どころか
Here’s one I’ve struggled with! I don’t recall learning this one in a textbook, and it has confounded me in native media on at least one occasion!
Here's a very recent example from Toyko Joshi Pro Wrestling's 2024.01.04 show, after Hyper Misao faced her tag partner Shoko Nakajima in their traditional イッテンヨン singles match. Misao debuted her brand new crowdfunded bike for this match, and, well, let's just say that pro wrestling is not always kind to bicycles... This sentence was extremely hard to parse because she sort of adds interjections in the middle, so I had to get a lot of help with it:
Hard mode: here’s the video.
ミサヲ「あーせっかく２代目ハイパミドラマティックドリーム号のお披露目だったというのに、負けました。負けたどころか、無傷で終われば、負けるのも嫌だけど、最悪でも無傷で終わりたかったんですけど、見てください（と言ってヘルメットと、取れた門松を見せる）。私のお正月使用で、季節ごとに門松とか、クリスマスならサンタさんとか、ツリーとかつけようと思ったのに、ボロリ」
Misao: “Ah, I lost even though this was the unveiling of the 2nd generation Hypami Dramatic Dream Mobile. Not only did I lose, but… if I could have just come through unscathed—losing does suck though—I wanted to at least come through unscathed, but look—” (she shows the helmet with the kadomatsu that came off of it) “I used this for New Year’s, and I thought for each season, I’d attach the kadomatsu, or like Santa or a tree if it’s Christmas, that kind of thing, but it got damaged.”
どうも
どうも is an adverb that indicates the speaker/writer cannot make a definitive statement about something because they can’t identify/pinpoint the reason.
Note 2 says that the final predicate is overtly negative or covertly negative. When the final predicate is not negative, it normally ends with an auxilary adjective らしい or ようだ.
The meaning in note 3 is the one I still associate the most with this word: どうも is used with ありがとう(ございます) to mean “thank you very much”, or with すみません to mean “I’m very sorry.” So どうも alone can mean a very casual “thank you” or “sorry”.
There (surprisingly?) aren't actually a whole lot of どうもs in TJPW. Here's one from one of the sadder things I had to translate, which was the 2023.10.25 press conference announcing the revised date for Yuka Sakazaki's graduation (on December 6).
Here’s the video, and here’s the full transcript.
坂崎「どうもお待たせしました、坂崎ユカです。本当だったら12月1日卒業といって今絶賛卒業ロード中だったと思うんですけど、でも6月にストップがかかって、私もお客さんもストップがかかった状態でもやもやさせてしまいましたが決心がついたので、12月6日北沢タウンホールで卒業することを発表させていただきます。それにあたって、やりたかったことが今全部崩壊している状態だったので、時間のある中でどうしようとすごい考えたんですけど、できるだけ今残された時間で精いっぱい当たれる選手と当たって、卒業ロードにはなりますが、これを駆け抜けたいと思います」
Sakazaki: “Thank you for waiting. I’m Yuka Sakazaki. I was supposed to graduate on December 1, and you’d think that I’d be in the middle of my highly acclaimed graduation road right about now. But it was stopped in June, and that made both the audience and I really sad, but I’ve made up my mind, so I am announcing that I will graduate on December 6 at Kitazawa Town Hall. Things being as they are, everything that I wanted to do has now come crumbling down, so I really thought about what I should do with the time that I have, and in the remaining time, I am going to fight all of the wrestlers that I can as much as possible, and it’ll be a graduation road of a sort, but I want to see it through.”
どんなに～(こと)か
Note 1 says that in the exclamatory structure of どんなに～ことか, an adjective (い/な) or a psychological/physiological verb is used before ことか (so verbs talking about emotional or bodily states).
When the structure is used as an embedded question, こと is omitted.
いかに～(こと)か and どれほど～(こと)か can be used in exactly the same way as どんなに～(こと)か, the only difference being that the former is a more formal writing style. I don’t think I’ve seen the others, but I could’ve easily seen them before and forgotten!
I couldn’t find this structure in any of my TJPW translation documents, though I confess, I didn’t try looking for the formal writing versions.
どうせ
According to the sole note for this entry, the adverb どうせ often indicates the speaker feels helpless and/or angry that nothing can be done to change a given situation, but it can also be used to suggest finality of one’s decision.
Found a couple examples from the most recent TJPW translation I finished! This was from their Korakuen Hall show on 2024.02.10, where Yuki Arai defended the International Princess Championship against Juria Nagano and then Yuki Kamifuku came out to challenge her:
No video link because this happened during a show. Additional context: Ryogoku KFC Hall and Ryogoku Kokugikan are both pro wrestling venue names, with Ryogoku Kokugikan being the location of TJPW’s next big show.
上福「お疲れ様～。試合直後とは思えないくらいのこの美しいビジュアル、さすがだなって思うし。本当にいつも東京女子プロレスとアイドル業と、どっちもすごい頑張って。名古屋と東京どっちも行き来して忙しそうにしてるのに『忙しいでしょ？ 疲れてるでしょ？』って聞くと「いや～、そんなことないです」って言えるかんじ。もう全然鼻についてないよ。愛されてるところとかも全然ひがんでないんだけど、まぁ私も東京女子プロレスを盛り上げたい気持ちはあるのね。最近は色んなアジアの国に行って、よく分からない食べ物食べたりして頑張ってるんだけど、ここで東京女子プロレスを盛り上げたい。そしてビジュアルを大切にしている同士、お互いの顔面を崩し合って、そしてこのベルトを懸けて闘いあったらもっと盛り上がるんじゃないかなって思うんですけど～」
Kamifuku: “Great job! An unimaginably beautiful visual right after the match, as expected. You’re always working so hard both in TJPW and in the idol industry. It’s like how even though you seem so busy going back and forth between Nagoya and Tokyo, when people ask, ‘You must be busy, huh? Aren’t you tired?’ you’re like, ‘No, not really!’ I’m not at all sick and tired of it. I’m not at all jealous of how much they love you!! But, well, I also want to liven up TJPW. Lately I’ve been going to different countries in Asia and eating foods that I don’t really understand and working hard, but I’d like to make TJPW more exciting right here. And I thought, wouldn’t it get more exciting if we two people who care about looks break each other’s faces, and fight with that belt on the line?”
荒井「上福さん…まさか上福さん出てくるとは思ってなくて、けっこう戸惑ってるんですけど。でも私も闘いたいなと思います」
Arai: “Kamifuku-san… I didn’t expect you to be the one to come forward, and I’m a bit bewildered. But I want to fight you, too.”
上福「ありがとう。じゃあ名古屋の女って派手なの好きだし、どうせ私も派手好きなんで。どうせやるなら両国…？ KFCじゃない方ね」
Kamifuku: “Thank you. Well, Nagoya women like showing off, and I like to be showy, too. So if we’re doing it, how about Ryogoku…? Not the KFC one.”
荒井「国技館の方ですか」
Arai: “The Kokugikan one?”
上福「国技館の方で、互いのビジュアルとベルトを懸けましょう」
Kamifuku: “At the Kokugikan one, let’s fight with both our looks and the belt on the line.”
!
