#sxf 90.1

[pockethep]

Anya’s Name

So given the revelations of Spy X Family 90.1 I went back into the manga to look for the instances where Anya wrote her own name.

Chapter 4

Chapter 16

Chapter 27

Chapter 42

And LET ME JUST SAY immense props to Endo for holding this for so long. Cause it’s such a small and unassuming background detail. Anya progressively wrote her name from Ania to Aniya to Anya. And this is a change reflected in the Anime on her door tag as well. With her name written as "Ania" from Episode 3 then, later on, changed it to "Anya" from Episode 11 onwards. It’s interesting that she’s had to learn to make this shift in the first place but it’s been so unspoken.

Anyway given how hard Loid’s backstory was, Anyas is about to hit.

[littleholmes]

Aww Anya… (I felt like her face fell when Loid corrected her spelling and now I’m wondering if Ania actually was how she spelled her name)

[ackergarden]

oh precious bby 🥺 need to know your backstory like … rn

could this probably hint an anya-centric arc next? or something with anya in the next chapter maybe?

[naarinn]

Focus on chimera. The door. Possible Anya past arc coming? I'm excited???

[xxscarletxrosexx]

"Ania" is the closest to an identity reveal.

Chapter 90.1 Spoilers!

I know that this analysis is a stretch, but hear me out.

Based on my post, A Linguistic Analysis of the Spelling Names "Ania" and "Anya", I think this is the closest thing to how the Forgers would respond to anyone having an identity reveal.

When Loid asks Anya if her name is spelled, "A-N-Y-A", Anya says okay. She doesn't question it and accepts that name because her papa gave it to her. This is poetic because a fake man gives a fake name to his fake daughter.

So, Loid gives her a "mask" to be part of the fake family--the Forgers. In a way, he reaffirms her identity because that's how her name is spelled on official documents. So what you are on paper, you should stick to be.

Meanwhile, Yor carves out Anya's name as "ANIA". She doesn't seem to question the spelling, whether or not she is academically limited, she accepts the name "ANIA" on the plaque. She only changes it to "ANYA" when Loid most likely tells her off-screen. (The reason I believe that it's Yor who fixes it is because the penmanship is the same. The only difference is that "ANIA" has some messy lines when she carved her name).

So what this tells me is that Loid will avoid any possible identity reveal and re-affirm what is on paper. Yor would most likely embrace her family if they were revealed. Ania, would probably be relieved and happy.

[local-lamppost]

Four Pages to Terrify Me

I applaud thee Endo.

From the illustration alone I was worried, this whole chapter is just laying out what the next arc is likely to be and now has me reevaluating the last few chapters (specifically Sigmund Authen), as well as any image that showed Anya's written name.

From the theming and naming of the families, we know that the Forgers are a fake family built on a lie but developing into something real. The Forgery will be made real (Forged into something real?). That means the family whose name opposes them, the Authens, must be a mirror. A real family filled with emotional lies (or at least a real family that is fake in everything that actually matters).

If I had to present a theory for how the Authens are connected to Anya it'd be that they were involved in her creation. Sigmund is a professor, meaning he could be apart of the team of doctors, who seems to be rather anti-war. Possibly enough so to become involved with human experimentation.

Then there's his mumbling. No one could understand Sigmund but Anya. This comes off as a gimmick, but what if it's his way of testing which of the children at the park he just so happens to be stuck in can understand him? It's a pretty decent strategy to determine an esper child.

Moving onto the subject of the actual chapter: ANIA

For some reason or another, Anya believes her written name to actually be A-N-I-A, pronounced the same way. This is an alternate spelling for the name, but instead of trying to correct Yor or Loid she goes along with the change. Either Anya is trying to distance herself from that version of her name, or she knows that ANIA wasn't technically her name but what she was called. There is a difference.

There is also the fact the doctor in Ch 1 addresses her as 'Anya'. This could be a mistake, or it could mean that the facility we see Anya in the first chapter was different than the lab that created her, seeing as they didn't call her by the moniker Subject 007.

So, I have three theories:

1 - Anya is her real name, as she already has a code name Subject 007, and ANIA is something else. Possibly AN1A, as I've seen others suggest? It has something to do with her creation, possibly the organization or the specific operation behind it.

2 - ANIA is a title or some kind of new species/mutation/classification. Instead of her name being Ania she is an ANIA. The lab calls her Anya in chapter 1 because they made a similar mistake to Twilight, or just for convenience.

3 - ANIA or AN1A is her 'name' given to her by the scientists which is an anagram, acting-alongside Subject 007-as a nickname.

In any case we are very likely to find out whenever the next arc starts and in the end Anya will be Anya. Her and Twilight are connected already for having multiple names, but both of them have shown that Loid Forger and Anya Forger are becoming staples of their core selves. It wouldn't surprise me if Anya declaring her name proudly as Anya Forger to any that try to correct her as an eye opener of some kind for Twilight on the importance of his identity.

[cresneta]

90.1 | For what it's worth, I've confirmed that the Japanese version also initially had her name written as "Ania" on her nameplate. The image below is actually from volume two.

From what I read in Eyes Only, I get the impression that Endo is the type of writer who makes up a lot of things as he goes along rather than the type of writer who has it all plotted out in advance. If you're familiar with these terms, I suspect he's a plantser rather than a plotter or a pantser. This may have started out as a mistake on his part, but it seems he's decided to use that mistake as inspiration for the story.

