Thanks for your patience guys. I had to make this AND work on the newest Culture Shock at the same time, so this came out pretty late. Come back next weekend for Which Ninja, and the return of Culture Shock after that!

US Population: 325.7 million Japan Population: 127 million That might explain the large difference in plastic surgeries. Still proportionately more, but not by 4 times.

Deku's mom in Hero Academia gained that weight from the stress and guilt she felt when finding out that here Hero obsessed child had no super power and was unable to continue to encourage him to pursue his hero dream..

Saddest part for me, if Kirara had appeared in the original manga, 60s, 70s, 80s or even 90s anime of GeGeGe no Kitaro, she would be considered quite average-looking and probably not get as much abuse. It's with the turn of the millennium where the shows got more cutesy. At least in this series, they address the change in a spooky way.

Gaijin: *asks why GeGeGe no kitaro isnt getting any attention* Me: Because on crunchyroll you cant view any episodes unless your a premium user!

Mascots and robots are okay with being cute But people shouldn’t be pressured to be cute

I'm glad Japan has these shows with social commentary

It shows how the opposite sides of the world treat beauty differently. You can say "Girl you look like a kid" to a Western lady and it will be an insult, while doing the same to an Eastern Asian girl and that will make her day. Which none of them are bad. Of course cultures vary.

I kind a get the same feeling with this episode as the plot with all of the pop star characters from “persona 4 dancing al night” Were each one of the pop idols were being pressured to be transformed into the fake version of themselves they portrayed to their audience because they were too afraid they would not be excepted otherwise. The game even starts with one pop idol committing suicide because she felt she could not form any connections with anyone because she had been in her fake pop idol persona for so long she could not even remember who she used to be and felt her audience wouldn’t care anyway.

Trickster spirit that flips your pillow to your feet...!? WAIT, THERE IS A YOKAI FOR THAT?! I likely have on in my house then cause bugger me if I wake up more times with my feet on my pillow than my pillow under my freakin' head!!

Something in Japan that isn't Kawaii… the horror? You know the more psychological horror.

When Gaijin got toward the end in explaining how it was a human problem, I swear I was getting teary because it's all so true and a lot of people don't see it that way. Thank you for making these videos, man. Keep up the good work.

I don't blame her for sticking with the Normal Face. If I was given hearing (I'm mostly deaf) I would likely not go back. I know having a pretty face isn't useful for surviving like hearing is, but why would you go back to the only life that you've known, full of torture and nightmares and bullying? Being different in general is Bad, that's what I've learned in my 27 years of being alive. Have they covered disability in this series yet or do they just hide the disabled there, because not Perfect or Cute?

Speakig of scary surgeries and cosmetics, there is a trend of “lightening” the skin.... with bleach, because dark skin is considered “unattractive”. And this stuff is marketed to basically any person that isn’t pale-African, Arabic, Asian, South American. It’s pretty awful.

I love these videos so much

The toxic foundation of 'Kawaii culture' will eventually lead to nothing but ugly yet logical endpoints, no pun intended. When women are told to be as cute as possible 24/7 until they reach their late 30s or 40s, the culture that's built on that will end up destroying itself. I can just imagine an idol girl suddenly snaps and beats her agent, boss or other idols. Then there's how a lot of idol fans are allowed to be as repulsive and bad-mannered as they want like when a fan threw a temper tantrum when that Aya Hirano turned out to have a boyfriend.

I'm a crybaby, so I was weeping this whole episode because I found her story so sad. I actually can relate to loving and yearning cuteness while being completely unable to obtain it. It's embarrassing to say, this is the first time I've expressed it, but I love cute stuff and specially clothes, yet I'm a straight guy, I don't consider myself feminine, I actually consider myself handsome, but I have a strong chin and wide neck and back. If I were a cute girl or even boy if totally try to wear cute dresses, yet I'm resigned because my complexion makes it impossible, not only for what other would say, but by my own standards.

This show tackled human trafficking?! I can't recall any other recent show addressing this.

Poor Kirara. No wonder she made the choices she did. =(

This hits close..like personally. Thanks for posting this

"Ah vanity, my favorite sin."---Satan.

Cuteness is disarming and intended to encourage nurturing behavior. That's why it's extra poignant when cute things want to stab you, Catherine-style.

