Group 1: Our team for this project consisted of David Dorr, Kevin Hun, Isabel Sabadell, Ted Sither, and Dylan Williams.
Introduction
Our group performed a linguistic and qualitative analysis of gendered language in the Japanese anime Pop Team Epic. Pop Team Epic is a quasi-plotless anime that revolves around two female characters: Popuko and Pipimi. Jokingly, the show presents itself as a “hoshiiro girldrop” anime, but in reality it is surreal, absurdist, and very nearly crudish collection of short skit-like scenes since the show originated from four panel comics. Pop Team Epic makes fun of many different elements of popular culture in a medium that is, in itself, completely ridiculous. Pipimi, a calm and well-mannered schoolgirl, and Popuku, a short-tempered and rash schoolgirl, use their language to take dialogue (and the plot) from one extreme to the other in a matter of seconds. Pipimi and Popuko are a satirical, and an objectively awesome tag team of the absurd. The show uses contrast frequently and without hesitation. This contrast is done by moving from slow, predictable scenes to hectic, fast-paced scenes. The show also contrasts Pipimi and Popuko, for generally Pipimi uses polite-feminine speech whilst Popuko will use aggressive masculine speech.
However, there is another element to this show that makes it even more preposterous. The show will play the entire episode over again, but uses male voice actors to voice Pipimi and Popuko. Our group compared the use of different features by the female and male voice actors within each episode to see which gender features where retained or modified.
Gender Features by Frequency and Type
All things considered, there were plenty of gendered language features to draw conclusions as to how often, when, and why these features were used. The masculine features showed a split between the most frequently used features. These were ぞ、お前、な、and だ. Within these features, おまえ is the only non-sentence final particle that is used substantially. It turns out, that within the entire data, sentence final particles comprised 76% of the instances of gendered language. Second person pronouns were used 16% of the time while first person pronouns were used 8% of the time. In regards to the feminine features, わ was used most frequently by far. Every other examined feature was only used half as frequently.
Some major takeaways are that masculine features ぞ、お前、な、and だ were all used significantly more than any feminine features. And of the feminine features, わ occurred noticeably more frequently than any other feature.
How Gender-Related Features Connect with Character Identity and Emotion
Starting from the Meiji period gendered language has been a staple in how individuals try to express themselves and their identity. This is especially apparent within works of fiction, although it is present in real-life conversation to a lesser extent (mainly casual talk amongst friends). For male-gendered language, it is more geared towards making one’s identity sound more aggressive, dominating, giving the vibe that they have power, etc. The use of female-gendered language is more along the lines of sounding polite, or even creating a delicate vibe towards the listener. However, just because they are labeled as male and female gendered language does not necessarily mean people can only use the gendered language in relation to their biological sex. In fact, many women tend to use male-gendered features in casual conversation.
In the case of Pop Team Epic, the use of gendered language is used to portray character identity based on the scenario. When one of the characters needs to sound more aggressive or intimidating, they use language such as お前, or end their sentences with ぜ. Furthermore, when the characters refer to themselves they use 私, which is gender neutral, but when they want to have a more masculine persona, they use 俺. Even more use of male-gendered features are used when a character is upset, showing that these male-gendered words portray aggressiveness or dominance in a sense. Throughout the show the use of male-gendered features is more apparent than female, though some female-gendered features are used when trying to sound polite and giving off a passive tone of voice. Nonetheless, the use of gendered features in works of fiction occurs frequently, and that is because they help portray a character’s identity or emotions, despite what their actual gender is.
Final Question Answer
When looking at whether gender features in Japanese index gender or general affective stances, variation can be seen throughout all the episodes and how/why the features changed in the second half of the episode, if they did. Particularly in episodes 6 – 8, and 10, we can see a contrast between male and female gender features.
Episode 6, 05:38 「あと一人だな 」
In this scene, Popuko is facing off between chess competitors in an intense showdown-style manner. The sequence is loud and uses dark and highly contrasting colors to set an edge to the tone. Popuko and Pipimi use deep, gruff voices and male features, including the sentence ender -な. While Popuko isn’t a man, in this case she is using male features to establish an affective stance of dominance, and aggression.
08:21 「彼ピピとか言う女ないわ」
In this scene, Popuko is casually relaxing on her couch and commenting on TV. It’s bright and quiet, and she use the female features, including the sentence ender -わ. This choice was kept in the second half of the episode as well, when the voices were masculine, which implies that this feature was important to retain. The female features index affective stances such as delicacy, non-assertiveness, and indirectness. It’s used as a tool in this case to expression opinions without coming off too strong. We see Popuko switch between male and female features throughout the episode, which suggests there’s a fluidity there that is more variable than the characters own gender.
Ep. 7, 00:21 「さてはアンチだなお前」This is repeated again in episodes 7, 8 and 10. In Episode 7, Popuko uses male features such as again the ending -な and the pronoun お前 as well. These features, while gendered male, convey a strong directness that Popuko uses as a tool to establish dominance.
Ep. 8, ~02:30 「お前さ面白いやちゃな。」In episode 8 we see this happen similarly with Pipimi as well, where male gender features are used to convey a tone of dominance and assertion.
Ep. 10 「私はギンザ受け入れた。そしてギンザ私を受け入れてくれたのね。」
Here Pipimi reflects on an old friend (Ginza). She fondly recollects on past memories and experiences at Ginza, and adopts a feminine persona to accurately reflect her own tender, emotional experience.
Based on what we have observed through out the twelve episodes of Pop Team Epic, it can be seen that gender features in Japanese are used for more general affective stances rather than to index their own personal gender.