Edit: it's probably worth noting that plantsers do have some things outlined, but they give themselves a lot of space to modify and add things as they go along rather than having every little thing planned out.

[thetreeshavenotongues]

Oooooooh we are about to learn some shit, y’all

[anyaprincessa]

since there are a lot of people creating theories about Anya's name,her backstory and discussing about chapter 90.1,I wanted to share my own opinion｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

tbh,I was surprised that Ania's name had all this time a meaning and it wasn't just a mix of Misha and Ashe from Endo's previous works kinda expected it though,I'm not sure why Endo was hiding it all the time,maybe because it was supposed to be a surprise..

I honestly think that Ania is a Russian name took from Anna,is she a reference of princess Anastasia?my own question leaded me to an imagination of her backstory,hehe(⁠^⁠^⁠);

Ania was the princess of a royal family,they all were under serveillance,all the members conversations were encrypted in classic language so that the content couldn't be understood it wasn't the native language of the country by the way

Desmond was the one behind everything happening to the country and the royal family,he nuked/destroyed the country it's kind of confirmed that he's doing suspicious activities,right?,all the family were killed but Anya wasn't,instead those monsters kidnapped her and she became their new test subject for the Ostanian project apple subject 007

everyone in the lab treated her as a tool and forced her to study..

There was a scientist,he was cruel like all of them and for some sort of reason,he changed later on and became a kind person,he was the one who helped Anya escaping the lab,she will surely start a new happy life with a new family,well,after a short period,the little girl was adopted and returned to the orphanage 4 times,till one day a spy codenamed Twilight waku waku came searching for a 6 years old child,ends up adopting her to become a part of a fake family,the forgers for the sake of operation strix (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

there is also a high possibility that there is a reason behind Anya's freedom...probably nobody helped her escape the cursed lab,the scientists just started a new experiment is her freedom itself, this experiment is designed to train her to become a skilled telepath naturally, so that they can kidnap their tool whenever they are ready to start the war

Melinda knows about her past herself, that's why she wants Anya and Damian to become closer because of some other hidden reasons idk myself..

and before I forget,here's some canon proofs supporting the princess theory;

Ania loves castles,she talked about servants in the first chapter,we even had a whole episode about her as a princess and her her papa saving her,most of the anime episode was an original though was it for a foreshadowing purpose from Endo himself?!

there's also several mentions about royality in the manga,for example in chapter 42,etc,etc..the lastest and the most important mention was in chapter 88,Melinda choosing specifically the royal top elite cakes as a gift for Anya wich Damian told her to buy,he didn't said for who exactly

"they were cakes said to originally have been created by king Willy II,as a conciliatory gift for the queen of an enemy country"!!! this line alone raised a lot of suspicion inside me...so I had to do some search(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)I found out later on that King Willy and the queen from the enemy country are actually a reference of king Frederick the great and Empress Elizaveta!! probably I'm gonna make a thread talking about them

In addition to my proofs,we also had Anya comparing the Griffin wich is the symbol of the Desmonds and Chimera the possible symbol of her royal family and her dear friend who knows everything about her

I'mma include the Authens since they are 100% getting involved in this arc and were introduced just before the chapter we got a new hints about Ania's past and the confirmation of her backstory arc

First of all,Sigmund Authen might be a reference of Sigmund Freud the founder of Psychoanalysis,is related to minds?!!mind reading powers in sxf universe??!?the theory of super powers and all this stuff might be proposed by him since he was a professor teaching in the berlint university is owned by the Desmond family,you can notice the letter "D" in the logo

he is likely to be from Anya's same country,he's talking in Classical language most of the time,both Yor and Anya didn't understand most of what he said either Anya because the majority of what he was saying is complicated,unhearable and she didn't care

I think he is retired or perhaps not ,he seems that he loves Barbara sm and he definitely loves kids(⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

the important person this arc is either him or Barbara

[littleholmes]

“Hey Anya, you know your name’s spelled wrong on your door plate. Anya is A-n-y-a, right?”

[ackergarden]

if next arc is truly about anya, i really wanna see a flashback of one of the former families that had adopted her and what kind of dynamic anya had with them.

i’m curious to see it, but i know it’ll be also heartbreaking 🫡😃

[ackergarden]

will this upcoming anya arc probably be the opening to the forger backstory with the made-up mentioned first wife? only time will tell

[xxscarletxrosexx]

A Linguistic Analysis: Manga Translation (EN/JP/TWN) Comparison of Chapter 90.1 | Part 3

This is written in response to @connoisseursdecomfort's post Comparing Versions of Short Mission 11

((I realized that I should have just made this into a post because my response would be lost as a reblog. And it did... OTL

Also, this is an updated version with more insight/details))

Consider this is as a part 3 of my Linguistic Analysis posts on Spy x Family's Ch. 90.1 or Short Mission 11.

Part 1: A Linguistic Analysis of the Spelling "Ania" and "Anya"...

Part 2: "Ania" is the closest to an identity reveal

This analysis contains spoilers from Chapter 90.1 / Short Mission 11!

