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Social Justice

Good Riddance to Bad Localizers

Or, I finally found a reason to learn Japanese. One thing I’ve noticed as I study Japanese is that the translators often aren’t very good.  They tend to make choices that seem designed to water down the message the mangaka is trying to send half the time. For example, one of the first animes I watched was “Sound! Euphonium” which was a great anime, one of the best.  At one point there was an interaction between Kumiko and Asuka.  Kumiko says something translated correctly as “Welcome back” or some such. … Read More »Good Riddance to Bad Localizers

Roe vs. Wade: Living by the Courts

So, how could I not write about the biggest news to come out of US politics today.  For my international readers (of which probably all of you are), Roe vs. Wade was a ruling written in 1973 by the Supreme Court of the time that basically said that there is a constitutional right to abortions and the states can’t restrict them. This morning, that ruling was reversed. Now, as you might have gathered, I think this on balance was a good thing, and I have believed that this ruling (as… Read More »Roe vs. Wade: Living by the Courts

Gay Marriage: Serving Death

How’s that for a provocative title?  Well, hear me out.  I’m probably not quite going where you think I am. So this topic was brought to mind by the fact that a court in Japan has spoken out against gay marriage.  Gay marriage, of course, being defined as a legal and/or spiritual union between two men or two women that is in every way equivalent to a marriage between a man and a woman. I’m not talking about civil unions or other legal fictions that are designed to give gay people… Read More »Gay Marriage: Serving Death

The Three Japanese Cultures

Hi!  It’s been a while since I posted here, so I have a lot to say.  Truth be told, I don’t really think I’m fond of the blogging method of expressing myself, but I haven’t come up with anything better yet.  I’m working on it, though!  First, an update. The Lily project (https://lovelylilylives.com, in case you didn’t know) is almost a year old now!  In that time, the story has progressed from a sweet but confused girl who didn’t know who she was, to a sweet but confused girl who… Read More »The Three Japanese Cultures

Being Cancellation Proof (or as much as possible)

First, a bit of site administrivia out of the way – I enabled wordpress connect for commenting, though that will require creating a subscriber account on this site.  I’ll set up a privacy policy at some point, but for right now, just rest assured I’ll only use whatever data I have to collect to maintain your account on the site.  I’m not interested in doing anything nefarious.  I’ll like other sites as I have time. So I’ve been thinking a lot about “cancel culture”.  This site is a little less… Read More »Being Cancellation Proof (or as much as possible)

The Unbearable Arrogance of Wokeness

I am not, and will never be, “woke”. I don’t even really need to go into what the term means, as that’s not even really germane to the conversation. The word itself should be sufficient to not want to go anywhere near it. Without even knowing what it pertains to, it’s an arrogant word. It says that you are awake while everyone else is asleep. It says that you are superior to those who are not “woke”. It says that being “woke” is a desirable state and that those who… Read More »The Unbearable Arrogance of Wokeness

Culture and Humanity

As a gaijin, which literally means “outsider” or “outside person”, our exposure to Japanese culture is almost always initially through their media in some way.  Either anima, manga, J-pop, or some other type of media that Japan has spread throughout the world.  And make no mistake, Japanese media and culture is amazing. It seems, though, that people who stop there tend to have two generalized reactions.  One is to tend towards otaku or weeaboo – people who are obsessed with Japanese pop culture to the point of it being unhealthy.  The other are people… Read More »Culture and Humanity

Women in Japan

A friend asked me today how women are treated in the Japanese culture.  And it brought me up short, because I’d never even considered that question seriously.  It’s funny, because most of my exposure to Japanese culture has been J-pop, and a through that, a couple of hundred young women and girls.  So you’d think the question would be on my mind, but it actually wasn’t. The problem with that question, though, is that anyone from America who tries to answer that question, though, including me, is going to do so… Read More »Women in Japan

Appropriation

One of the big bugaboos of western culture right now seems to be the idea of “cultural appropriation”.  I, personally, don’t give a toss about cultural appropriation – not only do I not consider it a thing, I consider it something that – except in the most egregious of cases – is just the product of people looking for offense and with too much time on their hands.  (And by egregious, I mean something about on the level of cosplaying as Al Jolson). That being said, if one can manage to… Read More »Appropriation