Phos’ First Word Changes Everything | HNK Chapter 98 

quite a beautiful little detail english readers probably never knew about

basically . the gem of Theseus

My sister teaches at a Japanese school, and she told me essentially Japanese does not have gender, neutral pronouns. She briefly talked about pronoun usage with her students, and they were absolutely fascinated by non-binary individuals, and their use of the them. I think that having different gems use more masculine or more feminine pronouns is the closest they could get to showing that the germs have no defined gender.

This is so freaking interesting. I am german and I ADORE the german translation for the manga. Because they use a quite similar sentence/word like the Japanese one, its "Meine Wenigkeit". It basically means the same as the Japanese one! There are also more sentences in the german translation that I absolutely love and would always put above the english translation. As an example: When Lapis gave phos their head they said "Ill share with you this gift", but in the german translation they said "Ich teile mein Genie mit dir". That means I share my genius/intelligents with you. I know its a personal preference, but I love it so much and its so well said.

I checked the Official Traditional Chinese translation, for 「わたくし」, they used 「在下」, it was an ancient way to address yourself when you talked to someone higher ranked / emperor. Which it refers back to your interpretation really well. Thank you Riza for letting us know this interesting fact!

Ventricosus always said: "washira". She pronounced herself as "we". And she introduced herself once with "ware". She used it because she was the ruler of the Admirabilis. But I'm not sure if she ever used "watakushi" in front of Phos. But the usage of royal pronounces was not new to Phos.

I remember aechmea saying the gems call their home a "school" despite not actually being one and not even knowing what it is in the first place. I wonder if that applies to other things like pronouns? Boku specifically

To all the debates over the use of 'he' 'she' 'they' this series has, this shows these are not the pronouns we should be questioning. It is "I".

I've never noticed once chapter 98 came out, but in portuguese, at least, Pho's language became overly formal. Portuguese itself is very similar to English, even more archaic, I'd say, since we dont have gender neutral pronouns, but we have many hidden ways to represent politeness and subservience. Formal portuguese has "Eu" (Literally "I") be very prominent in sentences, since we brazilians have a big need for communication and emotional tuning, so Phos using more of the "Eu" in their language was something new that I've never put much thought until now. Also, they barely say "Vocês" to them, since to us, simply pulling up to someone and referring to them as "you" is quite disrespectful and informal, instead Phos refers to them as "Todos Vocês" ("All of you", per say) this also buts a big bridge between them, since for us, specially stating a group of people of which you aren't a part of gives off a big air of distance and observance. They weren't on the same place as them, Phos didn't see themselves in their group, so, at least in portuguese, they consciously set up that wall between them. Thank you for making me pick that up just now.

of course phos has blue hair and pronounce

What an awesome detail! This totally recontextualizes Phos' speech for me, and as you say in your video it definitely makes the scene even more upsetting. One of the most iconic parts of the story being Phos' change in image makes it all the more interesting, with the use of different language we're seeing Phos have a change in their perception of THEMSELF. As someone who JUST finished catching up with the manga, thank you for the video! :)

The French translation is similar in that there is no way to truly convey the shift in phos’s character that “watakushi” can. There is only one personal pronoun in French. Phos says “Je pourrais” which also translates to “I could”. The only thing that could convey something similar would be a shift from “tu” to “vous” when referring to a singular, other person. As “vous” (referring to one person) is considered formal and respectful, while “tu” is more informal/only used with ones who are close to you. The issue is that “vous” is also just the pronoun used when addressing multiple people (not including yourself), the equivalent of “you all” or “you people”. Vous can be used in the singular (formal, respectful) or in the plural (general form). Phos uses “vous” when speaking to the lunarians in chp. 98, but since they’re referring to them as a group it doesn’t really mean much ;-;

this is genuinely so heartwrenching like fuck bro 😭

please, I only have so many tears left for this series and I'm stocking up for the ending :( In all seriousness thank you for bringing such a significant difference in the original translation to our attention, such a beautiful detail.

