Forum - View topicAnswerman - Does Japan Have Otaku For American Animation?
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Pretty sure they have dedicated blogs and sites pertaining to Western pop culture. I mean, they even have one that explains 4chan memes.
Not sure about Japanese fansubbers myself. In addition to their hardcore approach to piracy, most of them are dubbed in Japanese and they don't seem to mind. Yeah, a lot of young Japanese have this "romantic" view of the US, not unlike JP culture fans in the West. I get a few chuckles when they realize not every state looks like Hollywood or New York. They're right about how the country is full of gun nuts though. 
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johnnysasaki
Posts: 925 |
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South Park is indeed popular in Japan,but I heard they quit dubbing it at some point,right(especially because they like to make fun of Japan and its stereotypes,and we know Japan does not tolerate that)?so,if they want to watch recent seasons,fansub and piracy are really the only option,isn't it?
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Emma Iveli
Posts: 679 Location: Hobo with internet |
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The only fansubbing I ever heard from Japan is the Angry Video Game Nerd. I heard he's very popular over there, which would explain that cameo he and Nostalgia Critic had in that one anime...
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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I figured they'd be fans of Disney movies (I wrote an essay on Tezuka and Disney WAAYYY back in middle school, so know all about that.) but it's interesting to know they like other aspects of American pop culture. I really wouldn't expect our culture to be such a hit over there.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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I wonder how similar their situation is compared to anime fans from non-english speaking countries.
in the early days of "otaku culture" here , pretty much everything was subbed or dubber in english, that not being the native language meant that a huge amount of people who might haev gotten into anime (hey dragon ball boom) simply did not because they did not know a second language, expecting them to speak english was as outrageous as expecting them to speak japanese. so for a long time anime fans could be classified in two groups, the "hardcore"/educated ones who knew 2 or 3 languages and the regular ones that only watched whatever aired dubed on tv. this is where I draw the similarities with the japanese fans of western cartoons, there might be a bigger pool of fans who just watch whatever is dubbed on tv and a more dedicated, ahrdcore bunch that knows also english . just because english is teached to japanese since younger ages, it does not mean they are any good at it, according to a few contacts, most japanese are still really bad at it and the bigegst reasons they avoid foreginers is because they don't want ot look dumb when they can't comunicate in english even though they have gone through years of school on it. |
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Hakajin
Posts: 46 |
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Interesting. I hear that Japanese kids think American kids are free to do what they want, pursue romantic relationships, etc. I guess we are, compared to them. I think it's funny that there's such a thing as American Weeaboo.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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The idea of the 'western cartoon obsessed reverse otaku' was to try and illustrate how silly western anime fans are, but...it just turns out that there's very few people like that in Japan, certainly not a group large enough to really make caricatures of. Why would they bother watching most cartoons when they already have anime and those cartoons?
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thennarynak
Posts: 26 |
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American culture/media is rather popular all across the globe. Even in countries that hate American government. But it's a widely held belief that if you make it big in the U.S. you can make it big globally as well, which is part of why foreign acts/media usually make breaking into the U.S. a priority if they want to go global. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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But the market share is shrinking. 20 or so years ago USA movies and TV series we hot, nowadays many releases do not reach movie theaters or are shown in broadcast TV and going by what Justin said recently, the same thing is happening in Japan. Of course there still are the huge blockbusters, but it used to be that even unremarkable movies or TV series made some impact. Of course I am talking empirically and there are probably many markets with zero local productions to compete with USA productions, but who knows in the long run if Hollywood will continue to win the globab battle for the attention. |
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Selipse
Posts: 216 |
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I can get an idea of how it works, living outside of the US. Probably the reason why there's not really a big dedicated, hardcore fanbase in Japan is because of piracy laws.
In my country, the laws in that regard aren't that strict, so we have two types of people who like American media. First, the mainstream audience. Everyone likes movies and shows made in the US, most things get localized, and they're usually considered better than stuff made here. Then, there's the "hardcore" audience. People that can't wait for shows to be brought here (movies are released pretty much the same day, if not before, but series can take some time), or cartoon fans that just don't like dubs (and can't wait either). Cartoons very rarely get released in English. Live-action always comes out subtitled, and the really popular stuff gets dubbed. And I said "hardcore", but really it's not niche at all, it just depends on the specific series. Keeping up with shows as they're released in the US is just the most common thing. Also, yes, there are fansubs, even for cartoons, so it's not just people who speak English. Though, since I and most of my friends do, I don't really know about how it's released or how long it takes. I just remember that one friend who didn't know English was watching Korra subtitled as it was airing. |
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Lili-Hime
 Posts: 569 |
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I had to laugh at the line about South Park doujinshi.... wtf??? O.o I mean I've seen Interview with the Vampire, Lord of the Rings & Harry Potter doujinshi but South Park!?
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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Can't speak for all of western media, but Niconico has had an active fansubber community for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic since long before its Japanese dub was announced. I'm guessing it originally formed out of 4chan watchers, but the brony fandom's similarities to Japan's existing phenomenon of Ookina otomodachi probably helped as well. I remember back in the beginning of 2013 the Japanese-fansubbed episodes averaged about 6,000 views, with the only ones breaking the 10,000 mark being the two memetically popular episodes, Party of One and Lesson Zero. Then, starting in April 2013, a Japanese dub was aired on TV Tokyo. Only the first two seasons were aired and as of now no further dubs have been announced. However, the fansubs have continued being made, and now all of the episodes reach several tens of thousands of views. What's more, the originally uploaded fansubs of the first two seasons' episodes still appear to be there, happily coexisting with the legally streamed dubs.
Edit: Now that I've checked, it appears that out of the originally uploaded fansubs only the first two episodes have remained. The other episodes from the first two seasons were apparently purged, only to get gradually reuploaded while the dub was still airing. Last edited by vonPeterhof on Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paiprince
Posts: 593 |
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I see those types when I go to trendy places like Shibuya and Harajuku. Guys and gals clad in Super Hero/Disney paraphernalia. |
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Fatt_One
Posts: 131 Location: Ohio USA |
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South Park is pretty big in Japan. |
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veemonjosh
Posts: 307 |
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I've stumbled across Japanese fansubs of Power Rangers and the 2003 Ninja Turtles. |
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