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20/Nov/09 at 09:48 PM
by kane 218.111.19.18
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[[folder:Films]]
* Much of the humour in the South Korean monster movie ''The Host'' was so culturally specific that it flew over the heads of foreign audiences.
** Maybe, but only for humour that ''depended'' on knowing the culture. As is, there is no way to not break into hysterical laughter if trying to take the movie seriously.
* ValuesDissonance is one of the main themes (if not ''the'' main theme) of ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence''.
** And of ''{{Lost in Translation}}''. Everything's in the title, really.
* In ''Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring'', the older monk catches the younger having sex with a girl who has come for medicine, and kicks her out, warning him that lust and desire will inevitably lead him to murder. The younger monk ignores him and follows her... "inevitably", he ''kills her'' a few years later.
* ''TheBreakfastClub'': A teenager brings a flare gun to school so he can commit suicide (or at least destroy a shop project he failed at). His punishment is a Saturday of detention when it goes off in his locker. In today's zero-tolerance friendly environment, he likely would have been expelled. (Or sent to intensive therapy...)
** Or how about the way Bender is treated? The guy is being actively abused, both physically and verbally, by his father. He has the scars on his arms to prove it. [[FictionIsNotFair And no one thinks to call Social Services]]... and with this in mind, consider the way the Principal was treating him. One hopes that he is hiding the scars (both physical and emotional) well enough that he is presumed to be your usual rebel without a cause, which are considered useless and will grow out of it.
* ''{{Heathers}}'', a film about teens that actually ''do'' kill each other, would have a hard time getting greenlit in an era where this actually has happened and very publicly. However, even by 1980s standards, it's hard to believe a student firing pistols at another pair of students ''while in the school cafeteria'' wouldn't be looking at an expulsion. The movie suggests he was merely suspended because they were blanks.
** It's hard to believe that a student firing pistols in the cafeteria would get away with anything short of fifteen years in federal prison, let alone something utterly minor like expulsion.
** Considering that the movie was made barely 10 years after Brenda Ann Spencer's school shooting, and released just 2 months after the Cleveland School massacre, it's likely that the producers cared more about RuleOfFunny than any actual social relevance.
* [[OlderThanTelevision Going way back]], ''{{Birth of a Nation}}'' (and by extension, the novel it was based on, ''The Clansman'' by Thomas Dixon) features the Ku Klux Klan as the ''good guys'', complete with a BigDamnHeroes moment towards the end of the story. This film went on to be so influential that for decades, the director had an honorary award named after him at the Oscars. The film is now rarely seen outside of film classes thanks to ValuesDissonance making it unwatchable to anyone except a film student learning the origins of some of the most basic techniques in film making that were invented by this movie.
** Taken a step further in how the film tried to unite former Confederate and former Union soldiers under the banner of "white brotherhood." Pretty sure this race-based reconciliation wouldn't have gone over well with veterans from either side of that war.
* Agnes' fate at the end of ''AuntieMame'' definitely qualifies for this trope. She finds herself impregnated and [[AccidentalMarriage accidentally married to]] a sexual predator who got her drunk and led her to the altar because he thought she was a rich noblewoman. This is supposed to be a ''happy'' ending, because it means that she's not, as she gravely feared, an ''unwed mother''.
** It is worth noting that in a later, musical version of the play, this part was changed. Instead of being married to the guy who knocked her up, Agnes is sent to live in a home for unwed mothers... that was founded and set up by Aunt Mame herself, specifically to help Agnes. (And... well, to tick off the snooty rich family whose property was next door to the future site of said home...)
* This trope is used in-story in ''ABugsLife''. Another ant gives a pebble to the main character; it's a highly personal moment, but the watching circus bugs think it "must be an ant thing". Later, the circus bugs present a pebble to the ant princess; her watching assistants decide it "must be a circus thing".
* A lot of the SeanConnery [[JamesBond Bond]] movies suffer from this, including such delights as RapeIsLove, ''really'' [[DisposableWoman Disposable Women]], and SlapSlapKiss. Made ''extra'' dissonant in ''{{The Man with the Golden Gun}}'', when Roger Moore tries to slap around women, Connery-style, and looks as uncomfortable doing it as a modern audience would watching it. They are ''still'' toned down from the massive misogyny (and racism) that exists in the books. You only have to read a few other British thrillers of the early 20th Century (something by Dennis Wheatley, say) to realize with some alarm that Ian Fleming was quite liberal for his time.
* In ''ThePhiladelphiaStory'', spoilt heiress Tracy Lord is given a major set-down by her father...who cheated on her mother and blames it on Tracy's lack of affection for him. Yes, he effectively tells Tracy her parents' divorce was her fault. And she ''thanks him for the smackdown'' in the end.
* In the really very sweet 1968 film ''Yours, Mine and Ours'', with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, generally considered a G-rated, family values classic, there are several "Wait... what?" moments. Early in the film, three boys, aged about 14 to 18 get their father's potential next wife drunk by spiking her drink; aside from the 18-year-old being asked to tend bar, and the even younger brother serving, Lucille Ball gets falling-over drunk in front of all the children, dumping food all over one as she attempts to serve her. In another scene, Ball is driving her eight children of varying ages across highways in a station wagon, nary a carseat in sight, toddlers bouncing unbelted around the front seat. In yet another scene, Ball gets angry at one of her sons, and grabs him up for an immediate and prolonged spanking.
* 1955's ''Picnic'' -- the moral of the story is, if you are a young woman, get married ''now'', even if it's to the drifter you met the day before, otherwise you'll end up desperate and pathetic like your neighbor, Rosalind Russell.
* ''Larry the Cable Guy'' has built a direct-to-Walmart film career out of [[RefugeinAudacity embracing Redneck stereotypes]] to the extreme. One scene in ''Witless Protection'' shows him flashing a Security Guard badge and threatening to frame an Arab motel owner for Terrorism and send him to Guantanamo Bay. Naturally, it's played for laughs.
** Then again, Larry's never portrayed as anything but an idiot.
* Some reviewers of the film ''GetSmart'' complained that Maxwell Smart wasn't as much a doofus as in the TV series. However this ignores the fact that while the pre-feminist era 99 might plausibly take orders from (and fall in love with) Max just because he's the Man In Charge, the 2008 Agent 99 would need to be attracted to some characteristics besides blind luck.
** Would you believe, his nice hair?
*** I find that very hard to believe, Max.
*** Would you believe his ''adequate'' hair?
*** No, I don't think so.
*** [Sigh] Would you believe his dead woodchuck toupee?
* The original ''PinkPanther'' films run into this with how Inspector Clouseau speaks of his Chinese manservant, e.g., "Cato, my little yellow friend, I'm home!" (On the other hand, Clouseau ''is'' an arrogant idiot, so this ignorance may well stem from that.)
** The second movie in the remake series subverted this with having everyone react accordingly and having Clouseau sent to counselling, where he goes through an InkblotTest showing how prejudiced he is.
** Cato incidentally doesn't seem to mind this casual verbal abuse... probably mainly because he's [[strike:allowed]] under standing orders to beat up Clouseau whenever he feels like it.
* In the classic screwball romantic comedy ''It Happened One Night'', Clark Gable confronts Claudette Colbert's millionaire father, telling him his daughter just [[SlapSlapKiss "needs someone to slap her around once in a while"]]. This helps convince the father that Gable would be a good husband to her. (At the very least, it doesn't diminish his respect for Gable in the slightest.)
