Anime is a great bridge between Japan and the rest of the world, an enjoyable way for us all to connect with Japan and enjoy the benefits of “world peace through shared popular culture.” Still, it’s important to remember that anime is a highly stylized world populated by unrealistically cute moe girls and bishonen guys, as distant from the “real” Japan as Hollywood movies are from the “real” America. The height of cherry blossom season does not magically coincide when every graduation ceremony to make it as beautiful as possible, and I’ve yet to encounter a blonde Japanese high school girl who was the heir to a huge zaibatsu cartel (a theme which shows up all the time). Of course, the Japanese have some pretty unrealistic ideas about life in America, as you can see in the final “bonus” episode of Steins;Gate, in which the members of the Future Gadget Lab take a trip to California. They visit famous places like LAX and the Bonaventure hotel, then Okabe takes a taxi out the most picturesque and desolate areas of Route 66, which are located about five minutes outside Los Angeles, right? Also, Kurisu drives the most ridiculous 1959 pink Cadillac, because naturally all Americans drive cars like this.
It’s fun to analyze national cliches seen in anime.
