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In Maison Ikkoku, the title of episode 60 is "見ちゃった！響子{きょうこ}と三鷹{みたか}がいきなりB？！", which is translated to "Caught in the Act! Kyoko and Mitaka-Hot and Heavy!"

My question is, what is "B"? I've literally never heard it before @.@. I know "H" and "BL", but I've never heard just "B" to have any meaning in that way.

For context, this is an 80's/90's anime, and Kyouko and Mitaka are a potential couple that are caught embracing (in a misunderstanding where Mitaka fell on top of Kyouko) by Godai, who's also after Kyouko in a love triangle.

title screen

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I assume this is sense 12 in this dictionary, although I haven't heard the term myself as a learner.

俗にペッティングのこと。Aをキス、Cをセックスとして、その間の段階ということから。
Colloquially, (sexual) petting. From the fact that if A is kissing, C is sex, then B is the stage in between.

If this definition is correct, an equivalently colloquial English translation with a pretty much identical meaning would be "second base".

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  • It also appears in "Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School", where the comparison to first base etc. does appear. So you could also translate it as "heavy petting", potentially.
    – ConMan
    May 30 at 3:09
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    As a quick follow-up question: is this slang at all commonly-known nowadays? Or is it much more of an 80s/90s thing? Because "getting to second base" is a commonly known expression even nowadays, but I've basically never heard A/B/C used like this
    – chausies
    Jun 3 at 1:27

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