everything you need to know about japan's kawaii industry

hello! so the part where i talk about the "morally grey" area of adults liking cutesy things... i really should've specified because i was referring to people like b*ll* d*lphine and others who capitalize on acting like children and actively feed this sector of the p*rn industry, which imo harms literal children. (i just didn't want to cause toooooo much controversy because it's a lot to get into but i realize not being specific in the end made some people upset.) i'm not referring to adult lolitas or adults who like to collect sanrio merch. i'm sorry for the confusion!

I think maybe the real problem is that MEN don't want to be sweet and cute too.

When you talked about hobbies of older women I instantly thought of "grandmacore" and how knitting, baking and "elderly women" fashion styles had a moment in the pandemic. Of course, they still rely on stereotypical motherly (grandmotherly?) roles but I guess it kinda works as a freeing alternative to the doom and gloom of adulthood (being retired and not having to worry about childraising (considering you don't have to raise your grandchildren) anymore. Adulthood still looks like the end of fun, rather then independence and understanding yourself (these are all great, but where is the fun?)

Avril's video was voted the worst MV of 2014. That's being generous. It's the worst release by a supposedly professional artist in musical history. Rebecca Black has an excuse. Avril doesn't. Thank god her career is over.

hey, what's the song at the end of the video?

on the point about wanting to emphasize older women's hobbies and items, i think that's so interesting! I think there is a lot of crossover in granny culture and kawaii culture (doilies, lace, teatime all remind me of grannies and lolita subculture). I've always been a huge j-fashion fan, but I source most of my things second-hand in the deep south USA. The result is a very grandma influenced kawaii vibe lmao! I'm thinking in particular about fruit-shaped teapots, little figurines (like cherished teddies) and vintage linens. For me, there's a crossover into femme gender identity bc my love of hyper-feminine things aligns more closely with older women (typically not as much of a male object of desire) rather than young girls. Lots to think about!! Lovely video Mina :))

herbicides has the best friend in life for her and the severity

What I learned today: The kawaii hype is psychologically valid, but very intertwined with consumerism and youth glorification

The Western men who like this are attracted to little girls. Single digit girls.
The novel "Lolita" was literally about a man who was attracted to an underaged girl.

there is no such thing as "english characters", the letters that are used almost all over the world are latin💀

Asian fashion culture is disgusting. Forget kawai. They like their women to look like babies and dolls. Not children. BABIES! Try even buying earrings or clothes, the models look like infants. Tiny ears, tiny arms...it's hard to describe but if you've seen it you know what I mean.

I;m in Japan now visiting, The cuteness overloads me at those arcade stations

האישה בתמונה דומה לאורן גל

I found it amusing in that Fuller House episode a couple of the kids made such a big deal of a special Hello Kitty store of some sort...they got cafes and even a whole island with REAL kitties (neko)! I would love so much to someday go there and check out the kawaii kitties and the kawaii chicks!

What about Kuromi? She has a mouth and facial expressions. I don't think all Sanrio characters have been made for the reasons mentioned regarding Hello Kitty in the video.

A few years ago I was scared to express that I loved Sanrio because I was horrified of being bullied. But now I express myself however I like :)

Your hair needs a dark cherry for fall. Plus it matches your velvet aesthetic. Dye it a nice 2RN.

What? No mention of cultural appropriation? Kawaii started as imitation of Western culture. It still is. Kawaii is not the idolization of childhood, it's the idolizes of WHITE childhood. But I'll bet you'll find a way to blame white people for this too.

I have a genuine question, is having a kawaii style concidered asianfishing? ive been worried about it for awhile and i dont want to hurt anybody but i have a kawaii fashion but not in a dolly way (if that makes any sense) its more of a if you look up kawaii on pintrest way

ALL OF THIS TO SAY
If it is concidered asian fishing pls do tell me
Also i am a minor and im just dressing like this bc it makes me happy not to seem sexual of anything

an interesting thing is that her accent makes かわいい (kawaii) sometimes sound like 怖い (kowai) it kind of distracts me 😵‍💫

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💗😍 Omg I am so happy and hopeful to read your comments! It's great to have the same way of thinking. We should create a Facebook group or something 😁✨

I like the hair color and I LOVE quoting that part of Suite Life of Zach and Cody!!

I absolutely LOVE your hair!!!

Loved this. I was always curious. Thank you!@

Beautiful 😍
By the way, kawaii (かわいい) means cute in Japanese. 💜

Biologically East Asians are cute. It would be odd if other ethnicities tried to act cute.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤

I think the natural desire of women across the globe to feel and look like and love things that are beautiful and pretty has unintentionally harmed us a lot as well. But at the same time its hard to fight because desire is desire?

