BTS and Japanese Culture (1): Attack on Titan & Slam Dunk

Japanese culture surrounding BTS

South Korea, a neighbor that is both close and far away.
While enjoying the exotic feel of the BTS members, I realized that Japanese culture is surprisingly deeply rooted in their foundation.

Among these, what I reacted to most were anime, manga, and games. Sorry, I'm an otaku...
So, I would like to pick up on the points I've found.
There are so many that I have a feeling it's impossible to cover them all lol

References to 'Attack on Titan' and 'Slam Dunk' in 'Attack on Bangtan' and 'IDOL'

'Attack on Bangtan' is a song title that is a direct reference to 'Attack on Titan'. It seems it was a huge hit in Korea at the time as well.
BTS shouting their love for Attack on Titan in the middle of K-POP, lol

Speaking of 'Attack on Titan', isn't the giant scene in 'IDOL' also an homage? It looks exactly like it.

'Slam Dunk' references in 'Attack on Bangtan'

'Attack on Bangtan' also includes 'Slam Dunk' references.
I wonder if it was SUGA who put them in. Or maybe Namjoon likes it too, so it's a conspiracy...?

The protagonist's name is clearly included. I can feel the love in this straightforward respect.

I checked the Korean lyrics as well, and I felt that the references were incorporated more clearly in that version.
'The microphone is just a support (마이크는 거들 뿐)' is an homage to 'The left hand is just a support...!', right?

'Slam Dunk' and SUGA (with a glimpse of Jungkook)

When it comes to the biggest 'Slam Dunk' fan in BTS, it has to be SUGA.
I can feel the sincerity in his enthusiasm. Because the way he leans forward when he talks about it is typical of someone deep in the fandom. I can only feel a sense of kinship.

I'll leave here the video where he talked passionately about having seen the movie, and then came back to his senses and felt shy, like 'Are the ARMYs still following...?'
Regarding his comment that 'it wasn't quite enough to make me cry,' I thought, 'So you were prepared to cry.' He's serious lol

Jungkook also talked about his thoughts on the movie in a Weverse Live. He looked like he was having a lot of fun, and his boyish smile was cute.

SUGA didn't hesitate to pick up 'Slam Dunk' during the manga cafe episode of 'Run BTS!' Ep. 66-67, did he?
He said something like 'San-wang (Sannoh) and Buk-san (Shohoku)...' so I wonder if he was holding the final volume?

In the intro quiz for 'Run BTS!' Ep. 152, Yoongi gets genuinely frustrated because he couldn't guess the 'Slam Dunk' song. It's so childish and absolutely wonderful lol.

When SUGA talked about 'Slam Dunk' on the radio, he recreated the famous line 'Anzai-sensei, I want to play basketball' in Japanese, and I was dying.
The fact that he did it in Japanese shows his deep love for the original work!

By the way, it seems SUGA prefers the line, 'Oh, I'm Mitsui... a man who never gives up.' Ah, so he respects Mitsui, I get it...!
Depending on the article, this line was translated so differently that it was hard to tell what it was referring to, so I borrowed an image.

By the way, in the aforementioned radio show, SUGA also mentioned 'Shonan Junai Gumi!' and 'GTO' as other manga he likes.
They're Weekly Shonen Magazine titles. His slightly delinquent-leaning choices are endearing. I have a feeling I'll never forget this information for the rest of my life. I'm sure there are other things I should be remembering instead.

To be continued

It got long, so I'll cut it here for now!
Honestly, I didn't think there would be so much material...

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