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In _Jujutsu Kaisen_ 's episode 16 "Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event—Group
Battle 2—" (Transcription: Kyōto Shimai-kō Kōryū-kai—Dantai-sen ②—; Japanese:
京都姉 妹校交流会—団体戦②—), during a flashback scene explaining Panda's origin, we have
the following conversation between Yaga Masamichi, principal of the Tokyo
school and Panda's creator, and Panda as a toddler or "preschooler":

> **Yaga:** Panda. Actually, you have an older brother and sister.  
>  **Panda:** I don't.  
>  **Yaga:** No, you do. They are in your body. _< mutters to self>_ What's
> with the honorific?

What exactly is the honorific that Panda uses here? I am somewhat aware that
there is a hierarchy of formal speech in the Japanese language, but I'm not
able to precisely identify what honorific is being used in the Japanese dub.
Is it perhaps the _—⁠masen_ ending used by Panda? Furthermore, what is unusual
about Panda using that kind of speech with Yaga, prompting him to comment upon
it?


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question
japanese-language jujutsu-kaisen
What honorific does Panda use when speaking to Yaga Masamichi?


He says "いませんけど", so you are correct that it's the - _masen_ ending since
there isn't really anything else in that response anyway.

The reason this is odd is because of what Yaga says that Panda is responding
to:

> お前にはお兄ちゃんとお姉ちゃんがいるんだ。

(You have an older brother and an older sister.)

If Yaga were speaking in the formal register he would've said:

> あなたにはお兄ちゃんとお姉ちゃんがいます。

Or something similar to that. Basically, お前 is pretty informal and いる（んだ） is
the short / casual form of "to exist", so for Panda to respond in formally is
strange.

The translated subtitle when I went to look for this scene had Yaga's response
as "And why the polite tone?".

So I believe this is just a translation error. There was no honorific but
Panda responded in the polite register which prompted Yaga's confusion.


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answer