This
Drink Will Give You a Buzz
Attempts
at any written language by someone who doesn't know what
they're writing produce some good chuckles for those
who can read the language. Captain America vol
3 no 1 (January 1998) had plenty of these.
In the story,
Cap returns from the "Heroes Reborn" universe,
not remembering where he's been, and shows up in Tokyo.
Penciler Ron Garney appears to have tried to draw Japanese
signs by copying from Tokyo photographs. The results
are, at best, badly written but recognizable, and at
worst, gibberish.
In this shot,
some signs contain mere scribbling. The one with a flower
on it is a miscolored sign of the old Sakura Bank, but
all it says on it is "ah". Directly above the
Mr. Donut sign is a legible "Sapporo Biiru" (Sapporo
Beer), except Garney quit before writing the last character;
thus, the sign reads "Sapporo Bii".
It's hard
to tell, but it looks to me in this picture like people
are driving on the right side of the street. Certainly
that guy who's hailing a cab would be facing the other
way in the real Tokyo, where people drive on
the left.
Mark Waid's
narration in this panel is rather boneheaded as well.
First of all, I've heard Ginza called "The Ginza" but
never the "Ginza Strip". But more importantly,
what's this about "slowly Westernizing"? Like
most Marvel writers, Waid seems to mistakenly believe
that Japan has clung tightly to everything native to
it and resisted "Westernization" every step
of the way. What is this, Saudi Arabia? Japan wholeheartedly
embraced Western culture decades ago; nothing "slow" about
it.
Worst of
all, those two people directly under the "Omron" sign
have really, really weird haircuts.
