Have you ever seen a Japanese airline plane? Or their elementary school buses?
Check some of their school buses, for your viewing pleasure.
As a whole, the Japanese have a great appreciation for aesthetic Cuteness that goes far beyond what we have here in the U.S.
Here, Cuteness is a quality that is linked to children and pet animals.
I am excluding the usage of the word 'cute' when applied to attractive females and males here.
According to tradition, at a certain age American boys are supposed to become 'men', symptoms of which include spurning cute stuff as childish and/or 'girly', sprouting facial and chest hair, choppin' down trees, making their own beef jerky and beatin' on their wives.
In conjunction with the increasing popularity of nerdiness/geekdom, Cuteness has gotten a massive boost in mainstream acceptance with such modern wonders as Lolcats, YouTube videos of cats and anthropomorphized pictures of other animals' faces. Seriously, it's done a lot to pave the way for guys to be able to say they find stuff cute. I attribute this to the coupling of Funny with Cute. If a guy just made a bunch of Cute stuff with kitties, I guarantee people would question his sexual orientation, but since it's a joke, it's all good.
A more recent case would be the burst of popularity for the show My Little Pony in a demographic that is most certainly not the target one: teenage to adult males. There are a lot of reasons these 'bronies' claim to like the show but since I haven't done my That looks like shit! Lemme watch it so I can talk about it routine I won't spew hate on something that I admit to knowing nothing about.
At first glance though, I suspect a healthy dose of hipsters-drinking-PBR class irony at play here.
Also, stuff like this makes it funny. Speaking of LOTR:
The japanese. What a culture.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. They don't do much by halves.
DeleteEverything would be so much more fun if all public transportation looked like that.
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S. our buses are built to look like tanks. Again, I feel a deep cultural difference can be discerned from this.
DeleteYeah, I seriously do not understand the whole bronie thing.
ReplyDeleteAfter I have completed my dangerous reconnaissance mission into their ranks I shall return with a full report.
DeleteI love that video so damn much. You can now buy it on a t-shirt but no I'm not ready for that step. Maybe you should give it a shot, you never know you might like it. I'll refrain from going into why I like it and just stick with "I love cuteness."
ReplyDeleteI hwill. I hwill give it a shot.
DeleteOh and yes Japanese airplanes and buses are awesome. I nearly died the first time I saw the Pokémon plane.
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't mind the show, it's just another thing I watch in conjunction with Top Gear.
ReplyDeletehaha, does Top Gear balance it out?
DeleteThe more Japanese I meet, the more I'm convinced that this whole WWII thing was a hoax.
ReplyDeleteWell, WWII was mainly about those guys in Europe.
DeleteIt's good for me that it''s being accepted. I don't get stared down as often for liking something cute. Or for liking the cute girl instead of the hot one. Really, it's all for my benefit.
ReplyDeleteI make that choice, too. I think we're all winners here.
DeleteThat's one heck of a paint job!
ReplyDeleteNow look back at these yellow cheeseboxes and sigh.
DeleteIf I ever see buses like that in America or planes, I will shit bricks. I kinda wish we had cool things like that though lol
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy if they were anything but plain, really. Don't even have to be cute or Pokemon (copyrights I'm sure) just make them more interesting. I mean, even public transport has painted sides now. That's just advertisement but whatever.
DeleteI am from the generation where men can't go Aww to little kitties, even though I want to. Nicely put.
ReplyDeleteTimes. They are achangin'. Pay no attention to anti-"liberal agenda" wankers.
DeleteI'd fly more often if I had the option of choosing a Pokemon plane.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Digimon.
DeleteUpdate! Looking forward to a new post.
ReplyDelete?
DeleteIf that is how the outside of the plane looks, I could only imagine the insides. *__*;
ReplyDeleteThe seats in first class look like a Snorlax is hugging you.
Delete