| .is just what we see in animes , don't believe in everything you see on a tv program. |
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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. |
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MisterWhisker said: it's not like smartphones are hard to use =/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. |
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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. |
| 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 . |
| 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"  |
| I guess there just more common :P |
| 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. |
| Because they look cooler, duh... |
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| Because you can put those furry things on them haha |
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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] |
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 |
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. |
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. |
| 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. |
| Because phone straps. And as new animes come out, touch phones are becoming more common in them. |
   I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it  |
| I feel like recently I haven't seen any flip phones at all. You might be watching some older anime. |
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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. |
| this question will hunt me for the next 5 minutes. |
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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. |
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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
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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. |
| I think it's because flip phone just look cooler. *flip* |
| Hahaha I've always been wondering about this, I guess what the guy above me said, its got dat "flip" :P |
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somethingweird said: This ^because flip phones are sexier Nefarious-Review said: and this ^I think it's because flip phone just look cooler. *flip* Flip phones are more portable ,convenient, durable and more aesthetically pleasing than those huge, bulky smartphones. |
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| I was wondering that myself, especially for anime made in the last 5 years. |
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| They're still popular in Japan, especially since the Softbank ones aren't expensive. When I visited Japan, all my friends and family had the flip phone and they're really fun to use *^* |
| Because you are watching anime from 5-10 years ago when smartphones weren't as popular? |
| Actually, I happened to be surprised by the modern technological depicted in recent anime. I didn't expect to see smartphones and tablets since I was accustomed to early 2000s anime before a couple of years ago. |
| Those phones were way more advanced than the similar models in the western world. |
DrGeroCreation said: +1somethingweird said: This ^because flip phones are sexier Nefarious-Review said: and this ^I think it's because flip phone just look cooler. *flip* Flip phones are more portable ,convenient, durable and more aesthetically pleasing than those huge, bulky smartphones. |
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somethingweird said: because flip phones are sexier |
| Even though the main reason must be the popularity of flip phones in japan, it's the truth that the flipped ones look cool on the screen. When a character answers or calls, flipping the phone open is much more visual than making the char. pushes a button. And yeah, they are sexier, in anime. |
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ArturiaSaber said: ketai is so kakkoibecause ketai is so cool |
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| Japs too poor to afford an Iphone |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
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| Smart phones are for douches, that's the reason. /kidding |
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| Reported for spreading misinformation. On a serious note, if you really want to know the answer you need to find literally all anime that have a scene with a phone, and then compare the two which one has more. I personally saw more smart phones than flip phones since I watched more anime which coincidentally had more smart phones in them. Unless a massive amount of data on the subject is gathered, we will never know. |
| I don't think cell phone plans are the same in japan as they are in the US with overpriced services to subsidize phone costs. The means they would pay for the phone out of pocket which meant that the sale of smartphones were slower due to their high costs compared to cheap basic flip phones. Also so many anime are based in middle school, are you going to give your 13 year old kid a $500 iphone or a $50 flip phone. There is also the fact that anime are often based on other works so when the source material was created flip phones were still dominant, but the animators didn't bother to change it. Also you could just be watching older animes. i don't think smartphones really became the norm in the us until like 2011 |
CabooseFeb 14, 2015 1:38 PM
| but current anime showcases smartphones already examples are the cp from durararararara & hyouka i guess |
| Twitter and it's consequences had been a disaster for the human race |
| You can see few smart phones or iphones but flip phones are really more frequent. They also text very fast as if it wasn't hard lol |
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| I've always wondered this. It seems in Japan flip phones are more popular than smartphones for some weird reason. |
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that's because big gap time between manga and reality time.  |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
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