

In **Chūnibyō Demo Koi ga Shitai!** the crew always yell

> *anishment this world

during their "transformations".

What are they saying? **B** anishment or **V** anishment?

* * *

There are several sources over the western web (just google it - [I just
did](https://www.google.com.br/search?q=vanishment%20or%20banishment%20this%20world)),
and there is nothing conclusive, so if you can point to some canon or other
eastern sources, appreciated.


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2015-04-09T23:07:55.980
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2015-05-16T02:20:33.797
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love-chunibyo-and-other-delusions
The Chuunibyou crew wants to do what to "this world", exactly?


It's _probably_ "vanishment", though I think the evidence is a bit too sparse
to be 100% sure.

The season 2 ED does explicitly say "Van!shment Th!s World" in Latin script
(which is also the [title of the ED song](http://vgmdb.net/album/42764)) :

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jt5Utl.jpg)

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, people on the Japanese internet
mostly appear to think that the word in question (バニッシュメント _banisshumento_ )
is from English "vanishment" rather than "banishment" (see e.g.
[one](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14120902704),
[two](http://dic.pixiv.net/history/view/723017 "this revision is from before
season 2 aired"), [three](http://toki24827.blog49.fc2.com/blog-
entry-504.html)). Perhaps this points to greater awareness of English
"vanishment" than "banishment" among speakers of Japanese? If this is in fact
the case, it suggests that Rikka's catchphrase would have been intended to use
the word "vanishment". Then again, perhaps the ambiguity was intended?

Though, to muddy the waters a bit, the B-side on the season 2 OP album is
titled ["PunIshment this worLd-VOICE-
Episode.Φ"](http://vgmdb.net/album/42763).

While we're at it, apparently Japanese [sometimes transliterates "varnish" as
バニッシュ
_banisshu_](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1216526397),
so I suppose it's not _entirely_ impossible that Rikka is actually saying
"varnishment this world". Crazier still, the most recent Kuroko no Basuke
opening (S3 OP3) displays the phrase ["Burnishing
Drive"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8JaK8.jpg) for a move that everyone would
think was called "Vanishing Drive" (バニシングドライブ _banishingu doraibu_ ). With
Japan, all things are possible.

(Incidentally: I've only read snippets of the light novel, but as far as I'm
aware, this particular catch phrase is anime-original, so that's a no-go for
getting clarification.)

* * *

For the benefit of the reader who may be confused about why this is confusing,
Japanese did not historically have a "v" sound, so borrowings of words from
English that do have a "v" typically had the "v" replaced with a "b". This
causes a bit of confusion in this case, since "banishment" could be from
English "banishment" _or_ from English "vanishment" with the "v" changed to a
"b".


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answer