Obession with Japan

Many young adults have come in contact with several works of japanese entertainment, when they were children. Video games, anime, manga, you name it.

Many did so while they were kids. Everyone watched Dragon Ball Z and played, say, Final Fantasy VII or Street Fighter.

Many of those shows and games tend to have ingrained aspects of japanese culture, aesthetics and philosophy to them. Since you watched/played them while you were young and were often entertained by them, you tend to associate most things japanese with good memories and feelings from your childhood. It's why many weebs (myself included) feel giddy when looking at those pictures of japanese streets. It's a form of vicariously living childhood through japanese culture.

Ditto, is an example.

For me personally, Japan represents one of the few, perhaps the only first world country where they achieve balance between tradition and progress

They're homogenous right wing honour based society which makes cutting edge entertainment and technology, which is based, the fact that lefties and liberals hates them for it also helps

They've mastered escapism.

Also I like jacking off to cute cartoon girls and they're also the best at that.

>Everyone watched Dragon Ball Z and played, say, Final Fantasy VII or Street Fighter.

I've never watched Dragon ball or played those games.

I watched Sailor Moon

Just got back from Japan. Whilst I loved it, it is not THAT special

I THINK I'M TURNING JAPANESE I THINK I'M TURNING JAPANESE I REALLY THINK SO

>oldest meme civilization on earth
>can't into modern pop culture because communism

sad!

It's hitler's fault

NO SEX NO DRUGS NO WINE NO WOMEN NO FUN NO SIN NO YOU NO MATTER IT'S DARK

EVERYONE AROUND ME IS A TOTAL STRANGER

EVERYONE AVOIDS ME LIKE A CYCLONE RANGER

Their women are ripe for breeding

JK's are the best

Definetly due in part to what these anons said
Imo this aswell as how hermit like they were before. Long term Japan hasnt been creating empires of waging wars outside of anyone itself. It stuck to its own Island keeping its culture relatively "pure" from outside influence compared to most, then when they finally did try at an empire it was over before they could really wipe out their holdings sense of identity. Theyre relatively alone in Asia not sharing many common features with anyone else who likes them like for say the US and Uk( South Korea despises them for WW2) so this along with its location created the ideal ally for America in Asia. Partly-consequential for why they retained their status as a superpower.
Coming back to the original point. Japan retained a unique culture unlike anyone else, they have a rich history, and they are a super power with close ties to the US. This paved the way for cultural exports such as anime etc. And when people decide they dont like their own countries pop culture theyre not going to pick some random small weak country they can choose Japan for its dual sense of familairity and foreignness.

Japan is kawaii desu.

Japan is tanoshii desu.

Japan is sugoi desu.

Yet this is the only Japanese related thread on /hia/.

From a westerner's perspective Japan is a very exotic in parts even obscure place. Yet it is very much a developed country, super clean and people treat you with respect. Find me any other country that meets these standards, OP!

Japan is prettt great op.If you go with friends it's just like the cartoons.

because they are weeb faggots who can't be bothered to carry on their own culture

Completely different culture

Fat greasy neckbeards blame their loneliness on "stuck up western women" rather than any personal flaws and fantasize that they would be assigned a submissive and loyal hentai girl as soon as they set foot in the country, despite everything about them being even more repulsive in a country that values hard work, hygiene etc. as much as Japan.

Iran.
It's basically the pearl of the middle east.
Don't swallow the US/UN/saudi/jew propaganda.
Libanon was also modernised, but is slowly sliding back into medieval times (thanks to wahabbis.)
Georgia is superancient christian land that managed to survive anything the muslim world threw at it. Very old culture.

Japan is only known because of being radioactive and sucking American dick. And America exported their hollywood depiction of Japan to the rest of the west. Anime became popular because it shows titties, unlike western cartoons. True japanese hate anime.

>weeb "culture" is for people who want to indulge in consumerism but consider themselves too hip or edgy to do so with their own western version.

Or I just like their cartoons. Not everyone has to have some kind of convoluted ulterior motive that revolves around feeling superior.

>own western version

There is none. You might dismiss it as puerile bullshit for manchildren but that doesn't make it any less unique. Also, funny you should mention consumerism since the vast majority of western anime fans, the relatively recent popularity of streaming services notwithstanding, are pirates who get their anime for free.

a mix of being good in particular types of modern entertainment, being a very developed non-Western country that's compatible with the West regarding certain values (unlike muslim countries) and because their industry made some cool stuff over the years that gave them a great reputation

get a load of this guy!

