As Seen on TV -- in Japan
on Wall Street Journal
by Aaron Rutkoff, June 13, 2006
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As YouTube and Google Video upload clips at a blistering rate, navigating these online repositories can be a challenge. For one television producer, the ocean of clips screams out for self-appointed curators willing to scour massive video clearinghouses and pluck out hidden gems.
His mission: Share the often-bizarre world of Japanese TV with the rest of us.
The Gimmick
"TV in Japan1," launched in April, operates under the assumption that there is something intrinsically fascinating about Japanese pop culture. It's not a stretch -- Godzilla, poorly dubbed martial arts movies, anime cartoons and contemporary TV imports like "Iron Chef2" and "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge3" have been entertaining fans for decades.
This segment, from an unidentified game show, is typical "TV in Japan" fare. In the half-minute clip, serious-looking men in white uniforms tickle the bare feet of two female contestants, who are judged on their ability to not laugh. More amusing are the questions left unanswered: Who are the men in insect costumes watching the action? Is that commentator wearing a fake goatee? Why are the contestants dressed in matching orange frocks and furry caps?
Even if subjected to an expert translation, it is unlikely that this ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi5, delivered by a shirtless man in black spandex pants, could ever be placed into reasonable context.
The video blog plays off the same American-in-Tokyo dislocation as the hit film "Lost in Translation," in which two unlikely ex-pats seek familiarity in Japan's media-saturated, high-tech culture. (Fans of the film may be surprised to discover, via "TV in Japan," that the hyperkinetic talk-show host who conducts a surreal interview with Bill Murray's character is an actual talk-show host in Japan6.)
To Gavin Purcell, a 31-year-old TV producer from Los Angeles, the point isn't to explain away the perceived strangeness. Most posts offer little in the way of context, and the majority of clips lack subtitles. "The greatest thing about these clips is that they sort of live on their own," he says. "If you try to explain what's happening, you take away from the mystique."
['Zuiikin English,' an aerobics-based method of learning English, became an obsession on 'TV in Japan.']
'Zuiikin English,' an aerobics-based method of learning English, became an obsession on the 'TV in Japan' blog.
He sometimes gives in to his curiosity. "Zuiikin' English7," an educational program that purports to teach English by combining situational drama and highly repetitive aerobics, demanded investigation. "As far as I can tell, it's real," Mr. Purcell explains. "It could be a big joke there, but it looks real." (Click here8 to see the show's explanatory segment, as well as the Zuiikin aerobic dance trio stepping to the phrase "I was robbed by two men;" more on Mr. Purcell's effort to understand the show here9.)
A typical blog post includes a wry headline above an embedded video clip and a purposefully naïve summary: "This is how you make bread10," reads one post describing a segment from a variety show. "By delivering unto it shots of furious anger. With mallets [and] a strong hand. On TV. In Japan."
Those four words -- on TV, in Japan -- end each entry with wide-eyed minimalism. "I wanted to message it differently and not have a 'ha ha' attitude about everything," Mr. Purcell explains.
The Idea
"TV in Japan" is decidedly frivolous, but as Mr. Purcell sees it, also practical. "This is a really weird time on the Internet, where technology is allowing people to post stuff they've had in their video collections forever," he says.
The explosive growth of online video-hosting services like YouTube, which adds an astonishing 50,000 video clips a day11, is changing how people access entertainment. Videos can be uploaded anywhere, anytime. And they can unexpectedly blow up into hits, as did the Saturday Night Live sketch "Lazy Sunday12" or the impromptu "Bus Uncle13" argument about feeling pressure.
'ON TV. IN JAPAN.'
"TV in Japan" blogger Gavin Purcell provides links to his favorite Japanese television clips.
• Spider-Man + Japanese = Awesome14
• Otaku From the U.S.A.15
• Hypnotic Caterpillars Ice Tea Ad16
• The God Tongue17
• The Penalty for Laughing18
One drawback of the boundless realm of videos is that clip seekers are often at the mercy of search algorithms. "There aren't a lot of sites that are good at aggregating video clips," Mr. Purcell says. "There is no Digg19 for clips."
The most well known online video curators, he observes, are the raunchy humorists behind popular frat-boy humor Web sites like GorillaMask.net, Break.com and CollegeHumor.com. Thanks to these sites, bikini-clad models, practical jokes, skateboarding stunts gone awry and other "not safe for work" clips are at surfers' fingertips.
Mr. Purcell's clip hunting is straightforward, if laborious: He spends an hour or two each day searching the major video-hosting sites for new additions tagged "Japan" or "Japanese," and often traces good hits back to the source. He uses Google's translation software to navigate Japanese blogs. "I do see a lot more clips than appear on the blog," Mr. Purcell says. "I like to think I'm very discerning." He estimates he cans 20 clips for each one he posts.
Even with hours logged in the virtual Pacific culture, "I probably understand 30 words of Japanese," he says.
The Creator
Mr. Purcell traces his love of Japanese TV back to a videocassette he found when he was 12 years old at his local rental store. It was of the Japanese game show "Za Gaman20," in which contestants are subjected to what appears (by U.S. standards, at least) to be abject torture. In one segment, players hiked up a mountain, submerged themselves in ice water and consumed large quantities of cold soup and beer. The winner: the last man to use a nearby outhouse.
