One thing that throws me off here is that I've always seen her "Kuzu Shireikan" affectionate pet name translated as "Crappy Commander". Is this just a "means the same thing" choice? Or is there actually something specific that makes it "Garbage"?
One thing that throws me off here is that I've always seen her "Kuzu Shireikan" affectionate pet name translated as "Crappy Commander". Is this just a "means the same thing" choice? Or is there actually something specific that makes it "Garbage"?
She says "Kuzu", which literally is kudzu. (In fact, the English word "kudzu" comes directly from Japanese "kuzu".) Kudzu is a type of vine that is considered a terrible weed because they are highly invasive and "strangle" the desired plants of a given garden. It therefore has an international reputation for being something expansive and difficult to manage. "Kuzu" is therefore an insult meaning someone is some form of worthless leech with no redeeming qualities of their own that takes up the space of someone useful.
Thing is, different translators will translate that in different ways, as it's not as standardized as "kuso" -> "shitty". "Kuzu" used as an insult can be translated as something like "garbage" or "crappy" in a looser sense of the term, the same way that "urusai" becomes "shut up" when it literally means "noisy" with the intent of saying someone should make less noise. A closer translation would be something like useless weed.
She says "Kuzu", which literally is kudzu. (In fact, the English word "kudzu" comes directly from Japanese "kuzu".) Kudzu is a type of vine that is considered a terrible weed because they are highly invasive and "strangle" the desired plants of a given garden. It therefore has an international reputation for being something expansive and difficult to manage. "Kuzu" is therefore an insult meaning someone is some form of worthless leech with no redeeming qualities of their own that takes up the space of someone useful.
The etymologies are unrelated. クズ here refers to 屑, not 葛. This literally refers to chaff or left-over-bits (after you cut away or remove the useful parts). When used for humans, it means something along the "dregs of humanity" sense.
Usually this is a trickier word to translate than 'kuso' because the direct translation is a bit more wordy and lacks some of the... 'brash' oomphness of the original. A lot of people like to use some variation of 'crap' (e.g. piece of crap, crappy) but words like "rubbish", "trash", "useless" and "scum"/"scumbag" work as well.
I wouldn't exactly use "garbage", because the word to me suggests something wetter (with food waste thrown in) compared to "trash" or "rubbish", but it works too sometimes.
The etymologies are unrelated. クズ here refers to 屑, not 葛. This literally refers to chaff or left-over-bits (after you cut away or remove the useful parts). When used for humans, it means something along the "dregs of humanity" sense.
Usually this is a trickier word to translate than 'kuso' because the direct translation is a bit more wordy and lacks some of the... 'brash' oomphness of the original. A lot of people like to use some variation of 'crap' (e.g. piece of crap, crappy) but words like "rubbish", "trash", "useless" and "scum"/"scumbag" work as well.
I wouldn't exactly use "garbage", because the word to me suggests something wetter (with food waste thrown in) compared to "trash" or "rubbish", but it works too sometimes.
I'd say 'scumbag' is more appropriate here, similar to ゲス. I've seen this ゲス word quite a few times, usually used as some sort of adjective on people. Like describing an evil grin of a villain "ゲス顔", or describing a son of bitch who cheat on his wife and still claims to be promoting family value a "ゲス野郎". クズ however, is kinda like a noun.
