Group Members

Ashley Crittenden – data collection, graph-making, and editing 

Ira Reese-Thornton – character description

Rui Lin: Analysis, data collection, introduction

Lee Craig: Conclusion, blog post, introduction

Methodology

Our team will analyze the gendered language of two characters from the first and the second episodes in the anime Bakemonogatari. The main plot of the show follows Araragi Koyomi, a not-so-normal high school boy, as he repeatedly runs into people — mainly his female classmates — with supernatural problems that are caused by personal issues related to puberty or personality issues and manifests as curses. He is as a result forced into situations where he has to solve various peoples issues that surround him. The two characters we will be placing our focus on are Hanekawa Tsubasa, the class representative, and Senjogahara Hitagi, the main female protagonist. In order to do this our evaluation of the characters will be broken into each character and their respective speech patterns along with an overall analysis of how the two compare and contrast.

Character description

Hitagi Senjougahara (戦場ヶ原 ひたぎ)

Hitagi Senjougahara is a third-year student of Naoetsu Private High School, as well as the titular protagonist of three main arcs and six minor arcs. She is characterized as being a ‘frail-looking’ girl with an “incurable disease”, (though it should be noted that the “frail girl” characteristic could be in part because she does not actively participate in school activities), and is notably distant from her peers. This distancing is later revealed to be in response to an encounter Hitagi experienced with a mysterious crab god as a first year high school student. The result of the encounter left her virtually weightless. She strives to keep this affliction hidden from others, going as far as to threaten bodily harm to anyone who happens to find out about her weightless condition. 

Personality wise, Hitagi possesses a sharp tongue and can be quite blunt when speaking to others, but is noted to be sincere in everything that she says. She can also make intense threats while maintaining a neutral expression — more specifically, there are instances where her tone doesn’t reflect her true emotion, which contributes to her overall hard-to-approach aura. 

This contradicts some of the personality traits Tsubasa Hanekawa recalls from when Hitagi was a middle schooler. During that period of her life, Hitagi is reported to have been friendly towards her peers, somewhat of an overachiever, and was a prolific field athlete. She also came from a wealthy family, yet remained humble rather than conceited despite this fact, and this coupled with her positive attributes earned her a decent amount of admiration from teachers and classmates alike. 

Hanekawa Tsubasa (羽川 翼)

Hanekawa Tsubasa is a class representative in Naoetsu Private High School, as well as Koyomi Araragi’s close friend. She serves as a narrator of a couple arcs throughout the show, and is the protagonist of four main arcs as well as three minor arcs. 

To the majority of people that she interacts with, Tsubasa is known as a soft-spoken girl who is kind and personable. Her excellent grades make her well liked among her teachers, and her classmates view her favorably due to her mild disposition. Due to her meticulous study habits, Tsubasa is privy to a wealth of information, but ultimately remains humble and non-descript, commonly stating that “I don’t know everything, I just know what I know” in response to those who comment on her wide breadth of knowledge. She is also never seen angry, and even when she does get angry, she retains her affable appearance and often ends her scoldings with a smile. 

However, the individuals who are familiar with Tsubasa’s true personality know that all of these traits are a public facade. The truth is that she frequently does things through a filter of common sensibility, not bothering to think too deeply about the effect that her actions may have. She is known for shunning what she considers the less desirable aspects of her personality elsewhere, which results in the manifestation of Black Hanekawa and another identity called Kako (representing her envy and negative emotions respectively). 

Another aspect of Tsubasa’s personality includes a strong sense of righteousness that can become a double-edged sword. At times, those who interact with her commonly become acutely aware of their personal imperfections, which could result in some truly uncomfortable conversations.

Data Examples

Senjogahara Hitagi

羽川さんと何を話していたの？ (question)

動かないで　(command)

なによ、右側が寂しの？(question)

She uses lots of wa at the end of her statement sentence

私はあなたに私の秘密を黙っていてもらうために、なにをすればいいのかしら。(question)

どうやって口を封じればいいかしら    (question)

あなたはその分類なのかしら(question)

おしのさん  (second-person pronoun)

立派だわ   (SFP)

呆れたわ (SFP)

わよ so many

お尻痛いわ (choice of word + SFP)

了承したわ (choice of word + SFP)

何でもないの？(question)ならいいわ (SFP)

あなた私をはめたわね  (SFP)

勘違いしないてね　(SFP)

受け取りなさい (command)

戦争をしましょう (honorific)

かばんは不要よ (choice of word)

妹さん、二人ともまだ中学生なんですでね

あなたが感謝しなさい (command)

あら、そう (interjections)

カタカナ発音がいただけないわ (honorific)

あららきくん she keeps calling him by his name but he seldom does that only omae

She uses lots of ne at the end of her sentence

She adds kashira at the end of her questions A LOT.

