Values Dissonance / Anime & Manga

aka: Anime

It probably should not come as a surprise that there can be a fair amount of Values Dissonance when Western audiences watch anything made by Japanese people and intended for a Japanese audience.

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Creators

• Osamu Tezuka:
  • Apollo's Song: A woman trains the protagonist to be a professional runner because it's not safe for a woman's health to participate in competitive running (which is odd, seeing as she outruns him several laps around the lake and isn't even winded).
  • Black Jack:
    • A boy is considered odd for enjoying and being good at feminine things like sewing. He later discovers that as an infant, a doctor saved him from dying of a brain injury by transplanting pieces of a recently-deceased woman's brain to his (though the doctor does say the woman's brain cells ought to have completely merged with his, by the age he is when he learns this).
    • A woman has her uterus and ovaries removed, and lives as a man afterwards due to the fact that "she cannot be a woman anymore" (i.e., give birth and be a mother). A lot of debate has sprung up as to whether Kei/Megumi Kisaragi is a victim of sexist ideology or a bona fide Transgender man.
    • Related to this, the fact that Black Jack and Kisaragi Kei were forced to be apart because the latter could no longer live like a woman does not age well nowadays.
  • Kimba the White Lion:
    • Many aspectas of the series didn't age well, including the depiction of Africans (which went into Darkest Africa territory and blackface) and Arabs (whom were given very stereotypical appearances and characterized as extremely greedy).
    • Leo the Lion (or Susume! Leo), the follow-up series , features an episode where Leo/Kimba attempts to teach his son Rukio independence by dragging him out into the middle of nowhere and making him fight his way back home on his own. Though Rukio is obviously terrified for most of the journey, it's revealed at the end that he was never in any real danger because Leo was secretly following him every step of the way. This is intended as a heartwarming story about a well-meaning dad using Tough Love to teach his son an important lesson. To contemporary audiences, especially Western ones, it just looks like a physically and emotionally abusive nut leaving his child for dead.
  • Princess Knight: The series operates under the idea that men and women are naturally inclined to act in certain ways. Princess Sapphire can do "manly" things (swordfight, adventure, etc) because she has both male and female hearts. If her male heart is removed, she instantly becomes timid and prone to swooning until she Takes a Level in Badass ^note Osamu Tezuka apparently didn't think a pure Action Girl was impossible. In the 50s manga, she is nervous but brave enough to fight after she permanently loses her male heart. If her female heart is removed, she derides anything remotely feminine as "girly".

• Rumiko Takahashi:
  • The general attitudes on sexuality are always a bit played for laughs in Takahashi's Ranma ½, but there are still some uncomfortable moments. Most notably, a short arc concerning a Stalker with a Crush named Tsubasa Kurenai, who is obsessed with Ukyo. The ongoing gag is that everybody assumes Tsubasa was a girl, and 'her' lesbian crush on Ukyo is Played for Laughs. Towards the end, Ranma (while male) attempts to "cure" Tsubasa's lesbianism by asking her out on a date.
    • In a flashback, Dr. Tofu is shown crushing on a high school-age Kasumi. Kasumi should be 16-18 in the flashback, while Tofu can be presumed to have been his late teens or early 20s.
    • Nodoka Saotome and her seppuku pledge. A Western attitude would have been to dismiss the stupid thing on several grounds (she never agreed to it — it was Genma who declared he'd do it and then wrote it up before running off; she really does love her son and doesn't want to have to kill him; and the pledge is so ambiguous as to be impossible to live up to). The Japanese attitude is that Nodoka is, while suffering, a good, loyal, dutiful woman to keep it alive and be condemned to murdering her own family if she decides they haven't lived up to it. Being willing to commit suicide herself after executing them is seen as romantically tragic — or at least humorously old-fashioned.
    • Teenage characters being given or buying alcohol (such as from a vending machine or to celebrate, like how alcohol is given around to party during the Orochi arc) can be Values Dissonance for places that have strictly enforced no drinking/selling to policies for teens.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, secondary character Ryuunosuke Fujinami is a girl who has been raised as a boy by her father (because he wanted a boy). Once she hits adolescence, she becomes torn between her ingrained nature and her desire to embrace her gender, something which her father violently opposes (and she violently counter-opposes). Being a Takahashi series, the whole thing is Played for Laughs, which would be fine, except that nobody in the cast even considers calling child services for Mr. Fujinami's years of abuse. Even the teachers refuse to help... except for that one time when Onsen-Mark tries (and fails) to teach Ryuunosuke how to be a proper lady—an episode that itself has issues due to looking way too much like he's dating her, which is a huge no-no in the West).
  • The series' overall Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male is often criticized in the current day. Lum electrocuting Ataru incessantly, Ryoko's sadistic abuse of both Mendou and Tobimaro, and Shinobu's Hair-Trigger Temper towards men are all Played for Laughs and they rarely catch any karmic retribution for any of it, unlike Ataru and Mendou's near-instant karma when they do something wrong.
  • Maison Ikkoku:
    • A major sticking point with western fans is main character Godai's relationship with Ibuki, a high school girl who follows him around, insists they're "meant to be", and tries to ruin his maybe/maybe-not relationship with his beloved out of jealousy. The problem everyone has is that Ibuki is annoying and Godai doesn't really love her... not that she's sixteen or seventeen years old, and he's at least twenty and a student teacher at her school. In fact, everyone acts like he just may hook up with her anyways, and they don't particularly comment about the morality of it aside from breaking his "true love" Kyoko's heart. Even worse, Kyoko had married her own teacher years earlier, when the age difference was even bigger, and it's viewed as a perfect relationship. In many countries (not only in Japan), a consensual relationship between a teenage girl and an adult is not only not taboo but very common, unlike in the US where it is generally seen as abhorrent. A large part of this is because in those areas, the age of consent is usually lower than in many parts of the US. The level of acceptance varies from country to country; in some, it won’t be an issue if the age difference isn't too high (for example 16/20), but it can be an issue if the age difference is quite notable.
    • The series definitely reflects the more traditional, rigid gender roles in Japanese society (especially during the 80s, when the story was set/written) which may be off-putting to Westerners. For example, the expectation that women will leave their jobs upon marriage (plenty of Western women still do this, but it's not assumed anymore) and with it, that a man should not propose/a woman should not encourage him to propose unless he's in a good financial state. This is one thing that turns a lot of Western fans off Kyoko, since in the West, women with such expectations are stigmatized as "gold diggers" who are too lazy to work themselves. And there are also a few suggestions that Kyoko is approaching Old Maid age at 22 years old, though this mainly comes from her overbearing mother who is desperate for grandkids.
    • Sexual harassment is generally played for laughs, and early on Godai attempts to kiss Kyoko more than once while she's asleep or unconscious; this absolutely would not fly today, especially not in western countries. Yotsuya's voyeuristic behavior in particular would probably qualify him (at least in the minds of others) as a candidate for the sex offender registry.

