America's Obsession With Japanese Culture
Teflon
Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20289Members
Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20289Members
My original topic had 'Youth' in there, but I thought about it, and this sickening obsession I see with Japan isn't constrained to just kids... it's everywhere.
What is with this obsession with Japan?
First we have those cartoons. In their own right... their cartoons. Big deal. But for some reason, and I've yet to figure out why, these cartoons have amassed a literally BRAINWASHED cult following of people that are OBSESSED with them. These cartoons will LITERALLY fill every single void in one of these people's lives. And I've watched a good deal of these cartoons. Most of them aren't any good! They're lousy! Crap! There's about 3 different genres out there: Invincible Humanoid Robot Combat, Half Naked Muscular Men Fighting, or what I call 'Future/Retro', where something is set in the future and has so many retro parts to it, it's incredibly disbelivable. The only series I've ever liked is Cowboy Bebop. It had no really stupid combat, the main character DIES in the end, and it had a good plot (It was just too crammed in at bad moments)
Second, there's the culture itself. My friend is majoring in Japanese. He has is room decorated with all sorts of Japanese posters and... stuff. He wants to be an anime artist. He said no matter what it takes, he wants to live in Japan. Why? What does Japan have that the US doesn't? Do people ENJOY living in literally coffin-sized apartments for more then it'd take to get a New York loft? Do people enjoy the poverty in the countryside? The only thing Japan has that the US doesn't is history. And if you're not a history buff, there's no reason to like Japan.
Personally, I find this brainwashed cult-like obsession with the Japanese despicable. If you like Ireland, fine. Wear a sticker that says "Irish Pride". Go on vacation there. But you won't see people in school doodling Irish fantasies on papers, tatooing the gaelic language all over their body and writing it everywhere, and obsessing over Ireland in every second of their lives (Okay, you'll find people like that, but no where on the scale of this Japan Obsession.
Can any of you obsessors spread some light on to why you guys are so freakin'... I'm sorry... but just so <b>wierd</b>? I mean, look at this forum. I'm sure that 70%+ of people here have anime skins, themes, and clips from shows on their computers, talk about them a lot, etc. You guys are like goths. You don't wear black or pierce creative body parts... but you have this wierd sort of obsession with something and I'm not sure you guys even know why.
Please, I really want to know... someone tell me...
What is with this obsession with Japan?
First we have those cartoons. In their own right... their cartoons. Big deal. But for some reason, and I've yet to figure out why, these cartoons have amassed a literally BRAINWASHED cult following of people that are OBSESSED with them. These cartoons will LITERALLY fill every single void in one of these people's lives. And I've watched a good deal of these cartoons. Most of them aren't any good! They're lousy! Crap! There's about 3 different genres out there: Invincible Humanoid Robot Combat, Half Naked Muscular Men Fighting, or what I call 'Future/Retro', where something is set in the future and has so many retro parts to it, it's incredibly disbelivable. The only series I've ever liked is Cowboy Bebop. It had no really stupid combat, the main character DIES in the end, and it had a good plot (It was just too crammed in at bad moments)
Second, there's the culture itself. My friend is majoring in Japanese. He has is room decorated with all sorts of Japanese posters and... stuff. He wants to be an anime artist. He said no matter what it takes, he wants to live in Japan. Why? What does Japan have that the US doesn't? Do people ENJOY living in literally coffin-sized apartments for more then it'd take to get a New York loft? Do people enjoy the poverty in the countryside? The only thing Japan has that the US doesn't is history. And if you're not a history buff, there's no reason to like Japan.
Personally, I find this brainwashed cult-like obsession with the Japanese despicable. If you like Ireland, fine. Wear a sticker that says "Irish Pride". Go on vacation there. But you won't see people in school doodling Irish fantasies on papers, tatooing the gaelic language all over their body and writing it everywhere, and obsessing over Ireland in every second of their lives (Okay, you'll find people like that, but no where on the scale of this Japan Obsession.
Can any of you obsessors spread some light on to why you guys are so freakin'... I'm sorry... but just so <b>wierd</b>? I mean, look at this forum. I'm sure that 70%+ of people here have anime skins, themes, and clips from shows on their computers, talk about them a lot, etc. You guys are like goths. You don't wear black or pierce creative body parts... but you have this wierd sort of obsession with something and I'm not sure you guys even know why.
Please, I really want to know... someone tell me...
