Yes exactly. Meanwhile I’m learning the term “moon runes” here lol.

Was that chicken in the anime?

I also have good experiences with them. Recently I bought the ARIA ost Vinyls that were released but I was a bit late (didn’t pre-order) but they managed to proxy ship them to me from another vendor in Japan. That is more expensive though but sometimes the only way to get something. Keep in mind that anything you ship from Japan can easily go up to 1.5-2.0 times the price of the item with shipping, duties and taxes.

I thought ッ was the opposite of ー. ー Prolongs the sound and ッ cuts it off sharply instead of dawn out.

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1457/what-does-the-little-っ-tsu-signify-when-at-the-end-of-a-word

It matches up with the first answer there, but notably the second answer from a native speaker thinks it signals emotion and not pronunciation directly.

On the other hand, while a lot will go over your head you will also learn a lot. Watching Gintama was what set off my evolution from “boy who watches popular shounen” to “otaku who is in the know”. Well aging past being a teenager helped as well of course.

The last time a show did this was NHK

That’s a bit of strong statement, there is probably a bunch of shows doing it, maybe in smaller quantities. I haven’t seen this cat show but often when I see a clip (like this one) it reminds me of Gintama. Gintama kinda does the same thing you are describing. Also Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei comes to mind, but there they also just straight up say things out loud. There is probably a bunch of shows that we both don’t know. Of course Japan being a country with an indirect culture, it has its own way of critiquing things.

It’s no secret that Japanese society isn’t perfect, but like India, people that call it out are looked down upon.

Certainly in some countries this is more of thing like you say, but I think this is still kind of a thing in western countries with a culture of more direct critique. For example: I’m not an American but I have definitely seen the American right accuse the American left of hating America when they critique America.

But yea maybe I’ll give Yani Neko a try sometime.

nipponnet insecurity discussion

haha lol yea. I imagine people who open the post to click on the source link will easily see these comments. I have had it before with Pixiv where posts can have multiple pictures so sometimes your source link to SFW art shows NSFW art. In that case I just put (NSFW) next to the link.

I came to check it but the source website refuses to let me in lol.

I’m sure Anko feels at ease with Karasuma-sensei.

Given that I just let a shipping company extort me just so that I could have the complete ARIA vinyl collection I’m gonna have to say ARIA for me 😅.

Gintama is also a great choice! It such a diverse anime and the OST reflects that. I love listening to it as well! Picking a favorite is hard but I think it is 昔の友人が変わらずにいるというのも悪くないものだな… It’s very OG and has such an wholesome bittersweet sensation to it. Gintama has a lot of bittersweet and I love that. Life is bittersweet after all. My favorite character theme is probably Madao’s theme.

She certainly is very alive, even though she is a robot.

I’ve been meaning to read more but it’s been a little hard. Maybe I’ll take your recommendation and read The Old Capital. In English, I’m afraid. My Japanese is way not good enough to get into literature unfortunately.

This is what makes Japanese literature so meditative and beautiful.

It does seem Japanese media does have more of this as well. I don’t know of any western media that is similar to Iyashikei anime. It could very well exist though, I just haven’t come across it.

Yea but so pretty lol.

I wouldn’t say absolutely zero drama: in ep 2 Aika and Akira have a pretty ugly fight for example. But ARIA really knows how to resolve things in that soft and gentle way. Suteki!

little iron bell chimes

Like in ARIA?

• slow pace
• cute girls
• chibi art style
• aesthetic environments
• very little action
• very few serious stakes
• thin or nonexistent plot
• every episode ends on a good note
• no cliffhangers
• soothing music
• cute voices
• characters with a soft voice
• random shots of environments and objects in between
• shots where almost nothing moves or happens (think non non biyori veranda scene)
• singing and music by characters
• tradition
• interconnected social structure
• lots of hugs and snuggles and head pats etc
• tangible love between characters (of any kind)
• lots of conversation
• daily life / relatable activities
• down to earth (not too unrealistic) but with a slight element of mysticism / unexplained magic (think gochiusa’s tippy)
• cute clothes that are plausible as everyday wear
• environmental sounds
• day nights cycle / passing of the day / daily routine
• lots of golden hour
• lots of moe

Singed, your local SOL/CGDCT/Iyashikei weirdo.

Comfy vibes 🥰

K-ON is certainly made for men but notably it is very popular among women. This is kinda rare for CGDCT. Maybe it has to do with the female director giving it a certain touch that resonates with women.

The appeal of CGDCT is not singular. Innocence is certainly a part of why girls are chosen. But also, it needs to be cute and to most only girls are cute. Neither is the innocence universally applied and there are often not so innocent girls included in the cast. For example Konata in Lucky Star says some really not innocent things yet she is a popular moe character.

In the end, dudes rather looking at girls than at guys is still an important factor I think. Somehow being straight makes you like girls more even if you are not romantically or sexually attracted to those girls.