Anime and intertextualities

Hegemonic identities in Cowboy Bebop

Mie Hiramoto
National University of Singapore

Cowboy Bebop, a popular anime series set in the year 2071 onboard the space-
ship Bebop, chronicles the bohemian adventures of a group of bounty hunters.
This paper presents how the imaginary characters and their voices are conven-
tionalized to fit hegemonic norms. The social semiotic of desire depicted in
Cowboy Bebop caters to a general heterosexual market in which hero and babe
characters represent the anime archetypes of heterosexual normativity. Scripted
speech used in the anime functions as a role language which indexes common
ideological attributes associated with a character’s demeanor. This study focuses
on how ideas, including heterosexual normativity and culture-specific practices,
are reproduced in media texts in order to negotiate the intertextual distances
that link the characters and audience.

Keywords: anime, Japanese, intertextuality, role language, indexicality,

naturalization

1. Introduction: Media intertextuality

Modernity has seen a widespread implementation of the institutionalization of

standard language and discourse, although in reality varieties of language and dis-
course are able to coexist, if in a somewhat disorderly manner. In Foucault’s (1980)
terms, the semiotic construction of discourse practices depends on general rules
that characterize the discursive formation to which they belong. The semiotic no-
tion of intertextuality introduced by Kristeva (1980) refers to connections between
a text and other previous or synchronic texts across time and space. When char-
acters are created in media, discourse practices are strategically assigned to such
characters in order to assign them to their given roles (see Lazar and Wahl this
issue) by utilizing existing concepts and conventions. Thus, even the creation of a
new personality is not entirely new as its attributes are constructed through inter-
textual discursive practices based on preexisting social norms.

Pragmatics and Society 1:2 (2010), 234–256.  doi 10.1075/ps.1.2.03hir

issn 1878–9714 / e-issn 1878–9722 © John Benjamins Publishing Company
 Anime and intertextualities 235

Park (2009: 548) states that media is one of the most influential of the insti-
tutions that connect disparate groups into an imagined community (Anderson
1983). When imaginary characters are created, their language use reflects the so-
cial ideologies that the creators wish to use or convey. Also, the creators may take a
variety of stances toward these social/linguistic hierarchies and expectations. Gal
and Irvine (1995) and Gal (1998) discuss the construction of ideologies through
the semiotic processes of iconization and erasure (also see Wee 2006). Iconization
refers to the idea that “linguistic differences that index social contrasts are rein-
terpreted as icons of the social contrasts” such that “the ideological representation
fuses some quality of the linguistic feature and a supposedly parallel quality of the
social group and understands one as the cause or the inherent, essential, explana-
tion of the other” (Gal 1998: 328, italics in original). Gal (1995) also notes how
language relates to power by pointing out the fact that certain linguistic variants
are more highly valued than others in a culture. Simultaneously, resistance to the
dominant culture occurs in linguistic practices and some people purposely choose
to use devalued linguistic variants. “These devalued practices often propose or
embody alternate models of the social world” (Gal 1995: 175) and both valued
and devalued linguistic variants become sources of social power. Ideologies may
be iconized or involve iconization; moreover, they may also be the vehicles of in-
dexical relations between language and the social. Hill’s (2005: 114) discussion of
Mock Spanish exemplifies this concept of iconization. She states that Mock Span-
ish entails inferences that are a reduction and production of negative racist stereo-
types of Spanish speakers, and that its use implicates all members of historically
Spanish-speaking people to be
lazy, dirty, unintelligent, sexually loose, and politically corrupt, as persons who
speak a language that is not only disorderly and somewhat primitive but also easy
and well suited to insincerity, and talk suited to sloth, filth, licentiousness, and the
like (Hill 2005: 114).

The notion of erasure refers to a process “in which ideology, in simplifying the field
of linguistic practices, renders some persons or activities or sociolinguistic phe-
nomena invisible” (Gal and Irvine 1995: 974). Within Japanese society, Standard
Japanese (SJ) is widely recognized as a special register of linguistic resource. In the
media, it is socially expected of and thus assigned to a limited group of people who
are considered to be stereotypically normative Japanese people. The SJ linguistic
ideology endows speakers of this register with sophisticated qualities, at least su-
perficially in regimented, or centralized, media discourse. Examining Japanese
women’s language (JWL) in SJ, Inoue (2003) writes that certain linguistic resources
such as sentence final particles including wa, wayo, noyo, dawa, and kashira, mark
softness, uncertainty, and other ‘weak’ affects which project normative femininity.
236 Mie Hiramoto

These particles function as markers of normative femaleness when used by Japa-

nese speakers; therefore, the particles function as “the socially-accepted and cul-
turally-constituted gendered demeanor” in Japanese (Inoue 2003: 319). Her argu-
ment is based on Ochs’s notion of indexicality as summarized in Table 1:

Table 1.  Indexing gender in Japanese, adopted from Ochs (1992: 342)

Linguistic form Direct index Indirect index
ze, zo, daze, dana, kayo, etc. coarse intensity male ‘voice’
wa, wayo, noyo, none, kashira, etc. delicate intensity female ‘voice’

Inoue (2003) investigates the use of JWL and SJ in the novel Sekiryô Kôya ‘Soli-
tude Point’ written by Yoshimeki in 1993. The female protagonist of the story, a
64-year-old Japanese woman named Yukie, is supposedly from a non-SJ speak-
ing region in western Japan and grew up in a working class family. However, in
the story, not only does she speak flawless SJ but she also uses prototypical JWL
including the particles shown in Table 1 above. Realistically, it is highly unlikely
that a woman of Yukie’s background would speak either SJ or JWL. Her speech
style thus demonstrates the aforementioned process of erasure, as it “reasserts the
unity and homogeneity of Japanese language and, thereby, that of women’s lan-
guage” (Inoue 2003: 325) by overshadowing Yukie’s real identity as an uneducated
regional-dialect-speaker from a rural area.
As explained by Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003), the success of a dominant
ideology depends on its ability to convince people that it is not a matter of ideolo-
gy, but simply natural, the way things are (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2003: 43).
They refer to this process as naturalization, the construction of a social norm based
on the general consensus of what needs no explanation because people believe it
is how things are: baby gift colors should be pink for girls and blue for boys, un-
educated people should speak with a Tôhoku accent while educated city-dwellers
should speak SJ. Naturalization means more or less the same thing as the idea of
iconization discussed above. This paper aims to investigate iconization/natural-
ization as concerns both normative and non-normative characters in the popular
anime, Cowboy Bebop (CB), which won the approval of international viewers, by
investigating correlations between the type of language used and the normative/
non-normative traits associated with the characters in the show. The results of the
study suggest that the crucial role of scripted speech in CB is to construct a lan-
guage ideology that is far from a realistic portrayal of the speech of everyday prac-
titioners of language. Consider Agha’s (2005: 38) discussion of enregisterment, the
“processes whereby distinct forms of speech come to be socially recognized (or
enregistered) as indexical of speaker attributes by a population of language users.”
The media employ such enregisterment as a method for simplifying complicated
 Anime and intertextualities 237

