# 他のみんなはなんだろうな



## Riccardo91

Dear Japanese forum,

I'd like to have your opinion about a sentence from a cartoon I'm not understanding.

Here's the context: due to some illusory phenomenon, a girl (the main character) sees a couple of cat ears on her friend's head. She's bewildered, but it only lasts for a few seconds, and then they go to sleep.
The day after, the two go to a Shinto shrine with their friends (they were uncertain about where to go: the shrine or a zoo).

Main character: 動物園か。そういえば、昨日のあれなんだったんだろう。彼女は猫だったけど、他のみんなはなんだろうな。でも猫さんは動物園にはいないか
(The zoo, huh? Now that I think about it, I wonder what happened yesterday. She was a cat, but what about the others? But I guess there are no cats at the zoo.)

I'm not getting the 他のみんなはなんだろうな part. What does it mean? "If the others were there, would they have seen those ears as I did"? "If the others were there, would they appear to me like animals as well"?

Both seem weird to me, so I was wondering if you had other ideas.

Thank you very much!


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## frequency

Riccardo91 said:


> 彼女は猫だった


Is this 彼女 the main character's friend? 

The friend got cat's ears on her head (this is what the main character saw), and the speaker is wondering which animal's ears other people will get.
The speaker knows the main character saw the cat's ears.
Try, 彼女の場合は猫の耳だったけど、他のみんなは何の耳だろう。


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## Riccardo91

Yes, 彼女 is the main character's friend, and the speaker is the main character itself.

Thank you for your explanation. It still sounds a bit odd to me in the context (she'll soon start to see the others as animals too, but she doesn't know that at that point. Why is she including her friends in her reasoning?), but I guess it's the only possible interpration.

Thank you!


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## 森人さん

It seems like she is imagining how the others would look with animal ears, what animal would they be?


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## frequency

森人さん said:


> how the others would look with animal ears, what animal would they be?


This is possible to say, but the focus seems to be animal's ears on the head while the main character is bewildered. You know the ears are illusion.
Not getting the ears, if the friend changed to a cat, your understanding is more likely.


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## 森人さん

Imaging how the others would look with cat ears?


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## frequency

Wait wait,


森人さん said:


> what animal would they be?


This is possible. The friend got cat's ears, so the speaker says "cat", not exactly saying "cat's ears".
However, なん（何） in なんだろうな suggests me that she is talking about a body part. This is the strongest reason why I thought the focus was ear.
If you want to say,


> Imaging how the others would look with cat ears?


I think we have other ways to say so.


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## 森人さん

Ah, Imagining how others would look with (animal) ears!


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## 森人さん

It seems like many anime readings are not written in proper Japanese.


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## frequency

森人さん said:


> Ah, Imagining how others would look with (animal) ears!


Please understand the OP sounds like she's talking about a body part (ear), because of なん（何）.


森人さん said:


> It seems like many anime readings are not written in proper Japanese.


Yes, so "耳" is omitted in the OP.


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## 森人さん

Yes I understand it. The focus does seem to be on cats.


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## frequency

Yes, okay! Good.


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## Riccardo91

(Thank you for your discussion. I think she's wondering in which animal could her friends be turned in. She's thinking hypothetically.)


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## 森人さん

Exactly.


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