What are the other couch potatoes watching on their small screens? This series on other people’s television makes the rounds of programming elsewhere, one country with one guide at a time.
A polyglot Italian working for shows filmed in Japan for decades: who better to lift the veil a little on the distant and mysterious Japanese television?
Piedmontese Luisella Palladino was first hired as a researcher for the show of travel Naruhodo! broadcast by Fuji TV at the end of the last century, after his oriental studies and learning the language of Mishima at the University of Venice. She then worked as a “fixer” for several productions of discoveries and exploration of the series Sekai, which means world. There is for example Sekai fushigi hakken (The mysteries of the world), Sekai Marumi (See the whole world) and Sekai zekkei kikou (The best panoramas in the world).
“Many programs introduce people to the planet by multiplying the effects to amaze and dazzle the Japanese, who are very curious,” explains Ms.me Palladino at Duty, speaking in English and French. She is also fluent in German and Spanish. She began to embrace her passion for languages at the age of 10 by learning Egyptian hieroglyphs.
“Japanese television is very colorful and really noisy, adds the Japanese-speaking Italian, who settled in Tokyo in 1987. Even in the exploration programs, the participants shout all the time, are surprised and ecstatic . There are also a lot of scrolling strips on the screen. Someone shouts “Wow!” and the word is written additionally in color. I have never seen a television anywhere in the world with so many subtitles. »
Japanese TV actually generally has a pretty bad reputation overseas. We know snippets of it from American versions (Iron Chef, American Ninja Warrior, LOL: Last One Laughing). A nasty joke says that the channels in the distant country only offer three types of programs: shows with stars, shows cooking shows and shows featuring celebrities cooking.
The very popular show Naruhodo!, who introduced the Italian to this exotic world, was no exception to the rule of three. “It was a hybrid show, explains Mme Palladino. Celebrities took part in the quiz related to the subjects of the reports filmed all over the world. I only worked with Japanese people while traveling everywhere. I myself have worked with more than forty celebrities on Japanese television. »
I was in Tokyo in early June, and everyone, 99.9% of people, was looking at their phones to read manga or watch their favorite shows, often dramas or comedies.
Three screens
There are many, many channels in this country: five major commercial networks (Nippon TV, TBS, Fuji TV, TV Asahi and TV Tokyo) in addition to public offerings from Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) and pay cable services or by satellite. As everywhere, the consumption of emissions is done on three devices: the good old television, the computer and the telephone, with however an immoderate national predilection for the smallest screen.
The platform of streaming Abema, launched in 2016, offers a variety of live content from major networks and on demand, including movies, series, variety shows and quizzes. Abema is available for free with ads or as a “premium” version without ads with bonuses.
“The Japanese spend a lot of time on public transport and they watch a lot of television on their cellphones,” explains Ms.me Palladino. I was in Tokyo in early June, and everyone, 99.9% of the people, was looking at their phones to read manga or watch their favorite shows, often dramas or comedies. »
Serial productions can be broadcast in the morning (the adoraliterally morning drama, a short proposal of 15 minutes), in the afternoon (the shows rose water) or in the evening (especially crime series). They can also of course be caught up at any time.
NHK operates the historical series Taiga (large river) since 1963 by putting enormous resources into it. Scripts are often based on high-quality novels (such as Furin Kazan, by Yasushi Inoue), and the quality of the adaptations is recognized by all the Japanese, even if the audiences stagnate. The 45-minute episodes are broadcast on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. This year the 62e production of the line is called Dou Suru Ieyasu. It stars Jun Matsumoto, singer, radio host and beloved model.
All genres are used, including the show medical and the one starring young schoolgirls, often in cartoons. The canvases reproduce clichés: the rich girl and the poor girl, the love triangle, etc.
Murai no Koi, launched with eight episodes last year, recounts the devouring passion of pichou Murai for the firecracker Tanaka. She rejects him, but once Murai performs a radical aesthetic transformation, the roles are reversed. Another recent series, Mairunovich (2021), exploits the same pattern, this time with Kinoshita Mairu as the central character who believes himself to be ugly and undesirable. She is wrong.
Another example: the animated series Meitantei Konan, broadcast since 1996 on Nippon TV. The production is inspired by the manga of the same name launched in 1994 to tell the adventures of a police investigator mysteriously rejuvenated at the age of 7 and who continues to solve criminal cases. The 1,000 episode milestone was reached in 2021, and there are now movies, video games, and other spin-off media products.
Fantasy and childishness
“Japanese society is very rigid”, explains Ms.me Palladino, she who has been seeing her for nearly four decades. “When the Japanese watch television, they want to escape everyday reality, laugh and fantasize. manga and cosplay are very popular for this reason. There are also a lot of downright dumb shows. »
She adds afterwards by message that, for her, the terms “escapism”, “childish” and “fantasy” best describe what Japanese television often offers. She talks about elaborate studio sets to grab attention, “crazy, cheesy” content, and segmented shows to increase opportunities for phishing viewers. “Directors work in exactly the same spirit as a YouTuber by doing stupid things to attract the public”, sums up the professional.
She gives the example of the owarai type show (comedy, in the very broad sense) Suiyoubi Downtown (TBS) hosted by the famous duo composed of Masanori Hamada and Hitoshi Matsumoto. THE show funny “tests” crazy ideas. For example, it tries to see if customers will notice a change in the lyrics of a famous song playing in a store. Or if a person will understand that another has borrowed their clothes.
It’s reality TV, in its own way. The global franchise Big Brother did not catch on in Japan. A derivative, Terasu Hausu (Terrace House, available on Netflix in Canada), was more successful in exposing the daily lives of six ordinary people. The 2019-2020 season, the last, was canceled after the suicide of a participant.
It’s not just that, of course. Mme Palladino quotes the talk show daily Tetsuko no heya (Tetsuko’s living room) on TV Asahi. Host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, “the Barbara Walters of Japan”, has been interviewing personalities and experts there since 1976. She will be 90 in August and continues to work like so many other old people in this country in demographic decline where a third of the population is now over 65 years old.
Mme Palladino also continues to activate. For two decades, she has served extensively as a facilitator and interpreter for foreign crews of major networks filming in Japan, including the BBC, Al Jazeera, German channels and even for a Canadian production of the History Channel, the series Perfect Stormsabout the 1923 Kanto earthquake. She commutes between her home country and her adopted country, where she has kept her home in Tokyo.
“Japan is a bit too rigid a country where everyone works all the time,” she explains. I spent my youth working. But I know Japanese culture very well so I can guide others. »
In effect. Arigato/grazie…