To my fellow manga geeks:

[timepiececlock]

What the hell is "fu fu fu" or "ku ku ku"?

I've seen it several times in scanlations, particularly Naruto (I only read like 3 manga series, so go figure.)

I don't know what it means in Japanese or romanji, but amidst the English it looks patently ridiculous.

Comments

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I've seen it pop up in scanslations for Fullmetal Alchemist too. Somebody told me what it meant a long time ago. I'll be damned if I can remember it now ...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Some enlightening comments below.

I'm afraid that in my case, the effect is most definitely lost in translation.

[maechi.livejournal.com]

I Googled it & found this page (http://www.oop-ack.com/manga/soundfx.html), which says that fu fu fu is 'a strange laugh'. *shrugs*

[octopedingenue]

My resident Japanese language person soranokumo said once they're both awkward or mistaken transliterations of the breathy sound in a sinister laugh-that's-too-malicious-to-be-real-laughter. Only villains use it. Think of Naraku doing his most eeeeeeevil chuckle.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

::whimpers:: But it doesn't SOUND evil! I can't picture it evil-- it's just not. It's like someone blowing bubbles and you trying to tell me they're evil bubbles.

I'll have to ignore it, like I did before.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

ha ha ha: Normal exuberant laughter
hih hih hih: Creepy laughter
hu hu hu (or fu fu fu): Somewhat sinister laughter
heh heh heh: Somewhat embarrassed or self-conscious laughter
ho ho ho: Refined feminine laughter
ka ka ka: Sometimes, rustic (old) man's laughter
ku ku ku: Evil chuckle
ke ke ke: Evil cackle

I've heard "ryuk" is also a kind of laughter.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I can see "ryuk" because it sounds a bit like old-school "huyuk-yuk-yuk" laughter you heard in Hanna Barbara cartoons and stuff.

But "ku ku ku"? ::sigh:: That's not an evil chuckle. That's what people say to babies.

Oh, the joys of translation...

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

It's a bit over-the-top. Orochimaru is a "ku ku ku" character.

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

I've always figured it to be evil chuckling, not yet at the full-blown manicial laughter but maybe one or two steps beforehand.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Everyone's saying it's an evil chuckle; I am amazed.

Babies must love Itachi.

[run-atreyu.livejournal.com]

Just a thought on this, but I'd never heard of this before and tried it out loud. When you pronounce it in the Japanese it does actually sound quite evil. If you look at in the Romaji and read it as you would in English it sounds ridiculous, but not so in the Japanese. The 'ku ku ku', for example, sounds like the rat-a-tat of gunfire with all the harsh 'K's in close succession. 'Fu' in Japanese is an h/f mixture of a sound so it sounds like a breathed evil chuckle or something.

[littleduchess.livejournal.com]

Looking at the comments I keep saying to myself "It's not really evil unless Maleficent does it." Now, can we imagine Maleficent going "kukuku"?

I leave you to judge.

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

Only in Kingdom Hearts.

[uiggu.livejournal.com]

It's an evil/perverted chuckle. ;)