11. Women's Underwear

To most westerners, women’s underwear is obviously sexy by nature. But in Japan, such thing was unknown until very recent in history. Remember, Japan was closed to the outside world for centuries during a certain period. Even nowadays it’s still common to notice how some Japanese completely misunderstand westerner clothing, going to the beach wearing suit and tie. Really, I am not lying!

Now imagine how panties caused a strong impression with the Japanese men at first exposure. No wonder it has become a national fetish, such a thing westerners are so used to from the very beginning. Panty raids are common in some Anime series, such as what Rapposai does in “Ranma 1/2”, as Ryo’s panty collection in “City Hunter”, Kintaro Oe in “Golden Boy”, or the entire "You're Under Arrest" DVD Specials, which were all about police investigations on panty stealing. :P

A truly funny Anime cliché.

12. Tiny Old People

As of the of post-war time in Japan, most people (like my father) were starving for years to come. That would create an entire generation of rather short people who could seldom eat well (or at all) during most of their early life. Those are, nowadays, the Anime grandfathers/grandmothers characters — often depicted quite tiny as they barely reach your knees in height.

As Japan recovered from those days, the younger generation was well fed, and have reached back normal statures. As a matter of fact, six feet tall youngsters are not at all uncommon in nowadays Japan. That’s why the elderly look so tiny in as depicted in Anime, when close to later generation youngsters.

Another explanation would be that the older generation (born by the early 1900’s) was simply shorter than the newer one (born by the late 1900’s).

13. Big Eyes

Well, lets get to the obvious — most people identify Anime style by characters with big eyes. But wait - that was invented by Disney way before Anime ever existed! Disney greatly influenced Anime on the early days. Since the Japanese in general have rather narrow eyes (as a general Asian feature), Disney big-eyed characters caused a very positive impression in Japan. The Japanese people instantly identified characters with big eyes as friendly and lovable. While, on the other hand, Disney villains generally have smaller, narrower, and featureless eyes. In Anime, the villains will helplessly have narrow/featureless eyes as well! In contrast, the more pure and innocent an Anime character is, the more round and wide their eyes will be. Perfectly wide rounded eyes depicts the pinnacle of Anime character innocence — usually young boys or girls.

Surprised? Well, Disney had its hand on anime in the past, but nowadays it looks the other way around. Even American comics are looking more Anime by the day. George Lucas got Japanese inspiration when he created the clothing for the Star Wars’ Jedi Knights, who not only dress kimono-like stuff, but also carry swords (sabers) all around. And just for the record, George Lucas' Star Wars was actually based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai novel named "The Hidden Fortress" (1958). To complete the circle, Yuri from “Dirty Pair” was waving a Lightsaber in the series during the mid 80’s, years after Star Wars came out in 1977. Who influenced who? It went all the way around! ^_^

Even though Anime has imported Disney’s big eye idea, Disney eyes are far from comparing to the richness of detail, shapes and complexity of modern Anime counterpart.

14. Censorship Mosaic

This used to be one of the most frequently asked question — “why???”. Why would they take all the trouble of producing high quality erotic animation just to zoom into a big… mosaic? Another frequently asked question used to be “why do they censor the stuff before it gets to America?”. Well, to tell you the truth, it has not been censored *before* coming to the US — it was censored right after being produced right there in Japan, before anybody could watch it.

So, you mean, they watch it censored in Japan? Exactly. But it has not been always like this. The story would be completely different if Anime were to be invented before WWII, not after, when Japan was being military and culturally occupied, and had their ways of doing their things changed ever since.

Let me elaborate on this. When American soldiers arrived in Japan after the war, they were obviously shocked by the cultural differences they experienced first hand. If they were mere tourists, they would just have to cope with it and move along. But that was obviously not the case. It is pretty common for people from ANY country to arrive in some other country and think that whatever people do that is different to what they are used to is basically… wrong. The natural human reaction is to push their ways over the others, although they are completely ignoring the complex context they are in at the moment. As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. But they didn’t.

And since they were no tourists, they had more sophisticated ways to convince the local people that they were wrong. I have to mention here that the Japanese often have this concern of how the “outside world” sees them, and that just added to the problem.

