History Main / ImportFilter

Most of a given country's creative output is produced for the consumption of people living in that country. This is especially true when there's a language barrier involved; translation is [[BlindIdiotTranslation hard work]]. For comedy, doubly so. Even if two countries share a language, there are [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage other complications involved with importing a creative work]]. For movies and TV shows, RegionCoding may necessitate a new DVD release. For VideoGames, two countries may have different versions of the same console. MoralGuardians and viewers in your country [[ValuesDissonance may get upset]] about aspects of the work that are taken for granted or even welcomed in the country of origin. Some parts may need changing [[CulturalTranslation just to make sense]]. There's always the risk that the viewing public [[ViewersAreMorons still won't get it]]. And this isn't even getting into dealing with [[ScrewedByTheLawyers international copyright law]], finding a distributor, and innumerable other headaches with moving a work from one country to another.

** The breakdown of this trope is at least part of the reason why UsefulNotes/TheJapaneseInvasion began to grind to a halt in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The internet fandom communities that popped up in the prior two decades were now big enough to bring many more Japanese series to the US... and they began to realize just ''why'' certain shows weren't imported. People not only began to realize that not every Japanese animation ''wasn't'' inherently superior to American animation, they also began to see that anime had its own assorted tropes and cliches, which were made more apparent once the novelty wore off and they could witness a broader, more representative cross-section of it.\\
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Furthermore, around roughly the same time the anime industry back home began to face a number of [[http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/the-freefall-of-japan%E2%80%99s-anime-industry problems of its own]], including [[PanderingToTheBase targeting the niche otaku market]] that [[MerchandiseDriven spends more money on merch]] (often at the expense of mainstream appeal), poor wages and long hours leading to a shortage of animators as people sought jobs elsewhere, and competition from Chinese {{manhua}} and Korean {{manhwa}}. These issues only compounded the above problem: just as the exotic novelty of anime was wearing off for Western viewers, the quality and quantity were going down and the works were hyper-focused on {{otaku}} audiences to the point of causing ValuesDissonance among non-otaku.

*** YLE has recently starting importing popular {{Creator/HBO}} dramas like ''Series/TheWire'' and ''{{Girls}}'', which are commercial-free (and cheap) and thus uniquely suitable.

* This also applies to Canadian television. While shows like ''Series/CornerGas'', ''NorthOf60'', ''TheRedGreenShow'', ''TrailerParkBoys'', ''Series/{{Beachcombers}}'' and ''TheRaccoons'' all attain fanbases ranging from cult followings to genuine (if modest) popularity in English Canada, they occasionally hit it really big in the United States, with ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' being a major example. Incidentally, ''Red Green'' has become a major source for Creator/{{PBS}} [[{{Telethon}} pledge drives]] in the U.S., with the actual cast of the show appearing to drum up support. Meanwhile, as with film, French Canadians actively consume their own domestic work, most notably in Quebec.

** The breakdown of this trope is at least part of the reason why the JapaneseInvasion began to grind to a halt in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The internet fandom communities that popped up in the prior two decades were now big enough to bring many more Japanese series to the US... and they began to realize just ''why'' certain shows weren't imported. People not only began to realize that not every Japanese animation ''wasn't'' inherently superior to American animation, they also began to see that anime had its own assorted tropes and cliches, which were made more apparent once the novelty wore off and they could witness a broader, more representative cross-section of it.\\

** WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/tis/tpsr/36593-pop-song-reviews-want-u-back-by-cher-lloyd feels]] that this is the reason why Americans have such a high opinion of British pop music. He admits that, when it's good (like Music/TheBeatles, Music/EllieGoulding, or Music/{{Adele}}), it rivals anything America has to offer. However, he also feels that, as bad as Americans think they have it with their own awful pop music, at least they never had to suffer through the Cheeky Girls, Crazy Frog, Jedward, or the slew of ''[[Series/TheXFactor X-Factor]]'' runners-up (at least, those not named Music/OneDirection, Olly Murs, or Music/CherLloyd).

* Due to the sheer work involved in translating a VisualNovel[[note]]At the very least, you need someone willing to translate hundreds, usually thousands of kilobytes of pure text (Think Notepad file, not Microsoft Word file) and someone willing to hack the engine. Ideally, you should also have an image editor for those pesky menu icons and still images, and an editor to both check for mistakes and help make the text flow naturally in English. They all have to be motivated to spend their free time for the sake of one VisualNovel for months if not years.[[/note]] and the obscurity of the medium as a whole, especially in the FanTranslation scene, ImportFilter applies. Oddly enough, it is stronger for fan translators than official visual novel localization companies because the many of the more famous VisualNovel creators such as Creator/AliceSoft or Creator/KeyVisualArts are unwilling to sell licenses officially and because PornWithoutPlot {{H-Game}}s [[SexSells sell easily]] without requiring a lot of work in translation.

