So I watched an episode of
Bones a few nights ago. First time. The show opened with the cast looking at a body in a lake, finding a mask styled like an anime character's face, so I felt somehow obligated to watch it.
But the show was a parade of stereotypes that I didn't even think existed anymore.
Kami? Really? Absolutely cringeworthy. (Never mind that I do much the same thing, as anyone who's seen me shopping will attest -- I just dress it in the Western mythology of the subconscious.)
The brother was just as bad -- he's miserable, but the other characters can't comfort him because he would be shamed by showing weakness. They dress it up in some inscrutable Oriental nonsense, but that's ridiculous. This isn't a uniquely Japanese trait. We call it "machismo", and family heads tend towards that kind of thing in any culture. Stop exoticising it.
Just for the record, the
kigurumi people are considered lunatic fringe even by cosplayers.
And the idea of using the mask to send a warning probably has more to do with the
Godfather films than the Sengoku period. The long and bloody history of the
daimyo is just not something that Japanese people would think of, and it comes off as an ignorant screenwriting hack's attempt to explain those crazy Japanese -- which, by some odd coincidence, it is.
I'm not actually offended. Just dismayed. I thought we were better than this.
words from chris, 2010-02-28 14:05:24, los angeles