I read both the english and the turkish translations. Since the turkish translation was translated from english, it missed a lot of the nuances this video talks about. however since turkish and japanese have similar grammar structures, I believe both the english and the japanese translations should have been considered while translating. Anyway. Turkish only has 1 pronoun for "I" -> "Ben". I think the closest translation we can have to "Watakushi" (implying that phos is speaking in the way explained in the video), would be "Bendeniz". "Bendeniz" is a word hard to describe. This word quite literally means "Your me/I", and its used mostly in a comedic setting. Kinda like a medieval butler saying "this lowly servant of your majesty". Think of Dobby from Harry Potter. While the context of the word and where its mostly used is rooted in comedy and (in today's world) casual speak, it suits here because of the literal meaning. "I am your servant, I am below you, you own me".

0:21 You (derogatory) lol 4:35 you did it, lol Wow. I never would have imagined that rock girl show had so much depth.

Man, the way you related phos' god form to how ventricosus described death got me a little emotional not gonna lie... another great video! You really are out here carrying the whole hnk fandom on your back :')

This is so fascinating??? I read the manga in italian and all these nuances got lost in translation… but I’m so glad I found your video, it was super informative!!!!

i see, thank you for the information now time for more depression

There are ways to manage the sentence when translated, it just need to be a little bit longer to work than the japanese version. Maybe rather than saying "I could" they should say "Someone could" or "A servant could", something that feels very impersonal and antique to make it work, like how people used to say "thou" to refer to someone.

6:50 Not sure if it means much but you can find watakushi used in some animes (i can't comment on live action since i don't watch those). I can't name any off the top of my head but if you ever see a very self absorbed character (both genuine or comical) sometimes they will refer to themself as watakushi. "kono, watakushi-sama wa..." I think Dia Kurosawa (from Love Live) did it once. I do my self intros like that as a joke, it helps ppl remember me even if it's considered conceeted/rude. it's mostly for the gags. 3:02 (ish) boku from what i've seen leans more neutral-male and tomboyish BUT is used by "standard" feminine characters. If i ever get around to watching anime again i'll try to edit this comment to add specific instances from anime. Great video! 100/10. is a great intro level jpn explanation. edit: also I never get to comment but houseki no kuni means country of gems/jewels. I don't hate the official title but i feel like a lot is lost, even with a more litteral translation theres a certain energy that I can't explain. edit: SPOILERS 8:03 my interpretation of why Phos suddenly jumps to "watakushi" is because they have regained all of their memories and (somewhat) sorted out what happened, they haven't had a chance to properly process their emotions but to finally have all of their memories of thousands of years of experience, loss and suffering AND to gain godly powers. It seems like a natural progression to think more highly of one-self. They're calmer and above such "primal" yearnings like the search for power and/or revenge.

The translation that I am most familiar with is the Portuguese one. In there, Phos starts with "eu poderia" which literally translates as "I could". Maybe for it to invoke the same effect of "watanashi" would be if Phos started with a very, very, formal "you". In the case of English I lack the knowledge of what this word could be, though in Portuguese, the best suitor that comes to my mind is "vossas mercês" which is a very formal, although archaic, form to infer to someone of high status in the plural. Later, as it became more of widespread use, "vossa mercê" (the singular form of the word) suffered agglutination and transformed into "você", of very common usage. "Tu" (singular) and "vós" (plural) where the informal version of "você", but Portuguese don't adhere to formality and informality of speech in this way anymore, and, if conjugated correctly, "tu" and "vós" are even considered fancy. A phenomenon I've witnessed in common with those two languages, and most romance languages in general, is that the effect of subservience involves the omission of the self in the speech. No "I", no "me", no "myself", and maybe this is why the translation missed a bit of the tone of the original, choosing to be more literal in the script, instead of mixing the word around to keep the meaning instead. I'm sorry if I dwelled in this subject for a bit too long, but I hope I could've contributed to this discussion in some way. Have a nice day👋

genuinely thank you, This was something I didn't realize due to the meaning being lost due to culture differences and ignorance. This changes the perspective and breaks my heart even more. Thank you for the video!

