Never come between a man and his pokegirls

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

While I do my best to read every comment, if you want to guarantee a more direct response be sure to stop by my streams on Wed/Sat that I do inbetween uploads, here on the channel! Subtitles for this video will be autogenerated until tomorrow, I do my best to have them done before a video release typically but unfortantly I just got through a blackoutstorm that has pushed much of my schedule back as a result.

@just_a_turtle_chad

Жыл бұрын

Based take

@KeyBladeMaster-Dan

Жыл бұрын

The same comment but replace the end with Team Ninja girls 😅

@Laekith

Жыл бұрын

I really hope Scarlet & Violet designs were just a fumble

@SuiteLifeofDioBrando

Жыл бұрын

Rosa goat

"There is no gender, only body types A and B." "Then why can't we remove type B's top?" "Because type B is female."

@Otome_chan311

10 ай бұрын

I've started boycotting games over this issue, honestly. Why should I buy a game that forces me to play as "body type b" when I can buy a game that lets me explicitly play as a feminine girl?

@DokuNekuon

6 ай бұрын

@@Otome_chan311keep yapping pls

@giratinaswrath9902

4 ай бұрын

@@DokuNekuon ok, body type C. :)

@fabiofanf3e813

Ай бұрын

this is ignoring the fact that girls wont start going goblin over a shirtless man, while men will go goblin over any woman ofc this is a generalization and i dont expect you to be one of them, but if a certain N industry is to by then it is true

@WhiteManOnCampus

Ай бұрын

@@fabiofanf3e813 I don't know what "a certain N industry" refers to, but women do indeed "go goblin" over shirtless men. It's the entire reason why men work to get shredded abs rather than the classic swollen, trapezoidal builds of circus strongmen and historical warriors. Women find the lean and defined build more attractive than the utilitarian body, so men work at it.

The whole global standard is more "western standard" aka the Californian standard. Mind you, the world does not revolve around Californian standard.

@thecompareablezombie

Жыл бұрын

At the time being yes, lets see what it will mean within the next 50 years

@clarehidalgo

Жыл бұрын

Not even "California" specifically San Francisco and LA standards

@lord_boneman

Жыл бұрын

I’m starting to think people are taking Californication as a guide instead of as a warning.

@chad_bro_chill

Жыл бұрын

@@lord_boneman Escape From LA and Demolition Man, at the same time. What a world.

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

4Kids will say otherwise. Eric Stuart even said that the whole world revolves around jelly-filled donuts than Japanese food. You would still be right about what they mean by "global standard". Even then, each country work should be kept as it is when being imported.

"not everything is for everyone but there is, if you go looking. something for everyone." Is such a god tier line.

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

I am a philosopher (overwatch said so)

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

Abso-fucking-lutely. Gold standard quote, that.

@kingbash6466

Жыл бұрын

Ratatouille ending type shit right there.

@dreamer72

Жыл бұрын

Except for gay people, they aren't allowed for some reason to Dimitri

@Luckmann

Жыл бұрын

It is also blatantly untrue.

The “anime as a dirty word” thing really comes down to this misconception that westerners have of anime being a “genre” rather than literally just meaning “Japanese cartoon”. If you like cartoons made by Japanese artists, you like anime. Simple as.

@sparking023

Жыл бұрын

I think it's because of the heavy association between anime, weebs and weaboos. "Oh, you watch anime, so you're one of those..." That's why you see "I just watch anime" or "I only like this one" flying around. Valid reasoning, I would say. There was a time when this association alone would keep some specific types away, the types that like to subvert someone else's hobby. That is not the case anymore

@fabiofanf3e813

Ай бұрын

anime is heavily assosiated with both a style and the otakus

My favorite "Type A/Type B" body type is in the Demon Souls remake, because bluepoint spent a good amount of their hype claiming "we removed gendered armor!". Gendered armor was a big gripe a lot of people had with the game, because the armor in question wasn't even particularly gendered in appearance either, it was an arbitrary restriction that made little sense. So, how did it work in the Demon Souls remake? Well when they said they "removed gendered armor", they actually meant "we removed gender". The armors were still restricted to "type A" or "type B". So, technically, there was no gendered armor in the game anymore. What a goddamn scam.

@koba2348

Жыл бұрын

That's actually awesome

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is the latest in the Pokémon series to mention "a boy or a girl" in text form in 2020.

@otakuthegreat

Жыл бұрын

That's why I bought Demon Souls on PS3 none of that nonsense there

@dominicking5425

Жыл бұрын

I think there's a bracelet that's restricted to female, that let's you get more souls per kill, its straight up unfair

@kazineverwind5267

Жыл бұрын

That's trolling at it's finest. I love it.

One of the tragic thing about this is that companies are trying too hard to appease everybody in the world. It's like selling shoes to the people who don't wear shoes.

@Laekith

Жыл бұрын

Art for the blind

@ghoulbuster1

Жыл бұрын

Selling shoes to legless people.

@Code7Unltd

Жыл бұрын

Hair removal and weight loss to cancer patients

@k96man

Жыл бұрын

One-size-fits-all seems to be a reoccurring trend lately

@noone9260

Жыл бұрын

*appease a specific group of investors

What I find ironic is that Japan went through a similar identity crisis during the ps3-360 era where they were trying to copy the west and it almost destroyed Japan's video game industry. Then came the ps4 era, and games that were less affected by the western audience got released and were well recieved in the west. And nnow, they are going back to trying too appeal to the "international" audience again. This is madness.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

The thing is, japan economy isn’t doing as well as we think it is. This is why they are targeting the west more an ever,, and in turn, starting to “a change their stuff for this modern audience”. What japan failed to understand is, people love japanese stuff because it’s the furthers thing from the west. People re sick of the politics and activism.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

And it is mad, but, almost 0 of my Japanese friends like anime or even know what’s going on in manga, gaming, anime.l but most people I know not japanese love anime, manga, gaming, This shows u why they are starting to bend the knee to this :modern audience: that doesn’t exist. I’m noticing it, and stuff that annoyed us about the western media is 100% seeping into japans gaming, anime, etc. ..

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@@acutelilmint8035 Should we warn Ken Akamastu and others in Japan that terrible things are happening?

@donventura2116

Жыл бұрын

​@@acutelilmint8035what I've learned from my Japanese friends is that anime is perceived as childish cartoons in the west. Most adults phase out of watching all but a few quality animations. Not to mention there is a lot of derivative manga and anime, their landscape is often as creatively vapid as hollywood. And the anime and manga art style is heavily utilized by corporations so it's not as visually unique or exciting to people living in Japanese cities.

@theanonymspysandwich

Жыл бұрын

Nah, they're not trying to appeal to the west. They're payed healthy summs to impliment things we're supposed to see as truth. The problem is that giant "western" globalist investment firms realized that japanese media usually doesn't give a damn about anyones sensibillities, thus taking in allot of western audiences looking for good games/stories instead of being propagandized to, so they increased investment into it to further shape everything into their Image. That's why this shit is slowly creeping into jp media. Not because western people are supposed to enjoy it, but because they enjoyed it more than the propaganda they're supposed to enjoy. We're not buying what they're selling, so they interfere in what actually sells. Evil can't create, it can only corrupt. And it's depressing.

Hearing or seeing the words "global or modern audience" is always a red flag for both western and eastern entertainment

@travishylton6976

Жыл бұрын

captailism

@YarugumaSou

Жыл бұрын

@@travishylton6976 Red capitalism.

@juan-ij1le

Жыл бұрын

@@YarugumaSou how

@yaqubebased1961

Жыл бұрын

Japanese of today are full on western. There's very little actually "eastern" influences in anime, even back in the 80's. Unless if they're deliberately trying to be japanese

@IndustrialParrot2816

Жыл бұрын

Leftist here yeah it pisses me off too

If people in America legitimately got offended by Mallow, Lana, and Lillie's designs in Pokemon Sun/Moon I feel sorry for them.

@anonanonymous9670

Жыл бұрын

Crab told me to say hi Yukikaze

Replacing or removing "male" and "female" labels in the sex selection area of character customization seems particularly pointless to me because the categorization is still binary. Only the names are changed, and mechanically it's not a spectrum at all.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

Most times gender sex whatever doesn’t even effect the story. It’s like visual novels.. I can change the name - but it’s still that character. It’s not you lol

@dirtpeanut1820

Жыл бұрын

Genderfreaks ruin everything. XX or XY.

@Bullminator

Жыл бұрын

The only time this makes sense, is when you play something that is not human. Aliens could have multiple genders no problem.

@garenthal9638

Жыл бұрын

Then don’t complain about it because it makes some people very happy

@randomduck8679

Жыл бұрын

@@garenthal9638 Why would that make them happy? Aren't sex and gender separate?

america pushing amorphous grey humans reminds me of Fairy Odd Parents where Timmy asked for everyone to be equal, so everyone turned into grey blobs, and they still managed to segregate there. I am sure America would do the same. "Our gays are the correct gays." "Whaaaat? A boy dressing up as a girl? IT MUST BE TRANS! There is no space for crossdressers."

Gonna start using "Type 02" and "Type B" as slurs for women

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

Adapting misogyny for the modern day

@ununun9995

Жыл бұрын

Second gender

@rafabuda0

Жыл бұрын

Gonna pull up with the "ok, second gender person".

@firstnamelastnamethirdname

Жыл бұрын

Lmao eventually they would adapt it and self identify as it. Already happened with the word "wh*re" and "bit***".

@MisterGreis

Жыл бұрын

Oh, so that's what the B in Type B stands for!

I have around 6 years of game industry experience in AAA games and here's what I can tell you about the western visual experience. I worked QA at one AAA studio (One of the ones you pointed to) in Los Angeles for a little over 2 years and I'm a Senior Graphic Designer for my current studio (Also a colossal AAA titan, you have probably seen my art in a twitter ad and hated it lol). I can say from personal experience that the visual and artistic decisions of the games I've worked on have always come from the game director which kind of makes sense, they're the director, right? Well, often times, these directors are creative but they are not artists. At least not visual artists. and even if they CAN draw, they are certainly not better at it than the actual titled artists and character designers on their staff. Otherwise they'd probably still be a titled artist. The problem this creates is you have non-visual creatives making all the visual direction decisions. In the anime sphere, there was an interview with Gen Urobuchi after he finished working on Madoka Magica about the designs for the witches in the show. In his initial draft, his idea for the design of the final witch, Walpurgisnacht, was that of a generic Kaiju like Godzilla or something. What the art team presented him however was much more unsettling, strange, and avant-garde. He loved the new design and pointed to it as WHY artists are hired because he claimed he would have never thought up such a unique design himself. Urobuchi is a writer, is not a visual artist. I have talked about this point at 6:32 a lot but from a different angle that I think highlights it even better: Art Director/Character Designer. The difference here is that America has Game Directors with huge agency on their projects, but we aren't talking about them like we do Kojima. On the contrary, Art Directors or Character Designers in the West not only do not get talked about, they have minimal say in the identity of the game at all. Conversely, let's look at a slew of Japanese games and I want you to imagine these games with a different artist helming their creative direction and how much that would fundamentally change the identity of the game itself. Yoji Shinkawa - Metal Gear Akira Toriyama - Dragon Quest Takehito Harada - NIS games Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshitaka Amano - Final Fantasy Toru Nakayama - Mega Man Zero Akihiko Yoshida - Final Fantasy, Nier Automata Kazuma Kaneko - Shin Megami Tensei, Persona 1-2 Shigenori Soejima - Persona 3-5 Yuusuke Kozaki - No More Heroes Mari Shimazaki - Bayonetta Suzuhito Yasuda - Digimon Cybersleuth, SMT Devil Survivor Persona is an excellent example at highlighting this. Just look how different in perception Persona 1 & 2's visual style is from 3-5. Even more interesting is that Kaneko (P1 and 2) is Soejima's (P3-5) teacher. A similar comparison can be made with Final Fantasy before and after Nomura. Or how Dragon Quest is pretty much impossible to fathom without Akira Toriyama's art. Having the artistic voice of a single, distinct artist is fundamental to the identity of all of these games. We also have a huge problem with the incoming artists because of this homogenized realism in Western development. When I was in school for game dev, it was frequently hammered into you that if you have a stylized aesthetic in your art at all, especially an anime one, you will not find work. A lot of students worked hard to bury their personal aesthetic preferences and styles in order to get a job once they graduated.

