in article 4216DC8F.11B04B2D@yahoo.co.jp, Eric Takabayashi at
etakajp@yahoo.co.jp wrote on 2/19/05 3:28 PM:

> Ernest Schaal wrote:
> 
>> Having a limited knowledge of Japanese arts in its various forms is not
>> something to normally condemn a person, but you (despite that limited
>> knowledge) enter a tread about Kurosawa with a vile attack on the idea of
>> liking the masters of Japanese cinema without first becoming completely
>> fluent in Japanese. You claim to be fluent, and yet it hasn't helped you in
>> that area, has it?
> 
> Where did I attack "the masters", liking the masters, or claiming that people
> must be fluent in the language to understand their work? Where did I claim to
> be fluent? Who cares if I do not use my ability in Japanese to enjoy or
> understand more Japanese cinema? Are you sure you are not the one ranting,
> Ernest?

No, you were the one ranting about how only the 100% fluent in the language
before one could dare comment on Japanese cinema. I would take the word of
someone who had never been to Japan and knew no Japanese, but had seen the
Japanese masters than rely on someone like you, who claims to be fluent but
admits a general lack of knowledge about those masters, or Japanese cinema
in general.

>> I don't know what your personal problems are, and I don't want to know, but
>> it sure appears that your rants can border on the Kaz-like extreme.
> 
> Despite all your education and achievements during your career, I believe you
> feel somehow inadequate due to things such as needing to start Japanese
> lessons. Therefore, you must (at least recently) start bashing people over the
> head and crowing about your own greater? knowledge in other aspects of
> Japanese culture such as classic movies, when you feel threatened by people
> who for example (perhaps) understand Japanese language better than yourself.
> You must also trash anime for some reason, as if it were not also a legitimate
> form of entertainment or embodiment of culture when deriding it as porn or
> kiddy shows.

No, I am modest about my skills. The idea of feeling inadequate to you is
ridiculous. That is like feeling to your intellectually equal Japanese
speaker, Kaz.

I "trashed" anime by not accepting your absurd theory of its value, as
compared to other genres of Japanese film.

Earlier you asked why I thought you were an "otaku." The answer is your
stated opinions on the nature and value of anime. If one talks like an
otaku, and acts like an otaku, it is not unreasonable to assume that person
is an otaku.

Furthermore, your previous messages show you have the personality profile of
that class.

> 
> Which is not to say you have demonstrated a knowledge of Japanese classic
> cinema, or any individual movie or director in any post I have read so far. I
> can read something more informative in the average one third of a page
> newspaper movie review. Nor am I criticizing you for your level of Japanese.

This from a self-confessed ignoramus about the subject of Japanese cinema?

> 
>> What is so wrong about liking the good that occasionally happens in Japanese
>> cinema?
> 
> Nothing. Just recall that I am telling you that there are great, classic works
> in Japanese cinema, and that you also agree that "good" movies "occasionally"
> appear, before you start bashing anime as porn and kids shows.

Review the thread and you will discover that your comments were to diminish
the non-anime works and to ridicule the idea that a non-fluent Japanese
speaker could give a valid statement on the current state of the arts.