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Murder, She wrote:

Parents aren't so caught up in where their kids are at all times, and so they're free to wander around, shop, and hang out.

Yeah, the low crime rate helps that peace of mind.** Plus, Japanese communities watch each other, e.g. when young kids walk to school, they follow a designated route where guides in the community could watch over them along the way. Parents aren't required to be there to pick up their kids (although part of that is peer pressure too, e.g. some school admins will tell you that you can't pick up your kid by car since if you do it, then the other parents will have to think of doing it too - like that time when there was a nearby kidnapping attempt, and a parent insisted against the resisting admins of picking up his child from here on out, then later the other parents followed suit with their cars).

[** Well sometimes, it's not because of the crime rate at all - heck, some 3rd-world countries it's acceptable to let their kids go off roaming too, and they have a lot more crime than any developed nation - yet they do it anyway! Sometimes, it just comes down to societies' level of concern.]

Murder, She wrote:

How these kids are mature enough to not constantly blare loud music, party, and otherwise destroy these places is beyond me

Japanese typically don't invite guests into their homes, save for the closest of people. The home is just not used like that. Rather, they invite guests at designated places outside, like eating places or public attractions. Ever notice there's hardly house parties or backyard BBQs? Laughing

"Q. Why don’t the Japanese invite people over to their homes?"

The average size of a Japanese house, as seen by people from other countries, is extremely small. American homes that appear in American movies, no matter how ordinary, all appear to be spacious compared to the cramped conditions of Japanese homes. This makes the Japanese a little hesitant to invite people over.

Of course, among close friends, it is common to invite each other over, and children’s friends are invited over for their children’s birthday parties.

However, when inviting foreign guests, and not only one or two but many foreign guests to a party, there are very few homes in Japan with a living room large enough to accommodate the guests. There are also very few homes in Japan with yards big enough to hold a garden party.

Even if space poses no problems, the Japanese tend to draw a line between those who are considered insiders and those who are considered outsiders. Unlike in other countries where co–workers are invited over to the home, co–workers are rarely invited over to Japanese homes.

And when an invitation is extended, the Japanese go overboard wondering what to serve the guests and worrying about every little detail. Finally in desperation, they throw up their hands and call it quits. Americans hold parties even though what they can offer is something very simple like cheese, crackers and a salad. Foremost in entertaining is one’s good intention, which the Japanese realize all too well, but yet––.

Murder, She wrote:

Ever since the bubble burst in the North American anime market back in 2007, Japanese companies have been trying to figure out the best way to tap into the huge overseas fan base for their content.

Here take a look at this:

1/30/2009: Anime Industry Crisis

I just read an article that said anime's global marketplace will shrink from 2010 onward (as if that hasn't started to happen already). Everyone in the industry is concerned with this dramatic slowdown. The production coordinator I was talking to the other day mentioned the number of spring season shows is down to around 2/3 of what it used to be, and will continue to decrease towards the end of the year.

Now, I remember there were an insane number of shows being produced a few years ago, so if the decrease is based on that period, I'd say we're just getting back to a healthy, manageable number. But sadly, the smaller production companies will probably go out of business in the process since they are unable to compete with overseas companies who are willing to work for less. I feel very fortunate that I have been getting a steady--well, more like excessive--amount of work lately. I just finished up the key animation for Manglobe's show, and had to turn down a couple of offers from other companies. Madhouse's project is keeping me occupied most of the time, but I try to help out on other shows whenever I can. I don't see my friends having trouble with being out of work either. I doubt things will stay this way for long if all the doom and gloom I've been hearing about is all true, but we've been through some really bad times before, and we've all survived somehow. I hope this change will eventually bring good results to the industry in the long run.

The image shows the anime's annual sales in hundreds of million of yen. The column on the [left] reads:

Television
Feature Films
Video production/License fees
Video Sales
Broadcast
Merchandising
Overseas
Music/Publications
Miscellaneous
Total

So their overseas revenue peaked at 213 in 2006, then dropped sharply to 184 in 2007. As well as the other revenues when the bubble burst, except few like music.

Murder, She wrote:

Attempts to deviate from that, such as making more Western-flavored shows like IGPX and the like, have mostly failed.

According to the recent ANNcast with DeMarco, IGPX turned out like racing (the original was about mecha battles) due to the idea from the Japanese side, who was interested in racing and to differentiate it from the other mecha shows at the time. Williams Street agreed and went with the idea.

Murder, She wrote:

The Japanese government's Cool Japan initiative, through a program called J-LOP, subsidizes expenses related to marketing anime and other Japanese content overseas -- and those expenses can include everything from subtitling and dubbing, to hiring marketing consultants.

Note though that the subsidies aren't given upfront - the expenditure receipts are submitted afterwards to the government and, if it qualifies, only then they get reimbursed. So they have to spend their own money first.

