I watched a Japanese video about the awful classic 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie since I was curious about how it was viewed from a Japanese perspective. Disney's involvement in the movie's production is mentioned at which point the author jokes that "if today's Disney was in charge, Mario would probably be made into a black guy"

I love how everyone's brains are being pickled by the same shitty American culture wars worldwide

The comments were also great

"Toad could work as a black person because his head kind of resembles an afro"

"Italians are already considered a minority in America so they wouldn't need to change him into a black man"

The best part about learning new languages is being able to read even more racist comments on the internet

  • wtypstanaccount04 [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Is this one of those weird Japanese youtube videos where two characters using text to speech talk to each other? I've often wondered why those get made.

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      7 months ago

      Yes! It's a really popular format in Japan and used to present a wide variety of topics. I occasionally get recommended a channel about paleontology that's just one Touhou character explaining Snowball Earth or whatever to another Touhou character.

      I assume it's because Japanese people tend to be less comfortable putting their faces and voices online so they prefer to use animated avatars to obscure their identity. This is the country that gave us vtubers, after all.

      It's also a rhetorical device since it's usually one more knowledgeable character explaining something to a character unfamiliar with the topic

      • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]
        ·
        7 months ago

        that's just one Touhou character explaining Snowball Earth or whatever to another Touhou character. [...] It's also a rhetorical device since it's usually one more knowledgeable character explaining something to a character unfamiliar with the topic

        Ah yes, the Hakureic dialogue is a new development of the Socratic dialogue suited for the material conditions of modern Japan