Strangeness within the Japanese DBZ

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Bardock the Mexican
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Strangeness within the Japanese DBZ

Post by Bardock the Mexican » Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:19 pm

I may or may not be a loser for bringing this up, but I will leave that up to you. I noticed that there is a distict way of knowing who is voiced by a female voice actor without knowing ahead of time. The female Japanese use the subject particle wa, while men use the particle yo or zo. There is also the use of the obselete pronoun ware to mean I. From all the sources I have read, this is an archaic word and isn't used in Modern Japanese. One would assume that this is because Goku learned his Japanese from his Grandpa. His isolation from society is one of the things that may have been the reason. Does anyone know why?
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El_Diablo
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Post by El_Diablo » Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:28 pm

Female voice actresses adopt male speech patterns when voicing male characters. You've not noticed Goku and Luffy saying "ore" and what have you?

"wa" is unisex, and marks the topic, not the subject. I don't believe that "ware" is archaic. The dictionary I just looked it up on said it was a common word.
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Post by SaiyaJedi » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:01 pm

El_Diablo wrote:Female voice actresses adopt male speech patterns when voicing male characters. You've not noticed Goku and Luffy saying "ore" and what have you?

"wa" is unisex, and marks the topic, not the subject. I don't believe that "ware" is archaic. The dictionary I just looked it up on said it was a common word.
The topic-starter meant "wa" (written with the hiragana "wa" as opposed to "ha") as a sentence-final particle, which is used almost exclusively by women (except in Kansai, where it's gender-neutral).

Still, the fact remains that regardless of the seiyuu's gender, they'll take on the speech patterns of whoever they're voicing. Female speech patterns in a male character say something about the character, not the seiyuu.
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Post by Jerseymilk » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:27 pm

A female seiyuu playing a male role would never use female speech. That would be a bad seiyuu. :P
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Post by Eclipse » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:59 pm

Female speech patterns in a male character say something about the character, not the seiyuu.
Yes =)
A female seiyuu playing a male role would never use female speech. That would be a bad seiyuu.
Unless they do it on purpose. Blargh

And here I thought 'wa' was unisex. I need to learn more >.<

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Post by El_Diablo » Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:21 am

SaiyaJedi wrote:
El_Diablo wrote:Female voice actresses adopt male speech patterns when voicing male characters. You've not noticed Goku and Luffy saying "ore" and what have you?

"wa" is unisex, and marks the topic, not the subject. I don't believe that "ware" is archaic. The dictionary I just looked it up on said it was a common word.
The topic-starter meant "wa" (written with the hiragana "wa" as opposed to "ha") as a sentence-final particle, which is used almost exclusively by women (except in Kansai, where it's gender-neutral).

Still, the fact remains that regardless of the seiyuu's gender, they'll take on the speech patterns of whoever they're voicing. Female speech patterns in a male character say something about the character, not the seiyuu.
I thought he may have meant that, but then said "subject particle" in his quote.
Where's the beef?

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Post by Bejiita » Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:53 pm

Also Goku uses 'na' instead of 'ne'.

Never knew why, I remember reading the reason somewhere but forgot where or what is said.
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Post by Tsukento » Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:50 am

Cause Goku grew up in the woods by himself after squashing Grampa Gohan. :P Because of that, he's prone to speaking improperly.
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Post by Tatsunoboshi Horoko » Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:27 pm

Actually using "na" is usually used in place of "ne" if "ne" sounds too soft for the occassion. It's actually very common to use "na" in place of "ne."

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Post by veshira » Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:19 pm

Also Goku uses 'na' instead of 'ne'.

Never knew why, I remember reading the reason somewhere but forgot where or what is said.
Well, isn't some of the pronouncing differently his accent? Or am I misunderstanding what your talking about? :?
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Post by Bejiita » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:21 am

No I'm not talking about his accent, I wouldn't know about different Japanese accents.

I'm just saying how all the other characters use 'desu ne' instead of 'na', what Goku always uses.
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Post by Chibi Mystic Gohan » Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:55 pm

I think most of the male characters use "da na" instead of "desu ne," unless I'm mistaken. I know it's used a lot in other manga (and in real life, of course :)).

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Post by kenisu3000 » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:16 pm

I've heard the end-of-sentence "wa" (the literal Hiragana "wa") used by old men in anime too. For example, when Goku first meets Kaio-sama, Kaio-sama goes straight into the joking, and one is where he acts like he's on a telephone and says:
"Moshi moshi? Are?... Dare mo denwa ni den wa!"
This actually is another one of his puns, and loosely means "Hello? Huh?... No one's answering the phone!" but this might not count as a direct reference as it was material for one of his weird jokes. I can't think of where else I've heard old men (such as Kame Sennin) use "wa" but I know I have.
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Post by omae no kaasan » Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:48 am

yes, old japanese men use wa at the end of sentences. Like the old-timer who fixes my bike for me.

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