CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

In the originial Japanese version of Inu Yasha, and in the subtitled version, how do the characters refer to each other? For example, I know Kagome call's Sango, "Sango-chan" and Miroku calls Kagome "Kagome-sama" etc. I want to know what all the others call each other. I mean, what honorifics do they use for them?

Does that make any sense?

Kouga is referred to as Kouga-kun.

Miroku is referred to as Houshi-sama(priest)

Sesshoumaru is referred to as Sesshoumaru-sama

InuYasha is just referred to as InuYasha

Shippou is reffered to as Shippou-chan for some reason.

starwarsboy90 wrote:
Shippou is reffered to as Shippou-chan for some reason.

Cause he's a little kid, and "chan" is just a cutesy way of using a person's name. I mean, on Sailor Moon Usagi calls her b/f "Mamo-chan" (which, guys don't usually like being called, as shown on some anime^^ But being a pet name and all, it works).

More the phrase "chibi-kun" that characters REALLY hate.

I believe kun is a suffix used to show affection which is why Kaname uses it all the time in SCRYED to address Kasama,even though he hates being called Kasa-kun.

My favorite thing that they change in the subtitles for Inuyasha is when Sango says "Houshi-sama" (Lord Priest) it's rendered on the screen as "Miroku."

I believe that there are six levels of politeness depending on what honorific is added to a name:

1. -Dono (the title of the highest respect (it literally means "lord"), which is never used nowadays except in samurai films and the like)
2. -Sama (now used mostly toward important clients in business)
3. -San (moderate level of respect and used most often by juniors towad seniors or among equals. This is the most used honorific.)
4. -Kun (among friends who are equals or a senior addressing a junior)
5. -Chan (among very close friends or when speaking to young children)
6. No Honorific (to people you hate, very young children, or when addressing a very rude person like Inuyasha who doesn't add honorifics to anyone's name)

It's not perfect, but that's my understanding of this system of honorifics.

No honorific can also mean a very, very close relationship, like a husband and wife or something like that. It's considered rude if you don't use an honorific when addressing someone you don't know very well, or if it's an enemy. However, many still use -san when addressing enemies as well.

Also, kohai and sempai are used towards those younger or older, respectively. If one is talking to his or her senior, as in, someone who came before them (like a junior talking to a senior in high-school), then sempai is used. Kohai would be used when the senior was talking to the junior.

Theres also a few others here and there that are not often as used, like "chin" which I think is similar to "chan" but even MORE kiddieish.

I wonder,do they all use the same dialect when speaking in the subbed version?

Tenshi no Ai wrote:Theres also a few others here and there that are not often as used, like "chin" which I think is similar to "chan" but even MORE kiddieish.

Yeah, it's the same with -rin, -pin, -pippi, etc. I think they're just like, cute honorifics that people make up on the spot. They're mostly used between playful lovers or "cutesy" people.

Coming back to this topic cause I just remembered something...

Sennin wrote:6. No Honorific (to people you hate, very young children, or when addressing a very rude person like Inuyasha who doesn't add honorifics to anyone's name)

Well, Inuyasha is sometimes called "sama" by those that are his "underlings" like Myoga-jiji ("jiji" meaning "old man BTW).

But also, in some show like taking Fruits basket for example, if you just call a person by their name it's a rather, good sign. When Tohru stoped saying "Sohma-kun" and called Yuki by only his first name, it was a sign of extreme closeness. On another ep, the Yuki fan club girls have a little speech on who calls him what. So roughly they were saying "lower classmates called him "Yuki-sempai" classmates his age call him "Yuki-kun" and upperclassmates call him "Yuki"". Something along those lines^^