Lance M. Hatami (michio@jps.net)
Sun, 7 Mar 1999 16:58:43 -0700
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Message-ID: <36E312AA.65E9@jps.net> Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 16:58:43 -0700 From: "Lance M. Hatami" <michio@jps.net> Subject: Re: Sakura Taisen: Hey, so there's a bunch of anachronisms...so what?^_^
I was going to keep quiet about the whole "Nippon" thing since I didn't
realize that so many people would flip out about it. Everyone has a
little opinion and I thought that I would just say what I found weird
about the game. Besides, it only bugged me when I came to that part in
chapter 8 (?), and only bothered me for a few seconds and then I moved
on. When I'm reading, it never occurs to me because they never put
furigana on the kanji (being a "you're an idiot if you can't read this
by now" thing), so I read it as "Nihon." Now I wonder if Akahori really
means to say "Nippon" whenever he writes it in novels.
I accept Sakura Taisen as a fiction and I never said that it was real.
Hell, if it was the houses would all collapse and a lot of the
population would die when the Mikasa takes off. Ha ha. That would be
really sad since it would mean that the Teikoku Kagekidan would be as
bad as all the bad guys. Yes, it's a game and I admire it for its
creativeness, especially with its partially "Sailormoon" influenced
ending for the first game.
> Even the great Will Shakespeare included anachronisms in his plays. They
> were added for effect. Remember the clock in Julius Caesar?^_^
> No doubt Orihime's use of 'Nippon' is used for the same effect. It
> certainly helps define her character, doesn't it?
I never noticed that Orihime says "Nippon" since I didn't have the
patience in Sakura Taisen 2 to listen to everyone talk. I found out
that if you don't listen to everyone, you can turn a 24 hr+ game into 18
hrs. I didn't really care about either of the new characters, so I
passed them up every time they were going to say something. Besides,
Orihime's voice gets on my nerves after a while. It reminds me of
Japanese children impersonating foreigners, especially how hard she
tries to make it sound foreign.
Ever since I watched Japanese news documentaries about foreigners,
disabled, elderly, and other discriminated groups in Japan, I can't help
but think of this as one of those things that some groups in Japan see
as needing correction. If I didn't have this knowledge, I would
probably find Orihime very amusing. I just wonder why she is the only
one with an accent though. I agree that Orihime's use of "Nippon" is
good to help her character and you do have a good point on that.
> Let's remember this is an 'alternate reality' Tokyo. Technology is much
> more advanced (and relies a helluva lot more on steam ^_-).
It's not an alternate reality Tokyo, but just a fiction, like an old
book. However, if you've ever studied about writing fiction, one of the
key rules is to make sure that you do a little research before you
actually write the story (not just a western idea, but a Japanese one as
well). That's true with almost any story that you find, including
manga. Parasite Eve's writer (of the novel) researched many scientific
magazines, books, and journals and Rumiko Takahashi and Clamp did some
research for their manga. Urusei Yatsura had ideas come from folklore
and books while Tokyo Babylon, X, and RG Veda required a look at
astrology, the occult, Japanese temples/shrines, religion, etc. I even
remember that the animators of "Hokuto no Ken" sketched people doing
actual martial art moves to make their characters seem real.
Fiction is a combination of reality and the creator's imagination. In
the case of Sakura Taisen, it's probably about 50/50. If you are
precise about where you are setting up the story as Sakura Taisen is
(Tokyo, 12th year of Taisho, blah, blah, blah), it better have some
relevance. If you believe that Red Company didn't take their game
seriously and didn't do any research, you're wrong. If you watch the
end credits of the second game, you'll find that people with knowledge
of Okinawa and Russian were recruited to help/check out the references
in the game. Ouji took some of the typical time period happenings (like
the fact that Kohran would have lived in Kobe because of an actual home
for foreigners there or Okinawa based ideas for Kanna) and added in his
own creative energy into the characters and spiritual mishaps (like the
magic and robots).
However, there are limits that a writer sets out for himself where even
he can't cross the line or the audience realizes his mistake.
I think in this sense the Nippon thing caught me off guard and sort of
broke my belief into the fiction. I believed into the past idea with
its mix of Western and Japanese clothing, the reverse horizontal
writing, and most of all, set in a real place setting. I also believed
in the fiction because it wasn't too far fetched to make very much look
out of place for anime. Cars did exist and people have been exploring
the ideas of robots for years and years (can't think of that one manga
that appeared pre-WW II). After all, the Koubu and other mecha reflect
something simpler versus something like Gundam or Bubblegum Crisis
suits. For me, the word "Nippon" has all modern day connections, while
"Nihon" includes everything and anything. Bringing in "Nippon" into the
game just made me think "modern," like the use of "Cho-" in one of the
chapters, and "why was it used in the
game?"
OK, I know I've let out a lot of steam like a dying Koubu, but this is
supposed to just be a reflection on all the letters about this subject.
Now that I've read (hopefully) everyone's comments, I'm more accepting
about "Nippon" and thinking, it's probably the same with "Taisho." If
you've ever really stared at the kanji, "tai" is wrong. But, it's
explained as a creative device (even though Red's homepage doesn't use
it) so I'm more open to the idea that it's more of a personal, artsy
choice.
With that out of the way, I was wondering if anyone knows the secret
codes to "Steam Radio Show"? There are, if I remember, three different
ones, but I didn't buy the "Urawaza" book.