AnalenaDiane

My Great Great Great... Aunt's name was Barzilla... if that's not a unique name I don't know what is!

I got Casually Feminine: 

2 hours ago, efaardvark said:

You'll also sometimes see "kouhai", which would be the situation in reverse.  If I'm your senpai (senior) then you're my kouhai (junior).  Misaki in Sakurasou is always calling Sorata "Kouhai-kun" for instance.

And since I mentioned it, names often have suffixes attached which give a clue to relationships.

-san  =  shows respect, kind of like using "mr" or "sir" in English.

-sama = shows great respect or reverence, like "your honor" or "lord/lady" in English.

-kun = respectful, but usually to juniors.  You'll often see this when some adult is speaking of/to children in older age groups such as high school or college.

That's pretty much it for "official" honorifics, at least in current usage, but there's also -chin, -chan, -tan, and -bou, which are kind of "baby speak" and usually used to refer to cute or very young people, or to people who are very familiar or close.

There's a lot of nuance in the above by the way.  It is often hard to sort out, especially for non-native speakers, but usually worth it because it gives you an idea of how characters relate to and think of each other without a lot of tedious expository dialog.  A girlfriend referred to as -chan by her boyfriend is different than a -san.  A person referring to his/her grandmother "ba-chan" shows a different regard than "oba-sama".  It can also be key to letting you know exactly when these relationships change, and why.  If someone suddenly starts referring to someone else as -sama instead of -san - or vice versa - for instance then that's a subtle but usually important change.  Also, dropping the honorific entirely usually shows familiarity and/or a more comfortable informality, which can be similarly informative to the anime listener/viewer.  (All this is one of the reasons I like listening to the Japanese audio when I'm watching anime btw, since it is something that translations and dubs often get wrong or ignore entirely.)

That's definitely some of the info I was hoping for, thanks! By the way, how do I make my profile picture? All the images I've tried have been denied because they're too big, but I don't know how to make them smaller...

29 minutes ago, Ohiotaku said:

MHA or BNHA = My Hero Academia

AoT = Attack on Titan

SAO = Sword Art Online

SoL = slice of life

CGDCT = cute girls doing cute things

Danmachi = Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon

Not sure how familiar you are with anime terms (shonen, chibi, waifu, sempai,  ecchi, yandere, etc...) Anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask here or Google.

Thank you! I am completely unfamiliar with anime terms, but I will definitely look up the ones you just mentioned.

28 minutes ago, The History Kid said:

Need to know or basics, hmm?  Lets see.  There's a guy named Barney that visits on weekends.  He gets angry if you wear red, snort, or eat mayonnaise.

...ummm...no not really actually.

Anyway, welcome aboard.  I don't think you'll have to worry about the newishness - haven't seen a newbie not make it yet.  I say that being a relative newbie myself.  But I digress, what kind of stuff are you wanting tips on forum/community wise?

Well... is there any lingo or certain abbreviations for things you guys use that I might come across that I should know about? Also, I've started with Sword Art Online and immediately fallen in love, but are there any other anime's in particular that you would recommend I start out with as a beginner?

What's up AF community? I'm super excited to get to know all of you! I've got to warn you though, I'm only a few months into my anime/manga journey, and I still know very little about this kind of forum/community. If you guys could fill me in on any need-to-know-basics or any tips or show recommendations I would really appreciate it! Buhbye for now!