>>1517033The hell you mean respectfully. Formality is an aspect of language that depends on the situation. You have to be able to use the right formality in the given context.
In anime and other weeb materials, this is treated as completely different than in real life.
>>1517046>Politeness is the cherry on topI think you should always be aware of politeness. I wouldn't ever call it a cherry on top.
>is usually taught from the beginning just because it's easier and keeps gaijin well-behavedIt's taught like that because it's safer to always speak more politely, but also because it's easier to form very basic grammatical changes like past tense, negatives, requests, questions, etc. and keep it at least grammatical, which is useful for a complete beginner.