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Answerman - Why Is There Still So Much Smoking In Anime?


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CoreSignal



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 727
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:13 pm Reply with quote
I have no issue with characters smoking in anime. In fact, since Justin mention the 2007 MPAA law, I'm acutally glad that anime doesn't have the moral hang-ups that American media does about smoking. I will admit,having a character smoke can sometimes be a lazy way to make a character look cool or say "I'm an adult", but I personally don't mind.


cloud8100 wrote:
I find the whole lack of smoking thing on Western shows to be ridiculous. I watch the older shows and am just like 'oh, I'm surprised they haven't censored the cigarettes or something' nowadays.

Yeah, I think it's ridiculous too. Plenty of people smoke in the real world, and it's not like you have characters smoking in Pixar movies or something. Besides the after work drinking in Shirobako, you also see a lot of the staff taking smoke breaks in many of the episodes. That's pretty common in many work places.


Hoppy800 wrote:
I don't think there are any lolis or shota characters outside of the ones that are over 20 that smoke.

Same here, I can't recall any "underage" smoking in anime. Characters who smoke that I can name off the top of my head: Spike and Jet from Cowboy Bebop, Kaji and Ritsuko from Evangelion, Onizuka from GTO, Sato from Welcome to the NHK, Kogami and Karanomori from Psycho Pass. Those are all adults.

Edit: Maybe Mamimi from FLCL? she's 17 I think. That said, I don't know what Japan's legal smoking age is.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:31 pm Reply with quote
I remember the manga of YuYu Hakusho had smoking by none other than Yusuke (underage) but this angered others if I remember well.

Also, I remember in Friends Matthew Perry's character smoked so much it was his negative trait that nobody could approve it.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1255
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:32 pm Reply with quote
CoreSignal wrote:
Maybe Mamimi from FLCL? she's 17 I think. That said, I don't know what Japan's legal smoking age is.
Mamimi is 17, smoking age is 20, and you just stole my first thought.

Hayato Gokudera (Reborn!) and Yusuke Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho) both smoked in the manga but not in the anime.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:33 pm Reply with quote
CoreSignal wrote:
... what Japan's legal smoking age is.


20
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:41 pm Reply with quote
Oh yeah, I remember that Kurama's half brother from YuYu also tried smoking until it was revealed he was possessed by a demon (I think this happens only in the anime)

Also I remember Hideki Kamiya created Dante from Devil May Cry as a character who would be cool without smoking.

On the other hand, we have Solid Snake who frequently reminded by others about how much is smoking. It's weird because if in MGS2 Raiden grabs the cigars, a Codec conversation with Snake will result in Snake telling Raiden not to smoke because it's not good for his health.
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TheAncientOne



Joined: 06 Oct 2010
Posts: 1868
Location: USA (mid-south)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:14 pm Reply with quote
Emichan wrote:
Smoking/Non-smoking sections of Japanese restaurants can be such a joke. There is often pretty much nothing more than a divider between them, so that even if you're sitting at a non-smoking table, all the smoke wafts over to you anyway.

Here in the US when smoking/non-smoking sections were still a thing, I recall many a time I would sit as deep in the non-smoking section as I could, and yet even if the smoking section were empty, someone would come in and sit in the smoking section as close as possible to the border to the non-smoking section and light up.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:36 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
The main situation where smoking sticks out to me in anime is when we see a character exercising and then lighting up right after their workout. The contradiction between the two activities always seemed like an odd writing choice.


It is not an odd writing choice, but rather it reflects reality quite accurately.

Military members are required to pass annual Physical Fitness tests. The U.S. Navy has you do Push-Ups and Sit-Ups first, and then followed by a 1.5 mile timed run. I always found it disconcerting after the run to see "out of breath" runnners, immediately lighting up after finishing the run. Surprised they are not hacking up their lungs, with all the smoke they are sucking up while gulping for breath.
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Ryuhei



Joined: 10 Jul 2014
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:51 pm Reply with quote
Why didn´t you just write that current smoking rate in Japan is about 17%, amongst the lowest in the world?
You wrote that the max rate was 37% in 1996, but then you don´t mention the current rate, only the difference between men and women, which just confuses people reading, and make it appear higher than reality.

Also, the person that wrote "smoking is everywhere in anime". What? A very small number of series feature that prominently. Less and less every year.

Having said that, I hope they finally ban smoking inside all bars and restaurants countrywide. Surely it will happen before 2020.


And hopefully, weed is not the next "cool" thing, like it´s happening in the USA among a growing number of young people, who would never smoke tobacco, but are very happy smoking weed, saying that is not that harmful (sure, it´s probably slightly less harmful, but still incredibly harmful).
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:53 pm Reply with quote
It is not so odd to see people smoking after exercise. When you are hooked you are hooked. We had co-worker with serious lung disease. He was on a breathing machine that concentrated the air for him. This was back when you could still smoke in the office. He would sit at the phone with the breathing machine in one hand and either the phone or a cigarette in the other. If he wasn't talking on the phone he was alternating puffs on the machine and his smoke. With periodic stops to hack up his lungs. He didn't last long after that.
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:18 pm Reply with quote
Saffire wrote:
CoreSignal wrote:
Maybe Mamimi from FLCL? she's 17 I think. That said, I don't know what Japan's legal smoking age is.
Mamimi is 17, smoking age is 20, and you just stole my first thought.

Hayato Gokudera (Reborn!) and Yusuke Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho) both smoked in the manga but not in the anime.