@thelimit69

Жыл бұрын

Very interesting read, thank you.

@m4nta_703

Жыл бұрын

Congratulations on your success in the field. It’s great to see that people still have a sense of sanity when it comes to the process of game development. I could properly fathom the tinny kinks in the AAA machine. And seeing your knowledge in the field shows the commitment to the job. I hope (though I know it’s rare) what ever project your currently working on satisfies you.

@silverhawkscape2677

Жыл бұрын

Hopefully Arcane and Puss in Booths encouraged people to be open about there artistic styles.

@OsnosisBones

Жыл бұрын

@@silverhawkscape2677 Or just the general resurgence in platformer remakes and new releases and growing indie popularity and mimicry leading to a greater prominence of stylized or outright cartoonish designs. While not anywhere near what it could be, there is definitely more instances of non-realism-centric game design lately, with even the go-to big name companies in the west dipping their toes in side-projects with more stylized art design.

@KudaGeatsune3821

Жыл бұрын

You have to give up your personal style to get hired? That's tantamount to Death of personality what the fuck is what I say to that

Abandoning your uniqueness is equivalent to dying after all.

@ununun9995

Жыл бұрын

Blending in the chaos

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

Yup. It’s a nightmare scenario we’re in,

@acceptablecasualty5319

Жыл бұрын

Apathy is Death.

2 words: cultural imperialism. Google them. It's really frightening what the Western empires are doing to cultures. And yet not enough people are calling them out in these exact terms. Call it what it is: cultural imperialism.

@franciscor390

Жыл бұрын

It truly is, and it even has some components of religious nature, making it feel like a secular religion which cannot be fairly criticized like everything else, or you will without hesitation be branded with a self righteous "ism, ist or phobe" word it's quite ingenious and nefarious. The irony is that they say they represent the west but really but they actually only make out a small minority of very privileged elite who happen to be rich and influential, they come out of places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, other parts of California, where the rich Elites are situated.

@thecompareablezombie

Жыл бұрын

All western countries have removed their connection to god.

@KopperNeoman

Жыл бұрын

The Woke define Imperialism the same way Hitler did. What they do isn't Imperialism because Imperialism means the spread of English cultural values like habeas corpus, fair trials, and no slavery.

@ghoulbuster1

Жыл бұрын

It's not an empire, it's a religion of destruction.

@fredrick8958

Жыл бұрын

Agree brother agree

This kinda reminds me of a conversation I had with a former coworker before he got fired. We were talking about Elden Ring, and he kept saying how certain elements of the game's design were "bad". I explained that FromSoft go for specific things with their games, paying homage to older games where you had to draw your own map and write things down to remember them. I explained how the plot being hard to access was a result of Miyazaki reading English-language fantasy novels when he was young and having to fill in blanks with his own interpretations and ideas since he couldn't understand all of it. This coworker said "Why don't they just add things like a quest log or make the story easier to understand? It would appeal to more people that way." I simply responded with "Why would they want to? Miyazaki's games are special because of the things that make them different. Removing those things would compromise his artistic vision."

@shizachan8421

Жыл бұрын

To be honest, at least a quest journal would have been nice for Elden Ring, especially before they patched in npc markers, quest were near impossible to follow if you aren't using the internet. And Elden Ring probably would have benefited from a tighter story, because playing the Ranni route vs any other route is kind of a night and day difference.

@cadis4257

Жыл бұрын

Normies ruin everything

@shizachan8421

Жыл бұрын

@@cadis4257 Thats such an incel thing to say, touch grass.

@cadis4257

Жыл бұрын

@@shizachan8421 run back to fortnite normie.

@graveyardshift6691

Жыл бұрын

@@shizachan8421 That's the point. It's a homage to a bygone time when not everyone played games. The games themselves were limited because of hardware constraints. Now that they aren't limited, those designs are now an artistic choice. A window into the past. Instead of relying on the internet to optimize your way through everything, do what the old explorers did before you. I'm playing Final Fantasy XV blind right now. I have no idea where anything is or what to expect out of any of it. I don't know the most optimal routes to anything and I'm playing out the world by ear. I have literally stumbled upon things while recording that were unexpected with no prompting or prior knowledge. There's a world of difference between optimizing your path so you can complete a questline and exploring the world around you to see what happens. Try it yourself sometime. The next time you play an open world game, don't stop playing to open a web browser. Don't look up how to complete anything. Pick a direction in the blatant opposite direction the game wants you to go and see what you find. Try to find unconventional ways to use your tools. Break the game. Look for ways to make your own markers. Learn your surroundings and navigate like the explorers of old. Name your own landmarks other then what the game gives you. Of course the Ranni route is going to be night and day. The point of the game is to explore and make decisions which will affect your outcome. If you didn't like the outcome then go back and see what other choices you can make to change the outcome.

I don't know if Sony can even be considered a Japanese company anymore, since they moved their headquarters to California

@fuwafuwa271

Жыл бұрын

Sony Interactive Entertainment was moved, but Sony is still in Japan.

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

They still deserve that shame for trying to censor all mediums worldwide. First they have a problem with Japanese girls wearing only underwear, next they censored a European video game, and now they will change the dialogue against the original translation from any country's cartoon.

@friedchicken4735

Жыл бұрын

Commifornia

@ununun9995

Жыл бұрын

@@fuwafuwa271 their heart isn't in Japan anymore

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

@@ununun9995 not enough money. This stuff isn’t as popular there as over seas. I don’t think people realize.l anime. Gaming etc.. is still considered on the low tier.. it’s not “cool”.

Pokemon not segregating clothing between genders would have been fine if 1) There was more than 4 outfits in gen 9 and 2) Skirts were available.

@ChooChooMcBoogie64

Жыл бұрын

The actual issue there isn't that they are together. The issue is the lack of options.

@yoman8027

Жыл бұрын

They wanted to be progressive but lacked the balls for it. Because Arceus forbid you could be a femboy in a videogame.

@HappyPotat

Жыл бұрын

@@yoman8027 It could have been the chosen one.

@GELTONZ

Жыл бұрын

@@ChooChooMcBoogie64 Yup! That and lack of body shape. Like...there's no way to PRESENT as female! You CANNOT make a girl that looks like a girl AT ALL. The body shapes are too subtle and the clothing is too gender neutral. Like that's the thing, it's not that boys can wear girl clothes, that's fine. It's that there ARE no girl clothes!

@PenguinMasterKnight

Жыл бұрын

Hell you probably could've also had some dumb excuse of "School dress code, you can change everything BUT the main uniform", still dumb but at least would've worked....

god the genderless blob thing is so real. the absolute worst is when devs try to squeeze BOTH into one character model like the fuck. i literally couldnt play as a girl character cause my character had such masculine male arms/upper body and stance. also love how masculine clothing is sometimes forced on us for whatever reason. LET ME PLAY AS A CUTE GIRL IN A DRESS. ugh. men who actually wanna play as a masculine man must have it even worse. man just look at pokemon battle revolution and how many different characters you could choose from. didnt matter if u were a little girl or a macho muscle dude. everyone could choose what they want. all you needed to be "modern" was add femboy and butch OPTIONS. not replace the regular ones. burn the esg score.

@nobalkain624

Жыл бұрын

Its a reason for them to spend less time and money. It sucks because people are claiming we are 'getting more options', when in fact we are getting less.

@Otome_chan311

10 ай бұрын

I just don't buy games if they don't let me play as a feminine girl. It's my "pink" test. 1. Can you play as a girl? 2. Is the girl feminine? 3. Can she wear a dress? 4. Can she wear pink? If the answer for these is no, it fails and I'll typically avoid buying it. Basically every single AAA game fails this test. The upcoming fashion dreamer is about to fail as well if it releases without fixing it's gender situation, as it does body type a/b, but it otherwise passes. Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island came out this year and passed with flying colors. Otome games usually get half marks, letting you play as a feminine girl, but having varying outfits per game.

@MALICEM12

7 ай бұрын

​@@Otome_chan311yep they don't want men to be men, or girls to be girly. We all have to be androgynous now

@MALICEM12

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for recognizing that this affects both

@bigduke5902

Ай бұрын

You're exactly right, but I'd remove "genderless" from your first statement. EVERYTHING is being consumed.

This is one of the reasons I’m learning Japanese. They can never take my language skill away from me!

@Chestyfriend

Жыл бұрын

賢明な判断です。It is always better to experience something in the original language, be it the work of Shakespeare or Japanese eroge.

@mrrandomdude4291

Жыл бұрын

@@Chestyfriendそうですね

@BenHyuga

Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately learning Japanese is no longer enough as westerners are stationed in Japan studios and the censor mid development.

@TheGameDisplay

Жыл бұрын

@@BenHyuga This is why retro media reigns supreme. Take a deep dive into games and anime from pre-2010 and you're likely to find a lot of stuff you'll enjoy. And learning Japanese is still good because you can experience things that were never localized.

@ghoulbuster1

Жыл бұрын

@@Chestyfriend Giga Chad Eroge Enjoyer

As a European I have always passionately hated the term "Global" standard. Its not a global standard, its just very few Americans that want control of other cultures and media. They aren't fighting for any diversity or equal rights, they claim that they do and they claim that they want to send a message, but the reality is that they can't hide their real agenda: Control of other countries cultures. It is said that those that control the media controls the narrative so in the end its all just a huge power struggle and they hate being on the loosing side when clearly us customers choose quality over their crap. Plus I hate to be piled with the "westerner" because of "Global" standard because it makes people think I follow the same standards and thinking that Americans do. "tries his best strong dude voice impression" I don't, I am a bloody Swedish Finn Viking that doesn't let puny naïve politics from America affect what I like. Seriously though leave us Euro beans out of this mess America, we like diverse cultures just fine as they are because all of our neighbours are diverse (yes even in Scandinavia fellow Scandinavians).

@evanpereira3555

Жыл бұрын

European myself too : YES, especially about "westerner" its definition is so vague (on purpose).

@77Night77Shade77

Жыл бұрын

Lol, alright then, have fun with your conspiracy theories, I guess.

@JascDark

Жыл бұрын

As an American from the original GLBT acronym before it got hijacked by leftists and devolved into pseudo-Marxist gender insanity, I can attest that most real Americans hate these Global Standards too.

@77Night77Shade77

Жыл бұрын

@@JascDark You need to stop using words without knowing what the hell they mean. Just makes you sound like a crazed lunatic.

