As a viewer of both Japanese Anime and U.S. TV Drama, I've found that the mechanics of love and relationships aren't the same. Anime and TV shows typically have the same number of episodes per season, except anime is more consistent. TV dramas typically start their seasons beginning mid-late September/early October, have about a 1 month hiatus for the holidays and continue until May. Depending on the network and the writers you get around 26 episodes, but that can vary. Anime is more predictable in the number of episodes they have per show. You can get 13, 26, or 52 episode shows. That is your typical structure; some shows have 100+ episodes (aka never ending). The difference between TV dramas and anime is that anime shows are pretty much one time deals, once the show has run its course, there no more 'seasons' like in TV dramas, where a network can opt to renew the show for another season. Technically the 52+ episode shows are multiple seasons, except that it's not broken up, just played continuously (one per week). That way, anime watchers don't get stuck with boring filler TV shows as regular shows go into a summer hiatus while filming continues or there is just a break.
I will explain anime love and relationships first, as it's probably the tougher of the two. And I will be focusing on the anime that has more high school age kids, which is typical in teen TV drama. There are so many, many different kinds of anime you can watch. If you look at Netflix, anime has its own subgenres due to the variety. Sci-Fi, Romance, Horror, Drama, Fantasy, etc... so the types of romance also vary quite a bit. Most anime romance & relationships have fundamental rules that you can see through a variety of genres.
The girl typically does the confessing to the boy she likes. Asking the guy out is not very common. Love letters are normal, and a girl usually confesses her feelings to a guy in a letter, or in person via a meeting arranged through a note (letter). The delivery of the note can be done a variety of ways; in the shoe locker of the guy, having a friend deliver the letter to the guy, personally handing the letter to the guy (which usually ends up with the girl running away), or the girl handing him the letter and waiting nervously for a response. After the delivery of the letter, answers to the letter are usually received within a day or two, either on the roof of the school or behind the school, meaning, secluded locations. Of course a guy can confess his feelings too, but a guy writing a confession letter is pretty a-typical. Guys typically have face to face confrontations with the guy blurting out his feelings because he's so nervous and awkward. Face-to-face confrontations by a boy or a girl lack direct eye contact until an answer is given. In either case, the girl or guy receiving the confession usually is shocked, as if they were completely oblivious to anyone’s' feelings. Of course there are other types of confessions, but those are often during times of dire circumstances; such as a culmination of feelings and the girl gets in harm's way somehow and the guy bursts out telling his feelings to try to snap the girl back to reality. Or if the main character guy is on the verge of dating a minor character girl, the main character girl that has been hiding her feelings will blurt out her feelings in an desperate attempt to get the guy, because she had hoped the whole time that the guy would understand her undying love for him simply because the girl talked to him twice, alone.
In anime, physical contact, especially skin to skin contact, is a big deal, whether a girl and guy are dating or not. If a girl and guy's hand would happen to touch, both would flinch and be embarrassed. If a girl stood close to the guy he would appear nervous, especially if he liked the girl. Holding hands is a BIG step, hugging is an even bigger step. Usually a hug occurs only if the girl is emotionally upset and in a sign of affection the guy will hug her, and that hug will initially shock her and she'll freeze up, but only for a moment, then she will melt in his arms and have a real emotional breakdown. A girl and guy dating often will simply wave a good-bye to each other. Another sign that a guy and girl may be involved is if they are walking close to each other. Proximity is important. Then you get to the kiss. It's uncommon to see kissing in anime. But the times you do see kissing it's often very dramatic. It's almost always a first kiss too. You may only see one or two kisses in a series, and only if there is a dramatic romance.
You will not see a romance like you are used to in a TV drama. Romances in TV dramas can be a sub-plot that surfaces as a main plot time and time again, but that's not true with anime. You either have a romance in anime, or you don't. A romance in anime is still a romance if the guy or girl harbors their feelings until the end of the series where some circumstance will make them confess. Unrequited love is almost a given in anime. When a girl and guy start dating in anime, especially if it's a main character, the relationship is pretty solid. It may have it's rough spots, but break-ups are very circumstantial and not common. Romance I described for anime is a basic overview, and it does not cover all types of anime romance, just the typical ones.
