The Facebook debacle & other issues

8 hours ago, bbotss said:

@CrazyDollPerson I dug this up. This was from the SDL group during one of the "wabi sabi" discussions. Completely "rational" discourse from one of his most ardent supporters.

Holy crap, so in that vein if he buys a couch and doesn't think it is comfortable, and there is a rip in the seams he would just live with it and never say anything to the company? I call complete bullshit on that. I really feel like people get overly defensive of these dolls and the person who "made them". How do companies know to make things better or keep growing without constructive criticism?  I just can't with that post. I know who that is and I have lost all respect for that person. Reading things like that makes me feel a way I don't like to feel. Just wow, not surprising, but still very disheartening.

I just woke up so hopefully I dont get anything wrong. 

So first of all, I hate that he's trying to get people not to buy the guy dolls which is already setting them up for faliture : / . He said to ask someone who owns a SmD guy, well here is my opinion. The biggest problem I have with them is that the shoulders dont fit in the dang arm sockets! Just get a frame thats bigger for the guys, simple. But then, again, why would he want to waste resources on a "product that doesn't sell well"???/s All the other problems I don't mind much but I did have someone point out how Crimson's knees looked strange.( but I'm pretty sure Danny is making an excuse for that one Eiji with the REALLY wonky knees, or several of them?).  

Second, yeah SmD fans are.....crazy. I recently joined a bunch of facebook groups in search of a boy body in milk( starting to lose hope though....), and the things I see are.... uh quite intresting. They don't EVER refer to flaws as, well, flaws. Instead they say "wow how unique😊😊😊🥰🥰🥰🥰" or " this doll has a birthmark on her right leg!😊😊😊" I saw one person selling a chaos head( yes they are supposed to be flawed) and list it with a "birth mark on the back of her head^^♡♡♡". It was a paint splotch! They also interact strangley with each other, like I just can't come up with anything because its something you have to see to understand... There's this kind of privileged way they act as well, as if everyone has money just to spend on these dolls. I saw one buy 5 garage prototypes! 5! And sometimes when people ask, which doll should they buy, some of them answer, both!!?!?!?! 

All of this has really made me reconsider ever buying a Smart Doll (I'm sure Mr. Choo will rejoice, since he seems to value his aura of exclusivity over attracting new customers). Honestly his business model is so erratic and he's so disdainful of anyone who questions him that I no longer feel like this is something I can support in good conscience. I guess I'll be sticking with Dollfie Dreams and resins. 😔

19 hours ago, CrazyDollPerson said:

I can't see them being around for too much longer at this rate. Especially if it is just a core group buying everything up, while everyone else gets put off of buying them.

3 hours ago, geminirose said:

All of this has really made me reconsider ever buying a Smart Doll (I'm sure Mr. Choo will rejoice, since he seems to value his aura of exclusivity over attracting new customers)

Yet, the longevity of the dolls also depend on how many new customers they rake in...


And as for the male dolls, again, as stated many times before... They won't sell well if they are unavailable, and doesn't have anything to go with them!
If you don't put in equal effort to market them and improve on them, they won't magically sell better than the girls. Right now he has one standard sculpt (I figure Crimson and Eiji just having different faceups won't entice as much as different sculpts would..?) for the guys. The second will be Gemini.
For example, if you prefer male dolls, but don't like the look of that one sculpt, there isn't a whole lot you can do! (So, here is a great opportunity to just sell the bodies - since they apparently are so cheap (the cost is in the heads). But ignoring all that and blaming it on how males/females prefer to buy the girl dolls anyway, is easier...

Sometimes it just guts me the direction his company went, because I see a doll that I'd love to own but I can't justify it. I always wanted to get a tea Chitose or milk, but never did and don't have the opportunity to anymore (guess that is a good thing). Considering getting a custom Dollfie done to look like her. I've actually grown to prefer the way the DD's body feels.

17 hours ago, bbotss said:

@CrazyDollPerson I dug this up. This was from the SDL group during one of the "wabi sabi" discussions. Completely "rational" discourse from one of his most ardent supporters.

Totally getting the urge to make t-shirts which say わさび on them, pretend it says "wabi-sabi", and when anyone points out that it says "wasabi" will just tell them that nothing is perfect, it's wabi-sabi.

I got fabric, I got paint and fabric medium, I got lino stencil equipment }:D

16 hours ago, Katsudon said:

Totally getting the urge to make t-shirts which say わさび on them, pretend it says "wabi-sabi", and when anyone points out that it says "wasabi" will just tell them that nothing is perfect, it's wabi-sabi.