discursive practice. It is quite common for Japanese media discourse practice to

not make use of the realities of the distribution of both regional and social Japa-
nese dialects, e.g. representing characters that in real life would speak in a regional
or social dialect, with a standard variety. Media characters that belong to certain
subgroups are bound by specific sociolinguistic expectations (e.g. according to
age, gender, socioeconomic status, regional affiliation, personal traits) to project
stereotypical roles that they are assigned to. Thus, institutions such as media pro-
mote simplified interactions typified by linguistic enregisterment, thereby repro-
ducing language and power relationships through intertextual discursive practices
(Agha 2005). An example of the regimentation of language concerning imaginary
speakers of Japanese can be seen in Kinsui’s (2003, 2007) work on ‘role language.’
He lists linguistic features used by imaginary characters in novels, dramas, anime,
translations, etc., and calls them yakuwarigo ‘role language.’ This assignment of
linguistic registers is based on the semiotic process of iconization and erasure, as
it helps audiences identify stereotypical images related to imaginary characters’
roles. Yukie from Sekiryô Kôya in Inoue’s (2003) analysis, mentioned earlier, pro-
vides an example: her countryside working class family origins have been erased
by JWL, as her given identity in the novel was a stereotypical ‘Japanese woman’ in
her senior years. Yukie gets jealous because people label her as ‘a war bride’ where-
as her daughter-in-law is depicted as ‘a bride of an international marriage.’ Even in
the situations where Yukie reveals her jealousy of her young, educated, city-born
daughter-in-law, Yukie’s introspections are in JWL, her ‘role language’ in the story.
Yakuwarigo is a facet of the regimentation of the Japanese language which corre-
lates specific linguistic registers’ pragmatic and semantic meanings with characters
that embody expected roles. Kinsui (2003) also claims that SJ is usually reserved
for protagonists while some social or regional dialects (or even pseudo dialects)
are used by side characters with specific attributes. For example, the Ôsaka dialect
is assigned to money-oriented, funny characters, while the Tôhoku dialect is for
uneducated, unsophisticated characters; similarly, American Southern slave char-
acters in translations of novels such as Gone with the Wind or Uncle Tom’s Cabin
speak a pseudo dialect that resembles the use of Tôhoku dialect in the Japanese
context (see Gaubatz 2007; Hiramoto 2009). Similarly, Lippi-Green’s (1997) work
shows how accents and dialects are associated with fictional characters in media,
suggesting that these language propagations promote the inequalities between the
mainstream and socially subordinate languages.
A number of researchers have reported on issues of language, gender, and
sexuality and their link to issues of power and ideology. This study also observes
the ways in which a medium of Japanese pop culture like anime constructs he-
gemonic heterosexuality (as well as hegemonic masculinity), and the ways in
which these are made identifiable to the audience. Kiesling (e.g. 2002/2006, 2005)
238 Mie Hiramoto

investigates how a group of fraternity house members at a North American uni-

versity emphasizes heterosexual male dominance, while female and homosexual
male subordination is highlighted by the members’ construction of gender ide-
ologies via language use. He demonstrates “how language is used by the men to
reproduce a hegemonic heterosexuality which is embedded in the larger context
of hegemonic masculinity” (Kiesling 2002/2006: 129). The examples include the
members’ use of address terms toward other males, and their stories of drinking
and their sexual exploits with women. These data demonstrate constructions and
reproductions of heterosexual male dominance by the members in order to claim
power in a same-sex social group. He also notes:
What we see here is that heterosexual identities and ideologies are being created
in a much more complex way: there is really no separated group of heterosexuals
in the dominant culture. This group, like men a few decades ago, is considered the
norm, and is indeed hardly a coherent group. But we have seen here that we can
identify heterosexuality as part of these men’s socially constructed identity.
 (Kiesling 2002/2006: 129)

The idea of hegemonic masculinity or normative sexuality is well reflected and

represented in mainstream media discourse including scripted speech used in pop
culture such as movies, comics, games, and anime. The ideas of a conventional
popularity, the conventional ideas of what it means to be a popular person within a
particular social group, support associations of normative males and females with
the language of power, e.g. standard or gender-appropriate varieties (Lippi-Green
1997). The linguistic conformity associated with the normative ideology of gender
and sexuality is easily attainable through performance if one wishes to show com-
pliance with the hegemonic hetero-normative ideology (e.g. Hall 1995) and this is
straightforwardly done in media discourse. As pointed out by Inoue (2003), highly
idealized JWL has became the property of imagined characters like Minnie Mouse
or Barbie, while hardly any Japanese women would speak in that way in reality.
Likewise, in what follows I will demonstrate how idealized language is assigned to
fictional characters in the anime in order to appeal to a specific semiotics of desire
that is assumed to be the norm of today’s society.

2. Data and methodology

CB, originally released in Japan in 1998, was used as data for this study. Susan Na-
pier, the author of Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Con-
temporary Japanese Animation, writes, “[CB] gained an intense following both in
America and Japan precisely because it took certain conventions of masculinity
and explored them on a deep and emotionally satisfying level” (Napier 2005: xiii).
 Anime and intertextualities 239

The story is set largely on the futuristic spaceship Bebop in the year 2071, and
follows the adventures of a group of bounty hunters (two male and two female):
ex-triad member Spike Spiegel, ex-cop Jet Black, sexy con-artist Faye Valentine,
and child computer hacker Radical Edward. The show became extremely success-
ful internationally and remains one of the most popular anime outside Japan to-
day. The anime movie version was released in 2003 and a live action version is in
production in Hollywood. CB’s target audience is young adults, not children. The
show was selected for this study because of its stereotypical portrayal of hege-
monic ideology based on heterosexual norms represented in a “social semiotic of
desire” as explained by Cameron and Kulick (2003: 140):
[I]t is important to acknowledge that desire is materialized and conveyed through
semiotic resources that are variably distributed among members of the societies
in which they are used. As Penelope Eckert (2002) has observed, there will be
structured variation in people’s use of what we have called the ‘social semiotic of
desire,’ because different kinds of people are socialized to desire different things,
and/or to express their desires in different ways.(Cameron and Kulick 2003: 140)

The point here, however, is that the social semiotic of desire depicted in CB caters
to a general heterosexual market. Hero and babe characters represent anime ar-
chetypes of heterosexual normativity, as, in Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s words
(2003: 35), they are modeled after universally quintessential men and women: such
as Superman and Scarlett O’Hara. The heterosexual norms in CB are established

Figure 1.  Main male characters, Jet and Spike

© SUNRISE. Permission for reprint received 2009. All rights reserved.
240 Mie Hiramoto

