Blog:JoJo's Bizarre Puns: Nehorihahori

Chapter 68 of Vento Aureo formally introduces the character Ghiaccio. Here, Ghiaccio recalls the order given to him by the Hitman Team, to find Team Bucciarati no matter what. He also recalls the expression they used in the order; however, he finds the expression nonsensical and proceeds to rant about it.

The expression in question varies between different languages. This blog will go over some of these rants.

Note: This list is incomplete, so feel free to add more to this list.

Japanese
Here, Ghiaccio is ranting about the Japanese phrase "nehorihahori" (根掘り葉掘り), which directly translates to "thoroughly" but literally translates to "root digging (and) leaf digging". The phrase is defined by its first half, "nehori" (根掘り), making the implication that something is not done thoroughly until the roots are pulled out. The second half of the phrase, "hahori" (葉掘り), is added to create a euphonious Japanese wordplay, like "lovey dovey" or "super duper". However, the reason why many translations don't retain this expression is because there's no such expression in their respective languages that has something to do with digging up roots and leaves to find something.

Ghiaccio is taking the phrase literally and rants about how leaves are not found underground and therefore can't be "dug up".

English
For those who are curious, "come hell or high water" means whatever difficulties may occur. "Working one's fingers to the bone" and "putting in elbow grease" are essentially synonymous, both meaning working hard to accomplish something. For the "take a leaf out of someone's book" expression, the "leaf" refers to a sheet of paper, and it means to do the same thing someone did. And "think outside of the box" should be self-explanatory.

French
Currently, there are no transcripts available here. However, in the French version of the manga, Ghiaccio rants about the French phrase "turning every rock and every blade of grass", and he rants about how nothing can hide behind a blade of grass.

In the anime's French dub, Ghiaccio rants about the expression "move heaven and earth", which is an idiom that implies one achieving something by all means necessary.