@hulmhochberg8129

Жыл бұрын

​@@77Night77Shade77 lol, have opened the newspapers anytime in the last 30 years?

Pokemon removed all meaningful character customization in SV. You can pretty much only change accessories and hair style. I get what they were trying to go for but man did they fail. On top of that, every trainer besides gym leaders were affiliated with the school. I get Team Star grunts looking the same but random NPC trainers also all were wearing the school uniform. Even the elderly and preschoolers. Seeing a massive 80 year old looking man wearing a school uniform completely dropped my immersion. And this is all on top of being the glitchiest Pokemon game to date. The modern audience does not exist. I wish companies would stop trying to chase it.

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

Pokémon Let's Go did the sex-specific clothes very right by making them similar, and have the same amount for both the boy and the girl whenever there is support play. X and Y have limited clothes, especially for the boy, but still sex-specific where the girl can wear dresses and skirts.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

That’s what sucks.. cause I like these games for the clothes haha and Pokémon.. but if I can’t shop and get haircuts..what’s the point.

@CaptainObliviousV

Жыл бұрын

I don’t quite get the age based arguments when it comes to the student trainer class. It’s an open enrollment school with a dress code. Sure, the adult students can look pretty doofy in a sun hat and shorts, but it’s not like education has age restrictions. I’m open to someone explaining this to me, since right now, the only gripe I can understand related to the trainer class is that they dominate the landscape compared to others.

@Archdornan9001

Жыл бұрын

Yeah SV is by far my least favorite Pokémon game to date. Hell even SWSH was better overall

@theodis8134

Жыл бұрын

That's more of an issue of cutting costs to increase profits than to appease some modern audience like a lot of right wing reactionaries like to portray it as. The problem is this is what capitalism leads to. I don't think anyone regardless of political stance wants less customization options in their games or wants a more buggy experience.

I've come across this anti-individualist/collectivist attitude a fair bit, what's hilarious is when it clashes with the desire of "the creator's vision" I was on a game design course and we were told to talk about how target demographics work and how our proposed games should appeal to its target demo. I brought up the man who was brought in to help make the cola war winner for Pepsi only to declare there can be no winning universal cola only winners in certain categories and how I planned to take that strategy appealing to fans of genres over traditional demos like age, sex, nationality as it would give it more reach since it would appeal to a hardline core base who would grow its appeal organically and could be relied on as bottom line. I was told off for this saying the example was irrelevant (despite being the most well-known case study of the phenomenon) and that I need to instead have it appeal to everyone or as many as possible, they kept doing this, encouraging free individual expression then immediately stepping into group think and demanding homogeneity, it was especially depressing when we discussed group think as part of the player behavioural science module and they doged it occurring in desgin, journolisim and industry comontators and were forbidden from bringing any examples up.

@bigduke5902

Ай бұрын

Roger Ebert was wrong. Video games ARE art and they better cater to my every whim.

I apreciate you pointing out the difference between the EU and NA versions of Animal Crossing. In Europe it feels like there's a huge push to ascribe to the exact same American values despite so many europeans having very different cultural heritage especially with these topics and how much american media has been shitting all over european history like it was a tool to push their ideology. We often get lumped in with this kind of stuff and it's honestly really annoying.

@acceptablecasualty5319

Жыл бұрын

Plus, a lot of Europeans are more politically educated and sensitive to these Issues of Cultural Imperialism, implied superiority and taking the Moral High Ground. Since the big two.

@aino-kaisav5504

Жыл бұрын

Oh I hate when people here in Europe try to push the American world view. Here in Finland whe have had protests against racism (an important matter, don't get me wrong) where people have been claiming that "Helsinki (the capital city) was build by slaves!" The heck? There were never slaves in Finland the same way there was in the US. Or to be exact, many Finns were sold as slaves to Russia and other countries that were more powerful during the history.

In business class I was taught about a little something called a 'Target Audience'. The concept was that people are different, and their tastes are different, so you need to sell your products to the people who want them. These days I keep hearing companies chaising a 'Wider Audience' and shake my head. They're trying to sell sand to someone in a desert.

@aino-kaisav5504

Жыл бұрын

That's why I love otome games. People often blame them for being "uninclusive" for only having a female protagonist. Bruh, there are visual novels and dating sims with a gender neutral protagonist, leave this niche alone!

@Otome_chan311

10 ай бұрын

@@aino-kaisav5504 otome community keeps staying based.

Want another "fun" example of removing gender ruining customization? Switch Sports. The Sportsmates have no gender technically, but when you wear female clothes, your body shape becomes feminine and when you wear male clothes your body shape becomes masculine. So literally no crossdressing and no tomboys. Making this even worse is the non-human body options which do not get face choices so they either have or don't have eyelashes. So all squirrels and birds are feminine while the bunny will be masculine. No exceptions. It's like...the worst case scenario for gender erasure...and yet somehow I find Pokemon S&V to be worse. I outright avoided S&V largely because you can't make a female character that looks female. An outright shame as yes, Pokemon has incredible character designs. Shoot, Sword & Shield was even criticized by some as just existing to add more PokeWaifus to the mobile game! You're also spot on about Japanese media always being more "progressive" than Western media. I got into anime back in the 80s due to my older sister. She liked it because Japan was better at portraying women than America was. Japanese media was also my first introduction to the concepts of gay and trans people. So seeing people turn around and blame Japanese media for regressive ideals always rustles my jimmies. Like whenever there's a list of sexualized female characters in games or whatever, some chucklehead in the comments will say "Ever notice how all of these characters come from...Japan? If you focused on Western made games you would find it to be much less sexist because you see, Japan is a deeple sexist country and-" yeah, see, in order to have a sexualized portrayal of women, you'd need to PORTRAY WOMEN in the first place! Gah! Then again, I remember a particular blog calling out Nintendo. Remember that E3 where Ubisoft got raked over the coals for not having a female character option in Assassin's Creed? That same E3, every single game Nintendo showed either had a female main character or female character option except for Yoshi's Woolie World. Yet SOMEHOW a particular feminist blog wrote an article about how Nintendo's E3 presentation was just as bad as Ubisoft's! Because they didn't portray women the "right" way. ...and now I find these people, who attacked videogames for not having enough women in them, celebrating female erasure. I cannot scream loud enough. Gosh darnit I need to follow your example and make more videos.

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

Is there any way we could end this nightmare once and for all?

@snibber

Жыл бұрын

I bet in japanese it still says the two original genders. That's what happened to animal crossing, if you play it in japanese or spanish, it still says boy / girl when you are creating your character.

@legoboy7107

Жыл бұрын

@@snibber I wonder if that's also true of Splatoon 3. Because in English it no longer specifies the genders like in Splatoon 1 and 2, despite the two gender options still clearly being in the game, it also does the "select a style" thing that Animal Crossing did (the game does still have "boy" and "girl" as optional things you can put on your splashtag title though). Granted, only place I can think of where explicitly saying the two genders would actually happen in other languages would be like Splatfest rank titles and stuff, since the character customization's UI is pretty minimalist and there's not really any room to spell out "Inkling Girl, Inkling Boy, Octoling Girl, Octoling Boy" without messing up the UI.

@KNIGHTMARE__

Жыл бұрын

I know a lot of people would disagree but personally I miss the more gendered dialogue of past animal crossing games. Most dialogue wasn’t gendered but sometimes a female villager might only talk about something if you were a woman, idk it just made some interactions feel a little more “real” if that makes sense. I think the gendered dialogue might’ve been only cut from the English release but I’m not sure because no one’s talked about it.

@shizachan8421

Жыл бұрын

@@jacek7348 I would argue that its due to the existance of the Shojo Genre. Not long after Manga started to become its own distinct genre of comic, we already saw artist writing and drawing manga that is specifically targeted to girls. Osamu Tezuka himself even was one of the first artists who created the Shojo genre. This made Manga by far mor accessible than its american counterpart and allowed for female creatives to enter the industry and magazines specifically targeted towards girls and women to flourish, especially since Manga never fell into the trap of being more of a children medium where adult oriented works where stuck in the underground scene or had to operate under the confines of the more YA centric superhero market. Osamu Tezuka again himself drew quite a few adult-oriented mangas focussed on heavy subject matters, seriously, this guy has such an interesting career that is by far bigger than just Astro Boy, which he is mostly associated with. I would argue that the issue comes with the fact that these stereotypes are strong and even became stronger over time in male oriented animes and mangas, which where also the ones that would break the easiest into the western market, though I also feel like, there is a difference in taste between western and japanese audiences, with japanese female audiences foten prefering women who are more traditionally femme and cute looking. I noticed that through Chainsaw Man recently with Himeno, who is pretty popular with men and women alike here in the west, being less popular with women in japan due to the fact that she doesn't fit the traditional standarts for female characters in Anime.

I think the people I hate the most in this are the "translator" (Loooocalizers) going on and on about how they made the thing more paletable to a western audience... The reason I like this stuff is because it's different and most definitely NOT modern western activist BS.

@Steven9567

Жыл бұрын

I remember ep1 spyxfamily they put right wing terrorist I was like what this a different country in a different time period

@nuclearsynapse5319

Жыл бұрын

@@Steven9567 I think it's actually pretty reasonable. Right wing doesn't refer to American politics, it's in reference mostly to the French Revolution. Since then any conservative movement in a country has been the "right" while progressives are labeled "left". Both conservatives and progressives are inherently liberals (in the true definition, not the American use of the word). The exception to this is the extreme of either faction. Both can become illiberal, and tend towards violence (read: terrorism). Given that the guy from SpyxFamily seems to be a Hitler/Mussolini analogue it's not unreasonable to call their faction right wing, given the common (though still somewhat debated) understanding that they fall firmly in the extreme authoritarian right of the political compass.

If they ruin it, we'll just walk away. They'll always lose in the end because if they take away what made things popular in the first place, people will walk away.

@Zac_Frost

Жыл бұрын

That's what's already happening to entertainment as a whole. Movie revenue is tanking, live services of online games are almost hitting the point of being on life support, subscription services are going in the red month after month, etc. People are just walking away because there's nothing unique or interesting being offered anymore. Hell, I barely buy anything new because so much of it is just so bland. I beat Pokemon Scarlet a while back, and haven't picked it up again since, but I replay Emerald and Platinum at least once a year. I'm glad I still have my old school games, books, and movies. I still have my original DS, GameCube, Wii, GBA, N64, etc. It's not just the nostalgia of those games that keeps me going back, but also the quality. Games, movies, books, comics, and all that just used to have more effort put into them as well as care. They weren't glitchy with Day 1 patches needed. Expansion passes weren't announced on Release Day. The works. What you got was a finished product. And it was cheaper. Now, you're paying more for a work in progress...

@Archdornan9001

Жыл бұрын

@@Zac_Frost yeah the Older games are so much fun! Seriously I have more fun playing older games than I do newer games.

@theodis8134

Жыл бұрын

I mean big game publishers in the US have been buying up popular properties, milking them for all they are worth, shutting down or moving the development studios when the cost savings impact the franchise quality too much and people leave, and then buying up the next popular IP to repeat. It's been going on for decades destroying many game series I loved as a kid and will keep going on as long as it is profitable to do so. Boycotts didn't stop DRM. Boycotts didn't stop microtransactions. Boycotts didn't stop live services. The only reason so many live services are failing now is that it's just a completely unsustainable business model. As long as there is a steady stream of popular things for these companies to buy up and make money off of, it's not going to stop.

