View Single Post
Old 2013-01-27, 22:46   Link #402
Irenicus
Le fou, c'est moi
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
College in Japan involves a lot of drinking, partying, lecture-skipping, and more drinking. And clubs -- or usually circles, less serious, more casual gatherings than the serious clubs that kurabu stands for (if a character is in a kurabu, as opposed to saakuru, they're probably serious sportsmen and not just afterschool tea-timers; note that sometimes translators translate "saakuru" as "clubs" because "circle" doesn't have that use in native English).

There are some anime set in it, the most famous is probably Honey and Clover (some other examples: "Nodame Cantabile" in the earlier seasons, "Moyashimon," or even "Love Hina" for the two main leads, albeit you would easily note how little importance is placed in the eventual Toudai experience). There are plenty of manga covering it, though not nearly as much as high school insofar as translated manga goes.

The problem, you see, is that the college element in those works of fictions are rarely the central concern; they're just backgrounds, sometimes stages for the drama to play out, but unlike high schools, which a Japanese student's life revolves around, the college age lifestyle in Japan doesn't quite engage so deeply with the "college" part of setting.

High school, however, is something most audiences would identify with, deeply, so there's no surprise it's such a "clichéd" place to put your romance/action/comedy/drama/porn in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GenjiChan View Post
It's like encouraging youths to engage in premarital sex.
So...?

Japanese "female" literature, from shoujo manga to fashion magazines, do that just fine. As for the boys, there's always porn and hormone and no need for encouragement.
Irenicus is offline   Reply With Quote