On Guilt, On Glorifying Needs in Popular Media

And by Popular Media I mean super niche late-night TV anime. Right.

But I do feel kind of guilty of doing:

  • Eating a bento while watching Ben-to.
  • Walking in circles while talking…and in general.
  • During an engaging discussion, suddenly think of OTPs (and the discussion has nothing to do with that topic).
  • Thinking the anime I watch is better than the anime you watch but I don’t watch.
  • Being confused about Horizon.
  • Thinking Haganai is actually funny.
  • Trying to get people to stop using “bokutomo” as a shorthand. This honestly made me feel kind of bad about myself, but please don’t.
  • Thinking Chihayafuru is more titillating than any anime this season. Maybe tied with Guilty Crown, maybe.
    • For that matter, thinking about the poor passengers on the train having to deal with two loud teenagers. Even during those touching-sobbing scenes.
  • Looking at a fanservice-y character’s boobs as the protagonist do the same, at the same time.
  • Being confused about the characterization of Fam.
    • Confusing Fam with Inga.
  • Seeing shows like Persona and Last Exile getting their dues, but not feeling really warmed up to them.
  • Making fun of Fractale.
  • Unfortunately, the list probably doesn’t stop there. What is actually unfortunate about that is I don’t even get a silly crown to go with!

    Do I get it now? Was that bad enough?

    ===

    I was going to talk about the nature of Ben-to and the underlying notion of glorifying those half-priced leftover dinner boxes that can be found in some Japanese supermarkets and convenient stores. But it isn’t something words can fully describe. Rather, I think during the coming-of-age of all healthy middle-class individuals, at some point you will experience something similar in person. And that is the tie that binds us to Ben-to as an intense, personal experience.

    I mentioned it before, but Ben-to is an intense anime. It plays the jokes off intensely, and it is very much reminiscent of Air Master, which too had intense animation with intense jokes that don’t always make sense. (Only if Kanetomo-sensei will make an appearance!)

    I think ultimately that intensity is magnified when the story can establish some kind of visceral connection with the viewer. For example, Initial D was able to do this with aplomb and those who can connect to its autocross and high school romance roots often find the experience rewarding and well-justified the silly animation production (at least in season 1). Ben-to does more or less the same, although it plays the competitive fighting aspect in a way that is probably most similarly described as some kind of pro wrestling thing. But unlike live acting, you can easily suspend your beliefs in an anime!

    Perhaps also unlike pro wrestling, I think Ben-to carries a fundamentally sound and healthy message. Because it is with sincere gratitude that I thank and bless the hands that made my meals every morning and every evening (except mine I guess). This is the origin of giving thanks, regardless if you are Shinto or Catholic. I mean, yeah, food, water and oxygen, right? And I can talk about this because it is the central “joke” to Ben-to. It is almost like a self-suggestive way to hypnotize the way you taste food. And if that means my meals are more delicious and those who feed me are more blessed, why not?

    So, to go back to the title of the post: I think there is something to be said when we create fun and enjoyable popular entertainment that help glorify the way we meet our needs. It’s like learning to cherish your janitor or dishwasher or some other forgotten, lower-class cog in the machine of modern, first-world society. They are a much harder sell than starving African children. They are burdened with political baggage. But they are no different than anyone, if we subscribe to the notion that all man are created equal. It’s easy to fish out all these semi-social/political messages from a show like Ben-to, and I believe that is where a particular sort dialog occurs under the current of popular culture. And sometimes it’s interesting to look into that.


    No Responses to “On Guilt, On Glorifying Needs in Popular Media”

    • jpmeyer

      1) The whole half-price thing in Ben-Tou keeps making me headdesk because it just sounds like such a ridiculous thing to fight over. Free bento? Sure, that’s totally fine with me, but when people are beating the living shit out of each other in order to save like 200 yen my head asplodes. Like when the show says that the students have so little money that saving money on bento is important, but then says like “The first rule of bento fight club is to only take one bento”.

      2) Man, the violence in this show is so strangely intense. This isn’t Road Runner-style violence where someone gets like punched up through the ceiling or something. These people are seriously beating the living shit out of each other! That’s also why I totally kusowarota the one time when out of nowhere some guy sucker punched Oshiroi.

      3) Haha this is totally a Michael Pollan anime.

      4) lolololololololol Horizon.

    • omo

      1) It’s just it. The half-price is not what truely matters–if you remember, all the losers just buy ramen (which is even cheaper than half-price bento but not by that much). It’s like, the savings is not worth the effort, the effort means something, and yet the savings is not trivial enough that you lose face entirely if you fight over it. It’s kind of brilliant.

      3) HAHAHAHAHA

    • ToastCrust

      I dunno, it’s not like I lack spare cash for eating out or anything, yet the exhilaration of winning an internet coupon or successfully showing up at a limited time special is always exhilarating for me.

      In raw math it’s a totally senseless amount of effort for the money you save, but it’s sort of this viceral “you do this as a student” thing.

      And to be fair, these guys are probably saving closer to 300~500 yen, not to mention those bento are a lot more hearty than, well, instant ramen.

    • ToastCrust

      A good recent example was when I camped out in the cold recently for 5 hours from 4am through 9am, then 2 more hours hunting through garbage in a computer parts warehouse, coming out of it only saving $40 on a $70 graphics card.

      It was ultimately not worth the time in terms of money saved (well, $40 is somewhat substantial, but I was close to coming out with absolutely nothing and it was just a find of dumb luck) but it was a productive day nonetheless since freezing my ass off with friends like that, and other crazy people, is something of a unique experience.

      And of course, just like in Bento, you feel scandalized at “boars” or “storms” who don’t participate in these events “with dignity”, lol. The seething rage seeing a late-30’s guy with a car and tent get in first and come up with a huge haul of the best stuff probably with the aim of reselling most of it, or when you notice there’s a group of people who’ve strategically set up some sort of game plan and beat you to certain things through sheer numbers.

      Ah, how sweet.

    • omo

      Woot’s Bag of Crap is the ultimate Ben-to then.

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    • 21stcenturydigitalboy

      btw totally unrelated: I tried watching hoshikaka for reasons discussed in that other comment thread. Couldn’t make it past the op, the character designs are so completely boring and ugly and the show just doesn’t look nice at all.

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