> The Japanese are not the most cosmopolitan people in the world
> and when they use non-Japanese things in their pop culture, they have
> a tendency to alter it to make it more friendly to the Japanese
> audiences. They are experts of pandering. Turning Lilo into a genki
> Okinawa girl is one example of this. What they did to Thor in Mythical
> Detective Loki is another. Most depictions of Thor in European and
> American culture tend to stay true the Thor of Norse mythology. He is
> shown to be a big burly man, often with lots of facial hair, and he
> wields his hammer with pride. This would not do for the Japanese
> audience though. So in Mythical Detective Loki, Thor's form on Earth
> is a beardless, average size Japanese high school boy named Narugami
> who wields a boken rather than a hammer. I really like Mythical
> Detective Loki and I like Narugami but I was always slightly disturbed
> of the changes made to Thor to make him culturally acceptable.
> Narugami is a nice character but I really can't see him as an
> incarnation of Thor.