no naku koro ni"'s anime adaptation was bad and unfinished, because there is a great example of a girl who speaks like a guy: Ushiromiya Jessica. She doesn't use "boku" or "ore", though. Also, in this visual novel some masculine characters used "watashi" without keigo, more precisely, the family head and his heir.

Man the range of female anime characters are from mild to wild and everything in-between.

Great video

Very interesting!

Kinda sucks that females using "boku" is seen as playing a character or weird; i prefer "boku" over the others myself. But I suppose "atashi" is supposed to be the "boku" for females? That's how I understood it. Females also need their own "ore". lol

I am going now to watch Suzume :D with my best friend,have you seen the animated film ? It just came out here at the cinema

Do Japanese tomboys use boku in real life? E.g. Oozora Subaru from Hololive has a tomboy personality, and so uses boku; is that something that really does happen?

Interesting Thank you

ayu from Kanon uses boku exclusively and in one scene even tries out "ore" only to be laughed at. Her reason for using boku is because as children the protagonist made fun of her for being boyish looking.

This is a fantastic explanation about things that I was confused about. As a 55 year old guy, I'm not really clear about whether I should refer to myself as boku or watashi?

Yuta-san, would you explain a 'wise word' that director said to Aqua on Oshi no Ko anime? I don't get it because he was said two same sentences with を and に as difference

Adding some info from the Japanese queer community: most butches or 中性 (chuusei) use 僕 or even sometimes 俺. It's pretty much expected if you are masculine presenting. Queer culture in Japan might not be so obvious from an outside perspective, but it is alive and well, particularly in Tokyo.

good vid. an interesting example here is nanachi from 'made in abyss.' the creator implied her gender is ambiguous, but most people assume her to be female on appearance and voice. some people wonder if she's male because she uses 'ore' (or some form thereof, sounds more like 'oire'). but then nonhuman girls tend to use masculine pronouns more, she's had a bit of a rough youth and i'm told japanese country ladies can use ore at times. it's a thing. i'd enjoy a video on it but i understand if you don't wanna get into that controversial topic.

I was wondering if it’d be possible to obscure a character’s gender without being really conspicuous about it, speech-wise? I’m also curious how X-gender Japanese people speak IRL?

At 9:58 I believe he is talking about the song Deep Down by Aimer.

I wonder if these rules are also applied when they text one another on social medias or just when speaking. I guess they are.

A great example is Akio from Trinity Seven. She uses a ton of masculine language.

It's not an anime, but Akane Owari from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair uses 俺, as well as Miu Iruma (who actually uses 俺様 , "oresama"). Akane is a major tomboy who likes fighting, and Miu is super arrogant. Also, it's been a while since I watched it, but in Black Butler, doesn't Doll (in her "Freckles" mode) use a masculine pronoun?

So hypothetically, if you were abducted by aliens and they were trying to talk to you in Japanese, they would use boku.

Interesting

There's Yamato in One Piece that uses the pronoun 僕, her gender identity is quite contentious in the one piece community and creates a lot of toxic debates.

Ah, when it comes to ore, Yoshida Yuki in Kore wa Zombie desu ka is a good example

I have to look out for this the next time I watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It has a lot of very masculine women, so I imagine there must be some who also say "boku" or "ore".

I can't imagine 02 voice actor will take a role of little boy in Future animes like Ise Mariya and Maaya Uchida

hesti my fav character that inorin voiced 😍😍😍

i didn't expect to see ano!!

yes I was always curious about this!! I was taught from my studies that boku is only used by guys, while watashi is used by girls.. but in anime I see all girls using "boku" all the time!! I thought maybe it's because they're trying to be child-like (like a kid who doesn't understand) to try to be cute or something? ^ ^ that's the theory i came up with to explain that!!

Respect for including a Nisekoi clip lmao

2:53 anyone know what song this is?

I actually noticing this a lot when i watching Anime.

The quintessential anime girl Big Mom from One Piece uses ore.

Miu iruma from Danganronpa V3 uses " ore-sama " , and when you play the VN, you'll know why

Interesting that you didn't mention "atashi" for women. Does nobody use that anymore?

i think Kino in Kino's journey uses 'jibun', my understanding is that it's because it's more gender neutral, do people actually use it in real life ?

