Category: Editorials

Now I can certainly get behind sparkles and bishonen!

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There are lots of sub-genres of shojo manga but romance is hands down the biggest of them all. Even when the main plot isn’t just a love story, more often than not there is still a romance in it. So it comes as no real shock that most people relate the pursuit of love to shojo manga. There are certain things that come to mind when thinking of romance, like most people it comes from what we see in the media, at least the immediate things. This is greatly reflected in romance written for women. There is a kind of strange conversation that goes around in my head about it. It goes something like this: the perception of how woman want to be treated comes from what we see in movies, TV, and books but are those images merely what society tells us? Or do they really exist because women like that, they watch and read it so some of those ideas must resonate within them as desirable. Cliches exist for a reason.

Feminists and psychologists have argued about the answer to that question for years. For a long time, people have wondered how much of our taste is dictated by our biological sex and how much of it is learned from our physiological gender. The main problem is they are so intrinsically linked; that it is quite possible why we will never be able to separate what contributes to what and how much it contributes. Sufficed to say a majority of women are not going to stop asking for romance in their literature anytime soon. However, the particulars of how those romantic stories are told will change from year to year as it always has.

One might also say to themselves, well there are a certain type of women that like to read romance. While I grant you that not all women like romance in their reading, a good portion do and it doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason to who they are in real life. Like many types of fiction, a lot of it is escapist literature and who can’t really put a label on who wants to escape or not.

I have yet to really meet any women who are anti-romance, but I know they exists. I suppose that speaks to how many women like romantic literature. Certain tomboys and nerdy girls will have a preference for more masculine literature but I would say even most of them will still willingly and even eagerly read something with a romantic bent. The only thing that will turn people off will be pure romance, Harlequin-style novels.

I totally agree. Even something like fantasy novels, which has a wide male readership, has a lot of romance in them. I also think some females insert romance, even when it may not be there. That is a whole other discussion though. But I think we can agree that woman like romance in their stories at varying degrees. This might even be doubly so for manga. I don’t know why that is, but it seems to be. It works with its own set of rules for romance!

The ever present confession, although this is a staple across the board, this is really prominent in shojo manga. I always find this very intriguing, it is almost as if you can’t actually pursue someone without it! Sometimes there is a lot of outside pressure to confess. You often see other females insisting that a girl confess her feelings because it isn’t “fair” to be around the guy without it being said. Example, Prafait Tic! our main character has a crush on Daiya. They become friends and hang out a lot. So all the girls gang up and and basically bully her into prematurely telling him she likes him. The reasoning was: all the other girls that like him aren’t friends with him and can’t be around him all the time, but she gets to because she hasn’t confessed and that isn’t right. There seems to be some sort of split on being friends first.

I remember a conversation we had about the fact that most people we knew just sort of fell into relationships. Most of the time there was no formal courtship and grand romance. Both people just sort of realize they liked each other and the next thing they know they are dating. In most shojo titles, the courtship ritual is usually very stylized. In anime you always see people meeting and talking on top of the roof of the school. From what I understand this is much less common than it really is in Japan. Anime likes to exaggerate things for flavor and effect.

I think this also creates a more awkward situation than say being friends first. The feelings are out there and they know it, so every little move has meaning. Of course, with all things there are extremes. So sometimes it goes the completely other direction till what you get is a girl thrown into a relationship with random guy that she has met for 5 minutes.

I think to put it in manly terms, the difference between shojo dating and real life courtship is the difference between a real street brawl and a manga fight sequence. A real fight tends to be clumsy, awkward, brutal, and sometimes even embarrassing. Manga fight sequences tend to be stylized, clean, and artistic. Think about the differences between the fights in the movie Rashomon. Shojo romance is the same way. Heck, it’s not much of an exaggeration to take the lines I said about fight and merely replace the word courtship for fight.

