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Why do anime characters only have flip phones instead of smartphones?

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Jan 26, 2015 12:36 PM
#1

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From my experience I have rarely seen anime characters with smartphones. Are they just less used there or is it just some sort of design trait of anime? Flip phones are rarely used in the West so I was just wondering.

Here's what I mean by the way:



Rather than:

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Jan 26, 2015 12:37 PM
#2

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4892
Because Japan needs to get gud. They're 3rd world rite?
Jan 26, 2015 12:40 PM
#3

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I don't know man...
stop oppressing me with this kind of question...
Jan 26, 2015 12:41 PM
#4

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PornSymphony said:
I don't know man...
stop oppressing me with this kind of question...


Oppressing you? *Gasps* Sorry.
Jan 26, 2015 12:41 PM
#5

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Flip phones are kind of popular in japan. Smartphones nly got popular recently
Jan 26, 2015 12:41 PM
#6

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Flip phones are more common in Japan.
Jan 26, 2015 12:42 PM
#7

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Flip phones are smart phones in Japan.
Jan 26, 2015 12:45 PM
#8

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Jan 26, 2015 12:51 PM
#9

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Syndiciate said:
Because Japan needs to get gud. They're 3rd world rite?


oh!! you are just adorable!!! XD
just stick to the shit-posting :")
Jan 26, 2015 12:52 PM

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Because they're cheap and teenagers don't have money.
Jan 26, 2015 12:53 PM

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Like most things in anime they have to be the same to be consistent with the generic anime characteristics.
Jan 26, 2015 12:54 PM

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15463
guess it looks more dramatic when the characters open their flip phones
Jan 26, 2015 12:54 PM

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17169
Smart phones are banned in Japan.
"Let Justice Be Done!"

My Theme
Fight again, fight again for justice!
Jan 26, 2015 12:55 PM

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Veronin said:
Because they're cheap and teenagers don't have money.


But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.
Jan 26, 2015 12:56 PM

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Maybe they are still popular in Japan. In my opinion, they are way better despite not having applications or touch screen.
Jan 26, 2015 12:57 PM

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danae17 said:
Maybe they are still popular in Japan. In my opinion, they are way better despite not having applications or touch screen.


I wish I had one. They are so simplistic and easy to use.
Jan 26, 2015 12:58 PM

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MisterWhisker said:
Veronin said:
Because they're cheap and teenagers don't have money.


But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.

Japan is actually surprisingly low tech in some areas.
Jan 26, 2015 1:00 PM

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Insertanamehere said:
MisterWhisker said:


But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.

Japan is actually surprisingly low tech in some areas.


Yeah, they still have this obsession with "Fax Machines."

Jan 26, 2015 1:00 PM

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17583
flip phones are fading out of anime... i dont remember any from 2014
you should watch more modern stuff op https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcdkdbb7R94
Jan 26, 2015 1:00 PM

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Insertanamehere said:
MisterWhisker said:


But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.

Japan is actually surprisingly low tech in some areas.
They still sell singles on CD for whatever reason.
Jan 26, 2015 1:07 PM

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.is just what we see in animes , don't believe in everything you see on a tv program.
Jan 26, 2015 1:11 PM

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Jan 26, 2015 1:13 PM

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MisterWhisker said:
Veronin said:
Because they're cheap and teenagers don't have money.


But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.


From what I can tell, there's probably three possibilities here:
1) Japanese parents don't like spending a ton of money on non-essential goods for their children. (I wouldn't know since I'm not Japanese.)
2) Animators are significantly older than teenagers and grew up in the age of flip phones, so they just draw what they know.
3) Flip phones are a sort of cultural icon in Japan and anime appeals to that.

Either way, it's sort of pointless to try and explain why certain things are more or less popular in other countries. Certain car models are popular in Japan, certain styles of music, genres of video games, etc. It's just the way things are.
Jan 26, 2015 1:16 PM

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MisterWhisker said:
danae17 said:
Maybe they are still popular in Japan. In my opinion, they are way better despite not having applications or touch screen.


I wish I had one. They are so simplistic and easy to use.
it's not like smartphones are hard to use =/
Jan 26, 2015 1:17 PM

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peregrintuk said:
.is just what we see in animes , don't believe in everything you see on a tv program.


It's not "just what we see." I travel all over Asia to visit family and they all had flip phones, up until recently when they started to make the transition. I never understood why flip phones were/are so popular.
Jan 26, 2015 1:24 PM

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Because they're cheap and if we want to get into film techniques they can be used as a effective prop to make a scene more tense/dramatic (Flipping a phone open, reading a message etc etc) something that would be more difficult to do with a smartphone .
Jan 26, 2015 1:25 PM

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I'm going with "because they're cheap and teenagers don't have that much money". Plus half the teens in anime have one or more dead parents, which equals even less allowance.
KruszerJan 26, 2015 1:37 PM
"The name's Gambit. Remember it."
-Gambit "X-Men '97"

Jan 26, 2015 1:27 PM

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I guess there just more common :P
Jan 26, 2015 1:30 PM

