Ranma 1/2 and the Japanese Culture

------- Message

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 12:43:47 +1000 (EST)
From: Caroline Seawright 
Reply-To: Caroline Seawright 
To: ranma@usagi.jrd.dec.com
Subject: Ranma 1/2 and Japanese Society
Message-ID: 

I've started reading a rather interesting book called "A Half Step Behind,
Japanese Women Today", a book that comes from a series of interviews with
many Japanese women, trying to find "honne" (deep truth) underneath all
the "tatemae" (surface truth) about women in Japanese society.

Ranma, it seems, turns out as such a jerk because he seems to be like the
typical male, but more so (especially towards Akane). And, well, it seems
that it was probably a GOOD thing that he was away from Nodoka for so
long ... otherwise he may just have turned out even worse than he already
is.

"As the child gets older, the mother - not the father - is the
disciplinarian. There is little scolding or corporal punishment. Instead,
misbehaving children are excluded from family activities or, as they get
older, are simply made to feel guilty because they have disappointed
their mothers. Children are indulged (we might say "spoiled") until they
enter school..."

From another book, A Japanese Mirror, I believe it was called, says that
Japanese mothers let the sons do _anything_ they want, and the only
punishment is to say that "Mother doesn't love you any more" if they get
too out of hand. The Japanese mother forges a very strong bond with her
son, by babying him all his life - except when she withdraws her love as
punishment. So many Japanese men end up doing _anything_ their mother
wants, to keep her love - even right into adulthood. Many men would even
do what their mother says, even over their wives.

Which leads to another point - the women often take on the "role of
mother rather than wife to their husbands". So when the man gets home
after work, he expects to be babied, and for whatever he says to be
done. ("This is known as 'mi no mawari', around-the-body care")

Ranma already is shown to have part of the "mother complex" - he loves
his mother so much that he's willing to risk seppuku to see her (though
later on he does run off... ;p ) But in this case, instead of Nodoka
withdrawing her love in "punishment" for failing to be a man, Ranma has
to look out for being forced to commit seppuku because he disappointed
his mother!

It seems that Ranma could be such a jerk due to being raised by Genma,
an even worse jerk (probably due to being spoiled by his mother!), but
also because of the role of Japanese men in society - that women are
there to do what they require. It's not quite a case of "all females
are lower than me, so should be treated in this way"... rather, it's
more like "this is the woman's role, and this is mine, so this is how
we have to act". But, even though the woman gets the rough end of the
stick, they do hold power above the men, in the home! (Though if a 
woman doesn't 'gaman' (endure, I think), she either runs away or kills
herself. There is divorce, but this is seen as a very bad thing, esp.
for the males - who could easily lose their job ... the company may
think that if he can't handle home life, how could he handle a job?)

Which leads to another point - Akane isn't the traditional girl. She
isn't one of the girls who is shy, raised meekly to obey males, to
do everything they want as they want it... she is strong. (But it is
normally a bad thing for a woman to be "strong" in Japan, as can have
connotaions of "being oppressive" and "caring for one's self" above
anyone else. But she is only strong in the areas that she won't
baby Ranma, and she expects him to be faithful to her. Although she
is not very good in many feminine passtimes, such as cooking and
sewing, etc, she does fit in very well with her friends at school,
and within her own family. She is also an enourmous attraction for
the boys at her school - maybe they want someone different from the
traditional Japanese girl. But, like many girls her age, she is shy
with boys - and the way these lot were introduced to her (thanks to
Kunou), she isn't very happy to even try to get to know any of them!

But whatever the attraction is - Ranma has that attraction for her,
too. Maybe he's not really used to girls obeying him - after all,
he was running around with his father for most of his life, and he
probably didn't even know what girls were till he met the Amazons
in China! ;p  So, like many Japanese teenagers, he is rather shy
around girls. Maybe his extra brashness is due to being so shy - so
he can't relate to her properly, so treats her worse. And this is
compounded by his feelings for her.

Now, on to engagements. "Marriage in Japan is the building block of
society, the brass ring, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
beyond which most young women rarely think." It also seems that there
is a magical age in Japan, where a girl has a used-by date for getting
married. "Terireiki", the appropriate age for marriage, for a woman,
is 25 or younger. ("Women are like a Christmas cake - no good after
the twenty-fifth.") Akane is definately set up to be saved from her
"old maid" years, since she is engaged to Ranma. (Not that she really
needed it, with all the boys chasing her, but ...)

There are, it seems, a few different ways that people are married in
Japan, today. There are: Omiai (arranged marriages), mukoyoshi (where
the husband is adopted by the wife's parents, so he takes their family
name - a rather unmasculine thing to do), and love marriages (in vogue
with the young people in Japan). "At least one in four marriages are still
arranged."

Ranma and Akane have had their omiai. Unfortunately their first meeting
as male and female wasn't... hmmm... a very good meeting. It seems that
their parents gave them the old fashioned omiai - "Omiai was still an
arranged marriage and not just an arranged meeting. If love came later,
all well and good. If it didn't, it didn't. In any case, the purpose
of marriage - the continuity and strengthening of two families - had
been accomplished."

Though there was no go-between - the two fathers set it up themselves -
it was still an omiai. They arranged the marriage, but set it up for
Ranma and one of the Tendou girls. They'd let the children decide which
girl Ranma would have. Other than the option they gave, it was all set
up. One day Ranma would be brought to the Tendou house, he would meet
the girls, and one of them would be picked, and the two would get married.
And it was Akane that was chosen. Problem was that Akane wasn't one of
the obedient Japanese girls who would go quietly and happily into the
marriage.

