miko2

Which is hard to do when you know so little. It helps, of course, to do research on the things that you don't know.

So I'm working on my Ranma 1/2 story. The premise is that Ranma attends school at St. Hebereke's school for girls, because his (her) mother works there and thinks that Ranma will get better grades in a more controlled, less chaotic environment. Ranma has also been challenged by Nabiki, who does not believe that Ranma can succeed at either being a good student or acting like a normal girl. Because Ranma cannot back down from a challenge, she is doing everything in her power to prove Nabiki wrong, by studying hard and trying to act in a truly feminine manner -- or at least dress girly and do thing she thinks girls would do.

I had an idea for one scene when Ranma is with her mother and Akane at a large department store downtown, and decides to get her ears pierced. This is the kind of scene that would make perfect sense in America -- most girls have pierced ears, and getting it done a mall or convenience store is pretty common. Initially I was just wondering if it would make sense for an active martial artist to have pierced ears, but I figured Ranma could promise to be careful and remove the earrings before a fight. I even decided that, since Nabiki probably had pierced ears, Ranma might want to one-up her and get two for each ear.

After writing most of this scene I began to wonder if Akane already had pierced ears. I couldn't remember anything that indicated one way or the other. I decided to do some research -- as I said, always a good idea. ^_^ I have an extensive file of Ranma 1/2 images that I've collected over the years, so I went searching through that. Nowhere could I find a picture that indicated that anyone in the series had pierced ears. Not Akane, not Nabiki, not eldest sister Kasumi, not Ranma's mother, not rich girl Kodachi or Chinese Amazon Shampoo. I began to wonder, is this because Rumiko Takahashi doesn't want to draw earrings, or is it on the general idea that most of them are martial artists and wouldn't have pierced ears, or is it more of a Japanese cultural thing. Is it common for Japanese girls to have pierced ears?

I did more web research. It took a while, but slowly things came together. I found one file that was an interview with a body piercer in Japan. It mentioned that guys in rock bands had been getting their ears pierced "like girls do" for quite a few years... but most of the article was about body piercings.

Next I found a forum where someone (a foreigner in Japan, apparently) wanted to get her 15-month-old daughter's ears pierced, but had looked through Tokyo and couldn't find a place to have it done. One reply said that a Doctor might do it but it would be somewhat expensive. Someone else said that they'd heard of body piercing places around, but had no idea where to find them, and/or figured them to be seedy. One comment was that it wasn't a common thing in Japan, and most people did it themselves, or did it while in another country, or that you'd have to look for some kind of foreign person/company (they suggested Brazillian, dunno why).

I ran across a couple more dispatches that indicated ear piercing was not common in Japan, and girls who did it usually had to do it themselves (have a friend do it), and that these were usually rebellious types. Another page was the journal of a foreign teacher in Japan, who noted that getting your ears pierced was forbidden at the school where she taught, but that some girls would do it anyway and then place tiny bits of plastic through the holes because anything shiny might lead to them being caught. She also said that when she revealed to her students that she'd had her ears pierced when she was seven years old, they almost died of shock.

All of this clearly indicated that my scene needed to be axed. None of the Tendo girls would have pierced ears, you wouldn't find professional ear-piercing in a mall or department store in Japan, and Ranma's mother would hardly approve of the idea even if Ranma wanted to do it.

Now I'm sort of curious to see if I can find any Japanese characters in anime or manga that have pierced ears.

Your Hair Should Be White