Figure 2.  Main female characters, Faye and Ed

© SUNRISE. Permission for reprint received 2009. All rights reserved.

through semiotic resources such as body image and language use. Images of the
main characters of CB are shown in Figures 1 and 2.
Spike and Jet are both mentally and physically skilled, although both have pros-
thetic body parts due to previous battle injuries. Spike is a master of Bruce Lee’s
Jeet Kune Do and an excellent gunman while Jet is an experienced mechanic and
capable programmer who loves bonsai gardening. Additionally, not only do Spike
and Jet speak idealized, rough men’s language throughout the series, including the
masculine sentence final particles shown in Table 1, they are excellent fighters and
extraordinary pilots. Faye’s seemingly aggressive background as a bounty-hunter
and a con-artist is conveyed quite clearly through her addiction to gambling and
penchant for street fighting, but she also consciously maintains her beauty. In her
work on Sailor Moon (Toei Animation 1992/2002, original by Naoko Takeuchi),
Allison (2000: 269) reports that one of the fans she interviewed, a 9-year-old girl,
said she likes Sailor Moon because the title character has a great figure (sutairu ga
ii) and not because she is powerful. Allison (2000: 269) goes on to say that this is
the reason why some older men like the show — the character is viewed as a ‘sex
icon’ and is an example of the infantilized female sex object, the idolization of
which has become a general trend in Japan (see also Cornog and Perper 2005).
Faye from CB is also definitely objectified; a magazine reviewer describes her as
“a standard anime cutie with perky grapefruit-shaped boobs and tiny pert mouth”
(Maio 2003: 95) and says that he suspects teen boy viewers enjoy watching a par-
ticular segment where Faye is abducted and ends up bound and disheveled on the
 Anime and intertextualities 241

floor (Maio 2003: 95). As the babe character, Faye generally shows strong JWL
characteristics. These three main characters, as portrayed by the art work and their
language, are aligned with hegemonic gender and linguistic ideology. However,
the other female main character, Ed, remains an oddball throughout the series as
her name, looks, and language use obscure her femininity.
For this study, all 26 episodes of CB were transcribed; each episode runs about
23 minutes. Stories are structured with largely self-contained plots, and feature dif-
ferent guest protagonists, side characters, and villains. The total data covers about
600 minutes of audiovisual recording, excluding opening and closing credits and
previews. The American English translations used in this paper are based on the
dubbing of the CB, not on the subtitles.

3. Masculine and feminine voices

Japanese is known to have gender exclusive expressions, and the features of JWL,
including sentence final particles, pronouns, lexical items, and discourse styles
have been studied extensively (e.g. Ide 1982; Reynolds 1985; Shibamoto 1985; Mc-
Gloin 1990; Okamoto 1995). Regarding first person pronouns, watashi is consid-
ered gender-neutral, while ore and boku are masculine and atashi and atakushi are
feminine; there are many other forms available depending on speakers’ social status
and age as well as the current conversational context. Within the gender-exclusive
pronominal categories, different pronouns carry different connotations. Within the
masculine category, boku is considered casual, ore is rough. Another first person
pronoun, washi, can be interpreted in two different ways: as a marker of a provin-
cial accent or of an elderly male authority’s voice. In some regions (e.g. Hiroshima,
Nagano, or Aichi prefectures), washi is used by both male and female speakers.

Table 2.  First person pronouns

Masculine Neutral Feminine
(Colloquial) (Formal) (Colloquial)
Casual Rough Old Formal Neutral Formal Casual
boku ore washi watakushi watashi atakushi atashi

As mentioned, the normative main characters were assigned with expected nor-
mative SJ. The bounty hunter heroes sound like tough men and the sexy female
sounds quite feminine. Normative guest characters were also assigned with SJ,
and similarly spoke in a manner indicating their conformity to gendered speech
norms. Example  1 demonstrates normative characters’ male and female voices
heard in guest protagonists’ speech:
242 Mie Hiramoto

(1) Rhint and Alisa, Episode 10: Ganymede Elegy

After Alisa’s boyfriend, Rhint, accidentally kills a loan shark who was after
Alisa, they plan to run away together.
Rhint: Ore o saguri ni kitan da… Kusô, shôkin o kakerareteru noka… Mô
dame da…! Mô dame da…!
He’s after me… I have a bounty on my head… It’s all over…!
Alisa: Anata wa warukunai wa… Atashi ga anna yatsu kara okane o karita
kara… atashi o mamotte kuretan janai…
It’s not your fault… It’s because I borrowed money from a crook
like him. I should’ve never let you get mixed up in this.
Rhint: Tsukamattara mô tasukaranê, ore wa koroshichimattan da ze…
If I get caught, nothing can save me… nothing. I killed him.
Alisa: Nigemashô… Nigeru noyo, futari de!
Let’s go. We’ve gotta run, right now!

In the data, all the male characters in protagonist roles spoke normative SJ and
in a masculine way. This was true for Gren, a guest protagonist with a soft and
kindly demeanor, who is a gay saxophone player (Episodes 12 & 13: Jupiter Jazz 1
& 2). Gren, an openly gay character, has a mainstream male role and speaks as one
would expect a man to speak. In Example 2, Faye and Gren discuss his homosexu-
ality; Gren employs masculine speech and Faye, feminine, throughout.
(2) Faye and Gren, Episode 12: Jupiter Jazz 1
[at a bar]
Faye: Atashi wa mitame hodo karui onna janai wa.
I’m not as simple as I seem, Mr. Saxophone.
Gren: Ainiku onna niwa kyômi ga nakute…
Women aren’t my style. Sorry.
Faye: Ara, zannen…
Oh, what a pity.
[after deciding to go to Gren’s house]
Gren: Kantan ni shinnyôshite î noka?
And you trust me, just like that.
Faye: Onna niwa kyômi nain desho?
You said you weren’t interested in women.