What's so interesting about the discourse analysis amongst Japanese, Taiwanese, and English translations is the hedging (word choices that lessen the directness of a dialogue) langauge that Loid uses. It is more clear in the Japanese ("by the way") and Taiwanese ("it came to mind") translations. Whereas, English's hedging is found in "...right?" What the three of them do share in common is that Loid's discourse is pointing to active voice by stating "your name is spelled A-N-Y-A". Apply all of these translations below:

(ENG) Your name is spelled A-N-Y-A, right?

(JP) By the way, your name is spelled A-N-Y-A.

(TW) It came to mind, your name is spelled A-N-Y-A.

It is consistent that Loid's tone is holding authority by demonstrating his knowledge on Ostanian orthography based off the transcriptions he's seen of Anya's name registered as "A-N-Y-A" which was spelled by her previous Ostanian adopted parents. So Twilight feels confident that the spelling of her name MUST be "Anya."

Another thing I wanted to add on to @connoisseursdecomfort's observation is catching loss of translation, which is so unfortunately common. English translation omits translations mainly because some expressions or dialogue that are common in a language (Japanese and Taiwanese) would be perceive differently in English-speaking countries (USA, UK, AUS, CAN, etc.). This is called cultural discount.

It's the reason why Squid Game English dub missed out on many jokes that are play on words in the Korean dub. It is also the reason why a lot of American jokes are not understood by non-English speakers OTL

But this is a general phenomenon because English native consumers would find the expression strange simply because we do not have this style reflected in our discourse. The best example is when @_mika60 translated the omitted text "Anya's heart stirred at the mention of her own name."

To an American (possibly English natives in general, but I can't really speak on behalf of British, Canadians, nor Australians beause their English may be slightly different in terms of cultural lifestyle/upbringing), this expression can be perceived as corny/purple-prosey. Because American discourse don't generally have this emotionally-charged reflective discourse. Hence, omitted. Which is unfortunate because it says so much about how Loid's spelling affected Anya's feelings. So this is a perfect example of cultural discount.

An example of loss in translation is the omission of Anya's text which explains why she can't carve out her name is due to feeling insecure about her bad handwriting. (Again, this is character analysis that English-reading consumers missed out on! Because anything written in the manga is deemed canon.) Whereas English, we completely omit that detail because English native speakers don't need that extra dialogue. The English discourse is typically straight to the point and English native consumers draw inferences from icons (images/illustrations).

Based off my explanation, this is how I see the above picture as an American consumer (using a think-aloud method):

Anya says, "I can't do it right..." and she looks frustrated as illustrated by the swirl above her head.

Her brows are furrowed which supports that she's annoyed/frustrated/angry.

Her cheeks... are they blushes? Is she embarrassed? I can't really tell.

She's also a 4 y/o or was it 5 y/o child (she lied being 6, right?) so it's obvious she probably might be annoyed because she can't draw straight lines.

Because she's an infant, I'm sure she doesn't have the strength to draw clean lines.

Based off my thought process above, do I think OR am I convinced that Anya feels insecure? No.

Can it be argued that she's insecure? Yes, absolutely.

If I were to talk to someone who posits Anya may be insecure because of his/her knowledge of children behavior and/or mannerism, then I would be convinced. However, I would arrive to this assimilation through negotiating observations and exchanging knowledge of children behavioral mannerism. However, this would become more of headcanon if it wasn't explicitly stated in the manga (keep it mind that the Japanese translation DOES explicitly state that she's insecure because of her bad handwriting, so yes, it is canon that Anya is insecure of her bad handwriting).

Anyways...

I love translation comparisons mainly because you get to experience cultural exchange if you are fortunate enough to understand or have access to a translator (*cough* @connoisseursdecomfort *cough*) who enjoys comparing multiple languages. Thank you for doing God's work @connoisseursdecomfort <3

[xxscarletxrosexx]

Kiss Distance: When Feelings Can't Reach | Linguistic Analyses on Rick & Rachel's lines foreshadow for TwiYor, DamiAnya, and Marthanderson from Ch. 105.5 (PART 1)

This is gonna be a take from the linguistic + literary lens regarding Rick and Rachel's lines from Spy x Family's Ch. 105.5.

Spoilers beware.

So let's talk about the film: Kiss Distance.

On X/Twitter, all I said was my analysis senses were tingling. There was a strong linguistic and creative writing/literary devices indicating foreshadow from the movie, and this just surprisingly got attention.

So now, I'm finally addressing this specific section in a long analysis post.

I cannot stress how much I love Endo-san's short chapters. There are so many things going on in terms of literary devices, and now, I think he plays with linguistics in them. I believe that the last time he did this was during Ch. 90.1 when we learned that Ania's name turned into Anya. I remember freaking the hell out that linguistics was touched upon, cuz honestly, what manga does that? Someone is finally paying attention to linguistics in a story, and it's just further pulling me into my rabbit-hole fixation and obsession with Spy x Family.

Although the chapter is only 5 pages long, it has SO MANY THINGS TO COVER. I won't be able to do that in this post, but I DID cover the entire thing in a video analysis that you can watch here:

What I will mainly cover in this post will be the film: Kissing Distance and the characters (Yor, Anya, Becky, and Martha) watching it + post-watching it. I cannot stress the ridiculous efforts embedded in just 3 pages, so I need to divide these sections into a linguistic lens (part 1) and a literary lens (part 2).

Let's start with the linguistic lens.

Spelling reflects language association + cultural history + maybe it's a meme too.

