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Comment by chczdc | Hacker News Reader

The Japanese blow my mind sometimes. Their attention to detail, their uncompromising attitude to everything they do.

Some people dislike romanticizing a nation like that, but I regularly see a kind of creativity among their general populace that I miss in other groups.

One of my favorite examples of that I was admiring just now are the people on Instagram who post as if they’re cute plushie characters:

https://instagram.com/momo_iro_kuma

https://instagram.com/roppi_mon

This is not unique of Japan and is true of most island nation cultures and even hill/mountain cultures as well.

Read: Wealth Power & Politics by Thomas Sowell.

Read: Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond.

The West just tends to fetishize Japan more than the others.

What are you referring to by "this"?

I didn't mean that it's unique to Japan, just that I frequently notice a refreshing -whimsy- among them that other more austere/cynical peoples might dismiss as childish etc. (e.g. the places I've usually lived in).

The Instagram links just happened to be something I was browsing at the time.

Other island nation cultures have plushies?

Also: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

as well as rescuing the post-Atari video game industry crash with Nintendo Entertainment System + Super Mario (a creative breath of fresh air after the likes of E.T. on the 2600)

You're comparing one of the best, most-influential games on the NES with a rush-produced cash grab on the Atari 2600. There were many better games on the 2600. Also, the NES came out six years later than the 2600, so it's way easier to make more detailed and more interesting games for it.

Well yeah, it sounds like you are still agreeing to my original point that Japanese ingenuity, at a later time, successfully rescued the industry from a crash caused by said cash-grabs. That is exactly what happened! I still remember the panicked industry reactions here in the US when Nintendo showed up and raised the bar tremendously. What were your favorite 2600 games?

Yet they revived the industry because of strict licensing and the ‘Nintendo seal of quality’ label that assured you that if you bought a game it wasn’t a rushed stinker.

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