Reports saying the kawaii (cute) pop culture style is having an impact on UK youth and society were widely ridiculed on forums and by bloggers in early March.
“You sure about that, sport? Shakespeare, Newton, Wordsworth, Elgar, Milton, Russell. Squeaking and pink, acting like you’re six and not daring to opine ain’t culture”, said one critic. The reports claimed that, over the past 10 years, urban youngsters had embraced kawaii costume play and accessories with cute anime and manga characters. “Ask a thousand British people if they have any interest in kawaii, and you’ll get a thousand negative responses”, said another contributor.
The UK is “still quite a masculine and patriarchal culture and we have never embraced the cute, soft side like France and Japan”, one report quoted an expert as saying.
