I know that for example in Japan, they are even installing a barrier to obstruct the view of Mt. Fuji, because the nearby towns (and a Lawson) are starting to get fed up with an overflow of tourists who stop at one particular spot just to take pictures of the mountain. That is not the only issue with the overflow of tourists within their country, in Kyoto specifically, it is way too crowded. What annoys me the most is them taking pictures of Geisha everywhere, I get it they want to snap a picture, but keep in mind that they are humans and need some space. (They are now issuing a ¥10000 fine for violators.)
Especially with the geisha, like “Leave them alone, geez!” (Give them the right for privacy at least!) They do not like an iPhone right in front of their faces just to be snapped all the time, the thing is that Kyoto is highly dependent on tourist revenue but the local populace ain’t having it, as there are cases of people obstructing roads, tourists filling in the seats on local buses or public transportation that the locals there use daily, most of the demographic living there are old people. (senior citizens) They are even banning tourists on entering Geisha (or Maiko) districts.
During the time Logan Paul visited Japan was the worst, as he went to the suicide forest and recorded footage of a DEAD BODY then proceed to laugh, he took the video down after receiving a ton of backlash. He's not the only one, Johnny Somali also did some shit that landed him in jail, such as entering a construction site, using a random guests room number to get himself 'free' breakfast without realizing that guest will be billed upon them checking out, all due to his stupid actions. Streamers like him who visit Japan are just dumb, taking advantage of others.
Japan is now enforcing stricter rules regarding filming in public, there are even businesses that forbid both video and photography, so no streaming IRL. In general, Japanese are fed up and pissed off about tourists who disrespect their customs or completely disregard their culture, there are even foreigners who throw trash on the floor (due to Japan not having bins everywhere, even in public, they only exist at designated areas) so you have no choice but to carry your trash with you. They even throw trash not from the konbini into their bins!
Even cities such as Osaka or Hakone are imposing tourism taxes, to curb their presence. Since Japan is one of the countries Westerners fetishize a lot, weeaboos think the country is like anime, but it does not mean that people there act like anime characters. There are instances of foreigners bringing in medication or drugs that are banned or deemed illegal (like medical marijuana / ADHD pills) in Japan but not in their home countries, so that means they are subjected to prison and deportation, like... come on, do some research about the country you are traveling to prior to entering their soil.
here are even sacred sites in Japan (like shrines or temples) that have been vandalized, desecrated all because of tourist interaction, which is sad because it’s damaged, losing the integrity on why it’s important. There was a bamboo forest in which someone CARVED their initials on it, like “Don’t destroy the bamboo!” It pisses me off that they desecrate a site you are NOT meant to be treading on at all.
In hindsight:

• Does the Netherlands have an over tourism problem? If so, how bad is it?
• Are there instances of behaviors coming from tourists that annoy Dutch people to the point the authorities are cracking down on bad behavior imposing harsher penalties or deportation?
• Do you know any cases in where tourists have desecrated an important landmark, monument vital to Dutch history or culture?
• Do you know any sites that often get photographed way too often that people are considering on creating a barricade to obstruct the view of said place or site?

So i got this email on sunday, and opened it today, I've seen lots of other posts on it, but there's occasional variations, I just wanna see if anyone has anything else to say on the topic.
Hello pervert, I've sent this message from your iCloud mаil. I want to inform you about a very bad situation for you. However, you can benefit from it, if you will act wisеly. Have you heard of Pegasus? This is a spyware program that installs on computers and smartphones and allows hackers to monitor the activity of device owners. It provides access to your webcam, messengers, emails, call records, etc. It works well on Android, iOS, and Windows. I guess, you already figured out where I’m getting at. It’s been a few months since I installed it on all your dеviсеs because you were not quite choosy about what links to click on the intеrnеt. During this period, I’ve learned about all aspects of your private life, but оnе is of special significance to me. I’ve recorded many videos of you jerking off to highly controversial роrn videos. Given that the “questionable” genre is almost always the same, I can conclude that you have sick реrvеrsiоn. I doubt you’d want your friends, family and co-workers to know about it. However, I can do it in a few clicks. Every number in your contact Iist will suddenly receive these vidеоs – on WhatsApp, on Telegram, on Instagram, on Facebook, on email – everywhere. It is going to be a tsunami that will sweep away everything in its path, and first of all, your fоrmеr life. Don’t think of yourself as an innocent victim. No one knows where your реrvеrsiоn might lead in the future, so consider this a kind of deserved рunishmеnt to stop you. I’m some kind of God who sees everything. However, don’t panic. As we know, God is merciful and forgiving, and so do I. But my mеrсy is not free. Transfer 1500 USD to my Litecoin (LTC) wallet: (not sharing this) Once I receive confirmation of the transaction, I will реrmanently delete all videos compromising you, uninstаll Pegasus from all of your devices, and disappear from your life. You can be sure – my benefit is only money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing to you, but destroy your life without a word in a second. I’ll be notified when you open my email, and from that moment you have exactly 48 hours to send the money. If cryptocurrencies are unchartered waters for you, don’t worry, it’s very simple. Just google “crypto exchange” or "buy Litecoin" and then it will be no harder than buying some useless stuff on Amazon. I strongly warn you against the following: * Do not reply to this email. I've sent it from your iCloud mail.* Do not contact the police. I have access to all your dеviсеs, and as soon as I find out you ran to the cops, videos will be published.* Don’t try to reset or destroy your dеviсеs. As I mentioned above: I’m monitoring all your activity, so you either agree to my terms or the vidеоs are рublished. Also, don’t forget that cryptocurrencies are anonymous, so it’s impossible to identify me using the provided аddrеss. Good luck, my perverted friend. I hope this is the last time we hear from each other.And some friendly advice: from now on, don’t be so careless about your online security.

I wonder if the infertility issues and multiple miscarriages are the catalyst that altered Alicia’s mindset? The need to collect children and hoard ginormous amounts of food that could feed hundreds of people at one time. She already put her brother’s information out there about having mental health issues because he’s Bipolar. Did she not get enough attention growing up because the parents were really focused on the brother?
She chose to sell herself out and drag the poor kids along by signing up with a crooked management company. More than likely the first one that came along showing any interest and instead of doing some research she hopped right on board. They OWN her now. In every new video you can see the anger, wide eyed desperation and the life being sucked right out of her. The pressure to produce more and more content and engagement is getting to her and she can’t keep up this pace for much longer!
All that money that came pouring in and nothing to show for it but a commercial size dumpster in the front yard loaded with tons and tons of crap every week to take to the landfill for disposal. Why was remodeling, buying, or building a home to comfortably fit the whole family not a priority? If you aren’t saving money back to pay impending taxes you know you are going to have to pay (hence the $113,000 unpaid tax billI) I know she hasn’t opened a savings account for each kid to go to college or whatever they choose to do with it.
When it all comes crashing down and she can’t satisfy her shopping addictions, those kids will unfortunately be in for a rude awakening due to no fault of their own! A real parent does not exploit their children to feed their narcissism. When strangers have enough care to tell you ‘Hey, your child innocently saying or doing so-and-so is something that fuels perverts who download it and share it with thousands of other perverts’ you immediately do something about it. Why ignore and refuse to delete it? It’s a form of abuse!
Instead of taking constructive criticisms early on and changing up her ‘brand’ she stubbornly digs her heels in on the negative actions. Switching up her look getting bangs and wearing dresses just ain’t cutting it!!! The damage has already been done. According to social blade she is trending down and I’m here for it for those kids and their privacy!

I wonder if the infertility issues and multiple miscarriages are the catalyst that altered Alicia’s mindset? The need to collect children and hoard ginormous amounts of food that could feed hundreds of people at one time. She already put her brother’s information out there about having mental health issues because he’s Bipolar. Did she not get enough attention growing up because the parents were really focused on the brother?
She chose to sell herself out and drag the poor kids along by signing up with a crooked management company. More than likely the first one that came along showing any interest and instead of doing some research she hopped right on board. They OWN her now. In every new video you can see the anger, wide eyed desperation and the life being sucked right out of her. The pressure to produce more and more content and engagement is getting to her and she can’t keep up this pace for much longer!
All that money that came pouring in and nothing to show for it but a commercial size dumpster in the front yard loaded with tons and tons of crap every week to take to the landfill for disposal. Why was remodeling, buying, or building a home to comfortably fit the whole family not a priority? If you aren’t saving money back to pay impending taxes you know you are going to have to pay (hence the $113,000 unpaid tax billI) I know she hasn’t opened a savings account for each kid to go to college or whatever they choose to do with it.
When it all comes crashing down and she can’t satisfy her shopping addictions, those kids will unfortunately be in for a rude awakening due to no fault of their own! A real parent does not exploit their children to feed their narcissism. When strangers have enough care to tell you ‘Hey, your child innocently saying or doing so-and-so is something that fuels perverts who download it and share it with thousands of other perverts’ you immediately do something about it. Why ignore and refuse to delete it? It’s a form of abuse!
Instead of taking constructive criticisms early on and changing up her ‘brand’ she stubbornly digs her heels in on the negative actions. Switching up her look getting bangs and wearing dresses just ain’t cutting it!!! The damage has already been done. According to social blade she is trending down and I’m here for it for those kids and their privacy!

I don't know much about mall tours but I'm guessing they (Mercedes, Santana and Brittany) got a tour bus for it though we saw Britt and Mercedes hop in to a cab after their Shaking My Head mall performance.
Based off the troubletones dynamics we've seen prior, they probably had a blast on the road together and while I can imagine Santana and Mercedes occasionally butting heads over something minor, comes with having two big personalities in a limited space, they do seem to genuinely respect and like each other enough to not make it anything big. I can imagine they took the opportunity to do some personal shopping together while at each mall just for fun and hanging out.
Mercedes probably had to put some ground rules put in place for Brittany and Santana as travelling with any couple in an enclosed space seems like it can get potentially awkward otherwise. My own headcanon of course but I imagine that Mercedes and Sam video called a lot as well and you just know Santana would start with Trouty Mouth in the background at some point if she heard his voice.
I don't know if they had their own separate bus for the three of them, seems unlikely though as it would be very expensive, or if they also shared the space with the other dancers and any potential backup vocals, if so as someone who values my own personal space I can't imagine that being easy but then again celebrities go on tour buses a lot and seem to mostly manage so it might have been easier than I think.

How do people that don’t have a ca don’t drive get around here? I’m new to the US and a year ago I moved to Puyallup with my boyfriend. He has a car that he mostly uses to go to work and very rarely get groceries since we get almost all of our stuff delivered. I used to work in Seattle and ride the Sounder every day after he dropped me at the station, he would also pick me up in the evening, but after I went unemployed we decided I would stay home and take care of the house keeping and the kids (cats). I am okay with our arrangement because it’s very difficult for me to find a job right now, and not exactly legal while i try to adjust my migratory status. He is working nights cause it pays better so he can supports both of us, but this leaves no time for me to ask him to be taking me here and there. He does a lot for us and I try to be as independent as I can when it comes to recreation.
As a young woman that used to have a lot of friends getting used to my new lifestyle is very challenging. My guy is a gamer so he is totally fine with spending his time off work playing video games and though I can enjoy it for an hour or two is definitely not my thing. I grew up going to the park every weekend and seeing friends all the time, my idea of fun is far away from sitting down for hours and never abandon my house. He is the kind to leave the house as little as possible, on the other hand I was used to go out a lot using the public transport, but there aren’t any buses near me, riding my bike around here requires a lot of energy living uphill. I feel like I’ve lost my independence, I can’t go anywhere and it just frustrates me to see my few acquaintances see all the beautiful places around, going on hikes, and even visiting places out of state, heck even going to the mall would be fun for me, when we go grocery shopping I get super excited to leave the house and het in the car to see people and get the feeling I have a life. What would you guys suggest? I go on walks alone sometimes, or I take my bicycle for a ride but not gonna lie, it kinda sucks. Is there somewhere I can make friends? When im up for a thrill I take a couple ones and walk to the dollar store but thats 50 minutes of walking and then 50 minutes back home. I don’t see many people here having friends to share ordinary stuff with, like visiting just because to watch tv and play cards. I am used to not having to spend money to see friends and have fun, at home friends would take the bus and travel through the city for considerable amounts of time to see each other but here people complain about having to drive to see someone so I don’t see myself making many friends considering It’s really hard for me to get out of my house and they should have to come to me. Where is the young cool motivated people at? I wanna smoke weed with them, I can walk to them! I feel like there’s so much to see and do, even if it’s just ordinary stuff. I’ve never been to the river, or seen the shore somewhere that wasn’t in Seattle. I want life to be exciting for me again but public transit is extremely limited both in the area it serves as in the hours it runs.