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I am going to say because of the age demographics. There aren't as many young people (who usually lead the way in pop culture, which then translates to the technology they use) Since there are fewer young people who initially buy smartphones, and the older people are fine with flip phones, the market didn't feel like it needed to change. Lack of promotion is the reason for the slow adoption of the smartphone.
Jan 26, 2015 1:54 PM

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Because they look cooler, duh...
Jan 26, 2015 2:43 PM

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Because you can put those furry things on them haha
Jan 26, 2015 3:00 PM

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Wow all the people posting answers sure don't do research

"Most of the high-end Japanese flip phones never made it out of Japan. When someone from the US thinks about flip phones, they think about Moto RAZRs and KRZRs, and all the other crappy 'ZRs out there. Japanese flip phones were way ahead of US flip phones in every aspect, particularly with feature phone Operating systems. The closest the US came to having a feature phone OS like that was probably s60 or Sony Ericcson's OS, and those were mainly on imports. So, the negative connotations of being extremely limited with a feature phone are just not the same when talking about the Japanese flip phone market. "

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/19/japan-flip-phones-gara-kei/

The flip phone market in Japan isn't dying anytime soon. So no, they are not "low tech" in some areas. They're flip phones are way ahead of US flip phones.

Plus flip phones look cooler in my opinion though smart phones do more.
[center][/center]
Jan 26, 2015 3:14 PM

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MisterWhisker said:
peregrintuk said:
.is just what we see in animes , don't believe in everything you see on a tv program.


It's not "just what we see." I travel all over Asia to visit family and they all had flip phones, up until recently when they started to make the transition. I never understood why flip phones were/are so popular.


well , if you say all asia.
We have 1 possible answer:

Ornament is better on flip phones

xD
just kidding

look this company http://www.ymobile.jp/index.html

-----------

Thank vitaxlilium for that
Jan 26, 2015 3:22 PM

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peregrintuk said:
MisterWhisker said:


It's not "just what we see." I travel all over Asia to visit family and they all had flip phones, up until recently when they started to make the transition. I never understood why flip phones were/are so popular.


well , if you say all asia.
We have 1 possible answer:

Ornament is better on flip phones

xD
just kidding

look this company http://www.ymobile.jp/index.html

-----------

Thank vitaxlilium for that


Haha nice one. And there's a pretty cool selection on there, pity it's hard to import phones from other countries because of networks etc.
Jan 26, 2015 3:28 PM
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How else are they supposed to hold a phone properly? Doing that with a smartphone wouldn't feel right.



In all seriousness though, I suppose it's simply a cultural thing and Japanese parents aren't willing to spend as much money for their kids' phones.
Jan 26, 2015 3:31 PM

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Well they certainly have better taste when it comes to phones.

The term smartphone is so stupid, it's just a phone with OS and flip phones can have it as well. Of course touch screens allows for better landscape but some people don't really care about taht.
Jan 26, 2015 3:45 PM

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Because phone straps.
And as new animes come out, touch phones are becoming more common in them.
Jan 26, 2015 3:46 PM

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I feel like recently I haven't seen any flip phones at all. You might be watching some older anime.
Jan 26, 2015 4:10 PM

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Jan 26, 2015 4:50 PM

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You see smartforms more and more often nowadays.
It's actually because there is still a pretty big market for flip phones in Japan. They've got really nice ones, about the same quality as older smartphones, there. Fiction is just reflecting reality.
Jan 26, 2015 4:50 PM
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Jan 2015
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because flip phones are sexier
Jan 26, 2015 4:53 PM

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this question will hunt me for the next 5 minutes.
Jan 26, 2015 5:42 PM
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All anime take place in the litter box of someone's cat, in the year 2001.
Jan 26, 2015 7:23 PM
enjoy life

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Remember smart phones haven't been out for THAT long. I got my first in like 2010 and like none of my friends had one. So give it about a year or two for smart phones and I can understand why not all anime characters have smart phones.
Jan 26, 2015 7:24 PM

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MisterWhisker said:

But in most Western countries teenagers like myself have smartphones. I have no idea why it's not so widespread as it is here. I mean they are so technologically advanced to us.

Actually Japan is pretty low-tech compared to us. In the media, we normally see the more metropolitan areas of Japan, but these areas are few and far-in-between. In addition, they use a lot of technology that people in America would find outdated.

There's an interesting article about it on Cracked:
5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan
toyall123Jan 26, 2015 7:33 PM
Jan 26, 2015 7:39 PM
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because ketai is so cool
Jan 26, 2015 7:49 PM

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Not sure about japan but literally everyone and their moms use smartphones in china. I'd guess it's just a thing with animators being older because a lot of new animes have smartphones now.
Jan 26, 2015 7:53 PM

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I think it's because flip phone just look cooler.
*flip*
Jan 26, 2015 8:21 PM

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Hahaha I've always been wondering about this, I guess what the guy above me said, its got dat "flip" :P
Jan 27, 2015 12:14 AM

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somethingweird said:
because flip phones are sexier
This ^

Nefarious-Review said:
I think it's because flip phone just look cooler.
*flip*
and this ^

Flip phones are more portable ,convenient, durable and more aesthetically pleasing than those huge, bulky smartphones.
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