About the YOI Translation
I wanted to add another thing, the OP of the previous post was incorrect in their assessment that “koto” in the context of “kimi no koto ga suki” is an intensifier.
But very often, it’s something of an intensifier, to indicate the noun it’s attached to and everything associated with it. You can say “kimi ga suki” for ‘I like you’, but if you say ‘kimi no koto ga suki’, you aren’t saying ‘I like your things’ but rather ‘I like you and everything about you, everything that makes up you’. This is also why you’ll often see ‘XYZ no koto ga…’ as a short preface to a love confession, because suki for love comes right after it usually in such situations.
It’s actually the exact opposite, “koto” is a way of making the line sound less direct because Japanese people like to express themselves more indirectly. This is a question that I asked my Japanese teacher who has a Masters in Linguistics years ago, because I also found the usage of “koto” in “kimi no koto ga suki” to be unusual. I wanted to understand what the function of it was - did it contribute on a semantic level (meaning) or on a syntactic (grammatical) level somehow? She’s the one who taught me the “koto” makes it less direct.
Don’t just take my word for it, I looked up several native speakers and their opinions on it.
「君が好き」、「君のことが好き」の違いについて、一生懸命考えたのですが、わかりません。ごめんなさい。どちらも、日本人は、同じように使っていると思います。
I did my best to think about the difference between “Kimi ga suki” and “Kimi no koto ga suki,” but I don’t know of any. I’m sorry. I think a Japanese person would use either one the same way.”
And
言う人の側に立って考えてみた時、「君が好きだ」の方が気持ちをストレートに伝えている感じはありますね。
If I put myself in the position of the person saying it, it feels like “Kimi ga suki da” more straightforwardly conveys your feelings.
Citation.
Another
①君が好きだ。 ②君のことが好きだ。 ③君のやさしいところが好きだ。 ①②③の文章を比較して下さい。①から③へ、より具体的な陳述文になっていると思いませんか？
(1) Kimi ga suki da.
(2) Kimi no koto ga suki da.
(3) Kimi no yasashii tokoro ga suki da.
Compare the above three sentences. It’s the most direct from (1) to (3).
Citation. There is a more detailed linguistic explanation on this one, but for the purposes of this simple explanation I’m not going to translate it.
The bottom line is, please be careful what you believe on Tumblr. You don’t have to believe me. I would prefer you fact check everything you read for yourself. If you really want to get the exact meaning of what’s being spoken in anime, I would recommend learning Japanese. Just know that learning Japanese is a very slow process and if you’re in it for the long haul, you will be learning for the REST of your life. Don’t buy into the thought that learning ends with a JLPT N1. It never stops.