Blogpost #8 Virtual Wife

Each and everyone of us has our own unique attractions in life. Some people may find other people's attractions weird and creepy, while others may not. In my previous blog,  I talked about a man who married a pillow with an anime character imprinted on it. Now I found this rather unique guy whose attractions may seem uncanny to others too, a guy who is in love and married a video game character.

I read this article entitled The One About the Guy Who Married a Video Game, written by Owen Good from kotaku.com. There he talked about a man who married a female character from a video game. The unnamed guy is Japanese, he married Nene Anegasaki, a virtual girlfriend from the game Love Plus. His wedding is held in  Guam, there is also a reception held in Japan. The wedding was just like a real wedding, with a priest, his relatives were, and the media was also present. 

As he quoted "The unnamed man took his DS and the game to Guam where he said vows with to Nene Anegasaki, one of three virtual girlfriends featured in Love Plus. " I think the guy is really in love with the video game character, but I didn't think a wedding was necessary. Maybe the guy wanted a little fame and recognition that's why he held this wedding. Some people also rode along with it because they find this event unique.

I researched on about the reason why someone would fall in love and marry a girl from an anime based video game. I found this article entitled Fetish of the Week: Schediaphilia (Toonophilia), written by Willow Monroe from zzinsider.com. There he discussed what Toonophilia is and what are the reasons someone would have this. Toonophiles are basically guys who love and are sexually aroused to cartoon, especially anime characters. Unfortunately, since this is a philia, there is really no legitimate reason why someone would have this, the easiest reason is because of lack of physical and emotional contacts with actual humans. Since humans and virtual characters can't have physical interactions, toonophiles would simply revert to masturbation, or for someone's case, marry a virtual character.

As he quoted "These fetishists get their juices flowing and hearts and fists pumping at the sight of their fave sexy cartoon characters. Sexy for the Toonophile need not be a blatantly erotic character like Jessica Rabbit, or Betty Boop, rather, the subject of affection and desire can be any animated or sketched figure from Bugs Bunny, to Ms Pacman. Due to the absence of physical contact between humans and cartoon characters, most schediaphiles practice masturbation." I sometimes too am attracted to anime characters, but I'm not that attracted to be called a toonophile. In fact, many people are also very attracted to cartoon or anime characters. But only some people are serious enough to marry a lifeless form of entertainment.

I can't say that the Japanese guy who married a virtual girl, and some other toonophiles are bad. Because that's just the way are in life, there's nothing we could do to change them. The only thing we could do is accept them for who they really are, and simply move on with life.

Blogpost #7 A Deeper Look In Anime Addiction

Addiction is very common among teenagers and adults. Some of us are addicted to material things like drugs, beer, and sex. While some of us are addicted to abstract things like gambling, playing video games, and watching our favorite shows. Of course, there is a thing called anime addiction.

Otakus, simply known as anime addicts, are people who devote most of their day into watching anime, talking about anime, writing about anime, etc. The question that remains is, why is anime addicting? Anime is different from addictions like drugs and gambling, but why do some people still devote themselves to anime. I'm here to find out.

As I was browsing, I found this article entitled Why is Anime Addicting?, by Henry Hsieh, on articlesphere.com. There he talked about three things that makes anime addicting. One being the characters, and the others being the plot and animation. Among those three, the most significant cause of anime addiction is the characters. Anime characters are far different from any other characters from T.V shows, they provide a realistic and human like behavior. That's why so many people can relate to anime characters because the way they act is similar to the way we act in the real world. Even the protagonists of anime shows are from being perfect, this symbolizes that anyone ordinary can be the hero of their own story some day.

As he quoted "The first, and probably the most compelling reason of all, is the sheer beauty by which the makers create their characters. Out of all cartoons in the world, it is only in Japanese anime that I have seen such well rounded and realistic characters that are so distinctly human. Anime does not delude the viewers into thinking that someone can be perfect. The heroes and heroines in anime, beautiful as they may be, have their own flaws and insecurities. They're not like the princesses in the cartoon fairy tales who are epitomes of grace and goodness, and are thereby incredibly flat and drab. Anime heroes and heroines are human, and their humanity makes them all the more interesting." Just like ordinary people, Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and Naruto from Naruto Shippuden has their own flaws just like a human does. Goku and Naruto are very strong when it comes to sheer will and determination, but they also have negative things like lack of intelligence, much like any other person can relate to.

