

In the [pilot/premiere](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66556/why-
does-chika-care-about-kaguyas-date-in-the-pilot-premiere) (specifically
[Kaguya Wants to be Stopped, ch12 of the manga](https://kaguyasama-wa-
kokurasetai.fandom.com/wiki/Chapter_12)), Kaguya calls 'true love' as 真実の恋 (I
think shinjitsu no koi しんじつのこい).

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ohHZg.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ohHZg.jpg)

Later in the sleep-deprived fetish episode (in S02E05) Kaguya calls 'true
love' as 本物の愛 (I think honmono no ai and ほんもののあい). The narrator also calls
this 'true love' (in katakana トウルーラブ) and 'eternal love'.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TW9jg.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TW9jg.jpg)

(Also, for some reason, the narrator seems to introduce 2 other terms 真実の愛 -
しんじつのあい shinjitsu no ai translated as 'real love' and 永遠の愛 - えいえんのあい eien no
ai translated as 'eternal love'. Note the shinjitsu no _ai_ vs shinjitsu no
_koi_.)

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4TOhh.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4TOhh.jpg)

  1. What's the difference between S01E01 真実の恋 and S02E05 本物の愛 ?

  2. In particular, what makes the latter 本物の愛 so 'cringe' or something? Is the former just as cringe? Or what? See what 2 of the other characters Nagisa (Kashiwagi) and Chika (Fujiwara) think about 本物の愛:

Nagisa says 'She actually said "true love"!'

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xWin.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xWin.jpg)

Chika says 'Aren't you a _little_ too old for that?'

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5mF0f.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5mF0f.jpg)

What I got so far:

  1. I know the Japanese language brilliantly has specific words for 'like'/'love' like suki, daisuki, aishiteru, koishiteru. In the latter 2 words, we can of course see the respective roots 'ai' and 'koi'.

  2. Maybe not directly related, but I remember in the Japanese dub of Frozen whenever Anna ([RIP Sayaka Kanda](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24690/idina-menzel-pronounces-sayaka-%E6%B2%99%E4%B9%9F%E5%8A%A0)) said 'true love', [it was translated as 'unmei' (fate, 運命, うんめい)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/94713/in-the-japanese-dub-of-frozen-anna-says-unmei-fate-destiny-the-late-sayaka).


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question
japanese-language kaguya-sama-love-is-war
Difference between the 2 'true love' that Kaguya says


First off, I think that the translation 'true love' is used for both simply
because it is more natural as English, as the following n-gram shows.

[![this
ngram](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7B69l.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7B69l.png)

As a Japanese phrase, 本物の愛 is more natural but 真実の愛 does not sound too
different. 本物 means _real_ as opposed to _fake_ and 真実 is _truth_ as opposed
to _falsity_.

So practically they are used synonymously here.

Now why the girl blushes is something to do with Japanese mentality. Generally
people do not talk about love directly and also 本物の愛 sounds **too serious** to
talk about. It sounds naive as well. A natural response would be laughing as
Fujiwara does. The girl is too polite to do that, and feels awkward.

Note in the manga version, right after the girl's blushing, there is a
narration: (かぐやは)このワードが口に出すだけで恥ずかしいものであることを認識すらしていない. (Kaguya does not even
realize this word is something too awkward to utter, where this word refers to
'true love').


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answer