In general, it wouldn’t be a love story in manga without multiple guys falling for our heroine. Typically they like the perfect shape, the triangle, but that doesn’t stop them from throwing 3, 4 or even more our main character’s way. But the triangle is most popular and within that triangle you usually have an angsty boy with dark hair and a funny, spirited boy with light hair. I guess they want both sides of the coin. And up until recently, I always thought the angsty boy won. However, I dunno if writers are changing, taste is changing, or I have just picked up the right manga for me, but it seems to be 50/50 on who our girl ends up with.

Manga like any other form of literature will have unending waves of trends and then backlash to those trends. I think certain manga artists tend to have a preference in the dark-haired angsty guy vs. light-haired funny guy war. Certain manga artists are guaranteed to have the heroine fall in love with the stock character model boy that she uses in every manga. I’m looking right at you Yuu Watase and Rumiko Takahashi.

Wait, wait in Absolute Boyfriend our main heroine falls for a blond, who is funny! Of course he is a robot…and there is the other guy who does look like Taka-clone (aka Takahome from Fushigi Yuugi). Essentially, the writer is guaranteeing the reader will like someone and hopefully enough to follow the story till the end. I have to think on that one. But that easily leads to want I wanted to talk about next: Pretty Boys. One of the most important things that shojo writers have given us! And this is certainly something very unique to Japan, well Asia really. It actually has roots in very historical arenas and isn’t merely a phenomenon of the age.

Pretty boys and shojo manga are pretty much synonymous. You show me a shojo manga without a bishonen and I will show you a shojo manga that did not make it past 2 volumes. Bishonen are one of those odd things that it takes some people a little getting used to when they first start reading manga. But once most girls accept it they eat up bishonen with spoon and a side order of BL. Even shonen manga will always throw in a bishonen to attract a cross gender readership. Even as early as Saint Seiya they have been throwing pretty boys in fighting manga to get a female readership. I mean if girls did not at least glance at shonen manga because of the bishonen guys then why is there so much Renji x Byakuya fanart.

Anyway! In a lot of josei manga, I see this approached a little differently (I wish I could read more josei). There is often many suitors but most times there is no real doubt about who the character is going to be with. Take Saiunkoku, while there are other characters in love with both Shuurei and Ryuuki, we know the story is about them and the growth of their relationship rather than a battle to see who wins their hearts.

Josei manga also tends to have a more realistic view of love and romance where as shojo tends to have a more idealized view of love. There is hardly a hard and fast rule but definitely a trend. I assume this comes from the fact that the average josei reader has gone through one or two relationships. There by it more easily relate to a more realistic relationship. In Nodame Cantabile I don’t ever think we are ever unsure if Nodame and Chiaki will end up together. Nodame is more about how their relationship progresses as they try to graduate music school and find their place in the world of professional music. If an older reader wishes to read about a more idealistic relationship they can still pick from a wide variety of more stylized shojo manga.

And really, there is also lots of so cute and sweet youcouldrotyourteeth shojo manga. Like you have to take a break between chapters from the sparkles! These the ultimate in perfect boy fantasies. If a boy appears without sparkles and/or flowers he is soooo not worth the time. I love the sparkles if only to give me a minute of laughter. This is also one of the most commonly parodied things in comedy anime and manga.

You forgot my favorite part of shojo manga. The hand hold. In many shojo manga aimed at a slightly younger or more conservative audience, you will still have sex but it can’t be as graphic as magazines aimed at older readers. So, if they want you to know a couple is having sex but can’t show it, they will insert the Shojo Hand Hold. Any experienced shojo reader will recognize it right away. It is when they cut away from a couple in a rather intimate embrace and only show the two characters holding hands with their fingers intertwined. Then they cut back to them in bed after the act. For some reason, I just find it hysterical.

I think the most grounded shojo manga really comes from the comedy-romance which makes up a big portion of shojo love stories. It has enough drama to keep you interested but it also makes you laugh and feel happy with the outcomes without using too much angst to do it. These also seem the most real to me, but that is just my personal view on life. Most relationships are a good part comedy. These types of stories seem to gain the largest fan followings, i.e. Fruits Basket, Love*Com, Ouran High School Host Club, etc. Then there is a whole other sector of overly dramatic stories. Which sometimes jump into comedy from being so ridiculous. But these are somewhat more mature stories with dramatic plots, angst, and often times sex.

