Yamatonadeshiko is a phrase referring to the ideal woman, who, in Japanese tradition, has the following characteristics (compiled by Ben Bullock):
Bullock goes on to note:
- feminine
- chaste and devoted to her husband
- always respects and obeys her husband and never opposes him, even when she thinks he's wrong (she should wisely find an indirect way to prevent her husband from doing something wrong without letting him know, that is to say without humiliating him).
- looks weak, delicate and gentle (like a flower) outside her family, but is able to cope with householding, raising kids etc.
During the second world war, the Japanese government promoted the idea of yamatonadeshiko as a kind of national propaganda. A yamatonadeshiko should be gentle and delicate but also be able to endure all the pain and poverty of life for her husband (a soldier) and the country, to win the war, and should always be ready to fight with halberds (or takeyari, a spear made of bamboo used when you don't have a halberd) and to die any time for her country, or to keep her chastity.Fans of Kyou Kara Maou will remember this term from the "apple tree" episode.
Shichi means "seven". The last part of the title will take a bit more explanation. You see, the kanji there, 変化, can be read henge, which means "ghost; goblin; apparition"...but it can also be read as henka, which means "transformation". I'm not sure what the significance of the 7 is, but given the plot of the series, that double meaning for 変化 is most certainly intentional.
Our story begins with four guys living in a mansion. They're challenged by the lady of the house to transform her niece, Sunako, into a proper young lady. If they succeed, they'll be able to live at the mansion rent-free.
But if they don't...their rent will triple!
(It's not explained why or how the boys came to be living with a rich, single woman, and as soon as they accept her proposal, she hops onto a ladder and is pulled up into a helicopter, off on a voyage for free love. Cheri, anyone?)
When Sunako arrives, the boys are devastated. She has dry, splintered hair, a stained sweatshirt, and an "amoeba-patterned skirt". Beyond that, she has long bangs that completely cover her eyes.
It comes out that Sunako is a very creepy girl. She collects grisly occult items and watches horror movies. Part of the terror she induces comes simply from the wall she has built up around herself after her devastating confession to her crush (voiced, amusingly enough, by series director Nabeshin). All that fear and self-hatred has made her extraordinarily anti-social and self-conscious...resulting in this:
The premise is really interesting. Aside from the "wow, she can cook traditional Japanese food!" thing that seems to be a prerequisite for any anime heroine (or at least the ones who are candidates to be yamatonadeshiko), Sunako is intriguing. It's apparent that she'd be very attractive if she took better care of herself. The series has the potential to teach a strong lesson. I'm also interested in watching her grow and move past the pain of being called ugly to her face.
In all, this looks like a really promising series.
However...I may not be able to continue watching it.
And this is why:
Those are supposed to be boys.
I have no problem with bishounen. Surely you know this by now.
But.
These guys have pink lips.
16 comments:
Whenever I go out boozing around here it's almost a given that these seriously effeminate guys will be lurking somewhere, supposedly trying to pick up women but you'd hardly guess it the way they worry about their hair and pluck their eyebrows.
You're really into that anime, eh?
When I saw torrents for this listed this morning, I had no reason to download any of it to take a look. 'Perfect Woman Seven Tranformation' didn't sound like anything particularly interesting.
Reading the first half of this post, the series looked like it might be worth a shot - the mention of the infamous Nabeshin really did me in.
Then I scrolled down the to four 'boys'.
I know that, after watching a season of Ouran I should have built up some kind of Bishounen resistance after some of their stunts, but that one image put me into a short coughing fit.
<_< The torrent is on its way down, and we'll see how this all goes.
Miklos: I like the slightly effeminate/metrosexual look...but only on Asian guys. How racist is that? For other guys, my motto is, if I wanted a girl, I'd just date a girl. (The inverse is true for butch women.)
And yes, I'm something of a geek. I appreciate the medium--so many of the stories are compelling. Anime also goes places that until recently I hadn't seen Western visual mediums going. I especially like slice-of-life anime because they give me a feeling of how it might be to be Japanese (albeit a detached, idealized feeling).
Hey, you're a good one to ask about this. I'm interested in Japanese women's response to anime/manga. What does Reiko think about it? Does she find it childish, something to grow out of? That has been the impression I've gotten from the (very few) Japanese women I've known. One of them was very adamant that she was not interested in anime whatsoever.
I'm not embarrassed by my enjoyment of good storytelling, but I would like to know how to conduct myself at parties ;)
Tim: Whenever I see a title that sounds vaguely interesting, I look up the Anime News Network encyclopedia synopsis/summary to see if I want to watch it. I guess the yamatonadeshiko part caught my attention.
And I'm sorry to say that the image in this post doesn't do those shiny pink lips justice. I really, really, really wish they hadn't done that. The womanly eyes, I can almost deal with (though that one guy, Yukinojou [Yuki for short], is just...ugh). But...not the lips!!!!!
The episode wasn't bad. At the start, it had me laughing completely as the Aunt ran off with her fleet of helicopters. The rest of it got a couple of laughs out of me, but I mostly just enjoyed it for the rest.
The boys are too female. They remind me of Haruhi's (Ouran) cross-dressing father down to the hair and style. Though the inclusion of the rare female nose-bleed almost everywhere was a nice twist - the cute girls' way of fawning over the boys was as well.
I'll watch more, I think, until I either tire of any antics they toss out or the series ends - we'll see what happens first.
