[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

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.

I don't think you, or anyone who posts on this site, is an "average American idiot." Our arguments are too well-reasoned, we can write above a 5th grade reading level, and we're open to learning about other cultures. That blend of intelligence and open-mindedness is unusual, in general, but it's fairly common in Western toku fandom. I think that combination of personality traits draws us to these shows, and it allows (most of) us to better appreciate non-culturally-traditional stories, moreso than the average, mainstream American audience member.

That said, I think there are three main points being argued here, and I don't think our opinions are all that different.

1) Foreignness as a barrier of entry.
2) Knowledge as requirement for enjoyment.
3) Cultural commonality.

Point one: we thought these shows looked cool, so we watched them. The foreignness didn't bother us. I think it is a mistake to assume that the majority of mainstream American viewers share this disposition. If they did, more excellent foreign language shows and movies would be mainstream. The foreignness, whether it's language-based or cultural, keeps most people from engaging with these shows in the first place.

Point two: I concede that you're right on this one, so long as one is able to overcome the initial barrier of foreignness. Though, I'd argue that enjoyment increases as cultural understanding increases.

Point three: Japanese culture is not so different from American culture that members of one can't understand the other. In fact, there's a huge degree of overlap. But I find that the more two cultures have in common, the more important the subtle differences between them become. Whether we like it or not, humans are "in-group"/"out-group" animals, and one group will find a way to differentiate themselves from another group, even if their differences are minuscule. It's a widely recognized phenomenon that two people with 99% similar viewpoints will argue just as fiercely over their 1% difference as two people with 100% differing viewpoints. I think that phenomenon applies to cultures just as well as it does to individuals. Regardless of our similarities, the average American will find cultural differences in Japanese media that alienate or turn them off. Should it be this way? Can it be changed? I don't know. Those are philosophical questions I don’t think anyone has the answer to. What I do know is we're lucky to possess character traits that enable us to see past our own culture's biases.

But yeah, anyway, that's just my very long way of saying Kamen Rider rules and anyone who doesn't agree is dumb. (jkjkjk)