Japanese Students Reveal Differences Between Anime High school And Real Life

There is one statement that stands to be true about many aspects of society, “Anime isn’t like real life.” This applies to many situations, asJapanese animation features an ultra glorified, extreme, or sometimes ridiculous version of real life. With the recent spike in popularity of slice-of-life series, many shows show an “ordinary” student in a “normal” Japanese high school. But the high school setting shown in these shows and movies are seen by some as what it is really like to live in Japan, but according to real life Japanese students, that is far from the truth.

The Japanese website My Navi Gakuesi no Madoguchi polled over a hundred anime fans in college to give some insight on the interpretation. Researches from the site asked the participants “what scenarios they often see in high school anime that don’t really happen with actual high school students”. Some of their answers may surprise you, check out the four ways anime and real life high schools are different in the slide show below.

[HT: Rocketnews24]

1. That Some High School Students live alone

In anime you see high school characters who are either orphaned by their parents, or has a rough home life and lives by themselves in their own apartment. However this in extremely rare in real life. Just like in the United States, it is unlikely that a student in high school will have their own apartment unless they are in a boarding school or something similar. One of the respondents in the poll stated “Unless it’s in a boarding school dormitory, I’ve never seen or heard of an actual high school student living on their own”.

2. The Student Council Rules The High School

In anime no one is cooler or more highly revered in high school than the student council. They are are held at a higher prestige, respect, and hold actual authority over other students. While in reality this is just not true at all. The student council does not have authority to make decisions when it comes to school rules or how the school operates. The school administration is held at higher regards that the student council, and age is just as important in regards to authority. One of the pole participants who was part of the student council in high school chimed in on the situation,  “I was a member of the student council, and we didn’t have much actual authority.”

3. Rooftop Reflecitons

When it comes to anime series set in a high school setting, there are very few places for characters to get away from the stress and chaos of school for self reflection. One of the places used in most series for moments of self reflection, or important sensitive conversations, you usually see the characters on the roof of the school. The roof provides a chance for a beautiful backdrop of serene clouds or epic rain. 

But according to real life students, students never actually go up on the roof. One participant in the survey stated, “You often see anime characters run up to the roof when they’re upset about something, but in my school we weren’t allowed up there.” Another participant even said that all schools lock the roof access. So it seems like the classic roof scene is just a chance for anime to provide some beautiful scenery and drama.

4. The School Is Full Of Beautiful People

Japanese high schools in anime are full of good looking people. They all have perfect hair, no acne, and have perfect bodies. This is obviously not what real life high school is like. High school students in reality are awkward physically, still growing into their bodies and personalities. But who would want to watch an anime full of ugly awkward people? It makes sense that the edges are smoothed out when it comes to television animation. One of the survey participants comments “There just aren’t that many good-looking people in a real high school.”

Anime essentially takes all the best parts out of reality, and glorifies all the mundane. This not only makes a more entertaining and satisfying viewing experience, but also adds to the cool factor rather than the realistic one.