Japanese names of characters from “Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto”

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto Ep 1 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA/ Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto production committee, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

What is the story?

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, a comedy manga series written by Naki Sano. Each episode has its own plot, of course, featuring Sakamoto, the coolest high school student you will ever know. He steals everyone’s hearts and can outsmart and outdo anyone. Because of this, he has just as many haters as admirers, but the haters usually find out how cool Sakamoto is and become his friends and followers.

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto comic 1 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA

What is the Japanese title of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto?

The Japanese title of ‘Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto’ is ‘坂本ですが?'(Sakamoto Desuga?)

Why is it called Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto?

The word ‘Desuga'(ですが) can mean different things. In some situations, you could say ‘行きたいですが, Ikitai desuga’ which means ‘I want to go, but…’ and in others, you could say ‘坂本ですが, Sakamoto desuga’ to say ‘I’m Sakamoto’. However, in this case, it means ‘Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto’. This is because the Japanese title ‘坂本ですが?’ has a question mark at the end, signaling that people should already know that he is Sakamoto. This makes sense since Sakamoto is very popular.

What are the meanings behind the characters’ names?

In Japanese culture, names have significant meanings that are supposed to represent you as a person. Names can be expressed in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Let’s find out the meanings of some names of characters of Sakamoto’s school mates.

Sakamoto (坂本, Sakamoto)

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto Ep 1 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA/ Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto production committee, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

First, let’s start with the one and only Sakamoto! In Japan, people call each other by their last names to be polite. Sakamoto is his last name and is called ‘Sakamoto Kun, 坂本君’ throughout the series so his first name is untold. ‘Saka'(坂) means slope, ‘Moto'(本) is a book, and ‘Kun'(君) is the suffix commonly used for boys (both child and adult) with the same grade or younger. And there is sometimes the case when a male leader calls a female junior worker to attach “~kun”.
Ex: Yamada-kun, Haruto-kun

Yoshinobu Kubota (久保田 吉伸, Kubota Yoshinobu)

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto Ep 2 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA/ Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto production committee, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

Next, the negative and unfortunate Kubota. He has a weak and shy personality which sadly makes him an easy target for bullies. The bullies do cruel things to him and take his money but get stopped by Kubota’s hero Sakamoto. ‘Ku’(久) means a long time, ‘Bo’(保) means to maintain, ‘Ta’(田) is a paddy puddle, ‘Yoshi’(吉) means luck and ‘Nobu’(伸) means to stretch.

Hayabusa Senpai (8823先輩, Hayabusa Senpai)

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto Ep 5 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA/ Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto production committee, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

Now, let’s look into Hayabusa, the leader of the second-year gang. He acts cold and cool, however, he can easily be angered. Especially if somebody beats him or is
better than him in something. His name is written strangely in numbers (8823.) This is because 8 in Japanese is ‘Hachi’ or when counting you say ‘Yattsu’, 2 is ‘Ni’ or ‘Futatsu’, and 3 is ‘San’ or ‘Mittsu’ and when you take the first letters of each number it becomes 8‘Hachi’ 8‘Yattsu’2 ‘Futatsu’ 3 San’. ‘Senpai'(先輩) is a way of addressing seniors. Without a doubt, his name is more than numbers. Here are more ways to write Hayabusa.

Aina Kuronuma (黒沼 あいな, Kuronuma Aina)

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto Ep 2 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA/ Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto production committee, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

Finally, Aina, one of the many girls who have fallen for Sakamoto. She is manipulative and takes advantage of her cute looks to trick boys into doing her demand. For that reason, she is disliked by most of the girls in school. ‘Kuro'(黒) means black, and ‘Numa'(沼) means swamp. ‘Aina'(あいな) is written in Hiragana so it has no meaning but of course, there are more ways to write Aina.

Interesting lines and phrases – Learning Japanese!

Here are some useful phrases from ‘Haven’t you Heard? I’m Sakamoto’ that will help you along with your Japanese studies!

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto comic 3 Ep 12 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA

EN/ ‘Out of my way!!’
JP/「どけDoke どけDoke  」

‘Doke’ is a rude way to ask someone to move. Instead, you can say ‘Doite kudasai’(どいてください) or casually say ‘Doite’(どいて). The best way is ‘Sumimasen'(すみません) which means excuse me.

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto comic 1 Ep 7 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA

EN/ ‘He prefers rice over bread’
JP/「パンよりPan Yori 米派Komeha なんだNanda  」

The coolest student Sakamoto is always in the center of everyone’s interest. ‘Ha’(派) means a group of supporters. For example, if you want to say that you prefer coffee over tea and are a coffee person, you can say ‘コーヒー派’(Kōhīha).

Image by: Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto comic 2 Ep 6 © Nami Sano・KADOKAWA

EN/ ‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Madam’
JP/ 「お初にOhatsu ni お目にOme ni  かかります、Kakarimasu マダムMadamu 」

There is never a time when Sakamoto isn’t cool. Even when he visits his friend’s house, he is stylish. ‘Ohatsu ni’ means it is the first time, and ‘Omeni kakarimasu’ meant to meet. You can add an ‘O’ or ‘Go’ in front of a word to make it sound more polite and elegant.