Interesting note though - the Anime is based on the Manga series 'The Wallflower' which I guess is one of those badly localized names of a manga title you just can't could release under it's original title. Wallflower is suggested to mean "One who does not participate in the activity at a social event because of shyness or unpopularity.", which is greatly different from Yamato Nadeshiko. What makes it interesting is that the Nadeshiko is the Japanese flower also know as 'Fringed Pink'. So the Yamato Nadeshiko is bascially the Japanese [Traditional] (Taking from the old name of Japan) Fringed Pink, a delicate and attractive flower. So I guess they kept the flower portion of the title in there, but pretty much altered the meaning a lot.
Anyway - Keep on the look out for other oddly named titles that catch your eye. I'm also watching Death Note, Negima?!, Busou Renkin, D.Gray-Man, Black Lagoon Season 2, Kanon... Plus everything else I was watching from previous seasons. I figure I can fit in more. <_<;
Yeah, let me know what you like too.
I heard that kids elsewhere in Asia (was it South Korea?) started making Death Notes about other kids they didn't like. So I read about the (manga) series on Wikipedia. It didn't sound like something that would appeal to me...especially since the character I thought was the most interesting apparently dies fairly early on ;P
I watched the first episode of Asatte no Houkou this morning. I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it or not. They introduced the series' pivotal crisis at the very end of the episode, so I'm not sure what the dynamic is going to be. It could be very bad. But the quality of the first episode was pretty good, so I'll wait and see.
(Annoyingly, the series synopses made it sound like Shouko was stalking Hiro, which was totally not the case.)
I've also d/led two episodes of Himawari!, but I haven't watched them yet. But the show apparently involves ninjas, so how can it go wrong?
;)
Reiko reads manga every night before bed.
We've got stacks of comic books in the house.
And more just keeps on coming.
Ha!
I was hoping there wasn't a stereotype that could be applied to all Japanese women, but now I have proof!
Thanks man :D
Kanon (2006) is a remake of an anime released 5 years ago, which is based off of a dating-sim game. The original wasn't as great as some would hope, so they redid it with some new folk.
First of all, they picked a stylish animation company - Kyoto Animation. The group who did Air as well as Suzumiya Haruhi.
The main character, who will sooner or later become surrounded by girls to go after, is completely lost in his new school while he narrates about it being confusing. Suddenly, one of his new classmates calls out his name...
Yuuichi: As I tured around, Misaka Kaori was standing there.
Kaori: What are you giving a narration for?
...Yuuchi is voice by, and looks a lot like... Kyon. >.<
So after I finished laughing at the realisation and checking for proof, I realised that Kanon's 2006 version is basically about Kyon. He's surrounded by less quirky girls and there's obviously going to be a lot of love and emotions flying around, but it is still Kyon.
I think that much might be enough to take me through at least half of the full season. >.<
(Also, Kyon's VA played Hideki of Chobits and Mayama of Honey and Clover. I think he just may be awesome.)
Anyway, I don't think Kanon'll be your kind of thing, but checking out Psuedo-Kyon is kinda fun.
I would suggest that you give Death Note a shot. It's pretty dark, and the anime's pacing seems right on right now. Right now, with my tiny level of knowledge of the series, I'm drawn into the mystery and the process. I'm waiting for stuff to actually get around to happening, since the story is setting up for some intersting conflicts.
Anyway, I'm paused in the middle of Kanon because I had to tell someone about Date-Sim Kyon and I knew you'd get it.
There's some good stuff this season. Makes me happy to have stuff to watch.
I watched the first episode of the original Kanon. I believe my reaction was, "Wow, this is totally pointless." The characters were completely unengaging and the story seemed primed to move at a snail's pace.
Somehow it was licensed! And I cared not.
But a Kanon reimagined with a Kyon ripoff? I suppose I should at least take a look.
Hmm. I thought it was licensed, but it's still on AnimeSuki.
Ah well, whatever :)
Oh dear.
Watching the second episode of Kanon (2006) right now.
I just saw a Haruhi lookalike say to Yuuichi, "That was a rather normal introduction."
And he replies, "If there are any introductions that aren't normal, I'd like to see them."
XD
Seriously, this seems to be calculated. Maybe because Kyon is actually interesting, they ported him over to replace the original, boring Yuuichi.
I guess that was Kaori. But from that angle, very Haruhi.
...okay, one more comment.
What's with all the dippy girls?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I like Kyon and all, but will I be able to stand all the other characters?!
Kanon is based on a Japanese dating sim after all. They can't be too confident or overpowering, or else the meek players won't idolize them as much. (Piro's a big fan. You can see cameos of the fish-pastry girl in and early Megatokyo page)
And don't you see! Haruhi is their thing now! It's amazing how they're combining the old anime with Haruhi jokes and updated animation. >.< It's funny, but we'll see how the whole season goes.
Hey, they have cafes where guys pay to be yelled at by hot girls now :>
Oh, and if you haven't had enough Haruhi lately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R3vsMxhzus
(Got both of these links from Pata.)
Gosh, I really do miss those variety shows from Japan, even though understanding them is a bitch and a half even when it is a kids show T-T. I didn't even know someone would post up something like that on Youtube. Let me know if you come across more of those types of videos (although, the Haruhi reference was missed since I didn't know what that was until the little graphic came up during the explanation)
My fave variety segment was this special they had during new years when they made this black comedian save other japanese comedians from a certain explosive "Action film" type death. IF I remember correctly, it was called "Dead or Alive", funny stuff even without knowing japanese.
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