History UsefulNotes / GenderAndJapaneseLanguage

* In ''Superlink'', the Japanese version of ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'', Alpha-Q's pale, smiling face speaks in a high (but male) voice and uses female speech patterns. Another face also refers to this face as an "''oyama''", the Japanese word for a male actor who plays female parts in kabuki. The Alpha Q entity, however, is considered male. (However, as [[spoiler:the combined will of everyone on his planet who died when Unicron consumed it]], Alpha Q is probably not strictly male or female.[[labelnote:Clarification (Spoilers)]]Its "true" voice in the Japanese version is that of a young girl -- part of the idea that Alpha Q had a fifth, unseen face that was of the young, humanoid princess of Planet Q. This idea was not used -- nothing of it was said and flashbacks show Planet Q to have had a Transformer population -- namely, ''Terrorcons in different colors!'' The Energon version gives him the VoiceOfTheLegion to support the show's interpretation of Alpha Q as a gestalt entity.[[/labelnote]]]])

* At the end of ''Anime/DotHackSign'', [[spoiler:Tsukasa's player, revealed to be a girl, shifts from ''boku'' to ''atashi''.]] The English subtitles make no note of this in any way.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** The (male) character Orochimaru tends to speak in the feminine style. Unlike ''.hack//sign,'' the American dub addresses this by making him have a feminine voice.
** The titular character finishes his sentences with dattaba'''yo''', while his mother finishes her sentences with datteba'''ne'''. This fits with the feminine and masculine; otherwise they basically talk the exact same way.
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Yoruichi Shihouin speaks in a very masculine form when first appearing, making it all the more shocking to others when it is later revealed she is a (very attractive) woman. Her companion Kisuke Urahara is the inverse, a man who uses feminine personal pronouns.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has Perona, a pink-haired ElegantGothicLolita who loves cute, girly things, yet uses the same rough, masculine speech patterns as most men in the series. [[spoiler:Charlotte Pudding]] also occasionally uses masculine language when she [[BitchInSheepsClothing cuts the act]].
* Given how fluid gender is in ''Manga/{{Simoun}}'' what pronouns are used by what characters varies quite a bit. For the character of Yun in particular, when she [[spoiler:switches from 'ore' to 'atashi']]
* This is a plot point in the first ''VideoGame/{{Star Ocean|1}}''. Phia Mell is a tomboy (and captain of the Astral Guards) who always speaks using masculine speech. Her childhood friend Cyuss is nonplussed when he sees her speaking to him using feminine speech, which clues him in that the Phia he's talking is a fake. Unfortunately, in the translated remake this was glossed over and substituted with a different clue entirely.
* In the ''Literature/KinosJourney'' prequel OVA Kino speaks in feminine patterns, using "''atashi''" for "I" during most of her stay in her Master's place, as well as wearing dress and keeping her hair long. After she returns from her first brief journey, [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange her hair has been cut short by the circumstances]], and she's shifted to masculine "''boku''" form, as well as finally being comfortable with her assumed name.
* Hinagiku aka Angel Daisy from ''Manga/WeddingPeach'' uses "ore" and masculine, rough Japanese in general, even in her frilly, feminine Love Angel form.
* Ryougi Shiki from ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' uses the masculine ''ore'' to refer to herself and speaks in a very rude and masculine pattern. [[spoiler:This is so she won't forget her alternate personality, which was male; he took her place when she died in a car accident two years ago.]]
* Leona Miyamura from ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'' uses masculine language (including the more masculine second-person pronoun ''omae''), while still using the (casually feminine) first-person pronoun ''watashi''.

* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' Kaitou Nakamura uses 'watashi' in a posthumous video (his own son Hiro has gotten into the habit of 'ore'). "Watashi" and "watakushi" are more formal ways of saying "I." In something like a will, it would seem fitting. Hiro, in season 1, used "boku" which sounds more "boyish." Since his father's death Hiro would had to have felt a need to "man up."

* CuteWitch Marisa Kirisame from the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' games uses masculine verb forms and [[VerbalTic typically ends her sentences]] with "''da ze''", but, in something of a twist, exclusively uses the gender neutral pronoun ''watashi''. (This fact has tripped up enough {{doujin}} artists [[MoneyDearBoy just looking to cash in on the series' runaway popularity]] that "Marisa-who-says-''ore''" has [[MemeticMutation become something of an in-joke]] with the Japanese fanbase.)
** A few other characters follow Marisa's example. Examples include the oni [[Characters/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism Yuugi Hoshiguma]] and [[Characters/TouhouSideGames Suika Ibuki]] ([[TheLadette which is expected]]) and the Human Village's local teacher and guardian, [[Characters/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight Keine Kawashirasawa]] (less so).