Murder, She wrote:

Crackle.com now has apps everywhere and recently struck a deal with NBCUniversal for a ton of new, non-Sony content. While the site has not always been a great destination, it seems that they're finally starting to go places.

Also note: "Sony Will Spin Off Video & Sound Unit, Others to Follow"

Sony has been separating off its pieces in a desperate bid to return to profit. So there's no guarantee which shaky divisions could be next. Who knows what's in Crackle's future.

Greed1914 wrote:

One thing that I'm still wondering about in regards to the question about independent youngsters is how much of what anime portrays is accurate in relation to orphans/abandoned kids? Justin's answer explains why high school kids have quite a bit of independence, but those same kids also have parental support at the same time. As in, they might have their own apartment and have to buy groceries, but they still get money from their parents to help pay for those things.

Reminds me of this big story in Japan just last year:

"Sasebo girl says she wanted to see what it was like to kill someone"

SASEBO — A 16-year-old high school girl who was arrested Sunday for the grisly murder of her 15-year-old classmate in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, told police on Monday that she wanted to see what it was like to kill someone.

Police said the suspect told them that she and Matsuo went shopping on Saturday afternoon and when they returned to her apartment, she killed her. Police said the girl admitted striking Matsuo on the back of the head at least 10 times with a hammer. She then strangled her with a cord, before hacking her head off with a saw. Matsuo’s left hand was also severed, police said.

The suspect had been living alone in the apartment since April. Sankei Shimbun reported that her mother died of an illness last year and that her father had remarried. [Father and daughter don't get along.]

== This one comment in particular: ==

I know of very few junior/senior high schools in Japan that offer dormitory or other student living arrangements, but the schools that do offer this option seem to do a horrible job of ensuring the safety and well-being of the students involved.

From what I have seen and heard first-hand, well-off and neglectful parents in Japan often pawn off their troubled offspring to these sorts of schools. As a result, some very troubled youth from monied backgrounds live pretty much on their own in dorms with very little oversight and insufficiently staffed. The children may have somewhat structured meal times and study hall sessions, but after 10:00 pm or so the doors are locked and the kids are left completely unsupervised to fend for themselves until morning time. I have heard of some horrible cases of chronic and pervasive bullying at one such school in Japan due to this sort of arrangement (police even had to be called in to settle one such matter).

Also, a Japanese teacher extensively involved in foreign exchange once told me that many Japanese hs youth from well-off families are sent to Australia when parents/educators in Japan can no longer handle them. I guess they are hoping that people in Australia will do a better job of parenting than adults in Japan. Recipe for disaster. Without going into too much detail, I also know of a U.S. family who had a nightmare experience hosting one such severely troubled South Korean youth on a short-stay program, also from a well-off, educationally-obsessed family hoping that American parents could get a grip on the situation.

Also, it's interesting that despite the teen independence, Japanese children tend to stay living with their parents longer, especially with the bad economy. Particularly girls, which gave rise to the term "parasite single" ("a single person who lives with their parents beyond their late 20s in order to enjoy a carefree and comfortable life; in Japanese culture, the term is especially used when negatively describing young unmarried women"). They only leave when they get married, so they go from their parents' house to their husband's house, never on their own.

While we were walking the streets of Roppangi this girl was complaining how she got her phone stolen that it was gonna be a hassle buying another one. Like why not tell the cops ? Apparently a lot of crimes are not seen as important and go unreported is that true ?

I don't know if this is actually true or just a few not-so-nice-people [expletive] with me. But, from my experience. It' is safe, but ... like any place you have to be fully aware shit can happen. I think the Japanese just tell there kids the straight up " look don't go with people you don't know you may [expletive] die" or some shit. The kids there are pretty much well aware of what's going on, where to go , how to act. It's crazy in comparison to the U.S were kids are told " don't go where i can't see you ." Parent in Japan have a lot of faith in there kids and " low crime " rate.

But seriously someone tell me if this is true or not? Cause if it is , then it's fucked up. It's not safe it's just a facade to make the people think there safe . But even if this were true I think it's better to let people feel at ease them make them panic.

Last edited by yuna49 on Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

EricJ2 wrote:

As for the Crackle question, I'd heard Sony wanted to release Nodame Cantabile with the Animax dub but right (music, I'm guessing? Rolling Eyes

) interfered at the last minute.

That's what I heard, too, though back in 2010 Sam Pinarsky (aka "Quarkboy") saw the lack of an R1 Nodame release as typical Sony boneheadedness:

Quote:

Nodame Cantabile has issues relating to the fact that international rights to season 1 and seasons 2 and 3 are controlled by different companies... one of which is sony animax who isn't in the business of selling rights, it's in the business of sitting on them and never doing anything with them.

In other words, licensing of Nodame is far more complicated and expensive than the series possible value is worth.