Comments
[edit]True, this doesn't explain true obsession on the scale that you described above. That sort of obsession with any sort of subculture is the sort of thing you see in people who want to be recognized as "different", "alternative", "independent", or whatever word best fits. Sooner or later enough people go the same route that the "alternative" (be it alternative music, alternative clothing, etc.) practically becomes mainstream, hence the widespread popularity of particular Anime series.
Why does this annoy me so much?
Like I said: Obsession. I used to meet with some friends and we'd play Shadowrun. No more. It got to the point where I'd have to sit there while three of them dickered about the deeper meanings of Inuyasha. One of them had Inuyasha cards, and was showing them off. Another would sit there and draw scantily-clad women bearing rediculously-sized hardware (Guns <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->) while being attacking by tentacle monsters or something like that.
Yeah, you have a 'I <3 Canada' sticker, great. But you don't walk around going 'HEY YOU! YEAH YOU! I LIKE CANADA! YOU BETTER LIKE CANADA TOO BECAUSE IT'S COOL! CANADA IS AWESOME! I LIKE CANADA etc. etc.'. You can't relate to these people. All they do is eat-breathe-and-live Japan and anime. It's like a twilight zone of reality.
That's generally the feeling I get around this cultural obsession. I go on the internet and have to view probably over 100 megabytes of wide-eyed spikey-haired men that look almost exactly alike, or massive-breasted, blue-haired women with cat ears a day. I have to see over a dozen people in my online games who are named 'Vash the Stampede'. It's just irritating the same way it's irritating to have neo-anarchists doing what they do best: Screaming about something they have no bearing on whatsoever.
People find refuge in other cultural items, such as anime, and will get interested around the cartoons, and then get interested in the culture itself. Anime are like the only cartoons designed for 10+, and most 18+ due to explicit sexual content, which is something that attracts fans. Japan, along with more developed asia, is much more technologically ( commercially and personally) developed than most of the U.S. All this attracts young people to go worldwide.
American culture is also a huge thing in japan... so everything works vice versa... Many japanese will go to an artists concert cause he represent U.S culture.
Lastly, the obcession with Japan is more a youth thing id have to say. Its a new "fad" and i couldnt really extend it to the older peoples.
This is my jibba jabba, disregard me if you will.
"If I say the word 'Anime,' what word springs into your mind first?"
Is it "Pokemon," "DragonBallZ," or (I'm typing phonetically, as I don't know the spelling of this one) "U-gee-oh"? If someone had asked me this question a year ago, that would've probably been my answer.
Then a friend "forced" me to watch 30 minutes of an anime series I'd never heard of. I found myself watching the entire 3-DVD set within days, and <i>wanting</i> to watch it all.
Do I watch anime on a regular basis? Do I have posters? Can I draw it at all? Do I listen to Japanese music (other than the songs that come with Dance Dance Revolution)? The answer to all of these is a big "no." But my respect for the culture has gone up tenfold now that I've seen that there's more to it than the most popular parts of it.
Hell, I remember it's just about 5 year ago, where I was mocked when I said something like "Hey you should watch Ghost in the Shell.. really cool Anime"... a few months later it became a trend and the market and especially TV was flooded with brainless crap combined with marketing so large and effective that it's almost incredible.
Personally I like "adult" Animes (NOT Hentai), that are more or less a "painted" version of a great movie... Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, and so on.
I Also like some series, as long as they are "adult" (see above) and intelligent in some way... Cowboy Beebop or Record of Lodoss War for example...
Most the stuff on TV (wich is aimed to kids) is simply crap.
However there are other reasons that make me interessted in asian culture:
- simply because it's different.
And everybody knows that different things normally either make you feel interesst or fear... simply put
- "honor"
It may sound a bit weird, but personally I'm quite fascinated with the value honor seems to have in asian cultures.
I said "seems to have" because I can't really tell how much of this is simply an image... but at least historical documents show that it has been very important.
I think honor has been replaced with "public relations" in the western world... wich is kind of odd from my point of view.
-religion
Living in Europe there are very little religious groups you get in touch with...
There are of course the islamic and jewish people that live here, but mostly ist the christians (wich I am member of... but ONLY ON THE PAPERS!).
The thing that fascinates my about the asian religions is, that there are so many of them... and they all make sense in a certain way. Buddism for example is something that I heartfully respect and like a lot.
