entertainment

PTA says 'London Hearts' is worst TV program

29 Comments

TV Asahi's “London Hearts” is the worst TV program, according to an annual report by the All Japan PTA. The program has been ranked the worst for five years. According to the report, which is based on a survey of parents, 11% of respondents chose “London Hearts” as the worst program, followed by Fuji TV's “Mecha Mecha Iketeru” (8%) and TV Asahi's “Cleon Shin-chan” (8%).

Reasons given by respondents for choosing those three programs were: “They use vulgar language," "The stars often beat each other” and “There is too much sexually suggestive talk."

On the other hand, TV programs that the respondents recommended were "educational, informative and heart-warming," such as animal documentaries and school dramas.

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29 Comments
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These respondents need to keep up with the times. Harsh language and sexual situations are the norm nowadays.

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I take it the PTA stands for Parent Teacher Organization. If so, then they ARE keeping up with the times. They don't want their kids exposed to violence and crude language and behaviour, which is why the show gets such a bad rating, I'd guess.

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"Harsh language and sexual sitations are the norm nowadays", but that doesn't make it in the best interest of society, does it?

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every show on japanese TV is tied for the worst

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"Cleon Shin-chan"

Ha ha ha ha! You mean Crayon Shin-chan. That's a funny show. I like when Ne-Ne Chan's mom gets frustated and hits that stuffed rabbit!

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Isn't it Klingon Shinchan?High beam me up,Ne Ne chan..

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Ugh PTA - I think most parents would be shocked to see what their children really get up to; I guarantee it's on par with or worse than any TV show.

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I agree London Hearts is bad but not because of the coarse language and sexual innuendo. But because the jokes are lame, the physical 'comedy' sophomoric, and the way the hosts belittle some of their guests, especially women, who might have something slightly unusual about them - big teeth, a lisp, a mole on their face. The hosts jump all over it. It gives the impression that anyone different should be ridiculed because it's 'fun.'

Oh, wait. I think I just described junior high school culture.

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so - parents do something to get it off the air. just horrible horrible drivel. and it teaches the kids such "wonderful" things. i see it everyday at my high school.

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Isn't it Klingon Shinchan?High beam me up,Ne Ne chan

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These respondents need to keep up with the times. Harsh language and sexual situations are the norm nowadays.

Keep up with the times? But, rjd_jr, on today's sumo thread you slam any criticism of the use of a bamboo sword by a 'stablemaster' to discipline a junior wrestler, saying:

Yet another example of the 'dumbing' down and 'take the easy way out' mentality of the current generation the world over. This is the way it's always been done."

What's it to be for you: tradition or modernity? Or do you want it both ways?

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Heres a suggestion. If they dont like what the kids are watching..wait for it...turn it off!

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Harsh language and sexual situations are the norm nowadays

That doesn't mean society needs to blindly follow. Just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's acceptable.

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"Cleon Shin-chan"

Ha ha ha ha! You mean Crayon Shin-chan. That's a funny show. I like when Ne-Ne Chan's mom gets frustated and hits that stuffed rabbit!

Yes it's a good show for a mature audience (the jokes have come along way ever since the "elephant dance") but Asahi deliberately targets pre-teens as well. It is evident from the content of the ads that run during the show.

Another inappropriate anime that occupies the network prime time slot is Code Geass R2 that runs on MBS/TBS. I wonder how so much blood could get passed the censors for a show that runs before sundown. The political allusions and philosophy behind the show is pretty radical for even a Japanese production. The protagonist is an amoral gaijin prince that leads a band of Japanese freedom fighters who invoke strong uyoku imagery in the fight against a bastardized British Empire. You can tell from the ads that it's exclusively targeted at adolescent. Try running an animated series of '24' on Fox Kids in the states, the network executives will fry.

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Well, I think London Hearts is good stuff. Pity it's on at the same time as that other educational program/programme, yes? You got it!