I tend to see most relationships as tragedy and heartbreak. I suppose this is one of those things that very easily show the difference in our world views. But for exactly the opposite reason, I tend to like romantic comedies as well. I like the fact that they put a healthy dose of comedy in what is otherwise angst and tension that is in a normal relationship. It can be argued either way but I would put Fruits Basket in the mostly drama category. It certainly has a healthy amount of comedy but I feel Fruits Basket focus is on the drama. Love*Com and Host Club seem more comedy based with Love*Com having a healthy dose of drama.

Well, I would put Fruits Basket in the same section as Kare Kano which starts with a strong dose of comedy which tapers as the series goes on.

Aggression plays a big role all around. This one is always the hardest for me to understand because of my own views. The completely wilted flower heroine (I say that with spite) is ever present making zero decisions for herself while simultaneously being desired by ever boy on the block. This has both to do with societal standards and also the fantasy. Just because a girl might read some manga with very aggressive men in it, doesn’t necessarily reflect on how she would want to be treated.

Well in both Eastern and Western culture we generally assume that it is the man who peruses the woman and the man who asks out the woman. It is not uncommon or shocking to see a woman chase a man in today’s society but it is still seen as against the norm.

I guess I should say not just aggression then but dominance and control. There are varying degrees, from the guy being the pursuer; to a guy forcing himself on a girl. What the hell is with the rape/almost rape!? I mean seriously if we put our stock on manga you would think there are like rapist hiding behind every lamppost in Japan. And not just rapist, but totally hot rapists who will rape you and you will secretly like it. And then you might be saved, you might not be, but you have a good chance you will meet a decent guy later on but you won’t find him as great as your rapist. I wish I was joking. I’m gonna go cry now.

Well, I always find it odd that there are a good number of women who have rape fantasies so I’m sure that little fact feeds into it’s prevalence in manga. The Japanese seem to have little to no compulsion against playing with certain taboo or uncomfortable topics in manga. Rape is understandably a sensitive hot topic so it can easily make any discussion about it sensitive and difficult.

It certainly is with me. I don’t find sexual violence in any way, shape, or form enjoyable. But as I said before, judging people’s actual taste based on what they watch and read is sort of making a leap.

That is definitely true. I just can’t find any good reason why rape has become such a tremendously popular plot device. I’m sure there are several reasons why it has popped up as a theme, but I can’t easily point to any. They will even use it in shonen and seinen manga. I guess my only other theory is on a certain level rape is one of the easiest and simply illustrated villainies. A rapist is a clearly identified villain and therefore anyone who steps in to save you from such a fiend is a hero. As for why a rapist would ever been seen a sympathetic or easily forgiven character I really can’t explain that. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen characters attempt to rape someone in a series and then be forgiven a little while later. It happens in Rose of Versailles, Sakura Dairies, and the Wings of Honneamise. It’s just a mystery to me. I don’t have that sort of easily forgiving nature.

I also find it interesting that most stories deal with the chase and once the guy is gotten the story ends. This definitely is switched up in josei manga, so that is refreshing. But for most younger shojo titles we see pursuit and not much afterward. There are a few exceptions of course! This is just human nature I suppose. I mean don’t most people find the chase the best part of the relationship. I have certainly heard it said often enough. I think it is natural to want the happily ever after ideal at the end of a story. So if we don’t see the course of the relationship we can just say “…and they were together forever.”

I think it comes back to shojo being often a more idealized romance; where as josei incorporates a more realistic view. I feel that a younger more naive person would tend to believe that if you fall in love and do it right then everything will fall into place and you’ll live happily ever after. Those more experienced in the ways of love realize that it is often harder to maintain a relationship. Plus, an older reader is more likely to be trying to or have already tried to maintain several relationships. A younger reader is sometimes more interested in the exciting prospect of falling in love because it is what they are craving. The older reader wants the story of not only how does one find someone but who they keep it all together.