[An ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi.]
An ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi.
After college, Mr. Purcell spent a year in Seoul teaching English, experiencing cultural dislocation firsthand. "It was alienating and off-putting -- in a good way," he recalls.
Only after working as a producer for a pop-culture program called "Attack of the Show21" on the G4 cable network did his fascination with Japanese TV return. While in Tokyo covering a videogame convention, Mr. Purcell spent his free time holed up in his hotel room watching local TV. "All the shows were just like what I remembered from when I was 12," he says. "It was amazing."
As a TV producer, Mr. Purcell is aware of the marginal legality of his blog. Clips posted on "TV in Japan" would be pulled down in the face of a copyright complaint, he insists, though he hasn't faced such a challenge. Without his blog, few in America would access such videos, he argues. "I am not trying to ive myself a pass, but I do feel that it's important." He hopes one day to be part of a "network of blogs that gathered stuff like this from around the world."
The Tipping Point
After his blog launched in April, Mr. Purcell set out to build an audience. He wrote about his efforts to popularize "TV in Japan" on yet another blog22, as he recounts in a post entitled "TV in Japan -- The Marketing Sidestory23." After gathering a few dozen clips and hyping his new blog to friends and co-workers, his daily page views topped off at a rather paltry 136. He then introduced his blog, via email, to the bigger players in the blogosphere.
Screenhead, an offbeat video blog in Nick Denton's Gawker Media empire, took the bait24 but did little to augment Mr. Purcell's traffic stats. An approving link25 from BoingBoing, one of the largest tech-culture blogs, briefly knocked his daily page views into four-figure territory. Now, Mr. Purcell reports, "TV in Japan" brings in about 5,000 page views a day from some 4,000 unique viewers. The blog carries Google ads but generates little revenue.
He is a firm believer in the marketing prowess of MySpace, where the profile of his oddball blog26 has already won over hundreds of "friends." Those friends, in turn, help widen his exposure within their own online social spheres, he says, "especially those not in that first circle of nerd-dom that my blog attracts."
Clicks from MySpace now account for 10% of "TV in Japan" traffic, and Mr. Purcell expects that number to grow. The blog has devotees: "A lot of British people, a lot of Spanish people, people from all over Europe," he says. "I think it goes to show you that Japanese weirdness really resonates around the globe."
And what do actual Japanese people make of "TV in Japan"? So far, they are "very cool" about it, helping to translate and explain the more befuddling videos. Some even tip off Mr. Purcell to new clips.
by Aaron Rutkoff, June 13, 2006
His mission: Share the often-bizarre world of Japanese TV with the rest of us.
The Gimmick
"TV in Japan1," launched in April, operates under the assumption that there is something intrinsically fascinating about Japanese pop culture. It's not a stretch -- Godzilla, poorly dubbed martial arts movies, anime cartoons and contemporary TV imports like "Iron Chef2" and "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge3" have been entertaining fans for decades.
This segment, from an unidentified game show, is typical "TV in Japan" fare. In the half-minute clip, serious-looking men in white uniforms tickle the bare feet of two female contestants, who are judged on their ability to not laugh. More amusing are the questions left unanswered: Who are the men in insect costumes watching the action? Is that commentator wearing a fake goatee? Why are the contestants dressed in matching orange frocks and furry caps?
Even if subjected to an expert translation, it is unlikely that this ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi5, delivered by a shirtless man in black spandex pants, could ever be placed into reasonable context.
The video blog plays off the same American-in-Tokyo dislocation as the hit film "Lost in Translation," in which two unlikely ex-pats seek familiarity in Japan's media-saturated, high-tech culture. (Fans of the film may be surprised to discover, via "TV in Japan," that the hyperkinetic talk-show host who conducts a surreal interview with Bill Murray's character is an actual talk-show host in Japan6.)
To Gavin Purcell, a 31-year-old TV producer from Los Angeles, the point isn't to explain away the perceived strangeness. Most posts offer little in the way of context, and the majority of clips lack subtitles. "The greatest thing about these clips is that they sort of live on their own," he says. "If you try to explain what's happening, you take away from the mystique."
['Zuiikin English,' an aerobics-based method of learning English, became an obsession on 'TV in Japan.']
'Zuiikin English,' an aerobics-based method of learning English, became an obsession on the 'TV in Japan' blog.
He sometimes gives in to his curiosity. "Zuiikin' English7," an educational program that purports to teach English by combining situational drama and highly repetitive aerobics, demanded investigation. "As far as I can tell, it's real," Mr. Purcell explains. "It could be a big joke there, but it looks real." (Click here8 to see the show's explanatory segment, as well as the Zuiikin aerobic dance trio stepping to the phrase "I was robbed by two men;" more on Mr. Purcell's effort to understand the show here9.)
A typical blog post includes a wry headline above an embedded video clip and a purposefully naïve summary: "This is how you make bread10," reads one post describing a segment from a variety show. "By delivering unto it shots of furious anger. With mallets [and] a strong hand. On TV. In Japan."