When American soldiers witnessed the way the Japanese easily dealt with nudity, they were shocked. The first reaction was to label the Japanese as “barbarians”, “uncivilized” and “immoral”. All of these concepts based on a foreign religion the Japanese had little or no exposure to until then. Considering how little most common Japanese knew about the rest of the world by that time, they also got shocked by the foreign sudden reaction.

One has to take in consideration the fact that Japan, until then, had never ever lost a war in thousands of years. When one falls from that height, it is an obvious moment of national weakness, and at the same time their entire culture was being exposed to the ridicule of the world.

To “correct” the problem, the Japanese had to step over their otherwise own cultural beliefs and suddenly cope with this new and difficult to understand new set of “Christian” moral  values. And there you go — mosaic! And that’s why even by nowadays standards, it still just doesn’t make much sense. One thing I can tell you, it was not a Japanese idea to start with.

Ironically, Anime is watched uncensored in America, while the Japanese still have to cope with the censored version.

15. Iconization

In Japan, the writing system is not phonetic, but iconic instead. And some say, one cannot really learn the language or truly understand the Japanese culture and values without first learning kanji. And since kanji is so embedded into the Japanese mind as a form of iconization, it is natural for them to express themselves that way as well.

But how does iconization manifests itself in Anime? It does in the form of facial expressions, hand gestures, body language and sometimes a simple jumping carp on a pond. It also shows in the form of graphic icons that pop-up in the scene, such as the infamous sweat drop. All of these things have a specific meaning that is usually the part westerners will just miss from the message contents. That is usually a subliminal message the authors want to call your attention to.

Some examples:

• Carp jumped on a pond: a carp in kanji is pronounced “koi”, which has a striking pronunciation similarity with yet another kanji that instead means “love”. This usually means somebody is about to meet somebody else in a romantic context.

• Big sweat drop over somebody’s head: means the person is nervous or in a rather uneasy position. It is an exaggeration of sweat in the form of an icon.

• Cicadas noise: means it is summertime in Japan, which can be quite hot and humid. These are concepts that would be otherwise difficult to depict with animation alone.

• Person depicted with hiragana characters as facial features: a common Japanese way to tell that person is nobody important — a Joe Doe so to speak.

• Ice cubes inside a glass suddenly move with a clinging sound: depicts the passage of time. The ice melted a bit. This is quite often seen in Anime.

• Person sticks out the pinky finger as a sign to somebody else: to little kids it means to make a promise or commitment. It otherwise indicates romantic intentions towards another person.

• Person crosses hands in a X shape: means “no” in a general sense.

• Hand with palm against cheek, waving fingers altogether: also means “no”, in a more polite way.

• Nose bleed: happens when the guy’s blood pressure rise? Usually not in real life. Something else would happen instead, but for TV it’s better be a nose bleed. ^_^

16. Crucifixes

A Christian crucifix is perhaps, in my humble opinion, one of the most perfect forms of iconization ever. It is made of two straight lines, crossed into a beautifully balanced shape, aesthetically speaking. Somebody may say — “hey, it sounds like you are talking about the kanji writing system”.

How many times have you noticed Anime characters hanging rather big crucifixes on their necks? And as you watch that character along the storyline, you might notice that crucifix looks sort of out of place? The character is usually not Christian, not religious and most Japanese actually know little about Christianity, so why the crucifix?

The answer is.. Fashion! Japanese youngsters are quite concerned about the current fashion trends, and for a period, things like the British flag or a crucifix were very fashionable. Another reason is that, to the eyes of some Japanese, Christian icons are rather exotic since the concepts behind them are still sort of alien to them. To feature a crucifix might look as exotic fashion. For example, in the “Trigun” series, there is a character who is supposedly a priest. He carries a huge cross wherever he goes, but later you figure the it was used to hide his arsenal of weapons. It worked fine as an exotic icon to call attention (especially due to the exaggerated size), but there was really no religious connotation to it. It was just a visual add-on.