* In ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'', when George M. Cohan does his number, "Off the Record," in the play ''I'd Rather Be Right''. The sight of Cohan's character, who is obviously supposed to be FranklinDRoosevelt, gyrating around wildly comes off today as rather mocking of the President who was a paraplegic, albeit one who carefully hid his disability at that time.
* ''{{The Jazz Singer}}'' features a hero who must escape the confines of his conservative Jewish father to realize his own dream of self-expression... by performing in blackface.
* The Japanese film ''The Homeless Student'' invokes this with its own [[TheAesop Aesop]] at the end. [[DisappearedDad The neglectful father]] abandons his children after they're thrown out of their apartment, because '''he''' had been gambling and hadn't paid the bills. It's presented as a lighthearted "keep up the Masquerade" comedy when the main character, a teenage boy, is reduced to living in a park, but there's little that's lighthearted about his situation. He's starved, rained-on, scrabbles for change under vending machines, ''stoned'' by little children and eventually becomes so hungry he eats grass, and then ''cardboard''. His younger sister is nearly molested. At the end of the film, he ''thanks'' his father because he realizes the waste of oxygen was trying to teach him a lesson in living independently, and that his mother stunted his growth as a person by giving him too much attention.
* Similar to the Dan Fogelberg example listed below under Music, and also from 1981, was the movie ''Film/{{Arthur}}'', which played the title character's alcoholism and resultant drunken behavior for laughs; he is even seen drinking ''while'' driving at one point. The movie was rated [=PG=], before the [=PG=]-13 rating came along; it likely would get the latter today, given the [=MPAA=]'s [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPAA_ratings#Ratings current restrictions]] on drug content.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJ2EaHKsd4 This Three Stooges short]] features them hunting Japanese-American escapees from a relocation center. Can you imagine a comedy about three German buffoons rounding up Jews who have escaped from a concentration camp?
** The closest we have to that is HogansHeroes.
* ''[[BreakfastAtTiffanys Breakfast At Tiffany's]]'' features Mickey Rooney as wacky Japanese neighbor Mr. Yunioshi, complete with yellowface, buck teeth and thick glasses that look like they were lifted directly from a WWII propaganda poster. At the time, this was acceptable comic relief.
** This is actually a plot point in a biopic of BruceLee. One scene shows Lee and his future wife, a white woman, going to see the movie. The wife is laughing at Rooney's perforamce until she happens to look over at Bruce and see his grim reaction and realizes what it must be like for him to be sitting in the middle of a crowd who are all laughing at this.
*** FridgeLogic: You would think, considering how much the Chinese (such as Bruce Lee) hate the Japanese, that Bruce would have found it hilarious as well.
**** Counter-Point: While Chinese hatred of the Japanese is [[{{Understatement}} ''EXTREMELY'']] justified, '''ANY''' Asian person would've (and should've) been offended, regardless of their ethnicity.
* ''AmazonWomenOnTheMoon'' lampshaded this when parodying 1950s science fiction films:
--> Astronaut: "Where I come from, no woman is complete without a man."
* The ending of ''[=McClintock=]'' condones beating your wife if she rides you too hard...and when it's revealed that what she's angry that he's cheating on her, his response is "So what?" The very end shows that indeed his turning her over his knee has had a positive affect on their marriage. Likewise in ''El Dorado'' James Caan does a very disturbing parody of a Chinese man.
* There's a very recent example of this in the movie ''Spanglish''. Towards the end of the movie Flor decided to take her daughter Cristina out of the high standard private feeder school where she had a full ride and put her back into the black hole that is the California Public school system. Why? Basically because she didn't think it was hispanic enough. So apparently the moral of the story was that it's okay to do things that would normally wreck your child's future so long as it alleviates your own abstract cultural concerns and insecurities.
** It makes more sense to Mexican audiences, as a daughter becoming a total bitch as Cristina, specially towards her mother, is so frowned upon, she's lucky she only got back to public school. Obviously, ''very'' obviously, a case of this trope.(does not translate well to American viewers, who value the individual over the "bunch" that is the family... kinda)
[[/folder]]
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by kane 218.111.19.18
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[[folder:Comics]]
* JMichaelStraczynski's MarvelComics maxiseries ''The Twelve'' contains an in-story example. GoldenAge hero Dynamic Man sees a woman who's been mugged being chased by a black man. Upon grabbing the man he finds out that this is the victim's husband. He instantly loses interest in helping either one.
* In-story example: in the ''{{Buffy}}'' comics we see that Dracula is a product of the 15th century and uses terms like "moor" and "yellow swine". "Moor" is a slur when aimed at black people and not the actual Moors. Both Xander and the black recipient of the insults acknowledge this as horribly racist.
* ''{{Tintin}} in the Congo'' has often been criticized as having racist and colonialist views, as well as several scenes of violence against animals. Hergé said that he was portraying the naïve views of the time. When the album was redrawn in 1946, Hergé removed several references to the fact that the Congo was at that time a Belgian colony. This failed to mollify critics. Because of its controversial subject matter, the album was previously only published as a facsimile black and white edition in English. However, a color English edition was finally published in September 2005, by Egmont Publishing, with a foreword explaining the historical context (a similar move had been employed for the 1983 translation of ''The Blue Lotus'') and a collectors'-edition banner in red covering the main image over the front cover.
** It's probably worth noting that after this fiasco, Hergé did an about face after realizing just how badly racist it came out. ''The Blue Lotus'' actually had a section where Tintin discusses various racist stereotypes about Chinese people to Chang, who laughs and says "people in your country must be crazy!" Later on, Hergé actually developed a close friendship with a Chinese man who was the model for the character Chang, and when he dropped out of contact, he wrote arguably the most beautiful and touching comic, ''Tintin in Tibet'', just to express how much he missed him. That's an about face turn if I ever saw one.
** When the album was to be published in Scandinavia, the publishers objected to a scene on page 56 of the colour album, where Tintin blows up a rhinoceros with a stick of dynamite. They asked the page to be redrawn, and Hergé complied. Instead of blowing the animal to pieces, the rhino accidentally fires the gun of the sleeping Tintin, gets scared, and runs away. This page was also used in the English- and German-language translations.
* In the introduction to ''Fagin the Jew'' (his own confrontation with the anti-Semitism in CharlesDickens' ''OliverTwist''), WillEisner recollects how he created [[EthnicScrappy Ebony]] as a one-dimensional comic relief black sidekick for ''TheSpirit'' because it was common practice at the time. After serving alongside other Americans of different heritage in WorldWarII, Eisner was more enlightened and gave Ebony more depth and gravitas.
* Not quite a comic book, but near enough: [[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tameing_a_Shrew;_or,_Petruchio%27s_Patent_Family_Bedstead,_Gags_%26_Thumscrews.png This 1815 cartoon]] is meant to be a funny, comic portrayal of how to deal with your wife. By strapping her into bed so that you can do whatever you want with her, using gags and thumbscrews, if necessary.
* [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate]] CaptainAmerica is another in-story example. In order to maintain his WorldWarII origin story for stories in the 1970s and beyond, the original Cap was said to have been frozen in an iceberg and thawed out years later. The Ultimate version goes into depth about the kind of culture shock that would happen if a man, frozen in the 1940s, actually woke up in the 2000s.
* In the case of the Argentinian comic strip {{Mafalda}}, while Mafalda's ideas on women's rights ''were'' advanced by the standards of TheSixties, they come as [[StrawFeminist more rude and stuck-up than well-intentioned]] to modern readers. Specially when she says that her HouseWife mother Raquel [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses is "useless" and "mediocre" because she chose to raise Mafalda at home than juggle with work/college and motherhood]].
