I’m but a mere weeb-lord but I’ve noticed that in every resource I’m familiar with , the term におい (Nioi) is translated as “smell”. However, in all forms of JP media and 100% of native JP I’ve heard use the term, it is never used as “smell” unless it is being used incredibly sarcastically or in blatant double-entendre manner (Innuendo). So I ask, is this actually being translated properly?
I’ll give you three general examples of what I mean;
* The native JP will often use the term におい (Nioi) to broadly refer to ‘scent’ or ‘essence’ in reference to personality. Saying that **two people have the same におい (Nioi)** is effectively saying that they’re a lot alike rather than they literally have a similar smell. Yeah I get that it’s a colloquial metaphor but this is not my only example.
* In ep 14 of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ikari Shinji has a sync test done in Unit 00 which is usually used by Ayanami Rei. His internal monologue states ” におい ” (Nioi) , ” 綾波 レイ の におい ” (Ayanami no nioi) which makes no sense because he is submerged in liquid (LCL) and cannot, by definition, smell anything. It’s a plot point. This is never questioned by native fans or overseas weebs.
* In the recent song by Houshou Marine , a vtuber from Hololive, at about 10 seconds the lyrics say **”dangerous Marine smell”** which I’m 100% certain was an attempted translation of におい (Nioi). The thing is, she didn’t mean smell at all but rather, uh, I guess the closest broad term would be released female sexual pheromones that stimulate men, sort of. The point is, she absolutely doesn’t mean smell.
Maybe I just suck even by weeb-lord standards but perhaps the archives are incorrect and people just ran with the translation anyway. I’ve noticed that a bad smell is denoted with **’kusai”** and good smell as something like **”kaori”** which again makes me wonder if “nioi” is being improperly translated. It “feels” like a mistranslation to me.
I ask for your judgment call.
8 comments
[https://jisho.org/word/匂い](https://jisho.org/word/匂い) this is the dictionary definition, so I’d say the translations are definitely correct
metaphors are common in all languages
something can smell like trouble or a situation can stink
臭い演技 can mean overacting or melodrama, for example
generally nioi is somewhat neutral, whereas kusai is negative, and kaori is positive
roughly speaking: 臭い・匂い・香り＝stench / smell-or-scent / aroma
におい can and most likely means “smell” although it may also be used to refer to more abstract qualities like the atmosphere or meaning an object holds.
You forgetting that Japanese words, like those of every other language, have multiple dictionary definitions and synonyms.
匂い is “smell; scent” whether good or bad in the literal sense:
Walking into the kitchen – いい匂いしてるな。何作ってる？Man, that smells good. Whatcha making?
Smelling a novelty eraser – わー！いちごの匂いしてる！Wow! Smells like strawberries!
Finding old milk – チーズの匂いしてる。捨てて。It smells like cheese. Throw it out.
Walking into your brother’s room – 何か死んで腐ってるのか、この匂いは。This stench is like something’s dead and rotten.
For your first example, くさい can be used in a similar way – めんどくさい, for example is literally “reeks of trouble.” Having the same “scent” works in the same way as two people having the same aura.
In your second example, they can breath and speak normally in the LCL, so I’m not sure what rules we can apply to it. I think it’s possible for it take on the literal scent of Rei.
In your third example, “scent” might be better and we could possibly ascribe it to “pheromones.”
Marine’s song “I’m Your Treasure Box” is co-written by Toby Fox, lol. I’m pretty sure the English parts are as intended.
Yes, it does actually mean a literal smell and is used as such in everyday Japanese. The specific cases you’ve listed just happen to be cases where a metaphorical usage can be applied.
i think with most words it’s like this; there is a translation that exists for the sake of restating the meaning of a word into english but it is definitely not the case that the japanese word lines up perfectly with the english word attached to it
Nice shitpost