2009-03-29, 23:12 | Link #1042 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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That isn't to say that individuals don't grab for power or backstab.... but thats the exceptional situation. Even the otaku, fashionistas, and yakuza tend to aggregate into groups with strict codes of behavior and forms of dress.
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2009-03-30, 01:17 | Link #1043 |
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 38
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Personally, I look at Chobits as seinen, because the underlying issues of the series are rather serious, if you put enough thought into them. For Toradora, maybe seinen-lite. Underneath the fun, there are again many issues which are addressed seriously.
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Last edited by yezhanquan; 2009-03-30 at 01:34. |
2009-03-30, 01:26 | Link #1044 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Aye, both Chobits and Toradora are just a couple of the many examples of "just because a particular publisher of X genre distributes it doesn't mean it is going to follow the X pattern".
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2009-03-30, 02:44 | Link #1046 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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So do I... but I end up in the wierdest arguments with obsessive "it came from this publisher ergo it MUST be X" people where X is shounen usually....
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2009-04-11, 11:42 | Link #1047 | |
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Philippines
Age: 47
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2009-04-11, 11:53 | Link #1048 | |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
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If you want to categorize story X to be a romantic comedy, that's perfectly fine. But when using phrases such as "shounen", "shoujo", or "seinen", you're delving into marketing categories. Whether you agree with it or not from the content, these categories are important in both recognition by readers, and marketing. You can argue all you want that "manga X" has the usual trait of a shoujo manga, and insist on calling it shoujo manga... but if the manga was published under shounen manga magazine, it WILL be categorized a shounen manga, in both placement in the bookstores, online shops, tankoubon locations, etc. Calling it otherwise simply confuses others who wants to get into the series, locate it, or learn about it. Imagine you telling a friend that "Denei-shoujo" is a great shoujo manga, and he/she should read it. He/she then goes into a bookstore, and cannot locate it under any shoujo manga sections. He/she then asks the bookstore employee, and the employee luckly had knowledge of the manga, and takes him/her to the shounen Jump tankoubon section. At this point, that person will be utterly confused. And perhaps wasted a lot of time, and possibly resulting in small loss of your credibility. The best option is, obviously, to start out describing the manga as "It's a shounen manga, but with many traits of a shoujo romance manga. It's great, you'd like it." Now, calling it "bittersweet romance story" or whatever would be perfectly fine, as it's a genre defined by your views of the content.
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2009-04-11, 12:08 | Link #1049 | ||
ドジ
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In a house
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In theory, however, the opinion expressed by many of us non-Japanese here is that the typical public perception of those marketing categories in Japan is quite ridiculous. There's obviously no harm in assigning a label to something. However, when it comes to point that certain people don't want to be caught dead reading certain things just because of the label (and regardless of actual content)... either the marketing concept is far too effective or the society is far too restrictive. Quote:
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2009-04-11, 12:31 | Link #1050 | |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
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Otherwise, how are the mere employees supposed to organize the bookshelves? Are they required to know the content of each and every book? That's impossible. Or are they supposed to be organized under some category based on content that the bookstore manager set? If that happened, Jump manga and Hana to Yume manga would be all mixed together in a mess on the shelf, and total nightmare for anyone to organize. Not to mention it being diffrent from store to store, causing hell of a lot of confusion among the buyers. Just like when you walk into... say, Fry's Electronics or Wal-mart, to buy DVD or CD. Regardless of whether you agree with a title to be a "comedy" or "action", it's gonna be under a certain category. Otherwise, it'd be total chaos and mess. It's the exact same thing. You don't like the fact that Red Hot Chilli Peppers album was categorized under Rock when you feel it's Pop? Well, tough, it's gotta go somewhere. The problem is, genre based on content is an extremly fuzzy thing, with almost no certainty or uniformality. EVERYONE's perception is diffrent, and because of this, it's not a good idea to go by when categorizing mediums.
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2009-04-11, 13:05 | Link #1051 | ||
ドジ
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In a house
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I was pointing my finger at the public perception of these genres: people in Japan take them too literally. The problem is not with the labels; it's with how they are treated: not only for reference or categorisation, but as an indication of what one should read. Outside Japan, where there's not so much of a "shoujo should read shoujo, shounen should read shounen" mentality, titles have a lot more cross-demographic appeal. That's what I was getting at and sorry for confusing you This was probably the most important part of my previous post, so I'll restate it here, with my key points in bold: Quote:
Last edited by Yukinokesshou; 2009-04-11 at 13:26. |
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2009-04-11, 15:00 | Link #1052 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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aye, I understand the categorization for purposes of stocking and shelving --- and that certain publishers are labeled by those categories... but as stated by Yukinokesshou - I'll encounter people or posters who won't touch a lot of good works simply because they aren't labeled shounen (or vice versa) by the publisher and they give others a hard time who do. This is sad...
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2009-04-11, 21:33 | Link #1053 |
勇者
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Tesla Leicht Institute
Age: 34
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Which sports is more popular in Japan? Baseball or soccer? Japan won the WBC twice and have many famous player in MLB. But in soccer there was success of Japanese player like Nakata who won the Serie A with Roma and Nakamura, who won the SPL player of the year and SPL, and 2002 WC success. Looking at it both sports should be very popular in Japan but I don't know which one is more popular than other.
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2009-04-12, 02:22 | Link #1054 | |
Honyaku no Hime
Fansubber
Join Date: May 2008
Location: In the eastern capital of the islands of the rising suns...
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Methinks America and Japan are the only two countries in the world that take it on a major ass level, especially nationally. Football has the world cup and while Japan did pretty well in... 02 was it when they hosted it with S Korea, both America and Japan aren't as strong nor probably passionate about it... Well, Japan more so then America definitely. But I'm sure baseball enthuiasts all know about 'Ichiro'. The coverage baseball gets over here in the back of the newspapers completely shadows football unless its the World Cup or something (once every 4 years though...) It's amusing when I came here and people looked at me thinking i surely must have known something about baseball. Until I tell them I'm from UK and aside from America and Japan, don't look to Europeans much for things concerning baseball, lol. I understand it, it's not too different from something we have over here called 'Rounders', but Japan wise, I'd go with baseball. One of those US-Japan culture things
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2009-04-12, 07:07 | Link #1055 | |
土は幻に
Fansubber
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Baseball's ridiculously popular in Japan; the amount of media time Ichiro gets is staggering (and annoying). And let's not get started on the WBC |
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2009-04-12, 08:42 | Link #1056 | ||
勇者
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Tesla Leicht Institute
Age: 34
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Quote:
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2009-04-12, 10:34 | Link #1057 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Major League Baseball has already come to the conclusion that it's best chance to expand its market is overseas. Japan is one of the prime marketing targets. That article contains a photo gallery that includes this photo of a "cosplaying" couple rooting for the Hanshin Tigers.
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2009-04-13, 07:30 | Link #1058 | |
On a sabbatical
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wellington, NZ
Age: 43
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2009-04-24, 00:39 | Link #1060 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Okay, I'm a relatively new player of Shogi but I thought this was really cool/pretty:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/photospecials/graph/chess/ LARPing Shogi (like the SCA and other groups sometimes LARP chess). The outfits are great --- colorful and it was a beautiful day it seems. The cherry trees made a great backdrop to the field.
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culture, discussion, japan, japanese culture |
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