I now conducted my research to the scientific reason why people become addicts in the first place. I read this article entitled What is Addiction? What Causes Addiction?, written by an anonymous author on medicalnewstoday.com. There he talked about that addiction is caused by psychoactive (capable of affecting mental ability) substances like drugs and alcohol. But in our world today, even activities like gambling, browsing the internet, and watching anime can be classified as addictions because they also cause psychoactive effects in our brain, much like what drugs can do. The cause of addiction can be depression, rejection and anxiety, these are the things we feel when we are addicted to activities said earlier. 

As he quoted " In the past addiction used to refer just to psychoactive substances that cross the blood-brain barrier, temporarily altering the chemical balance of the brain; this would include alcohol, tobacco and some drugs. A considerable number of psychologists, other health care professionals and lay people now insist that psychological dependency, as may be the case with gambling, sex, internet, work, exercise, etc. should also be counted as addictions, because they can also lead to feelings of guilt, shame, hopelessness, despair, failure, rejection, anxiety and/or humiliation." We could say that anime is quite psychoactive, because they sometimes cause negative feelings. I'm just a causal anime watcher, not an addict. I can control my action towards anime unlike the anime addicts who can't. But anime addiction is not really that serious when compared to alcohol and drug addiction. Drugs can mainly cause imbalance in the physical, mental and social aspects of a person, while in anime addiction, there is really no major effect to a human whatsoever.



I am not really an anime addict, but I think I'm close to being one. Despite of all the scientific jibber jabber, if there is a chance I could be an anime addict, I have no worries because anime addiction is not all that bad, of course it has it's downsides, but what thing in this world doesn't have a downside? In the end it all comes to ones self, if he chooses to be controlled by his addiction, or for him to control his addiction.

Blogpost #6 Anime as A Form Escapism

At some point in our lives, we all grew tired of all the problems and hardships of reality. Some of us escape by playing video games, listening to music, and by watching our favorite T.V shows. As for me, my form is escapism in this world is by watching my favorite anime shows. Anime like Dragon Ball Z, and Naruto are my means of escape into this world, because every time I watch these shows, I feel like I am a part of their world, not this one.

As I researched, I found this article entitled Anime and Escapism, by an anonymous author from gargarstegosaurus.com. There he talked about how anime is his best form of escapism in this world. American cartoons  like Spongebob, Futurama, and Hey Arnold! may be ones escape from this world, but they are not as good as the anime. He said that in anime, the stories are deeper and the characters are more developed compared to the ones in Western cartoons. We could also express are deep and hidden emotions when watching anime, these are just few of the things we could do when watching anime, not in the real world.



As he quoted "Anime also gave me a variety of escapism that I feel not many have it for. The society in which I grew up in is a society which does not value open emotion, unless its a show of anger. I’m not bitter about it or anything, I don’t blame my parents because it was a wider cultural phenomena, but as a result I’m not too good about expressing emotion, at least honestly." I for one can relate to what he is saying, because anime is also my escape. Every time I watch some emotional scenes in anime, I also end up emotional and fragile myself. It's not that I can't express feelings in the real world, I can just express my feelings better when I'm watching anime.


While researching on why we seek escapism in this world, I found this articles entitled The Reason Why We Seek Escapism, written by Michael Kwan from beyondtherhetoric.com. There he talked about how each and everyone of us seek escapism differently, but the reasons are all the same. And as we grow older, we may find ourselves experiencing boredom from our daily routines in life, it is in the human nature to seek to something different every now and then. That's why some us escape, we are simply tired of the patterns of our daily lives. We do not submit to escapism because we are miserable in reality, we just want to experience different things.

