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Film — Live-Action
- Cheering in the cinema is generally more accepted in North America than in the UK and Europe (hence the "mfw Americans clap" meme), though there are exceptions. Japan and other Asian countries are even worse about this. Clapping during a performance is considered quite rude as you are distracting from the show. Live performers such as Cirque Du Soleil were actually coached about this as they were used to boisterous applause after every major trick. And when the first Star Wars film, A New Hope had its Japanese premiere, the then-head of 20th Century-Fox, Alan Ladd, Jr., was worried that they'd hated it until being reassured that silence was the greatest compliment a movie could receive.
- Voiceover singing in Hollywood vs. Bollywood. American audiences frown on the practice, viewing it as inauthentic and cheating (one of the reasons Audrey Hepburn was not nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for My Fair Lady was because she didn't do her own singing). In Bollywood it's openly acknowledged and accepted; actors are dubbed over to the point where one woman, Lata Mangeshkar, provided the singing voice for every female actress in every major Bollywood movie for several decades and was a celebrity in her own right. note
- In the United States, the average running time of a blockbuster is slightly more than two hours, movies that run for longer than two and a half or up to three hours are usually either gunning for an Oscar or get criticized for being overly long and self-indulgent (and sometimes even the ones that do win Oscars still get criticized for this.) Indian audiences very strongly believe in getting your money's worth of movie for a ticket, so three hours is about the average runtime of a summer blockbuster over there. The United States usually produces about one or two epics a year, in Bollywood it's the rule and not the exception. This is also part of the reason why Indian movie theatres still have an intermission in the middle of every film, even for Hollywood movies.
- The whole idea of the Cowboy Cop, omnipresent in cop movies of the 1970's and 1980's has come under fire since the late 90s and 2000's. Back in the 70's, rising crime rates and then the "tough on crime" rhetoric of the Reagan era in the 80's made actions like beating up suspects for information, executing helpless criminals if they were evil enough, disregard for warrants, and all around tons of violence seem not just acceptable for police officers and displays of their badassitude, but necessary for combating crime. This ended after a string of high-profile incidents of Police Brutality and shootings of unarmed suspects, most infamously the Rodney King beating and several notable instances in the mid-2010s, which also revealed these actions targeted racial minorities, especially African-Americans, disproportionately. As a result, characters like Dirty Harry and Cobra come across as a lot less sympathetic nowadays. Lower crime rates beginning in the mid-90's also led to the demise of the "vigilante hero" and "future big city in ruins" subgenres extremely popular in the late 70's to early 90's. In a pretty good illustration of just how far this trope has fallen out of favor with modern audiences, when Eli Roth attempted to reboot the once-popular Death Wish franchise in 2018, it flopped at the box office and was absolutely savaged by critics, many of whom called it a wildly irresponsible piece of filmmaking.
- France doesn't usually dish out age restrictions on mainstream movies, likely owing to the rough history with censorship. Many movies rated R in the US or the UK are given "all ages" ratings unless they are very violent or patently adult.
- In general, Western European countries (including the United Kingdom) and some of their former colonies (like Australia) tend to be much more lenient about sexual content and profanity in films than the United States. For example, Silver Linings Playbook, rated R in the US mostly for the Cluster F-Bombs, received the equivalent of a G rating in Sweden and France and an unrestricted M rating in Australia and New Zealand note . Magic Mike was also rated G in France and Sweden, despite being a film about strippers. Conversely, they're stricter towards violence and gore than the United States. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies received the equivalent of an R rating in most countries (but only a PG-13 in the US.)
