Banzai - 10,000 years

Banzai is Japanese and means ten thousand years. In the past it was a cheer addressed to the emperor meaning may you live a long life. Now it is a cry of celebration or triumph similar to hurrah or three cheers. It is often yelled after completing a difficult achievement. It is customarily repeated three times with your arms raised in the air. Usage of this has declined in recent years.

The usage of "ten thousand years" originated from China. The phrase was originally used as "cheers to your health" and used by everyone. It later came to be used exclusively to address the emperor as a prayer for his long life and reign. The phrase "ten thousand years" in its original sense refers to ten thousand years of life, and not a period of ten thousand years. The significance of "ten thousand" in this context is only that "ten thousand" in Chinese (and in several other East Asian languages) represents the largest discrete unit in the counting system, in a manner analogous to "thousand" in English.

The term Banzai has had many meanings and usages. It was to praise the emperor, it was used during World War 2 as a battle cry (particularly with kamikaze pilots -this is why the phrase Banzai charge -a final desperate military charge came about), it is the name of a Japanese television show, its the name of a song, it is several fictional characters names, etc.

The picture is from Dr Slump manga by Akira Toriyama, volume 14. It shows the Chinese characters yelling Banzai in joy.

I don't know

"Watashiwa syourino tameniwa, shiaimaenimo zenryokuwo tsukusu syugi nandesu."

"I do my best for victory even if it is before the game."

Viz Version:

I'm not sure what I was originally going to state with this, I have had it in draft since last July. I got these pictures and the translation from another site. I am pretty sure I was going to make some type of comment but no longer know what, so I just decided to post it.

I think, I might have been planning to explain how Kodachi uses formal language. It is often the case that, the higher up one goes in society, the more formal/humble their language becomes and Kodachi considers herself to have a very high standing in society. Her speech is is generally humble/ self-depreciating whereas her actions are the opposite.

Watashi is a formal, very polite way of referring to yourself. In spoken Japanese you don't usually use I all that much, watashi is a way to make yourself look "lesser" in the eyes of the person you are talking to, or to make the listener feel "above" you. I might have also been planning to add more pictures, showing Kodachi using the even more polite version of "I" watakushi. Though using this picture resolution it would be hard to tell since both watashi and watakushi use the same kanji 私 but the furigana (the smaller Hiragana next to the kanji) would differentiate them. Watashi is わたし , watakushi is わたくし in Hiragana.

Feminine Language in Japan

Men and women speak differently. Basically anywhere you go girls speak somewhat differently than guys. In Japan the differences between how a guy speaks and how a girl speaks is more noticeable. Not counting grammar and syntax, Japanese men generally speak in shortened huffs, while women tend to speak in artificially high octaves, elongating their word endings. Use of feminine words is called onna kotoba and feminine speech habits is called joseigo.

Some differences are:
Girls tend to refer to themselves in the third person more often than guys.
Sentence endings of wa, wa yo, wa ne, no ne, and no yo are feminine. kai, zo, ze, and yo are more masculine.
Women tend to use polite forms more frequently.
Women tend to omit the copula form da in favor of desu. For men, it is the other way around.

A lot of the humor of Ranma 1/2 is lost because in English the difference's between how a guy and a girl talk are much less pronounced. Ranma may call Akane a tomboy but she still talks like a girl. Ukyo, Ranma in girl-form, Shampoo, and Cologne talk like boys. For example, In the Manga Shampoo uses zo to end her sentences often. Ranma, Shampoo, Cologne, and Ukyo tend to use Omae as their preferred way of saying you which is masculine (though Ranma does also use significantly less polite versions as well i.e. insulting). When Ranma is pretending to be a real girl he uses Anta as you most of the time like Nabiki and Akane do. Though he (she at the time) also uses an even more polite form of you Anata like Kasumi and Kodachi do occasionally (btw Kodachi uses the politest most formal language in the manga). Tsubasa and Konatsu used feminine speech patterns. Since I'm already discussing speech patterns, I'd like to point out that Miss Hinako talks like a child even when in adult form.