The contrast between Gren’s use of the masculine particle noka, and Faye’s use of
feminine forms such as the pronoun atashi and the particle wa (with rising into-
nation) is obvious. In addition, she uses the sentence-initial filler, ara, as well as
the interrogative marker desho with a rising intonation, also feminine. Examples 1
and 2 demonstrate that the normative register is reserved for protagonists, as one
would expect from Kinsui’s (2003: 51, 70–72) observations on role language.
 Anime and intertextualities 243

On the other hand, side characters are often assigned with role languages
which help to iconize certain non-normative or otherwise undesirable traits. Kin-
sui (2003: 173) points out that men categorized as nyû hâfu ‘cross-dresser, literally
new half’ or okama ‘male homosexual’ often speak JWL in Japanese media. In the
data, the only male characters in the entire series who spoke women’s language
were a group of cross-dressers in Episode 12 (Jupiter Jazz 1). Unlike Gren, the
guest protagonist, the cross-dressers, living on a womanless planet, were assigned
okama kotoba ‘JWL spoken by men,’ sometimes known as onê kotoba ‘big sisters’
language.’ Fushimi (1991: 21) notes that although the internalization of feminine
language in onê kotoba is an extension of JWL, it is often realized as a grotesquely
exaggerated parody (cited in Suzuki 1998: 81). In Example 3, Spike, in search of his
estranged girlfriend Julia, ends up meeting a cross-dresser prostitute named Julius
during his search.
(3) Julius and Spike, Episode 12: Jupiter Jazz 1
Julius: Shitsurei ne! Juria janai wa, Ju-ri-a-su, Juriasu yo!
Sorry sailor, I’m not Julia. Ju-li-US. My name’s Julius.
Spike: A, so…
My mistake.
Julius: A, sô da, Guren nara nanika shitteru kamo… Mae ni onna to
isshodatta no, mitakoto aru wa.
Y’know, Gren’s really the one who might be able to help. I’ve
seen him with women on occasion.
J’s friend: Ara, okyaku?
Oh, a customer?
Julius: Chigau wayo. Dômitemo nonke desho? Sa, basho kaemasho.
‘Fraid not, darling. Can’t you see he’s straight? C’mon. Let’s try
another corner.

In Example 3, Julius, in his onê kotoba, uses the feminine features wa, wayo, and
desho. His cross-dresser friend employs the feminine sentence-initial filler ara.
This non-normative language use indexes simplistic assumptions based on super-
ficial interpretations of the characters’ sexuality. In the last line, Julius refers to
Spike as nonke, common jargon among homosexuals to refer to a straight person
(Abe 2004: 208). This interaction serves to make explicit the fact that a straight
male like Spike only desires a straight female and to reinforce Spike’s heterosexu-
ality. As the cross-dresser prostitutes live on a womanless planet, and consider-
ing the comments made by other, frustrated, heterosexual male characters who
reside there (see Example 4 below), it is implied that the cross-dressers’ clients are
not necessarily all homosexual males. Julius’s sexuality is never discussed and his
rather complicated gender and sexual identities are simply classified as belonging
244 Mie Hiramoto

in a ‘non-normative’ category; he is presented as the binary opposite of normative,

woman-loving Spike.
(4) Comments by men on the womanless planet, Episodes 12 & 13: Jupiter Jazz
1&2
[on a street, a group of men following Faye]
MAN: Ojôsan, sono kakkô wa me no doku da. Soretomo sasottenno kai?
Madam, your appearance is harmful to the eyes. Or are you
trying to entice us?
FAYE: Nnn, sô nanoyo. Chotto mattete ne.
Oops! You found me out! Just hold on a minute.
[at a bar, a bartender talking to Jet]
BARTENDER: Â, namami no onna o mitanowa hantoshi buri, gokujô no
onna tte kotode ieba ninen buri da. Mimachigaeruwake nai
desho.
Oh yeah… It’s been six months since I saw a woman in the
flesh and two years since I saw a girl that good-looking.
Trust me, I wouldn’t make a mistake about that!
JET: Kono machi niwa sumitakanê na…
Man, I sure wouldn’t wanna live around here.

While Julius’s term in Example 3, the gay term nonke, meaning ‘a straight man,’
highlights Spike’s normative sexuality, it establishes Julius’s own identity as an
unambiguously non-straight sex-worker who caters to male clients who desire his
superficially feminine appearance on the womanless planet. Through this, Spike’s
normativity and Julius’s non-normativity are brought to the audience’s attention.
Quite dissimilarly, Ed, the other main female character, hardly uses gendered
expressions at all. Her name, as well as the other characters’ repeated comments on
the ambiguity of her gender, help to reinforce Ed’s heterosexually non-normative
identity.
(5) Comments on Ed’s gender
Faye talking to Ed, Episode 9: Jamming with Edward
Faye: Ara, anta, onna no ko nano?
Hey, you’re a girl?
A security guard suspecting Ed’s gender, Episode 23: Brain Scratch
Guard: Musumette…? Honto ni onnanoko ka?
She’s an unusual looking child. Is she a girl?
Ed’s father meeting with Spike and Jet, Episode 24: Hard Luck Woman
Father: Ô sô ka. Musuko ga sewan natta. N? Musume datta ka?
Oh, that’s different. Thanks for taking care of my son… Or, uh, was
it my daughter?
 Anime and intertextualities 245

Ed, as seen in Example 5, is portrayed as decidedly gender-neutral or ambiguous.

Her non-conformity to feminine norms is not depicted by the use of masculine
features, but rather by her predominant use of neutral features. In other words, in-
terestingly, the lack of feminine features (JWL), not the use of masculine features,
helps to construct Ed’s non-femininity, thus, adding masculine elements to her
characteristics. Ed is categorized as [-feminine] (or androgynous) because of her
[-JWL] condition, and not because of her use of masculine features.

4. Standard and non-standard voices

There are several side characters in the data who speak regional dialects. Kinsui
(2003) notes that certain regional dialects function as role language to assign ste-
reotypical traits to imaginary characters: Ôsaka or generally Kansai dialect-speak-
ing characters’ in popular media such as manga, anime, and plays tend to be lo-
quacious, funny, frugal, food-loving, unsophisticated, etc. (Kinsui 2003: 81–101).
In one episode of CB, a male side character named Otto, a freight ship driver,
speaks with Hiroshima dialect. Some grammatical characteristics of Hiroshima
dialect are presented in the following table.

Table 3.  Hiroshima dialect

Grammar Hiroshima dialect SJ
Copula -ja -da
Sentence final particle -no, -wa/-ya -ne, -yo
Modal ‘must/ have to’ -nyâ -naito/-neba
Modal ‘to give’ (derogatory) -yoru -yagaru

In Example 6, Otto speaks to a fellow pilot, a guest female protagonist, V.T., about
his hit-and-run accident.
(6) V.T. and Otto, Episode 7: Heavy Metal Queen
V.T.: Ah, Ottô, dôshita no?
Hey, Otto. What’s up?
Otto: Atenige saretan ja. … Gêto no iriguchi de ikinari warikonde kite,
butsukete ikiyotta. Kusô, benshô sasenyâ ki ga suman wa! Mikaketara
oshiete kurê ya.
Eh, I got into a hit-and-run. … The guy cuts into line at the gate,
rams me, and then jets off! Shit! I gotta make him pay for repairs, at
least. So tell me if you see the weasel!
V.T.: Tokuchô wa?
246 Mie Hiramoto

So how do I spot him?

Otto: Soryâ nô, nantoka yû… Tôyô no megami san no e ga…
Uh, lemme think. Yeah, there was this giant Asian goddess painted
on his ship.