- In the United States, the NC-17 rating is seen as a death sentence for a film's commercial viability, basically limiting it to arthouse/independent cinemas. Major retailers like Walmart and Best Buy refuse to stock NC-17 films or DVDs, and theater chains like AMC are reluctant to book them. Although the MPAA specifically states it does not denote pornography, in practice it has been used for films with strong sexual content. Producers fight for an R rating and are often dismayed to get an NC-17. On the other side of the pond, however, the 18 certificate (roughly equivalent to the NC-17) not only has little effect on commercial viabilitynote , it is seen as a badge of honor. In fact, one horror director
was disappointed that his film didn't get an 18 certificate. Films cut for an NC-17 in the US for commercial reasons usually receive an 18 certificate uncut in the UK, with none of the stigma attached. This highlights another example of disparity between the US and other countries, part of the reason that (in the US) the NC-17 rating is so heavily associated with porn is because it is damn-near impossible to get a movie rated NC-17 for violence alone, most films with the rating almost invariably feature explicit sexual content or heavily sexualized violence as a result. - In the Golden Age of Hollywood, Chinese-American star Anna May Wong was heavily exoticised in the fan magazines - “Anna May Wong symbolizes the eternal paradox of her ancient race,” wrote one fan magazine. “She reminds us of cruel and intricate intrigues, and, at the same time, of crooned Chinese lullabies. She brings to the screen the rare comprehension and the mysterious colors of her ivory-skinned race.” - and could never play a romantic lead because The Hays Code would not allow her to kiss a white man on screen. In another example of this trope, she took her career to the UK and took advantage of their lenient censorship laws to play less stereotypical roles.
- Yellowface was far more accepted back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Most Asian characters in films like The Good Earth, The King and I and The Son-Daughter were played by white actresses in make-up - and the magazines would talk freely about the "exciting" make-up process.
- In modern day films pregnant women will never drink. In Golden Age films? Not so much. The effects of alcohol on fetuses weren't well-known at the time. Take Blackboard Jungle from 1955, where the protagonist's wife drinks champagne while four months pregnant despite also having a miscarriage in the past. She would be framed as a neglectful parent in modern works, however it's just a matter-of-fact in the film.
- A lot of classic films are based around cute children acting like adults for laughs. Some of Shirley Temple's earliest films, such as War Babies, revolved around this. At the time it was just seen as funny to see little kids acting so grown up, but these roles have since been critiqued for over-sexualizing children. As an adult, Shirley Temple critiqued the Baby Burlesks series she got her start in for this reason.
- In a similar vein, in teen comedies produced during The '80s (such as Porky's), much of the behavior exhibited by the male characters in those types of films (which included thinly-veiled sexual comments in public, public hazing, stalking female characters or spying on them in showers) were seen as "raunchy, but amusing" during the decade. Try that kind of behavior today, and the consequences will be much worse than a few eyerolls or a stern talking-to from an authority figure.
- In films from the mid-'90s and before, simply being a "drug dealer" was enough, in most cases, to make a character a villain. Nowadays, the increasing backlash against the War on Drugs has made it so that for drug dealers to be considered actual villains they must either 1) sell strong stuff like crack cocaine, meth, and/or heroin, 2) have ties to brutal Mexican drug cartels and/or 3) sell to kids.
- Watch any western from the 1920s through the '70s, and see if you can notice how many times Native Americans, women and/or Mexicans are stereotyped or condescended towards. "I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges" would not have made it to the final cut nowadays, that's for sure.
Live-Action TV
- In most Western countries, the appearance of bare breasts on TV isn't particularly unusual, being common on European TV since the late 1960s. In North America however, the idea of a flashed nipple will stir controversy, as it happened with the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004, when Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" resulted on the American CBS and the Canadian Global networks being forced into paying huge fines, as well as having further effects on North American TV censorship. International reactions were more of "What's all the fuss about?" kind.
- While America's tolerance for strong language on network television has been increasing over the years, it still lags behind other western nations, which can use "shit" at noon with little complaining, while stronger words such as "fuck" are often only permitted at night-time. Americans watching mid-day or early evening programming from across the pond or even across the border might be surprised by a casual curse word thrown into an otherwise innocuous show (and that's not getting to the more liberal use of swearing outside the Anglosphere)
- Come to Gawk-type documentary shows of the 2000s that poked fun at others' misfortunes (which they always deserved), most famously 1000 Ways to Die and World's Dumbest..., faced severe criticism during the 2010s for making light of traumatic situations, no matter if the victims were just asking for it. While Spike TV decided to drop the former show, the final two seasons of the latter series were actually re-tooled by TruTV (disposing of its "felon celeb" panelists) in an attempt to tone down the more offensive content, to very little success.
