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MacualayCocaine t1_ixff0u1 wrote

So should I give this show a shot?

I read the book before I ever knew they were making it a show and it was complete garbage. I’m totally convinced that almost none of this guys stories happened. It reads like a 15 year old lying to his friends about the girls he banged over summer vacation.

With that being said people seem to love the show? Anybody else read the book and end up liking this?

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itak365 t1_ixfzh2k wrote

As a Japanese person- I and all of my family who’s watched it enjoyed it for the sake of having a well-done, truly bilingual and multicultural Japanese show, but I just treated it as 100% fiction at face value since I hadn’t read his book and had no frame of reference.

Sort of in this category, you might also like Giri/Haji, which is a BBC/Netflix original which directly deals with the Nikkei/Japanese expat experience and is also a bilingual drama.

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Shower_caps t1_ixht5nr wrote

Do you recommend Giri/Haji?

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itak365 t1_ixi5lfj wrote

Oh hell yes- maybe even before Tokyo Vice but they are pretty different shows. It only got one season and was cancelled, so it’s more of a miniseason, but the ending ties up pretty much everything so there’s definitely payoff.

It’s got competing British and Japanese storylines, with half being set in London and the other half in Tokyo, but both are written and acted very well. Imagine Guy Ritchie got into a motor accident with Tokyo Vice and a Nordic noir show from mainland Europe and that’s what you get in this show.

I’m half-Japanese, so I’m biased as one of the mains is Anglo-Japanese and the show makes many generational and cultural comparisons between all of its Japanese characters.

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zEeXUrqVR7DeM7M8yac3 t1_ixfhjxa wrote

Same opinion on the book and author. Complete fraud and egomaniac. That being said he doesn’t get a cent if you watch it on the high seas.

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Thelastmudra t1_ixhdgfw wrote

That's because it never happened, it's literally a white male in asia fantasy, the guy could never produce a single yakuza source he had when asked to

The show tries to tone it down a bit, but it's still present whenever the white male self insert shows up on screen

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