While V.T. and Otto are both blue-collar truckers, V.T. is a protagonist while Otto
is a side character. V.T. is assigned SJ, while Otto is given Hiroshima dialect. The
two different Japanese dialects function to project different characteristics — V.T.
is normative and Otto is not. Most likely this harks back to the popular 1970s
movie series Torakku Yarô ‘Trucker Buddy’ (Toei Video 2002–2009); the story was
based in Hiroshima and the protagonist, Bunta Sugawara, acted in fluent Hiro-
shima dialect despite being from the Tôhoku region (see Figure 3).
Subsequently, both Sugawara and long-distance truckers became iconic im-
ages of Hiroshima dialect speakers especially in dramas and movies.
Hiroshima dialect belongs to a subgroup of western Japanese dialects distinct
from SJ, which is itself a subdialect of eastern Japanese. Kinsui (2003) observed the
language use of imaginary scientists/wise men from various films including Dr.
Ochanomizu from Astro Boy, Dr. Agasa from Meitantei Conan ‘Case Closed,’ Dr.
Ôkido from Pokémon, Professor Dumbledore of Harry Potter, and Master Yoda
from Star Wars (in Japanese translations), and suggests that they are assigned a role
language which he classifies as hakasego ‘doctor/scientist language.’ Kinsui (2003)
also notes that hakasego contains many generic western Japanese characteristics.

Figure 3.  Torakku Yarô, Bunta Sugawara on the right

© TOEI COMPANY, LTD. Permission for reprint received 2010. All rights reserved.
 Anime and intertextualities 247

Table 4.  Hakasego ‘doctor/scientist language’ and SJ (adapted from Kinsui 2003: 5)

Grammar Hakasego ‘doctor/scientist language’ SJ
Copula -ja and its variants -da and its variants
Negation marker -n/-nu -nai
Existential marker oru iru
Gerundive -tteoru/toru -tteiru/iru

Table 5.  Generic characteristics of western and eastern Japanese (adapted from Kinsui
2003: 5)
Grammar Western Japanese Eastern Japanese
Copula -ja/-ya and their variants -da and its variants
Negation marker -n/-hen -nai/-nê
Existential marker oru iru
Gerundive -tteoru/toru -tteiru/iru

CB as well contains its share of hakasego-speaking characters; in the following ex-

ample, the chess master Hex, a brilliant, yet senile, scientist, converses with three
other old men. In Example 7, Hex is talking about his new exciting chess mate.
(7) Hex and three old men, Episode 14: Bohemian Rhapsody
Carlos: Omaesan o tekozuraseru kurai ja yoppodo no yatsu jana!
He must be some player to pin you down!
Hex: Soreyori hirumeshi wa mada ka no?
I don’t know. Let’s have lunch first!
Antonio: Nani yûtoru? Sakki kûta jarôga!
You ate lunch a few minutes ago, blast it!
Hex: Hôjatta ka no?
Really? Did I like it?
Jobin: Boketorun janai ka?
You leave your brain somewhere?

Notice that it is not only Hex, but also the other old men who speak hakasego.
Kinsui (2003: 9) notes that old men speak just like doctors/scientists in manga
or anime, and categorizes their speech as rôjingo ‘old men’s language’; he further
notes that hakasego ‘doctor/scientist language’ is a subset of rôjingo, as only aged
characters are assigned hakasego. Of note is the fact that young scientist charac-
ters in CB did not use hakasego. However, we occasionally meet knowledgeable
old men who do not speak either rôjingo ‘old men’s language’ or hakasego ‘doc-
tor/scientist language’ — namely elderly villains in the series. Wang Long, Ping
Long, and Sou Long are 120-year-old triplets and bosses of the Red Dragon triad.
248 Mie Hiramoto

In Example 8, the elders are judging Vicious, the series’ young main villain, who
has betrayed the triad. They all speak SJ with formulaic expressions, highlighted
with underlining in Example 8, which are not usually used in colloquial speech.
Their speech sounds quite formal.
(8) The villains, Episode 25: The Real Folk Blues 1
Wang Long: Tonda dôke o yarakashita mono da. Uranaishi ga kôitta. Akai
tsuki no ban, hebi ga sono dokuga o furuô to osoroshiku hayaku
hashiru to.
What a foolish thing this is that you have done. A fortune-teller
warned us: On the night of the red moon, the snake will slither
and strike, bearing its venomous fangs.
Ping Long: Aware ni mieru zo, Bishasu.
You look so pitiful, Vicious. And you are.
Sou Long: Omae wa kôkeishaniwa narenai to wareware no kettei wa
tsutaeta hazu da.
We have already informed you of our final decision. You cannot
succeed us as a leader of this clan.
Vicious: Tatakaukotono dekinai shikabane nado, soshikini wa hitsuyô nai.
The syndicate doesn’t need corpses that can’t fight, who’ve lost
their taste for blood.

In CB, most of the villains speak in formal SJ as seen in Example 8. The triad elders,
as iconic villains, align with normative villains rather than old men characters, de-
spite the fact that they are 120 years old. In other words, their age is overshadowed
by the iconization of their ‘bad guy’ traits. The formulaic speech used by the vil-
lains here is not idiosyncratic to CB; this kind of speech is often assigned to villains
in other anime series. For example, in the first season of Sailor Moon, while most
of the main female characters used JWL (including Sailor Moon and the Sailor
Scouts), the ultimate enemy of Sailor Moon and the Scouts, Queen Beryl of the
Negaverse, used this formal speech style more than any other character. Kristeva
(1980: 69) refers to texts in terms of two axes — a horizontal axis connects the au-
thor and reader of a text whereas a vertical axis links the text to other texts across
time and space. In the same way that Otto the truck driver’s language is intertextu-
ally linked to that of Trucker Buddy’s, the formal formulaic speech of the villains
in CB is linked to other prior meanings. Satake (2003) states that while some types
of role language are associated with prejudice and discrimination, another nega-
tive byproduct of role language is the reinforcement of normative language use
or linguistic ideology, e.g. “what the correct Japanese language is” or “how should
women and men speak” (Satake 2003: 55).
 Anime and intertextualities 249

5. Foreigners’ voices

We saw above that the hakasego or rôjingo characterization was withheld from
certain otherwise eligible characters in favor of highlighting a different set of traits,
namely their status as villains. This technique was further employed throughout
the series, with the selection of aspects of various characters’ personalities based
on their ease of iconizability. One of the characters in the series, Laughing Bull, an
aged Native American medicine man who consults Spike and Jet, also speaks very
formulaic SJ, despite fitting both the age and wisdom criteria for rôjingo/hakasego.
(9) Laughing Bull to Jet, Episode 26: The Real Folk Blues 2
Bull: Hashiru iwa yo. Yatsu no hoshi wa nagareyôto shiteiru. Shi o
osoreru na. Shi wa itsumo sobani iru. Osore o miseta totan, sore wa
hikariyorimo hayaku tobikakatte kurudarô. Osorenakereba, sore wa
tada yasashiku mimamotteiru dake da.
You, Running Rock. His star is about to fall. I have dreamed it. Do
not fear death. Death is always at our side. When we show fear, it
jumps at us faster than light. But if we do not show fear, it casts its
eye upon us gently and then guides us into infinity.