@dragonandavatarfan8865

4 ай бұрын

@@theodis8134So just give up? Take that doomer mentality of yours and throw it in the trash, there is always a limit to how far you can push an industry and its consumers. The activist investor's will eventually run out of other people's money and this companies will eventually run out of popular things to ruin and will be forced to either give their customers what they want or go bankrupt.

I've also started to notice that more and more non English speaking countries are starting to push back against this flavor of American imperialism. For instance, every Spanish speaker that I know thinks that shit like "Latinx" is incredibly dumb.

@kurkovoin7906

Жыл бұрын

At least in Chile, replacing the gender signifier in words with an e, e.g "amigo/a" with "amigue" when reffering to a large crowd is a pretty strong movement that has reached formal notices, government surveys or scientific essays and the like. It has gained a lot of traction in the last 5 years

@custom-r

Жыл бұрын

American here. I too find that term very off-putting.

@PedroJEgea

Жыл бұрын

@@kurkovoin7906 Se dice "amigos" para referirse a un grupo, "amigues" o lo que pollas sea suena fatal la verdad. En España he visto otras gilipolleces similares pero no esa, curioso Mientras no nos libremos del imperialismo de Estados Unidos culturalmente parece que estamos atados a la misma mierda xD

@kurkovoin7906

Жыл бұрын

@@PedroJEgea tiene bastantes errores y fallas el lenguaje inclusivo pero ser un plan de control cultural de estados unidos no es uno de ellos. El lenguaje inclusivo nace como idea en la decada de los 70, antes de todo este movimiento lgbt, no binario o genero fluido. Sus origenes nacen a partir del movimiento feminista radical, ya que consideran que referirse a un grupo de personas por el término masculino invisibiliza a la mujer (por ejemplo: "gracias a todos los doctores por su esfuerzo" es la manera gramaticamente correcta y predeterminada, y no emplea la palabra "doctoras". No estoy del todo abordo con restructurar gran parte de nuestro lenguaje por una tecnicidad, pero como antropólogo, es un fenómeno muy interesante de analizar, y como hombre, quien soy yo para decirle al movimiento feminista que no, si realmente no me afecta en nada que ocupen "o" o "e" al terminar una palabra.

The funny thing about the comment about diversity in a medieval fantasy game is that the Twitter folks and game journos insisted that medieval Europe was extremely diverse (in the modern sense) and then provided only examples outside of the medieval period (e.g., the black Roman legionary who served in the British occupation in the classical period, another black legionary who served in Egypt and became a Christian martyr, the black member of the king's household in England in the Rennaissance period, etc.). Go back and read any article from that incident and you'll see that the smug intelligentsia can provide no examples that are within 500-1400 that don't involve an invasion.

@yoman8027

Жыл бұрын

Not to mention, they are providing exceptions, not the average rule.

@xNocturnalKnightx

Жыл бұрын

Tell them about those archaeological finds in North America linked to stone-age peoples in Europe and their heads might explode when you ask what their standard means in this case.

@ltb1345

Жыл бұрын

The problem with a medieval fantasy setting that "reflects the world we live in today" is that it's an oxymoron.

@TheKeksadler

Жыл бұрын

I mean even today, Europe (or even America) isn't as diverse as these people believe...

@xNocturnalKnightx

Жыл бұрын

@@TheKeksadler Definitely more so than before but, even going with around a 60-70 percent European population in the US, the concentration varies by region. The US is a big country when you count all 50 states. For example, you'll find a lot more Asians on the west coast than you will in North Dakota...well, you'll find more people on the coast in general compared to ND...

I kind of miss when liking Pokémon was uncool and I got bullied for it. Never thought I'd say that but at least then I didn't have to deal with idiots telling me how the games are somehow better off with content and options being taken out for no good reason.

@sparking023

Жыл бұрын

The ol days of being called a weeb and being dismissed because of an anime pfp. well, that still happens to some degree, but without the advantage of them not trying to make the things I like a gray, tasteless goop

@MoreEvilThanYahweh

Жыл бұрын

@@sparking023 Don't forget the rainbow packaging the gray goop comes in so they can deflect and attack legitimate criticism

@Superluigi881

Жыл бұрын

@@MoreEvilThanYahweh True. So very true. No Twitter user number 573, I don't hate homosexuals or trans people. Just you for ruining everything with your "representation". If you want to be a part of this community fine. But it shouldn't have to change just for you. Don't like it? There's the door.

@KuroNoTenno

Жыл бұрын

Now those bullies themselves took over the hobby.

@MALICEM12

7 ай бұрын

This sentiment is now spoken frequently. Whether about Pokemon or video games in general or anime or whatever.

The Yakuza Series is so fun because you have to accept that it is what it is. It’s obvious that it caters more to a male audience, but there are tons of unique stuff you can do, you forget and just have fun

@classifiedmann3074

Жыл бұрын

Ironically, the game is quite popular with quite a few girls

@StrykerMagnum

Жыл бұрын

I don't even necessarily think it appeals to women that much less, just that Western women are taught that video games are for boys; go be a "real" girl, go be pretty and become a submissive hetero breeder machine. Reject self-esteem and hobbies, become object for men to posses. ... I may have some qualms with the ideas Western society puts in kids heads. >.>

@classifiedmann3074

Жыл бұрын

@@StrykerMagnum we do in fact, live in a society

@randomduck8679

Жыл бұрын

Catering to a specific audience isn't a bad thing. Every product or service has a target demographic, even if a percentage of their consumers don't fall into it.

@MidlifeCrisisJoe

Жыл бұрын

The Ryu Ga Gotoko/Like A Dragon/Yakuza (whatever you want to call them) games are the epitome of extreme "Japaneseness" and buck every trend that people want to look at that everyone else was capitulating to. When Yakuza 1 first came out, no one thought a game specifically aimed at older Japanese men could do well, it did. As the series went along, they kept trying to westernize it for Americans and cut out content, but the Americans who actually bought the games demanded they keep in as much of the esoteric Japanese stuff as possible. So Sega (eventually) listened to them and the games became more and more popular. We're currently getting a once Japan exclusive spin-off title in this series remade for the global market coming out this week. One set in old 1800's Japan, which couldn't really get any more Japanese (other than the other Japan only exclusive they've still never ported). While every other Japanese company is trying to bend to some BS imaginary global standard, these games which totally buck that trend are becoming more popular than ever.

Take us back to when anime was a niche

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

What's niche? Also, how can you tell the difference between Mainstream and Alternative?

@17th_Colossus

Жыл бұрын

"Mainstream" is where entertainment goes to die.

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@Joe Uh-oh. Is there's a different between Mainstream and Alternative? If so, should anime/manga go back being Alternative?

@17th_Colossus

Жыл бұрын

@@keeganmcfarland7507 When i refer to "Mainstream" i mostly mean very popular. Think of how Marvel and DC was considered "nerdy" or "weird" many years before Disney made them incredibly popular. Next thing you know, the same people who were bullying the "nerds" for liking comics of Marvel and DC characters, were the first ones in line at the theatre for the newest "Avengers" movie. So to answer your question, niche would be what Marvel and DC use to be, let's say back in the 90s. Whereas Mainstream is where they are now. As for "Alternative," well you could see that as a synynom for niche in this case. The problem is that when something becomes mainstream, it usually also becomes very bland.

@spacejunk2186

Жыл бұрын

So 1960?

Dimitri Monroe is the Global Standard for media criticism.

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

FR SO true!!

@ulyx9804

Жыл бұрын

@@DimitriMonroe FUUUUCK this video is so good, I can't watch it fast enough. Stop being so fucking compelling you prick!

@spaceracer6861

Жыл бұрын

literally him

@dreamer72

Жыл бұрын

Loved when he used stonetoss a literal nazi crypto peddler to argue against gay people

These trends are all so depressing. I've always loved Anime and Japanese videogames and I don't want their identity gone. I had absolutely no clue that Forspoken was Japanese, that's just sad. It just seems like a condensed American blob.

@Naruga

Жыл бұрын

All the story was western writers but yeah even the ui etc felt western

@westonmeyer3110

Жыл бұрын

Sony has completely destroyed Japanese media identity. Sony is exactly what Japanese people feared Sega was becoming in the 90s.

@BlueEyedVibeChecker

7 ай бұрын

Thankfully SEGA died a hero instead of living to see itself become a Sony.

@DeBean970

3 ай бұрын

Don't bet on it

as someone who knew a translator in the early 80's who was into anime i can say that it was better when it was "both harder to do and done out of love". Having it translated by "companies" or "random fans" has been a curse. If you have someone who speaks Japanese you should still try to translate things with them yourself and not rely on others, as people are not always honest about what they read or see.

This may come off as very "why can't everyone be smart like me" but I have NEVER wanted to self insert as a game character; it isn't my story, it's theirs. Some of my favorite games of all time feature characters I wouldn't want to be caught dead as but I still love their stories experience them as a fly on the wall. Who decided that every game has to be YOUR story? I hate my story. My story involves working a job that pays me too little having act like I respect people who are under qualified to wipe their own asses. I play games and watch anime to not have to deal with this story in this crapsack world. It's the same reason I'm so tired of Isekai trash, I don't want to know what MY life would be in a different world and have some dork pointed at saying "this doofus is you, you doofus look how much you suck at your normal life." Why do so many fantasies need to have an Isekai stapled on with no narrative impact?

@runeanonymous9760

Жыл бұрын

I tend to roleplay characters in games as some of my OCs, or characters from other things, to imagine how someone might act. A lot of isekai actually does stuff with it, usually in the Shoujo genre, and also in the shounen area, but most of the ones that do stuff with it (all the stupid fucking smartphone harem anime) are trash.

@Excelsior1937

Жыл бұрын

My life hasn't been like yours, but I've never wanted to self insert as a game character or protagonist either. If I'm playing Skyward Sword, that's Links adventure. If I'm playing Half-Life, that's Gordon Freeman's adventure. If I'm playing Sonic, that's Sonic's adventure.

@Fatigue023

Жыл бұрын

Honestly I think the game letting you insert yourself in the world, makes it more immersive.

@aino-kaisav5504

Жыл бұрын

With me it depends. It is true that with Pokemon I like to self-insert myself into the story but that's mainly because the Pokemon main characters don't usually show any distinguishable personality in-game. However, many times I also feel like the emotions in Inside Out. I'm with the main character but I'm not the main character.

The fact that this behaviour is so thoroughly tied into the amount of investment capital a company receives makes me worried for the future of gaming. Larger Japanese (and other foreign) studios will be required to bend to this or they'll face backlash from their shareholders for avoiding obvious growth potential. It'll be up to indie devs for a while, but even those will start to lose the cultural memory over time due to the influence that large companies have over trends. I don't really care about type A/B stuff directly, but the knock-on effects like losing customization is where it really stings. Great video as always.

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

Is there any way we could end this nightmare once and for all? Should we warn Ken Akamastu that terrible things are happening?

@sparking023

Жыл бұрын

@@keeganmcfarland7507 the only way this could end when the companies lose the interest in keeping towing that line. Unfortunately, thanks to things like ESG, so long as there are investors to cover any losses these poorly made products may bring, they will keep doing it because they can make a profit our of it still (and I wouldn't discard ideological zealotry either). But the light at the end of the tunnel is that, if enough people tune out, you can make them tank enough to give space for other companies to shine. Think of how for the last decade, AAA games have been more and more underwhelming, while the indie scenario grows stronger each year. There are still a few nice companies like FromSoft, who know their audience and will stick to it so long as they have support. And yes, making Japanese creators aware of that is a good way to "fortify the defenses" too

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@ArauJo Jhonatan Seriously though, I don't want Japan to follow the same fateful footsteps like how America and China/North Korea did. I want Japan (especially their population/economy) to be salvaged.

