But generally speaking to know what they are you either need to already know a fair deal or have access to commentary of some sort from someone with knowledge so as to be able to figure out what is or isn’t realistic and in what ways or how much.

Coming to a close- even the premise and word as I’ve used it is flawed… “Anime” is just a shortened form of “animation.” In the west we often use the term to refer exclusively to Japanese cartoons or Japanese cartoons of a certain style or sometimes all “Asian” cartoons or all cartoons that seem to fit the style regardless of origin. In Japan. Anime is animation. Disney’s Cinderella is anime, looney rooms is anime, if it’s animated it is anime. So in that sense yeah. Of course you probably can’t learn a lot about Japanese culture from watching “Happy tree friends” or “Heman.” Those “anime” aren’t even from Japan or set there.
But that sort of shows the point. Wether a fan of Japanese animation or not- many people don’t even catch that little nuance. So I would say there ARE things to be learned from Japanese anime about Japan and it’s culture directly…

In many cases some things ARE accurate to a point but fictions make them seem more common or more accepted or more widely spread than they really are.

Of course that’s part of that problem right? Japan is homogeneous compared to America or some other places but it’s still a land of different people and places. Tokyo and Osaka are not the same. The way people speak and various local customs and all sorts of things can differ between places and even people and then add to that the fact that those in different socioeconomic classes and positions and backgrounds often have their own differences in general to customs and speech and behavior etc. so generalizations like “Japanese are all clean/polite/shy/rich/indirect” etc. are inherently flawed and one might be surprised if they lived or stayed awhile in a Japan how much might differ from the conceptions.

Tv and movies and cartoons and stories in general have things like this too. Things that directors and writers and animators and such tend to carry use across the industry. Just looking at the design for a character can often tell us alot about them. Unkempt facial hair is common for roguish types and characters that are a bit unpolished. You know that most of the time- if you’d never heard of Star Wars and you saw earth Vader you’d probably guess he was a bad guy if you saw his picture. No need to best s dead horse- there are details that tell us things about characters and set up what to expect next and help us keep up and pace the story and such. Anime has its own of these and some just assume those same things apply to actual Japanese culture.

Gamers can often tell what objects can be Interacted with, who gives a quest, how to tell an important NPC from one with flavor text, enemies or areas likely to be dangerous, etc. a simple example that still applies often but isn’t as common- long ago water was pretty much almost always an obstacle. Even today when a gamer encounters water for the first time in a game without any external knowledge of the game they tend to be cautious. Long ago water was almost always instant death or was impassible. On more modern games water is often traversable and isn’t instant death but usually- and gamers tend to expect- you’ll move differently and controls may change- often to a fairly standard “water control scheme” with up and down on sticks or buttons. The top button on a 4 button controller is seldom ever “action” or “interact” by default nor is “start” or “shoulder buttons.” Things like this.

Then there are those tropes. It’s an odd thing. Short sideline. There is a meta language to films and games and such. You don’t even know you are fluent usually.
An example many can relate to is watching someone play a game who never plays games. They usually such. It can be frustrating to watch. The simplest things and mechanics are some big obstacle. Or maybe you’re that person and you play and suck and watch others breeze through etc. it’s fluency in game design. Games tend to use certain cues and share certain mechanics or commonalities to them.
Modern games often try to need more hud or prompts for things on screen.

An American viewer is likely to understand that intuitively. The bill. Of course. A foreign viewer might be confused. Why doesn’t this person just go to the doctor? Why go through all this? Even if they know america has a paid healthcare system it might not register and if it does they may not understand exactly how bad that bill could be and just think “just pay it. Why all this to avoid a bill?” It hits differently.

Example- American healthcare is confusing to many Americans. The majority of us that go to the doctor at least have a broad strokes idea. In another country though the processes and details of paying for healthcare might be totally foreign. So say that a sitcom has the less go to the hospital- unless it is a major plot point they won’t likely mention the bill or insurance etc. to an American viewer that would be odd. Things like that- “how do 20 year olds afford that apartment in NYC with those jobs?” Most American shows depict even “poor” people living in situations that aren’t realistic for their supposed income and such. But say an American drama has a character trying to avoid the doctor. The plot goes with it. They may never mention the motivation is that person doesn’t want to pay to go to the doctor. Another character might say: “you need a hospital!” And they exchange knowing looks and the other tries to help them without a doctor.

