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

[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.