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Talking with people recently, I'm actually starting to get bored, perhaps tired of all this talk of Japan. First off, tonight I lost the feel that "Engrish" is humerous. I don't find it funny as of writing this. In fact, I think I clench my teeth now whenever I see or hear stuff like "grorious reader". Japan has produced some amazing stuff over the years but the sheer volume and the increasing number of people who talk about it like its this year's "in" fashion is putting me off it. A couple of years ago I tried watching Naruto (got to near the end of the second season I think if Japanese seasons last ~26 episodes), I watched and adored Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex, a college friend tried introducing me to Neon Genesis Evangelion (to no effect). These days I don't feel drawn to watching anime like I once was. I have yet to see an episode of Attack on Titan but I remember when people started talking about it as an anime and I don't think I ever will see the show itself. I just don't feel at all drawn to it despite the number of friends I have who talk about it.
Nowadays though...I've had enough. I agree that Japanese Culture is indeed vastly different from the Western culture I grew up with (my biggest Japanese influences being Pokemon and the Sony Playstation although my preference for games was western developers like Ubisoft and Eidos Interactive). I like to practice Tibetan Kundalini yoga in my free time, but I'm getting put off by constant exposure to fans of Japanese media. I've come to the conclusion that what makes Japanese culture so great is its exoticness, not much else to it. It's from a distant land, its foreign, the traditionally-isolated territory produced a disparate society from our own, its different so its interesting to our consumerist palettes. Does that make it a better culture than ours? Not in my books. If the Maori began mass-exporting their cultural concepts we may lap those up too one day, we'd see a surge in Maori fanboys and fangirls.
It can be seen in its media that for the most part Japanese culture is quite uniform even in its creative media industry. I've looked at several anime shows and each of them use a similar art style (compared to Western styles), similar animation techniques and many expressive techniques are shared across the board ("angry" forehead veins, missing pupils when berserk, the "giant tear-drop of embarrassment" and characters audibly gasping for air whenever surprised, in awe or under pressure). And yet some people are asking for certain western intellectual property to be portrayed specifically the Japanese way.
Put simply, I've had enough of the Japan craze and I feel as though it is overshadowing more local cultures, which is doubly-scary when you take into account how China is outsourcing its workforce to other countries across the developing world. The most ironic thing of all? This Japan craze is the culmination of heavy Western influence during the Meiji restoration. Car firms and electronics companies are looking to European and American design talent. Japan wanted to emulate the West during the first half of the twentieth century. Essentially for the last century Western culture has been offered to Japan and they've churned out and mass-exported their perspective on it and it shows in several ubiquitous pieces:
- Castlevania (Japanese direct translation: Devil's Castle Dracula): A heavily warped rendition of Bram Stoker's classic undead count combined with classic horror monsters from Western mythology including werewolves and the Grim Reaper
- D-Souls series: Classic medieval fantasy setting including fire breathing dragons, Minotaur, asshole human-like gods, cathedrals, European-style castles
- Mario: You're an Italian plumber who sets out to rescue a very English-looking princess.
- Metal Gear: Government conspiracies, the dangers of globalisation, some key attention on the United States, French-named supersoldier projects and one game is set in the Cold War-era Soviet Union with heavy Bond film overtones throughout.
- Final Fantasy: While there is more Eastern influence here than most, the common theme of the series appears to be an opinion pointed towards Abrahamic organised religion (several aeons have Eurasian names like Bahamut or Tiamat). Also the "evil empire" in Final Fantasy XII was suspiciously akin to either the Holy Roman or the British Empire.
- Asura's Wrath: The main antagonist of the game? Deus, His name being the Latin word for "god" or "deity" and a name that can be associated with the Abrahamic God.
- Devil May Cry: The lead character's name is Dante, like the Italian author of the Divine Comedy. His brother and rival is Vergil, also a Roman poet and Dante's guide in the Comedy. The setting's most powerful demon is Mundus (A latin term for the Earth), who has two huge white feather wings that makes him look like an angel which makes me think of Lucifer given his appearance and nature.
