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Misused: We All Live In America

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To-do list:

  • Move examples that involve a foreign culture being portrayed as more similar to the author's culture than it actually is to Creator's Culture Carryover, and remove misuse.

    Original post 
Note: This thread was proposed by nw09.

We All Live in America is supposed to be about a foreign culture being portrayed exactly the same as the author's. Instead, it's often used for individual errors (such as a minor language mistake) as well as other misuse (including interpreting the title literally).

We All Live In America Wick Check has out of 50 examples:

  • 8 used correctly (16%)
  • 17 misuse in individual errors (34%)
  • 11 other misuse (22%)
  • 12 unsure (24%)

Suggesting a rename and/or expansion.

Wick check:

We All Live in America is supposed to be about a foreign culture being portrayed exactly the same as the author's. Instead, it's often used for individual errors (such as a minor language mistake) or a literal interpretation of the title.

50/50

    Correct use (culture is portrayed exactly the same) 8/ 50 
  • My Hero World: Invoked. As many of Kulev's issues with the series are intrisicly tied to Japanese values, they are ignoring said values in favor of using more Western values despite the setting still being in Japan.
  • Hogwarts Exposed Timeline: Obviously by the Tropes above, the entire story is written with the United States in mind and most changes, social transformations and advances are done in here (The Maskarade break was done by the President Clinton). Going to ridiculous levels with the Magic World (We All Live in Britannia) since all the spells, weapons, institutions and abilities are exactly the same regardless of Nation or Culture.
  • William Shakespeare: He might have been writing a play set in Celtic Britain, or ancient Rome, or ancient Greece, or Italy, but the themes and ideas in the plays pretty consistently evoked Elizabethan/Jacobean England.
  • The Descent: A British movie, filmed in Britain, with British flora and fauna, and vampire-like cave monsters typical of European folklore. The setting: North Carolina.
  • The Neverending Story: The original German versions of the movies—and the books—base the story in Germany. How come Bastian's hometown looks like an American city, then? Especially ridiculous since the Fantasia scenes were filmed at a studio in Munich, meaning the filmmakers could easily have preserved the original setting simply by taking their equipment outside the studio.
  • The Final Sword: The fic seems to constantly forget everyone is living in Japan. Apparently everyone in the fic listens to Western pop music more than they do Japanese music, photos of Western rooms are used to represent the interior of the very Japanese Citadel and English wordplays that don't make sense in Japanese show up; for instance Rebora's pet squirrel is named Lucky after it's said to haven been lucky to be alive, which does not make sense translated into Japanese no matter which way you try to put it.
  • Hollywood Provincialism: Subtrope of Creator Provincialism and of We All Live in America, which happens when American media assumes that life and culture in other parts of the world is the same as in the United States.
  • Vantage Point:
    • It's set in Spain, yet the Secret Service are seen seizing cars from the locals, as well as chasing, arresting and shooting them, even cops. Plenty of wars have started over much less.
    • Never mind that it is an international summit, but it is presided over by the city's mayor (with no member of the Spanish national government apparently present), the President of the United States is the absolute star, and the public waves a zillion Spanish flags at him and only Spanish flags, something much more reminiscent of Eagleland (If they want to honor the POTUS and Spanish-American relations, shouldn't they be Spanish and American flags? And what about the other foreign representatives there? Does nobody care about them?). It's painfully evident that the writer had an American president giving a speech in the US in mind and only painted a light "but in Spain" coat over it.