And it’s… how do I say it…? It can be as much about what isn’t shown as what is..?
You don’t really see alot of the minutia in most media. Japan isn’t exactly a wall to wall technological paradise with tech savvy people doing technical things everywhere. In some ways Japan can be low tech to a foreign perspective in everyday life. This was especially true 10-20 years ago.
But there are all these small details that often get left out because
1. You want to advance the plot not show every detail of how to balance finances or request a permit etc.
2. A domestic audience is often assumed or the POV is from that place where people who live there don’t need to be told every detail of minutia.

Now there are some anime that do contain a lot of useful and relevant details that are true of Japanese life and culture or language or are fairly accurate overall. That said for the most part even “slice of life” anime that are not overly ridiculous or fantastic in their premise are often not advisable for those who want to study Japanese language or culture etc. so many anime viewers often believe that the way people behave and interact- the way relationships and courtships progress- is realistic for Japan in general. Many people who watch anime and go to Japan get unrealistic ideas about Japan.

There are elements of anime often lost on foreign viewers- an anime set in the present day, a character might be the daughter of a sword school master and she dressed in traditional garb and maybe had a sword even. Often these characters might speak an exaggerated antiquated Japanese- words used to express relationships and the way they end/start sentences being totally different than is common- a bit like a kid speaking like the English from Oliver Twist or such.
Accents and dialects are often exaggerated so viewers can easily tell where someone is from- a bit like how we might perceive someone with a southern accent to have certain traits or backgrounds vs if someone is talking about “back on the farm” but had a thick Queens NY accent. It might seem odd- or how in cartoons they often give a thick “surfer accent” to people from by the ocean etc. in America.

Just like many of the examples I gave above- what is maybe truthful or true is often outdated. Often the people creating the stories have been out of those grades or age ranges for decades. They may be going off memories or feelings about those times so even if maybe something was common at one time- it might not be realistic in the present day when someone is writing a high school story when they have been out of highschool for almost ten years. Trends and rules and even how classes run or such change.

Many teen shows have things like school events, school trips, class structures or rules that don’t reflect what most American school kids experience. Many genre tropes are just that- tropes and not realistic. Often times things like parties are shown in ways that are generally unrealistic. From American teen shows you might think that there is always a rich kid or every American school is full of sex and complicated webs of constant casual dating. To some degree some schools have these things but the “high schoolers dating a different person each week” or “every guy/girl fighting over the one “hunk” or one person juggling 10 romantic interests constantly and alot of the drama tends to be uncommon for most high schoolers experiences. “Bring your pet to school day” or science fairs with projects that would be impressive at a college and such are examples of common tropes in American shows and…

Essentially. A lot of anime fans assume that anime is a realistic representation of Japan. Anime as an art form has certain stylistic elements- the words that are used or the way things are said often tend to differ greatly from more common Japanese language. Certain expressions and gestures and such common to anime are not common in real life. Some were created solely for anime as a way to emote or express certain concepts simply in the medium. Anime often references various traditions or customs and such that aren’t accurate to the majority of Japanese culture or are perhaps exaggerated or simplified etc.
As ignorance points out- American cartoons and even I’ve action shows etc. are full of things that Americans don’t find realistic.

So while I support raising the minimum standards of living for everyone, I think starting with people who have the least is probably the way to go about that-
Making sure they can get decent and healthy food and medical care and things that better off folks may not get the best of but have it much better already. I think a lot of people live behind their means and assume that because they can afford it “paycheck to paycheck” or because they are unwilling to consider that they don’t make enough for the lifestyle they are choosing- they are too proud or spoiled to live to their station and want to feel successful by spending like they are and having the things that they see as the fruits of labors on or to theirs or the mark of someone who isn’t poor. But lots of people are suffering and we are each entitled to feel as we feel. This is less about calling folks out in that way and more about empathy and understanding that privilege isn’t just something for people with yachts.

That was just entry level white collar. As a climbed the ranks,
Admittedly some of the novelty of the perks and such wore off but… life is hard. Trying to succeed is hard. Reaching for more is hard. That stays the same no matter what. I wouldn’t trade my problems as a real full grown adult with a career and money for my problems when I was eating roadkill some days or my problems when I was working 3+ jobs at once 7 days a week 16+ hours a day just to barely eat and have a place to sleep. But that’s not most people who make these sorts of complaints. So it does irk me a bit when people who have the steak and want the gravy approach the topic like they are eating a beaver in a bush in some thicket wishing they had money for a can of beans.

