And it’s time for the fourth Japanese slang review of 2023 (see all prior posts here)! In these posts I deep dive into the world of Japanese terms you probably won’t see in a textbook, looking at what they mean, how they are used, and where they came from. Sources and definitions for the terms I discuss here will come from a variety of places, but as always I draw heavily from the website numan.tokyo. As always, these are “new to me” rather than something I am able to trace the exact origin or date of… but many are actually new!
The 10 terms for this month are:
- [Noun]きちゃ: [Noun, which is good] is happening!
- [Noun]からしか摂取できない栄養がある: I need [noun] in my life
- すこ: Another version of “like”
- エイム: Ability to target something
- 鼓膜ないなった: Ow that was too loud my ears hurt
- イケチェン: A child, baby
- 伝われ: Please understand me
- ヘラる: To become sad
- 死体蹴り: Kicking while down, or too much good news
- タイパ: Performance or results in relation to time
1. [Noun]きちゃ
Guess what? The April Slang Reviewきちゃ! Placing a noun before the phrase きちゃ is a positive/excited way of expressing that something is starting or happening. That is, [noun]きちゃ = “[noun] has begun and I’m happy about that”.
The phrase is said to have become popular due to its use by Japanese livestreamers. Especially livestreamers associated with Nijisani, and, especially among these individuals, Takamiya Rion. I don’t know much about V-Tubers, but Takamiya Rion has 460k subs on YouTube which I imagine is a sign of being at least moderately popular in the scene? That said, it is unlikely that a livestreamer invented きちゃ, and it’s etymological origin is therefore not exactly clear. One idea is that it’s an influence of Tohoku or Sendai dialect, where “そうだ” becomes “だっちゃ” – a phrase made famous by Lum from Urusei Yatsura. This lead to “ちゃ” getting attached to things, which lead to 来た！ becoming きちゃ！… well, at least that’s as good a guess as any. Still, it’s clear that someone said きちゃ in Japan before livestreaming was invented.
Regardless of where きちゃ came from, in practical use now [noun]きちゃ is just screamed out when something you like is starting, happening, or has arrived. Like if you get 年賀状 cards from a franchise you enjoy…
…or make it to #1 in Apex Legends…
…or even just see the sunrise, these are all great reasons to scream out きちゃ to the world!
I do wish I had examples from a livestream to show, as I imagine streamers use きちゃ for a bit of hype or for getting people excited, which isn’t something that really transmits into written use. If you find a clip do let me know. But the written examples above do show the basic gist. Something good happening/coming/arrived? Well then [good thing]きちゃ.
And with that, we’ve きちゃ to the end of my きちゃ explanation! The word pretty easy to use, and it’s certainly being used, so go ahead an use it. One quick note of caution though: you might also see the phrase きちゃない used online too. This is not the opposite of きちゃ, but rather just a cute (?) was of saying きたない or dirty.
2. [Noun]からしか摂取できない栄養がある (…せっしゅ…えいようがある)
This long phrase is basically a over-the-top way of saying that you like [noun]. Translated literally, it means something like “there is nutrition I can only get from [noun]”. More figuratively, [noun] is necessary for you to survive. Or at least avoid getting some scurvy-like disease. Phrases like “I can’t live without [noun]”, “[noun] gives me life”, or “I need a bit of [noun] to get through the day” might work as equivalents in English.
So where did this way of saying “I like [noun]” come from? Well, unlike きちゃ the flash point is 100% known: a tweet on October 5th, 2020 which garnered over 73,000 likes.
If you can’t read Japanese, the tweet above says at the start “I saw this on my timeline so I printed it out and displayed it”. Below, the printed-out-and-displayed paper reads “Women acting as princes provides me with special nutrients I can’t acquire elsewhere”. Again though, this tweet is just the source of popularity, as the tweet itself recognizes, so we don’t know the phrase’s actual origin. We also, of course, don’t know when the phrase changed from the longer version above to the version I used for the title of this blog post. If you compare the two, you can see how the original version shown above is a bit longer, including “特殊な” (special) before “nutrition” and using 栄養素 instead of 栄養.