Im doing an industry market research on Kawaii products for a client, and this video was absolutley the best professional resources I could find. Great job!

I’m late, but I LOVE this hair color! Looks great!!

the person that is spoken of in the end are two different teachers at my school and that realization just brought me to tears

I get what you said about morally gray areas. It's definitely something I've struggled with as a short and baby faced person and I know I'm not the only one. Personally I DON'T want to be seen as sxy but I also have to be aware of creepy men who might think "it's ok because _ is an adult".

It is funny when fellow adults do it because you can SEE their faith in teenagers being restored and I'm like "yes but no". Have faith in people! But I'm not a teen lol. Also the amount of pre teens and teens who have tried to befriend me as a fellow teen is scary.

The hair is a slay on you

eyebrows, thank you

We have the same name

Young women and older girls dressing up as little girls to stay young for as long as possible because they do not want to grow up and have to deal with loosing their freedom to their husbands and raising a family makes sense. Women wearing little girls clothes draws obvious attention to the fact that they are in fact not little girls and that they have curves. The contradiction of a developed woman wearing child clothing draws attention to the fact that they don't belong together and makes you notice the things that are different about a girl and a woman. It kind of makes them appear naive and awkward, but makes their curves very obvious, which maybe men or people will then sexualize. I've always wondered why "cuteness" has been sexualized or associated with women...but it all makes sense now. Women being an adult is more tragic than a man being an adult. A man being an adult means he can make decisions and tell people what to do and a woman being an adult has historically meant she will be tied down to raising children and even less free than when she was a child. Of course she will want to remain a child for as long as possible, hence dressing as a little girl for as long as possible. But then it also makes sense how it got sexualized...The awkwardness of a woman in child's clothes draws attention to to the fact that she is not a child, and is in fact a developed woman. Maybe also it got sexualized because people and men were upset and sort of resentful and enjoyed taking away a person's youthfulness because theirs is gone too. Awful and messed up, but kind of makes sense. Definitely not okay or justified, but sort of makes sense.

I like Japanese seals online, they are Kawaii

I haven’t really laughed at anything on the Internet in a while because it just feels like everything is the same but that one little meme of the girls pulling out the gun was so funny 😂

If we like cute things, then we should embrace that. The fact that men will sexualize it isn’t something we can control. Men will sexualize anything we do.

This video is so fascinating to see~ I wrote a research paper a few years ago on pink washing/ and kawaii culture its amazing at how parallel our findings and conclusions are ! Love to see these nuances of Japanese pop culture being discussed in a meaningful and educational way. Mahalo for sharing

I wanna see grandmacore ~ gardening, knitting, enjoying tea while being cozy and connect.

For your skin tone I think that color could really work for you if you had more of a violet base to the red. Like an anti brass violet toner would really bring that color to the next level. If you get too fire engine red it doesn’t look good on many skin tones - a violet BASE helps to turn the color to a cooler tone which is often a lot more complimentary to a lot of skin colors and types :)

na little cute girl aint the problem

Just be careful to pronounce it ka-wa-ee, cause kowai means scary. :D

I'm surprised that Keira Knightly, chose to ban her daughter from watching those films instead of watching them and having a proper discussion about it's good and bad points. Reminds me of when my sister said that if she ever had daughters she would not allow them to wear pink?! To me, that's dumb, hating on a colour because of it's perceived societal connotations - colour does not limit you, you limit you and everything else is someone else's opinion!^^ When people say 'grow up', seems to be they really want to say 'I'm not having fun, so you shouldn't either'. I was pressured to give up dolls at 13 and now collect them again as an adult. There are hobbies for everyone out there, I'm not really into travelling or cooking or theatre for example, but I style dolls, photograph them and have made lasting online friendships with men and women of that community, some of which are over a decade long. Cute stuff can be the manifestation of daydreams into material objects and we all could use a little escapism now and then. 😃 Edit: Just wanted to add that yes, I do watch anime, but there are many aspects of Japanese culture that I adore and respect also like historical, traditional textiles and arts (making of indigo and pottery), Japanese cinema, philosophy (wabi sabi, Shintoism), poetry (haikyu) and food. I did learn some hiragana a while back, but there's only so much you can teach yourself. Good to talk about these issues!^^

Yes, you pronounced "kawaii" wrongly too. But it's OK because this was so very informative... Thank you!
Edit: I do not agree with some of the things said in this video, but I appreciate the info :)

Wait I wonder if the girls deciding to do infantile things was kind of in response to girls having to grow up fast and boys stay boys forever