As he quoted "And that, at its crux, is why so many of us seek escapism. There’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. It doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the lives that we currently enjoy. It doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate our steady jobs, the roofs over our heads, and the delicious foods on our tables. It just means that sometimes, we want something different." After watching a variety of anime, I agree with this statement. Because every time I watch different shows, I become a part of different worlds by just using my imagination. And when the show is over, it's time to move on to reality.

We can't solve our problems and be happy by just watching our favorite shows, sure watching them could help us in a way, but it does not solve our problem entirely. We can be immersed into different worlds, and we can experience a variety of emotions when watching anime, but escaping from this harsh reality can not solve our problems, we need to face them in order to surpass them.

Blogpost#5 The Effects of Cosplay

As a child, we've all been fascinated about wearing a costume of our favorite fictional characters. But it is different for cosplayers, cause until know, they still dress up as their favorite characters, some of them even makes a living out of cosplaying. Cosplay short for "Costume Play", is a some kind of art where people dress up as characters from a fictional world, the most popular source of cosplay ideas is mainly from anime characters, in fact the Japanese even coined the term "Cosplay".

I myself have never experienced dressing up as someone from a TV show or anime series, because it's not really my interest. But that doesn't stop me from discussing about it's effects on our society.

As I was searching on about the effects of cosplay to our society, I encountered this article, A Cosplayed Life: Subcultural Influences on Racial and Heteronormative Structures in Everyday Life, from digitalcommons.uconn.edu, by James Joseph-Westcott Hogan. There he talked about the way cosplayers dress up to anyone they like, strengthens the resistance to gender and race restrictions. There is really no rules and regulations in cosplay. A male can dress up to anything or anyone he likes, may it be from a fire breathing dragon to a curvy and beautiful female icon, the same goes with females. 

As he quoted "By examining the interactions of cosplayer's social exchanges with other cosplayers where they display knowledge of their character or anime in general, I demonstrate how the appropriation of cultural symbols-anime or manga episodes and characters- and their subsequent transformation into cosplays can develop resistances to dominant notions of gender and race in both the participants engaged in cosplay and those that witness the phenomenon." This tells us that cosplay can be viewed as a good thing in our society. Some people think that cosplay is a way out, because in a convention where cosplay is needed, people can dress up to whatever or whoever they want to be, without being discriminated by society. 

But sometimes, cosplay can also bring out the problems it is trying to avoid, such as cosplay bullying. This is where cosplayers, particularly the homosexual ones, are getting cyber bullied and discriminated just because they are dressing up to someone in the opposite sex.  The root of the problems are homophobes.

I researched on why are there even homophobes in this world, and why do they hate on homosexuals, particularly the cosplayers. I read this article called Homophobes May be Hidden Homosexuals, by Jeanna Bryner on livescience.com. There she quoted another person who talked about that the homophobes in this world are basically homosexuals themselves. The main point of the study is to why are some people hating on gays? The answer is simple, they hate on homosexuals because they hate themselves. They sometimes feel jealous and envious of gays because they can express what they truly feel, and homophobes don't have the courage and admittance to do so. 

As she quoted "Sometimes people are threatened by gays and lesbians because they are fearing their own impulses, in a sense they 'doth protest too much,'" Ryan told LiveScience. "In addition, it appears that sometimes those who would oppress others have been oppressed themselves, and we can have some compassion for them too, they may be unaccepting of others because they cannot be accepting of themselves.".
I think most, not all of the homophobes are homosexuals themselves. Most of the cosplay bullies are probaly homophobes, they hate the homosexual cosplayers because deep inside, they know they want to dress up to someone they idolize in the opposite sex too, they just don't know it yet.



Even though I've never experienced Cosplay, I can understand it's effects in our world today. . For some, Cosplay is like their freedom, it's their way of becoming who they want to be in life, regardless of race and gender.

