Japan's OBSESSION With High School Anime: A SAD REALITY

If you are the owner of any of the clips I used in this video and want it replaced or removed, I will respect any permission given. I had a lot of fun making this video. Between doing research and trying to get the facts right about the topic and balancing it between the emotional storytelling I was going for. I'm really proud of how this video turned out. Also I was horribly sick while recording some parts of the scrip, that's why I sound weird in some parts. Let me know what you guys think of the video and have fun watching!!!

Japan is obsessed with high school because that was the last time they got to happily socialize and live life before their corporate masters enslaved them.

Japan is a society that has gaslit its youth into peaking at high school, and that's REALLY depressing to think on.

Bros acting sad about being 25. 35 year olds: 💀

”I’m 25 and that’s old” Dude try being 38, getting out of depression and catching up to life, missing milestones and everyone looks weird at you.

adult freedom is a paradox because you dont take direct orders from your parents anymore but you have bosses and governors who expect everything out of you.

I had a friend that gave the most cold-blooded response I've ever heard. A Japanese guy said that, because he was America, he was lazy compared to them. His response was "Yeah, that's true. And what you hate the most is you can't be me."

Just how terrible must being a working adult in Japan be if everyone agrees that those three years in high school are always the best life can possibly be even wile HS in Japan is known to be a hyper competitive crunch compared to most of the world...

Japanese highschool is considered the last safe haven of adolescence like how Teen dramas and college movies are in the US.

“Japan technologically is 20 years ahead of everyone else”. Considering the economic crisis of the late 80s and it’s consequences, this is a myth. I like the saying: “In Tokyo it is always the year 2000. It had been in the 70s, and it still is in the 2020s.”

It's funny how in Japan they idolise high school and in the west we hate it.

Great video. However, there is a minor correction. The escapism doesn't start at adulthood. High Schoolers love high school anime. People will learn escapism once they've taste depression.

It's always cute hearing people younger than you say they feel old

I fucking HATED my times at high school and I am loving being a adult. Having my life, achieving my desires through my own efforts and having understanding of myself, it is beyond comparison to being the dumb and awkward kid on the class that got bullied by being too stupid to know basic social interactions on a country where people interact the most. I can understand the japanese's appeal for that kind of thing, but it's totally not for me. When I was on my teenage years, I watched and thought "damn I wish I had a nice school life like that", but now I think "damn... imagine having THAT as your golden years..."

"back when i started highschool in 2010"... dude, that hit harder, that's when i finished hs...

It's because this is the time when the characters are old and developed enough to have mature thoughts and bodies but not too old to lost all their innocence and dreams through the hell that awaits them after school.

Interesting what you mentioned about isekais. I think that 20th century isekais are different from 21st century (especially 2010s onwards) isekais, since in the first ones the protagonist, at least, accepts our world as their home (with all its imperfections) while in modern isekais they despise and reject it: in the anime No Game No Life, the protagonist thinks directly about this at the end of the first episode, I think (he says something like "in the isekais, when the protagonist ends up in another world, he always wants to do anything to come back home... but who would want to leave a world like this?").

The worst part of the adult life isn't that paradox you point out about "no one telling you what to do, but no one telling you what to do"... but the fact that actually everyone expects you to do things, and do them in a certian way... but no one "tells" anything to you openly. The societal pressure to conform to expectations, unwritten rules, etc. never goes down. When you're a teen you just rebell, or whatever. Inside the little bubble where you're constructing your identity and your vision for the future you're protected from the real world. You spend most of the time in a walled garden with little real responsibilities and consecuences; one were rules are clear, but rather simple and explicit. As you wery well explained in the video, school is that. You spend most of your time away from authority figures (or around limmited ones) and ammong your peers; you can dedicate your time to things YOU like without having to justify them to anyone. And then you adult... and suddenly everyone gives you the stinky face if you're being "unproductive", if you have no material independence, if you choose a path that isn't giving you economic solvency, if you have no partner at age X, if you are too happy, not happy enough, if you have no kids at age X, if you haven't "made it yet", if you are failing at something, if you are not ambitious enough, if you are too ambitious... So, yeah... when you're an adult everyone "tells" you how to live your life, but no one does. And that "limbo" pressure is the worst, because you can't even argue against anyone, because no one is standing up and saying things to your face. Maybe that's why at some point we all end up having some kind of argument with our parents about "our life" and stuff. They are probably some of the few who will actually tell you things to your face; so they become the only ones that we can stand up to and get mad at. We probably tend to given them a lot more flac than they deserve, but it's because they make themselves a stand in for societal pressure as a whole I guess.

