Hot Japanese, ugly Americans?

[lostsatyr]

M & I have been watching Japanese tokusatsu (live action "superhero") shows lately, including some Super Sentai shows. In the West, the scenes with the Japanese actors get stripped out and the costumed action sequences are combined with english speaking actors to create "Power Ranger" episodes

Comments

[shewolfe]

Here we find certain physical attributes attractive and pleasing, but not every country finds the same things attractive. It is possible that the "ugly" replacement actors are what the audience there finds attractive or exotic.

[lostsatyr]

And it seems that my tastes are more in line with the Japanese taste in actors :-)

[bonusparts]

Keep in mind that Japan is a homogeneous culture, so you only have to appeal to *one* socially-accepted idea of what is beautiful. (And there is quite a bit of importance placed upon social acceptance in Japan.)

And have you seen the girl and boy bands that are popular over there? It's all about youth and beauty. If you're overweight, or have wrinkles, or are unacceptably unattractive in any way, you just don't get popular. Or, you've got to be pretty goddamn awesome at something to become so (like, say, Sonny Chiba).

I think it has less to do with the standards of a show than it does with how attractive you are in the culture.

On a similar note, the US has this (occasionally stupid) tendency to want to include everyone: so you can't cast five (young, cheap) actors who are good-looking. You have to find five (young, cheap) actors who also represent any subculture you want to represent and/or attract in terms of demographics.

Lastly, actors, no matter where they live, just want a fucking job.

[lostsatyr]

*nods* Good points. M noted the inclusiveness tendency - also notable in a proposed American cartoon remake of Sailor Moon (rainbow cast with one in a wheelchair), which was a case where she felt inclusiveness had gotten ridiculous. Even if I'd wanted to argue with her, it would have been hard. I suppose another problem with a non-homogenous audience is that not only are you trying to appeal to various groups, you don't want to do that so well that you start alienating the rest of your audience. And is what is appealing to on group necessarily going to appeal to another

[lostsatyr]

I think you've gotten me to have some sympathy for the producers of Power Rangers. They do have a number of inherant disadvantages relative to the Japanese production. It's not just $.

But still, I love the Japanese shows.

Hm, I do have to give credit to Power Rangers for priming my nephew to be ready to watch Kaisuku Sentai Gokaiger though!

[tamminnanny]

Your comments about the original source material being more in depth definitely struck a chord in me. I think that's why I liked Starblazers, Harlock and Robotech when I was a kid. While they were also edited, they left a lot in (such as character deaths, adult love triangles, genocide, etc...) that got cut out of a lot of other early anime that came to the States. (Oh, Gatchaman, we hardly knew ye.)

On the other side, while newer shows have stayed truer to the original stuff, it just doesn't seem to have the same... pizzazz as those of my youth. Maybe I'm just getting old. Or perhaps because those shows stood out so much more from what else was on the idiot box, whereas these days it seems more common place. (Too bad Leiji Matsumoto wouldn't know what continuity was if you hit him with it.) Come to think of it, that's why I fell in love with FLCL. There was no other anime even remotely like it... and I don't think there has been since.

Sorry, got off topic. We now return you to our regularly scheduled thread.

[lostsatyr]

If you ever want to borrow stuff, you're welcome to. M has a lot of early stuff, like Gatchaman (subed, uncut), and I'm sure she'd be happy to share it with you. (And just have a lot in general too. You've seen our shelves!)

M & I have noticed that American cartoons are often imitating Japanese anime these days, perhaps one of the reasons anime doesn't stand out as much for you. *Chuckles* Of course for me, until we started watching tokusetsu lately, most of our viewing was anime, so I find seeing things made for Japanese sensibilities normal.

I watched Starblazers (like 7th grade) without having a clue it was made in Japan :-) Wave motion gun!

[thegamemistress]

While they were also edited, they left a lot in (such as character deaths, adult love triangles, genocide, etc...) that got cut out of a lot of other early anime that came to the States. (Oh, Gatchaman, we hardly knew ye.)

*nodnod*

Robotech was a "gateway" series for me, too. Despite all the flak Carl Macek gets from some fans for stitching together and editing SDF Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada, I think he showed a whole generation of fans what anime could be like, as opposed to the butchered stuff we'd gotten up to that point (Battle of the Planets, anybody?).