As you may have seen from my posts, I like to sprinkle in a lot of Japanese to help people learn and contextualize the language and culture a majority of our content comes from. While we’re a localization company, I know a lot of people who read manga do intend on eventually learning and hopefully mastering Japanese someday, whether it’s in order to not have to rely on English licenses to get that sweet, sweet content, or even just to be able to comfortably follow Japanese mangaka, publishers, or fan accounts, and it can be helpful to learn bit by bit through your hobbies.
Still in the process of my own Japanese-learning journey (I think most language learning never actually ends, honestly—even in your native language), after living in Japan for four and a half years I’ve found there are a lot of words that’re hard to know without specifically taking part in the cultures surrounding them. The same way, say, Dungeons & Dragons or Genshin or even sports fanbases have their own own vocabulary and phrases that don’t make a lot of sense outside their core community, being a nerd in Japan has its own language that can be a bit difficult to grasp for those not in the know.
A lot of these words take place within 推し活 (oshikatsu, a word that’s hard to translate but is essentially “oshi life”)—the words people use to talk about their favorite characters, idols, artists, etc. The word oshikatsu is a portmanteau (the Japanese language loves a good portmanteau) of 推し (oshi, or fav, bias, etc.) and 活動 (katsudou, activities), so essentially the activities and lifestyle of having an oshi. People who already take part in online or in-person Japanese otaku events likely already know this world well—the world otaku allow themselves to fall into once they’ve finished the dull slog of everyday life. The real world might suck, but at least we have oshikatsu to unwind to and enjoy with friends.
It’s actually such a common word at this point that it’s not rare to walk in to very average or trendy stores and see an oshikatsu section filled with colorful nui clothes, things to make uchiwa, or even just pouches and accessories in colors that are common signifiers of your fav idol or character. (For instance, my favorite character from Genshin is Xiao, so I tend to buy a lot of thing in the teals, greens, and soft purples that make up his color palette.) Trendy bakeries, cake shops, etc.—living an otaku lifestyle is very common and normal, and it’s not rare at all seeing stores and brands catering to it.
Nonetheless, there are still a lot of words that are so highly specific to actually living oshikatsu, otakatsu (“otaku life”), or BLkatsu (“BL life”) so I’ll introduce some of those words here. (Using Genshin characters and ships for many of my examples, since those are the names I know best lol.)
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推し（おし） oshi
Let’s start with the easiest and most well-known phrases, but arguably the most important. Osu sounds similar to “push” but the kanji is different (押す) so the meaning also differs. This version is specific to the act of supporting, backing, or endorsing something. Oshi is the noun version. It can be used like “Xiao is my oshi!” but also “I am Xiao-oshi!”
単推し（たんおし）tan’oshi
Tan’oshi (not to be mistaken for 楽しい/tanoshii) isn’t super different from oshi, but it’s a specific word used for when you like a group, but there is one member of the group you specifically really really really love—your fav within a group that you like.
箱推し（はこおし）hako’oshi
Hako’oshi is kind of the opposite of tan’oshi. Hako means “box” so essentially you like a group as a full package and don’t particularly have a specific favorite member—you love everyone equally!
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オタク otaku
Everyone knows this. Even non-otaku know this. But I wanted to include it to point out it’s actually a very common word, and doesn’t have the negative connotation that’s often pushed in the West. Anyone can be an otaku—it just means having an intense interest in something, from trains to idols to fashion to animals.
腐女子（ふじょし）fujoshi
“Ames, do you really think we don’t know what fujoshi means?” I’m sure everyone who reads this already knows this word, but it also felt wrong to leave it out of this section. For those who don’t know, fujoshi is an otaku who is specifically interested in BL content, whether in an “original content” sense or a “shipping” sense. Fujoshi does NOT just mean a female otaku; some have tried to claim it as such but always get shot down by the larger community. (See also: 腐男子/fudanshi which is the male version, and fujin, the gender-neutral term which is exclusive to western spaces.)
姫女子（ひめじょし）himejoshi
A himejoshi is a female fan of GL/yuri! These are people who enjoy GL ships as well as original manga. There are some fans who exclusively prefer GL, but some might like BL and GL equally!
夢女子（ゆめじょし）yumejoshi
As many know, yume means “dream.” A yumejoshi is a girl who prefers to self-insert with the male characters she likes. When she refers to her oshi as her husband, she’s not being ironic or silly. There is sometimes some polite crossover between fujoshi and yumejoshi but it’s generally not common, since they’re antithetical to each other.
ガチ恋（ガチこい）gachikoi
Gachikoi, or “legit love,” is used to refer to the act of falling in literal, sincere love with your oshi. This is a bit more common in 2.5D and 3D fandoms, but is also possible with 2D. This term is often used disparagingly, since gachikoi are frequently seen as quite toxic and possessive of their oshi, but it is possible to be a gachikoi without being weird about it.
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ボーイズラブ・BL
If you don’t know what this is, I’m shocked you somehow made it to this blog. Boys’ Love is the genre name for depictions of male/male romantic and sexual relationships. I’m assuming you’re a fan of this if you’re reading this post.