In TV dramas, romance and relationships are much more, for lack of a better word, dramatic. Confessions are not like confessions in anime. It's more along the lines of your traditional 'boy likes girl' scenario. If a guy is interested, he will ask her out, either to dinner, to a movie, or something traditional like that. You will also get that 'instant attraction' type of relationships where the guy and girl would be talking or just be standing really close to each other and somehow their lips would have acquired a magnetic attraction for each other and their kissing. In TV dramas, unlike anime, it is not uncommon for the kissing to come before hand holding and hugging. TV producers know that that sort of thing will attract an audience and so kissing is very common in TV dramas. Another plot device that attracts an audience is unstable relationships and break-ups. TV Drama would not get its name if it did not have drama, and the most common way to drum up drama is for teens to have relationship problems and break-up. Whether it's because of another girl or guy, or because they don't feel the 'magic' anymore (aka the kissing is no longer good), a TV drama's relationships will go through many predictable hook-up and break-up stages.
A relationship in a TV drama may start relatively early in the season/series only for it to have a rocky path throughout the entire season. Or two of the main characters will become more and more attracted to each other throughout the season and have a magical episode where they act on their attraction at the end of the season only to start their rocky relationship path the next season. Of course hook-ups always have an episode or two of bliss and happiness, but the producers of the show have determined that that does not get TV ratings, so they always make the relationship become unstable.
Where a relationship/romance in anime tends to be a culmination of the series, in TV dramas it is almost the opposite where relationships/romances start at the beginning of the season/series. In anime, producers aren't typically worried about gathering ratings from a romance; rather, they prefer getting ratings for the uniqueness and quality of the series they created. In my opinion, I think the approach anime takes is better than the way TV dramas work. I prefer seeing a quality series, with good music, good animation, and a good story, rather than romantic ups and downs that are designed to hook the viewer emotionally through shallow plot devices. Seeing a romance/relationship work out in anime is much more satisfying because the characters will go through more normal motions of relationships, doubting their feelings, trying to discover their feelings, overcoming obstacles to approach the person, or simply accepting their feelings for someone. Anime is full of shallow characters, but shallowness hardly ever wins out in anime and the shallow characters are often made fun of for that. It's the personal growth of characters that makes anime romance and relationships better than TV Drama romance and relationships. Of course that's only true of the anime has that sort of aspect in their story line. Anime is able to do more, because they aren't limited by a young actor's abilities, rather they simply have to pull from a vast list of voice actors and the animators can do the acting of a young character that a young flesh and blood actor cannot.
Anime and TV relationships can both be enjoyable, but I find that I prefer anime ones because they seem more realistic, once it's compared to real life romance.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Chubby America
Gastro-bypass surgery is such a common term anymore. If someone mentioned 'stomach stapling' a few years ago, you'd probably not know what that meant, you may not even know now. Both those terms are surgical processes that aid overweight people get thinner again, by making a smaller stomach. Jenny Craig, Slim Fast, Weight watchers, used to be the common things people thought of when women wanted to lose weight. This was years and years ago, now their are whole aisles and sections of health and food stores devoted to weight loss for men and women. Pills, tonics, elixirs, powders, emulsions, etc... you name it, are available to help you lose weight. Ten years ago you wouldn't have seen such things at your local GNC or health store, at least not in such quantity or variety.
America is fat. There is no way around this, so many Americans are overweight that it has become norm in our society. The other day I was at a theatre to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. While waiting for the movie to begin I looked around and was amazed on how many fat people were in the theatre. I should probably use 'overweight' but that's just prettying up 'fat' as it's more derogatory. I needed to get a drink of water and as I walked down the large aisle on the side, I had to squeeze myself through two fat people walking up the aisle. Of course these people had large containers of sodium loaded popcorn with extra butter on it. There are even butter dispensers... butter dispensers? More like fat dispensers. That fat allows for the popcorn to slide down easy, you don't even have to chew. Of course you chase it down with a gallon of your favorite soda. Fat people are hardly the only ones who eat this stuff, many others enjoy it too. Though, when a thin couple walks in with a large popcorn it seems too much, but on a fat person the large popcorn seems proportional somehow. That’s pretty scary. I can't even finish a third of the popcorn in one of those large bags, it's just too much.
