History Main / PopCultureIsolation

*** Secondly a CultureClash in regards to clippers [[note]] Fans or channels that "clip" portions of streams and then post them online[[/note]]. Nijisanji follows the example of many Japanese companies that have little understanding of the concept of "fair use" and have often either asked clips not to be made or even struck down clipper channels. Unfortunately, this means that clips of Japanese livers with English subtitles are rare, and so the majority of non-Japanese speaking viewers don't even know they exist. While for a time Nijisanji did host official clips on the official Nijisanji Youtube page with English subtitles or closed captions, once [=NijiEN=] was up and running these mostly came to an end. This fed to the above issue: due to the sheer number of Livers it wasn't feasible for people to try to pull off an ArchiveBinge (especially if they did not understand Japanese), and so without translated clips being readily available most [=NijiJP=] Livers continued to be unknown to non-Japanese audiences.
** An even better example is VSPO! ('''V'''irtual e'''Spo'''rts Project), the third largest [=VTuber=] agency, which is essentially HufflepuffHouse in terms of exposure. With 20 talents (as of April 2024) and a combined total of 5 million subscribers, it's virtually unknown outside of Japan. Part of this is because, as the name suggests, the agency is mostly focused on eSports with its members seriously committed to gaming and participating in eSports competitions, in addition to producing a variety of media, including anime and manga. This focus on eSports and gaming means that people who aren't interested in those areas, especially from overseas, aren't familiar with them. However, compared to Nijisanji and its parent company ANYCOLOR, Brave Group Inc. (which owns VSPO!) opted to diversify and has multiple groups under their umbrella: Palette Project are idol singers, [=V4Mirai=] is their first major English-based group [[note]] [[MeaningfulName the word "mirai" meaning "future"]] was chosen as they were intended to be the "future" of international [=VTubing=] moving forward [[/note]] and welcomed their third generation in early 2024, and globie, a London-based subsidiary that is European-centered (with talents who have command of various languages like Taring Hu speaking Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Sarawak and Bahasa Indonesia, or Kumanui Miel whose mother tongue is French but also speaks [[{{Omniglot}} Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish]]). Like Nijisanji, collabs between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking groups are uncommon, but unlike Nijisanji this appears to be a strategic choice as each group has a different focus and so there is little overlap.
** Deliberately and painstakingly avoided by WebAnimation/{{hololive}}. Cover Corp, the parent company of hololive and Holostars (the male talent groups), goes out of its way to reinforce the feeling that no matter what branch they belong to, what their subscriber count is, what language(s) they speak, all their talents are equally valuable. One of the biggest ways this is done is via fairly frequent cross-branch collaborations, which helped by how many of their talents are multilingual and can thus act as translators when necessary (Iofi and Anya of hololive Indonesia are practically native speakers of Japanese, alongside Mori Calliope, Takanashi Kiara, Hakoz Baelz as well as Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssgard of hololive English). In addition, Cover Corp effectively weaponised clippers by granting generous terms and conditions (even allowing limited monetisation of said clips), thus ensuring that just about all their branches and talents have some sort of exposure [[labelnote: example]] For example, there are clips of EN and ID talents with Japanese subtitles, JP and ID with English subtitles, JP and EN with Indonesian subtitles[[/labelnote]]. There's good reason for this: Cover is very aware that it's thanks to clips going viral that hololive became the international powerhouse it is today [[labelnote: explanation]] [[Characters/HololiveJapanOriginalGeneration Sakura Miko]] has spoken about how she was depressed with her low subscriber count to the point she considered quitting, until a clip of her playing VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV (specifically her innocently mimicking Franklin and Lamar's generous use of the N-word) went viral and brought with it a slew of overseas viewers and new subscribers, and [[Characters/HololiveFubukiCh Shirakami Fubuki]] doing a partial cover of Music/ScatmanJohn's "I'm Scatman" also went viral. In addition, when [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationFour Tokoyami Towa]] suffered harassment due to a male voice being heard in the background of a stream, an overwhelming number of overseas fans rallied to her alongside her Japanese ones, while in 2022 a viral clip of [[Characters/HololiveJapanGenerationOne Aki Rosenthal]] expressing her sadness and being unable to think of ways to bolster her sub count (at the time she lagged behind many of her juniors and contemporaries, leading her to feel like she was letting them all down) led to a flood of new overseas subscribers[[/labelnote]], and recognises the power of fan goodwill. In fact, clippers and other fan content creators are even mentioned on Cover's financial reports as a source of free advertising that is constantly fueling fan engagement. As a result of this strategy of cross-branch collaboration and deliberate cultivation of healthy fan engagement, even if someone only follows a talent from one single branch (e.g. hololive Japan), thanks to sheer osmosis they'll still at least be ''aware'' of talents from other branches even if they aren't necessarily familiar with them.

