Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

A Shoujo ai centred Weblog

Day 19 – The Legend of Japanese TV (日本テレビの伝説)

Posted on | March 20, 2008 | 9 Comments |

Sorry, I didn’t fulfil my promise – Have been randomly busy with cardiac arrests and such – so been an interesting but fairly depressing week.

For most Westerners such as myself, it is very difficult to get a mental hold on what Japanese actually watch on TV – most people would think it is something between anime and Takeshi’s Castle. Having been to Japan before, I had a little inkling, but only staying in hostels means that you don’t really get a real picture. This time, however, I’ve had more than a couple long evenings in my room with nothing to do except translate Akiba Maid-cafe flyers and watch TV.

And like virtually every other country, the main content is almost unwatchable. However, it is interesting that what I am used to with a similar system of terrestrial TV in the UK isn’t really reproduced over here. The program types that are popular are almost completely different. I would go so far as to say that the television culture in Japan is a different beast altogether.

First let me get it straight that for the most part, there is no anime. Anime as I have posted previously, usually only occurs at Stupid Hour (i.e. between 2-5am) and therefore is watchable by no one. Since I have been here, the only anime that I have seen in useful hours of the day have been One Piece, Pokemon, Doraemon (yes, it is still being shown) and a random show which I don’t know the name of that seems to be about a good Team Rocket. Of the real anime, the only one that I can really watch is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei which is on at 23:30 on Sunday and whatever comes after it (usually Ayakashi). And Ayakashi usually sends me to sleep anyway.

So let’s stop talking about anime. Japanese TV is not about anime.

Japanese TV shows can be broken down into very few types – (in order of frequency)

  • People talking about serious things with interludes of short clips
  • Slightly mad people doing random stuff either in the studio or out in public
  • People eating food and going “oishii”
  • Gameshows
  • Dramas
  • Documentaries
  • Foreign stuff

“Serious talking about stuff” shows are the most common show type and encompass news shows, morning shows and all kinds of talk shows during the day, all of which are broadly the same. Coming from England, the show I can most liken it to is “The One Show” (which is absolutely rubbish). The format of the show goes as follows – A number of people (usually mostly aesthetically pleasing women) talk about some stuff. It’s boring. They then play a clip illustrating it in an outside location – this is usually to advertise a particular event/shop/food/place. The roving presenter visits the place and oohs and ahhs about how nice it is. There is a short “packet shot” at the end which tells the viewer when it is open and how much it costs. The camera dissolves back to the presenters who all then say how much they now want to be there.

One of my favourite parts of Japanese presenting that seems to come with this kind of show is that when two female presenters are reading from autocue, they will occasionally say things in unison (such as “ありがとうございました”) which is randomly cute.

But anyway. It goes without saying that most of this kind of program is broadly unwatchable.

The second kind of program (“Men being insane“) is probably what happens when a group of twenty to thirty-something men get bored with the first kind of show. Usually, this show involves a group of 4 or so men who are loud and speak in 男性語(man language) with lots of 何言いてのお前 (whayoutalkinaboutyou?) and doing random stuff like eating strange foods, playing computer games and doing man-interviews with aesthetically pleasing female idol guests. This type of show is also dull for me, mainly because of the fact that I can’t understand 男性語 and partly because it’s just stupid.

The third kind of show is my favourite. I call it te “Oishii/Umai show“. In this show, presenters sample a range of foods which may be special or only cooked in a particular convenience store in Outer Ibaraki. There is a quick skit about how it is made (not so you can make it yourself, but so you can marvel at the awesomeness of the ingredients and the craftsmanship). The presenter(s) then eat it and say “Oishii~” (female) or “Umai~” (male). In one show, a fat man who is the judge has to pick which tonkatsu (pork cutlet) he wants to eat out of a choice of 4 presented deliciously by a man with a beard, an aesthetically pleasing woman, a guy in a chef’s hat and a pair of exceedingly camp twins. Needless to say the aesthetically pleasing woman won. The other presenters then ate each others’ tonkatsu and declared them “oishii”.

It seems to be another take on the increasingly-popular British cooking show, but Japanese people are not interested in seeing what they could make in their own kitchens – they are interested in what the experts can make with ridiculously rare ingredients…I guess it’s the same as watching a cooking show by Delia Smith…

The Gameshow is what Japan is most known for (mostly because of Takeshi’s Castle), and indeed they are fairly insane, though none I have come across are quite as insane as TC. Gameshows generally involve either the presenters or semi-famous people/idols competing against each other in a series of domestically created situations. For the most part, I feel that it is like the gameshow creators invented most of the game ideas while sitting in their own living room. Somehow, it’s almost endearing…

There was the team game of Shiritori which was actually a mix between Shiritori and Pictionary (you have to draw your word and the next person has to guess what you’ve drawn) and a show in which presenters have to do things such as drink an entire can of hot corn-soup, eat a pot of rock solid airline icecream or change a duvet cover in the time it takes an expert to complete something s/he’s good at (e.g. skipping 300 times, balancing pots on his head). There was the “Read the kanji” game where contestants have to read some really obscure kanji, and another similar game in which they have to know certain obscure rules in Japanese culture, such as what is forbidden to be put into a relative’s coffin at a funeral.

We’ll skip over documentaries, because they’re mostly the same.