But the thing that makes the asian religious system seem soo much better than "our" system is:
In Europe most of the religious groups agree that there is the one and only god... and they fight and kill over the question wich color god's socks are.
In Asia there a hundrets of different religions, gods, spirits wich sometimes mix and/or change a bit and form new ways of religion... and, while I know that some groups fight each other, they all seem to get along quite well!
-- warning cynism --
Oh, and there are two other very important things that make us so obsessed with Asia:
Ramen and schoolgirl pr0n.
--- cynism off ---
Hyper
I don't think I would stop in the middle of a game just to argue about the plot of an anime either, I'm usually pre-occupied with fragging.
DragonBallZ, Pokemon, and...um...dangit, <i>still</i> can't remember how to spell that other one correctly (look at above post) are all <i>not at all</i> representative of Anime as a whole. Correct?
Japanese anime is just like american movies...Teflon cant believe how ameri-animers like crap like pokemon, and i cant believe why everyone likes crap like gigli.
However,we understand that people like Cowboy Bebop, and i understand why people like X2( remember the part where the guy was like AAAAAAAHHHH!!! and then he was all like voom voom voom and he was like AAAAAAAAAH and it was like she was crying metal and he awas all like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... etc, etc.)
Hell, I remember it's just about 5 year ago, where I was mocked when I said something like "Hey you should watch Ghost in the Shell.. really cool Anime"... a few months later it became a trend and the market and especially TV was flooded with brainless crap combined with marketing so large and effective that it's almost incredible.
Personally I like "adult" Animes (NOT Hentai), that are more or less a "painted" version of a great movie... Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, and so on.
I Also like some series, as long as they are "adult" (see above) and intelligent in some way... Cowboy Beebop or Record of Lodoss War for example...
Most the stuff on TV (wich is aimed to kids) is simply crap.
However there are other reasons that make me interessted in asian culture:
- simply because it's different.
And everybody knows that different things normally either make you feel interesst or fear... simply put
- "honor"
It may sound a bit weird, but personally I'm quite fascinated with the value honor seems to have in asian cultures.
I said "seems to have" because I can't really tell how much of this is simply an image... but at least historical documents show that it has been very important.
I think honor has been replaced with "public relations" in the western world... wich is kind of odd from my point of view.
-religion
Living in Europe there are very little religious groups you get in touch with...
There are of course the islamic and jewish people that live here, but mostly ist the christians (wich I am member of... but ONLY ON THE PAPERS!).
The thing that fascinates my about the asian religions is, that there are so many of them... and they all make sense in a certain way. Buddism for example is something that I heartfully respect and like a lot.
But the thing that makes the asian religious system seem soo much better than "our" system is:
In Europe most of the religious groups agree that there is the one and only god... and they fight and kill over the question wich color god's socks are.
In Asia there a hundrets of different religions, gods, spirits wich sometimes mix and/or change a bit and form new ways of religion... and, while I know that some groups fight each other, they all seem to get along quite well!
-- warning cynism --
Oh, and there are two other very important things that make us so obsessed with Asia:
Ramen and schoolgirl pr0n.
--- cynism off ---
Hyper <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I had to watch 'Perfect Blue'. I enjoyed it. It was sort of Alfred Hitchcock-ey. Not all anime is bad.
But. I also thought Braveheart was an excellent movie. You don't see people parading around Braveheart like it's their salvation like they do anime.
The majority of it is cheap made-for-the-masses. And a great majority of anime artists are, frankly, perverted. Perfect Blue has little girls wearing very skimpy clothes, and a huge stripping scene. I know Ghost in the Shell does (Never seen it). All schoolgirls, even if they're under 14, have massive breasts and wear the skimpiest clothes possible. Yeah, you know in America that's kind of frowned upon...
- Different
Okay, be different. Wait, you're NOT different. If you want to be different, do something creative with your car. Set a new style. However, following the masses isn't different... at all. In fact, as an avid anti-anime, *I'M* the one whose different. Maybe people really do think they're different. WAKE UP: YOU'RE NOT.
- Honor
I can see this one, but why you would want to obey it I have no idea. If you're into Japan for their social structure, maybe you should start here at home. Chances are most people obsessed with Japan have no bearing, nor express it at all here at home. In fact, I really can't think of anyone that does... I do respsect the asian honor, but it certainly isn't something I'd like to emulate.