* Cackletta in the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' uses "''atashi''" as her personal pronoun of choice with masculine sentence endings.
* Several of ''VideoGame/KanColle'''s ships follow the "masculine sentence-ending particles with neutral/feminine pronouns patterns set by Marisa above, e.g. Nagato, Musashi, Nachi, Gangut, and Maya, an "''atashi''" user like Cackletta.
* The same is true of ''VideoGame/AzurLane''. Tennessee and Cleveland are two examples. Ark Royal and Enterprise do so as well, though unlike previous examples, neither ship is particularly masculine or even tomboyish in behavior. Pennsylvania tends to switch between masculine and feminine speech, not following any particular pattern.

One common trope in anime and manga is to have a strong female character, especially an ActionGirl, use abrasive, masculine language.

* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'': Ryuunosuke Fujinami has been raised to be a man amongst men -- handsome, tough, and aggressive. Too bad ''she's'' against the idea. However, her father's training has been so thorough that she can't help but slide into the masculine role... a conflict personified when she angrily protests "Ore wa ONNA da!!!" -- i.e. "I'm a WOMAN", using the most masculine construction possible.
** In an anime episode where Lum finds herself traveling between several alternate dimensions, she finds one where everybody is a polar opposite of their original forms. Thus, Ryuunosuke is now a boy, wearing a girl's uniform, and tearfully proclaims "Atashi wa Otoko yo!" A very feminine way of saying "I am a man!"
* In ''Manga/KOn'', with the exception of using the gender-neutral pronoun "watashi" to refer to herself, Ritsu Tainaka utilizes quite masculine Japanese in her speech patterns (e.g., using the "yagaru" suffix when she's annoyed, ending sentences with the informal suffixes "-e", "-n" "-da" and "-daro"; and never using feminine suffixes such as "ne" and "wa"). She does use feminine pronouns from time to time, but it's usually when she's being sarcastic and/or tries to play innocent after having been accused of something ("Who, me?")

* In ''Superlink,'' the Japanese version of ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'', Alpha-Q's pale, smiling face speaks in a high (but male) voice and uses female speech patterns. Another face also refers to this face as an "oyama", the Japanese word for a male actor who plays female parts in kabuki. The Alpha Q entity, however, is considered male. (However, as [[spoiler: the combined will of everyone on his planet who died when Unicron consumed it, Alpha Q is probably not strictly male or female. [[note]]Its "true" voice in the Japanese version is that of a young girl - part of the idea that Alpha Q had a fifth, unseen face that was of the young, humanoid princess of Planet Q. This idea was not used - nothing of it was said and flashbacks show Planet Q to have had a Transformer population - namely, ''Terrorcons in different colors!'' The Energon version gives him the VoiceOfTheLegion to support the show's interpretation of Alpha Q as a gestalt entity.[[/note]]]])

* At the end of ''Anime/DotHackSign'', [[spoiler:Tsukasa's player, revealed to be a girl, shifts from 'boku' to 'atashi'.]] The English subtitles make no note of this in any way.

* Sentence endings of "''wa yo''", "''wa ne''", "''no ne''", and "''no yo''" are usually feminine. "''Kai''", "''zo''", "''ze''", "''sa''", "''da''" and "''yo''" are more masculine. "''No''" and "''wa''" vary depending on pronunciation.[[note]]"''No''" with a rising tone is neutral and indicates curiosity, but with a falling tone is feminine and authoritative. "''Wa''" with a rising tone is a feminine exclamation, but with a falling tone is a neutral expression of surprise. In KansaiRegionalAccent, "wa" is gender-neutral and often used by both men and women.[[/note]]

* Sentence endings of "''wa yo''", "''wa ne''", "''no ne''", and "''no yo''" are usually feminine. "''Kai''", "''zo''", "''ze''", "''sa''", "''da''" and "''yo''" are more masculine. "''No''" and "''wa''" vary depending on pronunciation.[[note]]"''No''" with a rising tone is neutral and indicates curiosity, but with a falling tone is feminine and authoritative. "''Wa''" with a rising tone is a feminine exclamation, but with a falling tone is a neutral expression of surprise.[[/note]]

* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' prequel OVA Kino speaks in feminine patterns, using "''atashi''" for "I" during most of her stay in her Master's place, as well as wearing dress and keeping her hair long. After she returns from her first brief journey, [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange her hair has been cut short by the circumstances]], and she's shifted to masculine "''boku''" form, as well as finally being comfortable with her assumed name.

* Ryougi Shiki from ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' uses the masculine ''ore'' to refer to herself and speaks in a very rude and masculine pattern. [[spoiler:This is so she won't forget her alternate personality, which was male; he took her place when she died in a car accident two years ago.]]