I was looking at why gen alpha seems to be even worse than kids in general. At first I was concerned about the fact that they barely even have the attention span for tv shows like Big City Greens and Bluey instead being dumped in front of horrifying content farms and even addictive stuff like c—melon.
Then it went a little deeper when I saw videos of teachers talking about how their regular kids(like kids without disabilities) are struggling below grade level and this is like 6th grade students having almost no attention spans and having reading levels and learning levels far below like 3rd grade levels, and not knowing certain basics There was even a video that mentioned how even sped kids despite their disadvantage had higher reading levels than normal kids. And the normal kids seemed not to even be trying to better themselves.
Then I learned about the Sephora girls and how they are straight up menaces to other people and demand skincare that isn’t designed for their age group and can damage them(instead of getting age appropriate skincare). I learned about the horrible Sephora moms enabling this with instagrams
Then I learned about young boys(like 6-9 year olds) accessing extremely sexist streamers and a pretty notorious rapist and trafficker named “quagmire” Tate who was just arrested for sex trafficking influencing young minds to regress regarding equality and no means no etc. I then saw more teachers saying how toxic kids are becoming and they seem to have no real life goals other than being influencers. And then quitting because of such flagrant behavior.
I was confused by all of this like it seemed like the parents weren’t even trying to teach the kids basics like how letters are pronounced, how to tie shoes, not to steal the cookie, etc. this continued to be hard to understand like it didn’t make sense. Like these problems used to be a very small minority like not everyone is like this but now it seemed that not “everyones kids are bad” while still a fair amount seemed even smaller compared to to it seems like the kids who were never taught seemed to increase.
Then when I saw one video which talked about the Sephora kids she brought up a TikTok talking about why gen alpha ended up so bad and the video brought up the accessory baby trend of the 2010s that really blew up around that time. I then watched the TikTok and that’s when it clicked. The kids who were born then are the same that are gen alpha. I remembered that on YouTube and other sites was filled with teens who were excited about having a baby and belly progressions etc.
it made total sense why gen alpha is horribly underprepared because many of these kids were(and are) the accessory babies born in the 2010s that were born to a large minority of(a lot of) teenagers who wanted to showcase their cute baby as if they were a furby accessory trying to copy the celebrity (spesficially the kardashians and Kyle Jenner) accessory baby trend which resulted in the aesthetic of parenting and having a cute baby without any of the actual work needed to raise a baby to a functioning human being with good literacy skills, a reasonable education and basically becoming a functioning person.
Oh and teen mom the tv show(which despite showing some of the darker sides and contributing to a decline in teen pregnancy’s some dumb kids still took inspiration) . It’s made even worse because now TikTok and instagram reels glorifying pregnancy at young(like teenage) ages for aesthetics even if said person was not ready or willing to handle responsibly raising a future adult and showing none of the true consequences and sorrow that comes with ruining your and a future humans life, instead being filled with instagram photos of cute mommy and baby in matching outfits on highly staged photos with no hint on how difficult it is to raise a human being.
Anyway The baby was never supposed to grow up as a person and become a functioning human being but to be a silent being with no thoughts of it’s own to dress up and show off to instagram and Pinterest. Essentially a doll. However when that baby started to grow up into their own person and becoming a human being because as it turns out baby’s grow up to be a functioning adult. The parents has no desire to be a parent and does not know how to raise a functioning human so they dumped them in front of iPads in order to get them out of the way and basically negelect them. The consequence is that now we have an entire generation of kids who have not been taught basic lessons and how to be a functioning person.
It even affects the kids who weren’t accessory babies and are being raised by people who actually want to see their child succeed in life , because the peer pressure to act more mature than before has ramped up significantly as the moms of the accessory babies shunned kid appropriate outfits and acting their age and stuff because they wanted the babies to be dressed up in adult fashions for instagram photo ops and have engrained that acting like a kid is stupid and that they go from accessory Baby to hot young adult with no inbetween in their minds which warps them to act like an “adult” when way too young. It’s essentially the traditional 10 year old wants to act older but warped far beyond what it used to be and if a kid simply acts like their age group they are often picked on by accessory baby bullies which means that a lot of kids are now under peer pressure to grow up way too fast because the accessory kids that dominate the school and act like monsters towards everyone else.
It’s because they were never taught how to be a good Person. And it’s because of the parents who wanted accessory babies for instagram rather than raising a human. Like it’s the 30 year mellenials who take their kids only to instagramamble play areas, dressing them up for photo shoots every week in new clothes, going on instagramamble vacations and even having another baby only for clicks.
This is the reality of the situation we are seeing the consequences of this in real time. The kids were never taught how to be a person and because of that they have almost no manners and learned all their lessons from toxic influencers and or consumerist influencers. It’s because the parents neglect them instead of providing moral lessons on how to be a good person, teaching them right from wrong, or even providing them good tv shows like BCG, and bluey instead dumping them in front of iPad content farms that rot their attention spans without any moderation causing them to have no imagination and tech addictions and then for the boys watching toxic influencers like Andrew quagmire tate and his merry band of Herbert the perverts(it’s a family guy reference). And for the girls being brainwashed into acting like adults and buying skincare that burns their skin instead of age appropate skin care.
This is scary because they are our next doctors, artists, writers, musicians, librarians, mechanic, firefighters, plumbers, etc. and they end up with social media addicitions and have shockingly short attention spans thanks to overstimulating YouTube shorts and they were never taught how to be a successful person who thrives in society all because they were treated as disposable photo props to get more IG likes.
To be clear not every parent is like this and there are many parents trying to raise their kids good and teaching them to be a good person but it is concearning how the accessory babies are now being turned into monsters at shockingly young ages. I really hope people wake up and realize that this is a problem and how we need to educate kids and prevent toxic Tate influences on boys And toxic trends on girls. We need to let kids learn positive values and teach the, about diversity and how to be a good person and helping other people and doing good things and working hard to achieve whatever goals they want.
We need to fix this and help prepare kids to be a functioning good adults so that they can succeed. It’s a whole mess that we need to do better with our next generation of people because we need to stop treating kids like they are just instagram photos and they aren’t babies with on and off switches but babies that grow to toddler then kid tween teen until they become an adult who should be able to do basic functions in society.
I am legit concerned about the next generation and them being addicted to content farms rather than quality shows with educational and entertainment value and not being taught basic morals like don’t steal the cookie, everyone is equal, clean up after yourself, don’t rudely interrupt other people. or even helping them get to grade level reading and stuff(and I’m not counting kids with disabilities, like autistic and adhd kids) to function in society. like I literally heard that sped kids with disabilities and autism etc are literally doing higher reading levels than regular kids because a lot of the regular kids were never taught. It’s legit concerning.
*it should also be mentioned that this seems to mostly happen with really really young parents 9/10 times as most kids who were conceived by parents at older ages(30 something when they had kids) don’t seem to have this problem(or very rarely)

I was looking at why gen alpha seems to be even worse than kids in general. At first I was concerned about the fact that they barely even have the attention span for tv shows like Big City Greens and Bluey instead being dumped in front of horrifying content farms and even addictive stuff like c—melon.
Then it went a little deeper when I saw videos of teachers talking about how their regular kids(like kids without disabilities) are struggling below grade level and this is like 6th grade students having almost no attention spans and having reading levels and learning levels far below like 3rd grade levels, and not knowing certain basics There was even a video that mentioned how even sped kids despite their disadvantage had higher reading levels than normal kids. And the normal kids seemed not to even be trying to better themselves.
Then I learned about the Sephora girls and how they are straight up menaces to other people and demand skincare that isn’t designed for their age group and can damage them(instead of getting age appropriate skincare). I learned about the horrible Sephora moms enabling this with instagrams
Then I learned about young boys(like 6-9 year olds) accessing extremely sexist streamers and a pretty notorious rapist and trafficker named “quagmire” Tate who was just arrested for sex trafficking influencing young minds to regress regarding equality and no means no etc. I then saw more teachers saying how toxic kids are becoming and they seem to have no real life goals other than being influencers. And then quitting because of such flagrant behavior.
I was confused by all of this like it seemed like the parents weren’t even trying to teach the kids basics like how letters are pronounced, how to tie shoes, not to steal the cookie, etc. this continued to be hard to understand like it didn’t make sense. Like these problems used to be a very small minority like not everyone is like this but now it seemed that not “everyones kids are bad” while still a fair amount seemed even smaller compared to to it seems like the kids who were never taught seemed to increase.
Then when I saw one video which talked about the Sephora kids she brought up a TikTok talking about why gen alpha ended up so bad and the video brought up the accessory baby trend of the 2010s that really blew up around that time. I then watched the TikTok and that’s when it clicked. The kids who were born then are the same that are gen alpha. I remembered that on YouTube and other sites was filled with teens who were excited about having a baby and belly progressions etc.
it made total sense why gen alpha is horribly underprepared because many of these kids were(and are) the accessory babies born in the 2010s that were born to a large minority of(a lot of) teenagers who wanted to showcase their cute baby as if they were a furby accessory trying to copy the celebrity (spesficially the kardashians and Kyle Jenner) accessory baby trend which resulted in the aesthetic of parenting and having a cute baby without any of the actual work needed to raise a baby to a functioning human being with good literacy skills, a reasonable education and basically becoming a functioning person.
Oh and teen mom the tv show(which despite showing some of the darker sides and contributing to a decline in teen pregnancy’s some dumb kids still took inspiration) . It’s made even worse because now TikTok and instagram reels glorifying pregnancy at young(like teenage) ages for aesthetics even if said person was not ready or willing to handle responsibly raising a future adult and showing none of the true consequences and sorrow that comes with ruining your and a future humans life, instead being filled with instagram photos of cute mommy and baby in matching outfits on highly staged photos with no hint on how difficult it is to raise a human being.
Anyway The baby was never supposed to grow up as a person and become a functioning human being but to be a silent being with no thoughts of it’s own to dress up and show off to instagram and Pinterest. Essentially a doll. However when that baby started to grow up into their own person and becoming a human being because as it turns out baby’s grow up to be a functioning adult. The parents has no desire to be a parent and does not know how to raise a functioning human so they dumped them in front of iPads in order to get them out of the way and basically negelect them. The consequence is that now we have an entire generation of kids who have not been taught basic lessons and how to be a functioning person.
It even affects the kids who weren’t accessory babies and are being raised by people who actually want to see their child succeed in life , because the peer pressure to act more mature than before has ramped up significantly as the moms of the accessory babies shunned kid appropriate outfits and acting their age and stuff because they wanted the babies to be dressed up in adult fashions for instagram photo ops and have engrained that acting like a kid is stupid and that they go from accessory Baby to hot young adult with no inbetween in their minds which warps them to act like an “adult” when way too young. It’s essentially the traditional 10 year old wants to act older but warped far beyond what it used to be and if a kid simply acts like their age group they are often picked on by accessory baby bullies which means that a lot of kids are now under peer pressure to grow up way too fast because the accessory kids that dominate the school and act like monsters towards everyone else.
It’s because they were never taught how to be a good Person. And it’s because of the parents who wanted accessory babies for instagram rather than raising a human. Like it’s the 30 year mellenials who take their kids only to instagramamble play areas, dressing them up for photo shoots every week in new clothes, going on instagramamble vacations and even having another baby only for clicks.
This is the reality of the situation we are seeing the consequences of this in real time. The kids were never taught how to be a person and because of that they have almost no manners and learned all their lessons from toxic influencers and or consumerist influencers. It’s because the parents neglect them instead of providing moral lessons on how to be a good person, teaching them right from wrong, or even providing them good tv shows like BCG, and bluey instead dumping them in front of iPad content farms that rot their attention spans without any moderation causing them to have no imagination and tech addictions and then for the boys watching toxic influencers like Andrew quagmire tate and his merry band of Herbert the perverts(it’s a family guy reference). And for the girls being brainwashed into acting like adults and buying skincare that burns their skin instead of age appropate skin care.
This is scary because they are our next doctors, artists, writers, musicians, librarians, mechanic, firefighters, plumbers, etc. and they end up with social media addicitions and have shockingly short attention spans thanks to overstimulating YouTube shorts and they were never taught how to be a successful person who thrives in society all because they were treated as disposable photo props to get more IG likes.
To be clear not every parent is like this and there are many parents trying to raise their kids good and teaching them to be a good person but it is concearning how the accessory babies are now being turned into monsters at shockingly young ages. I really hope people wake up and realize that this is a problem and how we need to educate kids and prevent toxic Tate influences on boys And toxic trends on girls. We need to let kids learn positive values and teach the, about diversity and how to be a good person and helping other people and doing good things and working hard to achieve whatever goals they want.
We need to fix this and help prepare kids to be a functioning good adults so that they can succeed. It’s a whole mess that we need to do better with our next generation of people because we need to stop treating kids like they are just instagram photos and they aren’t babies with on and off switches but babies that grow to toddler then kid tween teen until they become an adult who should be able to do basic functions in society.
I am legit concerned about the next generation and them being addicted to content farms rather than quality shows with educational and entertainment value and not being taught basic morals like don’t steal the cookie, everyone is equal, clean up after yourself, don’t rudely interrupt other people. or even helping them get to grade level reading and stuff(and I’m not counting kids with disabilities, like autistic and adhd kids) to function in society. like I literally heard that sped kids with disabilities and autism etc are literally doing higher reading levels than regular kids because a lot of the regular kids were never taught. It’s legit concerning.
*it should also be mentioned that this seems to mostly happen with really really young parents 9/10 times as most kids who were conceived by parents at older ages(30 something when they had kids) don’t seem to have this problem(or very rarely)
*we also need to have a village to help raise these kids to become better people. Like social society helps them because kids still need to be taken care of even if it’s overworked parents. I think we need actual free regulated child care and school is something that needs to be encouraged.
Edit. I decided to put sources in my videos
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLkgAS/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLM4Fp/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLUxVc/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLf3H3/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKL82N1/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLY2Vs/
https://youtu.be/wKmj5p2XmBo?si=DvUj0U1Jw0n4o-V1
https://youtu.be/RCDLM1qvchM?si=CET7cJ3G7pu5-W5X
https://youtu.be/WiCjzB3AcXE?si=Wem-NILM8lC_Sr_H
https://youtu.be/MfGtaS8Ku1I?si=1vGQpC6z3IHegCXy
https://youtu.be/eV5hMFZfYPQ?si=SRL_ydmNoib0ZeWt
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLj5d4/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLY6Qw/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLkSWY/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLjksG/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKLUk5D/