    Misuse (individual errors) 17/ 50 
  • Damon Knight: "Rule Golden" has a BBC news reporter say "In Commons today..." But omitting the article like that is an Americanism; any real Brit would at least say "in the Commons", and a BBC announcer would more likely say "in the House of Commons", which after all takes only about half a second longer.
  • Lindsay Ellis: In the Loose Canon episode on Jack the Ripper, there is a throwaway "they're trying to take our English guns!" line speculating as to what would happen if the Ripper killings happened now. IN the UK, civilian handguns are completely banned and shotguns heavily controlled.
  • Sam & Mickey: While Sam and Mickey is usually flawless with portraying various American accents, they sometimes use Australian terms to refer to certain things, such as "aubergine" for "eggplant", calling the flashlight on the smartphone a "torch" in one episode, Skipper referring to a bag of chips as "crisps", the word "cilantro" being pronounced with a soft a (as in apple), just to name a few.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man: It's questionable whether a scientist, and a British scientist at that, would record his core body temperature in Fahrenheit ("89.7 degrees").
  • The Fifth Element: Inverted. Korben lives in New York, and loses all five points left on his driver's license. In America, points are added for traffic violations, whereas in France, points are removed. This is also not an inversion
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Lampshaded below:
    Sam the Eagle: Mm, you will love business. It is the AMERICAN WAY!
    (Young Ebenezer looks extremely confused)
    Gonzo: Ack! Uh, Sam... (whispers in Sam's ear)
    Sam the Eagle: Oh... It is the BRITISH WAY!
    Gonzo: Good. (thumbs up)
    Young Ebenezer: Yes, Headmaster.
    Sam the Eagle: Hmm. (looks around, confused) This is just a gag
  • Italians Talk with Hands: Averted in Gunslinger Girl where the mannerisms of the cyborg girls and their handlers resemble Japanese reserve rather than Italian expresssiveness.
  • Japanese Spirit: In the Iron Man manga, Tony Stark works hard to curtail his American sensibilities, especially his womanizing, while in Japan, knowing it won't win him any points with the locals. His behavior, however, more closely resembles what a Japanese writer would GUESS an American hotshot would act like. For example, at one point, he is sparring with a Japanese fighter and compliments the man on his Japanese Spirit...before cheating and then proclaiming that as an American, he instead has "Pioneer Spirit". Not only Japanese Spirit is something most Americans have vaguely heard of, at best, but no American would ever use the term "Pioneer Spirit". The "American Way", maybe, but in this context, even that's a stretch.
  • Symbology Research Failure: The Da Vinci Code opens with Robert Langdon conferencing about symbology in France. He shows the audience an image similar to this and asks them the first idea it conjures in their mind. They say "hatred," "racism," and "Ku Klux Klan." Langdon replies: "Yes, yes, interesting. But they would disagree with you in Spain. There, they are robes worn by priests." This is wrong. They are Nazareno suits, worn by lay congregationists during Holy Week processions. They are only worn by priests when the priests don't want others to know that they are priests - the point of the suit, at least in its origin, was to hide the identity of the so-called penitents. It is also unbelievable that a French audience would think of an American hate group before a tourist attraction in the country next door that is visited by thousands of Frenchmen every year.
  • Analysis.Artistic License Paleontology: Smilodon, a strictly American genus, is sometimes placed in any other continent, and often long after every other sabertooth had gone extinct there. It's also often shown living in a snowy environment alongside woolly mammoths, despite ranging farther south in warmer climates. The South American species S. populator was known to have lived in a savannah-like environment which spread much of the Amazon was during the Ice Age, and it didn't live alongside mammoths but rather the elephant-like gomphotheres. On the other hand, the North American species S. fatalis would have seen snow during winter, given California's colder climate at the time, but its range is still far away from woolly mammoths. That species, however, did live alongside the massive Columbian mammoths as well as American mastodons.
  • V for Vendetta: Mostly averted (like V saying "lift" instead of "elevator") but not always — several uses of "cop" which is generally an Americanism (Brits prefer "copper"), Finch pronouncing lever as leh-ver instead of lee-ver. Additionally, Lewis Prothero was based more on American television pundits (like Bill O'Reilly) rather than anything off British TV. The colors of the national postal carrier are based on USPS rather than Royal Mail. In the freight yard a bell is heard from a moving locomotive, not a UK requirement.
  • Titanic (1997): When Rose asks Thomas Andrews where she may find Jack, he tells her to take the elevator to the bottom, despite being an Irishman who would say lift. In the following scene, a crewman does indeed correctly say "lifts." Then again, Andrews may have said it for Rose's benefit, since she's American.
  • Gunslinger Girl: The series, though it's set in Italy, had many of the adult handlers be quite reserved towards their charges, probably causing Values Dissonance for any Italian viewers. They even bow sometimes. The girls don't act much like typical Italian girls, either.
  • Im: Great Priest Imhotep: A particularly weird one where the Amen Priest Society's Egyptian branch decides to throw a Japanese style festival complete with kimonos, fireworks, and Japanese games and dishes. The only real reason that's offered is that the Magai rampage that happened earlier wrecked the area. A major example, but it's still just one event
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
    • The main characters are Italian gangsters who despise the drug trade. Such beliefs are commonly attributed to Yakuza, but aren't generally associated with organized crimes much of anywhere else.
    • While doing math, Narancia draws a henohenomoheji on the side of his paper (which is made of Japanese characters).
    • Guido Mista has a deep superstitious fear of number four, as if he were Japanese. Italians actually fear seventeen the most. The In-Universe explanation is that his tetraphobia originates from his neighbor being attacked by a kitten who was born in a litter of four, which, as far as justifications go, is laughably weak.