** Manolito's parents' quick willingness to use corporal punishment on their son is also quite cringeworthy.
** Also, one strip shows that mentioning divorce during dinner is a big no-no.
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20/Nov/09 at 09:43 PM
by kane 218.111.19.18
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*[[ValuesDissonance/ComicBooks Comics
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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* GunslingerGirl: Any Italian would find all of the relationships including between the adults to be unspeakably cold and distant as the artists, due to cultural projection, have depicted them as Japanese relationships might be, instead of as the very physical Italians would act.
* In ''FruitsBasket'', Kisa Sohma, the Tiger of the Zodiac, is bullied by her classmates, who gang up on her because she has a different hair colour from the rest of her class. As a result, she becomes mute, and leaves school. Her teacher writes her a letter "encouraging" her to return. In it, the teacher seems aware that Kisa is being tormented, but she also seems to suggest that it's ''Kisa's'' behaviour that is causing the trouble, not the bullies'. She asks how Kisa can expect her classmates to like her when she obviously doesn't like herself, apparently skipping over the fact that it was her peers' tormenting of her that caused Kisa's self-loathing in the first place (she despised the fact that she was "too weak" to stand up to her classmates). Some have interpreted this to mean that the episode places the blame on Kisa's shoulders, saying that she should be strong enough to face the bullies alone, without relying on adult intervention. This is very different from the Western approach, which would punish the bullies first and foremost. However, Yuki says that the way to self-esteem is "to have someone tell you that they like you", i.e. outside support is a necessary condition for inner strength. So far as we know, the bullies are never punished, and eventually it's all about Kisa learning to stand on her own. But the episode still expresses the idea that it's good for Kisa to seek outside support, even if it's just emotional support.
*** Hatsuharu, before delivering the teacher's letter, states that it makes him want to vomit. Other characters are supportive of Kisa and don't tell her that the bullying is her fault for being a good victim. Kyo points out that ''he'' also got bullied for having odd coloured hair. I think (it's been a while) that Akito the mean crazy hyena person taunted her for being weak... The show, if anything, is discussing Values Dissonance in the culture, not exhibiting it straight.
** Something similar happened in ''SukebanDeka'' live-action episode 10, where Saki told the girl who was being bullied into shoplifting that she is not handling the situation properly by not saying no. She listens and says no, gets beat up, then Saki comes in and beats the bullies up. Since Saki is an undercover police agent, this ''could'' be interpreted in the Western sense of getting an authority to intervene, but only the adult ringleader (who also committed murder) gets arrested, and Saki seems to be beating them up as an example for a fellow student to follow, not as an agent.
** Blaming the people who get bullied for their situation isn't unique to Japan.
*** In real life, maybe. However, most fiction denounces it, and most cultures denounce it as well even if it's not 100% adhered to, or even only lip service. Japan is fairly unique in actually having ''[[DesignatedHero good]]'' characters espouse this in fiction as an aesop.
* A similar situation and reasoning was found in the short manga ''Vitamin'', where a girl found in a compromising situation is systematically and ''brutally'' bullied by her entire class, to the point that the girl abandons school, becomes a {{hikikomori}} and develops an eating disorder. Even the same "arguments" formerly mentioned in the ''FruitsBasket'' example are given to the protagonist. However, the way her problem was focused (implying that she ''could be'' the victim of the situation, and no amount of strength from her side could have stopped the high level of cruelty she amounted) and how she finally overcomes the situation ([[spoiler:including a scene where she rips her junior high school diploma, in front of all the students, parents and personal present in the graduation act]]), while still done in the Japanese way, implies an attitude a closer to the way people confront bullies on West. Maybe the attitudes are changing...
** The situation reaches full-blown subversion level in Aeka Shiraki's arc of the VisualNovel ''YumeMiruKusuri''. The protagonist, Kouhei, even points out how utterly stupid it was to blame Aeka for her bullying, especially in light of not just the horrific abuse she was forced to put up with, but the fact that she was an odd, but incredibly sweet and friendly person... being ''actively prevented'' from ever fitting in. In fact, the game as a whole casts a very critical eye on Japanese values of conformity...
* The YamatoNadeshiko trope, when exported to the West, seems a bit sexist...
** ... but the WellExcuseMePrincess and {{Tsundere}} types are, for some specific groups of fans, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff far more popular overseas than they are back home]].
** An example of this, albeit with males rather than females, is Yuri's harem in ''KyouKaraMaou''. Gentle, chivalrous Conrad seems to be the most favoured candidate for Yuuri's affections in Japan. In the West, however, [[{{Tsundere}} Tsundere-esque]] Wolfram appears to have a bigger following. Mind you, this may be due to Conrad being interpreted as a father-figure by some Westerners.
** On the third hand, [[http://loserzcomic.comicgenesis.com/d/20010822.html presentation is everything...]]
** Likewise, in ''AiYoriAoshi'', Kaoru's preferred match is YamatoNadeshiko Sakuraba Aoi for Japanese fans; but western fans prefer hooking him up with LoveableSexManiac and ManicPixieDreamGirl-wannabe Tina Foster.
* Almost as if the ValuesDissonance of YamatoNadeshiko has a DistaffCounterpart, Western fans just doesn't seem to take {{Bishonen}}, {{Emo}} and Metrosexual characters well compared to the Japanese. On the other hand, rugged {{Badass}} guys devoid of any ''girly'' things are usually revered in the West as Manliness. This might be credited to the Japanese's belief that if you are a {{Bishonen}}, you are very sure that deep down you are a man, even if you dress like a girl, as well as a standard that places a high value on male androgyny as the ultimate sign of male beauty. Furthermore, the macho-men that are revered as American standards of heterosexuality are commonly used as ''[[HardGay gay]]'' stereotypes in Japanese media. In other words, each culture has the opposite concept of what is a manly man and what is a man that wants to ''sleep'' with a manly man.
** Of course, ''both'' concepts qualify completely as TruthInTelevision, in ''both'' cultures. "Gay men" are about as hard to pin down as "men" period.
* Compare ''AhMyGoddess'' to ''Bewitched'' The reactions of Keiichi and Darrin to their {{Magical Girlfriend}}s, Belldandy and Samantha (wife in the latter case), and their treatment thereof, couldn't ''be'' more opposite.
** Keiichi embraces Belldandy's special status and is very gentle to her, letting her use her abilities to some degree.
** Darrin, on the other hand, pretty much makes Sam hide her magic powers so she won't be found out. Ironic, since IIRC ''Bewitched'' was one of Fujishima Kousuke's inspirations for ''AhMyGoddess!''
** The difference goes even further, in that Samantha hid her powers from Darrin until after they were married. Keiichi does have to teach Belldandy to not use her powers obviously in public, but for fear of scaring people.
** ''Bewitched'' did address this topic on a few occasions, and tended to take care to emphasize that Samantha willingly chose a life where she hid her power to live as a mortal. An episode where she and Darrin decided to use her powers constantly threw off the [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]] and greatly upset Samantha's ideas of how she wanted to live her own life. Other episodes showed that open displays of Samantha's powers could attract attention from less scrupulous people, such as a detective who blackmailed her after discovering she was a witch. Another episode showed how life would have turned out if Samantha had told Darrin about her powers ''before'' the wedding -- Darrin initially freaked out, but came back to Samantha because he loved her anyway and actually quit his job because he refused to let his boss manipulate her powers for personal greed.
* In many anime, a character will be reprimanded for laughing loudly, crying or generally showing an "excess of emotion." While this may be universally understood in certain places (such as in an important meeting, in the cinema or in a library), it can be confusing if the character is just sitting with friends or talking to their parents. It only makes sense once you realize the emphasis Japanese culture puts on dignity, and not bothering other people with your personal problems.