Spelling reflects language association

At the top right corner of page 2, we've got some English texts on the movie's billboard. "Interesting" and "Entertaining" are stacked on the left while "Movie" and "Theater" are stacked on the right.

Of these words, the word that stands out the most to me is Theater. English experts recognize that there are 2 spellings of this word: theater and theatre. These spelling tell you that it is either American (theater) or British (theatre).

I'm no expert on geography, but I believed that Ostania and Westalis were loosely based in Europe. I think I read someone talk about the architecture in Berlint also reflected European style houses--I'm so sorry that I can't recall who addressed it. The wars also felt like they were influenced by WWI and WWII. But what I do know is English it's my goddamn expertise. I'm not gonna be an uptight ass about pointing out every nook and cranny of inconsistent English, because that's just a whole lot of work for a creator and his team can do, realistically speaking. If Endo-san wanted perfect control in the language he's portraying in SxF, then he would need a dedicated team of linguists to help with translations. It may surprise you but there are many variations of a language (ex: English has AAVE. It's still English but used by this group of speakers--more on this later). But this is a hell hole of work, so I'm giving him so much slack on it as well as the translators handling the translations (like, really. No hate. Thank you for your services <3).

Another caveat: the English translation may also be a reflection of the translators. Maybe they favor American English than British English--who really knows? But I digress.

I'll stick to what I already know of the Ostanian language: It's English (variety is unspecificed, feels American) + Japanese.

Spelling shows cultural history

Next, let's address that these are adjectives slapped on a movie billboard. Normally, American movie theaters do not post adjectives. They post about the movie, the actors, etc. Comments about movies theaters being "family friendly" are subtext under the current film, etc. Here's an example of a movie theater from the 1950s found on gettyimages:

So this brings me to consider that English is being used as kazari eigo which means 'decorative English' in Japanese. In Chris Broad's (AbroadinJapan) words:

"... English in Japan is most commonly used as a form of cheap decorations and prestige, or value to a product and because so few people here understand it, the companies that plaster English all over their products and items rarely bother to check that it makes any sense." Reference:

Maybe it's a meme

This chapter, overall, felt really silly. There were silly drawings, silly play on words, silly foreshadows, etc. I couldn't help but think that maybe Endo-san was throwing in something amusing in these small things (cuz he's got attention to detail). Is it:

Interesting Entertaining Movie Theater OR Interesting Movie Entertaining Theater

It reminds me of:

Endo-san does have a tendency to incorporate memes into his manga/anime. Like... was Anya's jump not a Jojo's meme...? //sweats

I don't know if I'm severely poisoned by JJBA memes but, yeah, I saw it since the day this chapter came out. I just thought:

ANYA = DIO BRANDO

Anyway... whether it was intentional or unintentional (for this section), I love when mangakas incorporate something meme-y

2. Ricky's English Variety

This is where I went berzerk in this chapter with all of these small linguistic details. Ricky's speech says so much about him.

His introduction of himself is that he's a broken razor. Essentially, he's painting the bad-boy ML image. But he's not just any bad boy. He's a bad boy with issues controlling himself/the situation. In other words he's toxic and not good for us healing men/women //joking. However, out of all of these words, the one that stands out to me is shaddup. His speech suddenly changed because romance conflicts need to have a wall between the main couple. In this case, other than Ricky's pompadour, it's his speech. What we have here is a clash between English varieties.

To understand what is variety in linguistics, you might be familiar with these words: language, dialect, vernacular, and accent. Language is the most obvious, but dialect, vernacular, and accent can be a lil confusing to distinguish. So here's a definition and a chart I made to help distinguish them:

- Language: a system of communication that uses words, grammar, and spelling to convey meaning, languages can be spoken, written, or signed-- Ex: English, Spanish, Arabic, etc. - Dialect: is a variation of a language that is spoken by a specific group of people, such as a community, culture, or region. It includes differences in vocabulary, grammar, and how the language is used -- Ex: American English vs. British English vs. Australian English - Vernacular: is a type of dialect that's used by the "common people" of a region. It's a non-standard dialect that's spoken rather than written. Vernacular language is often made up of slang or regional terms -- Ex: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) - Accent: is the way people in a specific group pronounce words, which is also know as the prosody of speech. Prosody refers to the tone and musicality of someone's speech -- Ex: Boston accent

In Summary (a simplified version of the above info): Language is the standard language (aka what you learn in grammar class and in public speaking class) Dialect is born from language where it becomes variations of the language and adopts different grammar, vocabulary, and language use (like American English vs. British English vs. Australian English) Vernacular is a type of dialect used by "common people" and often include slang words and regional terms (think African American Vernacular English, or AAVE) Accent is a type of dialect that is mainly focused on prosody, or how a person pronounces a word (think Boston accent)

Now that you understand the linguistic terminologies, here's a fun exercise to show you what I see:

Ricky predominantly uses the standard English language in the film:

The moment a language's word has a (legitimate) spelling change, it automatically turns into a dialect (which touches on my previous topic about theater vs. theatre).

These are Ricky's English accents:

Finally, this is Ricky using an English vernacular:

POP QUIZ!

Now that you know what English variety is, can you guess which one Ricky has? If you guessed dialect, then you're half a step there. If you guessed accent, you're so close! But the correct answer is vernacular. This is because accent overlaps with vernacular, but accent stops at word pronunciations. Vernacular has accent and slang.