32:13 nice subtle Touhou My hypothesis is that "gender-neutral" customization is all a ploy to cut costs rigging multiple body types. Actual inclusivity is found in the potential for self-expression, so having more options, not removing them. And yes, thank you for speaking out on all this.

@ununun9995

Жыл бұрын

I mean you literally have to at least double the amount of voice clips needed for customization, what a waste of space💀

@Crygear

Жыл бұрын

@@ununun9995 yet they struggle with the size of the game, near or close the amount of terabytes..

@dragonandavatarfan8865

4 ай бұрын

@@ununun9995And yet games have never been more bloated than they are now, with many being 50 or 60GB or even more, forcing you to either buy more storage or uninstall some of your games. Nice excuse but its not gonna work.

Your closing statement is honestly how so many of us feel. As someone whose been attacked by the loud minority on socials before for speaking my mind, it really does impact your willingness to speak openly about these issues for fear of being targeted again.

At 18:56 when you showed all the side bob half shaved hair styled women with "stop designing strong females like this"- I felt that. I keep talking about that same thing and really get heated when it comes to just how un-feminine game designers are pressured to not make women in video games. They'll make these butch women and call them strong only to see as people look to women like Samus, Baiken, or Tifa as the real badasses then try to frame those designs as bad. You know how guys will watch DBZ and go "I need to hit the gym to look like Trunks", girls see Chun li and go "Damn, I need to do squats to get thighs like her she's amazing" Nobody looks at these butch unlikable homogenized women as role models or inspirations. Just my thoughts.

@shroudedinmyth8229

Жыл бұрын

Samus is a weird case because the character had been worked on by both Japanese and Western devs, and I would argue that her badass reputation is more of a function of the western games and localization. Look at how Retro depicted Samus without her helmet in Prime before the Zero Suit design. Also Nintendo denied retro from having her partaking in bounties because they view it as something she would never do. I think bounty hunter may have been a localization thing or a too literal translation of a term with different connotations. And of course, there's the most story centric Japanese game in the series, Other M, which westerners hated because they would have never perceived Samus the way she was depicted in that game, but the literal creator did.

@JJSquirtle

Жыл бұрын

@@shroudedinmyth8229 tbh Other M also has a dogshit localization

@KlutzyNinjaKitty

Жыл бұрын

I’ve been playing games since I was ~6, and any time I had the option to customize my character I’ve always wanted to make pretty girls! Not sexy, but as beautiful as I could make em. That’s just what’s fun to me. And I’m not a big girly-girl myself. I actually lean more towards being a tomboy (mostly because I just don’t have the patience for things like hair and makeup) but I don’t usually like making/playing butch characters. That’s not to say they don’t have a place. But, it’s boring to have the same “Just a Guy Except With B Cups” character over and over. I want women characters with variety, and can we please stop making them so mean and bitchy to everyone all the time?

@hulmhochberg8129

Жыл бұрын

​@@KlutzyNinjaKitty this, i even think this sidecut thingy looks good, but its just way too homogenised and it screams the same way a "karen" haircut does.

@ammygamer

Жыл бұрын

As someone who thinks of herself as a morally strong well resolved woman, but who is conventionally feminine and has been described as "gentle-looking" repeatedly through life, I feel that. Strength of mind and physical strength are completely different things. You can have a character look as strong as a bull yet have them have a glass psyche and break down constantly. It seem the art direction from game companies have a lot of difficulty portraying strength in a non visible way, through actions, not looks, and writing feminine qualities as as an asset to problem solving and not as something that needs "fixing" or that is "weak" and needs protection from "strong" characters. Not being able to take down someone with my bare hands doesn't make me harmless nor defenceless. I have my brain muscles, my perception and my empathy. And I will fight and protect who I love with them to the bitter end if I must.

As a colombian I keep seeing the same problem all over the internet, this isn't about having a "global standard", it's just making things everywhere that cow tow to damn gringos, like when they tried to change my language to include "Latinx", this shit is basically modern colonization, where everything, everywhere is "Murica"

@graveyardshift6691

Жыл бұрын

Californian actually. They're trying to colonize the rest of 'Murica the same way. We're trying to build a wall around them to keep them out too.

@Zac_Frost

Жыл бұрын

Well, no. More like everything, everywhere being California. Go to small town New York and ask them about any of this shit, and they'll look at you like you're an alien lol.

@s3studios597

Жыл бұрын

Trust me. Most Americans hate this shit too. And it's ironically the people who claim to hate America and American values and that America is evil that are pushing all this nonsense.

@nodishtoodeep3053

Жыл бұрын

Let’s be fair here, it’s not even Americans as a whole it’s just progressives. Literally less than 1% of 51% of the country backed the champions of the Latinx thing in the last election. No one likes the progressive message, besides them and the grifters, but most Americans are too accommodating to tell them to go away. It’s hard to fight the spread when one country in the most supportive town makes a majority of the world’s popular entertainment

@HashimotoDatsu

Жыл бұрын

Both of these are wrong. It's just corporate speak. Going woke is proven to increase profits, so the money decides the language and standards. Pinning everything on California is disingenuous. The reality is that money talks. Let Japanese people or other countries worry about their own companies and cultures. Remove the corporate control and you'll see freedom of speech on an equal footing will naturally come.

I'm glad people are starting to point out that not only are games becoming less about an artists vision but also more about globalist investors bottom lines

@In_The_Base

Жыл бұрын

Only AAA games there are indie games as well as open source games/ game engines which are all about creator freedom and creativity

@westonmeyer3110

Жыл бұрын

Globalism destroys everything that matters.

Also I saw the video on Fire Emblem not always being anime. To me it doesn't make sense as FE has always been anime. The thing is that the series has shifted art style every game because, unlike other series, it has a new person in charge of the art every game. It doesn't matter if FE Engage looks more like standard anime, the series will likely change again with the next entry by hiring another artist to be the art director. I don't know why people try and make Japanese media less anime despite it being pretty clearly anime in design. I've even started to hear this with Dragon Ball due to it's sheer popularity overseas. Dragon Ball is still very much a Japanese series with all the tropes and quirks of Japanese media. It's not western at all in it's story telling or characters. Yes I get that Akira Toriyama's style is widely recognized everywhere but that doesn't make it any less anime or Japanese in Nature. Also have to disagree with that guys point about Dragon quest, you can't get any more Japanese with jRPG game design than Dragon Quest. It's exactly why I love Dragon Quest in the first place, it's not something a western developer would make.

@jimjimson6208

Жыл бұрын

The whole 'too anime'/'it's always been anime, idiot' arguments about engage are literally just strawman used by either side of a debate in which one side likes the art style and the other doesn't. It's stupid, it blocks actual discussion about the quality/appropriateness of the game's art, and neither side will admit it. As for the rest of the comment, it's not people trying to make Japanese media 'less Japanese' because newsflash buddy, Fire Emblem is Japanese and the reason there are people angry about how engage looks is because it is different to the previous JAPANESE aesthetic, not because it looks 'too Japanese'. Surprisingly, Japan is allowed to have more than one aesthetic. It's not like people wanted the game to look like the Last of Us or something, I'm pretty sure they mostly just wanted something more in line with 3 houses.

@luminous3558

Жыл бұрын

People who use the "its too anime" argument just suck at actually voicing their complaint properly. Too anime is often simply a blanket statement for "they switched the character designer", "too many tropes" or "characters act unrealistic". None of these things are distinct to anime but depending on your exposure they probably are something you associate with it. Someone who has only seen modern anime isn't gonna associate old FE designs with anime. People generally only complain when they don't enjoy something but pinpointing what they don't enjoy is a skill most lack.

@Hambs23

Жыл бұрын

From what I've read, the character designer for FE: Engage usually does VTuber models, and it reflects at how colorful the new art direction is. I understand not liking it because of the more saturated (color-wise) look, but saying it's because it's more anime than the older titles is kinda ludicrous considering the series we're talking about.

@ltb1345

Жыл бұрын

@@jimjimson6208 Why would they have ever expected something more in line with 3H? Almost every FE game has had a completely different art style than the last one, yet they've been "anime" every time.

@jimjimson6208

Жыл бұрын

@@ltb1345 I never said they expected it, I just said that art style was probably their preference? I also don't know what the second half of your comment is directed at, I agree with you.

This video is an eye opener. I think we've all felt that "shift" in modern media. I always assumed it was to appease a very vocal minority of people, but that whole ESG thing really gave me shivers. Always follow the money.

@yamataichul

Жыл бұрын

Is technically a vocal minority, not the minority rightube lead us to believe

@ThisisKyle

Жыл бұрын

​@@yamataichul What do you mean?

@magicwandstudio3141

Жыл бұрын

@@ThisisKyle i think s/he means the owner of Blackrock, which is just one but very influential company

Nice to see more creators acknowledging & calling out ESG. You say there's nothing you can do about it but I'm telling you that you're already doing it. What disempowers & kills systems like ESG are spotlights & magnifying glasses. The more eyes on what they want going on in the background, the more rejection these systems will face. Keep talking about it & villifying it for what it is & some day we'll look back & talk about it the same way we talk about the Hayes Code today.

@moosiemoose1337

Жыл бұрын

Creating parallel economies and parallel system also demolishes ESG. If we make our own comics, art, anime, movies, entertainment media and use our own payment system, banks, and money then we will crush ESG completely and absolutely.

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@@moosiemoose1337 Should we tell the Japanese mangakas to start fighting back against America, ESG, and China/North Korea?

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@@moosiemoose1337 Also, have you watched Murder Drones?

@silverhawkscape2677

Жыл бұрын

@@moosiemoose1337 Dude. Your just creating a Parallel Country at that Point.

@moosiemoose1337

Жыл бұрын

@@silverhawkscape2677 Yep.

Something worth mentioning with the whole thing with catering to overseas fans: It is a ridiculous idea to do it, as the reason that they are fans is because of what it is. That's why there's major backlash against localizers inserting their own opinions on how things should be/their own headcanons into a work that they are fans of. The reason why people are fans of the work is because of what the work is in its native form, not what the localizers butcher it to to fit their own tastes and opinions.

@Harmonia96

Жыл бұрын

I see and agree with this argument on a different topic a few days back, being Kpop. We like what is offered because it is DIFFERENT. The irony of globalization for any form of entertainment is it's literally Murrica-washing a perfectly fine product intentionally made for a niche audience, and just like how modern Kpop is being likened to overproduced, samey shit now, the same fate awaits creatives who go for short-term marketability. It's unfortunate that FFXIV got bullied into undoing their gender-locked playable races. Classes being gender-locked is an issue, but I can't sympathize with the former getting as much heat as it did in 2019.

The last time a Western Game really impressed me was Prince of Persia the Sands of Time back in 2003. That game was like a Mario platformer on steroids and I loved it especially the way it went all in on the Arabian Nights feel and how the Prince was telling you the story of his adventure. Loved the part where if you died, the Prince who was narrating the story would say, "No, sorry it didn't go like that." That was one creative way of doing a Game Over screen as well as a Load to the previous Save Point.

