" Tim Rogers is a terrible writer. Sure, he has a good grasp of the English language, but he is verbose to an agonizing fault and horrendous at making his points succinct. He rambles, rants, and essentially beats each individual point in his arguments beyond the point of demise. The guy desperately needs an editor. And yet, even his points are by and large invalid. When you're complaining about the lack of organic vegetarian food as though it were some sort of cultural affront, you need to get out more and understand that the people of another culture are not, by nature, going to necessarily have the means or the desire to cater to your every whim. "
but there would have to be a larger market for vegetarians in japan any ways, as for that he touched upon that in the first parts of his article, Why bring up what he all ready answered and touched upon?
" Tim Rogers is a terrible writer. Sure, he has a good grasp of the English language, but he is verbose to an agonizing fault and horrendous at making his points succinct. He rambles, rants, and essentially beats each individual point in his arguments beyond the point of demise. The guy desperately needs an editor. And yet, even his points are by and large invalid. When you're complaining about the lack of organic vegetarian food as though it were some sort of cultural affront, you need to get out more and understand that the people of another culture are not, by nature, going to necessarily have the means or the desire to cater to your every whim. "
but there would have to be a larger market for vegetarians in japan any ways, as for that he touched upon that in the first parts of his article, Why bring up what he all ready answered and touched upon? "
Why complain about it in the first place? If I were to write an article about "Why Japan Sucks," the cuisine not fitting my tastes would not make the list. If I go to Japan, I'm not going to go with the expectation that I can maintain the same diet that I do here in the U.S.
Flawed writer but insightful article. Pretty much the consensus (sans Anime sucks vs. you suck arguments).
His best point is Japan needs one thing to shake up it's stagnancy (culture, art, whatever) is criticism. People are so scared to make any criticism of any other culture these days simply because we aren't part of it. If you are an ignorant person and decide to insult another culture, that doesn't make for a good argument regardless of who you are and what you've done. However if another culture thinks it's a good idea to use placebo medicine over actually tested science-based ones, I'm gonna call them out on it.
Same thing here. The impression I got from the article is that a majority of Japan's metropolitan culture (I bet rural is way different) is starting to fester and his experience really showed that. Now he tends to whine heavily when it comes to smokers and food (god really? You're complaining that you have to go through a smoking area to go to a non-smoking area). Luckily he's a snob who learned the language and is willing to work there. Japan is one area I've been meaning to study as a budding Sociologist and this certainly gives credence to my initial impression of Japan as not being as awesome as people assume.
That and I really hate Anime (for reasons that Anime needs to find something else but the same conventions to use over and over AND that they animate in 3's which gives a more stilted animation movement over American animation). The Anime and Manga which has been a staple of the culture since the 80's, would be too much and given the corporate mistakes and cultural quirks I couldn't stand it. My American way of thinking I suppose would be too individualistic for those who don't know any different to handle. I see myself asking a lot of the same obvious questions he asked like "why do we have to say 'good morning' at the top of our lungs even if we're the first or second ones in the office, how does this contribute to anything?" and the instructor lady would say "you have to say it".
You wanna talk about people using capitalism in not-so-idea ways? This is it. The intrinsic freedom of the economic system has created a combined beast of complicated Japanese customs and business culture that isn't doing anyone favors so many years after it's boom. I could really go all day but I'm getting kind of tired. Japan!
We have a thread about Tim Rogers talking about Japan, and ofcourse, the very first thing people notice and start a fucking debate about is the quality of japanese animation. Get a fucking grip (all of you involved in this argument) and gimme a call later alright?
That was a mildy entertaining read. To those who are outraged by this article, i don't think it should be taken too seriously..it just feels like some dude screaming what was in his mind while he was in Japan.
" Japan is awesome. That article fails. Also, anime doesn't suck. :( "
This is the the truth. I tried to read the Kotaku rant last night and got a portion through it before I realized it was just endless complaining. It was jaded and cynical and "bitchy". I have rarely ever read something so completely negative and so long winded in being so. I thought I tend to ramble, but this blog just goes on and on and on. I stopped reading the piece when I realized that I would never ever want to know this person in real life. He has nothing to offer anyone anymore on anything. My only suggestion to him is that he move to New York City where everyone there can hate him just as passionately as he hates everything now. That's how we used to do things in the Big Apple. Die in a pool of your own spill, we don't care (unless your apartment is rent controlled.)
I don't really understand why people are defending anime to the point that it is always perfect. Last time I saw anime, the latest batch were all fanservice shots of women and more sexual scenes than last year. Stories are getting less interesting, and it is rarer than before to find anime that tries to be as good as the classics, like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Sure the way in which this guy said it was quite like a complainer, but there is legitimate substance to it all.
I watch quite a bit of anime, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I had to desensitize myself to all that stupid sexual scenes just to watch a good story. But even by doing this, the stories in most anime get ruined simply because of one repeated premise. Most of the stories comprise of a dude acquiring a harem of girls and all go to high school, and have some underlying plot that will affect their lives in some nonsensical way. Half of the story will concentrate only on sexualising the girls and placing them and the protagonist male into "hilarious" situations, leading to "humorous" misunderstandings, and possibly deeper emotional ties between the main character and maybe one or two of the girls.
This type of typical setting is different of course in anime, but not by much. If you want to watch some anime, just go watch Eden of the East or Casshern Sins. They pretty much have none of what I described, and both are very well done (well at least I enjoyed watching them and thought the story was told and paced well). Some people may recommend Code Geass, but unless you can ignore the obvious fanservice in there, it isn't worth watching, and I thought it would do a lot better without the trash. Then again, I didn't like it also because the protagonist is just another high school student.
I love what anime used to be about, and still do, but the otaku culture is ruining it all.
This article was really interesting, you have to read over some of the bits though. Some are obviously very personal problems, like the smoking and the vegetarianism. That is cultural... but that's something that works for the culture as a whole and I guess can be okay. What he says about the business climate and the hostess clubs... now that was interesting. He doesn't always go into as much insight as might be desired, but what he describes is really fascinating. And you can't deny that he is living a very interesting life. I mean, he is ACTUALLY living in Japan, speaking the language, and he... doesn't like it? We're so used to japanophiles and otaku culture that, to a certain degree, someone who has learned the language and immersed himself in the culture and then doesn't like it is just... really interesting. As if there is a major, major chunk of Japan that we simply don't see. That there is actually a much more sinister, de-evolutionary process behind what Japan outputs.
" Japan is awesome. That article fails. Also, anime doesn't suck. :( "
Japan is a cool place, but judging by his experience of living there for years I would have to say he probably makes some valid points. The article wins because he didn't paint Japan as a shiny plastic happy place like everyone else wants to imagine it is.
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