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symbols in anime – what does it all mean?

subforry wrote:

Also do Japanese students really change shoes when they get to school?

It's customary in many Asian countries to remove ones shoes while indoors and change into slippers. There's an interesting article about it here. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to do this when entering a large, public building like a school, but hey....

Here is a question about a symbol I am not sure where it came from...the blue 9 symbol (or 6 I suppose) seen in several animes ~Blue Seed, I saw it in disk 4 of Maburaho, I have seen it as the stone spirit of past fighters in Ikki Tousen and many others it's in... point is, I have seen this in different animes and have never seen an american equivilant.
thoughts?

In fact, it's quite offensive walking into a person's house with shoes on. Just think of the dirt and other material brought from outside into the home. Not a nice thing.

subforry wrote:

Next up, what is with the symbolism of a single drop of water into a still body of water. It seems like this is used at many different times, and symbolizes completely opposite ideas. One interpretation is a single drop causing ripples across the whole pond (a small thing making a big change). Another interpretation is that the drop is just another drop in the bucket (something is insignificant when compared to all the other things). The drop in the pond visual has nice duality, but it seems to be the go to imagery. I can’t help but think the people creating the show are thinking, “Hey, if use that stock footage of a drop falling into a pond, that will be 64 less frames needed.” Any Thoughts on drop in a pond visual? Thanks.

It would be helpful o know what specific series/movie you're talking about, it seems to me, whatever it's from, that this is supposed to be an example of Chaos Theory, where one small thing can change the course of the whole big picture.

How about this symbol, you see it in animation all the time, and in at least one book i've read (lord of the flies anyone?)

A glasses wearing character, adjusting his or her specs on their nose, light shines on their lenses so you can no longer see thier eyes, now ready to indulge in either a moment of seriousness, mystery, wisdom or anything breaking away from the norm. Either way you know "okay, something is about to happen here". There are so many examples, popular ones include Triguns' Vash, Ishida from bleach, jin from champloo and kabuto from naruto (yes it rhymes)

I just think that gesture is quite cool, finger to thebridge of the nose, adjust specs, light replaces eye, then boom, your ready for the world.

..Of course you'd look like a total moron if you try anything so 'fictionally friendly" in real life.

BrothersElric wrote:

subforry wrote: Next up, what is with the symbolism of a single drop of water into a still body of water. It seems like this is used at many different times, and symbolizes completely opposite ideas. One interpretation is a single drop causing ripples across the whole pond (a small thing making a big change). Another interpretation is that the drop is just another drop in the bucket (something is insignificant when compared to all the other things). The drop in the pond visual has nice duality, but it seems to be the go to imagery. I can’t help but think the people creating the show are thinking, “Hey, if use that stock footage of a drop falling into a pond, that will be 64 less frames needed.” Any Thoughts on drop in a pond visual? Thanks. It would be helpful o know what specific series/movie you're talking about, it seems to me, whatever it's from, that this is supposed to be an example of Chaos Theory, where one small thing can change the course of the whole big picture.

Unfortunately, it would take waaay too long to list what series those visuals come from, because I've seen that same motif many, many times. Some that come to mind right now are Negima!, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Excel Saga (see episode 23), but really, it shows up everywhere. It was cool the first few dozen times I saw it, but it's kind of a cliche at this point. If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with Zen teachings...don't they have something to say about ripples on ponds?

. But it occurs to me that perhaps it is because of this, Japanese people have very little practical experience with Christianity, therefore Christian references/mythology/symbols/etc seem unusual to them and get a reaction more like the way we view Greek/Norse/etc mythology.

I seem to remember an article with the Eva creators (can't find it now though...), who specifically stated that the whole christian mythology thing was just to make it look cool and mysterious.