The Difference: anime vs wolf&rabbit

Alright, I've finally found one for-sure indicator of cultural identity. It's not a big thing, but has it's own very significant force over the cultural subconscious:

I share an apartment with 3 Italians. This is quite fun and I enjoy it very much, except on the rare occasion when they pull out that one dinner conversation topic to which I just can't relate, no matter how hard I try - the cartoons of their childhood. These are mostly Japanese translated into Italian, and if I'm particularly unlucky, then Riccardo will make me watch some of the titles complete with theme songs. He'll have a slightly manic glint in his eyes, being completely convinced that the theme songs found on the net are some sort of a treat and I could be nothing but very deeply interested in them. Obviously I can't sense the long string of innocently happy moments these theme songs have accompanied in my friends' past. I can try, but it will not work. All I will see is a cartoon from some 20 years ago.



Now, I've never really watched Japanese anime, as I was 8 when the Soviet Union collapsed and it was only afterwards that they started to be shown on TV. When they did, I was a little out of the right age group and I never really liked them, because the characters didn't move while running. I grew up with Russian cartoons, so, obviously, the songs that make me remember granny's cooking and the good old days are completely different. Once I tried to get back at my flatmates and make them listen to the Nu Pogodi scores and others of this style, but they wouldn't play along (meaning that they kept up with it, said it was interesting, and found an excuse to leave the kitchen).

I later understood that presenting someone with an old cartoon they are unfamiliar with is unfair to the extreme: stripping it from all the affectionate memories and placing it under the scrutiny of an adult of another cultural context is... well, it just can't turn out well. Here is proof:



It's a part of culture that's impossible to learn or to fully comprehend, across cultures as well as across generations. Another example of this phenomena are the fireside songs, though these are slightly less sensitive to age differences. They are not usually something that people normally listen to or talk about, but they are very present in the cultural subconscious and have an awesome force of isolating the foreigners. There are some bridges, of course, and during the night someone will come up with "Stairway to heaven" and other such songs too, but the Italian ones are buried deep and I have no idea how to appreciate them for what they are.