“No Waifu No Laifu”: Here’s What it Really Means

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Here’s a fun one today! To answer this question we’ll need to learn further about English grammar, Japanese linguistics, and otaku culture.

Before we begin, let’s lay out a few caveats! While I enjoy the occasional anime and video game, I’m far from being a part of the culture which birthed this very strange phrase and the seemingly (truly?) bizarre culture that underlies the expression.

Furthermore, since the nature of otaku and their culture is rather informal, there are no “official” definitions, so we’ll need to take everything with a grain of salt and keep in mind that different people within the subculture will have different understandings of the same phrase.

So, with that in mind, I’ll be doing my best to unpack this whole topic as thoroughly as I can—and discovering a lot along with you!

Let’s take a bird’s eye view first…

 

What does “No Waifu No Laifu” mean?

”No Waifu No Laifu” means, roughly, that without an animated character that you feel strong, often romantic, feelings for your life is incomplete.

 

What does “No X No Y” mean? (Let’s talk parataxis!)

No X No Y is a grammatical construct known as parataxis. This term comes from the Greek para (παρα), meaning “beside,” and taxis (τάξις), meaning “arrangement.”

Basically, this is where you place phrases one after the other without the usual prepositional “connective tissue.”

An especially famous example of this is Julius Caesar’s statement, “Veni, vidi, vici,” or “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The missing parts are “then,” or possibly “and.”

In fact, it’s the absence of prepositions that makes the parataxis statement so powerful, because it occupies a sort of quantum state, taking on multiple prepositions at the same time.

Let’s look at Caesar’s statement another way: “I came (and/so/then) I saw (and/so/then) I conquered.”

Of course, you could insert other prepositions in there, like “or” or “however,” but we use context to fill in the gaps appropriately.

However, it’s not always so clear.

 

What does “No X No Y” mean? (Let’s get specific!)

The expression “No X No Y” is actually a bit ambiguous and absolutely requires context to fully understand. Let’s take a look at some examples.

In the United States there’s a lot of political argument about immigration. If you saw a sign held up that read “No illegals No tacos” would you know what it means? Well, it could mean at least two different things.

If the sign was held up by someone waving a Confederate flag, you might interpret it as, “No more illegals and no more tacos!” Basically, you’d read it as a demand for there to be neither illegal immigrants, nor tacos.

If the sign was held by a Latino, you might read it as, “If no illegals, then no tacos.”

In most cases, since most people like tacos (or at least have nothing against them), we can almost always assume the latter meaning. However, it’s not a guarantee, and it’s not always so clear cut.

That said, we see this expression in many set phrases in English.

No shoes, no service.
No pain, no gain.
No credit, no problem.

 

No X No Y in Japanese

In Japanese, the expression is always of a more direct form: “No X No Life.” In this way it is always saying, “Without X there is no life.” Furthermore, it’s (almost) always written in English.

I remember an advertisement on a billboard in a town I lived in when I taught in Hokkaido. It said, “No Shiokara No Life.” Shiokara (塩辛) is a salty, slimy squid snack.

It’s quite enjoyable as an occasional nibble, but is a bit of an acquired taste. That said, I thought it was an overstatement to suggest that one has “no life” without shiokara.

That should give you a sense of the ubiquity and importance of the expression in Japanese. Even when talking about a slimy bar snack, they can’t help but express their affection for it with the expression “No X No Life.”

 

Why do Japanese people use “No X No Life”?

It’s been difficult to find a good source on this, but at least a few point back to a song from 1994 by J-pop artist Cocco (こっこ).

The song was “Sing a Song ~No Music. No Life~”. This song was a hit, even being used in a whole marketing campaign by Japan’s Tower Records.

In this song, the meaning is clear. The artist intends it to mean that “Without music, there is no life.”

This construction of “Without X there is no Life” is the exclusive usage in Japan (as far as I can tell). Also, the expression “No X No Life” seems to be unique to Japan.

Beyond that, it’s also extremely popular, featuring in tons of advertising campaigns, PSAs, and even the title of a popular anime, “No Game No Life” (as well as the strange advertisement I mentioned earlier).

This phrasing has taken on a very “Japanese” flavor and made its way to the expression “No Waifu, No Laifu.” From all we’ve discussed, we can now read this as “Without a waifu, there is no laifu.”

That, of course, doesn’t quite clear up all the confusion.

 

Where does the word waifu come from?

Waifu is an example of gairaigo (外来語), or “loan word” in Japanese. The earliest use of the word in Japanese comes from a text dated to 1860. However, this is not the modern usage.

In Japanese, there are a surprisingly wide variety of ways to refer to your female spouse, however none of them are “waifu.” Among the common modern terms are:

tsuma (妻)
okusan (奥さん)
yome (嫁)
kanai (家内)
aikata (相方)
nyobo (女房; a bit archaic these days)

In the modern world waifu is almost exclusively tied to otaku culture. The canonical origin for this term in its current usage is Azumanga Daioh, a 2002 anime.

In the 15th episode, some students are looking at a picture of a pretty woman and ask who she is. The teacher exclaims, “Mai waifu!” (マイワイフ！).

By 2007 the term had taken off in popularity (possibly tied to the rise of internet streaming services such as Crunchyroll which increased access to anime worldwide around that time).

 

What does waifu actually mean today?

Ah, so the eternal question: What is a waifu? What counts? What doesn’t?

Let’s keep it simple to hopefully make sure I don’t upset too many people!

A waifu is a female animated character that you develop romantic and/or sexual feelings for.

This character can be from an anime, a visual novel, or a video game, or something else, but they are exclusively animated in some capacity.

They may be especially attractive, or embody personality traits that you consider ideal, or some combination of the above.

That said, it could also simply be a female animated character that you really enjoy and have built a little, one-person fandom around in your head.

However, Waifu purists would likely tell you that you must properly love your waifu in a sincere and romantic sense, the same way you would a wife. Of course, as mentioned, this varies from person to person.

This love can manifest through avoiding watching other characters, purchasing memorabilia of your waifu, and even sleeping with a body pillow made to look like your waifu.

Finally, as you might expect, as the expression has been widely memefied, there is also a lot of ironic usage of the term now.

I have heard people ironically use this term to refer to their real life (read: human) partners, or to characters they have only a “normal” appreciation for.

 

What about husbands?

There is the term husbando (ハズバンド), however this found usage in otaku circles more recently, in response to the explosion of the use of waifu.

My research shows that it began around 2007. It’s not nearly as common as waifu, but it’s out there.

 

Wait, really? Is this for real?

Near as I can tell there is a real part of the otaku community that takes this seriously.

I’ve definitely been on some forums where it was absolutely clear that people are earnest about their waifu and find themselves deeply concerned with their relationships with these characters.

It’s not up to me to judge them. I don’t quite get it myself, but, hey, if they’re happy and not hurting anyone then I’m happy to let them enjoy their relationships, however they define that.

If you encounter these otaku in real life or on the internet, please be respectful.

 

What is a laifu?

Laifu (ライフ) is another gairaigo word meaning “life.” In Japanese, it is used to refer to a life in video games. That said, in the expression “No Waifu No Laifu,” it simply means “life” in the typical English sense.

 

So, what does “No Waifu No Laifu” really mean?

No Waifu No Laifu means that without your waifu, aka your fictional object of affection, you don’t have a life worth living.