We hope everyone in the U.S. had a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by family and friends. J-List’s big Holiday Sale is on now, allowing customers to score 18% off orders over $150, or 10% off orders over $60. The sale ends December 2nd! (See Details here.)
Ever since the tiger bikini-wearing alien Lum arrived on Earth to fawn over her beloved Ataru – and occasionally electrocute him when he looked at other girls – anime has had a strong tradition of tsundere characters. The term comes from ツンツン tsun-tsun (grouchy, aloof, angry) and デレデレ dere-dere (lit. “lovey-dovey”) and describes complex characters who combine emotional immaturity and quickness-to-anger with occasional sweetness to make themselves charming to fans. Some examples of this character type include Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night, Kirino from Oreimo, plus the pantheon of characters voiced by Queen of Tsundere Kugimiya Rie, including my favorite, Taiga Aisaka. Of course one of the most important tsundere characters has been Asuka from Evangelion, who verbally abuses “baka Shinji” even as she cooks for him and kisses him. My favorite character in the Grisaia no Kajitsu anime and game is Michiru, a girl with a unique secret who manages to break the fourth wall by proclaiming, “tsundere girls always have blonde hair and twintails, got it?”
For the past two decades, Japan has been fighting against the specter ofデフレ defure, or deflation, in which prices decline in real terms rather than rise slightly year-to-year. While having things get cheaper sounds pretty cool, in reality deflation is bad because it can smother economic growth and cause the economy to shrink despite the fact that everyone is working as hard as they can. Since I visit the U.S. once or twice a year, I often notice when products are more expensive than they were the last time, but this certainly isn’t the norm for Japan, where non-fuel prices rarely rise. I remember the lady at a shop I frequent apologizing deeply when they had to raise the price of potato croquettes from 60 to 70 yen each, the first price increase they’d had in at least a decade. Of course, the point of Prime Minister Abe’s “Abenomics” program is to force the economy to re-learn inflation and start growing, but it hasn’t gone too well so far.
Remember, J-List’s big “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” weekend sale is going on now, allowing you to save 18% off if your order total is $150 or more, or 10% if it’s $60 or more. (Doesn’t apply to certain items like iTunes cards or gift cards, grab
bags or subscription items.) No coupon codes to enter, no hoops to jump through, just enjoy the
savings. The sale ends December 2. So get shopping now, oniichan!
