History Main / GratuitousJapanese

* Justifiably invoked by {{Trope-tan}} in ''TheWayOfTheMetagamer''.

[[DescribeTopicHere Koko ni yokeina nihongo o setsumei shite kudasai.]]

[[DescribeTopicHere Koko ni yokeina nihongo o setsumei shite kudasai. ここに余計な日本語を説明してください。]]

[[DescribeTopicHere Koko ni yokeina nihongo o setsumei shite kudasai.]]

The form of this that just about ''everybody'', even the purists, despises is "Fangirl Japanese", where a newbie inserts big blocks of Japanese that they don't even understand every other paragraph, not just in their fanfiction (which is usually plain ol' bad) but ''in their everyday life''. The word "''kawaii''" still leaves a bad taste in many reformed fangirls' mouths. [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels It is amusing, though, to read their flailing attempts if you know enough Japanese to realize that no, "koi" is not the verb for "love" and that they've used the word for "bow (weapon)" instead of that for "bow (hair accessory)" by mistake.]] This is sometimes even seen in FanFic of such things as ''Literature/HarryPotter'', which isn't Japanese, has [[OriginalCharacter (usually)]] no Japanese characters, and hasn't been anywhere near Japan.[[note:The extent of the series' contact with Japan is a passing reference to the "Toyohashi Tengu" quidditch team in ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', which at least references a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohashi,_Aichi real-life Japanese city]] and a [[{{Youkai}} mythical creature]] that's probably real in the Potterverse.]]

The form of this that just about ''everybody'', even the purists, despises is "Fangirl Japanese", where a newbie inserts big blocks of Japanese that they don't even understand every other paragraph, not just in their fanfiction (which is usually plain ol' bad) but ''in their everyday life''. The word "''kawaii''" still leaves a bad taste in many reformed fangirls' mouths. [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels It is amusing, though, to read their flailing attempts if you know enough Japanese to realize that no, "koi" is not the verb for "love" and that they've used the word for "bow (weapon)" instead of that for "bow (hair accessory)" by mistake.]] This is sometimes even seen in FanFic of such things as ''Literature/HarryPotter'', which isn't Japanese, has [[OriginalCharacter (usually)]] no Japanese characters, and hasn't been anywhere near Japan.[[labelnote:*]]The extent of the series' contact with Japan is a passing reference to the "Toyohashi Tengu" quidditch team in ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', which at least references a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohashi,_Aichi real-life Japanese city]] and a [[{{Youkai}} mythical creature]] that's probably real in the Potterverse.[[/labelnote]]

* In ''MissionHill'' hot pants were called "[[BlindIdiotTranslation karai pantsu]]" in Japan. Which is more like "[[TheyJustDidntCare spicy underwear]]."

* '''[[Fanfic/EigaSentaiScanranger Eiga Sentai Scanranger]]'' tended to do this. Sometimes it made sense, because a lot of characters were of Japanese descent, but it also manifested when the writer was trying to come up with cool-sounding "alien" names (e.g. kagami/mirror = Kagamirron, the name of a mirror universe). Also, why in the crossover with ''ChoujinSentaiJetman'' did the characters keep slipping into Japanese...after an alien used her powers so there was no such thing as a language barrier when the story seems to assume the reader's native langue is English?

* ''KamenRiderDragonKnight'', a remake of ''KamenRiderRyuki'' intended for an American audience, kept the "Kamen" untranslated despite the fact that the English name "Masked Rider" is also used in Japan. Producer Steve Wang stated [[http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2009/02/22/kamen-rider-returns-to-us-television/ in an interview]] that he prefers the actual Japanese moniker over the translated form, but admittedly he also wanted to distance ''Dragon Knight'' from Saban's [[InkStainAdaptation early adaptation]] of ''KamenRiderBlackRX'', simply titled ''MaskedRider''.

[[folder:ゲームソフト (Video Games)]]

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterTri'' and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Ultimate'', a ship called the Argosy comes to Moga Village every so often. Their captain and his first mate, Neko (Means Cat) often use Japanese words in the middle of sentences, followed by the English meaning of that word. It's unknown whether it's a ShoutOut or not, but one of the Captain's lines is "We must formulate keikaku. [[DeathNote Keikaku]] means [[MemeticMutation plan!]]"

* ''Team8'', otherwise [[SoCoolItsAwesome one of the best]] ''{{Naruto}}'' fanfics around, often suffers from this.
** ''Naruto'' fanfic authors often suffer from this, because they fail to do any research. [[YouKeepUsingThatWord There is no such honorific as "-teme"!]] It's a pronoun! '''A PRONOUN!''' To quote Naruto, 'Sasuke, TEME!' means 'Sasuke, you!!' "Teme" is considered a very, very rude, insulting version of "you", and not "bastard", not "jerk", not anything else!

