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Cultural Corner|Lost in Translation|Crossing Over|Fandom|2 Cents

Cultural Corner

Life Philosophy

    In the Japanese culture there is a very definite shift in world view from that of western nations.  This can confuse us greatly. For one thing, anime seems to follow three veins.  The first is that the hero is never the strongest or the best - very rarely does an anime hero 'always win' and almost never alone.  They are best for some other reason.  They also tend to focus on group effort.  It is more important to trust your friends and work together than to be good at what you do. This is at odds with the American view of the perfect hero as a loner who can do anything and rarely has close friends. Think about it: Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Indiana Jones - they all worked solo.  Another difference is the focus on duty and family loyalty.  Kagome (Inuyasha) travels back to the feudal era to find jewel shards because it is her duty as the only one who can detect and purify shards.  She also does it because she broke the shard.  That makes it her responsibility.  Sakura (CC) goes after the cards instead of letting Li do it, because she let them out which makes it her responsibility.  This theme pops up over and over again, and we have a hard time figuring out why.  We wonder why Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru stop fighting long enough to defeat an enemy of their father, or why Inuyasha protects Kikyo even though he no longer loves her.  It's all about honor - family honor, personal honor.  The Japanese focus very heavily on keeping ones word, correcting ones mistakes and defending ones family.

    Oh, one other thing.  You ever notice how the main character always teaches the people he defeats an important lesson (unless he destroys him)? Or, if he loses, they teach him an important lesson that forever changes him? This is especially noticeable in Rurouni Kenshin and Pokemon.  The Japanese theory is that the person who wins is right.  And anyone who doesn't think so should take a very close look at WWII.  The whole Japanese philosophy on life shifted.  They stopped considering suicide an honorable out, they gave up their old religions, and a whole bunch of stuff lie that. So when your hero loses and then ups and rearranges his whole life, he isn't a skitz, he's a normal Japanese person.

    I had something else much better to write in here, but I can't remember what it is... if I ever do I'll be sure to post it ^^"