Individual Series

#-B

• 7 Seeds has an in-universe example with Team Summer A and the other teams. Summer A goes through hell and back to be chosen for the 7 Seeds Project. Since they were brought up in a sheltered institution, they know nothing about the other teams but simply expect them to have gone through the same Test to be chosen, to be fully taught and trained in survival and expecting almost inhuman levels of deep knowledge or athletic abilities from everyone, including young children. They certainly see the value differences when they learn that the rest of the Teams are chosen from the general public and Team Summer B is even made up of "mundanes" who are considered social failures!
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
  • The official English publication has Kusuri creating "medicines" as opposed to drugs.
  • Conversed in fourth wall breaking fashion in Chapter 109. Rentarou tries to justify serving his girlfriends Serious Kids Beer^note a non-alcoholic beverage that simulates drunkenness by pointing out that Doraemon created a gadget that simulates drunkenness, but the Big Cheese of the Publishing Biz rebuts that it was a different time.^note From 1983 to be exact.
• Armitage III: Depending on the interpretation one takes, the background plot can cause this. Japan, at at the time of the series' production, had a falling birthrate and was very uncomfortable with that fact, and there was a well-entrenched conservative movement who blamed the falling birthrate on feminism causing women to be more independent. Thus, the plot of the series: The Greater Scope Villains, the Straw Feminist Earth government, threaten The War of Earthly Aggression — and send assassin/saboteurs to Mars — because they fear the loss of political power that will follow if Mars' Thirds successfully manage to combine the roles of Sex Bot and Uterine Replicator, thus meaning men will abandon human women for quiet robot housewives instead. Whether or not the fears of the government are accurate or just an attempt to maintain power are left to the viewer.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • Unlike most of the students, Yuuma Isogai was placed in Class 3-E for having a part-time job, which was regarded as a serious violation of the school regulations. Though this looks like another one of Kunugigaoka Academy's ridiculous, unfair policies to some readers, it's actually pretty common for schools in Japan to forbid their students from working so they can focus on their studies.
  • The concept of Class E and the school system in general tend to have some Westerners wonder why no one has come and shut down the school for mistreatment of its students. In Japan, and other Asian countries, it is not unusual to place students into a class based on their overall performance, putting smart students in one class and the more academically challenged ones in another, such as Class E. In addition, bullying children simply for not being smart or for standing out too much is a seriously common occurrence among students and families, and most schools in Japan would respond to the bullying with maybe a verbal warning or even victim blaming. A more in-depth explanation can be found here but overall while Assassination Classroom may exaggerate the school system, it's not too far off in its portrayal of how the outcast students are treated by those around them.
    • However, at the end of the series, once the full details of the Class E system are revealed to the public, the public outrage forces the school to disband Class E and sack the Chairman.
  • Some Americans may feel shocked by the stag beetle episode. Bug hunting and selling is acceptable in Japan, but it'd be considered poaching across the sea, especially since they're selling the animal for its abnormal coloration.
  • Downplayed with the the storyline in regards to Nagisa and his abusive mother. While Hiromi is explicitly portrayed as an Ax-Crazy Control Freak until her Heel Realization and her treatment of her son is definitely Played for Horror, the fact that Koro-Sensei does little about it when witnessing it, as well as how she was let off the hook for it so easily really doesn't sit well with Western readers. In the West, Hiromi's parenting style is criminal by law and she would be doing serious jail time for abusing and drugging her own son. Korosensei, Nagisa's teacher and a witness to Hiromi's abuse, also would likely have called the police/child services to save Nagisa from future abuse; this sticks out more and more as time goes on, as more places in the Western world make teacher mandatory reporters, meaning a teacher like Korosensei not reporting witnessed abuse would have him facing criminal negligence charges.
• Mikasa from Attack on Titan sometimes receives flak from Western audiences concerning her devotion to Eren. This generally stems from a misunderstanding of her devotion, which is driven by the Pillars of Moral Character. She owes him a debt for coming to her aid, helping her to accept the harsh reality of life, and adopting her into his family. To repay her debt to him, she has become his champion and protects him with her life. This reversal of roles, with the heroine protecting the hero, is incredibly progressive for a Shonen series. Her honor-driven devotion also doubles as Fridge Brilliance, as the lone character of Asian heritage in a European-styled society. However, some viewers' confusion may also stem from the slight romantic undertones that Mikasa is shown to have towards Eren (who only views her as a sister), which is considered quite Squicky by Western standards since they're introduced as adoptive siblings. Anything remotely sexual or romantic between adoptive siblings is just as taboo as between blood siblings in the West. Mikasa's devotion to Eren is somewhat mediated by the fact that Eren has a nasty tendency to get himself in fights he cannot finish, and as such, she needs to bail him out. This is like how an older sibling protects the younger from danger. It's because of this quality that another camp of fans in the West hate Eren for constantly endangering himself and forcing Mikasa (or anyone else) to come and save him.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Mr. Kimura's self-proclaimed fascination with high-school girls is treated as creepy and unacceptable by the show and its characters (as it would be in real-life Japan), but because he never actually goes beyond staring and saying off-putting things, he's allowed to keep his job. In almost any other country, this would be viewed as less of a gross but not necessarily dangerous obsession and more of an excuse to get close to underage girls so he could molest them, meaning Kimura would be shown the door — if not had charges pressed — the instant he brought it up. While he's still supposed to be a comedically unrealistic teacher in the same way Yukari is, it's very unlikely his behavior would be treated so harmlessly and Played for Laughs in manga and anime from later decades.
  • Sakaki's low self-esteem and her wish to be shorter and cuter like Chiyo would seem downright ludicrous to western viewers. This is because Japanese beauty standards for women put more emphasis on being petite—a trait Sakaki doesn't have, being a tall and (seemingly) Aloof Dark-Haired Girl. Japanese culture also places more value on conformity than individuality, so Sakaki's insecurity stems from feeling isolated from her peers. Even then, her height and bust—while larger than average for sure—are much less extreme in the west than in Japan, where she's taller than most fully-grown men.
  • One aspect of Yukari's personality that's meant to indicate her lack of maturity is the fact that she still lives with her parents. In 1999 (when the manga was first published), this would be an obvious flaw from a Japanese perspective, as well as several western countries. After global recession and changing societal standards, it's become increasingly common and acceptable for millennials to keep living with their parents well into adulthood, thus making Yukari's situation more understandable.
• The Beautiful Skies of Houou High is about a Butch Lesbian who gets sent to an all-boys school by her abusive mom hoping that she'll become straight and give her grandkids. While it's a comedy, the story is on the side of the mother and dead serious about it. Western audiences didn't bite, and it bombed so badly the English publisher discontinued the release after the first volume. It didn't go over well in Japan either, but more because of its misogyny than because of its homophobia.
• Bitter Virgin goes into the topic of Abusive Parents. Very early on, Hinako Aikawa reveals how she was raped more than once by her stepfather and was made pregnant twice. The first time she miscarried. The second time the doctor said that she would never be able to have a child again if she had an abortion. So she gave birth to the baby via Caesarean section, and gave him away to be adopted. Her mother was in denial over it, but after the second time, she could deny it no longer. Her mother drove the stepfather out of the house with a knife. Needless to say, Hinako has a load of issues. By Western standards, it would be considered horrible that the stepfather was apparently never punished and society seems to be mostly against Hinako. By Japanese standards, Hinako would be considered Defiled Forever, and Hinako would probably be blamed for the abuse and be unable to seek help.
• Bleach:
  • Momo Hinamori loved and respected Aizen even before she became his lieutenant, and he used this to manipulate her into trusting and worshipping him unconditionally. After discovering Aizen's (fake) corpse, she attacked Gin (of whom her childhood friend Hitsugaya had warned her earlier). Not long after, she received Aizen's last letter addressed to her in which he named Hitsugaya as the murderer. Half-crazed from pain, she tried to fight him, but had a breakdown in the middle of the fight. Later on, she was informed of Aizen's deceit by the man himself, who went on to stab her. Yet even after this she still couldn't accept the fact that Aizen betrayed Soul Society and believed that he was framed — behavior in line with the Yamato Nadeshiko characterization female characters often receive in Japanese entertainment. American fans hate her for this and think she's a stupid, weak woman. Japanese fans think she's a woobie and love her.
  • Ukitake (and Rukia) both have a scruple that if a person is fighting for the sake of their personal pride, you should never intervene, even if they're going to be killed (Kaien does, in fact, get possessed by a Hollow as a result of Ukitake and Rukia's non-intervention^note Although Rukia had wanted to help Kaien until Ukitake ordered her to stand down, forcing Rukia to Mercy Kill him). While this is tied to the Japanese sense of honor, fans from other background often have a less positive view of it, because honor doesn't mean anything when you're dead, and because sometimes some other goal is more important than one person's personal pride.
  • A more specific example occurs in the Hueco Mundo arc, when five characters come to a crossroads with five different paths. Ichigo says that they should pick a path to go down, but Rukia and Renji insist that they split up and go down different paths, because wanting to stay in a group is an insult because it implies that they aren't strong enough to be self-sufficient. While the characters end up split the group, many Western fans view it as idiotic because Ichigo is right that their enemies are extremely powerful and splitting the party reduces their chances of success. However, the fact that Ichigo accepts this reluctantly, and the fact those arguing for it are expressing old-fashioned samurai values may point to it being an in-universe bit of dissonance. Ichigo's viewpoint is seemingly validated by the fact that they all end up badly injured, and have to be saved by reinforcements from Soul Society.
  • A teenage Masaki downplays rumors of her involvement with her secret fiancé Ryuuken by stating that they're cousins. The reactions of her friends range from "Yes, but more importantly, he's not your type and you're not his" to "WHO CARES? HAVE YOU SEEN HOW HOT HE IS?" Comparing the Japanese fandom's reaction to the American fandom's reflcts the strong taboo against cousin marriage in American culture vs. the Japanese attitude that cousin marriage is somewhat odd but generally acceptable^note Granted, it's quite a recent taboo in American culture anyway.
  • The Japanese attitude towards child abuse is that it's best left as a private issue. To Western audiences, Chad and Orihime living alone without any adult guardians before they even turned 15 is... fantastical... at best and breathtakingly irresponsible at worst. In America, the acceptable response to Chad losing his parents and guardian would be a foster home or group home placement. To Orihime's parental abuse, giving physical custody to her out-of-town aunt. Reality Is Unrealistic, however, as in many Western countries, even the US, there are many officially or de facto emancipated minors.
  • Bleach really really likes Japanese Spirit-type development, and there are many instances where characters will manifest new abilities or powers through sheer force of will or just by wanting it hard enough. While in Japan this is generally accepted, a lot of Western fans view these developments as Ass Pulls.
• In Bloom Into You, at Sayaka's old school, she gets into a Gay Romantic Phase relationship with an older girl after the latter confesses to her, but one day, the older girl suddenly breaks up with Sayaka, saying that they aren't "little kids" anymore. Some time later, after Sayaka starts attending Toomi East, she meets her ex again, at which point the older girl apologizes for making Sayaka interested in girls, and expresses the hope that Sayaka is back to normal (i.e. heterosexual). The older girl's attitude is the product of Japanese views on homosexuality dating back to the Meiji era, in which girls sometimes go through a Gay Romantic Phase, which they outgrow in favor of having boyfriends. That said, Sayaka, who has the Sympathetic P.O.V. in those scenes, is deeply hurt by her ex's actions, which are presented as deeply misguided at best, and when she meets her ex again, subtly makes the point that she's still a lesbian. It's also worth noting that Riko and Miyako, both adult women, are in a committed, if hidden, lesbian relationship, and have been shown kissing.
• Bokurano:
  • In the anime episode revealing Misumi's backstory, a twenty-something yakuza member falls in love with Misumi, a student at the time, and marries her.
  • The idea of abuse being something that the families deal with is also dealt with here, as while plenty of the cast members get upset with Ushiro for hitting his younger sister Kana ^note Although she's a relative in the anime and only an adoptive sibling in the manga, no one does anything about it. Then again, this is played with in the manga, in which Ushiro's best friend, Kanji, admits that he didn't tell anyone about it because Kana herself asked him not to, for Ushiro's own sake.
  • Spanking is portrayed more favorably than in many Western works. Maki's adoptive father is portrayed as a good father despite the fact that he spanks his daughter, and Maki herself says it takes a lot of courage for him to do so. Ushiro disagrees, noting that his adoptive father has never spanked him (the two share a more distant relationship than the Anos). Maki exasperatedly calls Mr. Ushiro "useless", and Ushiro cynically replies that spanking someone doesn't take courage.
• Bunny Drop:
  • Six-year-old Rin is quite independent, cooking certain foods and going to school with no adult supervision (she goes with her same-aged friend). The latter can be a bit worrying in countries where "Stranger Danger" is a common train of thought.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the manga's infamous ending where a now adult Rin and her father figure Daikichi get married is not a case of the story element in question being more acceptable in its country of origin. Japanese fans hated it, too.
• The Bush Baby:
  • The Rhodes have an African servant named Hawa who performs all the menial jobs of the household.
  • The white schoolchildren in Kenya are told that their fathers were "working towards handing over the responsibilities of the country to its native people", which comes off as if they're sugarcoating the effects of colonialism.
  • Jackie's schoolteacher bemoans that her school "is shrinking in white [British] schoolchildren".

