Skip to content

Japanese culture

Words from anime, manga and Japanese city life that the West adopted untranslated.

14 entries

Japanese culture Chuunibyou Eighth-grader syndrome: a power delusion and middle-school gothic, turned into otaku affection. Japanese culture Dandere A character quiet from shyness, who opens to few people: silence that is not ice, it is dan (黙). Japanese culture Fujoshi A fan (usually a woman) of stories about romance between men: a label that began as an insult and became a tribe. Japanese culture Hikikomori A prolonged withdrawal from social life: the room as a country, in Japanese social vocabulary. Japanese culture Isekai The other-world genre: the protagonist falls (or transmigrates) into a place with game rules. Japanese culture Iyashikei Healing works: low tempo, landscape, comfort without a save-the-world plot. Japanese culture Kuudere A low-speech, discreet-affection character: cold that is not tsun, it is koo (ice). Japanese culture Moe A sharp affection for a character: the chest warms, fandom names the heat. Japanese culture Oshi The idol you push: a declared favourite, votes, streaming, money and pride. Japanese culture Senpai The one who arrived earlier at school, in the club, at work: senior in the path, not necessarily in civil age. Japanese culture Truck-kun The personified truck that hits the protagonist and opens the isekai. Japanese culture Tsundere A character who treats the other with roughness and, in layers, with affection: ice that cracks. Japanese culture Waifu A character (almost always female) treated as a fandom wife: poster, figure, ironic vow. Japanese culture Yandere A character whose affection turns into possession: the dere that slips into yan (sick, warped).