pointless backstory
I was born in the 80s and some of my earliest memories where the Karate Kid films. If anyone here is in their 40s, they'll remember the obsession with karate. Kids were signing up for karate lessons left and right. I recall something on TV where kids were demolishing a house using karate (obviously it was staged by whatevs).
Then the 90s happened, and the West got paranoid about Japan taking over. Pop culture produced absurd books about Japan taking over the US, and people literally feared it happening.
I like anime. It's definitely better than most white culture shit. It just feels like the #1 theme or trope for a video game or series (that isn't the West) is Japan. I'm just utterly bored to death of Japanese schools, Japanese feudal themes, yakuza shit, Tokyo streets, etc. Yes, it's 1000 times cooler than New York or Texas. I'd rather play Ace Attorney or a Yakuza game than COD or Modern warfare. I'd rather watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure than Family Guy. Japanese stuff is often cooler than Western stuff.
God I can't complain if Japanese developers want to make something that they know with the language they speak. My big gripe is non-Japanese developers imitating Japan because that's what sells. Think Genshin Impact, Battle Realms, or Blue Archive. My steam recommendations are filled with Japanese themes made my non Japanese developers. No, I'm not offended. I'd just like to play a game, once, that doesn't have samurai and geisha. It would be neat to learn about another culture that isn't Japan. Maybe go to another continent.
Wouldn't it be neat to play a stealth game in Nigeria or Bolivia, and not yet another game with Samurai.
There is a lot of shit from Iranian cinema you could watch, although personally I'm not a huge fan as an Iranian
(I would say a good chunk of Iranian movies are hard to understand without cultural context)
I especially hate Farhadi's shitass pretentious movies, despite him being the most well-known Iranian film roller outside Iran
Oh, I love Iranian cinema and have watched many movies from there. I love art films in general. I guess I would include that in what I called "indie" media, even though many international films tend to be goverment-financed. I guess I meant non-corporate media instead.