C-D

• Candy♡Candy has the main character, Candy White Ardley and her friend, Annie Brighton, being mocked for being adopted children. To a modern, Western audience, this would come off as odd at best and downright cruel at worst. However, considering the time period of the show and the fact that it comes from Japan, where adoption, even now, is not looked on favorably by some, the ridicule becomes more understandable.
• Cardcaptor Sakura:
  • The series has an astonishingly casual view of teacher/student relationships, featuring three prominent ones in the manga. Sakura's mother and father met when he was a high school teacher and she was his student. Her brother Touya dated one of his teachers when he was in junior high. One of Sakura's prepubescent classmates has a crush on their teacher... and he returns it! But then, it's Clamp, and in the anime, Sakura's classmate's crush isn't returned like in the manga.
  • Sakura's mother Nadeshiko's (female) first cousin, Sonomi loved her, and Sonomi's daughter Tomoyo harbors similar feelings for Sakura (her second cousin). Neither Sonomi nor Tomoyo's love are requited, but the story doesn't express disapproval of either character's feelings.
• This contributed to the commercial failure of Case Closed in the US. The anime is supposed to be a children's show, aired at 7:30 PM Mondays for most of its televised history, and the structure of the story is along the lines of a children's show. However, the sheer amount of Family Unfriendly Deaths (many episodes revolve around murder cases) caused serious problems in the West, and importers were given the choice of cutting or timing out of its intended demographic. Interestingly, though, it was quite successful in Europe, at least in non-English speaking countries.
• Part of Chainsaw Man's backstory states that the dreaded Gun Devil first arose after a terrorist attack in America involving guns in the 1990s, and that its presence led to widespread adoption of gun control legislation. Suffice to say, a lot of Americans probably cringed and/or laughed at this notion: Alternate History of the series notwithstanding, the 1990s was about when American Gun Politics started to take on their utterly intractable current form.
• Citrus:
  • Early on in the series, Yuzu and Harumi stop to do karaoke on the way home, and end up getting in trouble merely for not going straight home, not for anything they did on their detour. While Japanese schools are concerned about the students getting into trouble and thus adversely affecting the school's reputation, Western viewers see this rule as overly harsh. It also doesn't help that Aihara Academy is described as a fairly strict school, at least compared to what Yuzu's used to.
  • Mei being upset with her father because he changed into a happy-go-lucky free spirit while he was traveling abroad, in opposition to the image she had in her head of him as a stern teacher who puts his job ahead of anything else. In Japan, working long hours and being a stern disciplinarian are considered to be sacrificing your own feelings for the sake of your family and being a good role model. Mei is therefore getting upset because her father betrayed the image she had of him. In the West, that would be considered neglect, at the very least, and viewers would wonder why the hell Mei is getting so angry that her only living parent was trying to be nice to her and seemingly rebuild their relationship.
  • Around the time Yuzu and Mei start going out, Yuzu considers telling two of her old friends about it, but reconsiders when she hears them mock two women for flirting in public. Part of their reaction is because Japan is more heteronormative than many Western countries, and part is because public displays of affection are disapproved of.
• Combattler V: The Campbellians being named after John W. Campbell. While he was a famed science fiction writer dubbed "the most powerful force in science fiction ever" by fellow author Isaac Asimov, he was also an unashamed racist who wrote a number of articles arguing against anti-slavery and attributed the Watts uprising to "Black people’s latent desire to return to slavery". Campbell also looked down on Asians and wrote the short story that would inspire Sixth Column. It was due to his racism that the name of the award "John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer" was changed to "Astounding Award for Best New Writer" in 2019.^note It is worth bearing in mind, though, that Combattler V is from the 1970s, an era where racism was taken less seriously than it is now. In addition, future installments of the Robot Romance Trilogy are Anvilicious on the Aesop that racism is bad, even depicting racists like Sakamori Miwa as bloodthirsty loons.
• In Dear Brother, Nanako sometimes angsts about being an adoptive child. Even more so, her stepbrother Takehiko (the "Oniisama") is taken away from his dad/Nanako's adoptive father when his parents get divorced and they're not in contact for years: this is because Japanese divorce laws are very different from those in North America and Europe, and since Takehiko's mother was the one who filed for divorce, she got full custody and Takehiko simply was not allowed to meet with Professor Misono.
• Death Note:
  • Raye Penber's heavy-handed Stay in the Kitchen speech to his (former FBI agent) fiance makes his later murder less a tragedy and more an instance of him bringing it on himself in the eyes of many readers, especially because Naomi was much more competent than he was. On the other hand, it makes you really feel for Naomi – which works heavily in favor of the story. Especially because in Another Note The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases she just finished working with L on tracking down and killing Beyond Birthday.
  • In-Universe (and possibly for reader) example: In Episode 23, Light refuses L's suggestion to carry a gun to assist in Higuchi's capture, citing that it's illegal for a citizen to own a gun in Japan, while L (who is of mixed ethnicity and is presumably not native Japanese) has no problem with carrying one, and neither does Watari. Similarly, earlier in the episode, Soichiro refuses to take one from the also non-Japanese career criminal Wedy, citing that he's no longer a police officer, and suggests that Wedy shouldn't have a gun, either (Aiber, however, declines to do so for personal reasons).
• Devilman: The scene where Ryo/Satan claims that he loves Akira because of his female side would sound incredibly homophobic for today's audience and would definitely rub some people, especially the LGBT community, the wrong way. Still, the manga came out in 1970, and for that time, an author even thinking of having a man explicitly proclaiming his love for another man, regardless of the reason, was already quite admirable.
• Digimon Adventure has the scene where the DigiDestined hitchhike and are picked up by a total stranger. Possibly in an attempt to quell the issue of kids getting into cars with strangers, the American dub changed it to Sora's cousin Duane giving them a ride.
• Digimon Adventure tri.:
  • Western fans had mixed opinions about the character descriptions for tri. Some of them released prior to its airing have mildly sexist overtones, such as suggesting that Sora playing soccer is "[not] befitting a woman." Meanwhile, Kari was given more stereotypically feminine traits, such as developing a Sweet Tooth. Japanese fans embraced Sora's femininity as a sign of maturity, while Western fans were a bit perturbed at the implication Sora and soccer don't go together simply because she is a girl. This is a continuation of the attitude that contributed to Sora's character arc and the jobs the female characters received in the Distant Finale (although there's nothing that says she didn't revitalize her athletic career in the 25 years between, then take on a more feminine side after retiring).
  • Joe choosing to focus on his studies instead of helping his friends with the current Digimon crisis would seem selfish to most Western viewers, until you realize just how much pressure is put on Japanese students to excel, make the best grades and graduate at the top of their classes (made worse when one remembers that both Joe and his parents want him to be a doctor, and to be accepted into the medical course of any public university top grades are required). Notably, Joe does seem to be heavily conflicted himself (having rejected going to fight with the other Digi-Destined, only to be visibly depressed about it and later breaks down crying when Gomamon shows up to his house), and the other characters are all sympathetic and supportive.
  • The second film addresses some in-universe dissonance with Mimi's character, who has spent the past several years living and going to school in America. Her outgoing and assertive personality, and tendency to always speak her mind, probably worked just fine for her in America but causes significant friction with her Japanese classmates, who label her as selfish and disruptive.
• Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna:
  • This film gained a lot of complaints over how Sora is completely and utterly pushed out of the plot, focusing more on her flower arranging than the fact that Digimon are invading, leading to accusations of Chickification and Skewed Priorities. In Japan, this isn't too much of a problem as many young adults tend to be pushed into the family business once they get old enough.
  • Due to how different growing up is regarded in many countries, the Growing Up Sucks narrative of Kizuna, due to it being Japan or East Asia-centric falls flat on many of the international viewers, citing that it is actually different or even the opposite for them should they grow up. For Western audiences, the premise can feel like a slap in face, telling older fans that they cease to be special when they grow up and that the franchise has abandoned them; for Japanese audiences however, the film is intended to act as closure for the franchise, gently encouraging them to move on to their professional lives and pass the series' torch to younger generations (in a similar vein to Toy Story 3).
• Curiously alluded to in Digimon Tamers, when Takato's parents discuss if they should let their preteen son and his dinosaur pet go to an strange world where God Knows Which Dangers Lurk.
  Mother: [angsted] But he is only ten years old! He's just a kid!
  Father: [stoic] There was a time not long ago where he should have been old enough to travel alone.
• Domestic Girlfriend is about the relationship between a 23 year old female teacher and her 17 year old student. While this is portrayed as being unacceptable in the story, as it would be in the west, how the fallout is handled is quite different. After getting caught, the teacher makes an arrangement with the school to help cover up the relationship in exchange for a forced transfer and breaking off all contact with the student. This is presented as a noble and selfless sacrifice on her part, taking all the blame, because being caught up in the scandal would ruin his future prospects in Japanese society and his dream of being a successful author in particular. In the West, since he's the minor, he would be viewed entirely as a victim who wasn't in any way at fault and she would get all of the blame regardless, making this arrangement appear more like her trying to get away with a slap on the wrist than the great sacrifice that it was meant to be portrayed as in Japan, something that confused several western readers.
• Doraemon:
  • Shizuka had Shower Scenes with Barbie Doll Anatomy Averted as a Running Gag. The remake added Censor Steam, which was considered a bit of an outrage on 2ch and the like due to how it instantly shed the previous scenes in a different light when they're mostly just intended as comedy.
  • In the manga story Chapter 111: "I Loved a Cat", Doraemon is worried about not being good enough for Mii-chan and, while lighting a bundle of dynamite, claims "I'M GONNA BOMB MYSELF!" before Nobita stops him. Suicide isn't something you'd normally put in a kiddie comic in the States or make jokes about.
  • Some might find Gian's bullying and the kids' constant fear of poundings from him highly tasteless, especially if you think of cases of Bully Brutality brought to light in recent years, where kids are often injured or killed by violent aggressors like him.
  • Likewise, Gian getting beat up by his mother brings some unfortunate implications about child abuse.
  • Some stories in the manga involve gags that would be considered sexual harassment towards Shizuka and not a silly (or child-friendly) joke to U.S. readers, like Nobita using Doraemon's gadgets to peek under her skirt. ^note Shizuka's panty shots are Values Dissonance on their own, but most of them are meant to be innocent. (However, this is actually a subversion, since in the chapter Nobita has NO intention of doing that, possibly saying more about Doraemon than it does about him.)
  • In a few of the manga chapters and anime episodes, sometimes the kids' parents lock them out of the house for misbehavior. This seems cruel as well as dangerous to the West, but is pretty standard in the east.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The final filler arc of the original Dragon Ball series focuses on Goku and Chichi learning to be a respectable married couple, but specifically on teaching Chichi subservience to her new husband, a trait rather out-of-fashion in Western society these days. And that's not even getting into the mountain that actively repels any woman who attempts to climb it, a fact which only "bad girl" Mai seems to have a problem with.
  • Master Roshi's perverted antics, all the sexual jokes (most of which involve Bulma, who's only 16 at the start of the series), and young Goku's nudity would be seen by Westerners as wildly inappropriate and crass for a series aimed at young boys, and are usually edited out in pre-watershed English broadcasts of the series. In Japan, sexual humor, fanservice and nudity aren't out of the ordinary for manga aimed at young teens; the last one can be chalked up to child nudity representing purity in Japanese culture, and not being viewed as inherently sexual compared to adult nudity. That being said, it's just as often used as a gag because Naked People Are Funny.
    • In the late 2010s, as coverage of sexual harassment and assault allegations have grown in media attention, some Western viewers could say that it's become uncomfortable to see Master Roshi exhibit such predatory behavior towards women. The worst part is that none of the other characters seem to take it seriously, simply writing it off as Roshi being the same old pervert he's always been. Because #MeToo hasn't really taken off in Japan the same way it has in the West, there has been less incentive for the writers to drop that character.
    • Early in the original series, Oolong is shown drugging Bulma for the specific purpose of molesting her and then stealing her panties. He is about to fondle her naked, sleeping form when he is interrupted by Puar. Even Roshi never goes that far! Needless to say, this is not a scene that has aged very well.
  • Son Goku's parenting skills. In the US, many fans tend to see Goku as a neglectful father and husband since he's often absent (mostly because he's dead, in fairness) and refuses to get a job to support his family. At its best, it's played for laughs in Dragon Ball Z Abridged. At its worst, it goes into Ron the Death Eater territories. In Asian countries and parts of Europe, Goku doesn't come off as this; in fact, he's seen as a good or decent father who spoils Gohan, too much according to Japan, as fathers are expected to be out of the house most of the time, but he's extremely attentive and affectionate when he is around. Japanese attitudes towards parents expects dads to be much sterner and more aloof than mothers, which Goku definitely isn't. This trope was undercut in Dragon Ball Super, which explicitly clarifies that Goku actually does have a job as a farmer.
  • Likewise, Chi-Chi also comes off more favorably in Japan since her Education Mama tendencies are seen as more positive — though the anime greatly exaggerates this aspect of her for comedy. She lost this trait almost entirely in the Majin Buu saga, which furthered her popularity.
  • The visual depiction of black characters is seen by Westerners as uncomfortably similar to Blackface caricatures seen in cartoons and other forms of entertainment throughout the early 20th century. One example is Staff Officer Black, of the Red Ribbon Army. While serious and more-or-less competent, he's still drawn with exaggeratedly big, pink lips (and he's actually named "Black"). Non-human characters aren't exempt from this either; Mr. Popo, who's likely meant to resemble some sort of djinn, is drawn with literal pitch-black skin and thick red lips. He and certain other anime characters, like Jynx from Pokémon and Chocolove from Shaman King, have received backlash from some viewers because of their resemblance to minstrel characters. One possible reason could be the exportation of racist imagery to other countries that may or may not be aware of the historical context, as Mr. Popo and Jynx are both seen as harmless in Japan. Because of this, a lot of fans gravitate towards Piccolo as a surrogate black character. Possibly due to this, both Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super lack black characters and Mister Popo had a severe downplay in screentime.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, The Reveal that Goku evidently doesn't know about the concept of kissing is another Japanese joke that doesn't sit well with Western audiences. In Japan, kissing is an immensely private affair that parents often won't even do where their kids can see and which traditionalists won't do at all, so Goku comes off as amusingly old-fashioned. In the West, this was taken up as evidence by a hatedom who believe Goku and Chi-Chi's relationship is cold, loveless and abusive, or was simply met with amused bewilderment at the idea that Goku and Chichi managed to conceive two children without ever kissing.
• Dream Hunter Rem: Being such a gleeful product of The '80s, the series entertains a long list of points that would not fly today: the empowered protagonist wears campy Stripperiffic attire, at one point advises a girl to find a boyfriend not to feel lonely (and kisses her completely out of the blue), later finds a perverted PE teacher that is completely Played for Laughs, and has two grown men in love with her despite being implied to be a high-schooler or so.

