Life in Japan is Not Easy

Being a Japan blogger, I often read comments from young people around the world about how they "wished they'd been born Japanese," and this always makes me smile a little. While Japan is a wonderful country that's managed to build a peaceful, happy society, there are some areas of life here that the average American or European would have some trouble dealing with. First, education is very important to the Japanese, which means students have to endure school on Saturdays and juku (cram school) in the evenings in order to keep up with studies. In order to get into a good high school or university, students must spend two years or more in "entrance exam hell," too. Then there's the important aspect of getting a job, and students in their third year of university begin a very structured job search, interviewing with hundreds of companies in the hopes of being offered an employment contract with a good one.There's a funny Cup Noodle CM -- er, TV commercial -- which shows job-seeking university students making a difficult trek through the snow. Suddenly they're confronted by five hostile polar bears, who turn out to be the interviewers that the applicants must get past in order to be hired. The Japanese job interview process itself is positively bizarre, too. As far as I can tell, applicants are required to suppress every scrap of personality and humbly downplay all their past achievements if they want to get hired.

A Cup Noodle commercial supporting young job seekers.

The History of Hentai Anime

One reason I believe anime became so popular around the world is that it's a medium that's free to tell dramatic stories involving violence, death, love and even sex, which was a big change over the days when American cartoons were overseen by parental watchdog groups to ensure they contained only "wholesome values." While anime has always been well stocked with stories about giant robots, transforming magical girls and sports heroes, there's always been a dark sub-genre hiding in the shadows which most fans eventually encounter in one form or another. This is the genre of overtly sexual animation known as hentai in the West, though this word just means "perverted" or "abnormal" in Japanese, without any reference to animation or otaku culture. (In case you were wondering, Japanese would just use the term juu-hachi kin anime or "anime that anyone under the age of 18 is forbidden from watching," which is a bit of a pun since it also sounds like the word for "18 carat gold.")

The idea of ero-themed art is nothing new, of course: Japan's 300+ year tradition of 春画 shunga ("spring pictures"), based on earlier influences from China, could probably make Hugh Hefner blush. The modern "hentai" genre began taking shape in the mid 80s with the classic Cream Lemon, a series of loosely related stories created by the top creative talent of the day, directors and animators and character designers who also worked on Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross, and other mainstream shows. While Akira, Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing were bringing mainstream anime to fans around the world, ecchi titles like Urotsukidoji/Legend of the Overfiend, La Blue Girl and Bible Black were introducing the steamy side of animation. While Japanese know their popular culture is somewhat unique in the world, they're generally unaware that many associate their country with, say, "naughty tentacles," or that comedians like Jon Stewart make jokes about them.

Some thoughts on the history of hentai.

More Sailor Moon Stuff

Remember that we've got tons of great Sailor Moon products on the site right now, from plush toys to pantsu to those dreamy Transform Compacts that are being reissued in May. Remember that Sailor Moon items are removed from the site when they sell out, so make sure you shop early as quantities are often very limited.