Americans Hate Tingle: Difference between revisions

== The Trope Namer ==

* Tingle from ''Zelda''.

** Tingle's role in the main series has been largely reduced; He doesn't appear in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' (Purlo's appearance was based on him, but they have vastly different personalities) and gets only non-speaking cameos in [[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|Phantom Hourglass]], [[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|Spirit Tracks]], and [[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|Skyward Sword]] (on a wanted poster, a statue/portrait, and a doll respectively).

** He is at his weirdest in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Wind Waker]]'', wherein he refers to Link, a twelve-year-old child, as "Mr. Fairy", and forces his brothers—and one random guy—to dress exactly like him and perform slave labor. He also forces the player to pay him ridiculous sums of money in exchange for information on where to find eight [[MacGuffin]]s. With all of his annoying traits, it's no wonder that fans joke about him being a [[Memetic Molester|sex offender]] when they're breaking him out of prison for the crime of petty theft as part of the plot of the game.

 

* In Japan, dark and angsty young guys (especially [[Bishonen|pretty]] ones) tend to be well liked by audiences, often per their perceived mysterious and [[True Art Is Angsty|deep]] characteristics. Elsewhere, such traits tend to be associated with the [[Emo]] trend, hence the backlash that characters like [[Naruto|Sasuke]] cause in the States.

* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]], [[Genki Girl]]s and other "traditional" [[Moe]] character types are the [[Distaff Counterpart]] version of this, being liked on Japan (but still not as much as [[tsundere]]s) but not so much on the West.

* The [[Tsundere]] character type is highly criticized and not well liked in the West, although not as severe when compared to the [[Moe]] archetype.

** Sakura Haruno, along with Sasuke, is one of the most hated characters in Western Naruto fandom, particularly due to her [[Tsundere]]-ish personality and the subsequent violence she dishes out to Naruto [[Flanderization|in the anime]], as well as [[Die for Our Ship|pairing reasons]]. In Japan, however, she regularly features in the top 12 characters in polls as voted by fans.

** This could also apply to Naruto himself as well, while he is the most popular character in Japan, he is something of a [[Base Breaker]] in America.

* ''[[Slayers]]'':

** There is also the [[Miko|shrine maiden]] Sylphiel, a demure mage with a crush on the handsome [[Idiot Hero|Gourry]] and very much [[The Medic]] to the point that she is incompetent in combat. Because of the [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses]] attitude in the west, she is hated there, and her anime-exclusive replacement, the [[Plucky Girl|headstrong]] yet [[Holier Than Thou|haughty]] Filia, is preferred. In Japan, both females are well-liked, but Sylphiel recieves more face time because of the novels' popularity.

* As a [[Real Robot]] multiverse with the series-wide motif of [[War Is Hell]] (which, inevitably, brings complaints of [[Anvilicious]] treatment), a myriad of ''[[Gundam]]'' series often result in this happening.

** Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'' and its successor ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' continues to rank high in the top 10 character polls in Japan (including Newtype) long after ''Destiny'' ended and Kira himself beat Char and Amuro for the number one spot in the ''[[Gundam]]'' 30th Anniversary favorite character poll, but they have a rather large hatedom among the western ''Gundam'' fandom. This largely comes from the fact that the pair used their [[Omniscient Morality License]] to shove their beliefs down the rest of the Cosmic Era world's throats at gunpoint, all based off evidence which Lacus herself admitted might have been faulty.

** On a related note we have Flay Alster, Kira's first girlfriend. Because of her early actions (namely, blaming Kira for her father's death and then manipulating his feelings for her to try and get him killed), a lot of Western fans despise her to the point where her [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and her attempts to redeem herself fall on deaf ears. The Japanese fans, however, were more willing to forgive. What makes this really ironic is the [[Word of God|director's statement in a post-series interview]] that Flay was intended to be the kind of character who would appeal to Western audiences. Apparently, something went horribly wrong and reversed.