>It's basically the pearl of the middle east.
Yeah, let's not make stupid comparaison. Iran is far from being as modern, clean, safe as Japan. Few countries are actually.

>how can i be a consumerist when i don't even pay for it?

They are not obsessed with japan they are obsessed with anime.

They are obsessed with anime because they are pedohpiles.

Escapism

Western comics/cartoons don't cut it for me mainly because they're too ugly in character (not just art but personality and act).

Anime/manga characterization are done on a purity of the mind where a character conveys their meaning through emotion and context without overtly convuluted shit.

Example of this is any comic book character vs generic season anime characters.

Lets take Superman, the characterization of superman is so complex and his powers are so convoluted and deals with million different "universe" with many different artist/writers. If you want to get into these comics, you have to try to watch/read/understand all of the history of the 100 years of comic character to understand their motives/powers/characterization.

On the other hand, a season anime character is simple to understand with simple characterization.

In short people with autism/introversion are attracted to anime/manga characterization due to simple/easy to understand characters.

Well on top of this, the other main reason is simply because lack of teen/adult oriented shows in western cartoon/comic.

Almost exclusively, the western cartoon/comic is one that's aimed at children. This left the void in many young adults and teens, they then found anime as a result.

There is plenty of western
Blacksad, Corto Maltese, Blueberry, The Incal, Torpedo...

>implying it's not super autistic to memorize all of Superman's powers and "feats of strength"

Yeah Superman makes no sense.

Action Comics #1: Superman reveals himself to the world as an adult. Clark Kent works for the Daily Star under George Taylor.
Action Comics #2: Clark Kent works for the Cleveland Evening News under George Taylor.
Action Comics #3: Clark works for the Daily Star again.
Some later issue of Action Comics (too lazy to check): Clark and Lois of the Daily Star are sent to investigate a war in some country.
Next issue: Clark and Lois of thr Daily Planet are still in that warzone. The Daily Planet is run by George Taylor.
A couple of issues later: The Daily Planet is run by Parry White.
More Fun Comics #101: Superboy reveals himself to the world as a kid.
Later issues of More Fun Comics: Superboy grows up in suburban Metropolis. (I think specifically Midvale.)
Superboy #2: Superboy grows up in Smallville.

Much later...

Superman of Earth-One works for the Daily Planet under Perry White. Revealed his powers as a boy growing up in Smallvile.

Superman of Earth-Two works for the Daily Star under George Taylor. Revealed his powers as a man. Also grew up in Smallville.

No indication when Earth-Two ends and Earth-One begins.

This actually. They learned from the West and became the top player in East Asia without sacrificing their population to mass immigration and altogether tossing their culture. Ironically, the time has come for Europe and European descendant countries to follow the part of Japan if it wants to survive.

Both liberals/left and conservatives/right are neutral/positive towards japan.

However there grievences both parties bring up to Japan on different issues.

Some minor people on both isle doesn't like how Japan has legal loli manga. "Protect the imaginary children." Or how Japan has rape manga/anime/games. They complain that it promotes rape, yet Japan's crime rate, rape rate is a small fraction of that of America and is one of the least likely places to be raped even among the developed countries. You're more than 27x likely to be raped in the US, per capita than in Japan. 150x more likely to be a victim of gun in US than Japan. 26x more likely to be killed in the US than Japan.

Its absurd level of low crime in many of the East asian countries.

My theory for any obsession with Japan (it's not just on the internet, y'know) is that Japan has a culture that's noticeably different to Western cultures, without being a blatantly inferior to it.
Moreover, Japan produces a lot of pop-culture content, which Westerners love because of how different it feels. It's also able to fill in niches Western pop-culture struggles to fill.

They and Hong Kong produce a bunch of drama shows. My wife loves watching them all the time.

They are just less likely to report sexual offences. We don't need woman-only cars in the West. In Japan most teenage girls experienced some sort of sexual harassment on trains.
Some in Asia in general have it worse than in the West. It's possibly the reason why suicide rates for women are so high there.

First lets recognize that Japanese exports are not just for weebs. Sony TVs, Toyota cars, Pokemon, Nintendo, and many other companies are universally known.

The key here is the symbiotic relationship between Japan and the United States. The "personalities" of the two countries are very different but their differences fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Japan's long history and island geography make the Japanese people very traditional. However, a country with a traditional mindset doesn't just stay in one place. They still try to progress their country further, but they do so with a focus on the incremental improvement to existing technology rather than big leaps in innovation. For a pre-war example look at the battleship Yamato: this ship was the Japanese attempt to make the perfect battleship and I'd say they came pretty close. However they failed to recognize that jumps in innovation had made the battleship obsolete in WW2. Another example comes post-war and that is anime. Anime started out as an imitation of the Disney animation style of the 40s and 50s, but over time the Japanese took this style and slowly made little incremental improvements in an attempt to perfect it.