Just needed to vent some bad memories. I wonder if someone can relate. Sorry for the long post.
When I was about eight, I remember my mom coming to my bed snugging next to me, which was odd enough by itself. Then she started softly talking how terrible life she has with my father, how hard she has to work to bring money to buy us (me and my 3 year old brother), how her boss treats her badly, basically complaining about everything around her. It was neverending story so in the end I nodded off, she probably kept on talking when I was asleep, next thing I remember her shouting at me, how dare I fall asleep when she’s talking about important stuff.
At me being 15, she signed me up to dancing classes. I didn’t wanna attend, since it made no sense to me. I listened to Led Zeppelin and had no interest in classical dancing. We had couple of arguments about me not attending, but my resistance was useless. She took me to clothing store to buy me a suit. She forced me into changing cabin, started to pull down my jeans, because I just didn’t want to try on those suit pants. She was so agressive, that she pulled my shorts a bit too, that revealed bit of my pubic hair. She looked at my groin and started making gagging noises, said te how that hair are repulsive and gross. I was just standing there paralyzed.
I was then forced to go to dancing classes, I was truly miserable. Only after classes ended I was allowed to stay for afterparty with couple of my friends from high school. I walked one of my friends home, it was a girl I kinda liked. So I got to my home maybe thirty minutes late. There was my mother sitting on a couch, her eyes glazed with bottle of wine she just finished, she was crying dramatically. She asked me why I’m late, so I replied I walked one of my friends home, she was afraid to go home in the dark alone. My nmom started yelling at me how dare I prioritize some dirty slut (my friend was 15 then, same as me), over her. My enabler dad tried to comfort her, but she got a bit insane, was crawling on the carpet, mumbling, telling me that she had paracetamol pills and drank bottle of wine because of me. Told me if she dies, it’s my fault. Then she pretended (real bad acting) to have passed out. Next day when I asked her why she called my friend slut, I was told that how dare I accuse her of something that awful. Similar story happened after I attended my older friends prom party and she picked my up on train station. Started yelling at me that I am a pig and disgrace to the whole family. Whole sin was based on me not having shirt tugged into my pants. Whole town was talking about it for entire length of next, according to her.
On other occasion I just wanted to discuss changing my high school, because I wanted to do something more creative. It almost instantly brought fire, because to question my mother’s choice of school for me was considered treason. I was called ungrateful asshole. There was no better option than that was picked for me. At the same time I was reminded at every dinner how much money they pay for me for this great school (school was pretentious shit with drunk and pervert teachers, my history teacher was inprisoned for raping one of female students). I was proposing public school with audio/video specialty (industry I’m working for last 15 years btw). Opinion exchange escalated into her yelling at me again. I went to my room as I was done talking to her. Didn’t want to continue this pointless session. But she kept coming to me provoking more fighting. When she realized I’m just stonewalling her because I was exhausted. She left. I went to have some water to the kitchen and in the mirror reflection in the corridor I saw her drinking some wine, so I stopped and waited for her to leave. But she layed on the floor, looked around and pretended to have passed out, started making some weird noises. I was not that suprised, not being the first acting class in this household, so I just went by her, had my glass of water and left. My brother and father were watching tv so they didn’t notice her act. In 15 minutes or so she started yelling maniacally that we would leave her to die in kitchen while she was making cookies for us, bunch of fucking assholes. Mainly me, because I wasn’t caught by her act. I just kept silent. My enabler father tried to comfort her unsucessfuly. She went out out of the house yelling that she will never return and if we find her on tracks run over by train it’s our fault. Mainly mine of course.
When I was around 20, I had pretty good job, working part time at postproduction studio. I really enjoyed that. But I was forced to leave because my nmom wanted me to study at a university. I wanted to work for a year and then maybe go to filmschool, that I could pay for from job money. There was no understanding of that, I was told that I will not want to go to back to school after year of working (what a nonsense). There were some fight about it but then I just resigned. Three more years I was in a limbo in a school I hated.
When I finally made her agree with me going to film school I was bit relieved. It was far from my town. Out of her reach. I borrowed my father’s car once for a film school shoot. I was driving at night after long shoot hours and wanted to stop for a late dinner at McDonalds, so I pulled over from a highway and accidentally hit an unmarked curb at the parking lot. Had to call a tow service since i ripped of engine mount. There was no big damage. But I called home, my father was not amused but was glad I’m ok. Only thing I heard from my nmom was that I just destroy everything and gave me silent treatment for a week, apart from remarks how bad driver I am.
My grandfather whom I loved very much was sick then. He had saved some money he wanted to give me. So I decided to buy my own car. My causing $120 damage to the father’s car was discussed on daily basis for couple of next months. So when my nmom heard that my grandpa is giving me money, she tried to steal those from me. After heated argument that included my sick grandpa yelling from his sofa at my nmom I was settled. Love you grandpa forever. He passed away not long after that.
But I kept coming back for some weekends. My family had a dog. He was almost 15 by then. Could barely walk. Once I returned from school after couple of weeks and dog was just miserable, he was deaf, almost blind, must have been in pain. So I asked my nmom if she doesn’t think that the dog should be put down. I was just trying to be sympathetic with the dog. She got into her emotional overdrive and started comparing putting down the dog with killing my grandfather (who sadly passed away some months ago). I was just stunned how she can even say that. I pointed out that nonsense and she started calling me names and how cruel can I be after all she has done for me. I told her I have had enough and left. I decided I have to go no contact for some time, I was just anxious around her all.
Then I finally moved out for good and started my own life. I remember those years as some of the best I’ve had. I was vising my parents ocasionally. But the intensity got lower with time. As she lost my control over me she got a bit sweeter, because I was such a rare visitor. After 8 years or so I invited my parents for a 3week roadtrip. It was a great roadtrip if my nmom wasn’t there. I somehow forgot all that stuff I had lived thru with her before. Not only she can’t shut her mout for a second, she just demeaning about anything and everyone. She puts down my dad constantly, and he truly loves her. She just acts like a bitter bitch. I managed to be calm for first two weeks but then after some of her provocation, lying and overreacting over just anything, I erupted, I’ve had enough, I was called agressive maniac. I was 35 at that time if you’re wondering.
Couple of months after that I was sick on my birthday. My mother came over with some of the other relatives. My wife gave them some coffee and apologises for me being sick. My nmom wouldn’t say hi to me or ask how am I doing, she just did a tour of my apparment for the relatives and went away.
A year after that she called me with some rant and I just straight shut her off, told her she’s terrible demeaning person, most unemphatetic person in the world. I felt terrible, but it had to go off my chest eventually. I started googling how it’s possible to hate my own mother and found out this subreddit. It’s been five years since and it still hurts.

(Edit: fair warning, this is a game centric theory so no Andrew or jake or anything. I am simply posing ideas)
So,
In the Curse of dreadbear DLC, the titular character is an obvious play on frankenstein’s monster: specifically the one popularized in the 30’s film adaptation.
And what exactly happens in that film? A scientist named Henry creates a monster composed of multiple combined dead things, then vows to destroy it in a fire.
Once laid out like that, it’s a pretty obvious hint. It lines up with Henry’s story in virtually every continuity, at least half of it. Desk guy (also from a Halloween DLC) was theorized to be Henry and his whole deal is that he made Baby, regretted it, then died. Book henry made baby, regretted it, then committed suicide. Who’s to say that pattern doesn’t extend to game Henry as well?
Basically what this boils down to is that Henry made the funtimes. Ryetoast talked about it in a video, in the insanity ending he goes on to describe molten MCI pretty much verbatim. With the added support of Henrystein, it’s very possible the “prisons of my making” were the funtimes. What is Ennard if not a monster made of several dead things stitched together?
It’s very likely that Henry had no idea what they were for. He said that he “unwillingly helped to create” them, and that he “doesn’t know how those tiny breaths of life came to inhabit those machines”.
The funtimes are The only things that you could reasonably trace back to Afton given what they’re for and the huge ass bunker with his name plastered on everything. A strong connecting thing throughout the short stories is the idea of fazbear entertainment hiring out independent roboticists to make animatronics. What if Afton was pulling a Steve Jobs?
Afton is cited as a “local entrepreneur” in the canceled due to leaks teaser, and seems to derive a great amount of pleasure in being the genius behind the beloved characters. William made Henry make the funtimes and took all the credit. But why stop there?
In the novels there is a bunker directly under Henry’s house, similar to the sister location facility. That facility is also where the twisted animatronics are stored, which are essentially the nightmares. That is everything detailed in the sister location building map all belonging to Henry. It would also make a ton of sense for Henry, someone characterized by being too wrapped up in his work to be a present father, to want to have surveillance on his children. It’s also a point that in both the movies and the novels Henry, or someone equating Henry, has a bigger family while Afton only has one daughter. In game as well, Elizabeth has green eyes and red hair while Mike, BV, and Charlie have darker hair. All this to say, Elizabeth has some rare traits that would be recessive if she was really Mike or BV’s sister
You know what other game has a Halloween DLC? Fnaf 4. You know what other game has a Halloween DLC containing the aforementioned desk guy with the same general arc? Fnaf world. Both games largely dealing with the memories of the bite victim. There is this weird connection between Halloween, bite victim and Henry. It likely has something to do with Fallfest.
Speaking of fallfest, Carnie is just a reskinned rockstar Freddy. This leads me to believe that the rockstars as models are old as hell. And with old as hell models, they may be springlock animatronics. The 5 fingers would certainly suggest that, though their endos are pretty barebones. My own mechanical dissection of springlocks aside, look at the nightmares and the rockstars side by side.
You can definitely see it with rockstar foxy, ditch some of the pirate decorations and the face shape is nearly identical, including the lighter ring around the eyes. Same with Bonnie and Chica, same chunky face shape with similar eyeholes. Same jaw mechanism. That, plus the 5 fingers and 4 toes (except for rockstar chica for some reason). You can see how the rockstars could be reasonably warped into the nightmares.
The one outlier here is nightmare Freddy, who doesn’t have a solid look alike. Rockstar Freddy looks more like nightmare fredbear, complete with purple accessories. Rockstar Freddy also has a darker recolor with strong connections to the puppet in LEFTE. If the rockstars (or at least a model using their molds which likely would have been mass produced) and the nightmares are one in the same, that would mean that Henry made them too.
Furthermore: the Twisted animatronics, which are one in the same with the nightmares, were explicitly made to kidnap people from their homes. We litterally see them in the opening screen coming out of the woods towards a house. The trailer for fnaf 4 also says “what have you brought home”. This would imply their aim was not too dissimilar to the funtimes, but they’re their own thing. I raise you: yendo.
Yendo is a very oddball character, which very well might not even be canon. He is an endoskeleton of Funtime Freddy who was made to store kids in his stomach. What do we see on nightmare fredbear and nightmare? A stomach mouth.
Nightmare Fredbear and yendo also behave in ways similar to golden Freddy. Throughout the various books spirits are also known to induce audiovisual hallucinations. What if instead of illusion discs, or whatever, bite victim: Henry’s son, had his supernatural properties weaponized by Afton in an early attempt to automate the kidnapping of children. Afton had Henry make a prototype for Funtime Freddy, and dressed it in a rockstar costume.
I’d also really like to shout out this theory by dual process theory, I think they hit the nail on the head: https://youtu.be/7ykDrYPAkkw?feature=shared
Summary: altered text/bite victim’s name is Cassidy, Charlie is faded text, and Mike is the vengeful spirit; pissed enough to literally reanimate his own corpse and hunt down Afton in order to put him through the same stuff he tricked him into doing for all eternity, all the while taunting him with the visage of Cassidy. The HW2 death order as the MCI and Charlie dying in-between the week when when Cassidy was bit and when he died; this gives William the info necessary to conclude that throwing Cassidy into fredbear will bring him back. 10/10, no notes in my book. Though, the SL night 4 springlock suit being fredbear is a bit of a stretch imo. Just kinda copy paste the bits that fit.
He starts with Henry’s oldest and only remaining child: Michael. Bite victim’s spirit would contort onlookers perception of the frame into how he remembered the characters in the week leading up to his death: scary, grotesque, and full of teeth. Afton would exploit the spirit’s desire to get revenge on his brother, to lure him out and capture him.
Henry was now belligerent from losing 2 children in the span of a week, and being convicted for the disappearances of 4 more. Not only that, but Afton was completely undermining him and taking over his robotics company while he did all the work. His life was falling apart at the seams. He had been keeping a close eye on Mike to ensure nothing happened to him as well. At this rate he couldn’t stand another tragedy, even if he did blame the kid.
Mike was lured out to the visage of fredbear, and ran out to his brother’s unmarked grave out of repentance. It was there the thing captured him and took him to the nightmare chambers. Henry assumed he would be back soon enough, and that he’d be sorry when he got back.
From there, Afton would use nitrous oxide (as seen in RUIN and the gas canisters all around the sl facility) to sedate Mike and make him more susceptible to hallucinations. He would use the rockstars to conduct experiments on the effects of prolonged fear à la Dittophobia. at the end of it he could brainwash mike into believing that he was his father, everything was his fault, and he needs to do everything he says to atone.
At this point, Henry assumes mike is dead. Out of his grief for losing all 3 of his children, his reputation, and his whole livelihood, he made Baby in the likeness of Charlie with the intent to kill himself with it (see Fuhnaff’s video on baby being a recreation of Charlie). He doesn’t, but he abandons robotics altogether and falls off the face of the earth Until Fnaf 6.
At this point for Afton it was only a matter of hiring technicians to reverse engineer yendo and baby, as well as add a few of his own modifications, to create the Funtime series of animatronics. Elizabeth dies, etc. etc.
Id also like to stop and appreciate the narrative depth this adds to the story.
(Edit: I originally said some stuff in support of frights fiction, I removed it because I don’t want people to fixate on it. TLDR: I think it’s a cool meta way for the stories to remain In a vacuum while maintaining their utility as providing anchor points and a glossary for the more supernatural stuff, this is a game centric theory after all)
Also, mike being vengeful spirit gives such a cathartic ending for this character we’ve been playing as for most likely all of the previous games.
I also really like the Afton that this story paints. It keeps in line with his novel characterization of trying to surpass Henry, going so far as to steal his entire family. He is this ever present perverting force, it’s allegorical in a way. He’s a caricature of the power hungry CEO: sitting at the top, pushing ideas in the name of reckless expansion and innovation regardless of the consequences. extinguished the spark of life that his partner was able to imbue into his creations, so he took it upon himself to recreate that spark by any means necessary: substituting metaphorical soul for literal soul. He takes a keen interest in his legacy, he believes he is on the brink of discovering the secret to immortality. The ends justify the means but his means are deeply flawed. He’s not a tragic father. He expands, infecting every part of the company (figuratively and eventually literally) like a virus.
This theory props up something I like to believe: spring lock suits were William’s idea. Henry simply had to make them despite his better judgement; a brilliantly executed absolutely terrible idea by a man trying to save money. It adds even more potency to William’s death, because he was so insistent on them. He was killed by his own hubirus more than anything else.
Henry also becomes a far more poignant character. His passion to create was being actively used to sap everything away from him. All of his incredible advancements in artificial intelligence and Servo motor technology being used by one greedy man looking to prolong his life and legacy. His creations were accomplices in the murder of his family and so many others. And all for what? We don’t even know if William recorded the results of any of his “experiments”, he just kept literally industrializing the production of agony in a business supposed to produce joy. He was unknowing of the full scope yet complicit on the promise that he could regain his children. He held onto that tragedy, as many else did. He let the memory fester and tear him apart. It would take years to realize, but it’s best to move on. Let it fade, as the agony of every tragedy should.
Frankenstein has to deal with obtaining forbidden knowledge. While I don’t feel like we as a society shouldn’t pursue that knowledge, Scott probably intended it as Mary Shelly did. We shouldn’t play god, especially in pursuit of profit or glory.
Is Scott a good writer? Who knows, I could be completely wrong.

