General Japanese Culture Thread

I find the "otaku pandering is ruining anime" stuff to be kind of funny, because to a large extent, it is the anime industry. Anime is niche and relies heavily upon a small, very dedicated fanbase willing to pony up large amounts of money for their hobby. Without otaku, the industry as we know it would not exist.

Actually, to my understanding, it's not like that at all in Japan. Anime in Japan is a booming industry that caters to the casual as well as the die-hard fan, and always has been.

Anime seems to have a market where so many different niches are catered to. The otaku niche is the biggest and most popular at the moment, though things could change in the future.

you're right all of those are pretty pandering. But I would like to point out that Okusama ga Seitokaichou, Mujaki no Rakuen, jitsu wa, Mujaki no Rakuen and venus project don't seem to be really moe. Million doll seems like an extremely low budget anime.

your completely missing the point.

this guy gets it.

wrong.

the kid segment is by far the largest. look up the longest running series.

edited 1st Aug '15 3:01:30 PM by BAFFU

Ah, ok. I confess to be a bit ignorant of the anime market as a whole (at least within Japan), so, fair point.

edited 1st Aug '15 3:22:37 PM by Quag15

To clarify: I'm talking about the stuff that's watched and discussed by Western anime fans, which are the shows that air on late night TV, not Sazae-san, Kochikame and their ilk. You've got your mega-hits with mass appeal – Love Lives, Attack on Titans, etc; K-On even aired on the Japanese Disney channel (with some editing). But a lot of the shows listed on the 'X Season Anime' pages do rely on otaku to carry their sales.

yes but they are short lived and a minority segment.

Even then that's the good thing about the medium. They are just basically throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Not just in Otaku anime, you see a lot of weird shonen and shoujo out there.

As for Manga and light novels which are one of the main sources of material for anime, they appeal to a very wide audience.

Kinda makes me think of the old complaint that anime is all porn. Porn only actually makes up a comparatively small percentage of anime, but an awful lot of it DOES (or did, anyhow) get exported to the west.

Since this is a "Japanese Culture" thread, I'll mention something that struck me. I used to wonder why so few anime characters had visible fathers. You'd usually see a mother, siblings, and maybe a grandparent or two (think Inu Yasha) but hardly ever a father. I used to wonder why, until I found out that it was just understood that the father was working, and seldom at home. It didn't have to be addressed and the father was hardly ever mentioned, but instead of imagining that he was dead (which was my first assumption) the audience was apparently expected to assume he was just working.

Oh, and how common it was for teenagers going to high school in Tokyo to be living alone. That struck me as odd, too. Apparently Japanese kids frequently go off to high school the way American and European kids go off to college. So it's not at all uncommon for, like, a 15 year old to be living in an apartment alone and going to school. Again, you see it in anime all the time with no explanation. They just take it for granted.

edited 1st Aug '15 6:44:56 PM by Robbery

The dad thing is kinda depressing, and I normally just chalked up the living alone thing to the Elaborate University High trope. Interesting the sort of cultural assumptions that tend to go "untranslated".

I know; it would have been one thing to never see the guy, but they never even mention him. Depressing.

Speaking of relation between real Japan and the one depicted in anime, since it is pretty much my only source:

• Recently, the classic doormat-kun harem protagonist became less of "Be extra nice and protect everyone you see and girls will love you for it" and more of "Be a sulky asshole and girls will love you regardless". I mean, yes, everyone were probably sick of the goody-two-shoes protagonists and wanted someone more "real" (so was I), but now I want the doormat-kun back. Did the target audience really become misanthropic and disillusioned or is it a part of the usual cycle "A is everywhere->Everyone is sick of A->Enter B"?
• The classic "Alice and Claire are captured by thugs, Bob and Danny have 2 hours to save them". First it was "We're gonna beat you up", then it became "We're gonna do bad things to you, whatever you think it to be is on your head" and recently I saw a pretty lighthearted anime which had little less than "We're gonna rape you, film it, and use it to coerce you into more of it". I realise that rape is not a Japanese way of saying "hello", so WTF.

I hope one day isn't enough for me to be late.

Considering Japan's relationship problems, I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if bitterness has slipped in. It's probably just exactly as you said.