Those four words -- on TV, in Japan -- end each entry with wide-eyed minimalism. "I wanted to message it differently and not have a 'ha ha' attitude about everything," Mr. Purcell explains.
The Idea
"TV in Japan" is decidedly frivolous, but as Mr. Purcell sees it, also practical. "This is a really weird time on the Internet, where technology is allowing people to post stuff they've had in their video collections forever," he says.
The explosive growth of online video-hosting services like YouTube, which adds an astonishing 50,000 video clips a day11, is changing how people access entertainment. Videos can be uploaded anywhere, anytime. And they can unexpectedly blow up into hits, as did the Saturday Night Live sketch "Lazy Sunday12" or the impromptu "Bus Uncle13" argument about feeling pressure.
'ON TV. IN JAPAN.'
"TV in Japan" blogger Gavin Purcell provides links to his favorite Japanese television clips.
• Spider-Man + Japanese = Awesome14
• Otaku From the U.S.A.15
• Hypnotic Caterpillars Ice Tea Ad16
• The God Tongue17
• The Penalty for Laughing18
One drawback of the boundless realm of videos is that clip seekers are often at the mercy of search algorithms. "There aren't a lot of sites that are good at aggregating video clips," Mr. Purcell says. "There is no Digg19 for clips."
The most well known online video curators, he observes, are the raunchy humorists behind popular frat-boy humor Web sites like GorillaMask.net, Break.com and CollegeHumor.com. Thanks to these sites, bikini-clad models, practical jokes, skateboarding stunts gone awry and other "not safe for work" clips are at surfers' fingertips.
Mr. Purcell's clip hunting is straightforward, if laborious: He spends an hour or two each day searching the major video-hosting sites for new additions tagged "Japan" or "Japanese," and often traces good hits back to the source. He uses Google's translation software to navigate Japanese blogs. "I do see a lot more clips than appear on the blog," Mr. Purcell says. "I like to think I'm very discerning." He estimates he cans 20 clips for each one he posts.
Even with hours logged in the virtual Pacific culture, "I probably understand 30 words of Japanese," he says.
The Creator
Mr. Purcell traces his love of Japanese TV back to a videocassette he found when he was 12 years old at his local rental store. It was of the Japanese game show "Za Gaman20," in which contestants are subjected to what appears (by U.S. standards, at least) to be abject torture. In one segment, players hiked up a mountain, submerged themselves in ice water and consumed large quantities of cold soup and beer. The winner: the last man to use a nearby outhouse.
[An ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi.]
An ecstatic rap about Prime Minster Junichero Koizumi.
After college, Mr. Purcell spent a year in Seoul teaching English, experiencing cultural dislocation firsthand. "It was alienating and off-putting -- in a good way," he recalls.
Only after working as a producer for a pop-culture program called "Attack of the Show21" on the G4 cable network did his fascination with Japanese TV return. While in Tokyo covering a videogame convention, Mr. Purcell spent his free time holed up in his hotel room watching local TV. "All the shows were just like what I remembered from when I was 12," he says. "It was amazing."
As a TV producer, Mr. Purcell is aware of the marginal legality of his blog. Clips posted on "TV in Japan" would be pulled down in the face of a copyright complaint, he insists, though he hasn't faced such a challenge. Without his blog, few in America would access such videos, he argues. "I am not trying to ive myself a pass, but I do feel that it's important." He hopes one day to be part of a "network of blogs that gathered stuff like this from around the world."
The Tipping Point
After his blog launched in April, Mr. Purcell set out to build an audience. He wrote about his efforts to popularize "TV in Japan" on yet another blog22, as he recounts in a post entitled "TV in Japan -- The Marketing Sidestory23." After gathering a few dozen clips and hyping his new blog to friends and co-workers, his daily page views topped off at a rather paltry 136. He then introduced his blog, via email, to the bigger players in the blogosphere.
Screenhead, an offbeat video blog in Nick Denton's Gawker Media empire, took the bait24 but did little to augment Mr. Purcell's traffic stats. An approving link25 from BoingBoing, one of the largest tech-culture blogs, briefly knocked his daily page views into four-figure territory. Now, Mr. Purcell reports, "TV in Japan" brings in about 5,000 page views a day from some 4,000 unique viewers. The blog carries Google ads but generates little revenue.
He is a firm believer in the marketing prowess of MySpace, where the profile of his oddball blog26 has already won over hundreds of "friends." Those friends, in turn, help widen his exposure within their own online social spheres, he says, "especially those not in that first circle of nerd-dom that my blog attracts."
Clicks from MySpace now account for 10% of "TV in Japan" traffic, and Mr. Purcell expects that number to grow. The blog has devotees: "A lot of British people, a lot of Spanish people, people from all over Europe," he says. "I think it goes to show you that Japanese weirdness really resonates around the globe."
And what do actual Japanese people make of "TV in Japan"? So far, they are "very cool" about it, helping to translate and explain the more befuddling videos. Some even tip off Mr. Purcell to new clips.
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