If things are changed up a bunch he did end up hanging out with the cast of 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose'... which means he does know convoluted plans can and do work if properly executed... in the old cannon he did apparently spend years working on a jacket of holding after one of those guys. If that happened at a time when he was particularly unstable, I can see him unconsciously striving for that level of control and his notably lower charisma score is preventing that. The lack of a constant adversary also means he just never gets a chance to learn the art of Xanotos Speed Chess... not that he stops trying.
I'm not sure if this bit will come across right for you, but make his coping mechanism for personal interaction (social skill spackle basically) rigged for dealing with Americans. Switching to dealing with the Japanese means he just acts odd... and after a while he'll adapt again. Till then he keeps throwing people off with how he acts. All proper on moment and then he jumps a youma (power cable and axe slaughter)... he just doesn't act in the way he expects. Which stems from his need to control the situation... which is why he does things. Its why he saves Rei's grandpa... he needs to do something about the situation, everyone else is too busy gawking at the train wreck TV moment before them. That someone did something like that on reflex is alien to them... I remember something about him getting yelled at for disquieting the herd and thanked for actually bothering.
Reminded me of that scene in the first episode/chapter of Gantz.... the main character gets offed because everyone is dithering rather than doing something. Spamming cell phone pictures doesn't count. Though now I have a different example for you. There is a movie verse Iron Man anime airing now. Watching Tony Stark acts like Tony Stark and how much he disorients and confuses them something fierce... he is just so alien to their mind set. They go off into conspiracy theory mode and generally have no clue what just happened.
I'm not sure if this bit will come across right for you, but make his coping mechanism for personal interaction (social skill spackle basically) rigged for dealing with Americans. Switching to dealing with the Japanese means he just acts odd... and after a while he'll adapt again. Till then he keeps throwing people off with how he acts. All proper on moment and then he jumps a youma (power cable and axe slaughter)... he just doesn't act in the way he expects. Which stems from his need to control the situation... which is why he does things. Its why he saves Rei's grandpa... he needs to do something about the situation, everyone else is too busy gawking at the train wreck TV moment before them. That someone did something like that on reflex is alien to them... I remember something about him getting yelled at for disquieting the herd and thanked for actually bothering.
Reminded me of that scene in the first episode/chapter of Gantz.... the main character gets offed because everyone is dithering rather than doing something. Spamming cell phone pictures doesn't count. Though now I have a different example for you. There is a movie verse Iron Man anime airing now. Watching Tony Stark acts like Tony Stark and how much he disorients and confuses them something fierce... he is just so alien to their mind set. They go off into conspiracy theory mode and generally have no clue what just happened.