    Other misuse 11/ 50 

    Unsure 12/ 50 
  • Doug Walker: He's gone on weird rants about his country being too rebellious at least twice, and as he's talking about the Asian-based Avatar, it comes off as even stranger.
  • Frollo Freak: Danisha goes back in time to medieval France. Does she spend time trying the native foods? Listening to the traditional and contemporary music? Learning the history and local stories? Of course not! She—and her companions—spread American culture throughout 15th century Paris. They teach the kids how to play baseball, kickball and other games you will find on American playgrounds. And American history — or rather, American future — as well as American literature. Danisha—and clearly Frollo Freak—is from Indiana, so she puts emphasis on foods like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, ice cream, lemonade, etc. They turn medieval Paris into a small Midwestern town. When they go to the future, Danisha takes Frollo around places Frollo Freak must frequent. It also happens in The Disney Seven where Walroy is described as being in the Midwest. This is invoked in-universe
  • Hermione's Talent: Even aside from the anachronism, a lot of the musical choices are not well known in the UK. To say nothing of how the characters talk.
  • My Immortal: Hogwarts is in Britain, but you wouldn't know it with all the American cultural references this story contains.
  • The Bourne Series: It appears the CIA can do almost anything they want in any European country while the local authorities dutifully assist them, or at least don't do anything to hinder them. That the local authorities might refuse to help the CIA based of the fact that an American organization has no jurisdiction in their countries never seems to have crossed the writers' minds. (On the other hand, they are often seen lying to local authorities to manipulate them into capturing the protagonist. It's only in Berlin that the CIA takes an active role on the ground interacting with German officials since it's American agents that were murdered.) It's essential to the plot, but it doesn't say anything about how foreign countries are portrayed
  • The Debt (1999): Everybody pays in American dollars rather than zloties. Justified since in the early 1990s, when the movie is set, the Polish currency (as well as pretty much every other in the post-Soviet bloc) experienced a period of inflation that did not come to a close until mid-decade and so much of business was made in dollars.
  • Time Bokan 24: Rather, "We All Live in Modern Japan". Whenever the duo go back in time to find the True History, the people there indulge in quite a few Japanese pasttimes like Manzai acts or idol concerts.
  • SD Gundam Force: While the show features tons of American stereotypes, Neotopia still features lots of Japanese customs. Such as Shute knowing how to make rice balls and several of the citizens having Japanese names.
  • Queen's Blade: Despite the Western European Medieval setting of the series, some Japanese stuff still prevails on it: The biggest offenders are the armors of the Vance County and later, the Claudette's army's soldiers, who looks a lot like Ashigaru soldiers from the Japanese Sengoku period, the members of the Assassins of the Fang are Medieval Ninjas and we can hear a woman who sounds like a Benshi announcing the final battle between Leina and Aldra in the second season.
  • Characters.The Asterisk War: Exploited, In-Universe. In volume 7 and 8 they briefly attempt to take down Sylvia with the rumor that she has a boyfriend. (One supposes they're trying to ruin her reputation in the otaku community, since this probably wouldn't have much effect in the Western world.)
  • A Cruel God Reigns: A minor example, but some Japanese cultural issues seep into the story, despite the characters and settings being American or British
    • Early in the manga, Cass claims he needs to prostitute himself in order to pay the cost of school and books, even though American high schools would be free.
  • Pet Shop of Horrors: The setting is in Chinatown of Los Angeles, but the original manga and anime has people speaking Japanese. In one case, Leon is able to get beer from a vending machine, which does not exist in America.
  • Planetes: The section, and the company as a whole, are nationally and ethnically diverse (but seem to act unilaterally Japanese in certain cases).
  • Vinland Saga:
    • Most characters are fairly Japanese in spirit. It's easy to equate Japanese samurai and Danish vikings, as they are both warrior cultures, and there certainly are similarities, but there are differences between them.
    • Olmar and Garm act like Japanese Delinquents (including ridiculous hair which they must spend a lot of time on...) in medieval Europe. Chalk it up to Rule of Funny.
  • Little Big: Despite ostensibly existing in Russia, there are surprising number of Americanisms in their videos. For example, the police officers in Hypnodancer and Rock Paper Scissors, though not Skibidi, wear stereotypical NYPD uniforms. This is almost certainly deliberate.
  • Miracle of Sound: On Social Media, it's been making claims that every country's politics and social issues are exactly like America's.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 16th 2023 at 12:18:19 PM