- Religion
Not going off on atheist tangents: I like Buddhists. Shinto-Buddhism is to Japan as Christianity is to America. I only respect ONE religion and that is Buddhism. Pacifism, they don't ship off missionaries by the truckload to force their religion on others... but mainly the pacifism and ideals that you should keep religion in your home and family is what I like. If I was ever to pick up a religion, that'd be it.
As for the Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon, I don't think of those.
I think of the dozen or so shows about humanoid invincible robots. If you're watching for action, then why watch something that isn't exciting at all.
Blue Gender - Okay, I've seen 3 episodes of this. Each time it was just people in robots slaughtering big bugs. (Note: It only took one episode of Bebop for me to catch on) Plot? Was there one? This kid gets frozen for some silly reason and wakes up on a space station, where he'll become a '"elite" r0botxx0r p1l0t!' Right. I enjoy how everyone everywhere in every anime has some inate skill with weapons of mass destruction...
Gundam Anything - Seriously... invincible robots fight against 150,000,000 enemy robots made of paper, and they do it with 'laz0r swords'...
Big O - Watched a couple episodes accidently. The Big O just looks laughable, the drawing is laughable, and I'm sure there's a plot somewhere in there, but it's like watching Star Wars episode 1 for plot. Sure it's in there, and it makes sense, but after watching and laughing as ANOTHER huge 40 story tall robot destroys another 50 square miles of city, or ANOTHER robot uses hands with opposable thumbs to fire weapons... you really don't care anymore. (BTW: Why can this big stupid robot just sprout from the ground? What happens to the guys car? How can Roger survive inside that little cockpit as the 100,000 tons of steel around him smash into the ground?)
Hyper <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I had to watch 'Perfect Blue'. I enjoyed it. It was sort of Alfred Hitchcock-ey. Not all anime is bad.
But. I also thought Braveheart was an excellent movie. You don't see people parading around Braveheart like it's their salvation like they do anime.
The majority of it is cheap made-for-the-masses. And a great majority of anime artists are, frankly, perverted. Perfect Blue has little girls wearing very skimpy clothes, and a huge stripping scene. I know Ghost in the Shell does (Never seen it). All schoolgirls, even if they're under 14, have massive breasts and wear the skimpiest clothes possible. Yeah, you know in America that's kind of frowned upon...
- Different
Okay, be different. Wait, you're NOT different. If you want to be different, do something creative with your car. Set a new style. However, following the masses isn't different... at all. In fact, as an avid anti-anime, *I'M* the one whose different. Maybe people really do think they're different. WAKE UP: YOU'RE NOT.
[...] <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
To "majority of it is cheap made-for-the-masses":
"By "majority," do you refer to "the majority of what can be seen in the general public (because some Anime series have become flat-out more popular than others)", or "the majority of the anime series made today in terms of pure numbers"? If it's the first of these two, then we've already been over the fact that everyone here is already in agreement with you. If it's the second, you're probably about to face some steep opposition arguments.
To "being different:" that's a cycle common to all subcultures. It happened to goth culture, it happened to rave culture, it happend and/or is happening to Americanised Japanese culture, and chances are it's happened to many subcultures from far before either of us two were born. Sooner or later, a subculture is seen as "different," people move towards it, it becomes mainstream, and people move on to the next subculture in the cycle. Don't blame Japanese culture and this trend you're seeing on human nature itself.
1) Culture - Their culture is so much more better than Canada or America's, in my opinion. (I still love Canada. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->)
2) Anime - It's not ALL like you say. (Also Marik, it's called "Yu-Gi-Oh!" <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->)
3) Video games - It's the source. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Great, just great. Now I'm stopped dead in my tracks from posting something insightful...
*grumbles*
I'll leave it at that.
Too bad William Gibson is an overrated hack. And hasn't Japan been in an economic downturn for like the past ten years because they won't let foreign business in? Japan seems very xenophobic in that way.
And about the obsession with Japanese culture.....there is none. I know very few people that frequently enjoy anything that comes out of Japan, and absolutely none that are obsessed with it. Cartoon Network importing a few anime series and a few kids wearing Japanese t-shirts doesn't make me worried that eastern culture is invading us. The Japanese probably like our culture as much as we like theirs.
Is the popularity of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky considered an obsession about Eastern European culture? I doubt anyone even considered it.
The series name is Furi Kuri (also known as FLCL), and it is...weird. And I wouldn't liken the artwork to Picasso...it's just very surreal.