3. Discourse Analysis on Ricky's Vernacular

You should now have a good understanding of Ricky's vernacular, but now let's talk about why this is significant in discourse analysis.

Linguists who specialize in discourse analysis are responsible for analyzing why and how people speak a certain way. Many linguistic features are observed (lexicons, syntax, phonology, semantics, etc.) but what they share in common is who it's presented to. They're looking at the relationship between interlocutors (people who take part in the dialogue/conversation). In other words, depending on who you converse with, the way you speak is affected.

You may have already realized that Ricky is code-switching (a speaker switches between one or more languages and/or varieties) between standard English and his English vernacular.

Now, pay attention to who Ricky speaks to and when he code-switches.

We can observe in the above panel that Ricky uses standard English when speaking to Rachel. This is because Ricky has linguistically profiled her.

How am I so sure that he's linguistically profiled her? Well, because the majority of human beings unconsciously linguistically profile their appearances. Linguistic profiling does have a similar general word: stereotype. The only difference is that based on appearance, we make a split-second assumption and decision on how we talk to that person.

In this case, Ricky spoke first (exercising dominance through initiation) and used standard English. From a linguistic lens, Ricky is telling me: hey, I know I look like a bad boy, and you may have linguistically profiled me as someone who didn't have good education, which would have reflected in my speech, but I'm more than competent to use standard English. And because I can use standard English, I'm on the same equal playing field (metaphorically and linguistically speaking) as Rachel.

But then, notice the moment, Rachel tells him that she hates Ruffians like [him], Ricky's replies with an accent of shuddap (shut up). Linguistically, he's drawing a line between them. This also indicates that they're no longer on the same side before adding his threat: "I'll cut you!"

In this scene, notice Ricky's accent comes back again, but who is it directed to? An enemy or someone from his linguistic background. He uses this accent with an interlocutor of the same English variety background to make it clear to the person he's beaten up that he's speaking in the "language" that they both completely understand.

But, the moment Ricky speaks to Rachel, he reverts back to standard English. What this means is that Ricky is linguistically assimilating/aligning himself with Rachel to show that he's on her side. This can also mean that he's making himself appealing to her through discourse. On the other hand, Rachel makes herself appealing through physical means (her taste in clothing has changed--more on this under literary analysis).

In this scene, Ricky changes appearance (more on this under literary analysis) and he speaks using standard English. But the moment he loses his pompadour, guess what happens?

Ricky goes back to his true self and shows it through using English vernacular.

Rachel has never changed in her English, so she's always been true to herself. It's Ricky who goes through these changes. And it becomes a beautiful and romantic moment of a man undergoing change not only visually but linguistically.

4. Language parallel/mirroring between the anime and the manga

The fact that Endo-san decided to give Ricky an English vernacular in the English translation of the manga reflects his attention to details between the manga and the anime adaptation.

Linguistics in Anime (what you hear)

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but Takuya Eguchi, Loid's voice actor, ingeniously incorporated different prosodic features when assuming roles for [redacted], Loid Forger, Twilight, and Robert. Catte-b covers this in her Leitmotifs in the Spy x Family soundtrack. Piracytheorist also provided a video demonstrating Loid, [Redacted], and Twilight's voices. In both posts, Eguchi's changing voice is called timbre (Catte-B and Piracytheorist have a music background). Timbre is defined as:

In other words, timbre is an individual's voice quality or vocal signature. It's how listeners can recognize a singer regardless of what song they sing and how anime watchers can identify a VA's voice by the character's name in another anime--there's just a certain quality in a person's voice that makes them identifiable.

Because of this definition, timbre is unfortunately not the correct terminology. Using vocal/voice timbre when describing vocal register, at the end of the day, is just pitch. Catte-B and Piracytheorist, however, are not wrong in their analyses. They have correctly identified one of the characteristics of speech and even provided vocal qualties (sharp, flat, soft, etc.) but the more appropriate term should be prosodic features.

I want to highlight the most important thing about prosodic features and it's the features that make it up: intonation, stress, rhythm, pitch, and pauses.

Intonation: is the variation of pitch across a phrase or sentence. > in a way, it's creating a melody when speaking. > its purpose in spoken language is to convey meaning. This is usually the case in tonal languages that require a specific pitch to indicate a word. However, in English, intonation is present when we ask a question (the last few words tend to be higher-pitched) vs. a statement which is either consistent in pitch or can sometimes be lower-pitched. Stress: involves giving prominence to one or more syllables in a word. This is achieved through increasing the length, volume, or pitch of a syllable, or by changing the vowel quality. > stress is important for helping listeners understand meaning / word class and distinguish words during rapid speech (ex: address, graduate, permit etc.) > it can be used to emphasize a specific word of a sentence (ex: Where did you go last night? vs. Where did you go last night? vs. Where did you go last night?) Rhythm: refers to the sense of movement and flow of speech. It's a combination of stress, length, and number of syllables. > mostly concerned with syllables and larger parts of speech rather than phonetic segments like consonants or vowels > important for making speech sound flow well and helps us understand what's being said > 2 most common types of rhythm in language are stress-timed and syllable-timed (English typically uses a stress-timed rhythm) Pitch: indicates highness or lowness of sound. > A person's pitch can reflect friendliness and warmth from the upper register (higher pitch spectrum) to mysterious and sexy with the lower register (lower pitch spectrum)--or at least, this is a consensus opinion that I've heard in English-speaking communities when it comes to the opinion of an individual's vocal pitch for both men and women. Pauses: a break in speaking or a moment of silence that can help add structure to the speech. Pauses have several functions: > gives listeners time to comprehend and digest the information > can be used to emphasize words or ideas > helps speakers transition between ideas > prevent rambling > can signal speech breaks, especially in languages that utilize pausing as a prominent cue > can denote high-information content