Then we have the United States, who has abandoned 2D theatrical animation a long time ago in favor of the larger jump in technology, 3D animation. The personality of the United States is one where the people strive to make the next big leap and to completely change how things were previously done. Many examples of innovative jumps exist in US history and they continue today with companies like Tesla and Google. Relying on innovation is less smooth than the Japanese mindset, but when it works it can create amazing things.

So the US and Japan lean on each other. The US makes big leaps in technology then the baton is handed off to Japan who takes that innovation and finds out how to perfect it. It's a nice little relationship and benefits us both.

some people just like 2d moar, it doesn't take any special technology to make 3d animation, everybody can do that with the right amount of budget, but the 3d animation you are talking about generally looks more like those "cartoons" in stop-motion and clay so it cannot be applied to Japanese-style animation

also Japanese cars are generally better than the American in any way, american car industry is dead, and Japan is still leading big time in certain niche technology, like photography (Nikon, Canon, Fuji) or electronic music instruments (Roland, Korg etc)

South Korea is industrialized and China is getting there.

They produce pop culture on a staggering scale.

Music, idols, video games, manga, anime, movies, TV shows (not just dramas like Korea), electronics, cars, samurai, ninjas, giant robots etc.

Only country even comparable in the variety and quantity of entertainment production is the USA.

I used to be a little obsessed in my teens. But lurk around Veeky Forums enough and you'll learn of unit 731, nanking, etc, and all that idolization disappears.

People who have to live and work in Japan don't like Japan.

Unless you can find some evidence, this is literally self-confirmation. Veeky Forums is a Japanese image board owned by a Jap. No wonder you see so much Japanese culture here!

Literally both 2D and 3D animation use the same software these days, the difference is in the presentation. The days of animators toiling over tens of thousands of hand-drawn cells are long gone... or at least outsourced to places with more easily exploitable labor.

It's worth noting that most of the innovations that make anime "anime" were in fact pioneered by Walt Disney, only adapted for different market pressures and a different audience.

For one thing, the Japanese audience is bigger and has a higher threshold for suspension of disbelief. For example in traditional kabuki theater they had black-clad stagehands moving props around for visual effect, and the audience would pretend like they weren't there. Compare that to traditional Shakespearean theater, where doing something like that would be an easy way to get a rotten hunk of lettuce thrown at your head by some asshole going "hey! who is that guy? Who does he think he's fooling?", so they tended to have fewer visual flourishes and relied more on lyrical prose to carry the interest of the audience.

In Japan it's not considered strange or unusual for a 60 year old man who is a distinguished business type to be sitting on the train reading baseball manga next to some 15 year old girl reading Shoju about far-away castles and dashing princes. The market may be huge but it's also insanely competitive. Doujinshi, or amateur manga, is produced by hundreds of thousands of aspiring mangeka, who produce huge volumes in hope of getting noticed. In fact in the entire industry there is only a single westerner, a frenchman who has lived and worked in Japan for most of his life.

Walt Disney struggled for years to break into the adult audience, and the failure of the movie "Fantasia" to galvanize adult interest in animation was one of the biggest regrets of his career. In fact his only movies which were the company-saving smash hits that he needed were his princess movies, aimed at little girls.

Some of your points are valid, but none of them discard the fact that anime is steeped in tradition. Little Witch Academy's allegory to the Japanese animation industry constantly reinforces how important tradition is. And that is a self-critisive piece coming from within the industry.

Your points about the car industry only further reinforce my points. The car as a tool for the average person was an innovation of Henry Ford but as the industry became more solidified and big advancements started to be less prevalent the Japanese came in and took over the industry through their efforts to perfect the car. Toyotas place in the auto market isn't marked by any huge innovations but on the millions of little improvements they made to the existing concept. And now with Tesla the US has once again made a jump in innovation by going in a completely different direction. And now Toyota is making plans in line with Teslas. And so the cycle between the U.S. and Japan continues.

The most innovative member of the camera industry is currently RED in the professional world and GoPro in the personal camera market, both American. Canon and Nikon have their origins as military optics manufactures and have built a name on quality lenses from a long history in the field.

