So this is the blurb of book 3, and I just wanted to note how Narita (or the translator) refers to the characters here;
Masaomi: a boss
Mikado: a boy
Horada: a man
Izaya: a boy
That’s rather unusual. I wonder if it’s intentional or a mistranslation. I could understand refering to Masaomi as a boss but so is Mikado and he’s called a boy. Not to mention calling a 21 year old a boy. I’ve known 16 year olds who insist they’re men and not boys
It could be a mistranslation of course, but personally, I think it’s about their mentality, or their perception of self.
Masaomi, although he acknowledges that he’s still young and has much to learn, considers himself the yellow scarves’ boss first off all, and the other characters agree; he’s been making the kind of choices normally reserved for adults for years now. The book is also mostly about the trouble brewing with yellow scarves, so ‘boss’ is his most prominent role in this particular instalment.
Mikado, although he’s the founder of the dollars, is not technically a boss, since he’s not really leading anyone at this point. And besides, he’s still very naive and quite short sighted, almost willfully unaware of what his friends are up to.
Horada is lacks any kind of naivety and is obvious scum so no doubt man fits him better then boy, even though I think he’s a little younger than Izaya?
And that leaves Izaya himself. Naive would certainly be a mismatch for his character, but he does have an extremely juvenile mindset, to the point where multiple characters refer to him as a kid in later books. He’s the kid who’s poking the beehive after all, right? Personally I wouldn’t refer to him as a man either… I think he’s best identified as a disaster