- Stand-up comedy, especially when a performer is translating their act from stage to TV, gets hit pretty hard with this trope; some jokes that may have been fine even ten years ago would not fly today. Big names in comedy in The '60s and The '70s such as Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson were particularly vilified since the 1990s. Manning's career never really recovered after he was ambushed on TV on a spoof chat show, and incited into making seriously racist and homophobic references which were a large part of his stand-up routine. Again, as with Bill Oddie, this was a case of a man who simply did not realise the world had moved on and outside a circle of devoted fans, his humour wasn't thought of as acceptable in the mainstream (as well as TV) any more. Meanwhile other comics such as Roy "Chubby" Brown simply didn't care and took Refuge in Audacity.
- The treatment of transgender people in general is a big example of this. For years, their very existence had been used as a comedy punchline, particularly transgender women who are frequently misgendered and seen as little more than men in dresses. If a trans character appeared in a show, they would be played by a cisgendered actor, be the butt of jokes, and the audience would be expected to agree with other characters' disgust and/or outrage at "being deceived". Throughout the 2010s, being trans has become much more acceptable and trans issues are increasingly visible (particularly among younger people), and any show that makes the kind of jokes that were perfectly acceptable as little as ten years ago would provoke huge outrage.
- Depictions of underage drinking in American television often runs into this as the legal drinking age in the U.S. is twenty-one while almost every other Western country has it at eighteen and quite a few have it even lower at sixteen. If you're from Europe, it can be very jarring to watch a show where college students get in trouble for drinking alcohol and you're left wondering what the issue is.
Video Games
- As a general factor to note when it comes to values dissonance and video game storytelling, Japanese gamers and critics alike are generally more accepting of wacky, over-the-top, and - above all else - heavily disjointed plotlines that western gamers often find difficult to keep up with or make sense of. In Japan, games such as Bayonetta, Killer is Dead, Final Fantasy XIII, and Devil's Third have been praised for their wild and exciting plotlines that take players on a multitude of different setpieces and plot twists. In the Western world however, such games have been criticized by many discerning gamers and critics (i.e. Yahtzee and Jim Sterling) for being poorly thought-out and all over the place; a jumbled mess of ideas thrown randomly together with no overarching theme, concept, premise, or focus point that would otherwise tie everything together. As Jim points out in this video, this is likely the reason for Square Enix's infamous downward spiral in the West post-2001.
- As a side note, this style of storytelling was, and still is, prevalent in Japanese media such as anime, manga, and light novels, and so it is natural for contemporary Japanese video games to follow suit. Said method of storytelling has been hit or miss with Western fanbases though, and it doesn't help that some adaptations either leave with a Gecko Ending or are just left unfinished compared to the source material.
- Another major difference between Japanese and most other nationalities of gamers is that Japanese gamers are generally more tolerant of grinding, to the point that in some games it's a feature. American gamers, for example, have far less patience for the concept, especially outside MMOs where it grants an advantage over other players.
- The "Lifespan" of game systems also varies from region to region, part of this is due to laws and availability. Ergo, some systems will appear to have a much longer life in another region.
- North America and Europe (Particularly Western Europe) tend to push "successor" systems as hard as they can. With the exception of The Seventh Generation of Console Video Games (Where one could still find sixth generation software and hardware on store shelves well into 2008note ), whenever a new generation is released, it quickly starts to take over the store shelves. The hardware and software for the previous system is usually rotated out. This wouldn't be an issue, were it not for the fact that Japan tends to "hold on" to systems much longer and that some games released at the end (or even after the "end") of the previous system's lifespan sometimes get kept in Japan. If they do get a release, they often become quite rare due to its limited run and despite sometimes getting good review scores, don't sell well since people are busy playing the next generation system. Some games like Kirby Super Star are a notable example of this. For reference? The Famicom and Super Famicom were discontinued in 2003 in Japan. In North America? The SNES was discontinued in 1999, and the NES was discontinued in 1995. The Sega Saturn was discontinued in Japan in 2000, whereas it was discontinued in 1998 everywhere else. Japan's not quick to abandon "outdated" systems.
