87-416: Magical girl ( Japanese : 魔法少女 , Hepburn : mahō shōjo ) is a subgenre of primarily Japanese fantasy media (including anime , manga , light novels , and live-action media) centered on young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transform. The genre emerged in 1962 with the manga Himitsu no Akko-chan , followed by Sally
174-623: A fujoshi audience. Other magical boy parodies include Is This a Zombie? (2011) and Magical Girl Ore (2018). Magical girl series use elements associated with female interests, such as accessories associated with traditional femininity, child-rearing, and romance. Magical girl characters are typically 10 to 14 years old, with cute features and an appearance resembling a princess or an idol singer. Older women are usually portrayed as villains. Professor Bill Ellis noted that in traditional Japanese folklore , powerful women were depicted to be monstrous, similar to Oni . In magical girl series,
261-501: A compact to transform; since the broadcast of the series, compacts are commonly used as a transformation item. The "transforming heroine" ( 変身ヒロイン , henshin hiroin ) is a concept adapted from tokusatsu hero shows (dramas or movies) that was first popularized by Sailor Moon in the early 1990s; it has been a staple of magical girl series since. The transforming heroine features an ordinary schoolgirl who changes into an "adorable" costume with "cute" accessories; she then uses
348-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
435-594: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
522-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
609-522: A female counterpart to tokusatsu series aimed at young boys, such as Super Sentai , Kamen Rider , and Ultraman ; however, interest in the genre declined in the early 1990s due to competing toy sales with Sailor Moon and other magical girl anime. Live-action magical girl series were revived with the Girls × Heroine series, beginning with Idol × Warrior Miracle Tunes! in 2017. Magical girl series aimed at young girls were often marketed with
696-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
783-475: A jewelry line. In the years that followed, other magical girl franchises released merchandise lines aimed towards adult women, through collaborations with fashion brands such as Earth Music & Ecology [ ja ] 's Japan Label, Liz Lisa [ ja ] , Thank You Mart [ ja ] , SuperGroupies, and Favorite. In China, Balala the Fairies is an ongoing franchise originating as
870-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
957-554: A live-action series before transferring to animation, though it was accused of plagiarizing Pretty Cure . Similar to Japan, the transforming heroine concept coined by Sailor Moon saw popularity when the show was broadcast overseas in the 1990s due to the girl power movement taking place in Europe and the United States at the time. The influence of Sailor Moon has led magical girls to be associated with superheroines in
SECTION 10
#17327720174091044-544: A merchandise line, with Kumiko Saito saying that magical girl anime is best understood as "twenty-five-minute advertisements for toy merchandise", highlighting the high production costs and the involvement of Bandai in Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure . Reiko Yamashita also mentioned Ojamajo Doremi as an example of a series with mass toy production. Pretty Cure has become Japan's fifth highest grossing franchise as of 2010 in part due to its high merchandise sales. For
1131-495: A notable one being Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004), a spin-off originating from the adult game series Triangle Heart . As the series were targeted towards older audiences, this allowed for dark and mature themes to be explored, including death and the price of magical power. The magical girl genre earned renewed popularity in the 2010s with the advent of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), whose mature themes and darker approach earned acclaim from viewers and critics outside
1218-456: A remake of the original male-oriented science fiction series Cutie Honey (1973) for a young female demographic; and Wedding Peach . In the following years, the magical girl genre became diversified. While Sailor Moon also drew in male fans, Cardcaptor Sakura (1998) was extremely popular among men in spite of its target demographic for including themes such as cosplay , boys' love , otokonoko , and yuri . Cardcaptor Sakura
1305-725: A sceptre (or a similar weapon) to channel magical energy in order to fight against the forces of evil. This format has allowed magical girls to be viewed as superheroines , especially in the West during the girl power movement of the 1990s. Comparisons have been drawn to Western superheroines like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wonder Woman , but unlike the former, "transforming heroine" series use femininity to weaponize and also features young girls instead of women, while older women are typically portrayed as villains in magical girl series. A common goal for magical girl characters since
1392-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
1479-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
1566-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
1653-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
1740-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
1827-643: Is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has
SECTION 20
#17327720174091914-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
2001-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
2088-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
2175-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
2262-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
2349-556: Is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and
2436-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
2523-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
2610-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
2697-472: Is regarded as the first magical girl anime. This anime adaptation introduced the idea of using a compact to transform, a characteristic that is still present in modern series in the genre. Toei Animation produced most of the magical girl series of the 1970s, collectively known as the Majokko Series [ ja ] . This popularized the term majokko ( 魔女っ子 , lit. "little witch") for