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• Esper Mami's main character (who is 14) worked as a nude model for her father throughout the anime's run. This would be considered CP in many societies. Scenery Censor was completely ignored (although Barbie Doll Anatomy came into play, except for her nipples, and in the finished paintings), and Mami, as a model, had no real nudity taboo, to boot. It did help that the finished paintings were done in a very artistic style, and the Fanservice aspects of something like that were completely averted.
  • Sankarea meanwhile shows that times change and context matters, as the same happens except that the titular character didn't become the model willingly, but forced upon by her unhealthily obsessive father as she bears the image of the family's late mother.
• Any time Patrick "Panther" Spencer shows up in Eyeshield 21, and they begin talking about the "black man's" superior genes and body. If you tried doing something like that in Western culture, well... just look at Jimmy the Greek. Many of the initial instances are from the mouth of Leonard Apollo, who is plainly shown to be a scummy racist, but by the final arc in the series, seemingly every character (and the narrator) starts to do this every time Panther is involved in the game.
• In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, both Misty and Jessie's costumes and designs had to be edited for the English translation, as both characters wear very skimpy and revealing outfits and have large chests. Creator Toshihiro Ono usually writes more mature manga, and he still self-censored some of the art, believing he'd made it too risque. It later was further altered for the foreign releases, though.
• A filler episode of Fairy Tail has Lucy, Natsu and Happy stranded in an ice labyrinth, having been unable to eat or sleep for three days and slowly succumbing to hypothermia. Lucy establishes earlier on that her celestial spirits are on vacation. Considering how she and two of her closest friends are explicitly dying due to their dire situation, it can seem somewhat frustrating to a Western viewer that Lucy is that unwilling to risk being rude by disturbing a spirit. It helps that Lucy's first Celestial Spirit, Aquarius, often is quite temperamental about being summoned at a bad time.
• Fly Me to the Moon has the premise that Tsukasa, a 16-year-old, marries Nasa (who, while close to her age at 18, is rather young for marriage). In Japan, it's legally possible to get married this young with the couple's parents' permission. In 16 US states and several European countries, Nasa could end up in jail for doing that, but in a case of Reality Is Unrealistic, 16 year olds can also marry in many countries with parental approval.
  • Later chapters of the manga go more into detail about their marriage, and it's actually an Inverted Trope. Tsukasa is significantly older than Nasa, and likely waited for him to turn 18 partly to avoid far worse implications.
• Fragments of Horror features a story called "Magami Nanakuse", which focuses on the horror of the Broken Pedestal when a girl meets the eponymous novelist and finds out that she's malicious, supernatural and... a Creepy Crossdresser. The girl even resorts to shaming Nanakuse for presenting as a woman when she gets angry at the author. It's likely due to Nanakuse's similarities to author Junji Ito that this was meant to be a meta-commentary on how Ito sees himself as an impostor for having his hardcore horror works published in girls' magazines and thus feels like his works are dissonantly dressed up to an extent, but the execution within the story can feel to a progressive Western audience like needless homophobia or transphobia toward a villain who has plenty of traits that are actually worth being afraid of.
• A Running Gag in Fullmetal Alchemist involves people becoming annoyed with Edward Elric when he refuses to drink his milk, simply because he doesn't like milk (and also because it reminds him that he's short for his age). To Western audiences, this will trigger thoughts of, "What part of 'Edward doesn't like milk' do you not understand?" In Japan, however, leaving your food/drink unfinished is viewed as very rude, even if you don't like it. While this can seem jarring since the series' main setting is based on early 20th century Europe rather than Japan, it's still pretty fitting for Edward, who, for all his bravery and dedication to those he cares for (especially his younger brother, Alphonse), can hardly be described as polite.
• In one Future Robot Daltanious episode, some bandits steal Sanae's kimono and Danji is so angry he almost beats the daylights out of them. To Westerners, the reaction to this would be "why all this fuss over something so petty as clothes?". However, in Japan, kimonos are Serious Business, they can actually cost the same amount as cars, and are crafted by skilled designers.
  • It's why Sanae choosing to forgive them is supposed to make her look angelic and forgiving. However, to viewers who don't have this context, she looks like a pansy who's unwilling to press charges from people who stole from her.
• Girls und Panzer:
  • An in-universe case in the "Little Army" prequel manga. Emi Nakasuga, a girl whose ethnicity (German-Japanese) and temperament are not unlike Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, has a difficult time in Japan due to her Brutal Honesty not sitting well with most of her Japanese classmates. It's also revealed in the sequel to Little Army that when she goes back home to Germany, she doesn't fit in there either, in part because of her half-Japanese ethnicity, and partly because her abrasiveness doesn't do her any favors.
    Emi: I hate lies and flattery. There's no point in wasting praise on the selfish. That's why I hate this country.
  • In the sixth OVA, Hana gently admonishes Saori's "bad manners" for cheering and clapping during Rabbit Team's gymnastics performance^note In contrast to their luck for most of the series, Rabbit Team is one of the few who actually is competent at a celebratory event, indicative of how the Japanese don't approve of clapping during performances.
  • In the Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu spinoff, Sodoko, a disciplinary member that few students take seriously, becomes drunk with power and starts a severe crackdown. Among the new regulations is forcing students to dye their hair black, a bit like the K-On! example. Before long, however, virtually everyone comes to the conclusion that Sodoko is going too far, and decide to put her in her place in the end.
• Godannar where the 29 year old main character, marries a 17 year old highschooler. Everyone is shocked that he got married, but no one seems to care that said bride isn't even old enough to drink. What's considered another dissonance about the marriage is how quickly it happened, considering the death of his previous lover. Generally widows are expected to grieve for a very long time in Japan before remarrying, if they do at all.
• In Gon, Gon, a small T-Rex, frequently eats animals, mainly fish, alive, often taking one bite and leaving them to die. While gross to many Western audiences, this is common practice in Japanese cuisine.
• Golden Kamuy's depiction of bears as man-eaters who seem to take pleasure in hunting and killing humans may raise a few eyebrows among readers from other countries. Bears Are Bad News has been a Discredited Trope in the West for a few decades thanks to the efforts of wildlife conservation organizations and advocates; while they are definitely animals that are considered to be very fearsome and dangerous, the common perception of bears in the West is that of animals who will be happy to leave you alone if you do the same to them. Many sports teams, schools, and governments in America consider their local species of bear to be their mascot, and they're frequently seen promoting national parks. In contrast, the main Japanese exposure to bears comes from the Sankebetsu incident of 1915, where a bear attacked and killed seven people before finally being shot. This incident along with a couple of others led to the Japanese perception of bears as man-eaters and considering that in Hokkaido today the native brown bear population numbers less than 2,000 in remote areas, it's hard to see this stereotype changing anytime soon. After all, the public's opinion of an animal species can't really be changed if there are hardly any of those animals around anymore, and it doesn't help that the males of the last subspecies of bear native to the Japanese islands, the Shiretoko brown bear are so aggressive that females with cubs deliberately seek out hunters and fishermen for protection.
• In an early scene of Grave of the Fireflies, the mother of the two main characters goes off to a shelter, leaving her son to carry his toddler sister around while the town is under attack. While Westerners would probably consider this to be an appalling act of abandonment and reckless endangerment, the original intention was more likely to be that the son was the man of the house since his father was away fighting and was old enough regardless, so his mother trusted him to take care of things. According to the bonus material, this careless behavior was explained by the fact that previous American bombings had been relatively light and aimed at industrial sites only. "Just another raid. Nothing to be worried about. Let's do what the government ordered and get to the holes in the ground that have to pass for shelters." Oh boy... In what turned out to be both a Cultural and Generational Dissonance, most younger and (especially) Western viewers side with Seita when he decides to leave his aunt's house after a fight. The director's intent was for Seita to be seen in the wrong for not sucking up his pride.
• In Great Mazinger, lots of people don't understand why Tetsuya feels so horribly jealous of Kouji's position as Kenzou Kabuto's true firstborn son, to the point of refusing to help him in battle at some point – which causes Kenzo's death in the end. This is because Tetsuya is an orphan, and in a society where family and stability are all, orphans are extremely looked down upon even in adulthood. Therefore, when the full-blooded son and heir of the man who raised him came in, Tetsuya was shit scared of being abandoned again and he thought that if that was the case, the still very traditional Japanese society would likely make him a pariah. It was was, WAY more complicated that mere jealousy between two adoptive brothers.
• Great Teacher Onizuka:
  • Onizuka's response to Tokiwa's plight of having been gang-raped is along the lines of "you are a girl, you are weak, you are always going to be a victim, roll with it". He also does nothing to punish the guys who raped her in the first place. In the West, Onizuka's response would be considered hideously sexist, but in Japan, it's just seen as a harsh reality and people who have a problem with it need to suck it up.
  • Onizuka in general is a fan of resorting to Corporal Punishment or other acts of humiliation to teach his students a lesson. Since he was put in charge of the problem class of the school that the rest of the faculty have already written off as lost causes, his methods are often treated as unorthodox but fair. Something like this wouldn't fly in real life.
• GTO: The Early Years:
  • The 90s were a different time, but the casual sexism, homophobia and transphobia of the main characters can still be jarring. See the constant teasing that Eikichi can't get a woman because he must be gay, or the Unsettling Gender Reveals of the Oni-Baku's Drag Queen neighbor and Misato. Fans have also criticized the handling of the villains Takezawa and Akutsu, both of whom got, if not a Heel–Face Turn, a Reformed, but Not Tamed treatment (and Akutsu was a full-on rapist, kidnapper, and attempted murderer).
  • Shinomi, an otherwise highly sympathetic character, is very transphobic after she finds out Misato is a trans woman (though part of this may be because she felt threatened by Eikichi liking another girl).
  • Notably, in the 2020 live-action adaptation they strongly implied that Kaoru Kamata is actually transgender rather than a crossdresser, and (s)he is treated sympathetically by Eikichi and the narrative.
• Gunslinger Girl: Any Italian would find all of the relationships including between the adults to be unspeakably cold and distant as the artists, due to cultural projection, have depicted them as Japanese relationships might be, instead of as the very physical Italians would act. Though that COULD be excused by thinking that they are very, very uncomfortable in dealing with those girls and it's shown this way. There's also the other major issue with this manga.
• In one episode of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Kamille tries to defend himself for his arrogance by calling himself an autistic child, and Emma gets even angrier at him for making excuses. In the context of Japan at the time, autism was treated as general anti-social behavior, so Emma's frustration is born from Kamille saying that he is blameless for being a kid with problems socializing. In the more modern definition of autism, Emma's reaction comes off as more unfortunate because it seems like she is just brushing off Kamille having a disorder and the effects it has on him.
• In Gundam Build Divers, the threat of the game-hacking Break Decals being used by cheating "Mass-Divers" is a serious thing to Gunpla Battle Nexus Online. However, the threat of such a thing is left in the hands of the players, which includes the main characters (a group of novices) and the #1 player of the game. To Western audiences, this stretches the Willing Suspension of Disbelief a little too far as a game-breaking threat that big should be attacked by GMs, mods and devs descending upon the game and throwing everyone out and patching the game so that it never happens again. In Japan, things like that tend to be self-policed by the players, who don't go after someone higher up unless it's super important.
  • The fact that it's self-policed by the players in the first place. In plenty of Western countries, where the Lord British Postulate is common, this would be seen as a monumentally stupid idea. Indeed, some of the most infamous events in online RPGs were the result of players deliberately looking for ways to break the game just so that they could kill other players' avatars when the others couldn't fight back, or damage things that normally couldn't be. The idea that no one, or at least, a small enough group to the point that it could be contained, would exploit the cheats is simply nonexistent in the West.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED the scene where Cagalli and Kira go their separate ways has their family members gasp in astonishment when Cagalli hugs him. Public displays of affection are under a lot of scrutiny in the East and often only for serious couples. It adds a level of subtext to the fact that they know that the two of them are siblings.

H-L

• The scene in Hanasaku Iroha where Minko cuts up a fish to demonstrate her skills to some more experienced chefs. She does it very well as far as an untrained eye can tell, but the older chefs react, with dead seriousness, as if she had shoved it through a paper shredder, and tell her she must be a moron for thinking she could ever be a chef. Presumably, this was meant to inspire her to work towards even greater heights of perfectionism, but to a non-Japanese viewer it seems cruelly harsh and, well, perfectionistic. Another scene has Ohana fangirl over someone putting on their work clothes and gush about how she did it with "not a single wasted motion," which seems weird for the same reason.
• Hamtaro:
  • Stan's treatment of female hamsters other than his sister Sandy qualifies. Bijou is particularly uncomfortable when they first meet; she objects to him spinning her around and refusing to give up her paw.
  • There's also the ways Sandy objects to Stan flirting despite having Maxwell as a boyfriend. Usually she just drags him away while making a sarcastic comment, though she has used violence a few times.
• Hell Girl has a lot of Values Dissonance, though interestingly, some of these values are also criticized. Recurrent themes are how molestation, rumors and bullying are treated. One of the most striking examples is the reveal in season 3: Yuzuki's father was a bus driver. One day, an accident occurred due to a malfunction, which resulted in numerous deaths, among them Yuzuki's father. However, since the malfunction could not be proven, the father was blamed, and by extension, his family. Yuzuki and her mother were completely shunned by the public. The mother died from a cold because their doctor wouldn't treat her, and Yuzuki died alone in their home.
• Hello Sandybelle is a slice-of-life adventure anime from The '80s that's well loved in many countries for being wholesome and nostalgic, but Sandybelle's father, Leslie, constantly slaps her as a means of discipline. Despite this he's remembered as a loving and caring father by Sandybelle when he eventually dies.
  • Marc's father wants to force him to marry Kitty, even though both him and Kitty are around 14-years old. This also would have been illegal since the anime takes place in Scotland, where the lowest age one can get married at there is 16.
• An unusual reversal with Highschool of the Dead. In the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse, the teenage protagonists learn to use guns, drive without licences, steal things to survive, and rely on themselves rather than authority/government figures. Not unusual to Americans, but in Japan (where the story takes place)? Definitely.
• Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • Detective Delicious asks people to come into his car to talk about crimes because it's air-conditioned. Most of the time though, we see one of the five kids enter the car. In the United States, kids are drilled early on to not talk to strangers, don't go into their cars, etc. Seeing as the Pedo Hunt isn't as strong in Japan, you can see where the Values Dissonance comes in. It helps that the series takes place in 1983, and that the detective is, well, a policeman.
  • Also of note is that the two youngest cast members, Rika and Satoko (who are both 9, if the Visual Novel is to be believed), live alone in a storage shed beside Rika's family's shrine; it's especially obvious in Minagoroshi-hen; after Social Services take custody of Satoko — who had just come from several weeks of being abused by her uncle — they promptly dump her back with Rika in the storage shed without any explanation or sign of a social worker or foster parent. Then again, in this series, social services are established as being highly incompetent at their best and downright malicious at worst.
  • In a different vein is how the religion of the insane cultists comes across. Combining Squick with I'm a Humanitarian provides pretty graphic and disturbing imagery. In the West, it would certainly be seen as gross, but it's got more impact in the East. The cultists are perverting the Shinto religion, which is the dominant faith in Japan, so it would be seen as incredibly blasphemous. A Western equivalent would be someone claiming to be Jewish while sacrificing a pig in a Jewish temple. It violates so many of the core rules and tenants that it can't even be called that faith anymore.
• What kick-starts the plot in His and Her Circumstances is Arima discovering Yukino's "secret", namely that she isn't as perfect as she pretends to be. Yukino fears that her entire reputation will collapse and people will shun her. Western readers may be confused as to why such a huge deal is made of this; being seen in your comfy clothes in an unusually cheerful mood might be mildly embarrassing, but certainly not something that will forever tarnish your reputation or that someone could even use to blackmail you.
• Horimiya: A running gag and plot is that Miyamura is desperate to hide the fact he has tattoos from his friends and teachers. In the West, tattoos aren't seen as a big deal, and many subcultures actually consider them fashionable; In Japan, however, tattoos are a taboo subject and are mainly associated with criminals, particularly the Yakuza.
• Idol Densetsu Eriko:
  • In the first episode, Rei (who's 15) hits on Eriko's dad. Eriko has an Imagine Spot of Rei running off with him as her and her mother are left behind. Rei is framed as a harpy that seduced him, even though she's a teenage girl and Mr. Tamura is old enough to be her father. Western viewers would be more inclined to be suspicous of Tamura for not quelling Rei's blatant flirting with him.
  • Rei's unrequited love for Eriko's dad, to the point she thinks of him when singing a passionate love song. In Japan, this would be seen as heartwarming, but in the West this is squicky since she's a teenager and he's an adult man.
  • When Shinya Uchida and Eriko's uncle are arguing over who gets to have custody over Eriko, Uchida states that since Yuusuke has been divorced two times, that means he's unfit as a parent for her. In the West, divorces are normalized (in the US, half of all marriages end in divorce) so this wouldn't be seen as an issue, but in Japan, there's a lot more stigma about it.
  • In episode 14, Eriko is labelled a "slut" when a magazine publishes false rumours about her dating Akira Kazami. Western viewers would be confused as to why Eriko is receiving backlash for something so trivial. However, in Japan and Korea, idols are expected to present a "bachelor" image to fans for marketable purposes, and them having boyfriends/girlfriends is a taboo. Eriko's reputation is damaged so badly, that one of her performances is cancelled since mothers don't want their children to watch her.
  • Related to the above, Eriko, a 14-year-old girl, expected to present a "bachelor" image to fans, some of who are way older than her.
  • In episode 34, Eriko and her mother Minako bathe in the nude together. Saunas are a big part of Japanese culture and it's normal for families to bathe naked, but some Western countries^note Families bathing nude in saunas is normalized in countries like Finland and Americans would be put off by that.
  • Some of the anime's more "sensual" scenes were deleted in the Arabic release. A young girl showing her body in the manner Rei does when singing would be considered heavily shameful in Middle Eastern societies.
• In Ikki Tousen, when a character is revealed to really be the incarnation of Wang Yun rather than who he had previously claimed to be, it's treated as a huge shock and evidence that he's completely evil. Wang Yun was a hero in the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it seems the Japanese don't think too highly of him. That was before, well, Zuo Ci (the one who was Wang Yun) actually betrayed and manipulated his friends... This was one of the more heavy plot rewrites in the anime, which was made after Wang Yun's identity was known to the reader, but before he revealed it to the characters. In the manga, while he's still manipulating everyone behind their backs, he's got good intentions, and is treated as a hero. Even in the anime, he's mostly just setting the villains up to kill each other.
• Irresponsible Captain Tylor demonstrates Japan's more accepting - even positive - attitude toward suicide than the West. When desperate situations happen in early episodes, almost every single character except Tylor himself start talking about dying a heroic death, and Tylor's self-preservation instinct is treated as a sign of his incompetence. What makes this weird is that, while it would be perfectly in-character for someone like Yamamoto – who was The Ace until Tylor showed up – to act like this (and he does), it even extends to the Marines on the ship who are the kind of malcontents you wouldn't expect to be so eager to die.
• Isabelle of Paris, being a 70's anime about a French girl during the 1870s, is full of this trope:
  • In episode 3, Isabelle rejects a rose Jean gave her. Her reason?
  Isabelle: "You're ten years too young to be hitting on me!"^note Keep in mind, both Isabelle and Jean are no older than fifteen.
  • While it may have been deliberate, Isabelle's sister Geneviève has a crush on her piano teacher, who's known her since she was very young. This creates a power imbalance between the two, and it gets even worse when it's revealed that he impregnated her.
  • Isabelle's response to Victor praising her for repairing the puncture in hot air balloon also counts.
  Isabelle: "Women are good at sewing."
  • Irma encapsulates many unfortunate stereotypes of Romani people, such as playing the tambourine, working in a circus, and being Andréa's sensual Manic Pixie Dream Girl. It doesn't help that she's introduced as being part of a gang that steals and sabotages for a living (granted, they are depicted as heroic and mostly white).
• It's Tough Being Neeko:
  • In Chapter 14, Neeko has a breakdown in which she complains about how she's unlikely to get a job or get married as she is. In response, her mother slaps her across the face. It's meant to be a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man gesture, but Westerners would likely see it as a parent physically abusing their (adult) child.
  • Neeko suffers from depression, extreme social anxiety and possible PTSD (putting on a suit reminds her of a failed job interview), leading some viewers to suspect that she has an undiagnosed mental disorder. If she does, her family hasn't even considered getting her psychiatric help, most likely because of Japanese attitudes toward therapy. Instead, Mrs. Niito's best idea for helping deal with the problem is to trick her daughter into helping out part-time at an electronics store on the Switch's release day. That move proved rather controversial among readers, with some saying that it was the best option she had, and others believing that it could only have worsened Neeko's issues.
  • Uriko quits her job because her superior was sexually harassing her. In the West, the superior would likely end up out of a job instead, especially after the #MeToo movement.
• Jungle de Ikou! features a girl (approximately 10 years old) who is given the ability to turn into a busty Earth goddess by means of a somewhat sexualized tribal dance. Such a premise would be rejected on sight by any studio in America; in fact, some online reviews from Western viewers have denounced it as pedophilic.

