And to celebrate, how’s about I share a tidbit regarding the Shampoo Character from Rumiko Takahashi’s RANMA 1/2 manga.
I’ve read about how divided people are about Shampoo’s handling of her Japanese, especially since the 1989 Anime’s English dub from VANCOUVER’s Ocean Studios as performed by Kathy Weseluck had her speak with broken English.
While in the new English Dub from IYUNO as portrayed by Grace Lu, she doesn’t speak with broken English due to changing times.
But this made people wonder, due to both the Original English Dub as well as Viz’s manga going the route with Broken English, does she speak with broken Japanese in both the original Japanese Manga prints & Japanese Dub of the 1989 Anime as performed by REI SAKUMA?
The answer is NO…sort of...
In the original Japanese publications and the original Japanese Dub, Shampoo’s grasp of the Japanese language is portrayed as rather rough due to listening to an instrumental Compact Audio Cassette while flying from Jusenkyo to Nerima.
The result is a cute Chinese martial fighter girl who speaks Japanese but ends up using simplistic and ARCHAIC vocabulary that seems out of touch even in late 1980s standards.
Here is an original, Unaltered page from the Manga where she speaks Japanese...
I say unaltered as in it's a photograph or a scan from the Original Japanese publication of the manga instead of an edited Scanlation or Viz Media's Translation...
Part of the PHOENIX PILL arc.
In that panel, Shampoo is blackmailing Female Ranma, Aka Ranma-Chan, aka Ranko, to date Shampoo as the only choice to get the Phoenix Pill which would reverse Ranma's hypersensitivity to Hot Water as a result of a Pressure Point he felt from Cologne.
She's saying "If you don't choose me, I won't give you the Phoenix Pill."
I'm not linguistic in Japanese but I do understand how certain words, plurals, particles, etc. can be used especially with things like culture, location of origins, Pronouns, etc.
So what's wrong with what Shampoo's saying in that panel?
The proper particles.
In the right hand speech bubble
(Manga is read from Right-to-Left instead of Left-to-Right in North America),
Shampoo's saying to Ranma-Chan "わたし選ばない"(Watashi erabanai.)
What's missing is the accusative particle を (O) which should be used after
わたし (watashi) which translates to "I, me"(The direct user).
So this means, Shampoo should have been saying to Ranma-Chan:
"わたしを選ばない"(Watashi O erabanai).
so in essence, Shampoo is misusing the verbal particles meant to address that she's chosen but she didn't use the particle referring to herself.
So almost like in the Original Japanese, her verbal particle misuse makes it sound like she's speaking in Third-Person like Elmo from Sesame Street.
But unlike Elmo, Shampoo is still using verbal speech particles that still refer to her in first-person as わたし (Watashi) is a first-person referral.
Maybe this is where OCEAN STUDIOS got the idea to have some bits and pieces of SHAMPOO speaking in third-person at points in the Viz Dub.
They were inspired by Shampoo's misuse of her verbal particles.
I was about to use an image from the Miracle Soap episode but I can't find a screenshot but here's a spoiler quote:
"This is the last time SHAMPOO buy Jusenkyo products."
Notice the similarity of missing particles in that quote above?
Shampoo's misuse of Japanese verbal particles is not new....
AND IT WAS NOT INVENTED BY RUMIKO TAKAHASHI herself.
It's origins trace back to the RUSSO-JAPANESE war from February 8 1904 to September 5 1905.
This was referring to a communication technique between China and Japan called "KYOWAGO" (合和語) which translates to combined Japanese.
This was to simplify the way that Japanese and Chinese would communicate with one another.
However, as the Japanese Presence in Manchuria shifted towards occupation, the sort of Pidgin communication was seen as going against the concept of
"KOTODAMA" (言霊)which translates to the power of Japanese words.
As a result, the Kyowago method of Sino-Japanese communication, or HYBRID JAPANESE, was soon discouraged and largely disappeared in the wake of WWII and Japan's ejection from China during that time.
Eventually a new term for discussing this type of Japanese dialect took shape.
"YAKUWARIGO'(役割語), which translates to ROLE WORDS, is a term that was coined in 2003 by researcher SATOSHI KINSUI where it refers to any grammar and Vocabulary in Japanese Fiction that helped the reader to have some sense of a Character's Origins or Personality.
Sort of like verbal tics used by certain Japanese people as a way to describe their personality or professional work.
Sort of like how "JA" is used by medical workers,
Gozaru, as used by Samurai and Ninja
Not really a Samurai since he's from Pokémon but close enough.
Also, in the Original Japanese POCKET MONSTERS, this guy ends his sentences using the verbal tic "de gozaru" which was fairly common in Ancient Samurai Speech.
And BOKU, a personal pronoun used by boys or Tomboyish Girls.
(No Image Available due to getting beat up....)
Under this Umbrella Term,
there's the use of "ARU" which is used by Chinese Characters in manga.
So in this case, Shampoo is overusing ある(aru), the Japanese word for "to be" or "to exist".
Neither the 1989 Anime, nor the 2024 Netflix Remake use "aru" in Shampoo's Vocabulary.
My guess is REI SAKUMA wants nothing to do with that word.
But feel free to let me know through your own opinion on why REI refuses to use the word "aru" in Shampoo's dialogue.
And please, no references to Shakespeare now that you know what the word "aru" is being used for.
What is rather weird is that some other Chinese Characters like her
Great-Grandmother COLOGNE, as well as childhood friend MOUSSE don’t speak with Broken English or Archaic Japanese Vocabulary dating back to Meiji-Era Japan.
Though I've read and heard that MOUSSE speaks with a TOHOKU accent in Japanese….
The Tohoku Dialect was somewhat infamous even with Japanese scriptwriters for anime because the dialect sounds slurred, probably due to the harsh Winters up north in the mountains.
And the Tohoku dialect can be a pain to translate properly so the easiest way to get around that was to make the Tohoku accent sound like a hillbilly drawl reminiscent of Cletus Spucker from THE SIMPSONS.
"I don't talk like I'm Cletus fighting a cold!!!
You take that back right now or I'll sic my duck form onto you via an Avian Revenge Squad."
Considering BRAD SWAILLE didn’t use an English equivalent to a TOHOKU dialect in 1993 and instead used more formal speech,
I can only wonder how MOUSSE's TOHOKU accent will be translated in the IYUNO dub in 2025.
But having also watched Sentai Filmworks' English Dub of
FOOD WARS:SHOKUGEKI NO SOMA,
Sentai Filmworks, even with their high-quality ADR studio in the Houston Area, didn't do an accent adaptation for Megumi Tadakoro's Tohoku accent......
Seriously, go watch the dub of FOOD WARS!
There's no sign of Jad Saxon using a translated equivalent to a TOHOKU accent in the anime..
But anyway, back to Ranma.....
I read this interesting RUMIC WORLD article from FURINKAN’s Facebook group that explains in detail the uncommon practice of Shampoo’s verbal handling of Japanese and her misuse of Vocabulary dating back to the mid 1900s....
As in the decade, not the Century as a whole.
Here's the article which I'll provide via this link:
If I made any mistakes in my research or I uncover more findings,
I'll be sure to come back and update this post.
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