- A lot of people (depending on where you ask) will say Digital Piracy Is Evil and often point to Brazil as an example since a lot of games available there are pirated. However, this is due to regional taxes that inflate the price of video games (and other import electronics) for about over one hundred US dollars. Ergo, people in Brazil usually don't see digital piracy as evil, as much as it being the only way for them to even have a chance to try these games out - unless some changes are made to the law to make games easier to sell. Confounding this is that many console services weren't available there, either.
- This has been a diminishing trope in there due to the prevalence of digital media services, like Steam, eShop, PSN and XBLA. In comparison to physical copies, a game can be taxed considerably less, back into a very acceptable double digit price range.
- Gambling in general - CERO appears to have little to no problem giving an "A" (all ages) rating to games with in-game casinos (such as some Dragon Quest games or Ni no Kuni), neither does ESRB, as you will see these games with an "E" or "E10", not listing it as one of the reasons behind its rating. Other countries and regions, however, are much stricter. This has resulted in some discrepancies in rating (ie, Dragon Quest VII being "PEGI 12" but "E10" in NA or Ni no Kuni getting the Korean equivalent of an "M" rating yet everyone else listed it as "T" or "PEGI 12") or even affecting future development. (See Pokémon)
- If it's historical and has a level of detail beyond personally killing things (effectively, a strategy game), it probably qualifies. Take Rome: Total War: the men in your family line are the most important characters in the game, providing bonuses when they lead armies and run your cities, with stats and intricate trait and retinue systems; the women don't even have stats, they're used for making babies and bringing new men into their family.
- Slavery is a particular problem with historical building games. Some use it as a critical game mechanic, others pretend that it didn't happen. In Medieval: Total War, if one is playing as a Muslim faction, it is possible to sell captured soldiers/rebels into slavery (for Christian factions, the option is "execute"). It is also possible to launch Crusades or Jihads against another group.
- Each province in Europa Universalis III produces a particular trade good. In Africa, one of the possible trade goods are slaves. The game, however, gives the player no benefit for finding slaves other than the actual direct profit from the trade good... and even then, one prefers to find gold or ivory (another resource that conjures values dissonance) in Africa. It's possible to abolish the slave trade, at which point all of a player's provinces that "produce" slaves start producing something else; this is usually beneficial, because it gives players another shot at finding gold in their provinces.
- Whether you want slaves or not actually depends on economic reasons, just like in actual history. Slave producing provinces give a big bonus to provinces that produce cotton, tobacco, or sugar; and if you abolish the slave trade, you're just as likely to find near-useless millet as you are ivory or gold. Even if you do find ivory or gold, it isn't a huge step up from slaves; and if you own more than a few of the aforementioned provinces that benefit from slaves, you're likely to lose money even if you strike nothing but gold.
- Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun and its sequel have gotten a lot of flak over the use of the terms "civilized" and "uncivilized." All the countries in the world are divided into these two categories, with "civilized" countries being able to industrialize much easier and research technology much better. This rather simplistic dichotomy works well for game balance purposes, but still generates controversy. The developers respond that the game, which covers the period of neo-imperialism and the heyday of scientific racism, is by its very scope Eurocentric, and that their detractors are just reacting badly to values dissonance.
- Civilization has whales and elephants as exploitable resources your civilization can take advantage of, often as luxury trade goods. For modern, western civs, that might mean tourism, but for most civs in most time periods it really means whaling and hunting for elephants as labor and ivory.
- Civilization IV also has the Civic Slavery, which is derided by some players to be inherently evil. Yet in practice it's quite normal given the time period when it's most worthwhile, which pretty much is everything pre-Renaissance/pre-industrial depending on your game-plan. And it's such a strong civic that deliberately not using it might put you back a couple of levels of play.
