radiofreederry:

The assassin really just achieved every single one of his goals huh

argumate:

siliquasquama said: Orientalist?

modern European “wizards” are a pastiche of exotic foreigners, “Turks” or “Moors” in their colorful robes and funny hats, with occult mysticism derived from mangled phrases in Hebrew, Arabic, or Aramaic, and of course a healthy dose of messed up ideas about Ancient Egypt.

all stories about wizards are racist!

(all wizards are also racist, but that’s a separate issue).

The anime thing where they count like, nuns and nurses as magical types, with their iconic outfits and accessories, is 100% the way these things go

st-just:

Listening to the new History of Japan (a biography of Matsuo Taseko) and actually burst out laughing at

“After her death, people went right to work sanding off all the awkward sharp edges to make her an ideal of patriotic and dutiful imperial womanhood. Except one 1911 biography which turns her life into a swashbuckling lesbian romance where a geisha falls helplessly in love with her, and also she’s an expert swordswoman after being trained by loyalist samurai”

cop-disliker69:

thanks, Obama

averyterrible:

Shinzo Abe’s Assassin Succeeds in Turning Japan Against ‘Cult’

I will say it’s kinda hysterical that the Japanese response to Abe’s assassination is shaping into “y'know, the gunman had a point”

randomitemdrop:

randomitemdrop:

altercation-bureau:

thedurvin:

Any of y’all know what meat this is supposed to represent? Obviously some kind of limb meat but what animal and who eats it like this? I know it has Asian origins and looked it up on both TV Tropes and Emojipedia expecting it to be some manga thing that Westerners just lack context for, but all I learned is that it’s a distinct trope in Japanese culture as well, known as “ano niku” which translates as “that meat” because they also aren’t sure what it’s supposed to be.

It ain’t a beat-em-up if you can’t regain your health bar with meat you found in the trash traditional Bin-Roasted Beast, but it always bugged me that you couldn’t save the bone at hit people with it

Item: Roast Beast, +10 Health, and when you’re done you get a Bone Club (1d4 Bludgeon)

We actually did get an answer, combining a few responses: the basic shape was from poorly-prepared mutton served to soldiers in World War Two, and after spending a while as a cultural meme in Japan it then entered cartoon iconography via a 1960s/70s manga and anime called “Gyatoruzu” (aka “Gon the Stone Age Boy”) in which it was Dinosaur Meat! Awesome job, everybody, thanks

kushblazer666:

everyone knows that one girl

I’m curious what “pigeon toed” is translated from

highlandvalley:

(via えるいー@LE装備さんはTwitterを使っています: 「クッソwww https://t.co/Hy2XywXOT0」 / Twitter)

interstelleri:

queer-taako:

mangastream:

we’ve come full circle

Fun fact apparently there is serious debate in Japan as to whether the King of the Hill sub or dub is better.

this is something i never knew i was waiting my whole life to read

yeah-yeah-beebiss-1:

papasmoke:

I suppose today was the first real situation in which having minored in Japanese Studies with essentially the US State Department training cohort proved any use

cop-disliker69:

Yeah very strange. Japan has like very stable politics too, so it must just not be seen as that important or desirable of a job, if people are so easily willing to resign.

The Japanese Diet political economy is more or less based on the LDP having a lock but divided into fairly content-free internal factions that rotate in power and every MP being cycled through cabinet posts for a chance at pork/publicity. It was someone else’s turn.

memecucker:

Does anyone know if there’s any basis behind Abe being affiliated with some kind of “religious group” or is this like, a John Hinkley type of thing (particular since the assassin is claiming an apolitical motive)

Speculation I’ve heard is on the Unification Church (the Moonies, who articulate with conservative parties in Japan in the same sense as here, but are of Korean origin and factor into some ultranationalist thinking) or Soka Gakkai (whose pocket party, the Komeito, the LDP was in coalition with)

Japanese music has this void where the obvious thing that makes the ‘80s make sense is cocaine but they don’t even gesture in that direction

itsbenedict:

shieldfoss:

kontextmaschine:

Was there even a river in River City Ransom?

