The Power of Hugs in Anime, from ‘Sailor Moon’ to ‘Spirited Away'

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/11/arts/anime-hugs.html

by mooreds • 4 years ago

52 35 4 years ago

flakiness• 4 years ago

Unlike Western countries like the US, hugs are not part of the daily postures in Japan, even between family members - Most moms don't hug their children in normal circumstances for example. I think that's part of why these Japanese anime creators treat it as special and magical.

kiba• 4 years ago

Hugs are not really a thing in the US either.

decremental• 4 years ago

That's not true. Guys who are really close friends or family will do the epic handshake, pull it in, quick tap on the back hug. Women hug all the time. It's their version of the handshake. Every time I meet up with women they want to hug.

Mizza• 4 years ago

Hugs are super common in California, even when meeting people for the first time. It freaked me out when I moved there.

I don't know you, buddy, get away from me.

jason-phillips2• 4 years ago

Well bless your heart! Come on over here and let Texas show you how it's done!

pfist• 4 years ago

I'm 38 years old and have lived in the US my entire life. I have lived in 5 states and visited 17. While the frequency does vary quite a bit from place to place, I have never been to a city where no one hugs; especially close family members.

cm2012• 4 years ago

Northeast US, hugs are a standard greeting for extended family and close friends for the people I know.

causality0• 4 years ago

Where in the US do you live, because I've never been somewhere here that people don't hug.

ClassyJacket• 4 years ago

I am extremely confident you are 100% wrong

yakubin• 4 years ago

I wish I was born in such a culture. I've been trying to teach my father I'm not comfortable with being patted on my laps, back, hugged or generally needlessly touched, since I was 7 at least (25 now). I'm not very hopeful that will ever work. At least I got the little success of stopping my relatives from trying to kiss me on cheeks. For me such gestures are really reserved for intimate relationships in intimate moments.

I've recently read James Clavell's Shōgun and the way this book depicted how physical contact and intimacy was treated in Japan circa 1600 really resonates with how I feel about those things, i.e. whatever happens between two people behind close doors is no big deal, public nudity (devoid of sex) is no big deal, but casual touching, hugging, kissing with everyone at every turn which is so commonplace in Western cultures is a no-no.

I highly recommend the book btw. It gave me a picture of a beautiful place and culture.

antiterra• 4 years ago

I hope it’s a little heartening that a parenting style that says ‘my body is my body’ is relatively popular which means those kids never have to try to dodge a kiss from grandma they don’t want.

That said, reading about Temple Grandin’s hug box experience might open something up around the sensation.

pineaux4• 4 years ago

You should try some tantra, I know multiple people that have been mentally healed by a single week-long tantra retreat. They changed front people that were uncomfortable with touch and intimacy to people who actively sought it out, without becoming creepy or non-consentual. I have one friends who was completely uncomfortable with his body and with intimacy from other people. Because of this, he was 26 years old and never had a sexual experience with another person before. After hearing some good stories of other Friends, he decided to do a tantra retreat. He came back a changed man. His fear of intimacy had dissapeared. A girl from the retreat proposed that she would deflower him and a few weeks later hè had his first threesome. I know it sounds a bit unbelievable. I probably wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't had multiple people with a similar experience.

That being said; nobody should be forced to hug or kiss if they don't want to. I do, however, believe that most people crave intimacy even if they do not know it themselves. I think love and intimacy are dangerous for systems and society, and are therefor discouraged slightly by society.

snvzz• 4 years ago

https://archive.ph/pjSUk

Cyberdog• 4 years ago

This is a Tumblr post with a budget.

Michelangelo11• 4 years ago

Right, that was exactly my first impression. Thanks for putting it into words so well.

jlkuester7• 4 years ago

First time reading the NY Times?

abledon• 4 years ago

wait till you start seeing spongebob squarepants articles in 5-10 years ;)

rowanG0772• 4 years ago

Can we please ban paid sites links? It's extremely annoying. And encouraging piracy by putting a link into the comments that circumvents it is even worse.

justsomehnguy• 4 years ago

No.

Also I'm not quite okay with asking a 3rd party to spend resources on something what could be not even used.

Also there is archive.ph link in a comment made 45 minutes before your comment.

rowanG0772• 4 years ago

So instead of respecting the creators of the content you are linking to an unpaid link, essentially encouraging piracy? And then you want to lecture me on asking something of someone? Please...

KronisLV• 4 years ago

I think paywalled links are reasonable since one should be able to ask for money for their work/efforts, though it would be helpful to disclose the fact somehow, to save a click for those uninterested in that media format?

For example, we already have suggestions for videos and PDFs in the guidelines:

  > If you submit a video or pdf, please warn us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.

Of course, I'm not sure what a name for that tag might be, [paid link] or [paywall], though those might have negative connotations. Just a thought.

Edit: dang also linked the FAQ and previous discussion of paywalls above, it seems a solved question.

pineaux4• 4 years ago

What is so bad about piracy. I like piracy. Even with my content of it prevents me from maling content I will stop making it.

i_am_toaster• 4 years ago

I love piracy. Thankfully, it’s existence doesn’t depend on whether you like it or not.

SyneRyder• 4 years ago

For what it's worth, the article seems free to access on mobile here in Australia. I'm using an Android phone with the Vivaldi browser. Each article prompts with an offer to subscribe to the NYT for $20/year or 50c/week, but that prompt is easily dismissed. I also have the free New York Times login account that increases the number of free articles you're allowed to read, but apparently I wasn't logged in to that anyway.

Perhaps I have paywall free access because I took their "Not ready to subscribe? Tell us why" survey a while back?

dang• 4 years ago

This question has been settled for years on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989. If there's a workaround, it's ok. Users usually post workarounds in the thread.

This is in the FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html and there's more explanation here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

It's not a perfect or even particularly good solution but it's much better than banning all the sites with soft paywalls or any other solution I'm aware of.

The Power of Hugs in Anime, from ‘Sailor Moon’ to ‘Spirited Away'

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