The '-tan' culture in Japan

[sukreih]

As the <Moe> culture grew into a Bishoujo code (I don't know since when), I remeber at a similar time the <Tan> culture came out. It is,simply replacing the 'Chan' word in Bishoujo characters.


Famous ones are 'MoeTan',where the Moe code invades(or was attempting to invade) English education. Yea,it was supposed to be an educational book,really. I bought it out of curiosity and it basically sucked. The sample sentences have manga and game references in it,well that's good but some sentences are really awkward and gramatically wrong.
However it was popular and MoeTan2 was released last summer. If anyone actually WANTS to learn English, seriously they wouldn't buy this. It kindda helped in drawing. The pictures are really cute.

And there was XP Tan, 98 Tan and ME Tans.. the Windows systems portrayed with bishoujos. Yea I can bear with that,they're actually quite cute.Althou quite a lot of times I imagine Bill Gates dressed up in all their costumes..ooh man.

Now there's Afganis-Tan, maybe a politically acclaimed(or so I call it) manga by Chimaki King.

Afganis-Tan(Afganistan), a little girl who is bullied by other kids(they're actually conturies such as the US) decides to stand up to them. But she has to go a long way cuz well, she's much of a clumsy girl and falls down and rolls a lot.
Til the site was closed when the author was caught using Winny(a Japanese P2P program.There's this program called the Gintama virus which hacks into your system,and takes screenshots of your desktop.) ,embarassed onself and closed down the site bbs, I remember it had a decent popularity. Well it kind of had a point between country relationships and politics,or so I've heard.My sister who's in Media Info Studies have read it and said it wasn't that bad.It didn't get a great deal of bashing,or maybe it's simply because it's not that well known in other countries.

Afganis-Tan not enough?Check THIS out.

The title of this book is called MARUKUSU-TAN, or yeah..you've guessed it: MARX TAN. And yes,it's about an all girl's school with all the communist/Marxist leaders in it. The girl in glasses is CARL MARX, and the girl behind her is FREDRICK ENGLES. ENGLES takes interest in MARX and yeah the shoujo-ai story goes on.
Of course, the book also features LENIN and TROTSKY. (CHE GUEVARA will come out soon enough I swear)I don't know if I can link to the info site..the book's actually an ERO-novel.Phew.
Is it just me, or did other people think or exclaim WTF? Enough is enough. I wonder what's going in the author's head.. And these people actually have their original faces. Well let's say Marx being bishoujo-nized is okay,but as an ero novel? Making out with other leaders? That's something to think about.. quite frankly I thought the <Moe> culture has gone too far this time.Or am I too sensitive?
And no..I don't think they're trying to teach history here..

[bayoab]

First of all: It's -tan. not TANG.
And responding to your question. No. They keep creating more because they provide amusement.

Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os-tan about tan in general as you have the conception completely wrong. It has nothing to do with the moe culture.

[sukreih]

Originally Posted by bayoab

First of all: It's -tan. not TANG.
And responding to your question. No. They keep creating more because they provide amusement.

Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os-tan about tan in general as you have the conception completely wrong. It has nothing to do with the moe culture.

whoops srry.. I wrote TANG instead of TAN cuz it rather looked like suntan...I didn't know there was an official term in English for it. Thanks for pointing that out,I'll make a correction

I don't think I got the term completely wrong thou..moe=bishoujo=tan are all in the same branch,right? I mean there are other branches here and there,but that's the whole term in one..(w/e that means)
I know that 'Moe' was actually used as a term of 'obsessed with something'..but from some time, the bishoujo stuff were called Moe rather than others. I'm Quite sure about that.At least I've mainly seen the terms used in Japansese and Korean sites/blogs.


<added> ooh, even the title has been changed to the correct term!Thx!! ^_^

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by sukreih

Afganis-Tang not enough?Check THIS out.

The title of this book is called MARUKUSU-TANG, or yeah..you've guessed it: MARX TANG. And yes,it's about an all girl's school with all the communist/Marxist leaders in it. The girl in glasses is CARL MARX, and the girl behind her is FREDRICK ENGLES. ENGLES takes interest in MARX and yeah the shoujo-ai story goes on.
Of course, the book also features LENIN and TROTSKY. (CHE GUEVARA will come out soon enough I swear)I don't know if I can link to the info site..the book's actually an ERO-novel.Phew.
Is it just me, or did other people think or exclaim WTF? Enough is enough. I wonder what's going in the author's head.. And these people actually have their original faces. Well let's say Marx being bishoujo-nized is okay,but as an ero novel? Making out with other leaders? That's something to think about.. quite frankly I thought the <Moe> culture has gone too far this time.Or am I too sensitive?
And no..I don't think they're trying to teach history here..

I hate to use such terms but; ROTFL!!!