K-M

• In Kinnikuman, the characters of Brockenman and his son Brocken Jr.'s wrestling gimmicks are the fact they are Nazis, complete with visible swastikas. Brocken Jr. is even a good guy! This isn't seen as that big a deal in Japan, but neither character was released in Mattel's release of the Kinkeshi as M.U.S.C.L.E, and he was replaced by the Native American Geronimo in the NES tie-in game. In France, which obviously doesn't have good memories of Nazi Germany, the series was pulled from Club Dorothee shortly after Brocken Jr. was introduced. However, the series aired in its entirety in Catalan, an area of Spain that was a member of the Axis Powers. In the second series and Kinnikuman Nisei, their swastikas were replaced by a skull and crossbones and an eagle, respectively.
• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow is about an English family that immigrates to Australia and is set in the 1800s. It's depiction◊ of the Aboriginal Australian man is very racist. When Lucy-May meets him, he's portrayed as wearing no clothes except loincloth, as are the Aborigine children. He's also incapable of speaking the same language as Lucy May, so instead of bothering to learn his name, Lucy May simply gives him a nickname ("Hercules") and addresses him by that for the whole show. The only positive thing about his portrayal is that Lucy May treats him with kindness and no different from the way she treats fellow white people. She doesn't judging him by his inability to speak her language and happily strikes a friendship with him over flying a kite.
• No one in Koi Kaze seems uncomfortable by the fact that Nanoka is sixteen and her boyfriend is twenty-seven, they only ever bring up the fact they're siblings. A large amount of the Squick the series induces comes from the age gap combined with the incest. If Nanoka was six years older, it wouldn't be nearly as uncomfortable to Western viewers, while Japanese viewers see it as, while not the norm anymore, certainly not as much of an issue, especially with Japanese gender roles praising a hard-working husband having a supportive, healthy wife, preferably young and capable of giving birth to many equally healthy children.
• A smaller but no less striking example happened in K-On! during the episode where the characters are supposed to take portraits for their future passes. Most of the episode is concerned with Yui's bad haircut, but an off-hand comment goes along the lines of "If you can't prove your hair to be naturally non-black, the school will dye it black before taking the photo." This kind of thing has happened in Real Life Japan where it's accepted, while Western parents and child services would take out the Torches and Pitchforks.
• Part of the drama in Kotoura-san comes with the fact Haruka doesn't (and can't) use Tatemae to keep her (and others) secrets to herself, due to the way her Mind-reading powers works—she can't turn it off, nor can she distinguish between words and thoughts—and with the Tatemae being an important part of the Japanese culture, it's no wonder why she's rejected by her peers.
• Mad Bull 34: Sleepy's extreme Cowboy Cop tendencies were already a pretty tough sell to people who believed in due process back in the 90s, but with the new 10s and especially the new 20s bringing increased attention to Police Brutality and corruption in law enforcement Sleepy's antics become a much harder pill to swallow... and that's before getting into the series's treatment of women and minorities, which includes such tropes as Missing White Woman Syndrome, Disposable Sex Worker, and Scary Black Man. Given that it's a view into the life of American police officers in crime infested New York city as written by Japanese writers this was almost impossible to avoid.
• Magical Girl Site: Kiyoharu is a sympathetic transgender character, however the way characters address her invokes this. Even her close best friend Kosame will casually out her with something along the lines of "Kiyoharu looks like a girl" or "Kiyoharu is actually a boy". Getting mockingly called a crossdresser, however, is a Berserk Button of Kiyoharu's. This type of casual misgendering is often considered offensive in many places and being Forced Out of the Closet is frowned upon.
• Magical Pokémon Journey had two gay characters and How I Became a Pokémon Card had a transgender boy as the protagonist in one story. Considering these manga were aimed at children, it wouldn't fly as easily in some places, especially for the time.
• Magic Knight Rayearth has a young girl named Aska wanting to be beautiful more than anything in the world. She is asked whom does she want to be beautiful for. In a Western country such as the USA, wanting to be beautiful for its own sake or to be healthy in order to do things you enjoy would have been enough of an explanation. But Japan, having tighter gender roles, a woman's beauty was more for a man than for herself.
• In the first episode of Majokko Meg-chan, Papa loses his temper with Meg when she argues with him, and slaps her. Since he immediately has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, it wouldn't qualify as this trope if it weren’t for the fact that Mami later claims that he wouldn't have done it if he wasn't truly Meg's father. Nowadays, she'd probably be angry at him for committing an act of abuse, even if he was sorry for doing it.
• The translators not realizing this created issues for the dub of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. In the original version, when Kobayashi rejects Tohru's romantic propositioning early on, it's with the claim of "But I'm a woman." To the dubbing team, this read as homophobic, and so it was changed to "I'm not into women or dragons." The issue is, in Japan, serious same-sex romantic relationships are not nearly as normalized as they are in modern America, and consequently, in many Yuri Genre works, it is something of a Stock Phrase for one of the characters to say some variant of "But we're both girls." The implication is not meant to be intolerance, but rather naïveté: the character never truly considered that two women could be involved in a serious relationship, that was the main obstacle for her forming one, and her partner will go on to prove her wrong. This made the change unexpectedly controversial because it changes the meaning of Kobayashi's statement to suggest she does fully understand women can get involved in those kinds of relationships, but considers herself straight regardless. At that point, Tohru's pursuit of her despite a stated Incompatible Orientation reads as much less sympathetic.
• Mischievous Twins: The Tales of St. Clare's: Colin decides to play pretend, and he chooses to pretend he's an Indian chief. He wears a crude feather crown and LAR Ps as a Noble Savage, doing things like screaming and climbing roofs. If this was aired today, it would have been reviled for being a racist depiction of Native Americans.
• Miss Machiko, a kids' show about 8 year olds sexually molesting their teacher, who can't keep her clothing on or intact for more than a few hours. Somewhat tame to be honest, although the Parent Service is blatant, and the show completely averts Barbie Doll Anatomy – Machiko's nipples are visible in the opening credits. Oh, and also the female students are involved in fanservice scenes despite their age.
• Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors is a World War two propaganda film that features Japanese folk hero Momotaro and loads of adorable animals going to war and brutally killing British soldiers. Japanese viewers of the time would see Momotaro as a hero. Modern Japanese, citizens of a country that officially doesn't have an army, cringe.
• My Hero Academia:
  • The way bullying is treated in the manga makes sense to Japanese readers. In Japan, bullying is an issue rarely brought up with teachers and where the bully will rarely face consequences. Although there are initiatives to deal with the issue, it's still a large problem in Japanese schools, with the manga showing that Bakugo gets no formal punishment for his middle school behavior. Although he does face consequences for his bad attitude in U.A., where he's no longer a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, and his life becomes a Humiliation Conga until he finally shapes up, it doesn't sit well with many Western fans that his bullying was so Easily Forgiven. In spite of the contrasting cultural attitudes to the subject, the series' creator Kōhei Horikoshi did admit that he felt he went too far with Bakugo's behavior pre-U.A.(which included a Suicide Dare). Bakugo does ultimately come to admit remorse over his past bullying, first to All Might, then in a genuine apology to Midoriya. But that hasn't stopped a mountain of Revenge Fics from emerging in the Western fandom, wherein Bakugo gets expelled from U.A., has a Face–Heel Turn, or otherwise suffers for his past bullying.
  • Even without the bullying, Bakugo is an extremely arrogant individual who for the longest time had little to no concern for others and repeatedly ignored people in distress (and even after getting better his way of handling things is still questionable). His stated reason for wanting to be a hero is to prove that he's "the best". The instructors repeatedly compliment his potential because of this, but to a Western audience, he looks like an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who completely misses the point of what makes a hero great. Though this does come back to haunt him as he fails his provisional license exam because he snaps at people he was supposed to be rescuing, and he has to go through a remedial course to better empathize with people.
  • Also, the constant arguing and berating between Bakugo and his mom Mitsuki and her occasionally smacking him even in public falls into this. It’s meant to be humorous to Japanese audiences but Western fans have continually wondered if she’s an Abusive Parent behind the scenes and if part of Bakugo’s problem is what his home life is like.
  • Twice, who is revealed to be 31 in the Volume 24 extras, developing an unrequited crush on Himiko Toga (a teenager) would be considered Squick for American readers, but isn't that big a deal with Japanese readers. This is especially true to a piece of teasing official art where he is measuring her naked body.
  • Fanservice is a bit of a hot topic of debate among Western fans due to high schoolers being used for it, while Japanese fans are mostly accepting of it:
    • Yaoyorozu being the main source, tenth grade, meaning that she's 15 at the start of the series
    • Hakagure when she became visible in the Final Battle arc, given she was naked due to her invisibility quirk.
  • Mineta's perverted antics are much less warmly received by Western fans, due to a culture where sexual harassment is no longer Played for Laughs. In the series, Mineta's female classmates don't hesitate to punish him for his perversion, but generally consider him little more than a nuisance, while in the West, they'd probably have reason to have him suspended, or even expelled (which often happens in fanfics written by non-Japanese writers). It's also exceptionally jarring that Aizawa, a rather Stern Teacher who often threatens students with expulsion, has yet to say or do anything to stop Mineta from continuing his perverted behavior towards his girl classmates, save for one warning toward Mineta around the time the students move into dorms.
  • Aizawa's very strict method of teaching is viewed with much more skepticism in the West. While in Japan, it would mainly just be seen as "harsh but fair" as he's genuinely trying to help his students succeed, in America and other western countries, his treatment of them would likely be considered tantamount to abuse and result in him being fired, regardless of good intentions.
  • Hawks' father having been a murderer is something that he tries to hide as best he can and is considered a scandal when it is revealed to the public, casting further doubt on his status as an upright hero of justice. In the West, this would be a non-issue, or even a point in his favor, as his refusal to be defined by his parentage and rise above his indigent early life to become the #2 hero would be inspiring (and the fact that he tried to hide it from the public would be similarly non-damaging, as it would be considered personal information irrelevant to his status as a public servant). As it's also possible that Western audiences would be more inclined to find Hawks' killing of Twice as justified, Dabi's attempts at smearing Endeavor by associating him with Hawks would likely have gone over like a lead balloon in many places outside Japan.
  • The overall concept of armed citizens protecting themselves once the authorities have failed is seen much differently in America and some other western countries than in Japan, ranging from sympathetic to actually being praised. In the series, however, the fact that the citizens do that is only proof of how bad things have gotten, and is generally seen as causing more harm than good.
  • Japan in and of itself has a more conformist culture than the West where criticizing society and its norms is generally considered not just acceptable, but required in order to fix problems before they become untenable. This leads to a disconnect between the story and themes of the series where a Japanese society of superhumans is shown having systemic problems, but said problems are viewed as something to be worked around and those who are dealt a bad hand have little recourse but to put up with it at best or become villains at worst. Discourse in the western fandom tends to focus on these issues and will be more critical of supposedly heroic characters never calling out the more problematic aspects of their civilization that cause the emergencies they constantly have to save people from.
• My-HiME:
  • An interesting case is that of Shizuru Fujino. Fan opinion on her seems divided after her Face–Heel Turn over her feelings being rejected, but the image portrayed in the same scene seems to depend on background. In Japan, Shizuru is confronted for three major breaches of behavior: abandoning her position as student council president to take care of Natsuki, being a lesbian, and "taking advantage" of Natsuki as she slept. The first is a dereliction of a duty Shizuru willingly took up, which is a big thing in Japan's duty-centered society. The second is a sign of immaturity, implying that Shizuru is acting childishly by pursuing this kind of thing at her age. The third is both true and false: while Shizuru did kiss Natsuki while she was sleeping, the greater implication of sex going on was incorrect and Natsuki is misunderstanding/jumping to conclusions. Nonetheless, stealing Natsuki's Sacred First Kiss without her consent is a serious faux pas. However, in many a Western market (except Italy), Shizuru's status is more ambiguous. The first charge of dereliction of duty seems rather frivolous, as most would consider saving a friend from a potentially life-threatening or major injury to be more important than student council duties. The second is similarly frivolous to most, with Shizuru's biggest offense being Cannot Spit It Out. The third, again, is generally misinterpreted to imply that Shizuru actually did rape Natsuki, but the concept of kissing her while she's asleep is not considered a big deal. This ironically leads to a conflicting view of Haruka who is accusing Shizuru. Either she's being a dutiful, proper moral standard calling her rival out on her misbehavior, or she's being a cruel, oversensitive shrew blowing the whole thing out of proportion. There's her later snap and killing spree, but even that's a debate for another page.
  • Interestingly enough, Yukino and Haruka call out Shizuru on different issues in this scene. Haruka is the one who complains about Shizuru abandoning her duties, and when Shizuru merely replies that she will give up her position to Haruka, Yukino complains that Shizuru has not properly acknowledged Haruka as a rival despite her efforts. Yukino then mentions that she saw Shizuru kiss Natsuki as she slept, as well as something else earlier (although the word "rape" is never used). After Shizuru mocks Yukino for voyeuristic tendencies, Haruka slaps Shizuru and then says she and Natsuki are disgusting for acting in such a way with each other (by contrast, Yukino is implied to have an unadmitted and most likely unrequited crush on Haruka), and then Shizuru slaps her in response and says that it was only something she did on her own. One has to wonder why Haruka would blame Natsuki if Yukino is correct that it was rape, unless both have different ideas about what happened. Compare the following quotes.
    Yukino: I saw what you did, like how you kissed her back there. I saw what you did to Natsuki as she slept. How could you do that, to someone who trusts you as a friend?
    Haruka: Two women behaving like that with each other, you're filthy. Both you AND^note emphasized in the dub Natsuki Kuga!
  • If an English-speaking viewer has seen only the dub (in which Shizuru has a cultured Southern accent), one gets the impression that her descent into Psycho Lesbianism is more a result of "I'm a lesbian, and all lesbians are psychos, so that means I'm a psycho" kind of deal, with the conservative implications of her accent accounted for. Japan has some slightly... dated views on homosexuality. Also see My-Otome, which takes place in a world where lesbians are much more accepted, and Shizuru is a significantly more sane character – as well as a shameless flirt.
  • In one of the audio dramas, several 15-17-year-old characters drink alcohol on Mai's birthday. However, in this case, Natsuki is shocked that Aoi has alcohol in her room, some of the people present point out that it's not allowed under school rules, and Nagi breaks the fourth wall to tell the viewers they should only drink once they're 20.

