Forum - View topicNEWS: Japanese Leader Invokes Sailor Moon During Korean Visit
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mlund
Posts: 60 |
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I think people may have missed the context of the comment.
Aso was in South Korea visiting for a cultural exchange involving High School students from the two countries. The regular citizens in Korea and Japan don't holiday in their neighbor's respective nations. They don't share a language. They've had some very bad history stemming from Imperial Japanese occupation prior to World War II. They are completely different governments and nations than they were before, but there is still a wall there. One of the few things they share more openly are Manga, Anime, and the odd transnational movie or drama series. Their average citizen's view of the life of a high school student in the other country is what they take away from pop-culture. The point of the exchange of High School students was to step beyond the superficial perceptions from fiction Manga and Anime (like Sailor Moon, which has enjoyed a ton of success in both countries) and understand what life's like on the other side. I know idioms and allusion don't always translate that well, but cut the guy a little slack. He's actually on-topic with his point: The program is letting them learn more about what is fact and what is fiction than their pop-culture exchanges never could. At least, that's what I take away from it. - Marty Lund |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2336 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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"When these fictional characters wear sailor uniforms, it looks good. In reality, Kim Jong Il would not look the same."
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Actually, the original version of Sailor Moon was aimed at junior high girls (12-15), so it's not entirely inappropriate for the age group he was addressing. I'd classify this comment under "World Leader Tries to Use a Pop Culture Reference and Winds Up Making People Worldwide Facepalm," which seems to happen on a regular basis in the US Congress (all carefully documented by the Daily Show). There's no real harm in it, it's just stupid. |
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zanarkand princess
 Posts: 1484 |
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I get what he's trying to say but the whole "Look I'm an otaku" thing is a bit annoying. Don't most japanese people think that's weird anyway? I guess it's the same as using Friends as an example or something but it's just you know we get it already.
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Caloris
Posts: 33 |
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Of course Sailormoon is real. She's just hiding.
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Paludis
Posts: 46 |
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He hasn't won an election, he's only PM because the previous two PMs from his party resigned. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Yeah, if you were watching the North American edited version. It got kind of questionable towards the end if you look at it from a North American perspective. However I don't know how far the series went in North America. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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Yeah, if those school kids even remember it because, in the famous words of today's youths, "that's, like, a billion years ago, grandpa!"
(Going back to my comment about Mitt Romney awkwardly remarking "Who let the dogs out? Whoo! Whoo!" around the black kids.) |
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Shii
 Posts: 110 |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, in a parliamentary system, the PM is chosen by the party in power (in Japan this has nearly always been the LDP), not the general public. And if he did somehow get young people to come out and vote, I'd say more power to him, since Japan's voter turnout has been dropping a lot in recent years. |
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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I used to teach an advanced class at a respected high school in Kanagawa a year or two ago. We were talking about our dreams as children one day, and we took a poll about what people wanted to be as a child.
Sailor Moon was a surprisingly popular response. Maybe not SO out-of-touch, as it still resonates. |
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StudioToledo
 Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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Shame we never got newer editions for that besides the tiny pocket copies they printed. |
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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We can only hope this'll open them up to more better goals in the future. |
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