Edit: I did it! I have successfully added 34 smilies to my blog. You can even use them when you post a comment too. I didn’t have so many when I first started making them (maybe around 10-15  ) I got on a roll after my brother came home from our grandparents and he even helped make some for me!!  Enjoy them as much I do!!  

I may be an American, but I did grow up with one of my parents being Asian. That being the case, I’m familiar with most American superstitions such as the number 13 is unlucky and if you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back. I’m also familiar with a few Korean superstitions and thanks to anime, Japanese superstitions as well. However, what I wasn’t expecting to find on the internet when I was making my not-so-daily blog rounds was this question posed on a website:

Is it just me or does the whole “being out in the cold makes you sick” myth seem unusually common and serious in anime? Colds are caused by a virus. Being chilled or wet has very little to do with catching a cold. In America we have old wives tales like chocolate causing zits, gum takes weeks to digest in your stomach, etc. But these are told in a rather tongue-in-cheek fashion and are said to children who don’t know any better.

However, in anime it seems that people take the “cold giving you a cold” myth very seriously. If a character is a little bit wet or a little bit cold it’s always “we must get you warmed up and dry or you will get a fever!” Characters are even depicted as actually getting sick because they didn’t warm up! Perhaps it is being said in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. They don’t really believe it to be true, do they?

Personally for me, I never really gave those scenes much thought. I never thought they were silly and in fact, I just accepted it. Why? Ever since I was a little girl, my mother always told me that if I stayed outside too long in the cold, I would, in fact, end up with a cold. My father always reassured my mother that both my brother and I would be fine and that the cold has nothing to do with making us ill. Although I know this to be true, I still can’t help but come quickly inside during the winter. I’ve been programmed with that thought and since reading that question, it kind of made me realize that there are a lot of those scenes in anime. I was surprised that I just overlooked something like that but I can’t help it because that’s how I was brought up.

The answer to the question did mention a few other popular superstitions the Japanese believe, and I must admit that one of them was yet another one I was brought up to believe: If you give a cold to someone else, you’ll be cured of it. Now that it was brought to my attention, it is kind of silly to believe in it, but it was an “unconscious part of” my everyday life. However, I will go on and believe them, and then laugh at myself when I do catch myself hurrying inside when it’s cold or trying to give my cold to someone else.

When Harry Met Sally was on earlier today, and I rewatched it. It’s such a good movie! You know, not many romantic comedies have that certain charm that Harry Met Sally has. Like for instance, when Harry and Sally finally do have sex, it’s done in a way that emotionally changes the characters and their relationship and helps move the plot forward. Romantic comedies nowadays are just so…blah compared to When Harry Met Sally.

Let’s take Failure to Launch for instance. It was a good movie. I’d watch it again if nothing else were on, but I don’t think I could watch many multiple viewings of this movie before I got tired of it. So, boy meets girl. Boy takes girl on a few dates, decides he’s getting too close and is getting ready to dump her. Girl freaks out because she’s being hired by his parents to help him move out of their house and in a last ditch effort to “save” the relationship, she has sex with him. Honestly, it did nothing emotionally to the characters. The only thing it did was have said boy stay with said girl. I’m sure there were plenty of other options she could have done to save their relationship. Not only that, but this movie follows the basic romantic comedy formula: Boy meets girl. They date. They have sex. Date some more. Problem arises. Boy and girl get together, fix problem and live happily ever after. Put in a bunch of cheesy scenes for filler, and voila!

When Harry Met Sally may follow that formula, however there aren’t any cheesy scenes and they don’t date. In fact, when they first meet each other, they don’t really know how to make of each other. Their journey from being acquaintance to friends and then ultimately together is what makes this romantic comedy brilliant. It’s a movie about love, friendship, and the truth about the opposite sex, as stated quite clearly in one of the most memorable dialogues:

Harry Burns: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally Albright: Why not?
Harry Burns: What I’m saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form - is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally Albright: That’s not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry Burns: No you don’t.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: No you don’t.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: You only think you do.
Sally Albright: You say I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry Burns: No, what I’m saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: How do you know?
Harry Burns: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally Albright: So, you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry Burns: No. You pretty much want to nail ‘em too.
Sally Albright: What if THEY don’t want to have sex with YOU?
Harry Burns: Doesn’t matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally Albright: Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.
Harry Burns: I guess not.
Sally Albright: That’s too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York.

That’s what I’ve been told about men all these years, and I’m pretty sure that’s not a superstition.