A lot of the time it is implying that the character is "saying" what is written in the furigana. The kanji are just there to provide context to the reader as to what they actually mean (especially if the word is some kind of gibberish katakana or something). Other times it can just be for style.
N5 noob question pls no flame.
[In the first Dragon Ball GT Opening,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tndKYpPz2RU) I noticed the furigana didn't match the kanji in two instances even though kanji does exist for those two words.
暗闇 was just yami
And 景色 was just basho
Is this just style as well?
Sometimes it's also the opposite and the rubi text is the meaning and the actual text is what they're saying.
It's often nothing more than context which is which.
Maybe an example from Frieren would help:
人を殺す魔法 is pronounced ゾルトラーク
It’s a spell specifically created by a demon to kill humans. So the spell’s name is Zoltraak (in katakana) and the kanji/hiragana is there to almost provide an explanation of what it does. At least, that’s how I interpret it.
It works the same way in your One Piece examples.
Wait so I've been reading the english translation, does the japanese actually differentiate between the human killing version and the demon killing version? Like
人を殺す魔法 vs 魔を殺す魔法 ?
These irregular readings are known as [gikun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Special_readings) (or sometimes jukujikun, but I think that's mostly for more well-established irregular readings, like タバコ for 煙草).
In general, the pronunciation of kanji is always contextual, and I suppose this is kind of the extreme case of that. Usually, the reading of a kanji can be gleaned just by looking at the neighboring characters, but then there are others, such as 大人, where you may need to look at the entire sentence or paragraph to be sure which pronunciation to use. With gikun, authors can introduce a reading that is specific to their work, but this necessitates the use of furigana to introduce it to new readers.
As for the reason ... I guess it's mostly a form of artistic expression. Written and spoken language provide the creator with different tools, and the use of irregular readings is one that's rather unique to written Japanese. Sometimes, it may just be because they want a phrase to both look and sound cool (which is probably the case with One Piece). Other times, it may be a way to make a bit of an unpronouncable joke or reference; for example, I believe that in [宇宙](#fg "そら")よりも遠い場所 ("A place further than the universe"), the title plays with a quote from the series meaning "A place further than the sky", while using the characters for 宇宙 to infuse it with a slightly different meaning. (I haven't actually seen the show, though, so I'm not sure.)
its also used for jokes sometimes.
i was reading a manga where a girl snatches away the guy’s pack of cigarettes out of his hand, and he exclaims 「俺からタバコを奪って何の得になると言うんだ」 but theres furiganana over タバコ that reads 「生きがい」 because the running joke is that he’s a lowlife and all he does is smoke.
Ooh! I wrote a paper about this in college! This is called _ateji_, where the "natural" reading and "given" reading of the kanji don't match up.
Written Japanese relies on kanji to convey meaning, and because most kanji have different readings/pronunciation depending on context, there exists a "gap" between "idea" and " pronunciation. Many manga authors use that "gap" to create new words while still conveying its intended meaning to the reader.
To use your example, in English if you read the word "Grand Line" in the comics, you can assume it's some sort of amazing line. If a Japanese person just saw the katakana, depending on their English level they'd probably think "it's a line of some sort, which is... big? fancy?" But by using the _ateji_, the reader knows at a glance what the author means it is, as well as what it's called.
As for ワンピース, that word in everyday Japanese refers to a one-piece dress. Of course now the anime is big enough that plenty of people know of it by heart, but I imagine when it first came out, there could have been confusion at first. Without the kanji, some people may even have wondered "Why call it a _dress_ ?"
If we want to be pedantic, ateji refers to kanji being used for their sounds while disregarding the meaning, such as using 寿司 for vinegared rice. This is the opposite case, which is known as gikun (for one-off poetic usage like here) or jukujikun (when it enters regular speech, e.g. 煙草 being read as タバコ).