I think I know answer to who Zumbera is. In Chinese version of Kitsune myths they needed to steal souls (or literally eat human hearts) to keep human appearance. They usually were portrayed as extremely pretty woman temptress, and this character fit well in that description. It is unclear because Kitsune in Japan are portrayed in slightly different way, but in anime Chinese version is also commonly used. Most notably Dakki from Houshin Engi who is so notorious real mythological figure that all nine-tails are see through her twisted portray as evil (they are in fact benevolent) and that Japanese have even own version, or to be specific they believe that Dakki escaped from China (ravaging also India on the way) and under name Tamamo-no-Mae attempt to take control over Emperor until it was finally slain be brave heroes (as side note spirit itself is ironically male). I'm not saying that it is this one, but Zumbera could be any high level Yoko, fallowing same path.

This! This is the reason you are one of my favorite youtubers! You talk about harsh world truths and use media already established to help get your point across. You've helped me to see that people all over are more similar to one another than our cultural bias might originally seem. Thanks for helping me to see people as people and for opening my mind for all these years. :D

I hope gegege no kitaro put some spotlights on other serious issues too

Tbh, she looked better faceless than with her original face. Then again, it reminded me of the music video for Candy Candy, in which the backup dancers used makeup to mute their features, rather than to look cuter, as opposed to the makeup that the singer wore. Muting the face's features puts much greater emphasis on the hair and outfit. The less the face stands out, the more the surrounding features do. It also reminded me of one of the goddesses in a story I'm writing. Said goddess is supposed to be all-knowing elemental goddess of Light, and once stated that if there's something she doesn't know, then it doesn't exist, so when she forgot her own face, it vanished. The followers in one of her cults, Daughters of Origin, destroy their own eyes so that they never see their own faces again, and, through empathizing with the goddess, are rewarded with inhuman knowledge. The other two cults are granted the knowledge through other means: through sacrificing individuality and sharing knowledge among each other, as seen in Hivemind Knights, or through naming an heir that isn't related to them and that they've never met before, as seen in The Royal Line.

That just sucks. :( pressure to be cute, pressure to be sexy, being treated like a pig just because of how you looked, and society pressuring us to fit a stupid mold that can harm us so horrifically, no matter what the end goal is. Greed, dysmorphia, vanity and hate, that’s why I like Gegege No Kitaro. It has the ugly truth we need to hear, what we’re afraid of hearing. In a world that hates us no matter what we look like, love yourself, dudes. It doesn’t matter what they think; it matters what you think, how you feel.

As someone who also watched the show, I didn't view the episode on the beauty culture(in this case the "kawaii") but more of the toxicity of the cultures in high/middle school in general. I mean, have you seen the behaviour of high schoolers? Then again I guess it wasn't that bad when you were a teen? I liked the episode since it pretty much shows how vile the creatures known as high schoolers are and that the girl in the episode is also not innocent. She herself wanted in on the action of the behaviour that hurt her like what actually happens in high school since they were too immature to look at another perspective. Heck, this is one of those rare situations where she actually found her own happiness in this rather than being miserable and regretting the things she did to achieve (like a lot of friends I knew).

Was going to watch this video, but I still haven't seen the newest episode of Gegege no Kitaro. I'll come back when I have, promise! :) EDIT: AYYY IM BACK!!! Glad I waited, this was probably my favourite episode of the series.

I’d like to see a _Which Ninja_ comparing modern SpecOps to historical ninja.

You have made some life impacting content Gaijin Goomba, I really mean that and I don't say stuff like that lightly.

As someone who only recently got into the reboot of Gegege no Kitaro, I really appreciate these videos! Every time, you give such a quality analysis, and I'm so happy someone else is talking about this series!

Question: Out of curiosity, would you consider the Slender Man a tale of a Nopperabou remixed and retooled for a modern, Internet-savy, Western audience? Food for thought.

My eyes popped so side when he said "kawaii" is used in Japan more than we use "the" here in america. That blew my mind.

Didn't finish the video, because you got me really interested in watching this anime and I don't want it spoiled lol but will watch this later! 😊👍

Thanks to these videos this has become one of my favourite series . I love the lessons they teach like from the over worked/suicide episode plus learning about the different Yokai lore is really interesting.

*Think about what isn't in combination with cute in Japan* Me: Uh..... Rock music? Visual Kei? *EDIT* I know there are sub gerenes in JRock and VKei, but I meant simply the overall tone of the gerene itself. It's probably hard to see a cute all female VKei band without looking into sub gerenes.

shout out to gundam. where some of the most recent releases don't lean at all on the female cast being kawaii, with one of the main characters being very much a tomboy with a lot of tats.

Another excellent analysis! Thanks for the breakdown, I was curious to hear what you thought of this episode.