** It works both ways, of course. The stereotypical American's emotional and dramatic nature, as well as the constitutional right to own a gun, is presumably surprising to the Japanese population. This resulted in "half-crazy, gun-toting American" characters appearing in anime. Examples: Leon of ''{{Pet Shop of Horrors}}'', K from ''{{Gravitation}}'', and most of the cast of ''{{FAKE}}'' (except Ryo, who's [[ButNotTooForeign half Japanese]]). Another example happens when laws allowing citizens to own guns are passed: ''BakuretsuTenshi'', for example, depicts Tokyo as slowly becoming a more rotten place than [[ViceCity the lowest]] ''[[ViceCity favelas]]'' [[ViceCity of Rio de Janeiro]] after one of these laws was enacted.
** France has a similar attitude toward private gun ownership, as has Britain, which introduced some of the tightest gun control laws in Europe after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_massacre Dunblane]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre Hungerford]] massacres.
** Perhaps this can best illustrated by a story. In an unnamed show, the group consisting of two Texans, a Louisianan, a French-raised American and a Brazilian. When the protagonist of the show pulled out his personal pistol and shot a guy about to cause somebody else harm, the Texans and Louisianan applauded the action as the act of a good Samaritan. In those states, citizens didn't have reliable police services at one time and had to protect themselves from Indian raiders, and troublemakers. The French-raised American and the Brazilian were both horrified and thought they saw an act of barbarity, since the protagonist shot the guy rather then trying to talk him down.
* Then there's the fact that over in Western countries, [[KissingCousins cousin intermarriage]] is treated as almost as bad as BrotherSisterIncest, causing an aversion to cousin [[UnwantedHarem Unwanted Haremettes]] in DatingSim games and shows based upon them.
** Note that not all Western countries share this. In the UK, it's legal but uncommon, and treated more as a [[AcceptableTargets joke]] than a source of revulsion.
** Nayuki in ''{{Kanon}}'', generally seen as [[FanPreferredCouple the normal one]] in a bunch of girls plagued with supernatural problems and SoapOperaDisease, was called "incest girl" by a lot of blogs covering the series, to match "sick girl", "demon girl", etc. This is because she was in love with her first cousin, a relationship that is accepted in many parts of the world.
** Yuka's unrequited love for her cousin Kouta in ElfenLied is perfectly normal in Japan. To many American viewers, however, it makes her look like just another character with mental issues--but still not ''quite'' as bad as Maia's father, Mariko, or Lucy.
** Sayaka in ''YoakeMaeYoriRuriiroNa'', the CoolBigSis, is also a cousin; her situation is made ''worse'' by the fact that the main character refers to her as "onee-san", or "older sister".
** This isn't exclusive to anime; many older Western works have it. ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' ends with the revelation that Jack is Gwendolen's long-lost cousin, which actually ''frees them'' to marry.
** The awkward/revolting aspects of cousin intermarriage are played for uncomfortable humor in ''{{Bully}}'', mostly among the Preppies, one of whom is engaged to his second cousin (which is legal), much to Jimmy's disgust.
** This was once acceptable in parts of the United States. ''{{Gone With the Wind}}'' even creates the initial conflict of Scarlett O'Hara and Ashley Wilkes over the latter's family tradition of marriage to a cousin. In a TruthInTelevision example, Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were fifth cousins and the former did not need to change her name at marriage -- because she ''was'' a Roosevelt. This practice is frowned upon today and a common stereotype of Southerners is the perceived tendency to inbreed with cousins.
** Fifth cousins are so distantly related that they have no more chance of sharing genetic traits than any two unrelated strangers would. (Franklin Roosevelt was actually more closely related to Ulysses S. Grant than to Theodore or Eleanor.)
* Raye Penber's heavy-handed StayInTheKitchen speech to his (former FBI agent) fiancée in ''DeathNote'' makes his later murder less a tragedy and more an instance of KarmicDeath, in the eyes of many readers, especially because Naomi was much more competent than he was.
** On the other hand, it makes you really feel for Naomi -- which works heavily in favor of the story.
** InUniverse (and possibly for reader) example: In Episode 23, Light refuses L's suggestion to carry a gun to assist in Higuchi's capture, citing that it's illegal for a citizen to own a gun in Japan, while L (who is of mixed ethnicity and is presumably not native Japanese) has no problem with carrying one, and neither does Watari. Similarly, earlier in the episode, Soichiro refuses to take one from the also non-Japanese career criminal Wedy, citing that he's no longer a police officer, and suggests that Wedy shouldn't have a gun, either (Aiber, however, declines to do so for personal reasons).
* The treatment of sexual harassment is another issue that can raise more than a few eyebrows in Western audiences. In Japan, [[TheChikan "inappropriate touching" on trains]] is so widespread that some stations and trains have ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frotteurism signs]]'' warning women about perverts. Yet women are ''not'' supposed to raise a fuss about it should it actually happen to them; it's the emphasis on dignity coupled with an attitude of female subordination. The most the train stations do to prevent this is offer women only cars, thus continuing to place the responsibility on the victim to stay away from men rather than on men to not attack them. There is still great controversy in Japan over the legality of this, the lack of prosecution in all but the clearest of cases, and the lenient punishments of those who actually do get convicted.
** In anime, the AccidentalPervert is usually a bumbling, supposedly likable character; if the "target" freaks out, her reaction is played for comedy. More serious plots may feature outright, deliberate harassment, but very often the heroine will be scolded for fighting back or told not to make such a big deal out of it. Often it's not entirely clear whether the story is on the heroine's side ("sexual harassment is bad"), or backing up society's view ("the heroine needs to accept her lot in life as uncomplaining, submissive victim").
** In ''{{MARS}}'', for example, Kira, the heroine, is assaulted while at her work. Naturally, she retaliates. Her boss, however, forces her to apologize to her attacker, even though she is the victim. The story is just ambiguous enough to leave the reader wondering if the author takes the manager's side or the best friend's.
** Indeed, if you were to look at a lot of Shoujo manga, you will notice that the girl is considered "pure" and more "chaste" if she just quietly and tearfully takes the groping from the molester. It is generally up to her boyfriend to call the molester on it and protect her, because a woman should never protect herself.
*** Wait a sec, a girl is considered 'pure' and 'chaste' if she's allowing herself to be violated?
*** However, most shoujo manga that indulge in this are fantasies in the vein of romance novels and bodice-rippers, so they don't necessarily reflect society's actual opinions.
*** In ''FateStayNight'', [[StayInTheKitchen Shirou]] finds it ''good'' that a particular female character had a run-in with a molester on her way home, believing that the attack will knock a sense of femininity into her. And do not get me started with what he thinks of Saber defending him...
** This is changing somewhat: in the manga ''KeroroGunsou'', for instance, Aki Hinata, [[ActionGirl strong]] HotShounenMom and aikido master, is groped on a train and responds by slamming her attacker to the ground. Several other writers have followed this trend, especially when dealing with strong female characters.
*** Also in the ''Parasyte'' manga, when one of the infected humans humiliates a groper, the other passengers cheer her on.
*** In one episode of ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' the heroine Haruhi takes on two thugs in defense of a group of girls. Her male friends reprimand her for getting involved and finish the fight themselves, but the lesson they teach Haruhi is more about understanding her own limits and safety than about being a meek, submissive girl.