What we can say though is that these changes occurred very quickly, as people immediately started riffing on the phrase after it went viral. Some alterations were just parts of jokes, such as this person who notes that the “からしき (only from)” looks like “からししか (only mustard)”.
But over time, people started using [Noun]からしか摂取できない栄養がある to talk about anything, be it taking photos of abandoned railroads…
…anime characters in skimpy outfits…
…the uh… the… back part of a cat’s skull???…
…ramen, which is unsurprisingly more common than the cat head thing…
…or whatever else gives people life, provides joy, puts pep in steps, helps them get through the day, or gets them out of bed in the morning. In summation then, this long phrase is just a cute, fun way of showing love and appreciation for something that makes your life better. Be it ramen, cat skulls, or women acting as princes. And the [noun] can even be a big long noun phrase, if brevity is not something that gives you nutrition you can’t get anywhere else. So if your favorite thing is “pats on the head from a thickheaded, curt person”, go ahead and place it before からしか摂取できない栄養がある. Whatever gives you nutrition, go for it.
As for me? The thing that gives me nutrition is looking up slang terms, so let’s move on to…
3. すこ
…ANOTHER way of saying like? Yup. Our little すこ here is just another variant of 好き. This time, the origin takes us back to around 2012, on the website NiconicoDouga. At that time, there was a community of people making what were called “アイマスMAD” videos. These videos involved cut-up odd edits of clips from the show アイドルマスター (idol master), presented in the “MAD” style – a genre of chaotic Japanese parody videos. One アイマスMAD video in particular spawned, or at least spread, a custom of typing ここすき at a specific part of the video that you enjoyed. The clean video is on YouTube, as is one filled with comments. It’s… not easy to see what’s going on when you watch the comment-filled video, but ここすき sure does appear a few times.
Anyway, among all this chaos someone mistyped ここすき as ここすこ at some point, people noticed it (again, despite the mess somehow!) and thought it was funny, and as a result ここすこ then spread. The first step was across 2/5chan, but gradually it reached the greater internet.
So that’s the rather humble yet specific origin, but is すこ still in use today? Absolutely. The simplest usage is just to post a picture and write すこ.
But it’s very common to include すこ in longer posts too though. The general usage is to list something you like and then, kind of unceremoniously without any grammatical connector, just slam すこ on the end of its name or description. Here’s one example, where すこ appears after a phrase about color-coordinating your outfits and equipment.
Here’s another example of the “just add すこ trend”, where someone compliments a VTuber the like for using a powerful dash. So whatever it is, just すこ it I suppose. No real connective grammar rules to attend to.
There are a few small variants of すこ too. If you really like something, for instance, you can say ほんとすこ to drive that home.
And there’s also plentiful use of ここすこ and これすこ to refer to a specific thing that someone liked. Now, these two variants are kind boring in terms of the actual application of their use. Mostly people just write the four hiragana and then post a picture. But there are some longer constructions that actually function as part of a sentence…
…and more recently, in 2019, an exciting development occurred! Interestingly, the very same Idol Master franchise discussed earlier is involved, as a character named Riamu Yumemi ended up screaming the line “オタク！ぼくをすこれよ！ (Otaku! Love me!)”, turning すこ into a command form. You can hear it in the tweet below at 1:24.
As a result of this sudden appearance of すこれ (which, of course, may have just been popularized by Yumemi rather than invented), you can now conjugate すこ, or more accurately すこる, in many ways. So a bit odd that the command form of the verb might have appeared before the verb itself did… but hey! Why not? The evidence is in favor of it: here’s three articles about すこる, all appearing after Yumemi’s post’s date of Feb. 2019. If you Google すこる you can find references to the word dating back to 2011… but these are all for a completely different word! As per this article from 2020, すこる (often スコる) can also be a borrowing of “score”, which has changed its meaning slightly to refer to when people create a large gap between likes/dislikes on a video by down-voting it. So maybe Yumemi actually did make up this new verb themselves! The data is absolutely in their favor. And ultimately, at the end of the day the important thing is that you can now order people to like things via すこれ…
…or can use すこった instead of 好きになった…
…and even use the negative すこっていない, although both すこらない and すこっている are not very common. It’s not out there as much as すこった, but it’s out there.