I loved Ken's style for pokemon. Pokemon in my opinion has always had amazing NPC design. Scarlet and Violet has had the weakest NPC designs in the series and that sucks. This even applies to minor characters as well. I really want Pokemon to bring back Ken's style in the game.

@turtlenator6249

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I really don't like a lot of character designs this gen. Though I do think it's funny that the most popular character from Scarlet and Violet is the ordinary looking business man.

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

I will always love the 2D Pokémon character designs. They also look great since they are diverse despite being homogeneous that you can tell what Trainer Class they are, for example.

@krimsonkatt

Жыл бұрын

Yeah SV character design sucked but it had nothing to do with "wokeness." It just sucked because they got a new, inexperienced artist on. That's it.

@TheConuresrule

Жыл бұрын

@@krimsonkatt sucked due to wokeness and mediocre artists.

@kawaiidere1023

Жыл бұрын

I liked SV’s character designs. They had a good amount of sex appeal. The previous gens were good too. (Probably some of my least favorite protagonist designs though, the uniform restriction and young look just don’t vibe with how I tend to play) Edit: got farther in the video. I don’t think this is a westernization thing, I think this is less content/ rushed thing

as a 3D artist I Feel the "pressure" of trying to conform. The school I went to for my education had me working closely with game designers and programmers. I got some strong connections there But most of the people is the type of person to be offended by me trying to start a conversation with them. as someone who has never fit in with people I thought I could make bonds with the peopler there. But it felt alienating being outcast because I didn't want to conform to the strange standards of the crowd I wanted to work with. I wasn't rude, I tried to be nice and make bonds with people that has the same passion as me. But the people that start to work within the western industry now a days isn't people passionate for games, But people passionate about sending a message.

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

And that's why it's better to have a small soulful studio rather than a big, shitty soulless corporation.

@aneitalt

Жыл бұрын

That sucks. 🙁

@keeganmcfarland7507

Жыл бұрын

@@aneitalt You mean triple AAA companies?

@amentco8445

Жыл бұрын

@@keeganmcfarland7507 Good joke but even Indie is infected with these attitudes. Especially indie, really.

@physical_insanity

Жыл бұрын

I don't bother with things like school for the arts, anymore. I've had my sights on going to my country's dedicated film school to get a foot in directing & writing films, but given how heavily politicised the industry is and me being an anti-centrist non-conformist, it'll probably only end with me getting kicked out. At this rate, it's better to go your own way with your art and develop an alternative community around it, since the mainstream industry is completely compromised. I started writing just for myself because of how constricting the industry is with it's standards, and it's proving fruitful, so don't be afraid to delve into alternative paths for your expression.

Nothing was more strange in my childhood than growing up in a world that constantly questioned why I watched anime and played JRPGs as opposed to watching western tv shows(which I used to do a lot) and playing western video games(which I rarely did outside of computer games) by people who expressly hated everything about the west. The same people who want to destroy Japanese media have already destroyed western media. It is not about changing Japanese culture into western culture or fusing with western culture, they are trying to fuse the carcass of western culture with Japanese culture. Even the relatively young western gaming industry mostly died long ago in America with Atari, and American software companies like Rockstar are too scared to show how much they have changed beyond recognition by releasing a new Grand Theft Auto game.

I think you really hit the nail on the head with this one. I think a good reason as to why many people like me prefer Japanese media more often than not is due to the fact that not every thing tries to appeal to everyone. There is a variety, there is a sense of individualism. With a lot of media in the western mainstream there's definitely a case of homogony. That clip at the end with the guy coping about Dragon Quest had me in stiches though. I don't get what makes an entire medium of animation "trashy" but he can have his reductive opinion I guess.

@Hambs23

Жыл бұрын

Might be a reflection of the 2005~2010 mentality (not exact numbers) that all Japanese games are trash, that the industry in general is way ahead in quality and Japan was eating dust. He probably just applied that line of thinking to a different filter, "Japanese games are trash when they are anime". It was such a common thing to say in those days that even some Japanese devs bowed down to this idea and tried to make more "western looking" games. Such is the reason as to why games like Bomberman: Act Zero and Lost Planet were created during that era. Not sure tho, just guessing.

@Karyuvtuber

Жыл бұрын

Weird since western critics say Japanese culture doesn't produce things with individuality but they're games and media has more character and charm than the majority of stuff released by the west

@DoctorD4me

Жыл бұрын

​@@Karyuvtuber Could be a bias, or maybe they observe media on it most surface level.

@DoctorD4me

Жыл бұрын

@@Hambs23 Reminds me of Yahtzee's takes on Japanese games and anime a little bit. That could be true, but it feels weird that they don't just refer to anime games, though that is still pretty shallow and broad, but just the entire medium of anime as a whole. Then again Yahtzee has some pretty reductive takes on anime in general so you might be on to something.

@FirstLast-mn4re

Жыл бұрын

Its kind of ironic that an overall pretty collectiveist culture like Japan has become one of the last bastions of individualism in the sea of grey sludge plaguing the entertainment industry.

"Global standards"? More like "American Imperialism standards".

I could rant about this nonsense all day it infuriates me how these people are puritanical yet will turn around and say they're not while screaming it must all be sanitized to appeal to the global audience

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

And at the same time "global audience" means "my ideological group" to them.

@luminous3558

Жыл бұрын

Thankfully they are wrong and will eventually start losing money as they slowly kill products that are considered too big to fail. However by then a lot of good media franchises will have suffered irreparable damage and a lot of new artists and devs will have been taught only how to produce nonsense.

Scarlet and Violet are the epitome of Pokemon looking for those sweet E.S.G points. Never in my life would I have thought that human characters would be the ugliest thing in a Pokemon game. The two things Pokemon always had going for it even when the games were bad were the music and HUMAN character designs. Scarlet and Violet finally compromised on one those pillars for the first time ever.

@crestofhonor2349

Жыл бұрын

Yup. There are even some who try to defend it by pointing out the exceptions to the rule when as a whole Pokemon S&V pretty obviously have the weakest NPC designs

@LordTyph

Жыл бұрын

Great, I got it because I heard from Distant Kingdoms that it was actually somewhat alright in terms of gameplay. Am I going to regret another christmas game?

@KakfkaLover

Жыл бұрын

I absolutely just cannot can't wait for this guy to find out that Scarlet and Violet' Rika beat characters like Nanami, Aki, and Gojo as a fan favorite and was the number one fictional crush among young women in Japan

@StarlightKidX

Жыл бұрын

@@KakfkaLover Well Rika is actually cute looking compared to a lot of the other cast so I don't really get what your point was here.

@koba2348

Жыл бұрын

@@KakfkaLover highly doubt he meant that 100% of NPCs looked bad

To anyone who says "Thing Japan" I ask "what's your favorite Bollywood movie?". If Japan isn't better at making games and anime then America isn't better than Bollywood at making movies. Go watch Ap Bokto and tell me America isn't better than Bhutan at making 3DCG animation. If that can be true, why can't Japan be better than America at certain mediums?

@KuroNoTenno

Жыл бұрын

I honestly feel, like Bollywood is actually better than Hollywood right now.

Femboys warning people about ESG and Blackrock is the future I’m ready for.

Western companies forget that the only thing that keeps entertainment interesting is that it's an insight to your fellow man when you try to make bland inoffensive garbage it means you're pretty much making nothing

As a woman who grew up playing games, it was so fun and nice seeing more games over time add in female options, even then I often picked male anyway as I like guys more. But now that so many are more homogeneous genderless blobs I just don't care anyway. Maybe I wanna be a cute guy or a girl but there's just too much degendering in games (and society...) that makes me sad. Things WERE getting 'more inclusive' and now they're getting all eradicated and it's being treated as a good thing somehow. What used to be an awesome thing as a kid, Pokemon Crystal coming out and letting me play as a girl for the first time, to me entirely skipping out on the last 2 gens of Pokemon (8 and 9) for various reasons. The bland human designs are the final nail in the coffin as even Gen 8 had a few cool or hot looking guys in it despite me not wanting to touch the games. I don't see why it's so hard to just add more options. Even Sims 4 lets you pick male and female as a base and then customize from there IF you so choose. I doubt Sims 5 will have that, hahaha! :( Ironic that in the desire to 'be more inclusive' this stuff tossed out a vast majority of people. Modern games make me sad.

@revolvingworld2676

Жыл бұрын

Same. In my opinion though honestly I'd much rather have a good female protagonist with an actual personality than a customizable generic character. And if we DO have to be generic characters make them properly customizable and none of this bland genderless blob nonsense.

@andyz6306

Жыл бұрын

@@revolvingworld2676 Agreed. I don't NEED to be in a game, as long as the player character is good idc what gender they are whatsoever. I mostly prefer gender options when it comes to games with dating.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

Same. I only pick girls cause we get super cute costumes,..but now everyone is a blob, I find myself reading visual novels where I know they’re all guys, and I’m a girl in a harem of guys that range from trap level to super buff…but they all look like guys. I dunno, blob genderless I don’t like. And I don’t like trans is the only group next to drag allowed to actually be the hyper versions of what is male or female but the rest of us become a blob.. This stuff is hurting more than being inclusive.

@machinismus

Жыл бұрын

yeah, the important thing is OPTIONS. I want men and women or whatever with all body types, even the archetypal ones.

There is also the fact that people underestimate how much damage a poor english localization can do to the image of a product worldwide. Some companies, like Bandai Namco, have most of their translations (that would otherwise be faithful to the source material) be based on the english version of the script where the translators like to take "creative liberties". Now these scripts are faithful to the english localization instead, down to the poorly translated sections. A lot of times they even go the extra mile as to remove the japanese text option in the western releases. Especially on PC, probably because it's easier to extract the text files to compare them.

@LordTyph

Жыл бұрын

I forget, what was it that 4kids was yelled at for? People forget so easily...

@inendlesspain4724

Жыл бұрын

Removing japanese language options for western releases of *japanese* games has to be one of the scummiest moves ever; they know well they're doing a shitty job and want to make absolutely sure you can't be spared from it in any way.

@LuigiTheMetal64

Жыл бұрын

That new logo still sucks because that looks more like a logo for a cell phone company.

@Enclavefakesoldier

Жыл бұрын

@@LordTyph shit 4kids are saints compared to these skid marks. At least their edits and dubs became memes.

@LordTyph

Жыл бұрын

@@Enclavefakesoldier They also actually tried to work with things. Hell, some of the changes they made to YuGiOh (like the Shadow Realm) were actually really good while also avoiding 'those' people's complaints. Unfortunately, it's in part 'those' people's complains that lead to their downfall...

Remember guys diversity matters only in superficial terms, now enjoy your featurless gray people and approved corporate culture :^) For real though, great video dude. Always pitting out bangers

@AexisRai

Жыл бұрын

c.f. "Corporate Memphis" style

@joak9992

Жыл бұрын

I remember that episode of Fairly Odd Parents. Darn Dinkleburgs, being greyer and blobier than other grey blob people.

Wait... Forspoken was made by Japanese developers? I had no idea

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

Same. Same.

@acceptablecasualty5319

Жыл бұрын

Western writers, all the actual Talent from Japan.

@RazzleTheRed1

Жыл бұрын

@@acceptablecasualty5319 Yeah that makes sense, mad respect for the Uncle Death pfp btw

@acceptablecasualty5319

Жыл бұрын

@@RazzleTheRed1 Thanks!

