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[Pathos]

Yeah, that's a lot of fascinating talk about Japanese culture in Japan.  But it doesn't explain anything about Dragon Ball Z and Full Metal Alchemist being as big if not bigger in the West than in Japan itself, or shit like that Teen Titans cartoon or the host of other faux-animes exploding all over the place, or people who've never seen a katana and will defend to the death why it's the greatest weapon ever invented.  That's what I can't figure out, and I think was the original question of the thread.  I think.

This is basically it.

The worst part is when people argue with me over topics about Japan that I'll know more than them about, (weapons, politics, government system, etc) and argue that they know so much about it because they're obsessed with Japanese culture.

The katana thing really pisses me off, though. My face goes like: 

"BUT THE THOUSAND FOLDZ MAKES THEM SUPER WEAPONZ" is the worst argument ever. Especially since katanas would've been relatively useless against medieval Western technology.

[Huesoo]

I think the Japanese are obsessed with us, seriously check out DEM EYES. Or maybe it is our (american) stranglehold of them. Also the "who would win Samurai vs Knight" aguement is quite invalid its like comparing apples to zuchinnis.

[Pathos]

I think the Japanese are obsessed with us, seriously check out DEM EYES. Or maybe it is our (american) stranglehold of them. Also the "who would win Samurai vs Knight" aguement is quite invalid its like comparing apples to zuchinnis.

I'm not denying the samurai vs knight thing, but katanas would've been pretty damn useless. They're primarily (possible only) cutting weapons, and most Western armour was designed against cutting weapons. Hence why we moved onto heavier weaponry that you could chop with.

[Duke 2.0]

Religious tolerance is also an important aspect, but that is actually not unique to Japan, but is something you can find in many South and Southeast Asian countries. It is usually not so important which religion you have and Japanese culture traditionally actually viewed things very flexibly (with a dent of 100 years between 1848 and 1949, where nationalism required the declaration and abstracting of a state religion). Nowadays, if you want to see religious intolerance, the only things you find regularly are the posters "You shalt have no other God", which are spread by those friendly youths New Zealand's Christian churches constantly send over to do missionary work.

 I didn't read much of the thread, but I just wanted to pop in to say that this is not terribly true. Or at least, not true to the major Christian churches populated by Japanese people over there. Right, so, I'm a Unificationist. Look it up if you want, I'm not here to explain the history of me or the church and start a religious debate here as that is besides the point. But one thing that people of this faith have endured, particularly in Japan and Korea is deprogrammers. And while I acknowledge their ability to save people from brainwashing death cults they can and have been used illegally on people within this philosophy. After being recognized by churches around the world(Christians, Catholics, Muslims, etc) as an actual religion they are cool with and after a good amount of time has made it painfully clear that we are not a fanatic cult that will go out with a mass suicide, deprogrammers in Japan are still going at it. And while I may not know the motivation behind the calls for them I do suspect that at this point it is more of a forced conversion than the intended purpose of saving them.
 But then again I can only say this about the Japanese that are part of those particular Christian churches and not their culture as a whole. Still, this is a decent amount of their culture behind this.

 Also, Damascus Steel side swords. For when you want the most technologically advanced weapon with the best steel in the world. Or the Mongol composite bow. Or the firearms developed at the time. Or even basic European armor can make up for having a knife and a bag full of rocks.

 And finally, the Japanese are really into our hip hop culture. Being able to breakdance will make you the popular dude on the block.

[DJ]

Besides, everybody knows that knight wins.

[smigenboger]

So they also have a bunch of poor dudes singing about how rich and famous they are?

[Deathworks]

Hi!

I think the Japanese are obsessed with us, seriously check out DEM EYES.

Do you mean "anime" or do you mean the surgery and things done in real life...... While I would rather not try to analyze the background of the latter (shudder), the "anime eyes" can actually be clearly traced. Moving backwards in time, we have the following:

Probably because it was seeing its audience silently running away, shounen manga/anime copied the huge eyes and general design patterns from shoujo manga/anime somewhere around the 90s. Before that, the huge eyes were only found in shoujo manga, while shounen manga looked more like Western comics (in many regards, actually).

The huge eyes in shoujo manga are a tradition created by Tezuka Osamu, who also created the genre of shoujo manga. While he found them useful to express dreams and visions of the virgin heart of the heroines, quite frankly his inspiration were the characters of Walt Disney. I mean, have you ever looked at Donald Duck?