There are more prosodic features listed like juncture, loudness, duration, and tempo, but this is where it'll get too specific. Rhythm kinda already accounts for duration and tempo. Juncture is relating to annotating pauses (like indicate when a pause is greater than a certain milisecond), and loudness could kinda fall under the category of rhythm.

Timbre isn't listed as a feature, but I think it should simply because timbre is what makes your voice your voice. And because timbre is the "vocal signature", the shouldn't change--not unless you're as vocally talented as Tara Strong, who can easily change her timbre with different characters.

Eguchi-san does, however, have some roles where his timbre does change, specifically as Shuuji Hanma from Tokyo Revengers and Kazuya Kujou from Gosick (he does have some moments when he slips back to his familiar timbre).

Now that you have an understanding of what prosodic features are, you'll be able to hear that Eguchi-san's timbre doesn't change as [redacted], Twilight, Loid, or Robert. I believe Eguchi-san intentionally kept the same timbre for [redacted], Twilight, Loid, and Robert because they're all staying close to home. You can still recognize it's still the same person. But what changes are other prosodic features (intonation, pitch, rhythm, stress, and pauses). The following video is from Piracytheorist's post and the YouTube video is from Calle-B.

Here are my descriptions of the 4 voices:

[Redacted] - Intonation: N/A. Japanese is not a tonal language. - Stress: vowels and consonants are even for syllables - Rhythm: slow and steady - Pitch: low register, feels like it can be the middle (makes sense since this is the voice he's born with) - Pauses: frequent pauses (also, no way in hell you can convince me to measure the mili-second of his pause) - Tone: warm and soft - Other quality(-ies): reminds me of slight head-mix dominant (60% - 70%). In singing, a mixed voice is when a singer mixes his/her/their head voice and chest voice together (you might commonly know this as belting). But with mix voices, the singer can choose to make it an even mix of both head and chest, or leaning to either more head or more chest. Twilight - Intonation: N/A. Japanese is not a tonal language - Stress: consonants, vowels, syllables, and long phrases are rushed - Rhythm: his speed is fast. it's like water gushing out - Pitch: low(est) register. This is probably the deepest voice he can go while maintaining his timbre - Pauses: They only exist when a completed thought is finished. Twilight, BREATHE, man - Tone: cold and sharp - Other quality(-ies): sometimes his low register have a bassy quality to it Loid Forger - Intonation: N/A - Stress: His consonants and vowels are spoken fast in some syllables but also have a slight elongation typically towards the last few words of a completed thought - Rhythm: fast like Twilights, but has an upbeat rhythm to it - Pitch: upper register (it's the customer service voice lol) - Pauses: It's a mix of Twilight and [Redacted]'s. He has moments where he pauses after a long completed thought. Sometimes, he pauses in between a few words/syllables. Pauses feel irregular here--like he doesn't know if he should relax of speed up (as if he's being pulled to either Twilight or [redacted]'s pause pacing) - Tone: sounds cheerful - Other quality(-ies): 80% head-mix voice. The chest voice is still there, but head voice stands out Robert - Intonation: N/A. Japanese is not a tonal language. - Stress: elongated vowels and consonants -- similar to [redacted]. - Rhythm: originally slow and drawl. But as soon as he realizes that "Robert's mission is over", he starts speaking fast like Twilight - Pitch: low register and soft - Pauses: He has similar pauses to [redacted]. There seems to be a lil bit of longer pauses to indicate passiveness (reinforce the boring image of Robert) - Tone: monotone and soft - Other quality(-ies): head voice. The chest voice seems to be absent (chest voice is perceived as the power in singing and speech) as to reflect Robert as someone who is small and doesn't have much personality (as to not stand out during this identity). This voice is achieved by keeping your voice low but above a whisper. When "Robert's mission is over", the chest voice emerges and his head voice becomes head-mix.

Prosodic features are best accurately portrayed in discourse, meaning it's exclusively for speaking, not writing. So, how can Endo-san incorporate any linguistic feature in writing? We've already answered that with the analyses above: spelling.

Linguistics in the manga (what you read)

I've already went into great detail about spelling reflecting dialect, so I won't regurgitate what I've already covered. Instead, I want to focus on the fact that Endo-san actually acknowledges and uses prosodic features to mirror the 2 mediums of Spy x Family. This is significant because it reinforces the mirroring characters between Ricky and Loid. After all, it's going to be a foreshadow. Normally, I'd talk more about foreshadow under a literary lens, but for once, foreshadow is illustrated through linguistics.

In discourse analysis, the way you speak almost always portrays your identity.

Ricky's English vernacular is his real speech. > [Redacted]'s voice is Loid/Twilight's real speech, which often came out in the presence of Yor Forger.