There are lots of other odd variants like すこすこのすこ too, but you get the point by now I’m sure. People sure do すこ this すこ variant, for now at least. I’m sure they’ll すこる something new in a few years, although this one has lasted over a decade since its first appearance as ここすこ, so maybe it’s got staying power.
4. エイム
Easy one here: エイム is just a borrowing of “aim”. Rather use than some native variant of 狙う though, some people, especially gamers, as using エイム to refer to one’s ability to aim rather than as a synonym for 狙う. So, like, “エイム = their aim is good” rather than “エイム = aim at this”. And that’s about it! Look, not every slang term is super complex or interesting. But this one is super useful if you play FPSs on the Japanese internet.
“Can I fight at Diamond Rank with this aiming ability?”
There’s a verb version too, which I’m disappointed to say is not エイむ. Rather, it’s just boring ol’ エイムる. Better than エイムする I suppose! Anyway, エイムる is not too popular, but it is out there.
Finally, we have two common variants to note as well. If someone is good at aiming, you can call that 神エイム. The verb form 神エイムる has been used at least once in the history of the Japanese internet, but it’s so uncommon it’s not even worth showing examples. Most uses are just 神エイムる[Name], to mean something like “[Person] who aims amazingly”. Uses as a noun or adverb, like 神エイムで below, are way more common.
The opposite of 神エイム is then クソエイム, or 糞エイム if you don’t like katakana. Both representations are in use and are, literally, “shit aim”.
And, yes, クソエイム also has a verb form in クソエイムる. Surprisingly though, while it’s also certainly uncommon it’s a bit less rare than 神エイムる. The kanji variant 糞エイムる is extremely unpopular though, unlike plain old 糞エイム which sees plenty of use. So while I wouldn’t recommend verbing any of these エイム-related terms, 糞エイムる is the one I don’t recommend the most.
5. 鼓膜ないなった (こまくないなった）
The phrase 鼓膜ないなった is somewhat impossible to translate literally as the grammar is an intentional altering of 鼓膜なくなった, or “my eardrums went away”. The exact origins of the 鼓膜ないなった variant are unclear, but once again the phrase absolutely came into popularity from VTubers. Which VTuber is credited this time? Well, while the term is undoubtedly linked to the VTuber world, we again don’t have an absolute origin. This person credits Tomari Mari as the originator, but gives no reason or particular event. Others question the VTuber origin entirely, noting that the use of ないなった to replace なくなった appears in Hiroshima-area dialects and so could have appeared from anywhere. That said, while dictionaries confirm the ないなった form is often linked to Hiroshima, no one can say for sure that this particular phrase has any relation. The ないなった in 鼓膜ないなった could just be a typo, like many slang before it.
Regardless of how 鼓膜なくなった became 鼓膜ないなった though, there’s no question that it did, and the altering is meant to express something simple: sometimes VTubers don’t adjust their volume settings well and a sudden scream or loud game noise might make you feel like you’ve blasted out your eardrums. As of my research for this post, the phrase isn’t VTuber-restricted anymore, and people just use it anytime they hear – or expect to hear – a loud noise. For instance, this poor soul showed their kids きらめる, a Japanese animator (who makes hilarious videos by the way you should follow them on Twitter), and the kids laughed so loud the parent’s poor eardrums are no more.
The present/future tense ないなる also exists, as in this next warning about the VTuber (I think?) Riru. Apparently Riru screams when they drop things, so you “need to be careful because you will 鼓膜ないなる”.
So basically 鼓膜ないなった is just a fun way of saying うるさい! But it’s popularity has lead to other forms appearing too. For instance, if you are suddenly surprised by something which is terrifying but expressly not noisy, you might say 心臓ないなった for “my heart stopped” instead. As if, say, you almost get in a car accident with a bike…
…or you just had too much fun!