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#1: Dec 1st 2022 at 8:46:31 PM

To-do list:

  • Move examples that involve a foreign culture being portrayed as more similar to the author's culture than it actually is to Creator's Culture Carryover, and remove misuse.

    Original post 
Note: This thread was proposed by nw09.

We All Live in America is supposed to be about a foreign culture being portrayed exactly the same as the author's. Instead, it's often used for individual errors (such as a minor language mistake) as well as other misuse (including interpreting the title literally).

We All Live In America Wick Check has out of 50 examples:

  • 8 used correctly (16%)
  • 17 misuse in individual errors (34%)
  • 11 other misuse (22%)
  • 12 unsure (24%)

Suggesting a rename and/or expansion.

Wick check:

We All Live in America is supposed to be about a foreign culture being portrayed exactly the same as the author's. Instead, it's often used for individual errors (such as a minor language mistake) or a literal interpretation of the title.

50/50

    Correct use (culture is portrayed exactly the same) 8/ 50 
  • My Hero World: Invoked. As many of Kulev's issues with the series are intrisicly tied to Japanese values, they are ignoring said values in favor of using more Western values despite the setting still being in Japan.
  • Hogwarts Exposed Timeline: Obviously by the Tropes above, the entire story is written with the United States in mind and most changes, social transformations and advances are done in here (The Maskarade break was done by the President Clinton). Going to ridiculous levels with the Magic World (We All Live in Britannia) since all the spells, weapons, institutions and abilities are exactly the same regardless of Nation or Culture.
  • William Shakespeare: He might have been writing a play set in Celtic Britain, or ancient Rome, or ancient Greece, or Italy, but the themes and ideas in the plays pretty consistently evoked Elizabethan/Jacobean England.
  • The Descent: A British movie, filmed in Britain, with British flora and fauna, and vampire-like cave monsters typical of European folklore. The setting: North Carolina.
  • The Neverending Story: The original German versions of the movies—and the books—base the story in Germany. How come Bastian's hometown looks like an American city, then? Especially ridiculous since the Fantasia scenes were filmed at a studio in Munich, meaning the filmmakers could easily have preserved the original setting simply by taking their equipment outside the studio.
  • The Final Sword: The fic seems to constantly forget everyone is living in Japan. Apparently everyone in the fic listens to Western pop music more than they do Japanese music, photos of Western rooms are used to represent the interior of the very Japanese Citadel and English wordplays that don't make sense in Japanese show up; for instance Rebora's pet squirrel is named Lucky after it's said to haven been lucky to be alive, which does not make sense translated into Japanese no matter which way you try to put it.
  • Hollywood Provincialism: Subtrope of Creator Provincialism and of We All Live in America, which happens when American media assumes that life and culture in other parts of the world is the same as in the United States.
  • Vantage Point:
    • It's set in Spain, yet the Secret Service are seen seizing cars from the locals, as well as chasing, arresting and shooting them, even cops. Plenty of wars have started over much less.
    • Never mind that it is an international summit, but it is presided over by the city's mayor (with no member of the Spanish national government apparently present), the President of the United States is the absolute star, and the public waves a zillion Spanish flags at him and only Spanish flags, something much more reminiscent of Eagleland (If they want to honor the POTUS and Spanish-American relations, shouldn't they be Spanish and American flags? And what about the other foreign representatives there? Does nobody care about them?). It's painfully evident that the writer had an American president giving a speech in the US in mind and only painted a light "but in Spain" coat over it.