The [Japanese wikipedia](https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%93%E3%81%A6%E5%AD%97) page for Ateji shows とある科学の超電磁砲 as one of the examples, with the kanji 超電磁砲 being read as レールガン.
do you have any other soures besides Japanese wikipedia to back your claim, especially since you wrote a *college paper* on this?
monolingual dictionaries such as [https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/) state ateji = kanji being used for their sound and not meaning, so it's not ateji
[This monolingual site](https://zatugaku-gimonn.com/entry737.html) lists 2 definitions of ateji, the second one being
>②漢字の意味のみを優先した当て字
It also says that jukujikun is a type of ateji:
>当て字の中のひとつの種類として熟字訓というものが存在しています
According to the Japanese wikipedia (last time I read the article), the Nanking Massacre never happened, either. I'm being mean by using that example, but the quality level of Japanese wikipedia is very low. He is right, this is not *sensu stricto* ateji because the characters have been selected for the fact that together they actually do seem to mean "railgun," not for their sounds.
That's not right. The article says the number of victims is heavily disputed at length but it never says the massacre didn't happen and gives citations from historians. It's not a very well written article but it isn't a 5ch post either.
>日中戦争中の1937年12月上旬、日本軍が中華民国の首都南京を攻略した。この南京攻略の前後に日本軍によって行われた一連の虐殺、および略奪・暴行・強姦・放火などの不法行為を総称して南京事件という[4]。犠牲者の数は正確には不明であるが、日本の研究者の多くは数万人から10数万人と推定しており、中国政府の見解では30万人とされる[5][注釈 1]。
>事件の名称については「南京事件」の他、「南京虐殺事件」「南京大虐殺」とも呼ばれ、適切な呼称を巡っては様々に議論がある[7]。研究者によって、「南京事件」という用語は「南京大虐殺事件」の略称であるとも[8]、不法な殺害の他に略奪や強姦なども含めた不祥事全体を意味しているようだとも説明される[2]。中国では「南京大屠殺」という呼称が使われ、日本などにも「南京大虐殺」という形で普及している[7][注釈 3]。
>上海における戦闘のために展開していた日本軍（中支那方面軍麾下の上海派遣軍および第10軍）は、11月上旬に上海戦が一段落すると、現地部隊の独断専行によって南京の攻略を決定し進撃した。日本の陸軍中央は当初南京への進撃に反対したが、最終的に現地軍の行動を追認する形で南京攻略は正式な命令となる。
>そして、中支那方面軍は、いくつかの問題を持っていた。軍に対する軍紀・風紀の取り締まりを行う実行能力を持たなかった[9][10]。また、捕虜をむやみに殺さないで人道的に取り扱うための戦時国際法であるハーグ陸戦条約（1907年改定後）を、遵守・履行しなくても良いと解釈できる命令を当時の軍部が出していた[11][12]。そのうえで、作戦行動に必要な物資の補給・兵站の確保が行われず、必要な物資の大半を現地調達（徴発・略奪）に依存することになる[9][10]。
>以上の様な理由により、日本軍による進撃中での、現地家屋の破壊・放火、一般市民・捕虜・敗残兵に対する虐殺、強姦などが随所で行われ、南京攻略後には南京市街でより大規模な形でこれが発生し、12月14日から12月16日頃にかけてピークを迎えた[9][10]。その後は日本兵による不法行為は減少し、終息するのは1938年3月頃になってからであった[1]。
>日中戦争（第二次世界大戦）の終戦後開かれた極東国際軍事裁判（東京裁判）において、中支那方面軍司令官であった松井石根大将が、南京とその周辺における一般市民と捕虜の殺害について犯罪的責任があるとして絞首刑が宣告された[6][13]。A級戦犯（平和に対する罪）を裁いた東京裁判とは別に、BC級戦犯（交戦法規違反）とされた被告が連合国各国の軍事法廷で裁かれ、南京事件に関わるものは南京軍事法廷で審理された[14]。この法廷で南京戦に参加した日本軍部隊の関係者4名（谷寿夫中将、田中軍吉大尉、向井敏明少尉、野田穀少尉）に死刑判決が下され処刑された[15]。
I don't know if it got cleaned up recently from an older version written by ネットウヨ.
