Cigarettes and Kara no Kyoukai

Ida · Unread post by **Ida** » February 20th, 2008, 9:52 am

Anyone here think the fact that some of the characters smoke is the coolest thing ever?
Cigarettes in anime are just.. the best combination, on screen and off screen

Also how many smokers do we have in the forums?
Type the Brand/Model

I am either Camel/Turkish Gold or Lucky Strike/Lights

Henduluin · Unread post by **Henduluin** » February 20th, 2008, 10:34 am

No offense, but smoking is not cool. It's retarded even.

You're poisoning your own body, and you don't care. Hell, if that's not even enough, you also poison the people around you, and don't care either. Even when they complain, most smokers are just like "lulz, tough luck."
You might as well burn money. Just as expensive and it's more environmentally friendly. Less disgusting too. Damn smoke always sticks to your clothes and stays there for hours.

Message · Unread post by **Message** » February 20th, 2008, 10:36 am

I think smoking is an extremely disgusting habit. And I absolutely loathe cigarette smoke. >_>

Kanzar · Unread post by **Kanzar** » February 20th, 2008, 11:40 am

It's a terrible habit, it shortens my life even though I don't do it, and it makes my life harder as my career deals with a certain aspect of clinical health which is impacted by this habit.

If you can quit? Do it. If you can't? Try, you might surprise yourself.

lolipedofin · Unread post by **lolipedofin** » February 20th, 2008, 1:51 pm

Hmm... i don't think it's cool at all.... it has no benefit to your body... it shorten u're lifespan... and affect people around you....

But here's the worst part, it's addictive! I just can't stop smoking those damn cigs. And you know what, it's the best companion when playing Visual novels. Any old user, might remember a thread about how do you played F/SN and i told that "while smoking in my sister's room", which pretty much create a ruckus and then a few days later all the posts are gone (guess Message took some action). Well, the bad thing is, when you actually care enough too peek at the ashtray, you will find a pile of cigs butts after 10 hours of playing F/SN and chain-smoking. Anyway heed my words, "Don't start!" When people said that smoking is addictive, trust me it's real.

Anyway, i pretty much smoke anything as long as not "kretek" (the one with cloves inside). Indonesians like to mix tobacco with cloves for better taste, and many European likes the sweet taste and aroma, Italians in particular, i used to like 'em but i don't like it anymore, actually now i hate it, it makes you dizzy after only 2 or 3 cigarettes. google it if you want to learn more.

Here's the brand i often smoke: Mild Seven (Japanese cigs rock!), Lucky Strike Light/Menthol, Dunhill Lights Menthol.

Used to smoke(not anymore): Sampoerna A Mild

Ida · Unread post by **Ida** » February 20th, 2008, 8:51 pm

NOW NOW. Low blow when we consider the health affects of smoking since it causes cancer BUT it imagine if cigarettes were good for you. imagine if it had Vitamins/Minerals, calcium, etc.. ur mom would be like "smoke ur cigarettes" etc. The thing about smoking is that it adds some culture to most cultureless societies.

ALSO, the best country in the world, aka JAPAN: home of nasuverse, home of efficient production and manufacturing actually promotes cigarettes! if the average japanese suit subsists on cigarettes, ramen, manga, and alcohol.. I will too!

(lol i'm just being sarcastic)

Atriel · Unread post by **Atriel** » February 20th, 2008, 8:55 pm

Aside from what's been said, i find it a little bit pathetic. Many people just smoke because at first it looks 'cool'. Then years later when they try to quit (if they try at all) they are like "oh no, thanks man, but i quit smoking" and even say it proudly. Yeah, so proud to stop doing something that had no point at all in the first place. Unless you want to decrease your life span that is. I mean... just imagine all the girls and beer you could get with the money you wasted on cigs O_o

lolipedofin · Unread post by **lolipedofin** » February 21st, 2008, 3:02 am

Indeed, Japanese seems to have an image of smoking is being cool.... Ken of L'arc~en~Ciel never seems to part from his ciggaretes, Sanji from One Piece, Sawamura from Harlem Beat, Asuma&Shikamaru from Naruto, Takamichi from Negima, etc.

I think it's really childish to think that smoking is cool (sorry Ida), when u smoke for that reason, that means those commercial succesfully trapped you. Everybody has reason for why they smoke, even i do. Some to relieve their depression, some for social life, and everything else. I know, none of those reasons credible enough for you to buy stuff that kill ureself.

Just for information, i live in a country where 70-90% (around that, i forgot the real number) of the males are smokers, and where they sell a pack of cigarettes for US$ 1 each. Well i live in the capital, Jakarta, so it is not as bad as the community in the rural.

Ida · Unread post by **Ida** » February 21st, 2008, 3:05 am

eh, true words. the fact of the matter is, it's not what gets u started but keeps u going at it. I for one am going to enjoy it while it is still a legal drug, just like caffeine, mono sodium glutamate, and alcohol. as the saying goes.. "You can't die if you don't live a little" (sarcasm)

marus · Unread post by **marus** » February 21st, 2008, 5:04 am

I could never understand why people start smoking. Putting aside the health concerns and public image, I just think the whole concept is disgusting - the smell, the taste, everything. I think I was just turned off as a kid; the rest of my family smokes, so I learned to deal with it, but I tried to avoid it whenever possible, just because I hated being around it.

Though, I hate coffee too, so what the hell do I know?

Naota · Unread post by **Naota** » February 21st, 2008, 5:13 am

Not to condone smoking or anything, but Ida does have a point about the "style" inferred by characters who smoke. You might argue that portraying characters smoking only encourages real people to pick up the habit, but really the reason behind it is the same as any other in the process of creating interesting characters. Similar to Spike from Cowboy Bebop, it's an element of design that gives the character a kind of retro, 1940's-1950's feel, because of all the marketing of cigarettes and their role in movies during that period.

