So this is where tarento cum... from

[IparryU]

[Greji]

[GomiGirl]

[Mike Oxlong]

So it begs the question - is this due to the lack of maturity in the audience or to the lack of quality in the production. Chicken vs egg?

I think some of it is a product of the work culture. People are tired after their slave labour, and don't want to watch anything requiring thought. They just want easy laughs; to be entertained. That, and the entertainment industry mimics the business culture, and works the "talent" like salarymen are worked. They are putting in long hours because it's expected, not because they have something to say. Volume of work becomes more important than anything else. You just keep cranking it out willy nilly, and you're going to make a lot of crap.

[IparryU]

ONE good thing I can say about J TV is NHK's kid shows. Like inai inai baaa or okaasanto issyou.

I dont even want to get started on manga... leave that be for now.

A while ago, my in laws used to watch J-dramas, but the quality went down the pooper and they now watch k-dramas. J multimedia in a whole is just as GG quoted.

rubbish

just real quick though. is the 'cum' part a typo? when i first saw that, i just started laughing my ass off.

isn't it, "actors come models come...." or am I just seeing it as I would like it to be?!?!?!

waddaya think Coligney?

[Takechanpoo]

[quote="Mike Oxlong"]I think some of it is a product of the work culture. People are tired after their slave labour, and don't want to watch anything requiring thought. They just want easy laughs]
No.

The main targets of Japanese TV programs are housewives and children who just love gourmet and laugh requiring no deep thinking. As to the young Japanese, both young men and women almost dont watch TV. Especially for men, there is almost no TV programs they want to watch. Actually I too never watch recent Japanese TV programs.

[Yokohammer]

So it begs the question - is this due to the lack of maturity in the audience or to the lack of quality in the production. Chicken vs egg?

Excellent subject GG!

Consider Japanese acting or Japanese pop music. It's 98% crap. Even in the hierarchy of crap it is very, very low-level crap. So the obvious question is "why"? It can't be genetic, so it must be societal/cultural.

Some theorize that because Japan was sort of late to the game they just haven't caught up. Nonsense. There's been plenty of time.

Then there's the education system that teaches non-questioning conformity rather than creative thinking. That's probably part of it.

But it seems that there's a tendency to establish two standards in almost all pursuits: one for Japan and one for the rest of the world. Here "Nihonjin-ron" comes into the picture ... and seriously gets in the way of progress. It becomes possible to use Japanese "uniqueness" as a security blanket to hide under. Rather than go to battle on the brutally competitive world stage, it's vastly easier and more comfy to simply be satisfied being big fish in a small pond, with the justification that "we Japanese do things differently ... you wouldn't understand." It's a great way to avoid shame and humiliation. And I think that's why they go bananas with chest-beating pride when a Japanese national actually makes an impression in the big leagues, like an Ichiro or a Ken Tanaka. Very few Japanese have the guts or self-esteem to take on a challenge like that.

Waddya reckon ?

[Yokohammer]

just real quick though. is the 'cum' part a typo? when i first saw that, i just started laughing my ass off.

isn't it, "actors come models come...." or am I just seeing it as I would like it to be?!?!?!

You need a dictionary.
"Cum" is perfectly correct in that context.

[Tobacco Taro]

So it begs the question - is this due to the lack of maturity in the audience or to the lack of quality in the production ?

There's a widespread habit of dumbing things down to make them as widely accessible as possible. This goes for the media, tv, radio, film, music ..... just about everything.

I've got no problem with dumbed down shit, but it's all in the balance, right ?

What makes me sad is that there seem to be very few Japanese who even realise / care that they are being patronised.

On the production side, there are not many people willing to stand up and say "Hang on ! This is complete bullshit !! " ... and risk being ostracised.

Vicious circle, innit ...

[Greji]

No.

The main targets of Japanese TV programs are housewives and children who just love gourmet and laugh requiring no deep thinking. As to the young Japanese, both young men and women almost dont watch TV. Especially for men, there is almost no TV programs they want to watch. Actually I too never watch recent Japanese TV programs.

Gotta agree with you Take, with the exception of the young women part. A lot of those OLs that I have to deal with still have their favorites on the tube. But, as you say a lot don't and not many guys at all. At least around the people I work with.

[Coligny]

In a place as socially disfunctionnal as Japan Inc, the need for transfer in crappy tv show might be vital... (for the same reason that hollywood fare so well during crisis and wars, peolple need escape).

With the quantity needed, the quality suffer... Women are destined to be housecore slave, expire after 30, have nearly no professionnal hopes for a carreer. What could have been the top aspiration (the one who married the emperor) became a total wreck. Can understand they need their dose of drama. Kids... Are little nothing destined to be even less working for Totoya motor corps as wage slaves... If they are lucky... Can also understand they need their dose of craptacular sentai-hero for 30 minutes every day...

Take a show like Battlestar Galactica. Things goes from bad to worse. To even more worse with heavy hint at critiscism of the current world troubles for 5 years. The last episode is like having stones thrown at your face for 2 hours straight...

When you just have to wait for diner time to have your own little hell on earth... Those washed out celebrities paid to say "oyesheee" making retard face while eating some 'traditionnal' crap that would make a french rat vomit nearly start to make sense...

[Coligny]

You need a dictionary.
"Cum" is perfectly correct in that context.

Yup, the kid never heard aboot latin it seems...

Get offa mah lawn....

[IkemenTommy]

Excellent subject GG!

On the same note, Japanese TV programming is based on demand and supply (duh..). I used to subscribe to the thinking that TV, not just in Japan but elsewhere, was the cause of dumbing down the general public. I beg to differ now when you start to realize that pop culture and these TV shows are the reflection of the general population: lack of creativity and originality, and not taking bold risks with its lack of ambition for trying new things. When you watch television, you are seeing the entire generation. What you left is boring, unimaginative, tripe piece of crap shows struggling and probably will not make it if it had to compete in the global market. Ironically, kind of represents the current Japan, itself, doesn't it?

But let's all face it. The era of TV with high viewer ratings ended in circa 1995 when the internetz came about. In J-TV, the studios are struggling to keep Tamori and all those once-big name, high budget tarentos on their shows. TV (push-media) will continue to decline and fade away. People who deny this are the ones lost amd getting swept away.

[Yokohammer]

On the same note, Japanese TV programming is based on demand and supply (duh..).

I agree for the most part.
But I do think that dumb begets dumber to some extent. Kids weaned on crap TV come to accept it as the norm and, unless determined to grow intellectually or to simply find new stimulation, will just glaze over when faced with content that's beyond their ken. The majority will naturally drift back to the easily digested pablum they were brought up on.

This does not bode well for the future of entertainment ... or humanity, for that matter.

Oh. and ...

People who deny this are the ones lost and getting swept away.

Clever!

[IparryU]

Yup, the kid never heard aboot latin it seems...

Get offa mah lawn....

sad thin is, I'm Mexican...

I can mow your lawn and fix everything for a cheap price! Any yob you need done i can do.

[Coligny]

sad thin is, I'm Mexican...

I can mow your lawn and fix everything for a cheap price! Any yob you need done i can do.

I need an helipad on me roof, you good at welding ?

[IparryU]

I need an helipad on me roof, you good at welding ?

Ya I can do welding, but I cant steal a helicopter for you if that is your real question...