* Each entry of the Canadian teen drama franchise Franchise/{{Degrassi}} is subject to this trope in interesting ways:

** An even better example is VSPO! ('''V'''irtual e'''Spo'''rts Project), the third largest [=VTuber=] agency, which is essentially HufflepuffHouse in terms of exposure. With 20 talents (as of April 2024) and a combined total of 5 million subscribers, it's virtually unknown outside of Japan. Part of this is because, as the name suggests, the agency is mostly focused on eSports with its members seriously committed to gaming and participating in eSports competitions, in addition to producing a variety of media, including anime and manga. This focus on eSports and gaming means that people who aren't interested in those areas, especially from overseas, aren't familiar with them. However, compared to Nijisanji and its parent company ANYCOLOR, Brave Group Inc. (which owns VSPO!) opted to diversify and has multiple groups under their umbrella: Palette Project are idol singers, [=V4Mirai=] is their first major English-based group [[note]] [[MeaningfulName the word "mirai" meaning "future"]] was chosen as they were intended to be the "future" of international [=VTubing=] moving forward [[/note]] and welcomed their third generation in early 2024, and globie, a London-based subsidiary that is European-centered (with talents who have command of various languages like Taring Hu speaking Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Sarawak and Bahasa Indonesia, or Kumanui Miel whose mother tongue is French but also speaks [[Omniglot Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish]]). Like Nijisanji, collabs between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking groups are uncommon, but unlike Nijisanji this appears to be a strategic choice as each group has a different focus and so there is little overlap.

* There are two giants in the Japanese VirtualYouTuber scene: WebAnimation/{{Nijisanji}} and WebAnimation/{{hololive}}. However, international fans heavily gravitated towards hololive, leaving Nijisanji as a non-entity outside of its home country; this was cemented by hololive being the first to introduce a branch of Vtubers aimed at English-speaking fans that quickly exploded in popularity. Nijisanji would finally solve this trope by introducing English-speaking male talents, which covered a niche completely ignored by hololive to that point and resulted in a massive influx of new viewers.
** It should be pointed out, however, that despite [=NijiEn=] being a hit initially, this didn't translate to a boost in exposure to the other branches. There are two major reasons for that: firstly, unlike hololive Nijisanji rarely if ever has cross-branch collaborations (e.g. when the Korean and Indonesian branches still existed, it was rare for their livers to collab with their Japanese senpais), and secondly a CultureClash in regards to clippers [[note]] Fans or channels that "clip" portions of streams and then post them online[[/note]]. In the case of the former, this normally means that fans of English livers ''only'' know the English livers and may not know any of the Japanese ones (in comparison, watching a hololive Indonesia member collab with a hololive Japan member exposes Indonesian and Japanese fans to each other, increasing the chance of widening both fanbases). In the case of the latter, Nijisanji follows the example of many Japanese companies that have little understanding of the concept of "fair use" and have often either asked clips not to be made or even struck down clipper channels. Unfortunately, this means that clips of Japanese livers with English subtitles are very rare, and so the majority of non-Japanese speaking viewers don't even know they exist [[labelnote:*]] In comparison, hololive not only tolerates clippers but provides generous guidelines and even allows them to be monetised to a certain extent. This is due to Cover Corporation recognising that such clips are essentially free advertising, something that is even mentioned on their financial reports. Sakura Miko, for example, had actually considered quitting until a clip of her playthrough of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' went viral, leading to a massive influx of non-Japanese fans and viewership[[/labelnote]].

* ''Literature/{{Anpanman}}'' is a pretty obscure outside of Asia. Despite this, it is one of the most profitiable franchises in history, beating out many other franchises that have a far more global reach than ''Anpanman''.

* ' ''Literature/Anpanman'' is a pretty obscure outside of Asia. Despite this, it is one of the most profitiable franchises in history, beating out many other franchises that have a far more global reach than ''Anpanman''.