* ''{{Pet Shop of Horrors}}'', mentioned above, runs into a '''lot''' of values dissonance, as many of its episodes have an odd, twisted kind of moral to them. In Japanese culture a lot of these morals probably make sense, but to a more Western eye they come off as Count D being a bloodthirsty bastard rather than an Aesop-dispenser. (Though how much of a bastard he was supposed to be even by their standards is unclear.) A good example is one episode where the man who has "vengeance" visited on him is implied throughout to have murdered his wife by pushing her over the railing of a cruise ship. [[spoiler:Turns out she jumped, because she overheard him talking to the woman he was actually in love with. It seems that she was a huge bitch who always had to have whatever she wanted, and she decided she wanted him and railroaded him into it. She became "heartbroken" at their words and killed herself.]] The story still seems to treat him as if he's to blame, and his fate is treated as a [[spoiler:KarmicDeath]].
** Er... It's been a while since I read PSOH but IIRC it was only her ''rival in love'' who said that [[spoiler:Evangeline was a huge bitch and so on.]] As far as I remember she ''was'' selfish, but she was genuinely in love with the guy. The rival had been also jealous of her for a long time, especially after Evangeline became engaged with the man she (the rival) loved. The guy apparently tried to play both women, effectively betraying Eva with having an affair behind her back. Not to mention that going by his reactions to the mermaid, somewhere along the line he did genuinely fall in love with Eva.
** Things get ''really'' weird in ''Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo'', which starts blatantly imposing the "rules" of the animal kingdom directly on to humans. Take the first story, "Domestic": [[spoiler: A victim of domestic violence dies, but it's treated as a happy ending by Count D because she protected her son.]] The pet the woman gets is not to save her, but to ensure that she fulfills her role as a woman and mother: defending her young to the last. The Count has no remorse for his actions, [[spoiler:basically sending her to her death]], because that is apparently Nature's Way. It becomes increasingly difficult to tell if this is a strategy to de-humanize the Count after he becomes notably more compassionate in the first series (which would be in-universe Values Dissonance), or whether Akino herself supports this view. [[HerHeartWillGoOn Men don't get off lightly either]] -- see "Double-Booking".
** Also, our very first introduction to Count D in the manga chapter "Dream": Angelique's actions were no doubt seen as selfish and overly emotional to a Japanese audience, but to Americans she seemed to be motivated by love for her pet, and her punishment came across as over-top cruel. Yes, she broke the rules. But even if she hadn't, her bird would still have been eviscerated, and Count D ''never even warned her''.
*** However, if she hadn't broken the rules she would've never seen the massacre and would've never known what happened to the male bird.
**** Not to mention the fact that she got off pretty light. In almost all other cases, breaking a rule for D's pet leads to a violent death.
* ''{{Transformers}} BeastWarsII'' will never, '''ever''' be officially translated into English for Western audiences. The reason? [[FunnyForeigner The]] [[SouthOfTheBorder Jointrons]], who act like stereotypical Mexicans, are really lazy, and transform into ''bugs''.
** One would hope the ''real'' reason would be the horrendous [[TheScrappy sidekicks]] to the Autobots... in fact, it probably would be. Look at how the Mexican and Central American community reacted to white people suddenly deciding Speedy Gonzales and Slowpoke Rodriguez were "racist", after having allowed them to grow up with them. Stupid white folk are ''still'' antsy about placing them back on ''Looney Tunes'' rotation, amazingly.
** In retrospect, the Jointrons would be quite a '''non'''-reason to keep ''Beast Wars II'' as NoExportForYou thanks to [[UncleTomfoolery the Twins]] from ''[[Film/{{Transformers}} Revenge of the Fallen]]''.
* ''MaisonIkkoku'' features a big one in the main character Godai's relationship with an annoying teenage high school girl who follows him around, insists they're "meant to be", and tries to ruin his maybe/maybe not relationship with his beloved out of jealousy. The problem everyone has is that she's annoying and Godai doesn't really lover her... ''not'' that she's sixteen or seventeen years old, and he's at least ''twenty''. In fact, everyone acts like he just may hook up with her anyways, and they don't particularly comment about the morality of it aside from breaking the "true love"'s heart. Even worse, his "true love" had married her ''teacher'' years earlier, when the age difference was even ''bigger'', and it's viewed as a perfect relationship.
** The anime's slightly different take on the Kasumi/Tofu "relationship" (mainly A: keeping Tofu around and thus giving him the occasional chance to pop up and be stupid because of Kasumi, and B: having Akane be a ShipperOnDeck for the "couple") in RanmaOneHalf could be viewed in a similar fashion.
* In ''{{Ikki Tousen}}'', when a character is revealed to really be the incarnation of Wang Yun rather than who he had previously claimed to be, it's treated as a huge shock and evidence that he's completely evil. Wang Yun was a ''hero'' in the original ''{{Romance of the Three Kingdoms}}'', but it seems the Japanese don't think too highly of him.
** That was before, well, [[spoiler: Saji (the one who was Wang Yun), actually had betrayed and manipulated his friends....]]
* In episode 19 of ''{{Clannad}}'' After Story [[spoiler: Tomoya, his five year-old daughter, and ''his'' father (in his 50's-60's) are all seen sharing a bath together. Now, under a Japanese values system, this is a very touching moment, because it represents Tomoya's acceptance of his father into his life, thus allowing him to share an intimate, very Japanese tradition of the family all bathing together; particularly significant insofar as Tomoya scrubs his father's back while his daughter looks on. In short, it is meant to be highly symbolic and touching. But under a Westerner's values, or for that manner many other cultural perspectives, one simply sees two adult men and a five-year-old girl naked in a bathroom together and this could be interpreted as very disturbing.]]
** Same for a scene in ''MyNeighborTotoro'' that supposedly was almost changed until Miyazaki himself complained.
* In the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'' manga, Jonouchi (Joey) and Honda (Tristan) start out by bullying Yugi. When Yugi's grandfather expresses concern, Yugi defends the bullies, saying, "They're teaching me to be a man!" Also, Jonouchi and Honda sexually harass Anzu (Tea) by finding new ways to lift up her skirt in class. This is seen as harmless "boys will be boys" fun.
** Yugi's grandfather never expresses concern--he never even knows about it. What happens is Joey and Honda themselves get beaten up by an ''even worse'' bully (who claims to be acting on Yugi's behalf, but [[spoiler:its actually part of an extortion scheme]]), and Yugi stands up to ''this'' guy. There's not really much ValuesDissonance there (the thing with Anzu, on the other hand, is hard to justify, except that they soon stop doing it).
** [[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Tor-ment]].
*** Of course, it should be noted that most OTHER bullies in the manga are not portrayed in a positive light and punished for their misdeeds... in fact, several times the punishments [[DisproportionateRetribution go a little too far.]]
** Of course, such actions used to be seen as exactly that, "boys will be boys" fun, in most of the world, so it might not be country-to-country dissonance so much as Japan-lagging-behind dissonance. (Of course, it's left to the reader to decide if it's gone too far in the other direction, since Jonouchi and Honda might be thrown in jail to spend the rest of their formative years behind bars for peeking at Anzu's panties, in some places.)
* In ''{{Loveless}}'', it is very obvious to most of the teachers at Ritsuka's school and his personal therapist that he is being abused by his mother, but no one does anything about it. This is a grade school student, [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist and no one asks him where he got those bruises!]] When his teacher does attempt to become more involved with Ritsuka's homelife, as she is rightly concerned about him, she is met with scorn from her faculty, Ritsuka, Soubi, Ritsuka's family, and generally everyone. Again, very Japanese values at work here. Essentially, under a Japanese code of behavioural conduct, Ritsuka's family and their actions around him are a private affair not to be meddled with by outsiders. Therefore, his teacher is breaking a big social taboo by attempting to establish a greater understanding of the problems with the parents' behaviour. Under Western ideologies, she is in the right and is fulfilling the duties of a responsible adult and teacher by looking out for her students while the other staff are in the wrong for letting a child abuse case go unpunished.
