# シブイおつまみ



## Riccardo91

Dear Japanese forum,

this time we have a culinary question!
In my cartoon, some idols are trying to save an izakaya that's close to bankruptcy for a TV program. One of these idols says to the shop owner:

その世界一おいしいあん肝の味噌漬けを、みんなに食べさせてくれよ!!
(Let everyone eat you miso-marinated ankimo, the best in the world!)

Then a person from the TV staff thinks:

な...なんだ、そのシブイおつまみは...
(W... What's with that sour snack?)

In your opinion:

1) Does シブイ refers to the taste of the snack, or is it meant to imply that it's not something that idols would commonly eat (I believe this is the case anyway, but I wanted to know if taste had something to do with it or not)?

2) Whatever the case, how would you translate it?

Thank you very much!


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## cosmicbelt

"シブイ"＝"渋い"
The person who said "な...なんだ、そのシブイおつまみは..." 
has not eaten the snack, so the word "渋い" is nothing to do with the taste of snack. 
"渋い"in the sentence doesn't mean sour but cool or chic.
Example: タモリは渋い顔をしている。


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## nrw nrw

1) It has nothing to do with the taste of the snack.
'シブイ' is related to an aesthetic of '渋み'.
As well as 'わび' and 'さび', it's connected with Japanese culture too closely to generalize.

2) W... What's with that delicacy? or What's with that choice?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm not sure...


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## SoLaTiDoberman

1) It isn't the taste of the snack.

2) Oops, I didn't expect that you chose such a *cool *snack.
  Wow, what a* cool and unexpected* snack!

The taste, 渋み, has a negative connotation in most of the cases.
However, when you say "something is sibui," you praise the choice being cool. It has a positive connotation in many cases.

If it means something negative, the translation would be:
2) Oops, I didn't expect that you chose such *an old-man's preference*.


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## Riccardo91

Thank you very much for clearing my doubt.

I see that _shibui _is also used to describe a sort of "manly coolness", so another option could be "tough guy snack". Do you agree?
I think this works better in my context than "an old man's preference".

Thank you very much!


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## SoLaTiDoberman

It depends on the gender and age of the idols.
I thought that they were girls.

What do you mean by "idols"?
First of all, are they human-being or imaginary creatures?


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## Riccardo91

Sorry for omitting part of the context, but it's a long story and I was hoping that the linguistic point of view was enough to clear my doubts.

The scene it's from a quite surreal cartoon where three yakuzas are forced to change sex and become idols in order to make money for their group. The three young males used to go in the izakaya we're talking about, and one of them is seen to order ankimo in a flashback.

Then, they have success as idols and take part to this program where they try to save restaurants and such that are about to fail. Nor the TV crew nor the restaurant owner know about their real identity. The restaurant owner is quite discouraged since his business isn't going well, and then one of the idols says that thing about miso-marinated ankimo (that he/she had eaten in the past).

Then comes the comment from the TV person, that is meant to be "negative" (he feels that ankimo is not something an idol would order, I guess). That's why I thought that "tough guy" worked better: the TV person unwillingly describes the true situation (they praise a tough-guy snack because they were tough guys).

Then the show goes on air, but the public has a negative reaction: it's so surreal that it appears to be heavily scripted. A viewer comments that the author of the program must be stupid for having an idol say that thing about ankimo.

Hope this helps. Thank you!


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## SoLaTiDoberman

The context you indicated changed everything.

And I agree with your interpretation.


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## cosmicbelt

I don't know the story but I geuss your imagination below is wrong.
********************************
Then comes the comment from the TV person, that is meant to be "negative" (he feels that ankimo is not something an idol would order, I guess). 
********************************
Miso-marinated ankimo is very Japanese gourmet food almost Japanese people don't know.
Even the persons who have never eaten the food think it very Japanese food if the persons are Japanese.
The word "渋い" is usually not used for food as the meaning, but the TV person dared use it.
The author wants to write that the shop owner is excellent.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Adding notes:
"その世界一おいしいあん肝の味噌漬けを、みんなに*食べさせてくれよ!!"*
This is never said by a young Japanese idol girl. The red part is a masculine wording.

おつまみ in this context means 酒のつまみ (the nibbles of "nibbles and drinks")

しぶいおつまみ would be *a heavey drinker's choice* or *a habitual drinker's choice *or even *an alcoholic addict's preference.*
Or* a glumet drinker's preference *if thinking it positively.

The drinker can be both male and female. They can be both old people and relatively younger adults. I just imagined an old male alcoholic addict in #4.
They can be tough guys as well, as you said.
However, they cannot be idol girls.



Riccardo91 said:


> *A viewer* comments that *the author of the program* must be stupid for having an idol say that thing about ankimo.


Who is the viewer? Are they also in the cartoon story? Or someone who watched the cartoon?
Who is the author of the program? Someone who made this cartoon? or The TV program's author?

I'd like to confirm the context of #7 which I thought was written clearly, because I got very confused for some reason. haha


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## Riccardo91

> I don't know the story but I geuss your imagination below is wrong.



I can assure you that he's not willing to praise the chef. It's clearly understandable from the tone of his voice.
If not "negative", we can say its a surprised/shocked comment: he can't believe that an idol is saying such things. ^^



> They can be tough guys as well, as you said.
> However, they cannot be idol girls.


I agree, this is the point.



> Who is the viewer? Are they also in the cartoon story? Or someone who watched the cartoon?
> Who is the author of the program? Someone who made this cartoon? or The TV program's author?


Sorry, I didn't write it clear enough.

In my cartoon, the idols take part to a TV program. The director, producer and reporter of the TV program are characters in my cartoon.
The viewers of the TV program are fictional characters of the cartoon, but they are never shown.

This is how it goes:
- The idols convince the izakaya owner who is featured in the TV program to try to save his shop from bankrupcy. He does his best preparing the food, etc. Everything that happens is not scripted by the authors of the TV program: it's just the idols/yakuza who are genuinely attached to the izakaya;
- The TV program airs;
- The public of the program feels that the program itself is heavily scripted (since the "idols" are not behaving as idols at all: they behave as yakuza would) and heavily criticize it and the izakaya. A lot of comments are shown on the screen one after the other;
- Due to this bad advertising, the izakaya is forced to close (it's meant to be comical, everything is shown very quickly).

I hope this helps!

Thank you to everyone who answered!


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