ガールズラブ・GL
Girls’ Love, perhaps more commonly referred to as yuri, is simply the female version of BL. There doesn’t seem to be much differentiation between yuri and GL the way there is for yaoi and BL, as most Japanese stores use the two names interchangably.
ティーンズラブ・TL
TL is what we refer to on Renta! as “mature romance,” but the actual phrase is “teens love.” In all honesty, I’m not sure why it’s referred to as such, but the name had to be changed for a western market since this is all erotic content aimed at adult women, not teens.
NL・HL
NL and HL are the words used for het relationships and content. HL obviously stands for “hetero love.” Unfortunately NL stands for “normal love,” but I’ve been told there’s been a move away from this in recent years specifically because it’s rather offensive.
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一次創作（いちじそうさく）ichijisousaku
Ichijisousaku can also just be referred to as sousaku, which is original content. This is not fanart or anything based off an existing series or franchise. The reason ichi is sometimes placed at the front is in case an artist posts both original and derivative works to their account; by tagging it as ichijisousaku it’s easy to differentiate that it’s their original work.
二次創作（にじそうさく）nijisousaku
Nijisousaku, however, IS content based off an existing series, title, or franchise. This is all fanart, fanfiction, doujinshi, and even cosplay content. Sometimes a mangaka will have a nijisousaku account specifically where they post fanart and such, but sometimes they leave it all in one place.
創作BL（そうさくBL）sousaku BL
As you may have guessed by now, sousaku BL refers to original BL, so anything tagged with this uses original characters specific to the artist. This can be both self-published or commercial content.
商業BL（しょうぎょうBL）shougyou BL
Shougyou BL, however, refers very specifically to licensed, published, commercial BL works. This means the title is commercially released in stores, and it’s not self-published by the author, or just a short story they wrote for social media. This is a useful tag for tracking down new titles and releases to look out for.
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沼（ぬま）numa
Numa means “swamp” or “bog.” Have you ever stepped into a swampy marsh and felt it pulling you down? And then it’s hard to pull your foot back out because of the pressure and suction from the mud? That’s numa—a semi-joking phrase that means you’ve been dragged down into the filth of a series or character or pairing and now there’s no getting out. This is particularly common when someone is feeling themselves dragged into a new fandom, or trying to convince a friend to get in the “swamp” with them.
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ジャンル genre
DO NOT be fooled by this phrase—it sits firmly in the camp of wasei eigo, Japanese phrases taken from English that mean something only vaguely related. “Genre” in the oshikatsu sense refers to the series or fandom, not the content within (romance, action, scifi, and so on).
I made this mistake once with a Japanese friend who planned on tabling at a doujinshi event. She told me she was planning to release a Touken Ranbu book, and I asked “which genre?” and she gave me a weird look and repeated “Touken Ranbu.” Needless to say, I’ll never forget the difference now.
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次元（じげん）シリーズ “jigen” series
Jigen means “dimension” so these are used to differentiate between fiction and reality…
2次元（にじげん）ni jigen
Nijigen is the 2D world, where fictional oshi roam. Anime, game, and manga otaku are the lords of the nijigen, and many of these type of otaku say they’re really only interested in 2D.
3次元（さんじげん）san jigen
Sanjigen is often used as slang to refer to the “real world,” the one where humans roam. 2D otaku may often speak disparagingly of “3D” and the things within (similar to phrases like “I’m not interested in 3D men—only 2D!”), but there are also many otaku who like 3D things like idols, musicians, movie stars, etc. A BL mangaka oshi would also be included in here (though it feels weird to phrase it that way).
2.5次元（にてんごじげん）ni-ten-go jigen
Ni-ten-go is the weird space between filled by actors playing your fictional oshi, common to stage plays or occasionally drama or movie roles. However, 2.5 can also be used to refer to seiyuu or VTubers—people who you may like only because they voice your fictional fav, or you know there’s a real human in there somewhere, but you like them based on their fictional, 2D persona.
生もの（ナマモノ）namamono/nmmn
As was previously discussed in the post all about namamono rules and culture, this is the shipping of actual living, breathing, 3D (or 2.5D) humans. Nama means “raw” and mono means “thing” or “object,” so namamono content is content dealing with living organisms. If you want to read more about namamono, check out: “There’s Fanfiction About Us?”
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カップリング coupling
“Coupling” (“CP”) or kappu is just the word for “ship.”
推しカップ（おしカップ）oshikappu / 自カップ（じカップ）jikappu
Oshikappu or jikappu refers to “OTP”—this couple is your ride or die, the one you put all of your time and effort head-canoning and creating content for.
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右・左（みぎ・ひだり）migi/hidari
As many people who’ve taken beginner Japanese know, migi and hidari simply mean “right” and “left,” so perhaps some of you are surprised to see them on here. But, as I discussed in my post all about namamono, migi and hidari refer to which side of the pairing name a character appears on.