* In Finland, while many manga series are translated, anime is EXTREMELY filtered, resulting in only extremely popular series being released. And quite late, too; for example, ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' was only broadcast ''looong'' after the manga was translated.
** Spain suffers from the same, plenty of manga but few anime (And even less so on TV).
** The BENELUX also suffers from this trope. Due to the fact that anime begins to get distributed in the Netherlands whilst manga is directly imported from France. The Dutch are in general a very anti-violence community and will abolish any plan to release a violent anime (read: any non-cartoony violent or even with hypersexualised characters) , leading to very filtered releases (only 39 anime were ever released in the Netherlands). In France, anime and manga are very popular and due to there being no Dutch distributor of manga, French people decided to directly import them to the BENELUX market. Though as of september 2014 a few Flemish networks (such as [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations SBS Belgium]]) started to become interested in anime and started importing and translating shonen by themselves. Even if that particular shonen is obscure. so at last we can finally see an anime boom occurring in Belgium, albeit one with a massive retardation.

** A microcosm for this phenomenon is Creator/LucBesson. American critics view him as "the thinking man's action director" thanks to films like ''Film/TheProfessional'', ''[[Film/{{Nikita}} La Femme Nikita]]'' and ''Film/TheFifthElement''; even his less critically-acclaimed fare, like the ''Film/{{Taken}}'' films (which he produced and co-wrote), tend to be looked upon favorably compared to their American counterparts. European critics, on the other hand, dismiss him as a Hollywood sellout and "the French Creator/MichaelBay", maker of LowestCommonDenominator action movies like the ''Film/{{Taxi}}'' series that never see release in America.

** The BENELUX also suffers from this trope. Due to the fact that anime begins to get distributed in the Netherlands whilst manga is directly imported from France. The Dutch are in general a very anti-violence community and will abolish any plan to release a violent anime (read: any non-cartoony violent or even with hypersexualised characters) , leading to very filtered releases (only 39 anime were ever released in the Netherlands). In France, anime and manga are very popular and due to there being no Dutch distributor of manga, French people decided to directly import them to the BENELUX market. Though as of september 2014 a few Flemish networks (such as [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations SBS Belgium]]) started to become interested in anime and started importing and translating shonen. Even shonen that is quite obscure, so at last we can finally see an anime boom occurring in Belgium, albeit one with a massive retardation.

** The BENELUX also suffers from this trope. Due to the fact that anime begins to get distributed in the Netherlands whilst manga is directly imported from France. The Dutch are in general a very anti-violence community and will abolish any plan to release a violent anime (read: any non-cartoony violent or even with hypersexualised characters) , leading to very filtered releases (only 39 anime were ever released in the Netherlands). In France, anime and manga are very popular and due to there being no Dutch distributor of manga, French people decided to directly import them to the BENELUX market. Though as of september 2014 a few Flemish networks (such as [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations SBS Belgium]]) started to become interested in anime and started importing and translating shonen. Even shonen that is quite obscure. At least we can see an anime boom in Belgium, even if it had massive retardation.

** The BENELUX also suffers from this trope. Due to the fact that anime begins to get distributed in the Netherlands whilst manga is directly imported from France. The Dutch are in general a very anti-violence community and will abolish any plan to release a violent anime (read: any non-cartoony violent or even with hypersexualised characters) , leading to very filtered releases (only 39 anime were ever released in the Netherlands). In France, anime and manga are very popular and due to there being no Dutch distributor of manga, French people decided to directly import them to the BENELUX market. Though as of september 2014 a few Flemish networks (such as [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations SBS Belgium]]) started to become interested in anime and started importing and translating shonen. Even shonen that is quite obscure.

** The BENELUX also suffers from this trope. Due to the fact that anime begins to get distributed in the Netherlands whilst manga is directly imported from France. The Dutch are in general a very anti-violence community and will abolish any plan to release a violent anime (read: any non-cartooony violent or even with hypersexualised characters) , leading to very filtered releases (only 39 anime were ever released in the BENELUX). In France, anime and manga are very popular and due to there being no Dutch distributor of manga, French people decided to directly import them to the BENELUX market.

*** YLE has recently starting importing popular {{HBO}} dramas like ''TheWire'' and ''{{Girls}}'', which are commercial-free (and cheap) and thus uniquely suitable.

** Similarly, most of the Belgian Chocolate you can buy in Belgium is cheaply made and aimed at tourists. Belgian Chocolate you can get elsewhere indicates a premium product.

* ''Creator/{{Sunsoft}}'' was basically a whole microcosm of this phenomenon. During 1986-1994 they were considered in the West to be part of the big publishers such as ''Creator/{{Nintendo}}'', ''Creator/{{Konami}}'' and ''Creator/{{Capcom}}''. In Japan they are considered to be a shovelware company and have there a reputation that is about as prolific as the one ''Data Design Interactive'' is having in the West. This is largely due to a lot of their debut games (such as the ''Nazooler Land'' series), which were bad enough to never be exported in the West and due to the fact that a few of their good Western releases (such as ''Freedom Force'') never got a release in Japan.