When I say 'fat' you probably imagine some large 400 pound man or woman who is obviously heavier than is healthy to the point where overweight people think the person is fat. True, that's fat, but my 'fat' also includes those who have pot bellies, beer bellies, or who I consider 'chunky'. Not overweight in excessiveness, but are still overweight or fat. Of course I'm referring to mostly adults. What's scarier is a fat kid. Parents should be ashamed of themselves if their kids are fat, it is their fault and their fault alone. They manage their kid's diet and activity, they are responsible. And don't give me that 'my kid is a healthy eater' or 'my kid has thick bones' excuse, it's just another reason to cover up your short-comings of a parent. Wait, I'm being insensitive, overweight can be considered genetic now. Though, I wonder, 50 years ago, if overweight was genetic, or if it's just an excuse to hide behind in this day and age. It's true, I suppose, I've seen stories where a fat-- excuse me -- overweight person eats healthy and exercises daily and still gains wait. I believe that only a small percentage of people really are affected by that condition, the rest that claim their fatness on genetics are just making up excuses. I also have my suspicions that these this overweight condition can be developed just like diabetes can be developed.
But who can blame them? It's so easy to get fat in America... fast food restaurants, elevators, escalators, moving walkways, rich food, grocery stores loaded with salty and sweet snacks and junk food, delivery of food to your door step, etc... Junk food is inexpensive and healthy food is not. Foods are loaded with sodium, fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, preservatives, additives, anything to make the food taste better. What was that? Oh yeah, 'reduced sodium/fat/cholesterol' foods/snacks. Don't delude yourself. Just because your eating those types of foods doesn't mean you are eating healthy. Do you really think you are eating that much healthier when you are eating reduced sodium Doritos’s [chips]? If that appeases your conscience, fine. No trans-fat! Yay! There is still the other fat and it's bad for you too, trans-fat is just the worst of it. Oh, and drinking a galloon of 'diet' soft drinks is probably just as bad as drinking the regular stuff, you just have another excuse to hide behind if you are fat. I've seen regular people switch to 'diet' soft drinks to manage their weight gain. Hey, how about drinking water instead? It quenches your thirst and has no bad stuff in it. If you really need flavor, get some of those flavored + caffeine water drinks.
Soft drinks are available at almost every street corner. Many kids grow up practically breast-fed soft drinks. It's cheap and easy to get. Milk is expensive. Why pony-up nearly $3 for a gallon of milk when you can get a 2-liter of pop for $0.99? I have yet to see a 'pop-machine' dispense healthy fruit or vegetable drinks. That's how bad it is, 'pop-machine', a ubiquitous term that people identify as a machine that one puts money in and then one can select a drink. It's not necessarily 'pop'. It can be water or some sort of sports drink. Healthy drinks are either more expensive or don't sell as well. I'd be happy if I saw a drink-dispenser have fruit and/or vegetable drinks alone. I'm waiting for the day when drinking fountains have a soft drink rather than water.
It seems every town and city have 'gyms', places that you pay to have access to facilities that have weight training, exercise machines, running tracks, and/or swimming pools. When I look into some of these places (most or completely glass paned, for whatever reason, so you can see who's working out) it's mostly slim/healthier people. I'm not saying these gyms are bad, as it's more convenient and comfortable to work out in an air-conditioned building year round, rather than biking or whatever outdoors especially when weather can be temperamental and seasonal. Also, weights are expensive and not everyone has the room or money to have their own set, and a gym is ideal for weight training. You can watch TV or movies while you work out to help make the grueling experience somewhat more palpable. Though, of the time I've spent overseas, which is a lot, I've never really seen 'gyms'. Bigger cities may have them now, but people typically eat healthier and are more active in Europe and don't have the need for 'gyms'. I feel like America is the only place that really needs gyms.
