Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey With His Son

Peter Carey

Shelby

Wrong About Japan is a sort of docu-book about this dude, Peter Carey, and his son, Charlie (or something).

The father is from Australia, and now they all live in New York. Charlie becomes interested in anime and manga. That's it, just ANIME and MANGA. (He also rents Kikujiro a few billion times, but it's a kick ass movie, so you can't blame him) So what does the father do? Like any good, white father he tries to see what his son is inerested in. (if you noticed that white there, i'm too chicken to take it out) So because the guy is an Australian, maybe, he's like, "Wanna go to Japan?" (THAT QUICK?!) and the kid is like "Yeah, whatever".

Rich people. Anyway.

They go to Japan, and even though he's been there before, the dad totally ruins the trip for his kid. The kid, ironically, begs his dad not to see "Real Japan", that is, Kabuki shows and torii shrines and probably well-endowed tanuki sculptures but that last one isn't mentioned. Charlie would rather go to play video games and make Gundam models and stuff. But noooooo. After telling the reader that Japan is a closed society and that gaijin will never understand, he is determined to be the "gaijin who got it." worst of all, he wants to "get it" through anime and manga.

So he gets to go to all these interviews with famous anime and manga artists. He also goes to see a swordsmith and a cross-dressing "visualist otaku". They all insist to him that manga was just developed trying to sell candy, and anime is to sell toys, or from manga. And he's still like, "but to the Japanese, aren't there parts of the anime, to which other societies are oblivious?"
"um... no. Just to sell robot toy."
"but why the obsession with robots? When the kids are in the robot, is it like they're in a robot 'womb' so they feel safe from all the 'other' kids" (in other words, do the nihonjin want a big robot mommy so they can be protected from the ignorant, evil, gaijin?
"Um... it's a toy."

So by the time they get to Kazu or Kayu or whatever the hell his name was, I'm convinced that there is actually an "it" that the nihonjin are conditioned to keep secret from all gaijin. Perhaps it is a small stillborn child floating in some sort of bluish green liquid that was frozen in the snowy snowiness of Hokkaido. Maybe not. But Carey is certain that something like this exists, so he has to go around doing interviews and keeping his poor kid from his penpal Takashi. He is annoying. Annoying to the intervewees, annoying to Charley, annoying to his connections, annoying to Takashi, and annoying to ME.

But then, Carey does something so wonderful and completely unexpected. He is really funny. REALLY funny. There were some moments that made me chuckle before but wow. When they are trying to visit Takashi (with whom I am in love) one last time, they go to the Mister Donut where he works. But the store is closed, and you read this:

      But Mister Donut was closed. Impossible. We both got out of the car and stood with our noses pressed against the glass doors. It had been open before, so how could it be closed now? I took the parcel from my son and laid it on the step.
      Charley retrieved his gift and then, from deep in a pocket of his baggy jeans, pulled out the map Takashi had drawn when he invited us to his grandmother's apartment.
      "Oh no," I thought, "no, please, no."
      But what was I to do? My only choice was to hand the driver our map. "We go," I said in perfect English.

This is very funny--I don't care what you think. It's my review. In conclusion. This was a very good book writing-wise. But I'll tell you, this Carey guy got on my LAST NERVE. You were Wrong About Japan. You lose. But the last part was great, and not becase it was the last part. But because it was funny... very cinematic. Good Job.

Stay tuned for my next review: Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones. Let's see how interesting the people are when they aren't dubbed from the nihongo.