This is a common misconception. While many people in Japan view their school years (which often does not mean high school) as having been the most "fun" in their lives, it's also relatively common for people to view existence as a process of lifelong improvement, which is where shonen culture originates. Some people in even their 70s or 80s still view themselves as actively developing their skills. Many people in Japan consider middle school to have been the most fun in their life. For others, it's college, or adult life. High school is not chosen because it's the most fun overall, but because of other characteristics that make it useful for storywriting purposes. The foremost one being that high school is simply the most relatable setting for most people. In Japan, 95% of people go to high school (the corresponding figure appears to be 90% in the US). It's more difficult to relate to a setting that you've never experienced in your life, and there's no job in Japan that 95% of people would experience in their lives, hence why high school serves as an adequate one to default to. It's also easier to relate to for adults than middle school, since high school students are more mature. Mangaka and anime writers tend to have even less work experience than the average person aside from that pertaining to their own field. Which means that if they want to use their own experiences to write a believable story, they have to default to a school setting, or alternatively a fantasy world that allows for easier suspension of disbelief. High school is also more useful than college because most people attend it out of a sense of obligation. Which means that a writer can easily justify collecting a diverse cast with varying skills, quirks and interests. In a college setting this would require more suspension of disbelief, since many people choose to attend specific colleges and courses that match their interests. And many choose not to attend at all---only around 60% of people in Japan attend college at any point in their lives. This means that certain types of characters are unlikely to end up in an average college----a delinquent-type character would generally not attend at all, an athlete might attend a school geared for their own sport, a medically oriented character would generally attend medical school, etc. Another useful aspect is that high school students are mature enough to be usable as "adults" (i.e. you can justify an intelligent character acting very mature) while also immature enough to be usable for creating various types of drama. Adults are generally much more mature and stable, and therefore more "boring" / less useful in this sense from a writer's standpoint. This is also reflected in anime in general---going back to the initial point, older characters are often treated as having mastered their trades, and as having reached a higher level of wisdom. These types of characters can be useful as mentors, heroes and such, but a writer would generally not want them as their main protagonists, because there is no growth to be depicted, and they are more difficult to use for cheap drama. Less mature adults can work for this purpose, which is why you do see them in some anime. Anime viewership rates are higher among people aged 10-19 than any older age group. And while viewership rates are even higher between the ages 0-9, children of this age group tend to look up to high school students, which is why their preferences are not in conflict with the use of high school settings. The third most prevalent group in terms of viewership rates is people aged 20-29, for whom high school is a relatively recent memory. It should also be pointed out that, while this appears to be controversial for many people in the West, in Japan, high school-age females ("JK"s) are seen as being the most attractive by males of various age groups. Younger men are also rather popular among women, though the trends appear more defined when it comes to male preferences. Similar correlations have been observed in Western countries as well (some studies show that men in the US prefer women around the age 18 or 20, and such studies generally do not include younger ages) though, so this alone would not explain the trends we see in anime. On a final note, in terms of 4:49, the rates shown here show similar trends in age dependence in most developed countries, e.g. the US and many European countries. This is not unique to Japan. The points mentioned on work-life balance here are correct, but I don't see any evidence for them being the primary reason for the use of high school settings in anime.

I guess it's not just Japan anymore, all you said can be also be seen today...and i think thats why anime is becoming mainstream