And compared to that my first white collar job- the pay was good. I had made a bit more working at a warehouse with lots of OT putting in days that were… I once worked 48 hours without sleep. Never left. But it was good pay and the normal day was 8 hours. Every day. Snacks and water and tea provided. A chair. Felt a little sick? Stay home vs. Broke a bone- work or get replaced. Wanted vacation? Take it. No retaliation, full pay, not taking your vacation would get you in trouble vs. Time off is a ticket to losing your job and if you take time off it will hurt your standing with the bosses and you won’t be paid. All sorts of perks, retirement, good insurance, and people would complain if they had to work a single weekend day a month even for a few hours.

I wouldn’t trade the after for the before for sure. No matter the stress or problems of money, yeah. It’s better. It’s better knowing that you would have to do something stupid to go hungry or be on the street. Better when you know that if a fluke event or natural disaster strikes you aren’t completely screwed. Better having support and a safety net. The perks are better. And it was truly amazing to me as I got my first “white collar job” that I did less “real work” than when I was doing manual labor for sub minimum wage. I’ve done work for criminal employers- a few dollars a day, no benefits or protections. Illegal hours and work practices. I e worked multiple jobs and needed to walk or ride a bicycle to the next city over to do it, before the sun rises and after it sets, with maybe 4 hours of sleep a night at best, and a demanding job that required focus and physical strain and then another one right after. Repeat. Not fun.

There are different skill sets and such that not everyone has, the same as many other types and pay ranges of jobs often have certain skill sets.
So as someone who has been VERY poor- homeless, scavenging and trapping food to survive, jobless, in a place without opportunity to work, no transportation, no support system or none that wasn’t as bad off anyway, who knows hunger and malnutrition and exploitation and not having almost any of the things so many take for granted… and as someone who has not been rich, but was able to get to a place where their salary was several times the average wage… I’ve lived both sides, and I passed through “lower” middle class briefly on my way there.

Which one is it then? Is being rich super easy and those people don’t have a right to complain and don’t work for what they have; or is it super hard and they work as hard or harder than you to get there?
If it’s super easy then you have no place to complain about not being rich. It’s easy. Go do it or shut up. If it’s super hard then of course they have a right to complain. Or maybe it depends? Whatever the case you don’t get most jobs of you don’t fit in. Operating in circles of wealth and keeping wealth takes certain skills. Even if the actual job you do is nothing special- that usually is all the more a case where it is soft skills and other social skills. There are few if any jobs that are so difficult or important that one person should be able to make what another makes in a lifetime in a single day- and the top contenders in my mind usually don’t pay near rich folk money. Wealth like that is often as much about your abilities to gain social capital and work the system.

The idea the rich could have it tough or have a right to complain is unpopular with the middle class. Everyday is a struggle. Believe it or not even for many with money and nice things every day is a struggle too. A job they may lose or living contract to contract. They have more than you to make it to the next one most likely- and usually more bills and bigger ones too. Many of which are a cost to be in their industry and make that sort of money. “They have so much more than me though!” Yea. And your life that is so terrible or hard is one that a truly poor person looks at the same way. “Well they could do what I did. I worked hard for what I have!”
Oh? You think every rich person is born that way? No. Anyone with drive willing to do what it takes can get rich. There are risks and no promises. It takes certain skills and cleverness- but if you wanted to be rich you could get there just the same as the poor can get to where you are.

Such people are at best slightly less detached from harsh reality than those rich folks in the meme- realistically about even. No one knows what it is like to be truly poor unless you have been truly poor. If you can say you’ve been “this close” to being homeless or whatever else but through some method or from some support you managed, or your own skills or connections or work got you by- congrats on your privilege. There are people who just don’t have those things and they probably live worse off than you. There are people who don’t learn lessons as fast or figure it out or get whatever it is that they need to push them over that edge and they don’t “just make it.” There are people with no one to turn to and people who are let down by social services and honestly and truly have no safety net.

When it comes to being poor- the wealthy, especially those who have never truly been poor, can’t relate. That said- it gets my goat that “middle class” Americans, people that REAL poor people look at like they are wealthy- often try to play these sorts of cards.
“I live paycheck to paycheck!” You get a paycheck. You live. That’s better than many.
“It’s hard to pay my mortgage!” You have a mortgage. That’s better than many. “My car is junk!” You have at least a car- often more than one. People that say things like “how could you expect me to live without a car?” Or that think that living in a neighborhood that isn’t a great zip code but where your life isn’t in frequent and moment risk or such is the “minimum” are people speaking from privilege.