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The series Kamigami no Asobi is a reverse harem involving a mortal girl, Yui Kusanagi, who is tasked with teaching six of the ancient gods about the meaning of love. Episode 4 focuses on Hades. He is shown to have a dry wit and a tendency towards intellectual puns. However he avoids contact with people and gods because he is cursed and believes he will bring misfortune to those near him.

At the end, Yui and the other gods show him that they really like him and will chance misfortune to be around him. In explaining his happiness to her, he says (in English subtext, time mark 21:04 to get full context):

  • I cannot wallow in misfortune.
  • Kusanagi,
  • "Yui" were right about everything.

The pun works great in English. It got me curious if there was a pun in Japanese as well. Is "Yui" similar to a Japanese word for "you"? If not, how did it work?

Memor-X
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RichF
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  • related: [Is Bakabon written in English and translated to Japanese?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/8508/is-bakabon-written-in-english-and-translated-to-japanese) – RichF Dec 22 '16 at 02:01

2 Answers2

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What Hades pronounced is「お前のゆいとおりだ」, which is a pun on 「お前のゆうとおりだ」 ("exactly as you say", "you're correct").

To break down:

  • お前 omae: "you"
  • の no: (subject marker)
  • ゆう yū: a colloquial pronunciation of the verb 言う (いう), "to say"
  • とおり tōri: "as", "like", "the way"
  • だ da: (copula, "is")

ゆとり is not relevant.

So in the Japanese version, it's the pun on Yui (the name of the heroine) and yū ("to say"). The translator did a good job, taking advantage of the fact that English "you" and Japanese "言う/yū" have similar sounds.

Note that this sounds like a typical cheesy "oyaji gag" to the ear of Japanese, usually completely unsuitable for a romantic situation like this. I don't know about the male character, but is this his way of speaking? :)

naruto
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  • Hades, at least up to this point in series, has been gloomy. When he did speak to others, it was usually something like, "Stay away; I bring misfortune." Earlier in the episode, Yui and he did have somewhat of an extended conversation after she brought him some rice cakes, each with a strawberry inside. (Other gods had told her that rice cakes and strawberries were two of his favorite foods.) This thawed his attitude, and during the conversation he told her a pun. She countered with a pun of the same sort. He responded, "Well said", which made me think she had gained his respect. – RichF Nov 14 '16 at 12:25
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    @RichF According to [Japanese Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A5%9E%E3%80%85%E3%81%AE%E6%82%AA%E6%88%AF#.E3.83.A1.E3.82.A4.E3.83.B3.E3.82.AD.E3.83.A3.E3.83.A9.E3.82.AF.E3.82.BF.E3.83.BC), he often makes terrible puns :) Maybe he is not used to talk with people casually. – naruto Nov 14 '16 at 12:46
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The pun is on

「お前の言う通りだ」, which basically means "as you say".

Alc reference

user29240
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  • Thank you. Is Alc some sort of Japanese to English language resource? I visited your link, and it seemed surprisingly specific, more than just a Japanese to English dictionary. – RichF Nov 14 '16 at 12:35
  • @RichF: they're using Eijiro which is s huge database of E-J translation pairs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eijir%C5%8D – Igor Skochinsky Nov 14 '16 at 13:00