%%* ComicBook/{{Superman}}, ComicBook/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/{{Robin}}, ComicBook/WonderWoman, ComicBook/GreenLantern, ComicBook/SpiderMan, the ComicBook/FantasticFour, ComicBook/XMen (at least ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and possibly Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} and ComicBook/{{Storm}}), ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, ComicBook/TheFlash, ComicBook/IronMan, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], and the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] are the only superhero exceptions to this trope. Even then, the only of their supporting cast to be generally known by people are ComicBook/TheJoker, ComicBook/LoisLane, and possibly ComicBook/LexLuthor and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}. J. Jonah Jameson may have crossed the threshold as well, helped by Creator/JKSimmons' performance in the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy''.
%%* Female and black superheroes are a big victim of this trope. Whenever a new (or newly popular) black or female character is mentioned in a news story (especially when the entire point of the story is that most superheroes are white men, such as when a paper interviews a local artist who's just getting into the industry, almost always involving a quote along the lines of "reading comics as a kid, I always wondered why there weren't more characters who looked like me") the article will act as if there are, at most, three black superheroes (the average non-comic-reader ''might'' recognise Storm, ComicBook/LukeCage and ComicBook/BlackPanther, and [[Franchise/GreenLantern John Stewart]] if they [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague grew up in the nineties]]) and no superheroines except Wonder Woman. It's the same with gay and lesbian characters, except worse, because trying to discuss gay or lesbian superheroes often seems to attract homophobic trolls, plus there's still the assumption that only kids read comic books. Anytime an article in mainstream media talks about a gay or lesbian superhero, you can expect to see a shitload of comments about the "gay agenda" or "gays forcing acceptance down children's throats"...

%%* Theatre in general, at least in North America, has become something of a niche ''medium'' in the mainstream media. The Tony Awards are still regarded as one of the big four awards shows, along with the MediaNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (film), MediaNotes/{{Emmy Award}}s (television), and UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s (music), but posts far smaller ratings than those three, owing to declining interest in what's making waves in New York City. Even entertainment-focused outlets tend to ignore live theatre unless someone famous in another medium decides to take a stab at Broadway. This, combined with a desire to bring in people who wouldn't see a show otherwise, leads to StuntCasting and/or limited-run shows that can accommodate a superstar's other commitments.

** In some parts of America, Nintendo was a byword for "gaming console" throughout the 90s due to their enormous market share in the industry, especially due to its revival of the home console market after UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983. For a while, even dedicated gamers of a certain age would refer to most consoles as "a nintendo" (small "n" usually), even if it wasn't Nintendo made. Outside the US, Nintendo didn't have as much of a visible impact since gaming was largely PC driven.

%%* As strange as it may sound today, Creator/{{Disney}} fell victim to this trope for a very long time within the United States. While the studio was always massively popular from UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} (Walt Disney's birthplace, though he preferred to think of Marceline, Missouri [[note]] the model for Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. [[/note]] as his ''true'' hometown) to the west coast (''especially'' in UsefulNotes/{{California}}), everywhere east of Chicago its reception was a bit more lukewarm. Film critics considered the studio's output kitschy at best, and people used the term "Mickey Mouse" to refer to something poorly constructed or put together. The main reason for the Disney attractions at the 1964 New York World's Fair was for Creator/WaltDisney to prove to his studio that there was a market for Disney on the east coast, an experiment which proved successful and ultimately culminated in the opening of Disney World in central Florida in 1971; but even then, they didn't really gain the reputation they have today until [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation the late 1980s/early 1990s]].\\\

%%* Theatre in general, at least in North America, has become something of a niche ''medium'' in the mainstream media. The Tony Awards are still regarded as one of the big four awards shows, along with the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (film), UsefulNotes/{{Emmy Award}}s (television), and UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s (music), but posts far smaller ratings than those three, owing to declining interest in what's making waves in New York City. Even entertainment-focused outlets tend to ignore live theatre unless someone famous in another medium decides to take a stab at Broadway. This, combined with a desire to bring in people who wouldn't see a show otherwise, leads to StuntCasting and/or limited-run shows that can accommodate a superstar's other commitments.

