#japan discussion

[four-loose-screws]

I've heard that mustaches and beards or Hige, were popular with the Samurai in Japan and it was considered manly for a Samurai to have facial hair. This was also why Samurai helmets often had mustaches/beards. Facial hair also became associated with a military service in general in Japan.

After World War II, with the rise of the salaryman, facial hair became unfashionable and it was expected for men to be clean-shaven at all times, which has continued to today.

I've also read a few people are challenging this now, like a postman was threatened with losing his job for growing a mustache, but he responded by getting his lawyers involved and proving that his forcing him to shave was a violation of his human rights.

(Feel free to tell me if this is completely wrong).

Since none of this ever came up in my college studies (I avoided military matters and history on purpose; I focused more on Japanese religion, art, and fine culture), and I would just be doing the same as most anyone else here - a Google search - to confirm, I won't add too much to the discussion, ha ha.

I do have an anecdote though, that can confirm facial hair is picking back up as a normal thing to see in Japanese life - when I was an English teacher, one of my student's dad had a goatee. And he was no "bad boy" or anything - he was a super active member of his local community with 5 kids.

(Slightly off topic, but also, the mom in the family that lived in the apartment next to mine had tattoos.)

It's always amusing to to see Japanese culture still holding on to practices they adopted from the West, while the West has moved on to other things. At least... that's my experience in the US recently. For example, I've had 2 office jobs now where people seem to wear whatever the flying heck they want. One of my old managers wears ripped jeans almost daily. While Japanese office workers seem to largely still be wearing not only suits, but VERY specific suits like they're a uniform.

But things are changing, as they always are everywhere in the world. Whether a Japanese community as a whole accepts facial hair, tattoos, casual attire, etc. is just super case-by-case. One town will think nothing of people doing as they please with their appearance, while the next will end up on national news after someone is harassed so bad it leads to a lawsuit.

[otaku553]

Idk if u watch Bnha but i think u will love the Story right now it has over 60 Chapters.

As Yamato, Son of Kaido, heals from her wounds from a battle against her tyrannical father, a chance meeting with a injured boy in green opens her world. And that world, will change.The boy's name? Midoriya Izuku.

I mean absolutely no offense to the writer or the people who enjoy this fic but personally I get an ick every time I read she/her pronouns for Yamato, who is canonically trans. I’m sure otherwise I would really enjoy it, since Yamato is one of my favorite characters and I’m a fan of the bnha world as well, but,,, yeah

Yamato to me is such a powerful character in terms of the impact he has had on the fanbase. Especially as someone who presents usually pretty fem and has difficulty getting people to refer to me by my own preferred pronouns, I love seeing people acknowledge Yamato’s chosen identity :)

Thanks for the recommendation though!! Crossovers are my bread and butter, so if you find any other fics you think I might like, do feel free to send them my way!

[comikadraws]

Sasuke and the Final Battle

Alright! So personally, I dislike the conclusion that Sasuke's character got in canon. Here's why!

I am putting in pluses between panels to ensure nobody thinks those panels belong together.

The premise of the battle is as follows: Sasuke, motivated by the loss of his family, comes up with a plan to rectify the injustice he experienced which involves killing Naruto - not just because it promises him the power he seeks but also because he wants to cut that bond. It's a direct parallel to the first VotE fight.

Now, I still think Sasuke deserved better and I am very sorry to all Sasuke fans, but we need to get this one out of the way first.

While Sasuke's plans in the first VotE fight made a lot of sense, here, in the second fight, they are downright insane. He essentially plans to take over the world, become a dictator, and maintain his rule in neverending loneliness by becoming immortal. It doesn't need a genius to see that this should probably be considered tyrannical and self-destructive. And yes, he absolutely needed someone to knock some sense into him. But please keep in mind that the degree of Sasuke's insanity is a deliberate choice of the writer. A plot device for picking sides.

And it also makes a lot of sense for Konoha to be wary of him. Outside of this fight, he switched sides like five times. That's not something that would make you look particularly trustworthy or reliable.

It makes sense for Sasuke to feel guilty for his actions. He tried to kill his friends and comrades on multiple occasions. That's not something anybody would feel proud of.

But now, here are the issues I have with this battle and its conclusion:

Sasuke's core motivation is being glossed over

There's a huge bias going on in favor of Konoha and Naruto

Sasuke's sudden change of heart is abrupt and inconsistent with his character

The conclusion of Sasuke's character only exists in theory

Core Motivation

Sasuke's core motivation is the injustice experienced by the victims of the Uchiha massacre. His pain, loneliness, or even his wish for change are merely symptomatic, yet they are the only motivations ever acknowledged throughout the battle - even by Sasuke himself. I repeat: The systemic injustice that caused the massacre gets borderline ignored.