I'm not as well versed in the music industry but an exception doesn't counter what is clearly a broader trend.

weren't most of those disney movies just adaptations of grimm's fairy tales?

It depends. Much of Walt's early inspiration drew from his childhood roots reading German folk tales like Pinocchio, but he was also inspired by the early pioneers of animation like Winsor McCay (the first true animator... crazy fucker used to make cartoons by hand, by himself. Tens of thousands of drawings on paper that he would exhaustively produce and incorporate into his circus shows.)

But the thing that we need to remember before Disney, animation in the west was largely seen as throwaway pulp "cartoons" that used mindless absurdity to entertain children. Disney had been enthralled with animation his entire life, he and his brother Roy would string up bed-sheets in their family kitchen and project their hand-made cartoons onto it for their family to watch. As an adult he realized the potential of this medium for more than mere cheap slapstick, but to tell a story with as much life and vibrancy as a live movie. He specifically sought out timeless tales because he knew that those were historically successful narratives, and he brought them to a modern audience with modern sensibilities (we didn't need that scene in the historical Cinderella where her wicked step-sisters mutilate their feat trying to make them fit into the glass slipper!)

One of the first movies that Disney wanted to make was John Carter of Mars, which was NOT a fairy tale but squarely aimed at the men 16 - 35 demographic, but did not persist when making good looking sword fighting scenes proved to be insanely more difficult than they initially realized. One of the amazing things about the movie Pinocchio is that virutally all the "props" in the movie, like Geppetto's workshop, started as live action props that Disney would have his animators look at and draw from life, such was the meticulous level of craftsmanship that Disney pioneered in the world of animation.

And who says that flaming right-wing dickbags can't also be great artists?

>tfw prime american animation is a rotting corpse
No wonder /co/ is such a shithole, they have to discuss crap like Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty.

Pinocchio is Italian, not German. The author was Carlo Collodi.

You're right, I should have made that distinction that Pinocchio was Italian of origin, but that Walt and Roy grew up in a traditional German household, of which Pinocchio would have been one of many fables that they would have read growing up, in addition to the Grimm fairy tales.

There's a reason Disney had a soft spot for animated old timers with German accents. That's probably the way he was told those stories growing up

Best Korea isn't. And the fact that China is rising doesn't its culture attracting.

>tfw prime american animation is a rotting corpse
Yeah, but in all fairness... Walt gave us furries
>Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty
Bojack Horseman is cynical poop, but I guarantee you that Robert Heinlein would have fucking loved Rick and Morty for being basically a humorous take on The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and Heinlein was as right-wing as they come.

They make the best videogames, including soundtracks. According to my taste of course.

As a sub-par white guy with blond hair it's very easy to get laid in Korea and Japan. Brazil too for that matter. Sometimes the memes are real.

I jumped ship from weeabooism to koreabooism years ago. No idea why some people still care about animeshit anymore 2bh.

I was talking about the 19th century. Nowadays many countries industrialized. Korea, like Japan, also started to spread its culture.

>South Korea is industrialized and China is getting there.
yes, but only recently. Japan has been industrialized since the 19th century. Also, SK pop culture is incredibly popular among younger generations, much the same way Japan was/is

Japan is extremely distinct from other cultures in oriental world, and their modern culture has done a very fine job at preserving this. I think the West envies this, our culture has been replaced by vacant materialism. America in particular once had a very distinct culture, but today we are basically a nation with no culture. We all wear t-shirts and jeans and watch superhero movies. What's left with Christianity has been shamed to oblivion by the mainstream.

I think the West craves an strong culture that is interlocked with daily life, and Japan provides this.

>America in particular once had a very distinct culture, but today we are basically a nation with no culture. We all wear t-shirts and jeans and watch superhero movies.
That is American culture though. Just because everyone else does it now doesn't mean it isn't American to begin with.

Chinese culture is shit, friendo.

>our culture has been replaced by vacant materialism.
LMAO Japan's corporations dominate the modern cultural life of that country in addition to weeabshit being the most materialistic things fucking out there.

Fuck off with your rose tinted glasses.

Glorious Nihon is glorious inventors of the sharpest swords assassinculture bushido-buddhism tentaclerape loliporn the Nissan skyline

What's so good about Soth Korean pop culture anyways?
The music is the same generic pop crap it is in japland, manhua is literally indistinguishable from manga, and their TV dramas are all the same schlocky shit you find in any East Asian country.
About the only thing I can find exceptional about South Korean culture is their food.

Given the prevalence of Hollywood throughout the world - I wonder how often other cultures ask this same question about the US.