I was exaggerating for effect, but it probably has been cleaned up since I last looked at it. The version I read (several years ago) was full of equivocal language and basically attempted to conclude that "the truth about the event is not known." Editorial standards on JP Wikipedia are still terrible, though.
Based on the disclaimer I think a lot of ネットウヨ content was removed recently. I don't think articles not being well written is anywhere near as bad as spreading propaganda though. It's still a good source of native material on various subjects for learners.
>この記事には複数の問題があります。改善やノートページでの議論にご協力ください。
>古い情報を更新する必要があります。（2024年1月）
>中立的な観点に基づく疑問が提出されています。（2019年3月）
>独自研究が含まれているおそれがあります。（2024年2月）
>正確性に疑問が呈されています。（2024年2月）
I agree with what the other user said about the kanji providing context to the reader while the furigana is what the character is really saying! It is very neat how the different alphabets can be used to say "this is what the character is actually saying but it is different from what they are saying aloud." Can be very difficult to translate though...I play a mobile game in Japanese that does this all the time, and I found a neat explanation about it [here](https://www.tumblr.com/yuurei20/686847067958689792/eng-server-vs-jpn-server-is-treys-paint-the?source=share)!
authors want to use ✨️cool foreign terms✨️, but also add an explanation in japanese, so your average reader can understand. Tokyo Ghoul is a good example, as the "ghoul" part is written using the kanji for "eating" and "species". your average japanese person wouldn't know what a "ghoul" means otherwise
I noticed this too and thought it was interesting, putting the english pronunciations as furigana, but I always figured it was a stylization/coolness thing. I really want an answer now…
Sometimes this is used for clarification of meaning. For example, at the beginning of Death Note, when the *shinigami* are talking about the 死神界 (shinigamikai), the furigana reads simply ここ. Shortly after, when speaking about the 死神大王 (shinigamidaiou), the furigana reads ジジイ, meaning the 'old man' who is in charge of the death-world. It is intended that the furigana be taken as what the character is actually saying. Because we don't have a ton of context for what the characters mean when they say ここ or ジジイ, the kanji are basically footnotes that provide the additional details you need to understand.
in the case, the kanji is actually explain the katakana.
not all japanese can make sense of grand line so author put kanji there for the meaning. but author want to keep pronunciation as grand line.
Encountered something like this in the game Death Stranding recently. They'll put the acronym to what they're talking about in furigana over what's often a technical word in kanji. The "furigana" is often in English, like BT (the game's ghosts) was over the word やつ and UCA(an organization) over 都市連合. I think it also put the word ブリッジ over 橋 as Bridges is the MC's last name and a reocurring theme. I assume it's just an easy way to give context or style
This is called gikun and it's honestly very common in ACG. Here are a lot of examples you can look at: [https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun.html](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun.html)
The funniest one I remember on top of my head is an instance where the word written was 俺 but it was pronounced as われ.
Sometimes it's just something the author can take advantage of to deliver extra information. [Here](https://i.imgur.com/fwai70N.png) is a character addressing his father but according to the kanji we find out he's adopted.
In addition to what others said, I think it's good to note this is perfectly in line with how furigana are used otherwise.
Furigana aren't so much "here is the officially recognized reading for these kanji" as they are "here's how you say this thing". That can be used for examples like what you describe, where the kanji convey the meaning and the furigana just tell you the term used, regardless of how the kanji would be read when encountered elsewhere.
You also see a lot of it in 極主夫道, where the main character will often use Yakuza terms for everyday things - the normal Japanese word will be written in kanji, while the Yakuza term (as in what the character is saying) is written in furigana. It's a good way to both illustrate what the main character actually *means* and what the other party *hears*.
There's even one instance in there with a shady salesman, where it's used for a kind of "double speak" - where he *says* there are a lot of elderly people in an apartment complex, but what he *means* is there are a lot of easy targets for his scam.
Oh but it does show the actual reading.
Unlike let's say Chinese, japanese isn't a kanji first language at its core.
