Linguistic Codes and Character Identity in Afro Samurai

Abstract

One of the guiding principles of linguistics is that people use different kinds of language in different social situations. This is true for every human being in the world who speaks, writes, or signs language. We speak one way at home and another way at worship services, one way at the night club and another in the classroom. Sometimes the differences between these styles are subtle, sometimes dramatic. A register is a variety of language that is associated with certain speech situations, whose parameters include participant identity, setting, and topic or purpose (Finegan 2004: 19). This chapter will examine how characters in both the anime and the manga versions of Afro Samurai use language and, under certain circumstances, shift registers.¹ In particular, the linguistic choices of the protagonist, Afro Samurai, and his sometime companion, Ninja Ninja, reveal a complex world in which a long list of discordant sociocultural and linguistic codes blend in the story of hero, demon, computer technology, hip-hop and R&B, and Japanese samurai warrior culture.