I was looking at why gen alpha seems to be even worse than kids in general. At first I was concerned about the fact that they barely even have the attention span for tv shows like Big City Greens and Bluey instead being dumped in front of horrifying content farms and even addictive stuff like c—melon.
Then it went a little deeper when I saw videos of teachers talking about how their regular kids(like kids without disabilities) are struggling below grade level and this is like 6th grade students having almost no attention spans and having reading levels and learning levels far below like 3rd grade levels, and not knowing certain basics There was even a video that mentioned how even sped kids despite their disadvantage had higher reading levels than normal kids. And the normal kids seemed not to even be trying to better themselves.
Then I learned about the Sephora girls and how they are straight up menaces to other people and demand skincare that isn’t designed for their age group and can damage them(instead of getting age appropriate skincare). I learned about the horrible Sephora moms enabling this with instagrams
Then I learned about young boys(like 6-9 year olds) accessing extremely sexist streamers and a pretty notorious rapist and trafficker named “quagmire” Tate who was just arrested for sex trafficking influencing young minds to regress regarding equality and no means no etc. I then saw more teachers saying how toxic kids are becoming and they seem to have no real life goals other than being influencers. And then quitting because of such flagrant behavior.
I was confused by all of this like it seemed like the parents weren’t even trying to teach the kids basics like how letters are pronounced, how to tie shoes, not to steal the cookie, etc. this continued to be hard to understand like it didn’t make sense. Like these problems used to be a very small minority like not everyone is like this but now it seemed that not “everyones kids are bad” while still a fair amount seemed even smaller compared to to it seems like the kids who were never taught seemed to increase.
Then when I saw one video which talked about the Sephora kids she brought up a TikTok talking about why gen alpha ended up so bad and the video brought up the accessory baby trend of the 2010s that really blew up around that time. I then watched the TikTok and that’s when it clicked. The kids who were born then are the same that are gen alpha. I remembered that on YouTube and other sites was filled with teens who were excited about having a baby and belly progressions etc.
it made total sense why gen alpha is horribly underprepared because many of these kids were(and are) the accessory babies born in the 2010s that were born to a large minority of(a lot of) teenagers who wanted to showcase their cute baby as if they were a furby accessory trying to copy the celebrity (spesficially the kardashians and Kyle Jenner) accessory baby trend which resulted in the aesthetic of parenting and having a cute baby without any of the actual work needed to raise a baby to a functioning human being with good literacy skills, a reasonable education and basically becoming a functioning person.
Oh and teen mom the tv show(which despite showing some of the darker sides and contributing to a decline in teen pregnancy’s some dumb kids still took inspiration) . It’s made even worse because now TikTok and instagram reels glorifying pregnancy at young(like teenage) ages for aesthetics even if said person was not ready or willing to handle responsibly raising a future adult and showing none of the true consequences and sorrow that comes with ruining your and a future humans life, instead being filled with instagram photos of cute mommy and baby in matching outfits on highly staged photos with no hint on how difficult it is to raise a human being.
Anyway The baby was never supposed to grow up as a person and become a functioning human being but to be a silent being with no thoughts of it’s own to dress up and show off to instagram and Pinterest. Essentially a doll. However when that baby started to grow up into their own person and becoming a human being because as it turns out baby’s grow up to be a functioning adult. The parents has no desire to be a parent and does not know how to raise a functioning human so they dumped them in front of iPads in order to get them out of the way and basically negelect them. The consequence is that now we have an entire generation of kids who have not been taught basic lessons and how to be a functioning person.
It even affects the kids who weren’t accessory babies and are being raised by people who actually want to see their child succeed in life , because the peer pressure to act more mature than before has ramped up significantly as the moms of the accessory babies shunned kid appropriate outfits and acting their age and stuff because they wanted the babies to be dressed up in adult fashions for instagram photo ops and have engrained that acting like a kid is stupid and that they go from accessory Baby to hot young adult with no inbetween in their minds which warps them to act like an “adult” when way too young. It’s essentially the traditional 10 year old wants to act older but warped far beyond what it used to be and if a kid simply acts like their age group they are often picked on by accessory baby bullies which means that a lot of kids are now under peer pressure to grow up way too fast because the accessory kids that dominate the school and act like monsters towards everyone else.
It’s because they were never taught how to be a good Person. And it’s because of the parents who wanted accessory babies for instagram rather than raising a human. Like it’s the 30 year mellenials who take their kids only to instagramamble play areas, dressing them up for photo shoots every week in new clothes, going on instagramamble vacations and even having another baby only for clicks.
This is the reality of the situation we are seeing the consequences of this in real time. The kids were never taught how to be a person and because of that they have almost no manners and learned all their lessons from toxic influencers and or consumerist influencers. It’s because the parents neglect them instead of providing moral lessons on how to be a good person, teaching them right from wrong, or even providing them good tv shows like BCG, and bluey instead dumping them in front of iPad content farms that rot their attention spans without any moderation causing them to have no imagination and tech addictions and then for the boys watching toxic influencers like Andrew quagmire tate and his merry band of Herbert the perverts(it’s a family guy reference). And for the girls being brainwashed into acting like adults and buying skincare that burns their skin instead of age appropate skin care.
This is scary because they are our next doctors, artists, writers, musicians, librarians, mechanic, firefighters, plumbers, etc. and they end up with social media addicitions and have shockingly short attention spans thanks to overstimulating YouTube shorts and they were never taught how to be a successful person who thrives in society all because they were treated as disposable photo props to get more IG likes.
To be clear not every parent is like this and there are many parents trying to raise their kids good and teaching them to be a good person but it is concearning how the accessory babies are now being turned into monsters at shockingly young ages. I really hope people wake up and realize that this is a problem and how we need to educate kids and prevent toxic Tate influences on boys And toxic trends on girls. We need to let kids learn positive values and teach the, about diversity and how to be a good person and helping other people and doing good things and working hard to achieve whatever goals they want.
We need to fix this and help prepare kids to be a functioning good adults so that they can succeed. It’s a whole mess that we need to do better with our next generation of people because we need to stop treating kids like they are just instagram photos and they aren’t babies with on and off switches but babies that grow to toddler then kid tween teen until they become an adult who should be able to do basic functions in society.
I am legit concerned about the next generation and them being addicted to content farms rather than quality shows with educational and entertainment value and not being taught basic morals like don’t steal the cookie, everyone is equal, clean up after yourself, don’t rudely interrupt other people. or even helping them get to grade level reading and stuff(and I’m not counting kids with disabilities, like autistic and adhd kids) to function in society. like I literally heard that sped kids with disabilities and autism etc are literally doing higher reading levels than regular kids because a lot of the regular kids were never taught. It’s legit concerning.
*it should also be mentioned that this seems to mostly happen with really really young parents 9/10 times as most kids who were conceived by parents at older ages(30 something when they had kids) don’t seem to have this problem(or very rarely)

