concepts
and cultural curiosities:
What are Bishounen?
"Bishounen" literally means "beautiful" (bi) + "boy"
(shounen). A pretty girl is thus known as a bishojo (where "shojo"
means girl). Generally, the term "bishounen" applies to male
anime characters who are young (approx. 13 - 17 years old, very attractive
and pretty, and even feminine to some degree (i.e. they have long hair,
slender builds, might be gay, etc.)
Bishounen in anime:
Tamahome from Fuushigi Yuugi
Allen Schezar from Escaflowne
Kurama from Yu-Yu Hakusho
Larva from Vampire Princess Miyu
What are Catgirls?
In Japanese, catgirls are usually called nekomimi -- literally, "cat
ears"-- as they look completely human (or almost completely human)
if their ears and tails are ignored. Catgirls wishing to look especially
cute will wear over-sized mittens and shoes that look like paws.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...erm=catgirl&b=1
Catgirls in anime:
Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star
Kizna from Candidate for Goddess
Maya from Geobreeders
Merle, Naria and Erya from Vision of Escaflowne
Momomiya Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew
The Puma Twins, Anna and Uni, from Dominion Tank Police
---
Loose
Socks Are Big in Japan by Yuki Izuno
Recently, many Japanese girls have started wearing "loose
socks." Loose socks are big, baggy socks that hang loosely around
the legs.
Japanese school girls like fads. If something is very popular with other
girls, they like it, too. For example, they all want to have little pocket
telephones to call their friends, or they all want to collect "sticker
photos."
Recently, many Japanese girls have started wearing "loose socks".
Loose socks are big, baggy socks that hang loosely around the legs. They
buy them in special stores that sell only socks. They like to wear them
because they are very comfortable and cover the shape of their legs. In
winter, they are very warm. Almost all the school girls wear them because
if they don't wear them, they think they stand out and they feel different.
Some school teachers don't let girls wear them because they think loose
socks are not appropriate for school, so girls wear them in the school
powder room or in an empty classroom, or they wear them after school in
the train station.
Maybe they will not be popular for long time, but right now they are a
big hit with school girls all over Japan.
(This article was written several years
ago and the "loose sock" trend is fading in favor of platform
boots.)
http://www.topics-mag.com/edition02/loose-socks.htm
---
What are ONI?
Oni are fabulous creatures from Japanese folklore, similar to Western
demons or ogres. They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature,
and theater.
Depictions of oni vary widely but usually portray them as hideous, gigantic
creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns growing from
their heads. They are humanoid for the most part, but occasionally, they
are shown with unnatural features such as odd numbers of eyes or extra
fingers and toes. Their skin may be any number of colors, but red, blue,
black, pink, and green are particularly common. Their fierce appearance
is only enhanced by the tiger skins they tend to wear and the iron clubs
they favor, called kanabou. This image leads to the expression "oni
with an iron club", that is, to be invincible or undefeatable.
In the earliest legends, oni were benevolent creatures said to be able
to ward off evil and malevolent spirits and to punish evil-doers. Japanese
Buddhism incorporated these beliefs by at least the 13th century, calling
the creatures aka-oni and ao-oni and making them the guardians of hell
or the torturers of the wicked there. They also came to be recognized
as shinto spirits.
Over time, the oni's strong association with evil colored the perception
of the creatures themselves, and they came to be seen as harbingers or
agents of calamity. Folk tales and theater began to depict them as dumb,
sadistic brutes, intent only to destroy. Foreigners and barbarians were
said to be oni. Today, they are variously described as the spirits of
the dead, of the earth, of the ancestors, of the vengeful, of pestilence,
or of anger. No matter what their essence, oni are today seen as something
to avoid and to ward off.
In Japanese versions of the game tag, the player who is "it"
is instead called the "oni".
---
DOKI DOKI?
Nande konnani doki doki shichau n darou.
Why am I so nervous?
"Doki doki" is one of the onomatopoeic expressions.
It describes increase heart beat caused by exercise or nervousness. Onomatopoeic
expressions are often written in katakana, though they are not foreign
words.
Japanese is filled with onomatopoeic phrases, the words that describe
sound or action directly. There are two categories: giongo and gitaigo.
Giongo are the words which express voice or sounds. Gitatigo are the words
which express actions, states or human emotions. They are often made of
more than one word, which is the same word repeated again.
kusu kusu - to giggle
gera gera - to laugh loudly, to guffaw
niko niko - to smile
niya niya - to grin
nita nita - to smirk
http://japanese.about.com/blpod112900.htm
---
Bukkake - literally "splash or heavy squirt,"
a fetish where multiple (up to 200) men ejaculate on a woman's face
Cosplay- Cosplay is a Japanese phrase that combines the two words
"Costume" and "Play" together. It usually means wearing
a costume based on a Japanese animation or video-game. (Cosplay Porn exists
and is readily available on ebay.)
Genki Girl
| Cosplay.com
Toilet Slippers- At the entry to homes or buildings,
you will be asked to take off your shoes and put on slippers to wear in
the house. The slippers worn in the house are different from the slippers
worn in the bathroom. As you enter the bathroom, slip into the toilet
slippers. As you leave, slip back into the other slippers. This may be
difficult to remember, but it will be very embarrassing if you wear toilet
slippers in the house.
from Etiquette
in Japan
Bento- box lunch
Bento
Moblog
Sweat, Anger, Tears, Blood: Emotional Indicators
What does it mean when an anime or manga character gets a bloody nose,
or grows a giant sweatdrop next to her face? All these are uniquely Japanese
symbols used in anime and manga, intended to communicate a particular
emotion.
SWEATDROP
In addition to blushing, sweatdrops might form beside a character's head.
These sweatdrops also indicate embarrassment, the severity of which is
determined by the size of the sweatdrop and, sometimes, the number of
sweatdrops. This generally indicates a less severe sort of embarrassment
than the blue blush and a less romantic type of embarrassment than the
red blush.
ANGER BURST
When a character gets extremely mad at something, a stylized vein might
appear on their forehead or fist. These "anger veins" can be
used liberally, though not necessarily realistically.
BLOODY NOSE
A bloody nose doesn't mean that a character is actually injured - rather,
it means that he (the afflicted character is seldom a she) is thinking
lustful thoughts and/or looking at a beautiful woman. But what does the
bloody nose have to do with lust? Gilles Portras, author of The Anime
Companion, wondered the same thing: "So I asked a few Japanese and
got a variety of pseudoscientific, and occasionally embarrassed, explanations
about humidity and blood pressure. But the best response I got was from
one fellow who simply recounted that when he was a child he was told by
his mother that if he stared at a pretty woman he would get a bloody nose."
TEARS
When anime and manga characters cry, they -cry- . One form of crying comes
in "tear lines," where two wavy lines are drawn from each eye
to the bottom of the face and filled with white to indicate that the character
is crying. A more exaggerated form of crying takes the tear lines off
the two-dimensional space of the face and arcs it out into the sky, making
it seem as if the character is crying whole waterfalls. These forms of
crying are not generally serious; in serious, dramatic situations, the
crying is much more subdued.
-- excerpt from an essay by Liana Sharer
http://www.umich.edu/~anime/info_emotions.html
Future topics to be covered...
Teaching Abroad
Cram School
Idol Contest
Tentacle Rape
or suggest your own topic to girlcrush2040@hotmail.com
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