J a p a n e s e    C u l t u r e

The theme music to "Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages," also has imho something profound to say about Japanese culture! The video shows an "idol" band dressed as Pocket Monsters, singing "ai ai ai monster" beneath an enormous sun. I think that it represents the other of the Japanese self. Whereas the Western self is a self-hearing self-loving Ear (Derrida, Nietzche), the Japanese other is an "ai" (I creating), "ai" (eye: self-seeing) ai (love: self-loving) monster. It remains just monstrous enough to remain in the main out of sight and allow the Japanese to maintain their sense of self. But it is almost within view allowing some others such as Kyari Pamyu Pamyu and Fukasa to represent its structure, even more graphically in songs such as Pon Pon Pon where self-loving eyes proliferate, and Maboroshi no Inochi where the autoscopic life is affirmed since "a phantom in a dream is not a phantom at all".