“I make these videos out of fustration, not anger” this is kinda reason why isekai became so huge. When people unalive themselves (granted more like accidents) and get transported to a fantasy world that is far removed from this world.. it’s social commentary, isn’t it? If everything becomes modern audience, you lose proper social commentary (kinda like how satire is a hard asf genre for many these days)..that points out peoples frustrations or find what’s problematic in the world…because. Those ideas become trends, which then become part of the very fabric of what cause artist to write these stories in the first place. Also, japanese are known not to be vocal right? So how does one speak? Through their art.

@shizachan8421

Жыл бұрын

Isn't Isekai so hugh first and foremost because it made a science out of male wish fullfilment fantasy where a story becomes popular depending on how many boxes it can tick off? I mean, there are great Isekai Around. I think the slime isekai is kinda wholesome, I like Overlord in how it stands atop most Isekai in forgoing the juvenile teenage boy being an OP gamer and gather gain a harem of cute waifus fantasy in favor of the hardcore gamer fantasy of maxing out the villain route (also love how Ainz instantly comes to regret programming Albedo to be in love with him and instead its just massive pain in the ass of karma punishing his one horny moment) or I'm a Spider so What? as an Isekai with a female protagonist that really focusses on the grind instead of instant overpoweredness, but most we have in the market is just trashy OP Protag Waifu Fantasy without much substance.

@chaoschalice

Жыл бұрын

@@shizachan8421 you're both right tho at the start isekai was stories about escapism of ones reality but then like any other popular/trendy things people copy it without even knowing what made the genre popular in the first place, i can't blame the authors tho most of this authors are probability being directed to follow trends if they want their work to be published

@acceptablecasualty5319

Жыл бұрын

@@shizachan8421 Which is also what he was critiqueing. Isekai being an escapist fantasy is the result of flanderization of the core concept. The commentary was originally supposed to be that Japanese people who have it hard are presented with two options; maniacal escapism or suicide.

@alexspencer4039

Жыл бұрын

@@shizachan8421 All media checks boxes you just don't notice it in the ones you like because happen to like that one. It is impossible to tell an original story because, especially since the creation of the internet, everything has been told before. And, if you break something down enough anything can be deemed wish fulfillment if you look at it hard enough.

@alexspencer4039

Жыл бұрын

@@chaoschalice They still are, or like most fiction, they are just stories people like to right. Most often people write something because they write something and people read something because they enjoy reading.

As a Japanese game creator living in Japan, I would like to thank you for the slight healing that I have found in this video. In Japan, "policole" is almost never mentioned in a positive way anymore, and the accompanying topic has completely taken on the image of a stifling, oppressive, cumbersome, yet somehow unclear and troublesome restriction. The topics that criticize this tend to be a bit emotional, and foul-mouthed name-calling tends to be added to the mix, but I really like the fact that the majority of this video was a calm, broad-based, and in-depth analysis of the situation. Now, 10 months after this video was posted, the situation is actually becoming more oppressive. To be honest, the truth is that commercial content creators no longer have a choice, and since the world wants it, they are forced to comply. This trend is probably more apparent in video games than in manga and anime, as they are being developed for a more global market, but it will soon spread to manga and anime as well. Be that as it may, 2024. Happy New Year.

Don't believe the lie that the "global standard" is for inclusion. I'm transsexual and this new modern western trend makes me feel *excluded* and quite frankly offended. I find solace in Japanese media as it's really the only thing that truly addresses it properly and with respect. To the point where I'm almost shying away from the word "trans" and pretty proudly calling myself a "trap". Yet, localization teams and video game corporations continue to move *away* from that. I enjoy playing games with a hyper-feminine character. These were very abundant in the past. I adore games like Princess Debut, Style Savvy, etc. But now? It's rare to find a game released that even lets you play as a feminine girl, let alone a game that's explicitly feminine throughout the entire game. This gender neutral blob isn't appealing to me at all. Why would it be? Character customizers don't even allow me to play as myself. I'd prefer to just not have one at that point.

@MaxenceBerrier

7 ай бұрын

@thelameidiotboyofdumbguys6791 It is indeed a cult. Everywhere on the internet, among lgbtq "safe spaces", you'll get harassed and called slurs if you dare question their approach and activism. For disagreeing with their view, you get called a cis trying to pass off as a non cis. If you're bi, then you actually aren't. And if you're trans, lmao you're actually the Devil incarnate. They proceed to block you and eject you off of those platforms. The problem i have with these safe spaces is that no one has the right to question the majority. For the sake of being a safe environment, every critiscism or different opinion gets denied or canceled. The majority of people probably silently resigned to agree with this view by fear of getting ejected too I'm sure. Lgbtq spaces have never been so powerful, yet so unaccepting...

The “colonialism” comparison is actually surprisingly apt. I doubted the comparison at first because nowadays “colonialism” is a lot like “nazi”, or in the past “satanic” or “communist” where it’s the ultimate exaggerative insult. “ ‘The Boyfriends’ creator drew a femboy in a ‘belly dancer’ outfit, he is colonialist”(or orientalist or other assorted terms) However, the psychology of “by dominating these filthy ‘savages’, we will better them by making them like us and that outcome is inevitable” is not a thought process of colonialism, it’s THE thought process early modern/19th century colonialism. There are obviously economic and military traits that are not analogous(such as the atrocities and militarized resource-grabs) but if the empires of the 1800s could control social media trending pages they wouldn’t need Christian missionaries.

The other thing of note about Japanese Twitter and artificial trends is that South Korean music was the most common artificial trend. The only time Japan would trend on Japanese Twitter (I know, it sounds bizarre) in Dorsey's days was when a K-pop musician would promote a concert stop in Japan. There's also something to note about puritanism, feminism and South Korea, but that may be a kettle of fish, to fry another time.

THANK YOU MY GOODNESS THANK YOU. You have taken the words right out of my mouth when comes to the fear of "Californisation" of anime. It's honestly scary seeing how an art form from another country that i care for so deeply is getting censored and modified just because of some crap excuse like "diversity" or "modern standards". Art should be and must be free to tell and show whatever it wants regardless of wether people like it or not. It truly pisses me off seeing so many "progresives" saying that this changes are somehow an improvement to the entertainment industry when all it does is make lesser products than what we had a full decade ago and divide people further because they refuse to accept that they might be at fault for all of it, instead they just try to bully people into silence and complaicency. They act no better than the CCP censoring whatever they deem "problematic" and trying to censor counter opinions. Heck they act no better than the freaking Roman Empire that tried to do the exact same thing with those it deemed " Not Roman". Yet these "activists" and millionares call themselves "progressive". My only answer to act against these people is to pretty much not give them any money for these changes. If you still want to consume what they do then just pirate it and try to find another way to support the artist that you care about. And if they try to bully you either ignore them or stand your ground, let these morons know you won't be changed or silenced. People may not agree with this answer but that's my way of not giving in to these "rainbow policies" crap and frankly i would rather do something rather than nothing. Overall great video Dmitri! You are not alone!

@moosiemoose1337

Жыл бұрын

There is hope!

@fredrick8958

Жыл бұрын

@@moosiemoose1337 There is hope brother

@ltb1345

Жыл бұрын

As others have suggested, maybe buying the original Japanese releases and then emulating/pirating/fan translations is a good way to support the original artists.

@classifiedmann3074

Жыл бұрын

Californication intensifies

@bellphorusnknight

Жыл бұрын

@@moosiemoose1337 we cant let god do all the work. Just start making lists of these californians

As a guy/metalhead i absolutly HATE IT when all the good hair customizations are locked to female charackters

@KuroNoTenno

Жыл бұрын

THIS! Let me make my Hair Metal character, dammit!

Miles Morales never 'took off'. Marvel has just been forcing him non-stop for 13 years.

@DeBean970

3 ай бұрын

Can't say your wrong about Marvel pushing him but he has taken off, even if a substantial amount is just "cuz he's black"

We need more people like Dimitri who will bring attention to stuff like this. What these people are doing is borderline (if not outright) sanitization, and needs to be combatted en masse posthaste.

Western animation usually comes off as looking way too childish looking or inane .

@spear1504

3 ай бұрын

Western animation Doesn’t have childish style looking or inane back in animation golden age of animation. looney tune and Tom and jerry is more toward adult then childish which media now probably going to forgets now day.

The massive irony is, japan is allowed to have nationalism and pride.. but in the west you’re not. So we have 0 culture, 0 identity.. because activist have taken over. The bigger irony is, japans respect for the west and america and how they can do stories about america and the west better than .. the west. This is the main problem. Cencorship is very bad, and not allowing people to have a culture and be proud is why japan is superior in creativity right now.

@dydx_

6 ай бұрын

Yooooooooooooooou are aware that Japanese media is heavily censored right? Like, you doooo know that right? Like the news are state-run and won't report on a shit ton of issues because the entire country is about maintaining the proper connections (especially in businesses) so that rarely anyone who commits crimes gets talked about publicly... right? This also includes all of their media that does not contain offensive material (there are shit ton of subjects you can't write about, they are just different from what you are used to). I am afraid to tell you this, but it's the censorship that allows all the "creativity" you speak of. Like, the entire culture of "being Japanese" is reinforced behavior and practices that you have to attend to.... it's literally this process that you call censorship that makes Japanese things so japanese.

Sorry I dont mean to be sappy but I’ve been a long time viewer/twitter follower of many years and the ending about how you do this because it matters to you even if it gives you backlash is so important to me, i feel the same way ❤️ Thank you so much for making this video alongside your gaming content i love everything you make and keep being strong and talking about these things! 💕🔥

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! Sometimes I wonder if my end rants are too unnecessary or unwarranted but they're ultimately something I feel the need to put into videos because they are oftentimes where the video technically starts, glad someone connects with them.

@dreamer72

Жыл бұрын

The Stonetoss nod really put everything into perspective for you huh

We lost Capcom and keoi tecmo to the modern-day standards not have ethnic department and focus group to help localize their video games in other words censorship and more Western translation instead of literal translation

"everything should be for everyone" usually just means "everything should be for me."

A lot of Japanese media owes thanks to western influence funnily enough. It’s just false for some people to pretend as if western culture didn’t leave a huge impact on Japan and that it didn’t have a huge part to play in the kind of media that they now produce. The problem is that our western culture has degraded and fallen apart due to a number of factors which has lead to this phenomenon. It’s why there are a lot of “Americans” nowadays that think socialism or communism has a point... two things that were behind a lot of hardships in the eastern world. In truth... The West is turning into the old East... while the East (at least in Japan and Korea) are remaining in the positive Western values from before.

We can only hope that these "blandardization" tactics these companies employ will just end up hurting them in the long run. Not something I have much hope in, as the more obviously "bad" something is, the more attention it gets, but we can only hope that people will just stop paying attention to these things entirely.

21:50 So, in order to avoid backlash to NoA, Reggie went to Japan to tell the Japanese branch to start censoring as he would instead of ceasing censorship himself! Great!

Don't you love American cultural imperialism?

That is the reason why Japan needs to do their own Localization and cut out the Western Middlemen. What worked in the 80s and 90s is going to backfire hard and we already have seen that with SONY censoring Japanese Games within Japan itself because SONY operates from California, NOT Tokyo anymore.

Risk-taking is a masculine trait, this should explain why western companies are behaving the way they do and why western products have become stale. Especially with games; They want to completely remove player agency. The ability to fail, but consequently to improve. The "game" part of "video game." And they're using the powerful force to do so, hence how they so easily get into head positions of even foreign companies. I don't need to mention its name, do I? We are programmed to provide and protect for them, so the usage is oikophobic; anti-human. Being victim is being an oppressor, so they're allowed to keep you down.

