43763


I have recently started watching the 2016 anime, Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless
( 田中くんはいつもけだるげ ). Plugging the Japanese into the Google Japanese-to-English
translator, it comes out as "Tanaka-kun is always wonderful". One possibility
is that there is a Japanese homonym that can mean either "listless" or
"wonderful". That seems like a pretty big spread. But I guess if "bat" can
either be a crafted wooden stick or a blind flying mammal, it certainly is a
possibility.

Another possibility is that the translation does not capture the full Japanese
meaning. Perhaps the implication is more on the lines of "wonderfully
listless", which actually sort of fits the series.

A third possibility is that there is not really a concept in English that
matches the Japanese. Having watched the first two episodes, I know choosing
"listless" to describe Tanaka was an accurate choice. So maybe the translators
chose a single English word that fits his personality and did not try to match
the Japanese exactly.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-21T06:43:06.357
37983
2017-12-13T02:29:02.073
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question
japanese-language tanaka-kun-is-always-listless
Is the title, Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless, a good translation?


Not only it's a good translation, but it's also the correct translation.

[Logan](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/37983/is-the-title-tanaka-
kun-is-always-listless-a-good-translation#comment51774_37983) has already
explained the construction of the word

> けだるげ is technically a combination of けだるい and 気 using [this somewhat
> uncommon
> construction](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4768/using-%E3%81%92-to-
> turn-adjectives-and-nouns-into-adverbs).

Using this as the base, searching for the definition of けだるい returns:

  * [Jisho](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%B0%97%E3%81%A0%E3%82%8B%E3%81%84): languid; listless
  * [Japanese Wiktionary](https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%91%E3%81%A0%E3%82%8B%E3%81%84): listless, lazy

The conclusion is, echoing [Senshin's
comment](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/37983/is-the-title-tanaka-
kun-is-always-listless-a-good-translation#comment51738_37983):

> The English title is a literal translation of the Japanese title; there's
> nothing to read into here.


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answer