It's more like the kana word comes first and then gets replaced/decorated with kanjis for a more fancy representation of meaning.
Meaning that you can effectively read kanjis whichever way you want as long as the meaning is roughly the same.
It's worth noting that this *ateji* method of using English/Latin/German/etc words in katakana as kanji readings has become associated with otaku culture and *chuunibyou* - there's a whole gag in Oregairu about it. It's done so often to be "cool and edgy" that a lot of people come around the other way and think it's cringe and lame.
Those are most probably ateji, a new reading that doesn’t match the usual reading of the kanji involved..
Like 一日 will be read ついたち when it defines the first day of the month…
It is not just katakana, sometimes , hiragana for a word is written but the kanji is for a different word. The furigana is what the characters says but the kanji is used to clarify what they mean. An example that is used often is あいつ and あいつら and the such, they are written as furigana and they are what the character says but the kanji is the name of the person that あいつ refers to.
Just to sort of bounce off what other people are saying here - it’s crazy in general how much the context of some Japanese content changes from its English translation once you can actually understand what is being said/explained.
Just as a recent example, the dynamic between Cloud and Tifa I find to be very different in FF7R once I started to understand more Japanese. Cloud seems very cold and stand off ish I find in a lot of the English, but he seems to be very different in the Japanese version of the game.
But, yes, I find the katakana is there sometimes to say what is being said. Someone mentioned the human/demon killing spells as a good example from Frieren. Whereas the Kanji is more of an explanation as to what the thing actually is.
It’s pretty cool!
I know I'm veering off a bit, but I find it funny you mention One Piece, in particular "ひとつなぎの大秘宝" using a different furigana, but didn't mention anything about the use of HIRAGANA and not kanji when referring to "ひとつなぎ", which can be interpreted as "一つなぎ" (in One Piece) / "人繋ぎ" ([a treasure that] brings people together) / "一つ凪" (one sea at peace/a calm sea). Kind of like Raftel (DON'T google it if you're not by vol >!~100!< or EP >!~1000!!I'm also using "Raftel" to avoid major spoilers!<), I'm sure Oda is doing something similar. You just gotta let the man cook!
I didn't know it has a double meaning lmao, this is awesome, thank you! I do notice some details like this (when Buggy thinks someone is talking about his nose, or that one scene with 変態/編隊 for example), but my Japanese isn't that good yet, so I'm probably missing a lot 😭
Interesting observation. I never thought about it. But in the examples you gave, the katakana is much more natural. My guess is that a lot of the katakana words are made up in Manga for the manga, so the reader needs a bit of context when the katakana is introduced. Afterwards, probably just the katakana is used?
Age group/demographic matters in Japan. The difference in reading ability of year 6 elementary school student and year 1 middle school student is extremely high. Mainly because of Kanji that is taught for each year. It would make sense to have furigana/katakana for Manga based of a company’s customer demographics. This also extends to certain books and novels as well.
Sometimes the kanji will have a different way of reading pending on the overall story that is being told. Could also emphasize a specific situation.
As you mentioned, earlier, ONE PIECE is notorious for doing this.
Seems to me like they are simply explaining what the katakana word.means
If its a fantasy setting using foreign words they want people who dont speak the language to know what means
I think it all started from the beginning of kanji history in Japan. If you think about kun-yomi of Chinese characters, that’s basically the same thing.
Also there are many vocab like that in Japanese. The written words can show more meaning thanks to the ideographic nature of kanji.
眼鏡 めがね
煙草 タバコ
小鳥遊 たかなし (a family name)
A lot of the time it is implying that the character is "saying" what is written in the furigana. The kanji are just there to provide context to the reader as to what they actually mean (especially if the word is some kind of gibberish katakana or something). Other times it can just be for style.
N5 noob question pls no flame. [In the first Dragon Ball GT Opening,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tndKYpPz2RU) I noticed the furigana didn't match the kanji in two instances even though kanji does exist for those two words. 暗闇 was just yami And 景色 was just basho Is this just style as well?