**Similiar situations occur in ''AishiteruzeBaby.'' Several instances of child abuse come up - one of the most glaring is when Yuzu's friend is beaten by his mother for no reason at all other than her own frustrations. His father, who witnesses the abuse, mainly dodges his wife and occasionally moves his son out of the firing line, but doesn nothing to address the main problem. When five-year-old Yuzu realises (and announces) what's going on, the abusive mother accuses her of being a badly-raised child for meddling in others' affairs. Then there's Miki, whose teacher ensures that she is bullied and ostracized by her classmates after she witnesses him beating a boy. Her father's response to her increasing introversion? Looking out for her? Asking the people around her what's wrong? Talking to her? Nope - saying he doesn't want "a child like her" and hitting her. The resolution of these situations is presumably to suggest that even major problems can be sorted out within the family with enough love - but to other audiences, hitting a child is automatic crossing of the MoralEventHorizon. The abusive adults look a lot like a KarmaHoudini bonanza. Many would be quite happy to see the whole miserable lot lined up and hit by a steamroller.
**A more solid example of this is touched upon in the manga ''Doll Star'' where the main character Saho's father continues to abuse both her mother, and then her brother when he tries to defend her from him. Even while they call the police in the more serious situations, they try not to resort to it for, as the father says (and was mentioned above), it is 'his' family and their situation. In fact, they make a note that the japanese police didn't really do much to help outside of a mild punishment, even after they'd moved away to escape him. So, like in Loveless it's kept quiet within the family. The father even praises Saho as a "good girl" for keeping completely out of the way of his abuse. The only person who seems to be able see the incidents more broadly is the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kuudere heroine]](?) Yugi, who only seems to be able to do so because [[spoiler:([[DarkMagicalGirl magic]] aside)]] she's [[LonersAreFreaks strange]] and has her own unique perspective and sense of justice on the matters. [[spoiler:(Later on, Saho herself is (like Yugi) [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer outcasted]] and looked upon as odd after she decides to change herself to be more honest/outspoken. This follows after she confronts her dad and seeks help from Yugi, so it does have a sense of justice against abuse.))]]
* In ''{{Toradora}}'' episode 16, Ryuji finds Kitamura sitting around with a giant bruise on his face; Kitamura reveals eventually that his father basically hauled off and punched the hell out of him because he ''dyed his hair'' (and also probably for not wanting to run for student council president); both of these were explicitly stated to be cries for help on Kitamura's part. In most Western productions, the rest of the episode would probably be about how abusive and wrong this was, both physically and emotionally. The characters don't seem to think twice about it, and Kitamura comes back to school the next day with his hair dyed back and saying he's all better now.
** The ''dyed hair'' turns up in a lot. This also is featured in ''{{The Twelve Kingdoms}}'' where [[DarkSkinnedRedhead Yohko]] is thought to be some sort of hoodlum or perhaps prostituting herself just [[EvilRedhead because her hair is red]] and not black like other Japanese students. This escalates to the point where her parents are called and she is cornered by teachers to stop dying her hair for the sake of her honor student reputation. Unfortunately for her, she is a natural redhead [[spoiler:because she is [[TrappedInAnotherWorld from another world]]]]. Even more unfortunate is the fact when she's whisked away by the [[HairOfGold golden haired]] [[RapunzelHair rapunzel]] Keiki who only solidifies suspicions of her relating with unscrupulous characters. Because, even if he's innocent, we all know [[BlondGuysAreEvil blond guys are evil]] especially when they're [[EvilForeigner foreigners]] in Japan.
* TallDarkAndBishoujo Sakaki from ''AzumangaDaioh'' has huge self-esteem issues and wishes she looked more like [[TokenLoli Chiyo-chan]], a fact that is often played for comedy. This may actually be a joke that benefits from values dissonance, as it seems much sillier to those who are not fully aware of the casual pedophilia that informs modern Japanese ideas of beauty.
** Fans usually designate her height issues as a "Japanese conformist/acceptance" concern and the said height makes her feel as the odd one out.
*** Plus, there's simply a lot of TruthInTelevision to the idea that being tall and imposing is a lot less fun than most people who aren't think it is, making the exchanges where Chiyo wishes she was more like Sakaki and Sakaki just wishes she were more like Chiyo [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming empathetic]] for some, rather than dissonant.
* In the RSE arc of the ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlei015gc004kw4?from=Main.Pokemon Pokemon Special]]'' manga, one of the protagonists Ruby (10) runs away from home to battle in contests. Eventually his father [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/208/6 finds him]] in a ruin, and starts [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/209/3 beating him to a pulp]]. ''[[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/209/4 He then uses his Slaking to rip out the stair his son is standing on, (almost hitting a bystander), and dangles him, over the edge of the building]]''. His son is finally forced to start fighting back, until the floor collapses, with them [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/211/2 both dangling over the edge]], they just miss some metal debris, Ruby is knocked out, and his father stands to start battling again, before conceding [[WellDoneSonGuy his son's goal]]. Then we get [[http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/pokemonadventure/0/211/7 this]].
** The incident had more behind it due to an event in the trio's common past. [[spoiler:A berserk wild Salamence attacked Ruby and Sapphire in its frenzy. Ruby took a horrible scar from Salamence's attack, and his innate gift at Pokemon battling let him repulse the frenzied beast, but he felt such influence tainted Sapphire's crystal heart. He has since shunned all forms of battle and sought instead to focus on contests, swearing never to fight in the public square again.]]
*** [[spoiler:Sapphire was not tainted by Ruby's counterattack and defense of her as he feared, but even she was affected by that incident. Having massive guilt over the injury he took, she blamed herself for her weakness. She has spent the time since then assisting Prof. Birch in his work as a means to strengthen mind, body, and soul, so that she would never fail someone in that manner ever again.]]
*** [[spoiler:Norman covered up the incident to atone for Ruby's attack on Salamence, and was disqualified from the Gym Certification as a result. On top of being barred from reapplying for the next five years, he was commissioned to seek out Rayquaza to set things right. His sacrifice made Ruby's disdain towards his training sting that much more, and the two have been at odds.]]
* In the ''{{Pokemon}}'' anime, Zoey/Nozomi's behavior and tone of voice toward Dawn/Hikari was changed in the dub. She acted rather attracted to her, had a sweeter tone of voice and constantly complemented her. This was probably due to [[SchoolgirlLesbians implications]] and the [[ShipMates fan]]-base. Zoey eventually mellowed down, but eventually, Candice came in and made the situation.."Worse".
* In ''SailorMoon'', the romance of the story involves a junior high school student involved with a college student. In Japan, Mamoru is the butt of a few jokes at worst -- in North America, he would be arrested.
** That's AdaptationDecay, since anime!Mamoru was made older than in the manga, where he's just a highschooler and not much older than Usagi herself. However, Japanese culture still generally approves of relationships with a gap like this despite the jokes, as the older man is seen as more capable of protecting the younger girl.
** In general, older men dating younger girls is considered acceptable in Japan. In a HotForStudent plot, for example, it's the teacher/student relationship that usually makes the relationship forbidden, not the age gap. Most of the time, though not always, once the student graduates they can be in a relationship and no one will object, even if the student is in middle school.