When i read ths chapter a couple of months ago, when phos prayed for them it was the most gutwrenching moment i ever read in any manga, or saw in any anime, i dont know why felt worse that the worst moments of devilman crybaby or chainsawman. Becuae i understood that phos frogave them and prayed while them just even they remebered everything but didnt care, it was just a ceremony where they used they very one that saved them. No felling shown, no words interchanged, no imprtance to them, just ceremonial like it was a Thursday afternoon event. But now that you shown some context it makes sense that all those year made phos feel like death on life because nothing happened. And even it shown how their time perception changed after that notices how rocks developed life but in a timespan so gigantic that before maybe never wold have noticed. But going on a tanget there, what im saying it that with your context i see now that phos feels very distant to actual strangers because they may have thr sams faces but they are totatlly different from living other ways of life and even not being made of their previous material. I can see the gems actually being like the admirabilis that lived actually very well on the on the moon very well nourished but so contaminated bu the lunarians that they dont care about anything but pleasure like if they were their pets. Thinking went sabbatical for everyone on the moon, they are in the matrix and the real world doesn’t exist. All that make me feel ofther way of sad that they dont remember anything about their friend, a friend that caried trauma and lost so much that also it doesnt remeber because is a shell of they former self

Wow! This is so interesting! Thank you for all your video essays, they opens so many new interesting things about the manga, I love watching them and I really want to go back and re-read HNK once again x) It's pity that in other languages that differences are not shown (in russian there is also only one way to say "I/Me")

In Russian, there's only one "I" pronoun, so the translation doesn't carry over the same meaning as the original Japanese. Beyond that, most translations make all of the gems, barring Kongo, have she/her pronouns for simplicity's sake, according to the notes, although in the same notes the translators do acknowledge the original manga having different types of pronouns with more masculine or feminine meanings when referring to themselves.

Thank you for explanation! As japanese speaker I was thinking about that detail too, like how I can explain that for the people only reads the translate ver. But here!! You make a video about!! I am very happy with the existence this video with the especication to HNK!! Thank you and Good job!

Oh, thank you a great lot for such an important thing to notice! I've already seen the Russian comment down below, but I think I should add to it still. While there is indeed the "I" used to translate "watakushi" in the unofficial version, one imo should use the archaic pronoun from Old Cyrillic alphabet: the Old Cyrillic alphabet (and the Slavonic church one too, that's important) begins with the letter "A", which is pronounced as "az", with the hard "a" sound, and translated as "I". The point is that "az" in Biblical terms is used by tsars - those who stood ground before Jesus and were given power to rule people on the sinful Earth beneath - and Jesus himself. "Az" in the Old Russian and Old Slavonic is either the God, the one and only, or the first after Him. Considering who Phos has become, I think it suits them the best, since now they are truly above the other living souls (pun intended). And if we omit the fact that most european languages due to religious, cultural and historical backgrounds are male-focused, "az" is considered above gender, while in Russian the gems use female pronouns as there's no any suitable neutral animate pronoun for them. I truly hope that the official translators will take this into consideration, but they've just yet started to sell the first 4 thomes including Haruka-san's singles, so nobody can know for sure... Hope you find this interesting!

neat video, I didn't think it would be so interesting but you managed to keep me listening all the way through, guf stuff

i finished reading the manga recently and this just made me love it even more

I can only say that in spanish all the gems are refered to as women and have female pronouns, But that is due to the fact that gem is a female word in spanish, you can't use male pronouns on gems... as for individuals; bismuth, diamond, quartz, zircon, cinnabar those are male words. pearl and Phosphphyllite are female words. but if you use them as names the gendered word doesn't matter. As for Phos's first word on the chapter, are just "could"... it doesn't even indicate who she's refering to, just implied by the context. There's no way for us to know what her words really meant so thanks a lot.