N-P

• Naruto:
  • Many fans groaned at a flashback showing Kurenai's father telling her to stay out of the fight with the Nine-Tailed Fox because she must one day have children. While this is extremely sexist from a Western viewpoint, it is somewhat different for Japan. Namely, perpetuating one's lineage is seen as extremely significant in Asian cultures, and having one's bloodline die out is seen as equal to not existing. The series also has an overarching theme of passing the Will of Fire to the next generation. It's telling that, while the 'have a child' speech was seemingly only directed at Kurenai, there were plenty of male characters prevented from fighting, too. Conversely, some female ninja, such as Iruka's mother, went into battle and died (though Kurenai was about sixteen at the time.)
  • After being put under the Infinite Tsukuyomi and forced to live out an ideal fantasy, some of the female characters, many of whom have noticeable and pre-established crushes, are shown to be involved with settling down, while all the men have unique fantasies (though the only fantasies seen regarding the ladies were Hinata, Mei and Ino's that fit the above; Tenten's involved Neji being alive again and her teammates not being as weird, (Hinata's also had Neji, who'd recently died in front of her, be alive as well.) Tsunade's was Dan being alive (and Hokage) as well as Nawaki and Jiraiya along with an Orochimaru who never performed a Face–Heel Turn.)
  • Kishimoto answered questions about some of the ending. When asked about Sakura's unwavering devotion to Sasuke, he allegedly said that Sakura's loyalty to Sasuke was proper, as she would be a "terrible woman" if she were to give up on Sasuke. To the Japanese fandom, this statement would be more understandable, due to the traditional values regarding feminine loyalty while to a Western audience, it came off as horribly chauvinistic to some people, especially for some due to Sasuke's behavior towards Sakura in the past.
  • Itachi's teenage girlfriend was an Uchiha named Izumi. They're distant relatives from the same clan (which is why he has to kill her when he massacres his clan), but many non-Japanese fans are still uncomfortable with their relationship.
  • In general, the reveal that Naruto and Sasuke are "reincarnations" of past historical figures tend to spark a groan from a lot of Western audiences, who see it as them being simply preordained to be amazing or working with a cheat sheet, or start asking why no other character in the story is reincarnated. The meaning to Japanese audiences is meant to be more that Naruto and Sasuke are just the latest form of a pair of archetypes (a hard worker and a genius prodigy) in a cycle of Eternal Recurrence, rather than that they are the exact same guys as the prior incarnations but in new bodies.
• Evoked in-universe in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Asuka (who is half-white and grew up in Germany) is utterly baffled when she discovers that her bedroom door has no lock, which Misato states is in keeping with Japanese customs. This practice would likely seem very bizarre to most Western viewers, German or not. Especially Americans, who famously place great value on their privacy.
  • Well, that certainly explains why a lot of those Accidental Pervert moments happen in anime (the typical boy goes inside room and finds out girl is changing clothes).
  • This seemingly changed after the 2000s, however, with many houses in Anime and Manga being shown to have locks on every door and only very old/classical Japanese architecture buildings still lacking them. Accidental Pervert moments are also a lot less common due to this.
• In Noragami, Mutsumi is bullied by her classmates simply due to her supposedly self-absorbed way of talking and her teachers favoring her. Mutsumi often refers to herself in third person, which in Japanese culture is seen as narcissistic. However, the manga and anime play it up as if she deserves this, making it seem like her fault for not reaching out to her classmates when they were telling her to kill herself. It comes off very offsetting to many Western viewers to see her getting bullied for such trivial reasons like this.
• Omamori Himari: Rinko Kuzaki would regularly punish her childhood friend, Yuto Amakawa, either by slapping him, punching him, or hitting him with a nailed baseball bat, over reasons beyond his control (namely his fetish for big-breasted girls like Himari or Lizlet, unknowingly triggering Rinko's A-Cup Angst). This type of behavior is seen by Japanese audiences as cute and endearing, due to how common the Belligerent Sexual Tension trope is in most romance animes (especially the harem kind), whereas Western audiences would consider this Domestic Abuse regardless of the gender.