If we look at literature we see similar trends across cultures and generations. Clearly there will be differences, a trend here or there, but romance seems to be a universal language. I think shojo has many unique qualities to its ideas of love, relationships, and heartbreak. So through many titles it can bring many things to the table, some ring true and some are pure fantasy but I think we need both of those things for a true love story to be told.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Shigofumi
Reading NANA
Listening to Abingdon Boys School

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Denno Coil
Reading Slayers
Listening to An Ordinary Sunday by Tomohiko Kikuta

Top 5 canon couples
5. Meroko & Izumi (Full Moon wo Sagashite)
4. Tokine & Yoshimori (Kekkaishi)
3. Shuurei & Ryuuki (Story of Saiunkoku)
2. Cagalli & Athrun (Gundam SEED)
1. Tohru & Kyo (Fruits Basket)

What the heck do Yashigani and Yandere mean?

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Despite being a hikikomori, I was talking to a gothic lolita fujoshi otaku with a shota complex at an imouto cosplay cafe about her favorite moe aspect of the loli tsundere maid meganekko from a real robot mecha OAV gaiden based on the doujinshi eroge game she was playing that was thankfully not guro.

I have no idea what is going on.

That just proves you are sane and healthy human being. If you understood that whole last sentence without needing to click on any other links, then you should consider yourself a high-level anime fan. That and it should be a crystal clear indication that anime fans love to come up with their own little terms for almost any aspect of their hobby. From minor niche fetishes, to broad stroke trends, it seems anime fans on both sides of the Pacific love to label things with some new word that is often incomprehensible to anyone not in the know.

I just think labeling has gotten out of hand! It is like when a three-year-old learns a new word, so they say that word all the time and about everything. Of course three-year-olds are just excited but some fans can get very excluding when you don’t know these terms. I freely admit to not knowing moe or tsundere up until about 6 or 7 months ago and ya know something? I wish I didn’t know them. They are over used in general but also I think they are completely misused at the same time. Many of these terms refer to fetish characteristics and I don’t think they always apply to everything everywhere at every moment. Many series have characters that are just that characters, they are not created for the sexual enjoyment of some branch of fetish. Just because people are attracted to them doesn’t mean they were created for the sole purpose of arousal.

In general, any hobby tends to come up with terms for ease of talking to other people who are into the same thing. This is doubly true for nerdy hobbies like comics and animation. Nerds love jargon. The ability to say one word and get a complex idea across is often helpful and convenient. The main problem is when you streamline and over-simply things too much. If you lazily thrown around terms instead of engaging in articulate conversation then such shorthand phrases are a handicap. I know on occasion Narutaki will catch me doing this and make me actually lay out my point instead of relying on some obscure term.

I think I don’t make myself very clear when talking so I have to rely on laying things out because there is no way anyone would understand me otherwise. But you are right, geeks are always using inner circle language. I think that must have to do with the odd circle of geeks being separate from the average people but then further obscuring themselves by being completely incoherent to anyone except other geeks.

The main problem is, there is a recent trend of making fetish characters solely based around said fetish. Then add the fact that more complex characters are often simplified by fans into one note characters. I think we both use terms like mecha, doujinshi, cosplay, and hentai all the time. I think it’s terms like moe and yandere that really get under your skin. The other difficulty with labeling things come in by virtue of the fact that we tend to use terms differently than they do in Japan. This can lead to some rather heated arguments about what is the correct usage. When do you foster a new definition of a word for a different environment and when do you make sure you maintain the purity of a word?

This is true, it starts getting picked apart and then what are you left with? There should be some official otaku dictionary. Now that I am really thinking of all the terms used in anime fandom I guess I do use a whole lot. It’s funny how they seem so natural some of them. Like I’m thinking “That’s not a term, everyone knows that!” I am so wrong.

