{"id":1218,"date":"2005-12-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-13T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/2005\/12\/13\/ask-john-why-are-western-weddings-common-in-anime\/"},"modified":"2005-12-13T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-13T14:00:00","slug":"ask-john-why-are-western-weddings-common-in-anime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-why-are-western-weddings-common-in-anime\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: Why Are Western Weddings Common in Anime?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Question:<\/strong><br \/>\nTo the best of your knowledge, does Japanese society have a particular fascination with the concept of a &#8220;western-style&#8221; wedding &#8211; which may explain why it seems to show up quite a lot in anime (either in a character&#8217;s imagination, or as part of the actual story)? I&#8217;ve seen it appear quite a lot (way too many shows or series to list), and oddly enough, the characters depicted in the wedding scene are, more often that not, Japanese; so I&#8217;m curious why a traditional Japanese wedding isn&#8217;t depicted instead.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>Answer:<\/strong><br \/>\nWestern style &#8220;white weddings&#8221; are actually quite common in Japan even though only an estimated 1% of Japanese natives are Christian. Western style weddings are quite popular in Japan because they&#8217;re aesthetically attractive, and they may be seen as progressive or contemporary compared to the staid traditionalism of a Shinto or Buddhist wedding ceremony. In some cases, certain select elements of a Western wedding may be incorporated into a Shinto or Buddhist wedding. And it&#8217;s also not uncommon for Asian couples (not limited to just Japan) to have two wedding ceremonies- one a Western style wedding, and one a traditional Asian wedding. Some of my own Chinese relatives have had back-to-back Western and Chinese style wedding ceremonies.<\/p>\n<p>Especially in anime, I think that Western weddings are depicted more frequently than Shinto weddings because Western weddings are very theatrical and end with a dramatic kiss, throwing a bouquet of flowers, and confetti.  In other words, Western style weddings are a lively, boisterous affair while a Shinto wedding is very solemn and reserved. With a visual medium like anime, a Western wedding is visually more dynamic and energetic, and creates an impression of a joyous marriage rather than a serious, solemn formal unity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: To the best of your knowledge, does Japanese society have a particular fascination with the concept of a &#8220;western-style&#8221; wedding &#8211; which may explain why it seems to show up quite a lot in anime (either in a character&#8217;s imagination, or as part of the actual story)? I&#8217;ve seen it appear quite a lot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}