Deathworks

EDIT: Duke 2.0: I was talking about the main stream Japanese culture when talking about the tolerance thing. Christianity is NOT the dominant religion in Japan (of course they celebrate Christmas, because they like to party, so what?); the dominant culture is basically a loose mix of Shintoism and Buddhism. And of course, there are horrible and intolerant sects and groups in Japan. People may remember the attacks on the Tokyo subway by that crackpot sect. And the ultra-right are a tad too strong for my taste in the political arena.

[Duke 2.0]

 While Christianity may not be dominant they do hold a large section of the population. But yeah, you may have it spot on there with the ultra-right having a bit too much power.

[smigenboger]

People are having surgery...do you mean standard plastic surgery (which I'm somewhat against, especially if there are nothing 'wrong' with the person), or are they taking beauty to a different level?

I know Koreans strive for 'paleness', but my knowledge of Eastern culture is limited to the 'theme park version' in the US

[kuro_suna]

With manga and anime I think its less the difference between japan and the west and more the difference between media produced by independents and a handful of large corporations. North American comic books are a good example of how a media produced exclusively by fans for fans doesn't evolve much. Also see the video games industry and all the garbage Disney pumped out before Pixar for examples.

[Pathos]

Also, Damascus Steel side swords. For when you want the most technologically advanced weapon with the best steel in the world. Or the Mongol composite bow. Or the firearms developed at the time. Or even basic European armor can make up for having a knife and a bag full of rocks.

Oh, sure, or any of those. =p Damascus steel is amazing though, even by today's standards.

Isn't anime / manga ridiculously easy to draw, though? A friend of mine claimed so, and that's another reason to dislike the obsession. Also, the amount of kids with no artistic talent able to draw Japanese style is just... *facepalm*

[DJ]

Toledo steel was also a lot better than what the Japanese had.

[Aqizzar]

Damascus/Toledo steel and thousand-fold blades have exactly one thing in common - neither of them existed.  They were stories made up by medieval smiths to sell their shit.

I think the Japanese are obsessed with us, seriously check out DEM EYES.

I didn't think about it before, but this is probably more right than it appears.  After all, is it just me, or do many (I won't say most, because I don't know; just many) anime/manga characters look more Caucasian than Oriental?  Even when there's no real reason to.  Awful lot of blondes in anime, even the most "realistic" series.  Or for the that matter, all manner of story franchises inspired by or based on American movies (Road Warrior > Fist of the North Star for instance).

[Nether]

Yeah, that's a lot of fascinating talk about Japanese culture in Japan.  But it doesn't explain anything about Dragon Ball Z and Full Metal Alchemist being as big if not bigger in the West than in Japan itself, or shit like that Teen Titans cartoon or the host of other faux-animes exploding all over the place, or people who've never seen a katana and will defend to the death why it's the greatest weapon ever invented.  That's what I can't figure out, and I think was the original question of the thread.  I think.

This is basically it.

The worst part is when people argue with me over topics about Japan that I'll know more than them about, (weapons, politics, government system, etc) and argue that they know so much about it because they're obsessed with Japanese culture.

The katana thing really pisses me off, though. My face goes like: 

"BUT THE THOUSAND FOLDZ MAKES THEM SUPER WEAPONZ" is the worst argument ever. Especially since katanas would've been relatively useless against medieval Western technology.

I disagree on the weapon point. Our knives were unable to pierce the armor of the heavily armored knight also. The katana has it's charmes due to it's extremely light weight and manouvrability while retaining a top strength. It is really remarkable how light they really are.
Before you ask, I have katana's and medievil onehanders. the katana's win by far. Certainly with the fighting skills the samurai had next to them. I honestly believe that a trained samurai would win from a trained knight.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

People are having surgery...do you mean standard plastic surgery (which I'm somewhat against, especially if there are nothing 'wrong' with the person), or are they taking beauty to a different level?

Mind you, I have not kept up on how many people are still doing it, but there have been cases where plastic surgery was applied. You see, Japanese have slightly almond-shaped eyes when compared to Europeans (mongoloid, I think, it is called), and that plastic surgery would then change that to a shape more similar to European eyes...

And I agree with you on the doubts about unnecessary plastic surgery.

Duke 2.0: I have to check, but I am still doubtful about Christianity really holding a really big portion of the populace. Of course, given the general fervor of Christian missionaries (which I hinted at before), I wouldn't be surprised if Christian sects made up most of the minority sects, although the New Age religions also seem to be quite popular.

But for main stream culture, I think Christianity is still more something of an exotic item.

Deathworks