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I've heard a lot of people jokingly spell "anime and manga" as "animus and mangos". I don't really know what an animu is, but I know that a mango* is a pretty delicious fruit:

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While those do look delicious, I don't see much connection to manga. It's probably just a silly misspelling that someone thought was amusing, and it caught on the same as any other meme.

When did this "misspelling" originate, and is it actually a misspelling or is there some deeper reason behind why "manga" are sometimes spelled like this?

*Technically, the correct plural for mango should be "mangoes" but I'm willing to chalk that up to bad spelling on the internet.

кяαzєя
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Logan M
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3 Answers3

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It has nothing to do with the fruit. They are derogatory versions of their associated words to make fun of the way they are mispronounced in English (with the "a" vs "ah" sound). Unfortunately, I don't have any references. Lurkmoar has a page dedicated to the anime/manga board on 4chan.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I think people started using the "animu" and "mango" terms on /a/

Jon Lin
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7

The joke is to make fun of Americans saying 'animes and mangas' seeing as there are no pluralization for these words, other fans joke that they are saying animus and mangos.

And this is what an animu/animus is:

Noun: animus

  1. The basic impulses and instincts which govern one's actions.
  2. A feeling of enmity, animosity or ill will.
  3. (Jungian psychology) The masculine aspect of the feminine psyche or personality.
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Celesol
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5

Mango is a native fruit from the Philippines and is called Mangga in their language, which also has the same pronunciation of Manga (the Japanese comic book). So I think Filipinos started to call Manga as mangos (real plural spelling is mangoes), being it the plural of Mangga and it started to be viral in memes.

xjshiya
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    The word originated in South India (ma'nga in Malayalam for example) and its derivatives are used in many Asian languages, not just Filipino. And the [google trends for mangos and mangoes](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=mangoes%2C%20mangos&cmpt=q) seem a good correlation (no evidence seen to indicate new meaning for 'mangos'). Mangos correlate with Mangoes more than Mangos – Jesvin Jose Jan 29 '14 at 09:55