What Bobby Says In Japanese In Supernatural Season 4
Of course Bobby Singer knows Japanese. Here's the English translation of his witty retort from Supernatural season 4. Played by Jim Beaver, Bobby Singer began Supernatural as a one-time supporting figure before evolving into both a main character and the Winchester brothers' father figure. What Bobby lacks in youth and showmanship, he more than makes up for in experience, knowledge and preparation. As intimately as Sam and Dean think they know Bobby, he constantly surprises the siblings with a seemingly-endless box of tricks.
Said box of tricks proves incredibly useful during Supernatural season 4's "Yellow Fever" episode. The Winchesters are in Colorado investigating a spate of sudden deaths with no apparent cause. By analyzing the corpses and poking into the victims' private lives, Sam and Dean deduce each death was triggered by pure fear, but the case becomes more personal when Dean catches the sickness himself. Wisely soliciting assistance from Bobby Singer, the Winchesters figure out "ghost sickness" is to blame, but without knowing the specific spirit they're dealing with, they can't kill it.
Bobby arrives just in time carrying an extra-dusty lore book on ghosts from Edo-period Japan, pointing towards a special kind of fear-inducing variety called a buruburu. Sam Winchester's very first reaction is questioning how Bobby can decipher a book written entirely in Japanese symbols, asking, "You can read Japanese?" with more than a hint of surprise. Bobby duly replies, "Kimi ga umareru mae kara zutto dayo" which, roughly translated to English, means "long since before you were born." In Supernatural season 6's "Weekend At Bobby's," an encounter with another nasty Japanese monster (an okami) reveals more - Bobby visited Japan in the years before Supernatural began.
Supernatural's Sam Winchester was born in 1983, so if Bobby learned Japanese during a hunting trip "long" beforehand, that must've been during the 1970s. Bobby was born in 1950 and, like John Winchester, began his hunting career when a demon murdered his wife as an adult. Supernatural never reveals exactly when this takes place, but the backstory timeline checks out with his claim about knowing Japanese. Bobby begins hunting with Rufus during the early 1970s, their adventures take them to Japan to face an okami where Bobby learns the local language, then back to the United States in time to meet John Winchester and his sons in the late 1980s. Bobby wasn't bluffing - he could've been studying kanji up to a decade before Sam Winchester entered the world.
Supernatural never rules out the possibility that Bobby Singer learned Japanese before becoming a hunter. Without wishing to stereotype, however, it does seem unlikely that a rural auto salvage worker would have the time or reason to become multi-lingual. Bobby also demonstrates knowledge of French, Latin and more arcane languages during his Supernatural career, suggesting the Japanese lessons were taken specifically so he could understand lore surrounding monsters from the country's extensive legends.
Source: Screenrant
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