What's up with the Japanese and Commodore Perry?

[Hatta]

Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, negotiated tirelessly for several months with Japanese officials to achieve the goal of opening the doors of trade with Japan.

[AznKhmerBoi]

Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, negotiated tirelessly for several months with Japanese officials to achieve the goal of opening the doors of trade with Japan.

whos more handsome

[MrPopo]

Chicks love a man in uniform.

Wasn't there an ep of Samurai Champloo where they battled Commodore Perry (or an expy of him) for the island of Japan using a game of baseball?

[Sideroller]

Chicks love a man in uniform.

Wasn't there an ep of Samurai Champloo where they battled Commodore Perry (or an expy of him) for the island of Japan using a game of baseball?

Ohhh yeah I remember that episode! I don't remember if it was actually perry or not.

[o.pwuaioc]

It wasn't.

"The anime series, Samurai Champloo, in an episode entitled "Baseball Blues", depicts a fictional character named 'Admiral Joy Cartwright' who challenges the Japanese locals to a baseball (Yakyū) game in order to establish trade relations. The character is named after Alexander Joy Cartwright ("the father of baseball") and obviously modeled after Commodore Perry." - Wikipedia.

[hashiriya1]

the portrayal is weird. Kind of symphathetic but also naïve. It's weird.

That is how they view ALL foreigners.

[Erik_Twice]

That is how they view ALL foreigners.

Yeah but this is the posterguy of gunboat diplomacy, that's why it surprises me.

obviously modeled after Commodore Perry." - Wikipedia.

Close enough!

[Nemoide]

I don't think Commodore Perry is featured abnormally prominently in anime. I have several hundred anime DVDs and I can only think of that Samurai Champloo episode with a character kind of based on him (rather than Perry himself) and my girlfriend says he appears in Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei.
I've seen other historical figures appear much more regularly. Like Ishikawa Goemon, Miyamoto Musashi, or Abe no Seimei.

I don't think it's too unusual to reference historical figures in nerdy pop culture. (And anime tends to be aimed squarely at Japanese nerds.)
Besides, look at how often Abraham Lincoln turns up in American media! I think that might be a good parallel.

[Breetai]

AznKhmerBoi pretty much said what I would have, but with cool pictures.

[skyknight]

His presence along with the US Navy (keep in mind at that time Japan was still building wooden ship similar to Chinese junk) did shake up the Shogun government, and inspired other Japanese to look "outside," setting up the movement for the Meiji Restoration (where Ronin Kenshin was set).

It is important to know before the turn of the century, Japan was then able to modernized its society and military (being able to defeat the Chinese Ching/Qing dynasty), and started acting like other Western imperialist - taking control of Korea and Taiwan from the Chinese, and having more ambitions in East Asia.