* This contributed to the commercial failure of ''DetectiveConan'' in the US. The anime ''is'' supposed to be a children's show, aired at 7:30pm Mondays for most of its televised history, and the structure of the story is along the lines of a children's show. However, the sheer amount of {{Family Unfriendly Death}}s caused serious problems to the West, and importers were given the choice of cutting or timing out of its intended demographic...
* There was a later episode on ''TeknoMan'' where a middle-aged, overweight man with a Irish/Scottish accent slapped a little girl on the ass. In front of other people. And it wasn't as punishment or even anger. Did I mention this was being shown on an Australian kid's show that kids like myself were watching before they left for the bus to go to school?
* Some fans of ''{{Naruto}}'' seem to have trouble grasping Japanese culture, particularly in regards to [[DieForOurShip Naruto and Sakura's relationship]]. Sakura makes occational signs of affection for Naruto that wouldn't be seen as romantic in the U.S., but in ''Japan''... that's a different story.
** Then again, compared to her declaring that she "love(s Sasuke) so much (she) cannot stand it," many of Hinata's actions toward Naruto (particularly when she [[spoiler:states that she's willing to die protecting him because she loves him]] in Chapter 437) and Naruto's own overtures of affection toward Sakura, it is subtle enough to be seen as merely (close) friendship.
**Keep in mind that in Japan, it's considered much more romantic to be quiet and subtle with expressing love, given their whole values system. Also, the Japanese have...very different attitudes about affectionate contact between men and women. Male and female friends hugging in the U.S is a common sight, and nothing to blink at. (so it totally makes sense if people thought Naruto and Sakura are just friends) In Japan, not so much, given their attitudes about physical contact and modesty. Which is why from the point of view of the average middle-school age Japanese male (who the comic ''is actually aimed at''), the Naruto-Sakura hug would seem unambiguously romantic.
** There's also a large amount of westerners who got the wrong idea of what Pain means when he says [[AGodAmI he considers himself a god]]: They often think of "god" in a more Abrahamic manner, as in immortal and omnipotent, when he really only considers himself very powerful ([[PersonOfMassDestruction which he really is]]) and "enlightened" while even knowing that [[spoiler:some of his powers shorten his life]].
*** This happens a lot in anime, since they tend to slap the word "god" on pretty much anything.
* In Japan, the extended middle finger is seen as a harmless, meaningless gesture. Hence the reason Old Tom gives one to Star Saber in ''TransformersVictory'', a children's cartoon.
** Likewise with the tendencies to flip people exhibited in the mains character of the ''ViewtifulJoe'' anime and the ''{{Naruto}}'' manga (though not the anime).
*** The situation is reversed with the gesture where someone pulls down their bottom eyelid and sticks their tongue out at the victim, which is apparently Japan's equivalent of flipping people off. This seems to be completely ignored by Western censors, since the face doesn't mean anything to Western viewers.
** Seemed to me like they understand it's an insult, but ''how'' insulting it's supposed to be didn't carry over.
* During the {{beach episode}} of ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', Kyouya pretends to be about to rape Haruhi -- because Haruhi decided to confront thugs harassing girls all alone without any regard of her own safety And was nearly killed by them. It doesn't cross Haruhi's mind to report Kyouya to the school authorities or the police for harassment.
** This would be valid only if Haruhi had not deduced that Kyouya would actually not have done anything to her. She realizes he was trying to teach her a lesson and she catches on, thereby fulfilling his goal.
** Not to mention the fact that trying to retaliate against Kyouya Ootori is a [[ScaryShinyGlasses very]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney bad]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity idea]].
* Nudity in Japanese culture is viewed ''very'' differently. While it's also used for plain old FanService, it's also used to convey innocence and purity. This ''really'' causes a problem with children - a nude child or a panty shot is not intended to be sexual at all in Japanese culture and in fact, a nude child is often intended to emphasize their ''lack'' of sexuality. Consider, for example, the bathing scenes in ''MyNeighborTotoro'' (in which the father is bathing with his daughters) or the ''numerous'' panty shots in ''KikisDeliveryService''. This does ''not'' translate well to a pedophile-wary West, in which any instance of this is immediately branded as {{Lolicon}}.
** Parents bathing with children, even fathers and daughters, is not uncommon in Japan, up to a certain age. Girls taking baths together is considered more a relaxing social thing than anything else, especially if the happen to be visiting an [[HotSpringsEpisode onsen]], even comparing bust sizes and curves and such while in the bath. Even mixed sex baths are OK, as it's not really a sexual thing, just a chance to relax in the steaming hot water and chat with friends.
*Frankly, this trope could probably adequately explain a lot of what seems to be RelationshipWritingFumble in the eyes of western fans. If you are more used to more open western romances, don't realize that the Japanese are generally more shy about overt romantic affection, what the mythological themes and symbolism mean, and a lot of subtle social cues, you're probably going to be pretty lost.
* The character of Izumi in ''FullmetalAlchemist''. To a Westerner, her TrainingFromHell and habit of randomly smacking Al and Ed borders on the sadistic, and it is particularly jarring when she behaves this way after they've experienced a lot of trauma, especially when what she scolds them for (using alchemy to try to bring someone back from the dead) is something she attempted herself. Apparently, she comes across as more stern but loving to an Eastern audience.
** Much of Izumi's treatment of the Elric brothers, Winry's treatment of Edward (a wrench to the head? As he himself says, does she want to kill him?) Edward's treatment of Hohenheim (he could literally kill him... bad idea to punch someone in the face or gut with a metal limb), and even some of Al and Ed's treatment of each other (come on... punching your big bro with an iron glove?) would definitely count as domestic violence. This is [[HilarityEnsues played for fun]], but would be extremely dangerous if taken literally (especially by ''children'', [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids who shouldn't be watching]] ''[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids FMA]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids in the first place]]). Concerning Izumi, Ed and Al literally display signs of post-traumatic stress disorder when they talk about her -- to great "comic" effects. Hell, in the real world she could get sued for this.
** Significantly, there is no sign whatsoever that Trisha, who is portrayed as a kind of "perfect mom" archetype, ever smacked her children for whatever reason; in a manga {{Omake}}, she just scolds young Edward when he beats up Al with a book (!). And [[FanNickname Hoho]] punishes him by making him carry a bucket of water and delivering AnAesop about how mothers love their children, which they have carried in their belly for nine months. Hardly a violent upbringing. At her most "violent", Trisha tells Ed he can't keep the kitty.
** In fact, much of Edward's seemingly cold-hearted treatment of Winry is also very abusive and quite similar to the way Hohenheim "abandoned" Trisha, but the plot seems to underline this voluntarily.
*** Much of this is a product of the first anime, where characters were obligated to be significantly more dysfunctional. In the manga, those issues were either muted or simply not present. The new anime seems to be doing this even more so, with Edward not losing his temper at Winry over opening the watch.
** [[PuttingOnTheReich A lot of things about Amestris]] seem like values dissonance at first, until you find out that there is something seriously evil going on behind it all.
**All this is meant for 14 year olds.
* ''CardCaptorSakura'' has an astonishingly casual view of May/December teacher/student relationships. Sakura's mother and father met when he was a high school teacher and she was his student. One of Sakura's prepubescent classmates has a crush on their teacher... and ''he returns it!'' But then, it's {{Clamp}}.
** Sakura's mother was disowned by her family, because they considered the match scandalous. It is not entirely clear whether her relatives are angry because he was her teacher, because he is not upper class or both.