When we were at the Otaku USA panel at NYAF, the main topic of discussion was if the use of otaku in the title of the magazine was an appropriate title for an anime magazine. In the U.S., people wear the title of otaku as a badge of honor. In Japan, it means that you are a obsessive about some topic. That topic is most often anime but not necessarily so. It has a distinctly negative connotation. It is a clear cut example of a loan word whose connotation has changed with the transfer from one language to another.

This discussion was totally fruitless. I started to get annoyed after the third time it was brought up. We were at an anime convention, everyone there identifies with the word otaku, end of story.

Interestingly enough, it seems like adult content has the biggest discrepancy between how Americans and the Japanese use certain terms. In America, yaoi is a catch all phrase for any manga or anime that has explicit sex between two men and shonen-ai is when the relationship is not as explicit. In Japan, yaoi generally only refers to doujinshi about any type of homosexual relationships written for a female audience. Shonen-ai in Japan only refers to a very specific genre of stories about prepubescent boys falling in love. The term shonen-ai is unused, generally considered a dead genre, and associated with pedophilia. Most of the non-doujinshi related homosexual comics written for women is called BL or Boys Love comics. Yuri and shojo-ai being the lesbian equivalents in the U.S. have the same general situation of being disconnected to their original Japanese.

I wonder if it really just comes down to the fact that we took Japanese words, because let’s face it we think it sounds cool, and then we thought we totally knew what they meant but we didn’t. And the definition just stuck. I think that is probably how it all went down. However, I have to admit to using shonen-ai in the incorrect way. But I actually like the way it has been coined here because I like to know if what I’m getting is explicit or not.

That is a very sound theory. Now that the internet has made finding out information about anime so much easier you see less people misusing words like they would have in the past. In the old days it was like an international and intercontinental game of telephone. American anime fans would try to decipher what terms they could from imported materials. The amount of materials was often so limited American fans were often forced to interpolate from what little data they had. I’m sure that this lead to a lot of the differences in terms we have today.

The question comes down to this: where do we draw the line? When do we stop labeling things? When do stop people from using loan words? When do we halt words from being modified when the are imported from other languages. In my opinion, you get into trouble if you try to make an unbreakable rule on labeling in general. Languages drift, borrow, and modify words all the time. The Japanese borrow words from English all the time, making subtle to complete changes. English itself is mostly made of loan words from other languages. There is a famous quote by James Nicoll, “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. “I feel that it all comes down to how useful is any new word or redefinition. The modification of anime I feel is a useful and important modification.

Stop labeling things right now (well not really)! Many classifications are important, like genre classification for example. However, if we just start throwing terms around willy-nilly I think you stop looking at the show and just look at its classification. The same goes with characters. Of course there are archetypes that are commonly used over and over again, but giving all characters a one word description is damaging. Aren’t people just breaking down characters a little too simply? Sure there are many that fall straight into the definition of these terms like tsundere, moe, yandere but there are lots of well-developed characters that may only be exhibiting some traits of these labels. I guess I just want a more well-developed discussion to go on.

P.S. Yashigani means an episode of an anime with extremely rushed and sloppy animation. Yandere is a character who seems sweet and shy but is coldblooded and psychopathic on the inside.
P.P.S. Nagi Sanzenin is a loli tsundere otaku hikikomori ojou-sama. Is that not so moe? : )

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Spice and Wolf
Reading Kekkaishi
Listening to aiko

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Hayate the Combat Butler
Reading Shonan Junai-gumi
Listening to Hayate no Gotoku! by KOTOKO

How can you not see it’s awesome?

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If you are a veteran world travel, like I am not, then you will know that the menu items on your favorite menus and toppings on some of your favorite foods are quite different in foreign countries. In Europe, people love to dip their french fries in mayo and/or vinegar instead of ketchup. Any international fast food franchise will have a significantly different menu in another country. There will be some menu items that are notably absent in some countries and others that are unique to one country. Heck, in different parts of the same country you will have variations in eating tastes and menu items.

Now, I’m hungry.

