English Words the Japanese Use

The Japanese use a great number of English words in their daily speech, often changing their nuances to fit a slightly different meaning. If you mention you’ve met a pretty girl, A Japanese person might tell you to “attack” her, since this English word always means “to try hard to win someone’s love,” which might cause some confusion. In the Macross Frontier movie, Sheryl Nome’s concert is interrupted by an invasion of aliens known as Vajra, so a week later she plans a “revenge” concert, since this word means “a second chance to make up for a previous failure” and not its wider meaning of vengeance. The English word “tension” means something like “happy and excited” in Japanese rather than stressed or nervous, so when Kanako sings “High tension!” in the opening credits to the Maria Holic anime, she’s talking about having a great time, not expressing her shock at discovering that the prettiest girl in the school is really a guy (e.g. a “trap”).

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