    Misuse (individual errors) 17/ 50 
  • Damon Knight: "Rule Golden" has a BBC news reporter say "In Commons today..." But omitting the article like that is an Americanism; any real Brit would at least say "in the Commons", and a BBC announcer would more likely say "in the House of Commons", which after all takes only about half a second longer.
  • Lindsay Ellis: In the Loose Canon episode on Jack the Ripper, there is a throwaway "they're trying to take our English guns!" line speculating as to what would happen if the Ripper killings happened now. IN the UK, civilian handguns are completely banned and shotguns heavily controlled.
  • Sam & Mickey: While Sam and Mickey is usually flawless with portraying various American accents, they sometimes use Australian terms to refer to certain things, such as "aubergine" for "eggplant", calling the flashlight on the smartphone a "torch" in one episode, Skipper referring to a bag of chips as "crisps", the word "cilantro" being pronounced with a soft a (as in apple), just to name a few.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man: It's questionable whether a scientist, and a British scientist at that, would record his core body temperature in Fahrenheit ("89.7 degrees").
  • The Fifth Element: Inverted. Korben lives in New York, and loses all five points left on his driver's license. In America, points are added for traffic violations, whereas in France, points are removed. This is also not an inversion
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Lampshaded below:
    Sam the Eagle: Mm, you will love business. It is the AMERICAN WAY!
    (Young Ebenezer looks extremely confused)
    Gonzo: Ack! Uh, Sam... (whispers in Sam's ear)
    Sam the Eagle: Oh... It is the BRITISH WAY!
    Gonzo: Good. (thumbs up)
    Young Ebenezer: Yes, Headmaster.
    Sam the Eagle: Hmm. (looks around, confused) This is just a gag
  • Italians Talk with Hands: Averted in Gunslinger Girl where the mannerisms of the cyborg girls and their handlers resemble Japanese reserve rather than Italian expresssiveness.
  • Japanese Spirit: In the Iron Man manga, Tony Stark works hard to curtail his American sensibilities, especially his womanizing, while in Japan, knowing it won't win him any points with the locals. His behavior, however, more closely resembles what a Japanese writer would GUESS an American hotshot would act like. For example, at one point, he is sparring with a Japanese fighter and compliments the man on his Japanese Spirit...before cheating and then proclaiming that as an American, he instead has "Pioneer Spirit". Not only Japanese Spirit is something most Americans have vaguely heard of, at best, but no American would ever use the term "Pioneer Spirit". The "American Way", maybe, but in this context, even that's a stretch.
  • Symbology Research Failure: The Da Vinci Code opens with Robert Langdon conferencing about symbology in France. He shows the audience an image similar to this and asks them the first idea it conjures in their mind. They say "hatred," "racism," and "Ku Klux Klan." Langdon replies: "Yes, yes, interesting. But they would disagree with you in Spain. There, they are robes worn by priests." This is wrong. They are Nazareno suits, worn by lay congregationists during Holy Week processions. They are only worn by priests when the priests don't want others to know that they are priests - the point of the suit, at least in its origin, was to hide the identity of the so-called penitents. It is also unbelievable that a French audience would think of an American hate group before a tourist attraction in the country next door that is visited by thousands of Frenchmen every year.
  • Analysis.Artistic License Paleontology: Smilodon, a strictly American genus, is sometimes placed in any other continent, and often long after every other sabertooth had gone extinct there. It's also often shown living in a snowy environment alongside woolly mammoths, despite ranging farther south in warmer climates. The South American species S. populator was known to have lived in a savannah-like environment which spread much of the Amazon was during the Ice Age, and it didn't live alongside mammoths but rather the elephant-like gomphotheres. On the other hand, the North American species S. fatalis would have seen snow during winter, given California's colder climate at the time, but its range is still far away from woolly mammoths. That species, however, did live alongside the massive Columbian mammoths as well as American mastodons.
  • V for Vendetta: Mostly averted (like V saying "lift" instead of "elevator") but not always — several uses of "cop" which is generally an Americanism (Brits prefer "copper"), Finch pronouncing lever as leh-ver instead of lee-ver. Additionally, Lewis Prothero was based more on American television pundits (like Bill O'Reilly) rather than anything off British TV. The colors of the national postal carrier are based on USPS rather than Royal Mail. In the freight yard a bell is heard from a moving locomotive, not a UK requirement.
  • Titanic (1997): When Rose asks Thomas Andrews where she may find Jack, he tells her to take the elevator to the bottom, despite being an Irishman who would say lift. In the following scene, a crewman does indeed correctly say "lifts." Then again, Andrews may have said it for Rose's benefit, since she's American.
  • Gunslinger Girl: The series, though it's set in Italy, had many of the adult handlers be quite reserved towards their charges, probably causing Values Dissonance for any Italian viewers. They even bow sometimes. The girls don't act much like typical Italian girls, either.
  • Im: Great Priest Imhotep: A particularly weird one where the Amen Priest Society's Egyptian branch decides to throw a Japanese style festival complete with kimonos, fireworks, and Japanese games and dishes. The only real reason that's offered is that the Magai rampage that happened earlier wrecked the area. A major example, but it's still just one event
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
    • The main characters are Italian gangsters who despise the drug trade. Such beliefs are commonly attributed to Yakuza, but aren't generally associated with organized crimes much of anywhere else.
    • While doing math, Narancia draws a henohenomoheji on the side of his paper (which is made of Japanese characters).
    • Guido Mista has a deep superstitious fear of number four, as if he were Japanese. Italians actually fear seventeen the most. The In-Universe explanation is that his tetraphobia originates from his neighbor being attacked by a kitten who was born in a litter of four, which, as far as justifications go, is laughably weak.

