The Meaning of Yare Yare Daze: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know the definition of yare yare daze? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on the word yare yare daze, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What does the term yare yare daze mean?

According to Stay Hipp, Slang Lang, and Urban Dictionary, the term yare yare daze is the Japanese catchphrase of the character Jotaro Kujo from the Japanese anime series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The pronunciation of yare yare daze is yah-ruh yah-ruh day-zuh. Translations of the catchphrase include “well well,” “good grief,” “what a pain,” or, “give me a f***ing break.” The Japanese word of this term is やれやれだぜ. In some online manga fan and meme communities, this interjection is shortened to just yare or YYD. This is a popular caption for memes that reference Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This popular catchphrase  is used to express boredom, irritation, or displeasure. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is considered a shonen anime. This is usually targeted toward an audience of young males and otaku. While shonen is considered the male version, it can be compared to the female version shojo, thich is targeted toward youngish females. A fan of jojo might use this common phrase with his or her friends as a Japanese interjection. There are many other phrases that are associated with anime and manga. You may wonder what phrases like ara ara, za wārudo (ワールド), yare yare dawa, shimatta or oraoraora/ora ora ora mean. It is important to find good translations so that you do not put your foot in your mouth and cause disappointment. Many of these can be found on Google.

There are many different ways to say anime in other languages. Since the word anime is traditionally Japanese, you may notice that many of these different languages simply use the word anime. However others have slight variations of the word anime, or use accents. This list of translations for the word anime is provided by Word Sense

  • Tajik: аниме‎
  •  Uzbek: anime‎
  •  Azeri: anime‎
  •  Occitan: anime‎
  •  Latvian: anime‎
  •  Spanish: anime‎
  •  German: Anime‎ (masc.)
  •  Korean: 일본의 애니메이션‎, 아니메‎, 애니메‎, 애니‎
  •  Russian: аниме́‎ (also spelled анимэ́‎), [[япо́нский мультфи́льм#Russian япо́нский мультфи́льм]]‎ (masc.)
  •  Bulgarian: аниме́‎ (neut.)
  •  Slovene: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Slovak: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Cyrillic: аниме‎ (neut.)
  •  Esperanto: animeo‎
  •  Urdu: انيمے‎ (anime)
  •  Italian: anime‎
  •  Hungarian: anime‎
  •  Galician: anime‎
  •  Polish: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Finnish: anime‎
  •  Malay: anime‎
  •  Turkmen: anime‎
  •  Arabic: أَنِمِي‎ (masc.)
  •  Vietnamese: anime‎
  •  Basque: anime‎
  •  Georgian: ანიმე‎, ანიმე‎
  •  Lithuanian: anime‎
  •  Tagalog: anime‎
  •  French: animé‎ (masc.)
  •  Albanian: anime‎
  •  Persian: انیمه‎ (anime)
  •  Norwegian: anime‎
  •  Thai: อะนิเมะ‎ (ànímé)
  •  Tamil: அனிமே‎
  •  Belarusian: aнімэ́‎ (neut.)
  •  Japanese: アニメ‎ (anime), アニメーション‎ (animēshon)
  •  Hindi: ऐनिमे‎, अनिमे‎
  •  Catalan: anime‎
  •  Armenian: անիմե‎
  •  Bengali: অ্যানিমে‎ (ênime)
  •  Kazakh: аниме‎
  •  Kyrgyz: аниме‎
  •  Latin: animātiō Iaponica‎ (fem.)
  •  Swedish: anime‎ (common), animé‎ (common) (older style, not so common anymore)
  •  Mongolian: аниме‎
  •  Indonesian: anime‎
  •  Malayalam: അനിമെ‎
  •  Bavarian: anime‎
  •  Mandarin: 日本動畫‎, 日本动画‎ (Rìběn dònghuà), 動畫‎, 动画‎ (dònghuà), 日本卡通‎ (Rìběn kǎtōng), 日式動畫‎, 日式动画‎ (Rìshì dònghuà)
  •  Ukrainian: aніме́‎ (neut.)
  •  Marathi: आनिमे‎ (masc.)
  •  Romanian: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Burmese: အန်နီမဲ‎
  •  Amharic: አኒሜ‎
  •  Turkish: anime‎
  •  Hebrew: אנימציה יפנית‎ (anime yapanít), אנימה‎ (anime)
  •  Icelandic: anime‎
  •  Estonian: anime‎
  •  Yiddish: אַנימע‎
  •  Portuguese: anime‎ (masc.), animé‎ (masc.), animê‎ (masc.)
  •  Asturian: anime‎
  •  Dutch: anime‎
  •  Roman: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Czech: anime‎ (neut.)
  •  Greek: ανιμέ‎
  •  Macedonian: аниме́‎ (neut.)
  •  Danish: anime‎