The differences between the villains’ language and Laughing Bull’s is in the latter’s
rather long and complicated poetic expressions. Laughing Bull’s lines are so ab-
stract and metaphorical that they sound almost like the reciting of maxims rather
than conversation. Meek (2006) discusses imaginary Native American characters’
speech in the US and points out such clichés as the greeting ‘how’ accompanied
by a raised hand, Indian calls or battle cries, and formulaic speech. In Japanese,
stereotypical Native Americans often say things like indian uso tsukanai ‘Indian no
lie’ or overuse formulaic names and metaphorical expressions, telltale signs of the
influence of Hollywood movie translations. These expressions are equivalent to
Kinsui’s role language applied to Native Americans. In the case of Laughing Bull,
his foreignness (as a Native American Indian) is more highlighted than his age or
wisdom; therefore, the assignment of the stereotypical Native American expres-
sions works to erase his other characteristics.
Other examples of role language assigned to obviously foreign characters in-
clude the speech of Chinese and Caucasian characters. Kinsui’s descriptions of
Chinese role language (2003: 176–181; 2007: 203–207) include omissions of case
markers, as seen in the underlined sections of the following examples. The un-
derlined parts are missing case markers; in line 1, ninjin heisui (wa/de) genki (ga)
jûbun yo ‘lit. ginseng tonic contains enough energy,’ and line 2, Isshûkan (wa) mot-
su ‘lit. it will last you a week.’ These sentences would sound more native-Japanese
when completed with the appropriate case markers.
250 Mie Hiramoto

(10) Bartender and Hakim, Episode 2: Stray Dog Strut

Bartender: Nî-rai-rai. Okyaku-san, ninjin heisui genki jûbun yo.
Isshûkan motsu yo! Tsukareten nara satôkibi heisui yo!
Tabesugi dattara, painappuru heisui yo!
Ni lai lai, if you feel rundown try some ginseng heisui. It’ll
keep you up for a week. Out of whack, try some sugar cane
heisui. Ate too much? Have some pineapple heisui.
Abdul Hakim: Raochû da.
Gimme some lao-chu.
Bartender: Shei shei. Hai yo!
Thank you. Here you go.

Other than the case marker omissions, the overused sentence final particle yo as
well as terms adopted from Chinese language (marked in boldface) aid in the in-
dexing of the bartender in this example as a stereotypical Chinese character. The
examples nî-rai-rai ‘Mandarin, ni lai lai, lit. you come come,’ shei shei ‘Mandarin
xie xie, lit. thank you,’ and heisui ‘Cantonese, soda/tonic, lit. gas water’ are all quite
obviously non-Japanese.
Japanese media also reserve a particular register of role language for Caucasian
characters. The guest protagonist in one of the episodes, Andy von de Oniyate, is the
heir to the wealthy Oniyate Ranch, but he chooses to be a bounty hunter because
he believes it fits his cowboy-like cool nature. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and a
penchant for cowboy fashion, appearing (if only superficially) as a typical Cauca-
sian protagonist in a western movie. In her discussion of Caucasians’ role language,
Yoda (2007: 175–176) notes that use of interjections like oh or ah, as well as mixed
English-Japanese expressions are stereotypical features of seiyôjingo ‘westerners’
language.’ In Example 11, English words are inserted extensively into Andy’s speech.
(11) Andy, Episode 22: Cowboy Funk
[at a crime scene, suspecting Spike to be a culprit]
ANDY: Kyô kokoni bakudan o shikakeruto yuukoto wa, you no hanzai shûki
o keisansureba, me niwa kantan ni wakarukoto da.
I figured that you’d plant an explosive here today. It wasn’t difficult
after I studied your crime patterns and profiled your criminal mind.
[at a crime scene, being unsuspicious of a real culprit]
ANDY: Kare wa gâdoman janai ka!
Yeah right, that old security guard.
[justifying an entrance of his horse to a party]
ANDY: Oh, my aiba, Onikisu wa, tada no uma dewa nai!
Oh ho! But my Onyx is no ordinary steed!
[at a party, boasting his cowboy qualities to Faye]
 Anime and intertextualities 251

ANDY: Sô! Watashi wa sonna koto ki ni shinai! Kore to kimetara, hoka wa

nothing, mienai no sa.
Ma’am, I can’t worry about that. When my mind is set, well I’m
wearin’ blinders. Nothing else matters!
[at a crime scene, questioning a culprit]
ANDY: Omae wa dare da? Who are you?!
What do you want? Who are you?!

The expression seen in the 2nd excerpt, kare ‘he,’ while a Japanese word, sounds
like a direct translation from English and adds qualitative non-nativeness. In Ex-
ample 12, another Caucasian character, Judy, again exemplifies seiyôjingo features
such as English vocabulary mixing and the unnatural use of pronouns.
(12) Judy, Episode 12: Jupiter Jazz 1
Judy: Ûn! Good news wa, shôkin ga odoroki no, happakumantte koto ne! …
Karetteba tôttemo suteki nanoyo!
Mmm, and the good news is he’s worth a whopping eight million
woolongs! …What a handsome guy!

Both Andy and Judy’s seiyôjingo, which is highlighted in Examples 11 and 12,
helps to construct a sense of foreignness, which is not the same as the foreignness
projected by the Native American or Chinese characters presented above as each
of them indexes different types of foreignerness — the Native American, Chinese,
and Caucasian.

6. Conclusions: Hegemonic normativity, iconization, and naturalization

Based on the observations of the Japanese language in CB, I argue that both nor-
mative and non-normative characters are constructed to conform with hegemonic
ideals of gender, sexuality, occupation, age, and race. Normative characters are
represented as possessing most or all ideal traits, both visually and linguistically,
as the artwork and speech of both heroes and babes reflect. At the same time, char-
acters that do not conform to desirable sexual, visual, national, or age norms are
rendered less than attractive and are assigned linguistic features that deviate from
colloquial SJ. Of the four main characters, Spike, Jet, and Faye have speech styles
which serve to perpetuate the generic ideals of hegemonic normativity. The good
guys’ tough language (tougher even than their enemies) and near-invincibility
successfully iconize the heroes’ expected attributes while the babes, although oc-
casionally lapsing into unladylike expressions and behaviors, otherwise maintain a
speech style indexing their femininity. Additionally, normative guest protagonists
demonstrate their heroic attributes and, despite their tendency to die at the end,
252 Mie Hiramoto

