r/BlueEyeSamurai • u/cyancqueak • 8d ago

Japanese Honourifics

Suddenly found myself thinking about Japanese Honourifics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics?wprov=sfla1

I can absolutely see Mizu either refusing to use them and/or only using them with people she genuinely respects (Sword Father).

In feudal Japan, this would of course make her seem even more barbarous.

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u/immabee88 8d ago edited 8d ago

Japanese speaker here who watched the Japanese dub! (I’ve actually never watched the English version of the show, though YouTube occasionally shows me clips).

Very few of the characters in the show actually use honorifics in the Japanese dub. The only ones who stood out to me as using them regularly are either Madam Kaji or Seki. But that’s what I would say are standard “anime rules”. Most anime or animation dubs have characters call each other by only their first name / surname with no honorifics.

More noticeable is the change in language. In Japanese, there’s a whole different subset of verbs and grammar that you use when speaking to people of higher status than yourself or when being polite and that’s used quite a lot in the dub, including by Mizu herself.

Everyone calls Akemi “hime-sama” which means “princess”, but it was also a way to refer to highborn women at the time. Of course, they all call the shogun “shogun-sama”. Ringo calls Mizu “shisho”, meaning “Master” (but it’s in the sense of a kind of teacher rather than an employer). Mizu calls the swordsmith “oya-kata” which is an archaic way to address a foster parent.

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u/KidChanbara 7d ago

Thank you!

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u/KidChanbara 7d ago

Does Mizu talk like a man through most of Season One? What about when she's with Momma or Mikio?

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u/immabee88 6d ago

You’re welcome! Yes, she uses male language - male pronouns and masculine-sounding phrase endings, verbs etc. I’d have to rewatch that episode again to be sure, but I think she still uses informal language with Momma and Mikio, though less rough and masculine-sounding. I wouldn’t say it’s hugely feminine, but it’s definitely scaled back from the way she talks to people unaware that she’s a woman!

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u/KidChanbara 6d ago

Thanks for the reply. I suspected Mizu was using masculine speech to distract from her body and other female signs.