I was watching an anime. A boy is in a hurry and he's running, and ends up
accidentally hitting a girl. He inmediately apologizes and says 大-大変申し訳ございません!
He looks very nervous while speaking. The girls notices this and she looks
worried (about him) at first, then she just smiles and says "別に". It's clear
that she doesn't want to sound rude at all, she seems to simply want to
comfort him and tell him it was nothing and he shouldn't worry. But I often
read that 別に is an expression that expresses indifference and a lack of
concern, so I wonder when it's supposed to be a perfectly normal reply and
when it sounds rude. In this context, is it fine?
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2018-03-20T04:05:53.377
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question
word-choice
Is it impolite to reply to an apology with 別に?
It's not wrong to say just 別に in this situation, though it's not particularly
polite or gentle, either. It may sound a little blunt or distant as compared
to something like 大丈夫ですよ. Maybe the girl was also a little flustered?

別に is a [negative polarity
item](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/16060/5010). When said on its own,
it can mean "Not at all", "No problem", "Nothing in particular", "Not really"
and so on, depending on the context. In this context it clearly means "No
problem" or "I was not particularly bothered". It can be rude as a reply for a
question like "What's your impression about (something)?"

Related:

  * [How does 別に function as an adverb?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/21356/5010)
  * [別に to mean "not particularly"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/18785/5010)
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answer