Japanese personal pronouns for "Death Note" and "Fullmetal Alchemist" characters

[Relish in Chaos]

As many hardcore manga and anime fans, or merely people with moderate knowledge of Japanese language of culture, may know, the Japanese do not strictly have any gendered pronouns. However, they do have certain pronouns that one gender may use more than the other (e.g. "boku" is typically used by young boys or men not wanting to seem threatening; if a female uses it, it's normally assumed they're a tomboy), or ones with certain levels of politeness for different situations (e.g. "watakushi" is extremely formal and seldom used outside of business contexts, while the archaic "wagahai" gives off an impression of pompous presumptuousness).

By the way, if I get any of this wrong, please feel free to correct me. Most of this has been taken from Wikipedia, TVTropes, and other assorted websites. I don't actually know Japanese, nor have I lived in Japanese society itself.

But my request here is, what personal pronouns do the characters use for themselves and others in the series Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist? This is both for a project, and because I've always been curious what people like Mello in DN and Envy in FMA would use. I think I read that Light and L used "boku" and "watashi" respectively in their mirroring speech, and Edward and Alphonse use "ore" and "boku" respectively.

 

[trollnystan]

Why don't you watch them and find out? Not being snarky or anything, genuinely asking. Can't speak for Death Note but FMA is pretty good IIRC, if that's what's stopping you.

 

[Miyenne]

I haven't read the Japanese version of FMA and it's been a long time since I watched it, and I've never read nor seen Death Note, but I'll guess.

'Boku' and 'Ore' are general male pronouns. Usually they'll refer to other people as 'omae', which is slightly demeaning but still perfectly acceptable, or 'aitsu' when referring to a man (but not always) indirectly which is again a bit more offensive but still acceptable. 'Kimi' can also be used to say you, but 'kimi' is generally used when referring to a female or a gentler guy.

For girls it's 'watashi' or 'atashi' for personal pronouns. A simple 'ano hito' which literally means that person for referring to someone third person, and 'anata' for you of either gender. I never really came across women who use 'omae' or 'aitsu' unless they're rather angry or very tough.

There are just so many different ways to say I, him, her, you or we that it gets so confusing. Everything depends on context when it comes to Japanese.

I do have a degree in Japanese Culture and Language, but I haven't used it much since I graduated university 9 years ago so I do admit I'm a bit rusty and not really current, but I hope that helps.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Sorry, my memory's not good enough to remember anything other than the major characters.

You can watch these shows subtitled and check for yourself, though. Maybe save yourself from time.

 

[Yuuki]

It's similar to a lot of other animes, Boku/Ore/Omai get tossed around a lot by the lead characters. Oh and between friends (e.g. Winry and Edward) they often use each others' names as pronouns when talking to each other, as you probably already know is a common part of Japanese. E.g. "Edowado-kun wa?" translating to "What about you?" (while talking directly to Edward).

Among most of the "military" oriented characters they pretty much always use ranks and respectful pronouns.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Why don't you watch them and find out? Not being snarky or anything, genuinely asking. Can't speak for Death Note but FMA is pretty good IIRC, if that's what's stopping you.

Yeah...that is a good idea. For some reason, that completely skipped my mind. Perhaps it's because I don't tend to watch anime in Japanese and never really paid attention to the pronouns beforehand because I was reading the subtitles. And yeah, I know that FMA is pretty good; it's (currently) my favourite manga and anime series.

By the way, don't take this post as sarcastic or anything. Just saying, since I know that sincerity can be lost in non-verbal, non-face-to-face discussions like this.

I haven't read the Japanese version of FMA and it's been a long time since I watched it, and I've never read nor seen Death Note, but I'll guess.

'Boku' and 'Ore' are general male pronouns. Usually they'll refer to other people as 'omae', which is slightly demeaning but still perfectly acceptable, or 'aitsu' when referring to a man (but not always) indirectly which is again a bit more offensive but still acceptable. 'Kimi' can also be used to say you, but 'kimi' is generally used when referring to a female or a gentler guy.

For girls it's 'watashi' or 'atashi' for personal pronouns. A simple 'ano hito' which literally means that person for referring to someone third person, and 'anata' for you of either gender. I never really came across women who use 'omae' or 'aitsu' unless they're rather angry or very tough.

There are just so many different ways to say I, him, her, you or we that it gets so confusing. Everything depends on context when it comes to Japanese.

I do have a degree in Japanese Culture and Language, but I haven't used it much since I graduated university 9 years ago so I do admit I'm a bit rusty and not really current, but I hope that helps.

Yeah, that does help, thanks. If there's any language I want to learn, it's Japanese, because I've always been fascinated by their culture and media. I hope I don't sound like a weeaboo here, given that I've never travelled to the Land of the Rising Sun, but I want to (not to mention I'm bored and need a new hobby).