Welcome to another report of my one year stay in Japan from mid 2022 to mid 2023! If everything goes according to plan, I'll post the final part on May 27, which would be exactly one year after I returned from Japan! With that being said, after spending a month with a couple of friends in February 2023, enjoying the snow in Hokkaido and early sakura around the Izu peninsula, it was time to face one of the busiest seasons in Japan - proper sakura season in March/April. My mother would join me in late March on her first trip to Japan ever and she was hellbent on seeing some sakura and me being the tour guide. This came with the benefit of her paying for all expenses during our travels, which was very nice of her!
You can find the other reports down below.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Tokyo
Picking up where I left off in the previous report, I decided to show everyone what a "typical" Airbnb I'd stay in during my time in Japan looked like. When my friends left, I booked a very cheap Airbnb in Kunitachi, which is in west Tokyo, about 40 minutes away from Shinjuku on the Chuo line. As I mentioned in some of my earlier reports, I quite enjoyed staying out of central Tokyo and exploring areas that I'd otherwise never go to on a normal vacation. This place had a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Looks pretty barebones but it was more than enough to satisfy my needs and the internet in Airbnbs was usually very good.
Since it was the beginning of March, I decided to go back to Yushima Tenjin to check the status of the plum blossoms there and they were beautiful at the time. One train stop away from Kunitachi is Kokubunji, which I went to because I saw a couple interesting spots on Google maps to check out. One of which was the small Tonogayato Garden, which was alright for a short visit. More interestingly, there's a small path called Otaka no michi, which looks very cute and goes along a few shrines and another small garden along the way.
Having seen Kawazu sakura a two weeks prior, I checked where I could find early blooming sakura in Tokyo and was happy to find that near my next Airbnb's location (Ojima in the east of Tokyo), a park close to Arakawa river had a few trees so of course I made my way there and it was the perfect time to see them too. One of the many reasons why I enjoy staying in eastern Tokyo is that the further I went out, the more relaxed I felt. It's so far removed from the central and west, where you have tens of thousands of people converging in several spots while here, there is just a wide open park, families and friends just hanging out in what felt like a more accurate represenation of what the average Tokyoite did in their daily lives. I think I went here a few times every evening because it put me at ease and I miss spending time there. And as always, plenty of small mom and pop shops serving all kinds of food, like this wonton soup with a side of fried rice.
Another garden I visited was Kiyosumi! It's in Koto, so again a bit out of the way but definitely worth a visit if you somehow find yourself in the area or just want to see something new if it's your Xth visit to Japan. Bonus pic from when I walked back "home"; sunsets in Tokyo in those side streets with rivers running through the city are particularly great.
The week leading up to my mom's arrival was spent with me visiting a bunch of parks in Tokyo to see how the sakura were going considering my mother wanted to see them. This was a tad stressful because it was supposed to rain for a few days before my mother arrived and in 2023, sakura season started super early so I was scared the rain and wind might kill em off before she even got there. That being said, Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi park, the Kanda river, Chidorigafuchi and Ueno park were going strong! I switched Airbnbs one more time before my mom arrived, staying in Asaka - in Saitama. I had a couple more sakura trees right next door, which was great.
And then, the day had come! My mom arrived at around 7pm, I picked her up from Narita airport and let me tell you, it was an incredibly weird feeling riding back into that airport. Around 10 months earlier, I flew in and it was practically deserted due to the pandemic but now it was back to somewhat normal and I was hit with a weird sort of nostalgia! My mom was surprisingly fit and didn't seem jetlagged at all, demanding me to show her around Ueno park at like 10pm still. We got her her own Suica, her first konbini visit and then just went to the hotel and slept.
My mother had a couple of things she absolutely wanted to see and aside that, I was basically a tour guide who just showed her around spots I decided on on the day. The first thing my mom wanted to see was TeamLabs. Not something I personally had much interest in and the experience was pretty meh overall to be honest but she enjoyed it. Following that we headed to Tokyo station and went to Sushiro because my mom wanted to try Sushi and was keen on trying the "conveyor belt" one she saw on social media. Since it was nearby, we then walked to Chidorigafuchi and the Imperial Palace Gardens, giving my mom her first proper sakura experience. We spent quite a while walking around and it soon got dark so we took a train towards Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower looks great at night, especially with some sakura in front of it. We finished the day with a CoCo ichi meal before walking around the pond near Ueno park.
The following day, my mother wanted to check out Akiba to my surprise. She's not into anime or video games at all but she thoroughly enjoyed seeing just how many figures and plushies of everything exists. A visit to nearby Kanda shrine was of course obligatory. Gotta love the ema people put up there due to its close proximity to Akiba. Before going to Sky Tree in the evening, we went to Hamarikyu Gardens, which are way nicer looking in sakura season than in February, when I went there with my friend. Now, Sky Tree was an experience. Having been there just a few weeks earlier with my friends and there being no lines whatsoever, this time around, things were different. We had to wait for around an hour to get tickets and the observation decks were packed. If it was that bad in 2023, I can't imagine how it is now.
On the third day, the jetlag or just general fatigue hit my mother and she slept past noon so we had a more relaxed day without as much walking as the two before. Took a train to Kichijoji in hopes to show my mom Inokashira park with its famous sakura around the pond and we were not disappointed! My mom wanted to shop and since I am the least knowledgeable person when it comes to this, I simply took her to Ikebukuro's Sunshine City and hoped she'd find stuff there and she actually did buy a bunch of "fluffy" dresses!
The final day in Tokyo was a bit more packed again in terms of things to do. First on the agenda was a visit at Cafe Reissue, which my mom of course saw on Instagram. Since you can't reserve, they take your name and give you a time to come back at, which meant we had about an hour and a half to do something else. This was when we headed to Shibuya Sky. I had never been there because I didn't really want to spend 2000 yen on another observation deck but this one is actually good. In my opinion, if you could only pick ONE observation deck in Tokyo, this should be it. Nice, open views in a far better location than Sky Tree for example. Afterwads we headed back to the cafe and got our latte/hot chocolate art. I'm a bit of a hot chocolate snob so I'd say the drink itself was alright, the art is pretty nice and the sandwich was better than I expected. Definitely worth checking out if you can get a spot here.
Shinjuku Gyoen at this point had a fair amount of sakura trees already losing their petals, making for pretty walkways. In general, and this isn't some hidden gem, Shinjuku Gyoen is definitely worth going for sakura because of how many varieties can be found in it. Just make sure to get there early...
And with that, the first portion in Tokyo was done and the next day saw us take the Shinkansen to Kyoto!
Kyoto
I dreaded this visit to Kyoto because during my time in Japan, Kyoto has been relatively empty and enjoyable, contrary to how it was pre-pandemic. And the difference was definitely noticeable just a few weeks after having been there with my friends. Still not as bad as it probably is now, but noticeable. We wanted to go to Kiyomizudera in the evening for that picture, so we spent the time before that just strolling around the east side of Kyoto, but not before getting some lunch at a nearby restaurant. This is where I first realised my mother had no taste, as she didn't like gyudon whatsoever. Meanwhile, I thought this was one of my favourite gyudon I ever had.
We headed over to Maruyama park afterwards, with sakura all around and plenty of food stalls for your typical Japanese festival snack cravings. From there, we walked over to Heian Jingu, passing by Chionin Samnon. I've not been to the garden that is next to Heian Jingu, so we went in there. It's not the biggest place but it's very quaint and beautiful, especially the pond area. The sun was beginning to set and the walk back to Kiyomizudera would have been a bit too much for my mom that day, so we took a bus... and I've vowed to never do that again. It's crazy how packed buses in Kyoto got once regular tourism picked back up. Sannenzaka was also back to what I was used to pre-pandemic. On one hand, this must be great for local business. On the other hand, I can't imagine living anywhere near here...
Kiyomizudera was packed to the brim and my mom really wanted to take a picture from the famous angle, so we stood there for what felt like half an hour with little to no progress before she conceded, but we got nice pictures just off the platform. She enjoyed walking around Kyoto more than actually checking out the sights sometimes, which was great because Kyoto is a beautiful city. Kiyamachi is fantastic at night!
I had to face the PTSD of the prior month's Nara visit because of course, my mother wanted to see there deer there. But we got there early enough, with plenty of time to check out Todaiji, where my mother bought a goshuincho, and Kasuga Taisha. On our way back from Nara, we got out at Fushimi Inari and made our way up for the sunset. No torii pictures here because I've taken so many at that point, that I simply didn't this time.
We were looking for something to eat and up until that day, I had never experienced being denied entry into a restaurant before. Throughout 3 separate Japan vacations and this whole year I spent there, everywhere welcomed me, even out in the sticks. But that day, it happened twice. The first place I kind of give a pass because apparently they had some "bar event" going on so no food was being served that day (Google maps reviews were raving about the food there). But the second place, an okonomiyaki restaurant, does not get that pass. I slid open the door, saw 2 empty tables and the counter having a bunch of space. The owner's wife saw us coming in, I asked whether two people are fine - in Japanese, mind you - she had a very brief chat with her husband and then told us they're full. Obviously I accepted that and we went back out. I was pretty angry outside, though. There was no way they had no space in that restaurant and I am convinced they used that reasoning because they didn't want to serve foreigners. We just went to a nearby Chinese restaurant in the end, my mom not minding the "fuss" much but this was the first time I got denied from multiple places, so I was still somewhat mad lol.
The next day, we headed over to Nanzenji. Since we got off at Keage station, we walked our way up and had a quick look around Nanzenin before getting to Nanzenji. Also worth visiting is Eikando a bit further up the road. I can't remember if pictures inside the facility are just not allowed or if I forgot taking that many but the area is quite large and you can walk inside the temple. We then went to Ginkakuji, which I didn't take pictures of at all since I've been there before in October (so if you want to see pictures of that, check that post out). Unlike in October, this time there was a line to get tickets - which I didn't expect because it used to not be as popular as Kinkakuji.
Final day in Kyoto proper was spent in and around Arashiyama before my mother had her booked Maiko photoshoot. This took about 2 hours, she got the makeup done, was dressed up and had a bunch of pictures taken. She loved it. The place she did it at was called "Kyoto Kimono Rental Yumeyakata). Afterwards, she bought some souvenirs in random stores in the city. She also wanted to check out some other "famous" maccha place called "Maccha House". I'm actually not that big of a fan of maccha and this place really just seemed like a tourist trap. My mother enjoyed it though and as long as she had a good time, I didn't mind going to these places. Looking back at this Kyoto leg of our trip, I realise we didn't really have any "traditional" Japanese food experiences (as in kaiseki or the like). Not sure why that was. That was our last full day in Kyoto since the next one would be a day trip from there to Himeji, before we headed down to Hiroshima.
Himeji
I've been to Himeji before in like 2019 but back then, the castle was covered up for some renovations but this time, it was all there in its glory. And man, Himeji in Spring is absolutely beautiful. The park before it is full of sakura, I'll let the pictures do the talking and say that visiting Himeji is always a must but especially when you are in Japan in Spring. One of my favourite sakura spots for sure. The only negative thing I could report about it is that going inside the castle may not be worth it for you. There's a whole lot of stairs to take, which usually is no big deal for me but at some points, everyone had to wait for like 10 minutes before being able to go up to the highest point because there were so many people inside. I can't imagine this being much better a year later.
Hiroshima
Took the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima at around 11, making us arrive at around 1:30pm. Dropped our luggage off at Koko Hotel Hiroshima and then went for lunch at Yotchan, an okonomiyaki restaurant I went to a few months prior. I was a bit scared my mom wouldn't be a fan of okonomiyaki, given she didn't enjoy tonkatsu or gyudon but this turned out to be her favourite meal of the whole trip, which made me very happy. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki are in my opinion far superior to their Osaka counterpart, the noodles at the bottom really elevate the dish. The weather during our time here was pretty bad with mostly rain, but it certainly added something to the mood around the peace park and museum, which we visited of course. Sakura in Hiroshima weren't really existent at this point anymore, understandably so since the season starts a bit earlier here than up in Tokyo. The good thing about Hiroshima is that there's a bit of an underground mall with lots of shops and places to grab some snacks, so we were able to avoid much of the rain. Nevertheless, we ended the day a bit early at around 7pm (even though my addiction kicked in and I went for CoCo ichi at like 10pm lol).
And then we were off to Miyajima on the next day. It was my first time going there since my planned trip in November was foiled due to stomach issues. The weather was still rather bad but just like the day before, I think it actually added to the atmosphere on the island. Obligatory torii picture here. The shrine itself isn't that impressive - maybe this was due to the weather, though. But it wasn't raining super heavily, so we decided to take a walk to Daisho-in, which was maybe 10-15 minutes away on foot from Itsukushima shrine itself. Very much worth a visit, they occasionally let steam (?) out into the yard here, which is pretty cool in these weather conditions. Of course, I was put on goshuin duty ever since my mom had gotten her book in Nara so I had to collect stamps at every shrine we got to. If you go here and it is raining, be a bit careful about the stairs - they can be very slippery and my mother was incredibly lucky to not tumble down all the way down at one point.
After exploring just a little bit of the forest/mountainside, we decided to head back to the shrine and to our surprise, it was completely free of water now! Got lucky there and able to get up close to it! And that was it for Miyajima, we took the boat back to Hiroshima, got another round of okonomiyaki in before returning to Tokyo on the next day.
Tokyo
Since it was my mother's last full day in Japan, we went on a bit of a goshuin hunt around several shrines and temples, both small and large, in Ueno, Uguisudani, Akihabara and Asakusa. We simply walked from on to another, can't really list them all but Ono Tersuaki and Akiba shrine (this was kinda hidden!) were some of the smaller ones. There was a little festival around Sensoji going and we got a few snacks there. After one last walk along the Sumida river, it was time to go shopping. Only this time, it was me doing the buying... Got myself a PS5 that my mother took back home in her suitcase for me, the weak yen was just too good back then already and made me save like 100€ on that thing! We had dinner at my favourite little Chinese place near our hotel and then, my mom's time in Japan was pretty much over as we went back, packed up her stuff and got ready for the next day's trip to Narita, which I will cover in the next (and possibly final) report!
I love showing people around Japan, especially when it's their first time. I was a bit afraid my mother would miss out on the sakura and the mood would be bad but fortunately it all went well and mostly as planned. She absolutely loved it and would love to visit again. For me personally, as you can read about in this thread I made a year ago, I was super glad to have been "living" in Japan during sakura season because I think planning a normal 2 week vacation around sakura would be very stressful. Especially with tourists hitting record numbers currently, I feel like travelling during sakura season would be too much of a hassle for me personally - but to each their own!
To be honest, I had a tough time writing this report due to some depressing stuff going on in real life right now so I am not really that happy with how it turned out. Nevertheless, I am planning to release the final report on the 27th as planned. It's been almost a year since I returned home and I wish I had written these reports while in Japan instead of this late but too late to stop now, I suppose. If there's enough interest, I could write a "Best of..." report as an extra, talking about my favourite restaurants, foods, places to visit, activities and also my least favourite things during my time in Japan. But I'll see how the next report goes. Speaking of which - that one will include my final solo sakura adventure around the north of Japan in cities like Kakunodate, Morioka, Kitakami, Hakodate and, of course, Sapporo.
Thanks for reading and if you have questions, feel free to drop them!

back in 2019(class 10 starting) i used to go to school. everybody used to go to school, but i used go early because i used to play kabaddi. so instead of school bus i had go by public bus(the public buses in bus are very dangerous, u should not sit in the last seats or your ass will break, as instead of slowing down the speed up when the see a speed breaker). anyways, coming back to topic. i was sitting on the last seat because i used to like taking risks. after i boarded the bus, one stop after me a very hot girl got on the bus(she was definitely in college and obviously above 18). other than us there was no one else on the bus except the helper. at that time of life i had recently discovered porn because i saw a salil jamdar video on porn addiction (i was curious and wanted to know what porn is, i liked it so started watching regularly). so i felt really horny most of the time. as soon as i saw her, i made my mind, i unzipped my pant and started masturbation. she was seat one seat ahead of me, but she was completely visible to me. as i was about to cum.
she caught me staring at her and leaned back to see what i was doing, and asked
'kya kar rhe ho' - what are you doing (she probably saw me)
i said 'kuch nahi' - nothing (i was super embarrassed and ashamed)
when i reached school and our classes started, to my surprise the same hot girl was our new class teacher, she joined(our old class teacher's mother in law had stage 4 cancer so she left, however she is still alive somehow).
then she started speaking and said "Find your seats, everyone. I'm Sae Chabashira, the homeroom teacher for Class 1-D. At this school, you will not change classes ever. For the next three years, I'll be responsible for you until graduation. For our first order of business, the school rule book. Take one and pass them back. We have some rather unique rules at this institution. First, you must all live in the dorms, your contact with the outside world will be restricted, as well your time away from the campus. For anyone concerned, the school offers a wide variety of facilities. Anything you could need or want can be found here, including leisure and entertainment. To make purchases, you will spend your points, which are tracked using the school's main computer system. At this school, you can buy absolutely anything on campus with these. Points are distributed to you on the first of each month. Each point is worth one yen. If you all check your devices, you'll notice that you've already been allotted 100,000."

Hey, been writing this for a while. Got a dozen chapters at the moment. All of whom are interviews from veterans after a global war between humanity and aliens.
The premise is that after a short conflict/flashpoint between NATO and Russia in the baltics, that region becomes incredibly militarized as both sides pile up army units preparing for an inevitable conflict in the near future. Then you have meteors hitting Lithuania and Latvia. Which turns out were carrying an unknown Alien race which attempted to desperately colonize earth after their home planet was rendered inhabitable.
This is but one of the chapters. Fyi when they refer to crabs, they are talking about the alien cannon fodder units, 1 to 3m tall bipedal beings that have the face of crustaceans.
Feel free to give me any criticism you'd like. This is just a taste of what I'm working, if people are interested I will share more.

November 2034, Gdansk. European Federation

Pzschemek courteously welcomes me into his apartment, gently balancing his half-asleep young boy in one arm as he opens the door. The 34th floor of this public housing tower was completed just a year ago. As a combat veteran, the governement paid half of the price on the already affordable apartment. Since the official end of hostilities and the remarkable population surge, these towering structures, inspired by their Asian counterpart, have sprouted in nearly every remaining major city across the continent. Having seen combat from the start all the way to the end, I was referred to him by the head of the Polish Army Land Forces who was his battalion commander during the start of the war.
I'm offered a seat on the living room sofa, amidst scattered toys and clothes strewn about. He settles across from me, his son peacefully asleep in his arms, after preparing coffee for us.
A veteran of the war, he had seen combat all across Poland as a tank commander.

"When I began my training, we operated with the PT-91, an upgraded Soviet-designed T-72—sturdy, but we viewed them as deathtraps. Just imagine our optimism when my battalion received our first Leopards 2a7. Transitioning from a 1980s Soviet tank to modern german, American and ever Korean tanks—before the war in Ukraine, even entertaining such a notion aloud would have warranted a psychological evaluation. After a year or so. I knew that thing inside and out. It had short comings but it was a beauty.

He points to a frame on the wall—a cutout of a newspaper front page. It depicts him and his other crew members atop their tank ‘Sokoly’ written on its cannon, with a destroyed tripod lying on the floor behind them, the backdrop a sight of a ravaged city. With the title; “Our boys took Vilnius!"
"We made the front page of Gazeta Wyborcza with that picture. Our company commander sent it in. My parents hadn't heard from me in weeks, and one day, he recognized me on the front page at a news stand."
His face lights up with a warm smile.
"We hit the road five hours after the first landings. My vehicle was still getting fueled when I drove into our base, rushing to the briefing room in my jeans and rain jacket. I was expecting orders to be to rush to the Belarusian border or help out our guys in Lithuania to fend of the russians. Instead, our company commander starts talking about visitors from another world, how the info keeps pouring in every minute, but everything's still up in the air. We didn’t believe him until we saw the footage of the meteor landings, or air force footage from the airstrikes on beings we didn’t even know could exist. That one footage from that tank station, those crabs walking in and shooting all those civilians really set us off. That segment where one crab ripped out the arm of a dead man to make sure he was dead must have filled us with hate. Even do we didn’t know who or what they were. We didn’t ask too many questions. You’d expect us to yell out stuff in the likes of “Have we tried to make contact with them? What is the United Nations saying? From what planet are they?” but the only questions that could be heard was “Did the 2-5 tank get its tracks fixed? How much water should we take? Do we get our shells here or the TAA?”
“We were scared don’t get me wrong but I’m still proud of my boys, Its been a while but we still have contact with each other. Last summer I was the best man at my loader’s wedding.”
After laying down his boy, who had just woken up, he watches as the little one instantly grabs a toy police car and starts playing with it. Pzshemek gazes at his son, lost in thought, as he happily engages with his toy.

