Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Because Japan and the West are so far apart both in distance and history, there are tropes and archetypes that are just different. It can range from Japanese character traits like humorous gluttony (which is a staple in shounen, and possibly in shoujo too, though I don't read enough of it to know) and characters with no sense of direction to the differences in Japanese and Western redemption arcs.
"Redemption" in a lot of Western stuff means that you have to die for the bad things you've done. Sorry, if you tried to kill the heroes, it means that even if you have a change of mind the most you can hope for is to be allowed to give your life for theirs.
Conversely, in Japanese shounen, former enemies turning into allies is a staple.
If I keep looking at the sort of texts that I'm a huge fan of in Japan, and compare them to things for the same age group in the West, Japan also does a lot more with death and danger. Even in kids' shows, people kill and are killed. There is a lot more implied or even explicit abuse in peoples' pasts and such.
Oh, and because of the arc vs episode nature of Japanese and Western texts mentioned above, things in Japanese texts strike me as having far more consequences than in a lot of Western texts. (Again, this is probably due to the one-creator vs team-creator thing that happens when you compare anime and US TV). For example, the most realistic and heartbreaking character death (and the effects of said character's death the survivors) was in One Piece, and it just crushes any character deaths I can think of in my western fandom. (Let's not even go into how Stargate: Atlantis killed a main character, and in the next episode it was like he'd never even existed, much less like anyone was still mourning him...)
(And because I'm a spoilerphobe myself I'm not posting anything too spoilery here, but I know you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, gnine!)
Annnnnnnnnnd this is getting really, really, REALLY long so... let me know if there's anything else you'd be interesting in discussing, and I'll try and get back to you quicker than I did this time!
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Part 4 - DONE! :D
Date: 2010-07-24 03:15 am (UTC)Because Japan and the West are so far apart both in distance and history, there are tropes and archetypes that are just different. It can range from Japanese character traits like humorous gluttony (which is a staple in shounen, and possibly in shoujo too, though I don't read enough of it to know) and characters with no sense of direction to the differences in Japanese and Western redemption arcs.
"Redemption" in a lot of Western stuff means that you have to die for the bad things you've done. Sorry, if you tried to kill the heroes, it means that even if you have a change of mind the most you can hope for is to be allowed to give your life for theirs.
Conversely, in Japanese shounen, former enemies turning into allies is a staple.
If I keep looking at the sort of texts that I'm a huge fan of in Japan, and compare them to things for the same age group in the West, Japan also does a lot more with death and danger. Even in kids' shows, people kill and are killed. There is a lot more implied or even explicit abuse in peoples' pasts and such.
Oh, and because of the arc vs episode nature of Japanese and Western texts mentioned above, things in Japanese texts strike me as having far more consequences than in a lot of Western texts. (Again, this is probably due to the one-creator vs team-creator thing that happens when you compare anime and US TV). For example, the most realistic and heartbreaking character death (and the effects of said character's death the survivors) was in One Piece, and it just crushes any character deaths I can think of in my western fandom. (Let's not even go into how Stargate: Atlantis killed a main character, and in the next episode it was like he'd never even existed, much less like anyone was still mourning him...)
(And because I'm a spoilerphobe myself I'm not posting anything too spoilery here, but I know you'll know exactly what I'm talking about,
Annnnnnnnnnd this is getting really, really, REALLY long so... let me know if there's anything else you'd be interesting in discussing, and I'll try and get back to you quicker than I did this time!