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Cross-cultural Romance in Manga/Anime

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Arnold Kim

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Aug 2, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/2/00
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Shadow6865 <shado...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000802200652...@ng-mf1.aol.com...
>
>
> I am curious about cross-cultural romance in anime and manga? How often
does
> it occur? The only examples I can really think of deal with foreigners who
> really do not come from foreign countries. Belldandy is an alien, Tomahome
from

Belldandy's a goddess, not an alien. Bit of a difference there.

> Ancient China, and Lum is an alien? Can characters like Belldandy,
Tomahome

The Konan empire isn't ancient China, IIRC. It's very similar, but not the
same thing.

> (before the end of the series), and Lum really considered Gaijin? Are
there

Perhaps not the latter two, but consider that Bell _is_ a goddess from the
mythology of a foreign country...

> many manga or anime titles where a Japanese person falls in love with
someone
> from a real foreign country like the United States?

How about China? If you include China, I'm sure there are several,
including Yakumo/Pai in 3x3 Eyes and Isamu Dyson/Myung in Macross Plus.

Arnold Kim

Jojo

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Aug 2, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/2/00
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Amuro Ray and Lalah Sun?

Char Aznable and Lalah Sun?

Nadia and Jean?

Jojo


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The Proximate Cluebat

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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In article <8mae2c$5cd$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>, "Arnold Kim"
<ki...@erols.com> wrote:
>
> How about China? If you include China, I'm sure there are several,
> including Yakumo/Pai in 3x3 Eyes and Isamu Dyson/Myung in Macross Plus.

Isamu Alva Dyson is already the product of a cross-cultural romance,
himself ... ^_^

There are at least a few interracial couples in anime of whom neither
partner is Japanese, too -- such as Kate and Morgan in Macross Plus.

--
The Proximate Cluebat <clu...@earthlink.net>

SilverJain

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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If I recall correctly, there are a bunch of American characters in Marmalade
Boy (who act exactly like Japanese people, fancy that!) who fall in love with
the Japanese characters. They tend to be distinguished from the Japanese
characters by their creepy inhuman looking light blue eyes (they lok like the
old blind guy from Kung Fu!) and their blond(er) hair. (Everyone in Marmalade
Boy already has pastel hair, so the Americans had to be even more pastel I
guess. It makes for a weird effect though..... they just look kind of odd...)
They have great up-to-the-minute American names too, like Ginny and Doris. ^_~

There might be other characters in other anime, but dang if I can remember
them. Marmalade Boy isn't even my favorite anime, yet I find I can recall far
too many details from those 76 episodes...... -_-;

--Elin

"Well that's it then, you see what you wanna see and you hear what you wanna
hear." -- The Rock Man, "The Point"

Selling my collections! Check out the deals here:
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/silverjain/

Radio Comix Online:
http://www.radiocomix.com

Allister Huggins

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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The Proximate Cluebat wrote:
>
> In article <8mae2c$5cd$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>, "Arnold Kim"

<snip>

> > including Yakumo/Pai in 3x3 Eyes and Isamu Dyson/Myung in Macross Plus.
>
> Isamu Alva Dyson is already the product of a cross-cultural romance,
>

> There are at least a few interracial couples in anime of whom neither
> partner is Japanese, too -- such as Kate and Morgan in Macross Plus.

How can you forget Roy Fokker and Claudia Grant from Robotech?

Allister H.

The Proximate Cluebat

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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In article <39890C8A...@home.com>, Allister Huggins
<alhu...@home.com> wrote:

> The Proximate Cluebat wrote:
> >
> > There are at least a few interracial couples in anime of whom neither
> > partner is Japanese, too -- such as Kate and Morgan in Macross Plus.
>
> How can you forget Roy Fokker and Claudia Grant from Robotech?

Easy. I haven't seen very much of Robotech. I read the first several
of the McKinney novelizations, saw the first few episodes on RealVideo a
few years ago, and decided not to bother any further than that. ^_^

For all the talk that Robotech gets, it didn't strike me as that great.
Maybe the original Macross is; I haven't seen any of it. From what I've
heard, at least the jokes are better. (Warera, Rori, Konda? Ack!)

Shadow6865

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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<< (Everyone in Marmalade
Boy already has pastel hair, so the Americans had to be even more pastel I
guess. It makes for a weird effect though..... they just look kind of odd...)
>>

There might be a reason for this. According to a very good book called "The
Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-Cultural
Relationships." by Karen Ma. According to the author there is a decent sized
and rapidly growing minority of young to middle-aged Japanese
women who refuse to date or marry anyone except Western men (note: Western
usually means white and American or British.) Karen Ma says that many of these
Japanese women who only date foriegners also refuse to date foriegners who do
not have blonde hair and blue eyes. They prefer the blonde hair and blue eyes
because it is the polar opposite of Japanese looks. Other reasons the women
choose to date foriegn men are the stereotypes (usually gotten from Hollywood
movies) that all Western men are knights-in-shining armour, feminisuto
(feminists), and practice redii-fasuto (ladies'-first.) These Japanese women
usually say Japanese men are immature, mama's boys, and workalochlics who
never do chores around the house.

Gary Rich

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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Shadow6865 wrote:

> Other reasons the women
> choose to date foriegn men are the stereotypes (usually gotten from Hollywood
> movies) that all Western men are knights-in-shining armour, feminisuto
> (feminists), and practice redii-fasuto (ladies'-first.)

I'm assuming they are not talking about opening doors and such
by redii-fasuto?

intriguing....


Shadow6865

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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<<
I'm assuming they are not talking about opening doors and such
by redii-fasuto?

intriguing.... >>

No. Actually the Japanese women really mean holding doors, helping women into
chairs at restaurants, holding hands, and stuff like that with the term
redii-fasuto. The book does not cover much about Japanese women's complaints
about the sex practices of Japanese men. Though I would imagine that if the
author actually asked about sex, she might have gotten comments along the lines
of "Japanese men only care about their own pleasure, however Western men make
sure that their partners enjoy themselves as well." Another complaint that
Japanese women had is that Japanese men always insist on dating and marrying
younger women. In fact, the author Karen Ma gave several examples of
cross-cultural relationships both with Japanese men and Japanese women and in
cases of relationships involving a Japanese woman and wester man, the woman was
often 3-6 years older than the man in the relationship

Gary Rich

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Aug 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/3/00
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Shadow6865 wrote:

> <<
> I'm assuming they are not talking about opening doors and such
> by redii-fasuto?
>
> intriguing.... >>
>
> No. Actually the Japanese women really mean holding doors, helping women into
> chairs at restaurants, holding hands, and stuff like that with the term
> redii-fasuto.

Darn. Just when you think there may be a positive stereotype being promulgated.
I guess we gaijin are just stuck trying to put a positive spin on "fat otaku with smelly feet who
will probably soil the bath water". sigh...


LeChuck

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Aug 6, 2000, 3:00:00 AM8/6/00
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Macross is much better than Robotech. Music's better, plot's better,
Minmei's song are better (not that that's difficult mind you.) It does
take a few episodes to gather steam, but then again so do most anime
tv series. If you don't feel like the investment, you might try
tracking down Macross: Do You Remember Love?. It's similar to the
Escaflowne movie that came out a little while ago in that it tells
(more or less) the same story as the television series, doesn't make a
whole lot of sense, but sure looks cool doing it. Whatever you do,
avoid the dub like the plague. Versions that you can actually tolerate
include American fansubs, a UK PAL VHS release (subbed, no less), and
a Region 2 DVD that came out in Japan a little while ago.

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