Anime

An understanding that transcends language barriers.

Hi! Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I had to look through some of the phone calls and chats to pick out the different ways the members refer to each other. Unfortunately the only route I finished so far is Zen’s (on Jaehee’s right now) so I won’t be able to do this thoroughly for the other members ㅠ.ㅠ Also, sorry if you wanted this to be answered privately but I had a couple anonymous asks asking for similar things so I will answer this one publicly.

Honorifics:

1. Yoosung-Yoosung calls Jumin, Zen and Seven _____-hyung and calls Jaehee as Jaehee-noona. This means that Yoosung is the youngest out of the RFA members but also feels close enough to refer to everyone as “hyung” or “noona” instead of the standard, polite _____-ssi. In case you don’t know, males will call males who are older than them as “hyung” and females older than them as “noona” but only if they are in a decently close relationship and there is no huge class difference between the two. For example, if Yoosung started working under Jumin, it would no longer be socially acceptable for Yoosung to call Jumin “hyung” at least in public. On the flip side, a female will call males older than them as “oppa” and females older than them as “unni.”-In phone calls, Yoosung refers to the MC as “그 쪽” (geu jjok) which is a standard “you” often used towards people you aren’t quite familiar with yet. It has a very very slightly polite undertone.

2. Jaehee-Jaehee refers to everyone as “(their name)-ssi” which is the same as the Japanese honorific “-san” if that makes it easier to understand. This can imply some sort of distance since I would call someone I first met as “_____-ssi.” On the other hand, it also can just imply respect if the two people are already close. It can also just be used in a formal setting. For example, in my Korean class, our professor refers to everyone as “-ssi” and if we want to publicly refer to another student (let’s say in a presentation), even if they’re our friend we would still use “-ssi.” This also hints that Jaehee is probably not as plugged in with the RFA members and that she is formal and polite.-Jaehee calls Jumin as “Han Jumin-이사님” (isa-nim) or sometimes just isa-nim. “Isa-nim” just means president or CEO so the most accurate translation of this would be “President Han” or “CEO Han” instead of just “Mr. Han.”-In phone calls, Jaehee refers to the MC as “담당자님” (damdangja-nim). Hmm this one is kind of hard to describe but it refers to someone who is in charge of something or is given a certain responsibility. She probably refers to the MC as this way because the MC was given the responsibility of managing the party guests.

3. Seven-In phone calls, Seven usually refers to the MC as “당신” (dangshin). This is also just a standard “you” that is also used when you aren’t particularly super close to the person or there is some sort of age or class difference that prevents you from calling them the standard 너 (neo) which is the most informal way to call someone (used only between friends of the same age and class). “Dangshin” also has a respectful undertone and can also be used between close friends if they are in a formal setting.

4. Jumin-Jumin refers to the MC as “그대” (geu dae). This is again another form of “you” but pretty polite and formal. I would think personally it would be kind of awkward if someone called me that in real life (or I just wouldn’t be used to it). 

Zen and Jumin talk to you informally while everyone else talks to you formally. For example, when Zen asks if you slept well, he often just says “잘 잤어?” (jal jasseo?) while Yoosung would often ask “잘 주무셨어요?” (jal jumusheosseoyo?” I would use the first one towards only my friends or same-aged cousins. If it was to my parents or relatives, it would always always be the second one. Jumin is a weird one because he does talk to you informally but it’s kind of a polite-informal because he uses some of the formal words with informal phrasing. Sorry his speech is kind of hard to explain.

In the chats, everyone calls the MC “______-씨 (ssi)” even after you get close to them (at least for Zen and Jaehee).

That was a long one again. I hope this helped answer your questions regarding honorifics. 

After browsing the “Mystic Messenger” tag on Tumblr, I’ve just wanted to clear some possible confusion or misunderstandings about certain phrases the characters use that arose from the translation.

