Changing Terms of Address: The battle with Douma, and how it changes Kanao and Inosuke
One thing that may or may not come across in translation from Japanese source material is the use of not only honorifics, but various titles and terms of address which either have no equivalent in a target language (for the purpose of this post, English), or come across clunky when literally translated. Since a lot of otaku love to stick as close as they can to the original languages to better appreciate the characterization, and because I know there are other canon sticklers out there in the fanfic community, I’m committing a fool’s errand by trying to compile the terms of address used in KnY.
It’s lead me to the heart-wrenching realization that not only do we never see Inosuke get Shinobu’s name wrong, but he used her name correctlyseven times in the battle against Douma.
Ow.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ooooooowwwwwww. Ahhhh. AHHHH! Gah, the pain, the paaaain. If you’ve seen this post of mine, you can guess how deeply this stabbed me with want for more soft interactions between Shinobu and Inosuke. It’s worth nothing that Inosukehasgotten names right before by this time, or he’s used some made-up names with consistency, but this is the first we’ve seen him used any name but his own with so much consistency and accuracy.
Another term he uses very consistently in this battle is “ore no hahaoya,” which translates to, “my mother.” Haha-oya (haha=mother oya=parent) doesn’t particularly lack warmth, you might say, but it is rather objective. It’s at the very end of the battle when Inosuke sinks to tears that he calls her by a more subjective title, “Kaachan.”
That isn’t the title Kotoha used when referring to herself in third person, “Kaasan,” so instead of Inosuke simply pulling from his memories, this is Inosuke making the choice to refer to her in a more endearing, close way. (Kaasan and Kaachan are not far off from one another, Tanjiro uses both for his mother, but Kaasan is a smidge might respectful.)
As for Kanao, she enters this battle still calling Shinobu her master, “Shihan.” This both in her speech and her thoughts, they’ve very clearly established a seriously Hashira-Tsuguko relationship.
On Shinobu’s part, she refers to Kanao plainly in ’yobi-sute’ (that is, addressing someone without any honorific). Yobi-sute can mean a lot of things, from showing closeness (hence the manga trope of ‘already yobi-sute!?’) to showing a lack of respect for someone. You see it a lot in KnY, for example, everyone in Tanjiro’s Final Selection batch always refers to each other in yobi-sute, like a sign of being each other’s equals, but everyone who hates Muzan addresses and refers to him in yobi-sute too. Shinobu also addresses Aoi in yobi-sute (and Aoi calls her Shinobu-sama, clearly showing a deference on Aoi’s part), and we know that both Aoi and Kanao have been in her care a long time. Kanae likewise addressed Kanao in yobi-sute as soon as they took her home, as opposed to calling her Kanao-chan. Shinobu addressed Kanae as “Neesan,” but it’s unclear what Kanao addressed Shinobu and Kanae as before she joined the Corp and started calling Shinobu “Shihan.” (For the record, Kanao and Aoi are yobi-sute with each other.)
When trash-talking with Douma, Kanao one time refers to Kanae as “Kanae-san.” An oddly respectfully distanced term of address for one she calls her sister (though she did use “Kanae-neesan” in the light novels in what chronologically would had been right around the start of Pillar Training). The change in Kanao’s distanced language happens when Shinobu’s poison starts to show an effect, and Kanao knows it’s time to go all in.
Despite having referred to Shinobu as “Shihan” for the entirety of this battle, it’s when Kanao is taking that moment she’s been waiting for to make a strike at Douma’s neck that she first thinks, “Shinobu-neesan.”
For the remainder of this battle, and its aftermath when she’s looking for the broken butterfly hairpieces, and when remembering them and finally able to cry, she consistently uses openly sisterly terms for them, “Kanae-neesan” and “Shinobu-neesan.” Besides the inability to cry, it may be that Kanao also never quite felt able to address them as her sisters, despite how much she may have wanted to?
Douma:All the eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus. When I crack that whip everybody goin trip just like a circus~
Douma, Inosuke, and Kanao:Don’t stand there watching me, follow me show me what you can do everybody let go, we can make a dance floor just like a circus~
Douma:I’m a genie in a bottle baby, gotta- wait, wait what?
Inosuke: THAT’S NOT BRITNEY!
Douma:SHIT
Kanao: Oh my god, did you see that? When we started singing Douma got so confused, he mixed up the catalogues of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears!
Inosuke: I GOT IT! The way to beat Douma is to out dance him!
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Fanart of Demon Slayer Shinobu Kocho and Kanao Tsuyuri. I actually did this piece a couple of years ago but never went around to posting ^^;;; I really like how this one turned out though and I’m looking forward to the new season of Demon Slayer!!!
