I’ve been a long-time student of Internet memes, and I enjoy posting them to J-List’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages from time to time. I’ve always been intrigued at the way some memes cross international borders freely (say, Maru the Cat), while others stay closer to home, the effect being that Star Wars fans in Japan are sharing uniquely Japanese fanart of their favorite character from the new film but haven’t picked up on the “Traitor” Stormtrooper meme. Often these barriers are linguistic in nature — you’re more likely to know the “over 9000” line from Dragonball Z than a Japanese person is because it’s only in the English dub, while virtually all Japanese are familiar with Muska’s famous Castle in the Sky Laputa line miro, hito wa gomi no yoh da! (“Look! The mass of people are like garbage!”), though it would go over most of our heads. Recently one meme that’s become quite popular in the West is “Notice me, Senpai!” which is not a specific thing in Japan — when we made our “Property of Senpai” T-shirt, we had to explain why the joke was funny to our Japanese staff. The other day I came across a Japanese-language blog post about the phenomenon, which expressed surprise that the word senpai had been embraced in English so completely. Incidentally, if you want Senpai to notice you, we’ve got the official Senpai hachimaki headband in stock!
One of the more colorful annual Japanese events is Seijin-no-hi, or Coming-of-Age Day, which is a celebration of young people officially becoming full-fledged members of society. Every year in early January, Japanese cities hold ceremonies in which hundreds of new 20-year-olds gather wearing smart new suits or beautiful kimonos and listen to congratulatory speeches by the mayor and other wise members of the city. They then pose to take pictures with friends they haven’t seen since junior high school (because everyone goes to different high schools), then they go off to buy their first beer as legal adults. This year is a special one for our family, since my son has turned 20 and will be celebrating with everyone else. For my son it marks the beginning of his life as an adult, and as a parent, the end of my official role in raising him, so it’s a bit melancholy for me.
Great news! J-List is an official Touhou shop, and by customer request, we’re beefing up our products, adding official Touhou games and soundtracks plus other awesome “doujin” works. Did you know Splatoon doujin music was a thing? Well now you do!