I got fabric, I got paint and fabric medium, I got lino stencil equipment }:D

I would be extremely interested in acquiring one of these shirts for my darlings if you ever do sell them.... Cute, funny, and wholesome.

On 7/23/2020 at 10:19 AM, Katsudon said:

Totally getting the urge to make t-shirts which say わさび on them, pretend it says "wabi-sabi", and when anyone points out that it says "wasabi" will just tell them that nothing is perfect, it's wabi-sabi.

I got fabric, I got paint and fabric medium, I got lino stencil equipment }:D

Considering that the Japanese on the official smartdoll apparel is often either incorrect or meaningless (which he also says is intentional and I have no idea why), I think that would be very onbrand. 

15 minutes ago, Monty said:

Considering that the Japanese on the official smartdoll apparel is often either incorrect or meaningless (which he also says is intentional and I have no idea why), I think that would be very onbrand. 

Similar to his Volks Dolpa translation a couple years back or just nonsense in general? I didn't know that, but then I don't know any Japanese.

1 hour ago, Deyja said:

Similar to his Volks Dolpa translation a couple years back or just nonsense in general? I didn't know that, but then I don't know any Japanese.

I was referring to the JP text on the T-shirts themselves that goes with the English text. They seem to be aimed at people who can’t read the text and will assume it just says the same thing in Japanese, but it’s odd. For example the ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ shirt doesn’t say the equivalent phrase in Japanese, but a phonetic reading of how a Japanese person might pronounce that, except incorrect. A phonetic reading would be ヘイターズ ゴンナ ヘイト (heitazu gonna heito), but what it has is ヘイターズ ゴンナ ハテ (heitazu gonna hate (pronounced like ‘ha-teh’). So not only is the phrase meaningless gibberish in japanese, it’s also not correct, and people did point this out back when he announced it but he had a weird reply about it being intentional or a ‘superdry reference’ (who seem to be a western company that use meaningless JP text for ‘aesthetic’).

A more recent shirt, ‘no sheeps given’, is clearly a pun that only makes sense for an English speaker who knows what ‘sheep’ is a standing for (and the original phrase is also probably puzzling to a non English speaker, ie ‘give’ a sh!!? It’s a weird thing to say lol.) But the JP has a very literal and somewhat awkward translation of the phrase ‘do not give sheep’ into Japanese, which obviously does not make sense (with zero context). I assume the purpose is to create a ‘Reverse Engrish experience’ as an Easter egg for his Japanese fanbase so they can see how that looks the other way around (japan is kind of notorious for using English words for Aesthetic, I used to work near a children’s clothing store called ‘Starvations’)and experience that same level of confusion a native English speaker might feel seeing stuff like that on T-shirts and signs, because I can’t understand the reason for it otherwise.🤷‍♂️ Which I guess is a little funny, except...

The reason I think it’s strange is because he used to sell those moekana cards to teach people Japanese (not sure if he still does though), and does not indicate anywhere that the T-shirt slogans aren’t correct, so it feels kinda irresponsible to me, did you want to teach your fans correct Japanese or not...? He used to include a random moekana card with each order but I don’t know if he still does. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Monty

@Monty, I understand now and I quite agree. I knew a little bit about the use of random English words on tshirts, but had no idea the Japanese text on the CJ shirts was wrong or so out of context. Never occurred me to me to think otherwise. I wonder what is M.O. is for doing that and if possibly it is a jab at his western fanbase or his Japanese fanbase. Either way, that's interesting. Thanks for the info.

59 minutes ago, Monty said:

 So not only is the phrase meaningless gibberish in japanese, it’s also not correct, and people did point this out back when he announced it but he had a weird reply about it being intentional or a ‘superdry reference’ (who seem to be a western company that use meaningless JP text for ‘aesthetic’).

Oh god I have an embarrassing Superdry story. XD Back when I was in my 20s and my katakana reading was not so great, I went to a convention wearing one of my favourite Superdry shirts. And a couple of very professional looking Japanese guys in their 40s came up and, in part of the conversation one of them asks "why does your shirt say 'sports towel'?". XD and I just kinda went "oh, it's just a thing" and laughed while dying of embarrassment inside. (I could read the "sports" part, but not the rest). Superdry have toned it down a lot since, but still XD I made sure not to wear their shirts to conventions ever again!

