Furuba question [Re: [WWW][FYI]"A Japan that Can Say No"]

[osh]

In Fruits Basket, Arisa (or just Uo-chan) gets called a 'Yankee' for being a
thug. Is this just some random slang, a ref to Americans considered
thuggish, or what? Was only curious since Furuba seems to stick to pretty
realistic hairstyles (or at least bothers to explain away odd colors), and I
wondered if Arisa was foreign...

(Which of course, assumes Toru takes after her dad presumably... And why
does _Arisa_ look more like Toru's mom than Toru does?)

[Uiler]

osh wrote:

> In Fruits Basket, Arisa (or just Uo-chan) gets called a 'Yankee' for being
> a thug. Is this just some random slang, a ref to Americans considered
> thuggish, or what? Was only curious since Furuba seems to stick to pretty
> realistic hairstyles (or at least bothers to explain away odd colors), and
> I wondered if Arisa was foreign...
>
> (Which of course, assumes Toru takes after her dad presumably... And why
> does _Arisa_ look more like Toru's mom than Toru does?)

I think "Yankee" is a fairly common phrase to describe deliquents and thugs
who run around in gangs in Japanese schools. I think the main character of
GTO when he was in high school would have been considered a "Yankee". It
is also slang for "American". Yes, I do believe there is a
connection...The Japanese do have stereotypes of what constitute "typical"
American behaviour afterall (which is where I suspect the connection comes
in - that and the fact that the deliquents often bleach their hair).
Needless to say that "Yankee" is a degatory term.

Uiler

[S.t.A.n.L.e.E]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Uiler wrote:

> osh wrote:
>
> > In Fruits Basket, Arisa (or just Uo-chan) gets called a 'Yankee' for being
> > a thug. Is this just some random slang, a ref to Americans considered
> > thuggish, or what? Was only curious since Furuba seems to stick to pretty
> > realistic hairstyles (or at least bothers to explain away odd colors), and
> > I wondered if Arisa was foreign...
> >
> > (Which of course, assumes Toru takes after her dad presumably... And why
> > does _Arisa_ look more like Toru's mom than Toru does?)
>
> I think "Yankee" is a fairly common phrase to describe deliquents and thugs
> who run around in gangs in Japanese schools. I think the main character of
> GTO when he was in high school would have been considered a "Yankee". It
>

Yeah, one of the GTO DVDs has an extra with the GTO author
talking about the "Yankee" term with an interviewer.
I don't quite remember, but something was said about
1950s American films, James Dean, and rebel w/o a cause.

Laters. =)

Stan
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