[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

I hear you. But pretentious or not, foreignness is a huge barrier of entry for a stunningly large percent of Americans. The number of times I've heard, "I don't want movies with subtitles," is astonishingly large, even among educated people. And then on top of that, there are a ton of cultural nuances that need to be understood to fully appreciate even these goofy ass kids shows (there are honorifics, gender dynamics, foods, social hierarchies, and a ton of other things that do need to be explained to people unfamiliar with anime and other Japanese media).

And getting over (or coming to appreciate) the goofiness itself is a huge challenge. I'm half Japanese, I have a ton of familiarity with anime and other Japanese cultural exports, and I was a massive massive massive Godzilla and Power Rangers fan as a kid -- and even so, getting used to tokusatsu's bizarre tone took some effort for me (not a huge amount, but it wasn't completely effortless). It's probably possible to enjoy these things without this knowledge, but it can be confusing, which is a very real deterrent. Even a whisper of confusion keeps Americans from engaging with this stuff, especially in a world where countless, high quality American shows -- shows that don't require any effort to understand -- are competing for the mainstream audience's attention.

I'm gonna try not to press the issue any more than this because it'll get outside of the scope of this forum quickly but I guess my opinion is just influenced by my perspective (go figure). I'm just some random American idiot who liked Power Rangers as a little kid and I never felt like I had to "get used" to the tone or anything like that. I saw some shows that looked interesting and I watched them, that's all.

Being able to enjoy it without a nuanced understanding of the culture it came from isn't a "probably" in my mind. People don't even have a nuanced understanding of their own culture a lot of the time but that doesn't stop them. It's just like, you don't need to know detailed writing concepts by name to say "I thought x was well written", for example. Any understanding of a story is a valid one.

I just get really sketched-out whenever I hear people talk about other countries like they've got so little in common because I feel that contributes to creating the very atmosphere you and I are bummed exist. If you want to get a pal to watch some pretentious French drama are you going to tell them "you just need to take a brief history course before you can watch it" or "dude it's just like any other movie, relax"?

Obviously there's differences but Powerman293 had a point talking about Blade. Being human is a pretty universal thing, isn't it? I'm getting way too philosophical for my own good now so I'll stop here but hopefully you get what I'm saying.