#Makoto Sugiura

[constantinnen]

yagami detective agency + yokohama 99

[pinky-lemon]

pmds your judgment characters (for fun)

absol!yagami + tauros!kaito designs by @snepital. i like them

[potatocrisp]

They’re such good friends

[bennflynt]

judgment dump. charm designs (comin soon) + doodles

[dinoclawsz]

Zoinks!!

[siplick]

My new RGG linking charms are now open for preorders!

Grab your favourite Like a Dragon or Judgment charaters and assemble a team of your favourites 🌟

Shop link

[wnnwakb]

[jichanxo]

how i feel pretending that kuwana is part of judgment gang (based on this dunmeshi post)

[zekesplayground]

moments in Judgment and Lost Judgment where I have no idea what's going on in the story because I'm way too distracted by THAT

[emptylotfiasco2]

body types

[auchrauch]

A gift for my gf's bday

[halwo]

[pinky-lemon]

Can ya draw my boy Tsukumo?

(Very underrated, he needs more fanart ngl)

merging two asks into one! have some doodles of the yoko duo!!

(also i am feeling better this week, so i'll close requests tonight!)

[stellabyystarlight]

some gifts for my friends from the past months 👍

[bennflynt]

yokohama 99

[danketsuround]

A simple guide to how Kuwana uses honorifics - Lost Judgement (Revised)

This is a revised version of a post I wrote previously - I made a few errors so I decided to make a new post instead of just adding on to the original, especially since a few people said they wanted to use this as a reference for comic or fic writing in the future.

Please note that much of this is based on my own interpretation and should not be taken as pure fact. Japanese is a context-heavy and nuanced language - so I am simply building off what I already know about Japanese [culture] (I live here!) as well as my own idea on what type of character Kuwana is. Actually, I think Kuwana is strangely polite - all things considered - so the way he refers to other people is mostly unsurprising.

I also want to note that just because one honorific means one thing does not mean that interpretation is universal. The use and meaning of honorifics change depending to who you're speaking to as well. For example, many people may know that -kun is used for younger boys, and -chan for younger girls, but language is much more nuanced than that. While honorifics can be used to "honor" someone (imagine that!) they can also be used flippantly, sarcastically, aggressively, or even to put someone at a lower position than you.

You can see a previous analysis on how he refers to Mitsuru here. For that reason, he will not be included in this post.

Thanks for reading!

with Yagami

Perhaps the one people are most interested in. Most of the time, both Yagami and Kuwana drop honorifics with each other entirely. A cursory glance at Wikipedia may tell you that this is only used for people with close relationships or for inferiors (fittingly, like a teacher with their student) but in this case, it is neither of those things.

They drop honorifics with each other, simply, because they do not respect each other. Although there are other instances in which you can drop honorifics with another person (see: above, my original Mitsuru post, or read further) when Kuwana isn't referring to Yagami by name - which is very often - he is using 「お前」 (omae) or 「あんた」 which are very forward, rude ways to refer to someone. When someone uses 「お前」 with you, it usually implies they are angry with you.

However, there are a few occasions when Kuwana uses honorifics with Yagami. In the scene where Kuwana is hanging out at Y99, he uses -san.

This is a simple formality because they are not yet rivals or enemies. In retrospect, you can also interpret this as Kuwana using -san sarcastically or passive-aggressively, but honestly I think he's too polite to be doing that so early-on.

Other instances in which Kuwana uses -san with Yagami are when he is speaking about Yagami to another person:

There are two ways you can look at this: these are both formative scenes in which Kuwana is trying to coax empathy from Yagami. Using -san rather than "OMAE" would, of course, be the more respectful way to address someone - especially after you've made a temporary truce with them. The other way - this is how I originally interpreted it, which is why it wasn't in my original post - is that, because Kuwana is speaking about Yagami to another person, he is using the honorifics the person he is speaking with should/would use when addressing Yagami. Meaning, Kuwana is asserting that it would be appropriate for Akaike or Mamiya to use -san with Yagami - not himself.

Aside from that, Kuwana also uses -kun with Yagami once. Originally, I thought it would be strange for him to ever use -kun despite Yagami being younger than him. However, he does!

In Chapter 7, after Kuwana leaves Yagami to fight RK alone, he says: "I'm sorry, Yagami-kun."

