One subject I’m interested in is the way some pop culture elements and memes flow freely over national and linguistic boundaries, while others fail to make the jump. Some things, like cat videos or the Pen Pineapple Apple Pen guy, are spread broadly across the Internet, while more specialized aspects of our culture might not. I remember in an episode of Heroes, two Japanese characters were making references to famous (to us) Star Trek quotes and technology, while speaking Japanese. This felt really weird to me, mostly because Japanese have relatively little awareness of Star Trek as it was never that big here, and wouldn’t reference it casually in conversation as you or I might.
On the other hand, there are some interesting things the Japanese are big fans of, including:
- Columbo. Yes, those old crime dramas, which are still broadcast during prime time here. My Japanese father-in-law loves the show.
- American sitcoms don’t really work in Japanese, but they positively loved Full House, especially the cute girl Ashley. Another surprise hit was Alf, according to the Japanese J-List staff. You can judge how popular it is by how long the Japanese Wikipedia page is, and the Alf entry is ridiculously long and detailed.
- The films of Audry Hepburn, especially Roman Holiday. Supposedly she’s popular because she was an actress who didn’t need big boobs to become a star, making her appeal to Japanese women.
- The works of H.P. Lovecraft, thanks in part to Hobby Japan’s licensing of the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game back in the 80s.
- Faust, one of the great works of German literature, is hugely popular here. Tezoka Osamu, the modern father of manga, dedicated his life to finishing a Faust comic but died before its completion. Random fact: the sprawling snack company Lotte gets its name from the character Charlotte in another Goethe literary work popular in Asia, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Who knew?
- Bob Ross. That dude is everywhere, even in Japan.
- Border Security: Australia’s Front Line, a TV show about Australian customs enforcement, which has a following in Japan.
- Surprisingly all the classic board games you know and love are well represented in Japan, from Monopoly to the Game of Life. There’s even an anime version of the latter.
There’s another classic Milton-Bradley game that’s become quite popular for ecchi reasons, and that’s Twister, which was licensed for sale in Japan to — I swear I am not making this up—Nintendo back in the 60s before Takara took the license over. Twister has become a popular visual trope seen in anime over the past decade or so, and the anime Twister episode has taken its place alongside beach, hot springs and other fanservice-heavy situations.
What’s your favorite anime Twister episode? Tell us on Twitter!
Wow, more great news! We’ve added tons of new ecchi doujinshi to the site, which were released at the just-ended C94 Comiket! From Fate/Grand Order to sexy demon girls to everyone’s favorite pantsu centric doujin series, we’ve got everything in stock for you! Browse the new C94 doujinshi here.