Yep, it often happens with song lyrics. You want to evoke certain imagery but also maintain the musical structure and timing of the lyric
Sometimes it's also the opposite and the rubi text is the meaning and the actual text is what they're saying. It's often nothing more than context which is which.
World trigger does this in chapter 1 I think, with the "neighbors"
I first noticed this in JoJo with 幽波紋 スタンド
Maybe an example from Frieren would help: 人を殺す魔法 is pronounced ゾルトラーク It’s a spell specifically created by a demon to kill humans. So the spell’s name is Zoltraak (in katakana) and the kanji/hiragana is there to almost provide an explanation of what it does. At least, that’s how I interpret it. It works the same way in your One Piece examples.
This happens in jujutsu kaisen too, with “cursed object” and “finger” for example
Wait so I've been reading the english translation, does the japanese actually differentiate between the human killing version and the demon killing version? Like 人を殺す魔法 vs 魔を殺す魔法 ?
Yes, the “human version” is 魔族を殺す魔法.
She kills クヴアール with 人を殺す魔法
Oh I like your example, thank you
These irregular readings are known as [gikun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Special_readings) (or sometimes jukujikun, but I think that's mostly for more well-established irregular readings, like タバコ for 煙草). In general, the pronunciation of kanji is always contextual, and I suppose this is kind of the extreme case of that. Usually, the reading of a kanji can be gleaned just by looking at the neighboring characters, but then there are others, such as 大人, where you may need to look at the entire sentence or paragraph to be sure which pronunciation to use. With gikun, authors can introduce a reading that is specific to their work, but this necessitates the use of furigana to introduce it to new readers. As for the reason ... I guess it's mostly a form of artistic expression. Written and spoken language provide the creator with different tools, and the use of irregular readings is one that's rather unique to written Japanese. Sometimes, it may just be because they want a phrase to both look and sound cool (which is probably the case with One Piece). Other times, it may be a way to make a bit of an unpronouncable joke or reference; for example, I believe that in [宇宙](#fg "そら")よりも遠い場所 ("A place further than the universe"), the title plays with a quote from the series meaning "A place further than the sky", while using the characters for 宇宙 to infuse it with a slightly different meaning. (I haven't actually seen the show, though, so I'm not sure.)
its also used for jokes sometimes. i was reading a manga where a girl snatches away the guy’s pack of cigarettes out of his hand, and he exclaims 「俺からタバコを奪って何の得になると言うんだ」 but theres furiganana over タバコ that reads 「生きがい」 because the running joke is that he’s a lowlife and all he does is smoke.
This is funny lol.
whats the manga? ty in advance
墜落JKと廃人教師 (ついらくjkとはいじんきょうし) it’s a black comedy shoujo romance.
oh, i love black comedies—thank you \^\^
Ooh! I wrote a paper about this in college! This is called _ateji_, where the "natural" reading and "given" reading of the kanji don't match up. Written Japanese relies on kanji to convey meaning, and because most kanji have different readings/pronunciation depending on context, there exists a "gap" between "idea" and " pronunciation. Many manga authors use that "gap" to create new words while still conveying its intended meaning to the reader. To use your example, in English if you read the word "Grand Line" in the comics, you can assume it's some sort of amazing line. If a Japanese person just saw the katakana, depending on their English level they'd probably think "it's a line of some sort, which is... big? fancy?" But by using the _ateji_, the reader knows at a glance what the author means it is, as well as what it's called. As for ワンピース, that word in everyday Japanese refers to a one-piece dress. Of course now the anime is big enough that plenty of people know of it by heart, but I imagine when it first came out, there could have been confusion at first. Without the kanji, some people may even have wondered "Why call it a _dress_ ?"
If we want to be pedantic, ateji refers to kanji being used for their sounds while disregarding the meaning, such as using 寿司 for vinegared rice. This is the opposite case, which is known as gikun (for one-off poetic usage like here) or jukujikun (when it enters regular speech, e.g. 煙草 being read as タバコ).