Nowadays though...I've had enough. I agree that Japanese Culture is indeed vastly different from the Western culture I grew up with (my biggest Japanese influences being Pokemon and the Sony Playstation although my preference for games was western developers like Ubisoft and Eidos Interactive). I like to practice Tibetan Kundalini yoga in my free time, but I'm getting put off by constant exposure to fans of Japanese media. I've come to the conclusion that what makes Japanese culture so great is its exoticness, not much else to it. It's from a distant land, its foreign, the traditionally-isolated territory produced a disparate society from our own, its different so its interesting to our consumerist palettes. Does that make it a better culture than ours? Not in my books. If the Maori began mass-exporting their cultural concepts we may lap those up too one day, we'd see a surge in Maori fanboys and fangirls.
It can be seen in its media that for the most part Japanese culture is quite uniform even in its creative media industry. I've looked at several anime shows and each of them use a similar art style (compared to Western styles), similar animation techniques and many expressive techniques are shared across the board ("angry" forehead veins, missing pupils when berserk, the "giant tear-drop of embarrassment" and characters audibly gasping for air whenever surprised, in awe or under pressure). And yet some people are asking for certain western intellectual property to be portrayed specifically the Japanese way.
Put simply, I've had enough of the Japan craze and I feel as though it is overshadowing more local cultures, which is doubly-scary when you take into account how China is outsourcing its workforce to other countries across the developing world. The most ironic thing of all? This Japan craze is the culmination of heavy Western influence during the Meiji restoration. Car firms and electronics companies are looking to European and American design talent. Japan wanted to emulate the West during the first half of the twentieth century. Essentially for the last century Western culture has been offered to Japan and they've churned out and mass-exported their perspective on it and it shows in several ubiquitous pieces:
- Castlevania (Japanese direct translation: Devil's Castle Dracula): A heavily warped rendition of Bram Stoker's classic undead count combined with classic horror monsters from Western mythology including werewolves and the Grim Reaper
- D-Souls series: Classic medieval fantasy setting including fire breathing dragons, Minotaur, asshole human-like gods, cathedrals, European-style castles
- Mario: You're an Italian plumber who sets out to rescue a very English-looking princess.
- Metal Gear: Government conspiracies, the dangers of globalisation, some key attention on the United States, French-named supersoldier projects and one game is set in the Cold War-era Soviet Union with heavy Bond film overtones throughout.
- Final Fantasy: While there is more Eastern influence here than most, the common theme of the series appears to be an opinion pointed towards Abrahamic organised religion (several aeons have Eurasian names like Bahamut or Tiamat). Also the "evil empire" in Final Fantasy XII was suspiciously akin to either the Holy Roman or the British Empire.
- Asura's Wrath: The main antagonist of the game? Deus, His name being the Latin word for "god" or "deity" and a name that can be associated with the Abrahamic God.
- Devil May Cry: The lead character's name is Dante, like the Italian author of the Divine Comedy. His brother and rival is Vergil, also a Roman poet and Dante's guide in the Comedy. The setting's most powerful demon is Mundus (A latin term for the Earth), who has two huge white feather wings that makes him look like an angel which makes me think of Lucifer given his appearance and nature.
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Stepping back from Sporewiki
As a number who follow me may know, I have been a veteran member of Sporewiki. I joined in mid 2011 and started getting involved in writing stories during the winter of that year but now...it doesn't feel the same there. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fond memories and overall I don't regret signing up there. The community's been great, the stories have been fun, but on reflection there's a side of it that I don't think I can sit and pretend doesn't exist any longer. When there is an elephant in the room the common courtesy is to not question it. But what happens when that elephant starts knocking over tables, blocking the view from wind
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I agree, it's kinda annoying how much young people obsess over anime. It seems like if half of that stuff was drawn in western styles, nobody would care.