Forum - View topicINTEREST: BBC Documentary Features Otaku Culture Tonight
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ibi
Posts: 4 |
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=o cant wait to watch it. this subject has always confused me about japan. i mean cmon, its famous for woman being grouped on the trains, they have a penis festival/celebration thing, more and more japanese porn each day on american sites, fanservice in anime, brothels in plain view and with a decent amount of them around (from what I've seen on other videos so its not totally accurate i guess). there's just loads of stuff related to sex in japan that it makes me wonder why this is even a thing O.o am i the only one?
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Dop.L
Posts: 725 Location: London |
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I think I lost count of the number of times they showed that big YuYuShiki poster!
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faintsmile1992
 Posts: 295 Location: England |
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Kotaku is more or less correct about the problems with the Observer piece, which was written for a UK audience and reflects British concerns about where we are headed. (Its its interesting people used to see Japan as a positive, almost sci-fi future and now we more often see it as some dehumanised, dystopian future.) Naturally the British newspaper piece is inaccurate, we should expect that because they always are. Just as Kotaku points out other post-industrial countries have low birthrates too and there are actually similarities between the UK and Japan - porn addiction is epidemic in the UK among certain social classes and there have been concerns that it pornography creates unrealistic ideas of sex and of women, and that porn addicts need help to build normal relationships. These concerns are parallel to those in Japan about sex negative hikikomori and their obsessions with 2D characters.
Although Japan's population problems are real and opposite to those of (say) Africa, they are not unique and nor are the Japanese 'hikkikomori syndrome' or their problem with people turning to an excessive fascination with unrealistic, pornographic images rather than getting involved in actual 3D relationships. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Saw this last night, pretty much everything I've seen before by "foreign documentaries" about Japan, except this one seems to be laying the blame of extreme low birth rate mostly on "otaku and geeky fascination with anime manga and video games depicting fantasy relationships with fictional characters" as if the majority of males in Japan are "geeky otaku" No mention of 50 years of the extreme work ethic or the link between males and females working 18 hour days 5, or 6 days a week and the Japanese ingrained rationale of "feeling guilty of letting the co-leagues down" if they want to take a sick day, or holiday off, though she briefly pointed this out she couldn't see the tie in, or link of sheer exhaustion which affects sexual libido. I LOLed at the married bloke who also has a "LovePlus affair" he has so far kept secret from his wife. especially when the presenter asked him to choose between his 3DS lover, or his wife. He just froze up.
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faintsmile1992
Posts: 295 Location: England |
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EDIT: I should point out that at the time Anglos were seeing Japan as a positive future, they were creating a lot of dystopian and escapist stuff. What are the three predominant themes in animanga? The nostalgic, the apocalyptic, and the 'carnivalesque' (meaning sheer outright escapism from daily life into a state of chaos). The Japanese before the bubble burst were expressing their unhappiness with the consequences of their economic success. |
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ninja noir
 Posts: 175 Location: Ireland |
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Yeah, I watched that last night too.
It was very annoying to see otaku (a small group of people) blamed for the problem. I think it's a hell of a lot complicated than that for christ's sake. I agree with Mohawk52 in that it really seems to have a lot to do with the pressure the Japanese generally put on each other to be successful in the workplace. Implying that Otakuism is some kind of mass epidemic is just plain silly in my eyes. |
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Darkhawk220
 Posts: 8 |
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I saw it too and they DID mention work ethic and guilt. Remember the segment about the nurse from the Philippines who was shocked by the work culture after moving to Japan? They also explored the problem with the lack of immigration and the aging population. (Interview with an economist and an elderly prisoner respectively) I admit that what we saw about otakus and hikkikomori was nothing new but they put it down as one of the reasons and not 'the' reason. Also, I agree that this problem affects many places besides Japan and that this was not nearly as detailed as it needed to be to properly explore the subject. The Kotaku article also makes some very valid points. But basically, DON'T DISREGARD PARTS OF THE DOCUMENTARY TO PUSH YOUR POINT. |
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hellsingfan01
Posts: 36 |
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what i hated about this documentary is that they seemed to blame all the problems on the otaku culture and that really made me angry and the fact the presenter referred to otaku's as geeks and nerds made me feel like she was talking down to us instead of talking to us quite frankly i'd be ashamed to have been in this documentary.
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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there. I can use the caps lock too.
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Darkhawk220
Posts: 8 |
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Fair enough, I disagree that she failed to link them though. To be honest, I don't think she necessarily needed to, she presented the contributing factors to the problem the film identified and summarised. Although, the use of 'no mention' is a stretch as she did indeed mention these and whether you believe she linked them well enough does not change this.
And yes, caps lock is an amazing feature of the keyboard. I do adore it. VERY MUCH SO! |
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