Anyway, to discuss this seriously, I don't think it's gone too far. I mean it's a bit ridiculous, but I don't see a problem with it. I wouldn't say you're being to sensitive, but perhaps a bit too serious. Lighten up a bit. Though I have to wonder about the person that thinks of this stuff.

edit: To clear a misconception here, -tan is a corruption of -chan. Think of it as an otaku way of saying -chan. While it isn't directly releated to moe~, moe~ characters are frequently referred to with the -tan. AT least that's my understanding.

[kj1980]

oh how I remember the days three years ago when I tried to explain these things. I'm very happy to see such ideas and discussions beginning to infiltrate the Western/American otaku culture!!

By the way, yes the first Moe-tan rather sucked in its English usage (which surprises me since it was proofread by an English professor), but Moe-tan2 is written in great colloquial English. You should give Moetan2 a try, especially the story is pretty sad and heartwarming.

As for "-tan" culture...there is no "tan culture." It's all part of nijiura and gijinka, an aspect of moe~.

Also, you might want to check out the new anime Binchoutan which airs today.

[Guido]

Unfortunately, there happened this incident in Japan nearly two years ago that gave way to praise popularity among Japanese otaku web communities to a certain girl that slitted her classmate's throat with a box cutter.

If I recall reading the news by searching through Google, that incident became known as the Sasebo Slashing if I'm correct.

And the killer girl was given the name Nevada-tan.

I would deeply appreciate if any respected, Japanese member within the AnimeSuki community could share the full account of what really happened with that particular incident.

[sukreih]

Also, you might want to check out the new anime Binchoutan which airs today.

I'd rather not.. I bought this issue's Animage cuz there were some Akagi-related articles/info, took a look at Binchoutan and simply wanted to crush them for them being so damn cute. And the Binchoutan file for furoku.. how much do you think I can get if I sell this?

so tan is an aspect of moe? I wasn't completely wrong at least..(was feeling rather small after I got pointed out :P)
jk1980..kindly explain to me what nijiura and gijinka is. Quite curious.
I named it tan culture cuz I couldn't think of an sufficient term..actually it's my first debut in the Western/American forums so hehe..bear with me.
btw Higurashi game good?

[Srin Tuar]

Originally Posted by sukreih

Afganis-Tan(Afganistan), a little girl who is bullied by other kids(they're actually conturies such as the US) decides to stand up to them. But she has to go a long way cuz well, she's much of a clumsy girl and falls down and rolls a lot.

LOL, that is too hilarious

If anyone has read it, I would be interested to know if this manga a serious attempt at entertainment, and educational thing, or more of a political statement ??

Also, you might want to check out the new anime Binchoutan which airs today.

This looks interesting.
A slow paced show... the first episode consists of her riding on a duck to go gather wild plants for breakfast... It sounds pretty fringe. I wonder if anyone will bother to post raws. (I hope it doesnt put me to sleep like Aria did. Aria physically put me to sleep three times in one episode. Its simply too relaxing for its own good.)

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Guido

Unfortunately, there happened this incident in Japan nearly two years ago that gave way to praise popularity among Japanese otaku web communities to a certain girl that slitted her classmate's throat with a box cutter.

If I recall reading the news by searching through Google, that incident became known as the Sasebo Slashing if I'm correct.

And the killer girl was given the name Nevada-tan.

I would deeply appreciate if any respected, Japanese member within the AnimeSuki community could share the full account of what really happened with that particular incident.

You do not want to know. It is very gruesome and the aspect of what followed with regards to her upbringing by thousands of idiots to a net idol status is very stupid; along the lines of insanity.

If you have a broad understanding of Japanese, feel free to read this at your own discretion: http://www.uranus.dti.ne.jp/~yuugeki/nevada-top.htm

Originally Posted by sukreih

jk1980..kindly explain to me what nijiura and gijinka is. Quite curious.
I named it tan culture cuz I couldn't think of an sufficient term..actually it's my first debut in the Western/American forums so hehe..bear with me.
btw Higurashi game good?

That's kj1980. Nijiura is Futaba-chan. Gijinka is making moe~ characters out of non-living things. OS-tan is a prime example of a gijinka that spawned from nijiura. Others include: packs of cigarettes, computer programming languages, to almost anything

[GundamZZ]

Originally Posted by Guido

If I recall reading the news by searching through Google, that incident became known as the Sasebo Slashing if I'm correct.

And the killer girl was given the name Nevada-tan.

As far as I know, tan is used exclusively in 2channel and some English anime forums.

なお、2ちゃんねる内で用いられる「～たん」という言葉と組み合わされ、「NEVADAたん」と呼ばれるこ とが多い。英語版にある加害女児の記事名はこれを踏まえて「Nevada-Tan」となっている。

source: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%...BA%8B%E4%BB%B6

[sukreih]

Originally Posted by Guido
Unfortunately, there happened this incident in Japan nearly two years ago that gave way to praise popularity among Japanese otaku web communities to a certain girl that slitted her classmate's throat with a box cutter.

If I recall reading the news by searching through Google, that incident became known as the Sasebo Slashing if I'm correct.

And the killer girl was given the name Nevada-tan.

