http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore

"Long ago, manga aspired to be like Dragon Ball Z: graphically iconic, with a story more coherent than it probably needed to be. Now there's the ADHD-addled Dragon-Ball-Z-inspired One Piece, a manga for the Twitter age if there ever was one."

As a huge fan of both Dragonball and One Piece... I skimmed the rest after this on the assumption that the rest was a troll or severely exaggerated. There's the fact that One Piece started only two years after DB ended. There's the fact that One Piece existed for 9 years before Twitter came about. And then there's that One Piece is a hundred times more coherent than DBZ which had more character derailments and editorially-forced extensions that the author didn't give a damn about than you can shake a stick at. One Piece recently had a critical plot development hang on a detail conspicuously introduced over five years ago; the author of Dragonball admitted after the series ended that the character Lunch stopped appearing because he literally forgot she existed.

The "Good morning" stuff is pretty crazy, though.

Heh, it's a guy's autobiography, apparently. Guess he just needed to vent somewhere, which means personal life in Tokyo = Japan/all Japanese people and DBZ/harem stuff = all anime/manga. Shrug. Not much to do but skim it and roll one's eyes when people start talking like that.

I couldn't finish the whole thing but all I really have to say is: If you can write 20 pgs worth of issues you've got with where you live, maybe it's time to head somewhere else...

I know he's just venting, which is fine. He says he's lived all over the globe and such, I'd have thought he'd understand by now that it doesn't matter where you're living, there's gonna be things that annoy the crap out of you.

It's blocked?! O_0

Offshore Wrote:I couldn't finish the whole thing but all I really have to say is: If you can write 20 pgs worth of issues you've got with where you live, maybe it's time to head somewhere else...

I know he's just venting, which is fine. He says he's lived all over the globe and such, I'd have thought he'd understand by now that it doesn't matter where you're living, there's gonna be things that annoy the crap out of you.

That kind of person would have that many issues no matter where they lived.

wccrawford Wrote:That kind of person would have that many issues no matter where they lived.

Someone who rants about important things such as.. tape.. most certainly would.

It's just a troll post I guess.

Oookay... I don't see why anyone has to know this, no offence to the TC

There are many people who rant about Japan, you can even see them in this forum. Don't see why you're linking us to one which has a 20-paragraph essay for each con.
Also, I hope the dude realizes that the consoles turn yellow because of the plastic it is made of, and becomes more yellow over time. Not how much a person smokes. I doubt the walls will be all yellow if you go to a smoker's house. What kind of logic is this?!

Threads like this are necessary to unite us against a common enemy!!!11

I was all ready to rail against Kotaku and how awful their articles are, and then I realized that the article in question is written by Tim Rogers who actually knows what he's talking about (despite his pretentiousness the size of Mt. Fuji), so I'll be back in two hours when I've finished reading his latest wall of text.

OK, back!

Yeah, sounds like it's about time for him to pack up and move on to greener pastures... at least for a while. He brings up plenty of valid points, but how many of those could be easily avoided or ignored completely? Do they really matter in the grand scheme of things? I agree that modern anime and manga is largely dogshit, sure, but the small handful of gems (Mushishi, Detroit Metal City, Kaiji, Kara no Kyoukai...) make it all worthwhile and then some - ignore the rest and move on. Put up or shut up.

This is a guy who (if memory serves) has spent much of his life as a homeless-by-choice globetrotter, so it's not surprising how so many aspects of Japanese society apparently drive him nuts, but should it really matter? I'm somehow reminded of a certain counter-culture lecture by a certain, late counter-culture icon.

Squintox Wrote:Also, I hope the dude realizes that the consoles turn yellow because of the plastic it is made of, and becomes more yellow over time. Not how much a person smokes. I doubt the walls will be all yellow if you go to a smoker's house. What kind of logic is this?!

YES! I was about to register on Kotaku just to post that. Oxygen is one mean mutha to Super Famicom plastic, apparently. Must be the low quantity of Nintendium in the formula.

Ahhh, that was a good read.

The anime piece I totally agree with, up until he mentioned One Piece.
People I know nowadays who watch anime, just comment on all these crazy wacky fetishes. I feel like it's not even targeted towards normal people anymore, just who can out-do what fetish.

The gym thing isn't Japan only though. Oh man, the gym stories I can tell...

It does however in the midst of all the whining raise an interesting point:

Quote:After lunch has finished, leading right up to the end of the day, it's "You are tired!" So there you have it: Japanese people in the office are expected to work themselves to tiredness before lunch. Or maybe they're expected to eat so much that they get tired.

