Japan - Country of Singles

I often wondered why Japan’s current culture fosters such hostility against relationships. When I was in Japan, it really hit me. You can read about how the marriage rates and birth rates are in massive decline in Japan in the news all you want, but it’s really something else to see it firsthand. During my stay in Japan, I rarely saw any children around. If I did, it was tourist children mostly. The other part is the lack of couples. We were out and about on Valentine’s Day, but we barely saw any couples holding hands. Japan is a country of singles. Just why does this happen exactly?

I’m no expert in the matter, but I can give some thoughts on why Japan is such a pitiful state. The first blame goes to the otaku culture. Anime, with all its intents and purposes, is ultimately part of the reason why men and women in Japan can’t get along. When anime shows feed ideas to the young population, good and bad constantly, expectations are set. In anime, male protagonists are always portrayed as being chased by a flock of girls. Does this happen in real life? No, it never does. When such high expectations are set in a young boys mind as they grow up, they become resentful when real life does not turn out the way they thought it would. In slice of life animes, the females are always the aggressors, the guys are being pursued. When does that ever happen in real life? What examples are they setting for the youngins? It is important to understand that what happens on TV is a fantasy. I just get the feeling that the young men who grow up embracing these ideas become disillusioned. What do they do to remedy this problem? Anime isn’t bad for you, as long as you know it is a form of entertainment, not a way of life. Unfortunately, a large part of the population does not understand this concept.

The solution to disillusionment is even worse than the problem itself. Otaku culture allows men to fulfill their sexual fantasies. That’s why you hear of strange stories about how guys want to marry their 2D girlfriends. Men are so afraid of rejection that they turn to dating SIMS, blow up dolls, maid cafes, and prostitution as substitutes. Believe me when I say this, because obtaining a substitution is far too easy in Japan. As for the females in Japan, most of them would rather be single than to date these boys in grown bodies. Essentially that is what a grown Japanese male is. We went to a figure convention and it amazed me how many grown balding men were there. What is a figure convention? They sell anime character toys. It felt like going to a hentai fair because most of the figures were suggestive. I wasn’t all that surprised by the demographic turnout. Would this ever happen in the states? Probably not. There is no stigmatism in Japanese culture. Since it is so widely accepted, no one cares. And that, my friends, is where the problem lies.

Another problem is the Japanese mentality. Failure is like the ultimate shame. That’s why you hear about so many suicide stories for kids who failed their entrance exams. The same faulty thinking occurs in dating. I read somewhere after a guy fails to court a female in Japan, they just stop trying altogether. They take rejection like it’s the end of everything. Granted, not everyone is like that, and this is the extreme, but the fear of rejection is so much more powerful overseas. In fact, this fear makes most guys just not try at all.

Akihabara - Otaku paradise

Community Series CANCELED

 

Community has finally been officially axed by NBC. After a long short 5 seasons, the critically acclaimed sitcom comedy series has finally aired its last episode. The first season was extremely well written. The show was very entertaining because despite its low budget, it was able to create unique and interesting episodes. I absolutely loved the strong cast of nine main characters. Most shows don't go this far into developing such a large main cast, but this one does. Each character has his or her own unique and interesting story. 

After the 3rd season, however, the show writer Dan Harmon was no longer part of the show and the effects were disastrous. While seasons 1-3 had 20 episodes each, season 4 only had 13 episodes. What's worse was that NBC decided to keep delaying the show until February instead of releasing the show in the fall. Perhaps what was really bad was how the show writers botched Chase's character so much that the actor himself became fed up with the show and quit. The way he left the show left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. They wrote him out of the show saying he died. You can tell even the cast themselves didn't give a shit because the dynamics between the cast has changed. After Chase's departure, in the final season Troy also leaves mid-season. It was definitely hard to watch. The original cast members were replenished by newcomers that became regular "important" casts that were not replaceable. 

Lastly, I do think the show ended when it should. After the gang graduated from Greendale at the end of season 4, for some unknown reason they all continued to hang out at the community college. At this point, the show just wasn't going anywhere plot-wise and it was time to truly time to wrap things up.

In honor of the show, let's list some of its most epic episodes:

1. Modern Warfare S1E23: The entire school turns into a paintball war zone. The production level and the seriousness levels of the episode turns this into one of the best critically acclaimed episodes of the year.

2. Epidemiology S2E6: A Halloween themed special, the school becomes infected with "zombie-like" symptoms and the gang has to fight their way out.

3. Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas S2E11: This is first of the uniquely created episodes. The cast members are displayed as Christmas characters in a Rudolf the reindeer style animation.

4. Fistful of Paintballs S2E23-24: Season 2 season finale is a two part paintball war.

5. Digital Exploration of Interior Design S3E13-14: Two part story of how the school turns into a pillow fight war zone.

6. Digital Estate Planning S3E20: An 8-bit animated game episode, the characters voice over their characters as they fight their way into a platform game. It is by far, my favorite episode of the series.

