Does Bakugou actually say fuck? Does he swear at all? If so how much?
this is kind of a tricky question and one i get somewhat often so iām gonna try to explain this the best that i can.
first off iām gonna quote a really good article about localization and japanese to english translation iāve read recently:
Basically, Japanese doesnāt use āswearingā as we do. Instead, Japanese consists of multiple politeness levels, and depending on your social standing between you and the speaker, your intent, and such stuff, you pick from the appropriate politeness level. You talk up to your teachers for example, while a department head at a company will talk down to his subordinates. There are different levels, and one of the lowest levels to talk to someone is the closest equivalent to our swearing.
A quick example of āeatā. Here are a bunch of different levels of telling someone to eat.
Omeshiagari kudasaimase
Omeshiagatte kudasai
Tabete kudasai
Tabete kure
Tabete
Tabero
Kue
The proper word to use depends on whoās talking, whoās being spoken to, what their relationship is, what the intent is, and other context things. By going against whatās proper, you can talk rudely, which is what swearing accomplishes in our language (and other similar languages).
Even words like ākusoā have multiple translations, you could call it the āshitā in one case, while in other case it could be as harmless as ādang it!ā. Youād even hear ākusoā in Pokemon anime Iām sure, for example. I know I heard it in Beyblade often enough.
Because all of this is so subjective, swearing in translation can vary pretty crazily depending on the translator. Generally, the more experience, the better the swearing turns out. Thatās why with fan translations (particularly anime and manga) you tend to see tons of swearing in what would seem to be kidsā shows or what have you.
Also, because of all this, I really doubt the Japanese rating system takes this politeness level stuff into account, since it occurs everywhere in Japanese entertainment. Itās also not taboo. You donāt want to talk in everyday situations the way they do in entertainment, but youāre not going to go to hell or get your mouth soaped if you use the wrong level.
(and if you have any interest in this kind of thing iād really recommend reading the whole article sometime. itās on the localization process of the fan translation of the game Mother 3 and the guy clearly put a lot of thought and care into it which i really appreciate. also i can empathize w/ the level of nitpicking lol. spoiler warning for the first chapter of Mother 3 tho)
so to answer your questions in order: not in a literal sense since thereās no real direct japanese equivalent (other than the actual english word fuck which, no, he doesnāt use lol) so it depends on the translator, he does but i have an issue with how much some translators have him swear, and it once again depends on the translator
to elaborate: bakugou uses ākusoā pretty liberally in ways that i would definitely consider swearing (tho the intensity of it greatly varies) but a lot of what has been translated as swearing isnāt actually that, itās the way he talks. honestly speaking, i think defaulting to swearing is a lazy way to get across coarse speech patterns but on a theoretical level i donāt have issue with some of bakugouās coarser speech patterns being translated as him swearing and in fact there are times i myself would translate lines as him swearing if i were localizing instead of directly translating. but it has to be done thoughtfully. so what i have an issue with is how liberal and careless fan translators tend to be about it.
and what i mean by that is they donāt look at the context of what heās saying, who heās saying it to, his tone, and how it compares to how he speaks atĀ ābaselineā. heās got different levels. andĀ bakugouās baseline is impolite, yes, but you also have to keep in mind that thatās kind of the default for a lot of guys in shounen manga (and iāve said this before but characters in japanese entertainment donāt talk like real people).Ā my friendĀ @tobjo made a post about this the other day that i wholeheartedly agree w/ and like she said,Ā todoroki also speaks pretty impolitely but heās never translated as saying fuck every two words.
an example of something that sometimes gets translated as swearing is the use of āć¦ćć§/temeeā which is literally just a rude way to say āyou.āĀ the thing is, bakugou uses it pretty casually so whether or not i find it a valid translation choice to have him swear in the sentence is entirely based on context
this translation,Ā for instance, i think is perfect. it shows that heās speaking gruffly without being explicit. (well, if i were the one localizing it i wouldāve gone with āHey, kid. You too, go participate.ā but yāknow. details.) now, this is mangastream which is pretty hit or miss w/ the bakugou localization and there are definitelyparts where i think they overdo it but nothing is as bad as FA which added so much unnecessary bs that i feel like they were just actively trying to be edgy (letās not forget the time they had shigaraki call magne a transphobic slur for no fucking reason! real cool!)
classy. another casual use of temee where i wouldnāt even put light swearing.
left is FA, right is viz. the original isĀ āć¦ćć§ćć®āåę§āē„ććć ä½ć !?āĀ which, if you were to ask me to localize rather than just directly translate, i would translate to something likeĀ āI donāt even know what your quirks are! The hell!?ā because thatās what feels organic to me here. (and the goal of any good localization should be to a) get the feeling of the original text across accurately and b) make sure dialogue feels organic)
but go through FA translations and youāll see 394843985 instances of ott swearing and nastiness where bakugouās not even using coarser language in the original text like the panel where āfuckwipeā came from in the above mentioned ch.117 title where bakugou literally just saidĀ āoiā lmao
and some translations like the one mentioned in the above linked postĀ still carry on this tradition of excessive swearing bc FA ingrained it so deeply into the fandom
basically my point is you can absolutely choose to translate bakugou as casually swearing and to what extent is dependent on the personās taste (and skill level) but translations that are too liberal and excessive with it tend to push an image of him being overly volatile and juvenile rather than just a teen w/ a sailorās mouth or something of that ilk. it warps his character. no thought or care is put into it and i get the feeling they donāt realize that there are ways to be gruff or even abrasive other thanĀ swearing and insults and ways to swear other than sayingĀ āfuckā all the time lol (and some people really just do not know what a person that swears a lot actually sounds like)
