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The Mike Toole Show - Back to School

I agree, high school went pretty well for me and I regret I didn't do more, like getting my license earlier. Either way, Japanese high school experiences in media are so dissimilar to the way America re-enacts it, what with big jock bullies, all the cliques, proms, football games, house parties, underage drinking, weed; those are all non-existent. And that absolutely no one owns cars, so the whole dating, cruising, and having general fun experiences don't exist either. Not to say some Japanese high school students don't find ways to party, but I doubt they're doing it like Westerners. Even their after-work drinking is almost scheduled and ritualized to where it's basically another requirement of the job or social bond-strengthening. I suppose that means something like little spontaneity. There's also mandatory club activities in anime, which had led to an enormous amount of shows that focus on club activities, be it benign like the Good Jobu, specific like Paranormal Clubs and Astronomy Clubs, or any sports involvement.

Maybe there's frustration because anime high school experience, being a contorted reflection of Japanese high school, isn't really at all that similar to our experiences, real or in entertainment.

I'd like for there to be more anime outside of high school, and more with adult protagonists, too. DBZ, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Ghost in the Shell, just to name a few: these shows were successful even though they had little or nothing to do with high school or kids in general.