(Now I'm more unbearable and have a matsuri happi. I only wear it while dealing. Oh dear...)

But yeah, considering he can speak Japanese, it's a shame if it's incorrect. It doesn't really go far enough into weird to count as aesthetics imo. Example: my friend had a shirt with Arabic on it. Another friend told her it read "grapes". That's the kinda weird that hits the bizarre spot just right. :3 Yet another friend was in Japan at the peak of the "heartful" trend, and it annoyed her so much! XD It's a perfect storm of weird language.

It would be more fun to go The Designer's Republic route, and put a secret message for Japanese speakers there (they did that with the design in Wipeout on the Playstation) 😄

Just thought this was relevant to the discussion since we've been talking about him making too many new characters lately.

(🐱🐱&🐮🐮 also need to be a shirt. or possibly doll names. idk why i find this funny.)

On 7/23/2020 at 9:54 PM, Monty said:

I was referring to the JP text on the T-shirts themselves that goes with the English text. They seem to be aimed at people who can’t read the text and will assume it just says the same thing in Japanese, but it’s odd. For example the ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ shirt doesn’t say the equivalent phrase in Japanese, but a phonetic reading of how a Japanese person might pronounce that, except incorrect. A phonetic reading would be ヘイターズ ゴンナ ヘイト (heitazu gonna heito), but what it has is ヘイターズ ゴンナ ハテ (heitazu gonna hate (pronounced like ‘ha-teh’). So not only is the phrase meaningless gibberish in japanese, it’s also not correct, and people did point this out back when he announced it but he had a weird reply about it being intentional or a ‘superdry reference’ (who seem to be a western company that use meaningless JP text for ‘aesthetic’).

A more recent shirt, ‘no sheeps given’, is clearly a pun that only makes sense for an English speaker who knows what ‘sheep’ is a standing for (and the original phrase is also probably puzzling to a non English speaker, ie ‘give’ a sh!!? It’s a weird thing to say lol.) But the JP has a very literal and somewhat awkward translation of the phrase ‘do not give sheep’ into Japanese, which obviously does not make sense (with zero context). I assume the purpose is to create a ‘Reverse Engrish experience’ as an Easter egg for his Japanese fanbase so they can see how that looks the other way around (japan is kind of notorious for using English words for Aesthetic, I used to work near a children’s clothing store called ‘Starvations’)and experience that same level of confusion a native English speaker might feel seeing stuff like that on T-shirts and signs, because I can’t understand the reason for it otherwise.🤷‍♂️ Which I guess is a little funny, except...

The reason I think it’s strange is because he used to sell those moekana cards to teach people Japanese (not sure if he still does though), and does not indicate anywhere that the T-shirt slogans aren’t correct, so it feels kinda irresponsible to me, did you want to teach your fans correct Japanese or not...? He used to include a random moekana card with each order but I don’t know if he still does. 

Even words with non-Japanese origins aren't exempt from being misspelled it seems. I only just noticed the katakana for the "Gemini" sculpt reads how an English speaker would pronounce it (Jeminai) when in Japanese it's actually supposed to be written and pronounced as "Jemini" (the "ni" sound at the end being knee rather than rhyming with eye). 

No doubt every product goes through him so... does he just not know? He's lived in Japan for a while it would be strange to think his grasp on Japanese is this poor. I have no idea.

Tbf his grasp on English is pretty poor too so...

(Meow XD)

I guess loan words are a common stumbling block. A proof reader for both English and Japanese might be another person worth hiring... ^^;

1 hour ago, Katsudon said:

Tbf his grasp on English is pretty poor too so...

(Meow XD)

I guess loan words are a common stumbling block. A proof reader for both English and Japanese might be another person worth hiring... ^^;

He was born in the UK, and went to school there. So his English is pretty good.

36 minutes ago, Meow said:

He was born in the UK, and went to school there. So his English is pretty good.

Doesn't mean that much.... People born and raised in english speaking countries have issues with they and their, your and you're, and so on.
I've seen him, on many occasions, use some poor english, or just not seemingly being able to understand simple statements/questions. So I agree that his grasp on english is poor.

