29480
In the Yotsuba-to manga one of the heroes first calls a younger of the two
sisters (16 y.o) 美女. Then he gets to know an older sister (I guess 21 y.o) and
tells that she is a real 美女. A younger sister hearing that gets somehwat
distressed and he then tells her that she (the younger one) is a 美少女. This, as
far as I can tell from the picture creates a comic effect. However I was not
able to find a comic connotation looking up the 美少女 word in a dictionary. So,
does the word 美少女 have any ironic or humoristic connotations?
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2015-11-26T22:04:46.847
29479
2015-11-27T09:15:56.860
4851
question
words
Does 美少女 sound somewhat ironic, humoristic, etc?
少女 is simply "girl", making it clear that it's a young girl (compare 少年 for
boy).

In this example, by making the adjustment that the younger sibling is actually
a 美少女 rather than 美女, it points out that she's the younger sibling of two, and
not being a FULL beauty to the extent her sister is. It also hints at her
having a more young form of beauty than her older sibling, that the younger
sibling is still developing or not quite there at the same level as her
sister, and so on; whatever you make of it.

I mean, it's not laugh out loud humor, just connotations of words, but it's
important to know that 美少女 definitely points to a younger type of beauty, like
a good looking high schooler, while in this context they're reserving 美女 for
the fully developed beauty of the older adult sister.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-26T22:12:25.727
29480
2015-11-26T22:12:25.727
9185
29479
answer
I guess the insertion of 少 creates a "nice save" moment, where he possibly
avoids offending the younger sister by being quick and witty enough to save
his previous statement which was intended to work as a compliment, and remains
a compliment after the slight modification with 少.

It is not ironic. It may be slightly amusing/humorous since the user displays
his wit in a clever way to possibly avoid an unpleasant or awkward situation.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-27T09:15:56.860
29492
2015-11-27T09:15:56.860
542
29479
answer