Welcome to カタカナの Drama: The Sequel! これは examples of カタカナ。I'll tell you a little about このカタカナ。そして、This time around I'll try to offer a bit more insight into their usage. はじめましょう！
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| きれいなシャツです、ね？ |
At first, このシャツ doesn't seem very special. But it is! On このシャツ is the poem アメニモマケズ、by みやざわけんじ。If you look close enough, you may see some かんじ。However, originally this poem was written entirely in カタカナ。It was found posthumously, so nobody really knows why he did this. Although it's possible that it was a stylistic choice, the textbooks written around the time he lived were mostly written in カタカナ, so it's very probable that he wrote it in カタカナ because it was more accessible. Maybe he wrote this with young people mind, as この poem does focus on what kind of person the speaker wants to be, a topic extremely relevant to youth. アメニモマケズはうつくしいですよ。
よみませんか？
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| こわいです、ね？ Worst. Virus. Ever. |
Surely you've seen The Matrix! このえいがはとてもゆうめいです。In it, we see this screen pretty often. What many people don't know is that この screen has たくさん backwards カタカナとばんごう！どうして？わかりません. To my knowledge, they're not words- just random characters. I didn't know this before, but apparently The Matrix borrowed was inspired in part by
攻殻機動隊 (Ghost in the Shell), a futuristic sci-fi アニメ。このアニメ also featured this screen, filled with backwards numbers andカタカナ. I think it's safe to say they borrowed this element to add to the futuristic sci-fi mood of the movie.
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これはなんですか？Typography!
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Lastly, we have この work of art. Here, カタカナ is used for artistic purposes. There's a style of art called typography: art made up entirely of letters. Well, characters. In this case, カタカナ！In my opinion, much of the カタカナ in まんがは typography ですが,これは definitely an example of typography.
I also found このおもしろい example of カタカナ used in art. It was part of an artist named あばけさんの exhibit for とーきょー Design week. He called it Limo typography. Interactive,ね？I wonder why they chose to make the characterピ.
じゃあ、これはカタカナの Drama: The Sequel でした。たのしかったてすか？
またらっしゃってください！