"We spent five hours on the road, with our tanks hitched onto trucks. When we finally reached our deployment area, chaos was everywhere. The roads were packed with cars from the north—Polish, Lithuanian, even Russian and Belarussian plates. People crammed into buses, I even saw a truck with an empty container but packed with civilians inside. On one van, boys sat on top, like scenes from trains in India. It's a miracle we only arrived an hour late. In Suwalki, we turned an Ikea parking lot into a makeshift FOB. Half of it was filled with troops fresh back from Lithuania and the border. Fresh might not be the right word. They were ravaged, they sat in silences. Nearly all with bandages or injuries of some sorts. The heavily wounded were being treated in tents and civilian ambulances. The dead layed in rows and rows of bodybags. They had commandeered one of or trench building vehicles to dig a mass grave for them. Helicopters landed, unloaded countless men and they loaded the helis to the brim with the injured. Tents and tents of make shift hospitals. More and more troops arrived. They looked like they’ve been to hell. I remember at one time my gaze met one of the men. I was looking around until I saw him looking at me. He was sitting on a stretcher being treated by a paramedic, his chest and arms were burned black. He was staring at me. I don’t know if it was the morphine or the shock, his gaze wouldn’t leave me. Fighter jets kept buzzing us. On our way to bomb targets and to slow the advance of the crabs down as much as they could. I was confident on our way there but the sight of all those defeated man made me want to empty my guts. We got called to a tent to get a briefing on the situation. There was a white board with grainy pictures of what we could expect. Even drawings. It was the Polish military attaché to Lithuania himself who gave the briefing to us. He looked like he had been to hell. I learned later he had to be restrained with the help of punches and shoved into the last helicopter out of Vilnius by his men.”
“What did he discuss?”
"We're in the dark, and we're counting on you to keep us informed as you hold the line. My English doesn't do it justice, but that was the last thing he said before we set out. We knew more different type of enemy assets would emerge as they settled in. Turns out, our drones spotted them digging into the meteors they landed in. As we left the FOB, they were loading everything onto anything with a motor and wheels. They didn't anticipate us holding our ground. Now, that's what I call motivation.”
Our chat got interrupted when Pszemek's wife walking into the apartment, decked out in nurse scrubs and juggling grocery bags. Pszemek jumped up to help her out, and they headed to the hallway, chatting away in Polish. Before she disappeared into the dimly lit bedroom, they stole a quick kiss.
“She has the night shift.” He said coldly as he put away the groceries. “We got on our tanks, our entire company made it and we were lined up platoon by platoon.
I closed the hatch, sat down, put my helmet on. My loader who also was my assistant of sorts. Installed the radios, helped copy the maps our lieutenant got, made coffee or passed drinks. He gave me a thumbs up, it was our signal and it meant we had radio communications with everyone that mattered. I pressed the push to talk of my microphone. “Everyone in position? Sound off!” I tried to say firmly and calmly. I knew back then it wasn’t the time to show any fear to my boys.
“Driver ready!” One voice yelled loudly. “Gunner ready!” followed by “Loader ready!” we set off right after that
At Suwalki we had to hold the highway entering the city from the north. Nothing particular, just fields and roads. We would have excelled there if we faced anything other than that. As dawn broke. The air strikes and artillery lured closer and closer. Along with our reconnaissance elements on the radio notifying us every time they got one kilometer closer. We could just sit there, it took us five minutes to mark and call out points of interests in that field so that we could communicate quickly during the battle and then we counted down the kilometers between us and them. Some men smoked, wrote letters. My gunner, a young guy he must have been 19 back then. He opened the hatch suddenly to vomit outside. Our nerves were all over the place. We nearly shot our recon troops as they speeded through our lines. They rushed through us and took cover behind us. They had done their job warning us and coordinating airstrikes. I told my boys it was our moment to shine. That whatever may walk,run,crawl over the border that we were the Polish anvil set on stopping them. We sat at two kilometers from the first woodline. We had infantry in the woods to our west and east. We had the open fields. We had to stop them or win time for the folks in Suwalki. But this wasn’t Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. This was Poland. We wouldn’t give them an inch. We all grew up listening to our grandparents talking about what the Nazis and Soviets did to them and to our country.
At first, it was lone crabs on that wood line. They moved from tree to tree. We could see their silhouettes on the thermal sights. As more of those crab joined them we didn’t bother to shoot. We called in the mortar platoon to take care of them. Even after the mortars landed and took care of the first ones, their numbers grew. Then when there mobs of them we called in the 155mm artillery. It turned that forest. We felt the shockwaves as it blasted them. Trees were shredded and their pieces sent hundreds of meter away. Then we heard the first rumble of the beetles. I still have no idea why they didn’t appear on my thermals with all the heat they were carrying inside. If it wasn’t for the dawn and the reflection of the moonlight I might not have seen it until it was on top of me. Those things were as big as an apartment block. I still can't wrap my head around how those beasts survived a journey across galaxies. Must be why they were so darn hard to kill. We had no idea how they fought, how fast they could move. We called them beetles because it was the only thing earth like we could remotely compare them to in shape. I felt my heart race when I switched to normal sight and saw one of them move. I was looking right at it yet it appeared black as the solid on my thermal heat sight. There must have been six of them pushing that field alone. Against twelve of our tanks and three platoon’s worth of infantrymen and IFVs, you'd think we could've held them. But when they carpet-bombed us with fire, everyone lost it. Those beasts opened their mouth as their throat expanded, the fire inside of that could hurt to look at if you watched it with the naked eye. We didn’t know what to expect, but them spitting magma on us wasn’t on our bingo list so to say. Sure, they were two hundred meters short, but everyone outside of tanks must've felt the heat. They fired what could only be described as ropes of magma all in unison. The infantry platoon beside us, even the most ‘gung ho’ grunts who had had time to dig trenches, said ‘fuck that’ did a 180 and sprinted back a few hundred meters. Our platoon commander was swearing up a storm on the radio, trying to get their commander to get his men in order. Can't blame them. We opened fire right after their attempt to cremate us. I told my gunner to aim for the head and fire. Even with the shock of the 122mm armor-piercing shell hitting it, the thing just staggered and kept moving. Even in the tank, with all that armor and my ear protection, I could still hear my colleagues unloading on them. Again and again I ordered my gunner to go for the head. I still don’t know how they survived the kinetic shock alone of a shell like that hitting them. Later on in the war we learned that it gave them those weird types of concussions that made them act all weird, made them even attack their own side and such. But at the time, you can imagine me sitting there looking at them eating a tank shell like it was nothing. One shell hit its upper back. We saw the shell ricochet of its back and fly god knows where in the horizon behind it. My loader was grabbing shells and loading them in the breech at a rythm he could have gotten a medal for that alone. They were getting closer. The beetles and the crabs moving in with them. They spit fire again in unison. This time they were right on the mark. I heard the commander of the tank on my left yell in the radio as his tank ate hot magma. They were safe for now on the inside but the panic it instilled, there was nothing like it. Keep in mind, we still had 155mm artillery landing, it didn’t seem to be bothered by it even do the crabs next to those things were turned into moshed potatoes by the shrapnel and shock blast.
Pszemek got up suddenly to move his kid away from the kitchen as he tried to grab a hold of the hot coffee pot.
“little devil” he said silently.
“When I realized we couldn’t pierce it from the front I ordered by gunner to go for its knee caps. He didn’t hesitate and put its sight on it. The beetle was moving slowly enough for him to aim. My loader, exhausted from carrying shell after shell yelled out “GOTOWY” with a blood curling yell right before my gunner pulled the trigger on the joystick. The ignition on the shell shook the tank as it always did. It’s like a giant punch that makes the whole vehicle jolt backward violently. You can feel the force ripple through the tank, and everything inside shakes for a moment before it steadies again thanks to the suspension. The shell hit it right on the mark. The beast lost its footing. It crashed face-down, crushing a few crabs beneath it who were taking cover under it. It took a few moments for the creature to rise on another leg. Sharp as a fox, my gunner aimed for the first leg on the opposite side and fired another armor piercing shell through the meaty split between its strong carapace. The devil was down. With its front legs disabled, it had no balance. Instinctively, I grabbed the radio. The radio was buzzing with "NO EFFECT ON THE TARGET" and "LIEUTENANT, LET'S GET OUTTA HERE, FOR GOD'S SAKE." I shouted at my colleagues to aim for the kneecaps to slow them down. It got everyone to shut up and focus at the task at hand.



One by one, the beetles crashed in the mud. Don’t get me wrong, they kept shooting their magma at us. My tank got some aswell. It cooked our thermal sights and lazer warning receivers instantly. But since our engine was spared we just had to reverse back twenty meters and we were alright. We were speeding at 30km/h in reverse, I was praying there wouldn’t be a confused 20 year old infantry man end up under our tracks. The beetles were everything but precise. They even hit their own crabs as they desperately spat fire. The amount of which was drastically lower than earlier, their fuel tank just like ours were running low. One brave bastard on the radio yelled out for us to wait for it to fire and then hit it right in the mouth. That’s literally a tactic out of a video game. We did as he told. My gunner was with his sight right on what can be described as its mouth. His knee shaked in anticipation of the shot. I was looking at the gunner sight through my screen. As it opened its mouth, I didn’t even have time to yell “FIRE” that my gunner had already unleashed a high explosive shell down that thing’s throat.”
Pszemek looked at his boy with a warm smile as he thought back at one of the few good events of that fateful night.
“The devil exploded, the flash was so bright it lit up the interior of our tank through the periscopes. For a second I could see the exhausted look on my loader sweaty face. The fire gulf must have taken out god knows how many of the crabs taking shelter near it. My entire platoon followed suit and before long the entire field lit up with the explosions of those devils. I heard later from the folks in Suwalki that they saw the flashes of light all the way back there. One by one we took them out like that.
With the beetles out of the picture, we made quick work of the crabs. They were only five hundred meters away, close enough to start firing. Against our tanks, they didn’t stand a chance. The infantry was less fortunate. I saw one of them fire one of their shoulder mounted cannon, hit an IFV on its side and afterwards I saw the crew throwing themselves out of their vehicle as they burned alive. We took out three-quarters of them before they scrambled back across the field the way they came. Then we picked them off as they ran. Our coaxial gun was working overtime, we barely could keep up reloading that machine gun. I was praying it would’nt jam or overheat. With the last one down and our lieutenant on the radio, praising our performance, I unlocked my hatch, swung it open, and peeked outside. There were still patches of molten magma here and there, and the whole field reeked of sulfur and gunpowder. People were treating the wounded, some men cried, some men were laughing hysterically. Most of them were quiet. I lit up a cigarette, wiping the sweat off my face with a towel. The loader tossed me a can of Monster from our makeshift fridge. I gave him props for his work before he collapsed from exhaustion.

We could have stayed there, all of us would have been happy dying in that field if it meant we slowed their advance into our country. Turns out high command had other plans for us. We held but the units on our flanks were about to break. They had already plans for if ww3 popped off. They already know which unit would be desimated and which would have been spared if the Russians had decided to attack. The worst case scenario had a defensive line from Gdansk through Olsztyn all the way to Bialystok. We had the momentum as we cowardly fled back to Augustow. Stopping time and time again to give time for refugees to flee south. We were glad the Russians in Kaliningrad took a beating. They estimated they held ¾ of the crabs in the southern front. Every fight was harder than the last. We had less and less ammo. Jets were flying less and less. Especially when the crabs found a way to shoot them off the sky.
We felt like cowards every time. Sure we got allot of civilians safe, but even then we felt like we failed despite how many Crabs, Tripods or beetles we stopped.

