Japanese Culture

Natsuo Kirino's novel Out conveys the challenges that four Japanese women have to face after one of the women named Yayoi strangles her abusive husband to death. Kirino highlights the hard work that women put themselves through, yet they are still underappreciated by society because of their gender. In the beginning, Kirino describes the lives of the four women, and each of them have to face difficulties of their own, especially Yayoi. Yayoi works early in the morning, she takes care of her children, and she has an abusive husband named Kenji. Kenji does not appreciate anything that she does, and he lost all of their savings while gambling. Without Yayoi, Kenji would be lost, and without Kenji, Yayoi would be living a much better life. The three other women are also undervalued by their own family, which is unfortunate. In Beverly Bishop's text The Diversification of Employment and Women's Work , Bishop states that "without women's short tenure and c...

In the film Swallowtail Butterfly , a teenager named Ageha gets taken in by a prostitute named Glico after Ageha's mother dies, and Glico cares for her as if Ageha was her daughter. Ageha meets some of Glico's friends, and they treat her with respect. Additionally, they protect her from anyone who tries to hurt her. As a result, Ageha starts expressing herself, which shows that being generous and selfless can change a person's attitude. When Glico is left with Ageha, she decides to sell Ageha to a man who would make her into a prostitute. However, Glico changes her mind and chooses to take care of Ageha. Glico knew about the hardships that a prostitute has to go through, so she did not want Ageha to pursue that lifestyle. If Glico would have left her there, Ageha would have had a miserable life. Although she did not say it, Ageha appreciated Glico for taking her back because it changed her life for the better. Glico's friends protect Ageha from dangerous people. ...

   Technology has the capability to enhance the physical and mental abilities of humans. This can lead to an abuse of power, which would be consequential for regular people. This occurs in Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Akira , where Tetsuo takes advantage of his powers and confronts Kaneda about him always trying to be the leader. Otomo portrays the superiority of Tetsuo in this scene through intense dialogue and descriptive artistry within the panels.                                         The font size and the dialogue itself within these panels portray the fearlessness and rage of Tetsuo and his power over Kaneda. In the top panel of the left page, it highlights Tetsuo’s feelings over Kaneda. He always thought that Kaneda tried to control him, and he was angry. Otomo depicts Tetsuo’s anger by making the font thicker and adding exclam...