Vibe Check #6 (January 2024)

Welcome to the 6th edition of our Vibe Check, where we talk about anything dealing with Japanese culture, anime, manga, or anything that's on the top of our heads! Hope you'll have a good read on what's going on in the month!

Check #1: Start of the New Year

It's 2024, which means there are tons of anime series to watch for the year. New seasons such as Dress Up Darling and Blue Lock are heading its way later on in the year, and new series such as Solo Leveling and A Sign of Affection are making their debuts. Personally, I am amped up for Dress Up Darling, Blue Lock (especially), and Spy X Family. I've heard a lot about Solo Leveling; however, I've read a lot of comments from different forums saying that it's not what it looks like compared to the manhwa.

I am not sure what it is like compared to the manhwa (despite that I've never read a Korean manhwa before), but it's not always that surprising that manga chapters tend to be either somewhat or totally different the moment a popular manga/manhwa gets an anime adaptation. 

So my goal for the year would be to watch a minimum of 50 anime series. Although for a lot of anime fans, 50 anime series is kinda a cakewalk to watch for even over a month. It's best to gun it for 50 series and see how it goes. As of January, I had finished a couple of series (Demon Slayer, My Happy Marriage, and IGPX Season 2 just for the nostalgia of it).

You can comment down below on what anime series I can watch for the year.

Check #2: Miss Universe Japan Controversy

Miss Universe Japan has been on yet another controversy where the winner of the Miss Japan pageant is not even ethnically Japanese, but she was born in Japan. Carolina Shiino was the first non-Japanese and not even have any Japanese parents to win the Miss Universe Japan. 

It spewed controversy mainly because a non-Japanese (with literal 0% Japanese in here) wins the competition, and it made tons of people wonder what is a Japanese person at this point.

It's similar to the same controversy as with Ariana Miyamoto when she became the first half-Japanese person to win Miss Universe Japan. At least for Ariana, since she's half Japanese and lives in Japan, it made a lot more sense.

Some X (formerly Twitter) users basically explained on the win for Carolina Shiino as "It would make a lot more sense if she was half-Japanese" or "Japanese beauty standards are totally different from Western beauty standards" and things like that.

However, for Carolina, it's a lot more interesting since she did live in Japan for almost her entire life and she spoken a lot more polite Japanese. It does confused me at first since she wasn't even half-Japanese. Therefore made the argument between Japanese as an ethnicity and Japanese as a nationality. 

It's an overall interesting news article to read and hopefully she'll do well for Miss Universe 2024~

Since there hasn't been a lot of stories to tell because the year just started, that's all we have for the first month of Vibe Check in 2024. Tune in next month for more updates~!