Magical girl - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
2871-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
2958-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
3045-551: The Girls × Heroine series, Shogakukan project manager Reiko Sasaki stated that she had to create scenarios on how to integrate the toys into the show. Himitsu no Akko-chan was the earliest example of having a merchandise line and was a "huge hit". Toys from the 1980s were commonly in bright colors and were mostly compact cases or sticks, with the character's face sometimes printed on them. From 1990 to 1994, toy sets began including pendants as part of transformation items, along with feminine motifs, such as hearts and stars; most of
3132-517: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
3219-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
3306-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
3393-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
3480-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
3567-550: The 1960s is romance that eventually results in marriage. While heterosexual romance was present and received focus in magical girl series, post– Sailor Moon works saw a diminished presence in male characters in favor of focusing on the friendships between the main female characters. Akiko Sugawa suggests that the future of magical girl shows may include rebellion against sexual norms, using Puella Magi Madoka Magica as an example of yuri relationships favored over heterosexual relationships. In 1989, Shotaro Ishinomori produced
Magical girl - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
3741-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
3828-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
3915-888: The West. Notable examples include W.I.T.C.H. (2001) and Winx Club (2004) in Italy; and Totally Spies! (2001), LoliRock (2014), and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (2015) in France. Animated series from the United States, including The Powerpuff Girls (1998), Bee and PuppyCat (2013), Steven Universe (2013), Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015), and Magical Girl Friendship Squad (2020), have been influenced by magical girl themes and reference them. Characters in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls are described as "full-time students and part-time magical pony girls". The influence of
4002-528: The Witch in 1966. A wave of similar anime produced in the 1970s led to majokko ( 魔女っ子 , lit. "little witch") being used as a common term for the genre. In the 1980s, the term was largely replaced by "magical girl", reflecting the new popularity of shows produced by other studios, including Magical Princess Minky Momo and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel . In the 1990s, Sailor Moon introduced
4089-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
4176-925: The characters' use of magic only exacerbated social conflict. A key attribute of the transformations in Sailor Moon is that they focused on exaggerating the characters' beauty through make-up and fashion, negating the link between cuteness and weakness traditionally seen in women. In addition, unlike previous magical girl series, Sailor Moon featured a team of magical girls as the main characters, with male characters supporting them in battle. The format of using fighting, transforming heroines became popular and were used in other magical girl series following Sailor Moon . Series that attempted to capitalize on Sailor Moon 's success include Akazukin Chacha , whose anime adaptation created an original arc featuring "transforming heroine" characteristics; Cutie Honey Flash (1997),
4263-457: The concept of a "transforming heroine" who fights against forces of evil, a synthesis of elements from tokusatsu hero shows that became a staple for magical girl series that followed. The growth of late-night anime in the early 2000s led to a demographic shift for the genre, where series with more mature themes such as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004) were created and marketed towards an older male audience. Despite no presence of magic,
4350-472: The conventional audience group. Other examples of late-night magical girl anime include Day Break Illusion (2013) and Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya (2013). Though transforming heroine shows remain popular, traditional magical girl series featuring witches demonstrating the importance of hopes and dreams, such as Tweeny Witches (2004) and Little Witch Academia (2013) were still produced. In addition to late-night magical girl series, media exploring
4437-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
SECTION 50
#17327720174094524-423: The first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese
4611-512: The first instance of the term " mahō shōjo (magical girl)" being used. In the following years, other studios besides Toei began producing magical girl anime series, such as Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982) and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (1983), the latter of which was the first installment of Studio Pierrot 's Magic Girl Series [ ja ] . A characteristic of Minky Momo and Creamy Mami showed girls transforming into grown-up images of themselves, which has been linked to
4698-550: The first live-action magical girl series, Mahō Shōjo Chūka na Pai Pai! [ ja ] , as part of the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series . The popularity of the show led to five more installments produced, including La Belle Fille Masquée Poitrine and Yūgen Jikkō Sisters Shushutrian [ ja ] , with all of them categorized as the Bishōjo Series ( 美少女シリーズ ) . The shows were viewed as
4785-413: The former, it was heavily focused on action and used the same talents who worked on Kamen Rider and Super Sentai . This helped the series achieve widespread demographic appeal outside of young girls. At the same time, the target demographic of magical girl shows expanded. With more late-night anime being produced in the early 2000s, magical girl shows aimed at an older male demographic were produced,