    Other misuse 11/ 50 

    Unsure 12/ 50 
  • Doug Walker: He's gone on weird rants about his country being too rebellious at least twice, and as he's talking about the Asian-based Avatar, it comes off as even stranger.
  • Frollo Freak: Danisha goes back in time to medieval France. Does she spend time trying the native foods? Listening to the traditional and contemporary music? Learning the history and local stories? Of course not! She—and her companions—spread American culture throughout 15th century Paris. They teach the kids how to play baseball, kickball and other games you will find on American playgrounds. And American history — or rather, American future — as well as American literature. Danisha—and clearly Frollo Freak—is from Indiana, so she puts emphasis on foods like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, ice cream, lemonade, etc. They turn medieval Paris into a small Midwestern town. When they go to the future, Danisha takes Frollo around places Frollo Freak must frequent. It also happens in The Disney Seven where Walroy is described as being in the Midwest. This is invoked in-universe
  • Hermione's Talent: Even aside from the anachronism, a lot of the musical choices are not well known in the UK. To say nothing of how the characters talk.
  • My Immortal: Hogwarts is in Britain, but you wouldn't know it with all the American cultural references this story contains.
  • The Bourne Series: It appears the CIA can do almost anything they want in any European country while the local authorities dutifully assist them, or at least don't do anything to hinder them. That the local authorities might refuse to help the CIA based of the fact that an American organization has no jurisdiction in their countries never seems to have crossed the writers' minds. (On the other hand, they are often seen lying to local authorities to manipulate them into capturing the protagonist. It's only in Berlin that the CIA takes an active role on the ground interacting with German officials since it's American agents that were murdered.) It's essential to the plot, but it doesn't say anything about how foreign countries are portrayed
  • The Debt (1999): Everybody pays in American dollars rather than zloties. Justified since in the early 1990s, when the movie is set, the Polish currency (as well as pretty much every other in the post-Soviet bloc) experienced a period of inflation that did not come to a close until mid-decade and so much of business was made in dollars.
  • Time Bokan 24: Rather, "We All Live in Modern Japan". Whenever the duo go back in time to find the True History, the people there indulge in quite a few Japanese pasttimes like Manzai acts or idol concerts.
  • SD Gundam Force: While the show features tons of American stereotypes, Neotopia still features lots of Japanese customs. Such as Shute knowing how to make rice balls and several of the citizens having Japanese names.
  • Queen's Blade: Despite the Western European Medieval setting of the series, some Japanese stuff still prevails on it: The biggest offenders are the armors of the Vance County and later, the Claudette's army's soldiers, who looks a lot like Ashigaru soldiers from the Japanese Sengoku period, the members of the Assassins of the Fang are Medieval Ninjas and we can hear a woman who sounds like a Benshi announcing the final battle between Leina and Aldra in the second season.
  • Characters.The Asterisk War: Exploited, In-Universe. In volume 7 and 8 they briefly attempt to take down Sylvia with the rumor that she has a boyfriend. (One supposes they're trying to ruin her reputation in the otaku community, since this probably wouldn't have much effect in the Western world.)
  • A Cruel God Reigns: A minor example, but some Japanese cultural issues seep into the story, despite the characters and settings being American or British
    • Early in the manga, Cass claims he needs to prostitute himself in order to pay the cost of school and books, even though American high schools would be free.
  • Pet Shop of Horrors: The setting is in Chinatown of Los Angeles, but the original manga and anime has people speaking Japanese. In one case, Leon is able to get beer from a vending machine, which does not exist in America.
  • Planetes: The section, and the company as a whole, are nationally and ethnically diverse (but seem to act unilaterally Japanese in certain cases).
  • Vinland Saga:
    • Most characters are fairly Japanese in spirit. It's easy to equate Japanese samurai and Danish vikings, as they are both warrior cultures, and there certainly are similarities, but there are differences between them.
    • Olmar and Garm act like Japanese Delinquents (including ridiculous hair which they must spend a lot of time on...) in medieval Europe. Chalk it up to Rule of Funny.
  • Little Big: Despite ostensibly existing in Russia, there are surprising number of Americanisms in their videos. For example, the police officers in Hypnodancer and Rock Paper Scissors, though not Skibidi, wear stereotypical NYPD uniforms. This is almost certainly deliberate.
  • Miracle of Sound: On Social Media, it's been making claims that every country's politics and social issues are exactly like America's.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 16th 2023 at 12:18:19 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#2: Dec 1st 2022 at 8:48:41 PM

