みなさん、こんにちは！Today, I am going to talk about 5 phrases in the new movie trailer of My Hero Academia! If you read this article, you will find out how to heroically state ‘I won’t give up!’ in Japanese in 5 different ways. Are you interested in anime? Are you learning Japanese? If the answer is yes, this article is for you.
First of all, let’s watch the trailer!
As you reach around 1:06 mark, you hear the 5 characters say ‘I won’t give up‘ in different ways. In English, they are translated as the follwoing:
Ochaco Uraraka: I won’t give up!
Eijiro Kirishima: I absolutely won’t give up!
Denki Kaminari: Like hell, I’ll give up!
Momo Yaoyorozu: I will not give up!
Izuki Midoriya: Like I’m going to give the hell up!
Ochaco Uraraka: I won’t give up!
Uraraka says this phrase in the simplest manner of all 5.
諦（あきら）めない。
akirame nai
As you can see, this is the negative dictionary form verb. 「諦（あきら）める」means ‘to give up’ and 「諦めない」simply means ‘to not give up’. Unlike English, in Japanese, you can make a grammatically complete sentence with a verb and nothing else! Additionally, the present tense verbs can also express the future tense. Therefore,「諦（あきら）めない」is a verb that means ‘not give up’, but it can also be a sentence which means ‘I will not give up’. As in the case for many Japanese sentences, you will have to infer the subject of the sentence from the context whether it should be ‘I’, ‘we’ or ‘they’ etc but in this scene, it’s quite obviously ‘I’.
Eijiro Kirishima: I absolutely won’t give up!
Eijoro Kirishima says this phrase in a rather masculine manner:
ゼッテー 諦（あきら）めねー！
Zettē akiramenē
Let’s look at the vocabulary in Kirishima’s phrase.
ゼッテー is an informal and masculine way of saying 絶対（ぜったい） , which means definitely or absolutely. Moreover, 諦（あきら）めねー is also an informal and masculine way of saying 諦めない.
Denki Kaminari: Like hell, I’ll give up!
While Uraraka and Kirishima’s phrases were quite similar, Denki Kaminari says a phrase in a slightly different way.
諦めるかよ！
Akirameru kayo
As we discussed the meaning of the verb 諦める, we will just look at the sentence sending かよ(kayo) here. かよ can mean 2 things.
A. When かよ follows a noun or adjective, it expresses the speaker’s doubt. The core meaning of the sentence is essentially the same even if you remove よ.
まじかよ。Is that serious? / I can’t believe it.
B. When かよ follows a verb, it expresses the speaker’s denial in a similar way to saying ‘No way I do … / As if I do …’.
食べるかよ！No way I eat it! / I won’t eat it!
Therefore, you can translate Kirishima’s phrase 諦めるかよ as: No way I’ll give up!
Momo Yaoyorozu: I will not give up!
The phrase by Momo Yaoyorozu is probably the most anime-sounding of all. She goes:
諦めませんわ！
Akiramemasen wa
Unlike the others, she uses more formal form of the verb – 諦めます. Additionally, the sentence ending わ is often added in feminine speech. Combining the formal form of the verb and the sentence ending particle わ, she gives out a graceful and lady-like impression. Therefore, this is somewhat reflected in the English translation.
Note that this sentence ending particle is only used in manga or anime!
Izuki Midoriya: Like I’m going to give the hell up!
Izuki Midoriya’s phrase would be the most grammatically complex of all, and the English translation does not necessarily match up with what he actually says:
諦めたりなんかするもんか。
Akirametarinanka surumonka
To understand this phrase, we will have to cover 2 grammar points. The first one is たりなんか, and the second one is もんか.
1 [Verb Stem] + たりなんか means ‘such as’ or ‘things like’ and it also expresses the speaker’s feelings such as disgust and disbelief.
2 [Verb]もんか means ‘as if’ or ‘there is no way …‘. The meaning os this expression essentially the same as かよ which we discussed above. However, もんか shows a stronger determination.
Summary – まとめ
In summary, this article discussed 5 different ways to say ‘I won’t give up’ using the My Hero Academia movie trailer as our resource! I hope you gained deeper understanding of what kind of emphasis each phrase had. I hope you found this article helpful, and let me know if you have any quotes you would like me to break down!
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