Is feeling sleepy after a large meal 「眠い」、「疲れた」、simply not said, or something else?

Squintox Wrote:I doubt the walls will be all yellow if you go to a smoker's house. What kind of logic is this?!

I think smoking actually does turn walls yellow.

wildweathel Wrote:It does however in the midst of all the whining raise an interesting point:

Quote:After lunch has finished, leading right up to the end of the day, it's "You are tired!" So there you have it: Japanese people in the office are expected to work themselves to tiredness before lunch. Or maybe they're expected to eat so much that they get tired.

Is feeling sleepy after a large meal 「眠い」、「疲れた」、simply not said, or something else?

The place I live is very dangerous for everyone. Want proof? Whenever there is a departure, someone often says 'take care'. Why would they say this unless they expected the person to be in danger on their journey? Also, the shows in genre X where I live are mostly garbage, which is unique to this place/genre/medium. Elsewhere, most of the produced work is consistently amazing, especially the pop/mainstream stuff.

Also, people are always acting Japanese and smoking on the sidewalks, even clogging them up by standing outside of nonsmoking bars. It's like living in Japan.

nest0r Wrote:The place I live is very dangerous for everyone. Want proof? Whenever there is a departure, someone often says 'take care'. Why would they say this unless they expected the person to be in danger on their journey?

This reminds me of how when I leave someplace late at night, people say "Drive safely."

I like to reply, "Nah, I think I'll drive dangerously."

I read the whole thing...

One major gripe I have is smoking, I just can't stand it so I can understand that concern of his. The rest? He just doesn't get the Japanese mind. There we're some interesting points in there but it sounds like he just hates the place because he doesn't "get it". His comment about "the guy who needs to watch tv to know how to react to his food" cracked me up haha.1

What's intriguing is how he mentions dating a woman who probably genuinely hated him... would have liked to hear more about that.

Overall... he makes it sound like the worst place on earth.

Edit: He's right about Japanese movies totally sucking though...

mezbup Wrote:Edit: He's right about Japanese movies totally sucking though...

How dare you. How DARE you?! You sir are a rake and a scoundrel, and have no taste for cinema.

@kainzero - Of course! If you don't tell people these things, they will guzzle down a beer and whip out their PSP before driving.

ruiner Wrote:

mezbup Wrote:Edit: He's right about Japanese movies totally sucking though...

How dare you. How DARE you?! You sir are a rake and a scoundrel, and have no taste for cinema.

I'm sorry but every movie is 2 hours long, slow going and not all that entertaining (長尺映画）. Unless it's about 暴力団、暴走族 or Some whack comedy like Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police & RoboGeisha (all made by the same people I think) then I'm just not interested. They really do just do crappy low budget films.

Gotta admit, that article did get me down for a bit, and then I remembered that it's kinda like that here in some ways. The One Piece error aside, we can all agree that the entertainment industry just sucks today.

The smoking thing gets me though, as well as the whole peer presure thing, but then again I don't worry about those things as I stay far away from places where I'd be exposed to them. Reading that, I wonder if there are people living in Japan that don't worry so much about the social stuff and live for themselves. I mean there's got to be people like that right?

Or maybe it's just a big city thing?

mezbup Wrote:

ruiner Wrote:

mezbup Wrote:Edit: He's right about Japanese movies totally sucking though...

How dare you. How DARE you?! You sir are a rake and a scoundrel, and have no taste for cinema.

I'm sorry but every movie is 2 hours long, slow going and not all that entertaining (長尺映画）. Unless it's about 暴力団、暴走族 or Some whack comedy like Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police & RoboGeisha (all made by the same people I think) then I'm just not interested. They really do just do crappy low budget films.

For every decent or good film I've seen in other languages, I can name a dozen equal or better Japanese films. But eliminate 10 of those to account for taste. ;p

I say good day to you, sir!

TLDR.

Fishface Wrote:

Squintox Wrote:I doubt the walls will be all yellow if you go to a smoker's house. What kind of logic is this?!

I think smoking actually does turn walls yellow.

Upon further research, I think you are right.

Either way, the SNES and its games aren't yellow because of smoking. I think we can agree on that.

What is the point of this thread? Lots of people have different views on Japan. What makes this guy so different from the others?

Hey guys! I have an idea! Let's make new threads for every article we find online about somebody talking bad about Japan.

liosama Wrote:TLDR.

me too.

Step 1: Watch every movie ever made by Hirokazu Koreeda.

Step 2: You're welcome.

You know what, though, I think if I was a vegetarian trying to live in Japan I would be mildly irritated pretty much all the time. I'm already a bit concerned about going for a visit in a year or two because fish really is in everything.