Why do I like anime? Character development. A continuous, cohesive plot. Humor that is sometimes subtle, sometimes slapstick. Music (Japanese composers are pretty damn good at what they do). However, I would like to point out that anime is the only aspect of Japanese culture that I am interested in. I personally think it's retarded to watch a traditional tea ceremony...because, well, it's boring as hell. As an aside, the green tea tastes terrible, never ever drink real green tea. I think many people go around saying "wow, Japan is cool, Japanese people are cool" without understanding their culture or ways of thinking. Asian societies tend to be very closed to outsiders, and the Japanese are no exception. To them, we are just "gaijin".
dont have a 'fanboy' mentality about cultures, the best thing about cultures is that liking one, doesnt stop you from liking others, since thats true, there really is no reason to not like japanese culture (in general of course).
i think its probably that japan still has an air of mysticism to us westerners, they're crazy over there! and oOoOoh they have crazy inventions!!11 well, you get the idea, its somthing different/ new.
plus anime is cool! no two ways about it, certain anime is better than others but every 14 year old should watch some kind of anime, by force if necessary.
Some people take their likeing of anime to extremes, but I've met people who do the same things with bands or political ideologies (Arrg, socialists are the bane of university life <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> ). I don't dress up in a Sailor Moon outfit (good thing too seeing as I'm 6 foot 6 and around 300 pounds), nor will I watch every anime with fanatical zeal. Many I dislike. But many others I do like.
If someone you know likes anime and is pestering you to watch it, they're doing that because they've found something they like and want to share it. Many Christians will behave in similar ways. If you tell them "Mate, I'm not really interested" odds are they'll stop annoying you. But don't go and rant at them just because they like something you happen to not like. You seem to be looking at this whole theme like it's "evil" to like anime or something to that effect. Not a very open minded view to the subject at hand.
From reading the first post, anyone might think that anime fanboys are invading the earth and plotting to overthrow government. I don't know exactly how the situation is over there (I'm English) but to my knowlege they're not exactly <b>that</b> common. As for the inevitable question of WHY?!?!?!
It's the same thing as goths, dungeons and dragons groupies, or any other sub-culture. Someone sees something new and different, takes a liking to it, and then seeks to share that interest with other people who might feel the same way. As for the question of why Japan and not Ireland... Japan and other asian cultures are probably further from western culture than just about anything barring possibly eskimos. And the Japanese have a slight advantage over eskimos in the sense that they produce absolute bucket loads of things for western teenagers to grab hold of and adopt into a sub-culture. While the eskimos can really only offer you fish, ice, or possibly fish in ice.
While you may want to dissagree with this, and it may not last for a great deal longer - Most anime, specifically most anime that can't be ran as a saturday morning childrens television series, is not mainstream. Neither are any of the other cultural items that these groups laud over. That makes them different, like black makeup and long trenchcoats. Also, because of the nature of anime, if you discover something that you enjoy very much, and your peers don't even know of the existence of this item, you'll find you probably want to share it. Discovery is fun, and its even more fun when you can share it with friends. Go too far with that, and you get the situations described in the first post.
What annoys me most about these discussions are the people who discuss anime as if it were a single entity. "Anime is great"/"Anime sucks"....
Its a ***ing genre, infact it's broader than that, it's more like a medium. That's like saying "TV programmes are really great", the statement is worthless. The main difference between the use of animation in western cultures and in Japan is that in Western culture the use of animation basically stops at childrens TV series, and Disney films. While Japan has no qualms with using animation for just about any purpose or audience: It's used for TV series designed to sell lunchboxes to 8 year old girls, it's used for varying degrees of porn, it's used for mindless action films that could probably star Arnold Scharzenegger if they weren't animated. And it's used for very well made, entertaining productions aimed at people who are both mature and capable of engaging their cranium. Since the word 'anime' is used to describe any Japanese animation, all of the above come under the title 'anime'. So if think you can summarize your opinion on all of the above under a single heading, be my guest.
Dunno, that guy seemed to have a focus on hating "nerds". And ****. He's got a stupid idea there, and I don't even like this stuff. I think he's just coping with his own "in-the-closet" Asian fantasy <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
ouch.
What is with this obsession with Japan?