While we're naming under-aged smokers, a good chunk of the cast of Crows smokes. Considering that it's a manga about delinquents that regularly get into fights, it ain't too surprising. I'm sure its sequel, WORST, has its fair share of smoking, too, but I haven't read much of that, yet.

It should be mentioned that all of these manga mentioned began (and many concluded) before the whole cigarette machine age limit thing was imposed in Japan. There was nothing preventing any of these characters from waltzing up to a vending machine and buying a pack, if they so pleased.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:19 pm Reply with quote
Ryuhei wrote:
And hopefully, weed is not the next "cool" thing, like it´s happening in the USA among a growing number of young people, who would never smoke tobacco, but are very happy smoking weed, saying that is not that harmful (sure, it´s probably slightly less harmful, but still incredibly harmful).


In terms of deaths attributable to weed and addictivity, it is more than slightly less harmful. Weed is far less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol. I'm not saying it has no harm (smoking it probably has risks of lung cancer, but really smoke of any substance has those risks and is bad to inhale in general) but the risks are significantly lower. Now there should be a age limit as with tobacco and alcohol as it could affect mental development in young people, and the states that have legalized it do have such age restrictions. Honestly if people switched from alcohol to weed, public health would be greatly improved, though nothing would stop them from doing both. Tobacco I'm not as sure as smoking seems to be the preferred method of using marijuana.

Personally I don't do weed (I'd rather not smoke any substance) but I will defend people's right to do so.
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:23 pm Reply with quote
There is a curious case in Gosick, in which the main character, Victorique de Blois, smokes a pipe in the manga, with the smoke circles and all, but in the anime the pipe is just a prop and she never smokes, most likely because she has the goth loli look and has a child-like personality, it might have led to problems.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5886
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:35 pm Reply with quote
Ryuhei wrote:



And hopefully, weed is not the next "cool" thing, like it´s happening in the USA among a growing number of young people, who would never smoke tobacco, but are very happy smoking weed, saying that is not that harmful (sure, it´s probably slightly less harmful, but still incredibly harmful).


People have been smoking marijuana in this country since the late 19th to early 20th century so the idea that smoking it is the "next cool" thing is a bit inaccurate. Secondly while it is harmful it's effects are nowhere near as harmful as smoking Tobacco, Crack, or Meth.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:49 pm Reply with quote
FloozyGod wrote:
But now it's too late. This is why most countries around the world have legal drinking/smoking age so low, and the US has it all the way up to 21. The government will never trust the younger generation to adapt.


The high alcohol age in the United States is due to it having a more pronounced automobile culture than most other countries, and so it's more vulnerable to accidents from drunk driving. In my state, at least, the legal age was 18, but injuries and deaths from drunk driving got so out of hand that it was raised to 21.

BVerfG wrote:
I don't think there is anything wrong with showing someone smoking. And yeah, some characters look cooler. The only time I can remember that I went "wait. What?" because of a smoking character was in The Wind Rises. The main character just continues chain smoking while in the same room as his coughing wife who has tuberculosis. I mean, really?


There's definitely a real problem in the United States regarding easily imitatable behavior. Since it's so easy for a kid to find his or her parents' cigarettes and light one up, I can understand the harm in showing smoking as desirable in media that kids would see. There was a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin, seeing people smoking in the media, tries exactly that (albeit Calvin's father let him take one knowing Calvin would choke, cough, and gasp).

My father used to own a liquor store in the 80's, at the height of TV and movie depictions of cool young people smoking. Nothing enraged him more than seeing an adult buy cigarettes, then give it to a minor within his line of sight. This happened every now and then, and he'd call the cops every time. Sometimes, the smoking kids leave before the cops show up, and sometimes they don't, but the cops saw them happening enough times to believe my father. I wonder how often an adult would buy cigarettes, then give it to a minor away from his line of sight.

Hoppy800 wrote:
I don't think there are any lolis or shota characters outside of the ones that are over 20 that smoke.


There are at least a handful of teenagers under 18 in anime and manga who smoke though, most notably Sanji in One Piece.

Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece, is a smoker himself, which probably explains why a number of characters smoke in the series with absolutely no health drawbacks. Sanji and Smoker continued to smoke spoiler[in Nami's and Tashigi's bodies, respectively, and when they switched back, neither Nami nor Tashigi reacted or commented on their breath or lungs or anything.]

BadNewsBlues wrote:
People have been smoking marijuana in this country since the late 19th to early 20th century so the idea that smoking it is the "next cool" thing is a bit inaccurate. Secondly while it is harmful it's effects are nowhere near as harmful as smoking Tobacco, Crack, or Meth.


It is still a cool thing to do in some circles, as it's illegal and thus a forbidden fruit. It's practically a rite of passage in some social groups.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Ryuhei wrote:
Why didn´t you just write that current smoking rate in Japan is about 17%, amongst the lowest in the world?


It would be nice if you added a link, searching the wikipedia gives me a 44.3% (males)/14.3% (females) of smokers in japan (certainly not among the lowest in the world). Those japanese that do smoke have an average of 11.5 cigarrettes a day.

It does not surprise me that Oda (and other smoking mangaka) try to make smoking into something cool, like all addictions, it gets lonely when you are the only one. On a personal note I dislike smoking as an habit since you inhale second hand, would prefer if Oda started using nicotine patches so his characters would follow and smokers think that is the new cool.
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