17. Social Hierarchy — Sempai!

Japan has a very strict and established social hierarchy that dates back a few dozen hundred years. You may have noticed sometimes an Anime character will call another simply as “sempai” (senior), instead of using the actual name. In the series Maison Ikkoku, Godai calls Kyouko as “karinin-san” (manager) instead of her name. In countless Anime series, young girls call her older brothers as “onii-san” (sir older brother), while the respective older brother simply calls her by her first name.

The sempai/kohai (senior/junior) relationships start at home since early ages, and extend to school, social life and work environment. To be sempai of somebody carries all the responsibilities concerning that person, in addition to your “superior status” in that relationship. You are personally responsible for all of that person’s problems and needs. On the other hand, to be kohai of somebody means you will never let him/her serve her own cup of tea, light his/her cigarette, and in some cases will never even be allowed to call him/her but the first name. On the other hand, your sempai is responsible for your daily needs and problems.

The kohai will speak to their sempai using more respectful vocabulary, while a sempai can be quite informal when talking to a kohai. Siblings are included in this relationship, and that will dictate the language used between the two. A school or college freshman will be kohai of all sophomores and seniors. A newly employed person will be kohai of all existing employees, and will typically serve tea to all of them, and rarely have a chance to ever refer to them by their first names.

These social rules are established and unbreakable. If a family member has a problem and needs to ask for help from someone in the family, it must to be the oldest member first. If he/she cannot help, then you are allowed to try somebody else. A kohai asking for help from somebody else that is not his/her sempai is a rather serious social offense. On the other hand, a kohai denying help to a kohai is equally unthinkable in the Japanese social context.

18. Japan’s Secret Desire to be Part of Europe

It may sound geographically impossible for the country to “walk away from Asia”, but Japan demonstrates in many ways a secret admiration for Europe. The Tokyo tower, that appears in countless Anime episodes, is a replica of the French Eiffel tower. Entire deluxe hotels in key tourist locations are decorated with Scandinavian style—from architecture to fashion. The Japanese prefectural model was imported from England. The male school uniforms are also from European military influence. The French maid uniforms often seen in Anime are no exception to the rule. Even the Japanese DVD region code is the same as in Europe!

You name it — the European influence in Japan is all over the country. Even in the imported vocabulary, many words and terms came from Europe. The most known is probably “arubaito”, or simply “baito” - the term comes from the German word “arbeit”. In Japanese it means a part time job, while in German it simply means “work” or “labor”. Some English words were imported from England – not the USA – and can sometimes cause confusion during translations. One good example of that is... the word "Anime", which comes from French, not English as many believe.

19. Twentieth First Century Arranged Marriages!

It is very rare when an Anime series will not cover this subject at some point, unless it’s about sports or mindless fighting. The oldest brother/sister/sempai or parents have the responsibility of finding the match for the younger ones. About 20 years ago, it was considered as “modern” for a woman to have more than one person to choose from. During the Maison Ikkoku series, Kyouko’s mother pushed prospective marriage candidates during forced “omiai” (arranged marriage meeting) sessions. In the Urusei Yatsura TV series, Lum’s father forced her into omiai encounters with people she never met before.

In addition, it becomes more difficult for women to marry if she’s older than 26 years old. That’s the traditionally established age limit (used to be 23 before that), after which women in general are considered “too old” to marry. These things have been slowly changing through the last 20 years, but for most people some things will never change…

20. Lots of Vending Machines—Everywhere!

Japan has the highest count of vending machines per person in the entire world. And the most modern and varied ones as well. You can buy virtually anything, from cigarettes, chewing gum, chocolate, candy, condoms, magazines, hot and cold meals or beverages — you name it! Some machines will use a sexy voice to welcome you and also thank you for the purchase. Some with a built in microwave oven will warm up your food on the spot. Some 20 years old machines can accept 10,000 yen bills (around us$100) and give you change in both bills and coins!

When you see them, they will usually be in groups of two or more. You find them in train stations, streets, in the beach, at school, in the office, and sometimes even in remote mountain trail places. In Anime, you will often see kohai (see Social Hierarchy) characters often rushing to buy all sorts of canned beverages for their sempai or girlfriends. Sweetened cold coffee or just plain green tea are two of the most common canned products sold on vending machines, followed by beer from multiple Japanese brands such as Sapporo and Asahi. Once you get used to them all around you everywhere, it is seldom one will not miss them when traveling abroad!