On a related point, it may be interesting to note that unlike, say, most Romance languages such as French and Spanish, Japanese is not inflected by gender. As another curiosity, for a long time, the language did not have gendered third-person pronouns, using only 彼 ("that/it" when pronounced ''are'', "he/they (singular)" or "boyfriend"[[note]]In modern Japanese, "boyfriend" usually adds the ''-shi'' honorific to become 彼氏 (''kareshi'')[[/note]] when pronounced ''kare''), or the multi-word constructions 彼の人[[note]]''ano hito'' "that person"[[/note]], 彼の男[[note]]''ano otoko'' "that male"[[/note]] and 彼の女[[note]]''ano onna'' "that female"[[/note]] when more detail or formality was needed; the present-day contraction 彼女 (''kanojo'', "she" or "girlfriend", literally "that female") was originally coined to translate European texts. Even today though, for a variety of reasons ''kare/kanojo'' are [[GenderNeutralWriting used less often than their English counterparts]]; in particular, phrases like [[SaidBookism "he said", "she said" etc.]] are less necessary in Japanese fiction because quirks like gendered speech patterns can already fill their function of identifying the speaker.

On a related point, it may be interesting to note that unlike, say, most Romance languages such as French and Spanish, Japanese is not inflected by gender. As another curiosity, for a long time, the language did not have gendered third-person pronouns, using only 彼 ("that/it" when pronounced ''are'', "he/they (singular)" or "boyfriend"[[note]]In modern Japanese, "boyfriend" usually adds the ''-shi'' honorific to become 彼氏 (''kareshi'')[[/note]] when pronounced ''kare''), or the multi-word constructions 彼の人[[note]]''ano hito'' "that person"[[/note]], 彼の男[[note]]''ano otoko'' "that male"[[/note]] and 彼の女[[note]]''ano onna'' "that female"[[/note]] when more detail or formality was needed; the present-day contraction 彼女 (''kanojo'', "she" or "girlfriend", literally "that female") was originally coined to translate European texts. Even today, for a variety of reasons ''kare/kanojo'' are [[GenderNeutralWriting used less often than their English counterparts]]; in particular, phrases like [[SaidBookism "he said", "she said" etc.]] are less necessary in Japanese fiction because quirks like gendered speech patterns can already fill their function of identifying the speaker.

On a related point, it may be interesting to note that unlike, say, most Romance languages such as French and Spanish, Japanese is not inflected by gender. As another curiosity, for a long time, the language did not have gendered third-person pronouns; the present-day 彼女 (''kanojo'', meaning "she/her", also "girlfriend", literally "that female") was originally coined to translate European texts.

* Sentence endings of "''wa''", "''wa yo''", "''wa ne''", "''no ne''", and "''no yo''" are usually feminine. "''Kai''", "''zo''", "''ze''", "''sa''", "''da''" and "''yo''" are more masculine.

* Geragemona, the Japanese Cackletta from ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' uses "''atashi''" as her personal pronoun of choice with masculine sentence endings.

* This is a plot point in the first ''VideoGAME/{{Star Ocean|1}}''. Phia Mell is a tomboy (and captain of the Astral Guards) who always speaks using masculine speech. Her childhood friend Cyuss is nonplussed when he sees her speaking to him using feminine speech, which clues him in that the Phia he's talking is a fake. Unfortunately, in the translated remake this was glossed over and substituted with a different clue entirely.

* CuteWitch Marisa Kirisame from the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games uses masculine verb forms and [[VerbalTic typically ends her sentences]] with "''da ze''", but, in something of a twist, exclusively uses the gender neutral pronoun ''watashi''. (This fact has tripped up enough {{doujin}} artists [[MoneyDearBoy just looking to cash in on the series' runaway popularity]] that "Marisa-who-says-''ore''" has [[MemeticMutation become something of an in-joke]] with the Japanese fanbase.)

* On reaching the Hermit Social Link's fourth rank in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', Maya tells you about a creepy man in Paulownia Mall (the Devil Social Link, [[spoiler:President Tanaka]]). "You'll know him cuz he talks like a woman" is how she sums him up. The idea doesn't quite make the jump into languages without such enforced masculine/feminine speech patterns.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Remember11}}'', where Kokoro (a woman) and Satoru (a man) have their [[FreakyFridayFlip minds swapped]] randomly throughout the story, their companions eventually learn to tell which personality is currently in control by listening to their manner of speaking.

* Several of ''[[VideoGame/KantaiCollection Kantai Collection's]]'' ships follow the "masculine sentence-ending particles with neutral/feminine pronouns patterns set by Marisa above, e.g. Nagato, Musashi, Nachi, Gangut, and Maya, an "''atashi''" user like Cackletta.

* Leona Miyamura from ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'' uses masculine language, while still using the (casually feminine) pronoun ''watashi''.

