I've been slowly working my way through 3-gatsu no lion, and I've been very inspired with Rei's transformation as he works his way through -mild spoiler- 3-gatsu no lion. So much so that I'd like to do a character study/plot analysis to match these data points with what I know of suffering and recovery (this is a topic that's close to home for me).

However, this type of analysis relies mainly on evidence-based language and imagery.

I am an English speaker; it is my native language and I speak no other. Obviously, 3-gatsu no lion was written in Japanese, for a Japanese audience/culture. I accept fully that there is indeed nuance that I will inadvertently miss as an English-speaking viewer, even just viewing for pleasure. A close read of the plot/language/events would require assumptions based on this "foreign" filter, so to speak.

• But herein lies my question: As an English speaker, is it worthwhile and/or feasible to do a language-based character study on a show developed for and spoken only in Japanese? Why or why not? How does "subbing" versus "dubbing" play into this?

• Follow up: What about studying JUST the imagery, and not the language? Will the cultural disconnect still be too vast? Perhaps partially? Why or why not?

I realize these are questions with no concrete answers, but I was curious whether this type of creative analysis would be welcomed by the community, or whether it would be dismissed out-of-hand because of language barriers and misinterpretation.

I like to think that interpretation of language can be at least partially done, but may lack depth and richness. I do feel that interpretation of imagery is less risky, but there are certain sequencing or contextual situations that would also pose a "miss" during interpretation.

But not entirely so -- people travel the globe each day and learn about new cultures, immerse themselves and begin to understand nuances -- what's to say the same cannot be done for anime? True, the 1:1 cultural interpretation may not ever fully exist, but we can at least get in the approximate neighborhood with time and experience.

I can't seem to decide whether it's feasible or not; feasible being defined as "worthwhile" or valuable. I've toyed with this for over a week in my mind, and I see arguments both for and against.

I hope to hear some interesting commentary/dialogue from the community, as I have gathered there seems to be some sensitivity regarding interpretation of Japanese language as a non-Japanese speaker.