And if you ask me, there's a reason for that. Naruto needs to physically and ideologically defeat Sasuke - preferably without looking like the bad guy for shutting down a victim's cry for change and justice. But that only works by erasing and not ever talking about the corruption of the system. As a consequence, only Sasuke's "symptoms" remain - his detachment from everyone, the pain he embraces and causes, the unrealistic demands he has - and he ends up looking insane to the reader.

But defeating Sasuke and reducing his motivation to insanity like that, not acknowledging and condemning the injustice that motivates him, can only come at the cost of his depth, authenticity, and readability as a character.

The Konoha Bias

This also makes Kishimoto seem incredibly biased when it comes to Konoha. The crimes the village has committed, be it genocide, slavery, or child abuse, usually merely fulfill the purpose of "sad backstories" rather than being given the time and dignity to be properly identified, criticized, and rectified in the story. Injustice is allowed to be a character motivation or a flavor in the story, but it is not allowed to be a theme. That is no different here. Sasuke's traumas (though not their origin) are used to inform his actions but not shown as the result of the depravity of the system.

Aside from this linking back to Sasuke's character being deprived of his ideological value in the story (due to being a victim of the system and demanding change), this lack of attention and awareness toward the injustice reads like propaganda from an irl perspective. These are some of the most contemptworthy acts in existence we are talking about. And yet Konoha gets away unscathed.

Meanwhile, Sasuke, who is seemingly the only person demanding change, is intentionally characterized as "crazy", inevitably invalidating him and his desire for change. It basically reads as "yes, this system is rotten but everybody wanting to change it is evil". Change becomes evil by association. It's disheartening, demoralizing, and disappointing.

The Change of Heart

Now let's take a look at how his character actually progresses during this battle.

Sasuke wants to change the world even if that means killing Naruto or being lonely

Sasuke re-evaluates his relationship with Naruto

Sasuke realizes he no longer wants to kill Naruto or be lonely even if that means the world never changes

Now. Rethinking his self-destructive approach is, without question, a positive change. But that is not the problem here.

The problem is that this change in his character occurs rather unprompted. Sasuke, the entirety of the story, has ignored his own suffering in favor of justice. He has ignored every single character crying over him or telling him that they don't want him to ruin or endanger himself. But then Naruto basically says "it hurts to watch you suffer" and Sasuke suddenly rethinks his entire ideology. Naruto is basically only treating one of Sasuke's symptoms but not their origin.

This is unrealistic for his character and hurts his coherence (as well a invalidating him). It is a forced plot convenience to avoid any sort of compromise between Naruto and Sasuke. Both because Naruto has to come out on top due to genre conventions and also because Konoha cannot be questioned.

Missing Conclusion

Furthermore, this results in Sasuke's arc never coming to an actual "conclusion". As a victim, he should have been given justice. As someone who was supposedly suffering under his loneliness, he should have been given companionship. As a villain, somebody should have pointed out his hypocrisy and the wrongs he has committed.

None of that happened. Sasuke is not given justice and is even incarcerated in the most undignified and dehumanizing fashion possible in the anime. Afterward, he takes off alone. So in the end, even the "power of friendship" resolution that Kishimoto attempted to write only occurred on a surface level and failed in its execution. Sasuke is not changed because he realizes he is a hypocrite and doing more harm than good but because of a plot convenience. Sasuke internalized none of what he supposedly learned and practically had no conclusion whatsoever. He is still suffering. Nothing has changed.

The Point

And at this point, I'm just wondering "what was the point?". Clearly, the point of Sasuke's character wasn't to explore the darkness of the shinobi system. And it wasn't to seek justice for the horrors it has committed. It also wasn't about helping Sasuke heal from any of the hardships he's endured. Of course, all of these points were acknowledged by the story but never truly dealt with. A story can make as many promises as it wants and still follow up on none.

The point was, unfortunately, to be Naruto's trophy. Naruto is the main character, therefore he must remain ideologically unchallenged and perfect, he must have the strongest jutsu arsenal and he must have the most unwavering determination. Even if that means bending the other characters to the plot's needs. Sasuke is, thanks to genre conventions, not allowed to be right and Naruto cannot be wrong. A compromise or any justice at all become impossible unless they are a perfect match for Naruto's ideas of compromise and justice. While this doesn't mean that Kishimoto didn't care for Sasuke's story, Naruto's goal of saving Sasuke and becoming Hokage played a bigger role as compared to Sasuke's of changing the shinobi system, to the point that the latter was ignored whenever it inconvenienced Konoha's image.