On the other hand I absolutely forbade either of my children ever to watch Crayon Shin Chan. Some of the kids in my classes who grew up on a diet of that... yuck, say no more.

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Heres a suggestion. If they dont like what the kids are watching..wait for it...turn it off!

Ordinarily that would be the responsible thing to do. We talking about Japanese parents here, who will walk up Mount Kilimanjaro and back 10 times before taking any responsibility in their own kids. Once the kids pops out it's up to the rest of the world to take of it for them.

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Once again we see a civic group pointing fingers in the wrong direction. "London Hearts" might be bad for kids, but it is on late at night, and parents should have some control over what their young kids are watching to begin with.

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TV Asahi’s “Cleon Shin-chan” The work-experience crew are on duty on Sundays at JT it seems.

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Once again we see a civic group pointing fingers in the wrong direction. "London Hearts" might be bad for kids, but it is on late at night, and parents should have some control over what their young kids are watching to begin with.

You're absolutely right that kids shouldn't be watching those kinds of programmes at that time of night. I'm not aware of any content advisory system, e.g. warnings about violence, sexual content or language in TV schedules, in Japan either, unless you count Shinzo Abe telling NHK what they can't put in their documentaries.

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Japanese TV sucks, period. It is generally peurile and is obsessed with programmes about Japanese people becoming "metabolik" while at the same time spewing out mindless, unending programmes about cookery. Personally I am thankful for SkyPerfect TV. One of the few contacts with the real world.

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I wouldn't call it the worst, but it has got pretty bad since they dropped the Black Mail section and replaced it with a bunch of talento talking.

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Japanese TV sucks, period. It is generally peurile and is obsessed with programmes about Japanese people becoming "metabolik" while at the same time spewing out mindless, unending programmes about cookery. Personally I am thankful for SkyPerfect TV. One of the few contacts with the real world.

Agreed, but personally I cancelled my SkyPerfect subscription because the shows I liked were all moved to 3am to make way for crap like American Idol and Temptation Island. If that's the real world, show me a fantasy land I can escape to quick.

<strong>Moderator: Back on topic please.</strong>

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I learnt to read with Crayon Shin-chan. The manga were superb (and the earlier books are the better IMO). The humour is grown up and sometimes "adult" and all kanji have furigana to help a struggling gaijin.

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Actually London Hearts is one of the few shows on Japanese tv I can watch. Some of the stuff they do is pretty original, and at least they don't try and pass it off as a show having some sort of educational merit by turning it into a "zatsugaku" quiz show.

I wouldn't let my kids watch it though, and if, as NeoJamal says, Asahi is deliberately promoting it to teens and pre-teens (I presume they are trying to grab the kids who have just finished watching gakko e ikou on another channel), then that is definitely something to be worried about. That's not the fault of London Hearts though, that's the fault of the Asahi marketing department.

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What does the PTA have against the most popular and most common TV shows in Japan? We absolutely LOVE watching dumb people eat food and exclaim "OIIISHIIIIII" with their mouths stuffed.

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realist: What do you mean by "metabolik"? Ah_so: What is furigana?

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“They use vulgar language,” “The stars often beat each other” and “There is too much sexually suggestive talk.”

Here`s a piece of genius Sherlock... Switch it over!

How many daft Japanese programs do we see with people hitting each other and doing some pretty stupid stuff?? And "sexually suggestive talk"???? This from a country that still won`t pass a law outlawing child pornography..

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netrek

Metabolic refers to Metabolic syndrome (メタボリックシンドローム), which is just being to fat, especially around the internal organ areas. A Big problem in Japan right now.

Furigana is kana script appended to kanji in order to allow reading of the kanji. Often put on manga for younger children since they cannot kanji so well.

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Metabolic refers to Metabolic syndrome (メタボリックシンドローム), which is just being to fat, especially around the internal organ areas.

Actually, it also includes inactivity and other things. It's more than just being fat.

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