*** It's hinted in the anime that it was more of the latter, since Fujitaka speaks to [[spoiler: Nadeshiko's grandfather Masaaki]] at some point and mentions how he was "a mere highschool teacher without family" when they got married.
* In ''KodomoNoOmocha'', Sana's adoptive mother Misako slaps and berates Sana's birth mother Keiko for giving her up to adaption. She doesn't seem to acknowledge that Keiko gave birth to Sana at age ''thirteen'' [[spoiler:and the manga hints that Sana was actually a child born out of ''incestuous rape'' by Keiko's uncle]]. It doesn't help that in the anime she went all bitch at Keiko ''after'' she explained that she was too young to keep Sana. (Sana herself doesn't seem bitter at Keiko, and in fact she even wishes her biological mom well in her life.)
** Misako's actions and anger had less to do with putting Sana up for adoption and more to do with leaving her newborn daughter [[spoiler:on a park bench to freeze to death if Misako hadn't found her.]]
* In ''CodeGeass'', when Milly announces that whoever brings her a runaway cat will get a kiss from one of the student council members, the enthusiasm this inspires in most of the campus, and the horror it inspires in never-been-kissed student council members Kallen and Shirley, seems rather extreme from an American perspective considering most of the characters are around 17 years old.
** Kissing, especially a FirstKiss, is a ''huge'' deal in Japan, for both boys and girls. In the West, eleven-twelve years old seems to be the usual age for a first kiss, but in Japan, a high school student who has ''never'' had a first kiss is not uncommon.
** It's worth noting that while it is a Japanese show, the scene in question takes place at a ''Britannian'' high school (the [[ButNotTooForeign half-Britannian, half-Japanese]] Kallen attends as a Britannian but considers herself Japanese). When Lelouch and Suzaku catch the cat, Nunnally, who is technically on the council, has no reservations about giving the two of them a kiss (although there are potential BrotherSisterIncest undertones in Lelouch and Nunnally's relationship).
* PlayedForLaughs in KatekyoHitmanReborn. In the Italian mafia, a subordinate kissing their boss on the chhek is not unusual. In Japan (and done to [[LittleBlackDress Tsuna]] by newly introduced [[TheChick Chrome]]), it's a ShipTease
* In some series like HikaruNoGo, YuYuHakusho and MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha, characters sometimes drop out of schooling after middle school, typically for the sake of their job/sport/hero career. While this might seem shocking to Western readers, high school is not mandatory in Japan.
* The content ratings for English versions of {{shonen}} manga often demonstrate various standards of acceptability, with many manga that younger children would be able to read in Japan being deemed for teens or older teens in America. MaiHime is one notable example, as while it is a shonen series, the English release contains a content warning stating that it is not for children.
* In ''PonyoOnACliffByTheSea'', a mother leaves her five-year-old son alone in a typhoon in order to take supplies to elderly women in the old-folks home, who seem to already have others taking care of them. This looks like child abuse from a Western perspective, instead of dedication to her job and trust in her son's maturity as was probably intended.
* It's supposed to be romantic that BlackJack stalked his lover for weeks before they started going out "to keep her safe". Also, it's apparently [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment cruel]] to tell your patient she has cancer. Presumably you're supposed to lie and say they're having surgery because of their sore throat or something. And removing a woman's cancer infected uterus and ovaries requires them to get a sex change, as she's no longer a woman. BlackJack's just full of this. All three of those examples were within 5 pages of each other.
* Japan definitely has a more accepting/even positive attitude toward suicide than the West, and one series in which you can see this is ''IrresponsibleCaptainTylor''. When desperate situations happen in early episodes, basically every single character bar Tylor himself start talking about dying a heroic death, and Tylor's self-preservation instinct is treated as a sign of his incompetence. What makes this weird, is that while it would be perfectly in character for someone like Yamamoto, who was TheAce until Tylor showed up to act like this, it even extends to the Marines on the ship who are the kind of malcontents you wouldn't expect to be so eager to die.
* ''{{Bleach}}'': Momo Hinamori was loyal to Aizen, loyal enough to kill anybody that she confirms was suspect during Aizen's fake death. After she was stabbed by Aizen, she had to recover from her wounds and during this, she denied that Aizen betrayed Soul Society. [[TheScrappy American fans hate her for this;]] [[TheWoobie The Japanese love her for it.]]
** This is not ValuesDissonance so much as different vectors of FanDumb. Kubo makes the truth plainly apparent: Momo is in denial to the point of being delusional. She loved Aizen so much that she simply ''cannot believe'' that he was actually using her and everyone else as part of a nefarious scheme.
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20/Nov/09 at 09:41 PM
by kane 218.111.19.18
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*[[{{ValuesDissonance/Anime}} Anime and Manga]]
*[[ValuesDissonance/ComicBooks Comics
*{{ValuesDissonance/Film}}
*ValuesDissonance/Literature}}
*ValuesDissonance/LiveActionTV
*ValuesDissonance/RealLife
*ValuesDissonance/VideoGames
*ValuesDissonance/WebOriginal
*ValuesDissonance/WesternAnimation
*{{ValuesDissonance/Others}}
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20/Nov/09 at 08:16 PM
by BlackHumor 24.12.75.212
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** Having just read it, this troper sort of agrees with the tounge-in-cheek interpretation; I interpret it as Petruchio hinting as heavily as possible, "Hey, Kate, we're both witty, we can have a lot of fun at the rest of these idiots' expense if you'll just play along and act with me". Can't quite convey exactly how to read it here, but:Kate's lines in Act 4 Scene 5 about it being the sun or moon as Petrucio wants it should be read first line quick and surprized because she's just realized what Petrucio's getting at, other four slower and conspiritorial. (Hortensio then totally misses that everything Petrucio's done so far was an act, tries it on his bride, and fails miserably.) Kate's final speech should be as hammy as possible; because after all, she's parodying all the rest of the men and women who think that men ought to try to bully their wifes into doing everything you say instead of just letting her be an equal partner to you. (And also, reading those lines from 4.5 would be totally out of character for both her and Shakespeare (who would never have a character say what she really thinks out in public with no hidden meanings) if the straight interpretation was true.)
20/Nov/09 at 06:50 PM
by Xander77 142.151.170.103
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**** Thank you, CaptainObvious and his friends in the DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment.
20/Nov/09 at 06:14 PM
by Freezer 75.64.18.76
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*** And when ICA has more than one celebrity judge, one of them will usually have some gourmet cred (Ex. [[StarTrekVoyager Jeri Ryan]] and Lou Diamond Phillips are both restaurateurs).
20/Nov/09 at 06:07 PM
by ServantScope 70.176.220.156
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***The Nazis themslves sympathized with the plight of the uncle more than they did with Antigone, in fact, renaming the play after said uncle, Creon.
20/Nov/09 at 02:29 PM
by 84.186.187.153
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*** Also cheese and french fries.
20/Nov/09 at 02:22 PM
by 84.186.187.153
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* For all the flack [[HumansAreBastards humans give their own species]], other animal species seem to get a comparatively free pass. Despite their idealized reputation, many animal species do things that would be considered from immoral to horrifying if humans did them such as mating with more than one partner, ParentalAbandonment, and even [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide_(zoology) eating their own babies]].
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* For all the flack [[HumansAreBastards humans give their own species]], other animal species seem to get a comparatively free pass. Despite their idealized reputation, many animal species do things that would be considered from immoral to horrifying if humans did them such as mating with more than one partner, ParentalAbandonment, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider killing and eating]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praying_mantis the male after mating]] and even [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide_(zoology) eating their own babies]].
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