One of the realities of observing other countries is that the farther away you are geographically, the more likely it is for everything to flow into one big mishmash. California is close to Asia, so it’s not hard for Korean, Chinese and Japanese food and culture to differentiate themselves properly — I’ve even got a favorite frozen yogurt shop on Convoy Blvd. where I can listen to the latest Cantonese pop hits while I eat. But away from the West Coast, especially from the middle of America, and things sort of blend together into one big generic “Asian” blob. It can be like that when Japanese observe the West, too, and it’s not uncommon for them to intermix American and British music culture in their minds, believing for example that the Beatles came from the U.S. In the popular anime Dagashi Kashi, there’s a scene in which Hotaru confuses France and Italy, which causes Kokonatsu to mock her for being so dumb.
Another anime I started watching recently is Oshiete! Galko-chan, the story of a busty high school girl with blonde hair named Galko, her snarky female otaku friend named Otako, and a rich ojosama girl conveniently named Ojo. Galko is what’s known as a gyaru (gal), a member of a fashion movement that got started around 1995 with the huge popularity of singer Amuro Namie. While gyaru are are expected to have somewhat, ah, flexible morals, for example wearing flamboyantly colored pantsu instead of white ones so they can have sex without worrying about whether their panties are clean or not, Galko-chan constantly surprises everyone by being a good and pure girl who loves to cook. The show is really about stereotypes, and the many ways that making assumptions about people based on what social group they belong to isn’t a good idea.
We’ve got two great announcements for everyone today. First is the posting of our next big English-translated RPG, Seinarukana, for preorder. It’s a fantastic game with great characters, hundreds of hours of awesome RPG gameplay and lots of maps and combat. See the official site or preorder the game now! Also, the Steam Greenlight campaign for the first game in the series is up — please give us your support!
