I was sent some text in an ウマ娘 game (or so I’m told) where the phrase 地球最強 was written like 地球最キョウ. I was pretty confused at first, but I looked it up and apparently it’s a common enough occurrence that there are a few hits on Google, with videos and other stuff, but no explanation as to why or with what purpose it happens, that I could find.
They’re apparently character stories.
Is it just emphasis?
Can you just swap kanji for katakana for fun?
Pretty much, yeah. It’s not uncommon to just swap in katakana here or there, especially online - you quite often see things like ヤバい or ヤばい, for no real reason other than just stylistic choice. Even カワいい gets over a million hits as an exact match, and that doesn’t even match the katakana up with where the kanji are (not sure how else to describe it, but it’s 可愛い - so there’s one hiragana character in the kanji portion of the word).
Given that 地球最強 is a pretty casual expression (bordering on slang, even, maybe?) it doesn’t surprise me it gets katakana chucked in there occasionally. There’s no real “purpose” to it in that sense - I’ve read that katakana “feel cool” but I don’t think it’s something that comes with deep thought.
I know about putting a word on katakana completely, just not partially. I guess I didn’t explain that part.
It’s no different from writing a portion of a word in hiragana, essentially, which is a common enough thing (with 石けん for instance - I know there are multiple examples, even with kana used in the middle of a word, but I don’t recall them off the top of my head). Couple that with the occasional swap of hiragana for katakana, and you end up with this as a natural consequence.
そう教えておけば、子どもたちも不思議に思うことはありせんよね。
Is ありせん a typo or some colloquial version of ありません?
Could be a typo, or if you think it makes sense from the context, maybe it’s one of these two explanations.
Thanks! Since it is in a book (in contrast to the web) I think it is less likely to be a typo. The book has a polite empathic tone but I think unlike it will have any local dialect expressions. After reading the links I’m still not sure what it is but the meaning will not change much.
Doing some light reading I see. 
Is this a grammar book of some sort? Unless this book has a habit of using old-sounding expressions in the explanations themselves, I’d lean towards typo. While the writing is conversational, it’s otherwise standard Japanese as far as I can tell (besides the thing being explained obviously).
(That said, this level of classical Japanese is way beyond what I know, so take what I say with a grain of salt.)
I think I might’ve seen it once in a manga (Bakuman vol 1) and yes, it would probably be for emphasis.
The other thing I sometimes see is one of the kanji being replaced by hiragana, but that’s more of a “no one remembers that kanji anyway”.
Or an “I can’t expect my audience to know this kanji even though it’s a pretty common one overall” - but then you’re talking children’s books and the like.
or a “the character saying this doesn’t know the kanji”
Never looked at it that way, but yeah, you do see that in よつばと for instance. I just took it as a stylistic choice to emphasise her childishness, but I guess that’s basically the same thing, in a way? 
I ran into an example of that with a character name recently: new person A is being introduced (and the non-dialogue text describing this uses the kanji when writing A’s name). B says “how do you write A” (with kana for A in that line of dialogue); A gives the usual kind of “this character from word foo plus this other character” explanation, and then the following lines of dialogue for B use kanji when saying A’s name.
Hi! KaniWani(And sometimes WK) has me constantly bonking my head on the word “Action” or as I’m coming to know it:
作用, 活動, 行動, 仕草, and the Kanji 事 just for good measure. I’m assuming this is something that’s tripped someone up before so I’ll ask, is there a good, simple breakdown of those words and what the difference is between them all? I’m luckily grasping some of the other synonyms, or what I’m assuming to be synonyms, but there are a lot of words that mean a type of “Action”…
Thanks to anyone that can help 
Thank you! I knew this had to have been asked before. 
Quick (hopefully) question:
明智小五郎氏来修
民間探偵の第一人者明智小五郎氏は、ながらく、外国に出張中であったが、このほど使命をはたして帰京、旅のつかれを休めるために、本日修繕寺温泉
What in god’s name is 来修? I’ve looked online and found nothing lol. I assume it means he’s coming (来) to Shuzenji onsen (修), would that be it?
I think so. I was thinking also of 修繕 (repair, mending), but the title is probably more of a headline.
Props for reading Edogawa Ranpo :D. Which book is it?
Ah, yeah, that would be a place name, I ommited it but it was introduced earlier in the book:
Which, funny enough I just googled and it seems to exist 
【2023年最新】修善寺おすすめ観光スポット15選！竹林やグルメ、雨スポットも 【楽天トラベル】
Thanks! It’s 怪人二十面相. I think it’s the first or one of the first stories he published aimed at kids/teens so it’s pretty easy to read. I wanna read D坂の殺人事件 after. Gotta get all of that Akechi lore lol
Interesting! I tried googling some other places from Edogawa’s books and at least 1 doesn’t actually exist. Cool that this one does.
Wait, how many 怪人二十面相 are there? 
I’m reading this one: 江戸川乱歩 怪人二十面相
I’m on chapter 2 now (人か魔か).
There is also a regular children’s novella called かいじんにじゅうめんそう (yes, all kana), but I didn’t know there is also a story collection. Unless you’re reading the exact same one and are just further in the plot line than me.
D坂の殺人事件 was quite challenging for me a couple of months back so I put it away. Might give it a try at some point.
