I read in the NYTimes today about a wacky new fad in Japan, Going out with pillow's with anime characters on them.... or as the Times said "Nisan is part of a thriving subculture of men and women in Japan who indulge in real relationships with imaginary characters. These 2-D lovers, as they are called, are a subset of otaku culture— the obsessive fandom that has surrounded anime, manga and video games in Japan in the last decade."
Japan used to be to a feared world power and now men in Japan are making love to pillows. But yet we have another sad twist to this story.
"Okayama was an early adopter of 2-D. He discovered anime about two decades ago when he was new to the work force and feeling suicidal. “I was having a lot of trouble,” he told me over coffee, making a slicing gesture with his hand by his neck. That’s when he encountered Sasami, ablue-haired, 10-year-old cartoon character from the anime “TenchiMuyo!”"
Yes not only is this guy hooking up with a anime pillow, he is hooking up with a ten year old anime pillow. Plus that is such a ripoff of the movie Garden State. Just replace Natalie Portman with Sasami, a blue-haired, 10-year-old cartoon character from the anime “TenchiMuyo and it is the same thing.
If you want to read the rest of this sickness you can here
This paragraph says it all:
ReplyDeleteAccording to many who study the phenomenon, the rise of 2-D love can be attributed in part to the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life. According to a government survey, more than a quarter of men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan do not have friends of the opposite sex. One of the biggest best sellers in the country last year was “Health and Physical Education for Over Thirty,” a six-chapter, manga-illustrated guidebook that holds the reader’s hand from the first meeting to sex to marriage.