Sony could release the DVDs for just season 1, sure. But Sony didn't license it with that in mind.
As in, they don't want to. It was licensed for broadcast on animax, that's pretty much all sony wanted it for.

Other companies might want to license seasons 2 and 3 to release DVDs of the whole show, but Sony isn't interested in selling the rights.
So that's the problem. No one is going to license DVD rights for just seasons 2 and 3, and Sony is sitting on the rights to season 1 and not doing anything with it.

Though the situation in R1 has not changed, Sony did license Nodame to Siren Visual last December for release later this year. The announcement doesn't say whether a Blu-ray will accompany the usual R4 DVD.

Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:

The above sorts of things are pretty much unimaginable to most parents these days, from what I've seen. They've become *way* over-protective, and I can't help but think it will end up with their kids more dependent upon their parents later on in life as thinking for themselves and doing things on their own won't come as naturally to them.

Well, I've always felt that Americans being very protective of their kids is because of the child predator scare that grips much of the United States (and Canada). In addition, you had that whole "Do you know what your children are doing?" ad campaign in the 1980's that was really intended to curb teen drug use but instead made parents paranoid about their kids getting into trouble or encountering child predators.

That being said, I see just as many, if not more parents just letting their kids roam around as they want in public, but with some rare instances, usually remain within the same general area as their kids.

gloverrandal wrote:

America got really paranoid in the 80s and 90s. I think the rise of programs like Amber Alert got a lot of people paranoid. In the 90s there was a big push to vilify strangers. It's gotten especially bad in my neighborhood where nobody really Trick or Treats at Halloween anymore. They go down to the local shopping center and do things at the stores and pre-assigned booths. I haven't had any Trick or Treaters in years.

Our neighborhood used to get hundreds and hundreds of trick-or-treaters, but while we still get about 70 each Halloween, I keep hearing from other people that it's more the exception than the norm.

If you take a look at the local news, you'll likely see at least one story about a missing child and police suspecting some creepy-looking person. Hence, the whole fear of strangers thing is still being done now.

Paiprince wrote:

Really sad how high fertility countries tend to be the ones with the highest child mortality rates and the biggest factor keeping countries like US and UK from the downward trend are its influx of immigrants. Now if the world could just figure out a way to flip the numbers around...

That's the pattern all right. The third-world countries with lots of kids being born is because of all the death that goes on there, and so their population growth is actually not all that big. (That's why "be fruitful and multiply" keeps showing up in the Bible--it's done to not die off completely.) Countries like Afghanistan and Qatar have population growth rates ahead of them because they recently acquired infrastructure that'd help prevent some of those deaths but haven't shed the cultural pressure to have lots of kids.

Personally, what I feel is best is population stabilization and a slow downhill, but that's another matter entirely.

Jose Cruz wrote:

I think that on the long run China will be the biggest hope for the anime industry, given it's already the world's biggest market but they need to deal with the rampant piracy they have there. Same applies to Brazil, Russia and India,

And China is going to be one of the hardest markets to outdo pirates in, as piracy is deeply ingrained within the culture, and the culture also values thriftiness. That means the legitimate content creators would have to not only figure out how to allow Chinese consumers to save even more money with the real thing than with pirated merchandise and make them more easily available than pirated merchandise. In addition, if the materials are actually made in China, they have to prevent the people who make these things from running off somewhere and using their knowledge and skills making them to make incredibly authentic knockoffs (as Disney and Apple have found out the hard way).

Mohawk52 wrote:

I'll add yet another, no less important, effect that deteriorates data on magnetic tape and that is the Earth's own gravity. It is a magnet after all and we should know what happens to tapes when getting close to a magnet. The effect of course isn't as instantanous, but over a long time, like 30-40 years it will be deteriorated quite a bit.

Do you mean the Earth's magnetic field?

enurtsol wrote:

Yeah, the low crime rate helps that peace of mind.** Plus, Japanese communities watch each other, e.g. when young kids walk to school, they follow a designated route where guides in the community could watch over them along the way. Parents aren't required to be there to pick up their kids (although part of that is peer pressure too, e.g. some school admins will tell you that you can't pick up your kid by car since if you do it, then the other parents will have to think of doing it too - like that time when there was a nearby kidnapping attempt, and a parent insisted against the resisting admins of picking up his child from here on out, then later the other parents followed suit with their cars).

Also, a Japanese teacher extensively involved in foreign exchange once told me that many Japanese hs youth from well-off families are sent to Australia when parents/educators in Japan can no longer handle them. I guess they are hoping that people in Australia will do a better job of parenting than adults in Japan. Recipe for disaster. Without going into too much detail, I also know of a U.S. family who had a nightmare experience hosting one such severely troubled South Korean youth on a short-stay program, also from a well-off, educationally-obsessed family hoping that American parents could get a grip on the situation.

