Author List

Our team for this project was Sharon Sherpa, David Xiang, and Max.

Methodology

The goal of this project was to compare and contrast two different characters from a Japanese anime or manga and observe the different types of gendered language. Our group decided to analyze the gender language of two characters from the anime Pokemon.

In order to figure out which characters we wanted to analyze, we watched Episode 15: “Battle of St. Anne!” and Episode 16: “Pokemon Adrift” of Pokemon. After carefully viewing each episode our group came to the conclusion of choosing to observe the characters Satoshi and Kojirou. We observed Satoshi and Kojirou because they had the most variety in gender expressions and language so it would be easier to find examples of different types of gendered language between these characters.

Satoshi (Ash)

Satoshi, also known as Ash in the English dub, is the main character of the Pokemon series. Satoshi is a Pokemon trainer who has always dreamed of being the world’s greatest Pokemon master. At the age of 10, Satoshi received his first Pokemon, Pikachu, from Professor Oak.

Satoshi is a very strong and determined character who is sympathetic towards Pokemon. His character is normally very enthusiastic, brave, adventurous, and kind but Satoshi can also be very hot-headed, stubborn, and cocky. He also has a hard time opening up to others, and doesn’t like talking about his feelings or his past.

While traveling to compete in tournaments, Satoshi and his Pokemon are constantly being pursued by Team Rocket’s Musashi (Jessie), Kojirou (James), and Nyaasu (Meowth). Their main goal is to capture Pikachu but they are never successful.

Kojirou (James)

Kojirou, who is also known as James in the English dub, is a member of Team Rocket, which is an evil team that tries to steal rare Pokemon and is after Satoshi’s Pikachu. Kojirou grew up in a wealthy family and because of this he has many skills that help Team Rocket fool Satoshi and his Pokemon.

Even though Kojirou is seen as a bad guy, he occasionally sides with Satoshi and his friends even if it goes against his teammates wishes. Kojirou is shown to be the most emotional and has the greatest moral compass out of the trio in Team Rocket. Kojirou is definitely not as optimistic or motivated as his teammates at times and gets depressed after failing to complete his mission.

Kojirou is not afraid to play dress-up and display his feminine side by giving advice about makeup and utilizing traditionally female gendered language. He frequently wears traditionally female clothing when Team Rocket disguises themselves to steal Pokemon.

 

Materials

Kojirou

1. 1. あんた達は超ラッキーって言うかみたいな感じ。(Ep. 15, 2:42-2:46)
   2. 俺って、コギャルが超似合うのかしら。(Ep. 15, 4:24)
   3. 大丈夫なのですか。(Ep. 15, 5:33)
   4. ここにあるポケモンをすべて俺たちの手に。(Ep. 15, 8:15)
   5. じゃ、急いで慌てて脱出しなきゃじゃん！(Ep. 16, 4:45)
   6. どうすればいいんだ。(Ep. 16, 4:52
   7. 俺もだぜ。(Ep. 16, 10:30)
   8. 俺はいいから先に行ってくれ！(Ep. 16, 11:24)
   9. 俺を見捨てないでくれ！(Ep. 16, 11:37)
   10. 君たち、前回は散々私のこと馬鹿にしくれちゃったよね。しかし、私には分かっていたのさ、こう言う時が来るってことがね。(Ep.16, 13:35-13:44)
   11. ね？給料を前借しててもかっておいて良かったでしょう？(Ep. 16, 14:10)
   12. 跳ねるだけしか能がない上に食えもしないなんて！(Ep. 16, 17:44)
   13. お前なんか嫌いだ！(Ep. 16, 18:00)
   14. 私は主人だ！言うことを聞け！(Ep. 16, 18:40)

 

 

 