❤

On the topic of vtubers that use boku, Okayu comes to mind

Big Mom from One Piece calls herself Ore and Yamato calls herself Boku

Sometimes yanki or women hardcore fighters use ore in anime, with harsher speaking tones compared to the male characters

I'm an AFAB adult (~30) who doesn't like femininity, and typically uses labels of non-binary or gender-nonconforming (or both, it's complicated). Usually present in men's or gender-neutral clothing, prefer they/them pronouns, etc. I feel very awkward when I use 私 as I've learned because while society sees me as "female", I don't necessarily, and I typically don't *want* to come across as feminine in any way, as I try to avoid she/her pronouns, feminine clothing, and even a lot of traditionally-female hobbies or roles in life. I took a Japanese class (which was fairly high level, non-textbook, mostly just chatting about news articles and current events with other learners) and one of my classmates used 僕. I don't know their gender identity other than that they presented fairly androgynous and sounded AFAB based on their voice. The teacher (native Japanese) never made any comment about it being strange, and I thought it suited that person to use 僕. But I don't really have much context if it's normal for someone like that to use 僕 or not. I would like to use it myself because I feel very uncomfortable presenting female or feminine in any way, but I don't know if it's "off limits" IRL unless you're strictly identifying as male (which I am not). I guess I'm just not sure if 僕 is still "inappropriate" for someone like me to use, on the basis that my gender identity is more neutral or in the middle, rather than "male", and I am AFAB, despite the fact that I typically reject feminine labels, feeling uncomfortable with the terms "ladylike", "womanly", "femme", etc., and when choosing between titles that typically have gendered differences for myself I'd go for something like, "actor" over "actress" for example. But I know that society would look at me or hear my voice and be "oh that's a woman" and then just assume I "should" be using 私 and not 僕. I understand there are a lot of nuances, as I've been studying Japanese for like 20 years now, but I just don't know just how deep some of the nuances actually go, particularly in this case, as someone who did consume a lot of anime/manga, as well as Japanese music/lyrics, over the years, so I know my perspective is muddied.

What about "atashi"?

Cool! The how anime characters speak Japanese is (directly) back.* Please do Itsuki Nakano from the quintessential quintuplets or any or all the 7 main characters in TQQ. How they speak Japanese I believe is very important to understanding the plot eg the honorifics, the lost in translation stuff (eg when they say things like tsurui, hatsukoi, uso, tachi, fukuzatsu Vs taihen, mote etc that are removed from the dub). I compiled a lot of the lost in translation stuff in r/gotoubun Something to consider about Itsuki: The Quintessential Quintuplets' character types are: Ichika - Onee-san / ara ara, Nino - tsundere, miku - kuudere / dandere, Yotsuba - genki Itsuki - ?? - Tsundere like Nino? - Kuudere like - Eat-suki? - Imouto who handles the finances (like Raiha) in absence of a mother like Kei Shirogane from Kaguya-sama? - Someone who speaks keigo excessively eg to their siblings, to Fuutarou and to Raiha and to everyone basically? Actually, the main thing I learned from Yuta's videos that keigo is basically just desu, masu & their variations. I swear when I learned elementary Japanese in bachelor's (foreign language classes are required in universities in the Philippines) we were never even taught the word keigo. All this time I had no idea Itsuki was the only quint and actually only main character who was talking keigo to EVERYONE. Anyway, I have a theory as to what Itsuki's type is, but you're not gonna like it... *(I say directly because there are some videos that show how anime characters speak Japanese, but the description or thumbnail don't say this. Yuta, you might wanna include in thumbnail or description that there is anime whenever there is to attract more viewers. Even from your subscribers there will be people watch only for anime. Like me.)

I just want to use boku because I like the way it sounds...

ランマ二分の一 !!! RANMA !!! YUTA SAN ! how could you forget that classic manga ? She speaks as a man for a reason !! 😥😨😉

I have another example of a female character who uses ore: Ozu Kanon (Coppelion) And yeah she’s also non-human

Peace peace

Bro talked about Watashi but never mentioned the famous WATASHI NO NA WAE KIRA YOSHIKAGE

Okay Shinji uses Watashi though, right? I mean he's gotta...

