| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
|
|
CCSYueh
Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:48 pm
|
 |
|
|
I would love for someone to explain why my initials have become so fricken popular on the internet. If I use them, people think I'm saying something else
--MEH
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Richard J.
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:05 pm
|
|
|
| CCSYueh wrote: | | I would love for someone to explain why my initials have become so fricken popular on the internet. If I use them, people think I'm saying something else
--MEH |
Are you being serious? The answer is pretty simple if you are, it's just an expression meaning "I don't care."
Here's a news article on it, proving that some reporters have far too much time on their hands.
Oh, and thank you for agreeing with me! It's nice to feel like what I wrote actually has merit. 
So, now that a second station is dropping Rin's show, should all the new talk be on that thread? (naruto fan 09812 's already there, a few more regulars on both sides of the loli debate and it'll be a proper excercise in futility.)
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
Goodpenguin
Joined: 02 Jul 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Hunt Valley, MD
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:30 pm
|
|
|
CSSYueh wrote:
| Quote: | | Agreeing with Richard, yes, doesn't it seem things are tightening up not just in Japan? We're at the start of a new millennia & while it's still pretty much business as usual, we're hearing all this global warning stuff (the sky is falling/the world will be uninhabitable in our lifetime). Various scary places are playing with nuclear weapons. Even throw in stuff like Geneon-that Dentsu & other companies are pulling back-playing conservative-take fewer risks for awhile. We've been seeing manga mags shut down-maybe it's business as usual & maybe it's playing conservative |
Japan has some pretty pervasive socio/behavioral youth problems (quite different then our own, and for a variety of cultural reasons), and people are increasingly focusing on them. The 'Otaku social-view' (used very loosely) is under fire somewhat over there.
Being that most peoples views of Japanese society are shaped by their experiences with anime/manga, I think one can build a false impression that Japanese society at large reflects the sexuality/content shown in particular quarters, when in reality anime/manga (in certain genres)is actually pretty 'fringe' in it's content. Japan, owing to it's dense population and limited space, has always kind of had a hands-off/see-no-evil approach to 'fringe/emotional release' material that 'Otaku' or adult styled content kind of skimmed under the radar on. Also, though a market niche Otaku/anime/manga fans are historically a very lucrative and reliable group to push all manner of merchandise too. But again, with some lingering youth alienation/sexualized/violence issues, even that angle is beginning to be trumped by larger social concern (warranted or not).
Just on an anecdotal account, when I was recently in Japan it was the first time I noticed that even the ever-present 'pop-celebrity' variety shows that run over there were merciless lampooning anime/manga culture. 'Otaku' culture already carries a much more negative connotation in Japan then here, but the material was much more pointed and nasty (in a social undertone way) then I had ever remembered.
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Mohawk52
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:22 am
|
|
|
| Goodpenguin wrote: | | Japan has some pretty pervasive socio/behavioral youth problems (quite different then our own, and for a variety of cultural reasons), and people are increasingly focusing on them. The 'Otaku social-view' (used very loosely) is under fire somewhat over there. |
That's a swift decline considering that only a few months ago the Otaku were riding on the crest of a new popularity wave that lifted them from being smelly, greasy, creepy, geeks, to the "new cool".
| Quote: | | Being that most peoples views of Japanese society are shaped by their experiences with anime/manga, I think one can build a false impression that Japanese society at large reflects the sexuality/content shown in particular quarters, when in reality anime/manga (in certain genres)is actually pretty 'fringe' in it's content. |
If one asked the average general population in a survey "what do you think of when you think about anything Japanese?" and I'd bet the response would be mostly culture, language, food, art, and Madame Butterfly. very few would say manga, or anime, and those few would be anime and manga fans, virtually everyone.
| Quote: | | Japan, owing to it's dense population and limited space, has always kind of had a hands-off/see-no-evil approach to 'fringe/emotional release' material that 'Otaku' or adult styled content kind of skimmed under the radar on. Also, though a market niche Otaku/anime/manga fans are historically a very lucrative and reliable group to push all manner of merchandise too. But again, with some lingering youth alienation/sexualized/violence issues, even that angle is beginning to be trumped by larger social concern (warranted or not). |
Having discovered that when Japan was forced to become a global player back in 1854, then trying to "modernise" their culture from a long feudal, purely homogeious society where morality and ethics had virtually no influance, to one that looked toward European tastes and attitudes, (America was still trying to come to the boil back then and so had a mostly European culture as well.) They had to learn to be embarassed when ever the world confronted their ambassadors about the moralistically depraved aspects of their society. It was like "So is that a bad thing then?" Late 19th Century Japanese sex toy catalogues were all the quiet rage in the gentlemens clubs of the west end in Victorian and later Edwardian times. So I would say that this apparent new sense of morality is a recent event.
| Quote: | | Just on an anecdotal account, when I was recently in Japan it was the first time I noticed that even the ever-present 'pop-celebrity' variety shows that run over there were merciless lampooning anime/manga culture. 'Otaku' culture already carries a much more negative connotation in Japan then here, but the material was much more pointed and nasty (in a social undertone way) then I had ever remembered. |
I put that down to petty jealousy of the Otakus becoming the new pop culture and tweaking the noses of the old guard.
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