7. Geothermal Escapism S5E5: The school becomes a engulfed in imaginary lava and the last person standing wins a monetary reward.

8. G.I. Jeff S5E11: Jeff Winger is a G.I. Joe in this episode and fights his way through Cobra. Classic G.I. Joe animation and hilarity ensues.

Overall, I think this series deserves way more recognition than it has. The stories in each episode is a fantastic adventure you cannot see elsewhere. Sure, the ratings were sub par and was in decline over the years, but the loyal fans of the series understand how good the series was. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is able to dream big or has imagination.

Farewell Community!

Staying Active is IMPORTANT!

Over the weekend, I’ve witnessed some things that reminded me of how old I am. Honestly, my brain hasn’t grown much. My maturity level hasn’t reached a higher level. But my body definitely has aged, despite me not knowing the signs. Maybe I’m lucky because age has not caught up with me yet, but for some others it has. A friend of mine who will go unnamed for example. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple of years now but now he’s gained weight… in a bad way. He told me he works out almost every day and watching his diet. The way he does it makes me want to slap him. He monitors his diet like a hawk and exercises excessively trying to lose weight. Meanwhile, I’ve been stuffing myself and barely see any difference. I’m sitting in front of the computer all day and still burning calories. But looking at him and the way he eats, it’s pretty sad. I’ll eventually become like that—having to eat healthy all the time or risk gaining weight. 

Another example is David who always declined our invitations to volleyball. I never understood why he didn’t want to play with us. I always thought he didn’t because he thought we sucked. Even if that was the case, the main reason why he doesn’t play with us (or anyone) is because playing volleyball made his bones ache. It was not until yesterday that I had the same realization. After jumping around for several hours, my shin and knees started to hurt. I was surprised myself, for only being 24, my joints were already going soft. There were some high school kids there on the court playing against us. Those guys were us, back six years ago. SIX YEARS AGO. That was us. It’s scary how fast time passes and we are quickly going through our prime. Eddie was complaining about how our prime has already passed, but I refuse to believe it. It’s so important to get regular exercise these days because without it, our bodies age even faster. By staying active at least once per week at Krav Maga for the past four months, my body did not go through soreness the day after. Last year, every day after volleyball, my entire body would ache. But now, it’s much more tolerable and my stamina has gotten a lot better. I can jump higher, I can run after the ball without huffing and puffing, and most importantly--I did not get leg cramps. I intend to stay active for as long as possible so I do not regress. It's so important to stay active, especially now. 

I'm training for the 5K run in June. Hopefully I can finish with a respectable time (under 30 minutes). My cardio has always been horrible and this is taking a lot of effort to build up.

How I Met Your Mother - Series Finale

It truly is an end of an era. How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) has finally come to an end after nine long seasons. I wasn’t there when the journey began, I was late to join the bandwagon. I usually don’t watch sitcoms because they usually aren’t appealing. Since so many of my friends watched this series, I gave it a shot and it was one of those few shows that I stuck with through these years. The series was appealing in the sense it had a linear progression while seeding a lot of unanswered mysteries. However, the general consensus was the story was dragging out way too long and everyone wanted to see the ending. I felt there were way too many filler episodes that did not progress the plotline any further these last few seasons. I guess that’s part of what’s to be expected from a sitcom series. I didn’t see the ending the night it came out, unfortunately. By the time it was the next day, I had already been spoiled by the newsfeeds and news articles on the internet.

I watched the hour finale last night and it was bittersweet. It felt like the story fell short because they were setting up Barney and Robin’s webbing for an entire season, only for them to get divorced shortly afterward. The reason why they broke up wasn’t convincing to me. The whole thing about Barney never going to settle down because he’s just a player didn’t resonate too well with me. It was depressing to see him still chasing after twenty year olds in his forties. It was not until he became a father did he grow up. Again, I thought that transition did not go smoothly. I didn’t buy it.

I enjoyed Ted and the fated mother’s meeting. The entire scene was perfect. Only those who have seen the entire 9th season would know what they were talking about when the two of them met. It was such a perfect meeting between Ted and Tracy. However, the happy scenes did not last long enough for the audience to enjoy. As a viewer, the show built up a great deal of character development for the mother. It made us like her. We believed that she was perfect for Ted and that Robin was finally out of the picture. After they gone through the entire sequence of making a statement about how Ted wasn't right for Robin, we were certain that Robin will never be an afterthought. No good things last in life, and eventually the mother died. That was a gruesome blow to us all because we were all so emotionally invested in her and it was hard to see her cruel fate. But it wasn’t enough that she died, the writers decided to put Ted and Robin together at the end. I don’t know, it just felt like a slap in the face. Wasn’t the purpose of the show about the mother? Why did it end on such a low note? For what reason did they deny all of us of a happy ending? For what it’s worth, the show creators had already filmed the ending nine years ago when the show was first created. At least they had a plan going into the show, unlike some that just go on and on with no end. But like many others, I felt the show would've been perfect if it ended after they met. The extra with the passing of the mother and him going to find Robin was extra information nobody wanted to see.