• One Stormy Night:
  • It's a family film featuring a goat and a wolf becoming best friends (or maybe something more). It also features a somewhat violent scene early on in which the wolf's ear is torn off, and implications of suicide, which don't really fare well with Western audiences.
  • There's also the fact that Mei and Gabu's friendship is heavily coded as being romantic in nature. In many parts of the West—particularly the United States, which has historically had a large and vocal Heteronormative Crusader political bloc—LGBT issues were for decades regarded as being "inappropriate for children" (and Queer Romance was usually R-rated by default), to the extent that importers of anime and manga aimed at children infamously attempted to hide, censor, or downplay any mention or expression of homosexuality by the characters—Sailor Moon is an infamous example of all three. Those that didn't censor their relationships would get slapped with a higher age rating than those featuring straight couples. It wasn't until The New '10s that any American-produced media aimed at kids (e.g. Steven Universe, The Legend of Korra, The Loud House) could get away with openly portraying LGBT relationships at all.
• Papillon, a manga about a handsome guidance counselor who helps a young girl gain confidence in herself, contains quite a lot of scenes wherein he makes very sexual comments, grabs her breasts or butt, puts his head in her lap, etc. When she screams or gets mad, he says that he's only joking. It's always played for laughs, and the girl is attracted to him, so it supposedly seems like harmless flirting to a Japanese reader. However, it looks like nothing but sexual harassment to a Western audience, especially because the man is one of her teachers and almost ten years older than she is.
• Papillon Rose: The R concept's villains are all trans women, with the text not being much kinder to trans lesbian Papillon Adonis (her civilian name is Futanari, a controversial term for fantasy-intersex women), and noting that antagonist Shiorintie was reborn with her ideal body like it's a problem. Suffice to say that this is all considered a lot less funny nowadays.
• Pet Shop of Horrors:
  • Pet Shop of Horrors runs into a lot of values dissonance, as many of its episodes have an odd, twisted kind of moral to them. They often come off as Count D being a bloodthirsty bastard rather than an Aesop-dispenser. Sometimes, it's unclear if this is dissonance between Western and Japanese values, Count D's and the other characters' values, or the readers' and the mangaka Akino's values. But in most cases, we're clearly supposed to find Count D's values unconventional and shocking.
  • A good example is one episode where the man who has "vengeance" visited on him is implied throughout to have murdered his wife by pushing her over the railing of a cruise ship. Turns out she jumped, because she overheard him talking to the woman he was actually in love with. It seems that she was a huge bitch who always had to have whatever she wanted, and she decided she wanted him and railroaded him into it. She became "heartbroken" at their words and killed herself. The story still seems to treat him as if he's to blame, and his fate is treated as a Karmic Death.
  • Things get really weird in Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo, which starts blatantly imposing the "rules" of the animal kingdom directly on to humans. Take the first story, "Domestic": A victim of domestic violence dies, but it's treated as a happy ending by Count D because she protected her son. The pet the woman gets is not to save her, but to ensure that she fulfills her role as a woman and mother: defending her young to the last. The Count has no remorse for his actions and sends her to her death, because that is apparently Nature's Way. It becomes increasingly difficult to tell if this is a strategy to dehumanize the Count after he becomes notably more compassionate in the first series (which would be in-universe Values Dissonance), or whether Akino herself supports this view. Men don't get off lightly either — see "Double-Booking".
  • Also, our very first introduction to Count D in the manga chapter "Dream": Angelique's actions were no doubt seen as selfish and overly emotional to a Japanese audience, but to Americans she seemed to be motivated by love for her pet, and her punishment came across as over-the-top cruel. Yes, she broke the rules. But even if she hadn't, her bird would still have been eviscerated, and Count D never even warned her.
• According to Persia, the Magic Fairy, "Africans" wear barely any clothing, are all close to animals and live as cavemen. Other character state that the main reason Persia is such a Wild Child is because she was raised in an "African culture" instead of her parent's traditional Japanese culture.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Zoey's behavior and tone of voice toward Dawn were changed in the dub. She acted pleasantly toward Dawn, had a sweeter tone of voice and constantly complimented her. It seemed like she had a crush on Dawn. Zoey's original rough-and-tumble attitude could easily have been misconstrued by the censors as imitable rude behavior and a lack of good sportsmanship, so her overall manner was softened for the dub, adding yet more fuel to the shippers' fire.
  • A couple of episodes were edited down or even outright banned in English dubs due to sexual themes, especially those involving children (usually Ash's female companions). This includes the dub editing out a joke where Tommy, who was raised by Kangaskhan, asks Misty if he can nurse on her breasts (which is changed in the dub to him asking if she's a person or a Pokémon, with the shot of her breasts removed), and completely banning an episode that featured Misty in a swimsuit contest competing against James, who's in drag with very large Fake Boobs.
  • In one episode, Ash dresses as a Passimian, a lemur-like Pokémon with a dark muzzle. Part of the costume involved Ash painting his face black. It was banned in America because it resembled blackface, which is a bigger issue in America than Japan.
  • In the Best Wishes arc, Gym Leader Lenora had an apron that was part of her job as an archaeologist. However, the English dub edited the scenes so that the apron was being carried over Lenora's shoulder, as it resembled the "mammy" stereotype, which is considered racist.
• In the RSE arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga, one of the protagonists Ruby (age 11) runs away from home to compete in Contests. Eventually, Norman, his father, finds him in a ruin, and starts beating him to a pulp. He then uses his Slaking to rip out the stair his son is standing on, (almost hitting a bystander), and dangles him, over the edge of the building. His son is finally forced to start fighting back, until the floor collapses, with them both dangling over the edge, they just miss some metal debris, Ruby is knocked out, and his father stands to start battling again, before conceding his son's goal. Then we get this. To top it off, one of Ruby's companions calls him a "wonderful father" afterwards. The incident had more behind it due to an event in the trio's common past. A berserk wild Salamence attacked a young Ruby and Sapphire in its frenzy. Ruby took a horrible scar from Salamence's attack, and his innate gift at Pokémon battling let him repulse the frenzied beast, but he felt such influence tainted Sapphire's crystal heart. He has since shunned all forms of battle and sought instead to focus on Contests, swearing never to fight in the public square again. Norman, on the other hand, covered up the incident; not only was he banned from Gym Certification for at least five years, he also had to seek out Rayquaza (Norman had developed a way to capture Rayquaza, but the Salamence destroyed it in the attack). His sacrifice made Ruby's disdain towards his training sting that much more, and the two have been at odds ever since.
• Pocket Monsters has shown the genitalia of the protagonist and his Pokemon several times. While intended as nothing more than Naked People Are Funny, nudity is considered inherently sexual in much of the West, making this perhaps the greatest barrier the series has to more widespread exposure.
• In Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea a mother leaves her five-year-old son alone in a typhoon in favor of taking supplies to the elderly women in the old folks home she works at. This looks like child neglect from a Western perspective, suggesting the woman is a bad mother. Japanese culture prides itself on dedication to one's workplace and caring for one's elders, while the Western perspective would likely encourage a parent to prioritize their child's welfare over their job or the elderly if the choice needed to be made between the two.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • The anime's penultimate episode has Madoka's mother, with a little convincing, allowing her 14-year-old daughter to go out alone into a dangerous superstorm with no explanation beyond "I need to save a friend". It's hard to imagine a Western parent letting their child do such a thing, even without the extra factor of Madoka's best friend having recently died under mysterious circumstances which the mother (correctly) suspects her daughter knows something about. This can put viewers in an awkward situation, because the audience knows Madoka really does need to go on this dangerous quest for ridiculous-sounding reasons—her mother made the right decision, irresponsible as it may seem on the surface. Also during this scene, Madoka's mother resorts to slapping her to try to get her to come to her senses; parents hitting children is more accepted in Japan than it is in the west.
  • Themes of selflessness and making sacrifices for the greater good are far more common in Japanese works as a whole, but Madoka outright writes them into the laws of the universe. The main divider between whether an action is viewed as good or bad is whether the one performing it is thinking about themselves. This is a big part of why Madoka's tendency to run head-first into danger with no plan or ability to fight is viewed far more negatively in the West. It counts as selfless because she's only thinking of those who need help, but not about those who will need to help HER.
  • Kyosuke's attitude towards his hand being non-functioning after his accident has him pity himself, angrily snap at Sayaka for constantly bringing him violin music to listen to, which feels like torture for him because he can't play it anymore, and to overall consider himself worthless. His attitude comes off as whining and annoying to many people in the West because as tragic as it is that he lost the use of a hand and can't play his instrument anymore, he's taking out his anger at someone who isn't at fault. His attitude is better received in Japan due to them still being rather discriminatory and ostracizing to people with physical disabilities (compare A Silent Voice), and his inability to use a hand would be seen as not being able to do much for society as two healthy hands could.
  • Much like in Bleach, Mami Tomoe and Homura Akemi are teenagers being allowed to live alone. While Homura's implied, but not outright stated to be an orphan, Mami is explicitly an orphan. Rather than either of these girls being in foster care, they're allowed to live completely alone with no supervision of any kind, something that would be seen as grossly irresponsible overseas.
  • In Puella Magi Oriko Magica, Oriko is completely ostracized from her peers and told she should drop out of school from shame after her father was caught embezzling funds and killed himself in shame. From a Western perspective this is ridiculous, but in Japan children of criminals are often assumed to be no better than their parents.
  • After her father killed himself Oriko is left to fend for herself in her childhood home, and even worse she has family who could take her in but are forced not to by Oriko's cruel grandfather. In the west the Mikuni family would get investigated for Parental Neglect for not taking care of Oriko.

R-S

• Played for Laughs in Reborn! (2004). In the Italian mafia, a subordinate kissing their boss on the cheek is not unusual. In Japan (and done to Tsuna by newly-introduced Chrome), it's Ship Tease.
• In Rent-A-Girlfriend, Kazuya gets a visit from his father Kazuo, who confronts him about hiding some secret from him, then punches him in the face in a fit of anger. In Western countries, this would come off as abuse, but Japanese countries would be more tolerant of a parent hitting a child. In fact, while Kazuya's annoyed about this coming as a result of a misunderstanding^note Kazuo thought Kazuya had borrowed money from his girlfriend Chizuru, when, in fact, Kazuya was paying her for a rental. Since Kazuya doesn't want him to find out about Chizuru being a rental girlfriend, he doesn't correct him, he understands that his father would be angry if he had actually done what Kazuo thought he had. In fact, Kazuya believes that his family spoiled him while growing up.
• In Rurouni Kenshin, the main character Himura Kenshin is 28 years old, while his love interest and eventual wife Kamiya Kaoru is 17. Such an age gap would be seen as inappropriate if not outright illegal in countries like North America, but it's more common in Japan, especially during the time of the manga's setting.
• Sailor Moon features several examples
  • In The '90s anime, the romance of the story involves a junior high school student involved with a college student. In Japan, Mamoru is the butt of a few jokes at worst — in North America, he would be arrested. In the manga, he's just a high schooler and not much older than Usagi herself. However, Japanese culture still generally approves of relationships with a gap like this despite the jokes, as the older man is seen as more capable of protecting the younger girl.
    • Also in the German dub: In the beginning of the SuperS season, Usagi remarks how she is now 16 years old, thus old enough for a "real love" – which implies that she and Mamoru – whose age was left as it was — did not consummate their relationship yet, since Usagi was too young. In Germany the age of consent is graduated — 14 years is the age of consent with other minors. 16 for sex with adults. (And at 18 you're an adult.)
  • Furthermore, there's the lesbians Haruka and Michiru. In America, they became the cousins Amara and Michelle. But you could still tell Amara and Michelle were lesbians, making this a case of Kissing Cousins. Both lesbians and cousins being romantically involved aren't looked down upon quite as much in Japan as in the USA.
    • The fact that Sailor Moon was viewed as a children's series surprises many Western viewers. The show's sexuality (including Haruka and Michiru's relationship) did cause some controversy in Japan, which caused Toei to change the Sailor Starlights into boys in their civilian forms to make Seiya Kou's relationship with Usagi straight.
    • Interestingly enough, given how much the gay rights movement has advanced in the U.S. since Sailor Moon first aired there, the decision by DiC (with Zoisite and Malachite in the first season) and Cloverway (aforementioned example) to Hide Your Gays in The '90s American dub is itself now Values Dissonance. With more and more gay teens choosing to come out younger and younger, the old American idea that homosexuality is a child-unfriendly topic is all but discredited. Fans rejoiced when the remake's dub kept Haruka and Michiru's relationship intact.
    • When the original anime was licensed and redubbed by VIZ Media in 2014, they proudly proclaimed that Uranus and Neptune won't be cousins, and that Kunzite loves Zoisite, who is very much a guy.
    • The original version and Viz dub portray Zoiscite and Kunzite as evil despite gay and Fish Eyes alongside the Amazon Trio as creepy sexual predators. Plus during the anime, while Uranus and Neptune were written to be sympathetic, both ended up being pretty nasty to the main cast in the show near the end of S and Stars each. To some people upon rewatching this series, it comes across as them being a really bad representation to the LGBT community (and to some, what DIC did at the time was perhaps the Lesser of Two Evils in the 90s).
  • In the first chapter/episode, Usagi fearfully shows her mom that she has failed her test, only to have her mom verbally berate her and kick her out of the house to "think about what she's done". To Japanese audiences, this is seen as strict, but appropriate punishment for her perceived laziness. To Western audiences, it looks an awful lot like child abuse. The '90s English dub somewhat watered it down to just telling her to go to the library to study.
  • The diet episode early in the anime is representative of the extremely thin-obsessed culture of Japan... and all the negative body issues that come along with it. It comes off as even harsher a good twenty years later when body image and eating disorders are gathering far more media attention in the West.^note The English dub has one of its few fine moments by altering this to the more American-friendly lesson about the dangers of exercising until you drop, urging more healthy methods of getting in shape.
• Shugo Chara! was a hit shoujo anime in Japan but this is likely why it is Japanese-only. Its material is not suitable for little girls in many countries, but at the same time it's too kiddie for teenage girls. For starters, the protagonist is a primary schooler whose love interest is a seventeen-year-old boy. Said seventeen-year-old boy has an Abhorrent Admirer named Utau, who turns out to be his younger sister.
• A Silent Voice:
  • In what's probably a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance, the manga has a main character who is deaf. She is bullied relentlessly throughout her elementary school life, her father and paternal grandparents abandon the family for her deafness, and her mother is cold to her, even though she's trying to work on rectifying this. In reality, situations like this occur in various parts of Japan, since kids with disabilities are looked down upon due to the belief that they are incapable of living on their own and can't do anything for society. It's also widely believed that disabled children should be taken care of "out of sight" and not interact with those considered "normal", which is why Shoko is viewed so much like an alien by her classmates and why her school doesn't offer much support for her deafness. It's a side of Japan that most Westerners don't get to see often, which is why there was a lawsuit to try and prevent the manga from being published.
  • In a late chapter, Shoko is revealed to long since have been suicidal and in fact tries to kill herself. The protagonist saves her but in turn gets injured and ends up in a coma. Afterwards Shoko is constantly blamed and berated for her 'selfish' behavior, with almost no one thinking to get her help or sympathize with her.
  • Adding onto this, the Japanese have a rather apathetic view towards bullying in general. In Western areas, bullying is treated very seriously, and schools have been cracking down hard since The '90s due to waves of suicides and school shootings brought on by bullying to the point of harshly punishing anyone they even suspect to be bullying others. Even before that, Western students were always taught to fight back, or help others who couldn't. But in places like Japan, bullying is swept under the rug, and because of Japan's rigid, conformist views, kids who get bullied are often told that it's something they themselves have to deal with, or that they somehow brought it on themselves, even if they're bullied over something that isn't their fault and should reach out to the classmates bullying them, regardless of whether they'd actually resolve things or get along. This is why tropes such as Loners Are Freaks or Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics are so prominent in Japanese media. Japanese society wants everyone to conform to the group ideology, and if someone stands out in any way or disrupts the status quo, from something as simple as having low or high grades, or disagreeing with the group, to having a disability, they are ostracized for not meeting society's standards. Plus, bullies are rarely, if ever punished, and the victim is often told that they need to be the ones to change themselves in order for any bullying to cease.These two articles here can explain it in more detail. The reason the manga had so much trouble getting published at first was because various people filed lawsuits against it, not wanting the manga to draw attention to Japan's bullying problem and showing the country's uglier sides.
• Silver Spoon: A minor but notable one is the attitude towards meat-eating. The faculty at the school where the series takes place regularly bribes the students with Mongolian Barbecue whenever some big task needs doing. The school's baseball coach motivates the baseball team with meat dinners before important games. When the main character meets a friend from the city, said friend asks incredulously if he can eat as much meat as he likes, since he goes to an agricultural school. All this comes across as pretty strange to many readers in the West, where arable land is more plentiful and meat cheaper, but in Japan meat is fairly expensive and an occasional treat rather than a dietary staple for most people.
• The entire starting premise of Slow Start involves a girl going to high school one year later than her peers because she missed high school entrance exams on account of mumps, and the resulting Rōnin situation is a major complex for that girl so much so that she actually considered becoming a hikikomori, and she didn't only because she was sent to a different town to study. This is incomprehensible to any non-Japanese where going on a grade at a "wrong" age never becomes such a social issue owing to the lack of divide between upperclassmen and underclassmen. A major part of the story is the main character angsting about whether to come clean to her friends about having spent a year as a Rōnin, and when she does, they don't judge her unfavorably at all.
• A Breather Episode in Soul Eater in the manga just before Maka Albarn discovers that the Kishin is hiding on the moon features the gang taking a trip to a Northern-European looking village... to hunt a whale. Whaling in Japan (and by extension, Iceland, Norway, and various Inuit tribes around the northern hemisphere)? Acceptable. Whaling in other countries? Frowned upon, often heavily criticized due to certain species being increasingly rare, and illegal.
• The Splatoon manga has a Running Gag of the protagonist pantsing people and losing his clothes. What's simply Naked People Are Funny in Japan comes out as just weird in places like the US.
• Sonic X:
  • In Episode 10, there's a bit where Cream takes Chuck's advice and gives a Love Confession to one of Eggman's robots, causing it to balk. In Japan, this is just a harmless bit of comedy, whereas overseas a six year old girl being romantically involved with anyone is considered a source of Squick, regardless of the circumstances. The 4Kids version cut the scene short and changed it to Cream politely asking the pitcher to go easy on her, which is one of the few changes agreed to be for the better.
  • Rouge is known for using seduction as a weapon. When she participates in a tournament for a Chaos Emerald, she fights Tails who's stronger than expected. She wins by kissing him and then throwing him out of the ring. In the 2000s, it might sound like a funny scene. In the 2020s, with the advent of the MeToo movement and society's growing aversion to pedophilia, it doesn't sound so funny anymore.
• This may be why Sugar Sugar Rune never really found much of an audience outside Japan, as it has very traditionally Japanese views on femininity (the view that No Guy Wants an Amazon is very prevelant; in fact, it's one of the main aesops of the series) that can come across as odd or offensive to Western readers. And it doesn't help that in the series, people in the human world generally agree that No Guy Wants an Amazon, even though that actually varies from country to country and person to person.
• Suicide Island's premise is that hospitals in Japan are so overwhelmed with attempted suicides that the Japanese government decides to wash their hands of this and simply send the suicidal people to an isolated island. Oh, the suicidal people are given a choice and have to sign a form if they choose to die. The protagonist, who is suicidal, did not know that when he signed the form, he was going to be put on this island, rather than be killed off shortly afterwards. The story contains elements comparable to Battle Royale, only the government is not forcing the people on the island to kill anyone. There is obviously a large amount of Values Dissonance here, but this manga is clearly examining the concept of suicide from the Japanese perspective.

