Funny / Tokyo Vice

Series:

Season 1

• Episode 4
  • The episode opens with Jake brought into the house of Ishida (the Chikara-kai boss), given An Offer You Can't Refuse to go-between him and the police. The entire scene is tense enough, but after that, Sato (revealed to have dropped his name in a bid to be forgiven) drives him home—all while singing to Backstreet Boys' "I Want it That Way" and declaring it a masterpiece. The rest of the scene devolves into Jake trying to get him to try *NSYNC and Sato dismissing them as copycats—not unlike the Real Life Fandom Rivalry both bands had at the time. Furthermore, Sato insists the song is supposed to be about Intercourse with You, which Jake laughingly tries to disprove.^note In another bit of Truth in Television: the Backstreet Boys indeed maintained a significant fanbase in Japan even into the Turn of the Millennium and The New '10s, such that their Fan Flattering thank you song "Bigger" was shot in Tokyo.
  • Later on, when Jake returns to the Meicho office, "Dandy" and "Tin-Tin" were very understandably worryingly asking him what went down. He, in turn, asks them whether they think "I Want it That Way" is indeed how Sato thinks it is. Both give a flat "duh", suggesting the Japanese market clearly took it that way.
  • The Brick Joke finally pays off when, at the end of the episode, Jake and Sato are at a club and "Tearin' Up My Heart" by *NSYNC starts playing. Sato flips Jake off in response.

Season 2

• Episode 4
  • Jake leaves a message for the embassy girl. He asks one of his colleagues if there's any Japanese context that not returning his calls means anything besides "go fuck yourself." He's bluntly told "no."

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