Didn't know any of that. I'm taking a look at the site kj1980 mentioned. What were those people thinking ?? That's so..um..so terrible...so terrible it's sick I daresay.

[Flo]

The two "tan"s that grew on me are

Sadako-tan, which is parodied from the famous Japanese horror The Ring.
This is a website provide the largest Sadako-tan archive so far. Includes Webcomics, illustrations, flash etc. H18++ materials included

and

Nevada-tan, sickly parodied about a 11 yr old murdered her classmate. Note that I do not approve of Nevada's actions, but dammit these Fan Artist drew her too cute, it's soooo twisted.

Fan Artworks of Nevada-tan found here. H18++ and violent, gory material included

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Srin Tuar

LOL, that is too hilarious

If anyone has read it, I would be interested to know if this manga a serious attempt at entertainment, and educational thing, or more of a political statement ??

I think it's a bit of each. It's presented 4koma style, with around 26 "episodes" I think. Each 4koma is based on some real situation in Afghanistan's history and there's a little side column that talks about the actual history. You can read it from the author's website, as it was a webcomic before he published it. It would be cool if someone would translate it, hehe

http://www.yukai.jp/~timaking/COMIC/01af/menu-af.htm

[wao]

Forgive me if I can't help think of "sin" and "cos" when I think "tan"...

But it seems like they like affixing it to any female, and sometimes to some males (in jest). Heck, they even use it for cats... (I visit /27/ on 2chan regularly) cats seem to have quite a cult following, for example longcat [nobiiru-tan] has even appeared in a lot of other jokes and neta and what not. Even in English places like 4chan. Guess you can't deny the appeal of.... a long cat!!


I would find it really hilarious if I bumped into a discussion on 2ch where they talk politics and then they go on about "Laura-tan" and "Merkel-tan" and so on Though I have to say, Afghanis-tan really was a smart idea...

[DaFool]

I think Afganis-Tan and Marukusu-Tan are really creative ideas. Since politics is always so heated and serious, what better treatment then to convert them all into little girls with childish traits and shoujo-ai tendencies! That is not a case of going to far, that's a case of GENIUS.

However, the case of Nevada-Tan, that could be going to far. One shouldn't really glorify or make light of deranged minors. But then again, this is freedom of speech at work here. If the likes of Nevada-Tan are censored, then how can we get the Afganis-Tans and Marukusu-Tans?

The Tan-nification process is one of modularizing an idea or system so it would be more accessible to certain groups of people, i.e. otakus. In the process of analogizing, some new insights about the original idea (i.e. politics of nations) can be gained. This can only be a good thing.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by wao

Forgive me if I can't help think of "sin" and "cos" when I think "tan"...

Time for shinkosu-tan to make a debut teaching otaku the basics of trigonometry!
Meanwhile you can also have shinkosu-tan's cousin seku-tan and seku-tan's little brother, koseku-tan <_<;

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by zalas

Time for shinkosu-tan to make a debut teaching otaku the basics of trigonometry!
Meanwhile you can also have shinkosu-tan's cousin seku-tan and seku-tan's little brother, koseku-tan <_<;

It'll happen. I assure you, it will happen.

Joking aside, whatever that has a "-tan" at the end is a likely cause to be gijinka-ed by people of nijiura. But you have to admit that Afghanis-tan web-comic was funny. Especially the portrayal of Meriken (when the word "American" is pronounced by a fluent English speaker, it sounds like "Meriken." It's also a semi-derogatory term used in 2ch) was interesting. The stray cat (who looks like Usama bin Laden) bites Meriken's hand, and she gets pissed off and beats the shit out of Afghanis-tan for harboring the stray cat.

[Lina Inverse]

Originally Posted by kj1980

It'll happen. I assure you, it will happen.

Yes, we're in for lots of whacky fun!

Originally Posted by kj1980

Joking aside, whatever that has a "-tan" at the end is a likely cause to be gijinka-ed by people of nijiura. But you have to admit that Afghanis-tan web-comic was funny. Especially the portrayal of Meriken (when the word "American" is pronounced by a fluent English speaker, it sounds like "Meriken." It's also a semi-derogatory term used in 2ch) was interesting. The stray cat (who looks like Usama bin Laden) bites Meriken's hand, and she gets pissed off and beats the shit out of Afghanis-tan for harboring the stray cat.

Yes, it was really damn funny
And the portrayal of Meriken was sooo fitting!

[Circular Logic]

The title of this book is called MARUKUSU-TAN, or yeah..you've guessed it: MARX TAN.

Arf that was hilarious... Seriously I was splitting my sides over that one. Shoujo-ai communist love stories ftw!!! I honestly hope that the whole -tan thing goes too far, as long as it provides hilarity such as that.

[kj1980]

Well for one thing, it combines moe~ness with interesting learning. Granted, nothing beats an actual textbook, learning by using a book with moe~ characters can be great way to learn when used as a secondary tool (somewhat like Cliff Notes, except with moe~ pictures). Hey, at least it makes learning fun!