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I am quite familiar with Noun じゃない and Na-adj じゃない - in both cases, they
negate the noun or na-adjective, and じゃ is a colloquial form of では; ない is the
plain form of ありません.

I also know that じゃ conveys the meaning of "well" or "with that" (though
that's probably too formal).

> せんせいじゃない ・ すきじゃない
>
> じゃ、また。 ・ じゃ、はじめましょう。

However, what happens when じゃ is moved in front of the noun or na-adjective?
For instance, in the song エアーマンが倒せない (Airman ga Taosenai / I cannot Defeat
Airman) the following is heard (0:40):

> タイム連{れん}打{だ}も試{ため}してみたけど 竜{たつ}巻{まき}相{あい}手{て} **じゃ意{い}味{み}が無{な}い** ！
>
> I attempted the Time Barrage glitch, but against the tornado it is
> meaningless!

I would have written 竜巻相手に意味が無い myself.

Could it be that じゃ means に here?

Song: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opADNvgeZYY>

Lyrics: <http://www.animelyrics.com/doujin/nekokan/airman.jis> (in kanji, but
includes a link to romaji/ english lyrics)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-16T16:02:58.560
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grammar particle-は particle-で song-lyrics
じゃ意味がない / じゃNounがない
As you said yourself, じゃ is just the colloquial form of では。If the sentence was
written more "properly" it would be:

> 相手では意味が無い

See:
[では・じゃ](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/27348/%E4%B8%8A%E6%89%8B%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AF%E3%81%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9B%E3%82%93-or-%E4%B8%8A%E6%89%8B%E3%81%98%E3%82%83%E3%81%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9B%E3%82%93)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-16T16:08:40.457
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The は particle is frequently when expressing negative things, not just in the
case of "ではない" (じゃない) but in a form like form "XはYがない".

While there is some nuance difference, I think for the most part
"には意味がない”,"では意味がない”, and "は意味がない” have a similar meaning. You can do a web
search and see that they are all used in similar situations.

However, in the specific case of "相手では（じゃ)意味がない”, I feel that there is some
sense of the feeling of "with", and the english translation of the example
sentence could have been "but with the tornado it is meaningless" (though
using "against" is clearly better). Stating just "相手は” seems to me to say
something more like "but the tornado is meaningless". This is just my gut
feeling, however.

(This is my first post on the board. I'm the author of the blog referred to
one of the other answers which is how I found this page. よろしくお願いします (^^) )
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-03T12:31:22.523
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