* Ryougi Shiki from ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' uses the masculine ''ore'' to refer to herself and speaks in a very rude and masculine pattern. [[spoiler:This is so she won't forget her alternate personality, which was male; he took her place when she died in a car accident two years ago.]]

As stated elsewhere, Japanese includes several words or word-variants on the same concept to address the culturally important concepts of politeness and formality. This comes strongly from Japanese culture (after the Tokugawa Shogunate period, which had a caste-based society) as a hierarchical and stratified society where class relations were paramount.

Japanese social stratification also occurred along gender lines. Because of this, there is a distinct difference in the way men and women are expected to speak, with some words and constructions considered more masculine and others more feminine. The feminine words are called "''onna kotoba''" and the speech habits "''joseigo''". Some examples of this can be seen in the UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns entry. Other examples:

In real-life situations, there is considerable variation—and several outright exceptions—to the rules. However, in media, a character speaking in a manner that does not traditionally fit their sex adds a different dimension to him or her that non-Japanese speakers would miss.

In the recent years, linguists and social commentators in Japan have noticed a shift in women's speaking habits. Very few younger Japanese women use so-called ''joseigo'' anymore, and the speech habits of anime characters and drama characters do not represent modern-day Japanese women in real life (especially the relatively younger crowd). That is not to say that women's speech habits have become masculine; rather, they have become neutral.

Also, do note that all this is a matter of vocabulary and social usage of the language. Grammatically speaking, unlike, say, most Romance languages such as French and Spanish, Japanese has no concept of gender; indeed, it didn't even have a separate pronoun meaning "she" (彼女 ''kanojo'' "she/her", also "girlfriend", literally "that female") until European texts started to be translated into Japanese, at which point one was invented (and is now in common use).

* Geragemona, the Japanese Cackletta from ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' uses "''atashi''" as her personal pronoun of choice with masculine
* Several of ''[[VideoGame/KantaiCollection Kantai Collection's]]'' ships also follow suit, e.g. Nagato, Musashi, Nachi, and Gangut. Maya does the same while using the feminine ''atashi'', and others like Tenryuu and Kiso complete the package by using the aggressively masculine ''ore''.
* The same is true of ''VideoGame/AzurLane''. The battleships Tennessee and Nevada are good examples.

* Tokiko Tsumura from ''Manga/BusouRenkin'' uses men's speech (''zo'', ''na'', ''kimi'' ("you"), ''da'' ("to be"), etc.), except the pronoun ''watashi'' ("I/me").

* Geragemona, the Japanese Cackletta from ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' uses "''atashi''" as her personal pronoun of choice with masculine sentence endings.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fangame ''[[VideoGame/TouhouGensoWanderer Genso Wanderer]]'' has a plurality of the cast follow Marisa's example, using masculine speech patterns while using ''watashi'' to refer to themselves. Examples include the oni [[Characters/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism Yuugi Hoshiguma]] and [[Characters/TouhouSideGames Suika Ibuki]] ([[TheLadette which is expected]]) and the Human Village's local teacher and guardian, [[Characters/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight Keine Kawashirasawa]] (less so). One wonders if this has something to do with how many of the characters in ''Touhou'' are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, and possibly old enough to predate the concept of gendered speech patterns.

* Tokiko Tsumura from ''Manga/BusouRenkin'' uses men's speech (''zo'', ''na'', ''kimi'' ("you"), ''da'' ("to be"), etc.), except the pronoun ''watashi'' ("I/me")

** When she has to play the part of [[RomeoAndJuliet Juliet]] in the school play, she's forced to use feminine speech patterns. But then she continues to speak that way even backstage, gets very flustered when she realizes it, and claims that she was still in character.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Women tend to use polite forms of grammar more frequently, using polite forms of verbs and honorific prefixes such as ''o-'' and ''go-''.

Also, do note that all this is a matter of vocabulary and social usage of the language. Grammatically speaking, unlike, say, most Romance languages such as French and Spanish, Japanese has no concept of gender; indeed, it didn't even have a separate pronoun meaning "she" until European texts started to be translated into Japanese, at which point one was invented (and is now in common use).

* The pronouns ''watashi'' and ''anata'' tends to be rendered as ''atashi'' and ''anta''.

* Women tend to use polite forms of grammar more frequently.

Japanese social stratification also occurred along gender lines. Because of this, there is a distinct difference in the way men and women are expected to speak, with some words and constructions considered more masculine and others more feminine. The feminine words are called "''onna kotoba''" and the speech habits "''joseigo''". Some examples of this can be seen in the JapanesePronouns entry. Other examples:

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has Perona, a pink-haired ElegantGothicLolita who loves cute, girly things, yet uses the same rough, masculine speech patterns as most men in the series.