Wow, look at me just posting up a storm here!

[gnine]

Okay, so here's the thing, over all, liked the ep, thought it was a pretty good start for what looks to be an interesting season. Though, WOW, and to think I thought they had a lot of characters LAST year. Yes, we'll just add a ton more without really dropping any, sounds like a plan. Ever intriguing to be a pinball, bing bing bing between characters we go.

(And on a random side note, before I plunge into my tangent, Mohinder and Parkman, shacked up together? Raising a kid? I'd never really considered that pairing but…but…but, if you *insist*! )

Anyway, here I go. Hiro, in ancient Japn...in Otsu!?…Gaijin…Edo period?!…*splutter*. Okay, better now…Really. Where to start. Like I said in the cut, I can be a bit…finicky, when it comes to Japan. What can I say, I've fanned it, majored in it, and now live here. So…sometimes, the…um…total inaccuracies? They grate…just a bit.

First, um, Otsu? Seriously, *that* is suppose to be Otsu?! (see icon for xparrot's and my original reaction). See, we know Otsu (modern Otsu, but still), it's only a very short train ride away. I watched fireworks there a month ago. And, while this *is* set some 350 years ago, there are certain…details, shall we say, that are lacking. Like fricken Lake Biwa!!! Biggest lake in Japan. (I won't even go into how the mountains and trees and such are all wrong, I know they're filming California, totally different climate, etc, so I guess we'll let that pass) but…um…seeing as that scene kinda looks CGI to begin with…you couldn't put in a freakin LAKE?! Crash course in Japanese, Otsu 大津, means big HARBOR. Oops. Also, notice the *big* part. Little village? Not so much! Otsu was one of the major cities on the Tokaidou (main highway running between Kyoto and Tokyo in the Edo period, which is when this is set).

And while we're on the subject of Edo period, 1671? Over 35 years after the Closed Country Edict, which among many other things, meant death to basically any foreigners caught in Japan, unless you were Dutch or Chinese and even then, they were kept strictly in Nagasaki, anywhere else, Death. On sight. Without trial. Whee. So, um, Brit walking around as samurai? Um…not so much. And even if he *was* somehow getting away with it, he said he came on ship. WHAT ship?! Did he come over as a baby, before the ports closed to other Europeans? He sure didn't seem to be speaking Dutch.

Wait…wait, did he just say a trade vessel the EMPEROR let thru? (just went back to rewatch the scene, making sure he did say he was English (which he did) and um...) Emperor? Uh…you mean Shogun? Daimyou? Cause um, emperor, not so much with the power in the Edo period. And 'kept on to find your fortune"?! In country hostile to all foreigners, where, even if he did somehow come on a legal Dutch ship, would have been warned from even stepping off the manmade Island in Nagasaki harbor to which the Dutch were entirely restricted? And let's hope he's not a practicing Christian (and in that time period, a Brit, chances are he WAS), cause they liked to BOIL those. Literally. (Well, not everywhere…but there is that place near Nagasaki…). Yay for Japan and its natural hot springs.

(oh, and look, subtitling things that she SO did not say. For the most part, the Japanese, as well as the subs, are accurate, far as I can tell. But um…that line there about 'he forged it for payment'? She so did not say that. Way to add extra lines, subbers. )

Well, at least they got the drinking right. Most Japanese heroes seem to have a tendency to do that, in great quantity. Though Hiro seemed to be protesting it at one point…I hope he was just objecting to being ignored over alcohol and not the principal of his hero drinking. Cause…um…what samurai *didn't*?! Classic image of samurai usually comes with sake jug attached.

And oh god did this rant turn out long. Oops. I didn't mean to…it's just…um, I'm a nutter? A very sensitive nutter.

But I *did* like the episode. Really I did, I just, um…Right, shutting up now.

Comments

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

LOL because at the end of last season, when we see Hiro drop into "Japan," I literally groaned out loud because I knew they would totally screw up Edo Japan. I mean, they couldn't even get modern Tokyo right, how are they going to do Edo? But actually, historical inaccuracies aside, I was glad when Kensei turned out to be a gaijin, because when he first started talking, I was like, "God, couldn't they get anyone who could speak Japanese better than that?" And then he took off his mask and I was like, "Oh." (And then his Japanese got WORSE all through the episode. By the end I couldn't even understand him.)

As for the subtitles, I'm pretty sure they write the script in English and then translate any foreign dialouge; it seems to me that it's pretty common for the subtitles to be different from what they're actually saying. (Off the top of my head, any time they mentioned "cubicles," it would be left out of the Japanese dialogue. Gee, wonder why. *eyeroll* And if you watch the episode with Hiro's sister, the subtitles have him calling her by her name and her calling him "little brother," which of course doesn't happen in the dialogue.) I bet the producers (or writers, or somebody) think Japanese culture is "cool," but don't actually know anything about it (and can't be arsed to do a bit of research, I guess).

My favorite thing from the first season though (even more than the kanji clock!) was the supposed Shodou in the sword shop. I think my handwriting is better than whoever scribbled that shit. (And that's saying something, because I have the handwriting of a three-year-old.)

[gnine.livejournal.com]

I know, we were rather...'curious' at the end of last season about how they'd botch up portray Edo, Japan/Kyoto.

Yeah, noticed the thing with Hiro's sister and what she was calling him...this one just amused me cause it was a full line, and sorta plot-explanatory...and wouldn't even be hard to say in Japanese...they just left it out...*shrug*

I get the sense, too, that the creators/writers are like oh, Japan's cool/popular right now...but don't really have a CLUE, and are not even particularly anime fans or anything...