21. Idol Culture

If you watched anime for long enough, you might have noticed the constant presence of cute young singers who talk about becoming “idols”. There are entire Anime series covering that ground, such as “Key, The Metal Idol”. Even old school Anime such as “Bubblegum Crisis” had in the group Priss, a rock singer. The series started up in the rhythm of her rock show from the very beginning.

As you can imagine, singing is a Japanese passion, as well as a daily social activity. It is very common for people of all ages to come to karaoke (which means “Empty Orchestra” in Japanese) parlors and spend hours having microphone fun after work or school. The idol industry in Japan produces ready-made and packaged idols every once in a while to feed this national phenomenon and the record sales business. My all-time idol is Iwasaki Hiromi, who began her singing career in the early 70’s and rocketed sky-high ever since to success with her magical voice and talent. She still sings to the date, although no longer as pop-singer, but as a more mature end elaborated Jazz performer. Iwasaki-san is now married and raising  her kids, but I am still crazy about her endless singing talent! I hope she will never quit!

The idol culture ever since the mid 80’s no longer required much singing talent from the young candidates — they just have to be C-U-T-E and be able to dance. As a matter of fact, Japanese women get very excited about cute boys—more than comparing to adult men. Guess which of them will become idols?

Very few female idols can actually survive more than a year or so in this industry, usually having a short-lived singing career. There are exceptions, though, and one of the most notorious is Matsuda Seiko, who began as a very cute and timid teenager singer in the 80’s and still sings to the date. Aw, and lets not forget my beloved Iwasaki Hiromi!! Actually, she tried to retire permanently after getting married about 10 years ago, but her fans brought her back through a constant campaign that lasted for many years! She matured as a singer, and brought her magic to a yet much higher level — so much that sometimes it feels like she is a whole new incredible singer I never heard before. Let me stop here before I write a book about her! Hahaha… idol culture galore!

22. Sci-Fi is Everywhere

You may have noticed how much of Anime turns around science fiction. A lot, isn’t it? But it has not been always like this. Sci-Fi had a rather poor start in Japan, when the average Sci-Fi shows would turn around good versus evil, where good always wins all the time. Shows like this wouldn’t last for very long on TV, and the genre was quickly dropping in popularity.

It is important to notice how much Star Wars has influenced Anime from the early days. A few years before Star Wars first played (before 1977), the Sci-Fi genre was not very popular in Japan.

With Star Wars, the theme was still “good vs evil”, but evil was not completely evil and good was not completely good. Even one that now is evil was once part of the group of good ones. And since Star Wars borrowed heavily from Japanese themes, from the story and characters (“Kakushi Toride no San Akunin”, The Hidden Fortress, 1951) to the wardrobe (Jedi dressed Japanese kimonos and wielded swords), and makeup (Queen Amidala’s geisha makeup and Darth Maul’s Japanese No Drama-like mask), the general Japanese public felt comfortable with this new and reinvented Sci-Fi genre.

Sci-Fi Anime series that were in production by then were fated to fail, if it weren’t for Star Wars’ new injection to revive the public enthusiasm about it. One of the most notorious Sci-Fi shows that were influenced by Star Wars is Mobile Suit Gundam. Carrying several elements from George Lucas’ cult movie, this Anime series quickly started a phenomenon that is best described as the “Star Trek of Japan”, which has been playing through countless seasons up to the current day.

Several other Anime series benefited from Star Wars’ Sci-Fi renascence, such as “Space Battleship Yamamoto”, by Leiji Matsumoto. It started playing before Star Wars, but only got popular after it. From that came cult Anime characters, such as Captain Harlock, who has a striking similarity with Star Wars’ Hans Solo, who was also a notorious rogue captain. Harlock got so popular that even nowadays there are still new Anime series being created for him, such as “Harlock Saga” (2002) and “Gun Frontier” (2004).

After this rather rough beginning, there is no doubt Sci-Fi has dominated quite a chunk of the Anime scenario. Ever since, it would be easier to remember how many Anime series were NOT about science fiction! And thanks to Star Wars, Mobile Suit Gundam has now been playing in Japan for a quarter of a century already!