In western fandom, the order of the pairing name seems to matter less than the vibe of how the name sounds i.e. I’ve seen “xiaoven” (the Genshin ship for Xiao and Venti) refer to Xiao topping, Venti topping, or reversible. In Japanese fandom, however, the ordering of the pairing name is serious business, and the character who tops is on the left, and the character who bottoms is on the right i.e. “Do you like ‘xiaoven’ or ‘venxiao’?” Thus, you might see something like 魈右, or “Xiao migi,” meaning the person is only interested in Xiao bottom.
固定（こてい）kotei
Kotei, meaning “fixed” or “anchored,” refers to someone who only likes content a specific way. For instance, if I said I was トマト固定 (thomato kotei), referring to the Genshin ship Thoma/Ayato, it would mean not only do I not want to read content of them with other people, but I also don’t want to read the reverse shipping order. I am only 100% specifically interested in Thoma topping Ayato, and Ayato bottoming for Thoma.
総攻め・総受け（そうぜめ・そううけ）souzeme/sou’uke
Souzeme and sou’uke is the very BL culture version of saying something like migi kotei or hidari kotei—it means in your heart, a character is either 100% seme or 100% uke. It doesn’t matter what character they’re with, but they should only ever top OR only ever bottom. To use Xiao again, for instance, I could say Xiao is sou’uke to me, meaning he never tops, no matter who he’s with.
リバ・逆（リバ・ぎゃく）riba/gyaku
Riba and gyaku refer to couples that are either 100% reversible, or switch occasionally. Riba is much more common in a genre sense, and is used more commonly in official and original BL.
雑食（ざっしょく）zasshoku
If Japanese fandom sounds a bit too strict and intense to you, just know that there are also zasshoku—“omnivores,” which is the word for multishippers and people who aren’t super particular about the ship, who tops or bottoms, etc. as long as the content is delicious.
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地雷（じらい）jirai
Jirai means “landmine,” and it’s the word people use to refer to content that they very heavily dislike. It’s similar to “squick” in the West, but quite a lot stronger, and often used in the context that if you post a specific type of content, the person will block you, or if a certain type of content is YOUR jirai then you should block them.
A jirai can be as big as “character death” and as seemingly inconsequential as specific ships or characters. It’s content you absolutely don’t want to see for any reason because it irritates you and ruins your day.
Some very common jirai:
×女体化（にょたいか）nyotaika – depicting one or both characters as female
×リョナ ryona – sometimes referred to as “whump” in the west
×固定（こてい）kotei – anything that goes against their “fixed” preferences
自衛（じえい）jiei
Jiei simply means self-defense, but it’s a strong belief in online communities that a person is in charge of their own comfort and happiness online. For this reason, blocking, muting, and putting very clear warnings about what one can expect from following your social media is encouraged. It may seem like gatekeeping from the outside, but it’s to avoid fandom in-fighting and policing.
担当（たんとう）tantou
The tantou is usually the head or manager of something, so tantou is used similar to oshi to indicate your fav, but is often more specific to idol series (particularly older ones like Idol Master, Uta no Prince-sama, and Idolish7). It’s similar to saying “I am the manager of xyz idol.” However, unlike with oshi, the phrasing for tantou is more restrictive—if I said “Xiao is my tantou” that would be like saying Xiao is my manager. It can only be the other way around.
同担（どうたん）doutan
Dou means “same” and tan is the same from tantou, so this essentially means you’re managing the same idol. However, this is also just generally used to refer to people who have the same oshi as you. There are two very important versions of this phrase, though:
同担歓迎（どうたんかんげい）doutan kangei
willing/seeking for friends with the same oshi.
同担拒否（どうたんきょひ）doutan kyohi
doesn’t want to associate with people with the same oshi.
垢（あか）aka
Aka literally just means dirt or grime, but it’s a play on words for the shortened version of アカウント (account). Aka refers to someone’s social media account. For instance, one might have an account specifically for talking about Genshin, so 原神専用垢 (Genshin senyou aka, or “Genshin-specific account”). It’s particularly common, especially previously, to refer to people’s shit-posting or personal accounts with this kanji.
雑多（ざった）zatta
Zatta just means “misc.” and is thus generally refers to a multi-fandom account. It’s often used in the insinuation “don’t follow me if you’re only interested in _______” since if you follow this type of account after seeing a bunch of cute Xiao fanart, you’ll end up annoyed when they move on to drawing another fandom next week.
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Anyway, that’s all for today! I hope you find these interesting, or useful! Sometimes maneuvering JP fandom can be a bit stressful, since the fandom culture is quite different. Culture shock isn’t only for specifically visiting a country anymore, now that the internet has made everything so easy to access.
Are there any words I didn’t include here that you’ve learned specifically from your fandom? Feel free to post them in the comments, since I’m sure someone will find them useful! I know there are a lot of words I left out, since I didn’t have the time or space, and this was meant to be more informative rather than as a glossary.
rentaBLog 
Loved this! Explains a lot of Twitter bios I see.
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