So one of the many phrases associated with Kei is “立派な人間” (rippa na ningen), which we see in several places, such as Kei’s mom saying “立派な人間になりたいのであれば友達になる人間を選べ“ (loose translation: If you want to become a good person, you have to choose your friends wisely”), Eriko saying “立派になるんだもんね、兄さんは。もう帰ったら？忙しいんでしょ” (loose translation: Kei (big brother), you’re going to become a good person, right? Why don’t you go home already? You must be busy.” [read with sarcasm], and even the episode #1 summary from the official Ajin website ”彼がめざしているのは、立派な人間。” (loose translation: His goal is to become a good person.”
Besides this phrase being interesting because it specifically says “ningen” (which specifically means human [as opposed to ajin], even though it’s equivalent to the English word ‘person’), it’s also interesting because ‘rippa’ has a ton of different equivalents in English. I can mean splendid; fine; handsome; elegant; imposing; prominent... praiseworthy; creditable; worthy... legal; legitimate; lawful...undeniable (e.g. crime); indisputable; solid... and it really means all of these at once. So express that in English, I think “good person” makes the most sense as a translation.
But I finally saw a character in a different manga say something similar, and that situation gave me context. I think especially in Kei’s case, the meaning of worthy is really at the base of it all. He’s trying so hard so he can cure Eriko. He’s trying hard to win his mom’s approval. I think that meaning has been evident all along, I just didn’t realize that specific wording could be used to translate ‘rippa’, so that’s why this meta post is appearing so late in the game.
As a side note, too, it’s interesting that ‘rippa’ can also mean ‘lawful’, since after Kei finds out he’s an Ajin, he’s pretty much stuck in a fight for his and other ajins’ rights as humans.