It's similar to a lot of other animes, Boku/Ore/Omai get tossed around a lot by the lead characters. Oh and between friends (e.g. Winry and Edward) they often use each others' names as pronouns when talking to each other, as you probably already know is a common part of Japanese. E.g. "Edowado-kun wa?" translating to "What about you?" (while talking directly to Edward).

Among most of the "military" oriented characters they pretty much always use ranks and respectful pronouns.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I also read on TVTropes that Greed and Hughes use "ore"; Mustang, Father and Selim Bradley use "watashi" (the latter might be uncommon considering he appears as a child, until we learn you-know-what)); Armstrong uses "wagahai", even with superiors.

 

[trollnystan]

Why don't you watch them and find out? Not being snarky or anything, genuinely asking. Can't speak for Death Note but FMA is pretty good IIRC, if that's what's stopping you.

Yeah...that is a good idea. For some reason, that completely skipped my mind. Perhaps it's because I don't tend to watch anime in Japanese and never really paid attention to the pronouns beforehand because I was reading the subtitles. And yeah, I know that FMA is pretty good; it's (currently) my favourite manga and anime series.

By the way, don't take this post as sarcastic or anything. Just saying, since I know that sincerity can be lost in non-verbal, non-face-to-face discussions like this.

I suppose that's where I, who lives in a country that subtitles everything and dubs only shows for young kids, have an advantage; I tend to listen AND read at the same time so I pick up words here and there from lots of different languages. After I started studying Japanese my ears started picking up a lot more when watching anime or Japanese dramas.

Good luck!

(BTW, if you want to start learning and you can't find a course near you, I really, really recommend Human Japanese. True, I already had 3 years of Japanese under my belt when I started using it, but that was over 10 years ago. A really good program IMO, and worth the cost.)

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Why don't you watch them and find out? Not being snarky or anything, genuinely asking. Can't speak for Death Note but FMA is pretty good IIRC, if that's what's stopping you.

Yeah...that is a good idea. For some reason, that completely skipped my mind. Perhaps it's because I don't tend to watch anime in Japanese and never really paid attention to the pronouns beforehand because I was reading the subtitles. And yeah, I know that FMA is pretty good; it's (currently) my favourite manga and anime series.

By the way, don't take this post as sarcastic or anything. Just saying, since I know that sincerity can be lost in non-verbal, non-face-to-face discussions like this.

I suppose that's where I, who lives in a country that subtitles everything and dubs only shows for young kids, have an advantage; I tend to listen AND read at the same time so I pick up words here and there from lots of different languages. After I started studying Japanese my ears started picking up a lot more when watching anime or Japanese dramas.

Good luck!

(BTW, if you want to start learning and you can't find a course near you, I really, really recommend Human Japanese. True, I already had 3 years of Japanese under my belt when I started using it, but that was over 10 years ago. A really good program IMO, and worth the cost.)

Yeah, thanks. I'll look into that Human Japanese website too. I was also thinking of buying this little Japanese grammar book that I read for a bit in a bookstore, and it was really neat and pretty cheap as well.

 

[GalanDun]

I haven't read the Japanese version of FMA and it's been a long time since I watched it, and I've never read nor seen Death Note, but I'll guess.

It's great.
IIRC, the only honorifics in Death Note are when L refers to Light Yagami as "Light Kun", when they're working together to catch one of the many Death Note killers, but it's been a while since I finished the manga

 

[floppylobster]

It's been a while since I used my Japanese but generally -
A writer will have a male character will use 'Ore' if the character generally has a high opinion of themselves. (Gangsters often refer to themselves as Ore to sound 'tough')
Boku if they are a little more humble (male).
Watashi - polite form of 'I', better used if you don't really know the person or are trying to be polite.
Omae literally translates to 'you in front of me' which can be as rude as it sounds. But as with all personal pronouns it depends on the relationship between the characters. For example I can walk up to a group of my friends and say "What's up bitches". But I get a different reaction saying the same thing to a group of strangers.

You should be able to work out from context if any of the characters are using the terms ironically or sarcastically.

 

[Angie7F]

I am a native Japanese speaker and I think in most cases a character does not use one pronoun through out the series.
As with most japanese people in real life, we change the pronoun according to the social context.
Ex) among friends = ore, talking to your GF's parents = boku, in formal business settings = watakushi

Unless you are like shinji from evangelion who seriously lacks self confidence and is also very immature so through the story he refers to himself as boku.

I am just not sure why omae is included in this context since omae is used when referring to another person.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

I haven't read the Japanese version of FMA and it's been a long time since I watched it, and I've never read nor seen Death Note, but I'll guess.

It's great.
IIRC, the only honorifics in Death Note are when L refers to Light Yagami as "Light Kun", when they're working together to catch one of the many Death Note killers, but it's been a while since I finished the manga

Yeah, that's true; L tends to refer to Light as "Light-kun" or "Yagami-kun", but honorifics are different to personal pronouns. Oh, I forgot to mention that, IIRC, in the original Japanese version, Misa always refers to herself with her own name "Misa" or "Misa-Misa" to sound cute.