Stuff I noticed listening and reading BSD
I have no idea if someone already written a post like this or if this could be interesting, but I wanted to try and list some particularities in the speaking patterns of the Bungou’s charatcters. I am taking references from audio cd, the anime and japanese version of the manga. Some of them may be obvious if you are familiar with japanese, but I don’t know how getting this idea out of my head in any other way so here it goes.
- Akutagawa refers to himself using the pronoum “yatsugare”, which is written with the same kanji as “boku” but it is a lot more humble. It’s a servile and humble way to say “I”. He put himself was too low, like he is a dog or a servant talking to his master.
- Akutagawa uses keigo (the onorific japanese language, which is used when you interact with someone above you), while speaking directly to Chuuya (or Mori obv), as he is an Executive and so his superior. With everyone else he uses colloquial japanese and he is very aggressive too.
- Kajii, as crazy as he is, always uses polite japanese, even when he is thinking aloud without referring to anyone.
- Kouyou talks like a courtesan. She uses a slang similar to Kyoto’s dialect, adding “ja” instead of “da” or “desu”. She also uses feminine’s speech.
- Chuuya…only ever uses not only colloquial japanese, but a very strong and impolite one. He uses contractions A LOT (so a lot of his words end with “e”, for example). It gives his speech a very aggressive intonation.
- Added to his aggressive speech, Chuuya uses “ze” and “zo” a lot to emphasize. It sounds even more aggressive lol Like yakuza or something(??).
- Chuuya only ever uses polite/neutral forms when he is speaking with Mori.
- Black Lizard: Hirotsu is very polite and formal, Tachihara sounds like Chuuya (waaaay too low but still not at Chuuya’s level), and Gin…well.
- Ranpo doesn’t give any shits about formality. He is the only one in the ADA who speak informally even to Fukuzawa.
- Kenji and Atsushi are the most polite ones in the Agency, because they are younger than the others and, in Atsushi’s case, he is also the new recruit so everyone is his senpai. Even Tanizaki, when he is speaking to Kunikida uses formal japanese but not as often as Atsushi and Kenji.
- Kenji and Atsushi aside, everyone else in the Acency speak informally unless they are talking directly to Fukuzawa.
- Naomi is very feminine in her speech. She adds “wa” and “kashira” at the end of her phrases. They are typical elements of feminine speaking. From what I remember, only Naomi and Kouyou use them (and Chuuya that one time he spoke like a “rich lady” lol).
- Dazai only ever uses neutral forms with Fukuzawa. Even with Mori, whose position as Port Mafia’s Boss gives him an high status, Dazai is borderline impolite. He uses colloquial with lapsus of neutral when talking to him directly (this is only valid for the present Dazai)
- Dazai refers to himself using “watashi”. It is a neutral and formal pronoum. Usually guys use “boku” if they don’t need to emphasize formality, but he only ever use that one.
I’ll stop here since it’s already too long. I hope I didn’t annoy anyone(?)