What does this all have to do with anime and manga? Well, it just shows that like people consume different foods in different regions they also consume different entertainment as well. There are some anime that are insanely popular in Japan that will never come to the U.S. or horribly bomb in the U.S. because Americans just don’t care for them. There are also some shows that the Japanese don’t care for but are brought over to America and sell like gangbusters. Even though there are anime fans on both sides of the Pacific the tastes in the anime that anime fans have can be wildly different.

As we know, dozens upon dozens of series get brought to the U.S. every year but there are thousands to be picked from. And there is good reason for that in many cases (and in some cases not). A lot of anime/manga are very Japanese, more Japanese than anything we have seen, and it just wouldn’t be appealing for most fans. A lot of these include comedies, which can sometimes turn out to be totally not funny if you aren’t from Japan.

There are a slew of long running anime/manga that have never even come over despite their enormous popularity in Japan. In general, Japan likes long running episodic family shows and Americans want nothing to do with them. Japan also loves sports shows but Americans ignore them completely.

Sports show are huge in Japan! Giant! The only one that seems to have any U.S. following is Prince of Tennis. But then who wouldn’t love a show where you can defeat dinosaurs by using tennis? The Touch series was especially big, it is about baseball, by Mitsuru Adachi. He did a short story series called Short Program which was released in the U.S., quite good. Anyway, Touch was decently long, had 3 movies, T.V. specials, live-action adaptations, you name it! This was an 80’s show so that may account for some of the lack of interest. Captain Tsubasa is another that comes to mind, it is about soccer. This series started in the early 80’s and still has incarnations of it running today! Manga, anime, video games, movies, the works! They can’t seem to get enough. Although this could be attributed to Americans notoriously not caring about soccer, too. Because Captain Tsubasa was translated into many languages in the Middle East and Europe. Some of both these series have been fan-subbed though.

I also remember that Captain Tsubasa has a huge fan following in South America and Mexico. America loves baseball and football but you don’t see Star of the Giants and Eyeshield 21 merchandise all over the place because of the huge TV deals they got to put those shows on Cartoon Network. I’m sure if the U.S. loved soccer we would still not see Captain Tsubasa in the U.S.

Sazae-San is clear the most famous of the huge hits in Japan that has absolutely no following in the U.S. Sazae-san is often the highest rated anime on Japanese TV. I remember that Josh in Japan said that when he lived in Japan the only anime he regularly watched was Sazae-san with his family. Sazae-san started in 1946 in a local newspaper and revolves aroun a housewife named Sazae Fuguta and her family. Much like many American newspaper comics the characters will change with the times but do not age much, like the Simpsons. Even though the manga has ended, and the original manga artist has died, the characters have proven themselves so popular that the Sazae-san anime is still has new episodes on TV today.

Doraemon is one of those perennial TV shows that so many other anime have referenced. Heck, I remember GTO and XXXholic making Doraemon jokes. The cartoon Puri Gorota in Nodame Cantabile is also an obvious parody of Doraemon. Doraemon is a robot cat from the future who was sent back in time to help out his original owners descendant named Nobita. It turns out that since Nobita is such a sad dork he runs up a huge amount of debt for his descendants in the future so they send him Doraemon in hoped that he grows up to be a better man and save the family from finical ruin. Since Doraemon is from the future, he can pull out a large array of hyper-technological gadgets from a pouch in his belly. The gadgets are supposed to help Nobita but they often get stolen by his friends or cause more trouble they they solve. Nobita usually learns a lesson from his adventures making it firmly a children’s cartoon. In many ways, Doraemon is wish fulfillment mixed with a moral lesson.

Doraemon is a cute enough show. It also doesn’t have an engrossing appeal to ever need to be watched over again, which is fine. But that doesn’t exactly mean it should be wrapped up and brought to the U.S. It also isn’t hysterically funny either. It is kind of slow and has a lot of word-play. It is something you watch with your kids and maybe you laugh, too. Also Japan loves cute mascot characters so Doraemon takes the cake.