When I saw this episode, I knew you'd make this video! Quite the accurate analysis of the themes. Amazing work as always.

Dang. This show is deeper than the world tree.

We need to imprint the idea of “How you sound/look like doesn’t matter” into young children mind better while at the same time keep the message of good hygiene. Maybe instead of “Other might not like you if you have bad hygiene” to “Keeping good hygiene is important to YOUR health” that way the important of hygiene is still taught but it doesn’t degrade appearance

Great video as alaways! Keep up the amazing work, Gaijin!

Spellbinding analysis and that ending is sooooooo good. I don't know how I haven't seen this show yet but that's going to change very soon. THANK YOU for this video!!

Damn. That was a downer ending. : ( Partway through the video, I ended up imagining the following scenario: Kirara -- with her natural face -- is walking sadly through the halls of her school, when someone she doesn't recognize calls for her. It's a very shy girl a couple grades below her, and she, stuttering the whole time, asks to be her friend. She explains she couldn't work up the courage to say anything before. "Hold on," Kirara demands, exasperated, "didn't you notice my ugly face!?" The girl says she's never seen the point of worrying about how one's face looks. All she knows is that Kirara doesn't seem to have friends and needs friends. "I-I hope I...can b-be a good friend--" She doesn't get to finish, because Kirara, tears in her beady little eyes, hugs the girl and cries into her shoulder. From then on, Kirara doesn't worry about how others think she looks; if someone as sweet as her new friend can like her, how bad can she be?

Humans won't ever change. As long as people still see difference, we'll never change.

I'm really liking these Gegege no Kitaro videos. Keep it up. I'm not very knowledgeable about the concepts Japan presents in its media, especially since they're usually presented in a Japanese context, but hearing you break it down really makes it easy to digest. Thank you.

This video was worth the wait. Great video GG!

now i'm even more interested in that show. but i just checked anilist and saw that that show pretty much started in the late 60s. can i just start the current season, or will i miss something?

Damn, watching both the episode and your analysis just freaking hurt me. And the worst part is that I know that anything that I could say here as to why would do nothing but make someone call me a ''SJW''. Thanks a lot for making this video, and also for introducing this anime to us (pretty sad that it won't get the recognition it deserves due to not pandering enough to otaku culture)

Beautiful video... Thank you so much for this.

I love to come back to this episode to watch it again, but everytime I do, I cry. It rly hits me on a personal level.

Yiss new video!

Why does it say that the video is 'hidden' ?

Your videos convinced me to watch this series, and while I don't love it as much as you, it's still pretty good. My favorite episode is by far The Misfortune of the Sunekosuri, with Ghost Train and Makura-Gaeshi and the Fantastic Dream following behind.

Really good interpretation of what this anime is trying to tell it's viewers. I wondered the whole video why you specifically explained the "Kawaii" issue and not beauty overall but you luckily adressed it as your closing statement. Great video Gaijin!

I heard somewhere that the whole Kawaii thing started after WWII and the atom bombs, and Japan felt largely helpless and defenseless, and embracing helplessness evolved into a desire for cuteness. Not sure how much of that is true; I'll have to look into it. And although I don't watch a lot of anime, this one looks really good!

This channel continually opens my eyes to how important social commentary in media is. More than that it gives me respect for anime in general, whereas I thought it was all power fantasies and idolized "kawaii desu desu" culture not three years ago before I found this channel. So as a long time lurker and few time commenter, thank you for opening my eyes and helping me move beyond my prejudice. Love this channel to death.

Looking forward to seeing you at Con Bravo! I'll have to find some time to sit down and watch this anime, it's so rare to have something slap you in the face with reality like this that I am intrigued.

I started watching Kitaro right as soon as it first aired because the art looked interesting as well as its lineage, coming from such an old manga series. I don't tend to think all that deeply on shows as I'm watching them, but your episodes on the show really help open my mind to the deeper messages within this series, and for that I thank you.

i think the reason the show doesn't get as much recognition in the anime community because it's main characher... doesn't... look... cool. .....oh dear.