And finally, if something happens that just completely blows your mind, or makes you go insane, well then I guess your whole head is gone. The phrase you’ll be using is therefore 頭ないなった. For exmaple, this person jokingly mocks themselves as “someone with no head” because they are now the (proud?) owner of TWO 痛車.
Be a bit careful though, because a lot of people are using 頭ないなった to just literally mean “the head is gone”. Like this next person is talking about how they put a “Miku” head on their figurine because the original head 頭ないなった. Again, this is not the “because I’m crazy” version, but, like, the poster literally can’t find the figurine’s head.
If you don’t believe me even after reading the above tweet and think “oh but surely that’s a head no SANE person would attach so they are calling themselves headless because they are sooooo wacky” go look for yourself. I saw headless Gundam, cats hiding their heads in blankets/beds, video game bugs that deleted faces, and all kinds of literally headless things. So trust me, or I’ll 頭ないなる in frustration.
Are there even more ないなったs out there? Well, yes. Basically, lots of people online are using ないなった just to replace なくなった for everything, even words like 用事 in the screenshot below which have nothing to do with parts of the human body. Is it because all these posters all from Hiroshima? I doubt it. It’s pretty clear that VTubers have caused a ないなった boom to do, well, the opposite of ないなる.
So there you have it! The big three ないなった constructions are eardrums, hearts, and heads, but you can ないなる anything you’d like really. But if you aren’t from Hiroshima you’ll definitely sound very “online”. Or at least out yourself as a clear fan of VTubers.
6. イケチェン
An イケチェン is, quite simply, an あかちゃん. A baby, a small child, a little screaming bundle of joy. Basically, someone decided to replace each “a” in akachan with “e” to create ekechen, and history was made. When did this happen, and who/how? Well, like all the posts this month for some reason, it isn’t clear. One source lists it as minimally present by 2016, but they are playing it a bit too safe. It’s easy to find エケチェン tweets going back to 2014.
Another source claims 2011, but it’s tricky to be sure about that either. A Google Search set between 2010 and 2011 provides no hits, just articles written before 2012 that now have links to articles about エケチェン on the same page. But these linked エケチェン articles are all written post 2020. Indeed, I searched every year from 2010 up to 2016 before giving up, and didn’t find a single clear logged use of エケチェン on Google… but uses of エケチェン from 2014 are out there, remember, as I did find tweets. Google Trends similarly wasn’t too helpful, noting the usual odd bumps across 2004-2010 but then being pretty flat until July 2021. So has エケチェン existed for quite a while? Absolutely, yes. At least since 2014. But was it popular? Not until recently, no.
The term エケチェン first really started to pop off a bit before 2018. How do I know? Well, there were tweets at this time getting 6000+ likes that talked about how hard it was to not use エケチェン in normal conversation (below). During this same period, エケチェン also became a kind of a meme used by the band Polkadot Stingray, who used it on Twitter a bit and then even during stage banter.
Regardless of how エケチェン came to be though, it’s clearly here to stay. It sees special use on places like Instagram as a hashtag, applied to pictures of everything from human children to small animals and idols… although to be honest probably every hashtag gets attached to idol pictures at least a little. Apparently some people prefer エケチェン over あかちゃん specifically for posting/searching for pictures of cute puppies and babies and whatnot because the searches don’t get bogged down with “child raising tips” or “how to have a baby” articles that the hashtag-あかちゃん also produces. I’m not sure about the truth of this story, as when I did a quick Instagram check human babies did show up. But at the same time I can also confirm that エケチェン is a great hashtag for finding images of puppies on Instagram. And, of course, it’s still out there on Twitter too!
Another major use of エケチェン on Twitter is for idols, with the term apparently particular appropriate to a kind of childish, pouting face or videos featuring an exaggeratedly cute voice. Chibi-style drawings are often tagged エケチェン in a similar way, although neither use is as popular as the whole “posting baby animals” thing. For any use though, by the way, it’s quite common to switch to 1/2 size kana, as in ｴｹﾁｪﾝ below.
