純情可憐

じゅんじょう　かれん
jyunjyou karen

日本の方へのメッセージ：
ＮＳＦＷという略語は「ＮＯＴ　ＳＡＦＥ　ＦＯＲ　ＷＯＲＫ」という意味で、人前で（得に同僚や子供）クリックしない方がいいリンクのことです。

It's rare that we get the chance to post a yoji that doesn't lend itself to pictures of scantily clad women in one way or another, but today is one of those days. These kanji don't allow it.

純 is one that I first learned in 純粋 (じゅんすい；jyunsui), meaning "pure." It has connotations of "unadulterated" but working in the school system I've heard it used to refer to the innoncence of youth. When it's used in the first compound of today's yo-ji, 純情, it becomes "purity of heart," or "naivete."

可 gets used in all kinds of compounds but think of it here like you would think of it in 可愛い. 可愛い has always perplexed me because of it's incredible descriptive range, which Google Image search will help me demonstrate: Can you think of another word that you could use to describe both THIS , THIS ,and THIS[NSFW]?

And if that's not enough, I've never been sure about the connection between 可愛い and 可愛そう. For me "cute" and "pitiful" are two very different things (BIG MISTAKE in this bit. Check the comments to see us getting owned by reader Pazu) , but in Japanese they seem conceptually linked somehow. Even the second part of today's yo-ji, 可憐, can be defined as either "sweet" or "poor," as in "poor baby."

Luckily　純情可憐 doesn't have the same ambiguity. As the definition will tell you, it's actually got a pretty narrow window of applicability.

Definition:
おもに若い女性の清らかで愛らしいさま。
Translation:
1. Beautiful and pure.
2. Sweet.

I like this one because I've had trouble figuring out how to describe a girl in Japanese who, in English, I would refer to as "sweet." Using 八方美人 is risky for reasons we've already discussed, and in a small town where you stand out, it's hard enough to say something nice about a woman without setting off an 井戸端会議 about your romantic intentions.

The one time I tried to explain the ways in which English speakers apply their version of "甘い" to people the conversation became confusing quickly: I didn't know that 甘い could be used to mean generous or indulgent at the time. To compare, think of how quickly 和英 or 英和　conversations can get sketchy when a Japanese person wants to talk about a 優しい女, but doesn't know whether or not to translate 優しい as "kind" or "easy."

純情可憐 resolves these problems for me. It encapsulates what I think of as the epitome of "sweet," and its chastity cuts out any potential for inappropriate interpretation. It is mainly used to refer to women who are below the "Christmas Cake" cut-off, so I might still have trouble applying it to older women, but it's still a lucky find.

It reminds me of 箱入り娘, for obvious reasons.

例文：新人タレントは、テレビドラマで純情可憐な少女の役をみごとに演じきった。
The up-and-coming actress gave a magnificent performance in her latest television drama role, playing a sweet, innocent young girl.