Yeah, body image issues are pretty difficult everywhere I guess. They take different forms depending on the culture... And the individual. While I'm probably not at japanese levels of it. (partly because behaving even remotely like that would get me no end of harassment where I live, because it's not the norm. - And that's even assuming I have the right look to pull it off at all, which I don't. really. Point is I have to avoid indulging my tendencies towards 'cute' too much to avoid having major issues all the time. And I already have major issues for other reasons, so... Can't risk piling on even more that I actually have for the things I can at least control somewhat.) Getting stressed out about your appearance sucks. Especially when it's things you can't do anything about. (and some things not even surgery will fix.), but that doesn't mean your own personal issues around your appearance line up with cultural expectations either, which is a whole other can of worms with it's own set of issues. For instance, if I looked exactly the way I personally feel like looking... (and I mean, EXACTLY, to the most minor detail.) I would have no end of problems in all likelihood because it doesn't fit cultural expectations of what a person (much less an adult) should look like. Fighting your own culture's standards is difficult, as is fighting your own internalised sense of what you're 'supposed' to look like. Often the second follows from the first, but it certainly isn't guaranteed.

Love your work gaijin great episode!!!

It’s really strong commentary how society values person by their personality by their looks , and how people do to get the approval by society not matter what , and this protagonist would do anything to be accepted for price of her humanity.

Well, you sold me. I'll watch it after all.

Hry Gumba. Do you think you could do an episode on the cultural references in Fossil Fighters Vivosaurs?🐍

The timing on this video was impeccable, I literally *just* watched that episode.

I love you and Aki I hope you both are doing well and thank you for making these videos.

To be honest EVERYONE shouldn't judge people by their appearance or whether or not they have a physical or mental disability (yes, I did read the comments). I believe that people should be judged by the quality of their character. By this I mean their personality, their beliefs, their values, goals and aspirations and the qualities that make us all human.

I can relate to Kirara but in the reversed way. Everything about who I am tends to not be taken seriously because of my face making me look young, 'innocent', and worst of all girly. Imagine wanting to live your life as someone androgynous/agender who loves dark aesthetics, only for people to constantly say things like this: "Cute girls, like you shouldn't wear those things!, Why are you trying to look tough, you're cute as you are! Why do you act like that? It's not who you actually are! Your sweet girl." I don't actually have a problem with my face, I like how it looks, but when people constantly associate it to something I'm not and constantly believe I'm PRETENDING to be who I actually am...Well... I might of taken the face deal too.

I love your commentary on this subject because, even though I have a limited relationship with kawaii, I agree with you. I like that you used Tokyo Girls' Style as an image because when they were huge as an idol group but, after some songs subliminally talking about the pressure of staying kawaii, they announced they would just be a group and thus lost popularity for being too mature. I love their music most in it's mature stage than ever, and the picture you put was I think one of their last kawaii promotional materials. Keep up the good work!!

PLEASE do more about this show and explaining it's meaning and relation to culture. I feel like I could really enjoy a show which presents it's social criticism in the way it does, but I also feel like way too much would be lost on me without a "guide to society", so to speak.

Not gonna lie i frist saw the title and thought you were talking about the basketball player for a second.

Never seen the show but this video made it seem like the friggin anime version of Tales from the Crypt

I would love to see more from this series!

Wow... Definitely going to start watching. Great video!

I would like to believe a more optimistic side of that ending, with the face morphing to the current one to reflect Kirara's soul having been somewhat cleansed by her recent experience

I wouldn't go to as far as saying physical appearance is TOTALLY irrelevant. Physical characteristics are important, most animals use it to determine is a mate is viable to reproduce with. The darker a Lion's mane the healthier and stronger he is, a lot of birds use colorful displays and elaborate dances to charm females. And in humans certain body type eludes to their health and fertility. At the end of the day our main drive in the pursuit of a relationship is to reproduce and start a family. Large breasts and wide hips with a little bit of softness around the middle signals to others that this female is fertile and healthy. Well developed and defined muscles signal to other that this male is strong and healthy with good genes. But I will say that personality and intelligence is just as or more important than a person's physical appearance. Kind of like a modifier. A beautiful woman might be a 10/10 at a distance but if she has the personality of a rabid badger and the intellect of a flat-earther then that 10 quickly shoots down to a 1 or lower. Physical beauty is important, mental beauty is more important, and if you can obtain both then you are truely beautiful.

Wow. This is some of a your top-notch work. Liked, shared and subscribed.

Excellent vid!

so wait... The Slenderman was based on Nopperabou?

Yeah...maybe this is more of a bullying problem, I mean I doubt she’d go this far if she wasn’t bullied.

I dont even watch this anime but everytime you make a culture review of it damn! I am interested!

I remember seeing a quote once about how if it weren't for beauty it would be easier to tell between a good person and a bad person. I don't know how true this is, but it always astonished me on how much pressure we put on ourselves to look and act a certain way, to be and feel beautiful when the term isn't even sure of it means. Any way great video. It was awesome and loved how we as society look at beauty even in different cultures.

