Many of Hollywood’s biggest young stars, including Michael B. Jordan and Zac Efron, are secretly huge anime fans. Can the same be said about the singer Ariana Grande?
Ariana Grande watches anime, and Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movies are her personal favorites. The “7 Rings” singer has two tattoos inspired by anime characters, and she’s very passionate about Japanese culture and language.
Learning Japanese
Ariana Grande decided to start learning Japanese in 2015 after her Victorious co-star Matt Bennett taught her some basic words. She later hired tutor Ayumi Furiya, founder of the Fuji School, because she wanted to communicate with her Japanese fans in their native language.
Furiya discussed their working relationship with The Cut and revealed that they used to have lessons two or three times a week. As Grande’s schedule became more hectic, she stopped tutoring her on a regular basis but said they still text and talk sometimes.
In addition to speaking Japanese during her performances and interviews in Japan, Grande also tried to teach Jimmy Fallon a couple of words during an appearance on his show. The host repeated several phrases after Grande but wasn’t exactly the best student.
The singer also tried to pay homage to Japanese culture in the music video for “7 Rings”, but it backfired horribly. She was accused of cultural appropriation and only made things worse by getting a misspelled tattoo in Japanese.
Grande wanted to commemorate the release of her new single by getting ink that read “seven rings” but got the spelling wrong. She ended up tattooing the symbol for “shichirin”, which is a Japanese-style barbecue grill and tried to fix it with little success.
She defended herself saying “there is a difference between appropriation and appreciation”. Grande also decided to stop taking Japanese lessons after the backlash and described them as something she was passionate about that brought her joy.
Her tutor Ayumi Furiya was devastated after seeing people were slamming Grande’s tattoo online, especially because Japanese is extremely hard to learn.
“I am so, so mad that many people are making fun of her. I don’t want this to stop anyone from being motivated to learn another language… It’s not necessary for her to learn Japanese – she just really wants to. I appreciate that. It makes her Japanese fans so happy,” Furiya told The Cut.
Grande’s Anime-Inspired Tattoos
Many people slammed Ariana Grande for her misspelled “7 Ring” ink, but this wasn’t the only time she’s gotten a tattoo paying homage to Japanese culture. Her impressive body art collection features two tattoos inspired by popular anime characters.
Grande is known for getting tiny, delicate tattoos but she stepped out of her comfort zone in 2018. She celebrated one of her favorite movies Spirited Away by getting a huge tattoo of the main character Chihiro on her forearm.
The singer explained this ink on Instagram and said she connected to Chihiro because she became “a courageous, quick-witted and reliable girl” after shedding her former personality.
“During her adventure in the Spirit World, she matures from an easily-scared girl with a child-like personality to match her age to a hard-working, responsible, and brave young girl who has learned to put her fears aside for those she cares for,” wrote Grande.
This wasn’t the first time she expressed her love for Studio Ghibli films. Back in 2016, she bid farewell to the late animator and color designer Michiyo Yasuda and thanked her for bringing “so many of Miyazaki’s incredible characters to life with her colors.”
Ariana Grande also seems to be a huge Pokémon fan, judging by her Eevee tattoo. She got this ink in 2019 and announced it writing “I’ve wanted this for so long” while giving the shout-out to her tattoo artist Kane Navasard.
Grande’s love for Pokémon was no secret to her fans. Shortly before getting this tattoo, the singer revealed she’s enjoys playing the game Pokémon: Let’s Go Eevee! on her days off.