First we have those cartoons. In their own right... their cartoons. Big deal. But for some reason, and I've yet to figure out why, these cartoons have amassed a literally BRAINWASHED cult following of people that are OBSESSED with them. These cartoons will LITERALLY fill every single void in one of these people's lives. And I've watched a good deal of these cartoons. Most of them aren't any good! They're lousy! Crap! There's about 3 different genres out there: Invincible Humanoid Robot Combat, Half Naked Muscular Men Fighting, or what I call 'Future/Retro', where something is set in the future and has so many retro parts to it, it's incredibly disbelivable. The only series I've ever liked is Cowboy Bebop. It had no really stupid combat, the main character DIES in the end, and it had a good plot (It was just too crammed in at bad moments)
Second, there's the culture itself. My friend is majoring in Japanese. He has is room decorated with all sorts of Japanese posters and... stuff. He wants to be an anime artist. He said no matter what it takes, he wants to live in Japan. Why? What does Japan have that the US doesn't? Do people ENJOY living in literally coffin-sized apartments for more then it'd take to get a New York loft? Do people enjoy the poverty in the countryside? The only thing Japan has that the US doesn't is history. And if you're not a history buff, there's no reason to like Japan.
Personally, I find this brainwashed cult-like obsession with the Japanese despicable. If you like Ireland, fine. Wear a sticker that says "Irish Pride". Go on vacation there. But you won't see people in school doodling Irish fantasies on papers, tatooing the gaelic language all over their body and writing it everywhere, and obsessing over Ireland in every second of their lives (Okay, you'll find people like that, but no where on the scale of this Japan Obsession.
Can any of you obsessors spread some light on to why you guys are so freakin'... I'm sorry... but just so <b>wierd</b>? I mean, look at this forum. I'm sure that 70%+ of people here have anime skins, themes, and clips from shows on their computers, talk about them a lot, etc. You guys are like goths. You don't wear black or pierce creative body parts... but you have this wierd sort of obsession with something and I'm not sure you guys even know why.
Please, I really want to know... someone tell me... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well... Out of everyone here it would seem I would be the most qualified (Each shelf has 2 rows. Each Row holds, on Average, 30-40 DVDs [Some DVD cases hold like 3 DVDs] I have around 250 DVDs now. Constantly adding more):
When you say stuff like this it makes me angry. Angry because you THINK you know what your talking about, but you haven't even scratched the surface...
Anime and Manga has a gigantic range of genres. You think America has an obession with 'japanese pop-culture', my god. The general populus of America, I'm sorry to say, are completely ignorant of what really goes on.
Japan is not the 'politically correct' society America or any other country is.
You want an example? You would have no comprehension of the number of eromanga (Porn graphic novels) books that deal with underaged kids having sex. Does that shock and offend you? Quite easily I'm sure, hell.. I could give you so many other examples down the same lines you would never want your kids near a Japanese bookstore....
So when you say 'japanese pop-culture'... Well... What your getting is the nice clean politically correct version.. Stuff like Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, etc.
Genres? I pick up my latest copy of Ultra Jump (Contains one chapter of many different comics. It's as big as a phonebook, and it's weekly)
It contains the following subjects in comic format
- Baseball
- Boxing
- Witchcraft
- Police on patrol
- A Doctors Surgery
- Street Racing
- Street Fighting
- Politics (Running for office)
- Murder mystery
- Fantasy adventure
- Samurai
- More baseball
- More fighting
- Horror
- School Fighting (A very popular theme)
- Golf
- A third baseball story
- Comedy
And that is ONE issue of ONE manga.
Multiply that until you have a bookstore 4 stories high filled with all kinds of different books like this.... that is the range of genres we are talking about. None of them are inhibited by political correctness.. and I suppose that is one of the reasons manga and anime appeal to me.
Culture? Posters in a room... that's not culture. Every teenage kid has posters on his walls on the subject he likes. Bands, cars, girls, etc. If you want culture your talking about Cherry Blossom festivals and Traditional Tea Ceremonies....
So yes I have embraced Japanese culture, I absorb as much information as I can get, I am a walking anime encyclopedia (Jesus ask me ANYTHING), I am starting to take lessons in Japanese, but there is no reason behind this... there is no "I'm doing this to be trendy"
I am simply living the life I want to live.
I don't think you understand that.
Well... that's the short simple version =D
By god that might not be a flame, but I'll stand up for what I believe in! =D~
*hugs Teflon*
do you know anyone like this or are you speculating?
people arent sheep! have some faith in your fellow man!
(yes i noticed the besides enjoying it bit)..