Bonus Translator’s Afterword & Glossary

Any story that stars two otaku as protagonists is bound to use a lot of culturally unique terminology. Most of these words will be somewhat familiar to the Japanese reader, but even the most up-to-date English-speaking otaku cannot be expected to understand the nuances of all of them, despite many terms being heard regularly. Whenever possible, the editor and I ensured Kagetora and Kokoro speak in such a way that the story is easy to follow and the meanings of these words are clear, but the fast-pace of dialogue doesn’t always allow for explanations. I will use this section to expand on some of the nuances of the terminology and setting.

Otaku

Originally, otaku referred to any person knowledgeable about their hobby to the point of obsession—be it trains, geography, stamps, or whatever else. The word has slowly changed to become a way of addressing people whose hobbies specifically are anime, manga, games, and other similar forms of entertainment. Note that, while otaku will happily use it to describe themselves, it remains a derogatory term, similar to calling someone a nerd. In the novel’s title, as well as in most dialogue, the term can be recognized by its most recent definition. In some cases, however, calling oneself a “voice actor otaku” would show how fixated one is with that particular subset of otaku culture.

Blood Type

In Japan, blood type is akin to astrological signs, seen as an indicator of one’s personality and behavior. Common knowledge is that A-types are serious and diligent, B-types are carefree and self-centered, AB-types have characteristics from both of the previous two, and O-types are able to get along well with everyone. Note that, as these beliefs are easier to rationalize from a scientific standpoint than astrology is, even adults—to an extent—buy into them. A well-known example is workplace discrimination against B-types.

Boys’ Love (BL)

A subgenre of love stories depicting the romance between two young men. These range from wholesome to somewhat explicit. For the very explicit, see “Yaoi” below. Within BL stories, the passive, usually feminine character is called the “uke,” while the aggressive and more masculine one is called the “seme.”

Doujin

Strictly speaking, doujin are pieces of media created and sold independently, as opposed to being published by a company. “Doujinshi” specifically refers to printed material, especially manga, often—but not always—erotic. There are doujin games, doujin CDs, and so on. Since independent creators are very limited in the amount of copies they can sell, they can use established characters from other works without attracting too much attention from the copyright owners, who rarely notice and almost never care.

The doujinshi owned by Kagetora are of the most common variety: erotic manga starring characters from other works. These are usually sold directly by the author at conventions such as Comiket.

Eroge

Short for “erotic game,” eroge are video games that feature sex scenes as one of their main selling points. The quintessential format for an eroge is usually that of a dating sim or visual novel—text heavy games where gameplay is limited to reading text and choosing between dialogue options. Some eroge use the plot as merely a justification for the sex scenes (these are usually called nukige), while others also have intricate character interactions and carefully crafted stories overshadowing the importance of the pornographic content.

Fujoshi

A girl who loves BL and yaoi. Specifically, the stereotype dictates that fujoshi use their vivid imagination to conjure up romantic stories between male characters who, in their original media, are not necessarily in love with each other. While yaoi-lovers use this word to refer to themselves, calling someone a fujoshi usually implies a certain amount of contempt, as if to frown upon the practice of imagining fictional gay romances. Although seldom used, there is a word to indicate male lovers of yaoi: fudanshi.

Gacha Game

These video games, usually played on phones, take their name from Gachapon: vending machines that dispense a random capsule containing a toy. Players “roll” the gacha, as one would with a die, for a chance of obtaining an in-game item they want: a character, an item, a powerup, etc. Some games require microtransactions, the payment of small sums of money, in order to roll the gacha. A single roll may cost anything from around one to ten dollars, but, as Kagetora knows, this can add up quickly.

Most of these games, incidentally, are targeted at otaku, with the gacha prizes being beautiful girls, handsome boys, or both—the goal of the game is to collect these characters to make them fight monsters, sing concerts, run races, or whatever else.

