Arts and entertainment criticism of the sort practiced in the West is still relatively sublimated in Japan, where pop-culture hyoronka (critics) tend to be either pundits or PR flacks who rarely say anything overtly negative about the things they review.

The reason mainly has to do with relationships within the media. If you've got nothing nice to say about a movie then just say something dull, because it may have been produced by a studio whose subsidiary just bought a controlling share in a company that places ads in the magazine or newspaper you write for.

The woman who wrote a review of the Fuji TV drama series, "Yama-onna, Kabe-onna," for the TV listings page of the Asahi Shimbun two weeks ago tied herself in knots trying to come up with something positive to say. She obviously didn't know what to make of the show. Admitting that the plot premise was nonsense, she fell back on the view that it isn't a drama meant to evoke a sympathetic response and simply recommended it to people who like to sit in front of the TV and grouse about whatever it is they're watching.