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At the end of an anime the next episode is advertised with a recurring joke where the character メロ says:

みんな見るメロ

It's supposed to translate as 'Everybody watch Mero.'. But surely it actually translates to the incomplete sentence 'Mero who everybody watches...'. Wouldn't 'Everyone watch Mero' actually be

みんなメロを見て下さい

or something similar, which, admittedly, is less cute. So my question is, does the original sentence actually translate to 'everyone watch Mero' and if so, why? Or is it funny because it's a word for word translation of how an English person who didn't know Japanese would say it. Or is there a big hole in my understanding of Japanese grammar?

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  • Seems you are taking this way too seriously. Who told you it is supposed to translate as 'Everybody watch Mero." in the first place?
    – user4032
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 12:50
  • The subtitles. Also it seems that that is the only logical translation given the context of making you watch the next episode.
    – user3856370
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 12:59
  • Also, as a beginner things like this can throw you off. You think you've understood something and then find your expectations subverted.
    – user3856370
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 13:04
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    I personally feel translating this sentence as "Everybody watch mero!" is not necessarily bad as a fansub, where the audience are "trained otaku". What we should know is that this 'mero' is not the subject of the verb 'watch', nor is it used to address someone named Mero. It's just there to "prettify" the whole sentence, to emphasize the character's "moe" trait.
    – naruto
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 16:59

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Adding a peculiar "sound" at the end of almost every sentence is an idiosyncrasy of many characters in Japanese anime/manga/games.

Most of these sounds are simply omitted after being translated into English, but there are a few exceptions. For example even in the English version of Final Fantasy, moogles speak like "How are you, kupo!", and this kupo means nothing.

This typically happens for childish, mascot-like characters. In your example, みんな見るメロ is repeatedly said by a girl who jokingly plays an imaginary infantile character who likes to always add メロ at the end. Semantically, it just means みんな見てね.

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