Japanese equivalent of "Thanks anyway."?


In English, "thanks anyway" is a common way of acknowledging the other
person's effort/attention even though the end result wasn't satisfactory to
the person doing the thanking.

For example:

Thankee: Here, have a piece of cake that I made. Thanker: I'm afraid this cake
isn't really edible at this point in time. _throws cake in the bin_ Thanks
anyway (for the effort in making the cake).

Thanker: Hi, I would like to buy your Item X but only if it comes with Item Y.
Do you have Item Y as well Item X? Thankee: Sorry, we don't have Item Y in
stock at the moment. Thanker: Damn it. Thanks anyway (for checking for me).

Is there a Japanese equivalent? The closest I can find is でも、ありがとう but that's
not as succinct as "thanks anyway" because I have to insert a sentence before
it (I'm afraid this cake isn't really edible. でも、ありがとう).




The Japanese equivalent is ありがとう【ございます】.

The "anyway" part is rude, and so it unverbalized.

To express gratitude for something that someone did (even if the effort wasn't
successful), we simply praise the effort, and omit any rude insinuations at
the incomplete or unsatisfactory result.

For instance if we asked some clerk to look something up or research something
for us, but the investigation was in vain, we might say:

調べてくれてありがとうございます。 (Shirabete kurete arigatou gozaimasu). "Thank you for
looking it up for me".

Whereas if the research was fruitful, we could just use ありがとうございます, which is
gratitude for the effort and the result.

Or in general, to thank someone for struggling hard in any manner:

がんばってくれてありがとう (Gambatte kurete arigatou).

