Was reading a visual novel (Kara no Shoujo) and at a certain point a female character said, jokingly, “それとも、ここで私を襲うつもりかな”. The sentence was translated as “or is it that you just want to rape me here (on the bed)?” Which was a **pretty strange** thing to say, even as a joke.
I know 襲う means to attack, to assault, but does it also have a strong “sexual assault” connotation? Or could this sentence be translated differently?
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As far as I know, not in manga/anime, at least.
I’ve seen 襲う(osou) used as “pursue somebody” -either romantically or sexually, though more sexually – “with the intent of dominating them” but never had too strong a bad connotation. One example that comes to mind is the ever-present Kabedon, where in the circumstances around it, I think I heard something along the lines of 襲ってくる.
I always thought of it as a synonym of せめる, which tends to have different meanings depending on the kanji used, but all indicating hostility; but in the j-pop sphere, it’s mostly recognised for セメ from セメとウケ where it simply represents the “proactive side” in a relationship, a top, basically.
Idk, I think it depends on the context. If they’re in a relationship/ being flirtatious, she’s probably just joking about how the other person can’t wait / resist any further such that they wanna jump into bed with her asap.
But it’s definitely also used in sexual assault language, ie. 「暗い夜道で変質者に襲われた」
That might be a little much but if we look it up here there’s a connotation of the attack being unexpected: https://www.weblio.jp/content/襲う
So with a bit of license/interpretation we could see how someone might choose that translation
I think 襲う is used to mean “rape” or “sexual assault” most of the time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no consent. It just means that one party initiated the sex rather forcefully.
I agree with u/Double_Second7630 and I think their reading on the situation is correct. I don’t have the full context, but from the information in this post, I would have translated the sentence as “…or are you going to try fucking me here?”
Maybe I’m too obsessed with military stuff, but I see 襲う, particularly written in 2023 with Kanji, and I think of a military assault.
But obviously in this context, it’s different.