So… it's a Faustian bargain except she gets exactly what she wanted without any of the downside? Am I missing something?

Of course we have more plastic surgeries. We're have almost 3X the population!

Another great video Gaijin.

With many videos you have post from this show, I'll take a look.

RIP...🙏

I swear, I can't hear "problematic" without getting a slight annoyance-twitch in my right eye... or maybe that's because of a faulty lazer-treatment.

Whoa... man that was real. I had watched a few episodes of gegege no kitaro, but I'll definitely get back to it now. Great video GG :D

Really good video dude :)

This is both alarming and sad. It's disheartening that these girls would...do this to themselves. I have feels :'(

One of your best episodes yet.

I'll check this show out because this really hit close to home and it seems they tackled this concept a lot better than most shows. As someone who has struggled with their weight and appearance their whole life in middle school I probably would have done the same thing, as terrible as it sounds. A lot of my appearance I can't control, genetics and how my mom raised me being the big factors. I wasn't taught how to portion control or be active, I had to force myself into better habits. I am working to take better care of myself but it's an uphill battle and I'm doing it to be healthy as opposed to thin. There was a moment in high school were I realized that to have the face and body I wanted, I'd have to go through several plastic surgeries. I have a round face, which isn't seen as being attractive for women, but I've seen xrays of my skull. To have the thin angular face I once wanted, I'd literally have to have my jaw and cheekbones sanded down. Complete reconstructive surgery that would cost me probably thousands of dollars I don't have. I really had to fight to love myself and just accept that I look the way I do. I'm working to change what I know will make ME happy, not what will make others like me more. But I was once in such a dark and unhealthy mindset. It's no wonder people destroy themselves trying to achieve standards, winding up botched or developing body dysmorphia.

I only knew about this series thanks to a college course I had to take. It became a meme for my class mates who just kept singing the theme song over and over again. To me it seems just like an odd ball of an anime. Come this year and a newer version and with these culture shocks I finally understand what my fellow classmates could not. Thank you Gaijin.

Japan is obsessed with cuteness. Okay. So, what do you propose? You've identified a problem: if cuteness is desirable, then people who aren't cute will feel undesirable. If those people are obsessed with being cute but unable to become cute, they will be miserable. That's definitely a problem. However, cuteness is just one of many games, and you'll find that every game has winners and losers. And it gets worse. In any endeavor, no matter what it is, most people will be losers. This is the Pareto Principle, the law of the vital few. For many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Female users of OKCupid ranked 80% of the men as below average. Approximately 15% of baseball players are responsible for 85% of the total wins. In 2007 in the US, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth. 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of its customers. Kawaii culture is no different. Most women aren't cute enough to be called "winners" in this area. You may think that's a human problem, but it isn't. Within our solar system, the sun contains 99.8% of the total mass. And among the remaining planets, Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than the rest combined. Nature, not humans, is what creates winners and losers. You may think that the solution is to do away with cuteness entirely and instead find people attractive based purely on...well, I'm sure you have some idea of what you think people should be attracted to. First off, you can't. You may think kawaii culture is unique to Japan, but the fact that people from so many other countries are obsessed with the same kawaii culture proves that it isn't. Cute woman are universally desirable. The fact that Japan emphasizes cuteness over adult beauty, sexiness, or some other trait is unimportant for our purposes. Going purely off of observation of how humans actually behave and beauty standards across cultures, there are only a finite number of feminine traits that could possibly come to be considered the most important trait. Furthermore, changing the game such that one trait becomes more desirable would not help. *No matter which trait you choose, one in five people will be superior to the other four.* You might next think that the proper response is to do away with hierarchies entirely. Any hierarchy creates winners and losers, and there will always be more losers than winners. Why make people suffer the shame of being a loser? But this option is worse. It takes a tremendous amount of force, and I mean violence, to get people to be the same, homogeneous. There's a simple resolution to all of this. You can't be the best in every game. We are all destined to be losers in most endeavors. However, there are many different games you can play. Focus on your strengths and play those games you're good at. You can't win every game, but you can win a few. It's a statistical certainty that everyone in the world is in the top 20% in at least one way.

I’m can’t wait to watch jojo’s bizarre adventure Vento Aureo

When did this channel get so real? Please keep doing what your doing. spread the word

If only VRV would be aviable in my country. But this on chruncyroll even here so now i must chek this show. Another great one Gajin!