High Context
Expression takes many forms. In this book I have interpreted the word media in a broad sense and treated each form of expression that I have discussed as an independent medium. What, then, is the reason for the existence of multiple media like manga, anime, and film? Are these simply multiple forms for mediating the same reality? Not at all. Multiple media exist in order to support multiple fictions. We clearly perceive the form of a particular expression at the same time as we take in its content. The various media function as a kind of context, or a transparent and continuous totality that attaches meaning to content. In this instance the media themselves attain their own unique contextuality. For example, we are not in the least confused if a heroine who breaks down in tears in a television drama suddenly appears smiling in a commercial during the break. This is because it is very easy for us to shift instantaneously between the context of the drama and the commercial.
In an earlier work I referred to this idea of the unique contextuality of each medium as the “representation context,” in order to use it in a more limited sense. This is because it is possible to use the media form itself as a form of representation. As I explained in chapter 1, my use of the term context is based chiefly on a combination of the ideas of G. Bateson and E. T. Hall, which I Have also explained in greater detail elsewhere. For our purposes here, it is possible to understand the contexts contributing to expression as existing in hierarchical strata. In the case of manga, the first context level is that of the narrative that gives meaning to the characters’ actions. Above that is the genre of the narrative - the expressive context that determines whether it is to be taken seriously or as a gag. The representational context is one level above this. Or, if we order them from top down, the process by which we understand the content of a manga can be understood as a hierarchical series of stages beginning with the work’s representational context (manga), proceeding to its expressive context (genre), on to the narrative context, and finally to the comprehension of the content. Of course, in actual fact we have to admit that this sort of hierarchy is ultimately not valid. It goes without saying that content and context exist in a relationship based on simultaneous and mutual corroboration. Therefore I should emphasize that the notion of representation context serves only for convenience of description and is not in any sense an isolatable object.
It is possible, for example, to think of visual media in the order of their dependence on representational contextuality. Contextuality in this case refers to the degree to which the form of expression itself determines the context expressed. In order of descending contextuality, then, we have anime, manga, television, film, and photographs. The statement “I saw a photograph,” for example, conveys no meaning on its own. But the statement “I saw an anime” evokes a relatively concrete image in the listener’s mind. This is because the anime form restricts the range of content much more than does the photograph. In other words, anime has the highest level of contextuality and photography the lowest. Here I follow Hall in calling this the “high context” nature of anime. In general, we can say that more popular forms of expression tend to be higher context (as in the difference between classical and popular music). In visual media, the less information conveyed on the screen, the higher the context (this being the difference between television and film). Thus “cool” media (with low levels of detail) tend toward higher context.
Let us think more concretely about the high-context nature of anime and manga. We have already established that form and content are intricately connected in both. In the case of these expressive forms, we can easily makes guesses about the content and authorship even of works that we know nothing about. Even a single frame of the work will be enough to tell us the genre, the orientation of the content, and sometimes even the identity of the author. Moreover, the instantaneous switching between the “gag” and “serious” modes that would be unthinkable in film but forms part of the grammar of anime (its so-called yakusoku [conventions]) can be explained only on the basis of this high-context nature.
I think of high context as the sensibility that emerges when there is no sense of distance between the producer and the consumer of a given media form . Once we immerse ourselves in this high-context space, the meaning of all stimuli is grasped instantaneously. Inevitably, emotional codes are more easily transmitted here than verbal ones. This high-density transmissibility enables extremely high levels of concentration and absorption.
Intersubjective Mediation, or Media Theory
Based on what I have said above, we can identify the difference between film and anime or manga first in terms of contextuality.
Is this the place for us to move to a discussion of media theory? Is the desire for the beautiful fighting girls a sign of an internal transformation, an “implosion” and extension brought on by our contemporary media environment? In some senses this may be true, but in others it is certainly not.
The development of the media environment has in fact partly transformed the structure of our society. The development of the mass media industry itself is one manifestation of this transformation. Its influence on the economy and on education has, of course, been enormous. But to what extent does this transformation penetrate our inner worlds?
In clinical terms there has not been the slightest structural transformation. The structure of our neurotic subjectivity remains intact, just as Freud discovered it a century ago. If asked to prove this, most analysts would say that it is not their role to offer general proofs of anything. This, too, has not changed in a hundred years. Analysts can speak about the truth. But, or perhaps therefore, they cannot prove what is true. But, or perhaps therefore, they cannot prove what is true. To say that the structure of the subject is intact is to say that the structure of desire has been maintained. What needs to be emphasized here is that, in order for the structure of desire to be maintained, the object of desire must constantly change. If the object of our desire looks different than it did a hundred years ago, this is only a change in appearance that results from the continual maintenance that we as subjects have performed on the structure of that desire. Yes, the development of media has brought about an outward change, a superficial change in the objects of our desire.
From this we can derive at least two psychoanalytic hypotheses. If we use Lacan’s divisions, the stability of the subject denotes primarily the stability of the relationality between the Symbolic and the Real. Moreover, the internal transformation that Marshall McLuhan referred to as “implosion” can be considered mainly as having emerged as a change on the level of form in the Imaginary. Herein lies one of the thorniest difficulties of media theory. If voice and writing are themselves already forms of media, what exactly have modern media been able to add to the equation? The transformation of the subject in the Imaginary can always make it seem as if nothing has happened. As long as this is the case, the appearance of media theory will remain in the always-awaited future, and its conclusions will only continue to be deferred.
But perhaps there is something to be gained nonetheless by taking a detour here and considering the mutual operations of the media environment and the Imaginary. The development of media is clearly most striking in the visual realm. Already we are able in principle to see any sort of image whatsoever. If we so desire, we can also keep large numbers of images in our possession on a computer hard drive. There is no little significance in the fact that, as is so apparent in the case of the ever-increasing functionality of the personal computer, it has become very easy for us not just to preserve but to reproduce, manipulate, and transmit visual information about all sorts of experiences. Our imaginary has been dramatically expanded and accelerated by the media, or extended through “implosion.”
The diversification of methods of mediation has had a number of effects. One of these is the potential impoverishment of content and form. As was clear in the case of the beautiful fighting girls, the narratives in a diversified media environment are surprisingly similar to each other. As I pointed out in chapter 5, there are hundreds of examples of the beautiful fighting girl genre, but only thirteen story lines. From the 1990s on, no new story lines emerged, and new works were simply rearrangements of old ones. In this case at least, we can say that, while the diversification of media may contribute to the outward diversification of the works, we need to be aware of the possibility that it encourages the involution of the genre as a whole.
The more information is exchanged, the more redundancies there are and the more monotonous it becomes . For example, now that communication by personal computer has become the norm, people read and perhaps write enormous amounts of text every day . As a result, we see developing a common “computer style” of writing that is excellent for transmitting information but extremely limited in its capacity for description and definition. The impoverishment of visual information is most evident in the spread of anime-style images.
So what is this about? Increasing the level of detail or rendering movement more subtly in anime would take exponentially more money and time. But of course these luxuries are not always possible. On the other hand, too much abbreviation reduces the images to mere signs and makes for a very dreary representation (like the Saturday morning cartoons in the United States, where the only facial movements are blinking eyes and opening and closing mouths). The solution to the problem in Japan was, I believe, the introduction of the “big eyes and small mouth” that has become the tradition in Japanese anime.
The only parts of a manga that cannot be drawn by assistants are the face, and particularly the eyes, of the main characters. The author’s style appears in its most concentrated form in the facial expression and the eyes. The shortcut technique that resulted from this was to divide up the drawing of the background among assistants and make the characters like simple signs. This made possible the division of labor. Then, to avoid making the characters too much like mere signs, the facial expression, particularly the eyes, and the hands are drawn with great care. Among all the human organs, these occupy the position closest to the grammatical subject. Drawing the eyes and hands with special care has the same value as inserting text. Or, to put it the other way around, as long as the eyes and hands are carefully drawn, the rest can be abbreviated. Then one can add more facial expressions and make them more complex with manpu. This procedure enables the streamlining of the production process while also effectively communicating a wide variety of subtle emotional codes, making it easy for the viewer to identify emotionally. This is likely the origin of the too-large eyes and tiny mouth that Westerners so often point out in Japanese manga and anime. The anime image is the result of a sophisticated technique that enables a maximum of communication with a minimum of lines.
One noticeable trend in recent years, which may have to do mostly with keeping costs down, is that even as the images are drawn with greater and greater sophistication of design and coloration, they tend to move much less. The appearance of movement is skillfully produced by blurring the image, using flashes of lights, and bank sequences [19*. Bank sequences, or Bankukatto, are sequences of animation that can be used repeatedly, such as when a heroine is transforming or assuming a decisive pose.], but on closer inspection there is actually very little movement. The impact of “anime images” results from drawings so refined that this sort of thing no longer appears unnatural. Moreover, because there is no need for the drawings to be particularly intricate, they can be easily digitized, which makes it possible to transfer them into a computer game without altering them. This style of drawing, which is devoid of texture and consists only of fine lines and surfaces, helps smooth the flow of the so-called media mix as the images are transplanted from comics to anime to film, games, figurines, and toys.
The space of manga and anime has introduced easily shareable code systems into our Imaginary. This shareability, in turn, introduces elements of polymorphous perversion into that space. As a result, in the 1980s we first became aware of a very important fact, namely, that even the objects of our sexuality were shareable through the mediation of manga and anime. This realization led to the explosive growth of sexualized images in this space. Of course, the wholesome notion that manga and anime are basically for children exists even now. But even this constraint was converted into a useful technique. Depicting sex in a context that is for children almost inevitably produces undifferentiated, which to say polymorphously perverse, effects. <also, and a much darker scene between the protagonist Utena and the antagonist Akio in the episode The Prince Who Runs Through the Night, a friend pointed this out to me, in terms of what it’s depicting and how True it is. The disassociation and ambivalence that suffuses a traumatic event…>.
To create an autonomous object of desire within the fictional space of manga and anime: was this not the ultimate dream of the otaku? They sought to create fiction not as a stand-in for the “real” sexual object, but fiction that had no need to be secured by reality. For this to work, not even the most elaborately constructed fictional worlds would suffice. In order for fiction to attain its own autonomous reality, it would have to be desired for its own sake. Only then would reality bow down to fiction.
“Fiction” versus “Reality”
Earlier I referred rather casually to the contrast between “fiction” and “reality.” Of course, I do not accept this contrast naively. In fact, it is my belief that everyday reality is itself nothing more than a fiction (or fantasy) and that it is fundamentally impossible to draw a strict distinction between them. One reason that I raise the distinction nonetheless is in order to think once more about “Japan.” The art critic Sawaragi Noi has argued that Japan functions as what he calls a “bad place” and that any act of expression that attempts to escape from that place can only end up by making it worse and getting caught in a vicious circle. If such a place can be hypothesized, it is entirely possible that it could also subsume the place of manga and anime that I have been discussing here. For now I call that space “Japanese space” and contrast it with another unique representational space, which I call “Western space.”
As I pointed out earlier, in Japanese space the distinction between fiction and reality is not completely in effect. The distinction itself is in fact based on a Western idea . **In his theory of ideals Plato begins with a three-part distinction between the ideal, reality, and art, and places art at the bottom of the hierarchy because it is only an imitation of reality. In Plato’s system there is only a series of copies, with the copy of the ideal being reality and the copy of reality being art. Art must content itself with the lowly position of being a copy of a copy, an imitation of an imitation. Added to this is the influence of Judeo-Christian culture, which rejects idolatry. In “Western space,” even today “reality” is made to conform strictly to this ranking. In this context the notion of the “Reality of fiction” is already attenuated by being subjected to all sorts of constraints.
<"But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" Matthew 5:28.>
For example, in American popular culture the most privileged fiction form is film. To be made into a film is the ultimate proof of the success of any narrative, whether it originates as a novel or a play. Of course, there are any number of reasons for this, but one is surely the belief that live-action film is the most accurate imitation or reproduction of reality. The impact of live-action film is supported by the belief that what it portrays is a faithful reproduction of reality. In my opinion there is absolutely no difference between the fictionality of live-action film and animated ones; it is just that anime is considered more fictional because it is under the constraint of having to be drawn by someone. For this reason animated films have almost no chance of winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and will always remain a genre inferior to film.
Thinking about censorship practices makes this even clearer. Censors in Japanese space seem for the most part uninterested in the symbolic value of what they are censoring. As long as the genitals are not portrayed explicitly, they will allow even the most depraved images to be shown. In Western space, however, images are censored according to their symbolic value. The censors are not interested in the trivial question of whether or not the genitals are visible, but reserve their strictest scrutiny for obscenity and perverse content. A recent example is the cover for Marilyn Manson’s CD Mechanical Animals. In the composite photograph, Manson appears nude as he glares at the viewer, but with the smooth groin and small breasts of a young girl. This level of perversion does not cause the least problem in Japan. But in the United States it create quite a scandal, with several large music stores refusing the carry the album. One could list any number of similar examples of this difference in the way Japanese and Americans judge an image obscene. Of course, even in Japan this sort of taboo on images still lingers when it comes to the Imperial family, but even that is losing the force it once had. In fact, that taboo has become so weak that it would shock even Okuzaki Kenzo. We are now living in an age when it is possible to publish a manga depicting a bomb thrown at Princess Masako during a parade, and the romance between Princess Kiko and Prince Akishino has been made into an anime. In other words, we still do not have the slightest idea what it is that defines depravity.
One conclusion that we can draw from this comparison is that visual expression in Western space is symbolically castrated, while Japanese space there is only imaginary castration, at most. For example, in Western space any image that symbolizes the penis is censored, while in Japanese space as long as you do not portray the penis itself anything goes. In this ironic sense I would suggest that Japanese media enjoy the great freedom of expression. The problem arises with this freedom itself.
In Japanese space, fiction itself is recognized as having its own autonomous reality. As I mentioned earlier, in Western space reality is always in the superior position, and the fictional space is not allowed to encroach on it. Various prohibitions are introduced to establish and maintain this superiority. It is not permitted for example, to produce images depicting sexual perversion. This is because fiction must not be more real (riaru) than reality. Fiction must be carefully castrated so that it does not become too appealing. This is what I mean by symbolic castration.
It is often remarked that the heroines of Western comics and anime are for the most part not very cute. They often include beautiful women and naked bodies, but rarely do they directly represent characters as sexually attractive. This cannot be explained simply as a result of a discrepancy in technical skill or differing notions of beauty. In the case of an actual Hollywood actress, Japanese and American fans are likely to speak in similar ways about her sexual attractiveness. But the situation is very different when it comes to heroines who appear as drawn images. Betty Boop, for example, may be drawn in a sexy outfit (with a garter belt!), but she is more like a parody of a sexy actress. Her fans are not immediately captivated by Betty’s sexual charms.
To continue with our discussion of Western space, we might remember that 1957 saw the creation of the so-called Comics Code Authority that formulated self-regulatory codes for comics in the United States and effectively spelled the end of the golden age of American comics. At the time juvenile delinquency had become a hot-button issue, and comics were singled out as a contributing factor. Among comic fans the formation of the CCA is referred to as the “Total Disaster.” The list of restrictions is as absurdly detailed as the rules at a Japanese high school. A few items that stand out on the list are

• “Divorce shall not be treated humorously nor represented as desirable.”
• “If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.”
• “In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished [sic] for his misdeeds.”
• “Policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.”