@Thelostrune

Жыл бұрын

To elaborate on the removal of player agency, it's because this tells us something. "You cannot influence anything, just sit down and do as you're told." Western stories used to be fantastic, which is why people you've mentioned took inspiration from it. Individualistic culture brings a lot of opportunity to improve. You can see "we must do better" a lot in the modern west, but it's more of a perfectionist mindset and it's anti-human at that as no human can be perfect. On another note, it's funny how we're supposed to eat up delusional grayperson shlop when we're just creating another gender binary; Male and everyone else.

Lol 5:13 the "Bean mouth (japan)" doesn't even actually have any similarities between them besides being variations on facial expressions (not even all positive, given the middle top one), yet every single goddamn one of those fucking CalArts bean mouth smiles is the exact same goddamn shape and style of not just the face but also the head, excepting Adventure Time.

@thecompareablezombie

Жыл бұрын

Indeed, Adventure time was and is unique when it comes to art style from what I saw.

@KainYusanagi

Жыл бұрын

@@thecompareablezombie Yeah, it had similarities in the facial design being generally simplistic and the bean mouth archetype for some characters, but it was generally much more inventive in its style.

The genderless blob thing is so true. I've been noticing it lately. I really wouldn't mind having additional options in character creation, such as androgynous, feminine guys, masculine girls, and so on. But the main point is, DON'T TAKE THE DEFAULT OPTIONS AWAY!!! I want my guys muscular, and my girls curvy.

@theodis8134

Жыл бұрын

Game companies are unfortunately just trying to cut as many costs as they can to make as much money as possible.

19:43 Dimitri, please please PLEASE don't refer to Square Enix as just Square! That's demeaning to the history of Square, which was bought out by Enix. It's a nasty thing that they did, putting Square in the front half of their conjoined title so the Enix side of things doesn't get lambasted even though they usurped everything (kicked out all the higher-ups and replaced them with their own during the buy-out merger), and have continued to run the company the same way they ran Enix, just with fewer and poorer outsourcing studios to get great hits out of, unlike during the days of Quintet.

Muh representation muh diversity

Living in Norway, where content is quite dull and imports and licenses foreign concepts, Japanese media - along with KZread, cinema and indie games on Steam - have been a huge life raft I see being slowly challenged over the last 11 or so years, now that the soft power is shifting away from what was at one point the de facto cultural empire of the US. It was none the less English translations, both fans and official that made it possible to water the spout of passion, and as this channel documents, it becomes worrisome to be a total outsider who has no relation or physical presense in either countries to engage with it honestly if one is to start astroturfing its way to fuck with the content and sabotage customer trust. I think the more ignorant one is, the faster it is to judge outright what the media presents, veiled as sensibilities but is expressed as disgust when the mask is off, and that is evident when those that don't care or have a drive of own means are at the wheel. There's but a few countries that is as socially concious of the nature of- and relations to their media as Japan and anime/manga, and it's inspiring as well as saddening to see that they have changed for better and for worse not just to follow suit with whatever investor is backing or criticism come their way that wishes to steer it away from what it once was, and censor creative freedom while playing pretend that it will inspire it (through "diversity"). It was brought up in the preface to Nagayama Kaoru's book on eromanga by Patrick W. Galbraith that there's a cottage industry of presenting "Weird Japan" by Western journalists that aren't exposed broadly to the academic side of manga, and he explored this firmly with his own book "Otaku: and The Struggle For Imagination in Japan" of the dangers of orientaliization or connecting weird ideas without knowing the contexts and culture surrounding it (another author, manga critic Kimi Rito brought to attention as well when covering the development of tentacle ero). As Japanese creatives fought with their censor systems within the country for years, we're going to see a doubling of that through that global standard (trademark pending) as that external societies condemn and praise the media from their biased lens. These statements I write seem unconnected, but I want to point out that it's not just the American (specifically companies and work forces in California), but also the tool of the internet, and the generational gaps present there, who came into and about to the mediums at various points in time. I think what "The Modern Audience" is, is an amalgamation of desired maximized profits that have few parameters (maybe in the Aladdin?) and simply go after what can easily be paid and botted for through some online postings and fake engagements, while playing lip service through minimal acknowledgements of political messages through official channels of companies. Wouldn't this be self-created affirmation through falsely fulfill a market demand that doesn't exist, but then again is levied as true demand, and in turn to produce it? Its a neat cyclical machine, all the while playing on the ignorance and arrogance of the average joe who only wants some good content, while pressed on being political when and where it doesn't have to. I mention where I come from not because I am a unique snowflake. I mention it as a causion from a place where creativity is barren, controlled, and sanded around all the edges. The youth fled to the web to find content that they want to share amongst themselves and not with their parents or grandparents, but with this incursion on Japanese media, who's to say that in the long term will have its affects and effects that'll turn interest away from it. In a time of artistic excess, we're still lucky to have those with the sense of not just making, but talking about these problems thoroughly, and rethink the march of thoughtless consumption, and we can all take a hard look and learn the best from what is going on and going wrong, and make our case heard. This video is one of them. To you, Dimitri: Your voice isn't unheard. I resonate with the concerns firmly, and I want to shout with you a big "Fuck Yourself!" that'd make The Iron Sheik blush. I want to reach N3 some day, in case we have to do it in Japanese xD

Bring back gatekeeping

@MrTTnTT

Жыл бұрын

That's what ESG does. Just in the wrong direction... :/

@firewarrior6084

Жыл бұрын

It's too late, we need to purge the infection.

When an actual progressive person is pulling back the covers on localization's performative activism and the vitriolic nature of "Accept us or perish" Twitter hivemind, you know shit has gone down south. I couldn't be more embarrassed of weebs who are destroying the integrity of the culture they "claim" (double entendre lol) to love so dearly.

Global standards = Western standards Western standards = American standards American standards = California standards California standards = LA standards Y'know, LA....that place with streets covered in meth needles and human feces. Because THEY should be telling the rest of the world how it should be acting. You're doing God's work here, Monroe. Just know that however frustrating things can be, you're not alone in how you feel.

@nightshade8958

Жыл бұрын

California standards is really more like bay area standards, not LA.

@shinon748

Жыл бұрын

​@@nightshade8958 it's LA. I say that as someone born and raised in the SF area and who moved out of the state due to personal reasons. My girlfriend moved in with me and is from Florida. So as an outsider's perspective she would say it's LA. Since she saw the Bay is more of a , you do you, mentality. Where LA is where all the influencers and social warriors live.

@nightshade8958

Жыл бұрын

@@shinon748 SF has more influence on California politics than LA does. This is where the economic center of the state is. Its also much closer to the capital, both literally and culturally. Also I'd argue that LA at one point in time was the cultural center of the state, but the number of people, and movie stars are a much less influential group these days. Google, Microsoft, Apple, are the big influences these days, they after all control what you can or cannot say. And most social media companies are based in the bay, Facebook, Twitter, ect. They control the culture, not Hollywood. These days LA exports have to fall in line what with, Google Microsoft, and Apple believe in, not the other way around.

@shinon748

Жыл бұрын

@@nightshade8958 sure it may have political sway, as do all big cities in regards to their states, right? But contrary to popular belief, Sacramento isn't yelling at us to go out and call women type B. That's again more influencers and people on social media. While the companies may be in Silicon Valley, most influencers and high profile users are not, theyre in the LA area. Influencers do not equal social media companies. Now, don't get me wrong, I am for representation. I just think this specific one showed in the video is handled sloppy.

@nightshade8958

Жыл бұрын

@@shinon748 That's true if you assume people influence social media and not the other way around. I don't. The social media influencers are all over but they have to abide by the rules of their silicon valley overlords. And those massive companies get to choose who gets lots of attention and who doesn't. I'm sorry but your logic is outdated. All influecers use social media and can only spout a certain narrative, or else get banned.

I’m not one to normally use the term cultural colonialism, but if it were to apply to anything it would apply to how modern left wing sensibilities are essentially sterilizing the art of other cultures.

@liliesaregoodfortheliver2954

2 ай бұрын

I'd say it's an appropriate use of the term, they're demanding a culture change to suit their sensibilities.

That comment from Reggie is eye opening. "We got in trouble for censoring games, so we told the developers to censor it themselves."

As much as I loved this video, it also makes me feel slightly hopeless and futile after watching it. Fantastic stuff nonetheless.

@DimitriMonroe

Жыл бұрын

I get in those spirals a lot when doing stuff but every once in awhile we so pushback result in positive change, so the future is always worth fighting for.

@moosiemoose1337

Жыл бұрын

Demoralization is their goal. Don't let them win.

@NoraNoita

Жыл бұрын

Oh it's Yogensha! Big fan. Don't lose hope, with how fast western companies are speed-running their Newest IPs into the trashbin, change seems at the Horizon.

@fuwafuwa271

Жыл бұрын

If everyone becomes hopeless then we are screwed. Well not screwed screwed since there will always be indie stuff which is getting easier to make and support every day, but you get what I mean. Things always go up and down and at this point in time things are going down, but as long as people push back things will go back up again.

@acutelilmint8035

Жыл бұрын

@@DimitriMonroe for what it’s worth… the push back is happening.. but for japan there will be a lag.. due to poor economy.. but the west people are pushing back with their wallets. And maybe the massive recession is the wake up call. …because.. money talks more than activism. But I really hope, if anything, we see actual change in appreciating artist and making animators etc life’s not a living nightmare.. higher pay, better treatement

One correction I want to offer is the Animal Crossing censorship of male/female. It's not only the American version - it's all English language releases, regardless of region. This video is great. It touches upon a lot of stuff I wanted to talk about on my own channel, especially the ESG problem we're facing. It sucks for me that you beat me to it, but hey, it just means I can redirect people to check out your stuff!

Anime going mainstream killing the industry. Its my last bastion of entertainment. If that falls. I have nothing left. Ill go crazy.

@AliceCatNya

Жыл бұрын

Your life sounds sad.

NoA just censors while the game is still being made so people think they’re not censoring at all. It’s genius, really. And unfortunately.

Bocchi the Rock's success makes me hopeful more projects will learn from it

I was pleasantly surprised to see the entry on Blackrock in this video. It really seems to be the biggest problem, else those people would have lost way more money in the last few years.

@justice8718

Жыл бұрын

That corporation is proof that our world history is a lie.

"Sorry, I can't come into work today. Dimitri Monroe just dropped an hour long video." What the heck is that one dude going on about saying that Dragon Quest isn't anime? Even if you were to use the same misguided logic that some people use to say stuff like Akira or Ghibli aren't "anime" because they don't look like an episode of Lucky Star, DQ would still be anime. It's always had one foot firmly placed in the style and tone of 1980s gag manga. Perverted humor like saucy adult magazines as items, wearable bunny girl costumes, and sexy Puff-Puff girls have been one of the series most enduring staples. Even with SE insisting on changing everyone's name and giving them all unbearable accents, the series' characters are still largely well worn, fantasy anime archetypes. Hell, DQXI is one of the most popular DQ games in the west and one of its major characters is the time-tested "loli who's actually much older than she looks" that many westerners love to scoff at. Even on a purely technical level of it not being anime by virtue of it being a video game and not a piece of animation, that isn't true as there have been multiple anime series and movies based on Dragon Quest.