Thank you for the lore! You’re way underrated!

I don't own the manga, I read it through my library recently tho (idk the chapters but I read up to/through volume 11?), so I can't remember the English - but I keep thinking of the Lustrous as, like, over all "they/them" and then I individualize them in between she/he/they kinda. But this was really good and educational for me bc its just more correct and it's cultural more interesting imo. Definitely a video worth rewatching whenever I get my hands on the next volume.

Thanks for the explanation! So interesting!!

This video gave a new perspective of this scene. Much appreciated for given this information 🙏

4:52 Regular anime rewatch moment, I think I hear 君 used while Phos was asking why Cinnabar didn’t tell them about Kongo’s relation to the Lunarians during episode 11, do you have the Japanese volumes to check this?

I thougt watakushi meant that you'e higher than the other person but this makes so mcuh more sense. The first (maybe only) time I heard it was in Mob Psycho 100 when Kamuro publicly apologized to his classmates. He was a character who put himself above other people constantly during his arc, doing terrible things to others, so it makes total sense for him to use that pronoun when he gives up on that place of power (both in his apology and the fact that he resigned from student council). That was really informative thank you

sobbed sso violently, i love this video thank you for analyzing this that looks small, yet big and soul crushing thing

What I find interesting is that nobody ( after watching the anime and reading the manga ) calls Sensei Adamantite (?) but calls him Kongo which I only saw THAT part of his name brought up a few, like 2 - 4 times towards the end of the manga.

A youtube creator obsessed with houseki no kuni? Subscribed!

Thank you so much for this!!

Thank you for this experience

Good stuff. Like English, no such variety in Chinese either. Edit: correction in replies

Thank you that was interesting and informative

Thank you for this analysis

Thank you so much

В русском переводе все самоцветы были "она/ты"(не формально),а Адамант был "он/вы"(формально),но после того как Луняни не нападали на самоцветов много лет,самоцветы не полетевшие на луну стали обращаться к Адаманту на Ты(не формально).В начале 98 главы Фос все так же говорит о себе "она",но и в русском нет таких выражений что бы как то "принижать себя перед кем то",и с Киноварью она тоже общалась как раньше.Жаль что такие интересные детали были упущенны при переводе:(

That's why sub is better than dub. So much detail gets lost in translation. Example Hanji from SNK. Hanji uses (as far as I remember) watashi. Which is gender neutral. So we don't actaully know their gender. In the english version did they have to give them a pronoun. And they choose she/he.

In russian she just use "I" (lmao). We don't have so meny pronouns like in jp and other languages. Also about gems genders, they all use female pronouns and fos in final form also. But thinking about all thet sense i would be glad if they actually use midle .

thank you for explanation. that was very interesting, i missed a lot of meanings bc of translations... all these things with pronouns are completely erased in my language.

Wish we human spoke the same language just like befofe Tower of Babel fell, due to language barrier we missed a few key points of this manga

Poor phos

super cool

You are so cool

Found you

What about morganite? What “I” pronoun do they use?

Honestly you could probably put the pronoun and cairngorm/ghost video into the same considering its talking about a similar subject.

They could of put, To my masters could all make you my thralls. My Leige my masters. My liege, if it starts with a greating a formal greating and wrigting out one that gets the same point across. IMO there is meaning and points. Allot of points get lost. Cleint would be wierd. I mean, if you could then one could translate this by tone of the writing and in tone of the voice actor in the dub. I would be able or just could or, "It is with in my capacity [I think using ability would be better, idk wheather to use one or the other capacity is to formal and distent but I think it could work here] to make you all my subjects, but I will retrain." I feel ending there would evoke the word retainer but IDK you got to ask a direct thinker for that meaning. But prior greating and tone in the sentence could queue the word play there. They realy could just do the long rote for the simple I. Its hard because you don't want it sound awkward in english. Man Japanese seams like a great language to write in.

potat