where the hell do they make this stuff up anyways? o_o like who first thought that licking a wound was romantic? D:
i never really understood this cliche'

"Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."- Dalai lama

What? Ear cleaning is gross? My grandma and mom used to clean out my ear when I was little. Some Asian people have dry earwax so ear picks are used because no one wants dry earwax to pile up in there. -_- I don't understand the blood-licking part though.

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See? It's a cultural thing. It all depends on what you were brought up with. Earpicks were common in Europe until about a century ago, too, because cleaning the ears every day was as unheard of as bathing every day. It's not a racial thing.
Still, earwax is rather objectively icky, I think.

I always thought that it was somewhat weird.
Anyway I think that it symbolizes intimacy.

No one gives a shit what trite garbage you write here.

I think we're in agreement that it's supposed to show some form of intimacy between couples. Saliva does aid the healing process by cleaning the wound but I'm not sure it this extends to anyone's saliva and obviously alcohol gel and other antiseptic wound wash is probably more effective in terms of healing.

Personally I'm always kinda freaked out by this scene when I come across it and am surprised at how common it is in manga. Even if I were dating them I would not allow someone else to lick my wound, it's just too weird for me to even contemplate and I would most likely hit anyone who tried. I understand that it's suppose to show trust and compassion but personally a kiss on the forehead or a hug suits me when it comes to boys.

Having said that I do kiss my 3 year old nephew's sore what-ever when he cries but that's because in his mind a kiss makes the pain go away. If he was bleeding I would clean and dress the wound before worrying about kissing it.

Never even heard of the ear-cleaning thing but I take the same stance. Once I grew old enough to clean myself that was what I did. I don't find it particularly sexy or romantic to have a guy clean my ears or vice versa.

The pen is mightier than the sword...and considerably easier to write with.

^_____^ Some of the replies in this thread really made me giggle 🙂 Too bad noone else has read about it being like a 'promise' or something similar, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's noticed/been thinking about this.

(about that promise thing by the way, I was sure the manga where I saw it was Mars, but I went back to the blood licking scene in vol. 1 and it wasn't there... Bleh.)

As for the gross factor, like so many other things that gross me out irl, it doesn't gross me out in the least bit in a story 😛

I think it's just an excuse to have licking in an otherwise non-smutty manga - or a prelude to smut in a smutty manga. Lol. Just the way you have food-licking from fingers or rice-picking from chins (which I think is WAY more gross than blood-licking, for some reason). It's a plot device to have the characters touch in a sexy way, without actually upping the rating to anything beyond PG-13, or even PG. Decaf for eroticism, as it were.

This isn't completely unrealistic, though. I remember that even when I was just 8 I'd licked the arm of this friend of mine who'd fallen and skinned it. All right, so I fancied her and it was just an excuse to get my mouth on her - hey, I was a perverted 8-year-old... Plus I kind of liked the taste of blood, and still do.

Now that I'm older, I might try the same thing if it's just something minor like a paper-cut... Any excuse to ramp up the sexual tension!

That's what I think the mangakas are thinking, too.

As long as it isn't something gross like guro, a little blood-licking is kind of hot.

I'm a Chinese and my mother used to do that for me, as a child... I think? Or if not, she or someone else taught me to lick my own wounds in the belief they'd heal faster.

Now whether that's a Chinese belief or some custom absorbed from the Japanese during the Japanese occupation in WW2, I wouldn't know. But this belief appears to surface in manga, too. Although as to whether the Japanese actually practise this belief or not, it's hard for me to say since I've never lived in Japan.

If I get a small cut or scratch, I lick it, but only my own, not EVER someone else's. I grew up doing it, not sure why, but I don't have any Asian heritage.

"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Dredging up this thread again, since I think I found the answer... In my original post I mention that I thought it might have to do something with making a promise, based on seeing it depicted like that in one of the stories I read. Now I found it in another manga again (the promise part): In Tonari no Shugoshin Lancelot cuts Rio's hand on purpose, just to lick her blood and make a vow. So I guess it does signify making a promise to one another...

There's a big difference between licking it yourself and letting somebody else lick it. 😐

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