Answered Question: About Chiaki’s ‘Takamine-kun’ line in Sweet Halloween
hey…. diff anon piggybacking off of the ask about chiakis changes in tone over the years. you said that theres multiple implications over chiakis tone change in the "takamine-kun" line… do you mind me asking what those implications are? the little worm inside my brain that loves chiaki has its interests peaked
Sent and answered in August 2024. tweet link of the answer
WAH… DIDN’T EXPECT SOMEONE TO BE INTERESTED
To be honest, I need to confirm with a native Japanese speaker about ALL the implications BUT I’ll explain my thought process and possible implications.
This is a continuation of what I said in the answer already, so for any missing context, it might have already been covered in there. The ask and the answer here.
So this part about Chiaki is notable about him in general, rather than specifically the difference between 1st/2nd year Chiaki and current Chiaki.
I’ll just copy paste what I said real quick:
There are a few moments here and there when Chiaki words himself in a more meek or unsure manner and starts speaking more politely (when he gets scared that there’s a ghost in 1st year Chapter 1, when Kuro first appears and freaks him out in Chapter 5). He still does this sort of thing nowadays when he gets scared, happens as recent as VS Gourmet, Praise of Delicious Flavors 9 (cute).
Sweet halloween is the one that did this a LITTLE differently where he kinda talks more casually and plainly to express politeness. It’s mainly in let’s party 2, the "Takamine-kun" line. I think, because he’s talking to Midori (someone younger than him), he shows that politeness by AVOIDING talking in a rough/informal manner, rather than showing it through wording himself in an OVERLY polite manner (which is how you would speak to someone older than or above you, and that doesn’t work here when Midori is younger than him)…
As I said, there’s a lot more implications to this than what I wrote above. On one hand, it’s likely that the reason he talks to Midori like this is to express politeness to someone younger (Using "Takamine-kun" and asking nicely), but there is another implication to it.
Chiaki’s typical way of speaking can make him sound more confident or bold due to the masculine tone. So when Chiaki speaks a lot more plainly, the sudden lack of masculine tone gives off the feeling of a vulnerable or "unadulterated" side of him, or just not as confident of himself.
For example, Chiaki typically says suman, sumanai, or gomen na to apologize, all of which sound masculine. So when he uses gomen instead, it sounds less "bold" in comparison. (Note, the na is what gives off the masculine feel)
This sort of thing is what stands out about the Sweet Halloween scene. First, let’s break down the scene a bit. Chiaki says:
eh? ta-takamine? takamine-kun, kyodai na gankyuu o oshitsukeru no wa yametekureru?
jibun-tachi de tsukutta kara kazari no nisemono datte wakatteru kedo, yappari gurokute kimochi warui!
Wh—!? T-Takamine? Takamine-kun, could you please not shove that giant eyeball in my face…?
We made them ourselves, so I know it’s fake and all, but it’s seriously creepy-looking…!
The bolded parts are the parts that make you think "Wait, that’s not the typical way Chiaki speaks". If it were the usual Chiaki with his masculine way of speaking, he’d have said it like this:
eh? ta-takamine? takamine, kyodai na gankyuu o oshitsukeru no wa yametekurenai ka?
jibun-tachi de tsukutta kara kazari no nisemono datte wakatteru ga, yappari gurokute kimochi warui zo!
(Last part with kimochi warui is debatable to be honest, he could still say it as is, without the added zo, but I think it’d have been way more typical Chiaki to add a zo or na at the end)
So first, there’s a change in how he calls Midori, then he switches to a plain non-masculine tone to politely ask Midori to stop, then he uses kedo for "but" instead of ga (which fits the masculine tone. And if Chiaki ever uses kedo, it’s with na at the end of the sentence, like kedo na), and then ends it with a plain kimochi warui
I neglected to mention that this has happened before in two occasions, Meteor Impact and VS GOURMET. EXCEPT!!! Unlike in Sweet Halloween, he was just talking to himself while freaking out AND it still sounds a bit different from the above case, since again, he was also trying to ask Midori in a politer way to stop.