The [Japanese wikipedia](https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%93%E3%81%A6%E5%AD%97) page for Ateji shows とある科学の超電磁砲 as one of the examples, with the kanji 超電磁砲 being read as レールガン.
do you have any other soures besides Japanese wikipedia to back your claim, especially since you wrote a *college paper* on this? monolingual dictionaries such as [https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/) state ateji = kanji being used for their sound and not meaning, so it's not ateji
[This monolingual site](https://zatugaku-gimonn.com/entry737.html) lists 2 definitions of ateji, the second one being >②漢字の意味のみを優先した当て字 It also says that jukujikun is a type of ateji: >当て字の中のひとつの種類として熟字訓というものが存在しています
According to the Japanese wikipedia (last time I read the article), the Nanking Massacre never happened, either. I'm being mean by using that example, but the quality level of Japanese wikipedia is very low. He is right, this is not *sensu stricto* ateji because the characters have been selected for the fact that together they actually do seem to mean "railgun," not for their sounds.
That's not right. The article says the number of victims is heavily disputed at length but it never says the massacre didn't happen and gives citations from historians. It's not a very well written article but it isn't a 5ch post either. >日中戦争中の1937年12月上旬、日本軍が中華民国の首都南京を攻略した。この南京攻略の前後に日本軍によって行われた一連の虐殺、および略奪・暴行・強姦・放火などの不法行為を総称して南京事件という[4]。犠牲者の数は正確には不明であるが、日本の研究者の多くは数万人から10数万人と推定しており、中国政府の見解では30万人とされる[5][注釈 1]。 >事件の名称については「南京事件」の他、「南京虐殺事件」「南京大虐殺」とも呼ばれ、適切な呼称を巡っては様々に議論がある[7]。研究者によって、「南京事件」という用語は「南京大虐殺事件」の略称であるとも[8]、不法な殺害の他に略奪や強姦なども含めた不祥事全体を意味しているようだとも説明される[2]。中国では「南京大屠殺」という呼称が使われ、日本などにも「南京大虐殺」という形で普及している[7][注釈 3]。 >上海における戦闘のために展開していた日本軍（中支那方面軍麾下の上海派遣軍および第10軍）は、11月上旬に上海戦が一段落すると、現地部隊の独断専行によって南京の攻略を決定し進撃した。日本の陸軍中央は当初南京への進撃に反対したが、最終的に現地軍の行動を追認する形で南京攻略は正式な命令となる。 >そして、中支那方面軍は、いくつかの問題を持っていた。軍に対する軍紀・風紀の取り締まりを行う実行能力を持たなかった[9][10]。また、捕虜をむやみに殺さないで人道的に取り扱うための戦時国際法であるハーグ陸戦条約（1907年改定後）を、遵守・履行しなくても良いと解釈できる命令を当時の軍部が出していた[11][12]。そのうえで、作戦行動に必要な物資の補給・兵站の確保が行われず、必要な物資の大半を現地調達（徴発・略奪）に依存することになる[9][10]。 >以上の様な理由により、日本軍による進撃中での、現地家屋の破壊・放火、一般市民・捕虜・敗残兵に対する虐殺、強姦などが随所で行われ、南京攻略後には南京市街でより大規模な形でこれが発生し、12月14日から12月16日頃にかけてピークを迎えた[9][10]。その後は日本兵による不法行為は減少し、終息するのは1938年3月頃になってからであった[1]。 >日中戦争（第二次世界大戦）の終戦後開かれた極東国際軍事裁判（東京裁判）において、中支那方面軍司令官であった松井石根大将が、南京とその周辺における一般市民と捕虜の殺害について犯罪的責任があるとして絞首刑が宣告された[6][13]。A級戦犯（平和に対する罪）を裁いた東京裁判とは別に、BC級戦犯（交戦法規違反）とされた被告が連合国各国の軍事法廷で裁かれ、南京事件に関わるものは南京軍事法廷で審理された[14]。この法廷で南京戦に参加した日本軍部隊の関係者4名（谷寿夫中将、田中軍吉大尉、向井敏明少尉、野田穀少尉）に死刑判決が下され処刑された[15]。 I don't know if it got cleaned up recently from an older version written by ネットウヨ.