Paging ~nw09 to the thread.

Anyway, due to how few correct examples there are (8/50), I'm wondering if we should merge with Write What You Know. Edit: Retracted.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 5:52:25 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
How sweet it is
#3: Dec 1st 2022 at 10:05:20 PM

Seconding merge.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
nw09 Since: Apr, 2018
#6: Dec 1st 2022 at 10:49:53 PM

Merging it with Write What You Know would mean discarding the majority of examples, however, because a lot of examples fall under Artistic License (which Write What You Know isn't). I suggested a rename or expansion because I thought the misuse was still tropeworthy, but a disambiguation may be another option.

Edited by nw09 on Dec 1st 2022 at 11:17:51 AM

randomtroper89 from The Fire Nation Since: Nov, 2010
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#8: Dec 2nd 2022 at 12:23:59 AM

We could disambig it with tropes like Write What You Know and Eagleland Osmosis.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#9: Dec 2nd 2022 at 12:35:28 AM

[up]

Edit: Retracted my vote.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 5:52:05 AM

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SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#11: Dec 2nd 2022 at 1:19:07 AM

I dunno about Eagleland Osmosis - that sounds like it requires specifically American pop-culture as the vehicle.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
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#12: Dec 2nd 2022 at 3:26:48 AM

[up]It was suggested as an entry for a disambiguation page if we disambiguate this because of misuse that misinterprets the trope's name literally.

Kind of like how when Alien Lunch was disambiguated, the entries added to it covered how it was being used in ways other than the originally intended definition (the name was using the word "alien" in the sense of "unfamiliar", but misuse interpreted it in the sense of "extraterrestrial" since that's what the name sounded like), such as the recently launched Weird World, Weird Food.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 5:30:31 AM

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SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#13: Dec 2nd 2022 at 3:30:14 AM

Yeah, but as nw09 noted, the proposed disambiguators wouldn't cover many scenarios. And really, Artistic License examples ought to be in subtropes if possible. The scope of the AL pages is to be a catching net for examples that don't have their own subtropes yet, and not as a replacement for subtropes; specific patterns of things being incorrect are more tropish than just a general observation "fiction is inaccurate".