Gyaru

Originating from the English word “gal,” this refers to girls, usually teenagers, who follow a specific set of fashion trends and behaviors. They wear flashy, revealing clothes; they dye their hair (usually blonde); and they sport lots of colorful makeup and a salon tan. The stereotypical gyaru is very extroverted and not particularly interested in school, devoting most of her time to partying and shopping. While Kagetora sees Kokoro as a gyaru, she is admittedly a very tame one: her otaku hobbies and unfamiliarity with romance are very un-gyaru-like characteristics.

Idol

Idols can be singers, voice actors, TV personalities, dancers, and more. When one of them—sufficiently attractive and talented—becomes famous enough, they start to gain a following of passionate fans. The fans will buy their merchandise, follow news regarding them, go to see them at live events, and more. Idols usually have some sort of artistic endeavor as their main occupation, but this is secondary in importance to the number and passion of their fans.

Moe

This word can either be an adjective, a noun, or a verb. In Japanese, “to moe” means “to feel wholesome love or strong affection toward something or someone.” Something that is moe, similarly, is lovable, endearing, and cutesy. In the story, Kagetora mentions Mashiro’s “moe sleeves.” Other examples are a high-pitched voice, a love letter written with shaky hands, or a person as a whole, as long as they embody these cute characteristics. Nowadays the term is also used to describe anime or manga whose main selling point is their high moe content, and their fans self-deprecatingly call themselves “moe-buta” (literally “moe pigs”).

Otome Games

“Otome” meaning “young lady,” this is a genre of games mainly aimed at women. They usually involve a female protagonist romancing one or more handsome characters as she progresses through the plot. Because of their often homoerotic subtexts, they tend to be one of the main interests of fujoshi—Kokoro being no exception.

Power Level

In Japan, otaku as hardcore as Kagetora are not looked upon kindly. Most try to play down the extent of their passion, and some, like Kokoro, just hide it altogether to avoid being shunned. Of course, someone who only reads a few manga and occasionally watches anime would have a much easier time hiding this fact than someone whose room is full of doujinshi and anime figurines—an otaku with a higher power level, as it were.

Shojo

Literally meaning “young girl,” shojo is a genre of media (including manga, anime, games, etc.) mainly aimed at girls from elementary to high school. There is no set definition for what a shojo work can or cannot be; anything that would appeal to its target demographic will do.

Tsundere/Yandere

The “-dere” suffix comes from “dere-dere,” a word which loosely translates to “being affectionate.” Depending on the prefix, the -dere archetypes show this affection in different ways.

The “tsun” in tsundere comes from “tsun-tsun,” which could be rendered in English as “being cold.” A tsundere character therefore acts coldly, but only to hide the affection that they truly feel. The typical example is cooking something for their crush, but then saying, “It’s not like I cooked it for you or anything! I was hungry myself!”

The “yan” in yandere comes from “yanderu,” “being ill.” A yandere character shows their love and affection in obsessive, morbose ways. They usually pester their loved one with questions: “Where were you last night?”, “Who were you with?”, “Was it another girl?”, “Were you cheating on me?”

Visual Kei

This is a music classification that describes not the sound, but the look of musicians. Typical elements include flamboyant spiky hair, colorful makeup and accessories, and painfully tight leather outfits. The “kei” simply means “type” or “style,” and the word is usually shortened to V-Kei. Some popular real-life examples are Dir-en-grey and Glay.

Yen

As the story is set in modern-day Japan, I thought that while leaving all references of money in yen could be confusing, changing them would be unrealistic and distracting. Care has been taken to make it easy to gauge whether a certain number is supposed to be “a lot of money” or “a very small amount of money,” mostly from the characters’ reactions. However, for the curious, there is an easy way to obtain a dollar value which is in the ballpark: simply divide by 100. 1 yen roughly equates to 1 cent; 100 yen to 1 dollar; 10,000 yen to 100 dollars; and so on.

As high schoolers who live in an unspecified area of Tokyo, Kokoro and Kagetora would make slightly more than 1,000 yen (around 10 dollars) an hour with an average part-time job.

Yaoi

Yaoi indicates homosexual romance between two men and any erotic antics that may ensue. The lesbian counterpart to this genre is called “yuri,” which encompasses all works depicting everything from the platonic affection between two young girls to the raunchiest sapphic sex.