Which personal pronoun does your favorite character use? (2024)

Coaghim

didn't know that :P

Serafos

Watashi.

Shizuna

Commit_Crime

Shizuna

tchitchouan

Watashi/Atashi.

Little_Sheepling

Junko Enoshima from what I can remember is watashi

Rin Tokikaze I think uses atashi, judging from this guy's video

epidemia78

Coaghim

WaterMage

Aqua uses Ore.
Sylphiette use Boku, kinda unexpected cause Boku is generally used by male.

Dauphine

Lucifrost

その目だれの目？

aReviewer

My favorite is: a（吾 or 我）.

The most primitive form (pre-7th century). There are few Japanese documents this period and earlier.
An example in relation to anime appears in the lyrics of the main theme of the movie «Ghost in the Shell».

"A ga maeba, kuwashi-me yoi ni keri"
「吾が舞へば　麗女酔ひにけり」
(When I danced, a beautiful woman dreamed.)

It is like an enigmatic incantation that even a native Japanese cannot figure out the meaning just by hearing.

"Asshi: あっし" is used to refer to male characters in historical dramas.
It is used by ordinary townsmen, craftsmen, outlaws, and civilians hired by officials to maintain public security to address themselves to their superiors in an awed or humble manner. Since it is an urban broken form, not used by formal samurais, priests, or rural farmers.

Older terminology is sometimes chosen to indicate that a female character is actually a non-human being of longevity, but there are cases where inappropriate self-designation is given by the original author or scenario writer.
Such as Senko in «The Helpful Fox Senko-san» or Holo in «Spice and Wolf» do, women who use "wacchi: わっち" for themselves were almost exclusively prostitutes, who were tolerated by the public authorities.
There are some things to praise in these works, but the lack of careful research in the script keeps nagging at me. I'm not comfortable with the choice of this term.
The same goes for "wachiki: わちき."

One rare choice that does not appear in your options is "setsu: 拙", which is used by Gray, the main character in «Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files» in the «Fate» franchise. It is the same as "sessha: 拙者" used by typical ninja or low-ranking samurai in period dramas, a humble expression meaning "a person of no importance," but there are not many examples even in Japanese fiction.

The option "waga: 我が" is probably a mistake. It's not subjective but genitive case of first person that means "my/of me/belong to me/mine," in archaic style. Can I scan the source?

Cielord

Shizuna said:
A secondary question: which ones did you encounter during your experience with Japanese works of fiction?

Maou_heika

Anjuro

Anjuro

Honestly if you watch enough anime you will see Boku is quite often used by shy/ tomboyish girls, from my understanding it carries a nuance of deemphasizing femininity when used by a girl. I was much more surprised to hear kun be used to refer to a woman, its rare enough that you can go many years without seeing this usage depending on the type of anime you watch, I mostly see it in workplace environments but I doubt its limited to that.

WaterMage

It perfectly fits Sylphy then.

Also I saw kun used with girls when older guy talks to younger girls. In Workplace it happens a lot.

Anjuro

Yeah I do think it fits her personality quite well, but I would also expect that she might start using Watashi or Atashi once she gets more motherly.

" I saw kun used with girls when older guy talks to younger girls" Yup, that's the most common pattern, although funnily enough kun is supposed to be a honorific that denotes equal standing so actually I think when the "senior"/"boss" uses kun hs is trying to speak as a colleague and not as a superior (I think).

WaterMage

Anjuro said:
Watashi is a neutral personal pronoun, Atashi is the female variant.

Anjuro said:
honorific that denotes equal standing

Anjuro

WaterMage said:
But the animes I watched over 60-70% girl used watashi as pronoun

WaterMage said:
It's attempt to be more friendly from what I understand.

Theo1899

MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST

aReviewer

Goku's family, including Chichi in «DBZ,» is set up as naïve country folk. The fact that women refer to themselves as "おら: ora" can be considered an expression of a certain rural accent. The original form is "おれ: ore." In pre-modern Japan, some women also referred to themselves as "ore" naturally.

aReviewer

@WaterMage
That's right. Calling women with "-くん/-君: -kun" is customary in offices (however, sounds something old-fashioned and could be poked as anti-feministic, nowadays) and in the legislature. There is nothing prohibited from using it, but you don't hear it much elsewhere. You might have heard the student body president use it for female students.

In the 20th century, gravure magazines used to call models with "-クン: -kun (in katakana for some kind of emphasis)" in captions for photos of women in swimsuits or nude. Bringing her up as high as a starlet, actually, making sport of her a bit. The point is that it is not "-chan," implying that the model in this case is not a teen idol but a 'sexually okay/equally adult' object of desire.

terralia

LadyMarble