Blogpost#4 The Sociology of Attack on Titan

We all have our fair share of favorite T.V shows, ranging from reality shows to T.V series. But my favorite show from last year  is the actually the anime called, Attack on Titan, also known as Shingeki no Kyojin in Japanese. It is an anime set on medieval times in an alternate world, where as humans stay inside three layers of walls, in order to protect them from the giants whose main goal is to eat humans, these giants are called Titans. Our protagonist is Eren Jaeger, his mother eaten by a titan, and now his main goal is to annihilate all the titans.

I found the show very addicting, once you've watched the first episode, I can guarantee you that you will be very hooked up with it. You'll eventually find yourself impatiently waiting for the next episode to come out. But there's something unusual about this anime, it was able to attract many audiences, unlike the mediocre anime, where it could only attract Japanese and other die hard anime fans. This one is different, it was able to make all kinds of audience  be addicted to it, and I'm here to discuss how.

As I was going through some articles that discussed how Attack on Titan was able to attract audiences, I found the article What is Attack on Titan?, by Ryan Lambie from denofgeek.com. The article quickly got my attention because the author's statements were very accurate, it talks about how the main antagonists of the show, the titans, has pretty much no objective and reasoning at all, their main goal is just to eat humans, thus making them irrational. We are captivated by the show because we fear irrationality, and when people experience fear in a show, they will surely be allured by it.

 As he quoted  "What makes the Titans additionally threatening is their lack of reason. Seemingly driven by no other purpose than to hunt and eat, they appear to have no intellect or society at all; in the anime, they're occasionally shown shambling around the countryside, twitching involuntarily. Who are they? Where did they come from? Isayama is in no rush to tell us, and that's what makes the story so unsettling and engrossing."
Every show has a strong point, and Attack on Titan's strongest point is its ability to make audience be engulfed in curiosity and fear. The audience knows so little about the antagonists of show, and besides the Titans, there are still a lot mysteries that needs to be solved. 

I browsed other articles that explained why people want to experience fear when watching T.V shows like Attack on Titan. I found this article entitled Why We Love to be Scared, by Charles Q. Choi on livescience.com. In the article, he discussed that when people experience fear, and there is no really chance of getting harmed, we feel this adrenaline rushing all over our body, but we are not scared, we actually like having this sensation where we feel very pumped and excited. We experience this when watching shows like Attack on Titan, because we are watching this show from a television, we know that there is harm that will come to us, but we still experience little fear  because we are really into the show. 


As he stated "If the brain knows there is no risk of really being harmed, it experiences this adrenaline rush as enjoyable, Rudd explained. The key to enjoying such thrills lies in knowing how to properly gauge the risk of harm". When most of us experience fear in reality, we end up trembling and nervous. But when we experience fear from just watching shows and movies, the feeling of being scared is different. We actually want to be scared when we watch shows like these, because when the credits roll, nothing actually happened to us in real life, but we still get to experience fear by just sitting and staring at a screen.  



Every show has its way with the audiences. Attack on Titan was able to make audiences scared and curious, and be immersed in its fictional world. Only a few anime, heck, only a few T.V shows today can have to ability to do what Attack on Titan can with its audience. This makes Attack on Titan, not just one of the greatest anime of all time, but the one of the greatest creations of mankind.

Blogpost#3 Do You Take This Pillow as Your Wife?

They say love comes in different forms, it can either be to an inanimate object or to a fictional character, or both. I too have my fair share of attractions to fictional characters, especially the anime girls. My fictional crush in this world is a character from the Attack on Titan anime called Mikasa. I'm not really that obsessed with her, I just find it peaceful if she is my wallpaper icon, and sometimes I wish she was real and she became my girlfriend, but I know that I could never live that fantasy. The case however, is different for a random citizen in Japan, as he is a man who lives his fantasy.

