[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Sorry if it sounded like I was attacking you or something but that particular bit rubbed me the wrong way. I read all the other parts and believe it or not I DO more-or-less agree with you.

Whoa, an apology on the internet!? I... I've never heard of such a thing.

Sorry that I rubbed you the wrong way. Hopefully my clarification that I don't think any of this is good or bad eases the sting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

But I hate the notion that these goofy shows we're so into are something you "challenge" yourself to understand. I get your message here but the wording comes off extraordinarily pretentious to me.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And I didn't mean "just 'cause" with what I said either. I was actually getting at what you're saying that there's an established, broad disinterest in foreign stuff. By "no deep reason" I meant "a lot of reasons". Sorry if that didn't come across clearly enough.

Gotcha. And I agree. There are a lot of factors, only a few of which I've addressed.