Under the category of “Marriage and Sex” the code states that “Nudity in any form is prohibited,” “Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities,” “Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed,” “Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested,” and “Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.” Japanese manga as harmless as Sazae-san and Doraemon might run afoul of these rules. If regulations this strict were in force in Japan, virtually every manga magazine in print would have to be shut down.
It is thus quite possible to analyze the differences between Japan and the United States from the perspective of regulations. But what I want to stress here is that these rules show all the symptoms of an excessive defense reaction. No matter how popular comics had become by the 1950s, they could hardly compete with film. Nevertheless, they were much more severely regulated, to the point of destroying an entire genre of expression. Would it be too much to see in this an echo of what we might call the West’s iconographic taboo? The highly detailed and concrete restrictions on the depictions of sexuality are particularly remarkable. In these restrictions we can clearly see operating the obsessive idea that images themselves must not be sexually attractive.
Pornography must be considered as part of this discussion of the visual expression of sexuality. Pornography, needless to say, prizes images that are realistic and highly practical. In the decline of roman poruno and the rise of adult video, for example, one can see the pursuit of convenience and practicality. Pornographic images trend toward being more suitable for private consumption, reproduction and distribution gets easier, and pornographic expression gets more and more explicit. But in the Japanese space this leads to another contradiction: namely, the existence of “porno comics.” I want to stress once again that I am speaking of pornography in general here, not of “erotic expression.” It is perhaps only in Japan that pornography has taken the form of comic books and attained a certain popularity in doing so. Of course, there are porno comics that are meant to be used as masturbation aids in the West as well, but on a scale that does not even being to compare with that of Japan.
It seems absurd that such an enormous market would emerge for pornographic comics in a country where “hair nudes” are everywhere and people are somewhat bored even of adult videos. As I pointed out earlier, anime-style drawing has been hugely influential in this genre as well. In terms of their correspondence to everyday reality, there is no less realistic style of drawing. Despite this, however, these kinds of representation have been widely preferred as a medium for pornography. This would be entirely unimaginable in Europe or the United States, and the contrast points to a significant cultural difference.
Of course, there is a historical background to this as well. According to Timon Screech of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, the so-called shunga that were produced in such huge quantities in the Edo period were used by the masses as masturbation aids.
If that is in fact the case, we should also be able to find the roots of manga and anime in the Edo period, in a culture in which sexual desire was both stimulated and satisfied by drawn images. The issue here, needless to say, has something to do with anything like the symbolic expression of eros. The problem that we have arrived at instead is that of the immediacy of the drawn image.
As I have already pointed out, there are many fans of anime and manga in the West. But they are virtually unanimous in their hatred for so-called tentacle porn. They believe that sexuality does not belong in animation. What do Japanese otaku think about this? If they were shown this sort of pornographic work they would either give a wry smile or launch into a lengthy discussion of the history of adult anime using works like Cream Lemon (Kuriimu remon) and Legend of the Overfiend (Urotsukidoji) as examples. I cannot help but see in this difference another huge contrast between Japanese and Western otaku.
Leaving aside the question of whether it is possible to read in this the traces of taboos and repression, for now let us reiterate the minimal facts of which we can be certain. In the Western space of popular culture, it is exceedingly rare to find drawn iconic images of cute little girls and erotic nudes. In that space there is an unconscious censorship of drawn images, and their reality is kept within certain limits. The type of caricatures so conspicuous in Disney’s animations can even be considered as a technique of exaggeration for the purpose of repression. Constant and meticulous efforts are made in this space to prevent drawn images from attaining their own autonomous reality. In other words, drawn images are always kept in the position of being substitutes for objects that exist in reality.
In Japanese space, on the other hand, it is permissible for all sorts of sites to have their own autonomous reality (riariti). In other words, real (riaru ) fictions do not necessarily require the security of reality (genjitsu). There is absolutely no need in this space for fiction to imitate reality. Fiction is able to clear a space around itself for its own reality (riariti ku kan). The appeal of drawn images of little girls, for example, is a crucial element in the production of this reality (riariti). Here, fiction must establish a logic of sexuality all its own. This is because, in Japanese space, sexuality is the most important factor upholding reality (riariti). Of course, this is not true only of anime. Why else, for example, did the artistic traditions of the past put so much emphasis on the depiction of women? Why do rakugo raconteurs spend so much time extolling the pleasures of womanizing? And why do manga instruction courses always begin with how to draw a boy-girl couple? All of these things, which are particular to Japan, suggest that in this space it is sexuality that upholds the reality of fiction (kyoko no riariti).
So let us accept the autonomy of fiction and put forward the thesis that this autonomy is a necessary precondition for the beautiful fighting girl to emerge. If this is the case, we cannot in any sense see in them the reflection of “everyday reality.” It would not be permissible, for example, to infer from the popularity of beautiful fighting girls that girls are being empowered in the real world. It is the stubborn habit of seeing fiction as an imitation of reality, which is hard even for the Japanese to resist, that is at the root of this misunderstanding. The misunderstanding may be logically consistent, but that same logical consistency is also precisely what renders it invalid.
Getting back to our discussion of the image in Japanese space, I repeat that representations in this space do not undergo symbolic castration. There are some gestures toward imaginary castration with regard to sexual codes, but these are barely functional, and in the end they actually come closer to initiating a drive toward the disavowal of castration. The disavowal of castration is of course the initial condition for sexual perversion, which is why this space exhibits such an affinity for perverted objects. All sorts of images come to occupy various positions within this ecosystem of autonomous reality, and the space begins to overflow with meanings rendered through sexual and other codes. In this place, so highly charged with meaning because of this sheer verbosity of codes, context is privileged over any single disarticulated code. Meaning is transmitted instantaneously here, but its provenance can never be traced back to a single code.
This sort of high-context representational space can sometimes lose some of its reality effect if it is circulated too widely and understood too easily. How might it resist this attenuation of reality? One way is, of course, through sexuality. As I have argued several times already, sex is a necessary component for a narrative to seem real. The various struggles and manipulations surrounding sexuality (i.e., “romance”) are what introduce a core of reality into a narrative.
The widespread transgression of sexual limits in Japanese representational culture can also be interpreted in light of the high-context nature of Japanese space. High-context expressive space is, by nature, incapable of making full use of the effects of structural and formal reality. Instead it is the intensities that emerge at moments of shifting and switching from one context to another that are used to create reality effects. In the highest context spaces of anime and manga, most important are those gestures capable of transcending the context of heterosexual desire. The various characteristics of the beautiful fighting girls, which include hermaphorditism, transformation (i.e., accelerated maturation), and the strange mixture of proactivity (i.e., fighting ability) and passivity (i.e., cuteness), all help facilitate the emergence of this transcendental reality. That all manner of perversions should be evoked in their presence is only natural.
[To be continued... The Phallic Girl as a Form of Hysteria]

TW: CSA SA AIW for having sexual fantasies about my family members after being sexually abused ?
To be extremely clear, this is very serious and real. I am a 21 year old male, living in the US with a very nice “life” good friends, good in school, promising future, strong relationships. Etc.
Edit: I would ask that you don’t downvote, I really need the feedback. I would rather you tell me I’m a sick monster than downvote.
I have made a post about this in the past, but nobody seemed to answer my question. If you want to read that version it’s on my profile.
TLDR at the bottom. This is a throwaway account because I am so deeply ashamed and conflicted.
To make a long story short I will begin with my own abuse.
When I was around 7 or 8 my older brother who was 10 or 11 taught me how to masturbate and even did it for me on a couple occasions. He then escalated into having us masturbate together and watching porn. I was so young I barely remember what I was thinking. This progressed over the next 1-2 years to him introducing the idea of kissing each other and then eventually pleasuring each other orally with it ending with attempted penetration. I was around 10 and he was around 13. This was only on a couple occasions and eventually ceased when I was about 12 and he was about 15. This was when he was starting to go to high school and meeting girls. I began acting out around this time and he gave up on me completely, acted like I didn’t exist. I never felt wrong about the sexual actions and felt it was pretty normal, didn’t think about it that often.
Here is where my issue lies. From the time I was 13 until about 20, I would have these recurring hypersexual thoughts about a lot of women. This is common I believe, however, included in these thoughts/fantasies were some of my own family members. Most often (doesent mean it was often in general) it would be my sister who is 2 years younger. I was not obsessed with her by any means but when her body started changing I took notice and instead of feeling disgusted I just hid my feelings. Not like I had a crush or anything and I fully understood it was unacceptable to touch her or try to play this out in reality However, on occasion when I would dwell on some of the physical “attraction” or excitement for more than a couple seconds I would masturbate to clear my mind, and immediately go back to operating “normally”. I never once felt guilty about this or even thought twice about it until later in life when I started to mature and look back on certain behaviors. I also entered some relationships and noticed some general sexual dysfunction.
I guess I justified it because the horny feelings were there and it was no crime to masturbate to these fantasies, another thing I think contributed to this was porn addiction. Just about every video I watched or saw on any porn site was incxst themed. This contributed to me thinking it was pretty normal and other people must be having these thoughts/feelings as well. And as long as I don’t harm anybody I was just fine. I think I considered these fantasies just as normal as fantasizing about anybody else which I did plenty of. Maybe even something that we would all laugh about in our later stages of life.
There is a very mixed reaction from the internet and I am just looking for opinions. I’m am searching for your guys opinions on my specific experience because for some reason I went from feeling like this was a normal perfectly fine stage of development to feeling like a disgusting perverted monster because of how certain people view this, including myself.
I understand this is a hard topic. Please don’t tell me to go seek therapy or “this is above reddits pay grade”. Because for 1. I am already in therapy working through my whole childhood including this, and for 2. I don’t want to hear from only a professional, I would like to hear judgements from “normal” people, because that’s who I’ll be dealing with for the rest of my life and their opinions matter just as much as anybody else’s.
I am open to any and all opinions/advice, even if you don’t relate. If you feel these were all my fault and I’m the one who’s the sick dirty person, on a similar level to pedophiles or rapists then please tell me, if you think I am deserving of understanding, let me know also.
Thanks for reading I’m sorry if I wrote a lot, I’m in a lot of distress right now and I can’t stop thinking of that.
Last thing just to clarify once more. Nobody I know has any idea of this besides my mom whom I confided in. Nobody would even suspect something like this because outwardly I am very composed. I have never attempted to touch or seduce any of these people I fantasized about and they were all close in age.
TLDR: aiw for being aroused by thoughts of sexual acts with family members.
Edit: if you know anywhere else I could post this for some more feedback that would be greatly appreciated, thanks again, sorry if I grossed you out :( but I am real and my situation exists, I don’t know where else to turn I’m terrified what friends or future partners would think.

Just strip everything good about it and turn it into the most generic anime schlock imaginable. I was thinking about Dungeon Meshi and how that series works so well because the characters and world have so much thought and substance put into them, and then I tried to imagine the worst version of the show that could possibly exist.
Laios: Instead of a lovable adult with a special interest in monsters that other people find weird, Laios is a teenage boy with short black hair that's actually from our world and gets teleported the world of Dungeon Meshi after he dies. His knowledge of monsters comes from all the video game manuals he read as a kid, which didn't make him any friends in our world, but makes him incredibly cool to everyone he meets in the fantasy world. Also he has the special ability to gain powers from each monster he eats, which by episode four makes him so overpowered that it strips all stakes away from the series.
Falin: Falin is Laios's sister who also got isekai'd. Her only personality trait is being a generic little sister, who says Onii-chan a lot, and she's madly in love with her brother. Also despite the fact that she was isekai'd the same way as Laios, she doesn't get any cool powers.
Marcille: She's pretty similar how she was in the first few episodes and never evolves past that point. Her character gags about not wanting to eat monsters and being useless with her magic are present in every single episode. She's completely incompetent and is mostly there to get kidnapped by monsters and saved by Laios to show off how cool he is. She's also in love with Laios, and all subtext of a relationship between her and Falin are removed, save for a few fanservice scenes that are only there for the audience's benefit.
Chilchuck: I'm of two minds about this.
1) He's mostly the same, but he's given a few "ugly" physical characteristics like a big nose or a rat face so he isn't a threat to the viewer self insert's Laios's harem. Also all the nuance about him being a union man who demands payment upfront because he knows how often half-foots are taken advantage of is gone. He's just greedy because all half-foots in this world are greedy.
2) He gets genderbent into a girl and is madly in love with Laios. Also half-foots in this setting don't just look like younger humans, they behave exactly like children except it's totally socially acceptable to have sex with them. Chilchuck gets into lots of slap fights with Falin over calling Laios "Onii-Chan".
Senshi: Mostly the same but he's an old man so he isn't a threat to the viewer self insert's Laios's harem. He's also a pervert for no reason.
Izutsumi: Imagine the most generic looking cat girl you can and then make her a little more generic than that. Her curse just gave her cat ears and a tail and makes her say "Nya" all the time. She gives up her dream of ridding herself of the curse because Laios tells her "she looks cuter this way". She's also been de-aged to 13 for no reason, and her slave mark curse doesn't go away, ownership just gets transferred to Laios making her his slave for the entire story, which is totally fine because she "likes it".
Shuro: Shuro dies before the start of the story, leaving behind his retainers, which in this story are just his harem. It's revealed in flashbacks that Shuro was basically identical to Laios, which makes Shuro's entire harem infatuated with him immediately.
Namari: All female dwarfs in this version lose all their bulk and are just skinny short people. She's still "muscular" in the sense that sometimes that author draws her arms with some muscle definition when they feel like it.
Kabru: I'm conflicted about this. A pretty boy lady killer who's not the protagonist can't be allowed to exist in this setting. I'd say he's either totally removed, or he's turned into a villain who's beloved by all until Laios exposes him. The main crime they focus on is that he owns slaves, which Laios also does, but the story doesn't feel like this is in any way worth mentioning.

“Hello pervert, I've sent this message from your iCloud mаil.
I want to inform you about a very bad situation for you. However, you can benefit from it, if you will act wisеly.
Have you heard of Pegasus? This is a spyware program that installs on computers and smartphones and allows hackers to monitor the activity of device owners. It provides access to your webcam, messengers, emails, call records, etc. It works well on Android, iOS, and Windows. I guess, you already figured out where I’m getting at.
It’s been a few months since I installed it on all your dеviсеs because you were not quite choosy about what links to click on the intеrnеt. During this period, I’ve learned about all aspects of your private life, but оnе is of special significance to me.
I’ve recorded many videos of you jerking off to highly controversial роrn videos. Given that the “questionable” genre is almost always the same, I can conclude that you have sick реrvеrsiоn.
I doubt you’d want your friends, family and co-workers to know about it. However, I can do it in a few clicks.
Every number in your contact Iist will suddenly receive these vidеоs – on WhatsApp, on Telegram, on Instagram, on Facebook, on email – everywhere. It is going to be a tsunami that will sweep away everything in its path, and first of all, your fоrmеr life.
Don’t think of yourself as an innocent victim. No one knows where your реrvеrsiоn might lead in the future, so consider this a kind of deserved рunishmеnt to stop you.
I’m some kind of God who sees everything. However, don’t panic. As we know, God is merciful and forgiving, and so do I. But my mеrсy is not free.
Transfer 1300 USD to my Litecoin (LTC) wallet: ltc1quktckwqfnpq2z7sekmmkpawxq25uxn02v5ef3m
Once I receive confirmation of the transaction, I will реrmanently delete all videos compromising you, uninstаll Pegasus from all of your devices, and disappear from your life. You can be sure – my benefit is only money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing to you, but destroy your life without a word in a second.
I’ll be notified when you open my email, and from that moment you have exactly 48 hours to send the money. If cryptocurrencies are unchartered waters for you, don’t worry, it’s very simple. Just google “crypto exchange” or "buy Litecoin" and then it will be no harder than buying some useless stuff on Amazon.
I strongly warn you against the following: * Do not reply to this email. I've sent it from your iCloud mail. * Do not contact the police. I have access to all your dеviсеs, and as soon as I find out you ran to the cops, videos will be published. * Don’t try to reset or destroy your dеviсеs. As I mentioned above: I’m monitoring all your activity, so you either agree to my terms or the vidеоs are рublished.
Also, don’t forget that cryptocurrencies are anonymous, so it’s impossible to identify me using the provided аddrеss.
Good luck, my perverted friend. I hope this is the last time we hear from each other. And some friendly advice: from now on, don’t be so careless about your online security.”
Thats the email, what do i do? Im confused