Satoshi

1. 1. やったー、本当に超ラッキーって感じ。(Ep. 15, 3:58)
   2. わー、すげー！(Ep. 15, 6:19)
   3. 俺って来るぜ！俺のバタフリーが相手だ！(Ep. 15, 8:00)
   4. あの人、交換するのが好きみたいだから、俺の知らない人にあのバタフリーを渡すだろう。(Ep. 15, 13:23)
   5. みんな自慢のポケモンたちだもんな。そう簡単にロケット団に溜まるもんか！(Ep. 15, 18:01)
   6. バタフリー、ごめんな。(Ep. 15, 19:37)
   7. おいおい、それよりはお前たちこそ大丈夫か？逆さまにぶら下がってるぞ！(Ep. 16, 3:05)
   8. ああ、どうしよう。海水が入って来てるよ。(Ep. 16, 5:31)
   9. だけど、こんなことしたらこいつらにやっつけられちゃうぜ！(Ep. 16, 8:10)
   10. いいぞ。(Ep. 16, 11:07)
   11. さあ、行くぞ！(Ep. 16, 11:13)
   12. あいつ、何しているんだ。(Ep. 16, 19:29)
   13. 何だあれ。(Ep. 16, 20:10)

 

Analysis and Discussion

In analyzing these characters’ speech patterns, the first thing that became obvious was a difference in speech consistency between Satoshi and Kojirou.

Satoshi’s speech, as an impetuous young male protagonist, was very consistently masculine. Some sentences were neutral, of course, but the pronoun 俺 was the only pronoun used by Satoshi, and his sentences very frequently ended in ぜ, ぞ and な. He also frequently used masculine impolite pronouns for other people, like こいつら and あいつ. His speech was nearly always casual, only using です・ます very briefly when speaking to an older man, and most of the time it contained at least a gendered sentence ending. Even during parts of Episode 15 where he was feeling regret over having traded his Butterfree away, he still used the same consistent level of gendered speech while expressing his sadness.

We believe this consistency for Satoshi makes sense considering the role he plays in the show. Satoshi’s entire character is that he is a foolhardy yet kind and determined boy who is set on becoming a Pokemon Master. He is fairly one-note, and so there is not really a lot of room or reason for variation in his gendered speech.

Kojirou, in comparison, had a ton of variation in his speech. While around half of his speech was still decidedly masculine, there was quite a large portion of lines that didn’t contain gendered speech at all, and it took considerably more effort to find examples of him using gendered language than it did for Satoshi. Unlike Satoshi, who plays a consistent role as hot-headed protagonist throughout the show, Kojirou put on multiple “roles” so to speak throughout the two episodes we watched, and I believe this explains the variation in gendered speech and pronouns we found for him.

There are three different gendered “roles” we observed Kojirou undertaking. The first of this was towards the beginning of Episode 15: “Battle of St. Anne!” where Team Rocket disguises themselves as コギャル, or trendy and rebellious teenage girls, to deceive Ash and his friends. Kojirou is dressed up as a teenage girl as well, and while in this role he uses speech filled with teenage girl slang (see Kojirou #1 in Materials). However, after Team Rocket is alone again, having accomplished their current objective, Kojirou seems to have enjoyed this style, saying “俺って、コギャルが超似合うのかしら?” or “I think being a Kogal like, super suits me?” It’s an unexpected contrast, using the masculine 俺 and hyper-feminine  かしら in the same sentence, and this is clearly played upon for humor.

The second gendered “role” we see Kojirou in is just his natural, default role. Most of his speech is fairly neutral and ends in だ or is a sentence fragment, although during a couple times when he was nervous (talking to his boss, or afraid of the Gyarados attacking him at the end of the episode) he uses politer speech like 私 and です. He uses the masculine request ～くれ, and once he uses the masculine sentence ending ぜ, but ordinarily most of his speech when he is simply being himself trends gender neutral aside from pronouns and a tendency towards casual speech rather than polite speech.

The third gendered “role” we see Kojirou perform is towards the end of Episode 16: “Pokemon Adrift”. When the ship is flooding and Kojirou gloatingly decides he has the perfect escape plan, his speech style changes completely. In this role (lines #10 and #11 for Kojirou under Materials), his pronoun changes from 俺 to 私, and he uses the still-masculine but softer 君, and よね, のさ, and でしょう, which are not part of his ordinary speech. Our interpretation of this is that Kojirou is purposely using different types of gendered speech to affect his character — to express the snobbish, gallant, gloating type of feeling he has in this moment.

In conclusion, overall we observed that Kojirou uses his gendered speech in multiple ways for self-expression, whereas, from the limited episodes we viewed, Satoshi consistently uses only one type of gender expression. This seems fitting given their dedicated roles in the story, Satoshi as a fairly typical determined young male protagonist, and Kojirou as an emotionally variable comedic villain who plays many “roles” throughout the show and does not have a particularly rigid conception of gender.