On trenchcoats and symbolism

Two posts in one day! But this one is way more light-hearted and more like my usual nerdery.

So in the land of Japanese TV, trenchcoats are basically like big flaming signs written by the hand of God. The color of the trench indicates the alignment of the character wearing it--black means they're a good guy, white a bad guy, and any other color means that they're not the main protagonist/antagonist and so don't need to be bothered with.

For example, the most twisted animated character in the history of ever wears a white trench. This is the guy (I'm sure I've mentioned him before) who is, first off, a serial rapist and murderer. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. He's also a doctor, has a weird robotic eye, and is engaged to a perfectly normal woman. He can travel between dimensions, and is apparently immortal. Oh yes, it gets better. He wants to take the undying body of the man he tries to molest on a regular basis, chop off the guy's head, and replace it with the head of his dead half-brother so that the half-brother will live again. Why? Because he hated his brother and wanted to kill him, but someone else got to him first, and now he's going to revive him so he can kill the guy HIMSELF. Basically, he's going to kill the man he loves so he can kill a guy who's ALREADY DEAD. And did I mention that he's a serial rapist? Who enjoys putting curses on people so they die over a period of three years after he's gotten to them?

I just. I do not understand how anybody could come up with this character. But, more importantly, he is never seen without his stylish white trench. And the guy he loves, our protagonist? Black coat. Probably symbolizing his inner demonic side and his conflicted struggle with the darkness within and shit. Or maybe they just thought he looked good in black.

Here's another example. There's this show. With one of the weirder premises that still attempts to be serious (as opposed to the one show about a man who fights crime and an evil hair-stealing maniac with nose hair kung fu). It's about these four male assassins who take care of people too powerful for the government police to get to. Their day job? Florists. Yup, you read that right. Four young men, no older than their twenties, staffing a flower shop by day and killing people by night. What do they wear? Black trenchcoats. Now, I understand this is probably for camo, but you'd think that as assassins they wouldn't want any extra material flapping around, so they'd opt for shorter coats. Oh no. This way, when they have their dramatic, moon-lit entrances, the black coats flare out behind them as they hang, all but levitating, before the bright full moon. It is always, always a full moon in Japanese TV land.

So now I have to go to bed, because I have to get up at a ridiculous time, but I hope this was informative. YAY.