Before moving on, I should note that this A->E vowel switch phenomenon itself isn’t new. There have been many cases of prior slang/wordplay using it, such as ねこちゃん producing variants like ネチコヤン. This latter term is also still in use, being either invented or popularized by the manga artist Mochizuki Mochigi (who has been using it to tweet about their cats since late 2019), and like エケチェン shows a penchant for half-width katakana.
7. 伝われ (つたわれ）
In “normal” Japanese, or whatever you call the non-slang world, 伝わる is an intransitive verb that means anything from “to spread” to “to be transmitted” to “to come”. For instance, 噂が伝わる would be “rumors spread”, while 1000年から今まで伝わってきた would be “[something] in the present has a legacy tracing back to 1000 AD”. If we only attend to this non-slang meaning, 伝われ is a bit… odd. It’s the command/imperative form of an intransitive verb, and normally you use command forms with transitive verbs. Like, if I was angry and wanted you to open a door I’d say 開けろ (from the transitive 開ける, see here for more grammar) not 開け! (from the intransitive 開く). I’m not yelling at the door to open, right? But, I mean, look, it’s not impossible. The verb “calm down” is intransitive in Japanese, and you can certainly tell people to 落ち着け! But like, it’s pretty rare to yell at doors to open, or boxes to close. Usually. Again, you can. But it’s odd. Anyway, my point is that yelling “transmit!” or “spread!” to a rumor or custom would be at least a bit pecuilar.
But we are in the slang realm, so, yeah sure, let’s yell at things to “transmit!”. For what purpose will we do this though? Our phones won’t send a message? The email won’t go through? Well, no, but the reason is pretty simple: we scream 伝われ to pray that the meaning you are trying to convey (and might personally think are failing to convey) is understood. The command 伝われ is something you attach to your own statement when you are frustrated with your vocabulary or ability to self express, and want people to know that, damn-it, you’re doing your best to get your meaning across! So please, please, please, please try to understand the meaning of your words even if the words themselves aren’t that clear. Like, maybe, even after writing a whole bunch of sentences in praise of steak, you are worried that you didn’t make it clear just how much you like steak. In that case, you might slap 伝われ at the end.
When it comes down to it then, 伝われ is just a way of stressing that you really want people to understand your message. Maybe you even actually think you did do a really good job conveying your feelings! Even in this case, 伝われ drives home the “I want you to know” part of the message. And hey, if your vocab isn’t great, then it serves a double purpose. Like, maybe all you can say about something is すごく好き, but you really want readers to understand that it’s like, a really emotional 好き.
Indeed, in some cases people do literally “drop” a bunch of their sentence, relying on 伝われ to do pretty much all of the hard work. The use of (伝われ) in parenthesis after a sentence is not uncommon either.
Will you actually understand what’s intended to be said if it’s mostly been cut in favor of 伝われ? Well, if not, maybe just say pause and write “あの、意味がちょっと… 伝われ!” back, in the hopes that your desire for more explanation comes through.
8. ヘラる
The verb ヘラる comes from the phrase メンヘラ or “mental healther”. If you haven’t run into メンヘラ before, this is a generally insulting term that was developed on 2/5chan to refer to someone with mental health issues that was seen to be troublesome due to said issues. That is, someone who is struggling and consequently (is perceived as intentionally) making things harder for people around them. Look, it’s not surprising that メンヘラ isn’t a supportive or positive term given that it came from 2/5chan. They aren’t known for being a collection of empathetic individuals. So when a website like Jisho.org lists メンヘラ as “nutjob” or “lunatic”, Jisho isn’t being derogatory, they are accurately translating the term. While “mental healther” doesn’t sound bad in English persay, I need to make it clear that the word メンヘラ is usually not neutral like “depressed” or even “troubled” is (to a lesser extent). I won’t say メンヘラ is never intended to be neutral, but it was specifically developed as, and is still often used as, a term for speaking about people you look down on and/or find annoying due to their mental struggles.