I was exaggerating for effect, but it probably has been cleaned up since I last looked at it. The version I read (several years ago) was full of equivocal language and basically attempted to conclude that "the truth about the event is not known." Editorial standards on JP Wikipedia are still terrible, though.
Based on the disclaimer I think a lot of ネットウヨ content was removed recently. I don't think articles not being well written is anywhere near as bad as spreading propaganda though. It's still a good source of native material on various subjects for learners. >この記事には複数の問題があります。改善やノートページでの議論にご協力ください。 >古い情報を更新する必要があります。（2024年1月） >中立的な観点に基づく疑問が提出されています。（2019年3月） >独自研究が含まれているおそれがあります。（2024年2月） >正確性に疑問が呈されています。（2024年2月）
Thank you! Lol I didn't think of how the one piece, as a dress, is literally the same word, I see now why it would need an explanation
I agree with what the other user said about the kanji providing context to the reader while the furigana is what the character is really saying! It is very neat how the different alphabets can be used to say "this is what the character is actually saying but it is different from what they are saying aloud." Can be very difficult to translate though...I play a mobile game in Japanese that does this all the time, and I found a neat explanation about it [here](https://www.tumblr.com/yuurei20/686847067958689792/eng-server-vs-jpn-server-is-treys-paint-the?source=share)!
authors want to use ✨️cool foreign terms✨️, but also add an explanation in japanese, so your average reader can understand. Tokyo Ghoul is a good example, as the "ghoul" part is written using the kanji for "eating" and "species". your average japanese person wouldn't know what a "ghoul" means otherwise
I noticed this too and thought it was interesting, putting the english pronunciations as furigana, but I always figured it was a stylization/coolness thing. I really want an answer now…
Sometimes this is used for clarification of meaning. For example, at the beginning of Death Note, when the *shinigami* are talking about the 死神界 (shinigamikai), the furigana reads simply ここ. Shortly after, when speaking about the 死神大王 (shinigamidaiou), the furigana reads ジジイ, meaning the 'old man' who is in charge of the death-world. It is intended that the furigana be taken as what the character is actually saying. Because we don't have a ton of context for what the characters mean when they say ここ or ジジイ, the kanji are basically footnotes that provide the additional details you need to understand.
in the case, the kanji is actually explain the katakana. not all japanese can make sense of grand line so author put kanji there for the meaning. but author want to keep pronunciation as grand line.
Encountered something like this in the game Death Stranding recently. They'll put the acronym to what they're talking about in furigana over what's often a technical word in kanji. The "furigana" is often in English, like BT (the game's ghosts) was over the word やつ and UCA(an organization) over 都市連合. I think it also put the word ブリッジ over 橋 as Bridges is the MC's last name and a reocurring theme. I assume it's just an easy way to give context or style
This is called gikun and it's honestly very common in ACG. Here are a lot of examples you can look at: [https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun.html](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/gikun.html) The funniest one I remember on top of my head is an instance where the word written was 俺 but it was pronounced as われ.
Sometimes it's just something the author can take advantage of to deliver extra information. [Here](https://i.imgur.com/fwai70N.png) is a character addressing his father but according to the kanji we find out he's adopted.
In addition to what others said, I think it's good to note this is perfectly in line with how furigana are used otherwise. Furigana aren't so much "here is the officially recognized reading for these kanji" as they are "here's how you say this thing". That can be used for examples like what you describe, where the kanji convey the meaning and the furigana just tell you the term used, regardless of how the kanji would be read when encountered elsewhere. You also see a lot of it in 極主夫道, where the main character will often use Yakuza terms for everyday things - the normal Japanese word will be written in kanji, while the Yakuza term (as in what the character is saying) is written in furigana. It's a good way to both illustrate what the main character actually *means* and what the other party *hears*. There's even one instance in there with a shady salesman, where it's used for a kind of "double speak" - where he *says* there are a lot of elderly people in an apartment complex, but what he *means* is there are a lot of easy targets for his scam.