- Similar to the above is the "Heresy" technology from Age of Empires II, which kills any of your units that are converted by an enemy priest. It fits the time, and from a pure gameplay standpoint it's a very beneficial upgrade (you still lose the unit, but your enemy doesn't get it), but many players consider researching it a Moral Event Horizon.
- In Western territories, gamers complain about Bullet Hell shooters being crazy-hard Japanese bullshit. Meanwhile, in Japan, First Person Shooters get similar treatment instead.
- To some extent, most Western gamers have a dislike (if not outright hate) of mobile gaming for having a bunch of Shovelwares designed for "casuals" with microtransactions that they consider to be greedy cash-grabs. Most Eastern gamers (particularly in China and Japan) are particularly okay with mobile gaming, but most Japanese gamers hate PC games for being Shovelwares that are "too expensive" or "too complicated to set up" and would rather keep their gaming console and computer functions separate. Most Chinese and South Korean gamers Take a Third Option and throw some soft spots for PC and mobile gaming, since console gaming faces difficulties in these countries. The increased smartphone adoption in many, especially Eastern, countries certainly don't help. The difference between American and Chinese reactions to pay-to-win gameplay models, in particular, is apparently so obvious that even mainstream media outlets feel the need to point it out.
- This trope is part of the reason American Kirby Is Hardcore exists. While video games make cute characters and box art a common selling point in Japan, in America it is relatively a niche market outside children or casual gamers. Attempts to move towards the happy box art of most Japanese games is far outweighed by the amount of box art that turns them into sword-wielding warriors or have them wear scowls on par with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Case in point—The Legendary Starfy series was a big hit in its native Japan, but despite a fun and unique gameplay style, the cutesy appearance of the title character caused the series to be a commercial failure in America and no games have been released since in any country.
- Quite a few games with an ESRB rating back in the 90s when released today have had a change. For instance, a few K-A (Ages 6+) games get slapped with the newer E10+ (Ages 10+) or even T (ages 13+). The new ratings come with extensive lists of possibly objectionable content listed on the website as well, which allows consumers to make a more informed decision based on their own values and avert this trope. Sonic Adventure 2, when released for Dreamcast and Gamecube back in '01, got an E for Everyone rating, but when it was re-released for XBLA, PSN, and Steam in 2012, it got bumped up to E10+, because its content is now considered too dark and mature for an E-rated game. See Same Content, Different Rating for more about the topic. The opposite can happen too: In 1984, Germany banned River Raid for its violent content; in 2002, the ban was lifted, and it was rated free for all ages. In America, the Streets of Rage series usually got MA-13 ratings (Sega's equivalent to the T rating) because they were considered very violent for their time, but with modern-day re-releases, they are now rated E10+ because they're not as violent as games you'd see today.
- Pretty much a given for any Romance Game or Dating Sim. Cultural differences in gender roles have a lot to do with that.
- One theory that has been made to explain why JRPGs are popular in Japan but not in the West is the fact that JRPG require a lot of level grindingnote . Japanese gamers are perceived as being more patient than Western gamers and perceive the idea of level grinding in order to get some ultimate reward in the end. In the West most people neither have that kind of patience nor the wanting for a reward, which is the reason why many Western gamers get frustrated with those games and give up on ever trying one, which results in low sales. This may be the same reason Monster Hunter is a best-selling series in Japan, but is a Cult Classic at best in the United States. On a similar vein, Random Drop and Rare Random Drop when it comes to items are seen as widely accepted in many Asian gaming circles since they don't mind potentially waiting a long time to finally get that Infinity +1 Sword. Western players greatly despise those game mechanics for being too reliant on luck.
- In addition, JRPGs are criticized by western gamers for their linearity, as they are used to open-world WRPGs centered around making decisions and having the plot continue based on those choices. In addition, WRPGs tend to have a high level of character customization. Inversely, Japanese gamers have a tough time getting into WRPGs because they tend to find the open-world gameplay too overwhelming (any choices made in most JRPGs, will have one correct answer with the others either not allowing you to proceed or triggering an alternate route or even a bad ending) and inhibits the writers' ability to tell a compelling story. In other words, the conflict seems to be that western gamers want to be the protagonists of their RPGs, whereas Japanese gamers would rather just follow along with the narrative.
