Japanese anime characters are so vibrant and expressive, so why are Japanese people the opposite?

[Silver7]

I mean the Japanese depict their characters as being very vibrant, loud and not afraid to express them selves, so then why are Japanese people so repressed and hold the notion that they shouldn't express their selves?

If you ask me, I'd say that since the Japanese love to out do other groups of people by doing things more masterfully than them. Like one Samurai would have the nerve to take on five Ninjas by himself or die trying, if they are so extreme then they should be extreme at expressing them selves as well and allowing their true personality to shine through instead of suppressing their true personality

I met a Asian man who I will call M because that is the letter his name starts with, M didn't grow up in Asia, he grew up in the west and his personality is so full of humor and he is so lively

[NickRowler]

Anime characters aren’t real. Like cartoon characters, you can make them over the top. Like I could see someone watching The Simpsons or Family Guy and being shocked that an American they met once was nothing like that.

[hakei]

[Dei]

You said the Asian man you met grew up in the west. But when in the East: Discipline.

And doing art is how they express themselves too.

[thepenmonster]

I'm just going to assume you've never lived in Japan.

[thepenmonster]

After a quick look through my files I feel I may have judged your ignorance too harshly.

I mean, look at these two walking zombies I met one afternoon.

And this double date? Might as well been a funeral procession.

[ar-ninetysix]

To give a super blunt answer..

Japan's history kinda hinges on conformist ideals, and individuality is kinda frowned upon. There's a famous old proverb about it, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down"..

To go into it slightly more and do some generalizing...

It's not even that they're competitive with other countries, quite the opposite actually- Japan tends to be quite isolated and holds themselves to such high standards. If everyone in the country is expected to be like other outstanding people in the past.. there's not really much room for one person to be themselves, especially when the high standards have been shown to function well everywhere else in the country.

Anime and manga happen to be a result of being influenced by Western media. As such, characters can be exaggerated just like in Western cartoons and comics. This also happens to be an outlet for writers and artists, so any repressed emotions are basically allowed to come out onto the pages and animations.. this extends to gaming, cinema, music, any creative field really.

Japan's emotional side is often reserved for media that won't negatively impact anyone else in the real world. The reason for that being, their history and the morals they pass down through generations. That's not to say you won't ever see people smiling or crying or even showing affection in Japan, but people are very mindful of others in their country. The mindset seems to be "if an emotion is gonna inconvenience someone, it's best not to show it at all."

(anyone else more educated on this, feel free to correct me or add on to what i said)

[TheYaoiEmpire]

Japanese people are expressive, you must be only focusing on salarymen

[conventurecomics]

They want to be creative out of the box away from the norm.

[ButterflyEmpress]

I think it may have to do with escapism.

I heard that Japan has a conformist culture where it's frowned upon if you stand out too much. They're dress codes are strict compared to the US. There had been incidents where students were shamed for not having silky black hair. There's also the toxic work culture draining the life out of everyone. That's why you see so much isekai nowadays and colorful wacky high school stories. Wouldn't it be fun if you go to school in pink curly twintails with bright red ribbons? Wouldn't it be cool if you could leave your job to be yourself in a fantasy world?

[Lensing]

That´s an interesting question, I don´t have an answer but it´s something that I thought about a lot
too. Japanese anime characters are like I experienced italian people. Most japanese people that
I met where very reserved and shy and not expressive at all.

I´m german, Germans are very perfectionistic, precise, and orderly. German comics on the other
hand are sloppy drawn, the complete opposite of perfectionism. Not all of them obviously but
there is a huge amount of comics which looks like the artists don´t care and couldn´t be bothered
to learn how to draw.

I don´t have a good answer to your question

[moontokkym]

I think you're confusing stereotypes with real life, and characters for real people. Real people are always going to have more depth than a character because they've lived longer and had more experienced shape them, so they have so many more dimensions than fiction. I'd we willing to bet that there's no one on earth that has no sense of humour. It might not align with yours, but they do have one. Also, a lot of anime is not set in realistic Japan, but "anime Japan" where social rules are different (hence why people who only know Japan from anime get such a culture shock when they're there).

It'd be like asking why English people are so loud and dramatic and sometimes crude in popular BBC shows like Sherlock or Doctor Who when "English people are known to be prim and proper and stoic"... Like yeah there is a culture of "push down the negative feelings until you burst" but also we're very loud, very annoying people.

TL;DR Japanese people are multifacetted and can do both expressiveness and respectful deference to others, don't base your entire view of Japanese people on anime o'r how they relate to anime.

[Silver7]

Yes but what I'm looking at is the fact that if the Japanese love to make characters that are so self-expressive then that mean somewhere internally they want to express them selves with a vibrant personality, that's why they make the characters like that.

[YS_og]

I'm with thepenmonster. Go live there first and then re-form your analysis. So many out there living vibrantly expressed lives but you won't notice it over here.

[NickRowler]

Why are you treating all Japanese like a monolith and not a society made up of different types of people with different personalities.

How one person writes a character is not a collective hive-mind of the thoughts of all Japanese people. And even as a creative, not all characters are a 1-to-1 reflection of yourself.

If a lot of the Japanese people you have met have been low energy, it could be possible it was because 1) cultural/language barrier which can effect how people interact. or 2) they were a professional and had to be serious for their job.

Someone that you are besties with and are more fluent in English is going to act differently simply because their is more trust and better communication.

[thepenmonster]

Look at the tears of these children!

Look at this drab duo!

Look at repressed agony of these old men!

Good thing they have anime to brighten up their otherwise dour lives.

[NickRowler]

Look at these Japanese children just repressing their emotions

[thepenmonster]

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Daimonji on fire off the shoulder of Higashiyama... I watched yattai glitter in the dark on Nakasu Island.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...

Time to be repressed and unexpressive.

[aqua03]

A certified hood classic

[ButterflyEmpress]

I remember this ad! It's barely a commercial. It's like someone recorded their kids' daily lives and slapped a Happy Set logo in the corner