prove nearly invincible until the very end of the show. All episodes are based on
dominant ideology and are predictable, appealing to a wide range of audiences
both Japanese and non-Japanese. As mentioned earlier, the widespread acceptance
of a dominant ideology owes its success to its ability to convince people that it
is not a matter of ideology, but simply natural, the way things are (Eckert and
McConnell-Ginet 2003: 43). This process of naturalization presents normativity
as something that needs no explanation. Naturalized ideas like ‘it is just natural
for men to be macho and women to be babes,’ are rampant in pop culture. Of
course, anime is patently fiction with overly exaggerated characters and it is not
a direct reflection of the way things are in reality. Anime, like many other pop
culture consumables such as comics and cartoons, seems to belong to a genre that
lends itself to irony and reflexivity. Nonetheless, as discussed by Satake (2003),
writing on gendered language use in children’s anime programs, anime as a genre
does influence reinforcement of hegemonic norms, leading to prejudice, discrimi-
nation, and linguistic prescriptivism. For example, an oversimplified iconization
process drew international attention to a particular anime program in 2008. The
popular anime show Jojo no Kimyô na Bôken ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’ (Studio
A.P.P.P. 1993/2001, Original by Hirohiko Araki), was criticized for including an
anti-Muslim innuendo when one of the story’s villains, while reading the Koran
in front of a mosque-like structure, orders his subordinates to murder the pro-
tagonists; international Muslim communities attacked the show for propagating a
crude equation between the Koran and the ‘bad guys’ (Japan Times 2008). Yet this
kind of iconization does get disseminated easily across cultures via popular media
such as anime. At the same time, the global acceptance of the hegemonically natu-
ralized norms may contribute to the success of anime, a medium which tends to
convey rather stereotypical and simplistic stories in naturalized terms.
In her summary of gendered speech styles, Cameron (1997: 49) mentions that
“[w]hereas sociolinguistics traditionally assumes that people talk the way they
do because of who they (already) are, the postmodernist approach suggests that
people are who they are because of (among other things) the way they talk.” Pen-
nycook (2003: 528) mirrors this line of thought, referring to performativity and
pre-existing identities, and states that “[i]t is not that people use language vari-
eties because of who they are, but rather that we perform who we are by (amongst
other things) using varieties of language.” The CB characters, as with all scripted
characters, are created with preconceived identities and appearances, and this de-
termines their language use. As all of the characters share futuristic bohemian
backgrounds, their individual particulars, such as ethnicity and language, are kept
vague throughout the show. It is the language that projects their fictional identi-
ties. The default viewers being Japanese at the time of production, the protagonists
do not fail to speak SJ and have culture-specific knowledge of Japan regardless of
 Anime and intertextualities 253

their apparently non-Japanese names and appearances; however, detailed ethnici-

ties or language backgrounds are not mentioned. The mainstream characters are
just assumed to be aligned to a default ‘normative Japanese’ category. There are
more than a few episodes in which the main characters behave as if they were
Japanese natives by demonstrating their understanding of traditional informa-
tion such as traditional stories, cuisine, maxims, cultural values, etc. Additionally,
even though as the series progresses, it is revealed that Faye Valentine is actually
Singaporean, her native Japanese fluency does not betray any such foreignness,
unlike the case of other supposedly non-Japanese characters such as the Chinese
bartender, the Native American medicine man, or the American cowboy. Her ‘pre-
existing identity’ as the show’s central female character dictates that she will have
the iconic language which is expected for her role. The SJ, as well as the JWL, that
she manipulates natively, indexes her mainstream position throughout the series.
The same can be said of any incongruities regarding other characters in the show.
The obvious foreigners are saddled with non-SJ or non-native Japanese fluency
which iconize their foreign roles. In short, pre-existing identities are paired with
the appropriate role language to reinforce the stratification of linguistic registers.
Blommaert (2003: 611) writes that there is a “worldwide lingua-cultural ho-
mogenization” taking place, with western norms becoming global norms, mani-
fested in such ways as the modern Japanese language’s frequent use of English as
well as adaptations of western cultures. Referring to this phenomenon as ‘McDon-
aldization,’ Blommaert (2003: 611) states that it “allows language users opportu-
nities to represent cultural, social, and historical conditions of being.” The rapid
penetration of anime into the global market, in contrast, may well be observed as
the Japanese counterpart to this McDonaldization: a Japanese pop culture com-
modity absorbed into a transnational culture and being appropriated as a part of
a hegemonic norm.

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the financial and institutional support given to this project by the Na-
tional University of Singapore FASS Start-up Grant (AY2008–1). Parts of this paper were pre-
sented at the 108th American Anthropological Association’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia
in December 2009, in the panel ‘Media intertextualities: semiotic mediation across time and
space,’ which was co-organized by Joseph Park and me. I thank the audience for their feedback.
My sincere thanks also go to Jacob Mey, Hartmut Haberland, and Kerstin Fischer as well as two
reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments on earlier versions of this article. I am
also appreciative of Yukiko Ogawa and Yuichi Endo of SUNRISE Inc. International Branch and
Ikko Kawamura of Toei Co. International Division and Toei Co., who kindly supplied me with
the artwork used in this paper. I am especially indebted to Asif Agha, Laurie Durand, Benjamin
254 Mie Hiramoto

George, Joseph Park, and Lionel Wee for their invaluable assistance and encouragement at vari-
ous stages of this project.

DVD

Cowboy Bebop: Complete Session Collection. 2003. [video] Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe.
USA: Pioneer Video. [6 videodiscs (10hr., 50 min.)]

References

Abe, Hideko. 2004. Lesbian Bar Talk in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In: Japanese Language, Gender, and
Identity, Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds), 205–221. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Agha, Asif. 2005. Voice, Footing, Enregisterment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15, 1,
38–59.
Allison, Anne. 2000. Sailor Moon: Japanese superheroes for global girls. In: Japan Pop!: Inside
the world of Japanese popular culture, Timothy J. Craig (ed), 259–278. Armonk, New York:
M.E. Sharpe.
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of na-
tionalism. London: Verso.
Blommaert, Jan. 2003. Commentary: A sociolinguistics of globalization. Journal of Sociolin-
guistics 7, 607–623.
Cameron, Deborah. 1997. Performing Gender Identity: Young men’s talk and the construc-
tion of heterosexual masculinity. In: Language and Masculinity, Sally Jonson and Ulrike H.
Meinhof (eds), 47–64. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cameron, Deborah and Don Kulick. 2003. Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Cornog, Martha and Timothy Perper. 2005. Non-western Sexuality Comes to the U.S.: A crash
course in manga and anime for sexologists. Contemporary Sexuality 39, 3, 1–6.
Eckert, Penelope. 2002. Demystifying Sexuality and Desire. In: Language and Sexuality: Con-
testing meaning in theory and practice, Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert Podesva, Sarah
Roberts, and Andrew Wong (eds), 99–110. Stanford, California: CSLI.
Eckert, Penelope and Sally McConnell-Ginet. 2003. Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. New York:
Pantheon.
Fushimi, Noriaki. 1991. Puraibêto Gei Raifu: Posto ren’airon [A Private Gay Life: Post-love
theory]. Tokyo: Gakuyô Shobô.
Gal, Susan. 1995. Language, Gender, and Power: An anthropological review. In: Gender Ar-
ticulated: Language and the socially constructed self, Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds),
169–82. New York: Routledge.
 Anime and intertextualities 255

