Pet Peeves (Japan and Lava)

[furtech]

Nothing much going on: day job continues plodding along; I'm mass-producing gnolls; I'm trying to stay focused learning a new word processing program. The result is I actually have time to be annoyed. Sorry.

There are two depictions that annoy me generally, and have been featured in shows recently. The first is when non-Asians depict Asian cities, particularly Japan/Tokyo. Steve Purcell pegged this with his, "Drawn without reference material, apparently," quip.

I don't mind much if they clearly tried to do research (and I don't mean a couple of hours of Googling). Some artists and writers really make an effort. Some succeed spectacularly, most fail to one degree or another. How hard would it be to check out a Japanese video (either a tv show or film)? Or check out a book about Japan ("A Day In Japan" is brilliant).

Those creative-types who clearly don't even try drive me nuts. The most recent example is an episode of a cartoon called, "Secret Saturdays". Cartoon Network had a marathon on Sunday and I left it on the tv while I was gnoll-making. Episode takes place in Tokyo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oHmcdgNeVs

First, it looks -nothing- like any Japanese city. The cars drive on the wrong side of the road. It looks like a generic L.A. neighborhood.

Second, they all speak English. One vendor speaks with a Jersey accent. When Zak bargains with him, he offers "twenty-dollars." The vendor doesn't react, and counters with, "thirty-dollars." Huh? Are they even -trying-?!? It just goes downhill from there. The show tries to be another "Johnny Quest," but something vital was lost when they went from concept to realization.

Which leads me to my second peeve: Lava. I think only one or two shows/films have ever gotten it right. For some reason, writers/filmmakers seem to believe that lava is just warm-ish, smooshy rock. I cringe every time heroes go into a great cavern with a lava lake at the bottom. They sweat, they say it's hot-- instead of turning into carbon lumps at the cave's entrance as their lungs suck in superheated air and they char. Lava=hot-enough-to-melt-ROCK (silica, but I digress). Sure, bad guys burn up when they fall in, but come on! Most everyone has gotten first degree burns trying to flip a hamburger on a fiery grill. It's HOT. 500+ degrees hot. And lava is two-to-five times HOTTER!

In the Secret Saturdays episode, "Twelve Hundred Degrees Fahrenheit," has two characters not only enter a volcano, but SWIM IN THE LAVA! Wearing only minimal protection (including the skin of a fire monster, complete with open mouth and eyes). I was agog. They swam through the lava like it was orange water. They could see through it like water. Not liquid rock, which would be thick and opaque and heavy/hard-to-move as sand or dirt, at least. Lava may be a liquid, but it's still made of rock! Rahr!

The show tries, a little, but is suffers from Google-itis. A quick Google and suddenly everyone is an expert on anything. That's the frustrating thing: SS had such potential! They clearly have a list of cryptids, but usually get them wrong in a big way. Lack of research is just being lazy. Care a little! Try!

So there you go. I got that off my chest! Thank you!

Comments

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAAHAHA you saw that Secret Saturdays episode too? XD XD XD.
yes, it was lame -_-.
Ben 10 Alien Force is much better. Even 6teen is better!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Which SS show do you mean, the "Hay, Japan is just like Los Angeles!" show or the "Hay, lava is just warm Orangina!" episode?

I have to admit, B10 is one of the few shows that got better and better as the series went on. Initially a lame boy-gets-god-powers formula piece, the series took off when Grandpa disappeared -and- the two kids stopped the constant bickering.

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

Those both sucked. But for some reason when I turn on the tube, they keep on replaying the SS episode with the James Bond Jaws reject.

Yeah it was clever to do the time jump in B10 so they're more growed up.

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

"Constant bickering" is the hallmark of a bad writer who thinks "conflict" is necessary even when it's bloody pointless.

[cooner.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at you, producers of Prince Caspian.

The Pensevies constant bickering in the first movie was just a little annoying. Between them and Caspian it was over the top in the second movie.

I was really, really looking forward to a well-produced Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but after the hack job they pulled on Caspian, I can't excuse their failure. Meh.

Oops. Sorry for hijacking the thread. Lava? :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Lava? Two scoops, please!

I totally agree with your comments on the first two Narnia books. You'd think that writers at that level wouldn't stoop to that nube convention (bickering to generate "tension").