The verb ヘラる is, usurpingly, a verbing of メンヘラ. It doesn’t refer to being depressed though, but rather falling into a emotionally/mentally frail state. It’s unclear when exactly メンヘラ birthed ヘラる, but certainly sometime around late 2012 or early 2013.
In contrast to メンヘラ though, ヘラる is a bit more lighthearted in terms of both its meaning and implications. People are happy to use ヘラる to refer to themselves, and rather than the “in a consistently bad mental state and troubling others” meaning that was originally attached to メンヘラ, ヘラる instead is just about being down in the dumps, having a negative shock for a bit, or even just being tired and out of it. For instance, this person quit taking the pill, and noted that they are feeling more “high” than an expected ヘラる.
This next person just uses ヘラる like “sad”, stating that they’ll be upset if you don’t smash that subscribe button. So, again, not a really serious use like we expect from メンヘラ. Just like, normal not-enough-subscribers YouTuber sadness.
This third person is then just ヘラる-ing because they didn’t do a good job plating.
And finally, here’s someone who ヘラるs when people are better than them in their team, so they so solo cue.
For all these examples, the key point is that ヘラる isn’t usually for really deep troubles. That said, I did see a few people use ヘラる to refer to more serious depression stemmed by heavier things. I won’t post examples, as they were all personal, but I do want to confirm they exist here. So be careful of tone/context when using ヘラる. It rarely means “I am now in a lot of mental distress”, but it can mean that.
As an う verb, ヘラる sees all the expected conjugations. You can ヘラって来る for “becom(ing) sad”, and if you are always really mentally fit you might boast that you ヘラらない…
…but if you are currently in a down state you might call that ヘラっている, with メンタルがヘラっている人 below indicating “people who are feeling blue/stressed mentally”. This is closer to the original メンヘラ meaning.
One last thing: there’s an offshoot, or perhaps metaphorical use, of ヘラる out there too. Users of the livestreaming service Spoon started using 電波がハラる to refer to a bad connection. As in, the “waves” that carry the signal are feeling a bit glum. From what I can tell, this construction isn’t super popular any more, but it does still exist. And it isn’t restricted to Spoon users either, even though I am selecting a Spoon complaint as my example!
As a shortening of this last use, 電ヘラ is also used. On very rare occasions, this is then re-verbed, creating 電ヘラる.
9. 死体蹴り (したいけり)
I actually covered 死体蹴り, or “kicking a corpse”, back in October of 2022, but things have evolved to the point where the term deserves its own entry. The phrase originally referred to bad, or at least braggadocious, behavior in fighting games. Specifically, when the winning player uses the last few seconds of the match to kick the losing player’s body/corpse. This gaming use of 死体蹴り is well established beyond the point of most slang I cover, as it has an entry in the dictionary Weblio, and Google Trends indicates use since at least around 2010. Certainly, similar actions are well known in video game cultures around the world, such as “teabagging” in the Western gaming scene.
This “original” use of 死体蹴り is still found in the gaming world today, although not just restricted to fighting games. Here, for instance, we see a creature in the game Hearthstone attack a player who already lost the game, and that’s quite 死体蹴り in the traditional sense. I guess treat the whole phrase as a long way of saying “BM”, making it a bit more useful than “teabagging”. I don’t think that phrase could be used in the context below.
By extension, and unsurprisingly, 死体蹴り can also just refer to kicking someone when they are down, or going too far. Like the Simpson’s “stop stop he’s already dead meme”. So not kicking a dead horse, but beating someone up who is already miserable, or who has already clearly lost. Like this poor soul, who discusses how the difficulty in getting some kind of lottery for the manga Bocchi the Rock!, which I presume involves buying goods, is incredibly difficult, being more “kicking a corpse” than anything.