According to Know Your Meme, the Japanese term yare yare daze is associated with the main character of the 3rd story arc of the anime and manga series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure called Stardust Crusaders. This shonen anime ran from 1989 to 1992. This was also later adapted into an animated adaptation on April 11th, 2014 by David Productions. The term yare yare daze became popular on 4chan and was first submitted to Urban Dictionary in 2009. There is even a YouTube compilation uploaded in 2016 of every time the 3rd protagonist says this phrase. This was uploaded by José Fino and has over 200,000 views. While it was later deleted, the user uploaded another compilation that garnered over 5.5 million views. 

This type of interjection expresses boredom and irritation, but other types of interjections can express many different things, from amusement to curious surprise to sympathy, enthusiasm, amusement, mild surprise, anxiety, a sigh of relief and more. While some of the translations of the phrase include profanity, Jotaro’s saying is not considered a bad word or a swear word. According to DG Student Finance, another character in the anime, Star Platinum, halts a bullet that an incapacitated Jotaro shoots at his own head. 

There are many other popular shonen anime that one might choose to watch. A list of some of the most popular shonen anime is below, from List Challenges

  •  Death Note 
  •  Attack on Titan
  •  Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
  •  Naruto
  •  Future Diary
  •  Blue Exorcist
  •  Noragami
  •  Fairy Tail
  •  Bleach
  •  Soul Eater
  •  Fullmetal Alchemist
  •  My Hero Academia (2016-Present)
  •  Akame Ga Kill
  •  High School of the Dead
  •  Hunter X Hunter (2011)
  •  Your Lie in April
  •  One Piece
  •  Seven Deadly Sins 
  •  Deadman Wonderland
  •  Food Wars! Shokugeki No Soma
  •  Assassination Classroom
  •  Black Butler 
  •  Samurai Champloo 
  •  Dragon Ball Z
  •  Koe No Katachi
  •  Nisekoi 
  •  Seraph of the End
  •  Haikyuu!! 
  •  Kuroko No Basket 
  •  Magi
  •  Gintama
  •  D Gray Man
  •  Claymore
  •  Rosario + Vampire 
  •  Nichijou
  •  Kekkai Sensen 
  •  Trigun
  •  Inuyasha
  •  The World Only God Knows
  •  Great Teacher Onizuka

Overall, the Japanese phrase yare yare daze is an exclamation that means  “well well,” “good grief,” “what a pain,” ”crap,”  or, “give me a f*****g break.” This comes from the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and is used to express annoyance, exasperation, ro a mild dismissal with a mix of relief. 

Sources:

  1. Next up What Does Yare Yare Daze Mean? | Stay Hipp 
  2. ᐅ Yare Yare Daze – Meaning & Origin | Slang Lang 
  3. Top 50 Shounen Anime | List Challenges
  4. yare yare daze | Urban Dictionary 
  5. Next The Complete Meaning of “yareyare (daze)”! | Linguaholic 
  6. Question: What Is Yare Yare In Japanese? | DG Student Finance 
  7. Yare Yare Daze | Know Your Meme 
  8. Anime | Word Sense