Hanekawa Tsubasa

もう三年生だからね  (SFP)

それいいかな   (SFP)

やっぱり病気のせいのかな (SFP)

ばななすきかな (SFP)べすに嫌いじゃないけれど   (SFP)

中学生ときはもっと元気いっぱいで、あかるいこだったんだけどね   (SFP)

三年連続で同じクラスだったんでしょう! (honorific)

今日はいいわ     (SFP)

悪いしね           (SFP)

おしのさんによろしくね       (SFP)

戦場原さんがどうかしたの? (question)

ゴールデンウイークがどうかした？(question)

あれ、またいたの？おしのさんのところ早くいかなくていいの？(question)

一体何を言いてるの？ (question)

 

She uses lots of ne at the end of the statement sentence.

She uses lots of kana as well, not sure if it’s because she’s not being sure.

Data

The primary focus of our study was to compare uses of sentence final words (SFWs) and personal pronouns between the Senjougahara Hitagi and Hanekawa Tsubasa in episodes 1 and 2 of Bakemonogatari. Since Senjougahara and Hanekawa have very uneven screen time in these two episodes, the data is compiled as representations of percentages.

Both characters use primarily feminine SFWs, although the words they use vary greatly. Senjougahara likely uses 「わ」more often since she comes from a wealthy — and consequently high-status — family, and Hanekawa uses 「ね」at the end of nearly every sentence. She also switches to 「な」as she starts to get irritated with Araragi, but it doesn’t last for very long

While not evident in this chart, Senjougahara talks about herself — a lot. In fact, Hanekawa only refers to herself twice in the two-episode story arc, and both times it’s in the first person plural, 「わたしたち」, possibly to push the focus away from herself. The arc focuses on Senjougahara anyway, so it makes sense that she would refer to and talk about herself more often. However, it should be noted that she slips into the strongly feminine 「あたし」exactly once, and it happens at the peak of her distress as she talks about her past trauma and what led her to be approached by the weight-stealing crab.

Analysis

Comparing the speech styles of Hanekawa Tsubasa and Senjogahara Hitagi. We found that they both adopt lots of female language while they are speaking. Hanekawa’s speech style tends to be more neutral, whereas Senjogahara’s speech style is more feminine except when she is not in a good mood she speaks with some male language traits.Under most circumstances, they both speak very feminine. Even this is the case, there is still quite a big difference when it comes to the frequency of their feminine speech adoption and different speech styles. And this analysis only is solely based on the first and the second episode. 

When it comes to questions, she either says  どうかした (which is not considered as the most feminine speech) どうかしたの、or simply end with の while Senjogahara not only uses の, she almost adds かしら to all of her quesetions. Sometimes she simply adds  の, but most of the time she uses dual female speech with の and かしら together. 

For SFP (Sentence Final Particles), Hanekawa uses lots of かな, which shows her uncertainty with the answer. While senjougahara uses lots of わ, I did not find Hanekawa has a habit of saying the word. Hanekawa uses lots of ね. Senjogahara also does it a lot while she is in a happy mood but while she is mad she does not use as many. When she is in a good mood, she uses lots of ね, often times, she adds わ (female language) beforeね. Even though ね is a neutral language trait, two other male characters do not use as many so I consider female speech is expected to be more friendly.

Both Hanekawa and Senjogahara use honorific speech styles when they are speaking even when their speaking partners are speaking informally. Senjougahara in the first two episodes is not considered as most polite in terms of her speaking styles. Even if that is the case, she speaks with honorific form. 

For choice of word, I did not notice any fancy word choice when Hanekawa speaks; however, it is very common to hear Senjogahara put お in front of noun to show her politeness. 

I also did not notice Hanekawa give any command; Senjogahara does not have the most polite way of speaking, she is aggressive while she speaks. However, even if she gives commands, she uses the polite speaking style such as あなたが感謝しなさい .

Conclusion

Bakemonogatari originally stemmed from a light novel and as such put a large emphasis on its dialogue between characters. What makes the show so appealing is how provoking and interesting conversations between characters can be, as well as the actions and scenes drawn out during these long winded and often intense conversations. The author put special care and attention into both Senjougahara and Hanekawa’s speech patterns in order to emphasize their personal backgrounds and how they wish to be perceived by those around them. 

Senjougahara’s overexaggerated usage of the SFW わ is primarily used to express her wealthy upbringing and help separate her dialogue easily from other characters. She also uses a higher volume of assertive and sharp tongued phrases, particularly with araragi potentially as a way to show her self perceived superiority over him or as a more likely way to show care and thoughtfulness but in a more roundabout manner.

Hanekawa on the other hand has a speaking style that strongly reflects her character ideals of modesty and a desire to not stand out. This is further reflected in her curse of another personality that exhibits itself in a more unrestrained manner. Hanekawa’s speech patterns tend to end more often with かな as a way to express that these are her opinions and that they could be wrong. As well as a way for her to show modesty in the face of how knowledgeable she is as a person. Hanekawa speaks in a much more direct manner in the way of expressing emotions of care and empathy for Araragi. While she tends to speak in neutral or formal styles, it comes nowhere close to the amount of formality and high class atmosphere that Senjougahara has. Overall the difference of speech styles doesn’t seem to necessarily stem from masculinity and femininity, but more so an expression of social class and how the two characters wish to be perceived by others.