This feature over at Something Awful got me thinking: The American percetion seems to be that when American entertainment is Japanized (that is, adjusted for the Japanese market), the result is the application of outrageoulsy overenthusiastic slogans and redundant to nonsensical phraseology. Of course, much of this is revealed in back-translations. When Pokemon or the Big O (or any anime, for that matter) comes to America, it too is adjusted for the market. What is the Japanese percetion of the changes made to their entertainment to make it acceptable to Americans?
This might be destined for Cafe Society, but I thought I’d try it here, since it may have a factual answer.
Well, you do know those posters are fakes, right? Most of the movies shown used the same titles as in America, just written in phonetic characters. Still, as you said, it shows something interesting about American perceptions.
As for the other direction, I’m not sure there’s any perception to be had. [pure speculation, based on personal obervation and anecdotal evidence] Japan tends to be fairly insular, and there seems to be a perception that because their culture is different and ‘unique’, it is therefore inaccessible to anyone not Japanese. Many of my Japanese students were very surprised that anyone outside of Japan would know anything about the country, language, culture, people or history. Even after seven years here, people still express surprise that I can use chopsticks, eat Japanese food, and carry on a conversation in Japanese. Since its generally assumed that nobody outside Japan can speak Japanese, the sport of “laugh at the dumb foreigners mangling the language” doesn’t exist to the same extent as in America (there are some exceptions, but those generally involve foreigners living in Japan).
As for TV shows, one of things that never failed to stun my students was telling them how I grew up watching Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets), Maha Gogo (Speed Racer), and Uchuusenkan Yamato (Star Blazers). Although American (and, to a lesser extent, European) movies and TV shows were always available, they hadn’t thought that any Japanese entertainment was going the other way. Many people now are aware that Pokemon is popular in America, but figure that the only difference is that American voice actors or English subtitles are used, with the same going for other TV shows and movies a well.[/PSBOPOAAE]
I wish there was…I’ve seen some beauties out there!
Just want to second everything that Sublight said. Although in my case, its when I mention the fact that as a child I often watched “Monkey” (Songoku in Japanese…a monkey makes a trip across China with a pig, a water-creature called a kappa, and a priest).
The Japanese people I’ve known in America didn’t seem to have any interest in Americanized Japanese entertainment, which I suppose makes sense – they didn’t come all the way to the US to watch movies and TV shows they could see at home. The only reaction I’ve noticed is mild surprise that American teens and adults are willing to watch cartoons like “Pokemon” that are considered strictly kid’s fare in Japan.