[resdayn]

"headcanoning mizu as transmasc is racist because mizu is half japanese" is SO disingenuous

you guys know there are transmasc japanese people right? there are transmasc people who are mixed race? is them existing also racist? should transmascs only be allowed to see similarities to their gender in white people?

[spiral-down-the-rabbit-hole]

I see a lot of people complaining about the redesigns and as much as I prefer some of the older ones, I think it was really time to update things

Like, imagine cole still looking like this in 2024

[pinkinsect]

they should let me cite my tumblr mutuals on academic papers

[pussysidon]

When I want to not be weird about something but I have literally never been normal about a piece of media in my life

[akkivee]

HAPPY 7 YEARS OF HYPMIC EVERYONE 🎰🥳🎰🥳🎰🥳

to celebrate, i’m just going to list seven moments hypmic irrevocably changed the trajectory of my entire life lmao

1️⃣ buying the lives was probably the best worst thing i could have ever done to myself lmao. by the time i’d realised you could buy them, only the 2nd&3rd lives were out on dvd (they’re bundled together on one set), and though it wasn’t the first hypmic purchase i made, it kicked off the lives obsession lol. the 2nd live in particular blew my mind lol it was the first time most of the cast were on stage for hypmic and i’ll never forget the happy surprise on kijima-san’s face when the crowd screamed along to his call and response parts in drb lol. on top of that, kimura beatboxed live on stage confirming it really was ichiro beatboxing, shiraimu and nozu in lieu of souma-san’s absence gave it their all singing his parts and nozu dropped the sickest freestyle, and the samajuto cigarette kiss was born and so thoroughly rewired everyone’s brains, it just became part of samatoki’s character lmao

2️⃣ this list very easily can be just about the lives lol but i also loved getting to watch them live lol. forever and always 🖕🖕corona but getting to sidestep around abema’s booboo dookie region locks to watch the 5th live set off a precedence for needing to live watch them lmao. it’s probably the snowball that kicked off the avalanche that convinced me to try to go to japan for the first time in ten years, give or take, and bat’s 8th live day two was their most special live yet lmao

3️⃣ ITS NOT A LIVE ITS A STREAM LOL but the moment the kuukou brainrot roundhouse kicked me in the face was watching kuukou’s spirit possess hayama-san in real time lol i would have saved myself from so much heartbreak if i had stayed a matenhoe but nooooooo kuukou had to manifest in his seiyuu and i haaaaaad to watch it happen live and now i’m kuukou’s btch 🙄

4️⃣ wanna know how i became a matenrou stan lol???? jakurai’s voice introducing matenrou to the world in drb and hifumi flexing the love his women give to him makes him filthy rich lmao

5️⃣ i’ve felt a lot of frustration whilst mucking about in hypmic land, but i don’t think i have ever experienced as frustrating emotional rollercoaster ride more than the one hypstage has taken me on lmao!!!!! hypmic sneakily changing their description of the franchise from ‘voice project’ to ‘multimedia project’ when it was announced, okay actually showing a fantastic story despite hypmic’s ‘lack’ of one back in the day, nagosaka getting introduced and giving us simultaneously the best and ‘worst’ depiction of kuukou, only exclude them in the following tracks lmaooo, creating a really cool concept for mixing division pairs with an oridivi only for it to get cancelled like genuinely 🖕🖕covid but rolling up with the greatest comeback in the form of the rep lives where in the middle of the run we were given the best kuukou performance yet, shortly followed by the announcement that everyone was graduating!!!!!!!! but bop 2023 was magical; a fantastic send off to a legendary cast and closure to the pinnacle of stage production and hypmic storytelli— the stage was rebooted six months later in an absolute betrayal that was quite literally assuaged my love for hypmic, hatred for nelke and getting REAL WOMEN on stage lmao

6️⃣ and so like lemme circle back around to bat’s 8th live lmao. do you know how crazy that time was lol???? bat stans threw together a really sick flower display at a local flower shop, crowdfunded to make the lights display in this popular mall in nagoya shine purple for them, bars dedicating drinks for bat and welcoming live goers for an after party drink, day two of the live fell on bat’s 3rd anniversary and a few days prior they dropped the bright and dark mv for hypstage and the hella awesome banquet mv that bat stans ripped to shreds analysing jp bat fans my BELOVED lmao november is truly a bat month lol but anyway the 8th live was a peak time and i miss it daily!!!!!!!!