T-Y

• In Teasing Master Takagi-san, chapters set in the future (and the spinoff "Moto Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san") depict Takagi as a housewife. Some Western readers and critics angrily accused the author of encouraging a Stay in the Kitchen message, as Takagi is depicted as being a very bright student. Many other readers were offended by this view, especially the implication that simply wanting to be a housewife instead of going out to work is some sort of failure. Meanwhile, her marriage is depicted as being a very loving one, and very traditional in the sense that while her husband Nishikata is the breadwinner, Takagi is the one who gets the last say for anything to do with the home.
• Tokyo Mew Mew:
  • One possible reason why Quiche is the fan-preferred pairing for Ichigo in the West is that his Establishing Character Moment, stealing Ichigo's Sacred First Kiss, is far less shocking to Westerners than it is to the Japanese. This is arguably not so much the case in a post-Me Too era, where people now tend to be more sensitive to consent and the pitfalls of romanticizing predatory behaviour.
  • Also, Bu-ling is seen as silly and fun in the West, and that's true to an extent in Japan too, but she also comes off as somewhat of an Ethnic Scrappy. This is lost in translation because the stereotypes she plays into (large family, loud, does ridiculous things, left alone by her lone parent, etc.) are the exact opposite of the stereotypes Chinese people have to deal with across the ocean (only child, The Stoic, suffering under an Education Mama).
• This is part of the reason why red and, to a lesser extent, blonde hair are seen as such disreputable colors. They're often the result of rebellious Japanese teens bleaching or dying their hair, so even if it is your natural hair color, you're still likely to get hell for it. Thus, orange-haired Ichigo Kurosaki is constantly having to fight off thugs who get the wrong idea about him(which in turn doesn't exactly help his case either), redhead Orihime Inoue as a child had upperclassmen mock her and cut her hair because they didn't like it, and Kushina Uzumaki was bullied for her long, red hair. This is also why Chi-Chi absolutely freaks seeing Gohan and Goten as Super Saiyans.
• Transformers Beast Wars II will never, ever be officially translated into English for Western audiences. The reason? The Jointrons, who act like stereotypical Mexicans, are really lazy, and two of them transform into bugs.(The last one instead transforms into a lobster.)
• Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, while not as bad, and quite progressive in retrospect, still has quite a bit of this:
  • Alcohol is clearly shown being drunk on screen, being drunk by both factions, and the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors are able to enter bars despite being completely underage. In Japan, this would not matter much, but it would be considered completely unacceptable in Western animation.
  • Shuta and Cab both have crushes on Minerva, and both insinuate that whenever she comes to Cancer's defense, it is because she has feelings for him. Similarly, when Cab is caught spying on Minerva during a swimming competition and inevitably gets caught by the coach, all it takes is a simple "I'm sorry" and Minerva forgives them. While they are children, in nations like the U.S, where sexual harassment is becoming an increasingly relevant issue, there is no way a kid's show could possibly get away with comments like this.
  • In one episode, Gilmer calls Minverva a cute madonna while removing her helmet. In its Italian origin, it refers to a woman who is important, so that definition wouldn't be so bad. However, madonna in Japan is used to refer to cute girls and Minerva is only 15. Gilmer's comment is played completely for comedy, but in many Western nations, such a comment, especially in this context, would immediately bring fears of abduction to mind.
  • Before the birth of the Headmasters Junior in the episode of the same name, Metalhawk tells Minerva that becoming a Headmaster Junior is too dangerous because she's a woman. Such a comment would be seen as unacceptable in the contemporary TV industry.
• In A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, some of Koyuki Honami's schoolmates ask her to go out with them for ice cream at a café that offers all-you-can-eat ice cream for five people per day(meaning they have to make a beeline there), but one of them realizes the serious "perfect" honor student Koyuki won't want to. A teacher then shows up and points out a passage in the student handbook stating that students are forbidden from making stops on the way home from school. While the teacher is comically intimidating, and Western viewers find that this policy of regulating student conduct off of school grounds to be overly strict, some schools do have this rule to prevent students from getting into trouble while in uniform and causing the school's reputation to suffer.
• In ViVid Strike!, Rinne gets bullied by some of her peers for not being a "real" rich girl once they find out she's adopted. That being said, the Lyrical Nanoha franchise features many cases of loving adoptive families (Lindy with Fate, Fate herself with Erio and Caro, Nanoha and Fate with Vivio, and the entire Nakajima family), and the bullies are easily the most despicable characters in the season.
• In Wakaba Girl, the main character manages to make three new friends during her first day at school, which is all fine and dandy... but it's the way they make friends with her that comes across as odd. Do they find common ground, a shared interest, or are part of the same club, thereby gradually getting to know one another and developing a healthy chemistry with one another? No, they become friends solely because they happen to be classmates! From a Western point of view, this seems extremely shallow, coming off as a bad, shoehorned in attempt at forcing characters to be friends instead of letting it happen organically. But in countries like Japan and Taiwan, it's actually fairly common for people to form friendships over something as extremely tenuous as having gone to school together, and considered a much bigger deal. There's a cultural expectation that one should always be obligated to be close with their classmates, even if they have absolutely nothing in common, to the point of pretending they're friends, and the idea that the friends one makes later in life will never be as strong as the ones they made during childhood because the former takes more effort. Westerners would see this kind of friendship as extremely shallow and tenuous, and in Western cartoons, more emphasis is put on getting to know someone, finding common ground, and openly communicating with one another before people decide whether they're friends or not.
• W-Change!! seems to conclude that one person's dreams aren't as important as the responsibility of continuing the family legacy. Both Maki and Fukama are heirs to two very influential Yakuza groups who otherwise pretend to be normal students. Maki, in particular, staunchly refuses to acknowledge her "family business" and would rather wash her hands clean of them rather than take the mantle of the clan's future head. Halfway through the series, Fukama declares that he needs "to wake up from his daydream" and tells Maki that he intends to stick with the underworld and succeed his clan, giving up his dreams of going to university and entering normal society. Maki goes through a Despair Event Horizon after this, but eventually learns to accept her family and marry Fukama to become a Yakuza bride. Such an ending is almost unheard of in Western works, where the hero would always choose their dreams over family expectations, but most Asian countries do prioritize family legacy over individuality.
• Wandering Son:
  • The level of independence the cast has can be a bit awkward to some viewers. For example a nine-year-old being left at home alone, told by her mother to open the door to a stranger and give them money. In the West, this goes against several rules that children are taught, such as when left alone, don't open doors to strangers, and just tell them to put whatever they've brought at the door. The children are also allowed to roam wherever they please (and without telling their parents either), hang out with adults their parents don't know, and stay over at said adults' places. Their parents are more annoyed by the fact they're keeping secrets than the fact they're hanging out with adults they don't know.
  • Cool Big Sis Yuki has behaved towards Takatsuki in ways that seem like either sexual harassment or like she's sexually attracted to him; her blatantly flirting with Takatsuki in their first meeting doesn't help. It's just teasing on Yuki's part, but Takatsuki is an elementary schooler while Yuki is an adult. Her boyfriend Shiina once gave Takatsuki an accidental Crotch-Grab Sex Check when they met (he was trying to see if Yuki was cheating), and touched his chest to confirm his physical sex, which made Takatsuki upset. After Shiina apologizes it's not mentioned again.
• The entire premise of Wedding Peach is baffling to western audiences, as the middle-school aged protagonists constantly dream of getting married and their Magical Girl transformations are wedding-themed. This contributed to Wedding Peach's anime never airing in North America. Western-styled weddings were trendy in Japan in the early 90s and women marrying straight out of high school was not uncommon at the time, while marrying straight out of high school is uncommon and discouraged in western society, often being attributed to shotgun weddings.
• Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has the major pairings of Nozomi/Coco, Komatsu/Nuts and Urara/Syrup. While Japan sees nothing wrong with them and reference them a few times in Pretty Cure All Stars entries, the younger Western fanbase absolutely hates them. While part of this lie in the Het Is Ew angle, most of it deals with the Interspecies Relationship angle as Coco, Nuts and Syrup are fairies with human forms, Coco and Nuts' human forms are young adults with jobs with Coco being Nozomi's teacher, with a few expressing a desire for these pairings to be done away with with the sequel series Power of Hope ~Adult Pretty Cure 23~. Interestingly, there's no desire to do away with the implied but never really shown relationship between Karen and Milk/Kurumi.
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero has some fanservice featuring the middle schooler characters, more prominently with Togo, which turned off some English-speaking fans.
• Yuri is My Job! focuses on a few high school girls who work in a salon, in which they roleplay as girls from a prestigious all-girls school, Liebe Girls' Academy. Hime, the protagonist, once wonders why they're talking about work at an Elaborate University High in which the students wouldn't be allowed to hold jobs (unlike in the West, in which students often work part-time jobs). That said, it's implied that Hime and Kanoko's school doesn't forbid its students from working, and in a flashback chapter, it's revealed that Mitsuki will only be able to work for the salon once she graduates from middle school.
• Yuri!!! on Ice:
  • A lot of the debate around whether the show ultimately "went far enough" in portraying Victor and Yuri as an Official Couple can be seen as this. Some fans have argued either that it does go pretty far and is pretty progressive for a country where LGBTQ relationships are far less normalized than they are in the U.S. Others come from the angle of pointing out that Japan is a far less physically-affectionate culture, especially with public displays of affection (and despite this, they still get The Big Damn Kiss very publicly), or that Japanese audiences are more used to subtle indications and don't need physical relationship milestones and "I love you" statements to indicate a romance. The milestones that Yuri and Victor hit aren't really that different from many popular heterosexual anime romances. It's worth noting that this variety of Values Dissonance seems to be especially common with Americans, as European viewers have similar expectations for subtlety in their media compared to Japan.
    • A specific difference is that, like most other LGBT characters in anime and manga (including in most Yaoi Genre and Yuri Genre works), neither Victor nor Yuri has a "coming out" scene or announces their specific sexuality label. This is a pretty big sign of "canonicity" in Western LGBT media (often treated as more important than how it's reflected in their relationships on-screen, to sometimes frustrating results) and may reflect the difference in Western viewers' debating if the couple has "gone far enough" to be canon. This reflects a larger cultural difference, with Japan being a far less individual-focused culture, and viewers preferring to figure out things on their own rather than have them specifically spelled out to them.
  • In the first two episodes, several characters don't hesitate to point out that Yuri has gained weight (and Yurio continually calls Yuri a pig even after he's gotten back in shape) which many Western viewers find to be in poor taste. However, in Japan people are far more blunt about telling larger people that they need to lose weight for various reasons (the overall pressure for societal conformity being just one of them). This could also be an issue of getting lost in translation, since the specific Japanese word used to call Yuri a "pig" is more of an affectionate one... but in English, calling someone a "pig" is a huge insult regardless of how you put it.
• YuYu Hakusho: As noted here, the series dates from a time when heteronormatism was the status quo. There's a few Parental Bonus off-color jokes about Homoerotic Subtext, which would not pass muster nowadays, particularly in the West. (The same article notes that mangaka Yoshihiro Togashi treated the subjects better in his later work Hunter × Hunter) On the other hand, Sensui and Itsuki are not treated poorly despite canonically being gay. Sensui is one of the strongest threats Yusuke has to deal with in the entire story in fact.

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