I've lost count of how many times I've heard this claim since the 90s – but none of the online dictionaries say that 漫 or any variant of まん translates to "irresponsible". Does anyone here know if this is some kind of archaic historical meaning of that kanji that has now disappeared? Or is it still a modern meaning that I just can't find?
I've found loads of tangentially related definitions, including (but not limited to) aimless, random, corrupt, involuntary, desultory, unintentional, ridiculous – but I can't find "irresponsible" anywhere.
I must say I've always found it a clunky translation. Very unnatural, it doesn't sound like something a human would say! That's not to say it's wrong – but I'd be fascinated to find out that it was just a mistranslation that someone made in the 1980s that has stuck around to this day, and that people just keep on repeating because they "heard it somewhere once", lol.
The closest I've been able to find is here, where 漫 is the second kanji in this word https://jisho.org/word/%E6%94%BE%E6%BC%AB%E7%B5%8C%E5%96%B6 – they say that 放漫経営 translates to "irresponsible management", but also "loose management" or "sloppy management". It makes me think that "loose pictures" or "random pictures" might be a better translation.
In any case, it also makes me wonder whether the word "manga" ever truly, truly meant "irresponsible pictures". Is it possible that this meaning never existed, but that someone in the modern era decided to translate it like this anyway? Or is it genuinely how it translates? Surely there was never a time in history when people were saying things like "I'm going to read some irresponsible pictures on the train". It seems to unbelievable to me.
One final thought. I see that the kanji is also used in words like manzai (漫才). I wonder if anyone has ever claimed that this word literally translates to "irresponsible genius", lol.
If anyone has any insight on this, I'd be very interested and grateful to hear it.
by Mr_Nice_Username