up with pod people wrote:

Mischief Maker wrote:

All this overdrive of thrill and emotion and drama and crazy risks help to blot out the shame of working as prostitutes.

I see where you are going with this, but shame? did those girls seem ashamed to you?

there is a huge cultural divide between Japan and North America about sexuality, and it's not binary puritan/slutty. it is just... fundamentally different. I wish I could borrow NDD's brain to express exactly how, but in general, Japanese sources of shame are different than our sources of shame (show me a local non-otaku who would proudly wear a golden poop pendant).

interpreting the relationships in Happiness Space through our lens leads to a very distorted impression, which leads to tragedies like Memoirs of a Geisha.