I think that's one of the problems in America, people don't make the time or have the time to eat healthy or stay active. People jam pack their lives so much, that they only have time and patience to pop in to a fast food place or get a microwaveable dinner. Both are very unhealthy. Healthy-Choice dinners aren't as healthy as one would hope. People don't eat normal anymore either, skipping breakfast, and sometimes even lunch, just to eat unhealthy food or snack on junk food later. All your food intake ends up being unhealthy, loaded with sodium and fat. If that's all you eat, it's no surprise that you are fat. A part of keeping your weight in check is to have a healthy diet, but of course everyone knows that. People just define 'healthy diet' differently and end up being fat even when they say they are eating healthy. If you want the true definition of a healthy diet, talk to your doctor or a nutritionist (those only came into existence because of fat people).
There is no easy solution to fix fat America, mostly due to the fact that it's up to individuals to take the steps necessary to maintain a healthy weight. And that 'healthy' is defined by the nutritionists and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) as well as doctors. Fast food restaurants would end up losing money if people chose to eat healthier. Maybe that would force fast food chains to re-evaluate their menu and get rid of 400g of fat burgers. But, it really boils down to the individual to have the will power to do something about their fatness. Many men make the mistake of eating how they did in college, after their metabolism slows down in their 30's. Changing your diet is tough, but it's necessary to change it as your body changes and handles the foods you eat. Women never really have a change in metabolism, but they need to change their diet too, and change it according to the way their bodies handle food. It's easier to develop a healthy diet earlier, the longer you maintain an unhealthy diet, the harder it is to change it. Maintaining a healthy diet requires effort. Fruits and vegetables go bad, so you can't buy large quantities of them and have fresh fruit two weeks later. You also need to be smart about what foods you cook, how much fat, cholesterol, and sodium they have. The initial effort is the hardest, but once you develop a healthier diet you'll find that it is relatively easy to maintain.
America is fat. There is no way around this, so many Americans are overweight that it has become norm in our society. The other day I was at a theatre to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. While waiting for the movie to begin I looked around and was amazed on how many fat people were in the theatre. I should probably use 'overweight' but that's just prettying up 'fat' as it's more derogatory. I needed to get a drink of water and as I walked down the large aisle on the side, I had to squeeze myself through two fat people walking up the aisle. Of course these people had large containers of sodium loaded popcorn with extra butter on it. There are even butter dispensers... butter dispensers? More like fat dispensers. That fat allows for the popcorn to slide down easy, you don't even have to chew. Of course you chase it down with a gallon of your favorite soda. Fat people are hardly the only ones who eat this stuff, many others enjoy it too. Though, when a thin couple walks in with a large popcorn it seems too much, but on a fat person the large popcorn seems proportional somehow. That’s pretty scary. I can't even finish a third of the popcorn in one of those large bags, it's just too much.
When I say 'fat' you probably imagine some large 400 pound man or woman who is obviously heavier than is healthy to the point where overweight people think the person is fat. True, that's fat, but my 'fat' also includes those who have pot bellies, beer bellies, or who I consider 'chunky'. Not overweight in excessiveness, but are still overweight or fat. Of course I'm referring to mostly adults. What's scarier is a fat kid. Parents should be ashamed of themselves if their kids are fat, it is their fault and their fault alone. They manage their kid's diet and activity, they are responsible. And don't give me that 'my kid is a healthy eater' or 'my kid has thick bones' excuse, it's just another reason to cover up your short-comings of a parent. Wait, I'm being insensitive, overweight can be considered genetic now. Though, I wonder, 50 years ago, if overweight was genetic, or if it's just an excuse to hide behind in this day and age. It's true, I suppose, I've seen stories where a fat-- excuse me -- overweight person eats healthy and exercises daily and still gains wait. I believe that only a small percentage of people really are affected by that condition, the rest that claim their fatness on genetics are just making up excuses. I also have my suspicions that these this overweight condition can be developed just like diabetes can be developed.