- This has seemed to be turned on its head that both are successful in the west while flipping the common perceived stereotype, what with the Western-made "JRPG" Undertale and Japanese-made "WRPG" Dark Souls. Even the aforementioned Monster Hunter franchise proved the stereotype wrong when Monster Hunter: World released globally, to critical acclaim.
- The Official Couple trope, especially in RPGs, is a huge point of contention in the west, due to differing ideas of how RPG storytelling should work. Westerners put more emphasis on player-created stories, so prefer having freedom of choice in love interests, whereas Japanese players prefer a well-constructed fixed narrative. So often, even in JRPGs with Relationship Values, there will still be one love interest that is hinted at as "more canon" than the others note , something completely unheard of in western RPGs. This character tends to be utterly reviled in the west, both for defeating the point of giving the player a choice in the first place and for other characters being more appealing as love interests by western standards. It's telling that a large number of characters on the Americans Hate Tingle page are either one half of an Official Couple or an Implied Love Interest in a game with Relationship Values.
- The idea of allowing player to buy items, gear, or even skipping several character levels via cash shop in an MMORPG is heavily divided among gamers. For Asian players, they don't see cash shops as a problem since they can buy exactly what they want without any fluff and can level up faster (most Asian countries enforce a law that heavily limits how much time someone can play an online game). For Western players, cash shops are seen as pay to win that devalues the idea of working towards your goals purely on your effort instead of Bribing Your Way to Victory while also making content locked behind a paywall instead of allowing them to be earned in the game.
- America's ESRB is much harsher on sexual content than most other countries, and many games that get M ratings for sexual content in America get lower ratings overseas (such as Akiba's Trip, which is rated the equivalent of T in Australia). "Partial Nudity", which even extends to exposed breasts on monster enemies not intended as sexual, is grounds for an automatic M rating in the ESRB's system, while other countries allow it in lower ratings and only give high ratings for full-frontal, explicitly sexual nudity. And the gap between the ESRB's M and AO ratings is only sexual content in most cases, leading to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas getting pulled from shelves and re-rated due to the "Hot Coffee" mod (there was little fanfare in Europe since the game was already rated 18+ for violence anyway). Skimpy outfits on characters is sometimes enough for an ESRB M rating, which often results in outfits being censored in US releases (for example, Tharja's swimsuit scene in Fire Emblem: Awakening's DLC was censored in the North American version, but not in the European version). It may be getting better, if one does wanna take a look at the Shantae series. For having a lot of cute girls in skimpy outfits and braless mermaids, it does go pretty well in the E10+/T rating. On the other hand, it's almost impossible for a game to get an AO rating in the US and Canada for violence alone, while most other countries will give 18+ ratings for violent content: In America, Bayonetta and Lollipop Chainsaw both received the Mature 17+ rating, whereas Europe gave both of them the 18+ rating due to having lots of gore and sexual content/dialogue.
- Australia didn't have an R18+ (i.e. adults only) rating for games until 2013. The reason they didn't have one boils down to one politician believing "... it will greatly increase the risk of children and vulnerable adults being exposed to damaging images and messages." (Video games are a relatively niche market in Australia compared to other countries.) As film and videogame ratings are a government body with legal authority in Australia, this meant games could be banned for having content exceeding the MA15+ rating. Even after a bill was passed allowing 18+ games, Australia's game classification system in general can be a case of this trope for other countries, as several games are rated higher or lower there than everywhere else. It seems that sex and violence are really the only things that can push a game into the two highest categories (MA15+ and R18+), while countries like America can have games rated M due simply to mature themes (the MegaTen series being a prime example). Australia also views cartoon violence as less "harsh" than realistic violence, hence why games like Super Smash Bros., Ratchet & Clank, and Team Fortress 2 get lower ratings there than America. Meanwhile Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, rated T by the ESRB and 12 by PEGI, was classified R18+ in Australia simply for "references to sexual violence", EarthBound (1994) is slapped with an M (13+) for crude humor and "sexual references", and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword got a 15+ rating over there, but an E10+ rating in America and 12+ in Europe.
