Thursday, September 15, 2011

POP Culture...

POP culture is a term that is used for calling cultures originating to things those are popular in society.
POP comes from the word "popular" and that you can see that the term POP is a shortened term for "popular" ... YUP, that's the only thing I remember about what POP culture thing is.
To deepen the story, I have to explain what popular things in society are;
They are ... I would say, SOCIETY ITSELF.
It could be all kinds of media, information those came from there, etc.
WELL, it could be reflecting social preferences oftenly.

SO, I'm gonna repeat this ...
POP CULTURE = SOCIETY/SOCIAL PREFERENCES



SO, I'd like to introduce a thing that is from a cyberspace, and became famous among the world; which could be called a sort of an example of how a POP culture begins.


Maybe some of you might know this  comic; Axis Powers Hetalia. ヽ(=ヮ=’*)ν PASTA------!!

You can see what it is in Hetalia Archives, and also in Hetalia Scanalations.

It came from a Web-comic by Hidekaz Himaruya, and it is mainly about ethnic jokes and world history.
The comic shows each countries personified; all the characters are COUNTRIES.  (some are normal human-beings, though)

Well, anyway ... that's NOT the main topic today, although I want to make it so... XD;;;



I believe that this comic is now one of the hottest POP culture in world ... at least, in world of comics/anime.  (AND comics/anime culture could be counted as a HUGE part of world's POP culture!)
Although it isn't as much as that black mouse whose name starts with an M (HE should be one of the most popular POP culture in whole world!), Hetalia characters are often depicted in many of fanarts nowadays.
If you are joining the Pixiv site, just try looking for works with "Hetalia" and "ヘタリア" tags.
There, you might see loads and loads of those!

Actually, as a Hetalia fan, I really am pleased to see many people all over the world being fond of the comic ... BUT THERE IS ONE BIG PROBLEM. :(
You know, coz most of the characters in the comic are called in country-name-form, there could be confusions between the actual coutries and the characters, while people are looking for information on keywords those are country-names.
many of the Japanese fans are starting to become sensitive about this issue, but globally, I don't think so...
So, recently, I made up my mind to put up this sort of work on Pixiv.

...YUP, I think I need to explain about OTAKU culture in Japan ... which is also a POP culture.

In Japan, otaku people tend to hide themselves in society.
Many of otaku are hiding facts of themselves' being otaku in daily-lives,
and if they are publishing their otaku works including fanarts and original works online, many of them tend to use some search-avoiding functions for them!

WHY?
Coz THEY KNOW THAT SOME OF PEOPLE MIGHT FEEL BAD ABOUT SEEING THOSE SHITS.
Especially in terms of fanarts, many otaku people tend to keep their mouths on their favourite works in public spaces.
You know, in a bunch of people we call "fans," there are several kinds of it.
AND many of the otaku people are knowing that they have to show respects to other kinds of fans of their favourite works.

And you might know about some of otaku people are "rotten"... XD;;;

SO, if an otaku starts to become "rotten" while enjoying Hetalia, he/she has to keep one's self even quietter...
You know, some of you cannnot accept personified U.S.A and personified Japan (plus, both of them are guys!!) making love to each other... XD;;;





...PHEW!
I guess I"m not really done yet, so I think I'll come back later... XD;;;

In the next blogpost, I think I'm gonna write on another culture originated from Hetalia! :D

4 comments:

  1. Oh now I see, I should have read this post before the more recent one. Here's another tricky thing about blogs, the newest information is displayed at the top of the page.

    Thanks for providing the additional context and background on Hetalia here. Now I'm getting more curious.

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  2. Thank you for making comments on both of the blogposts! :)

    Because of your comments, I realized that I always have to make it clear to viewers if I'm gonna write a continuation blogpost for the previous one.

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  3. No worries - it's my fault for reading them backwards - but that's how it goes when you use something like Google Reader. We want to check the newest information first (or the software designer thought we wanted to check the newest first).

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  4. Yes, and I believe, that is why the info provider has to make the greatest efforts to allow audience an easy go-through.

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