Maybe with the budget slashed for the third film, they'll spend more time on writing and more charismatic actors.

[hoshikage.livejournal.com]

Oh man, lava depictions drive me nuts too. I went to Kilauea once on a family trip, and stood on the cooled lava flow that had taken out the visitor center and the road three days before we got there. They totally didn't try and stop people from wandering around - it was REAL easy to tell when to stop, and we were quite far from any still-moving lava. We watched it incinerate trees before it even got near. And then I saw the trailer for "Volcano" some years later.

Trailer: *has dudes in heat suits standing right on the other side of highway concrete barriers obviously attempting to stop the lava flow, like maybe three feet from HELLO, GLOWING RED-HOT MOLTEN LAVA*
Me: AHGJBWGFYQ^&%!#$! *resists urge to throw things at the screen, but only barely*

...*sigh* Yeah. Very irritating. Totally with you on this one.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Hawaii is so cool. In California they'd have signs and railings a mile away to avoid lawsuits. Speaking of which, "Volcano" perpetrated every one of those myths. I still can't watch a minute of it when I'm dead-bored and channel surfing.

[redstorm.livejournal.com]

Gnolls?

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*nods* ... This is the first time I think I've seen a clue about our friend's day job, but it still leaves me a mite puzzled.. LOL :D

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oh, gods no! If this were my day job, the gov't would be paying -me-, literally. My day job is boring, but at least the income is a positive cash flow right into the rathole of my side-projects...

Gnolls: I need redshirts to beat on for a video project I want to try later this year. I've got a mold and some A-B foam that's just getting older, so gnolls it is! I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me six or seven pulls for me to finally remember all the tricks I was taught back in the day.

[djmermaid.livejournal.com]

all I can say is, I hear you.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

Lava is just cool as a plot device, you know that.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with you to a point. If the film has cavemen and dinosaurs fighting (which I know grinds some people's gears, but I am weak and love these films), lava is de-rigueur. Lava -is- visually spectacular and introduces a ticking-clock, but there are good ways and bad ways to do this. Peter Jackson and LotR? No problem. Terminator-2 (climax above molten steel)-- no problem. Somehow Jackson is skilled enough to make me willingly suspend my disbelief. On the other hand, "Oh, hay--LAVA!"/=/skill.

But I find bad-science (bad-reality?) and lazy research in "serious" films and tv to be inexcusable. In the above example, though a cartoon, they managed to take this beyond even -my- ability to forgive (come on-- swimming through clear, lighted lava like a fish in water?!?). I despise lazy research, the more so when it happens in studio-produced fare.

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

I hear you, bro!

This is the reason why I can hardly bear to read or watch modern fantasy. I know too much about horses, sword combat, and medieval agrarian economies.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Details, details. A hero can defeat a skilled warrior if his heart is good! Particularly, he can come back from grave wounds and certain defeat if he "grawrs" loudly and finds some inner strength.

Have you watched "The Quest" yet?

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

Not yet but thanks for reminding me!

Believe in yourself... follow your star... dare to dream... and you'll get the crap kicked out of you by the people who train and practice!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I read a book recently where one person's (a knight) horse was 20 hands tall. I laughed out loud!

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! We're going to need a bigger kingdom!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I've watched the Secret Saturdays, and I want to like that show, but the cocky kid who disobeys his parents just grates on me. I like the Komodo dragon, though. I haven't seen the two episodes you mention, but yes, people in Tokyo driving on the right side of the road? LOL!

Yeah, lava is always bad. I watched a Doctor Who episode last night about a ship falling into the sun and that was pretty unbelievable too. Still, I can set aside stuff like that because it's Doctor Who. My sentimentality allows the show to get away with a lot of things.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

They're trying too hard to be cool and dramatic-- every new adventure show is trying Sooper hard to be the next incarnation of Johnny Quest.

Unfortunatly, they focus on one thing and ignore too many others (and they're not so hot with that one thing, either!).

Doctor Who is forgiven. They're the original cool science fiction show that had no hang-ups about having weird aliens and bizarre worlds or concepts. Rubber-suited monsters? Sure, why not! For those reasons, they can get away with almost anything.