1. Did you eat? When we use this phrase in Korean (informally: 밥 먹었어?) we sometimes do mean the literal translation of “Did you eat?” However, most of the time we don’t literally mean to ask if you ate or not nor are we usually interested in what you actually ate unless we specify. This is more of a phrase similar to the English “How are you?” The phrase “Did you eat?” is just a way to check up on someone’s wellbeing or how someone is doing.

2. Zen’s real name (Hyun Ryu/류현) I wasn’t sure if I had to clarify this but I saw some fan-made content spelling his name as “Hyunryu” or “Hyun-ryu.” Zen’s first name is just Hyun (현) while his last name is Ryu (류), so in the Western style of first name-last name, his full name would be Hyun Ryu, while in the Korean style with the family name first, it would be Ryu Hyun (류현). I understand the confusion about this since his name is only one character while most Korean names are two characters. (Actually this isn’t rare or anything as I have plenty of friends with one character names)

3. Zen’s “babe” Haha this translation was comical and slightly awkward for me. In the game, every time Zen refers to you as babe, honey, sweetie, etc, in Korean he is actually referring to you as “jagi” or 자기. This is actually a very fond and endearing way of referring to someone or of saying “you” (basically, the same thing as the Japanese “anata”) For example, my parents call each other jagi. This expression is usually so endearing that not all non-married couples refer to each other this way. Personally, I’ve never called someone or been called jagi before but I know some friends who call their significant others jagi even though they’re not married so in the end it’s just preference and how lovey-dovey you are. In my opinion the most accurate English translation for this word or phrase is “dear” or “honey” although there is no 100% proper English translation of this word/phrase as the English language does not have different ways of referring to people based on your relationship with them. In any case, “babe” is fine too but I just wanted to clarify that what he actually says has a more fonder and deeper undertone. However, even in the early phone calls in the Common Route, Zen still refers to you as “jagi” sometimes even though you’re not in any romantic relationship yet so my initial impression of him was “Wow this guy is a total flirt.” ^^;;

4. “Lovely Zen” I started playing the game in English first because that was the default setting for my game and I didn’t know you could change the language to Korean until later on, so when the option came up to call Zen “Lovely Zen” or “Zenny Zen” I was kind of flustered because it kind of sounded so awkward. You wouldn’t actually call someone “Lovely ______” in real life, right? But after I changed my game language to Korean, it all made sense. Every time a nickname for Zen comes up, you are actually calling him oppa or Zen-oppa (오빠/젠오빠). I’m sure if you’re even a little bit interested in Korean culture, you would already know that this is either a way for a female to call a male that’s older than her, or for a younger female to call her older boyfriend. In the latter, romantic sense, this term is also pretty endearing but definitely not as deep as “jagi.” For example, my ex-boyfriend was one year older than me so technically I should have called him oppa or (his name)-oppa. However, since we both live in America, it’s not that enforced and I didn’t really like calling him oppa casually since I’m used to calling my older male cousins oppa so it was just weird for me. Still, sometimes if I wanted to cheer him up or something and I called him oppa, then I remember he would get really happy and kind of embarassed, just like how in one of the chats, Zen said he felt his heart skip a beat one of the first times you called him “Lovely Zen.”

This last thing is just my opinion so I hope people don’t take too much offense or see me as narrow-minded.

5. In fan-made content: “nii-san” or “baka” (형, 바보) I love Mystic Messenger so any fanart or imagines I see, I love looking at and reading them but when I see English comics or short stories of the Choi twins and Seven says something like “Listen to nii-san” to Saeran or of one of the RFA members calling someone else “baka”, it’s just a little strange for me. Remember, all the characters in this game are Korean so instead of “nii-san,” they would say “hyung (형)” and instead of “baka” they would say “babo (바보).” If the content was originally in Japanese, then I would understand using nii-san or baka but if the content is originally in English I think it would be nice if they portrayed the characters as sticking to their roots and using the proper Korean terms. Mystic Messenger is not an anime and is not related to Japan at all >.<

this

“It’s meaningless                             without                                          y o u”