Leo’s been shifting away from English content and towards Japanese content, mainly out of convenience. He enjoyed Doraemon, but has shifted to old Disney cartoons and ranger shows. Yuki plays them from Amazon Prime and casts them to the TV, which is much faster than our other method of firing up a media box behind the TV, waiting for it to boot, then navigating to the content on a USB drive and then playing that.
I would really prefer that Leo watch shows in English, but Doraemon is something known throughout Japan and helps him socialize with his peers. The ranger shows are similar in that regard: they are what grade-schoolers watch (and what kindergarteners watch without understanding).
The shows exist to sell toys, and the toys change by year. We aren’t at the point in time where he knows which toys are “cool” and were able to buy him a used toy gun from one of the shows rather than a new one. Buying new means spending 50 bucks on a toy gun, which is quite frankly stupid.
He watches the shows from Amazon Prime, and bounces between ranger shows and Kamen Rider shows. The Kamen Rider shows are sort of gritty and has the main characters stumbling through scenes while giving performances that you would expect from a highschool play. Every fight ends up with them getting blood on their faces somewhere which I’m not really ok with.
However! The ranger shows are campy fun. One ranger show is a train and sparkling theme. Yes, the theme is sparkling. Holy shit I love the camp factor and they play into it so much. It’s hilarious.
They will throw their hands to their cheeks at a moment’s notice and buckle their knees in shock. One guy attacked another guy with a butt bump and sparks shot off of their asses, sending one guy flying. Trains fly around in the air and chase each other. All the robots are trains and look like shit. When they transform, a jewel wraps around the tracks on their uniforms and makes them sparkle. I have never heard the word “sparkle” so much in a single show holy shit they say it constantly.
As for English programming, I try to find things age appropriate that will not drive me nuts. For 2 year olds, Yo Gabba Gabba is fantastic – it is a show about dancing, has good lessons for kids to learn, and nearly every episode has guest actors and bands to entertain the adults.
The new Ducktales is surprisingly great, but more geared towards tweens. It hasn’t stopped me from liking it and trying to get Leo excited about it.
Their only exposure to English is basically me, which means that I need to constantly be pushing them, asking them to say things, correcting fucked up grammar, encouraging them to look at English and attempt to read it (Japanese is MUCH easier for kids to learn than English. English is horrible). It’s exhausting, but the silver lining is that sometimes I get to watch things that entertain me as well as the kids.