(In a traditional omiai, a go-between sets up a meeting between two
families of similar background, to cement an alliance between the
two families. The female and the male only meet once, then on their
next meeting, it would be either their engagement party, or their
wedding day. 

A modern omiai is slightly different - the male and female can look at
photos and applications for omiai of the perspective spouse, and they have
the right to veto the omiai...though that is rarely done, because of the
honour the children should show to their parents, if the parents wished
for one person in particular for the omiai. Then the perspective couple
can meet, they can date for a little while, and then they would have their
engagement party and then their wedding day.

If an omiai was set up by the parent, and the child refuses to marry,
or if they want to marry a love match, and the parents do not approve
of the partner, yet they still marry, the family can disown the child
and throw them out of the family!

Since the two clans - the Saotome and the Tendou clans - seem to be
both old (they have ancestoral homes in Tokyou!) and they are both
martial artist families, it would probably be very bad for Ranma and
Akane to refuse the omiai. Akane seems to break off the engagement a
few times - but they always get back together again. Maybe it's not
only to do with honouring their parents that they get back together...
Maybe it's Akane "withdrawing her love" from Ranma, like a mother would
do when her child is bad, and then giving it back once he's been 
punished enough?)

But because of that 'problem', Akane's strength and her personality, 
Ranma himself ended up falling in love with Akane ... And Akane, in
her turn, ended up falling in love with Ranma.

But the tatemae of the situation is that they don't want to get married,
and that they don't really like each other. The honne of the situation
is that they are in love with each other ... but they both don't really
want to admit that honne, even to themselves. So while they both try
to figure out the honne, they keep up the outward tatemae of the
situation. But still, along the way, the honne of the situation comes
shining through.

Now onto cuteness in Japan. (I haven't finished the book, and I just
found this part now, so ...)

"Most Japanese girls want to be known as kawaii (cute). That's the
highest compliement a young woman can be paid... kawaii connotes an
innocence and naivete - almost a childishness - that is considered
very attractive in girls." Even Japanese women, it seems, act like
and want to be thought of as girls. (Well, Hinako's got that bit
down, alright!)

This seems to be very serious in Japan - and Ranma's insult (kawaikunee),
is a very hurtful one to Akane. It's not only saying that she doesn't
look pretty, but that she's got a bad personality, that she's not
attractive at all, and she's very unfeminine. We all know that this is
not what Ranma really believes, since he himself has called her kawaii
many times.

But there is also a phenominon in Japan of girls who take being kawaii
and try to be even moreso - they are called burikko ('buru' to put on
airs and graces, 'ko' child/girl). This is Azusa. "the word and concept
first gained popularity ... with the original burriko, cutesy-wutesy
singer Seiko Matsuda... one of a long line of innocent, virginal talent-o
dressed in frilly, petticoated party dresses and adored by Japanese boys
and girls alike. In a female variation of the Peter Pan complex, burikko
try to act younger and purposly vacuous... They wear cute bows, cute
shoes, cute ribbons, and cute, girlish party dresses... But the real
tip-off is the giggling. All Japanese girls tend to giggle a bit, but
the burikko have raised the art to new heights."

Why do they act like this? It seems that Japanese boys find burriko
girls attractive. They act cute and act like they don't have much of
a mind of their own - and I guess it all comes down to the mother
complex... if a girl acts like that, then she'll be the perfect one
to look after and baby him. She'll be totally devoted, and she'll
look after him, and she'll do whatever he wants, and they'll all be
happy. She'll stay at home - she obviously isn't 'strong', and will
not want to go out and get a job, and so she'll be the perfect wife
and mother. (When a Japanese girl marries, she finally becomes a
woman, the book says.) So the act is a way to bring security to the
girl (though in some cases it may not be so much of an act as something
ingrained into them.)

This is why Azusa has the voice she does in the anime - she's the
burikko of all burikko girls in the Nerima area! She has the act in
the manga, she dresses the right way, and her speach patters in the
Japanese are right ... so, although some may complain about her voice,
it's the only proper voice for Azusa! After all, she's burikko! And
that's why she's got so many fans - she's a burikko idol skater!

The next person of interest is Konatsu. Although male, he's been
brought up in the traditional manner fitting a Japanese girl.
"Japanese women are trained to be shy and to defer to others,
particularly men. Several well-known proverbs pervade their thinking.
'Resignation is the first lesson in life.' 'A woman's thinking is
shallow'." And look at Konatsu - he's been raised with these ideals
in his mind, and so he's shy, he is deliriously happy when someone
thanks him, or gets him to do less work than he did with his step
family, and he works very hard with very little in the way of
reward - yet he's still thankful and happy. Konatsu is the traditional
of all traditional girls in the Nerima area!

Then his step family ... though it seems like a Cinderella story, there
have been many, many old stories of step mothers abusing the daughter of
the family in Japanese tales. Sort of like the Japanese mother-in-law
vs daughter stories, there are the step-mother vs daughter stories.
Konatsu is the victim/daughter in another one of these stories ...

Ah, well ... that's enough for now, I think ... I haven't yet finished
the book, so there may be more later, if I find out anything more
interesting to add!

Kun-chan...
--
************************************
* http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~caseawr *
*++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++*
* High Priestess of Ryouga         *
************************************