So Australia is STILL being used as a detainment center the size of a continent where other countries send their unruly people?

And what is the hesitance about parents driving their kids to and from school? Is it because it could cause traffic problems? (Certainly, I was at my high school when it was at its peak population of about 7,000, and it caused traffic jams twice daily for miles around it, so much that a local newspaper printed a front-page article about the congestion. The school district shortly announced more schools to be built in the area.)

I can see the problems with that path-monitoring system too: It provides a series of convenient locations for potential harm-doers. If the United States had any area with such a system, I can imagine a show like CSI or Criminal Minds to make an episode about a child abductor posing as a guide.

It all comes down to trust, I suppose. Americans have learned to really distrust each other.

Meanwhile, I keep wondering why Cyborg 009 isn't streaming on Crackle Sad

trunkschan90 wrote:

Meanwhile, I keep wondering why Cyborg 009 isn't streaming on Crackle Sad

Same here.

I'd never claim Minami-ke is a documentary or an accurate portrayal of the daily lives of your average group of (presumed) orphaned siblings, but I have always wondered just how plausible it would be for three under-aged sisters to live by themselves with no apparent adult supervision (other than their older cousin Takeru checking in on them every once in a while and to give them money from their never-seen aunt), almost as though Japan has no child protective service agency (I'm fairly certain it does).

The other Minami family also has no apparent parents (say that five times fast), but the oldest brother is an adult so I guess he can count as the legal guardian of his younger brothers and sister.

Kadmos1 wrote:

trunkschan90 wrote:

Meanwhile, I keep wondering why Cyborg 009 isn't streaming on Crackle Sad

Same here.

The guy in charge of getting anime on Crackle did actually give an answer to this a year or two ago. Pretty much, Cyborg 009 won't be seen on Crackle due to music licensing issues, likely due to the use of songs by globe for the OP & first two EDs.

Oh, I thought it was simply because Cyborg 009 doesn't get much respect outside of Japan due to its outdated visual style and strong ties to the Cold War environment.

Jose Cruz wrote:

If you compare, Hollywood is doing much better in penetrating foreign markets: in Europe, Hollywood has nearly as much film gross as in North America (about 6-7 billion dollars in Europe, compared to 9-10 billion in North America). And Europeans spend less money on movies than Americans do.

I really don't think it's fair to compare the anime industry to Hollywood, considering that Hollywood movies are something that people normally watch in western countries (including most countries in Europe and South America), which is not the case with anime, not even in Japan.

Another difference is I'm sure people in Japan have not been brainwashed by "stranger danger" news media scare tactics like people in the US have.

gloverrandal wrote:

America got really paranoid in the 80s and 90s. I think the rise of programs like Amber Alert got a lot of people paranoid. In the 90s there was a big push to vilify strangers. It's gotten especially bad in my neighborhood where nobody really Trick or Treats at Halloween anymore. They go down to the local shopping center and do things at the stores and pre-assigned booths. I haven't had any Trick or Treaters in years.

It's been decades in the neighborhood that I live in. The municipality practically orders parents to attend a municipality-sponsored event in place of Halloween.

With regard to the question of youthful independence - and the side issue of orphaned/abandoned children - I am still trying, ten years on, to get my head around the plot of Binbou Shimai Monogatari. So there are two girls, aged 15 and 9, and they live entirely (absolutely and completely) on their own, and support themselves financially from just a paper round!

OK, it's a charming little series, but surely this is cloud-cuckoo-land? Did even the Japanese swallow this scenario? (No school counsellors? No social services? And just how much does a Japanese paper round bring in?)

enurtsol wrote:

Japanese typically don't invite guests into their homes, save for the closest of people. The home is just not used like that. Rather, they invite guests at designated places outside, like eating places or public attractions. Ever notice there's hardly house parties or backyard BBQs? Laughing

"Q. Why don’t the Japanese invite people over to their homes?"

This is very interesting facts Enurtsol, thanks for sharing. I'm kinda surprised after reading this. Smile

{Please read this posting -- in -- its -- entirety. Thank you. ~nbahn}

albanian wrote:

OK, it's a charming little series, but surely this is cloud-cuckoo-land? Did even the Japanese swallow this scenario? (No school counsellors? No social services? And just how much does a Japanese paper round bring in?)

That is the kind of thing that I find strange. The young characters with parents who aren't really part of the show isn't too hard to believe, especially when you consider things like the walkability of neighborhoods and readily accessible public transportation. However, stories where there are absolutely no helpful adults involved in a kid's life are pretty hard to believe. Of the shows I've seen where a teenager is somehow providing for younger siblings, I don't recall the subject of seeking out government support even coming up. I could understand if maybe they mentioned being worried that the family would have to split up in order to find homes for everyone, but not mentioning social services at all is something I find rather odd.

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