I mean it was a Japanese city, maybe that was implicit

jeneelestrange:

“I am insulted that this anime did/didn’t do a thing with race! POC deserve respect! I want them to change it to be more like I want!”

The Japanese have a completely different racial and social history, so it may be that they are making it based on their own experiences. Are you basing this idea on Western ideas of race and racial relations? Wouldn’t making the Japanese make media that reflects a Western idea of race be cultural imperialism? Here’s a good way of knowing if you are informed of Japanese racial politics:

Are you aware that Okinawa was not originally a part of Japan, was conquered, and is often referred to as the Ryukyu Islands? That it has it’s own ethnic minority with its own rapidly-dying language, and Okinawa also has by far the largest concentration of detested American army bases? Here is a photo from the 19th century of a Ryukyu Island native, taken by a Japanese man to sell “ethnic photos” back on the mainland.

Did you know that the “Japanese” we know of are not technically native to the island at all, but arrived sometime in prehistory to displace the original inhabitants? This would be the Ainu, and genetic studies have shown they’re actually more closely related to Caucasians. They now mostly live in Hokkaido, most of their land having been taken and many been killed due to historic wars and slavery.

Did you know that countless ethnic Koreans and Chinese have lived in Japan since the colonial period, often because of having their land ownership and livelihoods forcibly taken and moved to Japan? That they were forced to not speak their native language and had to go by Japanese names? That even though many of them have lived there for generations, they could not obtain citizenship until 1980 without getting a Japanese name? That there were hate crimes committed against Korean schoolgirls as early as the late 1990’s?

And the ultimate taboo, did you know that Japan had its own class of “untouchables” like India? These are known as Burakumin, or at least that’s the nicest word for them. They were often relegated to “unclean” professions like tanning and butchery, and in premodern Japan someone could literally cut down a Burakumin in the street in broad daylight and receive no reprisal.  While they are legally no different from anyone anymore, socially is a different story. If you have Burakumin ancestry, chances are, you live in certain districts–because no one else will rent or sell a house to you. Employers use your address to openly discriminate against you. If you marry, your family may hire someone to trace your family history to make sure you have no Burakumin ancestors. To many, it’s taboo to even discuss them. Below is Jiichiro Matsumoto, a burakumin and considered to be the father of burakumin liberation.

There’s more, of course, but you get the idea. Most people outside of Japan are simply considered gaijin–whether you’re a black gaijin or a white gaijin. You’re a foreigner. Sure, due to imperialism, a Japanese is going to think of a white English-speaker first and there are some differences within the category, but know that this is the category the rest of the world has been placed in. We’re a goofy novelty sure, but there are random gaijin of all colors being the “talento” of Japanese television. Outside of the extreme Japanese right, we’re not very controversial.

As you can see, the Japanese are racial-ideology-wise far from perfect. But for someone to come in with no knowledge of this long and complicated history and insist that having more Hispanic/Black/POC(a meaningless term in a country full of POC) characters in anime, it’s saying that American racial ideas and politics are more important. Sure, I love when anime has diversity of any kind. But if you think an anime with a “POC” is more progressive and ignore something like Samurai Champloo–which has both a Ryukyu island native main character and several episodes devoted to the Ainu–then I’m sorry, but you’re being culturally ignorant and contributing to cultural imperialism. That yet again, the gaijin should be the star. And the West has a very, very long history of imposing its own sense of morality on everyone else. I can find way more foreigners of any color portrayed in anime than any Ainu, let me tell ya. I have no right to tell a foreign industry to stop making media that reflects them and their racial identity and instead make stuff that looks like an American sitcom.

This doesn’t mean let Japan off the hook. But that means that if you want to have your own opinion, if you want to be taken seriously, and if you want to promote social justice without doing the exact same white man’s burden act we’ve always done, then you have a responsibility to educate yourself.

And then there’s the construction of foreigners from Japan’s “near abroad” – Pacific Islanders and the Indosphere – as brown-skinned, half-civilized half-savage tribals who exist (especially the women) to add exotic spice to Yamato-coded life

“New religions” have been big in Japan since the 19th century and especially WWII, fieldwork from there is the foundation of academic notions of how religion forms in the first place.