** Similarly to Flay ([[Expy|in several regards]]), Nena Trinity of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' is considered one of the more popular female characters in Japan (and was ''the'' most popular until dropping [[Out of Focus]] and being replaced by [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Feldt Grace) but is [[The Scrappy|widely loathed]] in America. It's been suggested that Nena appeals to Japanese fans because her [[Genki Girl|carefree personality]] and [[Fille Fatale|lack of inhibitions]] are considered exotic [[Values Dissonance|in a country where most people, especially women, are expected to be excessively polite and reserved]]. On the other hand, her being loathed in America seems to have less to do with her personality and more with her [[Moral Event Horizon]] crossing early on which, just like with Flay's actions, the Japanese are apparently more forgiving of (one wonders what it'd take for a character to ''get'' on their bad side....)

** The character Japan gets a lot more mixed reception in the West than in his own country. There are definitely Western fans who like him, but also an equal number of fans who are 'meh' about him at best and brand him as an [[Extreme Doormat]], [[Flat Character]], and/or even the series' [[Creator's Pet]] at worst due to his [[Yamato Nadeshiko|relatively]] [[The Stoic|stoic]] [[Inscrutable Oriental|personality]] and him representing the author's homeland which automatically makes him the character most vulnerable to [[Mary Sue]] accusations. A major factor in this is that Japan is so very ''Japanese'' that many Western people who are not familiar with Japan and Japanese culture [[Values Dissonance|simply don't get or can't appreciate the jokes about him]], therefore finding him boring and flat. In particular, those more acquainted with [[Anime Character Types]] than general [[National Stereotypes]] had expected the personification of Japan to play funny anime stereotypes like [[Otaku]] and [[Dirty Old Man]] to the hilt and perceived the relative lack of these stereotypes in his character to be a case of [[Creator Provincialism|the Japanese author trying to make his home country look better than the rest of the cast]], not knowing or realizing that Japan's personality is [[Inscrutable Oriental|practically]] [[Japanese Politeness|a laundry]] [[Yamato Nadeshiko|list of]] [[Hikikomori|Asian/Japanese]] [[Asian and Nerdy|stereotypes]] that are ''much'' more well-known in real life and media than the more-obscure-to-a-general-audience anime-based stereotypes they had in mind.

** This extends to even [[Shipping|ships]] involving Japan: England/Japan is easily the first or second most popular ship in Japanese fandom. In western fandom...not so much. Some Western fans even seem to dislike the England/Japan ship mainly ''because'' of its massive popularity in Japan. Even Greece/Japan, the most popular ship for Japan in western fandom, seems at times to be favored not so much because more Western fans like it than Japanese fans do, but because all ''other'' ships for Japan are simply less popular in western fandom than in Japanese fandom, and it just had the good fortune to [[Ship Mates|not conflict with Western fans' most common OTPs (i.e. America/England, France/England, Russia/America, Russia/China...)]]. Netherlands/Japan and Turkey/Japan, in particular, have decent followings in J-fen but Western shippers for them are virtually an endangered species. Japan/Taiwan goes a similar way, since J-Fen has it as the most popular het ship for Japan and THE Taiwan ship, but it brings quite the "controversy" in W-Fen circles since it's used to bash Taiwan and mistakenly accuse her of being a [[Relationship Sue]] for Japan.

* Divine of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'', whose [[Complete Monster]] methods are far less popular among English fans than Japanese ones.

* Hikari/Dawn's Piplup in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''.

* Similar to the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' example above, Lynn Minmay of ''[[Robotech]]'' fame is loathed primarily for her atrocious dub performance, especially her songs. Her ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' counterpart, Minmei, is somewhat of a cultural icon in Japan, and Mari Iijima (her voice actress) is a beloved personality.

* This can generally apply to the ''[[Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo]]'' series in general. For those who ''do'' like the series in the west, there's Beauty, the heroine, who is well-liked in Japan, but mostly hated in the west for being the resident [[Damsel Scrappy]] throughout. For the sequel manga, ''Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo'', there's [[Anti-Hero|Namero Yononaka]], {{spoiler|who eventually becomes the new emperor for [[The Empire]] of the series}}; he's the most popular of the three new protagonists of the manga (making 9th place in the last Japan popularity contest; the other two came in 11th and 20th respectively) but his nihilism, narcissism, and lack of humor make him despised among the sequel's small western fanbase.