Ricky speaks in standard English to mask his real voice and make himself more appealing to Rachel. > Loid's voice is used to mask both Twilight and [redacted].

Ricky gives up his pompadour (the most important thing in his life--which also happens to be a part of his identity) to destroy the "barrier" between him and Rachel. In doing so, he goes back to speaking with his English vernacular. > FORESHADOW: Loid will give up one or two of his identities for Yor (it might be Twilight and/or Loid). In exchange, [redacted] will come back.

Another possible foreshadow is what Rachel says about recognizing the importance of Ricky's pompadour to him. Because Rachel is a parallel character to Yor Forger, it can be implied that Yor would recognize how important Loid's identity is to him. In a previous analysis, I mentioned that Ch. 90.1, is the closest thing to an identity reveal. When Yor carved out Anya's name as Ania, she never once questioned it. She also didn't question when she had to carve another sign and spelled it with Anya. I'm aware of the caveat in this claim, such as Yor lacking education in Ostanian orthography which is why she doesn't react.

Be it grasping at straws or not, Yor has the emotional maturity to bounce back from the shock of an identity reveal. Yes, Yor would be sad and hurt to find out that Twilight is a spy from the opposition, but she would understand. They know they're both orphans because of the war. Yor already has a positive bias towards Loid based on observing his behavior at home, in his efforts to provide a better future for Anya, regardless of blood relationship. The point is, Yor is already infatuated with him and her feelings for him will influence her compassion and understanding for the person he's become, so bouncing back from feeling betrayal (not the romantic kind) would be faster for her than Loid.

Loid, on the other hand, may have more reluctance towards accepting the identity reveal (this is also mentioned in my Ch. 90.1 analysis). This is mainly because he's been conditioned to be skeptical and overanalyzing. So, he'll definitely need time to brood and reflect on their situation. Or, maybe he just might have already reached a point where he's just tired, and deflatingly accepts the situation. He'll self-loathe himself for being Westalis's best spy only to have married a legendary Garden assassin--seeing both as a win and loss (he'd be the type to say that he should be dead right now because his identity was revealed to the deadliest enemy). The confession of their love for one another just might be the thing to smooth out the wrinkles.

Someone once commented that, technically, losing Twilight as an identity isn't technically a loss. Twilight was born from a sacrifice. Loid technically isn't a loss either since he was born as a role for Twilight to play. Which leaves [redacted]. Like the film for Ricky, [redacted]'s foreshadowed arrival is just an opportunity for him to come in full circle.

PHEW.

This was a long linguistic analysis of these few pages, and in real-time this took me 8 hours to write. I did lose a night of sleep cuz my brain hyper-fixated on writing this. Help. But we're not done yet. The knowledge that you've acquired will definitely be beneficial through a literary lens in part 2.

I'll update this post with a link when Part 2 is finished.

[xxscarletxrosexx]

Rating Spy x Family 2024 (Ch. 93 - 108) + Overall (Ch. 1 - 108) Manga Experience

This was inspired by a Twitter/X post, and it just prompted me to make it into an activity for any SxF fans to complete.

The post generally asked for rating Spy x Family 2024, but as a post-graduate who suffered from multiple research projects, making accurate tests (objective, reliable, valid, realistic, and consistent) is deeply embedded into me, so I made a rubric that measured for accuracy (granted, of course there can be more questions but that can be a research gap (aka a limitation for this being called an accurate rating system) for simply being the only one who made the questions).

((And yes, all research conducted has limitation simply because the human error exists.))

Also, please note that Ch. 108 has not yet been published (not until Dec. 23), so that is a limitation already. Still, I gauged my answer with the chapters released so far.

Here are my ratings..

Spy x Family Overall Rating (Ch. 1 - 108)

1. Plot: 4.5/10

2. World Building: 10/10

3. Character Development(s): 10/10

4. Literary Devices (consistent use of parallelism, symbolism, foreshadowing, etc.): 10/10

5. Wait Time (for next chap): 7.5/10

6. Release Consistency: 6.5/10

7. Communication from Publisher(s): 8/10

Average score: 8.07/10

Spy x Family Overall Rating (Ch. 1 - 108)

1. Plot: 8/10

2. World Building: 10/10

3. Character Development(s): 10/10

4. Literary Devices (consistent use of parallelism, symbolism, foreshadowing, etc.): 10/10

5. Wait Time (for next chap): 8/10

6. Release Consistency: 7/10

7. Communication from Publisher(s): 9/10

Average score: 8.86/10

Questionnaires

1. What did you like?

I adore everything. I love that the central genre of the manga is found family, and how each character navigates to becoming humanized people after going through traumatic upbringing. The human spirit, resiliency, and journey through healing tugs at my heartstrings. Plus, I love that Endo-san is consistent as a storyteller through consistent use of literary devices and a show-not-tell approach, as well as in-depth research on topics, and doesn't shy away from mental health. And yes, TwiYor. Actually, I really love all the characters--they're realistically made, so I can't help but grow attached to them.

2. What didn't you like?

Murdock Swan. Ugh, I hate that man. In terms of readership, I kind of sensed that Endo-san is taking a different turn in the manga during this year, which kinda threw me off in terms of analyzing (he's normally consistent with how he progresses with plot and world building direction). I wonder if the changes he's made has affected his story direction. What I mean is the snow trip holiday and Marthanderson arc that might've disrupted the directional flow.