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
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#14: Dec 2nd 2022 at 3:32:21 AM

I was already against listing plain Artistic License on the disambiguation page if we disambiguate, since, as you said, using subtropes would be more ideal.

I'm too tired to see if there are any subtropes to cover these examples if we disambiguate instead of expanding, so I think I'm going to retract my disambiguation vote in favor of not voting until I've double-checked the wick check to see what expanding would entail, and whether expanding would be a good idea.

I'll come back to this thread after I'm more well rested and take a closer look at the wick check, and probably also vote.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 5:36:19 AM

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GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
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#15: Dec 2nd 2022 at 3:46:18 AM

OK, so I decided to just go ahead and double-check the wick check instead of waiting until after I've slept, and I think expanding the definition to include the second folder (the "individual errors" category) by having the definition cover creators making mistakes by applying aspects of their own culture to separate cultures (such as the first example in the second folder involving a speaker of one variety of English making a mistake about another variety when depicting the country that variety is from), even when said separate cultures are actually different from how they're portrayed in the work, is what I'm now in favor of. I'm also in favor of renaming.

I'm less sure about including examples from folders other than the first two (with the first folder covering the current definition), and I think we could expand to include the second folder as well without the trope being too broad (since the second folder is basically a more small-scale version of the first folder due to it covering individual errors instead of the whole work); the reason I'm in favor of renaming as well is to make the name clearer. I can't think of any name suggestions at the moment, but the current name is a stock phrase and also suffers from Trope-Namer Syndrome (even if the description admits that the Trope Namer was misquoted).

So reiterating that I retracted my vote to disambiguate in favor of expanding to cover at least some misuse and renaming to account for the revised definition (as opposed to how the current name doesn't even reflect the current definition), though we could still turn the old name into a disambiguation page after moving the trope to a new name instead of simply redirecting (as opposed to only disambiguating).

Edit: Also, I can't help but wonder if this should be Trivia as well, similarly to what was done with Dan Browned in the thread that decided to rename it. I'm not going to vote either way on that without more input, because I'm currently too tired to think that through (as opposed to how expanding the definition to include at least the second folder in addition to the first seems clear-cut).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 5:58:50 AM

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#16: Dec 4th 2022 at 7:34:25 PM

Hooked a crowner since it's been long enough.

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#18: Dec 5th 2022 at 5:05:32 AM

Posting here to make public that I voted for renaming and expanding, as the misuse seems tropeworthy enough. I may change my vote if a convincing argument comes about against this option.

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#19: Dec 5th 2022 at 6:04:44 PM

[tup]Renaming plus expanding.

GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
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#20: Dec 6th 2022 at 10:10:07 PM

Calling in favor of renaming and expanding to cover individual errors involving a work mistakenly portraying other cultures as similar to the creator's, instead of only covering the whole work as with the current definition. What are our options in terms of names?

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badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
#21: Dec 6th 2022 at 10:16:36 PM

Authors Culture Carryover (with an apostrophe)

Edited by badtothebaritone on Dec 6th 2022 at 12:16:58 PM

GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
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#22: Dec 7th 2022 at 12:59:35 AM

I think that name (or replacing "author" with "culture") would work, so I added that plus some I improvised. If these names end up not working out, I guess we could get more input later.

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Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
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#23: Dec 7th 2022 at 7:19:34 AM

We have duplicate entries in the crowner. "Creator's Culture Carryover" is in there twice.

Edited by Berrenta on Dec 7th 2022 at 9:20:11 AM

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#25: Dec 7th 2022 at 12:40:25 PM

[up][up]The duplicate was supposed to say "Cultural" instead of "Culture". I fixed it because I was tired when I made the crowner.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Trope Repair Shop: We All Live in America
7th Dec '22 12:54:18 AM

Crown Description:

Consensus was to rename We All Live In America and expand the definition to cover individual errors involving a work mistakenly portraying other cultures as similar to the creator's, instead of only covering the whole work as with the current definition. What should the trope's new name be?

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