Banzai!?!?!

CatPanda

CatPanda

Konnichiwa, I've been playing some World War 2 video games recently and 1 which involves combat against the japanese. In the game the player frequently gets banzai charged. I've been told a few different translation, from google I got "I'd trade this momment for the next 1,000 years" used as an honorific battlecry. From an anime episode I got "hooray!" also a battlecry. So I'm kinda wondering which is the more accurate of the two or if both are wrong, what do the pros think? (The pros being rocket jap ^_^) Arigoto gozaimasu, Derek
Matumic

Matumic

Call of duty 5: World at War? I've heard it means like "Good Luck"....
merlin2

merlin2

literally means live for 1000 years. live long (king). not a war cry
CatPanda

CatPanda

arigoto gozaimashita!
Sayaka-Matsuura

Sayaka-Matsuura

Konnichiwa! Yes, all of the above is correct. Banzai is written with two Chinese characters - the first is BAN (or more commonly MAN) meaning "thousand" and ZAI (or SAI) meaning "years". Thus, Banzai literally translates as "thousand years". However, Banzai is most generally used as a cheer to shout "Hooray!" or "Yey!" So, for example, you've finished the Rocket Japanese Course, so "Banzai! Hooray!" :D
CatPanda

CatPanda

Ah, that makes SO much more sense then! Domo arigoto gozaimashita!

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