He's just a tramp-sama abroad.

February 9, 2013 1:17 PM

Submitted for your enjoyment: The misadventures of Guy Jean, an American in Japan.
posted by TheNewWazoo (26 comments total)

(I have no idea who the original artist is, btw. My understanding is that they first appeared on /a/, but I can't find anything else about them.)
posted by TheNewWazoo at 1:19 PM on February 9, 2013

perra perra!
posted by divabat at 1:48 PM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Racism and deliberate stupidity from 4chan. Who would have figured.
posted by charlie don't surf at 1:54 PM on February 9, 2013 [5 favorites]

I'm curious about the nosebleed panel. Guy Jean gets smacked in the face by a ball, puts his hand over his bloody nose, says hi to the girl, showing his hand, and she calls him a pervert. Is this a reference to menstruation or something?
posted by CCBC at 2:07 PM on February 9, 2013

CCBC: She thinks it's the nosebleed of horniness!

I thought these were pretty good-natured and funny, myself. :)
posted by Drexen at 2:10 PM on February 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

THE LAND I STAND ON
TURNS INTO AMERICA FOR THAT MOMENT.
posted by jyc at 2:11 PM on February 9, 2013

I laughed when he tried to cram his entire bag into his shoe locker.
posted by cyberscythe at 2:12 PM on February 9, 2013

I am totally baffled by the 0:3 -> 7:3 thing. Can anyone explain that?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 2:15 PM on February 9, 2013

I was a bit puzzled by that as well, Wazoo. I think maybe it's that 'Honda' uses a shounen-style psyche-up line and gets super serious about the game (and wins) while Guy Jean is just messing around.
posted by Drexen at 2:18 PM on February 9, 2013

Yeah, I interpreted it as a joke about transitions in manga comics. In a sense, everyone else understands that, by nature of the medium, the "7:3" thing was a way of showing that once the other side got serious the games was won very quickly. Guy Jean, ignorant of how manga panels work, breaks the fourth wall by wondering how the heck the other team won in the course of a panel.

See also: Brian and Nick's, of Britanick, Epic Phone Fail.
posted by sendai sleep master at 2:29 PM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Drexen. That was a very informative link.
posted by CCBC at 3:03 PM on February 9, 2013

Fuck that! I'm not joining any.

That Guy Jean cracks me up.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:05 PM on February 9, 2013

Most of them were pretty meh, but 11 was hilarious.
posted by d. z. wang at 3:29 PM on February 9, 2013

I spent a year in a Japanese high school. I wasn't quite this bad, but I'm sure I came close.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:44 PM on February 9, 2013

Whoever this is, they seem to actually know a bit about the topic, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought.

For the life of me, I can never understand exchange students who come to Japan for a year of high school. Why not visit a land known for its soul-crushing education system that prides itself on stamping out difference and working everyone who is even tangentially involved in it to death? All I can imagine was that they thought it looked cool in manga or something.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:20 PM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm curious about the nosebleed panel.

In Japanese comics there's a meme that if you get too sexually excited, you'll get a nosebleed.
posted by zardoz at 5:51 PM on February 9, 2013

Wow! I read them all, and they're pretty not funny! Not so much "insulting racism" as much as "not very clever"
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:55 PM on February 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

Is that what people overseas think Americans are really like? I'm dismayed- no more than 80% of us are like that.
posted by happyroach at 6:34 PM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow, these are bad. This one in particular. I've heard a few Americans (usually drunk NAVY soldiers) actually make that WWII comment to Japanese people before in some context or another. It's both infuriating and embarrassing as hell.
posted by Kevtaro at 8:02 PM on February 9, 2013

Isn't the point that Guy Jean is such a horrible, boorish dumbass that he makes that sort of comment, though? Like, the punchline is not "Ha ha, Japan lost WWII!" it's "Christ, what an asshole."
posted by Scattercat at 8:06 PM on February 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yeah I don't know. I live in Japan, have experience in the Japanese school system, and "get" all the jokes... still not that funny. Charisma Man is much better. There was also a JET-themed strip called Mr. Bill (or Mr. Chris?) which was quite good as well. Other than the name Guy Jean, which is witty, these are pretty meh.
posted by chomarui at 8:41 PM on February 9, 2013

This guy is way too neat and good-looking to be your average otaku abroad. I was hoping it would satirize that. OTOH, the 'Freedom! Whatever land I stand on turns into America!' is an accurate depiction of how I act sometimes.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:45 PM on February 9, 2013

I thought this was a more accurate representation of a newcomer's experience of the Japanese school system.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:24 AM on February 10, 2013

For the life of me, I can never understand exchange students who come to Japan for a year of high school. Why not visit a land known for its soul-crushing education system that prides itself on stamping out difference and working everyone who is even tangentially involved in it to death?

Eh. Like you didn't make any poor decisions when you were 17.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:42 AM on February 10, 2013

See, Americans act like this and Japanese act like this.

*crickets chirping*

Whoa, tough room.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:20 AM on February 10, 2013

Almost everything you can learn about Japanese culture by reading manga or watching anime is in the meta-drama series Sensei & Ninomiya-kun. Also pre-2000 video games, but that is incidental.
posted by chemoboy at 9:08 PM on February 10, 2013