* Due to the sheer work involved in translating a VisualNovel[[note]]At the very least, you need someone willing to translate hundreds, usually thousands of kilobytes of pure text (Think Notepad file, not Microsoft Word file) and someone willing to hack the engine. Ideally, you should also have an image editor for those pesky menu icons and still images, and an editor to both check for mistakes and help make the text flow naturally in English. They all have to be motivated to spend their free time for the sake of one VisualNovel for months if not years.[[/note]] and the obscurity of the medium as a whole, especially in the FanTranslation scene, ImportFilter applies. Oddly enough, it is stronger for fan translators than official visual novel localization companies because the many of the more famous VisualNovel creators such as Creator/AliceSoft or KeyVisualArts are unwilling to sell licenses officially and because PornWithoutPlot {{H-Game}}s [[SexSells sell easily]] without requiring a lot of work in translation.

** This mis-perception is NOT helped by all the good [=JRPG=]s which got fan-translated, such as ''VideoGame/FrontMission, VideoGame/BahamutLagoon, VideoGame/FinalFantasyV, StarOcean, VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3, VideoGame/DragonQuestV, LiveALive,'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia''. ''{{Terranigma}}'' also received a fan-translation; but it ''was'' released in Europe.

** The breakdown of this trope is at least part of the reason why the JapaneseInvasion began to grind to a halt in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The internet fandom communities that popped up in the prior two decades were now big enough to bring many more Japanese series to the US... and they began to realize just ''why'' certain shows weren't imported. People not only began to realize that all Japanese animation ''wasn't'' inherently superior to American animation, they also began to see that anime had its own assorted tropes and cliches, which were made more apparent once the novelty wore off and they could witness a broader, more representative cross-section of it.\\

** The breakdown of this trope is at least part of the reason why the JapaneseInvasion began to grind to a halt in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The internet fandom communities that popped up in the prior two decades were now big enough to bring many more Japanese series to the US... and they began to realize just ''why'' certain shows weren't imported. People not only began to realize that Japanese animation ''wasn't'' inherently superior to American animation, they also began to see that anime had its own assorted tropes and cliches, which were made more apparent once the novelty wore off and they could witness a broader, more representative cross-section of it.\\

** WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/tis/tpsr/36593-pop-song-reviews-want-u-back-by-cher-lloyd feels]] that this is the reason why Americans have such a high opinion of British pop music. He admits that, when it's good (like Music/TheBeatles, Music/EllieGoulding, or Music/{{Adele}}), it rivals anything America has to offer. However, he also feels that, as bad as Americans think they have it with their own awful pop music, at least they never had to suffer through the Cheeky Girls, Crazy Frog, Jedward, or the slew of ''[[Series/TheXFactor X-Factor]]'' runners-up (at least, those not named Music/OneDirection or Music/CherLloyd).

** The breakdown of this trope is at least part of the reason why the JapaneseInvasion began to grind to a halt in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The internet fandom communities that popped up in the prior two decades were now big enough to bring many more Japanese series to the US... and they began to realize just ''why'' certain shows weren't imported. People not only began to realize that Japanese animation ''wasn't'' inherently superior to American animation, they also began to see that anime had its own assorted tropes and cliches, which were made more apparent once the novelty wore off and they could witness a broader, more representative cross-section of it.

* Due to Canadian Content regulations, the Canadian music scene is actually HUGE. There are some pretty big labels pumping out artists in music hub cities such as Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, or (surprisingly to many easterners) Calgary. However, ask anyone outside of Canada to name a Canadian artist and their answer is inevitably "Justin Bieber and... uh... that [[CelineDion that Titanic song chick]]"

** AlanisMorissette serves as a prime example. Most Americans were introduced to her through her alt-rock infused ''Jagged Little Pill'' and are unfamiliar with her earlier teen pop career.

** WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows feels that this is the reason why Americans have such a high opinion of British pop music. He admits that, when it's good (like Music/TheBeatles, Music/EllieGoulding, or Music/{{Adele}}), it rivals anything America has to offer. However, he also feels that, as bad as Americans think they have it with their own awful pop music, at least they never had to suffer through the Cheeky Girls, Crazy Frog, Jedward, or the slew of ''[[Series/TheXFactor X-Factor]]'' runners-up (at least, those not named Music/OneDirection).
* An interesting twist on this in TheSixties was that artists like Music/TheRollingStones and Music/EricClapton were far more into traditional American blues and R&B than Americans were. For many Americans, their first introduction into authentic blues were hearing the Stones and Clapton doing covers of classic tracks. This led to a significant revival of interest in the US, but the oft-titled "[[TheBritishInvasion British Invasion]]" was really, in many ways, just American music being played by British guys.