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5 anime you should watch to know Japan more

By Guidable Writers Dec 14, 2017

This post is also available in: Spanish

Anime is one of the Japanese pop cultures which people coming to Japan are interested in. Also, anime could be a reason why people study the Japanese language, and most of the time, it is successful to study it through anime because Japanese phrases the characters are using in anime are really close to Japanese people’s real conversations.

 

There are some anime which describe how the Japanese society is. I believe that those anime could help you understand the Japanese society more. I recommend these 5 anime which can make it easier to stay in Japan after watching them, so check them out before coming and visiting Japan!

 

1.Hoshi no Ka-bi / 星のカービィ

Hoshi no Ka-bi- (星のカービィ) is an anime series which was on the air from 2001 till 2003. This anime was made for children, so it was broadcasted in the morning.

 

Hoshi no Ka-bi is an anime which has a pink colored monster, Ka-bi, as a main character. Ka-bi fights in the story with a character called Nightmare which is a character from the evil side. Ka-bi tries to save a planet called Pupupu land from the evil creatures, in a troop of Nightmare.

 

This anime was popular among kids because of Ka-bi’s cute character and its unique style of fighting which Ka-bi swallows some items to reflect item’s features to fighting.

 

Hoshi no Ka-bi seems a kid anime, however, its story has a lot of humor of social problems. Sometimes, the story talks about the environment, human rights, education, and so on. You are able to understand the important Japanese news hidden behind of the cute story of Ka-bi.

 

2.こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所 (こち亀) / Kchira-katsushikaku-kamearikoenmae-hasyutujyo ( Kochikame)

こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所Kchira-katsushikaku-kamearikoenmae-hasyutujyo is a manga published in the popular weekly magazine, JUMP (週刊少年ジャンプ) in 1976. It lasted for 40 years, and besides manga, its anime also was broadcasted and generated a bunch of new fans. It has 1960 episodes, and published 200 volumes of comics. This long history of this anime shows the fact of how Kochikame had grown with the growth of Japan.

 

The main character is a policeman who works at a police station located in Katsushika-ku in Tokyo. His name is 両津勘吉/ Kankichi Ryotsu. He likes gambling, drink alcohol, play games, watch TV, read manga, and so on… As you can see, he seems like he doesn’t have an appropriate personality for policeman, however, on the other side, he has a strong sense of justice and catches a lot of criminals.

 

In this story, you can see how Tokyo looked like long time ago, and how it has changed to the current figure since this anime has lasted so long time. You can understand Japanese old customs and the way of thinking through characters in a story.

 

And also, sometimes, Kochikame picked up some social problems, and new technologies, so you would be able to understand what Japanese people feel towards those. It might be also fun to go around some places shown in the anime when you actually visit Tokyo.

 

3.銀魂/Gin Tama

銀魂/Gin Tama is a manga published in the weekly magazine, JUMP (週刊少年ジャンプ). It started the story in 2003, and still has attracted thousands of fans. Gin Tama has broadcasted anime on TV, and it also made some movies as well. In 2017, the movie of Gin Tama, which was played by real actors, has also released.

 

Gin Tama is a story of one guy named Gintoki(銀時), who works as a freelancer with two fellows. The story goes in Edo which was conquered by aliens. There actually was the Edo era in history of Japan, and there were a lot of Samurai. This anime has used some aspects of Japanese history, and made them fun by jokes.

 

This anime uses some scandals of Japanese politicians and some anime as a parody, so you might be able to know some facts having happened in Japan.

 

4.東のエデン/ Eden of the East

東のエデン/ Eden of the East is a anime started to be broadcasted in 2009. It has 11 episodes, and it also has a two series of movies. The story goes with two main characters named Akira Takizawa, and Saki Morimi. Akira is a guy who has no memory about himself, but he gets to know he has a mission to save Japan using ten billion yen given to him. In this story, you would see how Akira uses his money to lead Japan into the peaceful world, alongside other characters.

 

The story is based on an idea of SF so that you might guess that you cannot learn the real figure of Japan, however, I would like to recommend this anime because in the many scenes of this anime, there are a lot of moments you can understand the way of Japanese thinking.

 

5.四畳半神話大系/ The Tatami Galaxy

四畳半神話大系/ The Tatami Galaxy is an anime based on a novel of same title written by Tomihiko Morimi (森見登美彦). This anime has 11 episodes and were on the air in 2010.

 

The story of this anime goes in Kyoto City. The main character of this anime is one guy who is a Junior student of Kyoto University. The story starts to show how he wasted his university life in a particular club called “circle in Japan”. In the story of this anime shows how the main character’s life could change if he chose the other clubs when he entered the university.

 

The story uses the idea of a parallel world, so it might be a bit complicated, but if you understand of a concept of the story, this anime could lead you to think about life deeply.

 

In this anime, you can see how Japanese university students spend their life in their university. For some students of universities, activities in a club are very important to them, and sometimes dedicate their whole university life to the club. So it might be a good anime to see the real Japanese student’s life in a university even if the point of this anime is different from that.

 

Hope you enjoy seeing new aspects through the anime above which you didn’t notice before!