My formative years were troubled. I have many horrible memories, of which I refuse to go into here – they’re personal, and it’s not appropriate. But the memories were not all bad.
Every year we had a religious festival – we called it the Festival of Tabernacles, or the “feast” for short. It was in some ways a rather staid affair – but it was a festival, and it was a celebration. Some people treated it as an excuse to get wasted for seven days, but for the most part, it was intended to be a reflection of how the world was to be after Christ returned. And, to be quite honest, it succeeded at that far more than I would care to admit.
What I remember the most about it was a sense of anticipation beforehand – and then the feast happened, and it was truly a seven day celebration. People were happy – or as happy as they could be. There is a certain spirit in the air when ten thousand people are in the same area for even marginally wholesome purposes. It permeates the whole city, and I think even people who have no idea it’s happening can feel a change in the city for that short period of time.
I am so conflicted about Japan and its culture, but I can’t deny that I have a visceral emotional reaction to things Japanese, and I can’t figure out what or why. I think it is because, while the dark is very dark, there is a spirit of celebration to the things that they do for entertainment. The performers are not performers, it’s almost literally like they’re cheerleaders. I don’t think there really is an analogue in western culture. In our concerts, we’ll either politely and quietly stare at the performers (as in classical music), or we’ll mosh around in the audience as the performers do their thing, but in Japanese culture, it’s as if the audience is invited to celebrate with them.
I’m not even sure what they’re celebrating. Maybe it’s the music. Maybe it’s a sense of gratefulness for being able to do what they do. Maybe it’s just how they’re trained. But at the end of the day, they sing, and they dance, and we’re pulled into their little happy world for just a little while.
And I think that’s why people go otaku. It really is infectious. I don’t consider myself otaku, and certainly not weeaboo, but when seeing cute young girls or women dancing around on stage and singing their little hearts out, it’s really hard to not get pulled into their world, and just forget everything for a few minutes or an hour. It’s just so happy.
I think maybe this is the spirit of Ganbatte. We translate that in English as “try your best”, but it’s more than that, so much more. It’s putting everything you have into what you’re doing. And it really does show. Japanese entertainers put everything into what they do, they don’t phone it in. And it draws you into their happy world, and just for a little while, you forget everything sad and bad, because their energy just washes it all away.
It reminds me very much of the festivals I grew up in.
It’s all manufactured. I get that. And I know that the darkness of Japanese culture sometimes shows through, in unfortunate and even tragic ways. But at the end of the day, it’s the gift they give us, and it would be rude to not accept and treasure it for what it is.