This is the type of question I receive if non Japanese people ask: “Are high schools in Japan like anime?” and the answer I give is: “no” since that’s not reflective of what actual school life is. Sure, there may be inspirations upon anime taking place at a school setting since all they portray is nothing but festivals, clubs and events as if the environment is that relaxing (far from the truth, JP school life in reality is regimented on studying).
In contrast, the same shit is said about US high schools via pop culture when shown to foreigners mainly portraying: teens hanging out in someone’s house partying with drinks, flexing who’s the most popular, jocks in sport, bullies picking the nerd, cheerleaders & football, 13 reasons why, high school musical, prom king & queen to list a few. However, is any of that representative of real high school life in the United States?
sorta back in my time. The thing is very few boys try out for football and even fewer make it. same with cheerleading. bullies and being picked on. yuppers. obsession over popularity im pretty sure but anyone popular has to keep their obsession on the dl because its generally not cool really. hanging out after school or at someones house. of course. drinking if you can get away with it. yuppers. some students are super diligent and study every night and often on weekends. some don’t do any of their work. most are in between. all that was from my time though. our local high schools got refurbished and have large kinda social hangout areas near the cafeterias which are generally more open. Im not even sure where the lockers are. now most all ingress and egress is limited to a few monitored spots. for awhile kids had to wear their ids around their neck but now they have them on their phone. the attendance desk is more chill and easy going to. so thats near me anyway.