I’m an experienced Japanese speaker looking for idioms that mean something similar to “a little too on the nose” in English, expressing that something is uncannily detailed or accurate and therefore lacks nuance.
For instance, “that politician’s ad was a little too on the nose, if she wants to attack her opponent she should at least try to dress it up a bit” or “the opening song for Made In Abyss is a little too on the nose, it’s practically just explaining the show via the lyrics”.
If there’s no similar idiom, then interested in ideas on how one might use plain Japanese to explain the meaning of the English idiom to a native speaker.
6 comments
Oohhh… that’s such a good question! I don’t have an answer yet but I’m gonna be thinking about it for the rest of the day 🤔
If I were to translate “on the nose” in the way you described it, I would probably use one of or a combination of these:
* あからさま (blatant, obvious)
* 薄っぺらい (shallow, superficial)
* くどい (too intense, boring)
あからさま過ぎて薄っぺらく、くどい。
By the way, 鼻につく means something like something slightly similar in Japanese. Something like “too in-your-face and annoying”.
Weblio suggests きっかり and 正確に but these clearly don’t fit the meaning you have in mind. 単刀直入 means something like “very direct” or “blunt” or “pointed” and might fit to some extent.
図星 has some of this feeling. It’s similar to saying something is a “bullseye.” The implication is that it didn’t just happen to hit the target, but was intentionally aimed that way. That can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on context.
Quickest explanation is うるさい。”He is frank.”
My Japanese Google yielded some blog post by maybe some Japanese who can understand English.
> Isn’t that a little on the nose?(直球すぎない？)
https://msinternationalandromeda.amebaownd.com/posts/6447500/
I’m not sure I would 100% agree with this, but at least one way to express it.