These are some of the lines from the second opening for Keroro Gunsou:
- When [you err, even when it's something you're an expert in], don't take responsibility for it!
- Putting [your blunder] out of your mind is a sure-fire winning strategy.
- If you live life [as described above] and think to yourself, "Every now and then, good things are bound to happen to me!", you'll have peace of mind, right?
- The truth is, nobody wants to take responsibility for their mistakes.
- "Japanese people are so gloomy, aren't they!?" -- we don't want everyone [else on the planet] always saying this sort of thing about us, now do we?
I ... I ... wooooow. :| *speechless disapproval*
I mean, truth be told, I am familiar with that last bullet -- but only because Japanese people seem to think that we all think of them as workaholics who don't know how to have fun. Does the average foreigner have this image in his head of "Japan, the nation of workaholics?" I guess? Maybe? I don't know, I'm way too entrenched in Japanese studies at this point in my life to be able to answer this question objectively. But do foreigners think that the Japanese are gloomy!? I sure don't think so! But yeah, the Japanese definitely think that we think this. And now I can see why: it's a meme!! Someone started it up and now it's a self-replicating idea! I think stereotypes about Americans -- we're overweight, we're arrogant, we own guns ;p -- are closer to reality than the notion that the average Japanese worker is gloomy!
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