%%* Similarly, the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem was popular in Europe and was so huge in Brazil that production of the console continues there to this day, but it stood no chance (despite its technical superiority on most fronts!) against the juggernaut that was the NES in North America and Japan and is little more than a footnote in gaming history there.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'' is easily one of the most infamous {{shmup}}s within the shmup community, thanks mainly due to its [[DynamicDifficulty rank]] system that cranks up the game difficulty as the player collects items, fires their weapons, and simply survives, and if not managed ''deliberately'' (through [[ViolationOfCommonSense abstaining from picking up power-up items and intentionally dying]]), the rank can spike to a point where the game goes from NintendoHard to nigh-UnwinnableByDesign. The RealIsBrown aesthetic that was unique at its time, the more iconic boss designs like that of [[ClimaxBoss Black Heart]], and the game being Creator/ManabuNamiki's debut as a game music composer also further establish ''Battle Garegga'' as one of the most iconic shmups, and nearly everyone in the shmup community has a strong opinion on it (whether good or bad). Outside of said community, however, almost nobody has even heard of it. While this can be attributed to the game being largely inaccessible to the Western world due to its arcade release being limited outside of Japan and its only port for almost 20 years being a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn port that, in addition to being on a system that sold poorly, was released in Japan only, even after the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne ports made it to the West it's still not something that is going to catch the average gamer's eye, not helped by its high price for a shmup at 34.99 USD. Likely, by the time the game got a home port in the West, the lack of pre-existing brand name recognition (like for ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}''), middling bullet counts (as opposed to the [[BulletHell "dodge THIS" factor]] of games like ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' and Creator/{{CAVE}} games) and lack of colorful visuals made it [[OnceOriginalNowCommon seem like just another arcade shmup from the 90s]].

* ''VideoGame/{{CHUNITHM}}'' is one of the highest-grossing {{rhythm game}}s in Japan and one of the most sought-after in the non-Japanese rhythm game community, thanks to its refinements to vertical-scrolling lane-based rhythm games, with many people who play it regarding it as one of ''the'' best rhythm games since ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX''; particularly rich rhythm game players will gladly pay thousands of US dollars just to have reverese-engineered cabs with the CopyProtection disabled shipped to their homes. Perhaps because of this foreign demand, SEGA would later release an international version of the game in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Likely due to being an UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame with NoPortForYou, it is virtually unknown outside of the non-Japanese rhythm game community, with many Westerners in particular still believing that ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' is Japan's premier rhythm game by a wide margin and only knowing SEGA as "the ''Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}}'' and ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' / ''Yakuza'' company"

* ''VideoGame/{{CHUNITHM}}'' is one of the highest-grossing {{rhythm game}}s in Japan and one of the most sought-after in the non-Japanese rhythm game community, thanks to its refinements to vertical-scrolling lane-based rhythm games, with many people who play it regarding it as one of ''the'' best rhythm games since ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX''; particularly rich rhythm game players will gladly pay thousands of US dollars just to have reverese-engineered cabs with the CopyProtection disabled shipped to their homes. Perhaps because of this foreign demand, SEGA would later release an international version of the game in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Likely due to being an UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame with NoPortForYou, it is virtually unknown outside of the non-Japanese rhythm game community, with many Westerners in particular still believing that ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' is Japan's premier rhythm game by a wide margin.

%%* Various 1980s computers, such as the Platform/ZXSpectrum, the Platform/AtariST, the UsefulNotes/CommodoreAmiga, the Platform/AmstradCPC, the Platform/BBCMicro, and the Platform/AcornArchimedes are fondly remembered in Britain and Eastern Europe, but rather obscure in the United States.

%%* Various 1980s computers, such as the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum, the UsefulNotes/AtariST, the UsefulNotes/CommodoreAmiga, the UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC, the UsefulNotes/BBCMicro, and the UsefulNotes/AcornArchimedes are fondly remembered in Britain and Eastern Europe, but rather obscure in the United States.

* As with the WGN example listed in Western Animation, the 1937 Christmas-themed children's RadioDrama ''The Cinnamon Bear'' has fallen into obscurity except in a few locations where it airs daily each December. Most notable among these is UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, which has been crazy for ''The Cinnamon Bear'' since its debut, when it aired on two different stations. Even today multiple stations in Portland air it, and many other stations in Oregon do as well.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'' is easily one of the most infamous {{shmup}}s within the shmup community, thanks mainly due to its [[DynamicDifficulty rank]] system that cranks up the game difficulty as the player collects items, fires their weapons, and simply survives, and if not managed ''deliberately'' (through [[ViolationOfCommonSense abstaining from picking up power-up items and intentionally dying]]), the rank can spike to a point where the game goes from NintendoHard to nigh-UnwinnableByDesign. The RealIsBrown aesthetic that was unique at its time, the more iconic boss designs like that of [[ClimaxBoss Black Heart]], and the game being Creator/ManabuNamiki's debut as a game music composer also further establish ''Battle Garegga'' as one of the most iconic shmups, and nearly everyone in the shmup community has a strong opinion on it (whether good or bad). Outside of said community, however, almost nobody has even heard of it. While this can be attributed to the game being largely inaccessible to the Western world due to its arcade release being limited outside of Japan and its only port for almost 20 years being a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn port that, in addition to being on a system that sold poorly, was released in Japan only, even after the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne ports made it to the West it's still not something that is going to catch the average gamer's eye, not helped by its high price for a shmup at 34.99 USD. Likely, by the time the game got a home port in the West, the lack of pre-existing brand name recognition (like for ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}''), middling bullet counts (as opposed to the [[BulletHell "dodge THIS" factor]] of games like ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' and Creator/{{CAVE}} games) and lack of colorful visuals made it [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny seem like just another arcade shmup from the 90s]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' is exceptionally well known in its country of origin, but outside of Japan the manga and anime were hampered by an incredibly poor English dub from 4Kids that fundamentally changed large swaths of the dialogue and edited scenes to make it more kid friendly. Despite this, a cult following found itself watching the subbed version of the original Japanese and people eventually found the English dub from Funimation that keeps most of the dialogue intact without removing any scenes. Bringing up scenes to someone who hasn't kept up to it, or pointing out to them how there is over 900 episodes of the anime can catch someone entirely off guard, and even if they ''want'' to join the series at this point, they have a lot of catching up to do.