I know a human girl who uses Boku :D Masumi Sera from Meitantei Conan

This video so many top tier girls in it.

Yuuki is best girl

Maybe the girls in Anime use the Maybe the girls in Anime use the word "boku" because it's pronounced faster and sounds sweeter than "watashi" I just started learning Hiragana yesterday and I don't understand Japanese at all, but the I just started learning Hiragana yesterday and I don't understand Japanese at all, but the word "watashi" sounds like a word to use in more serious situations.

I wondering why nobody speaks about the academic japanese I mean the であるform

Rindou from Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi is human.

Ore.

Forcing myself not to spoil anything, but your previous explanation fits why Higurashi's Rika has this difference in the way she speaks. - SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember that Rika-chan has been reborn numerous times while preserving her memories, at some point she says her consciousness must've lived over 100 years, but she continues to act like a child not to alarm friends. So, she uses Boku when acting like herself as a kid, and reverts to Watashi when she's back to her normal actual self. Yep, it's kinda crazy. If you read the spoiler and didn't watch this anime yet, you should. And since you don't seem to care about spoilers... well, just pay attention to how Rika acts throughout the anime... it's pretty interesting when you have this piece of knowledge beforehand. It explains a bit on her quirky sometimes puzzling behavior. She's sort of the hidden main character in the entire story, but this isn't revealed until the very late stages of the whole Higurashi saga.

七つの大罪』のジェリコはオレっ娘でしょ？人間ですけど俺を使ってますね‼︎ 記さなかったのがビックしました

Is it wrong to pick a girl from a dungeon? What kind of anime is that? Is that interesting and exalerating anime to watch? What's your though on that guys? Boku and watashi means the same but being used by different gender nice to know.😂 Any popuplar anime that you can recommend to me guys? I'm very picky on anime.😊

Yuta, why in some anime do I see symbols that are considered or rumored to have a connection with the devil or demons?

Maybe you choosing these characters suffer from selection bias, so I would be careful about aggreing with your hypothesis that mostly non-humans use boku ;)

Thank you! I was wondering why female singers use "boku" in their songs. XD

My Japanese friend told me girls who say “boku” irl are cringe, I’m just gonna trust her 😅 There was one girl in my Japanese class who used it and yeah, she was cringe

do we consider rika a human? hmmmm

As a queer person interested in learning languages, it feels uneasy that I have to comply with being gendered by society in different languages... It is something I grew accustomed to in my native language, but to relearn it in other languages feels uneasy, as I would appreciate for gender not to be perceived as such a defining characteristic, that you can't even escape it in the most basic of sentences... Why should I sound feminine when I talk about my desires, my hobbies, everyday activities?

I had no idea Japanese had male and female inflections like French lol so interesting! I love it

Joshikousei no Mudazukai was really not very funny to me. It was passable as an anime (though only average at best), but as a comedy it failed to make me laugh even once. Even Asobi Asobase, which I overall found to be a much worse anime, at least made me laugh properly a few times. In my opinion, an actually, genuinely funny comedy anime would be something like Azumanga Daioh.

Since you mentioned Aozora Tsugumi, I think a great possible future video would be one that delves into how pronouns are used in the Japanese LGBT community. I imagine there's probably some really interesting usages going on there.

Modern anime bores me compared to anime from the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s．I’m it j to all that kawaii anime modern otakus love

i think its not that important - ahaha xD . just say ore ore ore ore anyways this also happens in chinese . but who actually cares . spam watashi . like a real boss . or old anime or samurai ahah axD

Ah, so a "tomboy". When a women acts and talks more guy-ish. The girl is talking like we are male friends. Bro, Bruh or dude. Its interesting the English translation goes with "I", which is wrong if I'm understanding Boku correctly.

"Yuuki" from SAO is actually just kirito, the main character (guy) using a female body for the game

I think boku when female used they think they are overlord in this land 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Damn Japan was using pronouns before it became woke lol.

Nobody cares