4872-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
4959-506: The genre has also been seen in Western comics and graphic novels, such as Agents of the Realm (2014), Zodiac Starforce (2015), and Sleepless Domain (2015). Magical girl series have been linked to female empowerment since the 1970s, from exploring female sexuality to weaponizing femininity. Aside from feminine gender norms from the genre's defiance against female gender roles,
5046-474: The genre, especially with Mahōtsukai Chappy (1972) and Majokko Megu-chan (1974). Megu-chan has been noted in particular for its portrayal of multiple magical girls and the friendship between girls. Coinciding with the influence of the women's liberation movement in Japan , magical girls began displaying a "certain coquettishness" in the 1970s. In 1980, Toei released Lalabel, the Magical Girl ,
5133-412: The idea of male characters as magical girls (colloquially known as "magical boys") were introduced, most of them as comedic parodies. Kimagure Orange Road (1985) introduced audiences to the idea of a "magical boy" character. Cute High Earth Defense Club Love! (2015) features a cast of male characters parodying the magical girl concepts combined with growing interest in bishōnen shows aimed at
5220-618: The increasing prominence of women at this time including politician Takako Doi , the all-female band Princess Princess , and pop idol Seiko Matsuda , as well as the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in 1985. Yuji Nunokawa , the producer of both Minky Momo and Creamy Mami , noted that male fans of the magical girl genre increased after Creamy Mami due to the shows' use of transformations and they enjoyed watching girls using magic to solve their problems in ways men traditionally could not. Due to
5307-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
SECTION 60
#17327720174095394-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
5481-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
5568-514: The magical girl genre has also influenced a shift in male gender norms as the stigma between traditional femininity and weakness were removed. Akiko Shimada's 2011 dissertation Representations of Girls in Japanese Magical Girl TV Animation Programmes from 1966 to 2003 and Japanese Female Audiences' Understanding of Them references Yokokawa (1991) and Murase (2000) who state that in Japanese language,
5655-426: The main female characters transform into prettier, more mature-looking versions of themselves who have special powers, an idea originating from Princess Knight . Unlike hero shows, the items used to initiate transformation are often "cute" accessories associated with femininity and beauty. The first example of an item used to aid the transformation is the anime adaptation of Himitsu no Akko-chan , in which Akko uses
5742-552: The manga series Princess Knight (1953) is seen as a prototype for the magical girl genre, as it set forth the appeal of girls who transform to do things they normally cannot perform. Himitsu no Akko-chan (1962), serialized in the shōjo manga magazine Ribon , is credited as the earliest magical girl manga series. Sally the Witch followed in 1966, with a concept inspired by the American sitcom Bewitched . Its 1966 anime television adaptation produced by Toei Animation ,
5829-609: The only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little
5916-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
6003-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
6090-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
6177-509: The popularity of Minky Momo and Studio Pierrot's shows, the term " majokko " had largely fallen out of use in favor of "magical girl". Sailor Moon (1991), whose anime adaptation was broadcast from 1992 to 1997, revolutionized the magical girl genre by combining "transforming hero" elements from live-action tokusatsu hero shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider with traditionally feminine interests, such as romance and fashion. Up until then, magical girl series were comedic and
6264-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
6351-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
6438-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
6525-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
6612-579: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Takako Doi Too Many Requests If you report this error to
6699-502: The toys were pink at the time. From 1995 to 1999, the toys became more colorful. For Sailor Moon 's 20th anniversary, in 2013, Bandai , the producer of their toy line, released a cosmetics line based on transformation items seen in the series, aimed at adult women who grew up with the show. This was followed by a life-sized replica of Sailor Moon's Moon Stick, which Bandai produced as part of their Proplica [ ja ] merchandise line aimed at adult collectors, as well as
6786-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
6873-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
6960-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
7047-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
7134-494: The word "shojo" is always used in third person. Young girls do not refer to themselves as "shojo". This reflects on how narratives about shojo are crafted from a third-party, often male lens . Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan ,
7221-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
7308-558: Was also one of the series that influenced the idea of moe , which was integrated into later magical girl series aimed at an adult male audience. Likewise, Cutie Honey Flash also drew in a male audience who were fans of the original Cutie Honey series. After the end of Ojamajo Doremi (1999), Toei Animation's first original magical girl anime series since 1985, Pretty Cure was broadcast in 2004, with new installments broadcast yearly. Similar to Sailor Moon , Pretty Cure drew influences from tokusatsu hero shows, but unlike
7395-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
7482-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
7569-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
#408591