But who can blame them? It's so easy to get fat in America... fast food restaurants, elevators, escalators, moving walkways, rich food, grocery stores loaded with salty and sweet snacks and junk food, delivery of food to your door step, etc... Junk food is inexpensive and healthy food is not. Foods are loaded with sodium, fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, preservatives, additives, anything to make the food taste better. What was that? Oh yeah, 'reduced sodium/fat/cholesterol' foods/snacks. Don't delude yourself. Just because your eating those types of foods doesn't mean you are eating healthy. Do you really think you are eating that much healthier when you are eating reduced sodium Doritos’s [chips]? If that appeases your conscience, fine. No trans-fat! Yay! There is still the other fat and it's bad for you too, trans-fat is just the worst of it. Oh, and drinking a galloon of 'diet' soft drinks is probably just as bad as drinking the regular stuff, you just have another excuse to hide behind if you are fat. I've seen regular people switch to 'diet' soft drinks to manage their weight gain. Hey, how about drinking water instead? It quenches your thirst and has no bad stuff in it. If you really need flavor, get some of those flavored + caffeine water drinks.
Soft drinks are available at almost every street corner. Many kids grow up practically breast-fed soft drinks. It's cheap and easy to get. Milk is expensive. Why pony-up nearly $3 for a gallon of milk when you can get a 2-liter of pop for $0.99? I have yet to see a 'pop-machine' dispense healthy fruit or vegetable drinks. That's how bad it is, 'pop-machine', a ubiquitous term that people identify as a machine that one puts money in and then one can select a drink. It's not necessarily 'pop'. It can be water or some sort of sports drink. Healthy drinks are either more expensive or don't sell as well. I'd be happy if I saw a drink-dispenser have fruit and/or vegetable drinks alone. I'm waiting for the day when drinking fountains have a soft drink rather than water.
It seems every town and city have 'gyms', places that you pay to have access to facilities that have weight training, exercise machines, running tracks, and/or swimming pools. When I look into some of these places (most or completely glass paned, for whatever reason, so you can see who's working out) it's mostly slim/healthier people. I'm not saying these gyms are bad, as it's more convenient and comfortable to work out in an air-conditioned building year round, rather than biking or whatever outdoors especially when weather can be temperamental and seasonal. Also, weights are expensive and not everyone has the room or money to have their own set, and a gym is ideal for weight training. You can watch TV or movies while you work out to help make the grueling experience somewhat more palpable. Though, of the time I've spent overseas, which is a lot, I've never really seen 'gyms'. Bigger cities may have them now, but people typically eat healthier and are more active in Europe and don't have the need for 'gyms'. I feel like America is the only place that really needs gyms.
I think that's one of the problems in America, people don't make the time or have the time to eat healthy or stay active. People jam pack their lives so much, that they only have time and patience to pop in to a fast food place or get a microwaveable dinner. Both are very unhealthy. Healthy-Choice dinners aren't as healthy as one would hope. People don't eat normal anymore either, skipping breakfast, and sometimes even lunch, just to eat unhealthy food or snack on junk food later. All your food intake ends up being unhealthy, loaded with sodium and fat. If that's all you eat, it's no surprise that you are fat. A part of keeping your weight in check is to have a healthy diet, but of course everyone knows that. People just define 'healthy diet' differently and end up being fat even when they say they are eating healthy. If you want the true definition of a healthy diet, talk to your doctor or a nutritionist (those only came into existence because of fat people).
There is no easy solution to fix fat America, mostly due to the fact that it's up to individuals to take the steps necessary to maintain a healthy weight. And that 'healthy' is defined by the nutritionists and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) as well as doctors. Fast food restaurants would end up losing money if people chose to eat healthier. Maybe that would force fast food chains to re-evaluate their menu and get rid of 400g of fat burgers. But, it really boils down to the individual to have the will power to do something about their fatness. Many men make the mistake of eating how they did in college, after their metabolism slows down in their 30's. Changing your diet is tough, but it's necessary to change it as your body changes and handles the foods you eat. Women never really have a change in metabolism, but they need to change their diet too, and change it according to the way their bodies handle food. It's easier to develop a healthy diet earlier, the longer you maintain an unhealthy diet, the harder it is to change it. Maintaining a healthy diet requires effort. Fruits and vegetables go bad, so you can't buy large quantities of them and have fresh fruit two weeks later. You also need to be smart about what foods you cook, how much fat, cholesterol, and sodium they have. The initial effort is the hardest, but once you develop a healthier diet you'll find that it is relatively easy to maintain.
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