** Also the jutsu after everything it's taken UpToEleven where even the [[MundaneUtility Mundane Utilities]] have the word jutsu after it.

* ''BattleTech'' the Draconis Combine is Japanese themed factions and its ranks are identified in Japanese names. Such as Taisho-General. There are also plenty of Japanese named mechs such as the "Daimyo", "Akuma", and "Naginata".

The form of this that just about ''everybody'', even the purists, despises is "Fangirl Japanese", where a newbie inserts big blocks of Japanese that they don't even understand every other paragraph, not just in their fanfiction (which is usually plain ol' bad) but ''in their everyday life''. The word "''kawaii''" still leaves a bad taste in many reformed fangirls' mouths. [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels It is amusing, though, to read their flailing attempts if you know enough Japanese to realize that no, "koi" is not the verb for "love" and that they've used the word for "bow (weapon)" instead of that for "bow (hair accessory)" by mistake.]] This is sometimes even seen in FanFic of such things as ''HarryPotter'', which isn't Japanese, has [[OriginalCharacter (usually)]] no Japanese characters, and hasn't been anywhere near Japan.[[labelnote:*]]The extent of the series' contact with Japan is a passing reference to the "Toyohashi Tengu" quidditch team in ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', which at least references a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohashi,_Aichi real-life Japanese city]] and a [[{{Youkai}} mythical creature]] that's probably real in the Potterverse.[[/labelnote]]

* ''FanFic/MyImmortal'' uses quite a bit of Fangirl Japanese -- in a ''HarryPotter'' fic.

->-- '''Willow''', ''MyImmortal''

* "[[WordSaladTitle Let's fighting love]]" from "[[SouthPark Good Times With Weapons]]" is a parody on both this and GratuitousEnglish in the Japanese works, and the resulting [[WordSaladtitle Word]] [[WordSaladLyrics Salad]] that comes from this: TreyParker is a fluent Japanese speaker and didn't pull any punches writing the song.

* WesternAnimation/SouthPark: However, Trey Parker actually speaks Japanese, adding in BilingualBonus jokes here and there, particularly in ''Good Times With Weapons'' with the song "Let's Fighting Love".

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterTri'' and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Ultimate'', a ship called the Argosy comes to Moga Village every so often. Their captain often uses Japanese words in the middle of sentences, followed by the English meaning of that word. It's unknown whether it's a ShoutOut or not, but one of his lines is "We must formulate keikaku. [[DeathNote Keikaku]] means [[MemeticMutation plan!]]"

* Even James Clavell's ''Shōgun'' (part of the AsianSaga) suffers from this. The various Japanese bits written into the story range widely, from sentences where he obviously asked an actual native Japanese speaker for a translation, to phrases constructed from words gotten out of a dictionary and inserted into English grammar. Interestingly, Clavell's overly-simplified explanation of Japanese verbs is immediately contradicted by one of those sentences from an actual Japanese person.

* ''[[WordSaladTitle Let's fighting love]]'' from ''[[SouthPark Good Times With Weapons]]'' is a parody on both this and GratuitousEnglish in the Japanese works, and the resulting [[WordSaladtitle Word]] [[WordSaladLyrics Salad]] that comes from this: TreyParker is a fluent Japanese speaker and didn't pull any punches writing the song.

* ''[[WordSaladTitle Let's fighting love]]'' from ''[[SouthPark Good Times With Weapons]]'' is a parody on both this and GratuitousEnglish in the Japanese work, and the resulting [[WordSaladtitle Word]] [[WordSaladLyrics Salad]] that comes from this: TreyParker is a fluent Japanese speaker and didn't pull any punches writing the song.

* [[EndersGame Battle School slang]] incorporates a lot of Japanese. Most notable is the use of "kuso" as an expletive and synonym for "bulls**t".

* And of course, {{Music/Styx}}. ''Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto, Mata au hi made, domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, himitsu wo shiritai...''

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterTri'' and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Ultimate'', a ship called the Argosy comes to Moga Village every so often. Their captain often uses Japanese words in the middle of sentences, followed by the English meaning of that word. It's unknown whether it's a ShoutOut or not, but one of his lines is "We must formulate keikaku. [[DeathNote Keikaku]] means [[MemeticMutation plan!]]

* [[WalkyVerse Ninja Rick]] occasionally uses this trope

* [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Eva-fanfic]] ''FanFic/TheSecondTry'' keeps "baka" and "hentai"... almost exclusively for Asuka insulting Shinji. It also keeps a grand total of one honorific when referring to [[spoiler:Aki]], which is mainly used to emphasize how adorable that particular character is.