- As a whole sexualizing violence in any form whether it be depictions of rape or any way of mixing sex and violence really gets up Australia's nose: the reason why Thrill Kill was banned was not because of the violence but the way it seemed fetishised. Night Trap made censors believe part of the game was about kidnapping and torturing women. The alien anal probe from Saints Row 4 was one of the reasons Australia was outraged and banned the game. They didn't like the sexually suggestive character models and the damage shown in Mortal Kombat 9 and went to the point of having boarder security and the Australian Navy prevent the game from reaching their shores. And games that depict or hint at rape or sex slavery are now given an automatic R rating (older games that had it are seemingly unaffected) for sexual violence.
- One other notable feature about Australia's videogame classifications is that they take Gameplay and Story Integration into account. If a player is given "incentives or rewards" for sexual acts or inflicting violence, it's treated a lot more harshly than, say, if the act was performed by NPCs in a cutscene. This might be why Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies got only a PG rating while the US and Canada rated it M: it features a lot of bloody murders and at one point a bombing, but none of it is interactive and it's all done by the villains in cutscenes. Interactive drug use as a buff is a huge Berserk Button for the ratings board and isn't allowed even in R18+ games, something that's incredibly contentious among Australian gamers.
- The way players at arcades queue up for gamesnote varies wildly from country to country:
- In the United States, a common practice for queueing up is to put down some sort of object to symbolize your position in the line, often a coin or a card; once your marker is at the front of the line, you drop your credit in and play. In fact, for a long time, arcades could purchase "Competitor" coin racks for players to put their queue-marker coins on. Once your credit is up, it's time to hand your turn to the next player and move your marker to the end of the line if you intend to play again; playing another credit when someone else is waiting is seen as selfishly hogging the machine.
- In the Philippines, you drop your credit(s) in to indicate lining up, and however many credits are before you indicates when your turn comes up. Most players will often stack multiple credits; while some players will get irked at the practice, it's widely accepted, if grudgingly.
- Bug Catching minigames and child characters who like bug catching are commonplace in Japan, where it's an innocent childhood activity. In many other places, being so fond of bugs is much more niche and is often seen as odd.
- In Japan, many visual novels feature young characters in high school (or even younger) in romantic or even sexual situations. Due to differing legal and social differences, almost every romance-based non-Japanese visual novel has the characters at least being eighteen.
Western Animation
- Not all animation is for kids however the idea is extremely popular. This concept didn't become prevalent until the mid-20th century. Most early cartoons were either made for adults or for general audiences. Not all Golden Age cartoons such as Felix the Cat, Looney Tunes, and Classic Disney Shorts were made for kids, however most are kid-friendly enough that they get treated as such. This makes shorts with sexual innuendo, use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, or other potentially mature material (especially suicide, with the infamous Tom and Jerry short "Blue Cat Blues" playing it for dramatic effect) stand out. They weren't made for kids but years of being depicted as so causes people to think of them as such.
- The Four-Fingered Hands trope is this to Japan. Although it's not the only reason, this is because the Yakuza used to chop off their own fingers as punishment for failures that weren't enough to warrant death, which is why it's extremely rare for characters in anime to have less than five fingers (even Super-Deformed characters). This even goes to the extreme of editing the tapes to add a finger on when exporting Western animation for Japanese audiences.
- Due to changing attitudes towards violence in media, what was acceptable for children in The '80s and The '90s (and even the early 2000s) gets very different treatment today. The TV ratings system did not exist in the 1980s, so a show like Thundercats 1985 generally would have been a TV-Y7 if it had. The show got bumped up to a TV-PG when it was rerun on Toonami. The 2011 reboot also got slapped with a TV-PG. Similarly, reruns of G.I. Joe and The Transformers on The Hub are now rated TV-PG. Meanwhile, Transformers: Prime gets off with a TV-Y7, and has just as much violence as the shows rated TV-PG.
