Akira and Yojijukugo

Recently, I finished reading the entire Akira series of comics from beginning to end after purchasing the reprints by Dark Horse.¹ The author, Otomo, I noticed likes to hide lots of little Japanese witticisms in his artwork in the form of Yojijukugo, those special 4-character phrases frequently used in Japanese language.

For example, in one scene, which I didn’t want to risk reprinting here for copyright concerns, in the end of the fifth book² shows Kaneda and his re-formed gang charging one last time to get Tetsuo. The scene is reminiscent of the famous biker gangs or bosozoku, with one biker holding a banner that reads:

不倶戴天 (ふぐたいてん)
fugu taiten

In Japanese this can be translated as: Cannot allow (the sworn enemy) to live in this world any longer.

It’s cool how four characters like that can convey so much meaning, and really enhance the story. As Yojijukugo are not “textbook” Japanese, it can be hard to figure out the meaning. The phrase above was not clearly drawn in the picture, so I spent hours and a lot of trial and error until I found it, but the effort was worth it. Part of the beauty of exploring another culture is learning little literary gems like this, even in everyday comics.

P.S. I’ll post more as I decipher them, if I find any others.

¹ Although out of print in the US, I found them still sold on Amazon UK. Nice to be in the EU, I think.

² Page 402 if you have the same copy I do.