ニキ・ネキ［乙～スラ（２３）］

Fuga · November 25, 2024, 2:25am

Hey Everyone!

I hope all of you had a great weekend!

Today, we will be covering…

ニキ・ネキ

If you have immersed yourself on the Japanese side of the internet you have probably seen these used quite often.

For those who have not encountered this yet, any guesses?

This one is pretty straight forward. Let’s start off by looking at where and how it started.

Origin

This slang actually originated on みなさまお馴染みの２ちゃんねる and on the board we all love, なんでも実況J!

There was once a baseball coach by the name of 金本知憲 (かねもとともあき). When he played for the 阪神タイガーズ, he would make hits when his team really needed him to. Due to this, all his teammates relied on him, and respected him. Since he was like a reliable, big brother figure to his teammates, everyone on the team called him「アニキ」.

Since most なんj民 liked baseball and knew about this nickname, it became more normal to call anyone that is respectable and reliable アニキ. After some time, なんj民 started to use the format 〇〇ニキ instead of just calling people アニキ.

Quick note about the use of 兄貴 before it became an internet slang

In Japan, men and women will sometimes call other men お兄さん/ちゃん, 兄さん/ちゃん, or アニキ（兄貴）. This is similar to how ‘bro’ or ‘dude’ is used in English. However, unlike ‘bro’ or ‘dude’, it has a slight nuance of respect. In Japanese, お兄さん/ちゃん and 兄さん/ちゃん is used to refer to a male person when you don’t know their name and don’t want to call them お前 since that is rude, and people generally don’t wan to call other men あなた since that sounds a bit weird (especially in casual situations). In situations where you want to say something like ‘hey you!’ or ’hey sir!’ you would use お兄さん/ちゃん or 兄さん/ちゃん, and when used like this age does not matter. However, the translation could change from ‘man’ to ‘kid’ depending on the age of the speaker and the recipient.

Although アニキ has the same meaning as the other two, this one is usually reserved for an older man that you respect. This is sometimes used like how 先輩 is, but it has a slight added nuance of respect to it. This means that it will not be used on random men like how お兄さん/ちゃん and 兄さん/ちゃん is.

Similar to アニキ, アネキ is used to describe a woman that someone respects. Women are usually called アネキ when they are not only reliable, but also strong both physically and mentally.

〇〇ニキ・ネキ

As mentioned above, people of なんj started to use the format 〇〇ニキ・〇〇ネキ.
What goes in the 〇〇?

Since this is slang used with a positive nuance (most of the time), the 〇〇 is usually a name (of the person the speaker/public respects), behavior, or an attitude that makes the person respectable.

Examples:

おおおおおおお！さすが田中ニキ！やっぱ、こういう選手が一人でもいないとね！

Ayyyyyy! As expected of big bro Tanaka! See, we definitely need at least one player like him.

鈴木ニキはプレッシャーに強いから、ドラゴンズから抜けないでほしい。

Big bro Suzuki is good under pressure, so I don’t want him to leave Dragons.

強くなりたかったら、ジムにいる筋肉ニキに話しかけてみろ。あいつらは優しく教えてくれるぞ。

If you want to get strong, try talking to a muscle bro at the gym. Those dudes will show you how its done.

昨日店に来た海外ネキにフランス語とスペイン語教えてもらったけど、全部忘れちゃった。

A foreign girl that came to my store yeterday taught me some French and Spanish, but I forgot it all.

Examples with furigana

おおおおおおお！さすが田中（たなか）ニキ！やっぱ、こういう選手（せんしゅ）が一人（ひとり）でもいないとね！

Woooooow! As expected of big bro Tanaka! See, we definitely need at least one player like him.

鈴木（すずき）ニキはプレッシャーに強（つよ）いから、ドラゴンズから抜（ぬ）けないでほしい。

Big bro Suzuki is good under pressure, so I don’t want him to leave Dragons.

強（つよ）くなりたかったら、ジムにいる筋肉（きんにく）ニキに話（はな）しかけてみろ。あいつらは優（やさ）しく教（おし）えてくれるぞ。

If you want to get strong, try talking to a muscle bro at the gym. Those dudes will show you how its done.

