The 2D Teleidoscope was at the periphery of my scan already, but thanks to J.P.'s careless comment that included unions into "modernity" (as if benevolent associations didn't exist in China for centuries) I dismissed witout reading a post that was worth it. To wit:

So I’ve found myself increasingly bothered by what The Last Samurai seems to say about that part of Japanese history. What the movie tells us is that modernity, in the hands of the Japanese, is false and dangerous: The spirit of industry is a fat, scheming middleman in a western suit; it’s a haphazard military killing off true warriors with foreign-made gatling guns. Meanwhile, we’re asked to value the backwardness of old Japan—a quality that left the Japanese vulnerable to white conquerors—which the film recasts as the lost virtue of “honor.”

A westerner is forever changed by his exposure to a traditional village, to the point where we’re supposed to believe that he is more Japanese than some of the natives. And, they conclude, isn’t it so sad that the Japanese killed off what was left of their REAL culture by trying to beat the West at their own game? Frankly, from that perspective, it looks like an Orientalist crock of shit.

While I can’t say that this summer’s Taishou Yakyuu Musume is in any way a deliberate response to The Last Samurai, for a simple otaku show its take on modernity is remarkably more nuanced. Koume, our heroine, literally resides in a cultural halfway house, going to school in a kimono and coming home to help out at a western-style restaurant. Her classmate Akiko lives a more westernized life, but the social expectations thrust upon her are still quintessentially Japanese.

There's more.

Meta above, Omo and a few others keep promulgating the silly concept of The Last Samurai being "not for Japanese". What difference does it make? Avatar stated that creators of RahXephon strictly disclaimed the consistent world background; fans retconned it. Was it in any way "false", if it was coherent with the story? Japanese mapping The Last Samurai upon themselves have a better leg to stand upon than any other post-interpretors. It was originally their story that Hollywood appropriated for crying out loud.