 

== Businesses ==

* ''[[300]]'' was condemned as "Western Propaganda" in Iran due to [[Unfortunate Implications|the way Persians were portrayed]] in that film.

* Much like the comics, superhero movies underperform outside of the U.S. Even ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' showed mediocre results in some territories (most notably Russia, where it was expected to be a smash hit, but turned out with a middling gross). ''Dark Knight'' didn't do that well in Japan either, with Japanese viewers and critics explaining that they imagine "Superhero Movie" to mean "[[Lighter and Softer|light and entertaining]]", not "[[Darker and Edgier|dark and thought-provoking]]". Despite that, it did still have some critical success. Noted in-universe with Bruce dating a Russian ballet dancer who does not understand why the people of Gotham City support Batman.

** To some extent, Mulan was not the worst offender of the "Disney world culture view" as a lot of others. Besides, they have [[Jackie Chan]] doing voice over of Shang for both Mandarin (there are 2, one for Mainland, one for Taiwan) and Cantonese dub, and have an all star voice cast that essentially were awesome in all 3 dubbed versions, there are reasons why Mulan was not hated. The general view in China was "it must have been very difficult for you foreigners to even come up with this, so we'll admire your effort and forgive stuff that weren't done so well." On the other hand, blatant over-stereotyping such as the Great Ten from [[DC Universe]] was very poorly received in China. Though in the case of Great Ten the creators were deliberately invoking the tropes, people manage to hate it none the less.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' has an in-universe example: the book ''[[Quidditch Through the Ages]]'' has a section dealing with the status of Quidditch around the world. Americans apparently prefer the game Quodpot, a sort of hot-potato game involving a Quaffle that has been tampered with and explodes - probably a joke on [[Eagle Land|Americans]] who prefer American football to soccer and are obsessed with [[Stuff Blowing Up]] (though, recently, most of the world has fallen in love with explosions). In Asia, however, Quidditch is only slowly gaining appeal because Asian wizards have traditionally preferred flying carpets to flying broomsticks. The exception to this rule is Japan.

* [[Henry James]] wrote two political novels during the 1880s—one novel, ''The Bostonians'', about women's rights movements in America, and another novel, ''The Princess Casamassima'', about labor unions and terrorism in England. ''Bostonians'' was a hit in England, but widely denounced in America as cruel and unsympathetic, while ''Princess'' was a hit in America, but dismissed as exploitative and narrow in England.

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* [[Samoa Joe]] has caught surprisingly negative reactions from Japanese fans, who see him as a ripoff of many Japanese wrestlers from the '90s.

* Bryan Danielson doesn't really get over in Mexico, but is very popular back home.

 

== Theme Parks ==

 

== Video Games ==

** A very notable example is ''[[Dragon Quest]]''. It is said to be the most popular game franchise in Japan (every release of a ''Dragon Quest'' is probably akin to a Japanese holiday), and it is both critically and commercially successful there. Everywhere else, the series still earns critical acclaim, but the series merely has a small cult following, probably due to the "kids' stuff" issue, since the games generally have a colorful art style. [[Nintendo]] is aiming to turn this around, though, as they published ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' under their name and heavily marketed the title to make it one of the best-selling games of July 2010 in the US.

** This is likely a reason the games targeted by Operation Rainfall didn't initially make it over [[Did Not Do the Research|despite the trend not actually applying to the Wii]] and [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|JRPG titles on the Wii frequently outperforming their original Japanese release]]. The reversal may be due to the fact that a significant portion of the US Wii owner base feel like their system is inundated with shovelware and [[Casual Games]], and leaping on anything "more hardcore" like ten-thousand starving hyenas on the corpse of the last gazelle in the universe.