- Animation programs from the 1980s and 1990s would face problems today if set in from a kind of school setting, especially bullying. While The Simpsons have continued to focus on this since the character stayed the same age, others that has came and went would faced this with social media being part of it, forcing laws to be passed. Speaking of a school setting, considering the school-to-prison debate... some of the characters would've been subject to it. Doug would be a good example of this considering Roger is a known Jerkass and deliquent and would've been serving time in juvenile hall for his actions these days instead of Bone making him just clean his trophy collection.
- Any TV show or movie for families or kids that contains the words, "spaz", "spastic", or "moron" (which in America are fairly harmless—a little insulting, but not so bad that they can't be said) will be met with values dissonance (and a compulsory editing for a U or PG rating) in the UK, as those words are used to describe someone who has cerebral palsy, is epileptic, or overall mentally disabled.
- In the Turn of the Millennium, Teletoon and YTV shows like 6teen, Total Drama, Braceface, Fred's Head, and Detentionaire weren't afraid to show gay characters and/or couples,note menstruation, and dirtier words to preteens while the States were a bit more sensitive to these sort of topics, and thus edited those certain episodes or downright omitted them from syndication. While the aforementioned examples are justified by the fact that they were more for teens and older tweens than younger kids, other more traditionally "kiddie" shows like Spliced, What's with Andy?, Rocket Monkeys, Roboroach, and Yvon of the Yukon may sometimes use words like "crap" or "suck" or feature noticeable amounts of Demographically Inappropriate Humor, since they aren't considered to be as dirty in Canada.
- The treatment of same gender couples in kid's cartoons, especially American ones, has had this occur. In the 2000s, series such as Postcards from Buster often came under fire for featuring characters with two parents of the same sex.note In the early 2010s with rising acceptance of LGBT people, cartoons began being more explicit about them, while cartoons not even six years prior went out of their way to hide characters between subtext. Many characters wouldn't even be revealed to be gay until Word of Gay (sometimes decades after the cartoon ended). To show this trope in action, the 2011 episode "What Was Missing?" from Adventure Time received a lot of publicity for heavily implying feelings between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. One official online show was outright canceled because they implied it. Come 7 years later and shows like Steven Universe, Clarence, The Loud House, Gravity Falls, and even Adventure Time itself with Marceline and Bubblegum's Relationship Upgrade in the 2018 finale casually featured gay and bi characters. Values Dissonance still occurs depending on the country. For example, Steven Universe has been censored in the UK and Russia for some of its female/female Ship Tease.
- Nudity of young characters in cartoons. In many European and Asian countries, like in the United Kingdom for example, it is treated in a nonchalant manner as long as it is innocent. In the US and Canada, it is treated with much more controversy due to being seen as inherently sexual. Cartoons from the 1980s, like Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the 1990s (even the early 2000s), like The Powerpuff Girls (1998) and Dexter's Laboratory, got away with casual bathing scenes or Naked People Are Funny, and still do when shown in Europe and Asia. But from circa 2005 onward, such scenes in North American-produced cartoons have become much rarer, mostly as an excuse to be "edgy".
- French and Italian cartoons like Code Lyoko, Wakfu, earlier seasons of Winx Club, and Miraculous Ladybug are more into fanservice than cartoons from a lot of other Western countries. While nowhere near Japanese levels, many European cartoons aren't shy about making a few risqué jokes or having rather skimpy attire.
- The aversion of Family-Friendly Firearms is quite notable in kids cartoons made in Europe and other countries outside of North America, which is ironic, considering how liberal America's gun laws are in contrast to Europe's. European casualness with animated depictions of realistic firearms is likely a consequence of their relative exoticism. In Europe, where very few citizens own guns, they are chiefly understood as a comic prop that no child would have any more access to than they would a Cartoon Bomb or sci-fi ray gun, whereas in the States, gun ownership is higher than any other wealthy country on Earth and playing with a firearm is not something you want television influencing your children to do with the revolver you keep upstairs.
