Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres 20 Anime and the real world gendered use of sentence final particles across genres LACHLAN HOLLIS* Abstract Japanese is one of the world’s most analysed gendered languages. Within Japanese, the use of sentence final particles is an integral part of expressing subtle meaning and gender. In this paper, the use of sentence final particles in modern Japanese is investigated and modern conceptions of their gendered use are assessed. This study used the cultural convention of anime, unique to Japan, to investigate whether the use of sentence final particles by the respective genders in animated media reflects how they are used in real life. It also questions whether the genre, and therefore the target audience of anime, affects the use of sentence final particles in the series. To do this the girls (shoujo) anime ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ and the boys (shounen) ‘Toradora’ are analysed with regard to sentence final particle use. The results ran counter to preconceived expectations of language use in both genres. 1. Introduction Anime has become a symbol of cultural identity in Japan. Many of Japan’s traditions and customs are expressed through this animated medium. One apparent way this occurs is through the language used by characters in anime. Japanese is an example of a gendered language with clear gender distinctions in the use of some language forms. As one would expect gendered language forms are used in anime, but are they employed in the same manner as in real life situations? Does the genre of the anime have an effect on how these genders are conveyed? These are the basic questions discussed in this paper. Anime comes in many different genres. This paper focuses on two in particular, where one would expect to find a potential for significant difference in gendered language forms: shounen (literally: ‘boy’) anime targeted at a child to young adult male audience, and shoujo (literally: ‘girl’) anime targeted at a child to young adult female audience. The importance of this investigation into the use of gendered language use in anime lies in the implications to Japanese society of a difference between gendered language use in real life and in animated media. The importance of a difference in gendered language use between genres lies in potentially cultivating expectations of language use in the genre’s respective target audiences. As investigating the whole spectrum of gendered language in Japanese would be a substantial undertaking, this paper focuses solely on the gendered use of sentence final particles in these two distinct anime genres. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres 21 2. Literature Review Sentence final particles, henceforth referred to as SFPs, found in Japanese are vital in formulating information, intention and identity when conversing in the language (Chino 1991). Grammatically, they can be used to show and ask for agreement or confirmation, such as with the use of the SFP ‘ne’, make statements and assertions more powerful, such as with the use of the SFP ‘yo’, and play various other roles (Okamoto 1995). SFPs show a division in their use based on gender (Okamoto 1995). While many SFPs are gender neutral, some SFPs are used almost exclusively by men, while others are used by women. Japanese women’s speech (onna no kotoba or joseigo) is often compared to Japanese men’s speech (otoko no kotoba or danseigo) and is typically described as more “polite, gentle, soft-­‐‑spoken, non-­‐‑assertive, and empathetic” (Okamoto 1995:298). The traditional view in regards to gender use of SFPs is quite rigid, with men and women having their own distinct sets (Ide 1982; McGloin 1990 cited by Hiramoto 2013). While this is the traditional view, recently it has been observed that Japanese women’s use of language is changing and women are taking on using more neutral and even masculine forms (Ogawa 2006; Okamoto & Sato 1992; Okamoto 1995; Okamoto 1996; Mizumoto 2006). For example according to Ogawa and Mizumoto (Ogawa 2006; Mizumoto 2006 cited by Murakami 2008) the use of the traditional feminine SFPs such as kashira and wa are falling out of use in contemporary Japanese women’s speech. These are examples of SFPs strongly associated with feminine speech and are hence falling out of practice as women choose to use ‘weaker’ feminine SFPs or choose to use SFPs that are moderately masculine (Okamoto & Sato 1992 cited by Okamoto 1995). A study conducted by Okamoto and Sato (1992 cited by Okamoto 1995) involving three age groups of Japanese women (18-­‐‑23 years, 27-­‐‑34 years and 45-­‐‑57 years) shows a consistent drop in the use of feminine SFPs and a consistent increase of masculine SFPs from the older women to the younger women. In just comparing the oldest and youngest groups from the study it was seen that almost all the older women used feminine SFPs more often than masculine SFPs. This is the complete opposite of the younger women, almost all of whom