Honorifics in Cartoons

C

Courtandrach

New member
I lot of people have said that Japanese cartoons tend to use honorifics well American ones do not.

Well that's half correct, American cartoons use fewer honorifics but they still exist, more so then in other forms of American fiction. Many super villains use honorifics in their code names: Mr. Freeze, Mr. Sinister, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Doom, etc. Plus a lot of egomaniac super villains tend to insist their minions call them by outdated titles. Dr. doom will always be referred as master and lord by his subjects, no one calls him Vic, in fact calling yourself Doctor without having a doctorate is kinda like the Western version of calling yourself "ore-sama".

Plus there are super villains that go by feudal titles in their names, their many evil counts and evil barons in comics and cartoons, you don't see many counts or barons in real life anymore.

But its not limited to just super villains though, in cartoons a lot of heroic characters have mentors or other individuals that they respect. Alfred calls Batman "Master Bruce" which is a very outdated title for a young man.

Plus of course the term Mr. tends to get thrown around a lot. so yes Japanese cartoons use more honorifics, but they are used on American cartoons, more so then in other setting in America.
 
That's still very uncommon in modern society. Normally in American cartoons , only the evil overlord's minions refer to another as "master".

Also interesting, is some Japanese honorifics get used in American cartoons thanks to Karate Kid. Whenever a Japanese business man shows up in a cartoon, he will call everyone san and most material arts teachers will be called sensi at one point.
 
Meh, covered under the rule of cool.

Mr. Sinister's real name is Dr. Essex, but Dr. Sinister sounds lame. Mr. Sinister kinda rhymes.

Kinda like Dr. Doom calls himself Doctor, even though he has no doctorate, Mr. Doom would just sound lame.
 
I know that! I'm just comparing speaking styles between Eastern and western cartoons, therefore the way they speak is relevant. Serioulsy there is nothing wrong with talking about a bit of deeper subject like linguistics if it relevants to the subject.
 
So...this is a thread for listing characters with "Doctor" or "Mr./Ms./Mrs." in their names?

:( -> :crying: -> :mad:

And Japanese cartoons use more honorifics because the Japanese language has and uses more honorifics.
 
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