I like it more than the entertainment from my own country, overall. Particularly the popular entertainment.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great things coming out of here, the United States. But it has that "Justin Bieber" effect on me. I think the real reason a lot of Americans listen to foreign heavy metal or Jpop and Kpop or something like that, and watch anime ect., is because of the same effect people hate Justin Bieber and Twilight effect on people.
Twilight and Justin Bieber aren't or at least shouldn't be a big deal. Justin Bieber is one of a million people who are just like him. And there's plenty of horrible fiction just as bad as Twilight. In reality, some us here, being surrounded by things like Twilight and Justin Bieber all of the time makes us sick of it and hate it.
Some people take things further and just search out entertainment from other countries. And lo and behold something like PSY's Gangnam Style is the most viewed video on youtube. A lot of those viewers American. And Kpop is getting pretty popular in general. People are sick of the same old stuff.
I like plenty of stuff from my country. A lot of it better than other countries. I like My Little Pony, I enjoy the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I enjoy video games like They Bleed Pixels and Terraria. I think the United States has a fantastic punk music scene. Heck, I think the underground music scene of the United States is excellent in general. And not just that, we still have an excellent industrial music scene. Something, for instance, East Asia does not compete with. Europe has a pretty good industrial scene, but their current hardcore punk scene is not as vibrant as ours.
Japan and Korea certainly have their own problems. I hate lots of the homophobia and sexism and bullying both of these countries have. But I love some aspects of the entertainment. I love how I can play a JRPG and not have to play a testosterone laden macho-man. I love how Japan and South Korea and East Asia in general seem to be on a bandwagon of loving and promoting cute entertainment.
Of course, a lot of it is personal taste. While the United States objectively has a more vibrant Punk and Industrial scene than anywhere in Asia. And Asia has different things that the "West" doesn't. My personal taste dictates that I'd rather watch this.
Than most strict American pop music. I'm not a big fan of pop music period. But I can at least stomach cutesy Japanese electronic pop or Indie American pop. America doesn't really seem to go for cute as much as Japan does. And I find that kind of alienating. Some people blame me of liking things just because they're Japanese, but I like things from all around the world. I just happen to like some things that are more common in Japanese entertainment. I'd take something like My Little Pony which is extremely cute over something gritty and Japanese like Fist of the North Star any day. And aesthetically They Bleed Pixels is much more pleasing to me than Dragon's Dogma.
Doesn't stop me from being called names life "self hating" or "weeaboo" all of the time, though. With the reaction some people have to My Little Pony and cute anime and cuteness in general, I get the feeling many people think that liking My Little Pony is more "weeaboo" than liking Fist of the North Star. And in reality they are just using that as an insult to say they don't like or approve of cute girly things. And they don't respect cute, girly, feminine people either.
Anyway, I tend to like things from around the world. I tend to like foreign entertainment than domestic entertainment overall probably. But that's just because I feel that domestic entertainment is overrated. There's something unsettling about the fact most successful entertainment is in English when Chinese is the most spoken language worldwide. But me, it shows that American entertainers and entertainment culture is privileged and imperialistic. And I don't approve negative cultural imperialism that I think the United States entertainment industry is often responsible for.
So basically I like different things from different countries. For things like video games and animation and comics, I tend to like Japanese and sometimes South Korean entertainment. For things like music, I tend to like American and sometimes European music the most often. If just for the fact we have a much better rock and industrial music scene. Socially and politically, I tend to like Scandinavia. Scandinavia is definitely more gay friendly than say, anywhere in Asia. Or America, for that matter. We in the United States and much of South America are definitely behind Northwestern Europe on gay/LGBT issues.
So yes, I definitely like entertainment from other countries. If not more than my own. I think that everyone should feel that way. That is, appreciate entertainment from other countries. There's so much good stuff out there for every sort of person around the world that it feels foolish to me to stick to the media of one country.