used masculine SFPs more often than feminine SFPs in their speech (Okamoto 1996). Interestingly though, the perception of feminine SFPs remains in the minds of Japanese speakers. According to a study, conducted by Ogawa (2006 cited by Murakami 2008) involving Japanese college students and their perceptions on Feminine SFPs such as wa and kashira, while the college students knew the feminine connotations of such SFPs, they almost never actually used them. This is an interesting contrast to how women are portrayed by the media in Japan. According to Mizumoto (2006 cited by Murkami 2008) female characters in television series and novels use the strongly feminine SFPs with a far higher frequency than is typically seen in real life. This difference between reality and fiction with regard to SFPs can be seen in anime as well. In Hiramoto’s analysis of the 1990’s anime Cowboy Bebop, it was observed that the main female character, Fey, used strong feminine SFPs such as kashira and wa as well as using feminine SFPs with more frequency than masculine SFPs (Hiramoto 2013). Despite the use of feminine SFPs projecting an idea of femininity as supposedly “soft spoken and non-­‐‑assertive” (Okamoto 1995:298), Fey’s character is that of a bounty hunter that participates in gambling, smoking and fighting, all of which is contrary to what her use of SFPs seems to indicate (Hiramoto 2013). Another point of interest observed in Cowboy Bebop was that, unlike in reality where older Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres 22 women used more feminine SFPs, in the anime it was reversed (Hiramoto 2013). The younger, more attractive female characters used more feminine SFPs than the older female characters (Hiramoto 2013). So it seems that there are some misconceptions about how gender specific SFPs are used and that the modern media portrays female characters use of SFPs differently from how they are used in real life. But these examples are from the 1990s, does this disparity in the use of SFP’s apply to modern anime? In the following study the use of SFPs in two relatively recent anime from two opposing genres is analysed to determine whether the use of SFPs in these anime accurately reflects modern usage and if the genre of the anime has an impact on the use of SFPs in the respective series. 3. Methodology To determine if there is a difference in the use of SFPs by male and female characters in the ‘boys’ (shounen) and ‘girls’ (shoujo) anime genres, an episode of two anime from the two respective genres were analysed. To minimise the possibility of the shows’ content having an influence on the SFPs used by the characters, the two anime that were chosen are very similar in storyline and context. Both are set in a high school in the same time period. Both have plots that focus on romance and comedy. Both have roughly the same number of male and female characters. Both are ‘ordinary’ in the sense that there is no incredibly out of the ordinary content that might have impacted the study (such as super powers or giant robots which are prevalent in anime today). The ‘boys’ anime chosen for this study is called ‘Toradora’, made in 2008, and was originally a light novel series written by Takemiya Yuyuko, before being adapted into a comic book (manga) and anime series. It should be stated that this series was created by a woman, which is unusual in the boys’ genre and may impact on the study. Also, while the ‘Toradora’ manga is published in Shounen magazine, the anime can be called a ‘borderline’ shounen in that it has elements that appeal to a female audience, not only male readers/viewers. After taking all this into consideration, ‘Toradora’ can still be considered a suitable subject for this study as it is considered a shounen anime and it fulfils the criteria presented above. The girls’ anime chosen for this study is called ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ (Reaching you), made in 2009, and was originally a popular girls’ manga, written by Karuho Shiina. The first episode of both ‘Toradora’ and ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ were viewed and the use of any SFPs was noted. In doing this, the whole sentence is written out, the character uttering the SFP is noted, so is their gender. A note is also made about the context in which the utterance is produced. Whether it was inner monologue or if it was directed at someone and the characteristics of the listener, such as gender and apparent social status compared to the speaker, were also taken in account. After collecting all the sentences from both anime separately, each use of a SFP was classified as either masculine, feminine or neutral. This was done using a list of relevant, gendered SFPs classified by Okamoto (1995), two of which were removed as they did not appear in this study, the SFP ‘ro’, observed by Murakami (Murakami 2008), was added since it was found to be a relevant male SFP in this study. Since this study’s focus is gender, the SFPs classified as neutral were discarded and the rest were tabulated based on the kind of SFP they were and what gender’s speech the SFP is typically associated with. The Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres 23 combined lists of SFPs taken from Okamoto (Okamoto 1995) and Murakami (Murakami 2008) used are shown in the following sub-­‐‑section. 3.1 Gender Classification for Sentence Final Particles 3.1.1. Feminine Forms •
