Archive for the 'television' Category
I’m Starting to Get Uncomfortable Watching Nature Documentaries with my Sons
June 19th, 2012I understand that predators catching and eating the young is part of the natural order, and I have nothing against it being covered in nature documentaries, but I wonder why every single nature documentary nowadays makes it a point to feature child death. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure predators catch the […]
Shaun White, Multiple Olympic Gold Medal and Gundam Toy Winner
March 8th, 2010So I’m watching TV the other day, and, hey, there’s Shaun White, being interviewed live! That’s fairly unusual for Japan, so I’m watching it and grooving on it. At the end of the segment, they say “Shaun, we’ve heard you like Gundam, so here’s a present”, and they give him a big Gundam toy. He […]
Dubbing
December 27th, 2008Voice actors are respected in Japan, and within a certain segment of the market, are even revered. Which is odd, because: they suck. The vast majority of them work within the anime industry, which means, to be honest, the bar is pretty low. Sure, Japan’s anime industry is enormous, and sure, comic books are read […]
The 3 Year Japanese TV Crash
November 25th, 2007Something happening once is an occurence. Twice is a coincidence. Thrice is a trend. I used to love Japanese TV. I’m not talking about the days when I didn’t understand anything, and it was just random shouting people doing crazy things. I’m talking about when I actually understood the jokes and that the laughter wasn’t […]
The Value of Reruns
October 28th, 2007I always basically considered reruns a sort of unnecessary evil, but now I’m starting to think they’re a necessary evil. Japan, basically, doesn’t have reruns. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that everything disappears into a big memory hole. There are reruns of old prime-time shows during day-time television slots. But the American system of […]
I am Jack Bauer
August 26th, 2007Correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole 24 phenomenon in the USA goes basically like this: Serious show “24” comes out. Serious commercials advertise it. People watch it serously. After a while, the amount of near-death-misses and shouting scenes and repetition makes people enjoy it in a non-serious way. “24” remains serious. Commercials for […]
The Times They Are A Changin’
August 4th, 2007Things are changing in Japan, vis foreigners. Two things in the last two days which brought this to mind: This morning, on one of the TV talkshow/variety shows (think The Today Show or the like if you don’t know Japanese TV), they had a segment where they asked a bunch of foreigners what Japanese food […]
I wonder
May 16th, 2007I wonder how it feels to be of some nationality, be cast in a role as a person of that nationality, and have to work with other actors who aren’t of that nationality, but have to play that they are. I started watching Heroes today, and there’s a character who is Japanese, living in Tokyo, […]
