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Anime Bread, Catgirl Allegories: Overseas Readings of Japanese Culture

Overseas fans questioned the soft, fluffy bread shown in the anime Mushoku Tensei as impossible for a medieval-style world, while others read the catgirl 'beast-people' of the manga Yanineko as an allegory for oppressed minorities — 'social exclusion wrapped in a moe package.' Together with a British thread calling sushi 'just raw fish and rice' and a foreign debate over whether aikido is staged, Japanese netizens spent the day amused, and a little baffled, at how seriously overseas audiences dissect Japanese pop culture and cuisine.