-kun, in this case, is being used out of familiarity - not sharing the same politeness or formality as -san. I think Kuwana said it more to himself and not directly at Yagami - in a meta way, this assures the viewer that their relationship has changed. This was a rare sign of compassion (perhaps respect?) from Kuwana: I believe in part because Yagami showed that he believed in fighting for Kuwana - even if he was not given the context as to why RK was after him. Also, Yagami was fighting to defend Sawa - someone Kuwana deeply cares about.

with Kaito

To be honest, I'm not sure why Kuwana doesn't use honorifics with Kaito. I could have sworn he used -san with Kaito once, but I can't find it. Forgive me. And, don't call me hypocritical for saying this, but I don't think dropping the honorifics with Kaito is the same as dropping them with Yagami.

The only reason I can think of is that Kaito asked for Kuwana to not use honorifics with him (like, off camera). Some people don't use honorifics for themselves because they believe it to be old fashioned. I think in this case, it says more about Kaito than it does Kuwana. He wouldn't be doing 呼び捨て (yobisute - dropping honorifics for someone who you have a close relationship to) because they aren't very close.

Conjunctionally related, the reason why Yagami uses -san with Kaito is likely the same reason why Kaito calls him Ta-bo - they have been calling each other that for a long time, and it has become part of each other's nickname.

with Y99

Kuwana uses -kun with both Sugiura and Tsukumo. Sugiura even refers to Kuwana as their "senpai" since they do similar work in the same area - this is a joke, though. Grown men do not normally refer to each other as senpai - Sugiura and Tsukumo are both younger than Mitsuru, so it's hard to believe Kuwana would honestly see them as real adults.

with Sawa and Mamiya + a bit about former Kurokawa students

I talked a little bit about this in my other post, but he uses -kun with them. Using -kun with adult women is a formality. It's the same reason why Genda uses -kun with Saori - though, their relationship is a bit different. It's kinda... old fashioned I think? There's an implication that, "even though I'm using a formality with you, we aren't totally equals.". That's because Saori is a younger woman working at Genda's law agency.

Using -kun with girls/women is different than using -kun with boys/men - especially in a school setting. While using -kun can be seen as a bit boyish, from a teacher to a female student, it's similar to using -san; and the reason why -san isn't used for male and female students (by teachers) is partially because it's a little too formal between a child and adult. Yeah, I know. Japanese is hard.

Therefore, it's natural he might use -kun for his former female students, because, ultimately, it is up to a teacher to decide how, when, and who to use honorifics with. For the same reason, Akaike is referred to without honorifics (unlike Mitsuru, who is almost always referred to with -kun). Kawai's honorifics are also totally dropped, perhaps for the same reason, but I also think it's because he is dead and Kuwana has no intention of humanizing him. The reason for that being: Reiko does this as well!

with Kusumoto Reiko

Kuwana is a Kusumoto-san bot almost as much as Yagami is with Sawa-sensei. Since she is older and their relationship is a bit strained and distant, Kuwana uses her last name and -san. Reiko returns the formality in an interesting way, referring to him directly as "Kitakata-sensei" because that is how she knows him as. However, during the emotional climax, she refers to him as "Sensei", which is sort of an endearing formality that indicates respect and ...love? Not necessarily romantic, but a certain fondness or gratitude - as normally, students would refer to their teacher as "Sensei", not necessarily student's parents or their fellow coworkers. (I do have one older female teacher who calls everyone else just "Sensei" and it makes me blush, lol) I know that's less about how Kuwana refers to her but I think their relationship is not as stiff as it may seem based on what honorifics they use with each other.

That seems to be a correction of everything from the original post. If you have any questions or would like me to expand on some points (whether it's confusing to you or seems contradictory), feel free to reply and I can answer you or alter the wording for clarity.

*A note about "omae":

Part of what makes writing posts like these extremely difficult is because everyone is characterized by the way they speak, and the way they speak is the typical RGG rough-and-tumble "tuff guy" act. Therefore, I want to clarify that omae is not always extremely rude. Rather, it is the tone, level of familiarity, and even gender that characterizes it as rude. For example, there are instances in which Kaito uses omae with Yagami, but that's because their relationship is established enough that using omae does not immediately set off alarm bells for Yagami. That makes it different for when Kuwana uses it, because he is more-or-less setting the tone of their relationship as distant and competitive right off the bat. Hope that makes sense. Thanks to @passthroughtime for the previous corrections as well as the screenshots I use in this post, lol.