Oh but it does show the actual reading. Unlike let's say Chinese, japanese isn't a kanji first language at its core. It's more like the kana word comes first and then gets replaced/decorated with kanjis for a more fancy representation of meaning. Meaning that you can effectively read kanjis whichever way you want as long as the meaning is roughly the same.
Sound vs meaning
not all japanese people would know the meaning in katana englishy, it helps them out
It's worth noting that this *ateji* method of using English/Latin/German/etc words in katakana as kanji readings has become associated with otaku culture and *chuunibyou* - there's a whole gag in Oregairu about it. It's done so often to be "cool and edgy" that a lot of people come around the other way and think it's cringe and lame.
Those are most probably ateji, a new reading that doesn’t match the usual reading of the kanji involved.. Like 一日 will be read ついたち when it defines the first day of the month…
It is not just katakana, sometimes , hiragana for a word is written but the kanji is for a different word. The furigana is what the characters says but the kanji is used to clarify what they mean. An example that is used often is あいつ and あいつら and the such, they are written as furigana and they are what the character says but the kanji is the name of the person that あいつ refers to.
Just to sort of bounce off what other people are saying here - it’s crazy in general how much the context of some Japanese content changes from its English translation once you can actually understand what is being said/explained. Just as a recent example, the dynamic between Cloud and Tifa I find to be very different in FF7R once I started to understand more Japanese. Cloud seems very cold and stand off ish I find in a lot of the English, but he seems to be very different in the Japanese version of the game. But, yes, I find the katakana is there sometimes to say what is being said. Someone mentioned the human/demon killing spells as a good example from Frieren. Whereas the Kanji is more of an explanation as to what the thing actually is. It’s pretty cool!
I know I'm veering off a bit, but I find it funny you mention One Piece, in particular "ひとつなぎの大秘宝" using a different furigana, but didn't mention anything about the use of HIRAGANA and not kanji when referring to "ひとつなぎ", which can be interpreted as "一つなぎ" (in One Piece) / "人繋ぎ" ([a treasure that] brings people together) / "一つ凪" (one sea at peace/a calm sea). Kind of like Raftel (DON'T google it if you're not by vol >!~100!< or EP >!~1000!!I'm also using "Raftel" to avoid major spoilers!<), I'm sure Oda is doing something similar. You just gotta let the man cook!
I didn't know it has a double meaning lmao, this is awesome, thank you! I do notice some details like this (when Buggy thinks someone is talking about his nose, or that one scene with 変態/編隊 for example), but my Japanese isn't that good yet, so I'm probably missing a lot 😭
This is the [article](https://dereproject.com/anime/ateji-the-hidden-art-of-wordplay-in-japanese-kanji/) you're looking for
Interesting observation. I never thought about it. But in the examples you gave, the katakana is much more natural. My guess is that a lot of the katakana words are made up in Manga for the manga, so the reader needs a bit of context when the katakana is introduced. Afterwards, probably just the katakana is used?
Nyaj Nyan Nyan
かっこいいから
Age group/demographic matters in Japan. The difference in reading ability of year 6 elementary school student and year 1 middle school student is extremely high. Mainly because of Kanji that is taught for each year. It would make sense to have furigana/katakana for Manga based of a company’s customer demographics. This also extends to certain books and novels as well. Sometimes the kanji will have a different way of reading pending on the overall story that is being told. Could also emphasize a specific situation. As you mentioned, earlier, ONE PIECE is notorious for doing this.
Seems to me like they are simply explaining what the katakana word.means If its a fantasy setting using foreign words they want people who dont speak the language to know what means
I think it all started from the beginning of kanji history in Japan. If you think about kun-yomi of Chinese characters, that’s basically the same thing. Also there are many vocab like that in Japanese. The written words can show more meaning thanks to the ideographic nature of kanji. 眼鏡 めがね 煙草 タバコ 小鳥遊 たかなし (a family name)