In both of the meanings I’ve described so far, 死体蹴り的 is possible to use as an adjective. For the former gaming meaning, it’s often seen in phrases like 死体蹴り的な要素 to refer to “elements of corpse kicking”, providing the sense of a game allowing you to mangle or further damage a dead body. In terms of the second “going to far” meaning, posts like the below exist, wherein “I don’t want to do a corpse-kicking kind of thing” is written right before critiquing someone who was already seeing substantial critique online.
The reason I’m covering 死体蹴り again though is that within the otaku world 死体蹴りhas taken on a third and more ironic use to refer to when something you like makes so many announcements that you can’t keep up with it. So like, you got so much information that you’ve died, but you’re still getting kicked (i.e., getting more news)… but you’re happy about it when all is said and done. Perhaps like the feeling of being fed so much cake you become ill. Here’s an example that describes the whole 死体蹴り process perfectly in relation to the Kamen Rider franchise: first comes pictures of the actors, then information comes out about actors interacting online, then there’s death from too much information, then more information comes out and kicks your corpse.
As you can see from the post above, this use of 死体蹴り is often used along with the word 供給, which in otaku terms means “good information” or “fan service” (I’ve mentioned this before). So when this next person writes that “when information about the person I like comes” they “died, everyone died, we all died, I died too, I’m still dead, I’m dead but they are kicking me, the forest is burned, nothing left, not even ashes, still burning, corpses on the campfire”, what they are saying is that they are really happy.
Finally, there’s also a very, very particular use of 死体蹴り that exists only within the Uma Musume fandom. In 2022, a monthly live competition occurred for the game. A character named Ms. Victoria won this one, and this was followed by new element: a live show where she sung a song and losers’ names scrolled across the screen. For that and other complex reasons you can read about here or here but I won’t get into, people were really unhappy about the event. Apparently, the switch to the “live show” was rather sudden, and people were shocked to see their favorite Uma Musume’s name displayed as a loser. As a result, this event became known as “The Corpse Kicking Live”, with the people whose preferred Uma Musume lost feeling like the concert was salt in the wound. So if you see people use 死体蹴りライブ online, they are referring to this specific event, not some kind of generic live show were people uh… kick corpses.
So there you have it! From bad manners in video games to bad manners in real life to a completely inverted meaning to a meaning that you probably won’t hear unless you are really invested in Uma Musume, this kicked corpse sure does get around.
10. タイパ
Our final term comes from a spin off of コストパフォーマンス (cost performance). Jumping off this term, Japanese speakers began using タイムパフォーマンス (time performance) around 2013 to indicate a relationship between the time invested in something and the result. More recently, the phrase got shortened to タイパ. In some circles, タイムパフォーマンスbecame タムパ instead, but I personally don’t really enjoy the feel of that one so let’s just stick with タイパ!
In terms of usage, you can attach タイパ to nouns to indicate that the noun is good at doing things quickly (as in タイパ女子 below), but if something takes forever and the outcome isn’t great, that’s タイパが悪い. And if I can explain both major uses of タイパ in one two-sentence paragraph, well that’s タイパが良い。
If you’re wondering whether コストパフォーマンス is also shortened, the answer is “of course!”. Here we can see both ~スパs together in a post complaining about each of the two terms leading to “people without sense”.
In most cases then, タイパ is actually one of those rare slang words that is really useful in the “real world”, as it’s clearly quite a business/job hunt related term. It might be the first term I’ve reviewed that I think I could find good examples of use for on LinkedIn… hold up… let me see…
But outside of its usefulness, there’s not a lot else to say about タイパ. It’s here, it has a good chance of staying around, and unlike everything else on this list if you say it to your boss there’s a good chance you’ll be understood instead of fired.
And that’s it for April! As always, I hope these posts have good タイパ, and make you feel like they give you 他の物から摂取できない栄養 rather then ヘラらせる you so that when the next one comes you scream きちゃ！すこ! so loud that people around you go “AAAA! 鼓膜ないなった！” rather than feel like you’ve been 死体蹴られた by someone with 神エイム… 伝われ.
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Scripting Japan 
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