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.

American Dad (Series)

The other day I was watching "American Dad" episodes before work. American Dad is an American adult cartoon series that follows a government agent on wild adventures at work at the CIA, at home with his family and live-in space alien, and more.

The particular episode I was watching was titled "Wheels and the Legman, the case of of grandpa's key." In that episode, one of the main characters, a fish named Klaus enters himself into a cutest pet competition website. When he does a photograph montage in his attempt to be cute, they play Yuko Ogura's "Vitamin Love" song as the montage music. Klaus fails in his attempt to be cute, however the music itself is very cutesie and helps him try his hardest to appear as adorable as he could be in various outfits. This is an example of how integrated American pop culture and Japanese pop music is becoming.

Yuko Ogura's song has been on the internet for at least a couple of years. She is not well known in America for her music, however her song and music video for "Vitamin Love" has been floating around the internet for a few years, so people who have spent enough time on youtube looking for Japan-related things have probably stumbled across this video at least once.

I did a little research and her wikipedia page is here. 

Yuko Ogura's Vitamin Love

Although I am not sure I have stated this before, I will write it here just in case.

Another American Dad episode titled "May the Best Stan Win" also utilizes more current Japanese pop music. In this episode, Francine is on a date on Valentine's Day with her husband Stan's future cyborg self. While they are driving, Cyborg Stan attempts to loosen Francine up and get her to relax around him by playing "Japanese Funk from the future." The song is actually Monochrome Effect" by Perfume. The song "Monochrome Effect" was originally produced in 2004 to BEE HIVE Records.  

I think that it is important to notice that scenes like these are becoming more commonplace within American media and are prime examples of American culture merging with (albeit slightly outdated Jpop music) Japanese pop culture as well. What this merging of American adult cartoons might be encouraging is more adults to engage with Japanese pop culture, especially anime, as animation is typically seen in America as a thing for children. By combining American adult cartoons with semi-subtle Jpop culture, shows like American Dad are helping more people become accustomed to a quickly growing shift in American pop cultural norms. American pop culture isn't as "American" as it seems anymore.

Thank you for reading~!

Ps, sorry I couldn't find exact scene shots involving these songs. Apparently youtube has been good at cracking down on these things, or there isn't a high enough interest in these thoughts yet.


Also, if this isn't coherent enough or if readers want me to do a little bit more digging around on these videos and series, please let me know. ^^

South Park Whale Wars (2009)

I must say that sometimes I'm humored by South Park and sometimes I am not. I don't watch it consistently, so this delayed post is because of that.  The TV show South Park has made political commentaries about the Japanese. This time it was about The Cove and how Japan gets away with whaling and killing dolphins unlike the entire rest of the world. I think that it is important to reflect upon this episode because it says a lot about both Japan and the US.

I think that this is relevant because South Park did use very timely facts about how Japan is the ONLY country in the world that still does whaling and (still?) club(s?) dolphins to death at The Cove.  I know South Park took it to the extreme and showed the Japanese whaling other countries aquariums and whatnot, but it only emphasizes the power that one country can have in control and influence of another. Now South Park has done that with many other countries, including the US, not just Japan, but in this context of marine biology and species interaction, Japan has a large influence over sea mammals because of how they kill whales and dolphins. Note there is no reason for Japan to up their numbers of killed whales every year because nobody wants to eat whale. The market for whale meat is actually in the decline because whale meat is very oily and smelly. Post-WW2, there was a large market because many people did not have access to chicken, beef, and pork as much, but now there is no honest reason. But because it is tradition, Japan continues.

I know that to make this a truly valid argument I need to include sources, but I think that in this case it would be better for people to go do some research of their own about Japanese whaling and dolphin killing. I think that it is important to look to Horatian comedy and Juvenalian comedy to see how Americans view matters like Japanese whaling because it also reflects Americans.

So at the same time that South Park shows that the Japanese still do these things and it is relevant to the rest of the world and marine ecosystems, it shows that the Americans-- the citizens of South Park don't truly take the time to understand or learn why the Japanese are doing what they do. Instead they just chalk it up to irrationality and leave it at that. But one of the main characters invests time and researches why the Japanese do what they do and explains it to the rest. All other Americans don't seek an answer or make up their own or rely on others to do the work for them despite being concerned about the issue.

This reflects the American-Japanese relationship because they both influence each other but they just chalk it up to differences and that the other side wouldn't understand for the most part. This miscommunication or lack of communication is part of the source of their problems, refusing to deal with it only exacerbates things until time and concern is taken by active members.

Not sure I truly wrote that coherently for others to understand, but I hope you get the gist of what I was trying to say. Feel free to watch the episode, read up on some history, and leave me some comments.

Thank you and have a good night~