Interest
Fuji TV Honors Top Five Girls' Anime Buzzwords
posted on by Eric Stimson
Like any subculture, anime fandom has its share of jargon and lingo inscrutable to outsiders, and it fluctuates year to year. On March 20, Fuji TV aired a program, Sōkan! Ryūkōgo Taishō ("The Inaugural Great Buzzword Awards"), that honored the top current buzzwords in various categories. One of these was buzzwords about anime used by girls, which caused a stir on Twitter as anime fans debated the degree of accuracy of Fuji TV's definitions.
The buzzwords were:
Used when you are obsessed with a particular work or character, as if the work was a deep swamp from which there is no escape.
Itaba (Pain-ba)
This follows the same principle as itasha ("pain car"): an item decorated to make it "painful" (geeky). In this case, it's bags loaded with anime badges or straps. According to the program, someone even has a bag with 150,000 yen ($1,350) worth of merchandise on it!
Babumi
An imitation of baby talk, this word originally referred to younger female characters that provoke strong maternal feelings among male fans. It can now mean having these feelings for chibi male characters — leading male fans to complain about women appropriating "their" buzzword.
Dōtan kyohi ("Rejection of same responsibility")
This refers to the loathing that anime fans feel for others with the same favorite character (whom they feel "responsible" for).
Tōtoi muri shindoi ("Noble impossible exhausting")
A collection of words meant to praise a work for its "nobility." In this case the work is so amazing it becomes hard to breathe.
Japan regularly honors its latest buzzwords; Mr. Osomatsu and your name. featured among the top 30 nominees of one list in 2016, while Love Live! and Tōken Ranbu scored nominations in an earlier list in 2015. Only time will tell whether these phrases endure.
[Via Nijimen and J-Cast News]