In Meteor Impact 1st year Chapter 1, right at the start:
(…kowai! hisshi ni kakkoii koto o itte onore o kobu shitemita kedo mou muri! kaeritai~!)
(…It’s too scary! I’m trying so hard to encourage myself with super cool catchphrases, but I can’t take this anymore! I wanna go home~!!)
The bolded part sounds childish, I tried to show this by making him say "I wanna go home~!". But to be fair, it makes sense for Chiaki to sound innocent and vulnerable during his 1st year days.
Then we have VS GOURMET Praise of Delicious Flavors 9, when Mayoi starts mumbling:
eh. futsuu ni kowai!
genchou to iu koto ni shite kizukanakatta koto ni shitai ga… mi ni ikanakya dame kanaa!?
Huh!? This is just freaky!
I really just want to pretend I didn’t notice it and wave it off as a hallucination, but… Do I have to go and see what it is~!?
The futsuu ni kowai! is a very… unfiltered? way to express it, it almost sounds teenager-like. Here, he actually DOES use one typical masculine way of speaking, the ga ("but"), but then immediately speaks extremely casually again at the very end. I tried to show this with the italics and Chiaki expressing his fear in a more casual way with him saying "just freaky!". The moment he realizes it’s Mayoi he goes back to speaking his usual way.
So, these are my own personal interpretation and speculations, but here are the things I find interesting about all of this:
It’s likely that this is a very unfiltered Chiaki. He’s so freaked out that he can’t even respond in his usual way… if that makes sense.
It’s possible this is related to how Chiaki used to speak as a kid, since it’s much more plain. It also sounds a bit more childish from the sudden loss of ANY masculine/bold tone, so while it feels more or less natural to hear 1st year Chiaki freak out like that, Chiaki still reacting in that tone at age 18-19 feels "oh…?"
The main ways we’ve seen it is either Chiaki being freaked out by something scaring him, or Midori freaking Chiaki out. In all these years of content and story, Midori is still the only person who deliberately spooked Chiaki so hard that it brought out this different, unfiltered side of him in response. Very fitting for Midori’s role in Chiaki’s life. Heh.
As mentioned in my previous ask, when Chiaki gets spooked he starts speaking politely, typically towards the ghost that’s freaking him out ("I’m so sorry! Please don’t curse me!"). But in these cases, he’s speaking casually and plainly. So it’s interesting that Chiaki’s speaking to Midori in that tone. It’s almost like Chiaki is speaking to Midori on the same level (not as someone older than him, and neither as if Midori is above him). And I must emphasize… Midori deliberately tried to scare him here, so Midori himself brought this side of Chiaki out with his actions. (Very Important) (Very Relevant To Their Relationship)
All in all, just a very interesting thing about Chiaki that’s fun to take note of as we get to see more of this unfiltered side of him!!
The main thing I’m not sure of is if I’m overreaching a little TOO much. To be clear, it IS significant and I see JP ChiakiP comment on it all the time whenever Chiaki does this (that Sweet Halloween line in particular is still very famous for the sudden Takamine-kun and used often in fanworks under similar "Midori scaring Chiaki" situations, and the recent Gourmet scenes had ChiakiP go "he’s talking plainly here it feels unfiltered and cute"), but it may not be significant in the way that I’m personally thinking. So it’d be nice to just get a full confirmation by having a discussion about it with a JP native speaker (tempted to get a JP lesson with a teacher about this… anything for Him)
Some notes:
Chiaki does occasionally use kedo (without the na) to say "but", but very sparsely or because it grammatically fits better. Otherwise, he typically says kedo na or ga.
Chiaki’s spiral towards Subaru in Meteor Impact also contains a bit of that "sounding more vulnerable in his tone", but it’s in an entirely different way from how he speaks when he gets spooked. It’s more that his tone also shows how emotionally distraught and unfiltered he is at that moment.
If I have more to add, I’ll edit this post in and mention an update on the tweet. Thank you for asking, I got so into it because I just love Chiaki so much!! Let me know if anything was unclear or if you have other questions.