Learn Japanese from Rengoku’s Last Words: Set Your Heart Ablaze

はい、みなさん。こんにちは。

Welcome to Sakura Neko’s Japanese Study Room! 

In this blog, I am going to talk about Japanese phrases from anime, and will attempt to break them down to look at words and grammar points used in them. I will then try to explain how they can be applied in other contexts. Maybe, you can try to use some of them! In this post, I am going to talk about a quote from Demon Slayer, or Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Today’s phrase is this one!

心を燃やせ。

kokoro o moyase

Set your heart blaze.

This phrase is by 煉獄杏寿郎 (Rengoku Kyojiro) from Demon Slayer. Who has watched the movie? Demon Slayer anime became really popular in Japan, and its movie is now the highest selling movie in Japan. 

There is one Japanese grammar point in this phrase, which is the imperative form. The imperative form is used when you are giving someone a command. 

In Japanese, a verb in this form can be made by following the patterns below…

Making a imperative form verb from the masu-form:

Group 1 (Godan) verbs

1 – remove the masu

2 – change the vowel of the hiragana character before the masu from ‘i’ sounding one to ‘e’ sounding one from the same hiragana line. 

Example: 

水を飲みます→水を飲め

Group 2 (Ichidan) verbs

1 – Remove the masu

2 – Add ろ

Example:

これを食べます→これを食べろ

Irregular verbs

します→しろ

来ます→こい

Making an imperative form verb from the dictionary form verb:

Group 1 (Godan) verbs

Change the vowel of the last hiragana from u to e

飲む→飲め

Group 2 (Ichidan) verbs

Replace the る with ろ

食べる→食べろ

Irregular verbs

します→しろ

来きます→来こい　Notice the change in the kanji pronunciation

So, coming back to Rengoku san’s phrase, 燃もやします (to light / to set something ablaze) is a Group 1 (godan) verb, so the imperative form of it is 燃やせ. 心こころ means ‘heart’ or ‘mind’ so the whole phrase means ‘Set your heart ablaze.’ It’s a phrase is very appropriate for his character, 炎柱 (En Bashira / Flame Hashira) and show his dedication to protect others. 

みなさんも、心を燃やせ！そして、日本語を学べ！

If you are interested in how you can say phrases in anime in Japanese, make sure you follow Sakura Neko’s twitter account!

To See More Rengoku In Manga

You can see 煉獄れんごくさん in Vol.6, Vol. 7, and Vol.8 in Demon Slayer manga.