Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

A Possible Podcast Episode Idea - Your Thoughts (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-30 05:38:05
Imported:
2022-01

Content

Patron Dollar_Rain, you're a genius. 

So I was jotting down your suggestions about future episodes and you mentioned the black diagonal lines and ribbon on a head and shoulders picture of a character that is shorthand for: This character is dead. Not much of a manga reader, I was trying to picture it, then it hit me! I think what your referring to is the frames used at funerals or wakes here. I'm not super sure on the details (I can look those up), but, yeah, these frames are sold and used ONLY for displaying at a funeral. Hence, artists using them to indicate a characters death. It's seems to be one of those ubiquitous traditions. 

I actually tried to answer this in the comments, but couldn't post a photo. Thought about private messaging, but then I got to thinking about other techniques that manga/anime artists use that are confusing or just straight up baffling to non-Japanese readers/watchers. Bloody nose when sexy girl walks by, off the top of my head, is another. 

Then I thought, hey, how fun would that be to make an episode explaining them, and since they're visual, trying to succinctly describe the technique and what it means as far as Japanese culture goes. Julyan and his girlfriend are big manga readers and anime watchers so I will definitely consult with him. 

Do you think there would be enough of these odd little things to do a show on? If people gave me ideas about what they've always wondered about, I could look them all up to make sure I get the details right and that might be quite fun. Could ask all over social media to see what turns up. 

Oh, another example is a million years ago (2009), I did a post on the superstition about peeing on a worm that my mother-in-law so shockingly informed me about one day. A couple years later I got a ton of views and some comments because Gindama had done an episode where it was mentioned and no one had any idea what was going on. So it makes me think there are things that are watched and enjoyed, but the subtler meanings maybe are not fully understood. 

FYI, Peeing on Worm (I updated the post in 2016). 

Files

Comments

Dollar Rain

That's it, that's the thing I was talking about! Yeah, an episode on "visual shorthand" in manga/anime could be pretty interesting. (Maybe there's similar shorthand in Japanese TV shows and films too?) Especially if it's stuff that's ubiquitous, but unique to Japanese media. Stuff I can think of off the top of my head: - The 'hollow cross' that developed from a "bulging temple vein" effect as a visual shortcut for anger or frustration, now often deployed not even on the temple but just as a separate visual symbol - Similarly, the large blue drop as a shorthand for "sweat on face", itself as a shortcut for "fear/anxiety". Often comes in three increasing in size - "Toast in mouth" as ubiquitous cliche for "late schoolchild" - "Nose mucus bubble" as shortcut for "This character is fully asleep" - "Cloth triangle on the head" as another shortcut for "this character is dead" (though this one might be a real funeral tradition??) - Spiral on glasses to indicate cokebottle glasses (or sometimes nerdyness even if glasses are thin) - Some school anime feature characters with special armbands to indicate leadership positions or club membership - There's a specific gesture with the thumb with a character who holds a katana by the scabbard right near the handguard/tsuba and pushes it *just* enough so the katana 'disengages' from being held by the scabbard. It's meant to say "I haven't slashed or attacked you yet ... but I'm ready to" - Not sure how common this is, but one game I'm playing has a brief reference to cuckoo cries as a shorthand for an empty, silent place (like cicadas might be used) - This is more of a "classical drama" thing that I've heard about a couple of steps removed. To give an explanation, I'm currently playing a video game with visual novel segments. In one section, the character 'Ninon' makes a bizarre reference to what she thinks the protagonist might do to her. https://imgur.com/a/8G8Sq7Q Apparently this is actually an extreme cliche in old TV dramas or plays? Manga talk also makes me think of "alternate readings" or contradictory furigana that you sometimes see in manga. It might be in books too, but I don't have the skill to read actual novels yet. Sometimes you see kanji for certain concepts, spells, special attacks, names etc given an entirely different furigana so the word or phrase acts as two words in the same place in a sentence (sometimes effectively making two different sentences). Or the furigana could be an alternate English pronunciation of the japanese phrase, etc etc. A related topic to that is kanji substitution puns - I've only known of a few, but I wonder how often they're in japanese media. (All the ones I know of come from the special attacks of a set of characters in the game "Granblue Fantasy". Apparently every single one of the "Divine Generals" have kanji puns for their big flashy attacks. https://twitter.com/granblue_en/status/1419563212731682818 https://twitter.com/granblue_en/status/1342403052729290754 ) It might even be worth an episode alone on those 4-kanji phrases which are direct references to stories "everyone knows" but a western audience would not. Might make a good list episode, where you list the 4 characters of common phrases and retell the background story for the set. Hopefully that's not too much as a response!

Marit Hickman

A specific type of picture frame that's only used at funerals is exactly the content I subscribe for 😍

Uncanny Japan -- Thersa Matsuura

Oh, Marit, there is so, so, so much. I should do a post about different kinds of envelopes used when: 1. giving money to someone getting married 2. Giving money at a funeral, or wake, or funeral service performed at different times/years later (they're all different).... so many intricate and fascinating rules. Here's one I've always liked. When you're writing your name on the back of an envelope (with money to give to the deceased's family), you use a very faint ink. Brush and ink, no pen. And the ink must not be dark. Why? Because using a dark, bold ink implies you had time to prepare the inkstone and rub the ink properly (takes time). But faint ink means, you were taken by surprise, you didn't expect the person to die (even if you they're very ill and you know they will pass soon, it's rude to be prepared for such and event.) What blew my mind though is nowadays people use brush pens, not so much rubbing an ink stone to get the correct color of ink. So they actually SELL brush pens made especially for funerals...when you use them the ink comes out very light. During my father-in-law's funeral Julyan told of another reason for the light colored ink but I was buy doing something and didn't hear. I need to ask him. I wish I could post photos here.

Dollar Rain

I remembered another one! "Ahoge"/idiot-hair - A tuft of hair pointing up in the centre of the hair indicates the character is somewhat dumb. This seems to be so much of a cliche that series and games have been made directly referencing it as their main focus. (Ahoge Chanbara is a dueling game with an increasingly weird series of objects and hair being each character's ahoge tuft. "Aho Genome" is a manga series featuring a girl with a living, sentient ahoge. etc etc)