%%* Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/{{Robin}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/SpiderMan, the ComicBook/FantasticFour, ComicBook/XMen (at least ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and possibly Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} and ComicBook/{{Storm}}), ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, Franchise/TheFlash, ComicBook/IronMan, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], and the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] are the only superhero exceptions to this trope. Even then, the only of their supporting cast to be generally known by people are ComicBook/TheJoker, ComicBook/LoisLane, and possibly ComicBook/LexLuthor and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}. J. Jonah Jameson may have crossed the threshold as well, helped by Creator/JKSimmons' performance in the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy''.

* Because the series of WebVideo/UnusAnnus was shortlived by design (376 videos posted once a day for a year and then the channel was deleted deliberately), fans within the sphere of LetsPlay/{{Markiplier}} frequently reference the Unnus Annus merchandise, quotes, memes, and screenshots to the bewilderment of other Markiplier fans who may have known about Unnus Annus or had seen a few episodes of it, but now have no way of watching it themselves outside of finding an archive by someone who downloaded all of the episodes via an external video downloader. As such, scrolling through the Markiplier reddit can be confusing even for people who have diligently watched Markiplier. This can be made even more confusing as Mark has several LetsPlay videos directly referncing Unus Annus or at least showing the countdown timer to when it is deleted. People who saw Unus Annus will get it. Anyone who missed out or didn't want to watch it will just be confused.

* To the average board game player who tends to play the classics like Monopoly, Sorry, Trouble, etc, specifically with kids because those games are functionally designed for families, they may be surprised to find that companies like Fantasy Flights or others like Cool Mini or Not have a catalogue of dozens of games with decent rulebooks that are designed for adults. The market on these games is not particularly large (which is why major retailers don't tend to carry them), but is big enough that they are met with large numbers of preorders.

%%* {{Pinball}} has been hit with this extremely hard. Despite being a major part of American culture for nearly a century, most people would be hard-pressed to name more than one or two pinball manufacturers or [[PinballCreators designers]], if at all, and as far as the games themselves, you won't hear much beyond ''Pinball/TheAddamsFamily'', ''Pinball/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', or ''Pinball/JurassicParkDataEast''. The history of the field is an even bigger mystery to most -- folks who recall the controversy behind [[UsefulNotes/AlGore Tipper Gore]] and the Parental Advisory labels, ''VideoGame/{{Mortal Kombat|1}}'' and the [[UsefulNotes/EntertainmentSoftwareRatingBoard ESRB,]] or [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Frederic Wertham and "Seduction of the Innocent"]] will seldom have any knowledge of the nation's ''thirty-year ban'' against pinball.

%%* LightNovel magazines. There's a good chance the titles may reach the mainstream -- ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''[[note]]From ''The Sneaker''[[/note]] and ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret''[[note]]From ''Dengeki Bunko Magazine''[[/note]] to name a couple -- but the magazines themselves will only be brought up in reference to them or remembered as a collected work's publishing imprint.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' is exceptionally well known in its country of origin, but outside of Japan it the manga and anime were hampered by an incredibly poor English dub from 4Kids that fundamentally changed large swaths of the dialogue and edited scenes to make it more kid friendly. Despite this, a cult following found itself watching the subbed version of the original Japanese and people eventually found the English dub from Funimation that keeps most of the dialogue intact without removing any scenes. Bringing up scenes to someone who hasn't kept up to it, or pointing out to them how there is over 900 episodes of the anime can catch someone entirely off guard, and even if they ''want'' to join the series at this point, they have a lot of catching up to do.