* Sprite-based games are appreciated in Japan about as much as high-quality 3D-graphic games, and Hand-drawn sprites are common. However, they are generally seen as "Primitive" or [[Did Not Do the Research|"SNES sprites"]] outside of Japan, unless that is, they were an Indie game, or handheld game.

* Mexicans really hate T. Hawk in ''[[Street Fighter]]'', perhaps because he's apparently supposed to be Mexican but obviously isn't. El Fuerte has become some sort of inverse [[Replacement Scrappy]]. The Jamaican kickboxer Dee Jay, who was added to the ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' roster under the suggestion of American playtester James Goddard, is beloved by the North American fanbase (and also in his home country). In Japan, he rarely appears, and when he does, he doesn't do much of anything. Humourously enough, Dee Jay and T. Hawk both happen to be the only new characters from ''Super Street Fighter II'' left out from the console versions of ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'' (which included [[Ms. Fanservice|Cammy]] and [[Bruce Lee Clone|Fei-Long]]); however, both ended up returning in ''[[Mission Pack Sequel|Super Street Fighter IV]]''.

* ''Mortyr (2093 - 1944)'', a Polish [[World War II|WW2]] [[First-Person Shooter|FPS]] (with a strange [[Time Travel]] element in it) spoiled the Polish press in its day, while it was regarded as a laughing stock abroad (''[[Penny Arcade]]'' notably took a jab at this game [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/07/28/ on this strip]). In somewhat of a contrast, however, its ''sequel'' got some flak from ''the Polish press'' this time around (didn't help that Poland had [[Painkiller|SOMETHING at the time]]), while some foreign reviewers regard it as [[So Okay It's Average|passable at best]].

* Raiden wasn't as hated in Japan as much as he was in America and Europe when ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' first came out. Most of the complaints players had in Japan wasn't with Raiden himself per se, but from [[Replacement Scrappy|not being able to play as Solid Snake]]. This is probably because being [[Bishounen]], as Raiden is, isn't as big of a deal to Japanese gamers, whereas it tends to put off American gamers (this is evident by the amount of homophobic insults that were thrown at his character). It helps that [[Kenyuu Horiuchi]], Raiden's Japanese VA, actually made him sound like a real adult (giving him a voice almost as deep as [[Akio Ohtsuka]]'s performance as Solid Snake) instead of the approach that [[Quinton Flynn]] went with.

* Mighty Kongman/Bruiser Khang is very popular among Japanese ''[[Tales of Destiny]]'' fans, especially after his personality got expanded in the game's remake, where he becomes something of a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]. But since many of these ''Tales'' remakes and spinoffs [[No Export for You|never leave Japan]], North American audiences, meanwhile, get stuck with the [[Jerkass]] Khang seen in the [[PlayStation]] version, and don't understand why he's appeared in so many spinoffs.

* Emil Castagnier of ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' also has a case of this. In the 5th Tales of Character Popularity Poll (in Japan), Emil came in 12th (out of every character in every Tales game). The majority of overseas fans hate him for being whiny, cowardly, effeminate and annoying. It certainly doesn't help that up until a certain point, in every fight he has to rely on his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] to fight for him. These flaws are ironically also present in Luke fon Fabre of ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' who is well recieved by American fans, although he doesn't suffer the same hate due to being a [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] whose annoying factors are overcome sooner... ''That said'', there are some American fans who want to give Emil a hug.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'':

** Rinoa is a very popular character and a pop culture icon in Japan. In the West, she's something of [[The Scrappy]].

** General opinions on the creatures themselves differ in Japan and America. Japanese fans tend towards the [[Kawaisa|"cuter"]] Mons such as Pikachu (the series mascot) and Jigglypuff, while American fans tend to prefer the [[Badass]] types such as Charizard, Mewtwo, Rayquaza and whatever new uber-powerful legendaries are being hyped at the moment.

** Legendaries aren't immune either. In Japan, Reshiram is the more popular of the two [[Pokémon Black and White|Generation V]] legendaries, and ''Pokémon Black'' (where you obtain Reshiram) sells more than ''Pokémon White'' (where you obtain Zekrom). In the US, it's the opposite: '''Zekrom''' is the more popular and ''White'' sells more than ''Pokemon Black'', while Reshiram is a [[Base Breaker]].