7️⃣ instead of being really gross and sappy about kuukou or the piece of merch that got me into hypmic lol shoutout to the music like actually lol. dba locked me in the moment i listened to it and i think very fondly of those days going thru the youtube for more lol. gave me a refreshed appreciation for music, esp jp music, got me to listen to more music instead of the couple hundred or so songs i’ve been listening to since i was in middle school LOL. so thanks hypmic, for giving me peak dissociation songs (like tigridia), the hypest shit that had me yelling (like moonlight shadow) and songs that had my heart racing at 3 in the morning and thoroughly unable to sleep lol (can you believe kaigen exists in this world and they let that shit drop during bat vs mtr 6th live and bc the bat seiyuu’s stage presence is just top tier they blew it out of the park frame one and she says the brainrot didn’t truly settle until live watching hayama-san get possessed but the damage was truly done listening to that calced cacophony of noise and in the ensuing silence as hayama-san’s ‘kaigen’ echoed throughout the studio OH IM GOING TO BE SICK—)

[i-am-trans-gwender]

Isekai but it's not actually an Isekai. It's an American weeb whose a foreign exchange student in Japan but he treats the experience as if it was an Isekai anime.

[danzainosolitude]

Once again I read fanfiction that seems to have been precisely written to deal psychic damage to me.

[sexy-stable-diffusion]

[age-of-moonknight]

“The Moon Warrior,” Marvel 85th Anniversary Special (Vol. 1/2024), #1.

Writer and artist: Yuji Kaku; Special thanks to Ken Kunito

[renthony]

My project that started as, "hey, it would be fun to re-watch Steven Universe and do a liveblog" has become, "what if I did an intensive research project on-par with my American cinema censorship project, this time focusing on the timeline of queer representation in American animation?"

I am a menace and I will not be stopped. And now you will all have to hear my opinions about The Simpsons. I'm so sorry.

[icecream-and-gadreel]

Had a student in her late 60's who was frustrated about LGBT debates in Japan. The government put tons of money into libraries that only had LGBT books, which she thought was a waste of time.

I was ready to "Let's agree to disagree" with her, but then she said "It's so frustrating, we never had these debates back in the day. It's a part of our culture! Samurai had boyfriends because they couldn't bring a woman to war with them. Transgender people were common too. We didn't have these debates until Western views got popular here. Building a library isn't helpful, they need to do things to actually protect gay people!"

So yeah anyway we love her, we adore her, pass it on

[unweavinglies]

As you said in your post, 100% a big part of the reason the fandom is Like That about Gonta is that drv3 itself is also kinda Like That about him too. RIP Gonta you did not deserve thsi treatment 🙏

Also I followed this acc way back in the day never thought you’d ever post again. Neat

I do understand where the Fandom comes from when it comes to the ableism presented in canon--whether that ableism was a purposeful display of micro-aggressions or an unintentional happenstance. It seems that people do not fully understand what a micro-aggression looks like, and thusly, are not able to understand it.

Still, that is why I originally made my Gonta analysis to begin with--to point out these microaggressions, to talk about it. However, as a friend pointed out to me, I do believe the approach of gently showing everyone what microaggressions look like was a bit too gentle.

Sometimes, you do need to be heavy-handed in order to make your point. I'm glad that people are reblogging it and taking my words seriously. It's a very important topic for me--and I'm sorry for not doing it sooner, to be frank. I should have stopped being stubborn a long time ago.

And, thank you for sticking around. Truth be told, I didn't expect to come back either. However, after so long of being gone and in a fandom where I felt discouraged from analyzing the text and drawing conclusions, I do miss it.

I do not really know what kind of analyses I want to do, however. I have that itch, but I don't have any strong ideas that aren't just, explicitly headcanon based. Perhaps I can discuss headcanons here as well?

I'm not sure. But still. Thank you for sticking around.

[rizumuj]

Question: Is Gyaru fashion and culture that taboo or deviant that scenes like this need to exist?

I've seen scenes like this occur in shows years, even decades after Doremi, and it's never explained why the "paler skin, straightened hair" aesthetic is forced on the gyaru ladies other than the enforcer thinking that style is better than gyaru. So I just wanna know from a Japanese cultural perspective: why is that? And why would a show like Doremi, which preached about accepting people's differences and cultures the previous season, would produce a scene like this?