So while I'm entirely against smoking in a physical sense, it does add something different to characters in books, anime, and movies. For example; what kind of classic gangster or Private Eye doesn't have a cigarette jammed into his mouth at every given opportunity? It gets even more interesting when you have characters like John Constantine (from the similarly-named movie), who is actually dying because of obsessive smoking - a big part of the movie's plot. Oh, and of course the best part is that animated smoke is not dangerous to your health

.

lolipedofin · Unread post by **lolipedofin** » February 21st, 2008, 8:40 am

@Marus: Not to encourage you to smoke or anything, but it does relax your mind, it is a very very mild drug after all. And about the taste, maybe that's why people around the world start to like "kretek", indonesian style cigarette, because it is arguably a good tasting cigarettes, and believe it or not, first created by a man to cure his asthma (and it rumored to work).

But people here are right, it's just too much pain to quit the habit, after you started. i just haven't find the will to do it... Maybe when i go to singapore... Cigs are damn expensive there....

Henduluin · Unread post by **Henduluin** » February 21st, 2008, 9:00 am

lolipedofin wrote:@Marus: Not to encourage you to smoke or anything, but it does relax your mind, it is a very very mild drug after all.

No it isn't. It's a very, very hard drug. Just like alcohol.
The fact that billions of people have used it for the past 6000 years does not make it mild.

lolipedofin · Unread post by **lolipedofin** » February 21st, 2008, 11:16 am

when i said drug, i refer to cocaine, heroine, weed, crack, cannabis, all those amphetamines, depressant and hallucinogen. Obviously the damage done by nicotine or tobacco is far behind them, right?? Or do you wanna say otherwise?? I know it's bad and it's unhealthty, but there's no need to exaggerate.

)

Kanzar · Unread post by **Kanzar** » February 21st, 2008, 11:24 am

Millions are addicted to it. Hundreds - perhaps four-digit numbers? - die because of it every year. Its use impacts not only the user but the family (and other people), from financial to health issues. Commercial cigarettes contain more unhealthy content than home-grown marijuana cigarettes. The fact people think it is a 'soft' drug only makes more people more likely to try it.

Should I continue?

Einherjar · Unread post by **Einherjar** » February 21st, 2008, 9:05 pm

I came close to it (all the way to that it smells, well, good), but I still wouldn't smoke. My biggest reason would be too lazy to get one.

Ida · Unread post by **Ida** » February 23rd, 2008, 12:48 pm

well coming from a smoker---i hate cigarettes for the fact that it isn't healthy at all. if only they were saturated with vitamins

.
The reason I love cigarettes though is because of the "culture" surrounding cigarettes. SURE, it's not good for your health, or anything for that matter. But I think just as any object can be used for a "negative" or "positive" purpose behind it, cigarettes too can be a good thing. Now, what is good and what is bad is a matter of your own ethics, but who says alcohol is a totally bad thing? I figure that someone getting cancer and dying, is just a circumstance made by bad decisions as someone that drinks and drives. It isn't the alcohol that makes you crash, but your own decision to get in a car when you're physically impaired. I just find it that there are tons of things that are "bad", take for example, a walmart. It is good thing that you can get cheap products, but on a bad note it is the disintegration of the culture and history of small business or the commercial assimilation of a town's history.

Cigarettes like the walmart has "positives". People smoke for many different reasons and just as accordingly those reasons are a means for varying "ends".
It might sound extremely pompous to say this but, to me, cigarettes are an art form.

(sarcasm) I mean, I think 90% of writers must smoke for one reason or another, and i'm going to guess that all Good writers smoke cigarettes. lol, what it comes down to is: if people stop smoking, then culture stops working. I mean, look at japan, europe and canada. More than half the population smokes cigarettes in those countries and the almost all of the lasting art that is made today comes from those countries as well. HECK, i'd guess that our beloved father, NASU smoked a cigarette or two

lol kidding aside, trying to quit smoking while i'm ahead but not until i'm finished writing my stories first.

Superflonic · Unread post by **Superflonic** » February 29th, 2008, 9:54 pm

Ida wrote:well coming from a smoker---i hate cigarettes for the fact that it isn't healthy at all. if only they were saturated with vitamins .

Don't we all?

)

Now, seriously, smoking is a habit I loathe.
Call me biased, but I hate the smell and the taste.

It's just something I find disgusting, and lots of my friends that began smoking, began using other things lateron.
Aaaanyway, back to topic.
Though i find smoking repelling, I like the anti-heroes in animes that usually smoke.
Somehow it gives you a 'cool' appearance, though IRL, it doesn't.

I don't know. I bad at exlpaining stuff.

Blue Gunner · Unread post by **Blue Gunner** » March 1st, 2008, 6:20 am

Smoking is a terrible habit. Part of the reason it's 'popular' in Japan is because it's so cheap there (compared to Aus at least). I mean, under US$10 for a packet of cigarettes from a vending machine is reasonably cheap, I think. I can say that I will never smoke, however, being an asthmatic, and launching into fits of coughing from other people's smoke is bad enough.

-[J1N]- · Unread post by **-[J1N]-** » March 1st, 2008, 8:16 am

I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard during my viewing of an episode of Darker Than Black. Someone said that when smoking, it's more toxic to passive smoke than it is to the person smoking - with certain highly achievable conditions, of course. I guess it'd be about a table length apart or closer for it to be more dangerous to the passive smoker.