Fascination

 Over the past few weeks/months I have been having a hard time getting online to truly post my findings, thoughts, or recently learned facts. I have however been collecting links to share with you all because why not? I wanted to write more deeply on all of these things, but those thoughts have faded for the time being. Maybe I will one day be able to return and write more deeply on each one.


I want to start with Akira and how trendy it as recently become. Akira seems to be  an influencing factor on Western directors, writers, and other artists more than was originally thought or believed Nine different artists that are big in Hollywood and other countries media put it on their list of awe-inspiring animation. The fact that a director like Wes Anderson put it on his list of influencing animation shows that America truly is impacted, whether or not they know it, by anime from Japan and that in return, reflects back into the society they create in, for, by.

 The second Akira article I want to point out is from Buzzfeed, and is about fans of both the Simpsons and Akira creating Bartkira. The comic book involves a shot for shot remake and it seems that all of the pages will be created by fans. There is over 2000 pages in Akira and 700+ fans will be recreating up to six pages each.


In Japan, as is the rest of the world, more and more smartphone and just mobile technology accidents are occurring. This article by the BBC pointed out how frequently this is happening in Tokyo alone, to put a population perspective on it. 


Cake! I haven't mentioned food yet, but now I am about to. Everyone seems to love cake, and Japan has some of the most rare, eccentric types of cake in the world. It gets to the point people will travel to Japan to hunt down obscure delicatessens just to taste them. They will wait in long lines or be the first to arrive and wait in one of a few seats to purchase one. Well now, one of those cakes will be easier to attain for Midwestern Americans. Especially once it has hit national news, via NPR.


Every year, or more likely every few years, an article like this stumbles into the online public eye. A friend of mine recently texted me if this was true. I gave him a mixed answer because at some point in time it was true and it was very popular at this time. However, currently some of those are out of style, very trendy, or unknown outside of select types of media. I truly wish that this was always and forever would be fashionable, but... it isn't. I also wish that as a result, westerners would quit bringing up some of the dead styles. It is like if everyone, in reference to America, only brought up 1960's-1990's california trends like surfer dude and valley girl with all their "whoa dudes" and "like totally." It happened. At one point. At least bring up something new happening, like everyone wearing kigurumi.


I have heard mixed feelings about Uniqlo, and I find this fascinating. The facts involving uniqlo and other merchandising companies is the most interesting because it shows how small capitalistic companies really are in hindsight. They get their jean materials from the same company, pay all of their managers the same wages, employ more handicapped people, and donate more than others. These facts can be great or terrible depending on one's opinions or their effects on others, such as "are managers paid well?" or "How does donated clothing affect other countries?" but overall seems pro-active in intent.


So there is this woman in Japan and I think she might be taking a step in the right direction. I would love to know who is funding her projects, such as her vagina kayak, is it mostly perverted guys just looking for free "smut" or men attempting to empower women through sexual equality or women attempting to break societal taboos and create sexual equality in perception of genitalia? It is impressive that the kayak and crowd-funding her kayak got her arrested, however none of her statues or other pieces of work seems to have gotten her in as much trouble. I think that it is impressive how persistent she is, as well as how determined she is in creating an equality between the sexes in Japan. She might be barging her way into the public eye through her vagina, but hopefully that will help continue spreading feminism and motivating others to stand up as well.

Continuing along the train of gender in Japan, this assemblyman was relieved of his job because of sexist taunting. I think that his removal is another key indicator of Japan making progress in the right direction, parallel to the progress happening in America because more women and men are speaking out publicly about unfair, unnecessary inequality or hurtful actions against women. It is helpful because although many people think Japan is extremely behind the times on gender equality, people might not realize that Japan could be quieter about their social changes compared to other nations.

Coming down hard on pedophiles legally is tearing some of their media critics apart. According to this article, some critics say that they should come down hard on manga fans who watch and purchase manga with child-like characters. I don't know if this will also involve anime fans or not, as this article only focused on pedophiles and manga evading the new laws, so... I cannot wait to read a follow-up article on whether or not anime will get sucked into these changes and what social outcomes will happen if the critics give more of a political push.

Lastly, This Japanese poster found in a school states gender and sexual identity/preference and how acceptable they should be to people, instead of rejecting people socially just because they don't like the same type of person as everyone else. There might be some backlash for having this poster in a school, but for the sake of the students and those struggling with identities, this could really save a few lives.