Mina-san, Ohayou!
On 16 Aug, Edward Becerra wrote:
: At 01:23 PM 8/16/98 PDT, The Critic wrote:
:
: >My point is that it probably wouldn't; people who go by
: >the the few dubbed anime episodes released by Viz and who don't
: >understand basic elements of Japanese culture seem to view Ryouga as
: >this big bruiser type who is tricked by Bugs Bunny to walk off of a
: >plank.
:
: Now here is something that I'm surprised to say that I agree with The
: Critic on. The recent letter to the list defining (and putting medical terms
: to) the various mental problems suffered by the cast of Ranma 1/2 (if they
: were to actually exist, that is) forgot to take one thing into account.
: Many, _many_ people in Japan would be considered to have mild mental
: problems IF judged by _Western_ standards.
Actually, so would most people in western countries. :)
: I can speak on this because I've _done_ it. Living for three years in
: Barvaria, Germany
Poor guy. :)
: shook my particular world-view rather rudely, and when I
: _finally_ had the courage to go out and try to see things from the
: Barvarian viewpoint (rather than simply acting as though the Germans were a
: bunch of uncivilized barbarians, as many other GI's did)
And pretty much every German north of the bavarian border. :) We
just don't seem to grasp the incredible importance of beer and
unbending, bucolic, religious Zealousness. :)
(Bavaria is Germany's equivalent of Redneck Country and the Bible
Belt rolled into one.)
: I received an
: eye-opening, mind-expanding experience.
I hope you recovered. :)
: So we have to be _very_ careful making value judgements over the actions
: of any character in Ranma 1/2. It's admittedly Takahashi-sama's take on her
: own culture, and a satiristic take at that, but the actions and attitudes
: of it's characters are firmly rooted in the culture of Japan.
All that is true. But that doesn't make classifying the
characters' behavior in psychological terms any less useful.
Their behavior may be considered completely normal in Japanese
society (which I doubt, too, since their portrayal is meant to be
humorous), but it still conforms to the patterns that were
identified. Whether these patterns are normal or socially
acceptable in their cultural background is another question, of
course, but just identifying their behavioral structures can be
helpful in figuring out how they would react to a given situation.
: Just my $0.02 worth of philosophy. Take it with a grain or two of salt.
I do that with everything I hear, even if I was the one who said
it. :)
Sebastian