Detective Conan is another well loved long running anime and manga in Japan. Jimmy Kudo is a 17-year old prodigy and often helps to police solve cases much like Encylopedia Brown. After helping solve one murder case he is attacked by an employee of the mysterious Black Organization and injected with an experimental poison. The poison was supposed to kill him but instead it regresses him back into a ten year old. Since the Black Organization thinks Jimmy is dead he takes the name Conan Edogawa and enrolls in elementary school. He helps his friend’s father, Richard Moore who is a detective, help solve cases while he tries to track down the leaders of the Black Organization and find a cure for his condition. Most of the episodes are Conan solving some mystery that either Richard Moore has become involved with or some problem that his friends have gotten involved with. Every few episodes Conan finds some lead with the organization but usually he ends up just as in the dark as he did at the beginning of the case.

Yay, Detective Conan! I have seen very little of this series but detectives always attract me, it’s like bat radar. I would really like to see this series released as brick sets, it is the only way it seems worth getting such an insanely long series. I would watch like the Japanese do, sort of, by watching a few episodes now and again. The problem with shows like that is you seem to lose the U.S. audience because you have to purchase it and you don’t just get to tune in randomly to it.

The main problem with Conan is it’s a kid show so it is sort of hard for people to wank on about how super deep it is (not that it stops them from doing it with other shows) but it can be rather bloody and violent which make it unsuitable for children according to U.S. standards. The paradox sort of keeps it from getting any mainstream appeal in America.

Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo (Kochikame) is the longest continually running manga in Japan and the longest running Shonen Jump manga. I know: A Shonen Jump property that is popular in Japan that has not be brought over here. It sounds like a lie but it’s true. Kankichi Ryotsu is a lazy, money grubbing otaku police officer who spends almost as much time coming up with silly plans as he does doing actual police work. I have heard that some people consider Ryotsu the Japanese Homer Simpson. There is also a large cast of Ryotsu’s fellow police officers who either help with his plans or try to foil them. There are two reasons why we won’t be seeing this in American anytime soon. The first problem, the art has been somewhat modernized but still has an unshakable old school style that most American fans don’t care for. Second, many of the plots revolve around Ryotsu trying to get rich by taking advantage of the latest fad in Japan. I assume a lot of the time even if you don’t fully understand the fad the jokes are still funny but it’s still a big hurdle for a lot of people.

Let’s not forget those few shows that slip through Japan without much interest and then get a huge reception here in the U.S. The biggest examples I can think of are Trigun, Berserk, and Big O, which then got a second season because of U.S. desire. While I like all of these shows, I have to wonder if they were really noticed because they were marketed well (Trigun especially had lots of merchandise) and also because they just had fewer shows to compete with in the states. I mean with a hundred new shows going on each year in Japan you can be lost in the shuffle. I also think that the success of these shows domestically, made a lot of people take a second look in Japan. Shows seem to stay in the minds of American fans longer.

In general, U.S. audiences like darker, action shows which generally only have otaku appeal in Japan. Hard seinen with very mature plots and little or no fantasy seems equally unpopular. Gritty or fantastic shonen seems the most popular genre of anime in America. Trigun, Berserk, and the Big O are all prime examples of that. Shows that are darker than most shonen but not as ponderous as some more mature seinen. In Japan, they tend to like either light-hearted shonen or very hard seinen depending on the age of the viewer.

I sometimes wonder how episodic shows would do if they were only released on DVD in Japan. They might fall to the same place as the U.S. but luckily for them that is not the case. Like was said earlier a lot of the shows have so many Japanese-isms that it could be difficult to translate and also might not translate into anything coherent. I think anime fans are interested in Japanese culture but not to the extent of many of these shows. Someone made the example using Seinfeld, a very American show, while some of the humor translates many of it just comes from the things we know as Americans and can’t really be duplicated. So while it was a huge success here in the states, it wouldn’t translate into big ratings in Japan.

Top 5 shows I love but the average anime fan does not care about
1. Master Keaton
2. Kekkaishi
3. Urusei Yatsura
4. Galaxy Angel
5. I’m Gonna Be An Angel!