3. What was your favorite?

I will always mention the famous proposal scene in Ch. 2. But overall, I love all TwiYor scenes and Yor-centered Yuri-centered chapters.

Ch. 90.1 was probably the moment I thought, "Oh, shit. Endo-san is dabbling with linguistics." This further solidified my hyperfixation to the manga, and I've been analyzing both linguistically and literarily ever since.

4. What do you consider is/are the strength(s) of. Ch. 93 - 108?

Definitely world building, character development, and literary devices. These chapters demonstrated Endo-san's ability to flesh out the world of SxF and make his characters feel complex, more realistic, and relatable.

I felt that he was quite cheeky with some chapters this year (ex: Ch. 94 ski trip with TwiYor). I also got the sense he wanted to focus predominantly on more lighthearted themes, centrally on Eden kids before diverging to Marthanderson arc and back to Forger family relationship dynamic.

5. What do you consider is/are the weakness(es) of Ch. 93 - 108?

I felt that Endo-san probably struggled a bit with prolonging his direction in dark and serious themes. It most likely took a toll on his own mental health while also juggling with SxF events, promos, and merch taking place irl. I recall he mentioned an apology for prolonging Marthanderson arc for being longer than expected. Then, he'd return to another chapter focusing on light-hearted themes.

6. How was your readership experience?

Meh, for me. I didn't mind waiting every two weeks for a new chapter. I felt like this was very healthy for a mangaka's scheduling rather than the weekly update. I'm very mindful and considerate of a person's career, so I'm quite understanding. I also am happy that Endo-san is communicative majority of the time when he asks for hiatuses. I appreciate that he's putting his mental health and quality life first. Tbh, I see his hiatuses as an opportunity for adult readers to focus on living their own life (staying busy, make room for hobbies, etc.). So, I really don't mind these discrepancies at all.

One thing I've learned about pursuing your passions is that at some point, you come to hate your passion when you're put under pressure. So it's really good that he takes time off so he can maintain his passionate efforts (attention to detail, researching topics addressed, etc.) that he's embedded in previous chapters. It's quite obvious he puts a lot of love and care with each chapter he releases. I understand this very well because intense research like this can make me feel like writing becomes a drag rather than being more fun, from a fanfic author's POV. And I already think researching is such a drag considering I suffered through 3 years of post-graduate research paperwork (and will have to do research for the rest of my life as an expert in my field, henceforth) 🙃

7. What are things that could be improved on?

Darker themes addressed and prolonged. Spy x Family is dominantly wholesome rooted in their found family genre, but I'd love to see character development results due to growing out of trauma/dark themes (again, I'm fascinated with the human spirit and resiliency). I just hope addressing these topics won't hurt Endo-san's mental health too much. I guess another improvement for Endo-san is to find healthy management techniques when researching these difficult dark and serious topics. It can't be healthy to be stuck researching and writing about the same dark themes for x months (ex: Marthanderson arc was 6 chapters = 3 months of researching, drawing, and writing about a really traumatic experience for Martha & Henry).

8. What chapters are you looking forward to in future chapters?

More plot is given, but I also want more character lores! I think there will be more opportunities to revisit the Forgers' past more than once (speaking of Loid and Bond, since since theirs are the only one addressed by far). I'm looking forward to hearing more about Yor, Yuri, Anya, Sylvia, Franky, Fiona, Bond, etc.

I'm also looking forward to more character developments, especially the Forger family relationship dynamic. And of course, more TwiYor content and literary & linguistic content for me to nom nom and have me in a chokehold, which in turn would restrengthen my hyperfixation to the series. I look forward to analyzing and dissecting them 🍽 (and maybe make a fool of myself nerding out) 😅

~~~

If you enjoyed the read and want to make your own, I made a rubric post here.

[littleholmes]

I honestly hope it’s just that. I really do. Especially since it would make sense given how much she wanted a loving family and ensuring the correct spelling of a name can be seen as an act of love (and it also that affirms self and identity, which given Anya’s history, has to be super validating)

Ahh, maybe it’s because of my background in literary analysis where I’ve had to read more into novels and tv/film for so long that it’s hard to switch that off when I read or view stuff I consume for fun like manga and anime. That—coupled with the fact that I read jjk where what happens really does end up being deeper than the surface and few things are just simple moments😣—makes me tend to read all manga through that lens and interpret that what’s happening isn’t just a surface level moment but may actually be something to read into, might be the author foreshadowing to something coming, etc etc

That said, given the heaviness of the backstories in this series and that there’s things we still don’t know about Anya, this short mission made me 👀. If it’s just that she never knew how to actually spell her name which, as you said, is quite sad, then I’ll be so relieved. But I had to wonder if Ania was how her name was spelled before she was at the orphanage because I couldn’t fully discern her emotions from her facial expressions. She went from happy and so sure then her face shifted and fell when he corrected her and there was a hint of wonder/awe like “that’s my name?!🥺” to the look in these panels and I just ahhhh idk! Then again it could just be a small nod to how her name was spelled by Endo in bits of the start of the series ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 😅

Ah well whatever it is, if it does end up being something more than Anya just not knowing how to spell, it’ll come up in later chapters

Aww Anya… (I felt like her face fell when Loid corrected her spelling and now I’m wondering if Ania actually was how she spelled her name)