Here's a question for everyone: Can 先輩 (せんぱい) be used towards females? And I guess a… - Feed Post by mog86uk
Here's a question for everyone: Can 先輩 (せんぱい) be used towards females?
And I guess a second question: Is it normal for it to be used in that way?
From anime and stuff, I've definitely heard it is used for male to male, and reasonably certain I've heard it used for female to male. Also, I can kind of imagine that I've heard it said female to female, but I'm not sure at all of this. However, male to female is something I definitely don't remember ever hearing. Any thoughts? ^^
And I guess a second question: Is it normal for it to be used in that way?
From anime and stuff, I've definitely heard it is used for male to male, and reasonably certain I've heard it used for female to male. Also, I can kind of imagine that I've heard it said female to female, but I'm not sure at all of this. However, male to female is something I definitely don't remember ever hearing. Any thoughts? ^^
posted by mog86uk
Comments 9
male to female it's okay too :)
I can remember hearing male toward male in many animes, like "Iketani-senpai" used repeatedly in Initial D.
I definitely also remember hearing female toward male used in Nichijou, with Mio referring to "Sasahara-senpai" when talking to another female.
But no examples come to mind for where I might have heard it used towards females. I can imagine it must be used in martial arts situations, but I can't really imagine it used regularly in school or elsewhere. I did try searching for the answer but I kept getting stupid pages about some internet meme I'd never heard of...
Do you have any examples of it being used male to female?
I've only ever heard it used male to female in Parliament while watching the news. So it's probably rarer but it can still be used.- I've actually remembered an example of male to female now.
In the anime Azumanga Daioh, Chiyo (second year female student, but really young because she jumped a few grades) scolds a first year freshman male student in a school corridor, telling him to address her properly as "Mihama-senpai" (which he awkwardly repeats back to her).
Funny that the three animes I mentioned are my favourite ones! ^^
@MintyHippo
They use it in parliament? I guess it's only because I'm not used to hearing it used outside of mostly school settings, but it seems strange to think of older adults addressing others as senpai, lol. :D - Well that was only once and I've never heard it anywhere else. And yeah it's used fairly often even outside of school lol.
Nichijou was the oddest most surreal slice of life lol, I remember rocket luanchers and everyone being seemingly invincible. It's one of the oddest things my friends introduced me to. The other two anime I've only heard of. 
it's used from a male to a female also in the anime "welcome to the nhk"
You can easily check in the shoujo manga "Namaikizakari", in the first pages.- @DS25, Thanks. I went and checked that manga out and it was easy to find examples of male to female use.
@olimpia, Thanks. I haven't watched it yet but I already plan on watching that anime some day. ^^
@MintyHippo, Yeah I've heard it used between adults in workplaces and elsewhere (male to male again...), but still seems weird to think of politicians using it, especially if they're much older.
Nichijou is pretty insane. One of the episodes was so funny that I was in a lot of pain trying hard to hold back the laughter late at night, I nearly died... Other people said they nearly died laughing on that episode too. :P
Thanks everyone. I think I now have enough evidence that it is used towards females. It does seem harder to find examples of it, whereas male to male is very easy to find, but it definitely is used the same way towards females too. :) - it's not that hard, you can heart it on persona 3 too.