J-Dramas, though seemingly commonplace on the web, are fairly thin on the ground on actual TV. For those of you that haven’t seen any, J-Dramas and K-Dramas (korean dramas) are by and large the same – usually concentrating on the everyday life of a particular couple/family – no frills, no superpowers, no secret government organisation out to get them – and things happen. Usually involving squishy lovey-dovey moments, climactic death scenes and chilli induced tearful goodbyes.

I think you can infer from the above that they’re not really my cup of tea. I think the problem I have most with them is that they are generally not very well acted. The tears are as false as Tony Blair’s smile and there seems to be a fashion in overacting to the degree that you are made acutely aware that these people are actually actors. I don’t like that. I guess it would be easy to make a comparison between J-Dramas and badly acted British soap operas such as Hollyoaks. I think the acting is about the same level.

And that pretty much wraps up what you can see on TV over here. There are very few foreign shows (though for some reason the Spongebob Squarepants movie was on this morning) and very few films (badly dubbed).

I am probably wrong in this inference, but I’ll make it anyway, since I’m sure you’re not afraid to correct me. I think that the reason that Japanese TV is dominated by the same kind of show is evidence for how Japanese TV is different from British TV. In the UK, TV channels pay for your show to be shown and then make money back from advertising and the license fee. In Japan, you pay the TV station for the slot you wish your show to go out on. You then must make your money from it in other ways – namely by advertising certain foods, certain places or events or assisting in exposing new and up and coming idols to the world. Gameshows presumably make their money by the same reason and by charging people to come on the show. Dramas (and anime) make their money from video sales and merchandise. In this way, Japanese TV has begat a total lack of imagination in the shows that are shown, since their primary motive is making back the cost of screening them in the first place.

And this in turn is the reason that I am in the computer room right now instead of in my room watching TV. That and it’s raining 猫と犬 outside.

Category: Comment

Comments

9 Responses to “Day 19 – The Legend of Japanese TV (日本テレビの伝説)”

  1. Pillowcase
    March 20th, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

    Is the cycle of shows sensitive to the day of the week or just the time of day? Where I lived in the US a good 5-hour block was reserved for cartoons every Saturday. I find it a bit hard to believe so much アニメ comes out of Japan if it’s only actually aired 3 hours a day.

    P.S. テレビを見る時は部屋を明るくして、成るべくテレビから離れて見てください。

  2. Danny Choo
    March 20th, 2008 @ 5:11 pm

    Well described ^^

  3. mman426
    March 20th, 2008 @ 11:14 pm

    @Pillowcase
    I think anime comes on more often during the Fall when the majority of anime comes out.

    Also I would probably be able to enjoy watching TV in Japan seeing how I am in US and we have crap coming on 24-7 and I am a stereotypical lazy American who watches whatever is on TV because I am too lazy to move to my computer to watch some Anime or play a game.

  4. Yuribou
    March 21st, 2008 @ 5:44 am

    Actually, having said that I was surprised to watch TV yesterday afternoon and find 2 hours of anime. Granted, it was pokemon one hour special followed by Naruto…

    It appears to be “ultrapopular and kidsy stuff” at around 6 and “stuff westerners watch” after 1130. Shakugan no Shana II is on tonight – 0130am. Might stay up? Probably not.

  5. mayun
    March 21st, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

    Couldn’t you find that Hard Gay show? :p

  6. Skywalker
    March 21st, 2008 @ 2:44 pm

    Hello there, I’m a medical student who stumbled across your page while looking for information on doing an elective in Kameda.

    The hospital has already gotten back to me and offered me a spot and I’m wondering whether to take it. Since you’re there right now, I was curious as to whether the doctors want you in hospital 6 days a week 8am – 8pm or if they’re more lax about having you around. How strict do they seem to be about fulfilling a certain number of hours in the hospital?

    I’m just asking because I’d rather have a more relaxed elective as opposed to one where they expect me to turn up for 8 hours a day. What’s your opinion on this?

    Thanks for your time.

  7. Yuribou
    March 23rd, 2008 @ 9:14 am

    Hey Skywalker,

    I recommend that you take the elective – I was surprised at how relaxed the faculty is about fulfilling hours and such, especially since the letter they send is really formal. It really is a “come in when you like” kind of thing – though I expect that they wouldn’t like you taking half weeks off to go sightseeing in Kyoto

    You’re pretty much free to go home whenever you want in the day and you don’t really have to work saturdays or evenings, though I have this week since I decided to stay in Kamogawa for money reasons.

    The staff speak more English here than any other hospital in Japan, so even if you’re not interested at all in learning the language, you’ll probably get more out of this elective than any other one in Japan. A lot of the doctors here go on to work in America.

    Also, Kamogawa is a beautiful area and very rural (great for surfing if you’re into that). I cerainly haven’t felt limited. Tokyo is 2hrs by bus though (2400yen one way)

    Any more questions you have I’ll be happy to answer – feel free to email me at ixthedamned[at]gmail.com

  8. Amex_Yohko
    March 26th, 2008 @ 10:43 am

    The Japanese TV was very famous(or infamous) for having too many gameshows. Even The Simpsons make jokes about it.

  9. Erica
    March 29th, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

    “Oishii/Umai show“. LOL

    We actually get Fuji TV here for one hour a day, 12 minutes of which is always one of these shows. I had to laugh, because having seen abotu a thousand of these on Japanese Tv and home, you pretty much nailed it. ..”only cooked in a particular convenience store in Outer Ibaraki. ” Yup, seen that one. lol

    Cheers,

    Erica

    Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu!
    http://okazu.blogspot.com

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