Floating Leaf
Sep 29, 2009, 01:24
The other day I had just finished watching Lucky Star and I was interested in some of its characters so I went to Wikipedia to look up some more information about them. As I read through the whole page and finally reached the "Reception" section, I was a little (just a little) surprised by what I read there.
Because many scenes from Lucky Star are based on real places, many fans of the show went to the real-life settings shown in the anime, especially the Washinomiya Shrine. There were photographers and cosplayers wandering around. Some ema are downright bizarre like the one mentioned in Wikipedia, "Konata is my wife". (This sharply reminds me of the campaign launched in October last year by someone to try to make it legal to marry fictional characters.) In the end, the fictional Hiiragi family has officially become the residents of the real Washimiya.
Wha... I mean... Come on, I know otakus in Japan have come up with numerous... creative ideas to get themselves as close to their favourite fictional characters as possible, but...... wanting to marry an anime character? Registering fictional characters as real residents?
I must admit that I'm partially suffering from escapism myself (I do love anime), but I'm in no way as serious as wanting to marry a fictional character. Nevertheless, having experienced things of the same nature, the issue of escapism in Japan does strongly catch my interest.
Now I'm really eager to know more about the level of escapism of Japanese otakus, and what sort of problems they face. I know they don't mind throwing lots of cash away just to get their favourite figurines, and I know they could even sleep with a bolster with a naked loli on it if they want. Do all these things that they do show that they're trying to run away from reality? Is escapism serious in Japan?
I've tried searching around the net for info about this but to no avail. No matter how I changed the keywords, articles that I was looking for just didn't come.
If you have info about such things, please share it with me. It's even better if you're currently living in or had lived in Japan before.
Thanks a whole lot.
Because many scenes from Lucky Star are based on real places, many fans of the show went to the real-life settings shown in the anime, especially the Washinomiya Shrine. There were photographers and cosplayers wandering around. Some ema are downright bizarre like the one mentioned in Wikipedia, "Konata is my wife". (This sharply reminds me of the campaign launched in October last year by someone to try to make it legal to marry fictional characters.) In the end, the fictional Hiiragi family has officially become the residents of the real Washimiya.
Wha... I mean... Come on, I know otakus in Japan have come up with numerous... creative ideas to get themselves as close to their favourite fictional characters as possible, but...... wanting to marry an anime character? Registering fictional characters as real residents?
I must admit that I'm partially suffering from escapism myself (I do love anime), but I'm in no way as serious as wanting to marry a fictional character. Nevertheless, having experienced things of the same nature, the issue of escapism in Japan does strongly catch my interest.
Now I'm really eager to know more about the level of escapism of Japanese otakus, and what sort of problems they face. I know they don't mind throwing lots of cash away just to get their favourite figurines, and I know they could even sleep with a bolster with a naked loli on it if they want. Do all these things that they do show that they're trying to run away from reality? Is escapism serious in Japan?
I've tried searching around the net for info about this but to no avail. No matter how I changed the keywords, articles that I was looking for just didn't come.
If you have info about such things, please share it with me. It's even better if you're currently living in or had lived in Japan before.
Thanks a whole lot.