"Cheburashka is a creation of the great writer Eduard Uspensky, while most Japanese cartoons are based on comic books that have absolutely no literary merit."

January 30, 2001 5:20 AM

"Cheburashka is a creation of the great writer Eduard Uspensky, while most Japanese cartoons are based on comic books that have absolutely no literary merit." Here, here! Cheburashka rules!
Does this bring back memories.
posted by tiaka (8 comments total)

Sounds like sour borscht to me.
posted by dfowler at 6:12 AM on January 30, 2001

Seeing that the article is mostly concerned with Pokemon, the no literary merit seems fair enough, though far too broad.

I noticed the subscribers-only story at the bottom:

Sinister Ideas Lurk Behind Teletubbies

Now, that is true (unless it is based on the Falwell story, of course).
posted by palnatoke at 6:23 AM on January 30, 2001

It is hard to imagine the creators of Pokemon developing a scene in which the mini-heroes, having lost their masters, decide not to fight one another but to instead sit down over tea and discuss life.

Don't blame Pokemon for your lack of imagination.
posted by rodii at 6:27 AM on January 30, 2001

Sinister Ideas Lurk Behind Teletubbies
posted by EngineBeak at 7:35 AM on January 30, 2001

ha! closet communist, that's a great name. I'm soo going to use that as a name sometime in the near future.
posted by tiaka at 8:18 AM on January 30, 2001

Good article, especially the stuff about "the experience of Finland". Ah, Moomins.
posted by ceiriog at 1:57 PM on January 30, 2001

I was under the (perhaps false) impression that Pokemon was originally a computer game? Maybe that would explain it's structural difficulties?
Q: do the Russians have comics? At all? I can imagine comic books being seen as some sort of vile capitalist debauchery by the communists.
posted by davidgentle at 11:19 PM on January 30, 2001

Pokemon was a video game before it was a TV show or a comic...but I'm not sure whether the comics or the TV show came first.
As for literary value--I *have* read comics that were better than some books I've read, but that might just reflect my trashy taste in books.
posted by Jeanne at 6:46 AM on January 31, 2001