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The particle wa (with rising intonation) for mild emphasis or its variants (wa, ne, wa yo, wa yo ne) Example 1: Iku wa. [‘I am going’] Classification: Strongly feminine (Designated no form 1) The particle no after a noun or na-­‐‑adjective in a statement Example 2: Ashita na no. [‘it is that it is tomorrow’] Classification: Strongly feminine (Designated no form 2) The particle no after a plain form of a verb or I-­‐‑
adjective for emphasis or explanation in a statement Example 3: Iku no. [‘It’s that I’m going’] Classification Moderately feminine (Designated no form 3) The particle no followed by ne or yo ne for seeking confirmation or agreement; the particle no followed by yo for assertion Example 4: Ashita na no ne? [‘It’s that it’s tomorrow isn’t it?’] Classification: Strongly feminine The auxiliary desho(o) for expressing probability or for seeking agreement or confirmation Example 5: Iku deshoo? [‘You are going, aren’t you?’] Classification: Moderately feminine 3.1.2. Masculine Forms •
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The particles ze and zo for assertion Example 6: Iku ze. [‘I’m going, I tell you.’] Classification: Strongly masculine (Designated yo form 1) The particle yo after a plain form of a verb or i-­‐‑
adjective for assertion Example 7: Iku yo. [‘I’m going, I tell you.’] Classification: Moderately masculine The auxiliary verb da alone for a declaration (or it’s variants da ne, da yo, or da yo ne) Example 8: Ashita da. [‘It’s tomorrow.’] Classification: Moderately masculine (designated ‘ee’ replacement) The phonological form ee instead of ai and oi Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 24 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres •
Example 9: Shiranee. (Shiranai.) [‘I don’t know.’] Classification: Strongly masculine The particle ro used as in questions, agreement (or it’s variants da ro, da ro yo or da ro ne) Example 10: Nan da ro. [‘I wonder what it is?’] Classification: Strongly masculine 4. Results and Discussion The set of results discussed first are from the girls’ (shoujo) anime ‘Kimi ni Todoke’. These results are contrary to expectations as it was expected that the girls anime would contain a lot more feminine SFPs than were observed. Male Characters Female Characters Male Characters Female Characters Total SFPs 4 7 Total SFPs Feminine wa (SF) no Form 1 (SF) 0 1 0 3 Masculine zo/ze (SM) yo form (MM) no Form 2 no Form 3 (MF) (SF) 0 2 deshoo (MF) 1 1 3 0 ro (SM) 1 1 da (MM) 10 1 2 2 “ee” Replacement (SM) 4 10 0 7 2 0 1 Table 1: Results from episode 1 of Kimi ni Todoke (SF=Strongly Fem. MF=Moderately Fem. SM=Strongly Male, MM=Moderately Male) As can be seen in Table 1, there is very little use of feminine SFPs with almost all the examples being some variation of the use of the particle no, with the exception of a single deshoo which was uttered by a male character. As expected, female characters did use the strongly feminine forms more often than male characters but not as much as was expected. It is also important to point out that, despite being a girls’ anime, there was no use of the strongly feminine wa SFP which is in line with the assessment that women use the wa SFP less frequently in modern times (Ogawa 2006; Mizumoto 2006 cited by Murakami 2008). The male usage of feminine forms can be explained by the fact that feminine speech is not just feminine but is also ‘more polite’ (Okamoto 1995). The female characters in ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ used masculine SFPs with a higher frequency than feminine SFPs, particularly the masculine yo form, which accounted for 7 out of 11 uses of masculine SFPs. This is consistent with the study Okamoto (1995) conducted with young women in real life. That said, female characters did not use the strongly masculine SFPs with the exception of ro which again agrees with Okamoto and Sato’s observations that even when women adopted masculine SFPs, they did not adopt the strongly masculine SFPs as much as the moderately masculine SFPs (Okamoto & Sato 1992 cited by Okamoto 1995). Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 25 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres The use of the strongly masculine particle ro is the only example in the ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ data of female characters using a strongly masculine particle. This, however can potentially be explained when the context of the utterances is taken into account. The female character example is: Example 11 Sawako: kazehaya-­‐‑kun tte, nante ii hito nanda ro. [‘Kazehaya, what a nice person.’] This is actually an inner thought the main character, Sawako, is having, not part of actual dialogue so she is not using a strongly masculine SFP out loud. This contrasts to the male character example: Kazehaya: derenda ro. [‘It’s embarrassing right?’] Which is actually spoken aloud to Sawako during an embarrassing moment. This use of ro may have been due to Kazehaya being in a vulnerable position and thus felt the need to be more masculine. Total Feminine SFPs wa (SF) no Form 1 no Form 2 (SF) (MF) no Form 3 (SF) deshoo (MF) Male Characters Female Characters 1 0 0 0 0 1 16 2 0 6 4 4 “ee” Replacement (SM) ro (SM) Male Characters Female Characters 31 7 2 4 7 11 6 0 0 3 0 3 Total SFPs Masculine zo/ze (SM) yo form (MM) 1 da (MM) Table 2: Results from episode 1 of Toradora (SF=Strongly Fem. MF=Moderately Fem. SM=Strongly Male, MM=Moderately Male) The results observed from the boys’ anime ‘Toradora’ were more in line with expectations. Far more gendered SFPs were observed, which paints a very different picture from the data from ‘Kimi ni Todoke’. There was only one instance of a male character using a feminine SFP, the moderately feminine deshoo. This is somewhat in line with real life as a typical male character using feminine SFPs would be due to being ‘polite’ (Okamoto 1995), rather than being more feminine. Otherwise, all the feminine SFPs were uttered by female characters, which includes the strongly feminine SFP wa. The data suggests that the use of wa by female characters is rare, accounting for only 2 out of 16 feminine SFPs observed, making it the least observed feminine SFP besides the no form, of which there were none. This, to a certain extent, is consistent with what has been observed in real life regarding the particle wa (Ogawa 2006; Mizumoto 2006 cited by Murakami 2008). However this changes when looking at the bigger picture. The total Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 6 (2013), 20-­‐‑27 Lachlan Hollis: Anime and the real world gendered use of SFPs across genres 26 number of masculine SFPs used by female characters is only 6 compared to 16 examples of uses of feminine SFPs, this runs counter to the idea that younger women in reality are using masculine SFPs more often than feminine SFPs (Okamoto & Sato 1992 cited by Okamoto 1995). A comparatively large amount of masculine SFPs were observed from the male characters with the most common being the ro particle with 11 instances followed by the ee replacement and zo/ze particles, both of which had 7 instances. Interestingly, the three most commonly used masculine SFPs are also the most strongly associated with male speech. This is not surprising as the anime is targeting a male audience and this form of speech would appeal to the viewers. The same can be said for the female characters’ higher use of feminine forms as female characters that use feminine forms would be more appealing to the audience. This is very similar, though not to the same extent, to what Hiramoto (2013) observed in Cowboy Bebop, where the female characters were using more feminine SFPs than would be expected in real life. Again, the use of the strongly masculine SFP ro by a female character can be explained when looking at the context. For example: Example 12 Taiga: kiyoku gurai butobasu da ro yo [‘If it’s just your memories, I can send them flying away right?’] In this scene, the female main character, Taiga, has just broken into the male main character’s house to try to get him to forget something, using violence. This is a very tense moment and during this scene is where all of the female uses of ro occur. This is in contrast to the male characters use of ro where they use it at home, at school, in tense situations and in casual settings. 5. Conclusion The importance of SFPs in relation to gender in Japanese is unquestioned and this remains so in animated media. While the girls’ anime, ‘Kimi ni Todoke’, gave a somewhat realistic example of how SFPs are used by women, it may have come up short in regard to how the male characters use them. The boys’ anime, ‘Toradora’, on the other hand gives a far less realistic impression with a comparatively far higher use of feminine SFPs by female characters than one would expect in real life based on the limited findings of Okamoto and Sato (1992 cited by Okamoto 1995), but may have been more accurate than ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ with regard to how male characters use feminine SFPs. The difference in genre and therefore target audience produced a noticeable difference in the overall kind and frequency of SFPs produced by characters in the respective series. *Author Notes Lachlan Hollis is a second year student in Bachelor of Arts in Language and Linguistics, majoring in Japanese at Griffith’s Nathan Campus. In the future, Lachlan hopes to either pursue a career teaching English in Japan or a career in translation either in Australia or overseas. 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