#Japanese candy

[oddarette]

All my konpeito cats. I love these little guys so much <3<3

[monniponi]

Stitches dagashiya 🐻🍬

[omitsy]

[nekomimiyu]

[our-ideal-world]

https://twitter.com/shi_jila

pixiv -> https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/117273463

[webdiggerxxx]

꧁★꧂

[nanmo-wakaran]

source

[xxkatkatastrophexx]

[almondelle]

[oddarette]

Konpeito cat #1

[faeberrywine]

[skipsu]

チョコレート

[nekomimiyu]

[hunnyxhime]

soot sprites💫

[lilyginnyblackv2]

A Deeper Look At Kazuki’s Delinquent Teen Version of Miri

In Episode 5, we see Miri packing for her brief visit and stay with Kyutaro at the Mistletoe Cafe:

She has a drawing pad, crayons, an eraser, water bottle, a white stuffed rabbit, and some food: the stuff like the orange gummies and popcorn (ポップ) seem rather generic, while the Poki Poki is obviously meant to be Pocky, the pink container is meant to be Calbee’s じゃがりこ (jagariko), which are basically like a potato stick snack. The chocolate seems a bit generic too, though the shape of the box and the circular shape of the chocolate reminds me of Lotte’s Ghana chocolate:

In Kazuki’s wild imagination of a shoplifting teen Miri, we see that he has her stealing Poki Poki and the Choconut chocolate, two things that she is packing in her bag in Episode 5. There’s also a stack of Morio Kart 6 games (like 3 or 4, maybe for her and her friends, lol). 

The stationary stuff was replaced with makeup and other kinds of cosmetics, which fits in with what we see of her appearance. 

Looking at her face in the image below, Kazuki has her looking like Misaki, Miri’s mother. This makes sense, of course, she is her mom. He imagines her with the same color eye shadow though, which is interesting. Anyone who has watched anime, especially school based ones, for a while, likely know that wearing makeup goes against the usual school dress codes. 

The same goes for her earrings, especially if they are pierced. Most school dress codes in Japan don’t allow for earrings, so if someone does get ear piercings, it’s in adulthood, after they graduate. Even then though, clip on earrings are more common. A teen girl with pierced earrings though gives the image of delinquency. 

Miri is also show with the top buttons of her dress shirt unbuttoned and her tie loosened. All of which is against dress code as well. Her skirt was also altered to be a bit shorter than it is supposed to be (you can see that more in the last image below). Before we talk about that last image though, let’s talk about the aspects of Miri’s appearance that could go against some Japanese school dress codes, but which she has no actual control over.

Specifically the color of her hair and it being wavy. I’ll link to some articles that go into more details on these issues, but her is an excerpt from on Vice article. It mentions:

Text: The unnamed female student said her institution repeatedly demanded she dye her naturally brown hair black. She followed the school’s rules at first but eventually stopped, leading school officials to remove her desk from the classroom, erase her name from rosters, and check her hair roots. A court ordered the local government to pay her $3,100 in damages last February, but ruled the school has a right to impose hair regulations.

In another article entitled, #HairWeGo: Japanese take aim at school rule requiring black hair, from AsiaOne (which I will link to below), we have this segment:

Text: In most of Japan's public schools, pupils are only permitted to have straight black hair. They cannot bleach, dye or perm it. Conversely, any student whose hair is naturally light or curly can be made to straighten or dye it until it is the required shade of black.

The reason for these rules on hair color and needing all students to have straight black hair is because it is often associated with the ideal Japanese image. 

There have been lots of debate and discussion about these sorts of rules over on Japan Twitter, Japanese news, and etc. in recent years, with many calling these rules out. So, recently, many of these rules have been removed or, at least, are currently being reevaluated. 

But these changes are still new, ideas of differently colored hair like brown (or blond, like Kazuki) and hair that isn’t straight (curly, wavy, etc.) are viewed as outside of the norm. And therefore are often associated with acts of rebellion (dyeing hair, perming hair, etc.) rather than the possibility of them just being the natural state and color. 

I’ve worked at a number of Japanese elementary and junior high schools though, and I know that this sort of mentality is changing, especially as more and more biracial children are being born in Japan. But, there is still preconceived ideas there. I remember one teacher I worked with, had to dye their brown hair black for a formal event (outside of work) once. It was sad to see.

But, that’s also why I like the fact that a lot of the Buddy Daddies characters have brown hair (Miri, Kyutaro, Miss Anna) and many of the children Miri plays with have different hair color shades as well (different shades of brown, Taiga with blond-ish colored hair like Kazuki, etc.). I know it’s an anime, but the general character designs in Buddy Daddies leans more towards grounded than something you might find in a Shonen Jump series, etc. So, I think these choices also say something.

Finally, lets talk about this last image. In the background you have posters for the basically “Just Say No to Drugs!!” campaign in Japan (they don’t always use the Globe Mascot for all posters, it makes sense they would use one with a cop at a police station or police box location). There is also a poster warning about phone call scams.

But, I want to focus on Miri sitting with her legs crossed. The other day on Twitter, I saw a video of a woman crossing her legs on a train. An old man that was sitting next to her, and who was manspreading, got upset when she did this and whacked her legs with a newspaper. (I’ll link to think video below).

It’s seen as rude and, especially in the case of women, disrespectful. Of course, that doesn’t mean that people don’t cross their legs (that woman did) and that doesn’t mean that older man’s actions were okay. But, this is also why teen Miri is shown sitting with her legs crossed in Kazuki’s wild imagination, because it is associated with disrespect and the like (the speech patterns that she uses in Japanese are rude too, of course). 

I won’t include the image here, but teen Miri and teen Taiga being all over each other (like hugging each other and making a heart shape together, etc.) is viewed as too much PDA, which is also looked down upon in Japan. So, of course, Kazuki would end up including that in his “delinquent” version of Miri, lol.

[riniredrum]

♡ Gogo Fruit Ramune Candy from Japan Candy Store ♡