Kakekotoba

Takahashi is a master at kakekotoba (Japanese term for a type of pun that uses a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings). The Japanese language has many homophones and Takahashi loves to use these. Sadly these do not translate well and the duel (or occasionally even more) meanings of the words are lost. A particular instance of this is the name of the character commonly known as Shampoo in English and really shows this. Depending on whether the reading is Chinese, Japanese, or English (not to mention which kanji you're using), means "hair care product", "unpolished gem", "mountain girl", "she whose breasts are as mountains"... all of which describe the character in some way. There are countless puns like this that are lost particularly the ki blast storyline which was riddled with them and ended up leading to a massive pun. Her other works have these as well for example Urusei Yatsura had them even more frequently than Ranma ½ did.

Sound effects

VIZ alters the sound effects instead of leaving the original ones with notes at the end like Tokyopop does. I prefer that the sound effects aren't translated into English with notes. My reason for this is because we lose some of story occasionally when the sound effects change. Though personally I'd prefer it if the sound effects were both in English and Japanese on the same page, either next to the sound effect or a note on the bottom of the page.

For example, Laughter in Japanese depending on which way they decide to do it tells us more about the situation/person.

ahaha = laughter (see also ha ha ha for masculine laughter, and ho ho ho for refined feminine laughter)

bwahaha = evil laugh, same as fwahaha, gahaha, gwahaha

fu fu fu (hu hu hu) = a strange laugh. M.J.: "The evil chuckle in the back of the throat." (see also ku ku ku, pu pu pu)

he he he = heh heh heh (laugh)

Here is a page on Japanese sound effects and what they mean.

This Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm) Last order website can teach you enough of the basics of Japanese kana to understand some of the sound effects found in manga.

Some of the Honorific usage in Ranma ½

See the wikipedia article on Japanese honorifics to get the basics of honorfics. The below is an incomplete accounting of honorific usage in the Ranma ½ manga.

Ranma is generally disrespectful and rarely uses any honorifics. Though he will occasionally use them and does know the proper usage. He refers to Kuno with -sempai, sarcastically often though. Calls Soun ojisan (uncle), Ucchan (childhood nickname) for Ukyo, -san for Kasumi (though also has used oniichan), Ojiisan (grandfather) for Happosai and Obaasan (grandmother) for Cologne occasionally. For his mother uses ofukuro in his thoughts and obasama when he spoke to her while pretending to be Ranko. While in disguise he uses the appropriate honorifics for the situation; example during the time he pretended to be a normal girl to get in the locker room where he thought a magic pool was under (it had already dried out) he used -chan for Akane. He also uses insult names sometimes like calling Nabiki Bitch (in fan translated - the actual Japanese word is different but basically means the same thing -temee which is actually a rude form of you) or Old Ghoul to Cologne.

Cologne uses -dono when referring to Ranma which implies that she respects Ranma to a large degree.

Kuno sometimes uses -kun for Akane.

Soun and Genma use family name-kun when talking to each other, i.e. Tendo-kun.

Genma has used -kun for Akane.

Akane doesn't use any honorific for Ranma and if she starts to do so it would imply that the relationship is breaking apart. She refers to Ryoga as Ryoga-kun and Kuno with -sempai. Uses ojisama for Genma.

Kodachi uses -sama for Ranma, and family name-san for everyone else, she is extremely formal.

Konatsu uses -sama for Ukyou, Ranma, and Akane. He praises and raises status of other people while lowering his own status.

Nabiki refers to Kuno with -chan probably to annoy him and calls Ranma by his family name most of the time. Ojisan for Genma

Happosai uses -chan for Ranma and Akane.

Ryoga is very respectful to most people and refers to them with -san. He even uses that for Akane, even poked it into the rock while writing her name in the breaking point arc.

Shampoo doesn't use honorifics because she either doesn't know the proper usage or is purposely being rude. Calls Ranma Airen which is in Chinese the dominant word used for spouse (literally means love person Ai=love Ren=Person) .

Ukyou normally uses -chan when referring to anyone and Ranchan for Ranma.

Hinako uses the family name-san for Ranma and the other students.

Principal Kuno uses English honorifics. For example, Miss Akane.

Learn Japanese with Ranma

The site titled Japanese Cyber Class teaches you some Japanese using characters from Ranma ½. It has a sections on P-chan explaining Japanese street address's, Ranma asking Akane out, Nabiki teaching you how to ask for someone's wallet, and Ryoga and Sailor Uranus (from Sailormoon) introducing themselves. The picture was taken from the site.