Image boards have become a popular hobby on the web in recent years. If you’ve been to places like 4chan, 7chan, and the like, you’ve seen a unique culture that mixes illustrated and photographic art from Western and Japanese culture. After browsing these places for a while, it starts to become apparent that Japanese and English mix so much that you need a foot in each culture to understand what’s going on.
So here’s a guide to the most common Japanese words you’ll find in the world of picture boards. Keep in mind that these places are mostly inhabited by fans of anime, manga, and video games, so most of the terms have to do with this culture.
animated – Japanese animation. All cartoons originating from Japan.
baka – A fool, or the art that represents foolishness. The Disney character Goofy would be considered baka.
bench – A delinquent or rebellious child.
bar – A homosexual man, or art that attracts or represents homosexual men.
bishojo – A beautiful young woman, older than adolescence but younger than college age.
bukkake – A fetish for messy sex and the art that this fetish represents.
burikko – An adult posing as a child. Features in the art depicting the game of the age.
-chan – A suffix meaning “relating to”; also a Japanese honorific.
chibi – A short, small person or a very small child. Also a specific anime/manga drawing style, making a character appear dwarfed or distorted. Western cartoon elves could be considered chibi.
cosplay – The activity of dressing up as a favorite anime/mange character. Frequently performed at comic book conventions and other fan events.
from his – A short Japanese word that joins a noun and a verb, literally translated as “is”. Image boards have taken this as a meme, often repeating “desu desu desu”, for various reasons, including to annoy newbies or stubbornly persist in a discussion.
doujinshi – Self-published work. The desktop desktop publishing equivalent for manga.
ecchi – The generic term for sexual material.
futanari – Hermaphrodites, or art representing hermaphrodites. Half-male-half-female.
gaiden – Lateral or additional material. On image boards, gaiden would be four-panel cartoons of manga characters, representing events that don’t count in the manga itself. A parallel story or spin-off.
guru – Very gross pornography depicting extreme injury, mutilation or death. The manga equivalent of “snuff porn.”
hentai – Erotic sleeve bondage. Most erotic Japanese illustrative material falls into this category.
hikikomori – An otaku taken to the next level: a loner and outsider whose only interest is the anime/manga fandom. The equivalent of a Western “basement geek”, which only suggests an insane, neurotic degree of obsession and isolation.
itasha – The subculture of decorating a vehicle with decals of manga/anime characters.
José – An attractive manga genre for adult women. The equivalent of western soap operas.
kaitou – A mystery. sneaky thief. Also someone with ghost aspects. A stealthy person who lives in the shadows. The equivalent of western rogue or hobbit.
Katana – A Japanese sword. About 99% of the time when you see ninjas and samurai with swords, they are shown wielding katanas.
kawaii – Complying with the Japanese standard for “cute”.
kawaiiko – A cute boy.
kei – Originally a style of sculpture used to represent Buddha. Unlike the more familiar view (in the West) of the Buddha as a cheerful and laughing fellow, the Japanese Buddhas are lean and serious.
lolicon – A slang term shared between Japanese and Western culture, for the preference for childlike portrayals of women.
sleeve – Japanese comic books. All graphic and print media of a cartoon nature originating in Japan.
manga artist – A manga creator. Japanese for “cartoonist.”
Manzai – A style of humor involving a comedic duo of a “straight man” and a “funny man”. In Western culture, Abbot and Costello would be considered manzai.
wick – Anime or manga involving large armored robot warriors, usually piloted by a human inside.
meganekko – The attraction to girls who wear glasses. Anime or manga depicting “geeky” girls.
miko – A female temple attendant. The equivalent of a western nun.
moe – A slang term for a fan of anime or manga, or an attraction to anime and manga characters.
Neko – A kitten or a cat, especially when it is cute. It is also applied to describe a woman disguised as a cat, or half human, half cat.
okaki – Scribble and scribble. Amateur art by fans.
eye – A high class or wealthy woman.
omorashi – A fetish for peeing. The equivalent of Western “water sports”.
oní – A demon or evil spirit.
oranyan – A male who is at the same time aggressive and distant, and sweet and charming.
otaku – A big fan of manga, anime or video games. More serious than moe, not as serious as hikikomori.
Pokemon – Japan’s most famous anime/manga/video game franchise.
sakura – A cherry blossom. A very common artistic theme in Japan.
seine – An attractive manga genre for adult men. The male equivalent of josei.
sensei – A teacher or teacher.
felt – Japanese superheroes. It also refers to military heroes; in the West, Hercules and GI Joe would fall under the sentai category.
shibari – Japanese Bondage, which involves rope bondage elevated to an intricate and specialized art form.
shinigami – A Japanese angel of death, in mythology. The equivalent of the Western “gloomy grim reaper”, though shinigami are an entire class of entities and not just one.
shojo – An attractive manga genre for young women and girls. The younger equivalent of josei.
shōnen – An attractive manga genre for young men and boys. They are usually action-adventure stories.
shotacon – The Japanese version of “boy’s love”, the representation of young people in an erotic context. The male version of lolicon.
sukeban – A delinquent or rebellious girl.
tan – A suffix that means a character used as a mascot for a product. For example, the characters used to represent different computer operating systems are “OS-tans”.
tsundere – A female that is alternately aggressive and aloof, and sweet and charming.
yakuzas – Japanese gangs and gangsters. Organized crime. The equivalent of Western Mafia.
yandere – A psychotic stalker. A Japanese manga/anime genre depicting shy and quiet people who fall in love to the point of obsessing over someone, eventually turning violent and abusive, perhaps even murderous.
yaoi – Japanese manga/anime depicting gay men but intended for women. In the West, if you made fiction especially for “queers”, it would be called yaoi.
yuri – A lesbian, or an art that attracts or represents homosexual women.