Gal, Susan. 1998. Multiplicity and Contention among Language Ideologies: A commentary. In
Language Ideologies: Practice and theory, Bambi Schieffelin, Kathryn Woolard and Paul
Kroskrity (eds), 317–331. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gal, Susan and Judith Irvine. 1995. The Boundaries of Languages and Disciplines: How ideolo-
gies construct difference. Social Research 62, 967–1001.
Gaubatz, Thomas M. 2007. Translating Dialect in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn. In: Yakuwarigo Kenkyû no Chihei [Horizons of Role-language Research], Satoshi
Kinsui (ed), 125–158. Tokyo: Kuroshio.
Hall, Kira. 1995. Lip Service on the Fantasy Lines. In: Gender Articulated: Language and the so-
cially constructed self, Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds), 183–216. New York: Routledge.
Hill, Jane. 2005. Intertextuality as Source and Evidence for Indirect Indexical Meanings. Journal
of Linguistic Anthropology 15, 1, 113–124.
Hiramoto, Mie. 2009. Slaves Speak Pseudo-Tôhoku-ben: The representation of minorities in
the Japanese translation of Gone with the Wind. Journal of Sociolinguistics 13, 2, 249–263.
Ide, Sachiko. 1982. Japanese Sociolinguistics: Politeness and women’s language. Lingua 57,
357–385.
Inoue, Miyako. 2003. Speech Without a Speaking Body: ‘Japanese women’s language’ in transla-
tion. Language & Communication 23, 315–330.
Japan Times. 2008. ‘Anime’ Stokes Ire of Muslims: Shueisha freezes sales as critics slam ‘JoJo’s Bi-
zarre’ Quran scene Cairo, May 23, News section, Online edition. http://search.japantimes.
co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080523a1.html
Kiesling, Scott F. 2002/2006. Playing the Straight Man: Displaying and maintaining male hetero-
sexuality in discourse. In: The Language and Sexuality Reader, Deborah Cameron and Don
Kulick (eds), 118–131. London and New York: Routledge.
Kiesling, Scott F. 2005. Homosocial Desire in Men’s Talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural
discourses of masculinity. Language in Society, 34, 695–726.
Kinsui, Satoshi. 2003. Bâcharu Nihongo: Yakuwarigo no nazo [Virtual Japanese: The mystery of
role-language]. Tokyo: Iwanami.
Kinsui, Satoshi (ed). 2007. Yakuwarigo Kenkyû no Chihei [Horizons of Role-language Re-
search]. Tokyo: Kuroshio.
Kristeva, Julia. 1980. Desire in Language: A semiotic approach to literature and art. New York:
Columbia University Press.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in
the United States. London and New York: Routledge.
Maio, Kathi. 2003. Films. Fantasy & Science Fiction. September, 94–98.
McGloin, Naomi. 1990. Sex Difference and Sentence-final Particles. In: Aspects of Japanese
Women’s Language, Sachiko Ide and Naomi McGloin (eds), 23–41. Tokyo: Kuroshio.
Meek, Barbra. 2006. And the Injun Goes ‘How!’: Representations of American Indian English in
white public space. Language in Society 35, 93–128.
Napier, Susan. 2005. Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing contemporary
Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave.
Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing Gender. In: Rethinking Context: Language as an interactive phe-
nomenon, Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin (eds), 335–358. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
256 Mie Hiramoto

Okamoto, Shigeko. 1995. ‘Tasteless’ Japanese: Less ‘feminine’ speech among young Japanese
women. In: Gender Articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, Kira Hall and
Mary Bucholtz (eds), 297–325. New York: Routledge.
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul. 2009. Regimenting Languages on Korean Television: Subtitles and insti-
tutional authority. Text & Talk 29, 5, 547–570.
Pennycook, Alastair. 2003. Global Englishes, Rip Slyme, and Performativity. Journal of Socio-
linguistics 7, 513–533.
Reynolds, Katsue. 1985. Female Speakers of Japanese. Feminist Issues 5, 13–46.
Satake, Kuniko. 2003. Terebi Anime no Rufusuru ‘Onna Kotoba/Otoko Kotoba’ Kihan [Wom-
en’s Language/Men’s Language Guidelines Spread through Television Anime Shows]. Ko-
toba [Language] 24, 43–59.
Shibamoto, Janet. 1985. Japanese Women’s Language. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press.
Studio A.P.P.P. 1993/2001. Jojo no Kimyô na Bôken 3 [Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 3]. [video] Di-
rected by Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Hideki Futamura, Original by Hirohiko Araki. Tokyo:
Kadokawa Entertainment. [5 videodiscs (7hr., 30 min.)]
Suzuki, Chizu. 1998. ‘Joseigo’ o Tayôsuru Dansei wa ‘Okama’ ka? [Are Men who Frequently Use
Women’s Language ‘Queers’?] Kotoba [Language] 19, 69–91.
Toei Animation. 1992/2002. Bishôjosenshi Sailor Moon 1 [Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon 1]. [vid-
eo] Directed by Jun’ichi Satô, Original by Naoko Takeuchi. Tokyo: Toei. [1 videodisc (1hr.,
25 min.)]
Toei Video. 2002–2009. Torakku Yarô Sirîzu [Trucker Buddy Series]. [video] Directed by
Noribumi Suzuki. Tokyo: Toei. [10 videodiscs total (approximately 1 hr., 20 min. each)]
Wee, Lionel. 2006. The Semiotics of Language Ideologies in Singapore. Journal of Sociolinguis-
tics 10, 344–361.
Yoda, Megumi. 2007. Seiyôjingo “Ô, Romio!” no Bunkei: Sono kakuritsu to fukyû [The Sentence
Pattern “Oh, Romeo!” as Westerner Language: Its establishment and spread]. In: Yakuwari-
go Kenkyû no Chihei [Horizons of Role-language Research], Satoshi Kinsui (ed), 159–178.
Tokyo: Kuroshio.
Yoshimeki, Haruhiko. 1993. Sekiryô Kôya [Solitude Point]. Bungei Shunjû [Literature Art
Spring-Autumn]. September, 410–469.

Author’s address
Mie Hiramoto
Department of English Language & Literature
National University of Singapore
Blk AS5, 7 Arts Link, Singapore 117570
[email protected]