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In Sword Art Offline 2 episode 7, Asuna comments that Yuuki not only is a rare
tomboy female player but also talks like a boy.

Now, I watched the English dub and didn't pick that up so I guess it is
something you'd only hear when you watch the sub with Japanese audio, but even
in Sword Art Offline which was never dubbed (only subbed with Japanese audio),
I didn't get an impression that Yuuki was talking like a boy.

So how is it that Yuuki talks like a boy?


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2016-07-30T06:03:54.240
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2016-07-30T14:15:21.683
2016-07-30T14:15:21.683
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japanese-language sword-art-online
How does Yuuki talk like a boy?


In Japanese, there are multiple words for "I", the most common being _watashi_
, _atashi_ , _boku_ , and _ore_ (I'll transliterate to romaji thoughout). Most
of these pronouns are definitively gendered, and it would be quite the social
_faux pas_ to use an improperly gendered pronoun.
[This](http://www.yutaaoki.com/blog/how-to-say-i-in-japanese) video does an
excellent job explaining the subject.

From S02E19
[_Zekken_](http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_Art_Online_II_Episode_19)

> _Yuuki_ : Boku wa kore dake, dakedo ne.
>
> _Translation_ : I'll just use this, though.

In SAO, Yuuki uses _boku_.

_Boku_ is generally a male pronoun. However, in anime (not so often in real
life) excessively tomboy type girls will use _boku_ in an attempt to sound
masculine. This is something that is generally impossible to accurately
translate into English in an acceptable way, so most official translations
simply ignore the distinction, but most fansub groups will add a translator's
note demarking this.


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