According to the article Strange: 28-Year Old Japanese Man Marries Pillow, written by Daniel from informationng.com, " The 28-year old Otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between ‘obsessive’ and ‘nerd’), took that love a step further  by getting married to his pillow in a special ceremony that was well publicized in the local media after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. The pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the ‘magical girl’ anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. "

The man is actually a Korean and his name is Lee Jin-gyu, and he fell for the anime character, Fate Testarossa, who is a strong willed person and a very loving and caring person for her friends and family.  Lee also takes the pillow to dinner and the theme park. This being said, the man is very obsessed with his pillow, and he treats it as a normal person. Majority of the population may find this weird, but I don't find this particularly weird, because I heard a case like this before, the difference between this case and the one I heard about is, Lee married a pillow, while the other one I heard about married a video game character. 

Another statement by FLufee from smosh.com, from his article Man Marries Pillow, said that "This man apparently decided to get married to his pillow shortly after another man in Japan got married to his virtual girlfriend. Well, at least if you talk to a virtual girlfriend she will reply -- there's not a lot of pillow talk to be had with a pillow, hah see what I did there?".

We speculate that Lee did this just to get famous, but it is not guaranteed, for all we know, he could just be a man with a brain disorder or something. In my opinion Lee did not do this just to get famous, I believe he has "Toonophilia", a phillia where a real person gets really attracted to a cartoon or anime character.

If you ask me if this is right or wrong, I could only say either. It is good that this man does what he really wants, despite of this world's laws and rules. But it is wrong to take things this far just because of your obsession to an anime character. If there is one thing that this phenomena tells us, it's that anime is very influential to us, our addiction to it could take us to unusual places, these places could either be good or bad, the important thing is that they help us shape our personality.

Blogpost #2 The Revolutionary Anime: Dragon Ball Z

We all grew up watching out favorite TV shows in the morning. One of these shows that most us got addicted to is the anime franchise known as Dragon Ball Z. If you ask any person here in the Philippines, or anyone in the worlds perhaps, I doubt that they won't know anything about DBZ.

I first saw DBZ when I was about 7 yrs. old, it was Filipino dubbed on the channel GMA. After watching and getting addicted to it, it became my most favorite anime of all time. Up until know, I don't refuse to watch it over and over again. Now we wonder, why does this show attract so many audiences? Well, that's why I'm here to find out.

The story of DBZ revolves around Goku or Kakarot, a being from the alien race known as the Saiyans, and his battle and hardships as he strives to protect earth and its citizens. According to the article Greatest Shows: Dragon Ball Z, by an author with the username techman11 on retrojunk.com, "Despite Goku's super speed and strength, he is a kind, childlike protagonist with a cheerful personality and an air of innocence that the viewer cannot help but be attracted to. Yet for all his positive traits, Goku is a fierce and nearly unstoppable warrior in battle, never fighting for the wrong reasons, but only to protect his friends and the planet earth from the many baddies who inevitably get in his way. "

This being said, Goku is a very likable and attractive character because deep inside, we want to be like him. Not because of his overwhelming strength, but because for his love and affection for those that he cares about. Deep inside we all want to be a nice person who fights for the ones he loves, that's why so many people from different countries can relate to what Goku does.


But for every positive side, there is always the negative side. An article from Ramsey Isler, at ign.com, What's Wrong With Dragon Ball Z Part One, states that "Even the most die-hard fan of DBZ has probably, at some point, gotten tired of watching a five minute diatribe about some new technique or some past phase of the fight. Sometimes you just want them to shut up and fight already. But no, it would seem that hyper-powered beings love the sound of their own voices."





This tells us that every show has its flaw, and the flaw of DBZ, just like many other anime, is the over explaining of the flows of a fight, it's like thinking about a certain new technique to use in battle for about 10 minutes, while the battle only lasts for about a minute. DBZ seems to give more emphasis to the tactics and techniques used in battle, rather than the battle itself. I think that this structure in a show is the most unique aspect of anime, because they really think about the mechanics between a fight, not just creating a senseless fight scene. 
                                                                             







I learned many values from DBZ, these values are to never give up, we gain more strength if we protect others, not just ourselves, and that change can never be too late in life. It is now to safe to say that Dragon Ball Z is not just revolutionary when it comes to animation and story, but also to its effects in our society today. The success of  Dragon Ball Z is the sole reason why anime are still running strong in the present time.