昨日（きのう）店（みさ）に来（き）た海外（かいがい）ネキにフランス語（ご）とスペイン語（ご）教（おし）えてもらったけど、全部（ぜんぶ）忘（わす）れちゃった。

A foreign girl that came to my store yeterday taught me some French and Spanish, but I forgot it all.

Real life Example

One recent (3 years is recent…right?), real life example of this is the 江ノ電（えのでん）自転車（じてんしゃ）ニキ.

Take a look at this video for context.

If you can’t watch the video, basically, it is a video of a guy on a bike accidentally disrupting a train photo shoot. How is this respectable? Is this a positive use of ニキ or a negative one?

Although it may seem like a negative use of ニキ, because although it was done unintentionally, he disturbed a photo shoot. However, this use of ニキ is positive since the people who were taking the pictures were what people on the internet call 撮り鉄. These people are a type of ‘train nerds’ that like taking pictures of trains, but because of how bad mannered they are and because of how much of a nuisance they are to the public (not all of them), they are very disliked by the general public (they are even disliked by actual train nerds). I won’t get into too much detail about 撮り鉄 here, maybe I will write a separate blog about them.

Anyways, when people on the internet saw this, people worshiped him because he (accidentally) interrupted a photo shoot of 撮り鉄. Because people on the internet loved him, they gave him the nickname 江ノ電自転車ニキ. But why 江ノ電自転車ニキ? This is because he was a guy that appeared on a 自転車, alongside the railway of 江ノ島電鉄.

As you can tell, 〇〇ニキ・ネキ is sometimes used to give a positive nickname to someone.

However, as expected of any slang, if it can be used positively, it can be used negatively.

How is it used negatively?

When it is used with a negative nuance, it is usually used sarcastically. This means that whatever that goes in the 〇〇 part is usually a behavior or an attribute that makes a person not respectable or annoying.

Some examples might help you understand better.

Examples:

よう、ウンチクニキ！今日も沢山ウンチク聞かせてくれ！

Yo, trivia bro! Let me hear all your knowledge (I love being educated on this I clearly don’t care about)!

はいはい、私は仕事頑張ってるよアピールネキ、ここにいる奴らみんな頑張ってんだからそんな偉そうに語るな。

Okay, we all get it Ms. ‘I work harder than anyone’. Everyone here is also doing their best so please get off your high horse.

黒川また遅刻じゃん。遅刻ニキ乙。

Kurokawa is late again. Good job, Mr. ‘Always late’

Examples with furigana

よう、ウンチクニキ！今日（きょう）も沢山（たくさん）ウンチク聞（き）かせてくれ！

Yo, trivia bro! Let me hear all your knowledge (I love being educated on things I clearly don’t care about)!

はいはい、私（わたし）は仕事（しごと）頑張（がんば）ってるよアピールネキ、ここにいる奴（やつ）らみんな頑張（がんば）ってんだからそんな偉（えら）そうに語（かた）るな。

Okay, we all get it Ms. ‘I work harder than anyone’. Everyone here is also doing their best so please get off your high horse.

黒川（くろかわ）また遅刻（ちこく）じゃん。遅刻（ちこく）ニキ乙。

Kurokawa is late again. Good job, Mr. ‘Always late’

Although ニキ・ネキ is usually used positively, you will see it used negatively quite a lot. It might be difficult to decide how it is used at times, but if you understand the context, it should be relatively easy to decide if it was used positively or sarcastically.

Rare usage

Some times ニキ・ネキ can be used in place of あなた, but this use is very rare.

Examples:

ニキはマジで頼れるっす。

Bro, you are super reliable.

ネキのおかげで解決した！

Dude, I was able to solve the problem thanks to you!

Examples with furigana

ニキはマジで頼（たよ）れるっす。

Bro, you are super reliable.

ネキのおかげで解決（かいけつ）した！

Dude, I was able to solve the problem thanks to you!

This usage is a bit rare, so you will probably not encounter this slang being used like this too much.

Although this slang is older, it is still used to this day, especially when someone does something legendary (whether it is positive or negative). Since this slang doesn’t seem like it is going out of fashion anytime, try using it when you are trying to immerse yourself on the Japanese side of the internet! Maybe, you can start by using it on a friend when they do something you find annoying .

日本語学習中ニキ・ネキ達、この記事はこれで終わりだ。残りのレビューを終わらせてこい！

ネトスラニキ Fuga

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!

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