Folks, let's steer the conversation away from personal commentary on Danny. This has come up a few times before, and in order for us to have a place where people can freely post concerns about Culture Japan's products and policy we need to avoid making personal comments about Danny.

it would ideal for smartdoll to create a release schedule and maybe chill out on the prototypes. At this point, I literally cannot keep track of all these dolls. The coming soon section on the website helped, but he posts so many on his social media and it's overwhelming. Also, I didn't want her, but the sudden drop of cocoa resilient (with no warning!) really illustrated to me how ridiculous the preorder system is going to be. You'd have to be posted by your email's inbox and sitting on the funds for potentially months before your favorite doll was released!

It worries me because there are one or two cuties I would like to snag, but seeing how quickly he's cycling through dolls I'm pretty sure I'll have to let those ones go too. And I still don't know what dolls are 'in the main lineup' or how to tell any of that.

Yeah, there have been so many prototypes recently! O_O (this is weird, but I wonder if covid is part of it. I know that with nothing else to do, it's easy to get carried away with creative stuff. Oh hi, all the craft supplies I've ordered over the past months. XD Really, it's easy to fall into creative dreams and run with it.)

Bit worried about what might happen when the first doll doesn't pass preorder. ^^; I wish they were more spaced out so that people have chance to catch their breath between dolls.

Even more worried about what will happen if all the dolls pass preorder o_o; as it's supposed to weed out the unworthy heh. Don't want to see people miss out on dolls they've been saving for if there's another sudden mass retirement.

So much speculation! O_O

Still hovering over my e-mail waiting for Singularity...

10 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Folks, let's steer the conversation away from personal commentary on Danny. This has come up a few times before, and in order for us to have a place where people can freely post concerns about Culture Japan's products and policy we need to avoid making personal comments about Danny.

I understand the concern, but from what I understand CJ represents so much of what Danny says he stands for its nearly impossible to truly tell where Danny Choo ends and Culture Japan begins. Most of the complaints that I (and many others here)have about this particular company seem to fall back on the personal faults on it's frontrunner.

35 minutes ago, IgelFullmetal said:

Most of the complaints that I (and many others here)have about this particular company seem to fall back on the personal faults on it's frontrunner.

Sure, but the company failings aspect of that can be discussed without making it about the personal. In my mind that's a higher road to take than some of the Instagram posts being discussed in this thread, and it's the right road to take.

 

As somebody who has admitted to loathing the brand, even I do feel like the discussion has veered off into nitpicking about things not really related to actual difficulties in the products, or even getting the products ....

however...

Danny is on the table for discussion like it or not.

When the man personally takes an active role in denying any possible customer a product for no real good reason except that he feels like yanking someone's chain at that point of time -- This character is at that point open for debate. just for the Why's and how's.

The moment he resigns into just being a producer... only presenting new items, whatnots, related to product design as he's also done, and leaving the customer service end to other people, then he gets off the table for discussion.

 

4 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Sure, but the company failings aspect of that can be discussed without making it about the personal. In my mind that's a higher road to take than some of the Instagram posts being discussed in this thread, and it's the right road to take.

 

It, uhm, kinda is a business issue to me to be honest. I don't mind mistakes or casual chat on social media so much (although I could live without the bogey talk). It's the mistakes in copy meant for the website or promotional materials, which should have more polish.

I mean, take the copy on Justice's product page (picking on the doll I like here). This is how it should perhaps read:

Quote

While her peers at school struggled to deal with just a single day a week of part-time work, Justice managed to work as a waitress part-time every day after classes until midnight. Her main motivation was her passion for Japan. The money she saved from her job would be enough to buy her a ticket to 'The Land of the Rising Sun' during her summer holiday, where she could absorb their culture. Justice loved Japanese culture and had started to teach herself Japanese even before she had started to take classes in it.

And that's just one paragraph of corrections. Just minor ones for grammar and clarity and tense. And I think I have less education than Danny does XD so there are probably still mistakes I have missed; some I would have made but wanted to avoid because they would have changed the structure of the text too much, or ones which could be substituted. ie. "her summer holiday" would be "the summer holidays" in British English, though I'm unsure whether this is a colloquialism, and made a safer grammatical choice. Especially because if one has a job, the holiday time from that is separate from the holiday time from school.

Yeah, I know I just did everything short of writing "see me" on the page. XD

I apologise for beating a dead horse. These are the things which could do with proofing, as they have more longevity and are the customer facing parts of the website. It doesn't even need a pro - just anyone with a good eye for the written word, who is willing to look over the text.

(To the other poster: I know Danny was born and educated in the UK. So was I.) 

Really unsure about posting this. Please forgive me if it's no good, or anything has popped up in the meantime while I was elbow deep in text.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Katsudon