"Where else would you go when you have an ax to grind?"

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

a different kind of pillow talk


Yeah, yeah, I know, "judge not lest ye be judged" and "People who live in glass houses" and all that, but uh.....sometimes it seems like this country is just one big open air freakshow:



Momo, whose real name is Toru Taima, has more than 150 body-pillow covers at home. His current favorite is Karada-chan, a copper-haired sixth grader from the anime “A Direction in the Day After Tomorrow.” She’s fully clothed in the cartoon, but in Momo’s imagination and thus on his pillow cover, she appears naked, her cheeks flushed, her prepubescent nipples hidden by her forearms, her white panties rolled down to her ankles. A translucent square etched onto the pillow cover censors her hairless vagina.
Every night, Karada-chan and at least two other animated preteens, drawn with large pink nipples and exaggerated labia, share a mattress with Momo, one on each side and another on top. “They’re so cute, I can’t stand it,” he said shyly. “It’s like my favorite girl comes to marry me every night. I just can’t stop thinking about them.” When Momo talks about Karada-chan, his mousy face lights up like a kid opening Christmas presents. “Her existence to me is like daughter, younger sister and bride all put into one.” Does he have sex with her? “Yes.” Is he interested in real women? “It’s not like I’m completely uninterested. But the last girl I really liked was hen I was 12 years old.”


And my wife sometimes wonders why I don't want the kids out of my sight in public places. If there was ever a society in dire need of a massive dose of psychotherapy, I'm living in it.

(a hat - tip to Our Man in Abiko)

2 comments:

David Webb said...

And the fact that he is so open about something like that. I don't see that happening here, or in the U.S.

This post just reinforces the mocking hatred I have for all the manga and anime fans here who profess to be experts on Japanese culture. I don't think we can "get" Japan. I don't think we can possibly understand it. I mean really, octopus ink flavour ice cream? Really?

You live in a strange and wonderful world Rev. Thanks for giving us a glimpse.

Unknown said...

You can find a few weirdos in any culture, but one line of this story did have more alarmingly widespread implications: "According to a government survey, more than a quarter of men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan do not have friends of the opposite sex."
I was willing to beleive this, mainly because it was in The New York Times and there's no way something like that would get past their fact-checkers if it weren't so, right? Surely?
Well, someone out there begs to differ:
http://www.mutantfrog.com/2009/07/27/nemutans-revenge-some-fact-checking-and-reaction-to-the-nyt-story-on-anime-fetishists/