The second one is pretty standard extortion. Rape victims are very often marked for the rest of their lives as damaged, which would ruin you socially.

edited 3rd Aug '15 10:01:35 AM by TerminusEst

Which is interesting, given the Japanese ideal of the infantilized woman, one would think they wouldn't be held responsible for getting raped, at least in the classical "overpowered and forced down" sense. In the more real contexts of rape i could easily see how Japan could get on the victim-blaming train.

Which is also interesting. Not sure if it was in this thread or not, but i recently learned that train molesters tend to go for more modestly-dressed women, and that a woman dressed "loudly" or provocatively will get passed over because they feel she's more likely to fight back, while the modestly dressed girl or woman will be more wrapped up in her own shame of what is happening to her to protest.

I find the current situation (at least in Tokyo) very interesting. Men want the typical gentle homemaking type, while women want a more masculine man. The thing is as women have become increasingly independent, the men find them intimidating. Women on the other hand find many men too effiminite, crystalizing in the infamous "herbivore" term for men who don't "go for it".

However, there was an interview on Japan Today (and other publications) with several men who simply saw relationships as a waste of time and money. A cost-benefit analysis that is increasingly common even outside of Japan.

part of why their so happy to jump onto victim blaming ties into the cultural obsession with the concept of purity.

which for women, includes sexual purity (IE not having sex till marriage, and having no sexual desires at all). even if a woman is raped, she still has had sex, thus no longer pure, thus shame worthy.

its kinda messed up.

And on account of victim blaming: do I understand right that the Japanese like victim and survivor blaming pretty much for the same reasons we gaijins like blaming those who didn't survive, that is because the dead don't care? Either they need for someone to suffer/repent, and blaming the victim is just easier, or they just worship the dead too much.

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:34:29 AM by Pz_VI

Unless you're talking about war, I don't know what you mean about blaming those who don't survive.

However, over here at least, suicide is considered a sign of weakness. In Japan it's seen quite often as a redeeming act. Which does put our suicide statistics into an interesting light...

I'm a bit confused at what your getting at?

as far as I know, Japan doesn't necessarily have a survivor blaming, per say. for big accident or natural disasters, like the recent tsunami, they kind of take the stance of "shit happens, move on", not really blaming anyone involved, but looking down on the survivors if they complain too much.

I also know of incidents involving home-invasions and/or kidnapping (i forget which), where a child involved fought back, got a hold of the perpetrators gun, and shot the perpetrator. afterwards, the kid was shunned and looked down on, for Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, name the ability to fire a gun.

neither case are the survivors blamed for anything, but they are shamed for not living to the expected standards of their position.

Edit: Japan doesn't really view suicide as a redeeming act anymore. after WWII, America really tried to push the idea that suicide was a bad thing, and it sorta stuck, putting suicide in an odd position in Japan's culture. it isn't really seen as a good thing anymore, but it is framed in a much more positive light, compared to the west.

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:51:49 AM by Jetyl

I mean if a plane crashes and the pilot is dead, everyone just assumes it's his fault. At least until the end of the investigation.

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:47:00 AM by Pz_VI

Well he IS the pilot. That has more to do with his position than any kind of culture of blaming.

If you mean the fact that blaming a dead person for something since he can't fight back that's another story entirely.

On a personal level once someone is dead the need for honour and respect is gone, but that's just me.

I think you guys are going in all sort of wild tangents. I will just post this paragraph from Wikipedia:

so just to give a little bit of nuance to the whole "sexuality" in Japan issue.

Yeah, I'm not how we even got there. The same is said in every article on subject, every year when the population shrinks.

Now for something different

So what are the people in Japan like? Are they as polite as they are usually portrayed as? Or are they not actually all that nice?

The people are, you know... like people everywhere. The culture is a very polite one, but it can blindside you with how it works to be cruel. The basics are the basics, though.

Like with everywhere.

Expect a lot more pruning than you're used to, though. Even the large orchards get more shaping than Swiss ones do, and I thought that was impossible.

This may be a bit off topic, but does being extremely interested in Japan and the like make me a weeaboo?

Heck, whenever someone tries to say that they love Japanese stuff, they get labeled as one. Some have even grown to hate Japan simply because of the attitude that weeaboos have.