Previously we looked at expressions such as “Usoda-yo-pyoon” (Just Kidding-pyoon), but a similar, albeit more clearly visible character-particle can be seen in the phrase “Oreto kekkonshiro- nyarome!” (Marry me-nyarome!), used by the character Nyarome in Fujio Akatsuka’s manga Mooretsu Ataroo.

Whenever angry, some people habitually curse under their breath, “Kono yaroo me” (That jerk!). If one listens closely, instead of sounding like “Kono yaroo me,” this phrase can sound like “Konnyarome,” “Kunnyarome,” “Nnyarome,” or even “Nyarome.”

From this fact, first noticed by Akatsuka, Nyarome was born… or so I like to imagine. One can imagine this sort of explanation of Nyarome’s language, and in fact it may even be true, but nonetheless, this expression “nyarome,” as used by Nyarome, cannot be reduced to a meaningful phrase like “Kono yaroo me” (That jerk!). Just as dogs [in Japanese stories and comics] say “Sooda-wan” (That’s right, woof), Nyarome says “Sooda-nyarome” (That’s right-nyarome). This is because Nyarome is a “Nyaromese.” This is the first point I wish to pin down.

In order to clarify the characteristics of Nyaromese language, let’s return to the scene in Patalliro! from part 12. In that scene, Patalliro suddenly physically transforms into a “Yakuza” character, and belligerently says, “Erai iwarekata yanke ware” (What did you call me?!). Here, Patalliro is joking around playfully. He is a child who jokes like this often. The people around him often react to his behavior by saying, “There you go again, acting like an idiot” (or ignoring him altogether).

However, in Mooretsu Ataroo, Nyarome adds the suffix “-nyarome” to everything he says, because to Nyarome, who is “Nyaromese,” this is the natural way to act; to Nyarome, this is not playing. It is “normal.”

The one joking is not the speaker (Nyarome). It is the creative mind that cooked up the “Nyaromese” character (Fujio Akatsuka). Of course, in the case of Patalliro’s pranks too, ultimately it is the creator (Maya Mineo) who is playing, but this play is directly attributed to Patalliro himself. This is not so with Nyarome.

When someone writes “Usoda-yo-pyoon” (Just kidding-pyoon) on the Internet, the speaker who wrote the expression, and the creator of the “Pyoonese” character, are one and the same. The “Pyoonese” speaker is consistently speaking as comes normally. Again, it is the creative mind that invented the “Pyoonese” character who is playing.

This is similar to the account I related previously about my appearance in Gengo magazine as a “Mochoese” who spoke the Mocho language. As a “Mochoese” I was not goofing around; I was speaking “normally.” The person goofing around was the person (me) who created the “Mochoese” character. (I’m so sorry, Gengo.)

These “Nyaromese,” “Pyoonese,” and “Mochoese” characters, which we can create whenever the spirit moves us in unlimited quantities with a single character particle, are characters that originate in communities (in The Nation of Nyarome, the Pyoon Region, or the Planet Mocho). That is to say, we can create communities ad infinitum.

On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to create new characters originating individually, such as the “rich kid” or “nice person” with just a single word. At the most, one can take existing characters and combine them to create an amalgamated character, using phrases such as “Atashi-mo soo omou-ze” (I think so too!), borrowing “atashi” from the “feminine” character and “ze”(1) from the “masculine” character.

Until now, I have emphasized the similarities between communally and individually originating characters, but, as we have described above, they are not without their differences.

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