* In the ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' universe, the Japanese fans certainly love [[Dark Is Not Evil|Oichi]] and she is pretty much ''the'' [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] of a series seemingly tailored for [[Yaoi Fangirl]]s. In America? She's considered a useless whiny emo girl, made even worse by the fact that the only 'English' SB franchise that features her and can be reached by western audiences is the anime (fansubbed), which downplays her powers severely.

'''Fans''': [[Demoted to Extra|Yes, we know Ichi... and we're sorr--]] Wait, what the hell!? It's not your fault, so stop crying and do something, damn it! }}

* The [[Xbox]] and [[Xbox 360]] have dismal sales figures in Japan, although Microsoft is hell-bent on turning this around by obtaining exclusive titles that appeal to Japanese audiences. ''[[The Game Overthinker]]'' points out that this is because the systems are considered (on both sides of the Pacific) to be delivery platforms for [[FPS]] games, which leads into...

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'':

** While the games set in Marth's world are loved in Japan with the third game being heralded as the very best, the rest of the world sees them as some of the weakest parts in the series.

** One of the reasons of this is [[No Export for You|the series was mostly unknown outside of some emulators until the 21st century]], and the games set in Marth's world are often given [[Nostalgia Filter]] treatment or "I liked this world the best". Most non Japanese players started out with the adventures of Eliwood, Lyn, and Hector though (some with Celice or Roy's via Emulation, and Ike or the Twins for late joiners) and when they saw the old games, [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|they had been a little spoiled]], for ''various'' reasons.

** The series in general has a bit of this to the West, though less "hate" and more "ignorance". A combination of [[No Export for You]] for over a decade, an anime styled RPG (which are less popular in the West) and a Strategy RPG as that (which makes players afraid to try since "[[It's Hard, So It Sucks|it sounds too complicated]]". [[Nintendo Hard|They aren't completely wrong, though]],) as well as the fact that [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|later and more advanced series were ported before most of Fire Emblem was]], make this series mostly an unknown to the West, except from big RPG and Strategy fans. Japan? It's not ''[[Dragon Quest]]'', but it's up there and is the second Nintendo series with most fanart on Pixiv. Note the first is ''[[Pokémon]]'', the only series to outdo ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' on [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]. Now you know why 99% of ''[[Fire Emblem]]''-based jokes focus on Marth, Roy and Ike's ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' appearances.

* In ''[[Corpse Party]]'', Ayumi is usually on the top of the polls in Japan. In America, she's the [[Damsel Scrappy]].

* ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' characters Ash Crimson and Benimaru Nikaido are off-putting to some western audiences, both due to their mannerisms (Benimaru evokes imagery of [[Camp Straight|stereotypical gay men]] and Ash has some very effeminate quirks). Likely this is caused by the opinion that a fighting game character should look like they could actually hold their own in a fight, of which both characters do not exude.

* Cream the Rabbit is a popular enough character in Japan that she's become a mainstay in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] series, whereas in the west she is hated almost as much as Big the Cat. A likely reason is because Cream behaves in a Yamato Nadeshiko kind of way: Ultra-polite, submissive, and somewhat withdrawn. Also, she has a really high-pitched voice. These same traits makes her irritating to many western gamers.

 

== Western Animation ==

* This has happened to the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' in Japan. While the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|1987 Turtles]] were very popular back then, the Japanese audiences were expecting the newer Turtles to be like the 1987 Turtles and got [[Darker and Edgier]] Turtles instead. The newer cartoon didn't catch on and 52 episodes were dubbed before it got canceled.

* An in-universe example in ''[[The Critic]]'' when Jay's writing staff said the first two "Ghostchasers" films didn't do well in Italy (not saying much that Jay hated those films). Maybe because they translated the title to "Your Mother Has A Hairy Back". Cut to Italians rioting the cinema. Also, "Ghostchasers Underpants" didn't do well in Mexico as hoped.

 

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